Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Engineer Tulip here, what seems to be the problem?”

Tulip beamed as she said the words. Technically she wasn’t an engineer – not officially – but it was one of the many roles she knew exactly how to do. When Junior had called her explaining that there were some problems with the Baby Factory, she’d promised to be the first one to the spot.

The stork she was talking to fiddled with her tie. “The, uh, the baby is too big – it broke one of the smaller parts – we’re pretty sure we know how to fix it –  but… we have no idea what to do with the babe.”

“Too b – too big?” Tulip exclaimed, giving the stork a stern look as she placed her hands on her hips. “Excuse you, no baby is too big in this company – ”

The stork turned and pointed straight at one of the Baby Spots scattered around the room. There were blankets in each of them, along with toys and pillows. Babies were put there while a Delivery Stork was assigned to them. Sometimes they were checked up for illnesses and stuff like that, too, but it wasn’t often required.

The baby – and it had to be a baby, since it was here in the first place – was at least four feet tall, covered in purple fur, and giggling at the stork prodding their chest.

“Oh my God,” Tulip whispered. Then she drew a deep breath and hollered, “Junior!”

*

“She’s adorable,” Tulip cooed, tapping the baby’s cheek gently. She giggled, then reached for Tulip’s hand, nuzzling it with a gurgle.

Junior stood scrutinizing the two of them, a wing beneath his beak and a thoughtful frown on his brow. “What is it, though?”

Tulip glared at him. “Does it matter?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips. “She’s a baby, and she has parents somewhere. She has a home.” She turned to the baby creature, patting her head gently. “And we’ll take her there.”

“Of course!” Junior exclaimed. “I’m just curious, I mean, look at it – it has horns.”

“Adorable horns,” Tulip gushed, poking one of the horn stubs that poked out through her curly, purple fur. There were spots and splatches of blonde fur, too, but the purple one seemed to be dominant.

Junior sighed, shaking his head fondly. “You’re ridiculous,” he said, walking over to inspect the baby closer.

“So are you,” Tulip said, bumping her hip into his side. He shot her a quick glare, then reached out to pat the baby’s fur. His eyes went wide in wonder. “Oh, look at that,” Tulip cooed, “you’re already falling for her, how adorable.” Junior scowled at Tulip but didn’t cease patting the babe. “Oh, yes, you are, look at that face, oh, how cute.”

Junior rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get her a pod,” he said, turning away and starting to walk towards where the extra pods were stored.

“Uh,” Tulip said, casting the baby that was more than half her height an uncertain look, “I think we’ll need a cloth, Junior.”

Slowly he turned around, looking at the baby with a small grimace. “…yes, I think you’re right.”

“Are you strong enough for that?” Tulip asked, offering an apologetic wince. It wasn’t that she didn’t think he could do it – it was just that the baby was so big it would almost be a wonder if a single stork could carry her.

“What do you mean, me?”

Tulip gestured towards the babe. “This is a special case, Junior. Our expertise in handling babies is needed.”

Junior blinked, then rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Right, sure, whatever. But no, I can’t carry her, I can barely carry you.”

She pretended to be offended at that for a moment, then tapped her chin. “We’ll need maybe four storks other than you, then. Oh, and Jasper – no way are you going without me.”

“Four storks and Jasper,” Junior nodded. “I got it. You’ll watch her while I’m gone?”

“Of course,” Tulip said, smiling as the baby played with her fingers. “But only if I can call her Tiny!”

Junior gave a disgruntled groan. “Sure, whatever,” he called over his shoulder. “Just – just don’t go overboard!”

Tulip giggled. “Not promising anything,” she muttered, turning back to Tiny with a bright smile. “Hi, sweetheart! You’ve got some lucky parents, don’t you? Yes, you do!”

***

It had been Percy’s idea to write to the storks. Migo and he had long been considering adoption – when it came out that storks were once more delivering babies, it was a whole new set of options. After a throughout explanation and several questions to and from, the two of them sat down to write a letter.

“Do they even deliver… non-human babies?” Migo asked, the moment the letter was signed, and the envelope sealed.

