Okay, for the last chapter I decided to switch it up and tell the story from Musa's point of view. Enjoy!

Epilogue

The sound of sharp, piercing wailing dragged Musa out of her sleep a lifetime sooner that she would have liked. As it was with most parents of newborns, Musa was absolutely exhausted from the lack of sleep and seemingly endless stream of messy dippers, drooling and spit ups, and it was made all the more difficult by the fact that she had given birth to twins.

Blinking groggily, Musa lay still, listening to the sound of her daughter crying as she tried to work up the motivation to leave the comfort of her bed and the temping sleep it promised. She was no where near close to it when she felt the mattress shift and Riven rolled over to plant a soft kiss on her bare shoulder.

"I'll go," he whispered hoarsely and a moment later, Musa found herself alone in her spacious bed and easily slipped back into sweet, tender sleep. Unfortunately, after weeks of rarely getting more than four hours sleep at one time, it wasn't long before Musa's eyes fluttered open to discover that her husband had not yet returned to their bed. After living with Riven for so long, Musa had gotten used to having him lying next to her, so his absence – even when she knew exactly where he was – felt odd to her. The sound of Melody crying had ceased, but Musa could see that the light in the nursery was still on.

Feeling more awake now, Musa sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes sleepily. Yawning, Musa swung her legs over the side of the bed and put her cold feet on the floor. After locating her slippers and nightgown, Musa shuffled out towards the nursery where her two babies slept and when she peered through the door she grinned widely at the sight that awaited her.

Hunter – the less difficult of the two twins – slept peacefully in his crib, his tiny little fist curled around the paw of a stuffed toy dog that he refused to be parted from. The second crib, however, was empty but instead of feeling any panic like a mother might feel if she came across an empty crib in the middle of the night, Musa felt a warm glow of love when she saw where her daughter had ended up.

Sitting in one of the armchairs, basked in the soft glow of a lamp, was her husband and her daughter, both whom she loved more deeply than she could ever put into words. The rings under Riven's eyes were evidence of how tired he was, but he was uncharacteristically patient with his children, even at this ungodly hour. Melody lay face down on Riven's chest, listening to his heartbeat and the deep rolling voice of her father as he tried to lull her to sleep by reading aloud to her from 'The Art of War'. Riven had never been one to be comfortable with using baby talk and gushing over his friends' children and it was the same with his own, but Melody was a daughter of the Harmonic Nebular so she reacted more to the tone of the voice rather than the words being spoken.

"In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more."

Despite the fact that his voice was hoarse with exhaustion, Riven continued to read on from the book. Every time he paused to check if Melody had drifted off, she'd start to fuss and whimper until he started up again, gently stroking her back as he read the familiar text in front of him.

Smiling, Musa slipped back to her bed. Riven was more than capable of caring for his children and she planned to use the free time he had gifted her to get a few precious hours sleep.

THE END.

Well, that's all of it. Now I guess I better go back to the other fics I've been working on, but I thinks this one came out pretty good for something that just started when I was trying to get past a bit of writers block. That bit about direct and indirect fighting was taken out of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, points 5 to 10 out of chapter 5: Energy. I never really had a chance to study The Art of War, but I was just reading over it and I loved the points about how there are only five musical notes and five tastes and so on.

Anyways, I just I'll catch you all later. Cheers, tears-in-rain