"Well, damn," says the Joker. "I hope her majesty's okay."

"Her Majesty'll cope. She'll be in a lousy mood but she'll cope. We're probably not embarking on any ambitious projects for the time being, we'll just hum along. Jacob, on the other hand - I hope she has him handled somehow or Her Highness comes home to a dead wolf."

"Elsie's Downside," the Joker points out. "If he gets dead he'll probably see her before the rest of us."

"Possibly unimprinted," Nathan points out. "Probably not a wolf anymore. It'd wreck the pack and be all kinds of complicated to fix. Besides, Jane's offline; unless Elspeth expects Jake to off himself she won't know to look."

"Well, I'm not going to recommend it."

"Gotcha. Not that I mind a little snarling, but I don't think I'd improve her mood any."

"Probably not."

Snuggle time? The Joker thinks it is snuggle time.

It is always snuggle time!

Might it? How interesting.

Yes. Yes, that.

After about a week and a half, there is a knock on their door while they are supplying Kerron with breakfast.

The Joker beckons to the door, which opens.

"Not great," says Rosalie. She takes the bag, lifts up Henry and sets him on her hip. "She's competent as ever, but she's taking more personal time by a factor of about twenty, delegating more, brainstorming less. She knows Elspeth's alive, so it's not as bad as I've heard she was when she thought Edward was dead."

"Sorry to hear it," he says. "Best I can probably do for her is stay out of her way, so—" he shrugs; gestures to the bag of coins.

"Yeah, she's basically only talking to her favorite handful of people," sighs Rosalie. "I'll probably be by again in a week or two."

"Fine by me."

Rosalie waves, and lets herself out, taking coins and child with her.

The Joker hugs his sweetheart and sighs.

His sweetheart hugs back.

"If I got lost in another world would you be grumpy like Her Majesty?"

"I'm not the grumpy type," he says, ruffling his munchkin's hair. "I'd be sad, though."

"So would I," says Nathan.

"Well," says Kerron, "I guess I better not get lost."

"Better not," the Joker agrees. "But don't worry too much about me if you do, okay? Your mummy's a patient kind of guy."

"And we told you about how one of me got stuck where the princess is now for a hundred years," Nathan adds, "and I was fine, because I knew you'd be fine. Wherever you are, you concentrate on being fine."

"Okay!" says Kerron, tracing colorshapes with his eyes and then nodding.

"Mummy, do you just forget my name a lot?"

"Never once," he says, grinning. "Why? Getting tired of 'munchkin'?"

"I'm getting bigger!" Kerron says.

"Are ya? I hadn't noticed," he teases.

"I am! I'm bigger."

"Well, tell you what," says the Joker. "If you want me to stop calling you munchkin, you let me know, and otherwise if you get taller'n me I'll quit all by myself."

The Joker grins back. "Congrats."

"If I'd stopped growing when I was six foot nothing would I just be a munchkin for all eternity?"

"Until you decided not to be."

Kerron snorts good-naturedly. "Yanno, your thing with names, probably not actually genetic?"

"You never know," he says serenely.

"Pfft. You gonna do that if I ever supply you with a grandkid?"

"Only one way to find out."

"Not any time soon, Mum," Kerron snickers.

He cackles.

"By the way, Addy wants me to ask again if I have any combo-platter siblings on the way," says Kerron, rolling his eyes.

"Nnnnot," says the Joker, "anytime soon."

Kerron's eyes refocus a bit and he says, "You know, I think I'm gonna tell Addy to ask her own damn questions from now on."

"You do that," he laughs.

"And I'm gonna start looking at apartments in Safesun, maybe move in with Brandon."

"Okay," says the Joker. He smiles. "I'll miss ya. But I won't miss ya."

"I know, Mum," Kerron laughs.

The Joker hugs him.

Kerron chuckles and hugs back.

"Your ex-munchkin loves his mummy."

Awwwwwwwwwwwww! Kerron's mummy beams.

"And your ex-munchkin," says Kerron, "is going to go play StarNova with Lily like he said he would, because otherwise you will have a slightly punctured ex-munchkin and that wouldn't be fun for anybody."

"See ya," he says cheerfully.

Kerron mock-salutes and heads out the suite door.

The Joker spends some time awwing to himself.

Nathan comes home from doing a batch of timings a couple minutes later. "You're in a good mood," he remarks.

"Kerron's moving out," he says, grinning.

"Goodness gracious. If that makes you this happy why didn't we get rid of him months ago, babe?" teases Nathan.

Hugs! Slightly squishing hugs. "Will we now."

"It's fantastic, babe."

Snuggle snuggle kiss.

