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Having grown up on an intergalactic space station, Jongdae had assumed since childhood that his eventual partner would be anything but human. There’s a lot of beauty in the universe, only some of which is at all human shaped. It had never seemed strange to him, the way different people looked or lived or reproduced. It takes all kinds, after all.
He hadn't really expected to end up with a mantodean, though. They're roughly humanoid in shape though not in structure, something more closely akin to Earth's reptiles or even insects than they are to anything mammalian.
But Minseok is ridiculously cute, with his huge eyes and pointed chin, the way he emotes not with the relatively static features of his face but with his pair of fine antennae, not to mention the way his silver-white skin flushes with streaks and patches of pink and/or yellow depending on his mood.
He's a bit shorter than Jongdae but built much more sturdily, body and limbs segmented to allow much more articulation and flexibility than Jongdae is capable of. Minseok’s upper pair of arms is longer than the lower set, but he carries them so cutely, close to his body, wrists bent, almost like an Earth rabbit on its hind legs, long ears replaced by those expressive antennae.
He's the most precious thing aboard all of EXO-1248, and Jongdae loves him with all of his squishy human heart.
So when he sees his boyfriend waiting for him at their usual date spot in the arboretum, pacing around with antennae alternately quivering and writhing like agitated snakes, Jongdae is immediately concerned. Minseok is wearing some kind of flared, orangey top with striking black spots, one that seems to be getting in his way as he pivots back and forth beneath their favorite tree.
"Hyung," Jongdae greets, using the station-specific honorific from a younger male to an older one.
Every station has their own culture, meaning despite the unilang chips everyone on inter-station ship crews is implanted with, one can often identify a person's station of origin from the sort of name they carry and the style of address they default to. It's a bit odd at first to meet other visiting humans whose names and mannerisms aren't like his, making them feel more alien than the varied species Jongdae lives and works with. But Jongdae rather likes that despite their physical differences, on the inside, where it matters, he and Minseok are more alike than not.
"Dae," Minseok responds, voice huskier than his usual light tenor. He's a shade of neon yellow Jongdae's not sure he’s seen before, and pink streaks form over his cheeks and forehead. "I, um. I have something to ask you. But you can say no! It's fine if you do. In fact, I shouldn't even ask. I'll just go."
"What? No!" Jongdae closes the distance between them, wrapping his arms around Minseok’s shoulders and pressing a kiss to the smooth curve of Minseok’s cheek. He doesn't exactly have lips like Jongdae does, but that certainly doesn't stop them from putting their mouths all over each other. "Hyung, you can ask me anything, okay? I might not be able to help, but I'll always do whatever I can for you, even if that's just listening."
He pulls away to check out Minseok’s attire. They don't usually dress up for dates, but they do make an effort for special occasions. At the moment, Jongdae feels rather underdressed. "What’s the fancy top for? It looks nice. I'm sorry for forgetting whatever today is."
"You didn't forget anything," Minseok huffs, returning Jongdae's embrace with his lower arms only, folding the longer ones against Jongdae's chest and hooking his chin over Jongdae's shoulder. "It's not a top—it's just my dumb wings."
Jongdae cranes his neck to try to see better. "Wings? I didn't know you had those."
They seem to be emerging from Minseok's lower back, accommodated by slits in his shirt. Sure enough, they flutter a bit, matching the uneasy energy of Minseok’s antennae.
"They're not the cool kind of wings like Sehunnie's. I can't fly or anything, they’re just… embarrassing."
"I think they're lovely," Jongdae protests. "Why are they embarrassing? So what if you don't fly, they're still really cool."
"You're the sweetest." Minseok presses his mouth to Jongdae’s cheek in a cool, dry kiss. "But they're dumb. They only come out when I'm, um. When it's mating season."
Seasons on EXO-1248 are long and carefully regulated by the climate control, gradually fading from one into the other in a predictable way that facilitates the growth of crops and livestock. Jongdae and Minseok have been dating for less than a station-year, and this is the first autumn they've spent together despite recently celebrating their six-hundred-day anniversary. But Minseok’s libido has never seemed to be season-specific. They've gotten up to all kinds of intimate fun together already, so Jongdae isn't sure what Minseok means.
His confusion must be clear in the pheromones Jongdae is releasing, because Minseok half-chuckles against his neck. "Not sex season, silly human. Mating. As in breeding."
