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"Why the fuck are you on the floor?" Hels' voice floats down from far off, with less derision than usual. Eugh. He's been so awkwardly soft and while at times it's, it can also be suffocating.
"For fun." Exisora snarks. He's laying askew on a wild array of pillows strewn across the floor.
"It doesn't look all that comfortable." Hels remarks, and Ex cracks his eyes open to see Hels reaching down towards him. Ex lifts his own arm only to snatch Hels by the right and promptly shock him.
"Ow!" Hels yelps, recoiling and nearly tripping over a pillow, stumbling around.
"Do not fucking touch me right after I finelly found out how to lay without my back being in pain." Exisora's tone is deadly serious and they glare at Hels as he steadies.
"It's not my fault," Hels begins to whine in protest, but Ex cuts him off, gesturing at their pregnant belly which seems to round out more daily.
"Last I checked, it was."
"Fucking weird void alien biology." Hels mutters under his breath, sitting at the edge of Ex's pillow nest but careful to not move anything. "Did you get any sleep last night?"
Content he's not going to be disturbed, Ex relaxes. "A little." He says reluctantly. Back pain is the newest fucked-up pregnancy symptom harassing them. No mattet what position he sits, stands, or lays in, the ache eventually catches up, and his biggest concern right now is staving it off as long as possible. Currently, pillows on the floor are Exisora's new best friend, because this is the most successful he's been at 'not being in pain' in days.
"You want the heating pad?" And while Held being so attentive is weird, it is helpful.
"Sure." It's weird for Ex, too, to have his body change, his center of weight so thrown off. He keeps expecting that one day he's going to wake up and feel so sure about all this. But it hasn't happened yet, and he's getting concerned it won't, ever.
"Coming in." Hels warns, resting a hand on Ex's hil as he kneels, rubbing a circle there with his thumb. "Hey."
"Hey." Exisora mumbles sleepily.
"Gonna move you just a bit, then I'll turn the heating pad on."
Hels braces Ex's lower back with one hand, pushing his hips up just for a second, slipping the heating pad between Ex and the pillow cradling his back. Hels lets Exisora back down, running his hand across Ex's hip and then over his belly. Ex sighs at Hels' warm touch as he pushes their shirt up to rove his hand freely over Exisora's skin, tracing the new stretch marks drawing dark lines over Ex's paleness.
"I like how all this is softening you up." Exisora teases.
"Shut up." Hels objects, baring his teeth, but it's a playful thing.
"Didn't know it would be this easy to get your bending over backwards at my every beck and call."
"Don't get used to it."
"I don't know." Ex grins as Hels shifts closer, spooning him from behind. "Maybe I could."
But it's not destined last; the pain comes back with a vengeance and after three sleepless nights Exisora and Hels get into a raging screaming match. Ex fucks off to Hermitcraft afterwards if only so he doesn't have to look at Hels' face. If they wanted, it would be easy enough to pick more fights on Hermitcraft and vent their frustration, but what Ex really wants is to find a quiet place to hide and melt into a puddle. He's too exhausted to do much else.
"Ex?" Zedaph wasn't expecting company, and Exisora least of all. Ex never announces his arrival, though, just appears and disappears as he pleases. Now he's suddenly laying on Zed's couch. "Are you awake?"
"Unfortunately." Exisora sounds pissed, barely lifting his head to squint at Zed from where he's curled up. Zedaph frowns a little as he realizes Ex doesn't look too great. Ex had promised, sworn, that he would take care of himself in his condition. Zedwph did trust them, but it was extremely hard not to fuss. Zed was working to keep it at a minimum.
Past their rebreather, though, there are deep dark circles beneath the voidwalker's eyes, and Ex pushes their blanket away in annoyance, Zedaph is sure that their hands are trembling.
Zedaph bounces on his heels, trying to work his worries out and not stare. "You hungry? I was gonna have lunch." He says as upbeat as he can.
"I can't fucking sleep." The desperation in Ex's voice is a punch in the git. Zedaph crosses the room to them in a moment, laying a hand on their shoulder that Ex thankfully doesn't pull away from.
"What's wrong?" A million possible answers are already flying through Zed's head, closely followed by threads of possibility as to how he can fix it.
"Everything hurts if I'm laying down and everything spins if I'm standing. If I'm really fucking lucky, I'm nauseous either way." Ex complains, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. He's loosely curled into the fetal position, blocked by his stomach. "I just want to sleep."
Zedaph gently pushes Ex's white hair out of their face. "I'm sorry. Let me help?"
"As long as you put me out." Ex rolls their shoulders and the muscle tension there is visible in the stiffness of the motion.
"I want you to get real rest, sedating you will only go so far."
"I don't care." Ex shifts, then hisses in pain at even that slight movement. Zedaph reaches over and tries to massage the over-tight muscles of Ex's back.
"Let me try at least, before we stoop to that." Zedaph tells Ex. "I'll be back."
"I'm not going anywhere." Exisora reports miserably.
