“WHAT?!”
“I agree,” Cyrus rudely chimed in, ignoring his protests. “We can’t risk the eggs rolling off. Also, what happens when we aren’t in the room? If they become too active, they could fall!”
“They are not going to roll off, my nest is perfectly safe! Also, we have an incubator, right, Doc?”
“Yep, we do. It’s all ready and waiting to be used. I’ll have them move it into your room, so when you aren’t in there, it can?—”
Killian gasped in horror. “Wouldn’t moving them constantly put them at risk?!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! I’m supposed to be the paranoid one! And I am not staying glued to my nest for two months just because you don’t want the eggs moved! Like, I do have needs, you know! Unless you want our babies to meet their birthing father while he looks and smells like a garbage dump!”
“There will be zero harm, or really any movement involved with using the incubator. The one we have hovers above and sucks the eggs up, so no one will have to actually handle them,” Dr. Corradetti said, her voice full of humor.
“That…sounds so much worse than what I was picturing,” the Siren responded slowly.
Cyrus snorted. “Gonna have to agree.”
Ender just sighed at the two men. Though…it wasn’t exactly what he’d been picturing either, but he was also not staying in bed for two fucking months.
The Dryad smiled. “It’s fine, I promise. While Ender isn’t wrong about the dropping and crushing thing, once the eggs have fully hardened, that danger is pretty much gone. Nothing will break them until they are ready to hatch. Not to mention, what the babies are suspended in is strong enough that it would be hard to—” She cut off, pursing her lips. “Ah, what’s the best way to say this…scramble them?”
His two baby daddies flinched beside him, as Ender’s face scrunched in disgust. “Ruby, that was not the way to say that.”
She barked out in laughter. “Nonetheless, I feel you are all underestimating—yourself included, Ender—how willing you will be to stay away from your eggs for any length of time. In fact, I’m predicting the incubator will likely only be used when you have to leave the bed for personal needs.”
“Nonsense,” Ender huffed, even as he winced on remembering just how little he had left his nest the last time.
The sharp stab of loss was almost instant as he remembered nesting with Nyla. Her egg had been so small, and her shell had hardened much too soon. Something they realized at the first sign of a crack. They honestly had gotten lucky that she came early. The cracking would have been worse, and would have likely resulted in her, or even his, death, if he’d carried for another month as he should have. Even so, they hadn’t been sure she’d make it…but she had…
Not that it had mattered much in the long run… He’d lost her five years later, along with everyone else.
Cyrus couldn’t help but notice when Ender’s mood shifted in the doctor’s office. The Gorgon had obviously remembered something painful.
His gaze briefly met Killian’s as they ushered Ender out of the office. The look in the Siren’s eyes told him he wasn’t the only one who had noticed. But they remained silent as they walked back.
“Let’s go meet with Severo and his family,” Ender announced on reaching the faded red double doors of their home.
“No,” Killian snorted. “You are on nest rest. They can come to you.”
Ender sputtered. “I can spare a moment before that!”
“Don’t make me pick you up again,” Cyrus warned. “She said any day now, so you are going directly to bed after shifting.”
“You are not the boss of me! Respect your elders!” Ender blustered, in full old man fashion.
“Up you go.”
“DON’T YOU DARE!”
He scooped the protesting man up before he had a chance to run away. The Gorgon grumbled, but did not do much in terms of fighting him off. It didn’t take long to reach the room they shared with Ender. And after more complaints, eventually, they’d managed to get the man in his Gorgon form, and settled in his nest.
Now in just a white T-shirt that was molded around his large, rounded belly, Ender was sitting with his tail coiled beneath him, the very tip hanging over one edge. Partly slithered under a mound of loose clothes he had in his nest, the Cryptid was clearly pouting as he sat there, arms crossed.
Killian and him had just crawled onto the bed when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Killian called out.
The door opened and a very tired looking Severo and Seri walked in, bags under their eyes, their expressions strained.
