#mpreg!verse

[marmelade-sky]

There are a couple but I wish there were more fics of Scott & Kip becoming parents. Can we get a little something portraying them as dads? I hc that when Scott & Kip do welcome a baby, Shane will go out of his way and send the couple a personalized baby gift (because that's what Shane does and also, he respects Scott a lot) and Ilya's all like "Really, Shane? Must you?? Send them both bibs, the grandpa will probably fall asleep before the baby does", in jk mode of course LOL

i love them so much but I, too, am kind of 50/50 on them having kids at all. sometimes i like it, sometimes i don't. but i DO really enjoy writing them as older parents :) thank you for the prompt!!! <3

send me prompts for non-hollanov gc couples :)

-

"Shane and Rozanov sent us a gift," Scott says from the kitchen counter.

"Oh?" Kip glances over his shoulder, which is currently adorned with a burp cloth and Oliver's little head, which Kip is cradling gently in his palm. "Open it."

Scott grabs scissors from the kitchen drawer, carefully cutting the package open. Inside the cardboard box is a layer of high-quality, shimmery silk paper which Scott peels back to find a hand-written card.

He picks it up, reading aloud to Kip (and Oliver).

"Dear Scott & Kip, congratulations on the birth of your first baby Oliver Benjamin Hunter-Grady." Scott gives his husband and baby a soft smile; Kip smiles back, kissing Ollie's little head. "Bringing a new life into this world is an undescribable feeling - we should know, we've done it twice - smiley face." Scott scoffs. "Show-offs."

Kip rolls his eyes with a laugh. "Keep reading."

"We hope you find this gift from us useful when the sleeplessness and the stress of having a newborn plague you. This model is tried, tested and baby-approved. We sincerely wish you all the best for this new and exciting phase of your life and are looking forward to meeting little Oliver in the future. Love, Shane and Ilya with Anastasia, Emilija and Anya."

"That's so sweet," Kip sighs softly.

"Yes, and not a single dig at my age," Scott grins, carefully setting the card aside. Under it, he finds a beautifully wrapped bundle of cloth in blue and brown. When he lifts it up, it reveals itself to be a baby carrier.

Kip gasps, loud enough to startle Oliver. He quickly soothes him again, rocking him back and forth with wide eyes. "This the baby carrier I told you about!" he hisses, trying to keep calm in his excitement.

"The one which is made from, like, one single alpaca in the Bolivian mountains who gets daily deep conditioning treatments?" Scott asks. He runs his hand over the carrier; it IS very soft.

"It's four thousand fucking dollars!" Kip whispers.

"Oh, wow." Scott rubs it against his cheek; okay, it's very, very soft. "It even has Oliver's name embroidered on it."

"Gosh, this is so cute and thoughtful." Kip approaches, reaching for it, feeling the fabric with his palm. There are tears swimming in his eyes, and Scott reaches out for him, wrapping his arm around his hip. The hormone situation is still very up-and-down at the moment.

"We need to call them later and thank them," Kip sniffles. Oliver gurgles on his shoulder, trying to lift his tiny head. Scott reaches out for him, and Kip gently hands him off. It's trippy, the way their baby just fits into Scott's palms so easily, how tiny he is, and yet, how alive. And sometimes, how loud.

"There's more." Kip reaches out, removing the rest of the silky paper. He lets out a little "Ha!" at the small card he pulls out from under it. "Uber Eats giftcard." He turns it around, reads the back. "Wow. One thousand dollar Uber Eats giftcard." He holds it out to Scott. "My god. Is this how life is when both people in a marriage are millionaires?"

Scott snorts. "Evidently."

"It says, 'this was Ilya's idea' on the back." Kip chuckles, showing the writing to Scott.

Oliver, nuzzled into Scott's chest, is slowly drifting off to sleep now, and Scott holds him tightly. He'll sit down on the couch in a minute, or his back muscles will kill him later.

"This is a very thoughtful gift," Kip says, carefully folding the baby carrier again. "And probably the first card which didn't talk about how inspiring we are."

