“I don’t know what the fuck you’re cooking, but if you don’t throw it out, I’m going to puke all over your fancy marble counter tops,” Rayne groaned, holding her stomach as she walked into the kitchen the day after Johnny and Lacey’s wedding.

Arching an eyebrow in question, Aiyana just laughed and waved her cousin off with her spatula dismissively, “It’s chorizo, requested by your man. Is it messing with your hangover?”

“I didn’t really drink last night, homes. I had a glass of wine and that was it. Something about it just turned my stomach.” Rayne’s voice trailed off as her face paled further due to the sickening smell of the cooking Mexican breakfast food. “I think I’m getting a stomach bug. I’m going back to bed.”

Aiyana watched her cousin walk off, tilting her head to the side a bit before she called out after her retreating form, “I’ll bring you some ginger ale and graham crackers.”

Finishing up the chorizo, Aiyana cooked the eggs and heated up some tortillas for the guys before calling them both into the kitchen to make their plates.

Once they were both distracted with sustenance, she grabbed what she had promised her best friend. Pausing on her way to the door, she darted upstairs and grabbed a spare pregnancy test just on the off chance that her gut reaction was correct.

Rayne had been emotional, moody, and was now nauseous about things that normally didn’t bother her. Something didn’t add up perfectly, and she was not sure how she would feel about her cousin conceiving.

Knocking briefly, Aiyana entered the room to find her cousin curled up in a ball in the middle of the bed. With a grin, she sat the crackers, drink, and test on the night stand before rubbing Rayne’s back gently.

“Honey, I want you to get up and go pee on this stick. Then, you need to eat and drink,” she informed the red head in a gentle but firm manner.

Rayne shot up into a sitting position, her eyes wild the moment they locked on Aiyana’s. Shaking her head subtly, her gaze darted to the pink and white stick that she’d just been told to urinate upon.

“You’re on drugs, Aiya. I’m not pregnant. I’m on the pill, and…” Rayne began to ramble, listing reasons she couldn’t possibly be pregnant.

“And you’re emotional, broody, bitchy, and now pukey. Just go piss on the stick already,” Aiyana sighed, rubbing her cousins shoulder reassuringly.

Rayne swallowed and took a deep breath before walking towards the bathroom, test in hand. As she drug her feet slowly towards the bathroom, Aiyana heard her humming the imperial death march from Star Wars.

Shaking her head in silent mirth, she leaned back on her elbows on the bed, crossing her legs that dangled as she waited for the verdict. If it was positive, she knew Rayne would make a great mom, but she knew that she herself wouldn’t know how to feel about the situation. Glad on one hand that she’d get to be an aunt, but disappointed as well because she wouldn’t be having any of her own children.

A few minutes passed, and Aiyana’s patience was wearing thin. She began to pace right outside the door to the bathroom, wondering what was taking so long. With a deep sigh, Aiyana knocked on the door softly, only to be greeted with silence.

Immediately worried, Aiyana opened the door to find Rayne sitting in the bathtub staring at the stick in her hands as if it held the secrets and mysteries of the universe, ready to bare their untold glories if only she listened and focused hard enough.

Aiyana crossed to her and leaned down, glancing at the stick before waving her hand between Rayne’s face and the magical urination testing device. The moment her gaze was broken, Rayne’s eyes flew up to latch onto her cousins, and her face fell from shock to emptiness, a total lack of emotion.

“What do I do, Aiya? I don’t know how to be a mom. I don’t know if Zack wants kids, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now,” Rayne spoke, her voice as light as gauze floating in the breeze.

“You take a deep breath, get out of that bathtub, and then we figure this out. Zack loves kids from what I’ve seen. You need to tell him, and then we can all get through this together. We’ll read books, make appointments, and figure this all out. It will be fine, honey. You’ll be a great mama bear,” Aiyana cooed to her cousin, hugging her close from where she knelt outside of the bathtub.

“But what if I’m just as shitty of a mom as my own was,” Rayne asked, her voice trembling with fear.

“Nah, bitch. Your mom taught you what not to do. You won’t be anything like her and we both know it,” Aiyana informed her, conviction ringing true in her voice as she stood to her feet. Offering her cousin a hand, she nodded towards the doorway, “I think there’s someone else that needs to know, honey.”

Rayne looked at the offered hand before taking it with a decisive nod of her head while mumbling to herself in order to convince herself, “I’m nothing like my mother. I’m nothing like my mother. I’m nothing like my mother.”

The redhead looked over at her cousin and hugged her tight once she was outside of the safe porcelain walls of the tub. “Something tells me I should tell him in a special way, but I’m scared as fuck so I think I’m just going to go out there and give him the stick.”

Aiyana laughed, “Yeah, homes. That’s romantic as fuck. Come on.”

Lacing her fingers with her cousin’s, they walked out of the room and down the hall together to where the guys were clearing their plates from the breakfast they’d just finished.

“Zee, babe, I uh..” Rayne began, faltering as she thrust the test into her pocket.

Zack turned around and smiled at her cheekily, “You’re leaving me for your cousin. That’s why you’re holding hands, right?”

“Not quite,” Aiyana spoke up, chuckling before she nudged her cousin with her shoulder gently.

“Have you ever thought about kids? Like, some of your own,” Rayne asked, her eyes never meeting Zack’s, but instead landing on any and every surface of the room instead.

