Venned Denmates 4

    Retrospectively, I should have noticed that something was amiss from the moment I woke up. I usually looked forward to Fridays due to the approaching weekend, but to get up with a giant smile in my face was unusual even for me.

    In my defense I can say that it was the first working Friday as a chakat for me, so I simply dismissed my abnormal cheerfulness by attributing it both to the coming weekend and the good pounding I'd received the night before by Snowblossom. My mate might have noticed something unusual – if she'd been there. But shi'd already left for work when I'd gotten up, being required to attend an early meeting, whereas I was expected to use up some of the overtime I'd inevitably accrued over the years. Therefore the only one who saw me before lunch was Joanna, who'd offered to pick me up, and my colleagues. Needless to say, even though they all commented on my giddy cheerfulness, none of them had any clue about chakats, so it took until lunch for me to receive the biggest bombshell which had ever been dropped on me in my life.

    But let's take one at a time...

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    When I carried my overloaded tray into the dinner hall, I had to actively keep myself from bouncing through the room like a hyperactive kitten which had been bathed in coffee. Somehow, my already splendid mood had soared even higher, making me want to shout out in joy. I seriously had no idea what the heck was going on, but I wasn't complaining. If anticipating the coming weekend would always feel like that to a chakat, I'd never Venn back.

    Beaming, I went over to our usual table which was already occupied by Andrew, Snowblossom and Unit 829. After the first lunch meeting with the other Venners, we'd decided to keep gathering here at lunch to further exchange our experiences. And we'd become a tightly knit group of friends rather quickly.

    “Hi love,” I purred as I put myself down next to Snowblossom, bestowing a crushing hug and a loving kiss-lick on her. My mate yelped in surprise, but returned the deed with enthusiasm.

    “What's up with you?” shi asked amused. “Usually you're really shy about showing affection in public.”

    “I'm just in a good mood, that's all,” I replied in high spirits, hugging hir back with my tail. A week of practice had really done wonders about my body control. Previously, I'd never been a chakat long enough to realize the advantages of having a seventh limb, but by now I was using my tail for all kinds of tasks almost subconsciously.

    “Well, at least somebody is in a good mood today,” a familiar voice growled, and I looked at Andrew's white-furred face with a grin. A decidedly testy white-furred face. I cocked an eyebrow in a silent question.

    “Broken pipe in the basement,” Andrew sighed. “Really a big mess down there. Hell of a way to start the weekend.”

    “Ouch, sorry,” I said, sympathetically. I totally knew how such a catastrophe on the weekend eve felt like; I'd often enough experienced similar disasters with software deliveries.

    The big lion chuckled. “Don't mind it. As I said, I'm glad not all are having as bad a day as I am. “Even though yours is probably the opposite.” He shook his head amused. “If I didn't know better I'd say–”

    “Hey, Copperqueen!” Joanna's squeaky voice suddenly interrupted him. The girl put her tray down and then hugged me, having taken almost zealous liking to the chakat way of greeting. “Still happy as a peach,” she said with a grin. “I guess your mate really took you out for a ride yesterday.”

    Said mate laughed out loud. “You should have seen hir last night. Shi simply couldn't get enough. In the end I'd pounded hir into a heap of happily purring fur.”

    I felt my cheeks heat a bit, but I wasn't even nearly as embarrassed as I'd been at the beginning of the week when our love life had come up in discussions. Sex had quickly become a normal topic in our little circle, and to my surprise, I'd quickly grown accustomed to Snowblossom speaking freely about our sex life.

    Joanna giggled. “I wish I had a boyfriend who'd do the same to me. When I picked Copperqueen up this morning, shi was acting so much like a happy Disney princess that I expected to see birds and butterflies flutter in hir wake.”

    Snowblossom snickered. “I can imagine. But don't worry, shi's not gonna get any more girly... I think.” Shi winked. “We figured out that shi's smack in the middle of hir female cycle right now.”

