AN: I do not own The Slayers, I just play in the sandbox.
The room was lit solely by the fire crackling in the hearth, filling the room with a warm, amber glow. Somehow it was enough for Lina to read a book of winter tales by, though Gourry thought as he looked down at the page and saw that it was cast in shadow, he privately wondered if she had simply read them so many times she had them memorized. He wrapped an arm around her, and she cuddled closer to him, and, being as absorbed in the story as she was, she missed the smile that played on his lips as he watched her.
The clatter of wood hitting wood rang through the room. Lucia, Glynn and Gwynn giggled, "Boom!" they cried as the blocks tumbled to the floor. Lina barely paused in her reading as the kids started to rebuild their block tower. For once all three children were playing quietly, the manifestation of peace on earth, goodwill towards all.
Gourry felt his heart leap as Glynn got up and walked over to pick up a block that had scattered further from the others. Until today they hadn't even known if he would ever be able to walk. The seizure he'd had as a newborn had left him weaker than his siblings. But that morning he finally got up and did it. And even though the exchange of gifts was not to happen till morning, Gourry and Lina felt as though they had the best gift of all in seeing him toddle around the house with his sisters.
Lina paused briefly in her story to watch him, the corners of her mouth turning into a smile before she caught her breath and continued reading. Gourry moved a hand to her knee and squeezed it. In that moment he could hardly care that the house wasn't as clean as it should be or that he was in some desperate need of sleep or just some time alone with his wife without worrying about the kids coming in. Because it was in these quiet moment when he would look around and realize that he had a house filled with a loving family, and therefore he had everything he always wanted. Then joy would pulse through him, and it was all he could do to try to hang onto the moment, before the truce between the children would fall as surely as their block tower had.
Once he had been a lonely vagabond, but somehow he had found Lina, and somehow they had survived the impossible and managed to settle down and have a family. Gourry shifted slightly in his seat, so he could watch Lina and all three of his children, and focused on the present.