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Warm, orange light flickered along the sitting room walls of Villa Dellamorte from the comforting fire lite up in the fireplace. Evka and Antoine sat on the left side couch, Bianca sat on the floor beside them, curiously holding Clement in her arms, the little dwarf baby giggling as he looked up at his big cousin with his bright ocean blues.
Claude remained nestled in his father’s arms, the man watched him and his brother while spoking with their fellow warden.
“Triplets, that’s insane... and amazing”
“Ha, I know, it’s gonna be a lot to handle but we’ll figure it out”
Kage sat on the opposite couch with Layla napping next to him, the little qunari girl had knitted blue quilt draped over her and her father’s big hand resting on her shoulder.
“I’m sure you will, if you need a hand-” Evka started before being cut off by the giant
“No, Evka, you two have your hands full already, but I really appreciate the concern”
“Kage, you do so much for us, surely-”
Smoke blew out of the qunari man’s nose as he huffed, giving the dwarven woman a silent, stern look, “fine, but if you do need us for anything, don’t hesitate”
“Agree to disagree”
“Ugh”, the three wardens laughed at each other.
“Well, how have you both been, with the twins?” Kage asked, eyeing between the boy in Antoine’s arms and the one in his daughter’s arms
“Nights have been a bit stressful, lack of sleep and all that, but we’re doing alright” Antoine said, looking down at Claude in his hold, the tiny boy cooed as he lifted his arms for his mom and dad’s attention, the elf presented his pointer finger to him and Claude grasped it with his miniscule hand.
Evka chuckled, adoring her wonderful husband being so sweet with their child, every time she looks at them, at him, she always feels such disbelief that she has this in her life.
“Yeah, Lucanis, Spite and I lost a lot of sleep with Bianca” Kage chuckle
“Hey, surely I wasn’t that bad!” the young girl on the floor said in offense
“Oh, sweetie, if you ever have children of your own one day, you’ll know”
The two wardens above Bianca laughed, the dwarf covering her mouth trying to hold back. “Whatever, I think I’d be a cool mom, right Clem?”, Bianca looked down at her baby cousin who, like a baby would, had no idea what was happening so just cooed a random little noise at her, “see, Clemmie agrees”
“Oh, does he now?” Evka said sarcastically
“Yep, absolutely”
“Well, if you think you’d be such a good mom, would you like to change them later?”
“Never mind, I yield”
The room nearly erupted in laughed at the girl’s disgust when two men walked into the room, one wiping a dagger with a cloth and the other glowing purple striding beside him.
“You all seem to be having fun, what are we missing?” Lucanis said, sheathing his blade into his belt.
“Kadan, you’re home, how did the contract go?”
“Very. Well. Our love. He. Was. A gusher. Though” Spite explained, taking his sleeve and rubbing off a small blood splatter on his husband’s face.
“Thank you, amour~”
The demon purred lightly as he and his host approached the couch that their partner was sitting on, “welcome home pa and papa!” Bianca greeted her fathers, continuing to sit on the floor cradling Clem, “hello, little birdie, and hello, Evka, Antoine, and twins, it’s good to see you again, how have you been”
“Oh, we’re great, we just wanted to visit to congratulate you three, about the triplets” Evka said.
“And, happy birthday, Lucanis” Antoine added.
The assassin was a little flushed from the late birthday wishes, “thank you both, very much”, Kage reached up and squeezed the man’s arm playfully, Lucanis rolling his eyes and turning to where the kitchen, “if you two are staying for a bit, I’ll make some lunch, I could use your help again, Antoine”
“Yes?”, the elven warden’s pointy ears perk up
“Your knowledge about herbal combinations was very helpful last time, I was wondering if I could pick your brain more, plus Spite is a nightmare in the kitchen-”
Lucanis was cut off by an offended jab in the arm from the demon standing beside him, earning a giggle out of their husband and wake daughter. Lucanis and Spite made their way to the kitchen, soon Antoine followed, not before giving his wife and his sons a kiss each.
The skinny elf trotted off to the next room with the assassin and demon, Evka watched him in awe, the man’s boots clopping against the tiles like a horse’s hooves, his legs as fit as one too, so beautiful.
“Doing good over there?”
The dwarf snapped out of it and looked at Kage who was giving her a cheeky, ‘I know what you’re thinking about’ expression, “oh shut up” the woman said jokingly, her older son babbling at her in her arms.
“Have you thought about my offer?”
“Huh?”
“The guest house~”
Evka did, she’ll be honest, she’s been thinking about it ever since the giant brought it up, the dwarven woman longed for her long, lanky elf’s limbs wrapped around her, his soft, freckly skin grazing her’s and his delicious, skilled mouth praising her over-worked body. Yes, the answer was yes.
“Me, Lucanis, Spite and the girls will be going off on our own little vacation next week, on the day of your anniversary no less, so you two would be all alone~” Kage said, as if he was trying to sweeten and already tooth-rotting deal.
“I think... it’ll be nice for us to spend some alone time together”
“I knew you’d come around”, the gentle giant winked at his fellow warden, making her blush and roll her eyes.
They were gonna have to find someone to babysit the twins for the night.
“Anyway, cheerful chats aside, I wanted to talk to you about something”
“Oh, what’s going on?” the qunari asked.
“It’s... about the book you and Emmrich gave me... the purple one...”
“Oh.... yeah”
Kage looked down, almost ashamed, “Bianca, sweetie, why don’t you go see if your papa and uncle Antoine need help?”
