The four kids were running all around the place. They had so much energy in them that it brought smiles to everyone's faces. The only four adults that was around just sat at a table and smiled as they watched the young kids. The kids could probably be no more then three to five years old.
"It is kind of sad to think that those little kids all lost their parents. Yet, they all seem so happy. You two sure did a great job in looking after them," Moonbay said with a happy smile and then a giggle when she saw one of them fall flat on his face. He just sucked it up though and continued to run after the rest of the children.
"There were originally a lot more of them but some have found some remaining family member or a new family to live with. Those four don't want to go anywhere though. They are happy and we won't force them to go anywhere until we feel that they actually want to. We don't mind though. they bring a lot of happiness to this place," Van responded.
The three of them watched as the sun started to set in the horizon and the kids finally seemed to calm down upon seeing it. "Time to come in!" Fiona yelled out to the four of them. They merely nodded their heads and ran inside.
Fiona walked away from the door and walked back to the table and sat down trying to be careful not to hit her stomach on anything. Her and Van had gotten married shortly after the incident in the town and she was pregnant about five minutes after that. She was happy just like the children though.
"So, when is this little one due? Do you know if it is a boy or girl yet?" Moonbay asked with a grin as she patted Fiona's stomach lightly. 'I am going to teach this kid so many things,' she thought with a grin.
"It should be any day now... I think. As for whether it is a boy or a girl... we don't know," Fiona said making Moonbay release a sigh. "We wanted to be surprised so we just decided to wait," she said with a smile while rubbing her stomach softly.
One of the kids ran up to the small group of adults. It was a young girl, only about three or four years old. She grabbed a hold of Van's hand and tugged on it. "Read us a story," she demanded still tugging without any success of moving Van.
Van just smiled and stood up allowing himself to be dragged by the little girl. Fiona smiled with how good he was with the kids. Good indication of what he would be like when they became parents.
"The little girl seemed really fond of him. Looks like you have a little bit of a competition here Fiona," Irvine said turning away from watching Van get dragged away with a grin on his face. "You had better watch out," he said with a laugh that was soon followed by Moonbay.
"The girl is really fond of him but then again, so are all the rest of the children. They look up to him in a fatherly sort of way. That is how I know that he will be a good father for our child. I wonder what it will be like when this child actually comes," Fiona said dreamily looking out the window towards the night sky.
Van was dragged into a room where the other three kids were already sitting and waiting for him to come. Van couldn't help but smile at how each of them looked very excited to hear the story. "So what will it be today?" Van asked with a smile and several of the kids held up a book that they wanted him to read.
Van then frowned. This was the part that he hated. If he chose one book over the other, then the rest would be disappointed. He had seen it many times before. He had an idea for today though and he hoped that the rest of the kids would be happy with the decision that he was making.
"I have an idea. How about I tell all of you an original story. One that I am sure that you have never heard of before?" Van asked with a smile and was glad when the rest of the kids nodded their heads in excitement.
"Does it have princesses in it?" the young girl that dragged him into the room asked happily. She seemed excited at the thought of it so Van thought he could improvise and add things into it that each of the kids would enjoy.
"Yes it does. It has princesses, knights, and an evil king," he said and he knew then that he had the attention of all of the kids in the room. There were two boys and two girls in the group; he made sure that his story would try to satisfy each of them.
"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in a beautiful land filled with flowers. She was a woman that was sad because many demands were placed upon her with her status. Yet she was happy because she was in love with her wonderful knight," Van said and smiled when he noticed that Fiona was standing in the doorway watching him with a smile on her face.
"The two of them were deeply in love. Unfortunately, some things were just not meant to be at first. In a neighboring kingdom to their land was a king who craved power more than anything. He knew of the princess and wanted her for himself. One day the young knight had to leave on a journey. The princess didn't want him to go but he knew he had to. They made promises to each other before he left on his journey. Their promise was that he would return and that she would wait for him. The evil king heard of this journey and captured the young knight," Van said and stopped as painful memories came back to him from that time.
"What an idiot getting captured like that," the eldest of the children, who was a boy named Mark said. Van groaned at his statement and he could distinctly hear the sounds of Irvine laughing his head off from off to the said of the room.
Van pulled himself together and continued with the story. "The knight spent years and year in a dark, cold dungeon for nearly four years. The princess felt betrayed that the knight had not kept his promise to her. The king used this to his advantage and used it to take the princess as his fiancée. The princess didn't know what really happened to her brave knight and agreed to marry the king," Van said making the kids gasp.
