Pema smiled as Rohan snuggled into his blanket, sleepily fighting against the lingering chill of winter. His little head rested against her shoulder, and she kissed the little tuft of hair on the top of his head before covering it with a stray corner of the yellow cloth. A little hand covered in a tiny mitten was fisted in her sash, and she covered it with her own warm hand as she made her way back to her home.
Meelo and Ikki met her at the door with kisses and hugs and sweet, cleverly worded requests for cookies before dinner, and she watched them skeptically as she considered the request. With a whispered “Just let me set your brother down first,” she nodded, and her two mischievous children cheered quietly on their way to the kitchen.
When she reached the nursery decorated in soft blues and greens and yellows, she set her son on the small changing table, unwrapping the blanket and unbuttoning the small, thick jacket each of her children had worn when they were infants. Green eyes identical to her own blinked blearily up at her as she pulled the coat and mittens away and she smiled down at Rohan, running a finger playfully down his nose before picking him up.
“Don’t you wake up now, sweetpea. Not when I was just getting you to bed.” She hummed a short tune from her favorite lullaby to reiterate the point. “You haven’t napped all day.”
She lowered him into his crib, praying that her son would go back to sleep for just an hour or two as she covered him with the blanket once more. He reached up for her, and she shook her head, pressing her lips to a chubby cheek.
“It’s bedtime, baby bird.”
