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Post by The Jenn on Jul 28, 2008 21:05:47 GMT -5
Lior reddened slightly beneath his pale fur when she returned the affection, glad he had moved close first this time. Normally she was the one to initiate any sort of contact, but he'd always been hesitant to accept affection from anyone but his sister. "Thank you for the food. I was starting to run low, so I cut back and ate smaller meals. It wasn't so bad - I used to eat a lot less when I had to worry about my weight. At the time, of course, I was stupid and tried to get it back up." He shook his head at his own wastefulness and went inside. Living on the streets for a few years had made him appreciate food much more than he ever had at the palace.
When she paused at the doorway, he blinked and turned, then carefully took the bag from her with his mouth and carried it into the kitchen. He would worry about shuffling it all into the lower cabinets and fridge later.
She'd followed him in and he offered her a smile, watching her expression and wondering if something was wrong. She looked kind of tense, even if she'd seemed happy to see him. Was it just something carrying over from her time elsewhere or did it have to do with him? Would someone else be using the house and he needed to vacate for a little while? That was the first thing to jump to his mind because he constantly fretted over being an imposition to her. They were the same kind of worries he'd carried about being a burden to his sister and uncle.
"You look a little worried about something," he murmured, moving to stand closer and flicking his tail in a little bit of stress himself. What if that really was what she came here for, besides groceries? He could probably go back to haunt the park for a few days if he needed to, find a tree to sleep in when the weather was good and that sort of thing.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 28, 2008 22:39:01 GMT -5
Rhiannon nudged the feline at his blush, grinning at him. He was such a kind man, and his quickness to blush made her feel almost giggly. The red touch to his cheeks was cute, and it certainly made him look more healthy... Either that or it was the time he'd been able to spend off of the streets. Either way, she felt relatively certain that he looked far better than he had the last time they'd met. "I'm so sorry it took me so long to bring you more,[/b]" she said, ducking her nose. "Things have been... busy, to say the least.[/b]" she laughed softly.
She could feel the panic bubbling up in her chest as he took the bag away from her, her ears flicking back slightly. How did she say this? How was he going to react? Suits knew she hadn't reacted well to the news... But then Lior was so gentle and sweet, all she could do was hope for the very best.
"Yeah.[/b]" she said, sounding a little distant. She nudged his side, motioning for him to sit in one of the chairs, taking a seat next to him. She had always heard that you should be sitting down for important news, and this must have qualified as being important. She nudged his cheek. "I am worried. And scared.[/b]" she laughed weakly. How could she have been so unprepared? She knew well that this was the risk of sex... Well, there was no better way to give bad news than to just give it. "Lior, I-I'm pregnant.[/b]"
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 28, 2008 22:49:51 GMT -5
The distant answer worried Lior and he followed her into the living room, settling next to her on one of the wider chairs. When she said she was scared, all his worrying about whether or not he'd be able to stay there was blown away and replaced with complete confusion. She had to be talking about something else, then, and it was probably entirely personal. Maybe she just wanted someone to talk to and that was why she had come? He could live with that. One wing extended to go around her, awkward but an attempt at comfort nonetheless.
Her next words made him freeze and stare at her, golden eyes going incredibly wide. She was... pregnant. And she wouldn't be talking to him about this unless he was responsible, would she? He didn't know, but it was a safe bet that it was his fault. He hadn't really thought about the possibility before, just assumed that she would take care of making sure she was safe and that would be that. The guilt started to gnaw at him almost immediately. This was another thing he'd done to her, even if she had already forgiven him the death because of her subsequent resurrection.
He hesitated, and the first words out of his mouth sounded confused, scared, worried, and hesitant. "D-do... you want to be?"
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 28, 2008 23:07:34 GMT -5
Even though his movement was awkward, it provided Rhiannon with the support that she needed for the moment, and it took every bit of her resolve to keep from openly bursting into tears. Poor, sweet Lior! It seemed that since she had come into his life, things had only become more complicated - sure, he now had a place to stay, but first there was his guilt over her death, and now there was this! How would he feel about it? After all, she had been the one to make the move on him, and this was all her fault. The look of shock on his face made her tense up slightly, golden eyes wide with worry.
