#so here we are again .

[grizzersmamma]

One Surprise, Two Surprise | König x F!Reader

Summary: König has been away for months and is eager to get back home to you, only you have a couple of surprises for him. 

Notes: @lethalchiralium​ and their Happiness AU has me out here acting like a broody hen 😭 I’m also a sucker for the trope of “partner goes away for an extended period and comes back to a whole ass baby having been born”, so this is inspired by that too. Absolutely recommend their fics, so go read them if you haven’t already! My family has the twin gene quite prominently, so König gets two babies for the price of one 👉👉

Pairing: König x F!Reader

Warnings: Fluff, Pregnancy Implied, Infants.

Series Masterlist: Here

CoD Masterlist: Here

Next: Here

It’s been almost ten months since König has last been home. His deployment with KorTac had been keeping him constantly on the move, constantly taking mission after mission with little to no reprieve. To make matters worse, there had been a strict no-contact rule in place for the entire duration of his deployment thanks to the sensitivity of the missions.  

Ten months, only two short of a whole year without seeing you. Without holding you in his arms. Without so much as hearing your voice.  

It was agonising, knowing that he could have been curled up in your shared bed together rather than trudging from safe house to safe house. He had never known a true longing for home until he’d met you – normally he couldn’t wait to be sent off to some godforsaken forest or desert in the middle of who-knows-where, enjoying the isolation – but now, his skin had begun to feel like it was crawling, searching out the gentle touch you always offered.  

Sleeping was difficult on a good day, never quite feeling safe enough to lower his guard. After spending so much time with you, however, he found his arms automatically trying to seek out your body in his sleep, needing to know you were there for his brain to calm. Sadly, he was only ever met with cold sheets at best, and at worst he would end up grabbing at poor Horangi when they were forced to share a bunk.  

Fortunately, Horangi didn’t seem to care too much, simply slapping at whatever offending limb had slid into his personal space and going back to sleep again. That didn’t stop König from apologising in the morning, relieved when his squad mate would just lazily wave him off.  

But finally, he’d arrived back on Austrian soil, able to take in a deep breath of frigid air the moment he stepped off the plane. It was early afternoon, the sun hitting the snow at just the right angle for it to sparkle. Within a few weeks the ice would all be gone and spring would be in full swing, bringing with it some much needed warmth.  

König pulls his jacket a little tighter in response to the chill, deciding that he’s admired the view long enough and refocusing on getting home.  

He collects his personal items from the locker where they’re housed during deployment, switching on his phone. It’s an old Nokia, used purely for receiving texts and phone calls while working, while his personal one is kept safe at home with you. It takes a while to finally boot up, clinging on with a measly 3% of its battery, but it’s enough for it to load the few messages he’d missed while abroad.  

There are the usual messages, generally wishing him luck, telling him that he was in your thoughts, simple ‘good morning’s and ‘good night’s scattered throughout randomly. The second to last, however, is different from the rest, a request for König to call you as soon as possible.  

His brain is quick to offer up a handful of the worst-case scenarios – maybe you'd gotten hurt while he was away, or perhaps you’d grown tired of his lack of presence and decided to call it quits – but after glancing at the next message he finds himself calming again. The last text was sent just over two months ago, telling him to disregard the previous message and to meet you at his oma’s home when he returned, that you had some sort of surprise for him.  

Odd that you would choose for him to go there rather than the small home the two of you occupied, but König refused to let his worries spiral. You got on well with his oma, much to König’s delight, and she had been a huge help, considering you had no close family living nearby. The moment he had introduced you to his grandmother, the woman immediately decided you were perfect, taking you under her wing as one of her own. She was absolutely delighted to finally have a granddaughter to dote on and pass all of her family knowledge to.  

König had attempted to stop his grandmother from smothering you completely, lest his girlfriend be scared off after only the first meeting, but to his relief you’d told him you already adored the older woman and looked forward to seeing her again. His heart turns into mush every time he sees his two favourite women spending time together. Even if that time is spent with his oma telling you all sorts of embarrassing stories from König’s youth.  

The drive to his grandmother’s house is fortunately rather short, and within an hour of touching down on the runway he’s already arriving. König ensures to remove the simple balaclava he’d been wearing on base, knowing from experience that his oma doesn’t appreciate him “looking like he’s about the rob the place” when he arrives.  

After gathering up his belongings, König gently raps on the glass of his grandmother’s front door. He could hear soft voices inside, but they quiet the moment his knocking rings out, leaving him stood in silence while he waits for someone to answer.  

