18. Griff’s Overzealous Protection
18
“Fireheart! Fireheart, I have a new song.”
Quinlan stirred blearily, his mind hazy with sleep. “Mmph?”
The bed dipped beside him. There came an amazing warmth—Griff was wrapping himself around Quinlan, gathering him into his arms and spooning him so every part of their bodies touched.
“I was in the bathroom when I thought of it! For both our babies,” Griff said proudly in his ear. “Do you want to hear it?”
“Maybe,” Quinlan croaked.
His voice had almost vanished over the past few days. All because of Griff.
Griff hadn’t stopped touching him all over. In fact, Griff had been making him scream night after night, plugging Quinlan up between loads. He’d bought a new plug to seal Quinlan’s hole during the times he had to step away. Whenever Quinlan felt too full, Griff would unplug him, and let his cum leak out. Quinlan had gotten used to Griff smearing his cum all over his body, so its scent clung to his skin.
“Are you feeling okay?” Griff asked in concern, nosing Quinlan’s hair.
“‘M fine,” Quinlan mumbled. “Just tired.”
Griff covered Quinlan’s belly with his large, warm hand. “You will not do any dangerous activities,” Griff declared quietly. “You will leave everything to me and be safe!”
“I can move around without falling over, you know.”
“No! You will be extra safe. You’re carrying our baby!”
Quinlan rolled his still-closed eyes. “This isn’t my first pregnancy.”
Griff growled a little. “Walking around is dangerous! What if you trip and fall?”
“Griff, do you hear yourself? I am perfectly capable of walking.”
“I brought blankets to wrap you in,” Griff said. “You will be bubble-wrapped and nothing will hurt you.”
“Oh, gods.”
Griff left the bed. Quinlan went back to dozing, except a fluffy blanket settled over him, soft and light.
Griff began rolling him up in it.
Quinlan groaned. He couldn’t even move his arms; Griff had trapped them in the blanket with him. “Are you kidding me?”
“I’m not kidding.”
Griff rolled Quinlan up entirely in the blanket, then rolled him into another blanket.
“Griff,” Quinlan cried. “I’m not a burrito!”
“You’ll be safest like this!”
“I need to move around so my body won’t start to hurt all over! Besides, how am I going to nurse Annie?”
Griff frowned. “You’ve been transitioning her to solid food.”
“Not all the time,” Quinlan grumbled. “My milk still gives her a lot of nutrition.”
“I’ll unwrap you for nursing.”
Quinlan rolled his eyes and struggled within his fluffy confines, but there wasn’t enough give to pull his arms out. “Griff!”
Griff scowled mulishly at him.
“I won’t be able to watch Annie like this, either. She’s been getting better with walking.”
Griff swelled with pride. “She’s doing so well.”
“And I need to be next to her! So I can catch her before she falls!”
Griff sighed. “Fine,” he grumbled. “But I’m going to be there to catch you before you fall.”
Why did he have to keep saying sweet things like that?
Before Quinlan could say another word, he caught the scent of mushrooms somehow.
His stomach protested, trying to heave.
How was this fair? Mushrooms were one of his favorite foods!
“Damn it,” Quinlan hissed. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
Griff froze, staring at the straps he’d used to buckle Quinlan in.
“Morning sickness,” Quinlan clarified. “I just need to get to the toilet.”
His stomach heaved again. Griff must’ve seen something on Quinlan’s face, because he was close to Quinlan suddenly, scooping him up and carrying him to one of the bathrooms in the mansion.
This wasn’t very practical, actually. There were no bathrooms in the caverns.
And Quinlan couldn’t balance on his feet, much less crouch in front of the toilet. There were too many blankets around him.
“Do you see how silly this is?” he asked flatly. “I can’t even move!”
“It’ll keep you from bumping into anything,” Griff muttered.
“Except for my head. I’d probably end up cracking my head against the toilet.”
Griff’s eyes went wide. “You need a helmet.”
“No.” Quinlan tried to smack his head against the wall. “I just need to be out of this damn thing.”
“Fine,” Griff grumbled. He removed the straps and peeled off the blankets.
As Quinlan threw up, he realized that there were worse things than morning sickness. Like being stiflingly bundled into too many blankets for months on end.
“Thanks,” he said when he’d kicked off the blanket. “Please don’t do that to me again. It’s like a prison.”
Griff handed him a mug of water and sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just... You have something so precious in your belly.”
“I don’t see you wrapping Annie up.”
“She needs to learn to walk!”
“Yeah, and I’d be real helpful lying next to her like an overgrown caterpillar.”
Griff wrinkled his nose. “You’re not a caterpillar.”
“No, I hate caterpillars.” Quinlan rinsed his mouth and flushed the toilet, getting to his feet. At least the roiling in his stomach had faded. “Whatever it is, I can’t be smelling mushrooms right now. They make me puke.”
Griff cringed. “Hex is on it. Sorry.”
Quinlan tangled their fingers together. “Have some faith in me, all right? This isn’t my first pregnancy.”
“I want to keep you safe.”
“I know. And I appreciate your concern. But sometimes caring for someone means giving them the respect and space they ask for. Letting them walk on their own two feet.”
Griff thought about it for a long while. In the end, he kissed Quinlan softly on the temple and said, “Okay.”
