( start a family together )

[wrongs]

the "Starting a Family" meme

Nature is no respecter of persons, my friends. Whether it be childhood friends, newlyweds, or one-night stands, a single decision or accident can change everything, and there will be three people instead of just two.

Congratulations! The characters in these threads and those who reply to them are now expecting babies, no matter what their unique situation may be. Of course, depending on the characters, this might go over like a lead balloon. But wait! Even if the decision to have a baby was made and was consensual, the process is no walk in the park. There is lots to do...and only nine months to do it. Nine potentially drama-filled months.

HOW TO PLAY

• Comment with your character, preferences, etc.
• Not all options here are fluffy and happy. Some are potentially angsty or possibly triggering. Tread lightly. Be sure to mention what you want and what you don't want.
• Reply to others.
• For this, male characters can get pregnant because why not.

PROMPTS

• How'd It Happen: What led up to this event? How are you in this situation?


• Realization: There's a wrench in the works...or maybe it was expected, but you're just realizing you're pregnant.


• Positive Reaction: Yes, after all this time and planning! You're finally ready for a family.


• Negative Reaction: Oh, no. This is terrible. You're in no position to take care of a child!


• Freak Outs: But...how? You're a human, she's an alien, how -


• Deciding What to Do: If this wasn't planned, there needs to be a plan of action now.


• Keep it Secret: You're attempting to keep your pregnancy a secret from your partner. This is only a bandaid for the bigger problem.


• Telling Others: The other people in you two's life have to know at some point.


• Drama: No one wanted you to have a kid and the anger is palpable.


• Morning Sickness and More: Everything hurts and the mornings are hell.


• Learning: If you're in a technologically advanced society, you may get to see an ultrasound. Otherwise, there are folk remedies that can be tried.


• Manipulation: One of you is using the prospect of a child to bend the other to their will and make them stay.


• My Body is a Cage: The person carrying the baby is having a decent amount of discomfort, mentally and physically.


• Showing: It's a secret no longer with an expanding stomach.


• Support: The partner who isn't carrying the child should do their best to be there and help out...


• Overprotective: ...but to a degree. Don't act like the partner carrying the child is made of paper.


• Getting Ready: The house or apartment or castle has to be babyproof.


• Heart to Heart: It's time to talk about the big changes before the happen. Where do the two of you stand?


• It's Happening: THE BABY IS COMING.


• Rough Going: Childbirth is still a dangerous affair and there's no smooth sailing for you. So pace if you're lucky, scream in the bed if you're not.


• Bad End: Not all new beginnings last. Sometimes, they become unhappy endings.


• Coming Home: Finally, parents and baby get to settle down.


• Getting Used to This: Well, maybe settle down. There's still crying in the night, feedings to do, diapers to change...

Comments

[shui_xian]

After far longer than Huaisang would have liked, his stomach settled enough for him to sit back and take a breath, rolling his eyes with complete disdain for the situation. He rested for a minute more before he stood and cleaned up, splashing water on his face and brushing his teeth. Once satisfied that he was presentable, he stared at himself in the mirror. What was wrong with him? This was unlike any stomach flu he'd had before with the way it returned morning after morning.

He sighed and bolstered himself. Hiding in the bathroom fretting over the state of things would solve nothing. Upon re-entering the bedroom and seeing the expression of Jiang Cheng's face, Huaisang wondered if hiding in the bathroom might be the better solution.

[poisonous_frog]

As soon as he heard the door open, he knew what expression was probably on his face. "I'm not mad," he said automatically. Every feeling came out of his face as anger. That was Jiang Cheng. He opened his eyes and looked up. Worry settled again as he took in the waxy, pale complexion. "Feeling a little better?"

He encouraged Huaisang to come sit before him in the circle of his legs and sip on the tea and nibble on the crackers. From behind, Cheng could comb his fingers through the man's hair and finally rest his forehead against Huaisang's hair, resting his arms around the smaller man. "A-Jie said this would help settle her stomach in the mornings when she was pregnant with A-Ling," Cheng offered. "I figured, what the hell. Ginger is good for nausea, so why not?"