Kisses! That's one of Nathan's favorite things!

Only three? That's not even going to come close to beating any records.

He's not competitive! And sleeping is fun.

Snuggling while the Joker sleeps is fun.

They could have sex in an awful lot of places over the course of this celebration, couldn't they?

Nathan is wholly on board with this program.

Nathan mimes putting an X on a wall calendar, taps his temple, and kisses his mate.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmkisses.

April arrives. Right after March, even! What a surprise!

The Joker finds himself

spending more and more time in the appropriate shape.

"This afternoon, three-fifteen and four seconds," Nathan comments one morning. "If you were wondering about more precision. Though next-best options are clustered around then, so I don't think exactitude matters much."

"Mmm, how about we just fuck until then," the Joker suggests, "and you can tell me when to wish."

The Joker wishes herself able to have kids again. And then goes right back to what they have been doing all day.

The egg craving should kick in a few hours later.

"French toast time," the Joker announces, snuggling up to Nathan.

Nathan laughs. "Of course it is. Your opinion on names about where it was last time?"

"Don't remember," he says serenely. "Did I have an opinion?"

"Not really. Aedyt-or-Payl, then?" says Nathan, patting his mate's belly. "We should tell Kerron tomorrow noonish."

He laughs and kisses Nathan's cheek. "Sure."

"I love you."

Noonish the next day arrives. Nathan prompts the Joker when this occurs.

[Guess what,] he says merrily into a brainphone call with Nathan and their child.

[You conjured an old-fashioned deep-sea diving bell and I need to come see the new species of shark you've just discovered?] Kerron replies, who has inherited his father's habit of wild guesses in response to prompts like this.

[Nope, although good idea,] he laughs. [We're having another kid.]

[Hah. 'Course you are. Empty nesters,] teases Kerron. [Due in, what, three weeks?]

[Yep! You are the first to know - well, third - blab it all over town or keep it a surprise, whichever makes you happy.]

[Come by Safesun after Rosalie slices and dices you, the local vibrant hybrid community'll throw the kid a party.]

[Will do!]

[Whatcha gonna name it?]

[Aedyt, since you're not using that one, if it's a girl, Payl for a boy,] supplies Nathan.

[And pumpkin, until they're taller than me or start complaining.]

[Good, munchkin was my adorable childhood nickname. But you better not have too many or you'll run out of cute words that end in -kin and have to call somebody "gherkin" or something.]

The Joker giggles.

[Are you unable to envision your mum affectionately addressing a small child as "gherkin"?] asks Nathan.

[On second thought,] Kerron says, [yeah, I can totally imagine that.]

[Who, me? Never.]

Nathan snickers both aloud and by brainphone.

"Wait 'n see," the Joker says serenely.

"I will do. I seem to recall you spent your last pregnancy female. Was the utter conventionality of it suffocating?"

"You know me," he says. "I'm just full'a surprises."

"Like a piñata," Addy suggests.

He laughs.

"When's a good time for a tasting?"

"When our little pumpkin is four days old, apparently," says Nathan. "Come find us then."

"You bet!"

The Joker hugs his sweetie.

"I shall see you then," says Addy, waving at the Joker's midsection, and she boops Nathan's nose and then strolls off.

The Joker hasn't felt like swapping back again, so he is still unconventionally shaped for a pregnant person.

"Hiya, pumpkin," says the Joker, snuggling his newest offspring. "Aren't you a cutie."

Nathan kisses her forehead.

The Joker does likewise!

There is a party with the vibrant hybrid community! It is vibrant and communal and partylike and well-attended by hybrids.

"Are you going to tell us what she does?" inquires Nathan.

"Tastes like cinnamon and nutmeg is what - okay, okay. I'm gonna call it - editing? Aedyt here is never gonna need an eraser or food coloring or a seam-ripper in her life. Cinnamon's the ingot part that does the editing, nutmeg's the witch part that'll tell her what she can edit so she doesn't have to do it by trial and error. Magical equivalent of proprioception," diagnoses Addy.

"Neato," says the Joker, hugging the baby. "My little pumpkin pie."

Addy grins. "Soon as she walks and talks I want to do magic lessons just like with Kerron," she says.

"We'll see what pumpkin thinks of that," the Joker says agreeably.

"Yes, it may be that she'd prefer to study the ocarina," remarks Nathan archly.

"I do hope you'll present the notion fairly," says Addy.

"Where's the fun in that?" He grins. "Nah, I'll be nice, I'll be nice."

"Thank you. I'm not allowed to play with minting, this is all the fun I get, you know."

"Mhm," says the Joker.

