It was a fine day on the Terrowin estate.  The sun was shining and the birds were chirping as the children played outside.  Lucas and Ezili both were sitting at a table, enjoying the breeze coming off of the lake as they observed the rest of the kids playing about.  Damond, Remy, Teagan, and Glyn were all playing with each other closer to the table, with Chantal sitting in Ezili’s lap.  Janus and Lila were both staring down anyone who dared to get too close to Glyn, but they were getting distracted with their own devious plans for the next school day and what to torment their classmates with next.

Corrine and Jules were painting the beautiful island landscape, taking in the scenery and enjoying their time outside.  It was rare for Jules to feel well, and he was taking full advantage of it.  Kija, Alshaya, Fiori, Mira, and Rex were all off on their own adventures, though it was more than likely that Rex was being driven to insanity by his daughters than anything.  Rez, as usual, was off tending to his spa…

For the remaining kids, they were in a makeshift game of hide and seek, though it was hardly fair.  Llynette was a monster when it came to her speed, and was outclassing most of the kids without trying.  She seemed to notice, though, and took a break from her dominating lead to look for her parents.  She hadn’t seen them in some time.

“Mom?  Dad?” she called out as she entered the main hall of the castle.  It seemed rather gloomy compared to the sunlit outdoors.  She wandered up the stars and towards their room.  She knew better than to burst in; perhaps they were taking a long deserved rest?  Or more?  She shivered at the thought.  Gross.

Voices could be heard from the room, though.  Calm from her father, and flustered from her mother.  As she got closer, she could hear the annoyance in Simone’s voice.  Something was wrong.  Not life threatening, but wrong.  

“Maybe…I should go get Mister Xeik…” Llynette mused out loud.  “He always seems to know what to do…” Normally she would take this on herself, but Simone and Lewis both had been acting strange the past week. Something had to change.

“I just don’t understand it was perfect yesterday,” Simone let her frustration be known. “Something isn’t right with it now…” She crossed her arms and stared at the dark blue bedding.

Lewis had his arms crossed and was nodding. Whatever was wrong was wrong. Though he couldn’t tell exactly what about the bed was causing his wife’s distress. He just knew he had to be there for Simone in her time of need.

Simone took off the pillows, the blankets, and the sheets. “This is all wrong…” She had everything piled up by her. “We need something… something soft.” She changed out the sheets for something softer. Putting the pillows back up on the bed she seemed to flop on it and look up. “No, something still isn’t right.”

They had gone through this every day for a week at this point. It was never quite this bad but it was getting to be concerning for everyone involved. Simone snapped her fingers. “I know what the problem is.” She went over to their closet and brought out another pillow. It had gotten so bad that now Silva had stocked the closet with things they might need. She put the pillow on the bed and laid back down. “That seems right.”

Lewis helped her change out the comforter on the bed to a softer one as she had requested. “Yes… I think that will do.” This whole process had taken them two hours. That hadn’t accounted for how long it took Simone to identify exactly what was wrong with their bed. She just knew something was wrong.

It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. He wished he could capture this moment and relive it thousands of times over.

The moment that Lewis Terrowin had fully dropped his guard.

Xeik was sitting in the nook by the window, watching them run back and forth as they tried to find out what was so wrong with their bed. He had been sitting there the full two hours, just watching.

Not once did Lewis notice his presence. The famed Dusk Assassin, terror of the world who was hunted down for a bounty and never caught.

“Finally chosen something that works?” Xeik asked casually. A suddenly surprised Lewis threw a dagger, which Xeik caught with ease. “You’re getting rusty,” he said with a sly smile. The healer would forever cherish this moment.

“When the hell did yo-” Lewis started to yell.

“Two hours ago,” Xeik replied as he stood up and walked over. The healer had not changed much over the years, and he was even acclimating to the workload that Angela had given him. He was full of energy, and excited to be working. “It seems you have quite the problem on your hands.”

The ex-assassin seemed off put by Xeik’s sudden interest. “I’m not sure there is one. The bed just wasn’t comfortable anymore.”

