A glance in his brother’s direction made it clear that Ingo was rethinking this entire plan.

Emmet understood, to an extent. The tone of the small gathering would change drastically once the news broke, and not for the better. It was nice right now, their mother’s house bright with conversation and a myriad of Pokemon reveling in the company-- and while it was a pity that was about to dampen, the entire point of this meet up was to bring everyone up to speed. The result would be the same if they changed course and made another attempt further down the road; the only difference was that their uninformed family members would be upset that they hadn’t been told sooner. He knew his twin was fully aware of that fact.

Ingo rested his head in his hands in a blatant bid to avoid eye contact.

Emmet looked up and, from across the room, caught Drayden’s eye. Their uncle studied the pair of them for a moment. Then he took matters into his own hands.

“Are you alright over there, Ingo?”

Ingo immediately snapped to attention, sending the man the single most betrayed look Emmet had ever witnessed from his brother, but Drayden remained unmoved. There was a furrow to his brow and, while sympathetic, he clearly shared Emmet’s perspective: it had to happen.

There was a low, ‘aw’ from the kitchen, and Iris popped around the corner, the hand that wasn’t curled around the wall full of what looked like sticks of string cheese. “You’re not still feeling gross, are you? It’s been a week!”

Somewhere beyond her, Elesa snorted, “I don’t know where you’ve Grubbin, but it’s been a lot longer than that.”

There was the sharp clack of heeled shoes against tile, suggesting that she’d dislodged herself from the countertop, and strutted out with every intention of pulling out the big guns now that she had the opportunity. “Hey Lane? When you’ve got a second, I could use a hand with this stubborn son of yours.”

“You’ll have to be more specific than that, I’m afraid.” Said their mother from the opposite direction, where she’d been trying to shoo her Altaria into the backyard. She pulled her chair in a wide half-circle to rejoin them and cast one look behind herself as she went, only to find the Pokemon making sad eyes at her through the glass.

Emmet bumped their shoulders together, trying to silently communicate that this would be the last time-- there wasn’t anyone else who would need the full context after this; if he could get it over with, it was done.

He doubted that made it across, but it did earn him a nervous, sideways glance.

His lips twitched downward in thought, and he leaned in further to whisper, “I can say it. If it’s too hard.”

Because, now that he thought about it, this would be the third time Ingo had had to break this news, which hardly seemed fair. If his confidence was flagging, Emmet could help. That was part of his job, after all, to say the things his brother wouldn’t-- regardless of the why.

Ingo gave his head a minute shake, and it would have been tempting to say he was just stalling for time if not for the fact that it was followed by, “That’s not necessary, Elesa. This was already on today’s itinerary.”

Elesa went very still, thoughts likely following the same tracks Emmet’s had; she knew roughly how long the symptoms had persisted, and to hear a conclusion now, as an announcement to family-- none too enthusiastically-- she had to think something was seriously wrong.

And, to be fair, it was. Just not worst-case-scenario-wrong.

“To be entirely clear, this wasn’t the result of any… impropriety; I don’t want to cause any undue concern.” He began, sensibly cutting that interpretation off at the pass, “It’s only right to inform you that I’m pregnant.”

“Bullshit,” Elesa sneered with a startling immediacy.

Alarm flaring through his core he grabbed for Ingo’s collar, but missed due to the fact that his twin had already reeled back at the intense response; he recalculated and yanked him against his side.

This-- this was something neither of them had anticipated-- that the admission might be met with staunch disbelief. There was a counterargument to be made, but not anything that had been prepared in advance-- and certainly not set opposite this fury.

But Elesa wasn’t done.

“’No impropriety’? Do you seriously expect me to believe that you,” She flung a hand out, and gestured frantically, “Hooked up with someone and didn’t take any precautions? You, the man who retroactively got nervous for me when he realized I went to pick up a sewing machine off of Scragslist without a check-in text? You, the person who thought sexual attraction was a myth until he was twenty years old?”

