Life, Love, and a Sappy Otter [Finished]

[Shinigami]

Black eyes stared down at the four squirming little bundles of joy as they nursed, still slightly wet from birth. The room about them was sumptuously appointed, as befit the rank of visiting Queen that she'd claimed for the time being, saying that her mate wished to be housed appropriately in the Court of Spades when she gave birth to their children. Other than darkening the fur of her chest to reflect the appropriate suit and rank, Quinn hadn't altered her appearance at all - it was best not to draw too much attention, especially since their children displayed characteristics of all three Realms of their parents.

Harlequinn had arrived at the shop where Vessatha worked a few weeks ago as the ferret's due date approached, groomed neatly but not nearly as polished as she had been when she had seduced the Forester in the first place - no need to set off alarms. The mark on her chest had named her a Ten of Spades, the same as she had been at the restaurant where Aderlass had first seen her, just in case he was in and wanted some consistency. Taking the ferret aside, she had explained to her then-sleepy obsession that she would appreciate it if the Forester would accompany her to the Court of Spades until she had given birth to the babies, and maybe a little while afterward, so that they could be properly taken care of? She had been perfectly willing to offer whatever bribes were necessary, but before she could get anything out, she'd been silenced by sleepy assent, and had promptly carried Vessa out of the store, stopping only long enough to explain things to whoever it had been that was in charge at the time. If they'd had problems with that, she'd ignored them.

Once at the Court she'd altered her rank, demanding a servant lead them to the rooms that she'd had prepared before, and settled Vessatha in comfortably, providing her with whatever it was that she asked for, playing the attentive, dutiful mate, and even allowing herself to be chewed upon ferociously when labor had come upon the ferret. And there they were, four perfect little lives, brought into the world by the two of them. So beautiful...

[Greenie]

Vessatha had happily slept through the entire trip to the Court of Spades, oblivious to her surroundings. Once she'd gotten there she'd been slightly mollified to find herself (once again!) surrounded by luxury, but Quinn had pacified her by feeding her and answering a lot of questions.

About a week later, it began. Her contractions started but were weak and far appart, allowing her to sleep in between them. Once she laid down and got comfortable, they kick started, sending her into a flurry of pain and panic. Before long though she was holding (or try to, anyways) four bundles of squirming mustelid, and was doing her best not to shove any of them at Quinn just yet.

After all, it was entirely Harlequinn's fault.

After they started suckling and calmed down, Vessa began examining them, trying to figure out just what the hell they all were, anyways. The purple on most of them confused her, since neither of them were purple--whatever Quinn was must have been purple at some point. Vessatha tried not to ask questions generally, and she wasn't going to start with this. The blue on one of the otters was very pretty, and the ferret happily attributed her spots to her own, along with the gorgeous pink fur on the other.

One of them was even a Jack, and Vessatha was supremely proud of him. What she didn't like, however, was that there were three boys--was her womb trying to drive her batty? Boys? What was she supposed to do with boys?

"What should we name them?" The ferret inquired softly, as one had fallen asleep cuddled against her leg. Vessa took a closer look at it and realised it had..

.. three eyes?

Vessie frowned, and gently turned the boy over so she could see his face clearly. Why did he have three eyes? Moderately disturbed, she gestured at him to Quinn with an expression that clearly read, 'this is YOUR fault'.

[Shinigami]

Quinn probably couldn't have cared in the least that there were three boys - that meant that there were three of them, and with the girl, four! Four little lives, and she'd helped create them, and she wondered just what the world looked like to them, so tiny and delicate as they took their first breaths of air. The Jack-child made her proud as well, though a tiny voice inside of her protested that she would have liked to have seen a Joker-child too, just maybe? But she hushed that little voice, because these four were everything that she could have wanted and more, and she gloried in their very existance, even the little one with three eyes, that she'd noted when he was nursing; all three were a delicate lilac, contrasting with the white of his fur, and they were lovely!

"What? Names?" her head jerked up at that, and she blinked in confusion at her mate for a second before she managed to pull her brain partially out of the sappy, melted puddle of, 'Awww, babieeeez...' Slowly she hammered it back into a semblance of working order, but couldn't help her gaze from straying back to the quartet as they settled in to sleep after their first meal. Because of that, she distinctly missed the 'this is YOUR fault' look that she recieved from the Forester.

"I don't know...I've never been very good with names, other than pet names. It should be something to fit them perfectly, but...what?" Quinn looked up at Vessatha, for once not the confident, brash otter that she generally was, but instead a doting, slightly uncertain first-time parent. "What do you think? You're the one that carried them for so long, after all. You should decide."

And then Quinn blushed.

"I don't think I ever said...thank you. So, thank you." With that she leaned over and brushed a kiss oh-so-lightly against Vessa's cheek, nothing more.

While their mothers did whatever it was that they were doing, the babies yawned. The little three-eyed boy settled all the more comfortably against the red leg he'd been lying against, while the pure Torquehelm found a blue-marked paw to use as a pillow.

