Fern wasn't happy to be woken so early, but when he was told that they were going to see Jessamine again he rushed more than even Sineult did. After some discussion, all furtive whispers before he woke up and significant looks after, they decided not to tell him about the possibility. Fern had wanted younger siblings ever since Sineult and Onyx started trying again, and if it turned out to be a false alarm he would be so disappointed. The only thing was that with Fern, you never could tell whether your secret was kept or not until it came time to tell it to him.
Breakfast was rushed until Onyx made his family sit down and finish it in peace, reminding Sineult through a series of grimaces that it wouldn't do cubs any good if he gave himself a heart attack just having a meal and assuring Fern, once he could get a word in edgewise, that they wouldn't hold up until it was too late to go. They had only done that once, when Fern was three, but he'd never forgiven them for it.
Finally, fed, scrubbed and dressed, they piled into the car and started on their way. Sineult promptly fell asleep, tired out by his energetic preparations, but Fern spent the trip playing quietly (and surprisingly gently) in the back seat with the stuffed baby doll he had dragged along for the ride. Onyx had no idea where he had found it, or why he had it now; Fern had never showed much of an interest in dolls, not even in stuffed animals like his cousins kept, so all of the soft stuffed things that Sineult had bought for him when he was a baby had been tucked away in boxes in closets or given to the little bevy of human orphans Sineult had made friends with one day at work. The blond had a habit of making spontaneous friends here and there without even knowing he was doing it, and strays, whether human, Kindred, or animal appealed to his heart. Onyx was just happy his husband hadn't found a kitten. Their apartment building didn't allow pets.
Upon being asked what he was playing with the doll, Fern replied succinctly, 'Practicin'," and wouldn't say anything else, so his father left him alone. There were some things you just didn't get into with Fern, and Onyx was sure this one one of them because if the doll was just a coincidence and Fern didn't known anything about the brothers he might be having, the redhead would give it away for sure. He might not be bouncing off the walls, but he was excited, and he wasn't sure he could stand to keep the happy secret if they got into that kind of a talk.
He wondered what Sineult would do, if they were going to have more. The first time around, with Fern, they had opted to keep Sineult's job at the flower shop as backup for Onyx's painting, so Sineult had spent a lot of Fern's cubhood doing half-days at the shop while he might have been home. Sineult regretted it, but he'd told Onyx decisively that he wouldn't have done differently. It had been almost a year before Onyx's art really caught on in the market, and there'd been quite a few close scrapes where Sineult's backup money was all that got them by; if Sineult had stayed home, they would have gone broke for sure. This time though, there wasn't a real need. Onyx was keeping them afloat and more with his commissions, and anything short of five new mouths to feed wouldn't hurt that much that they wouldn't be okay. As much as Sineult loved his job, Onyx was pretty sure he would decide to remain at home.
It would be safer that way too. For a Kindred in the modern world life was a balancing act, a constant struggle to stay a long-lost legend, safe in the anonymity that so many humans fell into and despised. A Kindred in the city was begging to be caught, which was the main reason why so many migrated to the city for a mate and moved right back to the country after a few years. The cities had become a meeting place, a spot where a few Kindred seeking a mate fit right in with the humans seeking the same, packed in like fish in a can and so intent on their own business that no one payed any mind to those who came and went. Staying, though, that could be dangerous. People packed in together long enough were bound to notice things about each other.
Dangerous though it might be, Onyx didn't intend to move. The city was all Sineult knew, all he really had left of what he'd once been after they had had to cut off so much of his communication with the world of humans, and they had made themselves a big enough niche that it would take more than a few hints here and there to break the trust Sineult had won for them. It might be nice just the same if he avoided having connections or responsibilities. It was one thing to live among humans; it was another thing to be bound to them.
"We almos' there?" Fern piped up from the back seat, shaking Onyx out of the train of thought that was beginning to turn morbid on him. Collecting his wits again, he smiled in the rearview mirror at the cub's hopeful face.
"Yes, we're almost there. Look out the window and watch for the duck pond, will you? You should see it in a couple of minutes I think... Then we'll have to wake your da."
"Da's sleepy," Fern agreed solemnly, hugging his baby and staring out his window, intent now on spotting the duck pond before his father did. "'T was too hot las' night t' sleep."
"Well, it'll probably be too hot tonight too," Onyx sighed, watching the road fall away beneath them. The yellow stripe had been left behind some time before as the town roads faded into country ones, sometimes lanes shaded by trees, sometimes open fields, drenched in sunlight and growing like mad. The land around Jessamine's old family home was one of the latter, open and serene with no buffer but one lone boxwood hedge grown up over a cow-fence to hide new growth or winter decay from the house's line of view. The property had most likely belonged to a human farming family before Jessamine's ancestors got hold of it, but that had been so long ago now that nobody could remember if it was true or not, so the suggestions of the layout of the house and grounds were all there was to verify such a thing. It wasn't used as a farm anymore, certainly, unless the ducks and the extensive herb and vegetable garden counted. The shop that supported Jessamine and those of his family that were still at home was closer to town.
Squeezing his baby in a way that made Onyx wince and give thanks that it wasn't a real infant, Fern let out an exultant cry. "I c'n see it! There 't is!"
