WHO Bonnie Bennett, Sirius Black, Bennett-Black Twins •
WHERE A Park •
WHEN June 3, lunch time
Bonnie and Sirius take the twins to the park for a picnic. Baby milestones are reached.
WARNINGS C for cute
It was one of those days where it was far too beautiful to stay inside. The sun was shining, there was hardly any wind, and it wasn’t unbearably hot. If you had nowhere to go and nothing to do, just being outside was a good way to spend that time. So Bonnie had approached Sirius and convinced him that they should pack a lunch, and spend part of the day at the park with the twins.
They were growing so fast. Their first birthday was in less than a month, and they needed to make plans for that. They would be trying to walk on their own before either of them knew it, and then they wouldn’t need magic to be mobile.
She’d packed up a blanket, food and something to drink for all four of them, dressed the twins in something she could crawl around in easily, grabbed the babies bags, and they were off. The blanket was set down under a tree to provide some shade. They were definitely not the only ones who had thought this would be a good idea, because there were a number of other children and their parents scattered around the area.
“So some of the Covens here have a tradition around babies' first birthdays.” she said, explaining to Sirius about conversations she’d had with coven members in the past regarding the twins and their birthday. They were the first babies of Outlanders to be born here, and they were magic, apparently it meant something. “Anyway- hey.” She was temporarily cut off by Zayna getting her little hands on one of Bonnie's braids and tugging. “Hey, little miss- wouldn’t you rather play with an actual toy?” she asked gently, as she pulled her hair back, and set Zayna down on the blanket close to her brother. “Anyway, the Geliara coven invited us to celebrate the twins' birthdays with them. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I mean, I’m happy they extended the invitation, but told them we’d need to discuss it.”
There were days Sirius couldn't believe how lucky he was. He had family, friends, and, above all, Bonnie and their twins in a world that was free from wars and conflicts. At least, for the most part. Sure there was the occasional turkey uprising, but beyond that, they had peace. And that wasn't something to be taken for granted.
So there really wasn't any convincing to be done when Bonnie had suggested an afternoon at the park. The twins were all too happy to spend their hours crawling all over them and tugging on everything they could get their hands on. Sirius had been laying flat on his back, with Seren smacking his meaty little fists against Sirius' chest, when Bonnie brought up the twins' upcoming birthday.
He let his son continue to hit him, barely feeling the little hits, as he considered the invitation. "Honestly, I was hoping to spend that day with you and everyone we love, you know? I appreciate them wanting to do something special, but I want that day for us. But I know how important the covens and your work with them is as well, so I'll follow your lead on this."
When it came to his own personal wants and desires, he was all too ready to give them up. But he was getting better at voicing them at least. "There's this Indian tradition, where on the first birthday the eldest son or daughter cut their hair for the first time. I was hoping to do that at least? Maybe in the morning before everything else?" Sirius had been spending a lot of time trying to research his ancestral roots and traditions, trying to reclaim them after colonization and separating from his family's awful ways. He hoped his mother was rolling in her grave, from the idea of Sirius going back to the motherland's traditions.
Bonnie leaned back on one hand, legs curled up beside her, her other hand picking up Zayna’s favorite stuffed toy in an attempt to entice her with it. Never had she imagined she’d be doing this with her own kids. The Saltazman twins, sure, when they were babies. Or future kids that Damon and Elena would have. But this had never been in her future until alternate reality hopping started, and she who would have thought it would have taken that to bring her some measure of peace.
Her Coven work was important to her. It was near the top of her list, but not at the very top. The very top was her children, and their family. If Sirius wanted something more intimate, and wanted to stick with traditions, she wasn’t going to argue. Quite the opposite, she was happy to agree. “My work with the Covens is important, sure, but not as much as their first birthday. I’ll thank them for the invitation but decline. It’s more important to form traditions of our own.” Or, in the case of the twins first haircut, keep traditions going. If Sirius could introduce traditions from his culture, there was no way she was going to deny the twins that.
“First hair-cut in the morning then.” Even if they weren't going to do anything Coven related for the twins' birthdays, they should figure out exactly what they were going to do before they were scrambling. “I’d like to ask Regina to make them their first cake. Maybe we could have a small party for them in the backyard?” Or what qualified as a backyard by England standard anyway.
