After breakfast and a round of treats, Fang took the four babies and Ren to the designer's studio for their fittings. Pax accompanied them, while Wolf went off to woo Claw, much to everyone's amusement.
Sylvia was in her human baby form, of course. The snake wouldn't appear in public anyway.
The designer and her team were waiting eagerly for the famous family. Both Ren and Fang were very good looking and had perfect figures (although Ren was on the thinner side these days) – and it was a pleasure to design clothes for them. As for the babies – they had the super power to charm anyone and everyone into adoring them within five seconds of seeing them!
Thus, a busy morning was spent at the studio, and the little family was very happy with the outfits that were finalised. Pax, too, got talked into getting a formal suit – not matching Ren and Fang's of course.
The designer had also very thoughtfully assembled shoes and matching accessories for each of them to choose from – so everything from top to toe was settled right away.
Ren was a bit surprised. He had expected that he would be able to guess Fang's gift to himself by checking on which accessory was missing from their outfit. However, to his astonishment, he found that every single thing was already there.
Ren wondered for a moment if he should ask Pax – but then decided that he shouldn't be too greedy. Fang was already taking him and the little ones out for dinner – and to an upscale place, too, from the chosen outfits. If it was just an ordinary place, they wouldn't need to get all dressed up like this, would they? Must be at least black tie, Ren thought. And those weren't cheap – so Fang was actually shelling out a lot of his hard earned money on Ren!
Ren's heart ached for his little darling and he decided that Sirocco needed to make more profits and find more collaborative projects for Zephyr, so that Fang could earn a lot more through dividends as well as from his own company. Ren never wanted Fang to worry about money ever again.
But Ren's heart also felt sweet. His dear Fang, who always wanted to save money and always used to nag Ren about spending – was actually taking Ren for a fancy dinner – how cool was that!
Ren had to admit that he was starting to feel very excited about the whole affair.
It was already time for lunch by the time they were finished at the studio, so ren and Fang didn't linger outside and came straight home. Pax had some work left to finish, so he bade them farewell and went off to his own place.
On their way home, Fang kept admiring the pictures they had taken at the studio while they were trying on their new outfits.
Ren poked Fang's cheeks playfully. "What is this now?" he asked in a teasing voice. "Is my little darling feeling mesmerised by how cool we look?"
Fang nodded earnestly. "I can't stop looking at you – I didn't expect that you would look so very handsome in that outfit," he murmured. "Now I'm not sure if I want to let you out of the house when you look so fatally gorgeous!"
Ren chuckled. "Speak for yourself, you beautiful creature," he said.
Fang laughed. "Well, we'll just have to make sure that everyone understands that we are taken," he said.
"Of course," Ren replied. "Although, I doubt there's anyone left in the world who has heard of us but doesn't know that we are engaged to each other."
"Good," Fang said with great satisfaction. "That's how it should be."
Ren shook his head fondly. "When did my sweet little darling get so possessive and jealous?" he teased lightly.
Fang's face turned serious. "Do you find it annoying?" he asked gravely.
Ren laughed and shook his head. "I find it strangely endearing," he replied, patting Fang's head. "Besides, it's not like I don't have my own moments of wanting to hide you away lest someone tries to steal you away from my side," he said with a smile.
"No one can ever steal me away from you," Fang said fiercely. "I'd beat them to a pulp if they tried!"
"Good," Ren said simply, patting Fang's shoulder.
The four babies watched their two fathers silently and without comment – they were already far too used to the displays of this particular kind. Besides, they had just gotten matching outfits to wear with Daddy and Papa, and they were really happy.
And seeing how cute Sylvia looked in her human shape with a matching outfit in the same colour scheme as Fang that complimented their purple eyes – Snow, Smoke and Shadow became even more determined to study harder and advance their magic quickly so that they, too, could get human baby forms soon!
Then they would all match!
Just then, the car screeched to a halt, and it was only the safety of the seat belts that kept all of them from flying off their seats.
"What happened?" Ren asked, rolling down the car window and looking outside.
Only to have a gun pointed at his face.
Ren raised an eyebrow at the masked figure that was pointing a gun at him. "Who are you? And what do you want?" he asked in a calm voice.
It was not just the man who was pointing the gun at Ren's face. There were at least a dozen more armed people behind him, and Ren could gauge from his peripheral vision that their car was completely surrounded.
It was clear that this was a well laid plan by someone who was familiar with Ren and the route to his house. There were not many spots in their journey home where an abduction or any criminal activity could be carried out. And this ambush certainly looked like it had been prepared well in advance!
Although the situation looked grim, Ren didn't panic. Instead, he calmly looked up at the man with the gun and repeated his question. (Of course, part of this could be attributed to the fact that there were two members of the Blue Wolves in the car, one in the driver's seat and the other in the navigator's seat – not to mention that Fang, by himself, could easily take down a couple of dozen armed men without breaking a sweat. And Ren, lazy as he was – could still be called a better fighter than half the professionals; he had been personally trained by Wolf, after all. And these men looked like small fry in Ren's eyes anyway.)
"We don't want to harm you, Chairman Ren," the man said. "However, we want that filthy boy next to you. I am sure you don't know about the dirty things he has done in his life – otherwise you wouldn't even touch him with a ten foot pole, let alone agree to get engaged to him."
Ren froze for a moment, and then quickly grabbed Fang's cold hand without turning his head away from the man who was pointing a gun at him. Fang's hand was terribly cold, and his entire body shook violently, making Ren worried. Fang's therapists had cleared him some time ago, and his therapy sessions had been reduced to a basic check in once in two months, or when Fang wanted to reach out to his therapists by himself. More often than not, Fang spoke to Dr. Gordon instead of going to one of his therapists. Ren also didn't put too much pressure on Fang on this aspect. He simply extended his silent and unflinching support whenever and wherever Fang needed it.
But that didn't mean that Fang had completely put the trauma behind him – these things couldn't be forgotten so easily, and it would be unreasonable to expect Fang to have no reaction at all when someone said things like these.
And these were two of Fang's biggest trigger points – his traumatic past, and his sense of being unworthy of Ren.
Ren silently squeezed Fang's hand to reassure him, and he could feel that Fang was starting to calm down as his violent trembling subsided.
Ren gestured with his other hand and the four babies immediately climbed up on Fang's lap and clung to him, warming him up with their small bodies and speaking to their Papa in his head.
The temperature of Fang's hand started getting warmer bit by bit.
Ren, too, squeezed Fang's hand in reassurance and shot him a concerned glance.
However, fang had already lowered his head and his hair fell around his face like a curtain, obscuring his beautiful face from Ren's vision.
Ren squeezed Fang's hand again. Then he turned around to look at the man who was still pointing his gun at him.
"Well," Ren said calmly, fixing his golden eyes upon the man with the gun. "May I ask why you want my dear Fang?" he asked softly. Those who knew Ren would clearly hear the hint of danger in his voice and would flee for their lives.
Unfortunately for this set of criminals, none of them were familiar with Ren.