What to do with a baby bump? [DONE]

[Greenie]

Months had gone by. Mia was safely hidden away in Midori (he couldn't resist - given the circumstances, he felt he deserved as much of a 'vacation' as possilbe), idly swimming and lounging as he felt like it, and occasionally working on paperwork and projects as they came in from the Courts. Several people had requested to come visit him, or had inquired as to why he had left, but he had turned down the requests and ignored the inquiries. They would find out as soon as he went back home, so why couldn't he have his peace now?

It wasn't until he was about five months along that the odd.. sensations started happening. He could feel the baby kicking, which he knew was normal - but it was immediately followed by an involuntary shiver throughout his body that the ferret couldn't identify for the life of him. Occasionally his belly felt slightly cold following it, as if someone had dripped ice onto it.

He could only assume it had come from the baby.

By the time Mia was seven months along and the sensations were coming more and more often, he began to become worried for himself and the child. He'd been doing his best not to think about his pregnancy in general - despite the baby bump, it was remarkably easy to do - but as time neared his due date, he couldn't help but wonder exactly what kind of child was going to enter his life. He didn't know enough about Christopher to make any assumptions about his genetics, but Mia had a sinking feeling that whatever had happened to this baby had nothing to do with it's father, but more to do with the necklace that Mia never took off - had never taken off.

It had enough foul effects on it's wearer that he could easily jump to conclusions and say it might have transferred onto his baby. Mental conditions were known to be genetic afterall, and what better way to describe what happened when he looked in a mirror? He could read people's true intentions simply by looking at a reflection of their face, and the ever-near shadows at the edge of his vision were just sinister enough for him to hope with everything he had that they were not what his baby inherited. The sight itself, the ability to read people was not horrible - it took years to get adjusted to and the shock of it never quite went away - but those shadows could evolve and create more problems than anything else.

By the time his contractions started a few months later, Mia had become terrified, mostly thanks to his own worrying and the lack of reassuring presences around him. (His 'midwife', if you could call her that, was the local witchdoctor that gave him just as many heebie-jeebies as his baby did. He realised he should have picked a safer location, such as Corvistowne or the Highlands, a tad too late.) The labor was incredibly painful and accompanied by the constant shivering - which Mia had concluded derived from the baby's physical touch - and he was to the point of passing out when the delivery was finally over.

His relief at first seeing the baby was indescribable. The child was a perfect blend of his parents, and somehow managed to encorporate both breeds along with all three regions of his heritage - yet he was adorable, a long, little puppy with multicolored stripes and spots.

The relief faded immediately when thin blue trails of something began pouring out of the baby's back and hind legs. The witchdoctor handed him the baby with a frown, and Mia immediately shuddered - confirming his thesis - and could only stare as his he felt the cold radiating from the baby in the areas of the trails.

What the hell had happened to his child?

[Greenie]

Dysthymia was still struggling to understand what had happened, even as he returned to the Courts a few weeks later. Zether (what he decided to name the boy, for no particular reason other than he liked the name) was a remarkably good baby, though he willingly admitted his experience with newborns was essentially nonexistant. He only cried when he was hungry or needed a change - though occasionally he'd whine until Mia came over, at which point he'd promptly stop and stare up at his mother as if nothing had ever happened.

All in all, he was a slightly strange baby. The blue-stuff had formed into two distinct wing-like shapes on his back, and could be mistaken for extra fur on his legs if it weren't for the fact that it was constantly vaporizing and re-appearing. It seemed to do nothing other than look cool and be cold, and certainly wasn't harming anyone, Zether included, so Mia just did his best to ignore the fact that his baby was cold all the time. The shivers and chills he got from contact Mia learned to ignore and repress over the period of a few days, but it caught him off-guard more times than he could count.

He could only imagine what other cards were going to think about it. Zether's enemies, at least, would be creeped out, and that was a good thing.. right?

--

Dysthymia was sneaking about, once again. He had purposefully timed his return to be after nightfall, to avoid as much of the Court traffic as possible. He had Zether safely snuggled in a wrap-around carrier, and while it hindered his ability to move quickly, he was still able to quietly sneak into the Courts and was almost to his rooms when Vessatha moved out of the shadows and stepped into his way.

He swore, and sat back on his haunches. "How do you always know where the hell I am?"

