Updated PartTitle: Bridges
Author: dolphin
Series: Sequel to Lost and Found, which can be found at http://www.blooddance.com/mpreg/original.html
Rating: R overall
Summary: Sineult is sixteen and ready for cubs, Jade is married and well on his way to cubs too, and a few old family members are slipping back into the scene...
Warning: As the summary says, Sineult is sixteen. For the Kindred, this is not underage but as it is for humans in certain parts of the world, I thought I better add a warning just in case. :)
Feedback: Can be sent to me, the beta, over the ML or to dolphin, the author, at morpheus_kannon@y...
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one: wishes and cubs
He wakes up in a haze of complete contentment. His mate, Onyx, is spooned up against his back with his nose in his hair and his breath warm on the smaller Kindred's scalp, snoring lightly in his sleep. Sineult remembers with a smile how flustered Onyx got when his then twelve year old mate first informed him that he snored. Over the years, though, Sineult has gotten used to the noise, even come to need it for the feeling of familiarity and safety that it gives. Strange how small things like that are the most comforting to a person.
So now he is officially sixteen and he and his mate have been together for four years. It had been days after their first meeting when Sineult had finally realized that his twelfth birthday had come and gone in a dark alley somewhere close to his brother-in-law Jade's favorite hunting grounds. That hadn't been one of the best birthdays of Sineult's life, but what had come out of it was far better than any gifts he could ever have imagined on his own-last night not the least of it.
He smiles to himself as he remembers, trying hard to recapture every stray second of feeling, sound, sight, and taste. There will be other nights like that, Sineult knows, but there will never, ever be one just exactly the same, and so he has to store the memories up carefully and not lose them. Stuff like that is the quickest to slip away; things like his mother's face, the sounds of his brother's first wail. There are times when he wishes he could remember those things the way Onyx remembers his da and father. Sineult's mate isn't stingy with his memories, especially not once he'd learned that Sineult loves to listen to stories about his foster family, and so the half-Kindred has heard many things about Jade and Onyx's childhood and their late parents.
Zephyr Irasle-Curan met his 'wife', Summer Jerta-Durnal, much the same way that Sineult and Onyx met. They had been mates six years when Onyx and Jade Trys-Curan were born. (At first Sineult had been confused by the hyphenated names, but then Onyx had gotten Jade to explain the mechanics of Kindred naming ceremonies. It seems that a Kindred's middle name is made a part of their surname and that all the members of a litter are given the same middle name, as a way to identify not only which family you belong to, but also which litter within the family. It's still kind of confusing, but he does get the idea.) The whole family, or pack as the Kindred call it, had lived across the street from Spruce's family in the suburbs of the very same city that Sineult lives in now with Onyx, Jade, and Spruce. Their parents had been very good friends, and the cubs had all grown up together, but after Spruce's older brothers started to get married and move into their mates' homes, they had all drifted apart. Jade and Onyx's parents were gone by then. Summer and Zephyr had gone out one night during the Change and never come back. Onyx and his brother still don't know what happened to them, but by now everyone asumes that they must be dead.
Sineult wonders briefly why Spruce never talks about his family. Surely they must be important to him; they are blood kin after all, and that has to mean something. Which brings him again to the subject of cubs.
Sineult has always wanted cubs of his own, and he knows that Onyx wants some too. Now that he's old enough to have one, it sounds like a better idea than ever. He can only hope that his heritage hasn't harmed his cub-bearing abilities. That's another of the things that Onyx thinks he's kept from his mate, but Sineult is sharper than he seems, so there are very few things that Onyx and Jade can actually cover up. He dug the info out before long: all the possible small incompatibilities and problems that could result from the joining of a Kindred and a human. Sineult might be barren for all they know, or incapable of carrying a cub to term, or just unable to produce one that isn't defective in some way. He doesn't think he'll be able to stand it if he can't ever have a cub, or even worse if he does and it ends up hurt or disabled like that.
But that's a worry for another time. Growing up in a city like this has taught him above all that worrying is best done when needed, and no more than that. Dwelling on something that can't be helped only drives you crazy. Besides which-he giggles to himself while peeking out from under the edge of the sheet at his sleeping mate-today he's going job-hunting. He hasn't told Onyx about it. After all, worrying only drives you crazy, and you can't worry over what you don't know. Right?
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Breakfast was bright, bouncy, and rushed-in other words, just like every morning with Sineult in the house. Hints kept dropping at something that Sineult was doing after they had eaten, but pinning Onyx's springy mate down long enough to get the full story out of him was too hard to even attempt on a Saturday morning, so the elder Kindred didn't bother. Sineult had had permission to come and go as he liked for several years already and hadn't gotten into trouble yet, which led Onyx to believe that he most likely wouldn't feel the need to start now. Prying wasn't Onyx's strong point, and besides, Sineult was as good at hiding things as a cat with kittens. Onyx would never find out until Sineult wanted him to.