It’s his oma who opens the door, gasping out his name joyfully, before wrapping her arms around his middle in a bone crushing hug. It’s impressive, really, that a woman of her stature and age is somehow still strong enough to hold him tight enough that all the wind is driven from his lungs. “Hallo, oma,” he smiles, giving her a gentle squeeze in return.  

“Mien lieber Enkle, wo bist du gewesen?!” She demands, pulling back from König, only to grab his hand and begin dragging him into the warm house.  

“Ich war arbeiten,” he mumbles back, but is ignored as his grandmother deposits him in the living room.  

König’s eyes zero in on you in mere moments, unable to resist the soft look that crosses his face, nor the way his shoulders droop. It’s as though a massive weight has been pulled from his shoulders, even more so when you near enough throw yourself into his arms, your hands wrapped around the back of his neck so you can pull him down toward you.  

He meets you in a tender peck which quickly devolves into a more desperate kiss, eager to make up for lost time. It’s only the awareness of where the two of you are that stops König from escalating from loving smooches and taking you right then and there. “I missed you, mein Vögelchen,” he breathes, nosing at the side of your face.  

“I missed you too, mein König,” the grin you give him is nothing short of playful, but that doesn’t hide the clear signs of exhaustion on your face.  

König’s eyebrows furrow in confusion, gently encouraging you to release your hold on him so he can look at you more closely. “Are you alright?” he asks, his gloved thumbs softly caressing your cheeks as he takes in the large bags under your eyes.  

“Your surprise kept me awake,” you laugh, taking König’s hands into your own.  

“Surprise?” He had almost forgotten about the surprise you had mentioned in your text, blinking in confusion, “what kind of surprise would-” He cuts himself off when his oma comes back into the room – he hadn’t even noticed her leaving, too focused on you – his voice flees him at the sight. A tiny little creature is nuzzled into the older woman’s chest. A baby, his brain belatedly supplies for him.  

“Where- Who- Wha-” König blinks once again, unable to process what he was looking at for a long moment. “A baby?” he whispers, breathlessly, his heart racing as he turns to look at you.  

You laugh again at his stunned reaction, gently guiding him closer to the tiny boy. “Say hello to your son,” you smile, watching as he reaches out a hand to caress the infant’s face. His hand is huge compared to the baby and it’s amazing to him that he could ever create something so small and fragile. He’s spilled enough blood in his life that he was certain he’d been stained by it, yet here this child is, completely untainted by the horrors of the world. “His name is Lukas. I remember you saying you thought it would be a cute name,” you add softly, snapping him out of his thoughts.  

He reaches for Lukas, his oma helping him to lift the child from her, showing him exactly how to hold the infant so his head is properly supported. His arms are shaking, despite how light the baby feels, the weight of this new responsibility, this whole new person who is relying on him, leaving him feeling weak at the knees.  

“Hallo, Lukas,” König murmurs, pressing his lips to the top of his son’s forehead. The infant’s little face screws up at the disturbance, eyes blinking open to gaze at his father with the exact same pair of blue eyes. There’s a grumpy pout on the child’s face, but it’s smoothed away with an impressively large yawn only moments later.  

“He’s perfect.” König can feel his throat tightening up, eyes threatening to fill with tears. He supposes that meeting his son for the first time is an understandable reason for crying – there's no need to keep up any appearances here, surrounded only by family – he's more than happy to shed a few tears while he presses feather-light kisses to Lukas’ face.  

Lukas reaches out, placing his tiny hands against König’s cheeks with a curious little coo. He seems to be entirely unphased by his father’s shaking breaths and damp eyes, too focused on the smile he was being offered.  

“I’m glad you liked your surprise,” you say, curling into König’s side and gazing down at your son, “are you ready for your next one?”

König’s head shoots up, staring at you wide-eyed. “My next one?” he chokes out, “y-you don’t mean...”

He sees you biting down on your bottom lip to try and keep the grin from completely taking over your features, unsure if he should be horrified or excited when you turn around and wander into one of the spare bedrooms. “Schatz, no,” he gasps, only able to stand there, gaping like an idiot when you return moments later with a second child in your arms.  

"Keine Chance! There are two of them?!” König’s voice has taken a slightly higher pitch, gripping at the sofa beside him to keep himself from toppling right over. His outburst startles Lukas enough for the baby to whimper, bottom lip poking out and wabbling dangerously. “Ah, sorry, mein leiber,” he quickly shushes, swaying to try and calm his child.  

“Here’s your little girl, Anna,” you coo, bringing the second baby close enough for König to see.  

