“A storm?” said a voice so thick with masculine strength that it sent shivers of safety down the spine of the three women in the room. “It’s supposed to snow today.”

“Maybe the snow will come later, dear!” one of the three women panted, her blue eyes glaring at the broad-shouldered man that had spoken.

Green eyes blinked owlishly at the sweating woman before the crinkled at the edges and a spoiling smile lifted his lips. “I’m sorry love, I just thought it a good omen for our daughter; don’t you.” his fingers laced with the woman’s as a pitched scream rattled in her throat.

“How do you know it’s a girl?” the woman questioned then the contraction passed and her midwives gave her signal to rest. Her breathe was panted, the labour long. “I think it’s a boy, but you seem to think you know.”

The man leant down, his brown hair ghosting across her forehead and contrasting her own blonde hair, as he dropped a kiss on his lover’s forehead. “Father’s intuition?” his amused smirk was lost on his bemused wife. “I just have a feeling, darling that this time we’ll have a daughter.”

Blue eyes saddened then, her hand gripping his tightly. “Will she survive, Kai? Will she survive this time?”

It was the sad but honest truth that the couple with the adoring eyes and the tightly linked hands had not yet parented a living child. Their children almost always made it to term, but never made it past birth. Not strange in the land they lived; but deadening each time they mourned their sons.

“Sylvanna, are you ready to push?”  The woman who was helping with the birth had cheerful brown eyes and a familiar little mouth; she had helped them for the last three births.

“It’s going to be alright, just hold my hand.”

“Kai,” her voice was drifting and awed, she watched the dark shape behind her lover pace with cool clarity as her own writhed on the floor in mimicry of her pain.

Sylvanna felt the contraction start pressing against her, and she knew that it was now or never for her darling child. Her lover kissed her forehead as he and the other midwife took Sylvanna’s feet in their hands. “You’re going to be fine.”

With a terrified nod and closed eyes, Sylvanna grit her teeth as the contraction bore down on her pelvis. She screamed as the pain arced and pinned her, but she grunted out protest, listening to the frustrated, elated whispers of loving encouragement against the shell of her ear.

Lightning cracked against the sky and shook the panes of clouds as thunder rumbled across the air. For a sickening moment Kai completely believe that his child did not survive again and his grip loosened on his lover’s hand. He felt his lover’s shudder as the birth completed her exhausting palpable as she panted and laid her head back against her pillows.

“Is she alright?” his voice was stern and the form behind him stopped pacing.

He felt growled screams from the form behind him, and watched as his lover’s own dark form arced from the floor and paced in an erratic flail of limbs that he hadn’t seen since they were children and their lessons on subduing had only begun. He felt his connection with his shadow shatter in an excruciating snap before it reformed and two small streaks of black struck the arms of the midwife.

Soft laughter, and the screams of life were the next thing that Kai heard, and his chest almost erupted in happy sobs when he saw a child, a wriggling, crying child wrapped in black drapes. The midwife’s eyes were crinkled in that elderly way, as she draped the child into his waiting arms, letting the mother rest as she snipped the cord.

“You have a healthy baby girl.” she cooed, taking the child and placing it on the mothers chest before snatching it away again, both mother and father itching to snatch their child back; but knowing better.

Sylvanna started sobbing; her hands pushing damp hair form her eyes ignoring the tears as she gazed at her lover, whose eyes were transfixed on his child as she was cleaned and swaddled.

“Kai, we did it.” She sobbed. “We did it, she’s healthy.”

His name snapped him out of his unwavering attention on his child, his eyes looked down on his lover with awe and appreciation, tears already touching his lashes. “No, love. I did nothing. You did it, thank you, thank you.”

She hummed, exhausted, but trying to stay awake. When Kai’s forehead pressed against her temple her hand ran across his cheek and when he kissed her cheek she wondered how anyone could move on after having a child with another. How could anyone have a child with another man, how would she. She wanted other children, but she knew it would never be with this man.

