Ryan’s pad chirped suddenly, rousing him out of the light doze he’d fallen into. The Captain of the Zeno’s Paradox sat up and rubbed his eyes, remembering he was in his office aboard the ship. He took a brief moment to rearrange his appearance into something vaguely resembling the ship’s Captain before answering the call, which flashed up onto the monitor attached to his desk.

The grinning face of a young man blinked on to his screen. The youth appeared to be in his late teens, with hair that was short and blonde- save for a dyed stripe of dark blue that started above his left eye and streaked over the top of his head. His eyes were Earth-sky blue and his skin was pale but blemish free.

“Hey Ry!” The young man greeted.

“Odin!” Captain Carey sat up in his chair, suddenly wide awake at seeing his childhood playmate. Odin Tarsuss, oldest son of Zhan and Pryvani Tarsuss. It was strange to think that the young man was technically several Archavian years older than Ryan himself, but the fact was the two of them used to be partners in crime growing up in the Tarsuss compound on Avalon, along with Manto and Joseph. “How is college treating you?”

“Classes are boring, most of the other students are superficial phonies only interested in my money, and I’ve already had to knock some guy’s teeth out for slagging on the growing human rights movement. But, you know, other than that it’s been really fun!”

Ryan laughed and shook his head, some things never changed.

“So, on to the reason I called you: I heard the good news!” Odin said with a grin. “Manto just called and told me that you and Thyllia finally got together! Congratulations!”

“Thanks man.” Ryan laughed. “We’ve actually been dating for a few weeks, but I’m still having a hard time believing it myself, honestly.”

Odin waved his hand dismissively. “Not me. I always knew this day would happen eventually. You might not have realized it, but she’s been nuts about you as long as you have been for her.”

“I doubt that.” Ryan snorted.

“Okay.” Odin admitted with a shrug. “Not quite as long, but a lot longer than I think you realize.”

Ryan shrugged, but didn’t comment.

“But- anyway…” Odin continued with a grin. “None of that matters now, I guess. Manto says she’s been practically floating around the compound. You’ve made her really happy.”

“She’s not the only one.” Ryan admitted with a grin. “Part of me figures I must be in a coma or something, and that this is all a dream.”

Odin laughed. “Nah, no dream.” The young man’s suddenly became stone faced and serious. “But there’s one thing we absolutely need to get straight right now, Ry.”

“What’s that?”

“I will never, ever, ever call you ‘Uncle Ryan’.”

And that’s when Ryan Carey, Captain of the Zeno’s Paradox, one of only two humans in command of a warp vessel, fell out of his chair laughing.

*.*.*.*

Thyllia took a deep breath as she walked through the halls of the Tarsuss compound on Tayas Mons. A message had appeared on her pad that Rixie wanted to talk with her, in Rixie’s office.

Thyllia had a sneaking suspicion what Rixie wanted to talk about, but found the older woman’s timing rather odd as Thyllia and Ryan had been dating now for quite some time.

She knocked on the doorjamb and poked her head into Rixie’s office.

“Rixie?” Thyllia swallowed and tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach. “You… you wanted to talk to me?”

The older woman looked up from her data pad and smiled. “Come in and sit down.” She said, indicating the chair on the other side of her desk.

Thyllia padded into the room and lowered herself into the chair. She sat in silence, watching Rixie as the latter finished what she’d been working on. After a minute, Rixie set the pad aside and looked up, her green eyes meeting Thyllia’s brown ones.

“My goodness, you look nervous.” Rixie’s eyes crinkled in amusement as she observed her son’s girlfriend fidget in her chair. “Relax. I just want to talk.”

Thyllia swallowed, and took a deep breath. “Sorry Rixie.” She muttered sheepishly. “I just sort of assumed this was going to be the ‘what are your intentions towards my son’ talk.”

“Oh believe me, I know exactly what your intentions are, Thyllia.” Rixie said and snorted with amusement when the younger woman blushed.

“No, I called you here today because I want to make sure you understand exactly what it is you’re getting into.” Rixie folded her arms on the desk and leaned forward. “Do I intimidate you, Thylllia?”

“What?”

Rixie arched an eyebrow but did not repeat the question. Thyllia shifted uncomfortably under her gaze for a moment before finally nodding.

“A little.”

Rixie smirked and nodded, as if she’d been expecting that answer. “And I’m only a few semi-units bigger than you are… Now imagine if I was a hundred times your size.”

Thyllia laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Is that was this is about? Rixie… with all due respect… come on. I went through the ‘human perspective’ program with my sister when I was thirteen, before the first time I watched Ryan when he was little… er… when he was younger.”

“I know.” Rixie replied. “Believe me, if there was any doubt in my mind over you, I certainly wouldn’t have trusted him to you when he was a child and you a teenager, let alone now when you’re both adults.”

“So… what is this?”

