Just Dust N' Bones, Baby

Popcorn

For @lulu_the_monster 😘 love you pookie ❤️❤️❤️

Michelle was sleeping soundly when she felt it. Keep in mind sleeping soundly in Axl's bed wearing Duff's shirt, because with her growing belly, small and skinny Axl, who refuses to wear shirts his size and either steals Slash's or wears a basically corset or a crop top, no longer had any shirts she could wear without stretching it out.

Her room was becoming far too cold in the basement, even after she stole one blanket from each of the boys' rooms (clean ones of course because she did NOT want to know what some of those stains were.) So she eventually just migrated to Axl's room. She knew when Axl came back there was no way she was leaving his magical oasis room at night that for some reason was a little paradise compared to the other guys'. She would feel bad, except she knew he'd be spending most nights in Slash's room anyway, and even if he wasn't she didn't mind cuddling. It's okay, he's gay for his best friend and literally the love of his life, she's allowed to cuddle and be attached.

But while he was gone, Duff and Izzy were always kinda clueless around pregnancy stuff with her, she could tell they wanted to help out a little, but... They were idiots. Steven was pretty dumb too, but he was too sweet to notice or care. He helped out Michelle with anything she needed, it was a little irritating sometimes, but he was too genuinely nice for Michelle to be really bothered.

There was nobody else quite like him, just nice because that's just how he was, not for any personal gain or benefit, just to be nice. Don't tell Axl, but Steven was probably her second-favorite. Axl was her cat, Steven was her puppy.

But she woke up in the night, feeling something in her belly. It was really weird, and not good weird. It was too early for contractions, even false labor, but it didn't feel like a baby moving around or kicking, not that she would know, but she'd never heard anything about a baby kicking and feeling like this. It didn't really hurt, but it didn't feel good, it was weird. It was mostly just uncomfortable, it felt kinda like period cramps, but I mean, she knew that was DEFINITELY not what it was.

She climbed out of bed, and she still kind've felt that throb, so she went up to maybe see if water would help. When she left the room, wouldn't you know it, first person she bumped into, a Mr. Steven Popcorn Adler. "Oh," he blinked in surprise to see her up at night, "Hi Michelle!" he whispered greetings. "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I was just goin to get some water..." she huffed, rubbing the pain in her belly to try to massage it away.

Steven noticed, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I think... Something just feels kinda weird..."

Steven tilted his head to the side, "...Bad weird?"

Michelle grimaced slightly, "I don't know but I don't think something's right..." Steven suddenly turned, picking up a jean jacket off the floor and heading toward the kitchen counter. "What are you doing?" Michelle followed him.

"I'm gonna drive you to the hospital," he put his jean jacket on over his Bugs Bunny shirt and put his white sneakers on his feet, and he looked pretty goofy wearing his jacket and the shoes with his pajama shorts with tacos on them.

"...Nice outfit."

Steven smiled, doing a little spin, "Thank you! My jammy shorts got tacos!"

Michelle laughed, "I see that." She put on her own shoes and somebody's coat and went out the door behind him as he took her hand to guide her, "Are you sure you're not overreacting?"

Steven smiled, "Oh probably, but I'd rather be overreacting than... Underreacting. Everything's probably gonna be fine, but it's better to be safe."

Michelle sighed, "I guess," she muttered, looking down at her belly.