ᴘᴀꜱᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ꜰᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴍɪxᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ ᴄʀᴀᴠɪɴɢꜱ | x. ʀɪᴏʀꜱᴏɴ
Xaden Riorson x Mairi!Reader
summary: The fighting is over, and peace settled across Navarre and Tyrrendor—even for someone like one Xaden Riorson. However, having a pregnant girlfriend (and soon-to-be fiancée) tends to turn a day upside down.
word count: 2.2k
warnings: fluff, Xaden being a simp, talks about pregnancy, babies, mentions of cravings, mention of Liam (my poor baby ;_;), pregnant reader, a bit of anxiety
author’s note: I felt the urge to write for Xaden again. Enjoy! Dividers are made by @chrisssiren
He wasn’t used to waking up in Riorson House—or alone in their shared bed, for that matter.
The peace and quiet after all the battles, the fighting, the hurt… It wasn’t unpleasant, but unfamiliar. Xaden Riorson wasn’t used to either the peace nor the quiet, and not to mention the thought that he indeed didn’t have to be on high alert every single waking and sleeping moment of his life anymore.
Peace had taken its hold of the continent and Tyrrendor—and of his mind, his heart.
That peace was taken away from him by the mere sensation of cooling sheets beside him when his hand reached out lazily in anticipation of her warm, soft body to be pulled into his chest. A rough, questioning groan escaped the former Wing Leader, and a pair of onyx eyes blinked hazily into the dim light of their bedroom at the feeling of emptiness beside him, not quite grasping the reality of it all.
“Darling…?”
His voice sounded as rough as he felt, sleep still clinging to it, as he slowly escaped the tangled sheets and got up with yet another groan.
A yawn escaped the high-towering man as he searched the adjacent bathroom for her, slouching a bit, dark brows furrowing heavily and forming deep creases on his forehead when he didn’t find her. With confusion evident on his features, Xaden closed the wooden door behind him again, attentive and calculating eyes now sweeping across their shared space, trying to find a clue, an answer. Usually, he woke when she moved out of reach, especially when he felt the mattress dip whenever she had to get up when her body didn’t let her sleep for a moment longer.
He was so in tune with her, it almost shocked the Riorson how he hadn’t noticed anything this early morning, having to ask himself if he was this imperceptible.
The former tiredness left his body bit by bit as he threw a loose, black tunic over his broad shoulders and tucked it into his pants, his feet already pushing into the pair of warm slippers she had made him wear at the beginning of fall and throughout the cold season. The man still remembered his incredulous huff of annoyance when she had held them out to him, pretty eyes looking at him, anticipatingly, knowing he wouldn’t deny her anything if she waited just long enough. And she had been correct in her assumptions because after another heartbeat or two—and a staring contest between them—Xaden had indeed taken those slippers—and wore them every time they spent at the house ever since.
He even had to say he grew quite fond of them—they provided a serene sense of domesticity, something he had never experienced or even dared to hope for.
And they kept his feet warm.
When he left their bedroom and closed the door behind him, he nodded at a servant bowing his head to him, and walked down the hallway toward the stairwell. Xaden suspected where to find his darling girlfriend, taking the steps to the ground floor and listening to the sounds of the house.
It was too early for many servants to be buzzing around in the open, but late enough for them to start on the preparations for breakfast. The sounds of the grand kitchen—clattering of pots and pans, the mumbling of excited voices, the sound of knives on wooden cutting boards—echoed through the narrow hallway toward the stairs leading down to it. Still, the Riorson went past it and took the corridor toward the smaller kitchen they had decided to add. A space just for them to cook and share a meal on days when their squad didn’t announce their arrival for yet another night of family dinner and family games.
“Are you not taking care of her, rider?”
Sgaeyl’s voice entered his mind with a freezing edge to it, a warning simmering. He hummed in question at that.
“Do you know something I don’t?”
The dragon growled in warning. “She has been restless all night long, boy. Do not dare to be lacking in something as important as this. We are furious.”
Xaden cocked a brow at her words, feeling the simmering wrath along their bond and the displeased growl of the black dragon alongside his mate’s. He clearly had missed something last night after he had fallen face-first into their bed after another draining council meeting.
When he reached the entrance to the kitchen, he was able to block their dragons out for now, because his eyes immediately found the woman he had sworn to protect with everything that he was.
Cradling a bowl in her arm, which rested on her quite prominent belly, YN Mairi stood in front of the big windows, spoon stirring the dark batter, eyes watching the thick snowflakes fall from the sky with a soft smile on her face. She had always loved the winters of Aretia, and Xaden had promised her to bring back all those cherished traditions they once had as a people after they returned from war and bloodshed. He had already drafted a decree in answer to the lifting of the abolishment of their customs now that Tyrrendor belonged to itself again.
“You should’ve woken me,” Xaden spoke after entering the kitchen, making YN turn to him, bowl still close to her chest and spoon still stirring. The closer he got, the more he could smell the contents of the dark batter, eyes lingering on it before they traveled up, one corner of his mouth lifting into a half-smirk. The Riorson got a hold of her shoulders the moment she gently shrugged them, thumbs drawing lazy circles into the fabric of her sweater she had thrown over earlier. “I had cravings, and you were so fast asleep, I didn’t want to wake you just to accompany me.” She smiled brightly at him. “And I hoped to be done by the time breakfast would be ready, so you’d have a fresh batch of chocolate muffins,” the Mairi added, showing him her bowl with pride.
Xaden hummed softly and, with quick and precise movements, he snuck his finger into the chocolate batter and licked it off, grinning at the exasperated expression covering her pretty face. A deep, rumbling laugh escaped him the second she hit his upper arm and shoulder, huffing in annoyance.
