[ When Minji had joined the army, it was initially because they'd pay for college. It wasn't like she had anyone waiting for her when she'd enrolled in basic in high school, save for Newt, so at first it was no problem. She changed her major around a few times, decided she'd try going career and see what happened, but then she'd met Tessa before she deployed for the first time.
And if that wasn't love at first sight, she didn't know what would be.
She had about a year to enjoy the romance, to woo her and maybe hope that she would still be there when she came back from overseas. The fact that they constantly talked and talked and talked was and still is amazing, over Skype and Facebook and e-mails and letters, and Tessy sent her care packages with some of the sweetest things in them, and she's just.
She's in love. And it didn't take long after her return to the States for her to pop the question, because why wouldn't she? This beautiful girl stuck around with her through her deployment, and if she could use her leave for something so great as this, to be married to her and have a ring and an army wife, then damnit, she was going to.
Of course, then there's the whole artificial insemination, but Minji had to go back to Afghanistan before they had any results. Tessa said she would keep trying while she was gone, and now...
Now she's coming home again, tired from travel and yet still so excited to see her wifey. ]
[ tessy met minji while she was enrolled in basic in the same town where tess had been going to school. she'd always been told never fall in love with the soldier boys from the fort down the way, and tess never had time for that, anyway, let alone an eye to cast their way. she was too busy getting her degree, focusing on her engineering studies, and then. then she met minji, who came into the library where tess usually spent her days.
no one ever said not to fall in love with the soldier girls.
which, tess did. she did really, really hard. minji swept her completely off her feet, throwing tessa into the biggest crush she's ever had in her life, but how could she not have been in love with her? minji was smart and beautiful, loyal and kind, and the way she kissed tessa made her feel like she was the only person in the world. tess knew a year after her first deployment while she waited that she wanted to marry minji, after sleepy time difference skype calls and five am good morning texts, every day, even when things got rough. so when she proposed when she came back, of course tess said yes.
they were happy, and they were going to be happier, they were going to have a family. and then minji got deployed again.
so, it's been eight months since minji left. tess kept attending the insemination treatments--they'd paid for them, after all--and kept pining after minji (her wife), kept living life as normal with a hole at her left side. but as time passed, the treatments finally took, and when tess waits at the airport with flowers she's got another surprise. one that got her a lot of teasing when it first happened--better not tell minji, tess!--but it did.
she'd wanted to stand up and wait for her at the gate, but nearly passing out from standing up for so long meant she's sitting on a bench a little behind the rest of the eager families waiting for their missing pieces to come home, her head down and small hands resting on the swell of her stomach.
six months she'd waited to tell minji, and ten months she'd been waiting for her to come home. ]
[ As she walks off the plane and through the airport, Minji accepts the thanks and salutes and greetings that various people give her. She's drained from her travel, and she wants to just go take a nap with Tess, and eat so much food she'll go into another nap immediately after. She wants to run her hands through Tessa's hair and kiss her like she did in the library when they were first getting to know each other, in the dark corners of the stacks when they were supposed to be working.
She's so excited to be home that she nearly runs, dragging her wheeling suitcase behind her with her duffel on top of it. It wobbles every now and then, unsteady in her hurry to find where her wife's waiting for her, wherever it may be. By baggage claim, maybe? Or just outside of security?
Minji doesn't know, but she's going. Because her heart thrums in her chest with a sort of delightful rush, remembering the first day that she'd seen her sitting in the library. Her dark hair, the delicate curve of her neck, those big eyes when she'd looked up. It was instantaneous.
And it's just as instantaneous, now.
At first, she doesn't see Tessy anywhere. There are other people standing around, looking for her fellow soldiers - that she has, honestly, left in the dust - but no Mrs. Tessa Park for a Mrs. Minji Murphy. Her eyes narrow a little, and she looks around, and that is when she sees her. And she has to double-take, her breath caught in her chest and her heart lodging in her throat, because she looks down to see what she's looking at, where her hands are resting.
She can hardly breathe, as she calls softly: ] Tess?
[ mrs. tessa park's starting to get impatient, to be honest. if her stomach would stop arguing with her--if the baby would stop kicking, incessant and just like either of her mothers--she'd get back up, pace around, but she doesn't have time.
tessa thinks she could hear minji whisper from across the state and still be able to find her. her head snaps up and she's met with minji, dressed in her uniform and boots, looking exhausted but real, a living, breathing person instead of an image on a screen. tessa gasps, and she's fumbling over the flowers and her shoes (which are on the ground by her feet) and her too big stomach all at once before she pushes herself up to her feet and covers her mouth for a second, feeling tears well up in her eyes and her heart singing against her ribcage. ] Min, [ she starts, and then takes a step forward.
and then another, and then another, and she's nearly running towards her, only stopping herself from throwing herself into her arms because she remembers she has a lot more weight to be throwing around now. instead, tessy reaches forward and touches her face, cups her cheek--then, tess bursts into a huge smile, like she can't keep it off her face, and all she can do is breathe out: ] Hi.