Scott laughs. "They know the struggle."

"They do," Kip agrees, then sighs, rubbing his face. He's shirtless safe for the burp cloth, and there's a milk stain on his sweatpants. Scott is so in love with him.

"D'you want to go shower? I've got him," he offers, and Kip lets out a grateful hum.

"That would be heavenly." Kip leans forward and presses a kiss to Scott's lips.

"Take your time," Scott tells him.

"Oh, I will."

[marmelade-sky]

I think you said somewhere that baby Oliver looks a lot like Scott, could you maybe write more about that? like either Kip being pissed because he pushed that whole baby out and he looks like Scott, or them being fluffy and cute about it... whatever you want. if you want. c: thank youuuu

i love this mpreg verse we've created here

my prompts are still open!! any GCU/HR ship welcome!

-

"Dude, this is trippy," Carter said over the noise of Madison Square Garden, where they were attending an Admirals game together.

Carter kept glancing back and forth between Scott and baby Oliver in his arms. "He's like a mini you!"

"He's adorable!" Gloria smiled, reaching out to tickle Ollie's tummy. It made him giggle, his ear defenders bobbing adorably on his head. "Yes, you are!"

"Yeah, people keep saying that," Scott replied with a sheepish smile.

"He's like you, but cuter!" Carter said.

"Which means a lot, cause I'm already pretty cute." Scott gave him a wink, Carter winked back, sticking out his tongue at Scott.

"Okay, stop flirting with my husband." Kip sat back down in his seat, and Ollie immediately strained to reach for him. Kip took him from Scott, pulling him into his lap.

"They were just saying how much Ollie looks like me," Scott told him, eliciting a fond eyeroll.

He leaned forward to talk to Gloria and Carter. "We've been featured in an article titled, How to Deal with the Disappointment of Carrying your Baby for Nine Months only for it to Look Like Your Husband, or something."

"No!" Gloria exclaimed, while Carter started laughing.

"Fuck, that's tough!" he grinned.

Scott let out a contrite, "Sorry" and gently squeezed Kip's thigh.

"It's kind of weird for people to make such a big deal out of it!" Gloria argued.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, too!" Kip gestured between his husband and his baby, "I love my husband, so why would I be disappointed that our baby looks like him?"

"Aww," Carter cooed, grabbing Scott's shoulder in a friendly squeeze. "That's cute as hell."

"Oh, look!" Gloria said, pointing to the jumbotron. They were doing a Lookalike game on it to keep the crowd entertained.

Right now, the photo on it was a headshot of Scott, back in his active days, looking seriously into the camera in his Admirals jersey. The crowd went nuts, of course.

Scott laughed with a slight eye-roll; they always did this, and then the big reveal was, oh hey look, this celebrity is actually here-

The camera cut on, and the person on screen was, in fact, not Scott. Instead, the shot was focued on none other than Oliver, happily sitting in Kip's lap. The crowd 'aaaaawed', and Ollie squealed and giggled like he knew he was on camera, eliciting an even greater response.

Then, the camera panned out to show all of them; Scott politely waved, giving the fans a smile.

Very quickly, every other noise was drowned out by a chant of "Hunter, Hunter!" by the fans.

"Do you hear that, little man?" Carter asked Ollie, who just looked at him with wide eyes, "They're saying your name! They can't wait for you to play for the Admirals one day!"

Scott huffed out a laugh. "We'll see about that."

"With a face like that? He's destined to be captain," Carter grinned, bumping his shoulder into Scott's.

[marmelade-sky]

I am just obsessed with that mpreg world you've created (with Oliver and the Hollanov girls), I can't lie

Could we have more of it?

i also love this AU, very fond of it <3 mpreg my beloved. thank you for the prompt!!!

send me prompts for the gc couples outside of hollanov, let's show them some love <3 (hollanov prompts are welcome as well but will be answered later)

-

"Oh wow, Shane and Ilya are having another baby." Scott held out his phone.

