Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day? Characters: Luna, Neville, Gawain & Nimue Summary: Luna is off on her travels again, and Neville is confronted by the realities of being a single parent. This takes place on the 13th February.
Luna leaned over each of the cribs in turn and kissed each of the twins' cheeks gently before turning back to Neville. In the murky pre-dawn light, even his outline was shadowed. She hesitated, caught between her exhilaration that she was finally headed back to South America and her concern over her family. "You remember, if anything goes wrong, to send Elizabeth right away? I'll get the first Portkey back possible," she whispered, wrapping her arms around Neville for one last hug before she left. It wouldn't be too long, Dad just wanted her to check on some reports of interesting magical signatures. Since she'd been in the area before, she was unquestionably the most qualified member of the staff to go. Now she had even more people to miss while she was gone, though.
Wrapping his arms securely about her, Neville breathed in the scent of Luna's hair. He was going to miss her badly while she was gone, and he already felt a sickness in his stomach and a heaviness in his limbs. "I know," he told her hoarsely. "Everything will be fine, though. I've got Pandora, Laurence and Gran if I need any help. Just, enjoy yourself, and make sure you bring me back some chocolate, okay?"
Luna sighed and relaxed against Neville for a moment. "I'm sure you'll do fine with the twins. I take care of them by myself while you're at work, after all, how hard can it be?" She grinned up at him, though he probably couldn't see it. Reluctantly, she pulled away from him. "Of course I'll remember your chocolate. This makes your Valentine's present much easier at least." She stood on her tiptoes to give him a peck on the lips, knowing that if she lingered any longer she would miss the Portkey, and left the room without looking back -- though she did have to pause for a deep breath at the bottom of the stairs before she Apparated away.
He faintly heard the noise of her leaving, and Neville slumped into the nearest rocking chair, covering his face with his hands. You're stronger than this, he thought fiercely to himself. You knew this was coming. It was only a matter of time before she went travelling again. He ran his hands back through his hair, and let out a long, slow breath. He could do this. The way time marched along nowadays, it wouldn't seem long at all before Luna was back.
Getting up, he quickly looked at the twins to make sure they were snug and happy, and then took himself off to his conspicuously large and empty bed.
Later that morning, after a heavy-headed nap, Neville woke with positive intentions. There was no need to mope. Luna was just going to work. She just happened to pull longer shifts than he did. He quickly owled Faelan to let him know that he wouldn't be in that day, having decided to devote himself fully to his kids. He would worry about how to juggle them and work after they had enjoyed some time together.
He stifled a yawn in the doorway of the nursery, which quickly became a grin when he realised that one of his children was awake and ready to discover the day. "Good morning, Petal," he greeted Nimue, approaching the cot, between the rungs of which she had been staring at him. He reached in and lifted her out, giving her a morning kiss and resting her on his hip so she could see the moth tattoo on his chest.
Nimue stopped watching the pretty dust motes when Dada came in, since he was even more interesting. After submitting to the kiss, which wasn't so bad since it was from Dada, she patted at the pretty picture on his chest. It looked a lot like the things Nana kept turning their toys into when she was here, except it was even better because it wiggled the things on the top if its head and tickled her fingers. She rested her head against Dada and giggled as she played with the picture.
Smiling at the waves of warmth that spread through him as Nimue's fingers connected with the charmed tattoo on his chest, Neville looked down at Gawain, who was looking dead to the world, if corpses dribbled like that. Neville was always reluctant to wake the twins up if they were enjoying a good sleep, but he had been informed by Gran that the earlier they started working on daily patterns, the better. Gawain had slept all the night through, and he needed some breakfast at least.
He reached down and gently rubbed Gawain's tummy. "Come on, Sprog. It's time for breakfast. We'll have milk and 'nanas and cereal, and a rusk if you want one."
Gawain made a grumpy protest against being woken up. His little legs kicked out, making his blanket slip off his shoulders. Neville frowned, wondering whether to tactically retreat, or whether he should stick this out. Thankfully, Gawain didn't take his grizzling any further. He blinked up at his father and succinctly said, "Nana."
"Yes," Neville agreed, trying not to be too amused by the fact that he could never quite tell anymore if Gawain meant bananas or Pandora. Both were favourites with the small boy.
Awkwardly, Neville leaned over and scooped Gawain up. The manoeuvre was getting more difficult as the twins got bigger and heavier, but at least they were now beginning to help out by clinging back. There was a perilous moment in which Neville thanked Merlin he had safety charms all over the nursery, and then Gawain was settled on his other hip and the twins were giggling together as they chased the moth's antennae. "Breakfast," Neville told them, and carried them downstairs.
Getting the twins into their high chairs was no problem. Then Neville realised that it would be easier if they were in the kitchen. Rather than taking them out of their chairs, he just moved them one at a time, chair and all. Both twins seemed to enjoy this and were happily banging on their trays while he tried to rustle up some breakfast. Unfortunately, listening the the banging while he was trying to find where Luna had put the cereal was not nearly as entertaining as listening to it with Laurence conducting. He tried to hush them as he finally found the cereal and began mixing it with the milk Luna had left him, but to no avail. Looking down at the slush he had created for them, Neville wondered how they could enjoy and noisily anticipate it so much.
