Work Text:
“Hope? Leeta? It’s done.”
The two bogsneaks looked up hopefully as Glitter flew out of his lab, bringing them the good news. All the seasons they had saved up, all the times they had worked to gather materials… they had finally paid off.
Hope rushed towards the lab, Leeta following behind her as quickly as she could. And there it was, carefully placed in a nest of blankets.
An egg of their own. They still could barely believe it.
“Now, remember. There’s no guarantees about this one. While I did have you two combine magics to help create it, we can’t guarantee the hatchling’s colouring or element. And their patterns might take a bit longer to show up than with other hatchlings, they won’t show right away-“
“We know, Glitter, you’ve told us this before. We will be happy with whatever hatchling the Eleven have chosen to bless us with”, Leeta interrupted, Hope nodding along with her words, though she kept her eyes on the egg, as if it would disappear if she looked away from it.
“Alright, well, in that case, I’ll let you bring it to the nursery…” as he spoke, Glitter was already flitting off deeper into their lab, distracted by something else.
Leeta and Hope carefully picked up the egg, and left towards the nursery.
“Are you sure the egg is alright? I can’t feel any movement at all.”
It must have been the tenth time today that Hope was asking that same question, and Forsythe’s answer was the same as all the times before.
“Yes, dear, that’s normal. Your egg simply has a thicker shell.”
“It will be fine, Hope, I promise”, Leeta assured her mate. “The thick shell must mean our hatchling will grow up to be strong.”
If that wasn’t the case, Forsythe didn’t see it right to correct them, and so Leeta had kept repeating it over the past few days.
“A strong hatchling… yes, that’s good…” Hope mumbled as she fell asleep again. She had been sleeping a lot lately, but then again, the nursery was far from the calmest place in the camp, and Hope was used to quieter places. Forsythe and Azhi did their best to keep the hatchlings from bothering the nesting parents, though they didn’t always succeed.
At first, Hope had stayed awake for days to guard it, as if something bad would happen if she looked away. Leeta had taken over guarding it after Hope almost passed out, content to let Hope sleep. All that worrying couldn’t be good for her, and at least if she was asleep, she wasn’t catastrophizing.
While they refused to speak of it out loud, as if mentioning it would cause it to come true, Leeta and Hope both worried about their hatchling’s health. They were partially created from their magic, after all, and both of them had been quite sickly when born.
Azhi had assured her that the healers were on standby whenever any eggs were near hatching, always ready to step in immediately in case of an emergency, but it did little to soothe their worry.
She had been leaving offerings in the shrines quite often recently, and they seemed to have paid off - their egg would likely hatch during the Greenkeeper Gathering, an auspicious time. But at this point, Leeta was sure neither of them would stop worrying until after the egg hatched.
Leeta wrapped her tail around the egg, twisting the end of it around Hope’s. She already knew she wouldn’t sleep until Hope woke up. Maybe not even after that. She had busied herself by thinking of names, but nothing had stuck with her enough to share with Hope. ‘Hope’ would have been a great name, but it would get confusing to name their hatchling the same name as one of their mothers.
But she still had some time time to think about it. The egg felt warm between them. It wasn’t ready to hatch quite yet. Soon, though. Soon they would have a hatchling of their own.
"It's cracking!"
Hope and Leeta were twirled around their hatching egg, Azhi, Forsythe and the healer Shunlong watching from nearby, ready to step in if needed. The egg had started forming cracks a few hours ago, and the anticipation was tangible. It was cracking faster and faster now, preparing to fully hatch, as Shunlong had said.
They hadn't had the time to think about a name yet. They sure weren't doing it now, as they stared at their egg as if they could make it hatch faster just by watching it. The name would have to come later, the hatchling was coming now.
As the last cracks formed, the shell broke apart, a small hatchling appearing in sight. Green and orange, with darker eyes that didn't immediately betray their element, though the head crest indicated a boy. Hope immediately started to lick their son to get the egg remnants off him, Leeta soon joining her.
Shunlong approached after a few minutes, ready to do his checkup that he did for any new hatchlings, though it was hard to get the two parents to let go of their hatchling for long enough to do it.
"Good weight, proportionate wingspan, right size... The eyes seem to be a normal variant on plague eyes, no issues with those... well, you two, your son is perfectly healthy!"
It was only at that moment that the two let out a sigh of relief. Their son, their perfect son, healthy and strong. All their worry had been for nothing, it seemed, and they shed the last of it as they nuzzled their hatchling, wrapping their tails around him protectively. The only thought on their mind was their son. Later, Hope would start writing letters to her family to announce the birth, and Leeta would introduce him to the Sanctuary. Later, but not right now. Right now their son was the most important thing in the whole world.
"He's perfect!" Hope cried out, and Leeta couldn't help but agree.
"Did you have a name in mind?", asked Azhi, ever the pragmatist.
Leeta thought about it, making eye contact with Hope. They hadn't really talked about names much, though in Leeta's eyes, there was only one name that fit their son, and she could see that Hope agreed.
Looking at her son and mate with pride in her eyes, she spoke the hatchling's name for the first time.
"Blessing."