#wives!!!!!

‘i am going to die,’ your wife says from the floor of your shared apartment, lying on her side between the couch and the bed.

‘baby,’ you say, trying not to laugh. you sit down next to her and she puts her head in your lap slowly; you put her braids up into a bun on the top of her head and she sighs in thanks when you scratch the back of her neck.

‘i didn’t know,’ she whines. ‘they were supposed to be mild edibles. i only had a quarter.’

‘you’re going to be just fine.’

kat groans and turns so that she’s burrowed further into your stomach. ‘i’m sorry,’ she says. ‘i’m so stoned.’

‘you’re okay, kat.’

she presses a kiss to your stomach and then hugs you tight. ‘my hands are tingling.’

you rub her back gently. 

‘i’m so high.’

‘what do you need?’

she mumbles something into your stomach and you nudge her up a little so you can actually hear her. kat lilts over a little and puts her head on your shoulder, keeps her eyes closed.

‘i need egg rolls from akira.’

‘okay,’ you say, kiss her temple. ‘i’ll order those.’

she nods. ‘also, i want to hold ella.’

you look over to the crate she’s is finally asleep in; your mother had warned you that a puppy was almost as exhausting as a new baby—and you think she’d also been hinting at you and kat having one soon—and ella has eaten seven pairs of your shoes and peed on the couch four times, so your mom wasn’t far off.

‘you just laid down and said the entire world was spinning.’

‘ugh,’ kat says, and lays down again. ‘don’t remind me.’

you laugh and order her egg rolls—two orders of them, because kat has been stoned two times before in the four years you’ve been together, and you know she’ll want them—and you get some food for yourself as well. 

kat gets out her phone to text jane and sutton, who had dropped her off half an hour ago with a sincere apology; they had been at a scarlet high tea and kat had started to get paranoid and wanted to go home. 

your wife puts her phone in your face. ‘i can’t type.’

you laugh and smooth down her hair and then take her phone, send a message to their group chat that kat is safe and calming down and she should be completely fine.

you put on your record player and kat smiles before humming a little and closing her eyes again.

‘i’m too old for this,’ she says after a while.

you laugh. ‘ah, thirty. much, much too old.’

she groans again and rolls over onto her back. ‘don’t make fun of me.’

‘i would never do such a thing.’

‘i’m your wife.’

you grin, run your thumb over her wedding ring, lean down and kiss her small smile. ‘you are.’

‘i love you.’

‘i love you too, kat.’

‘i’m sorry i can’t open my eyes right now.’

you laugh. ‘just rest.’

she sighs, relaxes further into the floor. you help her take her shoes off, then her slacks, and she whines when you try to get her to put pajama pants on so you just grab a blanket from the couch in the other room and she curls around it when you lay it over her.

your food gets to your apartment a few quiet minutes later and you help her up, eat chinese food leaning against your bedframe with her, and she eats five egg rolls before holding her stomach and you follow her to the bathroom and rub between her shoulderblades, give her a glass of water when she’s done throwing up. 

she slumps against the toilet and takes a few deep breaths.

‘i am literally never eating a single bite of an edible again.’

you laugh and help her up, get her to curl up on your couch instead of the floor. you put the food away in the fridge and when you check on ella she seems generally chill, even though she gets excited when you go over to her. you and kat had taken her to the park for hours earlier, so she’s tired. she licks your chin when you lift her out of the crate but otherwise stays still in your arms so you walk over to kat and sit gently on the edge of the couch.

she coaxes her eyes open and grins, holds an arm out. you tuck ella into kat’s chest and she licks kat’s face a few times but then sighs and snuggles into her. ‘ella fitzgerald,’ she whispers, bending down to kiss her little head, ‘my girl.’ they’re both so incredibly cute and kat cries a tiny bit but then she sniffles and smiles up at you.

‘adena?’

‘yes, kat?’

‘despite this less than stellar display of behavior,’ she says, slurring a little but trying so hard to focus on you, ‘you ever think about being a mom?’

your heart skips a little beat because you’re thirty-three and you’ve honestly thought about it with kat for years now, even though you hadn’t said it aloud.

you scratch behind ella’s ears and kiss kat’s forehead. ‘i do, yes.’

‘dope,’ kat says, blowing out a relieved breath. ‘we should talk about this when your face isn’t blurry.’

‘we will, my love.’