It was a big house, inside and out, and most of the open field surrounding it was Jessamine's. Most of said 'field' was actually an overgrown meadow; only a portion, small by comparison to the whole, was being used for growing things in. Hemlock and Lupin could be seen sitting side by side on the white-painted front steps, a great bowl between them and a pile of what looked like early greens in each of their laps, all in the process of being sorted to get out the dead leaves and weeds that might have sneaked in, and on the front lawn a few yards from them was Jessamine himself, hanging a batch of clean laundry on the two cord clothes-lines he had strung between stout wood posts.
At Onyx's suggestion Fern shook Sineult awake while they were driving up the grey gravel driveway so that he had enough time to pull himself together before they got into all the particulars of what might and might not be. Jessamine left the clothes and came over to meet them, but the two on the steps just waved, smiled, and went on with their work, waiting for the visitors to come and enter the house by their vantage point. Onyx smiled back at them before turning to deal with his groggy mate and his tana.
"What have we got here?" Jessamine asked blithely, returning the wild hug Fern gave him upon climbing out of the car. He eyed the older pair, smiling but serious; a healer had to be always ready for disaster, and for one of them a sudden, unexplained visit was always a possible emergency. Hugging his sleepy-eyed mate Onyx nodded at his elder, acknowledging and agreeing with the unvoiced question, but returning the smile too so Jessamine would know it was nothing bad. Jessamine's smile softened.
"Well then," he addressed Fern, who was still cradling the doll like a live infant. "You came here to run, I guess. Not a lot cooler than the city, is it?"
"Nope," Fern agreed dejectedly, shaking his sweat-soaked head, and it was true enough. Even the occasional breezes were warm. Jessamine grinned.
"It's summer here too! It'll cool off later in the year, and we'll just have to wait until then. Until then, why don't you go up on the steps and help your Tala Lupin get lunch ready. You're staying for lunch, right?"
Brightening up a little, Fern nodded. "Papa says you gotta talk wi' Da an' him lots, so we c'n stay for lunch if y' want us. You do, don't y?"
This elicited a laugh. "Of course we do! As a matter of fact, if you can help your Tala get those greens done in good time, I'm sure he'd be glad to help you make some..." Jessamine leaned in close to the cub's ear and stage-whispered, "...cookies."
Fern took off like a streak, shrieking eagerly all the way. "Tala! Tané! C'n I help?"
"Now then," the cub-bearer addressed his remaining two visitors, a smile still playing around the corners of his mouth. "I think I smell some news. Onyx, would you care to explain?"
Sineult lifted a groggy head to toss his husband a questioning look. Onyx choked.
"I forgot! I - I can smell it, but I didn't... until just now, I didn't even think about it." He glanced guiltily at Sineult. "I forgot."
"Accepted it already?" Jessamine suggested impishly and reached out to take one of Sineult's smaller hands, adding solemnly, "I always said cities are bad for the nose. I don't see how you can tell usually, but I can well imagine that in this heat..." He sighed. "Everything smells stronger in the heat. Oh, well, at least I know you're not upset about it, if you took things just like that!"
"I wan'ed it a'ready," Sineult offered, rubbing sleep out of his eyes with his free hand as they neared the house steps where their firstborn was now feverishly sorting greens. "I like i'. An' Onyx, he said 't was okay las' night. Tha's when he thought maybe, but he coul'n't smell, so we came ou' here t' see if 't was right. Haven' tol' Fern yet."
"We wanted to wait until we knew for sure," Onyx explained, grinning sheepishly. "I've never been take by surprise like this but I can't say I mind too much if things are all right now. We've been trying to have more since last year."
Jessamine nodded more seriously, brushing fallen hair out of Sineult's eyes. "I'm glad. Sometimes surprise cubs can be so much of a shock that they feel like intruders, even when you were already wanting more. And it's always hard to come to grips with the idea of new cubs for a while. Just doesn't seem real, does it?"
Onyx didn't have time to answer that no, it still didn't feel quite like more than a dream, because they reached the steps then and Lupin was smirking rather disconcertingly in the direction of his half-brother, greens forgotten in his lap. Seeing work being held up, Fern snatched the lonely pile away and began frantically going through it. Lupin didn't notice.
"Gone in for perfume now, brother dear?" the other blond questioned sweetly, leaning his chin into his new-freed hands. "Smells nice. Doesn't it, Mem?"
"Mm," Hemlock agreed absently, still absorbed in his work. "Very nice."
Sineult's eyes narrowed. Hemlock's head came up, eyes suddenly wide, betrayed panic flitting across his face as he realised what the smell was and what he had just said. "Lupin! Da! Don't laugh!" he objected as his bearer dissolved into peals of mirth. Turning to the younger Curan, he tried mending his misstep.
"I didn't mean it that way, and I'm sorry. Certain people-" here a piercing look was leveled at his giggling mate- "are in a very good mood today. It's dangerous."
"He was just being polite, Sineult," Onyx put in, suppressing his own laughter and doing, he thought, rather well considering. "I think we should probably go inside now and see about a checkup. You're not too busy, are you, Tana?"
"No, of course not," Jessamine assured, still damping giggles as he swung open the door and ushered them into the house. "Well, Sineult, you didn't do that last time. Maybe you're getting more Kindredlike as you get older, hm?" Sineult blinked blankly. "Never mind, just a thought. Come to think of it, if that's true you shouldn't be pregnant; it's much too early by all records for a pureblood to have more. Maybe your hormones just weren't well kicked in last time."
"Maybe it's the heat," Onyx offered dismally, catching the sun-baked screen door as it swung back on him, and Jessamine smiled.
"That too. Come on into the back room, and I'll see how it's going."