"Oh," Jongdae says, unsure of what else to say that won't be somehow ignorant or offensive. "Well. I'm, um. Here for you? However you need me to be."
Minseok pulls back, wringing his upper hands in front of his chest. "Are you really? Like, you want to breed with me?"
Jongdae shrugs. "I mean. I'm happy to play the role, if I can. We're two different species, and both male, so it's not like we can actually—"
"We can," Minseok interrupts, going more pink. "I mean, we could, if you wanted. Because I'm both. I mean, I'm a boy, I'm definitely a guy. But mantodeans are all both. Reproductively."
"Oh." Jongdae swallows. "And that, um, works? With a human? Or will you just, um, take care of yourself?"
Minseok gives him a little push with his upper arms, even though the lower ones are still wrapped around his waist. "Ew, no, I'm not going to fertilize myself. Gross. But, um. You could. Humans have the same number of chromosomes, so. My body can… work with that."
"Oh," Jongdae says again. "So, you're asking if I'll have kids with you?"
"Yes. No—I mean. Only if you want. We don’t, um. Have to fertilize my eggs. But I do need to release them, or otherwise they'll just sit inside me, sapping my nutrients and making me really sick."
"Oh, well, let's definitely release them." Tension Jongdae hadn't been aware of leaves his body. "I don't know that I'm ready to be a parent. But we can't let you get sick."
"It's not like parenting a human infant," Minseok says, going pink all the way to his frilled scalp. "They're eggs all winter, then larvae for the spring and summer, which is like, I dunno, having a pet or something. They're pretty boring at first, don't move a whole lot. We just have to feed them, mostly, and play with them sometimes so they know us. Then they pupate over the winter, and in the spring they're nymphs. Which are pretty independent, kind of like Baekhyun's dog-pet. They eat and grow and run around, and we keep them out of mischief and then after like two more station-years they're in the sixth instar, and then we have to actually, you know. Teach them stuff. The real parenty stuff, you know, besides coming when they're called and where to use the bathroom."
"I… see. And… if we don’t breed now, then it's, what, 840-some days before we can try again?"
Minseok nods, patches of yellow blooming over the bridge of his nose while his antennae try to tie themselves in knots. "But it’s fine if you're not ready, and it's fine if you don't want to host unfertilized eggs, either. I don't mean to pressure you, it's just the hormones made me ask. I'll just manage like I always have."
"How do you manage?"
Minseok buries his face in Jongdae’s neck. "Ugh, it's so embarrassing," he whines. "So, we need somewhere warm to release our eggs, it has to be a certain temperature, and it has to, ahhh, properly stimulate us and there aren't enough mantodeans on station that there's an actual facility so I just. Iiiiiii go to the market, and get a whole wheel of mega-bubble Andromedan, and then warm it in a tub full of hot water and—"
"Oh my stars and planets, hyung!"
"Shut uuuup, you asked! It's not like I want to fuck a giant wheel of cheese! Please imagine how many times I died when I hit puberty and my parents had to show me—"
Minseok’s words melt into a whine as Jongdae fails to suppress his laughter.
"I'm sorry, hyung, I'm sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. It's just out of awkwardness, hyung, I don't actually think it's funny. It sounds truly awful, and if I can spare you that, I absolutely will." A sudden thought hits hard enough to jar another bark of laughter free. "Hyung, is this why you never eat cheese?"
"The wheels are expensive, and my parents didn't believe in wasting anything," Minseok mumble-whines into Jongdae’s shoulder. "They'd just scrub the literal fuck out of them and—"
"You know what? Cheese is overrated. Let's never eat it again."
Jongdae holds Minseok tight as he whines some more, but eventually he squeezes Jongdae back before pulling away, face back to sharp chartreuse.
"So," he says, pink striping his cheeks again, "you'll let me breed you?"
"Is it going to hurt?"
Slowly, Minseok nods. "I mean, probably at least a little? I don't want to say it won't. But it won't, like. Damage you. It'll be awkward and uncomfortable afterwards, until the unfertilized eggs dissolve. But I'll take really good care of you! And you'll be back to normal in, like, a week or so."
"What if they're fertilized?"
Minseok blinks at him. "What?"
