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Ajax wanted to wake up snuggling his beautiful wife, but he woke up to a face full of bright ginger hair with blonde streaks and freckles. He shifted his weight and found that his daughter, Jolena, was sleeping between him and his wife.
Ajax was living the dream for anyone, a nice home in each nation, a beautiful wife that just so happened to be the savior of each nation, and a cute daughter. Today, they were in his sleepy hometown of Morespoke, staying in their home that was across from his family’s. Ajax couldn't be any happier though, knowing that his wife can defend herself and that his daughter so far hasn't had anything happen to her. They barely lost track of her, and even if they did, they would usually find her curled up in a corner.
A yawn came from his left, and saw his wife finally waking up. She curled up next to their daughter and her bright, sun yellow eyes looked up at him with a smile. Archons, everytime she gave him that smile, it was like meeting her all over again.
“Good morning moi zvezdny svet, sleep well?” Ajax asked her. Lumine nodded and stretched her arms out.
“Like a log,” she let out a soft groan and slowly sat up. “And you?”
“Could have been better but our little lyubov had other plans, plans that didn’t allow me to see your beautiful face.” Ajax let out his signature smirk. Lumine giggled and brushed their daughter's hair out of her face.
“Little Jolena? But she’s too cute!” Lumine picked their daughter up as she was waking up. “Good morning sleepy head~!”
Jolena, slowly yawned and nuzzled into Lumine’s chest. “Five more minutes…”
Lumine smiled and and brushed Jolena’s hair, “Does my little girl remember what day it is?”
“Um...ish it Papa’s anniversary of the pwomise he broke to me?” She pouted while Ajax laughed from his side of the bed.
“Still hung up about that devochka? Just because I wouldn’t buy you a toy that you really wanted, doesn’t mean that your Mama wouldn’t kill me!”
“Hey! You spoil her way too much!”
“I spoil her too much? Girlie, you’re just as guilty as I am!”
Lumine pouted, “No, Jolena, but it is a day where Papa gets lots of toys! What day can you think of when you get toys?”
Jolena scrunched up her face, you could see the little mice hard at work in her head. After a minute of silence, she piped up with “Birthday! Ish today Papa’s birthday?”
“Ding ding ding! Papa’s birthday is today!”
Jolena looked up at Ajax, her sweet, doting, and loves-spoiling-her-rotten father. “You’re old!”
Welp, there goes his poor fatherly heart. Lumine, his sweet, beautiful, Celestia on Teyvat, cute wife, was laughing in his face while his daughter was staring at him, blank faced.
“You wound me, the love of my life girlies! I get you everything you want, yet this is how you repay me?” He clutched at his heart, a dorky and lovable grin at his face. “My own daughter thinks I’m old!”
“Then how old ish Papa?” Jolena tilted her head at him. Just like her mother, she was blunt yet curious about the world.
Ajax thought for a moment, “I think I’m 28 today.” He met Lumine when he was 19, four years passed and then they had Jolena. It had been five years and 24 days since she was born, so now Ajax was in his late 20’s.
“That’s almost as old as Babushka and Dedushka!” Rude, they were only in their mid-to-late 50’s.
Ajax rolled his eyes while laughing and he took Jolena from Lumine. He pinched her cheek while she whined loudly, “Take it back! You’re just as bad as Mama!”
Unknown to him, Lumine snuck out while he and Lorina were play fighting in their room. “Ajax! Come down for breakfast, it’s your favorite!” Hell yea, Calla Lily Soup for breakfast.
“Soup again?” Jolena pouted as he carried her to their kitchen.
“But it’s Papa’s favorite, will you be a good girl and eat what Mama made?” It was Ajax’s turn to give Jolena puppy eyes.
“No! All I had last week was Papa’s soup!” Jolena had been sick the week before with a bad cold after she forgot her winter coat in Snezhnaya of all places. Granted, while her father was Sneznayan and her mother was a possible god, she was born sickly. Luckily, because she was the daughter of the strongest known to Teyvat, she wasn’t going down that easily. So while Lumine was running around taking higher level commissions to get her medicine, Ajax was watching Jolena carefully.
Luckily, she got better after a few days, but they (or Ajax mostly) keep giving her soup. Making sure that she was all better and the medicine seemed to work perfectly. That was a scare and Ajax made sure to keep an extra coat next to the front door.
“But it’s Papa’s favorite soup, not even when you get your favorite candy?” Lumine asked Jolena. The key to Jolena’s heart, candy. More specifically, brownies, which was convenient for them because they could sneak in all sorts of healthy stuff for her. Their favorite trick was when she refused to eat her vegetables, they took them and baked them in brownies. She ate that up!
Jolena lit up, “Brownies with sprinkles on top?” Lumine nodded.
“Only if you’re a good girl and eat up the soup that I made!” Lumine faked a pout.
