Time is passing, slowly but surely. These babies are gonna grow up so fast :') I can't wait till they're speaking their first words and taking their first steps!

Thank you for your comments in the last chapter, they made me very happy as always!


Hydrangeas Say Our Family Will Flourish

Chapter Nineteen: Sprouting Dispositions

Amelia found it hard to believe it had been a full month since the birth of her children. It felt as though hardly a week had passed, yet time had zoomed on by, and it seemed as though the babies were growing so quickly. They were slightly bigger, both had put on more than a pound in weight, much to Inga's delight, and their limbs were just a little longer.

Their faces had changed too. Their eyes were brighter and wider, and their hair had grown in just a tad more, appearing darker. They were beautiful, as always.

It wasn't just the physical side of them that had grown. Their personalities were starting to become apparent as well. Amelia had already known that Kari was the fussier of the two, made clear from the fact that he spent most of his conscious time crying for attention, whereas Aster was calmer, she cried less often and wasn't overly desperate to be held on the near constant basis that Kari was.

Inga assured both Amelia and Loki that it was normal for Kari to be as fussy as he was, especially now that he was entering his second month of life, and that it was Aster who was a bit of an oddball for displaying a lot less distress than to be expected. The Asgardian healer also surmised that it didn't necessarily mean anything was wrong with the baby girl, and that maybe Amelia and Loki were just lucky not to have two constantly screaming infants. It didn't bother Amelia one way or the other. She loved her babies equally and she knew Loki did too.

It became a sort of routine for Amelia to sing to Kari most evenings and mornings while Loki was changing Aster and preparing her for bed, or for the day ahead. She sang anything that came to mind that she knew would be soothing for the baby boy's ears. Her favourite song to sing was 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' because it was one of the few melodies that calmed him instantaneously, and, in fact, the tiny boy would happily coo along as if trying to join in. It was the most pure and wholesome thing, a single moment that Amelia would lock away and always remember.

Perhaps Kari would be a musical kid when he grew up.

Aster, on the other hand, didn't seem overly enthusiastic when Amelia tried singing to her; instead, while Amelia was busy luring Kari into a light slumber, Loki propped pillows up against the headboard of their bed, took Aster into the crook of his elbow, and cracked open one of his many books to start reading to her.

Except, the books weren't baby-friendly. Just like the one Amelia had found in the library before, it was a book that spoke of monsters and scary creatures that lived in other realms, with unpleasant illustrations to match, and yet Loki propped the book up against his thighs and pointed to each sketchy drawing as he read the descriptions, completely unbothered that Aster was getting a full view of the gross creatures.

"This is a Fossegrim, a water-spirit that tends to linger by waterfalls. It may look handsome at first glance but they can be unpredictable with their intentions, so if you ever encounter one in person, it would be best to walk away, lest you fall victim to its charm," Loki warned his daughter, tapping the image of the creature with his pointer finger. Aster merely stared at the page, making quiet goo-goo noises in the back of her throat.

Amelia leaned over after finally having gotten Kari to sleep and peered at the inked parchment, frowning at the drawings. The so-called Fossegrim appeared to be a half-naked man wielding a violin, getting drenched beneath a waterfall, his face seemingly friendly in the first illustration, but monstrous in the second with his eyes opened wide and lips pulled back to reveal fans in a big toothy grin. If that wasn't nasty enough, there was also a hastily drawn picture below of what looked like a drowned child.

"Why are you showing her this? It's not very nice." Amelia protested. In all honesty, she wasn't entirely sure it would have a negative effect on Aster as she was too young to understand anything her daddy was saying or any of the drawings in the book, but as a matter of principal, it seemed like a bad idea to show them to her anyway.

"It's important to read to babies in order to establish a larger vocabulary once they've grown-"

"Yeah, that's talking about the Very Hungry Caterpillar, or The Cat in the Hat, not grizzly accounts from a book of gruesome monsters," Amelia pointed out with a cynical tilt of her eyebrow.

"The Fossegrim is hardly gruesome. Look at it. It's a beautiful man with a violin," Loki argued dismissively.

Amelia pressed her finger to the sketch below, "That's literally a drawing of a dead child."

