If anyone is tempted to try this experiment at home, please do some research and maybe look up exact amounts, I just made up the amount of calcium powder for example... I am not a scientist and I have never done this, I've just seen videos on Youtube. That said, it should technically be possible to do this in real life.

Also, smut.


16 Spring, Year 4

Chick in a Bowl

The next Tuesday after the egg festival, I drop by the clinic. It's been three days and I'm getting kind of antsy.

"Hi, Evan," Maru greets. She's right in the process of taking off her white nurse jacket. "Right in time. I've had the incubator ready since Saturday, really. If you have some eggs, you can bring them by whenever you like."

"Perfect. Tell you what, we can walk by the farm and pick them up and then go directly to yours?"

"Oh. Um, if you didn't want to..." She gestures vaguely at the door behind her that leads to Harvey's examination room.

"Let me tell you on the way."

"Okay. Well, let's go then."

She goes through the door behind the counter and comes out through the door on the waiting room side. I spot Harvey's face popping up behind the window in the first door. I signal at him that I'll be back later.

We pick up six eggs from the farm, all fresh from today. On the way from the farm to the carpenter's shop, Maru can't control her curiosity anymore.

"So... You and Harvey...?"

"I'd really prefer people knowing as little as possible, for his sake. Really the hard and fast of it is, we're two different people, we have different expectations and preferences, and we have to figure out how we best work together. It seems I'm just very clingy."

"But you guys are fine, though?"

"Yeah, as far aw I'm aware. I'm not gonna give him up over some friction. This is just how this kind of things work."

"I don't know. Being in a fight so soon... Doesn't it make you wonder about you being right for each other? I really don't want to get between you or make you doubt or anything like that, I really just want to know what you think."

"Sounds like someone here believes in soulmates," I grin.

"Well... Maybe not for everyone, but it's nice to dream, no?"

"I don't think so, really. At least if you have that idea that if it's the one, you'll never fight or even have tension or anything like that. Look, when you grow up, you're in your family, right? You have your parents, siblings, and a bit further removed aunts and uncles and friends at school and neighbors... And all of those people have some kind of influence on who you become. Because all of those people have their own personalities and their worldviews and their positive and negative characteristics, and by being around them you just learn ways to deal with all of those things. Basically, your dad is a square and your mom is a circle and your brother is a triangle or something, and they were all mashed together in certain ways when you were born, and you kind of grew into the space that was left over. And you push outward a little and you make a dent in one person's shape here and adapt your own shape to them there. Then you go to college, or you go live with your significant other, and everyone around you has completely different shapes. So you have to go through that process again, of making a dent here and adapting your own shape there, until you fit. And especially with a significant other you're going to want to fit very tightly, but that just requires a lot of give and take from both sides. Harvey is introverted and I'm clingy. So we're kinda bumping into each other until the dent in both of us fits. Next there's gonna be something else... Maybe he likes to have music on all the time in the house while I prefer silence. Maybe one of us is more obsessed with cleanliness than the other. On some fronts he's gonna dent me and I'm gonna have to give. On other fronts he's gonna have to give, and hopefully in the majority of cases we can meet each other halfway. So I believe there is no 'One'. There's you and there's other people you like to various degrees, but if you choose to be with any one person, it's going to require commitment and work from both sides. And if you meet a person who just isn't willing to give where you need them to – or if you are that person yourself with someone else – then you're going to go on searching, you're going to find someone else and you're going to start the process over again, until you find someone with whom you can compromise on where they are going to give and where you are going to give."

We've reached the house right now and are standing still in front of the door. Maru makes no move to go inside.

"Sounds like you've been in a lot of relationships."

"Harvey is my first. I just pay a lot of attention to other people and try to learn from their mistakes. My sister's been a big help."

"You have siblings?"

"One older sister, one younger brother. My brother's a jerk, but my sister is my best friend."

"Man, I wish I had something like that."

"You and Seb don't get along?"

"He basically decided he wanted nothing to do with me before I was even born. It's such a shame, I want a brother but he refuses to behave like one. I know he hates my dad but I never did anything to him, you know?"

"No. I'm sorry, I honestly don't know enough about this situation to give an opinion on this. I sympathize, though, if it's any use to you. Don't you have other friends?"

"The only one I regularly talk to around here besides dad is Harvey. And he's been preoccupied lately." She playfully bumps her shoulder against mine and opens the door.

We meet Demetrius in his lab.

"Oh, great, you brought eggs. This should be more than enough. These have not been in a fridge?"

