Chapter 36
Eran
Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
Life was in an odd limbo spot as the days passed and we prepared to meet our children.
We were living at the apartment and planning for the house too.
Though, there was still nowhere else I’d rather be.
We still spent all of our time together talking about the future and our lives as they were before we met.
It was strange to think that most of my life I hadn’t known Vatten because now we revolved around each other, never really out of reach unless I had a business-related meeting or he had a session with Gooseberry.
I wondered if it was annoying for my friends, but if it was, no one said anything.
Older true-mates looked at us with that knowing look and said soon enough we’d find equilibrium, but secretly I thought this was our balance.
I’d always needed someone around – more or less a body double that reminded me that things existed outside of the world of cats and crafts.
This was different. I wanted to be around Vatten.
I even let him into the space where I crafted – that was a space I held holy and didn’t let old roommates or my siblings into.
It was organized chaos, but most people would never understand that. Vatten got it, though.
He read or scrolled on his phone while I crafted.
Sometimes we chatted while I sewed and stuffed and fluffed turning objects into hours of entertainment.
I spent a lot of time feeling every material known to catkind to find the best ones for kitten and puppy toys.
Sure eventually they’d develop separately and the puppies would want chew toys but in the beginning there wouldn’t be much difference.
Something soft to nuzzle or play with. When I finished with that I made Vatten a feeding pillow.
It was sort of a semi-circle that he could rest his head on that wrapped around him.
It was patterned with snowflakes and little dancing polar bears.
It fit him perfectly. He shifted and rolled all over it, marking it with his scent so that our incoming tiny ones would know it was safe.
It was looking more and more like he might go into dog mode before we had the chance to move to the new house.
Normally, I hated playing things by ear, but for Vatten I did it without complaint.
He was the one growing five little lives inside his body.
The weight of our unborn children was beginning to drag his center of gravity lower and lower.
Now he couldn’t zoomie around like he did before, but he did canter up and down the apartment building’s corridor waddling in the most adorable fashion.
Though, I was biased. For me, everything Vatten did was perfect.
Evie came once during that limbo time before the first time we saw the shell of our new home to do an ultrasound.
This time she asked Vatten to shift into his dog form.
She’d brought her clippers in case the fur got in the way but the day before I’d treated him to a nice wash and condition over at Franny’s Fur Salon.
They had a nice set up for pregnant shifters that didn’t involve jumping up onto grooming tables.
The service ended with a full furry body massage.
Just watching Vatten melt into a puddle of delighted goo made me purr.
Fortunately for Vatten’s thick, gorgeous fur, Evie didn’t end up needing the clippers to see our babies.
All five of them were still there but were no longer little jellybeans.
As the weeks passed they each grew into miniature versions of who they’d be outside of Vatten’s body.
Most of them were curled up in ways that made it hard to see who they might be – even the puppies which should’ve been easier to see than the kittens.
Though, Evie swore she saw the evidence that one of the puppies was a boy.
Neither Vatten nor I could make it out. Still, the odds were with three puppies at least one of them would be a boy.
***
In between, me crafting cat toys and us discussing baby names and backup plans, my parents hosted our mating feast. Vatten’s parents didn’t come down again because they were expecting another litter.
He didn’t seem too bothered by their absence.
I think I’d have secretly been crushed if my parents weren’t there.
Then again, I was their firstborn and at the time of my birth the center of their universe along with Evie and Brent.
Though, I hoped all my younger siblings felt like that at one time or another.
There was no doubt that Jacand had felt that way many times.
He proved that by plopping down between me and Vatten at our mating feast. We sat on the loveseat in the living room, plates on tv trays, while others circled in and out to congratulate us and marvel at the fact no one was running for the metaphorical hills over five babies.
One of my distant cousins had just said something along the lines, “I’d pack a bag and sneak off like a cat burglar,” when Jacand plopped down.
“That’s why you’re single,” my little brother said. “No one wants kids with a deadbeat.”
Our cousin blinked and stood up. Later, I heard him telling our sire that we were rude children.
Our sire laughed of course because Jacand was yet to develop a social filter between his brain and mouth.
Sometimes he annoyed me but other times he hit the mark so perfectly that it made all of his other angsty teenage moments worth it.
“I said what I said,” Jacand shrugged, glancing at Vatten. “Never liked him anyway. Always smells like he rolled around in wild onions,” he crinkled his nose. “Just because he’d be a deadbeat doesn’t mean he has to act like everyone feels that way.”
“Some people just suck,” Evie said, leaning over the back of the sofa to hug Vatten and then me.
She ruffled Jacand’s hair in a way that made him grumble, but then she slipped him a mouse that he slunk off down the hall to eat alone.
I scooted over and my sister joined us on the sofa.
She was a deterrent to a lot of comments distant relatives might’ve made because no one messed with a lioness.
Over the years, distant cousins on my carrier’s side had made themselves known.
Most of them were okay enough but they all thought everyone wanted their opinion.
It was there at our mating feast at my parents’ home, that I first held Bernard and Nashen’s baby.
He was a little thing with Nashen’s crimson hair and eyes.
He had big elven ears with little crimson tufts.
Though, it was Bernard’s nose and chin that lived on his face.
As far as baby’s went Baby Brazzen was perfect.
He was also the proof that his carrier no longer hated my guts.
“My lynx says it’s different now that you’re having kittens too,” he shrugged when I teased him about it. It was a good enough answer for me.
***
After our mating feast, we drove out with my parents, Evie, and Jacand to see the progress on our house.
It’d been nearly two weeks since the construction started.
Two weeks wasn’t long in construction time but each day that ticked away was a day closer to Vatten shifting down into his dog form and staying that way for the next few months.
His baby bump now showed properly no matter which of my shirts he wore.
There was no way of hiding it anymore. He was perfect, though.
If anything, pregnancy made him sexier. Morning sex had become a definite part of our lives settling in to together once his morning sickness was a thing of the past. It was the one time of day we could usually guarantee some alone time.
“Which one is my room?” Jacand asked, walking up and down the unpainted hallway.
“So ready to run away?” my carrier teased him. “Once the babies get here, you’ll want to come home. They’ll climb all over you with their little milk paws and sharp teeth.”
“I’m not afraid of babies,” Jacand said. “They’re babies.”
“You’ll be outnumbered,” our sire teased him.
“Do you really want a room here?” I finally asked and everyone stopped to look at me.
By no means was I trying to steal away my parents’ child but he kept going on and on about it and at that point I wasn’t sure if it was a joke I was missing the punchline to or if something was bothering him enough to really want to live somewhere else.
“Just to be at sometimes,” he shrugged. “I’m not trying to move out yet, but what about when I’m in college or something? Plus, sometimes I like the quiet.”
“How about you can decorate the guestroom?” Vatten offered. “Then it’ll be almost like yours when you come to stay over.”
Jacand grinned and gave Vatten a one-armed hug.
“No one ever wants to live at my house,” Evie teased.
“You’d make me clean my room,” Jacand shrugged.
“No, I’d make you keep the room from getting dirty,” she teased and ruffled his hair again.