Interlude 2: So THAT'S Where Babies Come From?!
Something profoundly uncommon had occurred: Emilia was awake before Subaru. To be more precise, it seemed that the sun had also missed the memo. Emilia, however, didn't have any question why she had awoken. Clearly it was the eldritch affliction that had taken hold inside of her the last couple days. Furthering her intemperate indignation was her inability to even quite say just where exactly she was hurting; it wasn't a stomach ache-even if her stomach did hurt sometimes-but rather some abominable malady made her some part of her that she had no idea how to name twist in agony. She'd almost swear there was some wicked creature writhing about inside her mangling her from within.
She had, of course, said nothing to Subaru about this. He'd already been out of sorts for the last couple of days-it felt oddly condemning how much more bothered he was than her over the deaths of the men who had attacked the village. Still it was both relief and vexation to see him sleeping so soundly. She was overjoyed to finally see him sleeping peacefully again-she really was-but the urge to scream at the injustice of the situation clawed at her throat. Slumbering solemnly-Subaru was completely, nay blissfully, unwitting of the fiendish agony besieging her. She hugged on to Subaru just a bit more tightly, as something squeezed ever so painfully inside of her.
Riding out the latest wave of whatever was happening to her, she came to the realization that her undergarments felt damp. Pouting at the indignation of having possibly done something as childish as wetting herself, she listlessly peeled herself out of bed. Her vision still blurred slightly by the haze of sleep, she clumsily ambled about-the silver moonlight languidly beaming down through her window being her only guide.
As she pulled off the soiled undergarments she noticed something-the liquid soaking them was red. Her clothing was soaked in blood. One hand on her chest, she forced herself to take deep breaths as her eyes widened in alarm. She couldn't help an errant thought from sprinting across her mind-was she dying? Bleeding, especially down there, couldn't be okay, could it?
Hurriedly she swapped clothes quickly, her heart fluttering away in her chest. With trembling arms she, not all that gently, shook Subaru awake. Subaru was startled awake to meet Emilia's watery, panicked eyes nary a nose's length away.
"Something's wrong! My stomach reeaaally hurts, and I'm bleeding a looot." Emilia had barely gotten the words out, before Subaru had jumped up and gently wrapped his arms around her trembling form.
Cheeks and ears alight, she resisted the token urge to protest, as she clung onto Subaru. Subaru wasted neither time nor words as he dashed out the door, hoisting her clumsily in his arms. His destination was clear.
In the aftermath of the bandit raid, Clarissa had returned with what few worldly possessions she owned and a few tokens of apology stowed in a backpack. As a group they had prepared one of the nearby homes as a place for her-Emilia's house really didn't have the room for three people. In such circumstances, the only sensible option had been to fix up a place to live. A decision Subaru felt grateful for given that it meant they had a healer nearby.
In what couldn't have been more than a minute or two Subaru was at Clarissa's front door. Without wasting a single second, he began to frantically pound on the door with such force that knuckle shaped indents were left behind.
"Something's wrong with Emilia! It's an emergency!" Subaru's face was dyed a faint red from the intensity of his shout.
Half a minute or so of pounding later, and the door was flung open from the inside. Subaru barely managed to retract his fist, and avoid punching the one who had opened it.
"What's wrong?" Clarissa practically yawned, her eyes still half-lidded.
Despite the speed with which she had responded, much of her body's mannerisms suggested that she wasn't quite awake. Her ears drooped limply, as if too bothered to stand at attention, whilst her eyes remained half lidded. Her fangs leisurely poked out as her mouth widened in a yawn that stretched her whole body all the way to the curling of the tip of her tail.
"Well um...my stomach hurts a loooot and I'm bleeding," Emilia's face was faintly red all the way to the tips of her ears as she meekly uttered the problem.
Clarissa's eyes suddenly sharpened with focus, "And just where is the bleeding?" she asked.
Emilia shuffled left and right uncomfortably, the rosiness coloring her cheeks growing ever deeper, "It's...you know...down there…" she muttered, her face downturned.
"Is this the normal time of month for you?" Clarissa asked, a calm sigh loosening her serious face..
"Normal? Time of the month?" Emilia's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, as her head tilted to the side.
