SMOL BABIES

Waking up in the middle of the night is not an unusual occurrence, especially not when you've been raised your entire life to accept that your existence is despised and someone could come at any moment and take you away. No, she knows that all too well. Once you learn from experience, you can never go back to complete and utter peace.

But there's something different about tonight. Usually, it's more that she's just a light sleeper and a small noise stirs her awake to a near instant alert, ready to jump out of bed and fight or run. Tonight, though, it's just some feeling that pulls her from her dreams.

Feelings are stupid and illogical but as her eyes flutter open and stare at the darkness of the small studio apartment, she finds the growing force taking over her mind slowly. There's no easy going back to sleep from this.

Her eyes slowly start to see the outline of a shape on the bed in front of her, unaware of her moving, her trying to watch him for some sort of reaction.

"Hey..."

She pauses after her whisper but no response. Dolan sleeps soundly with the lightest of snores, she can just make out the soft rise and fall of his chest from under the blankets and she can't help but just watch him for a long moment. Something about seeing him so calm, so restful, how his dark hair falls over his closed eyes, is captivating and wonderful, something she could watch for hours and never get tired of.

Life here in Pierson has been different in the best way possible since he followed her here into her world. There have been ups and downs, but, as a whole, her life has never felt more stable, complete, and full. They wake up together, spend their mornings at the table, head off to Diamond, get to work, have missions that overlap fairly often, then come home to the other, spend their nights in pleasure and passion before settling down to hold each other, talk about whatever comes to mind, usually each other and work, but the topic can go far deeper depending on their moods.

Not to mention Lucky and all the times he comes to help her clean up the bar after he finishes up an assignment, pulls her to the dance floor once everyone has cleared out and they sway together just like they did in that world that started it all for them.

Life has never been more fun and thrilling, satisfying in so many different ways.

She would smile at the thought of all of this, but this just so happens to be a rare exception to the "something she could watch for hours and never get tired of" thought. Seeing him asleep when she's here lying awake because of something as stupid as a "feeling" really irritates her tonight.

"Jerk."

With a huff, she rolls over so her back faces him, eyes scanning the darkness of the rest of the apartment. She can just make out all the appliances of the kitchen, counting all the little lights on each like counting sheep, hoping she'll eventually drift off but to no avail. Sighing, she turns to something else to occupy her.

Attached to the kitchen is a small breezeway with a door to the side that leads to the bathroom, a door across from it to the washer and dryer, then a door between them out into the apartment building hallway-

Wait. Her eyes narrow at the slit at the bottom of the door. The light in the hall is still on, just as it always is for security purposes, and, through the tiny gap between the floor and door, she can see a shadow.

Is someone standing outside? She watches a bit longer, noticing that it doesn't move at all, it's completely stationary, more like something rather than someone. Either that, or it's a someone very intentionally standing right outside their door specifically.

"Hey, Dolan. Dolan, wake up."

Trita makes sure to keep her voice low just in case the shadow is a person, not wanting to alert them to the fact she's noticed them. As she sits up, she puts a hand on his shoulder and shakes him a bit for extra help stirring him.

She waits for an acknowledging groan before continuing.

"Look."

Something about the tone of her voice pulls him even from deep sleep easily, and he's pushing through the fog that tries to pull him back into dreams, cutting through it intentionally, quickly, to get to her.

"Hmm?"

In a few seconds he's sitting straight up, moving more slowly at her hand on his shoulder, her finger pointed toward the bottom of the door where the thin strip of light is cut in half by an unfamiliar shadow.

Even straight out of sleep, his mind starts going a mile a minute. They'd fallen asleep- what was it? Talking softly, laughing together over something, tracing over soft skin in lazy circles until they'd drifted off. They might have fallen asleep relaxed and calm, but waking up in the opposite way is just a way of life.

It had been for him before he met her, and her before she met him, but even this part of their lives and how they live them had just meshed together perfectly. In this and every other way, they keep each other sharp, share abilities and interests that push them deeper, beyond just being lovers. They're best friends, too. And they get to do it all together.

And this risk, this danger, this adrenaline racing in the middle of the night, this is just a part of that patchwork perfect life.

He holds his arm out against her body as he watches the door. There are no noises to signal any movement, and no flickering of the shadow or anything to suggest that anything is going any coming or going.

Has someone left an explosive outside their door?

This is a residential area. Anyone looking to get at him or Trita would do far more untold, under the table damage by hitting somewhere like Diamond, Lucky. Not by striking here in a residential zone that would make every newsstand.

Still, the danger sensors in his brain are going off, pushing him into work mode, so that his face and his movements are utterly calm, but his brain is working faster than the computers that Makun can never quite explain to him well enough.

He slips out of bed and grabs the small handgun he keeps under the mattress, pulls the suppressor from the nightstand drawer and starts to screw it on, never taking his eyes off the door as he moves slowly toward it, footsteps light and silent.

Trita, of course, follows behind him with her own soft steps, and even though Dolan internally rolls his eyes, he grins a little at how she refuses to sit back and be protected, how she really doesn't need it.

He gets to the door first and positions himself toward it so that she has to stand somewhat behind him, looking over his shoulder. With gun poised, he starts undoing locks at lightning speed, throwing the door open to greet whatever awaits them.

Trita is peeking around Dolan to get a view of whatever is at their door before he is.

So, the surprise she gets from seeing a small little form curled up then fall over when he throws the door open has her pulling his arm instantly, pulling it so the pistol is aimed at the floor.

It's a child, a small girl. Very small. Her little body tumbles into the apartment from where she had been pressed to the door and the jarring her little body takes from hitting the floor wakes her up instantly. She sits up to her knees and brushes her hair from her face with her tiny hand, hair that spills all around her unruly, brushed who knows how long ago.

Her hair.

Even in the dim light that lights the back of her, it's obvious what color it is: Purple. Purple and long and wavy, an unforgettable sight and shade.

