RP:How Did This Even Happen?!

Summary: After having been going through baby fever for months since Khitti's own pregnancy, Meri finds out that her clothes... don't quite fit as they used to. Callum suggests many things that might be the culprit, but Meri can only thing of one: that there might be a maybe-baby on the way.

The Greenhouse, Sage Forest

Tonight Meri and Callum had dinner reservations -- not at any place super fancy but classy enough that they at least took reservations for dinner....Except at the rate Meri was getting ready tonight they may very well miss their dinner date entirely. Normally she is the first one ready and waiting on Callum. Not tonight. She is still fussing over what to wear well after Cal manages to ready himself. This is very uncharacteristic. The clock keeps on ticking by before Meri's voice finally is heard through the house, "Caaaaaaaaaal." The tone of her voice sounded both alarmed and upset, except she did not use his full name...so she could not possibly be upset with him about anything...Right? The only way for Cal to find out would be to brave the bedroom to find out what Meri wanted. She's not letting on any other clues.

The couch was where Callum had himself planted as that clock ticked on. He alternated between shooing the dogs away from his nice formalwear to occasionally messing with his favorite silver rose-shaped cufflinks. The Catalian’s mind was elsewhere; from #JustWitchThings to the slacking he’s been doing with regards to work lately, and even a little bit of wedding stuff. All that’s brushed aside as Meri called to him with that tone. And Meri’s author was right--Meri hadn’t used his full name at all. When this realization hit him, Cal breathed a sigh of relief. The relief didn’t last long though because he went back to panicking. Should he bring something with him? Chocolate? Flowers? Both doggos? BOTH DOGGOS. The witch picked up Mr. Weanie and clicked his tongue at Mountain so the bigger pupper would follow. He stopped just outside the door, edging closer ever so slowly to peek around the doorframe, so that he could say, “Y-yes?” Much like his nephew Dominic, Cal’s eyes got wide. But, they weren’t wide with wonder--they were wide with fear.

Pretty close to every article of clothing that Meri owns has been strewn around the bedroom, this is what Cal will see what he peeks in. Mountain has different ideas, he is going to burst right past Callum and nose his way through the door, immediately excited by the mess the bedroom is in. Are these new toys to play tug of war with? His sights are already set on a pair of Meri's old jeans and soon his teeth will be into it also. If Meri notices, she does not seem to care. Emphasis on the if. Those blue eyes are locked on Cal the moment he peeks his head in through the door. At present, Meri is only in a half decent state. She has managed to find a pair of pants and a bra, but everything else is a work in progress still. She's nowhere near as fancy looking as Cal right now. And why is about to be revealed. Sort of. "Are you mad at me or something? Like...you're not passive aggressively shrinking all of my clothes?" Meri makes a vague motion to the clothes that are laying all over, from bed to floor. "I can't imagine that you changed laundry detergents or something, because -your- clothes don't seem to be shrinking. Just mine." Meri narrows her eyes just a bit. "Are you trying to tell me that you are tired of doing my laundry or something?" What in the world is this woman even rambling on about right now. Shrinking her clothes. Pfft.

The Catalian blinked several times at Meri and her accusation, “What? No. I’ve not been upset with you on any scale since you accidentally pruned my not-yet-bloomed bluebells. You know, when you thought they were weeds.” He’d soon follow Mountain into the room, albeit with less excitement, and set the dachshund on the floor to join his brother. Callum eyed first her clothing, then their owner, ever so carefully. “You -have- been doing a lot of physical stuff lately, with the whole wolf thing, and the archery. Maybe you’ve just gained muscle? It was bound to happen eventually.” A hand reached out and poked at her abdomen, in the spot where she’d have a visible six-pack if his suspicions were correct. “Or…” Cal side-eyed the floor, hoping that the blonde doesn’t get upset at his next hypothesis, “...we’ve been eating too many sweets from your sister’s bakery. I’m pretty sure I put on a few pounds too between that and not doing anything for a few weeks while my leg healed.” He’d eventually sit on the edge of the bed and reach out for her hand, to pull her into his lap, “I’m sure it’s nothing. Besides, you can just wear whatever and I can dress down a bit, so we can still eat. Who cares what they think there. And then, we can always go shopping some time this week and get you new things, if you want. I’ve been debating on whether not to get something more in the casual department anyway.”

