Build It and Watch It Grow

Aliana almost pouted when Chimera chuckled and turned down her offer of a bit of fun and pleasure. She shot him a mock shocked and disappointed look, but smirked and leaned in to place another tender lick to the underside of his chin instead. "Hmm, maybe next time then..." she purred, letting her words drift off with the promise of what he could look forward to. She wanted to do nice things for him and make him feel good. He was her king, her lover, the father of their children, and she loved him far deeper and more intensely than she ever expected to when she'd first met him that warm summer day so many months ago.

Chimera lay his head down and asked what they should name their pups. Ali's eyes widened after a few surprised blinks. Of course, names! They would need to name their children. She still felt wholly unprepared to be a mother, but she would get better at it—hopefully. She wanted to be the best mother she could be, though admittedly she was lacking any sort of instruction or example beyond what her instincts told her. Aliana felt exceedingly out of her league! But lying cuddled up to Chimera, her swollen belly filled with their pups tucked safely between them, it made her feel like she was at least doing something right. "I hadn't really put much thought into names," she admitted, ears folding bashfully to her skull. How did parents even pick names out for their kids?

Aliana giggled softly when Chimera confessed to not being very creative, the smaller clouded fae reaching her paw up to stroke it over his back a few times. She hummed pensively while her mind worked, eventually coming to lie on her side with her head next to his, gazing into the pink eye turned towards her. "That's okay, I think we might be able to manage together." Her mate's curious gaze and question took Ali by surprise, but she realized then that she actually didn't know his middle name either. That had always felt like such an intimate and private detail of someone who up until recently had been her master, she never dared to ask. "I don't have a middle name, I'm afraid. I don't even have a family name—not a real one, in any case," she explained in her delicate lilt. "The slavers gave me the name Cadence because of my singing. I guess they thought it sounded pretty, too? All I ever had was my first name. My parents didn't bother to give the slavers their family name, so I took whatever I was given." A small, rueful smile crossed her lips. "It's kind of funny in a sad way... Without knowing my family name, I could have met my parents or any of my family, and I'd be none the wiser."

She gazed into Chimera's eyes for a long moment, feeling her heart beat strong and steady while she stared through those mismatched windows into the mind and soul of the brute she had fallen in love with. With an affectionate smile on her lips, she slid her dainty paw up the back of his neck, trailing delicate claws through his ruff to gently scratch and massage over his scalp and between his ears. "Do you have a middle name, Chimera?" she asked in turn, then added, "Will our children carry your family name as well?" She had no strong love nor attachment to the name the slavers had given her. She used it because she was expected to, and because it was better than nothing. If Chimera liked it as well, she'd be happy to continue to be Aliana Cadence for him to the end of her days.

"Aliana"