sarah made me do it

rock a bye baby; remi & simba

Remi rolled his eyes and looked down at Roial who was fully asleep in his arms, cute little snuffling noises escaping her lips. “I think that goes without saying. You’d try to lecture them, but give them cookies as soon as I’m out of the room,” He laughed softly, pushing back a soft lock of hair from Roial’s forehead. “Oh, we definitely won,” Remi agreed. He wasn’t the sort to claim a baby was cuter over the other, but of course he thought his babies were the cutest in the world. Yawning, he rested his head against the back of the rocking chair, eyes fluttering a little from exhaustion. “I always wonder what they’ll be like when they’re older. I don’t want them to grow up, but I still think about it, like whether they’ll look alike or not. Will they like books or be models? Maybe, Roial will like football and Yezi will want to be a ballerina. It’s mental that one day they’ll be their own people,” He mused tiredly before giving Simba sleepy smile. 

“I’m not saying that that’s going to happen but...” Simba shook his head, biting back laughter. “It’s going to happen. I’m glad you know me so well, Moony.” The man watched Remi quietly, unable to resist the smile that spread across his face as he watched the werewolf yawn. “They’ll be themselves, yeah? Just like you and me; a little bit crazy, a little bit foolish, but we turned out alright. We’ve got plenty of time down the line to learn all the things they’re gonna teach us, but for now, I think we should let them sleep and go get some ourselves. You’re knackered, love.” Simba gently untangled their hands, making sure to stand slowly as to not wake the sleeping baby in his arms. Yezi shifted with the movement, but he didn’t seem to wake up from the change. Simba carefully carried the baby over to his crib, his hair falling down over his face as he leaned over to set Yezi down carefully.

rock a bye baby; remi & simba

Remi laughed softly and shook his head, “She will, I’m sure.” He looked over at Nkanyezi in Simba’s arms, the baby almost asleep like his sister. “I wonder how much they’ll look alike when they’re a bit older–if they’ll look like twins.” Right now, they looked similar because they both looked like little babies with chubby cheeks and button noses. Brushing his thumb over the back of Simba’s hand, he nodded as he looked over at the picture frame on the babies’ side table, which was a picture of the four of them on the day they were born. “I still can’t believe you wanted them,” He gave Simba an amused look. “I think you were initially just trying to compete with Jay for cutest kids.” He sort of figured when he and Simba got engaged that it would just be the two of them, which was fine then, though Remi always wanted kids.

Simba contemplated the statement for a moment before he looked up from his dazed focus on Yezi. “Maybe they’ll look identical even though they’re the not-identical kind,” Simba mused, humoured by the concept. “That’d definitely make our life interesting. I hope they’re just as annoying as we were when we were kids. You’re on lecture duty whenever they get in trouble, just saying.” He chuckled as his gaze met Remi’s eyes. “I’ll never tell, you know that,” he responded cheekily even though he knew that the answer was probably kind of obvious by this point. Simba had known that Remi’d wanted kids, but he also knew that the man was scared of passing his traits on to their children. It was something that had Simba content at first because he didn’t want to raise any children and actually have to play a parent role. Simba couldn’t resist letting Remi have this moment, and honestly, he wasn’t too bad at parenting, even if he pretended to be. “You know we won though, even if there may or may not have been a competition occurring.”

rock a bye baby; remi & simba

“You mean your gorgeous dark brown eyes?” Remi smirked over at his husband, and held the dozing baby close to his chest. “She’ll be gorgeous, that’s for sure. I hope I didn’t curse Yezi with my less desirable looks,” He added playfully, although it was a genuine worry of his, just like the werewolf thing. As Simba joined him, he reached over to ruffle Yezi’s little tuft of hair before grabbing his husband’s hand and giving a squeeze. “Babies like being rocked to sleep,” He stated matter-of-factly. “With two rocking chairs, we can rock them at the same time, while doing this,” He lifted their intertwined hands. There were a few times where he fell asleep in the rocking chair while caring for the babies, so exhausted that he couldn’t make it back to their room. Roial stirred in his arms, making a cute little cooing noise before yawning. It was hardly anything, but it made Remi’s heart melt all the same. “They’re nightmares, but they’re so bloody cute,” He said lightly, and kissed her forehead, her little fist gripping at his jumper. 

“I mean her own gorgeous dark brown eyes,” Simba said with a soft chuckle as he looked at Remi. “I’d be more than happy to see her have my eyes, but there’s that whole genetics thing that plays into it as well, yes?” He shook his head, smiling. “So I just hope that she has beautiful eyes, even though we can see that happening already.” He shook his head in response to Remi’s words, unable to resist the urge to hide a smile. “Babies do like being rocked to sleep, but it’s easier to walk around and rock them to sleep,” he told the man as he let Remi twine their hands together. “Even if it means that we can’t hold hands while we do that.” Simba couldn’t help but look at his daughter clinging to Remi’s shirt. It was so sweet, something that he almost wished he would be able to take a photograph of, even though he knew that he’d remember this forever. “It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago these tiny rebels weren’t in our lives,” he mumbled as he carefully adjusted his grip on Nkanyezi to make sure that he was holding him securely. The boy was drifting off rather easily in his grip, but Simba knew that the slightest thing would cause him to wake up and start crying or screaming again. “You’re right,” he told him. They’re damn adorable.”

rock a bye baby; remi & simba

Remi grinned in response, wishing he could go back and tell his teenage self that one day Simba would love him back, save him a few years of all that hurt and anger. He didn’t want to dwell on the past thought, not when everything was brilliant at the moment. “Me neither,” He whispered in response, keeping his voice quite so that Roial would drift off to sleep, her little eyes drooping already. He looked up at his husband and their son, smiling a little in amusement. He couldn’t help but worried for his little boy’s future, being part werewolf. Being a hybrid was much easier than being a  full werewolf, but it still wouldn’t be a walk in the park. “Maybe, he’s developing slower,” He laughed softly as he rocked in the chair. “Some babies take a while to develop their eye colour. I read it in one of my parenting books.” He patted the rocking chair beside his, gesturing for Simba to join him in rocking the babies to sleep.  

