strangetrip | [GP] Check-in Day: Lurking Out of Habit

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[GP] Check-in Day: Lurking Out of Habit

The first of the month arrived and Kash took up his usual station at the edge of the Cafe with his eyes on the door. It had been his habit since he first arrived and learned that arrivals had a pattern, and he had kept to it when he realized that a lot of people showed up injured. It had nothing to do with expecting Zahra to come for him any day now. Nothing to do with wanting to be right here should she arrive. He was just doing his work as a healer.

From the new library, he had acquired a text on modern medicine. It sat in front of him, a cup of coffee by his hand that Kitty kept full of fresh, steaming brew, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies by his other hand. He wore the symbol that he refused to consider holy, his dark spear rested against the thigh closer to the wall, and he had prepared all of his healing spells, and a few damage and area of effect spells in case anything came through that posed a threat.

Kitty was on-shift, which used to mean covering the bar, the cafe, and the pool bar. Out of habit, she still watched all of them, but these days, she had plenty of help. Ignis or Emma were almost always in the kitchen and someone usually tended the bakery counter.

In short, there was absolutely nothing unusual about the day, Kitty or Kash. It was exactly like every other arrival day. The only exception, if it was one, was that Kash was almost as interested in his book as Kitty was her research.

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Nine months hadn't dulled their synergy. Kash had already moved to push the staff toward her hand as she reached for it, aware in his bones that captive, weakened, defenseless was her personal nightmare.

"Bullshit plane," he told her, voice rough with emotion and familiarly caustic. He took her other hand in his, spoke a strong healing word, and added, "It's complicated but we're safe." Then he stood, hand extended down to help her to her feet.

She felt the warmth was over her again and there was renewed energy. Standing up was a lot easier now, especially with Kash's help as she reached for his hand. On her feet, she took another look around the room before looking back at him. It was then she noticed his clothes.

"Where's your armour?" The clothes were very unfamiliar to her, though she had to admit that at first glance they weren't terrible on him. A sudden unsettling feeling began to form in her chest with the amount of unknowns she realized there was right now. Zahra took a step closer to Kash.

"I need you to explain as best as you can, darling." She kept her voice level, but there was an implication there that she was not feeling entirely at ease with the whole situation. It didn't help that every time she looked at Kash, he seemed to look at her like she was a ghost or could disappear at any moment.

That single unfamiliar step, Z moving toward him in discomfort, jogged him back to coherent thought. He slipped his arm around her and drew her against his side. For her, he could hold himself together. "You've got it, baby."

He smoothed his hand over her back, brushed the other against her cheek. "Trust me five more minutes and I'll explain everything."

People had begun to notice her, and he didn't want her to learn about this new place from someone screaming 'demon' and freaking out at her.

When he drew her to his side, her tail instinctively wrapped against him like it always did back home. She would trust him forever, but she nodded in answer and let him take the lead. There were too many strangers around and all of them looked entirely different from what she was used to. A hand absent-mindedly moved to touch her abdomen.

The press of her tail against his hip set up a throbbing ache in his chest that he didn't know how to quiet. He focused, instead, on the weight of her in his arm, on getting her key and murmuring reassurances as he steered her out of lobby, across the lot, and to the building where her room was.

Z was weirdly docile and kept touching her stomach like it was tender, but when he'd asked about it before, she hadn't said anything. It wasn't like her and he frowned again while he showed her how to work the key in the lock, but concentrated on getting her into the room, out of her armor and off her feet.

Zahra kept her concentration on Kash and his instructions, trying to keep the layout of the large place straight in her mind, but it was hard considering the confusion she was in. When they entered what was apparently her room, where she had hoped there would be some comfort in the familiarity, she found little. There was a bed and some furnishings that remained the same, but otherwise there was so many things different.

When the door closed, Zahra found her voice again. She turned to Kash with a steady gaze. "Where are we? What is this place? Are we safe? And why do keep looking at me as if I'm some sort of ghost?" Said without anger, but said with a subtle urgency for the answers she hoped he had.

Steeling himself against the needs howling in his chest, Kash steadied his voice and his gaze. He reached out, smoothed his hands over her shoulders, and reassured her, "We're safe, baby," and then took both of her hands and led her to a couch to sit. If she wouldn't let him remove her armor yet, at least he could get her off her feet.

He sat beside her, her hands still in his and heedless of the possibility of being scratched or pierced if she freaked out. "This place is an inn. Uglier than a gibbering mouther, but an inn. We're in some bullshit pocket plane. It connects to lot of worlds. People just show up, and when they get here, they always have a reservation. Vax and Percy were here when I got here. Vex and Pike showed up afterward, and Lillith arrived a few months ago. And I--" His teeth clacked shut around a sob he refused to voice.

The words just stopped then, his gaze dropping to her hands. Not because he was done, but because he didn't know where to start.

Zahra followed as he spoke, aware of the tone in his voice as he explained the situation. A different plane made sense and perhaps it was caused by Vecna who no doubt had the ability to send them somewhere else. As if sending them plummeting to their death wasn't enough. But the order of arrivals here confused her and her brow furrowed.

"I don't understand. If we were sent to another plane, how did we not arrive together?" As she said it, then she made the connection to his clothes. "...how long have you been here?"

Kash saw it in her eyes, even without pupils to dilate or contract. His gaze burned and his stomach knotted. He didn't want to burden her with this, not after the shock she'd had. But he couldn't lie to her. He'd never been able to.

"...eight and half months."

It hit her like a punch to the stomach and had she not been sitting down, she would have needed to. She looked over his face, his expression, and it became clear to her why he was looking at her the way he was. She sat there for a moment, quiet as she looked at him, before she leaned in to kiss him, hand cupping the side of his face. Hopefully she didn't taste too much like her own blood.

Her lips touched his and the emotion he'd been choking back slipped out between them, "Zahra," her name half-sobbed as his fist tangled into her hair. The kiss quickly dissolved into him bruising his arms on her armor to crush her against him.

Zahra felt a twinge of guilt even though there was no control on her end for what had happened. She held him tight, a soft 'shhh' sound pressed passed her lips. She let him hold her for as long as he needed to. "I'm here now."

Armor be damned, he could have held her for hours. But this ache, the need to touch her, to tell her everything wasn't going to go away any time soon.

"It's gonna take awhile for that to sink in," he said, and meant I've missed you like breathing. There'd be time for that later. He leaned in to kiss her again, softly, like a prayer, and then sat back to look her over properly.

"You kept touching your stomach. Does it hurt still?"

She paused with the question. It was then she fully realized there was more than just a gap. If he had no idea why she was hurt then he had no idea about the baby. "It doesn't hurt." She tried to read his face for a moment before she slowly took off enough of her armour so her linen was left on her top and he could touch it. "But you should probably look at it. You'll have to pay close attention."

Kash raised an eyebrow at her. But if she wanted to seduce him before she saw her cousin and best friend, it had been eight and a half months and they hadn't had nearly enough time together before he got here.

So when she stripped off her armor (with what help she'd let him give), he did as she bid, his fingers tender over her abdomen. The healer in him noted it had good tone and nothing felt distended or swollen, there was no bruising, and she'd put on a few pounds since he'd seen her last (which was good by him).

The lover who'd missed her desperately, reveled in the softness of her skin beneath his fingers. He bent to press his lips to her curve of her belly and breathe in her scent. It wasn't until he rubbed his cheek against her that he felt it.

Kash blinked, sat up abruptly, and began his exam again. "Z?"

There were a lot of unanswered questions right now and she had no idea what this Kash knew or didn't know except he obviously had no idea about the baby. Zahra did know, however, that he loved her and she him, so she wasn't necessarily nervous about him rejecting their child or anything. But it would be a shock to him and she knew that.

She gave him a soft smile that was warm and more delicate than she let others usually see. "It seems I'm full of surprises today for you, my love." There was the faintest hint of apology to her voice that he had to deal with all of it at once.

He'd always thought 'you could've knocked him over with a stiff breeze' was bullshit, but if he hadn't been sitting, Z could've knocked him over with that smile.

His mind flashed back to her hand on her stomach. Not probing. Protecting.

We're both all right. Not him and her. She and the...

Baby.

Z was pregnant. With his child. His child.

He blinked again, curved his hand over that small swell. "Did we... was it planned?" Another thought struck him almost as hard. "When...? How long ago did we kill Thordak for you?"

Zahra felt relief though she hadn't realized she was holding onto something until that moment. The slightest of exhales was given when he reaction seemed positive. Of course it would be, she scolded herself.

At the question, her brow furrowed slightly again. So much had happened since then. "Thordak... that was quite some time ago. All the dragons were defeated." It seemed so silly to say this to him as if it was for the first time. "We were defending Vasselheim from the god Venca when you and I..." When they both fell to their deaths, or near deaths anyways. She would just have to hope someone friendly found them before someone who wasn't or they would be dead for sure.

Vecna. Another god trying to take away everything the mattered to him. Rage gripped him. The same rage he felt when he learned what Vesh had done. His shoulders tensed and his jaw clenched and then--

And then it bled away on a wave of relief. His death ward. It had been on all of them. He had protected her then and she was with him now.

"I'm going to need you to explain everything to me as clearly as you can, baby," he tried to tease but didn't get most of the words out before he'd drawn her into his arms again. "But it can wait. First I'm going to introduce you to a self-filling bath, get you clothes, and something to eat. I'll get Lillith to bring it so I don't have to leave."

She wouldn't have to see anyone else until she could pull herself back together. And he could hold himself together until she was ready for them to leave.

"All of those things sound lovely." She still hadn't quite processed the reality that other people were here, including her cousin Lillith. Still, the familiar brought comfort and the promise of a self-filling bath was like music to her ears.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know. I don't know the whole story." She knew enough. Everyone knew enough to fight against Vecna and to help Vox Machina win against him.

"I want to know everything," he told her and kissed her temple, just beneath the curve of her horn. "Everything I missed." His heart clutched again and his arms tightened around her. His voice dropped to a low, aching whisper, "Missed you, Z. Nothing's right without you."

She nuzzled the side of his face, feeling a pit in her chest again as if she was somehow responsible for him being here without her. "I'm sorry. If I'd have known, I'd have come sooner."

"I know." He did. She knew him and knew he'd be a wreck of a human without her, would never leave him by her own choice. "Bath, food, friends, and then--" He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of her knuckles to put the lie to his smart-ass reply. "--you can start making up for it."

Zahra smiled with a hint of playfulness. Even at his worst, he could make her smile with his comments. "I'll be certain to apologize quite thoroughly to you, my love."

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[GP] Check-in Day: Lurking Out of Habit

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