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 Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:46 pm
Dammit, and just when everything had been going so well...
It had been two months since 'The Incident' (as it eventually became known as, alternately titled 'The Thing That Never Happened'), and finally, it felt as if things had returned to a state of reckless normalcy. Granted that they made a point of avoiding certain neighborhoods around the city from there out (going past the burnt-husk bar was sure to warrant disaster) but, by and large, they'd managed to move on, pick up the pieces, and go continue wasting their lives pulling asinine and/or life risking stunts for the hell of it.
The day was charmingly overcast, the air was cool, and they'd found a nice barren scrap yard full to play in. Nothing like trash-can surfing down a steep incline of spare parts to get the blood flowing!
And oh, how Vincent loved feeling normal again, having finally gotten over a rather horrible six-week flu (... or so he thought) which left him purging his insides every other morning, skipping his training regimen (and it was starting to show, ugh), and wondering if his entire GI tract had spontaneously combusted in an act of spite.
He'd managed to suck it up and get over it without complaining, of course, still feeling a little worn out from whole endeavor but... no, it was still a good day.
Or it had been until that little slip during a run, losing his balance just enough to topple off the board and onto the ground-- which wasn't unusual, of course, and with his bones of STEEL and all he thought nothing of it... until the landing.
Maybe his femur had been made of steel, but apparently the rest of his leg wasn't as lucky, and he heard a dull CRUNCH sound as he landed on one foot, only to have it promptly crumple underneath him and...
s**t, he couldn't remember the last time he'd let out a YELP that loud.
Trying to force himself into standing against wasn't a very good idea either, seeing as it had caused him to BLACK OUT and everything.
God dammit, something told him that this wasn't the kind of injury he'd be sleeping off in a couple of days.
But little did he know that the worst (or greatest) problems were yet to come.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:06 pm
Things hadn't exactly gone smoothly for Alexander either, having made a point to vehemently avoid all burly Koshka who were about his size/bigger that looked even vagely backstreet to him.
That didn't mean he was avoiding all the fun places though. Which was, of course, how they'd found the OH SO EXCITING scrapyard in the first place. Oh it had seemed like a RAY OF SUNSHINE in an otherwise gloomy and boring world (at least for that week), and of course had spawned the idiotic suggestion of
"Wanna surf down it?"
Which of course, both idiots had flung themselves at....
And flung themselves off of.
Only, unfortunately for Vincent, Alex had been able to manage a MUCH cooler landing, practically rag-dolling across the scuffy dirty ground and only spraining his wrist.
Which, after a momentary hiss of pain, had prompted him to get up and half-yell "LET'S DO IT A_......... Vince?"
s**t, the kid was practically blacked o-.. Ooooh, legs weren't suppose to bend that way.
Alex had had to swallow his own pain and pick the kid up to go get that... uuugghhh.. it looked even WORSE now....
But alas, with the kid tended to and his own wrist being splinted up and iced down (and being bitched out for irresponsible behaviour), it was only a matter of time before they'd get to le-
"Sir, may I speak with you for a moment about your companion~?"
SIGH.
"Yeah."
Oh how he'd remember this conversation very clearly.. and if Vincent could see his face, they'd be expressions he'd never forget.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:02 pm
He went out yelping and he woke up hissing, stirred by the rather EXTREME discomfort of a rough-handed nurse (or doctor or staffer or something) shifting his snapped tibia back into alignment.
And he had to say... oh, holy s**t that HURT LIKE ******** HELL.
Vince couldn't recall much of anything since the blackout, which made for waking up in a clinic (it was a clinic, right? normal buildings weren't all whitewashed and stinking of bleach) slightly baffling at first, just laying there in the... uh, bed-something-or-other apparently that he'd been set in and groaning in a half-coherent daze while they barricaded his limb up in some odd cast-splint-whatever-the-hell-THAT-STILL-HURT-LIKE-A-b***h.
Uuugh he felt sick again; he didn't know if it was the shock or not, but the queazy flu feeling was back with a vengeance.
Maybe it was the talking that did it to him-- stupid woman in nurse's gown just wouldn't shut UP...
"... Goodness, such a reckless pair... you really should be more careful, dear, for the..."
