Chapter Text
1 YEAR LATER.
During his time in Valhalla, Magnus has grown accustomed to waking up to the sun streaming in on his face, with it now being over 2 years since he arrived in Valhalla on that cold January day, he is used to being woken up by the sun.
So when one morning he is dreaming peacefully of a picnic in the woods with Alex and Robin, he is hugely shocked to be woken to the feeling of a weight landing across his ribcage, knocking the wind out of him.
With a cry of surprise, Magnus opens his eyes and finds rosy cheeks, curly dark hair and big grey eyes looking back at him. A face he would recognise anywhere in any of the nine worlds. Robin.
“Woah hey Robsy, how’s my girl hm?” Magnus asks, his voice a little hoarse and croaky from sleep.
Robin babbles something with a huge smile on her face and throws her arms up in the air in delight before laying herself down on Magnus’ chest, her little way of giving him a hug. It melts his heart every time.
Magnus runs a hand over Robin’s dark hair and kisses her forehead.
“Aww birthday cuddles with dada huh Ro-Ro?” Alex’s voice suddenly fills the room, and Magnus looks up to see her standing in the doorway to the kitchen, grinning at he and Robin, not a hair out of place as usual.
“Sure is, told you she’s a daddy’s girl.” Magnus teases as Alex comes over and lays down beside him and Robin.
“Mmm well I can’t say I blame her, you are pretty great.” Alex laughs, leaning over to kiss Magnus, somehow even more madly in love with the dork after their first year of parenting together. He is such a loving and attentive dad to Robin, it brings immense joy to Alex every time she sees them together.
“How’d she get out of her crib, by the way?” Magnus asks, putting one arm around Alex as she lays her head on his shoulder, and keeping one hand on Robin’s back as she stays cuddled up on his chest.
“Well it seems that for her first birthday our little girlie pop gave herself the gift of climbing. I watched her climb out of her crib a few minutes ago, like it was the easiest thing in the world.” Alex tells him.
Magnus sighs. “Oh we are so in for it now.”
Meanwhile, the common room of floor 19 has been overtaken by Mallory, Samirah, T.J., Gunderson, Blitz and Hearth.
Sam, Blitz and Hearth had all come from Midgard this morning, while Mallory, T.J. and Gunderson somehow managed to quietly sneak into the living room early this morning before Magnus, Alex or Robin got up for the day.
The 6 of them have spent the last few hours decorating and setting up for a party they have planned to celebrate Robin’s first birthday.
As far as any of them are aware, neither Magnus nor Alex have any idea that they’ve been planning this for a while now, so hopefully it should be a complete surprise.
“Hey guys, what did everyone get for Robin? What kind of presents do you get for a one year old?” T.J. asks the room as he and Mallory hang up a ‘ Happy birthday!’ banner over the door.
“I made all her gifts myself actually, a couple of outfits and some cuddly toys, we all know how much that kid loves to cuddle.” Blitz grins, his tone full of fondness. Robin is a very affectionate and sweet little girl, she always wants to hold someone’s hand, sit in their lap, cuddle them, etc. Most often when he and Hearth are babysitting, Hearth will carry Robin around on his shoulders, according to him, Robin “Likes to be up high” and it also means Hearth has his hands free to sign with.
Blitzen figured some cuddly toys for Robin to curl up with at night are the perfect gift for her.
I got her some coloring books and building blocks. And made her some ASL flash cards, to help her keep learning ASL. Hearth signs, patting his pockets once he’s finished signing, to make sure he did remember to put the home made flash cards in his pocket before leaving Midgard.
Knowing ASL has proven very helpful for Magnus and Alex when it comes to communicating with Robin, they and everyone else have used signs with her from day one.
Robin is yet to speak her first word aloud (though Jack insists he heard her say his name a few times.) but she has signed a few times, mainly things like More and Food .
“Aw man! Why didn’t I think of something like that?!” T.J. exclaims, slapping his knee in annoyance.
