Chapter Text
If there was one thing that Doc hadn’t been expecting to find while he was out in the Main Hub, having left his private world so he could get his shopping done for the month, allowing him to hide away in his world and work on his various redstone projects undisturbed (except for the occasional visit from his friends but even then, they rarely visited unless invited), was hearing a cry coming from down an alleyway in the more abandoned part of the Shopping District.
He had, of course, decided to take the risk and see what was crying, expecting it to be some kind of stray animal that he wouldn’t have to worry about, only to find that, once he identified where the crying was coming from, there was a baby avian abandoned in the dumpster that was located at the back of the alleyway.
The tiny avian couldn’t be older than a year old, if even, and Doc felt his blood run cold with fear at the sight of the baby, before it boiled with anger at the fact that someone would just abandon their child in a dumpster where they would probably never be found until it was too late.
He was startled out of his thoughts by yet another cry from the child, causing Doc to let out, what he could only hope the child would view as, a soothing hissing sound, as he reached down to scoop them up, cradling them gently against himself, before letting a purr rumble through his chest.
When the child started giggling, Doc felt some of the tension (that he didn’t know had accumulated at the sight of the abandoned child) dissipate, so he kept up the rumbling purr, and made his way out of the alleyway, and back towards the main area of the Shopping District, knowing that he would need supplies to take care of the child that was now in his care; he wasn’t about to give the child over to the authorities, no, he had been the one to find them, and they clearly liked him (which shocked him considering most children were scared of him), so they were his child now, and someone would have to pry them out of his cold dead hands to separate them- creepers and creeper hybrids, along with goats and goat hybrids, were highly territorial, especially over their kids after all.
***
It took several long hours of scouring the shops to find everything that his new child would need, but Doc was finally heading back to his private world, the sleeping avian cradled against his chest.
Sure, he had ended up spending a lot more than he had been expecting to that day, so he would have to take more redstone commissions to make up for it, and he knew that he would be making more trips to the Main Hub now that he had a child, but, when he glanced down and saw his new child, he knew that it was going to be worth it.
While he walked, he figured that he should probably start thinking of names for his child, as they didn’t have a name, didn’t have anything but the blanket they were swaddled in (well, they had a lot more now that Doc had bought things for them), so if he really was going to go through with claiming this small child as his own, he needed a name, and he needed one soon.
Many names ran through his mind, names that were similar to his friends’ names, names of former clients that he had made redstone devices for, names from books and movies, names from just about everywhere, but none of them felt right. This was his child, the light of his life, so they needed a fitting name!
Just as he was about to give up, his mind conjured up a word for him, one that meant ‘sun’ in old Irish, and, as his new child was going to be the light of his life, he figured that Grian would be a fitting name for them.
“Grian,” he hummed, speaking aloud for the first time since he had found the child, Grian, and he smiled.
Grian was the perfect name for his child.
***
The following week after Doc had found Grian, had been tough on the creeper goat hybrid.
He knew that he was jumping straight into the deep end with adopting a baby, and an avian baby at that, one that seemed to have been born with his wings, so the first week was filled with all kinds of mistakes, sleepless nights, and learning, a lot of learning.
Some of that learning included but was very much not limited to- finding out that Grian despised water, so bathtime was a nightmare (Doc could only be glad that Grian didn’t have his talons yet, but he knew that the moment he did, his arms would be covered in scratches), figuring out what he could get Grian to eat that wouldn’t upset his stomach but would still provide him with the nutrients that he needed, figuring out naptime and when to put him down to sleep for the night, and when he would be able to work on his redstone projects and the commissions that he had received without worrying that Grian would get hurt or feel like he had been abandoned.
The second week was considerably easier with the knowledge that he had gained from the first week, even if bath time didn’t get any easier, and by the end of the first month that he had had Grian, Doc had the routine perfected, well as perfected as a routine could be when one had a baby. He could work on his redstone projects an hour after he had put Grian down to sleep for the night, as long as he kept the baby monitor close by, nap times were perfect for working on smaller projects and doing chores around the house, bath time was to be done with the utmost care as Grian still hates water, and Doc felt like he would never like water no matter how many baths Grian had, and keeping Grian entertained when he was awake was simple enough to do, not to mention that Grian loved to be held by Doc, cheeping softly every now and again (something that had absolutely melted Doc’s heart when Grian first cheeped) which also allowed him to work on small projects as long as he was careful.
However, there was one small thing that he forgot to do when he adopted Grian, and that was to inform his friends, something that would come back to cause him problems when they would eventually come to visit.