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Mornings were always difficult. She had to get up early to start her work day, and her husband was an even earlier riser. To get any morning cuddles out of him she had to wake up before him, and that was just a whole groggy ordeal. Of course, years of this tradition had ingrained into her a better pattern, forcing her to go to bed earlier at night instead of scrolling on social media.
She rolled over. She had ten minutes to get dressed, brush her teeth, and head out the door. A decent amount of time if a certain someone would release her.
Arms tightened around her waist, Sun’s head pressing into her spine. “Noo…” He whined.
This situation was usually flipped. He was much better about rising in the morning than she was. Was he feeling alright? He was only particularly clingy like this when he was sick…
She rolled over and pressed her hand against his forehead. Content now that she wasn’t attempting to leave, a happy little purr rumbled quietly within his chest. Gently he ran his claws up and down her back.
“Are you feeling alright?” She asked quietly.
He hummed an affirmation, but she wasn’t convinced. She didn’t often skip work, but she wouldn’t be opposed to doing so this time…
“Just a little sleepy.” He hummed, shoving his flat nose under her chin.
“Sleepy, huh?” She was definitely calling off work. She twisted to reach for her phone so she could call her manager. They’d be mad, sure, but hey, she never used a sick day. Well, technically. While she never got sick, her husband did. Not often, no, and he never complained either, but… well, sue her for wanting to take care of her love.
She was only barely able to grab her phone before she was pulled back to the center of the bed, a fishy tail wrapped tight around her legs.
“Mm.” Sun settled her carefully over him. “You’re warm.”
She scrolled through her phone contacts instead of answering, pressing a kiss to Sun’s nose. When she finally found the right name, she pressed her phone to her ear, eyes glued to her love’s face. He didn’t look particularly pale. He watched her in turn through half-slitted eyes.
“Hi, Bocka. I know it’s late notice, but can you take my shift today? Yes, the one I’m late for, that one.”
Sun’s eyes widened.
“I’ll call the manager right after you—”
“Don’t call out, hon, I feel fine.” He sat up quickly, causing her to slide down his chest and into a heap on his lap. His legs crossed underneath her, his tail freeing itself and flicking behind him.
Her brows furrowed. “I’m calling out—”
“No, no, seriously.” He swung the both of them out of bed and stood with her. Arms still wrapped around her, he walked her backwards to the pair of dressers. Her work clothes had been laid out the night before, as they only ever were because of Sun. “I feel fine!”
She crossed her arms when she was released and glared up at him. His eight feet versus her five and three inches seemed a little unfair. Especially when they argued.
“You feel fine.” She stated dubiously.
“Yes, my light, I feel super duper, even!”
“And there’s nothing wrong.”
“Nope! So stop your fussing and head into work, silly~”
She narrowed her eyes. “If I find you unconscious on the floor when I return…” She warned lowly.
“Your concern for me makes my heart flutter, my darling light, but you really ought to hurry, hurry. You’ll be super late because of me, and that’s not good for—well, for anyone, really.”
She considered him. “Fine.”
There was definitely something wrong with her husband, but she had no idea just what. If he wasn’t sick (he had no temperature, she made him double check) then there was something else. But he wasn’t explaining anything. She would normally drop it by then; any normal person needed extra cuddles from time to time. Except the line of questioning made him look somewhat forlorn. As if she should already know. She had triple checked all of her calendars, even the ones from the last two years to see if she had forgotten to write down a recurring event, but there was no anniversary to note. She wasn’t good with dates, sure, but not that bad that she’d forget three years in a row to document it.
The funk she left her husband in had apparently extended to her coworkers. Beth and Any (Twins who thought their names were hilarious) avoided her like their lives depended on it, three fingered slender hands clasped as they quickly walked away whenever she entered the room. Bocka, while accepting her apology for leaving her on the phone for so long, did not remain in the room to chatter her ear off like she normally did. Connor turned his back to her if she tried to say anything, and then her boss, all quivering overcoat and gas mask, shifted his long oversized sleeves as he explained (without truly explaining) that she would have the next two months and three weeks off, “no worries, no worries”.
