#cw for discussion of pregnancy and labor

[mrmeowski]

can you do a headcanon of the brothers and the side characters with y/n who is pregnant??

˚✧𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐏𝐭. 𝟏/𝟐✧˚

Synopsis: You never imagined that after a year in this place, you'd be carrying the kid of some celestial being. To be honest, you were terrified; you had no idea this would happen, and he had never discussed it. You hesitated initially to tell him, but as things became too difficult to conceal, you gave in and informed him of the news, unsure how he'd take it.

CW: Slight angst, slight swearing, Lesson 16 spoiler [Belphie]

Word Count: 4.0k

Characters: 🧡༻✧ Lucifer [548] 💜༻✧ Mammon [614] 🧡༻✧ Leviathan [587] 💜༻✧ Satan [556] 🧡༻✧ Asmodeus [544] 💜༻✧ Beelzebub [521] 🧡༻✧ Belphegor [666]

⋇⊰LUCIFER⊱⋇

When you initially told Lucifer that you were pregnant, he simply stared at you, in shock for a good 5 minutes. At first, he thought that perhaps it was a twisted joke, but then none came after the confession. You weren't sure if he was mad or what not, he was just staring at you wearing that unreadable expression he had mastered.

Unbeknownst to you, he is internally thinking about his relationship with Satan and how that went sour. Plus, you were a human, carrying his child. He didn't even know such a thing could even occur! Even if he seeks any sort of information he doubts he'll find anything that is of use or trusted. In short, the Avatar of Pride was panicking.

But when you placed a hand on his cheek, he sapped out of it, caressing your hand in return. Whatever the future may hold, he knew it would sail smoothly as long as he had you by his side. That even if he was a horrible father to his 'son' you'd be the one assisting him throughout.

He and his brothers had always been tasked to protect you from the dangers that Devildom offers, but now he demands much stricter security measures for you throughout the entire pregnancy progress and most likely, after his kid is born. He wished he could do it himself, but unfortunately, it simply cannot be since he can't just abandon his duties. When he is around, he always hovers around you and does not let anyone he deems as a threat get close or talk to you.

The man didn't like PDA before, but after learning you carry his child, he especially loved to rub your tummy whenever he could. In private, he's been a lot softer and gentle with you, afraid that he might stress you or cause harm to his child. He wants to be with you at all times mainly during the last couple of months of your pregnancy.

He will do whatever he can to keep you healthy and comfortable throughout and is extra cautious about his own schedule and work habits. He'd dropped everything if you urgently needed something. Fortunately, Diavolo understands why he's been slightly slacking off and lets the man be. Plus, the prince has been worried about the demon's habit of exhausting himself over paperwork that he forgets to take care of himself. You were truly a blessing to him.

The initial fear and panic come back when you go into labor, but he tries to stay calm for your sake. Moments ago, he almost got kicked out of the delivery room because he was ready to pounce on the nurse who wasn't doing enough despite the fact you were in clear distress and pain. The sounds of you wailing and crying in pain bit a large chunk of his mentality and he cannot look at you without immediately looking away. He had witnessed so much pain and blood but this... he simply cannot stomach it.

When he finally sees you, holding his child in your arms, smiling up at him, he feels so relieved. It was the happiest day of his life and that tells a lot for he has been living for centuries, long before humans were even a thing.

⋇⊰MAMMON⊱⋇

When you first told him you're pregnant, he may or may not have shit bricks right there and then. The man needs an ambulance from the initial shock before he quickly recovers, being excited the next before morphing into an absolute picnic in under a minute. It was a flood of emotions but can you blame him?

He is horrified and ecstatic at the same time. He loves you so much and the thought of you creating a family together? His heart is about to burst. But then again... this was the first that ever occurred to the best of his knowledge which, to begin with, is close to none. At the very least, he is smart enough to know it isn't safe for you. So he was weary about it all but you reassured him that it would be all fine, it didn't fully leave him alone although it was enough since it came from you.

Mammon was always protective of you, maybe not on your first day in Devildom but after the pact thing occurred with Levi. So don't even think about bumping into his human, you carried the Great Mammon's child! He barks at anyone and anything that comes even in the vicinity of you. The demon can get very scary if he thinks you're threatened in any way, an unexpected surprise to everyone even his brothers.

Not only is he protective but he is also very devoted. He'd be taking as many jobs as he could finally pay off his debts so he could focus on providing his child with the help of a few people, one of them being Lucifer. Honestly, his brothers are proud to see him actually working his ass off without complaints or questions rather than scamming others—thanks to you. With his hard-earned money, he'd buy so many matching clothing for him, you, and the child. And of course, so many things for his little me in general.

He loves talking to the baby bump about anything. Such as the best ways to win at poker, how to avoid Lucifer, how much he loves you, and simply how good of a person you are and that you'll be a good mother to them. It was adorable and you couldn't help but smile whenever he did it. He also loves feeling his child move around when he rubs the bump, it puts him into tears. He definitely doesn't like other people to touch your people unless those are his brothers. Then perhaps he might consider it, most probably giving in when you scold him for being too overprotective.

If he brags about being your first man, then he won't shut up about you carrying his child. Pretty much everyone knows it and those who don't live in a rock. He's proud of it! So even if someone tells him to shut up, he won't, unless you're that person.

So then the labor comes, the most troubling part that he had nightmares of, literally. He dreamt of things going downhill, that you wouldn't make it, and worse, the kid also not serving throughout the process. He too needs a nurse since the man just passed out and is now lying on the floor unconscious, the screams of pain, the sight of blood, he can't. His mind just went blank and his limbs felt numb. He only woke up when he heard his child's cries, admiring the sight of you embracing his little me.

There's simply one thing you shouldn't do though, that is letting him name the child. He is horrible at it so for your kid's sake and your sanity, don't let the man do it.

⋇⊰LEVIATHAN⊱⋇

He initially thought that you were joking and was expecting Mammon to jump out of somewhere, a phone in his hand screaming at the top of his lungs, "GOTCHA! You should've seen the look on your face!!" but it never happened. No matter how many times you try to convince him, he refuses to believe it until the ultrasound comes in and there it is, a little bean that was his child.

He, the shut-in otaku, will be a dad!? Has a full-on panic attack and almost went into a cardiac arrest. Like first, you a human, pregnant with a demon? He had watched plenty of animes where a demon impregnated a human before but he never believed it was real! That such a thing could occur in real life!? Then came another thought, will he be a good dad to his child? What if he fails immensely and you start to hate him?? Heck, he barely even did all the work in your relationship. You were always the one who pushed him out of his shell, invited him to dates, all things he should've been doing.

You had to reassure him so many times you had long lost count. You understand him though, he had a history of self-doubts and he was just on the path of finding his worth. Honestly, you kind of felt bad to see him this frantic and unsure, wishing sometimes the both of you should've been a bit careful to not cause him such stress. When he found out about this, he finally got himself together and promised himself to be the best dad in Devildom! ...Or at least the best otaku dad in Devildom.

Your usual TSL marathons with him had been replaced by animes featuring families, one such infamous show was Spy x Family which you and he both fell in love. It kind of helped the inner turmoil that ran in his head. Whatever the future may hold, he knew all things will be well especially with you by his side.

When the baby bump started to become noticeable, he couldn't help but always be in awe and he simply could not keep his hands to himself, always touching it in some form. When Levi found out that despite being in a womb, the fetus could hear things outside of it, he began to read it TSL and talk about his favorite game. He cannot wait to show his child about his interest and would love it if they mimic him.

The serpent buys all sorts of games and cute clothes for children. The other brothers started to constantly complain about how many Akuzon packages were being sent to their doorsteps within days, but when you console them about it and notice the little bump, they drop it. Honestly, they too—mostly Asmo—are buying as much for the little unborn kid.

During labor, he cannot handle it to the point that he feels like throwing up or fainting. So much so that some nurses encouraged him to leave the room until all was done, but he refused. He promised you that you'll do this together and he kept that word. Until all he saw was red...

When he came back, he was an apologetic mess, quickly shutting his mouth when he saw the kid, his child in your arms. He cried when you passed him your baby and though it was a bit awkward, he held them so tenderly than any of his most prized Ruri-chan figurines.

⋇⊰SATAN⊱⋇

He half expected this to happen since he had read some demon mythologies about this happening, but the keyword here is mythologies, he didn't actually think they could be real. Honestly, he hoped for another outcome. Satan has little to no interaction with children and quite frankly, he finds them insufferable. He never thought he wanted kids nor will have them but when he imagines creating a family with you... he couldn't bring himself to continue these thoughts.

Like the firstborn, he handled the situation calmly. Reassuring you that all things would go smoothly despite his lack of knowledge about the entire progress. He promised that together, you'll deal with this situation.

Ends up putting a lot of time and effort into researching demon-human pregnancies, though there isn't a lot of information on it and most aren't confirmed to be true. It is a rare occurrence and the children can range from anywhere between a slightly enhanced human to an almost pure-blooded demon albeit still weaker than the normal ones. All this new knowledge only brought him to worry, most if not all of them ended with a possibility of the human dying. He doesn't tell you the latter since he doesn't want to put more stress on you but then again, he loves you more than this child, and if lost you, he'll lose himself.

To ease his inner turmoil, he instead reads about fatherhood. And he began to see this as a chance to prove that he can be an even better father than Lucifer, that he won't fuck this relationship up like he did. With that in mind, he became more excited and enthusiastic about it, almost forgetting the potential downfall.

All throughout your journey, he was a very thoughtful and considerate man. He'd offer to do anything for you even if sometimes you didn't even ask for it. Buys all sorts of cat-related clothing and toys for children because, of course, he will.

Would pamper you as well as the little baby bump with kisses whenever he feels them kicking. That's when it took a whole new meaning to him, this was life and you're doing better than he expected. Perhaps... it wouldn't be that too bad in the end.

When you go into labor, all the self-control he has been practicing throughout his life is being tested. He tried to stay calm for you, but you could clearly see how his eyes and the corners of his lips twitching from time to time, how his fist had turned white from his tight grip, and his veins about to burst out. It was a mixture of worry and the pain of hearing and seeing you cry out, he knew this was normal but it was so hard not to launch himself at the nurses especially when blood began to show.

As soon as he saw his child and more importantly you, in perfect condition, he instantly calmed down, rushing to your side as he admired his little me wrapped lovingly in your arms. When he gets to hold his child, he is so gentle with them like one wrong move could shatter his little kitten. He kissed their forehead, promising them that he'd be a better father than he wished he had if he could even call the Avatar of Pride as one.

⋇⊰ASMODEUS⊱⋇

Being the Avatar of Lust and not using any sort of protection even before your relationship... he suspected such a thing could occur. It isn't his first time in the rodeo, some would come crawling back to him after their initial deal saying they were pregnant with his child, to which he simply brushed. It is called a one-night stand for a reason, he isn't seeking any type of long-lasting relationship. So he had no idea what happened to them and their supposed child.

When he started dating you though, he let go of his old lifestyle to show how he loves you but what stayed was his carelessness. So when he heard the news, this time he was overjoyed! A little you would be sooo adorable to dress up with may it be a girl or a boy! You and he were overjoyed... that is until some of the brothers expressed their concerns, mainly Lucifer and Satan. Informing him of the potential dire consequences, bursting the bubble.

Asmo then becomes hesitant if you should keep the baby, he loves to have a kid of his own but his admiration for you overshadows that. If it meant losing you... then those dreams of his weren't worth it. You remained positive while he deflated, reassuring him that it would be fine and that you wouldn't leave him. It takes a lot of soothing him before he finally gives in, hoping that Father would still listen to his desperate prayers for your safety.

He drowns his sorrows and worries with trips to shopping trips to the mall. Buying all sorts of cutesy baby clothes and planning for photoshoots. There he also gets the best moisturizers to reduce stretch marks and he personally massages you to relieve any tension because he thinks he's the only deserving man to touch you.

When the baby bumps start to show, he would not stop posting it all over Devilgram, always needs to post at least 5 things per day. He's also quite loud in person, to the point the other brothers have to shut him up only doing so if it was you scolding him. But then he pouts while putting on puppy eyes, saying something along the lines of, "Aw, can I not show the world how much I love you??"

Just like Levi during your labor, he wouldn't be able to withstand watching you in pain and agony, clutching along the railings of the bed as you pushed the kid out. He tried to be strong but he simply could not watch his love in pain, it was too much for his heart to bear.

Outside the room, he thought back when his older brothers told him and he feared it might come true. He wanted to go back because this might be the last time he'd see you, but his body refused to move. No matter how much he tried he felt weak... when a nurse came out, he embraced the worst, however, she bore a smile and immediately went inside, and there you lay, a little kid in your grasp.

Continued to cry as he cradled his kids, showering them with tons of kisses and praises along with whispered promises to give them a beautiful future.

⋇⊰BEELZEBUB⊱⋇

He stopped eating and looked dead straight at you in bewilderment. It took him quite a while before he recovered, feeling a bit stupid and blind since he never saw the signs. He initially thought you gained weight because you were eating with him more often... but not this. He doesn't even think this could occur and he panicking. He's happy for sure yet he isn't sure if this could go well.

So even soothing and telling him that it'll be alright, that you'll go through this together, Beel seeks the guidance of his oldest brother. Only for his suspicions to be proven true and his heart cracked in half. He didn't want to lose you but also didn't want to lose the unborn child, he is a big family man after all. He doesn't want to persuade you, this mainly affects you and so if you want to proceed then... he'll accept it even if it doesn't agree with him.

If you think he was already too protective and gentle before, it only doubled and tripled this time. Thankfully nobody is idiotic enough to bump into or hurt you when he's just standing behind you... menacingly. But of course, there's always someone that'll be of threat to you, thankfully though he's always hungry at every time of the day and night.

From offering a hand to not letting you do anything but lay in bed. It came to the point where he'll carry you all around especially when the baby bump starts to show. Speaking about that, he's too scared to touch it, afraid that he might rub too hard or whatnot. But with much reassurance he finally held it, feeling his little kid move and kick around, it always puts a smile on his smile no matter how many times he does it. He was thankful you were strong enough to keep the kid despite knowing that things could go downhill.

One thing that is sure to be checked off in the list is your pregnancy cravings. You name it, he ate it. No, but seriously, he's always down to get them for you, it also gave him a reason to get some for himself. He wants his child to be all healthy and full!

And so, it was the day of your labor. He's probably being stopped by the nurses since he needs to eat something, anything to ease his nerves. He was so afraid you and the child wouldn't make it. That he'll regret not stopping you when you made your decision back then. He was afraid that he might've failed to save someone he loved and it was solely his fault.

But as soon as his ears picked up the cries of little one and your bathed breaths, he rushed by your side. He refused to help them since they were so small! He simply watched and admired you cradling them, pointing at him, telling them his their father and that he'll take good care of them. He will. He will protect you with his life, he will do what he failed to do back then.

