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asimplearchivist · 6 months ago

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𝓒𝓗. 𝓥𝓘𝓘 — [𓂾𓏏] (‘𝓻𝓭𝓽’ | 𝓰𝓻𝓸𝔀𝓲𝓷𝓰)

𝐂𝐇. 𝐕𝐈𝐈 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐊𝐄𝐏𝐓.

[𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓬𝓱𝓲𝓿𝓲𝓼𝓽'𝓼 𝓶𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽] [ 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐊𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 ] AO3 | SPOTIFY | PINTEREST summary ☾ ⤏ ru is growing up fast. pairing ☽ khonshu/singlemom!avatar!reader word count ☾ 5.5k a/n ☽ [header credit] ⤏ i am so sorry this took so long. it’s a bit shorter than I’d prefer, but i’m hitting a point where i’m going to have to move time along some and i agonize over timeskips bc i worry about writing them well. the next chapter will see Ru aging up some more with copious amounts of fluff, then we’ll be headed for the main arc of the fic. fingers crossed that i can keep the momentum going! ☽ MASTERPOST ☾ ☾ PREVIOUS CHAPTER ⤎ ☥ ⤏ NEXT CHAPTER [TBA] ☽

You couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Khonshu.

For so long you had grown accustomed to his obstinance and ire, learning how to circumnavigate his myriad moods as well as the boundaries within which you could deal with them. Most of the time he had no true qualms with you quipping back at him, but every now and again he grew too touchy (borderline sensitive) to tease and sass. Working as a nurse had forced you to grow a thick skin years ago, so his biting remarks had never fazed you (which you think puzzled him, at times), but while he was mostly ready to dish it out, he couldn’t always stand to take it in return. The behavior almost reminded you of a scorned child, if you were honest, so when he was at his lowest points of temperament and patience, you treated him like one. It worked far more efficiently than it should (at least ninety-nine percent of the time).

But you had started to notice some odd changes in him. Subtle ones, perhaps, because he still sure as hell had his moments where he acted like a toddler (and even Ru couldn’t compete with some of the moon god’s tantrums), but you were observing a certain…relaxation in his demeanor. You didn’t know how else to describe it.

Overall, he had grown wordier than ever, talking away even when you didn't pry him for information, yet he spoke in a smoother, milder, and quieter register (when he wasn’t fussing at you about getting injured in the latest alley bawl, anyway)—especially around Ru, whom he shared conversations with more frequently than he did with you, despite the fact that you could actually respond.

He wasn’t nearly as consistently agitated as he used to be—new moon nights left him inexplicably broody, still, but he had proven to be far more pleasant company, even while you were out and about on patrol. He continued to pop in from time to time to check on you throughout each day, but the urgency that had colored his previous inquiries about your activities was now curiosity.

He looked better, to boot—you hadn’t quite believed your eyes when you’d realized that the dust littering the edges of his cloak and bandages had disappeared, as had the tattered hems and frayed wrappings. The gold ornamentation shone as though freshly polished no matter the lighting nor the lack thereof. Even his skull didn’t appear quite as washed out and weathered. (And if you had been studying the slightest bulking of his gargantuan, if lean, figure—strictly out of curiosity—then…well, that was between you and the weight of moonlight at your back.)

You were uncertain of what had caused all of these minute, almost inconsequential shifts in the lunar deity. You hadn’t thought that you’d been acting any differently than usual, and nothing out of the ordinary had happened in your routine to warrant such altered behavior.

The only thing changing was that Ru continued to grow like a little weed, having hit the nine month mark. He was babbling almost constantly, although no comprehensible words had yet emerged from his pouty little mouth. He had mastered crawling, much to the dismay of your poor nerves, and although you had already baby-proofed the entire apartment thrice over in preparation for it, turning around one day to find him grinning gummily up at you without having made a sound had startled you more than you’d readily admit. He found great joy in sitting in the middle of a castle of wooden blocks within which you would encase him, watching you with glittering eyes, before going full kaiju and knocking them all down like it was his sole purpose in life. Lizzie was doing her damnedest to teach him old rhymes and such, but all he could manage was a monotonous stream of monosyllables and somewhat off-beat clapping.

