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 Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:03 am
Monday morning found Paris in the kitchen. She fed Anna and Sassy, and looked into the backyard where Lucasta was lazily lounging on the patio in the warm sunlight. The kitchen radio was on low, and from the baby monitor she carried with her, Paris could hear the twins' quiet rustling and their first soft babbles of the day.
It was almost eight o'clock. Paris padded around the kitchen on bare feet. She still wore her pajamas—a white, lace-trimmed silk camisole with matching shorts—and her messy hair was pulled back and piled up onto her head. She looked wide awake and certainly felt it, not the sort for frequent sluggish mornings. Today would be a good day, she thought. The Comets didn't have a game that night, which meant Chris could take it easy.
He certainly needed a lazy day after two weeks of away games, plus the almost nonstop schedule promised over the next three weeks before the All-Star break.
Paris was looking forward to the next month and a half of mostly home games. Life was always more stressful (and lonely) when Chris was out of town.
She prepared Chris's coffee in a thermos so it'd stay warm longer, and so there'd be less of a chance of it spilling when he one-armed a baby. She carried the thermos and the baby monitor with her as she trotted up the stairs, turning the monitor's volume down lower as the twins' babbling grew louder.
Quietly, she slipped back into the master bedroom. She set the thermos and monitor on one of the bedside tables, then hopped up onto the bed and climbed over Chris to start raining kisses all over his face.
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 5:52 pm
Traveling was exhausting. Playing baseball was exhausting. Taking care of babies was exhausting. Sleeping was exhausting. Everything seemed to exhaust Chris these days, so when he had the opportunity to sleep in, that was exactly what he did.
Granted, it was a little difficult to sleep when there were two babies that needed to be watched after, but Paris was amazing when it came to taking care of them, plus him. In fact, the best thing about being home was Paris taking care of him the way she did. Sometimes he felt a little helpless since she did literally everything, but he also felt really lucky that she ended up with him.
Chris groaned at the sudden shower of kisses he received, which slowly drew him out of unconsciousness. “Ugh,” he made a face, but obviously couldn’t help the smile that came with the noise of disapproval.
“Paris,” he whined, trying to untangle his arms from under the sheets as Paris rained kisses on his face. “I’m awake, I’m awake,” he groaned, finally pulling at least one arm out so he could reach up and place a hand against her face to get her to stop.
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 12:07 pm
“Don't 'ugh' me, I brought you coffee,” Paris teased.
She let the hand on her face stop her progress for all of five seconds. Then she swooped down to press a kiss to Chris's mouth. She shifted along the mattress to make a path down his chin, shoving her face into the side of his neck for a warm nuzzle.
She missed him when he was gone. She'd though the separation would be easier now that she had the twins to focus on, but with the state Chris's starseed was in, a suffocating sense of anxiety was her constant companion those weeks he was out of town for away games. At least she could take care of him when he was home. It didn't solve anything, but it made her feel as if she had some sort of control over the situation.
“Time to get your cute bubble butt out of bed,” Paris said, pressing kisses against his neck now. “The twins need to be changed and fed, and as much as I love juggling the two of them on my own, it's much better when you're here to help.”
She lifted up to stare into his eyes, bringing one of her hands up to brush Chris's bangs out of his face. She smiled widely and added, “Then we can have breakfast and play for a little while, and once they're tired out enough for their morning nap we can have some alone time. I feel a little naughty.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 6:42 pm
Chris squirmed under Paris’s kisses and smiles and gentle touches, drawing him out of his sleep. He couldn’t help but smile, filled with happiness that he never knew he’d feel. It sounded horribly cheesy and cliche and gross, but she was everything to him. He missed her to the point where it hurt when he was gone, and her playful teasing always pulled him out of whatever poor mood he was in.
“I’m up, I’m up,” he promised, laughing softly as he kisses tickled his neck, his hands reaching up to place against her chest, as if to push her back, but not putting any effort into it. At least this way he had enough room to breathe.
His eyes widened at her teasing, a faint pink coloring his cheeks as she gave him promises for later. “When do you not?” he laughed, although it sounded a little exasperated. “I don’t know how you can get up so early after,” but he didn’t think there was a need to finish that sentence. “You wear me out,” he said instead, giving her a pointed look, although his eyes shone with playfulness.
He lifted his free hand and moved his other to place on each side of Paris’s face, squeezing her cheeks together so her lips were puckered. “And I don’t have a bubble butt,” he added with another small laugh, as he waited for Paris to say something.
“Smile,” he said, his expression smoothing out to try and look serious, but his lips kept twitching at the corners.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 1:17 pm
“You sure wake up fast for someone who claims to be worn out,” Paris said. The words were a bit distorted from having her face squished, but her voice was still clear.
