Work Text:
That morning, the hyacinths had finally bloomed. The long green stalks had unfurled their buds, revealing tufts of flowers that blended together to create a blanket of soft purple petals over the beds in the Gloucester gardens.
After a long night in which Lorenz had hardly slept at all, he was touched by seeing that the stubborn flowers had finally given way to spring.
“Look,” he murmured in a quiet tone, worried that if he spoke too loudly he might disturb her. “I suppose you can’t, not yet, but… here--” Lorenz had clipped one of the young hyacinths to bring it inside. He reached into the bassinet, bringing the soft fluff of petals to brush against his newborn daughter’s cheek.
The baby, who was only an hour old, squirmed in her swaddling clothes. The poor dear couldn’t open her eyes yet, she was still too new to the world, but she could feel the flower against her skin and she could hear his voice.
“This flower has bloomed today, just for you, my darling,” Lorenz whispered to her, smiling. His daughter was blotchy and pink and so small, but she had little wisps of pale purple hair on her head. A Gloucester, through and through.
Lorenz looked up, stealing a glance at Marianne. She was asleep in the bed, his poor wife exhausted after her labor. Her hair was matted against her face, pulled back in a long, loose braid down her back, but by now it had grown frayed and messy. Her brow had sweat dried to it, and her nightgown had fallen off one shoulder, but in his eyes, Marianne had never been more beautiful.
All during her pregnancy, Lorenz had postured and preened like a peacock. He had commissioned her beautiful maternity clothes and taken her out whenever Marianne had the energy for it, eager to show off his wife as she glowed and ripened with his child. It had made him feel a very primal, masculine sort of pride, and he had fallen more in love with her each time he touched her belly or caught Marianne singing to the baby growing inside her.
She was ten times as lovely now. Disheveled and asleep.
“My love, you have earned your rest,” Lorenz whispered to her, momentarily leaning around the bassinet to kiss Marianne’s mussed brow. She didn’t wake, which he was glad for, and Lorenz once more turned his attention to their daughter.
“You are the most lovely flower this spring,” he cooed, brushing his knuckle against her cheek and her tiny little chin. The baby gurgled blindly, recognizing him without seeing him. “My sweet, sweet Juliette~”
Juliette wiggled again in her swaddling, as if responding to the name he and Marianne had chosen for her only days ago.
It was fitting. Their Juliette… The most beautiful flower of the spring.
Lorenz leaned down and kissed her forehead and re-adjusted the knitted bonnet over her head. Even if the weather was mild, she needed to stay warm in her delicate state. “Here,” Lorenz offered, untying a thin ribbon he had used to keep his hair back that morning. While he didn’t often need to tie back his violet locks, he’d been helping to coach Marianne through her labor, and in the frantic activity of it all he’d wanted to keep any of it from slipping into his face.
Now, Lorenz used the ribbon to tie the hyacinth flower to the top of Juliette’s bassinet, where it could hang down over her like nature’s beautiful mobile.
“When you can open your eyes, my little darling,” he cooed. “Flowers will be the first thing you see each morning. I’ll make sure to keep fresh hyacinths tied here for you throughout the spring. Would you like that?”
Juliette made a small incoherent sound, her blind face turning towards his voice. Lorenz felt his heart clench with such happiness that he could hardly hold it all in. So he kissed his daughter again, making sure that her first memories would always be of love.
“Sleep now, my darling,” he murmured. “You’ve got so much life ahead of you.”