homeless_pard | Later...home

Entry tags:

jason au,
starter

Later...home

Who: Khem, Jason
When: Home from WW.
What: Hello pregnancy?

She woke, smiling; how could she not? She was home, in her own bed in the rooms above the shop and her husband was beside her, hair honey in the light that leaked past the curtain. He worked late, so she oft woke before he did, with much to do in this world. Shops were open during the day after all and she had been away some time. Like they'd be short of many key items and no few medicines for her regulars. It felt wonderful to be back in the place she had made for herself honestly. She trusted her high lord to handle the horses that had come with them, and to look upon the grander view of their realm. She had...here.

Here and a husband and it was a wonderful thing. She kissed him gently before slipping from the bed. No matter they'd been months and months upon the search for her anchors in her old world and coming back to the gate, the wonder that was wedded life hadn't faded in the least for her. Her lord, her Jason, had chosen to cleave unto her. She had only to share him with her sworn high lord, a fealty as ingrained and accepted as breathing. Her Jason wouldst ever look for the feeling of the high lord's fangs, and betimes his bed. But otherwise he was hers and she wouldst never time of that fact.

Her bed. Their bed. It was enough to bring heat to her cheeks as she slipped down the stairs to the living quarters above the shop and set her kettle to brewing. Skilled was a mild term to apply to her love honestly. Heated mayhap, eager to share his knowledge...

...skill...

...she poured her morning tea without truly realizing, and lifted the cup to her lips when her talisman of Gunnora flared hot, truly burning and sharp against her chest. She yelped and dropped the cup, cup shattering on the floor as she bent forward to get the molten feeling gem off her skin. Ouch ouch ouch...she looked down at the mark on her chest, bewildered, then turned to go downstairs further to the greenhouse. A burn ointment, best to keep this...mild...and then he was staring at the mark for a moment, considering. What, and why?

What and why indeed?

How long had...her tea was not harmful unless...

...when had she last had a cycle?

She blinked, considering amongst the waving greenery in the glass house.

Unless she was three months in.

Almost on cue with the realization there was roil of mild nausea, she winced and fled back upstairs.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh dear.

She wiped her mouth and brushed her teeth, eyes large and dark in the mirror when she dared glance. She had to go...wake Jason. Right now. Yes. Wake him and apologize.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The sound of retching pierced through his sleep and he blinked questioningly at the ceiling. What was that...? He blinked again against the morning light and found himself holding his breath, listening carefully.

Maybe it had been a dream? All he could hear now was Khemrys in the bathroom brushing her teeth. He let out that breath and stretched, rolling back into the blankets with a deep breath.

And then he sat up suddenly when the faint odor hit his nose. "Khem?" he called out in concern from the bed, muscles readying to throw him towards the bathroom to her aid. "Are you ok?"

Oh, no, she'd woken him....not that she didn't intend to wake him but she'd hoped for a gentler method? It didn't make sense, n, but she wasn't thinking entirely straight at the moment? She poked her head out of the bathroom, toothbrush in her mouth, but she was far too pale? So hopefully that served as answer until her mouth was clear?

Too, too pale, and her eyes. He was out of the bed in one swift movement, his hand hovering over her back. He waited for her to finish with the toothbrush, looking over her with worry. "Khem, honey, what happened?" he asked softly.

she spat and rinsed her mouth again finally and leaned back against his hand just for...contact. Contact right now was grounded, "ah...my apologies." She had to say that first? The rest, well, she wasn't certain how to start? "I....my pendant burned me?"

The contact did wonders for him as well and he found himself soothing his hand gently over her back. "You don't have to apologize," he murmured.

He paused, considering what she'd said. "Gunnora's pendant?" That puzzled him and he frowned slightly. He couldn't think of any reason for Gunnora's pendant to suddenly react like that to Khemrys of all people.

"Yes," she agreed, trying to relax a touch, he was going to be mad at her soon so taking what comfort she could now was...well, very greedy of her. "It was because my tea would have been harmful today." And that was a bit more round about than she intended?

"I don't believe I missed my tea in my world, but I must have?"

He was trying to keep his own worry in check at feeling what was leaking through from her. Maybe so much so that he didn't understand at all what she was talking about. Or maybe he was still too groggy from sleep...

"What tea?"

"My morning tea," she winced. "The contraceptive as your world calls it."

Her...?

Her morning tea.

He blinked as that seeped into his mind, and when it dropped down to his stomach his hand stilled on her back.

"You always take your tea. Why would Gunnora's pendant burn you for drinking it today?" he asked uneasily, feeling that maybe he wasn't going to like the answer.

Edited 2024-02-16 04:58 (UTC)

Yes, she was going to be in trouble. She closed her eyes, taking a shuddering breath, "it is harmful to developing children after the third month." And so much had been going on in her world she couldn't remember all the details exactly.

His heart might have stopped for a moment. Or a year; it kinda felt like a year. He shook his head slightly in disbelief. "You've always taken your tea, Khem. I know you have..."

"I don't know what happened," she admitted quietly. "I'm so sorry my Jason." It was her job and...this.

