It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. Who: Frank and Alice Longbottom Where: Casa Longbottom. Specifically, their bed. Again. When: Backdated to Wednesday, March 14. What/Summary: One of the only little bits of happy that the married couple's going to get until July 30/Baby Neville kicks Alice for the first time and doesn't stop kicking Alice in the bladder until his birth. Ratings: G/K/FRC then veers into PG/K+/FRT because these two can do sappy with UST like nobody else.
Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G Minor.
Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31.
Liszt’s La Campanella.
If one were to be in the Longbottoms’ cottage over the last hour or so, they would have heard Alice playing these pieces along with a myriad of other songs. Her playing had been sorely lacking over the last few weeks - what with the Order and Ministry taking up her time. Even though dishes and laundry had been awaiting her upon her return home from work that day, Alice had taken one look at the piano and decided all that could wait. Her fingers were itching for the ivory and ebony keys and her mind needed the enjoyment, the release that only her playing could provide.
The last notes of Mozart’s Turkish March lingered in the air as Alice sat back with a sigh and laid a hand on her stomach. It was hard to believe that she had passed the twenty week mark already. This pregnancy had just flown by and it was hard to believe in that just four months approximately the baby would be there. Alice could feel the (unfortunately) now-familiar feelings of panic start to bubble up. Placing her hands on the piano keyboard, the resulting din sounding like a banshee’s cry mixed with the roar of a dragon had Alice shaking her head at herself. With an effort, she stood up from the bench. Meandering her way down to the bathroom, Alice found herself drawing up a bath.
An hour and a half later, deciding that her fingers were wrinkly enough and her panic settled (for now), she stood up from the bathtub and dried herself off. Walking to the bedroom, Alice pulled her nightgown over her head and began her nighttime rituals. If she was lucky, Frank would get home before she fell asleep and they would get a chance to talk about non-work and Order related things. Lately, she felt that those two items had taken up a majority of their time together. While it had been necessary, she wanted some Alice-and-Frank time, not Auror talk or Founding Members of the Order chatter.
As Alice was pulling down the covers to crawl into bed, she heard Frank enter the house. After finishing her task, she slipped into her bathrobe and slippers to meet her husband.
Frank had had to take care of a small mountain of paperwork before heading home. As he walked in the door, he automatically set up a few housekeeping charms to make sure Alice wouldn’t feel that she had to do anything, hanging his cloak by the door and leaving his shoes in the entryway before making his way up the stairs.
They met in the middle of the hallway, Alice having given up on trying to attempt to get her bathrobe tied together. Swishing the ties out of the way, Alice looked up at her husband and smiled. “Hullo, stranger.”
Frank leaned down to kiss her lightly, smiling, and said, “Now, what’s a lovely lady like you doing in a place like this, Mrs. Longbottom?”
“Oh, I was hoping to meet up with my husband, but you’ll do.” Alice replied and grinned, before kissing him back. “But you can’t tell him; it’ll be our little secret.”
“We’ll have to be careful,” Frank teased. “There’s this rumour going around that I have a girl on the side. Wouldn’t want to pit you against my wife, would I? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”
“Careful is my middle name after all,” Alice teased right back. “Oh no, I wouldn’t want to go up against your wife. I’ve heard she’s very talented at what she does.” Alice leaned in and gave her husband another kiss before reaching her hands out to grasp both of his hands and began to lead him to their bedroom. “But if you come with me, I’ll show you some things that I’m talented at.” Merlin, she was horrible at seduction.
Frank chuckled softly, letting Alice take his hands and lead him to the bedroom. They didn’t often get this playful about things, but they’d both had too much stress for too long; it would do them good to wind down a little, and if it helped Alice deal with the rumours, he certainly wasn’t going to complain.
This? This right here with the two of them? Was exactly what Alice needed. She guided Frank into their bedroom, placed her hands on his face and kissed him, gently deepening it into something more; her hands trailing over his face into his hair, entangling themselves in his hair. They continued like this for a while, before the urge to breathe overcame her desire to keep kissing Frank. She let her hands fall to his waist and her head dropped onto his chest. “...wow.”
“I love you,” Frank murmured, resting one of his hands on her hip, the other lightly stroking her back. “No matter what happens, I love you. That’s something nobody can change.”
It was tempting to take them both over to the bed, but for now, he just wanted to hold her close, breathe in the scent of her shampoo, and remember how much he loved her. They got so few moments of peace these days, and he couldn’t bring himself to break this one, not yet.
“I love you too,” Alice replied back softly. She took a moment to just breathe him in. The scent of his soap, the smell of the laundry castile on his clothes, the essence that made up Frank. She shifted against him, her hands resting low on his back. They stood like that for a while, Alice letting the peace and contentment she felt right now wash over her.