Watching Khonshu with Ru was something that never failed to soothe your worst of days, even if you were bemused by the development. The old bird had only grown more comfortable interacting with the baby, picking him up and toting him about on his narrow hip without any prompting on your part. He played games with him, too, but only if he thought that you weren’t paying attention or were in a different section of the apartment.

You weren’t certain how to feel about the odd way that the moon god reacted to every new milestone Ru surpassed—with equal parts troubled perplexity and apprehensive sobriety.

He has chewed that ring for hours and has produced enough saliva to drown in. What is he doing? Surely he realizes that it is inedible.

“He’s stimulating his gums—they’re probably sore. He’s starting to teethe. I need to start keeping them on rotation in the fridge to help numb the pain.”

It…hurts him?

“They call it ‘cutting teeth’ for a reason. They have to erupt from the gums. It’s not a fun time. He’ll probably start fussing about it soon enough—if you don’t want to listen to him whine, you don’t have to stick around for it.”

Khonshu did, though. He stayed even when Ru screamed at his lungs’ full capacity, clutching to your shirt with tears dripping from his eyes with the discomfort, crying until he tuckered himself out and faded into uneasy, fitful sleep. Khonshu hovered constantly at your back, beak tapered over your shoulder to observe with a fraught tension you couldn’t shake from rising the hairs on the nape of your neck. The only relief the baby seemed to get was when the lunar deity held him, his massive hands not quite engulfing the growing child as completely anymore—almost instantly Ru would cease his complaints, snuggling into Khonshu’s arms or chest as though nothing was bothering him but your soft-spoken conversations afterward.

Khonshu had mentioned before that he was able to heal Ru and had done so on enough occasions that you’d need both hands to count them. You certainly weren’t one to offer any sort of protest—trying to keep up with your son’s development was overwhelming at the very least. You cataloged every occasion studiously in his memory book, but even that still felt insufficient.

You were neck-deep in cooking supper on a stormy Friday evening when Ru reached ten months old, facing a full moon night that always caused the city—and the maternity ward/NICU in particular—to enter into inexplicable chaos. The benefit of this, you supposed, was that Khonshu’s powers grew to their full capacity and—in so doing—granted you more ease with which to deal with the, at times, utter buffoonery that would plague your efforts to keep the peace in the city. Your stamina, strength, and speed lasted longer, and you recovered faster.

You were cooking over the stove while you had music playing through a speaker, lending an ear to Ru under Khonshu’s watchful eye in the living room. The god had the babe engaged with colored blocks, although Ru was more in the mood to throw them at the deity than to build. Khonshu’s continual commentary on the infant’s inaccuracy and lack of strength had long since fallen into background noise—if he was calm, then you had nothing to worry about.

So it was the near deafening silence you only noticed once you turned off the burners to serve yourself a plate that alarmed you. You turned sharply on reflex to peer into the adjacent room, heart thrumming in alarm, but you accidentally bumped into the doorframe and grunted.

Don’t cause a racket, he is concentrating, Khonshu told you tartly.

Your brows shot up and your mouth dropped open. “I—why didn’t you say anything?!”

Your son looked over his shoulder at you, blinking as his pouted lips parted and he smiled with the two teeth that had emerged in the lower front of his mouth. He bobbed a bit, but Khonshu’s hands tightened around his forearms to hold him upright as he stood on unsteady feet upon the god’s thighs. Ru gurgled, eyes shining as he straightened up and bounced a little.

“Oh,” you breathed, slipping over the threshold to kneel at Khonshu’s side, “look at you, baby. Good job—you’re doing so well!”

Khonshu leaned back against the couch and cocked his beak. He has been attempting to stand all afternoon, but he requires assistance.