Rixie sighed and shook her head. “Look, I know you understand that humans are people just as much as Titans are. You’ve known it since you were a child. But, being in a relationship with a human is something else entirely, Thyllia. You’ll want to have as equal a relationship as you can, of course… but the fact is you aren’t equal… and no hologram in the world will ever truly make you equal. What this means is that you’ll need to be on constant watch. You’ll need to keep an iron tight grip on your temper, no matter how much Ryan aggravates you. And he will because he’s Alex’s son, after all…”

Thyllia giggled, but then sobered again. “I know Rixie, believe me. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve watched Pryvani and Zhan, and You and Alex, and several other human/titan couples try to make this work. I know what I’m getting into.”

“I know you do.” Rixie continued gently. Her hand reached across the desk and took ahold of Thyllia’s own, before giving it a little squeeze. “And if Ryan was going to fall in love with a titan-sized woman, and the odds were better than even that he would, I can’t think of a better one for him than you.”

Thyllia blushed, but was pleased by the compliment. “Does that include…?”

“Yes.” Rixie sighed. “Even her. I like Sorcha a lot, but that girl needs to work on controlling herself before she’s ready to be with someone, especially someone as vulnerable as a human. I can’t say I was overly disappointed when she and Ryan broke up.”

Thyllia smiled, but then bit her lip as a pensive look overcame her face. “Look, Rixie, there’s… There’s something you should know about Ryan.

Rixie’s brow furrowed. “What’s that?”

“Well…” Thyllia sighed. “Maybe it’s not my place to tell you this. I’ve been trying for weeks to get him to talk to you and Alex about it, but he’s awfully stubborn.”

“He gets that from both of us.” Rixie smirked.

Thyllia smiled. “Yeah.”

“Thyllia… if you’re this worried about something, it’s probably safe to tell me. So what’s the matter?”

Thyllia sighed. “Ryan’s afraid that after Asteria is born you and Alex…”

“That we won’t have time for him.” Rixie surmised.

“Yeah. Which is silly, of course! I don’t know if Alex ever told you what he said to me after I first found out about Odin?”

“Not really no.” Rixie shrugged. “I figured he told you not to worry.”

“He did.” Thyllia nodded. “And I told that to Ryan. So the idea that you’re just going to… I don’t know… abandon him or something it’s…”

“Well, logic doesn’t really factor in here.” Rixie smiled sadly.

“Yeah I know… I just thought you should know what he’s thinking.” Thyllia shrugged.

“Thanks. I’ll have to…” Rixie’s sentence tapered off as her face scrunched up in pain.

Thyllia peered at the older woman. “Rixie? …Are you okay?”

“Hm?” Rixie blinked and the pained look on her face eased up a little. “Oh I’m fine… I’ve just been feeling contractions. Brinn says Hybrid pregnancies can be like that.”

“Yeah but…” Thyllia muttered, concerned.

“Don’t worry about…” Rixie’s sentence trailed off and her eyes screwed shut, her face suddenly contorted into a rictus of pain.

“Yeah…” She grunted after a moment. “On second thought… maybe you should call Brinn.”

*.*.*.*

“Alex, are you okay? You’re looking real jumpy right now.” Zhan observed as Alex set a mug of beer in front of him, accidentally slopping some onto the bar top.

“Can you blame him?” Nick asked with a grin. “Brinn says Rixie’s about ready to pop at any moment.”

“Ah yes,” Niall grinned and poured himself a shot of whiskey from a flask he kept in his pocket. “I thought I recognized that look of utter panic.”

Alex absentmindedly took a rag out of his pocket and wiped up the spill he’d left in front of Zhan. “Not panicking.” He muttered. “I don’t know what you’re all talking about.”

“Uh huh.” Sophia smirked. “You totally are.”

“No reason to panic.” Alex muttered. “Just because Rixie is about to give birth to my daughter, who will be roughly the size of a semi-truck.”

“Alex…” Sophia shook her head.

“I…I don’t know if I can do this.” Alex’s voice was rising in pitch and he kept wiping the same spot on the bar top. “Ryan… Ryan was hard enough sometimes, how in the heck can I parent a giant daughter?”

Alex looked up to a series of sardonic expressions.

“What!?” He asked.

“You’re not exactly the first one to go through this sort of thing, Alex.” Zhan chuckled, shaking his head.

“Yeah.” Nick snorted. “Let me know when you get to, oh, let’s say your third giant kid.”

“I was blind.” Sophia reminded him.

“For God’s sake, my wife gave birth to Sorcha.” Niall added after taking another shot from his flask. “I love my daughter more than my own life, but still. Sorcha. Sometimes I’m surprised hybridization wasn’t banned after she was born.”

“You’ll be fine.” Sophia smiled, taking pity on Alex. She placed her hand over his and squeezed gently. “It’s not going to be easy, but you and Rixie are good parents.”

Alex took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and nodded. “Yeah. Okay. You’re right. I can do this. Sure, it won’t always be easy, but hey nothing worth doing ever is… right?”

And then Alex’s data pad began to beep urgently.