As if that wasn't enough, she looks up at the two of them with wide ocean-blue eyes, face pink from crying, gaze flicking between the two of them, just as confused to see them as she is.

Trita has no clue how to even think. It's obvious who this child looks like, so painfully obvious. Though they haven't seen said person in a while, the memories all come rushing back. There's no way, though- This can't possibly be.

Right?

Yet here she is.

Having to clear her throat as she presses her lips together, Trita finally decides to break the awkward, confusing silence with the obvious, impossible question. With the completely improbable conclusion.

"... Luna?"

The girl looks quickly to Trita but not with recognition, more just alarmed by being spoken to now, shaking her head quickly, rippling her long draping hair.

"Estenor."

Regardless of not recognizing the first name, the last name is completely on point with identifying the child. If this is Luna, somehow, why would she say no to her name? It's what they called her ever since they all met.

Had Luna ever mentioned a different name? Well, there was Fengari, but didn't she say that was a name she gave herself?

Trita's brow knits, frowning, trying as fast as she possibly can to click pieces of what has to be a fever dream situation together in a way that makes any sort of logical sense. Did... Did Luna not have a name of her own before she named herself? Did she only go by her family name?

Sniffling interrupts the incoherent thoughts trying to connect, drawing the attention of the two standing above the small child. Luna, or who she assumes is Luna somehow, some way, stares into the apartment behind Trita and Dolan, her large eyes watery, tears falling down her round cheeks, face contorted and pinched up in what looks like pure fear and terror. It's enough to make Trita turn and look around their apartment paranoid.

There's nothing off, everything is the same, just as it always is-

The child stands up quickly trying to spin and turn in the same motion but her long hair gets caught under her foot as she tries to make it back out into the bright hallway, her body landing with a soft thud and a pitiful whimper.

But she doesn't move after that. She just curls up on the floor and holds her head under her short arms, hiccuping away through her tears.

"Hey, hey."

Dolan kneels down by the little girl, trying to figure out what is going on here. His brain is coming off red alert mode, letting his nervous system settle down and calm, but even though the situation is now safe, he's left with the overarching confusion of why this child, who must be Luna, is outside their door, and even more importantly, why is she so young?

"Luna Estenor, right? Fengari? Do you remember us? Dolan and Trita?"

He tries to feel out the blank look she gives him in between her hiccups and the tears. Does she not know them? Has she really truly and fully reverted back to this young age where she doesn't remember them at all.

He reaches gently to brush the wild hair up out of her face, draws a finger softly across her cheek to collect some tears.

"What's wrong? It's safe here with us. You want to come in here? I️ know everything looks scarier when it's dark but I️ promise it's not."

He holds his arms out to gage whether Luna will shrink back in fear or not, and she doesn't seem to feel overly threatened by him, so he scoops her up and stands, turns slightly to flick on the lights through the apartment.

"See? Not so bad, huh?"

He scans the hall up and down quickly, trying to figure out where she'd come from, who had put here there. If this is really Luna... the only suspect he can come up with would be Nameless, but he has no idea what purpose this little girl in their hallway would serve the fox.

So for now, it's just making it through the night.

"Are you sleepy, Luna? Wanna come and sleep somewhere cozy?"

Trita can see the young Luna looking around the apartment as she calms, safe in the light, but her attention is diverted when she hears Trita do up all the various locks. There's something on her face that Trita can't quite place, some look of confusion but not the time associated with cluelessness, rather the kind you feel when you know the right answer but someone is trying to tell you the obviously wrong one.

Nothing Dolan had said was false, though it still seems to catch her little mind and she thinks hard on what he said.

"I know you."

Her little voice is matter-of-fact but oh-so incredibly sweet, it nearly takes Trita by surprise. Luna has always had a beautiful song voice but something about the innocent nature to it as a child makes it nearly magical, mythical, like a child sent by some divine spirit to give you a message.

"My name is Estenor and you-"

Luna's blue eyes shift back to Dolan, her small hand reaching up to pat his cheek just to make sure he knows what she's talking about, as if it wasn't obvious, but she looks so patient while doing it that Trita nearly believes Dolan is some trouble student and this is the only way to get a message across to him properly.

"Are my new daddy, and you're-"

The phrase before had been cute but the way the gaze, tone she had just been admiring, and puffy pink face turns to her makes Trita's heart stop.

"My new mommy."

Everything about the way she said these sudden facts is so wonderfully and unsettlingly earnest, Trita is torn between immediately believing it in full and wanting to laugh about what a wild dream this is. Luna doesn't laugh though, she just continues to look back and forth between the two of them, waiting for confirmation.

"Lu- Estenor, who told you that?"

There's no point in staying away from this, so Trita joins the two by Dolan's side, watching the little girl in his arms.

"A man with white hair and red paint on his face did."

Nameless. Sounds like the human form of Nameless back from the old speakeasy. Honestly, the fox had never really bothered her personally until lately. Between the pregnancy scare and this, she'll be wearing a new fur scarf if she ever sees that sly little face again.

The longer Dolan and Trita take to acknowledge what she said, however, the more nervous she looks. She ducks her little head under Dolan's chin to hide from them, clearly not understanding that, if she's right there, they can still clearly see her, and she pulls a length of her hair between her hands, twisting and looping it, no doubt creating more knots.

Even without speaking a word, it's obvious what she's thinking, that she is slowly wondering if she was wrong, if she was lied to, if she's not supposed to be here with them, like a package dropped off at the wrong house.

"Don't make me go back. I'll stay and be good, I'll even sleep in the dark, I promise. I'll even pinky promise, I won't be bad."

Go back? Go back to... She must be completely reverted and thinking she'll go back to her actual parents. Luna had never spoken a word about her parents to any of them but, from this reaction alone, it doesn't seem like it was a good environment whatever it was. There was clearly a reason she never brought it up.

"Oh, sweetie, no, we won't- We didn't mean it like that."

