Stranded Lullaby (Closed with sillysadass)

[Salamander]

“Hey. Hey…We still have time. Here, eat. You’ll feel better.” She said, spooning some stew into one of the tin cups. “Listen, whatever happens… You won’t be doing it alone.” She kept her voice steady, but on the inside her mind was racing. Was he eggbound? Was it a miscarriage? Would viable offspring even survive? “How have you been feeling lately? Any.. different?”

[sillysadass]

He took the stew and sipped it. "I've been feeling ill, nauseous to put it specifically." He replied. He then made a slight grimace behind his mask and set the soup aside. "Sorry, I'm really not up to eating right now." He said, pulling his knees to his chest as an actual wave of nausea and stomach pain hit.

[Salamander]

Crim’s face flushed with dread. Nausea, loss of appetite… Those could still be symptoms of needing to expel dead eggs, but… At this point, she was preparing for the worst. “Maybe you should lie down.” She said worriedly, gesturing towards the moss beds. "Have you.. have you been tired lately? Fatigued?" She didn't know too much about eggs, but she knew that was another symptom. She was just grateful he hadn't felt any actual movement, the mere thought of which gave her shivers.

[sillysadass]

Vespa nodded. "Even though I've been getting enough sleep." He confirmed. He noticed Crim's dreadful look. Unsure what she was thinkng of as he spoke. "Is... something wrong?" That was an idotic question. Of course something was wrong, that's why she was giving him that look! He uncurled his legs from his body, tensing in worry.

[Salamander]

Crim looked away quickly, unsure of what to say. Was it too early to know for sure? It was getting late for him to still have duds, and he didn’t seem to be in the kind of pain that a miscarriage or eggbinding would bring. All signs were pointing towards living eggs. Her heart immediately dropped to her stomach. “Those are… Well, they’re… Common symptoms. Of…. you know.” She stuttered over her words, unsure of how to break it to him. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, too ashamed at being the cause of this mess. Even though she knew heat instincts weren’t necessarily her fault, she still felt the weight of guilt over what had happened.

[sillysadass]

Vespa's eyes widened, knowing what she wanted to say but couldn't. Was he really carrying live eggs?! Now he was really panicking. Shit, shit, shit. He hated his instincts so much, especially know. He panicked even more when he saw how badly Crim felt over impregnating him. "H-hey, don'r feel too bad. I was the one who seduced you. You know, instincts and all that." He said, putting a nervous hand on her shoulder.

[Salamander]

Crim hunched over, head in her hands. “I should have known better. I should have just left as soon as I noticed something was off. I’m so sorry you have to go through this.” She tensed as she felt a hand on her shoulder, then relaxed and after a few moments, turned to face him. “Vespa, I— I don’t know much about these sorts of things. But I do know that… If you.. if the eggs do end up viable, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

Up until now she’d thought of the eggs as nothing more than objects— just a problem or an obstacle that needed to be overcome. But now with the possibility of living offspring, she had to think about what to do with them after they were born. Parenthood hadn’t been something she’d even considered being an outcome of this. She’d never thought about having children before, but she was sure she would want to be there for them if she did. Even if they were deformed. She wondered if Vespa had any interest in kids. Probably not, but she’d be okay being a single parent if he left after their birth. She wouldn’t blame him. She was hesitant to bring this up, however, seeing how anxious he was already. She wouldn't want him worrying about anything else.

[sillysadass]

Vespa watched as she hunched herself over, barely able to read her lips as she buried her head in her hands. But he made an effort to given the gravidty the current situation. There was a chance of living beings, actual living people inside of the eggs. Crim was willing to put aside everything just to help him. He never thought too much about parenthood either, mainly due to the fact that wasps don't care for their own young and leave it as a collaborative task for the entire hive. He felt out of character suddenly, like his personality had been completely swapped, but he didn't hold himself back from throwing his arms around Crim, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Thank you... thank you..." he muttered a bit too quietly into her neck. Although he didn't know what he would do after laying the eggs, the knowledge that someone would be there to help him had never been more comforting.

[Salamander]

She had wanted so desperately to take him into her arms, to tell him things would be okay, even though she knew they may not be. But she was hesitant to express any unsolicited physical affection, especially given what had occurred between them. So when Vespa embraced her, it was both a shock and a relief.
“H-hey, don’t worry about it.” Crim smiled, taken aback by this sudden burst of emotion from the otherwise distant bug. Mood swing perhaps? She would have to remember to stay aware of any hormonal imbalances Vespa might have over the next few months.
“What’d you think? That I was just gonna walk out on you? Please.” She laughed and gently returned the hug. “I'm with you no matter the outcome."