“That’s normal,” you murmured, reaching out for him. Khonshu wordlessly relinquished the babe as you hefted him by his sides to stand on your own knees. It took him a moment to regather his equilibrium, but Ru flapped his arms with a delighted squeal once he found it. “Oh, baby—you’re growing up so fast.”

Khonshu slouched to peer at Ru inquisitively, poking his rounded tummy with a spindly index finger. We shall work on your stance, he rumbled, so you are able to stand your ground.

You let out a wet chuckle, swiping your eye on the elbow of your sleeve as surreptitiously as you could manage. “You’re not going to teach my infant the fine art of combat right now.”

When do you propose I begin, then? The sooner he learns, the better.

“At least wait until he’s five,” you sighed, the corner of your mouth tugging upwards as Ru reached out to grab at the end of Khonshu’s beak with grasping, flexing fingers. “Then we can worry about him getting into fights at school, okay?”

Khonshu stiffened. …School?

“Yes? He’ll have to go eventually. He’ll start preschool in a couple of years.” You leaned in to nuzzle your son, grinning as he slobbered on your cheek. “But we don’t have to worry about that right now. We’ve got time, even if it feels like it’s going by so fast.”

Khonshu hummed, low and flat. You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye, but his rigid frame gave away little in the way of indicating his inner thoughts. You almost missed him being able to emote like he had at the Christmas party…but he hadn’t brought up his shapeshifting ability since, so you hadn’t tried to press him about it because he had looked uncomfortable for the majority of the night every time you’d looked at him for too long.

You are…all right with that? he ventured finally, caution couched in his tone.

“I have little choice in the matter,” you told him, “since I don’t possibly know how I could homeschool him with everything else I have to do every day. I’ve been researching some local private schools to see what the best options are, but Lizzie said she’d help me find one.”

But sending him away to be surrounded by people he doesn’t know— he started, then stopped.

You nudged his arm with your elbow just as Ru finally caught his beak and pulled it down slightly. “He’ll be okay. I fully intend to get a feeling for the teachers available before I make any final decisions. It’s a little scary, sure, but it’s a necessary part of growing up. I can’t always be there for him, unfortunately. But it starts off slow, thankfully, and I feel like he’s smart enough to keep up without effort—actually, I think he’ll get bored, but…”

…If you are certain, Khonshu acquiesced, although he didn’t sound pleased in the slightest.

You smothered a smile, deciding not to tease him about his evident worry. “Don’t worry, big guy. He has his mom who’s an avatar of an ancient god, his red-headed godmother, and you—which goes without explanation—to back him up. I don’t think we have anything to be scared of.”

You forget that I deal in the realm of the supernatural as well as that of mortals, Khonshu responded quietly.

“You’re letting yourself think about it too much,” you told him. “Thinking up worst-case scenarios only makes things worse, you know, and it doesn’t give you any more control of whatever’s going on. I had to learn that a long time ago.”

Khonshu turned his head to look at you, instead, and Ru let out an unhappy grunt when he lost his quarry. I would spare you from the knowledge of all the danger that lies out there, he murmured.

“We can cover it once it comes up,” you told him. “Like you said before, I don’t have to know everything. I think it would overwhelm me, honestly. As long as we don’t have an apocalypse knocking on our front door, I think we’ll be okay.”

Khonshu gave a curt nod and said no more on the matter.

“I know that look,” you told Lizzie, refilling her tea cup with the Earl Gray she’d brewed earlier to help quell her growing headache. You added the sugar and cream according to her taste since her hands were occupied, then sat across from her while glancing towards the window in the oven to check on the baking casserole. “How’s your mom?”

She had Ru standing on her lap while poking small slices of banana into his mouth to keep him distracted while you were bustling around the kitchen—she had just gotten home from work and had taken a call from one of her sisters on the commute, resulting in her low mood. You hadn’t wanted to bother her with the baby since she was tired, but she had bee-lined straight towards him claiming that there was no better cure for her ills.