⋇⊰BELPHEGOR⊱⋇

He learned of this through his twin, you were horrified at how he'd react and what you'd do that you decided to seek help from Beel. With the older twin by your side, the two of you went upstairs to the attic to confront him about it. He first thought that it was all a bad dream... a nightmare that felt all too real. But when he didn't wake up, still standing there in front of him with a worrisome expression

Just like the fourth born, Belphie despises children, he finds them annoying especially their high-pitched voices, screaming and complaining. The only thing he could consider as experience with handling children was when Satan was a kid and he barely controlled that little shit.

So the fact he didn't like kids and the overall feeling that this is wrong was too overwhelming for the demon. You're pregnant with a demon child. This couldn't... it isn't safe for you! Even if he never thought that something like this would happen, what he's sure of is that it can't be good for you and potentially kill you. He demanded the kid to be... removed from you much to you and his twin's dismay.

You expected such an outcome, that's why you didn't tell him in the first place, so you didn't fight much, but Beel being the family guy he is, fought for the unborn kid. A fight ensued between them with you caught in the middle, trying to calm things down while failing miserably. It reached the point that it garnered Lucifer's attention, stopping the quarrel between the twins. Safe to say they didn't talk to each other for some time and you left him be.

He said a lot of shitty things to you but it's simply because he thought back to when he killed you. If you die because of his kid, that'd mean it would be his and he swore he'd protect you. It hurts him so when you avoid his gaze, the loneliness he felt when you're no longer by his side in his sleep, and though Beel caved in and started to interact with him, it wasn't enough. He needed you to not leave him.

It was sad but if your lover doesn't want it, then you'll accept it. In the safety of your room, you looked down on the little pill in your hand, before someone nearly broke your door. There he was... standing right outside and now begging for forgiveness as well as pleading to keep the kid. Honestly, you don't know what made him change his mind, maybe his twin pulled some strings behind it? You didn't bother to ask, just simply hugging and giving him comfort.

Since he knows nothing about parenting and all that, he seeks out Satan. The older brother was quite surprised he was putting this much effort into something at first, he was against it, love can truly change someone. It was still against his will but eventually, he softened up to his future kid. He loves to lay his head in your stomach and when it grew bigger you had to scold him to which he'd pout and complain about it all day long.

The day he dreaded and hunted his sleep had come. He never was more awake in his life than during your labor. His emotions went haywire he stood behind the nurses, watching them intently in his demon form. Looking for any mistakes they'll make and if either you or his child dies, he isn't afraid to rip them apart. Thankfully, his worst nightmare didn't come true and both of you survived.

He admires his little one, regretting that he even thought of killing them before. But who would blame him? He'd only let his twin hold his child during their few weeks but when they get old, perhaps, just maybe he'll let other brothers hold them... It'll take quite some time to convince him if that other is Lucifer.

Surprise Pregnancy Pt. 2/2» Request» Masterlist»

[lees-chaotic-brain]

How would jjk men react to reader being pregnant with quadruplets?

Feat. Gojo, Yuta, Inumaki, Nanami, Megumi, Itadori (all characters are aged up)

Note: I did headcanons for this request because there were so many characters I wanted to include, and it would get a little boring to write the same scenario out in a full fledged fic like seven times. However, if there are one or two that you want me to turn into proper fics lmk!! I had to do research on pregnancy for this bc it's been awhile since my high school health class

CW: pregnancy, implied thoughts of abortion ig, mentions of fear regarding labor, AFAB reader bc, yk, pregnancy, one singular swear word

Word Count: 1.2k

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Gojo

I feel like Gojo would think you were joking at first, and wouldn’t believe you until you got frustrated and he finally realized you were being for real. He would have mixed emotions. On one hand, he was excited to have a big family and a house full of laughter and love. On the other hand, he was afraid, because more babies meant more defenseless mini-people for him to protect.

He had only known that he was going to be a father of quadruplets a few minutes ago, but he already knew that it would destroy him if he ever lost one of them. That he would gladly give his life for them. And then there was the matter of you. He already knew that childbirth was difficult for women, but quadruplets?? Childbirth was something that even he couldn’t protect you from and that terrified him. 

After a serious discussion in which he made sure you were okay with the added risks and you continuously reassured him that this was what you wanted, he settled down and began imagining a future for your family. Until he realized that he would have to share your love with four little gremlins who would surely take after their clingy father. Then it suddenly seemed less appealing.

Yuta

Baby boy would be shooketh. Because he’s sorry please don’t be mad at him and oh you’re not mad at him and the two of you are having quadruplets well technically you are but he’s the dad and oh god what if he’s not good at being a dad and-

You would have to calm him down as he fell into a downward spiral. Once you had properly reassured him, and he had fully absorbed the information he was ecstatic. He has always wanted a big family, and together the two of you were making that dream come true. Cuddling up to you he would thank you for loving him and gifting him with the many kids he had always dreamed of having.

He for sure would be the type to rub your stomach and whisper sweet nothings to the growing babies in your womb, telling them how much daddy loves them and how excited he is to meet them.

He would also start baby-proofing every square inch of your house before you had even started your second trimester.

Inumaki

He would be in shock. Because he put- wait how many??? babies in you. There was no way he heard you right. There was no way that you were pregnant with quadruplets. Because, wait, he didn't sign up for this! Yeah, he wanted tons of kids, but four babies at a time was a lot. And the strain it would have on your body was concerning as well. 

After he stopped opening and closing his mouth as he gaped at you, he managed to organize his thoughts. First he wanted to make sure you even wanted that many kids because, well, it wouldn’t be easy to give birth to or take care of that many. Once you had reassured him that you were, in fact, sure that you wanted to go through with the pregnancy and that you were prepared for whatever the future held for your not-so-little family he took a moment to process his own emotions.

At first he was conflicted. Sure he was excited, but he held his own private reservations. What if something went wrong during labor? What if he wasn’t cut out to be the parent of one kid, let alone four. But as the months sped by and your stomach grew, the anticipation grew, until one day he let go of any and all trepidation and allowed himself to be optimistic.

He also bought tons of matching onesies for the whole family.

Nanami

Ever the responsible adult and caring husband, first he sat you down and had a serious discussion about the pros and cons of having quadruplets, and whether or not the risks were worth it. Deep down he was thrilled, but he wanted to make sure the two of you were on the same page and understood what continuing meant.

Once the two of you had established you were going to see this through, and it was something the two of you wanted his planning would begin. First came the research. He thoroughly educated himself on everything regarding pregnancy, learning everything he needed to do to ensure your comfort and the healthy birth of his children.

Expect a special diet plan that fulfills the needs of you and your unborn children in the healthiest way possible, essential oil massages, weekly check-ups starting your second trimester, vitamin gummies and more.

He also would begin saving up because raising four children would be expensive. Would for sure have a whole financial plan set up and college savings accounts set up for each of his children within a week of his learning.

Megumi

Honestly, he wouldn’t have super strong feelings about it. He wanted to be a dad, but he didn’t care if it was one, four, or one hundred. He just wanted to have kids with you, and beyond that as long as you were happy he was too. 

So when you told him, his only response was asking you what you thought about it. When you told him you were excited, he was excited too. He had wanted to build his own family for as long as he could remember, and you were helping him reach his dream. What more could he ask for? The only other thing that mattered to him was that his children had siblings. As a kid he had resented Tsumiki, but as an adult he couldn’t imagine the loneliness he would have experienced growing up without her. So yeah. If you were happy, and his children would have siblings so they would never have to walk through life alone, he was content.

There was nothing more he wanted in life than your love and a family with you.

Itadori

Kids!!! He had wanted a ton of kids, so this was perfect! You were happy with it, so even better! He sees it as a four-in-one deal, and is over the moon. His golden retriever personality becomes even worse when you’re pregnant. Like, this man is at your side 24/7.

Constantly following you around, looking at you with big pleading eyes as he begs to cuddle in bed with you so he can talk to your stomach.

Oh my god talking to your stomach. This man would talk to your stomach more than he talks to you. Asking what your kids want to be named. Telling your unborn babies about his day. That he loves them and can’t wait to meet them. Describes all the fun things the six of you are going to do once they’re born. Definitely tries cuddling your stomach because he ‘wants to know what it feels like to hold his children.’

Also is a little shit that constantly asks ‘are they coming yet? Why not??’

[gemini-sensei]

Biggest Surprise | Cobra Kai x Chubby!Fem!Reader

Request: I was wondering if you could do any headcanons or maybe a blurb on Reader having a cryptic pregnancy? And she out of the blue goes into labor or has the baby/s?

CW: secret relationship, mentioned sneaking out, hospitals, cryptic/stealth pregnancy, labor pains, very brief discussion of miscarriage, surprise baby,

Reader was walking into the kitchen of her shared apartment to grab a snack on the afternoon her life changed forever. She greeted Moon as she walked past, both wearing pretty smiles. It was a regular day of the week as far as they were concerned, rather chill and uneventful so far.

Except when she opened the fridge, a sharp pain shot through her abdomen. She threw the door away to grab her stomach, making everything in the door rattle. It caught Moon's attention and she stood up.

"Are you okay?" she asked, walking over as Reader groaned in pain.

"I don't know," she mumbled.

The pain passed and Reader let out a heavy breath. She took a moment to calm down, but it was a little hard with Moon fussing over her. Whatever that pain was, it wasn't anything to get worked up over. So she shrugged her roommate off with a little smile and thanks, then grabbed the snack she'd initially come in there for.

Moon watched her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Reader nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. It was probably nothing."

They let it go and Reader went to her room, But about thirty minutes later, the same pain shot through her again. She was lying in bed, groaning as she withered on the sheets, texting Moon that it was happening again.

It didn't take long for Moon to get to her room but by the time she got to Reader, her roommate was halfway curled up on her side, holding her pudgy belly. She saw the tears in her eyes and the pained look on her face, making Moon feel horrible as she wanted nothing more than for her friend to be okay.

As she rubbed Reader's arm, trying to comfort her, she said, "We should go to the hospital."

"Yeah, probably," Reader groaned. The idea scared her, but what choice did they really have? "What could this be?"

"You could have a ruptured spleen or something," Moon suggested.

They waited for the pain to pass again before Moon helped Reader up and into her shoes. They walked down to Moon's car, where Reader got another shock of pain as soon as she sat down and started crying.

"Oh, God, Moon, please hurry!" she begged.

Moon helped buckle her in and rushed to the driver's side. She drove them to the hospital as fast as she possibly could without getting pulled over, though they got pretty lucky with green lights and little traffic. It was an agonizing ride for Reader as she dealt with the pain with loud groans; it was unlike anything she had ever felt before and it was hard not to scream.

When they arrived at the hospital, Reader hobbled up to the door until a nurse saw them coming in and brought over a wheelchair. Moon explained what was going on and they took Reader into a room quickly so they could figure out what was wrong with her. They took her vitals and asked her questions about her previous health and any sicknesses, and then they took her blood and promised to come back. It took a while and everything was up in the air until the doctor came in.

She introduced herself and smiled calmly, hoping to keep the air in the room as easy as possible. "I just have to ask you a few questions. When was the last time you were sexually active?"

Reader felt a little embarrassed as the topic came up. She glanced over at Moon, who had no idea of anything she'd been up to over the last year or so. She'd firmly told all of her friends that she wasn't interested in seeing anyone, but that really wasn't the case at all... However, she knew better than to lie to the doctor.

"A few weeks ago, why?" she asked. She couldn't have gotten an STI or anything like that. She didn't get hurt, at least that she could remember. So that left one final option. "Oh my god! Am I pregnant?"

The doctor maintained a calm demeanor. "Yes, yes you are. We were so shocked by the results, we had to run the tests two more times just to make sure."

Moon gasped softly, but didn't give any judgment or words about the secret Reader had been keeping. If anything, her dating life was the last thing on everyone's mind and Moon had her priorities in the right places. "Is the baby okay? I mean, Reader is in a lot of pain. Is she...?"

The doctor quickly shook her head. "No, no. Nothing like that. In fact, Reader... you're in labor. Those pains you're feeling are contractions, you're body preparing to deliver the baby."

"What? But that can't be right. I never even knew about it!" Reader cried out desperately. She was nowhere near ready to have a baby. She'd only just found out she was pregnant. She shook her head, crying harshly, and Moon tried to wipe away her tears. "This can't be happening! I can't have a baby!"

The doctor came over to comfort her as well, shushing her gently. She had a very maternal nature to her that helped ease Reader as her sobs turned into soft whimpers. "Hey, hey, I know this is scary. This is a lot for you to find out in just a few minutes, but you're going to be okay. My staff and I are going to take care of you two and you're going to be just fine, alright?"

Reader nodded, though she had a few questions about all of this. "How is this even possible?"

The doctor sighed. "It's fairly rare. It's called a cryptic pregnancy. Usually, very few or no symptoms present themselves and you're body doesn't change much. For the most part, some women will learn of the pregnancy halfway through. You're one of the ones that have made it to full term it seems."

They all fell silent as the information sank in. Then Moon asked, "So what now?"

"We'll, you're pretty close to giving birth. We're going to move you to the maternity ward before that happens and we're going to give you the rundown of what's going to happen," the doctor explained. "We're going to try and prepare you for this as much as we can before the baby comes."

"Okay," Reader said, laying her head back as she had to sit with the reality of the situation.

She was about to have a baby. A baby she didn't know about, a baby conceived months ago, a baby wasn't even slightly prepared for. She put a hand over her stomach, feeling nothing but soft, plush fat. It was hard to imagine there was a baby somewhere behind it, ready to be born nonetheless. And it scared the crap out of her. Where was she going to put a baby? How was she going to raise a baby? How was she going to tell the father?

Before she could think of any solutions, another wave of contractions rushed through her and she grit her teeth, groaning. She knew that the closer they got to each other, the closer her baby was to being born, and she was terrified. What was she going to do?

xxx

After being moved to the maternity ward, Reader was taken through some brief albeit helpful coaching. She listened to the doctor carefully and had Moon at her side the whole time. Though it was a startling and scary experience, Moon was optimistic throughout the whole situation. She held Reader's hand through contractions and promised that she was going to stay there with her for the whole thing. It made Reader feel ten times better.

When they were left alone, Moon finally asked, "Is there anyone you want me to call?"

She didn't ask who the father was. She didn't pry. She only asked if Reader wanted him there. It was so simple and sweet of her, and Reader appreciated it. If only it helped her figure out what to do.

"I don't know," she mumbled, thinking of her boyfriend. They'd been dating for almost a year, albeit in secret.

