Manning Thorsen believes in (othala) wrote in repose,
Re: Eames/Rey/Atticus/Manning: the B&B
Sometimes things happened without a sound. Manning knew this, many years had taught it. Sometimes things were so abrupt that it seemed like they should have a sound, a whisper, a bang, but they had nothing beyond the exhale of breath stolen out of lungs that weren't prepared to give it.
There was no explosion, only an exhale. Atticus started to say something and the words cut off, his vision going distant. "We better sit," Manning said, and did, on the edge of a chair.
And then it was a bed. The floor beneath his boots was hard packed earth, and the boots he had now were deer skin, much like his breeches. He was shirtless, and behind him he could hear Torvi, but for once his eyes were not on his lover, but the bundle wrapped in his arms, eyes closed.
His first child was a little girl. Her lips plump and press together, milk at the corners from her mother. Her name was Astrid, a choice of Torvi's that he he had given his enthusiastic approval for. She yawns as he stares down at her fat pink cheeks. Boys were supposed to be the prize of all fathers, the ones that carried on the family name, but they were also the ones who's names could surpass that of their father's, and were the bane of jealous old men.
She was two days old, and she was the one that had stolen his heart in the little club of her fist, her tiny nails perfect and even. Torvi's hand ran down his back.
"I am going to take a nap," she said quietly, so as to not wake the bundle he currently held. He nodded, braids moving against his shoulders, his collarbones, one falling down to brush over her forehead. Her face pulled together, and he quickly brushed it out of the way as he stood, supporting her body with one massive arm.
Voice pitched low, he began singing to her, thumb sweeping over her features as if blessing her. His firstborn. His daughter --
The memory faded, sweet, and he was sighing when he fell back into the high backed chair. "May you have something pleasant."