There were approximately a million things Glimmer should be doing right now. Her work inbox was a nightmare beyond imagining. The house was such a disaster even Bow had given up on it. Christmas gifts were still in a pile in the exact corner where they'd dumped them when they'd come home from her mom's house.

Oh, and sleep. Yeah, sleep. She should definitely be getting sleep. She was so tired the lights on the Christmas tree were a blurred mess of color.

But she didn't move. Ari stirred in her lap, doing one of those baby smiles everyone kept telling them was just gas but sure looked like a little smile to her. She offered her index finger and, even in sleep, impossibly tiny fingers immediately wrapped around it.

She'd definitely had wilder New Year's Eve's. But not necessarily better ones.

She heard Bow moving around upstairs, checking first the baby's room and then coming softly down the steps.

"There you are! What are you doing down here?" From behind the couch, Bow wrapped his arms around her neck, his voice barely above a whisper. Adora lifted her head and gave a single tail wag before sinking sleepily back down into the cuddle pile she and her kitties had formed on the pet bed in the corner.

"We're just hangin' out. Having some girl time." She leaned back into his embrace. She'd spent so much time bouncing or rocking the baby over the last few weeks, it felt weird to just be sitting still. "She was a little fussy after she ate, so we came down here and watched the tree lights until she was ready to go back to sleep. She likes the way they twinkle."

"Me too," Bow said, but Glimmer noticed he was watching her, not the tree. It made something soft and warm bloom in her chest. "Do you want me to take her upstairs for you?"

"Maybe in a minute." She exhaled, enjoying this little moment when her whole world was all in one room. "I know it's silly, but I can't stop looking at her. She's so beautiful!"

"That's because she looks like her Mommy." Bow kissed her cheek. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Whatever. She looks like herself."

Bow came around and lay down on the couch. He put his head in the half of her lap not occupied by baby, which was kind of comical because he barely fit on the sofa that way, his feet sticking up over the armrest. Ari stretched, kneading her little bootied feet into Bow's head, and Glimmer laughed as he scrunched his face up. The baby let go of Glimmer's finger to twirl the little wisps of hair on the back of her head as she settled back into sleep.

"I just keep thinking..." Oh jeez, now she was crying again. It took basically nothing to get the waterworks going these days, and it was so annoying. Hormones were the literal worst. Luckily, Bow was used to it by now. He just rubbed her hand gently with his thumb until she got herself back under control. "I was thinking about how I always gave my family a hard time for saying stuff like, 'Oh, they grow up so fast!' but they do, you know? This first month went by like phew! Nothing. And we're going to blink and one day and this sweet little thing is going to be a whole person who's embarrassed to be seen with me at the mall or whatever."

"No way!" Bow looked up at her, his eyes twinkling from the tiny lights on the mantel. "Her friends are going to be like, 'Wow! Your mom is so cool! She's all badass and punk and funny! I wish mine was that awesome!' All the other moms are going to develop a complex about it, you'll see!"

Glimmer laughed, jostling the baby. She ran the hand that wasn't trapped under the baby through her husband's hair. She would have kissed him right now if that was even remotely logistically possible.

"I don't know. My mom and I fought a lot."

"I'm telling you. They're going to think you're the greatest. Now me, on the other hand… It's going to be, 'Uggh Dad, you're so cheesy and your jokes are so corny! Don't hug me in front of my friends!'"

"No! Never! They'll be more like… they'll… uh…" She couldn't help laughing when he tilted his head up at her, his face twitching into a grin. "I'm sorry, babe. I love you so much and I wanted to hype you up, but… you're right. You already have so much embarrassing dad energy. And you are, just, not even remotely cool. Not even like a little bit."

"See? I'm doomed." Bow sighed dramatically, which only made her laugh more. "Everywhere we go, people will be like, 'What is that dork doing with that amazing lady?'"

Glimmer stopped laughing and smiled down at him. God, she loved him so much, now more than ever. She kissed her fingertips and pressed them against his forehead. "Making her very very happy."

