It's been a month since the ceremony, things were just perfect.
Muriel and Thorn were never this connected before, these were their most memorable and possibly happiest of days.
In fact, they weren't the only ones experiencing memorable days, Almost Everyone around them did.
However today was a bit of a special day, it's supposed to be Thorn's last day of his unexpectedly long visit, a visit that was supposed to last only a week, before the king has to go back to his own kingdom.
It was true, Thorn was originally only planning to stay for a week, but something unexpected happened between him and Muriel that pushed him to stay longer than he thought.
Yurei was onto something after all.
But now The Junglaya king had to go back, Thorn couldn't keep neglecting his duties towards his kingdom any longer, so he decided it was time to leave even if it meant leaving Muriel for now, he'll be back for him, and they'll figure it out.
Seeing how sad his king appeared, Aroon made a suggestion to hold like a farewell party Out of nowhere, to ease Thorn's pain.
The party was to only include few people, Thorn was not the partying kind, he was an introvert after all and Found it difficult to deal with strangers, but in the past month Thorn grown closer to Muriel and his entourage pretty quickly.
The rest of the entourage being, The two princes, Socorro and Matilda, Ned and Garrick, and some servants.
So instead of something as big and fancy as the ceremony that no one would enjoy especially Thorn, Aroon sought out something simple, a party among friends.
Muriel skeptical that a farewell party would make things easier for him too, still agreed to the idea seeing how much Thorn the introvert liked it, and Muriel himself loved parties.
It has been a while since Muriel had some Normal fun time with people he actually cared about, and he wanted to spend more time with Thorn anyways.
Aroon also made sure to personally insure that Ned attends the party with them, despite Garrick warning Ned that anything Aroon plans was bad news, Ned still wanted to join in on the fun anyways, since he missed the ceremony.
And to be honest, Ned was actually enjoying Aroon's company, since the pink haired omega was, treating him well.
Ned who was Unaware of the history between the foreign Assistant and Garrick, because the knight chickened out of telling Ned why he disliked Aroon, didn't suspect something was off with Aroon and his behavior.
Socorro and Matilda who also got added to the group, Socorro as the king's assistant had to stay by her king's side even outside of duty, And Matilda who joined in mainly for the fun of it despite having some doubts of her own, didn't like That Aroon and Ned were getting along.
Ever since Aroon accidentally found out about Ned being Garrick's mate at the ceremony from a certain loud mouth, the foreign Assistant has been hanging around Ned Alot for the past month, often getting him gifts and food and chatting with him for hours on ends, when lots of people expected him to loose his mind and stick a knife into Ned's head.
The overly friendly attitude of Aroon towards Ned, was creepy to others but it managed to fool the doctor into believing that the foreign Assistant meant well, especially since Ned like said was unaware of Aroon and Garrick's history, and he was even more fooled thanks to Aroon showing a weird interest in poor Lucius that the doctor interpreted as having a crush on the servant with the inky eyes.
So aside from Ned and Thorn, everyone else smelled the bullshit Aroon was cooking, Aroon wasn't being nice for nothing and they all felt threatened by him at all times, as if he was constantly planning something for them.
As for the party, This time, the two young princes were allowed to attend this party due to their persistence, especially Tacito.
Ever since he found out Thorn was his father, Tacito has been desperately clinging to him, and Muriel couldn't deny Tacito to spend more time with his father, since the boy's father was now leaving.
Other than these few people, nobody else was supposed to attend the party, expect for a reluctant Lucius who was in charge of watching over the princes, so he was allowed with them.
At first, The party went normal, with laughing and dancing, and Aroon being surprisingly nice to everyone, like he promised he would.
Everything was ok, too ok, untill someone decided to make an announcement that almost nobody had expected.
...A week ago...
"Your results from two weeks ago came back Ned, so should I say congratulations or WTF you dumbass?! Which part of use protection didn't get inside your tiny head?!"
"MATILDA!" Ned lifted his head from the toilet, " I get it! I fucked up!...oh shit blurg!" he was getting ready to go out when he suddenly felt nauseous again, he has been like this all week.
"Wait! since alphas are referred to as fathers...does that make me an uncle now? or just auntie?"
"Matilda get the fuck out!"
"Chill my dude, you're puking your guts there...damn that fucker did you good huh, first time too!"
" MATILDA!! oh ugh Blaargh!"
"Fine fine I'll shut up about it Ned, but seriously though, if you're keeping the baby you better fucking make me the guardian after you and Garrick...you never know when your time runs out."
Lifting his head again, Ned turned to Matilda glaring, "Ugh, look at you already planning my unborn child's future, don't worry OF COURSE if I actually went through with having kids, I'd leave them in my rich best friend's care...do you know how deadly pregnancies and child birth are?!"
"Ah! you greedy bitch! but that's reasonable and I agree to it...so when are you telling the Baby daddy the news?"