“Were we supposed to all get her more than one thing? I only got her the one thing, a book on Irish folklore and legends like Oisín i dTír na N’Óg, Cu Chulainn , stuff like that.” Mallory explains, hoping that Robin will love the stories as much as Mallory did at her age, and still does. She may be in a Norse afterlife and the daughter of a Norse God, but she still holds a lot of space and love for her Irish culture and heritage.
“I only got her one thing as well, I got her a wooden jigsaw of some birds and flowers and stuff.” Sam adds, having spent a while with Amir debating what to get their niece for her first birthday.
“What did you get her Jefferson, a mini rifle?” Gunderson jokes.
“Oh ha-ha, no I got her some play-doh, though I’m kinda second guessing that decision now, she’s probably too little for it.” T.J. admits in a tone of doubt, rubbing at the back of his neck.
“Oh no I’m sure she’ll love it, though I doubt Magnus and Alex will. She’s gonna make an absolute mess with it, probably try and eat it too. They are gonna kill you.” Mallory laughs, making T.J. feel even worse. He never considered how messy play-doh can be, or that Robin is going through a phase where she seems to think everything is food.
“Given that she’s tried to eat clay before, yeah I’m sure she’s gonna think bright colorful clay is definitely food.” Gunderson laughs, still able to clearly see the image of Magnus begging Robin to spit out whatever she had in her mouth, into his hand, and Alex having to get up from her potter’s wheel every few seconds to keep Robin away from it. After that they set up a playpen for Robin in their room and the common area so she can have a safe place to play and hang out without the risk and worry of her getting into something she shouldn't'.
“I thought it would be a great gift because she’s a potter’s kid!” T.J. defends himself, wondering if there might be something more suitable in the Valhalla gift shop, maybe a snow globe or something.
“Don’t listen to them T.J. Play-doh is a great gift for Robin, I mean I’m sure she will try to eat it but she tries to eat everything, it’s just what babies do. You two are so mean.” Sam assures T.J. before shaking her head in mock dismay at Mallory and Gunderson, who are both notorious for teasing poor T.J.
“Awk I’m allowed to be mean to T.J., sure he’s basically my wee brother.” Mallory laughs, folding her arms and resting them on T.J.’s shoulder.
“I’m older than you! By like 100 years!” T.J. exclaims.
“I know but you just… you just have little sibling energy!” Mallory shrugs, always forgetting that not only was T.J. older at his time of death than Mallory was at hers, but that also they were born centuries apart.
Before T.J. can reply, the doors to the common room swing open and in step Magnus and Alex. Magnus with a green and pink diaper bag slung over his shoulder, and Alex with Robin on her hip.
It’s still strange even after a year, for everyone else to see their friends with a baby, but at the same time it can be easy to forget that Robin hasn’t always been here.
A look of surprise crosses both Magnus and Alex’s face as they take in the scene before them, and even Robin seems intrigued by the balloons tied to a chair near the door, reaching out her little hands to bat at the balloons, laughing as she watches them bob around. Though she quickly tires of the balloons and soon looks for something else to grab at.
“What’s going on in here?” Alex asks, as she steps further into the room, wincing as Robin grabs a handful of her hair.
“A party of course, for the hotel’s most adorable resident!” Sam enthuses, walking up to Alex’s side and leaning in to kiss her niece on the cheek, before carefully and gently prying Robin’s hand from Alex’s hair.
Robin giggles as Sam’s breath tickles her, and she quickly goes from trying to grab at Alex’s hair, to trying to grab Sam’s hijab .
“The place looks amazing, how long did it take you guys to set this up? I was in here only a few hours ago and none of it was like this.” Magnus asks, looking around him, very impressed with how quickly his friends pulled this all together.
“About an hour or so, Hearth may or may not have used a little magic to speed things along.” Blitz says with a knowing smile. A faint smile graces Hearth’s face and he shrugs nonchalantly, as if his use of magic is something simple and unimpressive.
