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The next morning was just a regular morning, after Evka and Antoine’s night out they knew their cot wouldn’t feel the same anymore, the luxury of getting to sleep on an actual mattress, even just for one night, was exhilarating.
Evka sat in her usual spot, near the exit of the Grey Hold rooting through letters and reports and updating their maps, she didn’t think First Warden duties would be this dull and draining, she knew it would be tough but for different reasons.
The dwarf had her older son asleep on her chest, soft sores exiting his mouth as his mother rubbed his back gently, trying to mark areas on the map of Hossberg with only one hand free.
Antoine stood at the table on the far side of the room near the small library they had. The elf had their youngest strapped to his chest just like Evka had Claude, though Clem wasn’t at all asleep, his bright, little ocean eyes gawked up at his father curiously, and Antoine defiantly wasn’t oblivious to it as he looked down at the baby boy with a smile and booped his nose, “salut, mon petite poussin”
“Baa~”
The dwarven woman’s heart melted at the tiny noise out of their son, she subtly watched as her husband slowly abandoned whatever he was working on and narrowed all his attention to their son.
Antoine lifted the baby up from the wraps on his torso and held him, so they were face to face, “mon précieux fils, toi et ton frère êtes mes plus belles créations~”
“Ba~?”
“Je t’aime tellement~”
The elven man planted a delicate kiss on the little one’s forehead, making the baby giggle and bap his father in the face out of excitement, or just being an infant trying to get the knack of motor control, “wow, telling my son that I love him and this is what I get, abuse” Antoine said in a dramatic joke voice, earning a good chuckle out of his wife.
“What are you laughing at, missy?”
“Not even two months old and he’s already able to take his own dad in a fight”
“Ah, will you be willing to give him sparring lessons?”
“Not until they’re at least twelve”
The elf sauntered over to his spouse and knelt down next to her with Clem still held up in his arms, “how are you, my darling~?”
“Good, have we scouted this zone today yet?”
Evka lightly circled a section on the map, “hmmm, it looks familiar but I’m not sure, I’ll ask the scouts”.
As the dwarf continued to focus on work, she felt gloved hand turn her face, Antoine looked at her with adoring eyes and a soft smile, “are you sure you’re alright?”
“I- yes, I am... are you?”
“Mhm, it is just... I- we got a letter, from Irelin, of the Veil Jumpers”
“Oh, what was it about?”
Antoine paused for a moment and got up from his knees to move to the other chair at the table, “she said that one of their parties found a cabin in Arlathan woods, abandoned”
“Okay?”
“They said the area was completely safe, it is spacious and there is lake right next to it”
“Ani, why are you telling me this?”, Evka stared at her husband with pure confusion, her eyebrows narrowed trying to figure out what he was on about.
“Maybe we can check it out, see what we think?”
“Oh, you mean-”
“Yes”
Antoine had spoken to a few people about finding themselves a home, but Evka didn’t think they would get an opening so soon. Arlathan isn’t a bad option, however, Evka didn’t exactly feel one hundred percent safe about it, even such a beautiful environment can be dangerous, especially Arlathan forest.
“Evka?”
“Huh?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah... just... I don’t know, it feels a bit early- I think maybe we should-”
“Evka”
The lanky elf reached over the table and took his lover’s hand in his, stroking her fingers with a gently thumb.
“Mon amour, it is okay if you don’t feel ready, I understand, we don’t need to make a decision yet at all, we can just have a look, yes?”
“Yeah- yeah, okay... sorry”
“It is alright, darling, I know this will be a big change, but this will be best for us, for our sons”
Clement stared at his father obliviously as the man turned to look at the baby, the bright blue-eyed boy bapped his dad’s face again as he giggled, earning a sweet smile and a soft kiss on the forehead.
“You’re right... I think I’m just gonna miss Lavendal”
“Well, we will be returning a lot of course, we still have work to do”
“Yeah, I know”
“Baa~”
Clem lets out a tiny coo, interrupting his parent’s discussion and taking all their attention in one second.
Antoine lifts himself out of his chair and returns to his wife’s side, “hi sweetie~”
“Aa~”
Evka tickled her baby son’s chin, making him giggle again.
“We’ll figure it out, darling, I promise~”
The dwarven woman exchanged loving smiles with her dear husband before he leaned in a kissed her, holding her neck gingerly.
Evka opened her eyes slightly, a glimmer of gold catches her eye on her husband’s chest, hidden by the wraps for Clem was a shine of golden yellow and red, the marigold.
“You’re wearing it”
“Hmm?”
The elf looked down at his chest where Evka push the wrap back to see the flower pin in its full beauty.
“Of course, I am, my wonderful wife got it for me”
“Really, she must love you very much~”
“Yes, and I love her, she’s my everything~”
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It was the middle of the night, and the warden couple were kept up by their eldest who had been crying for nearly an hour now.
The dwarf baby was held on his mother’s shoulder; the woman just rubbed his back until he eventually tires himself out. Antoine sat next to the cribs, keeping an eye on their younger son.
“Do you want me to take over?” the elf asked with an exhausted tone, his eyes baggy and barely staying open.
“No, I think he’ll calm down ... in a minute” the dwarven woman let out a big yawn in the middle of her sentence, Claude still bawling on her shoulder.
“Shhh, it's okay sweetie, mamas got ya, shhh~”
Evka continued her attempts to sooth the crying infant, rubbing his back and whispering words of comfort into his ear. Antoine gravitated over to the bed and sat next to his wife and their crying son.
