The comments in the last chapter made me so happy, I read them all and I loved them. Thank you so much everybody who continues to read, support and comment. You are all so wonderful.
I hope you enjoy this chapter, it was lovely to write ;)
Hydrangeas Say Our Family Will Flourish
Chapter Eighteen: A Spectre in the Night
Amelia drifted awake to a dark room.
It was probably around two o'clock in the morning, the bedroom was still relatively warm from the fire Loki had kindled several hours earlier, just before they'd settled into bed for the night, and it instilled a sense of serenity, allowing Amelia to snuggle a bit more firmly against her husband's side without losing the haze of sleep in her mind.
That was, until Amelia realised what had woken her up in the first place.
There was a soft melodic humming noise floating through the room, the lulling notes almost sweet enough to coax Amelia back into her dreams, but the realisation that it couldn't possibly be Loki, as he was asleep right beside her, was enough to pull her out of her tired daze and into the real world.
She held her breath as a sort of fear response, ears fine-tuning to the crooning that was catching on the air. Her first thought was that it was clearly a woman's voice, and her second, more assuring thought was that it could be Signy or Inga, but her third thought, which was the most lucid of all, told her there was no way either of the Asgardian sisters would wander into the prince and princess's royal chambers at this time of night.
Amelia did not recognise the voice.
With her breath still caught firmly in her lungs, she moved ever so slowly, lifting her head to peer around the room in search for the source.
There, through the curtains hanging from the bedpost, Amelia spotted the silhouette of a figure standing over the babies cribs. Immediately, the breath trapped in Amelia's lungs rushed out in the form of a horrified gasp. There was somebody in the room. Somebody unknown. And they were watching the children.
In a wave of motherly panic, Amelia pushed the covers back and scrambled to the edge of the mattress, not even wasting a fraction of a second to put her feet into her slippers before staggering up and rushing around the side of the bed.
As the corner bedpost zipped past her field of vision, the mysterious figure seemed to just disappear, causing Amelia to halt in her tracks, the adrenaline still rushing through her now-confused mind. She was sure she hadn't been imagining it, there had been someone there.
Amelia took a few hesitant steps forward, approaching the cribs to peer in and check that her babies were safe and sound.
Kari was asleep, as still as a stone, but Aster was awake. Her big eyes looked aimlessly around, probably lacking any clarity in the darkness of the room - Amelia could only just really see due to the low moonlight seeping through the windows - but it was proof enough for Amelia to grow confident she had definitely seen somebody. It couldn't have been a trick of the eye.
Aster was a light sleeper. Whoever or whatever had woken her up was the same thing that woke Amelia.
She reflexively reached down and picked Aster out of the crib, holding the baby close to her chest just to double check that she was truly alright, and in the same movement, she called Loki's name, trying to be loud enough to wake her husband, but quiet enough not to wake Kari.
After a few hushed attempts, Loki roused, pushing himself up into a sitting position slowly.
"What's wrong?" He asked tiredly, rubbing his eyes.
"Loki, I think there's someone in here." The words tumbled from Amelia's mouth, the anxiety explicit in her words, to which Loki seemed to become more alert. He shifted, quickly rising from the bed as he glanced around the room as Amelia had done.
"Where?" He asked, the sleepy rasp now missing from his throat as his tone now revealed nothing but seriousness. He walked first to Amelia's side, one hand protectively on her upper arm, the other on Kari's crib as he checked the infants over just briefly.
"I- I don't know," Amelia whispered, shaking her head, "I woke up and I saw them standing right here- but when I got up they were gone!"
"Shh, shh," Loki hushed and instructed her, "stay by the cribs."
With that, he stepped away, checking the closer side of the room that was by the door; he inspected every dark corner with his superior vision, checking everywhere that somebody could reasonably hide, and while he did this Amelia eyed the rest of the room, ready to alert Loki at the first sign of movement.
She was surprised Kari had still managed to sleep his way through the commotion, and that Aster was very unbothered by everything, chewing absent-mindedly on the material of Amelia's sleep clothes. Perhaps she was hungry, but Amelia didn't want to feed her until she was sure she was safe in the room.