Trita tries to gently brush the purple hair back to get a look at Luna's face but she only presses tighter into Dolan's chest, determined to make herself as small as possible and stay hidden from their sight.

The way she verges back and forth from calm and somewhat confident to sad and scared tugs a little at Dolan's heart in a way he wasn't expecting. He's always had a soft spot for Luna for some reason unknown to him, but he'd never prepared himself for interacting with her as a young child. She seems so fragile, so precious.

"Yeah, don't worry. We'll be your new parents. You can even come crawl in our bed if you want and we can all go back to sleep there. How does that sound?"

She pulls her head out of his chest long enough to give a curt nod, satisfied enough to at least stop trying to hide from the both of them. Dolan starts rubbing her back in circles as she rubs her eyes, trying to get rid of the tears. He knows her eyes are gonna be swollen as hell tomorrow. He wonders if there's any way to get her to put an ice pack over her eyes, at least for just a little bit.

But something else steals away his attention for a bit as he makes his way back to the bed with Luna and Trita.

"Hey, so your name is Estenor? Do you like that name? Or do you want to have another one?"

He plops down onto the bed with her, and Trita sits on the other side. He lets Luna down to crawl across the comforter, feeling the fabric in her little hands and investigating to her heart's content.

"I don't have another."

Trita watches her crawl around, mostly between her and Dolan, not feeling confident enough to venture away from being away from their collective presence, though she seems happier now after Dolan had agreed to becoming her new parents.

Still, her little factly sentence makes Trita smile in amusement.

"I think he meant would you like another name? Would you like us to give you one?"

Luna stops crawling around, opting to grab the pillow from Dolan's side of the bed and hug it to her, pressing her face into it like it's the first time she's ever seen one. Trita tries not to think about that too much. Instead, she pulls her own and offers it to the girl who looks at it with wide eyes.

"You wanna give me one?"

It takes a moment of looking back and forth between the pillow in her arms, one nearly the size of her already, and the one being offered to her, but she ultimately decides to hug both of them, nearly swallowing her small body up while she presses her face to them.

"If you want. I don't know about Dol-"

She has to pause, eyes cutting over at Dolan quickly, her mind tumbling over and over quickly. It doesn't feel natural what she's about to do, what she's about to say, but she also realizes this isn't about her, so she takes a deep breath and continues.

"I don't know about Daddy, but I was thinking about the name Luna."

The girl pulls her face from the pillows, little mouth open in awe at the sound of it.

"I like that! It's pretty! You're going to give me that one?"

It's an odd expression she's wearing now as her small head turns to look between them every few seconds, one that's happy and hopeful but there's some sort of... Well, fear deep below it. Fear just seems to be the common connection she's noticing in Luna's reactions.

It takes Dolan a second to pull himself back to the present, to put his attention back on Luna. Its not like its totally out of left field given that he’d just agreed for them both that they would be Luna’s parents. But hearing Trita call him that, the way Luna has automatically accepted it.

Something in his stomach feels strange, almost fluttery, maybe just surprised. He hadn’t expected to like it this much.

“Uh, yeah. If you like Luna, then I️ think it’s perfect for you.”

He scoots back against the headboard to rest against it, swings his legs up onto the bed and under the covers. Strange how he can go from so full of adrenaline back to so ready to sleep, so fast.

But there Luna is, and even though it had been a bit jarring to find her outside the door, something about having her here with them right now is comforting. He’d be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought about her, about the other kids, since then.

Wondering where they had all gone back to, wondering if they were happy, if they were safe, if they were okay. And having Luna right here, whether or not she’d been okay before now, means that they can make sure she is from now on.

Or at least, for as long as she’s here.

That thought makes his brow furrow a bit, and he can’t believe it wasn’t one of the first thoughts to cross his mind when he’d told Luna they’d be her parents.

What are they gonna do with a kid? She can’t stay here alone while he and Trita work. They sure as hell cant take her to work with them. One or both of them is just going to have to take some time off. Maybe they can stagger it.

He feels a yawn coming on, thinks maybe that’s a question they can answer in the morning. He gets himself situated, lays back down just like he’d been before, just with a little extra space between him and Trita. He pats the bed beside him.

“Come check out how comfy it is right here.”

Luna smiles wide and goes to lean forward to make the move to where Dolan had patted but then stops, looking around the bed a bit. She seems to mostly be focusing on the blankets below here and then the pillows in her hands.

"Here."

Everything she does is riddled with hesitation so Trita finds herself smiling gently, folding the covers down a little more than usual as she slips under them herself, making an opening for Luna to slip in. Before Trita's head can hit the mattress, Luna is up on her little feet padding over to them with the most concerned look on her face.

"No, don't sleep!"

Both Trita and Dolan pause, taking a glance at each other, the sudden fear of loss of sleep beginning to dawn, the idea that Luna may actually keep them up, be ever so slightly difficult, starting to sink in.

Much to their pleasant surprise, what she wants is easy and... Sweet.

She struggles to pull one pillow from the other as she sets to do what she wants, so much so that she begins to pout, puffing her little cheeks out, eventually giving up and dropping one on her feet. Trita still resting on her elbows off the mattress, Luna quickly slides the pillow still in her arms under where she thinks Trita's head will rest. Once she has it all situated, she pats it a few times to signal Trita to lay down.

It's a little off, so Trita goes to adjust it but Luna beats her to it, slipping the pillow up to a better spot then patting it again, waiting for Trita's opinion on this go.

"It's perfect."

Trita finds herself smiling more and more, but nothing gets a small laugh out of her like watching Luna turn to Dolan with the other pillow, how she drops to her knees and slips her hand under the back of his head and picks his head up. It's obvious to Trita that Dolan is helping the effort but Luna seems to really think she's doing all the work, struggling to balance keeping his head up and working with the her-sized pillow, having to ball it up and slide it under his head to make it all work.

Just like with Trita, she sits back and waits for Dolan's approval, beaming when he gives it to her. With the preparations done, she crawls up to the fold Trita had made for her and shimmies under the blankets, letting out a long yawn once she's all settled in, her own head on the mattress though she seems content enough with it.