[ Minji has no idea what her heart is doing, really. Her beautiful, perfect Tessa is pregnant. She's a little klunker for not telling her about it in their exchanges, but she's not even mad about it. There's a thrill there, thrumming in her ribcage to the point that it feels a little like her heart's going to burst straight out of her chest.
Abandoning her bags, she takes lunging steps towards her so that she can meet Tessy halfway, torn between looking at her face, the flowers, her petite feet which are probably aching, and her stomach. Even when she's right there, holding her face in a delicate touch, her eyes wet and brighter than anything on a computer screen or photograph. ] Oh my god. [ She tries to say anything else. ] Oh my god.
[ Nothing else comes out. But she reaches down, hesitating for a moment before she presses her hands to the swell of her belly, touch gentle, awed, as she looks down from her face and at the baby bump. Which is not so much a bump as it is a swell, because Tessa is a tiny woman.
Her eyes flick back up to her face, a grin splitting her face in perfect two before she leans in to press a sudden, enthusiastic, and somewhat sloppy kiss. ]
[ tessa beams at her with all of the joy she can manage, even when it's smothered into the kiss--she bursts out laughing against her mouth and lifts her arms up to throw them around her shoulders. she's always had to stand on her toes to kiss minji but in her boots its even more than that, enough that she stretches all the way up in order to return the favor. she doesn't doubt minji could lift her (can recall being picked up and twirled the first time this happened) but tess is completely content just like this, kissing her wife for the first time in ten months. she can hold her close, she can feel her heartbeat, alive and well against her chest. her brave little soldier girl's come home.
tessy pulls away from the kiss and drops their foreheads together for a second, sniffling. tears run down her cheeks, escaping from her, and tessy tentatively reaches down and covers minji's hands with her own on her stomach.
quietly, still smiling, she murmurs: ] It's a girl. [ of course it is, a little daughter, a baby to care for, their family to grow to three. they'd been trying for so long and everything had worked. ]
[ This is it, right here. Almost like they're so delirious with happiness, it's not really much of a proper kiss - Minji's grin keeps getting in the way, along with Tessa's laugh - but it's everything that she's missed for ten months. What she missed when she was first deployed and couldn't touch Tessa or see her face-to-face, wake up to her in the morning. Wake her up, in the morning, her poor groggy little shank.
But this is her girl. This is her beautiful wife, and she's pregnant. And she didn't tell her before she came home!
But of course she didn't.
Minji swipes her thumbs across the curve of her belly, feeling the warmth there, trying to press her palms as close as she can without hurting her. There's another little person in there, their plus one to the family, and her grin remains intact even as she feels the tears in her own eyes actually spilling over. ]
Yeah? How long? [ A girl. A wife and a daughter and a family, and the idea of it's terrifying but exciting all at once. She's gonna have to learn how to hold a baby. ]
I'm six months along. [ tessa smiles and looks down between them, lifting her own hands out of the way to let minji make direct contact with her stomach. it's been hard doing it without her, keeping things secret--tess relied on newt a lot, got asked more than once if he was her boyfriend to both of them erupting into giggles over it--but it was worth it. it was worth it for the look on her face, for the fact that minji is crying for maybe the second time tess has ever seen. she reaches up and wipes the stray tears from her face, even if tess is crying too, just. she's just absurdly overjoyed to have minji home again. ]
Now you'll have to come to the pregnancy classes with me isntead of Newt. [ she giggles and ducks her head, and now tess scoots forward a little more to drop her head in the crook of her shoulder.
the baby apparently agrees with how joyful tess is, because tess winces as she feels her kick against minji's hand. it's a beautiful thing, but that doesn't mean it isn't a little uncomfortable. tess, honestly, doesn't even care. the moment's emotional and sweet and she hiccups, a little, shaking her head. ]
Six - six months. You shucking - I can't believe you didn't tell me for six months! [ Minji practically exclaims, but there's no heat to her voice even with the twinge of incredulity. But she doesn't even care, in the end. Just leans into her touch, letting her wipe away the tears that streak her cheeks. She's never been a crier, has only done it a handful of times in her life beyond childhood - even then, too - but this is just...
She cried at their wedding when she saw Tessa in her dress walking down the aisle. She's crying now at seeing her with her pregnant belly. She's going to cry when she holds her daughter for the first time. ]
Of course Newt went with you. Do they teach you how to not break babies in those classes? [ A little bit of a joke, but mostly not. Minji is terrified of babies, why did they think having one would be a good idea?
