It was around one in the morning when the door to Sean's bedroom slowly opened and Flynn entered. He tried to be as quiet as possible but Lana did hear him coming anyway since she was in very light sleep, trying to comprehend everything that had happened that day, like overthinker do.
Flynn went around the bed, ready to climb in on the usually empty side when he realized that his spot was already taken.
"I wanted to sleep here.", he mumbled with tears in his eyes that he wiped away with the teddy in his hand. Lana opened her eyes and sat up, trying to focus on the current situation whilst being incredibly tired.
"What's wrong, Flynn?", She asked sleepily before rubbing her eyes. "Why are you not in bed?"
"I… I just miss my mummy.", he cried and made Lana sigh with his statement. She knew how much he was still suffering, at least at night time and it broke her heart when the little boy was crying like that.
"I know. I miss her too, Flynn.", She said before pulling Sean's son up to her on the bed. He wrapped his arms around her straight away and cuddled up to her chest to feel some comfort. "Do you want me to leave you here with daddy or do you want to cuddle with us both?", She asked, whilst stroking through his hair.
"No, I want you both.", Flynn said, already placing himself between the two of them. "Why are you even in papas bed? Did you have a nightmare too?", he asked curiously, which made Lana chuckle. She settled herself in again and pulled up the blanket before she simply answered: "I love to cuddle as much as you do."
With that, they drifted off back to sleep, since they were still exhausted from the previous day.
Unfortunately, the next morning wasn't as pleasant as the last one. Lana woke up with some cramps that sent her right out of bed and after being up once, she didn't bother to go back to laying down even if it was only six in the morning. Instead, she pulled out her computer and went through some important stuff, whilst her tea was brewing.
Amélie joined her soon after since it was around her normal waking up time but both decided to just sit back on the sofa and cuddle to begin the morning quite calmly until some slow steps were heard in the house. Soon after Sean appeared, still with a sleepy face on. "Morning you two.", he grinned before leaning in to give Lana a kiss.
"Sean.", she said with a raised voice, nodding in Amélies direction.
"What??", he asked before he understood. "Oh, come on. She is barely a year old. She doesn't understand and won't tell others.", Sean informed her. "Right, Amé? What did daddy and Lana just do?", he asked her and got a giggly response.
The little girl pressed her hand to her face before blowing a wet kiss at them "Mwhaaa", she said imitating them with a burst of laughter before kissing Lana on the lips to prove what she just saw, which let Lana open her eyes in shock.
"She doesn't understand, Sean?!? She certainly understands more than you think.", she laughed, trying to be strict with her words but couldn't really handle the cuteness of the youngest member of that family.
"Alright let's get your brothers ready for school.", Lana said and stood up. She needed a second to adjust to the standing position, since a stroke of pain shot right through her head, making her close her eyes.
"Hey… are you okay?", Sean asked worriedly. "You look quite pale. You're not sick again, are you?", he frowned but Lana shook her head no.
"I just didn't drink enough…", She answered before taking Amélie up to Leo's room, so she could wake him, which she gladly did after a couple of attempts. Lana had put her on the floor, making her walk the last few steps on her own before she unsuccessfully tried to climb into Leo's bed.
"Up!! Up, up!", she repeated desperately to wake her brother but Leo didn't seem impressed by that at first.
"Nana! Up!", the girl said again and reached for Leo's hand to slightly pull on it.
"I know, he doesn't want to get up, mh?", Lana asked before placing Amélie on the bed for her to give kisses to her bigger brother. Leo immediately started giggling and tried to put his hands in front of his face to block it but Amé just kissed his hands instead until the boy finally opened his eyes.
"Ready for school, little pirate?", Lana asked with a grin on her face and Leo nodded excitedly since they were working on a project in school that he really enjoyed doing.
He jumped right out of bed and put on his school uniform before storming downstairs where Flynn was already having some Cereal.
Lana followed soon after with Amélie on her hip, before placing her in the highchair on the table with a "Morning, Flynn", in between.
"Should I just do some Weetabix for Amélie?", Lana asked, getting a positive answer back from Sean. Whilst he was preparing the lunch boxes, Lana fed the little Girl and ate some of it on her own before packing the finished boxes in Flynn and Leo's backpacks.
As usual, Sean was the one who was driving the kids to school whilst Lana was working on her computer with Amélie by her side, which wasn't as simple as she thought since her niece was constantly trying to get her attention.
"It's time for you to go to nursery. I can tell you.", Lana smiled, putting her on her lap. "You will have lots of new toys and some children to play with. Isn't that great? It's starting in less than two weeks when we are all the way up in Vancouver. We are going to have a great time there and Lola will be with us all the time.", Lana explained with a grin.
"Dog!", Amélie squealed before pointing at Lola, who was lying unimpressed in the bed she had at Sean's house by now.
"Yeah. Exactly. Lola the dog. We need to go on a walk with her when your daddy is back. Or maybe I ask him to go because I am not feeling like walking today.", she said with a grin whilst Amélie was exploring her face with her little hands.
Sean arrived soon after, carrying some random stuff the teacher gave to him." I am back", he called out, so Amélie started walking up to him.
"Hey, sweetie. Where did you leave Lana, Mh?", he smirked and walked with her in his arms back to the living room.
"Is someone giving you a hard time?", Sean asked when he saw Lana's tensed up body, frowning at the sight of her computer.
