https://archiveofourown.org/works/84267356/chapters/229857866

oops, I made it a little angsty!

July 5th

Baran just wanted to forget that it was her birthday, had planned to spend the day feeling sorry for herself.

That is until she wakes up to the smell of cinnamon and butter. Five-year-olds are not exactly known for their culinary skills, and hers is still with his father to the best of Baran’s knowledge. So why does her house smell like baking, and why can she hear her child’s laughter from the kitchen?

“Happy birthday,” Baran’s brother shouts when she walks out of her bedroom. Her house is decorated with steamers, balloons, and Happy Birthday banners.

Babak runs over to Baran with open arms, and she picks him up and settles him on her hip. “Happy birthday, Mama,” he tells her, and tears spring to her eyes. She’d gone to bed feeling so sorry for herself and woken up to this, to her son and her brother who she loves so much. “Uncle Reza and I cooked.”

Baran looks at her brother with surprise. Last she knew he was in California. “Surprise,” he says, walking over and hugging Baran.

“When did you get here?”

“I got in last night. Ahmad knew I was coming in.”

“Are you and my ex-husband friends?” Baran asks.

“We were just coordinating so that Babak and I could properly surprise you.”

“We got you presents, Mama,” Babak tells her with excitement. “And cinnamon buns for breakfast.”

“I can smell that,” Baran says.

“You need to go back to bed,” Babak says seriously. “We’re making you breakfast in bed.”

Baran chuckles and walks with her son to the kitchen and sets him down on the counter before going to the full coffee machine and pouring herself a cup. “You’re the best brother,” she tells Reza as he grabs her milk and pours just the right amount into her mug. “Thank you for coming.”

“I can’t miss my big sister’s birthday. Cinnamon rolls are a tradition, and you can’t bake to save your life, so if I weren’t here what would you have eaten?” Reza asks cheerfully, and Baran sighs thinking about what her birthday plans had been. If Reza weren’t here, she probably would have stayed in bed until noon and cried before going to pick up Babak. “What’s wrong?” he asks.

She looks over at Babak, and Reza grabs his nephew and puts him on the floor. “Go grab your mom’s presents from your room.” When Babak leaves, Reza turns back to Baran. “What’s wrong?”

“I had three seizures yesterday,” she tells him, and it feels like a weight off her chest when he pulls her into his arms, when she finally feels for the first time since yesterday morning like she isn’t entirely alone.

“I’m sorry,” Reza tells her, rubbing her back and holding her tightly. Baran tries not to cry, not now when her son will be back any second with birthday presents.

“Mama, open your presents,” Babak says, dropping a sack of them down in the living room.

Reza looks at her with worry. “I’m ok,” Baran says. “I’ll figure it out. I always do.”

“I know, but it still sucks,” he whispers softly enough that Babak can’t hear.

combining this with a prompt from @valkyrie-in-yellow-coat for Siuan and Lan having a fishing competition. Sorry, somehow it turned a little angsty.

The world doesn’t end, and so they fish.

There is work to do, a world recovering from war and famine, women still held by the Seanchan. Moiraine would have thrown herself into the next mission if Siuan hadn’t confessed how badly she needed time to heal, time to remember who she is after years as Amyrlin then months when she was stilled and her body hardly felt like her own. She didn’t say that Moiraine needed time to heal too. Moiraine would never take time for herself. But for Siuan, Moiraine would stop running. For Siuan, Moiraine would sleep in and spend lazy mornings in bed together, her touch reminding Siuan of what her body was meant to feel, of the pleasure it gave her after months of agony when she felt so distant from herself. For Siuan, Moiraine would spend entire days on the Erinin, fishing, swimming, talking, holding each other.

There are good days when the past fades and Siuan and Moiraine feel so much like the women they’d been before a prophecy stole so much from them. And then there are bad days, days like today when Moiraine wakes up and struggles to communicate what she needs. Siuan and Lan ask if there is anything that would help, but Moiraine doesn’t answer, just looks through them as if she hardly is here, lost in her mind and the horrific memories she’s only just started to share.

Siuan doesn’t know what to do, and so they fish. Moiraine just sits on the boat, and so Siuan and Lan find themselves in a bit of a competition. He insisted that being from a land known for its many lakes that surely he could best Siuan. Ultimately, neither had caught much on their midday boat trip down the Erinin, not exactly a prime fishing time of day.

Thanks for replying to thw prompt in such a thoughtful way<3

5 (or however many you'd like to include) times someone learned about Baran's seizures for the first time + how they reacted

Thank you for the prompt! It turned out a little angsty but I think also hopeful.

but if you were feeling angsty… baran having a seizure in the midst of the celebration. her father just gets up and leaves after that. she’s sad.

i am imagining all the pittlings at the reception. shen and abbot being the life of the party; lifting robby and al-hashimi onto chairs. “dr j” live-streaming the celebration. santos and king on the dance floor. mckay with harrison. whittaker just making friends as he goes. mohan getting them a really wedding present. frank showing up late.

Also here’s my sweet old lady dog.

No shame to anyone choosing a lifestyle speciality in any way, but I do sort of have the sense she’s choosing psych in part because it’s an easier residency (objectively true- the hours are relatively very good) and a less competitive one (as is EM actually, whereas derm which her dad points her to is very competitive and something she likely would do for the prestige, money, and lifestyle).

I think psych is great if you genuinely love it and want to do it. But I feel like part of her choice is about realizing that actually she might not even want to do medicine at all (she says as much at the end of both seasons) and as a kind of fuck you to her parents (because she chose one of the least prestigious specialities, again no shade as someone who also chose a very not prestigious speciality).

- Baran experiencing her first big seizure in years (whether it is a tonic-clonic or a cluster of focal impaired ones is up to you)

- Baran struggling with the fact that she cannot do something independently and safely and hating the fact that she is having to ask for help

I posted this one to ao3 as a one shot but there's a real chance that I'll post a second chapter later.

Thanks for the prompt!