Chapter 103: Pregnancy
His previous estrus had come suddenly, without any method for obtaining contraception beforehand. On this desolate and uninhabited planet, it would have been impossible to find birth control pills. Everything happened by the light of nature and he was completely marked by Rosen. An Omega's probability of conception during estrus is extremely high. Evidently, the child belonging to him and Rosen has been unknowingly conceived inside of Ling Yu’s stomach…
Due to differences in individual constitutions, Omegas not only have differing estrus intervals, but they also display a manifold diversity following a pregnancy. Mental fatigue and strong nausea are the most common signs of early pregnancy. Back when he was having Xiao Yuan, Ling Yu had almost no symptoms during the early stages of his pregnancy. Even when news of that pregnancy was given to him by Rosen when he rescued him from the military prison, he himself felt no discomfort. He didn’t expect the symptoms this time to be so terrible, they had all shown up super early as well.
Plausibly due to the nonstop injection of inhibitors for 18 years on end after giving birth to Xiao Yuan, the pheromones in Ling Yu's body had always been forcibly suppressed by medication. Now that he is once more marked by Rosen, just like a sleeping beast that lies dormant for ages being suddenly roused by man, it now bashes side to side, violently clawing from the inside of his body… Dizziness, nausea, mental fatigue, loss of appetite, a series of such symptoms popped up one after another, making the proud personality of Ling Yu annoyed to no end.
As an Omega, Ling Yu still likes the battlefields filled with smoke trailing from guns and the flames that licked all the way up to the skies. He never thought of staying at home to raise children. To begin with, Xiao Yuan was an accident. When he made the successful break from Cepheus and came to Naomi Star after going through what seemed like an endless flight from danger in space, the unborn child in his abdomen was already almost three months along. He wasn’t willing to get rid of the child and instead gave birth to Xiao Yuan under countless difficult circumstances…
Now, for the second time around, what should he do?
If he could choose, he wouldn’t have gotten pregnant at this time, the traitor inside the military will soon take action and His Majesty may be in danger. Getting pregnant at this time is just yet another disaster to add to the already existing pile…
Ling Yu’s complexion waned as he wrinkled his brows and placed his slender fingers gently on his abdomen, knowing that there already existed a small life where the combined flesh and blood of himself and Rosen existed, the always calm and collected Major General Ling Yu for just a single moment unexpectantly fell into a calamitous turmoil.
***
Rosen had a pretty good harvest today. He piloted Black Dragon to the other end of this strange planet. He not only found a cave containing a large bulk of energy ores, but he also picked up many edible wild fruits. His days with Ling Yu have been highly dependent on eating wild fruits to get by. Although the food is monotonous and scarce, it was fortunate enough that this wild fruit was rich in protein and vitamins, which could keep up with the human body’s daily consumption of calories and will keep them from starving at the very least
Worried that leaving Ling Yu all by himself in the cave would expose him to dangers, Rosen sorted out the fresh wild fruits and immediately piloted Black Dragon back.
When he returned to the place where the two had settled, he saw the silhouette of the figure he knew so well— Ling Yu in his dark blue military uniform was sitting on the bedside, his head hanging down as if he was lost in thought, his long fingers pressed against his abdomen, his face was a bit unnaturally pale.
Rosen set the wild fruits he picked down on the table, he walked over to Ling Yu’s side and sat down, he lifted his head as he looked with tenderness in his gaze, asking in a low voice: "What’s up with you? You have such an unsightly complexion, do you not feel well?"
Ling Yu directed his gaze elsewhere and said with a cold face: "Nothing’s wrong with me."
He seemed to be in a bad mood today. Rosen asked nothing more, picked up a few wild fruits, washed them clean, walked to Ling Yu, and handed him a fruit, saying with a smile: "Have some of the freshly picked wild fruit Black Dragon found today, these ones don't taste much like the ones we had before. Would you like to give them a try?"
Ling Yu eyed the red fruit in Rosen's hand, his stomach suddenly felt a burst of nausea.
He has been pretending to nonchalantly eat things in front of Rosen for the past few days, in reality, he has no appetite whatsoever, anything he ate wanted to come right back up again.
Strongly resisting the urge to puke, Ling Yu turned his head off to the side and said stiffly: "I am not hungry, just eat it yourself."
Rosen set the fruit he had in his hand in front of him, not a single word was spoken, an awkward silence weighed down in the cave.
