Slices of Life and Family
Chapter 42
-The Septuplets?
Ford jolted up with a worried look. "Oh I am NOT ready for this-" He fumbled around, trying to find his glasses. "This is happening much faster than what I've read-" then again, alien birth. Hell if he knew how similar it would be to a human one-
"Well, it feels like everything is twisting inside-" Yun said with gritted teeth. So much for avoiding child birthing pain. Her body was betraying her by wanting to do the birth itself! But like hell she was!
"Uurgghhh! Ford!" She groaned. "It'll be alright, come on, weren't you supposed to… um… just… phase them through your stomach?" Ford carefully helped her sit up.
"I can't concentrate with this uncomfortable feeling!" She shrieked and rubbed her belly. Ford winced and rubbed her shoulders. "Come on, Yun, I know you can! You gotta phase them out so we can see our kids!" Ford cheered on her as Yun gasped for air.
"D-did you just say 'our'-" Yun was cut off by another contraction making her cry out and curl over herself.
"I-I ca-can't-" Yun sobbed, unused to this sort of internal agony. Ford missed what she was about to ask, too busy rubbing her back. "Yes you can. I know you can do this."
"Ngh… ah!" Yun tried to focus, but she couldn't think clearly enough to extract her children. "Ffffuck!" She screamed, writhing on the bed, which was quickly getting soaked as her water broke in a rush of black blood and… some kind of translucent, inky liquid? Ford stared at it 'Gross' he thought plainly, before snapping out of his distraction at the next cry of pain.
"I-I don't know how to help you!" Ford grimaced. "Yun, this depends on you, you need to push or I-I will have to c-cut you open or-" Ford grimaced. He really didn't want to have to do that.
Yun gasped for air in quick, short bursts. "Fucking-" She pressed one of her hands to her belly. It began to glow as she screamed, trying to focus. Ford gasped as her belly became slightly translucent. He could see the babies inside, a tangle of limbs all wiggling, kicking and-
He suddenly felt faint and blood drained from his face. He staggered back and leaned against the wall at the horrifying sight.
"Take them OUT!" Yun screamed, lying on her side. She didn't trust herself to try pulling the babies out. But this way, Ford could just reach inside her and-
"M-me?!" Ford felt dizzy, staring at the tiny (so small, how could someone be that small) almost newborns. He could see full heads of hair, tiny fingers and toes-
Some of them had brown hair, they were wiggling, struggling-
"FORD!" Yun roared.
"Don't I need GLOVES?!" Ford wailed. Oh, why hadn't he prepared anything before this? His gloves and mask were downstairs- "I- I'm taking you to the Center! They must know how to-"
"FOOOORD!" Yun screamed again, sobbing as the lights began to flicker. The scientist glanced up and winced. "This is so unsanitary I'm sorry-"
"YOU WASHED YOUR HANDS BEFORE BED!" Yun shrieked. "I CAN CLEAN THIS SHIT UP LATER! JUST TAKE THEM THE FUCK OUT!"
Well, with that said, Ford reached forward, gagging as he looked away and his hands sank through her belly (oh it felt so weird!) He grabbed a hold of one of the babies, nearly dropping them because of how slippery it was. He pulled the baby out with a sickening 'squelsh' sound and stared at the umbilical cord attached to them. The other end of the cord went back into Yun's belly, probably attached to her placenta, and the rest of the children.
The newborn (his firstborn?!) coughed out fluids before heaving in a breath and screaming, protesting how cold it was. No no no! Put them back! It was nice in there!
Ford just held the screaming baby, staring at them. A baby- his baby-
"FORD!" Yun screamed.
Oh right! Ford shook his head and awkwardly placed his firstborn down on the blankets. Luckily his bed was big. Yun had expanded it when she started sharing it with him. He ran towards his desk and looked for alcohol and scissors. Terrified and faced with a very disturbing sight, the man bravely cut the cord and wrapped the dark skinned baby with a loose blanket, wiping the black slimy fluid off their face. The terrified newborn kept sobbing and Ford gently handed him to Yun. She weakly twitched her hands and gritted her teeth, unable to really move, but it was good enough for now.
Ok. One down. Six more to go!
He reached in, shuddering at the slimy feeling as his hands passed through intangible skin, muscles and her other organs, to reach the womb, and extracted the 2nd child. Yun's sleeping clothes were just a T-shirt and underwear, so at least he didn't need to undress her.
"We should be doing this with a professional…" he mumbled, but the only answer he got was a loud pained groan and the lights flickering.
Ford didn't have time to fully appreciate his 2nd child before he had to put them down and get the next one. He was trying very hard not to throw up. Oh, he was really dizzy, and nauseous. At least cleaning the babies helped a little to make him smile. With their little noses free from fluids, they could cry, telling everyone they were here and ready.
Three… four… five…
Yun's cries of pain lessened as Ford extracted the children, she was even able to reach out her hands to caress the ones closest to her. They were still screaming and crying. "Shh… it's ok… I know, the world sucks, doesn't it?" she coughed, throat sore from screaming. "But I'm here. And I won't let anything hurt you…" she was feeling tired. A little light headed, perhaps from the blood loss. Erm… could her vessel die from this? That would fucking suck...
Six… seve-
Ford's eyes widened.
Eight?
He blinked, unsure if he was seeing right, or if his dizziness was making him see double.
There were two heads, four arms and… two legs.
"Y-Yun-" Ford shuddered. He held the tiny baby in shock. Yun felt much more relieved and her belly had started going down in size. Of course, that was because the babies were out, and she was leaking black fluids everywhere-
"Gimme the last one." Yun panted, unable to see the child from where she was laying on a pillow.
"It's...it's two last ones..." Ford suddenly realized the baby...babies weren't breathing immediately like the others. A painful feeling knotted in his chest. No . He cleaned their noses and opened their small toothless mouths, but nothing.
A sudden dread fell over him. But he heard the heartbeats. They'd been healthy. Yun could tell they were all alive and healthy and- Why haven't they seen this?! Were they ok?! Were-were they...No. Please. This was his fault, for taking too long, for keeping this to himself, for thinking he could handle this on his own- for not knowing how to do this-
"Please…" Ford whispered aloud without realizing it. He pressed one of their wrists with two fingers and tapped their little baby chest rhythmically. Get the heart pumping- shit- he learned CPR- he did! But he couldn't remember what all the steps were-
"Please please pleasepleaseplease-" Ford's vision was turning blurry, but it was from the stinging in his eyes as he began to cry. Yun couldn't look up but she knew something was wrong. "F-Ford?"
Ford laid the newborn on the bed and sobbed. Which one was he supposed to do first?! He- He didn't even know if they shared a heart o-or lungs or- "Pleasepleasepleaseplease-"
And then Ford felt it.
A tiny little pulse.
And then the little mouths gasped for air.
And the sound of crying was the most beautiful thing Ford had ever heard in his life. He screamed out a relieved wail of his own and cradled the little babies to his chest. The two kept sobbing and taking their first breaths in the world.
"Oh god...you're ok…" he lowered his face, until it was close to the twins. "You're ok. You're going to be ok-" He nuzzled their little foreheads with his own, feeling the wet little tuffs of brown hair they had.
"Yun… they-they're fine...the twins are fine." Ford smiled, not taking his eyes off the newborns.
