Mei groaned as she leaned against the table, fanning herself with a menu. It did very little to soothe the heat she was feeling, but she had to do something. "Uggghhhh…. 's'too hot…" she moaned.

Pigsy patted her shoulder sympathetically. He'd come out from the kitchen to check on her - being so far along in her pregnancy, nobody wanted her to sit at the bar. They didn't like the thought of her sitting on one of the stools, reasoning it was safer - and gave them more peace of mind - to have her sit at the table instead. Mei, for her part, had agreed.

"Do you want anything?" he asked.

Mei immediately thought back to when she was younger. "Turtle jelly," she mumbled.

"Not when you're pregnant, Mei."

"Coconut water. With strawberries."

"Okay, wait just a few minutes."

Pigsy patted her shoulder once, then slid out of the booth. A second later, MK slid in to replace him, anxiety written all over his features. "You're okay, right?" he asked. "It's not the Fire, is it?"

"No. Yes. Sorta." Mei groaned and shook her head. "I'm just getting warmer randomly. I'd start getting warm anyway even if I didn't have the Samadhi Fire, or dragon ancestry… ugh." She tilted her head back, glaring at the ceiling. "I'll be fine, it'll pass in a little bit, as usual."

"If you need anything–"

"Trust me," Red Son chimed in from his seat across from Mei. "We have an entire freezer of ice-cream at home, plenty of cooling foods and drinks, and when she needs it, she gets cooling baths."

"Oh, yeah, and Red Boy's real helpful during those."

Pigsy's brow wrinkled as he returned with Mei's request, having just caught the last part. "That's not something I need to know about," he grumbled.

"Oh, please, she's pregnant and you draw the line at knowing I help bathe my wife?"

"Okay, listen here–"

"Oh, my goodness, Mrs Jiang, how are you?" Tang said a little too loudly.

Everyone's attention turned to the door, where a woman had just come in. She didn't seem to realize that she'd just prevented a catastrophe, a calm smile on her round face. She was dressed simply, in a cream-colored sweater and beige sweat-pants with loafers, and her short black hair was tousled and held back with a pink headband. But the part that got Mei's attention was–

Tang made a tiny noise, hands over his mouth. "Oh. Is that your–"

The woman nodded, looking down at the baby in the portable carrier she was wearing. "Yes, I thought I'd bring little Bowen with me while I got some exercise and picked up my order." Mrs Jiang smiled, gently touching the top of the baby's head.

As she walked to the counter, Mei, MK, and Red Son craned to see the baby.

The boy stared out with big brown eyes, his pudgy hands resting alongside his pudgy face. He looked back at them unblinkingly, almost as if he wanted to study them.

Mei felt her heart squeeze a bit. The boy was so little in that chunky carrier, his fists were so small and cute and fat, and…

"Mei? You okay?" MK's voice cut in, sounding concerned.

Mei blinked back stinging tears that she hadn't even realized were starting to well up. Nodding hastily, she palmed at her eyes with one hand and took her glass with the other. "I'm fine," she mumbled. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"You sure? You just–"

"I'm good," Mei sniffed.

She didn't realize it, but Mrs Jiang had heard and seen the exchange. The older woman stood at the counter, pausing as she took her take-out order. After a few moments, she glanced over to Tang. "Oh, is that Mei?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah."

"May I say hello?"

"If she's alright with it."

Mrs Jiang nodded, taking her food and slowly approaching the table where the young trio sat. Mei was calming back down, the cool and sweet drink helping. She put her glass down when she saw the older woman stop by the table with a smile. "Oh, uh– hi," Mei started, feeling uncharacteristically awkward. "Sorry about that, I just–"

"Oh no, I understand… You know, when I was in the third trimester, I broke into tears because I thought my husband's coffee cup was so small," Mrs Jiang said kindly. She waited for Mei to laugh before she went on: "If you don't mind me asking, how many weeks are you?"

"Thirty-four."

"Wow, I bet you're ready to have that kid out, aren't you?"

"Oh, yeah," Mei laughed again. "I feel like I'm just gonna pop."

"Do you know what you're having?"

"Hm-m," Mei answered with a shake of her head. "Red and I wanted to be surprised." She saw Mrs Jiang's eyes flick over to Red Son, who was watching her almost cautiously. She saw some of the curiosity in her eyes settle, and immediately knew she'd been privately wondering which of the two men was the child's father.