She was full of worries.
“Oh, of course it's paid time off, dear, no worries, no worries.”
“That’s nice and all, but can you—”
“Oh, no worries, no worries,” he chuckled. “We have plenty of blankets for this very occasion. You’d be surprised how many species—Oh, Glenda! My coffee! Finally!” he waddled down the steps and met Glenda at the door. She was taller than the doorway, and her broad shoulders were wider too, so she patiently waited for the boss to meet her. She held the top of the cup with the tips of her thick fingers and didn’t bother to crouch to meet the short man. His sleeves extended and wrapped around the coffee.
The woman who looked to be made of granite left them without a word.
“Ah~” The boss sighed happily. “The coffee is so good, so good.”
Lacy massaged her brow. It was amazing that her boss got his job at all; he had a one track mind. Knowing that he’d be unable to answer her questions until after he had finished his coffee, which took exactly thirteen minutes each time (they’d timed him a couple of times), she made her way to her shared room.
She almost couldn’t recognize their room. She surveyed the room, from top to bottom, a little shocked at how many blankets the man had fit in there. It looked like an elaborate fort/nest of some kind. Blankets made walls and ceilings for their bed, and blankets spilled over onto the floor. A tiny fridge had been set up at the corner of the nest where it didn’t touch any of the cozy blankets.
The room was empty of a particular yellow-skinned alien however, so she entered the connecting room. Because of their relationship, and partly because of her status on the ship, their quarter was one of the nicer ones. A bedroom, kitchen and bathroom with room enough for a section of their kitchen to dedicate to a cozy little dining table. It often ended up decorated in holiday-themed decor more than used for eating, with Sun as the culprit. She hadn’t had a special place in her heart for holidays until Sun had come along.
The kitchen was where she found him. His back was to her as he poured a glaze over one of his favorite types of meat. She glanced about the room. The table, rather than covered in baubles, was coated in plates and bowls, teeming with food. The counter had yet to be tidied from food prep.
“Are we having a party?” She asked as she approached. He seemed calmer now, she thought as her gaze skittered up his form.
His head turned so quickly that the transparent, spiny fins crowning his head slapped him. His thin, ridged, long tail slapped the ground once before curling, his colorless eyes wide and trained on her. It was her only warning. He darted for her, causing her to squeal and attempt to dodge his outstretched arms. She narrowly evaded him once, but his reaction time was faster than she anticipated. Bouncing off the wall, he barreled into her, scooping her up into his arms with a gleeful sound.
“Lacy, my Light! You’re back early~” he cooed as he nuzzled her cheek and neck. He’d been scenting her more frequently lately.
She caught his face to give herself a reprieve. “Sun, what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” He stopped straining against her palms
“What did I forget?” She glanced at the smudge of food on his cheek. “And why are you trying to put yourself into a food coma?” She swiped her sleeve across his cheek, catching the oddly colored stain. “I thought you hated honey mustard.”
“I’m not—well, obviously I’m eating more because—” He stopped. “Oh my darling peanut brittle cupcake. You’re a human.”
“...I’m pretty sure we established that five years ago, but yes, that is true. Is that… part of the reason you’ve been off today? And, well, now the past week or so now that I’m thinking about it.” She eyed the painting on the wall as she thought.
“Oh dearie me. I thought… this whole time… I didn’t remember your sense of smell was different than mine.”
“In what way? Clearly it’s impactful.” She gestured at the room. “If this is the kind of day that you had.”
“Well, um. Well. You know how we talked about children?”
She froze. “Yes… I do. We talked about how it was a toss-up on which partner got pregnant, and then you didn’t like it when I compared you to a seahorse.” It was a fair comparison, in her defense. He even looked like he could be distantly, fifty times removed, related to a seahorse, in an alien way.
“And… you said you wouldn’t mind children.” It seemed, then, important for him to prattle off the reasons why, just as she had explained to him. “We’re financially well off, and we’ve got plenty saved up for any problems, and we’ve attended classes and read books, and I had a lot of practice with kids because of my many siblings, but it’s okay if we don’t want that many kids, and we could still keep our jobs here because the boss wouldn’t care and—”
She caught his waving arms. Unsure what to say, she said the least helpful thing that could pop up in her mind. “Don’t panic.” Her brain blanked. “I have a pinterest board of baby clothes.”
