It had been eleven months since they had gotten home from their quest. Dawn had enjoyed the domestic lifestyle she and Arrion had fallen into. Life was good. Her husband was currently pacing around their room while excitedly crowing his pleasure. She helplessly smiled. He was really happy.
But it did not really surprise her either. Her husband loved children. And the thought of being a father himself brought him immense pleasure. It was… actually rather sweet.
Her husband finally stopped and just flung himself beside of her, gathering her up into his arms as he did so. Dawn instinctively curled herself into his arms. As he began peppering her face with kisses, she laughed softly. It was a little tickling, these soft kisses all over her face. But she liked it so she let her husband be.
"Do you know how long I"ve waited for this?" He peered into her face, a huge grin on his own.
She nodded, and stroked his hair, "Since we got married, right? I know. You"ve always wanted children."
"Mmhmm." He went to jump back up, but she caught his arm and tugged him back down.
"Easy there, my lord," She smiled at him as she pulled him towards her, "You"ve paced enough, why not stay beside me awhile?"
His eyes filled with warmth and tenderness as he looked at her, and he placed a small kiss on the tip of her nose, "Are you wishing for me to cuddle you, darling? Gladly. Anytime you ask…"
With that he wrapped her up tightly and just hugged her to himself. Dawn let herself relax into the arms of the man she had come to so dearly love. Sometimes she wondered what her life would be like if he had never found her that day in the snow.
No matter what it would have been like, she knew this: it would not have been anywhere near as happy. Even if her life had improved some other way, just the thought of never even meeting her dear shapeshifter made her realize that. This was definitely what she had never known she wanted in life.
And to think that she had a new life growing inside of her. She felt rather blessed. More than she had thought she would. While she had wanted to become pregnant it had been because of Arrion at first. She had wanted to give him the children he had always desired.
But now that she was actually pregnant she actually felt rather excited about being a mother. Though… she sighed, "Arrion?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think I can actually do this? I mean, I have improved some, but I am still not all that empathetic…"
Arrion sat up, and brushed her hair out of her face, a serious look on his face. "Dawn, my dear queen, you"ll be a fine mother. I won"t lie and say you"ll be perfect but you know what, neither will I. And that"s okay. As long as we try our best and love our kids and spend time with them and take care of them, I think they"ll turn out just fine. And honestly, I think it will be good for you. You"ll learn a lot about thinking about others if you have a child. And I"ll always be here to help you, you know. I won"t die easily on you."
She hit his shoulder for that last statement, and shook her head in exasperation. Why did he have to even mention himself dying?
He laughed at her and kissed her. A soft smile tilted his lips up. Just looking at the happy look on his face made Dawn relax. She found it difficult to remain upset. Besides he had more been a.s.suring her of the fact that he was not going to die on her fairly soon.
Even if it had been in bad taste, she would let it go.
She sighed and snuggled into him. Besides that incident had proved that – Arrion was not easy to kill. Apparently shapeshifters had regenerative abilities, making them be able to survive near fatal wounds. So long as nothing outright killed them then they could survive. She had not actually known that before, though it did explain a few things about her husband"s att.i.tude towards danger. And why he never seemed all that bothered the few times she had seen him with an injury.
She was still a bit unhappy that he had never actually told her that before. If she had known that she would have searched for him, or might have put together the fact that he and Raven were the same person. But her husband did not seem too bothered by it, and she realized that he probably got a strange sense of enjoyment just thinking about what had happened.
But that was the man she loved. He might be one of the best people she knew, but he certainly enjoyed pulling pranks on people. Even though this had technically not been a prank, but still… he enjoyed it a bit too much.