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Working her way around the kitchen, Hermione scrubbed at the baseboards the muggle way, not content to let magic do a “good enough” job on it. She knew she was acting a little crazy, but she couldn’t help it.
The urge to make sure everything in their home was perfect was too strong. Just before leaving for his last rotation, Charlie had compared her to a nesting Hungarian Horntail and she had nearly proven to him that she could be as angry as one.
She was aware when Theo walked into the room. And even though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was giving her that confused look from beneath his fringe of wavy chestnut hair, his deep blue eyes bottomless as they tried to understand what he was seeing.
To her surprise, he didn’t say anything snarky. He didn’t even try to talk her out of it. Instead, he went and found a second scrub brush and began working from the opposite end of the room, to come back and meet her in the middle. Hermione couldn’t believe how happy this simple act made her.
When they met in the middle, she leaned into him. Quietly, Theo asked, “Is there more you would like to do in here?”
Hermione smiled at him. That had been the perfect thing to ask. “No, I don’t think so,” she admitted. “I believe that’s every surface in the room scrubbed.”
She saw the sigh of relief he let out, but decided not to comment on it. He had been so very sweet. “I may need help getting off the ground,” she told him. There was no maybe about it.
Theo tried to keep his smile to himself, but the dimple on his cheek gave him away as he helped her to her feet and then to the sitting room.
Hermione eased herself onto the sofa with a groan.
“Are you okay, love?” Theo asked.
She loved how much he doted on her and how sweet he had been throughout this whole pregnancy. “I’m fine, Theo,” she reassured. “Just tired.”
“And beautiful, carrying our child,” Theo said, smiling at her with all his love shining in his eyes.
Blushing — she could never get used to all his praise — Hermione placed a hand on her belly where their daughter was kicking. Theo’s hand joined hers and they were sitting there next to one another, cherishing the moment, when Charlie walked through the front door.
“Let me guess,” he said with a grin, “You’re just taking a break from whatever project you have going on today?”
It was a running joke amongst the three of them that Theo and Hermione were inevitably sitting, no matter how hard they had been working only minutes before, anytime Charlie ever walked in.
Laughing, Hermione held out a hand to him while Theo said, “Of course.”
“Actually, we’re done with my nesting for today,” she informed him. “We scrubbed the baseboards in the kitchen. The room is now totally clean.”
Charlie’s eyebrows went up a bit and he visually checked in with Theo, who nodded slightly. Reassured she was fine and had help, he quirked his lips at her and asked, “The muggle way, I assume?”
“Of course,” Hermione agreed. “Theo was a sweetheart about it.”
“He always is,” Charlie said with a smile, leaning down to kiss their husband thoroughly. His hand wandered to her belly as he stood there snogging, bringing both Hermione and the babe into their power exchange. The soulmate bonds the three of them shared always appreciated them taking the time to reconnect once they were back together.
When he finally pulled away from Theo, Charlie immediately kissed Hermione. He took her breath away, just like he always did. Kissing Charlie was like catching on fire and she loved every moment of it.
Theo got up from the sofa, stretching. “I suppose I should think about fixing dinner,” he mused, knowing neither of them would answer for some time.
To his surprise, Hermione pulled away enough to say, “Not in my pristine kitchen!”
Both men laughed, but stifled it quickly as she glared at them. “Of course not,” Theo answered. “We can get takeaway. What are you in the mood for?”
“Let’s make it something quick,” Charlie suggested.
“Why?” the other two asked, almost in unison.
“Because I have a project for us tonight,” he said with a smile, producing a bag from his pocket. A whisper of magic brought it back up to its original size and he let Hermione reach in to pull out the contents. “Paint?” she asked. Then she squealed. “Is this the magical paint for her mural?”
“It is,” Charlie said with his lop-sided grin. “I thought it was time. She’ll be joining us soon enough.”
Hermione couldn’t help but beam at him. Charlie was an incredible artist. He had sketched out a scene of a magical forest full of unicorns with mountains and dragons in the background that spanned the entirety of one wall. When he finished painting it, the creatures would all move around, wandering through the mural like they would in any smaller painting.
“What can I do?” Hermione asked.
“You’ve been busy today already—” Charlie started, then cut himself off, thinking better of it.
Theo came to his rescue. “Let’s have fish and chips for dinner. I’ll go grab them and be right back. Don’t start in the nursery without me!”
“I suppose not,” Hermione pretended to grumble. She would have wanted to wait for him anyway. As much as they could, the three of them were doing everything for their daughter together, around each of their work schedules.
On the weekends like today, only Charlie had to work. And Hermione would be on maternity leave in a few short weeks anyway. Then it would just be the boys leaving the house each day. Hermione was a little worried about being without them, but she had a book list prepared that said she wouldn’t be too bored.
She listened to Charlie’s latest dragon news as they waited for Theo to return. When he was back and they settled in to eat, they started their nightly discussion about names.
“I’ve thought of a new one,” Charlie announced. “What about Blaze?”
Hermione laughed and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know if that counts as new. Flame and Ember and Blaze are all kind of the same things.”
Theo smiled indulgently at Charlie and said, “Maybe you could pick your favorite and that could be her middle name.”
“Really?” he asked, looking to Hermione. She nodded, smiling at him. She and Theo had talked it over while Charlie was out.
“Now we just have to agree on her first name,” Hermione sighed. “I still like Isabelle. But I’m not sure it would sound good with a fire middle name.”
“All I know for sure is that I don’t want to name her after any of the women in my family,” Charlie said with a laugh. “Ginevra and Muriel are bloody awful names.”
Theo and Hermione agreed, but then Theo cleared his throat. “There’s a name I haven’t brought up yet. I don’t know…” They waited for him to gather his thoughts. This clearly meant a lot to him. “I do have a family name I would like to consider. My mother’s name was Medea.”
“Medea Ember,” Charlie tried.
“Or Medea Blaze,” Hermione said. “Either would be beautiful.”
“Really?” Theo asked. She could see in his eyes how much this meant to him.
“Really,” the other two said, smiling at him.
As they finished up dinner, Charlie cleaned up after dinner before leading everyone to the nursery.
Hermione started out helping, but soon found herself frustrated with the way a half-painted unicorn would start trying to run around. Instead, she sat in the rocker and watched as her two husbands laughed and worked, bantering back and forth.
This was almost everything she could want. And with a hand over Medea’s tiny kicking foot, Hermione knew that soon their family would have everything.