“Anna...” he repeats, staring down at his daughter in amazement, looking at her pretty eyes, exactly the same as her mother’s. “We have two children, mein Vögelchen,” he wheezes, slowly slipping down to sit on the couch, his legs no longer able to hold him. He knows he told you he hoped to have a family one day, a couple of children and some dogs or cats, but to have two children in one go?  

The realisation hits him like a slap to the face. You had been here alone, carrying not one but two children, and then had to give birth to them. His oma was here for you, of course, but there’s only so much one elderly woman can do to help.  

König should’ve been there to help you throughout the entire process. He should’ve been there when you found out you were pregnant, when you went in for scans, when you found out there would be two of them, and when you found out there would be both a little boy and a little girl entering the world. Instead, he had been overseas, fighting enemies, while you were taking on your own battle by yourself.  

With his free hand, König reaches out to take one of yours, giving it a soft squeeze. “Liebling, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” he breathes, pressing your hand to his forehead as he seeks your forgiveness. He would be on his knees, grovelling, if it weren’t for the tiny child currently attempting to reach for his face again.  

“No, none of that,” you shake your head, removing your hand from his grip and instead cupping the side of König’s face, “you didn’t know, there’s no way you could have.” You sit yourself down beside him on the sofa, crowding in nice and close so the two of you can be pressed together.  

He wants to argue, entirely convinced you should be angry at the very least, but now isn’t the time for it, not when this should be a perfect movement between the two of you and your children. So instead, he says, “thank you, mein süßer Vogel,” placing a kiss against Lukas’ head, allowing the boy to hold his finger as he then leans over to kiss Anna. “I love you,” he breathes, finally offering you a kiss.  

“I love you too,” you hum back, staring into his eyes.  

A moment later, Lukas lets out an upset wail, breaking you both from your interlocked gaze. His loud shrieking causes his sister to whimper, awoken from her slumber and most displeased about it.  

“Time for these two to be fed,” you huff, briefly letting the exhaustion catch back up to you.  

König quickly stands, holding out his hand to pull you to your feet. “You can show me how to feed them so I can help, ja?” he asks, eager to take at least some of the work from you. He’s only just returned from months abroad and is tired beyond belief, but this is his responsibility now, and it’s one he is more than happy to take on. He’s already missed almost two months of his children’s lives and he has a lifetime of making it up to you for being away so long.  

No doubt you will disagree with him.  

You walk to the kitchen together, König wrapping his free arm around your waist to keep you close.

He needs to discuss what the two of you are going to do going forward, especially regarding his work now that he more important things to concern himself with. There’s no way he’s going to leave for another deployment, not for a good while after this. All he wants to focus on is spending time with his son, his daughter and the love of his life.  

-

Translations

“Mien lieber Enkle, wo bist du gewesen?!” | “My dear grandson, where have you been?!”

“Ich war arbeiten,” | “I was working,”

“I missed you, mein Vögelchen,” | “I missed you, my littlie bird,”

“I missed you too, mein König,” | “I missed you too, my king,”

“Schatz, no,” | “Treasure/Darling, no,”

"Keine Chance! There are two of them?!” | “No way! There are two of them?!”

“Ah, sorry, mein leiber,” | “Ah, sorry, my dear,”

“We have two children, mein Vögelchen,” | We have two children, my little bird,”

“thank you, mein süßer Vogel,” | “thank you, my sweet bird,”  

[illiana-mystery]

Him. 🤩

[jackstheprinceofhearts]

stephanie garber writing "a tormented scream pierced the night like a blade." and "there is nothing of equal value to me.":

[raayllum]

Because @kradogsrats got me thinking about it with their Harrow and Pip and Viren meta so now I'm throwing in two adjacently related cents

The first is that there is absolutely a fucking Premonition going on with dreams in the show (specifically Viren and Callum's dark magic dreams as well as Janai's nightmare) which only makes sense because all of these are 1) connected to Aaravos and subsequently star magic, and 2) dark magic which loops right back around to Aaravos

There are multiple times that images and ideas are relayed to characters who would have no way of knowing these things in the present

For example, Viren is surprised and asks Kpp'Ar about his arm, even when we know that Viren was the last person to see Kpp'Ar before he got coined, and presumably would've already been hurt / Viren would've been aware it had happened. But that doesn't seem to be the case given the dialogue

