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“You nervous?” Shiro asked, rubbing Pidge’s hand with his thumb where they sat beside him, watching them squirm in their seat, never quite comfortable.
“Yes, and I don’t know why!” Pidge said with a scowl. “I mean, I took on quiznaking Zarkon without feeling so…” Pidge made an irritated noise that made Shiro chuckle.
“Just blame it on the baby.” He told them, pressing a kiss to their temple.
“I blame a lot of things on the baby, which probably isn’t fair because they are barely the size of my pinkie or something.” Pidge pointed out, leaning their head against Shiro’s shoulder. “So I should probably take ownership of this one. But I think it’s like the good kind of nervous? ‘Cause I’m kind of excited to see them? And it’s going to make it a lot more real, you know? Seeing them on the monitor, and everything… It’s really happening. I’m really growing what will someday be a flesh and blood baby and then we have to do our best to not totally screw up their life and be actual responsible adults and parents. Well, you’ve always been responsible, that’s why you’re the Dad Friend and probably the only reason Lance has lived this long, so you’re probably going to be a natural at this—”
“Don’t say that.” Shiro said, squeezing their hand to cut off Pidge’s rambling. “I don’t think I’m a ‘natural’ at parenting, Dad Friend or not, and I’m just as nervous about that part as you are.”
He leaned over and gently pressed a kiss to Pidge’s cheek, making them blush and grin.
“But I am also just as excited. Yes, it’s going to be a lot more real. We actually made something, made a little tiny person to love and hold.” He said.
“That in and of itself is a really weird but also really cool thought.” Pidge said. “It’s all really a weird but cool thought.”
“We’ll be fine,” Shiro insisted, kissing them again. “And we’ll love every moment of it.”
“Oh yeah?” Pidge said, smirking up at him. “Three A.M. feedings? Tantrums in public? Endless reruns of kids cartoons with obnoxious voices, or worse, really creepy puppets? Mounds of never-ending laundry? Dirty diapers? Potty training? And you know this kid will eventually have to go through puberty.”
“Well,” Shiro conceded. “We’ll love every other moment of it.”
“Katelyn?” Said an unfamiliar voice from near the sign-in window, a nurse in pale-pink scrubs poking her head out.
“That’d be me.” Pidge said as they pushed themselves out of the chair, Shiro’s arm around their waist as they followed the nurse. After the nurse weighed Pidge, they were shown to an exam room. Pidge made an indignant noise as Shiro suddenly scooped them up to perch them on the edge of the exam table, their cheeks red and gently shoving Shiro. The nurse tried and failed to hide her smile.
Shiro watched as Pidge grew increasingly impatient and even more nervous now that they were actually in the same room as the sonogram equipment. Granted, he felt the same way as his wife. He just wanted to see his baby and be reassured that both the baby and Pidge were healthy.
The doctor—a kind faced woman in her mid-forties—entered the room as the nurse finished taking a blood sample from Pidge.
“Have you noticed or experienced anything particularly unusual?” The doctor asked while gently feeling Pidge’s belly.
“Well, yeah, but I’m pregnant. It’s all kind of unusual.” Pidge said with a shrug. The doctor chuckled.
“True, true.” She said. The woman suddenly looked a little thoughtful. “Especially this being your first… Hmmm…”
Pidge and Shiro exchanged a worried glance, which the doctor smiled at.
“No, no, don’t worry.” She said. “But could you tell me about your current diet?”
Pidge started ticking off lots of different foods on their fingers, peanut butter—of course—being the food item that was the most consumed. To the point that Shiro had told them that their baby was going to believe that peanut butter was as necessary for living as water and oxygen. Pidge asked him why he seemed to indicate that was wrong.
“What about movement?” The doctor asked when Pidge finished. “Have you felt the baby move at all?”
“Yeah, they move a bit.” Pidge admitted, fondly running a hand over their rounding belly. This caught the doctor’s attention, tilting her head.
“They?” She repeated.
“Yeah, they.” Pidge said with a nod. “Since we’re not planning on finding out if it’s a boy or a girl.”
“So, until they are born, they will be a ‘they’, just like their mother.” Shiro said.
The doctor smiled, but there was something in her expression that neither Shiro nor Pidge could decipher.