Fearlessly, Loki knelt and checked under the bed before examining the rest of the room and the connected bathroom. Finally, he pressed his eyes to the window of the balcony, surveying it for intruders. He eventually took a step back with a sigh, "There's no one here, Amelia."
"Loki, I saw somebody," Amelia repeated firmly, "I know I'm not mistaken."
Loki frowned and crossed the room, opening the door of their chambers to address the night guards that stood watch, "Has anybody come through these doors since we entered last night?"
"Nobody, my prince," Amelia heard one of them respond confidently. Loki nodded and closed the doors, making his way back to Amelia's side.
"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, love?"
Amelia felt herself pout, "No, I saw her Loki! She was standing here, I wasn't dreaming!"
"Her?" Loki raised an eyebrow.
"It was a woman," Amelia told him, "I could hear her humming, that's what woke me up. And when I came over, Aster was awake too, so the woman must have woken her up."
Loki didn't look entirely like he believed her, which made Amelia want to cry, because now she was beginning to worry. She was certain she saw somebody. She couldn't have been dreaming, because she had still heard and seen the woman when she was up on her feet, and Amelia definitely did not have a history of sleep-walking.
"What if they can go invisible? Like you?" Amelia questioned with rising fear, glancing over her shoulder with paranoia. The woman could be standing right next to her and she wouldn't know.
"Unlikely. The few magic-users in Asgard cannot hold the spell as efficiently as I can, and if there was anybody in here using a shrouding spell, I would sense them. There's no one here, Amelia," he repeated the words he thought to be assuring, but Amelia couldn't accept them.
Shaking her head, Amelia mumbled, "What about ghosts? Are ghosts real? Could it be a ghost?"
"Amelia," Loki sighed, "just calm down. Nothing is going to harm you or the children. You're fine."
Aster interrupted with a gurgle, a sure sign that she wanted her parents to quit talking and start feeding her, and Amelia looked down at her with a frown before shaking her head slightly, "I'm not going to be able to get back to sleep tonight." Not while there was a possibility that the mysterious woman could come back.
Loki tilted his head, eyebrows raised incredulously, "If you are truly that shaken, I can stay up and watch over you all. You must rest. But I'm telling you, Amelia… there is nobody in here but you and I, and the babies." He brushed Amelia's hair back behind her ear and touched her arm comfortingly, pleading for her to return to bed and put her worry aside.
Amelia sighed, gave the room one last suspicious glance, and then relented. She fed her daughter, who quickly fell back asleep as soon as her tummy was full, placed her back in the crib, and slipped back into bed while Loki sat up against the headboard and let his fingers trail through her hair as he opened up one of the books on his side table and began reading.
Loki kept his word and was still awake when Amelia blinked her eyes open the next morning; she felt bad for prompting her husband to stay up the whole night, especially after the week prior, just because she was scared of the figure she had seen. In the comfort of sunlight, Amelia began to doubt that she'd even seen somebody at all. Maybe it was just a trick of the light, just a shadow of something that was caught in the moonlight, and her sleep-addled mind had warped it into something it wasn't.
"Sorry for freaking out last night," Amelia quietly apologised to her husband, "I'm kinda embarrassed."
Loki smiled her way, indicating that he wasn't bothered, and leant down to kiss his wife's forehead, "It's okay. You'll be pleased to know I didn't see anybody wandering around our room for the rest of the night."
"Good."
On cue, Kari woke up with what began as a quiet whimpering, and Amelia pulled herself up, padding around over to the crib, "Ohh, is my little boy hungry?" She pulled the boy from his crib and cuddled him, to which he calmed down a little, "Don't you worry, I've got some tasty milk for you, just as soon as I get you changed."
While Amelia was meeting Kari's needs, Aster roused from sleep and Loki dutifully picked her up and held her close to his chest, cradling her head gently in his palm.
"Hello little flower," Loki greeted his daughter gently. It was an adorable little pet name that Amelia wholly approved of, "how are you this morning?" Aster was silent in return, but happily squeezed her dad's finger within her whole fist when it was offered.