"Nope."

"Maru, is the incubator ready?"

"I'll go turn it on. It should take about ten minutes."

When Maru gets back, Demetrius shows us the materials he has at the ready: A plastic cup, plastic wrap, two containers that remind me of pill bottles but way bigger, a petri dish... and a baby bottle?

"Alright, let's start. All of this equipment has been sterilized. If we are going to use water then it's going to be..." He trails the end of the sentence, like a kindergarten teacher.

"Distilled water," Maru finishes, looking a little embarrassed about it.

"Very good. And if we're going to touch anything we're going to use..."

"Gloves, dad. Every kid knows that. Don't make Evan wait."

"Alright, well..." Demetrius puts on one tight-looking latex glove and picks up the plastic cup. "We take our cup. Then we take our cling film..." He rips off a small piece, "and we stretch it over a mold."

This turns out to be what the baby bottle is for; he puts the plastic wrap on top of its cap and slowly pulls down on the edges.

"A little help here?"

Maru grabs the free corners of the film and pulls down as well.

"Good, that's enough. Now we put our cling film... in our cup."

He does so, fitting the now bulging center of the wrap neatly inside the opening of the cup so it hangs down about halfway to the bottom inside.

"Now we need... calcium lactate powder, two point four grams..." He picks up small piece of paper with a fold running down the middle and taps it above the plastic wrap so the powder falls out. "And distilled water, maximum four milliliter." This he has ready in a syringe.

"Then we take an egg... And we hope we're going to hit the jackpot immediately... Evan, why don't you do the honors. Crack the egg and pour it out into the plastic. Very gently, we don't want a broken yolk."

I pick up the egg and, feeling two stares on my hands, I try to crack it gently, pour it gently. The yolk doesn't break.

"Great, well done," Demetrius says, and I'm starting to get a kind of life coach vibe or something. Even my parents weren't that encouraging about every move I made.

"And now what we do is, we inspect the yolk closely. We're looking for a blastula. Do you happen to know what a blastula is, Evan?"

"Er... a bunch of cells that turns into an embryo? Has three parts, one for the digestive system, one for the nervous system... and another one? Bones, I guess?"

"Evan, I am impressed. That's the gastrula, the next stage, but that's really good. The blastula is really just a little hollow ball of cells with liquid inside. And on the yolk it should be visible as a light-colored, round spot."

We inspect the cup all around and it's Maru who finds the blastula, though I wouldn't put it beyond Demetrius to have spotted it and not said anything. It looks like a bullseye, one round dot with another circle in the same lighter color around it. I have to commend Maru's eyes, though, it's barely visible.

"This tells us that this egg is fertilized. So if we keep it at the right temperature and humidity... it should start growing." He turns the petri dish around, with the bottom up, and fits it neatly around the opening of the plastic cup.

"Hang on. In there?" I ask, perplexed.

"Absolutely. There is hardly any difference for the chick between an egg shell and a sheet of plastic – all it needs is everything that was originally inside of the egg, access to oxygen, and to be protected from outside influences that might kill it, like bacteria. As long as we provide the right environment, it should be fine."

He pauses to let that sink in, then goes on.

"However, a lot of things can go wrong during development and we can't be sure this one is going to make it, so just to be sure, we're going to make another one. Would you like to do that, Maru?"

I already cracked one egg so I'm perfectly fine leaving that somewhat nerve-wracking experience to someone else this time. It also has a recognizable blastula, so we're just going to leave it at that.

Maru deposits both cups in her incubator.

"So now what?" I ask.

"Now we check on it every day and we should start seeing rapid development after three days. You can come and check in, too. Please do tell us now if you're going to, because these eggs shouldn't be moved too much and shouldn't be taken out of the incubator."

"You know, I figure this might be a very interesting thing for Jas and Vincent to be able to follow, too. So the kids can see. Maybe it would be best to set a specific time where people can come and look. I mean, if you're okay with a bunch of people barging in here every day, that is."

"No, you're right, that sounds great. Showing kids cool experiments is the best way of igniting interest."

"Yeah, Evan, that's a great idea!" Maru adds. "I'll tell Penny tomorrow. She normally finishes class at 2 and then lets the kids play until four, so maybe that's a good time range."

"Let's say 3, then. So they have time to get here and they can still get home to their parents in time, as well."

"Sure, I'll be here at 3," I say. "Seriously, that's amazing, I'd never thought that was possible."

"Have you had a chance to do scientific experiments when you were a kid, Evan?" Demetrius asks.

