Chapter Text
Anxiety gradually turned to anticipation and excitement as Xisuma stepped away and the blaze hybrid sat up to wait for his boyfriends to arrive.
Impulse and Skizz both busted through the door together, somewhat pushing each other in their excitement to get to their pregnant boyfriend. Tango couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up from his chest at their usual antics. They broke apart and Skizz flapped his wings once, with a huff, to fix any ruffled feathers due to their slight roughhousing.
Impulse shook his head with fond annoyance, yellowish bleach blonde hair getting in his face from the movement, which he promptly combed back into place with his fingers. It was kind of funny to have yet another blonde now in their relationship, although the demon had only dyed the top portion of his hair, and it was more yellow than actually blonde. The fake cybernetics on the side of his head glowed purple in the faintly dim lighting of the room.
Skizz, on the other hand, didn't change much about his appearance for the season. Neither did Zed for that matter, although he did break out his old lab coat again, bright chemical stains and all. Tango had to admit that he found the sheep hybrid rather attractive in his sciency getup. Not to mention how hot Impulse's whole cyberpunk motif made him.
Tango couldn't wait to experience the first look at their child with them. Xisuma told the two to look after Tango for a moment before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.
"How are you feeling, Top? Excited?" Skizz grinned brightly at the netherborn, swiftly moving over to his side and putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Tango looked up at his face with a smile, "definitely. I can't say for sure, but I do have a hunch right now on what the baby's species is." The blaze hybrid winked playfully at his present boyfriends.
He was thinking about what Xisuma had said, and the little comment about him seeing visually why the baby was growing so fast made him think the baby was going to have wings. It would explain the growing pains and the constant slight shifting as well. Now which exact species that meant, he couldn't tell. Technically all three of the possible biological dads had wings, although he's pretty sure Impulse said demon wings don't grow in until after the baby is born -but he was getting ahead of himself. They still didn't even know for sure yet if his assumption was actually true.
The door opened again before either got a chance to respond, showing a sheepish Zed peering inside, as if to make sure he was in the right place. He swiftly stepped inside once he saw the room's current occupants, quietly closing the door behind himself. "Sorry I'm a little late."
"You're right on time actually," Tango reassured. "These two were just too excited to wait for the go-ahead to enter."
Skizz nervously chuckled and Impulse awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck in response, very faintly blushing from embarrassment. The angel murmured a little "sorry," which made Tango laugh.
"I'm just messing with you guys; it's fine. I was actually just waiting when you both showed up." Tango grinned mischievously. "We're just waiting on Jimmy now. I think X might have went to get him."
Impulse pulled out his comm and smiled with a light nod. "Looks like he just joined the server."
The other two made their way towards the side of the bed to join Tango and Skizz, quietly chatting in a calm sort of excitement until Xisuma came back, Jimmy at his side.
The avian immediately rushed over and put a hand on Tango's shoulder. "I missed you! Can I have a kiss?" Tango laughed but happily obliged, pulling the taller down to give him a peck on the lips. His giggling continued and he heard Impulse stifle a chuckle as Skizz immediately kissed Jimmy's cheek, once he stood up straight again, causing the non-hermit to flush a deep pink color.
Jimmy cleared his throat to try and detract from his fluster, sheepishly changing the subject. "Sorry I took a while; I had to get Grian off my back... Not literally. I mean he wouldn't leave me alone. X helped me get away."
"I guess that's what you get for ignoring your brother," Skizz teased, lightly elbowing Jimmy.
The blonde huffed and rolled his eyes. "Cousin," he corrected. "Grian is my cousin, not my brother. There is no requirement for me to talk to him if I don't want to. All he does is embarrass me in front of our friends anyways. I'd much rather be around you guys."
"Well, it's a good thing you're here now," Tango grinned brightly, "because I'm ready to start if you guys are."
Despite the very faint nervous energy in the room, the four all eagerly agreed, anxious to finally see their future baby. Tango nodded at Xisuma and layed down again. The admin nodded back.
"Alright, I'm going to have to project the imaging onto a flat surface, so you will have to be looking at this wall," Xisuma gestured to the wall behind him, generally on Tango's right. "You can be close and hold Tango's hand if you'd like, but please stay clear of his stomach and torso during the scan. I will try to explain everything as we go. Let me know if you have any questions."
Another round of affirmatives led the admin to continue. A static black square projected onto the wall, as Xisuma messed with the device on his wrist, before hovering a bare hand slightly above Tango's abdomen. The blaze hybrid gave him the 'go ahead', and the hand was very gently placed against his skin.
The black image started to shift around and vague shapes became visible in the static. It wasn't perfect, but Tango could still see a large form slowly coming into frame as Xisuma moved his hand a few times. The shape appeared to be curled up, but less defined than a clear fetal position.
"So what you are seeing right here," Xisuma started, pointing at and circling a mostly round section near the center of the image with his free hand, "is actually a little wing." Skizz and Jimmy very clearly looked at each other for a moment, before turning back. "It is partially extended right now, which is covering a portion of the body from view." He moved his hand and the image shifted to a different view point, showing the large form again, with a somewhat obscured but definitely there second shape.