“I’ll be a good girl! Jolena will be the goodest girl for brownies with sprinkles!” She bounced up and down in Ajax’s arms. Ajax smiled and set her down, watching Jolena as she ran to Lumine.
Reaching up towards the bowl of soup, Lumine picked up the bowl and gave it to her daughter. Ajax hugged Lumine from behind as Jolena took the bowl from Lumine, said her thank yous, and went to their dining room.
“You didn’t have to do this Lumine,” Ajax nuzzled her neck. “I’ll be happy to cook for my beautiful wife and daughter.
Lumine looked shocked. “No way! After all these years, you are still insisting that you cook all the time! It’s your birthday, let me do the cooking!”
“But your job is to make sure that our family is safe, I want to make sure moi mir can only worry about herself.”
“Ajax....let me take care of household chores every once in a while at least. Please?” Lumine cued her own puppy eyes. That was a thing that ran in their family, puppy eyes.
Ajax sighed, “Lumine, I just want to--”
CRASH
His head shot up when the house started filling with Jolena’s loud sobbing. Ajax’s father instincts kicked in and ran over to where his little daughter was. There she was, in the middle of the floor with a broken bowl and soup everywhere.
“Devochka, Sweetie, tell Papa what’s wrong. What happened?” Ajax picked her up and cradled slowly. “Shhhh, Papa’s here little one.”
“I-I tripped! M-M-My leg stopped w-w-w-working, a-and then I-I-I fell!” Jolena wailed. “I-I messed u-up because o-o-of my s-s-s-stupid s-s-s-sickness!”
Ajax carefully moved out of the way of Lumine as she rushed up behind him to help clean up the mess. Ajax got a soft rag and started cleaning at his daughter’s face. “It’s not your fault my detka, it’s not your fault you were born like this.” He continued shushing at her. “Do you want some water? Here, let’s get you some water,” He slowly put her down on their kitchen counter and filled up a cup of water for her.
“Here you go,” He pulled her balled fists from her face and wrapped her fingers around the cup. “Drink slowly, deep breaths.” He picked her back up and went to go see how Lumine was cleaning up the soup.
Peaking around the corner, he saw Lumine finishing up and sweeping up the broken shards of porcelain. Carefully maneuvering his way around the cleaning supplies, he leaned next to Lumine. “How’s it going lyubov moya?”
She stood up, “All cleaned up!” She put her supplies down and went to her husband and daughter. “Don’t worry about it Jolena, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yes I did! I-I made a mess!” Her sobs started dying down.
“Jolena, why are you crying? Have we ever scolded you for making a mess?” Lumine asked her.
“N-No, but I-I know Papa says words I’m n-not allowed t-t-to say when he steps on m-my toys.”
“So why do you think Papa would say those words if you spilled soup?”
“Because Papa always s-says that Mama made it with l-love, and I d-don’t want food w-with love to go to waste,” she looked down and squirmed in Ajax’s arms.
“Honey, I would never get mad at you for something that you didn’t mean to do” Ajax held his daughter close. “Your sicklyness isn’t something that you should blame yourself for. So wipe your tears little one,” he poked at her stomach, causing her to giggle, “We’re visiting Babushka and Dedushka for my birthday! Let’s get you ready.” With that, he wiped her remaining tears and took her back up to her room to get her dressed.
*~❆~*
After Ajax and Jolena came back down, Lumine gave them an earful for trying to skip their breakfast. After tripping, Lumine carefully fed Jolena her soup. “Now do I get brownie?” she asked with big pleading eyes.
“Behave through the day and you will get the best brownie ever!” Lumine promised her.
Ajax cleaned Jolena’s face and made sure to snuggly wrap her up. Jolena, a little marshmallow in winter attire, was ready for the world. A scarf was wrapped around her neck in favor of her usual mask, her hair brushed back in messy pigtails. Holding her hand, they started walking her down to Ajax’s parents’ house.
One, two, three knocks and they were met with a “Come in!”
Walking in, they took off their winter coats and hung them up, they heard footsteps rushing towards them. Teucer rounded the corner, a lanky teenager now. “Auntie Lumine! Brother Ajax! Little Jolena! You’re here!” He walked over to them and gave them a hug.
“Teucer! You’ve grown so much since the new year!” Lumine exclaimed.
“Giant runs in the family lyubov. We’ve been married for six years, how could you forget?!” Ajax asked her, putting his arms around her waist.
“Oi! I don’t forget!” Lumine pouted at Ajax.
“Lumine!” Mama Anastasia walked out of the kitchen and took her daughter-in-law’s hands. “Come! Help me with Jaxie’s birthday lunch!”
“Mama! Lumi just finished cooking for all three of us and now you’re asking her to go back in the kitchen?” Ajax butted in.
