SPOILERS for Ringabel's past and ch 5+
In response to a prompt requesting Alternis and Ringabel as children with Edea and playing in snow in Eternia.
AU: Alternis and Ringabel are approx 10/11 here. Edea's about 5/6. IDK. Working hard and fast with ages.
In Edea's opinion, boys are weird.
Maybe it's just these boys, these quiet identical twins that her father brings home one day, their pale blond hair messy and their gray eyes wide, but they still make her think boys are weird.
"Be nice to them," Braev tells her, hoisting her up into his arms when she goes to him, the boys standing there awkwardly watching, holding hands. "They're your big brothers now. They'll protect you."
Their names are Alternis and Ringabel.
Alternis is very quiet and keeps to himself, curling over the paper and pencils that Mahzer has given them. He's the younger of the two, or so she's told, and his hair is a touch longer. Edea sits him down in front of her and brushes out his long locks and puts beautiful pink bows in them. He never complains - never really says anything, just vocalizations that make him sound like a puppy (in her opinion) - and smiles when she shows him the mirror.
Ringabel is also very quiet, but he hums to break the silence when he thinks no one else is around. He likes to curl up with books and Edea sits with him other day after school has let out to read her favorite stories loudly to him. He's still learning, after all. He's the more cuddly of the two, and she falls asleep on his lap more than once, waking only when her father is carrying the both of them to bed, one child in each of his strong arms.
One night, Edea clutches herself to Ringabel and whines and whines until her father agrees to tuck her in with her brothers. Ringabel sleepily clutches back and whines as well.
"Father," she mumbles quietly a few moments later as she's tucked in between a sleeping Alternis and a Ringabel who is quickly falling back asleep. "I want to protect them both."
She's going to grow up to be a Knight, they all will, and they'll protect each other.
"Protect each other," she says as she makes the two of them pinky promise the next day once they wake up. Alternis is still only half-dressed, and Ringabel is still only half-dressed with an adorable case of bedhead, but they obediently hook pinkies with her - and each other - and nod.
She'll protect them forever and ever, and they'll protect her too. Though when snowball fights are involved, all bets are off.
It's the first real snow of the winter season, and Alternis and Ringabel crowd at one of the windows and watch the snowfall for hours, fascinated. Snow never stuck in Florem.
"Today we are going outside to play," Edea tells them in her usual bossy way as her mother dresses her warmly in layer upon layer of coats.
Of course, her mother makes sure to dress the boys very warmly in layers as well, and gives them both kisses on the forehead. Being boys, they flush hotly and smooth their hair back over their forehead, waving to her as they follow Edea out into the snow.
"We're gonna build a snow fort each and then we... have a fight!" Edea informs them proudly, already pushing the waist-deep snow into a pile. And then after, she thinks , they could maybe build some snowmen. Two big ones and three little ones. Or make some snow angels, though she doesn't know if the boys can do that, watching them awkwardly push snow into piles, their movements stiff with their overly padded limbs.
When Ringabel slips and falls, he flails on his back like some giant tortoise and Alternis laughs, actually laughs. Both his twin and his little sister stare at him with wide eyes and after a moment he stops. His cheeks, already flushed with cold, flush even deeper with embarrassment and he ducks down behind the modest wall he and his brother have built up.
"Oh no," Edea says, bringing her mittens up to her face. "Ally, you can't stop now!" His laugh had been a little rough, his voice was so unused which made it quiet, but it was so nice. She likes it.
Ringabel scrambles up off the snow and he tries to reach his brother. Nearly as quiet as the younger boy, he makes scarcely a peep as he shuffles behind the wall and - positively squeaks when he receives a handful of snow to the face.
His eyes widen again, his lip pouting out as he sits back in the snow. Edea comes to his rescue, swooping in with a snowball of her own right into Alternis' face when the blond boy peeks out from behind his fort.
"Snowball fight!" Edea screams, and though she ends up having to teach them both how to make proper snowballs - to gather up the snow and pack it in tight, make sure there are no rocks and twigs, how slightly wet snow worked best, and how to really throw the ball toward a target - they spend the rest of the afternoon covering each other in snow. Finally Edea manages to toss Alternis right into a pile of snow larger than them all and the boy flails for a few moments before he begins *wailing*, tears streaming down his face in his panic. He's stuck.
Uh-oh. With his brother at one arm and Edea on the other, he's pulled out successfully, just as Braev comes out to fetch them, drawn by the darkening sky and the cries of a child in distress.
"I think that's enough for one day," he says, his smile obscured by his beard as he surveys all three wet, shivering children. Edea latches onto one leg, Alternis onto the other, and Ringabel trails shyly behind as Braev carefully makes his way back into the fortress, pausing only to scoop up his third child into his arms before he crosses the threshold.
Inside, Mahzer is waiting beside a fire with cups of a delicious smelling drink, and she fusses over them all as Braev and their visiting uncle carefully unwrap them from the layers, now substantially more heavy now that the snow has melted.
"Mother," Edea says, crawling into her mother's lap with cold hands and a cold nose. Mahzer kisses that nose to warm it. "We had lots of fun, and Ally *laughed*." She seems very proud of that fact, and giggles when her foster brother buries his face deeper into Braev's shoulder, whining with red cheeks. He'd cried too, but he cried a lot, when he didn't think Edea would notice. She knows not to talk about it.
"Now, Edea," Mahzer says gently, holding her daughter's hands in her own until they warm. "Don't tease him." Alternis is the more sensitive of the two twins, after all.
"I know, I know!" Edea climbs off her mother once her hands are warm again, and instead approaches her uncle, little hands grasping at the sword ever present at his hip. Kamiizumi picks her up and places her on his legs before she can actually unsheathe it, allowing her to take a sip of his tea instead before handing her a mug of cocoa from her mother. "You're gonna teach me to protect them, right Master? You can teach them too, I guess." She beams.
"Of course. I look forward to it."
Ringabel claims Mazher's now-empty lap, curling slightly into her and letting his eyes slip shut, and the six Eternians - three adults, three children - share some quiet around the fireside. Before long, Mahzer notices that the young boy in her lap has fallen asleep, tired out from the fighting and the cold. Alternis is snoozing quietly against Braev's shoulder, trying valiantly to stay awake, and Edea is snoring peacefully in her uncle's lap, her cocoa drained completely.
It's been a good day.