First, Blue tried the ginger. It settled the nausea for a time, only for it to return by the evening. He went through the ginger, reluctantly, and by the time the week ended, he’d eaten the whole pack.

So then he tried to just power through it, his usual go-to method, but that ended up with him nearly sleeping the entire day away or sluggishly curled up on the couch. Soup was the only thing he could hold down, his magic feeling bloated and sickly otherwise.

He felt bad for saying so, but...he blamed the baby for all this.

Okay, he felt really bad for even thinking about it, but it was true! The baby made him all sick. Though, he wouldn’t ever change his mind, he just...wanted to feel good! You know??

Swirlby held up his promise to take Blue to the mud baths, even if Blue wasn’t exactly up for traveling around.

Inside the quiet room, Blue sunk into the mud sans clothes, even his precious bandanna. Swirlby had folded them all in the corner as Blue liked, kneeling next to him and cupping a hand over Blue’s head. “Poor darling...are you feeling any better?”

“NO,” Blue mumbled, peeking an eye socket open, the mud covering him up to his chin. “WELL...I AM WARM...AND THAT’S NICE.”

Swirlby smiled, leaning down to kiss Blue’s head. “I see, yes. Perhaps we really should wait for the party, then?”

Blue sighed, but agreed. He wouldn’t be in the mood for hosting for a while, at least. He hummed as he sunk deeper into the mud, Swirlby happily rubbing a warm hand over his head.

Somehow Blue was convinced into a foot rub which he did NOT deny himself, no way! The joints in one ankle felt painful as it was, and Swirlby’s tender, warm touches helped ease it as much as possible.

Well...at least he didn’t feel sick right now…

~~

He can’t even go to check on his brother, so Stretch appears at their house instead. Blue’s all tucked up on the couch in his favorite soft pair of pajamas, a warm hat on his head, hot cocoa in his hands. He doesn’t drink as much as usual, but the warmth of it eases any cramps or slight pains.

Stretch plopped beside Blue, who had eagerly tugged up his shirt to show off the little baby. Stretch squinted, shrugging. “Uh. Just a soul fer now?”

“YUP!” Blue tucked his shirt back down, happily taking his cup back from Stretch as his brother leaned back on the couch, hands in his hoodie pockets. “THEY’LL MAKE A BODY LATER, BUT THEY’RE HERE!!”

“Cool.” Stretch gave a thumbs up, chuckling. “Still sick though?”

“YES,” Blue pouted, burying his face in his cup for a moment before huffing. “THE TV NEVER SHOWED THIS PART OF PREGNANCY...VERY DISAPPOINTING. BUT, UNDYNE SAID IT MIGHT FADE IN A MONTH?”

Stretch shrugged. “Sounds long ta me. But eh. Alph says she don’t mind if ya need time, but she wants ta see the baby.”

Blue squeaked, nodding. “OF COURSE! WE NEED A PARTY TO SHOW OFF THE BABY AND TO LET EVERYONE KNOW AND, OH, GO AROUND TO OUR NEIGHBORS…!” Blue chattered on excitedly, while Stretch nodded along, already out of breath with just the idea of all the things Blue wanted to do.

Heh. He hoped the baby had that much energy, they’d need it.

~~

Stretch’s…’friend’ had been acting odd lately.

So, explanation: Stretch patrolled Snowdin’s forest, sometimes with Blue, sometimes not. Now that he had a baby bones on the way, he’d had to lay off on the guard duties, which, fair.

(Hmm, get pregnant and be lazy…the way Blue was tossing up his food though, the trade-off probably wouldn’t be worth it…)

But long before that, Stretch had found...an odd door in the forest. The door was about twice his height, and three times his width (not hard, he was after all...skin and bones. Hehehe.). There were two door handles, but a small tug showed they were both locked. It was, of course, the perfect setup for a good round of knock-knock jokes.

Sometimes he came out to let off steam, like the time Blue caught him smoking, and he sourly ranted to the door about being out of stripes and making his own decisions. The door did not need to know that he had JUST got out of stripes and that one of the other kids in town had found the pack, so it was a group of them smoking until one of the Guards caught them and took them to their respective homes.

Sometimes he played a funny banjo and made up silly songs about snow. It was boring out here in the silence, after all.

It was during one time where he was conversing aloud, to himself and the door, over whether honey could be a meal in and of itself, and whether or not he could convince his brother of that, when he heard a chuckle.

Of course, he thought he had snapped and was envisioning the door doing it, but no.

He had a friend.

His new friend had a deep voice, and sounded very kind even though he’d never seen the other. He joked about honey and the other monster talked of how he loved to garden, they talked about how boring and lonely it could get…

AndmaybeStretchhadalittlecrushshutup.

Look, Stretch was so many years out of stripes, like, he was totally mature! ...kind of. Eh, well, mature enough, for what it was worth. So yeah, he could totally have a crush on an older monster!

Even if he’d never seen the other before.

Or knew their name.

...hm.

Anyway, his friend was acting weird.

Like, okay, they had a deal to meet today around noon. He’d told his friend about his brother’s troubles, and then how happy he was now that he had a little one on the way. His friend wanted to meet to celebrate amongst themselves about Blue’s upcoming bundle of joy (probably just a shared slice of cake or hanging out, of course).

But like...he wasn’t there??? And when he did arrive-a half-hour late-he side-stepped Stretch’s curious question and acted as if everything was fine.

Which, he could so keep his secrets...but now Stretch was even MORE curious!!

“I mean, is it bad?” he asked, his back to the door, plopped on the snow and heedless of the cold. “Are ya...shedding?” he snickered, recalling a schoolmate of his who used to complain of it constantly and how itchy they had gotten.

His friend chuckled softly. “No, it is not,” he rumbled, sighing. “It is...an unexpected visitor…”

He seemed very hesitant in saying even that, but Stretch just shrugged. “Sounds cool. They like your tea?”

The older monster chuckled again. “Yes, you could say that.” He sighed heavily, as if in thought. “They are...staying for a while, and it is...different sharing the home again.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Stretch stretched out his arms, popping his elbow joints with a huff. “It’s weird not having Blue around, but when he does pop by, it’s a little weird too.”

“Mm.”

The ‘guest’ sticks around for a while. The monster behind the door opened up a little more about them, but Stretch remained in the dark about who, exactly, this strange guest was. They liked tea. They had a striped sweater. They were a little loud, and a bit too courageous, which made Stretch think of his brother fondly.

He thinks on it sometimes, when he visits Blue to see the slowly-too...slowly…?-growing baby bones or to see Swirlby about his sweets. When he does patrols, or when he pops into Muffet’s.

He thinks about this odd guest, but puts it out of his mind as the month comes to an end, and so does his brother’s nauseous feeling, swinging back in with an abundance of energy that was his trademark. Stretch was glad, he’d hated seeing Blue down all the time and sick. It was a far cry from his normalness that it was unnerving.

But he was bouncing around, planning a party with Swirlby, finding a good spot in Hotland to have it to show off the unborn baby.

Yeah, life was back to normal.

(And then the door in the forest opened.)