Her tone was enough to snap him out of his shock, and he stepped closer, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "Khem, don't...look, we don't know, right? Maybe you mixed this tea wrong this morning? Or...or maybe Gunnora is...impatient or something and is...poking at us to stop the tea, I don't know."

"She'd not harm me out of impatience." She never would! "It was to force the cup to be dropped." And that was rather clear to her honestly? "Then a bout of illness. That might have been stress though?"

Hey, he was still getting used to meeting face to face with actual gods and talking with them, so it wasn't such a strange thought to him. On the surface, anyway: he wasn't prepared to deep dive into his feelings on, well, anything in that exact moment.

He held her close against him and tried to find answers with slow breaths. "I don't know that I've ever known you to throw up," he said with a soft uneasiness. "But Khem, I don't...you always drink your tea. There's got to be another reason."

"...what do we do?" she shivered, sagging in his arms a touch. "It won't scar but it is a burn that left a mark." So she was loathe to try her tea again?

"What else might such be?" With the assorted signs here?

He held her a little tighter, not really thinking of what that might be doing to her burn. "I...don't know," he admitted into her hair, breathing deeply the scent of it. He didn't know...and he didn't know how to know without...knowing.

"If you think it's something like that, I could...go get a test?" He heard the words coming out of his mouth, but it did nothing for the growing pit in his stomach.

He wasn't rubbing her chest so it wasn't bothering the burn thankfully! And him breathing in her hair was....a nice but of normalcy? He had many small, touching mannerisms that were starting to define her ideas of home!

"There's...tests? I could make one, but it wouldst take a few days..." Mainly because the steeps that reacted for such took a few days to break down into the proper solutions? And that would mean several days without her tea and, ah, behaving on their end?

He would have preferred to stay plastered against her until her scent calmed him, but he knew that...that wasn't going to happen.

"There's tests here that they sell. If...if you want, I can go and get one?"

"It....wouldst be good to be certain?" she admitted. "So I might start tracing what else might be wrong should I not be..." Was she jumping to conclusions? Was this normal?!

He let out a breath and nodded. "Ok." Reluctantly, he peeled his arms from around her and took a small step back. "Get some tea...safe tea, I mean, and just...wait for me here. I won't be long."

It was noticeable how much trouble he had moving away from her. Absently, he grabbed a shirt and a pair of shorts that hadn't made it into the laundry basket and pulled them on as he walked to the door.

There was a drug store only a couple of blocks away. Jason didn't remember walking to it, but then he suddenly found himself staring blankly at the boxes of pregnancy tests on the shelf. Why were there options??? It was just...peeing on a stick, right?

His mouth felt dry. He grabbed one that looked like it had the most...thorough testing parameters? For all that he could tell, anyway. For the price, it had better be the most accurate. The clerk handed him the test in a bag with a sympathetic smile and said, "I totally get it, but you gotta have shoes on next time you come in, ok?"

Jason glanced down at his bare feet and muttered inaudibly, grabbing the bag and hurrying out of the store. He knew he had to have hurried because when he made it up the stairs to their room, he was a bit breathless. "Ok. Um...so it's this..." He pulled the box from the bag with faintly shaking hands and scanned the back of it. "I don't know, you...pee on it and then wait, and a...wait, are they two lines or a plus sign...? Maybe there's instructions in the box...?"

She noticed his shoes when she went down to make a new cup of 'safe' tea and winced. She truly had him out of sorts didn't she?! Not that many shifters cared for shoes when stressed but he usually made an effort and here she was utterly derailing his personal habits. Just in case she made him a cup of tea as well? It could only help, soothing tea. Warm and spiced...

...when he returned she pressed a mug into his hands. Still too pale and not at all stable herself but she was worried for him, plus it allowed her to take the box and look it over, reading everything on the outside carefully before opening to find, yes, instructions. "It says the 'digital display' will say Pregnant directly, there are no symbols?" she offered, petting his arm absently as she read. "It does not seem overly hard to do, it must be akin to the tests I know, just with the ungents already prepared. I simply was not expecting such a need." More the fool her?

"I will...return in a moment." So she could, well, pee on a stick. It was rather degrading wasn't it? Still it could then be capped in it's sleeve and brought back to the table so she could sip tea while they waited?

The tea was...a good idea. It gave him something...else to focus on. He didn't really taste it, but he held on to it while he tried not to stare at the small bit of plastic on the table. He knew he should say something, but...no, he had no idea what to say. So he held tighter to the tea and tried to remember to sip it.

"You are very angry at me aren't you?" she asked very, very softly. She was ignoring the stick as only someone really bound up in their own head could at the moment? He had to be angry, his jaw was tense and a thinner cup would like have shattered in his hands.

And he wasn't speaking to her.

Those were bad signs, right?

His blue eyes were a little too wide when he looked up at that, but there was no hint of anger in them despite the tension. "What?"

Shit. She looked like she would shrink herself into nothing over there if she could. He set the cup down and collected himself. "No," he answered just as softly. "No, I'm not mad at you, honey."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject