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Expecting

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Gerplexan

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"It's okay, honey..."

But it wasn't okay. Nothing could ever again make it okay, no matter how Jason held his wife, Rebecca, close on their bed, the anthro white vixen and red fox sharing their intimacy in one of the only ways that they could anymore. Sex had lost its closeness as they tried to conceive over and over again - yeah, that hadn't happened on their wedding night, as they had thought, and was told in the tale of pregnancy tests that never read what either of them wanted to see. Rebecca whimpered and tucked her muzzle down between her paws but her hiding away from the world was nothing new at this time. He didn't blame her either with everyone staring and whispering, wondering just why she had not yet swollen, heavily pregnant. Everyone expected her to be.

"It's..."

She didn't stutter or break in a sob, for she had no more tears left to cry. Heaven knew that he'd cried so very many along with her.

"It's...not what..."

Yes, he knew and he held her close, letting the words pour forth in lieu of tears, streaming from her lips. On and on, she spoke of the cub she wanted so badly, the cub that they both wanted. Their life had not come together in the way that they had wanted it to, their family incomplete while they yearned for something more. Sure, they had each other but they had both always been on the same page when it had come to having a family together, which was a lot more than could be said for other couples that they knew and loved. It was a cruel twist of fate indeed that the Arctic and red fox pair had thus been backed into a corner, forced to acknowledge that there was no way, at least naturally, that they would be able to have a cub together.

And yet... Jason had researched, day and night, although it was something that would not provide everything that Rebecca wanted. Pressing his lips together, he closed his eyes, taking a deep, steadying breath. She trembled against him. It was now or never.

"Look, there's something we can try," he said, heart beating more and more quickly. "It's different...risky...but..."

But, of course, he would do anything for his wife and he held her warm and close as he explained what could be done. Adoption was an option but they'd had his sperm tested and there was nothing truly wrong with either his sperm or her eggs, just the ability of her womb to hold an embryo. Yet rather than look for another body that could bear and carry their cub, a little fox cub, he told her right there and then that he already had the perfect candidate in mind so that they could, finally, realise their dreams of having a family, what had consumed them for the span of so many months already.

The consultations were expensive but they made it work, confirming that Rebecca was infertile, which he tried to brush past quickly. Not to do with her eggs, he said, and it didn't make her less than what she was. It only made her stronger, proving that she could get past it. Jason still saw how it took a little of the light from her eyes, however, as he kept her involved every step of the way through an experimental procedure that would, at least in theory, allow one of them to carry out a pregnancy.

She didn't think it would work but he had to be the positivity and motivation in both of them now.

He had no choice.

*

Jason's jaw dropped, sitting on the toilet - something that was not done half as often as it was for femfurs - blood roaring between his ears. Growling, he brushed his head-fur and ears back, smoothing it down, then ruffled it all up again, nerves in tatters. The pregnancy test held loosely in his paw threatened to drip pee onto the bathroom floor linoleum but he could not even find it in himself to care at that time, fingers numb and tingling with an odd sense of shock.

He had to tell her.

"Uh... Rebecca?"

"Yeah? You going to be long, sweetheart?"

She'd come back to herself a little bit but he had no idea at that point if she knew that things were progressing, whether the implant had actually worked or not. She had not said either way but held his hand through the treatment, smiling and kissing his muzzle, telling her loving husband over and over again how brave he was being for her, for them. But he would have done so much more than that just to see her smile, making it more than worth it to him.

"It's..."

"What's that? Hon, I can't hear you!"

He didn't dress as he exited the bathroom, heart hammering, a slow, goofy smile spreading across his red muzzle, stretching his shaky lips wider and wider. It was true. It was finally true. Rebecca blinked at him and Jason held out the test to her, unable to form the words that would reveal the truth of the matter, however it was meant to play out in the end.

Taking it from him as if she didn't know what it was, she parted her lips, eyes hazy and unfocused, striving to see. Maybe her mind didn't want to let her see, to feel again, so soon but even Rebecca and all the turmoil that her poor heart and soul had been put through could not deny the positive sign on the digital screen of the pregnancy test, the expensive one that Jason had bought when he was not sure if the cheaper ones were giving him a false reading. He'd always been a little too hopeful and a couple of false alarms earlier had hardened her to the reality of a family being far more difficult than she could have ever expected.

And now things were going to be...well...a little more positive.

"It's positive."

He said at last, the words rushing from his lips at the moment she cast the test aside, lunging for him, eyes wide, lips parted.

"Really!"

He laughed, grabbing her and hugging her tight, squeezing her too hard.

"Yes! You saw it!"

Squealing, she grabbed his paws and jumped with him, bouncing as if the sheer volume of raw energy in her could not be contained, joy seeping through. And, just like that, it was as if the months of sadness and infertility had never happened at all, her egg implanted within him, safely cradled away and fertilised with his seed. She kissed him fiercely and he loved on her in return, lapping and kissing her muzzle over and over again, arms tight, joy spinning and rising, though they were still sure that it was set to fluctuate over the coming tumultuous time. After all, it was still an experimental procedure and the worst was past, even though they would be tracked and recorded through every step in the name of science and helping other couples in similar situations.

Kissing the top of his wife's head, Jason sighed, eyes half-lidded, a soft, blurry glow fuzzing up before them. Sometimes, things could come right.

