Luna Bubbles sat on the crystal-edged bench outside her bunker and pressed both palms against her belly. The swimsuit top rode up over the swell. Her green eyes watered. She needed a hand that wasn't hers, and she needed it before the next wave hit. That was the whole shape of her life now: find an elf who wouldn't flinch when the burp finally came out. She had figured the cycle out alone. Rub, burp, relief. Skip the rub and the gas locked in her ribs like a fist. She had tried holding burps in once. Her belly swelled until the swimsuit cut red lines into her pale skin. So she stopped pretending. She burped when she needed to. She burped in the face of the boy who laughed at her, then walked off without a word. Her long pointy ears still went hot when she thought about it. The bunker behind her was a low earthen mound with a sealed metal hatch. She had dragged it together as a place to wait out the worst. Beside the bench she had staked a glowing diagram, a body sketched in circles and arrows, pointing to the spot under the ribs where pressure built. Anyone who passed could read it. Push here. Wait for the burp. Don't pull away. She had drawn the last line herself, three times, because the first two readers had still pulled away. Footsteps came up the path. Two men. The shorter one wore a black polo with a red logo and grey cargo pants. The taller one wore a black tee and ripped jeans, tattoos down both arms. They stopped at the diagram. The tattooed one read it twice. The other one looked at her belly and then at her face, careful, like he was checking her permission. "I need a hand," Luna said. Her voice came thin. "Now. Or it gets worse." She fidgeted with her fingers in her lap. Dylan Smith stepped forward first. He knelt by the bench and set his palm flat on the curve of her stomach. Axel Drake crouched on the other side and laid his hand beside Dylan's. Neither said anything stupid. Luna closed her eyes and let them rub in slow circles, the way the diagram showed. The burp climbed up fast. It came out loud and long, hot against the open air between them. She braced for the flinch. Dylan kept his hand where it was and gave a short laugh, low, not mean. Axel said, "Again." His blue eyes didn't move off her face. The pain in her ribs unhooked. Luna opened her eyes and looked at both of them, two hands still on her belly, neither pulling back. For the first time the test had not failed. Now she had two who passed, and only one heart to give.

Luna sat between the two men, her belly still warm under their hands. Dylan's palm pressed steady on the left. Axel's hand stayed flat on the right. The relief from the last burp was already fading. Another wave was building under her ribs. She had two who passed her test, and she still had not picked one. She did not get the chance. A shadow fell over the bench. Past the diagram, on the rise above the path, a stone tower stood where no tower had stood that morning. A bright glass bottle sat planted in the dirt at its base, label turned toward Dylan, bubbles catching the light. Luna had not seen it appear. She had not heard footsteps either. The air went heavy and hot. A red hand closed on Dylan's wrist and lifted it clean off Luna's belly. Voracia stood over them, white hair loose, black horns sharp, her own huge belly straining the spiked armor. She moved Dylan's hand to her own stomach and held it there. Axel pulled back on his own. Luna's belly clenched without a hand on it. She fidgeted with her fingers in her lap and did not speak. Voracia looked down at Luna and burped. It was loud and long and aimed straight at her face. The sound rolled across the clearing and rattled the diagram stake. Voracia did not blink. "Dylan is mine," she said. "Bring your belly near him again and you will be my next meal. Then my burps will be the ones he loves." She said it flat. She did not raise her voice. Dylan kept his hand where she had put it and said nothing. His hazel eyes went to Luna once, then away. Luna's ribs locked. The burp she needed climbed up and stuck. She looked at Axel. Axel looked back, steady, and gave the smallest nod. He set his hand on her belly again, slow, in front of Voracia, and rubbed a short circle. The burp broke free, smaller than the last, and the pressure eased. Voracia watched without moving. Then she turned Dylan toward the tower and walked him up the rise. The bottle stayed planted in the dirt behind them. Luna pressed Axel's hand flatter against her stomach. One suitor was gone. The choice she had been turning over all morning was not hers anymore. Her belly was already filling again, and only one hand was left on it. "Stay," she said. Axel said, "I'm here." She did not look at the tower. She looked at the diagram, at the last line she had drawn three times, and counted the seconds until the next burp.