Standing still like this was probably what made Alice realize happened next. At first she began to think it was just a hunger pain. But this didn’t feel like a hunger pain...it felt more like a goldfish swimming around. And that meant...
“Frank,” An enormous grin erupted on Alice’s face as she moved her hand over to Frank’s and placed both of them exactly where the goldfish swimming sensation was happening. “I think - I think that’s the baby kicking.”
Frank didn’t realise he was holding his breath as Alice laid his hand on her belly until he began to feel the tightness in his chest. He exhaled slowly, trying not to make too much noise or move too much, as though he’d somehow scare the baby into quiescence.
The movement felt tiny and enormous all at once, the reality of it making everything seem so much more real. He’d hardly been ignorant of how Alice’s pregnancy was progressing, but this brought it into sharp relief, the feel of their child moving beneath their hands.
Her excitement over this (she waited twenty some weeks for this) was still high, but Frank’s lack of any discernible reaction was edging in on her consciousness. Looking at her husband was like looking at someone transfixed. “Frank?” she whispered softly. “Is everything okay?” She tightened her grip slightly on the hand currently resting on her stomach. Alice didn’t want to startle him, just make sure he was still there with her.
“I love you,” Frank whispered. He looked up from their hands to Alice’s face, smiling brighter than he had for weeks. “I love you so much. I just hadn’t... my sisters talked about how it feels when this happens, but I hadn’t realised it until now...”
Alice really couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped from her. “I love you too,” she replied, happiness and laughter still present in her voice. The bright smile from him, something that Alice hadn’t seen in weeks made her reach up with her other hand and encircle his face with it and stroked his cheek with her thumb. “Now we get to experience it.”
Frank kept holding her close, leaning down to kiss her softly, and murmured, “I’d fight the world for you and this baby, love. You’re the most important person in my life, and we’re going to make sure our child is raised right, by people who love him. I love you.”
If she was truthful with herself, Alice would now proclaim herself truly happy at this moment. While Frank had shown himself to be accepting and...happy? maybe? with her pregnancy, she had expected more “My wife is pregnant/I’m going to have a baby” reactions from him. But as he told her when she announced it, he wasn’t one for expressing himself with big actions. But something right now finally clicked for Alice that he was happy and excited and this had her eyes welling up with happy tears. “I love you too. So, so much.” She kissed him back, putting everything she couldn’t currently express with words into it.
After a few moments, Frank let the kiss break, giving Alice another warm smile, and said, “Now, I think you deserve a bit of pampering. How about we go to bed and I’ll give you a backrub? No Scrimgeour to be your footstool here, I’m afraid, but we can make up for it.”
“I’ll have him do that tomorrow,” Alice responded and moved to sit down on the middle of the bed, grabbing a pillow and attempting to place her feet on it. Eventually giving up on trying to get it in place, she handed it to Frank and stretched, her shoulders cracking as her arms went completely up in the air.
Frank arranged the pillow under Alice’s feet for her before getting onto the bed behind her, starting to rub her shoulders. He could feel the tension in her muscles, and he concentrated on gently smoothing the knots out, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her neck as he worked.
“Mmm,” Alice moaned. “That feel wonderful. Now just keep doing that for the next few months and we’ll be set.” Rolling her neck forward to grant him better access to it, she placed her hands on her belly, hoping to feel more kicking from the baby.
Frank chuckled softly, kissing her neck again, and murmured, “As often as you want me to, love. I promise.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean you could stop,” Alice said, turning her head around to look at him. Her eyes twinkling, she continued. “Just keep doing this continuously until the baby comes. Then I’ll sleep and you can take care of feedings and dirty nappies.”
Frank laughed again, saying, “I’m sure people will understand why giving you proper massages is more important than my job. Let everyone else have the glory for once; I’ve got the most glorious thing in the world right here.”
“Let Scrimgeour take over your spot, have Kingsley in Scrimgeour’s place, and you stay here. Everything’s good. Just as long as you remember that, we’ll be set for the next while.” Alice replied. Just after Frank finished his last sentence, he hit a particularly big knot and Alice arched her back. “Just a wee bit more pressure...that’s it...ooohhh.” When that knot was taken care of, Alice turned her head. “The same thing goes for you too, you know. You’re my most glorious thing.”
“Rufus would let power go to his head,” Frank said, bending his head to kiss Alice’s shoulder. “But no shop talk. I intend to spend tonight talking about how beautiful my wife is, what a wonderful baby we’re going to have, and exactly how I intend to pamper her for the foreseeable future.”
Somehow, the pillow that was under Alice’s feet ended up on the floor, the covers on the bed got crumpled up and shoved half on-half off the bed and Frank landed on his back with his shirt off and a grinning Alice on top of him - who made have made some prodigious use of her magical abilities to make all of that happen.