After Three Comes Four

You can admit you had gotten a bit worried about this moment, ever since Roan mentioned before Matilda's party that she was due soon. Childbirth is dangerous, after all, and you haven't seen a single one of those big peeping machines they have on medical dramas yet. You know intellectually that Roan has done this before without a problem, and that you were there for it. You even remember it all. But still, you can't help but be nervous. Are you really **** to rely on the vaguely magical, utterly inconsistent qualities of this world to keep this whole thing on track?

Apparently so. And, apparently, it was a fair bet, because only two hours later (admittedly two straining, sweaty hours) Nan is carefully snipping the umbilical cord of a hefty, crying baby boy with a shock of messy black hair. Roan chuckles raggedly, turning her gaze up from the newborn to beam up at you. "Hey, we did it."

You wrap your arm around the third time mother and kiss her on the forehead, the girl closing her eyes in contentment. She cracks one open as the baby continues to squall, her mouth quirking in a little smile. "He's much fussier than his brothers were."

"Must take after his mother."

Your lover cackles, shooting her caretaker an impish glance as she carefully shifts your son to her breast. "You hear that Nan? Number Three is gonna run you ragged."

The old woman huffs, though she is unable to disguise her supreme pleasure at her growing family. "I survived you, I can survive the end times."

"You've survived me so far, you old hag. There's still a lot of--" she cuts off with a wide yawn. Opting to abandon her teasing, she simply falls into a peaceful still as the two of you watch your newborn nurse for a moment, the room still besides Nan's quiet tidying and Matilda's frenetic shifts between thrilling adoration of the baby boy and intensely quiet self-recrimination over the noise she's making.

Before long the baby has had his fill, Nan moving to snugly wrap him in swaddling as Roan stretches out a little. "I think I need a--" she yawns again, "--power nap". She's already begun to nod off as she sinks into the fresh pillow Nan propped up behind her head. "Gimme...gimme ten..." Mother and child are both dozing now, Nan cradling the newborn and motioning for you and Matilda to follow her out the door.

The princess can barely contain her delight, eyes sparkling as she clutches your arm. "I never thought I would get to see that! Oh, it was wonderful. Roan was wonderful! Your baby is--"

Nan cuts her off with a chuckle. "Yes yes, duckling, it was all very wonderful. Now, if you can be very quiet and careful, you can carry the baby to his nursery if you like."

Matilda's eyes immediately grow huge and begin to quiver as she stares up at Nan, then at you, and then down at your baby with her tightly balled fists clenched to her mouth. Nan chuckles richly as she gently lays your son into Matilda's arms. The princess bites her lower lip, though you aren't sure if its to quiet a whimper or a loud coo as the older woman gives you a congratulatory nod, leading Matilda through another doorway.

You take a moment. This is...wow, yeah. Fucking intense. You shake your head to yourself as you start down to hall to fetch Roan more water. Every other step you're blissfully cheered by another castle staff member, each happily clutching a belly of her own. You are suddenly very aware of your intense obligations to these women, and the new lives they carry. It's not that you're freaked out, or unhappy. As far from either as possible, in truth; you're confident of that as you fill a pitcher. You simply understand that you're going to have to be as good a man as you can possibly be. Is it egotistical that something welling up inside you says that you're fit for the task? Maybe. But either way, your deep sense of duty is married to a sort of giddy pride as you carefully crack open the door to the mater bedroom, not wanting to wake Roan.

Apparently, you needn't have bothered. Because when Roan said she needed ten minutes for a power, nap, she apparently was padding her estimate.

The girl has thrown the sweat-soaked sheets from the bed and has splayed herself across it, arms dangling over the headboard and legs coquettishly crossed as she grins at you. There HAS to be something supernatural, or preternatural, or even SUPRAnatural at work here because you're pretty sure most women aren't this....aren't ANY of this right after childbirth. If you hadn't literally seen the baby push our of her actual vagina, you would have sworn Roan had merely come in from a particularly good jog and was feeling a bit frisky.

She even found time to change. Who puts on a dress right after...wait.

Oh wait. Oh, oh fuck.

Your eyes widen in time with Roan's grin as she gives a catlike stretch of her back and arms, proudly displaying herself in the dark blue dress she's slipped into. To someone else it might have seemed a nice, if rather simple party dress. But to you it will always be Roan's Impregnation Dress, and that puts it at the very top of the pantheon of all sacred and holy artifacts in existence.

It's almost exactly as it was in your memory, but oh lord the differences are beautiful ones. Three pregnancies across just over two years have had their effect on Roan, her proud hips and bubbly yet deliciously pert butt straining at a dress made for an entirely slender woman. Eighteen year old Roan had been very nearly flat, and the squared neck of her dress had been cut to flatter what she had. After three giant baby boys, though, she's just a hair below the point where she could only be called 'busty' and her full, plump breasts do their very best to strain out of her overtaxed neckline.

But more than all of that is Roan's expression, and her bearing. In your memory, Roan had been unsure of herself, nervousness mixing with her deeply felt excitement. The Roan of today absolutely oozes confidence and powerful sexuality, heavily lidded eyes running you up and down as she runs a hand teasingly down her flat tummy.

Oh, all of your clothes are gone. You aren't quite sure when that happened, or when exactly you crossed the room to climb onto the bed, but you aren't overly interested in questioning it at the moment.

Roan pulls you into a deep kiss as you gently position yourself over her, your lover spreading her quivering legs to welcome you home. You'd actually considered how this moment would play out once or twice. With both you and Roan being so breeding obsessed, you have expected something animalistic, something primal and raw and ****. Instead, Roan simply gives a little whimper as you push into her, pressing her forehead against yours to stare into your eyes and as the two of you whisper your love of one another throughout your gentle, yet intensely passionate, lovemaking.

You don't last particularly long. You know you don't need too. Roan's arms clutch you tightly and her toes curl into the mattress as you climax, groaning in deep satisfaction as her momentarily empty and supremely fertile womb is flooded with your absurdly virile cum. You slip beside her with a small grunt, your valet shifting closed to cuddle into your chest and sigh contentedly.

"I love you so much."

"I love you, too."

The girl shifts her head slightly to inspect something on the bedside table, your own curious glance revealing it to be an hourglass. You get the sense she is doing some mental calculation, and then she smugly smiles and snuggles back into you, closing her eyes and giving your groan a praising little pat. "Forty-five minutes. Not too shabby. If only we hadn't wasted a whole half-day after Phillip, we could have kept my un-knocked-up time under a day for a decade."

She seems to have no doubt whatsoever that she's already pregnant again,and neither do you. "We were young. We were reckless. We know better, now."

Roan's approving response is drowned out by her all-consuming yawn, the girl fast asleep within moments. You lay there a moment, basking in the serene glow of this bizarrely perfect life, before you drift away yourself. You get that this situation is insane, and that you don't care is also insane. But it will still be insane after you get some sleep.

You also still won't care.