Change of plans (Chapter 1)

Chapter one
The painter sprang to the window, excited for the arrival of his husband. His face and apron was stained with paint, there were even a few drops of blue paint in his fiery red hair. He pressed his paint stained hands up to the window. He felt as if was going to burst with excitement.
After what felt like hours, it was only about five minutes, a silver car approached the driveway, a man gracefully slid out in a swan-like manner. He was tall and thin with broad shoulders. He was clothed in a baby blue button-up shirt, a red tie held onto his neck, a long white lab coat that came down to about his knees, black pants poked out, and his black polished shoes shined. On his nose sat black-rimmed glasses and a gold ring hugged his ring finger. His blue eyes shined and his curly brown hair looked almost silver under the moonlight.
The painter flung open the door surging with excitement.
“Hello James.” The man said kissing the painter’s cheek. “Ugh! You smell like paint.”    
“Hi Henry!” James said following him up the stairs. “Welcome home! How was your day? Did you have a lot of patients today?”
“It was just a normal day, honey” Henry supposed.
“Nothing unusual, odd, or exiting?” James asked.
“Nope.” Henry said reaching the top of the stairs. He slid open the door to his room and walked in.
Later Henry made his way down the stairs. He was wearing one of his old T-shirts and sweatpants. He found James in the kitchen. His eyes were locked on his easel. He used his hand to blend the marks he had made with his pastels to make a breathtaking gradient.  Henry stood behind his husband and wrapped his arms around his waist. James must have not felt Henry’s arms around him because when Henry sneezed it made him jump.
“Hello, my love.” James said turning around to face Henry. Henry tightened his grip on his husband’s waist.
“Carry my child.” Henry whispered.
“Wh-what?” James stuttered.
“Let’s have a baby.” Henry said
“Isn’t hiring a surrogate expensive?” James asked.
“I never said anything about a surrogate.” Henry said.
“What?” James said. “I-I don’t understand.”
“I can make you pregnant.” Henry said.
“How?” James said. “I’m a boy!”
“Listen honey all you need to know is if you put a few drops of this in your drink,” Henry said pulling out a little green bottle with a picture of a seahorse on it, “then after you drink it and we have sex it will make you pregnant.”
James stared at the bottle then up at Henry then back down at the bottle.  
“I-uh don’t know.” James said.
“It’s okay.” Henry said pulling James closer to him. “I want you to think about it.”
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“I’ll do it!” James said walking into their room.
“Do what?” Henry said unbuttoning his shirt after a long day of work.
“I want to drink the seahorse thingy and I want to have a baby with you.” James said. Henry looked up beaming.
“Are you sure?” Henry asked.
“Super sure.” James said. Henry beamed and caressed his husband in a warm embrace.
“I’ll go get the serum.” Henry giggled. Henry practically ran down the stairs surging with excitement. That night Henry prepared dinner and placed a few drops of the serum in James’ drink. After dinner Henry grabbed James by the wrist and led him into their room. Once inside Henry pinned James to the bed. After making love Henry laid awake while James was fast-asleep. Henry began thinking about how he met James.
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The sun had not even started to peak out from the horizon when Henry had to wake up. He was not ready for school. Henry was smart and enjoyed learning things but school just moved too slow for him. His mom always said he was too smart for public school but she couldn’t afford to send him to a private school. Henry clambered out of his bed groggily. The world around him was blurry. He searched for his glasses, which didn’t help much because the left lens was broken. He got ready for school and was on his way. He didn’t have a car, nor did his mom so he had to walk to school. After arriving he went on his way to his first period class which was gym. Henry had just taken his shirt off to change it when he heard,
“Damn, your chest is hard like my di…nner table.” Henry looked around to see who said that. To his surprise, it was a pudgy redheaded boy. He was about a foot shorter than Henry and, because he was wearing a green hoodie, he looked a bit like a leprechaun. The redhead giggled.
“Seriously though you are hot. Do you work out?” He asked.
“No, but I run cross-country.” Henry said.
“Nice.” The boy said. “I’m James by the way.”
“I’m Henry.” Henry said.
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The clock read four-thirty-two when Henry tumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. He felt vomit rising in the back of his throat. He got on his knees and griped the sides of the toilet tightly and felt the vomit rush out of him. Henry tried to stand but another wave of nausea hit him making him fall to his knees spilling the contents of his stomach into the toilet once more.
“What’s going on?” James said stumbling into the bathroom, half-awake. The sound of Henry retching must have woken him. “Henry what are you doing?” James said rubbing his eyes. He was cranky because his sleep was disturbed. Henry opened his mouth to say something but before he could he puked again. James finally realized what was going on.