He wanted to bring up going to a doctor to figure out what this illness was. It wasn't catching --Cheng would have gotten it long before now--so it wasn't some virus. It had to be serious. But the words kept getting stuck in his throat and the stress of it all came out as a gentle hug around Huaisang's middle.

[shui_xian]

Sighing away the tension, an act that only partially worked, Huaisang nodded and settled in the spot indicated by his love. "I don't know why I didn't think of ginger. Thank you." He took the cup and sipped carefully, waiting for his stomach to rebel once again. When the cup was half gone, he turned his attention to the questions that were hanging in the air as clearly as if they were written down and suspended from bits of string.

"I don't know what's wrong," he said as he plucked at the covers in front of him. "This hasn't happened to me before. I'm never sick. Like, ever." He drained the rest of the tea and fiddled with the crackers as he tried to make sense of everything so he could choose his words carefully. There was so much that was weird in their lives right now between apparent reincarnation and magic or cultivation or super powers or whatever.

Add he was about to add to it.

"I have been having dreams," he confessed quietly. "Weird dreams about you and I but not us. It's ancient times. Really ancient times. Oh, and I'm a woman. In the dreams I mean."

[poisonous_frog]

He continued running his fingers through Huaisang's hair, using the pattern to soothe them both. He knew about his love's dreams. After all, he had said before that he had dreamed of Cheng before they met. So when Huaisang mentions these particular dreams, he's not terribly concerned yet.

"And I bet you rock those dresses as you do now," he commented warmly, meaning to offer that as comfort. In the process, he pressed a gentle kiss to the base of Huaisang's neck. But Huaisang was telling him something and it was important. "Did these specific dreams start when you were getting sick in the mornings or do they happen randomly?" Sometimes when Huaisang was overwhelmed, he needed a little focus and direction to help keep calm. Jiang Cheng was doing his best, keeping himself calm for his love's sake.

Because a dream was just a dream. It was the subconscious having fun while the body was resting. Just because Huaisnag was dreaming that he was a woman in ancient times, didn't mean that it had actually happened.

[shui_xian]

He looked over his shoulder with a raised brow. "Of course. I was absolutely stunning. I won your heart and hand in marriage after all." Huaisang all but scoffed at the idea of anything less.

Leaning back against Jiang Cheng's larger form, he brought arms around him in a hug that felt like being wrapped up in a blanket. "They started about the same time. I think. Most of the time it's just day to day slice of life stuff." Nervously, he played with Jiang Cheng's fingers, specifically the ring that never left his hand. "It's just, well, in the latest one she .... I .... just informed him, er you, that she was going to have a baby."

He twisted again to look up at Jiang Cheng and let the worry show. "So am I going to live out the reality of these dreams now? Is that what this is?"

[poisonous_frog]

There was something real about the solid weight of Huaisang. Cheng leaned into it and supported him at the same time. Of course, A-Sang would be stunning. He always was. Cheng had witnessed nothing less. He listened as he shielded the smaller man with his body and arms, caging him securely while Cheng listened.

Seeing Huaisang nervous about a dream had given Cheng reservations. There was no way Huaisang could be pregnant of all things! He had checked his lover out extremely thoroughly the other day and there was nothing to indicate he had any working female parts.

The thought of having a family with this man-made Cheng's heart skip a beat, though. He didn't have to think beyond that singular thought of want.

Cheng drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking back into the warm hazel eyes that carried more than they should be allowed to. "I don't want you plagued by dreams. Imagined past or no. But...there were cases of fathers-to-be having pregnancy symptoms as their wives went through it. Kind of like some weird self-hypnosis thing." He stretched and in doing so reached down past Huaisang's tummy to soothingly stroke the insides of his thighs before drawing back up to his stomach. "And last time I checked, you had nothing to tell me you might possibly have been female."

What was it when people were panicking about hallucinations? Just dismissing them could be as damaging as acknowledging them? "If you want, A-Sang, I can go buy a couple of pregnancy tests, to make certain." When he said that, he was dead serious. There was no playful teasing or patronizing tones. If it made Huaisang feel better to know for sure, then he would move heaven and earth to give him that assurance.

