Chapter 138: Don't waste the babies' food

After that, Xi Zirui's memory becomes woozy.

He's faintly aware of Han Yu carrying him in his arms, of being deposited somewhere and being given something to drink and smell, probably the source of his confusion.

His body feels light, disconnected from itself, and Xi Zirui feels as if he's drifting above it all.

He can't even be worried about his babies with how light and woozy his head is.

Han Yu is by his side, holding his hand and petting his hair, he says something but Xi Zirui can't make out any of his words.

The same elderly doctor who told Xi Zirui he was pregnant now cuts a small incision a little below his bellybutton. The skin splits like a ripe peach, but no pain comes.

Han Yu's fingers tighten on Xi Zirui's hand as the doctor carefully takes out one baby and then the other, handing them to the servants attending to him.

Xi Zirui watches this all happen with a detached sort of awareness.

Oh, those are his babies, he wants to see their faces.

Oh, there's an empty space inside him now where the babies used to be, he wonders when that feeling will go away.

Oh, the doctor is sewing him up now, that should hurt, but not as much as being split open.

He feels cool hands on his sweaty forehead, and then Han Yu's face entering his field of vision as he kneels at his side. "I'm so proud of Rui-er, our babies are healthy, a boy and a girl. Rui-er will be fine too."

His tongue heavy as led, Xi Zirui makes an herculean effort to reply. "Didn't do anything, doctor took them out."

Han Yu chuckles and kisses Xi Zirui's cheek. "And who carried them for eight months and one week?"

That's right, Xi Zirui did that. It was very troublesome. 

He glares at Han Yu. "Next time you get pregnant."

"Sure, whatever Rui-er says," Han Yu says.

Han Yu's smile is the last thing Xi Zirui hears before drifting away into unconsciousness, for good.

---

The next time Xi Zirui comes to, he's been moved up to their bedroom. He's been cleaned and changed into fresh clothes, and the tenderness on his lower abdomen means he's probably been sowed up.

He isn't quite brave enough to take a peek just yet. It strikes him all of a sudden that it was his first surgery.

Well, at least he got babies out it. The most some people get is their kidney stones in a plastic cup.

Speaking of which...where are they?

He tries to sit up in bed, but a gentle hand steadies his shoulder. "Don't get up, the doctor said you shouldn't move around much for the next three days," Han Yu says, smiling down at him from the bedside, where he has presumably been waiting for Xi Zirui to wake up.

Xi Zirui sighs in annoyance but remains quiet.

He has an entire month of not doing much to look forward to. 

It's expected that he'll be sitting the month like all other kunjun in this world, and Xi Zirui really couldn't come up with any good reason not to do it.

"Let me see my babies," he asks, making grabby hands at Han Yu.

A moment later, Han Yu comes in with a baby in his arms, and a smiling servant brings up the other.

"This is our little girl," Han Yu says, depositing a slumbering child in Xi Zirui's arm. "And that's the little boy," he says, when the servant helps settle the other baby across his chest.

Xi Zirui looks down at both of their squished up tiny little faces, and tries not to cry.

"I love them a lot," he says, looking up at Han Yu, overwhelmed.

Han Yu leans down to kiss the top of his head. "I know, I love them and you, a lot too."

"They need names," Xi Zirui says, admiring the babies' tiny hands as they curl up in the blankets swaddling them.

Both of them have little horns sprouting from their foreheads, tiny and immature still, and their ears are ribbed, fin-like, in the same orange color as Xi Zirui's own shorter horns. He expected them to have Han Yu's colouring along with his race, but he's happy to see that tiny little bit of himself.

As to who they'll look like, only time will tell. Although, Xi Zirui hopes they'll be a mix of both their features.

"Maybe I should choose their names," Han Yu says, a slight smile playing at his lips.

Xi Zirui shoots him a glare, but before he can say anything, Han Yu adds, "We don't want another 'Little Thunder' situation, do we?"

Xi Zirui's mouth falls open on a silent gasp, some time passes before he can ask, "You remembered?"

Han Yu nods. "Bits and pieces, it's like snippets are coming to me at odd times."

The tears Xi Zirui was able to hold back earlier all fall unbidden now. He nuzzles both babies, marveling at their clean, sweet scent. He's so happy he thinks his heart might burst.