Trita turns so she's facing both Dolan and Luna, reaching up over the covers to brush a few pieces of long purple hair out of the girl's face. They'll definitely have to spend time tomorrow brushing it out. The action makes Luna close her eyes with another yawn and she's asleep before either of them can say another thing to her which also nearly makes Trita laugh again but she contains it as to not wake her up.

Dolan doesn't go back to sleep as quickly as he normally would. Every time he closes his eyes, he's reminded that there's a child laying here between them when normally there would be just a bit of empty space, if any.

He has to keep opening his eyes to make sure he hasn't imagined it. And every time, there she is, purple tendrils falling across her face, dappling the dim glow of the moonlight on her pale skin.

And when he opens his eyes and sees her there, it's surprisingly a pleasant feeling. Is this what it would feel like if he and Trita were to...

No, he shouldn't let himself think about that. It's impossible. It's been tried and proven, and he shouldn't even let his mind wander there. Still, when he opens his eyes and gazes at Luna beside him, he catches Trita looking, too.

They share a few wordless stares deep into each others' eyes, and Dolan doesn't want to assume she's thinking the same thing he is. She's in all probability not thinking that, and it's dangerous to even entertain that possibility.

But still, the glances they share over her small sleeping body, her rising chest, her occasional toss or turn, are wonderful. Something about the unspoken shock, but at the same time affection, surprise at the feeling, at how this had all just happened, and now here they are.

Dolan's not sure how much time passes before he finally does fall asleep, but when he does, it's a much lighter sleep than before. His arm is draped lightly across Luna, just to be able to know whether or not she's okay. He imagines she's just as scared of the dark now as she was in that other world, when she was older, and he doesn't want to risk her waking up suddenly and feeling alone.

He's not sure how long he's asleep for, but when he wakes up, it's immediate. Something is pulling at the covers, but not up where he, Trita, and Luna are. It's something moving down by their feet.

He jolts awake, but refrains from moving too much so he doesn't wake Luna. But in the darkness, he can see a small lump under the covers moving slowly but surely up the bed toward them.

Carefully, he pulls the edge of the covers up so he can see underneath, squinting in the darkness until a small boy with sandy hair pops his little head from out of the blanket, close enough to Dolan to be almost crawling on top of him. Dolan's brow furrows and his brain takes a second to place the features that look so familiar.

"...Lance?"

"Shhhhh!"

The little boy with gray eyes and a mischevious yet somehow still concerned smile puts a tiny hand right over Dolan's mouth.

It doesn't really work, though, because Trita is awake in a heartbeat, looking over Luna's tiny form at Dolan, lifting up the covers at her end to take a peek at the lump in the blanket beside him. Sure enough, a child with sand hair turns to look at her like a deer in headlights, hand still over Dolan's mouth.

"Lance, what in the world-"

"Nooooooooooooo."

He whines loudly at having been caught with stirs Luna awake quickly. She turns over and looks at the boy, her age but taller by far, with a furrowed brow, a little pouty and groggy just having been woken up from must have been the best sleep of her short little life.

"Go to sleep, Lance."

"I wanted to sleep with you."

Now Lance begins to pout right back at her, having forgotten the adults. Speaking of the adults, Trita and Dolan glance over at each other again, but this time in growing confusion. Not only to they have a tiny Luna with them now, but also a small Lance, and, while the two don't seem to recognize them as they should by all means know them, they recognize each other.

"Daddy and Mommy were sleeping with me, go away."

"I can sleep with all of you tooooooooo. Here, you take Daddy-"

He crawls right over top of her under the lifted blankets, plopping down beside Trita, snuggling in between her and Luna.

"I'll get Mommy."

This response only makes Luna puff out her cheeks, little face getting hot as an argument builds, but her eyes glance up at Trita and Dolan in concern, afraid they're becoming upset by the show. So, instead of fight, she gives a curt little nod, scooting over to give Lance and Trita more room.

This makes Lance grin ear-to-ear and he throws himself on Luna in a hug, snuggling up against her, but she doesn't try to shrug him off, just puts up with it, puts up with the burying of his head into her hair.

But he's not content with that, quickly reaching over her, he pulls Dolan's arm right over them then turns and pulls Trita's the same but coming from the other direction so the two are sandwiched between them. Finally satisfied, he cuddles down against Luna again with a nod which shakes her, earns him a little disgruntled whine.

"Okay, you can sleep now, I'm ready."

Lance and Luna both snuggle down contentedly like none of this is surprising to them at all, like they'd planned it to happen like this somehow. Or something.

Both of them have their eyes closed and are breathing evenly in mere seconds, but Dolan is still staring at the two between him and Trita with a perplexed look.

What the hell? He mouths it across the two small sleeping children, and Trita seems to be just as unsure about what's going on as he is. Their arms are draped over each other, crossed over the kids like some sort of safety railing keeping them in place.

Maybe one kid had felt like a pleasant surprise, had felt somehow right between them in bed. But two is out of left field, and all at once? Things are now a little snug, and Dolan has to position himself strategically so that one leg doesn't hang off the side of the bed. Trita seems to be laying just as precariously on her side.

And whereas Luna has adopted the mattress as her pillow, Lance hasn't been as unobtrusive. He's nudged Trita out of the way slightly so that he can claim a corner of her pillow as his. And from the looks of things, he likes to steal covers in his sleep, too.

Dolan sighs, has to release an exhale in a silent, breathy laugh at whatever the hell is happening right now. Maybe they'll wake up in the morning and they'll both be gone?

Something about that doesn't feel as pleasant as he'd originally thought it would. But still. There's hardly any space left in this bed.

Then he starts to hear the banging.

It's coming from down the hall. The same door Luna had been waiting for them outside of is rattling in the doorframe, so much so that he can see it shaking as something, someone, bangs into it hard, over and over.

