A/N: Um, hi there. :D
I know I'm supposed to be finishing another story, and writing the chapter for still another, but um… well, I love this song, really, really love it, and I just couldn't resist. Anyway, this is supposed to be a fluffy little one-shot, I can't be sure, it feels incomplete and I'm not sure if I got the idea across. Heh-heh, sorry. :D
Disclaimer: Characters, except Kyra (hello cutie, you so cute, yes you are, yes you are, you know you are… ahem *blushes*) and this song, are not mine. Get over it, I have.
*~**~*
My Little Sunshine
*~**~*
"You are my sunshine"
"My only
sunshine."
"You make me happy"
"When skies are gray."
"You'll never know,
dear,"
"How much I love you."
"Please don't take my sunshine away…"
*~**~*
Her tiny mouth was warm and wet as she once again lost control of her head and it collided with Harry's shoulder. Her tiny arms held fast his own while her legs tried a vice grip at his side. "Eh…" she said, and settled her lips to his shirt, trying in vain to capture milk that would not come.
Harry barely noticed… until he felt the trickles of saliva soaking into his shirt. He pulled her free from his side and swung her up over his head.
Delighted, she squealed and stuffed her hands into her mouth. A moment later, a long, thin string of saliva started its descent from her clasped fists.
Harry laughed and teased, "You greedy girl, my greedy little Kyra."
Hermione, lying on her stomach nearby and reading, looked up at the two and casually warned, "She's just had her bottle, are you willing to take the consequences?"
"I just burped her," Harry replied. "What consequences?"
As if on cue Kyra burped a milky white.
Moving swiftly, Harry ducked away from the deluge and set her down in his lap. Summoning the nearest wipe, he cleaned the sticky mess from her face, fingers and dress, and waited a tense moment for any excess before setting her aside to attend to himself. But Kyra Potter hadn't quite yet mastered the ability of sitting up and toppled, with a gentle "plop" onto the cushions behind her.
Hermione did not look up this time to say, "If I see one red mark you're sleeping alone mister!"
Without missing a beat he replied, "Good riddance, you keep kicking me in the shin and Kyra can't stretch out as she likes."
"The baby isn't supposed to be in the bed with us, she has a crib. What if you roll over and smother her?" asked Hermione, still not looking up.
"What if we wake up and she's not in the crib?" asked Harry.
"Then we'll be really proud that she learned to walk so fast," Hermione said, determinedly avoiding his other meaning.
He straightened their three month old daughter on the cushions on her back. One, two, three and she rolled over unto her stomach and tried to raise her head. Harry gently turned the cushion round so that she faced and them and then lay, like Hermione, on his stomach to look at her.
It was a while before he spoke again, head on his arm, "You know if it wasn't for my father, I'd be really suspicious here."
"About?" asked Hermione, again without looking up.
"Well, I have green eyes and black hair, and you have brown eyes and a brown nest, and she has hazel eyes and black hair-hey!" he exclaimed as a pillow shot out of nowhere and collided with his head. It set his glasses askew before harmlessly landing before his face.
From behind it he protested, "You could have hit Kyra!"
The pillow gently floated away from his face and settled aside so that Hermione, now propped on her elbows with her wand drawn, could look at him. When he smiled at her she replied, "I have very good aim, and I don't like what you're implying Mr Potter."
"And that was…?" he asked, feigning innocence.
She arched an eyebrow, before beginning with a flirtatious nonchalance, "Well… if you want to know, it was between you, Ron and Malfoy, and since Luna's already t-"
"Malfoy!" exclaimed Harry, sitting up sharply and scattering the cushions.
Kyra's tottered sideways slightly but went no further. Both cast a nervous glance her way but she seemed undisturbed, drawing her legs up to put a foot in her mouth.
"Now who's trying to hit the baby? But yes Malfoy, you just called my hair a brown nest; he would have given Kyra beautiful hair… being a nasty git took him out of the running though. Luna had Ron and was holding on to him with an iron fist, Ginny was dating Neville, Terry Boot's become rather obnoxious of late, Cormac McLaggen always was, and Viktor's in Bulgaria again so that just left you," she explained.
"I was a last resort?" he asked, looking rather shocked.
"Sucks, doesn't it?" she replied, and settled back again to her book.
Harry summoned it away from her, "Liar."
She looked up and smiled and he inched the book over.
Satisfied that she had been, Harry lay down again, but then rolled onto his back, taking Kyra up over him as he did so. She gave a toothless smile, complete with another saliva strand, and swung her bare feet over his face.
Harry smiled up at her in return, and then allowed his gaze to wander to the mantle and the pictures that stood there. Five in a row, the first was of his parents, the second of them and Ron at Hogwarts, the third at Ron's wedding, the fourth at their own and the last of the newborn Kyra Carys Potter (labelled by Ginny as KC, and when a reporter overheard her "Kacey").
The papers had actually had a field day with the news, the Daily Prophet declaring as soon as they could "Eighteen and Married, Nineteen and Parents: Potters Welcome Baby Girl!" Since his defeat of Voldemort they had been tracking his every move, and since he had decided on getting married and settling down with Hermione shortly after that, they had had plenty of reason to.
At the sight of it, the Weasleys and the Grangers were as pleased as punch, their motto since he left St Mungo's being "as long as he's happy and rested we are". The Minister presented himself at the Burrow to personally offer congratulations, and good luck cards had been coming in by the mail bag-load. Everyone seemed just overjoyed at the prospect that after days of rain he was finally having some sunshine in his life… well, everyone except Ron.
"Do you really want everyone to know about Kyra? You know some of those bastards still want revenge," he grumbled, while making faces at the newborn in her tiny basket.
The day the headline had appeared they had been to the Weasleys for tea and introducing Kyra to the family. When he said it Ron could not know how much Harry had actually feared that very same thing. They could not get to them in Grimmauld Place, where they were forced to stay for their own safety since the war's end, but when they were out they couldn't help it.
"I don't," Harry replied honestly, "but how do I tell them that? Besides, we're not going to be releasing any pictures, let Kyra remain a mystery until she starts school."
"That'll happen," Ron muttered, now pulling on Kyra's toes while she stared up at him as if awed.
"It will, they'll be too busy looking for the pictures of her siblings," Harry told him, simply.
Hermione, Mrs Weasley and Ginny who had all been sipping their tea nearby made quite a mess expelling it.
He smiled at the memory, and was then shocked from it by the globule of saliva that landed near his eye.
"Eww!" he groaned and again was forced to set aside his daughter, though this time into the arms of her mother.
Hermione had in fact been lying there watching him the entire time. She had said nothing though, for she was waiting on that exact moment, and could not resist the girlish giggle when it did. Harry removed his glasses, wiped them clean and set them back again before turning to silence her laughter with a kiss.
Hermione pushed him off quickly, "Oh no you don't, you called my hair a nest."
"Since when have you ca-" he stopped and corrected, "I like it like that."
Hermione arched her eyebrow again, but then presented the child, "She's still awake."
"One lullaby and she will be out like a light," he replied and flashed a grin.
She felt it to her toes, but pushed the baby into his arms and said, "I'm reading."
He looked down at Kyra, looked back up at her, and then unblushingly said, "Fine, but lean on your elbows again, Kyra and I love the view."
She gasped, eyes wide, jaw dropped and then rolled her eyes, "You take your little sunshine and go for a walk, I'm reading."
To drive her point home she settled back down into the cushions again with her book and tried to ignore him. When three minutes passed and he made no attempt to move though, she raised her eyes and asked, "What?"
He settled unto his stomach before her with the baby still in his arms and said, "If I leave the room, I'll leave the sunshine behind."
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