It had been a glorious few weeks sleeping beside her beloved mate, curled into his thick soft fur and waking to his annoying yet endearing snores. While she loved to wake early and see the day, she found herself enjoying her sleep so much that her periods of rest drew longer and longer and she still felt groggy upon awakening. She was glad she'd picked herself a handmaiden to assist her with her mornings, as Zee was hardly awake and alert enough to bath herself some days.

This one started out like many others - awakening in Sirius' strong arms with a relaxed grin and happy murmurs - though suddenly her stomach churned, and Zee threw herself out of his grasp to quickly vacate the den. She made it just in time, expelling the contents of her stomach into the dirt outside it's mouth. "Seeeeer." The poor woman mumbled weakly, lips smacking hard against the foul taste and her legs shaking from the effort.

He was awoken suddenly by Zee’s pitiful call of his name. He went from zero to a hundred in a heart beat as he slammed to his feet, and ran to the den entrance. He crouched down beside his vomiting wife, and gently tilted her head so she would not mat her fur. He knew how much she loved to be clean. He froze for a minute in indecision, not wanting to let go of her, before he relented. He ran to the Oasis which was not far from their den, scooping water in a container, throwing in a moss scrubber and was back at Zee’s side in a heartbeat.

In his rush he lost more than half the water, but decided to make do as he settled it beside her, picking up the scrub and gently began to wash the sick from her chin. With the care of one who touched something sacred. “Zee” he whispered softly, worriedly, for the wolf of his heart. “Should I call Io?”

Zee sniffled and shuddered, her body feeling just entirely wrong. The warlord came, then went and her worry only grew in his absence. What if something was truly wrong? As her fear swelled so did her nausea, and she dragged herself off away from the den entrance before he returned so if she needed to be sick again it would be hidden away out of sight. Her lip quivered, and the acidic scent made her eyes sting. When he returned and began to clean her, Zee leaned on her husband for comfort. She didn't know what was wrong, but didn't want to take any chances. "Okay." She whispered in reply, though her eyes begged him not to leave. Why couldn't he be two people, one to fetch the healer and one to cuddle her worries away?

Her quiet, easy agreement worried him more than anything else would have. His gut twisted, and once again he found himself wishing he had more problems he could solve with a good heard bite. Here, he was useless. He knew nothing about healing, or what was wrong with Zee, or how to help her.

He wanted his sister, needed her here, to make this okay. The idea of something happening to Zee, of a sickness wasting her away. He started to feel a little sick himself. Dizzy at the thought. His entire world revolved around Zee now. Without her, he was nothing. There was no life.

He stopped to give her a soft kiss against her cheek, before raising his head, and calling for Io. he put urgency into that call, desperation. He needed her to come quickly, and with her healer kit. If anyone could keep Zee alive, it was his sister.

Iolaire, a night owl as always, had just fallen asleep when the call rang out. She'd been working well into the night and was rather exhausted. She considered rolling over and going back to sleep. There was a sense of urgency to the call though. So, with a groan, she pushed herself to her paws, grabbed her pack and made her way towards Sirius and Zees den.

She could smell the vomit before she arrived and her nose wrinkled slightly. Okay. So someone was ill. No big deal. She yawned, coming upon the pair. Her fur was askew, but oh well. "What's the trouble?" She eyed Zee lying off to the side and moved towards the horned woman.

Zee's ear flicked lazily to catch the sounds of approaching pawpads, still laying outside the den by the time the healer approached. She leaned harder against Seer, closing her eyes to fend off the waves of nausea that seemed to intensify with the light. Io was asking what was wrong, and Zee wished she knew enough to answer. "I don't know." She did her best to respond in a fashion that made her seem alert and aware and normal, though it had felt as if she was drained off all energy. "Maybe I should just go back to bed..." Sirius' worry was palpable, and Zee wanted to reassure him that she was fine. In reality, she wanted to tell the healer that she was well and truly dying and to please fix her for Sirius' sake.

Zee pressed against him, and he held her tight. The materials he had used to clean her lay discarded before him, and forgotten. He was grateful when the healer appeared, looking a little bedraggled. He guessed he had dragged her from her bed, but this was important.
He looked up to Io from his crouched position, and shielded his face from Zee’s view. He would not let his Wife know that he was sick with worry.

“She was fine last night, she woke up this morning and immediately vomited” he informed Io when Zee herself didn’t give forth much of use. She could go back to bed only if the healer said she could.

One silver brow arched as they both spoke. She could see the complete concern in her brothers face, but honestly, she wasn't worried. Wolves vomited all the time. This was nothing that she couldn't handle. Why in the hell were they both looking like the world was ending? Giving her head a slight shake, she stepped forward, peeling Sirius from Zee's side. She had to be able to inspect her.

First she cast her gaze towards the vomit, looking for any oddness within it. There wasn't. Just half digested food and bile. She then gently pressed upon Zee's abdomen, feeling with soft pawpads to see if there was anything amiss internally. Everything seemed in order. The healer pressed her ear against the fawn colored fae's abdomen. No strange sounds. Everything was fine. Perfectly, perfectly fine.

Settling back, Iolaire rummaged in her pack, pulling out a leaf of mint and a slice of ginger root. She placed them before Zee. "Chew these for nausea. It'll help." There was a smile on the sleepy healers face. She cast her green and gold gaze towards Sirius and winked. "Told you so."

Iolaire spent some time inspecting her, and Zee worried horribly over what it was she might see, hear or feel within her. She only just gained her crown, now she was to lose it to some unknown deadly virius. Sirius would surely never recover. Or maybe he would, and Deathbelle and he could finally be together. Zee reminded herself to see Deathbelle to give her blessing before she croaked. Her mouth opened to obediently take the herbs, though she wasn't listening to what Io was saying anymore and was lost in her thoughts.

