To Love, Once Again

Chapter 72

"Mama?"

Little Leo holds up his arms for a hug from his mother. 

Crouching low in front of her son, Sera gives him a big hug, lifting him up in her arms. Her heart was still beating fast after that last kiss with Lucien. Did her son see? He shouldn't have seen anything, but she wasn't sure. 

Sera wasn't ready to have a talk with her son on how adults kissed. Who knows, the conversation may stray into further territory(like the birds and the bees) that she cared not to go over with her son just yet.

"Good night Mama!" Leo says in greeting, happiness breaking through like a ray of sunshine through the clouds of sleepiness. Usually he was a good boy and listened to Bea when she told him to stay in bed, but Bea had left him in a hurry before bedtime, making him curious.

The Elder-person that was wrapped up in a blanket didn't seem to care when he woke up and crawled off the bed, taking his blanket to sit in the entryway of the cottage.

"You wook difwent Mama" Taking the edge of the soft blue blanket draped over his lap, he starts chewing on it, looking like a pondering old man chewing on his tobacco pipe, as he stares up at his Mama's face.

She was still in her squire's outfit, with remnants of coal on her cheeks and hair falling out from under her hat. But it was dark enough in the entryway to hide the mark on her cheek. 

"Do I look that different?" Sera asks, gently tugging the blanket from his mouth. Lois had said it wasn't good to let children chew on things too much. It made their teeth develop at a strange angle, so let them chew in moderation, she'd said. 

"Don't like it" Leo's lips stick out as he puffs up his soft cheeks and shakes his head. His Mama was a fairy. She should be wearing fluffy soft dresses and sparkly things in her hair like in the pictures Bea drew for him. Beautiful and wonderful things that fit his Mama.

"You don't like it?"

Sera's hands move to quickly push back the hairs that fell around her face. Except for the part that covered her bruised cheek. Her long brown hairs cascade out of the hat and down the side of her neck on the injured side. Did he see the injury? Sera didn't want to worry her baby son.

Fingering the simple fabric of her pants, Leo shakes his head. "Not pwetty like Mama."

With all seriousness, except for her eyes shaking with mirth, Sera nods. "We need to fix that, don't we, Leo."

"Yesh!" His face lights up. Was his Mama going to do magic in front of him? The storybooks Bea read to him said that fairies liked to wear flower petals for clothing, using their magic to enlarge the petals into skirts.

"And get you back in bed too." Sera adds in the same serious tone of voice.

Picking up her son, Sera climbs up the stairs, hoping there's a basin in Leo's room that she could wipe off with. Her body was still fairly clean from the bath she'd taken earlier with Lucien. But the coal needed to go. It had served it's purpose.

"yesh.." Leo's happy expression dampens. He didn't want to go to bed just yet. He wanted to see his Mama transform first. And then she would probably leave for a while again, till the next time Bea took him to see her. Leo buries his head in Sera's neck to hide his yawn from her.

"Leo's not sleepy, Mama." He says in a small voice, shaking his head against her neck.

Sera smiles again. She could feel Leo's small mouth opening wide into a yawn against her neck. It was obvious from the way Leo would rub his eyes every once in a while that he was sleepy. Just because she couldn't see his yawns didn't mean he wasn't sleepy.