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Earendil smiled and held her close, and soon enough was asleep.

When morning came, Andarien, whose speech and ability to walk and run had come quite quickly after he had grown, climbed up onto his parents' bed (he and Miyuki had been sharing a bed on the other side of the room) and started bouncing on his knees.

"Up! Up! Time to get up!" he urged the two, his violet eyes shining brightly.

It was the first time he would be able to really take part in their explorations of a settlement, and he was excited.

Andarien stopped bouncing and looked over at the other bed to see if Miyuki was up. Then he scrambled over Lin again to get to the edge of the bed, tumbled to the floor, rolled back to his feet, and scampered over to the other side of the room. He ran into the edge of the bed, knocking the breath out of him momentarily, but then he got his breath back and started poking at Miyuki's arm.

"Mi! Mi!" he said insistently, his name for her carrying over from before his growth. "Mi! Up!"

Earendil was watching the scene bemusedly. "I'm not going to complain," he grinned at Lin. "Remember how hard it was to get Miyuki off me in the mornings?"

Andarien frowned at Senka. "Bad Sen-sen! Don't hit!" he scolded her, swatting at the paw that was batting at him. "Time to get up! Up, Mi!"

He didn't take well to Senka's intolerance of him, and of course it didn't help that he reacted the way he did. It really only made things worse. Not that he knew any better.

Earendil smiled again. "Well, that's what happens when she has to go through a portal and suddenly I'm not there," he said simply. He stretched and sat up. "Thankfully she's gotten over that."

Andarien stuck his tongue out at Senka before looking up at his big sister. "Kay!" he said cheerfully. He turned on his heel and ran over to his parents' bed again. "Nana! Ada! Na-"

His foot caught on the edge of a rug and he tripped and fell on the floor. "Oof!"

Andarien never stopped grinning. "Uh-huh!" he replied cheerfully. He used the edge of the bed to pull himself back to his feet. "Nana up? Ada up? Time to get up!"

Earendil laughed. "We're up, we're up," he assured the boy. "Why don't you find some clothes to wear for today?"

He knew Andarien couldn't open the clasps on the bags, and it would keep him occupied for a while. It would give him and Lin a chance to get up at their own pace, until they were awake enough to deal with Andarien and his seemingly endless energy.

Andarien thought it was a delightful idea. "Okay!" he beamed, running for the bags.

"Oh, I'm sure he will," Earendil chuckled. "But not yet. He's barely just grown, after all." He leaned over and kissed her warmly. "Good morning, dearest love of mine."

Andarien had plopped himself down on the floor next to the bags, and instead of playing with the straps like he usually did, he simply stared at them, trying to work out in his mind how they worked. He had seen his parents open them before, but always very quickly.

Earendil smiled softly and pulled back the blanket. As much as he wouldn't have minded staying in bed a while longer, with Andarien and Miyuki both up, it was simply time to get up.

"What say we get Andarien dressed so he can go with Miyuki to the dining room for breakfast, and we can have some privacy to get ourselves ready?" he suggested.

Andarien was old enough now that he could go off with Miyuki for a bit, especially if the two of them were just going to go to the dining room and not leave the building.

Andarien looked at Miyuki, watching her closely so that he could watch her open the bag.