(Untitled)

[art_and_brian]

Justin is hungover to hell, tired and suffering a bout of teenage angst in a bad mood. He'd totally forgotten that he was down for a shift today, which is why he looks surprised when he finds Milliways at school and then downcast at the idea of working in his state

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[gorgonfondness]

He looks about as tired as Mia sometimes feels nowadays, so she can sympathize, if for different reasons.

Besides, she's got that maternal glow and instinct going on for her. She's gotta watch out for Justin when he's looking like that.

"Do you like the sound of a purple cow?" she asks as she carefully perches herself onto a barstool, glad that she's still small enough for that to be relatively easy.

[art_and_brian]

'To drink or in general?'

He smiles and slips off his stool.

'Hi Mia. If it's a drink, give me a minute to look it up.'

[gorgonfondness]

"Hi, Justin. It's to drink, unless a purple cow says something other than moo."

Please no cracks at the pregnant lady, who will probably feel like a purple cow in a few months.

"It's essentially vanilla ice cream and grape soda," she says helpfully. "There's even some purple vanilla ice cream back there that specifically goes with it. I'm not sure if anything else goes in."

[art_and_brian]

'Purple vanilla ice cream. Right.'

He stares at her blankly for a moment, then rouses himself and goes to search for it.

'How're you doing? Baby doing OK?'

[gorgonfondness]

"If you want, I'll make your search easier and get the ice cream directly."

Having friends who know magic helps like that.

"I'm fine, and so is the baby," she says, putting a hand to her small baby bump. "I don't think I told you before, so I'm glad it's kind of obvious now."

Others might consider her in that funny 'Is she getting fat or is she pregnant?' stage.

"I didn't think I would be able to hide it for long."

[art_and_brian]

'Yeah, it's kind of obvious.'

His voice is muffled, as he's searching the depths of the freezer for the ice cream. But emerges triumphant.

'I got it.'

He dusts some ice crystals off the top and sets to work.

'When are you due?'

[gorgonfondness]

She laughs at his agreement. As she said, she likes that it's obvious. She feels pretty and plenty of others have told her she looks pretty.

"Around late February or early March. I'll be done with my first trimester in the next week or so."

Mia ended up being one of those early showers, as some ladies don't show until well into the second trimester.

[art_and_brian]

She does look pretty. Even Justin can notice that and he wouldn't usually.

'Do you know what you're having?'

One Purple Cow, placed in front of her. He thinks it looks hideous but who is he to judge?

[gorgonfondness]

Bah! It looks purple and delicious!

And Justin brings the count of guys not married to Mia that dig the baby bump look up to four.

"A boy. I've got my first ultrasound with me, though you can't tell from that."

And she gets out her ten weeks ultrasound. In spite of the icon, the fetus looks 100% human. Or at least 100% human fetus.

"This was taken a couple of weeks ago."

[art_and_brian]

As much as Justin ever digs the way a woman looks, anyway.

'Cool!'

He examines the picture, smiling. He likes babies. But after a moment, he does point at one end.

'That's the head, right?'

[gorgonfondness]

Hey, Mia'll take what she can get.

"That's his head," she tells him, pointing to it and then tracing along his spine and back around his front. "There's his back, then his feet, his little hands..."

It's clear Mia thinks he's just perfect."

[art_and_brian]

'What are you going to call him?'

He looks cute, if a foetus in an ultrasound picture ever can.

[gorgonfondness]

"Not sure just yet. Draco's family has a tradition: celestial names. We've been looking in astronomy books for ideas. There's one name that keeps coming back to me and I'm not sure why. I need to find a book and look up Cepheus to know. Other than that, I'm very fond of Abraxas, as well as Antares, Orion, Cygnus, and Phoenix."

[art_and_brian]

'Orion's nice.'

Really nice.

'Do you know what all of them mean? Or...represent, or whatever they do.'

[gorgonfondness]

"Not really. I suppose that's why I want to look Cepheus up. I remember there's something I like about that constellation, but I don't remember what that something is."

She softly giggles.

"As nice as Orion is, I'm kind of avoiding it since that's the name of one of Teja's horses. Not that I think it's a bad choice, but I don't want the baby to grow up thinking I named him after a horse."

[art_and_brian]

'That depends on whether you're planning to bring him up here, I guess.'

Trying to work out what a child would make of Milliways - and how it would be affected growing up here - makes his head hurt.

'Where are you going to bring him up?'