Page 23 of Stripped to the Scales

She and Casimir swore they weren’t dating and I, unlike the rest of the crew believed them. Though, besides Casimir I spent the most time in the purple district and knew a lot of romping happened without any strings attached even with continuous playmates. Whatever they were doing, I was happy for them as long as they were happy.

I let Melon rub my belly even if Axlin watched as if she was some mythical creature that could eat our baking bun through my navel. She’d been around the ship enough with my cousin that both me and my inner beast started to consider her a friend, if not family.

She moved from the friend to family category a week before ourbigultrasound – the one that everyone considered the most important back home. I wasn’t too caught up on if we had a boy or a girl. I was more worried about keeping them healthy and giving them a sense of self on a world full of dragons. Every day I poked at Marsin and Elio to see if any of the submitted ideas were promising. I may have made the speech at Sprinkles, but Elio was committed to the project long before I was. Naturally, he took over. Perhaps he just wanted to meet his mate’s adult children who still lived on Earthside.

We were resting in the nest in the late evening when Casimir walked in looking like death warmed over. Only he didn’t smell as stressed out as he looked. I squinted at him, wondering if he and Melon had a falling out or something.

“Is this a good time?” Casimir asked.

I was stretched out on my side with my head on Axlin’s lap. I was too pregnant to lay on my back anymore and I silently mourned my favorite sleeping position more than coffee. It’d be worth it in the end, but each day as my belly grew the end of pregnancy seemed further and further away.

“For what?” Axlin yawned before I could answer.

“A serious conversation that can’t be put off long,” Casimir said, and I managed to flail an arm to sit up right quicker than I thought I could.

“Is everyone alright?” I asked, slipping easily into my captain’s voice.

“Everyone is fine,” Casimir flashed me a sheepish smile.

“You’re tired. Did you sleep last night?” I asked.

“Not well. I’ve gone and partially pulled a Sunny. At least, what you thought Sunny would do,” Casimir said, leaning his elbows on the edge of the nest.

“She’s pregnant?” Axlin got the words out before my brain wrapped around what my cousin had said.

“She is and I wanted to tell you right away, Cas,” Casimir said. “Straight away, but it was complicated. We’re always together. So there was no question that it was mine, but she had to think about it – think about what she wanted to do. Think about how her future true-mate would feel about it all, I guess. We talked a lot. We’re never going to settle down together. We’re not going to take up being romantic. We have nothing in common besides you, great sex, and the love of mixing the sex with great liquor.”

“Is she keeping it?” I asked gently. “You know me. Body equals choice. There’s no other bodily autonomy without that.”

“She is. We are. Today we visited the Council of Healthy Hatchlings because they’re the ones who set stuff like this up. We will co-parent even if we don’t live together after the baby is a bit older. Basically, they said to do what we wanted and if there is a point in the future where we need mediation to come back to them.”

Leaning back against the side of the nest I took in the information. Casimir was going to be a daddy. He’d never hear the end of it from Sunny. Hell, I wasn’t going to hear the end of it from Sunny.

“Cas, say something,” Casimir said.

“I’m not mad,” I shook my head. “I’m imagining you walking around with a baby on your hip. It’s sorta great. Our kids can grow up together. You’ll have to handle Sunny. My dragon may take a chunk out of him if he gets too snippy about it.”

“Cas, he didn’t even hook up that night you gave the speech. I’m not sure what they got up to, but I was here when he and Teddy came back. They didn’t smell like sex.”

“Why do you worry about him so much anyway? Besides him being on your crew?” Axlin asked.

“He’s my good friend’s youngest son. So, I have to balance the fact he is an adult with the fact that Medwin would like tomeet his grandchildren and not have them scattered everywhere over here.”

“Medwin? The guy the ship is named after?”

“Yep,” I nodded.

“Melon shares a house with her sister. They’re fiery at each other at the best of times,” Casimir said.

“So, you’re hoping you can nest here?” I asked.

“Well, not in your nest. Melon’s not testy now, but I don’t want to be in the spot where I have to get between you two over nests or some shit, Cas. There would be no winner and even if one of you were right, I couldn’t take sides. Not while she’s pregnant or her dragoness believes she’s defending our hatchling. So, here, but our own nest.”

“I like Melon,” Axlin said, running his hand over my knee.

Casimir made himself a cup of coffee while I thought everything over. In the end, I decided to let Melon and Casimir nest in the dining room with us. We were different genders, and she was an alpha while I was an omega. There were enough differences between us that reasons to fight would be few and far between even for our inner beasts. Sure, I liked having Casimir’s doting attention while I was pregnant. He was my best friend and cousin, but I had Axlin and the support of the whole crew if I needed it. From the sounds of it Melon didn’t have a support system like that and she was now carrying Casimir’s baby.

Two days later, the second nest went up in our dining room and Melon moved into one of the spare bedrooms on the ship. Her sister wasn’t thrilled about her nesting on a spacecraft, but that was just one of their many bickering points. Melon didn’t want her near the ship and we promised not to let her in. I didn’t know her sister and from what I knew of the Starscales suspected it was more a clash of personalities and siblings not knowing how to give personal space than an actual feud.

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