"How long will you have to take good care of me if the eggs are fertilized?" Jongdae asks. "The whole winter?"
Minseok nods, tilting his head to the side. "But you said you're not ready."
"Well. I'm not ready to teach any sentient life the important, parently stuff. But it sounds like we'll have a few station-years before that's needed. And, well. For midwinter, I was going to suggest we get a pet together, anyway, so." Jongdae is probably as pink as Minseok’s streaks at the moment. "If you want to knock me up instead of just fake-breed me, then… I'm okay with it."
Minseok’s antennae go arrow-straight, then they curve inward and twine around each other. "Really, Dae? You're not just agreeing to make me happy? Because it's going to be hardest on you, and there's no good way to, um, undo it afterwards, so—"
"Hyung. I definitely haven't even considered having kids before, but the more I do, the more I'm sure I want them to be with you. If you want to wait another station-year, we can, but—"
"I don't want to wait." Minseok’s huge eyes are a dark contrast to his neon face as he ducks his chin to his chest. "Dae. I wanna breed you. Wanna see you get round with our young. Wanna fuss over you while you incubate them for us in your warm mammal body."
"O-okay," Jongdae agrees. "Not that I'm having second thoughts, but just how many young are we talking about, here?"
"I'm not very big, so I usually only have four or five mature eggs. With you around, though, I've been feeling broodier than usual, so maybe up to six?"
"Six." Jongdae swallows. "We're gonna have six kids?"
Minseok shrugs. "Maybe fewer. It's bad luck to guess for sure until they're hatched."
Well. Jongdae supposes he has a few hundred days to get used to the idea. He'd always wanted a big family, like the one he'd grown up in, but a half dozen kids all at once was not anything he'd anticipated.
"Okay," he says anyway, giving Minseok a tender kiss. "I trust you to take good care of me, hyung. Let's take those pretty wings and go make some babies."
Minseok’s antennae wriggle with anticipation.
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It starts off like all their lovemaking sessions do, with both of them nude, mouths and hands everywhere, hard and leaking against each other's hips. They're in Minseok’s bed this time, because he has 'supplies' on hand that they'll evidently need. There are no giant cheese wheels anywhere around, though, so Jongdae isn't too worried.
It's the males in several species that carry the young. It doesn't make him feel like any less of a man that he's about to be something of a mother. Though if it's Minseok’s eggs and his sperm, doesn't that make Minseok the mother? Jongdae's just, like, an earth seahorse or something. Just gonna carry some eggs in his pouch—except he doesn't have a pouch.
"Hyung?"
"Yes, my brave, sweet Dae?"
"Um. Where, exactly, are you going to put these eggs? Because if it's all winter, I'm gonna need to use the bathroom, and—"
"Of course you will. You'll be just fine." Minseok kisses him, smooths his hair. "It's easiest on the host if a natural opening is used. But then, well, I'll kinda… poke a little hole. Into your abdomen, you know. Outside of any of your organs."
"Uh," Jongdae starts, but Minseok shakes his head.
"It shouldn't hurt much, not that part, at least. Because we produce, um, fluid. From the outside membrane of our ovipositors."
"Your what?" Jongdae looks down, but Minseok’s dick looks like it always does, which is to say, more or less like Jongdae's own. The outside is a bit naturally slick, but…
"Not my dick, my ovipositor," Minseok laughs. "Where my eggs will come from. It's not, um. Out yet. But after you fertilize me, it'll emerge fully. The outside fluid is slick but also sticky? Like honey, a little. It numbs things, prevents infection when I poke through, and then seals up the hole when I, er, withdraw."
"Oh. So then I'll just have a bunch of… how big are these eggs? Floating around in my abdomen."
Minseok smooths his hair again. "They're only fist-sized, at first. And they're soft, a bit rubbery. They won't damage you, going in, but I'm told not everyone finds the sensation… pleasant. And the eggs have a temperature-activated membrane, so they’ll attach stably inside you. I'll make sure they're each somewhere safe and as comfortable as possible for you. That is, if you still want to."
"I do," Jongdae says without hesitation. "I trust you. I just like being prepared."
"Oh, I'll make sure you're very well prepared,” Minseok says, chin tilted and antennae curling mischievously. "But first, I'm gonna drain those fuzzy balls of yours."
