Canon: Remove if not applicable.Mu cracks an eye open and watches the child watching them. He tilts his head to the side with an inquiring look on his face as he softly combes his fingers through Kouen's hair, to keep the man asleep against his chest.
"Morgiana?" he asks silently, so as to not wake his husband. "What's wrong?"
Morgiana shuffles closer, a stoic expression on her face. She looks between the two men on the couch, and then picks up a book from the floor, where it had fallen after it had slipped out of Kouen's grip. She carefully places the book on the table, and then looks toward the bookshelf standing behind Mu's head. He tips his head back to see what she is looking for, and sees her eyes locked on an old collection of Grimm fairytales. He smile. "You want to read it?" he ask, and she nods.
The problem is, it is just out of her reach, which is why she has such a thoughtful look on her face when she looks between the book and the sleeping redhead. She is clearly trying to figure out how to get the book down from the shelf without waking up her brother-in-law, and the chairs and arm-chairs are too heavy for her to move without making too much noise.
Mu waves her closer, and she gasp when he hoist her upward. It is just a little boost, because he can't get a perfect grip on her while still in the couch, not without moving too much, but she manages to reach it, and when he drops her back on the floor, she clutches the thick old book to her chest. She bites her lip, and with whispers, Mu asks if she wants him to read. "If we're quiet about it, we might not wake Sleeping Beauty," he says, and she hushes him, a finger pressed to his lips, and one pressed to her own. Then she nods, climbs onto the arm of the couch, and worms her way up beside her brother. While he keeps an arm securely around her, she opens the book, and he reads to her in a hushed voice.
During the tale, Mu feels Kouen stirr against him, and knows the man is listening as well, eyes still closed. After the story ends, Morgiana closes the book, and gets out of the couch. Kouen's voice come in a low murmur, after Morgiana has slipped away. "The Girl With Silver Hands?" he asks, "Really? To a child?"
Mu chuckles, thinking that Kouen really shouldn't talk about children reading gruesome stories. "It's your book, En. And from what I have understood, you read it at a far younger age." Kouen merely shakes his head, and shifts into a more comfortable position, now that he's awake.
"If I am Briar Rose to you," Kouen says as he watches Morgiana flip through the book to look at the pictures and show them to her younger sister, "does that make you the prince? Or can I call you Rapunzel?" Mu chuckles, and wraps his arms closer around him, fondly watching his sisters with the book. "I'll be whatever you want, love." he says, and Kouen hums. Mu presses a kiss against the top of his head, and smiles as Morgiana returns, little Narda sliding over the floor as she holds onto the older girls dress, like she is a tail. "En-san," she says evenly, "will you read to us?"
Kouen raises an eyebrow. "Very well," he says, and takes the book. When all four have made themselves comfortable, he starts to read to the girls, and Mu has to stop himself from snorting, because how is Cinderella better, when both stories involves mutilation? He doesn't say anything, however, and listens to the girls gasp in horror at the bloody tale. For some reason, they love these dark stories, and there is some moral to at least most of the Grimm's stories.
He props his chin against Kouen's head when the girls ask to hear another one, and this time Mu reads, while Kouen turns the pages. They choose a happier, less morbid one, to outbalance the two morbid tales from before, and when the children goes to bed that evening, Morgiana asks him how tall animals standing on each others backs would really be, and it becomes a little discussion, before the girl peacefully goes to sleep.