“He doesn’t look very well.” Yixing murmured. He was sitting in the seat to Baekhyun’s left and was ignoring his dinner in favour of studying the person sitting opposite them instead.

Baekhyun looked up and had to admit his friend was right. Jongdae did look pale. He’d been quiet too, if you didn’t count greeting everyone when they’d first arrived he’d barely said a word the whole time they'd been there. And then there was the fact that he was picking at his food when he’d usually be inhaling it. It was no surprise really that Yixing was concerned. Baekhyun didn't really feel that same sense of concern though which was why the only answer he gave his friend was a hum of agreement.

“You’re not worried?” Yixing asked him, frowning in confusion.

“Not really.” Baekhyun told him. He probably should be, Jongdae was his husband after all but he couldn’t help thinking he deserved it. Maybe if Jongdae had shown a little more sympathy and indulged in a little less eye rolling when it came to his morning sickness he'd feel differently. But no there'd been no sympathy and much eye rolling because for some reason Jongdae had been under the impression that Baekhyun was exaggerating how bad he was feeling in order to get his own way. And okay, once or twice he’d said he felt ill when he didn’t in order to get out of taking out the garbage or doing the cooking but most of the time he’d been telling the truth, when he’d said felt awful he’d meant it and it would have been nice if his husband had shown him even the tiniest bit of sympathy.

And then there was the argument they’d had before leaving the house. Baekhyun was showing now, not enough for people to automatically assume ‘baby’ when they looked at him but enough for it to be causing him problems whenever he had to look for something to wear. Most of his clothes still technically fit him but very few of them still fit him properly which meant getting ready to go out with their friends had been a trial. And it wasn’t just his expanding waistline that was the problem, getting zips up and buttons to fasten was sometimes a struggle but it wasn’t impossible. It was getting his pants up in the first place that was the tricky part, the weight he’d put on so far had all gone to his thighs and he didn’t think it was fair. He found it so unfair that he hadn’t been able to help complaining out loud about it while he was getting ready, at length, to Jongdae. But Jongdae hadn’t seemed to care. “Why does it matter?” he’d asked, “You’re supposed to be getting bigger, you’re pregnant.” Which had led to Baekhyun telling him all of the reasons that it did matter and all of the reasons why he thought he was an inconsiderate .

So yeah, they hadn’t left the house on the best of terms and as such Baekhyun was finding it difficult to feel bad for him.

Ten minutes later though and Jongdae was pushing his chair away from the table and standing up, mumbling a quick apology and excusing himself from the table. And after receiving a judging look from not only Yixing but the most of the rest of their friends too Baekhyun was pushing his own chair back and following him.

He didn’t feel sorry for him he told himself as he headed for the bathroom. He wasn’t following him because he wanted to see if he was okay. Jongdae did not deserve his sympathy. He was following him because that was what everyone was expecting him to do that was all.

He was still trying to convince himself of this when he made it to the bathroom but it didn’t last long because as soon as he pushed open the door he was met by the sound of retching. He sighed. Jongdae hadn’t touched the food they’d ordered and he hadn’t had all that much to eat at lunch either but that wasn’t stopping him from throwing up what little he had managed to get down. And Baekhyun knew what that felt like. Throwing up when you hadn’t eaten was sometimes worse than throwing up when you had. It made your stomach hurt and your throat burn and your eyes sting. And as much as Jongdae’s attitude lately had been getting on his nerves he cared about him and that wasn’t something he would wish on someone he cared about.

So deciding that being angry with his husband could wait a while he headed to where all the noise was coming from. The door to the cubicle was ajar and through the gap Baekhyun could see Jongdae on the floor, still kneeling in front of the toilet bowl. He was no longer throwing up but he was making no move to get up. And Baekhyun found himself hovering, unsure of what to do. Was he done? Should he be helping him to his feet? Or was he still on the floor because he still felt sick and thought he might start throwing up again?

In the end Baekhyun decided that saying “Gross”’ and wrinkling his nose in disgust at the smell was the way to go.

“I know, it’s disgusting.” Jongdae agreed, not at all surprised to find Baekhyun standing behind him.

“Well are you done?” The smell was no joke. If he stood there much longer there was a good chance he’d end up throwing up too and neither of them wanted that.

“I’m done.” Jongdae confirmed with a nod. He sounded out of breath but then he had just thrown up the entire contents of his stomach and then some and that was more physically demanding than one might think, Baekhyun could testify to that.

“Well are you going to get up then?” Baekhyun asked next. The sooner he got up the sooner they could head to somewhere that smelled a little less like sick.

“No, I’m just going to sit here for a while in the company of my own vomit if that’s okay with you.” Jongdae answered before looking up at him and narrowing his eyes. “Of course I’m going to get up, just give me a second.”