When he spoke, his words so soft and hesitant, she did begin to cry. It wasn't a great eruption of emotions like she felt it must have been, just a few small tears rolling down her oily cheeks. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but this was almost too much to take. She was struck once again, as she had been when they'd first met, with the desire to make him smile again, show him that life was alright.
"I can't tell you that I was planning on this,[/b]" she said, voice extremely soft, giving him a reassuring lick on the cheek. "But my mother once told me something. She told me that I should never sleep with someone I wouldn't want to eat breakfast with.[/b]" she smiled slightly, letting out a soft laugh. It had sounded funny at the time, and for a long time, the young woman hadn't paid any attention to her mother's words. Now, however, they made perect sense.
"I guess what I'm saying is...[/b]" she hesitated, looking a little embarassed. Her tail thumped once. "As long as you're... okay with this, I am too.[/b]"
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 28, 2008 23:20:39 GMT -5
The tears at first terrified Lior. Oh hills, what had he done to her? She didn't want this or she wouldn't have started crying, would she? He had just made everything a millions times harder for her. Was that any way for him to repay the kindness she had shown him, letting him stay in her apartment and buying him food for absolutely nothing in return except for whining at her and getting her pregnant. He should be shot. What a horrible person he was.
All of this flashed through his head in a matter of seconds, and her lick brought him out of the guilt-indiced haze like a shock. Even crying, she was still being affectionate and laughing. She was such a good person...
He felt no lie in her words - he never felt lies from her, which was such a refreshing change from most people - and he looked at her closely. She certainly seemed stressed upset, but she didn't seem mad or miserable or anything like that. "I don't mind," he said quietly, tail curling against her rump. "I was just... so surprised. I'm sorry that I made you cry." His expression was both earnest and guilty. She needed to know how sorry she was. "And about all of this. I guess I just never thought about it. At all. But if you don't mind having m-my children," the words felt thick and awkward on his tongue, the idea still so foreign, "then I don't mind helping you to raise them. If you want me to."
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 28, 2008 23:40:58 GMT -5
Rhiannon rubbed at her eyes with her forepaws, struggling to stop the tears from flowing. It felt as if she was losing the battle at first, but eventually, her eyes did dry. She had heard stories about her mother's own pregnancy and the emotional battle she had fought when it came to her hormones. She could only imagine what her own would be like. She had run away from Temmin before he could examine her more thouroughly, so she knew very little, only that she was beginning to show fairly early.
And she did know what that meant, sadly. She would not have her mother's luck of a small litter. The young woman lay on her side slightly, pressing her head against Lior's white chest, finding comfort in the physical contact and in the things he said to her. She was wrong to have worried.
"You didn't make me cry, Lior, don't be sorry,[/b]" she said, giving him a small smile and a lick to his chin. Inside, she was still beyond terrified. But now she at least knew that she wouldn't have to go through this all alone, and that was worth quite a bit to her. "I want to have your children,[/b]" she said, the words coming out before she'd even gotten a chance to filter them. Though there was a bewildered look on her face, the words rang true. Of all the men she'd met, Lior was the gentlest, and Rhiannon knew that he would be a good father. He would take care of her. "And everything will be just fine, I'm sure of it. Might be hard, though... I'll need to stay with you for the last few months, most likely.[/b]"
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 28, 2008 23:57:38 GMT -5
Lior wasn't quite sure what to say at this point. He was going to be a father. Rhiannon actually wanted to have his children, and it wasn't a lie. That shocked him even more than the fact of becoming a father-to-be. How could she possibly know him well enough to want him as the father to her children? He was a bad person. He would probably scare them just by being near them, like he did everyone else besides her. And she still wanted them, from him? He didn't think he would ever begin to understand her, but he was so glad she had come into his life that it was almost a tangible feeling.
