This chapter is dedicated to the awesome Laymontae, who had kindly made me a poster and background for this story out of the blue. Seriously, dear, thank you so much for this~! :D <333

Yixing would not have missed Xiuying’s prenatal appointment for the world, rearranging all his schedules around it. It was after her sixteenth-week mark and the doctor had planned to do an ultrasound so gender can be determined. It was really the first chance they would have at finding out if they were expecting a boy or girl, and he had assured Xiuying at least twenty times that it didn’t matter to him.

‘Healthy baby, healthy Xiuying’, was his motto.

Still, he was nervous as they waited in the small waiting room at the doctor’s office for their turn. Xiuying had clasped his hand and rested it above her belly, seemingly absorbed in the magazine she had on the other hand but Yixing knew better by the way she kept biting her bottom lip.

“Hey,” Yixing whispered, bringing their clasped hand to drop a kiss on her fingers. “It’ll be alright.”

Xiuying smiled weakly, opened slightly but then a nurse peeked out from behind the corner and called out with a loud voice.

“Zhang Xiuying.”

Xiuying almost jumped out of her seat, before hastily gathered her purse. Yixing stood up too, ready to follow but instead was pushed back down.

“It’s just the basic routine check-up stuff, I’ll come back soon.”

Reluctantly he sat down again, following Xiuying with his eyes until she disappeared behind the corner. Once she was gone he slumped down on his seat, trying to calm down his beating heart and resisted the urge to tap his foot in impatience. It’s just that he couldn’t wait. They’re going to see their baby today, get more than simply a rapid heartbeat through a microphone that’s pushed against the side of Xiuying’s belly.

Belatedly he noticed the curious gazes some of the other waiting women thrown at him, excited whispered conversations behind their hands as flash of recognition began to flame in their eyes. He shot them a small, polite smile before jamming his hat further down his forehead. He loves his fans, he truly do, but right now he was not in the mood to give out signatures and posing for pictures.

Because here, in this almost too-blindingly white room with the smell of antiseptics and alcohol permeating the air, he was not Zhang Yixing, the famous singer and celebrity.

Here he was just Zhang Yixing, a nervous husband and father-to-be.

Xiuying reappeared a few minutes later and the moment she sat down he grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers again.

Their hands remained entwined when Xiuying’s name was called again; this time the nurse led them both to a larger room with a raised exam table besides what seems like a complicated machine, which Yixing assumed was the ultrasound machine. The nurse left them alone after saying that the doctor will be there soon and he helped Xiuying to sit at the table, standing between her legs so she can rest her head on his shoulder. Her stomach was getting much bigger now, putting some space between their bodies but Yixing marveled at the fact that even now she still fit so perfectly with him.

“You alright?”

Xiuying hummed, nuzzling his neck and breathing him in. Lately she’d been doing that more and more; when before she couldn’t stand the smell of Yixing if he hadn’t showered yet, now Xiuying was taken to push her nose into any part of Yixing she could reach and smelling him in with a content look on her face. Yixing have to say he didn’t mind this new habit of hers.

“Just a little nervous.”

He dropped a kiss on her temple, a hand rose up to caress her stomach. “Me too. I can’t wait to see the baby.”

“Sure you don’t have any preference?”

Before Yixing could answer the door opened and in walked a short, middle-aged man with a full mop of white hair and a fatherly smile. Doctor Shèng always have a comforting demeanor about him that made both Yixing and Xiuying felt at ease with him, and he nodded to the doctor as the older man strolled to the rolling stool next to the table.

“How are you today, Xiuying?” he asked with a smile, rolling his stool to the side of the exam table.

Xiuying turned to perched her legs up on the table. “A bit tired, but nothing serious.”

The doctor patted her shoulder consolingly as he flipped through Xiuying’s chart. “What about the nausea, still have them?”

“They’re gone, thanks God for that,” she laughingly sighed.

“Good then. Let’s see, it seems that you’re gaining weight nicely too, so that’s great.” Doctor Shèng put down the file before standing up, going to the small table at the corner to pull on a pair of gloves.

Yixing knew this part well and helped Xiuying to lay flat on her back. Once he was sure she was comfortable he pulled up her shirt and ped her pants to tug them down a little.

Doctor Shèng always warned them how his hands may be a bit cold before he starts any examination so Yixing knew not to panic when Xiuying jolted a little at the doctor’s first touch, though he still tightened the grip he has on her hand. The older man shot them an apologetic smile before he started feeling around Xiuying’s ankles to make sure they were not swollen before moving up. Once he was satisfied he moved up, cupping the bump and felt around it, fingers pushing into her belly. Xiuying always craned her neck so she can watch even though the position was uncomfortable for her so Yixing always put his arm behind her head to pillow it better.

“Seems like all’s well here. Have you had any pain, any discomfort or anything out of the ordinary?” When Xiuying shook her head the doctor nodded again and took off his gloves, clapping his hands once done with a big smile.

