The family spent the day in relative leisure.
They went to the pool together, visited the sauna, a spa, and even the kids’ playroom.
Their day was finished off on the beach. This wasn’t exactly the season for vacationing, so even though there were other people on the beach, they weren’t significantly inconvenienced.
They spent the rest of the day there in leisure.
With a towel lining the ground underneath them, they watched their kids build sand castles and frolic about in the shallow water.
But as the sun started to set, so did the kids.
Dragon children were still children, and with no naps that day to sustain K’ael, he struggled not to collapse face-first into the sand castle he spent hours making.
A battle he inevitably lost, mind you...
Odessa was a bit more grown-up.
Instead of waiting until she physically collapsed, she walked over to Zahara while rubbing her eyes sleepily.
Zahara, who was reading a book at the ti, learned firsthand that kids don’t exactly wait for you to make space for them. They kind of just claim your lap like they own the property.
When Odessa took her place in Zahara’s lap, she lay her head against her mother’s chest and seed immovable.
Zahara was stunned.
She looked towards Abaddon like she had a grenade in her lap with no pin.
"S-She... she ca to ."
Abaddon tipped down his sunglasses and smiled at her. "Of course she did. You’re her mother."
Zahara’s eyes kind of glazed over.
She swapped her arms around Odessa’s much smaller fra, running her fingers through her bountiful orange locks.
"...When I woke up in that cave, I hadn’t known what anything was going to be like. I had the mories, but I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if anything was going to feel natural. I thought it would be a bit like I was trying to step into shoes that didn’t fit ."
Zahara looked up at Abaddon and t his gaze with a bright smile.
"But today has been quite wonderful. I haven’t felt awkward even once since we’ve started spending ti together. The children are beautiful. Our family is wonderful. Even you have been most accommodating with my whims, even if you did not truly wish to be here."
Abaddon felt his stomach drop. Imnse guilt flooded him as he lowered his head.
"...Forgive . I was trying so hard not to spoil your first day of life, but I just-"
"Can’t relax because all you can think of is the fact that our children are gone and Percival is still out there sowhere?"
"...Maybe."
"You’re a terribly simple individual, you know that?"
"...I have no defense."
"I didn’t think you would."
Zahara held out her hand and created sothing in her palm that made her husband sit up.
At first, he thought it was a simple galaxy, but then it beca more defined.
Abaddon couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A Grand Design, right before his very eyes.
Zahara was holding an entire multiverse on the pads of her palm.
It was no simple illusion, but sothing she had created out of thin air.
"I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s impossible to live a life devoid of conflict. Why worry about sothing that is not in our lap yet? What may co will co. And we will stand against it as we have nurous tis before."
"But-"
"And until that ti cos, we will play. We will indulge ourselves in whimsical antics and laugh without caring about how much noise we make. This is where our strength cos from.
When we face great challenges and acts of violence, we draw upon the mories of our joy for the strength to fight when the ti demands it.
But now is when we asure the weight of our existence. Not as rulers. As children, parents, siblings, and lovers."
"...You have a trendous amount of insight to share for soone who is only a few hours old."
Zahara punched him.
When Abaddon felt his shoulder dislocate, he knew for certain that Sif was still in there.
"Okay, okay, you’re right... I will take your words to heart."
"Hmph. You had better."
Abaddon slipped his arms around Zahara’s waist and held her close.
A new, but familiar, electrified feeling ran down Zahara’s spine.
Abaddon rested his head against hers so that his lips could graze her ear.
"The bar should be open now... I think if we put the kids to bed now, we can get you that drink you’ve been wanting."
Zahara thought that idea was enticing enough on its own, but the underlying aning behind those words made her feel many new emotions at once.
"I think maybe I would like to stay like this for a little longer... this mont is perfect enough on its own. We don’t need to try to recreate anything else."
Abaddon was a little bit surprised by Zahara’s change of tune, but he didn’t find it unpleasant. If anything, he understood where she was coming from perfectly.
It was the perfect sort of end to their day.
The pair slowly brought their lips closer together and kissed underneath the setting sun.
It would have been a rather romantic mont had Odessa not lifted her hand up and erected a wall between her parents.
’No kissing!’
Zahara scoffed. "Girl, please, this is my husband, I can kiss him whenever I feel like it."
’No.’ Odessa pouted and shook her head.
She placed her hands over her father’s lips as if she were trying to protect him from having his innocence stolen by her vixen of a mother.
"Oh. Is soone cranky and jealous because they’re not getting kisses?"
Odessa would rather die before confirming or denying anything.
But her lack of an answer may as well have been a confession as far as her mother was concerned.
"Aww. Does my little Odie maybe want a kiss? All you had to do was ask."
Zahara kissed Odessa’s cheek sixty tis in under a second.
Judging by the contented smile on her face, that had been what she really wanted all along.
But Zahara already knew that.
Together, the group watched the sun fully set nd usher in a cloud of darkness over the realm.
Odessa was fully asleep before the sun even finished setting.
Abaddon and Zahara watched her sleep for so ti, in awe of the little miracle who relied on them both.
But slowly, their eyes t with each other, and they stared into each other’s souls for the longest ti.
Zahara felt her cheeks turn scarlet as a warm feeling ran through her chest.
"...Maybe we could just have a drink brought up to the room instead."
"I’m not opposed to that."
"...Will you pick up our son out of the sand now?"
"Oh, shit."
-
A hotel room in Tehom had never been so quiet.
Abaddon placed the kids in the guest bedroom together and pulled the covers over both of them.
After placing an assortnt of stuffed animals around the children, Abaddon turned on their night light and backed out of the room without a sound.
As soon as he closed the door, he felt his heart beating explosively.
Zahara may have let it slip that this would technically be her first ti. She had the mories of Sif and Izanami, but she couldn’t recall how anything felt.
And life had never had any kind of intercourse before. aning Zahara’s experience in this endeavor would be next to nothing.
Abaddon wandered from the children’s room all the way to the master bedroom.
He heard the sound of water running inside the bathroom and followed the sound like a bloodhound.
Inside of the bathroom, he found Zahara standing over the bath with a questionable look on her face.
When she saw her husband enter, she held up the bottle in her hand.
"I wasn’t sure what to get, so I just asked the concierge to send sothing nice and sweet... You drink Moscato, right?"
"I do..." Abaddon stared at the bottle questionably. "But that particular brand is pretty strong... are you going to be able to handle it? Sif has a high tolerance, but Izanami..."
"Oh, please. I am the sentient amalgamation of one of the most powerful beings to ever exist. A little wine won’t trouble in the slightest."
Zahara shed her robe and turned to step into a sunken tub the size of a small pool.
She made herself comfortable on a wall inside the tub and popped open the bottle.
When she realized Abaddon was still only staring at her, her cheeks turned an even darker shade of red.
"...You’re taking a long ti to get undressed. The water will freeze at this rate."
Abaddon developed a knowing smirk.
"That’s a very roundabout way to avoid saying what you want."
Zahara swallowed. The look in her eyes beca just a little bit hungrier and forceful.
"...Take off-"
Abaddon and Zahara felt the sa shock to their synapses at the sa ti.
They looked towards each other with elated looks in their eyes and exclaid the sa thing from the top of their lungs.
""She’s awake..!""
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