Rosen's personality was originally very stern and callous. In front of Ling Yu, he had already tried to soften his attitude down to be as gentle as possible, but with Ling Yu blatantly ignoring him again and again like this, it nevertheless made him unable to snuff out the whisper of a flame rising in his heart—
Ling Yu being as cold as ice and hard to please was all well and good, but the mood between the two of them prior to the complete marking was really good. Ling Yu even spoke aloud "you are the only one for me", those words that teetered on being a confession of love made Rosen ecstatic at the time they were spoken, thinking that he finally melted Ling Yu's iceberg outer shell and touched his heart. Yet, Ling Yu switched faces as soon as his estrus passed and the speed of this total 180-degree turnaround was practically faster than the turn of a book’s page.
Is there such a fickle Omega in existence?
After an Omega is completely marked, shouldn't they gain a sense of belonging and dependence to their Alpha? Why did Ling Yu look upon him so coldly and indifferently as if he was looking at a stranger? Above all, today he had actually gone so far as to pull such a disdainful face steeped with irritation?
A blazing fire crawled up along the walls of Rosen’s heart, he couldn't help reaching out and pinching his chin tightly, forcing him to raise his head and land let a ruthless kiss rain down upon him—
This kiss was extremely domineering. His tongue pried his jaw apart without an ounce of restraint and stretched forward into Ling Yu's mouth. The rough textured coating of his tongue vigorously swept across the soft inner walls of his mouth, as if he wanted his taste to thoroughly permeate through the man in front of him.
Rosen thrust his tongue across any part of his mouth he could reach, leaving traces of himself in every nook and cranny.
"…mmm… mmph…"
Ling Yu’s lips were completely sealed off, his tongue was sucked numb and as he had been enduring a strong wave of nausea, with Rosen kissing him so suddenly it took all of Ling Yu’s ability to breathe. His complexion grew unsightly as he began to forcibly make a move to push Rosen away.
Ling Yu's resistance only added fuel to the fire, which thoroughly stirred an intense possessiveness hidden deep within in Rosen's bones.
The more Ling Yu pushed him, the less he wanted to let go. One hand clung to Ling Yu's waist to deepen the kiss, while the other hand slipped into his military uniform, working his shirt open and gently ghosting his hand across his flat stomach.
These days following his estrus period, Rosen worried about the state of Ling Yu’s body. On top of that, the two of them both wanted to return to Naomi Star as soon as possible. Rosen had kept a friendly distance from Ling Yu. The man he adored was lying within his grasp but there was not a thing he could do to touch him. In doing so, Rosen restraining himself was extremely taxing, he never expected Ling Yu to change his tune so quickly.
He was obviously feeling just fine during the times they got together those days, liking it an awful lot…
Rosen was a bit unwilling to back down from this and seeming to want to refresh Ling Yu's memory of those three days spent in estrus, he felt him up from his abdomen all the way up to his chest and gave a precise pinch on his right nipple, rolling it gingerly between his fingertips.
Ling Yu's breath came to a sudden stop, and an unnatural red flushed floated on his face.
"… mmm… you… le-let go…"
Seeing that Rosen's hand was becoming more and more unruly, Ling Yu went red in the face and firmly pushed Rosen with all his strength—
Even after everything, he is a General first and foremost and his skill is not comparable to that of an ordinary Omega. Not only did the force behind that shove of his break him out of Rosen’s grasp, it nearly pushed Rosen into falling back a step.
The two were panting like wild animals as they faced one another. After a pause, Ling Yu finally couldn't bear it and abruptly turned to the entrance of the cave, hunkered down to the ground, and proceeded to dry heave like there was no tomorrow.
Rosen was shocked to the high heavens. His initial thought was: Was my kiss really that revolting?
Looking back at Ling Yu with a complex expression, he found Ling Yu's complexion to be exceedingly unsightly. Although he had been throwing up non-stop, he didn't actually have anything at all come up. The grievous sound of his retches that threatened to take his whole stomach up with them made Rosen’s heart suddenly ache— was he actually not feeling well and not in a good mood?
Being ignored just now, the anger from being given the cold shoulder immediately vanished like smoke in thin air and was instead replaced by strong distress. Rosen hurried to Ling Yu's side in three or two steps, softly running his hand down his back, saying in a whisper: "How are you? Are you all right?"
Ling Yu: "…………"
This idiot, can't he see his Omega is pregnant? Should I spell it out to him?
