Two seasons later, the child rearing situation had steadied out as the three of them fell into a comfortable routine. As Aurora grew older and her parents grew more experienced, she was much less a menace.
"Good morning, Sweetheart." Clarion smiles, opening the door to see Aurora sitting up in her crib. The little fairy lights up at her mother's voice, reaching up and making grabby hands at her.
Clarion picks her up, quickly feeding her and changing her and slipping on a new white onesie. Aurora went through clothes faster than any fairy at the rate she was growing and it was a shame she didn't get to wear some of the clothes gifted to her.
Lots of changes were made around the queen's study. For instance, a rocker was placed next to the desk where Clarion worked, and a soft playmat was added for her daughter to play while she watched her and worked. The queen never felt comfortable with the idea of having other fairies watch her for long hours of the day, she along with her lover believing that because they were their parents, they should be responsible for taking care of her. Plus, she loved spending time with Aurora anyway.
"Sunny comes home today, I'm sure she's very excited to see you again." Clarion coos, placing her gently on the playmat in her study. Aurora babbles something unintelligible while grabbing onto the Gruff stuffed toy she left there the day before.
"There are my favourite girls." Milori enters the study and immediately walks over to pick up his daughter and press a kiss to her forehead which makes her giggle. "Have you eaten?" he asks Clarion
"I had a bite. How's winter?"
"Same as always." he replies, smiling fondly at Aurora sucking on stuffed Gruff's ear.
"I'm sorry you have to get up so early to travel there."
Milori shakes his head. "It's no trouble. I always get to spend time with Ari when I return so it's worth it." he strokes her hair.
The nickname was developed by Milori during a sleepless night when Aurora had trouble sleeping due to being too overstimulated. It was cute and it stuck. The princess had grown so much in the two seasons she had been alive, weighing significantly more than she used to be, sleeping in longer intervals and allowing her parents to move her into her nursery at night, her wings, now no longer crinkled, sat proudly on her back. They were more of a sparkly white rather than the silver Clarion remembered her mother having. Milori had compared it to the sparkling white of snow in the sun.
"I wish there were a way to know if she's part winter fairy. Then we can spend some time here and there." Clarion sighs, getting up from the mat and walking over to her desk. The possibility of Aurora being part winter fairy had been discussed before, although since it hasn't been seen before, not even Dewey had an answer in one of his books.
"No need to rush, Ree. I'm happy with the way things are right now. We'll get to that when she's older."
Clarion hums in agreement, sorting out the papers on her desk and pinning some up on the board in preparation for the next meeting. The curtains flow gently with a particularly strong breeze and the birds chirp brightly outside. "Do you think she's cooped up in here?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's just… The days have been gorgeous lately but she rarely leaves the Pixie Dust Tree." Clarion says, drawing back the curtains. "Should we be taking her out more?"
"We could take her out on a stroll right now." he suggests.
Clarion shakes her head. "I have to prepare for the meeting this evening, and the nature fairies come home later so there's the banquet as well…" she trails off.
"I could take her." Milori says, picking Aurora up. "We'll see you when Sunflower comes back. Aurora adores her and I think Sun misses her."
"Can you handle her by yourself?"
"We'll be fine, Ree," he assures, "We will just go and take a walk, look at the flowers, you love flowers, don't you, Ari?" he bounces the fairy in his arms.
The queen chuckles, "Well alright. Be back for the banquet, alright." she says, kissing her daughter's cheek, and then her boyfriend's.
"We will." he lifts Aurora's arm to wave goodbye to her mother before they're out of the room to start their own adventure.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡
"Welcome home, fairies!" Clarion smiles at the returning fairies as they finally land. "As always, there is food in the dining hall so help yourselves to as much as you want."
Some of them bow at her, immediately making their way into the tree and stretching out their sore wings.
"Where is Ari?" Sunflower walks over to her, cracking the joints in her fingers and massaging her neck.
"You're not even going to say hello to me first?"
"Give me a break, I haven't been away from Ari for so long. I want to see her before she forgets about me completely." said Sunflower. "Did you lose weight?" she eyes her up and down.
"Might be the leftover baby weight." she replied, "Milori is taking her on a walk but they should be back soon. Anyway it's nice to know who's your favourite."
Sunflower laughs, "Speaking of favourite, there she is!" she exclaims fluttering to an approaching Milori with Aurora nestled in his arms. "Oh, you've grown so big! My pretty girl, I missed you so much." The minister almost snatches her out of his arms, hugging her tight.
"She didn't even say hi to me." Milori whispered, reaching Clarion's side.
"Get used to it, our friends like our daughter more than they like us." she sighs,
Aurora's bubbly giggles showed themselves again as Sunflower spun her around a few times. "Aren't you hungry? We do have food prepared specially for you guys." Clarion interrupts the moment.
"I guess a little." Sunflower says, "I'm taking this one with me though." she smiles, balancing Aurora on her hip and flying into the tree.
Clarion just shares a look with Milori, rolling her eyes and smiling fondly before following the two of them in.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡
"I really can't get enough of her, she's so cute." Redleaf coos, bouncing Aurora in his arms as the other minister fawned over her.
"She isn't very cute when she's screaming and crying in the middle of the night." Milori mutters under his breath, making Clarion giggle.
The queen watched as her friends passed her daughter around, anxiety growing ever so slightly as she recalled the last time they all coddled around her like this. Poor thing missed her nap time and while her parents thought it would make her sleepier at night and give her a good rest, it somehow ended up in a very overstimulated baby and a long, sleepless night of staying up with her.
"Speaking of screaming, crying, I think it's time for her to feed and nap." Clarion interrupts the sweet moment, taking her daughter from Hyacinth.
Sunflower pouts but pinched her cheeks lightly. "See you later, Ari." she said in her baby voice before Clarion flutters away. "She's growing so fast. I swear she was half that size before I left."
"You're overexaggerating, but she is getting bigger." Redleaf agrees.
"She had so much fun at Springtime Square today." Milori said, "Ari has a thing for roses, red ones in particular."
"You need to take her to see the sunflowers next time, I'm positive she'll like them more." Sunflower smirks.
"You are insufferable." Milori laughs.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡
Later that night, Clarion quietly enters the nursery to see Aurora already sleeping peacefully in her crib, Milori tucking a blanket over her.
"Did it take long?" she whispers.
"I just got her down." he answers. "How was the meeting?"
"Uneventful, but we got everything we needed." she said, leaning her head against his shoulder, grateful that the day was finally over.
They basked in the silence, watching Aurora's chest rise and fall rhythmically while she slept. "I don't want her to grow up." Milori breaks the silence.
She looked up at him for him to continue. "I want her to be this small and sweet forever."
"She's growing so well though."
"I know, but sometimes I just want to freeze time. Everything's so perfect now."
Clarion smiles in understanding. "I, for one, am quite looking forward for her to grow up a little more. Imagine when she can walk and talk, then we can have conversations with her, you can read her books before bed. Everything will be perfect for a long time."
Milori looks back down at the sleeping fairy and smiles fondly. "I guess you're right."
"We should get some sleep ourselves." she pecks his cheek, leading him out of the nursery and quietly shutting the door behind them.
Sorry for the inactivity but some fluff for you
Anyway side note, I have no idea how to end this fic lol