"Told you so."

Zee's head snapped towards the two, a betrayed and angry expression upon her face. "What the hell did you do to me?" She accused Sirius, lip curling to reveal her teeth. The sudden movements brought her nausea back in force, though she powered through it to hear what it was her husband poisoned her with.

Sirius waited as Io saw to his wife. He kept himself still, frozen, after she had moved him aside. He hovered, but not too close. He wanted to fidget and growl, and tear his claws through the earth, but he forced absolute stillness over himself. Discipline. Melodrama would not help his wife.

When Io’s face turned to a smile, and she cast her gaze back to him, and spoke those three simple words He paused. It took a moment to sink it, and about the time Zee started to accuse him, he broke free of his stillness. He whooped, big and loud, jumping to his feet, and howled to the sky. “We did it!” he growled possessively, falling to his knees and sweeping Zee into him, grabbing Io with a large paw and dragging her into the bear hug whether or not she wished it. “All of us did this. We made children”

Iolaire didn't even have time to reply to the anger that Zee directed towards Sirius before she was literally snatched off of her feet and pulled into a massive bear hug. The small woman made a sound of protest as her brother squeezed the life out of her. "Leggo!" She choked out before wiggling out of his grasp. She understood his unbridled joy, but she didn't want to get covered in vomit. Vomit that could very well happen as he was jostling his pregnant wife complete with morning sickness all over the oasis.

Taking a few steps away from the pair, the small woman sat, a lazy smile on her maw. "Congratulations, mom and dad." She directed her attention to Zee. "Peppermint leaves and ginger will help with the nausea. I'll give you both. You need to start eating more and ingesting more vitamins. I'll help you decide what you need later today." For now, she just wanted to sleep. She'd spent her whole night walking and was exhausted. "You should sleep some more too." One tired paw waved in the air. "Everyone sleep."

Zee was without words, her brows furrowed in absolute worried confusion as her husband swept her off her feet into a bear hug with the healer. Her lips parted to protest, but she failed to find a way to articulate her thoughts. Children? We all did it? She needed things? It was overwhelming, and she lifted her paws to push against Sirius weakly. "How, how can you be sure?" She asked, unwilling to accept Io's confident diagnosis.

Her head tilted sharply downwards to regard her belly - which looked perfectly normal to her - and then back up at the pair with the same amount of confusion in her eyes. "Maybe we should, you know, wait and make sure." Sirius was going to be absolutely impossible to live with now, and what if she wasn't pregnant? She couldn't handle his despair at being a failure and then his non-stop nagging for another year at trying again. How the hell was she supposed to sleep now?

He eagerly hugged the two woman, delight rushing through his veins until he felt he could run a marathon and barely lose his breath. Io called him a dad, the very first time the title had ever applied to him, and he puffed out his chest with pride. She would also go on to tell the lot of them that there would be diets and herbs. Sirius would definitely be getting that list and enforcing it.

“No more waiting” he told Zee, but he was laughing. He reached over and kissed her on the cheek, and then tugged her by the horn. “Take a drink, clean your mouth” he offered, pushing the water he had collected towards her. He hadn’t dirtied it when he cleaned her. “And then you can sleep in my arms” he whispered against her ear.

Zee still seemed to be in shock. She denied the situation and Io grinned, moving forward to pat the woman lightly. "You're not the first I've examined and you won't be the last. Trust me, Zee." She placed a kiss atop the horned woman's head. "Everything will be fine." She was going to be an aunt. Sirius was going to be a father. Zee had no choice but to accept that she was going to be a mother.

Io gave Sirius a pat as well. "Congratulations, you two." Sirius prompted Zee to head back to bed with him. Io pulled some more mint leaves and slices of ginger from her pack and placed them atop a scrap of deer skin which she bundled up. "If you start to feel nauseous, chew on one or both of these. And, if you need anything, you know where to find me." As she walked away from the pair, she grinned at her brother and reiterated, "Told you sooooo."

Zee leaned into Io's kiss, though still seemed bewildered by the whole encounter. She looked blankly towards Sirius as he spoke, blinking to try to wash the confusion from her mind. The healer seemed confident, and reiterated the herbs once more that she could take for the nausea. Zee stared down at them, churning with questions but unable to articulate any.

As Sirius' basin of water was pushed towards her she leaned in to obediently wash out her mouth, and then turned her head back towards the departing Iolaire. She'd need to wait to ask her questions later, was Sirius really, truly cured? Could he be trusted around the little ones? The horned woman looked down at her belly and bit upon her lip, before looking back to Sirius. "Back to sleep in your arms sounds lovely." She responded, attempting to smile.

He pulled Io close and mimicked her own gesture against Zee, as he kissed his sister on the forehead. He knew from the get go that he wanted Io to be a part of everything, and to be the head healer in charge of his pregnant wife. He would need to gouge what Zee wanted, as well. He would not anger his wife by taking control of her body, but he hoped she agreed that Io was best to be a part of everything.

Zee looked like she didn’t want to make any decisions in that moment. She looked confused, and caught off guard. He watched Io walk away, smiling after his sister, before pulling Zee into a hug. “Anything you want, is yours, my love. I want to make this pregnancy as easy on you as possible.” and hell hath no fury if anyone got in his way. He supported her as he gently nudged for the two of them to make their way back into the den. He wanted to lay with her in his arms, to breathe in the scent of her, and consider their future to come.