“I don’t know,” Percy truthfully said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

They told the S.E.S the next day. Kolka and Meechee were ecstatic, Brenda and Gwangi happy for them, Fleem only a little curious.

“But we don’t know if it’ll work,” Migo warned them, before Kolka and Meechee could hit the roof in excitement.

“The only recorded baby deliveries are humans,” Percy elaborated when worried eyes were turned on them. “If they don’t deliver yetis, then we hope to get a human, but… well, we don’t know.”

“You want a yeti?” Brenda asked, sitting on Meechee’s shoulder with a tilted head.

“Yeah,” Migo said. “Well, we’ve asked for a very small yeti – you know, something in-between human and yeti sized?”

The whole group gave muttered agreements; they all agreed that that was a wise choice.

“When’s it coming?” Fleem asked, picking at his nails.

Gwangi smacked him playfully. “Don’t be rude,” he berated.

“Sorry,” Fleem said, glancing up from his hands. “If it’s coming, when is it?”

Sighing, Gwangi smacked him again. “You’re lucky I like you,” he muttered, which only caused Fleem to preen.

“We don’t know,” Migo butted in, hoping to avoid an argument. “Depending on where you are in the world the delivery can take all from three days to three weeks.”

Kolka gasped. “Less than three weeks?” she exclaimed. “Are you having a baby in less than three weeks?”

“If it works,” Percy stressed. “But, uhm.” He and Migo shared a look, bottomless hope in their eyes. “Yes!”

Kolka ran over to hug them, Meechee following her right after. Brenda hopped over from Meechee’s shoulder to Migo’s, offering him a genuine smile before thumping his back. “Gonna be a dad, huh?” she asked.

“Heh,” Percy said, rubbing the sore spot with a grin. “I guess I am.”

“Aunt Brenda,” Brenda said, tapping her chin as she glanced at the ceiling. “I like the sound of that.”

“Aunt Meechee,” Meechee whispered, delight dancing in her eyes.

“Aunt Kolka!” Kolka added. “Oh, Migo – ”

The days passed slowly, Migo and Percy nervously rushing to the doors whenever there was a noise outside. They were, understandably, quite excited about having a child. Adoption wouldn’t be easy if they wanted a human child, and it would still be somewhat hard if they wanted a yeti child, because of their strong maternal and paternal instincts. If sending letters to the storks worked… well, it would be a godsend.

*

The S.E.S had become a group of yeti ambassadors after their two worlds had collided. Brenda had gladly joined it when Meechee and Kolka asked her to, and Larry had joined two weeks later, sitting nervously on Gwangi’s shoulder during his first meeting. They still held meetings every now and then, discussing problems that had arisen between their two species. As it were nothing big was going on; after humans had truly accepted that yetis were real and fully sentient beings they were (mostly) left alone. A law protecting them had been put in place, and while the Himalayan village now had far more tourists visiting, that was the biggest change. Percy had weekly updates on what was going on with the yetis, and that was enough for the world.

This was the second S.E.S meeting this month, and Brenda was terribly bored. She’d missed out on the last meeting, which everyone’d seemingly forgotten, because she still hadn’t gotten an explanation on what on Earth was going on. The others were focused and hard-working towards a solution to whatever the problem was, which she supposed was good, but she was still utterly, completely lost.

Which was why, when the doorbell rang, she was quick to jump to her feet. “I’ll get it!” she called, rushing for the door. This was the official S.E.S building, built specifically to house both humans and yetis – if someone was ringing the doorbell, it meant serious business.

She opened the door, and the first thing she saw was a stork the size of a goddamned human. Then she saw the woman standing at its side, a big, nervous smile on her face. And first then did she see the big white cloth in the stork’s beak. It rested on the ground, which was understandable enough – it looked quite heavy, and she doubted that the stork’s neck was strong enough to hold it up.

Brenda stared.

And then she realized.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Oh – oh, okay! It’s the baby!”

The woman nodded. “This… is the right place, isn’t it?” she asked, gaze flickering. “It doesn’t hit me as a typical… home.”

