Once, In a Lullaby by Alohilani

Chapter One

Sometimes, at night, when she tucked Machiko into bed and brushed the small girl's hair out of her face, she got that funny little clenching in her heart that made her throat feel tight and her eyes warm. Somehow, she never thought that she'd be at this point, and her baby's face, so peaceful, so happy, so innocent, made everything she had gone through so simply worth it that she couldn't imaging her life being any other way. She had to overcome a lot to sit on the side of her daughter's bed and sing softly to her darling baby girl.

The birth had been hard, and Machiko had been early and weak, and she had been struck with the soul-touching fear that her baby, the first she'd been able to carry to term, wouldn't make it. After losing three babies before they even had a chance, she had almost given up. And Machiko, her miracle baby, had nearly died at birth.

But she didn't.

She didn't, she survived, and the little girl's father quickly overcame his slight disappointment that it hadn't been a boy, and simply enjoyed having created such a perfect child. Well, maybe not perfect. The girl could be loud, outspoken, and full of endless energy, just like her mother and adopted sister. It struck him at some point that he had surrounded himself with women very much of the same archetype, and there was probably some significance in that, but for once, he chose not to analyze his good fortune.

And when he returned home after a long (or short) journey, and his wife met him with a smile and a kiss; when his adopted daughter, now past the knee-clinging stage, smiled and shon with happiness; when his small daughter, bursting with life and innocence, gazed up at him with those adoring blue eyes, he thought that it would be alright even if his wife was never able to bear him a son.

Maybe it was not meant to be.

Maybe his girls were (sometime more than) enough.

At night, when he carried the sleepy girl to her bed, and his mate sang to her, they felt, even for just a moment, that perhaps all was right with the world. His wife's clear, even voice singing songs he'd never heard, and his daughter, with her clean, comforting scent struck a chord in his long-buried heart, and he felt at peace.

And afterwards, when he and his mate lay in their bed, one ear open for bad dreams, he pulled her into his arms and simply held her for the longest times. She would smile gently at him, and in those moments, his heart, for so long unused, would feel full to overflowing with contentment. With peace. With love.

And as they dozed off, he could almost hear the echo of her song.

~*~

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

There's a land that I heard of

Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream

Really do come true

~*~

Please review! I hoped you enjoyed my fluffly little nonsense!