“Thank you, darling.” She hummed, almost asleep when her lover pulled away.

He held his arms out expectantly, watching the midwife turn away from the machinery and scales with a white mass of blankets. She grinned at him, humming to herself in pleasure when the man’s adoring eyes did not leave the delicate face of his child.

“Her connection with her shadow is strong, it’s a good sign. You are very lucky parents.”

But she was ignored, as she usually was after aiding in the birth of children, for both parents were too engrossed in their newest addition. It was always so pleasing to see new parents, these two seemed so in love and so enthralled by their child.

Sylvanna watched her lover with soft eyes. He seemed infatuated, his lips touching the babe’s forehead with delicate uncertainty. She was reminded why she loved the man so much. Despite the form of the shadow behind him he was the softest man she knew. Her heavy eyes drifted to the shape beside her bed, and her eyebrows knit together.

“Will they be alright?” Sylvanna asked as her dark partner flickered in and out of existence. She had not heard of this during all her pregnancy, or the pregnancies before.

Kai snapped his eyes from his wrinkled, blue toned child to watch over his own dark partner, he was flickering too, but standing still all the same. “They will be fine.” he murmured so as not to wake the child. “They have given our sweet Samantha her shadow. They’re just over-stretched.”

Sylvanna grinned, because she knew that Kai was about as knowledgeable as she was about parenthood; which was to say not at all. Her eyes watched their child with a small smile.

“Samantha?”

The brown haired man startled slightly before an embarrassed blush on the height of his cheeks. “Ah, she looks like a Samantha. Don’t you think?”

She obliged her lover with a happy smile, tears and sweat still marking her skin. “I think it’s perfect.”

Kai rocked his child as his wife succumbed to the exhaustion of the twenty hour labour. She was cleaned up already and the Midwives were about ready to take Samantha from her father’s arms so that both mother and daughter could rest.

“Thank you, baby girl.” he hummed, his daughter’s shadows already flickering into existence around her white swaddling. “Thank you for being born.”

‘-I was born on a stormy night, the third Monday of March which is strange since it hasn’t happened in years, I am my mother and father’s first child which is why they worried about the storm. I look more like my mother, but have my mother’s eyes I think.’

Dark eyes looked over the scribbled pencil lines with intrigue and boredom. It enjoyed watching its partner work, seeing her tongue between her teeth and the irritated scowl she would shoot the paper when the pencil snapped.

But it was bored, bored of watching and waiting for her to finish.

Swooping blankness descended upon the room, all square and bright with its purple walls, like lilac petals. The corners grew dense as the lurking blackness scuttled along the walls and the shapes within the mass of black seemed limitless and yet controlled. A defined image –that of a soaring bird –glided towards the back of the unsuspecting girl, and when she gasped and spun around it changed again to the image of a babe, swinging its arm-like appendages around her neck and squeezing itself against her warmth.

“Rei, please.” a young voice giggled, pushing the dark veil away as it shifted again, this time into the visage of a shawl. “I’m trying to work, you promised to stop bothering me today so I could finish my autobiography project.”

Bright eyes, green like spring leaves with the crystal blue of lake water looked adoringly into the face of the darkness she smiled with thick, pink lips and happy that her partner was still so responsive; still so alive.

But the door banged open, eradicating the darkness that scuttled into the corners and leaving the creature of constant shifting stark against the light walls. It screeched in the blue-green eyed child’s head as it sprinted to her side and shifted again to a small creature of the water; it’s silhouette silent and still. Tingles crept along the girl’s scalp as her partner stilled and her heart rate spiked at the mere thought of being caught.

“Sam!” a childish babble screamed as it charged in the room, a different darkness –greyer with a hollowed density –entered the corners and brought with it more shadows as the door shut itself again. “Sam!”

Green-blue eyes closed and a sigh sang in the air. “Brandon, what did I say about charging in like this? What is Mama had seen us, or your papa, hmm?”