When Cal pokes at Meri's stomach, he is definitely not poking at a six-pack. That is not to say that the woman has lost her muscle, it was there somewhere but it was also undeniable that the belly Cal was poking at was definitely more rounded. Option two was definitely seeming like the more likely scenario and Meri does not seem upset by the suggestion. Yet she does not fully seem to buy into it either. Was she really eating at Khitti's that much more? Had her activity levels really slowed that much while Cal was hurt? Meri considers this as Cal pulls her into his lap. She agrees, but it sounds hesitant, "Yeah...." There is another thought brewing in her head and it makes her a little nervous just considering it, in both a good and a bad way. Meri moves from Cal's lap after planting a kiss on his cheek, rather than moving for one of her own looser-fitting but not as nice shirts, she goes for his part of the closet. She fully means to snag one of his nicer button-downs, angling for a black one. There is a question brewing in Meri's mind, and she has only half figured out the words she wants to use to ask it. Yet her mouth opens despite not knowing what to say, just hanging there awkwardly. She clearly is going to ask something. She finally spits out. "Can I just borrow this?" Spoiler. This is not even close to what she was wanting to ask.

Cal eyed her stomach with vague curiosity and slightly more confusion. Huh. It -wasn’t- muscle. Well, not -more- anyway. So odd. The raven-haired guy just kinda… shrugged it off. Whatever it was that Meri was thinking and not saying was clearly not in Cal’s head at all. He did indeed just chalk it up to way too many sweets and carried on. “Yeah, sure. Go for it.” He waved a hand dismissively towards her as he pushed himself up off the bed and wandered over to the mirror. What the heck. How did his hair get messed up already? There was a heavy sigh as he unscrewed the cap on that strange gel stuff that made his hair all sticky-uppy (but not weird and stiff and crunchy-feeling!), put what was probably way too much for any normal human being into those dark locks, and then grabbed a comb to run the gel through his hair better and shape it just how he likes it.

While Cal tried wage that war with his hair, hoping to mold and style it back into place, Meri tried to make herself look presentable enough for dinner. "You don't think that..." Meri begins now that her mind has found the words, she just has not quite found the confidence yet. "You don't think that there is a chance that my being a werewolf has changed things...and uh...maybe those herbs I have been taking are just....not...effective in the same way?" Meri was trying to not sound and look like a nervous wreck while asking this. Good thing Cal was fixing his hair. But maybe not for long. If he stopped and looked at Meri, she'd be trying to play it cool by going through the motions of buttoning up that shirt she is borrowing. Except it is really challenging to do because both of her hands are shaking. "Or maybe I just forgot a couple doses here and there while you were recovering...I don't know.." The blonde frowns. "Maybe it's just the sweets." Except the more she sat there dwelling over it, the more she was convinced it was not just the sweets. The blonde tried to bring herself to look at Cal, but dang. He had not actually caved and said that he was on board with them having a child yet. So many nerves.

Herbs? What herbs? Wait… Oh god. -Those herbs-. Callum went rather pale as it dawned on him just as to what Meri was referring to and that comb of his fell from his hand to the dresser below. Hadn’t he read something about pregnancy at one point when he was studying healing? Well, if by read you mean briefly skimmed the chapter until things got seriously gross and then skipped on to the next section. But that’s besides the point and exactly why that whole rounding of the stomach thing had confused him--it’d been oddly familiar and yet he just hadn’t been able to place it, because that’d been a part of what he’d skimmed over. All the pieces were starting to fit together in Cal’s head over a matter of seconds--it seemed like a lifetime though--and he’d soon finally shift his attention towards the blonde in the mirror. He’d study her face briefly, then looked down at her stomach, then those pretty blue eyes of his rolled back into his head and Cal promptly fainted. He’s dead. Sorry, Meri. Gonna have to raise that kid on your own now.

