Security
Warning: Mush. Fluff. Cavity-inducing-sweetness.
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Hyacinth wakes from her sleep by that distinct feeling of wrongness.
She sits up and listens, ignoring the sleeping form beside her slowly stirring awake.
A whimper drifts down to her room and she moves, feet hurrying to Teddy's room.
As she thought, Teddy is in the throes of a nightmare, little torso twisting as he tries to get away from his own dreams.
"Teddy-bear," she whispers, hands gently shaking him awake. "Teddy, wake up."
He does, jolting awake with a sort of urgency that breaks her heart. His hair is colored black with fear and his eyes are colored red.
"'Aya!" he whimpers. ""Aya! Ther gian' gumma an' – "
He is incoherent and Hyacinth allows him to rant it out, hand rubbing his back in soothing circles. She knows he is calm again when his hair morphs back to the color of teal, eyes going to a sleepy hazel.
"Do you want to sleep with me?" she asks. Her mind wonders back to Reborn but she knows he wouldn't mind. He would grumble, but he wouldn't really mind.
"Please," he answers, speech back to normal.
She carries him to her bedroom and finds Reborn awake. She notes it by the lack of rhythmic breathing and the half-lidded eyes watching her movement.
"He had a nightmare," she explains. "You'll keep him safe from the monsters, won't you?"
Teddy removes his head from her shoulders to glance at Reborn. To her surprise, he twists around to raise his hands in the universal gesture of children to be picked up.
Reborn picks him up with barely any hesitation, hauling himself out of bed smoothly and elegantly. Hyacinth drools a bit.
"Let's get to bed," Reborn mutters, patting a teal head.
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Hyacinth and Teddy are a bit bleary-eyed the next morning. Reborn, the annoying arse that could function on two hours of sleep even when previously injured, is bright-eyed and fully-dressed.
It would be very easy to hate him if Hyacinth wasn't a morning person. Well, she isn't a morning person, more of a 'everyday-is-a-new-day' person. So she just contents herself at glaring at him.
"Isn't it a lovely morning?" he drawls out, reclining on the kitchen counter and sipping on a mug of coffee.
Teddy is holding on to Hyacinth's hand and he giggles. "Why are you wearing a hat, Reborn?" he asks.
Hyacinth smirks. "Yes, Reborn. Why are you wearing a hat inside the house?"
With a scowl, he removes the fedora and carefully places it on the counter top, away from Teddy.
Ridiculous man, she thinks fondly. He bickers with Teddy on the matter of fruit loops and sneaks the boy bits of chocolate when he thinks she isn't looking.
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Hyacinth comes back from a shopping trip to find Teddy on Reborn's lap, both of them facing a chessboard.
"Hello," she greets them. "What are you boys up to?"
Teddy wriggles down from Reborn's lap and gives her a hug. "Hello. Reborn is teaching Teddy to play chess."
She kisses his forehead and laughs at Reborn's disgruntled expression. He really didn't like to be caught being sweet and mushy. His words, anyway.
"I'm in the mood for baking," she announces. "What should I bake?"
Immediately, both of them announce favorites. Cookies and doughnuts. They start to bicker while waging war over the chessboard.
Hyacinth watches this with exasperation before laughing softly, making her way to the kitchen to create both.
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"You're both ridiculous," she announces, thoroughly fed up.
There is a liberal amount of chocolate frosting for the doughnuts spread all over, some of it even getting to the ceiling. Cookie dough is splattered on the counter and even Hyacinth is not spared from the splash effect, her apron an artwork of splashed frosting and flour.
"We wanted to help you," Teddy says and he looks completely happy while half-covered in frosting.
"It's free labor," Reborn agrees.
The doughnuts are done with erratic looking designs. The cookies are shaped into throwing stars, knives and guns, not her usual circles.
"Well," she sighs, conceding defeat in the face of Teddy's earnest efforts. "At least Mippy will be happy with something to clean up."
Reborn, the smug bastard, laughs at her.
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In the afternoon, Hyacinth tackles the garden.
She had just figured out what parents of mischievous children find out: Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
So she doesn't think about Teddy being under Reborn's watch and what a hitman might be teaching her godson and she doesn't think about the messy kitchen and what Mippy would say when she comes back from maintaining the lawn.
Hyacinth weeds the garden and doesn't think about anything pressing.
The flowers are blooming, the camellias are fine. The sunflowers she planted are not droopy and everything is fine and quiet. Too quiet.
Oh, Merlin.
The only terrible thing about having a noisy Reborn and Teddy is when they go quiet.
"I wonder what the two of them are doing," she mutters.
Hyacinth manages for another five minutes before she gives up and washes her hands, heading towards the house with trepidation.
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Teddy is playing with a toy gun.
Hyacinth feels her fears easing back, up until the moment Teddy shoots and it is enough to shatter a window with its force.
"Reborn!" she cries. "What if he hurts himself?"
Her lover just grins. "I taught him the basics," he says. "He just needs practice."
There is no arguing with the man. Especially when Teddy uses the gun like a safety blanket, never letting it out of his sight.
When he gets no nightmares, Hyacinth rolls her eyes at her lover and concedes again. "Alright, you can continue teaching him," she mutters. "But he doesn't join any of your Mafia stuff until he's old enough to decide for himself, alright?"
Reborn looks affronted but Hyacinth knows him well enough that she doesn't buy it.
"Alright," he says. "But I still get to teach him. That boy needs some confidence."
Whatever he says, Hyacinth just grins into her napkin because his guiding hands on Teddy's shoulders are gentle and his words are kind.
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Mush. Right there. I am melting.
That doesn't mean that their relationship troubles are gone, it just took a bit of a backseat in the face of kiddy nightmares. You can view this as an Interlude.
Please R & R.
~Hallen