Chapter Text
September, 20XX
8 years into the future
Shorter woke at the ringing of an alarm.
Great. 6 am already...
He needed to be up because he had to make it to a meeting. And also, bring the kids to school.
"Wakey! Wakey!"
Speaking of kids, one was in the room at such an early hour. Shorter knew she could come in the room any time she had a bad dream. But that happened in the night and not this early in the day.
He turned his head after grabbing his phone to silence the alarm. The face of a little girl was closer to him than he thought.
"Mei Mei. ..get off of me. It's too early for carries from daddy."
"Sorry, daddy!"
The girl leapt off of Shorter's chest, letting off an 'oof.' Shorter took a minute to swing his feet of his bed and slip them into soft satin slippers. He looked behind to see the space before his spot was empty.
Yut-Lung woke up ahead of me?
"Mommy went to cook you breakfast today!" The girl cheered as she hopped in on spot. She kept fidgeting while she waited for her father to fully wake.
"And make you your snacks for your first day of school, I supposed."
"Oh! Snacks! Mommy can make snacks!"
Shorter went to pick the little girl in her arms. She was getting heavier with each passing year. But Shorter still wanted to carry his little girl while she was still in the tender years of her youth.
"You said it's too early for carries, daddy!" the girl exclaimed, feigning annoyance.
"Well, I was wrong." Shorter pinched her nose, to which the girl chuckled brightly. "It's never too early to carry my one and only Zhen Mei."
Zhen Mei giggled before opening her mouth to utter a single word.
"JUBILEE!"
"Huh?"
"I wanna be called Jubilee." Zhen Mei smiled as she looked at her father. "Since I'm gonna go to school, I want to the other kids call me 'Jubilee."
Yut-Lung asked for the cook to take the morning off. He felt that it was his duty as his adopted daughters' 'mother' to make the meals they might need to stay energized during their first day of school. He had no problem packing in Zhen Mei's snacks. It would be the other daughter he would have trouble packing a lunch for. Unlike Zhen Mei, he didn't know his older daughter's favorites.
He made a guess and made her a pasta he found her enjoying the first day she came to the Wong household. He also put in her lunchbox a few biscuits the servants say she enjoyed having.
She might be a newer edition to the family but, Yut-Lung was determined to make her feel that she had a place with him, Shorter and Zhen Mei.
"You making sure what's being cooked isn't poison?"
That voice.
"Lin Mei?!"
A girl with long black hair stood behind him. When Yut-Lung turned, he found that her hair was already tied into a single, big braid. Much like his. It made him wary. Sometimes, he felt nervous being around the newer adopted daughter.
She looked like a mirror image of him. Except she looked younger.
"Don't scare me like that." Yut-Lung hissed out. This was met with a smirk from the girl.
"Funny how you can get scared of me." Lin Mei said mockingly. "A little girl."
Yut-Lung mentally told himself not to throw the girl's lunchbox to her face.
Patience, Yut-Lung...Patience....
"Is that...for me?" Lin Mei pointed as she went closer to the counter where Yut-Lung prepared food.
"Why, yes. Who else is it for, girl?" Yut-Lung said icily before catching himself direct a sharp tone to the girl. He spoke to her a bit more warmly after that. "You should know, Zhen Mei likes to eat. But no child her size can stomach that much yet."
As Yut-Lung saw her peer at two lunchboxes, he saw that the girl had on her a school uniform.
"You don't need to wear your school clothes this early."
"I'm sorry...I'm just...excited."
Yut-Lung found her averting her gaze.
"Oh." Yut-Lung said simply. He knew the girl still held some resentment towards him but he didn't know the girl was looking forward to school.
"I wasn't the only one."
Yut-Lung raised an eyebrow to her. As he opened his mouth to speak, he heard someone call out from behind them.
"Zhen Mei is excited for school too."
Both Yut-Lung and Lin Mei turn at the same time. They were met with Shorter carrying a little girl on one of his arms. Also, he was shirtless.
