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“Alright, one down,” Stiles mumbled as he walked back into the living room.
Lydia was gently rocking the other baby, and the new mother's eyes, that had been drifting closed, popped back open when Stiles came back.
“Will you grab the purple pacifier for me?” Lydia asked him sleepily.
“Where is it?”
“Uh…kitchen I think.”
“Okay.” Stiles disappeared into the kitchen, and was gone for longer than Lydia expected him to be. When he finally came back, he was carrying a glass of milk.
"Where is it?" Lydia asked.
"Where's what?" Stiles replied as he brought the glass to his lips and took a large swig. Almost immediately, he opened his mouth again and let the contents fall back into the glass. "What did I just put in my mouth?"
"What color was the lid on the jug? Blue or yellow?" Lydia wondered with exasperation.
Stiles looked like he was trying to remember, then turned back to his girlfriend, "Are those my only options?"
Lydia groaned. "That was probably my breast milk, which means I'm going to need to pump more tonight before we go to bed."
"Sorry..."
"It's fine." She rolled her eyes. "Where's the pacifier?"
He looked confused for a moment before realization dawned on him. "Pacifier. Kitchen. Pink. Got it!"
"Purple!" Lydia called back as quietly as she could.
"Purple. That's what I said."
Once both babies were in their crib and Lydia had replenished the milk supply that Stiles had wasted, the new parents were ready to go to bed. It was only 6:00, but they had to sleep while they could. They had just turned off the living room light when there was a knock at the door.
Stiles flipped it back on quickly and looked at Lydia. "Were you expecting company?"
Lydia shook her head. "Not tonight. I'm guessing you weren't either?"
"No," Stiles told her, and Lydia sighed. "Do you think if we ignore them they'll just go away?"
"I think if we ignore them, they'll just keep knocking and eventually wake the babies up."
Stiles gasped then tripped over himself to get to the door and see who it was.
"Surprise!"
"Kira? Scott?" Stiles turned to Lydia then back to their friends. "What uh...what are you guys doing here?"
"We came in a day early and figured...what the hell? Let's stop in and say 'hey'...'," Scott told them.
"Awe!" Lydia plastered a smile on her face. "You guys! That's so...you shouldn't have!"
Stiles did his best to hide his laughter at Lydia's reaction.
"Can we see them?!" Kira was practically shaking with excitement.
Stiles and Lydia exchanged looks before Lydia cocked her head toward the back. "Come on in."
“Oh Lydia!” Kira gasped as she looked into the crib at the two sleeping infants. “FaceTime doesn’t do them justice!” Lydia smiled sleepily in response.
“I want to see!” Scott whisper-yelled as he poked his head next to his girlfriend. “Oh my God… they’re so pretty!”
“Can I hold one?” Kira asked excitedly.
“Sure,” Lydia told her as she carefully picked up one of the sleeping infants and handed her over to the kitsune.
“Which one do I have?” She wondered aloud as she began to rock the baby back and forth.
“”Uh…”Stiles began, as he rubbed his eyes and moved toward Kira to examine the infant. “Aurora.” He said before cocking his head toward the other baby. “That’s Amelia.”
“How can you tell?” Scott asked him.
“We color-coded them. Right, Lydia?”
They turned around to see Lydia leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. She suddenly jerked her head up and looked around. “What?”
Stiles turned back to Scott and Kira. “Yep. Color-coded. Amelia wears pink, and Aurora wears purple. And we painted their toes, so when we mix them up, they aren’t mixed up for long.”
“When you mix them up?” Scott asked.
Stiles sighed. “It happened. We moved past it.”
“Lydia, are you okay?” Kira asked the banshee, whose head had fallen back against the wall and eyes slowly closed.
“Hm?” She blinked and looked back up at everyone. “Sorry. I’m just tired.”
“You both look exhausted.” Scott told them. “I mean, Stiles, I haven’t seen your eyes that dark since…” He stopped when Stiles glared. “You know…since you weren’t you.”
Stiles sighed. “Sorry. We’re not normally like this.”
“The past two weeks have just been hell.” Lydia continued. “Aimee got an in ear infection, and then as soon as it got better, Rorie got one.”
“And they can’t just deal with the pain like we could. To them, it’s the worst pain they’ve ever experienced. So it’s just screaming. And it’s not like Lydia or I are werewolves who can take pain. That would make our lives easier. No, instead their mom is a banshee. So, I mean…screaming is like second nature to them.”
“And one when one them screams, the other one screams. So it’s been two weeks of them screaming, and this is the first time that they’ve both been able to sleep and you guys are here, which is fine! We love you and we wanted to see you but-“
“But we’re tired.”
Kira and Scott exchanged looks, before Scott reached into his back pocket and pulled out two cards. “Merry Christmas.”
“What’s this?” Stiles asked hesitantly.
“The hotel we got,” Kira began. “We’re not staying in it. You are. We’re going to watch the girls.”
“Are you joking?” Lydia was on the verge of tears from sheer tiredness. “Because if you’re joking, I may cry. Although, if you’re being serious I still may cry. It’s been that kind of week.”
“We’re serious.” Scott told her. “We were going to wait until Christmas to give you the last couple of nights, but you look like you could use it now. Stay for as long as you want. It could be yours for the whole week.”
They spent the next hour and half packing overnight bags and running through routines with Scott and Kira, before finally heading to the hotel to get a good night's sleep.
No sooner had their heads hit the pillows they'd fallen fast asleep.
Lydia woke up at 3 am, after sleeping for a good seven hours.
She rolled over to face Stiles and saw him smile before his eyes fluttered open.
“You're awake too?” He asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. You know..this is nice. Quiet. Peaceful. Calm.”
He smiled knowingly. “Are you ready to go home?”
“I miss them,” Lydia admitted.
“Me too. I feel like I need to go check on them.”
“Then let's go.”
When they got home, they padded softly into the nursery and looked into the crib, watching their two perfect angels sleep for the next hour.
“You know, I think we should start another tradition.” Stiles whispered after awhile.
“Oh, yeah? What's that?”
“Not necessarily a Christmas tradition, but...we should just take a night and instead of running around to get things ready for the next day, we should just watch them sleep. People are always saying kids grow up so fast. I don't want to take these moments for granted.”
“I think that's an excellent tradition.”