Erik has wanted to be a father for as long as he can remember -- but now that the day is finally here, he's terrified. Surely a ham-fisted Viking of a man like Erik shouldn't be allowed to handle things as tiny and delicate as his new baby girl?<br><br>But it's not just his daughter that's come into Erik's world. His partner has finally returned too. After nine months of watching Andreas struggle with the mental and physical toll of being a man and being pregnant at the same time, the birth of their daughter is both a beginning and an ending.<br><br>Erik is a father for the first time -- but not everything that comes next is new.

Erik the Pink

And Erik didn’t get it—but he also knew enough to know that the baby not being inside anymore wouldn’t necessarily let Andreas just bounce back to the happy, confident guy he’d been before


In the month since she’d been born, Andreas wouldn’t leave the house unless strictly necessary. He was overdressed, when Erik had gotten used to him wandering around shirtless ever since his top surgery. He wouldn’t leave the bathroom door open when showering anymore, and he wore pyjamas in bed for the first time in their entire relationship.


He busied himself constructing the nest to perfection, so much so that the next thing he heard was the kettle whistling in the kitchen. The old cast-iron kettle that sat on the stove like a pot, which Erik never used. He sighed, straightening from his DIY, and padded out into the kitchen to prevent the sleeping pill and chamomile infusion going down—and stopped in the kitchen doorway.


Chapter 12