♕
𝑎𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑟𝑎'𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑣
Iris had come home with us that evening. After the "encounter" that she and I had, she and Ariella lounged around my office until my work hours ended.
We'd all just entered home and I was currently hanging our coats on the coat rack. The front door closed softly behind me as I payed attention to Ariella's behavior.
Her mood was a tad better when she received her gift from Clara — the receptionist at my job that had taken a liking to Ariella the first time she met her. However, I still wanted to discuss everything with my daughter to ensure that she was all right.
"Princess?" I called out before she could run upstairs to her room.
Ariella turned to face Iris and I, tugging the doll that Clara had given her tightly to her chest. Her face wasn't as saddened, but I could still see that something was bothering her.
I tried my best to hide the frown that desperately wanted to appear on my face as I walked towards her, passing a photo of her pouring milk into a glass cup — which was gifted by Iris.
Once reaching my daughter, I picked her up and walked to the living room, taking note of Iris sliding into the kitchen. Ariella lied her head on my shoulder as we sat down on the couch.
"Talk to me, stellina." I encouraged her.
{stellina: little star }
Her small body began to shake slightly, causing me to pull her into a tight hug. The dress shirt that I wore slowly started to get soaked in what I believed to be her tears.
I could no longer hold back the frown on my face.
Cries and sniffles began to sound throughout the room, and all I could do was think about what could possibly upset Ariella this much.
Was it something at school?
Maybe something that I unintentionally did that upset her?
I sat with a thinking face, pondering on what could've upset my princess this way.
Eventually, I lifted her head off of my shoulder, using my thumbs to clear the tears from her soft cheeks.
When her face looked partially clean I softly smiled at her, laughing a little when seeing one light up her face.
"Are you ready to tell me what's wrong? Remember that I'm always hear to listen, and I love you no matter what."
My words seemed to help her gain some confidence to talk to me.
"Is . . . Is it wrong to have two moms?" she asked me in a whisper, twirling her thumbs.
I felt my eyebrows furrow, "What? Of course not. Why would you think that?" I spoke gently.
Her small hand came up to wipe a tear that was leaving her eye, "Today during Mrs. Ruby's class we were supposed to draw something to show everyone. I drew me, you, . . . and Iris and told everyone that you were my moms. Mrs. Ruby said that it was inappropriate and not normal to have . . . to have—"
Before she could finish her sentence, she burst into tears once again.
Though, I didn't need to hear more.
I got all of the information I needed.
Mrs. Ruby and I would be having a conversation very soon.
What teacher goes around telling a six year old that their parents are "inappropriate" just because of their gender. I'm so sick of people who can't seem to gather the human decency to realize that same sex relationships aren't an issue. Humans should be able to love someone who shares the same gender as them without receiving backlash or being called degrading names. It's such a sad thing to witness that parents are going around putting false information into their children's heads — telling them who they can't be can't love. Saying such fucked up things like that causes a kid to become confused about not only themselves but the world in general as they grow up.
I took a shaky breath as I eased my nerves, forcing myself to think of something other than Mrs. Ruby's stupidity.
All of a sudden it had hit me that Ariella had referred to Iris as her mother.
A chuckle left my mouth and Ariella looked at me with confusion.
"I'm sorry, stellina. It's just that you consider Iris your mamma?"
She nodded with slight hesitance, "Moms are supposed to care for you, and Iris cares for me all the time. That makes her my mamma right?"
I stared at her in silence.
Her definition of a mother wasn't entirely wrong, if not at all. However, I didn't know how to answer her question. Iris and I's relationship hasn't developed that far as of yet, so I'm not sure how comfortable she is with being considered as Ariella's mother.
'What should I say?'
A throat cleared, forcing Ariella and I's heads to turn to Iris who stood leaning against the opening to the living area.
"How much did you hear?" I questioned.
"Enough." she smiled before making eye contact with Ariella, "It's more than okay to have two moms. There is no guidebook to life that anyone is bound to follow. You could have two moms or two dads and still receive the same amount of love that any child gets because love is love. Ignore anyone that tells you any different. As for the 'Mamma,' I'm whatever you want me to be."
Ariella grinned and hopped out of my lap to run towards Iris, hugging her legs like she'd done the first time she met her.
'Thank you.' I mouthed to the brunette.
'You're welcome.' she mouthed back.
After the two finished with their hug, Iris looked at us both with a certain excited glint in her eyes, "So, I just made chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa . . . and was wondering if you guys wanted to decorate for Christmas."
"Yes!" Ariella squealed loudly.
I watched with loving eyes as my daughter dragged Iris to the room that contained all of our seasonal decorations.
God, am I falling hard for this woman.
♕
𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑠' 𝑝𝑜𝑣
"Where are you taking me?"
I tugged my coat closer to my chest while looking up at Aurora through my eyelashes.
After yesterday's events, Aurora and I spent the rest of our night showing Ariella what love was. Together we decorated the huge tree that sat in the foyer of their home, sipped on hot chocolate, and watched every Christmas movie that Ariella wanted to see.
This morning, we all went out into the city to have brunch at a local restaurant. Once filling our stomachs and walking out of the eatery, we took Ariella over to her ballet friend's house. Apparently, the two had planned a day to do Christmas related things. Aurora and I stayed for a while, talking with Jordan's — Ariella's friend — parents about what all they'd be doing.
