Damn the Delivery Boy

month nine

You decide that you cannot birth this child once the contractions start.

"Jeongguk," You gasp, a high whine erupting from your chest after the breathless statement of his name, hunching over in the passenger seat. "I can't do this. I can't birth this child. It's staying inside of me forever."

Leaning across the console, Jeongguk holds your hand, and you practically crack all of his knuckles in one go. He groans, but never lets go. "Don't say that, baby. I want to meet Pizza."

"No, no you don't," You pant, furiously shaking your head. "He doesn't want to come out."

Though he does, at 12.37AM on the Thursday of early Spring, Jeon Jaejin arrives after four and a half hours of your agonised moans, of Jeongguk and his hands sweeping hair away from your sweat-beaded forehead. He comes pink and beautiful, a hole in his heart, but when he has two parents with a pair of whole organs that beat for his existence, it does not matter. You both fill the tiny gap with gushing love and adoration from the moment your eyes lay upon him.

After you shower, you quietly pad back into the room to find Jeongguk holding the teensy body in his cradled arms, looking simply in awe at this being that you both created. He hardly notices your return, completely fixated on Jaejin until you gently lay your hand upon his mussed hair, the boy looking up at you with a smile that could end world wars and then suddenly looking at a loss of whether to disturb the sleeping baby to kiss you or to go without your lips for a while longer. Instead, you duck down for him, kissing him with freshly brushed teeth that leave mint in the grooves of his lips, eliciting a tired moan from your lungs that has him nudging you away with his nose, nodding at the empty bed beside the chair. You climb onto the thin mattress and delightedly accept the little boy into the nest of your arms when Jeongguk carefully hands him over.

"I'm so proud of you," Jeongguk whispers, resting his chin on the edge of the bed and you soothingly card your fingers through his raven strands, keeping your gaze on the bubbling lips of your baby as he sleeps.

"I'm proud of us," You respond, vision fogging over, feeling hot, wet trails roll down your cheeks. "We made him, Jeongguk. This tiny baby. He is all ours, forever."

Jeongguk moves up so that his elbows rest on the bed, able to get a proper view of Jaejin's peaceful face, leaning his forehead against your temple. He lightly pecks the tears from your rosy skin, constantly kissing you like he is trying to not only convince you, but himself that all of this, the past nine months, was certainly not a dream.

"And you too," Jeongguk murmurs into your pores, tucking the promises there for him to remember later on, for you to always cherish. "You are mine forever, too."