morning rituals ;
fen riorson & daughter!riorson & xaden riorson summary: mornings were like a ritual in the riorson home for fen and his daughter. when talia left, xaden joined them each morning. the two siblings were left to handle the morning rituals on their own when they were the last ones standing. ✧ : this one is based on smth i thought of (and briefly mentioned) when i wrote family line so i’m glad i could write it for day 2 of parents weekend on @empyreanevents! technically a standalone, though i wrote this as the same riorson!sister as that fic wc: 2.7k
Fen Riorson’s young daughter was never one to sleep in. While her older brother Xaden loved to get as much sleep as he could - he was a growing boy - she arose with the sun much like her father. Fen loved an early start to the day. While the world was peaceful in slumber and he didn’t have to wear the title of Duke like a badge, he sat in his office and enjoyed the brief period of calm that he was guaranteed each morning. It was his favourite part of the day.
The morning ritual began shortly after his daughter turned three; one morning, she awoke before the sun. Usually, her mother Talia would fetch her shortly after waking and prepare her for the morning. On this day, she awoke and it was dark - she knew her mother wasn’t going to come until a long while later.
Taking her morning into her own hands, the three-year-old girl slipped out of her bed, bare feet softly meeting the wooden floor. The door was shut, the doorknob just barely out of reach. She stared at it a moment, thinking, before pulling a child-sized chair from a corner of the room. Quickly making work of climbing it, the girl stood atop it, turned the handle and smiled proudly at her work as the door creaked open. She toddled back to her bed to grab her blanket, and made her escape into the hallway beyond her room.
As she walked down the hallway, she peered at the other bedroom doors. Xaden’s was closed, meaning he was still asleep inside. Her parents’ room, however, was open just a crack - a telltale sign that her father was awake and her mother was still asleep inside. Fen was never in bed longer than Talia, and her mother always left the door open after waking up.
Despite her young age, the girl was intuitive. She knew that her father spent most of his day in his office, so she immediately took off to find him. The house was near-silent, the only sound the barely audible pitter-patter of her footsteps and the rustle of the blanket being dragged across the floor. Each step from the second to first floor was taken slowly, one small hand holding on desperately to the railing to prevent a fall.
In the hallway outside Fen’s office, the mage lights from within spilled out, guiding his daughter to him. Her mission was complete when she noticed the door was wide open, her father sitting at his desk, looking over paperwork as he sipped his morning coffee.
Fen’s neck snapped up at the first flicker of movement in his doorway - he wasn’t expecting any guests until his first meeting two hours later. When he realized what was happening, he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his mouth at the sight in his doorway; his three year old daughter, hair sticking up in all directions, eyes still bleary from sleep, pyjamas half rolled up, and a blanket dragging behind her as if she were on the run.
“Good morning sweet girl,” he said as she looked at him, her toothy smile sending a warm pang through his chest.
“Hi Daddy,” she responded, walking across the office to get to him. Once his daughter reached where he sat, she lifted her arms up at her father, a wordless request to be picked up.
In one swift movement Fen picked the child up and placed her in his lap. Smoothing her hair down as she looked at all the papers on the table, he asked; “What are you doing awake so early?”
She leaned her head back onto his chest and relaxed into him as she let out a big yawn. “I dunno.”
He chuckled again, looking at the clock to decipher if he should make her breakfast this early. “Are you hungry?”
The youngest Riorson shook her head. “No. I jus’wanna stay with you.”
Fen looked down at his daughter, admiration in his eyes. Mornings like this reminded him that he was more than just the Duke of Aretia - he was fortunate enough to have two children that he loved dearly. All of the work that he did in Tyrrendor was for them, and he didn’t regret any minute of it. He kissed the top of his daughter’s head, before looking back at the heaps of paperwork in front of him. “Do you want to help Daddy get some work done before Xaden wakes up?”
She nodded excitedly at that, eager to be her father’s helper for the morning.
“Okay. We’ll practice your colours. If the emblem is red-” Fen gestured to some papers with red seals on them, “-you put them in this pile.”
The girl nodded, as she hung on to Fen’s every word.
“If the emblem is blue-” he gestured to the other papers with the corresponding colour, “-you put them in this one. Can you show me how you’ll sort them?”