[Greenie]

Contrary to her son's opinion, Vessatha didn't and had no wish to know his whereabouts every moment of his life. She actually had no idea where he'd disappeared to for the past seven months (she had an idea that only Lysaras actually knew, but she wasn't about to ask her Queen for that information and expose the fact that Mia hadn't told her) and had only managed to wrangle his estimated return date by bribing an unlucky feline that happened to have a weakness for chocolate cookies.

The ferret had spent most of the evening safely hidden behind a pillar near his rooms, and while she'd brought a book it hadn't quite managed to fend off the complete and total boredom that enveloped her after spending five hours in the same spot. Thankfully Mia had appeared before her legs cramped enough to fall off, and she could only grin at the swaddled up bundle tucked next to his chest. "I'm your mother," She stated in response. "I'm supposed to know."

After a few seconds of his baleful stare at her, she rolled her eyes and held out her paws. "You might as well let me see the baby now, before everyone else does, so I don't get pissy about it," Vessa said in a knowing tone, completely unaware of anything strange about the child.

[Greenie]

Mia narrowed his eyes suspiciously, then decided to just give it up. If it meant he'd know exactly where Zether was at all times, he wasn't going to whine that Vessatha knew where he was. As long as she stayed the hell away from him and didn't butt in constantly, he really didn't give a shit.

His hesitation at showing her the baby was obvious. It was a few moments before he began to unwrap the puppy and a few minutes before he was able to pull him out. Zether whined slightly at the sudden drafts that were pushing against his body, and immediately cuddled up against Mia's warmer body, licking slightly at the coarse fur of his chest. Mia stared down at him for a few moments, then reluctantly handed him over to his grandmother. "Careful," He warned innocuously, though the simple word had far more meaning behind it than Vessatha would immediately ascertain. "His name is Zether."

[Greenie]

Vessatha simply glared as patiently as possible while Mia drew out the process of unwrapping the baby. Really, was it that big of a deal to let her see her first grandbaby? If this is what he did with Quinn he was in for a surprise - she would most likely rip the baby out of his hands and parade it off somewhere to coo over it for an obnoxious length of time.

At least it's what she'd done after their litter had been born, so she could only assume the excitement would grow for a grandbaby litter. It was much more important, afterall, to have grandbabies than babies. (Vessa never intended to understand it.)

So upon accepting the child, she was completely unprepared for the sudden chill that went through her. It passed immediately, leaving her looking down at the puppy with a frown - Zether failed to notice anything unusual and was snuggling up against her fur as he had with his mother's. A few seconds passed and the feeling didn't return, so she shrugged slightly and held him up to inspect him closer.

He was some kind of canine, that was evident, but the longer-than-average body had to be from the mustalid genes. The father was Esterberry, Vessie thought with a smirk, but she was surprised to note Kahmden spots and a black underbelly that could only be Torquehelm - the child was most certainly unique. The only thing she couldn't place were the strange tendrils slowly drifting off from his back and legs. They almost looked like wings and fluff, but she couldn't identify it so placed it as some sort of mutation he must have inherited from the father.

Who knew Mia would sleep with freaks? Apparantly if he was going to do something he was against, he was going to go all-out.

After a minute she frowned, and looked more closely at his face. "He's nearly blind in his right eye. Did you know that?"

[Greenie]

Dysthymia was prepared for shouting, throwing of things and a hasty reverse trade-off of the baby. What he was not prepared for was the frown and the slight shrug, then a careful examination of his child.

Where was the fit, the outrage of how dare he have an unnatural baby and not produce normal grandchildren? The reaction Vessatha gave was not one he was expecting, and he could only stare, dumbfounded, as she held Zether in her arms.

Her words shocked him out of his stupor, and the ferret frowned. "He is? I had no idea, no.." Mia trailed off, his brow furrowed. Christopher had sight problems, that he knew from the glasses - but nearly blind? He'd had no idea, but perhaps Zether's had worsened further than his father's. Drat, that meant he was going to have to figure out what to do about it.

Babies didn't need vision. Did they?

[Greenie]

Vessatha nodded absently, then shrugged and gently handed him back to Mia. "It's only the one eye, though. He'll have to wear a monocle," She stated, then snickered. The kid would look awfully funny with a monocle at his age, but it would be better than popping the lens out of glasses.

