Rudolph smiled softly as he awoke, gently stroking his hand along his mates swollen belly, carrying their most precious of treasures. Being with Tony always reminded him of how they had started their life together. How they had come to be blessed with their wee bairn.
Once upon a time, Rudolph had not been able to sleep without horrific nightmares. Nightmares depicting the loss of his beloved mate, made even worse as he was never able to tell anyone. How could he? His mate had been a human and Rudolph had no doubt that his family would have forbidden him from ever being with his mate.
But Rudolph had waited, using glamour to hide the fact that he was aging – the one, true way for a vampire to determine if they had met their mate. Rudolph had glamoured himself as he grew and aged in a way that none of his family ever had; watching over his beloved Tony until they could finally be together. Those nine years had been the hardest, because Tony had only been 5 years old when Rudolph first saw him.
So, Rudolph had been patient and then, the night of Tony's 16th birthday, Rudolph had introduced himself. Explaining everything and praying to a God who had no doubt abandoned him long ago that he wouldn't be turned away. And he hadn't, Tony had been glad for the dreams to finally have a meaning and had accepted him happily. Therefore, Rudolph had no choice (in his own mind) but to court his mate, his Tony, who deserved nothing but the best.
The courting came under fire merely months after it had begun when Rudolph's older sister, Anna, had followed him one night. Coincidentally, this was the night that Rudolph affirmed the bond with his mate and therefore couldn't lie about what had transpired. Tenderly, Tony had cupped his cheeks and assured him that they could leave, find a new home to begin their lives together.
That night, the two mates had fled in the early hours of dawn, consumption of his mates' blood ensuring Rudolph's survival in the sunlight, and left Scotland behind. They had found solace in New York, the continuous pollution and smog aiding in protecting them once Tony had transitioned into a Creature of the Night.
Rudolph and Tony had spent several decades in New York. And throughout that time, they had hoped to add to their little family.
Rudolph had found out why, soon after arriving in New York, that Tony had been able to leave behind his parents so easily. They had drifted from Tony, unable or unwilling to understand their son with his odd obsession with vampires and the dreams he had to scream himself awake from, the dreams which had affected Tony ever since he was 5 years old. Tony had admitted that the arrival of his younger sister, Rose, had only widened the gap between them. After all, why would they need weird little Tony, when they had their darling little Rose?
Rudolph had needed to be distracted by his beloved mate, to prevent him from returning to Scotland and killing them. How could they not see how amazing Tony was? How could they not treasure him? Rudolph had decided that Tony would never want for anything; be it material or immaterial. Tony wanted a home with a balcony to watch the sunset? Rudolph built him one. Tony desired a pet? Rudolph purchased a large, Norwegian Forest Cat named Rosa for him.
And then, 70 years after their mating? Came the one thing that Tony had always so desperately desired, but kept to himself.
Tony wanted a baby.
Rudolph would happily give his mate anything, even more so after their 70th anniversary was spent in the most delectable of ways.
And then, of course, the past finally caught up to them.