“I didn’t come in here to be snapped at.” Baekhyun retorted. “I came in here to see if you were okay. But if you rather I went…”

“No, don’t go.” Jongdae said quickly as he scrambled to his feet. “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be taking it out on you  I just feel a bit… I don’t know…

“Shaky?” Baekhyun guessed, his expression immediately softening. If he wanted him to stay that much then the experience had obviously affected Jongdae more than he was letting on.

“Yeah, shaky. It’s horrible, throwing up, it’s the worst feeling ever.”

“I know.” Baekhyun reminded him, a hand going to rub at his stomach as he gave his husband a pointed look. He was over the worst of the morning sickness now but he’d had to live through a whole month of throwing up at least once a daybefore getting to that point. “You don’t have to tell me that.”

Jongdae had the grace to look a little sheepish. “Sorry, of course you do.”

Baekhyun sighed. “Stop apologising.” He hadn’t been fishing for an apology, he’d just been stating a fact. “Now will you flush that toilet and then go wash your hands already? I think we've been standing in here long enough.”

“Sorry.” Jongdae said again but since he did as was told and flushed the toilet Baekhyun refrained from calling him on it.

“Feeling better?” he asked as he followed him out of the cubicle and towards the sink.

“Yeah, a lot better.”

Baekhyun wasn’t convinced. He watched as Jongdae rinsed his mouth at the sink and then washed and dried his hands and came to the conclusion that he still looked ridiculously pale. “You still feel like crap don’t you?” he guessed.

“Like total crap.” Jongdae admitted, not having it in him to argue. “But I’ll be okay.”

“We could go home.” Baekhyun suggested. If he felt as bad as Jongdae looked then he wouldn’t have been waiting for someone to give him permission, he’d have been on his way home ages ago but Jongdae shook his head.

“We said we’d tell people didn’t we? And if we don’t do it tonight who knows when we’ll all be together again.”

Baekhyun still thought going home was a pretty good idea. Being surrounded by food was no fun when you felt sick to your stomach. But he had to admit that Jongdae had a point. If they didn’t tell everyone that evening then they would either have to arrange another meet up which could take forever or tell all of their friends separately which would be a whole lot of hassle. “Let’s tell them when we go back in then.” He said, after thinking it over a bit more. The plan had been to wait until after everyone had finished eating and the cheque had been sent for, that way they could escape quickly if anyone took the news badly but since Jongdae felt terrible and all of their friends knew it they had an excuse to leave early now. “We can go home straight after and you can get some rest.”

Jongdae didn’t look too sure but he nodded his head anyway. “Okay.” He agreed. “We’ll do that then.”

“Okay.” Baekhyun echoed but despite it being his own idea he made no move to leave the bathroom.

“You really don’t mind leaving early though?” Jongdae asked after a moment or two of silence. “I know you were enjoying the food.”

“We have food at home.” Baekhyun said, dismissing the argument with a shrug. The way his appetite had been lately it really didn’t matter to him where the food came from. If it was edible he’d eat it. “If I’m still hungry when we get home I can eat, don’t worry about it. It’s not like you can help feeling ill.”

“No, I guess not.” Jongdae agreed. And then he was frowning. “But before we go in I just wanted you to know I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Baekhyun asked, brow furrowing in confusion. Sorry was a not a word Jongdae used very often, the fact he’d said it so often in the last ten minutes was weird.

“I’m sorry for not listening to you. You’re right, morning sickness is a .”

Baekhyun had told him that at least a dozen times over the last few months and every time he had Jongdae had told him not to be so dramatic. “So you believe me now, you don’t think I was exaggerating?”

“You weren’t exaggerating.” Jongdae told him, the answer immediate. “It’s ing awful. If I’m not actually throwing up I feel like I’m going to throw up. And whose bright idea was it to call it morning sickness anyway? It is the opposite of morning and the smell of food still makes me want to heave. How is that fair?”

“Life isn’t fair.” It was a rather cliché thing to say but it was true. Life also liked to mess with people. Baekhyun’s pregnancy had been very much planned and it had taken almost two years of trying for it to happen. It had been a stressful time for both of them, there’d been so many disappointments and so many arguments but they’d gotten there eventually. And it had been worth it, when they’d finally had a pregnancy test come back positive they’d been over the moon.

They hadn’t been quite as thrilled when they’d found out Jongdae was pregnant. That definitely had not been planned. When Jongdae had come to Baekhyun a week after his first ultrasound with a positive pregnancy test in his hand Baekhyun had assumed he was joking, he’d thought it was some kind of prank and one of their friends was hiding somewhere filming his reaction on their phone or something. But when it became apparent that no one else was around and that Jongdae was deadly serious Baekhyun had freaked.

