Of Irrevocable Fate And Virtue

07

I slept easy, but still found myself waking up out of habit. Checking to make sure that everything was still calm for the time being. Making sure that Lyra was content and still breathing. Making sure that chaos wasn't quickly approaching.

And it appears that I'm not the only one with such tendencies.

A few times throughout the night, I would feel Draco's head lift from his pillow or from my chest where he laid a few times throughout the night. Although my eyes were closed, I knew from the slight lean of his torso that he was also peaking an eye over to see Lyra. Making sure she was content, maybe. Or maybe trying to reassure himself that this, in fact, was not a dream. More than once I felt his hand lightly graze my neck or chest and still for a few moments, remaining gentle as I could tell he didn't want to wake me. It wasn't until he did it for a second and third time that I realized what he was doing.

Checking to see if there was a heart beating in me still. Another way of ensuring that I was real. That he wasn't going to open his eyes and chalk up Lyra and I's existence to a realistic dream. Like he couldn't believe that after all this time, I was laying right next to him again. Alive. Breathing. Heart beating.

After nearly a year of not knowing whether or not I was alive, he took these moments to ensure that his own desire to protect me and find his way back to me wasn't causing him to have hallucinations to ease his anxieties.

For all those months, we both laid alone in beds a war apart, staring up at the ceiling, hoping to every star that shined beyond it, that the other was still out there with a beating heart.

When I woke, I quickly noticed the beacon of warmth that once laid beside me was gone at the same time that I heard Lyra softly babbling in her bassinet beside me. I turned and was met with a sight that made a smile immediately appear on my face.

Draco stood aside her bassinet with his hands on his hips, staring down at her with an expression that conveyed that he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that she was fifty percent of him. And Lyra lied there, looking right back up at him curiously. Not making a fuss in the slightest as she learned the face of the man I had told her so much about.

"She's been staring at me for 15 minutes." Draco finally stated once he noticed me from the corner of his eye.

"She does that." I pushed myself up onto my elbow and yawned, stretching my other arm above my head, "She's just learning your face."

As soon as Lyra heard my voice, her face turned in my direction, and she made a disgruntled noise as she tried to get a full view of where she heard her mother's voice coming from.

I carefully sat up on my knees so that she wouldn't get fussy so early in the morning.

"Good morning, darling." I smiled, my eyes and voice still fresh with sleep. I gently combed her wild hair with my fingers as she blinked those eyes up at me.

Gently, I scooped her up and placed her on the bed in front of me, between me and where Draco now sat, both of us looking at her wriggle around in her swaddle.

"She hates that thing, doesn't she?" Draco asked, still watching her closely.

"She just wants her arms free." I explained as I unwrapped her arms. They both shot up in the air, and a big stretch followed afterward. A good one too, based on the look on her face.

A small smile appeared on Draco's face with a small breath of a laugh.

Draco appeared to be taking mental notes the entire time I went through Lyra's morning routine that her and I established. He watched as I changed her nappy, while simultaneously keeping her distracted and happy while I did so. He watched as I fed her, taking note of the way I held her, and the way her recently opened eyes started to go heavy again.