Not really supposed to use it unless I have to, but willing to break rules for Robin, would do anything for her. He signs, quickly spelling out Robin’s name and feeling very grateful that Magnus and Alex didn’t give their daughter a long and complicated name that would take Hearth forever to finger spell. Though even with Robin being a relatively short name, Hearth still has a unique name sign for his niece, the letter R followed by the sign for bird. It’s like his own personal nickname for Robin, and with her being as clever as she is, she already seems to know when Hearth uses her name sign, and actively responds to it.
“Aww guys, this is awesome, thank you so much. We weren’t going to do anything much today since Robin won’t remember her first birthday, but this is lovely.” Magnus beams, his tone full of appreciation as he runs a hand over his daughter’s mop of dark hair, while she chews on her hand and looks around her in awe.
Teething, they have found out, is a horrible time for the parents and the child.
“She deserves a celebration whether she’ll remember it or not!” Gunderson loudly proclaims, making Robin jump at the volume of his voice and grip tightly onto Alex’s pink jacket, while Alex glares at Gunderson. Robin is pretty used to hearing her Uncle Gunderson speak so loudly, but sometimes he still ends up shocking her, scaring her and even sometimes making her cry. Which in turn makes him feel extraordinarily guilty and feel like crying himself.
“Oops, sorry Robin.” Gunderson sheepishly says in a much quieter tone, while Alex continues to glare at him while lovingly and protectively cupping the back of Robin’s head and gently swaying her side to side to help her calm down.
“I know baby, your Uncle really needs to remember that I once threatened to rip his vocal chords out myself, and I meant it then and I mean it now.” Alex coos in a false bright and cheery tone.
“What do you think of all this Robsy? Did your Aunts and Uncles do a good job setting up a birthday party for you, huh?” Magnus softly asks, his face lighting up with joy when Robin grins up at him, showing off her two lower front teeth and her one upper front tooth.
“No Percy, Annabeth or Amir?” Alex asks, setting a now happy Robin down, so she can crawl around and explore her environment.
“Unfortunately not, Amir volunteered to stay back at Chase Space, and I couldn't get permission from Odin for Percy and Annabeth to come to Valhalla even for a few hours.
But the three of them do want to have a celebration for Robin in Midgard later this week, they all really want to see her soon.” Samirah tells them.
“Will there be falafel?” Magnus hopefully asks.
“Naturally.”
“Then I’m in!”
While everyone else talks, Robin rapidly crawls across the floor of the living room, making a beeline straight for her Hearth, a huge grin already on her face.
Hearth notices her coming towards him immediately, and with a smile of his own he kneels down on the floor and holds his arms out in encouragement.
Robin soon reaches him and throws herself into his arms, almost knocking them both back from the force with which she launches herself at her Uncle, making Hearth give a rare quiet laugh.
Happy birthday! Hearth signs to Robin, his gestures grand and big to emphasize his excitement and enthusiasm. You are 1 already! How?! Feels like you were only born yesterday!
Robin smiles up at Hearth and clumsily brings her hands together in an attempt to clap.
You want present? Hearth asks Robin with a knowing smile, fully aware that Robin loves opening things, Hearth and Blitz wrap up ordinary household objects that they already have lying around, and let Robin rip the paper off them, just to keep her amused. She doesn’t care too much about what’s underneath the wrapping paper, she just loves the act of ripping the paper off.
Robin’s eyes widen as Hearth reaches behind him and pulls out her first gift, a rectangular shape wrapped neatly in sky blue wrapping paper, tied off with a yellow ribbon.
Hearth sets the present in front of Robin and signs Here you go, happy birthday Robin! Love you very much!
Robin immediately sets to work on ripping off the wrapping paper, having the time of her life shredding and pulling and everything else. When she gets to the box of stacking blocks that are the actual present, she looks up at Hearth and tilts her head to the side like a confused puppy.
You know what it is? Robin shakes her head.