Ru had gotten better at standing up in the last month, having little trouble in keeping his balance now unless the surface on which he stood was unstable—like your lap, or the cushioned furniture. He was totally enraptured by the fruit Lizzie was feeding him, grasping at her hands as though she was summoning the sweet treat out of thin air.

“Her dimensia’s getting worse,” Lizzie sighed, her normally well-kept curls a little frazzled from the humidity and her nervous habit of running her hands through her hair when stressed out. Normally the job didn’t bother her so badly, so you wondered if her boss had been an outstanding prick more than normal. “Saoirse wants to put her in a home, Lisa wants to bring her to her husband’s farm, but I think hiring a home health nurse would be best. She’s so attached to that house since Dad built it when they got married, I’d hate to see her part with it.”

“It’s a tough call to make,” you admitted, propping your jaw with your fist and watching her focus on Ru, “and I definitely don’t envy you. But my recommendation would be to get her established with someone so she can build a rapport before she starts to have more memory trouble. It’s just little things right now, though, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. She forgot to pay the water bill again and couldn’t understand why the meter got shut off. Saoirse checks on her over the weekends, but it’s not often enough in my opinion. She’s just having a harder time keeping up with stuff now.” Lizzie frowned and leaned Ru back to sit on the edge of the table so she could pass a hand through her hair with a sigh. “I’ve almost got half a mind to move back in with her.”

Your brows rose. Lizzie was one of the most dedicated people you knew when it came to pursuing her dream career. She’d fought tooth and nail to get the experience and record necessary to work for her current firm, and the thought of her forfeiting all the comforts that accompanied her position surprised you. You knew she had a closer relationship with her mother than her older sisters did, but you hadn’t realized before how worried she was for her.

“With your experience, there aren’t a whole lot of remote employers that wouldn’t hire you,” you offered. “You could get into transcription maybe—that way you could work from home, or wherever you end up. I know she likes to take road trips.”

“It’s just a thought. I’m not so sure I want to move all the way back to the countryside,” she responded wearily. “I’ll do some research on our options and keep an eye on her. I know it’ll only get worse from here, but…maybe it won’t happen as quickly as it does to others.”

“Maybe.” That hadn’t been one of your favorite topics to cover while in medical school, honestly, and one of the key points of why you hadn’t gone into psychiatrics. “Just know that I’ll help however I can. You know that.”

“Thanks. But enough about me—you mentioned you’ve been looking into preschools? It’s a little early, don’t you think?”

“I’m not looking to enroll him quite yet, I’m just trying to get a lay of the land. I want to get as much paperwork done preemptively so I won’t get as overwhelmed with it when the time comes. I want the best for him—I didn’t have a great primary education, and he’s already so smart. I don’t know that much about schools over here, though.”

Lizzie studied you for a moment, watching you ease back to your feet to check the oven. “You still don’t want to move back to the States?”

You raised a brow at her. “Do you want me to?”

“Heavens, no!” She placed a hand over her metaphorical pearls. “I just wondered if you’re still avoiding your parents.”

“Leave it to you to be so blunt,” you sighed, but you knew she was only concerned and intended no malice. “I’ve been talking to them, so it’s not like that. I just…they were right, and I should have listened to them. They’re not smug or anything, but I don’t know that I can face them. Not right now, at least.”

“It won’t hurt to wait until this little one could handle the trip better, anyway,” Lizzie added, giving him the last bit of banana. “And I would certainly hate to see you leave.”

“Besides,” you continued, leaning down and opening the door. Golden-brown on top—perfect. “I’ve got a good job. I’m saving up for a permanent home, and I’m throwing around the idea of moving out of central London to get away from all the noise. There are excellent resources at his disposal.” And you weren’t so sure what Khonshu would do if you decided to leave, either. Would he just follow you? You didn’t really want to think about the possibility that it might cause him to sever your…arrangement. (Although you did wonder if him growing so close to the both of you was part of the contract.) “I like it here, besides, and I’ve got you. I never had a lot of friends growing up, and I don’t know that I could handle missing you.”