“Aww. You’re sick baby?”  James asked, Henry just nodded. James sat down by Henry and rubbed his back gently while Henry puked more. “Maybe you should take off from work today.” James suggested. Being a doctor Henry dealt with sick people all day. He did not want to make his patients sicker. He worked in a small doctor’s office. It was very cute since it was also a pediatric center. As the day went on Henry felt better which was odd. Henry had morning sickness but James did not, a thought echoed in the back of Henry’s mind which worried him, yet peaked his curiosity.  Henry stayed in bed for most of the day on James’ orders.
Henry had gotten up to pee when he noticed something in his reflection, his hips looked wider. Henry placed his hands on his hips and gave them a squeeze, they were nice and squishy. Having run cross-country all though high school Henry stayed rather fit even though he had been out of high school for nine years. Henry turned around and looked at his butt in the mirror, there was only a slight change, it was barely even noticeable, but it was odd. After Henry laid back down James came into the room.
“Hey love,” James whispered, “I brought you some soup.”
“Thank you.” Henry said sitting up and grabbing the bowl. “Do I look different?” He asked.
“No, not really.” James said. “Why?”
“I just…feel different, I guess” Henry said, there was not much Henry kept from his husband but the fact that his bum was thickening up was one of them. James sat down by Henry on the bed Henry loved his cheerful, short, pudgy, redheaded husband. James smiled at Henry.
“Are you feeling better?” He asked.
“Yeah.” Henry said. “Much better.”
“Good.” James said.
The next day the same thing happened Henry tumbled out of bed. Puking and puking and puking. This carried on for the next few weeks. Henry had started going into work even though he was puking, but he’d only feel sick in the morning it would go away after a few hours of being awake. Henry was also very tiered all the time it was hard for him to get up, it had gotten to the point where, after work he’d nap on the couch all day then go to bed and sleep the entire night. He had lots of other symptoms too like cravings, headaches, and mood swings. The answer was obvious something must have gone wrong and instead of James getting pregnant Henry did, but Henry wanted proof so he went to the nearest store and bought a pregnancy test. He unpacked it and kept it in his pocket until he got home.
“You’re late. What were you up to?” James teased Henry when he came home. Henry walked into the Livingroom and flopped down on the couch.
“You sleep more than the cat.” James said joking. His voice got more serious. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Henry said. “I’ll be right back.” He walked into the bathroom and pulled the test out of the pocket in his lab coat. He took the test, and Henry stared in horror at a positive pregnancy test. He put his back against the door and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. He removed his glasses, as he does when he is thinking hard, and put his hand on his stomach. Is there really a baby in there? Henry thought. He sighed wondering how he was going to tell James. Henry provided, he had a job, he cooked, he paid all the bills, so it made sense that James should be the one carrying the child. James stayed home and painted, he sold some of his paintings and gave art lessons at the local art store on the weekends, but that was about it. Weeks passed, James began worse and worse, thinking he lost the baby. Henry tried to console him but nothing worked because Henry had not told him the truth. He kept the fact that he was pregnant hidden from James and everyone else. James was at an all-time low, he slept all day, he had stopped painting, he wouldn’t eat or leave his room very much at all.  It broke Henry’s heart seeing his beloved husband like that, but he couldn’t gather the courage to tell him the truth. Almost a month had passed when Henry finally told him.
“Hey honey. How are you doing?” Henry asked coming into the bedroom. James gave a quiet moan in response. Henry sighed feeling his heart race. He sat on the side of the bed and gave James a gentle pat.
“James…It-uh- it’s not your fault that you aren’t pregnant.” Henry stammered. James rolled over and looked at Henry his big brown eyes were pink from crying and a dark gloom hung over his iris.
“Listen James, there is something I need to tell you.” Henry said.
“What?” James rasped. Henry ran his hand through his curly brown hair.
“You didn’t miscarry…because you weren’t even pregnant.” Henry said
“What?” James said sitting up looking as if he was going to cry again. “But you said I’d be pregnant if I drank that…uh…that thing.”
“Something happened, I think our drinks got switched up or something, and I’m pregnant.” Henry said, it felt so good getting that off his chest. Henry didn’t keep anything from James so keeping that a secret felt so weird to him, he felt so bad about waiting so long to tell him but he was glad he got it out. James looked at Henry with a warm smile the light had returned to his eyes and he cheeks had become rosy again.  
“So…we are having a baby?” James asked.
“Yeah” Henry said, “There’s just been a slight change of plans.”