[CONTENTID1] [/CONTENTID1]
[CONTENTID2] 【Luhan's POV】[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]It's Valentine's Day of 1822, the twelve Mama were called out of the dining hall where we're having breakfast by the palace maids and healers as the King - who let us call him Daeho Baba - walked in with a troubled expression on his face. At 40 years old, I'm still considered a baby in our world but I'm a full grown adult in the human world so I know that something is amiss. My brothers up until Chanyeol, who was 20, looked at Daeho Baba with curious looks.

"Vera is in labor. She's about to give birth to our baby. I was told by your wives to come eat breakfast. Actually, that's a lie, they threatened to take away my manhood if I didn't leave the chamber to eat and let them do their work." Daeho Baba explained as he sat with the Baba and us 'kids' started celebrating at the mention of a new playmate. Especially Zitao who was over the moon at the idea that he was moving further away from position of 'maknae' with the new addition.


Jongin was born exactly a month ago so he was the current maknae but with this new baby, he wouldn't be the maknae anymore. The ten of us quickly finished up our breakfast and ran right to the playroom where Jongin was to share the news of a new baby with him. He was only a month old but us Azarians grow rapidly and had highly edvanced intelligence but our growth rate slows down as we grow older so Jongin looked like a twelve-month-old but had the intelligence of a four-year-old.


"Hyungs! You're here!" Jongin squealed with a bright smile from the middle of the playroom, abandoning his milk bottle, the moment we opened the door. He tottered over and waited for all ten of us to get into the room before closing the gate behind us. Mama and Baba had a rule that the baby gate leading to the playroom must be closed at all times no matter if anyone is inside the playroom or not.


"Jongin-ah! We're having a new baby! You're not the maknae anymore!" Zitao and Kyungsoo immediately squealed while they both sat on the floor next to Jongin with the rest of us forming a circle around the youngest boy. The mentioned of the new baby made Jongin squeal, giggle and clap his hands in delight. We all sat around talking about the games we would teach the new baby.


Hours passed and a loud wail echoed from down the hall which announced the new baby's arrival into the world. Seconds later Xiumin fell to the floor whimpering and had tears streaming down his face and soon all eleven of us were whimpering and shedding tears. I can't explain it but it feels as if I finally found that one person my heart has been yearning for all these years and the tears were due to the euphoria of it.


"Oh my! Honey! Honey! The boys!" I heard Mama screaming frantically and looked up through my tears to find her by the doorway with a bundled-up blanket in her arms which I assumed was the new baby. I don't have a clue how long we have been whimpering and crying on the floor but I knew it was long enough for my eyes to feel extremely sore. Upon hearing Mama, Baba all ran into the room to enclose all eleven of us into a warm hug.


That night, about an hour after Zitao, Kyungsoo and Jongin had fallen into deep slumber, Baba had gathered the rest of us in the sitting room leading to the nursery since we had bombarded them with questions as to what happened earlier and why that had happened the moment the new baby was born into the world. We had so many questions about it. Even I had a lot of questions and the new baby with Mama next door was giving a very warm feeling.


Ever since we recovered from our little incident, I could feel myself get a lot stronger and there was something in me that was never there before. I had looked into it earlier and found that it was a rope of some sort and it was glowing and pulsing with a soft rainbow color. It intruiged me and at some points I had reached for that rope-like glow and felt a warm, affectionate and protective feeling encompass my entire being. It was simply beautiful.


"What happened, Appa? What happened that made us react that way while you're not affected at all?" Joonmyeon asked, straight to the point as always, right before a soft gurgle resonated from the nursery followed by Mama cooing and my heart started fluttering in my chest at the soft sound that most probably came from the new baby in the next room.


"It's called a spirit bond, it's always there and when the other half is born, the spirit bond is completed. It's what humans call fate and destiny. No matter where that other half is, you'll always return to them. It's quite impossible  for that bond to link more than two people together. But it seems like that tiny angel has managed to do just that." Minjun Baba explained just as the new baby started crying and my heart clenched and ached in worry.


"Appa, why isn't it possible for us to be bound to the same person?" Chanyeol questioned while wincing slightly as the cries got louder and Mama got even more flustered trying to get the new baby to calm down which only succeeded in making the new baby cry even louder. Without warning, the windows and lightbulbs in the room shattered and drowned all of us in darkness.


"Baba, Mama. Can I hold the baby?" Yixing suddenly spoke up and as Baekho Baba illuminated the room with light orbs and Zihao Baba turned back time on the windows and lightbulbs to restore them, I saw Yixing walking into the nursery only to stop short right in front of the door with his eyes wide and his mouth agape. "Is that a girl?" Yixing's breathless question made my eyes shoot open and I ran over to him to find a tiny baby girl with a pacifier in my Mama's arms.


