Days to Konoha's summer festival had crawled in a snail pace and he was yet to encounter concrete results.

Though that was bound to change.

Never the one to trust in luck, but some unseen stars must've lined up which made him stumble upon a peculiar rock jutting out the sand. The hollow sound as he jounced over, indicated a sizable structure beneath. With a fiery whirl towering the sky, Sasuke burned the red sand until glass crunched below his feet. He stabbed the rough glass and twisted the hilt of his sword. Lightning raged, sending massive crackles piercing the desert's calm. Sasuke perched on steady ground and glazed the perimeter to keep the surrounding sand from caving into the ancient structure emerged from the receding glass debris.

He took a tentative step on the vestibule's grand azurite floor. The air was noticeably cooler. Tall pillars entrenched by the dark entryway whistled low at the dry wind constantly astir. Shards of glass crunched as he dropped another step. He would have to explore further inside, but he doesn't raise expectations. Could be just another desolate point making his caution seem paranoid.

He took out a brush lined with ink and loosened a scroll against the pillar to label the place on his unfinished map. The monotony of sand dunes dearth of life left Sasuke wanting home. There couldn't be greater solitude. Given he'd figure out jumping in on another of Kaguya's dimension, it would be fortunate to come across as much as an insect's critter.

The multiple dimensions Kaguya created for herself with not a soul dwelling left room for more investigation. And unless he reaches the core dimension with which the mother of chakra was sealed, his ventures just might prove to be fruitless and inefficient—

Hostile presence flitted behind him, the swift force of attack stunning Sasuke. Chakra spiked out the Red Lotus seal like acidic fumes making his pores bleed and the attacker immediately pulled away.

"Interesting thing you got there on your back," said the stranger.

Sasuke whisked around. "Reveal yourself." He hadn't foresaw the seal's latent protection either saving him by the skin of his teeth.

A shadowed figure cast against the light stood by the edge of the glazed sand cliff. He descended floating feather-like on the vestibule's rim. The man had skin quite literally like alabaster and his activated Byakugan sublimated a cold killer's glint.

"Pleasantries. I've been observing you here and there. It's bizzare seeing a scrub roaming around. Turns out you're snooping your nose where it doesn't belong." The man swatted out a fishing rod and the line lashed like a sentient whip. Sasuke darted to the building's interior and summoned Susanoo's arm to fend the onslaught of fishing hooks coming at him from multiple directions.

"You are not to go past that point," said the man. "I haven't received orders about you so let's not regret if I overdo."

Unheeded, the hooks penetrated past his shield and extracted purple chakra out his chest, disintegrating Susanoo's arm in one swoop. At once, all vitality left his body he struggled to keep upright, gripping his sore chest.

Doubled over, he spoke calmly: "You're an Ootsutsuki, aren't you?" Naruto's chakra from the seal gradually filled his veins.

The Ootsutsuki's eyes went wide with manic force, his teeth clenched, straining a grin.

"You seem intent on protecting something inside. Quite frankly, I was unknowing whether I'd find anything at all, but your vehemence just raised my interest." Sasuke turned to venture escape into one of the side chambers. The Ootsutsuki took displeasure and shot Chidori at him, zooming forward.

So that's how his power works.

With a fast jerk of his sword, Sasuke rechanneled the lighting chakra to his blade. Harsh dissonance pealed at the clash of their weapons. The Otsutsuki wore a proud grin. Red Rinnegan flashed from his Byakugan, taking Sasuke by surprise. Briskly swapping places with the praying stone figures carved on the sidewalls, Sasuke breezed past the long array of gigantic pillars to flicker inside the central inner chamber to which they led.

Several bigger horned statues with pedestals buried in sand were in front, and in the middle was a scroll on a dais, catching brightness from the ornate openings above the onion ceiling.

The Ootsutsuki casually strolled in as Sasuke took hold of the scroll.

"Let me tell you on friendly terms: leave. Take nothing from this place. You don't know what you're getting yourself into." The Ootsutsuki's white eyes held a sleuthing look, taunting, gauging. "That seal on your back is a harness, isn't it? Like a thread that connects you to some place you return to… Or are you?"