He faded out a bit, blinked, groaned. What the hell was that?...
"Must've been frail bones, I'd reckon... Not getting near enough calcium to support your body. You should be taking supplements."
God, what was her problem? He'd been living off of cigarettes and alcohol just fine before, dammit, and his lifestyle didn't need any changing!
But at least he'd managed to ignore the majority of her idle ramblings (either that or the pain was SO DAMNED DISTRACTING that he couldn't think) and the cast-splint-whatever-the-hell had finally been locked into place and now they were... OW s**t s**t s**t. Could they have been any rougher shoving a wad of pillows under the stupid thing?!
And what was with all of the weird looks he kept getting?...
Had he contracted leprosy and not realized it?
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:08 pm
"Thank you ma'am.."
"No problem, sir~"
When Alex finally returned into the room with his very pathetic looking wrist-wrap he was WHITE.
Not even the walls could outwhite how pale the male had turned, even rivalling the natural white-splotches of his skin as he sloooooooowwwwlllyyyy dragged a chair over to sit by Vince's bed..... then sat down.
....
And then he looked at Vince...
..
Then his lately accumulating pudginess........
Before FLYING back out of his chair to go hit his head on a nearby counter, hissing loudly and the fur on his tail frizzing horribly as he started to spew curses and other various obscenities, before he was forced to STOP by the same nurse who had been doting so adoringly over Vince.
Which sent Alex back to his seat he'd taken to do the look-around again before he heaved a very stressed sounding sigh.
"Vincent. Is there something about you I should know?"
A few finger taps from his good hand.
"Like.. body-wise?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:58 pm
... O... kay.
Getting funny looks from the staff was one thing, but watching Alex slink into the room with such a weird sick pallor on his face, drag over the chair with a slow, disturbing, not-quite-there purpose, and then sit down in it to stare at his midsection only to tear off in some epic bout of SWEARING PROFANITY was just...
Sure, Vincent was prone to getting riled up and all, but it took a lot to genuinely upset him, and this... this definitely hit the mark.
Something was going on here and he needed to know just WHAT THE HELL EVERYONE WAS--
...... oh, no.
No, no no NO! Surely he couldn't have found out that, could he!? Dammit, the nurses must've done some useless poking around while he was blacked out or ******** this wasn't good.
And he didn't even realize the true extent of it.
"I-I..." His voice actually cracked there, and he'd turned a three shades whiter (though it still didn't rival his 'partner' in the slightest), biting his lower lip and frowning slightly before he growled (in place of a whimper he'd never EVER admit to) defensively. "Look, man, it doesn't matter-- I-I'm a goddamned guy, alright?!"
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:13 pm
Yes he had 'found out' about the 'little secret'. But not apparently on the same page that Vincent was now insisting his manhood upon. In fact, Alex didn't seem to really care about that 'guy or girl' thing at this very moment.
But it was enough of a comment to trigger him suddenly lurching to his feet, looking about ready to tear out his ********. You could have at least TOLD ME so I didn't find out from the nurse!"
This was followed by a train of curses that rivalled the first one, Before he settled again, tapping his forehead in a 'think think think think' manner, before he sighed again and again gave Vincent this look.
"At this point in time, it doesn't matter if your a guy or a girl, dammit!.." Hissspitstressventnoisehere, "I mean..... Dammit! I didn't want to find out you had a uterus by having a nurse tell me there's a damn BABY in it! A KID Vince. That's a HUGE THING."
And again he rose to his feet to swear yell and TERRIFY a nurse out of the room.
"I don't WANT to be a dad, dammit!"
Growlhiss. Oh, Alex apparently wasn't one who took emotional or rather 'romantic' stress very well from how he was handling this.
"I mean...... WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH A KID WHO ACCORDING TO US CAME FROM AN EVENT THAT NEVER HAPPENED??"
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:47 pm
"I didn't want to find out you had a uterus by having a nurse tell me there's a damn BABY in it!"
"A b..."
.......
................
........................
His mouth was open and his lips were moving but there wasn't any real sound to it, just a sort of... squeaky, wide-eyed, tight-throated, frantically choked TREMBLING that he couldn't seem to control. He was practically hyperventilating in the failed effort to catch his breath, clamping an unsteady hand over his mouth and just.... just.........
