Chapter Text
“We must be cautious, my queen,” The rich voice rumbled in your ear, its owner’s hands pushing your skirts up to settle just at the tops of your thighs as he stole breath from your lungs with every languid movement, “Our king can never know that his wife has fallen for his loyal knight. What would become of us?”
You could barely contain your bubbling laughter as a line of kisses was pressed into your throat, and your fingers danced with his to tangle around your worn linens, patched to hell and back and certainly nothing like the silks and velvets of your time in the palace.
“I think our king would be tempted to join us, my love,” Your lips tapped their own rhythm into the mass of white hair wrapping itself around your jaw, “Considering he’s our husband.”
Volt grumbled something unintelligible against your skin, but his hold tightening onto your thigh told you that it had to have been something- as it always was- about spoiling his fantasies. He adored living in the flights of fancy that the three of you still bore your old titles; plunging into the salacious possibility of not having been so desperately in love with Eddie when he’d fallen for you. That your dear husband might find you at any moment and have your head for the treasonous act of your love.
You firmly believed he was still chasing the high that he’d lost in no longer being a member of the Arcguard. He was a noble man, staunchly protective of you and Eddie even in your quiet existence, but that sweet peace meant that Volt was constantly in search of something to get his blood pumping. You weren’t quite against the concept of him chasing that rush when you made love, but you were personally much more keen to love your husband in reality than in fantasy. Where you had them both happily and safely. Even so, you would indulge him every so often. A little make-believe never hurt anyone, after all. He just happened to catch you on a day when you wanted him, not Sir Volt.
“Darling, will you not allow me the honor of sweeping you off your feet?” Oh, there was no saying no to him when his fingers were pushing into your thighs, was there? But you had your own disgruntlement with the way he’d asked you for it.
In your mind, he’d swept you off your feet already. Nearly ten years ago when he caught you in that garden and set your heart to a race that you could hardly believe you were able to live through. When he drew you in for a kiss before throwing himself into the line of fire when the rebels wanted your head. When he and Eddie had found their home in a place that ensured you never needed to forgo the dreams you’d held close to your chest since you were a girl. You thought he would know that by heart after all this time.
“You did so long ago and every day since,” Your hand tipped his chin up to nudge against yours, and you let him steal you into a kiss that you melted into with the practiced ease the last decade had granted. By heart, you knew the way Volt’s lips felt teasing your own to part for him. How he’d palm the plushness at your hips right before the stays would come undone between his fingers like he’d made them himself. He’d long since mapped out the points that would send you reeling even in the chastest of circumstances, and yet you never tired of it for a moment.
Though the additions to the life the pair of you lived with your shared husband made it so that every spare moment of privacy was used to its fullest. Every well-known touch was a spoonful at the fountain of youth. A race against time itself. Like the one between you now that was ended abruptly by the sound of the garden door creaking open, and the patter of two pairs of feet thundering through the main level, a slower sound pacing close behind them. In an instant, you’d thrown your skirts back to hang with your feet over the side of Volt’s desk, and your sweet knight had straightened himself up into a casual lean just in time for a familiar mop of black to poke itself into the doorway of your office.
“You two decent?” Eddie teased though you were well within his sights, a hand held up in front of something despite whatever it was being held out of view of the door. You rolled your eyes, but the smile he pulled out of you gave away your fondness as you nodded alongside Volt.
Eddie’s legs were dodged around by a blur of action that collided with your own in a flash. You were met by one of the two most beautiful sights you’d ever seen in the form of your darling eldest daughter, who you settled into your lap even as her outpouring of energy left her practically buzzing with movement there.
“Look at you!” You exclaimed, thumbing over the bright flowers that had been strung into a circlet and stood out boldly against Fuchsia’s black bobbed hair. A quick glance confirmed your suspicions that her twin in name alone shared a matching accessory where she was being held up on Eddie’s hip, “Did your father crown your Highnesses today?”