    “Oh, right. You mentioned something like this.” Joanna remarked. “How exactly does this work again?”

    To be honest, I'd expected Andrew to chime in and explain the chakat hormonal cycle now. The big guy was a walking encyclopedia after all, and usually didn't miss out on any opportunity to flaunt his knowledge. This time, though, he didn't. Instead he suddenly seemed deep in thoughts. Dude is probably still preoccupied with his broken pipes...

    “Chakats have a 24 day cycle,” my mate filled in therefore. “For a couple of days we're pretty much only interested in male sex, and for another couple of days we're all in for female sex, and the transition takes twelve days,” shi explained. “And it looks like the friend who Venned us managed to put us smack in the middle between the two phases, with me slipping towards male peak and Copperqueen here towards the female one. If my math is right, yesterday night must have been the respective peak for both of us.”

    “She did that on purpose, I suppose,” I sighed, but with a little smile. I wasn't exactly complaining, after all. “Putting me into heat first...”

    “Now that you're asking about this...” Snowblossom rubbed her chin in thought. “I still haven't told Ilona that she nailed it. Not bad for the first try.”

    Joanna raised an eyebrow. “You're the first chakats your friend Venned, you mean?”

    My mate shook hir head. “Nah... she's Venned chakats for years now. It's just that us two here are the first she Venned for longer than a few days. If you are a chakat for only three days, creating any kind of hormonal cycle is a bit pointless. So we're actually the first of her chakat creations who got a cycle. I bet she'll be delighted to learn that she got it right.”

    From the corner of my eyes I saw Andrew opening his mouth as if to ask something, but then he shook his head, reverting back to brooding silently. He clearly wasn't happy. The Dude seriously had to learn about not taking his work problems to the lunch table...

    I wasn't the only one who'd noticed his gloomy face. “Oh come on, Andrew,” Joanna protested and playfully smacked him on the biceps. “Come smile a bit. The contrast is ridiculous. Copperqueen here is like a glowing sun to your pitch-black dark hole!”

    Andrew choked at this, then giggled insecurely. Insecurely? Andrew? What the hell was going on? “Uhh... yeah... actually...” he shook his head. “It's actually quite funny for you to use this word. 'Glowing', I mean. According to the tales, chakats emanate a thoroughly positive aura... something like a happy glow... when they are... pregnant?” Somehow he managed to turn his statement into a question.

    Huh? I, pregnant? That was–

    “That's ridiculous.” Snowblossom laughed throatily. “There's no way for hir to be pregnant. Even though I boned hir pretty hard last night,” she added with a mischievous grin. I rolled my eyes at that.

    “Yeah, I figured as much,” the lion morph quickly added relieved. “Mind you, all the pieces seemed to assemble just right, but I guess you know chakat biology as well or even better than I do, and there'd be no way that you'd have sex without protection when one of you is in hea-”

    “Uhh... but... we didn't?” I interjected.

    Andrew's eyes went wide as saucers. His spoon fell out of his paw and looked at me shocked.

    “You... didn't? Didn't use protection?” The big lion was at a loss for words. “But... WHY?”

    I looked over at my mate. Shi still seemed unfazed, though.

    Snowblossom made a dismissive gesture with hir hand. “Yeah, we're gonna start using condoms in a month or so. But until then... it's so much better without anything between us.” Shi patted my flank lovingly.

    “Yup, because Venned people only become fertile after a month or so.” I added, suddenly feeling butterflies in my stomach.. “Right...?”

    My chakat mate nodded, but Andrew buried his face in his hands. “Who told you that?” he groaned. “Short-term Venns are sterile, long-term Venns are fertile. But the biology doesn't suddenly shift after some kind of timer expires. Either your form is fertile, according to the biological specifications it was designed to, or it isn't. From the beginning.”

    There was utter silence. Snowblossom and me ogled the lion. Surely he couldn't mean that-

    “Shi can't be pregnant.” My mate squeaked. “Shi'd know immediately. It's like this for chakats. There's this hormone spike they feel when they conceive!” Snowblossom looked at me almost pleadingly. “You didn't feel anything like it, right?”

