After a long week of waiting, pee in that infernal little cup, Blake did.

Coming out of the adjoining bathroom in Oobleck's office, and gingerly setting it on the metal tray, she sat back down. She couldn't help eyeing the liquid inside with trepidation. Blake wasn't the only one sweating bullets. Weiss, Yang, and Ruby were too. The sisters had come along for moral support, and she sighed deeply when she felt Yang's warm hands rest comfortingly on her shoulders. Ruby had her arm slung around Weiss in a half hug, trying to get the uptight woman to loosen up.

It had been a long week, and they all just wanted the answer to this one question.

Did it work?

Oobleck separated the urine into three little test tubes, tapping a different purified dust combination into them. This allowed for three separate tests. It was amazing how crippling the wait could be. Blake felt her breath slow, even as her pulse quickened. In less than a minute, all three had turned blue.

She was pregnant.

At first, it was hard to tell that anything was really different. Outside of feeling like she had been smacked in the face with one of Nora's pancakes, Blake was stunned. She remembered sitting there, gaping at the tests in disbelief, everything else a blur as she tried to fathom the luck she had. For hours after the fact, she was trying to come to terms with it.

A silly little grin tugged on her lips. Her wish was coming true. There was life was growing inside of her body…babies…cubs…her cubs…

Oobleck warned them that it was a good sign, but, that they still needed to stay in Vale for at least the first two months. He advised them to keep matters quiet even among their friends, as this was a very precarious time. Anything could go wrong if Blake didn't keep her stress levels well managed. A flair in her aura would be all it would take, even with the inhibitors.

He would be keeping a careful eye on things. Blake would be coming in to allow more urine and blood tests once a week. He needed to ensure that the dust infusion wasn't causing any malicious toxins in Blake's own body. He also prescribed her with two different sets of vitamins. One for the morning, and one for at night.

Blake enjoyed the clarity of a symptom free start to her pregnancy. The fertility drugs had worn off, and so had her heat. She went out more often, and was starting to truly enjoy sharing meals with the old Beacon faculty. For a short time, she acted as a guest speaker. She talked of Faunus rights through history, her time in the White Fang when it was a peaceful organization, and her views on the Atlas government.

She did miss Atlas though, even if the pent-house suite was a much more manageable size. Ruby was homesick too, but finally, Sun finished his mission, and was able to arrive. Everyone enjoyed the welcome guest.

"What's wrong, Zhu?" Ruby asked, when the little boy scurried behind her leg.

He scowled, pointing to Blake, his little tail wrapping around Ruby's leg to the best of his ability.

"My scent's changed now that I'm pregnant, Ruby." Blake said from her place at the table. "He needs to get used to the new smell."

"Speaking of that, what's the litter size?" Sun asked as he sniffed at Blake pointedly. He did this several times, trying to see if he could count the number of babies.

"I don't know yet. For a full litter? No less than three." Blake said, still a little nervous about that. "Could be four or five. We won't know until I go back in for more tests."

Sun grinned. "You'll grow huge if that's the case…"

"Cat Faunus infants run small." Blake told him, though she wondered about that. "At least, according to Oobleck."

"Makes sense. Neon had six in her litter. Looked like a balloon about to pop, but yeah, they were little guys."

"You're joking…" Blake asked. "Neon had a litter?"

"Nope, not bullshitting." Sun said with a dirty smirk. "First and last, she said. She had her ovaries removed after."

This new revelation interested Blake. "What does she do during heat?"

"I asked the same thing. She doesn't get it anymore, or so she says."

"Woman's probably in heaven during the worst seasons." Blake said, rolling her eyes. "Weiss, something to consider…"

The white haired woman had been listening in, but she hardly felt like participating in the discussion. "Would you two stop talking as if you're referring to an upgrade module? You're worse than Ruby with her scythe augments." Weiss said, putting down her newspaper.

"I heard that." Ruby chided from her place at the counter.

"Well, you're not deaf…" Weiss said, though her once placid face turned to one of concern. "Besides, I think we have something else to be dealing with."

