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Mia jumped back some when Simon screamed, grabbing his hand.
"What's wrong?!" Leo stumbled back, the large cat slowly shaking his head to clear the ringing from his ears.
It didn't take long for Astral to come bursting through the door either, moving to Simon's other side.
"Shit, they're a strong one," he mumbled, hand going to Simon's stomach to start fixing him up already.
As soon as Mia grabbed his hand, Simon squeezed it as tight as he could, his knuckles going white. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to just breathe through the pain and stop himself from panicking. For once he was glad when Astral showed up. Astral could help. He could fix this.
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"You're doing great," Astral said softly, gentle as he healed Simon. "I'm almost done, see?" Astral glanced up at Simon, sighing softly.
"If this is something that's going to happen often… especially with it starting so strong and the child only getting stronger from here… it might be best for us to move your room closer to mine."
Simon quickly opened his eyes at that, looking down at the god. He shook his head. “I-I’ll be fine.” He insisted. He knew it’d stress all of them out more. “It won’t always be this bad…right…?”
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"Simon… more likely than not it's going to get worse than this. If it goes too far, I might not be able to make it to you in time to heal you before…" Astral shook his head some.
"We might have some time before then, but I don't want to put you through the risk of dying."
Simon was smart enough to know that him dying and losing the baby would only mean more bad things for him. But he still couldn’t help but try and hang on to the bit of independence he had left. He held onto Mia’s hand a bit tighter. This wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. But after another minute he caved anyway. “Fine…” he said softly.
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Astral let out a breath, pulling his hands away after finishing healing Simon.
"We can wait a couple days if you want to," the god said softly. "But if anything worse than this happens… I have to ask you be okay with moving closer before the few days are up."
He nodded. “I understand…thanks for giving me time.” He said quietly, fighting the urge to cry.
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Astral moved to give Simon's free hand a gentle squeeze before stepping away to deal with Leo. He took the leopard's head in his hands, cooing softly and speaking in soft tones to help the cat calm down as he healed them.
Mia moved to hug Simon, holding him close.
Simon gratefully accepted the hug, looking over to make sure Leo was okay. He was relieved when he saw that Astral was being gentle with the big cat.
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"There we go, see? You're okay now, you did so good for me." Astral hummed softly, scratching behind Leo's ears. Even with everything Astral had done to him… the big cat leaned into the petting, bumping against the god. Mia glanced over, still holding Simon. She didn't dare say what she was thinking, not yet.
Simon freed himself from Mia’s hug to reach out towards Leo, starting to gently pet him. “I’m sorry you got hurt, friend.” He mumbled.
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"I'll be back if anything else happens," Astral said softly, standing to leave. Leo pressed into Simon's hand, rubbing against his leg while careful to stay away from the baby bump.
Simon simply nodded, his attention focused on Leo now that the whole ordeal was over. He had to begin the long process of trying to relax again, after all. And with all that had happened…it really would be a long process.
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Mia watched Astral leave, counting the footsteps down the hall until she couldn't hear them anymore and then some just to make sure.
"That baby is a demon," she said, still watching the door. "It's going to do nothing but destroy with Astral raising it."
“You don’t…you don’t know that…” Simon protested softly. Though he was beginning to feel more and more that that’s what would happen. “I’ll do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
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"If he let's you." Mia's voice was so soft. Who knew if any of them would be around for the child while it grew up?
Mia wasn’t wrong of course but Simon hated to admit it. He still let himself think that he was special to Astral for whatever reason. He knew it was stupid, though, thank the gods. He was working on letting it go, Mia just had to hope he would before Astral caught on. “Yeah….” he mumbled.
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The woman moved to hug Simon again, arms securely around his neck and hand rubbing his back as best as she could.
"I'll always be here for you," she said softly. Even if Simon ended up completely fooled by Astral, she wouldn't abandon her friend.
Simon hugged her back quietly, resting his head on her shoulder. "Thank you…you're the best friend I could've ever asked for…" he mumbled. He wanted to just hold her until everything was better again.
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"You're the best friend I could ever ask for too you know." Mia chuckled faintly, resting her head on Simon's and tucking him away as best she could. She wanted more than anything to help Simon, to make everything better again.
Simon closed his eyes, doing his best to simply feel better. He didn't like the way his emotions swirled restlessly around inside him right now. And he especially didn't like that he was most upset over what she had said.
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Mia ran her fingers gently through Simon's hair, more focused on helping him now than the comments she had made. She just wanted to try to keep Simon from falling for Astral's lies, in some way.
Simon tried to relax. He had to remember that Mia was trying to look out for him. She was the only one who had his best interests at heart right now. This was all so overwhelming, especially right now. But he’d just have to manage. “Hey…I think I might go take a bath or something. Gods know I need one. And I don’t know, I just wanna feel clean.” He chuckled softly. “Is that okay with you?” He didn’t know if she’d be comfortable with him leaving, especially since Astral had just been here.
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(I live, I am here to bring more pain >:) )
Mia nodded some.
"Yeah. Stay safe though, okay?" Mia didn't want to control Simon, unlike Astral. He should get to make his own decisions on when he at least took care of himself. "I'll be right here when you get back."
(Oh great ;w;)
(But also yayyyyyy the rp lives)
“I’ll be safe, I honestly don’t know how long I’ll be but I’ll try to be back soon.” He hugged her gently. “You be careful too.” He pulled away from the hug, grabbing a clean pair of clothes and starting to leave the room.
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(uwu)
"Okay." Mia offered a weak smile. Simon would be okay, right..? She watched him go.
Simon really just needed to relax. Not only was he exhausted mentally, almost every part of his body ached. As he waited for the tub to fill, he checked that the door was locked for the millionth time. He knew he was being paranoid over it but he didn’t want anyone coming in. Especially not Astral.
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It wouldn't do him good to think about how a locked door couldn't stop a god. He could pretend, though, as that was really all he could do when it came to thinking he was safe anywhere anymore.
Astral, in the meantime, was still leaving Simon alone for now. He didn't know when he would come back, but when he did he very much intended on getting Simon, no matter where he was.
Simon did intend on pretending that he had any sort of control over it. He was doing what he could to keep himself safe. Which wasn’t much. He tried to put it out of mind as he got in the tub, leaving only his face out of the water and closing his eyes.
