Title: Floating Free
Fandom: Perseity
Rating: PG (mention of sex, some kissing)
Length: 1032
Content note: Poly family, pregnancy
Author's note: Thanks to elanya for betaing!

"Come on, let's go!" Nary shifted in her seat, struggling to get the straps buckled securely around her huge belly.

Apo chuckled. "You are in a big hurry today." He went through the pre-flight check as usual, despite his wife's impatience.

"You would be too, if you had fifty pounds of babies leeching off your body," Nary grumbled. Neither of them had really been surprised when the doctor told them it was twin boys, but Nary hadn't really imagined, sitting in that office looking in amazement at her still-flat stomach, that it would be this physically demanding to carry them. She was built small, though, and the added bulk above and beyond a single pregnancy was a terrible strain on her body, as well as on her nerves. "Are we clear?"

Glancing at the indicators on the ship's main panel, Apo nodded. "Yes, Mama," he said, teasing her to make her scrunch up her face. "We can leave as soon as the Endoport is ready for us."

Finally, after what felt like a lengthy wait to Nary, but was really only about ten minutes or so, they were cleared for take-off by the technicians and could begin the process of exiting the asteroid. Apo took it slow, being especially cautious with this particular cargo - not just his wife and unborn children, but a shipment of delicate fib components that were stored in the hold, bound for New Whyalla.

Nary's doctor had raised a fuss about her traveling this late in her pregnancy, pointing out that twins often arrived early and needed extra care, but Nary had shrugged it off. "I was born on a ship, if they are too then we'll deal with that, we've got plenty of medical supplies on board. Or if they come while we're in N-Dub, Maria can deliver them. She's a vet, that's pretty close to a doctor," she added, just to watch the expression on her physician's face.

Apo wasn't quite so laid-back about it all, but Nary had insisted she wanted to go, and he had never been good at saying no to her. It would probably be her last visit to that part of their family for a while, certainly until after the twins were born, and everyone - Maria, Karlos, the half-dozen kids by whichever father - wanted to see her and, as she put it, "rub my belly for luck."

When she'd heard it was twins, there might have been a tiny bit of envy on Maria's face, but she seemed to have gotten over it fairly quickly, and now was just excited for more babies in the unconventional family they'd made. It had taken Nary a long time, comparatively speaking, to be ready for children, but finally she'd agreed they could have one. Except, of course, it hadn't turned out to be only one…

The passage out of the asteroid finally opened up and the blackness of space was before them. Nary grinned - although Perseity was as close to home as anything, she still felt most comfortable on a ship. Once they were safely clear of the rock, she wasted no time in unbuckling her restraints and letting herself drift up out of her seat with a sigh of relief. "I'm just gonna float here for a while, if you don't need me for anything," she said, pushing off towards the midsection of the ship where there was more room for her to stretch out.

"Ah, but I need you for many things," Apo said, smiling over his shoulder at her. "And some of them we can do easier here."

"Yeah, definitely," Nary agreed with a contented smile. Having the weight taken off her hips and spine felt heavenly, and she was inclined to agree to just about anything. And Apo was right, sex in zeegee would be a lot easier than anywhere else at the moment, or at least a lot more comfortable. "But later. Right now I don't even wanna move." She let herself drift freely, only putting out a hand or a foot now and then to keep herself from bumping into a wall. "Maybe this is what the twins feel like," she said wistfully. "All floating around, happy as anything."

"No, no - they're much too squished now for floating, they're bumping into each other all the time and can't stretch out at all. Trust me, I remember." It was easier for him to talk about what it had felt like to be a twin now, even though it still sort of felt like another lifetime. He had been anxious at first that Nary's double pregnancy would bring out all sorts of strange emotions in him, but thankfully most of the time he just felt happy, occasionally tinged with a little bit of the longing that he had never quite lost.

"Yeah, you're right," Nary agreed, grimacing as one or the other of the babies shifted inside her. "They're probably completely sick of being cooped up in there after eight months - that's a long trip for anyone."

"Yes, good thing ours will only be three days," Apo said, adjusting the ship's course to bring it into one of the authorized shipping routes to Akkad. "Then we sink into the comforting embrace of a high-grav planet…"

"Ugh, don't remind me," Nary groaned. "Why did I think this was a good idea again?"

Apo unbuckled his harness and pushed off from the floor, arching back over his seat to look at his wife upside-down. He stretched out his arms and caught her by the hands, sending them both spinning end over end, making Nary giggle. "Don't ask me, you're the one who married a crazy man." It was something he could joke about now, at least with her, knowing that she understood.

Nary hauled him closer, turning him around so she could kiss him, pushing aside the black hair that drifted across his face. The motion sent them floating backwards until her foot caught one of the handles that lined the walls and steadied them. When they finally drew apart, still clinging to one another, she smiled at him lovingly. "Yeah, I must be just as crazy."