Who: Elphaba and Luthien What: Baby stuff Where: A shop? When: Early Feb Rating: Low? Status: Complete when posted
Elphaba still couldn’t quite get over the sheer amount of things you could buy for a baby. FRom pushchairs and prams, soft toys and hard toys, baby manicures sets to teething toys. There were books about pregnancy, about breastfeeding and baby led weaning. There was so much to consider and so much to take in, she was a little overwhelmed with it all. Her only relief was that Lúthien had done this sort of thing before. As they walked up the aisles of books in the store, she stopped to look at a selection of pregnancy journals designed to record everything from the moment you found out you were pregnant to when the child graduated university it seemed. Shaking her head, she marvelled at the variety. “Did you have all this when you were pregnant?” she asked Luthien.
It had been different for her last time. Her parents hadn’t approved, Beren had already left. It had been lonelier and with less emphasis on … permanence. But with her wife at her side, Luthien approached it with a barely contained joy. She moved from place to place with excitement, squeezing Elphie’s hand frequently and quite literally glowing whenever happiness overwhelmed her.
“Some of it, not all. My pregnancy was not as welcome. By my parents, at any rate. I welcomed it, but his father had already left when I found out I was pregnant. I do not believe he knows he has a son.”
Elphaba looked at her with a sad smile, squeezing her hand in reassurance. “I’m sorry, love,” she told her. She couldn’t begin to fathom how that had felt. Her father hadn’t been particularly enthused when she’d told him, but that was to be expected. She didn’t expect him to have much involvement with his grandchild, too busy preaching to the masses to remember about his family. “We’re not going to be like that,” she promised confidently with a smile. “So, do you think we should get something like this?” she asked, holding up a pregnancy journal for her to see.
Luthien would be happy if her father never had anything to do with either of her children. Her mother was allowed. But she was still angry at Thingol and while Luthien didn’t often carry a grudge, when she did it was for a very long time. “I know, and I love you.” She took the journal from Elphaba and smiled. “Yes, we should get something like this.” She didn’t have as good a record of Dior’s pregnancy, though her mother had sent her plenty of pictures and video.
Elphaba smiled as she watched Luthien looking over the book, glad to see her so excited about it all. “Ok, so, we’ll buy that,” she smiled, holding out the basket in her other hand for Luthien to drop the book into. “So are there any other books you would recommend?” she asked, looking back over the racks of books before them.
“Mmm, I’m not actually sure. Most of the books I had were in French.” And sometimes her accent still slipped. Luthien had grown up on French and Italian. “But I think we do not need anything for past the age of three for at least another year or two.” She winked.
Elphaba smiled as Lúthien teased her but her mentioning about French triggered another thought. “Do you think she...or he will be bi-lingual? Do you think we could teach them?” she asked curiously. Elphaba’s French wasn’t great, but she’d picked up bits and pieces here and there.
“I don’t see why not.” Luthien’s smile was brilliant. “We could teach them both languages, and any other we choose. It would only serve to help them in their life.” It would help if they spoke French around the home too, but Luthien would enjoy teaching Elphaba anyway.
“I guess in order for our child to speak both languages I’d need to be pretty fluent in it and we’d need to be talking in it quite regularly. We’ll need to start using it more around the house. Perhaps we could start with when we’re in the kitchen and making dinner and things?” Elphaba suggested.
“Food ingredients are a good way to start. I believe that’s how the beginnings of many languages came about.” She was almost certain it was how the edain and the eldar first learned each others’ languages. Plus, it would be really cute and fun, and Luthien was fully on board with hearing Elphaba speak French. And with speaking French to her in her most sultry tone.
Elphaba smiled at her wife. They had so much to look forward to in the coming months and years. Elphaba tamped down on the anxiety and fear she was starting to feel, worried she would do something wrong and their child would end up hating her. Her Dreams lately hadn't been helping. “We’ll be alright, won't we?” she said, with more conviction than she felt.
“Yes,” Luthien promised. She slipped her arms around her wife. “We’ll be all right. I promise.”