Chapter Text
For my girl.
Arabella Forseti Starkdottir, you were born at 12AM exactly on the 1st of April, 2013 into a family who loves you. I got the honour of giving you your name, your first name I mean. Arabella. I thought of it just one day after we found out you were going to join us. Your Mama gave you your middle name after the God of justice, peace and truth. Right now it’s the night before your first birthday and I admit that I can’t sleep, ‘cause I’m excited. My little girl’s going to be one. A full year old. So I got up and your mama was asleep, of course, he’s exhausted after you decided to show your magic and set the curtains on fire. Well it took me a while to realise I wouldn’t be able to sleep and Loki decided I wasn’t allowed to drink as much as I used to so I came down here. I came down to my lab and tried to work but I failed, I just couldn’t concentrate. And now here I sit on my old computer with dum-e and butterfingers who you seem to have taken a shine too. They love you too, if ever robots could, and butterfingers loves the drawing we made for him. He hung it up in his bot slot with the others.
So I’m going to tell you a little story, Bell. One I’ll probably forget if I don’t write it down. Your mama tells me to write them down all the time but he doesn’t know that I do. I’ve documented every little thing you’ve done! Like your first word (Loki will tell you it was mama, but I distinctly heard the word “Dada” clear as a bell!) or the first time you opened your bright green eyes. I love that you took his eyes, they’re like giant green orbs and they have a particular sparkle. And if you look close enough they have a hint of brown in them, like wood brown. And you sure as hell know how to rock the puppy eyed look!
Okay I’m babbling again, I’m sorry. I was going to tell you about the time I found out your mama was pregnant. It was the night after my birthday and I was pretty hung over from the surprise party your aunt Darcy and Loki threw for me. So when we got up for the compulsory coffee of the morning I found your mama leaning over the sink and he didn’t look good at all. We all thought he was just suffering from a hangover like the rest of us (Your aunt Darcy’s a bit of a winner when it comes to drinking like your old dad here) so we left him be and continued to nurse our own battle wounds. Curt was there, Bell. I don’t know if you remember but for a while he was a dinosaur! Fancy that, ay? A real life dinosaur! Like Barney. But don’t let him catch you calling you that or you might find yourself thrown out of the Tower… yeah that wasn’t a fun experience.
So Curt was telling stories about our college days, don’t you worry about college yet you’re still too young apparently, and he was halfway through one about a night we got drunk and woke up trying to retrace our steps when Loki ran from the room. I was on his tail in an instant to see what was wrong and I found him over the bathroom. Yeah you weren’t an easy pregnancy at all; Lo had morning sickness for two months before you started to form properly. I thought he was just getting rid of the alcohol that he’d drank that evening (Someday I’ll tell you about the Stark Spectacular Shots) and thought nothing of it. But me being the genius that I am I had to go and think of other possibilities. Your mama had told me previously about something called Alpha’s and Omega’s which I’m sure he’ll tell you about too when you’re old enough. If you’re lucky you’ll get a speech, I only got a book! Well in short an Omega has the ability to get pregnant and I’ll spare you all the gory details but that night we hadn’t really thought about it. I voiced my concerns that your mama could be pregnant and he thought nothing off it, ‘cause apparently a ‘mere mortal cannot impregnate a Norse God with a babe’ or something like that. So I calmly found a pregnancy test that your auntie Peppy had left behind when she used to live here and made your mama follow the instructions. Okay I freaked out. I completely freaked out because there was so much to think of! I mean, come on, a worldwide superhero can’t have a kid! So much could go wrong, I was sure everything would go wrong. But I needed a confirmation. ‘Cause then I’d have to deal with it. So I may or may not have thrown the pregnancy test at your mama and might have yelled a little till he did it but I think I handled it pretty well!
And as soon as I saw the stick with the little pink dot on it… well, I dropped. Yeah, I fainted clean away and I was down for a good ten minutes because Darcy woke me with soap. So there’s your explanation as to why we have strong smelling soaps around the Tower. When I woke up I wasn’t done with my freak out and I went out onto the balcony to talk with Loki. I was… I was prepared to convince him to let you go. To get rid of it, terminate it. We talked a lot. I still wasn’t sure when we decided to keep you.
But when we came inside and I thought about it a little more I thought “How hard can it be?” and I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. Your mama gave me a speech on how I didn’t have to do this alone and how for once I should trust somebody and you know what? He was right. All my life I’ve decided on doing everything alone, working within my own person and refusing anyone who tried to get in my way. So that night I slept in your mama’s arms with my cheek pressed against his belly where you’d be soon to grow, and I couldn’t help but thing you were the best birthday present I’d received.
So there you have it, Arabella. A story to start off your collection. I’ll write it all, I’ll write them out and publish them in a book only for your eyes. I’m dedicated to you, Bell. You’re my little angel, my saviour. I love you so much, my baby girl. You are my greatest invention.