By this point, Yun managed to push herself up. Her blue eyes caught sight of the bab(ies) in Ford's arms and she gasped. So that was why she only sensed seven Souls inside her belly. But now, up close and separated from the others, she could feel a faint sense of… some sort of split, but… not exactly two Souls. It was like… two souls nearly fused together within one body? The harder she Looked, the more easily she could tell they were two, they were simply so close together, and so similar in frequency that she had trouble telling them apart from one another.
(Well, Ammy was a compound Soul made from millions of Souls, so a compound Soul of just two wasn't really all that strange by comparison-)
Ford's shirt was all covered in transparent and black fluids but he still stared at the tiniest babies he had ever seen, gentle with their heads. "Hello…" He looked around for a free blanket, but finding none, he grabbed his sweater and wrapped it around them. Didn't want them to freeze after all.
"I wanna hold them." Yun had managed to pull her babies close to her body, her four arms around their tiny forms. Ford pursed his lips before handing her the twins.
It was ok...He wasn't the father...And Yun deserved this more. They were her kids after all- He stepped back, suddenly feeling cold and out of place.
He looked around for his phone. 5am. Hopefully they didn't wake up baby Maria with all this...He glanced at the bed and saw Yun holding two of the babies to herself.
"Come on, drink up…" Yun placed two of her babies on her chest. "No seriously, please drink it." she deadpanned. "I magicked them to make more milk and it's really heavy and uncomfortable. So you better empty them."
The newborns wiggled weakly, trying to find the promised milk. "Come on. You need to develop your searching skills!" Yun complained fondly. Ford chuckled and yawned.
He sat down on his couch, to allow Yun to have all the room she wanted with the babies on the bed, and his head started bobbling.
"Ugh… two boobs just ain't gonna cut it, huh?" Yun grumbled once she finally got two of the kids situated. The others were complaining that they didn't get to drink too. "Well, since you're essentially a litter of kittens…" Yun concentrated and shape changed a little of her vessel. She placed the babies onto herself and winced. "Oh that feels so weird." she sprouted a few more arms to hold them all, paying special attention to the youngest, as they were having trouble drinking.
Ford passed out on the couch, so as long as he didn't see it, he'd be fine, she wanted to prevent his heart attacks.
Yun shook her head when she noticed Ford was completely passed out. It was ok, he deserved to sleep. He didn't have to help out any more than he already did for her...She just wished she knew for sure just HOW involved he wanted to be with her children. He was the one who said 'our' but then he just fell asleep without a care in the world. Not knowing was irritating.
It was almost morning when Yun managed to get them all fed and sleeping soundly.
"Fuck. Didn't know breastfeeding took fucking FOREVER!" Yun groaned under her breath. She was exhausted. And sore. And gross and sticky and-
Her eyes welled up with tears as silence settled in the room.
...And so lonely...
"Of course you all fall asleep without me." Yun muttered. "That's fine. You've all had a long night too, haven't you? What with being here, out in the cold, scary world." she told them. "But you'll be ok. I'm going to take care of you. I won't let anything hurt you. I won't let you go hungry. I won't let anything bad happen to you."
She pulled them closer to herself, feeling their little heartbeats and hearing their soft breathing.
And Yun continued crying, too overwhelmed with emotions about this whole situation.
She had babies again. Hershershers- and she was going to cherish them. Even if she personally felt kinda shit right now.
Soos was rocking Maria in his arms as Melody prepared coffee for everyone. They had a great night's sleep! Their daughter slept all night!
"Good morning, Ford!" Melody smiled. "I'm making coffee, want some?" She teased.
Ford nodded and yawned. "Thank you, yes. Good morning Soos. Abuelita. Maria..." he greeted as he moved to the cabinets to make Yun breakfast. Melody laughed every time he greeted the baby so formally.
"How's Yun, dude?" Soos asked as he cuddled his daughter.
"Oh, she's doing fine, I think. All the babies were born at dawn though and we're all quite exhausted."
""WHAT?"" "Dude!" The couple screamed and Maria fussed. Why were mommy and daddy being so loud?
"What?"
"The babies were all born?! And you didn't take her to the hospital? You could have asked for help!" Melody gasped.
"I… didn't really have time. I doubt it would have helped. Yun was having trouble with her powers, so I had to act fast before…" he paused. What would have happened if she lost control of all her powers? Especially at the hospital? The idea was rather scary to consider. At least here, she was under a unicorn barrier (not that it seemed to stop her powers if she didn't let it.) "Anyway the babies were all born safely. Yun's exhausted. I need to get some baby bottles set up to feed them all, and feed Yun."
"We can help you with feeding them." Melody volunteered. Ford smiled. "That would be very kind of you, thank you."
"Maria can also meet her new little friends!" Maria hid her head on Soos' chubby chest. No. Maria nothing. She was tired. She just wanted breakfast and then lie down.
Ford quickly prepared breakfast (chugging down a mug of coffee as he went) and gathered it together in a large tray. "Can you fill a few of the bottles with baby formula for me while I bring this upstairs?" he asked. Soos nodded. "Of course, dude." Ford grinned at him and went to the room with the food. Yun didn't want to sit up, too tired, so Ford had to maneuver her up in a sitting position. "Come on! Be a good billion year old demon!"
Yun groaned, her breasts were aching. She literally couldn't sleep a second before one of the kids was demanding food! She was too exhausted to move or even feel the babies still latched on, suckling away hungrily. Like a mother cat with a whole litter pressed to her side. But she could hear them, "Looks like you guys inherited my appetite." she grumbled. "Well, while they're eating, you have to eat too." Ford didn't even blink at her state of undress.
"Thanks Fordsie…" She grabbed the sandwich with yet another set of arms and nibbled on it. Ford suddenly realized that all the newborns were still wrapped in the blankets (though some were falling off now), and hadn't been given clothes. The room temperature was quite high (as was Yun's skin), but still, not adequate newborn handling.
"...The kids need clothes." Ford felt a little sheepish telling her. She looked too tired to even move her arms beyond just holding the children and her food.
"I got it, don't worry." Ford grabbed one twitching newborn. The first one. He knew because he had a hand with 5 fingers and the other with 6.
"That one's pink." Yun murmured sleepily, chewing on her sandwich. She could 'feel' it. Their color was pink. Just as her own was yellow.
She could 'feel' all their colors.
Ford rolled his eyes, thinking she meant what color she wanted to have this one wear . He grabbed a diaper from the bag, read the instructions carefully, studied the garment, and finally put it on the baby. "Well, this one's a boy." He told Yun, who did not know yet.
"Hooray…"
Ford put the pink onesie on him (as he thought Yun wanted) and grinned. He looked a lot like Yun, dark skin and a little tuft of blond hair, but he had brown eyes. "This one's the first. Our firstborn."
"Our~?" Yun purred, adjusting her position and moving her arms to get the babies into better positions. 'Pink' was already protesting being away from food for so long.
"Wait!" Ford suddenly gasped before he reached over to get his journal from the bedside table. "This is not an experiment! Just me registering everything about them because you'll need to fill birth certificates at some point!" He wrote down the date and how many there were. "I want to keep track of what order they were 'born' and get them weighed and registered- things we're supposed to do when babies are born-"
"And who's name are we listing for the parents?" Yun drawled, fluttering her eyelashes at him, which he didn't notice as he lifted 'pink' to mark down his general description.
