Counting Stars at Dawn

30: Where's My Pregnancy Glow?!

"You're staring at me real intently Ar--"

"Do you work out?" Artemis asked absent-mindedly with a blank look in his blushing face, a bead of drool leaking from his mouth.

"Uh . . . well, yes. It's what I do when you're busy to relieve stress." Hades replied, lightly drawing his eyebrows together at the way Artemis stared at him. "You have something, on your lip honey."

Artemis snapped out of it and furiously wiped the saliva off his mouth with his sleeve.

"Right right." Artemis cleared his throat and Hades smiled at how cute he looked embarrassed. 

Hades decided to mess with his pregnant mate and started fanning his face.

"Phew, it's hot in here." Hades faked that he was sweating.

He lifted his shirt, exposing his abdomen, and wiped his face with it. He suppressed the urge to laugh when he noticed Artemis's eyes go wide like a deer in the headlights. He could've sworn he even heard him gulp.

He put his shirt back down and yelped when he was suddenly straddled by Artemis. It was now Hades' turn to blush and stare at Artemis.

"Don't do that." Artemis whispered and pressed a finger to Hades' lips.

Artemis looked at Hades' lips and Hades felt his heart skip a beat along with his blood flow rush to his dick. Artemis neared Hades' mouth painfully slow and Hades could feel his shaky breath on his lips.

Right before their lips finally met though, the carriage came to a halt and so did the stare off the two mates were having. Artemis jumped off Hades and stepped out of the carriage, leaving his dommate hard and confused. Hades rubbed his face and slapped himself as he muttered:

"Don't jump him, don't jump him, don't jump him. Hoo, okay."

He finally left the carriage and followed Artemis inside the palace. Immediately, Dia walked up to him, his agenda in hand.

"Your highness, where have you been? I was worried not seeing you here for a full day unprecedented." Dia asked when she approached him.

"I'm pre--" Artemis stopped himself from saying it out loud and looked around,, motioning for Dia to come closer within whispering distance. "Hades got me pregnant."

"That sounds like an accusation, ouch." Hades moved his mouth to the side and crossed his arms.

"I mean you are responsible for it, aren't you?" 

"Touché."

"That is great your majesty! I'm so happy for you two!" Dia whisper-squealed and made a small hop, then hugged Artemis. "You won't make it public yet?"

"Not here, maybe in Lamia yes, but I'm not in a condition to deal with the elders right now. It's sort of a risky pregnancy." Artemis whispered.

"Oh okay, makes sense your majesty."

The trio resumed their walking and Dia started reading off what Artemis had to do for the night.

"Tonight there's first a conference with Gail to go over a territory dispute between two clans. After that you have to give an oral report of how things have been going with the alliance with Lamia to the elders.
Next, you must write a second report on what was agreed on in your trip to Ezamore, although that might need to be put first as that deadline has already passed." Dia read off the list of items. "After that there's a meeting with a woman named Alexandrite Marigold, she is the superintendent of education. She wishes to speak to you about the dynamics of the academy.
Lastly, an order from the east Sapphire alchemy institute has been placed for moonlight harvesting potions."

"That doesn't seem too bad." Artemis commented.

"Okay, that has to be done in like a week right?" Hades interjected.

"No, your majesty. Prince Artemis must complete most if not all of these tasks by the end of the night." Dia explained.

"What?! That is way too much work! Artemis, baby please, you're pregnant now you can't be working too much. You will stress yourself out and it can hurt the baby."

"Hades it's not a big deal. This is my normal amount of work, in fact it's smaller than usual." Artemis smiled. "I can handle it."

Hades wanted to convince Artemis otherwise, but his look was asking for him to trust him. So, Hades had no choice but to comply and just tag along with Artemis.

****

It turned out, Hades shouldn't have doubted his husband's ability to manage work and be efficient. He got things done relatively quickly and well done. 

Currently, Artemis had finished off his agenda, with a few minutes before sunrise started to spare. 

"See? I told you I could handle it." Artemis said as he and Hades stepped into his old room.

"Yeah, I shouldn't have doubted you. I probably thought it was too much since I haven't had that kind of workload in years." Hades responded as he looked around the room. "Damn, it feels like it's been forever since I was last here."

"I left it the same way as the night I went with Ares to go see you."

"So many memories. I actually planned on knocking you up here."

"Why's that?" Artemis tilted his head.

"I don't really know. I think I just really liked the scenery of your kingdom. That and your room is a lot cleaner than mine." Hades chuckled.

"Well, we got our own room in your palace, so I'm satisfied with that."

Artemis stood in front of a mirror and turned sideways. Of course, his belly wasn't swelled yet as this was only his second day of pregnancy.

He felt Hades hug him from behind and wrap his arms gently around his belly, placing his head on his shoulder.

"I love this baby so much already." Hades said. "I might cry when I see your stomach get bigger."

"I actually sort of forgot I'm pregnant." Artemis confessed. "I can't feel it, or see it, not to mention it happened so fast it just seems like a dream. But when I hear you say all those lovely things I remember I'm bearing a being half you, half me." 

"Indeed, we'll be having a beautiful child and a smart one too."

The two sovereigns of Lamia decided to make their way back to the kingdom before sunrise caught up with them.

They got back inside the carriage and headed to their kingdom with the sun slowly crawling from behind the mountains.