"Jade and Spruce are coming over after lunch," Onyx reminded his flitting mate as breakfast drew to a close. "Try not to stray too far from home, alright?"
"I 'member," Sineult replied absently, piling the dishes in the tiny sink to soak and grabbing the wet dishrag to wipe the table top. "'M not goin' too far, s' don' worry, huh?"
"Alright then. Just be back by noon, please, so I know you're okay." Onyx stood, dropping a kiss on Sineult's blond head as he went past again. "I'll be right here all morning if you need me."
"Y're too jumpy," Sineult admonished, twisting his fingers into his mate's fiery hair long enough to get a proper kiss. "Do my dishes for me?"
"Oh, alright," Onyx in mock annoyance, stealing a third kiss. "Just don't expect them to be clean! I'm not so good at it." He released the young Kindred reluctantly and sat back down to finish his breakfast, watching Sineult dart to and fro between the bedroom and the kitchen in an effort to complete the morning cleaning, minus the dishes, before leaving. He finally had to shoo his energetic mate out the door just in order to keep the room from spinning with the sixteen year old's frantic speed.
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True to his word, Sineult arrived home, flushed and panting, at three minutes to noon. Jade and his spouse hadn't gotten in yet, so Sineult set to making coffee and catching his breath while Onyx made lunch and tried insinuating information out of him.
As usual, it didn't work. In the half-hour between Sineult's return and Spruce's knock on the door, Onyx had earned no more of an understanding on the subject of Sineult's covert morning activities than he had started out with. He answered the door with a short sigh, leaving a giggling, still secretive mate behind him to put away the lunch things and pour out coffee.
The look on his brother's face when he opened the door was enough to completely sour his day. He leaned one elbow up against the doorpost and tried to be tolerant. "Don't tell me you have a secret too, Jade."
Jade recognized the long-suffering expression his twin was giving him and smirked. "Of course. What has your small consort done this time?"
"Take 'small' back, or y'll ge' no coffee!" Sineult threatened loudly from the kitchen. There was the slight clanking sound of cups, and then he emerged drying his hands on his shirt. "'ll give it t' the sink!"
"But you are small!" Jade protested in an attempt to save his coffee from the drain. "Smaller than me, anyway."
Sineult pouted slightly, unable to argue with the logic. "Tha's no fair!" But he hugged Jade anyway.
By the time he had ushered them all into the living room and brought out the four steaming cups, it had become quite obvious that something was up with Jade and his mate. For one thing, they kept sneaking knowing glances with each other and then grinning like a pair of fools; for another, Spruce looked like he was going to burst with nervousness, which was never a good sign. Jade just seemed like he had drunk a little bit too much coffee already. Onyx thought briefly about dumping his twin's cup after all, but after a review of the notion he decided that it probably wouldn't help anything, so he sat still and tried to practice patience.
"So..." Jade said finally, gulping coffee. "Well, Spruce and I have something to tell you. Although I'm guessing you already know that so I should really be getting on to the telling..." He giggled suddenly. "Gods, I'm nervous. Spruce, please you do it?" He tossed pitiful eyes in his mate's direction. Spruce shook his head flatly.
"Nope, I'm not doing it. I've got a cool, calm reputation to keep, remember?"
"Jus' spit it out real quick," Sineult suggested, leaning forward in anticipation. "Maybe it'll be easier."
Jade made a small whimpering sound in the back of his throat and clutched his coffee mug like a lifeline. "I can't." But then he took a deep, cleansing sigh and plunged ahead anyway. "Oh, alright. I'm pregnant."
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two: announcements
"You're what!" Onyx sputtered, wide-eyed. "Are you sure?"
Sineult leaned forward enthusiastically.
"Really? When's it due, Ja'e?"
"Calm down, Onyx," Jade said impatiently, relieved and rather irritated now that the pressure of the initial announcement was over with. "I'm not dying, just pregnant." He grinned again at the reminder. "And Spruce says he's not a healer, but he thinks that it's due in about eleven months, Sineult."
"How'd you find out?" Sineult wanted to know, his forehead creasing. Onyx was still trying to wrap his mind around the concept of his little brother having cubs.
"We were out last night," Jade said. Pink began to creep in around his ears. "You know."
"Mm-hmmm," Onyx replied thoughtfully, casting a quick but thorough glance in the direction of his bedmate. Being 'out' at night in mating season could mean only one thing: something which reminded him sharply of his own mate just now. Jade, being his twin, read the look easily.