Thank the gods she hadn't actually asked, Mei couldn't help thinking, suppressing a laugh. She doubted she or MK would be able to contain themselves at the thought that he was the one.

"Goodness, you've got more patience than I do. I couldn't find out soon enough what Bowen here was going to be."

As if sensing he was being talked about, the boy in the carrier made a loud bahhh.

"Okay, okay," Mrs Jiang chuckled, patting the boy's head. "I should get home and eat; he wants food, too. It was lovely to meet you, Mei."

"Thanks, you too!" Mei smiled as the new mother left the shop, quietly shushing her baby. She couldn't explain it, but somehow, speaking to Mrs Jiang made her feel a little better. And a little more at ease. She took another long, slow drink of her coconut water, chewing on a strawberry. Hm, it also felt a bit like her temperature was going down, too.

"Thirty-four weeks…" MK muttered, tapping his fingers on the table. "You're getting close."

Red Son nodded. "Six weeks left. Maybe less."

"...are you guys freaking out?"

"Not really?" Mei shrugged. "I wasn't kidding; I feel like I'm going to just pop. I think I'll be glad when they come out."


She had relaxed a little bit in the shop, but now, at night, it was difficult to stay asleep.

Mei blinked drowsily at the wall, noting the fluttering kicks against her side. Ah, the little one had woken her this time. As usual.

"Baby, I love you, your father loves you, but you can't stay up so late," she said quietly, resting a hand on her swollen abdomen. The baby kicked at her palm in response.

"Nooo, cut it out," she whispered, closing her eyes. "It's sleep time now."

Mei tried to fall back asleep. It'd been easy to drift off earlier - despite her temperature increase, she still snuggled up against Red Son's bull form at night, enjoying how his own heat soothed her sore body. It'd felt like curling up with a giant hot water bottle, and they'd both fallen asleep in no time.

But now, with the baby idly tapping against her, and–

–ah, there, her stomach rumbled.

"You're hungry? Why didn't you say so, kid?"

Carefully, she eased herself out from under Red Son's arm. It gently fell to the mattress, and the red bull grunted behind her. Mei paused, waiting to see if Red would stir. When he didn't, she scooted her way to the edge of the bed.

With a grunt, Mei moved her legs over the side of the bed and managed to get to her feet. Her back and legs twinged painfully, but it was nothing she wasn't used to by now. "Alright," she said under her breath, shuffling out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen, "late-night snack, then bed."

As if in response, the baby kicked.

"Nooo, you're going back to sleep," Mei retorted, placing a hand to her belly. "You can't keep wakin' me up."

Kick.

Mei chuckled, then began to softly sing. "The moon is bright, the wind is calm, the tree leaves hang over the window…" The kicking lessened a bit, and Mei smiled, closing her eyes for a moment. That song always seemed to calm the baby. It did wonders for her, too. "My baby, close your eyes…"

She entered the kitchen.

"Sleep, dreaming sweet dreams…"

"Just so you know, you're out of mangos."

Mei just barely stopped herself from shrieking. She gripped the door frame with one hand, staring wide-eyed at the dark figure sitting on the kitchen counter. He acted like she wasn't even there, taking another bite of congee with sliced mango, idly swinging one leg. The nonchalance was almost a mockery itself.

Her alarm quickly gave way to irritation. "Macaque," Mei said slowly, "what are you doing in our house?"

"Standing guard."

"You're eating one of my snacks."

"I'm on break." Macaque paused in chewing, turning to see the dark expression on Mei's face. He sighed, lowering the bowl to his lap. "Look, just give me a few minutes, and I'll be out of your hair. You won't even know I'm here."

Mei's eyes narrowed. "You get five minutes," she muttered, stalking to the fridge and opening it. Well, the congee and mango were out, so now she had to find something else. She began pushing things aside, trying to figure out what looked good at the moment.

Saliva chicken? No. Coffee pudding? Hm, no. Oooh, rice pudding, that looked good. Mei pulled out the tupperware and popped the lid off, grabbing a spoon to eat it straight from the plastic container. The entire time, she tried to ignore the monkey behind her.

…it was actually pretty difficult, especially since something he said in particular was nagging at her now.

"...so. What'd you mean, 'standing guard?'" She tried to keep her tone casual, but the undercurrent of tension still came to the surface.

