Discoveries of the Unexpected Kind

The February sky had finally started to darken for the evening, moonlight casting shadows on Hotel Transylvania and those who currently resided inside of it. A few monsters started to stir as the first rays of moonlight shone through their windows, starting to come out of deep, peaceful sleeps that came with such great accommodation and safety from humans.

One of these monsters was Johnny; the red-head made a snuffled yawning noise as he slowly drifted out of sleep and into consciousness, reaching out an arm to wrap around his wife as if to pull her closer. Mavis made a small, sleepy noise of contentment, happily nuzzling closer to her husband.

The couple were visiting the hotel for the week, taking a short break from their travels again so that they could spend some time with Mavis' Aunts and Uncles while they were staying; neither of them minded being back at the hotel that much, especially since it had become like a second home to them.

"Good evening," She mumbled, not even opening her eyes.

"Good evening," Johnny breathed back as he opened his eyes, nuzzling their noses together and making his wife smile slightly. "Mmm...is it just me, or do you look beautiful this evening?"

Mavis giggled quietly, rolling her eyes. "I've only just woken up."

"Yeah, but you look better than I probably do," Johnny said goofily, leaning closer and giving her a kiss.

It's not as if they were newly-weds or anything - no, they'd been married for three years now, and an intimate relationship was hardly foreign either. But that was the great thing about being zings; the love was just always there, even if you were mad at the person.

Just as the kiss started to get much more interesting, Johnny rolling on top of his wife and kissing his way down her neck, Mavis felt it - her stomach lurched, and she immediately felt nauseous. She let out a small gasp, quickly shoving the red-head off of her and zooming to the bathroom with her hand over her mouth.

Johnny, quite perplexed, simply stared at the spot where she'd been a moment ago. The sound of retching brought him out of his thoughts. "Mavis?" He called, alarmed, and quickly got off the bed to go to the bathroom. "Are you okay?" When he got to the door, he tried pushing it open - it was locked and wouldn't budge.

"I-I'm fine!" He heard Mavis say weakly; seconds later, he heard more vomit hit the toilet bowl.

"You're ill," Johnny argued, eyes wide. "Look, can you just open the door so I can come and look after you? Maybe hold your hair back or something?"

Pressing his ear up to the wood of the door, he listened for any kind of movement from inside: there was a little more retching, and when that stopped he heard a couple of sniffles. This was quickly followed by some shuffling noises, the toilet flushing, and then the door finally being unlocked and opened.

When he'd pulled his head back and looked at his wife properly, it was clear she wasn't quite okay; Mavis had gone paler than usual, her eyes puffy from having to puke so much, and she just looked sick.

"I'm fine," She muttered quickly when she saw his face, pushing past him to get back to bed. "I just...I'm fine."

"Fine? You threw up," Johnny pointed out, turning to look at her properly.

Mavis sighed, lying down on the coffin bed again and wrapping the duvet around herself. "I'm fine," She insisted tiredly, looking up at him with exhausted blue eyes. "I think I just need to sleep a little more..." She blinked up at him hopefully. "Stay with me?"

Johnny had no choice - as hungry as he was, and as much as he wanted to continue their previous make-out session, he also wanted to make sure Mavis was completely okay. After all, he'd never seen her sick before...Hell, he didn't even know that vampires could get sick.

Honestly? He was kinda worried.

Throughout the next few nights, Mavis' behaviour continued to become stranger and stranger; on some mornings, she'd wake up and end up running for the bathroom to hurl before returning to bed. It only got stranger after that too - she'd either spend the rest of the day in their bedroom, tired and rundown, or wake up after a brief nap and suddenly feel ravenous for some food.

"Hey, I thought you didn't like mouse omelettes," Johnny stated, frowning slightly out of confusion as he sat down next to her with his own breakfast. "You said that they're gross and too chewy."

Mavis just shrugged, putting another forkful into her mouth. "I saw it and wanted some...it's not that bad actually."

Johnny didn't bother telling Dracula about these strange habits - the older vampire would immediately panic and start to over-worry himself if he thought his 'Mavy-Wavy' was hurt or ill in some way, and that was definitely not something that Johnny or Mavis wanted.

On the fourth morning that Mavis had raced out of bed to puke, though, Johnny knew that some kind of action had to take place.

"Don't any doctors work here or anything?" Johnny asked once Mavis had settled back into bed. She was seemingly okay now, since she was sitting up and watching him curiously. "I mean, surely there's someone we could ask about this?"

"But I'm fine," Mavis told him for the umpteenth time that week. "I'm actually kind of hungry..."

The red-head blinked. "Yeah, but...you just threw up...like..." He sighed, running a hand through his unruly hair. "Look, Mavy, I'm just...worried. You're acting really weird lately, and-"

"Weird?" Mavis asked, raising an eyebrow and looking quite hurt. "What do you mean 'weird'?"