"Zhu, come here squirt." Sun called, slapping at the side of his leg.

"And so it begins." Blake said with a weary little smirk.

The small boy in question was too busy sniffing at the band that his father had tied around his arm. He made an unhappy noise, trying to get the smell off, or at least mark it as his own. After that didn't work, he looked up at Ruby. "Awff…"

"Mm, no I don't think so." Ruby, done with cutting up the fruit on the counter, deposited the knife safely in the sink. She lifted Zhu into her arms. "You need to wear it."

"Awff!"

"Off." Sun corrected. "And no, you keep that on."

Zhu grunted at him, so Sun issued one right back.

"It's not so bad." Ruby told him, showing Zhu the scent maker that covered her other arm. "See, I have one too."

"Awff!" He fussed, crying as he wagged his arm around. He didn't want the band, and he was not amused by it. This time, it wasn't petulance, there was distress underlining his tone.

"Nice try Ruby, but, I don't think it's going to work." Sun said as he plucked Zhu off of the counter. There was only one solution for this, and so Sun put Zhu in Blake's lap. He watched her take off the arm band. The crying stopped, but the pouting continued. Sun rolled his eyes, giving Blake a withering look. "And you're not having just one…good luck when you have a litter of them doing this."

"Sun, it's okay." Blake said, it would be a long process to get Zhu acclimated.

"What going on?" Ruby asked concerned. "It wasn't too tight, was it?"

"I don't smell like his daddy, that's all." Blake cooed as she marked Zhu directly by rubbing her cheek against his. "It's okay, you're okay…" The usual greeting given to small children. She ran her thumbs across his cheeks, along his neck, and behind his ears, releasing a much more gentle scent. One he was used to. She took the band from Sun, but Zhu cried again as soon as he saw it, so Blake set it off to the side. "No more band for today…shh, you're fine."

Golden eyes looked up. "Ruby, can you go get one of my shirts from the hamper?"

"Yeah, sure." Ruby was fast in retrieving the shirt, and when she came back, she let the question linger at the edges of her steel eyes. A heartfelt worry that something truly went wrong.

"Don't worry, Ruby. The bands are strong smelling. They just take some getting used to." She explained, realizing just how absurd this must seem for the nose-blind population. "It's a big change for a boy his age. Velvet acclimated her children to the bands at birth, she has a large family. Zhu's never experienced this, Sun has never had a reason to put a band on him before."

"Well, the sooner we get him acclimated, the better." Sun sighed, scratching his bare chest idly. "It's not that big a deal, he's just being a pain in the butt."

"There's no need to rush." Blake said, as she let the little boy cuddle into her. "We'll get him sorted out, it'll just take a little time and persistence."

"And that," Sun protested, "is exactly what I'm afraid of."

As Ruby was coming to learn, Zhu was not as easy to handle as one might think. Though, it was indisputable that he and his father were one in the same. The naked little boy ran squealing from the bathroom. Dry, but refusing to put on his training pants. Ruby trailed after him, a whirl of rose petals left behind as they spun for a moment. She had him wrapped up back in his towel, giggling when he thought it was playtime.

"And where do you think you're going?" She asked.

"Yeah, forgot to warn you about that he's a runner." Sun replied as he continued working on his current project. "Probably feels good to air out."

"Speaking from experience?" Ruby asked, giving her boyfriend a slow lingering gaze. He had always had a habit of leaving his shirts open. In the bedroom, he often went without his jeans as well, leaving very little to the imagination.

"Well, ya know, a guy needs to have a little room to breathe. Besides, I don't see you wearing your bra under your nightshirt right now."

Ruby tinged pink at that, getting Zhu dressed for bed. "Are you sure about Zhu sleeping in that, Sun?" Ruby asked, when he tied the hammock across two of the bed posts. "It seems a little high up."

