Chapter Text
Tick holds the lobster to his chest, big blue hand resting on it’s back with its long…feelers? feeling the air.
A morbid thought squirms before he could catch it, and Arthur wonders if this means Tick will declare himself vegan. He wonders if this was going to make him vegan.
Probably not.
“Tick, you can put her down now,” Arthur says. “All the others are in the tub.”
Tick shakes his head. “But I can’t, Arthur. Mindy has a hard time falling asleep.” He pets her back, and Mindy warbles softly, mouth parts twiddling like fingers. “I think Lobstercules used to hold her for naptime.” Mindy seems to corroborate, making another watery sound before tucking her face into the crook of Tick’s neck.
Arthur watches for a bit longer before going back to placing towels on the floor. He hasn’t thought about where Tick came from for a while. He hasn’t really had the time, frankly, even before this whole AEGIS mess, or the lobster babies in his bathtub. But something about the way Tick has been acting with these guys, holding them, nicknaming them, playing with them, made something old and familiar and sad tug in Arthur’s chest. He hopes that, somewhere out there in the universal aether, there isn’t a little blue bug kid missing a big blue bug dad.
He looked old enough to be a dad. Arthur glanced over again, eyeing the smile lines and crows feet that pinched the Tick’s eyes.
Arthur supposes he was technically old enough to be a dad, so–
“Arthur, when will you give me and Joan children?” Tick asks brightly, shattering Arthur’s train of thought like a million of his plates being knocked out of the cabinet.
Arthur blinks, trying to regain his equilibrium after the insane fucking question that just came out his partner’s mouth.
“Jesus, Tick,” Arthur stutters, “what are you talking about?”
Tick looked contemplative for all about two seconds. “Well it’s just like I asked,” he said, turning to face Arthur. Arthur braced for an explanation (whatever it could possibly be) then he realized Tick was also waiting for an explanation, eyebrows turned up and antennae flexed in anticipation.
“I,” where did he even begin? “Tick, first of all, don’t ask your question like that, okay?” Arthur shakes his head. “You’re not really…supposed to ask those questions…” He trails off hopelessly.
Tick frowned. “I don’t follow.”
When has he ever? “It just–wait, you know what? Just–” Arthur was not in the state of mind to explain intersocial faux pas anymore than he usually is, and really, it would likely just confuse his partner more.
“Rephrase it next time,” Arthur says briskly. Tick nods in understanding. “....why do you ask? What do you mean?”
“I’m asking when you’ll have kids, Arthur,” Tick clarifies. “Or get kids. Joan says she always thought you’d have kids first, ‘ believe it or not. ‘ Her words.”
Oh my god, Mom, Arthur thinks, One disaster at a time. “When did you even have time to talk to my mom about kids?” Mom hadn’t brought it up to him for years, and it had to have only been once, because he can’t even remember it. Dot probably got the brunt of this talk, thank God, being leagues and hills and valleys more well adjusted to “regular people life” that Arthur had ever been.
Well, that’s what he used to think. It’s been a wild last couple weeks.
“We were reminiscing over the children,” Tick says, and he pats the lobster’s back for emphasis.
His antennae twitches just as Mindy begins to snore, and Tick lifts her away from his body, cradling her with as much gentleness as his big arms could muster. “And I asked her about parenthood. Which, by the way, she did a bang up job. She gave the world Dot and Arthur.” Arthur opens his mouth to say something, maybe to say thank you, or anything else, but Tick steamrolls right past. “Anyway, these little guys just play such a beautiful tune on my heartstrings. Think, Gymnopédies or, or Larghetto .” Tick’s eyes seem to twinkle when he looks at Arthur, his antennae flexting at him. “And then I thought, wow, wouldn’t it just be Canon in D if the best moth-based superhero in the world–that’s you–had some babies of his own.” He kneels down, placing Mindy the lobster into the tub with her siblings, taking care to brush her feelers in a tender motion that was both distinctly mother tucking daughter’s bangs behind her ear and kafkaesque . “And Joan mentioned wanting babies,” Tick caps off helpfully, still on the floor, “grandbabies. Which all babies tend to be, if you ask me.”
For a second Arthur wasn’t sure whether to address Tick’s aspirations for his sex life or where on Earth he had learned about classical music. He decided the former was most pertinent. “I’m not having babies, Tick. And if it’s up to m–” Arthur blinks rapidly, shaking his head. “Of course it’s up to me–I won’t be having any , any time soon. Sorry to disappoint.”
Tick purses his lips, nodding thoughtfully. “Ah-ha, I see.” Tick contemplates the sleeping babies in the tub, and Arthur wonders not for the first time if he’s going to have to explain the concept of sex to his large, adult, seemingly human partner.
“Well,” Tick says with finality, and gathers himself to his feet. He turns to Arthur, and clasps his hand on his shoulder. “Let me know when you’re ready. I don’t think there’s anything we can’t tackle together, chum.”
“Wha–” Tick shushes him, motioning to the bathtub with a sideways tilt of his head. He then marches right past Arthur, who clamps his mouth shut to stop his shrill questions from waking the babies.