Keen awareness of light-years distance to home overwhelmed Sasuke. Retreating, he rushed to activate a portal and hopped in, taking off the mien of a tried Shinobi borne from years of dauntless confrontation with any foe in sight. Turning from a running stop, he directed more chakra to hasten closing the exit portal. A space warp formed therefrom, inextinguishable. Cold draft brushed his cheeks. On edge, he closely observed the cleft in space moving in a swirl like a poorly-stitched infected wound threatening to open up.

"You're here." Sasuke started at Mako's voice. A basket of vegetables was attached to her waist, looking uncannily domestic in a shirt and knee-length skirt. The boy she decidedly kept caught up to her coming out from the fog, tugging a bag of garden tools behind him.

"These warps are remnants of portals. More accurately, to produce this effect, these are spots of precedent space travels. That's how these space warps came to be. Do you know what this means?"

"What?" she warily asked when he moved closer just to stare at her.

"I was following somebody else's trail."

"Are you implying—?"

"I reckon you know something."

Mako's eyes narrowed, bearing offense. "I already told you everything I know, everything my clan had known, and this is how you reciprocate me? You're being too much."

Sasuke took one last glance at the black swirls floating mid-air and sheathed his steaming blade. "They could have been here even before we first came. We just didn't notice." He opened another portal not synched with the space warps.

"Going so soon?"

Sasuke determinedly stepped a foot in.

"We're having fresh salad," Mako casually offered. Since he continued on without even as much as a wave of the hand, he vaguely heard her say petulantly: "I'm charging tolls next time."

On the other side, he found the bed empty. A book was left open on the nightstand, pages flipped by the wind blowing from the window left open to get a slight breeze in.

He rushed outside to find dew still clung on her potted herbs, their potted herbs—including his which she kindly took under her care. Checking the usual places, not in the attic or by the koi pond either. By and by, the drumming of his heart intensified. Not in the kitchen. He ran speedily to the elders' manor passing by Hisoka's tea room, the wrinkly old woman frostily catching a glimpse of him—not that he had concern to spare. He suddenly thought of the bathrooms and his sister-in-law's room, going back and forth, disturbing the stale Hyuuga household's late afternoon kind of peace, with servants folding laundry and sweeping the lawns.

"Where's Hinata?" He huffed. The servants looked at him as though he came home without a head.

Bright colored buntings and banners of reds and yellows were festooned all over the main town square; stationed street performers played sprightly music. Wearing a white cracked mask he had picked from the ground, Sasuke spied at her serving free food with other Hyuuga branch members in one of the gaudy stalls erected, shielded from her view with the scrum, sweat-soaked towel bands on their heads preparing for the festival, in a line up. Two frolicking young girls stopped in front of him raving over the choco cake Hinata nee-san was giving out. The moment she held his gaze, doe-eyed, seconds long-drawn-out, he pulled back into the dim alley and hid himself for a tortuous stretch of time in a recess behind torn cardboards.

"Sasuke-kun…" A slice of cake with a small lit candle was held over her enlarged belly. Just as her back was fully turned from him, he covered her eyes with a hand and buried his nose on top of her head. She didn't complain when he reigned her in, squeezed her tight to his chest to absorb her warm, sober climate, and lay his troubled senses to rest.

"This is a holdup," he said, unwilling to emancipate. She opened her mouth to speak, but grinned instead.

"I'm sorry, robber-san. I didn't bring money, but I do have cake."

"I'll have something else then." He raised her chin, bringing their lips to alignment. Naruto's voice neared, loudly calling his name. He shortly snapped facing Naruto's direction.

"Welcome back!" Naruto's clone jumped in from the roof. "I didn't think I'd actually really find you here! We're now connected hip to hip!... Or should I say back to back!" He blithely laughed.

Sasuke removed the mask and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah. I appreciate your clone coming all the way here. You came with perfect timing."

"I know right!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's enthusiastic response.

"By the way, Sasuke, got caught in big trouble? Loads of chakra had gone out from me I was thinking you were…"

Sasuke eyed Naruto meaningfully, subtly hinting Hinata.

"What are you… uh…"—finally catching Sasuke's drift—"Ah! That's impossible, right?! I must've just imagined things… hehe." Naruto's clone scratched the back of his head apologetically and popped to smoke.

"Sasuke-kun…" Hinata's smile had faded, unspoken concerned query evident in her voice. He casually asked about the cake which effectively brought back a gentle smile on her face.

"I made it. With lots of help, of course… Happy birthday."