“Oh, no, we don’t live here – it’s just a meeting place – hold on, I’ll go get the parents,” Brenda said, gesturing over her shoulder as she slowly backed away. Judging by the size of the cloth it was almost definitely a yeti.

“Percy?” she called, poking her head into the meeting room. She schooled her expressions into a worried and solemn look. They’d bored her; this was merely her revenge. “Migo?”

Percy, who was standing on the table by Migo’s shoulder and pointing at something or another, looked up at her with raised eyebrows. Migo followed his example mere moments later.

“It’s, uh…” She trailed off, gaze flickering as she bit her lip. “It’s – it’s for you.”

Percy and Migo shared a worried look, then Percy hoisted himself up on Migo’s shoulder. Migo himself rushed out of the room, through the door and into the hallway –

she could hear the exact moment they realized what was waiting for them. Loud exclamations, a delighted cry from Percy, and Migo’s non-stop blabbering echoed all the way back into the meeting room.

The others in the room looked over at Brenda, partially confused and partially worried. She let the solemn mask fall, cracking into a wide beam. “It’s the baby!” she exclaimed. “It’s here!”

Kolka and Meechee cried out, shooting up from their chairs and practically crawling over each other to get to the door first.

Brenda winced. “Careful, loves!” she called after them.

Gwangi pushed a paper he’d been reading across the table. “We’ll see it when they’re ready to show us,” he said with a shrug. Larry gave him a weird look, then hopped down from his arm to rush for the door.

It took approximately five seconds before they all fell back into the room again, Kolka and Meechee with Larry on their shoulder followed soon by Migo and Percy. Finally, the stork and the woman were ushered in, both carrying two corners of the big white cloth.

“Hi!” the woman called, waving excitedly with one arm. “I’m Tulip, this is my partner Junior – nice to meet you!”

The eight of them returned the greeting. “Okay!” Kolka said, shifting her weight as she tip-toed closer. “Let’s see them!”

Tulip exchanged a look with Junior, then gestured for Migo and Percy to take the cloth. Migo reached out for it, gently lifting the whole thing into his hand. Percy hopped down his arm, shot him a glance, and carefully folded aside the cloth.

“Oh, my God,” he whispered, awe and affection in his voice. “She’s adorable.”

There was a cooing noise from Migo’s hand, and both Migo and Percy aw’d.

“What?” Fleem called. “Let me see! Let me see!” He jumped a few times, desperately trying to get a glance of the newest addition to their family. Rolling his eyes, Gwangi lifted him into his arms, where he settled in familiar ease.

Meechee, apparently realizing that Brenda couldn’t see anything either, rushed over to help her onto her shoulder.

And finally, she saw the child. She was beautiful, her fur thick and curly – it was roughly the same color as Gwangi’s in most places, but there were spots of pale yellow – like Cali’s – all over her body. On her chest was a cartoon-ish sun in that same yellow color.

She looked up at Migo and Percy in adoration. Brenda was happy to see the look returned from the two new parents.

“Cyra,” Percy said, placing a hand against her chest, right above the sun. “Isn’t that right, Migo?”

“Our daughter,” Migo whispered, bringing his hand closer so he could nuzzle the baby. It was a yeti thing – Kolka was very fond of doing it with both Meechee and Brenda – and it seemed like the baby knew what to do, for she pressed her forehead against the empty space between Migo’s eyes and mouth with a delighted coo. “I love her.”

Percy gave him a warm, gushy smile, then leaned over the edge of his hand. “Thank you,” he called down to Junior and Tulip, voice wobbling. “So much.”

“It’s our job,” Tulip replied, but she was smiling widely as she saluted him. “We’re happy when she’s happy.” She turned to Junior, inclining her head. “Our job here is done.” They offered them a farewell, then exited the room. The entrance door shut behind them.

A moment, then –

“She’s so beautiful!” Kolka cried. The words broke the silence that had settled over the room, and now the rest of them flocked around Migo and Percy, all gushing about their new daughter.

Brenda met Percy’s gaze through the mess, saw the raw happiness in his eyes, and smiled. He deserved this. They both did. She glanced over at Kolka and Meechee, both cooing over Cyra. Who knew; perhaps they’d soon have a sweet child, too.