Ling Yu was in a bad mood to begin with and being met with Rosen's troubled gaze put his mind into shambles and his heart grew strained. If it wasn’t for this man, he wouldn’t have gotten pregnant again. Not only did he take his body in such a shameful position, but even carrying a child for this man was truly a terrible feeling through and through!
Seeing Ling Yu frowning in displeasure, Rosen grew even more worried and immediately called out Black Dragon, saying: "Black Dragon, quickly give him a check-up. Is he throwing up so violently from getting food poisoning?"
Black Dragon: "………"
As a highly intelligent S-Class mech, Black Dragon also had to sigh, Master's experience in certain areas are really pitiful!
In fact, it should come as no surprise for Rosen, the only Omega he liked was Ling Yu. After having Ling Yu in the past, the two of them were separated for as long as 19 years. He wasn’t around for the time Ling Yu spent carrying Xiao Yuan. He was completely unexposed to the varying symptoms of an Omega’s pregnancy. When he saw Ling Yu vomiting, he first thought of food poisoning, and not… Ling Yu had a baby again.
Black Dragon carefully scanned Ling Yu's body and quickly posted the test results in front of Rosen. It said in a calm and dull voice: "Master, General Ling Yu is pregnant, all indicators of his body are within the normal range."
Rosen: "…………………"
Although the chance of an Omega getting pregnant during estrus exceeds 90%, there’s still a 10% chance that there won’t be a pregnancy. Ling Yu has also been injecting inhibitors for a long time, which has a high likelihood of affecting fertility. Rosen had thought that there wouldn’t be a chance for a child this time, yet who could have thought that a child would be conceived?
After the initial shock, what followed was a very nice surprise!
Looking at Ling Yu's pale face, the strong distress was mixed with an even more intense joy and blew through the plains in Rosen's mind like the wind of a storm, wiping his brain blank.
After three seconds of shock and silence, the reaction Rosen’s face settled on was a smile and the hand on Ling Yu's back continued to gently stroke up along his spine, his tone also grew increasingly soft: "Yo-you’re pregnant, is that true?"
Ling Yu: "………………"
Rosen seemed to fumble his words at a nearly incomprehensible level from the mind-blowing astonishment: "That’s great, we have another child, Xiao Yuan is going to be a big brother, he will be so happy… Oh, that’s right, I want to be with you this time, look after you as I should and wait for our child to come to this world, together… Sorry, I didn’t know that you were pregnant just now, I thought you were ignoring me, I thought you’d gone back on your word…"
Seeing Ling Yu’s retching slowly come to a stop, Rosen extended his arms, gently hugged him, turned around and gently carried his Omega to the bed, carefully setting him down.
His careful movements were just as if he was carrying a one of a kind treasure in his arms.
Being carried to bed by him, Ling Yu met Rosen's gaze filled with extreme joy and broke away from it a bit stiffly.
In reality, the moment when he learned that he was pregnant, Ling Yu's initial response was to not have the child. After all, in the current climate, it simply wasn’t suitable to have a child and he really just doesn’t want to have a baby either.
But……
When Rosen found out that he was pregnant, that kind of excitement that couldn’t be hidden away made Ling Yu suddenly somewhat reluctant to rain down on his parade.
Rosen diligently poured a glass of water for Ling Yu and handed it to him, saying in a hushed tone: "Come on, drink some water first."
Ling Yu took the proffered glass and took a few sips. His nausea subsided some and his complexion gradually improved. He had just opened his mouth with the intent to speak of the issue of the child’s staying or going, yet he heard Rosen ask deeply laden with concern: "How do you feel? Isn't it hard on you?
Ling Yu said awkwardly: "…it’s fine."
Rosen gave a glance at Ling Yu’s profile, only to see that his face was very pale and he couldn’t detect the slightest hint of joy being carried on the expression on his face…
He was not happy, nor did he look forward to the arrival of this child as he did…
There came a sudden pain in his heart, Rosen tightly clenched his fists, the joy on his face faded away, and after a long silence, he asked in a low voice: "Did you… not want to get pregnant? Do you… not want this child?"
Ling Yu was silent for a moment and then said softly: "I don’t."
These two words slam heavily onto Rosen's heart like a hammer!
The warm joy of discovering his lover’s pregnancy was doused ice-cold by a bucket of chilling cold water.
Ling Yu looked back at Rosen and spoke his mind: "Now is not the time to have a child. I suspect that there will be some changes occurring in the military in the near future. It is also highly likely for His Majesty to be in danger. I have to lead the Dark Night Legion…"
Rosen interrupted him in a soft voice, "I know all of that already, everything you’ve said I know.”
