This is another old story. I had almost forgotten about it when I ran across it on my LJ. Written in January 2007, it's a very short, excruciatingly fluffy follow-up to my chaptered fic, Serendipity. Translations for the Bulgarian words are available at the end of the story. Enjoy!
Viktor lay with his head on Hermione's thigh on the cushy couch that she claimed was one of the reasons she'd married him. He was listening to her soft voice reading A Tale of Two Cities out loud and almost dozing. It was hard to believe how much his life had turned around; seven years ago, he'd lived alone in his cottage in Izbor. Now, he had a family. Viktor smiled lazily and brushed his cheek softly against Hermione's round belly. She stopped reading.
"That hurts?" he asked quietly without opening his eyes. When she didn't answer, he sat up and looked at her. He should have known; she had been turning green about this time of night for the past four months. "Our little tikva is acting up again?" She nodded. "Saltines?"
"And some ginger ale, please. Mayka said they would help."
He went to the kitchen, humming softly to himself. He couldn't help but be pleased, even if she was having a lot of sickness. Hmm...no crackers in the cabinet. He had bought two boxes yesterday; he knew they weren't out. He called out softly to ask her where she'd put them.
"They're in the refrigerator. Your mother came over today and said they'd help more if they were cold. And you know I couldn't tell her no."
Apparently Mayka had brought more crackers, too. There were six boxes in the refrigerator. Viktor grinned, pleased that she was being so protective of Hermione. Her first pregnancy had been easy; his mother claimed that this rough one was making up for it.
"Daddy?" a little voice called from the top of the stairs that led down to the kitchen.
"Hey, Snicklefritz. Vhat are you doing out of bed? Ve vake you?" He lifted his arms up and Victoria squirmed through the railing so he could catch her. Viktor pressed his face into her soft, dark curls and breathed in the clean scent of little girl.
"No...I couldn't sleep. Is something wrong with Mummy?"
"No, little sestra is just moving around again and Mummy needs crackers to calm her down."
Victoria's dark eyes met his and she nodded seriously. "I know. That's what Baba said today when she brought Mummy more of them. I like a snack at bedtime, too. But right now, Daddy, could you tell me a story? To help me sleep? Molya? Please?"
"Mummy is reading to me; do you want to go listen vith me?"
She nodded and held the glass of ginger ale so that Viktor could carry both her and the crackers back to Hermione. His heart felt like someone was squeezing it as the little girl clamored onto her mother's lap for kisses, and then whispered to her little sister. "Shhh. It's bedtime now, and we'll hear a story. Eat your snack, then we can go night-night." Victoria's tiny rosebud mouth kissed her mother's stomach gently, and then she climbed back into his arms.
"Snicklefritz vants to listen to story vith me, svetlina. I told her it vas ok." Hermione smiled at him, with that special look in her eyes, that look that made him thank Merlin and every star in the sky that he'd finally found her again. He lay his head back on her thigh, with Victoria lying against his chest, and listened to her sweet voice reading Dickens.
Within moments, a warm body was wiggling restlessly against him and sighing. Finally, when Victoria's patience couldn't bear another word of the classics, she begged, "Please, Mummy, this is so boring. Can we have something better? Could you tell me a fairy story?"
"Princess," Hermione said, cupping her round cheek, "I really don't feel well enough to make a story up. Little sestra is making my tummy feel upset."
"Then will Daddy tell me one? Molya?"
Viktor looked into her pleading eyes, and he knew that he couldn't tell her no. Unfortunately, fairy stories were Hermione's specialty, not his. Well, for his Snicklefritz, he'd come up with something.
"Vell, I suppose I can. Let me think a moment...Hmm...vonce upon a time there vas a fairy princess, who lived in a large castle by a lake. Vone day, a prince came on a magical ship to her lake. He-"
"Was he a handsome prince, Daddy?"
"Vell-"
Hermione interrupted him this time. "Yes, he was very handsome, wasn't he, Vitya? He was tall, and strong, and he had dark hair and beautiful, expressive eyes."