Yet they were more difficult than even he could have imagined as he worked through the trappings of pregnancy that he should have been better prepared for, considering that he had ready baby book and pregnancy book after book, wanting to help Rebecca through her pregnancy and the early years as much as he could. There was nothing, however, that could have possibly have prepared him for starting the day with his head over a toilet bowl, throwing up what felt like the lining of his stomach but was only bile, resorting to dry heaving and gulping, whimpering and whining, when nothing further came out. And yet his body still thought that it had to throw up, nausea tipping and turning the room around him as if he was bobbing along at sea, although it was just as well that he had Rebecca there to keep him afloat the best she could, rubbing his shoulders and soothing the back of his neck.

"Darling... Sweetheart, have some water. Come on now, it'll make your mouth feel better."

She already showed how much motherly instinct was in her in how she looked after him, caring for him, making sure that he both drank enough and ate enough, even abstaining from the occasional glass of wine for him. Drinking wasn't something that either of them were keen on partaking in anymore after too many nights of taking care of drunken friends - why would they have ever have wanted to actively put someone in that position? Yet she had gotten close to going too far when the lowest of the lows had clung to her and the taste of even sweet liquor now left a foul taste in the back of her mouth, the memory more potent that the drink itself.

Jason groaned and took the water, lapping it out of the glass rather than chugging it down.

"Is it always going to be this bad?"

Her brow furrowed.

"I hope not... All femfurs get it differently. It makes sense that the hormones for this may be out of 'wack' too..."

"Fantastic."

Jason's dry sarcasm was not lost on her and her lips twisted in sympathy as she rubbed his back again, lost for anything else she could do for her sweet lover.

"It'll all be worth it," was all she could say in the end, a simple truth that brought them a little nudge closer together again. "Thank you so much."

His arm slunk around her waist even though he did not want to put his face too close to hers at that time, holding her as close as he dared with a light smile playing across his lips.

"You've got nothing to thank me for."

His stomach swelling as time went on seemed to happen in odd bursts, getting more of a bump to begin with as his body and hormones reacted to what he was taking and being supplemented with all to allow his body to carry a cub within him, a growing youngster that would need all the help they could get in life and on the way to birth too. His belly grew larger than he had initially expected and his belt had to be loosened off a couple of notches for work and the like, although they had not yet told anyone that they were expecting. Why not? Some would surely wonder but it was such a strangely new and experimental thing that the jury was still out on just how other furs would react to it. The true friends that they trusted and relied on, however, he was sure would stick right by them as they always had.

People thought he was just putting on a few pounds but the pounds he gained were all for the little one, often sitting at his computer desk at work with one paw on his belly, gently protecting and cradling it.

"You nursing a food baby there, Jason?"

Steve joked and he jumped, though the otter did not know just how close to the mark on that one he was.

"Oh... No, hah, yes... Big lunch, you know?"

Rebecca had laughed her socks off at that one later that night, giggling until she was a ruffled mess on the sofa. Neither of them was sure whether they should have told people at their places of work about it or not early on but, well, Jason was going to need some time off at the end of it all to give birth and there was the issue of who really needed the maternity leave the most too. How did it work when it was not the femfur giving birth? There weren't procedures in place for that sort of thing but it was the growing rise of his sensual belly that forced their paws on that matter, his workmates growing suspicious of how his body changed.

"Hey, Jason... We don't want to intrude but..."

There was nothing more awkward than a boar trying to ask a fox if they were ill or not, scratching the back of his roughly haired neck and grunting uncomfortably. If his supervisor could have gotten out of that conversation, he surely would have, choosing any other path simply to get the discomfort of it all well and truly out of his system. But, in the end, it had to be done and it was his responsibility.

"Are you quite well? We're concerned about you here, running to the bathroom a lot, you don't seem yourself..."

He trailed off, locked up in the boar supervisor, Ken's, private office, which was at least air-conditioned. Tipping his muzzle back, Jason groaned and put his forearm across his eyes, letting the cool air brush over his fur as he languished there, spelling out the last moments before everything on that side of his life too changed forever.

"Er, well, it's a long story, you see..."

After that, the jig was up and everyone knew - because Jason told them. There was no sense in hiding it as everyone wanted to know how everything was going, what was going on, how he felt about everything and there were no end of questions that had to be answered. Caught up in the sweep of it all, even Jason found himself surprised that they were so interested in the changes, although he knew too that the males at the office that shied away were fearful and perhaps not ones that he should take too personally. That kind of relationship would go back to normal, he was sure, once he had given birth.

The first ultrasound was an experience in itself and he worried right up to the very minute of going into the examination room that something was going to be wrong. The baby wasn't going to be healthy, something would be wrong, they wouldn't be big enough, the little developing foetus. Worry, worry, worry - he was worse than Rebecca and his sweet wife had never worried more than she had when she'd been with him and he'd been pregnant. Before then, she'd been happy-go-lucky and cheerful but motherly instincts on her part had most certainly kicked in even though she was not the one who was carrying a baby at this time. Maybe, in the future, science and medicine would progress enough that they could give their little one a brother or sister but that would have to be something for the future and not the immediate one at that.

"And how are we feeling today?"

The doctor, a kind kangaroo with soft, dark eyes, perched at her computer chair as the foxes made themselves comfortable, Rebecca holding Jason's paw as a gesture of comfort. He needed her there more than he let on and returned her squeeze softly and swiftly. Their doctor folded her paws in her lap, leaning forward, long ears twitching as if to catch subtle changes in the sounds of the practice moving on and bustling by on the other side of the closed door, although the attention of Dr Jones was one-hundred-percent focused on her patients at all times. Only, in her line of work, she could assure herself that her patients were all mostly happy to be there, which was something to be happy with at least in a medical field.

"Oh..." Jason laughed nervously, brushing his fingers back through the fur between his ears, which seemed to have gone silkier and shinier of late. "It's very strange... Do femfurs say that it feels weird too?"