" I don't know how to tell him... he'll probably be ecstatic, but..."
"You're not sure about keeping the baby."
Ned nodded finally getting up from the floor, he headed to the sink washing his mouth and hands.
"Ned, I'm not expert, I'm an alpha after all and no womb no opinion, I can't tell you what to do with your situation...all I can do is support your choice, whether you choose to keep the baby or not, it's your body your choice."
"I'm scared...but you're right, I have to at least tell him."
"Then it's your lucky day, since it's a weekend you guys have already planned a date, you can tell him there."
"And drop a bomb on him, of course Mats." Ned sarcastically said.
"Ah-Ah Neds! I'm not the one to blame here, it's on you and Mister knight commander...I did my job as your friend and that's it."
"Shit, so many crazy things happening all at once, I mean everyone is getting mates...who would think that Thorn and Muriel turned out to be mates!"
"Crazy right! Thorn revealing himself to be a beast is also a surprise...I knew that people in the Junglaya kingdom were supernatural beings based on animals, everyone in the kingdom apparently is a human who can turn to some animal form, but to think their king is a half man half reptile! a fucking komodo dragon too."
"What's cool is that both him and Aroon are reptilians, Aroon told me he's a chameleon! he showed me himself his ability to go invisible, he can even do shapeshifting!"
"That guy is bad Neds, don't mingle Alot with him."
"You've been saying that quite often lately? I think he's nice."
" Just don't get too close to him, and don't tell him about your pregnancy too!" Matilda warned the doctor, she herself kept that incident with Lucius and Aroon away from Ned's knowledge, since she made a promise to the servant.
"Anyways, I'm going to see Garrick now...you should go back to your girl, don't you two have plans?"
"Not really, she's busy with something, you know the king may rest but not his assistant." Matilda said, in reality Socorro was actually teaching Lucius how to use magic, after the incident she happened to discover that the young servant had a natural talent for using magic and she wanted to mentor him.
Socorro being a witch is another secret Matilda kept from her best friend, the only people that know were her, the king, somehow Yurei and now Lucius.
Matilda also suspected that Aroon already knows as well, despite him not discussing the subject around others but only throwing hints from time to time.
"You okay Mats? you're spacing out."
"Oh! I'm fine, have fun on your date today, I guess I'll go work out."
"Enjoy your work out then...and don't speak a word about what happened right now to anyone!" Ned said hugging her, " Awe!...i'll keep it under covers since I'm being bribed by a hug." Matilda hugged him back.
"Bye girl."
"Bye bye."
... Some time later....
"How many coffees did you Have today?"
"Not enough." Garrick joked drinking his Fourth coffee for the day, " You're an addict at this point." Ned said smiling while holding hands with Garrick.
"You're smiling a lot today...I like it."
"I'm having fun, so it's natural I'd smile."
Garrick felt the warmth of happiness within his heart, " I feel like today is one of the happiest days of my life...I got to spend it with you, like this." he said.
Ned's cheeks flushed red, " I guess I can say the same...I had lotta fun today, way more than that time with Kimberly, Maybe because it's just the two of us." Ned said as They passed by a familiar ice cream shop.
"hey, want some ice cream? we can sit inside or take it with us, your choice." Garrick suggested, his smile reached his eyes quickly when Ned's eyes sparked at the suggestion.
The doctor really enjoyed ice cream, especially ice cream when winter is close by, it hits different.
"We can eat inside, I actually need to sit down a little bit." Ned said.
"Okay lovely, your wish is my command."
They entered the shop hand in hand, although this relationship was relatively new, they felt undeniably comfortable with each other, in the end they did begin this relationship in an untraditional way.
They sat down by the table next to the window, the waiter passed by to take their order almost immediately, " Oh you're not eating anything Rickie?" Ned asked, " I don't feel okay eating ice cream right after coffee...you can order whatever you like though Neddie, it's on me."
"Okay then I'll have this one" Ned pointed at the menu, the waiter nodded and left them,
"Let's do this more often, btw." Garrick said while gazing at the buzzing street from the window.
"Do what?"
"Go on dates! let's do it again every weekend." Garrick replied turning his eyes back to his mate, " That'll be nice...hey, I have a question to ask." Ned said.
"Ask Neddie, I'm all ears."
" We're stuck forever till we die right?"
"Haha if that's how you see it, then yeah." Garrick replied chuckling.
"So do you think we'll make it to a stage were we become family...you and me?" Ned asked with wavering eyes.
"You mean marriage? sure, if we lived enough to make it to that day, also when we're both ready for paperwork since we're basically married by the legends rules.
And if we're talking about kids... it's your choice before mine, since you're the one who's gonna be carrying most of the burden...but I'd like to adopt as well whether we had or didn't have our own kids."
"How do you feel about it? becoming a family Garrick...if I were to follow you on your dreams."