By the time Christmas came around, mother and son had mostly recovered from their sickness. It had taken the better part of a year, but finally the two had begun to return to a healthy weight, and their raw throats and sore lungs began to heal.

Gaia sank into the piping hot bath with a pleasant sigh. The water was so hot it turned her skin pink, but she didn't mind; it felt good on her aching muscles. Deep coughing for so long left her stomach and back sore, and Erik's insistence that she stay in bed as much as possible had taken its toll on her neck and shoulders. Erik knocked before slipping inside, more to let her know he was coming in than to ask permission. Gaia smiled up at him as he handed her a full glass of red wine.

"Thank you, Love," she purred pleasantly, taking a sip from the glass. "Where's Adrian?"

"Playing outside with Sophie," he told his wife, leaning against the sink with his own glass. "He's been getting cabin fever, I figured a bit of exercise might do him good. I don't want him out long in the cold, though."

"It's really not that cold out, you know," Gaia teased, gently. "You're right, the exercise will be good for him. Care to join me?"

"You make a compelling argument, My Love," Erik smiled, undressing and slipping into the water. Within moments his wife was nestled neatly in his arms, sipping her wine with a contented sigh. "It's been a while since we've done this, hasn't it?"

Gaia nodded. "Not since last year, I don't think. We missed our anniversary this year. Leave it to me to be sick on my favorite holiday," she mused, taking a drink of her wine.

"You were sick for the better part of the year, it's not as if your timing was off," Erik pointed out, kissing the top of her head. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore. Every muscle in my stomach hurts from coughing so much, I don't know how Adrian has the energy to be running about."

"We're getting old, Gaia. It's only downhill from here."

Gaia smacked her husband's arm gently. "You're so morbid sometimes. Twenty five isn't old at all. The way you talk I'll be gray haired and hunch backed by the time I'm thirty."

Erik chuckled and took a drink of his wine. "We shall have to relocate to Paris and get you a position at the Notre Dame," he teased, earning him another playful smack.

"You're horrible."

"You love me anyway," he pointed out, earning him a kiss his time.

"God only knows why," Gaia smiled on his mouth. "Massage my neck, would you? I've been trying to work the kink out of it all morning."

Erik put aside his wine and complied willingly, running his thumbs up and down her neck firmly while she hummed. Moments like this made Erik immensely glad he had decided not to run from Giovanni and continue his nomadic life. "You know, you seem to enjoy sex more than any woman I've ever met," he remarked offhandedly. "And you certainly seem to enjoy seducing me more than any woman I've ever met."

"You say that as if you have experience with a variety of women," Gaia remarked with a backwards glance at him. "You were a virgin when we married, weren't you?"

"Of course I was, you know that isn't what I met. The gypsies are a relatively… I guess you could say open race regarding sex. Only a handful of them seemed to enjoy it as much as you seem to."

"I suppose I just wound up with a better lover than they did," Gaia smirked back to him. "Lucky me I guess. You know what though, I hear stories of my sisters love lives fizzling out by the end of the first or second year of marriage, but I feel like ours is getting better. Maybe less frequent, but you've certainly gotten more control of yourself these past few years, and you know me so well it wouldn't matter if you didn't. I don't think so many men are as attentive as you are, perhaps that's why there aren't as many women as satisfied as I am," she smiled genuinely, turning to kiss him. "I'm sure the fact I'm hopelessly in love with you doesn't hurt either."

Erik kissed her back soundly. "I'm going to miss you, when you have to go."

That had been their agreement; if Erik insisted on not pretending nothing was wrong, Gaia was going to insist they not talk about death. Make it into a trip, an extended absence, but not death. Death was too… terrifying. Too permanent to stomach yet.

"I know. I'm going to miss you too," she promised, knowing that whatever happened after death, whether it be heaven, hell, purgatory, or even nothingness this would surely be the case. "But right now I'm here," she told him with a kiss. "Though we probably should get out before Adrian comes in. I worry sometimes we're going to scar him for life, the way we get on."