[sillysadass]

He leaned into her touch, comforted by the knowledge that he didn't have to deal with this alone. The hormonal imbalance was already starting to get to him, making him less distant to who he mated and paranoid of abandonment. At least now, he knew Crim wouldn't do that.

The week passed by as he anxiously waited. No duds came out; he was pregnant for sure and he felt awful. The symptoms that he began feeling magnified to an astronomical degree. He could barely stomach anything, his energy drained quickly to where he would fall asleep at only around noon. The next month, the perpetual nausea began to fade. His stomach grew only slightly larger, becoming more noticeable.

Vespa groaned as he curled up in the moss beds after going out into the raging snow to spill his guts.

[Salamander]

With the knowledge that Vespa undoubtedly carried her offspring, Crim was becoming increasingly more concerned and protective. She hovered over him constantly, and often had to remind herself to give him space if he needed it. As the weeks went on, it killed her to see him in such pain. She did everything she could to make him comfortable, but there was only so much she could do while stuck in a cave. She was tremendously grateful when the symptoms gradually began to weaken. The stress of caring for him had heightened her insomnia somewhat, but that wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. At night she often found herself sitting awake for hours, simply watching him sleep. Last night had been no exception, and she was exhausted. Still, she knew that Vespa had it much worse, so for him she would gladly grin and bear it.

“Not feeling well?” Crim asked softly, and knelt beside him. She gently touched his forehead under his mask, checking for a fever. Of course, she knew the nausea stemmed from the pregnancy, but that didn’t stop her from worrying.
“Here, you’re probably dehydrated.” She said, placing a cup of water near him as she prepared a warm compress. Getting clean drinking water was a bit of a challenge, having that the snow outside was mixed with ash. But upon further exploration into the deeper parts of their cave, she’d found a frozen spring that wasn’t too contaminated. There were plenty of wild mushrooms as well, if you knew were to look, but she still wished she could provide better.

[sillysadass]

Vespa practically swatted away her hand when she reaced under it. "It's just morning sickness." he mumbled quietly. It's nice to have someone that actually cares about you, at least when you're not in the midst of hormonal outrage. His voice sounded raw, but at least he was only dry heaving now with the occasional occurence of actual vomit. He took the water into consideration, sat up, picked the glass up and sipped slowly. Crim was right, he probably was dehydrated from vomiting so much. The water felt good and alleviated the pains in his throat. Vespa watched Crim while she prepared the compress, he wasn't sure if it would help but he wasn't complaining.

[Salamander]

Crim by this point was used to the moodswings, and learned not to take it personally. Vespa was still Vespa, regardless of hormones. And despite his smaller stature, she knew better than to mess with an angry, hormonal wasp. She rung out the warm cloth and folded it, setting it down on a rock next to the beds. “You were out in the cold for a while.” She shrugged. “But if you don’t want it, don’t use it.” She stood and stretched, cracking her spine as she did so, before settling on a patch of lichen a few meters away. Leaning her back against the cave wall, she turned and absentmindedly watched the snow swirl outside. She was bewildered that the storm had lasted this long. It came and went in ferocity, but never slowed long enough to make an escape. It was incredibly frustrating. She only wanted to find a more hospitable place for Vespa to lay the eggs when the time came. In these conditions, she worried that the cold would kill the eggs before they hatched. And she would hate for him to go though all this for nothing. She sighed and glanced back towards Vespa.
"It's been... What, around three months?"  

[sillysadass]

Vespa nodded. "Maybe three and a half." He replied. He lied back down in the soft moss, his cloak draped limply over his self. His hand subconsiously rested at the base of the curve that was his abdomen. It was actually incredible that a storm could sustain itself for such a long period of time. He wondered if the kingdom's edge had the same weather cause as the City of Tears. Though it seemed like a reasonable explaination, it was debunked quickly when he remembered that there was no lake or land directly above the edge, and if there was, it would have been frozen solid.
A soft nudge took him out of his train of thought. Wait a minute. He pushed himself to a sitting position, feeling the eggs shift and move. "Holy shit." Vespa got up as quickly as he could, rushing over to Crim and placed her hand on his stomach.

