I suck at this whole chapter naming thing. I finally updated this fluff piece! I hope you enjoy!
The arrival at the hospital was far less climactic than Ignis had expected, Aranea having to shush him multiple times for inquiring why the hospital was so calm. She assured him that labor was not as fast a process as people were led to believe. She had been led to a bed, monitors strapped to her abdomen and an IV placed in her arm before assuring she was as comfortable as the situation would allow. Ignis was sitting next to her, tapping his foot. Lunafreya had taken the other chair in the room, her phone in her hand.
"Are you sure you do not want an epidural? It will help the pain." Ignis asked.
"You know my fear of needles. It was an accomplishment to get the one into my hand, like hell if they're coming at my spine with one." Aranea answered back immediately, face scrunching with a contraction, doing her best to keep her groans and gasps to a minimum. The nurse had explained one of the pads strapped to her abdomen was to monitor the contractions, the other the baby's heart rate. Ignids tried to train his ears to the monitor, but it made little sensible noise.
"Perhaps my light can aid in your comfort?" Lunafreya offered, but Aranea shook her head.
"What's the point? Getting' these every…." She paused, grimacing. "Few minutes. No need to exhaust yourself. Plus you're pregnant yourself save your strength" Lunafreya nodded, conceding that she was correct. "Man if this is just the early part of labor I am not looking forward to later." She admitted, trying to settle back against the pillows. "Ya know what. Few more hours and I can stuff my face with anything I want. Well… almost anything." She looked up at the ceiling and groaned, lamenting the foods she was going to insist Ignis prepare for her over the next several weeks. A buzz caught Lunafreya's attention and she looked at her phone's screen.
"Oh it's Noct." Ignis sat up a little straighter at this news,
"His meetings are done?"
"He does feel quite bad he could not come right away." She answered him, Ignis quickly shaking his head,
"I understand his obligations." Aranea groaned, drawing her husband's attention who reached out to brush from hair from her forehead. Rather than ask her how she was doing, knowing he was likely to receive a sarcastic quip, he instead began to tell her about his plans to prepare the foods she had been deprived of for near a year. "I can go back to making your favorite breakfast, eggs-in-a-basket with far too much bacon for your cardiovascular system"
"I eat fruit with it." She protested, causing Ignis to chuckle and agree that at least she ate some fruit.
[Noct] Finally out of the meeting hows Aranea holding up?
[Luna] theyre talking about food so she must be doing okay
[Noct] Iggy holding up or crawling out of his own skin?
[Luna] For any normal man he would appear calm, but this is Ignis so I will admit he is a bit frantic.
[Noct] omw try to keep him in one piece for me. Lunafreya had to stare at the phone for a few extra seconds before she could remember what the abbreviation stood for, sighing at herself and feeling foolish before resuming the conversation.
[Luna] See you soon, do tell me when you arrive. Llove you.
[Noct] Miss you already luv you too
"Noct is on his way." Lunafreya announced.
"Give him a preview of the heart attack he's in for in several months." Aranea chuckled, Ignis nodded,
"A heart attack is putting it lightly darling." Ignis commented, reaching out to squeeze Aranea's hand who returned it with a light grip of her own, though it grew tighter as another contraction caused her to curl in on herself.
"Phew! That was a strong one!" shortly after her proclamation the nurse came in to check on her, staring at the monitor and informing her the doctor would be in shortly to assess her labor's progress. Lunafreya couldn't help feeling slightly ill at ease. For seeing her friend in such discomfort, and seeing firsthand the trial she was in for later.
[Crowe] Hey how she holdin up? A text caught her attention, and her initial assumption that it was Noctis was wrong, and she smiled a little at the message from her friend and Shield. She was sitting the waiting room, per the hospital's two visitor policy. They had offered to break it so their Queen could have her shield by her side, but the pair had insisted on no preferential treatment insisting they trusted the hospital to keep their Queen safe with the security that already existed in the labor and delivery ward.
[Sparkles] As uncomfortable as you would imagine. Though she's toughing it out, as we expected. The doctor stepped into the room, and Lunafreya excused herself to the corner to allow him to do his job, allotting Aranea some privacy for such an intimate exam.
[Sparkles] The doctor is checking her now to see how far her labor has progressed. I do hope she will not be in for a long day. But time will tell.
[Crowe] Well keep me posted. Can't wait to meet the gremlin.
[Sparkles] Don't call the baby that around Ignis, he may skin you alive and use it as a blanket to protect his precious bundle.
[Crowe] Freaking out yet glimpsing your future?