The young child frowned, sliding himself off of Sam’s lap tears already infecting green eyes that glittered with uninfected pine needles. “Sorry, I found s’mthing.”

Sam could not fault the child before her; he was only four and he loved her more than those shortbread cookies she baked on snow days. Instead she slid off her bed and held him close, wrapping the knitted shawl from her father around his shoulders and kissing his nose.

“It’s alright, what did you find?” Her voice lifted with adoration, for her little boy was more her son than her brother.

Her little brother’s eyes lit up and he grinned toothily as he looked over his shoulder to his shifting partner. “Flynt, go on. Show her!”

The shape stood from the ground, shifting and bouncing in a manner much like her brother. Suddenly it stopped, its black silhouette shaped into a hand, and when it opened, long fingers slowly unfolding, there sat a small flower upon its palm.

“Bran, is that?”

“Your flower!” he giggled, bouncing himself in Samantha’s lap again. “I found it in the back!”

Samantha looked at her brother in awe. It wasn’t the time of year for the tiger lilies to grow. It was too cold and there was frost on the ground at night. But she was more amazed that the young boy’s shadow was holding it.

“Bran, when did you learn to do this?” Samantha’s question was tinted with concern as she held her brother close, letting her voice dip. “Does Mama know?”

Her brother’s face scowled. “No. Papa neither.” He looked at his shadow with a grin. “I only want you to know, like you said,”

Samantha let out a sigh of relief, her head falling against his as she breathed out. It would have been disastrous for her brother’s skill to be found out. He was only four; he shouldn’t have figured out how to use his shadow to pick things up yet, let alone store them.

“Good boy, is that all you came in to show me?”

“No, Blu said Lunch is ready.” Samantha narrowed her eyes at the mention of her new father, but she couldn’t fault her mother, or any parent for that matter.

Samantha sighed; her narrowed eyes relaxing as she kissed her brother’s head sat him against her hip. “Shall we go have lunch then?”

Her brother was still pouting, but he nodded and linked his arms around her neck. “Al’ight.” Samantha grinned happily, eyeing up the two shadows messing around in the corner before turning back to the door.

“Ah, there you are, Samantha.” her mother called, stepping up to her children to drop kisses onto their foreheads. Brandon kept a hold on his sister, though he grinned at his mommy before turning his head to look at his sister’s shadow playing with his.

Samantha smiled at her mother, she was beautiful and sometimes she wished she had more of her mother than just her blue eyes. Instead Samantha got nothing of her mother’s blonde hair that fell in looped rings or her thin shoulders and hips.

“Samantha, come sit done with your brother, I made pasta for lunch.” Grey eyes turned to her as the broad shouldered man smirked at his teenage daughter. His hair was an off-silver colour today and Samantha thought it matched his eyes much better than his usual choice of indigo.

With only a light glare Samantha took her seat, Branor in the chair beside her. She felt her Shadow’s urge to lash out against her mind, but he stifled his form into the tiny cage of an otter for her safety. “Alright,” she hummed, not meeting Blu or her mother’s eyes.

Blu set the six plates on the table, a smaller one for Branor. In the centre of the table he put the bowl of pasta; he dropped a kiss onto Sylvanna’s cheek as she passed before he shoved his head in the fridge. Samantha’s mother placed the cutlery down, a faint blush on her cheeks. “Do you want anything to drink Sam?”

Samantha scowled, she hated when Blu called her Sam. “No thanks.”

“What about you, Brand?” Their mother hummed, “Want something to drink?”

“No. Where Papa?” Brandon dismissed their mother’s question quickly, looking to Samantha to answer as their mother shrugged and walked away from the table again.

“Arthur should be back right about-“ Blu looked down the hallway when they heard the door click with a grin, “Right about now little man.”

Branor’s face lit up in a grin as he slid out of his seat and skipped into the knees of the sandy-haired man that had entered the kitchen. His grin was easy-going but his expression was sterner than Blu’s. His eyes were Green like the pine-needles of Brandon’s eyes; but instead they were dull with age having lost all the wonderment that four year old Brandon still possessed.

