Part 11: Planning the future

Three years after The Fight:

The first thing that Chi noticed as she woke up that morning was the absence of a certain weight from the bed. Though it was unsurprising to her, she still found it annoying. She'd grown to quite like having someone to sleep next to and thus was partly why she spent so many nights at Castle GrimSkull. Her husband rarely stayed for long enough in her realm for them to do it there.

Deciding to see him before her shower, Chi slipped on her pink bathrobe and walked out of the room.

…

She entered Death's office without knocking. She'd earned that right. Her husband was sitting at his desk filling out paperwork. No doubt taking care of the backlog of requests that piled up every day.

"You need to learn to start sleeping in." Chi said to him.

Junior smiled slighting upon seeing her enter the room. "Sorry, M'dear, but my job requires that I sleep like the dead, meaning when the dead start cropping up, so must I."

Chi circled around his desk until she was behind his chair. She placed her arms down around his neck until her face was next to his and kissed his cheek. Junior raised his hand slightly upwards to hold one of her arms and closed his eyes to allow himself to enjoy her company for a moment before returning to work.

"More of the usual today?" Chi asked as she looked over his shoulder.

"Yeah. Got a couple of people Heaven and Hades want. Got one that's going to the Nightosphere. The rest I still need to round up and find a place for them."

"Yeah, I suppose with the Land of Tainted Souls gone your options aren't as varied as your father's were."

In the three years she'd been married to him, Chi had learned something very interesting about Death that she'd never really been aware of before. Not only was he the collector of souls, but also their distributor. So often he'd receive requests from the other realms, asking him to send this soul here or this soul there, as the rulers of those realms kept tabs on mortals they wanted to join their ranks when they died. It was very rarely that Heaven sent its Angels or Hell sent its demons to personally collect those they wanted. It was usually much less hectic allow Death to do his job and make a request to him. Though technically speaking, Death could decide to send any soul wherever he wanted and there was really nothing anyone could do about it. Chi imagined the only reason Junior and his father even did the requests was because A. it made their job easier and B. it allowed them to save their ultimate authority in their back pocket for the times where they'd need it most. This was the reason why no one could do anything when Grim Senior refused to reap Mandy's soul. Her time had come, meaning he could do whatever he wanted with her without interference. Such as marriage.

A few minutes of silence passed, with the only noise in the room being Junior's quill scratching across the papers. As she continued to hug his neck as she watched him, Chi knew that there were questions in the back off her mind that she'd been avoiding to ask her husband. Deciding it was time to stop hesitating, Chi let go so she could talk to him.

"Grim?"

"Hm?"

"When do I die?" She asked out of nowhere.

"What makes you think you're going to?" He asked without missing a beat, seemingly no surprise to the question.

"Don't give me that." She said as she stared at him. "You and I know better than anyone that everyone dies eventually, even Gods and immortals. There's never been an exception to that rule. Just delays."

Junior turned his body to look at her for a moment. "What brought this on?" He asked her.

"Nothing really…I've just been making plans for the future (always good for a tyrant to have plans) and I just want to know if I'm going to last long enough to go through with them."

"Am I involved in these plans of yours?" Junior asked casually.

Chi smiled slyly at him. "One or two. I'm sure I could find a way to drag you into more trouble if you want."

"Only as long as it's nothing like Budapest again."

"Oh, it wasn't that bad, ya grump."

"You and I remember Budapest very differently." Junior said, clearly still holding a grudge against the government agents who were there with them.

"Anyway…" Chi continued. "Getting back to my question…"

"Chi...You know I can't tell you that." He told her gently. "No one should know in advance when their time is going to come."

"Not even a hint?"

"No." Junior said firmly. "But take it from me, your time limit isn't as big a deal as most people think it is. People have died way later and way sooner than their hourglasses have said they should. The deaths of your father and mine are proof of that. I can't give you a hint of when you're supposed to die, but trust me when I say that as long as you're smart about what you get yourself into, you'll have a good number of eons ahead of you."

Chi leaned against the wall, going through what he just told her.

"And when I do die, will you be there to collect me?" She asked.

