Josiah entered the bedroom, exhaustion stained upon every surface of his body as he loosened his shirt and slowly sat on the edge of the bed.

He took in the sight of his sleeping Queen, his hand reaching out before stopping in midair. Slowly, he pulled back, worried that he would wake her.

The physician had told him that any day now- it could happen any day.

One would think that Ramus was the father with the way he hovered over Lumi and scolded her every movement. He had already annoyed Josiah with the dark circles that showed clearly under the male's face when she went a week past the expected date.

Josiah gently laid on the bed, taking in the sight of her. Any day now. The whole castle was on edge but Lumi seemed calm.

Josiah had to wonder where her calmness came from. She was only twenty-one...but she seemed aged beyond her years in his mind.

He couldn't help himself.

His hand went back up, pushing a loose curl that had fallen onto her face.

"My Lumi," he whispered in the dark.

He had not even realized that he had fallen asleep until a noise woke him up.

Bleary eyed, he looked to see Lumi standing while holding the edge of the desk. Groggily, he sat up, wondering if he was still asleep or not.

"Lumi?" His voice did not catch her attention and it took him several seconds to register finally, that she was completely ignoring him. She was instead focusing on deep breathing as she bent over the desk, one hand gripping it while the other held her stomach.

That gesture made him get up quickly, alarm running through him, "Lumi, what's wrong? Is it time?"

She shook her head, pushing his arms away as he tried and failed to hold her.

"Lumi?" He could hear the panic now in his voice. A low groan left her and he saw the tightening of her knuckles on the edge of the desk.

"I can do this- don't touch me Josiah," she hissed.

He blinked in surprise, "Lumi...are you...is it Kestrel? Is it the baby?"

She was gritting her teeth as she nodded, her head suddenly bending from the pain.

"Lumi you....God Lumi! Don't just stand there in pain, get back in the bed!" He tried to move her but she shook her head.

"I can do this-,"

"God. God. Fuck. Oh no. What do I do- Physician, we need the physician!" Josiah turned to run and get him but tripped over the carpet.

"Damn, my knee!"

Lumi suddenly shouted at him from above, "For the love of- get up Josiah! I'm dying here! I have a human coming out of me!" His lack of movement prompted her to scream, "now!"

After that, the whole castle suddenly became alive with the screaming of their Queen.

Josiah paced in front of the door with Ramus watching.

"I should be in there," he said- but the murderous scream of Lumi cursing his name had Josiah taking a step back.

"Outside is good enough," he mumbled.

Several hours passed before Josiah could take no more of it. He felt like his nerves were shot.

"Do women go through this every time?"

Ramus stared at his King in bewilderment, the only one who was present at the moment. He cleared his throat, trying to think of a reasonable answer that would not give away his ignorance when suddenly the door opened.

The physician stepped out- the sight of his bloodied arms causing both Josiah and Ramus to flinch.

"It..." the physician took a deep breath. Josiah stepped forward, grabbing the man by the shoulder urgently, "what's wrong?"

"There are some complications. That is all. It is a long labor. She is strong enough to handle it but I fear...I think there is still a lot more to go from this. I am just letting you know that she is holding on."

After that Josiah found that the only thing he could do was yell at his wife from across the closed door. Her answering screams made him smile, but the hours that passed left him pacing once more.

His head hung low in exhaustion. He could not even imagine what Lumi must have been feeling. The silence that came after should have rattled him. He should have felt something change in the air as the noise passed away, and a new sound was heard.

Josiah lifted his head, eyes unfocused as the sound of the child's muffled cry lifted.

His head fell as he clutched it between his hands, hot tears coming to him after the stress of the hours had passed and the certainty of the future was there in the room across from him.

The door opened, and the physician's smiling face could be seen as he and others walked out. Josiah stared at the open doorway, taking in the figure of mother and child.

She turned her head, the flash of her smile almost blinding him at the beauty he saw when she looked away and down into what was held in her arms.

He heard her soft whispers as he came closer. His feet seemed to be working on their own when he blinked and found himself standing on the side of the bed.

She took his breath away.

The sweat was still there on her brow, hair clinging to her from the dampness of it. Exhaustion was clear to see in her eyes as she leaned back against the pillows. But Josiah couldn't look away from the sight.

"He's beautiful," she whispered.

