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Lily is exhausted. Honestly, she’s been exhausted since the seminar she attended a few hours ago. The only thing that’s kept her going is Regulus’ texts, and right now all she wants is to collapse into bed with him and take a long, long nap.
Unfortunately, naps are rather hard to come by when you have a four year old at home.
The door shuts behind her with a quiet snick, and she immediately has to sidestep a toy. The living room is empty save for the mess on the floor. Lily doesn’t bother attempting to clean it, knowing the clutter would be back within the hour.
There’s the sound of laughter echoing from down the hall, followed closely by a little voice giggling, “Stop it, daddy! Stay!”
There’s an answering chuckle, deep and clear, and Lily feels her heart flutter. She toes off her shoes and abandons them in the entryway, knowing her husband will huff about Lily’s neglect of the shoe rack but finding herself uncaring. No, right now, the only thing she wants is to be with her family.
Lily slips down the hall and discreetly pokes her head in their daughter’s room. Her presence goes unnoticed by the other two occupants, who are seemingly rather wrapped up in something.
Regulus sits cross-legged on the plush pink rug, an obscene amount of Lily’s makeup and nail polish strewn by his feet. His face is absolutely covered in glitter, cheeks blush pink and eyelids bright blue. There’s mascara smeared around his eyes and cheeks, some even on his forehead. He’s wearing nail polish as well, though almost none of it is on his actual nails.
Regulus looks insane. Lily has never loved him more.
A shock of strawberry blonde pops up from the makeup pile, a tube of lipstick in her hand. She giggles again as she fumbles with little fingers to twist it open, a bright purple tube that Lily doesn’t even remember buying.
“Now do this, daddy,” Celandine says, puckering her lips. Regulus follows her example and she smiles with satisfaction, gappy teeth on display. She furrows her brow into a faux-stern look, one she got from her father, and says, “Now stay.”
“Yes, Madam,” Regulus says teasingly.
Lily watches as her daughter messily smears lipstick on her husband’s lips, biting her own to stifle a chuckle. The sight is amusing as much as it is endearing. Regulus gets a glint in his eyes before he jumps forward, miming biting the lipstick. Celandine shrieks with laughter as she stumbles back.
“No, daddy! I said stay,” she cackles.
“She’s right,” Lily pipes up from the doorway, watching as two heads whip up, wide-eyed. There’s only a second before Celandine is leaping at her.
“Mama!” she shouts in delight, clinging to her legs. “You’re home!”
“I am, mo stór,” she says, scooping Celandine up with a small grunt before she settles her on her hip.
“I was making daddy pretty,” she states matter-of-factly, her little lisp making Lily’s heart ache. “Do you like it?”
Lily turns her gaze on Regulus, who is looking at her as if she caught him committing a crime. She slowly, deliberately lets her gaze track up and down his body before making eye contact with him. “Oh, I love it. Very pretty.”
Regulus goes pink in the face while Celandine cheers in delight, already squirming out of her hold once more.
“I knew you would!” She grabs Regulus by the cheeks, studying her work with a gravely serious expression. “Daddy said he would look silly, but I told him he was stupid.”
“Language!” Lily scolds while Regulus cracks a grin.
“You did, didn’t you, Dina?”
“Uh-huh. And you said I shouldn’t call people that, but I said you call Uncle Siri stupid all the time, and you said that doesn’t count because Uncle Siri is stupid—”
Lily huffs out a laugh. “Oh, honestly, Regulus.”
“Are you going to tell me I’m wrong? Just last week he—oh, ow darling, be careful—” Regulus winces when Celandine pokes him in the eye with a fingerful of glittery eyeshadow, clearly unsatisfied with the amount of sparkle.
“Don’t be a baby, daddy,” Celandine replies easily and Lily huffs in amusement.
“That’s enough out of you, little miss.” Lily scoops Celandine up, ignoring her squirms. Raising an eyebrow at her husband, she says, “She gets that attitude from you, you know that, right?”
Regulus rubs at his irritated eye, smearing glitter and blue eyeshadow messily. “I will not accept lies and slander.”
“Is it lies and slander if it’s true, love?”
Regulus grins at her. “Absolutely. Now, go clean the glitter off that heathen. I’m in desperate need of a shower.”
“I’m not a heathen,” Celandine declares, still protesting the arm around her waist.
“That’s what a heathen would say.”
Celandine gasps in indignation. Twisting in her grip, she turns to look at Lily imploringly, offence written clear in her little grey eyes. “Mama, tell him I’m not a heathen.”
Lily stifles a grin, shaking her head solemnly at her daughter. “I’m afraid that’d be called lying.”
Celandine’s jaw drops on a cry of “Mama!” and Lily cackles.