Six Years Later A Westin and Prince Jin Short Story
West kneeled and peered under the sofa in the front parlor, for what he was sure was the third time, but still came up empty.
Before he could straighten, he heard the patter of small footsteps and the rustle of clothing across the carpet.
He turned his head to see a small dark head resting on the carpet next to his, along with a pair of long braided pigtails.
A quiet sigh escaped him, but he was also laughing on the inside. “We’re looking for your other shoe. Remember?”
The four-year-old sat up on her knees, both her hands covering her mouth while her eyes went wide. “I forgot!”
West wanted to roll his eyes. He wasn’t sure how she’d forgotten. As he sat up, he was at least relieved to find that she still had a shoe on her right foot while a bright yellow-and-green sock covered her left foot. That was a good start.
He pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead. “Go search your room again. We need to find your other shoe. Yeye2 will be here soon, and we need to leave.”
“Yeye!” she shouted, thrusting both fists into the air. She scrambled to her feet and raced through the apartment to her bedroom.
He almost asked where her brother was, but the words never left his tongue. Her cry of grandfather was answered by another cry of grandfather from a different room. A little boy of three zoomed into the parlor and stopped in the center, his head whipping about.
“Where’s Yeye?” Qiao demanded.
West sighed with relief this time when he saw that Qiao-er3 was wearing both of his shoes.
But his shirt was missing. What was it with these kids and their clothing?
Keeping all of them dressed so they could walk out the door on time was impossible.
He’d worked missions far more complicated, and they’d come off without a hitch.
Keeping his wild heathens clothed? Impossible.
“Yeye is not here yet,” West replied, dropping to sit on the sofa he’d just searched. “Where is your shirt, Qiao-er?”
“I don’t want to wear that one.” The boy slapped his bare chest with his hand. “Tiger one.” He then made claws with both of his hands and growled.
“The T-shirt Lexi Shushu4 gave you?”
Qiao nodded several times.
“We packed that shirt so you can wear it when you see all your shushu. First, we’re going into the mountains with Yeye.
We don’t want to get the tiger dirty before we see Lexi Shushu,” West bargained.
Plus, he didn’t want to dig the T-shirt out of the packed bag, which should be in the van right that second.
“Shushu and the grapes!” A stomp followed that excited declaration, reminding West that he needed to strangle Alexei Shushu when he saw the man.
At least he was pretty sure Alexei was the one who told Qiao-er wine used to be made by stomping on grapes.
Naturally, that led to a need to practice stomping on the grapes at home.
And many grapes needing to be cleaned out of the carpet and the grooves of the tiles around the apartment.
For three months, they’d banned grapes in the house.
Along with cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and even bananas. Until they could explain that fruit was never stomped in the house.
But even now, any mention of grapes led to Qiao stomping his way through the rooms while singing about grapes.
Alexei needed to die.
Or maybe it was Ming Tao.
He’d narrowed it down to those potential culprits. One of them needed to pay for this grape-related mess.
West jumped to his feet, scooped up his son, and tossed him over his shoulder, earning squeals of laughter. “We’re going to find your shirt and then jiejie’s5 missing shoe. And then Yeye will be here, so we can all leave for vacation.”
“Vacation!” Qiao shouted with a mouthful of giggles.
They had been planning this trip over most of the past year. They were going to head up to the Jin family mountain villa with the emperor for a week for some “relaxing” family time. Thankfully, they were taking the nanny along for help during this stretch of the trip.
Afterward, they were heading over to Izzie and Kairo’s vineyard mansion.
All the uncles were supposed to be present for a long visit.
The nanny was getting a much-deserved week off from some royal chaos.
The idea was that all the uncles could help keep an eye on the children, but West worried about the bad habits they were going to pick up if grape stomping was only the first glimpse of what was ahead.
But the kids had seen each of his old teammates and their partners on various occasions over the years.
This was just the first time they were all getting together since all the kids had been born.
The entire team spent part of the year on Gaoxing now, but thanks to West’s royal duties and the kids, it was hard to sneak away for long visits.
Besides, Max was busy with his teaching and dragging Ed on his expeditions.
Will was working more in hospitals while West had talked Charlie into doing some consulting work to help strengthen Gaoxing’s defenses against international spies.
