nine months to wait

[abyssum_invocat]

Sinthia was out on the balcony enjoying the mild evening air as she waited for Illya and Solo to come home; they'd gone out together on a date and she'd gladly taken the opportunity to set up a tiny tray waiting for them in the kitchen. The boys would likely get coffee of tea, or something along those lines when they came in, and on the tray were four cups, three adult-sized and with their names painted on in gold ink.

The fourth was a tiny demitasse cup with only a single question mark on it, sitting cradled between the others in plain view. It wouldn't be shockingly overdone as ways to break pregnancy announcements went, but Sinthia hadn't found a good time to simply let it drop in normal conversation. She waited patiently while Avi let her rub his ears, looking at baby things online.

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[red_peril]

Illya and Solo arrived home from their date not too much later and between kisses, made their way into the kitchen. Solo was putting the kettle on for tea when Illya spotted the cups on the counter. It was something that Sinthia would obviously leave for them. There was a cup for each of them.

"Solo, look what Sinthia left out for us," he said handing him the simple white mug with his name on it in gold lettering.

"That's really nice," he said, looking at the tray. "We've each got our own." And of course, it was something Sinthia would do. "I wonder who the little one is for?" He asked as Illya picked it up and looked at the question mark.

As soon as Solo asked the question, Illya guessed the answer. He looked at Solo and then back at the little white cup, so tiny in his big hand.

"What?" Solo asked, not understanding the look on his boyfriend's face for a moment. Then it dawned on him too. "Really?"

They heard Sinthia out on the balcony with Avi. The two men went out to find her. Illya holding the cup up gently in his large hand. "We are going to have a baby?"

[abyssum_invocat]

Bent over in her chair to play with the dog, Sinthia looked up at the men, Illya holding the little teacup gingerly. She nodded slowly, sitting up with her fingertips dragging through Avi's fur.

"Yes," she murmured, a little breathlessly as she nodded, trying for a smile. "I don't know...whether it's a boy or girl, or whose it is biologically, but...yeah. We're having a baby."

[red_peril]

Illya's expression went from questioning to full on smile in less than a second. He made the distance between them in two long strides and lifted Sinthia in his arms to kiss her and twirl her around carefully in the limited space. He set her down.

Solo smiled, "Congratulations!" When Illya let her down, he moved over to kiss Sinthia and hug her gently. He was happy for them.

[abyssum_invocat]

Sinthia wrapped her arms around Illya's shoulders as he twirled her around, holding tightly to him with a little laugh at how he demonstrated what he felt. It was so much better than what he'd had to go through undercover as Vor, and Sinthia returned the kiss sweetly. When Solo hugged her gently, she tugged him back again.

"No, don't go. I want both of you here with me for this," she murmured. "If you want to be."

[red_peril]

He smiled, "I'm not going anywhere. Just gonna get tea." The kettle was shilling. He tried to act normal rather than as stunned as he was. Their relationship was going to chang dramatically. "Would you like me to bring you some?"

Illya pulled a chair over next to hers and sat down so he could see the screen with her. He could not hide his joy if he wanted to. This was so far, the best thing that had happened to him on years. Aside from being with Sinthia.

[abyssum_invocat]

She watched him go, expression closing as Solo disappeared into the kitchen to get them both tea. Sinthia brushed her hair back as she sat back down at the computer beside Illya. She'd had it open to clothes in shades of yellow and gray, patterned with tiny elephants.

"I didn't mean to scare him," she murmured. "Illya, I love him too, and I don't know if it's his or yours." It had been several months that they'd all been together, dating and getting comfortable, and it hadn't taken long before she'd formed a connection with Solo as well.

[red_peril]

Illya leaned over to kiss her cheek, "I do not think that you scared him," he said softly in Russian. "So much as startled him. Neither of us were expecting this. Give him little bit to get used to the idea. I am excited but also scared out of my mind. I can't imagine how you feel." He was pretty certain that Sinthia had not planned on getting pregnant. "The universe just shifted under our feet. This is going to change everything for all of us, my darling."

Illya had always wanted a normal life one day and to have a family.

Solo returned a few minutes later with a pot of tea on a tray along with cream and sugar and lemon. He smiled nervously as he set down the tray. The three cups with their names on them were on it. Looking at them, he suddenly felt like this was where he belonged. He handed each of his loves their cups with their tea just as they liked it. Illya took his Russian style with lemon, no milk or sugar. He fixed Sinthia's the way she liked it and handed it to her before sitting down on the other side of her before serving himself. He glanced at the computer screen, with the yellow baby clothes with elephants. "I love you," he said leaning over to kiss her other cheek. "And I love the elephants."

[abyssum_invocat]

"I am...very surprised," she murmured, taking Illya's hand in her own and squeezing gently on his fingers. "I didn't know this was a possibility. I thought--assumed--that I couldn't," Sinthia said quietly. She'd always assumed that somewhere in the myriad holes in her memory that had been taken care of, that she couldn't get pregnant.

She had been very surprised indeed when a whim came to her--she never had been very regular, she thought as a side-effect of cryostasis--and she'd taken the pregnancy test after being sore in strange places and having an unsettled stomach a few mornings in a row. But Solo's words and his handing her the mug (sugar and cream, because she loved smooth and sweet things) brought her out of the thoughtful reverie with a tiny laugh. "It's too early to tell whether it's a boy or girl yet," she said. "So I thought yellow and gray would be cute. And unisex."