"A few more obvious ones. Bean in a jar, watching tadpoles grow into frogs..." I say.

"Oh, I've never seen tadpoles transform," Maru wonders.

"The pond in the forest is full of them right now, you can just scoop some up."

"You do need a tank with a working aeration system to prevent killing them," Demetrius cautions.

"Right. They already hatched from their eggs anyway, didn't they?"

"Yeah, I don't think the frogs are laying anymore by now. That's really in the first days of spring."

"Eh, maybe next year."

"I guess I might as well mention right now, were you planning to come check the mushroom boxes?" I ask Demetrius.

"Oh, right, those boxes. So much to think about these days. It's a busy season. But I'll pass by sometime this week."

"Perfect."

"How are the bees doing?"

"You know what, I'll show you when you come over. Right now I'm going to get back to town, there's still a few things I'd like to do."

"Of course. We'll see you tomorrow."

I go right back to the clinic. Harvey is sitting on his bed reading a medical magazine. His hair has that look it gets when it has already dried after it's been wet but he hasn't combed it yet – he's showered. When I come in and start taking off my shoes, he looks up and I can see annoyance on his face.

"Evan. I was this close to going to the farm today, I thought you were sick again."

He's a lot tenser than I expected.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't... aware. You were annoyed with me spending so much time here..."

Harvey puts his magazine down and comes over.

"It's been three days. There's a middle ground, for Yoba's sake. You don't have to prove to me just how much I miss you when you're not here."

"I wasn't... that's not... Okay." I take a mental step back and take a breath. "Then tell me how long."

"What?"

"You want time for yourself, but this is too much time. So how much? Is one day enough? Two? Or did you only start missing me today?"

"Evan, that's not the point."

"Then what is?"

Harvey just stares at me like he's wondering why he even still tries. I've seen that one on both my mom and my sister. And I'm kinda hoping we can work through this quickly so I don't have to come in to this kind of reception again. I know it's normal for there to be tension, adapting to each other and such, but it should be possible for him to tell me in a calm, reasonable way that I've overshot.

I sit down.

"Please, Harvey." I gesture at the other chair, his chair, across from me at the table. He takes a while but then follows my example.

"Thank you. Harvey, I love you. There is nothing more important to me right now than you and our relationship. You know that, right?"

He sighs.

"Yes, I do know."

"And I already told you that I want to do what it takes to make it work. But I'm afraid I also need you to accommodate me a little here. It has happened twice now that you were annoyed at me even before you saw me that day, that you have started taking stabs at me out of the blue, and got angry with me for something I could not have known. I tried to give you space. It seems I overshot. But could you... tell me that... calmly? I will listen. You don't need to get angry to get me to pay attention. Please... please don't get angry before I know what you're angry about. You said that you are introverted, that you need 'me time'. But if I understand this well, right now, you're upset because I stayed away too long and you missed me. Is that correct?"

"You don't have to talk to me like a child."

"I'm talking like I am the child. Because I kinda feel like one with so much to learn. I want things to be clear for me so I won't make this same mistake again. So please humor me and explain this to me like I'm a child."

"It's not about you being here every day," he starts. "It's first off that you were spending so much time here that I had no time between finishing work and hanging out with you. And no time after you left and before I went to bed."

"Okay. So do you want to see me every day, but I should give you a few hours after work? Or can I be here for longer but only every other day?"

"Evan, I don't know. I'm not about to write this down in an hourly planner. Just... at least show your face once every other day, minimum. I get worried about that habit of yours of getting yourself sliced up in that mine."

"I don't need to go into the mine anymore," I say soothingly. "I have enough money to buy any metal I need now. I have at least one of every gemstone or mineral I might need for anything and I have a crystalarium so I can just make more. What else?"

"What?"

"You said 'first off'. So there's a second?"

"Never mind," he sighs.

"I can't 'never mind' something that's likely to come back to bite me in the ass at a later date. I hate to see you angry with me."

"No, it's nothing. Honestly."

"Then can I kiss you? I've missed you too."

"Yeah."

I go around the table and Harvey stands up. I can't stand the idea of another chaste peck like last time; I've missed him. I make it last. But it's no more than a kiss unless he gives a sign that he wants more. I told him he would only need to tell me once. And he doesn't even touch me – I don't feel his hands anywhere – so in the end I break away.

"I figured I'd bring something of my own to read for once. Went to the library yesterday," I tell him, going back to my chair to get it out of my backpack which I dropped next to the table. "Or would you prefer to watch tv, or...?" I let the sentence die out. I unzip my backpack and look up. Harvey is staring at me. Something's wrong again.

