“Blaine?” Kurt called, weaving through the Trees and brush that grew thick on the Mountainside, in search of his husband. “Daisy? Where on Earth have the two of you gone?”

Kurt wanted to find them, but he wasn’t at all worried for their safety. The Mountain was theirs, their home, all three of them. Kurt had led Blaine there, through the very Trees that now parted ways as he passed, though they had once tried their hardest to deter his Dwarf companion.

Blaine had brought the Mountain back to life by sacrificing a drop of his blood and opening a door bound by Magic.

And Daisy belonged to the Mountain, was given to them by the Mountain, left for Kurt to find and then brought underground where Elf and Dwarf raised her as their own.

All of the Dwarves, really.

The Mines of the Missing Mountain were filled with bachelors at present. Kurt had feared at first that they would see her a menace and a nuisance. They might proclaim her bad luck if the Mines ran dry, might see her as an ill-omen if Goblins attacked. Kurt was prepared to defend her every day, with every ounce of strength in him.

But every one of them fell in love with Daisy the second they laid eyes on her.

“Blaine? Daisy?” Kurt called until their names together sounded like music in his ears. But no. Not his voice calling their names, but another voice ringing in the air, high and clear as a bell tolling morning, sweeter than the birds’ songs, softer than the flowers, and as familiar to Kurt as that of his Dearest Love.

It was in a Meadow not far from their Mountain that Kurt found them – en masse, as there was not just his husband and daughter present, but a whole company, sitting on rocks and on logs, listening to the young Dwarf child sing.

And sing she did, with eyes closed and head tilted to the Sky. The Sun added color to her pale skin, darkened her tawny freckles, and painted gold streaks in her auburn hair. There their daughter stood, amongst an audience of Dwarves - hardened, ax-wielding beasts each and every one - utterly captivated by the little girl, stunned into silence by her glorious voice.

“Come, Husband,” Blaine mouthed once he saw his Elf draw near. “Listen to our Daisy as she sings the Sun into the Sky.”

“You two are out awfully early,” Kurt commented, taking Blaine’s hand and a seat beside him. It was meant to be teasing, but Blaine, afraid that his husband felt hurt by being left out of the morning walk, hurried to explain.

“I am sorry we did not wake you when we left, but this is the first time you have slept past Sunrise since I have known you, and I wanted to let you sleep.”

Kurt smiled wistfully. Blaine was right. He had been sleeping longer, and for an odd reason, too. He had begun to feel something he had never felt before.

He had begun to feel his age, and he suspected he knew why. But with no need to think upon that now, he shoved it aside in favor of listening to his darling Daisy weave her magic.

“How did she accomplish this?” Kurt asked, marveling at the Dwarves in their presence, Masters of the Underground, who rarely ventured above for more than food and the occasional bath. (And some of them were long overdue, Kurt thought with a wrinkle of his nose.)

“Her voice, Husband,” Blaine replied in awe. “Tis that of an Angel’s for sure. Even from this distance, it lured them up to the surface.” Blaine shook his head as he looked from face to face. “I must say, I have never seen anything like it.”

“She is magical,” one particularly boorish Dwarf whispered to his equally boorish companion.

“Of course, she is,” the other Dwarf said. “She’s half Elf, ain’t she?”

Kurt looked at Blaine when that remark hit his ears, and Blaine looked back, for he had heard it, too. He scooted closer to his husband and took his hands, joining him in a secret chuckle. Dwarves seemed to understand little as to how their own biology functioned when it came to reproduction. The workings of Kurt and Blaine seemed to simply confound them. When Blaine told his clan (which had grown by vast numbers beyond his kin over the years, with refugees unwilling to get involved in what they considered “Man’s War”) that the Mountain had given them a child, they assumed she was a child of Kurt’s and Blaine’s by blood, considering that that was what young Dwarf children were told when their brothers and sisters were born.

“He has a point,” Blaine whispered, and Kurt laughed a little more. “But I wonder if Lord Elrond would know if she truly is half-Angel, for he is half-Angel, is he not? I know nothing about Angels. Can they sense their own?”

“I do not know,” Kurt admitted sadly, knowing that he most likely would not have the opportunity to find out. A journey back to Rivendell would be treacherous, especially during these Dark Times. “But I wish I knew.”

Blaine saw the sadness in his husband’s eyes, felt it in his heart as if it were his own. He had no wish for it to be there, not when their beautiful daughter was filling the air with such enchanting music. He needed to find a way to bring the smile back to his Elf’s face. “You do know that Cooper takes full credit for her talent?” Blaine informed Kurt with a cheeky wink. Blaine motioned to a rock in the clearing closer to where Daisy stood, where his brother had taken perch, staring at the child with such immense pride that one would have thought he had created her himself from the soil of the Earth.

That did it. Mention of Blaine’s brother Cooper always managed, for one reason or another, to put a smile on Kurt’s face.

“I know,” Kurt said, wiping joyful tears from Blaine’s eyes. “And I do not mind. But he cannot keep her.”