"Unless you put me in the ground first."

"Heh." Chi chuckled a little bit, her heart put a little at ease. "That does help, actually. Thank you."

"Of course." Junior said, getting back to his paperwork. "So what exactly are you planning that's got you so worried about your time left?"

Chi waited for a moment before answering. "I want to have a baby."

The sound that followed that statement was a very loud screech as Junior's quill tore suddenly through the paper and across his desk, leaving a long scar along the top.

He was very slow in turning to face his wife again.

"A…a-ba…a baby?" He asked with great surprise. "Why…why do you want one of those?"

Chi crossed her arms as she looked away from him for a moment. "I don't know. I guess I've always kind of wanted to have one. Not with you, of course, until these last couple of years. But…yeah…I just kind of wanted to have one and didn't really see any reason why I shouldn't. I mean we are financially secure and given that Lords and Ladies of the Underworld make their own schedules, it's not like we wouldn't have enough time for it. So I just…yeah…"

Junior thrummed his fingers on his desk quietly, trying to decide what to tell her. After a few minutes, Chi finally moved towards him and sat down in his lap, placing her hands gently across his face and behind his head. "I know it's sudden and a big decision. But I really want to hear what you think. I really want to know if…if you want to start a family with me. It doesn't have to be now, but…someday…maybe?"

Junior could feel the warmth spreading out from his wife and could see in her emerald colored eyes that this was something that was honestly very close to her heart.

"Chi, my beloved queen…"

"…Yes?" She whispered, her lips drawing closer to his.

"…That is a terrible idea."

Everything about Chi's face as she glared at her husband said that she wanted to punch him in the groin before realizing that would be counter-productive to what she wanted.

"Care to clarify those words?" She asked, her eyebrows blazing.

"Chi, when has any child of the Big Five rulers ever had a happy childhood?"

"Me, for starters."

"All right, let's start with you. There were several attempted kidnaps on you, you were spoiled rotten, and you've had everyone you've ever loved brutally killed."

"I hardly think that-"

"-Hunson and Marceline have issues between them I can't begin to understand, my sister died twice, my mother killed my entire family, and I don't think you need any reminders about what Him put Mimi through. I'm not exactly keen on bring a child into a world with that kind of track record."

"I suppose those are some good points." She said. "Here's another: we're the ones in charge now. You and I are the heads of one of the most powerful empires the Underworld has ever known. You really think anyone is going to mess with us or our child?"

"Yes, because there are always going to be people to mess with us, especially with the big target I've basically placed on our kingdom to keep the other realms on their toes. And the easiest way to get to us would be to go through our child, and I'm not going to let that happen. I refuse to drag a kid into all this shit we're involved in."

"Yeah…you said something similar before about why you had Mimi reincarnated."

"Then you know that I'm right. What I didn't want my friend to go through I'm certainly not going to make our kid go through."

Chi folded her arms and was silent for a moment before she continued. "And you think that none of the past rulers have ever had similar dilemmas about having kids?"

"I find it hard to believe most even cared that much. Him certainly didn't. He just used Mimi as a way to stick it to Blossom."

"But what about my father, who made me happy until his dying day? Heck, what about your parents? Everyone wanted a piece of Mandy and looked for any reason to take her down. And yet, even if it meant exposing herself to weakness, she still decided to have you and your sister."

"You're not seriously using my mother as an example of why we should have kids."

"I'm just saying you can't use the excuse that the kid would have a possibly dangerous childhood when that was the same case for our parents and they still found ways to make it work."

"It's a bad idea, Chi. The kid would never get a normal childhood."

"But we can give them a good childhood."

Junior looked down for a just a moment to avoid his wife's eyes. "Chi, the answer is no."

Chi threw her hands up in the air and stormed off, as it was clear their argument was over.

But before she left, she stopped at the door frame and turned to Junior.

"Grim…I want you to think about it. And when you do, I want you to keep one thing in mind: we are not the people who came before us. We are not Mandy or Him. We're the ones in power now and we're not the people who started the war that ruined our lives. You think our child's life would be as tragic as ours? Well that's only true if we let it be that way." She turned and left the room.

