Content warnings: Male pregnancy!!!!!!!!
Content warnings: The leads are not each other's firsts!!!!!!!!
Love Dysregulation Syndrome is a common hereditary disease. When someone falls in love, little hearts pop out above their head, one after another, then go pop, pop, pop and disappear.
Ji Yunian's grandfather didn't have it. His father didn't have it. Neither did his uncles. He was the only one in the family who had it.
It didn't really matter to him. Ji Yunian had never been prejudiced against it, but he was the family heir.
He was over six feet tall, usually stern and unsmiling, and his leather shoes clicked as he walked in and out of the office. What would it look like if hearts started floating over his head for no reason?
Well, even if you gave it every benefit of the doubt, it really wasn't a big deal.
He just had to avoid falling in love. And if he did, he could touch his head, and the hearts would disappear on their own.
But right now, the new male housekeeper was carrying the cook down the stairs.
The cook was screaming, the gardener was staring blankly, and the butler sat on the floor gazing at the sky.
Ever since this new housekeeper arrived, the whole house had gone haywire.
The new housekeeper was slim, with lovely fingers. His dyed pink hair was fading unevenly, giving him an air of careless flirtatiousness.
Ji Yunian frowned.
Ji Yunian frowned, but hearts kept going pop, pop, pop. He rubbed the back of his head and pressed them all out.
A friend recommended Bai Tu for a maid job at a rich family's home.
Come on, a maid? It was really a live-in housekeeping job.
It was a good job, except the word "maid" showed just how rigid his friend's ideas about gender roles were.
Bai Tu thought that was hilarious. His friend didn't, and seriously asked whether he was taking the job or not.
Sure, of course I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it!
Note: Each of those four instances of "do it" means something different.
It was a European-style manor with a butler, a gardener, and a cook. They needed a housekeeper, a man who could handle moving things around. Bai Tu happened to be a man.
After a while, Bai Tu found out he was pregnant.
Yeah, he could get pregnant. It was news to him too.
It was an awkward situation, but he had a doctorate in sociology and studied gender. He genuinely wanted to give birth just to see what it was like.
When he curiously lifted his shirt to show everyone his belly, a tiny, solid heart, like a berry, emerged from his navel, then vanished into the air with a pop.
The cook looked at the gardener, the gardener looked at the butler, the butler looked at Bai Tu, and Bai Tu stared into the chaotic void above their heads.
A troublesome troublemaker x a domineering CEO with a perpetual headache.
This story shares its world with the short story Love Dysregulation Syndrome on my homepage, but it is a standalone story, so you don't have to read that one first.
(Again) content warnings: Male-male pregnancy, two idiots, lots of psychology, sociology, and gender studies references. The leads are not each other's firsts; both have a past. This is not a cute-baby story. I mainly want to write about Tu Tu being pregnant.
It's not that men in this world can get pregnant. Anyway, Tu Tu somehow can. People have hearts popping out of their heads, so what's wrong with Tu Tu having a baby!
All the important characters in this story accept that Tu Tu can give birth, so there's no melodrama or plot twist. This isn't a wish-fulfillment story, just a chaotic everyday tale about two people getting to know each other, falling in love, and staying together.
Theme: How would you express your love?