He looked among the crowd of babies for the second one. "This one was second. I think 'Pink' and him are twins, or at the very least, very genetically close." Both looked incredibly similar, with dark skin and blond hair. Ford wondered how the punnett squares worked for their genetics.
Ford took him to the couch to give the baby a diaper and onesie. "Purple!" Yun called out, and Ford stopped as he was wrapping it around the baby. "I...It's a boy...girl...birl goy…" He muttered, like a dummy. Yun blinked and rolled her eyes. "Intersex?" Yun deadpanned.
"Yeah." Ford said stupidly.
"That's cool." Yun took another bite of her sandwich.
"...but… what do I write down on my notes?" Ford asked.
"Intersex." Yun deadpanned again. "Look, my Bill and William forms are hermaphrodites. It's pretty common for a Shape to be, what you human's call, intersex."
"Yeah, but they're not Shapes. And humans don't have this kind of…" Ford frowned and trailed off.
"Screw the incorrect binary system. They're not computer programs! If they're intersexed, then they're intersexed." Yun growled. "And there are plenty of humans who ARE born intersexed! It's perfectly natural! There's nothing wrong with being intersex!" Ford flinched, not realizing she felt this strongly about the subject. "...alright…"
The third baby he also knew well. Their cheek had a cute birthmark with 6 little spots (reminded him of Miz's moles). They had a light shade of brown hair (almost looked yellow-ish in certain lights) and lighter skin. When the baby glared at him for pulling them away from their food, he saw brown eyes. "Hello...you...other intersex baby." he frowned. Was it normal for so many abnormal- wait, what was he thinking, of COURSE they are abnormal babies. Yun was a goddamn alien. And they were Shape shards given human blood and then incubated inside the womb of… whatever species Yun was. The fact that they turned out looking mostly human was already a frickin' miracle. No extra arms for one thing (though extra heads was… another issue…)
He could swear he thought this one was a girl when he cleaned them up.
"Green is intersex too? Wow. We're beating a lot of records!" Yun grinned, unfazed.
Ford sighed and searched for a green onesie. "I guess color coding makes sense until we figure out some names."
"I told ya Fordsie~ I've already got names picked out. And they even match their colors!" Yun laughed. "I mean, the exact shade of the colors are off, but they're close enough to count."
"Whatever." he got the fourth one, now this one was a girl. "Finally." He grinned but started to notice something was wrong. Like...She didn't fit with the rest. Her skin was much lighter than the others, but different...and with her little tuff of straight dark brown (nearly black) hair and slanted eyes...
"She… looks…" he frowned. "She looks like... not Yun."
Yun blinked. "Uh…" she sat up a bit more to Look. "Oh, she takes after Xin." she shrugged, not seeing the issue here.
"How the FUCK does she take after Xin?"
"Well, you know how we were picking up the shards and I was Xin at the time, and I grabbed one, and almost tried to put that one inside me? That's her. Red." she added. "Looks like the shard absorbed enough of Xin's particular Weirdness to…" she blinked. "...to be a dragon as opposed to a deva like the others."
Ford blinked. He barely remembered the details of that chaotic day… "This is horrible, utterly horrible!" He felt her 5 fingered hands grab one of his fingers. "How are we supposed to explain why you gave birth to Xin's kid?!"
"To Xin and your kid." Yun corrected. "Well, people think I'm only having seven kids, so 'red' over there is just Xin's kid with you, who coincidentally was born on the same day." she shrugged.
Ford mechanically changed 'Red' as he panicked. "No...No, no...I can't have that happening. People already think these kids are mine!"
"...And...they ARE yours…" Yun whispered, looking away.
"Can you change her appearance?" He smiled nervously. Yun raised an eyebrow. "But I thought I wasn't supposed to go about changing people's appearances and DNA without their permission~" she sing-songed.
"Yun!" Ford wailed. Yun shook her head. "No. She's a dragon, and she's Xin's and your kid. I ain't fucking with that."
Ford grumbled. A problem for later.
The next baby was also a girl, "Turquoise!" She had even lighter hair than 'green', lighter skin and heterochromatic eyes, one blue and one brown. That made him curious. He thought Zoe's eyes were a genetic mishap, but apparently someone somewhere in time in their family, someone must have had a gene for that because for it to repeat twice…
And she had 6 fingers. He couldn't help but grin a little bit at that. "Well, sorry for the polydactyl, 'Turquoise', but you'll find it useful for many activities."
The following one was a little boy, "Blue! Kinda weird to say it, it's more of a Navy, and I don't want to get him mixed up with my brother, er… navy? Dark blue? Wait no, that makes it sound like he's the evil one or something..." Yun rambled. Ford chuckled as he gave 'navy' a check up. No problem with him. His hair did have a natural shift in color from brown to blond. Funny. Though, it reminded him of how Yun's hair was half black and half blonde, so perhaps that was its own gene...
And lastly~~The little twin girls.
"Yellow…" Yun whispered. "Different shade from each other, one's more orangish…"
Ford sent Yun a perplexed look. "So...What...now?" One of them, the one with blue eyes sneezed as the brown eyed baby clumsily rubbed her eye with a tiny fist.
"Well, now you need to give them back to me. They're still hungry." Yun pouted, reaching for her babies.
"I'll...try to fit two onesies on them." He ignored Yun's pleas to give her the babies. "I can modify the onesie to fit." Yun said, waving her hand and doing so.
Ford was very curious and worried about the twins. They almost didn't breathe back then and he wasn't sure if they were really ok or not. "...are they going to be alright?" he asked.
Yun blinked. "I'll keep a close eye on them." they were weaker than their siblings, that was a little worrying.
Ford was going to hand over the baby when they heard a knock on the door. "Oh, that's Melody and Soos. They're bringing more food. And Maria, to meet her new friends."
"Yay!" Yun smiled.
To no one's surprise, Soos and Melody were SHOOK. The newborns were incredibly tiny, super tiny, and very colorful. Melody sent 'yellow' a worried frown. "So… do they need to see a doctor?"
"Fordsie's technically a doctor." Yun sighed. "...I'm not that kind of doctor." "You should be then! Like Kari wanted!" Yun joked, sending a shrug at the couple.
"But it's too dangerous to be out and about right now, anyway." Yun finished.
"They're all so cuteeee!" Soos squealed. "Did you tell everyone, dude?!" Maria stared at the twisting little things on the bed and blinked. She wanted to eat breakfast, she didn't really care about getting to know what those things were. They were taking mommy and daddy's attention away~!
"Not yet. Should be doing that later today." Followed by a Zumm meeting to show off the babies.
"So, are you giving Seb your firstborn dude? He's been talking to me like, a lot about that." Soos asked, very confused.
"Hold on, hold on…I'm doing what?" Maybe the meeting should be like, NOW.
-.-
"WHICH ONE IS MINE?!" Seb asked as soon as his camera appeared.
Yun held said debated over firstborn up to the camera and giggled. She had Looked to see the context behind this, and this was hilarious. "Not giving you my kid though, but you can be his godfather."
"Why is uncle Seb trying to get the baby?" Dipper asked, completely lost.
"No, Yun, Ford owes me! I want that baby!" He was so adorable in his pink onesie and his wittle fwuffy hair! Ahhhh! (Zach and Zoe were staring deadpanned at their dad. "Dad we are right here?" "Yes yes." Seb patted their heads.)