    I opened my mouth to say something, but Joanna beat me to it.

    “You said you'd, quote, 'pounded hir into a heap of happily purring fur', end quote.” The girl raised an eyebrow. “If that's not the mother of all hormone spikes then I'm the empress of China.” There was a goofy grin on her face now.

    “Yes.” Andrew still had his face covered by his hands. His voice sounded muffled from having to pass through his thick paws first. “Plus Copperqueen's obviously on cloud nine today. Two plus two is four. If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then...” The lion didn't finish the sentence, but it was clear what he meant.

    I'd immediately understood what he was saying. Intellectually, that is. Emotionally... I struggled. Almost unconsciously I put my hand on my belly.

    Holy shit.

    My mate fished for her smartphone. “I'll have to make a call...” shi said, sounding just as shaken as I felt.

    Holy fucking shit.

    Snowblossom was furiously pounding hir smartphone now. “Ilona?” Shi barked into hir headset after shi'd established a connection. Due to my sensitive feline ears I could pick up Ilona's voice as a faint murmur, but couldn't understand enough to make sense of it. “Yeah, I don't care. We gotta talk. Right now. Listen, if you Venn someone, when does shi become fertile?”

    Ilona's voice suddenly sounded alarmed.

    I winced as Snowblossom's scowl deepened to an almost murderous frown. If heat made me more girly, then rut definitely instilled a... temper in hir.

    “Don't answer my question with another question!” shi thundered. “And why the hell are you asking us if we used condoms? IT WON'T MATTER BECAUSE WE WON'T BE FERTILE UNTIL NEXT MONTH, RIGHT? ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU TOLD US?” My mate was practically screaming into hir headset now.

    Ilona sounded apologetic.

    “YES, THANK YOU, I KNOW THAT NOW!”

    More apologies.

    “YOU'RE ASKING IF SOMETHING HAS ALREADY HAPPENED? WELL, GUESS WHY I'M CALLING...”

    At this point, I was pretty much tuning out. Yup. I was pregnant. I didn't know why I hadn't realized it earlier, but... yeah. I could totally feel the spark of life in my belly. All the elation I'd been feeling since yesterday night had been this new existence in my womb. I'd simply been too ignorant to interpret it properly.

    I'm going to be a mommy. The thought was alien. And yet... it made me happy. Why the hell did it make me happy? Snowblossom and me had only known each other for a few months now. Were we really ready for kids? Were we ready for chakat kids? Was I ready to be a fath–

    I couldn't suppress a chuckle at my lapse. Right, mother.

    My mate looked at me concerned now, interrupting her tirade for the moment. “You know what, we'll talk later. You're not off the hook yet.” Shi said gruffly and then put the phone away. The other chakat nibbled her lower lip and gave me an apologetic look. “Copperqueen,” shi started hesitantly, “I'm so so–”

    “I'm going to be a mother,” I said, way more serenely than I actually felt. I folded my hands over my belly. “We're going to be parents...”

    Suddenly, my earlier apprehension was back and I started hyperventilating. “What if we're not ready?” I asked panicked. “What if–”

    Instead of an answer, Snowblossom swept me into a crushing hug, hir tail coiling itself protectively over my back. “Shhh...” shi whispered into my ear, nuzzling me with her tongue. I could feel hir love flow into me, calming my nerves. “We'll figure it out together. I'm here for you.”

    A joyful sob escaped my throat, and I buried my head in hir warm mane. For several minutes, we simply hugged each other, giving ourselves comfort.

    Until someone cleared her throat. Behind us, Susanna stood with her tray, taking in the scenery. “Am I interrupting? Did I miss something?” the cobra woman asked amused.

    Joanna sniffled a bit and grinned like a Cheshire cat. “You won't believe it!” The girl proclaimed and pointed at Snowblossom and me. “Shi's pregnant!”

