#( seeing this decline and only able to mitigate or help alleviate )

[endawna]

anyway the one thing i love about varric adopting pax is the the fact he gets to watch yet another person he cares about slowly succumb to their possession

[svnflowervol666]

I always imagine Daddy H sitting behind Y/N and holding her tight when she gives birth; at one point he sees her struggling towards the end and senses something is wrong and literally helps the baby out because his shoulder was stuck or whatever and quickly takes the baby and puts it on her chest (kourtney kardash literally dragged her own baby out 😭) while wrapping his arms from behind even tighter around her

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: childbirth

Author’s Note: Thank you so much for sending in this ask, I absolutely love it! My apologies if it’s totally off in terms of how actual child birth is as it was not my intention. I live for sweet little intimate blips in people’s lives, and I think this ask was a perfect one for me! As always, let me know what you think and what you want to see next. Take care and TPWK.

Harry loved the idea of a home birth. He loved the thought of welcoming his firstborn within the confines of his own warm walls. There’d be no paparazzi, no cameras desperate to sneak a peek at the three of them for click bait, no privacy violations. With a home birth, they were free to do as they pleased, to act as they pleased, to love as they pleased. It’s what Harry wanted in terms of how his first child should be brought into this world, kicking their red little legs and screaming with all of the might that their little lungs could give. It’s what they wanted

But this is not what Harry meant by a home birth.

Y/N had experienced tons of false contractions throughout her pregnancy, and only being in her eighth month with no complications whatsoever, she had believed that the ones she’d been having for the past several hours were nothing but that. False contractions. But she couldn’t have been more wrong. She was, in fact, in actual labor and had been for hours now without realizing, which had brought her to where she was right now: naked, screaming, and crying in her own bathtub with just enough water to cover her waist with Harry’s arms wrapped tightly around her as she mustered all of her rapidly declining strength that she could to push her tiny human out of her.

“Harry,” the voice on the other end of the phone that was perched on the lip of the tub spoke calmly, “How is she doing?”

“Not really sure how t’ answer that.” He responded through gritted teeth.

Their doula, the woman hired to coach the two of them through her pregnancy and then through childbirth was currently stuck in traffic over half of an hour away from the Styles residence, hence why she was currently giving them remote instructions on how to properly birth a child. The doula had insisted that Y/N refrain from pushing until the very last second to mitigate any complications that would occur without her presence, but baby Styles had other plans. Judging from what the doula would make out over Y/N’s screaming and Harry’s horrible attempts at explaining to her what was happening, she guessed the baby would be making it’s arrival any second now.

“Listen, if you’re in distress, you two need to just call for a lift to the hospital. I’m about twenty minutes away but if you don’t think you can handle it, then please take Y/N to a doctor.”

“I can’t get up,” Y/N cried, squeezing Harry’s biceps as hard as she possibly could when another contraction ripped through her abdomen.

Her hair was soaked with sweat and she felt like her chest and body were on fire. She had imagined for nine whole months about what it would feel like to birth hers and Harry’s child, but none of what she’d conjured up compared to the agony she was in right now. Even though she’d only been in the tub that Harry frantically ran for her via the doula’s instructions for 45 minutes, it might has well have been hours. The only thing that had been keeping her body from giving out completely on her was knowing that in the aftermath of all this pain, she’d be left with the beautiful baby that her and Harry had been growing in her tummy all this time. 

“‘ts ok, Y/N. We’re gonna be fine,” Harry brushed her matted hair off of her neck with his hand that was wet from the bathtub water where he had been holding her legs open. 

“I don’t think we’re gonna make it to a hospital,” he called out sternly to the phone.

He was trying his hardest not to panic for Y/N’s sake, but his voice still shook and his body still vibrated with anxiety every time their doula gave him another instruction or Y/N’s condition changed.

“Alright,” the doula answered, “I need you to check on Y/N for me and tell me if you can see the baby’s head crowning.”

As he got up to check on the progress of the baby from where he was sat behind her, she squeezed him once more, begging him not to move.

“Please don’t leave me, Harry.”

Harry felt his heart twinge at her words, though he knew what she really meant. He knew for a fact that he’d have bruises on his arms in the shape of Y/N’s fingers, but he also knew that no matter how he was feeling or what his condition as a pending father was, it didn’t come close to how Y/N was feeling. She was pushing a 6 pound (according to their last checkup) human out of her vagina with no medication and hardly any warning whatsoever. His bruises weren’t shit compared to the excrutiating state he knew she was in.

“‘M not goin’ anywhere, love. Just gotta check on the baby.”

When he leaned over briefly to get a good look at what laid between Y/N’s legs, his eyes widened enough to concern Y/N.

“What? Harry, what?!” she yelled through her teeth when he took longer than half of a second to reply.

“I can see the head,” Harry spoke loudly so that both Y/N and their doula could hear.

The corners of his mouth turned up just slightly at his first ever glance at what would be his firstborn. 

“That’s good. Harry?” the doula asked.

“Ye’?”

“I need you to sit at her feet and get ready to catch the baby when it comes out. Do you think you can do that?”

“‘f course,” Harry answered, though it made his palms twice sweaty upon realizing that he was actually going to have to birth this child on his own because it was clear now that their doula would not be making it on time to help him.

Y/N interrupted with another wrenching sob as she felt the urge to push once more with all of her might. This time, Harry actually saw the baby move further out of her and it stunned him.

“Did the baby move?” 

“Ye’. Head’s almost all of the way out,” Harry answered the woman’s question again.