"Well, at least I'm good for something." Bow snuggled back down into her lap, closing his eyes.

"You know, I didn't want this. Marriage. House in the suburbs. Two point five pets or whatever. I mean…" She quickly clarified when his eyes flew back open, his brow creasing. "Until I met you. It was like… Babies in general? Bleh. Having Bow's babies, though? Hmm, now there's a concept!"

"I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to react to that." He still looked kind of worried, and she tried to smooth the scrunched up lines on his forehead with her finger. She was getting all choked up again, but that was barely news.

"I'm just saying that I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you. And I wouldn't have wanted to. So I'm glad… you're in my life. That's it. Cheesy, I guess, but I'm a hormonal mess so I get to be as cheesy as I want." She exhaled, looking at the whole brand new person sitting on the other side of her lap. "And that we're really going to miss you when you go back to work on Monday."

"I told you, I can take more time off or ask about working from home." He sat fully upright and turned to face her. "Or I could call my dads over. And you know if we asked your aunt would drop everything to be—"

"Shush." She put a finger to his lips, and he kissed it. "I can do it. It's just going to be… different. I'm allowed to be scared about change without needing you to swoop in and fix it."

"But I like to swoop in and fix it." Bow pouted. "You have no idea how much I hate that I'm going to be missing even a moment with you two."

"You remember how it was when we were first dating? How I'd send you pictures of every cute thing Adora or Catra did during the day?"

Bow grinned at her. "I remember."

"Well, it's going to be like that but a billion times worse."

"Good. I'm looking forward to it." He leaned over and kissed her. Just a peck, sweet and soft, but it was still perfect. "Now I think we really need to go to sleep because little miss is probably going to be back up wanting to eat any minute now and we'll have to start this entire process over again."

Glimmer sighed, knowing he was right. "What time even is it?"

"It is…" Bow flipped around to see the clock in the kitchen. The man had the eyes of a sharpshooter. He laughed suddenly and then head up two hands.

"Ten o'clock?" Glimmer guessed, though it felt way later than that.

Bow shook his head and starting folding down fingers, one by one, as he counted in a soft voice. "Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one. Happy New Year, baby!" He reached over and kissed her again, a little longer this time.

"Really?" They hadn't even considered staying up until midnight this year, they were both so tired. It was kind of funny they'd ended up catching the New Year anyway. For some reason, it made it feel more special than staying up for it on purpose.

"And to my other baby, too." He leaned down to place a soft kiss on the baby's forehead.

"'Ugh, Daaaad, staaaaahp it! You're so embarrassing!'" Glimmer said as Ari stirred in her sleep, flailing her tiny fists for a second before yawning into a grimace and setting back down into sleep.

"So it begins." Bow shook his head in mock offense, and Glimmer laughed again. He held out his hands for the baby and she carefully handed her over before getting up herself.

"This year's going to be crazy." Glimmer said as she followed Bow and baby up the stairs. "Scratch that. The next two decades are going to be crazy."

"Twenty years, huh?"

"I was building in extra time for siblings."

Bow stopped walking and turned around to look at her. His eyes widened. They sort of hadn't really talked about any babies beyond this one and maybe it was a bit too soon since they'd only been parents for exactly a month but, whatever.

"You… want to have more?" He watched her.

"With you? Yeah." She bit her lip and gave him a look. It was nice that she could still make him get all flustered with just that, even this late in their relationship. "Like it said… Bow's babies. It's a concept!"

"Well, uh, I am game whenever you are." The look on his face was so adorable and sweet she would absolutely have jumped him right then and there if he hadn't been holding a baby and she hadn't been exhausted beyond all reason. Instead, she just gave him a friendly pat on the arm.

"Good. Then let's do that. But not now because I am going to go pass out."

Bow laughed. "Good idea. After all, you haven't slept all year!"

Glimmer rolled her eyes and didn't dignify that with a response. Though she couldn't help but grin when she heard him chuckling at his own joke the whole way down the hallway to the baby's room. God, she loved that man.

But just… so much dorky dad energy.