*.*.*.*

Alex looked out over the edge of Taron’s hand as they stepped off the shuttle and onto the landing pad of Valhalla Station. Behind them, climbed Zara carrying Sophia and Nick; followed by Pryvani and Zhan.

“Over here!” A voice yelled. The group turned to see Thyllia running up to them. When she reached them she placed her hands on her knees and crouched over, trying to catch her breath.

“Where’s Rixie?” Alex practically shouted. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine… She’s with Brinn!” Thyllia said as soon as she had enough breath to do so.

“I should go help her.” Nick said. “Taron, can you take Alex and I to the maternity ward?”

“Of course.” Taron nodded, plucking his husband from Zara’s hand. He quickly turned and followed Thyllia.

“Someone needs to call Ryan!” Alex shouted back to the remaining group as the two Titans sped away, carrying Alex and Nick with them.

“You already called Ryan, didn’t you?” Zhan asked his wife.

“Of course, Darling.” Pryvani smiled. “He’s probably bringing the Paradox around at this very moment.”

*.*.*.*

“Alex…” Rixie murmured, sitting up in her hospital bed. “Go to get some sleep.”

“Nonsense.” Alex muttered, rubbing his eyes. “I’m not the one who just gave birth.”

“You’ve been awake for thirty two hours.” Rixie reminded him gently. “That’s not even half a day to me, but it’s a long time for you.”

“But…”

“Go to sleep.” Rixie ordered, but she smiled as she said it. “Asteria will still be here when you wake up. Besides, I need to feed her anyway.”

Alex glanced down at the little girl in Rixie’s arms. It was still hard for him to believe that she was his.

“Okay,” Alex finally sighed. “Do you want me to signal Brinn?”

“No.” Rixie responded. “I’ve got the hang of it, I think.”

At that moment the door creaked open and a pair of brown eyes peeked into the room.

“Come in Thyllia.” Rixie chuckled.

Thyllia crept quietly into the room and Rixie and Alex saw Ryan perched on her shoulder.

“She’s so cute!” Thyllia breathed. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you.” Rixie smiled. “I was just about to feed her.”

“Oh!” Thyllia stood up straight again. “Do you want some privacy?”

Rixie glanced over to the chair on the bedside table, in which Alex was now sleeping. “Do you think you could take Alex to a proper bed?” She asked. “I actually need to speak to Ryan about something.”

Thyllia chuckled and carefully lowered Ryan to the table, before lifting Alex-chair and all- into her hand.

“Sure. No problem.” Thyllia said before carrying the sleeping man out of the room, the door shutting softly behind her.

Ryan’s grin couldn’t have been wider as he watched his newborn little- or rather, younger- sister sleep in his mother’s arms from his perch on the nightstand by her bed. They were in the hospital aboard Valhalla and Rixie was recovering nicely from her recent labor.

Asteria, the baby in her arms, was easily the most perfect little girl. Ryan was ready to declare it an objective fact and would fight anybody that disagreed.

“She’s beautiful, Mom.” Ryan said to Rixie, instinctively pitching his voice lower so as not to disturb the baby, even though she was unlikely to hear him.

“Thank you.” Rixie murmured back, gazing at her daughter. “I’m glad you think so, because there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Well,” Rixie began. “Now that your sister is here- and seeing as she is our biological child and therefore the obviously superior choice- I’m afraid that your services as our son will no longer be required. Good luck in locating another family, and do let us know if you need a reference or something!”

Ryan blinked in confusion, but the sardonic look on his mother’s face as she looked over at him from her bed told him everything he needed to know.

“I see you’ve been talking to Thyllia.” Ryan sighed, rubbing his forehead. “You know, her being a blabbermouth doesn’t bode well for our relationship.”

“Oh hush.” Rixie rolled her eyes. “You know she only said something because she cares about you. And furthermore, she wouldn’t have had to if you’d just come and talked to us about it in the first place.”

“Look, Mom… I can still call you mom, right?” Ryan began, his tone only a little sarcastic. “I know it was stupid for me to think that way- I do! But…”

“It’s not stupid, Ryan.” Rixie interjected. “And that’s the point. Look, the fact is your father and I had planned on discussing this with you before we did anything but… uh…”

“Yeah… Biology intervened.” Ryan chuckled.

“Right.” Rixie sighed. “But the point is we didn’t want to shut you out because for better or worse you are our son. And you’re our son in every way that matters. And whether we have one more child or a dozen more that will never-ever- change. And we will always have time for you, no matter how old you get. Okay?”

Ryan chuckled awkwardly, but nevertheless felt a warm feeling in his chest. “Okay. I get it Mom.”

“Good. Because you’re stuck with us.” Rixie gently stroked the small tuft of hair on the top of Asteria’s head.

There was a brief moment of silence as both watched the baby in Rixie’s arms sleep.

“So… A dozen kids huh?” Ryan laughed.

“Just hyperbole, sweetheart.” Rixie groaned. “Trust me.”