“That’s great. You’re doing great. Y/N. You’re almost done. Once the head is out, it’s pretty much smooth sailing from there,” she reassured her as best as she could whilst nearly running red lights to get to their house.

Y/N nodded (as if the doula would have been able to see) as she readjusted herself in the tub now that Harry wasn’t behind her anymore. Her brows were permanently furrowed together and her chest would not stop heaving strained, troubled breaths, but Harry couldn’t have thought that she looked more beautiful. Clearly, he knew she was not feeling her best and is probably dead set on never letting Harry put his dick inside of her again if it leads to all of this, but it didn’t stop Harry from falling more in love with her right now than he ever had before.

Harry leaned over her swollen and stressed body to get closer to her face.

“You can do this, Y/N,” he muttered so that only she could hear, “Just give me a few more good pushes and they’ll be here. Then we’ll have our baby, yeah?”

She nodded through her tears, her hands moving to rest in his hair as he did the same to her.

“You’ve got t’ breathe for me. Deep breath in,” Harry followed along with her, filling his lungs with the muggy bathroom air as she did the same.

“Deep breath out,” he coached her through her breaths in the way that he learned in the one parenting class they tried out before ditching it entirely, having decided it was all just a way to scam people out of their money. 

Good thing he at least gave the class half of his attention so he was able to recall that much. 

“I love you,” Harry told Y/N as he pressed hip lips against her forehead before returning to his position in front of her open legs.

“I love you, too,” she squeezed Harry’s hands in response.

Something came over Harry in the following moments. He became possessed with the overwhelming urge to put his mind and soul into helping Y/N through this. He wanted to be there for her as much as humanly possible to help alleviate her qualms about whether or not their baby would make it here safely, to let her know that Y/N was going to make it out of the other side safely despite her worries that her body might give out.

It was as if everything in the world ceased to exist as Harry held her hands while she continued to push. He felt his bones grinding together from how hard she was squeezing them and his knees ached from being planted on the uncomfortable porcelain. Slowly but surely, Harry watched as the baby inched its way outside of Y/N’s body every time she let out a piercing scream and pushed as hard as she could . It was when he noticed a mere halt in the delivery that he began to think something might be wrong.

“I think.....I think the baby’s stuck?” Harry pondered aloud so that the doula could hear.

“What do you mean, Harry? Tell me what you see?”

He felt Y/N’s body tense up at his worrisome tone, but Harry shook his head at her to let her know that it didn’t mean that she needed to panic.

“I think...Think the shoulder’s caught maybe? The baby’s comin’ out at an angle it almost looks like. Haven’t moved at all in a few pushes.”

Harry had no idea what he was saying nor did he know if he was correct in the slightest, but he was almost certain that whatever was happening shouldn’t be.

“That happens. It’s nothing to worry about. You just have to reach in there and pull them yourselves sometimes. If you three can hang tight for me, I’ll be there in about ten minutes and then I can take over.”

Both Harry and Y/N felt their hearts flutter and exchanged knowing looks when their doula referred to them as a party of three. It was becoming a reality, there being only the two of them in the house anymore. Sure, the baby was only about thirty percent out of Y/N’s birth canal, but any second now they would all be meeting each other for the first time.

“I really feel like I can just-” Harry began to prod around the baby’s head, to which Y/N jerked backwards.

“Harry, please don’t. You heard her. She’s almost here. Let’s just wait.”

A fresh wave of tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. She sounded depleted and at her wit’s end, like she didn’t have much longer before she completely gave up. It made Harry even more determined to help.

“Do ye’ trust me?” Harry peered up at her through his own mussed hair.

Her eyes were closed and her head was facing the ceiling as if she was trying to channel her focus on anything but the pain she felt, but Harry still made out the faint nod that she gave him in response.

“Look at me, Y/N,” Harry demanded, rubbing circles on her thighs where his hands were planted. 

His voice trembled harder than it ever had before, but he was confident with what he was about to do next.

“I need ye’ to give me one, good push and I’m gonna pull the baby out. Can ye’ do that? Just one more.”

She was utterly exhausted, but she nodded at her lover once more. The couple braced themselves, counting down from three before Y/N pushed like she never had before. Harry then worked his fingers around the baby’s body and quite literally bumped their shoulder free so that he could pull them the rest of the way out of her. Y/N wailed at the sudden disturbance of Harry reaching his hand inside of her to help the baby out, but her cries were soon replaced by a different set of lungs.

Harry was in disbelief when he first heard the baby cry. It’s what pulled him from his state of shock and made him realize that, for the first time, he was holding his child in his arms. He moved quickly, placing the red-faced infant on Y/N’s chest so he could reach for the stack of towels he had laid out on the toilet seat. As gently and as quickly as he could, he found his way back behind Y/N so that she and the baby were laying against his chest. 

He held them close as all three of them cried, two of them tears of joy, the other tears of being removed from the comfort of their mother’s womb. Y/N and Harry couldn’t quit mumbling coos to their little one, in absolute awe of the tiny human that they created together. Harry did his best through his tears to clean some of the goop out of the baby’s eyes so that they could properly see the bub, still paying no attention to the mess in the tub that they were all sitting in. He had his family and that was all that mattered. That was all that would ever matter.

Amidst basking in the glory that was successfully delivering their own child and holding them close for the first time in nine long months, Y/N realized something.

“Wait,” she exhaled forcefully, clearly fighting exhaustion.

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

Harry’s chest rumbled with a short laugh, causing Y/N’s body to shift as well before he laid his head against her shoulder.

“Ye’ know what? I didn’t even look.”