Above All

-One Hundred-Four-

Evading changes

Purest bliss of memories

Child laughs morning comes

Amani:

          The moment my eyes fluttered open, I instantly realized I had fallen asleep. Almost instinctively at the same moment, the first thought that had rung into my head was the location of my baby. I spurted up in bed and tossed my head to the side where the bassinet was located to see if Nohemi was in there, but she wasn't.

            "You didn't sleep so long, Mani... you know it's okay to rest." I turned my head to the side and saw Layton resting in a rocking seat, shirtless having some skin-to-skin contact with our baby who was pleasantly resting against his chest with absolutely no qualms.

            He was holding onto our daughter with so much care and precision, it instantly melted my heart, causing me to rest more comfortably in my bed knowing that she was safely in his arms; I'm not sure where the instinct had come from, but the minute Nohemi had come out of me, a protective nature like none other had overcome my body and mental. I guess I knew exactly how my parents felt when they had me, wanting to know and make sure that I was safe and away from any kind of harm.

            I yawned lightly, stretching my sore body a bit as I lightly glanced at the side of the room where the window resided to see that it was pretty bright outside, the sun was out, but I could tell by the slight sway of the trees and branches that there was a stiff cold that was present in the atmosphere. Though most of the curtains were drawn to push out the sunlight to give us all a chance to rest our eyes, but my body was right back to being up and ready to go, oddly enough.

            "I can't help that I only sleep in hour increments, my body is exhausted, but also wired up at the same time...where is everyone anyway?" I asked Layton curiously.

            "Your mom and dad headed back to the palace and freshen up and probably will return with Grandma Zenny... until then I kicked everyone else so you could get some rest. I'm sure we'll have a full house here in a couple of hours anyway." He stated seriously.

            I scoffed lightly, "A full house would be an understatement." I said.

            So far, the room was already littered with gifts being sent up by the hour by many friends and other royal houses from other countries. There were tons of balloons, flowers, boxes of baby clothing, jewelry, toys, and more that we continuously had to send with security back to the palace to have them housed so we can, later on, send thank you cards back to the senders.

            I turned back to Layton and focused on him, his eyes were back on Nohemi placing warm kisses on her head and I smiled, "Did you get any sleep, yourself?" I asked him curiously. Layton looked up and pouted, "A little." He replied softly.

            I arched my gaze at him, "Look at you forcing me to sleep when you haven't gotten any yourself." I challenged him. He scoffed lightly and brought his gaze back to our baby. "It's kind of hard to do when you can't even believe that you have a child now...she's so beautiful I can't stop looking at her." He whispered.

            I cocked my head to the side, "You're gonna hog our baby as much as you can, I already feel it." I said to him. Layton didn't even argue with me on this, he himself knew that he was going to do exactly so.

            "Are you hungry?" He asked me curiously and I nodded, "You think we can get something before people start showing up?" I asked him. Layton agreed and slowly stood up just as Nohemi began fussing in his arms.