Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s the middle of February, the air is cold, and Eggsy is curled up to Harry’s side as the older gentleman reads the newspaper. The television is on Channel 4, an episode of ‘One Born Every Minute’ quietly playing as Eggsy lets out soft coos every time a baby comes on screen. Harry ignores the show, but his lips curl up into a small smile with every coo Eggsy makes.

“Are you aware quite how ridiculous you sound?” he asks after half an hour, finally setting aside the newspaper. Eggsy looks up at him, eyes bright as he hears a baby’s first cry come from the screen.

“Think about if we ‘ad one Harry. A lil boy with your eyes, a tiny Harry.” He’s silent for a moment. “I want one Harry. Can we have a baby?”

Harry looks startled for a few seconds, frowning slightly. “I… Eggsy, while I make it my mission in life to give you everything you ask for, we’re lacking in certain… necessary equipment to have a child.”

“I know that Harry, but there’s adoption, and like, surrogates right? We could go an’ get us a baby right now if we wanted.” Thoughts of a tiny baby pattering around Harry’s flat, JB following after it, has Eggsy cooing once more.

Although Harry is somewhat swayed by the pleading tone of Eggsy’s voice, practicality won out. “I don’t think it would be appropriate to make a rash decision about something like this, Eggsy. In our line of work… Would it be fair to bring a child into that mess?”

“The baby’s not goin’ on missions Harry. You’re gonna be here in London, cuz you’re Arthur now. Plus, we got Rox and Merlin to help us out, an’ it’s not like I go on tons of missions any more. We got the newbies. We could make it work. We could ‘ave a baby.” Eggsy whispers the last bit softly.

“In all the years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen Merlin around children,” Harry muses aloud, then turns his attention back to Eggsy. “Is this really something you want, love?”

“Yes Harry.”

“What ‘bout ‘er?” Eggsy suggests, offering Harry a photo of a pretty brunette. “She looks good?”

“Her file says the father has a history of heart disease. Too high a risk. Put her on the ‘no’ pile.” Harry replies coolly, flicking through another stack of potential candidates. Eggsy sighs and sets the photo aside.

“Harry, we’ve been doin’ this for months.” he whines, grumpily slouching in his seat.
“Don’t you want this to be perfect, Eggsy? It was your idea, after all. I am merely making sure we end up with the happiest, healthiest baby possible.”

“Yeah, but there’s such a fing as too picky, Harry.” Eggsy grumbles, picking up the next photo on his pile. They carry on for another few hours, as they have done every Friday night for three months, until Eggsy reaches the bottom of his pile. Harry’s also run out of pictures and just as they’re about to admit defeat for another week, Eggsy lets out a triumphant noise.

“Look Harry!” Eggsy shoves the picture into his lover’s face as he reads the file that accompanies it. “She’s seventeen and alone. Merlin’s file says that she’s been pregnant for a month, and she’s fit as an ox! No history of disease in ‘er family, and lookit her hair! It’s just like yours.”

“She has a similar eye color to yours as well,” Harry says, contemplating over the picture. If she was in the pile, it meant that she had passed every other qualification they had set up for Merlin to vet the candidates with. Seeing the hopeful look in Eggsy’s eyes, Harry sighs.

“I guess this Jenna Coleman will do.”

Eggsy’s squeal is deafening.

“Are you sure it’s okay that I stay here?” Jenna asks the two men carrying her bags into their home. Eggsy smiles and winks, causing her little heart to flutter, as the older man opens the door.

Eggsy gives her a tour of the house, talking excitedly about all of Harry’s bizarre collections. He wisely avoids the downstairs loo, deciding to save the conversation about Mr. Pickle for another time. He leads her to the guest bedroom, helping her put away her things while Harry makes dinner.

“You’re scheduled for an ultrasound tomorrow, can we join you?” Eggsy asks, placing Jenna’s clothes into the closet, as she tested the bed for comfort.

“Um, I figured you would? You guys are sort of going to be the parents to the kid, so I thought you’d be coming along for the memories?” Jenna answers, patting the Egyptian Cotton sheets in awe of how soft they were.

“We just wanted to make sure you were okay wit’it,” Eggsy confirms, moving to help her up from the bed so they could go back downstairs for dinner.

The nurse shows them into the ultrasound room, giving Jenna the gown and leaving her alone with Eggsy and Harry, who obligingly face the wall while she gets changed. She clears her throat and they turn back around, Eggsy grinning at her to relax her. They make small talk until the nurse comes back with the ultrasound machine, and Harry goes very quiet as the gel is smeared over Jenna’s abdomen. She hisses at the cool gel, reaching out to grab Eggsy’s arm.

They’re all quiet while the nurse shows them the image on the screen. “Everything looks good,” she tells them with a smile. “Happy and healthy.”

“It looks like a fuckin’ jelly bean,” Eggsy finally says, breaking the silence following the nurse’s proclamation. Jenna lets out a soft giggle and the nurse rolls her eyes as Harry stares at the ultrasound.

“Eggsy, watch your language. That is our child,” Harry whispers. Eggsy smiles, happy that Harry is so serious about their future.

“No, it really does look like a jelly bean,” Jenna agrees, tracing the outline of the baby in the air with her fingers.

