Meridian Prime

Viper Bordeaux had never expected to fall pregnant in his life. The first time had been a surprise, certainly, but the second had been a downright inconvenience. It had to happen at the worst possible time, of course. He had just moved to the Dark Dynasty with the father of his children. They were refugees in a sense. Viper's health had been on the decline for a while. It was a wonder, between his age and his condition, that he had managed to get pregnant at all. Even more surprising that Viper had managed to keep the litter to term. Between the stress of Valentino's strange death and resurrection and all the walking he had been doing, Viper hadn't exactly been taking care of himself. He was thin, gaunt even. Far too thin for a pregnant individual. His eyes were always hollow and empty, even when he tried to put on his best smile. He was happy about his new offspring, truly, Viper was. He just would have preferred to have them at a different time. However, a theme in Viper's life was that nothing ever happened when he wanted it to. He'd grown used to changing plans last minute. Really, Viper was quite surprised that he didn't have his litter while he was traveling between the Knights of Eden and the Dark Dynasty. That would have really put the icing on the cake. Perhaps the Flying Spaghetti Monster had pitied him and decided that Viper should be allowed to have his babies in his own nest at home. In truth, Viper wondered if it would have been better that he had had them away from the Dynasty, where Val wasn't pacing around him and asking him a thousand and one questions. "Are you alright? Are you still alive?" Val leaned in close, nuzzling all over Viper's face. The Frenchman blinked at Val, slightly annoyed. "Of course, I'm fine. I'm not dying." "And the babies? Are they fine?" The hybrid pressed, standing over Viper, as if something was going to come out of the trees and snatch away the babies before they even had a chance to be born. Viper uttered a soft sigh and held his temper. "We won't know until they're born." He told Val, trying to soothe the man's anxiety. "I can't have the babies if you're poking at me every ten seconds to make sure I'm alive. You'd know if I wasn't." There was a good reason behind Valentino's fear. Viper hadn't been there to witness it himself, but he had heard through the grapevine was a terrible experience the birth of Val's first litter had been. He had lost all of his children with the exception of one. Viper had had a similar experience with his first litter. He had given birth alone and all besides Ivory had died. He had been devastated, but life moved on. There had been more to worry about than things that had never been. Viper supposed he was better at bottling up emotions than Val was. "Is it dead? Has it died? Do you think it's alright?" Val poured his fear over his daughter. He was desperately afraid of touching her, of hurting her, of the feeling of her breath wasting away in his paws. There was nothing to tell him that she would die. She was strong. Her voice was loud and she fought against Viper's grooming. It was the fear that something could potentially happen to her that was especially paralyzing. The unknowingness was crushing. Viper's soft pink eyes blinked up to Val's and he felt his heart skip, bracing himself for bad news. "She's fine." Viper answered, his eyes soft with love. They had their differences, but the pair did care about each other. Viper was stupidly faithful. He would follow Val to the ends of the earth and the hybrid moth was well aware of that. One could say that he took advantage of Viper. He could probably agree, but at least he wasn't planning on abandoning the Frenchman and his brand two set of babies. "They'll live?" Val questioned for the millionth time. He needed to be sure. The taller smoothed down Viper's ears and gave him something of an admiring smile. "That was rather painless." He stated. Viper opened an eye and glanced up at Valentino. "Hardly." "Griefless, I suppose I meant." Val corrected himself, watching Viper return his chin to his paws. It felt terribly surreal. Viper's cream ears flicked in response. Val truly admired Viper. The serval was made of pure steel, Val was certain. He had never seen Viper shed a tear from pain before and this was no exception. He thought that perhaps Viper had seen enough pain and cried away all of his tears. Val settled down at Viper's side, staring at his new children. They were... weird. Bigger than he had thought they would be, certainly. They moved and cried more than his first litter. They were healthier, livelier. Despite Viper's confidence that the litter of two would be perfectly fine, Val