---

They end up naming the boy Han Zhiye and the girl Han Xiu, after a long-winded back and forth. 

Dragon babies nurse only for a week before being switched over to solid foods, mostly raw fish and their entrails.

It explains the continued flatness of Xi Zirui's chest, and his swollen nipples. 

He's never been so glad that he's not actually a human in this world when the babies wake up every three hours crying to be fed. Only a few more days of this and he'll be back to uninterrupted nights of sleep.

"You get them," he moans sleepily, at what must be three in the morning when both of them start up their nightly wailing. "I'm staying in bed."

Han Yu wraps his arms around Xi Zirui's waist, which is still not back to his pre-pregnancy flatness, and kisses his bare nape. "I can go get them, but you're the one with the milk."

Xi Zirui curses and swats him, but still sits up in bed, resigned to his fate.

Han Yu brings him the babies, and Xi Zirui holds one in each arm as they feed. "Good thing there's only two of you, because I only have two nipples," he grins down at their little sleepy faces. "What would I do if there were more of you, uh? You give me enough trouble as it is. I hope your aunt has four in one go, see how she likes it."

Once both of them have drunk their fill Han Yu takes them back to their cribs and climbs up into bed with Xi Zirui. He's awfully quiet, but his eyes are trained on the front of Xi Zirui's half-opened inner robes, where a few drops of milk have spilled down his skin.

Xi Zirui can anticipate his thoughts even before he voices them. "Is there any left for me?" he asks, thumbing Xi Zirui's sore nipple gently, making more milk flow out.

"Greedy, that's for the babies," Xi Zirui says, smirking down at Han Yu's pleading face.

He looks as if Xi Zirui is doing him a great injustice by denying him.

In the end, Xi Zirui is hopeless against his big eyes and pouting lower lip and indulges him. Sighing in satisfaction once Han Yu's lips close around the abused skin, soothing it with his wet tongue. 

It doesn't take long for Xi Zirui to grow greedy too. 

He warns Han Yu sternly, before he climbs on top of him. "If you get me pregnant again so soon, I'll divorce you."

---

The babies are a lot of fun, for all they can't do much yet.

For the first month of their lives, Xi Zirui is confined to a suite of rooms in the palace, so he spends a lot of time with them.

He thinks they have distinctive personalities already. "I think A-Xiu is going to be a painter," he tells Han Yu seriously while looking out the window with Han Xiu in his arms. "She looks at nature so studiously, I think she has the gaze of an artist."

Han Yu only nods at him, smiling, he knows Xi Zirui will change his assessment of their child's future career prospects the moment she stares too long at the curtains.

Han Zhiye is a smiling boy, unlike his more stoic sister, he's always giggling and doing little scrunched up faces to get Xi Zirui and Han Yu to laugh at him. 

This naturally leads Xi Zirui to conclude that he'll be a comedian.

"Why not an actor, like his parents?" Han Yu asks, leaning back on his elbows with a huge grin.

Now that he remembers some of their previous lives, he doesn't hesitate to drop that knowledge on Xi Zirui at carefully calculated intervals to generate maximum devastation -- or maximum annoyance, as the case might be.

Right now, Xi Zirui isn't amused. He turns around from the window, both he and Han Xiu giving Han Yu twin unimpressed looks, and says, "You were an actor, I was just a poor idiot who stumbled on set thanks to a fucked up little machine."

Han Yu chuckles. "You weren't that bad. You even managed to convince me you were the same person as the original, despite your personalities being nothing alike."

That reminds Xi Zirui of something.

He shoots Han Yu an accessing look over his shoulder. "Not that it stopped you from sleeping with him in the second world."

Han Yu goes very still, stopping his gentle rocking of Han Zhiye. He smiles sheepishly up at Xi Zirui. "I didn't know any better, please forgive this husband."

Xi Zirui sighs despondently and raises Han Xiu in front of his face, meeting her serious gaze with his own. "A-Xiu can be whatever she wants, as long as she isn't shameless like her father."

Between Han Yu's peals of laughter, Xi Zirui thinks he and his daughter reach an understanding. 

He's going to be great at this parenting thing.