Two Weeks Later.
Ever since Beebee’s frailty had been discovered, Eventide had made doubly sure that the tiny creature didn’t overexert himself. Playtime, be it with Buddha or anything else, was carefully monitored and was swiftly brought to a gentle close at the first sign of overexertion. It had taken a little bit of math and a lot of careful observation, but by now Eventide was confident that Beebee should avoid having any more than thirty minutes of physical activity outside of flying or walking around.
And on the note of flying and walking, Beebee had gotten rather proficient at navigating his home with all of his limbs in the last two weeks. He would often walk all around the house, exploring the corners and darker recesses all on his own, sometimes peeking out at Eventide and Buddha from the shadows so that only his two glowing blue eyes were visible. Other times, he would take to the air on buzzing wings to observe whatever it was Eventide was doing at the time, or pester Buddha by flitting around her head. She would typically retaliate by gently and playfully chomping at him in response. All in all, Beebee was just being the strangest little adventurer that Eventide had ever had the pleasure of observing.
Although, his low stamina, while something he had become keenly aware of, did not stop Beebee from frequently winding up where he was not supposed to, or causing trouble with those errant sparks that would periodically go flying out of his horn if he got excited. Although he seemed to be getting better at controlling those sparks, which Fluttershy had convinced Eventide to call ‘magic.’ To be fair, given all that had happened in recent months, magic was not at all an unbelievable term to describe this guy’s mere existence, much less the crazy things he was able to do.
He had started vocalizing even more in the last few days, too, something which Eventide found rather fun and fascinating to listen to. He would make noises whenever he wanted affection, often sounding like he was saying ‘kiwi.’ He would pick up his favorite ant, and either wrestle with it or hug it, all while making odd babbles that reminded Eventide of a human infant. Even similar to the noises of a human were Beebee’s cries, which were still heard on an almost nightly basis. He would still break out into uncontrollable sobbing fits in the night, only ever going quiet when he tired himself out and fell back into a peaceful sleep. Usually, this would happen in Eventide’s arms, the man sitting on the edge of his bed with Buddha by his side to offer comforting licks or nuzzles wherever possible.
Sadly, Fluttershy had not been able to come by as frequently as she would normally have hoped, as the high school was now repaired enough for class to resume. She would still drop by immediately after school to check in and see if her help was needed for anything before heading home to take care of homework. Thankfully, her help was not as essential now as it had been before. Eventide had a hold of the ropes now, he liked to think. At least well enough that he could take care of Beebee on his own for the most part.
It was approximately noon, now, and Eventide came back into his home from a trip to a small, local grocery store with bags full of produce in his arms. The moment he closed the door behind him, he braced against it in preparation of the inevitable. Sure enough, in came Beebee from the bedroom, zooming through the air while chittering excitedly. Eventide smiled warmly and allowed the small chitinous missile to plow into his chest hard enough to knock the air out of him.
“OOF! Ow… hey, Bee!” was his slightly strained greeting, setting the bags of food down and wrapping his arms around Beebee in a warm embrace. He chuckled slightly when he noticed something. “Ooh, you’ve gotten bigger, haven’t you?” he asked in a cheery voice, reaching his knuckles up to playfully noogie Beebee.
Beebee flinched back from the knuckles, voicing his protest to the action. “Ka! Saa!” came the wordless babble before he swatted at Eventide’s hand with a hoof. A loud smack filled the air, and Eventide withdrew his hand with a chuckle before letting Beebee return to hovering in the air with his wings.
After that, Eventide spent a few seconds just studying Beebee, a small smirk spread on his face. “Yes, you are growing. Nice. Gonna have to start measuring you, huh?” he asked before reaching down and lifting back up the grocery bags. “Well, it can wait for a little while. I gotta put away the groceries.”
Beebee followed closely by his sides, eyeing the bags as they subtly swayed back and forth. His muzzle scrunched up, and his forked tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth. “Ka… Carn… Gars…” he mumbled, lightly poking Eventide’s hand until they set the groceries down on the kitchen counter. It was at about this time that Eventide’s index finger and thumb snatched Beebee’s hoof when he went in for another poke.