But that thought goes flying out of her head as she feels the baby kick, and her mouth opens in a soft oh, long fingers spread wide over her stomach to try and catch every trace of movement. That's hers and Tess'. ]
[ tess just laughs, warm and bright and loud, and buries her face back in minji's neck, shaking her head. minji's reaction was wonderful and it was worth keeping it secret for as long as she had. besides, they'll be able to explore the rest of this together, all of the good and bad that comes with it. and tess is thankful for newt, really--their best friend has been an excellent caretaker in the time that minji's been gone--but tess is longing to spend the rest of this time preparing for their little girl with her wife, with the love of her life. ] I was going to tell you, and then they extended your tour.
[ which is the truth, but, things got complicated and seeing minji's face, her reaction? it was so worth it. tess smiles and wraps her arms around her shoulders a little tighter, curls in close, and jokes, quietly-- ] Maybe at the end.
[ as the baby kicks against minji's hands, tess feels tears well in her eyes again. she leans down and presses her hand over top of minji's, giving it a little squeeze. softly, she asks-- ] Can we go home?
Of course! [ A low whine leaves her, wordless complaint at her laughter, but Minji just embraces it because every laugh from Tessa is a treasure. She's so much more reserved by comparison, she cherishes each bright sound she gets. It's worth her alarm and the fact this was kept as a surprise.
Tilting her head, she rests her cheek against her hair, sniffling a little to hold back another rush of emotion. Maybe once the baby is born she'll head in and let them know she's not in this for the long haul, might do one more tour and then call it quits unless some horrible thing happens that requires another soldier girl to go marching in, one more thing to protect the love of her life and their baby.
She huffs at her joke, but it's more of a laugh than offense, and it goes airy at the end with the next kick. That's it, Minji's going to be reduced to a blubbering mess at this rate. ] Yeah. Yeah, we can go home, baby.
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oops.
whines at a lot
And if that wasn't love at first sight, she didn't know what would be.
She had about a year to enjoy the romance, to woo her and maybe hope that she would still be there when she came back from overseas. The fact that they constantly talked and talked and talked was and still is amazing, over Skype and Facebook and e-mails and letters, and Tessy sent her care packages with some of the sweetest things in them, and she's just.
She's in love. And it didn't take long after her return to the States for her to pop the question, because why wouldn't she? This beautiful girl stuck around with her through her deployment, and if she could use her leave for something so great as this, to be married to her and have a ring and an army wife, then damnit, she was going to.
Of course, then there's the whole artificial insemination, but Minji had to go back to Afghanistan before they had any results. Tessa said she would keep trying while she was gone, and now...
Now she's coming home again, tired from travel and yet still so excited to see her wifey. ]
no subject
no one ever said not to fall in love with the soldier girls.
which, tess did. she did really, really hard. minji swept her completely off her feet, throwing tessa into the biggest crush she's ever had in her life, but how could she not have been in love with her? minji was smart and beautiful, loyal and kind, and the way she kissed tessa made her feel like she was the only person in the world. tess knew a year after her first deployment while she waited that she wanted to marry minji, after sleepy time difference skype calls and five am good morning texts, every day, even when things got rough. so when she proposed when she came back, of course tess said yes.
they were happy, and they were going to be happier, they were going to have a family. and then minji got deployed again.
so, it's been eight months since minji left. tess kept attending the insemination treatments--they'd paid for them, after all--and kept pining after minji (her wife), kept living life as normal with a hole at her left side. but as time passed, the treatments finally took, and when tess waits at the airport with flowers she's got another surprise. one that got her a lot of teasing when it first happened--better not tell minji, tess!--but it did.
she'd wanted to stand up and wait for her at the gate, but nearly passing out from standing up for so long meant she's sitting on a bench a little behind the rest of the eager families waiting for their missing pieces to come home, her head down and small hands resting on the swell of her stomach.
six months she'd waited to tell minji, and ten months she'd been waiting for her to come home. ]
no subject
She's so excited to be home that she nearly runs, dragging her wheeling suitcase behind her with her duffel on top of it. It wobbles every now and then, unsteady in her hurry to find where her wife's waiting for her, wherever it may be. By baggage claim, maybe? Or just outside of security?
Minji doesn't know, but she's going. Because her heart thrums in her chest with a sort of delightful rush, remembering the first day that she'd seen her sitting in the library. Her dark hair, the delicate curve of her neck, those big eyes when she'd looked up. It was instantaneous.
And it's just as instantaneous, now.
