#they tell their daughter the truth when Vale is old and sick and Marc is freaking out

[astronicht]

how do things change if its vale who has the baby in roman au? he's old been emperor for most of his life thinks he's dying they've successfully managed to poison him finally but nope out pops a baby

Short answer is that in Roman AU: Mpreg Edition he doesn’t, partly because that’s actually a fairly set version of the story running along the main fic, but mostly bc if he got knocked up in Roman AU he would historically accurate mabort so fucking fast. I do see your references to cryptic pregnancy in the ask tho!!

So ok. On a practical level, Vale canonically bottoms once for Marc and it’s actually IN Roman AU, so he’d have to get knocked up in a pre-Marc tryst or he’d have to get knocked up in his post dinner party Marc hookup, which for uhhhhhhhhhh logistical sex reasons is unlikely, but those are pretty much the options.

However if he DID get knocked up via the hookup at the end of the fic, and if as you kinda imply he kinda goes the cryptic mpregnancy route, 1) Marc would probably notice, and also the fleet of doctors, but we ignore that 2) Vale would be horrified and try to give the baby up to someone like Luca, to pose as his. Marc and Vale visiting the baby in secret kind of thing.

So for the action itself, you have Vale slinking off to, he thinks, either ride whatever poison out or die with dignity, and ends up instead giving birth alone* (*marc manages to be there by the end). It’s awful, it’s terrifying. By the time Marc arrives it happens pretty fast and pretty bloody. They’re in like an abandoned barn near Tivoli that Vale used to hide in as a kid. Vale came here to die and now Marc’s clutching his hand while Vale says horrible things including but not limited to “how could you do this to me” and “it’s not yours” (lie) and Marc never ever lets go of his hand.

Vale after trying to follow the standard midwife’s advice and not breastfeed at all, knows he should hand the baby right off to a wet nurse to try to stop his own milk as fast as possible. Does have to nurse the baby right away once or twice tho bc it’s just him and Marc and the viscera and the baby. Marc bloody-handed trying to guide the baby’s head to help it latch. Vale in some kind of mental collapse tbh, in part bc the emperor never actually gets privacy, so Vale disappearing is going to start a civil war in maybe five more hours. Part of the reason he was lashing out by telling Marc the baby isn’t his is bc he can’t claim the baby isn’t VALE’s like. Marc just saw everything. Worse, Vale knows. But this man does not want a natural born heir! He was a natural-born heir and yes it’s all fine NOW but he spent his childhood dodging assassins alone.

However he’s also survived this long for a reason, so he’s still bleeding and watching Marc fumble through cutting the umbilical and is telling Marc he (Vale) will have to say his absence was an attempted coup that Vale survived. It has to stay a secret. No one can know. The baby has to go to someone, now.

(Notably, if MARC carries the baby in Roman AU then Vale would allow himself to not pretend it’s Luca’s etc. But not if he carried.)

And Vale is planning to drag himself up as soon as he can stand and stumble back into the palace at Tivoli and try to sell the idea that he just dispatched an assassin when he can provide no body no alibi and no proof. He is at least covered in blood and smelling like someone’s guts, so there’s that.

And he’s telling Marc, who is somehow here in this moments, “take it to someone. Luca or Franky. Not Uccio, people will guess” etc etc.

And Marc gets up and takes the baby. He’s not totally sure Vale is going to be ok. He takes it to idk Luca or Franky and shows up covered in blood. Then he goes and he finds and kills one of Vale’s guards. And then plants the body so Vale’s insane cover story bears some credence and there’s a dead man to blame for Vale’s “kidnapping”. Then finds Pecco, gives him Marc’s own bloody sword, and says, with crazy dead eyes, something like, “You just killed a guard who kidnapped Valentino. The guard’s body is in the west garden.” And long story short Vale gets away with his cover story, one innocent man is murdered, Luca (still not sure it’s Luca but probably??) tactfully retires to a different country villa with an infant in tow, and Pecco gets all the credit and a second consulship out of this and can never ever tell the truth about it. Vale only realizes everything Marc did after the fact. Hashtag romance. They are both a little fucked up over this for the rest of their lives I guess??