Chapter Text
The High Cloud Quintet.
That was the moniker of a group of five law enforcement officers tasked with gathering information on the notorious cult, Sanctus Medicus. It was a name earned when these five strangers-turned-allies went above and beyond their original task of documenting the drug chains this cult held. Ultimately, they found the leader, along with enough evidence to put them away forever. While they captured as many of the head figures as possible, the rest of the disciples scattered like bugs exposed to a bright light.
One decade’s worth of work had led to this moment: the day before the first of numerous court trials to lock up every captured cult member, hopefully forever. This would be the High Cloud Quintet’s final mission together before they would get disbanded. Not that they would never see each other again. They’d forged bonds stronger than tempered iron.
Currently, the five were sitting around a dinner table laden with food and drink, celebrating their success. It was something they’d done countless times before, which made the fact that one of the five failed to reach for her drink very noticeable.
“Um…” Baiheng sheepishly began, “I’m gonna have to be left out of this one.”
Three of the remaining members turned to their resident machinery expert, concern etched on their faces. The last person at the table simply looked at his wife of one year with a gentle grin.
“You’re pregnant,” Jingliu, the leader of their group, realized.
“Surprise,” Baiheng confirmed.
Jing Yuan, the strategist, was the first to shine a smile her direction. “Congratulations!” He raised his glass. “A toast to Baiheng and Dan Feng.”
“To a new chapter,” Yingxing, the weapons expert, spoke as he lifted his own glass.
“Where one story ends,” Jingliu concurred, raising her glass to join the others. “Another begins.”
“May this one be much sweeter compared to the last,” Jing Yuan finished.
“I will toast to that,” Dan Feng, the diplomat of the group, finally spoke up. With one hand, he raised his cup in toast; the other, he rested on his wife’s knee.
“I can’t drink,” Baiheng said, reaching for her glass. “But I’ll join the toast. I’m already liking this story much better than the previous.”
The chinking of glasses was akin to the chime of bells ringing in a new year.
“Well, I must admit my surprise,” Jingliu remarked. “You two wasted no time in starting that new chapter.”
With an awkward chuckle, Baiheng set down her full glass. “Uh… it was a surprise to us, too. It probably would have been better to wait a little while longer, but oh well! I’m excited.”
“How far along are you?”
“Eight weeks. I wanted to tell you earlier,” Baiheng continued, smacking Dan Feng’s shoulder. “But a certain stubborn husband of mine was all, ‘it’s too early; just wait a bit.’”
Dan Feng gave her a soft smile. “It was a reasonable request to wait and confirm the fact.”
“Practical as ever,” Jing Yuan commented. “Well, with us being disbanded, I guess now’s as good a time as ever. Are you planning on retiring, Baiheng? Or are you going to shift to desk duty?”
“Retire,” Dan Feng sniffed, nose in the air.
“That’s what he wants me to do, anyway.” Baiheng stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m not so sure, though. We’ve all been through so much. I don’t mind settling down some, but do I want to settle down that much?”
“You could get a different job entirely,” Yingxing suggested. “Your skills go beyond that of maintaining the vehicles of the force. Surely they’d be in demand in other sectors.”
“True,” Baiheng agreed. “I guess we’ll see how things go. Everything’s a new adventure, right?”
“You have time to think about it,” Jingliu assured. “You could also wait until after the baby is here to make that choice. You’ll probably feel differently when you’re actively taking care of a child.”
“You’re probably right.” Baiheng rested a hand over her abdomen. “I just don’t want to be left behind while everyone is out doing big things.”
“Yingxing,” Dan Feng said, a teasing lilt to his voice and mischievous sparkle in his eye. “You could fix that.”
Yingxing quirked a brow. “How so?”
“Did you not just get married yourself?”
“Oh!” In contrast to her husband’s wicked teasing, Baiheng’s grin was pure excitement. “That would be adorable if we could have kids close in age. They’d be besties, just like you two.”
Jing Yuan struggled to stifle his amused snort while Jingliu successfully hid her smirk behind her cup.
A sneer twisted Yingxing’s lips. “Baiheng, I severely doubt Kafka wants children in the first place. She isn’t exactly… maternal.”
“Come on.” Baiheng lightly punched his shoulder. “Give your wife some credit. She was a huge help when breaking into the cult’s trafficking center and getting all those kids out.”
