Welcome to Gaia! ::

With Aurin carrying a tray of food, it was a bit of a slower walk to his and Rhea's room, and when they arrived, Aurin asked them to remain in the hall for a moment while he went in to wake Rhea. After only a few short minutes, the door opened again, and Aurin stood there and invited them in, smiling widely.

"They are asleep," he said in a quiet voice, "but Rhea is awake."

Earendil smiled and nudged Miyuki in first, and then Lin. "We'll try not to wake them."

Rhea was sitting up, propped up by pillows, eating, and both infants were wrapped warmly and lying on the bed beside her. They were tiny, smaller than most elven babies, and they had dusky skin, just a little lighter than Rhea had. Their hair was not black or fiery orange: instead, it seemed almost a burnt red, auburn as some would call it, but darker. They were identical, or so it seemed: even their blankets in which they were wrapped were the same colour.

Rhea giggled as Miyuki skipped over to her side.

"Good morning, Miyuki," she murmured softly. She looked up at the others. "Lin. Earendil."

Earendil smiled warmly at Rhea. "How are you feeling today?" he asked softly.

"Tired," she replied immediately, though she was grinning. "Skinny. Light. I tried walking around a bit, it felt good for a few minutes but then I had to lay down again."

Rhea smiled widely and put one hand on the blankets. "If they were the same sex," she murmured, "I would say they were identical. Is it not strange, how that works?"

"Xion has a bit less hair than Rhiannon," Aurin murmured, "though that is debatable, I suppose. It could just be my perception."

"They're both adorable," Earendil told them, smiling warmly. "You can both be proud." He looked at Rhea. "Would you take a trip home once they're older, to show your parents?" he asked. "Or would you ask them to come out here to visit?"

"I would probably ask them to come here," Rhea replied softly. "I wouldn't trust them to travel so far by air until they are much older, and Aurin really can't leave his post for that long. There is still so much work to do ..."

"I hope so," Rhea murmured softly. She looked down at Miyuki, who had thus far remained silent. She smiled. "Well, Miyuki?" she asked quietly. "What do you think?" She patted her almost flat stomach. "Now they're out of here and living on their own."

"With much difficulty," Rhea replied dryly. Miyuki was too young for details. "It's called birth, and it's something you won't understand until you're older. So when you're older, you can ask your mother, all right?"

She grinned at Lin. Let her explain it to her daughter.

Rhea thought about that for a moment. She didn't want to obligate Lin to do anything, especially as she sensed that Lin was a bit ... perhaps squeamish on the subject.

"When your mother thinks that you're ready," she replied finally. "It's not about being a certain age, especially when you're a stage-growing child like you are; it's about when your mind is old enough, like a grown up."

One of the babies started to fuss a bit, and Rhea set her breakfast aside to pick it up. She hushed the baby, gently rocking it in her arms, and within moments the infant was once more fast asleep.

Rhea looked down at the infant in her arms. "They're both smaller than most elven children," she murmured softly. "And if there's a different between the two, I would think that Xion is a bit bigger, just slightly. But that's to be expected with twins ... after all, they do have to fit two of them in the space for one."

Aurin sat carefully on the edge of the bed. "I think perhaps at some point, I'm going to commission some bracelets for them so that it would be easier to tell them apart," he murmured.

Rhea giggled. "We could just ask for different colours of clothes," she teased her husband.

"They would have to be different colours then," Rhea mused. "It would be easier than having to read them every time to tell them apart. Of course," she added with a grin, "I could just cheat."

"Cheat?" Earendil repeated.

Rhea giggled softly and looked down at the infant in her arms again. "This is Rhiannon," she murmured. "I can just sense it."