“Hey sport.” the man cooed as she scooped Brandon up with one arm and loosened his purple tie with the other. “Did ya have fun today, learn lots?”

Samantha’s mother came over to the man and dropped a kiss onto his cheek, her own lightning up in mirth. “Come sit, dear. We’ll talk about it during dinner.”

It wasn’t unusual to see families made up of so many spouses; not when parents could only bear one child to term. Samantha’s mother was not unlike others, since she had three lovers in her life and only two at her side. Lovers on average had three children between themselves. Samantha liked to imagined, with a painful interest, that her father must have been devastated when Sylvanna expressed a desire for more children and had disappeared from a broken heart; after all Samantha was her mother and father’s first, a rarity in the world. Even Arthur had two other children; they and their mothers lived together across town and would be joining Sylvanna’s family once the youngest was a little older. Blu also had another lover, but she lived with her other partner and Blu’s daughter in another country and wouldn’t be joining them.

“Hey, Arthur!” Blu explained, ruffling the long sandy locks that framed Arthur’s square jaw. “Did you manage to snag that contract yet, with that drug corporation?”

“Don’ mess Papa’s hair!” Brandon said as he puffed out his cheeks in what the adults supposed was supposed to be an angry expression but instead looked adorably frustrated.

“What’s that little man?” Blue asked, patting Brandon’s hair with affection –Samantha couldn’t deny, in good conscience, that Blu was amazing with kids. “

Blue green eyes watched the proceedings with bitter apathy, her brother was swung in the arms of the men who would never be her fathers, and her mother was happy between them. Sylvanna’s eyes crinkled in that way that Samantha could just briefly remember from her childhood, but had forgotten until Arthur and Blu entered their lives and Brandon was born.

“Samantha, are you okay babygirl?” Her mother frowned slightly to see her daughter to the side, sitting at the table alone with that dark look in her eyes.

Her daughter hadn’t been the same since her father disappeared; always so distant and reserved.

“Yeah,” she smiled, Rei pressing comfort into the back of her mind as his form rubbed her leg, “I’m just hungry, can we eat?”

“Sure!” Blu exclaimed with a bright grin that even eased Samantha. “I tried something new.”

“Please don’t poison us.” Arthur sighed; he put Branor in the seat beside Samantha before dropping a light kiss onto Samantha’s forehead. She didn’t like Arthur, but it was hard to not fall to his openly father-like ways.

“Artie, don’t be so mean!” Blu looked quite put out by Arthurs glare but sat down regardless and dug into his food. “I wouldn’t give it to you if I didn’t think it was good.”

“Stop talking with your mouth full.” Sylvanna chuckled to herself, eating delicately, eyeing up Samantha as she smiled around her fork.

Dinner was not usually a quiet affair in their house, with Blu’s loud and boisterous banter, and Arthur’s cool retorts, it was usually quite lively.

Arthur spoke mostly about his new job and the contract he was ‘this’ close to obtaining. He had a cold annoyance about his face that made even Brandon reluctant to talk about his day with his father, the man had been pursuing the drug contract for the past five years; since he had met Samantha’s mother in fact.

Blu had just laughed along explaining about the happenings in the village restaurant he owned that day. Apparently he had a bunch of gossipers because his voice dropped so that Brandon wouldn’t listen in; he was preoccupied with Sylvanna anyway.

“So apparently there’s discord to the north.” he said around a spoonful of spaghetti and a gulp of water. “Rumours of shadows going rogue all of a sudden.” his smirk was aimed at Samantha and she felt her stomach drop and her shadow rustle in unease.

“Stupid talk but old women, you should know better. All the rogues were wiped out six years ago.” Arthur scoffed at the younger man, sending Samantha an eye roll, having seen the unease in the child’s eyes; thinking her scared as most children were of rogue shadows, and not because her own was rogue.

