Contains spoilers for pretty much the entire game. The end of ch4 - 5, as well as Ringabel's past, and probably the end of the game itself.
This fic is also a polyromance between Alternis Dim, Edea Lee, and Ringabel.
Their relationship was, as Edea so succinctly stated, unconventional enough without the addition of children to complicate matters. Children meant heirs. Meant bloodlines. Meant figuring out which of her two husbands was actually the biological father, despite everyone knowing that they were in fact, one and the same person.
But when she cheerfully told them one day over breakfast that she finally felt ready to have children with them, with them, Ringabel and Alternis eagerly agreed… after Alternis wiped off the coffee that Ringabel spit on him, and Ringabel cleaned the milk out of his hair from when Alternis had dropped his toast on his spoon.
Her pregnancy was just as unconventional. Getting her pregnant had been the easy part, once they'd planned and discussed and gotten the men comfortable with the idea that they were going to be fathers, finally. After years of wanting a family of their own. But after that? Both men were quickly wondering what on earth they had just signed up for.
Despite gaining weight and inches every day, Edea seemed to have an inhuman, inexhaustible supply of energy. She kept active, kept working, kept exercising, kept eating, and it was Alternis and Ringabel who were the tired ones. They were awake early in the morning for the various jobs they were taking over as it got harder and harder for her to move, and up until all hours of the night to indulge her whims. Spicy noodles, super sweet cakes, and whipped-cream-and-tuna sandwiches, Edea wanted them all at any time of the day and night.
And on top of that, they found she was having twins.
Of course she was, Ringabel said with a laugh the moment he found out, his arms wrapping tightly around her with glee. Edea is excessive, and likes doing things by twos, after all! Never satisfied with just one, he'd joked, and at least his husband had found the remark funny, nursing the slight bruise Edea had given him when she elbowed him in the side, but smiling.
More than once Alternis fell asleep with his head resting on his wife's stomach. Ringabel was her pillow, but Alternis was her blanket, and the man would wake up with a horrible case of bedhead and an overwhelming, foreign feeling of peace, especially if what woke him was a kick against his cheek from one of his unborn children.
He had a feeling he'd have to get used to it. Lee children were infamously energetic, he'd heard, and if their children would be anything like their mother or fathers… the thought made him smile, and he chased the little movements of whichever twin - or both - of them was kicking at him with his fingertips, eliciting sleepy smiles from his spouses.
It was especially unconventional the way Edea continued to work, and walk, and even run sometimes the closer that her due date got, despite how much that frazzled her husbands' nerves. She refused to take off time for her pregnancy, and only did so when she had to, such as doctor's visits or when she felt particularly unwell. It just wouldn't do to have the Grand Marshal-in-training held up by something like pregnancy, not when there were more important matters at hand. While both men had missions they had to go on, she was at least kind enough to alternate them, so one was always at home. It meant that whoever stayed could be with her, just in case, and though she could get irritated with the hovering, she did appreciate the concern, especially when Ringabel rubbed her feet or Alternis brought her some of her favorite cakes from Ancheim.
Both of them treated her like glass even as she acted like everything was normal, right up until the moment her water broke in the middle of a Council meeting, terrifying the entire room full of men. And then she was unconventional still, giving orders to those presently panicking - even her own father who'd *already had a child* - and stopped only when she was well into labor, curled up and in pain in the arms of her partners.
What wasn't unconventional was the way that both men sobbed as they held their daughters for the first time, tears of wonder and happiness splashing onto the babies' faces.
"They're so squishy and fat," Ringabel sniffled as he mused back some of one daughter's wispy blonde hair. "Like puppies."
"Did you seriously just call our children puppies," Edea groaned from her position on the bed, exhausted but happier than she'd been in a long time. Not since that Florem buffet several years ago. "Really?"
"Er, no." He scrambled to correct himself, glancing at Alternis for help but getting nothing, as Alternis was too busy staring adoringly at the face of the baby he was holding. "They're angels. Little baby angels."
"I'll agree for once," Alternis rumbled, his voice lower than usual, thick with tears. "Baby angels." He'd never seen anything so beautiful. The girl he was holding - the older of the two - was red-faced and yes, squishy, and a little wet, but she was beautiful and healthy and she and her twin were theirs.
Both men eventually, reluctantly relinquished the twins back to the arms of their mother, but stayed closed to her throughout the night. They cuddled all three of their angels, and pet their hair, and fetched Edea the sweet cake she hadn't been able to finish the night before. And when dawn broke, the men were tuckered out and asleep next to their daughters while Edea started work again, reading paperwork.
Perhaps their family was unconventional, a pretty mommy and two handsome daddies, and two adorable baby angels, but their love for each other was anything but.