Sirius had been fully prepared to give up the day to the Coven, but was relieved when Bonnie agreed so easily to the day being theirs. It was nice, starting family traditions, doing things their own way. A blend of her beliefs and his newly rediscovered ones. These kids were truly going to be a blend of both of them and Sirius hoped he was around to experience that for the next few decades.
He grabbed Seren’s little hands with one hand and scooped him up with the other arm swiftly and rolled them into a sitting position, closer to Bonnie and Zayna. He released Seren’s hands to let them tug and pull at everything within reach and reached out with his newly freed hand to put it on Bonnie’s knee. “Thank you,” he said, warm and full of feeling. “I never thought having a family would be…this wonderful and I love the idea of doing this our own way. So thank you for helping us get to this point.” Then his smile widened, crinkling the corners of his eyes. “I don’t think we’ll have enough room in the backyard, might have to magically expand it to make everyone fit. Trying to keep it small isn’t going to work either, between the amount of close friends you and I have.”
Family was a touchy subject for both of them, for different reasons, all mostly associated with unpleasant memories. She was determined to not let anything from either of their families bleed over to their kids. No, they would have something close to a family that neither of their parents ever really had. Sitting up, she placed her hand over his, she squeezed it gently and returned his smile. “It was both of us that got us this far. And just hold onto that wonderful feeling when we’re in the future and we have teenagers to deal with.” Because a combination of the two of them as teenagers was going to be something.
When Zayna tried to pull herself up by Bonnie’s leg, she reached down and scooped her daughter up into her lap, sitting her on her leg and helping her balance there. “Yeah, you're right.” There would not be enough room if they wanted to invite everyone they loved. She continued, teasing, “That backyard is tiny. I still don’t understand how anyone in England qualifies those as a yard.”
Bonnie resigned her head to it’s fate as Zayna grabbed another tiny fistfull of hair and tugged. “It’s a good thing there’s magic, isn’t it?” she asked, this time directed at both of their kids. Bonnie put her free hand palm up in the space between the two siblings, and a few seconds later two butterflies made of sparkling gold began flying in circles in front of them. They were completely harmless, though Bonnie had to use her hand supporting Zayna to keep her from reaching too far forward to try and grab one of them.
The squeals of delight that were coming from the two babies had Sirius winching, but the smile was still firmly on his face. “You Americans and your need for bigger and better. Honestly, I have no idea how you have so much space in your rooms. Just more chances for clutter.” The joke was clear in his words. They were always expanding and moving the rooms in Grimmauld Place around to make more space because of how limited movement would be otherwise.
He was going to continue poking at her - something about Tumbleweed and how bigger was better in Texas, but did they really want to think of Texas as the pinnacle of good things? - when Zayna got frustrated by not being able to catch the butterflies and slammed a tiny little palm against Bonnie’s arm. “Mama!” The accusation was clear in that one simple word.
Her first simple word.
Twins tended to be behind other babies their age in development, so it wasn’t unusual for her first word to be at 11 months. But it was still a shock and Sirius laughed loudly at the sound of it. “Mama, think Zayna’s got some feelings she needs to express to you.”
The squeals were a decibel or two too loud, but Bonnie loved the sound all of the same. “Not bigger and better, just big enough to have a useful function. That way we don’t have to spell everything to meet your needs.” she briefly stuck her tongue out at him, because she was an adult.
She heard the word. Mama, in her Zayna’s tiny voice. But she could hardly process it. Bonnie froze for a moment, eyes locked on her daughters in disbelief. She hardly heard what Sirius said following again. The smile that broke across Bonnie’s face was huge. “She just spoke.” she finally said looking up Sirius. “Did you hear that?”
“I’m sorry baby girl.” Picking Zayna up with both hands, Bonnie turned her daughter to face her and lifted her up in the air, smiling up at her. The butterflies continued to flutter around on their own, spell still held. “But you just spoke! Your first word.” She lowered Zayna back down, and pulled her close, kissing her on the cheek. Then she focused on bringing one of the butterflies closer, having it land on her finger so Bonnie could bring it closer to Zayna’s reach. If she was too rough with it, it would explode into gold glitter and vanish.
