Desperate Measures

Guinevere didn't dream at all. She had expected a nightmare after the last few nights had been so vivid, but she had gone most of the night in utter darkness. She had awoken in the middle of the night and finished her sandwich and chips, but most of the night, she slept restlessly.

Now that it was morning, and the sun was just barely peeking over the trees, she climbed off the couch and made her way to the kitchen. Five dirty plates and four glasses sat on the countertop, as well as a spoon and four forks from yesterday's breakfast. Her grandmother had always done the dishes in her house and had breakfast ready for her. When she was over here spending the night, Jack was usually on top of dishes, but yesterday had been a difficult situation.

She took a deep breath and sat down in one of the chairs, holding her head in her claws. She was married now. She was a wife and a mother, with two kids that she was legally required to care for. She was required by law to make sure their home, her new home, was happy and healthy. She didn't want to be arrested for neglect, but she had no idea how to do any of this.

She moved over to the sink and grabbed the sponge, put a dollop of liquid soap on it, and scrubbed a single plate before realizing that most of the dishes weren't in the sink. Her own, as well as Jenny's, were still in the living room on the coffee table.

She turned off the water and returned to the couch. Jenny had slept next to her all night long. She seemed so innocent, as if she didn't have a care in the world. In some ways, Guin wished that Jenny could feel the pain she had, so that she wouldn't have to suffer alone anymore. But she didn't really mean for that. Jenny had never felt that kind of pain, because she'd never known her biological mother. Guin didn't want to make her feel that suffering, but she also didn't want to suffer alone.

Pulling the blanket up over her shoulders, she planted a soft kiss on her forehead. She didn't know why she did it, as she never had before, but it was allegedly something mothers did for their kids, and she didn't want to be a bad mother.

After moving the dishes to the sink, she knew that there was still a plate and two glasses unaccounted for, and it wouldn't take a genius to figure out where they were. Into the hallway, she found four doors. One of them, she knew very well, as it was Jenny's room. Guin had been over here to see Jenny often enough that her steps almost forced her to gravitate toward that door, but that wasn't her goal.

She stepped up to a door with yellow tape all over it, with "Caution! Keep out!" printed on it. Her new son, the donkey colt, slept here. She knocked lightly on the door, loud enough that he could hear her if he were awake, but not loud enough to wake him.

When no response came, she pushed open the door. "Kurt?"

The room was surprisingly clean. She would have expected a mess, as he was a teenage boy who'd been without a mother for a decade, but everything was picked up and put away, with a few exceptions. Granted, it looked like he hadn't swept the floor in months, and a thin layer of dust covered some things he hadn't messed with in awhile, but all of his clothes were either put away or in a hamper, the desk in the corner looked clean with the exception of last night's dishes, and the messiest thing in the room was his bed, which he was sleeping in. Half of the bed things had been unceremoniously kicked to the foot of the bed in a big pile.

She grabbed the dishes and left the room, closing the door silently so as not to wake him. After taking those to the sink, one glass remained, and that was Jack's. She knew that dishes didn't generally go into bedrooms, so she was certain that this was a rare occurrence, at best.

After softly knocking, she heard a loud snore, and she knew he was sound asleep. She walked in as quietly as possible, trying to keep it that way.

She'd never been in here before. She'd never been in Kurt's room, either, but this room always felt very off limits. This was an adult's bedroom, and it didn't look anything like a kid's bedroom. This was very rustic, with wood-paneled walls and a worn brown carpet. He had a faux fur blanket, though rather than the soft and fluffy fur most fillies had on their blankets, this was thick and wirey, meant to simulate that of a real animal, rather than a fantasy beast. It matched his own coat, and that made her feel uneasy.

He was lying on top of it, snoring loudly. She'd never seen anypony splayed out like this. He was mostly on his back, with his left hoof under his pillow and his right draped over his stomach. His back legs were splayed wide open, and two large round objects, like eggs, were hanging in a small leathery pouch growing out of his skin. She'd never seen anything like them, but she didn't have anything like that. Maybe it was just adults? Maybe it was just boys? Maybe it was just donkeys?

A part of her wanted to wake him up and ask about them, but she was already unsure if she should even be in here. She'd been married for less than a week, and she didn't know if it was okay for a wife to see her husband like this. She didn't even know if she was allowed in here.

She found the glass and took it back to the kitchen, and started washing the dishes as best she knew how. She usually went to go make sure her homework was in her bag when her grandmother was washing dishes, as gran had always told her that she needed to further her education and be more than a warm, wet hole for some dealer. Guin didn't know what that meant, but she'd always wanted to make her gran proud. She had to at least try to be a good wife and mother.