Speechless, he tried to recall when the last time he celebrated was or anybody else's at all. "Why?" he asked.

Though mildly surprised at first, but with careful patience in her voice, she said: "I'm grateful that you're here. That you've continually remained strong and healthy, always doing your best living for the last twenty one years, and I finally get to spend it with you."

He bit a corner off the cavity-inducing rectangle. He'd eat her cake; he'd eat anything she offers—spongy and moist, lightly sweet tinged with bitterness. He licked the sides of his mouth and wiped with his fist, not admitting to feeling embarrassed.

"You should make a wish and then blow the candle," she said, holding up the small plate so he could do just that. The miniscule flame weakly burned the short wick. He didn't do wishes. He told her he'll grant one of hers instead.

Commerce uptown ceased to push past the brambled fields and wealds intended for training hotspots, and the century-old oaks defining the backwoods bordered the wildwood.

Back in their glory days, the lone forest trail made covert by a barrier jutsu leading to the canyon was exclusively known only to Uchiha. Sasuke doubted that to be the case now since Konoha's ruin brought attention to the area for reforestation, though hectares of the secluded property remained exclusively Uchiha in papers. Apart from varied bird calls, there used to be whooshing, one with the wind overhead, where his father's men consisting the Uchiha police force stealthily moved freely across the groves without harnesses like red-eyed prowling monkeys, agile, strong, seeming capable of flight, that fed his childhood dreams of becoming one of them. This was where Itachi teased victory with hide-and-seek. Striated patterns in tree trunks now covered with moss from hyped-up archery practice (of a five-year-old trying to impress) on moving targets such as wild boars and deer.

Entering the end of the forest into the wide clearing, the sound of the grand falls issued from the nearby canyon turned louder. Hinata was distracted from her initial goal and went ahead the stony riverbank to soak her feet in the cool water. Nonchalantly, he took the opportunity to wash, eyes alert as a hawk's for anything untoward as she went further into the riverbed. She maybe a Hyuuga whose feet were intrinsically light and quick, but still—

"The water's very nice!" Hinata pulled her skirt higher, showing her thighs.

He'll never understand her sense of novelty when the same Naka no Kawa circulated the whole village, finding source where his cousin had fallen to his death. But her bare legs, luminesce against the green rocks rich with algae, reinvigorated hunter instinct. He took off his shirt next to his high collar blazer and she was suddenly quiet, staring at him squeeze his wash towel dry which he ran over his body to remove dust and the remains of scalding desert heat.

When Hinata had made her wish known, Sasuke surmised some future Hokage needing metal clamps solely intended for his mouth—there was nothing to show about the house. Strapped down to simple functionality, Sasuke only had sturdiness in mind: the pillars and cantilevers were choice cypress timber; the ceramic tiles for the dominant roof made by a master craftsman; and the foundation was laid deep and raised on a slope to fend for when the river reaches far during onslaught of typhoons. Dividers were yet to be placed, but he had in his mind mapped a place for the kitchen, the dining room, and the living room with a fireplace. Dust carpeted the floor, but Hinata insisted going in barefoot. And she seemed to marvel at things he'd never paid heed, convincing him there was more to the banal he built.

"I think you could see the border from here!" she said. "Maybe even the Tenchi Bridge! The Hidden Grass Village! Maybe as far as the Hidden Waterfalls Village!" Sunbeams showered her from the window in the bedroom upstairs that when she turned to him, his blood-pumping muscle skipped a beat seeing her unadulterated joy.

Sasuke masked his soaring ego with a laid-back smirk. "As expected of a former Hyuuga. Only you can see the pleasure in that."

"It's almost as if this house guards a side of the village border. It's an important responsibility."

"We both know that isn't necessarily a good thing," he said. "It was selfish of me. I didn't even ask your opinion."

She went up to him and hugged his hand between her breasts. "I am certain this place is special to Sasuke-kun. That's why you chose to build here, isn't it?… But there's no room for the baby."

There was no excuse to be had for the lack of foresight. Because he simply hadn't considered the necessity of a baby's room nor what it was supposed to be like. From his previous myopic stance, a house was the next step freeing her from the clutches of her clan—a safe space for pretend marriage where eyes didn't pry. The reality of a child was unaccounted for. It didn't used to fit the picture. He had been hesitant to show her this because that all changed.