Oh. Not disbelief. Righteous fury. That was infinitely preferable.

“Are you finished?” Ingo asked after a moment, remarkably collected for someone who’d practically had to choke his words out moments prior, and, without waiting for a response, went on, “Your concern is appreciated, but I never claimed that anything of the sort happened. It’s far more convoluted than that.”

“Okay,” Lane cut in, wheeling closer, “Do you think we could rewind a bit, sweetheart? To the part about you being pregnant?”

“We can, but I’m not sure what good that will do absent context.”

“I didn’t think that was possible…?” Iris asked, looking distinctly lost.

“That’s what I said.” And, while it was a legitimate attempt at affirmation, Iris only looked more confused after Emmet said as much. There was a deep sigh from the far side of the room, but ultimately, Drayden wasn’t the one to call for order.

“Sure. You know what? Context would be great.” Elesa said, less furious than earlier, but still none too agreeable. “Explain.”

Much more easily now that the difficult part was over, Ingo complied, “Do you recall the incident wherein an unidentified Pokemon appeared in Gear Station? It would have preceded a notable influx of tourism from Sinnoh.”

Her nose scrunched the tiniest bit in thought, and after a moment, she nodded, “You said something about that. A Pokemon that didn’t know how to teleport properly, right?”

“That particular assumption was incorrect, actually. Its teleportation was perfectly functional, we just misinterpreted its intention.”

“And what? It’s intention was to knock you up?”

“...decidedly so.”

She stared for several seconds, hands raised in a silent demand for answers. “Why are you so sure that’s what’s going on here? Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t believe you went out and did this to yourself, but both options are pretty far out there.”

“It has made itself clear.” Emmet cut in properly, offering his brother a temporary relief from the scrutiny, “There was an energy around it at the station. When the situation was discovered and we discussed ending it, that same force interfered.”

When she looked ready to press further, Drayden finally spoke up, “I can back that statement up. I was brought in to help identify the Pokemon in question, and when the situation was explained to me, I triggered this exact phenomenon.”

Lane leveled a judgmental look at him, lips caught firmly in the frown she’d passed down to exactly one of her sons, “You never said anything.”

“It wasn’t my place; not to mention that the goal was explicitly to mitigate the damage that had been done.”

“Did you ever figure out what it was?” Iris asked, absently tearing her snack to absolute shreds while her focus wasn’t on her hands, “Wouldn’t that help explain why it happened?”

“It was Arceus.” Emmet said, tailed near instantly by Ingo’s, “Alternately known as ‘Almighty Sinnoh’, a creation deity; the tourists were entirely correct. Unfortunately, that knowledge hasn’t shed any light on why it charted this course.”

“So what, that’s it? You’re just gonna back down and have its kid?” Elesa scoffed, no less agitated than before, arms crossed over her chest defensively.

Ingo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his usually vast pool of patience clearly beginning to evaporate, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but there are two potential outcomes to any given pregnancy: it could fail, be that naturally or by design, or the pregnant individual will have a child. If one route is blocked off, that leaves only one set of tracks to travel.” He opened his eyes and shot her a short look, “If you have any further grievances, you might start by comparing notes with Emmet. I believe he intends to file a… formal complaint.”

The moratorium on threatening the avatar of creation had since ended. They had a number of sound strategies in the works-- sound enough that it might actually see success against the alpha Pokemon. It wasn’t a project for today or even tomorrow, but, while Ingo was content to let it stay theorycraft, Emmet rather thought it could be a nice way to find closure and ensure nothing like this happened to anyone ever again.

That said, he was trying to be mindful of it. The easiest way to keep himself reined in was to make the plan dependent on multis, unable to go any further without his twin’s involvement. Thus far, it seemed to be working.

“...sorry.” Elesa finally said, embodying the last few wisps of steam escaping as an engine came to a stop; she perched herself on the nearest armrest, legs automatically folding into an elegant crisscross which was immediately offset by the look on her face, “I’m not-- I’m mad, but not at you.”