Loki looked down at it for a moment like one would inspect a piece to a jigsaw puzzle, with searching intent, and finally shook his head, "All the better to warn her about such creatures. You wouldn't want her to be lured into a lake by one of these things because she didn't know to stay away."

Amelia rolled her eyes, giving her daughter a pondering look. The baby seemed perfectly content, and Loki was probably right about her not being able to find fear in an image she could hardly comprehend.

"Fine," Amelia relented with a sigh, and listened to her husband read the words on the pages aloud to their daughter. It was difficult for Amelia to understand why Aster would be more soothed by the words in Loki's book rather than the nursery rhymes her mother sang, but Amelia wasn't bothered by it really. Perhaps Aster was just a daddy's girl.

Loki flipped the page, but instead of continuing to read, he paused for a strangely long time; by this point, Amelia had almost been dozing off to the sound of Loki's voice, but she blinked her eyes open and looked up at her husband's face to find his eyebrows knitted as he glared down at the page.

Pushing herself up, Amelia quickly realised why.

The next chapter of his book happened to be on the Jotnar, and the image scratched onto the right side of the page spread was of a very, very unfriendly looking Jotun. It was drawn in a purposefully intimidating pose, it's body depicted as large and brawny; it was hairless, body littered with battle scars, and appeared to be snarling, revealing it's sharp teeth which were dripping with what Amelia could only assume was blood. The creature's eyes were blotted out, making it look like a soulless killer.

Amelia could not read the paragraph of text beside the image, but she couldn't imagine it was anything positive given the look on Loki's face. Aster looked very much like she'd been close to slipping into slumber before Loki's soothing voice had abruptly cut off, and now she was blinking tiredly, looking up at her daddy's face as if to say 'why did you stop?'

Not knowing exactly what to say, Amelia placed a gentle hand on her husband's upper arm, "Loki?"

It seemed to pull him out of his headspace, and he shifted slightly, checking Aster was still comfortable before continuing to reluctantly read aloud the passages on the page.

"Of all the monstrous creatures in the Nine Realms, the Frost Giants of Jotunheim are by far one of the most dangerous and feared races," Loki began bitterly, his slightly playful story-telling tone completely replaced by a cold, factual one, "from their huge, brawny bodies to their icy, biting touch, most encounters with these- these beasts, will surely be lethal."

He said the words with sharp acidity, his face marred with a frown, and Amelia could tell all those thoughts of self-hatred were stirred and roused from their dormant state. Aster began to whine, it started with a quiet murmur, and Amelia was determined to soothe her before she could grow louder and wake her brother who was slumbering in his crib not too far away.

"Shh, shh," Amelia hushed the baby, leaning over to stroke her forehead gently.

"I suppose you were right," Loki sighed, "this book is too frightening for her."

"You dolt," Amelia grumbled, "she's fussing because you're being all moody, not because she's scared."

Loki raised an eyebrow in surprise at Amelia's retort, and then his gaze hardened slightly, "And how do you know that?"

"You've read through page after page of weird, disturbing creatures and she's hardly batted an eyelid, but you think this drawing of a big, bald frost giant is what gets her crying? Obviously not. I think she can sense you're upset, and it makes her upset too."

At that, Loki looked down at the bundled baby in the crook of his arm, and leaned down to kiss her forehead. The action had the desired effect, and Aster's mewling quietened to a soft whimper, but she seemed more awake now, the drowsiness completely gone from his face.

"Looks like you'll have to read some more to get her to sleep. She seems pretty stubborn," Amelia smiled, rubbing Loki's arm, "this time, don't speak so rigidly, love."

Loki spared the illustration another glance before pinching the corner of the page to turn it over, but Amelia stopped him.

"Wait," she whispered, and gave Aster her full attention, "while the frost giant in this book may seem scary, they're not all like that. In fact, I know at least one that is the most wonderful, smart, beautiful person you'll ever meet, and even though he can be a little chilly sometimes, he's all warm on the inside."

Aster cooed happily, and Amelia grinned, tilting her head to glance at her husband. Loki was staring at her with an abundance of tenderness and love, and he moved forward to give her a soft, dreamy kiss.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," Amelia replied, giddy from his declaration. It didn't matter how many times he said those three doting words, they always had the same dizzying effect on her.

Aster made another unintelligible noise, and Loki chuckled, giving her another kiss on the head, "And I love you too. And your brother."