Intellectually speaking, Rosen was naturally more than clear that this was no time to be having a child. The Empire will likely be undergoing a coup d’etat. He and Ling Yu, as high-ranking military officers of the military, have many serious responsibilities that they have to shoulder.
However, from an emotional standpoint, he couldn't let Ling Yu abort the pregnancy like it was nothing!
This is his and Ling Yu’s own flesh and blood and that little life is the combination of both his and Ling Yu’s genes. It was growing quietly and peacefully inside of Ling Yu, getting ready to come to this world and with the identity of Ling Yu and Rosen’s child, start it’s brand new life.
Cutting the child out of existence in such a way was like tearing out the softest parts of his heart and ripping it out of his chest.
How could he be willing to renounce that little life?
The two fell into a mutual silence, the stiff atmosphere that weighed down in the cave was suffocating.
Ling Yu didn't know why. To begin with, he was the one who wanted to get rid of this child, but looking at Rosen's despondent expression, and meeting his despairing gaze, a strong, almost a kind of convulsive pain arose in Ling Yu's heart—
He should obviously be a bit more rational and abort the child, the sooner the better, but the child inside of him is tied to them by blood. While he wants to kill the embryo, he, for some reason, couldn’t harden his heart.
In particular, thinking of the joyous expression that came straight from Rosen’s heart the moment he learned that he was pregnant, Ling Yu felt as if his heart had been cut out by a knife.
His notions of aborting the child had even begun to lightly waver…
After a good pause, Rosen whispered: "Even though… I really desire for you to have this child, I also know that now isn’t the right time. If you… If you insist on not wanting this child, I will honor your decision."
His low voice carried a touch of hoarseness in it, every word seemed to have to claw its way out of his throat, seeming to suppress the unspeakable pain.
Rosen took Ling Yu's hand gently, he looked back at Ling Yu and said softly: "I'm sorry, Ling Yu, I shouldn't have allowed you to get pregnant this time… Had it not been for the lack of birth control pills on this planet, we would have nipped the possibility of pregnancy at the bud… You don’t want a child, I will respect your decision… But thinking of how that child may grow up to look like you, I just can’t put on an unbothered face, how could I not feel sad…"
Ling Yu's heart trembled violently and the hand held by Rosen was stiffly set down on his knees, he didn’t know where to go from here.
Thinking of how that child may grow up to look like you, I just can’t put on an unbothered face, how could I not feel sad?
Rosen’s words pierced his heart one by one. After all, Ling Yu’s heart wasn’t made entirely up of cold, hard, unfeeling stone. Rosen’s sadness also affected him. He couldn’t help but be reminded of how Xiao Yuan looked as he excitedly called out “Dad” to him.
The thought of the unborn child in his abdomen could be living a vivid, lively life as Xiao Yuan had, Ling Yu's heart suddenly seized up with pain.
"I… I don't hate this child, not in the least bit, it's just that the timing is really a bit off…"
Ling Yu clenched his pale fingers into a tight grip, he took a deep breath, looked back at Rosen, and said: "This matter does not need to be decided urgently. Let's talk about it when we get back to Naomi Star. Maybe things aren’t as bad as I think.”
Rosen couldn't help but look at him in shock- Ling Yu had really backed down?
In other words, he also wants to keep this child?!
Such a huge blow made Rosen speechless and where words failed him, he put his emotions into actions. Rosen stretched out his arms and pulled Ling Yu into a tight embrace—
The intensity of such an embrace was like molding the two of them into one singular entity, it was even tight to the point of pain.
Being held by Rosen, Ling Yu felt the strength of his arms, and the warmth radiated in his embrace. Strangely enough, he felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
Rosen obviously wanted this child more than anything, but he had to suffer losing it in order to respect his decision.
Such a man, how could he have the heart to watch as he despaired and trudged through sadness?
With this man by his side, even if he is pregnant, they might just be able to get through it then?
Ling Yu's personality has always been decisive and resolute. Going back to as far as when he was a child, this is the very first time he hesitated over something, or even changing his mind at that. The child belonging to the two of them currently gestating inside of his abdomen was nearing a month old. Despite not being aware of this little one’s existence, Ling Yu feels that there seems to be a trace of a mystical force tying his and Rosen's heart tightly together and connecting them by their souls.
(TN: This chapter will be me testing out the whole scheduled chapter thing. If this works, it should come out in the morning on the 8th. Hello from the past I guess lol?)