Smiling, Jongdae flops over onto his back. "Drain away."
"You're so good to me," Minseok moans as he moves to straddle Jongdae.
Something slick is dripping down the inside of Minseok’s bright yellow thighs, clear with a pinkish tinge. Minseok’s whole groin area is flushed fuchsia to match the streaks on his face, but everything looks otherwise normal. Jongdae tries not to be concerned about where the fluid is coming from. A lot of species self-lube, and even though Minseok never has before, that doesn't mean he wouldn't in the presence of seasonal hormones.
But then he sees it—behind Minseok’s ballsack, a thick, fleshy tube has descended. He's always had a sensitive taint, one that had a defined ridge down the center. Jongdae had assumed it another segmental joint like the long, curved one below his ribcage, but evidently it's a bit more than that. It seems to have parted a bit, allowing this new opening to descend.
Minseok laughs down at the expression on his face. His wings flutter behind him, flashes of orange framing his chartreuse abdomen. "Um, surprise, I guess? Don't be too excited, because it's not like I can do this on demand. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I'm all man."
"Which I am one hundred percent okay with." Jongdae smiles up at his ever-versatile lover, flexing the muscles that make his cock bounce. "Come on, hyung, get your manly bonus-bits on me."
With a snort of fond amusement, Minseok lowers himself down onto Jongdae's cock. It feels different from other times Minseok has ridden him, more grippy, and then whatever's engulfed him starts moving. Not Minseok himself, who's grinding down on him in slow circles, longer arms braced on Jongdae's chest and another hand wrapped around his own cock. But whatever muscles this new opening has are undulating, like they're trying to suck the semen out of him.
"Ohhh, hyung!" Jongdae moans. "This isn't fair, I'm never gonna last—ah!"
Minseok's antennae wriggle wickedly. "You're not supposed to. You're supposed to knock me up, so I can set about knocking you up, my precious Dae."
"Fuck," Jongdae says, arcing up into the moist dick massage he's currently receiving. "I'm glad you want it, 'cause you're about to get it."
"Good." Minseok folds forward to kiss him. "So good for your hyung. Gonna make such pretty babies with me, aren’t you, Dae?"
"The prettiest," Jongdae moans as his orgasm sweeps up from his toes. "Ahhh, hyung! Pretty 'cause they're yours."
"You're pretty, too, my sweet Dae," Minseok coos, still literally milking the come out of him. "So gorgeous when you climax for hyung, scrunch up that squishy human face just for me."
"Only for you," Jongdae pants, but questions return as the endorphins ebb away. "Wait… will they have squishy human faces? Or like a mix?"
"They'll look enough like you that you'll know they're yours," Minseok says, stroking his chest with several soothing hands. "Well, not at first. But after they pupate. They'll still be pretty before that, just… maybe not to human eyes."
Jongdae shakes his head, reaching up to curl his hand around Minseok’s abandoned cock. "I told you. If they're yours, they're sure to be beautiful. I'm happy to punch anyone who even implies otherwise."
"Hmm." Minseok kisses him again, letting Jongdae's softening cock slip from inside him.
Well, it feels more like his cock was pushed out. When Jongdae looks down between them, he sees why—the tube-like opening is now protruding further, sort of everting itself. It grows more transparent as it elongates, patches of fuchsia pigment stretching into intermittent specks. It's prehensile, quickly stretching longer than his arm, tapering along the length to a glistening, rounded tip. There’s something almost like a fingernail embedded beneath the transparent surface of the tip, right below a round opening now leaking more pinkish fluid.
"Your ova-positioner looks, um. Ready to go."
Minseok chuckles. "Ovipositor. And yeah, you've got me aching to let these babies out. Entrust them to my beloved, who'll take such good care of them."
"I'll certainly do my best," Jongdae vows. "So… you're just gonna stuff that thing up inside me?"
"No, of course not." Minseok knee-shuffles up Jongdae's body before folding forward again. "Spread your legs for me, my love."
Jongdae complies, bending his knees until he has his feet planted on the bed about a meter apart. He flinches a little when something nudges at his crack.
"Relax for me, my mate. That's it—let hyung in, nice and slow like always, mmm?"