“Are my hands really that interesting?” Eventide asked with a cheeky grin, playfully shaking Beebee’s hoof up and down. The bug eventually managed to pry his hoof back before narrowing his eyes at Eventide’s hand. It was either a look of offense at being held or scrutiny, like a scientist carefully watching his latest experiment.
“Ha… Aaa… Ahn…” he muttered under his breath before poking it again. And again, Eventide caught his hoof with his fingers, chuckling as he did so.
“Wow, should I get you a stick?”
Beebee scrutinized Eventide’s hand for a few seconds before again pulling his hoof away and hovering over to sit down on the other end of the counter, plonking down onto his rump and observing with great childish interest. Eventide just smiled and rolled his eyes before getting back to work putting things away. All the while, Beebee watched him like a hawk, his eyes trained mostly on his hands. For several minutes this went on before, finally, Beebee’s face contorted with discomfort at the same moment as a very audible grumble came from his stomach. He placed his hooves over his belly and pouted before looking up at Eventide again. “Kii! Kiiwii!” he chirped out, his discomfort clear.
Eventide looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Huh? What is it, Bee?” he asked before moving closer to Beebee to get a better look. “You doing your fake hungry thing again?”
“Kwii!” Beebee piped up again, reaching his hooves out to Eventide in the now recognized ‘hug me’ gesture. A gesture that Eventide did not waste time in answering. He reached down and lifted Beebee up with his hands, holding him close to his chest and petting the growing bug on the back of the head.
“There… that better?” Eventide asked after a few seconds of the quiet, listening to Beebee’s pleased murmurs and coos.
“Dada… Queen.”
Eventide suddenly went stiff, his eyes bulging in his head. Slowly, very very slowly, he pulled Beebee back from his chest to look into his eyes. Beebee looked back at him with confusion and concern, looking like he was afraid he had done something wrong. Already an apology could be seen in his eyes, and he began to frantically babble as if to put it into words.
“Queen? Aa… Sao, sowo, ah… Queen? Queen dada?”
Eventide’s eyes only bulged even more, and his jaw fell uselessly open. He stared at Beebee, completely incredulous for several moments, before gently setting him back down on the counter and taking a step back. A hand flew up to his mouth to cover it while he tried to wrap his brain around what just happened.
“Queen...?” Beebee asked again, stepping up to the edge of the counter with his ears folding back against his head. “Ah zo wo… hug?” He then sat down on his haunches and held out his hooves again, but this time his desire for an embrace was not immediately fulfilled.
“Are… are you…” Eventide tried to voice his question but found himself unable to find his words for the question. He blinked, shook himself and slapped his own face a few times before staring at Beebee in abject bewilderment. “Did you just… talk?”
“Ah… aya?” Beebee tried, his face twisting as he thought back on all of the interactions he had observed between Eventide and Fluttershy ever since he had hatched. He then pointed at Eventide again. “Dada queen? Kee?”
Eventide blinked again. “Oh my God, you can talk…” he whispered in awe and disbelief, his voice shaking. He then shuddered with horror as he thought back on how he had been taking care of Beebee so far. He had been treating him a lot like Buddha… like a lovable but non-sapient creature. An animal. But if Beebee was capable of speech, then... “I’m not raising a wild animal, am I?”
“Aa… Anama…?” Beebee tried to mimic the sounds he heard Eventide making, his face scrunching. After a few moments without any more responses, Beebee looked at Eventide and then very gingerly lifted off from the edge of the counter, his wings buzzing pensively in the air. “Dada queen?”
That finally seemed to draw a more vibrant reaction from Eventide. His heart rate suddenly accelerated, and his eyes and face lit up with a look of absolute shock of the most pleasant of varieties. Slowly, with a new understanding of the creature before him, Eventide reached out with his hands. Beebee let himself be taken, and took note of how gentle Eventide’s touch was, now. He looked into Eventide’s eyes and tilted his head in confusion. “Dada?”