Van looked off to the side and saw Fiona with the sad expression upon her face as she too remembered that time of their lives. "What happened to the knight?" asked the little girl that dragged Van into the room; she went by the name of Megan.
The knight's friends had eventually broken into the king's fortress unknowingly thinking it was a bandit's hideout and found the knight inches away from death. They took him back to the kingdom and tried to heal him. One night he had just disappeared and went in search of his beloved princess in order to try and stop a wedding that he did not want to happen," Van said with a fake smile.
Fiona continued to listen to the story with great interest. There was a sad smile on her face as she subconsciously started to rub her swollen stomach. She had heard of what happened to Van before but it made her feel bad that she couldn't do anything to help him back then.
"He traveled for days and nights coming across friends, foes, and rivals alike in order to reach his destination. He finally reached it and was able to come face to face with an angry princess. He finally had the chance to explain himself and what had happened but by the end he felt that it was too late, that his chance for the princess was over," Van said with a weak smile.
"Why?" asked the youngest of the group which happened to be a very small girl just barely over the age of three. Van could tell that she and all the others were listening to him with a lot of attention and he kept going.
"You see... the princess was a woman of her word. She had promised that she would marry the king, even if it were true that she was still in love with her knight. The knight left feeling that he could not face seeing his beloved get married. The princess followed him though, for the same reason that she had almost got married. She remembered that the two of them had also made a promise to each other," Van said this time truly smiling without a bit of sadness.
"The two planned to run off together but they were soon stopped by the king who was in a fury because he had lost his fiancée to someone he had thought he had gotten rid of years before. In a great battle, the princess and the knight worked together and defeated the man that had brought pain to their life. They lived happily after that, the two got married and had many children," Van said chuckling a bit looking at them with a smile. The story was very true; the two of them did have a lot of kids. They were all like family to them even if they weren't blood related to them.
The children all cheered when Van came to the end of the story. "All right, I think that it is time for all of you to go to bed," he said and the cheering soon turned into that of many groans as all the children stood up and walked towards their rooms with their heads down.
Van started chuckling while shaking his head. He stood up and walked towards his wife and friends with a smile on his face. Fiona wrapped her arms around him almost as soon as he was within her reach and he immediately hugged her back. "Did you like my story?" he asked kissing the top of her head.
"It sounds very familiar. Now where have I heard it before," Fiona said giving off a look of mock concentration. She just chuckled and hugged him even tighter while not putting any pressure upon her stomach.
Irvine and Moonbay just rolled their eyes before leaving the room chuckling at how much affection they were showing each other. They were happy for them. They hoped that the two of them would be able to live out the rest of their lives in peace with their child and the children that they had around them. The two of them deserved to be happy.
"It should sound familiar since it is our story," he said although he knew that she already knew what his story was about. "The story will be able to continue though. It is never ending since our quest for happiness will soon reach the peak," Van said placing his hand upon her swollen stomach. "Oh!" he said pulling his hand away quickly.
Fiona giggled a little. "The little one kicked. I can tell right now that he will be just like his father," Fiona said with a smile. She didn't know what it would really be but they tended to fool around with pretend arguments like this. Sometimes she made it out to be a girl, and then others, a boy.
Van smirked knowing he was being challenged. "Or maybe, SHE will be just a beautiful and as smart as her mother," he said placing his hand back down upon her stomach feeling the baby kick some more.
Fiona just chuckled and decided to keep this going. "Do you doubt my judgment Van?" she asked wrapping her arms around his neck before pulling him in for a passionate kiss.
Van broke away from it with a smirk. "Do you really want me to answer that Fiona?" he asked thinking about her previous choice for a fiancé. The guy had turned out to be a psychopath whose only concern was having a zoidian that could father his children.
Fiona put on a small pout. "Ok, so maybe I made a bad choice when I chose Matt as a replacement for you. I just chose him because I was lonely and I guess I wanted to have someone around so that I could forget my pain. I have you now so I no longer have any reason to be sad," she said turning her pout into a smile.
"No, Fiona. WE have no need to be sad anymore. Whatever happens to us from now on, we will always have each other and soon our child to give us the support that we need to get through it all," He said kissing her forehead before taking her hand and going to their room. It was getting late and they just wanted to sleep for then and dream of what was to happen next.