Once Kari was all cleaned up, Amelia fed him till he was happy and full, and then laid him on the bed so that she could play with him. Playing with the nearly two-week old baby mostly consisted of lightly pinching his little cheeks, waving his arms around and singing nursery rhymes to the boy.
"Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are," Amelia sang, moving her head back and forth with each word. Kari may not have known what she was singing, but he was soothed by the tune of the song. His little green eyes gazed widely up at her and Amelia grinned in return.
Their eyes were both so pretty, just like her husband's.
On the last note of the song, Amelia booped the boy on the nose, enjoying the aimless cooing noises she got in return from the infant. After a while, Amelia looked back up to Loki, endeared to find him swaying back and forth with Aster as if slow-dancing with the baby.
Amelia couldn't fathom why Loki ever thought he would be a bad father. He was a natural. If Amelia had had a father who cared one tenth the amount Loki did, she wouldn't have been relieved when the old man finally bit the dust. Aster and Kari would grow up knowing the love of a father, which was something neither Amelia nor Loki were ever afforded themselves.
She hummed as she stroked Kari's head, fingers trailing the light wisps of curly hair, and brushed the back of her fingers down the tiny boy's cheeks, being ever so gentle with him. It was such a sweet, calming moment, and Amelia knew she would remember it forever.
Having a family of her own was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her.
"What is that?"
Loki's voice cut through the atmosphere in an almost accusatory way, which gave Amelia some metaphorical whiplash given her husband looked so staggered for some reason.
"Huh?" Amelia replied dumbly.
"What are you singing?"
Amelia blinked, "Uh… Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star?"
"No," Loki clarified, an odd look on his face, "What were you humming? Just now?"
It was almost a struggle to recall, even though the melody had just been falling from her lips, and she stared blankly into nothingness for a few moments before admitting, "I don't know?" Really, the melody had just sort of floated into her head, she didn't know where it had come from.
"Did Thor teach you that song?" Loki probed, his gaze burning into Amelia's in a way that took her aback.
"Wha? No. I don't know, I just made it up, I think."
"No, you didn't," Loki stated firmly, "It's a lullaby that my mother used to sing to me when I was a child."
Amelia's mouth fell open in surprise, "Oh-oh, well… I must have heard it being sung by someone in the palace-"
"No," Loki hurriedly corrected, "It's not a well known song." His voice sounded strained and he looked confused, and honestly Amelia didn't blame him. He had stopped swaying with Aster and was now standing rigid in place while the child rested her head against his shoulder. "It was a song from an old book that belonged to my mother. I've asked around and it seems the book unfortunately perished when Asgard went up in flames. It doesn't make sense how you could possibly know it."
Amelia frowned, deflating a little. She looked curiously down at Kari and wiggled his feet, searching her memory for any hint as to why the tune had come to her. She hummed it again, the melody so crisp and clear in her mind that she found it odd she couldn't immediately recall where she knew it from.
And then it hit her.
Amelia froze, still holding onto Kari's little feet, and her mouth hung open as she straightened up and looked back at her husband. She swallowed, and then murmured, "Last night, Loki."
"What?"
"Last night. The woman that was here. She was humming the tune," Amelia explained carefully.
Loki's face was blank as he stared at her, but Amelia could tell that his mind was spinning from the look in his eyes. The only noise audible was Kari's babbling.
"What are you implying?" Loki finally asked.
"I'm not implying anything. I'm just telling you the truth, last night there definitely was someone here, and either somebody else in the palace knows that song, or-"
"Or?" Loki was getting emotional, that much was obvious, and Amelia tilted her head and sighed.
"Or maybe it was your mother."
"She's dead," Loki was quick to point out.
Amelia knew Loki's head and heart were struggling with each other. Obviously, he'd like to believe his mother had come and sung the old lullaby he knew so well, but the logical side of his mind told him that couldn't possibly be true, because she was in Valhalla.
Shaking her head, Amelia softly suggested, "Perhaps she found a way to visit?" Although the figure had given her a scare that night, Amelia felt now that perhaps they were not ill-intentioned. The woman had simply sang to the babies by their cribs. Why would a random Asgardian break in just to sing to the children?