At that, Eventide’s world froze for the third time in two minutes. Dada… Daddy. Beebee just called him his dad. In retrospect, he supposed, it was only appropriate. He had found Beebee as an egg, and had gone out of his way to take good care of him ever since. Granted, that had been with the idea that he was a wild animal, to be released into the wild as soon as he was ready.
But now… Eventide couldn’t help but think back on the words Fluttershy had said to him the day Beebee had hatched.
“...I don’t know what he is, but I think that…” she slowly knelt down to a get a closer look at it, and it, in turn, shrank away from her, clinging even tighter to Eventide’s pant leg. Slowly, a smile grew on Fluttershy’s face as it occurred to her. “I think it sees you as its dad.”
“Dada…” Eventide parroted in barely even a whisper before a weak chuckle slipped out of his throat. “I… I guess I am, huh? I’m your daddy, little guy…”
Eventides heart swelled as he said those words. At the same time, Beebee’s eyes widened, and his forked tongue reflexively licked his lips. His jaw clenched and relaxed many times, a subtle movement that Eventide was used to seeing whenever they were hugging, or whenever Buddha went into mama wolf mode and cleaned him off with a bath of dog licks. After a few seconds, Beebee’s face similarly lit up before he launched himself to tightly hug Eventide around the neck, albeit while being sure not to choke him.
What he said next was almost enough to make Eventide fall to the floor.
“Daddy…”
After another few seconds of processing, Eventide finally found the brainpower to react. He returned the hug as well as he could, holding Beebee close and starting to rock them both back and forth.
A few hours later, out amid the taller buildings of the city, Fluttershy walked along with her friends with a big smile on her face. The group was currently in transit from the mall to a nearby arcade, by request of Rainbow Dash. Next to Fluttershy was the cyan-colored teenager in question, her hands shoved into the pockets of her blue jeans and her long, rainbow-colored hair bound into a ponytail. Not far ahead of them, Applejack and Rarity were jabbering among themselves about something or another, presumably arguing about function over form in clothing and vice versa. Bringing up the rear was Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie, the former wearing a strained smile while the other reached into her backpack to fish for something.
Rainbow eventually broke the silence when she glanced over at Fluttershy curiously. “So, uh, Fluttershy? I've been meaning to ask; how come you keep being late to our after-school hangouts?” she asked bluntly, drawing a surprised squeak from the teenager in question.
Fluttershy was quick to compose herself, however. “Oh, I’m sorry. I, uh… have a project that I have to check up on regularly after school,” she said with a slightly crooked smile. She wasn’t technically lying, after all.
Pinkie Pie shot forwards with a questioning grin. “A project, huh? What is it? Can we know? Is it exciting? Is it boring? Is it red? Does it taste like strawberries? Is it wrapped in a tortilla?! Is it cherry flavored?! Is it covered in cheese?! IS IT A CHERRYCHANGA?!” She asked in a rapid-fire flow of words that barely any functionally sane human being could keep up with, making Fluttershy side-step a few times to re-establish the existence of her personal space.
“Um… it can be exciting, yes,” She replied hesitantly, one of her hands reaching up to grab her opposite shoulder in a display of nervous energy. She turned her eyes away from Pinkie’s prying gaze to look at something, anything else.
Sunset Shimmer’s brow furrowed somewhat with thought. “Does it have something to do with all of those questions about Equestria I keep getting from you?” she asked while stepping forward to be by Fluttershy’s side.
Fluttershy stiffened, a strangled, panicking squeak bubbling up from her throat. “Uh… um…” Thankfully, before she could give an answer that she really did not want to give right now, she was saved by the ringing of her cell phone in her pocket. She capitalized on the distraction to pull the device out and answer it without even looking at the caller I.D. “Hello?”
Eventide’s voice answered her. “Fluttershy, I’m a father.”
All at once, Fluttershy’s walking came to a total stop, her eyes widening and her jaw hanging open. For a moment, she was utterly still, her friends walking ahead a few paces before coming to a stop to look back at her with concern. When she noticed that all of the others were staring expectantly at her and that she had yet to vocalize a reply, she cleared her throat. Bracing herself, she took long, a deep breath, and gave the most dignified and well-thought-out-response she could.
“WHAT?! WHO’S THE MOTHER?!"