"Here, boys. Meet your Princess. The King and Queen have yet to name her because Queen Vera lost consciousness after giving birth to this tiny little girl." Mama said softly while moving into the sitting room just as the pacifier fell out and the baby started crying again. Once again, my heart started to clench and ache. This must be an affect from the bond we have with this tiny girl.


I really mean it when I say tiny. She was really skinny and was about the size of Mama's slim forearm from head to feet. She looked like an extremely fragile little porcelain doll but with how loudly she was screaming, it was obvious that she's not all that fragile at all. I just wanted nothing more than to hold her and ease her crying but Yixing had beaten me to it as Mama had placed him into his arms and I watched as the tiny baby started to hiccup as she nestled into Yixing's arms.


"Hello little one. My name's Zhang Yixing and I'm one of your many big brothers." Yixing cooed to the baby girl as she slowly stopped crying and stared right up at him. The moment the lightbulbs were fully restored and the room was completely illuminated, I saw just how beautiful this tiny baby was. She had very soft and fine black hair, porcelain skin and her eyes! Oh her eyes were the most gorgeous thing in the world! They were big, beautiful and blue!


"Hello, teeny! I'm your awesome Park Chanyeol Oppa! Aren't you an adorable little cutie?" Chanyeol boomed and for that second, the tiny baby girl jumped slightly as she let her eyes wander around at the eight of us huddled around her. Eventually, all eight of us had introduced ourselves to her and had now settled down onto the floor with a soft play mat in the middle where Baby was supposed to be placed.


But every attempt at placing her down on the mat was deemed futile as she started hiccuping which is how all her cries starts out as. So now we were all taking turns in carrying her while we spoke to her. I'm not sure if she even understands us... But that's fine with me... All I wanted to do was to feel her light weight in my arms as she looked at me with those beautiful big blue eyes.


"Hi, Princess! Oh, you sweet little thing! You've been waiting for them huh? That's why you cried so much. You wanted your big brothers around you." Park Mama cooed while she held Baby in her arms. Baba and Mama had decided to join the circle after seeing that she wasn't crying at all while she was us and I felt a warmness fill my heart just as one of the palace maids came in with a feeding bottle.


"Han? Do you want to feed her?" Mama questioned and I nodded albeit a little hesitant before cradling Baby with Baba's help and Mama handed me the feeding bottle as soon as Baby was settled in my arms. "Hold the bottle at a slight forty-five degree angle and make sure the and neck of the bottle is filled with milk." I followed Mama's instructions and Baby immediately started drinking, her beautiful big blue eyes staring right at me.


Mama even taught me how to burp her and as soon as she had burped, she immediately snuggled closer to me and fell right to sleep. It was only then that Mama picked her up and put her down into her crib. After that, we went back to our conversation with Baba seeing as we weren't occupied with Baby anymore and they could keep our full attentions on the matter at hand.


"Okay. Back to topic. The reason why several people bonding to the same person is deemed impossible is because that would mean you will be sharing your future mate who, in your case, is the Princess. Which comes down to one thing. You remember that story the King told you boys about? The one about the Princess who will have eveything that can rival the Greek Gods and people hated and envied her for it and wanted to kill her because of it?" Sejun Baba inquired to which we all nodded.


"That story is actually a prophecy... And the Princess in the story is our Princess... You know the history of our people - the Azarians... You boys were all born to protect the Princess... One of you was born to be her mate but her spirit has chosen all of you... Lady Seyoung had experienced the same thing you boys did so that means that all twelve of you were chosen by the Princess... But only one of you would have a deeper and stronger bond with her... Or at least that's what's supposed to happen..." Kevin Baba explained.


The next morning after breakfast and classes with our private teachers, we all made our way to the playroom that had been remodeled overnight to accomodate the newest addition to our large - albeit unrelated - family and anyone could see that Jongin who was holding Kyungsoo's hand was extremely pleased that the playroom now looked like a giant playground complete with a couple of ball pools, slides and tunnels to crawl through with the addition of a life-sized doll house at the side.


"Look who's here, Princess! It's your big brothers! You boys have no idea how long this little girl has been waiting for you to come. She didn't stop crying until I brought her over here." Jinae Mama exclaimed from the middle of the heavily padded room where we found Baby on her tummy and had her feet pointed towards us. Jongin squealed and tottered over to his Mama and Baby to which Baby started gurgling and squealing in response upon seeing Jongin before Jinae Mama lifted her up onto her lap where she squealed and gurgled even more while the rest of us filed into the room. It melted my heart how happy she looked and sounded when she saw us.


"Annyeong! I'm Kim Jongin and we're the same age!" Jongin stuttered through his sentence since he still coul