Biting her cheeks in frustration, "Of course he wouldn't have told her anything," Clarissa berated Emilia's guardian spirit.
Indeed Puck often went out of his way to shelter Emilia, and even in just around a week of acquaintance she could presume that such a conversation had never occurred. Steadying herself with a suffering breath, she turned towards Subaru.
"Subaru. Can you wait out here for a bit? This is going to be a bit of a personal checkup."
His own face flushed and eyes cast sideways he answered, "Sure."
A short exam later Clarissa was forced to sit Emilia down for a very important life discussion. A rather uncomfortable one that only she could give at the moment. Puck wouldn't, and it would be rather unreasonable to ask Subaru to attempt it, if he even knew everything in the first place.
"So while a fair bit worse than usual, what is happening to you right now is a normal bodily process that happens once a month, although I'm not exactly sure if that will remain true for half-elves."
"You mean that...bleeding like this is normal?" Emilia's voice hitched in fright as she asked the question.
"Well it's usually nowhere near as bad as this, but you've had a rough time lately so this might be a one time thing," Clarissa softened her tone into her best attempt at reassurance.
"Oh," Emilia did not appear particularly reassured, her head downturned as she shuffled her feet restlessly.
"Emilia, you DO know where babies come from, right?"
"Um, they come from kissing, right?" Emilia brought her fingers to her lips seemingly confused about the topic shift.
Clarissa's eyes widened in surprise, "And did you happen to hear this from someone?"
It was after all completely possible for a kid to come to such a conclusion on her own. But the relative certainty with which Emilia said it suggested otherwise. It was time to find out if she possibly had two confused children on her hands.
"Puck did. I asked where babies came from, and he told me about how dangerous letting boys kiss me would be–he told me right after Subaru arrived."
She really didn't know what else she suspected. Puck seemed to do his best to shelter her, so that he hadn't explained properly made sense. Would a spirit even be aware of the fact that Emilia's body would soon be going through changes, and the need for her to understand that? Or for that matter would a spirit even understand the odd desires that teenagers would begin to feel? Perhaps it was better that she be the one to explain, lest Emilia begin to feel, or be told, that these feelings and changes were some sort of sinful urge to be repressed.
"That's not how things work. This is going to be an uncomfortable talk, but there are things you need to know."
Subaru's face was bright red as he fidgeted anxiously outside. Clawing roughly at his hair, he looked up to the sky.
"I'm such an idiot," he howled.
He'd gotten so worked up over nothing, if he'd have stopped to think for a minute he'd have realized that it was probably no big deal. But the very instant Emilia's amethyst eyes had dampened he'd sprung into action. It was like he was some besotted fool slobbering after a girl. Subaru was absolutely not into girls; not even a little bit. Even if his best friend was super awesome, really nice, and breathtakingly pretty. If Subaru was interested in girls-and Subaru absolutely wasn't-Emilia would totally be his type. But since Subaru wasn't into that stuff he didn't have to worry about it-not that an absolute angel like Emilia would be interested in him.
Subaru roughly shook his head to clear his thoughts. For perhaps the first time since he arrived in this world he gazed up at the sky. He couldn't find any of the constellations he knew, he couldn't even find Polaris the northern star. No big or little dipper, much less the Pleiades constellation. It really raised the question to Subaru: was he in a different dimension or a different part of the universe? Maybe both?
A slight melancholy overtook Subaru at the thought that his parents were looking up at a different sky. In an odd way, if only the constellation of his namesake were there Subaru thought that his family wouldn't feel as far away.
Letting his gaze drift across the sky he found a group of stars with a passing resemblance to a face. The ears he could make from the stars were rather pointy-just like a certain someone. Taking it in a slight, wan smile softened his face. Even if he might never talk to his parents again, even if the stars from his old world weren't looking down on him anymore-he wasn't alone.
"He puts it in down there!?" A normally bell-like voice shrilly squeaked, clearly audible even outside.
A bright flush encompassed Subaru's face, as his suspicions were confirmed. They were indeed having THAT conversation.
The appa-red flush of embarrassment had long finished conquering Emilia's face, and had engaged in a blitzkrieg down her ears. Her eyes were wide, in what would pass as fear to an uninformed observer.
"Wou-wouldn't that reeeally hurt?" Emilia's face was turned downwards as she inspected her legs as they kicked back and forth in unease.