“No! All us! We’re princesses!” Fuchsia chirped brightly from your arms, her voice lilting with the remnants of the accent that made itself known only every few words. She had picked up Volt’s charm alongside the bits of his speech patterns to make her a true force to be reckoned with when she and Antonia worked together in their mischief. Which was rather often, to you and your husbands’ chagrin. You recalled with a wince the instance in which they’d tainted Volt’s wine by adding a splash of his ink into the goblet, and even more vividly the way it had stained his tongue for a week even after only a moment’s contact. It was potent enough of a memory to encourage you to shake off the ‘princess’ comment. You had promised never to share that information with them under this roof, but that didn’t stop the coincidence of girlhood play from sending a chill down your spine.
“‘You like ‘em, Mama?” Your other greatest treasure questioned, now much closer to you and Volt at the doing of her other father, who dipped to peck your lips sweetly. The girls made noises of disgust at the contact you shared, but the three of you had long ago learned to anticipate the reaction from them whenever you shared even the briefest moments of care for each other.
Eddie deposited Antonia onto your other thigh as he took his place against Volt’s side, granting him a similar level of muted attention after spending the last hour parted from the two of you. He’d been on a recent adventure to ensure that the twins grew up with a love of nature- just like their mother, he’d comment if only to see the blush rise into your cheeks-, which had included bringing them along each day while he tended the garden that had grown to nearly twice the size of the entire house.
Fuse hadn’t been a fan of the concept- fussing over the unsettling feeling of the dirt against her hands after the first day-, but Annie? Annie had taken to the garden like a fish to water. It wouldn’t surprise you if she had been the one whose hands were behind the flower crowns that now adorned each of them.
She’d always been the quieter of the pair; a shock, considering she was a perfect visual match for her boisterous father. Annie’s white curls had sprung to life nearly faster than you could keep up with them. Their presence- paired with the big, blue-eyed gaze that could melt any heart- gave her a fiendish faux-innocent look that had wiggled her out of trouble with the three of you a handful of times before you’d caught onto her trickery. Though her words were less frequent, they were always intentional. You believed she’d caught that trait from her other father. It was fascinating at times, to watch her think and ponder over the world at her little age. Volt had been the first to point out her intelligence when she was still a toddler, and ever since that moment you’d watched in awe as she grew into it more and more with each passing day.
“I love them,” You praised your girls with a kiss laid on each of their foreheads. They looked to Eddie then, and your eyes caught on where he had a hand tucked behind his back. And presumably had all this time. Knowing your family the way you did, this would go one of two ways; a gesture that would send you head-first into a much deeper love for them than you already possessed, or a tease that you would surely put your dear husband in the doghouse for participating in. Despite your hesitance, you fixed Eddie with an expectant look and prepared for that smile he was wearing to come back to bite you.
It never did. Instead, a weight settled on your head that was barely recognizable, a touch at where it rested on your forehead revealing that you now matched the girls in their coronation.
“They were adamant about you having one, too,” He explained as the arm that had been carrying the girls’ little secret found a new purpose tucked around Volt’s waist.
“Thank you, my darlings,” Your arms tugged each of them into an embrace close against your chest, and you let them rest on your hips with arms wrapped tight around your neck as you carried them off to their room. You and your husbands had long since developed a system for who would handle the domestic needs of your little cottage each night to keep any of you from getting too tired, and tonight, the boys were responsible for dinner. Or, Eddie was responsible for dinner. Volt still hadn’t fully gotten the hang of cooking, though his efforts were appreciated.
The girls’ room had been added on years ago as a gift from Tony when your pregnancy had been announced; a space that would be more than enough for them even as they grew, and for now was packed to the brim with toys and trinkets that had been gifted to the girls from those near and far. Among them, Fuse’s favorite teddy bear was sent all the way from Hearthwyn by your father, and the scent of pine still permeated any room it was in when she hugged it. Annie’s comfort was found in a quaint little stuffed lamb that had been hand-stitched by Kopi for the girls’ first birthday, and was in dire need of repairs after five years of love. Their room had become a monument to the love that their lives had been filled with, and you adored spending time here with them.
Even if most of it was spent with them pretending you didn’t exist within their sanctum.
