Private Roleplay 〔❁〕Then another day to come,

She didn't know how to feel at first.

The empress went through a disastrous hurricane of emotions upon hearing the news. A part of her felt relief in the knowledge that she wasn't poisoned, nor terminally ill as previously thought. Skeptical -- inwardly accusing the woman, Junna, to be telling some sort of tall tale. Overjoyed, frightened, shocked....Izumi couldn't believe it--

She was pregnant. She was going to be a mother.

It was something Izumi had dreamed of for so long -- yet at the same time, something that only existed in her dreams up until now. That imagination of hers was now a reality, and the cranebird had never been so scared of something in her entire life up until this moment. A woman who has faced death, kidnapping, attempted murder....she never feared taking a gamble with her own life. Now she was going to be responsible for the ones growing within her.

Heirs to her throne.

Yet she was unmarried, and there was no doubt who the father was. He was the only man she had ever lain with, afterall.

Izumi did not come to him immediately after receiving Junna's diagnosis that morning. Things were still strange since that night within Veradent's Grace, as neither of them brought up what had happened since then. The empress never had plans to do so unless he did first, yet now was not the time for that. She would not wait for him to break the awkwardness between them any longer given the situation. Osamu deserved to know. Even if it would come as a shock to him. Even if.....he'd want to distance himself after knowing.

Izumi's pawpads became clammy.

--and the fear of such made her hesitate at the entrance of the den. Afraid to go in -- afraid of what might come next. A single paw dangled in the air as she truly thought of her next steps.

Yet she went in anyways.

Her voice gentler than usual. Albeit, out of fear and uncertainty.

Osamu... she began.

We need to talk. It's.......important.