Page 15 of Broken Chorus

Instead of yelling over the noise, he lowered his voice, murmuring into her ear low enough that she’d have to stop screaming if she really wanted to hear anything. Too bad listening didn’t seem to be high on her list of priorities right now.

“Sounds like you’re so upset you don’t even know why you’re crying,” Aaron cooed. “And that’s okay. It happens to all of us sometimes, especially when it’s a whole bunch of things all rolled up together. Is that what happened? Did you get overwhelmed? Or did you refuse to take your nap again?”

“Both,” Hawk grumbled, securing the door behind them as Aaron carried Dani towards the living room.

“Where are the other two?”

“Protesting all the noise by playing in Liam’s room.”

Aaron chuckled at that. “How long has she been at it?”

“On and off all day. I have literally tried everything, including several attempts at bribery.”

“How’d that work out for you?”

“She’s eaten one bowl of ice cream with sprinkles, one cup of pudding with sprinkles, exactly one fourth of a peanut butter sandwich that I refused to put sprinkles on, which caused the third meltdown of the afternoon, oh, and she found a brand-new hiding spot and scared me half to death when I couldn’t find her after the first time I tried putting her down for a nap.”

Given the circumstances, it shouldn’t be funny, but as Aaron swayed, turning with a still raging Dani in his arms, he caught sight of a dusting of sprinkles in a smear of dried ice cream on Hawk’s jeans.

“Man, she made a mess outta you.”

Hawk looked down at himself, snickered and shook his head. “If you think this is bad, you should see my kitchen.”

“What were you thinking, giving her so much sugar? It’s no wonder she won’t go to sleep.”

“At the time I wasn’t thinking about the sugar content, just hoping for a positive result.”

“And we can both see how that worked out for you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hawk grumbled, turning, and starting to pick up the mess of toys and blankets scattered around the living room. “Just see if you can get her to sleep, please.”

Aaron carried her over by the window, where she could see the moon once she settled down. If she settled down. Maybe all the hollering, kicking, and squirming was burning off the sugar and they should just set her down and let her rage it all out of her system. Only, there was probably a chance she’d hurt herself, being so small and the floor so hard, so maybe holding on to her was the best idea.

“Now how can I tell you the story of the fairy queen if you keep kicking and screaming,” he murmured. “Come on little one, don’t you wanna hear the story?”

“No stories!”

O-kay.

Her attempts at kicking intensified as she screeched one word over and over again. “Sing! Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing.”

Guess he was singing then.

“Okay, princess, I’ll sing you a song, but you’ve got to settle down in order to hear it.”

She didn’t reply, at least not verbally, but her sniffles and whines grew softer and her struggling lessoned, so that would just have to be good enough.

Little princess of the stars

Ruler of Earth, Venus, and Mars

The sun is gone, the worlds asleep,

Is that why you sob and weep?

Close your eyes and smell the rain,

Dream of rainbows and lion’s manes.

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