Chapter Text
"I already feel huge," Cady whines as she looks at herself in the mirror. This has been an ongoing occurrence over the past week. Ever since she noticed the bump beginning to form and grow, she's been spending hours in front of any mirror she can find. And Hobie is over it already. Frankly, he doesn't even really notice that much of a difference. She's not even 3 months in yet, so the baby bump is still relatively small.
"You do realize that you're barely even 3 months pregnant, right? The bump is barely even noticeable." Hobie reassures as he slips on a shirt.
The pair were getting ready to head to a doctor's appointment for an ultrasound that they were supposed to have done 2 weeks ago. But, Arcadia decided to cancel at the last minute because she wanted Hobie there. He was going to be there, but he got caught up with the whole Spider-Punk thing and ended up getting into a huge scuffle with some cops. So, ultimately, Cady rescheduled and made sure Hobie wasn't gonna miss this one.
"What do you mean?" She replies, the early pregnancy delusion hitting her, "I look huge."
"Oh my god," Hobie rolls his eyes as he walks over to her. Wrapping his arms around her, he places his hands on her stomach. Resting his head on her shoulder, he looks her over in the reflection of the mirror. He can definitely notice the bump, but honestly, she's looked like this when bloated, so it's no different to him, "Baby, you're delusional. You don't look all too different."
"I dunno.."
"Cady, c'mon," He pauses, "You're like 12 weeks, along. The bump is barely even noticeable."
She sighs as her eyes focus on her stomach. She doesn't really believe him, but she'll lie to herself for the time being. Leaning her head against his, Cady's gaze slowly shifts to meet Hobie's in the mirror. He smiles at her as his thumbs rub across her stomach. And she smiles back. There's no one else she'd want to have by her side right now.
Humming, Cady replies, "Okay..."
"Aye," He looks into her eyes in the reflection, "Don't think about it."
"I'm not."
"Uh-huh."
Arcadia rolls her eyes before she presses a soft kiss against Hobie's cheek, "Okay, we gotta get going, 'cause I'm not gonna reschedule again."
Hobie chuckles and lets her go so he can gather his stuff. Cady stays at the mirror for another moment until Hobie snaps her out of it, "Love, schedule."
The sing song of the last word causes her to laugh softly before she finally tears herself from the mirror. She grabs her bag off the back of the desk chair to her right. Checking to make sure she has her wallet and such, Arcadia grabs her perfume bottle off of the dresser. Spritzing herself, she almost gags at the familiar smell.
"Oh, for fucks sake," She says, nausea hitting her. She glares at the perfume bottle as she sets it back on the dresser. Looking down at her stomach, she groans, "That's my favorite perfume, you little shit!"
Hobie looks over at her, confused, "Who're talkin' to?"
"Your fucking kid," She looks up at him, mildly annoyed that her favorite perfume made her nauseous, "Apparently they don't enjoy the smell of my perfume."
Hobie just stares at her, all types of confused. His eyes flash to her stomach for a moment as he waits for more of an explanation.
"Oh, my fucking god, Hobie," She groans, "I'm nauseous again."
"Okay," He draws the word out, as he pieces it together, "Well, not tryna' rush you but Y'know... ultrasound appointment."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."
Hobie notices the annoyance that radiates off of Arcadia. The whole pregnancy so far has been full of mood swings and nausea. Honestly, he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't a little scared about the next 6 months. They're only a third of the way through, and Arcadia's already suffering.
Heading out, they head to doctors for the ultrasound. The whole time, every smell bugs Arcadia. The moment they get to the doctor's office, Arcadia dips off to the bathroom while Hobie gets them checked in. When he gets handed the clipboard to fill out the required info about Arcadia, his mind goes blank. Yeah, no. He lives with her and obviously has known her for years, but he's never had to fill out anything for her. After getting her name and date of birth down, he flips through the pages and decides to wait. Finally, Cady joins him, looking even more miserable than before.
"Why does our kid hate me?" She asks in a hushed whine as she takes the clipboard. She settles next to Hobie and leans her head on his shoulder.
"I don't think they hate you," He replies, voice just above a whisper, "I just think they wanna give you a hard time."
"God, I'm gonna give birth to a mini-you," She groans as she fills out the paperwork.