“You think pa is gonna melt one of the pans again?”
Evka struggled not to snort at that.
“Haha, maybe, come I’ll hold Clemmie”
The little demon girl got up and gave her little cousin to her father and flew off where the other three men disappeared to, the dwarf baby, completely oblivious to the scene, babbled at his uncle and reached his tiny hands out to him.
“Listen, I didn’t mean to-”
“I think you’re right”
“What?”
The large man looked at the smaller woman with surprise, the dwarf looked down now with a tired, sad look on her face.
“I think you’re right... that... I’m depressed...”
“Evka...”
“I mean... I haven’t been myself lately, I’ve been so.... I don’t know, I just feel helpless and sad, and afraid... I’ve never felt like this in so long”
Kage was silent for a moment, he then sat up slowly and moved himself to the other couch, sitting next to the dwarven woman, “when did you feel like this before?”
.
.
.
“My first marriage”
Evka almost didn’t want to say it, she didn’t want to compare such a miserable period in her life with the happiest thing that’s ever happened to her.
“Those days having to spend most of my time around a man I didn’t love or even know, and nights trying to sleep next to that same man, I was alone most of my life in Orzammar, I had a father, three brothers, a husband, but I was alone”
“I’m so sorry, Evka...”, Kage grasped a gentle hand the woman’s shoulder to try and comfort her.
“I just... I don’t understand why I feel this... why do I feel as miserable as I was in a forced arrangement when I had two beautiful children... I love my babies, why do I not feel good enough about it”, tears began flowing down Evka’s face, her heart ached, Claude just stared at his mother, totally unaware of what she was crying about.
Suddenly, a big, soft hand cupped the woman’s cheek, nearly covering half of her face, Kage held the younger twin to his chest while looking down at his fellow warden with sorrow, “I know this is all so confusing and difficult for you right now, but just remember, whatever this is, it doesn’t mean you don’t love your sons or Antoine, maybe it’s the opposite”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, before, you were depressed because you didn’t have anything to love, and no one to love you...”
The words sounded harsh, but he was correct in saying so.
“... maybe now, you’re depressed because now that you have so much love around you, the fear of losing it all or fucking it up is overwhelming you”
Evka couldn’t deny Kage’s theory at all, in fact he may have been spot on, “maybe... I just wish... that I could be stronger about this... I feel so... weak”
“And it’s okay to feel weak sometimes, especially with something as big of a deal as being a parent, it’s a hard thing to get a hang of but you know what makes it easier?”
“What?”
“That amazing elf in the next room that you married yourself”
A slightly sombre laugh came out of Evka mouth as the steams down her cheeks began to dry over, “you’ll get there, I know you will, and he’ll make sure of it too”.
The woman smiled and leaned against her dear friend’s arm, “thank you, Kage”
“Anytime”
“I’m sorry...”
“For?”
“Every time we see each other it just feels like I’m crying on your shoulder the whole time”
“Hey, that’s what family is for, and those fuckers underground don’t know jack-shit about that as far as I’ve heard”
Laughing through her trauma yet again, Evka’s mind was set at ease for the moment when Claude started to mumble a little louder, “mma, baa~”
“Hi sweetie, I’m okay, mama’s okay”
She tickled his navel playfully, making the baby boy giggle, his younger brother wriggled in his uncle Kage’s muscular arm, looking for equal attention.
“Oh, hi Clem, of course we can’t forget about you~” the qunari warden cooed, tickling him the same as what Evka did to Claude, both boys laughed almost in sync with one another.
“They’re so precious, aren’t they”
“They really are... think they get it from their father”
The woman’s statement made the qunari man laugh, “I think anyone related to Antoine would be just naturally adorable”
“Yeah....”
Evka’s expression softened and her laughter stopped, she admired the two boys for a minute, the only living examples of blood-relation the elf in the next room had to show, he must be so grateful for all of this.
“Lunch is ready!” Lucanis suddenly shouted from the kitchen.
“Coming Kadan!”
The dwarven woman settles the boy in her arms as he got disturbed by the yelling, “I better wake up Layla, it’ll be her feeding time now too”
“Here”, Evka shuffled Claude into one arm and held out the other to hold Clem.
“Are you sure you-”
“Don’t start talking like Antoine, I’m literally five days away from being fully healed”
“Okay, okay... here Clemmie, you go to your mama now, good boy” Kage cooed as he gently places the dwarf baby in his mother’s free arm, getting up to return to the other couch where Layla was napping.
“Layla, sweetie, it’s lunch time~”, the qunari scooped up his daughter who was slowly waking up, her tired eyes flutter open, “hmmm”
“Come now, papa is making lunch. Coming Evka?”
“Yeah, just gimme a sec”
Kage nodded and made his way to the kitchen, running into Antoine on the way, the elf slipped past his fellow warden and walked towards his wife and children, “mon amour, is everything okay?”
“Yeah... just thinking”
Evka pushed herself up, meeting her partner between the facing sofas, “what are you thinking about?” the man asked, leaning down and picking up Claude from Evka’s hold, “I’ll... talk to you about it later”
“Okay... well, lunch is ready, hungry?”
“Very”
Antoine chuckled, leading his love into the next room where they enjoyed a delicious meal with their wonderful friends and family, soon they’ll be enjoying much more here in the coming days.
Kage had slipped Evka the guest house keys to hold onto so she could surprise him, their twentieth anniversary was gonna be a very exciting, new experience, and much more than they realised.