A/N: Because Averia and Raine are not quite at the "one year apart in age"…

Daily Life with a Melodramatic Daughter

Lightning supposed that the biggest surprise was that this hadn't happened sooner. Unfortunately for the mother of two, that also meant that she was severely out of practice.

How was a mother supposed to pick between which of her two distraught daughters to console first?

Thankfully, parenting was a job for two and her husband offered her way out.

"I've got this." Squall reassured his wife, tilting his head slightly towards the door to their children's bedroom. The father of her children then settled into his usual position at these times: he sat down with his back against the door, left leg drawn close to his chest just enough to rest his arm on. "You don't have to worry."

Gratefully, Lightning nodded her head.

"I need to go." She didn't bother masking her urgency.

"Do you know where to look?"

"Of course." And with that, Lightning briskly strode toward her destination.

There was only one place Raine would go to whenever she was in one of her moods.

Lightning entered the master's bedroom and headed straight towards the bathroom, divulging herself of her clothes in the process. Her eyes registered Raine's clothes haphazardly discarded on the floor—and she made a mental note to reprimand her for her sloppy behavior at a later, less-volatile time—while her sharp ears heard the sound of the shower running, no doubt filling the bathtub with soothing warmth.

The Leonhart matriarch's lips curled upwards ever-so-slightly; her youngest daughter had inherited so much from her.

She picked up her daughter's clothes and folded them before placing the articles atop hers, next to the doorway.

"Raine," Lightning called her little girl beyond the door as she stood, "I'm coming in."

There was no question nor request on her part. She was not her husband— adept at waiting game while reasoning beyond the door— nor was Raine like her older sister—honest with herself and quite reasonable.

Raine was a prideful, stubborn, and strong-willed hellion.

'Honestly,' Lightning thought in dry, self-deprecating humor, 'I worried greatly that our children will take after their father's melodrama that I hadn't imagined they'd inherit anything from me.'

Lightning turned the knob and entered.

A wave of mist washed over her; Raine apparently hadn't opened the window nor did she switch on the vent. It was not a problem, though, as Lightning quickly found the dark brown tresses of her daughter in the bathtub, her normally pale skill flushed from the heat.

What did cause the mother pause was that the normally alert Raine hadn't noticed her appearance. Such was the gravity of her youngest daughter's current woe, Lightning supposed.

She opened the glass door.

"Scoot over."

"Who-" The startled little girl turned, her reddened eyes widening at the familiar arms that effortlessly picked her up. "MOMMY!"

"Indoor voice, Raine." Lightning dutifully reminded as she shut the door behind her. She hadn't flinched; while she was already used to her little girl's impressive lungs, this was a habit Lightning wanted out of Raine's system. Still, a warm smile did upturn her lips when Raine's arms reflexively wrapped themselves around her neck and she tucked her head under her chin.

Raine pulled away just enough to throw her mother's signature glare at her. "Don't surprise me like that."

Lightning honestly found her look adorable.

"Mhm." Lightning hummed vaguely as she sank into the warm water. Idly, she wondered what it was that her daughter reminded her of…

Raine realized that she was curled up against her mother's bosom and quickly pushed herself away, paddling through the raining shower to settle on the other side of the tub. She glared at her mother's somewhat hazy silhouette. "I'm serious, mommy!"

'Ah, that's it. She's just like a kitten.'

"Mhm." Lightning repeated, knowing that the response would only annoy her daughter more. It was fun; she wondered if this was why Squall had responded with those grunts and hums early on in their relationship… not that she would finally forgive him for those times, of course.

This and that were entirely separate matters.

Speaking of which…

"Switch off the shower, Raine." Lightning instructed the little girl, who was displaying her displeasure through blowing angry bubbles into the water, "There's already plenty of water here."

Of course, that wasn't the true reason underlying her instruction. She wanted to tear down whatever wall it was her daughter was hiding behind so that she could see her.

Raine hesitated.