She didn't even try to effect a serious face in response; she couldn't even if she wanted to, amused as she was. Her mouth curved into as much of a smile as she could manage, all squished lips and teeth. She let Chris amuse himself for a little while before grabbing his wrists and pulling his hands away. Both of his palms received a kiss before she let them go.
The babbling over the baby monitor grew louder, a repeated “ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma” that was more experimental sound than it was an actual word. With one final kiss on the lips, Paris hopped off the bed.
“Your coffee's here,” she said, picking up the thermos to hand it to Chris, before continuing with a sing-song lilt to her voice, “You have five minutes to finish waking up before I drop a baby on you~”
She left through the master sitting-room, heading only a short ways down the hall, just passed the elevator and the balcony overlooking the grand foyer, to another bedroom with a beautiful bay window overlooking the rear gardens.
The room was nautical themed, with a single wall paneled by lightly stained wood, upon which hung an old, wooden wheel of a ship. The picture Paris drew inspiration from online showed a room decorated in navy and red, which Paris thought looked too dark. Instead, the nursery was painted turquoise like tropical water, with furniture and much of the décor in white and light gray. There were built-in bookshelves with framed pictures, books, stuffed aquatic animals, and model sailboats. A large compass rose was painted on the ceiling, with the light fixture at the center.
Two cribs were situated against the wood-paneled wall on the left-hand side of the room, and in each crib stood one of the twins. They were eight-months-old and no longer the tiny little newborns Paris and Chris brought home in early October. They could crawl and pull themselves up to standing now. They giggled and talked to one another in their sweet baby babbling language. When they heard the door open, they both smiled widely at the sight of her. Both of their top and bottom front baby teeth had grown in.
“How are my sweet babies~?” she greeted them.
She went to each of them in turn to press kisses to their chubby faces, smiling as they giggled and squealed and reached out for her.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:47 pm
Chris smiled and laughed softly as she pulled his hand away from her face and kissed them, but of course the babies were already up and babbling away. It was amazing that they were almost a year old already. It seemed like it was such a short time ago that they were born.
“Thanks, baby,” he called endearingly after her as she handed him the thermos of coffee to drink, although he made a face at the thought of a baby being dropped on him. He didn’t mind, but sometimes he wished his mother could come and take them for a while while he was home. It wasn’t often that he was home these days.
Chris sat up in bed as Paris left the room, yawning and running his free hand through his shaggy hair. It was nice, being back home, even if it was for a short while, and even if his memories of first getting the home and remodeling it were gone. He could see that they’d both put a lot of work into it, and it was something for them to call their own.
After taking a few big gulps of coffee from the thermos, Chris inched his way over to the edge of the bed to stand and stretch. The sun was already out and it looked like the day was going to be hot, but pleasant. He pulled on some lounge pants and slid his feet into slippers, and then made his way towards the babies’ room where he knew Paris would be getting them ready.
“Need help?” he asked, not wanting to ruin the routine she already had for the twins.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 10:44 am
Paris's routine was, perhaps, not as strict as it should have been. The timing itself rarely changed, but the order in which she did things altered each day. When it came time to get the twins out of bed, she changed their diapers one by one. Because she did not want to appear to favor one over the other, she alternated between them each morning.
Today was Abby's morning, so Paris went to her first once the initial good morning kisses were given.
It seemed silly to Paris how often people felt the need to clarify that the babies were twins whenever she was out in public with them, given that they were roughly the same size and obviously the same age. She figured the confusion stemmed from Abby and Henry's differences. People expected twins to look alike.
Paris could certainly see the resemblance, but she was their mother, not a stranger on the street. Next to a picture of Chris as a baby, Henry was his spitting image. Abby, too, had quite a bit of her father in her, but her coloring was fair instead; she took after Momma Gallo. Thus, Henry's hair was red-brown and Abby's was blonde; Abby was pale, and Henry's complexion matched the portion of Chris's skin that hadn't been deeply tanned by hours out in the sun on the ball-field. Their eyes, however, were the same. It was fascinating to watch their eyes shift from newborn gray-blue to a hazel color Paris suspected would soon brighten to Chris's goldenrod.
“If you want to grab Henry, he needs his diaper changed,” Paris said. She attacked one of Abby's chubby cheeks with more kisses on her way to one of the changing tables. Abby squealed and grabbed at Paris's face. “Otherwise I'll change him once I'm done with Abby. You don't have to worry about getting him dressed yet since they'll be eating soon. No point in ruining a fresh set of clothes with breakfast.”
