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The new house is perfect, Mingjue reflects as he tries to pretend that he’s letting Jingyi win their one-on-one game of basketball in the drive. The only thing he doesn’t love about it (aside from how good Jingyi’s gotten at basketball, damn!) is that his son isn’t there every day.
It made sense to move when Jingyi started university. Jingyi would be sharing a suite with his three best friends, so it was easy enough to move the rest of his things to the new house. Mingjue thought it would be easier to deal with the new quiet in their lives if he could chalk it up to living farther from the busy center of town.
As far as coping mechanisms go, it wasn’t the worst any of them had tried.
“Yes!”
Mingjue shakes his head as Jingyi sinks another free throw.
“Gotta get your head in the game, old man!” Jingyi crows, launching the ball at Mingjue.
“You gotta get your asses in the house!” Jiang Cheng leans out of the kitchen window, brandishing a spatula. “Dinner’s ready.”
After dinner, after Jingyi is sent back to campus with enough leftovers to feed his roommates for the next few days, Mingjue and Jiang Cheng find themselves in the Spare Room.
“You bought a crib,” Mingjue says, staring down at the box.
“I did.” Jiang Cheng has the grace to look sheepish. He rubs the back of his neck. “I know we said we would wait until Meng Yao had something more definite, but I was at the mall, killing time while they rotated the tires on the Jeep, and there was this furniture store up on the second floor, and they were having a sale, and it’s a good crib, made of solid maple, not particle board and laminate, and—“
Mingjue cuts Jiang Cheng off with a brief kiss before he can fully spiral into the freak out he was clearly headed for.
“It’s alright,” he says once Jiang Cheng has calmed down. “Meng Yao is very efficient, so it can’t hurt to be prepared, right?”
Before Jiang Cheng can reply, MIngjue’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He swipes the screen. “A-Yao, you’re on speaker.”
“Is Jiang Cheng there?” Meng Yao asks.
“Yep.” Jiang Cheng reaches for Mingjue’s free hand.
“Good.” They hear some papers shuffling in the background. “Are you still considering adopting a child?”
“We’re ready,” Mingjue says.
“How ready?”
Mingjue and Jiang Cheng exchange startled looks.
“Uh, I don’t think we could be ready tonight,” Jiang Cheng says, a note of panic that Mingjue is sure he’s the only one who can detect in his voice. “Unless there was an emergency?”
They had discussed becoming foster parents first, but both Jiang Cheng and Mingjue knew if they accepted a child into their home, they wouldn’t want to let that child leave again unless the child’s family could be found and was willing and able to take them in. Still, given Meng Yao’s connections within the community and his mission to see that every half-sibling his wretched father produced found a loving and stable home, it wasn’t off the table.
“I know you said you wanted a baby,” Meng Yao says after a moment, “and I have a few ideas about that if you are adamant, but I was hoping you’d consider someone slightly older.”
“How much older?” Mingjue asks.
“I’m sending a photo to Jiang Cheng’s phone.”
Jiang Cheng retrieved his phone to see the message notification. When he opened the message, he and Mingjue gasped. The photo showed a round-cheeked, solemn-eyed girl of about two years old.
“That is Lily,” Meng Yao says. “She’s the daughter of a friend of Qin Su’s.”
“Is this a temporary thing?” Mingjue asks. Jiang Cheng squeezes his hand.
Meng Yao sighs. “No. Her mother, Sisi, has to return to China to care for her parents. They had been living with one of her cousins, but the man was killed in a car accident. At any rate, Lily was born here, and Sisi would like Lily to have a chance to be educated here as well. She’s willing to sign over all her parental rights, although she hopes you will allow her to send letters and call and one day even visit.”
“What do you think?” Jiang Cheng asks.
Meng Yao sighs again, and they can picture him pinching the bridge of his nose as he does when he’s overtired.
“Having spent the afternoon with her, I think she — Lily — is a holy terror. She reminds me of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park. I swear I lost a year off my life.”
Mingjue is already grinning at Jiang Cheng. “What’s the timeline?”
“Sisi would like to be home before Golden Week.”
“So that gives us, what, a month? Six weeks? When does Golden Week start this year?”
“October first,” Meng Yao replies. “Look, if you’re free tomorrow, I’d like to bring Sisi and Lily over so you can meet them.”
“Yes,” Mingjue says. He grimaces and looks at Jiang Cheng. “Yes?”
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng agrees. “What time?”
“Does two o’clock work for you?”
“We’ll be ready.”
“Alright. Well, I have kept Xichen waiting long enough. See you tomorrow.” Meng Yao disconnects the call before they can say goodbye.
Mingjue pockets his phone and looks down at the box.
“I don’t suppose you kept the receipt?”
“Actually, it’s a convertible crib. We’ll just need to buy a mattress for it.”
Mingjue laughs and pulls Jiang Cheng into his arms. “Well, shit,” he says as Jiang Cheng squeezes him tight, “I guess I’ll get the tool box from the garage.”
“You don’t think we should wait? What if they don’t like us?”
Mingjue steps back enough to look at Jiang Cheng. “I don’t think A-Yao would have called us if he didn’t think this would be a sure thing.”
“Still.”
“Still,” Mingjue acknowledges. “We can wait if you’d like.”
Jiang Cheng sighs. “No, let’s put it together. And then we can make a shopping list.” He groans and rubs his eyes. “We’re gonna have to baby-proof the entire house, aren’t we?”
“We can do that tomorrow.” Mingjue kisses Jiang Cheng. “Okay?”
“Okay.”
Tomorrow. Mingjue laughs to himself as he heads out to the garage. At least this time, they got a little warning before their lives were turned inside out.
He can’t wait.