[Greenie]

Vessatha watched Harlequinn, amused at her complete and total devotion to the babies. They were adorable, all four of them.. even the one with the creepy eyes, if you just ignored the third one. Maybe they could see about that when he was a bit older..

The ferret snickered when the otter jumped out of her thoughts, and rose an eyebrow at her apparant scrambling to regroup them. Wasn't she the one that had just carried four squirming bundles of fluff for nine months and then spent hours getting them out, not Quinn? Surely she should be the one with less coheren--wait, wait, no, that was just silly, Quinn having coherency.

"Hmm.." Vessa spent a few moments looking them all over idly, trying to think of names. All pretty ones that were coming to mind were all female names.. "Well. I wanted girls. It's their fault they weren't all girls, not mine." The Kahmdener stated, then grinned mischeviously. "Aphasia," She pointed to the pure Torquehelm, "Dysthymia," she pointed to the Jack, "Chiari," she pointed to the three-eyed one, and then paused.

"Uh. Saethre!" The only one left was the girl, the poor thing. Vessatha curled a paw gently around the black-and-blue otter (the paw not being used as a pillow) and Saethre immediately tucked her small body around it to be more comfortable, making soft sleepy baby noises.

Dysthymia, while he was up against Vessatha, was not curled around limbs, and looked a little left out. He turned his soft baby eyes to the other large and warm figure around--Harlequinn--and mewled softly, gently waving his paws around as best as his limited motor skills allowed for.

As Quinn leaned over and gave her a kiss, Vessatha was startled, so simply stared for a moment, then softly smiled. "You're welcome." Then she paused, her eyes narrowing, "Just don't do it again."

No more babies! .. At least not for a while.

[Shinigami]

Quinn nodded in perfect agreement with Vessatha's proclamation that she'd wanted girls, and that it wasn't her fault that she'd gotten a trio of sons instead. Though she did have one daughter, at least. The Joker didn't think it was fair to blame it on the babies - they were just babies after all, could they actually make decisions? She wondered. Harlequinn couldn't remember anything about her own childhood, or if she'd somehow consciously chosen to be a girl instead of a boy. But it was best to agree with Vessa, especially right now, after she'd just given birth and was probably exhausted.

"They're beautiful names," she said gently, looking over all four children. The fact that the boys had the girliest names of the four appealed greatly to her sense of humor, and some part of her knew that none of them would be happy with their parents for those particular designations. Well, they'd just have to deal with it, and with such fantastic examples such as herself and her dear Vessatha as parents, how couldn't they turn out perfectly?

When Vessa smiled at the kiss, Quinn returned the expression, sweet and gentle, almost as if she were just a child herself. Even after the warning, her smile didn't falter, and she just nodded. "Of course, beloved." Before she could say anything else, her attention was grabbed by the sound of mewling from little Dysthymia, the little red one of the bunch of babies, reaching up toward her with grabby ferret paws. A ferret, just like his mother. The otter gathered him up as best she could, tucking him gently against an unmarked chest as her bells chimed brightly. "So pretty," she half sang to the little Jack, as well as to Vessa and all the other babies. "Such pretty little pups, such a lovely mother, my pretty ones..." Her bells rang softly in time with her sing-song words, almost turning the whole thing into a lullabye.

Both Chiari and Aphasia, currently ignorant of their new names, slept on. Being born was hard work, after all. They'd need their energy once they woke up again!

[Greenie]

Vessatha was immediately suspicious when Harlequinn didn't disagree with her naming choice, but if the otter wasn't going to speak up, neither was Vessatha. Feminine names they would be, and that was that! "Good," she responded definitively. A little mental scarring built character, afterall!

The ferret watched as her only ferret-childling squirmed for attention from his other mommy, and smiled once more. The only red one of the bunch, and wasn't he so cute? Vessa paused, and went into a thoughtful state of mind. Her mother had given her a necklace when she was quite young, before she was old enough to understand any of the fiasco that was her childhood. She'd never worn it herself, as jewelry really wasn't her thing, but the necklace would look absolutely adorable on Dysthymia.. and she'd even managed to bring it with her, hadn't she? "Quinn," she began, "Did you happen to grab a glass necklace from my apartment when you rushed me out? I think it was on my dresser somewhere."

Dysthymia immediately latched onto what fur he could grasp, considering that Quinn was an otter with very short fur, and nestled in with a soft croon. Ahh, warmth.

Saethre suddenly decided that her mother's hand wasn't good enough, and wormed her way around until she found something slightly smaller to latch onto--namely Aphasia, who was the closest. She snuggled her nose up under his body and shoved the rest of her small form back up against Vessatha.. and promptly fell back asleep.

