Intrepid » n.h. au

Chapter 56

"Here's the sugar, add as you wish," Sven comes over to us a couple minutes later, carrying a trey with four cups- that's right, his husband is gonna be here any moment now. I hope he's as fun as Sven.

"Thank you," I mumble, adding one teaspoon to my cup, and look up at Sven; he's welcomed us as if he knew we were coming, it's almost suspicious. Then again, I'm pretty sure they thought it was just a matter of time before they saw Freya again.

"So, um..." Freya begins, holding her cup of tea but obviously having not taken even a sip of it. "This might sound a little straightforward, but-"

"I know, I know," Sven says, sitting opposite of us, nodding at Freya. "We assumed seeing her too early would have been too painful, we understand. In fact, Dal wanted to-"

"Her?" Freya cuts him off, getting teary-eyed just saying the word; I'm not gonna lie, I've known she'd given birth to a baby for some time now, but finding out the gender is making me a little emotional too. A girl. She gave birth to a little girl. Hopefully if she ends up getting any characteristics from her biological parents, it'll be 100% Freya and 0% Craig.

"Oh, yes," Sven looks at her apologetically, "You didn't want to know the gender. So you wouldn't get attached. Well, surprise!"

"What's her name?"

"Juul." I widen my eyes, my hand stopping itself halfway through lifting my tea to my mouth; what the fuck did he just say? "But you can call her Julie, because no one can say her name right. And that annoys me so much, you have no idea."

"Ditto," I mumble to myself, having Sven laugh loudly and stretches his hand out – I give him a fist bump, thinking that Freya couldn't have chosen better parents for Juul even if she had 500 other couples standing in line for her to choose.

"It's cute," I nod, "Why that name, though?"

"Well-" Sven is interrupted by a door opening and closing; he looks over his shoulder, starting to yell, "Dalton?"

"Yeah?"

"Come on, your tea's getting cold!"

"You made tea? You only make tea when we have guests over, is it Ben and Marissa?"

"No, they're not the only people we know."

"Good," An equally tall and handsome black man walks into the room, with a relieved look on his face. "I swear, I'm gonna get sick of their white people stories, you being white is enough-"

He stops in the middle of his sentence when he lays his eyes on Freya; just like Sven, he spends a few seconds watching her in mild shock, before walking over to her and giving her a hug. "I knew you'd pay us a visit sooner or later," Dalton shakes his head, causing Freya to close her eyes so she wouldn't cry. "I knew it, I knew it! Sven, did I tell you I knew it?"

"You sure did," He nods curtly, "Now sit the fuck down, let the girl breathe."

He pulls away, with as big of a smile as his husband had when he saw us- and looks over at me. "Hi, I'm Dalton. Are you her friend?"

"I'm Niall, the husband." I feel like it's going to take me a few years to get used to saying and hearing that.

Dalton raises his brows as he shakes my hand, averting his eyes to Freya, "I've no idea what he's like, but I sure am glad you got rid of- what's his name, Greg?"

"...Craig."

"Ah, yes," He shakes his head again, walking around the coffee table to sit next to Sven, "I never liked that name. By the way, I hope you don't mind the white people comment I made-"