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“My sweet Ezra,” Titan said, voice full of so much adoration that Ezra could feel it even over the constricting pain in his belly.

“A very great being recently taught me that it is not necessary to know everything all of the time—that learning is a virtue we should be grateful to accept. So do not have fear at the unknown. I, too, am not all-knowing, but I am certain that together, we will persevere, and everything will be all right.”

“What if you’re wrong?” A tear escaped the corner of his eye and slid down the length of his nose, leaving a cold, damp trail down his skin.

Titan smiled easily, leaning down to press a long kiss to Ezra’s temple.

“I am not all-knowing,” he repeated, pulling back just enough that Ezra could see that trademark smirk of his.

It had been so aggravating the night they met, but now it was a comfort.

“But I do know many things, and I am confident that when it comes to you and me, what I have said is not speculation. We will persevere, and we will prosper for it. The pain will recede, you will see. It is just a matter of tim e.”

A laugh that sounded more like a sob rattled its way out of Ezra’s throat, and he wiped the tears out of his eyes so he could see Titan completely. When they’d first met, he’d only been drawn to Titan for his looks—certainly not his personality.

Now, though?

Now Titan could shed his human disguise and Ezra would still feel that pull.

Maybe Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome hadn’t been what had captured his interest after all—maybe it had simply been Titan all along.

Breathing heavily as his most recent contraction subsided and the newest began, but too overwhelmed with emotion to care, Ezra grabbed Titan by the front of his shirt and pulled him down into a messy, crushing kiss.

Titan hummed in surprise, then melted into it, opening himself up to Ezra like a flower to the sun.

How far he’d come.

How far.

And all for Ezra.

Because he wanted to be with Ezra, and not with anyone else.

He hadn’t given up the chase when Ezra had let him between his legs, hadn’t left when the fun was over, hadn’t run when he’d found out Ezra was pregnant.

He’d stayed.

And now the asshole was so sweet, Ezra didn’t think he could shake him if he tried.

When they parted, three little words were on the tip of Ezra’s tongue, but before he could speak them, pain took complete hold over him.

It was his worst contraction yet, twisting his insides like a wrung washcloth, and it triggered a sudden and urgent impulse in him that overrode all other thought.

Groaning through it, he clenched Titan’s shirt even more tightly. “I think I need to push.”

“Right. Yes. Of course,” said a wide-eyed Titan, soundi ng like someone who was trying hard not to sound panicked while being totally super-duper panicked. “Let us rid you of your garments before they impede the laying of our eggs.”

Titan had just maneuvered Ezra onto his back and was working on undoing the tie to his sweatpants when the bedroom door opened a crack and Jude’s head poked through.

“Buttons told me what was happening,” he explained, then scrunched his eyebrows together and amended, “Well, I mean, Buttons told Al what was happening, and I was able to understand it through our bond. How is everything going? Do you need any help?”

“The arrival of our clutch is imminent,” Titan informed Jude over his shoulder, working Ezra’s pants and boxers down his thighs.

Ezra was too focused on his labor and rapidly approaching delivery to even think about being embarrassed.

Besides, he’d been there for Jude’s delivery.

Quid pro quo, or whatever. What was a little horrifically gaping asshole between friends?

Abruptly, the pressure between Ezra’s legs became unbearable. He reached out and wrapped his hand around Titan’s forearm, squeezing a little too hard by accident. “Fuck! They’re coming! I have to push, I have to !”

Distantly, he heard Jude say, “I’m… gonna go grab some towels.”

The door closed, and as it did, Titan was right there with him, prying Ezra’s fingers off his forearm so he could hold his hand instead.

The pain was excruciating and only got worse as Ezra bore down, screaming as his body threatened to rip open around the egg now forcing its way through him, and there was no escaping it.

All he could do was tuck his chin to his chest and push through it, straining so hard, the veins in his temples ached.

“Oh god, I can’t do this,” he groaned when the pain let up enough for him to breathe. “It’s too much. I’m not strong enough.”

“This is incorrect,” Titan whispered into his ear, his voice gentle and kind.

“You are very strong—the strongest being I have ever met. You shoulder not only t he weight of our governments, but have grown our clutch inside of you through it all, and without having faltered once. But your struggle is nearing its end. You need only be strong for a while longer. Listen to your body, and it will tell you what to do.”

Panting, Ezra nodded weakly. His entire body was sweltering, and his knees were trembling where they were bent and open wide. Even his teeth were chattering with adrenaline, but Titan’s words strengthened his resolve. It was almost over. He could do this.

Determined, he squeezed Titan’s hand.

What a difference it made knowing he was not in this alone.

When the urge to push next came, he bore down hard, one hand gripping the blankets, the other crushing Titan’s fingers.

On the inside, he felt the shift—the sudden, heavy drop of the egg descending—and screamed as it breached the birth canal.

The pain crested as the widest part of the egg made its way through, then stalled.

It was nearly unbearable. Every ounce of his strength went into his next series of pushes, but it just wouldn’t budge.

“Why won’t it come?” Ezra sobbed, letting his head fall back and panting so hard, he was at risk of hyperventilation.

“It seems we have a stubborn offspring. This can be a useful trait, but I do not find joy in the fact that it is causing you such suffering. Let us see what can be done.” Titan freed his hand from Ezra’s and pushed his knees back, shifting the angle of his pelvis.

“Come now, little one, it is time for you to join us.”

It appeared that the abrupt shift in position was exactly what the egg needed to escape Erza’s poor, abused body. Screaming through one last excruciating push, Ezra was finally granted relief—the egg slid the rest of the way out and onto the bedding of the makeshift nest.

