"I feel very weird right now" Nikki commented as she and Jennifer stood at one of the windows discreetly watching the two new residents to join them in their accommodation walk up the path. There was a woman who could have been a bit older than Nikki with a baby carrier and another couple who were also about the same age as Jennifer as well, they too had a baby carrier which the red headed woman was carrying.
"Why?"
"Because you all have young babies by the look of it and I have two very loud little boys who are already walking" Nikki replied, Jennifer leaning closer to the window to get a closer look at the new residents "Well Gabriel is noisy, Donovan is just getting the hang of being noisy"
"But they're gorgeous so they're allowed to get away with it"
Nikki just smirked and stepped away from the window when the new residents disappeared from view before their voices floated down the corridor, one of the women had an Irish lilt to her voice and Nikki and Jennifer then heard the voice of the man who had brought them to their accommodation as well.
"Shall we go and see them?" Nikki asked but already knew what the answer would be as Jennifer grinned, the younger blonde doing the same before they made their way down the corridor to the main seating area, the door already open.
They walked in and the man who had shown them to the main building their rooms were in smiled at them and then turned to the new residents.
"Ah I was just informing these people here that the other residents are already her and settled" he motioned to the couple and the other brown haired woman who smiled at Nikki and Jennifer "Well I'll leave you in capable hands then if that's okay" he directed this towards Nikki and Jennifer who nodded.
"Of course" Nikki smiled and the guide smiled happily, turning back to the new residents as the blonde looked back at Jennifer "This is going to be fun, three young babies. I always thought there would be older children here as well"
"Well there probably is in the other family housing" Jennifer replied and motioned in the general direction of the other family accommodation "But I'm sure it's better to have children of a certain age together rather than miles apart in ages, there can be help between the parents then"
"I suppose so" Nikki nodded and Jennifer glanced at her watch.
"I should go and relieve Harry of Adrian, I think I've overstepped my time for babysitting"
"Don't be silly, Harry loves having a young baby again. So do I actually"
"Well there are now three to pick from" Jennifer laughed and Nikki giggled, playfully nudging her friend out of the doorway. "I won't be long"
"Could you show, Anthony, Abigail and Emily to their rooms please?" the guide asked Nikki as Jennifer left and the blonde nodded quickly.
"Of course I can"
"Thank you, I'll leave you in..Nikki's capable hands" the guide took a few seconds to remember her name from two days before and she nodded "They know what rooms they are in, not that there's much confusion"
Nikki smiled and nodded as the older man walked from the room and then down the corridor to the main doorway to the block.
"Right, who's who?" Nikki then asked and chuckled at the brown haired man who was obviously with the red headed woman "I take it you're Anthony"
The red headed woman giggled and her partner nodded, grinning at Nikki as he held out his hand, the blonde shaking it.
"That would be me yes"
He too had an Irish accent, his green eyes a shade or two darker than Harry's was.
"This is my girlfriend Abigail"
"Nice to meet you Nikki" Abigail shook her hand as well.
"You too" Nikki smiled at the red haired woman and then turned to the last young woman left "And you must be Emily"
"That's me" the brown haired woman nodded and shook Nikki's hand as well.
"Good, you'll meet everyone else later" Nikki told them all and then motioned to the doorway "Shall we go, where's your luggage?"
"They're bringing a lot of it later" Abigail explained as she picked up the baby carrier from the seat next to her and Emily nodded as well "And the boxes of things as well"
"Ah yes, and the children have more things than you brought for yourself?" Nikki guessed and the three of them nodded "Oh yes"
"Welcome to parenthood?" Anthony chuckled and Nikki nodded.
"It's fun, really" Nikki assured them all as she led them out of the living room as she liked to call it in her mind and down the corridor to the other rooms "There's quite a bit of space in between the rooms so we're not literally living on each other's laps"
"Not like some of the other residential housing we saw" Abigail told them and Nikki nodded, glancing back and smiling at the baby in the carrier, he or she had the same bright red hair as his or her mother. "I got pregnant after we looked around the first time" she then explained.
"What rooms are you?"
"I'm two" Emily piped up and Nikki nodded, stopping outside room number one.
"Well this is yours then" Nikki told Abigail and Anthony who smiled their thanks.
"Thank you"
"Emily yours is the next door down" Nikki smiled kindly at the brown haired woman who smiled and nodded.
"Thank you"
"I'm in room four and Jennifer the woman I was with a few minutes ago is in number three so if you need anything just come and talk to us, we don't bite. Well..Jennifer might, I don't really know" Nikki shrugged and the other three adults laughed "We'll be in the main living room in about half an hour with the children if you want to come and introduce yourself properly too us, we're not that scary really"
"We'll be there" Anthony nodded as Abigail unlocked their room and walked in.
"Wow"
They heard her awed voice float from the room and Anthony chuckled.
"See you later"
"Bye" Nikki smiled before turning and walking down the corridor, stopping when she got to Emily's room, the door still open. She thought for a few seconds before she poked her head around the door and smiled at the brown haired woman "Hi"
"Hi" Emily smiled as she picked up her baby from the carrier, leaving the blanket in there "You can come in, this is my daughter Elsie"
"She's gorgeous" Nikki grinned as she reached down and gently stroked the baby hand "Hello" she cooed to the little girl, the baby had her mother's brown hair and grey eyes.