Clarissa's breath hitched as her eyes hardened ever so slightly. Her tail went rigid, as she forcibly held back her response.
"The first time will always hurt a bit, but after that it shouldn't be painful as long as the guy takes care. You should only let someone who's very special to you, that you absolutely trust, do these things with you." Clarissa did her best to keep her voice level, and the slight wavering went unnoticed to the otherwise occupied Emilia.
"I-I-I don't think Subaru wants to do anything li-like that," Emilia fumbled out in a rapid fire stutter.
"It might not be Subaru. This is something that should be left for the man you'll marry. You might find someone who means more to you at some point."
The doubtful gaze Emilia cast her way, did not give Clarissa the impression that Emilia believed her. Then again, it was hard to convince someone of something you didn't believe yourself. Even to her eyes the two were clearly smitten with each other, and were only a couple years away from marrying age. Still Emilia shouldn't assume that that was how things had to go–puppy love doesn't always grow up.
"How do you know who to marry?" Emilia's voice was hesitant, as if ashamed of the question.
"Ideally you'd marry someone you love, trust, and find attractive," Clarissa's voice also wavered with doubt, after all she herself had never known love.
"And...what does it mean to be in love?" Emilia's eyes met Clarissa's with an inquisitive firmness.
"I...it's…" Clarissa fumbled for words, visibly flustered.
"It'd be when being with each other makes you happy. When you care deeply about each other and don't want to be parted." Clarissa spoke with the naivety of a maiden's heart.
Emilia nodded, a gentle, fond smile gracing her face. It really was much more simple than she'd thought it'd be. Honestly, Fortuna and Geuse had made it seem so~ complicated. All that, "no I couldn't" and "I've known her since she was young" nonsense.
"Honestly some of the stuff you ask about, I wonder how you even get your hair done in the morning," Clarissa teased lightheartedly.
"Subaru does it for me. He's really gentle combing it for me, so it feels nice and he's really good at getting all the knots out." Emilia admitted with matter of fact sincerity, not realizing the rhetorical nature of the jest.
Clarissa was taken aback but not surprised. Despite her first impression that Emilia was taking care of Subaru, in the few weeks she'd known them many of the more mundane aspects of life were managed by Subaru. It was generally Subaru who got Emilia up in the morning, Subaru that made her go play and not clean the statues and draw a map all day, and Subaru who insisted that they eat three well-balanced meals a day. To add grooming on top of that was not too surprising. Honestly, the two of them were a pair of mother hens unfit to take care of themselves.
"Anyways that's enough for tonight. You know what's happening to your body and how babies are made. Just do what I told you to manage the blood." Another fang-baring yawn capped off her intent to wrap up the night's conversation.
With sudden apprehension, Emilia set out the door to be greeted by an equally red-faced Subaru. The redness on his face could only mean one thing-he'd figured out what they were talking about.
"Su-su-shubaru!" Emilia looked almost as if steam might start coming out her ears.
"Are you okie?" Subaru asked his gaze averted to the side.
"I'm o-okie," Emilia stuttered, her face now lobster red.
She instinctively reached out to take Subaru's hand before nervously pulling it back. Emilia was worried she'd never be able to look at Subaru the same again, he was a boy after all. He must have known all this time too–Puck as well! They'd been trying to get her to sleep in a separate bed back at the start, and the stuff she'd been told HAD to be the reason.
"I…I'm okay let's just go back," Emilia haltingly uttered.
And so they set off, in a silence that had never existed between the two of them before now. It was an embarrassed rather than uncomfortable quiet. The crunches in the snow being their only companion on their moonlit trek.
"I-I think, we should sleep separately from now on," Emilia timidly suggested, breaking the silence.
"Y-Yeah, that's why I was trying to convince you at the start, you know the stuff with boys and girls," Subaru fumbled his way through the sentence staring firmly at his shoes.
Before long they made it back home and Subaru laid out the bedding that had been abandoned before. As he collapsed down on it, Emilia had a somewhat sheepish look on her face.
"I feel bad making you sleep on the floor all the time, maybe we should take turns…" Emilia pondered.
"Nah, it's fine. Not any worse than sleeping on a tatami mat." Subaru cast her a comforting grin.