[Shinigami]

Quinn had been completely and utterly caught up with the little red thing in her paws, entranced by how very, very tiny he was, and how pretty he was, because he looked a lot like his mommy. She'd noted the Torquehelm wings on his back, as well as the markings on the other two and made sure to procure bindings for them, though she didn't want to make them too bad, because she had a feeling that if she did anything bad she'd find herself throttled by a certain ferret (other than the one in her arms). Maybe just some little piercings or something... Being caught up in her thoughts meant that she was once again caught by surprise when Vessa spoke up, looking at her with startled black eyes before blinking a few times and shaking her head a bit.

"A necklace, a necklace... I didn't want to take too many personal things, love, because I didn't want you to think I was invading your privacy too much, because a home is a home after all. But I probably grabbed it if it was on top of your dresser, because that's out in the open after all, so not an invasion..." As she spoke she eased herself away from the bed, moving very carefully, so very conscious of Dysthymia. When he latched on to her fur, the task got a bit easier, so that she could support him with one arm and support herself with the other. With her free hand she rooted through the various belongings that she'd never quite gotten around to organizing entirely, finally producing the requested object. "Is this it? Very pretty, I must say," she added, not quite sure if she should also add that it looked like it might be magical, though she was no expert on that. Normally she waited until she got back to civilization to have someone look at whatever it was that she'd found and tell her what it did, or if it did anything other than sparkle.

Aphasia squeaked in protest as he was used as a pillow by his sister, waking up in disgruntlement. He was too tired to care though, and once Saethre settled herself again, he dozed off as well. Chiari didn't move during the entire thing, completely oblivious to the world.

[Greenie]

Vessatha snickered under her breath when she--once gain--snapped Quinn out of her thoughts. Really, they were babies, but must she get so absorbed in staring at them? Poor things, it was a good thing they were asleep and had little recognition skills.

She had to let out a short bark of laughter at the words 'invade' and 'privacy', because really, Vessatha hadn't known that Quinn knew what they were, let alone how to apply them in a real life situation. She hadn't felt guilty about stealing her from her home and job in order to take her to a strange place, but she was almost upset about going through her things? Someone had bad priorities, that was for sure.

At Vessa's laughter Saethre furrowed her little brow, confused, and began gently gnawing on whatever happened to be by her mouth at the time--namely, Aphasia's stomach. Poor kid.

"Yes! That necklace. Would you put it on Dysthymia, please? It would look so adorable on him." Vessatha smiled as the otter found the necklace; odd that she would bring that of all things, but who was to curse good luck? "Isn't it? My mother gave it to me when I was little, and I never wore it.."

Dysthymia didn't budge as the necklace was placed around his small neck, but then again, his eyes were closed and he could see no reflections..

[Shinigami]

Aphasia seemed doomed to be his sister's toy, as he had first played teddy bear, and now he had been demoted to chew toy. This didn't mean that he was all that happy about this particular state of afairs, because when she started gnawing on his stomach, he woke up with a cry, wailing his distress about this particular fact to all who could hear him. Well, specifically, to his mother, whom he happened to be cuddled against. And probably to his sister as well, because maybe that would make her stop. The little Torquehelm flailed his paws in the air, trying to get away from her but not quite sure of where to go, because he was tired and had a full stomach, and just wanted to sleep.

True to form, Chiari didn't even twitch. Sleep was far more important than any annoying siblings, and besides, he was down by Vessa's hind feet, and thus rather far away from the other two.

As ordered, Quinn placed the necklace around the little ferret's neck, cooing at him and nuzzling him, because it really did look quite nice on him. All pretty and elegant and stuff.

"I don't have anything special and meaningful like that, but do you think we should get jewelry and stuff for the other kids, too? So that they don't stand out. Er, as much. I don't have many things, but I've got this pretty purple necklace that would look great on Chiari, I think..." She didn't mention that there was some liquid in the vial, and that she knew that it was magical, because it looked rather pretty on its own, and she figured that, with three eyes, Chiari would probably love to have even more weird things. Especially if he'd inherited her sense of humor, and since he was the only one who was part Tulgey, she had no reason as to why he wouldn't have, right?

[Greenie]

Saethre took as little notice as was possible of her brother, considering that he was now crying and all, wimpy thing that he was. It was just a love bite! .. chew! Vessatha immediately scooped Aphasia up to her chest in order to cuddle him in the crook of her arm, and gently tapped Saethre on the nose to warn her off from further random-biting espisodes. When Saethre looked somewhat disheartened, as she was now cold, Vessa sighed and tried to figure out what to do. She only had so many arms, and so did Quinn, and her legs were taken by another baby.. four! Too many!

She smiled as Quinn placed the necklace around Dysthymia, as it did look handsome on him. Immediately the baby shivered and let out a wail for no apparant reason, but within a few moments he settled back down into his mother's arms, quiet once more.

"Hmm.." The ferret paused to consider her suggestion. "Well if you have one, that would be wonderful, but I don't know that all of the kids need jewelry.."