She looked up and rose an eyebrow. "Has he met his father yet?" She inquired, her eyes narrowing. Vessatha was willing to bet that the child hadn't, and she had a feeling he might not be for a while, if ever. Who knew how this person Mia had slept with would react to a child?

.. Had Mia even told him he was pregnant? Probably not, stupid child. It would be very much so like him to just show up unannounced one day and proclaim someone a father, then walk off again without saying a word. It was hilarious, but a tad bit rude.

[Greenie]

Mia carefully took the baby band and re-swathed him in the carrier. Zether managed to get one paw out and wiggled it around in the manner of a puppy - but the 'plasm trails swinging in the air made Mia hastily stuff the paw back in. It earned him a few playful bites from Ze, who thought his mother's paw was a toy, but it was better than seeing that stuff floating around. (Why hadn't he slept with something less teethy, such as a bird? Beaks were less obnoxious, weren't they?) After a few minutes of squirming unhappily, Zether settled down physically and contented himself with chewing on the blanket.

At Vessatha's question, Mia didn't look up, but readjusted some of the blankets in an obviously avoidant manner. "He will," He said finally, then stood up and began walking around. "I need to get him to bed," Mia said, despite the puppy's obvious awake state, and walked off without another word.

[Greenie]

[Because I felt bad when I saw I only had two posts more.]

Vessatha harrumphed in a manner far older than her actual age. She couldn't help it - she could practically feel herself aging the more time she spent around her children. It was part of the reason she avoided them so much: her health and sanity. Just having a grandchild made it all worse, but she was thankful there was only the one - she didn't want to think about what would happen when Saethre found someone dumb enough to spawn with her. The ferret visibly shuddered just from thinking about it, so went back to glaring at Mia's retreating figure.

Rude child, walking away without so much of a 'goodbye' or 'see you in the morning mother', though she'd probably get offended at the later and remind him that she had better things to do than babysit her grandchild. It made her wonder what he was going to do with the kid while he was working - Vessa had no doubts whatsoever that he wouldn't put aside any of his duties for the child - but she wasn't about to volunteer to help. She probably could rally up some maids and get a working daycare going, but it would require huge amounts of favors and he wouldn't be in the least grateful, so as far as Vessa was concerned he was on his own.

Hopefully the kid wouldn't suffer too much from lack of parental attention, but hers had turned out fine (.. -ish) so she could only hope for the best.

A bit disgruntled, the ferret grabbed her discarded book and headed back to her rooms.

[Greenie]

[And now I just feel like it.]

Mia made it back to his rooms in record time. He was vaguely surprised that everything wasn't covered in a layer of dust - someone had been nice and kept everything clean while he was gone - but was thankful nonetheless. His suitcase was stowed away at the end of the bed, but he didn't need it right away; the ferret climbed onto the bed and loosened the carrier so Zether could wiggle out.

The puppy immediately latched onto one of Mia's wires. Zeth seemed to find them infinitely fascinating for no reason the ferret could comprehend - what was so fun about a wire? - and tended to tug on them too hard if Mia wasn't paying attention. Today they were lax enough because of Mia's position that Zether was laying across his lap and batting at them and biting them, thankfully with no lasting effect to the bindings.

It wouldn't be difficult to replace it, but he'd rather not put himself through that - the last time one had been replaced was nearly ten years ago now, after his last major growth spurt. Mia did his best not to remember that.

Dysthymia sighed, and gently stroked Zether's dark underbelly while the puppy playfully squirmed back and forth. What had he gotten himself into? When he'd first met Christopher he would never have imagined himself getting pregnant by him - and yet here was the living proof of it.

Mia really, really needed to start thinking before acting. Really. He'd gotten himself into enough trouble with it over the past few years that one would think he'd learned some restraint, but no! One heated, angry argument turned into heated, angry sex, and three months later he was sporting a less-than-fashionable baby bump and was taking a 'vacation' to Midori. It wasn't exactly where his roadmap of life was supposed to take him.

Queens, why couldn't Christopher have gotten pregnant? That would have been easier, not to mention twice as amusing. Maybe he would have started thinking about someone other than himself in a decent light.. but then again, maybe not. Mia would never claim to be a good parent, but he felt a tad bit better knowing Zether was going to be in the Courts while he was unavailable, not stuck in some stuffy library in Esterberry.

He had a feeling that when Christopher got around to coming to Spades though, Zether would be making his first trip to a library with him.