anon asked: “Would you do a future child prompt with Ninian? I love your work!”
a/n: sorry this is so late!!! i like to space out the future child fics a lil but i got to looking at my list and DSJLKFJADF i forget how many i have lmao
she’s quiet: which is normal for her if she hadn’t been staring at you from across the room. her eyes seem troubled, and every time you turn your attention to her, she averts her gaze. it’s not like her to be this skittish.
something’s wrong, you assume, so you wait for her after the meeting, letting all the heroes file out before you go to ask if she’s alright. ninian seems to fluster at the sight of you, shifting nervously as you walk over to her.
“something bothering you?” you take a gentle tone with her, and she seems to relax a bit.
“ah... yes, perceptive as always...” she muses, “i just... don’t know how to tell you this...”
“you can tell me anything, you know that, right ninian?” you reassure her, taking her hand into yours.
“i was just worried because this is... a peculiar situation.”
“c’mon, ninian, nothing is peculiar with me. i came from a different dimension and i can summon heroes from other worlds from orbs. tell me what’s up.” ninian smiles softly, heart fluttering at your kindness.
“yes... of course, let me show you.”
“so she just appeared to you this morning?” you ask, sitting on the edge of her bed, watching the young manakete as her chest rises and falls as she sleeps soundly.
“yes... i was walking around the castle grounds... and i saw her passed out in the field...” she strokes the young girls hair, looking down at her softly. “she looked... out of place. i asked her where she was from but... she didn’t seem to know.” ninian’s face etches with worry. she had lost her memories at one point, she had confessed to you one night when the two of you were in the library, and seeing it happen to someone else probably brought back those memories. “the only thing she knew was her name... quinn.”
“she looks a little bit like you,” you pipe up, trying to divert the conversation, “that silver hair, she could be your little sister or something!” ninian giggles, covering her hand with her mouth.
“you know about nils but... i don’t have any other siblings.” she muses, “...or family for that matter.”
“oh, well she could be--”
“your daughter...” you hear the girl’s sleepy voice interject, “i had the weirdest dream that i was your daughter.” her silver chin-length hair sticks up at odd angles from where she had been moving in her sleep. ninian lets out a gasp.
“what an... odd dream.” ninian interjects, “how could you have dreamt that... [name] was your parent if you hadn’t... met them yet?” quinn blinks slowly trying to collect her thoughts.
“i don’t know, it felt so real though.” she stares ahead, eyebrows knitted together in thought, “you two were protecting me from some scary woman... telling me to stay back with veronica and then... i woke up.”
“do you think this was a memory or just a bad dream?” you ask, gently, trying not to stress out the girl.
“i’m not sure... my head hurts so much, mother, i just--” her eyes are tearing up, and ninian instinctively pulls her into her chest. “i don’t know and i’m scared.”
“shh,” ninian coos, rocking her back and forth. you stand there, a bit awkward as you try to decide what you can do to help. “it’s okay... i didn’t know who i was for a while but eventually... well, my friends were so kind to me it didn’t matter what my past was.”
“besides, you can stay with me and ninian until you know for sure what happened.” you smile warmly at the manakete, a hand on ninian’s shoulder.
“what if i... what if i never remember?” her frantic eyes drift between you and ninian, a bright red, much like ninian’s.
“that’ll be okay too... we’ll help you create new memories...” ninian whispers fondly, and the girl clings tighter to ninian, crying freely into her neck.
it didn’t take long for quinn to remember who she really was and where she came from. you and ninian had been helping her try to get her memories back almost all month; whether that be through listening to her talk about snippets of her life or helping her create new memories.
when she had realized that she was indeed you two’s daughter, both of you were ecstatic. it might not be the most conventional relationship -- the two of you weren’t wed yet, but everything about quinn made you love her even more.
