The Siren's Song

La Tua Cantante

Aro's POV

Lilith had been sleeping for a long while, when she suddenly started to stir. I looked at curiously, expecting it to be merely a bad dream, but I sat up a bit straighter when she squeezed her eyes shut tightly. A second later, they opened wide.

As she sat up, I questioned, "Are you well? Is something wrong?"

She cautiously shook her head, but she seemed unsure. Her eyes trailed down to her stomach, where she placed her hand. To my surprise, she laughed.

When she saw my confused expression, she laughed harder. When her laughter died down and my confusion had been drawn out for an uncomfortable length of time, she sighed. "I overreacted," she told me simply.

"Overreacted to what, exactly?"

Lilith grabbed my hand, and placed it where she had had her own. I shot her a confused look, but when I felt a swift kick to my hand, I understood.

Lilith's POV

Aro smiled widely, and a certain hint of emotion appeared in his eyes that I had never seen before.

Musing allowed to himself, he said softly, "Fascinating."

He kept his hand there, but I didn't mind. My hormones almost caused me to tear up at this touching moments, but I fought the urge, not wanting to ruin the moment for Aro. I watched him muse happily to himself for as long as I could, but eventually I was forced by the clutches of sleep to relent.

Aro's POV

The next week went fast in my standards, but Lilith's and I's child grew so quickly that I was almost left wondering where the time had gone. I knew Lilith's pregnancy was no ordinary one, but I reasoned that since my wife and child were involved, I had a just right to be cautious, if not concerned.

Lilith rarely wanted to leave our room, she had grown so self-conscious of her size. As cruel as it may seem, I knew she needed the company of Athenodora, Didyme, and Rose, so whenever she was hungry- or thirsty,rather, I used this as a bribe to urge her to leave the confines of our quarters. She would reluctantly comply, never being one to purposefully get on my bad side.

Of course, I would never push her too far; whenever she needed to sit down, or grew tired, despite the hour of the day, I would readily fetch a chair or help her back to our bed. I found it humorous that whatever Lilith needed something and whenever she did, I would comply. She jokingly referred to me as "whipped", whatever that vocabulary means. I assumed it meant "easily complying" and I laughed and went along with it.

It worried me how much strength she was losing. Simply walking across a room tired her to the point of ten minutes rest. She drank blood I provided for her as if it was water to her, and she had been parched for a week in a hot desert.

But I was proud of Lilith. She was handling everything very well. Of course, I knew things were bound to get worse, and I only prayed she'd be strong enough to handle the hard times as well as these easier ones.

I asked her about potential names once, and she politely refused to tell me, and explained that she had not decided. In turn I asked her (knowing that female's often had 'mother's intuition') whether she thought the child would be a boy or a girl, but she also declined my questions with a smile and said that she did not want to raise my hopes falsely.

Huilen, having a confidentiality agreement with my wife, gave me no more information other than the updates of the child's and Lilith's health.

Unfortunately, business trumps my 'every-day-life' with Lilith. And this was business that could not go ignored.