Hobie lets out an amused scoff as he runs a hand over her thigh, "Is that a bad thing?"
"I'm starting to think that it might be," She replies, clicking the pen in thought.
"Ouch."
Finishing up the paperwork, she heads up to the front desk and returns the clipboard and pen before settling next to Hobie again. They wait in silence for a moment as they people watch. There's a few other couples there, along with some singles, but hey, who cares. After being nosey and overhearing another couple's conversation about baby names, they decide to talk about names as well.
"Y'know, we never thought about a name yet," Arcadia says.
"Yeah, we should probably do that."
"Any suggestions?"
Hobie thinks about it for a second before shrugging, "I got nothin'. Well, nothing that wouldn't result in bullying."
Arcadia glares, "You're horrible."
"Well, do you have any ideas?"
"Actually, yeah."
She pulls out her notebook from her satchel. Flipping through the pages, she finds a small list of names she's jotted down over the past few weeks.
"So, you have thought about this," Hobie takes the notebook and looks over the names. Tipping the book back towards Cady, he asks, "Any favorites?"
She nods and points out 2 gender natural names that caught her eyes, "Mm-hm, Cyrus and Viridian. Anything catching yours?"
"Virdian?" He echos, "Isn't that a shade of green?"
"Yeah."
"Fuckin' dork."
"Says the guy who literally made dimension hopping watches out of scrap."
A tech peeks out from the hallway leading back to the rooms, "Arcadia?"
Arcadia takes her notebook back as she stands. She offers her hand to Hobie who glares up at her playfully. Standing on his own and gives her grief about it, "Hey, I'm supposed to help you up."
"Oh, my knight in patchwork armor," She teases, taking his hand after he stands, "This is a two-way street."
He rolls his eyes as she drags him down the hall, chatting with the tech the whole way. The tech explains everything as they step into the room and have Cady get up on the exam bed. She settles in and goes back and forth with the tech, magically becoming a people person. Hobie decides to stay silent and just be non-verbal comfort for the time being.
Getting the gel on Cady's stomach, the tech asks, "Excited to find out how many you'll be having?"
"I mean, yeah," Cady replies with a small laugh, "But I'm kind of hoping that we only have one."
The tech laughs at that as they start the ultrasound. After a moment, they smile and relay the info, "Well, I hope you're open to multiples."
"What?" Hobie cuts in, disbelief hitting him before Arcadia can even process the tech's words.
"Congrats, you're having twins."
Hobie and Arcadia share a collective 'Fuuuck' look before Arcadia replies.
"Woohoo," She cheers weakly.
The tech gives them a sympathetic look as they continue, "Well, they're both healthy. Do you have any names picked out yet?"
"Yeah," Arcadia replies, a bit of fear setting in, "Cyrus and Viridian were my top two."
"Viridian? I've never heard of that."
"It's a shade of green," She explains, "It's one of my favorites - I'm an artist."
"Ah, okay," The tech continues with the exam as they question her about the other name, "And Cyrus? Any reasoning behind that?"
"Well, it has like musician vibes. I heard it, and it instantly reminded me of him," She motions to Hobie, "He's a fuckin' beast with a guitar."
"Alright, no need to hype me up."
The rest of the exam goes smoothly. But Arcadia does ask about a thousand questions. She was more than prepared for one, but two? She was open to the idea in the past, but she definitely didn't think there was a high enough chance. That's a bit of lie. She knew her chances were slightly higher since she has a set of twin sisters in her family. But that didn't seem like a factor initially.
"We'll see you in 3 weeks!" The receptionist says as the pair head out.
"Looking forward to it!" Cady smiles as they head out. The moment they're out of earshot, she turns to Hobie and freaks out, "TWINS?! What the FUCK?"
Hobie shrugs, "Don't you have twin sisters? Our chances for multiples were always higher."
She deflates, "How are we supposed to take care of two?"
"We'll figure it out," He reassures before trying to switch the topic of conversation to something more positive, "You set on Cyrus and Viridian?"
"I don't know," Sighing, she looks to the ground, "Jaida was higher up on the list as well."
"You and those color names."
"Okay, Hobart."
"Oh, shut up."
"Make me."
"Last time I did that you got knocked up with twins. So, I'd rather not."