His family.
Obeying what his body told him to do, he brought his lips to Al’s and kissed him gently but passionately. He was no touch telepath, but he poured as much emotion into the kiss as he could, wanting Al to feel what he was feeling, and to know how glad Jude was to have him there.
Al returned the kiss, and while it was brief, it made Jude’s heart sing.
He was not afraid anymore.
He could do this.
He would lay Al’s eggs.
And while he didn’t know for certain what would happen afterward, he knew that Al would take care of him. Him and the eggs both.
The next egg descended not long after that, and with it returned Jude’s labor pains. He cried out, pushing with everything he had, until it, too, was born. It went on like that for nearly forty minutes until finally, the last egg was born. There were seven in total, and all of them were a white sand color with color-shifting markings that could move and change.
Ezra, who had returned with towels ages ago, and who was just standing by the door holding them, pale as a sheet, finally set them down on the laundry chair and said, “I, uh, think Corbin is having an existential crisis in the bathroom. I’m gonna go check on him and give you guys some time alone. Um, good job, bud. That was—yeah. Anyway.”
He disappeared through the door, closing it gently behind him.
In his absence, the room was comfortably quiet. Jude settled back as Al fetched one of the towels and used it to clean Jude up the best he could, all the while murmuring words of praise. Once the mess was cleaned to his liking, he then gathered up the eggs, one by one, and arranged them on the bed so that he, Jude, and all seven of them could fit on it together, the clutch nestled safely between them.
Jude was drawn to the eggs like a magnet. He kept caressing them, delighting in the way his touch made their shells light up in a rainbow of colors, their patterns swirling, like they were so happy to be with him that they couldn’t contain themselves.
Jude had the absurd urge to kiss them, despite where they’d just been.
They’re not yours,he reminded himself.You’re giving them up.
Simply thinking the words made him feel hollow with bottomless grief. Maybe it was hormones or some sort of alien magic, but regardless of the cause, he loved his eggs, and wanted nothing more than to protect them. He didn’t want them out of his sight for even a moment—how was he going to handle sending them to anotherplanet?
“You are crying, Jude,” Al said, alarmed. “Are you still in pain?”
“No,” Jude whispered, letting his tears fall. It was true. He could already feel his body starting to heal itself, and while he was bone tired and sore beyond belief, he was no longer in active pain.
“Then why do you feel sadness?”
“It’s just been a big day, that’s all,” Jude lied. “But look, I did it. I didn’t die. I had your eggs.”
Al furrowed his brow in thought, pondering something. He then shifted a little closer, careful not to jostle the eggs too much.
“Perhaps,” he said slowly, “if only for now, we can pretend that they areoureggs, and not solely mine.”
Jude’s eyes filled with tears anew.
“Oureggs.” He tested the phrase out on his tongue.
“Is that all right?” Al asked, sounding nervous. Jude swallowed thickly and nodded.
“It’s all right,” he agreed. He leaned into Al and let himself be cradled. “They’re our eggs. For now.”
19
Al
It had been nearly a full Earth day since the clutch had been born, and since then, Al had hardly left Jude’s side. He was capable of it, certainly, but had quickly found out that being away from his True Mate and their offspring caused actual physical pain in his chest. It was puzzling, as there was no biological reason this pain should exist, but he ascribed it to the feelings of protectiveness he had for his little family.
Well, “little” might have been a relative term. For his species, seven eggs was a small-to-average-sized clutch—he himself having come from a clutch of thirteen—but Jude had insisted that seven children born at once was “enough to land us a bad reality TV show.”
Al did not see the appeal of such a show, but he took Jude’s word for it.