Dr Jones laughed, nodding quickly.

"Yes, yes, of course! It's a big change the first time, don't you worry one bit about that. Have you had any pains? Cramps? Any strange cravings?"

It was difficult to go through everything that the doctor needed to know as neither of them had had any family or friends who had gone through pregnancy in recent times who may have, at least, been able to give them a leg up on what to say, what they needed to do. Dr Jones had more than enough information to overload them, however, and Rebecca bundled up all the leaflets and information booklets into her handbag, thanking Dr Jones profusely. Of course, the foetus was perfectly healthy as she spread gooey ultrasound jelly on Jason's stomach, the fox on the examination table, legs bent, the rise of his stomach emerging from a chest that was otherwise flat.

The difference in his stomach mystified him even as he marvelled at it. With a femfur, of course, their stomachs would rise in a natural manner for pregnancy but the lack of breasts made it off-putting at first and wondrous as his eyes grew used to it. That said, not even Jason was quite sure that he would be able to stop marvelling at the miracle of life taking place within him, even if it was not all quite as he'd originally expected. His chest muscles were not particularly well-defined, considering the coat of fur over the top of them, but even other parts of his body had become a little softer already, every part of him getting ready to carry and give birth, doing all that it needed to do.

He flinched from the cold jelly and turned his head to the screen, black and white and showing nothing at all as the scanner slid over his belly, fur slickened all the way down. Rebecca held his paw too tightly as Dr Jones talked about what she was doing, the words washing right over the two of them as they held their breathing, watching and waiting, wondering if all would be well still.

"Perfectly healthy!" The doctor announced after what seemed to be an inordinately long pause. "Look, there's your little one right there. It's too early to tell the sex as yet but I see nothing to be worried about here at all, based on what you've told me and what we see here. Congratulations!"

My baby...

_ _

Jason blinked at the screen, tears clouding his vision and spilling down his cheeks, whimpering and whining even as Rebecca held him close, shushing her surprised husband against the onslaught of emotion that seemed to have unduly risen up when it was not quite welcome.

"Hey now, shush, it's okay, didn't you hear? Everything's okay! You don't have to worry about anything, sweetheart, it's okay... I've got you."

But that wasn't what he was crying about as the hormonal supplements he was on wreaking havoc on his emotions, everything upside down and turned inside out, nothing quite as it seemed or was even meant to be. As much as he whimpered, however, there was no end to be in sight and he wailed and howled and blew his nose on his sleeve as the doctor, very patiently, offered a box of tissues and a glass of water.

"There, there," she murmured, although it was the tone of Dr Jones' voice that was more important than anything else. "It's all going to be okay, this is a lot to go through. Would you two like a minute?"

It turned out that Jason needed a lot more than a minute to compose himself again, heart wrenched for the little life growing with every passing second inside him. It was too much to take in, too much for his mind to handle, and yet he would have to handle it anyway and deal with it, Rebecca washing the ultrasound jelly very gently and lovingly from his fur, cleaning him up and drying him like she would be doing too for their little one in no time at all. Life had already changed but she kissed his belly softly, the rising swell, and nuzzled it, reminding him in that small action alone that everything was changing for the better for the two of them.

There would be more appointments to come but they told their friends about what was happening - everyone, that time - once they knew for sure that the foetus, their baby, was viable and healthy. It felt like they would have been jumping too far ahead of things otherwise, even though they felt that all was well, truly, worried about complications that could still, of course, arise through an alternative pregnancy. Jason's parents, as much as they loved Rebecca, were the hardest ones to win over but it was not as if they were going to complain about having a grandchild in the family, Jason the oldest out of his siblings while Rebecca was on her own. Her family wept and clutched at her paws, drawing Jason into their midst for a group hug that was a side more gentle than the bear hugs that their little tight-knit clan was otherwise used to.

"Relax now, baby..."

Rebecca murmured, kissing Jason's lips, the line of his jaw, down his neck. It was time for her to take care of him, lying along the length of the sofa, legs kicked up over the arm. He relaxed into it, unable to do anything but as she gently instructed, muscles soft and warm after a sensual massage that she had pulled from a baby book, something about caring for mom... Whatever it was, it felt great and he wasn't about to be making any complaints about it being for expecting mothers rather than expecting fathers! It all worked the same there, or so it seemed.

She lingered on his stomach, licking and kissing, letting her nose trace the rise and swell of it, touched with child. The life within there should have been growing in her womb but she loved that he was willing to take such steps for their relationship, pushing things further than she could ever have imagined when the news of her infertility, however it had presented itself, had been confirmed. He was sweet, sweeter than she could have expected of him, and that it was her cub too in his belly, well... That was the cherry on top of the cake, what made everything all the more perfect for her, even if she could not do it for herself.

Now, it was time for her to make sure her husband felt as good as he possibly could.

Her breath warmed his fur as Jason's breath quickened, the dim light of their comfortably furnished living room with a throw flung over the back of the sofa casting their white and red fur into dark, sultry shadows. She took his paw and squeezed it but it was on his belly that she lingered still, nuzzling and licking, exploring every last curve and nuance that she could find there, changing day to day. His belly button was slightly raised even then in the early stages of pregnancy and she poked her tongue cheekily into the raised nodule it presented, wiggling around as he laughed lightly, although he could not deny the firming up of his shaft as his body was so delectably and tenderly worked over.

"Ah... Oh, Rebecca..."