“Oh I wouldn’t be so sure. There was talk in the restaurant that there’s a village made of children and teens who refused to subdue and let their shadows kill and steal all they want. I heard that not even drugs will sto-“

“That’s enough, Blu!” Arthur’s piercing green eyes were blazing again and even Samantha grew worried and slinked down in her chair; she didn’t know how Blu could continue to glare at the sandy-haired man like he did when she felt her chest was going to collapse and Arthur wasn’t even talking to her. Samantha had never heard Arthur’s voice so sever and it rattled the table.

Blu looked deadly serious as he glared at Arthur, huffing when Sylvanna touched his hand. “That’s enough boys; I think it’s time we cleared up and the children go to their rooms.”

“Mama, it’s only seven.” Samantha tried, but Arthur glared her down.

“I think you’re mother is right, Samantha.” He tried to smile even as he sent his shadow to put his plates on the counter, but his eyes were still stony. “Don’t tell me this idiot’s bad habits have rubbed off on you?”

“No, sir.” Samantha grit out, she felt Rei flicker and panic welled in her chest. Instead she stood and put her dishes on the counter too, Rei had cups balanced on his back and it seemed to help him keep his form.

Arthur and Blu began washing up the dishes, their shadows pressing against their backs and moving stiffly to follow grunted orders from their partners. Samantha had never heard Arthur call his squared shadow by name; similarly Blu had never even uttered the breath of a name for his bird shaped partner.

Her chest constricted at the thought as she pushed Rei to follow her orders when the rambunctious creature wanted nothing more than to spread and soar. She hushed him in their solid connection in her mind, smiling under her fringe of hair when she watched Brandon’s shadow shift from a robotic humanoid to the cute silhouette of a puppy in a manner the complete opposite of its master, who was falling asleep on the couch.

“Alright, now I know it’s early but it’s time to go to your room.” Sylvanna explained to Samantha, “Put Brandon to bed will you, sweetie?” Sylvanna asked gently, caressing Samantha’s cheek with her thumb.

Her shadow touched Samantha’s in an intimate and familiar way. As usual a painful rush spiked against Sylvanna’s chest as her shadow made contact with Samantha’s, but she put it down to there being a part of Kai’s shadow within her daughter’s.

Remembering Kai was always terribly wonderful.

“Of course, Mama.” Samantha said softly, taking Brandon from her blonde mother and watching with a frown as she turned away.

As Sylvanna, Arthur, and Blu made their way to their room Samantha sighed and held a drowsy Brandon close, rocking the child to sleep. She felt a tug on her hair as sleepy eyes watched the green glitter in the dark.

“I don’t like the green.” He yawned, hiding in the green streaked locks that smelt like his favourite scent.

“Oh?” Samantha hummed as she awkwardly flicked the handle of Brandon’s door with her knee, shifting Brandon awake by accident. “You picked it.”

“I know.”

“What colour should it be tomorrow then, little prince?” She asked softly, an amused laughter lifting her tone.

For a moment she thought Brandon had fallen asleep again and she almost laughed and left, but a tight grip on her shawl stopped her and she turned her eyes on half-lidded greens.  “Purple.” he muttered, completely asleep the next minute.

Samantha’s eyes widened and she sighed in exasperation. Only her brother would choose purple; Samantha loved the colour but didn’t think purple streaks looked good in her hair because of how dark it was. But she had already asked her brother and it would be cruel to not agree. In the morning she would change the colour of her streaks.

Just as the brown haired girl was about to leave her shawl snagged and she noticed her brother clutching it. A few tugs proved fruitless to pry the brown fabric from his baby grip, and she’d really rather not wake him since it would take forever and a day to get him to sleep again, but it was her favourite piece of clothing. Begrudgingly she stripped the brown wrap from her shoulders and tucked it around her brother, scowling the entire time. She loved her brother, but he had better appreciate it in the morning.