[shui_xian]

Huaisang scrunched up his face. "Sympathy symptoms for some life lived hundreds or thousands of years ago?" The very idea of it was almost too much to bear. "What sort deal is that? What happens if I dream about some battle my previous self was in that ended with a bad injury? Should I expect to wake up bleeding?" Was he being dramatic? Yes. Did he feel he was completely entitled? Also yes.

But it was the question of anatomy and pregnancy tests that was all most too much. One the one hand, he gave Jiang Cheng a heated look that harkened back to their quite thorough and enthusiastic love making that left no secrets between them. But then .... "A-Cheng, what do we do if it comes back positive? I mean isn't that supposed to mean something bad for men? I mean besides the idea that a guy somehow got pregnant. I read somewhere that it's supposed to be an indicator for a disease or something."

He let that hang in the air, a little ashamed of himself for speaking so carelessly and knowing that he'd only added to Jiang Cheng's concern. "Maybe we should call my brother? This could be an effect of all that. Especially considering the dreams?"

[poisonous_frog]

Oh fuck. He hadn't realized that a pee test could indicate other things than pregnancy. And while all the things Huaisang said seemed so ridiculous--what if he dreamed he died and it happened? For real!

Cheng knew it all showed on his face. The worry and terror and the utter sickness that this was happening. They had just gotten the pacemaker thing dealt with on their end. That was still on the table somewhat because the medical board was investigating his surgeon about it. And he felt terribly guilty for putting her reputation on the line no matter how accidental that was, so much so that later, he needed to explain to Huaisang why he kowtowed before her and why Wen Qing was so upset by it. Even his brother had yelled at him for it.

Right now, though, he needed Huaisang turned around and in his lap, face to face. Cheng wound his arms around the other man after repositioning him, pressing his forehead to the other's in the process. What the hell were they going to do?

"I think," he started slowly, reaching up to cup Huaisang's face in his hands, "That we should explore all of our options. Do all the tests we need to do to puzzle out this problem. I don't want to wake up to you bleeding out in our bed. And I don't want you to lose yourself because the dreams are too much. Get you checked out because you made a promise to me to be a thorn in my side for always and I'm holding you to that, my shuizhi. And we will call your brother. Probably some witchy dream psychic, too." Cheng leaned in for a kiss, soothing and comforting.

"Sage is the proper incense to use, right? We'll buy a giant bush and burn it in the living room. Maybe my brother will leap out the window in a fright."

[shui_xian]

And with that Huaisang could breathe again. Jiang Cheng was his rock and safe place and with this man at his back, he could face anything. "All the tests then," he agreed. He would agree to anything to put his beloved at ease. And it helped that despite the fear that was so clear on his expression, Jiang Cheng seemed to have a plan of action in mind.

This was the very reason why they worked as a couple. Where one stumbled the other was there to catch him. They fit together like puzzle pieces. They filled each other's cracks.

He smiled at the pet name and the quip regarding Wei Wuxian. Things couldn't be so bad if Jiang Cheng was up to making such comments. He found himself grinning as he wrapped his arms around the wide shoulders. "We can't have him leaping out of windows. Your sister would have something to say."

Feeling a little of the tension bleed out of him, Huaisang thought about all the possibilities. He didn't believe that he was doomed to physically live whatever he dreamt about. This was simply some coincidence and probably nothing more than that. Yes. That had to be it.

"Let's take the reasonable route first and start with a home test. Depending on what that says, we can go from there."

[poisonous_frog]

"Alright. I want you to come with me, even if you just sit in the car. I don't want you home alone, stressing out." A stressed-out Huaisang was a nightmare to work with, he learned. While it seemed that he was collected by the jokes he made, he was only doing what he needed to do to soothe the other man.

At the store, he purchased six tests from three separate companies and bitched about the pricing on all of them. And like any nervous, hopeful father, fumbled a bit at check out and snapped at anyone who gave him an indulgent smile and peppy 'Good Luck!'

Good luck. The only good luck he needed was a negative test! Even though what he said was rational, the stick showing anything but a negative result was going to terrify him. And he couldn't afford to flip out. Not when Huaisang was counting on him.

Once back at their apartment, he paced in front of the closed bathroom door, waiting for an answer.