Harry laughs and closes his eyes. “Please don’t encourage him Jenna.”

“Eggsy?!” Jenna shouts, rubbing her swollen stomach. Eggsy bursts into the room half a minute later, wild panic on his face.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” He demands, hurrying over to her.

“The baby’s kicking!” She grins, taking his hand and placing it on her bump so he can feel the movement beneath the skin. Eggsy goes quiet, a look of awe on his face.

Harry walks in on them, having heard Jenna’s shout. He smiles when he sees Eggsy’s face, sitting the other side of Jenna on the sofa. “May I?” he asks softly, placing his hand next to Eggsy’s.

The two lose themselves in the feeling of their child kicking beneath their hands and Jenna smiles. These two will be good for her kid. They’ll take good care of ‘em for sure.

Eggsy’s in the midst of a shoot-out when he gets a call from Harry on the Kingsman glasses. “Harry!” He cheers as he punches a guy in the face. “‘Ow’s it goin’?”

Harry chuckles, watching the feed from Eggsy’s glasses. “I just returned from the hospital. Would you like to know the gender of our child?”

“‘Corse I fuckin’ do!” Eggsy replies, taking out three assailants before moving his way to the exit. “Go on, boy or girl?”

“Lee.” Harry tells him, wincing as one of the goons lands a punch on Eggsy’s jaw. “Concentrate, Galahad. On your left.”

“Wot?!” Eggsy frowns, ducking another punch. “Harry, wot you on about?”

“It’s a Lee, Eggsy. We’re having a boy. Behind you.”

Harry is walking to the bedroom when he hears it.

“My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,” Eggsy croons from the guest bedroom and Harry leans against the door frame, sharing a smile with Jenna who’s sitting quietly as Eggsy sings to their child. Eggsy has his hands on Jenna’s stomach, rubbing what appears to be cocoa butter stretch cream into her skin, as he continues to sing.

He’d taken to singing a lot of country recently, discovering that they had more than enough songs written about their children that Eggsy loved.

“And while you’re out there gettin’ where you’re gettin’ to, I hope you know somebody love you, and wants t’same things too. Yeah this is my wish,” Eggsy finishes, tapping his forehead to Jenna’s stomach and closing his eyes.

They’re in the middle of watching a rom com when Jenna suddenly stills on the couch.

“Jenna?” Eggsy asks, turning towards the young girl who was staring at the screen in horror.

“I think my water broke.”

“What?!” Eggsy jumps and moves his hands violently around. “What do we do? We ‘ave the bag ready right ‘arry? And the- the car is outside an’-”

“Eggsy calm down, I am the one who is about to give birth.” Jenna hisses, slowly getting up from the couch as Harry calmly walks over to help her walk to the car.

“Eggsy, love, please grab the hospital bag from the counter and meet us in the car,” Harry calls out as he walks out the door with Jenna.

Eggsy grabs the bag and jumps in the car, his knee bouncing restlessly on the way to the hospital. Harry grins at him in the rear view mirror, winding through the London traffic seamlessly as he takes Jenna through her breathing exercises.

By the time they pull up to the hospital, Eggsy is practically bouncing in his seat, and Harry sends him inside to find Jenna a wheelchair just to give him something to do. They help her up to her room, and the nurse checks her over, telling her there’s a few more hours to wait before they can take her into the delivery room.

“‘Ow much longa?” Eggsy asks again for the twelfth time, pacing around the room. “We’ve bin here for hours.”

“Eggsy, I swear to god, if you don’t stop pacing I’m going to heave myself out of bed and break both your legs.” Jenna groans, draping her arm over her eyes. “Harry, take him to the canteen. Take him to the waiting room, take him anywhere but here. He’s making me anxious.”

Harry chuckles and takes Eggsy’s hand, kissing Jenna’s forehead before dragging Eggsy from the room.

“I swear to everything I love that if you do not take the best care of this child after I finish pushing him out my vagina, I will kill you and everyone you love,” Jenna snarls as the nurses continue to tell her to push. “I am pushing!”

“I have never been more happy t’be a male,” Eggsy whispers, horrified as Jenna squeezes his hand. “But I also appreciate women more now.” He winces as he hears a crack come from where Jenna is clutching.

“A healthy dose of fear and respect for women does a man good,” Harry remarks off-handedly, as Jenna crushes the hand she’s holding.

There’s a few more minutes of screaming and shouting (as well as a few more broken bones, Eggsy’s sure of it), and a tiny set of lungs joins in the chorus of noise, wailing louder than everyone else.

“Congratulations!” one of the nurses says, after they finish cleaning the baby boy off and wrap him in a light powder blue blanket. “What’s his name going to be?”

“Lee,” Harry and Eggsy say at the same time. They watch as the nurse hands Lee to Jenna so she can get a look at what she had created.

“Lee Archibald Hart,” Eggsy whispers and Harry turns to him in shock.

“You want him to have my last name?” he asks at the same time Jenna yelps, “His middle name is going to be Archibald?”

Eggsy flashes a grin and a wink at Jenna, then takes Harry’s hand and squeezes it gently. “I want ‘im to be a Hart.”

Harry kisses Eggsy as Jenna whispers to herself over and over, “His middle name is Archibald.”