They’d planned for one baby, they’d saved for one baby and suddenly they were having two. How was that going to work? They’d need to take time off work for each other’s appointments, they’d both have to buy maternity clothes, they’d both have to take ante-natal classes, they’d both have to take maternity leave. Would Jongdae want to be there now when he was giving birth? That worried him because by then he’d be heavily pregnant. Baekhyun didn’t think he’d want to watch someone go through the pain of giving birth knowing that he’d be going through the same thing, so if Jongdae didn't want to be there then he'd understand. But on the other hand he didn’t think he could do it on his own. And then he’d started thinking about what would happen if Jongdae went into labour early, before he did. How would he deal with that? If anything like that happened Jongdae would need his support, he’d need him to stay strong and he didn’t know if he could do that. Nothing bad had happened yet, Jongdae had only just told him the news and maybe nothing bad would happen but there were so many things that could go wrong and just thinking about that was stressful. And as everyone kept telling him stress wasn’t good for the baby. He needed to stop.

When he finally realised that stressing out over being stressed was the opposite of stopping and calmed down they’d done the grown up thing and talked about it. And after giving it some serious thought Jongdae had decided to go through with the pregnancy. Being pregnant at the same time wasn’t going to be easy but they’d cope, they’d have to. They had no choice. He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he’d decided on the other option. The baby they’d planned for and kept would be a constant reminder of the baby they hadn’t and he didn’t think he’d be able to deal with that. And Baekhyun had been relieved to hear it, the news had come as a shock and the thought of what was to come scared him but planned or not it was their son or daughter that they were talking about. Jongdae was right, they didn’t have a choice, giving it up was not an option or at least it wasn’t an option he wanted to consider.    

But that had all been weeks ago and now Jongdae was well into his second month of pregnancy while Baekhyun was entering his fourth. But as far as their friends knew they were only expecting one baby and that baby was Baekhyun’s. When they found out Jongdae was expecting too they were going to flip, Baekhyun just knew it. Everyone was going to have something to say about it, and there was no way all of it was going to be good.

It didn’t take long for Jongdae to notice how worried he looked. “It’ll be fine.” He said, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

Baekhyun wasn’t so sure about that.  “They’re going to think we’re crazy.” There was no way they weren’t, not when their own parents already thought so, and they were going to tell them exactly how crazy in loud voices in front of a restaurant full of people. Why had he thought announcing this over dinner would be a good idea?

 “Let them think what they want. It’s not like we planned it.” Jongdae didn’t seem quite so worried but then he was probably making an effort to stay calm, something Baekhyun appreciated. There was no point in them both freaking out. “We're victims of a contraceptive malfunction, that's all,” Jongdae continued when Baekhyun didn’t reply, “it could happen to anyone.”

And there, that was all it took to snap Baekhyun out of it. “Stop saying that.” He scolded, smacking his husband’s arm and levelling a glare at him. “Do you want our son or daughter to grow up with a complex? If you keep saying that it’s going to get stuck in my head and when they ask why there’s only two months between them and their oldest sibling I’ll end up blurting it out.”

“It’s a while until we have to worry about that, the baby’s the size of an olive, it’s not like it’s going to be asking questions any time soon.” Jongdae reasoned, rubbing at his now stinging arm. He didn’t seem mad though, in fact he was smiling and that was when Baekhyun realised that Jongdae had been expecting that reaction from him. He’d said what he’d said because Baekhyun being annoyed at him was better than Baekhyun getting himself worked up over the prospect of telling people their baby news.

He could thank him for being considerate, that was always an option Baekhyun supposed. Jongdae was trying to be thoughtful after all. Or he could glare at him some more and smack his arm a second time. “You’re an idiot.” He told him, gong for option number two. “I don’t know why I put up with you.”

“Because you love me?”

There was a smug little grin on his face and he sounded so sure of himself that Baekhyun wanted to kick him. But then he was entertaining the idea of kissing him senseless too, because as much as he hated to admit it Jongdae was right, he loved him but saying so was embarrassing and he'd rather show him. Sadly he couldn’t do either of those things. Kicking pregnant people was something that was  frowned upon and Jongdae had just been throwing up meaning kissing was also a no. So instead he had to settle for taking his hand. “I guess we should tell them before we over think it and change our minds,” and when he said we he was talking about himself, “but I’m warning you now, I don’t care if you’re pregnant, if the words ‘contraceptive malfunction’ leave your mouth again then you’re sleeping on the couch.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

That did not go how I thought it would at all but then things very rarely do...

Anyway, here's the list:

Krisho for suddon
Xiuhun for XxAngieexX
ing for jang-yehheung
Hanho for resurrection
Xiukris for weepywillow
Baektao for parkbyun
Chenyeol for tini1kero
Sesoo for hanadylaila
Lukai for AuthorJ
Kairis for mrmissM
Sutao for kkaebsong
Krischen for cutedi
Chenxing for VIPemma98
Sulay for Haruus
Layhan for damthemboys
Xiubaek for jantih
Xiukai for jantih
Xiulay for minminbaozi
Chantao for virogal
Chentao for virogal
Xiutao for MrMissM
Chanhun for Kaebsong
Lubaek for damethemboys
Taokai for BJ_VIP_Lover27
Taochen for nomundi
Kaibaek for CelestiaTaehyung
Baeksoo for sajoka
Chanlu for minniewookie31