Schmoop ficlet: Xander/Cordelia (PG)
So, you thought I was done with schmoop, huh? Nope, just taking a break. I have an almost complete bingo line, and ambitions to do some extras with my new card. But I've also signed up for fall_for_sx and (shoot me) Remix Duello. So there may be another long pause before resumption of schmoop...
Author Brutti ma buoni
Title Midnight Fear
Pairing Xander/Cordelia
Rating PG
Word Count 530
Prompt Pregnancy (male or female) for schmoop_bingo. It's spring 2020 in the Rulesverse, and we're four months on from Two Steps Forwards...
Cordelia Chase bowed to no man. And took no man’s name. Even when she was eight months pregnant out to here, and married to the man in question.
She made millions of dollars annually in the cause of the good fight, and took home a fair chunk of change. She could tell Wang from McQueen at fifty paces in a poorly-lit soiree, and decapitate a Hingra beast with the necessary sacred sword without either breaking sweat or getting Hingra goo on her outfit.
She was afraid of nothing.
So why couldn’t she sleep?
*
“It’s just a baby, right?”
“Yes, it’s just a baby. A real baby. We saw the pictures. We felt the moves. We had the deeply invasive and scary tests. It’s a baby.”
“Okay. I’m going to try to sleep now.”
“That would be good.”
*
Cordelia Chase was part-demon. Demonized, it turned out, as part of some master plan by the infinite Powers, tricking her into joining them... to return, carrying the Destroyer in her veins.
Maybe there were reasons why she worried.
*
“It’s just a baby, right?”
“Dreaming again, huh? Yes Cor, it’s just a baby. Our baby. Your genes and mine, and not a smidge of freaky semi-demon inheritance. Just a baby.”
“No horns, no tail?”
“We checked the sonogram very carefully. Remember? Also the other sonogram. And the third one. No horns, no tail.”
*
Cordelia Chase had been here before. Pregnant out to whoops-where’d-my-feet-go. The first time, it came overnight, filled her with fear, shame and unstoppable maternal love in the service of a demon who was killing her.
The second time, it lay dormant within her till it woke to take control of her body and brain. She killed for that child. Slept with a kid whose diapers she’d changed, and made goo-goo eyes at a rock monster. When the birth came, it hollowed her out till there was nothing left but the horror. And the loss.
Yeah. She had reason to worry.
*
“It’s just a baby, right?”
“Cordy... please sleep. Please. I’m so exhausted I’m going to start hallucinating demons any minute, and considering your current worries that would be A Really Bad Thing.”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
*
Of course, Alexander Lavelle Harris had demons too.
*
“Cordy...”
“Mmm? I thought you were sleeping?”
“No. I can’t. If it’s a real baby... we’re going to be parents. I’m going to be a father.”
“Yes. Duh.”
“I can’t be a father. I don’t know how. My dad...”
“You dad was an ass. And a drunk. And a cruel, stupid, bitter, disappointed man who took his frustrations out on his family.”
“Whoa. You have a lot of stored up anger there about my dad.”
“Yep. We all saw it, Xander, the whole time. No one did anything useful, and we all felt bad.”
“Well, your parents weren’t exactly... Okay, I’m saying nothing more.”
“You have a point. Our parents were terrible examples. All four of them. But we survived, we got away, we have good successful lives they would never have expected. I’m rich and you’re heroic, so we are not going to become our parents. Right?”
“...I guess.”
*
In the end, Mia Chase Harris was just a baby. 8lb 2oz of humanity.
And joy.
*
Author Brutti ma buoni
Title Midnight Fear
Pairing Xander/Cordelia
Rating PG
Word Count 530
Prompt Pregnancy (male or female) for schmoop_bingo. It's spring 2020 in the Rulesverse, and we're four months on from Two Steps Forwards...
Cordelia Chase bowed to no man. And took no man’s name. Even when she was eight months pregnant out to here, and married to the man in question.
She made millions of dollars annually in the cause of the good fight, and took home a fair chunk of change. She could tell Wang from McQueen at fifty paces in a poorly-lit soiree, and decapitate a Hingra beast with the necessary sacred sword without either breaking sweat or getting Hingra goo on her outfit.
She was afraid of nothing.
So why couldn’t she sleep?
*
“It’s just a baby, right?”
“Yes, it’s just a baby. A real baby. We saw the pictures. We felt the moves. We had the deeply invasive and scary tests. It’s a baby.”
“Okay. I’m going to try to sleep now.”
“That would be good.”
*
Cordelia Chase was part-demon. Demonized, it turned out, as part of some master plan by the infinite Powers, tricking her into joining them... to return, carrying the Destroyer in her veins.
Maybe there were reasons why she worried.
*
“It’s just a baby, right?”
“Dreaming again, huh? Yes Cor, it’s just a baby. Our baby. Your genes and mine, and not a smidge of freaky semi-demon inheritance. Just a baby.”
“No horns, no tail?”
“We checked the sonogram very carefully. Remember? Also the other sonogram. And the third one. No horns, no tail.”
*
Cordelia Chase had been here before. Pregnant out to whoops-where’d-my-feet-go. The first time, it came overnight, filled her with fear, shame and unstoppable maternal love in the service of a demon who was killing her.
The second time, it lay dormant within her till it woke to take control of her body and brain. She killed for that child. Slept with a kid whose diapers she’d changed, and made goo-goo eyes at a rock monster. When the birth came, it hollowed her out till there was nothing left but the horror. And the loss.
Yeah. She had reason to worry.
*
“It’s just a baby, right?”
“Cordy... please sleep. Please. I’m so exhausted I’m going to start hallucinating demons any minute, and considering your current worries that would be A Really Bad Thing.”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
*
Of course, Alexander Lavelle Harris had demons too.
*
“Cordy...”
“Mmm? I thought you were sleeping?”
“No. I can’t. If it’s a real baby... we’re going to be parents. I’m going to be a father.”
“Yes. Duh.”
“I can’t be a father. I don’t know how. My dad...”
“You dad was an ass. And a drunk. And a cruel, stupid, bitter, disappointed man who took his frustrations out on his family.”
“Whoa. You have a lot of stored up anger there about my dad.”
“Yep. We all saw it, Xander, the whole time. No one did anything useful, and we all felt bad.”
“Well, your parents weren’t exactly... Okay, I’m saying nothing more.”
“You have a point. Our parents were terrible examples. All four of them. But we survived, we got away, we have good successful lives they would never have expected. I’m rich and you’re heroic, so we are not going to become our parents. Right?”
“...I guess.”
*
In the end, Mia Chase Harris was just a baby. 8lb 2oz of humanity.
And joy.
*