After we left, we shopped for Christmas presents for a few hours before going home and taking a nap together. Now, I was being dragged around the city in high heeled boots as I wondered where Aurora was pulling me off to.
"Where am I taking you, you say? Why to our second date of course." the blonde chuckled, squeezing my hand with her ring clad one.
"That's not what I meant." I whined.
"It's a surprise, darling," before I could speak up again she continued, "You know, you weren't this whiny on our first date."
I scoffed, "Well we weren't walking around outside when the weather feels below zero. Now were we?"
The taller only laughed and pulled me closer to her, wrapping her right arm around me. For some odd reason my body seemed to heat up when we touched. Aurora was much warmer than me. Maybe it was just body heat or maybe it was because she was used to the weather in this city — unlike me who'd just moved here not too long ago.
We walked down the streets of New York City a while longer — stopping at a café to buy hot chocolate — before finally reaching our destination. The sun had now fully set, the streets seeming more littered now than during the day.
In front of Aurora and I stood a collection of many different Christmas LED operated decorations, all in different shapes and sizes. The all too familiar voice of Mariah Carey rang through my ears, and once I caught on to the beat of "Silent Night" I noticed that the lights on each human sized ornament changed colors. A huge Christmas tree was in the center of the square and families were gathered around it, taking photos or laughing at a funny joke that had been told.
Everyone's smiles were brighter than the lights as they enjoyed their time here, and all I could do was stare in amazement at everything.
"You're kidding." I mumbled, eyes widened with surprise.
"Beautiful, right?" Aurora whispered in my ear.
My cheeks warmed as I got a feeling of déjà vu.
"Amazing, right?"
"Amazing is a fucking understatement. This place is stunning."
I smiled and stood on the tips of my toes to pull the blonde into a hug. Her arms didn't waste a second to secure themselves around my waist, softly squeezing me with a satisfied sigh.
"You're always outdoing yourself." I chuckled.
The blonde grinned and intertwined her fingers with mine again, tugging me towards the light show in front of us just as "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" began to play.
For about an hour, Aurora and I walked around the square as we observed everything; taking pictures here and there, smiling at each other, and humming along to the music that played.
Eventually, we found ourselves sitting on a bench. My stomach was cramping from all of the laughing that I'd done, and my feet were more than sore.
My eyes traveled over to Aurora whose eyes were already on me.
"Hi." she smirked.
"Hi." I responded lowly, glancing at her lips.
The blonde's hands lifted to my face. The small action warmed all of me. Not because of her body temperature, but because of the way that I felt about her.
She's the definition of comfort.
I drowned out all of the background noise as I wrapped my arms around the blonde's neck before connecting our lips.
Aurora's hands continued to cup my face as the kiss deepened. She wasn't my first kiss, and there's no telling if she'll be my last, but I do know that kissing her was the best feeling I've experienced.
The scenery was perfect; snow falling onto my head, joyful music playing all around followed my laughter, and beautiful lights flickering all around us. Yeah, it was cold as hell, but that didn't make the moment any less enjoyable. If anything — it made it better.
Feeling the warmth of the blonde's soft lips on mine as she held my face in her hands with such delicateness was all I wanted at the moment. Her breath smelt of the hot chocolate that we'd drank, but her entire being still smelt the same as always.
Honey and strawberries.
Such a sweet scent it was.
The two of us didn't stop kissing until breathing became a problem, and only then did we pull away from each other while opening our eyes.
"Someone knows how to keep a promise." Aurora joked.
♕
A sigh left my lips as I removed one of my boots.
Aurora and I had finally made it back to her home. Though I was insist on leaving, not wanting to seem clingy, she convinced me to stay. While I sat on her bed, she went to make a phone call.
What for? I couldn't tell you.
I groaned, lying back on the velvety sheets of the king bed while stretching out my toes. Walking in the snow with high heeled boots are not the move.
Just as I was going to take off my other shoe, Aurora dropped down to her knees in front of me.
"Let me."
"O-okay." I hesitated, taken back by her sudden appearance.
With gentle movements, the woman unzipped the heeled boot before sliding it off of my foot, leaving me in only my Grinch themed socks. My choice of style seemed to entertain the woman who laughed at my festive wear.
I rolled my eyes at her childish behavior, making a move to pull my leg away from her. To my surprise, Aurora maintained a grip on my foot. Her fingers started to massage it without warning, making a pleasurable noise to leave my mouth.
"Aur—"
"Shhh." she shushed me, "Just relax."
I shook my head, "What about Ariella? We still have to—"
She placed her pointer finger over my lips, and it was then that I realized that the rings on her fingers were missing.
"I handled that already. She's staying until morning. Now relax, baby."
I obeyed.
The blonde's lips twitched as she looked up at me while still working wonders on my foot. This time without the sock being present. I wore a pair of tights underneath my socks because of the weather, so unfortunately Aurora's skin wasn't directly on mine.
A chill ran through my body the moment a wet kiss was placed on my ankle.
And then one on my calf.
My knee.
My bottom lip was immediately pulled into my mouth as I watched the blonde's kisses get dangerously close to my inner thighs.
Just before she dipped down to place a kiss on my thigh, her eyes looked at me expectantly.
"Do I have your permission to touch you, beautiful?"
"Yes." I breathed out without a second thought.
She nodded, "Say red to stop, yellow if you want me to slow down, and green for you're perfect with our position, okay?"
"O—Okay."
♕
-E
A relatively long chapter to make up for my absence :)