West backtracked to the dining room, where Qiao-er’s shirt was tossed over the arm of a chair. He grabbed it and started for the hall leading to the bedrooms. But he didn’t get more than a few steps when he was met by the love of his life.
The warm look in Jin’s black eyes and the smile on his lips still made West’s heart skip.
“How’s it going?” Jin asked, amusement dancing in his tone. He had to know. The children were excited and shouting everything that crossed their minds.
West held up their son’s T-shirt. “I nearly have this one redressed and we’re still searching for jiejie’s missing shoe.”
“Ah-die!6 Ah-die! Vacation, Ah-die! I’m going to catch a bird!” Qiao shouted from where he remained draped over West’s shoulder.
Jin’s eyes widened, one eyebrow lifting in confused question. West shrugged. This was news to him, but there was no keeping up with the things that filled the minds of their children. Since Ming Xia was born, he’d learned to roll with it.
Twisting so that Qiao’s kicking feet were well away from Jin, West leaned in and pressed a kiss to the tiny head resting on Jin’s shoulder.
Sweet little Mei Xing was only six months old, but she seemed to be calmly watching the surrounding chaos with wide, curious eyes.
So far, she was turning out to be the most relaxed of the three children, but he knew her older siblings would soon teach her their ways of chaos and mayhem.
“How is it you got the easy one?” West teased as he snagged Jin’s lips in a swift, chaste kiss.
“Because you left me with all three of them while you took a shower,” Jin pointed out.
West snorted. “One was sleeping and the other two were quietly coloring. I was in the bathroom for less than ten minutes.”
Jin sighed. “Yes, and now we have new artwork on the wall in the playroom.”
West narrowed his eyes at his husband. “You don’t mean on paper, do you?”
“No.”
West pressed his lips together to swallow a defeated chuckle. “Later. We’ll deal with it…”
“When we get home from vacation,” he and Jin finished in unison.
“Here. I’ll trade you. Give Meimei7 some after-lunch cuddles, and I’ll find the missing shoe. I have better luck with that than you,” Jin offered.
West wasn’t going to argue. For some bizarre reason, his husband was much better at locating missing articles of clothing and important stuffies prior to bedtime. West set Qiao on his feet and pulled the T-shirt back on the boy. At least he was setting Jin off with one child fully dressed.
As West accepted their youngest daughter, Jin placed a spit-up blanket over West’s shoulder, so he didn’t have to worry about getting another change of clothes before they got out the door.
“I burped her. She just needs her Baba cuddles,” Jin cooed. He pressed a kiss to his daughter’s round cheek, then kissed West again.
“And how about a diaper change? Is that why you’re so willing to hand her off?”
Jin gave the phoniest gasp. “Would I do that to you?”
“Yes. Always. Every chance you get. And twice on Sunday.” But even as he said it, West couldn’t wipe the biggest grin off his face.
Jin rolled his eyes. “I changed her before I fed her. She should be fine for a while.” Turning his attention to their only son, Jin extended his hand to the boy and smiled softly. “Let’s go help jiejie find her shoe.”
Qiao grabbed his father’s hand and skipped down the hall to their eldest daughter’s room.
West grinned and turned his attention to the chubby girl in his arms. She smacked her tiny bow lips and yawned so big that it squeezed West’s heart.
Never in a million years had he thought he could have this.
A family. Put aside the royal part and the palace that he now called home.
He never thought he’d find a man to share his life with.
A perfect man who would give him three perfect children who filled his every day with love, wonder, chaos, and laughter.
Never had he thought he could be this happy.
He’d just turned to the most comfortable chair in the entire apartment when there was a knock at the door.
A shout from the rear rooms of “Yeye!” echoed through the apartment, but there was no corresponding thunder of footsteps.
Jin must have corralled them before they could break loose, forcing them to first find the missing shoe.
West opened the door to find the emperor smiling on the other side, dressed in a more casual set of slacks and a short-sleeved button-down shirt rather than his usual dark suit.
His long salt-and-pepper black hair was even down, with only the sides and top pulled back in a subdued xiaoguan8 similar to what his eldest son was wearing. Royalty in vacation mode.
“Welcome to pre-vacation insanity,” West greeted as he shifted to allow the emperor to step inside.
The older man chuckled and patted West on his empty shoulder as he walked in. “Packing issues?”
“No, just everyday clothing issues.” West sighed as he closed the door.