Chapter 146 - 146 – The List

"I'll give you this notebook to read after you have properly finished the exercise given to you by Dr. Gordon," Ren said finally. "Besides, don't you think it would be good to compare notes on what I think you have achieved and what you think you have achieved?"

Fang pouted. "But you are biased in my favour and I will be trying to write from a neutral perspective," he complained.

Ren chuckled. "But then again, my little darling, you also have the added advantage of knowing what the exact number of achievements I have written down for you is! In fact, I can add another small achievement just now, actually, bringing the number to six hundred and twenty four now," he said with a smile.

And then, Ren snatched the notebook from Fang's hands and wrote down something in it, making sure that Fang wasn't able to catch a glimpse.

Fang stared at Ren with a forlorn expression.

"I want you in bed and fast asleep by eleven at night – or you will learn to abstain yourself for a month," Ren threatened. "So get to work if you don't want to do that!"

Fang shot Ren and aggrieved look, which made Ren rather amused. But then, Fang pulled out a note pad and started writing seriously.

Ren stuffed the notebook into his own pocket and sat down a few feet away from Fang. He opened his laptop and started working himself, but he would glance at Fang every once in a while to make sure that his young fiancé was actually doing the work that he was supposed to do. The two of them settled into a comfortable rhythm soon enough, and they barely realised when it was already time for dinner.

Steward Paul came up to ask them about dinner along with the four babies.

Of course, Ren and Fang stopped their respective work immediately and gathered their precious babies and then went downstairs for dinner.

Pax and Wolf had already gone off earlier, and Dr. Gordon had also left – so it was only Ren and Fang and the four babies. Nonetheless, Chef Jules had whipped up quite a feast, and the unique family enjoyed their meal very much.

After their dinner was done, Ren firmly sent Fang back to work on his exercise, while he himself sat and watched two episodes of an anime series with the babies. By then, the four babies were already sleepy, and Ren took advantage of this to tuck all four of them into bed and went to find Fang.

Fang looked up when Ren entered their bedroom.

"The babies fell asleep?" Fang asked quietly.

Ren nodded and came over to the desk where Fang was working.

"How is it going for you?" Ren asked, peering at Fang's neat and pretty and elegant handwriting filling up the sheets of the note pad.

"Almost done," Fang said.

"How many did you get?" Ren asked.

"Four hundred and fifty seven so far," Fang replied. "I think I could add on probably bring it up to four hundred and sixty two or four hundred and sixty five at most – I really can't think of anything else though, love."

The endearment slipped out without Fang's notice, and he didn't see the pleased smile on Ren's face as a result of this endearment.

Ren leaned in and kissed Fang's brow. "All right, then," he said softly. "You finish up quickly while I go and take a shower."

Fang hummed softly and Ren went off, not noticing the glint in Fang's eyes.

A few minutes later, a tall, young, beautiful figure joined Ren in the shower, startling him.

"What are you doing here?" Ren asked, feeling shy and surprised at the same time.

"I finished the exercise properly and sincerely," Fang said to Ren with a hopeful expression on his face. "Don't I deserve a reward?"

How could Ren deny this beautiful creature that he loved to bits?

And thus, Ren ended up being the tired one that night – and Fang made sure that they were in bed by eleven, just as Ren had instructed! It was just that Ren was not in a position to make sure that the second part of that condition was being met!

A bright eyed and bushy tailed Fang woke up the next morning – the opposite of the puffy eyed and tired looking Ren, who had to be revived by magic in the end to make sure that he would be able to go SIMS that day.

"You energetic little beast," Ren complained under his breath as Fang fussed over him in the morning. "Whose fault is it that I am so tired in the morning today?!"

"But I did what you said," Fang retorted with an aggrieved expression on his beautiful face, using his beauty to its full advantage. "You said you wanted me in bed by eleven, so I did that…"

Ren had no way to counter that – he really had said that, hadn't he? He could only make Fang use rejuvenating magic to make himself as bright eyed and bushy tailed as Fang was!

And that was something that Fang was all too happy to do! He had plenty of magical energy to spare, especially for Ren!

Dr. Gordon turned up in the morning exactly as he had promised. He took a glance at Fang's copious notes and said, "Good job – scan this and send me a copy over email." And then he dug into the delicious breakfast provided by Chef Jules.

Ren and Fang were too amused to say anything to the middle aged doctor. And afterwards, Fang not only emailed scanned copies of his notes to Dr. Gordon, but also handed him a photocopy by the time he finished his breakfast.

"Have you mapped Fang's list with your list?" Dr. Gordon asked Ren.

"Not yet," Ren said. "I'll do it today."

Dr. Gordon nodded. "Yes, do that. I'd recommend that the two of you sit together and go through both the lists with each other as soon as you can," he said.

"We will," Ren said, taking Fang's hand.

Dr. Gordon took his leave right after breakfast, taking the photocopied set of papers with him.

Ren and Fang quickly got themselves ready for SIMS, bid farewell to the babies, and went off for the day.

It was a fairly normal day at SIMS, thankfully. No emergency case came up, and Ren and Fang put in their leave application as well, which was immediately approved, naturally. In fact, the faculty member in charge of approving any leave days even gave them an extra day off – the day after Ren's birthday.

Fang shot the middle aged lady a very grateful look and decided to send her a box of chocolates later for this favour! Poor unsuspecting Ren, on the other hand, had no idea of the silent 'nudge nudge wink wink' conversation going on between Fang and the faculty member, and thought that while they didn't really need the day after his birthday as a holiday – it would still be good to stay at home with the babies and relax, especially since Fang was taking the trouble to plan a day for Ren!

Happy with the approved leave, both Ren and Fang got to their advanced classes and then their research.

Ren was still immersed in one of their latest research projects when Pax turned up to take Fang to Sirocco. Ren had already known that this would happen, so he waved cheerfully at the two of them and sent them away.

"All right?" Pax asked Fang as the two of them settled in Pax's car.

Fang nodded. "Much better than I had expected, actually," he said. "Fit as a fiddle, in fact."

Pax smiled. "I'm glad to hear that," he said, pleased to see Fang bright and happy.

"I wanted to discuss the guest list with you again," Fang said to Pax. "And I wanted to include some people – either for the dinner party itself, or, perhaps, for a separate lunch – whichever you think would be a better option."

"Sure," Pax said. "You want to invite some more people?"

Fang nodded.

"I hope it's not Wade's parents," Pax muttered. "If it is, then I'll put my foot down and tell you not to interfere. That situation is beyond repair, and holds no value, sentimental or otherwise, to either party."

Fang blinked. It had not even occurred to him that he should have considered inviting Wade's parents – even with Wade, Fang didn't really want him there, but Wade had improved a lot these days and was at least behaving sincerely with Ren in whatever limited interaction they had now, and that had gotten him a reprieve in Fang's eyes. Besides, he had invited several of his old classmates from high school – and it would look awful if he left out Wade. Now, whether Wade actually turned up for the dinner party or not – that was none of Fang's concern.. He had no intention of following up or coaxing Wade to come.