This also means that the answer Kpp'Ar gives either has to be not truthful and purely something Viren concocted (about something he didn't know had happened), which wouldn't make sense from a character or an audience standpoint, because in an episode titled "Old Wounds" we're going to remember the one visible wound we see on screen. So if the wounds are real and Kpp'Ar is truthful, there's some wonky magic knowledge time space stuff going on (which does sound like Star and adjacent dark magic to me)

We see this again with Janai's dreams concerning Khessa evolving past the point of a reoccurring nightmare to one that actually gives her, again, what we're supposed to assume is the Truth, even though Janai was leagues away from Aaravos (although she did hear his voice) and the lack of discerning his whisper wouldn't suddenly go away for no reason

And we Know there's some overlap between the dark magic dreams and the current reality happening outside the dreams, considering Viren's material reality in 5x02-5x03 directly informs his dreaming reality ("You keep moving" -> "We have to keep moving" as one example)

Most notably with the flower, Claudia begins discarding it in the dream before she drops it in real life, with Claudia receiving the flower in real life before it appears with her in the dream. So the interplay is not consistent moving in one direction solely to the other, but very much does exist

We even see this noticeably (upon rewatches) with Callum's dark magic dreams featuring foreshadowing for future seasons. Not only does having the Key represent dark magic in the dream make extra sense because it is connected to Aaravos, who is also connected to dark magic of course, it likewise has the Ocean rune on display in particular, hinting at things that haven't yet come to pass, but things that very much will

Why does this matter? Well... when Harrow does show up in Callum's dark magic dream, he is notably chained down

Or, y'know, caged like a bird

Now, this could just be because TDP likes its poignant but hella on the nose symbolism on a regular basis. It likes to use a variety of symbols concerning freedom, with a multitude of metaphors just in this episode alone: navigating a storm and steering a ship; keys and chains; the key; and verbally, books to go along with the idea of fate and destiny being "written" or being rewritten by yourself. And I'm willing to bet that that's Most of it

But also... the Claudia with the flower, Kpp'Ar with his arm, the cube with the Ocean rune, and all that stuff... alongside how blithering little we know about Star magic at the present. Hopefully "Dreamer's Nightmare," which focuses the princes and a town beset by horrible nightmares pre-series and set to come out early August 2024, could give some answers if S6 hasn't dropped by then

Regardless leads me to my second thing regarding what actually happened in that goddamn kindly bedroom between Harrow and Viren (innuendo half intended)

I think Harrow's soul got split

The main reason this makes sense to me is twofold on a plot level and then there's 1-2 things thematically, but let's talk about the most concrete stuff first

1) There is a significant chunk of time between the last possible chance Viren could've done the spell and when we see the binding actually fall

Now to be fair, there's a delay between Runaan's binding falling off and Rayla's (because story constraints) but it's worth noting that as Runaan makes his way to the balcony, only then does it begin to loosen. He's left the room and (rightly) assumed his job is done probably because he knew he was growing weak and still needed to send the arrow, but it's clearly something that gave Harrow a bit of time to like, Live. If Harrow had fully died earlier than that in some capacity, the bindings would have fallen off ahead of time, so Runaan did something and we know (thanks to the Flowers) that Moonshadow elves can enchant objects tied to souls, not bodies, even if other people can be fooled by their appearances

So although the novelization and the show indicate that Viren did something shady as hell ("If Viren wanted to defy his former friend one last time, he'd have to do it tonight"), it isn't something that could've fully killed Harrow at that time

Hence the split. As Kradogsrats pointed out, the Soulfang serpent spell is something that due to the unique nature of the specimen as well as it's not exactly something you can practice (S4 even emphasizes how specific ingredients have to be sometimes in order for a spell to work correctly as well as multiple TDP short stories showing what can go wrong if you lose concentration) it was something that could've gone so wrong so easily.

Some of his soul had to have stayed in his body (but possibly left Harrow momentarily unconscious). Maybe Viren thought he had failed and killed him, and that would explain why he does nothing in the hallway while the assassins are attacking (he seems to kind of know but not fully get what Runaan's binding means in 1x08), although he does seem to have a hint of reservation about Callum being there in the hallway, which wouldn't make sense if he was sure that Harrow was dead, because then who was gonna give a shit that Callum was there?

Another part of his soul could've gone in the bird, as the Soulfang was in the room and so was Pip (quite prominently displayed). Viren at least attempting the spell and it being partially successful would explain why dream!Harrow imprisons him further (after all, why not let it be Kpp'Ar, who literally got coined?) in addition to Pip. Harrow has Runaan's arrow in him during the imprisonment scene as well, so it seems likely that both Viren and Runaan had an equal hand in ruining Harrow's body on that level

The main reason I can see there being at least a partial piece of Harrow's soul in Pip is well

2) Runaan and Ezran

Even if we disregard the thematic irony of Harrow being trapped in the physical symbol of freedom (a bird), there is the fact that Ezran being able to talk to animals is like... the biggest tell that something is coming around with this goddamn bird.