He moaned out her name, her paw on his shaft, and yet even she could not deny how his belly fascinated her, knowing that there was life inside it. It was something that 'should' never have been seen on a male and she wanted to see more, to know more, every inch of her body quivering in anticipation of what was to come on that count. Nuzzling down the side, she worked her way back over, giving him a very different kind of massage as she left a trail of wet kisses in her wake.

"So big..." She murmured. "And you're gonna get so much bigger too, sweety."

Jason's tongue lolled out and he blushed heavily, working his pregnancy into the sexual encounter. It should have been too lewd for him but, hell, nothing was too much for him anymore now that he had defied sexual and reproductive norms, every step of his implanted pregnancy proving that it was a success of the highest order indeed. He wanted to see his stomach swell, feel those kicks as the cub developed, big and strong and ready to be birthed. They were too small at that stage for something like that but he still longed for it and that was just another thing for him to look forward to, lust rising as he whimpered and his wife's tongue worked his cock over.

He returned the favour under much insistence as Rebecca was, sweetly, more concerned with looking after him than she was about her own pleasure at that time, but there was nothing like lying in a sixty-nine with the vixen on top of him, her rubbing his belly and smoothing over the rise and shape of it as he lapped sweetly and sensually into her cunny. She did so make it difficult to concentrate on pleasing her though with how she circled his raised belly-button with the tip of a finger, giggling and moaning and blushing all the while. Rolling her hips back onto his eager muzzle, she too squeaked in climax, toes curling and flexing, her sweet juices flooding his mouth.

And it turned out that they'd been wrong because that was the first time that they felt the tiniest of kicks and movements inside his stomach. Rebecca laid there for ages afterwards with her ear resolutely pressed to his stomach but she was not to be dissuaded from her self-appointed task of feeling the next kick. She swore that he must have imagined it, that the baby would just have to kick again so she could feel it, but time would soon tell that he, of course, had not been imagining it at all.

Daily life had to go on regardless of the developing pregnancy and Jason spent time alone in their room, smiling and stroking his stomach, knowing that there was another life in there, growing slowly but surely. He took some time off work but Rebecca was not able to join him that time, wanting to make as much money as she could before the baby arrived, and, so, he was left entirely on his own in the house, lying on the living room floor with the little one shifting and moving restlessly around in his stomach.

"Oh, you're lively today, aren't you?"

Some would have said it was strange to feel as if he was bonding with a baby that had not even been born yet but that was exactly what Jason felt he was doing as he rubbed his stomach and tried to guess where the next kick would come from. It was just as fascinating to feel the kicks as it was to see them, to observe the strange excitement of his stomach bowing out, pushed in the subtle shape of a paw or a fist - it was, mostly, impossible to tell and that was okay. That didn't mean that he didn't like to speculate and imagine just how his cub was twisting and lying, what they were doing in there, eager to be born too judging by how often they were active.

"Oh! That was a big one, wasn't it?"

He giggled, tap-dancing his fingers over his belly as if they were playing a game together, just father and son.

"Come on now... Girl or boy, we want to see you out here! Give me your biggest kick yet!"

The cub was quiet and he thought that he'd lost them, even if he was sure, so very sure, that they could still hear him. There were no memories to be carried forth from before birth that fur-kind knew of but he knew that it would soothe them, the very act of talking to his unborn cub slowing his pulse and bringing his breathing to a slow, deep rise and fall of his chest.

Yes... Yes, everything was going to be okay. He could sit there as long as he liked, smiling down at his stomach, all the promise that it contained, admiring the curve of it. His tail fluffed up in excitement, anticipating where the cub would next kick, but they were woefully still even as he tickled his own pregnant belly, wanting to see if he could tease them into showing themselves once again.

"Come on now, little one..." He wheedled softly. "Come out for da-da?"

The baby talk would not have been like him if it had been anyone else's cub but, hell, they were his! He would talk to them however he liked while they were cocooned inside him!

"Make move for daddy? Come, come now... Big kick-kick? Can you kick for da-da?"

And, as if on cue, the cub squirmed and launched a kick so big at his stomach that a foot near defined itself as it bore through - or maybe it was his excited eyes playing tricks on him. Grunting, Jason could not have denied that it was a little bit painful but, well, that was just a little side-effect of all the joy as he laughed out loud for the sheer hell of it, hugging his stomach and running his paws over it repeatedly, wanting to show them oh so very much just how much he loved them at any measure.

"Thank you, oh, thank you... Such a good little one..."

Of course, he didn't know as yet whether he was carrying a girl or a boy and it didn't matter either way as they wanted to be surprised. Their cub would be perfect just the way they were as he stroked them through what seemed to sometimes be a terribly thin barrier between them and him, his belly throbbing lightly still where they had launched a hind paw at him. But he didn't mind as he cooed and murmured to them just how much he loved them, how much their mother loved them, what a little miracle they were to the world. Yes, they were perfect and this cub in particular deserved to know it above all else, making their worth known to the world regardless of whether the rest of the world was ready for the step forward that their birth would bring too.

There were other factors in being pregnant, especially as things developed, that were odder and perhaps less pleasant than spending time relaxing with his precious little one, of course. There was the needing to go to the bathroom rather often and having a smaller bladder than usual, or so it seemed, for one thing. If they shifted in the wrong way, they pressed down so violently that he had to leap up and run out of a meeting more than once with his cheeks burning, darting for the bathroom before an accident became imminent. It had also led to Jason having to get up in the middle of the night just to lumber to the bathroom, feeling an awful lot more ungainly than he had before. It was amazing what a few more pounds could do, especially in the belly area!