"Yes," says little Aedyt. "Because I'm a pumpkin pie." (She grins at her mummy.)

"Right. Do you want to set up some of those? Now's when, if you want to do it."

"Okay!"

"All right then."

"Ooh, I bet the illusions are very editable," says Addy, nodding. "Anything else?"

"No-o," says Aedyt, shaking her head.

"Let's play with some other stuff, then," says Addy, and she produces an imperial pamphlet. "What do you suppose could do with this?"

"That's one thing," agrees Addy, beaming. "What else?"

The next letter becomes blue. The one after that becomes purple.

The pink V undergoes partial mitosis and becomes a W.

Addy applauds, updates her power-copy, and says, "What else?"

Addy turns a page. This page has an illustration. She watches Aedyt expectantly.

"Ooh," says Addy. "Do you think you could put it back?"

"Hmm," says Addy. "But you remember how it was, don't you?"

Addy grins and pokes her in the forehead again. "What else do you think you could do?"

"I dunno!" says Aedyt.

"Hmmm," says Addy. She can think of a dozen slight variants - but she can't do any of them till Aedyt does, and she doesn't want to confine this extremely young mind towards a single way of thinking about her magic. "Well, there's letters, and there's pictures, and there's paper..." she says leadingly.

Addy grins at her and claps.

Aedyt beams!

Magic lessons are ongoing. They mostly involve Addy gently suggesting things to try and encouraging Aedyt to come up with things to try, at first, and then when the original scope of the power is pretty well mapped Addy starts pushing her on fine detail work and speed and editing "blind" - restoring things she hasn't seen originals of, filling in blanks with context-appropriate things regardless of whether the context makes any sense to Aedyt, doing the sorts of things photo-editing software can't actually do like remove a person to show what was behind them.

Aedyt finds her magic lessons fascinating, and frequently practices outside of 'class'. Especially with mummy. She has great fun practicing magic with mummy.

Addy is very encouraging of extracurricular practice!

Her mummy helps her think of all kinds of interesting little changes to make to the world around her. Like, say, unlocking doors. Or turning on lights. Even when the lightbulb doesn't actually work. Some of them, like moving the hands on an old clock, are hard until she gets the trick and then really easy; others, like duplicating soap bubbles, stay tricky even with practice.

Addy could not be more thrilled. She gets Aedyt extravagant birthday presents. Fiddly ones with lots of tiny moving parts.

Aedyt takes to calling Addy "Auntie Addy". She also, as she grows older, gets interested in art. Drawing, painting, sewing, sculpting, glassmaking, pottery, jewelry, embroidery, beadwork - any kind of thing that you make with your hands, she's all over. And she gets pretty good at them, too.

Of course she does! Addy approves. And comes up with obscure new art forms to interest her in.

Her brother thinks she's adorable. He picks her up a lot, and makes her loaded Belgian waffles for breakfast, and teaches her board games and how to do card tricks. "I'll know if you're planning to cheat," he teases her.

"I never cheat," she protests, and one of his checkers mysteriously changes colour from red to black.

Kerron laughs and doesn't move a checker till she fixes it.

If she doesn't want to learn to do them right that's her business. They are, after all, tricks.

Hey, using magic to pretend to do magic runs in the family!

It amuses Aedyt too. Sometimes she demands that he do it many times in a row. It is like flying!

It is like that! Kerron will toss her all afternoon if that suits her. It's Brandon's idea to play catch with her in the role of the ball.

Aedyt finds this hilarious.

She's not particularly aerodynamic, but everybody involved is adept enough to get her to the next recipient without her landing on the sand once.

Best game!

Nathan, ever opportune, shows up to fetch his daughter while she is midair over the point at which he lands his teleporting. He catches her by the ankle and holds her upside-down. "Learning to fly, pumpkin?"

"Are we," chuckles Nathan, and he twirls her once around his head and flings her neatly to Kerron, who catches her neatly.

"Wheeeeeeeeee," says Aedyt.

"You ready to go home, pumpkin?" Nathan asks.

"Yeah," she giggles, hugging her brother. "Bye, Kerron!"

"Seeya later, Aedyt," says Kerron, and he flings her back in Daddy's direction.

And home they go. Home is currently Lisel, Norway.

Home can be lots of places! Aedyt wouldn't have it any other way, really. She likes following the capital around, and she likes the occasional day or two spent in Mummy and Daddy's place in New York, and she likes it when Mummy decides that the solution to her millions of hobbies crowding up all their homes is to build her a house on a cute little asteroid and put all of her stuff there, then give her a teleportation power so she can visit whenever she wants. Mummy's good like that. He fixes things.