Archive of Our Own ^beta

The crow’s call at dawn awakened Iris with a start.

She found that this was often how she was awoken nowadays, but there was a strange gratefulness to that thought. Because Iris had the privilege of grumbling at how loud the pesky bird was, contrasted to how her brother…could not. It had been years since his death. Iris had grieved, and let that grief settle into her life like flour being folded into dough. But sometimes, in the early hours of the morning, when life was so still, it did remind her of a simpler time. A three-person household busting at the seams with love and laughter. Not unlike the home she had made for herself now.

She glanced over at Roman. Her husband, who had grown into a lighter sleeper as he aged. She was surprised the crow had not awakened him. Or that their 2 year old daughter, Charlotte, hadn’t either. She took this moment of peace to admire the strong lines of Roman’s neck, the beautiful raven-black of his hair messed by sleep (and perhaps hands gripping it from the night before), and the male curve of his jaw.

Eventually, Iris decided that neither members of her family awaking was a sign from the universe that she should most definitely go into her husbands arms and get at least thirty more minutes of sleep. The child in her stomach demanded it.

She layed back down, carefully maneuvering into a position that Roman had helped her discover in her first pregnancy, that significantly helped with the pressure of her bump. Iris was quite content when she found strong, loving arms wrapping around her. His head nestled into her neck, breathing in the lavender scent of her hair. They breathed out at the same time.

“Good morning.” Roman grumbled, not moving from his current position. “Crows wake you?”

“They did wake you up, then! What were you doing, pretending to be asleep?” Iris said.

She felt his smirk against her skin. “I could feel you admiring me. When a man has such a beautiful woman looking at him like that, of course he wouldn’t want to interrupt her divine love.”

Iris was glad that he couldn’t see her blush. Even so long into their marriage, after building a family and a life together, he never ceased his complete adoration of his wife. It was astonishing, and quite romantic.

Roman’s hand drifted down towards her belly. “And how is my little girl doing?”

“You mean boy.”

“Of course not. We both know, deep down, we will be blessed with another perfect girl.”

This was a joke that Roman often liked to tease Iris with. She knew that, of course, he didn’t care about the baby’s gender at all. He would love and cherish the child all the same. But Roman loved to tease Iris, and Iris liked having this banter often. It was refreshing, that they got to joke about this beautiful life they had built.

“When I deliver this baby and he comes out with a pair of suspenders and a briefcase, I absolutely cannot wait to see the look on you face.”

Roman chuckled at that. There was a sudden opening of a door, and Charlotte waddled in. She had gotten too used to barging into their room, and Iris often had nightmares about her coming in too late and getting scarred for life by her parent’s nighttime activities. Oh, well.

Both of their heads lifted, and Roman smiled gently at her daughter. It was moments like this that made Iris want to burst into tears about the love that she contained for these two human beings.

“Daddy, pancakes.” Charlotte hopped onto their bed and demanded. Roman had grown into quite the chef for Charlotte, and he often tried to get her tasting new foods and flavours. But pancakes, she never gave up on. They were her ride or dies. The Roman to her Iris, one could say.

“Of course, Princess Char.” Roman dutifully nodded.

“But I want Mommy to sit next to me!” Another whim of Charlottes life. The way their table was arranged, there were two seats on one side and one on the other. Roman was often banished to the side with one chair. He didn’t mind. The view was spectacular.

“I will only sit next to you if you pinky promise me that you will not call Jack a poopy-pants today.”

“But Mommy!” Charlotte complained.

“Char, I know he threw cake at your face, but you have to be nice to everyone” Iris told her.

“Ok…”

Jack was the son of Attie and Tobias, who were scheduled to come over for lunch today. Jack and Charlotte were the same age, which meant they were both unfortunately in the ‘Terrible Twos’ stage of life.

Naturally, this meant that Iris and Attie swore they would be best friends for life if they were involved.

Roman kissed Iris’ belly, and proceeded to lead their daughter down to the kitchen. They giggled at something as they walked down the stairs. Iris got up with a happy sigh. If only she knew at eighteen where her life would end her up at. She chuckled at the thought.