Ezra collapsed into the pillows, only peripherally aware that Titan had parted his lips in awe.

“My sweet Ezra,” he said, eyes not straying from the eg g. “The egg you have laid is… quite unique.”

“What?” Ezra grimaced and pushed himself up onto his elbows. “What do you mean by ‘unique’? Is there something wrong with it?”

“Not at all.”

Titan held the egg up for him to see, and all at once, the breath left Ezra’s chest.

A rush of all-consuming adoration filled him instead.

“It’s so…” He searched for the words, a thousand adjectives coming to mind, and settled on, “ big. ”

And it was true. He remembered the day Jude had delivered his clutch—not that he could forget, because he had certainly tried—and recalled that his eggs had been somewhat wide at the base and a good seven or eight inches long.

This egg was not like that.

It had the same sandy color and swirling markings, but whereas Jude’s eggs had tapered into a cute little dome at the top, Ezra’s egg was a total unit, almost cubic from how thick it was, and much wider than Jude’s had been—enough that he’d need both palms to hold it, and not just one.

The markings that appeared and faded away on its shell were also abnormal.

Jude’s eggs had all displayed one pattern in one color at a time, but this egg was flashing multiple patterns at once, and in an array of colors.

For a moment, Ezra was terrified something was wrong with it, but that couldn’t be right—what it was doing was way too complex for it to be broken. But then… what was going on?

He glanced nervously at Titan, who looked besotted.

“It is quite big indeed,” Titan said, beaming at the egg. “It is no wonder that your delivery thus far has been difficult—you are so extraordinary that you have created us an extraordinary egg. Even were I not able to use touch telepathy to confirm, it is clear you have produced twins.”

“Is that uncommon? ”

“Quite uncommon indeed.”

The stirrings of another contraction put a swift end to Ezra’s bliss.

How many more eggs were inside him, waiting to be born, and how long would it take?

During Jude’s delivery, the rest time between eggs had varied, but it had never been long.

Very soon he’d be back to pushing, and it was not going to be fun…

especially if the rest of his clutch turned out as big as this first humongous egg.

He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry.

“Will they all be like that?” he asked quietly. Titan must have noticed his nervousness, because he finally stopped making heart eyes at their egg to look Ezra over in concern.

“Many sorries, but I cannot say for certain,” he admitted.

“If they are, it would be exceptionally unusual—an anomaly that would warrant research by our brightest scientists and other scholastic minds. Most likely, the remaining eggs will be a normal size, but no matter what happens, please do not have fear. The toll on your body will be great, but it will also be temporary, and when you are done, our clutch will be here.” He held the egg out to Ezra.

“Lay your hand upon it and allow the offspring inside to renew your determination. Their joy is radiant. One touch and you will feel it, I am sure.”

Even had Ezra wanted to resist, he wouldn’t have been able to. His fingers were like metal and the egg a magnet, effortlessly drawing him in.

He made contact with his palm, smoothing it over the egg’s soft shell. It was surprisingly cool to the touch, far more leathery than a bird’s egg while still rigid enough to maintain its structure, and the lizard part of his brain was overjoyed about it.

Or was it…

He paused, searching deep within himself for the truth.

Was that feeling of joy coming from him, or was it coming from the egg?

As his fingers slid across the shell, absently stroking, th e patterns on the egg stilled, and the shimmering colors it had been displaying all turned pink…

the same pink Ezra so often saw in Titan’s eyes.

The joy he’d felt intensified, and in that moment Ezra knew it wasn’t just speculation—somewhere in his brain, like an itch he couldn’t quite scratch, was an emotion separate from his own.

“They’re happy, ” he breathed. He raised his gaze to meet Titan’s, and found him watching the scene with a placid smile.

“They are not the only ones,” he said. “Your eyes—they have turned pink.”

Ezra frowned. He reached over to the bedside table where he’d left his phone and opened the front-facing camera.

His face was flushed, his hair a mess, and he looked bone-tired in a way he hadn’t since that forty-eight-hour Smash Bros.

tournament he’d participated in when he was eighteen, bringing home second place, but all of that was to be expected after what he’d just gone through.

What couldn’t be so easily explained away was the color of his eyes, which were now dusty pink.

“I really am an alien, aren’t I?” he asked no one in particular with a resigned shake of his head, then sucked in a sharp breath as his belly began to cramp.

Likely sensing this, Titan removed the egg from his reach and set it in the celestial-themed bassinet Buttons had been using as a cat bed, then returned to Ezra’s side and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips, cupping Ezra’s face in his hands as he did.

“You are many things,” he whispered when the kiss concluded.

“You are an excellent ambassador and an honorable friend, a being of considerable intelligence and tremendous wit, and a teacher who has taught me lessons I should have learned many rotations ago. You are a passionate lover, and already such a devoted father. Human, Darvrokian, both, neither—it is of no consequence. You are my sweet Ezra, and that is all that matters.”

The pain of Ezra’s contractions was now almost impossible to ignore, but he managed a wobbly smile as he rested his forehead on Titan’s, heart full to bursting.

“I love you,” he said then, and it came easily, the words so natural on his tongue that he had to wonder why he had ever thought them impossible to say.

“And I you,” Titan replied. He kissed him again, and then said quietly into his ear, “Bring the rest of our family onto the planet now, so that we can all be together. Do not have fear. I am here beside you, and I will never, ever leave.”

And moments later, when the next contraction hit like a truck and caused Ezra to bear down even when he felt like crumpling, he realized that Titan was right.

He didn’t have to be afraid.

For the first time in his life, he did not feel alone.