Ru babbled, slapping insistently at Lizzie’s empty hands while you grabbed a hand towel, pulled the dish out of the oven, and set it on top of the stove. “Nothing wrong with that. It’s hard to uproot your entire life once, never mind twice and with a baby.”

You swiped the towel over your perspiring forehead, glancing towards the living room and realizing you’d left your own mug of tea on the coffee table. “Hang on, let me grab my drink.”

You stepped out of the room, but Ru’s incomprehensible string of noises caught on some familiar syllables. “Ma-ama! ‘Ama!”

“Oh my god!” Lizzie squealed as you whirled back into the kitchen. She was nearly bouncing in her seat, hands secured around the babe’s waist so he wouldn’t fall.

His face lit up when he spotted you. “Ma-ma!”

“Oh,” you breathed, tears springing up into your eyes. “Oh, Badru.” You picked him up and held him close, pressing a litany of kisses along his forehead. “Baby.”

Lizzie was positively beaming. “I’ve been working with him on that,” she claimed, “and I was starting to worry he’d never speak!”

“So now we focus on ‘auntie’,” you chuckled, sniffling quietly as your cheeks ached with the breadth of your smile. “Oh, I can’t handle it. You’re too sweet, Ru. My sweet boy.”

Your excitement, granting you an extra burst of energy unlike any magic Khonshu had ever imbued into the armor, bled through your entire shift at the hospital until you met up with him to start your patrol. You would almost dare to say that he was as pleasantly surprised by the good news as you were, if the warmth in his tone afterwards had suggested anything of the sort.

“Come on, baby. You can do it.”

“‘Ama!” Ru fussed, slapping the rug beneath him with no small amount of dissatisfaction. His frown was mighty, and almost enough to cause you to cave. But you had been working with him all month to start toddling—even if he couldn’t walk that well, and only took a few steps, you wanted him to start as early as possible. He was already hitting certain benchmarks early, and you wondered what all he could do with a little more encouragement.

“You’ve gotten so good at standing up by yourself,” you reminded him. “That’s the easy part. Can you at least do that for me?”

Ru was momentarily distracted by the pillow directly to his right and palmed the pale cashmere knit, part of the barricade you’d set up in case he fell. You sat against the base of the armchair adjacent to the couch, only about a yard away from your unhappy toddler. You’d shoved the coffee table to the other side of the sitting area, so he had almost the whole rug to himself. You’d negotiated with him for the past ten minutes to try again after the last failed attempt, but you felt that your offer for some ice cream as a reward was falling on deaf ears.

“Are you listening to me?”

He wasn’t, if him leaning down to tug the corner of the pillow up so he could chew on it was any indication. You sighed and dropped your face into your hands.

…What are you doing?

You jumped and looked over your shoulder at the lunar deity looming over the armchair, stooped to stare down at you with his staff held out from his flank. “Oh. Just…trying to see if I can get him to walk. He’s taken a step or two, but he’s being stubborn.”

And from whom could he have inherited that trait, I wonder? he mused.

“Oh, shut up.” You turned around to face him, crossing your legs underneath you and leaning back on your hands to meet his scrutinous gaze. “At least he’s tenacious.”

About things you would not prefer, correct? he responded.

“Yes. But maybe that will make it harder for others to push him around when he’s older. I was a bit too much of a doormat, and I don’t want him to get picked on like I was. Obviously I don't need him going around starting fights, but…I want him to be able to stand up for himself.”

Hmm. I think he will have little issue on that front with you as his mother. Khonshu tilted his skull to the side. You seem adept in how he thinks already.

You frowned. “What do you mean?”

Khonshu gestured behind you.

You twisted to look where he indicated, then your mouth dropped open as you were met face-to-face with your boy. He let out a squeal, startled by your sudden movement, and toppled backwards—you caught him mid-fall, anchoring him and tugging him into your lap. You were in disbelief, mostly, processing what you hadn’t seen.

