Aurelie waited, still half-drunk on exhaustion and blissful happiness, as Zevulun moved toward their precious new daughter. This was not their first child, nor their second or even third, but a part of her felt like she was showing Zevulun for the first time. It hurt her heart a little, to think of the boy that he would never meet, but she carefully plucked that memory from her mind and ran her fingers across its well-worn edges before placing it ever so gently into the box at the back of her mind.

He was gone, but their baby girl was not. And while Aurelie would never forget the hurt of losing her firstborn, she would not allow their existence to steal one mote of joy from the birth of another.

Their girl did not rouse - perhaps taking her cue from her mother - but stretched her impossibly small pink muzzle toward her father in brave curiosity, warming her mother's heart all the more. She loved watching Zevulun interact with their children, to see him be a father to them. He made her fall in love with him each time she watched him brush their forelocks from their eyes, or scold them for their naughtiness, or cuddle them close when they'd been injured.

She had known that he was one true love that day on the shores of the Cove, but he had continued to prove it to her time and time again, no matter what trials they faced. They could face a million more and still, she would know that she'd made the right choice in her partner.

His praise made her flush beneath her fur and she chuckled, stretching out her own muzzle to try and brush whatever appendage of his was closest - be it leg or cheek - before turning her gaze back to the star of the show. "I haven't named her yet, you know." The anxiety that had preceded this pregnancy had kept her from dwelling too much on names, terrified that if she named her babe the wrong thing, she would cause the pregnancy to end. Turning her gaze back to Zevulun, she smiled softly again. "What do you think would fit?"