It was all a price that he was willing to pay, however, as he entered the seventh month, his belly larger than ever and the subject of a lot of attention. His clothes didn't fit anymore and he had to try to get at least a few pairs of trousers tailored, even if they didn't look like they could have possibly have fitted with such proportions when they were hanging up in the wardrobe. His shirts were more easily amended with larger sizes, although the buttons still strained over his belly, showing it off more and more. It would have been impossible for anyone to ignore even if they wanted to and he became a quick expert at answering questions - so much so that Rebecca even joked that he should carry around flashcards with him! That little minx!

"Yes, of course, you can touch it!"

He didn't mind other furs rubbing his belly too, even if he didn't know them, as long as they asked first, although he only had a few launch themselves at him without asking during the course of his pregnancy. It was uncomfortable to be so accosted but Jason tried not to dwell on that as a cashier cooed and murmured her approval of the swell of him, pressing her wolf paw to his stomach to feel if the baby was kicking again.

"Are they lively? You know that's a good sign!"

Jason beamed.

"I know!"

Another kindred soul was always good to come by and that wolf cashier, Julie, always made sure to ask after the cub each and every time he was in the shops after that date, although it became more and more difficult for him to waddle and sway down to the shops as he grew heavier and heavier. Each time he thought that his belly could not grow any larger, his body and the cub within surprised him with another spurt, even having to be careful moving around tables and the kitchen counters especially, at severe risk of knocking things over with the round of his protruding stomach.

He'd thought the morning sickness had been bad at the beginning too but there was something too that could catch furs off guard in the later stages, which was a hard pill to swallow. And he did swallow them too, every one of the pills that Dr Jones prescribed him to help with the nausea that just didn't seem to want to go away, though they didn't do a bit of good. He was routinely sick every morning and Rebecca coaxed him to eat as much as he could during the times that the sickness was not present, even though it seemed to ricochet back at the most inconvenient times during the day too. To his shame, though everyone understood, he even had to throw up once in the kitchen bin at work - now that had been embarrassing! Although everyone seemed to know or hear of the incident, he had, of course, bundled up the evidence and deposited it securely into the correct bin outside where it could be better dealt with. Getting the smell out of the kitchen, however, with all the air freshening sprays from the male and female bathrooms was another task entirely...

It went without saying that their friends wanted to celebrate their pregnancy and Jason was one of the first males in existence to be surprised with a baby shower, everyone dressed in soft shades of pink and blue and yellow, gifts for the baby that he almost had not even thought of for himself appearing from all directions. A bath set, a towel, a ducky toy... The smallest things made his eyes well up and he sniffled, dabbing daintily at his eyes with a tissue as others around him murmured and rubbed his shoulder, letting him have his moment there in the spotlight, all shared with Rebecca. For once, the mother and the father were just as important in the baby shower, everyone set on celebrating the encroach of a new life and the family that they all knew the loving couple had worked so very hard for.

"Are there any anchovies here?" Jason muttered to Rebecca, ears slipping back in embarrassment. "I have a weird craving..."

She giggled and rolled her eyes.

"Ew! I can run and get you some, sweety, won't take me ten minutes. Can you hold down the fort while I'm gone?"

"You're the best."

She really was and he smiled at the crowd, thanking everyone all over again for their generosity. His father stood beside him, a can of non-alcoholic beer in his paw, when Jason's eyes went wide and he sat bolt upright, clutching at his stomach.

"Oh! The baby's kicking!"

It was a shame that Rebecca was not there but there was no finer signal to draw everyone at the baby shower to him like a flock of birds, moths hustling to the flame. His father was first there, hesitantly reaching for him, although he had not yet felt just how soft but hard his son's stomach was. Truly, it had to be a strange thing indeed for a father to feel and Jason commended him for being so open-minded, his mother cooing and murmuring to him, even asking if there was anything she could get him to make him more comfortable. In pregnancy, he was most certainly the daughter that she'd wanted too, although his mother had had to content herself with three male foxes in the end, as much trouble as they'd caused her in their younger days.

"Oh..." His father's eyes lit up in wonder, pressing down a little harder again, rubbing and stroking through the fabric of Jason's long shirt, something that was taken from the maternity wear section but could be passed off as something masculine. "Oh, it's kicking! They're kicking!"

"You should find out if they're a boy or a girl!"

His mother still wanted to insist as Jason laughed softly and waved others in, wanting everyone to feel.

"Come on, everyone! Oh! Oh, they're really kicking up a storm!"

His head swam with the force of so many bodies clustering around him all at once but he would not have denied anyone the grace of getting to bear witness to, first hand, the miracle of life. There was something special, indeed, to feeling a youngster kicking and pushing through the wall of another fur's stomach and it would never cease to amaze him just how much he could feel from them, kicking so hard as they squirmed that he even woke up in the middle of the night. No matter what he tried, he couldn't sleep through it and the murmurs of wonder of those clustered around him, friends and family alike, lifted his heart even when it was so very slowly growing weary of the exhaustion of pregnancy.

He knew it would all be worth it in the end. Absolutely. No question about it. He only wished that they would hurry up and join them, as much fun as it was to have a large, round belly to play with. Jason wanted to enjoy every moment with them but even he was not ignorant to the fact that each step wore more and more heavily on his aching hind paws as he went about his day and his work. He had to keep going through his pregnancy for he couldn't afford to take extended time off and, besides, he enjoyed his job and getting to see his co-workers, aiming to be as productive as possible even if he was not at one-hundred-percent as yet. Still, at the baby shower, it was nice to be the centre of attention as Rebecca returned and kissed his cheek, draping her arms around his neck and snuggling close even out in public.

"Aw, are they a wriggly bee inside you today?"

Chuckling, he dropped a kiss on her muzzle.