Josiah blinked and realized that there was more than just the two of them in the room. Looking down, he saw his son.

Something tight came to his chest when he took in the bronze skin of the child that was only several shades lighter than his mother. Josiah felt instant relief that he had taken after Lumi. He had not even realized that was his hope until he saw the two together.

He felt oddly out of place as he continued to look at the pair.

She held out her arm, an open invitation to let him sit by her side. He put his arm around her, taking in her scent and wondering what it was that had changed.

"Look," she whispered. He glanced to where she was staring and something in Josiah seemed to crack as he took in the sight of the rising sun. Lumi had never seen it within this place. Not once had it made itself known until now.

Josiah pulled her head towards him, tucking it under his chin so that she would be unable to see the tears.

She was the sun, and the child that she held was a fixture of it. He saw the coming of the light and his tears met the rays with bitterness.

She laughed at the gift from the heavens, but Josiah found that he had to close his eyes away from the image. He couldn't help it. He thought it was a cruel trick of the sky to play, to remind him so openly of what he had taken away, and the darkness that would come after the arrival of such a thing.

* * *

There was something unsettling about seeing the Queen hold her child. The workers whispered amongst themselves about how transfixing the sight was.

"He is going to be beautiful like his mother," one kitchen worker said.

They had ignored the arguing that was heard from the King and Queen's room. One worker would say later that the Queen had a summer custom that was rejected by the King.

"Well she's not in the summer lands," a male said as they sat within the kitchen.

"But it's where she's from," a woman argued.

"She needs to accept our traditions, and what we do."

There was a general applause on this opinion. And so, within the next weeks, the ceremony was held with the workers able to talk and gossip about later- of the naming of their future King.

In a private room, away from prying eyes, the Galexious King and Queen stood.

Lumi held Kestrel, watching as leaders of authority from the Galexious Kingdom stood around her, saying lyrics that she did not know, and dabbing clean water over his head.

Lumi, Kestrel and Josiah were all dressed in purple. The royal color and the official sign of rulers for this country.

Later, in the night, when Josiah was asleep, Lumi stood over her own child and whispered the words of her heart that her mother, and her mother's mother had chanted to their children. Words of blessing and hope. Words of peace and health.

Lumi touched his head softly, feeling the coarse texture of his hair.

"What are you doing."

She turned to face Josiah. He stood before her, eyes already angry. He had asked the question, but they both knew that he was already aware.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She took him in, trying to read his mood and how badly her actions had upset him.

He sighed and came closer, standing beside her so that they were both looking down at their son.

"He looks like you," Josiah said.

"I see you also," she said, wanting him to know that her words were true.

Josiah stared at his son. Lumi watched, but after a few moments, she noticed that there seemed to be a sadness in his eyes as he reached down to touch the little hand.

"It's good that he looks like you."

"There will be others, and they will maybe take some of your traits also," Lumi said, trying to make him smile. He had been acting oddly like this for a few weeks now. She missed their banter, and the way he would look at her before Kestrel had been born.

"Yes..." his voice was far away. Lumi reached for him, taking his hand and pulling him away. She wanted him to be closer to her. To go back to looking at her as how he once did. There was only one way she knew how to achieve this.

She stood on her toes and kissed him. She felt his hands go to her waist, steadying her there.

He broke off, pressing his forehead to hers. Their breaths mingled in the dark, harsh breathing the only sound that could be heard.

"Lumi..." there was a strain in the way he said her name.

"I'm here," she whispered, stroking his hair, and reaching up to lightly kiss him.

"Can you be only mine?" he asked.

"I'm already yours."

He shook his head, a laughter escaping him that sounded like he was in pain.

"What's wrong Josiah?" She asked, "I don't know what's happened. Tell me."

"It's not you," he said, "I...I can't explain it. I think sometimes it's because of this land. Because I've lived here my whole life- I was born in darkness and have never seen the sun until I came to the winter kingdom- until I met you- because you are the sun. And you...you were something born in light. And so...so was Kestrel. I wonder if because I was born in these shadows, they just stuck to me, and there's no way to get them out."

He looked down at her, and Lumi felt her heart ache at the sadness she had never realized that had always been there inside him.

"I have moments when I can't understand how the world could even have a sun. How it is possible that there are people who do not see everything in darkness."