“You are incorrigible, Xaden Riorson!”
The incorrigible man grinned even wider at that and, after wiping his finger off on a towel resting next to her on the countertop, he nudged her chin up while his other hand settled gently on the side of her belly, a thumb softly caressing the ever-growing bump. He could watch how she melted within seconds, and a sigh escaped her, followed by a soft shake of her head.
“You will wake me from now on, okay? I don’t want to wake to the wrath of two dragons or to an empty bed. I want to hold your hand or you in my arm whenever you’re getting down those pesky stairs.”
He had developed an aversion to those ever since she had told him she was pregnant with their first child—the first creation of them, half him, half her, and he hoped the child would be more like her than him. Xaden had soon learned how tricky the stairs could be, especially with her body being out of balance, carrying weight past the center of her gravity. It wasn’t unusual for him to wake in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, heart racing, and panic rising after another nightmare of her tumbling down the steps.
YN had put the bowl to the side, and both her hands cupped his face, grounding Xaden again. He dropped his forehead against hers, inhaling deeply, savoring the scents of chocolate and her. And when he felt a tentative kick against the palm of his hand resting against the bump he had grown to love so dearly, the Riorson exhaled.
“If it makes you happy,” YN nodded, and he pulled her close without having to think about it, stealing a kiss from her soft lips. “It would. Thank you, darling.”
The duke allowed her to turn in his arms in order to stir the batter one last time before he pulled the muffin tin toward them. Both arms wrapped around her, one hand splayed over where he had felt their little one kick, Xaden rested his chin on top of her shoulder, watching her prepare the tin with butter. His eyes followed each spoonful of the promised sweetness YN added to each hole, his stomach growling in anticipation, making the woman in his arms giggle.
“And here I thought I was the one with cravings,” she teased, accompanied by a kiss to his cheek. She watched him when he took hold of the prepared muffin tin, carrying it across the kitchen to the oven. Quickly, the heat made the chocolate smell waft through the entire kitchen, and YN leaned back against the countertop, her arms open for him to return to her embrace. But instead, Xaden hoisted her body up with astonishing ease, carrying her toward one of the sitting rooms they both preferred.
The fireplace already crackled happily when the man lowered the woman onto the comfortable sofa, following close behind and wrapping his tall body around her. Xaden buried his face in the hollow of her throat, savoring her warmth and scent. One hand settled naturally onto the place where their daughter or son continued to grow, his dark eyes resting heavily on it, watching every little shift with every intake of air. A second later, he felt YN’s fingers run through his hair, scratching his head just the way he loved, making him sigh in contentment.
“Sgaeyl mentioned you’ve been restless. Do I need to worry?”
YN’s fingers stopped in their movements for a heartbeat or two before she continued her loving caresses.
“What a little traitor. And here I thought we’d be part of the same team,” she hummed, but Xaden could hear the smile tucking at her lips. But then, she kissed his forehead, and he could feel the way she slowly shook her head. “But no, you don’t need to worry. I… I have been thinking about something. It doesn’t let go of my thoughts.”
Xaden moved so that he could look up at her face, head still resting on her shoulder. His hand moved off her stomach and instead caressed her cheek tenderly, eyes tracing every inch of her pretty features.
“What is it, darling?”
His chest constricted painfully at the sight of tears gathering in her eyes, but YN tried to blink them away. “We never settled for a name when we talked about the topic, and ever since, I… I’m not sure you’d like the idea, but… I might have a proposition.” Xaden nodded and pulled her lower so that their faces aligned, and he could wrap both his arms around her body, pulling her as closely as possible with the bump between them. “There’s barely anything you could suggest that I wouldn’t like,” he promised in a soft whisper, his thumb catching a stray tear on her cheek.
The Riorson watched her as she took deep, steadying breaths, holding his gaze with a sad but somewhat hopeful smile.
“If it’s a boy, I want to name him after my brother.”
The words were barely above a whisper, the sound of them almost swallowed by the crackling fireplace and the soft howl of the winter wind just outside the windows. His dark eyes watched her intently, gaze softening with every breath they took. YN stared at him, eyes fixating, as if he was the center of her universe, always there to ground her and hold her on her path.
And he knew why she wanted this. He knew how much she had adored her younger brother, how much she had worried ever since he had stepped over the parapet, how she had longed for him in the months and years of their separation, placed in different families. Xaden still remembered the day Liam had died as if it were yesterday, the sounds YN had made never before heard by him, the deep agony so palpable, the man was sure his heart had been ripped out of his chest. The way she had fought him when he had tried to get her away from him so that they could escape into safety… Xaden sometimes still dreamed of that day, of the fury and hatred in her drowning eyes when he had begged her to come with him, to leave her brother’s body behind.
YN had taken a while until she had forgiven him—and he didn’t hold it against her in the slightest.
“And if it’s a girl… I thought about Leanne, in memory of him.”
Xaden caught another stray tear when she whispered the last name on her mind, making the man crack a small, tender smile, pulling her even closer into him. “And why did you think I wouldn’t like the idea?” A helpless shrug was all he got, and laughing softly, he pressed loving kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, to the tip of her nose. “I love it, darling,” Xaden whispered, hand again resting between their bodies and feeling their child kick with growing urgency. “And I think they like it, too.”
Little Liam.
Little Leanne.
Whatever it would be, they would carry the memory and legacy of Liam Mairi into the next generation, never forgetting the most beloved brother and friend.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Please consider leaving a reblog, a comment, and a like—reblogs are the main tool to let writers’ works be discovered in y’all’s feed, so it helps massively! Again, thank you for sparing time for my silly little writing <3