"Wear a shirt whenever you wake up, darling. You don't want the help to worry about you." Yut-Lung tut-tutted his husband. He went closer to him to give a kiss on the lips. As they broke off, their little one giggles at their display of affection.
"I wanna kiss from mommy too!"
Yut-Lung heeded Zhen Mei's request and press his lips to her big puffy cheeks.
As he did so, Lin Mei cleared her throat.
"Ahem...Yu--err--mom? You also made us...breakfast?" Lin Mei pointed to the four plates that were stationed near hers and Lin Mei's lunchboxes. There were three that contained pancakes, each topped with varying amounts of whipped cream, syrup and other foods either on the side or on top.
"Why yes." Yut-Lung replied. " I decided to make a special breakfast for today’s occasion."
Zhen Mei craned her neck and furrowed her brows when she saw the pancakes. "Aw man! I don't like pancakes." Zhen Mei folded her arms over her chest.
"And...I made waffles just for you, my little Mei Mei." Yut-Lung tapped the tip of Zhen Mei’s nose with his finger, making the little girl giggle some more.
Lin Mei couldn't help but glare at the other girl. 'Aren't pancakes and waffles the same thing?' She then passed by the three as she headed through the door. Just as she was about to go pass the doorway, a voice calls out for her."
"Hey Chantilly!"
It was Zhen Mei.
"Don't you want a kiss from mommy?" She said.
“...”
Lin Mei didn’t say a word before making her way through the door completely. This made Zhen Mei look at Yut-Lung with a frown.
"Don’t worry about her, little Mei Mei.”Yut-Lung said as he patted his child's head. “She needs more time, Mei Mei."
"What kind of time?" Zhen Mei asked, not satisfied with Yut-Lung's remark.
"More time, Mei Mei." Shorter cut in, sounding solemn. "More time."
Zhen Mei was too young to understand what her parents meant by more time. But she was old enough to enjoy something as simple as having waffles for breakfast. Her father helped himself with his breakfast which comprised of pancakes with fish and dumplings on the side. Even when he's wedded with a member of the Lee family, he still likes to eat the way he always did: having leftovers from dinner as a part of breakfast.
Yut-Lung prepared the meals and he was happy his younger daughter and husband are enjoying his handiwork.
'Glad I didn't burn them this time.'
His pace at eating his pancakes was slow. He wanted to savour the imported maple syrup he got from a Canada-based associate. As he ate, he eyed his family. That included the girl seated right across him. She was staring at her pancakes. She appeared to be eating from a distance but clearly she was just prodding at her meal with her fork. She barely made a dent at her breakfast.
"Lin Mei, you haven't touched your food." Yut-Lung called her out.
"...I'm. ..not hungry." She said in a low voice. Right as she spoke, her stomach let out a churning sound. She covered her belly as a blush crept her face.
Zhen Mei turned to the older girl ."Chantilly's tummy growling! It's roaring because it's a hungry lion now! Roar!"
Lin Mei pouted at Zhen Mei. "First off, I'm not Chantilly. Second, my TUMMY is just making that sound because I'm not hungry--"
Her stomach roared again and she held her stomach once more. Zhen Mei made another roar sound, imitating a lion. Lin Mei had no choice but to take bigger bites of her pancakes topped with whipped cream and mixed berries.
Afterward, they finished their meals with relative silence apart from the clattering of tableware for a while. That is until Lin Mei said,"Why do you call me 'Chantilly,' anyway?" She directed her gaze to Zhen Mei who had her lips glossed with syrup and whipped cream.
Zhen Mei gave her answer with a smile. "Because you liked the chantilly we gave you when you first came to us, jie jie!"
"Jie jie..?" Lin Mei echoed, her eyes wide as saucers. Zhen Mei just kept her smile.
"You're a part of us now. I might as well call you my big sister!”
"But I came later than you."
"Mommy said I should call you my BIG SISTER!" Zhen Mei threw her arms out proudly, letting her spoon and fork clatter on the floor. This prompted Shorter to pick up the utensils and Yut-Lung to give Zhen Mei a quick scolding.