[Salamander]

“Hm?” Crim tilted her head in confusion as he grabbed her hand, and was even more puzzled when he pressed it to his abdomen. “Is something wr—“ Her eyes widened suddenly as she felt something stir inside him. “What was— Is that..? Oh gods.” She gasped, her breath trembling slightly. The eggs nudged her hand as she gingerly touched Vespa’s stomach. She was glad her mask covered most of her face, so it didn’t betray her expression of pure awe. “They’re… they’re really… Wow.”

[sillysadass]

He was in so much shock when they actually moved, and it appeared Crim shared the same expression. "You can feel that, right? It's not just me." He asked. It felt so odd, so extremely foreign for something to move inside of him. It was even more odd how he could feel exactly which one was moving where. He shuddered when one moved against his own hand, before the movement calmed.

[Salamander]

“Definitely not just you.” Crim withdrew her hand as the movements stilled. “That’s amazing! I didn’t expect them to be so active… I guess that means they’re healthy.”
'For now, at least', she thought privately. They really had no idea what to expect down the line. Who knew if the hybrid eggs would even survive long past birth? Her siblings had hatched with deformities much worse than her own, and life took its toll on them. Whether she had survived through luck or sheer determination, she wasn’t sure. But maybe, just maybe, her survival was genetic? A one-in-a-million chance for genes to line up in a way that didn’t result in an early death. Perhaps a few could be born healthy after all. She wondered if it was worth hoping for. “So….Does it feel really weird?” She asked, pushing aside her grim ruminations.

[sillysadass]

He nodded. "You know that feeling you get in your stomach when the acid bubbles? Well imagine that, but almost directly beneath your exoskeleton." He said, hoping that explanation wasn't too specific. Though the feeling of something moving inside of you was actually pretty specific and required an even more specific explanation. He knew that if they were this active in the mid-early months, he would have to expect them to go absolutely ballistic near full term. That was not a think to look forward to; in fact, it sounded absolutely horrible. He would savor his ability to move around with ease and not be punched from the inside by a wasp-mantis-scorpion larvae while he could. Alas, it only lasted the remainder of the month when the eggs had a growth spurt.

[Salamander]

It was night, though time doesn’t matter much when the days all blend together. Crim lay on a patch of moss, draped in her cloak and silently staring at the ceiling. She needed little sleep to get by, so she habitually found herself alone with her thoughts for hours on end. Ever since the eggs showed their first movements a few weeks ago, they were often all she could think about. She and Vespa were so drastically different in appearance, it was a blind gamble as to what their progeny would look like. Would they have wings? Would they be black and yellow like a wasp, or dark red, like the armor she inherited from her sire? She was unsure if the scorpion genes were more regressive, since she looked mostly mantis-like. Regardless, they would be a mix of three inherently strong bugs, if they survived to adulthood. Crim rolled over and glanced at Vespa, unsure if he was awake or not. She imagined that the pregnancy had been particularly hard on him as of late, having that the eggs had suddenly surged in growth. It couldn’t be comfortable. With a quiet sigh, she sat up and looked towards the mouth of the cave.

The storm was loud that night, with the howling wind beating relentlessly at the cave walls. Not only that, but the entrance was practically barricaded by a wall of snow and ash. Crim counted her blessings for this, as the telltale murmur of Hoppers and Aspids could be heard beyond it. She shivered in disgust, instinctively reaching for her nail which she had tucked beneath the moss. She held the well worn blade in her lap and took up watch. Though it was doubtful the Infected could dig through the snow, she wouldn't let anything take her by surprise. Especially when it wasn't just her she had to look out for.

[sillysadass]

Nights where the storm was louder than ever made Vespa grateful he was deaf. He would know the volume of something by feeling the vibration of the sound waves through objects, like the ground. He slept obliviously, dreaming of nothing but darkness. Occasionally, he would dream of a horrible, raging light that would shock him awake in a cold sweat before he frantically checked himself for infection. The Radiance did infect the bugs by entering their minds and forced them into a deep slumber, but he assumed he was mentally stable enough to wake himself up if the Radiance did ever try to infect him. Luckily, he did not have any dream of the sort. While he was awake, he wondered if Crim ever shared the same dreams-- or night terrors. Being consumed by an angry, painful light before falling into a brief coma and waking up with a feral mind seemed more like a nightmare than a dream.