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 6:07 pm
It was definitely a sight he enjoyed seeing, Chris decided as he stepped into the babies’ room and watched Paris got them ready for breakfast. She was so good with them. Part of him sometimes forgot just how young both of them were, and to have children already… Well, Paris had been right in that they never knew what was going to happen, so they might as well take advantage of what they could do, now. Having a family seemed a bit crazy in the middle of a war, but he was glad they were all there, together.
Chris almost forgot what he was doing as he watched Paris getting Abby ready, and blinked in surprise when Paris actually took him up on his offer to help. Usually she told him to stand aside and not get in the way. Only in much nicer words.
“Yeah, no problem,” he said, making his way over to the crib. He tucked his thermos under his arm as he reached in so he could pick up his son. And that was definitely something to get used to. Even if he couldn’t remember talking to Paris about having babies, he couldn’t imagine being without them.
He kept Henry in his arms, although he didn’t give him as many kisses as Paris gave Abby, if only because he knew his face was going to be scratchy from not shaving yet. He nodded in understanding when Paris instructed him what to do. Henry, instead of squealing in delight like his sister, seemed to just… stare at him in confusion, like he didn’t know what to think of the man carrying him. Chris knew he wasn’t around as often as he would like, but it was a little sad that he was being looked at like he was a stranger.
Luckily, Henry didn’t cry or fuss as Chris got him changed into a new diaper. Just seemed to stare at him in confusion as he sucked on the knuckle of his thumb.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Chris frowned sadly for just a moment, before forcing a smile and leaning down to give the now clean diapered baby a kiss on his cheek.
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Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 12:26 pm
Paris glanced over at Chris and Henry to see what Chris was talking about. It made her a little sad to know that Chris seemed to think the babies were a little distant with him. It was true that he was often away for games, and when he was in town a good chunk of his time was spent at the stadium, but that didn't mean the twins weren't happy to see him when he was home. They obviously weren't uncomfortable with him the way they were sometimes with people they didn't know well. They knew the sound of his voice, and perked up a bit when he came into the room.
As Paris watched, a smile broke out on Henry's face when Chris kissed his cheek. Henry laughed a bit and put his hands on Chris's face while he babbled happily, “Ah-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma!”
“See, he's happy to see you,” Paris said reassuringly. She finished up with Abby, refastened her pajamas, and picked her back up. “He's just not as loud as Abby. I get the feeling he's going to be a shy little kid, and I have no idea where he gets that from because it's not like you and I aren't outgoing. Except maybe you're a little more introverted than I am.”
She leaned in to plant a kiss to one of Chris's bare shoulders. She felt guilty sometimes. Having the twins had been her idea, and even though Chris had eventually agreed... those memories were long gone now. He'd adapted well to being married and having a family—far better than she'd feared he would after learning that four years worth of his memories were gone—but she was pretty sure he got overwhelmed by it all more often than not, even if he didn't admit it to her.
So she did what she could to make things easier on him, which meant she handled a lot of the responsibility for the twins by herself—not because Chris didn't want to help, but because Paris didn't want to pressure him with it. Now she wondered if that actually wasn't the best idea. She didn't want him feeling left out or unloved in the process.
Trying not to let these thoughts disrupt her mood, Paris gave Chris's butt a light pinch as she passed him on the way to the door.
“What do you want for breakfast? Omelets, maybe? Or French toast? Pancakes?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 1:43 pm
Chris almost jumped when Paris gave him an affectionate pinch, and he turned to watch her with both fondness and curiosity. She had really done a lot for him over, well… the past several years. Not just as Paris, but as Ganymede as well. And even though he couldn’t remember his years as Chris, he could at least remember her as Ganymede. And the memories they were rebuilding together was special to him.
“Pancakes are fine, if you’re okay with it,” he said as he adjusted hold of Henry in his arms and made to follow her and Abby out of the room. For Henry, he held him against his shoulder, making sure he was holding on tight so he wouldn’t be dropped on accident (one of his worst fears now that he had two babies).
“Have I ever told you how amazing you are, Paris?” he said after a few moments of following her down the hall. He frowned slightly at himself, wondering if it sounded as weird as he thought it sounded, and quickly shook his head to hopefully alleviate some of her concern, if she had any.
“I’m serious. You’re great with the twins. And you’re good to me. I feel like I’m breaking your heart, sometimes,” he admitted, keeping his arms around Henry. It was probably strange to have a conversation like this in the middle of the hallway, but he felt as though it was important enough to mention.
“You’ve given up a lot for us, I know. I want to do more for you, like you do for me, Paris,” he said, trying to force a small smile, even though he was sure he was ruining their relatively good mood.
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