Chapter Text
Stupidity wasn’t really a thing in Hunter’s family. Or, more accurately, it wasn’t tolerated in his family, in the household he and his brothers had been trying so hard to make work. A stressful fact, as Hunter felt pretty stupid right then.
He really should have known better than to go to a high school party just because a pretty boy from a neighboring school had asked him to. And he should have really, really known better than to sleep with said pretty boy after one too many drinks. Especially because the guy vanished the next morning with nothing more than a simple, ‘that was fun, bye!’. Hunter had never even gotten his number. Or his real name.
He had felt stupid then, but he had done his best to move on and forget about it. But now, three months later, he was feeling even more stupid. And more importantly, he was realizing he was never going to be able to forget about it. Because that one, infatuated mistake ended up with the last thing he had ever thought would happen. Pregnancy.
Hunter hadn’t even considered thinking about protection that night for even a second. Partially because he had been drunk, yes, but mostly because he was certain he couldn’t get pregnant. He had been sure his body didn’t produce enough estrogen and other female hormones, let alone active ovulation. Either he had been wrong about his own body on a fundamental level, or he was carrying some sort of miracle baby.
Which would be hilariously ironic. In no universe should a teenage trans boy carrying a baby be considered a miracle. But Hunter couldn’t help but feel like that was exactly what this was. An actual, impossible, miracle.
He had no way of contacting the father. And, really, considering the type of family he had bragged about coming from, Hunter was pretty sure all he would get was a large pay off check to leave him alone. And the last thing he wanted was dirty, silence money. Or to have to deal with that jerk ever again.
Really, he wasn’t even sure about telling his own family. His brothers were one thing. He had no doubt that they would be happy for him if he was happy, but Nala Se? He knew without a doubt that the woman who was technically his mother would be even less thrilled by this than his child’s father would be. Which was saying a lot.
Not that she was a parent to them in any way. He would sooner have his own child call him ‘mama’ before he would ever even imagine calling Nala Se anything remotely of the sort. She wasn’t a mother. She wasn’t even a caregiver. But she would most certainly freak out over his pregnancy.
It wouldn’t be any sort of reaction borne out of worry or care for him, though. She wouldn’t be concerned about what a pregnancy would do to him emotionally or physically. No, it would all just be about what her high society minions would think about her ‘too dark and exotic looking weird son’ somehow carrying a child.
While that hurt, it disgusted him more than anything else. Especially because he was entirely right about how she would respond. Only it was so much worse. And resulted in someth8ing he had only imagined was a possible future for his brothers and him.
It might have been partially his fault that she reacted so explosively. He could admit that just announcing it bluntly at the dinner table might not have been the best route to go. But still, the reaction she immediately jumped to was no less horrifying.
“I went to a party after the last track meet in March.” he said as he placed a piece of roast on his plate. “And, well, I found out a few days ago that I’m pregnant.”
Everything came to a crashing halt. Literally, in Wrecker’s case, as the bowl of mashed potatoes in his hands fell to the table with the loud sound of glass breaking, the contents splattering all over the remaining dishes and gathered family.
“What did you say?” Nala Se asked tightly, expression pinched and eyes impossibly wide.
“I said that I am pregnant?” he replied with a raised eyebrow.
“You mean someone at that party took advantage of you?” her voice became shrill as she more or less demanded, “They forced themselves on you and now you’re pregnant, right. Surely no son of mine was stupid enough to get himself in this position!?”
“No.” he corrected firmly, not looking up at her as he cleaned potato off of his shirt. “It was consensual. Nothing nefarious happened, Nala Se. I had unprotected sex, babies happen when you do that.”
“They shouldn’t to you.” Tech said with a frown. “Have you seen a doctor yet? For both your and the fetus’s health? The amount of testosterone in your body could be dangerous, if not for you than for the fetus”
He wasn’t at all surprised by his brother's concern and gave him a soft smile. “No, not yet. I only just found out.”
“No doctor is necessary! Not for that!” Nala Se snapped. “Your brother will not be carrying this child to term.”
“Excuse me?” he asked icily, finally looking up to meet her blue-grey eyes. “You don’t get to dictate that!”
“You are seventeen! Far too young and stupid to be carrying a child!”
“At least I see them as a child!” he snapped back. “A child, Nala Se, not a science experiment! And you weren’t much older than I am now with Ninety-Nine!”
“He was a mistake.”
“A mistake!” he pushed himself to his feet and pointed at her. “He is not just our brother, he is the only real parent we have! Our legal guardian who actually cares about us! We are only here because we thought that you deserved a second chance. That maybe we are more than just your ‘lets see how caucasian genetics work’ experiment! We’ve been thinking that is the real mistake more and more!”
Her long fingered pale hand suddenly reached out and slapped him harshly across the face. Harsh enough it caught his next words in his throat and snapped his head to the side. Far enough that he was able to see Wrecker having to manually stop Crosshair from launching himself at her.
“I will call the clinic and you will get rid of that thing in the morning.”
He rested his hand on his stinging cheek and turned to glare at her. “Clearly, we were right and you’ve used up all your chances. If that is how you feel, we won't be here in the morning.”
She scoffed. “I will call your bluff on that. My no good son can't give you the life I can, the opportunities I can! You would be a fool to leave!”
“No.” Hunter hissed. “You are the fool to think we give one shit about this elitist bullshit. About any of it!”
“And you really think you speak for all four of you?” she spat. “You think your brothers, Tech especially, are stupid enough to follow you into poverty and failure?”
“Of course he does!” Crosshair hissed, still held firmly in Wrecker’s hold. “You treat us like lab rats, and you think we will put up with it because of some private school nonsense?”
“We were merely waiting for a good reason to leave.” Tech said simply.
“And you are willing to lose everything for him and his mistake fetus?”
“The only good thing you have ever done in your selfish life is make us brothers.” Crosshair hissed. “Of course we would give anything up for him. But don’t act like we are losing anything if we leave.”
“Fine!” she snapped. “Leave, but it won't be in the morning. You want to go to that useless brother of yours? You have an hour to be gone.”
She turned on her far too high heels and stomped from the room as much as her tight grey pencil skirt allowed. The four brothers stared after her for a long moment and then Wrecker spoke up softly.
“Should we call Niners?”
“I have texted him.” Tech replied. “He will be here in twenty minutes.”
“And, and the baby?” Wrecker asked. “It's a good thing, right?”
Hunter set his hand over his still flat belly and nodded. “Yeah, Wreck. I think it's a good thing.”
“It finally got us the fuck out of this house.” Crosshair said bluntly. “Far as I’m concerned, it's the best thing ever.”
He snorted but said softly, “I am sorry though that she is making this so hard on us. I didn’t think she would, she would try and make me get rid of the baby right away. I honestly should have, but I didn’t.”
“You’re our big brother.” Wrecker said. “We follow you anywhere. And Cross is right. Screw staying here with her! She had her chance to be a mom over and over. Let's go home to Ninety-Nine.”
With a small sniffle, Hunter rounded the table and pulled the other three into a tight embrace, Crosshair pressed to one side, Tech to the other while Wrecker wrapped his large arms around all three of them. While her reaction was outrageous, Hunter wasn’t upset by it. He didn’t need Nala Se. His brothers, all four of them, were all the family he needed. Well, and the baby growing in him. Who, he knew no matter what anyone said, was truly a miracle. His miracle. And no matter what happened next, he would never, ever regret them.