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Lio turned the pregnancy test over. Negative. Again. He sighed harshly, closing his eyes. Yet another negative pregnancy test… He had been so sure there was something in there, something other than pizza and spicy food.
The right symptoms had been there: Fatigue, increased appetite, and lately he’d even felt a little nauseous in the morning. But it had just been his body playing a prank on him, tricking him into thinking he really was pregnant, when in reality he was just… Empty.
They had been trying for 2 years now, he and Galo using every chance they could to conceive. Lio knew Galo was looking forward to starting a family, but now he had failed again. He was useless, useless, useless-
He had been staying in the bathroom for so long that Galo was surely getting worried. And he had to go out and tell Galo sometime soon… He just wished it wasn’t so hard to tell them that he they had failed, that he had failed. Failed Galo, failed himself.
Eventually he emerged from the bathroom, head ducked and eyes downcast. Galo stood there with wide eyes, Lio knew this, because that guy always had high hopes. Every single time. And now Lio had to break his dreams once more.
“So?” Galo said, voice almost quivering.
Silence. Then Lio spoke, still avoiding Galo’s eyes.
“Negative.” Lio was sure the word was like a sucker punch to Galo’s stomach. He definitely sounded hurt when he spoke next. “Again…?”
Lio’s eyes didn’t dare to look for Galo’s, but he did it anyway. Galo deserved that much. “Yes, again.”
Silence again. Then Galo embraced Lio gently, but Lio pushed him away, avoiding his eyes once more.
Galo sounded incredibly confused when Lio pushed him away, but he also sounded hurt. “Why’d you do that?”
That made Lio angry. Couldn’t he see why Lio wasn’t good enough?! Couldn’t he see that it was all Lio’s fault?! “I don’t deserve it! I can’t do the thing I’m supposed to do, so why should I be praised?!” I don’t deserve you.
Galo was silent for a moment, but then Lio heard him sigh, and, when he looked up, saw that the brave firefighter was holding back tears. “It’s not just you… It’s also me. Do I not deserve it either? Because I failed as well?”
Lio eyes widened, but he was also on the verge of breaking down. “N-No. You deserve it… It’s not your fault. It’s just-“
“What is it? Just what is it?” Galo interrupted, sounding impatient. “I, I-“
“What is it?!”
“I’ve burned for too long!” There, now he had said it. Lio had said the one thing he had held back since they had first started trying. He couldn’t hide it anymore, not that he had yelled it out so loud that the neighbours surely had heard it.
It left Galo dumbfounded. “You’ve… Burned for too long? What do you mean?”
“I mean that my body has been on fire for such a long time that there are probably… Complications.”
Galo’s eyes widened. “You mean- You knew about it?”
Lio sniffled once, twice, while he looked down on Galo’s feet. His hands had turned into fists at one point, and he looked like his heart had shattered to pieces; sad, bitter, resentful. “I’ve know about it since the first time I burned.”
“And the doctor-“
“I haven’t seen a doctor. I’ve been kinda busy, you know.”
Galo winced at that. Had he really expected Lio to look for a doctor who would actually treat him nicely in the midst of a raging war between the Mad Burnish and the rest of the world? Lio couldn’t have gone, no matter what. He didn’t have the luxury Galo had had, and it was only now he was realizing that.
“I’m sorry…” Galo said quietly, gathering Lio in a hug. Lio let himself be hugged, but he stood passive against the loving touch, tears still rolling down his cheeks and sniffling every once in a while.
“What for? I-It’s my fault…” Lio stuttered, heavy words weighing him down.
“It’s not your fault-“
“It is! I’ve been keeping it from you, a-and now we will never start a family…!” Lio interrupted, feeling the full force of his own words. It made him cry harder, and now he was trembling as well.
Galo pulled back slightly and took Lio’s chin in his hand, tipping it upwards to meet his eyes. His face was wearing a smile, calm, collected. Forgiving. “Hey, no matter what, we’re still a family. If it’s just the two of us, then it’ll be a family as well.”
Lio looked up, the tears stopping for a moment because of the pure shock he was feeling. “It will?”
“Of course. And we could always get a cat. Or a dog.”
“Really? How many would we have?”
Galo laughed and kissed Lio’s temple. “As many as you want, babe.”
-
Lio had felt strange for days, like he was nauseous and had headaches all the time. That made him even more cold to Galo’s touch than he usually would have been, like before they met. Galo had blamed hormones, but… Lio couldn’t be pregnant, could he?
While Galo was out on work, Lio took a pregnancy test. They had decided a couple of weeks ago that they didn’t want to try for the sake of conceiving anymore, and it had actually been rejuvenating to have sex when they wanted, not scheduled or anything.
Lio wasn’t shaking like he usually was when he flipped the pregnancy test over. And when he saw the result, he shook it, just to make sure it wasn’t broken, then flipped it over again. But it was not a cruel joke on him.
Positive.
He was pregnant. He was carrying Galo’s child. And they would finally start the family they had been dreaming of.
Lio took a shaky breath, mentally preparing himself for what was to come. That’s when he heard the front door open, and Galo’s “Honey, I’m hooome!” could be heard immediately afterwards. Lio smiled. This was the perfect opportunity to tell him.
Exiting the bathroom, Lio held the pregnancy test in both hands, smiling knowingly as Galo looked at the test.
Galo looked confused from the test to Lio’s face, then back to the test. He had seen a pregnancy test plenty of times, had thrown out bags and bags of them, from when they had tried before. But this time was different, Lio was smiling, not on the verge of tears as he used to be.
And then he saw it, the little plus sign. It was enough for him to drop everything he had in his hands and embrace Lio, lifting him up in the air while exclaiming in joy. “We did it! We actually did it!”
“We did,” Lio said, eyes full of laughter and love as Galo swung him around. “Together, we did it.”