[Sparkles] A bit put ill at ease, though I imagine once the later stages of labor have arrived I will be much more nervous about what my future holds But for now, seeing Aranea hurting is difficult. I wish my light could touch it, especially since the stubborn woman declined an epidural due to her fear of needles. She answered. She was no fool, and was well aware labor was likely going to make enduring awakening the Astrals appear to be little more of a mild irritation in comparison, but it was still unsettling to witness first hand. But for the moment, it was hearing her friend groan in pain that was a greater source of distress.
[Crowe] You and ur bleeding heart i can picture you being more concerned about bothering your nurses than your own agony. Lunafreya chuckled lightly, and continued to text back and forth with Crowe until the doctor stated that Aranea was already at five centimeters. She took her seat back next to her friend, alternating between talking to Aranea and texting Crowe after asking if it was all right to give such an intimate detail.
"I don't give a damn, we're all women." She answered, and Lunafreya relayed the answer to Crowe. A short time later she received a text from Noctis stating he had arrived at the hospital. She told him she would meet him in the lobby, and excused herself from the hospital room.
"I imagine Noctis has skipped a meal in his haste to arrive here, so I'll make sure I feed him before we return, though I doubt you will protest a bit of extra time as just mother and father to be." She smiled to her friends, Aranea insisting that she didn't consider Lunafreya's company invasive or why the hell would I have pleaded for you to get your butt to my house? The Oracle chuckled and leaned over the hospital bed to give her friend a hug, promising then to not take too long. "Have Ignis text me then should you need me to return quicker." She waved to her friends and left the room, making a mental note of the number to more easily navigate back. She met Crowe in the waiting room, and the pair walked together to meet Noctis in the lobby.
Noctis was sitting in one of the chairs in the lobby, Gladiolus standing beside him, chuckling at something as the two men talked. A nod in her direction from the Sheild had the King leap to his feet, Lunafreya quickly holding her hands up in a calm down gesture.
"How's Aranea?" He asked once she had come into speaking range.
"As well as one can expect a woman in labor to be."
"As for Ignis?" Lunafreya couldn't help a light chuckle, shrugging her shoudlers.
"Holding himself together." She answered, wondering just how much of a mess Noctis would become when the day came for her own labor. She absentmindedly placed a hand over her abdomen, Noctis's eyes flickering from her hand and back up to her face. "What do you say we go grab some food, I do imagine that you forgot to eat before coming here?" Noctis opened his mouth to protest but quickly shut it, realizing that she was right. He had indeed foregone food in his haste to support Ignis.
"I want to go say hi to Iggy first," he refuted. "Then get food. Pretty hungry actually…" She couldn't refute this idea, knowing she would feel the same if the roles were reversed. Lunafreya led him up into the maternity ward, telling him the room number before assuring him she would not stray from the waiting room to gather food until he rejoined her. It had taken convincing for Gladiolus to stay behind with her rather than insist the hospital bend its two-visitor rule, and yet more convincing for him not to stand guard outside the door and just sit in the damn waiting room.
"Hey," Noctis called, knocking on the doorframe. Ignis looked in the direction, recognizing his friend's voice immediately.
"Noct!"
"Well hey now." Aranea echoed, grimacing and holding her stomach. Noctis replied with a frown, and a concerned glance over at Ignis, "Oh stop it. You look constipated." She groaned as the pain of the latest contraction began to fade.
"Uh, how are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm in labor." Came her reply, Noctis grimacing again, and turned to his advisor,
"How 'bought you? Pass out yet?"
"I'm…" he stopped himself before quite all right came out of his mouth, instead sighing, rubbing the scar tissue touching the bridge of his nose, "nervous." He admitted.
"You eat anything today?" he asked, remembering Lunafreya telling him how insane he was driving Aranea and assumed he could use a break to get something to eat with him.
"I did, skipping meals is unwise. Even if my stomach is churning away." He mumbled the end of his sentence. "Perhaps you could bring me something from the cafeteria?"
"Or go with him Ig, I won't be popping our baby out in the next hour." Aranea offered.
"I do not wish to leave you alone." He frowned at her and she shook her head, waving her hand.
"I'll survive if left to my own devices. Plus there's a T.V in here, I'll watch that movie channel. Always something I like on there." She grimaced when the next contraction took her, the way she groaned and the shifting of her sheets, the creaking of the hospital bed, left Ignis reaching for her, hand resting on her shoulder.
"You should not be forced to shoulder this alone."
"I'm not forced to do anything. Go eat." She commanded. Ignis tried to protest again, so she directed her instructions to Noctis this time, suggesting that he command Ignis to go eat with him before she hit him with the pole holding up her I.V fluids.
