Acheron rolled over in the massive bed and laced his long legs with his wife's. She sighed happily in her sleep and he pulled her body closer to his own, tracing the length of her thigh with his fingers and breathing in the sweet scent of her hair. Her belly was just beginning to swell with their second child and he marveled at how content he was after all of the years of misery he'd faced. Not even four years ago, if someone had asked him if he could ever imagine being this happy would he have responded positively. No, it had seemed like Fate didn't like him at all and he had lamented whatever it was that had put him in that situation.
He was happily musing about all of the things that had changed for the better when the small form of his daughter came padding into the room and launched itself onto the end of the bed. Nea giggled and bounced on the mattress for a moment as Ash looked sternly down at her. "You're supposed to be with Kat and Sin. What are you doing home?"
"Got bored," she said as she crawled up the bed to snuggle in between her parents. "Will you play with me daddy?"
"Of course honey. What would you like to do?"
Nea thought for a moment and her face brightened, "Play dollieth?" She knew that her father didn't especially enjoy playing dolls with her but he would indulge her no matter what she'd suggested. She often had that power of persuasion over the adults that surrounded her.
Phaedryn smothered a giggle and rolled over to face her husband and daughter. "I think that sounds like fun. Can I play too?"
"Of courth mommy. Will you make cookieth for me too?"
Ash winked at his wife and smiled broadly, "Yum! Mommy's cookies are the best. Maybe you girls can bake some together?"
"Oh no, you're trying to get out of playing dolls. Not gonna happen pal. I'm on cookie detail and you get to play with your daughter." She chided him but knew full well that he would eagerly do anything that Nea wanted. "Besides, as soon as I start cooking anything, Xirena's going to smell it and come and trash the kitchen again. Probably not a good idea for Nea to get in her way. You remember what happened the last time?"
Ash winced as the memory of the Charonte's tirade came flooding back to him. Xirena had just recently revealed to the household that she too was pregnant. Unfortunately for everyone that meant that she was in a wicked bad temper constantly as well as being extremely sensitive to smells. When Nea had asked Phaedryn to bake cookies they'd thought nothing of it until they accidentally burned a batch of them and Xirena had gone on a rampage in the kitchen. She'd practically destroyed that entire wing of the palace before Xiovar could calm her down. Nea had avoided the demon for a week because she was so frightened.
"You've got a point. Okay then," he smiled as he rolled out of the bed and held out a hand to Nea, "To the toy room!" Nea giggled eagerly as she leapt from the bed into her father's arms and they flashed themselves away.
Phaedryn smiled after them as she rolled towards the nightstand and waved her fingers over the cell phone that set there. She thought it wise to send a message to Kat about Nea's whereabouts before half of Las Vegas went on a search for her. They'd had enough of that kind of panic recently as Nea had discovered that she could go wherever she wanted with a thought. Eventually she and Ash would seriously have to dampen her powers before she got herself into a spot of mischief she couldn't handle, but so far they'd been lucky. Nea had limited her jaunts to places she knew and everybody was slowly getting used to reporting her location to whatever party she was supposed to be with. It was certainly hard to contain an inquisitive three year old with goddess powers.
Musing about how quickly her daughter was growing and then feeling the delicate flutter of the baby that was growing in her womb she flashed on some clothing and headed for the kitchen. Danger was there sitting at the table and she smiled and waved when Phae walked in. "Morning."
"Hey Danger. How are you this morning?"
"Good. What're you up to today?"
Phaedryn began pulling cookie sheets and bowls from the various cabinets. "Nea wants cookies."
"Ah," the other woman nodded. "I still don't see why you don't just wave your magic fingers and make them appear."
Phaedryn laughed, "I told you, I like the normalcy of actually baking. It's one of my more fond memories of being human." She pulled butter and eggs out of the refrigerator and started making the dough. Danger watched as the other woman worked and they chatted about goings on.
A loud screech came from the hallway outside of the kitchen and a whirring orange cloud of tiny dragons roiled into the room. Phaedryn laughed as the pterygsauras lighted on the counter near the big bowl of cookie dough. The little creatures had discovered that they liked the sweet treat and now came at a run when they scented the dough. "Shoo! Out of the kitchen until I'm done." One of the dragons hissed at her threatening finger and she looked sternly at it. "None of that now. Get out of here or I'll let Xirena eat you." That was enough to make them move and four of the five cascaded out of the room leaving the last one looking forlornly up at Phaedryn with it's whirling yellow eyes. "You too Bob." The dragon gave one last plaintive squeak and then followed it's brethren out into the hallway.
"One of these days I'm going to figure out how you tell them apart." Danger mused.
Not long ago Nea had decided the little dragons needed names. Perhaps it was brought on by the discovery that Xirena had eaten one of them or maybe it was just a childhood desire to put words to objects. Whatever the case Nea had told Ash that the orange lizards needed names. He had laughed at her suggestion but allowed her to go ahead and pick out monikers for them. She'd sat in the throne room with the little critters clustered around her like they knew what was going on as her family stood and watched. Then she picked up each of the little creatures and stared into its eyes before bestowing a title upon it. Wibble, Blinky, Tobble, Salinas and Bob happily squawked as she announced their new names to the room and now they actually answered to the titles.
"Well, I'm constantly being scolded by a certain little girl for calling them the wrong name so I guess I've learned." Phaedryn laughed and pondered how great an influence her daughter was on her life as she put the first trays of cookies into the oven.