The others stayed back, annoyingly staring while the doctor crawled onto the bed and prompted him to turn on his side a bit. He winced as she spread his cheeks and prodded at his poor sore cloaca, before sighing while she cleaned him multiple times with a warm, wet towel, before patting him dry.
“No tearing,” Dr. Corradetti announced happily, before moving his tail a bit, and pulling a few things his brain was tootired to identify from her bag, to check his eggs. After a few silent moments, she coiled his tail back over his eggies, and patted him on the hip. “Good job, Ender. Everything looks good to go. The shells are intact, no cracks. Get some rest, we can talk more in the morning.” With that said, Ruby turned to the group behind her and snapped, “All of you, get out! You can visit when it’s not 3am. This included you, Soren, in case you thought you were exempt.”
Soren let out an irritated chirp, as the others grumbled, but she ignored their protests and just started prodding them out of the room. Ruby closed the door behind her, leaving as well once she had succeeded.
The Siren was creating quite a few pearls in his nest, as he gently caressed his snake coils, and whispered shakily, “Good job.”
He smiled weakly, and rasped, “What do they look like? My vision is different in this form.”
“One is a bit larger, and overall, a light tawny brown color with purple speckles. While the other is a pearlescent white with light grayish-purple and teal speckles,” Cyrus said softly, before adding, his voice full of emotion, “They are perfect.”
“Ahh, cute little eggies,” he giggled tiredly.
Killian sniffled. “Mm, they are cute.”
“The cutest,” Cyrus agreed.
Glancing from one man to the other, his eyes widened slightly as a realization hit him. The conversation he heard, they hadn’t been lying. The looks in their eyes, the smiles on their faces…they were warm, so very warm. Warm enough to touch the permanent coldness that seemed to radiate from his heart since losing his family.
Were they really happy…being there with him? But wasn’t he just interfering in their relationship? Maybe… Maybe he wasn’t. He could smell it…their fear. The room was filled with it. They’dbeen worried about him. He could tell by the way they touched his hair and held him, their relief was obvious. It was him they had been worried about too, not just his babies… No, not his,theirbabies.
As their warmth touched him more and more, Ender found he couldn’t suppress the growing urge he hadn’t known he had, or possibly had just ignored, to want what they were offering. But was it okay for him to? With those questions in his head, the man he’d planned to spend eternity with came to mind.
Coop…would it be okay for me to…let them in?The Gorgon’s smiling face flashed into his head, causing new tears to flood Ender’s eyes. The truth was…he didn’t even need to ask. Coop would have been yelling at him for holding out for so fucking long.
But he would hold on for a little while longer… He just wasn’t ready yet. Even if he couldn’t fully let go right that moment, he would soon, but before that, he would start to let them in.
Sniffing hard, he softly croaked, “Thank you both for coming.”
Their smiles widened, before a no longer crying Killian cheekily said, “Thank you for not eating us that first day.”
Ender giggled. “No problem. Now, cuddle closer, I’m cold.”
“Mm,” Cyrus grunted as the man pressed more firmly against him and the side of the nest. At the same time, Killian wrapped himself closely around him, while the lower half of Ender’s body remained coiled over their eggs.
He hesitated for a moment, struggling to keep his eyes open, before managing to say, “O-our babies…they uh—I mean, we—” He cleared his throat. “—need to name them.”
Before, Ender had intended to just decide by himself, even when they’d first come to the compound, so he’d never brought it up. And likely they’d been too afraid to. But this could be a start for them…
Killian let out a surprised laugh that was full of delight. “Yes, we do, don’t we?”
“We do,” Cyrus rumbled softly. “We can start a list tomorrow, or rather, later today.”
A yawn forced its way out, and Ender sleepily mumbled, “Mm, later,” as his eyes slid shut. Later or tomorrow, it didn’t matter. Either way, something new was starting between them. Something new that hopefully had a happy ending.
Cyrus popped the grape into Ender’s mouth as he said, “Brock.”
“Mm, no,” the Gorgon drawled after swallowing.
They’d mostly lazed about since Ender had given birth early yesterday morning, with random people stopping by to see Ender and the eggs. Currently, the man was in his Gorgon form, curled up in his nest, wrapped around their eggs. He was partly cuddled up to Cyrus’ left side, while Killian rested against Cyrus’ right, with a tablet in hand, recording every name they came up with.
It being mid-day, they had gotten a good start on three ever-growing lists; Like, Maybe, and No.
“Avier,” Killian mused.
“Oh, I like that one,” Ender chimed happily, before cutely opening his mouth and waiting.
Smirking, he pulled another grape off the bunch and tossed it in. “What about Bricker?”
