Niamh's Gift

The whole thing was Niamh's idea, of course. She'd been planning something for days, smiling to herself the way she did when she was plotting mischief. Ciara thought she was braced for anything, but when Niamh met her at the front door that afternoon, the girl swept Ciara off her feet. Candles burned on the kitchen table, surrounded with bunches of flowers and the bottle of wine Niamh had been saving for a special occasion. Fiachra was there, too, and wasn't it just like him to be in on one of his sister's plots.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Ciara said.

"Niamh's been reading her story books again. You know what they do to her," Fiachra said. But the two rabbits shared a conspiratorial smile.

"Every princess deserves to have a grand ball thrown in her honor, at least once," Niamh said.

"Now? But I don't have anything to wear," Ciara said.

"You could wear rags and you'd still be beautiful to me. You know that," Niamh said.

"I'm not a princess, either. I gave that up," Ciara said.

"You're my princess. That's all that matters," Niamh said.

Niamh took Ciara in her arms a Fiachra began to play a slow waltz that spun them around the room. Ciara recognized the tune as one Fiachra had written himself. It was his gift to her, the same as Niamh's silly fantasies and she lost herself in the song as much as she did in Niamh's touch.

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Art is copyrighted to JillianCorvus (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/jilliancorvus)

Niamh, Ciara and Fiachra all belong to me.