"That's the point." Sun said, gesturing over to his child, who had a bad habit of falling more than climbing. He was back to trying his tail at curtain rods, and back to slipping off. "See, he bounces…"

"If that were me, I'd be screaming." She said with a shake of her head, as she leaned back across the bed. "How can that not hurt?" It was a master suite, complete with king sized bed and Jacuzzi tub. Yang's room right across the hall was the same. They were one floor below Weiss, just in case, but for now, Ruby happily set it out of her mind.

"I activated his aura as soon as he could walk. He's a chip off the ole block. A predisposition for high places, and a fearlessness for jumping around." Sun flicked his own tail to prove his point. "It's in the blood."

"I'm surprised he knows to activate it before hitting the floor."

"Oh, that's intuition, and one too many times going splat before he figured it out. Not like he can really use it yet, but it takes the edge off."

"Ah…" Ruby watched the going's on with mild interest. "So, knowing this, you'll still put him up in that hammock?"

"He'll end up between us before morning anyway. Zhu's afraid to be on his own completely. He'll probably come looking as soon as we turn off the lights, but, I still wanted to try."

Ruby winced as Zhu crashed to the floor again, this time almost on his head. "Zhu! Be careful." She was getting worried as she checked his ruddy tresses that were just like his mother's. "You're going to be a wild child, aren't you?"

He made a small noise, what sounded like a chirp, as he affixed himself to her arms. Letting her lift him, he climbed around to her back, clinging tightly.

"Sun?" She asked, mindful of the little boy on her back.

"Hmm?"

"Why don't Faunus toddlers talk much?"

"He'll pick it up, it just takes some time. We have other ways to communicate to each other, so talking isn't a priority for small children. I'm just trying to get him to learn how to use his tail." As if to punctuate that statement, a spill proof safety-cup clattered to the floor from the nightstand, and with it plopped down Zhu, going after it. Sun just shook his head. "He's got to learn to master his body, before he tries to master his tongue."

"And on that note, Zhu, it's bed time." Ruby scooped up the little troublemaker, and set him carefully in his hammock. The first thing he did was grab his blanket, but then he found it. The armband. He crinkled his nose and pushed it away, watching with curiosity as it landed on the floor.

Sun only sighed again as Ruby laughed.

Sometime between week four and week five of her pregnancy, the occasional migraines Blake suffered were no longer her only complaint. This time, it wasn't the aura inhibitors. Though at first, that's what she blamed as she bent over the bed, vomiting into the waist paper basket. After it happened several times in a row, however, she knew better.

Weiss had been as helpful as she could be during the inevitable unpleasantness. She took the liberty of getting up herself to change out the bag, and making sure to put a new one in. She made a habit of going down to the vending machines in her bathrobe and slippers looking for crackers and ginger ale. There were a few unfortunate migraine ridden nights of hell. They rendered Blake in agonizing pain, and Weiss in sleepless, floor-pacing worry.

"I'm fine, Weiss."

"You are not." Weiss kept her voice low. Blake looked like hell. "Are you sure you're not running a fever?"

"No fever." Blake informed. "Just hurts."

"Damn…" Weiss was getting worried now. Blake never admitted how bad her head was bothering her. "Do you want me to get you anything?"

"No."

"Oh, Blake, sweetheart…"

"I'm fine…"

But no…no she really wasn't fine. After Blake spent yet another night curled up on the bathroom floor in a puddle of her own vomit, enough was enough. She called Oobleck.

"Who gets morning sickness at night anyway?" Blake asked from her scroll that next morning, hunched over the empty breakfast table.

"Morning sickness is actually a misnomer, my dear. It can occur at any time, day or night." Oobleck said confidently, though the worry was evident. "Is it unmanageable?"

"Well, I wouldn't say it's under control." Blake lamented sickly. She could smell the tuna salad in the fridge from all the way across the room. It was assaulting her senses in the worst way. The stench was made worse as soon as Ruby opened the refrigerator door. Blake barely made it to the trash receptacle in time.

"Ah, so I see." Oobleck nodded, witnessing the spectacle firsthand, since the call was still running. "I trust traditional methods aren't working in the slightest?"