At first, she doesn't see Tessy anywhere. There are other people standing around, looking for her fellow soldiers - that she has, honestly, left in the dust - but no Mrs. Tessa Park for a Mrs. Minji Murphy. Her eyes narrow a little, and she looks around, and that is when she sees her. And she has to double-take, her breath caught in her chest and her heart lodging in her throat, because she looks down to see what she's looking at, where her hands are resting.
She can hardly breathe, as she calls softly: ] Tess?
no subject
tessa thinks she could hear minji whisper from across the state and still be able to find her. her head snaps up and she's met with minji, dressed in her uniform and boots, looking exhausted but real, a living, breathing person instead of an image on a screen. tessa gasps, and she's fumbling over the flowers and her shoes (which are on the ground by her feet) and her too big stomach all at once before she pushes herself up to her feet and covers her mouth for a second, feeling tears well up in her eyes and her heart singing against her ribcage. ] Min, [ she starts, and then takes a step forward.
and then another, and then another, and she's nearly running towards her, only stopping herself from throwing herself into her arms because she remembers she has a lot more weight to be throwing around now. instead, tessy reaches forward and touches her face, cups her cheek--then, tess bursts into a huge smile, like she can't keep it off her face, and all she can do is breathe out: ] Hi.
no subject
Abandoning her bags, she takes lunging steps towards her so that she can meet Tessy halfway, torn between looking at her face, the flowers, her petite feet which are probably aching, and her stomach. Even when she's right there, holding her face in a delicate touch, her eyes wet and brighter than anything on a computer screen or photograph. ] Oh my god. [ She tries to say anything else. ] Oh my god.
[ Nothing else comes out. But she reaches down, hesitating for a moment before she presses her hands to the swell of her belly, touch gentle, awed, as she looks down from her face and at the baby bump. Which is not so much a bump as it is a swell, because Tessa is a tiny woman.
Her eyes flick back up to her face, a grin splitting her face in perfect two before she leans in to press a sudden, enthusiastic, and somewhat sloppy kiss. ]
no subject
tessy pulls away from the kiss and drops their foreheads together for a second, sniffling. tears run down her cheeks, escaping from her, and tessy tentatively reaches down and covers minji's hands with her own on her stomach.
quietly, still smiling, she murmurs: ] It's a girl. [ of course it is, a little daughter, a baby to care for, their family to grow to three. they'd been trying for so long and everything had worked. ]
no subject
But this is her girl. This is her beautiful wife, and she's pregnant. And she didn't tell her before she came home!
But of course she didn't.
Minji swipes her thumbs across the curve of her belly, feeling the warmth there, trying to press her palms as close as she can without hurting her. There's another little person in there, their plus one to the family, and her grin remains intact even as she feels the tears in her own eyes actually spilling over. ]
Yeah? How long? [ A girl. A wife and a daughter and a family, and the idea of it's terrifying but exciting all at once. She's gonna have to learn how to hold a baby. ]
no subject
Now you'll have to come to the pregnancy classes with me isntead of Newt. [ she giggles and ducks her head, and now tess scoots forward a little more to drop her head in the crook of her shoulder.
the baby apparently agrees with how joyful tess is, because tess winces as she feels her kick against minji's hand. it's a beautiful thing, but that doesn't mean it isn't a little uncomfortable. tess, honestly, doesn't even care. the moment's emotional and sweet and she hiccups, a little, shaking her head. ]
no subject
She cried at their wedding when she saw Tessa in her dress walking down the aisle. She's crying now at seeing her with her pregnant belly. She's going to cry when she holds her daughter for the first time. ]
Of course Newt went with you. Do they teach you how to not break babies in those classes? [ A little bit of a joke, but mostly not. Minji is terrified of babies, why did they think having one would be a good idea?
But that thought goes flying out of her head as she feels the baby kick, and her mouth opens in a soft oh, long fingers spread wide over her stomach to try and catch every trace of movement. That's hers and Tess'. ]
no subject
[ which is the truth, but, things got complicated and seeing minji's face, her reaction? it was so worth it. tess smiles and wraps her arms around her shoulders a little tighter, curls in close, and jokes, quietly-- ] Maybe at the end.
[ as the baby kicks against minji's hands, tess feels tears well in her eyes again. she leans down and presses her hand over top of minji's, giving it a little squeeze. softly, she asks-- ] Can we go home?
no subject
Tilting her head, she rests her cheek against her hair, sniffling a little to hold back another rush of emotion. Maybe once the baby is born she'll head in and let them know she's not in this for the long haul, might do one more tour and then call it quits unless some horrible thing happens that requires another soldier girl to go marching in, one more thing to protect the love of her life and their baby.
She huffs at her joke, but it's more of a laugh than offense, and it goes airy at the end with the next kick. That's it, Minji's going to be reduced to a blubbering mess at this rate. ] Yeah. Yeah, we can go home, baby.