While the parents tended to the child, Lin Mei stared at her plate. She didn't realize she ate through her breakfast quickly. The berries tasted fresh and the pancakes Yut-Lung cooked were good, she thought. And they didn't have poison in them.
After breakfast, Shorter cleaned himself up to wear a suit and tie. He had to go to a meeting that morning. Yut-Lung helped Zhen Mei take a bath.. It took a while to get Zhen Mei into her uniform since she insisted she do a song and dance for her father before she put on her clothes. Lin Mei waited in a room staring at the enormous peacock hanging on one of its walls. She wondered how long it took to make such a big picture.
Amidst waiting, she decided to turn her one braid of hair into two. She redid her hair in one of the many washrooms scattered in the enormous mansion. At least she didn't get lost like the first time she was dragged into this household.
'Dragged...I feel dragged to be a part of something I'm not--'
"Lin Mei! Where are you?"
It was Yut-Lung. Lin Mei went out after one last look at herself in the reflection. She wondered if she looked like any other 10-year-olds she would find in class. She concluded that the chances were slim but...
She can't forget what Shorter--her now father--told her.
'You deserve to live like any child your age needs to live. '
She can't forget those words. Along with the words she had with Zhen Mei. Or how she would like to cocoon herself away from those who might harm her--
"Jubilee is here with Chantilly!"
Zhen Mei swung herself to grab Lin Mei's arm and causes the two to circle on a spot. Lin Mei begged for the little girl to stop. She can feel two of her braids unfolding the longer they keep it up.
"Alright you two. Enough fun and games." Yut-Lung came with Shorter, clad in a gray business suit, by his side. He was dressed for a meeting with some associates of the Lee conglomerate. Shorter came closer and the littler girl unlocked herself from Lin Mei and let herself get scooped by Shorter. She giggled as Shorter pinched her nose.
"Whose a playful little girl? Whose a playful litte girl?" Shorter asked Zhen Mei in a sing-song voice. To which Zhen Mei gave out a joyous reply of "It's me! Jubilee!"
Yut-Lung laughed at the exchange. "That means you too, Mr. Wong."
Shorter gave his his husband a smirk. He then gave out Yut-Lung a sarcastic remark, "Thanks for calling my out, Mr. Wong."
They gave each other a quick kiss on the lips.
While they did their banter, Lin Mei gave them a funny look. So did Zhen Mei. But hers was made out of confusion over anything resembling annoyance.
“Call daddy out for what, Mommy?”
Shorter was in charge of sending the girls off their school. This prep school Yut-Lung enrolled them in required all attending students to wear uniforms within the premises of the campus. That includes those attending the first and fifth grades. Like Zhen Mei and Lin Mei.
During the drive, Shorter caught glimpses of his adopted daughters deep in a conversation in the rear view mirror. His ears told him they were talking about school and some random trivia about seahorses.
“Did you know seahorses stay with their mate for the rest of their lives? Mates are like mommy is to daddy, right, Chantilly?”
Lin Mei paused. “...You can say that.”
“Alright you two. Enough chatting behind my back.” Shorter said as he parked the car in front of a building with architecture that made it resemble an old castle to Zhen Mei. “We're here.”
“Our school is a castle?!” Zhen Mei said.
“Not exactly.” Shorter said as he unbuckled his seat belt and turned the car engine off. “Your school has been around for a long, long time. It's no castle but it's one of the older buildings in New York City.”
Zhen Mei made her mouth turn into an “O” shape and made it let off a “Wow” sound. Lin Mei just sat quietly and Shorter noticed her staring what's straight to her: nothing but air.
“Hey, kiddo.” He called out to her. “You nervous?”
Without looking at him, Lin Mei replied. “Yes.”
Shorter made a short pause before opening his mouth. “That's normal.” That made Lin Mei look at him with wide eyes. “You haven't been to school for a long time.”
Lin Mei murmured to herself, “I've never been to school period.”
Shorter took their bags from the front seat and opened the back door to let the girls out. He was going to let his adopted daughters into their first days of having a quality education.