(Untitled)

[bill_weasley]

In his life, Bill's lost a lot of things. He's lost gemstones and portkeys and girlfriends and directions. He's lost keys to doors and telephone numbers and ideas and clothes and business cards and money, but he's never lost family, and elderly little-known aunts or uncles don't count

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[leplusbeau]

Fleur looks up slightly at his face.

"No, Fleur. Wife." Placing her hand over his on her belly, she says, "Bebes. They say 'ello, Papa." The kick line in her stomach goes thump, thump, thump.

[bill_weasley]

Oh, the movement makes him laugh and it feels better to laugh than he remembers.

Papa. No staid British Dad for these babies; they've got the mum to make all other mums all over the world jealous. For her, he'll wear the moniker Papa so very proudly.

"For a name, silly. What do you think of Charlie for a name?" He goes ahead and makes a fool of himself with a pathetic attempt at French. "Pour un des bébés: Charlie. Pour le garçon." It would be too fresh to use Fred or George. No, they need to be held sacrosanct in his memory for a time before he'll do that, no matter how tempting it would be to pay tribute that way, but it's too soon. He can't do it.

[leplusbeau]

"You want to...?" She had thought he might one to name one or even both of them after his brothers. But she had thought it would be the twins. "Charlie," she tries that on for size. "Charles, ma p'tit Charlie."

And she smiles her own tiny smile that has stayed in residence since Black Sunday.

"I like that. Your brother, he would like that. May be it will convince him to have some of hiz own so your mother will drive him crazy, too."

[bill_weasley]

"Mum doesn't want dragonets for grandchildren." With a soft smile, he lets one hand fall over her silvery hair. "And you know that's what Charlie would have. Either dragonets or little snitches."

We have to carry on, says the stubbornly British voice in his mind. We have to be strong and we have to be stoic and we have to carry on. "If they're both boys, Charlie and... Ben. Benedict, for your father. What do you think? And if either or both are girls..."

Well, he was hopeless with girls' names. He could only think of one, and he doubted at this point that Fleur would want to name a child of hers Gabrielle any more than he was ready to name one of them Fred or George.

"...then you pick. So long as it's not something horrid." His hand goes back to her belly. "They can give us a signal if they like the names."

[leplusbeau]

"What do you mean by that?" Her face is screwed up, and she can still find the energy to be poke at him for teasing her.

"I have a beautiful name and wonderful taste." Even as she smooths her hands over her belly and thinks about it. "Not...my mother would not...have...liked it. And. No." She shakes her head. "No. It should be. Something new."

Fleur bites her lip. What should it be? "Amarante. Isolde. Blanche. Rose. Morgaine?" She giggles, and gets a little kick for her troubles. "Someone liked something!"

[bill_weasley]

As he suspected, she's not in any shape to name their children after her family and he finds himself more relieved than he thought he could be at that. He doesn't want to saddle the future with the responsibility of the past.

"You do have a beautiful name and you do have wonderful taste. This is why I've left the girl's names to you, love: all I could think of were horrid things like Drusilla or Jane or Agatha, and I think we can write those off. I like Amarante. I like Isolde. I like Rose. Morgaine... well, that's a name with a history, isn't it? As a witch, she'd have a lot to live up to. The question is how they sound with the last name of Weasley."

He'd always been glad to shed the formality of William for the solid one-syllableness of Bill. It suited him. The Weasley clan had always tended towards the casual.

[leplusbeau]

She wrinkles her nose.

"Thiz iz hard. I feel so strange. Making up someone else'z name."

[bill_weasley]

"It's a very big decision." His hand jumps in response to a movement inside her; he's not sure he'll ever get used to that.

"They can blame us later, when they wish we'd called them things like Joe or Ann or Fortescue or Cinderella." Bill laughs and pats her stomach. "See, they didn't like any of those. I can tell."

[leplusbeau]

Fleur lets out a tiny laugh, and leans up to kiss Bill on the nose.

"Could be worse. I could have convinced you to call them something German." She looks fondly down at her large belly. "We have ideaz. I think. We might be all right. Do you think?" When she looks up, she is the slightest bit anxious.

[bill_weasley]

"I know we'll be all right."

Part of him knows that they won't really be all right unless they know what happened to Fleur's mother and sister, but he bravely ignores that for the moment. Charlie and Ben, Ben and Isolde, Isolde and Charlie, Charlie and Rose, Rose and Ben, Ben and Amarante... they're all beautiful names, all of them.

"Come, see what I did today." No work for the bank on week-ends, but plenty to do at home: standing, he takes her by the hand and leads her into the second bedroom, the one designated as the nursery. The room is healed; both cribs are assembled. "What do you think? One on either wall like this, or do they want to be closer? I'm far from an interior decorator. If you leave it to me, the room will look like an ancient tomb, with hieroglyphics on the walls, Isis standing guard, and its ceiling reshaped as a pyramid."

[leplusbeau]

"I think we would have lived in a pyramid, if you could have gotten away with it, minet." He gets a light kiss for his troubles and another small smile. It feels nice to smile again.

Fleur runs a finger over the new cribs. "...non, let us try thiz. If they do not like being that far apart, we will put them closer. May be they will like their own space?"

It is really coming together. Slowly, this is coming together, and it is really hitting her over the last few days. "Bill, we are going to have two bebes," she says it again. The shock and BEBES feeling is very, very slowly creeping up on her. Not at the scary, extreme stress level yet. Not yet.

[bill_weasley]

"Two of them, yes. It hardly seems real, does it?"

He rests his arm round Fleur's waist as they survey the nursery. "I wish my brothers would have been able to know." It's the first time he's really mentioned them. "They would have liked knowing we're having twins. Your mother and sister would have liked to know, too."

There was no intention, really, to get into that discussion just now, but the words are out and there it is.

"I'm so thankful to have you, Fleur. It's something I probably don't say enough."

[leplusbeau]

She leans against him and is quiet for a long moment.

"I love you, you know? It iz still...I love you. I have nevah wanted thiz, a family or to grow old. Not until you. Sometimez, iz such a surprise. I want thiz. And I wish--" She breaks off then, biting her lip. Then, "I wish, too."

She closes her eyes before she can start crying again and knocks their foreheads together very gently. "I am grateful for you, 'usband. And these p'tit bebes we are about to have. I love them, and I do not even know them yet. Iz...scary."

[bill_weasley]

Gently, he rubs her back and then her shoulders. "Fleur. We do know them. They're a part of us, and they'll be perfect no matter what. They're our family, our loved ones, our legacy, and... of course we love them. Of course we do

[leplusbeau]

She nuzzles into his hand and smiles that same, very small smile. And slips her hand over his.

"You are going to be a wonderful papa, did you know that?" There is so much pride in her voice. "I love you."

[bill_weasley]

"Et vous, mon épouse: vous serez une mère splendide. Je t'aime, aussi."

It looks as if someone's been studying his French. "Come. Let me do things for you: brush your hair, make you dinner, buy you flowers. Those types of things." After all, it's the simple mechanics of everyday living that helps people to move past their personal grief. And the arrival of twins is something to celebrate, not something that should hang heavy with circumstance.

"Charlie. Rose. Ben. Amarante. You have thirty seconds to decide." Laughing, he squeezes her hand. "I'm teasing, my love. Come. Let me take care of you."