Birthday Month Fic - #1

[galadriel1010]

Prompt: Characters as Parents
Fandom: Dragon Age
Pairing: Sera/Adaar

Inquisitor Adaar returns from work to the family life she's found formed around her.

It had been a long day in the office, mobilising support for the refugee camps in Tevinter, dealing with a flare-up of tension in the Dales, and fielding more letters from just about everyone about the status of Skyhold, the College of Enchanters, and every minor squabble across the south of Thedas. It was, as Josephine and Divine Victoria pointed out frequently, her own fault, and a role she was happy to take on, but that didn’t make it less exhausting. She walked through Val Royeaux from the Cathedral to her estate, much to the distress of the guards assigned to protect her, who must have felt fairly pointless when tasked with guarding a six foot tall Tal Vashoth with her reputation until she started taking ridiculous risks like walking across the square in the busiest part of time in the late evening. She chuckled to herself and left them standing at their posts at the gate, and breezed into the foyer. “It’s okay,” she called out as she shrugged, with some difficulty, out of her dress coat. “You can put the bow down now, I’m home.”

“Saya!” The stampeding feet of three small children, two elves and one human, gave her just enough warning to brace herself before they came hurtling round the corner, skidding on the marble floor so badly that the youngest, Konu, almost crashed into the bottom of the stairs before she got speed back up and join the pile-on to throw her arms around Asaya’s neck. “Did you see Aunty Josie?”

She wrapped her good arm around two of the children and picked them up, drawing delighted screams and a pout from Gerin when she was left behind. “I did see Josie,” she told them, “and she said she misses you, and she’s coming for dinner tomorrow night.”

“I should probably clean up, then.” Sera had paused at the top of the stairs, framed perfectly in the golden light of evening in the way she knew rendered Asaya speechless, and trailed her fingers along the top of the bannisters. “Saved the world again, Tadwinks?”

Asaya set the children down and crossed the floor in two steps, getting there just in time to catch Sera before she sailed off the edge of the bannister. She allowed Asaya to catch her laughter in a kiss, and was still grinning even when Asaya flicked her ear and whispered “You’ll give them bad ideas.”

“I’ll teach them how to do it right, you mean.” She scooped Konu up and balanced her on her hip. “They’ve had their baths, so they’re just ready for a bedtime story. You and I can eat later,” she promised with a badly concealed leer.

She crouched to let the other two loop their arms around her neck again, then staggered to her feet with her arm around them once more. They made protestations about going to bed, but she kissed each of them on the cheek and followed Sera back up the stairs to the nursery. They’d used the smaller room at first, when there was just Gerin, but then Asaya had come back from a trip to Nevarra and found another bed with Lina, and then Red Jenny had brought Konu to their doorstep in the middle of the night. Now the nursery had three beds in use and another two waiting, just in case. Asaya tumbled Gerin and Lina onto one bed and sat down with them, holding her good arm open for Sera to settle next to her with Konu. “Alright,” she said, smiling down as the other two nestled in under her marked arm and looked up at her adoringly. Her heart swelled almost painfully and she held Sera tighter. “Alright, what story do you want this time? How about... How about the time I met your mama, thanks to a cunning plot and some stolen breeches?”