"Me too, especially considering… Well, considering," he said simply, and Gaia understood his meaning.

"You mustn't worry about him, Husband. He's a wonderful boy, and he'll be a wonderful man. What we have is rare, even for the most beautiful people. If he finds someone he can be even half as happy with as we are with each other, he'll be just fine," she told him with more confidence than she felt. She often worried that her sweet, intelligent, magnificent little boy would end up alone. He had no friends but his parents, a dog, a lazy cat and a few horses. They were enough for now, but they wouldn't always be.

Erik hummed quietly in unsure response, kissing her shoulder before standing, holding open a towel to wrap his wife in as she stood and stepped out of the bath after him. As he toweled himself dry, Gaia sat on the edge of the tub to pull the drain before finishing the last of her wine, thoughtfully. "Erik? What do you think about having another baby?"

The tall man stood straight as he buttoned his trousers and pulled on his shirt. "I think Adrian is plenty, don't you?"

"Of course he is, Erik, but… I don't know. I worry about what's going to happen to him when we're gone. Besides, as frustrating as they can be siblings are wonderful. Don't you think your childhood would have been a little better with a brother or sister to confide in?"

"No, frankly I don't. He or she would probably have been beautiful and my life would have gone down the drain well before it did."

Gaia frowned pensively. "Your mother was a wretched woman though. We wouldn't favor a child just because it is or isn't beautiful, and you know it. If anything Adrian would be our favorite, since he's our first, and he's such a remarkable boy."

Erik merely hummed, and Gaia continued. "Think of all it would teach him that we can't. How to interact with people more his age. How to treat his peers. Besides, he'll have someone to play with."

"He has Sophie."

"A person to play with, close to his own age. A dog teaches him responsibility, a sibling would teach him humanity."

"I'll think about it, how about that?" Erik relented, not wanting to immediately dismiss the idea but still extremely hesitant. Gaia was a remarkable mother, but he couldn't help but feel like if the child were beautiful she might indeed play favorites. And besides, another child meant another mouth to feed, and more time away from his family working in the city.

But Gaia was right on several points. Another child in the house would be good for Adrian. There was so much he still needed to learn about people. Some things he could only get from interacting with the outside world, but maybe some things they could teach him in the safety of their own home. It was something to consider at the very least.

Gaia didn't press the matter, and had forgotten about it completely by the time they rang in the new year. Much to her surprise, it was Erik who approached the subject again not long into the year, although indirectly. Gaia sat on the floor, leaning against her husband's legs contentedly and braiding the white cat's long fur as Erik read aloud from One Thousand and One Nights. Adrian was listening entranced as his father told stories of the East until Gaia rose to start preparing lunch.

"Papa, won't you read another story?"

"I'd rather your mother be here to listen to," he explained, standing to hand the boy the book. "But you're welcome to continue if you'd like."

"It's so much better when you read it, Papa. You tell it better than I do in my head."

Erik chuckled, "Years of practice, mon fils."

"You always call me that. What does it mean?"

"Only 'my son'. It's French term of endearment. I don't know why I started calling you by it, really. I haven't had to use French in a long time."

Perhaps it was the memory of his childhood in France, or perhaps it was simply speaking with his son, but something drew Erik to bring up the topic of a child with Adrian. "Adrian, what would you think if your mother and I had another child?"

The boy's brow furrowed. "Another child? Are you not happy with me, Papa?"

"No mon fils, that's not it at all. Not a child to replace you, one to keep you company while we become old and gray."

"Oh," said the boy, looking immensely relieved. He thought seriously for a long moment before answering. "I think I would like that. Would it mean I have someone to play with?"

"Yes, it would, though probably not for a few years. You could play with a baby of course but they're quite delicate."

Adrian nodded his understanding, though Erik wasn't quite sure how he would know what a baby was at all, let alone that they were delicate. "I think that would be fine," he smiled, and Erik nodded. If the boy wanted a sibling, he would have a sibling.