Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

***

"Fuck me, thank God that's done" she had cried, raising the eyebrows of the midwives and doctors who had clearly never met a Shelby woman before.

"We have a son, Alv" Finn told her, not sure she had even heard the doctor. And her face had lit up, almost more than Finn had ever seen on her face. A smile that made her look almost angelic, pure and perfect and uncapable of anything dark.

And they called him Aidan, meaning little fire. Because that was what he was, that what they all were. And although fire was often something destructive and cruel, as Finn and Ailbhe had almost learnt that night in Arrow House it was also something powerful and wonderous.

Almost two years later when John came along Ailbhe had less to do with the naming as she had fallen asleep with him wrapped against her chest, before the nurse could get her to sign anything. It had been another long labour and although she had managed it like a real soldier, she had drifted off quickly and told Finn she didn't care what they called him because he was so perfect.

"We should have another" Finn mused, edging closer as John reached out a chubby fist to grab his mom's hair.

Ailbhe laughed softly, his favourite sound in the world. Her eyes cast over to him.

"We are having another" she replied, nodding down at her pregnant belly with an obvious laugh.

She was about five months along and it had been going a lot smoother than her second pregnancy. John Shelby had proved to be a nuisance both in life and in her womb. Most mornings she woke forgetting that she was pregnant in the first place.

"I mean after this one" - Finn ran a hand across her tummy - "We should have at least another three"

"Three?" Ailbhe laughed, raising her eyebrows in shock at her son as if he understood a word of their conversation.

"Your dada wants me to have more of his fat-headed babies"

John laughed at his mother's face, her dramatic expressions and her voice. Finn felt it in his chest again, that terrifying and yet utterly perfect feeling of loving someone so completely.

She laughed and her husband did too even if their sons' births had been hard. Finn had been in awe of her since the very beginning of the pregnancies but watching her deliver his children, he knew that he owed her big time for everything she did for him, especially that.

But every time he watched her blowing raspberries on John's tummy, or pulling Aidan up into her arms and settling him on her hip he knew that he wanted more. He loved her and he loved his son. And he couldn't get enough of the feeling. It was perfect. It was his family and he loved them.

Minutes slowly ticked by, neither of them eager to leave the moment when it was so perfectly happy. John started to nod off again, having been awake crying most of the night. Ailbhe waited until his eyes were closed again, his fist stuck in his mouth before she laid him into the cot beside their bed that they tried not to use too often. But they liked having him so near, especially when he was poorly.

She lay back beside him, his arm already stretched out behind her so that she was in his arms when she lay down.

"At least two more" Finn spoke softer now, hoping John could sleep for a little while.

Ailbhe felt herself smiling before she even came up with a response. She could never resist him.

"Three more" Ailbhe sighed happily as Finn dropped his head in the crook of her neck, biting her neck playfully.

After having Aidan, Ailbhe had realised how terrifying being a mother was. She might have been responsible for more than she ever realised since she was just a girl but this was someone who depended on her for everything. Not just protection and nutrition, but to be taught right from wrong, to be shown what kind of person he should be.

It had kept her awake night after night, knowing that her anxiety was starting to eclipse Finn's joy. Until she saw how Finn could be both.

Finn was still a gangster, the wicked prince she had fallen in love with but he was hers. And even if he dealt with all manners of villains during the day, every evening when they came home they were just Finn and Ailbhe.

It was rather quickly that Finn worked out for his wife to stay his wife, she would not stay home all day minding children and tending to the house. It would never be her. And he had never and would never want to change her.

She worked. And she helped people, as she always had. She carried on the Institute's good work and she worked a lot with immigrants and those who struggled to find their American Dream. Shelby Kennedy Limited thrived and evolved across borders and offered her more and more freedom. With no shackles on her wrists and no limitations on what she could or couldn't do.

She answered to her family and that was all.

She would spend her days arguing with Council representatives and politicians who didn't make good on their promises, pushing for more housing, more inclusivity, more funding. And where she didn't get it, she made sure she found it somewhere else. Threats and bribes and carefully phrased statements still worked.

Shelby Kennedy Ltd was important but the Kennedy Foundation was something new, something that was just hers and had no ghosts attached.

He worked his way down her neck, kissing her collar bones and the middle of her chest before he reached her stomach, his hands running across it as they always did.

If Ailbhe had thought Finn was protective before she got pregnant with Aidan, he was positively primal when she was pregnant. She joked that being his wife had been an entirely different experience to being the mother of his children.

At the beginning, it was ridiculous - she hadn't been allowed to open doors for herself, bring work home with her. By the end of the first month Ailbhe had to pull Finn to one side and remind him that as much as she would moan "I'm yours" when he had a hand fisted in her hair and her back was up against the wall, she was not his puppet. And she did whatever she liked, regardless of their baby that was occupying her uterus for a period of time.

She was still Ailbhe Kennedy underneath it all. But she wasn't a witch, or a crutch or a burden.

"Let me have this one first" she sighed happily running her hand over his that cupped her stomach "and then we'll see how we're getting on."

"Deal" Finn whispered against her skin, back at her lips again to meet hers with his and kiss her breathless.

Finn Shelby had made a lot of deals in his time. Deals with gangsters, with politicians, with the devil to help his family and deals with God to protect and cherish his wife until his last breath. But with her, he made deals with a smile and with something he'd never held for anyone else, faith.

Hey, it's been a while! This isn't really an epilogue because it's so short and because I'm not sure if their story is completely over depending on what happens in the movie, etc. However, I'm happy to leave it here for now (I think!)

I have been trying to write some other stories, two of which are actually more than just an idea - One is a Cregan Stark and Rhaenyra and Harwin's daughter, arranged marriage betrothal, enemies to lover situation but I can't even tell if it would be worth going down that path. The other is a Regulus Black twin sister, seventh year in Hogwarts, Wartime and the Slytherin gang at the time (Evan Rosier, Pandora Lovegood, Barty Crouch Jr, etc). Both are in extremely early stages and very different to Finn and Ailbhe but it's better than nothing and it stops me from getting too bored.