People, Please Hibernate with the Bears

A bear found a human in the snow.

The little human had just turned eighteen and was curled up inside the bear’s military coat, a cute little thing. But humans couldn’t just be left in the bear world, so the bear planned to take the human home.

As soon as the bear had the idea, the human threw back their head and let out a wail.

Tears came pouring down, and the human cried out between sobs, “I don’t have a home anymore.”

The bear was at a loss, watching the little human’s nose twitch with each sob.

Then a sudden thought struck: “Do you want to marry me?”

If the human married the bear, they could stay in the bear world.

Human: “Then you can’t leave me behind...”

And so the human got a big bear for a husband, and the bear got a little human wife.

The bear was a captain in the Big Bear Corps, all hard muscle. He’d always lived a rough life, but the little wife he brought home was delicate and frail.

He couldn’t speak too loudly, or he’d scare the human. He couldn’t eat raw lamb, or the human would cry.

The human clung to him, always wanting a hug, wanting to be lifted up high, and wanting to bury their little face in his chest and nuzzle around until the bear felt prickly all over.

“Hold me tighter... even tighter...”

Oh well. The bear liked the human.

The human liked their big bear husband, too. A lot! So, so much!

Oh, and the human was carrying the bear’s cub!

The human thought: “Now there’s no way I’ll be abandoned!”

But right then, war suddenly broke out.

The bear had to go to the battlefield.

It was the Big Bear Corps’ duty. The human could do nothing but hold their not-yet-rounded belly and watch the door, waiting for the bear to return. They waited as their belly grew rounder by the day, and their whole body began to radiate the soft, warm glow of pregnancy.

Then one of the husband’s comrades arrived.

A silent, towering battle bear.

The battle bear didn’t have much fondness for humans. They were too weak, and would break if you so much as touched them.

He delivered the news of the bear’s death in a matter-of-fact tone, left the compensation money provided by the corps, and turned to go. As expected, he hadn’t even taken two steps before he heard the human sobbing behind him.

“You lied! You promised you wouldn’t leave me behind!”

Like a bear cub with its tail stepped on, crying and making a fuss. What a headache.

The battle bear didn’t understand. Dying on the battlefield was an honor. What was there to cry about?

Then, one night, the human came to knock on his door, round pregnant belly and all.

The human spoke timidly. “Mr. Battle Bear...”

A pipe had burst in the human’s home, soaking them from head to toe. Even their little belly showed faintly through the wet clothes. They looked so pitiful that the battle bear muttered a curse under his breath, took off his military coat, and wrapped it around them from head to toe.

It was just that the human’s home was too waterlogged to live in.

With a stern face, the battle bear had no choice but to take the human home for now.

He thought: Just a few days. As soon as the place is fixed up, I’ll send the human off.

The human sensed that Mr. Battle Bear didn’t seem to like them very much.

They were terrified of being abandoned, so they tried their hardest to prove their worth, cooking, doing laundry, and cleaning, constantly busy for fear of being thrown out again. Their little belly did make it a bit inconvenient, though.

The human was so obedient that when their breasts became painfully swollen in the middle of the night, they just held them and cried. When the battle bear found them, they hurried to apologize, eyes red.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Battle Bear. Did I wake you...?”

Then came those same sobs, growing louder and louder.

“Don’t kick me out. Don’t kick me out. I don’t have a home anymore.”

Their husband had died, and now the human had no home for the second time.

Humans really were a nuisance.

The battle bear had no choice. He recalled what they’d taught in the corps’ biology class and resigned himself to pulling the human over.

His rough paws carefully rubbed them, massaging their chest, then their legs, then their waist. Before long, he shifted back to his true form, let the human lie on his soft, furry belly, and gently stroked their back with a paw as he soothed them.

The human stopped crying, hiccupped through their tears, and let out a contented little hum.

“Mr. Battle Bear is so warm...”

Winter came. The house was toasty, but the human was still afraid of the cold.

The battle bear looked down at him in silence.

Hibernating with the little human didn’t seem like such a bad idea...

A guide to the charms of little bears:

1. Both are each other’s first and only partners / not both※

2. I haven’t decided whether to start with the big bear or the battle bear. Mostly I want to write something sweet and indulgent, with plenty of domestic life and pregnancy. The human and bears are very different in size. The battle bear is disdainful at first, but eventually comes around. The human is deeply insecure because of past abandonment, which will be explained.

3. I haven’t decided whether the bear husband will be revived through a time-travel-to-the-past plot. There may be an alternate timeline.

Theme: Care and responsibility