Amelia laid against her husband's side, cosy and content in the warmth of the moment.


While the weather was still on the chilly side, it was definitely beginning to slowly raise in temperature, and it afforded an opportunity that Amelia had been after for a while. She had wanted to take the babies outside around the palace grounds to give them a taste of nature, but she hadn't wanted to do so while it was still icy outside.

Spring was approaching, and while it was sprinkling with rain most days, this morning happened to be awash with sunlight, bathing everything in a pretty orange glow. It was to be the first time the babies actually went outside, and Amelia was oddly excited about it.

Instead of a stroller or anything similar, Amelia and Loki each carried a baby in a heavily padded wicker basket where they lay bundled in warm blankets, just for the purposes of easier transportation, instead of having to hold them up to their chests the whole walk. Amelia found it amusing, as if the two infants were part of a picnic set.

The palace grounds smelt pleasantly like petrichor, and the grass was still damp from when it had rained overnight; Amelia and Loki walked side by side, basking in the sun's glow as it reached over the walled-in courtyard, breathing in the scent around them. It was lovely.

At least it was until Kari interrupted the peace with his clamorous cries.

"Oh…" Amelia sighed. It was getting easier to tell between his cries for survival needs and his cries for attention, and this was definitely a cry for attention, "I'm right here, you little drama queen." She placed the basket down on the nearby bench and picked the swaddled boy out of his carrier and into her arms, rocking him slightly to calm him down. Within a few seconds, his wailing diminished, a little more content with being held at his mother's breast.

"He can't stand to be anywhere but in your arms," Loki remarked with a smirk, "I know the feeling."

"Hush, you," Amelia retorted to her husband, "I'm sure as he grows older, he'll become less fussy, but I'll indulge him with cuddles for now." She rubbed her hand over the curly wisps of hair on his head, pouring so much love into the gesture.

Amelia watched Kari's eyes dart around as he absorbed his bleary surroundings, most likely taken aback by the change in scenery, "Perhaps he's just scared cause it's his first time out," she supposed, and abandoned the basket to carry him closer to the plants that were growing on one side of the garden.

An amplitude of little bright purple blooms were growing up the wall, and Amelia stood by them, angling Kari's head towards them, "See these? Pretty colour, isn't it?" Amelia smiled, noting the way Kari stared at the plant, "These flowers are heather, the purple ones symbolise admiration and solitude," she explained, "maybe when you grow up, you'll love flowers as much as I do?"

Obviously, Amelia wasn't expecting a response, the boy didn't understand her words, but his tiny mouth pulled up at the sides, forming a pretty little smile that made Amelia's heart lurch.

"Loki!" Amelia called, her voice full of urgency.

"What is it?" Loki quickly approached, mindful not to rock Aster's basket too much, with a look of concern on his face. That was, until he saw Amelia's unbelievably wide grin.

"Kari's smiling! Look!"

Loki leaned over her shoulder, glancing down at his son, but of course by the time he was looking down at the boy, Kari's smile had disappeared.

"You missed it," Amelia pouted, "he's so cute, it was such a cute smile."

Loki chuckled, "I'm sure it was. He has your mouth, after all, he no doubt has a smile like your own."

Amelia's cheeks went pink from the implied praise. Was that some flirting on Loki's end? The two of them had been so busy seeing to the children ever since they were born that they didn't have so much time for each other - it was lovely hearing such a pure compliment from him again.

She glanced up, checking to see if any guards were watching, and found that the coast seemed to be clear. She plucked up one of the stems of heather and slipped it into one of the folds of Kari's blanket so that he could see the brightly coloured petals in front of his face, and predictably, he looked enamoured with it.

It made Amelia very happy to see that her son was overjoyed from one flower.

"He takes after you," Loki pointed out, "finding beauty in nature and the most simple things."

"And Aster takes after you," Amelia replied, "with her clear scholastic interests so early in life," she was of course referring to the night before and Aster's contentment at being read to.

Loki responded with a smile cast towards his daughter who was quiet in her warm bundle, enjoying the fresh air. "They're both perfect," he remarked.

"They are," Amelia happily agreed.


I think we'll have another time jump in the next chapter and maaaaaaybe a certain bunch of Avengers will finally meet our two new family members, hmm? ;)