"Okay," Jongdae breathes, turning his face into the fingers curving around his cheek. "I trust you. You said you'd take good care of me." And that it would probably hurt, but Jongdae doesn't let himself dwell on that, just the part where he's not going to be harmed, not really, his body heat is just going to be borrowed for a while—
"What happens when two mantodeans breed?" he asks to distract himself from the sensation of the ovipositor feeding itself so far up his ass. With his arousal fading, it doesn't feel great, though he can't really say it hurts yet, either. "You're not as warm as I am. Can you still carry for each other?"
"We can," Minseok says, still running soothing hands over him. "The host just becomes… kind of amphibious? For a while. Just lives in a warm pool all winter, to keep themself and the eggs at the right temperature."
"Sounds a bit inconvenient."
Minseok nods. "But if there are enough brooding mantodeans around, they can share pools, keep each other company, share the annoyance at being stuck there while everyone else gets to go about their usual business. And you won't be so immobile, especially not at first." He kisses Jongdae tenderly. "Sorry, love."
"What— fuck!"
Confusion is sliced through by pain, a sudden stabbing in his gut. Jongdae convulses, and Minseok uses all six limbs to hold his body in place, ovipositor motionless between Jongdae's kicking legs.
"I'm sorry, Dae, I'm so sorry, but that's it, the sharp part is over," Minseok murmurs against his cheek, voice rough. "Breathe through it, my love, the secretions are numbing it away for you already, right? But if-if you want to stop, we can."
Jongdae tries to relax, because he'd agreed to this, and Minseok’s antennae are scrunched the way they go when Minseok is really upset. Mantodeans don't cry in the sense of watering eyes and hiccuping sobs, but the sickly green tinging the yellow of his limbs and the puce bleeding into the fuchsia of his face are signaling he's a twitch away from being truly distraught.
Jongdae wraps his arms around him, rubbing his back, careful of his wings. "I'm okay. Sorry to upset you, hyung. I was mostly surprised, you're right that the pain is basically gone already. I don't want to stop."
"I'm sorry," Minseok says again. "I think I went too fast. Maybe if I'd let it sit for a moment, the secretions would have—"
"Hyung, it's fine. It's over, anyway, right? I'm okay. You didn't hurt me more than I agreed to endure. For our babies."
Minseok’s antennae loosen a bit. "Yeah. For our babies. I love you so much, my sweet Dae."
"Love you too, babe." Jongdae lifts his head to give Minseok a kiss and spreads his legs again, tilting his hips in invitation. "Come on, hot stuff, get those eggs in me."
"Okay." Minseok kisses him again, then pulls away, antennae trembling. "Um. It's probably going to hurt again, but more of a stretchy-hurt? And I have an idea to help you with that."
"I can deal with stretchy," Jongdae says. "What are you—oh. Oh, yeah, hyung. Good idea."
Minseok has scooped up a bit of the slick from Jongdae's skin and is stroking his cock with it, antennae curling happily as Jongdae moans. It doesn't take long before he's hard again, and Minseok’s own flagging erection is once again standing proud, leaking precome as Jongdae strokes it in return.
"Ah, Dae. I can feel it—the first one's coming. Ahhhh this always feels so weird, but now it's also kinda sexy because I'm doing this with you."
"I'll take care of you, hyung. We'll take care of each other, and our kiddos."
Minseok moans, rising up on his knees as Jongdae strokes a little faster. And then Jongdae starts to get exactly what Minseok means. His hole already feels stretched so wide, but now something is nudging at it, fat and round. He can see it between their legs, in that translucent tube, which is now undulating as it had been when Jongdae's dick was inside it. Except instead of trying to suck his come in, it's obviously trying to push something out.
An egg. A roundish, clear egg, with a sort of greenish blob in the center. It deforms a bit as the pulsating tube forces it through Jongdae's rim, becoming more elongated as it starts to enter his body.
"Fuck," Jongdae pants.
It's really happening. He's watching it happen, watching something his mind says is too big being pushed into him. His rim stings as it finally stretches around the widest part, which makes Jongdae clench reflexively and oh, that makes the rest of it slide in suddenly. And then it's pressing past his prostate and slithering along uncannily inside him, being deposited along the left side of his abdomen. Minseok's hands press at it through Jongdae's belly, nudging it lower and more central, just south of his belly button.
"Thank you, beloved." The fuchsia is backed by a brighter pink. "Um. Was it awful? Do you want to stop?"