Presently, the pair found themselves invested in a dramatic tale where their dolls played the roles of rivalling queens battling it out over the love of their knight. While they called out actions and quips at one another, you found yourself tucked onto Fuse’s bed in awe of the beings you’d created.
They were beautiful. More so than any work of art you could have ever dreamed up. Fuse’s sharp, silver tongue that you would assume matched her eyes to a tee if you didn’t know better squealed a roar from her queen as her fabric hand bumped against the face of Annie’s doll.
“You’ll never have him! He’s mine!” She cried out, and Annie echoed the sound as she surged her doll forward so that its forehead tapped against Fuse’s doll’s with a dull thump.
“No! You’re evil! He’ll never want you!” Oh, your sweet Antonia. She’d inherited your moral compass like a hand-me-down, though it never seemed to impede the impish nature you saw as a reflection of her father every day.
You’d been so fortunate to have them. They’d made you as big as the house itself when you’d been pregnant, and the small crowd that you, Eddie, Volt, Farya, and her chosen midwife had made were all an odd mix of surprised and elated when Annie came into the world just on the tails of Fuse. Farya had said something then about how most mothers who had more than one child at a time experienced significant issues leading up to the birth, so you were lucky that both of the girls had been delivered healthy without undue damage to you.
When you realized the patch of white hair on Antonia’s head that contrasted heavily with Fuse’s little black curl was in fact not a trick of the light, Farya had called you a miracle. Two babies, with two different fathers, born on the same day from the same mother. An impossibility, and yet there they were after all that had happened to obstruct their arrival.
Needless to say, Eddie and Volt had been overjoyed. Volt had sobbed thick tears when he first held Antonia in his arms, and Eddie stared at Fuchsia like she had hung the moon in the sky from the moment he laid eyes on her. You were lucky. You were a damn miracle. And so were they; these precious copies of your king and your knight now raining terror upon Caskwell in their harmless way, likely to only continue doing so as they grew.
And in your admiring observation of them, your heart stuttered over the fact that Fuse must have jumped up another inch in height, leaving her dress in need of lengthening if not full replacement. Again. She was sure to not be excited about that notion; as particular as she was with the style of garment she wore.
“Eddie!,” You called down the hallway to him. He made a noise of acknowledgement from the kitchen, and you double-checked that the twins had truly tuned you out before responding, “Fuse had another growth spurt!”
Footsteps tapped through the hall until Eddie was leaning against the doorway, and though he was talking to you about something you were genuinely interested in hearing the answer to, your eyes kept getting stuck on the way his sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows and a drop of sweat was rolling down his neck. The kitchen must be hot, you reasoned, though you bit back the added thought that it certainly would be with your men in it. He caught on quickly enough to the fact that you were paying no mind to his words, and leveled you with a look that was the picture of smug glee.
“Sorry,” You blinked back into the moment, “what did you say?”
“I was saying,” Eddie grinned, “that I built in lowering hems last time,” You stared at the former king of Lumireign- now somehow an accomplished children’s tailor- for a long moment, trying to rationalize how he had managed to do that without you noticing when you’d dressed the girls.
“There’s buttons at the bottom of our dresses, Mama,” Annie spoke up from the heated battle being fought between her doll and Fuse’s, “on the insides.” Of course she noticed. The little sweetheart noticed everything. You bade her a quiet thank you, and instructed the girls to stay there and play until you called them for dinner.
Eddie was quick to slip his hand into yours as you moved from their room to the hall, and he gave you a little twirl just out of sight of the doorway so that you spun into his waiting arms. The familiar hold of his hands on your waist, that little rhythm his ring finger played into your side so you could feel his rings; the scene moved just as it always did before he drew you into his orbit.
“Have I ever told you Volt and I are the luckiest men in the world to have you, sparkler?” Eddie whispered into your lips as he stole a slow kiss, and you let your hands tangle into his hair in a futile attempt to keep him close to you for a moment, even as he parted to hear your answer against him.