Kip squinted at it, looking at the pregnancy announcement they had sent into the group chat: a photo of Emilija clearly screaming at the camera, wearing a t-shirt which said 'middle child behavior'.

"Wow," Kip echoed, "I thought they were done?"

"Apparently not." Scott turned his phone back around, looking at the photo one more time.

"If you ask me, they're not stopping after three, either," Kip said, a little bitchily.

Scott raised his eyebrows at him. "You think?"

"Yeah," Kip stirred some honey into his tea. "They like it too much." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "Pregnancy fetish."

"Kip!" Scott scolded, unable to hold back a laugh.

"It's true, mark my words. They'll get to like, four or five."

"No." Scott shook his head. "That's crazy."

"Yeah. Let's not do that." Kip set down his mug, giving the baby monitor a glance. "One and done."

Scott said nothing for a second, then let out a very belated, "Yeah, of course."

"Scott." Kip leveled a very serious gaze on his husband, something in his stomach clenching. "I'm not doing that again. I love Ollie, but my pregnancy was horrible."

"No, of course, I know that!" Scott said quickly, holding out a hand.

Kip wasn't exaggerating.

He had spent the entire duration of his pregnancy throwing up, so much so that their doctor, at some point, gently brought up termination. He'd had to spend the last few weeks of his pregnancy under almost constant medical supervision, and had hemorrhaged during birth.

All in all, not a pleasant experience.

"I think I just wish you could do it again, but without all the bad stuff," Scott said contritely.

"I'd rather not do it again than risk it," Kip said seriously. "I'm not like, I don't know, perfect Shane who can just pop out one baby after the next and bounce right back and be fine, no problem." He knew it was unfair, but the trauma of the whole experience still sat deep, and it felt... unbalanced that other people had it so easy.

"Hey." Scott stood up, and quickly wrapped his arms around Kip, holding him. "That's not what I meant at all, my love."

Kip leaned into him, letting his husband hold him, and tried to bite back mean tears burning in his eyes.

"All I want," Scott said seriously, "Is for you to be happy. That's what matters most to me, you and Ollie. You know how scared I was when you hemorraged, I don't ever want to do that again, either."

"I know," Kip whispered.

"And whatever you say, goes, yeah? It's your body." Scott pressed his lips to Kip's hair.

"Okay," Kip whispered, biting his bottom lip.

"I love you so much," Scott added softly.

"Love you, too," Kip sighed. "Sorry for... being a bitch."

"Nah, I like it when you're mean about our oh so perfect friends," Scott told him with a soft laugh.

Kip covered his shaky grin.

The baby monitor rustled, then, a moment later, they could hear Oliver babble.

"I'll get him," Scott said, heading for the nursery.

Kip sat down, took a deep breath, and drank his tea. He'd wait to text Shane for now.

A few minutes later, Scott returned with Oliver, who looked rested, happy and freshly changed. When he saw Kip, his entire little face lit up, and he let out a happy baby squeal.

"Hello, bubbah!" Kip held out his arms, and Scott airplaned Oliver over to him. "You're so cute!"

"Say good morning mommy, I had the best nap," Scott said, putting on a little voice for Oliver.

"That's wonderful, baby." Kip took Oliver, and hugged him close, kissing his fat little cheek. He smelled so, so good, and when he blinked up at Kip with pure, unbridled love in his green-blue eyes, Kip's hurting heart softened and turned to mush.

Their perfect little baby.

"You know," Scott said, starting to prepare Ollie's bottle, "Thinking about it, I think we nailed it on the first try."

Kip nodded, laughing. "We really did."

[marmelade-sky]

i love baby oliverrrrrrr can we pls get more skip as parents so cute!!!!!!! maybe they meet the hollanov children. or whatever else you feel like writing just please give us more baby oliver i love him

maybe i am in my skip (and hollanov) as dads era? loving it rn. CW: implied mpreg

send me prompts for the gc couples outside of hollanov, let's give them some love <3

-

"Papa, baby!"