Emilia looked as if she were about to argue before another round of cramps silenced her unspoken thoughts. Throwing herself in bed, she writhed and groaned. Seeing that she was in mood to talk at the moment Subaru bid her good night and promptly fell into slumber.
Emilia found herself alone–in a cold bed with nothing but her thoughts and a horrible ache. Frankly, it felt strange now–troubling even. The one thing she'd learned since Subaru came into her life was that she didn't want to be alone. She thought she'd grown used to it, but all it took was a couple friends to shatter the resistance she'd built up in this forest. Everything had been so much simpler before.
She tossed and turned, wriggled vainly to the point the sheets were coming loose and still sleep evaded her. If only she hadn't been warned about all the horrible and embarrassing things that could happen if she wasn't careful around men. Embarrassment that Subaru had constantly been trying to warn her about and avoid…she really could be quite silly sometimes. Why was she worried about someone she trusted so much doing those…unspeakable things to her.
Mind made up, she climbed down to Subaru's makeshift sleeping mat and slid up against him. Screw being embarrassed, she just didn't want to be alone; everything had been just fine doing what they'd done up until now she was absolutely sure it'd still be fine. Taking Subaru's hand in hers she pushed her down against the pillow and shut her eyes.
Stirred by the movement Subaru noticed he wasn't alone anymore, "What's going on?" He groggily asked.
"I don't want to be alone," Emilia stated firmly, unwilling to be dissuaded.
Chuckling gently, Subaru wondered what else he should have expected. Besides, it was nice to be trusted and relied on. Maybe it wasn't proper, but if it made Emilia happy Subaru could learn to live with it. As the two fell into slumber, Emilia once again wrapped her arms around Subaru unwittingly. The nightly routine had survived the truth of where babies come from.
Floating in the sky a certain gray cat watched onwards as he had the events of the entire night. As much as he'd like to say he'd been busy looking out for threats to his daughter rather than avoiding Lia and the others that would be a lie. Like it or not, word was out that a silver-haired half-elf was living in Elior forest, and soon he alone would probably not be enough protection. That meant he had a job to do…a job he'd been avoiding: he needed to get Lia ready.
As much as he hated to admit the two brats Lia had made friends with had a point, Lia was growing up. With a life spanning across 400 years it was easy to forget how fast children advance. But tonight's events had been eye-opening, his daughter's body was already entering adulthood. It was time to start believing in her.
At this rate, Puck was certain Melaquera would be here in weeks, and that was not a fight Puck was sure he could win. It was time to truly prepare Lia to protect herself; starting tomorrow he'd have to get her Subaru spirits to contract with and start teaching them in earnest. As much as Puck hated to admit–and he did indeed hate to admit it–if anything happened to him Subaru was the only one he could entrust Lia to. The fact that he cared for her deeply was undeniable for someone who'd prodded around Subaru's mind so much.
On the bright side, at least he didn't have to give his daughter the talk. For tonight's service, he might just have to give his mouthy fellow feline a bit of a break. In her own way she was looking out for Lia, and that was what ultimately mattered in Puck's book–disagreements and all. If only he wasn't looking after three little heroes he might have had more time–but it was too late for that now.
Author's note: Long time no see. Sorry about the delay, life's been a thing. After the long hiatus I felt like I wanted to get the rust off and that spawned my other story. This is a shorter chapter more of just a bridge between this and the next main point. This one was a bit difficult to write, given I'm a guy. It's actually been half written for quite a bit. Still I have to imagine that for a young girl with no idea what's going on…a first period would have to be absolutely terrifying.
I chose to cut back and forth to Subaru's perspective rather than write out a full the birds and bees thing and to avoid cutting too close on some things that might be a bit uncomfortable for some readers, the one giving the sex-ed was a recent rape victim…you can imagine that the warnings might have been a bit…firm. An older Emilia with more walls would have probably avoided Subaru for a bit out of embarrassment. But this younger Emilia is more bothered by the idea of being alone than worrying that the person she trusts the most might do "naughty things" if she's not careful.
We also get a bit of Puck accepting a reality he doesn't like. In a lot of ways Puck embodies some things I see in real-life parents. But the stage is set and Puck will do everything he can to make sure Emilia makes it out of whatever comes her way.
