On a night when thunder and lightning seemed to split the world in two, Erin and Aiden awoke to the clamor. While everyone was sleeping, a heavy downpour had begun, and the night sky was flashing noisily.
“The weather is so bad. Is it going to be okay?”
Aiden said worriedly, peering out the window.
“That’s strange. The weather was fine until the evening.”
Their gaze instinctively shifted to the empty bed, and they became anxious as they remembered the presence that had always been there until recently.
“We should check to see if everything’s okay.”
“Let’s go together.”
Erin reached for Aiden’s hand to leave the room together when,
Tap, tap-tap, tap-tap-tap!
The sound of small, swift feet running preceded the door flinging open.
Through the door, a swish of brown hair made its presence known. The child, whose face was nearly hidden, peeked out little by little with some hesitation.
In that moment, a pair of black eyes, the spitting image of Aiden’s, met theirs.
“Leo!”
“Have you not gone to sleep yet?”
Before they knew it, Leo, who had grown up tall enough to reach Erin’s waist, came forward with a greeting. But he wasn’t the only one to enter the room through the door.
“Mom! Dad!”
Behind Leo’s shoulder, a girl with shimmering blond hair, the image of Erin with her green eyes, leapt in and shouted. She was the daughter who resembled both of her parents.
“Maylin!”
Leo and Maylin, having entered the room, ran straight into their parents’ arms. After watching them each hug Erin, Aiden lifted the children one by one so they could sit comfortably on the bed.
It wasn’t long after Leo came into their lives that during a phase when he especially clung to Erin, asking to be held and burying his face into her belly. Soon after, they discovered that Erin was pregnant. Thus, a dearly beloved daughter was brought into their lives.
Erin thought that perhaps Leo knew about her pregnancy back then. Whether it was true or not, Leo seemed to communicate something as he spent the whole time of the pregnancy with his ear against her belly.
Maybe because of this, Leo was immediately fond of Maylin when she was born and didn’t want to leave his sister’s side.
Remarkably, Leo and Maylin each resembled Erin and Aiden in their own ways. Leo had his mother’s eyes and his father’s hair color, while Maylin inherited the reverse: her father’s eyes and her mother’s hair color.
The two children cared for each other as if they were twins, but their personalities were polar opposites. Maylin was always lively, unafraid to speak her mind, and full of mischief. On the other hand, Leo was calm and shy.
Just like now.
“Brother keeps coming to my room because he’s scared to sleep alone!” Maylin said to Erin and Aiden. Leo’s face turned red with embarrassment.
Watching this, Erin tried to suppress a laugh and asked with feigned seriousness, “So, you didn’t like that?”
“No! That’s not it.”
Maylin shook her head vigorously from side to side, emphatically denying it.
At first glance, due to their contrasting personalities, it might seem like Leo was easily influenced by Maylin, but whenever Maylin was up to some mischief, Leo was always involved too. He wasn’t just caught up in it against his will; he was genuinely enjoying it with her.
So, the complaint was not really because Maylin disliked it. It was probably more of a brag that Leo kept coming to her room because he wanted to see her.
The twitching corners of Maylin’s mouth were a giveaway.
From birth, Maylin had been particularly small and slow-growing, which required a lot of care. She was slower at milestones like rolling over or taking her first steps compared to other children, and particularly, it took quite a while for her to start talking.
But interestingly, only Leo could instantly understand what Maylin wanted to say.
Whenever Leo did as told, Maylin would immediately stop crying and burst into laughter. Fortunately, after she first found her words, Maylin began to speak well and grow quickly more than anyone else.
Maylin might have seemed to do as she pleased, but she always followed Leo well. At times, it seemed she listened to Leo even more than she did to Erin and Aiden. And when Leo was shy, Maylin would step forward on his behalf.
Every time their parents saw them relying on and complementing each other, they felt thankful that Maylin had Leo, and that Leo had Maylin. This was something that even Erin and Aiden couldn’t replace no matter how hard they tried.
Erin seemed to know what Maylin would say, but she tilted her head and opened her mouth as if she didn’t know.
“Hmm? So?”
“I want to sleep with Big Brother… because… I’m a bit scared too…”
Maylin mumbled in response to Erin’s question, stretching her words. She then fidgeted with her fingers and giggled.
