A/N: I changed the Blight parents' names to their canon ones. Since I only had one chapter out with their other names before the canon ones were revealed I figured y'all wouldn't mind. Chapter 1 has also been edited to reflect this. Also I'm a sucker for the headcanon that the witches in Owl House can and do purr.
The twins don't remember the day they first met their little sister. With less than three years difference between them it was a given that the memories of those early days were few and far between. But Alador remembered.
Even before they'd met each other, the pair had been less than thrilled at the news they'd be getting a new sibling.
"Why?" They cried. "We don't want a new baby! We don't want it!" In those days Emira and Edric had the habit of speaking in unison and completing each other sentences. Alador found the practice charming, adorable even, and lamented how they would grow out of the little quirk in the years to come.
"Now don't be like that," Alador began, fishing for the right thing to say, "Won't it be fun to have a new friend to play with?"
"No, no, no!" they vehemently denied. The new baby would not be their new friend; they were each other's friend. They didn't want the new baby. They hated the new baby!
The twin's golden eyes had begun to fill with tears, and again Alador wished he knew the words necessary to stave off the impending meltdown. But he was at a loss. He was an only child, he hadn't the slightest idea how to deal with this particular form of jealousy. The children's mother would've been able to empathize better, but unfortunately for everyone involved, Alador had been sent to break the news to them alone.
The remainder of the exchange was, in a word, a failure; a fact that quite frankly frustrated him to no end. Alador Blight was well known for his talent as an orator. He knew how to infuse his words with just the right amount of passion and zeal to captivate an audience. He knew how to pull the opposing side in, how to twist their words while simultaneously bolstering his position. He knew what to say and when to say it to make an opponent see reason, to see things his way.
But you can't expect two year olds to listen to reason.
Slaves to their emotions, it doesn't matter how well you argue your position or how much evidence you have. They're right and you're wrong and that's that. It was all so...frustrating. What was the point of even attempting a conversation if he already knew it was going to be so one-sided?
The tantrum was in full swing now. Edric and Emira's tiny fists were beating furiously against his legs and yanking on his robes as fat tears rolled down their faces. "No Papa, no baby, no baby!" They repeated the mantra over and over, their wailing becoming shriller and shriller by the second. Alador couldn't stand it.
Children were frustrating. Pointless emotions were frustrating. This whole situation was frustrating…!
In a flash Alador delivered swift blows to the twins backsides. "Enough! Blights do not behave this way. Do I make myself clear?" Rather than give him an answer the children started on another chorus of cries, the hyperventilating kind that kids do where they can only get one or two words out before they had to take in big gulps of air. It earned them another spanking.
"We're sorry Papa," they said through sniffles, "we're sorry."
"That's better." Aldor replied sternly before crouching down to their level and wiping their tears with a handkerchief he'd magicked up. "Papa doesn't like having to do that to you, but you two were being very naughty. You understand?"
Emira nodded, still sniffling. "Eddy and me are sorry Papa."
"Eddy and I, darling," he corrected, "Eddy and I."
"Me and Emmy will be good Papa," replied Edric, clutching his sister's hand tight. "We'll be good, we promise." They finished together.
Alador chuckled lightly. "Thank you. That makes Papa very happy."
The twins smiled brightly then. "Will you send it back now?" Went Edric.
"Send what back?" Alador asked, at once confused.
"The baby, Papa!" Went Emira, still all smiles.
"What on earth are you two talking about?"
"You don't need the baby anymore Papa, you can send it back now!" They said.
The act of facepalming wasn't considered dignified for someone of his status but Alador couldn't help himself. And here he was thinking they'd actually made progress. Just how does one go about explaining that a baby isn't something you can just 'send back' like an appetizer at a restaurant.
"No," he sighed, "no I can't send the baby back."
"But-but why!?" More tears.
So frustrating, so goddamn frustrating. There's no point in explaining if they won't understand
"Because I said so. Now stop this right now or Papa's going to be very upset!" The twins flinched at his words but they didn't stop.
