baby, I'll show you the world [muke af]

(Thursday, January 2nd, 2020)

(Thursday, January 2nd, 2020)

"Why are you four so heavy?" Luke asked his belly as he took another slow step down the stairs. He could see Taco circling the bottom step, waiting for him to put down his dinner. "Seriously, girls. It's like I'm a Marine suiting up for battle."

He could feel two of them kick—more like a punch in the gut, honestly. He put his hand over the stretched skin as he leant over the banister and took another step down. He never hated stairs until suddenly there were four bodies growing inside of him.

Luke was out of breath by the time he got downstairs. His back was straining from carrying the pounds. He gained almost 90 pounds since the beginning of the pregnancy, most of it is water weight and such keeping the babies all cushioned up.

He tried not to think about it.

Pregnancy was hard, but he was able to eat an entire pizza by himself without feeling guilty.

Luke could feel their kicking digging into his ribs, a pain making him sit down. He took a breather on the bar stool next to the kitchen island. Taco continued to circle around him, her face rubbing up against his socks.

"Give me a minute, cat." Luke put both hands where the bottom of his ribs once were. He pressed in lightly, just trying to soothe the cramp-feeling. His stomach was warm, his stomach was always warm. It was like carrying a heater on his stomach at all times, except this heater had feet and hands that kicked and punched and hurt Luke.

"Why do you guys hate me? Love me!" His raise in tone caused more distress as the babies moved more, kicking and moving. "Jesus Christ, how do people do this?"
Luke put his hands under his belly, trying to hold the weight up a bit more. Everything was painful in his body, everything hurt. Even laying down and trying to relax hurt. He couldn't turn on his sides without feeling like his skin was being ripped off of his body. He couldn't lay on his back without feeling like the babies were squishing him.

The pain got worse, to the point where he began to moan out in pain. Taco scurried away, hiding under the couch like always. She wasn't in for lots of commotion.

Luke reached out his hand, feeling around the counter until he could feel his phone under his fingertips.

He unlocked the screen, finding Ashton's number. He pressed his mobile phone, waiting for the ringing to stop.

"Hello?" Ashton asked.

Luke could hear the girls chattering in the background as he figured they were in the car. "It's me."

"Hey, Luke. What's up?"

"I think I'm dying," Luke bit down on his tongue as another surge of pain raked through his body, "I'm not kidding. Ashton, it hurts so much."

Ash pressed a few buttons on the steering wheel, taking him off of speaker. He grabbed his phone from the middle counsel, putting it up to his ear. "Is it the girls?"

"They're so big and it hurts so much."

"Okay, I'm gonna come over there, let me turn around. I have the girls with me, too." Ashton checked the rear-view mirror before making an illegal U-turn. They didn't live far from Luke and Michael's place, only a good ten minutes away.

"It hurts," he repeated, tears brimming his eyes.

"I know, I know. I'm almost there, okay? Where are you?" He stopped at a red light, switching his phone to the opposite ear.

"Sitting in the kitchen," he answered, "Is it supposed to hurt?"

"Yeah, Love. It's going to hurt, nothing is wrong. Don't freak yourself out." Ashton could hear the worry tone under every word Luke spoke. He knew the blonde was breathing heavily and panicking as the pain didn't stop like it usually did.