Happy Valentines Day Everybody! Time for some sweet fluff dedicated to relationships. The Plot should be moving along soon enough but here is a first vignette chapter for your Valentine's Day pleasure

Donatello sat in his room watching the Egg...HIS Egg, the Egg the was the result of the love he and Belladonna shared. To think when she first announced she was pregnant he intially freaked out and believed he didn't want a Kid...Looking back Don wished he could travel back to that moment in time and slap his slightly younger self and say 'You idiot! Of course you want a Kid! Why were you talking to her about your concerns about a legacy if you didn't!' Of course that was back when Don still believed that when they returned to New York it would-eventualy-be back to the status quo living in the sewers hiding from most of humanity sans the friends they had come to know and trust over the years...But not this time...This time things would not and could not return to the way they were...Eleanor was right...Too many Mutants...Humanity could no longer deny the existance of such creatures and the Mutants could no longer deny that they could no longer hide and sustain such a large population.

The quote from Jurassic Park came to mind

"Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way."

Don plucked himself from his daydreams and focused his attention again to his Egg. Sitting in an electronic nest provided warmth, cushoning and periodically turned the Egg to prevent the embryo from stcking to the inner shell...Quite the miraculous device really.

"I could build one." Don said to himself "How hard can it be? I mean it's power source is a freaking wall socket that I can plug in at my own 21st century room!"

The Electronic Nest was colored one might considered garishly, the metal part was purple, the cushion the egg sat upon was orange...But somehow the Colors seemed both mild and warming.

Belladonna conceded that a crib designed for a Human Infant probobly was fine for an Infant Dragon. And while they were shopping April and Casey bought a few more things for the Baby they had adopted during The Mutant Riots, the Baby Human Girl who had been saved by the Wolf Mutant Gabrielle before she died. April and Casey named her Shadow (Actually her real name was longer and more complicated than that but for simplicity's sake her name was Shadow)

"Andromeda..." Don said quietly He had to concede Belladonna had picked the perfect name for her. Don lay his hand upon the tender shell.

"Andromeda." He said warmly, his right cheek was glowing like a burning coal and felt almost as warm "I can't wait until you hatch and I can see your face..."

"Stroking the shell I see." Came a Familar Voice. In walked a gangly green Bird Creature...While closely resembling an Earth Heron, two things preventing this Creature from being identified as an Earth Bird was a pair of pointed elf-life ears and in the beak were sharp shark-like teeth.

"Hey Zander." Don said to the Bird Alien "What brings you here?"

"Mattie is bringing Rory's other friend...The Peacock...She's decided he can help plan sex education for Mutants."

Don grimmaced "A Stripper and Porn Actor to teach Sex-Ed?"

"Yeah..." Zander said "I...Had similar reservations...But he does seem to have more common sense than mosr sex workers...And he did express a wish to leave sex work so he can settle down and start a family...And he is clean...Absolutely tested clean! By this Zander meant Scippio Fortuna the Peacock-Man had no STDs which was good because in the Realm of First Earth STDs had evolved and gotten a whole lot nastier...Catching one of them could land one in permenant quarentine.

Zander however moved back to subject of Eggs "You know we Aves have a belief." He said "If you are even in need a courage...Stroke your Egg...Feeling the sheer potential within that Egg will give you strengh and courage."

Don smiled he could see the meaning behind such a tradtion.

"Of course..." Zander said "...I married a Non-Egg Laying Mammal but I discovered an Ave can stroke a pregnant belly to the same effect. It's kind of interesting isn't it?"

"What is?" Don asked

"Oviparous VS viviparous." Zander said "For the longest time I believed Egg Laying was the only the most logical way to bring forth young...For one the egg...Doesn't resist being laid as must as a Live Cub resists being born...It frees the Mother to be able to move with ease after the Egg has been laid and both the Mother and the Father can share incubating duties...However I have come to see some of the benifits of giving birth to live young...Like the Young is pretty safe inside the Mother's Belly you can't kidnap the Unborn Cub without taking the Mother along with it...During the Betta Invastion of my Planet...We found the Invading Bettas frequently stole eggs out of the Nest...And Smashed them."

Don winched.

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