The first night home was hell.
Nova screamed like the world had ended, Tiana couldn't figure out breastfeeding, and Leo knocked over an entire bottle warmer while trying to Google "how to swaddle a baby without crushing their soul."
By dawn, the apartment looked like a war zone and smelled like formula, tears, and desperation.
But Nova slept finally curled against Tiana's chest, her tiny breaths even and rhythmic.
Leo stood in the doorway of the nursery, rubbing his eyes. "She's quiet. That feels illegal."
Tiana didn't laugh. She just looked at him and whispered, "I have no idea what I'm doing."
He walked over, crouched beside the chair, and touched Nova's hand. "Me neither. But I think we're doing it anyway."
The days blurred after that.
They traded off night shifts. Leo set alarms for every feeding. He googled "how to burp a newborn" and learned how to do diaper changes one-handed. Tiana started calling him "The Diaper Whisperer."
When Nova wouldn't sleep, Leo would put on soft jazz and dance her around the living room in slow circles, whispering things like, You've got your mom's stubbornness. I already know it.
Tiana caught him once shirtless, messy-haired, dark circles under his eyes singing Sweet Child O' Mine in a whisper while Nova stared up at him like he hung the moon.
And something in her heart cracked open.
Two weeks in, they were on the couch. Nova was asleep, finally, in the bassinet.
The apartment was quiet, golden with late afternoon light.
Tiana leaned into Leo's shoulder, half-asleep herself.
"Do you miss your old life?" she asked suddenly.
Leo was quiet for a beat. "The version where I didn't know you or her?"
"Yeah."
He shook his head slowly. "Not even a little."
Tiana blinked, surprised by how much she needed to hear that.
"I miss sleep," he added, grinning.
She smiled back. "Sleep is overrated."
They sat like that, the silence between them full of something solid and warm.
Not just comfort. Not just survival. Something else.
Something that looked a lot like love growing slowly, quietly, in the mess of everything else.