HERMAPHRODITE

▪️▪️▪️CH. 28▪️▪️▪️

Jungkook rolled over in the large, empty bed. He reached for Tae's pillow and hugged it close, inhaling the scent of his lover that was trapped in the fibers. A solitary tear tracked down the side of his face and fell off to be consumed by the cotton pillow case. He couldn't help feeling miserable, he missed Taehyung, more than he thought possible, more than he had when he'd been in the hospital.

He gave a small smile though as he recalled Jin hyungs attempts to cheer him up that day. He knew hyung meant well, but Kook had just wanted to be left alone. He sighed and rolled carefully onto his back and tried to get comfortable. Although he was only eighteen and a half weeks along, he could already begin to feel the effects the growing baby was having on his body.

As his belly swelled to accommodate the little being so the skin had started to itch, Jimin had told him that this was normal, it was simply a natural reaction to the skin stretching. Taehyung had teased him about having 'stretch marks' once the child was born.

Kookie hadn't thought it funny, he didn't want to be left with a lot of marks across his stomach, he had his fair share of scars patterning his skin without the addition of 'lines', not to mention he knew he was going to have a lot of 'excess baggage' in the abdominal area once the baby was here and he didn't really fancy rolls of loose skin. He hadn't mentioned that to Tae, knowing full well his lover would have found some way to tease him about that too.

His hand drifted to his stomach and began to stroke the bump. He found himself doing that a lot lately. He would sit and rub his belly, talking to the baby as if it could hear and understand him.

When Taehyung had caught him out once he'd gone bright red, expecting Tae to think he was sappy or lost his mind for talking to and caressing the child; but to his amazement, Taehyung hadn't. In fact his lover had joined him. Another tear escaped and ran down the side of his face, across his ear and dripped off onto the pillow.

He found that the bathroom visits hadn't changed much, he couldn't stray too far from the toilet, but then given the state of his insides he hadn't expected it to. He found himself becoming slightly short of breath on occasion and Jimin had said it was due to the expanding baby forcing his internal organs to move around and make space for it, sometimes the baby would 'play' and stretch itself out; these were the times that Jungkook was most uncomfortable. It wasn't easy to breathe or function when you had a foot or a hand shoved against your ribs.

But Kookie wouldn't have changed any of it. He willingly suffered the discomforts, the changes to his physical shape as well as his emotional state and the consequences. It hadn't been easy on him and even harder on Taehyung.

"Bear..." Kookie said softly to the empty room as he continued to run his hand over his abdomen.

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Inside its watery world the little fetus stretched its limbs. It couldn't feel the touch against the outer walls of its 'home', but it could hear the deep rumble of its mother's voice. The sound penetrated through the tissues that surrounded it, distorting the words; not that the baby would have understood them anyway. But the familiar, deep resonation warmed it and the fetus showed its delight in the only way it could; by moving around.

Small feet reached out on the end of stubby legs and pushed, enjoying the sensation of its muscles flexing. Arms waved around wildly, the fetus having yet to learn to control them properly and wouldn't do so for some time after it was born even, but it didn't care. The baby just enjoyed the actions, regardless of what its tiny body connected with, safe in the knowledge that its mother's voice and body were there to protect it.

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The next morning, Kookie rose early and showered before heading down to the kitchen. He popped a couple of slices of bread into the toaster and pressed the lever down. While the toast browned he set the kettle to boil and fetched a tea bag from the canister.