The little girl smiled, picking up the paper Fen had just signed, with a red emblem on top and placed it in the correct pile. “This one’s red!”
He gave her a thumbs up and a big smile, “Wonderful work.”
The two worked in enthusiastic chatter for the next hour while waiting for the rest of the house to awaken. Their efforts were only disrupted when another flicker of movement alerted both of them. Standing in the doorway, Talia Riorson stood with her hand to her chest, a relieved look on her face at the sight inside the office.
“I went to go get her from her room, and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it was empty,” the woman breathed, leaning against the doorway.
The girl, not understanding the severity of her mother’s worries, giggled. “I did lots of good work.”
Fen lifted her off of his lap, placing her on the floor then patting her on the back to nudge her towards Talia. “You did. Now go with your mother to get ready for breakfast.”
“But I’m not hungry,” she whined, turning back towards her father. At that moment, her stomach growled, indicating her lies to both parents.
Fen chuckled, nudging her once again. “You can help me again tomorrow. Go eat.” The girl pouted, but followed her mother out, obeying her father’s orders.
However, the next morning, she was up early, standing in her father’s doorway ready to help.
Thus began a new ritual.
Every morning, the girl greeted her father in his office, spending an hour before sun-up with uninterrupted time together. When he didn’t have any tasks for her, she simply sat on his lap and the two of them talked while he worked, until Talia came to retrieve her for breakfast with her brother. When he was away on missions, his office was locked, so she sat by the window playing with her toys awaiting his return.
As time passed and she grew too old to sit in his lap, she sat across from him at his desk. Head resting atop crossed arms, she watched as her father worked, learning of his tasks and responsibilities. He taught her, while making sure to keep the morning lighthearted and less duty focused - he simply enjoyed spending time with his daughter.
When Xaden turned 10 years old and his daughter 8, Talia’s departure shook the family. His daughter couldn’t sleep, wondering if she would miss her mother’s return. She sat at the foot of her mother’s bed, silently hoping that she would be the first to catch her mother’s return.
As Fen took to bed that night, he found his daughter curled up at the foot of his bed, blanket in hand and fast asleep. He quietly lifted her into his arms and tucked her into bed alongside him, knowing that she would need as much parental support as she could get.
The next morning, she awoke at the sound of him getting out of bed, mistaking it for the alert of her mother coming home.
“Dad?” she called after him, causing him to spin around, “When’s mom coming home?”
The sadness in his daughter’s eyes sent a pang into his heart. With a pitiful gaze, he went and sat on the edge of the bed, placing a kiss to the top of her head.
“I’m sorry darling, she’s not coming back,” he repeated to her, as he had unfortunately had to break to his children multiple times the day before, “Why don’t we go sit in my office for a bit? Get some work done to keep your mind off it, huh?”
The girl sagged, a defeated look appearing on her face. “But… I want mom.”
“I know you do,” he whispered, “But, we’re Riorsons. We’re strong and good at moving forward when things get us down, yeah?” He held his hand out as if offering for her to take it and join him for the morning. She was silent for a moment, and then nodded, taking her father’s hand as they walked to the office.
They were in the office for no longer than 20 minutes, when they were disrupted by movement at the door. Xaden, having just woken up, stood there assessing. He was trying his best to take it all in stride despite being ten years old; he wanted his father to see that he was strong, unwavering. His younger sister saw it though, the way that he cried at night and the sadness that lingered in his eyes. Fen knew that Xaden really respected him, so he pretended not to see it. He treated his son as if he were handling it all extremely well, and it made Xaden hold his head up just the slightest bit higher.
Xaden walked into the office and wordlessly sat down in the chair next to his sister.
“Do you want work to do?” Fen asked the boy, trying to make things seem as normal as possible.
The boy looked over at his sister, who was trifling through their father’s things to find a map for a task the man had made up, in order to make her feel as if she were doing important work.
He nodded, and Fen handed him a task to complete. The three of them sat in silence, completing their work, knowing their mother was not going to come and get them for breakfast.
Each day became more and more of the same thing; the three Riorsons had begun waking up before dawn, bringing their breakfast into Fen’s office to do some work before Fen’s daily meetings. They chatted while they worked, and soon they resumed life under their new normal.
