The steady ticking of a large wall clock which marked the gradual passage of time was the only noise making itself heard in the cozy living room of a certain small, single-bedroom house. The lights on the ceiling had been dimmed halfway, leaving enough brightness to illuminate the book being held by the room's single occupant.
Juniper Woods turned over the next page with her thumb. She'd gotten the urge to reread this book just earlier this evening, and had only just located it near the bottom of a partially-unpacked box of similar books fifteen minutes ago. The book in question was a novel she'd loved for much of her life. She'd first read it back in the ninth grade, and it hadn't been long before she'd decided that the school library's worn copy was insufficient. She'd ordered her own soon after, and it was that copy which sat in her gentle grip at this very moment.
Her feet were propped on a small stool just in front of the loveseat she was seated on. Woolen socks received from her grandmother kept her feet warm in these winter months, when she was wary about turning up the thermostat too high.
The dim light from above reflected gently off of the modest engagement ring on her finger, a few stray sparkling lights striking the paperback cover of her novel. At twenty years old, Juniper was quite content with the way her life was developing. She was a licenced defence lawyer, and in just another year or so, she would have the chance to become a judge, as she'd desired to for years. She had just moved into a small house, covering half its cost with her income. The ring on her finger - stylized to resemble an attorney's badge - was another reminder of the happiness she'd found for herself.
It wasn't the last, however.
Juniper was wearing a pale blue shirt, which was loose by necessity, giving room for the prominent bump emerging from her stomach-level. The corner of her book was lightly pressed into her skin just above her navel, the naturally relaxed position of her wrists just a touch too low to stay clear of the bump.
She was halfway through the second paragraph when her eyes drifted away from the page, falling to her partially exposed stomach. A serene smile lit her features.
The moment that Juniper approached Athena to tell her something, feeling fit to burst with the joy that the news brought on in her, stuck out starkly in her mind as an unshakeable memory.
She'd barely managed to get the words out, to begin with. She couldn't quite remember what exact string of half-formed syllables had finally tumbled from her, but Athena's instantaneous reaction once she understood her friend's meaning was much more clear.
The squeal Athena emitted first was filled with so much combined shock and joy that Juniper momentarily wished she possessed her friend's acute sense of hearing, just to parse the emotional feedback in her voice. Athena's exuberant exclamations trickled from one language to another before finally finding their way back to English.
"What'd he say? Was he all nervous and red? Where's he gonna take you?" she asked in what seemed like a single breath.
Calming Athena down to the point that answers to her questions could actually be heard was quite a task. As for the answers themselves:
Apollo had come by the community garden where Juniper volunteered her time on most weekends, and after greeting her, he'd stammered and rambled for a moment before taking a breath and beginning what Juniper had suspected was a practiced speech. Even with his words chosen in advance, Apollo had still spoken them in an uneven and nervous voice, accelerating as he reached the point. He'd come to ask Juniper if she would be interested in meeting him for dinner that evening, and Juniper remembered her own face erupting into a luminescent blush, bits of loose dirt falling to the ground around her as she clapped her hands to her mouth in shock.
Sure, she'd been nurturing a certain attraction to Apollo ever since their first few meetings, - something not lost on Athena - but she'd never really entertained the idea of actually dating him outside of the occasional idle fantasy.
The way she mirrored his inarticulate stammering in reply caused an uncomfortable moment in which she and Apollo just stared at one another, only moving once Juniper realized that, for all the words she'd gotten out, she might not have actually made her answer to him clear.
"Y-Yes, of course-... I-I'd love to-!"
Only once Apollo heard those words did he finally manage to overcome his nervousness and fumble his way through telling her where they would meet up later that day. There was a café which Trucy had recommended to him, its address scribbled on a bit of crumpled paper in his pocket.
Athena's attention had rapidly turned to helping Juniper prepare for her date, all other priorities thrown aside in a hurry.
There was another memory she recalled just as distinctly, this one from just a few months ago.
Her trip from the familiar office of her family doctor to the increasingly familiar Wright Anything Agency was a blur, like she'd made the journey in a trance. She'd been welcomed into the office by all its usual occupants, all of whom she expected to be very interested in her news, but Apollo was the person she'd come mainly to see.
"Hey," he'd said with a grin on his face when she approached, "Everything checked out with your appointment?"
The edge of concern in his voice had only made it harder to reply.
"Yes, b-but there's something-..." she'd managed before tensing up, expecting her voice to be lost to a coughing fit. She was getting better as she spent more of her time in the city, but she always felt healthiest out in the mountains. Giving her best effort, she'd kept her breaths under control, steeling herself for her answer to Apollo's inquiry. "I-... A-Apollo, I'm..."