"Hellooooooo? Hi? Heeeeeeey. Heeeeeeeeelloooooo?"

There's a muffled little voice coming from outside, its tone curious and bored and persistent all at once. The sound of it takes Dolan by surprise- the greatest one yet of the night.

"No way."

He's slipping his arm from around the kids and sliding as quietly as possible out of bed, with Trita giving him a confused expression, trying to stay just as quiet so as not to wake the two between them. And the whole time, the banging on the door, the deep thudding noises, never stop.

"Babe, I- I think that's-"

"Daaaaaaaaaad? Daaaaaaaaaaad. I'mwaitingforyou, I'mbeingpatient, pleasewakeupplease Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad."

"Tell him to shut uuuuuuuuup."

Lance whines, looking over his shoulder up at Trita then trying to peek around her at Dolan crossing the room, annoyed at the wake-up call.

"Shut up's a bad word."

Luna mumbles with a whine of her own hanging to her words, frowning at the empty spot in the bed beside her like it's a cursed image. Though, from Trita's angle, she can definitely tell that part of that has to do with the growing fear creeping on Luna's face at the absence of someone protecting her from the darkness on that side of her.

She turns on her side and cuddles to Lance, clinging to him for dear life, dread growing, so much so that Trita feels her heart get a little jolt of a tug. To try to make up for Dolan leaving, she reaches around the two remaining children in bed and pull them closer to her, Lance pressed right up to her, Luna safe in her hands. It makes her position on the bed a bit more precarious but something tells her that it's for the best.

"Tell who to shut up, Lance?"

Luna looks up at Trita with wide eyes.

"Be quiet, I'm sorry. Tell who to be quiet?"

The question makes Lance huff, fold his little arms, let Luna and Trita snuggle him but too preoccupied by pouting to hug either of them back. Whoever it is clearly irritates Lance to a degree but there's a small smile pulling at the corner of his small lips despite the initial annoyance, which tells her all she needs to know before she gets an answer.

"Shand."

Sure enough, when Dolan gets to the door and opens it slowly, there's his son, banging his head over and over against the door, and then when it's not available anymore, the door frame.

"Hey, hey- stop that!"

Dolan begs in a hushed whisper, knowing that even though everyone inside is awake, it doesn't mean all their neighbors should be, too. Although after an episode like that, it's a miracle if they're not.

He's not used to seeing Shand so small. All of a sudden, memories come flooding back through his mind, but nothing quite matches up to this moment.

Shand is so, so short. But he's standing there with his arms folded, nose squinched up at Dolan's command, glaring up at Dolan through a heavily furrowed brow, his fluffy hair a mess from all this hitting his head against stuff.

"You took soooo long. Ugh."

He sidesteps Dolan altogether, trotting into the apartment like he owns the place, like he's been there a hundred times, and only stops to look over his shoulder when he realizes Dolan's frozen in his shock, not following after Shand.

"You gonna stand there all night?"

Shand seems to have gotten over all his initial malice against his father, now looking around the apartment curiously, if not somewhat boldly, traipsing through all the parts as if now is prime time for exploration.

"What are you doing here, Shand?"

Dolan asks, his voice still a quiet hiss. He doesn't mean to sound annoyed, but he's beyond confused.

"Should I️ be doing somewhere else?"

Shand turns from running his hands across the loose papers pinned to the wall, looks back innocently at his father, then not even waiting for an answer.

"Where's Luna?"

Dolan almost chokes at that question, having never expected it to come out of this small version of his son's mouth, but then again. Maybe some things will just always be the same.

"Everyone's in here."

Dolan sweeps his arm toward the bed in a somewhat sarcastic gesture, like he's showing someone vastly important around their hotel suite.

"Everyone? You don't mean-"

Shand gets a panicked look on his face, his hazel eyes widening to the point that it's almost comical, eyes looking huge on his small face. He goes running toward the bed in quick, forceful steps, doing the best he can on short little legs that are so, so different from the version of his son that Dolan last remembers. He doesn't know whether to be horrified or to laugh.

It's still a toss up between the two when Shand trips over himself on the way to the bed, ending up flat on his face, but pushing himself right up like he's used to it. Come to think of it, he was always a little bit of a klutz even as a kid, wasn't he?

It still doesn't deter him from pulling himself up onto the bed, hopping right between Lance and Luna, and snuggling forcefully down, breaking the two of them up with a vindictive look that is equally mischievous, bitter, and pleased with himself.

"This is my spot, you sneaky sneaker."

Shand gives him a soft shove for good measure as Dolan sighs and makes his way back to the bed. At this point, he doesn't really know what to expect anymore.

"Heeeeeeeey, Moooooooooommy, Shand pushed me!"

Oh sweet whatever deity is above, is this what the entire night is going to be like? There's no way anyone is going to sleep, much less she and Dolan.

Luna, on the other hand, seems unbothered by the newcomer, easily cuddling up and clinging right to Shand like she had Lance, just looking for someone, anyone, to protect her from the darkness at her back, beyond grateful when Dolan settles back down. She even looks over her shoulder at him with a nervous glance just to double check and make sure he's really there for good this time.

Trita is running her hands through Lance's hair at this point to calm him back down, throwing a panicked and confused look at Dolan all the way across from her on the other side of the bed with a distance that feels full but extremely distant all at the same time. Unfortunately, he looks just as lost but mostly defeated. She wishes she could give up on trying to understand this.

"Alright, are we all here now? Everyone in bed? Do we have any more children on the way?"

Luna tries to shake her head against Shand but Lance speaks up and vocalizes the response.

"Nope. We're all you need!"

He's smiling happily but his words are truer than he could ever know: They're all she and Dolan need and could even want in more ways than one right now.

It may be foolish but she chooses to trust Lance and lay her head back down on the pillow to settle in, nearly falling off the bed at this point and she wonders if maybe she will have to buy a king-sized frame and mattress if they're still here tomorrow. Not sure how that's going to fit in the apartment but they're going to have to make it work if this turns out to be more than a fever dream.