"You should feel!"

And, even though she spent most of their free time together and evenings with her head or paws on his stomach, loving on him and murmuring how big his stomach was getting, she felt him again, fingertips grazing the raised belly button, which had become even more pronounced as if it was actively trying to draw attention to itself. A little sheepdog pup who could only have been seven-years-old, if that, tugged at her sleeve, curious eyes glimmering.

"Excuse me, miss," he whispered, eyes growing wider and wider as he asked, pressing on. "May I... May I feel too?"

Rebecca giggled, but retained a solemn, serious air that best befitted a child going out on a limb to feel something new and different.

"Yes, of course! But it's really Jason you should be asking. Shouldn't you ask Jason?"

The answer was obvious, of course, and Jason encouraged him to feel, blushing lightly under that kind of attention. The adults were one thing, everyone knowing just what they were feeling, but he found it strange still to have a kid rubbing his belly, the little sheepdog's brow furrowing as they tried to suss out just what everyone was so interested in. The baby did not kick for him but the next to feel, a white cat, squealed delightedly as the baby nudged her paw, yanking it back and spinning around.

"Oh! I felt it, I felt it, I felt it!"

She shrieked it like a chant and darted off with the adults laughing and shaking their heads. It would surely be a story to be told to many of her boyfriends or girlfriends and the like in times and years to come but a story that she too could pass on to her kittens or youngsters one day too. For there was no shame or room for embarrassment in the miracle of life and the kids clustered around Jason in anxious excitement, not seeming to mind all that much that he was a male bearing a baby and not a femfur like Rebecca. No one, thankfully, asked the question why he was carrying their cub and not her. That may have been a little too much for the time, even though she'd come to terms with it and was simply excited to be having her cub with him.

The best time was after the shower, however, when they got to sit back and Rebecca rubbed his hind paws, professing that they surely must have been aching after such a long, busy day at the shower. Everyone who had mattered to the two of them, the most important furs in their lives, had come together just for the two of them and Rebecca nose-bopped his stomach, listening to the little gurgles still rising up from within as their cub shifted within.

"I think they had fun today too!" She said happily, a paw on his stomach. "Look..."

She had to strain but she wriggled mostly into place, wrapping her paws around his stomach and him so that she could jiggle it, holding him warm and close, softly rubbing her cheek into his belly. Jason laughed and the vibration made their cub fidget all the more within him, squirming for more as Rebecca blew raspberries on his stomach, driving them into a squirming, kicking frenzy.

"See, they're not going to be long out now!"

And she loved on him even more, lusciously covering his belly in kiss after kiss, nothing too much for her lover as she wagged her tail, eagerly anticipating what their cub would do, how they would look, what they would turn out to be like.

"Isn't it amazing that there's a little miracle in here?" She whispered, eyes wide with wonder, just before his belly. "They're amazing... We're amazing... We made this!"

Jason nodded eagerly, drumming his fingers on his belly as if he was trying to call the little one back to wakefulness again, although there was not really any state of sleeping or waking in his belly.

"Oh, yes! There's so much they will do - oh, they will be beautiful no matter what, inside out!"

He patted his stomach, the harder bump of a head or perhaps a paw teasing beneath his fingertips, and the cub pushed back, shivering beneath his flesh and fur.

"You know... I'm going to miss having them inside me, carrying them around like this," he said softly, quietly as if he was afraid of letting the words out into the open between them. "It's like I'm keeping them safe, you know? What if I can't keep them safe once they're born? Why can't they stay here where I can protect them?"

Tenderly, Rebecca licked and nuzzled his stomach, looking up at him with eyes that shone with absolute adoration for both him and their cub.

"Oh, darling... It's all going to be okay. I know you like the belly too but that's just why we've got to enjoy it while we can, right? This is probably going to be a once in a lifetime experience for us... And our cub will be just fine when they are born, we'll look after them. And you'll be the best dad in the world to them."

He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, I have been reading a lot of books..."

"Yes, but it's not about the books, sweety, it's about what you do with them."

Sitting up, she looked at him seriously, tapping and rubbing his stomach as she talked.

"This is serious, they need to know you're there for them. Work is important but they need someone there to play ball with them, to play with dolls, to learn to cook and how to ride a bike. Parents are so busy these days, they need to have them there with them. We have to always be there for them."

"Honey..."

Taking her paw, he brought it to his lips and kissed it, smiling warmly.

"We'll_always_ be there for them."

It was not something, undoubtedly, that was at all up for negotiation as they relaxed in bed together, his paws on his stomach, keeping them safe even them. Yet it was only when Rebecca popped off to the bathroom that he murmured to their cub again, turning on the sound system for them and playing some lightly undulating classical music for them, all for their sensory development and pleasure.

"Little cub... We're going to make this a better world for you, just you wait. You're not going to want for anything."

He smiled, the cub shifting inside him without kicking as if they were responding.

"Yeah? You like that, sweety? Do you want me to turn the music up for you?"

They shifted again and he took that to be an affirmative, turning the dial - it was an old system that they kept in the bedroom, to be fair. Classical notes, violins, thrummed through the bedroom, the vibrations of sound pulsing lightly into his stomach as he rubbed and soothed, trying to imagine that his fingers were reaching right through his belly to the cub softly cradled within.

"Yes... Yes, we'll always be there for you. We'll always keep you safe. Anything you want, we will do for you. We will make this a world for you and make you fit for the world."