He started measuring dimensions on the wall adjacent their bedroom as Hinata dictated the features of the baby's room.

"Sakura-san gave birth two weeks ago. He was very cute," she said.

"Oh?" He sounded almost sarcastic. That Naruto was already a father failed to register his mind.

"As for me… next month." Hinata chewed her lip.

He slid the measuring stick in one corner. "Are you scared?"

"Nervous, I suppose. But also very excited!"

Soon as she was downstairs, whatever whimsical spirit fell upon her, she began acting childish, skipping lightly he could only look at her stomach—what might fall from there. He played along her little chase around the entrances lacking the necessary sliding doors. He couldn't tell the woman to stop when the sound of her laugh set his gears running high as though in a free run till his lungs ache. She stopped orbiting so they were face to face with the wall in-between them and before she could breathe another word urging him to continue, he had her fastened to the wall, his mouth crashing hers.

Even if her tummy came between them as fate does often terribly on star-crossed lovers in sob stories written for maudlin women, beyond fiction, this is their better reality. Else they wouldn't be so occupied with each other as the long shadows of the setting sun settled upon their door-less future home in the middle of the forest, neighbors within half a mile radius either walking on four feet, building nests, or crawling up tree trunks and munching acorns.

"Do you suppose I could put the pond in the front?" he said.

Forever, at once, seemed so clear and simple.

"Pond?" She brought him down for another heated kiss.

"Lotus." He nibbled down her throat, kneading hands travelled down her back.

"U-Un… Y-yes."

Hinata went on saying the pond in the Hyuuga compound wasn't as auspicious as it wasn't facing east unstrapping his cloak, impatient as he was reaching under her skirt.

"Otou-sama…"

"What about him?" Her cheeks turned ruddier, red dye distilled down her shoulders.

"He's… He dug a pond there to remove something so… it wasn't… ah… as lucky, I guess."

"Wasn't as lucky in what sense?" Sasuke asked, enjoying the view of her creamy neck, her head tossed back, eyes shut.

She stirred, quietly asking more on a certain spot with the slight buck of her hip. "I… I think…." Her grip on his sleeves turned steadfast, resting her head on his shoulder. "I don't know… Sasuke-kun… Sasuke-kun…"

"Aa," he voiced to her calling his name. His strokes grew bolder. She was close.

She gasped, her red mouth blossomed forth.

"Kimochii…"

As though caught red-handed with a bad deed she wiped his fingers with the hem of her skirt, legs still in their jelly state, and apologized. He would've missed it hadn't been his ears so attuned to every sound coming from her throat, setting his arms and loins on fire.

"What for? Say you feel good every time," his voice hinted a growl, needing her stripped down for him, but then the sound of dripping liquid was heard.

She pushed him away, fight burning in her palms plucking him out the lust cloud. A puddle formed at her feet.

"D-don't look! I-I-I…"—she covered her face, sounding like she was going to cry—"I-I p-peed…"

"If I'm easily bothered by that then you've wasted too much on me. We've gone through a lot just so I could stay mere liability? I don't think so." Sasuke picked up his cloak to wrap around her waist. "Let's go."

Hinata's ear tips poked out her of hair, turning deep red. He fought the smile tugging on his lips as he pulled her gently by the wrist going out. After a few steps, she stopped and dug under her belly. Color drained from her face.

"Sasuke-kun… i-it's strange…" Her Byakugan activated and tears streamed down her face. "My water broke," she blankly said.

"If she didn't have the baby then onee-sama wouldn't have to suffer like this!" grumbled Hanabi, seated several benches from where Sasuke sat, her arms wrapped around her knees protecting herself. "They kept telling her get pregnant but in reality it's only to make her miserable!"

"Hanabi, you weren't exactly the sort who gave your mother ease in labor either," said Hiashi, Hanabi's complete opposite with his arms folded, calm and collected.

The teenage heiress sulked. "I won't really know about that now would I?"

Hiashi withheld censure, the corners of his mouth more pronounced turned down. "The least we can do is to be patient."

Sasuke hadn't known if he had been praying to Kami. His fingers began to hurt around the knuckles from being clasped too tightly, hearing her toss and writhe, groaning in pain behind the concrete wall, syncopating with his undulating breath.