They hadn't wanted to make a big deal out of their relationship, thinking that if they started dating, it could meddle with their friend group. It was already hard enough with the whole backstory of Tory and Miguel and Sam and Robby thing always in the past. No one ever mentioned it, but they all knew it was there. What was the sense in making things harder? Then things just happened and she and her boyfriend liked being alone together, no one asking them dumb questions or getting in their way. It was easy, simple, lovely. So they snuck around and told some little white lies to see each other. No harm, no foul. Neither of them could have predicted where it would lead them.

Moon nodded in understanding. "Okay." She stood up and came to sit at Reader's side, showing her roommate her phone as her mood brightened. "Well, I started a list of things we're going to need. Obvious diapers and clothes and blankets and bottles-"

"Whoa, Moon, slow down," Reader said, looking between her and the long list she curated. "We don't even know what's going to happen. I mean, I haven't taken any prenatal meds or anything like that. I mean, what if the baby is sick or I'm not even allowed to keep them?"

"The hospital isn't going to take your baby from you, Reader," Moon told her, wrapping an arm around her and rubbing her shoulder. "And secondly, it isn't like you drink or do drugs, so I bet the baby is fine. And if they are sick, we can figure it out."

"We?"

"I told you, I'm here for you. For all of this, not just the birth."

"I couldn't ask you to do that."

"You don't have to. That's what best friends are for."

It wasn't long after that when the doctor and nurses came in and Reader was being instructed to push. Moon held her hand through the whole process, telling her that she was doing a great job. The delivery didn't take very long either. Reader pushed all of four times before the little one slid out and the doctor caught them.

Moon was encouraging her and telling her how proud she was of her when the loud wail of a baby broke the air. Both young women looked up to see the doctor holding up the messy infant with happy eyes.

"It's a boy."

"He's so little," Reader said as her baby was laid on her chest. She smiled at him, through the tears and sweat that poured down her face. Overcome with pride and love, she cried. "Hi there."

He nestled up to her, wailing and fussy. They were given a minute before a nurse scooped him up to be cleaned and evaluated. Reader watched from her position on the bed, her smile never leaving her face. Suddenly, her whole world had changed and it was all because of that little boy, whom she loved so much.

Once he was declared healthy, things moved quickly after that. Reader was cleaned up and checked on, her baby boy was dressed and given a bassinet to rest in, and things calmed down after that. Moon and Reader talked for a little bit about what to do and how they were going to do things, but as soon as Reader yawned, Moon told her that they would pick up the conversation later. Before she fell asleep, though, Reader asked Moon to tell their friends to come by the next day. She wanted them all to meet her son. Moon told her she'd let them know and with that, Reader fell asleep.

xxx

The following day, when everyone showed up at the hospital, they were a little confused as to where they were going and why they were there. Moon hadn't been very specific in the details, as she'd been almost as tired as Reader when she'd sent the text to the group chat, so everyone arrived a little worried.

They were chatting in the waiting, trying to figure out what they were doing there and what was going on. Yasmine had texted Moon that they were there, all having shown up within minutes of each other because as soon as visiting hours started, they were all pretty much there. Moon came out to get them and she was smiling wide.

"Oh, you all made it. Reader is going to be so happy to see you," she said.

Miguel asked, rather concerned. "Is she okay? What happened?"

"Yeah, you all you said was that Reader was in the hospital and wanted to see us," Sam said, just as worried. "Then we all texted you and you never texted back."

Moon got a guilty and apologetic look on her face. "Oops. I'm sorry. So much has happened. We've pretty much been here since yesterday afternoon and last night I fell asleep. My bad."

"Reader isn't dying, is she?" Robby asked.

"What? No, nothing like that," Moon said, shaking her head. She waved for them to follow her and she started walking. "Just follow me. It's something you kind of have to see to believe."

They walked down a few halls and as they approached the room, Moon slowed down and put a finger to her lips. "Shh. You have to be quiet when you walk in. I'm looking at you, Hawk."

"I can be quiet," he said defensively.

Moon playfully rolled her eyes as Sam elbowed him in the side, then she opened the door and led them inside. No one was ready for what they saw inside.

Reader was sitting on the bed with a small bundle wrapped up in her arms. She was smiling and talking softly, not noticing the group coming into the room at first. They were in a state of shock as they watched her, not at all believing what they were seeing until a tiny hand lifted from the blue blanket in her arms and reached for her. She reached back and let the little hand take hold of her finger.

"Oh my god," Yasmine let out.

Tory scoffed. "Well, that's the last thing I expected."

"What were you actually expecting?" Demetri asked.

"Stitches," she asked.

Reader looked up and smiled at her friends. "Hey."

Sam hurried over and stood at the end of the bed, as if to get a closer look but was scared to get too close. For as shocked as she was, she kept her voice calm and steady, not wanting to tighten the baby. "Reader, I didn't even know you were pregnant."

"Neither did I."

Everyone's jaws dropped at that.

"Are you serious?" Tory asked, walking over with Yasmine close behind.

The guys followed, too, but let the ladies go to Reader first, as they were obviously far more excited and ready to face the reality of the situation than they were.

Reader nodded to Tory. "Yeah. No symptoms, no changes. No indication at all. And yet, he's as healthy as can be."

She looked back down at her baby, who was looking up at her with big, pretty eyes. She couldn't help but think that he had his father's eyes, but she kept that thought to herself. They were beautiful and she loved them.

"It's a boy?" Yasmine asked excitedly.

"Yeah," Reader giggled.

The ladies - mostly Moon, Sam, and Yasmine - engaged Reader and talked about the baby, fussing over him and his mere existence. They talked a little about how it had happened and what was going to happen next, which was when Demetri and Miguel stepped in and asked the harder-hitting and logical questions - how was she going to pay for a baby? Where was he going to stay and sleep? Where was she going to get everything she needed for a baby? It was a lot to think about and they within good reason to be asking such questions.

Robby and Hawk stayed close to the wall, both a little awkward in the situation. Robby was a little uneasy around babies and though Hawk worked with young kids at the dojo, he had little experience with babies. They didn't say much but congratulated Reader.

When asked if anyone wanted to hold him, Yasmine and Sam got into a small argument over who should get to hold him first, failing to realize Moon had been the first person after Reader to get to hold him. Ultimately, the honor went to Miguel, who was just as eager to hold the little guy.

It was a night moment, all of them together, celebrating this new life. Reader was absolutely scared shitless but her friends assured her that she wasn't going to be alone in this. As far as they were concerned, the baby was one of them now. They were their own little family after all.

But her stomach still fluttered with butterflies as she looked out at the room, knowing she was going to have to face the father sooner rather than later. That was why she wanted this little meet and greet organized in the first place so that he would show up and meet his son. Reader wouldn't have to tell him one-on-one, even though she knew that perhaps that'd be the best way to do it. She was young and scared and in her mind, this was the easiest way to rip the bandaid off. She knew she'd be talking with him alone soon, but until that time came, she'd enjoy this moment.

Who's the father of Reader's baby? Let me know who you want it to be and I'll write a part two! Or if you want multiple endings and you just choose who you want it to be, I can do that too.

Choose: Hawk | Miguel | Robby | Demetri

[mushroomnoodles]

tw bodily fluids

was simons pregnancy more painful than any other ones?? was there a gigantic mess of like blood and "other stuff"?? like.. birth takes soo long to do seriously like 4-8 HOURS on average or are we just gonna like not include this for the sake of not being nauseous ( + old mans remaining sanity )

tw/cw for sfw and non kink mpreg, as well as labor, water breaking.. and discussion of birth details + injury while trying to keep it vague.

ill go into it once- yeah, it's pretty safe to say simon had a rough time with the labor. i've stated this before, but he was experiencing labor pains for a few days before he went into active labor- see, he didn't think much of it because every now and then his body would try to have morrigan and be unable to because of the seal, so braxton hicks and actual false labor was.. not something he was unfamiliar with.

it wasn't until the contractions got so bad they were nearly debilitating and he felt morri shift inside him to get ready to be born that he went, oh no, oh no no no, he's having the baby.

more under the cut, there's art down there too but like heed the tags. i'm still trying to keep the discussion.. not super heavy.

we all know what happened next, with marceline bringing him into the woods and not being able to make it. because like, right after she set him down, his water broke.

blah blah, they run into finn, explain simon is like, pregnant and about to give birth, set up a location, and then simon (and marcy) are faced with another problem.

it's pretty obvious to everyone that simon's bump was huge. morri is huge. the actual place they'd be born from.. not so much. but that doesn't dissuade morri, who has been trying to get that gd seal off them for months, and is not going to waste another second hiding in their old man. things are going super fast.

and things do not look great down there. marcy is totally winging this delivering a baby thing. simon kept going from silence- just trying to ride through the contractions, to screaming like a dying animal. marceline was terrified the whole time, especially when simon said he felt like he was gonna rip open.

(pretend the fallen tree is behind simon.)

so yeah, it was pretty messy. simon did not make giving birth to a twelve pound baby out unscathed, he definitely tore. when morri was out marceline gave him what little medical attention she could, which honestly wasn't a lot- pb had to do some quick fixing when she showed up, and i don't think he would've made it if not for the cosmic energy radiating through him from carrying morrigan.

it was a good while before simon recuperated enough to be moved, and it sorta spooked everyone when he just.. got up like he didn't just finish pushing out a 12 pound baby. those pain meds were a godsend, by the way, simon was never happier for them in his entire life.

victory! they got him home and in bed with his brand new baby, and marceline stuck by for a few weeks to help take care of morri while simon healed. simon was zonked out but very happy to have a baby in his arms, his baby.

also bonus: simon wakes up the next morning

he feels like five trains ran through his entire lower half. homedawg lived on those pain relievers from that point on

[nappingmoon]

short little thing about being kita's little wife and getting the best surprise of your life. <33

fluff!! wc: 1k cw: pregnancy.

a/n: i was never a kita girlie but im watering my neighbors plants and thinking...

to be kita's little wife is to live the most relaxing life ever. I think kita is a little more traditional in the sense that he never wants you lift a finger. that's what he's for. years of labor in his family's rice fields have toned his body, the muscles strong and taught under skin that's warmed from so much time spent under the hot sun. your wedding ring is an heirloom, given to him by his grandmother the first time he brought you to visit her. at first, it was difficult to adjust to life away from the city-- the quiet sometimes more deafening than the constant whir of society. you slowly came to appreciate the change in pace. you've had more time to think, to develop yourself without the constant influence of others and to love who you have become. kita is always there with firm reassurance if the latter becomes clouded by any errant thoughts.

you start each day by waking up when your body deems that it has had enough sleep. kita's already gone-- he always is by this time. he's in the fields before the sun has crept past the horizon, prepping for the days work and doing preliminary tending. you stretch your body, easing your way through your morning routine without rush or worry. you slip on a flowy dress, a must for keeping cool in the hot summer, before heading to the kitchen. you pour yourself a cup of the tea kita left for you and grab a piece of bread to munch on while you walk to the garden. the watering can is a familiar weight in your hands as you pick it up, some of the cool droplets splashing against your legs. it’s a refreshing sensation when the sun beats down as it does now, the clouds sparse. you pick a flower for your hair, matching it to your outfit. once done watering the plants, you grab a woven basket, a wedding gift from one of the nice ladies from the village. you fill it with various vegetables and fruits, grabbing what is ripe and centering your lunch plans based on what nature has provided you with today.

the record player in your living room croons out an old jazz tune as you slice tomatoes. you hum along and there’s a sway in your hips as you add them to the pan. this is the sight that greets kita as he enters your shared home. his footsteps thud, strong and intentional. “hi darlin’” he greets, leaning in to kiss you. sweat drips above his brow, evidence of the work he’s done. “smells delicious.”

you both enjoy your meal at the table, chatting about your plans for the day and the places you want to stop this weekend on your biweekly trip to see osamu. kita is always steady with his supply, never late and never passing the task on to the delivery boys who take the rice to the other customers. this is a trip he cherishes, a chance to connect with his old teammate (teammates when atsumu finally stops by) and it has become a little tradition. osamu always makes you your favorite onigiri, warm and ready the moment you arrive, bellies empty after the long drive. you watch the sunset through the windows of his little shop, and take a walk with his wife before it darkens completely. “let’s leave the boys to themselves, I wanna have a little girl time with my favorite friend” she says, ushering you out. it’s a bit unexpected, you four usually spend the whole time together catching up.

you suspect she brought you out to discuss kita’s birthday plans. he’s turning thirty and you had expressed to her that you wanted to do something special. that’s why you’re stunned when she starts off giddily with a “so, how far along are you? you’re absolutely glowing and it’s not the summer heat.”

you pause, taken aback. “what? I’m not pregnant, what do you mean?” you’re not. you’re definitely not… right?

“I’ve got an eye for this, and i’m never wrong so don’t bother trying to keep it a secret! this is so exciting!” she exclaims, but her smile falls when she sees the look of surprise on your face. “oh, did you not know?”

you can’t be pregnant. but wait, when was your last period? you were just late, right? kita had been talking about giving you a baby, had been desperate in his attempts recently, but it hadn’t worked that fast, had it? you had only stopped using condoms a little over a month ago! but as she looks over you, sure in her assessment that maybe she could be right. 

“are you sure?” you ask, tentative. you don’t want to get excited yet. you don’t want to start dreaming and making name lists and thinking about nursery colors or how amazing of a father kita would be. not yet.

“I’m positive. your skin seems lit from the inside out. I’ve always been able to tell faster than most, and I have never been wrong in my guesses. we can get a test on the way back. I can be there while you take it. imagine the surprise on their faces. osamu’s gonna be mad he didn’t knock me up first.” she giggles

a smile forms on your face at the thought. a palm against your belly, you let yourself truly fall into believing the dream of creating a little family with kita. of bringing into the world the fruit of your love, of raising a child in your small home, small feet padding across the wood. you grasp her hand and pick up the pace eager to get to the store and grab the tests.

kita nearly faints when he hears the news.

[puissantveil]

Headcanons for Outworld's newest Cool Mom (CW: brief discussion of pregnancy and complications thereof)

Well, we know where Mileena gets her boobage from now. Kitana is a bit sleeker and takes more after Jerrod's sisters and nieces.

Sindel and Jerrod were political rivals who fell in love. Jerrod had his own kombat prowess, either as a warrior or a sorcerer.

In the 3D era Raiden/Sindel was a popular (and good as shit) pairing. With Raiden and Liu Kang switching places in this timeline, Sindel may have a past with the fire god (yes, I absolutely went there) In neither case can Kitana escape the "I banged your mom lol" jokes.

Sindel adores both of her daughters, though if you forced her to choose, Mileena would win out because Kitana is an incorrigible eavesdropper and knows so much it's borderline creepy. She both admires their strengths, and frets over their shortcomings. Sindel actually considers Mileena's aggression important should her position call upon her to deal with aspiring warmongers, but worries herself sick over Millie's temper. She thinks Kitana's warmth and wit are wonderful qualities for a ruler, but finds her passivity in Mileena's presence troubling.

