Archive of Our Own

Oh fuck.

Pangi was gonna have to end stream early, if this kept up.

He wanted to keep streaming. He hadn't been able to stream much lately, because he'd been so tired and sick, so he wanted to be able to push through his stomach cramps today. All he had to do is finish this build and he could end stream. It should be simple.

Pangi sucked in a harsh breath and felt the wave of pain start to dwindle again. It had started a little after he'd began stream, sharp and sudden. Since then, an hour had passed and the pain had slowly become harder and harder to ignore. Each wave had come faster and faster, getting stronger with each hit. It was starting to feel like his insides were being wrung out like a towel.

He couldn't finish building his next Lifesteal set like this. Every few minutes he had to hold back from moaning in pain. Pangi could do cramps. He was an athlete for fucks sake. But this was worse than his regular muscle cramps, or all the other time he'd been sick lately. This was scary. At first he thought he'd just eaten something bad. But, now, he was worried his appendix was about to burst live on stream. It had to be something that life-threatening if he felt this immobilised by it.

Chat noticed. They definitely noticed. He'd already spotted a couple messages in chat joking that his stilted breathing was because he was being sucked off under the table. Besides, he couldn't hold a conversation like this. He could barely pay attention to his own thoughts, let alone what he was talking about.

Another wave hit. Pangi felt his inside clench as white-hot pain ripped through him. He needed to end stream. Now.

He steadily breathed through the pain and logged out of Lifesteal.

"Sorry chat, I'm really tired again and, not gonna lie, I feel kinda sick" Pangi sighed once the pain had subsided, "I'll be live again on Wednesday."

He carefully, hands suddenly shaking, sent through a raid to Zam, and ended stream.

Pangi's sister knew something was wrong as she heard her brother's uneven gait walking downstairs to the living room. She hurried out of the kitchen to catch him at the bottom of the stairs, and wrap him into a tight hug. She felt him tremble in her arms. Eventually, he steadied himself and backed away, face contorted into a grimace.

"Are you good?" she asked him, concern seeping into her voice.

He blinked slowly, eyes red rimmed, "Yeah, my stomach just hurts."

"Do you want me to get something?" she offered.

Before he could respond, her brother's face twisted in pain, hands grasping at his stomach. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and helped him walk himself over to the sofa, where he slumped down into the cushions. He looked like a wreck.

After a second, he finally seemed to gain a semblance of composure and whined, "some water might help?"

"On it." She said, turning back to the kitchen.

When she returned to the kitchen, Binky had curled up on Pangi's lap, clearly sensing something was wrong. An unsteady hand took the water from her.

She watched as he sipped the water, other hand absentmindedly stroking the dog. She considered her brother's state. The clear mass amounts of pain he'd been in; how sick he'd been lately; how tired and miserable he'd been for months now. A lot of it she'd chalked up to stress. Their mom was sick: of course her big brother felt shitty. But now, seeing her brother, her childhood best friend, the boy she played princesses with as a kid, be reduced to a shaky mess in pain on their sofa… Something in the back of her mind was screaming. She recognised this repetitive, sharp, strong pain coming in waves. She'd seen it before, heard about it before. She just couldn't place where.

Pangi tensed, and she watched as another wave of pain racked through him.

Oh… That's what this was.

God, she needed to get her pregnant brother to the hospital. Now.

No fucking way Pangi was pregnant. He had appendicitis at worst. That was far more likely. His sister was being crazy.

The chances he was even able to get pregnant were slim to none. Sure, it wasn't impossible for men to get pregnant. Plus, he'd never been tested to see if he could. The chances were just too tiny for that to be necessary. So, he didn't know for sure if that was possible. Pangi tried not to think about that night in a hotel room in Amsterdam where he and Lukey had decided to go without a condom. There was no way one silly decision could- No! The not-pregnant odds were just way too high for him to even consider that.

Sure, he loved his sister, but he just didn't see what she was seeing.

Maybe he'd been tired lately… and a little sick… and peeing a lot… and gaining weight in spite of his regular gym regimen… but that couldn't be pregnancy, right?

Right?

There was no way, surely.

…

The pain once again washed over him.

He let his sister guide him into the back of an Uber to the hospital.

"So you're not telling them that she's Lukey's?" Tertel asked, looking between Lukey and Pangi questioningly.

The couple exchanged a glance before Lukey spoke up, "Nah. Not like they'll figure it out."