October - Birthday
Early in the morning on October 31st, Pearl sets aside a large bowl of candy and starts chopping fruit that she pulled from the fridge. Part of her is surprised Marina didn’t ask for any candies, given her sweet tooth, but she was adamant that she wanted some kind of small fruit salad.
(For Marina, this just means assorted fruits in a bowl. Pearl is more than happy to oblige.)
When the fruit bowl is finished, she happily leaves the kitchen and half-rushes upstairs to her wife. The master bedroom door is closed, and for a moment Pearl regrets it. What if she wakes Marina up too soon? What if it’s too loud and it startles her?
She sighs, shakes her head, and slowly opens the door to her bedroom. On the bed sits Marina’s nest, that giant pillow fort she spent the entire first half of this month meticulously and lovingly building. Curled up halfway beneath the pile is the woman of the hour. Pearl already knows she’s made up for her wife’s absence by cuddling up to a pillow, which she thinks is adorable every time she sees it.
Carefully, the little inkling crawls onto the foot of the bed and reaches for one of Marina’s tentacles, the only part of her not curled up tight like a cinnamon roll- aside from one, gently cradling her stomach. She gently takes it, lifts it, and drops it back onto the bed. Marina doesn’t stir.
Pearl crawls a little closer and gently places her hand on Marina’s shoulder, rubbing her back with her thumb. Still, the sleepy octoling stays in dreamland.
“Goodness, she’s made you that sleepy? I don’t wanna have to do this.”
She scoots into the nest until she’s leaning gently on Marina’s back, then brings her hand up to her wife’s ear. Pearl apologizes, then starts flicking Marina’s ear. Her ear, in turn, twitches and eventually turns backward.
Finally, she’s awake, at least for a little while. She grumbles and mutters in Octarian and heaves a heavy sigh before she turns her head toward Pearl. Just her head, of course, which is still resting upon her arm.
“Pearlie… I lov’ya… but… My ears’re off-limits,” Marina mumbles in Octarian, obviously still teetering on the edge of sleep. She looks like if she even blinks for too long she’ll just doze right back off.
“It was my last resort.”
Pearl gently sets her bowl of fruit down beside her and gently cups her wife’s cheek in her hand to give her a kiss. Marina starts purring as soon as she pulls away.
“Today’s special, Marmar. Sorry for waking you up, but I had to.”
“What’s more special’n my, uh… my… beauty sheep?”
“Beauty sleep, love, but I’d think you turning thirty is pretty special.”
Marina thinks for a second, squinting at Pearl, and then she just mutters well, shit. With a small huff, she pushes herself up so that she’s sitting upright and digs through her blankets and pillows for her glasses and her phone.
“What time is it?”
“Ten,” Pearl lies. There’s a gentle smack on her shoulder when Marina pulls the screen up close to her nose.
“It’s seven,” she growls lowly in response.
Clearly, Marina doesn’t think it’s quite as funny, but she’s still smiling while she puts her glasses on and drapes her arms around Pearl. She uses one of her free tentacles to grab a few fruits and put them in her mouth.
“Lazy.”
“I’m allowed to be lazy.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Reena.”
Marina swallows her treats and sticks her tongue out at Pearl.
“I’m thirty. I can do what I want.”
“Oh, now you know how important it is.”
“Yeah. And I’m the pregnant lady here. You spoil me, I got used to it.”
While Marina contentedly eats her breakfast, Pearl pulls out her phone and checks her texts. Callie says she’ll be there soon with Marina’s gifts.
Part of her wants to ask what Callie got her, but Marina is sitting right here and she doesn’t want to spoil the surprise. Instead, she sends a simple selfie of herself and Marina waving at the camera.
“You excited?”
“Uh huh.”
“Do you wanna do a costume this year? I know you’ve got a few in the closet…”
Marina stretches and pulls her blankets up with a small shake of her head.
“I’m not sure I can fit in a costume.”
“You’ve got a big robe. Or we can just do your party today, and then this evening I can pass out candy on my own.”
“By yourself?”
“Sure. I could even go trick-or-treating.”
“Pearl, you’re so mean to me… what if she knew how you were treating me, huh? Abandoning me for candy.”
Pearl laughs a little while Marina dramatically flops over onto her smaller wife’s lap and pulls her hand over to rest upon Marina’s stomach.
“She can’t hear me.”
“If you say so…”
For the rest of the morning, the two of them stay like this, fingers intertwined over their little baby (did she move?). Pearl nearly starts wailing at the thought and Marina can’t help but giggle while she turns on her phone and scrolls through whatever notifications came in while she was asleep.
“Shiver and Frye are asking what I want.”
“They do that every year.”
“Still kinda funny. You’d think they’d remember by now, how long have we known each other?”
Pearl shrugs and leans down to kiss Marina’s forehead.
“They’ve always been a little weird, I guess.”
“They’re family.”
“Doesn’t mean they can’t be weird. I call my brothers weird all the time.”
Marina blinks at her phone, and then closes her app with a shrug.
“I actually haven’t thought about what I want…”
“I told everyone not to get baby stuff. Since we’ve already got a whole closet full of it.”
“We don’t know what she wants.”
“Not her birthday for a couple months, though.”
Pearl scoots down and gently pulls her wife’s shirt up to press her palm against her skin, as if to feel for their baby. There’s nothing right now. Maybe she’s sleeping.
“I think everyone’s gonna get here around noon or so. Maybe you’ve got time to think about what you want Shiver and Frye to get you?”
“I’ll figure it out eventually.”
And that seemed to be that, since Marina sighed and slowly climbed out of bed. It only took a moment for Pearl to take her place next to her wife with one hand comfortingly resting on her other hip.
Marina gives her a little look. Pearl shrugs, and locks elbows with her instead.
The house is quiet, at the moment, aside from creaking floorboards and quiet whispers- Pearl apologizing for making Marina get out of bed, Marina assuring her it was fine and that she needs to get out of that bedroom anyway. Besides, the party was going to be downstairs, and she needed to be there.
Pearl gently sits her down on the couch next to the fireplace and scuttles off to gather spare blankets and pillows. A few are still lingering in closets and spare bedrooms which will eventually become baby’s room, but since baby won’t need them for a couple more months Pearl can justify stealing them for Marina.
(Then again, if Marina is pregnant, does that mean baby does need it? A question for later. She’ll put those blankets back soon anyhow.)
When she returns to the living room, Marina has already stretched out over the couch. Pearl wastes no time gently tucking her under the small pile of blankets.
“You don’t have to tuck me in…”
“Yes I do. I want you to be comfy.”
“If you insist. Do we still have my little lap desk?”
“It’s around here somewhere.”
Marina hums, resigning herself to watching Pearl light a fire in the hearth. It was getting colder outside as winter drew nearer, and Marina was starting to get a little more sensitive to the changes in temperature.
In fact-
“Are you cold?”
“I’m okay.”
“Are you sure? I can get you a warm drink if you want.”
“Really, Pearl, it’s okay. Hot chocolate does sound nice, though.”
The moment Marina was done talking, Pearl rushes to the kitchen to prepare her wife her coveted hot chocolate. When she gives it to her, she makes sure to give Marina a kiss on her forehead.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Marina sips on her drink, slowly so she doesn’t burn her mouth, while Pearl starts clearing out the living room to try and make space for everyone.