"You didn't!" he gasped, his pregnancy momentarily forgotten.
Now it was Sineult's turn to blush. He nodded shyly, ghosting his eyes over his mate. "Did."
"Really!?" Jade exclaimed excitedly, his fingers playing wildly with his coffee cup, a gesture Sineult had come to know implied great interest in the subject. But Onyx intervened as Sineult opened his mouth to answer, cutting off that line of discussion.
"Okay, enough picking over our love-life," he interrupted hastily. "If I remember correctly, the presence of cubs is detected by scent, during the Change. Our noses become more sensitive during Change, remember?"
Sineult nodded in agreement.
"A pregnant cub-bearing Kindred gives off special scent," Jade went on, taking over from his brother. "In the old days it served both as confirmation of a pregnancy and also as a sort of sign to other males to stay away." He grinned. "We cub-bearers aren't very fond of having males other than our mates around when we're with cub, which is why it's common practice to stay at home after the first few months. I heard tell of a cub-bearer once who went out shopping in his fifth month. He broke three of the clerk's fingers because they accidentally brushed hands and he thought the poor clerk was flirting." A sweet smile was directed at Spruce. "So Spruce will have to start shopping again, won't you, dear?"
The look of complete horror on Spruce's face was so comical that even Onyx was overcome with laughter.
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He sighs as he sets about making up supper. Spruce and his mate left a good while ago, but Onyx is still in the living room, moping uselessly over Jade and wanting to make sure that nothing bad's going to happen to him or his cub. Sineult has tried explaining that being pregnant doesn't necessarily mean dying, but Onyx won't listen. He wants to take care of his brother the way he used to, when they were younger before Sineult came along, but that's Spruce's place now, and it seems to frustrate Onyx that he can't take control of Jade's safety. It's making him very, very grumpy, and although Sineult's really glad that Jade's going to have a cub and that he'll get to be a sort-of-aunt to it soon, he can't stand it when Onyx goes all grouchy-puss on him. It spoils a perfectly good day.
If only he could get pregnant too! Then maybe Onyx would let Spruce do his job in peace.
So he teases his mate into taking him to bed again that evening after supper instead of doing the dishes. The first pang of the annual Change catches them in the middle of it, but that turns out all the better: in Changed form, already excited, with Sineult's full scent tantalizing him, Onyx cannot resist a mating right there on the asphalt of yet another dark alley. Sineult soon discovers that mating during the Change is even better than doing it in human form. Onyx is wild; feral; almost rough, in fact, and Sineult responds in like manner, totally unable to help himself. Both of them use teeth more than once. And Sineult, for one, loves it.
Somewhere during their fourth or fifth mating, Sineult feels a strange tugging sensation inside of himself. He spares a fraction of his overwhelmed brain to wonder if, perhaps, this is what getting pregnant feels like.
But he doesn't tell Onyx. Not yet. Best to wait and be sure...
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The pain in the first months had not been so bad as this, Jade thought ruefully, finding himself curled up and panting with cramps in his mate's arms for the fifteenth or so time that week. The nausea hadn't been bad either-not at first. Now he could hardly sleep at night for dreading the violent sickness that would inevitably show up in the morning, and the wracking cramps that always followed. It worried him, and he knew that it worried Spruce too. Onyx kept hovering around the apartment Jade shared with his mate, trying to find something to help with, anything he could possibly make better for his twin, but it wasn't helping at all-just getting on poor Spruce's nerves. Sineult was always having to come over and drag Jade's brother home. But actually, the sixteen year old Kindred was quite enjoying himself. In the whole muddle with Jade's pregnancy, Onyx hadn't had time or presence of mind to do anything more than simply be informed of Sineult's 'secret' job downtown just yet. Sineult had informed Jade of it early on, of course. After all, what were brothers-in-law for if not to gossip and conspire against husbands with?
Jade relaxed unconsciously as he lost himself in thought. It was a small job, in a florist's shop, the young one had said; mostly just keeping the store tidied. He didn't make much in the way of money-he hadn't picked the job for that!-but loved his work. Especially the roses, he'd said dreamily. Roses were his favorite.
He had brought roses back the day before. A red one and a white one. He had informed Jade earnestly that they were for the cub-the white one standing for its newness, the red one for the love that had made it-and that it was good luck to bring roses for both human babies and Kindred cubs. The pair of flowers was now living in a vaseful of water by Jade's bed, giving off a soft scent that only one of the Kindred could really catch without putting their noses down among the velvety petals, and Jade had to admit that even one little brightness like a flower did put him in a better mood in the mornings, as well as making it a little easier to face the pain. Maybe they were 'lucky'.
