A girl, a woman. A boy, a man.

The man told the girl a bedtime story, after setting her duvet, a story of home and love found, of comfort, of invincible amazons prodigious in strength and battle skills.

The woman hugged the boy to her chest, applied a balsam on the cuts he brought home that day. She sang him a nightsong. A song of kindness, of healing, of fighting his battles with brain instead of brawn.

And the little ones, exhausted after a frightening day in the world, could rest.

The man and the woman met their eyes.

The girl and the boy came out to play.