"His hands are just like mine!" Seb gasped, seeing the five and six fingers, "He's destined to be my baby!" (Wanda groaned, burying her face in her hands. "Seb…")
"I seriously don't know why I owe you Pink." Ford groaned as well.
"Did you name the baby Pink?" Shermie asked as Seb explained.
"You were going to fall to your death. I said my first word, before you two by the way, and warned mom about your possible demise. Then I told you that you owed me and you replied by grabbing Stan's pacifier from his mouth and putting it in yours."
""Eewwww!"" Mabel, Diego and Zach whined.
Ford stared. "I was a frickin' baby! That doesn't mean I owe you my firstborn!" he waved his hand, "I mean, by that logic, Shermie owes you Mabel!"
"Sweet! I get Mabel too?!" Sebastian laughed. ("No you don't!" Shermie screamed.)
"Depends. Do I get cute clothes with the adoption?" Mabel asked.
"But you're wrong. I never told Shermie he owed me. I told you instead so pay up! "
"The baby isn't named Pink." Yun responded to Shermie. "But his color is pink. I have actual names for them, of course." she said proudly. She waved her hand and the octuplets all squealed as they were surrounded by the blue energy of her powers, floating into the air and in front of the camera. Yun arranged them in a row and giggled as she ruffled their hair. She pointed to 'pink', "This little guy here is Invidia." she introduced.
Ford blinked. "Huh?"
Yun moved to point at the next one, purple. "This is Luxuria."
Ford narrowed his eyes. "Yun, what are you naming them-"
She pointed at the green one, "This is Ira."
"Why do they all end in 'a'?" Stan asked.
A point at the red one, "Gula."
"Oh my Ax, did you seriously-" Ford groaned into his hands as he finally understood what theme Yun went with.
The turquoise one, "Acedia."
"Why are they all Latin?" Shermie blinked.
The dark blue one, "Avaritia."
"Wait, hang on, are those…" Dipper narrowed his eyes.
"No! Nononono!" Ford waved his hands. He stood up and disappeared from the camera.
"Finally~ the twins! I wasn't expecting to have more than seven, but it works out actually." Yun cuddled the conjoined twins. "This is Superbia and Vanagloria!"
"Did you seriously-" Seb frowned.
Ford came back with a paper. "I've got the actual names. She's not naming our kids after the seven deadly sins."
Seb grinned like a little shit as Shermie gasped. "Ford no! Let Yun name them however she wants!" Seb, as co-host, muted him, for being a bitch. "They're her kids after all~" Shermie wrote in the chat. He and Seb glared at each other. A thousand bucks was riding on this bet after all.
Ford grabbed "Invidia', or Pink. "He's Isaac." Ford said stubbornly. Yun pursed her lips playfully.
Purple/Luxuria, "Florence."
Green/Ira, "Amelia."
Red/Gula, "Marie"
Turquoise/Acedia, "Elizabeth."
Blue/Avaritia, "Nicholas."
Yellow/Vanagloria-Superbia, "Jane and Emmy." Ford concluded with a huff.
Kari counted off some numbers and her eyes widened. "Do you mean, you have 5 girls…?" She whispered.
"Well, technically, we don't know for sure yet. A couple of them are in-intersexed." Ford stuttered. "But for one of them I have a feeling."
"I have more granddaughters!" Kari squealed, hugging Carla and shaking her.
"No mom, you don't cuz they're not Ford's kids! He didn't claim them!" Shermie spoke again. "Who unmuted him?!" Seb complained. Yun shrugged. "Well, even so. My names take priority. They're my kids. And I get to name them. They can have those boring names as their middle names though."
"They're not boring!" Ford whined. "I'm naming them after the great minds in SCIENCE!"
"""NEEEEEERD!""" Sebastian, Shermie and Stan all chorused.
Mabel laughed as Max frowned. Why were they making fun of Dr. Pines? But he was right! He was a scientist so it made sense he wanted to honour them by naming his pups after them!
Ford pouted as Yun cackled so hard she fell off the couch. The octuplets whined. They were hungry already. "Oh, alright you widdle ones." Yun floated them all into her arms and cradled them fondly. "Guess it's time to feed you all." and then she lifted up her shirt with no hesitation. Just a little so they could eat.
But of course the Pines boys decided to be dramatic about it. Stan and Shermie screamed, covering their eyes. "Dammit Yun! Warn us first!"
Mabel was once again laughing so hard she was snorting. Dipper and Max shared the same disturbed but impressed look. Max leaned forward to the screen, green eyes wide and mesmerized, "What are they doing-" Seb frowned and covered his eyes. "Hold it there, boy!"
Mabel pouted. Max was really curious about these kinds of things, wasn't he?
The entire Zumm chat was screaming.
Ford massaged his temples and turned the laptop away, now only facing him. Yun shrugged, sprouting more arms to maneuver the babies to their feeding spots. "I got eight mouths to feed. I grew more."
Max gasped. "So, can humans grow more if they have more than two pups?" He asked, confused.
"No! Humans can't do that!" Mabel groaned, face red. "Yun's an alien shapeshifter, babe. She can do anything she wants."
"Oh." Max sounded a little disappointed. Mabel rolled her eyes. "It's not about how many we have, it's about who they're attached to."
"Well I like yours best." Max grinned, entirely sincere in his praise. Mabel giggled. Dipper looked very uncomfortable and Shermie glared. "Can we please change the topic?"
Ford glared at Yun happily feeding her kids. She did it on purpose!
Yun grinned. Yes~ Yes she did. Ow! She looked down and poked Avaritia's cheek. "No biting!" she scolded lightly. Good thing they didn't have teeth yet.
"Anyway, Yun, please let Soos and Melody help you bottle feed them. You don't have to keep…" Ford gestured, "...doing that."
"But I like it~" Yun whined. Ford muted his laptop before whispering angrily, "Are you getting off on this?"
"...maybe a little. The whole, shapeshifting part, not the feeding my children part." Yun admitted. Ford sighed. "You can shapeshift as much as you want after. You don't have to do this while feeding the kids, you know it will give you the wrong idea."
"...fine." Yun rolled her eyes and shifted herself back to normal, floating the kids away, even as they whined and reached for her. "Sorry darlings, you guys get bottles." she told them. The twins, she kept pressed against her chest. She had to give them special care because of their weak health.
Soos and Melody were sitting down beside her, gently taking four of her kids to begin feeding them. Ford took the last two for himself to feed.
"WELLWELLWELLWELLWELL! ISN'T FORDSIE JUST LOOKING SO ADORABLE FEEDING HIS CHILDREN?!" Seb continued insisting.
Shermie cried. "Ford be careful! They might spit on you! Or vomit or poop on you! You definitely do not want that!"
"Huh?" Ford looked up from the babies in his arms. "Well, Yun's been magically cleaning them."
"""Lucky BITCH!""" multiple people screamed, aka all the real adults (The older twins, Max and Dillon were just big kids, not fully adults yet). Even Kari joined in the collective jealous shout.
Yun hummed, suddenly realizing just how exposed the little ones were to cursing. Hahaha! They were gonna learn ALL the swears! She wasn't gonna stop them. Just teach them that there was a time and place for any sort of curse.
Oh! Would they have powers? She hoped so. Well, Gula was part dragon, Yun could 'feel' it. So she was definitely going to have some powers… and possibly develop more dragon-like traits as she got older.
