Darling

Jane had heard her father say the phrase many times, but she didn't really know what it meant. All she knew was that when he said it, with that pleasing deep lilt in his voice, her mother would seem happier somehow – it must have been a term of endearment. Jane was rather endearing as well, and her father looked her in the eye one day and said the phrase to her. Instantly Jane lit up – that was what her mother had done, after all, when those words had been spoken to her – and smiled.

After a few days, Jane, who at one year old was rather good at sitting still, looked up from her place on the floor of her father's study and said the phrase. "Excuse me, darling."

Her mother would not have understood, would have put it off as another thing Jane had picked up and repeated. But her father knew what she meant, just as he knew that everything Jane said had meaning in it, every time – she just didn't know enough words to express those things. And this time was no different.

"I love you too, darling."

Happy Front

Jane knew her mother was loud, but after Lizzie was born the volume increased twofold. Jane helped her father take care of Lizzie as much as she could – her mother seemed strangely incapable of doing so a lot of the time – and besides, Jane loved Lizzie wholeheartedly. She loved the way Lizzie's blue eyes would scrunch up in laughter every time Jane kissed her stomach. She loved the way Lizzie's short red hair would curl at the ends. She loved the way Lizzie looked while she slept, with her mouth half open and her eyes gently shut.

One day Jane was sitting next to Lizzie's crib, helping her sleep. Lizzie loved holding two of Jane's fingers as she fell asleep, and Jane loved the way Lizzie squeezed her fingers as she held them. Jane would know that Lizzie was asleep when she stopped squeezing Jane's fingers. Lizzie's grip had just lessened when Jane's mother's voice came through the door, causing baby Lizzie's blue eyes to snap wide open.

"All right, fine! But you have to come home early from work tomorrow, Mr. Bennet, because I've got a bad back!"

Jane's mother walked into the room.

"Mommy, does that mean you've got a happy front?"

There were few times that Jane could remember seeing her mother's eyes sparkle like that, but when they did she always kissed Jane on the cheek. And this time was no different.

Better

There was once when Jane's mother actually was not feeling well. Jane didn't know what illness her mother had, but she did know that it was bad enough that she wasn't allowed to go too near her mother for two weeks. Jane missed kissing her mother goodnight every night, and cuddling her cheek up to her mother's for a second before going to her bedroom to sleep. At the end of the first week, Jane's father took her to the store with him while he left Lizzie at her friend Charlotte's house.

"Daddy, why are we at the store?" asked Jane.

"To get a poorly present for mommy. You know she hasn't been feeling too well."

Jane thought for a moment. "Not a poorly present, daddy, a better present."

Jane's father did not kiss her in public very often, but she knew he was pleased with her when he did, especially when he kissed her right on top of her head. And this time was no different.

A/N: Hello there! Have you remembered that I exist, then? Sorry I haven't been writing much lately, but I've been super busy with school – I'm in the musical (yay!) which is fun but takes up ALL of my time.

Just some ficlets that I hope you enjoyed, and if you don't watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, that beautiful adaptation of Pride and Prejudice created by Hank Green and Bernie Su, I suggest you do, they're amazing. (Here's the first episode: watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs)

Also if some of you follow YouTubers, you may have noticed that most (all) of the cute things that were cute that happened were not invented by me. (mostly because "cute" is not my forte. My forte is "awkward".) In fact, said cute things happened in real life, only not to me but to another person. You may have heard of him, his name's Charlie McDonnell. (Here's the link to his video: watch?v=6PJmR_FNQ0Y)