“She was the one who dug up the information on that center in the first place,” Yingxing said. “She was simply following through on her own information and doing what needed to be done.”
“Yes, but considering her ties to some very shady organizations are coming to light,” Dan Feng continued, “Don’t you think it’s best if she were to lie low for a while?”
“Are you implying I get her pregnant to force her to settle down?”
Dan Feng shrugged, the corner of his lip twitching upwards. “If that’s your interpretation, then it does not matter what I’m implying.”
Jing Yuan good-naturedly slapped his friend on the shoulder. “Yingxing, you knew what you were getting into when you decided to marry a former mercenary turned our number one informant.”
“Jing Yuan,” Yingxing challenged, “why can’t you provide a childhood friend to our lovely couple here?”
“I’m not married.”
“You have plenty of options throwing themselves at you,” Jingliu teased.
“And I have plenty of time to strategize which one would make the best marriage partner,” he brushed off with a wink. “That just leaves you, Jingliu.”
Challenging glint in her eye, she leaned forward, casually swirling the alcohol in her glass. “When you find me a man who isn’t afraid of how easily I could put him in a coffin, present him to me, and I’ll consider it.”
“It would be a shame for your martial prowess not to be passed on,” Baiheng teased. “Maybe I’ll hold interviews for potential studs while I’m off duty.”
A round of laughter rent the table, Jingliu’s being the loudest of them all.
The conversation never ceased, the teasing and banter going long into the night. Some things would never change, even though the world around them did.
Baiheng had been mostly joking when she’d been pressuring the others about giving her child a childhood friend. She hadn’t expected Yingxing and Kafka to actually do it. Then again, they weren’t expecting to get pregnant in the first place.
Yet their two little accidents were born but days ago, six months after Baiheng had brought her own baby into the world.
“Meet your cousins, Dan Heng,” Baiheng whispered to the precious baby boy she cradled against her chest.
“This one’s Stelle,” Kafka said, reaching down to stroke the baby’s cheek. She then reached toward the second one. “And Caelus.”
“Born in that order?” Baiheng asked.
“Yes. One and a half excruciating minutes apart.”
Yingxing came up to rest a hand on Kafka’s back. “And yet, you did extremely well.”
“Good, because we’re never doing it again.” Giving her husband a pat on the chest, Kafka then turned to Baiheng. “But I suppose if it was going to happen, then it is nice for them to have a cousin their own age.”
“Starlight,” Dan Feng quietly spoke to Baiheng. “Didn’t you want a picture of the three of them together?”
“I did,” Baiheng confirmed, looking pleadingly at Kafka. “Please.”
“I don’t mind.” Kafka moved her twins apart in the crib, allowing Baiheng to place Dan Heng between the two swaddled babies. Seeing how tiny the twins were made Baiheng realize just how big her boy had gotten in such a short period of time. It made her feel sentimental for the moments mere months before.
“A crime-fighting trio if I’ve ever seen one,” Kafka mused.
“Shh.” Baiheng held a finger to her lips. “No. They need to stay small and safe forever.”
“Considering their parentage,” Yingxing remarked. “I would not count on that.”
Dan Feng smiled, but there was a tinge of sadness in his eyes. “It would be best if they would only stay friends. They need not experience what we have.”
Yingxing hummed. “That, I cannot disagree with.”
Baiheng took no less than ten photos, trying to get the most perfect one. She was only interrupted by the doorbell ringing.
“I’ll bet that’s Jing Yuan,” Yingxing remarked, already heading toward the door.
“Or Jingliu,” Dan Feng said, following behind.
“I’m going to put dinner in the oven,” Kafka remarked, slowly making her way from the room.
“You did not cook,” Baiheng said, voice flat with disbelief.
“Absolutely not. I sent the hubby to get freezer meals. What else is a husband good for?”
They shared a chuckle.
Baiheng looked over the trio still lying in the crib. “You heard your daddies: friends only,” she told all three babies. She reached down to gather Dan Heng into her arms. Cradling him against her chest, and enjoying every second of it, she whispered against his fine black whisps of hair, “But, if two of you want to be a little more, then I won’t stop you. After all, the only thing cuter than childhood friends is childhood sweethearts.
“Although…” She chuckled to herself as she made her way from the room. “Knowing your dads, my guess is they’ll let that happen over their dead bodies.”