"Da, zaychik," Ilya said for the hundredth time. Emilija pulled a delighted face, squatting down to be closer to baby Oliver on his blanket, and cooed at him. Oliver watched her with big, green-blue eyes, fascinated.

"Crazy that they're only a year apart," Kip commented, watching their kids. "So much happens in the first three years."

"I still remember when Emmy was this small," Shane said. Emilija looked at him with big blue eyes.

"Emmy baby?" she asked.

"Yes, when you were a baby." Shane did the baby sign language sign for baby. Kip shot Scott a look. Should we be doing that? Scott looked back at him like he wanted to say, No fucking clue.

To be honest, meeting with Shane and Ilya was a bit scary, now. True to their character, they had thrown themselves into parenthood like crazy. Shane had told Kip about their schedule and all the girls' activities once, and it had made Kip's head swim. Baby music class, baby ballet class, baby piano class. On top of it, they were, evidently, doing something right because the girls were wonderful.

"Is he rolling over already?" Shane asked.

"Not yet," Scott answered, reaching down to Oliver to pull up his sock. "The pediatrician says it's fine."

"Emilija rolled over at four months," Shane said, slightly unprompted and a little smugly if Kip was being honest.

"Malysh," Ilya said, reaching out to put his hand on Shane's knee; something unspoken passing between them. "Anastasia did not do it until she was almost six months old," he told them, and Kip felt something inside his chest ease up.

Their older daughter was unbothered, with her noise-cancelling headphones and her coloring book.

"Did you do anything about it?" Kip asked.

Ilya gave Shane an amused smile; Shane blushed slightly. "Shane put her into baby boot camp."

"That's not true!" Shane protested with a slight smile, "We just did some intense training."

Scott laughed. "Did it help?"

Shane scrunched up his nose. "I like to pretend it did. But neurodivergent children can take longer to reach milestones, so."

"Papa, baby!" Emilija did a little toddler dance around Oliver, which made him laugh, which made them all coo and laugh in turn. Crazy how quickly having children made you this easily entertained.

Ilya grabbed their daughter, pulling her in and blowing a raspberry against her cheek which made her giggle and squeal. It was always nice to see him with his kids; Kip had always known the scary russian thing was only a facade. The facade had crumbled once the world saw how he acted around Shane, and now that they had their daughters, it was completely gone. Ilya asked her something in Russian, and she pulled a face which made her look so much like Shane that it was crazy.

Ollie let out a little unhappy noise, and before Kip could even move, Scott had already scooped him up into his lap. Once he spotted Emilija again, his frown turned into a smile. "Oh, do you like your new friend?" Scott asked him, bouncing him slightly.

He squealed, and reached out for her.

Emilija was still in Ilya's arms but trying to wiggle free; Ilya still talking to her in insistant Russian. Next to them, Shane sighed. Kip watched the whole exchange; now that they were parents themselves, it was endlessly fascinating how others did it.

"She won't," Shane told Ilya, who looked up at him. He let Emilija go, and she scrambled towards Shane and into his arms, climbing his lap, tugging on his shirt. "We've been trying to get her to only eat solids during the day, but she only wants one thing," he told them, pointing to Emilija, who was trying to undo the top button of Shane's shirt. "Baby stop, you can have some watermelon-" Emilija let out an unhappy noise.

Somehow, it was a little satisfying to know not everything went perfectly smooth for the Hollander-Rozanovs in parenting land, either.

"Your baby is very cute," a small voice said beside Scott. Anastasia had taken her headphones off, and was now politely smiling at Oliver. She was a bit like a little grown-up sometimes.

"Thank you," Scott told her. "Do you know I held you when you were this small?"

She smiled, not meeting his eyes. "Now I'm big."

"Indeed you are," Scott said, turning Oliver to face her. Her smile widened when she saw him, and she reached out, very gently running her palm over the soft silk-and-cotton material of his onesie. Oliver gurgled, kicking his feet.

"Papa," Anastasia said.

