April - Achieving
Marina sits, quietly, at the kitchen table, staring at the towel sitting in the center. She chews on her hand slightly, knee bouncing anxiously.
She knows what’s underneath the towel. She covered it up to mask the temptation to look.
But no. Marina doesn’t want to spoil the surprise.
Either way, she thinks she knows. She felt sick this morning.
Or maybe that was the anxiety. Or it could be her period. Or— has she had lunch?
Marina groans softly and lays her chin on the table.
How much longer is Pearl going to be? She doesn’t think she can wait. The results have to have come back by now, right? Surely she can just take a glance.
But no. No, no, not at all. No, bad.
Not without Pearl. Final answer, no second-guessing.
She picks up another towel and puts it on the table while she runs through her patented list of distractions. While she thinks, she paces in circles back and forth through the kitchen, hands waving almost frantically in front of her chest and around her face.
Calypso is at school today.
They don’t get out of school for four more hours.
The bike is fine and doesn’t need any touch-ups.
The same is true for the car.
Her brella is clean.
So are Pearl’s dualies.
And she doesn’t feel like playing video games.
She slumps back down onto the chair and winces at the harsh screech the feet made against the cold, tiled floor.
And again, Marina groans, muffled by her arm. She can’t stare at it forever. She can’t NOT stare at it forever.
She’s stuck here. Staring at it.
Forever.
Or at least until Pearl gets back from a “just-in-case” shopping trip.
She closes her eyes and sighs to herself, jolting slightly in her seat when an arm wraps around her shoulders.
“Hi, Reena,” whispers Pearl’s voice in her ear. “What do you have here?”
Marina just sits up and leans on Pearl with a shaky grin and tears in her eyes.
“Oh, Marina- it’s okay, it is. C’mon, don’t cry.”
Pearl gives Marina a kiss while she sets the bag on the floor. There’s a moment of quiet, then the arm around Marina’s shoulders disappears. She hears the chair across from her own get pulled out and feels Pearl’s fingers lace between her own. Her other hand gently moves under the towels, careful not to touch the item beneath.
“Look up here. I love you, no matter what. Okay? We’ll try as many times as we need to. No sweat if it didn’t happen today.”
Marina nods, her hand shaking while she takes the towels too, just like Pearl.
“I’ll go when you’re ready,” her wife says, and Marina takes a deep breath. She can practically feel Pearl vibrating with excitement.
A minute or so of hesitation, then in unison Pearl and Marina pull the towels away and drop them on the floor.
Sitting, unaddressed, on the center of the kitchen table is a pregnancy test. It’s laying facedown, the result hidden to the prospective mothers-to-be.
Marina looks at Pearl.
Pearl looks back at Marina.
“When you’re ready,” Pearl reassures, playing off the excited static electrifying the air. She’s baring her beak in a wide grin and Marina can’t help but do the same thing.
She gently takes the test in one hand and Pearl leans forward, gently squeezing Marina’s hand when she shuts her eyes. Softly, she counts down from three and turns it over so the results are finally shown to the open air.
Silence falls upon the kitchen in a thick, almost choking fog. Both inklings in the room are stunned into silence- until Pearl moves under the table to slowly push Marina’s chair back and climb into her lap.
“We did it, Reena,” she whispers, right into her ear, voice shaking.
Pearl melts into Marina’s arms and stuffs her face into her shoulder. Marina hugs her back, at the expense of having to use a tentacle to grab the test from its spot on the table.
She blinks. She squints at it from behind her glasses. She leans a little forward to look over her glasses- all of it to make absolutely sure she’s reading this right and she can finally get excited.
And it’s true.
They did it.
Oh, thank the sea, thank the tides, they did it.
Their dream will come true.
Marina gets up onto her feet and braces herself against the table because suddenly her legs feel like they’re going to collapse under her any second now. Pearl takes her hands guides her to sit on the living room couch. She cuddles up to her wife and takes both of Marina’s hands to look at her.
“Real talk though,” and thank goodness she’s quieted down, “you okay? Like, actually?”
“… it’s okay.”
“You’re sure?”
“Mhm. I just… need a second.”
“Okay. I’ll stay here with you.”
Pearl reaches over and grabs the TV remote, just to have some noise playing softly while Marina thinks.
Her mind races so fast she can’t keep up with it- but she knows she’s very, very happy.
She’s overwhelmed, and after a moment she adjusts herself so that she can hug Pearl and bury her face in her tentacles and try to stave off the sobs now wracking her body. Marina apologizes behind her tears, but Pearl only rolls over to kiss her nose.
“I’m here. Remember? You’re not alone in this, we’re in it together and I’m so, so happy. And you’re gonna be fine. I love you.”
And Pearl wipes away Marina’s tears, kisses her cheeks, holds her close.
“Were you thinking of names while I was out?”
She shakes her head and Pearl hums. After a moment, she tightly hugs Marina and climbs on top of her.
“We’ll have to get working on that, won’t we?”
Marina takes a breath and presses her nose into Pearl’s tentacles again, trying to even her breathing out and stop crying. Pearl presses a kiss to her wife’s cheek and gently pulls her thumb over her ear. On instinct, Marina leans into her palm.
“We’re having a baby, Pearlie,” she whispers, voice trembling. She’s smiling, and she gently pushes Pearl away to look at herself.
“I hope we have a girl.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“I don’t know. I feel like we would… and I really want a girl.”
And Pearl hums behind her chuckling while she spreads her palm over Marina’s stomach. Marina does the same, interlocking their fingers and momentarily stopping Pearl from gently tracing her stretch marks.
“I want to name her something Octarian.”
“We can do that.”