"Throwing up and then eating, like, tons of food!" The red-haired vampire pointed out desperately. "I mean, yesterday you had, like, three helpings of wormcakes for breakfast!"

This was clearly the wrong thing to point out because Mavis started to glare at him in an offended way. "Are you saying that I'm eating too much? That I'm fat or something?"

"What?! No!" Johnny answered hurriedly, eyes widening. "I meant...I mean..."

Mavis stood up, shaking her head in contempt. "Great. Thanks, Johnny - I'm getting too fat for you now!"

"Of course not! I just...I...uhh...I never said that!"

The result of this had been her storming downstairs to go and get some breakfast by herself; it was only when she got to the bar that she realized she'd over-reacted just a touch.

I'm going to apologize to him when I go back upstairs, she thought sadly, suddenly feeling awful that she'd stormed out on her husband like that. He was only trying to help me...even if he was being annoying about it.

"Are you alright?" She heard a familiar voice to her right say, and she turned her head to look at her Auntie Wanda. "You look sad, sweetie."

"Yeah," She let out, grabbing a plate and shovelling a couple of wormcakes onto it. "I'm fine." I seem to be saying a lot of that lately...

Wanda gave her a small pat on the shoulder. "It's just that you haven't been yourself lately, and we're all quite worried about you."

As the two walked over to a table to sit down, Mavis just sighed and looked down at her plate. "I guess I'm just tired...it's really weird, because no matter how much I sleep I just feel exhausted."

Wanda gave a small chuckle. "I know what you mean," She agreed, sitting down next to the vampire and rubbing her currently flat stomach in circles. "Every time I've had a litter of pups the energy's just disappeared..."

Mavis just nodded as she listened, putting some wormcake into her mouth. She already knew quite a lot about when her Aunt had been pregnant with pups, having seen it for herself dozens of times.

"...Oh, and then there was the night sickness and cravings..."

Mavis paused in putting some food into her mouth and slowly lifted her head to look at her Aunt. "Huh?"

"The night sickness and cravings," Wanda repeated, reaching up with one hand to scratch her ear. "I used to get so sick in the evening...it only lasted a few weeks or so, but it was still unpleasant to experience. The cravings were okay...although, with the first few litters I went completely off of bacon..."

Night sickness when waking up: check.

Exhausted: check.

Unusual cravings: check.

"Are you okay, Mavis?" Wanda asked, concerned. "You've stopped eating."

I can't be. No. I'm not. "I'm fine," Mavis said lightly, staring ahead into space as her brain went crazy. "I'm just...thinking."

Dad once said moodiness and mood swings were a sign of pregnancy - he said that about my Mom, when she was having me. I haven't been that moody, have I? The fight she'd had with Johnny that morning reappeared in her mind, and she suddenly felt rather ill again.

"I'm not that hungry," The vampire managed, suddenly standing up. She looked at her Aunt apologetically, fidgeting on the spot slightly. "I'll see you later, Auntie Wanda. I think I need to go lay down."

"Getting hotter...hotter...colder but still warm..."

Johnny gave a small "ahh!" as he tripped and nearly landed head-first in the pool water; he regained his balance at the last minute and stretched his arms out again. "Where are you?"

"Warmer...hotter..." Winnie continued sweetly from her position on the poolside. "Hotter..."

Johnny took a few more steps forwards and finally managed to find what he wanted; he grinned as his hands grazed against Winnie's fur. "Got ya! Now, can I take my blindfold off?"

"Uh-huh!"

Johnny untied the knot and grinned at the werewolf pup. "So, now what?"

Winnie shrugged, playing with her binkie in her hands. "I could try and find you?"

"Yeah," Johnny agreed thoughtfully before shaking his head when he remembered something. "Wait, no - you'd cheat and use your nose!"

She gave a small, wolfish smile. "When's Mavis coming down? Is she still ill?"

The red-head shrugged. "I dunno. Last time I saw her she wanted to get some rest..."

"Oh," Winnie said, looking kind of disappointed. "She said that the next time she was here she'd do my fur for me."

Not wanting her to be too upset, Johnny quickly intervened. "Well, I could always go upstairs and see how she's doing...I mean, she might be feeling better now." He hoisted himself out of the pool and grabbed a towel from a nearby deck chair so that he could dry himself off - something told him that Dracula wouldn't like it if he dripped on the hotel's clean floors. "How about you get a bite to eat, and I'll check on Mavy?"

Winnie nodded as she stood up, giving him a small smile before sticking her binkie in her mouth and heading towards the buffet table.

