disclaimer: without prejudice. the names of all characters contained here-in are the property of FOX and Ryan Murphy. no infringments of these copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission.

author's notes: a sugary sweet daddy!AU that i wrote at work today; i'm not sure where it came from. dedicated to Amy-Star because i told her one day it might happen, and she's one super lady!

Brave;;

Dr Fabray's smile is warm and inviting, but he feels the boy in his lap going jittery every time she comes closer. "Liam?" she asks, putting on her kindest smile, a smile that would reassure even the most nervous child. "I'm just going to take a wittle of your blood, okay?" she jokes, but Liam freezes in his arms.

"Dontwanna," Liam pouts, and turns to bury his face in his chest.

Next to him, Sebastian chuckles.

"Liam, honey," he says, waits until Liam tilts his head up to look at him. His sandy brown hair wafts across his forehead, hazel eyes in full puppy-mode. "You want to get better, don't you?"

Liam nods. He's had a returning rash behind his ear for almost two weeks now and he keeps scratching it. They've tried covering it up with a bandage, but Liam keeps pulling it off during the night and prods at it. It's gotten to the point where Liam's been sleeping in between them for the past week, effectively making sure neither of his daddies got any sleep at all.

"Then you have to let the doctor take some blood."

Liam's bottom lip juts out, going slightly wobbly, eyes filling up with tears. His tiny body starts shaking all over and he feels his resolve melt—he doesn't like to see his baby boy scared like this.

Sebastian comes to his aid; he grabs hold of Liam's hands, taps his nose playfully. Liam sniffles, but the focus on his dad chases away most of the jitters. "Hey, buddy," he says, "There's no need to be scared. Daddy will be right here the whole time."

He blinks and looks at Sebastian. "Daddy?" he asks.

"I'm going to wait outside," Sebastian answers.

"Why? Are you—?" He hesitates for a moment, but moves his hands to cover Liam's ears. The last thing he needs to hear is his own dad's fear of blood. Liam reaches up for his pinkies and pulls, but doesn't manage to pry his hands away. "Are you scared of blood?"

"Scared is a strong term."

He scoffs. "We've been together for seven years. How did I not know this about you?"

Sebastian shrugs. "It's never come up."

"You were in the delivery room with me," he argues. Surely Sebastian saw a fair amount of blood in there. He'd been busy holding their surrogate's hand and whispering assurances; Sebastian had insisted on catching Liam's delivery on tape. "You filmed the whole thing!"

"That was more a matter of aim." Sebastian grimaces.

He smiles and shakes his head. "You're ridiculous," he says, removing his hands from Liam's ears.

"It's part of my charm." Sebastian grins and gets up, pressing a kiss to his temple.

But Sebastian's no sooner standing or Liam grabs a hand around Sebastian's index finger. "Dada!" he calls, not yet able to say 'dad'.

And he knows what's about to happen: Sebastian looks down at their son, small hand clutching his finger, eyes bright and shiny. "Alright, fine," Sebastian buckles, just about melts back down in his seat, absolutely hopeless when it comes to that disarming stare of Liam's. Then again, Sebastian's pretty hopeless when it comes to anything Liam demands.

He rights Liam on his lap when the doctor sits down opposite them, a metal tray on the trolley next to them, syringe covered with a white cloth. She takes hold of one of Liam's arms gently, gauging his reaction.

"Look here, sweetheart," he says, Liam immediately tilting his head backwards. He's tiny enough so that he can look down into Liam's eyes, one of his hands at the boy's tummy, the other around his chin, thumb caressing his little round cheek. "You're going to be brave, aren't you? Are you daddy's brave little boy?"

Sebastian's still holding Liam's free hand, fingers to his lips, but he keeps his eyes vehemently closed. He's almost tempted to tell Sebastian to be brave too, but thinks it's more important to keep Liam calm.

Liam sits still, staring up at him with big eyes, and he's overwhelmed with his love for this little boy all over again. He doesn't think it'll ever disappear, the completeness of his love for his son, it'll always be there but it's moments like these where Liam's trust in him and Sebastian couldn't be more complete that it truly sinks in: they're someone's daddies, and he knows it's something they both consider as one of the most gratifying feelings in the world.

He sees the doctor withdraw the syringe from the corner of his eye.

"That's my good boy," he whispers, still caressing Liam's cheek. "You're so brave."

"'simo kisses, daddy!"

He chuckles, no less overwhelmed by his daddy-ness, and leans down to brush his nose against Liam's tiny one. "Daddy loves you so much," he says, pressing a kiss to Liam's forehead.

"All done!" Dr Fabray exclaims after she's applied a star-spangled band-aid to Liam's arm. "That wasn't too bad, was it?" She reaches inside her lab coat. "And do you know what brave boys get?" she asks, holding out a popsicle.

"'andy!" Liam squeals, greedily taking the candy, even though he knows he'll only get to eat it after dinner.

"It's sugar free," the doctor whispers and winks at him.

Liam purses his lips and puffs out his cheeks, raising his arms as if he's Superman, the big scare forgotten already.

He glances over at Sebastian, both his hands covering his face; he never would've believed Sebastian was squeamish about blood if he hadn't seen it with his own two eyes. He leans over and puts his lips near Sebastian's ear. "You can open your eyes now, my big brave boy," he whispers, pressing a kiss to Sebastian's hair.

Sebastian groans and looks up, a few shades paler than usual.

"I think your dad might need one of these too," the doctor tells Liam, and holds out a popsicle for Sebastian too.

Liam snatches it from her hands, and dutifully hands it to his dad.

"I'll prescribe some aqueous cream for now, that should keep him from scratching too much," Dr Fabray says, pulling out her prescription pad. "And I'll put a rush on the blood work."

"Dada," Liam whispers, making grabby hands for Sebastian, knowing daddy usually chats with the doctor for a while longer, while dada shows him all the shiny things in the room. Sebastian gets up and lifts Liam effortlessly.

He ends up talking to Doctor Fabray for an additional ten minutes to ask what would happen should Liam's blood come back clean—but that will probably mean the rash is just a rash and the right creams will fix it. Given he stops scratching it all the time.

"Thank you, Dr Fabray," he says as he gets up. "We really appreciate everything you've done for us."

Dr Fabray smiles wide. "Anything for my favorite family."

He looks back over his shoulder, watching Liam raise his arm to Sebastian lips so he can place a kiss over the band-aid; he smiles involuntarily, a sentiment not uncommon when he's spying on Sebastian entertaining their son. His chest swells with love, and no, he'll never get used to it, but he'll never grow tired of it either.

#

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