Take Me to Your Paradise

Epilogue: To The Future

A/N: So sorry for the long wait! This story is now complete - thank you so much to everyone who has read, voted and reviewed. I loved creating the universe of "I Wanna Sing You a Sunrise" and this one and your support meant the world.

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December 2021

Stefani finished wrapping another Christmas present for her Haus family, placed a colourful bow on top of the box and sighed, tilting her head as she observed the end result. "Oh, would you look at that? It's terrible; I'm so bad at this."

"It's perfectly fine." Natali grinned at her, reaching for a piece of green and silver wrapping paper. "Miss Lea, could you do me a favour and fetch a few more bows, please?"

The four-year-old nodded, slid down from her chair and rushed to the kitchen, reaching into a cabinet and pulling out a small container. A moment later she returned with a handful of bows, placing them in front of the sisters with a big grin. "Blue fow daddy!"

"Blue for daddy, that's right." Stefani smiled, grasped the blue bow Lea was handing her, amazed by how it really was just about exactly the colour of Bradley's eyes. "If I could figure out what to get for daddy first, that is. I swear, he's absolutely impossible to find a gift for when I want to give him everything and nothing just seems to be enough."

"It will come to you." Natali chuckled, easily and effortlessly wrapping one more present; the blonde made a face at how good and quick her sister was at this task. "Then again, there's not much that can beat the one you gave him last year; his perfect baby girl."

"I know." Stefani sighed, smiling, then snapped into attention when she spotted a flash of pink from the corner of her eye, advancing at a rapid pace towards the beautiful Christmas tree in the corner of the living room. "Speak of the devil. Hey, hey! You hold on right there, little lady."

Francesca halted for a brief moment and looked at her mother over her shoulder, an angelic smile spreading onto her face before she continued crawling towards the tree that had been calling for her irresistibly ever since it had been put up a couple of days ago. Stefani groaned, lowering the bow, not for the first time hoping she could glue an extra pair of eyes into her back to be able to spot the baby earlier. "Jesus Christ, I think that kid is breaking the world record in crawling speed any day now."

"I go, Stefi." Lea rushed after her sister, her red stockings padding against the floor as she caught up to the little girl, sitting down in front of her path. "No, sissy. You can't go to the twee."

Francesca was quiet for a moment, staring at Lea, then a long, loud wail escaped her, and Stefani chuckled, pushed her chair further from the kitchen table and made her way over to the children, gently picking up the nearly one-year-old baby. "Oh honey, I know you're extremely interested in your very first Christmas tree, but mommy's worried you will pull it down and then there might be a big ouchie, angel. A big, big ouchie."

She rocked Francesca soothingly, pressing kisses onto her adorable face; the little girl cried in frustration for a moment longer before agreeing to offer her a sunny smile through her tears and Stefani kissed her forehead, reached down to smooth Lea's blonde hair. "Thank you so much, princess. Crisis averted."

Lea nodded, heading back to wrapping duty and she carried the baby to the tree to have a look, rubbing her back tenderly; she and Lea and Bradley had decorated it on the day before, during Francesca's nap and she would never forget the huge smile that had spread on her daughter's face when she had first seen it.

"You really are such a Christmas baby, aren't you? And actually this is not your first Christmas tree after all, come to think of it; when you were three days old and mommy and daddy brought you home from the hospital in New York, we had a tree up and kept it for almost a month more because no one had the energy to take down the decorations."