Work Text:
The click of her heels followed her down the long hallway until she slipped inside the classroom. As soon as she was inside, her students let out an audible sigh of relief, a few of them muttering ‘thank god’ under their breath. Aelin glanced at them over her shoulder as she put her bag into the locker she kept her belongings in.
“I’m sorry I’m late you guys, I wasn’t feeling well this morning,” she said, glancing at the silver-haired man that sat at her desk, looking casually elegant and entirely too handsome. His legs were crossed at his ankles as he leaned back in her chair, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. She glanced back at her students with raised brows. Mr. Whitethorn pushed himself from her chair, moving out into the hall before he poked his head back into the room, his tie swaying in the air.
“We have that lunch meeting today,” he reminded her, and Aelin nodded, shuffling some papers around. She paused and smiled at him, nodding her head.
“I’ll be there. Everybody thank Mr. Whitethorn for sitting in with you this morning,” she instructed, and all the voices of her students thanked him, albeit flatly. Aelin was the only one that could see the grin on his face as he disappeared from view. “Was he mean?” The class erupted in stories from the last hour, leaving Aelin laughing as she quieted her students.
“Why do you always have him sit in with us? Isn’t there anyone else?” One of her students asked, desperation in their voice. Rowan was known for being the hardass teacher – his class was difficult, though he didn’t ever give them more than they could handle. He taught History with ease, with passion, but he often looked so grumpy and unapproachable that few students ever truly liked Rowan Whitethorn.
“Oh come on, he’s not that bad is he?” A few of the students gave her pointed looks, and she smiled. “He has first period off and he’s always nice enough to sit with you when I can’t be here. Besides, he was much worse when I first started teaching here.” She winked at her kids, then moved from her desk, turning on the smart board and began diving into their lesson, thoughts of her morning swirling through her mind.
-
When Aelin got home from work that night, Rowan was already in their kitchen preparing pancakes, bacon, and eggs. She grinned placing the bags she carried on the bar and approached her fiancé, wrapping her arms around him, somehow managing to have snuck up on him. Without taking his eyes off the meal he was preparing, he wrapped his arm around her, rubbing her back softly. Aelin tilted her head back to look at him, and he turned his head slightly to meet her gaze. She puckered her lips, silently requesting a kiss, and he leaned down, pressing his fully to hers once, twice, three times, before flipping a pancake with one hand.
“You’re home late,” he noted, dumping the pancake onto a plate. Aelin sighed and removed herself from his grip, untucking her shirt from the high-waisted pants she wore. She began to unbutton it as she moved to their room to undress and change into more comfortable clothing, shedding her work clothes and tugging on one of Rowan’s plain white shirts.
“I know, I’m sorry,” she leaned against the doorway to the kitchen. “I had to pick up some things for the baby,” she said, fingers picking invisible lint off her shirt. Rowan froze at the stove, glancing at the bags Aelin had dropped onto the counter when she walked in. All of them were from baby stores, a few from Target. When he finally fixed his eyes on her, his throat bobbed, because she was smoothing her hands over her lower abdomen, a coy smile fixed on her lips.
“Baby?” He said, eyes brimming with tears as he moved from the stove to where she stood. Aelin nodded, tucking her bottom lip between her teeth as she grinned wider, silver lining her eyes. Rowan dropped to his knees before her, eyes on her stomach. Aelin tugged her shirt up to expose her bare belly, and Rowan ran his hands up her legs, then over her stomach, thumbs brushing small circles over her skin. He looked up at her, eyes full of awestruck wonder, as tears began to spill over. “We’re having a baby?”
“We’re having a baby,” she whispered back, running her hands through his hair. Rowan pressed his lips to her stomach, peppering kisses all over the bare skin. Aelin laughed, tears of her own falling as he tugged her down into his lap, kissing her over and over and over.
“We’re having a baby,” he said again, the smile on his face one she’d seen frequently over the last few years, but seldom did his eyes become so scrunched that she couldn’t see his irises. The last time he’d smiled this hard was when she had accepted his proposal six months ago. “I love you,” he said, kissing her face. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
-
“Mr. Whitethorn has been weird lately,” She overheard one of her students mumbling before class started. It was fifth period, and Aelin was utterly exhausted. Week sixteen was proving to kick her ass royally, and despite being told she would get her energy back after the first trimester, she found that to be complete bullshit.
“What do you mean weird?” Aelin asked, lifting her eyes from her emails.
“Oh my god, Miss G, he’s been so nice!” Another of her students squealed from the back of the class room. Aelin couldn’t help the soft laughter that bubbled from her lips at the shock of Rowan being nice. He wasn’t necessarily a mean teacher, he was just firm and took no shit.
“Has he now?”
“Conner said he forgot his homework, and Mr. Whitethorn asked if anyone else forgot their homework, and obviously several more people did but like, we weren’t going to say anything. But then! Oh my god, Miss G, then he like, said if anyone else had forgot their homework he would extend it until tomorrow without losing any points. Mr. WHITETHORN said that!” Aelin’s brows rose, for that was a little surprising. Anytime anyone forgot their homework, the reason didn’t matter, the student would automatically lose ten points every day it was late. Sometimes, depending on the assignment, he refused to take late papers at all. He was a military man through and through, always about the discipline. But Aelin couldn’t help but feel like it would be completely different once their little one was in the world, and judging by the way he was treating his students now, she found it to be true.
