Title: Bridges 3/?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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life by doubles
At first Jade could hardly believe his ears. Here sat Sineult, one of the smallest-built Kindred that Jade had ever laid eyes on, sixteen years and four months old-and pregnant?!
But then, he saw Sineult's eyes, and remembered that this had been his greatest and most cherished dream since the day he married Onyx. Quickly he managed a shaky smile for his little brother-in-law."That's wonderful! Another cub!" A thought sprang to mind, making his smile strengthen.
"They can keep each other company, my cub and yours."
Sineult gave him a radiantly happy smile, breathing sharply outwards in relief. "Yup! An' now maybe Onyx'll stop bugging you and Spruce all th' time. Don't you think?" His smile morphed into a mischievous grin that lit up his eyes and made Jade's heart strangely light with laughter. He smothered giggles.
"Most probably." Then he went serious. "You have missed him, haven't you?"
Sineult's smile faded out. He nodded vehemently. "Lots. But he thought he had to take care o' you. It was important to him." Serious green eyes locked with blue ones. "'S been hard for him, to let Spruce do stuff for you. Soon as he gets used to our cub, it'll help 'im to le' go of that." Sineult smiled again, leaning forward to rest his ear very gently against Jade's stomach.
"When d'you think 'e'll start kicking?"
"Oh, not for a while," Jade assured. "He has to grow big enough first. I probably won't start feeling him do it until closer to the end."
Sineult looked up abruptly, his forehead crinkling. "Ja'e, we'll ge' fat, won't we?"
"Yes, of course we will. Why?"
"Well...people outside'll think it weird, won't they? 'f I get fat an' then thin really quick? At m'job, I mean." His forehead crinkled up further. "Have I got to quit?"
"Oh, that! No, you don't have to if you'd rather not. We can do something called a glamour," Jade explained. "It's like the persuasion and some of the other things we can do. I'll teach you."
"Now?" Sineult asked eagerly. "What does it do?"
Jade shook his head. "No, not now. It's almost supper time. But it's just another form of our mind-talents. All you have to do is send out what humans would call a 'psychic wave', I suppose, to fool those around you into believing that you look a certain way. You can look like almost anything just by tweaking the wave a little, but you have to be careful to get it the way you want it."
Sineult opened his mouth to answer, but Spruce's entrance with two bowls of steaming vegetable soup cut him off. The dark-haired Kindred gave one to Sineult, one to Jade, and handed over two spoons before headed back into the kitchen for his own bowl.
Sineult's cooking had long ago been proved nearly as good as Jade's own, although at the halfling's apartment there wasn't nearly as much aversion to processed foods as there was in Jade's. Now that Jade was with cub, his stomach refused to handle much flavouring, of any kind, in more than small amounts; the redhead wondered if Sineult would have the same difficulty when he became pregnant, whether he was now or not. Although he did seem fairly sure, and it was said that cub-bearers knew somewhere within the depths of themselves when they were carrying another life. Perhaps that was what Sineult was feeling.
Jade sipped gingerly at the bland homemade vegetable broth, absently watching as his husband came back to sit on the chair across from him. Spruce took one glance at Sineult's glowing countenance and asked briefly, "So?"
"What, 'so'?" Jade asked, smirking over his soup bowl at Sineult, who was bouncing again and chewing on his lower lip.
"Well, what was it that was so important?" Spruce asked mildly, ignoring his mate's teasing.
"Oh, nothing..." Jade began loftily, feeling better than he had in a long time. But Sineult couldn't bear it anymore.
"Cub!" he squeaked excitedly, nearly spraying soup all across the room during a particularly energetic bounce. "'ve got a cub! A cub, an' Onyx threw up when I tol' 'im an' 'e says 'm too young but Ja'e says 'm not. You don't think so, do you Spruce?"
Sineult leaned forward worriedly with this last. Spruce blanched.
"You're going to have a cub?"
Sineult nodded solemnly, fiddling with his spoon while swaying back and forth just enough to keep his energy burning. Spruce sat very still for a moment, considering the situation. At sixteen Sineult was certainly physically able to carry and give birth to a Kindred cub, but that state of affairs was like the difference between a human girl being able to and it being safe for her. Spruce was fairly sure that Onyx had never meant for this to happen so soon. No wonder he was upset.