They were so beautiful and perfect just the way they were. Perfectly imperfect. Yun ran her slender fingers through Gloria and Erbi's hair. (Yes, she already had cute short versions of their names to use as nicknames.) "You're so beautiful." she whispered to them. Her heart felt like it was going to burst.
Meanwhile, quiet and peacefully, Abuelita watched the crazy scene unfold from her chair. Ah, best soap opera.
-.-
After the zumm meeting ended, the octuplets were put to sleep along with Maria. Soos and Melody retired to sleep, Soos pleaded with his grandma to use a bed, but she liked her couch and as the stubborn latina grandma she was, kept her ass on that couch.
Yun and Ford were sitting alone in the kitchen, just cleaning up the mess of the day. "Oh, I ordered the birth certificates from the hospital and explained it was a home birth. They accepted, I guess I'm a very trustworthy person." Ford shrugged.
"Alternatively, you're the guy funding the hospital." She grinned. Ford made a disgruntled face, "Oh shush. Anyway, they arrived. I already disinfected the envelope. You can fill in the kids' information…" Ford trailed off.
"Don't put the names you picked." Ford groaned. "They're my kids. I can name them whatever I want." Yun shot back. She pulled out the birth certificates and stared at them. "So… are you… going to be their father… or not?" Because she didn't have to put in a father. There was an option to just not write the father's name. Her hand held a pen, hovering over the paper.
"I'm… not ready to be a father." Ford said.
"Then why do you keep referring to the kids as 'ours'." Yun wasn't looking at him, closing her hand around the pen until her knuckles paled. "If you don't want them, then stop making me think that you do."
Ford gasped softly. "I...I didn't notice, I didn't mean to to make you feel like that..." Yun looked even more irritated, twisting her shirt in her hands. "Well too late, you did."
Ford sighed. "Yun, I'm sorry." he rubbed her back. He hadn't meant to make her feel bad. "I just...I feel for them, as much as you do. It's not like I don't care, of course I do, they're your kids. I love you, and I love them too, and I've been taking care of you and them because I care so much about you." That moment with Gloria and Erbi had been so scary…
"I...I guess I still felt like part of it all, even when I'm not their dad…" Ford said slowly. "Because they're from you, and I love them, just as I love you."
Yun's lips wobbled. "...yeah. Ok. That's… that's fine…" she looked back down at the birth certificates. "But I'm still naming them." she said stubbornly.
Ford groaned. "Do you really have to name them after the seven deadly sins?"
"I'm a demon god." Yun pouted. "What other theme naming would I use?"
"I don't know. A very brilliant group of scientists seem like a good option." Ford smirked.
Yun nudged him. "Still middle names!" She grabbed one paper and quickly wrote down Invidia Isaac. "It's already begun~" Yun paused, tapping on the sheet. "Hm…" and then she wrote Lin-Pines. Ford gasped. "Yun!"
"Oops~" Yun giggled. "A compound last name! My hand slipped!"
Ford groaned. "Here, start over on another sheet."
"Nope!" Yun grinned. "I demand child support now!" She cackled. Ford rubbed his face.
Ford wasn't very sure what he was feeling right now. "What was the point of asking me if you're still going to write my last name?" He deadpanned as she wrote down his name under the section for 'father'.
"So I can say I asked first." Yun fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Besides, granny Kari would be so upset if I didn't!"
"Ma can babysit them even if they weren't legally related to her!" Ford complained.
"Look," Yun sighed. "Someday, when they're grown up, they're gonna ask me who their father is. I don't want you to not be in their lives." he didn't have all that long, comparatively.
"...I want to be in their lives...Just.. I don't know if I want to be their father." he reached for her hand and Yun caressed his cheek before sighing. "I love you...I'm sorry for writing your last name...but I really want it there...You can just keep doing what you want, I know you didn't want them in the first place, but it means a lot to me for it to be there...and if you end up, you know, loving them more, maybe then it's not that bad, is it?" she sighed.
Ford ruffled Yun's hair. "It's… fine. I guess. They're… living here, aren't they?"
"I'm gonna build a new wing of the house for them to stay." Yun confirmed. "I can make my own room if you want?"
Ford blinked. "I don't mind sharing my room with you. But, I suppose if you wanted to…"
Yun chuckled. "The only thing my own room would be for is holding my belongings. I'm still spending every night in bed with you~" she teased. Ford felt a sense of relief. He didn't want to admit it, but he didn't like the idea of sleeping alone anymore. "I am not up for being a father to them right now. Not when they're this young. I don't trust myself to do so." Ford admitted.
"So you'd be ok with being a dad once they're Lee's age?" Yun asked casually. Ford rolled his eyes. "If you want to put it that way, yes."
"Then I'm keeping your last name on their papers. I mean… are we gonna be together that long?" Yun asked, carefully. Ford shrugged. "I don't know, but I wouldn't mind." and Yun beamed at him. "Alright then."
They finished writing their babies' names. There was a clenching feeling in Ford's chest, filled with anxiety over what he was doing, but at the same time, he was grinning. Invidia Isaac, Luxuria Florence, Ira Amelia, Gula Marie, Acedia Elizabeth, Avaritia Nicholas, Vanagloria Jane and Superbia Emmy Lin-Pines. Well, Xin was listed as Gula's mother, so her last name was Cipher-Pines. Ford hadn't noticed.
Yun grinned at the papers. "Our kids?" She tested. Ford thought about it. "Our kids." He agreed.
And Yun's emotions led to another surge of energy as she leaped onto Ford and hugged him.
"Can I bring my friends over to meet the kids?" Yun asked. Ford nodded. "That's fine." But Yun continued to stare at him in anticipation. "Can they stay here?" She asked next. Ford choked. "No! This house is packed enough!" Quarantine meant they were all stuck indoors and having to share close quarters with so many people was… taxing. Having Bill's rowdy friends here long term was- "A visit every now and then is fine, but they cannot stay here." Ford put his foot down. This was still his house after all.
Yun sighed. "Fine." She finished feeding another baby and burped them before putting them down in the crib she built. Now that she had recovered from the strain of her pregnancy, she could easily float the bottles to feed all her babies at once. But they all liked drinking directly from her more than the bottles of baby formula. Yun suspected they craved the taste of her Weirdness, much like how Ammy fed on her flames.
Speaking of...
"But can I bring Ammy here for a long term stay?"
"Nooo~" Ford protested and Yun narrowed her eyes, "He's my son, and these are his brothers and sisters. I refuse to let them grow up without their big brother, at least while they're at this side."
Ford had to pause. He knew how much the concept of 'siblings' meant to her. "...you can't bring them over to your side?"
Yun narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh yes, because tearing an infant's soul from their body wouldn't cause any health issues." Her tone was sarcastic. Ford jumped, "Oh, I forgot that would be how it would…" yeah, no. He didn't think that was a good idea.
"Look," Yun sighed. "If you don't want my children moving in here with you, that's fine. I DO plan to bring the octuplets over to my side as soon as they're old enough for me to pull them through. But in the meantime, I can pay rent. I want Ammy to be able to spend more time with them."
Ford grimaced. "I agreed with the papers, Yun… so I clearly care enough about your kids to say 'I do want them here'. But Ammy is something else entirely. You're being manipulative about this. You know how I feel when there's too many people around. And Ammy is… a stressful individual."