Oh no, she broke her Catalian. In his fainting, he does not actually hit the floor. Meri does not move to physically catch him either. Those telekinetic abilities are put to good use and he gets a very gentle ride to their bed where he is placed there as soft as a feather. Just because Cal was given a soft landing in bed does not mean that his woman is currently happy with the situation. She's not mad either, she does not think. She is confused though. Fainting was not exactly a positive reaction, not that she was expecting him to be happy with this sudden revelation...but she did not expect fainting either. And so Meri stands there, finishing up the last couple buttons on the shirt she has borrowed, and trying to decide what to do. Should she try and wake Cal? Should she let him sleep this off? If she does that, should she just go hang out in the living room and wait for him? Or maybe she should take off to Khitti's for a couple of days? Meri still has not come to any conclusions for any of those questions by the time she has finished buttoning her shirt, so for another minute she stands there staring at Cal, as if trying to will him awake. And if he does not wake? Her next move will be to slip out of the room and shut the door quietly behind her, where she would probably stand just outside for another minute debating these questions. And then after that she'd probably go sit in the living room for at least a time. All of these little minutes felt like an eternity. Even with Mountain and Mr. Weanie hanging around, confused about what is happening. Unfortunately Meri does not think to usher the dogs out of the bedroom, they're guarding the fainted Cal right now.

It didn’t take long for Cal to wake up. He’d do so and there’d be a Meri standing over him. Wait… what happened? Why was he suddenly in bed---oh. Right. Yes. That. As -that- realization hit him like a thunderbolt (again), he stared back at Meri. It wasn’t often that Cal needed to comfort her. She was a hell of a lot better at hiding her emotions and dealing with them and all of that stuff than he was. But right now? Now he felt -really- bad. “H-hey, come here.” He scrambled off the bed before she could think any further on leaving and scooped her up long enough to spin her around and put her on the bed (thankfully that only took seconds because he’s not quite the muscular dude). Cal would crawl onto the bed with her and snuggle up against her, wondering just how to deal with this. For once in his life, he wondered ‘What Would Brand Do’? Or, rather, what -did- Brand do? -That- pregnancy hadn’t exactly been planned either. So… he just kinda stared at her for a bit and it likely seemed like forever for the both of them before Cal finally said, “Sorry.” Meri would get a kiss on the forehead and a bit of a frown, “Really.” He brushed those blonde locks of hers behind her ear, hoping he wasn’t failing too much at comforting her.

Meri was relieved that Cal woke up sooner rather than later, it meant that she had less time to dwell over these questions alone. Before Meri knew it she was being spun back onto the bed and cuddled by Cal, which was a far more comforting response than fainting. The fact that he was snuggled up made him not knowing exactly what to say right now alright. Meri offers up a half smile when he apologizes. "Well. It's not like you can control when you faint. I am sure you would probably opt not to were it something you could control." Meri reciprocates those cuddles and as she reaches for Cal's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze she says, "Well I guess we should probably get this confirmed with a healer -- probably from Khitti's guild, but maybe that crib you bought is going to be getting more use that just Dominic. You know. That kid you like to pretend is not your nephew." Meri smirks. "You're not allowed to try and pull that stunt with your child. It's yours." Meri is trying to find some humor in this all with that last light jab at Cal. The blonde grows slightly more serious as she questions, "Do we really feel like going out to dinner tonight still? Or should we just stay in and eat ice cream do you think?"