For there were responsibilities to being parents too that they were prepared for, the knowledge of the responsibility weighing on their shoulders one that they were more than willing to bear. They had made the choice and their cub would have the best of everything, stocked up on supplies as Jason entered the final stages of pregnancy, larger than ever as he wanted it all to continue forever and yet needed a break from it too. It was a strange juxtaposition of being needy for it to end and wanting all to last, to savour and linger in the essence of the experience, but something that he anticipated that all parents went through. And that made it a little easier for him too.

He curled up in a pile of blankets, ears slanted back as he rubbed his enlarged belly over and over again, unable to stop himself from marvelling at the new life within. They would have to come out soon and he would be right there to welcome them out into the world, cooing to them and tossing them in the air. But, as they were, they were tucked away inside his belly and Rebecca huddled in there with him, nuzzling and licking his stomach gently.

"So big...and warm..."

She murmured her love to their little one as she loved on his belly, stroking and teasing and running her fingers over his bellybutton. He chuckled lightly as it tickled but she could not help that she wanted to press her ear to his stomach just to imagine she could hear their cub gurgling away within. His fur was soft, so very soft, and he stroked Rebecca's head even as she adored his belly, fingers trailing lightly through his fur, which seemed to be growing more thickly and lusciously than ever before.

"I wish you could keep this belly forever."

Jason blushed to hear that but all he could do was roll up his T-shirt a little further again, letting her enjoy his belly before it was gone for good. It was temporary but a temporary that they would adore and remember forever as he patted and jiggled his belly for her, letting her see how big and full it was, heavy with cub. She blushed, not needing to say how much it turned her on, but that was for the afterglow of belly-loving when she knew right there and then that there was time for that at another time. She could adore his belly right then and there though for so much longer, nuzzling and licking even as the flesh bounced oh so very gently under her snout, Jason letting her do all she willed and more before things progressed, softly, to the boudoir and the closeness of romance.

He languished in baths, warming his huge baby belly in the warm water, easily protruding out of the water as a dominant feature. Rebecca even kept a picture of him in the bath in the special 'baby memories' book that she made up for him, his fur soaked and a goofy, happy smile plastered all over his face. It was full of little crafty bits and she sat beside the bath on a little stool as she helped him wash the bits that he could no longer reach, lovingly caring for him even as pregnancy grew more and more difficult. Even trimming the claws on his hind paws was something that she undertook as an act of long, soaping up his fur and teasing her fingers through it just for another light squeeze and jiggle of his lusciously swollen baby belly, wanting to experience it all just as much as him.

Ah, they were the best kind of parents wanting their baby but treasuring each and every moment leading up to the birth too. And wasn't that just what pregnancy was all about?

*

Waddling, Jason shifted his weight from one side to the other, his huge belly looking out of place on his otherwise moderate frame. Overdue for giving birth, everyone was on baby alert and he'd been asked to stay home from work - on paid leave, of course - so that he was more comfortable. It was no mistake at all that people in the office with him didn't really know what to do with a male who was pregnant but, well, they would have sent a female home too if they had seen her in such obvious discomfort, the mere act of sitting something that put too much pressure on entirely the wrong parts of his body.

"Unnff..." He moaned, although it was not the good kind of moan. "Come on, little guy, you've got to come out eventually!"

They still didn't know whether they were having a vixen or a tod cub but they would soon find out as Rebecca giggled, standing up on her toes behind him and pressing herself sensually up to his back, entirely naked.

"Come on, sweety... I'll help you."

She'd been reading all those books and tweets that said that sex could help induce labour and, well, it was not as if Jason was going to complain about getting a little more pleasure by any means! Kissing him softly, she laid him back on the bed and rode him, his shaft plunging up deeply inside her with every downfall of her hips, rolling and grinding, although she was every mindful of the rise of his stomach. In such a position, she had to be exceptionally careful not to overly bump or jostle it, fat and ready to give birth, but her paws swept over the huge round, lovingly caressing. She just couldn't keep her paws off him, anticipating what was to come, although even she would be sad to see his belly go, disappearing back into the smoothness of skin and flesh and fur, all of which was sweet too but...there would be something missing there in its absence. Even when he was lying down, the difference in the shape of him to a female was evident, her paws sweeping over, smoothing his fur down in the direction that it grew in, softening and soothing.

"So..."

But she had her lips on his shaft as she, very gently, took him into her mouth, pleasing the one who had done so much for her over the course of the last nine months. Oh, she simply had to show him how much he meant to her and one little bit of sensuality would serve them well if it could even induce labour! Jason grunted and tried to get his hind paws under him but scrabbling like that only scuffed up the bed sheets and he groaned deeply, tongue lolling out over his lips, helpless and softly at the mercy of his wife as she suckled his turgid length into her hot, wet muzzle.

"Ohhh..."

Yet a groan was not a sign that labour was coming and she whimpered around him, letting the vibrations travel deeper into his cock, sensually. He could not help but shiver, trying to grip something, anything, but his paws instinctively found his belly once again, holding it lightly as large as it was, the cub within twisting and kicking, bumping out the sides of his stomach. So active... Was it their time to come out at long last?

Alas, her giving him an orgasm right then and there and lovingly drinking down every drop of seed did not induce labour and Rebecca helped Jason dress again, grunting and groaning all the while.

"My knees are too sore," he said, grumbling as his ears slanted sadly out to the sides. "How long will it be until they're out?"

"I know, sweety, I know," she cooed gently, using a belt to just about hook his trousers in place, special ones with an elastic waist that he still preferred the added security of a belt with. "But a walk will do you good. I'm sorry, they'll be here soon, okay? Everything will be right again soon, don't worry, sweety."