"Are you sure?" Spruce asked finally.
"Nope," the teen replied thoughtfully. "But...I think. I feel sort o'...funny. Like, I want for it to be real, but it's more like it wants for it to be real. I guess." He blew out a frustrated breath, halting his movements. "I can't 'splain it right."
"Your instinct tells you, you mean," Spruce supplied. Sineult nodded again, curling more comfortably against Jade's couch from his position on the floor and leaning his golden head against the cushions.
"Tha's what i's like. My instinc'."
Satisfied with that, Spruce quirked an eyebrow up and went onto the next thing. "Onyx threw up? Do you think it was wise to leave him alone just now?"
Jade and Sineult nodded simultaneously. "He said t' leave him alone so he could think," Sineult explained. "He al'ays sen's me away after I tell 'im something big. 'Less I need help. An' I didn't, I liked it."
Jade laughed. "I'll say! You look like you've got springs in your backside the way you keep wiggling around. Hope your cub isn't this bouncy, or poor Onyx will go mad trying to keep track of the two of you!"
Sineult smiled, rubbing his stomach absently. "What d'you think it'll look like?"
"Little. And red," Spruce replied musingly, pausing in the eating of his bowlful to think. "Most likely scrawny, considering the way you and Onyx are built. Probably bald." He smirked at Sineult's rapt expression. "Be really ugly for the first few weeks, actually. Like an insatiably hungry squashed tomato with a loud mouth."
"Spruce!" Jade protested in a shocked tone, one-handedly menacing his husband with a couch cushion. "What a thing to say, about your own nephew too!"
"Well, that's what they look like!" Spruce replied artlessly, wincing in anticipation of the padded missile.
"Have y' seen one?" Sineult asked eagerly, nearly losing his soup to the floor again. Jade discreetly took the bowl away while his little brother-in-law wasn't watching. Spruce exchanged an apologetic look with his mate.
"Yes."
"Whose?" Sineult queried curiously. "Y'r mum's?"
Jade's mate shook his head. "No, I'm the youngest. My eldest brother sired a cub-oh, a good while ago. And my next-eldest brother had one not long after. I was there for both of the births. Besides," he added quickly, changing the subject, "all human babies are like that, and cubs are to babies as we are to adult humans. Our forms are exactly the same, on the outside; it's only our insides, and even then not until after the Change."
Sineult nodded, mulling this over. He had often thought that there must be some relationship between human and Kindred; surely to look and be so very alike, one must have a blood connection of some sort.
"How long does i' take for the cub t' be born?" he asked after a moment's pause.
"You mean how many months from conception to birth?" Spruce asked, spooning up the last of his soup.
"Uh-huh."
"Well, the conception is always around the time of a Change; sometimes during it, sometimes a few days before or after."
Sineult nodded. "Tha's 'cause of th' mating cycles."
"Yes," Spruce agreed. "The pregnancy lasts until the next Change, which is approximately a year as you know. Usually both the cub and its bearer Change just as the delivery begins, so the cub is born in that form. Then the cub-bearer nurses it on their blood which helps to give the newborn a boost in its immune system."
The younger cub-bearer's hands had moved unconsciously to rub little circles on his flat stomach where the tiny newmade spark of life swam in its bubble of fluids. Sineult's eyes narrowed, thinking up more questions. Spruce was very good at answering most every question someone could possibly find.
"D'you think I'll have twins too?" he finally asked.
"Maybe." Spruce shook his head. "But this is only your first birth, and you're half human. Jade is all Kindred. So don't expect it."
"'Kay," Sineult agreed regretfully. Then he perked up, seeming to remember something.
"D'you think I can have twins nex' time?" he questioned, hope filling his voice. "'Cause Onyx is all of Kindred, aft'r all..."
Jade giggled into a spare pillow. Spruce sighed amusedly.
"Don't push it, Sineult. Finish with this cub first, and then we'll see about twins."
Sineult grimaced, pouting unhappily.
"Oh, okaaay..."
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