Beating For Two

Chapter 40

Wednesday, May 12th

I blinked. Then I blinked once more. And once more. And then I teared up and had to hide my face in Aidan's shoulder. He, of course, was asleep and couldn't care less that his dad was an emotional wreck. I sincerely hoped that it wasn't something he'd have to learn to get used to.

“This is why I had to sleep in your bed tonight?” I asked, my voice thick, as I let my eyes search around the room, taking it all in.

My room – or what I'd referred to as 'my room' for a month now – had previously consisted of a large king sized bed, a writing desk, a closet and an armchair. Now it also contained a big wooden crib. A big wooden crib that was filled up with an insane amount of teddy bears and other plush animals, all of them white or baby blue. In addition to that, the previously brown-and-beige patterned wallpaper on the window wall was gone, and instead there was a dusty blue one with white teddy bears, clouds and flowers scattered all over it.

When I let my eyes take in the room as a whole, I realised that the bedsheets had been replaced, and so had the pillows, the curtains, the rug on the floor, the lamp on the ceiling, and the decorations on the dresser top. Everything was now in colours that partook in a blue-and-white theme.

“'Had to'?” Harry repeated inquiringly, his eyes glinting with amusement, “Was it that bad?”

“Well, you do snore,” I said.

“You're awful,” he replied, conveniently enough followed suit by a snort. “So do you like it?” he added after a moment of silence.

“Of course I like it,” I said, virtually beaming up at him, “It's so much, though, you shouldn't have-”

“And here come the protests,” he droned as he tightened his hold around my shoulders slightly. “We're probably gonna be living here for over a year, so we had to do something to make it a bit more... baby-friendly, don't you think? We pretty much assumed that you'd want Aidan to sleep in the same room as you, so there you go. Now we've got ourselves a bedroom slash nursery.”

I was gonna say that the crib would have been more than enough, but then something else caught my attention, and I wrinkled my eyebrows questioningly at him. “Wait, we have got ourselves a bedroom slash nursery?” I asked.

A somewhat sheepish smile spread across his face. “I was kinda thinking I'd move in here too,” he said, “Well, start sleeping in here at least.”

Sleeping in here? In the same bed as me? Every night? For a whole year? “Oh.”

“'Oh'?” He laughed shortly, “Is that good or bad?”

“It's just... neither, it's a neutral 'oh'.”

The smile faltered a little and gave room for disappointment. “I can stay in my own room instead if you'd prefer that,” he said, “I just figured it's be easier if I slept here since we're gonna have to get up during the night to feed him. And I thought it'd be, you know, nice to sleep together. It's okay, though, if you want-”

“Oh God, please shut up,” I interrupted.

He clamped his mouth shut immediately and directed a worried glance at me.

“It's okay if you wanna stay in here,” I said, “you're right, it'd be nice. And helpful.”

The smile reappeared, though now as something closer to a grin. “Yeah? So we're officially bedmates then?”

“Bedmates,” I repeated, tasting the word, “Sounds a bit...domestic.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, we are kinda domestic now, aren't we?”