“I’m aware.”

“How do you intend to handle the coming months?” Drayden asked, taking charge of the lull now that its primary contributor had backed down.

“We’ll continue on schedule until such a time that concessions need to be made,” Ingo said, fully back the swing of it now that the topic had moved onto more practical matters.

Iris made a soft, worried noise, drawing attention before she’d even said anything, “People are gonna notice, though-- and they’re going to ask. About everything.”

“It’s unavoidable.” It was a blunt assessment, though not without a measure of recognition for her concern, “The public can draw their own conclusions; while I can’t imagine they typically come about in this fashion, unplanned pregnancies are, sadly, far from an uncommon occurrence.”

An unplanned pregnancy in an asexual, aromantic trans man was somewhat harder to explain; as they’d found twice over, the default assumption was… an unfortunate one. It was grounded in reality, however, and if people jumped to the conclusion that he’d been assaulted, they were much less likely to harass Ingo over the specifics. Neither of them liked it, but it would work.

“The child will be relinquished after birth and I will have to take medical leave to recover. That’s an incredibly simplified explanation of our timetable.” He concluded, to silence.

Save for Drayden, it seemed the others were still processing everything they’d been told. Drayden himself was either considering the truncated plan of action, or recognized that now wasn’t the time to press for details and was taking mercy.

It was uncomfortable seeing his brother so tense around their family. Unsure what else he could do without completely disrupting things-- which he would do, if need be, without a lick of shame-- Emmet leaned over to bump their arms together encouragingly. Ingo shot a look his way and nodded, appreciative. While he had the chance, he picked up his glass and took a measured drink.

Ah. Well that didn’t bode well. It was good that he was trying to stay hydrated, but that was definitely ‘staving off the urge to vomit’ behavior.

“I don’t want to pry,” Lane finally said, drawing the entire room’s attention, “But it does make a difference. How far along are you?”

Oh, that was an easy answer. And she was entirely correct, timing was going to be an incredibly important component in ensuring everything went as smoothly as possible. “Exactly eight weeks on Friday.”

Their mother blinked at him, and he got a similar look from Elesa. Trying not to be defensive about it, he added, “It’s verrrry easy to calculate. Do you want exact numbers? There are timestamps.”

“...no, that’s plenty, sweetie.” Lane said, more put off by the exacting nature of it than the fact that she’d gotten an answer from the wrong twin. It took her half a second to shake it off. In a stunning display of minor facial ticks, she offered a tight not-smile at them and chirped a thank you, then fixed hard amber eyes on her own brother. “If you’ll all excuse me, I’ll be just a moment. You. With me.”

And maybe the circumstances were absolutely terrible, but it did nothing to dampen the novelty of seeing Drayden trail after his sister, slightly abashed. Iris was unable to contain a snort. There was a delighted trill from Altaria as he spotted the humans coming his way, and then the glass door was shut behind them.

In the moment of distraction, Emmet felt a tap on his knee, and when he glanced over, Ingo tilted his head subtly to the hallway. Returning an equally short nod, he took point-- and the empty water glass-- and rose to his feet, conspicuously crossing to the kitchen; it gave Ingo a chance to slip away in the opposite direction.

While he’d chosen the kitchen for the express purpose of its placement, there was something else to do while he was here, and he went to fill the glass under the tap. The first third promptly sloshed over the side as he turned and was confronted with Elesa. He shot her a look and set the glass down to mop up the mess.

She backed off, one hip braced against the counter.

“You’re being super calm about all this.”

“I have had much more time to process what is going on.” Once he’d determined that it was safe enough for Lane to cross her own kitchen again, he stood back up and reclaimed the glass, fixing Elesa under a very serious stare, “Ingo requires my support right now. Not my anger. But make no mistake. As soon as is feasible, I intend to unmake the God of Creation.”

Just as solemnly, Elesa reached over to tap the rim of her own glass against his.