“The sky goes boom and flash… So it’s really just a tiny bit! Just a teeny bit scary… but I want to sleep with Mom and Dad!”
Maylin shouted as she lifted her head up. She claimed that she was brave and strong, and it was only a little bit scary.
At that moment, Erin caught a glimpse of green eyes that looked just like hers.
Aiden once said that when he looks into Maylin’s eyes, they remind him of Erin’s gaze back when they were children. He especially mentioned how closely they resembled Erin’s eyes when she used to say, “Just trust me.”
For that reason, Aiden often found himself unable to say no when Maylin would light up her eyes and ask him a favor, rendering him utterly weak.
“Can we sleep together too?” asked Leo, popping his face out as if he had been waiting for the right moment. His black eyes, so like Aiden’s, rolled around adorably.
The children’s request stemmed from the fact that, not too long ago, Leo and Maylin had started sleeping in their respective rooms.
The Duke and Duchess of Lianster held strong attachments to their children. Especially resolute in the belief that they must witness every single moment of their children’s young lives, they were almost too fixated on spending all their time together.
Regardless of having separate rooms for Leo and Maylin, it was taken for granted that everyone would sleep together and wake up together.
However, issues started to surface recently. The attachment between Erin, Aiden, and their children was so strong that they couldn’t stand being apart, feeling anxious whenever they were separated.
Especially Aiden, he would turn around missing Leo and Maylin as soon as they were out of sight.
Because of this, after seeking advice from numerous people and having extensive discussions with Erin, they concluded that it would be for the best to start having the children sleep in their own rooms.
The children, having slept with Erin and Aiden from birth until now, naturally thought this arrangement was normal. They struggled to understand why they suddenly had to sleep in their own rooms.
At first, Leo and Maylin were tearful and stubbornly refused, but eventually, they accepted the change.
That first night where the children slept in their own rooms.
It was a scene of farewell that could not be witnessed without tears. Erin and Aiden personally took Leo and Maylin to their rooms and bid them goodnight, but they found it hard to leave, repeating their farewells several times.
After parting with the children with great difficulty, Erin and Aiden had a restless night, filled with an unsettled feeling. Although Aiden denied it, Erin thought she saw tears in his eyes. Having endured such a tough day, when they met the children the next morning, Erin and Aiden felt a surge of emotion, as if they hadn’t seen them for days.
Erin, noticing the children were watching them, smiled with her eyes and said,
“You’ve made it here bravely.”
Leo and Maylin’s room was not too far from the couple’s bedroom. Still, the hallway leading there had large windows which must have frightened them during each thunderstorm and flash of lightning.
“Weren’t you scared on your way here?”
Erin and Aiden were proud of their bravery. Aiden asked while stroking the children’s heads,
“I wasn’t scared because I was holding Maylin’s hand.”
“I was okay too because I had my brother!”
The siblings exclaimed energetically. It hurt their parents to think that the kids had come all this way in fear, but imagining them supporting each other along the way was incredibly endearing.
Erin looked out the window for a moment. It seemed like the rain would continue until dawn.
“Let’s all sleep together.”
No sooner had Erin spoken than the two children darted between Erin and Aiden as if they had been waiting for it. The children wriggled about on the bed like they were swimming and settled down between their mother and father.
And they laughed with contentment, “Hehe.”
***
“Hmm.”
Erin gazed intently at her children sleeping angelically beside her, lost in thought, before turning her head to stare out the window. It was a night of utmost tranquility.
‘We ended up sleeping together again today.’
A few days ago, after sleeping together during a thunderstorm, Leo and Maylin began coming over with pillows as big as themselves. The next day, and the day after that, too. The reasons were many.
“I think I saw something move between the curtains! Brother saw it too…”
“I saw it too.”
Erin couldn’t resist the wide-eyed blinking of Maylin and Leo. And then on another day.
“I had a scary dream! There was this loud thunder and lightning chasing me, and it was huge and very scary.”
Leo, who had been listening, shivered at how vividly she recounted it. Despite the intention to have the children sleep separately, Leo and Maylin ended up coming to their parents’ room every day to sleep with them.
‘Is this going to fade away without resolution?’
No matter what happens tonight, I will not be swayed by the children’s words. No matter what excuses they come up with, I have to send them back.
This time, Erin firmly resolved not to give in easily.
