Page 1 of Building Haven
1
Mathew
The morning breezefeels good on my face, but it doesn’t relieve the discomfort of my stomach trying to empty itself out against my will.
I’ve gotten pretty familiar with the bucket standing between my feet in the last few days, to the point where I know each discolouration in the plastic and every crack in the loops that hold the metal handle...Though, this morning was the first time that my stomach deposited anything in it, before now, it only threatened to do so.
“Would you like some water?”Vera steps onto the balcony, wearing a thin night dress that billows around her, accentuating her every curve, and fluffy socks, holding out a bottle.Then she sits next to me, making sure to stay upwind.Not that it matters too much, Caleb already cleaned out the bucket, so the only thing in it are some water droplets.
I nod, closing my eyes for a moment because the simple movement seems to upset my stomach again.I had no idea morning sickness could hit like this.
Eli said that you can’t predict ahead of time how bad things might get and that every pregnancy is different.His first pregnancy was like a dream, he was all glow-y and he didn’t seem to be in any discomfort, none at all.
But I also remember that with his second, he couldn’t stand to be near eggs, boiled or fried, for months, so he would make other things for breakfast.Lots of fruits and veggies and he got really into making bread at that time.And later pregnancies seemed to be easier again.It’s been all over the place for him.
Vera has an aversion to strong smells right now, especially fatty or oily ones, but she doesn’t seem to have any morning sickness.Hopefully, she won’t have to deal with it at all in the coming months, because feeling miserable while hanging over a bucket isn’t something I would wish on anyone.
Vera holds the cool bottle against my neck and, with a content sigh, I take it, rinsing my mouth before I take a sip.
I hope this goes away as soon as possible because I really dislike feeling sick.Even when I’ve been drunk off my face, I’ve only puked from alcohol twice.The other times I puked out my guts were all from people trying to poison me, and my body instinctively remembers those times, so not only am I feeling queasy, but I’m also on edge.
Luckily, none of those poisonings led to anything more than a few hours of upset stomach and hanging over a bucket, but the sensation still makes me nervous.Bad memories and all of that.
“Eli made you some plain toast and he said that he’ll make you anything you want once you feel up to it.”She rubs my back carefully.“We’ll ask the doctor about it when we see him tomorrow, but from what Eli said, this seems to be pretty normal.”
I nod.“Yeah.From what I’ve seen from his pregnancies, this is typical.”I take her hand and rub my face against her fingers.Her pheromones settle me, even though they’re food related and I can’t even think of food without having to take a closer look at the bucket, they still soothe me.“When will the contractors arrive?”
“In about half an hour.”She wraps her arms around me, pulling me into her ample chest.“You’ve got time to take a shower if you want to.”
“Maybe.”I take another sip of water.“They’re doing the office today, right?”
Since we want to get everything done in as short of a time as possible, we waited with some of the simpler things, like the office, until everything else was ready to go too.That way, we’ll be able to get back to normal as quickly as possible and won’t have to deal with noise and things like that for weeks on end.
“Yes, they’ll be starting in the office today.The new floor planks arrived yesterday and look very pretty.They’re also going to place the doors to the balcony for the new nest, and begin replacing the flooring in the other upstairs rooms.”Her voice is so soft and I like how excited she is about it all.
When I took over the organisation and moved into the house, I didn’t do much in the way of redecorating, apart from new carpet in the bedroom and giving the bathroom a makeover, since the bathroom was much too ‘modern’ for my tastes.But I didn’t have the time or energy to focus on the rest of the house, so all the other rooms still have the same flooring and walls that they had when I first got here.
We took the furniture out of all of the unused upstairs rooms, so we didn’t have to bother with cleaning them, but that was later, initially, I simply ignored their existence.I had enough going on that I didn’t have the energy for anything but the bare minimum, making sure I had a place to sleep, a place to work and a place to wash off the blood after a mission.
I love how excited everyone is about redoing the house.It also seems to bring us together as a pack more, being able to shape the place we live in in a way that works for us.
Vera and Caleb have been on the run for years, so this is the first time they get to decide what their house looks like.And, at least for Vera, it’s the first time she gets to design her nest the way she likes it and doesn’t have to make-do with whatever temporary solution is available.
Jorge never really bothered with making modifications to his apartment, since he was barely there anyway.It looked fine, but mostly utilitarian, nothing really personal.I preferred to meet up with him here or at some hotel if we wanted to fuck, because his apartment felt too impersonal, it was clear someone lived there, but it was never ahome.
And what I understood from Riley, she’s always rented, and while she had some say over how her places looked, it was never a lot.She’s got free reign now, which she’s using to her advantage.She’s already claimed one room as her bedroom/place to retreat to and another room as a crafting room.
I’ve seen the to-scale drawings of the layouts for both rooms and her skill in spacial awareness is amazing.I now understand how she’s able to pull off some of the feats that ‘Whisper’ the famous —though not as famous as me— ‘mover for hire’ has been able to pull off.
But, with all the demolishing going on in the house today, we’ll probably want to stay away as far as possible… Because that noise is going to get really old, really fast.
I slowly take another sip of the water, my stomach finally starting to settle.“Would you like to go shopping?Get out of the house, maybe find something we didn’t see online?”
Vera kneels behind me on the chair, running her fingers through my hair, rubbing my scalp, making me nearly moan at her firm touch.“While that sounds fun, I’m not up for having lots of people around today.But you can go with Riley or one of the others, I’m sure they’d love the chance to shop on your card.”
I glance up at her, trying to read her mood, but she nudges my face forward again as she skilfully splits my hair into three strands and starts braiding.“What would you like to do instead?Do you have any ideas?”
Her hands move rhythmically, going down my back slowly as the braid grows and grows.It’s almost magical how nimble her fingers are when she’s braiding.“Not really.Just that...I’d like a quiet day.Tomorrow will be busy enough as it is.”