“Yes, I definitely think you should get checked out. Who knows, if it’s not a kid, then maybe you’ve got yourself some other kind of parasite,” Cal said, sticking his tongue out at her. “And, we’re still not married, so Dominic isn’t -technically-.” Much like Khitti and Brand though, Cal and Meri were pretty much married anyway. “Though, I suppose that’s a thing we should get around too soon, isn’t it? It’s mostly up to you. It’s not like your sister and Captain Hot Pants over there are married yet either.” A bit of somberness overtook him for a minute as he peered down at that slightly rounded belly of hers, “I don’t know if I’m going to be any good at this, though… I guess if I end up being that bad of a parent, you can just keep me around to powerwash that kid’s diapers.” Being in a relationship with a person that formerly did laundry for an entire ship and also was skilled with water magic -did- have its perks. “And, I think we should go. And then we should come home and eat ice cream.”

Meri issues a smirk to Cal and an eyeroll when Cal tries to declare that they were not married anyway....because yeah, they pretty much are. They are just slacking on getting that piece of paper to make things official, in the eyes of the law at least. Not that Meri is much for laws, but she can still appreciate the gesture for other reasons. "What? It's mostly up to me? To plan the wedding? You know if I had my way we'd basically just run off and elope somewhere." Meri shrugs, sliding off of the bed and issuing Cal another grin as she offers him her hand -- he did say they should still go out to dinner. Meri was not super opposed to this idea, she does tease Cal just a little bit though with, "I think you might need to fix your hair again though, what with the fainting spell and all. It hadn't quite set fully before you fainted..." That grin fades as Meri pushes on to more serious subjects. "It's possible that we both suck at this parenting thing. I don't really think we'll know until we have to do it. I think we'll at least be able to manage to not kill the thing though...Pending confirmation of pregnancy." Meri waits by the door, giving Cal a chance to check his hair once more, before they are off to the reservations that they might be just a little bit late for at this point but oh well. "But you are definitely going to have to help powerwash some diapers. At least you can probably manage to get most of the stank out from a safe distance." Meri mock gags at the thought of stinky diapers.

“Well, I mean, I wasn’t still sure if you wanted to bother with it or not,” Cal said, clearly joking. “Of course, I’m not going to let you plan the whole thing by yourself.” He took her hand, using it to pull himself off the bed before heading back to that mirror he so loved. “I think I might have to admit defeat in the hair department. Won’t be too long before I start going grey… or worse.” Cal would probably have a mid-life crisis if his hair started falling out before he’s even thirty. Taking off his jacket, the Catalian stepped over towards his woman and put it on her shoulders, her hand grabbed up once more before leading her towards the door, “Yeah, well… Let’s not think of that now. Don’t want to be anymore late, lest I have to shower the restaurant’s host in gold coins in order to beg for forgiveness and find us a new table.”

Meri gives Cal a squinty-eyed look, but it was all in the spirit of good fun. He was joking, she was joking. She does say in an uncharacteristically overly dramatic huff, "Wasn't sure if I wanted to bother with it or not." The tone is dropped pretty quickly, she is just joking. Cal places his jacket over her shoulders and takes up her hand, prompting Meri to push a smooch to his cheek. "We'll figure out all of the details soon. From wedding to the maybe-baby." Though Meri mulls on one topic even as they are heading out the door, no harm in trying to get Cal to brainstorm some of the details while en route to dinner. "But I really do think something small and private is the way to go. You're obviously in charge of the flowers. And our cake will be chocolate. Isn't that pretty much all there is to think about anyway." Meri was not girly enough to understand, demonstrated by a shrug.

“So long as you don’t wear some giant floofy pink dress with frills, sequins, and glitter, then we’ll be fine. Some of those girls back home had the worst looking dresses when they got married,” Cal said, making a mock gagging noise of his own. “We’ll just need to find someone to marry us, I s’pose. Guess I’ll look into that soon next time I’m out and about for work.” Their conversation would carry on as they headed towards the carriage Callum had made arrangements for. It’d been waiting awhile, but the driver didn’t seem to care. Callum Rochester was a big tipper for those that deserved it and pretty much everyone that worked some sort of service job around here knew it. Though… that might change in the future if that maybe-baby actually becomes a thing…