Keeping it in the family

[Chevi]

"Dominus was being an ass. But he meant well." Metella smirked, watching her daughter. He knew Attis respected the dominus and harbored no ill will towards him for being himself. It probably didn't even occur to him that they might give the child another name. And definitely would not have approved of someone wearing his, attached to a Briton name. Even if the little girl was now free. A free girl.

"I... don't know. Maybe a name will come to me eventually." As the child grew, she would show her personality. Maybe Metella would remember a name from her own people to give her them. "Not Noisy, though." She added with a smirk.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"Dominus usually means well," Attis admitted, reaching for his belt. He looked up from fastening it, curious. "Is that how you do it, then - name a child when you know what they're going to be like?" As if Metella could remember that, she'd only been a kid herself when she'd entered Longinus' household. Which put her at something like six years younger than Attis himself. Not a big difference, overall.

"I don't think I've ever asked, and you can tell me to mind my own business but... What was your name, back in Britain?"

She was holding their daughter so would be unlikely to throw a pillow at him, but he prepared to duck or catch anyway.

 

@Chevi

[Chevi]

"No, not really... but sometimes people got new names after important feats. Or... life events." she admitted, adjusting the baby as she made little, contented sucking sounds. Metella glanced up at Attis as he asked his question. He looked hesitant, and she realized that he had never asked her that before. They were married and had a child... and he somehow never asked that.

"Senovara." she answered quietly.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"That's a nice name," he said. He'd always been Attis, always - it wasn't an uncommon slave name, after all, and there were worse things to be called. Though not many things could be worse, really, than getting named for the castrated priest of an eastern goddess. He'd always thought it one of the more bizarre ways someone could show their undying devotion... a downright idiotic way, indeed.

"If she grows up to be half as pretty as you, she'll have every boy in Rome swearing their undying love for her," he managed, smiling at them both. They were the perfect picture of, well, whatever a mother and her child were a picture of.

 

@Chevi

[Chevi]

It felt... different, sharing her real name with Attis. A secret part of herself. She looked up with a softer smile as he complimented her. He really didn't need to; he was her husband, and they shared a child. And yet... Attis actually seemed to like her, despite her worst efforts in the wake of the birth. "Come here, you idiot." She chuckled, patting the bed next to her with one hand, as she still held the baby with the other. "You're gonna spoil her rotten, aren't you."

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

Attis

 

"Spoil her rotten?" He said, coming to join them on the edge of the bed. "Of course I am - you'd kill me if I didn't - and I'm pretty sure Dominus is going to spoil her even more rotten than either of us will. She can consider him her doting uncle or something." He smiled down at his daughter, a faint reddish down on her head, eyes closed as she suckled. "I'm going to be a lousy father, I'm sure of it - but you'll be a wonderful mother." He slid his arm around Metella, encouraging her to lean against him. "We'll figure things out somehow - and really, I can't say I'm sorry Dominus did what he did. He just took me by surprise, it never occurred to me that he might just do it without anyone asking."

 

@Chevi