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“Are you sure you’ll be okay? You have water? Enough food? Is the AC too low? What if your feet start to hurt? What about your cravings? Ah, maybe I should just stay home today.”
“Ajax, I promise that I- we’ll be fine.” Zhongli placed a hand over his belly, rubbing circles over the growing bump.
“Now go, you’ll be late and I won’t help you write an apology essay this time.”
Childe grimaced, remembering the late night that he and Zhongli spent together writing an essay on the “Principles of Punctuality” the last time he was late to his Political Science class. Childe acquiesced and threw his bag over his shoulder, giving one last pleading look to Zhongli to let him stay home. Zhongli cocked his brow and motioned towards the door, signaling his lover to leave. Childe placed a soft kiss on Zhongli’s forehead and crouched to place a kiss upon his belly before turning to leave through the door.
“Alright, bye baby and baby #2! Please call or text me if you need anything, I’ll be here faster than the blink of an eye. Oh! By the way, the food I left for you in the fri-“
“ Ajax.” Though Zhongli said his name softly, Childe has been with Zhongli long enough to pick up on the chiding undertones in his voice.
“Alright, alright. I’m going. Love you!”
“I love you too!” Zhongli called out as he watched Childe walk hastily down the stairs before running out of the complex on his way to the college.
Once Childe was completely out of sight, Zhongli went back inside their apartment and pondered on what he would do today while Childe was away at his classes. He could cook, but Childe had already made enough meals to last the both of them a week, not including the extra dishes he made in the event Zhongli had cravings. He could go shopping, but Childe stops by the grocery store everyday on his way back from the college, making sure they stay stocked up on groceries and essentials, and sometimes a little something extra or two for Zhongli and “baby #2”. Zhongli looked around the apartment and settled on tidying a few things up, vacuuming, and changing out the bed linens. He can already hear Childe’s words of protest when he comes home later and sees that he had been cleaning; he laughed at the thought. Ajax is such a worry wart.
After Zhongli finished cleaning, he looked in the fridge to see what he could have for lunch. He smiled as he pulled out a Tupperware from a stack on the left side of the fridge, all labeled with different iterations of pet names: “My love, baby, my world, #1 mama, my lovely husband”. His heart warmed and he placed a hand over his belly as the little one within him kicked against his side.
“Yes, your papa and I are very excited to meet you, little one. Or were you perhaps more interested in the dumplings papa made us?”
Zhongli smiled as he thought to text Childe something:
To: Baobei
“Baby #2 says thank you :-) they kicked as soon as I took out the dumplings you made”
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With that, Zhongli heated up the pork and vegetable dumplings and took them to the sofa to eat while watching some television. It was Shark Week and Zhongli tuned into the nature channel to watch the special documentaries they were running on the creatures. He paid close attention, excited to tell Childe about all of the interesting things he learned about sharks over dinner. Once he finished his meal, he took his plate to the kitchen and put it in the sink, then returned to the sofa and dozed off while waiting for his Ajax to come home.
—
Childe hated leaving Zhongli at home, but Zhongli insisted that he go to school to get his education and finish his degree. He understands his education is important, but missing a few days wouldn’t kill him or hurt his grades, right? Besides, he just wanted to stay home all day and cuddle, talk to baby #2, and make sure Zhongli was okay and had everything he needed. But instead, here he was, running to school — and running late at that.
Childe made it to his Political Science class, albeit 10 minutes late. The moment he walked into class, the teacher made sure that Childe knew they were well aware of his tardiness.
“Ah, Mr. Childe, glad you finally decided to join us. Please, have a seat, we’re about to have a pop quiz!”
The class groaned in unison and Childe dragged his feet to his chair. He set down his backpack and pulled out his good luck pen: a blue pen with a small narwhal character on top that acted as the pen’s button, a gift Zhongli had given him a few months ago. Wish me luck, my love.
“You all will have 45 minutes to complete this quiz, there are 10 multiple choice questions, and 3 short answer questions. Any incomplete quizzes will not be considered and you will receive a 0.”
As the teacher was handing out the tests, they briefly paused by Childe’s chair, whispering, “If you get an A on this exam, I’ll ignore your tardiness today.”
Childe straightened up in his chair and got to work on the exam as soon as the teacher moved on to passing out the quiz to the rest of the students; he was eager to get an A as he didn’t want to have to suffer through another essay again. Much to his relief, Childe found that the exam wasn’t that difficult, it was full of topics that Zhongli drilled into his head while he was helping him study. After 30 minutes or so, he finished the quiz and turned it in up front where the “completed assignments” rack was. He spent the rest of the class chewing at the aglet of his hoodie string, watching the teacher grade each paper, nervous of whether or not he had done well enough to deserve an A.
