Serendipity

Cavalcade

For the next few weeks, Taehyung was mostly busy with his work. A few conferences around the world and he had been travelling to all these places in the most regal way. Not just that, he flew by private jets and an entourage of vehicles but all this while he was also surrounded by several professional and equally silent bodyguards. They never let anyone enter his personal space without his permission, nor did they ever initiate any unnecessary conversations.  After years of dealing with bullies and intimidating people, the scientist rather liked this bubble around him. In a way, it created a barrier between him and the scary, unknown world outside. It made him feel safe and helped him get some of the edginess off. He no longer had to beg people to leave him alone they did it on their own. The queen had made special arrangements so that the media wouldn't overwhelm the intelligent but socially naive scientist. She was overly cautious about the media anyway, after what happened to Princess Joana. Although Taehyung rarely appeared anywhere in public, even when he did, the queen's loyal staff would make sure he could avoid the paps. He was grateful for that as well. His life changed for the better after becoming part of the monarchy. But when at home; which was in the palace now, he felt a bit weird. Not bad per se, but it did make him feel different. And there were three contributing factors to it. Or should I say three and a quarter? The Queen, Eun, the prince, and 'their' unborn child.

He no longer called his offspring, 'his progeny' or 'a foetus', but he also refused to call it a baby. It was too homo-sapien for him. But he tried addressing it as his unborn child. So these three and a quarter factors changed the way he felt whenever he came home.

The Queen always asked him about his day, and so did Eun. (He was 'made' to spend more time with Eun so he can bond with 'the baby'. Discipline credit: commander Jin.) With Eun, the conversations were the easiest as they often ended up talking about Taehyung's research or Eun's doubts about a certain academic topic. In both cases, at the end of the day, both of them ended up more amused by each other. Jin had told him, that's how he used to feel when he had first met Taehyung.

And with the queen, he would often end up being on the listening end (which was a rare phenomenon, believe me.) She would talk about many things when they had their meals together. Anything under the sun.  She would talk about her experiences, books she read, and the arts she observed. She would talk about people, animals, nature, music,  culture and whatnot. And something about the way she talked made Taehyung just sit and listen. Her endearments, hugs and head pats had started to grow on him. This is the kind of love he never experienced. Being raised as an orphan most of his early life and then growing up in a house where the only physical affection he ever got was from his brother and his partner, Taehyung was new to having a strong and affectionate mother figure. Although the way his brother raised him gave him some experience of maternal warmth, having a loving grandmother around was a very unique experience altogether. He was strangely content, to say the truth.

Now back to the rest of one and the quarter factors the fact that he would be fathering a baby still gave him a jittery feeling. Seeing the baby grow and experiencing that growth first-hand was terrifying. He hadn't thought about it when he started his 'super-plan'. He thought it would be just as simple as observing an experiment where they explore the mysteries of nature. But he never had anticipated that there would be so many emotions attached to it. Every time he would attend a prenatal class with Eun and the notorious prince, he would be so overwhelmed. Because every time the trainer would tell them about a new development in the foetus. How can a being grow fast? Even though he has spent all his academics studying human biology and development, it still left him amazed. And on top of that to get on his nerves, the evil prince would start being all competitive. Due to his busy schedule, Taehyung would attend these sessions rarely. And the prince used this opportunity to tease him. He would attend each session, participate readily and by-heart learn everything the trainer would teach. And once the session was over, he would tease the scientist for being a lousy learner. He loved rubbing it on Taehyung's face. Just like other things. And that's what made Taehyung feel weird. (A.N. read it as giddy, butterflies in the stomach and yada yada. He doesn't understand it just yet.)