Born Different
Creed; With Arms Wide Open
Six Months later….
"I don't like him, Nicholas." The vixen signed before she was wringing her paws out as he sighed and shook his head. She looked back at him with a guilty twinge and shook her head. "I know how you feel about him but I know what I saw, what I've seen. It's the way he looks at you."
Nicholas lifted a brow frowning at her as she let her head fall. "Maybe he just has one of those faces, Rose? A lot of mammals have a look about them that makes others think one thing when it's completely different. "
"This isn't about us, Nicholas. It's about Adam. The way I've seen him look at you is just…. I don't think he likes you."
"Rose." He blew out as he looked back at her. "He's been looking out for me for years. Taught me how to fight and fend for myself. He's the closest thing to family I had before I met you. Come on Darlin', why are you so onto this all the sudden?"
The vixen deflated as she sat down and shook her head. "Maybe…. maybe it's just hormones or something."
He laughed as he stood up and headed to the door. "The park is opening in an hour, I have to get over there and get the smaller booths set, along with the tickets, if you didn't feel like going today all you had to do was say so. I wouldn't have been upset after everything you've done to help with the place if you needed a break Rose…. Hormones," he laughed as he turned and caught her dip her head as he was about to close the door. He stomped on the floor and she pulled her eyes from the carpet as he tilted his head. The fox sighed as he stepped back in and closed the door, walking to her before he bent to his knees. "What's really going on, Rose?"
She cringed as she picked up papers from the table and cupped them in her paws before handing one to him. He looked it over curiously, his brow curled and he shook his head as his lip twisted up. "Are you sick? Why did you go see… Rose?" he swallowed as she shied her eyes from him and the tod jumped away as he lowered his brow shaking his head. "That's not possible! You said it would never happen, they said it would never…ha…pp-" she held out another sheet and he took it with shaky paws. His eyes grew wider as he unfolded it and one eye twitched as he looked it over. All he could do was open and close his mouth a few times before he found his tongue. "Just one?" he asked as his jaw stayed loose. She nodded as she curled her arms around herself. "You already know it's…a boy? H-how far along are you and…." She held one paw up with all her fingers and thumb showing and he shook his head in disbelief. "F-four months? Why didn't you say some…. thing?"
The vixen sniffled as she closed her eyes and shook her head as her paws flew into motion. "I didn't believe it! They ran all kinds of tests to make sure it was real, took pictures and blood and then the…"
"Pictures?" he asked as his jaw fell open. She nodded as she pulled open a drawer from the table in front of her and handed them to him hastily. She tried to wipe her face off as he fell next to her on the couch, looking over them with wide eyes before staring at her.
"I'm sorry, Nicholas. They said it's never happened before and I just…. I already have to hide most of the time when I'm not in the den or at the park with you because of my fur. I didn't want to tell you because I thought you might think I'd lied or I was more of a freak than I alrea….
Her head snapped to him as he clutched her shoulders, "HEY!" She blinked as he smiled and started laughing. "If you're a freak then so am I. The luckiest freak on the planet who's in love with another freak who's carrying my baby!"
She yelped as he grabbed her off the couch and swung her around, nearly falling over the table as he laughed. "A dad! I'm going to be a dad! I'm going to be a dad! Is this real?!"
"You aren't upset?" she asked, sniffling as he bit his lip, shaking his head.
"Vicious vixen! You've known all this time and didn't tell me!? How could I be upset? I'm the happiest guy in the world! How did this happen!?"
She snickered as he hauled her closer with lifted brows and rolled her eyes as he almost bounced, waiting for an answer. "If you didn't have to go to work today, I'd show you how it happened."
Nicholas let his face fall and shook his head at her reply. "That wouldn't… hurt the baby?"
She giggled as she shook her head and stepped closer, pinning his ears back as he blinked a few times. "It hasn't hurt the baby in the last four months, Nicholas."
She growled sending his fur on edge as his brows lifted. "I love it when you're vicious! I'm not going to work today. I think I'd rather stay here and be a freak with you. Come on Rose, be freaky with me!"
He bounced his brow and she threw her head back laughing before he wrapped his jaw around her throat, rumbling….
Five months later… November 17, 1988
Nicholas paced the room and shook his head as the foxes around him kept chuckling. "You're going to wear a groove in the floor, John."
"Do you think she's alright? Do you think the baby is alright? How long does this usually take and why haven't…"
"John, sit down for a minute, will you? Patience is a virtue." The silver fox sighed as he sat next to his father in law and the fox beside him chuckled as he leaned forward. "I'm sure she's fine. Relax. Babies are born every day."
"Not to any mammals like us they aren't, Ross. They wouldn't even let me go in with her. What if he's like me? What if I don't know what I'm supposed to do? What if…." he shook his head as his father in law nodded.
"Stop worrying about the if, John. Once you meet him all those fears will disappear. True, they aren't born to mammals like you, you're a bit unique in that area and even the date is unheard of. I mean has there ever been a fox born in November? Its why they took so many precautions with the delivery. But a birth is a birth. Just like a death is death. You can't do anything to change the outcome of either event, so why worry about it?"