Oh god oh god oh god this couldn't possibly be happening it absolutely couldn't no no no he'd just stopped his morning crunches for a bit too long and harbored a stubborn flu bug that was still sure to go away because it couldn't possible be a ba......................
Alex's sickly pallor was NOTHING in comparison to the deathly white he had turned, looking quite ready to throw up, pass out, lapse into a coma, or some combination of the three.
"A..." Squeaky again, but then, like a flipped trigger, he suddenly found his voice again-- and how, hissing and growling right back at him. "A-AND JUST HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS?! I DIDN'T KNOW IT COULD ACTUALLY..."
Have a kid in it, his brain finished for him, once again crippling him from any more screaming he might've planned and reducing him to...
Oh god.
No.
He was not crying. He absolutely REFUSED to cry. Men didn't cry.
"......... J... Just give me a goddamn cigarette," he mumbled, shaking from head to toe and trying SO DAMNED HARD not to show it, but... oh, hell, DID HE EVER SHOW IT. "I can't... I-I can't think like this..."
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:32 pm
The shock was to be expected.
Hell, even Alexander had turned that shade of white when he'd found out from the nurse who was probably still out in the hallway, looming to see how the 'happy couple' were handling the news. Apparently not as well as would be expected.
Because they'd started whispering to each other.
He sat massaging his forehead while the other 'male' panicked over what he'd just announced, his tail flicking side to side with a rather unpleased twitch to it. With an accompanying growl-hiss noise that made him seem even more unhappy as Vincent continued with his mental denials.
Only once Vincent had started speaking again, Alex gave him a look complete with a frown and another sigh.
" I don't give a damn about the kid at this point. That's done and we're never going to be over with it. I'm more upset that you had the PHYSICAL CAPABILITY to carry one and you didn't SAY ANYTHING to me after our little slip-up.
You didn't think that the possibility of fathering a child was something I deserved to know?!"
It was only when Alex went to reach for one of his own cigarettes a nurse pipped up from the hallway.
"Um..umm.. sirs? Y-you... shouldn't smoke while she's-"
Alex butt in, "HE" he reminded.
The nurse flushed horribly, "Well, while you're expecting.. it's bad for the baby. No drinking or other risky behaviours either."
............
....
"Just for him, right?"
The nurse frowned.
"You can't smoke around him and I'd suggest you both do it so sh-.. HE can't get any from you."
...
"DAMMIT."
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:23 pm
Deeeeeep breath, exhale slowly, deeeeeeeeeeeep breath, exhale slowly... Yes, the nicotine would help him calm his nerves so he could think clearly and figure out a way for them to... get out of this mess...
Yes, somehow they'd be able to... make it go away, just like the other two Incidents That Hadn't Happened.
Lying to himself was the only way to keep from breaking down in hysterics.
And again with the trigger-flip, shrinking back a little at the accusation before he let out a retaliatory growl-hiss (albeit a shaky one). "Oh really?! W-Well, Mr. High and Mighty Jackass, how inclined would you be to come out and tell another guy-- who, might I add, seems pretty ******** predisposed to getting weirded out over it-- that you were stuck with the wrong goddamn parts, huh!?--"
... His frantic hell-rant was interrupted, however, as a very kind nurse butted in to mistake his gender (oh how that STUNG right now) and...
.............. Oh god NO. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, NOT THAT!
Knocked back to the voiceless trembling and lost courage YET AGAIN by this altogether new horror, Vincent just sat there and shook his head, stupefied, disbelieving.
"Y... Y-You can't..." Holding one hand in front of his face, he was looking whiter and whiter as the shock kept piling. "C-Come on... you can't do this... I-I need my cigarettes, man... Those things are--"
"Extremely bad for the baby, as Maude said," another nurse chimed in to reinforce the first, sighing heavily and putting a hand on her hip as she stood a few feet from the bed. "We're sorry, honey, but you're going to need plenty of bed rest and gentle treatment for the next seven months or so-- oh, and a much better diet, I'd be guessing. Your bones were weak from poor nutrition."
...............
