Disclaimer: I don't own The Promised Neverland
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
"Hey, where's Emma? She offered to help with the dishes." Gilda asked as she looked at the dining table where Norman, Ray, Don, Nat, Lannion and Thoma were all sitting with tea and talking.
Or actually Norman, Ray and Nat were drinking tea and talking while the other three were more so goofing around and fighting over each other's cookies that they had as a treat.
"I think she's tucking in the younger children." Nat offered after a moment of thinking.
"On her own?" Gilda frowned."Geez, that girl needs to learn to ask for help herself more often. With how many there are it might take a while to get them all settled." Gilda sighed.
"Well, that's Emma for you. Always wanting to do things on her own so she won't have to bother anyone else." Anna smiled from next to her.
"I can go and see if she needs help anyway." Norman offered, already getting up.
"Why am I not surprised you're offering to check on Emma?" Ray smirked, making Don, Lannion and Thoma all laugh obnoxiously while Nat snickered and shook his head.
Norman didn't say anything to that or even blush in embarrassment.
Instead his face showed no emotion as he walked closer.
Slowly, without breaking eye-contact, he reached down, took Ray's cookie that he hadn't eaten yet and licked it before placing it back down and walking away, leaving his friend to stare at the treat in disgust.
"Nice! Real mature, asshole!" he called after him as the others now laughed at his expense.
"Hey, to be fair, what you said wasn't too mature either." Gilda came to the albino's defense.
"Love you, Gilda!" Norman called as he pointed at the girl without looking back.
"Love you back!" she answered and with that he was gone.
It didn't take long for Norman to reach the room where all the younger children slept.
The house they lived in was more then big enough for every member of their family to have their own room but together it had been decided that the younger ones would sleep together like they were used to and get their own rooms when they were older and more in need of their own space, be it to study, new interests and hobbies or something else.
When he got there the door was open and he could hear Emma's sweet voice talking softly.
Smiling Norman peered inside and almost melted at the sight greeting him.
There sat Emma, on the edge of Vivian's bed, carefully tucking her in and brushing a hand through the younger girl's hair.
"There you go. Are you comfy?" she asked and the girl nodded.
Even after they found her without her memories, she was quick to proof to still be their Emma who they knew and loved.
Kind, cheerful, helpful and as she was displaying now, caring to the younger children, having almost right away made a habit of helping in raising them just like she did at Grace Field.
"Good. Does anyone need anything else before I go?" Emma stood up to look around the room.
"Emma, will you sing a lullaby before you go?" one of the boys, Hans suddenly asked.
Emma blinked at that, not having expected that request out of all things.
"O-Oh! I don't know, you guys! Are you even sure you want me to sing?" she held up her hands nervously, hoping to discourage the boy.
This didn't work as now multiple kids didn't agree with that.
"Emma, please sing for us!" "I wanna hear you sing!" "Please, please, please, Emma!"
Norman couldn't help but chuckle softly at her discomfort.
"Alright, alright! I-I'll try!" Emma suddenly shouted and he blinked.
He suddenly felt a little worried as he watched her think of what to sing.
After all, while he found that she had a lovely and sweet voice even he couldn't deny that back at Grace Field she hadn't been a great singer with every song she ever sang being loud and off-key to the point where Nat looked close to tears and Ray always immediately shouted at her to shut up.
"Ah!" she snapped her fingers as if having decided before clearing her throat.
Norman sighed softly and leaned against the wall beside the door, closing his eyes.
Only what came wasn't what he expected.
"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby~" Norman opened his eyes in surprise at what he was hearing.
This wasn't loud and off-key like how she always used to sing.
"Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me~"
In fact, it was very soft and like an actual angel was singing.
"Where troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops~"
Norman found it making sense in a way.
To him Emma truly was like an angel already and now she was not simply singing to have fun but to make others happy, showing her kind heart.
It was Emma.
"That's where... you'll... find... me..." she whispered the last words and was then silent, the only noise not being the soft and even breathing if the children who had all fallen asleep.
"Norman?" he jumped at hearing his name being called and turning around he found that Emma had already walked to the door and found him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked after carefully closing the door.
"I actually came to check on you." he answered.
"Gilda said you told her you'd help with the dishes but you weren't there and after hearing you were tucking in the kids on your own I thought I'd check to see if you needed any help since they can be a little difficult sometimes but it would seem you have everything under control." he clarified when she frowned.
"Wait. So does that mean you heard...?" she trailed of as a blush formed on her face.
'She's adorable!' Norman thought to himself with a smile.
"If you referring to you singing that lullaby, then yes, I heard." he nodded, chuckling as she turned even more red.
"For what it's worth, I think you sounded beautiful. You singing like that." he admitted making her look up with wide eyes.
"Really?" she asked.
"Now would I lie to you about this, Emma?" he asked back and she shook her head.
"Thank you." she said smiled awkwardly.
"Guess it's a good thing we all watched The Wizard of Oz last week and I remembered that song a little." she joked, making Norman chuckle and nod along.
"Say, can I ask you something?" she then asked.
"You just did but go ahead." he gestured with his hand.
"Did I often sing before...?" she trailed off.
'Before I lost my memories?' Norman mentally finished the question he knew she meant to ask and shrugged half-heartedly.
"Not like you did just now." he answered.
"Not like just now? What do you mean?" Emma asked and he chuckled again, though this time also a little awkward.
"You tended to sing every now and them but not really soft songs like now but more so...passionate ones." he thought of the best way to phrase it.
"I'm guessing by the face you're making that I was also terrible at it, huh?" Emma raised an eye-brow.
"Well, I wouldn't say terrible. In fact, I still always enjoyed to listening to you sing, even if some of the others did." he said and he wasn't even lying.
Every time through all their years together while everyone else was covering their ears, Norman was more then happy listening to her, loving how she gave her all like she did with everything else how happy she always was when doing so.
"O-Oh." he felt proud of himself at seeing Emma blush again thanks to him.
He wanted to see if he could go even further.
"Say, Emma?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you maybe be willing to sing like that again sometime? I'd love to hear you like that more often." he spoke and to his delight Emma indeed turned even more red as she stared at him with wide green eyes.
"S-Sure!" she agreed and he grinned.
"I'm glad." he said before gently taking her hand in his.
"But for now we should start heading to the kitchen. The others are probably waiting for us." he said making her gasp.
"Oh, that's right! Come on! We better hurry!" she yelled and with that dragged him along to join the others.
The End
Thanks for reading! This has been the ninth fic for NoremmaMonth2020, "Day 9: Lullaby"! I hope you liked it! Please review, fav and read my other work too!
So I once saw a movie with a scene where a mother sang this her love-interests kids and I thought it was really sweet so I chose this song.