“Her first word!” she repeated, this time looking at Sirius and their son.
“I heard,” Sirius assured her, amused. That was good. Bonnie deserved that, the first word. He reached over to rub a hand down the little girl’s back, while Seren, who was squishing his pudgy little face into Sirius’ chest, could be heard babbling those funny little nonsense words that babies often made. It seemed like he didn’t want to be outdone, but couldn’t quite form the right sounds to get out as a coherent word.
Putting Seren down on the blanket, he reached over to grab his phone and pulled up the camera app. Holding it up to encompass both mother and daughter in the picture, Sirius said, “Say mama!” And on command, Zayna squished her little face up and shouted, “Mama!” Click.
If it was possible to melt on the spot, she would. She was a mom, but somehow that title hit differently when it came from your actual child. She had to keep herself from pulling Zayna into too tight of a hug. To make it better, Sirius had the moment captured on camera. Thank god for him. “Such a smart girl.” Bonnie cooed, even though logically she knew this meant the mimicking of words was just around the corner.
With Sirius on his phone taking the photo, Seren continued to babble into his dad’s chest, trying to get his attention once again. Bonnie put her hand out to ask to see Sirius’ phone so she could see the picture he had just taken when another sound grabbed her attention.
“Dada!” It didn’t come from Zayna, who was still sitting and trying to bounce on Bonnie’s leg. It came from Seren, who was reaching up toward Sirius with a face that very clearly said what about me.
Sirius dropped the phone almost immediately when he heard those two wonderful syllables come together. He had been a father the moment he had come back to Vallo for a second time, but this was the first time he was actually being called one and he nearly shed a tear over it. Scooping Seren back up, he held him forehead to forehead. “Sorry, what was that?”
Smacking his lips together, Seren pushed out another “Dada!” and then blew a raspberry, causing Sirius to laugh and lay a big old kiss on his cheek.
Oh he could not wait to tell Rasalas about this. A pang in his heart reminded him that Remus wasn’t around to hear the wonderful news, but he pushed it away. This was a purely happy moment and nothing could ruin it. “Did you hear that Bonnie? Dada.” Sure, it meant grandpa in Hindi, but they’d work on getting that ‘-y’ in there at some point.
There had to be some perks to having a millennial who was essentially raised ‘in the muggle world,’ because Bonnie had her phone out so fast, and pointed straight at Sirius and Seren, in the hopes of getting that on film.
“I heard, Dada.” she confirmed, still filming with one hand while steading Zayna with her other. “One twin never far behind the other.” she mused, which they could potentially use to their advantage if that pattern continued through the years. This was one of those moments where she was sure the sky could come crashing down, and it still would not manage to dampen her mood or remove the smile on her face. Bonnie set her phone down, and carefully picked up Zayna to pass her over to Sirius, so he could have one twin in either arm. “Here, hold them up, look cute. I need photos of this day.”
With a twin in each cradle of his elbows, Sirius beamed widely as he held them up. “Look at mama, children,” he directed, feeling all kinds of warm and happy as they posed for pictures. He didn’t tire even for a second, as Bonnie got her fill in of pictures. When she was finally satisfied with what she had gotten, he set the babies back down on the ground and held out a hand for her phone. “Come on, it's your turn now.” There was no way they weren’t going to have a billion pictures of this day.
Eventually, though, the twins started fussing and it looked like their cute little family picnic was coming to an end. “How about we get these rugrats back home for their afternoon nap and then we can indulge in a little daydrinking?” Sirius asked, as he started to pack up their leftovers and the toys they had brought for the twins.
She had fun with their makeshift photoshoot, by the time it was done she would have enough photos on her phone to keep her swiping through to find the best ones for a while. When those were found, she’d eventually get them framed.
“That sounds like a fantastic idea.” she agreed easily, helping him back up their possessions, picking up the twins, and then shaking out and folding up the blanket they had been sitting on. “I say we’ve earned it.” or at the very least, the twin’s first words deserved a toast. If they were really lucky, the twins wouldn’t give them too much trouble when trying to get them down for their nap.