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“Of course. It’s the easiest way to-”
She cut him off with a finger to his lips. Smiling a bit sadly. “Not what I asked, Rane. It’s just you and me in here. We’re alone. Between you and me, with nothing else mattering, do you want to have babies with me right now?”
“I…” His mouth worked up and down, but he couldn’t bring an answer to his lips.
“Because I don’t,” she admitted.
He blinked. Staring at her as she smiled.
“Sorry. I don’t mean I don’t want kids at all. I do. But we have so many years ahead of us, right? I’ve just started living for me. You haven’t even had the chance to start yet. I want to be selfish and adventurous and free. Sure, if we need a baby to save ourselves, I’ll do it. And I’ll love them twice as much because they saved us before they were even born. I’ll take them on our adventures. But in a perfect world, I would want to wait. That’s what I want. What about you?”
“What I want?”
“Right. Not what we need right now. What do you want?”
“I want…” He hesitated, frowning at the floor between them. “I don’t know what I want.”
Sandy wasn’t surprised. How could he? He’d been trapped for so long, living a life completely out of his control, that he couldn’t have had the space to even know himself, much less what he wanted.
“That’s okay,” she smiled, holding his hands. “We can figure it out together. I want you to be able to do that without figuring out how to be a father at the same time. If that’s our only option, that’s fine. We’ll do what we have to do, but is that what you want the most?”
He didn’t answer her, tense again. She kissed his jaw.
“We’ll figure things out together.”
“But…”
“We’ll talk about it. We have a lot of time right now. But I don’t want this decision to be an emotional one. Okay?”
He said nothing for a long minute, but then finally grunted. Which she took to be agreement.
Smiling, she reached out to give him another hug. It didn’t take him as long to relax against her this time. But she could feel the weight of it still hanging on him.
They stayed that way until his combot beeped an alert that their hover had finally arrived and was waiting for them in front of the stadium. Only then did they separate. He gave her something like a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. She smiled back, taking his hand.
“I should apologize to Sal and the others, shouldn’t I?” He asked softly.
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t.”
He laughed. “No?”
“They might have been deceived, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily did anything wrong. They should apologize to you. But that doesn’t mean you have to stay mad at them either.”
He made a sound of agreement. “Alright. I’ll think about it. That and… everything else.”
She brought up his hand and kissed it. “Let’s go home. I’ll make you feel better.”
He looked curious, the obviously sexual tone in her voice not going over his head. She just smiled as her belly clenched eagerly.
His smile was more genuine this time as he opened the door-
-and fell when they were immediately bathed in bright light.
“Rane, over here!”
“Rane, were you mating in public?!”
“Is it true that your human mate brought designer drugs from Earth?”