Luna snuggles in deeper to Dolan and somehow into Shand all at the same time and Dolan's having a hard time taking his eyes off how the size difference between the two has diminished drastically, almost to the point of making Luna seem larger than normal.

But none of this is normal and he's not sure what is to be accepted and moved on from and what isn't. Lance is softly snoring, one leg thrown over Trita, his arms folded neatly across his chest, in a matter of a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Luna takes a handful of Dolan's shirt that she tugs on every few minutes just to make sure he's still there, and once she's satisfied that he's acceptably stationary this, time, she too drifts off curled up on her side.

Shand, however, makes a show of tossing and turning a few times, squinting just one eye open to see if Luna's fallen asleep yet. He seems to try to hang on for as long as she's still awake and he can see her little hand twitch. But once her breaths get deep and settled, his eyelids seem to grow heavier, until he's drifted off too face down, limbs splayed every which way, nothing at all like Dolan had expected.

The kids are all apparently worn out from whatever way they'd traveled all this distance to Pierson, but Trita and Dolan lay awake for a while, watching the three, wondering if there's any way in hell that these three can actually be the three people they're so reminiscent of. Would Nameless turn them all back into children, really?

Trita seems just as perplexed, no sign of sleep on her face yet, like she's waiting for the other shoe to drop right along with Dolan.

He shakes his head against his pillow, working hard to not move Luna's fist lodged in his shirt as he mouths across the row of sleeping children to Trita, What the fuck is going on?

Trita gives the smallest shrug over to him, still idly playing with Lance's hair even though he's long asleep. Her eyes drift to Luna's tiny hand clinging onto his shirt and she tries not to laugh at how he's hunched over to let her, like she's somehow strong enough to be pulling him there and keeping him in place.

All Dolan can do is give his own little shrug though he suddenly seems bashful about it which is surprisingly endearing. The way he has to look away once she eyes him over it, but how he can't keep his eyes away too long because he has the undeniable instinct to flick his eyes over to the children and check on them, make sure they're still sleeping.

Make sure they're still there.

The longer the three stay between them, the more she begins to understand the emotion she's seeing on his face. They have to make sure they're still there because this all feels like some odd shared fever dream and any second the three will be gone and they'll be left to wonder if someone slipped something into their air vents and drugged them. They also need to make sure the two boys and one girl between them are still there because... Well, she can't really explain it, it just feels like it's something they have to do, they have to watch over them, protect them.

Why? It's Shand, Lance, and Luna, the three are more than capable on their own, right? Maybe when they're older but, right now, they all see some small and precious, in need of someone to guard and guide, and damn if Trita doesn't feel the need to. Though Dolan's face says he feels it a bit stronger than she does right now, there's an unfamiliar feeling beginning to stir in herself.

Not even completely unfamiliar, but maybe more forgotten. She used to feel this way for a small boy long ago, though she wasn't much bigger than he was. Why she thought she could watch over little Caz like she had when she herself wasn't much bigger than he was may never make sense, but it doesn't change that the desire was there. And it's here again.

We're going to need a bigger bed or a bigger house. She teases him as she scoots down on the small sliver of a bed that's left for her to sleep on. It takes a lot to not laugh yet again but this time at his dread at the idea of moving or fitting a bigger bed in this space, but he tries to settle in too.

They can just barely see each other over the small little forms between them but it's enough that she can smile over at him and they can share long gazes back and forth. While she hates the distance between them, falling asleep staring into each other's eyes is the best way she prefers to doze off to and she slips to sleep after several minutes.

Dolan wakes up approximately seven times during the night, jolted awake by a dream or an impression compelling him to check to make sure there are still three tiny, sleeping forms between him and Trita.

Each time there are, everyone resting soundly, small little chests rising and falling deeply, contentedly. Even Trita is sleeping as soundly as she can on her tiny bit of the mattress.

And every time Dolan checks, does that fast headcount, a ridiculous relief washes over him, a deep calm pervades that on edge feeling, the gnawing insistence that something just isn't right. It's a feeling he gets from time to time, usually in connection to a job or to something going on at Diamond.

But this scenario makes it feel a little different. He hasn't felt the same depth of dread since the night Shand had been kidnapped, and Dolan will be damned to hell, where he will violently punch Satan in the face every day, if he lets anything like that happen again to any of these kids.

So when morning dawns and he can feel the sun's rays stretch out warmly across his face before he ever opens his eyes, he's surprised. And then the panic comes back.

He sits straight up and realizes it's late. Later than he normally wakes up. And he's alone in the bed. At first, he doesn't realize what's going on. All he can concentrate on are the empty spaces in the bed, the places where the blankets are ruffled that confirm that three small bodies, then one larger one, had been there with him. He's not losing his mind.

He's about to hyperventilate when he hears a clanging coming from the kitchen.

"What, didja die in there, Dad? Did Dad sleep-die, new-Mom?"

It's Shand's inquisitive and insistent little voice, and now Dolan can see them all in the kitchen together, Trita popping some things sleepily into the microwave and the kids in various stages of excitement at her feet.

Luna is trying to help her, of course, trying to anticipate her needs by pulling out various items she thinks Trita might need, but in all honesty probably doesn't.

Shand and Lance seem involved in some sort of fight over something, pulling something between them back and forth in a nearly complacent way, like they're just fighting to occupy themselves and nobody is really mad.

It makes Dolan want to laugh in the confusion. But Trita looks like she could use some assistance, not to mention, they need to figure out a game plan because the kids didn't disappear overnight, so there's nothing to suggest they'll be going anywhere anytime soon. So he slips out of bed and stretches before padding across the apartment into the kitchen with the others.

“Daddy wouldn’t die!”

Luna huffs at Shand’s question, offended on behalf of Dolan who is probably not offended at all. If he needed to be, Luna is enough for the two of them, at least.

“Parents don’t just do a die or nothin.”

