Manon heard Kaida land in the yard just after dawn, she knew what time it is solely based on the fact that a beam of light was hitting her right in eye from were it bounced off the mirror at the opposite side of the room. She turned away and covered her face with one of the blankets that were haphazardly tangled around her body, ignoring the familiar sound of the claws clicking against wood.
The little winged creatures snuggled up on top of the blankets with her squeaked quietly in protest.
Muttering a quiet apology, she began to scratch the head of one of the tiny scaled babies, whispering softly to it as she kissed the top of it's head. The tiny thing kept chirping though, kept making noise as it flapped it's wings right in her face in protest. Protest of what, Manon did not know, probably of her movement.
A groan escaped her as he realized, again, that this was her job, mothering these baby wyverns, and it was tedious. Tedious but worth it, she loved them like they were her own children, and like any good parent, she wouldn't trade them for the world, but just once she wanted a good night's sleep, she wanted them to rest through Kaida and Asterin's landing.
Or maybe her lover could land her bitch of a mount a little more quietly.
Another youngling trilled softly against her chest, and she rubbed its back, with its soft, tiny, adorable back spines, as gently as she could with her thumb, begging it to go back to sleep. In the background, she could hear the Kaida rumbling deeply, indicating that Asterin had put her mount in the stall and the sky blue waveryn was harassing Abraxos again, and she'd soon be joined by her lover and baby wyvern co-parent. The thought brought a smile to her face as the youngling resting against it began to climb into the nest that was her moon white, rats-nest of a hair.
'This one's going to be a troublemaker when it grows up' She thought, amused.
Manon grimaced as the baby waveryns started crawling all over the blanket, and her, stabbing her with their needle like claws when they woke up completely, chirping obnoxiously, as her lover closed the front door.
Asterin had only been gone for two days, Dorian wanted to talk to her about something. '"It's a surprise. For us." Asterin had purred in her ear, nipping at the witch queen's neck when Manon had asked what the hell he wanted, before booping a younglings snoot that was draped over her lover's shoulder. ' But these days, after all they'd been through, with the war and losing most of the Thirteen, even that felt like a lifetime and Manon couldn't help but worry.
And raising all these newly hatched waveryns was a difficult enough task without her second by her side. She needed her, not just to comfort her when she had nightmares and flashbacks, but to keep her from worrying herself to death and help raise the baby wyverns. But even with Asterin gone sometimes, Manon was very glad she had them. They filled any void left in her heart by the blonde's absence, just like she was sure she filled the voids left in them by having to take them from their biological parents as eggs.
If they didn't, the newborn waveryns would never trust anyone not in their family pack and would probably fly away, not knowing how to be social with other waveryns. It was a mutually beneficial relationship she had with them, and in spite of how annoying her little gaggle of children could be, she loved them with her entire heart.
A few minutes later, light flooded her room as the most important woman in her life walked in, Manon couldn't help but smile contentedly at the sound of Asterin laugh. "Firae's in your hair," she told Manon as she walked in. Manon swatted the mossy green tail out of her face as she turned her head up to look at her lover, hearing the youngling that was still in her hair (and had hooked it's claws in, painfully so) squeak as she did so, but she needed to look at her, to make sure it wasn't a dream. "Looks like he's stuck, too."
Manon chuckled softly as Asterin poked fun at her, feeling around for the little scaled creature in her hair and tried to slowly and carefully pull him from her rats-nest. It was not successful. "Firae, huh?" she asked, looking properly at her lover as she walked over to the bed. "We're giving them names now?"
"Perhaps." Asterin drawled, sitting down beside Manon, causing a good two or three younglings to scatter, squawking as they avoid being crushed, but the blonde patted the space for good measure, to make sure she didn't sit on anybody that were under the covers. "But I've found this one in your hair for several mornings in a row now, and I'm sure he's done it plenty over the past two days since I've been gone." She teased, pointing to the mossy green and gold baby.
The corners of the queen's mouth twitched up in a smirk as she sat up, carefully, so as not to jostle Firae, but caused the rest of their wyvern children to scatter onto the floor and headboard as she took Asterin's shoulder and pulled the blonde into her lap, her shriek of delight blending in with the squeaking of the creatures surrounding them. Once she was secure in Manon's grasp, Asterin adjusted herself, still laughing, as Manon's hand came up to caress her second's jaw before she pulled her in for a welcome back kiss.