I’ll show you. Hearth lifts the box of blocks up and holds it between he and Robin, so the little girl can get a better clearer view of the gift. See this? Hearth points to the image of the blocks on the front of the box. Blocks, to stack, make things with. Want to open it?
Robin nods, and watches intently as Hearth attempts to pry open the top of the box ( why do they have to make things so unreasonably difficult to open?!)
Just then, Hearth feels a tap on his shoulder and looks up to see Blitzen.
What you up to? Blitz signs, crouching down next to his husband and Robin, but refusing to sit on the floor and crease his paisley waistcoat and trousers.
Showing Robin her birthday present, stupid thing hard to open. Hearth signs with a frustrated look on his face.
Blitz looks at Robin and shares a grin with her, shaking his head slightly and jokingly rolling his eyes which makes her laugh and clap in delight.
Silly Elf, let me do it. Blitz signs to Hearth, reaching over and plucking the box from his boyfriend's hands.
In a matter of seconds he has opened the cardboard box and pulled out a plastic bright yellow and red tub. When he flips the lid of the tub open he sees it is filled with brightly colored wooden blocks.
Blitz can’t help but frown in distaste at the color of the blocks and the tub, and the intensity of the color.
Why such bright colors? And only primary colors. Why no pink or purple or even orange?! Blitz signs to Hearth, as the Elf tips the tub over, spilling the blocks out onto the floor, making Robin grin even wider and clumsily clap her hands in delight. Or maybe she’s signing more , it can be hard to tell with a toddler who doesn’t have great hand eye coordination just yet.
Hearth just shrugs, as he begins to help Robin stack some of the blocks.
Robin is enthralled by the blocks for about half an hour, before she seems to get tired of them. She leaves the blocks to one side, then grabs one of her favorite books from the coffee table behind them. Corduroy by Don Freeman, a book that Alex bought on a whim when Robin was a few months old, which Robin has since grown to love, and it is usually her first request when wanting to hear a story.
Robin clumsily drops the book in Blitz’s lap. (he conceded and sat down after about 10 minutes of crouching, getting his outfit creased is worth it to spend time with Robin and entertain her.)
Robin then crawls over to Hearth and up onto his lap, slumping down and resting her head on his chest and looking at Blitzen expectantly.
Blitz laughs lightly. “Oh you want me to read to you while you cuddle with your Uncle Hearth, huh?” Robin simply nods.
So for the next few minutes, Blitz reads to Robin while she dozes in Hearth’s lap, her dark eyelashes fluttering against her brown skin like butterfly wings on a flower.
Hearth continuously soothingly strokes her dark curly hair, looking down at her sleeping form with eyes full of love, feeling immensely grateful that this is where he has ended up in life, surrounded by friends who are family in all but blood, his boyfriend at his side and precious little Robin in his lap, so comfortable and secure in his love and care for her that she can just curl up on him and sleep.
Across the room, Alex nudges Magnus and nods at the little trio of Hearth, Blitz and Robin.
“How stinkin cute are they?” She quietly says, gesturing towards their friends and their daughter.
Magnus follows her gaze, and breaks out into a grin of his own, his heart lifting and warming at the sight. His two best friends, his brothers, and his miracle baby girl. Life (or is it afterlife?) doesn’t get much better than this.
After waking up from her brief nap in Hearth’s arms, Robin is full of energy again and enjoys a very long but very fun game of peek-a-boo, with Samirah, who uses her green hijab with it’s camouflage powers, to make the game more entertaining, though it still gets tiring after a while.
“I love her so much but thank Allah she’s done with peek-a-boo.” Sam laughs to Amir, as Robin joins T.J. on the sofa, where he begins to attempt to teach her how to use the control for video games, cheering her on when she correctly moves the joy sticks or hits the correct button.
“So no risk of you deciding not to be a pilot and become a nanny or something instead?” Amir teases, knowing that Sam hates when people notice she’s good with kids, and find it unbelievable that she could possibly want a career that doesn’t involve children.