You studied Ru’s face for a long moment, seeing certain features with which you were all too familiar from looking in the mirror. You were so very proud of him, and thankful that you’d been able to have him regardless of the circumstances. You’d go through it all over again just so you could experience the marvel that was him growing and learning. You hugged him close.

He holds much affection for you, Khonshu murmured, observing the pair of you thoughtfully. I…did not realize how early he would start to develop such thoughts, albeit remarkably simplistic.

“I hold much affection for him, too.” You kissed the crown of your son’s head, easing to your feet and bouncing him a little on your hip. “I promised him some celebratory ice cream. Do you want some?”

That is unnecessary.

“That doesn’t answer my question. Do you want some?”

…No. Thank you.

“Suit yourself.” You shrugged a shoulder as you slipped Ru into his booster seat. “I promise you that it’s better than those cookies I made, though.”

Khonshu grunted in disbelief, leaning against the partition between the kitchen and the living room and watching you step over to open the freezer. You pulled out the carton of double chocolate and pried it open before you grabbed a spoon out of the drawer and returned to the table. You sat in front of the boy and slipped some into his mouth. His eyes lit up and he gurgled excitedly, licking his lips and slapping the tray in front of him.

“Yeah,” you responded brightly with a smile. “That’s the good stuff, isn’t it?”

…You understand that he will be more difficult to manage now, right?

“Of course. But it’s a natural consequence of growing.” You took a bite for yourself, grinned around the spoon when Ru let out a disgruntled noise and slapped at your elbow, and offered him another. “I couldn’t stop him even if I wanted to. I’ll miss carrying him around, sure, but…maybe if I work harder I can still pick him up even as he gets heavier.”

If he continues to eat like that, it will pose a challenge.

“He’s a growing boy!” you defended, smothering your chuckle to cast a faux frown towards the lunar deity. “And I think he’s earned a treat.”

At this rate, any accomplishment he makes will be rewarded.

“And it’s well-deserved.” You paused, then slumped against the back of the chair. “I…I’m just glad we’ve gotten this far.”

Khonshu cocked his head at you.

“I almost lost him,” you said quietly, heart squeezing with the recollection of feeling so helpless, listless, on the verge of catatonia but only focused on the babe trapped within you. You smoothed your free hand over his head on reflex, soothed by the texture of his hair against your palm. “I might not even be here if not for you, and I don’t even know if he would’ve made it or not if I had…you know. I wonder sometimes what would’ve happened if you hadn’t showed up when you did. I think about how lucky I was that you found me. And…I’m grateful. I’m so grateful—to you, and Liz, and Ru—for all keeping me going. I owe all of you everything.” You looked up at Khonshu through your lashes, face warming. “I owe you everything.”

That seemed to make him uncomfortable, as he shifted his weight and brought both hands to grip his staff, leaning into its haft and bringing the crescent before his head to hide the majority of his unyielding face.

…It was only per our agreement, he responded finally.

“You saving my life to start with wasn’t,” you pointed out gently. “I just want you to know I’m thankful that you’re in my life, too. You’ve helped me so much without me even asking, and I could never repay you for it all. Ru’s happy and healthy in part because of you.”

Khonshu stiffened, just slightly, but it was enough that you noticed. Very well.

You shook your head with a fond smile. “To be such a conceited god, you sure have a problem taking compliments.”

And just like that, it seemed like a switch was flipped—he straightened, pressed his shoulders back, and raised his voice to his usual lofty tone. It is only reasonable to give credence to your patron, he told you haughtily, but there was a lingering softness to his voice that told you he was putting on airs. It is about time that you acknowledge the work I’ve done.

“Mmhmm.” You rolled your eyes and returned your attention to your fussy son. “Maybe I need to try popping that ego again—I like you better when you’re sweet and quiet.”

And yet you continue to converse with me.