Yun twitched. "...yes. I am." she admitted. "I just… I dunno. I want my kids to be able to spend time with each other. I know Ammy can be… difficult… but he deserves to be with his siblings too." she bit her lip. "But you're right. This is still your house. And I don't have a right to try and demand to move my family in."
"Look, Ammy can come over to visit, he can even get a guest room to stay sometimes. But he can't live here. Alright?" Ford told her.
"Alright. He'll return back to my side with me every night. And he won't be here everyday." Yun patted his shoulder. "He won't be living here. You don't have to pay his child support."
"Yeah, I wasn't planning to." Ford reassured her. Yun gasped dramatically.
"Whaaaaat?"
Ford shrugged. "I don't know how child support works, but I'm pretty sure you pay for the ones that are...yours…"
Yun looked playfully offended. "So he's not yours?! And the others are~?" she batted her eyelashes at him and Ford rolled his eyes, calming down now that he knew Yun was agreeing to not let Ammy move in with him.
"No? I'm sorry, but Ammy creeps me out." Ford admitted. Yun laughed. "You'll get used to it. He's just like that." she patted his arm. "He's actually quite sweet once you get to know him."
"I'm sure he is." Ford smiled. "You raised him after all."
Yun let out another happy sound, wrapping her arms around Ford and nuzzling into his chest.
Once everyone in the Center had been tested, and came back negative for Corvid, and with everyone being indoors in the Center this whole time, Ford and Fiddleford declared it safe to continue working on their projects with each other and the rest of the staff. Everyone, from the scientists to the cleaning staff to human resources were now living in the Center, free room and board for the duration of this crisis.
And they were still being paid as well, even though the government was cutting funding.
As they all quarantined together, Fiddleford and the scientist gang got to meet the babies too. Dr. Poddar and Clark sobbed at how cute they were. "Boss man! You lucky bastard!" Dr. Clark sobbed as he held Ira, who blinked at them like they had killed her parents. That is to say, she didn't like them, these strangers.
Dr. Wexler was sitting down with Yun while holding Luxuria in her lap (Yun was holding Invidia), "Are you alright? I can't believe there were seven!"
Yun shrugged. "I'm fine. I mean, it hurt like shit during the whole thing, but Fordsie worked pretty fast on pulling them out of me."
The other scientists paused. "Oh right, Ford helped you deliver 'em, huh?" Fiddleford nodded, holding Acedia as she pulled on his nose. He wasn't grossed out at the idea of such a thing, since he used to help the pigs give birth back on the farm. The others were a little more squeamish. "Wow. I can't believe you stomached that." Dr. Poddar told Ford with an impressed look. Ford shuddered, cradling Superbia and Vanagloria in his arms. "I almost didn't."
"He was very careful not to jostle my organs too much." Yun piped up.
That got another round of staring.
"...you mean it was a C-section?!" Dr. Wexler gasped before she looked a little faint.
"Don't worry. I just made my skin and organs semi-permeable so he just had to reach in and pull-"
Dr. Clark's eyes rolled up and he slumped over in a faint. Ira blinked where she was lying on his chest before getting bored and screaming to be fed some more. "Alright Ira, come'mere." Yun waved a hand and floated Ira up to herself. The baby squealed and kicked their legs at the feeling.
"Is that… safe?" Dr. Jerald asked as he held Avaritia, marveling over the bi-colored puff of hair. Yun shrugged, waving her hand and making Ira start to rotate and spin upside-down. "They seem to like it." Ira gurgled and laughed.
"I… guess you'd know better than we do, what alien kids need…" Fiddleford raised an eyebrow. "A newborn doesn't laugh, for starters."
"They're more developed than a human infant." Yun said proudly.
"And yet they're still so tiny." Dr. Jerald hummed.
"I mean mentally." Yun shrugged, "But that might just be because their daddy is such a widdle genius~" she cooed. Ford turned a deep red, feeling immensely proud.
His friends all gave him very smug grins.
And that's when Dr. Poddar remembered something else they had made a bet about. "Actually, I was wondering… where's Xin? We haven't seen him in a while."
"Oh, uh…" Ford blinked and he was about to explain that Xin and Yun were technically the same entity (only Fiddleford and the interns knew about this so far), when there was a thumping of footsteps and Xin walked in with Gula in his arms. "Heeeey Ford~" the dragon crooned. "I brought our hatchling~"
Ford buried his face in Superbia's hair with a groan. Oh no. Xin was really going to go for-
Dr. Wexler's jaw dropped. "You procreated with the dragon too?!"
Ford whimpered. And he didn't even bother to try and explain, he already knew that Xin/Yun thought this was a 'funny' misunderstanding to set up and played with.
Why was he dating a fucking demon again? Oh right. Very intelligent and cute demon.
Also he loved them, that was a big part of it.
He resolved to just ignore everyone and feed the twins. Xin and Yun were chatting with everyone, playing up some amazing imaginary non-sexual threesome ("It was just SCIENCE for hours!" "So much science!" "Like, more science than my body could handle!" "There was science everywhere!" "Spraying!" "Leaking!" "He also does this amazing thing with his hands, like daaaaamn son~!")
Ok. Maybe with a bit of sexual allegory. Because Yun was a bitch like that and loved to annoy him. He shifted the twins in his arms and Superbia, or as Ford called her, Emmy, coughed as she choked and spat out some milk before whimpering. Her twin looked at her as she kept drinking.
"Ew. It's ok, Emmy, drink slower." Ford reached for a bib to clean the baby's mouth.
Xin nuzzled Gula against his cheek, she giggled and pulled on his hair. "Well, as my daughter is part human, I was thinking of leaving her here with Ford until she's older. We agreed that it would be better for her to be raised together with her siblings." Yun nodded. "Besides, Xin has too many duties. He wouldn't be able to care for her and work at the same time. He travels a lot, and she's just too young for that."
Ford blinked. Oh right, that was the reason they had decided for why Gula was living with him and not with Xin. "Of course I'm going to come by very often to see her." Xin assured them all.
"Hey! Be right back! If we're doing kid introductions I want to present mine as well!" Yun's body slumped over with a baby yawning on her lap. Xin slumped over as well, more subtlety, leaning against the couch with his eyes closed.
"...Another?!"
Ford looked suddenly incredibly tired. "She's bringing her son, like an alien son, not my creation, by the way." he clarified. "She had a son even before she met me."
"...from her previous partner?" Dr. Poddar asked. Ford shook his head. "No, Ammy was born after Yun's old world burned to the ground." that was technically true, even if the phrasing made for a lot of misunderstandings, but if she was going around making misunderstandings, he could put something out for the rumor mills too.
And before they could ask more, Yun sat up with a gasp. "Ammy! Meet your siblings!" she was staring at the empty air beside her. "Is your son… invisible?" Dr. Jerald asked.
"Hang on…" Yun looked to the side where Ammy was silently observing his younger siblings, and focused on making a vessel for him. Hm… Actually, she was planning on letting Ammy stick around here so he could get to know his siblings, so she should make a humanoid form for him. Shouldn't be too hard. Since he was her 'son' she simply used Jan's form (Yun as a male) as a base, made him much younger (if he was her son, the humans would get suspicious if he was too old) and then modified it to have some of Ammy's features.
Fiddleford was staring in awe at the person being created out of thin air. Yun nodded at her son when she finished and Ammy slipped into the vessel. "So… This is what fingers feel like." He commented as he flexed the digits, adjusting himself to his new form. His human form looked around 12 years old, because Yun wasn't all that old looking herself and didn't want things getting too suspicious if she took Ammy out in public with her. The general townsfolk might be ok with it, but other people? Well she just didn't want to deal with the hassle.