As Lance and Shand pull on the spatula back and forth, Lance grins as if he’s just said the smartest thing in the entire world. More importantly: He agreed and backed Luna up which is all that really seems to matter to him in the face of bickering with Shand.

Some things never change.

Trita yawns with her back to them all momentarily, zoning out as she stares at the microwave, the only sign of movement is the slight twitch her ears give when the children are too loud or the timer dings. Then she’s right back to moving again, pulling out a plate filled with some leftover sausage from a day before. Its not necessarily breakfast sausage but it’s all they had for all these mouths. Next, she begins to divide them between five plates silently for a moment of continued dazed peace.

Luna, on the other hand, is still on the move, trotting over to Dolan with a spoon in her hand, clearly the only utensil Trita felt comfortable giving her.

“Look! Look, Mommy and I made toast! We burned bunches of bread. Well... I burned the bread, Mommy made it perfect.”

She tacks on the last confession sheepishly, clinging to his leg looking for both approval and forgiveness all at the same time. Sure enough, on a plate near Trita is a stack of toast, most of it light brown but a few pieces are darker with small little Luna-sized handprints on them.

“There was a lot of smoke that Mommy had to fan away from Luna’s hands, it was suuuuuuuper weird.”

Lance giggles, letting go of the object he and Shand were pulling, laughing even louder when Shand tumbles over like a starfish. The look Shand cuts him has Lance running and hiding behind Trita’s leg in an instant which seems to jar her out of her own head enough to turn her around and face everyone, noticing Dolan for the first time.

Even exhausted, he’s her favorite morning sight so she finds herself still smiling through her sleepiness, throwing some of her messy white hair over her shoulder.

“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty. You caught up on your beauty rest?”

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“Beauty rest.”

Dolan’s eyes are as wide as he can get them at this point, repeating her own words a little sarcastically but still leaning over to kiss her, a kiss that quickly becomes a fast peck on the cheek when he’s reminded of all the little eyes.

All the kids still groan and whine at the gesture, although Luna seems also to be watching intently, like she’s curious and mesmerized by the action.

“So I️ didn’t just dream all of ‘em up, huh?”

Dolan leans back against the counter with a sigh, rubbing his hand along his chin, trying to do some logistics. He glances over at the clock, and its so incredibly late, at least, later than they’re both used to, and he cuts her a look as if to ask if she’s noticed the time.

There’s not enough opportunity for that conversation though, because Shand is loudly starting to take his retribution out on Lance, pulling at his ankles to try and make him fall down just like he had made Shand. But Lane’s grip on Trita’s leg only jostles her more.

Then some extra noise ensues, the kind Dolan is remembering is just par for the course with kids, something he hadn’t missed. He closes his eyes and sighs again, then puts his fingers to his lips and gives a loud, piercing whistle that had everyone stopping in their tracks.

“Okay, listen up. As your new... Mommy and Daddy... we’re gonna have some rules that everyone in this house needs to follow, cause that’s how a family works, okay? We all follow rules to show we respect and love each other.”

The kids are all looking at him with wide eyes like they’re either horrified or terribly confused, so he presses on to try and cut the suspense short.

“Let’s not have so much yelling. You guys see Mommy’s pretty ears? They hear super super good. So when you yell so much, it hurts them. Okay?”

It’s partially an excuse and partially the truth, but it seems to get his point across, because all three nod earnestly.

“Uh... Mommy? Wanna add anything?”

It feels strange calling her that, and there’s a smirk on her face that says she knows he’s having a little pause. But something about it still feels warm, right, in a way he doesn’t quite want to acknowledge right now.

"I have a list."

Trita teases lightly, winking over at him as she admires his hesitation and shyness over all of this. She doesn't honestly mind the new title. At this point it still just feels like that: A title. Maybe that's her brain trying to keep distant for the time being, make sense of it, but it doesn't create any tension in her body to hear "Mommy" directed at her which is something she seems to need to get used to quickly, so she won't complain.

"For now, though, let's just remember what Daddy said and keep the noise down juuuuuust a little so we don't ruin my ears. Well, that and let's remember to not go stealing Mommy, but especially Daddy's, stuff."

Her eyes immediately rest on Shand who stops tugging on Lance almost immediately, looking like he has a little argument hanging on his tongue. Instead of explain or humor him, Trita lifts her hand to Dolan and opens it palm-up, revealing his wedding band.

The look he gives the small object in her hand makes a laugh roll right out of her despite her own tiredness.

"Don't ask me how he got it. I just saw him rolling it across the floor because Lance kept trying to catch it and take it from him."

At the mention of his name, Lance pats Trita's leg to get her attention.

"Hey, hey, hey, can we eat? I'm hungry."

"Oh, yeah-"

Trita goes to grab three of the plates and head over to the table but Luna quickly grabs her other leg to stop her, staring up at her, then the plates, then her face again with those every wide eyes.

"I wanna help!"

Right, that's just a think with Luna. She's been asking for something to do to help Trita ever since they all woke up. Well, she can't let this small child carry a breakable plate... Actually, she's not holding that spoon that Trita gave her to make her feel included anymore. Where is it? Did she lose it?

No, Shand probably took that somehow but Luna is too preoccupied with wanting to help to notice.

"Why don't you and Daddy get the forks and put them on the table, okay?"

The answer is enough to get Luna off her leg, the girl trodding over to Dolan and throwing herself back on his leg, leaving Trita to just swing one leg as she limps with the added weight of Lance clinging to her, making her way to the table.

At first Dolan feels a little frozen when Luna throws herself on him, with her little arms wrapped around his legs he's not sure how he's supposed to move, even though it seems to make her pretty happy to just be clinging to him.

Then after a few seconds his arms start to move on their own, and he's not entirely cognizant of what he's doing, but he starts to unwrap her little arms from around his leg. She shoots him a look of panic, a questioning look begging to know what she's done wrong, but once he's untangled her from him he picks her up by her waist, re-situates her, takes her little hands in his.