“You’re all I’ve got,” you confessed, effectively shutting him up. “You and Liz. Like I said, I owe you a lot. Even if we’re…whatever we are on paper, you’re still important to me. To Ru. You’re…well. You’re my friend. Maybe that’s weird.”

Khonshu, as still as the statues that the ancients had painstakingly chiseled and carved from the finest of stone, tightened his grip on his staff. You heard the wood creak quietly.

“I can take it back if it bothers you that much,” you added, voice lowering with embarrassment at his lack of reply. “I don’t guess you’d like to be reduced to something so trivial after you’ve been a god in the eyes of humanity for so long. I shouldn’t have said anything—”

I possess few friends, Khonshu interrupted softly.

You clicked your mouth shut, watching his body language relax into something unguarded and…vulnerable, almost. It reminded you of him at the party, shoulders high around his mandible as though expecting a blow—except that you didn’t have anthropomorphic facial features to try to decipher the intricacies of the emotions playing in the back of his mind. The almost nervous drumming of his fingers on the hilt of his staff was telling enough, though.

“I can’t imagine why,” you told him. “You’re incredibly loyal. I thought you were going to snap Kyle’s neck.”

His back curved forward as he leaned towards you slightly. I would have, had you asked.

You blinked. “I…don’t doubt it. But that’s unnecessary—he hit on one of the ER doctor’s wives after you chased him off and finally got fired. Even the board wasn’t going to play with assault charges on his behalf. Now that’s karma at its finest.” You paused, chewing on the inside of your lip as you gave Ru more ice cream. “You take painstaking care of us, too—even if you’re a bit of a mother hen sometimes. It’s been a while since I’ve had anyone other than Liz that’s so concerned about us.”

…I can’t have you unwell, he replied lamely.

You bit your cheek to withhold your smile. “Of course. Thank you anyway.”

He huffed, but he retained his open posture. You are welcome, Sri mewt.

He is one year old.

The statement almost sounded like a question. You turned your head to look over your shoulder at the moon god looming over you in the darkened doorway. He hadn’t been there a moment prior, seemingly summoned by you flicking the lights off in Ru’s room now that he had finally fallen asleep.

The boy had seemed to sense that the day was a special occasion, as he’d kept you on your toes with all his boundless energy. You and Liz had taken him to an aquarium, which he had loved, and you had bought him an octopus plush to go along with his most beloved raven. He now had both of them under each arm, tucked under the blanket in which you’d brought him home from the hospital what felt simultaneously like a whole lifetime yet a mere day ago.

“Yeah,” you whispered.

So inconsequential, in the grand manner of things, he mused, low and—dare you say it—wistful. Millions are born in a millennium. Time eventually will claim them. And yet…

“Feeling nostalgic tonight?” you murmured, smiling softly up at him.

Only contemplating the plight of man’s ephemerality, he returned evenly. You are born and you die in such a short amount of years—you accomplish so little in your lifetimes, and yet you laud the temporality and fragility of your lives. It has always puzzled me.

“Not all species live thousands of years like yours does,” you pointed out. “Frankly, I’d be terrified to live for that long. I’m afraid I would go crazy having experienced everything at some point, with nothing else to see or do.”

Khonshu lowered his beak to gaze directly at you instead of the crib that housed your slumbering son. I can assure you, he rumbled, that five thousand years is insufficient to experience all that life has to offer. I still learn daily things I never would have expected.

You raised a brow, lips tugging up into a grin. “At least you’re not bored. I’m glad that we entertain you, at least.”

He scoffed. You do far more than entertain me.

“Annoy you, then. I’m sure you just love spending your free time babysitting.”Badru is…intriguing, he admitted. I have little experience interacting with human children. I have learned much about your people merely by observation that I did not know before through my avatars. And I am…grateful, to have been afforded the opportunity.

#fisara’s codices #fanfiction #moon knight #khonshu #reader insert #khonshu/reader #khonshu x reader #khonshu/you #khonshu x you #khonshu fanfiction #moon knight fanfiction #ao3: promises kept #original male character(s)

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