Aww...she's a cute kid, Johnny thought to himself, also standing up and heading to go inside. He hoped his wife was feeling better, because she really was missing out on some fun stuff lately - that, and he was concerned for her well-being of course.

It's nothing, He told himself optimistically as he headed for the elevators. Probably just a passing sickness. It's gonna go away soon.

I'm not. I can't be, so I'm not.

She splayed her fingers out against her stomach, as if a bulge would suddenly appear.

Besides, we're so young...we've got hundreds and hundreds of years to go. We have all of these places to travel, things to see.

Mavis bit her lip softly as she thought, wondering what she was meant to do; it would probably be best to tell Johnny, considering that it was kind of his fault she was now stuck in this situation. But, thinking on it, she just couldn't do it - not yet...it was too soon, and she didn't want to freak him out or anything.

It wasn't as if neither of them wanted kids - no, of course they had, what with Johnny being from a large family and Mavis just wanting a family in general after being raised by her father single-handedly for years, but this...it was too soon.

For one thing, they'd only been married for three years - sure, it seemed long at the moment but her parents had been together for far longer before she was expected... Again, how were they meant to continue their travels with a baby?! A tiny, defenceless baby that needed caring and nurturing at all times. It was a huge commitment, and not one that Mavis was not quite sure about just yet.

It wasn't as if she was worried about not loving the baby or anything - she was sure she would once she wrapped her head around the whole idea - but rather that...well... What if she was a bad mother? She didn't know anything about raising a baby, for God's sake! Playing with kids for an hour or so - sure, that was fine. But having her own baby and being in charge of it?

That was too scary for Mavis to think about.

The door to the hotel room opened, and she jolted up on the bed just as Johnny walked into the room. Ah no... What am I meant to say?

"Hey," Johnny greeted, sending her a grin. He had a towel around his shoulders, and it was obvious by the damp spots on his bathing suit that he'd been outside in the pool. "So, how you feeling, Mavy?"

"..I'm Fine," Mavis managed, hoping that he'd believe her.

But, being married for three years, of course he would know when something was up. "Nah, you're not," Johnny disagreed, grin fading as he sat down on the bed next to her. "You look really sad, Mavis. What's the matter?"

"Nothing," She lied through her teeth immediately. "I'm just...well...tired."

Johnny didn't look convinced and raised an eyebrow at her worriedly. "You've been saying that for days...and then you've been getting sick. Something's not right, okay? I can feel that it's not." When she didn't say anything, he put one hand on hers and gave her a serious look. "You can tell me anything, Mavis. We're zings."

The serious look was enough to show Mavis that he was worried - he only ever had that expression if he was really panicking about something (usually related to someone that he loved).

She knew that he had a point, and it tumbled out before she could stop herself.

"I think that I'm pregnant."

For years to come, Mavis would wish that she had a camera or something to capture his facial expression - it was something that would never fail to amuse her when she thought back on it. Then, however, she didn't have the time to find his reaction funny because of how nervous she was.

Johnny's eyes widened and his mouth dropped so widely open that it practically hit the floor. "A baby?! Like...a baby?" Mavis sent him a look, and he tried to close his mouth. "Wait, so...you might be pregnant? Not definitely?"

"Not definitely, no," Mavis agreed unsurely. "I mean, there's got to be some other reason why I'm throwing up and getting cravings and...all of that...I mean, I took some tests just in case, and they all were positive but...hey, they might be faulty, right?"

There was a moment where neither of them spoke, and they just looked at each other - in that moment, they both seemed to realize that the possibility of it being due to pregnancy was more and more certain.

Johnny blinked, as if confused for a moment - and then he slowly begun to grin. "Awesome."

"It's not awesome!" Mavis snapped testily, suddenly angry. "We're having a baby for crying out loud! Holy rabies...a baby..." She stood and started to pace anxiously. "Holy rabies, it's a baby...I can't do this, it's too much!"

"You can't?" Johnny asked, looking rather crestfallen. "But I thought that...you know, we were going to have kids-"

"Not now!" She gritted out, shaking her head. "When we're older and like my Dad, then yes - but not now! What are we gonna do?"

The red-head sat down on the bed, looking into the air in front of him thoughtfully. "A baby - you know, that's not usually taken as bad news, Mavis, bringing a new life into the world...heh, it actually sounds kinda cool when you think about it."

Mavis stopped pacing to stare at him long and hard. "You can't be serious," She muttered in disbelief. "Johnny, we've been married for three years! I'm only a hundred and twenty-six, I can't be a Mom!" She flopped onto the bed and buried her face in her hands. "I can't do this...I just can't..."

"But this is a good thing," Johnny tried to assure her weakly. "I'm not mad or anything if that helps - heck, I think that it's pretty great!" Here, he gave a goofy smile. "We're gonna be parents: that's gonna be epic!"