Heading into the kitchen first, Zedaph puts on a kettle and prepares the best sleepytime tea that he's got, something Bdubs gave him. Once it's warming he goes for the bathroom and starts running the tub, turning the water as hot as is safe, and after that into the bedroom to put a nest together. He throws every blanket and pillow he has onto the bed and fusses with their placement down to the millimeter. He has a lot of experience with this, so he's the best of the best. Once everything is ready, Zed goes back to Exisora. They're sitting up now, but only partially — they're hunched over, legs spread out to accommodate their stomach, head in their hands.
"Hey, you okay?" Zedaph comes to Ex's side quickly, resisting the urge to cup Ex's face and check their temperature. Exisora can usually only take so much coddling before he runs off. To Zedaph's surprise, however, Ex leans into Zedaph's touch, gripping his sleeves and letting their head rest against Zeinys' abdomen.
"Vertigo. Again."
"I have stuff ready, but are you okay on your feet?" Zed checks warily.
"Anything's better than rotting here." Ex dismisses, which is not an answer to Zedaph's question, he can't help but notice.
"We can go slow." Zedaph suggests in lieu of calling them out. He rubs Ex's back, not wanting to rush them.
When Exisora deems themself ready, Zed doesn't argue, just loops his arms under their's as they stand. He says nothing of the way Exisora trembles, leaning heavily onto Zed. With each step the two of them take, Ex winces, but doesn't audibly complain or ask to stop, keeping an ironclad grip on Zed's arm as they go.
Once in the bathroom, Zedaph sits Ex down carefully on the side of the tub. Exisora trails their fingers through the water experimentally.
"Do you not get tired of rebuilding plumbing in every base you all ever make?"
Zedaph chuckles. "We have our ways. Do you want to keep your rebreather on, or swap your oxygen setup?"
Ex peels their shirt off, and then to Zedaph's great surprise, offers their arm. "Can swap. Black shulker."
Zedaph takes Exisora wrist while projecting confidence, even if thoughts are like a bunch of hamsters running around in a panic. He's careful to avoid Ex's Lifemarks, going for his inventory instead, opening it and finding the shulker in question. Ex tries to push his pants down but gets stuck around his hips, muttering a swear under his breath.
"Here, lean on me." Zedaph suggests, but gestures at him.
"You'd better just do it, Void knows I can't reach all the way down."
So Exisora sits back and braces themself on the tub while Zedaph puts his thumbs under their waistband and slips their pants free. Zedaph has to work very hard to not look at Ex's bare skin and focuses instead of helping them swap their rebreather for nasal cannula before being a steadying arm while they get into the bath. Ex sinks into the hot water with a sigh.
Zedaph settles down, trying to not call too much attention to himself and just let Ex relax. It works, almost better than expected, because Zedaph finally has to get Ex out because they're nearly asleep in the bath itself. Zedaph feels pretty bad about that, but he's going to get Ex to sleep one way or another and assures Exisora of that as he half-walks half-carries them to the bedroom.
Exisora is limp on the bed while Zedaph pushes the blankets and pillows around to try to make things as comfortable as possible. "I made tea." Zedaph tells them. "But you don't have to drink it."
"Uh-huh." Exisora mutters faintly.
"Be right back." Zedaph tells them, but by the time they return with the mugs, Exisora is out for the count.
Zedaph doesn't even dare sit on the bed and instead turns the lights down and pulls up a chair. He reads for awhile, then realizes he can hear a faint beeping. Is that his comm? He must've put it down somewhere. He tiptoes out of the room and goes hunting for it.
When he finds it, he realizes he has quite a few missed messages, and that's when the front door opens.
"Zed? Are you here?" Xisuma calls.
Xisuma trails in with company behind him — Wels, who is in lock-step with his double, who looks as pissed as usual.
"Are they here?" Hels demands, and Zedaph frantically shushes them, rushing to the bedroom door, which is ajar.
Hels looks past Zedaph, and realization lights in his eyes. Wels starts saying something and Hels turns on his heel and grabs Wels by the throat, making Xisuma jump.
"Shhh!" Zedaph interrupts, waving his hands. "If you wake them up, I swear to all the gods I will kill you."
The tone in Zedaph's voice makes all three of them briefly pause, an accomplishment Zedaph will reflect on later. Xisuma fiercely whispers that Hels needs to let Wels go, and Hels drops his double. Wels stumbles and wheezes as quietly as possible, while Hels calmly peers past Zedaph at Exisora, who thankfully remains fast asleep.
Zedaph slowly and carefully closes the bedroom door. From the whispers behind him he gathers that Hels showed up to make sure Ex was alright, he and Wels did their customary fighting and then went to find X, who hadn't known his brother was about, and ultimately that brought them all here.
"I've got it under control." Zedaph assures the group.
Zedaph thinks Xisuma is smiling, behind his visor. If he didn't know better, he'd think HelsKnight was thinking of smiling too, which is possibly the scariest thing Zed can think of.
"That you do." Xisuma agrees.
"That you do." HelsKnight echoes, Wels glaring at him all the while.
Zedaph thinks the next several months are going to be really, really, interesting.