    “Oh, really?” Susanna chuckled and put the tray down. Then she went towards my mate. “Congratulations, Snowblossom! How far along are you?”

    There was a stunned silence for about a couple of seconds.

    And then, everybody simply broke down in laughter. Joanna had tears in her eyes, she was cackling that hard. Andrew still had his face buried in his paws, but his shoulders were twitching suspiciously. Snowblossom and me simply laughed heartily. After the shocking news, it just felt so good to laugh. Even Unit 829, who'd never shown even a hint of emotion before, emitted a creepy noise over its speaker which sounded like a meatgrinder working on nuts and bolts.

    “I don't understand?” the snake woman asked, looking around confused. “What's so funny? What did I say?”

    “Oh my God...” Joanna gasped, holding her sides. “This is comedy gold. You want to know what you did wrong? I tell you what! You just asked Daddy!”

    “Well then, give me a call once you're done,” Andrew told us after we'd exited his car. Being a regular, bipedal anthro had its advantages, like still being able to properly fit into the driver's seat. Well, not properly in Andrew's case. 'Barely' was the operative word, given his size. But it worked.

    After Snowblossom and me had digested the news about my probable pregnancy, we'd decided to seek professional aid. Only... where to get professional aid for a pregnant chakat? Searching the internet hadn't offered us many clues. I was hardly the first Venned person to get knocked up, but it mostly happened to genderbent humans. We'd hardly managed to find any information about non-human pregnancies, except for a couple which had turned into snakes and produced offspring in a zoo.

    Of course, if you were pregnant you went to see a doctor... which my mate and me had tried, at first. Only to get turned down before even getting a paw into the ER at the local hospital. “Sorry, we're only treating humans,” the guard had told us, not looking particularly sorry at all. “Besides,” he'd said while wrinkling his nose, “pets are not allowed inside.”

    Luckily for him, Snowblossom and me had been too shocked by this brazen display of bigotry to consider simply shredding the ass to bits with our claws. But this incident had pretty much ruled hospitals out for me, so what to do?

    Thankfully, Andrew had gotten an idea. Hospitals for humans might be out of the question, but what about veterinary clinics? They accepted all kinds of different species and were private, so they were probably inclined to take us as long as we agreed to pay the bill.

    Having to pay for my health despite having insurance scorned the socialist in me, but Snowblossom and me had agreed that this was the best course of action available to us. Especially since it turned out that an acquaintance of Andrew was a veterinarian.

    Which was how my mate and me now found ourselves standing outside of the 'Cedar Pines Veterinary Clinic'. Snowblossom squeezed my hand tightly and curled hir strong tail protectively around my back.

    “Let's go then,” shi said encouragingly, walking a bit ahead of me and pulling the door open for me. I giggled at hir antics.

    The other chakat scowled at me. “What's so funny?” shi asked.

    “Oh, nothing...” I replied amused. “It's just... back when we were still human, you always wanted to be treated like a proper lady. Even as a chakat you were just a tiny bit spoiled. But since lunch you're suddenly going out of your way to assist me wherever possible.”

    Snowblossom looked mortified. “Is it really this obvious?”

    “Totally. Back when we got out of Andrew's car you checked if there was any traffic before you let me exit. Normally, you'd be chastising me for not helping you getting out of the car.” Which had been a ridiculous complaint anyway. Shi was basically a giant cat, what was supposed to happen to hir while getting out of the car? Not falling on her four paws?

    Shi sighed. “I guess you're right... still...” Shi looked at my ruefully. “But back then you weren't pregnant either...”

    “I guess so...” We looked at each other uncomfortably as shi mentioned the elephant in the room.

    A purposeful harrumph interrupted us. The receptionist, a cute girl in her twenties, looked at us with a grin. “Who of you is the pet and who is the owner?” she asked brightly.

    We simply stared at her.