She's standing with her small bare feet on top of his now, and he starts walking across the floor with exaggerated movements that honestly make him feel a little like he's miming dinosaur steps. But Luna is giggling and shrieking and clasping his hands tighter and tighter so that after a few seconds, he's smiling down at her too, trying to make his movements as crazy as possible and still keep her from falling at the same time.

When they get to the utensil drawer, he hoists her up by her waist in front of him at just the right height so she can open the drawer, pull out all the forks. He jostles her up and down as they count out how many they need together.

Shand, meanwhile, is tugging on Trita's leg.

"Why are they having more fun?"

Trita looks down at Shand then over at Dolan and Luna, listening to her giggle away and babble to him about something, something about how Mommy told her knives were dangerous. Well, at least Trita managed to teach her something in their short time already, something she herself doesn't even listen to, but that's neither here nor there.

Right now she needs to pacify a very jealous Shand... And a very needy Lance still hanging off of her leg.

"They're having more fun because I'm so busy."

She very intentionally makes her voice sound lighter yet whinier than she's ever even heard it herself, letting her shoulders slump like the weight of the three plates is just too much for her.

"I wish I could have fun-"

That's all it takes for Lance to immediately let go of her leg and bolt the rest of the short way over to the kitchen table. Shand doesn't seem to know Lance's plan exactly but he's not willing to be upstaged for one second so he follows along. The two boys climb and clamor up the chairs and onto the table, Lance with his arms out and Shand eyeing him, not exactly following along completely just yet.

"I can take the plates! I can put'em down! Lemme help!"

With his intentions known, Shand holds his own little arms out, arguing back that he can help too but he can help better than Lance can. Trita tries not to laugh, instead taking her amusement and turning it into a playful grateful smile.

"My little heroes."

As she teases, she hands them each a plate to set down then places her own on the table, waiting to go get the last two until they turn back from their task to look at her.

"You guys are so much better at that than I am. I'll tell you what: First boy to get one of the last two plates to the table can sit on my lap for breakfast- Ah! But!"

They're nearly jumping off the table as she speaks so she throws her hand up in front of them to stop them, backing away from them as she does.

"It's gotta be a real race, okay? So when I say 'Go,' then you guys can come take a plate from me and get back to the table. There may be a bonus prize for the boy who doesn't spill any food while running, too."

Her back finally hits the counter and she knows everything is a ticking time bomb now. Luna pauses and looks up at her from Dolan's arms, a couple of forks in between her fingers, but Trita just winks at her while she reaches around to grab the last two plates.

"Ready. Seeeeeeet..."

She brings the plates down to about hip height so they can grab them without having to reach too much, pausing her count to look back and forth between the little boys staring their own desired plate down with a fierce determination. They're children but, God, if they don't look like their older selves still, just in a younger, slightly softer and rounder forms.

"Go!"

And they're off, jumping off the table, both tumbling a little bit but they manage to make it to their feet and rush to continue the race.

All the noise makes Luna lean back until the top of her head presses into Dolan's stomach, trying to look right up at his face.

"Why're boys so loud?"

"Because they're awful and we don't like them."

Dolan scrunches his nose up, shaking his head so that Luna can see his equal disdain as they finish rounding up silverware and try to get to the table without tripping over the two racing boys.

Dolan is pretty sure he feels some toast crunch under his bare feet, some partially melted butter gush up between his toes and he closes his eyes for a second to try and contain himself. He remembers these days.

Luna is tugging on his sleeve, accidentally poking him with fork prongs since her little hands are so full, clearly concerned about the fact that they've halted the progress towards the table.

He makes it there, knowing full well that he's probably tracking butter across the floor and that Trita is probably laughing behind his back. After he holds Luna up long enough to distribute the silverware beside all the haphazard plates with jostled food, he sets her down in the floor, carefully, away from any spoils of the boys' war.

That's when he realizes they may not have enough chairs to fit around this table for all of them. What's more, the chairs they do have are not going to get these little kids up to plate level, at least not enough to keep them from making a mess and enabling them to actually get food into their mouths.

He casts a questioning glance behind him at Trita, who is in the end stages of judging this apparently very close race, and lets his eyes drift from the two chairs they have back to her again, waiting for her to catch one. Maybe they can pile a bunch of books up or something? Do they have that many books?

"Hmmmmmmm..."

Trita tilts her head to the right and then the left, a finger on her chin as she stares down at the boys with a scrunched face, really giving them the full act of debating on who won.

"I don't know, it was just so close."

They both look like they're on pins and needles waiting for her call on the results, both panting a bit from the run. There's no way to finish this without making someone upset, so she decides to call it a split.

"I think Shand made it to the table first, but Lance made less of a mess. So..."

She reaches around towards the bed area for the nightstand by her side, moving it over to the table to work as a chair, grateful for its extra height making it near perfect to raise one of them up to eat. However... It is just big enough for one of them.

"Shand, you can sit on my lap for breakfast, but Lance gets a little extra piece of candy later today."

With the judgement made, she plops down in her seat, picking Lance up and setting him on the nightstand just to her side, then pats her lap to call Shand over. He seems to be upset about not getting a piece of candy later, but he quickly forgets when she snatches him up with an over the top motion, tossing him up in the air and catching him just to spin him around quickly and situate him to reach his food. His laughter tells him the little air show was enough to distract him.

The three of them seated, Trita' flicks her eyes from Dolan to Luna then back again like the answer is the most obvious thing in the world.

"Can we just eat now?"

Lance has his fork in hand, pouting down at his plate, more upset about not being able to sit on Trita's lap than Shand was about not getting candy. Looks like the boys are going to be constantly competing with each other over something, per usual.

Shand sticks his tongue out at Lance who returns the gesture with a little extra heated passion and disgust. All the while, Luna is standing on the floor, unable to see up to the table, but she doesn't seem to dare say anything about it, looking ready to just stand there and eat as is if that's what's asked of her, as long as someone hands her a plate.