Ilya, who was currently helping Shane to wrestle a screaming Emilija off of him, looked at her. "Hm?"

"Can we have another one of these?" she asked, pointing at Oliver. "He's much cuter than Emmy."

Kip tried not to laugh; he could feel Scott trying to do the same. Ilya scoffed. "Emmy was this small, too. But babies grow."

"Ugh," Anastasia said with a trademark Rozanov eyeroll, and went back to coloring.

"Wow, just like you," Kip smirked at Ilya, who gave him a grin and a nod.

Shane, meanwhile, had given up. Emilija had crawled up under his shirt, her head covered by the linen material as Shane held her in his lap, looking slightly exhausted while patting her bum as she fed.

"Anastasia just asked for another baby," Ilya informed him. Shane gave him a serious look.

"Absolutely not."

"Aw, why not, solnyshko." Ilya reached out, stroking Shane's arm. Shane pulled away, giving him an exhausted look.

"See, I'm not the only one doing that," Scott told Kip with a smirk.

"I only just pushed out this one, let's calm the F down," Kip replied with a huff.

"Easy to ask for another one when you aren't the one who has to do that," Shane agreed, giving Kip a nod.

"Daddy?" Emilija's tiny voice asked from inside Shane's shirt, "Baby?"

"No," Shane told her firmly, pulling her head back towards his chest.

[marmelade-sky]

I am loving the Scott, Kip and Ollie universe! Scott's 'we'll see about that' comment about Ollie being a hockey player got me thinking, what if Ollie does end up loving hockey, and being a huge Rozanov fan? haha

lmao diabolical!!! I love it

gcu prompts are still open <3

-

"Daddy, do you want to see my drawing that I made today?" Ollie asked in his sweet voice, beaming at Scott. He was currently missing two of his front teeth, which gave him the most adorable lisp.

"Of course, buddy." Scott reached out to tousle his son's hair. They were walking home from Oliver's school, Scott carrying Ollie's scooter on his shoulder.

Oliver excitedly started to dig through his backpack, stopping on the sidewalk. Scott stopped next to him; life went slower when you had a child. Even seven years in, Scott still had to remind himself of that.

"Hold this-" Oliver handed Scott a beanie baby he carried in his backpack; every trend came back at some point, Scott thought. It was a pink cat named Mau. It always made Scott a little sentimental, that Ollie wasn't burdened by stereotypes and misguided ideas about which colors were for boy and which were not.

Scott fondly watched his son spread out the contents of his backpack on the sidewalk.

"There it is!" Ollie beamed up at him, holding out the piece of paper.

"Oh!" Scott said, slightly exaggerated.

"The teacher said to draw who we want to be like when we grow up!" Ollie pointed at the crudely drawn hockey stick on the painting, and Scott already felt his heart melt.

"Aw, that's awesome, buddy-"

"So I drew Ilya!"

"-oh." Scott blinked down at the drawing. Yeah, he could see the blond hair.

"-because he's the best hockey player in the world!" Ollie gestured with his drawing, spreading his arms wide.

Maybe Scott should have seen this coming. Ollie had been asking for them to put on old Bears and Centaurs game for months now.

"I mean, you know a lot of good hockey players, right?" Scott asked.

"Yes." Ollie nodded seriously, "But Ilya Rozanov is my favorite."

"Who's your second favorite?" Scott tried hopefully.

"Shane!" Ollie exclaimed, jumping on his toes.

Scott bit back a sigh. "Okay. Yeah, they were pretty good."

"Dad, they were really good," Ollie said seriously, putting a hand on Scott's thigh to make sure his dad knew he meant it.

"I know, bud, I played against them!"

Ollie's eyes widened like he had only just realized this. Scott could see that something was happening in his brain, and a moment later, he turned around to gather up his stuff, putting it all back into his backpack. Scott handed Mau back to him, and instead of packing her into his bag, Ollie cradled Mau under his chin.

"D'you wanna keep walking?" Scott asked, and Oliver nodded, reaching for his hand.

