They stayed like that for a while, until Angel came running in to greet his father.
Rohan noticed the mischievous look that flickered across Angel’s face more than once that day, but again, he didn’t think much of it. He believed the boy was simply trying to draw him, just like he had done once before, when he turned Rohan into a troll in one of his drawings.
Just like always, he held his wife while they slept on their bed, her body curled in front of his, his fitting to hers in a spooned embrace. His legs rested between her thighs, and her hand lay over his forearm where it wrapped securely around her waist. Ever since her pregnancy began to show, they slept like this every night, except on the nights Angel refused to sleep in his new room and came to wedge himself between them.
Rohan only ever woke between the nights when Belle stirred, when she would slip away from his embrace to use the chamber pot and then return to nestle back into his arms. But this night, she didn’t wake, and neither did he.
So when he felt feather-light touches tracing his face in the early morning, his mind was slow to make sense of it. The caress was soft enough to tickle, but the warmth and the familiar scent told him instantly that it was Belle. Curious about what she was doing, he kept his eyes closed and pretended to still be asleep.
Her fingers trailed over his lips, down along his jaw, and further to his neck. She didn’t stop her exploration, her hand slipped beneath his shirt and pressed flat against his chest, the side where his heart was. His lower abdomen tightened instantly, and his arm reflexively tightened around her.
He heard her giggle as she brushed over one of his nipples, making him groan. His eyes snapped open, and he turned, pulling her to straddle him as he rolled onto his back.
"Teasing me in my sleep, are you, my darling?" he murmured, voice husky with sleep. His hands slid to her hips to keep her steady where she sat over him, her belly round and visible beneath her nightdress.
Before he could say anything else about her early morning mischief, she leaned down, lips brushing his ear as she whispered, "Happy birthday to you, my lovely husband." Then she kissed his ear, and Rohan’s whole body went still like stone, his eyes locking onto hers as she drew back.
"Birthday?" he asked, frowning slightly.
Belle nodded. "Yes, birthday. You once told me you don’t remember the exact date of yours and that you’ve never celebrated it. But a man should have a day to celebrate his birth, so...I picked today for you. You were born in winter season, I knew that much from when I was assigned to take your soul. Today couldn’t be far from the real date. So...happy birthday to the best man in my world." She pressed a soft kiss to his lips before slipping away to reach into the drawer beside their bed.
Rohan simply stared at her, almost disbelieving.
In the many years of life, he had never celebrated a birthday. No one had ever wished him one. Not once.
He watched the woman who had given him more than he ever thought he deserved pull out a large black box and place it in his hands as he slowly sat up.
"A present for you, from me. And may we celebrate this day together for many more years." She smiled, settling beside him. "Go on, open it." she urged as she sat up beside him.
Belle wanted to have this moment with him alone for a little while, before the rest, and her son, came in to give their own presents as everyone had planned one for him when she told them yesterday.
Rohan tore his eyes from her and looked at the black box wrapped neatly with a red ribbon. His heart pounded strangely. He had never been given a gift before. The unfamiliar nervousness made his voice quiet as he spoke.
Rav came out from behind the door holding a box, with his fiancée by his side holding her own present. They came forward, smiling as they handed the boxes to him on the bed.
"Happy birthday, my Lord," Rav said as he set his box down and then placed a hand around Evenly to support her as she bent to set hers down too.
"Happy birthday, Lord Dagon," Evenly added warmly, stepping back after putting down her box.
Rohan was speechless for the first time in his life. The tune his son was playing flowed into him, sending warmth through his chest unlike anything else he’d felt. His gaze moved from his pregnant wife smiling beside him, to the couple standing proudly before him, and then to his son, playing with such determined focus, and he thought: what else could a man ever ask for when he had this much?
Angel finished his music with a high note, then jumped off the chair behind the piano his Uncle Rav had brought out for him and ran toward the bed yelling, "HAPPY BATHDAY PAPA!!" He landed in Rohan’s arms with a force that knocked him back onto the bed, giggling. "How’d you love my surprise, Papa? I practice with Enny when Mama say Papa bathday is today!"
"I love it. You did good. Thank you," Rohan laughed as he hugged the boy tightly, then let his eyes drift toward his wife, silently thanking her for everything, a grin on his face.
While the family celebrated, a bitter someone watched them through the marble ball that belonged to the demon king.
"You said you will make it possible for me to have Rohan for myself. What is this you are showing me?! It’s been months now, and all you make me do is watch them when I could ruin that bitch by telling the king that she has a son and is currently pregnant with another one! What is your plan?!" Cordelia yelled as she turned angry eyes to the demon standing in the dark shadows of her chamber, his magic item giving her the view of the people she despised being happy.

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