Forever and Always

16

After a few minutes, the babies just went back to sleep and Alfred was left to just sit in his discomfort.

Ivan came back with food, a large bowl of soup, and took the babies back to their cradles, letting Alfred eat in peace for a moment.

"When do you think the babies will eat?" Ivan asked, laying over the bed. Alfred looked at him in disgust, before glaring down at his food. There didn't seem to be many other ways to make him lose his appetite, but that worked well.

"They already did."

"Oh," the Russian replied, "was it weird?"

"Weird as fuck, dude."

Ivan laughed, moving to sit next to him and throwing an arm over his shoulders, pressing a hard kiss to his head. Alfred leaned into his shoulder, playing with his food until he found a sense of his appetite, continuing to eat. Ivan closed his eyes, his head resting on his own, and napped. Alfred moved him so he was laying down when he stood up to shower, leaving the bowl by the door so they could get it later.

He showered and washed his hair quickly, thankful in those moments only for hot water and time. It wasn't as if he hurt, necessary - demon birth was a lot easier on the body. It was just that it left everything sore from muscles contracting again and again over multiple days.

His skin was still softer than it usually was, having all the defense stripped from it when the womb had it's armor pulled. He'd be back to how he was twenty-one weeks ago in a matter of days.

He put on some clothes, long pants and a plain, long sleeved shirt. It was simpler that way. He didn't want to make everything dramatic.

Alfred walked out into the hallway for the first time in five days.

Iowa immediately ran up to- almost into- him.

"Mom! Kansas took my reins! Tell her if her stupid bit is broken to go buy one instead of taking mine," she whined, her yellow eyes, glaring behind her, to where Kansas was standing.

"Well, tell her to stop being a bitch, it's just reins," Kansas flipped her off.

"Those are my horse show reins!" she cried, pulling a sickle from her belt and jumping at the other state. Kansas had a big machete strapped to her leg and she snapped it out of its casing at the last second, blocking a hit from the sickle.

"Knock it off!" Alfred yelled, and both of the states jumped away from each other, "Kansas, don't take things without asking, and don't throw a fit when they ask for it back. You were in the wrong for not asking. Iowa, don't draw weapons over fights, you know this. If you have a fight it's only a fist fight. Someone could get their head chopped off and I'd rather not have to stitch it back on."

They both nodded, glaring at each other.

"Gimme my reins back."

"Fine."

Alfred smiled as they walked away, happy to have something to do. He had just fed the babies, so they should be fine for what... thirty to forty minutes? About, he decided.

"Hey Lani," he said, and she smiled, on the phone with someone. She waved as he walked past, handing him the notebook full of money records for the last year or so. It was a clusterfuck of writing- Rulyn's, big, comic sans like writing, and Lani's small cursive, and Cole's chicken scratch, and Samuel's mediocre lettering and spelling all wrapping around in numbers and notes and circles and dots and dollar signs.

He scanned through the notebook, there was a final addition already done. He placed a finger on the number and scowled. They lost money this month. He tried to figure out why, but there was nothing, and he turned pages, trying to find why, looking around the table of contents that Rulyn kept, but being unable to find it.

"Frozen pipes," Lani said, walking up from behind them, "ninety percent of the pipes outside of the house froze. They're still getting fixed."

"How'd they freeze."

"The dirt... it's frigid. The temperatures are dropping again and again."

"Unusual."

"You don't think?"

"Let's hope not," he patted her on the shoulder, handing her the notebook, and she nodded, walking away. He felt some edging of pain in his chest, like the cold was taking it over, but it went away only after a few seconds.

A few of his siblings gave their congratulations for his children having been born, none of them asking to see the baby of course- for about two weeks they shouldn't be around anybody but the parents or a medical professional, so that their immune systems don't fail.

He walked down the halls, solving or fixing or doing things. It was enough to just have something to do. When twenty-five minutes passed, he walked back to his room, and he sat down on the bed. He looked over to Ivan, who was still sleeping, and went to pick his claws, cleaning out whatever gunk was stuck before the sickle. This was another thing he hated doing, because it pressed the vein and made his hand feel numb.

At approximately 12:43, the babies cried once more, so he fed them, and went back to walking around. It seemed they were eating in forty-five minute intervals, so he went to do whatever he wished.

He picked horse hooves while he waited. After thirty minutes, he went back, and the cycle continued. Ivan woke up two hours later, and helped him with whatever he needed, no matter how strenuous, and finally, he felt better.

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Yucky yucky chapter.