Damn the Delivery Boy

month three

A heartbeat that is not your own flutters within you like a tiny hummingbird, and it makes you feel afraid. You avoid counter corners and anything that protrudes, always with your hands on your belly like a feeble shield, worried, worried.

Jeongguk moves in on the first week of August, and you thought it might be strange sharing a space with somebody after spending so much of your personal time alone, but it instantly feels natural having his presence hover over your shoulder in the kitchen and weighing down the opposite side of the couch, denting the mattress that used to only hold a single body. He fusses over you between his studying – which you have officially put on hold – and his job, always bringing home flowers and take-away Thai curry – which thankfully you can still eat – making sure that you are always healthy and happy.

Though after the ultrasound that confirms the slowly forming bump of your belly is, in fact, a tiny life, he cannot help but notice the cautious way you approach everything, even him, as though the slightest nudge will hurt the being within.

"I feel like I need to wrap you up in pillows, or bubble wrap," Jeongguk comments one evening as he cuts sweet potato for soup. "Pizza is going to sense that they cannot fend for themselves by the way that you are already coddling them. I need to strap your hands behind your back."

"And you need to stop calling Pizza, Pizza," You shoot back, popping a cherry tomato in your mouth. "You make it sound like we are bears who need to teach our cub how to survive in the wild."

"Oh, but we are. And you call them Pizza too," Jeongguk points the knife at you accusingly before using it to scrape the sweet potato into the pot. He puts it down before grabbing your hand that reaches for another tomato, pretending to bite your knuckles. "Stop eating those, otherwise there won't be any left for the soup."

"I'm pregnant and hungry," You shrug with a devilish grin of somebody who uses that excuse too often. Jeongguk relents, sighing and letting you take one more before pouring the shiny red vegetables into the mix, sloshing in the stock and then turning on the stove.

"Damn, look at that, baby." He gestures at the pot, clearly proud of himself, and you raise a brow. "Tell me I'm daddy material."

You sputter at the notion that he clearly did not catch onto, but decide to humour him, dropping your voice an octave. "Definitely daddy material."

Wide-eyed, Jeongguk watches you for a moment before opening his mouth, and then closing it again. He exhales loudly through his nose.

"Shit, I really fell for that one, didn't I?"

"You did, daddy."

The man appears to choke on air, and you gasp with laughter. It only takes him a moment to recompose himself before he darts around the counter, grabbing you carefully by the waist and kissing you full on the mouth. Briefly, you fret about the way that he presses to your bump, but then you remember this is Jeongguk, who would never hurt you, and that you have been overreacting, letting him meld his body to your own.

"Oh god, say it again," He growls, nibbling at your lower lip, sucking lightly. "Boost my ego."

But instead, your tongue slips and you say something entirely different.

"I love you, Jeongguk."

He stills his motions, pulling back with wet lips and glassy eyes to stare at you, who is agape at your sudden confession that was most certainly not meant to occur whilst fooling around with a goddamn daddy kink. Jeongguk blinks once, lashes lowering.

"Say that again."

You swallow his words and then form your own. "I love you."

"Again," He breathes after planting a small kiss on your lips, and you reciprocate, saying I love you, I love you, I love you until his mouth on your own steals too much of your air to create proper sentences and you are tangled beneath bed sheets with him above you, within you, before fireworks light up the room and he is collapsed by your side.

Jeongguk kisses your stomach, and then crawls back up to kiss your forehead, eyes, nose, lips, cheeks, whispering the confession right back that has a flame burning within your chest and finally, at long last, you are convinced this could really, honestly work.

"I love you too."