I go over, hoping the sitting down thing might not be necessary this time.

"Harvey? What's wrong? What do you want?"

"Just now that I thought you were paying attention..." He averts his face.

This must be about that kiss. What, now he does want sex? It can hardly be anything else.

"Harvey." I take both his hands in mine – at least he doesn't pull away. "I am paying attention. You told me that I want sex too frequently and that you want me to kiss you and hug you without any sexual intentions, at least part of the time. So I kissed you and I was waiting for a sign that you wanted more. You didn't touch me, you didn't take any kind of initiative. You've never straight-up stopped me in any way, you never resist, so I'm not taking 'not resisting' as a sign. You're not giving me any orders. I figured you didn't want anything. So what did I miss?"

He lets out another sigh.

"Alright. It's alright, I understand," he says. "I can't... expect you to interpret the same sign differently when it has a different meaning in my mind. That would be unfair."

He puts his hands on my hips and kisses me, before I am well and aware of what's going on. As soon as my brain catches up, I respond in kind. He slowly moves backward, toward the bed, and positions me with my back toward it while we're making out. Before he can push me down, I break away.

"Hang on. Just a sec."

I run over to my backpack, uncomfortable in my now too-tight jeans, grab a new bottle of truffle oil and show it to him. I immediately take it to the cupboard to put the new one in and grab the old one – gotta finish what's open first. There's barely more than a couple of drops left in there.

"Well. In that case."

I just bring both bottles along to the bed and set them on the empty spot in the bookshelf where the truffle oil generally ends up. I give him another kiss.

"I want to do this now. Let me do this?"

"You already did it last time."

"Just this time. I've been dreaming about this. Literally."

"Alright."

"Lie down. Please."

He does. I get on my knees next to him, unzip his jacket slowly, and bend down to kiss the hollow of his throat, then the spot where I can feel his pulse. I start unbuttoning his shirt and press my lips to his shoulder, sweep them across his clavicle, and pepper kisses all over his chest and stomach before latching on to one of his nipples. I feel his hand bury itself in my hair.

On impulse, I move back over to his mouth to kiss him.

"Do you like it when I make noise while I'm riding you?"

"Yes. It's quite encouraging." He seems to be a little shy talking about it.

"You're always very quiet."

"Right. I catch your drift. I'm afraid I learned to make no noise."

"Me too. I don't know if you remember my brother and his ear on the wall – he used to regularly make comments implying that he'd heard my parents. On the other side of the hallway. Now, you don't have to do anything that doesn't come naturally, but... you know. I also find it encouraging to hear some noise."

"Alright."

"No pressure. It took me a while to loosen up too."

"I would never have suspected."

"That means I'm doing it well," I smirk, and move back down his body, leaving sloppy kisses all over him until I reach his pants. I give him a lick on his stomach and then blow on it from a bit of a distance while I start unbuckling his belt. I see him tense a bit and goosebumps spread over his skin. I do it again and he shivers.

"You're not cold, are you?" I'm not really in touch with the physical temperature in the room – My whole body feels like it's glowing, radiating heat.

"A little."

"Well, we can't have that."

I straddle him and lay down on top of him, pulling the blankets over the both of us as I go, holding my own weight up on my elbows. I let one hand roam all over his body while I kiss him slowly, grinding my hips into his. At first I feel little to no response from him, and he does indeed feel cool to the touch. With a little bit of persuasion, I can feel him getting warmer and something starts pushing back against me down below.

I crawl backward, making sure the blanket stays on top of him, and start licking his cock on all sides. He hums softly. I kiss his stomach and slide my lips around him, as far as I can manage in one go.

"Turn around," he says then.

"What?"

"Your ass over here."

That's some unexpectedly crude language, but it's effective. I try to crawl around without dropping the blanket.

"Leave the blanket, I'm not cold anymore."

That makes things a whole lot easier. I go on sucking him off from the other side. It's a bit more complicated like this – normally I have to be careful with my bottom teeth, now it's the top ones, and my gag reflex flares up faster this way. But then, practice makes perfect.

In the meantime he starts rubbing my backside and thighs; first with my pants on, then he pulls them down, getting ever closer to my anus. He takes his hands off me for a couple of seconds and then probes me slowly with one wet finger.