"Yeah… right now my period and this dumb surface.", she answered dryly. "Why isn't that working?!?", She exclaimed loudly, whilst aggressively tipping on her Laptop.
"Oh no. Hormones paired up with frustration are not a good mix. Want me to make you a cup of tea?", he asked nicely before sitting down next to her. Lana just looked up to him, followed by a deep exhale and a shake of her head.
"No, thank you… I already had one. But could you do me the favor of taking Lola on a walk? I feel like staying at home today… pretty sure I will be better tomorrow.", she said, biting her lip because she wasn't sure if it was quite disrespectful to ask him since it was her dog. But her fear vanished quickly when Sean grinned from ear to ear.
"Sure! Amélie and I can take her to the dog park and on our way back we can pick up some Burgers. What do you say about that?", he smiled.
His words left Lana in shock. "You… you would pick up some burgers for me?", She asked, almost tearing up because of that. "I love you so much!", she said with a big kiss on his cheek.
Sean couldn't help but laugh about the fact of how hard those hormones hit his girlfriend.
"I love you too. Do you need anything else apart from burgers?", he chuckled because of her emotional reaction.
"No, I am good otherwise…maybe a new laptop because I am not sure if mine is still in one piece when you come back. It's just not working.", Lana sighed and closed it pretty violently out of frustration.
Sean just smirked at her and gave her a kiss on her forehead.
"Maybe it's not supposed to be today. Try to relax, read a book… do whatever you want.", he said calmly, stroking up and down her leg to show some empathy. "Alright. I am gonna go now. I will take Lola and Amélie on a nice long walk. Ehm… Lola is fine outside of the restaurant, right?", he asked.
"Yeah yeah. You can tie her to a tree or whatever. She wouldn't bother at all to go with a stranger.", Lana laughed knowingly.
"Oh… and Bex is coming by for a couple of minutes. She's picking up her jacket. The one she forgot at the party."
"No problem. Some of my friends outside of the cast are actually coming over tomorrow. For like a goodbye before we leave for Vancouver. I don't know if you wanna stay here and hang with us or…maybe--", he started but Lana cut in.
"What do you think about me taking the boys and Amélie overnight to my house, so you can have fun?", She suggested. "I mean… I would like to meet your friends but… we have been together since yesterday and like I said: I would like to keep it just to us for a little while. I know we could pretend that we're not but--", now it was Sean who laid his words over hers with a knowing smile on his face.
"No need to explain. I feel the same. I really want to introduce you… but not mixed in between a goodbye session. I want to do it properly.", he grinned. "To be honest. We already have a bonus. My parents love you and Tanya's parents liked you as well.", he laughed. "I mean… Tanya's mum and dad aren't important in terms of our relationship… but they are still the grandparents of my… well… our kids.", he said, looking up to see her reaction about the term 'our kids' since he didn't know if he was pushing too fast even though they basically cared for them together for five months now.
Lana turned her head to Sean as soon as the last sentences slipped out of his mouth. Her eyes were widened whilst a soft expression of skepticism crept up to her face, when looking between Amélie and Sean back and forth.
"You just said…", she started but couldn't really finish since a float of emotions overwhelmed her body.
"I know what I said… and I mean it...you have been there for them since day one after Tanya's accident. You took care of this family like it was your own and that's why I am sure about what I said. They are no longer just my kids. They are our kids… and I love the sound of it.", he confessed with a mischievous smile that reached his eyes in no time. "Of course only if you feel comfortable with that.", he added.
"Are you kidding?", She laughed and was even more touched after his words. "It would be my honor to tell them 'our kids'. And I want to make sure that they will always have a piece of Tanya with them as well.", she smiled.
"You know what's funny?", Sean chuckled with a sad expression. "Tanya...well...you know the day she had woken up for a few minutes… Some of her last words were that I should find happiness again. With you.", he smirked. "It might be important to you to know that she trusts you…", he said with some tears in his eyes that blurred out his sight. "And she told me specifically that she doesn't want to see us dancing around each other anymore.", he laughed slightly whilst the salty water escaped his eyes. "And now… we're sitting here. I will never be able to put all my emotions into words, but I guess the most powerful ones that I know are 'I love you'. And I really do.", he grinned.
Lana sat there in silence, listening to his words peacefully and acknowledging every single thing about them. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to have her soulmate right in front of her. Both of them were so different but at the same time so similar that it just worked. She had to swallow and inhale deeply before finding the right words to continue this conversation.
"I...there was a time in my life when I… stopped believing that everything happens for a reason. Actually twice… And I refused to believe that there were better days to come because I was so tired of getting hurt. And I was… deep down in a spiral that dragged me deeper and deeper until it felt heavy to breathe. But now I am here… and everything that has happened in my past got at least a reason… because without all the events I wouldn't have been here. God that's kitschy. Let's stop that emotional stuff.", she laughed before wiping away some tears.
"Alright, darling.", he laughed and stood up. "I am gonna go now. See you later and have a nice rest. Forget about the laptop for a second.", he grinned one last time, kissing her before leaving his house.
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A/N: That felt like an absolute short chapter 🤔 even though it's still 2400 words.... Whatever.
If anyone wants to have a certain scene with them being on the Once upon a time set, please let me know because I will skip most of the filming otherwise since it's basically the same everyday. 😂