"But papa!"
Alador liked children, really he did. He just hated how...unreasonable they could be. "I mean it you two!"
Again the pair flinched but still they stood their ground. "It's not fair!" Emira said with it a defiant stomp of her foot.
The young father had to fight the urge to rub his temples. "What's not fair Emira darling?"
"The baby, the baby's not fair!"
Pointless, unreasonable, incomprehensible…!
"What?" Alador was fairly certain he felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on.
"Yeah it's not fair." Edric agreed, stomping his own foot for emphasis. "We're good so mama doesn't need a new baby."
Alador blinked.
"Tell mama we'll be good. Tell her she doesn't need a new baby. We're her baby!" They bellowed together.
Finally Aldor felt he understood the problem.
Odalia was always quick to shower the twins with affection. Every small thing they did she praised. Everything they accomplished—which honestly wasn't that much in their short two years—she lorded over the other mothers in full view of the pair. In her eyes no child could compare, no child could ever be so perfect as Emira and Edric. Now Alador couldn't possibly fault his wife for loving their children the way she did, but he could see how it might've skewed the twin's thinking in this situation with their childish ignorance.
People get a new version of something when they want to replace the old one. The new baby was meant to replace them. But something that was perfect couldn't possibly need replacing. Something their mother loved so much couldn't possibly need replacing.
Unless they were no longer perfect, unless their mother didn't love them anymore.
"Don't be ridiculous, your mother loves you two very much. The new baby doesn't change that."
Emira and Edric are stubborn though, as children are prone to being, and don't believe him.
So goddamn frustrating, pointless and so goddamn frustrating!
They cry and Alador doesn't know what to do. After all, what can he say that he hasn't already said. He simply leaves them there to comfort each other.
He doesn't mean to slam the children's door on the way out but he does.
The days leading up to Amity's arrival in the Blight Household are tumultuous.
Odalia is on edge and the children notice—not that she made much of an effort to hide it from them anyway.
One night, well into the time Emira and Edric are meant to be asleep, Odalia was raging, her voice becoming louder and more hysterical with every word.
"She had the audacity to try and go against the emperor's wishes! I mean honestly who does Lilith think she is, doesn't she realize how dangerous that is, how dangerous it could've been!
Alador had learned years ago that it was best to leave Odalia alone when she got like this. She was looking for release not input. So rather than try and soothe her he simply "uh-huh"'d at appropriate intervals in between diatribes.
"How stupid can one person be! She couldn't seriously think that it would all turn out okay, that she could just run to that stupid sister of her's and that would make everything all right!
Odalia threw her hands up in indignation. "Of course the emperor found out! Of course he stopped her! How could anyone in their right mind even entertain the idea that they could get away with—Get back to bed this instant!"
Alador stole a lazy glance behind him. Emira and Edric were scrambling out of the doorway in a poor attempt to hide their eavesdropping. "I'll get them."
With one twin on each hip as he made his way up the manor's grand staircase he heard the pair grumble to each other.
"Mama yelled at us. Mama never yells at us. It's all that stupid baby's fault, stupid baby."
Alador didn't bother trying to correct them.
Later when Amity's arrived safely at home, Alador doesn't have very high hopes for the impending first meeting. So much so that both he and Odalia try to stall the event as long as possible by hiding out in their room with the babe.
"Well the little thing certainly looks like you." He says conversationally.
"Yes I suppose," Odalia admits with a sigh. "All though she certainly could stand to look a lot more like me."
"I thought you liked red hair?" He joked
"Don't start with me Alador Blight," his wife quips back. The baby starts to squirm and cry in her grasp and Odalia let's out a low soothing purr from deep in her chest that calms the child at once.
Alador liked babies. He certainly didn't look the type but he did. Their serene little faces, their tiny little hands and down-soft hair. He held out his arms to take the child, Odalia obliged.