Lumi pulled him closer to her. He leaned down, letting her arms be his shield as she pressed her lips to his ear. The warmth that came from her breath made him feel a rush at the sensation.

She sighed, and in her let out breath, he heard her own sorrow and pain.

"Even the darkness has light, Josiah. I think you are my moon. I think you feel such loneliness sitting there in the sky. But you cast your own glow and beauty- I know. I can see it."

She took his face within her hands and shook her head. He saw her tears. He watched as they fell, and he wondered if there was damnation in his soul, for thinking at how beautiful it was to witness such a sight.

"It's too heavy a burden to be the sun, Josiah. Don't miss such a thing that will only end up burning your soul. Don't say that that is what I am. I am not a fixture to look at. I'm not as bright and beautiful as you claim me to be."

Something in Josiah seemed to break as her sob echoed around the room.

"I'm your wife. I'm your Queen. I'm the mother of your child, and I'm the woman who loves you. That's it."

The sight of her tears, the words that she said, the lingering warmth of her lips on his own.

It was all too much for him as he embraced her.

He would never tell it to her out loud, just how right and wrong she was.

But you are. You are. You do not understand. Oh Lumi, he thought, I wonder if even the sun knows just how brilliant it shines.

* * *

Josiah and Lumi sat side by side at the desk. She felt his eyes on her as she read the latest report of the revolts that had occurred.

"They call themselves 'Shidu'?"

She turned to look at him. He tilted his head, frowning as he closed his eyes.

"We have a native language of our own. Though many find it difficult and the practice of speaking it is becoming less. But translated, the word means 'a parent's loss of their only child.'"

"The sun..." Lumi saw him nod.

"It's a play on both languages. They are the parents who have lost their son. And they want him back. But...I am just a man. As much as they curse me and say that giving me a crown also gives me the power to move the heavens, I can't make them understand that this land is cursed."

"Did there used to be a sun?"

Josiah nodded, "once...centuries ago. Oh...there are legends of what happened to it. That we were filled with sin and corruption, therefore, it abandoned us. But I've studied the stars and movement of such objects, and it's just placement. We are such people who have misfortune, and no luck. It is the same to wonder why it is always snowing in the Winter lands when you then step into the Fall Kingdom and see growth. Why you see the division of the seasons so well kept, and how it is able to be maintained. Why is it that the moon can stay in place, but the sun comes and goes?"

She waited, wondering if he would answer his own question. But he seemed just as lost as she. Lumi had never wondered about the seasons and their constant presence. She had always assumed their placement. But she knew that Josiah's mind worked differently. He thought too deeply, and she felt that maybe that endless search for answers that would never be present, might have been why there was a hint of desperation and sorrow always in his eyes.

"I want to try something...but I want you to agree to it before I act on what I plan."

Josiah leaned back in the chair, running his hands through his hair in frustration, "I've tried everything I can think of. Prayer. Fighting. Bargaining. Some want to stay in this land, others want to leave. Some want more, others want less. I can't win- but I always lose."

"Are there any minds like yours in Galexiouis? Anyone who...creates?"

"Yes..there are always minds like mine," he smiled at her words to describe him.

"Send guards out to bring them to the palace. I want the best and as many as they can find."

He hesitated, turning to fully face her, "here?"

"Yes, here. I just said the palace didn't I?" she raised an eyebrow, daring him to ask another silly question.

His smile only grew the more he watched her. "And then what? Are you going to have a party?"

She met his grin, "something like that."

I am a lazy, lazy, person and I am sorry. On a side note though I think I may have found a new job so yay (not really, I was enjoying my days off, watching 'Sanditon' and bombarding everyone with the hope of getting a season 2) (hey, go pester someone to make season 2 happen, even if you have no idea what show I'm talking about- go. do it now. GOOOOOOO).

Also, another side note- um, I'm not sure what rock I was living under??? But I just found out that 'Little Women' existed? Why did no one tell me about this sooner? I have become the biggest AmyxLaurie shipper and now I'm watching every part of Youtube with them, reading the book just for Amy, and moaning about why they don't have a movie just for them (I'm sorry if you're a Jo shipper (actually, no I'm not- #spoiler?itsbeenoutsince1868chill)). Amy is adorable and a national treasure and should be protected. Anywaayy, thank you for reading! ♥