    “Okay, okay, just making small talk here.” She raised her hands in apology. “We get Venned pet owners quite often and they usually like the joke. Let's try again then.” The girl passed a clipboard to Snowblossom. “Please put in all the information about why you're visiting us here.” Shi swiftly took the board and scribbled the information down.

    The receptionist gave thanks to my mate, but then furrowed her brows in consternation. “Copperqueen, that's a fun name... and what's a 'chakat'?”

    I put a soothing hand on Snowblossom's back as I felt hir fur bristle in annoyance.

    “Don't insult my mate. Copperqueen is a fine name,” shi hissed with bared teeth. “And we–” shi motioned at our felitaur bodies, “–are chakats.”

    “Oh!” The girl looked at me surprised. Then she started to giggle. “So you are the pet.”

    For a moment, I feared that my mate would explode. I felt my heart skip a beat when shi stretched out a hand for the receptionist, and I was already prepared to see her pretty face disappear in a cloud of gore and blood when my mate's claws would rip into it, but instead, shi simply snatched the form out of her hand.

    Without a word, shi grabbed a pen and stroke through the label “Name of pet”. Then she scribbled “Patient” over it and slammed the form down again. “You got a doc called MacIntyre here, yes?” The startled receptionist nodded. “Tell her that the chakat patient–” shi stressed the word, “–she's been expecting is here.”

    Without so much as giving her another look, Snowblossom turned and marched off towards the waiting room. I mouthed a silent “Sorry” at the poor girl and hurried after my mate. Looks like the rut really is doing a thing on hir temper...

    Once in the waiting room, we got lots of funny stares, but nobody tried to strike up a conversation. Thankfully, it took barely ten minutes until we were summoned. “Snowblossom and Copperqueen, please!” the overhead speaker came to life, and both of us went up and into the hallway where we got collected by a nurse, just to be ushered into a treatment room.

    It didn't look that much different from a treatment room in a normal hospital, it even had the same antiseptic smells – only a hundredfold strengthened due to my sensitive nose. Urgh, talk about the downsides of this form...

    “Damn, I never realized hospitals smelled this bad...” my mate muttered, echoing my own thoughts. But before I could reply, the door opened and in came the most outlandish doctor I'd ever seen.

    For starters, she barely topped five feet. Then there was her skin - which was covered in fine, silky, azure fur. Of course the weirdness didn't end there. Her eyes were massive, almost as big as an anime character's, and she had red irises with star-shaped pupils. Her hair, on the other hand, looked like living vines: Thick, seemingly moving strands of green dreads.

    “Hi, I'm Dr. Colleen MacIntyre,” the weirdly Venned woman said with a friendly smile, revealing pearl white teeth with just a tiny hint of fangs. “And you two are Andrew's friends?” She giggled. “I've known him for a long time, but he has never sent any people to me, much less a pair of chakats.”

    Immediately, I felt myself warm up to the strange woman. Her frank openness combined with her outlandish appearance somehow made me want to trust her.

    “Uh, yeah.” Snowblossom answered for both of us. “I'm Chakat Snowblossom, and that's Chakat Copperqueen, my denmate. Andrew has recommended you to us...” Shi hesitated a bit. “You are familiar with chakats?”

    Dr. MacIntyre waved a blue-furred hand in the air dismissively. “A bit. I'm pretty active in the furry community myself. I'm curious though why you need my help.”

    “We tried to go to a normal hospital,” I piped up, and the doctor's weird eyes focused on me. “But they didn't even let us in.”

    The blue-furred woman snorted derisively. “Yeah, I guess. They got no idea how to treat someone who's not looking like a vanilla human. And even if they had, they wouldn't. Folks who Venn usually don't go to the doctor when they get problems, they just visit the nearest mall with a Venn Machine.” She giggled again. “They somehow don't agree with people using machines which can fix in moments what a hospital would do in months... and for a ridiculous bill. I can't imagine why...”