couldn't curb his anxiety. "Suppose they take a turn for the worst, what do we do then?" He questioned to Viper in a low voice. He heard Viper let out a soft sigh from his nose. Val knew that he was annoying the exhausted serval, but frankly, he couldn't care less. "This isn't the Exiles. We have enough medics on tap that if something happened, it wouldn't be an issue." The Frenchman lifted his head and turned to snatch one of his newborn kittens by the scruff and laid him at Valentino's paws. "Would you look at that? This one has antennae as well. A cute set of wings on him." This one was crisp white. His fur was starting to fluff out as it dried. His delicate pink and yellow wings were securely flattened against his back. With a giant paw, Val smoothed his son's pink antennae. He had never had a son before. This one was built just like Viper, tiny and petite with the most velvety cream colored coat he had ever seen. "We could name this one Snow." Val offered, entranced by the tiny life worming around between his paws. He felt a bit bad that they hadn't planned out any names beforehand. He had been separated from Viper for the vast majority of the pregnancy. There hadn't been time to think of names. This newborn serval had so much life within him. Life that Val couldn't help but wishing he had had. His tiny son had a mother and a father and siblings that would, with luck, care about him. Snow; the first snow-- a sign that life moves forward and trials are overcome. A sign of rebirth and new change, something that Val desperately needed at the moment. Registering the silence from Viper, Val dragged his eyes away from his son and stared back. "Don't you like it? Why are you looking at me like that? I'm trying to think of a good name for him. He'll be stuck with it for the rest of his little life, we've got to make sure it's a good one." Val defended, glaring at Viper's giant grin. The Frenchman couldn't help his laugh. "Yes, yes, Snow is perfectly fine. I was just watching you look at him with this look of shock. Like he just insulted your mother or something." Viper snickered, earning himself a light cuff over the ears from Val. "Shut up! He's... he's weird, is all!" Val huffed, wishing he hadn't sounded so defensive. "Don't call him weird. You made him, so it's your fault if he came out weird." Viper returned, shaking his head fondly at Val. "He's new. He'll grow into himself and you won't think he's weird anymore. You said the same thing about Cessna when she was born." Val knew Viper was right. He scolded himself that he needed Viper to tell him something so obvious. "What are you going to name that one? Do you think she'll grow wings as well?" Viper hummed, studying his daughter for a moment. On the contrary to Valentino, he had never had a daughter before. "I suppose she will, yes. Seems like it. She's already got little wing stubs." This one was a picture of Valentino. She was strong and mighty. Viper could see a beautiful soldier in her, much better than himself. "I want to name her Lokelani." He decided. Viper turned when he heard a soft noise from Val. The Italian man was thinking about how much better Viper was at naming things. With luck, Snow wouldn't mind his basic name too much. "Why Lokelani?" He couldn't help but ask. It seemed like such a random name to Val. He had never heard Viper mention anything like it until now. "I had a sister named Lokelani somewhere along the line. I just thought it was a nice name. She's like a white rose." Viper answered with a light shrug of his shoulders. Val agreed that the name fit. Val didn't want to have to let anyone near his babies. He had promised that Cessna could see them after Ivory, but Val really didn't want to bring Ivory anywhere near his children. He was afraid that maybe Ivory would eat them. He seemed like the type. It had to be done sooner or later though. The sooner Ivory left, the better. Returning his brand new son to Viper's side, Val lifted himself to his paws and turned to the trees. He could already see Ivory's tan spotted pelt. It made Val's fur prickle a bit. He didn't want to have to look at Ivory. The creature was a vile, horrible little thing that Val for some reason called an employee. Raising an eyebrow at the serval, he gave a nod and stood aside to let Viper's firstborn son limp through.

Ivory didn't want to be there either. He was only here for his mother. If it had been up to him, Ivory would have stayed as far away as possible. It hurt just a bit to see Viper's pink gaze light up with such love and warmth when he looked at his new offspring. Ivory couldn't remember the last time his mother had looked at him that way. It had been years and then some.