Sam rolls her eyes lovingly and lightly shoves Amir, before leaning in to give him a quick kiss, not noticing when Alex snaps a picture, whispering to Magnus about a photo album of Robin’s life.
When Robin loses interest in the video games, she crawls over to Halfborn, who is sitting in an armchair near the fireplace, playing a game of cards with Mallory.
Feeling something brush up against his legs, Halfborn glances down, and grins when he sees Robin blinking up at him.
“Hello little lass!” he happily exclaims, setting his cards down and reaching down to pick Robin up and set her in his lap. “How’s my favorite honorary berserker eh? Are you having a nice birthday?”
Robin babbles incoherently and then holds up an uncapped pen, like it is the greatest treasure in all the worlds.
“Ahh is this your weapon of choice hm? Interesting choice little bird!” Over the last year, Gunderson has taken to calling Robin ‘Little bird’, given she shares a name with the flighted animal, and certainly moves about as fast as one. It’s a name that really only he uses for her, everyone finds it absolutely adorable that he has his own nickname for her, the way Hearth has his own name sign for her.
“They do say the pen is mightier than the sword.” Mallory notes.
“So they do! What do you think of that Robin, are you going to be a fighter in a different way than us? Are you going to play Loki at his own game? Defeat him with words, is that the plan?” Gunderson asks, lightly bouncing his niece in his lap, making her giggle loudly.
“Or the power of friendship, like your da.” Mallory chuckles, thinking back to the flyting between Magnus and Loki, on Nagalfar.
“DADA!” Robin loudly exclaims, causing Mallory and Gunderson to freeze in surprise and exchange a wide eyed look. No. way. Robin just ever so casually said her first spoken word.
“Did she just…?” Mallory trails off in shock, looking between Gunderson and a brightly smiling Robin.
“I… think she did. Can you say it again little bird, who’s that?” Gunderson encourages, pointing to Magnus just a few feet away.
“DADA!!!!” This time Robin’s exclamation is even louder and catches the attention of everyone in the room.
“Oh my gods!” Alex gasps, grabbing at Magnus’ arm in excitement. “Did you hear that?!”
Magnus takes a second to respond, but he laughs lightly and nods, feeling like he may cry with pride. His baby girl just said her first word, and it was dada . This, Magnus thinks to himself, has to be the most amazing feeling in the entire galaxy.
“I did! I heard her, she said dada, she said my name!” Magnus exclaims, his tone breathy and teary with joy and honor.
When Gunderson sets Robin down on the floor so she can crawl over to Magnus and Alex, Magnus crouches down as Hearth had done earlier, and scoops his baby girl up into his arms when she crawls into his lap.
He kisses her cheek and takes a moment to just take in and appreciate the feel and weight of her in his arms, and to bask in this amazing feeling of love and pride he feels.
“Dada!” Robin exclaims again, breaking Magnus from his thoughts.
“Hi Robsy! Oh I can’t believe you said your first word, on your first birthday! You are so clever aren't you? I love you Robin, I love you so much!” he coos, kissing her cheek again, making her laugh and push his face away, his breath tickling her cheek.
“I always knew she was a genius, aren’t you Robin? Aren’t you the smartest baby in all nine worlds?” Alex adds, tickling her daughter lightly under the chin, making her scream with laughter.
About an hour later, just before the party starts to wind down and just before Robin starts to come down from her sugar rush from the small birthday cake Sam made for her, the doors to the common room swing open and in steps Odin.
Everyone freezes on the spot almost instantly, not quite sure what to do, or why the Allfather is here. Is Odin perhaps mad at them for hosting a party for Robin, despite the fact that many other Einherji throw parties all the time for no particular reason? Or perhaps he has come to join the party and wish Robin a happy birthday?
Afterall Odin is surprisingly fond of the little girl, he usually comes to visit her at least once every few weeks, often bringing a gift for Robin, a toy of some sort, and telling her stories about the nine worlds and all Odin himself has seen and done in his life. (In a child friendly way, of course.) He is very gentle and kind to Robin, and extremely patient, never minding when she gets curious about his eyepatch or anything else.