She does not remember her pregnancy fondly. Assuming Outworld is one of those "teleportation yes, flush toilets no" fictional worlds, it would be very difficult to detect a multiple pregnancy before the birth of Twin A (Mileena in this case). Sindel had to stay bedridden for much of her pregnancy, and the entire kourt feared the worst until her labor culminated in the arrival of not one, but two healthy babies. She may have named Mileena and Kitana to reflect this.

Until proven otherwise, Kitana's cousins were banned from court in an attempt to quarantine Mileena.

Gives amazing hugs.

[biscuitdragonwithastick]

Eggpregtober Fic 2 Discussion

That turned out a lot differently than in my original draft. Since I don't think I'll release it, I'll just talk about it here.

CW: Rape/noncon, forced pregnancy, mind control, forced body transformation

Originally, Malphus was going to be a one off character that still runs into Trisha at the beginning of the story (wrong place wrong time). But instead of wholesome(ish) fucking. She makes his dick bigger and into a proper cock and molds his mind to be at her beck and call.

The rest of the story follows her revenge: Shrinking the Kings dick and messing with his mind to think he's supposed to "serve" his kingdom by being a fucked by everyone of his subjects. She fucks him full of demonic spawn and uses magic to make everyone think it's normal, but the gaurds are able to grow wise that something is amiss.

The corner her in a room and demand answers as to what's going on and she begins to gaslight them. Questioning their logic and understanding of everything. She has them strip of their armor and realize they have pussies now. Or they've always had pussies? She molds them to think that their duties as guards, same as their king, is to serve the people and staff of the castle. It's revealed that all the staff have been transformed to be incredibly horny and large cocked. She leaves them to fuck each other senseless.

Later on, she walks through her kingdom, husband in tow, to see how things are turning out. We see that the subjects of the kingdom fully believe its normal to fuck the royal guard in broad daylight. People ask the king for his "service" which he readily agrees to. His belly is so big now that it touches the floor when he's fucked from behind and is used for the pleasure of local women.

A man tries to fuck him without asking and Trisha shoves him into the wall and takes him right there on the street, changing his mind to only get pleasure from his ass. Turning him into a slut.

Further on, we see the kingdom truly transformed. The former servants fuck the guards in the halls of the throne room, their bodies multicolored, with wings and horns to denote their demonic transformation. The king goes into labor on the the throne and can't seem to give birth.

Only then, does Trisha bring his mind back to normal to see what the kingdom has become. She forces him to say that he'll give the kingdom to her or else he'll never give birth.

He relents and a new era to the kingdom is born.

[lg-0522]

Through the Veil of Agony

CW: dystocia, death, public birth

Setting: Alice had always been opposed to the country's family planning policy. As a young woman who cherished freedom, she couldn't accept the government's restrictions on childbirth. Therefore, she actively participated in protests against this policy and spoke out against its inhumanity.

This caused a great stir in her school. As one of the dissenting voices, she faced warnings and criticism from her teachers. Since joining the protest activities, Alice became one of the least favored students among the school faculty.

The school administration grew increasingly displeased with her outspoken protests. In an attempt to thwart her activities, the school secretly implanted an IUD contraceptive device in her, aiming to physically block her reproductive capabilities. Unexpectedly, she became pregnant.

Since becoming pregnant, the teachers' attitudes became even more extreme. They not only prohibited her from participating in any collective activities but also deliberately singled her out to answer the most difficult questions, mocking her as "nothing more than a human baby-making machine."

Other classmates followed the teachers' lead and distanced themselves from her. Her former friends stopped talking to her and even started bullying her. Sometimes, when the teachers weren't looking, classmates would "accidentally" spill liquids behind her as a retaliation for her "ungratefulness."

From then on, Alice became the center of rumors and criticism throughout the school. Teachers would often point at her in class, warning other students not to participate in political activities indiscriminately. Her classmates avoided her, and everyone looked at her with disdainful eyes, making her a pitiable outcast.

In this hostile school environment, Alice gradually became isolated. Every day, she endured various discussions and condemnations, along with the physical pain and torment of pregnancy, with no one caring about her suffering or offering help. This prolonged solitude made her increasingly negative, exacerbating her already sensitive nature.

And today, the difficult childbirth in the classroom became a continuation of her nightmare...

On a cold winter day, there was a gloomy atmosphere permeating the corridors of the school. Alice walked slowly, her stiff body and tired gait indicating that she was already two weeks past her due date, yet showing no signs of going into labor.

As classmates hurriedly passed by her, they whispered under their breaths and stared at her with mocking glances. Camila and Elsa giggled behind her back, while Connor and Lena intentionally quickened their pace, quickly distancing themselves from her. The school corridor seemed to have turned into an indifferent and heartless stage, with Alice becoming the lonely character being ridiculed.

She tried to endure the discomfort and pain in her body, but the overwhelming feeling of isolation pushed her spirits to the brink of collapse. Her former friends now treated her with indifference, even actively avoiding her gaze. Even Professor Anderson joined the ranks of those mocking her, pointing at her and ridiculing her choices and actions.

"Look at Alice, the girl who's now only fit to be a human baby-making machine!" Anderson's voice echoed through the hallway, causing a wave of laughter and gossip.

Alice tried to maintain a strong facade, but inside, she was filled with despair and loneliness. She needed support and understanding, someone to stand up and defend her, but it seemed like in this world, only indifference and mockery awaited her.

She continued with heavy steps, walking towards the classroom. This classroom used to be a haven of joy and knowledge for her, but now it had become her predicament. She felt her body growing more and more weary, but she knew that even here, she wouldn't receive any assistance or care.

The door to the classroom opened, and she walked in, taking a seat at the back row. Her classmates looked at her with eyes filled with mockery and indifference. They knew she lacked the strength to defend her beliefs, and there was no power or support to help her fight against this adversity.

Alice's spirit gradually sank into the depths of despair, feeling suffocated by her loneliness. It seemed as though this world didn't care about her pain and struggles. In this dystopian reality, she became a helpless and abandoned existence.

In Professor Anderson's classroom, the situation worsened. Alice sat in the back row, feeling oppressed and powerless. The mockery from Professor Anderson and her classmates became sharper and more callous.

Professor Anderson laughed coldly, his words dripping with contempt. "Alice, do you think your protest has any meaning? You're just an ordinary and boring girl, and no one cares about your actions. Look at yourself now, unable to even handle a child. It's truly pathetic."

Leo, Alice’s ex-boyfriend, sneered, his words filled with mockery and anger. "That's right, Alice, you're a joke. What makes you think you're special? Now you've made a mess of your own life, and no one will feel sorry for you."

Helen joined in with the taunting. "Alice, you're truly pitiful and foolish. What do you think you can change? Right now, you're just a pregnant failure, and nobody will have an iota of sympathy for you."

Camila, Elsa, Connor, and Lena, who were once Alice's friends, now joined in with cold sarcasm. "Look at this self-proclaimed extraordinary Alice, she thought she was so special, but now she's in dire straits." "She's such a pitiful fool, clueless about how bad her situation is." "Alice, your protest only makes you more isolated and insignificant. Look at you now, a pregnant woman, and no one will stand up for you."

Professor Anderson looked smugly at Alice, having completely defeated her and rendering her unable to continue her resistance. He turned away and continued with the class, while the classmates continued to mock Alice. In this classroom, Alice became the butt of everyone's jokes, and no one was willing to help her. She felt helpless and despairing.

Suddenly, a wave of contractions hit her. Alice struggled to control her breathing as the contractions grew more frequent and intense. She felt overwhelmed and powerless because she wasn't prepared to face childbirth yet.

The classmates in the classroom continued their discussions and mockery, leaving Alice feeling isolated and ignored. Nobody cared about the pain she was going through.

Her breathing became rapid and irregular, and she tried to find a quiet corner to cope with the pain, but there was nowhere to go. She felt helpless and unable to control the situation. She could only surrender to the pain enveloping her body.

The contractions became even more frequent and intense, and Alice couldn't maintain her composure any longer. Her body felt as if it was being torn apart, and each contraction left her incredibly weak. Despair and fear consumed her soul, and she didn't know what to do.

Alice clenched her teeth with all her might, desperately trying to restrain herself from groaning, afraid of causing discomfort to her classmates. Her nails dug deep into her palms, leaving behind profound bloodstains. However, the classmates around her continued to joke and discuss the class content, completely oblivious to her distress. Alice felt an indescribable sense of despair and loneliness. She tightly gripped the edge of the desk, attempting to shift her focus to alleviate the pain, but the pain continued to coil around her body, denying her even a moment of respite.

With each intense contraction, Alice's body writhed in agony as if being twisted by a tremendous force. She felt her bones and muscles on the verge of being torn apart, with every inch of her skin filled with indescribable pressure. The pain radiated from her lower abdomen to her entire body, and she could barely bear it.

Her breathing became rapid and irregular, and each contraction left her gasping for air. She exerted all her strength, desperately suppressing the sharp groans, afraid of causing discomfort to her classmates. But the pain had surpassed her threshold of endurance, and she could no longer remain silent.

With each contraction, she fiercely clasped her own hands, trying to divert the attention from the pain. Her palms were already drenched in her own blood from her tight grip, but this pain seemed insignificant compared to the agony of the difficult labor she was experiencing.

She felt the baby's head gradually pushing forward, but each contraction forced it back into the depths of the birth canal. Her body trembled uncontrollably as she exerted her last bit of strength to push downward, hoping to successfully deliver the baby. However, no matter how hard she tried, the narrowness of the birth canal prevented the head from fully emerging.

The pain approached her limits, and Alice felt herself on the verge of collapsing. Tears streamed down her face as she helplessly looked at her classmates, but they remained indifferent, continuing with their classroom activities. She felt abandoned, with no one able to comprehend her current pain and despair.

This was a grueling labor, and Alice's body and mind were both under tremendous pressure. Her body trembled violently, and her face turned pale, displaying extreme exhaustion and pain.

Finally, with the birth of the first baby, Alice felt a brief moment of relief. She heard the pitiful cries of the newborn, but she couldn't pause to catch her breath because the head of the second baby remained trapped at the entrance of the birth canal, unable to be born smoothly.

Alice's body was exhausted, and she felt her energy draining away, but she knew she couldn't give up. Her eyes were filled with determination and perseverance as she used every ounce of her strength to push and try to deliver the second baby successfully.

However, the second fetus got stuck at the entrance of the birth canal, continuously rotating without being able to move forward or backward. Alice felt a wave of despair choke her, knowing that this was an extremely dangerous and difficult situation. Her body was already extremely tired, but she couldn't give up because she knew it was a matter of life and death for herself and her children.

Pain and despair intertwined as Alice felt she could hardly bear it any longer. Her face turned pale, her body drenched in sweat, and her breathing became rapid and irregular. She tried to find a shred of strength, pushing with all her might, hoping to overcome this predicament.

Time passed by minute after minute, but the second fetus remained stuck at the entrance of the birth canal. Alice felt trapped, tears streaming down her face, unable to endure the physical and mental torment any longer.

Despairingly, Alice stared at the baby's head, which was the only part visible outside, feeling her life force slipping away. Each contraction brought extreme pain, her whole body trembling, and her strength gradually fading.

The baby's head was tightly wedged in the birth canal, unable to move forward or backward. Its forehead swelled with pressure. Alice could feel her body exerting itself in extreme pain, but the fetus seemed trapped, unable to be delivered smoothly.

She struggled, trying to deliver the baby successfully, but the baby's head remained stuck in the birth canal. She felt her strength dwindling, each push agonizingly painful. Each contraction brought immense suffering, and Alice's body convulsed. She pushed with all her might, hoping to overcome this predicament, but the baby remained stuck. She felt her strength draining away, her body unable to withstand such extreme pressure.

The baby's skin started turning purple, indicating signs of oxygen deprivation. Alice's heart raced with anxiety as she realized time was running out, and both her and the baby's lives were in serious danger. She couldn't bear the pain, but she couldn't give up either.

Tears continued to flow, her face contorted, but she knew she had to keep trying. She focused all her willpower on pushing, her body trembling.

Time passed by, each second feeling like a century. Alice felt her life force growing weaker, her breath becoming faint and unstable. She knew the baby's life was also hanging by a thread. The surrounding pressure and pain made Alice feel everything spinning, as if being engulfed in endless darkness.

Under the extreme pain, Alice summoned her last ounce of strength and pushed with all her might. Finally, the second baby was delivered, accompanied by two faint cries. However, a faint bluish tint appeared on the newborn's wrinkled face.

Alice finally relaxed her tense abdominal muscles. The intense pain and significant blood loss made her body unable to endure any longer. She felt her consciousness gradually fading, her strength depleted.

The mocking voices of classmates and professors echoed in her ears. She felt the heartless indifference and arrogance. They didn't care about her suffering, even looking at her with mocking eyes. This deepened the wounds in Alice's soul, and she couldn't understand how people could be so indifferent to others' pain.

With the passing of her last breath, Alice departed from this cruel world. Her soul sought tranquility and peace in the vast universe.

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

For the kiss meme, how about Tedromeda for number 10: ‘You nearly died’ kiss :)

Okay, anon! Here's a little 'you nearly died' for Tedromeda :)

cw: pregnancy, birth, near-death, bleeding

...

It's been the most harrowing week of Ted's young life.

It started with Bonfire Night, a Sunday, and he was looking forward to showing his wife what the local Muggles celebrated. His plans were forgotten when his wife woke in the dead of the night, cramping, aching, and afraid.

There was blood all over the sheets.

It was too early. A month too early, at least, and their baby was coming. She was pale and losing blood, shaking and trembling, and he was terrified, barely managing to get her through the Floo to St. Mungo's before Healers took her away.

They got his daughter out within minutes. He wasn't even there for her birth--as soon as he found the room number, a Mediwitch had the wrinkly bundle in her arms. She offered it to him without a word while the Healers managed the rest.

He didn't know it was a girl until the tiny thing's hand reached up and he saw the bracelet they put on her.

Tonks. Female. 5 November 1972. 4:55.

A Healer came out of Andromeda's room covered in blood.

"We won't know for a few days," he told Ted. "She's weak."

The baby in his arms wriggled and cried.

"He'll need--"

"--she," Ted corrected. "It's a girl."

"She'll need to eat," the Healer said. "Stay there. A Mediwitch or wizard will come find you."

Ted found the closest seat. It was an uncomfortable, wooden thing, and as his daughter cried, the sun came up and shone on her face.

Her hair was pink.

They told him later they think she's a Metamorphmagus, whatever that means. They say it's rare--very rare. Andromeda wasn't awake to tell her.