    Amused, she shook her head. “But by the same token it's a bit strange why you'd be visiting me.” MacIntyre smirked. “I don't think you got health problems, either chronic or acute ones, because you'd simply Venn them away. You might want to ask me specific anatomical questions you weren't able to google proper answers for, but then it would be much easier - and cheaper - to go to the zoo or the university. That leaves only one possible reason...”

    The woman looked at us with a grin. “So which of you two cuties got herself knocked up?”

    I blushed. Damn, right to the point. But at least her frankness spared us some awkward explanations... I therefore raised my hand. “That would be me, doctor.”

    She chuckled. “Guessed so. Is this the first month you're Venned long-time, simply forgot or didn't know about the differences?” As we nodded, she continued, suddenly smirking. “I don't know why, but it's usually the Venned men who manage this feat.”

    My mouth fell open. “Huh, whaaaa?” I blurted out surprised. “How could you tell? I'm at the height of my female cycle, Snowblossom is at the height of hir male one! If at all, shi's the one you should've been suspecting to be a former man!”

    MacIntyre winked at me. “Subtle hints, my dear. Don't worry, it's nothing everyone would pick up, but I ain't everyone. I've been around Venned folks from the beginning. For everyone else, you're a very girly felitaur at the moment.”

    I pouted. “Pfff...”

    “Anyway...” The doctor clapped her hands. “Let's get this show on the road then. I guess you want to know if your baby is healthy then?” She patted the treatment couch. “Swing your haunches up here and I'll get an ultrasound underway. How far along are you?”

    “About half a day... probably?” Snowblossom answered. I had to hide a smile as the doctor lost her composure for the first time.

    “Half a... day?” she coughed and then gave us a pointed stare. “Are you sure you're really pregnant and not just paranoid after you've fooled around without protection?”

    My mate shrugged. “Chakats just know. At first we had no idea how to interpret the pretty obvious signs, but Andrew pretty much noticed it right away.”

    The blue-furred woman squinted at me. “Hm, do these 'signs' include the pregnant chakat appearing to be in an insanely cheerful mood?”

    I nodded.

    “Hm, right... now I'm remembering reading something about a 'happy glow' when I freshened up my knowledge on chakats after Andrew's call earlier.” She rubbed her chin in thoughts. “I guess an ultrasound is pretty much futile then. Hmm… we could try a pregnancy test to see if it's really like you say.” The woman turned around, opening a drawer and rummaging around.

    “Will pregnancy tests work on us?” Snowblossom asked doubtful.

    The doctor grinned. “Oh, I'm fairly sure that tests for humans won't work. But we got pregnancy tests for cats... I guess your inherent knowledge of your pregnancy and your happy mood might be due to some hormonal spike, and you look fairly similar to big cats, so a feline pregnancy test might work...”

    She turned around, holding a pair of syringes and grinning evilly. “I just need a bit of your blood.”

    I simply stretched my arm out. I'd never had any problems with needles. Snowblossom on the other hand...

    “What? Why me?” My mate whined. “I'm not the one who's pregnant!”

    MacIntyre rolled her eyes at hir antics. “I'm using a pregnancy test for cats on a chakat. For the first time in like... ever. I got no frigging clue if it's gonna work or if your Venned blood is gonna mess with my test. So you're going to be the control group. If your result comes back negative, but hers positive, then we'll know if it worked.”

    In the end, it took lots of reasoning to coax hir into letting the good doctor put a needle in hir fur, but shi did it. And even though I hated seeing my mate suffer, I felt glad that today I'd been able to support hir as well, and not only the other way around.

    Waiting for the test results took an hour which stretched on like an eternity, but finally we were called into MacIntyre's treatment office again. Snowblossom and me clutched our hands tightly, our tails entwining behind as we anxiously awaited the findings. Dreading the results was ultimately silly, of course. I didn't merely suspect that I was pregnant. Somehow, I was one-hundred-percent certain that there was a cub in me now. I sure as hell knew.

