#5: Surprise

I slowly walked away from the woman, heading toward the bench where my husband was already sat, looking the same way I was feeling – confused. So confused, he didn't have his features forming any kind of expression. His face was blank. And I didn't doubt mine resembled his as well.

Sitting down, I crossed my legs and placed my clammy hands on my thigh, keeping my eyes on his lap. Waiting to catch him make a movement of any kind. Unfortunately, he stayed motionless, so breaking the silence and making progress in this unexpected situation was bound to be done by me.

"So," I cleared my throat, biting my lip as he stayed silent. It didn't even look like we're married, more like two eighth graders that are sitting together in detention. "That's... an interesting thought, don't you think?"

"Mhm," He hummed, calm for another few seconds before he leaned back, until his back was against the wall behind him. I wouldn't call that an improvement from a moment before, considering he was still staring through everything in front of him.

"Lou? Come on, say something."

"I don't know what to say," He shook his head, breathing the words out with a dry smile on his face. "It's... definitely not a bad thing, but then again..."

"Okay, I know it's not what we were expecting," I nodded at my own words, and so did he, "but... think about it, how bad could it be?"

"It wouldn't be bad, Lorena, it would fucking be hard," He said calmly, raising a hand to emphasize what he was saying. "When we applied to adopt, I was expecting them to introduce us to a woman that's a few months pregnant, and would give us the baby when it was born."

He ran a hand through his hair, clearly a little frustrated, "Not... not two siblings aged 4 and 7. Christ, I knew adopting from foster care was a bad idea."

I narrowed my eyes at him, "So what this is, is inconvenient to you? Are you serious?"

"Think about it!" He hissed at me, going from half-dead to jumpy within a second. "Yes, they're cute, and yes, they've had a hard life, but-but- you can't adopt children because they're cute and have suffered!"

"And I am not," I cut in, before he could continue, "Louis, most kids in foster care are there for pretty much the same reason – either they've had shitty parents or lost them. Everyone's gonna feel sorry for any child they meet there, but that's not why people adopt them. They're not dogs, for crying out loud!"

"Either way," He interrupted me, but I could tell that he knew I was right. "it's just... it's just not for us."

"Ho-how did you come to that conclusion?" Alright, I understood that he was shocked- obviously so was I, I mean, who could've expected us to get the opportunity to adopt two children at once? Biological siblings, too. "We have our own place, we're three years away from 30, we can definitely afford it, we're teachers- we work with children, for God's sake."

"Yeah, that must be why they chose us for the double package."

I smiled at him, relieved that he'd calmed down. At least that way I could get him to think about it, instead of just demurring. "Give it a thought," I lightly elbowed him, "No buying milk and diapers and-"

"-and all the things that we were actually prepared for!" Louis finished for me, leaning his elbows on his legs and putting his face in his hands; I laughed briefly at his reaction, patting his back a few times.

"Well, yeah, but we get them at the age where we take them to school, teach them how to write and count, help them with homework, take them to the park and help them swing as high as we know is safe, get them involved in after-school activities- what if the girl likes dancing? And the boy likes football or something, come on, Louis, I can't be the only one excited about all this!"

"See, that's the thing, you're only excited for the fun stuff, what about all the-"

"All the what?" I cut him off again, before he got the chance to get me annoyed. "They are 4 and 7, they're not babies but they're not teenagers either. They wouldn't be keeping us up at night, and they certainly wouldn't be getting us worried about staying out too long."

"Yet." He shook his head as I scowled at him, "Yes, Lorena, you know they're gonna grow into teenagers, and it's going to be happening, and-"

"And what, if we adopted a baby that was fresh out of the uterus, them going out and staying out until two in the morning wouldn't be a possibility?"

Louis opened his mouth to say something; but ended up leaning against the wall once again, closing his parted lips. I was getting the impression that I was winning the argument.

"Look, I'm not saying we should sign the papers right this moment, but the least we could do is meet them, right? Right?"

