Chapter Text
It had been early in the morning when we left. Brother had been feeling down the last few days and work had been stressful for the both of us, so we decided to take a mini vacation for the week. With me being off from school for holiday and Xiao Xingchen running the office, we decided to get away to the beach. It's too cold to swim but we enjoy the atmosphere.
Brother was asleep, lulled by the hum of the car. He's tired more often, but Dr. Song Lan has assured me that it's normal. Brother is nearly 5 months along now. We're excited but the nerves of the baby coming so soon is starting to get to us. As I'm lost in thought, I don't notice brother waking up from his nap until he calls my name.
"Wangji?" He says a bit worried, a hand on my shoulder. I shake the thoughts out of my head.
"Mn."
"Are you alright? I called you a few times and you didn't respond. What's going on in this head of yours?" He asks as he runs his hand down my head in a comforting maner.
I don't respond. Brother goes back to resting his hands on bump.
"Can we stop soon? I need to pee." He says. He crosses his legs, which tells me that soon means within the next 10 minutes. Thankfully a rest area is coming up. As we park, I point out a few food locations and that we can get breakfast when he got back. Nows my chance. Xiao Xingchen mentioned to me that brother has started to waddle slightly, and since he notice, brother has been determined to let no one see him walk. Always letting everyone else walk in front of him. It even got to one point of where an elder woman accused me of walking too fast and leaving him behind while we were out for lunch. When we park, he opens the door and looks back at me.
"Do you have to go Wangji?"
"No." He shift his stance a little.
"Can you come with me? I really don't feel comfortable going by myself." He's partly telling the truth, but theres a look in his eyes. He's lying and we both know it. He knows I won't tell him no with something like this.
I turn off the car and get out. For a brief moment I can see the knowing smug look on his face. We make our way to the bathroom. While waiting for him, I notice an alpha male waiting around, gesturing towards the stall brother was in. I stand guard watching him. While I may be an omega, I've never acted like one and I don't intend on starting now. Thankfully with my supressants, he's unable to tell my second gender and doesn't get closer. When brother finishes, I quickly escort him out the bathroom watching the alpha the entire time. Trying to keep my calm, so he doesn't notice something is up. Unfortunately, he still decides to try.
"Hey pregnant mama, how about you come home with me and I can give you a proper pup." He calls out after he whistles at him. Brother freezes, I can feel the waves of fear coming from him. I glare at the man but I don't engage. Keeping a close eye on him, as I help brother into the car. Once in, we quickly drive off. Quickly speeding to the vacation home.
We're almost at the vacation home before either of us says anything. Too many emotions with what happened at the rest stop. As we pull into the driveway, brother leans forward and starts to cry. His head in his hands, crying out of fear of what happened. Thinking about what that alpha said and what he implied on doing. I turnbthe car off and quickly pull brother into my arms. I can't believe some people would say such things like that, especially to someone like brother. This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, but with this, I wouldn't be surprised if brother refused to leave the house all week. After some time, he calms down enough for us to go inside. I help brother sit on the couch per his request as I go get our bags from the trunk.
"Wangji?" I look to him.
"Mn?" He looks down at his bump, his arms almost cradling it.
"Do you think.......maybe she needs an alpha. I mean it's just going to be us but what if she's an alpha we won't know what to do or how to help and Ying-didi is a beta so he can't help. What do we do, how can I protect her, I mean if it wasn't for your supressants, he would've attacked us. She's not even born yet and I'm already failing as a parent, what do I do, I can't...."
I quickly go to him, pulling him to me. He stops his panic rant as soon as I do.
"Brother stop." I whisper.
"Not good for niece." I know all of this is going to take time, but I just want him to be okay again. I want him to go back to how he used to be. I hate seeing him so broken like this. I just have to be strong for him, for the both of them. I know we can do this.
"Brother. Are you hungry?" He looks at me a bit confused but nods his head. I quickly get up gathering some items. I make a few calls to our favourite local restaurants and order our favourite takeouts. I see brother watching me as I go back and forth in and out of the small house. I texted Wei Ying for a bit of help. Surprisingly it was Jiang Wanyin that responded back. He said Wei Ying was still asleep and left his phone in the living room from playing video games last night. But, he gave me some helpful advice. Having lived on the streets, when Wei Ying was first adopted, he had a lot of moments like what brother is going through. It's part of the reason why he wants to help so much, because he knows what it's like.
Jiang Wanyin had gave me this suggestion, explaining that it was some him and Yanli did with Wei Ying. I agreed that it would be great to do but we decided to add an extra twist. As I was finishing up outside, the last of the deliveries had arrived. I had sent brother upstairs to his room to rest for a bit while I set everything up. Once finished I called him downstairs. I lead him outside to a beach picnic. The vacation house had access to a private section of the beach. I had laid out so blankets, made a small fire, and had out all our favourite foods. Plus a few new extras I knew they would like. Along on the blanket was a laptop, facetiming us was Jiang Wanyin, Wei Ying, Jiang Yanli, and Jin Ling.
"Ah-Zhan, what is all this?" Wei Ying spoke up.
"Lan Zhan texted me what happened but I was still asleep and Jiang Cheng answered. The picnic was his idea."
"Ah-Cheng and I would do this for Ah-Xian when he was younger and things got too overwhelming." Yanli says, as she hold a wiggly Jin Ling. He looks at Jiang Wanyin on the screen, whose cheeks have gone red with blush.
"You're family too Xichen. Family takes care of one another and we just want you to be okay again." Jiang Wanyin says, still nit looking directly at the screen. Brother's eyes start to shine with tears as a small smile graces his lips. The first real smile in a very, very long time.
"Thank you. All of you."