Ted's heart is torn in two; one side is expanding with every second that he spends gazing at his impossibly small baby girl. The other side is in pieces, terrified for his wife.

He can't do this alone.

The little girl--she's still unnamed--is almost a week old when Andromeda wakes.

Ted rushes in, bundled baby in his hands, and cries from exhaustion and relief.

Andromeda doesn't remember giving birth, but she remembers going into labor.

Their little girl has bubblegum pink hair when she meets her mother.

"Metamorphmagus," Ted whispers, kissing Andromeda's forehead. "Is it true that they're rare?"

"There hasn't been one in my family for three centuries at least," Andromeda says, her eyes welling with tears. She looks at him and he kisses her, overwhelmed by love and gratitude that she's alive. She's crying and smiling and holding the baby up to her chest.

She tells him there won't be any more children.

"I don't care," he replies. "We've got our perfect girl. She's all we need." He lets her mourn for the children they won't have and weep with joy for the one they do.

"Does--" She shudders, and he kisses her hair. "Did you name her?"

"No. I couldn't, 'Dromeda. Not without you."

Andromeda looks at their baby, whose little face is so gorgeous Ted doesn't know that any name can capture her beauty.

"I know we discussed the stars," his wife says quietly, "but I've thought of something else."

"Call her anything you want," he tells her. She'll come up with a name that fits.

"Nymphadora," Andromeda murmurs. "A gift of the nymphs."

Little Nymphadora yawns.

"Can I call her Dora?"

Andromeda nods. Ted kisses her again, thankful she's alive and well, and then kisses his Dora's tiny, button nose.

His gifts, his wife and daughter, are his to cherish and protect.

...

kiss asks

[sweet-vanilla-sims]

Year 1644

TW/CW: Child Death, Death Mention, Miscarriage

Still reeling from the news that Hestor and her newborn daughter had died the previous December, more loss hit the Carlisle family as a housefire claimed the life of young Veniera on the 14th of February.

Tala couldn't believe it that her youngest was gone so soon. Though she hoped that at least her spirit would keep Giacomo and Osana's spirits company wherever they had passed on to.

Giulia was devastated by the loss of her little sister especially as she anticipated the arrival of her own little one. It scared her to think about the loss of a child and the idea of losing the child within her as well filled her mind.

The older girls in the Carlisle home did their best to keep busy as they mourned the loss of Veniera the best they could. They were heartbroken but they also wanted to stay strong for each other.

Giulia did her best to support her sister and her sister's cousin as she tried to push her own fears from her mind. At least the other girls were spared from the fire which was a blessing.

Tala was grateful for the support from her oldest in the wake of the younger one's loss. As Giulia approached the end of her pregnancy, Tala did her best to move on from her loss to best support her daughter with her pregnancy.

It was mid May when Giulia felt the pains of early labor for the first time. Tala rushed over and spent the next few hours shooing Giovanni from being a bother to the laboring Giulia and having the girls help out around the Morosini home as Tala talked Giulia through her pains. Tala could at the very least support her daughter through the birth of her first baby.

It was afternoon on May 18th that Orsolina Morosini was born. She was named after Giovanni's late mother and thankfully for the entire family, she was born perfectly healthy.

Despite mentioning from the start of their marriage about how much he wanted a son, Giovanni was truly in love with his daughter. He had never seen a child so lovely and was determined to do the best for her.

Giulia was grateful that following the birth she hardly had to do any work as after Raquel and Felicita finished their lessons and work around their own garden they would go up the hill to help out with the Morosinis. Giulia was even impressed to find meals taken care of and while Felicita was determined to take credit it was clear that the nearly-teenaged Raquel was the true cook. The love her family had for her was so evident in all the rest she could have having given birth.

Orsolina grew up into a lovely infant over the next few months who was such an active child her parents were even more confident of her health. Often times Giovanni would be on the floor with her after working the gardens or going out hunting, he was determined to spend time with his little one.

But with all the extra time on their hands to really focus on their new little family and not the housework, despite their troubles having Orsolina, it was very little surprise that Giulia was expecting again by the end of summer.

Giulia was excited to have another child though she did worry about the added work of going from one child to two and having to restart her own housework soon since it simply wasn't sustainable to have the girls keep helping out.

Though that was a problem for the future. For the time being, Giovanni and Giulia were enjoying being new parents to their daughter and expecting their second child. Giovanni was hopeful that this time they would have a son and the pair spent the late hours of the afternoon while their daughter slept whispering sweet nothings to each other and discussing names for their future child.

Giovanni even after learning about the new pregnancy was still entranced by his young daughter, he knew that some men tended to focus more on their sons and while yes, he did have a preference, he wasn't going to show favoritism when his son arrived.

In early November, Raquel celebrated her thirteenth birthday with the entire Tartosa family by her side. After the losses of the year, Tala decided that she had been too lax about looking into Raquel's sister and decided that she would see if she could bring her younger sister into the family as well to reunite the pair. Raquel was absolutely overtaken with gratitude that her aunt was willing to take in a child that wasn't her own relative for her sake. Tala knew the girl was with her father but... she wondered if it was right to keep siblings separated. She would talk more with Ramon later.

It felt like a weight had dropped on the bubble of happiness that Giulia had been living with following the birth of her daughter when, just a few days after Raquel's celebration, she had awoken to blood and cramping. Giovanni had rushed with Giulia to get the midwife leaving Orsolina with Tala, only to be told that the pregnancy had been lost. The couple returned home with a silent melancholy shared between them that neither wished to bring up.

Giovanni wondered if perhaps they had been too greedy, chasing the high that came with the addition of a new family member that had caused such a devastating loss. They still had plenty to be grateful for as their daughter, oblivious to her parent's loss, was still just as much of a light in their lives even if their loss had made the rest of their days darker.

[finalgirlkateausten]

“ can you stop?! i’m pregnant, for crying out loud, it’s not like i’m made of glass! “ for the fix-it verse if it works, and if not just something with rhekker please? 💗

This absolutely works in the fix-it verse and I am going to make it angsty :) Also, a drabble with scene breaks?? Who am I????

CW for pregnancy, hospitals, and discussion of childbirth/premature labor/etc

Ava would laugh at Connor actually bothering to move her breakfast closer to her on the table, except that he's legitimately taking himself seriously, and fussing with the tilt of the bed, too. Sure, bed rest means she's not supposed to move too much, but this is a little extreme.

"Can you stop?" she sighs, moving his hand away from the buttons on the side of the hospital bed. "I'm pregnant, but for crying out loud, that doesn't mean I'm made of glass!"

"Avey, that may have been true a week ago," her fiance says, "but now you're literally in labor. And it's more than ten weeks early."

"I'm not in labor, that's the problem," she grumbles. "God, I know it's good for these babies to stay put for as long as they can, but now I just have to wait, knowing anything could go wrong... do you know how high the risk of infection is with a prematurely ruptured amniotic sac? And if any of them ends up with a respiratory infection, that utterly defeats the purpose of waiting at all."

"I know, I know, there's a lot to worry about," Connor agrees, fidgeting in the armchair next to her. "But that's what the steroids are for, remember? The longer you wait, the stronger these three get... and I'm right here with you, Avey, whatever you need."

She takes his hand with her left and uses her right to pick up the slightly burnt toast, which Connor has already smeared with strawberry jelly at her request. "I just feel like I'm bad at this part."

Connor's face is the picture of confusion. "Honey, no, you're doing amazing. You're working so hard."

"Then why do I feel so fucking terrible?" Ava squeezes his hand, searching his concerned expression for any reassurance. "I thought I was handling everything so well, but now-- god, it's not even physically, I just feel like everything is constantly moving too fast, and my anxiety is through the goddamn roof..." she trails off, letting go of him and abandoning her untouched toast in favor of burying her face in her hands.

Almost immediately, she feels him rubbing her back. "Did you ever talk to your doc about going back up a little after he cut your meds?"

"I didn't think it was going to get bad enough," she mutters.

"We can get someone in here," he offers.

She groans at the thought of suffering through a hospital psych eval. "I don't know..."

"Just think about it, baby," he encourages. "If it'll make you feel better..."

Ava humphs in protest, shifting back upright and rubbing her cumbersome baby bump. She can hardly breathe bent over with three tiny bodies taking up all the space in there.

A moment later, her nurse comes in for the routine checks. "Your heart rate is still consistently a little higher than we want," she hums, "and I'm not a big fan of your blood pressure, either. We may have to start you on some meds for that."

"It's not cardiovascular," she groans. "It's just my anxiety. I'm not on my full-strength medication, and now I'm stuck in the hospital for who knows how long..."

Her nurse frowns at that. "Well, alright. We might have someone come talk to you later, then."

Ava smiles wryly. "Just what I wanted."

She manages to finish her breakfast after the nurse leaves, and then with Connor rubbing her back, she closes her eyes in the hopes of dozing. "Get some rest, babe," he encourages, and she mumbles incoherently in response.

Sleep is a blessing at this point.

----

Connor is loathe to leave Ava for even a minute at this point, but while she's sleeping she won't miss him, and besides, he's on a mission. He has to poke around the psych floor for a little bit before he finds who he's looking for, and since he's in street clothes, he even gets redirected a few times before he manages to sneak on through.

"Sarah!"

She yelps and startles in surprise, turning in her office chair with a hand over her heart. "Jesus, Connor, you scared me! Why aren't you up on the maternity floor?"

"'Cause I need a psych consult," he explains. "Ava's in rough shape, and I think someone needs to look at her meds again, but that's a low priority up in obstetrics."

"Okay," Sarah says slowly, "so what you do, is you find the doctor, and you ask if there's any way they can make a psych eval happen, and then the doctor calls us--"

"C'mon, Sarah," he groans, "do me a solid? Besides, Ava will feel better if it's you..."

She purses her lips, turns to scowl at her computer, and then checks her watch. "Alright. You're lucky you got me between patients."

"Thanks so much," he says, sighing in relief as he claps her on the shoulder. "We really appreciate it, Sarah."

"Let's walk and talk," she says, grabbing the tablet off her desk. "What are her current medications, just so I know what I'm working with?"

Connor explains as best he can as they return to the maternity floor, and he'd been right in thinking Ava would be more relaxed with a friendly face, because she answers questions and explains her symptoms with a remarkable lack of resistance, compared to the other doctors they've been talking to over the past few days. And then Sarah leaves to converse with Ava's actual doctors, and it turns out the initial plan is to try a light sedative that's approved for pregnancy in the hopes of a more immediate effect on Ava's emotional state.

He anxiously watches his fiancee's face for any indication that she's upset with the idea, but she nods and lets them administer it, holding his hand with her right as they run the meds into her IV. Sure, Connor's not thrilled about her being more out of it and sleepy and less able to answer his frequent and slightly pointless questions about her wellbeing, but that's a selfish reason to protest. So he keeps his mouth shut and holds onto Ava as they wait for the meds to kick in.

"Connor," she mumbles, already having been dozing before he'd brought Sarah in, "will you come hold me?"

"Yeah, of course," he says, carefully climbing onto the bed with her. Seven months in, they've both become experts at cuddling in spite of her baby bump, so he spoons her along her back and massages her shoulders, one hand drifting to rest on her belly. "How are you feeling?"

"Cold," she mumbles. "Tired."

"I'll keep you warm," he says, making a mental note to ask a nurse for a blanket the next time one comes in. "You can go back to sleep."

"Am I just gonna be in a fog for the rest of this?"

"I don't know," he answers truthfully. "You can talk to the doctors in a little while if it ends up being too much."

"I'll accept being in a fog if it means I can stop being scared every single second," she sighs, her voice getting quieter and quieter.

Connor kisses her hair. "I don't want you to be scared."

She leans back into him, her eyes closed now. "I'm... tired."

"Good," he murmurs, still rubbing her shoulders. "Get some rest."

"You'll stay?"

"Of course. I'm right here."

Ava hums slowly, and her breathing begins to slow. Connor peppers kisses over her hair and the back of her neck, rubbing her back as she drifts off. "I love you," he whispers.

She doesn't answer, and he just hopes she's finally able to get restful sleep.

[karmic-vibes]

Two of Us

10 - You and Me Burning Matches

cw: teenage pregnancy, degradation from parent, minors using drugs (weed)

1982

Claire had thrown all her responsibilities out the window for the day—the only thing on her mind was getting to a payphone. She managed to find an available phone, away from other students, near the back entrance to the school. She shakily fumbled through the loose change in her pocket, powering through her stop-and-go contractions, and called the first person she could think of.

“Hello?”

“Mom!”

“Clairey? What’s wrong? You never call me. Everything okay?”

Claire held the phone close to her mouth and spoke through her teeth. “I’m in labor.”

“I’m sorry,” her mom chuckled, “it almost sounded like you said you were in labor.”

“Because I am,” Claire cried, “mama, please, I am in so much pain. Uncle Wayne is sleeping from work, Eddie won’t talk to me, and I need someone with me.”

“Okay, okay. I’m just gonna ignore the fact that my fifteen-year-old daughter is pregnant and didn’t bother to tell me-”

“Mom, please! Ah, fuck!” Claire continued to sob as she grabbed at the brick wall, trying to power through her contraction. “Please, mom, I’m desperate. I can’t do this alone. I-I need someone with me.”

“What about the father?” Claire ignored her—only her cries came through the receiver. “Clairey?”

“The father isn’t in the picture… he doesn’t even know, and I don’t want him to. Besides, he’s in California.”

“You got pregnant when you came to visit me!?”

“Mom, now is not the time!” Claire cried out as she hit the phone against the bricks. “How soon can you get to Hawkins?”

“I’ll be on the next flight to Indiana, okay?” her mom sighed, “just, ugh, I don’t know. Either hitch a ride or take the bus to the hospital. I’ll be there as soon as I can, alright?” Claire whimpered as she struggled to breathe. “Clairey?”

“Mhmm, yeah, see you then,” she said, breathlessly.

The line soon went dead as Claire rode out her next contraction—they were getting closer together. The panic and realization started to set in. She was going to have a baby. She waddled to the closest bus stop and began pacing back and forth to keep herself moving. Whenever a contraction came on, she quickly glanced around to make sure no one she knew was around and would let out pained groans. Eventually, the bus arrived—she climbed aboard and gripped the driver by the collar.

“Look here, buddy.” Claire was sweating profusely, heavily breathing through her teeth. “I’m in labor and need to get to a hospital now. I could give two shits about everyone else on this bus. I will give you all the money I have to bring me to the nearest godforsaken hospital. Hell, I’ll even let you name the stupid thing!”