“Maybe you could sing to him?”
“Hmm, maybe, here”
The elven man held his arms out to receive the distressed child, cradling him lovingly before clearing his throat and took a deep breath.
“L’était une poule grise, qu’allait pondre dans l’Eglise, pondait un p’tit coco, que l’enfant mangeait tout chaud~”
Claude’s cries continued, but Antoine proceeded.
“L’était une poule blanche, qu’allait pondre dans la grange, pondait un p’tit coco, que l’enfant mangeait tout chaud~”
Ever so slowly, as the man’s angelic voice gracefully recited the Orlesian lyrics, Claude started to take notice, and his cries began to simmer down.
“L’était une poule noire, qu’allait pondre dans l’armoire, pondait un p’tit coco, que l’enfant mangeait tout chaud~”
It was working; the once screaming, crying infant was now calm and settled, focusing on his father’s gorgeous vocals, and he wasn’t the only one.
Evka’s heart swelled in awe, her partner’s singing not only soothing their child, but she felt as if all the tense muscles in her body loosened simultaneously, watching Antoine’s pretty lips release such lovely tunes, she just wanted to kiss him and devour his beautiful voice if she could.
“There there, my dear son, shut your eyes~”
“He just wanted to hear his papa’s amazing singing voice~”
The younger warden blushed and smiled shyly, bringing their baby boy over to his bassinette next to his twin brother. Claude had almost instantly fallen asleep after an hour before Antoine’s lullaby like that was specifically what he was looking for.
“We can finally get a bit of sleep”
“Mhmm” Antoine responded, likely too tired to talk after his performance.
“Come here, sweetface~”, Evka scooted further onto the cot and patted her lap, to which the elf gladly laid his head on as soon as he got into bed.
“Comfy?”
“Mmmmm~”, Antoine cupped his wife’s hip and nuzzled his face into her stomach, kissing her unexposed navel.
“Good~”
Both wardens managed to fall asleep for a few hours until one or both of the boys woke up again.
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Evka sat up in bed holding a piece of paper, she’d been staring at it for a little while now, Antoine had been sitting at the boy’s cribs to make sure they were totally asleep after their feeding.
“What is that you’re looking at, darling?”
“The boys”
Antoine looked up, a bit confused at first until his wife showed him the picture.
The picture that Wylan managed to take of Claude and Clement before the birth.
“It is beautiful~”
“It is, wish we would’ve gotten more of them”
The elf smiled and returned to the bed, snuggling up to Evka and looked at the image of their then unborn children.
“Well, maybe in the future... if we get lucky again... maybe we could have another”
Evka turned and looked up at her husband with slight surprise.
“You’d... you would want that?” the dwarven woman asked, her voice sweet and soft.
“We’ll see what happens, I guess~”, Antoine leaned down and gave his wife a big smooch on the lips.
After they broke their kiss, Evka looked down again, her face going from happiness and content to sadness and worry.
“Are you okay?”
“Just.... thought about Wylan...”
A few days ago, the warden couple got a distressed message from Taash and Harding in person, informing them of the attack on the Necropolis and Wylan’s coma, they had sent as many wardens as they could to help, and now their friends and fellow warden were hiding away in the Lighthouse again.
The couple was able to visit once, they didn’t think they could ever see Kage in this much emotionally anguish before, the poor man, having to handle facing a threat such as the Venatori while pregnant and worrying for all their children’s safety.
Staring at the picture of their own little ones, Evka thought about how she would feel if their sons were in that much danger.
“Darling, it is going to okay... Kage and everyone know what they are doing, and they’ve faced bigger threats than just that stupid cult themselves... they defeated the Venatori when they had the power of GODS on their side... and Wylan...”
The dwarven woman held the paper to her heart as she listened to her husband.
“That boy... he is much, much stronger than he looks, smarter than most children his age too, and Kage told us that they already see signs that he’ll wake up eventually”
Antoine lifted a hand and cupped his love’s check, turning her head and looking into her light sky blue that were forming tears.
“They will find them, and they will pay for that they did to him; we’ll send Kage as much warden back up as he needs, right now, let’s get some rest, mon amour”
“.... okay”
Evka looked at their baby boy’s picture one more time before slipping it between the pages of one of the books Emmrich gave them to keep it safe.
“Lay down, my darling~”
The older warden did as she was told; she laid down on her side to face Antoine when the elf grabbed the blanket.
“Stay still”
Evka silently accepted.
The man took their blanket and lifted it up to straighten it out before he lovingly draped it over his wife, covering her from right above her shoulder to her feet. Antoine made sure the quilt was snug around his partner, tucking her in not tightly but very snug.
After the covers were properly covering Evka, Antoine remained uncovered, instead he wrapped his arms and his legs around his bundled beauty, encasing her in a comfy embrace.
“Feel better~?”
“Yeah... thank you~”
Antoine would occasionally put them to bed like this whenever his wife felt really stressed about something, usually having something to do with life endangering situations like their friend’s case, he did this A LOT during the fight with the Gods.
“Now, sleep, mon petite moineau, and tomorrow will be better, I promise~”
Evka was about to protest against a rash promise like that, but her husband just hugged her closer and tighter, the woman let it go, just for the night though.
Still internally concerned about their friends and their children.
Antoine was right though; they had faced the Venatori when they were supported by the Evanuris. Surely, they can handle this, but that didn’t stop Evka from worrying.
She was able to drift off with the help of her dearest coiled around her, but damn if she didn’t still struggle with it.
“Please be okay, Kage”