"All right. But please my darling, text me immediately should the labor progress." He asked,
"They'll be checkin' my dilation again soon I'll keep you posted." She reached for the remote on her bedside table, turning the television on and finding the aforementioned movie station and smirked when one of her favorite movies was on, Ignis lightly teasing her for how excited she got for a movie about dinosaurs. "I should throw this at you." She threatened, tapping the remote against her bed rail.
"I am going." He felt for the bed rail, reaching out to find her cheek and cupped her face, head tilting to greet her in a kiss. It lingered longer than the usual simple pecks they would exchange around others, Noctis turning to wait in the doorway to allow them a moment of privacy. He heard the soft scraping of Ignis's cane swopping the floor in front of him, and bid Aranea to try not to kill the hospital staff while they were gone.
"So how you holdin' up Iggy?" Noctis asked once they were likely out of Aranea's earshot.
"I feel… helpless… and nervous. And excited. And like there is a chance that I may crawl out of my own skin" He was speaking a bit faster than normal, hand gripping his walking cane almost too tight and swaying it across the floor faster than habitual accidentally hitting Noctis's ankle once. The advisor had apologized profusely, face painted red. Noctis side-stepped to be slightly further away though reassured his friend he was fine, despite the sharp ache in what was already turning to be a bruise.
They entered the waiting room, Lunafreya and the pair of shields looking up and greeting Ignis. They exchanged pleasantries, Ignis assuring them Aranea was as good as circumstance allowed, and that he was as nervous as he had ever been in his life. He was happy for the company and the slight distraction, too many facts and statistics running through his mind. And the fact Aranea had declined the epidural meant she was forced to endure the pain of labor, and the sound of her in pain was torturous.
A nurse told them where the cafeteria was and the group made their way as directed, sitting down each with their own plates of food. Lunafreya initially wanted only a salad, but after encouragement from Noctis to remember that she was indeed pregnant she grabbed a slice of pizza as well. The others settled for burgers, the group sitting down at a table in the corner to eat, Noctis with his back to everyone in an attempt to remain discreet, though his imposing bodyguard usually made that impossible.
Ignis had his head tilted, thumb tracing the edge of the paper plate, his other playing with one of the soggy potato fries that came with the burger, idly shoving one in his mouth. His stomach was battling between growling with hunger, and threatening to turn anything he ate back onto the table. The others were eating contentedly, commenting that for hospital food the meal wasn't that bad.
"Hey Iggy, don't look so down. You'll be a dad in a few hours!" Gladiolus slapped him hard on the back, causing the man to cough on the piece of food in his mouth, hacking for a couple more seconds before groaning a bit, shaking his head.
"I should get back up there… what if she progresses suddenly or something goes wrong?" he asked.
"She promised to keep you updated man, she won't let you miss a thing. She'd probably kill you." Noctis teased. Ignis forced a chuckle, admitting he was right. Halfway through his meal he received a text, tapping the button to have the text read aloud in Aranea's voice; the application to do so having been something Aranea had designed with some help as an anniversary gift.
Hey sexy glasses, I've only dilated one more centimeter so enjoy your lunch. Contractions look normal, our little one's heart rate is fine, so try to only worry at a nine not a ten
"See that, now eat something." Noctis pointed at Ignis with one of his fries before shoving it in his mouth.
"You act like you won't be driving everyone in Lucis insane with how panicked you'll be when Luna here goes into labor." Gladiolus thumbed at her.
"Oh man, I can see it now. Sparkles walking into the bedroom nothing but poise and smiles, Oh, Noctis my love, I do believe that it is entirely possible that I might be in labor. Perhaps it is prudent we go to the hospital?" Crowe raised her voice half an octave, doing her best to mimic the young woman's accent.
"I don't quite talk that flowery!" Lunafreya protested, knitting her brows, her Shield laughing at her.
"Hell yeah you do. And you'll somehow be all calm when in labor because it's you. Meanwhile Noctis will probably scream and accidentally warp out a window without you in a rush to get to the hospital." Gladiolus laughed, concurring with Crowe. Lunafreya opened her mouth to protest but clamped it shut and stuck her tongue out, Noctis lifting his middle finger.
"It'll be a long day, do eat." Lunafreya finally stated when she found her voice gain, face low in a vain attempt to hide the deep red in her cheeks. "Aranea will need you to have your strength."
"Yeah that way it'll be harder to break your fingers." Gladiolus added.
"That is merely a trope from T.V and film." Ignis countered, but finally took a proper bite of his food earning a nod and a smile from the Oracle. "And I am about to be a father. I am far from my best." Ignis added, placing his food back down to sigh and push his glasses up his nose, the other hand running through his hair which was already losing its usual groom.
"You're holding up better than I will." Noctis laughed.
"It's still early. We shall see."