"If you mean catnip, nope…" Ruby said, picking up the scroll and walking towards Blake, who was still bent over the trash can. "Steeped ginger didn't work either…in fact that might have made it worse."

"Has she been taking her prenatal vitamins properly?"

"Umm…" Ruby looked over to Blake. "Have you?"

"When they stay down." Blake told Oobleck morosely. "It doesn't always happen." She lifted herself up from her bent over position, only for another wave of nausea to smack her in the face. She was dry heaving at this point, and it was actually hurting. She pinched her nose shut, all of the smells were absolute torture.

"…what is staying down, Blake?" He asked her.

"I don't even remember…" She sighed.

"Okay listen carefully. I would like for you to go lay down in a dark room and rest. I would also like for whoever is capable of not burning down that kitchen to scramble up a mixture of two parts beef, to one part rice. You're to have small portions. Instead of three large meals, try five or six small ones. The next thing you're going to do is drink broth or water from now on. Beef, pork, chicken, I don't care what kind it is. You're to be drinking it…"

Blake grumbled something, but it was indistinguishable by human hearing.

"Can I ask, why broth?" Ruby asked, dumping the tuna salad into the trash, plastic bowl and all, crinkling her nose as she tied up the bag.

"Faunus are sometimes known to become very sensitive to their body's needs. Blake hails from a bloodline of carnivores. Thusly, her stomach is probably too sensitive right now to eat her usual diet. Her body continues to adjust to all the added nutrients it needs. Remember, just because she looks human, doesn't mean she digests food the same way we do." He then leveled his gaze to Blake. "Your diet needs to contain more red meat, and a lot less fish. Believe it or not, your body doesn't digest it as well as you might think."

"Tuna's a very healthy thing to eat…when it doesn't smell so god awful…"

Oobleck shook his head. "Tuna for you, is like a big greasy pizza for me. Sure, it tastes good and it fills the belly, but it's not nutritionally sound. The mercury in the fish isn't good for you, and it's probably making the situation worse. Try the dietary changes, see if they help. If you can, avoid dust and hormone enhanced meat. Go with grass fed organic."

Blake agreed, but only under duress, she didn't care about food at that moment. Her senses were on overdrive in the worst way. She went to go drown herself with toothpaste, which only made her sensitive tongue cry out as it burned. Ruby half dragged Blake into the bedroom when Blake rinsed her mouth out for the third time. There wasn't enough mouthwash on the face of Remnant to get that acrid taste out of her all too sensitive mouth.

"You should lay down…" Ruby told her. "And I'm calling Weiss."

"Ruby, she has to work…"

"She's going to freak out if I don't." Ruby retorted as she finally got Blake back into bed. "You lay down and rest. I'm calling her."

AYangThang: Well, I hope you all enjoyed this. Honestly, it's not my most favorite chapter. I've been working on this one for two weeks, re-arranging, cutting, editing, adding, and pulling my hair out. I finally admitted defeat during the weekend. This is primarily set-up for the next arc of this story, which brings me to my next point.

We're going to be following Blake through her entire nine months, skipping a few weeks here and there. I've taken some liberties with the concept, seeing as Blake is part cat, but most of it will be par for the course. That being said, this will include some less than stellar (though obvious) moments for Blake. It won't get too gross or graphic, I promise.

If you've made it this far, you should be fine. Either way, I didn't want to shock anyone in the future. I just wanted to let you know Blake is going to be experiencing her pregnancy for the duration of this upcoming arc.

Admittedly, I skipped the first four weeks entirely on purpose. I struggled with that decision, which is one of many reasons this chapter drove me crazy. There's just not much to cover that wouldn't drag the story on, adding pointless filler. More often than not, women don't actually know they're pregnant during most of that time. They haven't normally missed a period yet, so unless they're tracking their fertility and trying like Blake was, they'd have no way of knowing.

Anyway, sorry for the long spiel, I try not to do it too often. I just wanted to extend my apologies to anyone who finds this chapter lackluster. Thank you to all of you for your continual support.