#aurendelle

Hi, yes, sorry this took FOREVER I’d seen your other ask about this but March happened and March was, uh, not that great. But it’s April now, new month, hopefully a better one!

Okay so since I have talked about this some before I’m just going to lean into my own headcanons really far with this. I can do more general ones if you would like but I was thinking about this the other day and really enjoying the ideas popping into my head so I’m just going for it. *contains spoilers for all the Wingfeather books*

So being of this persuasion myself I really love the idea of Artham and Arundelle adopting kids. It also seems like something they’d do; just find a kid who needs a family ask ‘is anyone going to take care of that?’ and then not wait for an answer.

And since I’m neurodivergent and currently work with neurodivergent kids this is also high in my mind so the kids are autistic.

I don’t exactly know how they acquire these children- a boy and a girl- but some ideas include the girl washing up on the shores of Anniera in a little rowboat with a note that contains her name and age, no explanation. The boy they rescue from an abusive situation and Idk how that goes except for this really cute little scene in my head where he asks (either verbally or through sign language) if Artham’s a guardian angel on account of his wings. Artham just kind of laughs and tells him no, he’s not an angel, but he is a guardian.

The kids have a few years between them, with the boy being the older (I’m thinking he’s around 6-8 and the girl is about 3). The boy can talk but doesn’t until he’s been in Anniera for a long time. The little girl is nonverbal but she might talk someday- who knows!

I think Artham and Arundelle would do great with these kids because they’re just by nature such kind, sensitive and caring people. Also I headcanon that Anniera was- even back when they were kids growing up and before- always very accepting and accommodating to people who were different, whether it be neurodivergence or physical disabilities (Madia names her disabled son “Beloved” after all). And now, of course, with all the people who used to be cloven and lived with physical/mental disabilities for years they’re just as open and accepting as they ever were.

I think they’d still teach their kids THAGS just like, an adaptive version of it. And like, I need you to imagine Artham knelt next to a tiny little girl doing hand-over-hand trying to teach her how to draw and write her name. I need you to imagine the impromptu concert sessions that these four have in their rooms, sometimes at like 2am because no one can sleep and singing is a winner for everyone and it’s just Artham and Arundelle singing and dancing together while their kids bounce around the room happily. (also on that note, Leeli practicing songs is a big winner for these kids, especially the boy, because she’s just singing/playing the same song over and over again and if it’s a song they really like then, well, she could have a little buddy sitting off to the side watching her with delight for hours and you better believe she keeps doing it long after she’s learned the song because it makes them so happy)

Arundelle taking the kids out to plant flowers and every time, without fail, one of the kids tries eating dirt and it takes her a full minute to register “wait, this is BAD I should stop them” because she was a freaking tree for 7 years and forgets.

Forget SWINGING to self-regulate, these kids dad can just swoop around with them and FLY and they’re DELIGHTED. (and so is Artham) Like, they probably have a system worked out where when one of the kids goes over and tugs/pats his wings a certain way they want to go flying and he’ll just do it no questions asked, he leaves in the middle of meetings and things and nobody ever says anything because it’s adorable. Sometimes he’ll also just scoop up one (or both) of the kids when they’re getting upset and preemptively take them out flying. And like, this hits all the sensory stimulation things, they can go up and down, spin, dive straight at the ground and pull up at the last second which leaves them all laughing and giggling.

Arundelle teaches the kids some more grounded calming techniques and she’s just always carrying around random fabrics and rattles and chewies and spinny/bendy/manipulatable things. She remains extremely good at sensing the moods and needs of all her family members and often has just the right thing at the right time. Also I just suddenly had the image of her teaching the kids to weave baskets to calm down. Castle Rysen ends up with a lot of baskets.

I think Artham and Arundelle are just the most chill parents with their kids tbh. They’re almost always the “take a deep breath” “what do you need” “what’s wrong” “come on let’s go somewhere quieter” parents. They’re really good at redirecting/figuring out what the actual problem is. They only actually punish intentional defiance, which is in rather short supply when the kids are little.

Sometimes they do get stressed and overwhelmed tho and when the other one notices they offer to watch the kids for a bit so the other can calm down. Arundelle ends up doing this a lot because Artham still has a lot going on in his head and can get stressed very easily in the right conditions. Also, they never try and hide his fits from the kids, but sometimes they do send them to stay in their cousin’s rooms or with aunt Nia while Arundelle calms Artham down. Artham’s breakdowns are actually oddly good for the kids to see since they have meltdowns/sensory overload and freak out sometimes. But dad does it too so it’s nothing to be ashamed of, right? It’s just something to learn to manage. (thinking of it like that helps Artham too.)

When the kids get older Artham teaches them how to defend themselves (and Arundelle helps, along with Janner and Kal sometimes). He also teaches them to sail, which it turns out they enjoy because while the sea can be unpredictable, handling a ship is usually not (there’s specific responses to each situation of wind/waves) and they learn the routine of it quick.

Both their parents teach them how to sew/knit.

Blanket forts live permanently in Artham and Aurendelle’s room and the kid’s rooms. They’re little safe spaces. Occasionally the kids find their parents hiding in there too and they just sit down next to them (or in their lap) in companionable silence.

Artham and Aurendelle love having kids. They have long talks about the kind of parents they want to be and what’s best for their kids and confront parenting fears. They encourage each other a lot.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26963110/chapters/66387514

Artham and Esben have the same age difference as Janner and Tink (about a year). Aurendelle is the same age as Artham and Nia is the same age as Esben.

Esben first met Nia when they were 12 and he was visiting the Hollows. He thought she was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen and immediately went to his brother to try and figure out something poetic to say to her. 13-year-old Artham- who had never had a girlfriend in his life- had no idea what to do either.

Artham, Esben and Aurendelle grew up together. Aurendelle’s family worked in the castle, and since she was their age she befriended the princes (despite the many pranks they played on her growing up). The boys call her Aury.

Artham and Esben were incurable pranksters. This is basically canon (Nia says they buried her in dirt her first night in Castle Rysen) but I like to think it started when they were kids. They did exactly one (1) prank that was harmful (without realizing it would be harmful) and it freaked them out so much that they made certain that their pranks were harmless from then on.

Artham and Aurendelle have both mutually had a crush on each other since they were about 10, but didn’t actually become a couple until they were in their late teens/early 20′s. This is because Artham was too shy to mention it and Aurendelle was too polite to bring it up first.

Nia and Aurendelle meet as teenagers and are immediately friends.

Nia and Esben got married when they were 20. Anniera fell when they were 24-25, which means that they’d be only about 33-34 in the books. (And Artham is only about 35.) It could have been later that Anniera fell, but I don’t think they were any older than 26-27, and I don’t think they got married earlier than 20.

Artham used to babysit Janner and Tink all the time. Neither of them could pronounce “Artham”, so they called him by his middle name, Peet.

Esben’s personality is similar to Tink’s. Meaning he’s goofy and kind of ridiculous, but also clever and well meaning. Artham is more like Janner in that he’s more serious and thinks before diving into an adventure, but he wasn’t as prone to being annoyed with his younger brother’s shenanigans (in turn, Esben listened more to Artham than Tink initially did to Janner).