“Right,” the Divine Mender said with crossed arms. “For what…the fourth time this week? Fifth? Or have you lost count yet?” Again, he was smiling, as if all the answers in the world were at his command.

“Get on with it,” Lewis demanded.

“Simone is nesting.”

Xeik startled her, which was surprising because Lewis always knew when someone was in the room with them. Lewis was always aware of every individual near them. This bed situation… It was her distress over the bed that made him drop his guard. That in itself was amazing.

Simone’s gray eyes moved to Xeik who was on their windowsill. Seriously, when did he get there? Her eyes narrowed down on him and she couldn’t pinpoint when. Lewis did the talking for her and this time it was Xeik cutting Lewis off instead of the other way around. He had been there the whole time watching them.

Finally, the answer to why she was struggling so hard with this was within their grasp. Once more Lewis answered for her. They really needed the answer.

And then… There it was. She nodded along with Xeik. She was nesting. Wait… Her eyes went wide and she realized she didn’t know what that was. “What is nesting Xeik?” Was it some strange bird thing she wasn't aware of? It made sense now why Lewis didn't notice Xeik. They were both so into it… but the question was… Why?

Xeik was loving this. He had never been so justified in his righteousness before, and he was absolutely living for it. His smile must have been something special, because Lewis was taking notice and starting to get annoyed. “Okay, okay, I’ll get to the explanation.”

He had them both sit down, and he walked over to the wall. Using the magic sands, he created a small board to write on, and started to draw out diagrams. When he finished, he had two crudely drawn birds with a nest and eggs. “So when a mommy bird and a daddy bird-”

“Don’t you dare.”

He let out a sigh, “Fine. You’re no fun. I had a setup and everything. Just ruin my fun, why don’t you?” Xeik huffed, much like Mia, and the magical board erased itself. “Simone is pregnant. Birds nest when the hormones get out of balance. I won’t bore you with the details.”

Lewis nodded, “Right. Okay, she’s pregnant. Was that so hard?” It hadn’t dawned on him yet.

Once more, Xeik let out an exasperated sigh, but this one was dramatic and attention drawing. He was mentally counting down the seconds until it dawned on both of them.

Simone was very interested in what Xeik was drawing but was also just as annoyed as Lewis was… Probably by extension of Lewis himself, that Xeik was trying to be funny about all this nesting business.

Oh, she was just pregnant.

OH! OH! Simone stood up with the biggest smile she had ever had on her face before, probably second to the smile she had when they had Damond and Remy. This was a complete surprise and her voice boomed, “LEWIS! WE’RE HAVING A BABY LEWIS!”

The mother-to-be was absolutely glowing. “BUT HOW?! I thought… Well, Angela said that Damond and Remy were a special one-time thing. How is this even possible?” She put her hands to her stomach and looked down. “And when even?” It couldn’t have been that long ago. The nesting issue only started a week beforehand.

Xeik shrugged at her question. He had a few theories, but he needed to run them by Angela before he could really settle on one. “If I had to guess, there was a residual that was left in you after the transfer, and since most of…well, all of this is magic based, it’s lying dormant inside of you, slowly siphoning mana until it wakes itself up. Or…something like that.”

Lewis, who had been shocked into silence, finally spoke up. “Can you just explain it in actual common?”

“Simone has a magic womb that only works on a cycle based on the magic you both naturally generate.” Xeik realized that might have been a little over Lewis’ head still, and crossed his arms. “Let’s say…she has the potential to get pregnant every five or so years. Give or take.”

“Every five years?” Lewis was surprised at the frequency. Had it really been five years since Damond and Remy? They were growing so fast. He frowned at the thought. But then that sadness seemed to evaporate away as Simone’s happiness overtook his own emotions. Their resonance was in full bloom, and he could feel the heat of the etchings on his back.

