Late that night, after they had all gone to bed, the rain outside turned into a thunderstorm, and Dark and Daizi both rolled over with a groan to the sounds of Ivy crying fearfully on the baby monitor. When Daizi shifted to get out of bed, Dark put a hand on her shoulder, "You have work tomorrow, I will get her."
"thank you..." Daizi sighed, dropping her head back down onto her pillow, but after a few moments, hearing Dark climb groggily out of bed, she put her hand out and said, "Just bring her in here."
Dark nodded, quietly going in the nursery and sighing softly at the sight of his toddler crying in her crib, squeezing her stuffed rabbit close. "Tifla," he told her gently as he crossed the room to her, "It is okay, my darling girl."
"Baba!" Ivy whimpered, already holding her arms up to him before he even made it to her.
"I know, I know," Dark murmured, hugging her closely, "The thunder can be really scary, and the lightning. But it cannot hurt you, not when you are safe inside with Baba. Hm?" He dried her face with one hand before he kissed her on the forehead. Then, after making sure she had her rabbit with her, he brought her out of the nursery, "We are going to see Mama, okay?"
Once they returned to the bedroom, Dark pulled back the curtains of their bed, and the curtains to the window, and then shuffled back into bed besides his wife, who propped herself up slightly and said, "Oh, habibti, what's the matter? Are you scared?" Soon finding herself snuggled up between her parents, Ivy nearly settled until another big crash of thunder started her crying again, "Do you know, sweet Ivy-Qadira," Daizi yawned, resting her head against her husband's chest, "It was storming like this the night you came into the world. So Mama likes big storms, because they make me think of when I first got to meet my little baby."
"Look," Dark said, pointing out the lightning flash, "That is all it is, a little bit of light." Ivy still flinched when she watched it, but she did watch it with her father, wedging herself in as tightly as possible between both of her parents. Daizi did her best to hum a lullaby to her before she couldn't stay awake any longer and fell back asleep. When he noticed this, Dark took over singing to Ivy, until he noticed she, too, had finally fallen back asleep. Lying back, he told himself he'd just give her five more minutes, then he would get up and carry her back to the nursery. Just another five...
Next thing he knew, his eyelid was being pried apart by tiny fingers as sunlight streamed in through the window, "Sabah Al-Khair," He murmured, his voice gravelly.
"Sabah," Ivy chirped, climbing over him, in the process accidentally kneeing her mother awake. All told, they came down to breakfast a little later than usual, but they presumed their teenage sons could cope with the delay.
At school that day, during the career aptitude test, Milo stared in surprise when all of his results were jobs like surgeon, engineer, and physicist. He supposed, in a way, he understood why they may work for him, but they were all so... intelligent, that he looked at Xander and said they really should factor in a student's GPA before giving these results, although he was selling himself short. His grades had risen significantly now that he had mostly been caught up to this school's curriculum, and he never had been an unintelligent boy. It still struck him as odd.
Then, on Monday of the next week, Daizi woke up feeling anxious and excited. She was going back to work that day, and although she had been looking forward to it all month... now that it had actually arrived, she couldn't help but feel a little bit of dread as she went downstairs to breakfast, for once not still in her pajamas. Since it was her first day back in the office, and didn't want to immediately push the boundaries, she went with a simple dark burgundy shirt-sleeved top and a black ankle length skirt, belted at the waist. Her many accessories still suited her usual styles, and she had a black cardigan with The Moon tarot card on the back in case it was cold in the office or on the train, but the last thing she wanted was to go back to her first day of working in the office, rather than remote, and get fussed at for her clothes---although, for the most part, her boss was pretty lenient on the standard day. Or was, before she transitioned to remote.