Fen didn’t say it often, but he admired the way his children took their mother’s departure in stride. There was a period of time where they were falling apart, yes, but he couldn’t be prouder of the way that they picked themselves back up. The man didn’t regret choosing a woman from the isles to be their mother because it gave him them, but he did always feel guilty for the fact that they didn’t have a mother figure in their lives for very long.
So, he made up for it with time spent with them in the mornings. They laughed while they worked, he taught them all that he knew, and he watched with a sad smile as they grew up. However, he knew that time was limited given his position in the rebellion, and all good things come to an end.
Their world was once again disrupted when Fen was killed in the rebellion. What had started as mornings filled with laughter and family bonding turned quickly to mornings jolting awake from nightmares. With both children being separated, their morning rituals fell apart. There was no office to convene in, no breakfast to be shared, no stories to be told, and most noticeably; no laughter.
Mornings were instead spent scheming - surviving. Instead of taking the hour before sunset to slowly begin the day, they were spent in solitude, trying to figure out how to reclaim their lands. To save their people and fight for the cause their father died for.
Mornings in the quadrant were spent on high alert, watching for those that despised the marked ones. They were finally spent together, but there was still no laughter, and they were missing the man that united them. They were missing the love of their father.
On the first day that the Riders Quadrant took up residence in Aretia, the fortress was not silent before dawn. The sound of dragons’ wings carried through the air. The sound of cadets and soldiers talking bounced off the walls, their voices echoing loudly in the halls.
Classes weren’t set to start for a few more hours, and the students were content sleeping as long as they possibly could. Xaden awoke from a nightmare while it was still dark out, and realized after an extended period of tossing and turning that he wasn’t going to be able to fall back asleep. He slipped out of bed, and went down to the kitchen to prepare himself some breakfast. Unwilling to run into anyone and be forced into conversation that early in the morning, he took his breakfast elsewhere in hopes he could eat uninterrupted.
He opened the door to his father’s office - the location for upcoming history classes - and was surprised to see it already occupied. However, a grin appeared on his face as he realized who had already beaten him there.
His younger sister sat at their father’s desk, already halfway through her own breakfast, a few piles of paper in front of her. She looked up at the sound of the door opening and met him with a matching grin.
“Seems we both had the same idea,” she said, setting the papers down as she nudged the chair next to her out with her foot so that Xaden could join her.
Xaden nodded, placing his food down on the table and looking over the paperwork. “Anything Dad would approve of?”
She chuckled, moving the stacks closer to him so he could see. “He loved putting me on sorting duty. Of course I had to get back on it.”
The nostalgia hit Xaden, and before he began eating, he looked around the room - at how much all of it had changed. “It doesn’t feel right that it’s just the two of us now.”
His sister nodded her head in the direction of her father’s usual spot. A cup of coffee sat there on the table, now cold from going untouched. “It didn’t feel right being here without a cup of coffee where he’d sit.”
Xaden studied his sister for a moment, admiring how much she’d grown up since the last time they were in here sharing breakfast with their father. The fact that he was the last family member there for her, and he was now venin-
“I don’t expect you to fill his shoes, Xaden,” she said, seeing where his thoughts were heading. “I’ve made it through almost everything you have. I just want you here as my brother.”
“No one could fill his shoes,” he admitted, eyes trailing back to their father’s seat. Many mornings spent here - it was fitting for history classes to be taking place in that office, given how many memories the three of them had shared what felt like lifetimes before.
“Do you think he’d be proud of us?” the youngest Riorson asked, eyes drifting back down to the paperwork before them. She was sure that their father would have never imagined them being in this situation when their morning routine began almost twenty years before.
“Yes,” Xaden said, and he knew it with all of his heart. “I think he’d be proud of anything we did, but I think he’d be proud that we’ve stepped up to do the right thing.”
The two sat in silence for a few moments, remembering their father and the love that lit up their chests at the memories.
The older brother was the first to break, hands going to his own drink. He raised it in a toast, and she mirrored him, raising her own half-finished cup to clink against his.
“To Dad,” he said, eyes nearly brimming with tears at the onslaught of emotion, knowing there might not be many more of these kinds of mornings with the chaos on the horizon.
“To Dad,” she whispered back, “And to many more Riorson breakfasts.”
Xaden smiled. “To a lifetime of mornings together.”