Loki looked like he wanted to dismiss the idea, but he hesitated, pondering the likelihood of the notion. "If that were true, why did she wait until now to visit?"
Amelia read between the lines of his query, knowing the true question he was asking was 'why wouldn't she visit me?' and beckoned him over with her hand. He approached the bed, laying Aster down next to her brother, and sat on the edge of the mattress, gazing at his family. Amelia laid her hand over his, giving it a slight squeeze and offered him a small smile.
"Maybe she wanted too. Maybe she's not allowed to be here and was being sneaky? Maybe it's dangerous for her to be here," Amelia shook her head, letting excuses slip from her throat in order to urge Loki not to make assumptions, "Perhaps she only just discovered how, and plans to visit again. Or perhaps she already has visited you, and you just didn't know it."
Loki seemed to contemplate Amelia's words.
"Or… maybe it wasn't her, and I really was just dreaming. Perhaps I did hear Thor humming the song, and I picked it up subconsciously." Amelia was sure she had heard the song from the lips of that mysterious woman, but she didn't want to give Loki false hope if it really just was a fabrication of her mind.
The twins wriggled in place, limbs moving rather excitably, and Amelia wondered whether all newborns were supposed to be so animated or if it was just hers that had an abundance of energy every so often.
Loki sunk down and laid across the bed, propping himself up with his elbow as he lightly tickled Aster's belly, seemingly calmed by the enthusiasm of both babies.
"If it truly was her… I am glad she got to meet Kari and Aster. She always wanted grandchildren."
Amelia smiled, warmed by her husband's words and joined him so that the babies were lying between them. She leaned in and nuzzled Kari's face with her nose, peppering little kisses to his cheek, delighted by the happy coo she received in return.
"Loki?" Amelia asked.
"Hm?"
"Can you sing the lullaby?" She honestly expected her husband to scrunch his nose up at her and vehemently deny the request as Amelia had never really heard Loki sing before, and assumed he was rather against the idea.
But to her surprise, Loki gave her a sheepish smile after a minute and rolled his eyes playfully, "If you insist."
Amelia immediately directed both of her ears in Loki's direction, waiting eagerly for the moment the first note left his lips.
When he began, his voice was rich and warm like it was drizzled in melted chocolate, and it instantly made Amelia fall even more in love with him, "On younger mountain-side a vine clings at the foot of a mother pine," he sang it with such gentleness that Amelia felt as though she was laying on a cloud, "The tree bends over the trembling thing, and only the vine can hear her sing. Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep."
Amelia noticed only after a little while that the babies had stopped their rowdy flailing and appeared to be listening to their daddy's song, hanging off of every word with eyes that were just beginning to droop.
"What shall you fear when I am here?" Loki smiled as he sang to them, likely finding joy in the revelation that they found the song as calming as he did. "Sleep, little one, sleep."
Huehuehuehue, I was a little ambiguous and left it as a mystery - was it really Frigga coming to meet her grandchildren or did Amelia dream the encounter? ;)
That lullaby, by the way, is an absolutely gorgeous poem written by Eugene Field. It is literally called "Norse Lullaby" and this is the words of the entire poem:
The sky is dark and the hills are white
As the storm-king speeds from the north to-night,
And this is the song the storm-king sings,
As over the world his cloak he flings:
"Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;"
He rustles his wings and gruffly sings:
"Sleep, little one, sleep."
On yonder mountain-side a vine
Clings at the foot of a mother pine;
The tree bends over the trembling thing,
And only the vine can hear her sing:
"Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;
What shall you fear when I am here?
Sleep, little one, sleep."
The king may sing in his bitter flight,
The tree may croon to the vine to-night,
But the little snowflake at my breast
Liketh the song I sing the best,-
Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;
Weary thou art, anext my heart
Sleep, little one, sleep.
I love it so much and I HAD to include it. :P
Anyone have any ideas on what the next chapter could be about? I have a list of chapter ideas I'm going to write but I'm always accepting new ideas and it's helpful for ensuring I get everything in the right order :D