“Miss-”

“Buh-buh-buh. We’re going to the hospital. Got it? Good. Drive.” She slumped down in the closest seat she could find and tried to control the noises her body was desperately trying to make. Despite any rules the driver had to follow, he went out of his way to bring Claire to The Hawkins Memorial Hospital. “Thanks.” She handed the driver all the money in her pocket. “What do you wanna name her?”

“Kid, I don’t care, just go.”

Claire gently nodded, sweat pouring from her brows, and walked into the emergency room entrance. She met the clerk at the front desk and was immediately given a bed. Once the nurses finished getting an initial set of vitals on the young girl, she was transferred to the labor and delivery unit where she was closely monitored, given her age. While her contractions were getting closer together, she was barely dilating and, after a lot of discussion, she wasn’t even able to receive any type of pain management, since she was so young.

After six grueling hours, Claire’s mom, Melissa Munson, arrived in Hawkins. Before meeting her daughter in the hospital, she made a pit-stop to a familiar trailer in the dingy part of town. She found Eddie sitting on the front stoop, smoking a joint. She whipped into the makeshift driveway, leaving Eddie confused. He raised a brow and leaned forward to try and see who was inside the ominous rental car. His eyes bulged out of his head as he saw his estranged mother step out and approach him—you could practically see steam shooting out of her ears.

“You!”

[tailsrevane]

[book review] aliens vs. predators: ultimate prey (2022)

(spoilers, cw: thirst, discusses themes of abuse, gendered violence, racism, slavery/colonization)

the first story of this anthology, "below top secret" by chris ryall, gives us a fictionalized[1] version of the 2019 social media phenomenon that was "storm area 51/they can't stop all of us."[2] that whole thing had to have pinged the radar of basically anyone working on any scifi franchise. it's kind of a shame that the x-files wasn't on the air anymore at that point, because i'm sure they would have referenced it.

this was a pretty fun way to start this anthology! basically one guy who's with the huge group storming area 51 splits off from the group and drags his friend who's more or less the audience p.o.v. character along. she's moreso there out of boredom and curiosity which seems like a terrible reason to break into a military base and get arrested or worse. he, on the other hand, is a serious conspiracy theorist and has been in contact with someone who supposedly works on the base and gave him codes into one of the buildings.

to his mild surprise and her utter astonishment, the codes work! and they soon find themselves in an underground research facility just in time to be caught in a lockdown due to an escaped xenomorph!

they end up in a panic room with a scientist who works there and who berates them for being stupid enough to be there. after ruling out most of the possible ways they could escape, the scientist says she has an idea and they go let a yautja out of a holding cell to fight the xenomorph. and yeah this is kinda dumb and silly but i don’t care i kinda love it? and the scientist is explaining how they should act around the yautja and she’s telling them to avoid any threatening movements and “i’d even kneel and lower your eyes” and that’s so horny, omg. i might not love the predator movies the way i love the alien movies, but the yautja themselves are equally hot af.

anyway, like i said, very fun way to start this anthology! b-rank.

i appreciate that the protagonist of “isla matanzas” by steven sears is disgusted by the british slave traders he encounters, but he’s also a spanish colonizer whose beloved home is stolen land. stolen land that acts of genocide have been committed on. so let’s not be too quick to hand out credit there?

look, i’m sorry, but if you really want to do a story about abolitionists teaming up with yautja, maybe have the slaves be the protagonists? rather than a competing colonial power? just an idea. c-rank.

“homestead” by delilah dawson is about a lady who lives on an old west ranch and has the misfortune of going into labor in the middle of fleeing a xenomorph/yautja slugfest. obviously there is plenty of unexamined settler colonialism going on here, but this is probably an alright read if you're into all this rustic pioneer type stuff and wanna see that juxtaposed with xenomorphs and yautja fucking shit up. there's some pregnancy horror stuff towards the end that was just super not for me. c-rank

"the hotel mariposa" by david barnett is about the crew of a ghosthunting show running into yautja and xenomorphs and i was already in as soon as i realized that was what was happening. and it just gets more awesome from there, with one of the ghost hunters ending up bonding with a yautja and they end up killing a xenomorph together in a moment that's weirdly emotionally cathartic for both of them, and if that's not enough they also exorcise their mommy issues together. this is also the first story in this anthology to feature extended scenes from a yautja's point of view, which is basically always a plus. a-rank.

in "planting and harvest" by mira grant, our setting is a remote botanical research station. the station's crew is composed of company scientists who have flamed out of more prestigious positions but not badly enough to get fired. when their station is attacked by xenomorphs, a nearby band of similarly disgraced yautja decides to ride in to the rescue to restore their status as hunters and escape the menial tasks they've been assigned. pretty straightforward space bullshit! c-rank.

“blood and honor” by susanne l. lambdin has a trans protagonist!! she’s a colonial marine who’s having an affair with her married c.o. and ends up being marooned on a planet infested with both xenomorphs and yautja. the xenomorphs on this planet are experiencing a civil war of sorts between two rival queens, whilst the yautja are having issues with a male hunter going around killing all the female hunters for reasons that our protagonist is never entirely able to discern.

i really liked all the interconnected conflicts going on. there’s also some interesting parallels here with all three sides experiencing conflicts within their own ranks, as well as our colonial marine protagonist[3] and the yautja she teams up with specifically experiencing gendered violence. i also love the triumphant note this story ends on, with our protagonist telling her yautja ally, “long live the queens. that means you and me.” just great stuff all around. a-rank.

you might recall that i really enjoyed how rachel caine’s “broken”[4] turned on a subversion of the assumption that artificial people are necessarily less compassionate than humans, though i was a bit turned off by its implied misanthropy. so it’s really no surprise that i loved “carbon rites” by jess landry which had similar virtues but actually went quite a bit out of its way to not be misanthropic.

the protagonist of this story is an android who does not know she’s an android, living in a simulation that she does not know is a simulation. it’s sort of like the truman show but with guns and xenomorphs and yautja. this is set in the more distant future we saw a glimpse of in alien: resurrection, and the people running these incredibly unethical experiments are the united systems military, the same people who experimented on ripley’s clone.

in these tests an android is paired up with a human and put through a deadly encounter with a xenomorph, a yautja, or presumably other alien species in a variety of environments. but this one is prematurely ended when a strike team of former victims of the experiments comes to break our protagonist out.

i really enjoyed how gradual the protagonist’s understanding of the situation evolved, and her utter horror and disgust when she found out that all the humans from the previous experiments were “disposed of” at the end of the tests. this subverts not only the expectations that androids are without emotions or empathy, but also the entire trope of the “robot apocalypse.” this story believes that if we prove ourselves worthy of it, our robot siblings can not only not be our destruction, they can be our very salvation from our mutual oppressors. a-rank.

i actually feel a little bad about skipping bryan thomas schmidt’s “drug war”[5] now, but not bad enough to go back and read it after all. i mean, it’s a fucking direct sequel to predator 2. but i did really enjoy his contribution to this anthology, “first hunt”. this story is told largely from the perspective of the yautja. there’s a bit of human perspective mixed in to give you a more grounded/horrified perspective on things, but i’d say it’s like 60/40 in favor of the yautja, which is just awesome. plus it’s just really well-written in general. b-rank.

i like “abuse, interrupted” by yvonne navarro quite a bit more than her previous story, “reclamation.”[6] as its title implies, the protagonist of this one is a domestic abuse survivor. there’s some rather explicit descriptions of what she’s been through, so do be aware of that going in. but that just makes it even more cathartic when her new yautja girlfriend fucks up her abuser. with his life hanging in the balance, the yautja looks at the human “almost as though waiting for her to protest.” our protagonist looks at him and realizes she feels “well, not much at all.” she gives the yautja a shrug, and taking that as permission she cuts him from neck to tailbone and rips his head and spine off.

this wasn’t my favorite story in the anthology or anything, it just isn’t the kind of thing i’m really looking for out of this franchise, but it was very satisfying. b-rank.

"better luck to borrow" by curtis c. chen reads a bit like a ya-style jason takes manhattan? it takes place on a class field trip on a boat, the protagonist is a little girl with a robot hand, she gets bullied a little bit towards the beginning of the story to get you in a goosebumps/etc sort of mindset, and then all hell breaks loose when xenomorphs start fucking people up and yautja show up to hunt them. this was pretty wild, i loved the clashing styles here. b-rank.

"film school" by roshni "rush" bhatia follows a documentary crew to a colony that was supposedly wiped out by a mining accident. as the story progresses you find out that the director is the only one who knew the "mining accident" is a cover story, and she's trying to find out what actually happened. which sounds like a noble enough goal, but she's clearly being a bit of a glory hound and the fact that she kept the rest of her team in the dark is just unconscionable.

anyway, given what anthology this is, you probably already have a pretty good idea of what actually happened to the colony.[7] i'm tempted to say this story is hampered somewhat by having another story in the collection with a similar setup[8] that i somewhat preferred for several reasons, but this story differed enough in what it did with the basic idea of a film crew thrown between a xenomorph/yautja melee that i think it sufficiently distinguished itself. it definitely used the documentarians as a grounded point of view to show much more of an epic setpiece battle between the two sides. so if that's what you're looking for, unlike me you might actually end up preferring this one. and i liked it quite a bit, regardless. b-rank.

in “night doctors” by maurice broaddus, the aliens and predators are not the monsters. instead, they are fellow victims with the protagonist, her brother, and who knows how many other colonists.

the villain of the piece is a sickeningly evil doctor who is experimenting on the colonists as well as several imprisoned yautja and xenomorphs. the chilling horror of these experiments are contextualized through examples of white doctors committing similar atrocities on black people throughout history.

our protagonist is an extremely race- and class-conscious black woman who at one point explicitly states in the narration that she does her best to leverage the company’s resources while consciously avoiding letting them exploit her or her people. she also acts in solidarity with the yautja and the xenomorphs to overpower their mutual oppressors.

it's just… so fucking refreshing to see this kind of class warfare be explicit within the text and dramatized through a total badass action hero lady doing badass action hero lady things and taking names. a-rank.

"scylla and charybdis" by e.c. myers is about a crew whose ship is dead in space due to sabotage. the setup here is actually pretty similar to the first few minutes of alien: covenant but with more suspicion and without the intrusive theism. eventually, a yautja ship shows up and starts hunting the crew, and the captain thinks they’ve all been killed but eventually he wakes up to discover they’re all alive and well. apparently the yautja–who calls himself keeper–captured anyone who put up a fight. they find themselves in a zoo-like prison that seems to have various “cells” containing vast, simulated environments for a variety of species being held captive there.

the captain finds out it was his own wife who did the sabotage due to political tensions between her united americas and the international body that put this mission together. there’s also a reference to some political weirdness involving korea and a bunch of different acronymed-factions that i didn’t entirely pay attention to so it might be gross imperialism? like, my assumption is pretty much always going to be gross imperialism when westerners write about korea and politics, but i can’t really say for sure and i honestly didn’t circle back to try to parse it.

i did enjoy the space disaster stuff early on, and the fact that the characters ended up essentially as “living trophies” until other yautja attacked keeper because obviously that’s not how yautja are meant to operate. and at that point a bunch of xenomorphs got loose and things got rather predictable.

overall this is a fairly middle of the road story. not great, but not bad. c-rank.

i do enjoy scott sigler’s writing style and his contribution to bug hunt was one of my favorite stories in any of these anthologies. his contribution to this one, "another mother", is apparently a sequel to an avp novel he wrote. unfortunately i do have to say that unlike a lot of the other stories in some of these anthologies that are sequels or prequels to larger works, this one does very much suffer from inaccessibility for new readers. i can tell that he put some thought into explaining his setting to new readers without overexplaining to old readers, but it feels like the scales are tilted very decisively towards the latter. consequently i can’t really meaningfully comment on this, as i don’t feel like i was the intended audience and that’s totally okay in an anthology like this. as a result i will not be rating this one.

the final story of the anthology is "kyōdai" by jonathan maberry and louis ozawa, and it expands the story of the latter’s character from the film predators (2010). specifically it is about kawakami eiji, kawakami hanzō’s brother. i liked this quite a bit more than maberry's contributions to the other two anthologies. i think a lot of that is down to the content and the fact that this is a much more character-driven piece than the other two. like his alien 3 follow-up in bug hunt it does end in a very cliffhanger-adjacent manner, but this one at least felt much more like a complete story and not like one that just stopped in the middle of setting the table. c-rank.

so, there’s our last[9] of these anthologies! overall this one was probably my favorite of the three, as aliens: bug hunt got rather bogged down with distracting continuity issues whilst predator: if it bleeds was mired in repetitive episodes of bootlicking historical narratives.

i’d say the only real big picture issue with this one is that the xenomorphs consistently get their asses handed to them, and while it oftentimes feels like the right choice for many of the individual stories, when it’s a trend that’s happening basically without fail throughout the entire anthology it starts to wear rather thin for those of us who are bigger fans of the alien side of this crossover franchise.

oh, i was excited to learn that apparently a lot of very online white dudes consider the fact that one (one!) of this anthology’s fifteen stories stars a trans woman (and mentions that’s she’s trans… once), one (one!) features a disabled character, and a few feature one or two characters who aren’t white[10] grounds to dismiss the whole anthology as “woke garbage.” the only blatantly political messaging was in "night doctors," and y'all would agree with that messaging if you weren't too effectively brainwashed with racism to see your own damn class interests.

also, leaving aside for a moment how utterly vile this attitude would be even if all 15 stories starred black disabled trans women, despite having known for years that there are people like this taking up valuable oxygen to form these thoughts and express them publicly, i still cannot, i still just really cannot wrap my head around the one-two punch of entitlement and fragility at play here. other people existing is "sjw shit." i just. what the fuck, guys?

anyway it was already my favorite of the three anthologies i read before i saw those reviews, but now it’s even more my favorite of the three just to spite you, so there.

notes

1. and drastically more successful, in that they actually attempted to storm area 51.

2. personally i was very much of the opinion that we should take that energy and direct it against ice detention centers instead, but y’know.

3. she eventually deduces that her c.o., the one who was sleeping with her, is responsible for stranding her on this planet.

4. from aliens: bug hunt, the companion anthology set in the alien universe.

5. from predator: if it bleeds, the companion anthology set in the predator universe.

6. from aliens: bug hunt, the companion anthology set in the alien universe.

7. [extremely jonathan frakes voice] what happened here? was this really a tragic but simple mining accident as the company claimed? but then, how do you explain the message from the terrified miner? are we asking you to join our hunt for the truth? or are we hatching lies in your face?

8. "the hotel mariposa" by david barnett.

9. there is another one of these anthologies, predator: eyes of the demon, but i felt my curiosity about predator-focused stories was whetted by if it bleeds.

10. there are plenty that don’t mention the characters’ races at all, but i’m sure these ghouls read those characters as white. also, you incel losers got your bootlicking in the last anthology, shut the fuck up.