In return, Robin wholeheartedly trusts him. She absolutely adores him, loves him even, and really enjoys Odin’s visits, always mesmerized by his stories. There is no doubt that she will always remain loyal to him, and fight on the side of the Gods at Ragnarök. Not just because her parents are Einherjar, but because Odin and Frigg (and many other Gods) are so kind and good to her, making sure they earn her loyalty on the day of Ragnarök, and not assume they have it, or demand it from her.
“No need to stop the celebrations on my account.” Odin assures the small group. “I won’t be staying long as it is, I simply stopped by to wish my favorite little honorary Einherji and my favorite Valhalla resident, a very happy birthday.” he adds with a smile, walking over to the sofa where Robin is sitting with Magnus, where they had been reading a picture book.
When Robin sees Odin, she beams up at him and lets out a little giggle of excitement, as she pulls herself to her feet, gripping onto the sofa with one hand while Magnus places a hand on her back to help her keep her balance. Robin has been able to stand for a while now (though is still yet to take her first steps.) but she’s not entirely steady on her feet and often ends up falling, which is fine on the grass or indoors when she’s on flat flooring, but falling off the back of the sofa would not be a great way to end her first birthday.
“Hello little one.” Odin says in a fond tone, smiling warmly down at Robin and running a hand over her hair, the way a grandparent might. “A little birdie tells me it’s your first birthday today, what a milestone!” Robin giggles. “I have a gift for you little warrior, two gifts in fact. One from myself and one from my wife, Queen Frigg.”
At the mention of her mother, Mallory grows stiff. Over the last 2 years since finding out that her mother is Frigg, Mallory has tried to accept this fact and bond with her mother, but it’s never as simple as that.
“Is… is Fri_…. Mam here?” Mallory asks, trying to keep her tone steady and neutral as she looks around the room.
“Not today Mallory, no. But she does wish to see you, remember you are always welcome in Asgard, your mother would love to spend more time with you, it would make her day if you visited her. And I would not be displeased either, you are after all one of my best warriors.” Odin calmly tells her, briefly taking his attention off Robin, to glance at his stepdaughter.
Of course, Odin is not thrilled that his wife was unfaithful to him and bore a demigod child, but that issue is between him and Frigg. His wife’s relationship with another man was not and is not Mallory’s fault, she did not ask to be born from an affair. So, unlike other Gods from many other pantheons, Odin harbours no ill will towards his stepdaughter.
“Aww you could introduce Gunderson to your mom! See if she approves of your choice of boyfriend!” Alex teases, earning a glare from Mallory and an amused smirk from Gunderson, who happily accepts when Alex holds a hand out for him for a high-five.
“Shut up you!” Mallory orders making Alex laugh even harder, before turning her attention back to her stepfather. “I… thanks… for the invitation. I’ll eh… see… I’ll think about it.” She says in an awkward tone, rubbing the back of her neck nervously as her cheeks flush about as red as her hair.
Odin simply nods, then turns his attention back to Robin. Seemingly out of nowhere, Odin produces two plush toys. In one hand he holds a plush raven, and in the other he holds a plush robin. He holds up the plush raven, first.
“This one is from me. The raven is my sacred animal, and for a whole year now, since you were born, little Robin, the raven has been sacred to you too. Upon hearing of your birth and safe arrival into the world, I ordered all crows in all 9 worlds to keep you safe wherever you may go, and to watch over you. Wherever there is a crow, little warrior, you will be safe.” He then hands the raven to Robin, who’s smile only seems to grow and immediately she starts chewing on the toy, which makes Odin chuckle affectionately.
Next, he holds out the plush robin.
“And this is from my wife, from Frigg. The very Queen who helped guide your mother as she brought you into this world, helped you transition from one side to the other, as it were.