"Is it better now?" Spruce murmured into his hair, interrupting his thoughts. Jade stretched, yawning.
"Yes," he replied, taking one of his mate's hands in his and absently tracing the veins across the back of it with a fingertip. "A lot. I'll be able to get your supper for you tonight, at least." The thought of the previous night's failure in even that small token of care made him sigh again.
"Thank you for being so patient with me," he offered dejectedly.
"Well, it is my fault," Spruce said lightly. "I'm the one who got you knocked up."
"So it is," Jade mused tiredly, pillowing his head on Spruce's arm. "Someday I'll have to get you back for it, but right now, I'm far too sleepy."
"Sleep, then," his mate suggested. "I'll hold you."
"But what about supper?" Jade protested half-heartedly, yawning once more. "You're not making stupid canned soup again..."
"I'll wake you when it comes time to cook," Spruce promised. "I don't think I can stand to eat my own cooking again anyway. You've gone and spoiled me."
"I can't bear your cooking either, so we're even," Jade teased drowsily. "Besides, it'll poison the cub if I do eat it."
"That was rude," Spruce remarked mock-indignantly. "It's not that bad."
"Of course it is," Jade assured him, closing his eyes. "And if Onyx comes by, tell him to go boil his head. I don't need a nurse..."
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He woke up to the smell of supper cooking. Not canned soup after all, he observed with his nose, getting ready to go back to sleep. If Spruce had learned how to cook, he certainly didn't need to wake up...
"Jade," his mate said next to his ear.
He snorted unhappily. "G'way...sleepy..."
"I know you are, but it's supper time. Do you feel up to eating?"
Jade kept his eyes scrunched stubbornly shut and did not answer, but Spruce didn't comment, only slid a hand under Jade's messy orange hair and began a soft kneading at the nape of his neck.
"You don't have to eat too much," he continued coaxingly, "but a little would be good for you. For the cub, too. Alright?"
"Don' wanna."
"But Sineult made it light, especially for you. And besides, I think he's got something to tell you. He's going to burst if you don't let him get it out soon."
Jade cracked an eye open, peering suspiciously at his mate. "S'neult's here?"
"Yes. He said Onyx chased him out of their apartment, but he was grinning at me when he said it, so I don't think it's anything too serious. He made some supper, so you could sleep a little longer without us having to have soup." Spruce smiled at the face Jade was making. "I know, I know. I should've woken you anyway. But you seemed like you needed the sleep." He bent down for a kiss. "It isn't good for you to push yourself too hard, you know."
"I know," Jade grumbled, turning his face up to claim a second kiss. "Fine, I'll try and eat. At least it smells good."
"'S he awake?" Sineult's voice floated in softly from the kitchen. "'m almost done."
"I'm awake," Jade called back, just as Sineult appeared around the door. The young cub-bearer walked over, grinning impudently, to crouch down on eye-level with his brother-in-law.
"Had a good nap?" he asked.
"Sure. So, what's all this about having something to tell me?" Jade shot back inquisitively.
Spruce rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen to get bowls ready, leaving the two to their talk.
"Well," Sineult began, grinning shyly at his brother-in-law. "I foun' somethin' out yesterday."
"What about?" Jade yawned, uncurling from his sleeping position to stretch briefly and rearrange his limbs to suit himself. "Gotten a promotion?"
Sineult giggled, bouncing on his heels. "Nope. Bet you can't guess it!"
"Okay." Jade narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and propped himself up on an elbow. "It's not a promotion...Does this have anything to do with your job?"
The younger Kindred's eyes sparkled. "Nope."
"Well then." He pondered for a minute. "Wait, this doesn't have anything to do with Onyx chasing you out of your apartment, does it? Have you been getting into trouble?"
Sineult squirmed under his elder's suspicious glare, shaking his head quickly and meekly before almost squeaking out, "'S not that! I mean-" He floundered wordlessly. "I mean, he chased me out 'cause o' it, but 's not 'cause I got into trouble. 'Tisn't, honest!" His big green eyes widened in silent supplication.
A sigh escaped the pregnant redhead. Sineult's puppy eyes always melted him, no matter what. "Alright," he relented. "What, then?"
"Maybe 'm wrong," Sineult ruminated anxiously, starting to suck his teeth. "'S not sure, not yet."
Jade smiled at him. "That's okay. Tell me anyway."
A slow smile blossomed on Sineult's face, his eyes turning faraway as he replied. "Okay. I think..." He paused, then let out an abrupt sigh of bliss, turning shining eyes on his brother-in-law.
"I'm gonna have a cub too."
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