"Thank you" Emily smiled proudly down at her daughter.
"How old is she?" Nikki then asked as Elsie gripped her finger tightly and smiled up at her.
"Three months, and yours?"
"Twin boys, they're almost eleven months" Nikki replied and Emily raised an eyebrow at her, the blonde chuckling "That's the look I normally get"
"Sorry, it's just..how old are you?"
"Eighteen, and you?"
"Twenty"
Nikki nodded and then smiled down at the baby again.
"You are very gorgeous I hope you know that"
"Well I tell her all the time" Emily laughed and Nikki giggled "So she should know it"
"I know, the amount of times I've told my boys how handsome they are I hope they don't become shallow"
"Aww but it's a parent's prerogative to tell their children how gorgeous they are" Emily chuckled and Nikki nodded in agreement "What are their names?"
"Gabriel and Donovan, Gabriel's the oldest" Nikki informed the older woman "I should leave you to settle in a bit, we're meeting in the living room in half an hour or so so we can all meet each other considering we're living in close proximity for the next year"
"Okay, we'll be there"
"Oh and the kitchen is down past our room and to the left" Nikki motioned in the direction of the kitchen and Emily nodded.
"Thank you"
"So are they nice?" Jennifer asked Nikki as she walked out of her room with Adrian in her arms, feeding him from the bottle in her hand.
"Ssh" Nikki hissed and glanced back down the corridor and then back at her friend "The brown haired woman is Emily, she's nice from what I've seen, she's got a three month old daughter called Elsie. I haven't found out anything else yet and I haven't really talked to Anthony and Abigail but we're all meeting in the living room in half an hour so we can all meet each other"
"Okie dokie"
An hour later and all the residents including the children were in the main living room getting to know each other. Anthony and Abigail had a four month old little boy named Fergus and were studying Biological science and Law respectively and Emily was studying Maths. Anthony was twenty one and Abigail was twenty, hearing this just made Harry and Nikki feel suddenly like children again.
"How did you cope?" Abigail asked Nikki after they had been told Donovan had lost his hearing to meningitis when he was a month old.
"At the time I didn't" Nikki replied as the children played on the floor, Harry having warned the twins to be careful of the younger babies who were laying on the floor, he himself sitting on the floor just in case the twins got too rough around the younger children. "I was just too terrified that we were going to lose him but we're just so grateful that losing his hearing is the only thing that happened to him, it could have been so much worse"
"I can't imagine anything like that happening" Emily motioned to her daughter who Donovan was looking curiously at in her pink babygrow, Fergus and Adrian in light blue and turquoise respectively. "It's always on my mind, especially when Elsie is ill but I can never imagine it actually happening"
"It was.." Nikki shook her head "Horrific when we didn't know if he was going to get better or not, and then once we found out he was deaf we had some trouble understanding what was going on but we soon got used to it. He's fine though, you wouldn't really know he was deaf just by looking at him"
"But that will probably change when they get older" Harry added as Gabriel climbed into his lap and kissed him on the lips, everyone else in the room 'awwing' at the sight as Harry grinned and gave him a quick kiss back.
"Harry" Nikki warned her lover and he gave her an apologetic look which she just nodded at.
"But Donovan is okay apart from being deaf?" Anthony asked, slipping to the floor as Fergus began to cry and picking up his son.
"Yeah he's fine" Nikki smiled at her boys, Donovan still enthralled by Elsie as he reached over and touched her small hand gently, whipping his hand away as she went to close her hand around his and falling back onto his bottom with a shocked look on his face. The adults all laughed, not unkindly, at him and Nikki moved so she was sitting on the floor, Donovan looking at her and smiling before looking back at Elsie and then signed the word for 'baby', looking up at Nikki who nodded. "Good boy" she signed before pointing to Elsie and signing out the letters to spell her name before signing baby and then pointing at Emily, Donovan looking at the brown haired woman and back at Nikki as she signed Emily's name.
"Our boys are perfect aren't they?" Nikki murmured as she stood in the doorway of the twin's bedroom, Harry walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist as the nightlight spread colourful planes over the wall and ceiling.
"Yes they are" Harry agreed with her just as quietly so they didn't wake Gabriel up, Nikki leaning her head back on his chest.
"I can't believe they're almost a year old already, it doesn't seem possible"
"They're still our little boys, they always will be"
"Yeah" Nikki replied sadly "When they're our age and they have girlfriends, or boyfriends I don't really care, when they're off to university themselves they won't be will they?"
"Nikki they will always be our babies, our little boys whether they want to be or not"
Nikki turned her head slightly so she could look at him and smiled, nodding and then snuggling closer into his warm and strong body, closing her eyes as she did so.
"Come on, time for bed I think. It's been a long day hasn't it?"
"Actually I was thinking that we could go to bed and practice the art of baby making without the actual baby making" Nikki giggled as she turned in his arms, seeing the smirk on his face before she leant up and pressed her lips to his.
"I like the sound of that"