“Alright then, shall we get to the exciting part?”

From the table he got a large disposable towel that he tucked in the top of Xiuying’s pants. Next he wheeled over a cart of little boxes and packets before sitting down again. The machine buzzed to life, the screen blinking and Doctor Shèng put on a new pair of gloves while taking a small bottle from the cart.

“This is going to be cold and wet and I’m going to push harder than usual. So if it gets too much or too uncomfortable to you, just tell me, okay?”

Xiuying shivered when the doctor squeezed the lubricant onto her belly, more so when he spreads it over her entire stomach and Yixing rained kissed on her crown, murmuring comforts into her hair.

When the doctor moves something like a probe over Xiuying’s belly, Yixing’s eyes were riveted to the screen, watching intently as the older man explained over the images and take pictures of the umbilical cord, the placenta. And then he moved the probe and Yixing jolted when he saw the movement on the monitor.

“That’s the heart beating,” Doctor Shèng turned to them, smiling as he saw their awestruck expression. “Hold on, let me put the microphone nearer.”

It wasn’t the first time Yixing heard his baby’s heartbeat but it never fail to fill him with awe and wonder, to hear that rapid, muffled sound, almost as if it was underwater, the sweetest melody he had ever heard.

But now, now he didn’t just hear it, but he can see it. He can see its heart beating, see how it moves around inside Xiuying. Her grip on his hand was so tight it was almost painful and he wondered how she can still grip so tight when he could feel his palms sweating because that was his child he was seeing.

“Seems like the heart is good and developing fully,” Doctor Shèng examined some more with a nod, before turning back to them. “Do you want to know the gender?”

Xiuying was startled a bit, but quickly focused her attention back to the doctor.  “We do,” she confirmed. “But just tell me. He doesn’t get to know.”

Yixing almost had a whiplash by how fast he snapped his head toward her. “Hey!”

“What? You said it doesn’t matter to you, right?”

The doctor laughed and pulled a notebook from the cart. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll write it down for you so you can decide whether to tell him or not. Which are you hoping for?”

“Ten fingers and toes.” Xiuying grinned sideway at Yixing and he bit her knuckles in exchange.

Doctor Shèng chuckled loudly and handed Xiuying a little folded piece of paper with a grin of his own. “I’ve been wrong a few times in my almost thirty years of doing this. And going by ultrasound still isn’t exact, but I’m pretty sure.”

She made a show of pulling the paper close to her chest, swatting Yixing away playfully when he tried to peek. He stared anxiously between the paper and her face, as she read the word printed there and absorbed it, keeping silent even as the corner of her lips twitched slightly.

 “Xiuying!” he finally whined.

She smiled and beckoned him closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Good job,” she said softly into his ear. “We’re having a girl.”

He inhaled sharply. Of course secretly he had been hoping for that, but to get confirmation of it? “Oh. Oh, baby.”

He dropped down to press kisses all over her forehead, eyelids, nose, cheeks, chin, capturing last, feeling her own smile in the kiss.

A soft cough made them pull apart and Yixing was mortified when he realizes they were still at the doctor’s office, with the old doctor watching them with obvious amusement.

“Now that we know the gender, shall we move on?”

Xiuying laughed sheepishly as Yixing nodded, keeping his sight only on the screen as his face flushed with embarrassment. Doctor Shèng moved the probe, taking pictures of different organs of their baby and wrote down the measurements, saying that it will help to predict a more accurate due date. The doctor had this wide, excited smile on his face when they got a really good shot of the baby’s face.

“Watch closely, this is the really fun part.”

With a flip of the switch the image on the screen goes from flat to three dimensional and there it was in an almost perfect clarity, their baby girl. Xiuying held back her sobs with a hand covering and Yixing’s own eyes felt hot and prickled behind his eyelids.

“She’s so beautiful,” Xiuying choked out with a small laugh.

Yixing couldn’t agree more. “She has your mouth.”

Xiuying cried and hiccupped and laughed some more. “And your nose.”

Yixing couldn’t stop the smile on his face even after they left the doctor’s office; a handful of ultrasound pictures and the knowledge that their daughter was one hundred percent healthy only adding to that buzz of joy spreading through his veins.

Once home he selected his favorite of the 3D ultrasound picture and tacked it on the refrigerator, taking a picture of it with his phone so he could set it up to be his wallpaper. He was still admiring the picture when two arms hugged his waist, Xiuying nuzzling his back before peeking from behind his shoulder. He turned around to peck her cheek before staring back at his phone.

“We’re having a girl,” he wondered aloud again, finger caressing the small scren. “Our baby girl.”

He turned Xiuying around so he could hug her, her stomach warm and seemingly so big and yet so wonderful between them. Dropping down on his knees he caressed her stomach and kissed it all over.

“I can’t wait to meet you, baby girl.”