Axel kept his hand on Luna's belly until the next burp passed. Then he stood and stretched. Luna stayed on the bench and watched the path. A tall woman with blue skin had drifted up to the rise. She wore a loose hoodie pushed high over a swollen stomach. She burped once, flat and loud, and looked straight at Axel. Luna knew that look. She had worn it herself. The blue woman set down a stack of stones near the foot of the rise. She wound a glowing vine around the base and sat beside it like she meant to stay. "Azura," she said, when Axel asked. "I heard a man up here doesn't flinch." She burped again into her sleeve. "Testing that." Axel did not move toward her, but he did not move away either. Luna's belly tightened under her own hand. Luna stood. She had a small metal band in her swimsuit pocket, kept there since the morning Dylan was taken. It had a chip set in the top that blinked when she turned it. She had been saving it for a quiet moment. There was no quiet moment coming. She walked past the diagram and up the rise, past Azura's stacked stones, and stopped at the highest point of the path. She set her hands flat on the dirt and pushed. The ground shifted under her palms. Concrete rose in a gray block, then antenna masts, dishes, a railed platform. The station locked into place above the rise with a hum she felt in her teeth. A burp pushed up her throat and broke loose as the last beam settled. She did not cover her mouth. Azura looked up at the tower and back at Luna. "Yours?" she asked. Luna nodded. "Mine and his." Luna walked back down to Axel. She took his hand, turned it palm up, and set the ring in it. "This is the sign," she said. "You wear it, she leaves." Axel looked at the ring. He looked at Luna's belly, already rounding again. He slid the band onto his finger. The chip blinked once and went steady. Luna burped, full and long, right at his chest. Axel did not move. He set his hand back on her stomach and rubbed a slow circle. Azura watched from her cairn. She stood, brushed off her sweatpants, and burped one last time toward the path. "Fair," she said. "I'll find my own." She walked back down the way she came. Luna kept Axel's ringed hand on her belly and turned to face the station on the rise. Voracia's tower stood across from it now, stone against concrete. Luna had a claim staked and a partner marked. Her belly was already filling again, and she did not look away from the other tower.

Axel kept his hand on Luna's belly through the night on the station platform. By morning, Luna's doubt had grown bigger than the bloat. He had stayed. He had not flinched. But staying was not the same as wanting. She had seen men endure a burp the way they endured a cold wind. She needed to know which one Axel was before she gave him another inch of herself. She slid out from under his hand and walked down the rise. He followed without asking. At the foot of the path she stopped at a tall shard of cracked crystal that had pushed up from the dirt overnight. Pink and green veins ran through the splits and gave off a low glow. She set her palm flat against it. "Here," she said. "Rub my belly here. If you mean it, I'll know." Axel set both hands on her stomach and pressed slow circles into the swell. Luna kept her eyes on his face. The pressure built fast under his palms. She did not fight it. A burp tore up her throat and broke against his chin, loud enough to bounce off the crystal behind her. Axel did not pull back. He did not blink. He smiled, small and real, and pressed his thumb deeper under her ribs to draw the next one out. "Again," he said. She burped again, longer, into his mouth almost. He laughed. Not at her. With her. The sound was short and surprised, like he had been holding it in for years. "I like it," he said. "I have always liked it. I want to hear them. All of them." He did not walk it back. He kept rubbing. He reached into his jacket and took out a jar. The liquid inside spun gold and pink when he tilted it. "Shake it," he said, and put it in her hand. She shook. The glow flared bright against her palm. "Every time you burp near me, it does that," he said. "I had it made. So you can see it on my face even when I'm quiet. Keep it. It's yours." Luna held the jar against her chest. Her hands stopped fidgeting. She burped once more, soft this time, and watched the jar flare. The doubt went out of her like air. She took Axel's ringed hand and led him off the path toward a small round cottage tucked in the vines at the edge of the rise. Glowing tendrils crawled across its walls and framed the door. "Inside," she said. "I want to know how loud I can get before you stop smiling." Axel opened the door for her. Across the rise, Voracia's tower still stood. Luna did not look at it. She had her answer, and she had a door to close behind them.