Simba nodded as he focused his attention on the baby in his arms. They’d only had them for a few months but he was already so attached to both of the twins that he couldn’t imagine not having them in his life. Now he only had to get to the point where he would be able to convince Remi that he could take the babies with him when he went abroad for photo shoots. Simba lightly tickled the baby, smiling as Nkanyezi’s tiny hand wrapped around his finger, holding it in place. “Maybe,” he said softly. “Or maybe they’re developing the same and Roial is just going to have those gorgeous dark brown eyes in a few years. It’s only been a few months, yeah?” He lifted his gaze up to Remi, unable to resist smiling as he looked at the werewolf. “I can’t believe you convinced me to buy two of these things,” he said softly as he stepped over to Remi and sat down in the chair next to him. “I mean, normal chairs would’ve been just fine, Moony.”

rock a bye baby; remi & simba

“I hope when they’re eighteen, they’re not still crying for us in the middle of the night,” As Remi began changing her nappy, he watched his husband with their son, smiling softly as he took care of them, his heart doing little flutters in his chest. “You look good with him,” He murmured as he wiped down their daughter. “Whoever thought Simba Bahari would be soothing crying babies.” Laughing quietly, he finished up with putting on a clean nappy before taking their whimpering baby in his arms, rocking her slightly as he made his way to one of the two rocking chairs in the room. He cradled her as he rocked, his finger brushing over her baby soft cheek. Wide, watery brown eyes stared back in wonder. “She looks just like you,” He marveled before kissing her little nose. Remi still couldn’t believe that he had a family. He managed to marry the love of his life and have two perfect little babies with him. For once, it felt like his life was where it should be, and he was happy.

Simba couldn’t help but laugh a little bit at the statement. “I hope not,” he chuckled as he gently soothed their son, his fingers lightly ruffling the little bit of feathery hair that the boy was sporting. He almost missed Remi’s words and probably would have if it weren’t for the fact that his hearing was a heightened ability that he possessed. “No one,” he responded honestly as he rocked Nkanyezi in his arms. “Especially Simba Bahari. I thought I’d be a bachelor forever, and here we are.” He looked up at Remi. “i wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Sentimentality wasn’t something that Simba was good at displaying, nor was it something that he expressed often, but when he did, he wanted his husband to know that he did mean it with every fibre of his being. “Yeah?” he said with a small smile. “Well Yezi looks just like you, minus the eyes.” He looked down at his son, shaking his head slightly as he did so. “Why you have blue eyes, tiny human, I’ll never understand.”

rock a bye baby; remi & simba

Remi considered letting Simba endure two crying babies at once, but the fingers in his hair and the sleepy smile had his heart melting. Silently he cursed the effect his husband still had on him. Pushing himself up, he let out a yawn before dropping his head on Simba’s shoulder. “We had to have two of them. The world wasn’t nice enough to us just to give us one.” He was cranky. Usually he was all about their babies, the maternal side of him kicking in as soon as they were born, but he was tired. Slipping from the bed, he held out a hand to Simba and laced their fingers together as he led them two the nursery. Sure enough, the twins were wailing. He went to Roial and lifted the crying baby in his arms, getting a whiff of her soiled nappy. When they decided on surrogacy, Remi figured they would end up with one baby or at least twins who were biologically one of theirs. Somehow, they were granted with two, one of each their own biological baby. As he stared down at Roial, noting her features that clearly matched Simba’s, she didn’t feel any less like his child than Yezi did. “I have the smelly one,” He laughed sleepily before placing her on the changing table.

“Of course we did. Double the trouble, right?” Simba lifted a fist to his face, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as Remi’s hand slipped into his. “One little version of each of us, and plenty of headache to go around.” He lightly kissed the top of Remi’s head as he followed his husband into the nursery. When Remi made his way over to their daughter, Simba took the opportunity to check on their son. Nkanyezi was the most precious little boy that he’d ever known, despite the fact that his nephew had held that position just a few years back when Jay and Hale had adopted him. “And I have the cranky one,” Simba responded with a soft chuckle as he lifted Yezi into his arms, doing a quick check to make sure that he didn’t have a soiled nappy. “Looks like I’m the one who lucked out.” He didn’t mean it. Despite the fact that he really didn’t like changing their diapers, he didn’t mind doing it to make sure that his kids were alright. It was just that he enjoyed watching Remi take care of their babies in a manner that made it seem he’d been doing it his entire life. “Think we’ll ever get a full night’s sleep again?” Simba asked as he appeased the crying baby with a dummy, pleased that Yezi stopped crying in favour of sucking on it.

Since the twins had woken them up a few hours ago, Simba hadn’t really fallen back to sleep. He’d been in and out of a light sleep since then, so the sound of the twins crying through the baby monitor didn’t startle him as much as he’d expected. What did startle him, however, was the kick to his leg that he received from his husband. “Be gentle,” Simba grumbled as he opened his eyes when Remi started to shake his shoulder. “I’m your loving husband, you’re supposed to be nice to me.” It took him a moment before he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Simba looked at Remi quietly for a moment before he offered him a sleepy smile and ran his fingers through Remi’s hair. “I’ve got it, but you’re welcome to join me because it sounds like they’re both awake now.”