Junior leaned far back into his chair. Clearly, he wasn't going to be able to focus on his work at the moment.

He knew he was right, of course. After the life he's had? No way was he going to put a kid in something like that. Not that it was all bad, of course. It was mainly the latter half when things went to shit.

Still, Chi did have a point. Most of the terrible things that had happened were because of those in power when he was a child. With him and few others with the power now, he could make sure history wouldn't repeat itself in his child's life, so maybe…

No. It's out of the question. Things between him and the rest of the council are strained enough as it is. If Death and the Shoguness of Darkness decided to have a child, there's no way things wouldn't get worse. The kid would be one of the most unique creatures in all the Underworld and potentially the most dangerous. A potential part reaper/part shapeshifting demon, though genetically he supposed it'd be part shapeshifting demon/part Nergal, as Junior's Nergal abilities would be the only way they could conceive a child semi-naturally without a donor.

So technically it'd be like Minnie would be the one getting Chi pregnant.

"….Ok, that image isn't leaving my brain anytime soon."

Junior flopped his arms down the sides of his chair. He already knew what the right answer was, so why was he still debating this with himself? It was a bad idea. End of story. He wasn't going to risk putting a child through what Mandy put him through.

Because he didn't want to do to his child what his mother did to him.

Junior blinked at this sudden thought. "Is that really what I…no. No, I'm not like my mother. That's not it."

Junior leaned forward in his chair, chin resting against his intertwined fingers.

"That's not it…" He told himself again.

He just sat there for a little while longer.

…

Chi dried her long hair with the bath towel, having just come back to her room from her long and thoroughly enjoyed shower. As she prepared to get dressed before heading down to breakfast (she'd grown quite fond of the spider's cooking in the past few years), she heard a knock on her door.

"Chi?" It was her husband.

"Hm?"

He opened the door just slightly. "May I come in?"

She pretended to think about it for a minute. "…Alright. I suppose."

Junior entered the room and closed the door behind him. Chi went over to her wardrobe to pick out her clothing.

"Chi…I've been thinking more about this baby business." He started.

"And?" She asked as she flicked through the hangers.

"I still think it's a bad idea."

"Yeah, you made that quite clear earlier."

"The reason why I'm here now…" He continued. "Is because I'm feeling…conflicted…about the whole thing."

That caught Chi's attention. "Conflicted?"

Junior nodded. "I know that's a bad idea, and yet I find that I keep trying to talk myself into doing it. Maybe it's one of those "You want it because you know you can't have it" kind of deals. I don't know. What I think will really help me make up my mind on this is…if you tell me…why you want to have a child."

Chi looked at him for a moment, thinking of everything that had led up to this point.

"When I first met you, I hated you." She said. "When I got to know you better, I hated you still. And when you forced me into marrying you, I somehow found ways to hate you even more. But when a time came where I had no one left, you were still there with me, even if it was for your own self-interests. I slowly began to like you. And when you stopped being such an ass, I even started to love you. I wouldn't say we're soulmates of anything. I think we can both agree we lost ours a long time ago. But you did become my family. In these past few years together, you have become someone I care for more than anyone else and with you…I want to create someone else that I will care for as well."

"Just because they're your child doesn't mean that you'll automatically love them." Junior pointed out. "Or them you."

"I know…but I want to try."

The two stood quietly for some time as they both tried to decide what should happen next. Decide what they really want.

Junior slowly lifted his hand, brushing the hair near her cheek. Chi smiled softly as she pressed his hand slightly against her face. The two got closer until the distance between them closed and they kissed. Her robe fell away as Nergal flesh spread from Junior's core across his body. The two fell back into the bed and embraced passionately. The position they found themselves in would have been unthinkable to them both but a few years ago, and the act they sought to commit together even more so.

Junior had often found comfort in the arms of his wife since their first true night together. It held true for this time as well, though his doubts still lingered in the back of his mind.

It would be a very long time until he would learn whether this decision was a blessing or a mistake.

The only thing he would ever know for sure was when it would all start.

A few days later, Death's queen announced she was pregnant.