Still panting, Jongdae shakes his head. "If you think I'm letting you climb off of me to waste our eggs in a cheese wheel you can think again," he huffs. "Come on—give 'em to me."
Antennae quiver above him as Minseok tilts his head. "Are you sure, my Dae? You're crying."
Jongdae shakes his head again. "I mean, you were right, it stings a bit when it goes in and then it feels fucking weird moving inside me, but it's oddly hot to watch you knock me up like this, hyung. Keep tugging my dick and give me another one."
"You'll tell me if you need to stop."
It's not a question. Jongdae nods an agreement, but his eyes are locked beneath Minseok’s legs. He tugs on Minseok’s dick, as if he can release the next egg by doing so. And maybe it works, because Minseok moans, rising higher on his knees again and—yes, there's another egg emerging.
This time Jongdae gets to watch it slide along the ovipositor before catching on his rim. It's just so strange but Jongdae does what he can to cooperate, spreading his legs wide and relaxing his rim. It goes in with less sting—or maybe that's the numbing agent kicking in—and when it glides slowly and firmly past his prostate, Jongdae rolls his hips as if to chase the sensation.
"Oh, yes, my Dae, you're taking our eggs so well. Always so good for hyung, feels so good to be so deep inside you like this."
Jongdae can't help it. He starts to laugh, which jiggles everything in his abdomen, making Minseok suck in a breath.
"I'm sorry," Jongdae says as Minseok tilts his head, antennae sketching question marks. "I'm just. I'm glad to hear I'm a better lay than a wheel of cheese."
Minseok whines, putting all four hands over his face. "Ugh, I never should have told you that!"
"I'm sorry," Jongdae says again, stroking his hands along Minseok’s thighs. "Hyung. I love you. And you never have to resort to that again, okay? I doubt very much we can handle more than one, uh, batch? Of kids, but this… this is hot enough that I'm more than happy to look forward to receiving your eggs every autumn, okay? Gimme another one—yes, I see it, look at it go into me—fuck."
"Clutch," Minseok moans, bowing his torso to see between his own legs, scalp brushing Jongdae's. "I'll give you all of my clutches, Dae, it's so satisfying to fill you up like this."
"I'm all yours, hyung. Fill me every station-year."
"I'm gonna," Minseok moans, sending another two eggs down his ovipositor, one behind the other. "Oh, hyung's gonna stretch your little belly round with all his eggs, and you'll take them all for me, won't you?"
"All of them," Jongdae agrees, moaning as the pair slide into him.
There’s one more after that, and then Minseok shudders.
"Fuck, Dae, the rest are coming. Ohhhhh Dae you made me start so many."
"I did? Rest of what?"
Minseok pulls out a bit, whimpering slightly as he pats at the six eggs in Jongdae’s abdomen, arranging them to his liking. "These are all the mature ones. The ones you fertilized. But I have to purge the rest of my eggs, the undeveloped ones, so they don't keep trying to grow and make me sick." He shudders again, a tremor that travels into Jongdae via the ovipositor still lodged deep inside him, if noticeably less deep than it had been. "Dae, I've gotta let them out. They won't hurt you or our clutch, but they're not—not ours. Not anything, really. Do you want me to pull out all the way or can I—"
"Fill me up, hyung," Jongdae invites, tipping his hips. "Didn't I just say I wanted everything you can give me?"
Minseok groans, his head falling back as more eggs, smaller ones, clear but lacking the greenish nucleus, come sliding down his ovipositor. They're about half the size but there are so many of them, thudding softly into Jongdae in what feels like an endless string.
"Oh, fuck, hyung," Jongdae pants, eyes locked where they’re disappearing inside of him. He can feel his gut stretching to accommodate them, feel them flooding further up inside him, and the relentless parade past his prostate has him coming in hot, desperate streams all over himself. "Hyuuuuung."
"My Dae," Minseok moans in answer, shuddering once, twice, each time pushing a few more eggs into him. He sends the last few in with a long groan, adding his own come to the mess over Jongdae's torso. He pants down at him for the long moments of their aftershocks, then slowly withdraws his ovipositor, pulling a flood of little eggs along with it.
"How are you so perfect?" he whispers as he slowly collapses beside Jongdae, draping two arms carefully over him. "Of course my body tried to make a ton of eggs, with as excited as I am to start a family with you."