He followed Quinlan back to the bed-cavern and scooped Annie out of her makeshift playpen, carrying her over to the bed. Quinlan couldn’t help smiling when Annie crawled toward him.
“A dragon pregnancy is six months,” Griff said.
“A merfolk pregnancy is four.”
They looked contemplatively at each other. Griff studied Quinlan’s belly again, trailing his fingers over the stretch marks there.
“That’s from when I was pregnant with Annie.” Quinlan had never particularly liked the marks, or the wrinkles on his belly; he’d never fully recovered from that pregnancy. He didn’t expect Griff to like his abdomen, either.
“These are beautiful,” Griff said. He bent his head to kiss Quinlan’s belly.
Quinlan’s heart skipped a beat. “My body didn’t have time to adjust to the growth spurt. And after that, it didn’t go back to what it was.”
“Your belly shows what you’ve been through. It shows that you’re strong.”
Quinlan huffed, more so when Griff scooped Annie up and deposited her gently on his chest.
The moment felt like a flash-forward. It felt like a glimpse into the future, where Griff would care for their children alongside Quinlan. It felt like the first of many moments where they would curl up in bed together, sharing jokes and laughing, an understanding between them.
His throat tight, Quinlan said, “Sing me your song. The one about the babies.”
Griff lit up. “You remembered!”
“Of course I did.”
Griff began to sing.
“Sweet lil flame welcome to the world
Daddy, Papa and Sis want to meet you, oh!
We want to see you smile
We’d like to hear you laugh
But don’t puke on Annie or she’ll also barf!”
Quinlan began to giggle. “You know, that’s so much more wholesome than the songs you try to court me with.”
Hope filled Griff’s face. “Does that mean you like it?”
“I do, actually.” Quinlan brushed his fingers through Griff’s soft hair. “Although at this point I think it’d be strange if you didn’t sing me your love songs. I’m growing used to them.”
Griff rumbled and pinned both Quinlan and Annie to the bed. Then he blew a raspberry on Annie’s stomach, and Annie shrieked with laughter.
“I will get you something for your bedside so you won’t have to go all the way to the bathroom,” Griff promised. “I think my dads are sending body washes and shampoos your way, too.”
Quinlan thought about Griff’s parents, and then he thought about his own. His chest filled with a pang of old grief.
“Fireheart?” Griff frowned. “What’re you thinking about?”
“I... Well.” He breathed out a heavy sigh. “My parents would’ve loved to see Annie. And the new baby.”
Griff looked horrified. “What happened to them? Or... should I shut up?”
“It’s f—No, it’s not fine. You probably should know anyway.” Quinlan sagged into Griff’s warmth, closing his eyes. “My mom and dad were adventurers. Both merfolk. They loved visiting the deep ocean trenches, the ones filled with dangerous monsters. Something about the adrenaline rush.
“They took a break when they had me, because it wasn’t safe for them to go alone. But I could tell they were getting impatient to return to that life. Mom kept talking about all the trenches, and which monsters were in them. On my eighteenth birthday, they hugged me and left on their next adventure.” Quinlan sighed heavily, the memories floating to the forefront of his mind. “We had lived on land for a long time by that point, and they’d made sure I had friends so I wouldn’t feel alone. They never came back. I tried looking for them, but... I found parts of their belongings scattered on the sea floor.”
Griff made a soft, hurt sound. “Oh, fireheart.”
He gathered Quinlan into his arms and held him tight—almost too tight. But it felt good to be wrapped up in Griff’s safe embrace; it felt good to know that someone cared so deeply about him.
Quinlan cried a little, hiding his face in Griff’s chest.
“You can always tell me anything,” Griff whispered. “I will hug you as much as you need.”
“I need hugs all the time,” Quinlan admitted. It was still too soon to talk about his parents.
“They loved you,” Griff said in his ear. “They made sure you had a good time growing up.”
Quinlan broke down. Griff held him and rubbed his back for a long time, dropping kisses wherever he could reach.
When he eventually stopped crying, feeling wrung out but better, he found Griff watching Annie, Annie crawling around on the giant bed sticking a rattle in her mouth.
Griff still had his arms wrapped around Quinlan, though. Holding him, keeping him safe.
“I just wish they could’ve stuck around longer,” Quinlan mumbled.
“Tell you what. I’ll share my dads with you.”
Quinlan frowned. “Didn’t you say they’re busy with your siblings?”
“That was a long time ago. All my siblings have grown up and flown the nest. Now my dads want us all to ply them with grandbabies. So, they’ll love you extra if you can give them one.”
Quinlan snorted. “At least I know we’re expecting a dragonet.”
It still felt a little strange, knowing that he was carrying Griff’s baby. Knowing that he had Griff’s unconditional support for this pregnancy, when he didn’t have much before.
“Does it matter to you that you didn’t father Annie?” Quinlan blurted. Then he wished he could’ve taken the question back, because it was maybe too intimate.
Griff’s gaze was all fondness. “Annie is still part of you. Besides, it’s not like her other dad is in your life. I’m not sharing you with him. You’re completely mine.”
Griff rubbed his hands all over Quinlan again, leaving another layer of his smoky scent on Quinlan’s skin.
Quinlan let Griff rub his back until he was so relaxed, he was starting to doze off.
“So,” Griff said. “Do you think it’s possible for me to put another dragonet inside you?”