Lightning grasped the opportunity.

"What's wrong, Raine?"

"I-…" Lightning could feel her daughter's conflict through her voice so vividly as if it were her own. "…Yes, mommy."

"Raine, tell me." She prodded her much like how she used to coax her husband except gentler. "I am here."

"I-it's nothing, mommy. Really."

"Averia is crying, you know."

The bathwater shifted noisily.

"I-!" Raine almost shouted, but she caught herself. "I know…"

"I am here." Lightning repeated and pushed herself off the bathtub's edge, crawling forward and past the shower to behold her youngest daughter. "I am here for you."

It was then when Raine looked up at her mother with her reddened eyes, her small hands clutching at her chest. Though both of them were wet and even through the steam, Lightning could distinguish the tears from the droplets of water rolling down her daughter's cheeks.

"It hurts, mommy." Raine admitted with a shaky whisper. Her daughter looked so very confused. "I—I don't know…"

Lightning resisted the instinctive desire to embrace her distraught daughter and banish even the smallest of bothers from her frail frame. Doing so might only cause her prideful daughter to runaway.

Instead, Lightning leveled with her daughter's gaze, never minding the shower pelting her back. To her, there was nothing else in the world apart from her daughter.

"Talk to me." She urged her. "Tell me everything you're feeling."

"I… I hurt Avy…" Raine finally confessed, her voice hitching with every syllable. "I told her… I said…! I… wanted to hurt her. So much!"

"Why?" Lightning asked, wondering what it was that spurred Raine to turn on the sister she was so attached to.

"I was mad." Raine rubbed her eyes with her wrist, wishing with all her might that the blurriness would go away. "The other kids! They said—they said I'm…!"

Abruptly, Raine lowered her hands and met her mother's gaze with pleading eyes.

"Mommy, I—am I an accident?"

Lightning tilted her head.

"…An accident?" She softly whispered.

Lightning nearly missed her daughter's tiny nod.

"I mean…" Raine continued, her tiny frame quivering with her desperate attempt to hold all her emotions in. "With Avy… it's like… it's like everything's planned out."

"That's not entirely true." Lightning murmured. Both she and her husband had planned out Averia's life but, as soon as their eldest daughter displayed a maturity beyond their years, they decided not to continue with said plans.

It seemed as if Averia knew what kind of woman she wanted to be.

But Raine…

"Was I… am I not s'posed to be born?" The little brunette continued and, just like that, the dam broke; she could no longer deny the tears that streamed down her cheeks; all she could do was to let her ailing heart bleed into her words and hope her mother would soothe her wounds. "I mean… everyone knows it takes nine months for the stork to come and-! And Avy and I are less." Raine shuddered. "And-! And I… always cause you problems. I cause daddy and Avy problems. I… don't want to be a problem…"

It was then when Raine looked up at her unspeaking mother, terror and confusion swimming in her tearful blue eyes.

A small part of Lightning blamed her husband's inherent melodrama thrusting this sudden existential crisis on her six year old daughter but Lightning quickly squashed that impulse.

It did not matter.

What mattered was her daughter was worried.

It felt like such a very, very minor worry, too, but it must have been the world to Raine.

Lightning honestly could not relate with what the small girl was feeling. She never felt such a feeling in her entire life.

But that did not matter.

Her feelings didn't matter.

Not in the face of her child's turmoil.

Not when her daughter was stubbornly struggling against her tears.

Wordlessly, Lightning brought her youngest daughter's small frame back into her embrace and, this time, Raine did not struggle. Instead, the little girl seemed to invite herself to her mother's moist but comfortingly warm flesh.

She stopped trembling.

"Mommy…?" Lightning felt her daughter trepidatiously whisper against her ear.

It would be so very easy for her to lie—to say that they wanted another daughter so soon after Averia's birth. A harmless white lie was all it took.

But Lightning didn't want to be that kind of mother who took the choice out of her children's hands.

Lightning could only have faith in her children.

Lightning had to believe that Raine would turn out fine.

With that decision, Lightning inhaled deeply and hardened her resolve.

"Raine…" This time, it was Lightning that pulled away just enough to gaze at her daughter, one hand at the small of her back while the other cradled her nape; Raine's hands rested loosely on her collarbones.

"I love you, Raine." Lightning confessed with all the sincerity she could muster. "I love you, therefore… I will not lie."

Raine's eyes widened—her grip on her mother's shoulder suddenly tightening, no doubt in anticipation.

But she did not pull away.

Lightning smiled at her daughter's own resolve.

"We hadn't planned for you, Raine."

With their bodies pressed so close to each other, Lightning could feel Raine's every muscle stiffen. It was as if her words inflicted petrify.

It was fortunate that Lightning knew esuna.

"But I couldn't be any happier."

"M-mommy …?" Her daughter croaked, confusion—the good kind of confusion—ringing in her voice.

"An accident is not necessarily bad, Raine." Lightning patiently explained so as to make sure her daughter understood. "Accidents can be happy. And, I don't believe in accidents. I believe you were meant to be born, Raine. I believe, Raine, that you were born to make your father, your sister, and especially me, happy… and I am." Words could not describe the incredible catharsis admitting such a fact brought her.

She blessed her daughter's moist forehead with a kiss.

"I cannot imagine a world without you, my… my darling Raine, my lovely troublemaker."

Color exploded on Raine's skin and her eyes watered up once more—but this time with her embarrassment and happiness.

"B-but I…" Raine whispered, a doubt still lingering inside of her, weighing on her that she could not meet her mother's loving gaze. "I… cause you so many problems…"

Lightning raised her daughter so she could look up at her.

Their foreheads pressed against each other.

"Be a problem only to us, Raine. That's what family is for. That's not to say that you should deliberately be a problem."

A joyful tear dropped from Raine's eyes and ran down her mother's cheek.

"Deliberate?"

"It means you're a problem because you want to be."

"I don't want to be a problem." Raine vehemently repeated her earlier declaration.

Lightning smiled as she saw her feisty daughter's fire return.

"You don't need to force yourself." Lightning reassured her. "Your father and I will always be here for you."

"Mhm!" She cheerfully hummed before, suddenly, worry crept in once more. "Mommy…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think… do you think Avy will forgive me if I say sorry?"

Lightning could not help it; she rubbed her nose against her adorable daughter's. "There's only one way to find out."

"O-oh… right!" Raine fired herself up. "I gotta say sorry!"

"Yes you do." Lightning nodded and finally stood, Raine in her arms. "But you and I need to get out of here first."

Raine twisted slightly so she could reach the shower knob and turn it off.

"Good girl." Lightning acknowledged as she exited the shower.

Lightning set her daughter down. She grabbed one of the hanging towels and proceeded to wipe Raine dry.

"Mommy…"

Lightning paused in drying her brown hair at the sound of Raine's muffled call.

"Yes?"

Raine's blue eyes peeked from the white towel, and she motioned for her mother to come closer to her by cupping her hands around her mouth. Understanding what her daughter wanted, Lightning kneeled down and turned to the side.

Raine leaned in closer to her mother's ear so that she could whisper.

"Thanks mommy."

"You're-"

"I love you, too."

Raine pecked her stunned mother's cheek and swiftly ran away with the towel.

It took Lightning a moment to process what happened—mostly because Raine, having inherited much from both her and her husband, was not normally one to initiate displays of affection.

That Raine actually did and to her made her feel incredibly warm.

Lightning decided that, yes, her husband was forgiven for passing on such melodrama onto her children because, without it, she very much doubted instances like this would occur.

As Lightning proceeded to dry herself so she could rejoin her family, she gave a silent prayer.

'Don't let my daughters grow up too fast.'

A/N: I'm totally in love with mother hen Lightning Farron(-Leonhart).