    But it still seemed surreal to me. Like if I'd Venn back right now, everything would be back to normal. Of course Venn Machines didn't work that way. If I'd turn back into my regular shape, the embryo growing in me would simply go with me. Our little google session about Venn pregnancies had made that clear to us. But getting the test results would make it official, turn it from a weird dream into reality, so to speak.

    “Alright,” the doctor started without preamble. “I got the test results. It pretty much looks like the test worked as intended, because Snowblossom's results are negative. Whereas yours…” she looked at me earnestly, “…are positive. Congratulations, my dear. Your hunch was right. You're pregnant.”

    I froze up for a moment, felt Snowblossom grip my hand even tighter. My other hand wandered to my belly again, feeling for where a tiny spark of warmth seemed to emanate. So this was it. I really was going to be a mother. This was just...

    “Wow.”

    “Yes, it's a lot to take in.” The doctor answered compassionate, making me realize that I'd spoken out loud. And then she surprised both Snowblossom and me by hugging us.

    “I... just don't know,” my mate said with a trembling voice after MacIntyre had let go of us. “It's just so much to take in... what about the baby? It will be a chakat, right? Will it be able to speak? We look so much like animals right now...”

    “Stop!” The blue-furred doctor raised a hand. “That's nonsense. I know some folks who got babies while being Venned. Yes, they look different. Some of them really different. And they are still young. But there's no doubt in my mind, or in their parents' mind, that they are just as intelligent as normal human babies.”

    My eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” I blurted out. “We googled for babies from Venned couples... I mean, seriously Venned couples... like us. We didn't find much.”

    “Except for this snake couple in the zoo.” Snowblossom added.

    MacIntyre smiled. “And even their offspring, despite looking like relatively normal snakes, are clearly sapient and intelligent. Curious little buggers, I've heard. They love to play tricks on the zookeepers.” She shook her head. “But yeah, I'm not surprised that your search didn't yield many results. There are not many, and they rather don't want to advertise that their children are of a different species. For fear of bigotry, obviously. Besides, the government has no clue about how to deal with non-human citizens yet and rather would like to keep the lid on it until they've figured something out.”

    She took a deep breath. “Anyway, you two are people, no matter what shape you inhabit, and your offspring will be people, too. Always. Don't ever doubt that.”

    Both Snowblossom and me nodded, startled by her fiery speech.

    “I'm not saying that it will be easy, but it's possible. And if you doubt it...” She looked insecurely for a moment. “There's one other option which I don't really like, but my medical oath compels me to put all the options on the table. If you think you're not prepared to be parents, there's the possibility of having an abor–”

    She didn't get any further. Luckily, she'd taken a seat behind her table again, or God knows what I might have done. Her mention of the... a-word somehow blew my fuses. Suddenly, I was filled with rage, felt my claws slide out of my sheaths, opened my snout to hiss at the woman threatening my–

    “Shhh, Copperqueen, all is well...” My mate's sudden embrace yanked me out of my fury, letting me think clearly again. “She means no harm... she just wants to help us...” I felt Snowblossom's love flow into me, calm me down, and embarrassed, I retracted my claws.

    “I'm... sorry...” I mumbled awkwardly. “I... don't know what came over me. There's no excuse.”

    “No worries.” MacIntyre chuckled tenuously. My threatening display had definitely made her blanch below her blue fur. “I'm actually glad that you feel this way. I'm not a fan of this... procedure.” She sighed. “Well then... I guess I'll just give you some insights into feline pregnancies then. There might be differences for a chakat one, but it's the best I can do right now. So, for starters...”

******************************     

    When we finally left the veterinarian hospital, it was already getting dark. MacIntyre had done her best to extrapolate from feline pregnancies and what information was available on chakat ones, but in the end much of it had been whistling in the dark, of course. She'd also given us a draft for a treatment contract. Both Snowblossom and me had blanched at the cost of it, despite the fact that it was obviously discounted to the point of being a net loss for the hospital.