[efrmellifer]

Advenientia

“You seem distracted, Lord Commander,” Lucia commented.

He blinked once, then again. Drawing his mind back inside, reminding himself he was supposed to be working, not letting his mind wander, wondering and fretting.

“There would be no use in lying to you. I am,” he sighed, eyes drifting to the bit of sunlight on his desk. “I’m worried, more than anything.”

Lucia slouched her way out of her proper posture, no longer at attention, but not exactly at ease, either. She stood on a cocked hip, one eyebrow rising even as she took on a concerned tone. “And what about this time?”

Again, Aymeric sighed. “About Etien, though I doubt that comes as a surprise. The last few months, she’s been like a furnace needing fuel. From what I understand, it takes a lot of energy to be carrying multiples, especially when the odds were against her conceiving anyway.”

Lucia just nodded.

“But now, the poor thing is hardly eating, and this morning when I kissed her goodbye, she was so much colder than she had been.”

There was a heavy silence, Aymeric returning to worrying and Lucia processing what he had told her.

Finally, she spoke. “In that case, I think the thing to do is call the midwife. Better to be proactive over nothing than ignore something serious.”

Another few grounding blinks from Aymeric. When he opened his mouth to reply, his linkpearl went off.

Even through the grainy audio, a mix of pain and panic were evident in Etien’s voice.

“Aymeric? I really don’t feel well at all. Can you… can you make yourself available?”

He looked at the papers strewn over his desk, then up at Lucia.

She just nodded to him in response.

“Of course I can. I will be at your side in but a few moments’ time.”

The line closed.

“Thank you,” he said on the tail of another sigh, handing the metaphorical reins over to Lucia. “It would appear I will be calling the midwife. If anything significant occurs… if, Fury forbid, something happens, you’ll be the first to know.”

As Aymeric walked, he muttered to himself, little half-prayers and flustered cursing as he waited for the midwife to answer. All told, he wanted to run through Saint Valeroyant’s Forum, or even better would be to use the aether system, but he needed to have time to call I’rixa.

After what felt like an eternity—he was halfway up the stairs to the Pillars—he heard her answer.

“Good day, what can I—”

“Etien is sick,” he said, the words coming out in a rush. “She has eaten little for the last three days, and her temperature is low. Now she has asked me to attend her. How quickly can you get here?”

“Within the next bell,” I’rixa replied, sounded a little ruffled herself. “Keep her warm and as comfortable as you can until I get there. Please. And take a deep breath, m’lord. By the end of the day, you may be a father.”

He swallowed. “Right.”

He kept walking, picking up the pace just a little bit,. He was passing the Athenaeum Astrologicum now. Not long to go.

Aymeric practically tripped up the stairs into the house, throwing off his coat as he made his way to the bedroom.

Etien was stood at the window, dressed in her nightgown.

It was, as they had joked what felt like so long ago, left completely open to give her room. Well, not quite completely. She had one button done, the very top, just under her collarbone.

This was, as well as Aymeric could remember, the first time that that button had been fastened. He laughed softly, and she turned from the window, making her way over to him.

She looked pained already, and hindered by her own body, but she wrapped her arms around him, purring and nuzzling him.

“Thank the Twelve you’re here,” she murmured.

She was still a little cooler than he had gotten used to, but she seemed less pale and peaked.

“Or, really, thank you for being here,” she continued. “For coming so quickly.”

“Of course, dearest,” he responded, his knuckle drifting down her jaw. “Is there anything I can do? I already called I’rixa.”

“Oh, she’s coming?”

“This sounded serious. I thought it best she come and make sure you were well. You, and them.” He laid a hand on Etien’s stomach, pulling it back like he’d been burnt when the texture of her skin shifted below his hand.

“What in the seven hells was that?”

Her teeth were grit, her ears flat, and her forehead pressed to his side. “I think they’re coming, too.”

Aymeric rubbed Etien’s back. “All right. I have every faith you will handle this with your usual aplomb. And I’ll be right here with you, as long as it takes.”

_

By the time I’rixa arrived and had been ushered to the bedroom, Etien was reclining in bed, all the nice linens stripped from the bed and sitting folded on her vanity’s chair. Her hair was braided, and she was completing the final stitches of the second blanket.

Finished just in time.

The midwife bustled in, hand immediately coming to Etien’s forehead, then her cheeks.

“Stick out your tongue.”

Etien’s lips parted,  her tongue lolling out.

“Wider, please.”

Her mouth stretched wider, followed by a melodious ‘aaaaaaa’ that turned to a high-pitched whine.  Etien’s eyes screwed shut, tears slipping from the corners as her hands settled on her belly.

I’rixa’s hand slipped under Etien’s, feeling the contraction of the muscles below the skin.

“This is probably for the best,” she noted, half-turning toward Aymeric. “Any longer, and they might have been too big for her to deliver the usual way. And then we would be hauling her to the infirmary. And we don’t want that, do we?” she asked, returning her gaze to Etien. “Deep breath, and out like you’re trying to make a candle flicker, but not go out.”

Etien breathed in, and let her cheeks puff out before she began to properly control the exhale, a steady stream of air making I’rixa’s shirt flutter.

“Excellent job. Oi, papa, come encourage your girl. She’s got a long night ahead of her, and I think she’ll be wanting you close by sooner rather than later.”

Aymeric started from where he was leaning against the wall, trying to stay out of the way, and came to the side of the bed.

He took Etien’s hand from where it lay on her stomach still, winding his arm around hers.

“Aymeric,” she whispered on the tail end of her breath.

“Yes?”

She squeezed his hand. “Are you excited?”

“I am. But for now, I want to focus on you, and making sure you come through this as easily as possible.” He looked up at I’rixa.

“Do you want me to call Whitecape?” she asked.

Aymeric was silent, his lip bitten as he considered.

She had to stop herself before she accidentally let slip the almost-rude ‘are you scared?’ Of course he was scared. His wife was in pain, and they had both been taking extra precautions to make sure she stayed safe. They were so close to the finish (of this stage of it all, anyroad), but this was the point where it could all go wrong very quickly. His love for Etien was written plainly on his face as he debated the question, looking down at her. This fear was born of love. And as the midwife, I’rixa was the one in charge, the one with all the knowledge. So she changed the wording of the question, and therefore its spirit, but not its message.  Whatever would make them all feel secure.

“Would it make you more comfortable if we had him here?”

He looked up at her again, jaw slightly slackened before he closed his mouth and swallowed. “Are you confident you can do this without his help?”

“I am secure enough in my training and capabilities that I can at the very least decide when we’ll need to call for intervention, if we must. All right?”

Aymeric started to nod, but then he turned to Etien. “Etien? What do you think?”

“I think… we can at least start.” She took a sharp inhale, followed by a shaking huff. “Last thing we need is everyone finding out what’s begun here.” She laughed, fixing her slightly-sweaty grip on Aymeric’s hand. “I’m in no state to entertain.”

I’rixa patted her side, then let her hand rest on Etien, waiting for the next contraction. “Thattagirl. Then we should be about it.”

_

When the controlled puffs of Etien’s breath gave way to a drawn-out sigh, overshadowed by a high, mewling cry, the atmosphere in the room brightened significantly, even though the sun was closer to when it had set than when it was going to rise.

I’rixa was quiet for a moment, giving Aymeric a moment to sweep back the fraying strands of Etien’s braid and kiss her forehead while she settled.

Then, I’rixa delivered the news. “You have a daughter. A miqo’te. Got some strong lungs on her, listen to that.”

“Can I hold her?” Aymeric asked.

“Ordinarily I would tell you yes,” I’rixa replied, “but your lady love here has a ways to go, I think, so we require a third, and maybe a fourth, pair of hands before we can hand Baby over.” She wrapped the newborn up in one of the receiving blankets, and held her there. “So, maybe it’s time we called in Whitecape? And perhaps someone who can keep Etien calm while you’re busy with the baby. I’ll stay here, and she’ll be safe. Both of them will.”

Nodding, Aymeric started getting ready to head out. But first, he gave Etien another kiss. “I will return shortly. I hate to ask this of you again, but you must be strong while I am not with you.”

She blinked slowly, a small smile arcing her lips. “I think I can manage it. The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll be back.”

He ducked out the door, his footsteps echoing down the hall until the door opened and shut.

_

When Aymeric came back, Whitecape trailing after him and his relief at Etien’s side on the way, Etien was hazily half-asleep in bed.

“Has anything changed?” Aymeric asked.

“Nothing yet. I’ve untethered Baby, and she’s doing well.” She nodded to Etien. “She’s still laboring, but also obviously tired.”

“And I was called because…?” Whitecape asked from where he still stood in the doorway. “I have no training in obstetrics.”

“True, but we expect twins. I wanted someone like you on-hand in case there might be excess bleeding. That, and you are familiar with her usual health, I figured?”

“Well,” he said mildly. “My experience with her is usually when she is in a much worse state. The last time I had to treat her—other than prior to consulting with you, that is—she was carried to me still-unconscious from Ghimlyt Dark.”

“I see.”

“But I suppose I understand your rationale. So here I am, at your disposal.”

“If you wanted someone who’s familiar with my health, you could have called Y’shtola,” Etien mumbled. “She knows my aether signature, too. And she’s a miqo’te.” She turned slightly, onto her hip, to better face Aymeric. “Aren’t you supposed to be holding our daughter?”

“I’m waiting until Estinien gets here.”

Now she smiled. “Oh.”

“Well, you won’t be waiting very long,” he said, stepping past Whitecape.

“Hello, Estinien,” Etien cooed.

He stood next to Aymeric, taking her hand from him. “How nice we get to recreate this scene in your home, instead of the infirmary this time.”

Etien giggled, exhaustion clear in her voice.

“And with an addition to the menagerie,” Estinien noted. “I take it you’re the midwife?”

Introductions were made, and then it was just Etien and Estinien, since I’rixa had led Aymeric off to the side to lay his newborn daughter into his arms, and teach him how to properly hold a baby.

“He looks like he was made for this,” Estinien said, almost sighing. He rested one leg on the bed, half-sitting. “And you… how does it go? Chocobos sweat, men perspire, new mothers glow?”

“Estinien,” she scoffed.

“Did slaying primals prepare you for this?”

“I doubt anything could have. It’s hard.”

“Well, you look to be in capable hands, and I know you have loving support through it.”

She nodded slowly, lightly squeezing his hand. “I am and I do.”

“So all that leaves is the work that, like usual, only you can do.”

“I suppose so.”

Her grip on his hand tightened, followed by a hiss.

Estinien was off the bed, out of his relaxed position, in a flash. “Are you all right?”

“I think it’s time for the next one.”

“That would make sense,” I’rixa commented, returning to Etien’s side. “You got a little of your strength back, and now we’re ready. You did it once, let’s see you do it again, hmm?”

_

Another heavy sigh signaled the grand finale, followed by the fanfare of another cry.

“Incredible,” I’rixa breathed. “A son, Lady Borel. An elezen. They must have been from two eggs. That’s remarkable. And he’s a good size, too. Came just in time.”

While Whitecape did the cutting of the baby’s cord, I’rixa tilted her ear to Etien’s stomach. “Just the afterbirth now. We counted aright, and the twins are beautiful and healthy.”

Etien sighed heavily again. “Thank the Fury.”

“All She did was give you strength,” Aymeric enthused. “The rest you did almost completely on your own. I’rixa has been invaluable in her assistance, however.”

Etien nodded. “Thank you. But I couldn’t have done it without you, either,” she said softly, bringing his hand to her lips to kiss, then laying his palm against her cheek to nuzzle.

As it all came to a conclusion, final examinations being made of Etien and the twins, Estinien took his leave.

“I can come back tomorrow, or sometime soon, to receive the proper introductions. For now, I think I had best let everyone rest.” Aware he was being watched, he gave the happy couple a close friend’s goodbye rather than a lover’s.

He kissed Etien’s cheek chastely, a continental sort of gesture, and clasped Aymeric’s hand before wishing everyone a good night and trudging down the hall, clearly exhausted.

Aymeric helped bathe the newest infant, making him ready to be swaddled in the blanket his mother had so lovingly knit just for him, while Etien finished putting her nightgown on again and I’rixa explained another few things, like feeding.

“I’ll be at the inn for a few days now,” I’rixa explained to the two of them when she was done imparting knowledge, and making ready to hand Etien one of her children. “If anything should go amiss, call for me.”

Etien nodded, then reached out for the baby.

“Oh… she fits here so perfectly,” she cooed. “Her hair is so dark. It’s like yours,” she said to Aymeric, giving him a sunny smile.

He sat on the edge of the bed, holding the bundle of their son. “Indeed? Do you think so?”

“Well, we haven’t seen what it looks like grown out yet.”

I’rixa took her leave with a final wave goodbye.

“Someone down the hall should be able to help you out,” Aymeric noted as she left the room. He was aware his manners were lapsing, but at a moment like this? He had other priorities.

He looked at Etien, looking about the same as she had after fighting primals. Tired, yes, bone tired. But beautiful in her victory. Maybe this wasn’t the same as saving the realm from the Empire or gods, but still he was proud of her.

How glorious her triumph. How perfect their reward.

“Do you want to switch?” he asked her, slightly moving his arms to gesture that she could take their son and he would take their daughter.

“Do you think we can?”

“We shall have to get good at it eventually, no reason not to start learning now.”

It was awkward, but they managed, getting the babies settled in the arms of the other parent with minimal upset.

“Already, she’s your little girl, hmm?” Etien asked, running her finger down the soft angle of her son’s nose.

“Our dear little Betula,” he sighed. “She’s so precious, how could she not be?”

“I completely understand,” Etien murmured, beaming down at the boy. “Did you happen to find a name for him yet? I would be loath to fill out his birth certificate with ‘Baby Boy de Borel’.”

“I think I like Landric.”

“Landric, hmm?”

Aymeric nodded. “A name for nobles. It means ‘strength of the earth.’ A little unconventional for an Ishgardian, but he was born of the Black Shroud’s brightest.” He looked up at Etien again, checking to see if she had understood him, and smiling when it was clear she had. “He comes from good soil.”

“I like it, too.”

“You know, earlier you asked me if I was excited, and now I’d like to ask you the same.”

Etien looked up, brows dipping as she thought. “I am. It isn’t that it’s a hard question. I asked you that?”

He laughed lightly. “It has been a long night for you. For both of us. Aye, you did. I told you I was, but I wanted to make sure you got through the ordeal before I started worrying about my own excitement. So now, I most certainly am.” He paused, watching Landric begin to suckle. “And are you happy, my dearest?”

Now Etien’s eyes misted. She had done so little crying during, only a few tears slipping out in the throes of the worst pain, but now they flowed freely down her cheeks.

“Yes.” She sniffled. “I’ve thought about this for years, and now it’s real.”