But Mavis didn't seem to think so; instead, she just continued to fret anxiously. "We can't do this, Johnny, we just can't: we have so much to do, a-a-and I just..." She took a deep breath and turned away from him. "I can't deal with this..."

Johnny bit his lip and sighed before standing up - Mavis clearly needed some time to get her head around the idea, and he himself had a lot of thinking on his part to do now (after all, in less than nine months he was going to be a Dad- and, crap, did that scare him!) so he made his way to the door. "I'm gonna just...let you breathe," He muttered quietly, hand resting on the door knob. "Uhh...if you want, I'll be by the pool again."

The sun was nearly due to come up, and yet Mavis didn't move from her position by the window of her bedroom, looking out at the brightening sky with worried eyes. From behind her she heard the door open and shut, and then the sound of sneakers pattering across the carpet. "Uhh...Mavis? Maybe you should move."

She didn't respond, instead training her eyes on the forest surrounding the castle.

She heard her husband sigh slightly. "Look, I really don't see how-"

"Just leave it," Mavis muttered, finally shutting the curtains to the window and moving to sit down on the bed. "It doesn't matter."

"Exactly," Johnny agreed, sitting down opposite her and grabbing her hands clumsily. "I mean, lots of couples have kids; look at my parents! They had seven of us!" There was a long silence between them; Johnny's smile slipped from his face. "You don't want kids, is that what you're saying?"

"No, of course not!" Mavis answered somewhat tearfully, lifting her head up to look at him properly. "I just...it's too soon. We still had so many places to visit - I wanted to go to Hawaii again..."

"And we will go," Johnny assured her quickly, really not wanting her to start crying. "We'll just take a little break, just until...until they don't need us anymore." At the word 'they' he couldn't help but look down and gesture at Mavis' still-flat stomach. On instinct she covered it by folding her arms over it and hunching over. The red-head couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened by her reaction. "Alright, fine. I guess it's a lot to take in."

Mavis just gave a tiny nod. "I'm...scared. I know it sounds weird, but I just...I don't want to ruin things."

"Ruin what?" Johnny asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mavis hesitated for a moment; and then she remembered that Johnny was her zing. She could tell him anything and he wouldn't judge. "Us. I mean, I love you a lot and I know you love me too, but a baby is...a big thing." She looked down so she didn't have to meet his gaze. "Having a baby would change everything, Johnny; we wouldn't have time to just be us, to be together like we are now. We'd be tired all the time, and we won't have time for each other...look at how tired Wayne looks all the time." She looked back up at him, studying his face for a reaction. "Don't get me wrong; I really wanted us to have kids...but just not yet."

The two vampires sat in silence for a moment, unsure what else to say. Finally Johnny straightened up and said, "You know what? I'm scared too. I mean, I've had enough experience with babies to know that they're difficult work to take care of." He gently squeezed her hand tighter, causing her to look up at him. "But I think we'll be alright. It's just another step forward, right?"

Mavis gave an unsure nod, not completely convinced yet. "Yeah. I guess so."

"And, Mavis," He smiled at her brightly, gazing at her lovingly. "Trust me. Having a baby is going to strengthen our relationship; we're gonna need to help each other out, right?"

Mavis just gave him a tiny, curious smile. "So...You're excited? Not upset or anything?"

Johnny snorted. "Are you kidding me? I grew up with six brothers - a family is something I kinda want." Mavis leaned forwards and pressed her lips to his in relief, wrapping her arms around him. He grinned into the kiss, hugging her back.

When they pulled away, however, Johnny's smile slipped of his face quickly, leaving the other vampire confused. "Johnny? Are you alright?"

"Your dad is gonna kill me," He muttered, eyes going wide with fright.

Mavis rolled her eyes slightly at this. "I don't see why; I'm not one hundred and eighteen anymore - I mean, I'm a fully grown vampire and I'm married!" This didn't seem to reassure him, so she tried a different tactic. "I - personally - think that he'd be happy; he loves kids, and he's good with them. And I'm pretty sure he'd like an excuse to throw a party for me again - he hasn't done it in a while."

Johnny, finally gaining some composure back, nodded hopefully. "Yeah, I suppose you're right..." He gave her another grin, a sparkle in his hazel eyes. "We're having a baby."

"Yeah," Mavis said, smirking a little. "Unless all five tests I took were wrong, then we're having a baby."

"Awesome," Johnny muttered, ducking down to kiss her again. "Just checking."

The last section of this chapter can be found in Chapter Three of A-Z of a Life (another one of my HT stories). I really need to stop writing these, I really do...

Anyway, these will probably be more focused on Johnny/Mavis than my previous stories (and if it's not then you have my permission to flame me with bad messages until I do write more Johnny/Mavis)

Please leave reviews if you can!