so very dapper

[temporal_affairs]

The Joker is awfully domestic, in his way. He makes pretty clothes. Nathan's perfectly happy to be a clothes horse for his sartorially-inclined mate. Some of the clothes are distinctly feminine, and Nathan does not wear those, although the Joker could probably talk him into a kilt, even if that's not a Manx thing but only their neighbors.

Comments

[yourheartstrings]

"They're all cute," she reaffirms.

[temporal_affairs]

"You want me to pick a pair? Or you wanna have a look at the kid when it's born and see if it looks more like a Kerron or a Payl, or whatever?"

[yourheartstrings]

"Hmm... oh, if you leave it up to me, I'll end up waiting until the kid's old enough to have an opinion," she laughs. "So if you want something to call 'em besides 'Munchkin' before then, you better pick it yourself."

[temporal_affairs]

"Well, it might not actually take that long for an opinion to happen," Nathan says. "We could do that. But then I would expect a name like 'Superman' - or possibly 'Dracula'. I bet that's what you get when you let a week-old half-vampire name himself is a child insisting that his name is Dracula. Let's forestall that. I like Kerron and Aedyt."

[yourheartstrings]

She cracks up.

"And if our kid insists on calling themselves Dracula anyway, there's no way I'm not gonna run with it."

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan addresses her midsection. "Your name," he tells it, "is not Dracula, and I will not take responsibility for explaining why everyone you knew in your childhood calls you that when you are trying to go by Kerron or Aedyt again and asking a cute wolf to sit next to you at the Ultra Olympics."

[yourheartstrings]

The Joker giggles.

"I love you, honey."

[temporal_affairs]

"I love you," he tells her comfortably.

[yourheartstrings]

Snuggle time?

Definitely snuggle time.

[temporal_affairs]

After the Joker has been pregnant for twenty days, Nathan announces, "This is the best time to give Bella her day's notice and move back in with the capital. I believe they're in Jaipur yet."

[yourheartstrings]

"All righty," she says, and dresses and teleports them.

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan finds his room in this capital site, shows her to it, and brainphones Bella, who refers them to Rosalie, who makes them an appointment for delivery the subsequent day.

[yourheartstrings]

The Joker decides to celebrate with cuddles. Munchkin is breaking the occasional rib by now, but they only stay broken for fractions of a second at a time, so it's not a big inconvenience.

[temporal_affairs]

"You're having the easiest half-vampire pregnancy of all time," Nathan tells her. "I wonder why today was best anyway. You'd be fine for days yet as far as I can guess. Tired of being gravid?"

[yourheartstrings]

"Mm, no," she says, "but I might be about to be tired of it."

[temporal_affairs]

"Fair enough." He pats the place under which Kerron-or-Aedyt rests.

[yourheartstrings]

She cuddles up and smiles softly.

"Think I'll take a nap," she murmurs.

[temporal_affairs]

"Sleep well, babe," he says, and he kisses her forehead.

[yourheartstrings]

She dozes her way through most of the remaining time until their appointment. Occasionally the baby kicks and she wakes up with a squeak or a giggle.

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan waits, and when it's time, he picks her up and carries her into the delivery room.

This surgery has historically been performed with a vampire tooth, but apparently Bella's been using her coins, as Rosalie is holding a scalpel instead. "So," she says, peering between the Joker and Nathan, "if she - he? - if your mate's not going to turn, how's this going to work? You going to magic the shell away or something?"

[yourheartstrings]

"Probably," she agrees. "What'd you do with yours?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Bella wished it away, but I wasn't being a human under it, I didn't have a medical emergency as soon as it was opened up," Rosalie says. "You'll need to be quick, or give someone else one of those coins - I can do it, or you can give it to Nathan, whichever."

[yourheartstrings]

"What kind of medical emergency?" she asks. "It'd have to be pretty brutal to get me; I heal fast these days."

[temporal_affairs]

"Opening the shell far enough usually involves breaking the spine, and there's also plenty of blood loss - though admittedly you have better color than the usual patient already - and the amniotic fluid is rather venom-like, so it burns, but can't turn-and-heal like ordinary venom can," says Rosalie.

"I think she'll be fine," Nathan says.

[yourheartstrings]

"Blood loss, broken spine, venom that doesn't turn me - been there, done that," she says cheerfully.