Crying.

Yuri groaned as she heard the baby monitor go off again. It was 3 in the morning, the usual time her daughter Yumin would start bawling.

“Yuri, it’s your turn.”

She sighed and sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Why did babies have to have irregular sleep schedules? If only they could sleep all night like everyone else.

“Fany-ah, remind me again why we decided to have a baby.” Yuri whined as she stood up and ran her hands through her hair. Tiffany remained motionless, still lying on her side with their blanket wrapped around her body snuggly.

“Don’t ask me, Yuri. It was your idea in the first place. Miss ‘Babies are the best’. You’re lucky I even agreed to be the one to carry.”

Yuri chuckled softly as she stared at her wife’s back. Tiffany could be so funny when she was ticked off. Maybe that’s why Yuri loved pissing her off so much.

“Love you, Fany.”

“Mhmm. Be a good mom and get out.”

-

After dreadfully getting out of her room, Yuri finally made it to her daughter’s bedroom. She slowly pushed the door open, only to be greeted by a very upset looking baby girl.

“Aigoo, Yumin-ah. It’s 3am. Can’t you cut Yuri umma some slack?” Yuri said as she walked towards her daughter’s crib and picking the little girl up.

Her daughter responded with a pout and a sniffle. Yuri smiled back, nuzzling against her baby’s chubby cheek.

“You’re just like your mom, you know; adorably grumpy.” She kissed Yumin’s cheek, earning a small giggle.

Yuri gave her daughter two more kisses on each cheek, making the baby laugh even more. Yumin started excitedly patting her umma’s shoulders, her eyes slowly forming the shapes of crescents.

“See? Just like your mom. Eyesmiling at the age of 10 months.”

Yuri stood up with Yumin in her arms, rocking her slowly. She stared down at her daughter lovingly with a warm smile on her face.

“Okay, princess. Time to sleep okay? No more crying. You can eyesmile all you want like your mom. Just don’t cry anymore.” Yuri said soothingly. Yumin as if doing as she was told, smiled in response before closing her eyes to sleep.

As soon as Yumin fell asleep, Yuri slowly put her back in her crib and tucked her in. Yuri kissed the top of her daughter’s forehead gently, enjoying seeing Yumin in such a peaceful state.

“I hope you grow up to be beautiful just like your mom.” She grinned. “Who am I kidding? Of course you’re gonna grow up to be as beautiful as her. You’re made up of half of her, after all.”

Yuri let out a small sigh as she Yumin’s cheek gently.

“You may not genetically be mine, but I’m still your umma right?” Yuri muttered. A lone tear escaped the corner of her eye and she quickly wiped it away with her wrist. It was still a little bit painful to her knowing that Yumin wasn’t really her daughter. Not by blood, at least.

“She’s yours as much as she is mine, you know.” Tiffany interrupted, walking towards Yuri and wrapping her arms around her.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough. I heard everything you’ve been saying through the baby monitor.” Tiffany giggled. “Also, I mean what I said.”

“It’s hard to feel that sometimes.” Yuri responded sadly.

“Yuri. She’s your daughter. You play with her every day, change her diaper every day, feed her every day, and love her every day. You may not share any blood but that doesn’t matter. What matters is you love her and that she loves you.”

“How do you know she loves me? What if when she grows up she realizes she doesn’t love me?”

“I know that she loves you because she looks at you the way I do.”

Right at that moment, Yuri saw it. She saw what Tiffany meant. The way Tiffany looked at her was special. It was filled with so much emotion and meaning that no words could really express what it was like. But Yuri knew now; her family loved her.

Yuri smiled at her wife, tears falling from her eyes. This time, she was crying tears of joy. It made her so happy that Tiffany loved her so much and even more now that they had a beautiful daughter together.

“Yuri-ah, stop crying. You know I don’t like it when you cry.” Tiffany jokingly scolded as she wiped the tears away from Yuri’s face.

“I’m sorry, Fany-ah. I just love you so much. And our daughter.”  

“I love you too, Yuri.”