Ford's jaw dropped. "Yun, what-" he knew he gave her the 'ok' to have Ammy come over to visit, but he wasn't expecting a 'humanoid' form. He had sort of thought Ammy would be in a plush vessel like last time.
"Ammy is my SON. He deserves to be with his brothers and sisters, and visiting here long term means he needs a form capable of being around people if they ever went out in public." Yun told him firmly. "And he's very quiet so he wouldn't startle the kids like my other friends would." Ammy walked over to Ford holding the twins and blinked at him. Ford took a step back. Then Ammy went toward Dr. Wexler with Luxuria (she tensed up at the boy's intense stare) and then Ammy turned to stare at his mother, now rocking Avaritia/Nicholas as he slowly drifted to sleep.
Ammy tilted his head, staring unblinkingly at his siblings. "They do not have four arms, mother." he commented. Yun shrugged. "Well, neither do you, right now."
Ammy looked down at his vessel, which didn't have four arms like Jan or Yun, but that didn't mean it was human. He wiggled his fingers, tilting his head as he observed them. Then he began poking himself, marveling at the sensation. And then two more arms sprouted from his sides. He looked at them, then they retracted back into his sides. "Right now, yes." he said plainly. "I prefer the two. Less trouble to keep track of."
"Wait, what do you mean… isn't this…" Dr. Wexler frowned. Yun explained, "This isn't Ammy's true form. I constructed a humanoid form for him to materialize in, to make it easier for him to live here."
"...and your form?" Dr. Wexler asked tentatively.
"Oh, this isn't technically my true form either." Yun shrugged. "But my true form might make you go insane if you see it, so I used this form instead."
They looked at each other and then at Ford who shrugged. Fiddleford shivered. Ok. They were not questioning it more than they should. "Well, it's...always nice to meet aliens.. " Dr. Poddar chuckled nervously. Clark was beginning to open his eyes with a groan. Did he faint? "Uweh beh?" he mumbled.
Ammy blinked at Dr. Poddar, he blinked his eyes out of synch with each other. Then, after hearing Dr. Clark's confused sounds, he bent down to lean over Dr. Clark's face, staring at him. "Is this one also one of my siblings?"
"No, that is a grown ass man." Yun giggled.
"But he is making odd noises that do not equate to words in 'english', much like the rest of my siblings." Ammy pointed out, waving a hand at the babbling babies. Yun continued laughing. "No, he's too big to be a newborn baby."
"Ah, so there is a size limit." Ammy nodded, continuing to stare at Dr. Clark. "Much like with Pyrone and Pynelope when they were born."
Yun twitched a little. "...yeah. Most babies start small. They grow bigger as they get older."
"Will they get this big?" Ammy asked, pointing his finger out and jabbing it into Dr. Clark's cheek. The man was very confused as to what the hell was happening right now. "...who's this?" he frowned, tilting his head away from Ammy's finger. Ammy was looking at his finger and poking Dr. Clark again, a faint almost smile on his face as his finger pressed into the man's cheek.
"This is Amorphous Shape, my firstborn." Yun said proudly. Dr. Wexler choked. " That's his name?!" then she looked down at Luxuria. "I actually feel better about what you named the rest of them now."
"I hope they'll be taller, like Ford, but it doesn't matter too much." Yun smiled as she gently wiped Avaritia Nicholas's trail of drool. "I dunno what they're gonna turn out like. I'm sure they're going to develop powers, not sure what kind though." she pressed Avaritia against her cheek and nuzzled him. The boy squealed and patted her face with his hands.
"Interesting." Ammy noted before turning to Ford and attempting to copy what Avaritia was doing.
Ford batted his hand away when the boy tried patting him. If Ammy didn't kill him from stress, he would kill Ammy…
His friends gave him reassuring but nervous grins.
-.-
Melody and Yun were having a mom to mom thing together, just hanging out in the living room while their babies napped. Soos was checking the Shack's stock and using the no-customers pandemic thingy to rebuild attractions and create new ones. Hey, might as well use this time productively?
He somehow also convinced Ford to help him. "How can you keep inventing so many fake things? Is Sebastian still helping?"
"He does! I ask for his suggestions sometimes! But I've been building them on my own dude! Stan has sooo many great ideas too, dude! Like I think he likes the shack more than Seb does." He said secretively. Ford rolled his eyes. An establishment where the goal was to make up bullshit and get people to pay you for it? Of course Stan would love it.
Meanwhile, humanoid kid Ammy entered the living room where Melody and Yun were. Maria had woken up demanding food and Melody had quickly got her before the newborn octuplets could wake and scream too.
Ammy watched Maria suckle on the bottle of milk. "Is it really that delicious? So much that you would scream until you are given it?" he asked Maria seriously. The girl didn't respond, too busy drinking her milk. She did turn her eyes to look at him, glaring as if telling him 'don't you dare bother me while I'm eating, peasant!'
"Do you want to try one?" Yun asked, holding up another bottle. Ammy nodded. Yun handed it over and Ammy stared at the bottle in his hand for a while. Then, to Melody's bemusement, Ammy lifted up his shirt and pressed the tip of the bottle against his belly.
"Try using your mouth instead." Yun corrected gently with no trace of mockery. Ammy never had a mouth before this point, of course he didn't know. Even if he saw other people using their mouths, he wasn't used to such a thing for himself. She was used to watching him eat by pressing things against and into his Blocks. (Though, it was also because she'd known Ammy for a very long time, that she didn't have an issue with just accepting that he didn't know how to 'Human'. He'd never been around humans in the long term after all. But if he had, and still tried this, she would have been somewhat exasperated.)
"Here, sit." Yun patted the couch beside her. Ammy walked over and sat, having gotten the hang of much of the motor functions for moving and changing his position. He adapted to having feet pretty quickly. "So, you need to breathe now, I'm sure you've noticed it by now, your body breathes on its own without you having to think about it."
Ammy nodded. He spent a few hours last night just lying in bed in the room his mother built for him, feeling his body inflate and deflate with each breath. Ah, lungs. He read about them.
"Well I took the liberty of making your breathing tube separate from your food and water intake tube. Just to make life easier for you. And so you don't drown when you try drinking." Yun patted Ammy's head, feeling rather proud of herself. "A combined tube for both, and making every orifice in the face interconnected is ridiculously stupid and intelligent design is a joke!" Melody snorted at Yun's snarky comment.
"Anyway, just stick that in your mouth and start sucking, you won't choke." Yun assured him. Ammy looked down at the bottle and, after observing Maria for a while to see how she did it, he stuck the bottle in his mouth and copied her.
The moment the milk hit his tongue he let out a full body shiver. Oh. What… what was this?
"Oh, your vessel has these things called 'taste buds'." Yun explained. "It's this amazing thing that some species have where they can register all sorts of molecular configurations and have that send signals to their brains to trigger various emotional responses…"
Ammy moved his mouth, squeezing more milk out and into it. He shuddered at the 'taste' again, unable to fully comprehend what this feeling was. All he could understand was that he enjoyed it. This was a unanimous decision from all of him.
"Hey. I'm not one to judge. But be careful he isn't doing that outside the Shack when all this is over. He looks like he's 12 and it'll cause problems." Melody told Yun. The deva blinked. "What's the issue? Oh, because it's a baby bottle? I mean, I can get him a sippy cup instead."