Tango could physically feel his brain freeze for a moment, trying to process what that meant. The fetus in front had a wing partially extended to cover another form hiding behind it. Before the blaze had a chance to voice any thoughts aloud, Xisuma confirmed what he hadn't even thought possible until that very moment.
"As I'm sure you can see now, this," he circled what they could see of the other form, "is the second twin..." His following words dissolved into static noise as Tango registered the news. Everything around him suddenly seemed a lot closer and the air felt thin, making it difficult for him to get a full breath.
"Twin." The word echoed faintly through the static. Two. There were two of them. Tango didn't know what to feel in that moment. On one hand, that was fantastic news. With five dads, two kids would be perfect. Twins wouldn't be too much of a handful, as they could take turns handling their needs, and they would both have someone their own age to play with on a server with no other children.
On the other hand, that meant Tango would have to give birth to TWO babies. As much as he would love to be excited, that sounded horrifying. One was difficult enough to come to terms with. Now he had to do it twice? Technically three or four times because of the placenta.
A sudden wave of nausea washed over him and Tango physically pushed Xisuma's hand away, rolling to his side and dry heaving over the edge of the bed. Thankfully he didn't actually throw up, but it certainly felt like it.
It took quite a while before the static slowly started to dissipate into a nearly silent ringing in his ears. Tango carefully turned onto his back and practically collapsed against the mattress. His cheeks felt wet and his head was spinning. He just really needed a nap right now. Yeah, a nap sounded nice.
-
Tango blearily blinked his eyes open to find Zedaph watching over him, warm hand encasing his own. The sheep hybrid gently smiled at him when he noticed that he was awake. His voice was a soft whisper, breaking the silence. "How are you feeling? What do you last remember?"
Thoughts tried to rush back into the forefront of his mind, but the fog from having just woken up thankfully kept them from overwhelming the blaze and sending him spiraling again. They did still break through, although they were hazy, actually helping Tango to better rationalize the situation without immediately panicking.
"I'm... having twins?" Tango could hear himself speak but couldn't feel his lips moving. It didn't seem entirely real, yet at the same time it finally sank in as a fact, now that he had said it aloud.
"Yes, you are," Zedaph cautiously affirmed, rubbing the back of Tango's hand with his thumb. "How do you feel about that?"
"I..." The netherborn paused to process it a bit more. His thoughts were all jumbled up about the matter, and he carefully decided on "scared... But- kind of happy?"
"Yeah?" Zedaph prompted, silently urging him to continue.
"Yeah, I think- I think I like the idea of having two kids. It's just... Scary." Tango looked around the room. His boyfriends were all still right there by his side. Xisuma sat at the opposite side of the bed, quietly scrolling on his comm, although he would occasionally glance up for just a second before looking back. He was trying to seem like he wasn't listening, but anyone could tell he was.
"Do you want to talk about it? We can leave it until later too, if you want," Zed offered.
"I don't know..." Tango felt his tail subconsciously curl around his waist, "maybe later? Can we- can we continue? I didn't mean to freak out like I did."
Impulse sweetly smiled at him from closer to the end of the bed. "It's okay, you were scared. Anyone in your position would need a moment to process something big like that. Are you sure you want to keep going now? We can come back to it another day if you still need some time to sort out your thoughts."
"No, I-" Tango looked at each of his partners, then briefly at the admin. "I want to just get all of the information we can done right now. Did you find out who's the father yet?"
"No, not yet. We were waiting for you to find that out. We would never take that moment away from you," Zedaph assured.
"Okay," Tango looked down at his lap for a moment before looking over at Xisuma and nodding, mostly to himself. "I'm ready to continue now. I just needed some time to think."
"Alright," Xisuma put away his communicator, which he clearly hadn't actually been focusing on since Tango woke up. "Is it okay if I touch you now?"
"Yeah," Tango took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself to see two babies again. The hand was cold but he tried to ignore it as he looked back over at the black square on the wall. The closer twin was easy to get back in view, sitting towards the front while twin B was more towards his spine.
"If you look very closely right here," Xisuma pointed to the partially hidden twin and traced his finger along a short line coming off of the edge, "you can just barely see the beginning of a tail. This would explain the two different hybrid strands in your code. The twins appear to be fraternal, or non-identical. This one in the back here looks to be a blaze hybrid, where the one in front is not."
Tango very carefully observed the image, trying to pick out any clues other than the wings on twin A. It was hard to distinguish the very small details and Tango could maybe just see something that seemed off about the head.
"It is extremely difficult to see, but it you look very closely at the bigger twin, right around here-" X circled a small portion of the head. "-there is a tiny, faint little line along the edge of the skull. This is a definitive marking that is only seen on angels, as it is indicative of a halo."
There was a soft gasp and Tango turned to see tears is Skizz's eyes. There was a distinct spark in the blurry blue shine, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he knew was some kind of love. Jimmy put a hand on Skizz's shoulder and he could barely see Impulse rubbing his back. The angel hiccuped, holding back a sob of pure joy, and leaned over to place his forehead against Tango's.
His voice was shaky but full of complete adoration for someone he hadn't even met yet, whispering sweetly, "I love them. I love you so much, Tango. I am going to be the best mama I possibly can for these babies, and you are the absolute best papa ever. You're doing amazing. Thank you." The taller was nearly a sniffling mess when he finished, smiling as much as he could through his joyous tears. "Void, I love you."