He ran his fingers gently across it.
“Harder, please.”
He pressed down. “Oh, it’s like… bumpy. So it wasn’t your seat belt.”
“You know how I’m a koala?” Please don’t let him freak out.
“I’m well aware that you turn into the cutest and softest koala on the planet, yes.” He did love my beast, and my koala loved him right back.
“I think our baby is one too.”
“Wait, what do you mean? Like, you have… Oh, my gods.”
I could see the second he pieced it together.
“You’re gonna have a pouch.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna have a pouch, which means I need to call in sick this week and kind of chill as my koala. Because trust me, it’s much cuter to have our little one go into their pouch than to have it in human form.” I’d seen that before as a teen and nope. Just nope. According to my sex ed, the koala was safer too, and that was enough for me to have it non-negotiable.
“You can do that? You can give birth as your animal?”
“Yes and no. It’s not really giving birth because our baby’s also human. It’s like moving where they’re growing.” I tried to give him an anatomy lesson, and all it was doing was making it worse. The more I explained, the less that made sense, but in the end, he seemed to be fine without a full understanding of the science.
He helped me wash my hair, knowing I loved it. I’d already washed it, but I wasn’t going to turn down the offer. After we were done with the shower, we ordered a huge-ass shipment of eucalyptus branches to be delivered overnight. It cost a fortune, but it was going to keep my koala happy, and that was pretty much the point, especially since he was going to be doing the hard stuff for us right now.
Order done, the two of us worked together and built a cozy bed for my koala. If I’d been a bird shifter, we’d have called it a nest. In a lot of ways, it was like one, but it was also like a little pillow fort.
“Are you going to be okay in your fur but not able to climb?”
I loved how he understood my beast and his needs. This time was different than other shifts, but in any other case, not climbing would be a real issue
“Only because of why he’s out. He’s gonna be tired and too busy with you to worry about trees.”
My mate squatted down and kissed my belly. “You need to be good for Daddy, okay? Promise me.” He stood up. “What did he say?”
“He said nothing, and we don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl. They’ll be good, though. My koala isn’t nervous, and if something was going wrong, he would be.”
I called an old school friend who I knew had already given birth and asked to make sure I had the timelines correct. According to him I had until the next day before I should shift. We took that as an opportunity to head into town and pick up any supplies either of us might need.
We both made arrangements at work and then snuggled on the couch, enjoying our last night together as two humans for a while. It was difficult to say how long it would take for my koala to do his thing. It could be one day, it could be four, but during that time, my mate and I wouldn’t be able to talk to each other with words, and I knew that was going to be hard for Hari.
The next morning, we woke to the sound of the delivery truck beeping as it backed into our driveway.
“I didn’t think you’d be here so soon.” I walked out, my pajamas on and not caring who saw me.
“Making the flower deliveries for some local florist, too, and you were along the way.” Which was good for me to know, because it meant maybe I could pick some branches up locally next time. Although he probably had a lot more than eucalyptus branches in there.
He brought the boxes out of the truck and set them on the pavement, probably thinking I was doing some sort of outside decorating with them. Because who in their right mind got that much eucalyptus? We signed for it, and after he left, we brought it all in.
“Are these going to stay nice long enough?”
“They do or they don’t, but at least we have them.” We piled leaves out of their box right next to the bed we’d made for my koala.
It was time.
“I love you, and as soon as our little one makes their journey out into the pouch, I’ll shift back. Promise.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” He kissed me, and I took my koala form.