He'd eyed her curiously when she trailed off. There was a moment of hesitation before he took a step toward her, raising a hand toward her face.
Juniper stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Apollo, I'm... pregnant."
If Juniper weren't so overwhelmed by her own emotions at the moment, she might have laughed at the way her boyfriend's face instantly lost any and all of its colour. Apollo frequently reacted to shock like this, but by the look of it, this news had hit him harder than anything Juniper had ever seen.
That said, while Apollo's reaction was stunned silence, the room's three other occupants responded with anything but.
Apollo made his first sound since the news hit when a blur of red hair swooped in to pull him and Juniper into a crushing hug. Vocally, Athena was in the same headspace as she'd been when Juniper confirmed to her that she had her first date with Apollo. Her mouth ran wild with ecstatic ramblings and the occasional louder cluster of syllables.
Trucy joined the impromptu embrace from the opposite side, turning their group into a tight-knit throng that somehow took up only marginally more floor space than Apollo alone usually did. Limbs were helplessly entangled to the point that their owners lost track of which belonged to whom, and the voices of Athena and Trucy melded together to create a shrill harmony which made the group glad that they didn't share this building with anyone else.
Even Phoenix, meanwhile, responded to the news with brief shock followed by remarks of congratulations and something like pride.
"Polly's gonna be a dad, Athena!" Trucy cheered, meeting the redhead's gaze from between the trapped faces of Juniper and Apollo. "I'm-... W-We're gonna be aunts-!"
Athena was no less excited. "You're gonna be the best parents in the world!" she chimed to her two nearest friends. Widget was just as exuberant as his owner, chirping every single thought Athena had that wasn't making its way out of her mouth.
The girls finally saw fit to let Apollo and Juniper stand freely again, and tension suddenly fell over the group as Apollo failed to say anything in response.
Juniper felt the infectious joy that she'd picked up from her friends run cold all at once. Apollo's expression was totally unreadable. Horrible, screaming thoughts began to tear through her mind. He was going to be horrified, not excited - Apollo wasn't ready for this sort of responsibility yet, everything was going to go wrong-
Juniper was the one to be shocked as Apollo, still uncharacteristically mute in his revelation, suddenly closed the distance between himself and her to circle his arms around her back and pull her into a deep kiss. Juniper only just had time to react to the change before her lips were free again, and Apollo's gentle embrace became a strong grip around her as the defence attorney lifted her right off the floor and twirled her around him, Trucy and Athena stepping back just in time.
When Juniper's feet met the ground again, her gaze was unavoidably drawn to meet Apollo's eyes. His previously blank expression was now the brightest smile she thought she'd ever seen on any person in her lifetime. He gazed at her with nothing but the utmost love and care, and everything else in Juniper's world momentarily ceased to exist.
Footsteps broke Juniper out of her reverie. She looked up just in time, setting aside the book in her slack grip as Apollo lowered himself in front of her, taking her hand with one of his own and placing the other over her exposed belly. His firm palm traced over her skin as gently as anything, and Juniper felt an overwhelming warmth set into her entire body.
"Everything OK for now?" he asked her. "Anything I need to get for you?"
Juniper just smiled at her fiancé at first. His concern for her never wavered, even on evenings as calm as this one.
"Did you already pick up the yogurt?" she asked him.
Apollo's smile twitched. "Uhh... I-I forgot-!" he uttered, suddenly alarmed. Juniper tried to soothe him with a gentle hand, but Apollo was already up on his feet. "I'll be back right away!" he exclaimed. He leaned in to press a kiss to her lips briefly, then did the same for the bump on her stomach before backing up in a hurry. Juniper giggled, gesturing for him to calm down.
"It's OK," she assured him, "I can wait. Why don't you just sit with me for now?" She indicated the open space to her left on the loveseat.
Apollo considered it, but his expression remained the same. "No," he said, "I should get over there before the store closes up. Back in fifteen!"
And then he was out of the room. Juniper watched the empty door frame for a moment before sighing and leaning back again.
She'd hoped he wouldn't get himself too worked up, but then again... she really did want that yogurt.
Just imagine how everyone reacted to their engagement a while after the last announcement. It's a wonder Trucy and Athena are still in one piece.
I'm about as affectionate toward Junipollo and I am toward Justicykes. Both are great, but they fall behind my favourite just a bit. We're still not up to the number-one spot, mind you. See you 'round next time, when we'll visit a universe where Apollo prefers a particular ex-rockstar.