Melody buried her face in her hands. Maybe she'll tell Ford later… yeah. She'd do that.
Ammy drank his bottle with a contented look.
Ammy stayed for another day before being sent back to Bill's dimension. This was mainly because Ford didn't like how the preteen-looking alien kept drinking the bottles meant for the babies. Yun also agreed on that point, "You're a big kid, you can eat other stuff. Your brothers and sisters need it more." and Ammy finally agreed to go home for today, just so he wouldn't be tempted.
Meanwhile, Ford got Fiddleford to help him build the milking machine for Yun and she loved it. "So efficient!" She moaned with the vibrating vest strapped on, "And it massages me as it works~" she was never taking this damn thing off! The vibrating nodes were on the front and back to both stimulate her breasts into releasing milk and easing the soreness with the tissue massage. Oh, was this heaven~?
Of course neither of those dorks came up with those ideas, it was Fiddleford's wife who put it on the table. Fiddleford asked why Yun didn't just use formula, but she explained that she did, and the kids preferred her milk. "Probably because it's got my energy in it. They kinda need it." And with the machine, they could store a lot of Yun's milk to put into bottles so she didn't have to spend all her time personally feeding all the babies.
Ford was just glad she wasn't bored anymore. A bored Bill Cipher was a scary thing indeed. He did earn a kiss on the cheek from his deviously intelligent partner and she promised an equation for him to solve, so this turned out great!
Though… now that the matter of food was settled, it was time to move onto the next issue.
"So they're all going to be living here… with me…" Ford said slowly.
"Only until they're old enough that I don't feel like a monster for tearing their souls out of their bodies to bring home to my side." Yun shrugged. "Though I suppose I could do that thing that brother does where he turned Lee's physical matter into pure energy and absorbed it into himself so he could bring Lee physically into this 'set?"
Ford frowned. "No, I… don't think you should do that with infants."
Yun shrugged, not minding either way. "Then, if you don't want them here, I can move into one of my Islands."
It was a good idea, but Ford thought back on the past 6 months. With Yun pregnant, she hadn't been able to go home, and had ended up living with him for the duration. And Ford had gotten used to sharing his bed with her. She was warm and he never had nightmares while she was sleeping nearby.
More than that, he didn't want her to leave. He liked being able to see her everyday. He liked the meals she cooked for the household, sharing the kitchen with Melody and Abuelita. He liked lying in bed, just chatting with her about all sorts of topics until they dozed off. He even liked watching anime with her, even if he didn't really understand what the hype was all about.
"No, you can live here." Ford spoke up. "And so can the kids." he reached out to place his hand on her head. "I do want to keep updated on their growth."
"Oh right," Yun giggled, leaning against him. "A fascinating new project to study~?" she wasn't even bothered by the idea of her boyfriend studying her kids. They were a new hybrid species! She was interested in studying them too! But more than that…
They were hers . She made them. And while she was trying very hard to remind herself that they were still their own people, she couldn't help but think 'Minemineminemine-' and that wasn't right. She knew that.
While Yun struggled with her own feelings over her newborn children, Miz snuggled with Zach on her bed/nest.
"...hey Zach?" Miz asked softly.
"Yeah?"
"You're my little brother." Miz was lying down with Zach hugged against her. He was playing with Miz's Com, a game about a bird flying over pipes.
"Yeah?" Zach tilted his head up to blink at her when his bird hit a pipe and died again.
"Does that make you mine ?" Miz asked hesitantly.
Zach shrugged. "I guess?" he could sense something here. Some kind of sadness. He reached up a hand to clumsily pat Miz's forehead. "But you're my big sister. So you're mine too, right?"
Miz smiled, leaning in to nuzzle the top of Zach's head. "Yes. I'm yours. And you're mine." her arms tightened around him, not painfully, she was very gentle with him, he was so small and fragile and-
"...you're going to leave me again someday…"
"Huh?" Zach blinked innocently.
"But it'll be alright." Miz said, even though she didn't sound like she believed it. "Because… this time… I'm going to keep you safe." she sighed. "And my children. I'll keep them safe too. Pyrone and Quackers died happy. I should be happy for them. They went how they wanted to go."
Zach wasn't sure what she was talking about, Miz did that sometimes, talk about stuff that didn't make much sense, and she never explained them. Even though she explained pretty much anything and everything else. But talking about this always made Miz look so sad, so Zach didn't mind if she didn't explain it.
"So… wanting to keep them forever is just… selfishness…" Miz's gaze was far off. "I will still ask them… I'll ask them all if they would want to stay with me forever… maybe… maybe one of them would…"
Zach realized his big sister wasn't here anymore. She was thinking too hard. And she was off and away somewhere far. He reached up to pat her forehead again. It took a few seconds, but Miz's gaze eventually refocused and Zach huffed at her. "You think too hard." he scolded her. He heard some kids at school say that if you think too hard you'll turn into an old person. He wasn't sure that was true, but he didn't want to risk it.
Miz laughed faintly. "Yeah, I guess so." she shifted on her bed, lifting Zach and rolling to lie on her other side. "It's a very difficult question I'm trying to find an answer to." she told him. Zach shrugged. "Maybe when I'm bigger, I can help? Big kid questions are hard." He paused. "Or maybe ask daddy or mommy. Adults know everything." He smiled.
"Eh~ they know lots of things, not everything." Miz joked. "Heck, even I don't know everything." she paused. "...and maybe that's ok." she relaxed a little, "I mean, if I did know everything, that would be boring, wouldn't it?"
"Or it would make homework super easy!" Zach cheered, making Miz burst out laughing.
"I heard laughing! Are you two having fun without me?!" Zoe rushed into the room and jumped onto the bed, landing on Miz and Zach.
""ACK!"" they cried. Zoe cackled. "That's what you get for having fun without me!" she laid down on top of Zach, consequently being on top of Miz too. She growled playfully and nibbled Zach's arm (knowing she had to bite her twin softly like Dad said) and Zach tried to push her away.
"Zoe!" Zach complained. Miz laughed. "Oh? Are we sparring now?" she pushed herself up into a sitting position, making Zach and Zoe tumble back into some pillows. "Rawr!" Miz grinned as she reached to pick up Zoe's leg and pretended to bite it without actually putting it in her mouth. The girl squealed with laughter.
It didn't take long to rope Zach into the little play fight as well. The three siblings jumped and tumbled on the bed, shrieking with laughter.
And when the twins finally got tired, panting on the disheveled sheets, Miz laid down with them and gave both of them some kisses to their heads. "I love you both." she regarded them fondly.
Zoe giggled, rubbing her head. "I love you too!"
"I love you more!" Zach added as he held Miz's hand, "Maaaaybe more than Zoe." he grinned, nudging Zoe with his foot.
The blonde gasped in mock offence before taking Miz's other hand. "Well I love you plus a zillion!" she told her big sister.
"Zillion's not a real word. Diego said so!"
"It's a real word because I said it!" Zoe stuck her tongue out. The twins growled and started wrestling again. Miz just laughed and laughed. She was so happy right now. So happy that she could almost forget her worries for the future. So happy that she could almost ignore the pain.
Because her little brother was here , and he was safe and happy and loved and together with her.
And frankly, that's all she really needed.
Ford what have you signed up for