“Maybe his wife is poisoning him,” another student said. It took Aelin everything in herself to not laugh out loud, so instead she covered her mouth with her hand and went back to scrolling through emails, waiting for her class to settle down as the bell rang.
“He’s not married, he doesn’t wear a ring. He’s way too mean to have a girlfriend, either.”
“Miss G, what’s your fiancé like?” Another student asked. Aelin glanced at the emerald that was perched on her left hand and smiled. Her students often asked to meet her fiancé, because of the way Aelin talked about him after they’d gotten engaged at the beginning of the school year.
“He is the smartest, most handsome, and most wonderful man I have ever met,” she said, just as her phone buzzed next to her computer. She picked it up, ignoring how her students told her cell phones weren’t allowed at school, and smiled at the screen. Rowan was outside the classroom with the snack she’d requested. “Give me two minutes you guys,” she told them as she slipped into the hallway.
Rowan held a bag of French fries and gravy in one hand, a lemonade in the other. Aelin couldn’t help but grin at him and arch onto her toes, pressing her lips to his. “Thank you, my love.” Rowan brushed his hand over her small and nearly invisible bump before he disappeared into his classroom across the hall, his deep voice quieting his students as the door shut behind him.When Aelin walked back into the class, they all looked at her like she was crazy. Lunch period had just ended.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t have time to eat lunch so my fiancé brought me a snack.”
“He was HERE and you didn’t introduce us to him!” Cleo, the student that had been so shocked at Rowan’s nice behavior earlier, squealed. Aelin smiled.
“Do you guys really want to meet him sometime?”
“Um, DUH.”
“Is he hot?”
“The hottest,” Aelin confirmed, popping a fry into her mouth as she moved to the center of the room. “Okay, so Romeo and Juliet…”
-
Something had happened over the four-day-weekend, and now the bump was undeniable and not able to be hidden beneath her loose dresses and flowy shirts anymore. Today she decided to wear a pair of leggings and a school shirt, with one of Rowan’s school hoodies pulled over her usually thin frame. The hoodie would help hide the bump, though she knew her students would get nosy about why she was dressed like a sorority girl from the local university.
She sat at her desk as her first period students filtered in, all greeting her and she greeted them back. A smile tugged at her lips as the bell rang and she propped her head in her hands, taking in all of them. Aelin loved her job, truly loved her job and loved her students like they were her own kids. She seldom had a problem with any of her classes, and all of her students absolutely adored her.
“I have to tell you guys something,” she said, grinning widely.
“Did you get married over the weekend?” Savannah, one of her favorite students quipped from the front row. Aelin smiled and shook her head and stood from her desk, moving to the center of the classroom.
“You guys,” her voice went up and octave she was so excited. She turned to the side and smoothed her hands over her growing belly, the excitement of her students drowning out her announcing that she was pregnant. Half of the class ran up to her, enveloping her in a group hug, the rest of the students cheering from their desks. Aelin laughed, tilting her head back to wipe the tears from her eyes at the sheer joy her kids felt for her in that moment. She couldn’t believe just how blessed she was.
“I totally knew it, I knew you looked different but I didn’t want to say anything,” Savannah told her, hugging her tightly. Yes, Aelin Galathynius was very blessed indeed.
-
“So yes, it’s science fiction, but the parallels to our society are definitely there. I want you guys to spend some time today in four groups of five, discussing and writing out the parallels that you see between the society that Bradbury created within Fahrenheit 451 and our own. And in half an hour we’ll-“ Aelin paused, hand going straight to her stomach. Her students perked up, watching their teacher with intensity. It was funny to Aelin how they had become as protective of her as Rowan had – several of them asking throughout classes if she were okay.
“Miss G?” Aelin’s lips tugged up at the corners as she looked to Savannah and smiled.
“I’m okay. Sav, can you go grab Mr. Whitethorn for me?” Savannah nodded and was gone in a flash, and Aelin turned back to the class, hands resting on her belly.
“Sorry, guys. Break up into your groups, and in half an hour we’ll discuss everything as a-“
“Aelin?” Rowan burst into the room, chest heaving from running down the hall. Aelin looked at him with raised brows as Savannah slipped back inside and into her desk. Her students looked utterly bewildered.
“Did you literally run down here?” She asked, but upon taking in his panicked expression, her features softened. Two steps, and he was in front of her, one hand going to her stomach, the other brushing along her jaw, her cheeks, inspecting her thoroughly to make sure that she was okay. Aelin took the hand on her face and moved it to the side of her stomach, where she lay it flat, then lay her hands over the top of it. “I’m okay,” she assured him, thumbs brushing over the back of his hand. His eyes searched hers for a moment, until he felt the soft kick against his palm, then another, then another. Rowan’s eyes lit up, that smile that made his eyes nearly close because he was grinning so hard, spread across his face. Aelin let out a quiet laugh moving her hands to cup his face, wiping the tears that fell down his cheeks.
“I can feel her,” he whispered, a small laugh escaping his chest. The class was completely silent as Aelin rose onto her toes and kissed him, and then they were gasping.
“Bullshit,” one of the boys in the back of the class said before he could stop himself. Startled, Aelin pulled back from Rowan, who starting laughing, much to the surprise of the class.
“You guys wanted to meet my fiancé,” Aelin said to them, patting Rowan on the cheek. Rowan couldn’t stop grinning, even bent down to press a kiss to her belly. “See? I told you he wasn’t so bad.”
“I have to admit,” Savannah said, glancing around at her friends, “I don’t think any of us saw that coming.”