"... S..." God, it just kept getting worse and worse. "S-Seven.... months............."
And SNAP went the dam.
Men didn't cry, but then again, "men" weren't supposed to get pregnant, either.
He buried his eyes in his palm and BAWLED.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:43 pm
Alex simply grumbled a reply under his breath as Vincent got off on his 'Well you have a thing against women' rant in return for Alex's well-placed concern that he sort of had a right to know if he was to be a father or not.
s**t, it would have been REALLY NICE to know, frankly.
However, it seemed as though Alex's life was going to degrade from bad to worse REALLY quickly as Vincent was further informed that Vincent both needed to eat properly (Alcohol and Cigarettes didn't seem to count anymore.. SIIGH, that meant Alexander would be eaten properly as well), which would in turn mean ALEX would have to do so as well.
Which prompted a VERY stressed sounding sigh from Alexander once again as he slowly rose to his feet....
..
.....
And promptly side-stepped the two nurses with a quiet 'Excuse me' before he left the room.
He couldn't deal with this right now....
..
He really couldn't handle this right now. Alex didn't want to be a father! He didn't want Vincent to have a uterus and he didn't want to have to go CLEAN for SEVEN MONTHS.
Oh the chances of him not losing his mind in those seven months if he kept putting up with a sobbing THING was very slim. Very very very slim.
He didn't even want to go back in the room.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:06 pm
God dammit. God dammit god dammit GOD DAMMIT AND A HAL-- ...
W-Wait a minute, where was he going?!
Oh this was just great; now Alex was walking out on him! Okay, so maybe the 'High and Mighty Jackass' comment had been a little snippy and maybe he'd lost his temper a little, but... didn't he have a right to!? He'd been dragged into a clinic with every expectation of just getting his stupid leg patched up and now he'd found out that his life was over because they had created a new one and it was slowly eating him alive.
He couldn't remember how many years it had been since he last cried, but it felt like he was just trying to make up for lost time with all of the shaking, barely-stifled sobs and all over trembling. It was like he'd just fallen apart at the seams and... well, he practically had, really! His entire life had just been dealt a crippling blow!
And now Alex (at least by his completely SHOT logic) was walking out and leaving him to deal with the stupid thing on his own and oh god he couldn't do this by himself IT WAS GOING TO KILL HIM IN A HORRIBLE AND SCARY FAILDEATH ALL ALONE.
... Well, fine then.
"S-Sir, please!" Oh those poor nurses, having to deal with such drama and now a patient who was trying to get out of bed. "Your leg was just set-- you're not to move or bear weight for--"
"T-THEN GIVE ME A GODDAMNED CRUTCH SO I CAN LIMP OUT."
"Sir, that's still moving!--"
"I DON'T GIVE A s**t-- L-LET GO!"
"YOU REALIZE THAT STRESS IS BAD FOR THE CHILD--"
"S-STOP REMINDING ME!"
... Oh, yeah, this had to be the magic of hormones at work.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:18 pm
"T-THEN GIVE ME A GODDAMNED CRUTCH SO I CAN LIMP OUT."
"I DON'T GIVE A s**t-- L-LET GO!"
"YOU REALIZE THAT STRESS IS BAD FOR THE CHILD--"
"S-STOP REMINDING ME!"
He'd only been partway down the hall to go get a breath of fresh air when he'd heard yelling from where he'd just left from, one of those voices sounded like Vincent throwing a fit. Why the HELL did beings possessing estrogen ALWAYS do this?
THIS was why he didn't want a kid.
THIS was why he hadn't wanted a relationship with a female.
THEY ALWAYS GOT OUT OF HAND.
Frankly, he wasn't in the mood for it. Finding out his guy-pal had possessed a uterus? That was okay to deal with, finding out said uterus had a baby in it? Yeah, that was pretty bad. But he'd PROBABLY find a way to deal with that too. A bit of a cramp on his lifestyle, but eh.. he could hang around until the kid was six or seven then go about his life again.
But that said uterus-and-child bearing thing-resembling-a-man was now throwing a fit about following after him?
That he didn't want to put up with.
In fact, it had prompted a scream loud and ANGRY enough to wake the dead and make them kill themselves again to get away from him.
