AU - MAGNI & LAKSHMI

[mahalakshmi]

if you'll be my light, i'll be your shelter

i. first meeting | a non existent engagement and a hasty marriage ii. a tempertantrum in a thunderstorm | sticks and stones may break my bone but words will leave me with crippling anxiety (and a headcold) iii. a kindness of intimacies | nsfw, sometimes, love is like falling into an icy lake iv. just like the battle of troy, there is nothing subtle here | when the world conspires to consistently make you insecure about your wife.

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[villieldr]

Oof, a wheeze. Her lioness has sharp elbows.
Magni thinks for a moment. "My mother is shorter than me."

Which, actually, could be a reason why Magni was an only child. Even those who were not necessarily tall (and Magni was tall even for one of her father's line) were broad and muscular. She frowns a little bit, worry starting to gnaw at her as the implications, the impacts, start to register properly.

"Whatever needs to be done to keep you comfortable and safe will be done." Another kiss.

[mahalakshmi]

It's the comfort she needs. The things she must lean into - because otherwise, the concern would eat at her.

"It will be alright. I know you will be with me." It's breathed out, trying to ascertain it for herself. A shakey, nervous thing, but to that, in the knowledge that she would not be alone...

It was a great relief.

[villieldr]

"Always." Very soft, murmured against her jaw.

And then, a quiet laugh. "I— did not imagine that I would be a parent. I thought... an adopted heir, or close family."

A shake of her head. This is... kind of amazing. Scary, yes, but amazing.

[mahalakshmi]

That... sobers her. More than that. This is... a precarious moment. "Tomorrow. We need to make the announcement. Give offerings, so your people know." She leans up, looking up to Magni's face where she's curled in her lap. Her hand coming to rest on Magni's shoulder.

"... Then your neighbours." She breathes in, "if they ask, I believe... when we were in the forest. I believe then was when we..." Her hand gestures, between them, that little smile, warm in cheeks. "... perhaps we should do something there, to quell any rumours about how such a thing had come to be." She breathes in slowly. "Then... we will need to instate the inheritance acts, seen over your elders to ensure that the heir is accepted and respected."

[villieldr]

Magni doesn't pale, exactly, but looks every so slightly grey. This sounds like it involves a lot of talking. And yes, she is the Jarl, and yes she can be stern and stoic and make sound decisions and do what needs to be done, but this is a very new situation that she hasn't had quite the same amount of emotional preparation for.

She opens her mouth, closes it, and nods.

Big inhale. Slow exhale. "Yes."

Or maybe they could just go and live in the forest with their adorable child and not need to do this.

[mahalakshmi]

She doesn't quite hear it, caught up in beginning - already - to plan it. What has to be done, first, and wriggling - leaning over to the table at the end of the bed. Reaching for the paper and board she wrote on, and a quill that she taps the extra ink off the nib in the other hand.

Once gotten, she wriggles back into Magni's lap. This was not usually how these things were done, certainly, but she would insist this might be the best way to sort out all important matters in the Hold. Laying against Magni, tucking her head under her chin and leaning the board on her knees.

She begins writing names, methodical, ordered. Names that are familiar, prominent members of the Hold - "Tomorrow, we will send these invites tomorrow morning for dinner tomorrow evening." She draws a line underneath these, then another list. "Then we need to giving to the charities, and I would say... ale, given freely in the square. To let them drink - ? What do you think - ?" Her head tilts up her head, watching Magni's face. To see if she had misjudged or not.

[villieldr]

"Um."

Articulate and decisive, the Jarl. Always reliable. "Is that enough notice for the kitchen?"

It's probably a stupid question, but some part of her can only imagine Krogstad's face if she told him of the work of several days needing to be done in one. He'd smile, and he'd somehow make it happen, but he might give himself and several other members of the household staff heart attacks in the process.

And blinks, trying to get her head around all of this. Suddenly it feels like... a lot, and she feels very much like she wishes her father was here to council her on it. He had been so well respected, had worked so hard because his line was so new to holding the seat of Talonhold, and she wonders if she can do nearly so well. If she is going to be able to make it so good and safe a home for her wife and her child as he did for his.

"Ale," she agrees, a little thrown, "and— cider, perhaps. Candied fruit for the children."

[mahalakshmi]

"Believe me, the moment those words came out of Jarl Ingstead's mouth, they started preparing, wife."

Because yes, articulate. Very. It's then she makes sure to look back, up at her wife, then, nod slowly, beginning to take note of that too. "Their happiness should be ours. Ours should be theirs." Leaning up, she presses her face against the side of Magni's, nuzzling against the side of her cheek. "I will take care of it all. Do not worry about it. This is my duty. All you need do is drink."

It does beg one question, the most important one. One that makes sure she sets down her quill and parchment in her lap. Reaching up to touch her wife's face carefully. "You are happy, aren't you? Parties aside, of course."

[villieldr]

She leans into the contact, then, hungry for the comfort and the reassurance.

"I'm beyond happy to have you, and that we have— a child who will join us." Those two things give her more joy than she can find the words for. She swallows though, and her gaze drops. "I was not a good wife, in the beginning. I am still learning how to be Jarl. I... I hope I am a good mother. I lean on you so much already."

Too much, maybe. What if all that is more than Lakshmi wishes to manage?

[mahalakshmi]

She doesn't part from her, her hand lifting to cup Magni's face, smoothing across the side of her cheek to tilt her face down. Not to kiss her, but to look at her. "That is mighty praise, indeed. Consider I had not the faintest clue about you. I spent months thinking you loathed me and you wished me gone just for being near you."

Lakshmi brushes the tip of her nose against Magi's softly. "I do not think, or hope, I know you will be a great mother."

[villieldr]

Magni's expression turns a little wry. "Was that not because of my manner?"