The teacher finished grading the last quiz and they got up, beginning to hand the quizzes back to the other students. Childe felt even more nervous when he heard the sighs of the other students and the disappointed look the teacher gave some of them. When they came across Childe, they gave him a nod of approval and slid his test onto his desk, then continued passing tests back to the rest of the students.
Grade: A. Nice job. Don’t be late next time.
Childe breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis avoided. He put the quiz away in his backpack, excited to show the good grade off to Zhongli later once he got home. The teacher dismissed the class and Childe made his way to the student union, where he typically spent the 1 hour block between his Political Science and Math Fundamentals class. As he was sitting and scrolling through his socials, he got a message notification from Zhongli.
From: Baby 💕
“Baby #2 says thank you :-) they kicked as soon as I took out the dumplings you made”
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Childe’s heart fluttered as he viewed the photo Zhongli sent along with the text: it was a photo of him smiling with a silly filter that gave him cat ears and whiskers, his hand was resting atop his belly, and the dumplings were sitting on the counter behind him. He wanted to go home ASAP now and spend the rest of his day with Zhongli and baby #2, but he still had two more classes to go until he could leave for the day. He was putting his phone away when a couple of guys bumped past him, shouldering him purposely, causing him to drop his phone on the floor. He picked up his phone and saw that the screen was cracked and glared at the two guys walking ahead of him, laughing.
“Hey! You two got a problem? You broke my fucking screen. Are you going to fix it?”
Childe waved his broken phone at the two guys as they turned around to face him.
“Fix it? But we did you a favor breaking it, now you don’t have to look at pictures of ugly ass people.”
Ugly ass people? Are they talking about the picture of Zhongli? Now, Childe was rightfully angry.
“Well it seems you didn’t help much, I’m still looking at a couple of ugly ass people right in front of me.” Childe rolled up his sleeves as the two guys started walking towards him.
“You wana keep running your mouth, pretty boy? You better stop before we stop it for you.”
“Try me.”
The taller of the two swung his fist towards Childe, but he caught it and proceeded to twist the man’s arm while punching him square in the jaw with his right hand. The man fumbled backwards, stunned and rubbing at his now semi crooked jaw. The man swallowed back blood and glared at Childe, looking as though he wanted to continue fighting.
“Got anything else you wanted to say about my husband?” Childe stepped slowly towards the two, cracking his knuckles and stretching out his arms.
The other man looked around and spotted an administrator in the corner, staring at the 3. He pulled at his friend’s sleeve, telling him there’s someone watching and that they should leave. The taller man gave Childe one last look before retreating with his friend.
Childe went back and picked up his bag and put his phone in his hoodie pocket. He winced as he flexed his hand and felt a dull pain in his wrist, likely from the impact of his fist making contact with another man’s jaw. He went to the restroom and used the sport tape he kept in his bag to wrap his wrist so that it would hopefully be healed by the time he got home. He sighed, knowing Zhongli is going to worry over him once he sees his bandaged up wrist. But he’ll understand this time it was necessary, right? Childe finished bandaging his wrist and headed off towards his next class for the afternoon.
At around 2PM, Childe had finally finished all of his classes for the day. Finally, I get to go home. Ah, grocery store first, though. Childe nearly ran off the campus to catch the next bus that would take him to the stop closest to the grocery store near their apartment. After Childe got off the bus, he made his way to the grocery store where he picked up a few ingredients to use for tonight’s dinner — despite having plenty of cooked food at home, he wanted to treat Zhongli to something special tonight — and some desserts that he knows Zhongli and baby #2 would love.
He walked the rest of the way home since the grocery store was only a few blocks away from their apartment. He set the bags on the floor as he fished around for the apartment key in his pocket. He opened the door and picked up the bags, bringing them inside.
“Baby, I’m home!” Childe called out into the quiet apartment.
No response.
“Zhongli?”
Childe walked inside and found Zhongli on the living room sofa, fast asleep. He looked so cute . His hair was loose and undone, splayed out across the pillow, he was only half covered by the blanket he threw over himself, and his shirt was just barely riding up, his growing belly peeking through. To top it all off, their cat had decided to make a bed out of Zhongli’s soft belly, and was resting right on top of it. Childe’s heart swelled from the sight and he took his phone out to take a photo, only to remember it was broken. He sighed and walked over to Zhongli, bending down to kiss his forehead.
“Hehe, you’re such a sleepyhead. I’m home.” Childe whispered lovingly.
Zhongli stirred in his sleep and woke up to see Childe hovering above him, grinning. Zhongli smiled as he reached up to bring Childe closer for a kiss.
“Welcome home, Ajax.”