A/N: Just tossing this up here for now. Dreamweaver is getting it's final update when my internet cooperates.

9. Promise
(Generic, Romance)

It was a wordless admission, one found in the deepest depths of the soul. Side by side, they say nothing. Together, they express everything. Impossibly, their hearts beat as one. Without even thing about it, their fingers intertwine.

Watching the morning sun through the glass window was the only thing they desired to do once spent. The rings on their fingers warmly reflecting the rays of light. In that single moment, away from phones and computers, there was no greater joy than the soft serenity between them. Intimately bathing the two lovers in the feelings found in the arms of each other.

…

10. Innocence
(Generic, family theme)

She was a self proclaimed sinner. Too many times, she'd declared herself unfit of happiness. She accused herself undeserving of joy. She was often the first to put herself down, and the last to take praise as truth. Her past had warped her for the worst. Her future often seemed too far away.

In spite of those things, she found herself surrounded by the people she cared for most. For the longest time, she'd thought herself too blessed, and feared that such gifts would be ripped away from her. Each and every time she began to suspect such a thing, she was proven wrong by fate.

Once again, it seemed as if the gods above chuckled at her foolishness. That fact came in the sound of a baby fussing for the first time, and it carried over into the quiet uneasiness that her worries brought her.

Anxieties she'd never once thought of before, trickling tenderly onto the surface of her heart, and sinking into the depth of her mind.

Nine months had come and gone. Too fast, and yet agonizingly slow at the same time. All of it came down to this one evening during a bitter cold winter, when the snow itself cloaked everything it touched. She could not find words for the small child in Mai's arms. She could not discover reason for her own sense of awe.

Wordlessly, her gaze fell to the baby boy, his eyes closed, only a little hair atop of his head. She might not have been the most maternal woman in the world, and she wasn't always kind either. Her faults were as many as there were drops in the ocean. Knowing that made it hard to accept that the child was a reality.

Still Shizuru tried to remind herself to breath as the boy opened his sleepy eyes to regard her for a mere moment. Scrunching them closed again, he blocked out the bright world around him. He seemed to enjoy snuggling into his mother's warmth instead. It was surreal, and feeling lost, she only reach out to the hand that was so much smaller than her own.

"He has blue eyes." Shizuru murmured, unsure of herself, and the tender world that had overcome her so quickly.

A weak laugh followed. "All babies have blue eyes."

Shizuru nodded, her hand falling to Mai's shoulders, feeling the exhausted woman sag against her. "I can't believe this is really happening."

"You afraid?" Mai asked softly, so at ease.

Shizuru swallowed hard. "Petrified."

Mai just smiled. "Hold your son so that I can take a nap."

Carefully, Shizuru held him, cradling the boy securely in her arms. The small bundle slept, making little more than a small peep. He soon settled. This was the easy part, she knew that because children wouldn't remain so young forever. At that, she sighed a little. His acceptance of her seemed to be the same as his mother's.

Her past mistakes were absolved by the infant in her arms, nonexistent to his personal reality. The family she so desired was right here, peacefully at her side.