ASHES ↠ b. barnes [II]

twenty five

         "MAMA!" A VOICE ECHOED IN the marble house. Long strands of strawberry blonde hair were seen as the one thousand year old girl jumped and ran to her mom, who was laying down on her bed staring at the mark on her wrist.

         It was a dark brown toffee rose that trailed from her wrist to her forearm, and the woman was watching it with an excited smile that turned into a loving glance as her orange eyes landed on her eldest daughter, who was now sitting on her bed staring at the mark as well.

        "Is it time?" She asked, knowing by the color of the flower that her sibling would be a baby boy and by the fact that the rose was almost complete, only missing two petals, that he would be born soon.

         "Not yet, All. Not yet."Aiyla laughed at the excitement Allura desplayed, kissing her forehead and playing with her hair. "I thought I told you to pick it up before we ate, Allura."

        The girl giggled, her eyes not removing themselves from the mark on her mother's wrist.

        "Sorry, sorry."

        When she was younger, she always dreamed of having a sister who would play with her, and that she could talk to. But when the mark first came out, and it was a soothing brown color, Allura couldn't have been more excited.

        It was a boy instead a girl, but Allura's mindset switched immediately to adapt everything that she could do with a brother instead of with a sister. He wouldn't play with her toys, that was obvious. But instead, she could play with him in the lakes, fool around with her abilities, and teach him how to properly talk to the girls he fancied.

        She was excited for her new brother, and she knew that even if he wasn't born just yet, she already loved him.

         ALLURA'S BREATH WAS STUCK IN her lungs. Her pulse was rising with every thought that went through her head, the small breaths that managed to come from her mouth becoming strangled ones as she forced herself to sit down on the small chair next to the bed. Her green eyes were wide, not believing the sight in front of her.

        It had to be a joke.

        It had to be a mistake.

        She held her right hand to her mouth, keeping herself from involuntarily shrieking as she kept her composure. James was at work, so it was still only her in the small apartment that they shared. He couldn't see her reaction, and she was glad that he couldn't, because if she was reacting this way, she couldn't fathom how he would react.

        No. He loves me. He'll react just fine.

        She tried to convince herself of it, thinking it over and over again as if it would calm her and make her anxiety lower down.

        Nope. Not working.

        Allura knew everything about chemistry, biology, mathematics, physics, and other important subjects as part of her training— yes, whenever she felt like something had no solution she'd remind herself of her career and what she did for a living back in Jupiter.

        She knew about humans; how their bodies worked, which chemicals worked well for them and which didn't. She understood the functions of every single part of them, and how they reacted to multiple factors.

        She knew about the people from Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and a few others that went beyond her solar system. She could talk about it as if she were reading it straight out of a text book, or as if she had been programmed to repeat the information like a machine.

        It was her job, after all. It was her passion. It was what she wanted to do since she was a little girl and what her father always encouraged her to do— she didn't do it because her father wanted her to, though. His support was just a plus that pushed her further into achieving her dreams, and succeeding in what she would then use to try and save her planet from any possible attack; which she failed at, by the way.

        Just as mentioned, she had the theory stuck in her mind like a picture, or a book, in which she could search for any particular answer.

        But theory is different from practice.

        Because theory was specific, it was precise and it was proven. Allura always considered theory beautiful, because it was information that people had dedicated their lives, their time and their heart to. They were facts, that went from the simplest thing to the most complicated one. It was where you couldn't go wrong; until scientific research managed to find a flaw or prove otherwise.

        But practice? Allura found practice more difficult than anything, and she still remembers herself struggling with it until she reached a middle ground with what she could do and what she couldn't. Her calculations weren't perfect all of the time, her actions nor her hypothesis were always exact. But she made sure they were always reliable, and she made sure that no matter how hard she had to work, she'd find a way to reach the answer that was needed for whatever situation she faced.

        Another reason why she disliked practice, was because it played around with the theory, and one had to balance knowledge and action, cause and effect while not knowing the consequences of mixing two things that shouldn't get mixed.... or knowing them and doing it anyway.

        So right now, Allura was cursing practice with all of her might.

        How was she supposed to find enough theory to explain what had never happened before? How was she supposed to find out what happened when Jupiterian and Human genetics blended with each other? How was she supposed to know if it could happen?

        Well, she already knew it could happen. And the glowing mark growing from the blue Greek designs on her wrist all the way to her forearm, taking the shape of a pink rose without the two missing petals as it stretched, was living proof of that. It was proof that even though James and Allura came from different planets, their genetics could combine.

        So, how was she supposed to find something, anything, that would tell her if her daughter was gonna survive?

        And most importantly: how the hell was she supposed to tell James that she, a three thousand year old Jupiterian, an Alien, was pregnant with his child?

OOPS.

Oh my goooooood! I've been planning this for ages and it's finally here! (Don't worry, her pregnancy won't stop her badass fighting, I'll explain why in further chapters).

But man... Allura and James should've used protection 😂

I really love explaining Allura's career, and she always finds herself calming herself with thoughts about it because she tends to overthink, and this reminds her that's it's not always a bad thing (since her job was overthinking to a maximum extent).

How do you guys think James will react? 😬

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and stay safe! ❤️

- evanescence2016