Her awkwardness, her uncertainty and shyness manifesting as aloofness. Her brow furrows. "I don't want our child to think I loath them."

[mahalakshmi]

"Some," the admittance, plain, there could be no denying how hard she found Magni's silence in those early months. "The rest was everyone else in my ears." Her nose wrinkles, unhappy with the memory, not least the meddling that they'd both endured.

"They will not, for they will grow up speaking Jarl Magni," the teasing is light, niggling over the secret language of silence Magni used. "And where you might stumble, I will be there, and where I stumble, so too will you be able to help."

[villieldr]

"And if I had spoken that might not have hurt you."

It lies with her, in her eyes. Egocentric, most likely, and yet what suffering might she have spared her, her Rani who is dearest to her?

Where she looks to her Rani, there is so much worry. "You should not have suffered as you did.'

[mahalakshmi]

She shakes her head, her hand lifting to brace over Magni's heart, and firmly so. Let there be no mistaking. "You are not to blame for the foul things they whispered to me. We would have worked it out, sure enough, but they knew they could make it more painful than it had to be, and they did so."

If what all this proved was to show anything, all she and Magni had needed was time. Time they eventually got with no one prying and pushing and pulling.

[villieldr]

Magni makes a quiet sound of understanding, and lists closer— she wants to kiss her, win that reassurance from her, and comfort her Rani when she just confessed to being so scared. She is not entirely sure her desire to kiss her isn’t more selfish than supportive, though, and she bites her lip, a little worried.

[mahalakshmi]

Lakshmi gives no such pause - that determined way she knew what she wanted, she wanted to be as close to Magni as she could, to list into her, look up searchingly to her face. She pauses, as she watches her teeth catch on her lip. Her own hand, caught between them, lifts, gently brushing against her bottom lip to loosen it, to tug her nearer. "You kissed me first, in the forest? Do you remember? And now - this, I believe your land itself knows how much we mean to each other."

It's fanciful, daydream-like, all stories. But she has many of them, in her own way. "It has bound us, now."

[villieldr]

That makes her smile, brightness catching the corners of her mouth. "It knows you, as it knows me. You are of this place as much as you are of your homelands. These—"

A little sigh, happier, as her hands rest against Lakshmi's abdomen, thumb stroking over it, and she gently nudges her Rani's nose with her own. "This is your homeland, too."

And they would need to make sure that the child honoured the traditions of both their parents. They worshipped different gods— but maybe they could just let them decide which gods spoke most to them, and teach them a reverence for all of them. Quietly, "we were always bound. Even before we met."

[mahalakshmi]

She lays her hand over Magni's, bracing around her wrist, smoothing up her arm. Letting the brush tilt her, moving toward that affection, returning it as easily as she curves her face to nuzzle against her cheek. Brushing against her, finding steadiness in that same moment.

Afraid, yes, as often death could come of this as not - but... "This life and the next, as I swore." Then - then she kisses her, no more than a brush, just to the corner of that tucked in smile. Her lips soft, lingering there without going too far. "I am proud to carry a child of Talonhold."

Because there is... part of her, she knew, that was raised to a strict sense of duty, of pride, of know what her role would always be, that feels right in this. Correct in making sure that Magni's family continued and did so strongly. That now, more than ever, she could hold her head high and know her exact place amoungst them. Even when they whispered still that Magni would let her go when she felt like it.

[villieldr]

Magni smiles, makes a quiet, happy sound, hugs Lakshmi closer, and kisses her neck. "Our little one will be of both our homes, I promise. Both our gods, both our ways."

That, she does wiggle. Celebratory wiggle. We're going to have a baby.

[mahalakshmi]

She laughs, hard not too, her fingers curled lightly into Magni's clothes, leaning in to press her forehead to her shoulder. Shaking her head there - resisting a mighty urge to poke the great Jarl of Talonhold in her side.

"All your sweet words, are you going to be so sweet when I fat as a bear in winter?"

[villieldr]

A little laugh, and she gently bites Lakshmi's neck in reproof.

"I am always sweet."

[mahalakshmi]

The squirm is brief, hardly meant, because what follows is her leaning her head back, giving Magni all the space she could desire to roam. "You are. I do believe I have your sweetness exclusively to blame for this mess."

Which is a barely meant threat, guilt, because the truth could not be more obvious. She had not once stopped Magni from going about touching her, teasing her, no blessing like this would have come upon them if she felt anything less than Magni had. Her fingers had been as quick to undo the lacings on Magni's clothes and Magni's had been at undoing hers.

[villieldr]

She might feel Magni's smile against her skin, the drag of her tongue as she licks up the exposed line of her neck before biting down again, harder. "Do you?"

Low, rough, less threat and more offer before her mind can catch up that maybe she should rein that flirtatious impulse in. What if her wife is too fragile, now? What if she would prefer that they not touch each other again in that way until after the baby is born and she is recovered?

[mahalakshmi]

If it is something of a concern, it's not one Lakshmi presently has. Leaning back into her and letting her legs curl comfortably underneath her. Because truly what worse could come of the situation as she stretches out indulgently against her. Not silencing the pleased hum, the little hitched breathe as teeth sink into her skin. It's close, safe, comforting, despite the tumultuousness of the day's events.

Her eyes half closed, she sighs. "You do seem keen on having your wicked way with me." It's drawled out, all mocking with teasing words out of scandalous novels. "How am I to refuse your dashing looks? Your honey words?"

[villieldr]

"I always am," she admits. The words are true, while deliberately playing into Lakshmi's teasing.

And then she hums, very thoughtful. Lift her head to abandon Lakshmi's neck, and takes her time, ponderous and deep in thought, allegedly. "I will stop brushing my hair and bathing, to help."