Petrichor

Stinker

She was acting weird. He didn't like it. 

Neteyam and Kiri were now six months old. Leypa was going to be six in a couple of months. 

And Ilhia was acting weird. 

She was fine with the kids, it was just with him. He couldn't think of anything that he'd done that might've pissed her off. 

The last time she'd been like this was when she had just found out she was pregnant with Neteyam. Maybe it was just her hormones? It wasn't like she was pregnant again. She would've told him.

Pregnancy was weird as fuck and he was glad he wasn't a woman. 

It was a blessing of course, but he was glad he would never have to go through it himself.

They were laying on their swaynivi facing each other, Leypa squashed in between them drooling on Jake's shoulder. The twins were asleep. Ilhia was pretending to be asleep. Jake narrowed his eyes and blew on her face. 

Her nose twitched, as did her ears, but she didn't open her eyes. 

"Babygirl," he said softly, speaking English so on the off chance Leypa wasn't asleep, he wouldn't understand most of it. 

He saw her shoulders droop, heard her exhale, and ever so slowly, her eyes opened, the pupils dilating once they made eye contact. 

"Can not sleep?" she whispered. 

"Is there something wrong?" he murmured, moving his hand from Leypa to her head. "We haven't spoken properly in ages." 

Ilhia cupped his hand with her own, moving her face into his palm. "Nothing is wrong." 

He just gazed at her, into her eyes, at where their fingers were entwined, to her braids, to her mouth. Goddamn, that mouth. 

He dragged his eyes back to hers. "You'd tell me if there was, baby?" 

His girl just gave him a little sad smile. "Of course." 

He had no reason to believe that she was lying. They had been truthful about everything since he had betrayed her trust before her father died. But he didn't believe her. He didn't believe her for a second. He'd asked her multiple times over the past few weeks, and she'd always given him the same response. Well, he was sick of it. He was going to find out one way or another.

"Can we talk?" he whispered, giving his head a little jerk towards the doorway. He watched her face carefully as she closed her eyes for a split second. 

"Of course, ma Jake." 

He detangled himself carefully from Leypa as Ilhia got out of the swaynivi first. Jake had changed it so that it wasn't hanging in mid-air with nothing underneath, rather hanging in mid-air over a floor, so that if they did need to get out of bed, it wasn't such a chore. 

Ilhia waited for him by the door, and held his hand as they went to the top of the stairs. She gave him a soft kiss, wrapping her arms around his chest. He automatically reciprocated, placing both of his hands at the small of her back, kneading the flesh there.

"I wanted to talk, Il." 

"What is wrong?" 

"Why won't you tell me what's the matter with you?" 

She just sighed, and Jake felt his frustration levels rising. "Nothing is wrong, Jake. You are being paranoid." 

"I smell bullshit!" he snapped, and then forced himself to have a deep breath in and out. "I love you, baby, and we're going to spend the rest of our lives together, and I've already spent two and a half years with you. Do you not think that I would be able to tell if something was wrong?"