Like Ezran's ability to talk to animals thus far has not had a lot of plot relevance, okay, outside of season one. Like him with Ava and the spider is the last time it's directly core relevant in ways that would be hard to get around. Like his bond with Zym could exist regardless as well as seeing through his eyes. Even if being able to talk to animals absolutely helped set that up, it's not necessary for Ezran to have the communication ability per se to have what he has with Zym, and thus far even as more animals have been introduced (most notably Stella) it hasn't really come into play.

The main reason to give Ezran an ability like this is so that he can talk to Pip. The main reason to remove Pip from the castle as of S2 is because - even in the original plans where Ezran didn't go home in 2x09, he would still would have off screen after S3 and inevitably run into Pip. So there's clearly something with the bird that will become evident upon him interacting with Ezran, hence why they've been separated.

At the same time, I don't think Harrow can wholly be in the bird just because that removes some of Runaan's teeth (and Ezran's subsequent potential beef with him) in ways the show just... doesn't do? I always think about how easy it would've been for Harrow to have no knowledge of what Viren had done with the egg/Zym until it was already over (which 1x02 kinda indicates) only for 3x06 to go "No, Harrow was fully conscious and complicit, even if he had reservations and it wasn't his idea." Our mistakes indeed. So I don't think it'd make sense to let Runaan completely off the hook, especially when we just spent two seasons giving Viren an atonement arc and showing that he can grow and change (and it'll be Runaan's turn afterwards -- especially because within the narrative of the show, killing Harrow is the Only Tangibly Bad thing he's really done, so if he's absolved of that than he doesn't really have a point of being here to the same degree).

Continent Split in Two

If Harrow's soul was split in two, not only would reconciling that (aka maybe letting it Leave Pip, the way the Moonshadow troupe and Sarai's breath had to be released) be a way for the boys, particularly Ezran, to get another shot at processing their father's death... It would also reflect the divide of Xadia itself because of dark magic, and how that literal rift metaphorically, magically, and literally, is being healed and mended over.

It would also have an interesting parallel of Claudia (presumably whether Viren lives past s5 or not) having to likewise learn to let her father go and cope/grieve in a healthier manner, and it would mean that Harrow never comes back fully formed (because Ezran has to keep being King, narratively / arc wise) but we finally understand what truly happened to him.

[occasional-skrelp]

Hello are you still here?

"I-I don't think I w-wanna play this anymore..."

[the-marron]

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category: M/M

Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian - priest

Relationships: Kunlun/Shen Wei (Guardian), Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan

Characters: Kunlun (Guardian), Shen Wei (Guardian)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Primordial Past, Fluff, Kinda, Devotion, references to cannibalism, because it's Shen Wei's past you know, Food as a Metaphor for Love

Summary:

“I bring an offering,” he starts, feeling the oddness of the words on his tongue. This is not an offering, not exactly. It’s not incense and gold worthy of a god, it’s not a string of worshipful words either, and yet with who they are, The Ghost King has no other word for it. There is nothing else a ghost can offer to a god.

Here you go, @birdbird-blog 😘

[stimperfect]

• ☆ x ☆ o ☆ x ☆ ★ o ★ x ★ o ★ ☆ x ☆ o ☆ x ☆ •

a stimboard for my friend @iforgottogiveafuck’s OC, Formus! (art created by huniedham)

[melon-fodder]

I’m ngl it’s nice being mel again on here

[astriiformes]

One of the problems with Scribe being so cursed now (for me, at least) is that. You know that one post with the person talking about their partner being out of town and them doing something weird where someone was like "Why?" and they replied "She's like 85% of my impulse control"

That's us but with executive functioning. Before she got sick she was most of the reason I remembered to eat, and now with her mostly bedbound most days, I will go an entire day without ever acknowledging that food exists. It's bad.

[florida-preposterously]

God gives his stupidest battles to his dumbest clowns

[waystone]

.

[illiana-mystery]

Anyone ask for a sexy outlaw?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dog Meshi.

[lazylittledragon]

if i had a nickel for every au spawned from twitter that i SWORE i was going to be normal about

[gravitysoda]

maybe in another life.

[egophiliac]

buckle up lads we're going BACK INTO THE BOOK