    Now we were simply walking arm in arm, marveling at the bright sky. The veterinary clinic had been built on a hill, set apart from other housing, so light pollution was at a minimum. To our chakat eyes, everything seemed to be brighter anyway, courtesy of our ability to perceive more of the light spectrum than normal humans. Looking up at the glorious milky way was especially breathtaking in this shape.

    Finally, Snowblossom spoke up. “I'm scared, my love...” shi said softly.

    I simply nodded, squeezing hir hand in return. “Just like me...”

    “It's just so... so... sudden. I've always known that eventually I'd have kids, but that I'd bear them... and now... I'm going to be a daddy.” Shi seemed to marvel at the absurdity of this statement for a moment.

    “I think ‘sire’ is the correct terminology,” I said with a wink. “We're chakats after all.” That earned me a light clap on my rump. Yesterday, shi'd have elbowed me in the side for that, and none to gently, but yesterday I hadn't carried another life in my belly... funny how fast some things could change. “But yeah, I totally get you. Imagine how crazy this is for me.” I chuckled. “Thirty years as a heterosexual male, and now I'm suddenly going to be a mother.” I shook my head. “This really is a lot to take in...”

    “Hmm...” Snowblossom mused. “Can I ask you some questions?”

    I raised an eyebrow. “Sure...?”

    “So... you're scared?”

    I nodded. “Of course.”

    “And you're wondering if you're ready for kids?”

    “I... don't know if I'll be able to be a good mother. I never gave the notion of being a father much thought, much less of being a mother.” I confessed.

    “And... do you think it will be fair to the kid?”

    I took a deep breath. So I hadn't been the only one with this fear. “You mean, because shi'll have it harder than other kids? Due to hir being a chakat?”

    My mate nodded solemnly. “Shi'll be the first naturally born member of hir species. Shi'll be all alone at first...”

    I didn't know an answer to that, so I simply remained silent. We continued walking for a few minutes, saying nothing.

    “And yet you want to have the cub.” Snowblossom stated at last.

    “Yes!” I responded immediately, despite her remark not having been a question.

    This made hir giggle. “There was barely any hesitation,” shi said with a big smile, putting a hand on my belly and rubbing it tenderly. “You want to bring hir into this world.”

    “You don't seem surprised.”

    “Oh, sweetie...” Snowblossom gave me a loving kiss-lick. “I knew that you'd never let go of your cub from the moment when you went ballistic at MacIntyre's mention of... uh... you know what.”

    I smiled remorsefully. “Was I that bad?”

    My mate put on a serious face. “Bad? You scared the crap out of me! For a moment I thought you'd rip the good doctor to shreds. You looked like a badass tiger mama going all out in the defense of her cubs!” Shi shook her head. “So... no... not bad. Definitely not. If I'd have to look for a word, ‘awe-inspiring’ comes close, but it's still too mild to do your display justice.”

    I rolled my eyes at that, feeling a bit embarrassed. “I'm not sure if an aptitude for violence is a good trait for an expectant mother,” I pointed out a tiny bit worried.

    Snowblossom stopped dead in hir tracks. “Oh come on, that was just about the right response. Chakat mothers are renowned for going all out in the defense of their offspring. You know, before Venn Machines popped up and I became a chakat myself, I did lots of roleplaying games in the chakat universe. And it was well known to never put yourself in between a chakat mother and hir cub, except if you had a death wish.”

    Shi smiled at me encouragingly. “See it this way – this was your first test at being a chakat mom, and you passed it with flying colors!”

    “If you say so...” I blushed a bit and fidgeted around on my paws.

    Shi took my hands into hers. “Just... relax,” shi said, hir beautiful eyes looking squarely into mine. “I know you're scared, I'm scared, too. But don't doubt yourself. I think you'll make a great parent. And I'll be there with you. I'll support you. All the way.”

    I nodded, thankful for hir statement of support. “Yes...” I said and a smile crept across my face as I put my hands over my belly again. “We'll manage... the three of us.”