After a few steps, he sighed. "Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"You're not my favorite hockey player."

Scott laughed. "Wow, dude."

"No!" Ollie tugged on his hand. "Because... because you're just my favorite daddy."

Oh. Scott's heart softened into a pile of mush. He stopped, kneeling down on the ground, pulling Ollie into a hug. "Love you, little man."

"Love you." Ollie hugged him back, arms wrapped around Scott's neck, Mau squished between them.

[marmelade-sky]

What do you think the final situation in the mpreg!verse is for all the couples?

gosh i love yapping about mpreg!verse so thank you for asking this. I don't really have a solid idea for each of them but i have Thoughts.

scott & kip: they have Oliver and that's it. one and done. no more. only child forever.

shane & ilya: they have three daughters, because they're girl dads in every universe <3 ilya low-key wants more but shane eventually puts his foot down because three is enough.

eric & kyle: absolutely not. they're extremely childfree and the only child they actually like is Ollie.

troy & harris: same here, they consider it for a while but both realize they don't really want children and would rather stick with dogs. they do babysit the hollanov girls, though.

ryan & fabian: undecided on them, tbh! I'll think about it, let me know what you think?

luca & yannick: idk i have insane thoughts about this. pre-teenage breakup accidental pregnancy?! post-teenage breakup secret abortion??!!!! it would change their whole story but hey. it's so fucking juicy.

[marmelade-sky]

... if mpreg!verse is gonna be a thing, i kinda want to ask for eric & kyle experiencing a pregnancy scare. like obviously they would Abort That Thang but I wanna see them sweat about it a bit first/have the early symptoms creep up on em and spook them. it would be enrichment for me

mpreg!verse is most definitely gonna be a thing!!!

send me GCU prompts ♥ all couples/pairings welcome

-

"Your hair looks different," Kip remarked.

"Different how?" Kyle narrowed his eyes at him.

"Shinier." Kip reached out, touching it, running a strand through his hair. "Did you do something differently?"

"No, nothing," Kyle said. "Maybe it's the weather."

"Maybe," Kip smiled. "Or hormones, you know how it is."

"Yeah, probably hormones."

"My hair looked so good when I was pregnant with Ollie," Kip sighed with a smile. "That's the only part I miss about being pregnant."

"My barren womb and I cannot relate," Kyle grinned, and batted Kip's hand away.

-

That night, Kyle woke up with a start, bolting upright in bed, and immediately reached over to shake Eric awake.

"Eric!"

Eric woke up slowly, blinking into the dark of their bedroom, groggy from being awoken at four in the morning. "Huh? Are you okay?" His voice was heavy with sleep and confusion.

"When did the condom break?" Kyle asked, frantic.

"Wha-?" Eric turned over in bed to face him.

"When, Eric." Kyle knew his voice was reaching panicked heights now. "When was it. Was it... was it three weeks ago? Four?"

Neither of them knew how it happened, but it did happen. It wasn't really a big deal at the time. Even though he wasn't proud of it, Kyle had had unprotected sex with exes before and nothing had ever happened, so he wasn't exactly too worried. Male pregnancies were rare, anyway.

He didn't feel so sure about that anymore.

"Uh." Eric seemed to wake up now, clearly touched by Kyle's panic. Slowly, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "The night before Drag Night at the Kingfisher, so... four weeks ago," he said. Then, suspicious, "Why?"

Kyle swallowed and just looked at him, wide eyed. His heart was beating into his throat now.

Eric's eyes widened as understanding passed between them.

Kyle quickly shook his head, like a wet dog trying to get itself dry. "No, no, it's nothing-"

Eric reached out, placing a hand on his thigh. "Are you sure? Why are you...?"

Kyle covered his face with his hands, letting out an emotional groan. "It's nothing... just... Kip said something today."

"What did he say?" Eric's usually so calm voice did carry some panic now, even though Kyle could tell he was trying very hard not to let it show.

"Just, how my hair looked nice and that his hair had looked nice when he was... when he was pregnant with Ollie." Kyle looked down at his hands, feeling ridiculous. "It's so stupid, it means nothing."