[red_peril]

Solo couldn't stop smiling. Illya was going to be a father, or maybe he would. "I never even thought of having kids," Solo admitted. "When will you know? If it's a boy or a girl?"

Illya was curious too, "We will need to do homework." There was so much to learn for all of them.

[abyssum_invocat]

"About halfway through," she said. "Twenty weeks, though sometimes earlier. According to the website."

Sinthia gestured at the laptop, tabs still opened for questions and answers on a range of topics. She didn't know which man had fathered the child or what it would turn out to be, but she couldn't help smiling at the idea of having children. She liked them, even if sometimes it was difficult to connect. "There's so much to figure out, but we have time. Almost forty weeks."

[red_peril]

Leaning forward, Illya clicked through the tabs and found the one that talked about child development during pregnancy. "This is brilliant," he said looking at the slides that compared the size of the baby with fruit and vegetables. It gave a very visual way to demonstrate in a way most people could relate to. "So the baby is between size of sesame seed and lentil according to this."

"That's tiny," Solo agreed. Watching the slides as Illya flipped through them. Forty weeks didn't seem so long. Nine months. Then they would have a small person to look after. "This is amazing. We're going to be Mom and Dads."

[abyssum_invocat]

"It is," she answered quietly, sitting back with a hand over her belly, even though she didn't feel any different, really. Not physically, short of being surprised and feeling the jittery shock wearing off.

"I haven't the faintest idea what to call a baby. Boy or girl."

[red_peril]

"We have lots of time yet to think about names,"Illya said, pulling the computer toward him. The baby website fascinated him.

Solo chuckled, watching him. He would make an excellent father. He was not so certain about himself.

[abyssum_invocat]

Sinthia let him pull the laptop towards himself, and let it go as she leaned the other way, her shoulder touching Solo's. "I don't have to read your mind to know you're nervous," she said. "I am too. I...didn't think this was possible."

She reached down and took his hand gently. "Are you okay with this?"

[itwontmatch]

"I know," he said smiling. "I will be. But I never thought of having children. Not that I couldn't. Just that I thought I would end up with another man not a man and a woman. And I do love you both. One thing I know for certain," he said looking into her eyes. "You and Illya are going to be great parents."

[abyssum_invocat]

She blinked at that.

"Are you leaving?" she asked, searching his face and feeling a moment of pulse-spiking panic bloom through her. That was what she'd heard from what he'd said, correctly assumed or not, and the thought was only barely shy of mildly terrifying. "I want you with us."

[itwontmatch]

"No. Why would you think that?" he squeezed her hand gently. "I'm not going anywhere. I want to be with you too. All of you. I'm just going to have to get used to being us. This is... this is pretty overwhelming, you know?" Of course she did know. Sinthia was probably a little freaked out too. "I'm gonna maybe be a dad."

"You are going to be a Dad," Illya piped up from behind the computer screen. "We are both going to be Dads."

"I'm gonna be a dad," Solo said. "I am terrified and amazed."

[abyssum_invocat]

"You left yourself out," she said, lacing her fingers with his. "You said Illya and I would be good parents, but you didn't mention yourself. Like you were going to leave."

Sinthia was freaked out--between her world still leveling from finding out Illya hadn't been who he said he was, him coming precariously close to losing a limb, finding someone else he was in love with (that wasn't her) and then getting involved with Solo herself, pregnancy or prevention hadn't been anywhere on her mind. Not that it would have been, given she was still accepting the things she would never remember or fully reconcile from the personalities that had been spliced into her head, she hadn't ever thought they would have left that part of her alone.

She brought their hands up, resting her lips on Solo's knuckles. "I don't really know what i'm doing," she said softly. "And I hate doctors, I never go to them."

[itwontmatch]

"I just don't know about being a parent," he didn't want to disappoint them. "I'll do my best." He kissed her fingers, "I love you both so much I have no idea what to name a kid either. Just not Napoleon."

"It'll be OK. We will be right here with you," Illya said over the top of the computer. "I have not been a father before either."

[abyssum_invocat]

Sinthia broke into a soft smile when Solo mentioned names for hem. "No, not Napoleon. Maybe we could talk about it, though?"

[itwontmatch]

"I think we'd better. God knows what Illya would come up with," he teased.

Illya looked up from behind the computer, "What? If it is girl, I would like to have Anyanka as a name. Maybe middle name if you don't mind?"

"Anyanka?" Solo asked.

"It is not weird. This was my mother's name," he told them, daring Solo to say something about it.

[abyssum_invocat]

"It means graceful," Sinthia murmured, shifting to lean against Solo as she thought. "What if it's a boy, though?" Or if there were more than one child, though Sinthia didn't say that out loud.

"I like Michael."

[itwontmatch]

"Michael is good for a boy. If it's a girl, it could be Michelle or Michaela," Solo suggested.

"We could call them Mischa," Illya said.

"That's cute," Solo said, taking a sip of his tea.

[abyssum_invocat]

"Mischa is the Russian version of Michelle," Sinthia chuckled, shaking her head at Illya. "We shouldn't have all the names be Russian, you'd be leaving me and Solo out," she chided gently.

"And what are we going to do about last names?"

[itwontmatch]

Solo laughed, he couldn't help it. He suddenly realized that This was the family he'd always wanted deep down, but never thought he'd have. "There's probably a Russian name for everything we could think of."

"Da, of course," Illya was smiling to, laughing. "That is good question."

"Schmidt Kuryakin Solo is quite a mouthful," Solo admitted.