The nature was calm that late February evening. It had stopped snowing during the day, and the night sky was clear and dotted with sparkling stars.

The old house was, for the most part, silent. The lights were out in all the rooms save for one, and the usual buzz of the television was nonexistent.

Yoh frowned as the beginnings of consciousness started to tug at the corners of his mind, slowly but surely bringing him back to awareness.

The first thing he noticed was the sweet, inciting smell that practically assaulted his senses. The second was the small, reassuring weight pushing against his chest. Finally, the third, was the soft blanket that covered him without him having bothered to tug it over from the back of the couch by himself.

As the fog slowly lifted from his brain, he was able to discern the voices that had bothered him and place who they belonged to.

A sleepy smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

"I don't know why you're insisting," he heard his wife of two years say, a slight edge to her voice. "I already told you. It's not happening."

"Well, I have to at least try to change your mind!" his son answered. "I—"

"The only thing you'll manage by causing such a ruckus is to wake your father up. And then, I promise you, you'll end up without dinner."

"I know, Mom, but you can't—"

"Of course I can. I'm your mother, I can do whatever I want and you'll have to listen and do whatever I say."

He could picture her smug smile as she spoke, and his own grin widened.

Anna and Hana had never stopped their petty arguments, and no matter how many times they woke him up or forced him to step in and pick a side that would always leave him in disadvantage, he would never grow tired of hearing them.

Heaving a silent sigh, he shifted and kissed the top of his five-month-old daughter. Smiling against her soft hair, he placed a hand over her small back, feeling the rhythmic movement of her steady breaths. She made a soft noise in the back of her throat and her little fist tightened around the fabric of his shirt.

In the background, Anna and Hana's bickering continued.

Yoh grinned. Life was good.

It was all he could have ever asked for and even more.