It drove him mad when he ceased to hear anything; that somehow she'd stop. Hospitals have a direful pattern: The bite of cold tile floors mopped with heavy antiseptic, the spool of tangled hairs coiled around the bench leg, frozen prey caught in spider webs overhead wobbling on fluorescent tube corners. On his left, a haemorrhaging patient, a pallid man with irises shot upwards, was carted past. Just then a stretcher was being wheeled out the ward to his right by two nurses, the white blanket pulled up to the top of the head.

Unable to bear the anguish burning at the pit of his stomach, he tensely started out for the door that led to her but Hiashi stopped him. Worst was…

"My daughter is fighting hard right now. She had always faced her battles her own way. If she doesn't want you to see her pain, don't insist on it," Hiashi said.

He wasn't allowed in. By Hinata herself.

The hours languidly dripped. Losing count of the times he headed to the water dispenser, he place a plastic cup beneath the spile once again and pulled the knob up. Soon water overflowed. Naruto flipped the knob and patted him on the shoulder, giving an understanding look. Naruto wasn't supposed to be here had he not attempted to open a portal to get Hinata quickly to the hospital which she declined warning harm on the baby. Naruto's clone, then, had unexpectedly popped up sensing his trouble. As disturbing as the repercussions of this new stasis between them seemed in dozen other scenarios, Sasuke sent Naruto to inform Hinata's family they're headed to the hospital, who appeared at the moment, the better headed one, wits well put together. Sasuke handed him the cup, the surface giving a tender quake.

A shriek was heard. The next thing he knew, he was taking a hot shower and was changed into hospital pajamas.

They placed a wailing naked, wrinkly being on top of him. Like the twang of the sword as it hits the ground, sliding off from a weakened hold, its cry sounded awful; painful coming under the discomfort and instability he was thrust into. They pulled the blanket over him and the cries stopped. Sasuke couldn't forget that moment. Never was he, in his life, the tranquilizer nor could he recount putting someone at ease. The nurses had said more tests will be required, but they have doubts concerning the baby's ability to see. Abnormal eyes, they said. Even for a Hyuuga. How could they even tell when its eye folds were glued? Skin peeling from head to toe, and how it breathes. Sasuke trembled from the core at the smallness of air passing through the very small mouth. They were chest to chest for heat, the heart terribly fast, the lungs expanding and deflating at an alarming rate. A nest of soft, thin hair grew on its purplish head, and its hands were clenched in relentless fists, yet they barely fit a pebble inside much less take an enemy down.

Bitter pity washed over Sasuke.

Because Hinata had collapsed from exhaustion after childbirth…

Because he found himself all alone having to hold the weight of a fearsomely tiny creature. His own father gone and his mother and his brother—they knew about babies. He didn't.

"Ne, ne, Sasuke…" whispered Naruto, "What's his name?"

Sasuke hissed. Even just a minute movement of his toes might disturb the baby's sleep.

Naruto began speaking slowly in his best cinched volume. "I named my son Haruto. Haru meaning spring. Spring makes you think of sakura… And Haruto… sounds like my name… Cool, right?" he bragged. "What 'bout you?"

No retort came. Naming a human was… the thought was paralyzing.

Hinata's room was filled with familiar faces: her teammates and common friends with Naruto who used to be so wary of his presence.

After Hiashi took the baby with unbelievable ease from Sasuke's arms to Hinata, she cried thanking her father and everyone who came to visit. She softly caressed the small head and Sasuke found her formidable. The grace that overtook her exhausted form made known to him she had been here before, prepared and unafraid. You couldn't wait to meet your father, did you? Hinata had cooed and the ladies Tenten and Ino burst out in giggles.

Father. Son. It still felt strange to his ears.

"Sasuke-kun, a name…" she asked, and made it a point to annouce it was also his birthday. He found himself awkwardly accepting greetings from people, bar his circumspect sister-in-law who straightforwardly suggested horrid, foreign names like Varshish and Lolibabiloo. To save his son from a name which justified blaming his parents for a lifetime's worth of misfortunes, and himself from losing face in front of Naruto who must've spent sleepless nights coming up with one,

"Ren." He gulped, his jaws clenched tight, the weight of finality bearing down on his shoulders.

"For lotus?" She smiled. "I like it."

She named him Rennosuke. Ren with a hint of Sasuke.