"Right," He said quietly, looking down at his hands. His right one I took with my left one.

"You... want this, right?"

"Of course I do, I'm just... feeling too many things at once."

I grinned, placing my palms on his head to kiss his temple, and he already knew it was because I thought he was cute when he expressed his emotions. That was mostly because he showed his emotions about once a month, so any time it happened unexpectedly was a time to cherish. "Don't worry about anything, I'm overwhelmed too."

"Yeah, well, I was never good at handling more than two emotions at once."

I kissed his temple once more, and then placed another few pecks on the same spot, until he decided to turn his head and give me a cautioning look. "Don't get too excited, though, it doesn't mean anything yet."

"I know," I nodded – even though I was internally cheering about him using 'yet' at the end of his so-called warning.

"Well... okay."

"Okay."

"Okay. Let's do this," He sighed, groaning as he stood up, as if what we were about to do weighed a ton and a half. I, on the other hand, leaped up from my seat, beating Louis and first reaching the door behind which we knew the woman was.

Although, when I stupidly walked in without knocking, half a second later I was left frozen in my spot. Not counting the fact that Louis walked into me because he wasn't expecting me to stop in my tracks so suddenly. And neither was I, frankly, but I also wasn't expecting to see what I did see.

There, across from the smiling and pleased-looking social worker were two small children, both with black hair and dark eyes, sat on the sofa. Both winced as I barged in and, if Louis and I miraculously opted to adopt them, that would be the moment I'd remember forever – meeting the kids for the first time and the first thing I do is scare them.

"Um... I'm-I'm sorry," I placed the tips of my fingers over my lips, though the woman only chuckled as she stood up from her seat.

"No worries, I like seeing an excited couple. Louis, Lorena," She pauses, walking over to the kids and crouching down next to them, smiling wider, "This is Li Na, and that's her brother, Li Qiang."

My heart was pounding, but I successfully ignored my raging pulse as I approached the girl that was slightly taller than the boy next to her. Both of them looked frightened and a little uncomfortable, but it's what made the occurrence that more mind-boggling.

I gulped, crouching down before her despite feeling like my t-shirt was choking me. "Hi, darling," I cracked a smile, my heart stopping for a second when her unsure eyes met mine, "You have a lovely name."

It took her a second, but she took the hand I was offering her with her tiny one- if I'm not having a heart attack right now, I never will. "Hi."

With a petrified but growing smile on my face, I turned my head to look at Louis, see how he was reacting. Of course, I knew he obviously still had his doubts about all of this by the look on his face, and how he was controlling his expressions. Nevertheless, he couldn't hold back a smile at the sound of the little girl's soft-spoken, almost brittle voice.

And finally, he got his goddamned hands out of his pockets and approached the couch. He didn't say anything, instead outstretched his arms towards the boy – who first looked at the social worker that was standing right next to the couch and observing everything, as if asking for her permission, and I caught her nodding; a second later, his arms were also stretched out toward Louis, and he cautiously took him against his chest, their heads in level with one another's.

At first they just stared at each other, taking in as much of each other's facial features as possible, and Louis was the first one to speak; "Hey, you," He said, nearly too quiet for anyone but the boy in his arms to hear, "I'm Louis. You might get to call me 'dad' someday soon."

Li Qiang widened his eyes and let out the smallest gasp, two actions that made my heart squeeze and smile like an idiot. It might've been too soon to say, but I knew what I was feeling – I'd heard about the feeling couples get when they meet the 'right' child, or children. It's nothing specific that they could describe, other than saying how they knew in their hearts that they'd met the kid that was meant for them. They didn't need another meeting, another phone call or another anything; they knew, right away. They just knew.

I just knew.

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hey hey hey it took me less than two years, you have to give me credit for that

what did you think of this?? i tried spicing it up as much as possible and i'm like 90% sure there will be more parts to come :D :D