"Sera!" Saion stumbled into the training ring, the look on his face almost frantic as he ran towards her,

"What's the matter?" She sheathed her sword back at her side, and Theon stepped back, grinning at Saion's panic, "Where's Ash?"

"Dealing with shades, that's not it, it's the twins, they won't stop crying," Sera chuckled to herself as the momentary panic faded,

"C'mon, I would have thought you'd have learned since Jadis was little,"

"Do I look like a babysitter?" He snapped,

"You don't want me to answer that question right now," Sera managed to keep to a walk, albeit a fast one as she made her way up to her and Ash's chambers. The moment she opened the door, she was hit with a torrent of sound, but nothing too serious, by this point, she knew exactly what each cry meant, Ires was crying because Malec was, and Malec needed changing. "Hold him," Sera ordered as she handed Ires to Saion, "He's not going to bite," she chuckled, and adjusted the god's hold on her son to make both more comfortable, "Rock him gently, he likes that, it'll calm him,"

"How exactly do I do that?"

"Just, sway from side to side, it's not difficult,"

"I disagree," Saion ground out, still glaring at the baby as Sera rolled her eyes and turned to her other son.

"You'd better learn how to do this, since you're such a good babysitter," Saion huffed, but reluctantly allowed Sera to show him how to change the crying baby, "See, not that bad," she glanced over her shoulder to see Saion pulling a face of utter disgust, "He's a baby, he's not potty trained yet,"

"And how long will that take?"

"I don't know, but he can't even crawl yet so a while,"

"I'm not doing that,"

"If neither me or Ash are here, oh yes you are,"

"Nektas,"

"What about him?"

"He knows babies," Sera raised an eyebrow, "Fine." He shot a dirty look at Malec as Sera lifted him into her arms, rocking him gently to quiet him, and try as he might, Saion couldn't hide the smile when Ires quieted too in his arms,

"I saw that," Sera chuckled, "You like him,"

"When he's not crying, sure, but they cry a lot,"

"They're babies," Sera repeated for what must have been the thousandth time with Saion, he might be brave and powerful, but Fates was he useless with the twins. Since she had time, and Saion was clearly not busy, Sera took the opportunity to coach him through the art of babysitting. An hour later, she concluded that he would never be a natural, but at least he would now be a competent babysitter, assuming he could get through it without gagging too much, diapers smelled, but not as bad as he made out. She chuckled to herself when he practically ran out of the room once she'd finished her lesson, shaking her head as she resigned herself to paperwork, there wasn't time to go back to training, and Theon was bound to have finished by now anyway, so she'd have no sparring partner. Besides, Malec was refusing to settle unless she was holding him, so she tucked him into her left side, perching sideways on her chair as she ran through the obligatory correspondences that came with being Consort, and the huge pile of requests from their people.

She was still sitting sideways in the chair when the door creaked open, her arm aching from holding Malec the whole time, but she hadn't wanted to put him down, not even when he'd fallen fast asleep. They'd grow up soon enough, this time was precious to her, and she'd finally finished, giving her a chance to write her reply to Ezra's letter that she'd received almost a week ago.

"Dealt with the shades?" She asked without looking up, sensing that Ash was still standing in the doorway, watching her,

"You amaze me."

"What?"

"You're working at the same time as dealing with the boys,"

"He wanted to be held, I only need one hand to write," Ash gently lifted Malec from her arm, and immediately the ache in her shoulder increased tenfold. She rolled it gently as Ash set their son down in his crib. She turned back to the letter as his hands dropped onto her shoulders, kneading the muscles gently, the tension from holding Malec for so long easing with each stroke of his fingers. He leaned over to see what she'd gotten through today, and whistled in appreciation, "Oh, I need you to look at this," Sera gestured to one particular request she'd set aside, "I wasn't sure about it, I wanted to check with you before I sent a reply," Ash kept his left hand moving on her shoulder as he picked up the letter, scanning through it quickly,

"Looks good,"

"So it doesn't sound dismissive?"

"No, a shorter response doesn't mean it's dismissive, we're saying yes after all, there's no point writing more for the sake of it, it's not a close correspondence with a friend. You can trust yourself, Liessa, I know I do, and after all these years you know what you're doing," Sera hummed in assent, and closed her eyes, tipping her head sideways as Ash reached the tight spot at the junction between her neck and shoulder. He dropped a kiss to her temple, "Did I tell you how beautiful you look today?"

"No, but I got the gist from your reaction this morning,"

"Really?" A deep chuckle sounded above her head, "I was in control," he insisted

"Clearly your memory is flawed, you were just about ready to fuck me in front of the boys, scandalous behavior," she teased,

"Not in front of them, next door, I'm sure I told you that, but that's not my point. You look beautiful today,"

"You say that every day,"

"You look beautiful every day, am I supposed to stop complimenting my wife after a certain amount of time, am I supposed to be less in love with you?" Sera chuckled to herself, trying to tamp down the heat that flushed to her face,

"No, but,"

"Nothing, but nothing, Sera. You look beautiful every day, and I'm going to tell you that every day,"

"So do you," Sera admitted, "I'm not going to inflate your ego more than I already have, but, so do you, and it took more effort than it should have to walk out this morning,"

"Oh really? I never would have guessed," he teased, and pulled her chair back,

"Ash!" She yelped, reaching for the half-finished letter, "I haven't finished!"

"That can be fixed," he murmured, his voice low, almost dangerously so as he tipped the chair back to scoop her up into his arms. One quick glance reassured her that the boys were both sound asleep before Ash kicked open the door connecting to Sera's old rooms, the bed practically beckoning to her as Ash bent his head to capture her lips in a searing kiss, "Now, Liessa, I have been waiting all week for this, I hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight."