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Chuuya is ripped away from the land of dreams with a strong urge puke, barely making it to the toilet before hurling up last night's dinner. He's too busy trying to even out his labored breathing to notice that Dazai is by his side the entire time, holding back his hair with one hand and soothingly rubbing his back with the other.
When his insides are finished trying to force out another near painful retch, Chuuya lets himself be helped up. He's feeling strangely light-headed and needs to lean on Dazai for support on the journey back to their bed.
"I'll be right back," Dazai tells him, making a speedy trip to the kitchen to fetch him some water.
Chuuya accepts the proffered beverage with trembling hands that are steadied by Dazai’s own.
"Slowly," he lightly scolds when the redhead tries to chug the entire glass in one go.
Grumbling, Chuuya obeys, continuing to sip slowly, despite something in him screaming to drink more, more, more. He's not even that thirsty, yet he finds himself asking Dazai for a second glass of water and then a third.
It's not until Dazai is watching Chuuya finish his fifth glass and rubbing his slightly bloated stomach that he asks, "You good?"
"Mhm..."
"Sleep?"
"Please."
A bit of an unusual occurrence, but the two didn't think much of it.
The occasional morning sickness and the craving for a questionable amount of water is definitely strange, but seeing as both of them were males, Chuuya isn’t too worried.
Maybe I'm sick? he tries to reason.
A trip to the doctor's ends up fruitless, with all the tests coming out normal, so Chuuya figures it really is nothing.
That is until Akutagawa, an alien of the same species as Dazai, is gaping at him, eyes widened to the size of saucers. “You impregnated the human?!"
Chuuya nearly drops the glass he's holding from the sheer absurdity of the question. He looks from Dazai, who is just as confused as he is, to the paler-than-usual Akutagawa.
Pointing to his person, Dazai dumbly asks, "Me?"
"Yes, you! Who else?!"
A slow chuckle that turns into full-blown laughter has the frazzled alien whipping his head towards the kitchen, where Chuuya is holding his stomach from how much he's laughing.
"Chuuya-san, this is serious."
But he keeps on roaring with unrestrained laughter, unaware of the way Dazai's face pales, too.
"You're a real jokester, Ryuu." Chuuya wipes a tear away from the corner of his eye. "Me? Pregnant? Hilarious ."
He takes a much-needed gulp of water, but he finds it difficult to swallow when he finally takes in both of the aliens' expressions. Akutagawa still looks dead serious. And Dazai... Dazai looks anxious .
"Oi, the males of your species can't carry babies, can they?"
He's then reminded that technically, where Dazai is from, they don't have genders. After all, one of their unique traits is that they can fluidly switch to meet any mating necessities. Still, what humans do to conceive doesn't apply to them. One specimen doesn't need a 'dick' and the other doesn't need a 'vagina.' So long as one specimen inserts their mating juices into the other, a pregnancy can occur.
Chuuya's laugh this time is strained.
"But I'm not a part of your species, so there's no way I'm capable of having a baby...right?"
"Our fluids are special. To procreate at a faster rate, any species we insert our mating fluids in can conceive our children, so long as we are mated to that person."
Akutagawa eyes Dazai, who refuses to look in either of their general directions.
"From that marking below your ear, I can tell that you two are mates."
The fires in his eyes ablaze, Chuuya whirls on Dazai. "You said this was to ward off enemies!"
"It is! No one will hurt you, since you're marked as mine!"
Before Chuuya can cross the room to do the unspeakable to his partner, Akutagawa is coughing to gain their attention.
"Also, your belly."
Unconsciously, Chuuya puts a hand to his stomach. "What about my belly?"
"It's glowing."
To the untrained eye of one from the slime species, Chuuya would appear normal. However, Akutagawa specializes in the human equivalent of obstetrics , meaning he could tell from the moment he saw Chuuya that there’s a faint, barely noticeable, pink glow around his belly. The further along a slime pregnancy moves, the deeper the color becomes. At that time, others of the slime race will be able to spot a pregnant being from a mile away.
It's another one of those traits that they have that's vital to their survival. A pregnant being needs protection, which can easily be given if others know about the pregnancy. The glowing bellies are that special indicator.
Following Akutagawa's explanation, Chuuya takes a deep breath.
"So what you're telling me, is that I'm pregnant ?"
A nod.
"With that thing's baby?"
Another nod.
Chuuya relaxes his clenched fists, face turning eerily calm, a stark contrast to how he was a moment ago.
"Darling," Dazai hesitantly calls, face partially hidden behind a cushion, "are you okay?"
The saccharine smile on Chuuya's face gives Dazai a false sense of security.
"Osamu." His voice is practically dripping in honey, arms spread wide in an invitation for a hug.
Dazai, the fool, disregards the alarm bells going wild in his head, instead taking the risk and going to Chuuya to wrap his arms around him, just as the redhead's arms circle around his neck. The feeling of Chuuya nosing at his throat has him relaxing much too quickly, stiffened shoulders sagging in relief.
"I thought you were going to stab me or something," he jokes, arms tightening to pull his lover closer.
Chuuya smiles against his skin, placing a light kiss on his jaw.
"I would never," is whispered into his ear, causing a pleasant shiver to wrack his body. Sadly, it turns into something else entirely with the proceeding words of, "That wouldn't be enough to kill you ."
Akutagawa watches on as Chuuya tackles Dazai to the ground, beginning to strangle the life out of the creature beneath him. Impressed at the vulgarity of the words that tumble out of Chuuya's mouth, the raven haired alien patiently waits out the lovers' quarrel.
It's not like Dazai can die anyway. The only way to truly kill a slime would be with fire.
Dazai's pleas for mercy fall on deaf ears, while Chuuya continues his assault, and he would've gladly kept going, if it weren't for the annoying urge to drink water.
"Chuuya~ None of your murder attempts hurt me physically, but emotionally, I'm broken."
"Good," he spits.
Having taken out his anger on the cause of this mess, Chuuya reluctantly asks Akutagawa for more information on what pregnancy with a slime baby will entail.
"You plan on keeping it?" he asks incredulously, clearly not expecting this turn of events, especially with how negatively he first reacted.
Almost shy, Chuuya admits, "It's not like I don't want kids. Though, it would've been nice to know there was a possibility of me conceiving." He throws a glare at Dazai for effect.
"You told me not to use a condom, so I thought you knew!"
"I knew I was going to get an unwrapped alien dick up my ass, not that you were gonna get me pregnant!"
"I'm sorry, ok?!"
" Sorry isn't gonna do shit!"
Akutagawa breaks up the fight before it can get physical (again) by stating that Chuuya’s agitation may potentially harm the baby. The fight is immediately defused.
Once everyone has calmed down, Akutagawa walks them through a typical pregnancy. For the most part, it's just like the human process. One major difference is that the cravings are revealed to be solely for water. Since slime people are almost entirely made up of water and only need a sustainable supply of it to survive, it's only natural that a slime fetus needs all the water it can get to ensure proper growth and development.
The birthing part is where the real problem lies.
"Slime babies usually emerge from their parent in the same manner a bird would from an egg," Akutagawa explains.
Apparently, it's a rather gruesome process, where a baby will expand until it bursts right out of the conceiving being. For the slime parent, it's no problem, considering slime anatomy makes it so that they can easily come together to form a whole body again.
For a human, well…
Now Chuuya knows why Akutagawa looked so concerned when he found out and why he's even more surprised to hear that he'll still keep it.
The redhead looks mildly troubled at best.
"The little squirt will be half human, right? Maybe he won't splatter my insides on our walls."
"You...are a strong human."
Sighing dreamily, Dazai stares at Chuuya with little hearts in his eyes. "Isn't he?"
Chuuya is disgusted , which is the reason for him allowing Dazai to hold his hand.
Yeah, it doesn't make sense to him either.
The alien doctor gives the couple the usual do's and don'ts of going through a pregnancy, providing additional tips and warnings for what may occur as a result of it being half slime.
"And absolutely no sex."
Dazai is the one who protests then.
"You don't want to put another one in him, do you?"
Chuuya chokes. "That can happen?!"
"If it's possible for us, then I wouldn't put it past me to assume that it may happen for you as well. Therefore, unless you'd rather have a litter of kids, no sex."
Dazai mourns his loss, even as they're walking Akutagawa out the door.
"Call me if anything happens. And Chuuya-san?"
Said man raises an eyebrow.
"If a tentacle wiggles out of your ass or mouth, don't be alarmed. It's just your baby saying hi."
The mortifying picture has Chuuya petrified , body freezing where he stands. His heart starts beating again, when Akutagawa laughs it off as a joke.
He just hopes and prays that the muttered, "That won't be until later on," is a joke, too.
Bidding their final goodbyes with the promise of a proper checkup at a later date, Dazai and Chuuya are allowed to collapse onto their couch as soon as the door locks behind them.
And for some time, they just lie there, cradled in each other's arms as the truck load of new information processes in their brains.
The one that breaks the silence is Dazai.
"We're going to be parents."
The words sound far-off, mumbled under his breath like a secret he doesn't want to risk being heard by anyone else.
Chuuya notes the hesitation in the bandaged hand that stops midway from his belly, watches how it redirects itself to hold his hand.
Rolling his eyes, he takes Dazai's hand and guides it to rest on his tummy.
"You're not gonna feel anything, you know?" As mocking as those words are, it doesn't stop the fuzzy feeling in Chuuya's chest from blooming with the way his lover starts to slowly , delicately stroke his tummy.
Chuuya lays his hand on top of Dazai's, following the same motion while the stroking continues.
"We'll be the best daddies, Chuu."
The tenderness of the moment makes Chuuya want to kiss Dazai.
So he does.
Chaste, sweet, lasting.
Because although the thought of birthing an alien-human hybrid terrifies him (thanks Akutagawa), Chuuya can't help but be excited to see how this whole pregnancy thing goes.
If everything runs smoothly, they'll have the kid he never imagined they could have (biologically, that is. Chuuya was initially thinking of adoption).
If things go awry and either he, their baby, or both of them die, then oops.
But he knows it won't come to that. After all, Dazai is always raving about his superior genes, so maybe that'll be what makes this miracle happen.
For now, he'll worry about what to cook for dinner.