Forever and Always

6

Alfred smirked to himself, running his hand over his stomach. He counted four weeks now. Four of twenty. They weren't long. They weren't hard. Demon pregnancy was never hard, or harsh, unlike a human. They were made to be able to fight in a war while pregnant.

He sat in his room, the moon starting to rise, a dazed expression on his face. Ivan walked in and saw him, and smiled, rushing over to hold him in his arms.

"Hey," Alfred said, petting his hair, "what's with you?"

"You looked so happy," Ivan replied, kissing him on the lips. They both smiled, and Alfred reached his hands up to cup his cheeks, pecking him on the forehead.

"C'mon," he said, leaning their foreheads together, "isn't lunch soon?"

Ivan's lips pursed, and he shook his head, "soon, not soon enough."

"Mhm... are you sure?" Alfred asked, tilting his head. Ivan shrugged, before smiling.

"Yes, why?" Ivan replied, jumping as the alarm went off through the house, and Alfred started laughing, walking away, towards the door. Ivan followed him after a second, trailing just a little ways behind him. A few humans jumped up to speak to both of them, and occasionally a sibling or random demon.

Downstairs was becoming chaos.

It had snowed earlier in the day, so most people had stayed inside or moved to the larger house... and it was just becoming obvious.

And the people who were outside were now tracking snow and water and mud everywhere. Alfred wouldn't slip, he had padding on the bottom of his feet that prevented that, but Ivan had to hold onto the wall for just in case reasons.

Rulyn was in wolf form, he noticed as she went by, shivering like all hell with her fur spiked. Apparently she couldn't handle the cold too well.

There was hissing and snapping and a little bit of fighting. Nobody was getting along, but that was normal for winter. Demons were never good with the cold. It tended to make them brutish.

Ivan heard a hiss in his ear and spun around, seeing a fight start between one of the girls and... a sibling, he was pretty sure. It was hard to tell between the throngs of people.

Folami hissed, her lion ears pressing against her head. Her tail, much longer and stronger than a normal lion, swished behind her.

It was a sibling. It was Hesutu. One he knew well, one he'd seen fighting when they did a job Reno together.

Hesutu turned into a mass of wasps, surrounding the lion-girl, whose hissing turned to yowling until it became whimpering. When Hesutu was done, she was on the ground, unmoving, but breathing.

Folami's sister and brother walked over, Nombeko and Gowon checking their sister quickly before carrying her away.

Beside him, he saw Alfred purse his lips before he said something in an old language.

He only understood the curse words.

"C'mon," Alfred said, grabbing his arm, "don't want to get caught up in a fight."

Ivan nodded, looking at where Folami had been dragged off to silently, before looking towards where Alfred was going. People moved out of his way when he walked, bowing their heads.

They revered him, yet it didn't calm Ivan's nerves.

He went to stand at his side, watching everything. There was very little talking at the moment, until Cole walked by, whispering something to Alfred.

He nodded, and suddenly, there was warmth in the floor, in the walls.

"I didn't think I'd have to turn the heaters on this early," Alfred muttered, and Ivan turned to him.