Damon was still lucid. A few days ago, that was a good thing. Now? ...It was scary.

Lucid periods weren't meant to last long. Three days typically. Damon had heard of rare cases of five day lucid periods, and some that were less than a day. On the fourth day of Damon's lucid period, he started to get antsy and jumpy. Jun noticed and kept trying to hold Damon down in one spot so he would stop flitting around like a small dog on amphetamines. It didn't work. Five minutes of stillness and quiet would pass and then Damon was off doing something else. He felt like he had to be doing something but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

Then, around eight p.m. that day, Jun got a call from his brother to go see him. Jun's brief explanation to Damon about what was going on was that Jay wanted to get out of the house for a bit, which Damon took to mean Jay wanted to get away from Mark. Either way, Jun left to go see him, leaving Damon at home. He offered for Damon to come with, but Damon refused, feeling weirdly sick at the thought of leaving the house.

And once Jun left, Damon actually was sick. He threw up his dinner. When Jun got back, Damon didn't say a word about it.

This wasn't because Damon didn't think it was important. He knew it was important at this point. He had never had anxiety bad enough to throw up. But he couldn't take Jun's worry, not right now. He would give it one more day, he told himself, and if nothing improved, he would tell Jun and see a doctor.

As if the universe was listening to him, the next morning, Dr. Yang finally texted Damon back with his extremely blunt advice.

Damon stared at the text with a blank expression for a solid ten minutes. He only locked the phone and shoved it in his pocket when he heard Jun coming up the stairs to the bedroom, probably to get him for breakfast. He should have told Jun right then what Dr. Yang said they should do. But something held his tongue. Maybe it was the pressing weight of the possibility Dr. Yang had suggested.

Damon just...had to process for a bit.

Throughout the rest of the day, whenever Jun wasn't looking, Damon stole a glance at the text, hoping it would be less rattling over time. It wasn't.

And unfortunately – or maybe fortunately – Damon's odd behavior caught Jun's attention. Maybe Damon's recent quietness and behavior changes were finally getting to Jun too – because he literally grabbed Damon's wrists and held them behind his back while sneaking Damon's phone out of his hoodie pocket.

"Jun - !" Damon was just confused at first, letting Jun do whatever he pleased – until he took Damon's phone. That caused a spike of nerves to go shooting through Damon's body and he tugged, trying to get his hands free. He couldn't let Jun see – he wasn't ready!

Unfortunately for Damon, Jun was much stronger than he was, and he effortlessly restrained Damon while holding the phone above his head. He was also a lot sneakier than Damon gave him credit for, because he unlocked the phone with ease, though Damon didn't remember ever telling him the password. From there, it was a simple matter to navigate to the apps Damon had open at the time and find his messages.

Damon felt the moment Jun saw it. He went very still, and then slowly looked at Damon. Damon closed his eyes in defeat.

Damon knew they had discussed this possibility beforehand. Jun had been completely on board with it. Damon hadn't wanted it to happen so soon...but he had said he wouldn't be upset if it did happen.

Jun locked the phone, letting the message on the screen fade to black.

Take a pregnancy test.

...That would explain why Damon was still lucid. You couldn't be in heat if you were pregnant. Damon was a little confused, because he had been in heat until just recently, so it must have happened that last day of Damon's heat, when Damon went a little feral, right? But that was four days ago. It felt too soon. But that was an issue he would bring up with Dr. Yang later – if the test happened to be positive.

Maybe Damon had underestimated how he would feel. He wasn't upset, not really. Frazzled, panicked – so anxious that he thought his heart might fail, yes, of course. Jun seemed to be able to read all of that on Damon's face, and Damon saw the moment that Damon's strange behavior over the past week suddenly made sense to him. Jun set the phone aside.

And then, because Jun was Jun and he knew exactly what to do, he wrapped Damon in a hug, and rubbed his cheeks all over Damon's head and neck. It was as much comfort for Damon as it was an expression of happiness for Jun. Jun pressed a kiss to the top of Damon's head and murmured "Do you want to stay here or come with me?" into Damon's hair.

He didn't elaborate on where he was going. He didn't need to. Dr. Yang said to take a pregnancy test. Jun was going to get him one.

Damon thought about it. Like before, the thought of leaving the house, especially to go out in public and buy a pregnancy test, made Damon's chest feel tight, but the thought of being alone again was making something worse feel like it was climbing up Damon's throat. "I'm coming with you," he said, voice muffled with his face pressed into Jun's shirt.

And so they went. Venus pack had two convenience stores that sold the tests and one pharmacy. The pharmacy was closed at this time of day, so they went to the nearest convenience store. There wasn't anyone inside but the cashier, thank god, and the cashier either didn't recognize Jun or didn't care, because he sold them the tests without really looking at them.

They got back home, and Damon had to physically stop Jun from following him into the bathroom to watch him piss on the stick by closing the door in his face. Even so, Damon could hear that Jun was still right outside the door, the light 'thunk' telling him Jun had probably pressed his forehead to the door. Maybe someone else would find Jun's clinginess in this moment annoying, but Damon would be lying if he said he didn't feel like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders. Having Jun with him, ready to catch Damon at every turn, no matter what...

It was the only thing making this whole situation feel manageable. It felt like something solid, something he could handle, rather than the elusive cloud of anxiety that Damon had been wrapped in for the past day and a half. The fog was lifting, and as Damon took the test, he thought about how he would feel when he saw the result. It would be physical, tangible. A yes or a no.

Damon set the test on the bathroom sink and sat on the edge of the tub, waiting.