“It’s going to be work. Another job for the both of us.”

“I helped you save Ishgard and build up the Firmament. It’s another thing we’ll work at together. And what could I want more than that?” She laughed lightly. “Everyone has been asking if I was ready for this new adventure. Didn’t you want to go on an adventure with me?”

Aymeric chuckled, too. “I did say that.” He laid Betula in her cradle, and took Landric from Etien’s arms, to do the same with him. “Now, we need to rest, so we can begin the next day of this adventure as fresh and ready as possible.”

Etien blinked slowly. “Of course.”

A few days later, the announcement appeared.

Please join Ser Aymeric de Borel and Etien Mellifer de Borel in welcoming their twin children, Betula Adrielle Mignonne de Borel and Landric Aurchefan de Borel.

[natashawritesstuff]

the playlist: Track 4: Smitten📼

“I’m helplessly and hopelessly smitten so much so that I just had to tell you again”

Asahi x reader

cw: pregnancy 

fem!/ afab reader

“Smitten” by Leanna Firestone 

“Oh my god, just go to sleep,” you beg. 

“I’m nervous.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“But what if I mess things up?”

“For snoring?” you ask dramatically. 

It was the first night in your new apartment you had just bought with your boyfriend, Asahi of three years. His habit of worrying until it drove him crazy didn’t die down after high school, and even at two in the morning, it didn’t stop. See, Asahi thinks you’re perfect, how you talk, how you laugh, how you sleep. Really, you don’t snore, even in your sleep, you’re still perfect. You think Asahi’s perfect too, however, he does snore, and because of this, he has literally never fallen asleep first in front of you. 

“Baby,” you say softly. “I’m not tired yet, but I want to stay in bed, it’s two in the morning, we live together now, you’re going to have to go to sleep before me.”

“But what if I snore really loud, and I keep you up? And then you resent me?”

“I promise you, nothing will ever make me resent you more than how long this conversation has lasted.”

“Oh,” he says embarrassed and you nod.

Finally, he lays down and goes to sleep while you scroll through your phone. He looks so peaceful, so perfect. 

You snored

And it was the most beautiful song that I'd ever heard

You choke on a laugh, upon realizing how loud his snoring truly was, you were surprised he couldn’t hear it through his dreams. No wonder he always had you go to sleep first. His arm wrapped around you, wanting your touch even in his sleep and you smiled, yeah, perfect. 

And I’m sure

If we ever got old and married

It would get on my nerves, but

“Y/N all I’m asking is that we switch days for picking Amaiya up from school.”

“I told you, I have plans and Akina is driving now so she can get her sister if you’re still working.”

“I’m just not comfortable with our teenage daughter, who’s been driving for three months to have our five-year-old in the backseat. I know you have plans but if you could just sacrifice being a little late and I could take her for the rest-”

“Oh sacrifice? Like how I sacrificed a quiet night sleep with you snoring loudly next to me for the past twenty years!”

Asahi gasps, “you said-”

“I Iied!”

Around the corner, Akina holds Amaiya in her arms as she looks up at her older sister confused. 

“Nee-chan are they fighting?”

“Oh, they’re not fighting,” Akina assures her, before peeking around the corner to see you two have already made up. “They’re just discussing how good of a driver I am,” she lies as she shields Akina’s eyes, before taking her sister away. 

“But Nee-chan you’re not a-”

“Shhhh.”

Right now, for the first time

I think it's so cute you can't breathe right

It was the night you had gone into labor with Amaiya, it had already been thirteen hours so you’d sent Akina home with her Uncle Suga while Asahi stayed with you the whole time. 

His long legs hung off the hospital chair and no doubt the position was wildly uncomfortable yet he still refused to share the bed with you even after you insisted. You were nervous, it was your second time doing this but you were nervous. Though somehow the sound of your husband snoring in the corner of the room eased your nerves like it always has.

So sweet dreams, sweetheart, sleep tight

Must be doing something right

The one day you were sick the whole year was on Mothers Day. You felt terrible, physically and mentally. Asahi and the girls had planned an entire day for you and here you were sneezing coughing so loud you didn’t even want anyone to come near you. 

You’re laying down in your shared bed, hugging a body pillow as you pretend it’s your husband when there’s a knock on the bedroom door you croak out a ‘yes’ and the door slowly opens. “Hi sweetie,” Asahi sings, creeping in the room with flowers, cake, and a cup of soup. 

“No, no,” you whine,  “don’t come in, I’m gonna-” sneeze, “get you sick.”

“It’s mothers day, you shouldn’t spend it alone.”

“Asahi I’m serious don’t-”

“Let me rephrase, you’re not spending it alone,” he repeats, this time sterner and you pout as he sits down next to you, placing the food on the bedside table. 

“What’s all this?”

“Well I made you a soup, and I and the girls decorated the cake for you.”

You looked over at the frosting, ‘happy mothers day mommy’ written sloppily in blue icing truly had the work of your then two and fifteen-year-old children written all over it. 

“And I got you these flowers from the market.”

“My favorite,” you realize and it brings tears to your eyes. 

“Oh don’t cry,” he says and kisses tears as they fall down your cheeks. “Too pretty to cry.” 

As he pulls away from you and looks in your eyes in the softest, doting, loving way you only cried more. 

“What?” he asks, now slightly worried. 

“I just love you so much.”

“I love you,” he tells you and kisses you again, gaining a giggle from you. 

“I’m gonna get you sick.”

“Worth it.”

To deserve you in my life

So I thank God and my lucky stars alike

“Kiyoko!” you drunkenly scream. 

“Yes, Y/N?” she smiles, entertaining you. 

“I’m marrying the love of my life tomorrow!”

“Yes, you are.”

“That’s crazy.”

“It is,” she agrees, looking up behind you and you follow her gaze, gasping loudly. 

“Baby!”

“Hi, sweetie.”

“Sorry I ruined your hangout with the guys,” Kiyoko apologizes, “but she’s been talking about you for an hour.”

“No worries, thanks for calling,” Asahi says as you extend your arms up for him and you carry you and he effortlessly places you on his back. 

“We’re getting married tomorrow,” you excitedly tell him, whispering like it’s a secret. 

“Yes we are, let’s get you sobered up so you won’t be hungover okay?”

If he were, to be honest, he was a little nervous getting a call so late at night, hours before you two were supposed to be married. But all of his worries washed away once he saw the way you looked at him when he arrived, hearts practically appearing in your eyes. 

“I get to go home with you?”

“Whatever you want, love.”

“I want to go home with you, I missed you,” you confess, leaning your head on his shoulder, taking in his scent, and smiling. 

He laughed, you were only apart for four hours but still, he whispered, “I missed you too.”

'Cause I don't know what I did or how I did it but I did something-

Asahi had invited you over to his office because he wanted your opinion on a few designs for his new wedding collection. You had gotten off of work later than expected and as much as you wanted to reschedule, you had made a promise and you were going to follow through. 

You walk in and immediately notice the halls only being lit by candles and a path of roses being scattered on the floor. 

“Asahi?” you call out only to get no response. 

With how out of it you were, the first thing you thought was ‘fire-hazard’ but nonetheless, you followed the path that led down to his design gallery, a beautiful wedding Kimono placed in the center of the room. Your mouth slightly parts, in awe of the beauty and you smile. He really is something. 

“You like it?” you turn around to see Asahi, he’s wearing a light blue dress shirt tucked into his black pants. He had on your favorite pair of his glasses as his hair was off his beautiful face, slicked back neatly into a bun. 

“It’s beautiful.”

“Beautiful enough for you to wear?”

“What did you-”

He walks closer to you and slowly, but surely gets down on one knee. 

“No-” you say out of disbelief and his eyes grow wide. “I mean yes, yes!”

“I didn’t even ask-”

“Yes,” you assure him. 

Asahi had an entire speech he prepared for you and never even got to say a word of it. But he had no complaints as finally, he was able to slip that ring on your finger. That day learned that he would be perfectly fine if things didn’t go to plan, as long as he had you, he would be okay.

Don't know what I did or how I did it but I did something-

“I love you,” Asahi randomly blurts out. 

“You love me?”

“I love you,” he proudly confirms. 

It was one of the first times he had ever been so direct when talking to you, there wasn’t a hint of nervousness in his voice, no stuttering, no cracking, just honesty. He loves you. He knows that and now you do too.

You knew from that day on that he would be the first only boy you loved, because of course, you loved him too. 

Don’t know what I did or how I did it but I did something right

“Y/N,” a familiar voice called your name and you turned around. Sugawara.

He was a second-year student like you, and if you’d remembered correctly, you had a homeroom together when you were first years, only now you’d know him for being the setter on Karasuno’s volleyball team.

“Oh hey, I saw the game last night. You guys did great. Especially you and that big scary guy, pretty cool duo.”

“Thanks Y/N!”

“Yeah, anytime,” you warmly smile, expecting the conversation to be over only for him to rock back and forth on his heels, still standing in front of you as he looks over his shoulder, then back to you. 

“Is there something else?”

“Um- well about that guy, his name’s Asahi.”

“Okay?”

“And he’s kinda shy when it comes to these things so-”

“He likes you!” Daichi screams across the hall and Asahi hides in embarrassment next to him. 

“Oh,” you say. “So what do you want me to do?”

Sugawara sighs, “can I just get your number, if you don’t like him that’s fine, he’ll probably be too nervous to call anyways,” he called.

“Um,” you hesitate, peeking down the hall to see the juxtaposition of a seventeen-year-old kid who looked like a man whose face turned beet-red just by making eye contact with you. Cute. “Sure.”

I don't know what I did or how I did it but I did something right

the playlist📼

Karasuno Materlist

Return to Main Masterlist

[scoopsahoy]

Can I please request a Steve Harrington imagine where you talk about baby names for your soon do be born baby? If that's too specific just anything about baby and pregnancy with Steve, I’m a sucker for that shit. :)

ぺ word count ⋰ 1k

✰ tw ⋰ none :)

❍ cw ⋰ pregnancy

៚  a/n ⋰ i’m so sorry this took a little while! i’ve been a little preoccupied with work and such but i’m doing my best to keep writing when i have the energy :)

✐ masterlist

⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★

You sighed as you finally got comfortable in your bed, despite the kicking against your stomach.

You were now seven months pregnant and it was the hottest day of the year, meaning Steve insisted on keeping you inside and out of the heat. You found out a couple of months prior that you were having a girl, so he’d always say “my girls” when referring to you and the baby.

You had been together for about three years before you got pregnant, and marriage hadn’t seriously crossed either of your minds the entire time. You were both okay with not being married when having children, just happy you made it a few years past high school before it happened.

But just because you were okay with not being married, didn’t mean your parents were. Both of your moms had been trying to convince you guys to tie the knot before you became visibly pregnant, but you kept turning down the idea.

You were sharing a two-bedroom apartment, which you moved into together about three months before getting pregnant. Steve insisted on getting two bedrooms so his friends could stay over, and you agreed. You both had full-time jobs, and yours started giving paid maternity leave right before you found out.

Steve walked into your room right as you got comfortable, his hair wet from his shower. He placed his hands on his hips, and you raised your eyebrows.

“What?” you asked.

“How the hell do you look so hot at seven months pregnant?”

One thing that made Steve stand out from other guys was his affection and love for you. You’d been in three relationships before him, and none of them compared when it came to compliments. He’d always been the sweetest guy you’d ever met, even before you got together.

You laughed at his question.

He crawled into bed with his face by your stomach, pushing your shirt up and kissing your skin.

“You’re making me insecure about my stretch marks.”

In response to your comment, he kissed the dark lines covering your lower belly.

“I can’t believe your mom is talking shit about herself,” he whispered to his daughter.

“Steve! Language!”

“It’s not like she can hear me.”

“We don’t know that.”

“She can’t hear, babe. I promise.”

Just then, a tiny handprint pressed out of your stomach, which Steve poked. “I told you,” you taunted. “She can hear you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Y’know, since she’ll be here in two months, maybe we should finally talk about names.”

You’d both put off discussing names because your mom had experienced a couple of miscarriages before having you, and you didn’t want to jinx yourself.

His face almost lit up as names flashed through his mind.

“You sure?”

You nodded. “I've been thinking about names recently, and I think I want to name her after my grandma.”

“Which one?”

“My dad’s mom. Joanne.”

He thought about it for a second. “Joanne. I love it.”

“You don’t have to say you love it just because I suggested it.”

“I’m not! I actually do love it. It’s cute.”

You smiled and ran your hand through his hair. “What about a middle name?”

“Robin,” he said immediately.

“You didn’t even have to think about that one.”

He shrugged. “I doubt Dustin would make a good girl’s middle name.”

You smiled. You thought it was cute how much he loved his friends, enough to name his child after one of them.

“Okay. Joanne Robin Harrington.”

He got to his knees and crawled up the bed so he could give you a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“She’ll be here soon,” he said with a giddy smile.

“Two months.”

—

Holding your daughter in your arms, you gently handed her over to Robin. She normally didn’t like babies, but she got ecstatic when you asked her if she wanted to hold her.

Joanne was a week old now. She weighed eight pounds and was born at three-forty-three in the morning. It was a relatively smooth birth, other than you being in labor for about two days.

Your water broke as you were getting ready for work, and she popped out two entire days later. It was the worst pain you’d ever been in, but it was worth it.

The first time you held her after you got home, Steve called you both “My girls,” which made you smile uncontrollably.

Robin’s face was that of absolute adoration when she looked down at her. It was silent for a few seconds and Joanne just stared up at her, a smile spreading across her face.

“We named her after you,” Steve said receiving a look of confusion. “Well, her middle name.”

“Her middle name is Robin?” You both nodded. “I hope she’s just as cool,” she joked, all of you chuckling.

The first time Dustin held her, you swore he almost cried. She latched onto his pointer finger with one hand and fell asleep, leaving him stuck in a recliner for about an hour, refusing to move and shushing everyone when you got loud.

Staring down at her sleeping in her crib once everyone left, Steve wrapped his arms around you from behind, his cheek against the side of your head.

“She’s so beautiful,” he whispered.

“She looks like you when you were a baby.”

“Don’t all babies look alike, though?”

“Ours is way cuter than the other ones.”

He nodded. “That I agree with.” He kissed your temple. “You’re gonna be such a good mom.”

“You’re gonna be a good dad, too.”

“As long as I’m better than my dad.”

You turned around and placed your hands on his shoulders. “You’ll be a million times better than your dad.” You pulled him down for a kiss, and his hands trailed down to your butt.

“Ah ah ah,” you said, pulling away. “We have at least five more weeks before we can do that.” You looked down at Joanne. “I’m tired anyway. Let’s just go to bed.”

He nodded, kissing you once more. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Another kiss before he took your hand, holding it all the way to your bedroom.