“Maybe once or twice,” You lied, but the grins you wore together reminded each other that this was a game you’d played before, “though I love the reminder. Just like I love you, and Volt, and our girls, and our life.” That part was true. Life in Caskwell was something sweeter than you could have possibly imagined. You’d long forgotten the notion of crowns on your head, of titles exchanged in anything other than jest, of citizens and lady’s maids and advisors who sneered at your mind because of your sex. It had all left you when you’d chosen this. To love this town and these men and the lives the three of you had brought into the world.
Eddie led you into the kitchen under the same soft touch you’d been shown through the cottage with on that first day, until Volt heard the two of you approach and turned to face you; his hands on his hips and an apron that most certainly belonged to you tied around his waist. It clung to him awkwardly, and had done a poor job of keeping the clouds of flour from tonight’s baking away from his clothes considering it had far less coverage than the one Eddie had crafted specifically for your knight’s unique proportions.
It was well known in your relationship that any combination of the three of you was bound to get at least a touch sidetracked without the third there to keep your heads on straight, and Volt had apparently taken that rigid position for the moment. The questioning look in harmony with the too-small apron yanked you free from the tenderness of the moment in the hall, and you and Eddie exchanged a quick glance to confirm what was standing before you before contagious laughter exploded throughout the cottage. Volt spared a look down at the mess he’d made of himself and- though he fought a hard war against it- joined you in an instant.
“You both know you cannot leave me in the kitchen by myself!” He accused between fits, and you brushed a tear from your eye as you joined him at his side to look over which recipe he’d pulled out for the night. Eddie sidled up to the two of you soon enough, tucking his head over your shoulder as he plastered himself against your back to observe your disentanglement of the ingredients Volt had set out on the counter. This was not the first time this had happened, and it certainly would not be the last. But you loved your routine. Your mannerisms, your practiced scenarios that always felt fresh in your mind.
You really loved your home.
Unfortunately for you, the routine you had never imagined would be so fragile shattered under your hands, taking with it the glass bowl you’d been mixing in as the ear-splitting shriek of trumpets pierced the cottage.
Eddie and Volt looked between one another then you, as your expressions communicated all of the confusion you no longer needed to voice to one another. Volt’s apron was forgotten in the kitchen, and as your trio moved towards the front door, you poked your head into Annie and Fuse’s room.
“Stay right here unless one of us calls for you, okay?” You reminded them of your old rule. Call it leftover nerves from lives no longer your own or the worry that came from caring for one’s children, but you had decided with Eddie and Volt that -once they were old enough to walk and speak- that the girls would never answer the door on their own until their age made you comfortable with them doing so. Looking back on the moment, you had to wonder if this exact circumstance had been what you were preparing for by always being the first to greet Stefan or Beverly or the neighbor girl who looked like you from the old farm when they’d knocked.
Because when that door opened this time, unbeknownst to you, it sealed your fate forever.
The trumpets, of course, were of the royal persuasion. There had to have been at least a dozen of them and their players split to line each side of your door, all cloaked in the rich blues and golds that the three of you had once donned daily. From their lines, another- lacking in the instrument the others carried- stepped forward, and unfurled a great scroll before him.
The man’s eyes went big as he scanned the missive he was meant to read, and they jumped from where the scroll was printed to the three of you looming on your own doorstep, just as shocked out of words as you were. Dolly hadn’t mentioned a visit in her last letter, nor had she sent word requesting your presence back in your former palace in that message, so why in god’s name was a carriage bearing the royal Lumireignian crest outside of your home?
The squire must have reigned himself back in by the time your eyes found him again, because he was clearing his throat in a sputtering sort of sound that lingered throughout his decree.
“Her Majesty, King Dolly of Lumireign, does formally request the immediate presence of Their Majesties and Highnesses- The Watts Family of Lumireign- at the Royal Palace as residential guests of the King.”
As the scrolled curled back in on itself, you watched the realization dawn on your husbands’ expressions. The same one that roiled your stomach with rising bile.
For the first time in ten years, King Eddison Watts and Sir Volt were alive in the eyes of Lumireign.