"It could be worse," Alador commented quietly as he swayed in place. "Imagine how much harder things would be if she'd been born with blue eyes as well." He ran a finger over the little bit of hair that peaked out from the little one's tiny hat. It really was a lovely color. How unfortunate. "Have you decided what to call her?"
"Amity."
Alador quirked an eyebrow. Amity was by no means a terrible name but it didn't quite fit with the theme Odalia had put in place with Emira and Edric.
"It's what Lilith wanted to name her," Odalia explained pushing a rogue lock of green hair behind her ear. "I thought it was...appropriate."
To anyone else his wife's tone would have appeared the picture of nonchalance but Alador knew better. It was easy for him to pick up on the emotions she'd left unsaid.
"Hello Amity Blight," he greeted softly before releasing his own rumbling purr. Odalia looked at them fondly, clearly pleased at the obvious sign of acceptance.
They stayed like that for a while, with nothing but the crackle of the fireplace and Alador occasionally joking that if worse came to worse they could always fabricate a painting of some long-lost redhead ancestor for the portrait room.
Eventually they had to let the twins in, the adults could already hear them trying to be quiet as they listened outside the door. Alador was pleased when the pair didn't bolt into the room as soon as he opened the door—as they were prone to doing. Instead they walked in tentatively, looking lost and unsure. They hid behind his legs and Odalia had to coax them out.
"There's no reason to be afraid. Come and say hello."
They approached slowly before climbing up onto the bed next to their mother. They didn't say anything; a bad sign in children who were normally so exuberant.
"Emira, Edric don't you want to say hello to mama's new baby?"
They shook their heads stubbornly in unison, refusing to even look at the bundle in their mother's arms.
"Please, just one teeny-tiny hello? You'd be making mama so happy."
Those were the proverbial magic words. Begrudgingly the twins lifted their gazes up just enough to look at their new sibling. Almost instantly their eyes lit up with curiosity. Odalia couldn't help the self-satisfied smile that graced her lips.
"It's so small." Edric squawks in astonishment.
"Like a doll," Emira remarks. "Is it a doll?"
"No," Odalia laughed. "Babies are just small."
"Are you sure it's not a doll?"
Odalia shook her head. "Would you like to check?" The children nodded eagerly. "Hold your arms out for mama and be gentle."
The children did just that. "We can hold it, we can hold it. We won't drop it!"
Alador shushed them quietly. "Inside voices, the baby's sleeping."
His wife slowly laid the baby across both the twins' laps. For a minute they just stared at her in complete silence until Amity adjusted herself in her sleep. The twins gasped in surprise.
Now satisfied that the baby was, in fact, not a doll they had questions. "Can it do magic?
"She's too little to do magic," Alador explained.
The twins beamed. "We can do magic mama!" They boasted. "What's it called?"
"Her name is Amity"
The name thoroughly stumped the pair, they couldn't seem to get it to come out right no matter how hard they tried. "Amtee, Ami-tree? Ama-mitty? Mamitty? Mitty? Mitty! Mittens!"
"Am-ity" His wife enunciated.
Emira and Edric shook their heads. "Mittens is better," they insisted. "Hello Mittens!"
"Why's Mitten's got a hat on Mama?" Edric asked. "Is she cold?
"Mitten's can't be cold," Emira interjected. "the fire's on." She then plucked the little beanie off her sister's head and the two year old's' eyes once again went wide with surprise.
"Mittens got no green Mama, it looks funny!" Edric laughed.
"Why's it red? Is Mittens mad? Is that why?" Asked Emira curiously.
Odalia's smile twitched, it was only for a fraction of a second but Alador noticed. "Your sister was born that way. Her hair will change once she's older. Now put her hat back on please Emira darling."
All in all things were going remarkably well and Alador had just begun to allow himself to relax when out of nowhere the twins decided it would be an excellent idea to poke at Amity's eyes and all hell broke loose.
It was a while before they could get everyone to stop crying. When asked to explain themselves the twins stated they "just wanted to see what would happen."
Looking back on it, Alador realized this was an excellent indicator of what the siblings' relationship would be like as they grew older.