All at once, though she never left, Manon felt like she was home again. It was like she was a whole person after being torn in half. When they came up for air, she breathed in Asterin's scent as if it was the only thing keeping her alive. The light streaming in from the window hit the blonde's hair, highlighting every strand beautifully. She was back, and she was Manon's. Until Dorian demanded Asterin again, as he was definitely going to do, she wasn't going anywhere.
Asterin kissed Manon again, and in that moment, all Manon wanted to do was to melt into it, to melt into her arms and show her everything Manon has to give her, but she couldn't, as much as it irradiated her. Because all around them, the eight wyverns watched them, squawking now that they were awake and hungry with both parents back, and even the one in her hair was causing a riot, and he forced Asterin to take action before something bad happened, like him falling.
"Have you prepared food for them yet?" The blonde asked as she easily pulled Firae out of Manon's hair and cradled the little guy in her arms. "They sound hungry." She cooed, kissing his cute snoot.
"It's always ready." Manon said, huffing a few strands of hair out of her face. "I just have to hide it from them," she continued, gesturing to the cabinet on the wall she kept locked to prevent their adopted children from getting into it when they weren't looking. "Otherwise they make a mess with it."
Asterin let out a short as she helped Manon brush her hair out of her face with one hand, her other busy with Firae having already fallen asleep on it. "Mmm, even cleaning up wyvern shit sounds better than what your ex's had me doing." Asterin grumbled, leaning against Manon's shoulder.
"Oh yeah? What's he torturing you with this time?" Manon asked as she got up, chuckling at her lover, who let out a whine at the quick loss of contact as she unlocked the cabinet and took out some dried fish. It wasn't warm but the babies wouldn't mind it, at least not for breakfast.
"New flying armor." For some reason, she lied. Although knowing Manon would see right through it. She shook her head and laughed as Manon pulled out the little plates they fed the wyverns food on, bringing it over to the far side of the room and put them down, eight little plates waiting for them. "It's baffling to me. I never thought I'd have to explain that we can't have jewels on our armor because we'd be more likely to be seen, much less have to explain that to someone dating a two hundred year old warrior."
Manon raised an eyebrow at her, straightening up and crossing her arms. "Huh, well, how about you stop lying and tell me what he really wanted?" She said in a I'm-taking-no-shit tone as she put the food on the plates, all the wyverns standing at attention, looking at the food hungrily.
Asterin gave a half grin as the little wyverns froze on the bed. "You wound me with your accusations." She sighed dramatically clutching her chest with her free hand and fell back on the bed. Manon kept her expression on, unamused, as dusting the dried meat flakes off her hands then snapped her fingers. All at once, their scaled children descended upon the food, Firae leaping out of Asterin's arms and flapping ungracefully to the ground before scurrying over to his brothers and sisters. Manon watched them, pride in her eyes when not one went to someone else's food, each sticking to it's own. Being polite.
Asterin shook her head, walking over to her white haired lover. "You should know by now," she whispered in Manon's ear, "I. Don't. Snitch." She extenuated each word with a kiss somewhere on Manon's neck, grinning lazily after a particularly hard kiss left a visible mark, although faint.
"Not even for me?" Manon purred, tilting her neck to the side out of habit. Although her only signs to being flustered were her cheeks reddening and her chest starting to heave.
"Sorry, but it's a surprise." Asterin then preceded to sweep Manon into her arms, her queen looping her arms around Asterin's neck. Giggling when the blonde dumped her on the bed and flopped down beside her, immediately climbing on top of her to kiss her deeply.
'We're one day closer.' Asterin thought as she laid in bed next to Manon that night, Manon's arm draped over Asterin's stomach, right over her scar. Although it wasn't Manon's fault, it brought back memories. Of her first love, the witchling she lost, the Thirteen who gave their life, only for Asterin and Sorrel to cheat death. But it also made her remember that they were one day closer to the life they fought so hard to live. And Asterin couldn't wait to see where it lead them. She couldn't wait to see their wyverns grow up and bound with their own riders. She can't wait to live out the rest of her life ruling the witch kingdom with her. She couldn't wait to help unite the Ironteeth and Crochans. But most of all, she couldn't wait to ask the woman in her arms a question most witches don't even think about and give her the ring Dorian helped her design and commission from a jeweler in Rifthold. A beautiful black onyx ring with white spider webbing and a small red ruby on a thin gold chain.
|She couldn't wait to marry her|