“Yeah, why are you asking,” Zack grinned, leaning on the counter as he took in her nervous appearance, suddenly feeling a bit apprehensive himself.

Instead of coming out and saying it, Rayne pulled the test from her pocket and held it out to him, gnawing on her bottom lip as if she could hold onto her sanity as long as she had her teeth buried in the fleshy item.

Zack took the stick from her and looked at it, Brian coming over to look over his shoulder.

“I don’t get it. Is it positive,” he asked, tilting his head to the side as if it would suddenly bequeath it’s secrets at a different angle.

“Yeah, dude. Two lines is prego,” Brian spoke up over his shoulder before looking over at the two women.

Clasping Zack’s shoulder, Brian’s face broke into a huge smile, “Congrats, Bro! You’re going to be a daddy!”

Aiyana smiled over at Brian, adoration shining from her eyes as he crossed the small space to wrap his arms around Rayne and hug her tightly, “And more importantly, I’m going to be an Uncle!”

Zack stood there, staring at Rayne, test dangling from his fingers, jaw agape as realization washed over him. He was going to be a father. He loved Rayne, and couldn’t imagine his life
without her but he wasn’t sure he was ready to be a father just yet.

Rayne’s eyes met Zack’s and they stood there staring at one another, not sure what to do or how to feel in the moment. Brian and Aiyana quietly slipped from the room to give the two a chance to talk and work out a few details as to what their next step would be.

Walking up the stairs, Aiyana glanced over her shoulder to see that the two had bridged the gap and were clinging to one another in a tight hug, Zack’s fingers buried in Rayne’s hair as he held her close. With a smile, Aiyana knew that things were about to get interesting, but that it was all going to be okay.

“So, they’re going to be parents,” Brian chuckled as he closed the bedroom door behind them so they could get started packing for the trip to Rock in Rio that they left for in the morning.

“It definitely looks that way,” Aiyana replied, not able to wipe the huge grin off of her face. “What do we call it until they pick a name? Baby Vengenace. Baby Baker. Bean. Parasite.”

Brian laughed loudly as she reached ‘Parasite,’ and pulled the luggage out of the closet.
“How in the hell did you come up with parasite?”

“Well, a baby is in all actuality a parasite. They feed off the host, contributing nothing, and taking all that they need,” Aiyana rationalized, pulling her favorite shorts out of the dresser.

“Think she’ll get bitchy if we call it the Parasite,” Brian queried with a smirk.

“Nah, she’ll probably get a kick out of it,” she replied, wiggling her eyebrows playfully.

Brian laughed loudly, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder.
Hugging her to him, he kissed her temple tenderly before whispering in her ear, “Are you okay? I know we were just talking about our own eventual kids.”

Aiyana thought for a moment, leaning into his warm and safe embrace before nodding in affirmation, “Yeah. I’m good with being an Aunt. When we’re ready we’ll cross that bridge. Right now, I think I’m pretty satisfied with just being Aunt Aiya.”

Brian felt relief at her response, having feared at first that this was going to hit a little too close to home for his raven haired beauty. He was worried that she’d feel slighted, or put out, but to know that she was taking it with grace made his heart swell with love for her.

“What about you? Are you okay with Zack being the first dad in the group,” Aiyana asked, turning in his embrace to look into his chocolate depths.

“I think it’ll be fun. I get to have all the fun parts and get used to being around a kid before actually having to do it. Kind of like a trial run,” he chuckled. “Plus, they’re going to be good parents that will let us steal Parasite when we want.”

Aiyana tilted her head back in laughter, enjoying to her depths how quickly he’d gotten on board with nicknaming the baby already.

“Rayne and I are going to have to make a trip to LA to tell daddy when we get back. He’ll be mad if we tell everyone before he finds out,” Aiyana rationalized as the thought broke into her mind like the Kool-Aid man bursting through a wall.

Breaking free of Brian’s grasp she decided to start compiling outfits for the short trip. Not sure what all she would need, she threw together a quick outfit for pretty much every occasion other than a ball gown.

“Do you think Zack and Rayne should go instead of you and Rayne? You know, they’re the ones having the baby after all,” Brian mused with a sly grin.

Aiyana looked at Brian with mock shock and horror printed over her face. “I live vicariously through my cousin, Brian Elwin. I need to see the look on my father’s face when he realizes he’s going to be a grandfather,” she laughed.

Brian chuckled and threw a t-shirt at her from across the bed where he was stuffing clothing into his duffle bag. Aiyana caught it and threw it back, covering her mouth the moment it hit him in the face instead of the chest like she’d intended.

“My bad,” she cried out, darting around the bed in an effort to get away from him, knowing retaliation would be swift.

With a deep malevolent laugh like a Disney villain, Brian caught her around the waist as her hand barely missed the doorknob. Aiyana shrieked with laughter as he began to nibble on her neck, the bristles of his 2 day growth of sparse beard tickling her sensitive flesh.

“Go shave already, that tickles,” Aiyana cried out, trying desperately to get away from his strong embrace.

Once her legs began to collapse, Brian released her, not willing to roll to the floor with her in an effort to continue the torture.

“If you insist,” he responded loftily before turning on his heel and sauntering into the bathroom to do as she's instructed.

Notes

Sorry it took me so long to update. The muse wasn't really talking to me.

Thank ya'll for sticking with me for so many chapters! Let me know what you think so far!