A robin for a Robin, our favorite Robin. I am afraid we were unable to order all robins in the 9 worlds to look over you little one, but still, Frigg thought this plush robin would be a nice gift for you, and I must say I agree with her.” Odin passes the toy to baby Robin, who coos in delight and hugs the plushie tightly to her, clearly having two new favorite comfort items.
“Thank you sir, that is so kind of you and the Queen, I think it’s safe to say Robin really loves her gifts already.” Magnus thanks the God in a grateful tone, smiling as Robin holds her new toys up to Alex to show them off.
“Yeah raven’s are pretty cool, I’m kind of glad no one got her a toy snake though, bit too close to home.” Alex dryly says, suppressing a shudder at the thought of her mother, and how different today could have been if Loki had gotten his way, and taken Robin from Magnus and Alex when she was born. Today would have been a day of pain and mourning, instead of celebration and cheer.
Mostly though, she’s glad that they made it a whole year without any more attempts to start Ragnarök and no more trouble from her beloved mother. Hopefully they can make it a decade or two before Robin is destined to face down her grandmother.
Odin chuckles. “Yes I have not been much of a fan of snakes myself for some time, Alex.”
“Robin, can you say thank you to Lord Odin? Can you tell him how much you love your presents?” Magnus gently encourages his daughter.
Robin brings her hand to her chin and moves it downward and forward a bit, ASL for Thank you.
Odin grins and affectionately ruffles Robin’s hair. “Ah I see Hearthstone has been teaching you well!” He exclaims. “What a clever little warrior you are.”
Odin would never admit it of course, but secretly this little girl absolutely melts his heart with her sweet little face, her infectious giggle, sunny smile and joyful and sunny disposition. He is very glad he allowed Magnus and Alex to keep her and raise her here in Valhalla; she adds a certain joy to the place that has always been missing.
Not long after Odin’s departure, the party really begins to wind down. Everyone insists that Magnus and Alex go back to their room with Robin, and let them worry about cleaning up.
Neither of them argue, as they are both exhausted from not getting much sleep last night, due to Robin being kept awake by teething, making her fussy and clingy. It had been a long night for both Magnus and Alex, who alternated turns in staying up with Robin, trying to soothe her, dozing for an hour here or there on their chest, until finally Robin drifted off into a deep sleep around 5AM which allowed Alex to place her in her crib, after which Alex herself crawled into bed beside Magnus to try and get a few consistent hours of sleep.
When they walk back into their suite, Magnus sets the diaper bag down on top of one of the dressers, where they usually keep it, and takes Jack in his runestone form, off the chain around his neck and places him on the bedside locker so he can decide for himself if he wants to stay in rune form or transform into sword form.
While Magnus does that, Alex sets Robin down so she can crawl around and re-explore her surroundings, something she loves to do everyday.
“Magpie, can you keep an eye on her and I’ll go make us some coffee?” Alex asks her boyfriend, laying a hand on his arm and keeping one eye trained on Robin to make sure she doesn’t somehow get into something she shouldn’t, even though the suite is baby proofed.
“Sounds like a plan.” Magnus agrees, kissing Alex on the cheek before going to sit at the foot of the bed where he has a clear view of the entire room, and can therefore see Robin wherever she goes.
A few moments later, Robin grabs her box of building blocks and tips them out onto the floor in front of her, at Magnus’ feet.
“Oh yeah I saw you building something with your Uncle Hearth earlier, do you love your building blocks huh? Are you gonna be an architect like your Aunty Annabeth, when you get older?” Magnus wonders, looking at Robin and making an impressed expression, always ready to hype up his baby girl and his favorite big cousin. “You guys could start your own architect firm! You could call it…. Chase-ing dreams! Or something.”
Robin just gives him a blank look, then randomly selects a yellow block and offers it to Magnus.
She then opens her hands and turns them upwards, so her palms are facing the roof, and furrows her brow. Using the ASL sign for ‘What’, to ask What’s that?
“This is a block, Robsy, a block. Buh-law-k, block.” Magnus informs her, sounding out each syllable for her, something Sally Jackson advised them to do with Robin to help her as she begins to learn to speak aloud.