"What's 'spressive?"
"Like when Daddy and I look at each other and can tell exactly what we're thinking."
Victoria sighed. "Well, what did the prince do?"
"Vell, he vent into the castle to haff dinner vith some of the others who lived there. Across the room, he saw the fairy princess, and he thought she vas beautiful. So, he started to vatch her, to see vhat sort of things she liked to do. He noticed that effery day after dinner, she vent to the library."
A cute little nose wrinkled at him. "To the library?"
"To the...ah...the enchanted garden. Anyvay, the prince vas very nervous to speak to the princess, because she vas so beautiful, and he vas a very shy prince. But every day he vent to the garden and sat on a toadstool, vatching her as she read text-ah, fairy stories. Vone day, evil dragons came to the land, and the prince-"
"Dragons?"
"Yes, Snicklefritz, dragons. And the prince had to battle vone of the dragons. The whole time he vas fighting, he vas very afraid, but of course he could not tell anyvone, because he vas the prince. But he decided that day, vhile he fight the dragon, that he had to tell the princess how he felt for her, before it vas too late."
"Too late for vhat?" Victoria asked, causing Viktor to smile at him. When she got tired, she always lapsed into an accent similar to his own. She would be asleep soon.
"Too late for...ah..." He glanced helplessly at Hermione. "Help me, svetlina. Vhat vould the prince be too late for?"
She grinned at him. "The enchanted ball that the king was having in her honor, of course, Vitya."
"Tochno. The prince knew he must ask the princess to accompany him to the ball before somevone else did. He vas especially afraid that the evil prince vould ask her. So, the prince went to the enchanted garden early vone day to vait for her, and he cast a spell to keep all others out of the garden, so he could speak to the princess alone. Usually, the...the maids vould follow him to the garden, and the princess vould get angry because they vere noisy. But today, the prince had his moment to ask the princess.
He valked over to her toadstool and knelt beside it. The princess looked at him like he vas crazy, and he thought she might stab him vith a quill."
"Um, Daddy? I don't think that makes very much sense."
"Vell, he vas afraid of that."
"How do you know? Vere you there?"
"Vell, the prince, he told me. Anyvay, Snicklefritz, that does not matter. The prince vas very brave-braver than any prince ever vas-and asked the princess to go to the ball vith him. And at the ball, the prince fell so much in love vith the princess that he knew he vould never, ever loff anyvone else. And for a few months, the prince and princess vere very, very happy in her castle."
"But then vhat?" Victoria asked sleepily.
"But then, the prince had to go avay...on a long quest. And the evil prince, he vas still there at the castle, and he convinced the princess that he vas really good, and took her avay from the castle."
"Didn't she loff the good prince?"
"Yes, she alvays loved him."
"But," Hermione interrupted, "she just forgot for a little while."
"Yes, she forgot," Viktor continued. "But the evil prince, he vas mean to her, and she ran avay. Vhen she ran, she found the good prince again, and remembered that she vas in love vith him. Then she realized that she vas under a bad spell, and she vas bound to the evil prince until somevone said the magic words."
"Did the princess know the magic vords?"
"No, and neither did the prince. They vaited and vaited, being in love, but not being able to be together, until one day, a little girl said the magic words, and the princess vas free. She ran back to the good prince, and they lived happily ever after, and had lots of little girls because they loved little girls so much."
"See, sestra?" Victoria whispered to Hermione's stomach. "The little girl is the hero. Just like us."
With that, she snuggled her dark curls against Viktor's chest, and went to sleep.
When he came back to the couch after putting her in bed, Hermione cuddled against him and he stole a kiss. "Vitya, I think that was the very best fairy story I've ever heard."
"Vell, svetlina, vhat else could I tell? Is the very best fairy story I haff ever lived."
Many thanks to The Bulgarian Rechnik
baba: grandmother
mayka: mother
molya: please
sestra: sister
svetlina: sunshine
tikva: pumpkin
tochno: exactly
Vitya: a pet name for Viktor