It had been so easy to forget that Viper had been pregnant. His mother didn't look pregnant and certainly didn't act like it, so there was no reason to talk about it. Ivory was sure that even Viper had forgotten he was pregnant for the majority of the time. But now, it was set in stone. Now there were babies to soak up all of Viper's attention. Not that Ivory was ever the center of it, however. Since his stroke, Viper had been pouring love and care into Ivory. He supposed that ended now. Viper had two tiny creatures to keep alive. There was no place for Ivory in that. He was really, truly on his own. His blue eyes landed on the smaller of the two, Snow. Ivory wanted to love them, but he couldn't bring himself to feel anything besides malice and distaste. This fluffy little being was so much better than him in every way and he was only a few minutes old. He was pure, untouched, had never seen the harshness of the world. For the first time, Ivory felt himself feel grateful that the stroke had taken away the majority of his communication skills, lest he would find himself serving his mother some scathing words. At the same time, Ivory felt helpless that he had no speech. He could just stare and watch Viper groom them and give Snow and Lokelani his full love. If only that could be him. It was so easy to imagine himself curled around a litter of Alexei's children. Perfectly sized serval tigers that would be ready for anything and so deeply loved. A group of tiny creatures that would most certainly be enough to make Alexei love him and come home. However, Ivory knew that was impossible. Perhaps Snow and Lokelani would have better luck. Ivory could feel Val's red hot gaze burning into his fur. He dipped his head to press his nose lightly to Viper's ear and mumble something that could possibly register as a congratulations. Ivory brushed past Val on his escape, but he didn't go very far. He sat himself among the bushes to watch as Val slowly welcomed Cessna to his new litter. The red fox's blind eyes went so wide with interest. She looked as apprehensive as her father as she turned to Viper. "Can I hold one?" She questioned immediately. Valentino opened his mouth to argue but Viper swatted his paw aside before he could put himself between Cessna and his newborns. Viper served Cessna Lokelani. "Now, be careful with her, she's brand new and delicate." The Frenchman warned. Cessna hesitated when the young panther was laid on her paws. "Ew, they feel so strange. They're really warm." Cessna commented. "It's vibrating." Viper chuckled, gingerly taking his daughter back and setting her down at his stomach. "She's purring. They all purr when they're new." He explained. "Did I?" "You're a fox, Cessna, foxes don't purr." Val mumbled, nudging his eldest daughter with his shoulder. "What do you think of them?" Cessna paused a second, gathering her words. "I promise I'll protect 'em and keep 'em safe from all of the scary things. I'll teach them how to tie bows." She turned a grin to Viper. He grin slowly faded though. Her white paw smoothed over Snow's perfect moth wings. Out of all of her winged family, she was the only one who couldn't fly. Viper leaned forward and pressed his pink nose to Cessna's. "You and I can catch them and make sure they don't fall." He promised, his voice understanding and soft. "You can teach them all the battle moves you know." Cessna abruptly lifted herself to her paws and stepped into the nest with Viper and his newborns. She settled herself down and her chin came to rest on the serval's back. She was a nearly fully grown fox. Cessna didn't exactly fit in the nest and Viper looked to have no intention of shooing her away. A look of relief washed over Val's face. As Ivory watched the new family, he wondered why Cessna couldn't hold a grudge. Was it her youth standing in the way of her hating Viper and Val? She wasn't all that different from himself. Cessna had also been so deeply hurt at the hands of a neglectful parent. Her wings were ruined and she had been stripped of her eyesight. Cessna wasn't pretty anymore and neither was Ivory. But, for some reason, Cessna could still find it in herself to love Val. He supposed that he loved Viper too. All he wanted was Viper. Even if he was never to love Alexei again, Ivory wouldn't be able to live without Viper. Ivory decided that he could live with being Valentino's employee if it meant that he was able to stay with his mother. It would be from a far, of course, but he would still be there. Ivory knew that Viper never left unless there was nothing left to stay for. Viper would never leave the horribly toxic relationship with Valentino, no matter how many times the moth panther slept around. Ivory hated Viper for it, but he knew he was the same way. Not being able to bear another moment, Ivory turned away and headed into the trees to make room for the rest of the Dark Dynasty. They would start to file in soon to see the new arrivals and congratulate their parents. Of course, the Knights of Eden would be along soon as well to lay eyes on Viper and give their well wishes. Ivory glanced back at his mother, sending him a silent goodbye as he limped off in the direction of the pond and his mother's favorite sunning spot.