"GODDAMMIT VINCENT.
It wasn't too long afterwards that the red-haired male had returned, all but slamming one fist into (literally into) the wall right by the outside of the doorframe, breathing deeply to force himself into a calm, but the fact that the fur on his tail was prickled and as was the fur elsewhere on his body in various patches was too..
..
He was not happy.
"LAY THE ******** BACK DOWN AND STOP MAKING THIS SITUATION MORE PAINFUL FOR ALL OF US."
Deep breath, deep breath.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:40 pm
Even pregnant and crippled to the point of tottering on one leg, there was a surprising strength to the utterly frantic Vincent Leschande, who had actually managed to fend off the shoving of not one, but TWO nurses trying to muscle him back into bed, hissing and spitting and, indeed, throwing a fit as he tried to shake them off.
They'd even gotten desperate enough to yell for a doctor to come and drug the gimpy little juggernaut who seemed so unstoppable, losing ground against him when...
BANG, a voice like a gunshot exploding shut down everything in zero seconds flat.
The nurses froze. The staff froze. Even the nearest doctor froze-- and midstep too-- wincing in horror and wondering if he'd need to call the authorities.
And most surprising of all, Vincent froze, eyes glazed wide and face blanching back to that sick pallor as if he'd just been threatened with a pistol to the head. It... was plain to see that he hadn't been expecting such a thing, let alone so incredibly loud and LIVID and...
When the braver nurse gave his shoulder a tentative jostle he fell back without resistance, sagging back against the bed in a rather pathetic (though he seemed to be refusing himself any more tears) state of resignation as they nudged and positioned him back in place and he took it with little more than a quiet sniff.
... Deep breath, deep breath... Just don't look at him, look at something else instead.
Yeah, something like the stomach that contained his assured (FAIL) death sentence.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:25 pm
It was another minute or so of Alex taking these deep breaths that he seemed to regain his 'cool', and quite nicely to as following it he forced a pleasant smile. If only to put on a 'smoothing the situation over' facade on.
"Was that so difficult?" he asked, trying, and failing, to sound pleasant.. but not sounding like the shotgun man he had a few moments previously.
To answer his own question, yes. It had been difficult to calm down, so the fact he had actually gotten his fur to smooth over and stop making him look like he'd just been static-shocked was quite an accomplishment.
"I'm going out... for TWO MINUTES unless I decide to RAID A GROCER."
He took several deep breaths as he spoke, tapping one finger on the doorframe. Then he continued.
"Now, dear... would you like me to pick anything up for you while I'm out? Particular food craving? Anything you can actually eat? Something high in calcium or other various 'good for yous'?"
At that point in time he'd adopted a forcibly sweet tone, earning an 'Awwwww' from a trio of nearby nurses who thought the 'doting significant other' routine was simply adorable.
It probably wasn't so adorable to the one who had just gotten the SNOT scared out of him.
But he didn't care.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:48 pm
... Alright, now he was sure of it; the screaming had killed him.
Yes, the screaming had caused his heart to STOP out of SHEER HORROR and now he was somehow caught in the throes of some Limbo gone Twilight Zone, facing down some alternate universe-esque good twin incarnation of the man who's nearly punched through a damned WALL and YELLED at him seconds before with such force that his ears were still buzzing.
Or maybe this was hell and he'd burst into flames the moment he answered. Or the moment he DIDN'T answer. He wasn't quite sure yet.
And oh, the cooing of the nurses did NOT help this situation feel any less awkward AT ALL...
"U-Uh..." s**t, his voice was still tight and cracking from the shock, not seeming to possess the courage for looking up at his... Dammit, just what was Alex supposed to be to him with all of this messy bullshit now?
... Well anyway, he couldn't really think of anything that sounded "good" and wasn't loaded full of toxic chemicals, so... he gave up on that and passed it off with a weak shrug.
"I'm alright..." And oh, the reeking AWKWARD of that pause. This just... none of it felt real AT ALL. This shouldn't have been coming out of his mouth. "But... thanks..."
And while he was out getting a taste of the fresh air, Vince would just... sit and resign himself to the misery of nicotine withdrawal and the doting of those horrible nurses in the meanwhile.
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