"No, hey." Eric grabbed his hand. "It's not stupid. Talk to me. Do you.... do you feel different or anything?"

Kyle stayed quiet, trying to feel into his body. Right now, the only thing he felt was panic. "No, I think?"

"We can get you a test tomorrow morning?" Eric said, stroking his thumb over Kyle's knuckles. "Should be enough time that it would show, right?"

Kyle swallowed. "I think so, yeah."

They were both quiet for a moment. Then, Eric said, "It'll be okay, if it... if you're..."

"I don't want to talk about it," Kyle said quickly. "The only thing I'll be having is an abortion, if-"

"Yeah, yeah I know, of course!" Eric quickly said. "I don't want kids, either."

"I know, I just don't want you to get attached if-"

"Hey." Eric took both of Kyle's hands in his. "You're spiraling."

"Thanks for pointing that out." Kyle rolled his eyes even though he knew it was uncalled for.

"We're getting a test in the morning, okay?" Eric squeezed Kyle's hands reassuringly.

There was a beat of silence between them where they just looked at each other. Kyle felt his bottom lip wobble.

"...or we can DoorDash one right now." Eric pulled himself out of bed with a groan and traipsed out of the bedroom, towards the cabinet where he kept his phone during the night.

"You better tip the dasher a hundred percent!" Kyle called after him.

[marmelade-sky]

in your mpreg!verse, is hollanov's older daughter autistic? :) if you want, could you write something about that? thank you for your ficlets!

yesss thank you for recognizing that :)

my ask box is still open for gcu/hr prompts <3

-

"Papa?" Anastasia lovingly took Ilya's face in her hands, giving him a serious look. He noticed the eye contact, which was nice.

"Yes, angel?"

"Can you shut up please?" she asked in the sweetest voice, "It's quiet time now. You are talking all the time."

Behind her, at the kitchen counter, Ilya could see Shane slap his hand over his mouth, trying very hard not to laugh.

Ilya himself had to school his features into a serious expression. "Yes, you're right, it's quiet time. I'm sorry for talking." Whenever Emmy went down for a nap, it was quiet time. And Anastasia took Quiet Time very seriously. "But telling somebody to shut up sounds rude, and people might be hurt when you say this."

She frowned at him, hands still on his face, slowly rubbing her palms over his beard now.

"What can you say instead?" Ilya asked.

"Um," she said, her little mouth forming a thoughtful like; it made her look a lot like Shane. "Papa, can you please be quiet?"

"Yes, thank you. I will be quiet now." He gave her a smile, and pursed his lips for a kiss. She held still, letting him kiss his cheek.

"You can read a book," she told him very seriously, "It's good for your brain." Shane's words.

With that, she retracted back under her weighted blanket.

Ilya joined Shane at the kitchen island. With a smirk, Shane pushed a mug of coffee at him. Ilya grinned, reaching out to stroke Shane's belly.

"Quiet time is serious business," Shane said under his breath.

"Very," Ilya confirmed with a soft laugh.

Shane sighed, watching their older daughter read, curled up like a cat under her blanket.

Ilya knew it worried him, how things would work out with the new baby. Anastasia was okay, now, but she needed her routines, her comforting spaces and rhythms. The new baby would interrupt those.

They hadn't told the girls yet, but soon, they would. And they had talked about it with Anastasia's therapist already, how to best prepare her for the baby.

Still.

Sometimes, when Ilya looked at her, he saw Shane: the earnest softness, the sensitive soul, the endearing unawareness.

Every day, she was learning more, getting better, being herself.

And how could he not love that, dearly and deeply?

When Ilya returned to the sofa, coffee in hand, and sat down next to her, a small hand darted out from under the blanket, grabbing his wrist. Ilya let her take his hand, and pull it to her cheek. She rested her head on his palm, the way she had done for years, and like always, it made Ilya's heart clench with so much love that it almost brought tears to his eyes.