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On a quiet morning during the off season, Erling is awakened out of his sleep by the feeling of a small weight pressed against him. He sleepily blinks open his eyes to see the daughter Jude gave birth to nearly four years ago, Linnea, sitting right on top of his chest. Erling smiles warmly, softly kissing her forehead as she giggles, one of his favorite sounds in the world.
“Mornin’, papa,” she smiles, her voice quiet, knowing that her pregnant mother is asleep right next to both of them. Jude is currently five months along with their second and final baby, who they recently learned is a boy.
“Morning, Linnie,” Erling replies, noting how she looks at Jude with her head titled, clearly confused about something.
“Mama’s sleeping a lot more,” she observes, and Erling chuckles, holding her steady against him so she doesn’t fall into the nest, despite how warm and soft it is. He thought he was protective with Jude, but his daughter is a whole different story.
“Yes, mama has a baby in his belly, remember? The baby makes him sleepy,” he informs her, remembering back to when he first had to tell her to be quieter when coming into their bedroom, so as not to disturb his pregnant wife’s rest. She nods, looking at Jude again.
“Will the baby look like you?” She asks, looking back at Erling with pure curiosity. Before he can respond, she continues.
“I look like mama,” she smiles, making Erling’s heart soften. It’s obvious to the three of them; she has Jude’s skin tone, his brown eyes, his curly hair, though her’s is longer. The only thing she seemed to take from Erling was his height, already a bit taller than most children her age.
“You do look like mama,” Erling agrees, “but your brother could look like mama too.” Linnea’s back to being confused, wondering how that’s even possible.
“Why, papa?” She asks, always inquisitive. Both Erling and Jude love that about her. He doesn’t really know how to answer that question, though, thinking about it for a moment.
“Well, the qualities of mama and papa mix together. So your brother could have my eyes, but mama’s smile. Or my height, and mama’s nose,” he explains, Linnea’s three year old brain fascinated by this newfound information.
“That’s interesting, papa,” she smiles, and he agrees with a hum, kissing her cheek, though her pronunciation makes it sound more like ‘intwesting.’ She’ll get it eventually, Erling thinks.
“What’s baby brother’s name?” She questions, and Erling doesn’t know how to answer that either, seeing as both he and Jude are still trying to figure that out themselves.
“He doesn’t have one yet,” he informs, as they’re stuck between a few different ones at the moment. Linnea Love Bellingham-Haaland came to them fairly quickly, but their son’s name is proving to be a bit more difficult. Erling wants to keep the Scandinavian name theme, while Jude wants something more British.
“I like Rainbow,” she offers, making Erling chuckle at the innocence of her suggestion. Everything about their daughter is colorful, from her room to her clothes to her toys, of course the name she suggests would reflect that.
“We’ll make sure to consider it, sweetheart,” he tells her, just to see her adorable smile in reaction. She reaches down to hug him, which is more of just laying on his chest since Erling is still comfortably on his back. He cherishes it nonetheless, his hand moving to cover her back, gently rubbing his thumb over the pajama shirt that she’s wearing. She notices Jude begin to wake up as her cheek is smushed against Erling’s chest.
“Mama!” She exclaims, remembering to be quiet, but also happy to finally be able to talk to Jude. The omega simply smiles upon hearing her voice, reaching up to press a kiss onto her forehead.
“Good morning, my Lili girl,” he states warmly, “and good morning, my love.” He smiles at Erling, who reaches over to peck his lips.
“I thought of a name for baby brother!” Linnea tells Jude excitedly, and he raises an eyebrow in surprise.
“Have you now?” He questions, their daughter nodding, a big smile on her face.
“Rainbow!” she tells him, and Jude looks over to Erling, both of them giggling fondly at the suggestion.
“That’s a good one, Lili. We’ll add it to the list,” he replies, right when he feels a soft kick against his stomach.
“There he is,” Jude smiles, lifting back the covers to reveal his growing bump, placing his palm over it. Linnea knows what that means, wiggling out of Erling’s grip to now sit next to Jude, touching his belly with both of her tiny hands.
“He likes the name!” She exclaims proudly, and all Jude and Erling can do is look at each other with pure love in their eyes. Jude places a soft kiss to her cheek, and soon all three of them have hands against his bump, feeling the soft kicks that occur every now and then.
Four months later, their son is born, and Linnea runs into the delivery room, a tired but happy Jude and very protective Erling waiting for her. She hurries to sit on the bed next to the omega, and he carefully hands her brother over to her, reminding her to be quiet and gentle. She nods and smiles down at him, her baby brother asleep and swaddled tightly in a blanket.
“He looks like me!” She observes, both parents smiling warmly.
“She does, sweetheart,” Erling replies, already knowing what she’ll ask next.
“Do you want to know his name?” He questions, and she nods again, eager to hear what it is after all these months of waiting.
“Rowan Reign,” Jude tells her, and her eyes immediately light up as she realizes that they’d taken her name into consideration after all.
“It’s R-e-i-g-n, Lili,” he adds, remembering that she doesn’t know those are two different words with the same name just yet. “It means noble, like a prince.”
“Since I’m a princess,” she replies absentmindedly while staring down at Rowan, making Jude chuckle softly and Erling shake his head fondly, wondering just how he got so lucky with this little family of his.