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English
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Published:
2022-04-09
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1,384
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1/1
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Thunderstorm

Summary:

Time heals all wounds, but there are some scars that never completely disappear. In those difficult moments when her painful past comes back to haunt her, Vanessa finds solace and a renewed sense of purpose in the family she has built for herself. The storm is over now.

This story takes place before "Sweet Like Cherries," but they do not need to be read together or in order. Soft Vanessa and Finral (pairing & friendship) Hurt/Comfort, Domestic Fluff, and Babies.

Cheers to a brighter future! Thank you for reading!

Notes:

This self-indulgent hurt/comfort and domestic fluff drabble takes place before "Sweet Like Cherries," but they do not have to be read together. Just one possible future of many (but I must be on a kick for this pairing recently since I couldn't get this idea out of my head after I wrote "Pancakes for Dinner" haha).

Thank you so much for reading this! Your support and constructive feedback are greatly appreciated. Cheers to a bright and happy future!

Work Text:

Vanessa woke with a start—bolting up in bed with labored breathing. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, her heart raced. A dark abyss at her feet. Metal bars closing in around her—tighter and tighter until she couldn’t breathe. Trapped. Helpless. A crash of thunder. A lightning flash.

Vanessa turned and stared out of the nearby window. There really was a thunderstorm outside—it hadn’t been part of her dream. She tried to calm her breathing at the thought. Her dream. It had only been a dream, a nightmare and one she knew very well. Something twisted in her stomach—an impending sense of dread perhaps or maybe… Vanessa stopped and pressed her hand to her abdomen. No, flutters—that was definitely the little one. She sighed. Her nightmares always got worse when she was expecting—whether from the interrupted sleep, the actual pregnancy, or the fear that Her Majesty would suddenly appear and try to steal the baby, Vanessa wasn’t sure.

Closing her eyes, she tried to lean back in bed and breathe deeply grounding herself with the soft fabric of her quilt and the gentle swishing, bubbling movements of the baby. Such an active one already, she thought as she rubbed her hand back and forth tenderly across the little bump under her nightgown.

Thunder crashed outside the windows again, and the curtains swayed. Vanessa felt someone stir next to her and nestle into her side murmuring, “Mama…?”

“Shh…” hushed Vanessa soothingly. She ran tender fingers through her little boy’s soft, wavy hair—a pale pink like hers when it was illuminated by the flash of lightning outside. “Go back to sleep, Tirion.”

As his mother comfortingly rubbed her hand across his back, his breathing calmed, and he curled closer to her. Vanessa had almost been sure he had fallen back asleep when the thunder crashed again, and the little boy who had insisted he was afraid of thunderstorms serenely wrapped his tiny arm protectively around his shivering younger sister who had insisted she wasn’t afraid of anything. Vanessa’s face softened as she tucked the blankets around her little girl, and Calia burrowed into the covers before snuggling next to her big brother.

The two of them had scampered into the room as soon as the thunderstorm had started, Vanessa remembered—hours ago when she had been working on her blanket for the baby and her husband had been asking her whether she thought his brother was getting enough sleep—and the children had been promptly and lovingly ushered into bed, snuggling in between their parents before drifting off to sleep. Vanessa’s face softened as she gazed at them sleeping peacefully. They were getting so big, nearly four and five now, but still not too old for cuddling with parents on scary, stormy nights. Vanessa dreaded the day they would be old enough to learn that this was a luxury that some children could never even dream of—their own mother and father included.  

Vanessa’s chest constricted at the thought, the memories of struggling to soothe herself alone in that frightening, dark cage when she was scarcely older than her son and daughter. Shuddering, her mouth went dry, but she swallowed hard and watched the lightning strike outside the window before she pulled the quilt around her son’s shoulders and affectionately pushed a piece of unruly hair out of her little girl’s face. Vanessa loved her children more than she could have ever imagined someone could love another person—as if someone had taken her own heart out of her chest, given it arms and legs, and let it run around her. She couldn’t fathom the kind of heartlessness it would take to treat your own child the way she and her husband had been treated, and she knew that they both hoped against hope that their children would never have to know that kind of cruelty—the fear of never being enough, the pain of being unwanted, the ache of starving for love that never came. Those kinds of wounds left scars that never really went away, and even now, years later when she was surrounded by a family of her own who loved her and who she loved more than anything and anyone else in the world, she could still close her eyes and be back there in that cage—trapped, helpless, and all alone.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she shut her eyes, desperately trying to will the thought away when she felt soft, gentle fingers tangling in her hair and running along her scalp. Her eyes widened, and she turned to find her husband wide awake staring at her with concerned, kind eyes.

“Are you okay?” he whispered, almost mouthing the words to her so he wouldn’t wake the sleeping children between them.

Vanessa nodded and managed a slight smile as she mouthed, “I’m fine. Go to sleep, Finral.” Pressing her palm to his cheek, she could plainly see the dark rings under his eyes. He should worry more about his own sleep than his brother’s, she thought, but she knew he never would. His heart was so kind and so generous—so full of love to give away without expecting anything in return. He always worried about everyone he loved far more than himself even to the point of losing sleep over it—just like he was now.

Vanessa sighed almost guiltily. “Did I wake you?”

Finral shook his head as he pushed a wave of hair out of her face. “Was it that dream again?” he asked knowingly. Vanessa sighed but nodded, and Finral’s face softened. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” Vanessa shook her head, but Finral stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand and tilted his head at her.

“Are you sure?”

Sighing, Vanessa conceded with a shrug. He really did know her so well. She downcast her eyes at her stomach and rubbed its subtle but definite arch with her hand. “She came for the baby…” Vanessa mouthed as tears welled in her eyes.  

Finral nodded understandingly, and the next thing she knew, there was a flash of the light of a spatial portal and he was on the other side of the bed with his arms wrapped around her. He pressed his hand to the bend in her belly and his chin to her shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” he whispered in her ear. “I promise, Her Majesty can’t hurt you or the baby. I won’t let her.” He kissed her cheek. “You’re safe.”

Vanessa curled her arms around his and nestled back into his chest. As touchy-feely and cuddly as she was, she was generally the one who held him, but—she thought with a slight smile—it was nice to be held every now and again too. She wasn’t sure how long they had stayed like that—with her wrapped up in his arms listening to the comforting sound of his breathing, steady with the rise and fall of his chest—until she shifted and turned around to face him. “Thank you,” she whispered as she gently tousled his hair. “Now you should really get some sleep.”

Before Finral could protest, their little girl stirred and wriggled, and her brow furrowed as she mumbled confusedly, “Dad?”

“I’m right here,” he said in a soothing whisper loud enough for her to hear as he sent his hand through a portal to gently stroke her hair until she snuggled back into the covers and curled up next to her brother.

Vanessa smiled and tilted her head towards Finral’s empty side of the bed next to Calia. “You should go.”

He sighed but nodded in agreement. Kissing her forehead, he quickly blipped over to his previous place in the familiar blue flash of light. He pushed Calia’s hair out of her face and smiled at Vanessa. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he mouthed.

“Yeah…” Vanessa nodded as she wrapped her arm around her son and Tirion cuddled up next to her. She rubbed her hand gently across his back as she glanced out the window. There was no more thunder. No more lightning. Just a gentle drizzle of rain, and the light of the moon. “The storm’s over now.”