Watching as Dada made breakfast, Gawain banged even more excitedly when he saw that he was getting 'nana in his cereal. Dada turned and shushed him, but Gawain ignored him; Dada was never as serious about shushing as Mumum. "Nana!" Gawain squealed as the bowl was put in front of him, and too eager to wait to be fed, he reached in and grabbed a handful, getting most of it on his cheeks and nose rather than in his mouth.
"Wait!" Neville told his son in exasperation. Unfortunately, while he was busy trying to wipe down Gawain with a hastily grabbed cloth, Nimue also decided to feed herself. She did it a lot more gracefully than her brother, but she still smeared a good portion of it on her chin. Neville quickly removed the bowls from their reach. It seemed that he would have to feed them one at a time. Of course, that meant ignoring one twin in favour of another, which Neville quickly learnt wasn't the wisest way to proceed. So, balancing both bowls on his knees, and wishing that he had just made one large bowl in the first place, Neville alternated the destination of each spoonful. Nimue and Gawain seemed to like this, and soon Neville was being pointed in the right direction by chubby fingers. Grinning, he tried to feed Gawain two spoonfuls in a row, only to have the small boy turn his head away and point at his sister, making said sister giggle.
"At least you're good at sharing with Nimue," Neville murmured, and thus heartened, breakfast was finally brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
If Neville had thought that having managed to overcome the obstacles that breakfast had thrown at him, he would now be equipped to deal with any of the day's eventualities, he was sadly mistaken. He had obviously greatly underestimated how much energy went into looking after one baby, let alone two. It wasn't as though Neville had shirked his duties as a father. He had always got up to the twins if they woke in the night, and he had made a point of spending as much of his free time with them as possible. However, in his free time he had always had Luna with him, sharing the burden of childcare. This was the first time that he had been confronted with caring for the twins all day on his own. He found himself even more in love with Luna, and fervently hoping that she enjoyed her trip to South America to the fullest. Godric knew she deserved the rest.
"Do you two do this on purpose?" Neville demanded, kneeling on the living room carpet, Nimue and Gawain laid out on their respective changing mats. By coincidence or conniving they had managed to need changing at exactly the same time. Distracted by Nimue trying to roll off her mat and chase after the afternoon sunbeams pouring through the window, Neville had narrowly escaped being weed on by Gawain. Thankfully the boy's tackle was now clean and safely tucked away in a fresh nappy, and Nimue couldn't aim. Having wiped Nimue's bottom and applied a salve against rashes, Neville reached for her fresh nappy. Nimue, being a free spirit tried at this point to roll over and escape. However, Neville was onto this particular trick, and gently held her in place with a hand over her small torso.
"Thought you had the better of me, didn't you," Neville said, brandishing the nappy in triumph. His triumph was short lived. Abandoning her unhappy pout, Nimue giggled and threw her arms in the air. With a whisper of air the nappy Neville was holding up suddenly turned into a small cloud of butterflies.
Gaping in shock, Neville watched the insects move together, dipping low over Nimue before swirling around Gawain. He realised that they weren't butterflies after all, but a flurry of Luna moths, just like the one tattooed on his chest. The moths made it as far as the doorway to the dining room before coalescing again, and Nimue's nappy dropped to the floor. There was another giggle from Nimue, and Neville gathered her up, laughing and scattering kisses over her cheeks. "You beautiful brilliant girl!" he exclaimed.
There was tug on the bottom of his shirt, and he looked down at Gawain who was offering his cheek. Neville leant down and bestowed the desired kiss, and then turned back to Nimue again, ready to kiss her one more time for her cleverness. He stopped himself when he saw that she had scrunched her face up in concentration. Then he felt the warmth soaking into his t-shirt.
Nimue and Gawain giggled.
The problem with having genius children was that it was damned inconvenient to have everything you reached for turn into a cloud of moths. It was also mildly disturbing having to rescue Swash from being magicked through a small triangular hole. Neville was exhausted. He sprawled on the sofa, too tired to do anything about the two miscreants crawling over him. How had Luna done this each day? It was only just the time that he would normally return from work - Luna always had the twins playing happily, and dinner just about ready for the table! How!?
It must be some special Mum power, Neville thought, stifling a yawn and reaching out to catch the back of Nimue's dungarees before she toppled off the sofa. "You're just two trouble-makers, aren't you?" Neville questioned his children fondly. They burbled in acknowledgment and he nodded, "Good job you're worth it. Otherwise, you'd be out on your ears."
"Nana," Gawain responded.
"Nana," Neville agreed. "And then we're all going to have a long, long, long nap."
Heaving himself up, twins and all, Neville went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. When the large mixing bowl flew away, he sighed, and got out the twins' usual dishes.