The Tower: Happily Ever After

Eddie's Family

On the day of Edwin's arrival with Rory and Lyra, we wanted to have a meal to welcome them without the associated feast in case it proved to be too big of an event. Besides, we'd had so many in the five months we'd been there, we all wanted a break from them.

So rather than a full feast, we had organized a large meal in the dining hall and invited the family and Thor's closest friends. All the people I shared a thread with on Asgard would be at the dinner. When everyone was there it would be like a rainbow loom of light overlaying everything for me. The meal would be served to us as a series of courses rather than platters on the table, but it wasn't going to be a ridiculous number of them. There would be five in all. Appetizers, followed by starters, a soup, main, and dessert.

Tony, Thor, and Riley went down to meet them at the Bifrost and the rest of us waited in the dining hall. We hadn't started either Thour or Nova on solids yet, but the two would be sitting in high chairs while we ate and before they were even put in them, Inky and Icy were waiting under the chairs for them.

"How do they know where the babies are going to sit?" I asked.

"They are used to seeing Flynn in one of these and assumed that the twins would be going in these two," Bucky said. "And they figured that if Piper drops a lot of food, these two will drop more."

"Tell them they're not eating food yet," I said.

Bucky crouched down and patted Inky's head. "You hear that? No solids for the babies. They're still nursing."

Inky chittered impatiently and Bucky laughed. "He thinks you're coddling them too much."

"Oh good - parenting advice from a couple of alien foxes," I laughed.

The doors opened and I spun around to see Riley, Thor, Edwin, Rory, and Lyra enter. I rushed over with Thour on my hip and hugged Eddie. "Welcome back," I said.

"Okay, mom," he chuckled as he wrapped his arms around me. "Settle down. I haven't been gone that long."

"Long enough," I said.

Bruce cleared his throat behind me. "El, you gonna give the rest of us a go?"

I laughed and pulled back. "Be patient," I scolded, letting Edwin move past me to Bruce. I turned to Lyra and kissed her cheek. "Welcome to Asgard," I said.

"Thank you," she replied. "Getting here was straight out of Star Trek or something. And then... it's - it reminded me of the Never Ending Story or something."

I saw a lot of myself in Lyra at that moment. It was funny how you think you can know your children's partners and then they say something that throws them in a whole different light. "Oh yeah," I said. "The Ivory Tower."

"I can't believe the palace," Rory added, kissing my cheek. "I've been to Buckingham palace of course but that looks like a tiny cottage compared to this. It's like a city unto itself."

"It takes some getting used to," I agreed. "But we all hope that you grow to love it here."

"Let's all take a seat," Steve said. "We can catch up while we eat."

"Is this Eddie's new brother or sister?" Lyra asked.

"His sister. Thour," I said, and Thour started babbling happily.

"Can I hold her?" she asked.

"Of course," I said, holding her over.

Lyra smiled down at the infant who was still babbling away. "Oh really?" Lyra said. "Is that so? I had no idea."

"Ly, come check out their weird little familiars," Edwin said, waving her over, to where he was crouched with the Vulparev.

"Oh no, they're like pokemon," she squealed, excitedly jogging over with Thour in her arms.