Work Text:
Duvet? Check. Slippers? Check. Toiletries?
Alexis scours the bathroom for the missing items. "Michael!" he calls to the room over where he hears rustling.
Kaiser doesn't answer, appearing in the doorway with a bag in his hands. The man is so pale he’s starting to turn green, his bloodshot eyes making him look like a true Christmas decoration. He extends it to Alexis with a huff. "I didn't mean to take them. I just..." Trailing off, the mirror meets his eyes, and he forgets to finish the rest of the sentence.
"Right." Alexis takes the bag from him to organize on the counter. He isn't one to prod and doesn't have it in him to ask further.
It's been several weeks since he's had anything in him. Mentally and physically, he hasn’t the energy beyond the necessities that come with caring for an infant. The intention of his siblings coming to visit is to mitigate some of that stress, but who knew preparing for guests would just be another weight on their shoulders?
He joins Kaiser in staring at his reflection. Since giving birth, any ‘pregnancy glow’ he had was swallowed into the heavy bags beneath his eyes. Their gazes linger on the sorry sights in utter silence.
Alexis doesn’t remember the last time he brushed his hair, and it shows, though the tangled mess is nothing compared to Kaiser’s perpetual bedhead. He’s responsible for that as well as his own upkeep, but the other rightfully didn’t mention it. To Kaiser’s benefit, his clothing is clean, unlike Alexis's, sporting permanent yellow stains over his nipples.
Both of them have gone the past few weeks telling themselves they didn’t care about their appearances. As long as the baby is happy and healthy, nothing else could possibly matter.
But being faced with a half-dead couple in the mirror did wonders in changing minds.
“We look like shit,” Kaiser speaks the obvious without a hint of emotion in his voice, like that too has been drained from him. With a shrug of his shoulders, Alexis doesn’t bother with justifying their state. “We do.”
Silence permeates the room again, this time with a hint of awareness. This isn’t a matter of being shallow. No one wants to look unrecognizably tired, and new parents or not, they need to be presentable for their guests. Alexis looks down at his phone, and the clock across the screen lights up.
“Shit!”
Right as he turns, a ring resounds through the house. “Shit,” Kaiser echoes.
There is no time for them to change, so Alexis settles on trying to run a hand through his hair with an emphasis on ‘trying,’ since his fingers immediately snag in a curl and nearly rip it from his scalp. He lets out a pained yelp, and Kaiser can only wince at the sound. “I’ll get it. They have mostly everything in here, don’t they?”
Alexis nods weakly, finally freeing his hand to shake out his wrist. The two of them exit the bathroom, Alexis slipping off into the bedroom to check himself in the full-length mirrors where he can see the full effect that having a child has had on him.
His stomach was flattening, putting on his faja the only ‘self-care’ he did these days. The same can’t be said for his feet that swell up like meat balloons whenever he lowers them to the floor. Most of his baby weight is in his thighs, tight muscle turned into soft fat that melts under Kaiser’s touch. He knows that restrictive dieting can help, but it would hinder the production in his chest, where the rest of his weight gain remains.
He sighs at himself before looking away without much force. His brother and sister are always hard on him, and he doesn’t expect any different in this situation. When he first told them he was pregnant, they explained what would take place inside his body in too much detail. Other than terrifying him for ten months, they didn’t offer much support. He was surprised they’d agreed to spend a few nights in the first place.
All he can do now is be grateful. Even if he has to take verbal lashes, after living with them for an entire 17 years, and marrying the emperor of vulgarity himself, his skin is thick enough to take it.
Outside of the room, he listens as familiar voices fill the hallway. He easily distinguishes between Kaiser, his brother, his sister, and…
Alexis’s eyes grow in size as he throws himself at the door. It swings open under his grip, the shock on his face only growing at the full hall.
His family turns to him one by one. His sister, closest to the room, casts a glare with no attempt to hide her annoyance. Then, his father and brother glance at him. He doesn’t miss the way his brother rolls his eyes as his father remains expressionless.
The only one who pays him no mind is his mother. A woman of stone, she walks ahead of the others to enter the guest room. “Screaming will wake the infant. Her ear canal is only so large; you’ll start her life with auditory damage if you don’t temper your volume.”
“Yeah, Alexis,” his sister pinches his cheeks between her fingers, pulling out the fat until he winces. “Do you even think before you speak?”
His brother scoffs while turning away. “Obviously not,” he adds, arms folded over his chest. Despite being shorter than Alexis, he never stopped treating him like a little nuisance. With their father following, his sister releases his face to join them in assessing their temporary living space, leaving Alexis standing behind with Kaiser to his side.
The ache in his cheek starts to soothe as his eyes grow misty. He can feel a sting coming on, chest tightening beneath his stained sweater, none of which they managed to mention. Nothing was said about his hair or the mismatched socks on his feet. Even with his parents joining, everyone’s focus remained on helping him with the baby.
He stays back for a moment before his sister does a double-take and groans. “Your drop in progesterone is causing this. It decreases dramatically along with your estrogen, which is responsible for most cases of postpartum depression.”
Understanding the idea, Alexis nods with a small chuckle. He brings a hand to clean his face when a pale thumb presses underneath his eye to swipe away a falling tear. The warmth is smeared across his cheek when he finds Kaiser’s eyes, still sunken in, brimming with a bittersweet light.
“They care about you,” he says softly. Alexis hums, the corners of his lips twitching into a small smile. Before he can respond, Kaiser continues, “But we’re going to need more beds.”
The thought hadn't register to Alexis yet, and his mouth falls open. Setting up the two beds was already a hassle, and now they need another, preferably somewhere private, for his parents. He gives it a brief thought, but spoiling the moment with worries just doesn’t feel right.
He lets himself smile again, grabbing Kaiser’s hand from his cheek to hold gently. “The sofa is fine by me.” His thumb brushes over Kaiser’s knuckle as he presses it to his lips. “As long as we can finally get some sleep.”