"did you know the monastery even had a daycare?"
"no... this place is full of surprises, i just didn't realize it would be full of babies as well."
byleth came up behind you both and put her hands on your shoulders. "it's a new thing," she said, "there's more people being employed at the monastery, which means more children need babysitting, and the women can't watch over them because they're working. so lady rhea asked me to choose two students to assign this task to and i thought you two were the best suited for childcare."
"what?" you asked, "what makes you think that?"
byleth just smiled, "time for work!"
with that, you two walked into the room with six babies and only two adults. one lady sat in a rocking chair with two babies in her arms while the other sat in the middle of four toddlers, slowly reading a book to them. the one with the two babies noticed you first and walked over to you, beginning to talk quietly.
"hello, i assume you're here to help us. we really need it, thank you."
"it's no problem, ma'am," ashe replied, "i love children. we can't wait to help."
you hummed in agreement. you'd never seen ashe around kids, hopefully he was good. if he was good with kids now, that means he'd be great with kids later on, and-
you were getting ahead of yourself. you hadn't even confessed yet.
the lady- mathilde, as she had introduced herself- led you two into the room and gave you a small tour of everything in it. by this time, one of the babies had woken up and began slightly sniffling.
mathilde thrust the baby into ashe's arms. "she's hungry."
turning around, she took the other baby away and sat back in the rocking chair, slightly cooing it back to sleep. ashe turned to you.
"could you hold her while i fix the food?"
you nodded. ashe set the pot of milk on the fire stove to warm it up and your gaze was ripped away from him when the baby in your arms started sniffling a little louder.
"oh no, shh, shh, it'll be okay," you whispered to her.
you rocked her gently and brushed a small lock of brown curls off of her forehead. she looked up at you with wide eyes and got quiet.
unbeknownst got you, ashe had finished the bottle and was just watching you. finally, he placed his hand on your shoulder and handed you the bottle. you gratefully took it from him and began to feed the baby.
"i didn't know you were good with kids." he teased.
"i didn't either," you replied, "but that's good i guess."
"it's very good."
"yeah..." you looked back down at the baby, who was eating with her eyes closed. you could only dream of achieving such bliss.
suddenly, a small voice came from between you two.
"excuse me, mister? is she your girlfriend?"
you both looked down to see a smaller boy, probably 6, tugging on ashe's pant leg. ashe smiled and shook his head.
"she's not my girlfriend, is she yours? she must be lost, we need to get her to her boyfriend!" he jokes.
the boy laughs. "we do! but she's not mine! i have a girlfriend." he stomps his foot.
"oh really now?" ashe says, "who is it?"
the boy points over to a girl with little blonde pigtails. "that's my girlfriend! her name is lily! i love her."
you look at lily, who's smiling at the boy and waving. how cute. but now the baby was hurting your arms.
you sat down against the wall and laid her on your lap a little. the boy joined you on one side while ashe occupied the other. the boy kept on making faces towards lily and giggling when she'd make them back.
ashe nudged you. "ah, young love."
the boy turned to the both of you, saying, "having a girlfriend is epic. you guys should try it sometime," before turning back to lily.
ashe looked down at you and smiled softly. "yeah, y/n. we should try it sometime."
you laid your head on his shoulder, allowing him to press a small kiss to your head. "we should."
"and then we can have kids of our own-"
"whoa whoa whoa, don't get too ahead of yourself bud."