“Boq!” Robin repeats, just as Alex comes back in with a mug of coffee in each hand.
“It’s official, she’s a genius!” Alex exclaims in a giddy tone, grinning with Magnus and feeling like she could just burst with pride, 2 words in the same day! They really did make the smartest baby around!
Before Magnus can reply, a different male voice rings out from beside the bedside locker.
“Señorita, can you say ‘Jack’?! Or ‘Sumarbrander’?!” Jack asks, now back in sword form and leaning up against the nightstand
Robin looks at him questionably.
“Hey come on I can say the name of things too, your dad isn’t the only one who can name stuff! In fact, I can do you one better! That’s not just a block, bestie, that’s a yellow block!” Jack proudly announces, thinking that will get Robin to say his name. Like, maybe she’ll say “By my grandpa, Jack! You’re a genius!”
But once again, he is met by silence. Jack sighs internally, wishing that Robin’s power was something like telepathy, that would be so cool. But so far the only power she seems to have is being able to heat things up, like Magnus.
“Ok good talk bestie, we’ll try again tomorrow!”
Over the next hour or so, Magnus and Alex sit together at the foot of their bed, sipping their coffee and watching Robin crawling around, still fascinated with everything in her surroundings, like she’s never been in this room before. As if she wasn’t born on the very bed her parents are sitting on, exactly one year ago today.
“I can’t believe how much I love her.” Alex quietly says to Magnus, laying his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder. Over the last year since Robin’s birth, since seeing her perfect face for the first time, Alex has somehow found himself loving her more and more everyday. His heart grows more every day, to give him room to love his beautiful and wonderful daughter more each day. It really is amazing.
“Me neither, she’s so perfect and amazing. This last year has been the best year of my life… afterlife? Both! I cannot wait to spend every second of every year between now and Ragnarök loving you and our baby girl. I’m so excited to keep raising her and getting to know her more and more. I can’t wait to see what else her little personality will be like, I hope she’s as brave and as confident as you.” Magnus gushes in a soft voice, wrapping an arm around Alex’s waist and pressing a kiss to his head.
Alex beams. “And I want her to be as sweet, gentle, warm and kind as you.”
“And I want her to have my sense of humour!” Jack interrupts their sweet moment, having stopped what he was doing, describing the plot of Shrek to Robin (It was Natalie’s favorite comedy movie, Magnus often watches it with one earphone in during long late nights with Robin, and Jack often joins him.) and turns to face the young couple.
Magnus groans, while Alex scowls at Jack, contemplating picking the sword up and throwing him as far out the window as possible, losing him for another millennia. Or maybe just finding Frey and giving him his sword back.
“Jack! You ruined our sweet moment again! You always do that!” Magnus complains, thinking to himself that actually Robin’s conception and birth are a miracle, but not because Einherjar aren’t supposed to be able to reproduce, but because he and Alex never get a second alone without Jack interrupting them. Or so it feels, anyway.
“Oh well excuse me Señor! I was just trying to get onboard the whole ‘Hopes and dreams for Robin’s future’ thing! But no, no no I see where my opinion is not wanted, that’s fine, that’s cool, just trying to support you two delinquent teen parents, but fine, fine!” Jack rants, trying to downplay how he really feels.
“Hey Jack?” Alex says.
“Yes, Señor?” Jack asks in a hopeful tone, thinking Alex is going to say that he hopes Robin gets Jack’s sense of humour, too.
“Shut up.”
“RUDE!!!!” Jack loudly exclaims, before quickly turning back into a runestone pendant and settling back down on the bedside table.
“Gods you’re hot when you’re bossy.” Magnus teases with a grin, his eyes and face clearly displaying his devotion to and love for Alex. Alex, in turn, smiles proudly.
“I know, you told me. That’s how Robin happened.”
Magnus throws his head back and laughs deeply, before leaning in and kissing Alex.
“I love you so much.”
“Love you more, Beantown.”