Judging by the way Macaque's ears twitched slightly, he'd noticed. His posture changed very slightly, stiffer and tense even as he feigned nonchalance himself. "The kid asked me to keep an eye on you," he admitted, stirring his meal. "She got worried about the baby. She's a good kid."

"Hm. Yeah. She is." Mei stirred her own meal, peering over to Macaque from the corner of her eyes. "You didn't have to. You could've just not and said you did."

"Hm, no, I don't think so." He stared harder into the bowl. "I mean. I was planning on it anyway. The standing guard thing. Don't tell anyone," he added.

"...you wanted to look after us?"

"Don't put it like that…" he groaned. "I just didn't want your baby harmed."

Something else tugged at Mei's mind. A memory.

Sun Wukong sending the fruit with MK, with the message that it'd be good for a mother and growing baby. MK's insistence he hadn't told him…

"...did you tell Wukong? Or did he tell you?"

Macague pointed to his ears. There was a faint, very brief, glimmer of color. But then it was gone. "I heard it. Then I told him. He hangs out with the other kid more, I knew he'd tell him to–"

"Heard– Wait, oh gods, you heard us–?!"

"Wha– No! No, ew! I heard the baby crying!" Macaque actually sputtered, his cheeks darkening as his spine stiffened. "I wanted to try listening ahead again and I heard the crying, that's it!"

'Try listening ahead again.' There was a bit to unpack in that, a bit of backstory Mei was sure she didn't know about. But it wasn't her place to ask. She wasn't the one to hear about it. She watched him a bit longer, as he slowly looked away from her face and down into the bowl.

Suddenly she wasn't very hungry.

"...you heard it cry?" she asked.

He seemed overly-interested in his food, staring into it while idly stirring the congee and mangoes together. For a few moments, the only sound was the spoon scraping around the sides of the bowl. Then, finally, he broke the silence.

"Yes. I heard the baby cry," he repeated, solemn. "Don't worry." Macaque looked back up, meeting her eyes. "The child will be healthy."

He looked so serious, it nearly took her aback. It wasn't the look she was used to seeing on him.

There was no trace of mirth, no arrogance. No hiding or posturing. His gaze was intense, but he didn't seem agitated.

Instead, he looked a bit like… well, a real guard. Like a palace guard in the fairy tales she'd read, the ones who stood outside palace gates with a sword, to protect the princess inside.

She probably shouldn't, she knew, but… She felt safe then.

"Did… did they sound pained?" Mei asked, thinking of the Samadhi Fire again.

"I didn't hear much beyond the first few seconds of their life. I'm sorry." And he looked and sounded as if he meant it, too. "I can try to listen again, but it's a strain to listen to the future. I'd probably pass out on your floor for a few days, and then…" He shrugged. "Don't think Red would appreciate that. But, I mean. If you're concerned, I can still–"

"No. No, I can't… I can't ask you to do that." Mei looked back down. As much as she wished to know, for absolutely certain, that her and Red's baby wouldn't have the Fire… No, if listening would hurt Macaque, she wouldn't ask him. She wouldn't force someone to be in pain.

No matter how strained or tense their history might've been.

"For what it's worth," he chimed in, sliding off the counter and setting his now-empty bowl in the sink. "I personally think it'll be fine. If the kid gets it, they're around the best people to handle it."

"...thanks, Macaque," Mei murmured. She looked at him again, a thin smile on her features. "I mean it. Thanks for the help. All of it."

He actually looked taken aback again. Then he sighed, a tiny grin on his face as he sharply turned away. "Don't mention it. …really, please don't." At Mei's quiet laugh, he stilled again, then almost sheepishly glanced at her belly. "Hey. I haven't… it's been a long time since I was with any of the babies, and…"

"If you're asking to feel–"

"No, no, I couldn't–"

"-I mean, if you want, it's–"

"-no. Just. Hang on." He took a deep breath, then approached Mei. Moving quietly, as non-threateningly as possible. When he got close, he leaned down so his head was closer to her belly. "Hey in there," he whispered. "You're gonna have such a huge family, you know that? I'll see you soon."

He sank into the shadows before Mei could even ask about it.

…well. That was fine.

No, it. It really was.

It really felt fine.

Mei let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. She glanced into the tupperware - she'd barely touched her midnight snack.

"Well. I'm still hungry…" she muttered. The baby kicked in agreement, making Mei chuckle. "Alright. C'mon, kid. Let's go back to bed and see if we can eat without waking Daddy."