There wasn't fanfare and laughter or the beating of taiko drums and lantern lit parades. Not even the sizzling and savory smells of takoyaki fried in oil. He avoided enlivened celebrations, but this wasn't how Sasuke imagined their fireworks viewing would go. They spent the evening watching the night skies flash green to red, gold to blue and purple from a distance by the lonely hospital window, him holding the baby, and Hinata reading poems from his leather notebook. She had cleverly asked for another wish just because he was so taken by the sight of her feeding their son.

He stole a glance at her minute smiles, and when she'd flip a page without even batting an eyelash—must've been terrible. Innocence was truly bliss for Rennosuke who, after being filled with his mother's milk, peacefully went back to sleep. Once you're friends with a blabbermouth village idiot, he finally learned with resignation, but so sick of it, you allow yourself to embrace all humiliation life could ever offer.

"In the gate of dread you dwell behind, pulling me right in as thread through needle's eye," she read, now leaning on his back with an arm round his stomach. "Do you still feel the same?"

Such as strange conversation it was. His poems expressed outward incited arsonous tendency: tear away the bane from her hands and just let it burn, then make her forget. But nothing will take away his cool. "About you pulling me? Don't flatter yourself. In a tug-of-war, I'm sure to win by a huge margin."

She snorted good-humoredly, smothering his spine with tingles from her tickling nose.

"Nnn. About the first one," she said, abashed.

He took time to answer.

"Same goes wherever, I suppose," he said. "Not to mean I'm entrusting you fully in somebody else's hands, but Naruto's here. Your family's here. It makes a difference."

"Does it?"

Her ensuing silence, he sensed, concealed heavy undercurrents. "Do you regret letting me go? Do you dread it as well?"

She shook her head. The last of the fireworks died down and the dark bluish tint of the night was all that remained. She gave a short, tired laugh and told him he'd be their bed for the night, not saying another word after.

Rennosuke squirmed and his mitten covered hand jerked. His right eye tear open, then the other, peeking like a button on a buttonhole. They were silvery, the brightest star-like shine of a blade's cutting edge, glinting by the pointy tip. They pierced. Yet, he was tucked in his father's arm like a boquet of flowers, his scent far too gentle for words.

After a while, sensing Hinata was still awake, he wriggled her off and tossed his head to get her to go to bed.

"I'm so lucky," Hinata murmured sleepily.

"No Shinobi is lucky. Those who believe otherwise will find themselves in grave trouble."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "That may be true. But I feel l am… Because you're my husband."

At Hinata's sure languid smile by his ear, he figured, by this time, she'll never run out of faculties to make his heart shudder, overshot and pained: fear, anxiety; mostly from the ecstasy. And he'll spend a lifetime discovering, over and over again, he'll never get used to it.

"I can tell by the way you're holding him, gazing at him, that you'll love him very much."

Somehow, what she said left him wondering.

"What can you tell when it's like this?" He looked straight at her.

She met his gaze, steadfast, the catch light's trail slow across the surface.

"I'm scared." Their foreheads bumped, her words let go upon his lips.

"Why?"

"Because I know if I'd ask you to stay, you'd do it."

She held the sides of his face and kissed him firmly.

"I'm scared because of what you're putting in my hands. When is the right time to tell you to stop? I don't know. You're the only one who can do what you do. I'm not taking that away from you. In exchange, please always remember there are now more people waiting every time… Needing you."

The baby's breath; a caress on the swell of her cheek, sailing aimless in the placid lake windows of her irreplaceable soul. This sanity, this sentience, he doesn't know how many more layers does it demand to shed; this unceasing germination refusing monotony, this eternal spring by their side.

He swore by the name of his mother and father, by Itachi. The future better be bright. He can't lose another one.

おわり

Dokufuki Mochiin Corner! 田

Thanks for the reviews during the last update MadEmpress, SilverKitsune2017-senpai, muzicaldove, Himesama17, Saamon-sama, dear guest too lazy to create an account (hahaha!), SasuHina Lover, Bexbludragon76, UchihaYumiko-chan, and emva9x.

Finally the ending! You might say 5k only? Way too short (I'm just assuming...) Well, I did my best. And look at the hearts and bookmarks! Look at those pretty swan necks! The DM from 1 year and 2 months ago would never be able to imagine this story reaching those figures! Thank you all!

I'll be posting a very short extra chapter (for readers like Bexbludragon76 and gabrielleannelle who like baby moments, I think xD) and then the epilogue. Please look forward to it.