“Ajax! You relax, I can do this. Go, enjoy your family time!” Lumines kissed his cheek and followed Anastasia to their family kitchen.
Watching his beloved wife go cook, he pouted and went to go see who else was in the house. Teucer was here, aged fifteen now, playing with Jolena on the back porch. Tonia had been born with a weak immune system, so his family went and rebuilt it so that the empty frames were covered in glass. This way, she could still watch the snow, but be sure that little baby Tonia wouldn't get sick unless she found a way to open the door that was almost always locked.
A few chairs in the corner and a fire pit lit in the center, Teucer was watching Jolena look out the glass walls. Her golden eyes were wide in wonder and awe. Ajax missed when Teucer used to look outside like that. Teucer now looked a lot like Ajax, except he wore his hair a bit longer, to the shoulder to be exact, and the fact that his freckles were fading as he grew. Smiling, he continued wandering around his childhood house.
Domesticity was never something he gravitated towards, but that was before he met Lumine. Now he had a daughter that he would fight to make sure she could live a full life. Knowing that she was one bad bug away from kicking the bucket, it didn’t help him that much.
He continued wandering around until he heard Lumine’s laughter. Sweet and bubby, that was the best way to describe her. He wished he could be more like her, always living in the moment and never worrying about the future. She didn’t care about the future, always saying that they’ll “cross that bridge when we get to it.” Sure she had her worries, but she found a way to brush them off and only look at the present. She didn’t mind that her daughter, their only child, was born weak. No, she saw it as a way to make sure that Jolena lived the best life she could.
Walking back to the warm living room, he saw his father, Papa Alekis, staring at his mother in the kitchen as the two wives ran around making sure that everything was ready. Just for this one day in the year, they wanted to make sure he was safe. That he was calm, cause archons know the amount on worries that go on in that brain of his.
Soon enough, dinner was called and everyone made their way to the dining room. Food filled the table, all of Ajax’s favorites. More Calla Lily Soup, Sweet Madames, Borscht, Pelmeni, Pierogi, Uhka, Crab, Ham, & Veggie Bake! Even Goulash!
Making sure Jolena ate her fill, (no soup though, according to her, she was “sick of all the soup that Papa gives me!”) he helped clean up any food that made it to her face. With a long yawn, it sign that maybe it was time for them to head home so Jolena can hver her nap.
Saying bye was hard for Ajax, especially since this is one of the few times a year he could see them. Kissed and hugs were exchanged for byes, promises that Ajax, Lumine, and Jolena would come by when they had free time.
*~❆~*
Despite Jolena’s protests that she was “a big girl who doesn’t need a nap time or night light,” she passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow. Lumine kissed her forehead and gave Jolena her Mr. Cyclops. Walking out, Ajax was nowhere to be seen. Walking around the house, she found him on the front porch staring into nothingness.
“Lumine? Remember when you told me you were pregnant?” Ajax asked her, his voice soft.
“How could I forget? You panicked, stormed a hili-camp, and stared at a samachurl for three hours. It wasn’t until the samachurl hit your head with their staff did you break out of your stupor.” Lumine laughed. “Definitely not a reaction expected from you.”
Ajax chuckled, “What else was I supposed to do? Have a normal reaction?”
Lumine laughed, “I suppose I should have expected more from you. But, this isn’t what you want to talk about, is it?”
“Perspective as ever dorogoy, but yes. I wanted to talk about my birthday after Jolena was born.”
*~❆~*
“LUMINE! JOLENA IS CRYING WHAT DO I DO?!” Ajax was holding Jolena as she wailed loudly. Who knew baby’s lungs were that powerful?
“Did you give her her bottle?” Lumine called out, rushing over to him.
“I’ve tried that but she slapped the bottle out of my hands!” Ajax whined.
“Give her here, maybe she just wants to snuggle with her Mama.” Lumine took Jolena from Ajax.
“Lumine, that won’t-”
Sweet silence. Lumine shot him a “wait that actually worked?” look. Smiling, he scooped his wife and three week old daughter. “I should have known that would work. Not even a month old and she’s already showing favoritism.”
Lumine laughed, “She better have me as the favorite parent, I gave birth to her and am kicking butt everyday while you watch over her here at home!”
“No fair! I cook all the meals and make sure the house is all nice and tidy for me beautiful wife!”
“Well, did you carry her for nine to ten months?”
“...” AJax pouted. “No faaaaair! My wife is bullying meeeee!” He whined like a child.
“I’m just telling facts like how I see it. Now, come! I ordered your favorite cake for your birthday!’
“I take back what I said earlier, my wife is the bestest!”
“And you know it!” Lumine smirked at him and walked over to their kitchen.
A nice and rich chocolate cake awaited him, it was one of the best he ever had! Granted, it was because his wife and new child were there with him. But it made it all the sweeter.