"I didn't love the stabby part, but the rest of it was fucking hot," Jongdae says. "Is it wrong that I can't wait to do that again next year, even though your massive egg-load is still dribbling out of my overstretched hole?"
Minseok snorts. "Not too overstretched, I hope."
"Deliciously so," Jongdae assures him. "I mean, in a minute I'm going to whine an awful lot as we deal with the mess both in and on me, but fuck if I didn't enjoy making it."
"I'm glad you enjoyed making our babies." Minseok’s antennae curl happily, but his arms lock Jongdae in place when he tries to move. "I'm afraid you'll have to bear the mess for a bit, my long-suffering love. The fertile eggs need time to warm up enough to adhere safely. So just lay there for a minute being a nice, hot little mammal for us, okay?"
Jongdae laughs. "From the beginning, you've loved me for my body heat."
"And many other things." Minseok strokes away the hair pasted to his forehead. "Your fluffy hair, your expressive face, your gentle heart—isn't it natural to admire traits we don't share?"
"You have a gentle heart, too, though, hyung." Jongdae carefully lifts an arm to twine their fingers together, resting their hands over his chest. "Our babies are really lucky to have you for a parent."
"They're lucky to have you, too." Minseok cuddles a little closer. "And so am I."
"You're too sweet, hyung." As more eggs leak out of him, Jongdae has a sudden, disconcerting thought. "Uh, so I definitely should have asked this before I begged you to plant a bunch of eggs in me, but, um. How do our babies get out?"
"Microsurgery," Minseok mumbles sleepily against Jongdae's shoulder. "I checked before I asked you. The medsuite has the right equipment and Doctor Zhang has delivered mammalian-hosted mantodean pregnancies before, on LIT-1007. Lots of mantodeans there, so he has all the experience we need. He'll monitor you closely, especially as spring arrives, and when they're ready, we'll get them safely out of you with as little distress as possible for everyone involved, including me."
"Pregnancy, huh?" It's an odd concept to internalize. "You really did knock me up."
"You said I could. And you'll be such a good host."
"I know, it's just not something that happens to most males of my species. Am I really gonna get a big round belly?"
"Not like Madam Lee," Minseok laughs.
"She was carrying twins, though. And I've got… more than that."
"You do, but they'll be much smaller when they're born. More like… the daikons they grow on deck seventeen."
"Those… are not very small."
"They're way smaller than a human baby!" Minseok laughs. "And they're balled up inside their eggs, not floating in uterus-water or whatever that poor woman leaked all over the floor at the midsummer picnic."
Jongdae can only laugh at the way Minseok’s antennae furl tight with disgust, as he's currently leaking something rather more messy all over Minseok’s bed.
"Anyway, I hope you won't be too uncomfortable. Or that you'll crave weird human foods we don't have on EXO-1248."
"I've never left the station, so how can I crave what I've never had?"
"I don't know! Pregnant people get a little weird. But I am here for you, Dae. You just… be as weird as you need to. I'll make sure you have anything you ask for."
Minseok proves it by helping clean Jongdae up once he deems it safe for him to change position. And once Jongdae has expelled most of the immature eggs Minseok had pumped into him, he stands nude before the mirror, examining his torso. He can definitely see where each egg is lodged, but they're not uncomfortable as of yet.
Minseok comes up behind him, hooking his pointed chin over Jongdae's shoulder and running all four hands over his abdomen.
"You look so beautiful. We feel like a family already, don't we?"
"We feel like something, that's for sure."
Jongdae smiles at his love in the mirror, more than a little relieved to see that unusual neon yellow fading back to the more golden hue Minseok's markings usually are. His arms in the mirror are already mostly the normal silvery-white, a few streaks of yellow here and there. And his face is paler, too, though currently splotched with the soft pink of contentment, antennae waving idly above his handsomely frilled head.
He looks so happy that Jongdae lets himself get caught up in it. Kids are a big deal. Especially an entire clutch of kids. But Jongdae has Minseok, which means he has everything he'll need to tackle this challenge.
💗💛💗
Early spring finds Jongdae resting comfortably in the medisuite, a precautionary IV in the back of his hand, six neat clusters of steri-strips decorating his abdomen. He's staring down into a basket of… well, of squirming pink-and-yellow grubs. Minseok had said larvae, and evidently that wasn't just a colloquial term.