"I'll take care of you as best I can," he promised her, even though in reality he tended to need more caring than she ever would. She was a much stronger person emotionally, from everything that he'd seen.
Again at a loss for words, he just leaned his head over and began to groom her neck, ridged tongue rasping over her thick fur. She was oily, but it didn't smell or taste bad and it gave her fur a luster that his had lacked for a long time.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 29, 2008 0:08:44 GMT -5
Rhiannon was completely unaware of his inner emotional turmoil. If she had know what he'd been thinking, she would have done something to try and put his heart to rest. As it was, she wasn't entirely sure how things would work, but she was struck with the innate knowledge that it would. People got pregnant and had children all the time, and things only went bad some of the time. They were both Hearts, so she wouldn't have to worry as her own mother did, and of high rank. She would make sure that she ate well and took care of her body. What could go wrong if she did that?
"Your best is good enough for me.[/b]" she murmured, moving into the grooming. There was something about the feeling of a scratchy tongue on her fur that was just so nice, and she began to wag her tail, feeling her previous tensions begin to melt away.
"I wonder how many there will be,[/b]" she said, voice somewhat distant as her mind worked. "I was born into a small litter... You were too, weren't you? So hopefully we'll only have a few.[/b]" She giggled softly at this, smoothing the fur of her front down with her paws. For as much as she'd heard around the courts, there was much that she didn't really know about Lior. It was fine with her, though. It just meant that she could talk to him directly. After all, his opinion was the one that really mattered to her on most things.
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 29, 2008 0:24:03 GMT -5
Lior's own tail was still flicking with worried thoughts, but it was behind them both so she wouldn't be able to feel it. His tongue moved from her neck to her scruff and the spot just above her wings. It eventually slowed, then stopped as she spoke.
"I only had one sister," he agreed thoughtfully. This was relatively safe talk and he didn't mind thinking about it. "My half-sisters on my father's side came from a litter of two as well, and I think Uncle Bernard once said that my father came from a litter of two, and his father from a litter of two. Papa, I don't know. I think he sired a litter of five once... but that may just have been the woman. And then another litter, I think there were only two there." Of course, he didn't know about Fluffy. The whole situation of his family was confusing and convoluted, and trying to find patterns for anything was very difficult.
He looked down at her side curiously and was just able to see a roundness that hadn't been there before. He wouldn't have thought it anything more than a few pounds and not noticed, but now that he knew, he could see it. "I hope they're as pretty as you are," he said quietly, looking at her stomach. "And nice. And patient. I can't see you having anything less than beautiful children."
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jul 29, 2008 0:46:01 GMT -5
Rhiannon whined softly as his gentle grooming stopped, licking softly at his chin again but then stopping to let him speak. Things were sounding more positive for her - she was learning to deal with the knowledge that she was going to have children, but knowing that she wasn't likely to have a large litter was certainly a relief. She worried about whether or not she would be a good mother, but if all else failed, she would return to the medicine that had helped her keep her mind under control. "I was a litter of two as well,[/b]" she said. "Something we have in common, it seems. My mother had one sister, and my dad was an only child... Well, he had a half-brother, but that doesn't really count.[/b]"
Of course, a bothering part of her mind began to speak up, whispering that if that was the case, then why was it already affecting her so much? She couldn't be that far along. Her tail wagged cheerfully, and she pushed the troubling thoughts back again, deciding that now was not the time to worry. They would worry about things as they came up.
At Lior's words, Rhiannon blushed deeply, hiding her face against his chest and laughing softly. She didn't even know what to say to that. If she had been her father, she would have almost certainly had something charming to say in reply, but all she could do was blush and paw at him. "You're a horrible flirt![/b]" she finally said, pulling back to look at him, finally finding the appropriate reply to what he'd said. He was a master of stealing her eloquence! "Besides, they'll be your children too... Even if they inherit all my bog stink, they'll still have your genes to offset everything bad mine will do to them. And if we have a boy, I can just hope he takes after his father.[/b]" she placed her foot against his chest, laughing quietly.
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