She was good to him even as he grouched and, really, he couldn't be blamed for that as he waddled with her down the road, sunshine glancing off his red fur. The park was glorious in the late summer sunshine, autumn lingering and nosing at the corner, the tempting lick of it in the air, and even Jason smiled a little, the weight of his stomach seeming a little lighter now that he was out in the air with her. It was not all fresh, of course, being in the city, but it was the best he was going to get until they had a white or red fox cub in their arms, held close and warm, perhaps on their very first holiday together as a family.

Ah, there were so many memories to make still and the little one inside him was exceptionally active, Jason protectively putting his paws on his stomach as they kicked and squirmed, pressing down on his bladder yet again as they shifted. Soon, they'd force him to waddle to the public bathroom, which would be an endeavour in itself, but he'd enjoy the warmth of the sun on his fur until then, the eyes on him not even bothering him at all anymore, as long as he had his sweet vixen by his side.

The familiar tinkle of an ice cream van rolled up as they paused beside the pond, ducks quacking and shaking their tail-feathers, mallards angling for bread or other treats that were now deemed suitable to feed to ducks at the park. Didn't they say that bread or something wasn't very good for them anymore? Ah, well, they all seemed well enough in themselves, although Rebecca made a mental note to bring them some seeds and greens too next time. They'd be getting hungry again as the seasons turned and she liked to do what she could for them in the colder months. But they'd come back then with a little bundle of joy in their arms, wrapped up safe and warm.

The dog in the ice cream van smiled out at his customers, children flocking to him, jumping to be first. Catching Jason's eye, Rebecca smiled.

"Do you want an ice cream?" Her eyes lit up with mischief, ears perking. "They say it's good for the baby..."

Even Jason rolled his eyes.

"And just where, my dear, did you hear that?"

"Oh..." Rebecca scuffed the toe of her shoe across the pavement, looking too innocent to be believed. "Some article or the other... Do you want one or not?"

It was not a question that he had to answer as she already had the money in paw and the only question really was which one he was going to have. Umming and ahhing as she selected hers swiftly, the ice cream dog in the van waited impatiently, a scoop poised in his paw as if he was set to launch it at the rub of ice cream that was to be chosen the very moment that Jason enunciated just what he wanted.

"I want... Hang on..."

He wrinkled up his nose, twisting and trying to fight it off, the stir of arousal that the act brought a lingering memory of sweet times between him and his mate. A sneeze had to come and he rubbed his ear, trying to stave it off for a moment while everyone waited on him, and yet it was coming whether he liked it or not and the flash of light across his eyes and muzzle screwed him over, forcing it from him. No matter how much he wrinkled his muzzle up and tried to fight it off, it was well on its way and he half-hunched, legs braced and bent a little, trying to balance the act of being heavily pregnant with dealing with another bodily function entirely.

"I... Ah... Ah... Choo!"

It exploded from him as he jerked forward, eyes snapping wide and mouth gaping. That wasn't a normal sneeze. That wasn't a normal sneeze at all. No, it had felt normal but something was different as he instinctively tried to turn back to the oh so very important task of ordering ice cream, sunshine beating down on his shoulders as his stomach and guts seemed to twist, pulse pounding dully against his eardrums.

Ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum.

_ _

"I... Uh..."

Yet, he never did tell the ice cream dog what he wanted. A wet sensation spread through his trousers, his crotch, and he jerked his head down, jaw dropping as he reeled. He could not have described the sensation that came over him right then and there, something shifting and resettling as the little one inside him, finally, became quiet and still, settling for the main event that they had already been waiting nine months for.

No...

_ _

Yes!

_ _

"Jason?"

Rebecca gaped, paws flying to her mouth, the ice cream cone in her paw flying off, forgotten, to splat on the ground. Someone shrieked and a bystander rushed up, asking over and over again if they needed help, if they needed to call someone, as the fluid rushed softly down Jason's legs, soaking both his trousers and his fur in a slick, pouring deluge. Their eyes met, paws in each other's, even though they could not have said quite when they'd grasped each other, needing that comfort and stability as the ground seemed to rock and tilt beneath their hind paws.

"The baby's coming!"

And then everything really did change, the rush to the hospital not at all like either of them had expected. But that was all okay as they came together as husband and wife, working together for the betterment of their little one, hastening to bring them into the world even as they threatened to linger behind, too warm in the seclusion of Jason's belly to want to come out. The contractions drew his belly tighter than ever too as she rushed him to the hospital, trying her best not to break any speed limits or driving laws in the course of it, frazzled with their overnight delivery bag hastily shoved into the backseat, knowing that time was of the essence, especially with a pregnancy like her husband's.

A C-section delivery was the only way that it could be done safely for a fur like Jason, the little one needing to find a way out of him even as his body tried to contract and push something out, wanting to go through what it had been primed for over the course of the last nine months. And nine long months were a long time to go with the weight of that belly, the weight of new life rising up within him. Rebecca held his paw through the operation, whispering to him over the clamour of the hospital, the delivery, how much she loved him, how beautiful their cub was going to be. He may not have had the lovely, huge belly anymore - well, not after a little while of labour - but that was alright for the young couple, for they knew one thing and that was all that would matter again, going forward.

Life was never going to be the same again.

Their cub squealed and squalled in their arms, a fine, strong fox cub with pure white fur and blue eyes that opened a few minutes after birth, wanting to suckle. And that was where the mother stepped in, lovingly taking him to her breast as Jason rested, the three of them snuggling close. The wonders of modern medicine truly were wonderful, the hormones and injections that had so very easily allowed her to lactate, but they weren't thinking of that right then as they were, finally, left along to get to know their cub, cradling her close as she was introduced to the world.

"Daisy."

And Daisy she was.