"Aren't they adorable?" Minseok coos from beside him. "The cutest babies on the whole station, yes you are."
"Actually… yeah," Jongdae agrees, only partly because he'd sworn their babies would be beautiful.
They're chubby and ungainly, six stumpy little limbs doing little to move them in any purposeful direction as of yet, and that’s, well. Not what Jongdae had seen in his own baby pictures, that's for sure. But they're not slimy or otherwise gross, and they already have little faces of a sort, primitive eyes and always-hungry mouths.
They're already distinguishable as individuals, too, even aside from the birth-order letters carefully painted onto their soft bodies with non-toxic ink. While their colors already shift in response to mood, their marking patterns are unique. Baby A gets two little dots of yellow on either side of the mouth when hungry, while Baby D flushes yellow all the way up the sides of the, er, face-end. Baby C has the most yellow overall, though, while Baby B is the most pink. Baby E and Baby F look nearly identical at this stage, but E sort of squeaks when picked up, while F lets out more of a tiny grunt.
"Um. Does it make me a terrible parent if I can't tell the boys from the girls?" Jongdae asks. "Or is that something they each kind of choose as they grow up?"
"Well, I can't say how they'll choose to express themselves, but chromosome-wise, they're each either XX or XY, like humans. Since we’re both males, we got lucky that only one of the eggs ended up with YY, failing to develop and ultimately resorbing. And then of course one of the eggs split completely, giving us the twins. That's why we don't count until they're out."
Minseok nuzzles Jongdae's cheek. "But if you're asking whether I can tell male from female, no, they don't have external genitalia at this stage—they don't need it. Statistically, though, two of them should be female and four should be male. It might be three and three if the twins turn out to be girls—they'll both be the same in either case. Some parents like to guess which is which ahead of time, but, well, they're not going to be able to do much aside from eat, sleep, and poo from now until fall, and then they'll be motionless pupae over the winter, so what does it matter if they're boys or girls?"
"Well. Shouldn't we name them?"
Minseok pulls away to tilt his head at Jongdae. "Before we know their personalities?"
"Is that not… what mantodeans do?"
"Is that what humans do?"
"Well, yes?" Jongdae reaches down to right Baby E, who had attempted to wriggle up the side of the basket and flopped over backwards, all six limbs churning furiously. "I mean, my parents knew I'd be a boy before I was even born, so I've been Jongdae since that ultrasound appointment."
"Weird." Minseok kisses his temple. "Luckily, it suits you. But we wait until they emerge from their pupae to get to know them a bit as nymphs, and give them their proper names after their first molt, when they reach the second instar. Until then, we give them cute genderless larvae names, like Squeaker and Grunter over there."
"Oh. So like, Pinky and Goldy?"
"Sure. And then how about Blusher for this cutie, and…"
"Spot?"
Minseok’s antennae angle low. "Isn’t that what humans name their dog-pets?"
"You said they'd be like pets at first!"
"True." Minseok reaches in to pat the grub in question. "It's okay, Spot, you're still cuter than a dog-pet."
Jongdae elects to hold his tongue. "What was your larva-name?"
"Pudgy." Minseok’s antennae waggle proudly. "I was an adorable chub."
"I'm gonna ask your parents for pictures when they visit next. I'm sure they'll have copies on their communicators."
"Do that. You'll know right away which one of the clutch was me. And speaking of photos, let's get one of all of us. Doctor Zhang, do you mind?"
Doctor Zhang is more than happy to play photographer, cooing over the babies as much as he had when he'd weighed and measured each of them initially. And if the usual human family photo doesn't generally involve hugging a trio of squirming grubs while your mate does the same, well, Jongdae doesn't particularly care. He's gonna send them off to all his relatives anyway. The beautiful love that created Jongdae's family should be easily apparent. Even if the aesthetic virtues of his offspring are… still rather subjective.
They'll surely be as beautiful as Minseok someday. And in the meantime, Jongdae will either talk the good Doctor Zhang into setting up a proper mantodean mating-season-alternative facility, or petition for an eventual transfer to LIT-1007, where there already is one.
Jongdae will do anything for love. Except help his mate teach their children how to fuck cheese.