These days Hanako was in the worst of moods, terrible stacked atop of bad, like a jenga tower ready to topple.

She had once been told that pregnancy was supposed to make a woman glow, all rosy cheeks and fluttery anticipation of the joys to come, but Hanako was certain she'd been lied to. How was she supposed to fucking glow when every smell that wafted past her nose made her feel sick, huh? How was she supposed to bond with her little babies when her mood swung back and forth between resenting the little bastards for ruining her figure! Only for her overwhelming motherly instinct to kick in and make her feel awful for even daring to think of them like that! Her babies could do no wrong, they were perfect and lovely and hers- aaaannnd back to feeling sick and tired. With an extra sprinkle of grumpiness on top for extra measure, like Hanako wasn't temperamental enough as is.

Nothing was good enough and even the slightest inconvenience was enough to push her over the edge, to have Hanako stomping her paws till she near worked herself up into hysterics. It was a bad time to be an Armada wolf and it was only going to get worse from here on out. The clock was ticking and she was getting bigger and bigger with each passing day.

Lurking by the seaside it was rare indeed Hanako had managed to drag herself out of Azure's den. With a pelt draped over her shoulders, she sat atop the grassy outcrop that overlooked the ocean and scowled down at the waves. The tide was rolling in, swallowing up the beach below as morning transitioned into afternoon. And here Hanako was already yawning away and wanting to go back to bed, to sleep till someone forcibly dragged her outside.

It was rare to see his very pregnant almost-wife outside the den nowadays and Azure for a brief moment thought the figure wrapped in pelts upon the grassy knoll was someone else entirely. Pregnancy had hit her hard not unlike it had hit his mother, and he wondered if to a small, tiny degree it was him who was to blame, for making a smaller sized wolf carry his direwolf-gened children. Nah, probably not. Regardless, he'd support her in any way necessary and had assigned Bean onto 24/7 Hanako duty. "Feeling okay?" He asked as he came up alongside her, hesitation clear in his voice. No one had taught him how you're supposed to speak to pregnant women, only that they were generally angry and volatile and moody while hormones surged. Azure felt like he was walking on thin ice, stepping as carefully as he could as he navigated a promotion to co-alpha as well as supporting his very thicc partner. "Can I get anything for you?" If his first stupid question enraged the koi-wolf, perhaps she'd be subdued by the temptation of food, as angry stomping monsters often were. "Speech"

Hanako turned and shot Azure a sour look, muzzle wrinkling as her whiskers twitched. What a dumb question to ask, did she look as though she was feeling okay? For what felt like the longest time ever, had she given off a single vibe that suggested any level of okayness? Now of course, she understood he was a busy man and all, power and responsibility came at a price, but it didn't even feel like he was trying. Like he was using all of that as an excuse to give her a wide berth and make her suffer alone.

Usually she would have at least made an effort, no matter how minimal, to dance around the topic and put it lightly. But as of now she simply didn't have the energy or desire to. Hell, for all the misery Azure was putting her through he certainly didn't deserve it either. He really was shooting himself in the foot here, like he had no sense of self-preservation.

"No." She grumbled, simply because it needed to be said. That she wasn't the sort to suffer in silence, not nor or ever and this would never change. "Do I look okay to you? I bet you think I'm hideous." She paused for a shuddering breath, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. " Look at me, I'm fatter than your sister."

She didn't even want to think about food right now, lest it make her even tubbier.

Hana shot him a dirty look and Azure's eyes immediately fell to his paws. This was not a position he enjoyed being in, but he couldn't deny his own capability in her current state nor that it wasn't her fault she was bitchy and moody. The sulking koi-wolf gave the answer he'd anticipated, and Azure nodded along as if to say 'yeah, I should have known that' as she rebuked him. Was 'pregnant' fat the same thing as 'lazy and useless' fat? Azure didn't think so, but he had the feeling that trying to explain as much to Hanako wouldn't go well. "I don't think you're hideous." He returned hesitantly - how did you make a pregnant woman feel better about being pregnant? "And you're definitely not fatter then my sister." He lifted a paw to scratch at his neck, thinking hard upon the best thing to say to her in the moment. "It'll be over soon, you know? It's not permanent. Look at my mother, she didn't stay fat and she had two litters." Not like Zee was looking her best lately, but, if anything that just proved that you could go from overly-round pregnant to thin enough for concern, right?   "Speech"

Nothing he could say would make her feel any better, not really. And yet she expected it of him anyway, all but demanded it in the sharpness of her gaze. This wasn't like her, but given all the hormones coursing through her veins she felt more than entitled to a temper tantrum or two. As though those she'd already thrown weren't enough, more and more till she was too sleepy to be mad. Deep down she knew she was gorgeous, it was the one irrefutable fact about her that no one could deny, but to be fat was earth-shattering. End of the world scenario with the walls crashing down.

And now she felt bad for picking on Ophie, but really she was an easy target. Nice and round.

Hanako huffed and stomped her paw. "Not soon enough." And then her gaze turned a little watery, self consciousness bleeding in. "And it doesn't even matter anyway, Sirius is obsessed with Zee. Gave up being an emperor just to be with her, lost his mind when he couldn't. He'd want her no matter what she looks like and we both know you only like me cause I'm PRETTY." She ended, her voice shrill and tears rolling down her cheeks.