Nicholas looked back at him with one side of his lip curled and rolled his eyes as the tod beside him laughed. He looked around seeing her brothers all watching with grins and plopped his head into his paws. "How can you all be so calm!"
The foxes around him snickered and he shook his head. "She's a Wild. The only girl in our family. We aren't anywhere near calm, we're excited." Thorn chirped as Vel and Fayre nodded in agreement. Nicholas looked up with tipped brows as he searched all their faces.
Fayre leaned forward, "You aren't familiar with a lot of our ways because you grew up on the streets. What you don't understand is that she's the oldest vixen. None of us could marry until she did, and had kits. Something none of us thought was possible." Nicholas blinked at all of them as he shook his head.
Ross tipped his head as Vel shrugged, "She helped you get that park up so you'd be accepted by the Den."
Nicholas shook his head in confusion as he looked between them. "They hate me and the park at the Den."
"Doesn't matter. If you hadn't been able to care for her as much as she could you, they wouldn't have accepted you into the Den at all."
"I'm pretty sure Cassie is the only reason I got into the Den. Ughghgh; I'm never going to understand all those rules!"
"Give it time John, you will." Rose's father prodded as Nicholas let his shoulders drop.
"Yeah, maybe in my next lifetime!" They all looked at each other and laughed as he shook his head blinking. "What?"
"There's just one lifetime John, and you're in it."
"Mr. Wild?" Nicholas shot up from the chair as they all chuckled at him again. "You can see your mate and son now."
"My…family?" he beamed as she opened the door nodding. The silver fox looked around and rushed forward after Rose's family had all shooed him that direction. He stepped through the door trying to hold his heart rate as he puffed his cheeks out. "Cassie?" he asked when he spotted the older vixen waving him towards her. "Where's-"
She shook her head and stuck a finger to her lips as she pulled a curtain back. His ears shot up as a faint wailing started from behind it.
Cassie moved the curtain to the wall and Nicholas stepped forward, swallowing as Rose barely turned her head smiling at him. "Rose?" The tiny hiccups grew again as she smiled at him.
"You woke him up." She signed tiredly as he stepped closer to the bed.
His chest puffed out as she moved her arm, exposing a little grey furred head in the crook of her arm. "Grey?"
She giggled softly as she shook her head. "He'll be red. All fox kits are born grey unless they're like you and me."
He sat next to her gently as he shook his head. "Then how do you know he won't stay grey?"
"Look," She leaned up slightly as Nicholas lowered his head. "He has your ears, and your tail." He watched her unwrap him and the tiny kit's tail uncurled, revealing a black tip unlike any ever seen before, hints of dark red lay just between the borders of the gray and black in his fur. Nicholas' face went flat as she leaned forward and placed him in his arms. He ticked his eyes between her paws and the kit in his arm as he bit his lip. "Watch his head."
Nicholas cringed as the tiny kit in his arms wrinkled his nose, until he almost folded into a ball. He dipped his head down looking at his son and almost laughed as his nose flared. "He smells like you."
"I marked him, and you need to so he knows from now on that you're his father. He'll never forget your scent or mine and will be able to tell other foxes apart from anyone in our family for the rest of his life because of it. If you don't mark him within a few hours after being born, he won't imprint on you and won't know you from a stranger."
Nicholas scrunched one side of his cheek up in apprehension as Rose giggled. "Just be gentle and be careful of his head and neck. Run your scent along the ridge of his cheek and over the top of his head." The silver fox kept his eyes on his mate as he pressed his cheek against the tiny kit and gently rolled his head over the top of his sons. The tiny kit cooed through a yawn as he came back up and Nicholas snapped his eyes to his little face. He was holding his breath as he looked him over again. "Eight little fingers and eight little toes. Perfect. An everyday Miracle."
"Born out of time." Rose sighed as she smiled.
"What are we naming him?"
Rose giggled as she laid back and sighed. "It's your place to name him my Nicholas. It should have something to do with you because he'll carry the name of Wild."
"Nickel less. I'm not less anything anymore, am I? Neither are you. Rose…you're a Mommy."
She tipped up, sitting next to him as she ran her paw over his back until it rested over his shoulder as her head leaned into his other shoulder, looking at their new son. She cupped an arm under the one he had supporting their new son until Nicholas looked up at her teary eyed as she sat back up a little. "A little Prince, from my tall dark and handsome fox." Nicholas chuckled as she leaned back into him, and they rested their heads together, watching as the little fox unwound himself and stretched his arms, yawning before curling back into a ball against his father's chest.
"Nicholas Piberius Wild. A name to carry on. I'll teach you everything I didn't know, give you everything I never had. My son, I'll show you everything…"
"Piberius?" Rose spelled out with a funny look as he smirked.
"I'll explain it later. It's a fox thing."
Rose giggled as he looked back at their son smiling…..
Notes; Time is not linear between Gods of Norse and Perspective. This chapter is referenced in chapter 32 of Time's past because Time is about to have a real future and not live outside of all its ever known and cared for in the past.