He stared at her. She stared at him. He bit his lip and his shoulders shook.
“Don’t laugh at me.” She covered her mouth as giggles arose in her throat.
“I-I’m not laughing at you.”
“I heard a laugh, don’t lie—!”
They quickly became a chortling, giggly mess. Sun’s spray bottle laughter and her half-silent/half-squeaks overlapped as they clung to each other and the stress melted away.
Well. Not wholly.
“So…” She dropped a hand to his waist, just above his hip. Would it be weird to prod his flat belly? Probably, yeah. “You’re preggo?”
He pressed his smile into her shoulder. “There was a better way to ask that, but yes.”
“Oh, critiquing my questions, are we?”
“Mhm, C-.”
“Rude. I’m telling our kid that you’re a rather judgy fell ow!” She screeched as she was lifted suddenly into the air and brought swiftly into a hug. Her nose brushed against Sun’s.
“‘Our kid’.” He repeated. He beamed at her.
“We’re naming them Carl.”
His smile disappeared and was replaced with an unimpressed scowl. “No. We are not naming them Carl.”
She grinned impishly. “What did Carl do to you? They haven’t even been born yet.”
“You know exactly why we are not naming our child Carl.” he shuddered. “Ugh. Carl.”
“I can’t think of any good reason why we shouldn’t.”
“You lie.”
“I am astonished at you. First you give me a C-, and now you accuse the mother of your own child that she is a liar? The audacity.”
His rays drooped as his face adopted a love-sick look. “I love you.”
She smiled. “Love you too.”
Just as he drew her close to kiss her, she interrupted the sweet moment. “I do not, however, love the amount of food we need to put away.”
“...There’s no more room in the fridge.”
“Well, guess we’re eating well tonight.” She mused. “Should we invite some of our coworkers over?”
He hissed and shook his head. “No, no, no thank you.”
“Ah.” Her eyes narrowed. “You must be the reason they were avoiding me today. How is it they knew you were preggers and I did not?”
“Hormones change smell, as you probably know, and the majority of us have better noses than humans.”
“Oh. I thought that you just stunk and needed a shower.”
He gasped.
“What? My sense of smell isn’t that bad, I just don’t jump to conclusions about it!”
“Hmph. I don’t want to cuddle with you anymore.” he dropped her to the floor and padded over to the chunk of meat he’d been decorating in glaze. “Help me?”
She rolled up her sleeves and smirked. “I wasn’t named the Tetris master for nothing.”
…She severely underestimated just how much the man cooked, though. Once the majority of what had to be put into the fridge and freezer had been taken care of, she sat on the edge of the wiped off table with a mixing bowl full of jello.
“Also.” She cleaned off the spoon. “How dare.”
“Hm?” Sun folded up the apron. She wasn’t sure why, as it was going into the wash. “How dare what?”
“I forgot to respond earlier. How dare to your not wanting cuddles. I mean, obviously that’s fine, respecting your space and whatnot.” She scooped a bit of red jello up. It tasted better when Sunny made it. Don’t ask her why, them’s just the rules. “Just forgot to respond.”
He chuckled as he gently placed the apron on the counter. Eventually it would be added to the basket in the bathroom, which when full, would be hauled off to the communal washer room.
He crossed the room and tilted her head back with a finger hooked under her chin. “I appreciate the sentiment, lovely light, but I only jested. If you’re not against it, and have nothing particularly important to do, I’m rather tired from the day I had. I’m sure you are too. My wife is such a hard worker…” he smiled. “And the air conditioner’s on…”
“You let me finish my jello and I’ll happily snuggle my afternoon away.”
He squealed before coughing and attempting to regain a smidgen of the coquettish air he previously had.
She snorted and drew him closer by the collar of his loose sweater (hers, actually).
“Just kiss me already.”
“But your jello—”
He melted in her arms as she kissed him sweetly.