In the beginning it's not that difficult to keep my focus, but then Harvey starts slowly pumping my dick with his free hand. When he's got me relaxed enough that I can take two fingers easily, he starts rubbing my prostate, and my rhythm starts faltering.

"Slow down, Evan," Harvey tells me, sounding somewhat strained. In response, I pop off of him and go back to just licking him, one stroke at a time.

"Move it along, I can take three."

"You want three? Have three," he answers, but still goes very slowly with it – and if I have to be honest, that's probably for the best, but I just want him inside me. He's still pumping my dick too, though not very fast, and together with that the feeling of the burn is more pleasurable than painful.

"Ohh, Harvey, that's good. Lemme turn around."

"I'm not sure you're not going to regret that."

"Gotta find the limits before you can know where they are."

I get rid of my clothes and straddle him, sink down on him faster than ever, seeking more of that burn. Then I feel something split in two places and I freeze.

"Woah."

"You went too fast, didn't you." Harvey's face is more amused than I would have expected.

"I... think so."

"Did you think soreness would be the worst of it?"

"I mean... by this point stuff shouldn't be tearing anymore."

"You wanted to find the limits. Come here."

Harvey grabs me by the shoulders and pulls my upper body down toward him, then turns the both of us over, putting me on my back.

"Now, this is going to stop hurting once we get into it. But you're going to feel it for the next two days when you poop. Do you want to go on?"

"Yeah."

He peels off his jacket and shirt and kicks his pants off as well before hoisting my legs up against his shoulders.

"And it honestly didn't hurt before you reached that point?"

"I liked it." There's no point being bashful about it right now. I mean, this is new for me – it never turned me on to see someone else be hurt in videos – but I'm a sub and we both know it. It doesn't strike me as that much stranger.

"You like it?"

"The burn, yeah. Not the tearing stuff. It's kinda pricking right now. But if you say that's gonna go away, go for it."

He gets more truffle oil before starting to push back into me.

"Tell me when."

He goes very slowly, and I react at the moment I feel those two tears open up again.

"There."

"Okay."

He starts moving back and forth, first only up to that same point and then slowly further. It doesn't hurt that bad, and before I know it he bottoms out, I have no more new tears and I can't feel the old ones anymore.

"I trust you to let me know if anything is wrong," he says pointedly, panting slightly.

"I wanna get back on top," I answer. He shakes his head.

"Next time. Right now, you're going to stay where you are and take it."

"Hmm, I love it when you talk like that."

He keeps on thrusting into me, speeding up slowly, and when I start getting close he drops my legs to his sides. With one hand on my hip and the other masturbating me, he takes me to the top. He comes only two thrusts after me.

We take a few minutes to catch our breaths.

"Was there anything else you want to let me know that you like?" He asks then, casually.

"I'd like you to restrain me. Hold me down, tie me up, that kind of thing. Pull my hair."

"Noted."

"You?"

"Not really."

"You seemed uncharacteristically amused when I hurt myself."

"It was your own fault. I warned you."

"Could've been slightly more specific."

"I might have if I'd been aware you liked pain. When were you going to tell me?"

"I found out just now."

"Oh. Well. I'm going to get up... Please try not to get anything on the bed..."

We both showered and then lay down in bed to cuddle.

"So what was that thing Maru was talking about this afternoon, with the eggs? Where did you go?"

"Oh, Demetrius had this really cool experiment to grow a chick outside of the egg shell."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, that was pretty much what I said. He has this setup with a plastic cup and clinging wrap. You hang the clinging wrap inside the cup and then break an egg in it. He says that if the egg is fertilized, and you don't break the yolk, it should go on developing like nothing happened. Maru made an incubator for it and we made two, just in case one dies. She's going to tell Penny too, so she can bring in Jas and Vincent every day to see their development."

"That sounds very interesting."

"I'm sure they'll let you have a look, if you ask. I believe there's going to be something of a 'visiting hour' between 3 and 4. Because that's when school's out, and they shouldn't be moved too much."

"Maybe I will."

Silence falls for a few minutes and I just enjoy the moment, but my stomach very slowly starts twisting up with worry.

"Do you want me to leave?" I ask finally. "So you have some time to yourself before going to bed?"

"Not today," Harvey sighs. "I think I'll be fine if you come over after six. Don't stay away for more than one day or I will come looking for you." He takes another deep breath and slowly lets it out. "And tell me before you go to that mine."

"I'm not going to the mine anymore."

"At all?"

"I don't need anything from there anymore."

"That's a relief."

"But if I ever do go in there again for any reason, I'll be sure to let you know."

"Good."