Xeik could tell they were going through a wave of emotions, and smiled. “I’m very happy for you both. Let’s go ahead and schedule a meeting with Angela for later this week. I’m sure she’ll want to see you as soon as possible.” Especially since these two were so interesting to her. The resonance she made was something that could never be recreated.

Simone was following along with what Xeik was saying for the most part. It was magic that had been woken up in a way. She could always ask Angela for more details when they went to see her. “Alright… We’ll go see her in three days.” She could wait three days for all of the answers.

Lewis and she practically burst outside with the good news. Simone who always had her head on her shoulders was practically threw confetti everywhere if she had any. “EVERYONE! We have the best kind of news!”

All of the kids perked up and looked at their mother with expectant eyes.

“Simone is pregnant,” Lewis followed up as he caught up with his wife.

Simone was bouncing for joy at the news and soon all of the children were congratulating them. This was a huge thing for the Terrowin family. When asked how when Remy and Damond were supposed to be the last Simone couldn’t give them an answer. “I’m sure Lady Angela will have all the answers for us my dears.”

Lila put her hand up, “Am I getting sisters because I am outnumbered.”

Janus crossed his arms, “Momma isn’t going to pay as much attention to us.”

Simone put her hands out. “I don’t know and I am not going to ignore my precious babies.” She kissed Janus lovingly and hugged him. He was really coming into his Lewis looks.

Later that week they were in Angela’s office. “So how are my two favorite birds doing?”

“I RESENT THAT STATEMENT,” Raine yelled from the door.

“Fine, my two favorite night phoenixes,” Angela waved Raine off. “Your pregnancy is right on track. You are about three weeks pregnant. There’s only one baby.”

“Just the one?” Lewis seemed surprised after the last set of twins.

“From what I can tell,” Xeik said as he walked in, “I was right about your womb. Congratulations, Simone. You’ve beaten the odds. You can have children. Just…not at the rate as everyone else.” He smiled. “I hope she’ll be the first of many.”

“She?”

Xeik blinked. “Did I say that? Erm, I mean, it’s too early to tell.” He waved his hand. “No way to know. Could still be a boy.” He turned around. “But it’s a girl. Definitely a girl.”

Lewis rolled his eyes. “It was a mistake bringing you to her all those years ago. You’ve changed.” The ex-assassin thought for a moment. “Though, it might be for the best. You seem happy.”

“I could say the same about you,” Xeik replied as he walked over and motioned for Simone to sit. As he started to check her vitals, he glanced back over to Lewis. “Now that each of you are done taking turns being kidnapped or dying, you’ve become quite the homebodies. It’s good that you’ve finally settled down for a peaceful life.”

“Not as peaceful as you might think,” Lewis said with a disappointed tone. “Alshaya is about to drive me insane. I swear she’s doing everything in her power to spite me out of principle”

“She might be,” the healer replied as he wrote down some metrics. “Everything looks good on my end, Simone. Angela, did you have anything you wanted to check for?”

Angela quirked an eyebrow up at Xeik. He was starting to catch onto these things a lot faster now. They had been together for a very long time so she supposed that it was only a matter of time before he got just as good as she was about these things.

Simone sat where Xeik wanted her to and went through all the tests. It was the same as with Damond and Remy. “We’ve been pretty busy with all the children lately. Taking dance classes… Doing fairly normal things. It’s been a while since we took a job.” It had been relaxing. “That and all the parent teacher meetings for Janus and Lila…” They had forced their teacher into retiring from the stress they caused. Then they had the audacity to show up to the poor woman’s house with a basket of wine.

The new teacher they got was much more into the know about dealing with magical students. Probably at the recommendation of the principal. He didn’t want to deal with the teacher retiring before their time was up.

“She’s waiting for Llonan to ask her to marry her and Lewis isn’t having it. She keeps telling Lewis that she’s going to name her first baby with Llonan the Celestina special.”

“…She hasn’t changed since she was born.” Angela got up from her desk and wrote a few things down. “So… You have a decision to make Lewis… Do you want to cut the resonance now or do you want to go through with the birthing pain again?”