Their boy, Max, was only a couple Standard years old. By lvtl standards, he was still a toddler, though he was five in human years. Just as he grew slowly in the womb, he grew slowly out of it as well. He was absolutely adorable though, so she didn't mind that she got to spend extra time with him at each phase of development.
Max was in his incubator right now. The one that had an entrance both inside and outside of her trap. He was busy absolutely shredding his bedding. His horns were growing in,and they made him really itchy, so he dragged his head a lot against the walls and floor and whatever else he could reach. They went through a lot of bedding as he destroyed them, but it was normal, she was assured.
It was kind of hard to tell what was and wasn’t normal for a hybrid. They were always just a bit different from their paternal species, and a lot different from their maternal one.
Humans were always smaller, weaker, and less physically capable than whatever alien they were interbreeding with. So, the natural expectation was that any hybrids produced between them would, naturally, be smaller, weaker, and less physically capable than a pure bred species.
But that wasn’t the case. That was never the case. Everyone else had already proved that with their kids long before Haven finally got to give birth to Max. Somehow, combining human genes with alien ones enhanced and improved upon the strengths of their fathers.
Max was a southern lvtl. That was unquestionable. They thought he’d be more like a middle lvtl considering his temperature during his embryological period. And while it was true in some respects, it was absolutely not in others.
He had the same rock-like skin of his father, but it was a richer, brighter brown, speckled with white, like freckles, all over his face and shoulders and back. His eyes were glowing and bright, but not the yellow-orange lava eyes of his father – or even the same brown as Haven’s. Instead, they glowed bright, stunning, vibrant green. A middle lvtl would have green eyes as well, but they should be darker.
High temperatures didn't bother him at all, however. A middle lvtl would never be able to tolerate the temperatures Vytlnthrived in. Max loved the heat, just like his father. He liked being in his incubator that Vytln kept at a temperature Haven would have quickly found too hot for comfort.
But Max also didn't mind cold temperatures. Where Vytln would quickly get hypothermic in the cold, Max loved playing in the snow. Snow didn't love him and melted quickly when he approached, but while it still lived, he enjoyed playing in it. He didn't even need a coat. She kept him in one more for the snow’s safety than his, and so he’d actually get a chance to play with it before it melted.
His skin was also super hard. It didn't crack at anything. Skin cracking was as common to lvtl young as scraping knees was to human young. And they didn't usually, if ever, scar. But Max’s skin was nearly impenetrable. Goldie had to use special injectors whenever she gave him medications or inoculations because the regular ones simply weren’t strong enough to get through.
Their son was an absolute tank. Haven wasn’t worried about the world hurting him, but she often had to worry about him hurting the world. He’d broken two of his incubators already. He broke their projects a lot. There were a few walls with scuffs and dents because he’d run full tilt into them – like a ram slamming into a rock.
He found it funny. He laughed like his destructive tendencies were hilarious. Haven was finally on the other side of what it was like raising herself as a child.
She kind of understood people’s exasperation now.
Though not completely, because she still loved her son to pieces, and she’d never look at him the way people used to look at her. He was just a toddler. He was learning. And no, he wasn’t learning by breaking things apart to see how they workedlike she did. What he was learning was his own body. He was learning his limits. He was learning his own strength. And he did it the same way she did, through trial and error, and there just happened to be a cost to that.
She wasn’t sure that Max had inherited her inherent need to learn and the focused drive she had to understand the world, but he’d definitely inherited her action first mentality, and his father’s stubbornness.
But he was such a happy baby. He was always playing and laughing. He was carefree and joyful in a way, she knew, Vytln never got to be. The life he’d been raised in, the way he’d been forced to grow, had taken all that from him before he ever got to enjoy it. Vytln couldn’t innocently and boundlessly enjoy the world and everything in it the way Max could.
However, Vytln had a chance to witness that wonder through their son. As Max learned – and broke – the world, Vytln got to go along with him. He got experience what it was like seeing the world through innocent eyes for the first time, and it was beautiful.
Max was always breaking things.
And honestly, Haven wouldn’t have it any other way. She didn't care if her son was a genius. She didn't care if he didn't take after either of them with their technological proficiency. It really seemed like he wouldn’t, judging by how much he loved the outdoors and exploring.
He was instead getting a childhood of love and acceptance and happiness. He was developing as his own person, and they were supporting whatever direction he chose to take that. And it was a wonder and privilege for her to witness.
Even if it meant that a lot of stuff was destroyed in his wake.
She frowned at the little suit she needed to put him in. He was naked but for the fancy diaper he wore. It was made with the same tech as envirosuits and dealt with waste much more efficiently and cleanly than a cloth or cotton diaper would. But it was a fight to keep it on him. And clothes? Forget it. Max very often destroyed those. On purpose. He didn’t want to wear them.
But the little black suit was a perfect match for Vytln’s! They’d be twins. It would be absolutely adorable. She really wanted to see them wearing them. Not just because her son and his father wearing matching suits was probably the cutest thing she could imagine, but also because she had never gotten to see Vytln in a proper suit. She could only imagine how sexy he would look.
“Vytln, are you dressed?” She asked, setting aside Max’s suit. She was going to delay putting him in it for as long as she could. With the hopes that it might survive at least the ceremony tonight. Once he was off playing with the others, she knew that suit wasn’t going to survive. If he didn't return to her fully naked with something stained and dusted across his little horn nubs, she’d be stunned.
“Why do I have to dress up for this?” Vytln grumbled from their privy. “It’s not my ceremony. I should just be able to wear my regular clothes.”
“Yeah, a jumpsuit at a formal affair would look normal,” Haven snickered. Honestly, that wouldn’t really bother her. It was exactly like Vytln to do so.
But her dream of matching father and son suits…
Muttering darkly under his breath, Vytln emerged from the privy. And to her surprise, he was actually wearing the suit.
And to her greater surprise, he wore it confidently.
She fully expected him to come out pulling at the collar, shifting awkwardly in the fabric, looking very much like he had been forced into someone else’s clothes. He always wore his jumpsuit or something equally loose fitting and comfortable. She loved him in grease and oil stains, and she loved the smell of metal that covered him. She just wanted one photo of him and Max in their matching suits, being dapper gentlemen, and she’d be content for life.