“Well,” She said. “Katie, you have put on a bit more weight than most women of your height and pre-pregnancy weight usually have at this point. And you look farther along than you actually are.”
“Is that bad?” Pidge asked, biting their lip.
“No. You’re still in the range of healthy. We’ll know more once your blood sample is finished being run, and we see what’s on the sonogram. Speaking of, are you ready to see your baby?”
Both Pidge and Shiro nodded excitedly.
"Alright," The doctor said. "First I'll locate the heartbeat and that'll make it a little easier to find the baby for you to see."
Pidge leaned back on the table, pulling their shirt up to expose their belly before clutching onto Shiro’s warm hand while his cold, prosthetic hand nervously played with their hair. Pidge shivered as the gel was smeared across their skin and shifted a bit when the wand was pressed against their skin, but relaxed when a soft, rhythmic thumping sound echoed throughout the room.
“That’s their heart.” Pidge whispered in excitement, looking up at Shiro with big, shiny eyes, grinning widely. “That’s our baby’s heart!”
Pidge could have sworn Shiro was about to cry as he let out a short laugh, kissing Pidge’s forehead.
They were both so enraptured by the sound, they were disappointed when it faded as the doctor moved the wand. However, the joy was back as the sound started up again.
“Ah.” The doctor said faintly with a smile. “There it is.”
“There what is?” Shiro asked, confused.
The doctor turned to Pidge and Shiro and grinned.
“Well,” She said. “It appears ‘they’ is a little more accurate than you thought. That’s Baby Number Two’s heartbeat.”
*
Pidge smiled at their phone screen, watching the progression of texts. She and Shiro had sent out a massive group text as soon as they got home, finally having wrapped their heads around what they had just learned. They had promised to do so, and it was probably the only reason they hadn’t had such a large assortment of family and friends with them, clogging up the space around the ultrasound equipment.
Pidge: Well, the doc says I’m perfectly healthy! And that, according to the scan, they are both doing well. ;)
Matt: Both? That’s not a typo, is it?
Pidge: Nope. Both. :)
Lance: That’s great!
Lance: Wait.
Lance: BOTH?!?!?!
Lance: BOTH?!?!?! As in TWINS?!?!?!
Mom: I’m so happy for you two!
Keith: Congratulations again.
Lance: PIDGE YOU’RE HAVING TWINS?!?!?!
Dad: That’s fantastic, pumpkin!
Oto-San: This is all very good news!
Allura: Twins! Oh, how delightful!
Oka-San: Twins! I can’t wait to meet them!
Matt: Congrats!
Lance: I’m going to need more yarn… Keith get in the car, we’re going to the craft store now!
Keith: I am literally sitting beside you, Lance…
Hunk: PIDGE! TWINS! I mean, that’s great but, you’re so tiny! Are you even going to be able to fit two babies in you for another six months?
Coran: Wait, were we supposed to be thinking up till now that you were only expecting one infant?
Pidge chuckled at the responses, smiling at the warm, happy responses from the prospective grandparents and uncle-to-be and the responses from her teammates. Shiro sat down on the couch beside Pidge, placing a bowl of chocolate ice-cream with peanut-butter cups on the table in front of Pidge before wrapping his arm around their shoulders, kissing their cheek.
“Well.” Shiro said. “The reality hit us a bit harder than we thought it would.”
“Yeah, now we have two to not screw up. At the exact same time.” Pidge said, picking up the bowl of ice-cream as their phone continued to ding with new messages, temporarily ignored.
“I think maybe we can manage it.” Shiro said, gently running a hand over Pidge’s stomach, smiling at the thought of both of his children there, hidden and safe and oblivious to the world, but hopefully not unaware of how loved they already were. He smiled up at Pidge. “After all, what’s two babies compared to Zarkon, his empire and his army?”
“All babies eventually become toddlers, Shiro. They’re called the ‘Terrible Twos’ for a reason, and now we’re going to have a double-dose of them.” Pidge said with a smile. “And on top of that, they’ll have each other and their Mama’s Gunderson-Holt brains, and their Daddy's strategic mind.”
Shiro considered this for a moment, then nodded.
“I take it back.” He said with fake solemnity, still smiling faintly. “We’re doomed."
Pidge grinned and snuggled into Shiro’s side, enjoying the quiet that they knew would probably never exist in their household again.
And they would love every (other) moment of it.