Chapter Text
Being pregnant was one of the strangest things he had ever experienced.
Neito cupped the swell of his stomach with both hands, running them over it slowly. Less than a year ago, this was not how he thought his life was going to go. He thought he’d been about to be stuck working for the people who raised him running the company his mother’s family had started. There hadn’t been a choice available for him – that was who he was supposed to become. He hadn’t wanted it but there had been no room for him to make that decision.
Now, however?
Now he had a mate, a child on the way, a dad and a sister, and the memories of his father. There was laughter in his life, as well as happiness, and the fact that he smiled when he thought about his family was all the proof he needed that things were better.
A warm hand slid down his back, curling over his waist and pulling him closer. “Tetsu,” Neito turned his head to meet his mate’s eyes, wrapping their tails together. Tetsutetsu hummed, a soft trill echoing between them. His hand moved to rest just beneath Neito’s, cupping the bottom of his stomach like he was going to support the weight of Neito’s body on his own.
“You’re gorgeous,” Tetsutetsu murmured. He trailing his mouth along Neito’s neck, trilling the entire time.
“You’re just saying that because I’m carrying your kids,” Neito grinned when Tetsutetsu pulled back his head to narrow his eyes at him. “I’m just saying – your heir is in here.” He laughed when he was suddenly pushed onto his back, Tetsutetsu braced above him. Their hands were tangled together, Tetsutetsu’s weight carefully arranged so that he wasn’t leaning too heavily on Neito, his entire body kept off the swell of his stomach.
Tetsutetsu grinned as well. “You’re gorgeous whether or not you’re carrying my kids,” he leaned down and pushed his mouth against Neito’s, both of them laughing. “You’re fucking beautiful when you are but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re gorgeous anyway.”
Less than a year since they had begun a trip to get a royal family member home. Less than a year since Neito had found his biological family and been welcomed home. Himiko and Yuuga and Jin and his father – Sana. A mer he didn’t really remember. His memories of his father were hazy and faded, only the faint impression of careful hands and a steady voice. Sana had been quietly delighted with everything his children had ever done, Jin had told them. He had wanted to watch his triplets grow up and be safe and happy. He had been gruff at times, quiet at others, but he had loved so much it was a wonder. There had been no hesitation in him.
Jin had told Neito that there was a lot in common between the two of them.
He hadn’t grown up with his actual family, with the people who would have cared for him and loved him, but he was going to be okay now. He had them back. Neito trilled softly as Tetsutetsu rolled partially away to grab a bag, pulling it closer to hold it up with a smile. “I brought you some stuff from home,” he grinned, looking pleased with himself. “Prince Izuku said to say hi, so did Prince Shouto. And—” he curled his tail up, leaving the end tangled with Neito’s. “Prince Touya and Prince Tenko did as well. They were visiting.”
There were still some details that needed to be resolved. Neito and Tetsutetsu, though officially mated, did not live in a single place. With the pregnancy and the babies on the way, Neito was staying in Kurai until the babies were born.
Yuuga was one of his most frequent visitors. He and his brother were rebuilding their connection, trying to figure each other out.
Prince Fumikage was due to be officially coronated in a week. Neito would be at his brother’s side – Himiko would be as well, she and their dad coming to visit. Once the babies were born, it was likely that Neito would be officially a citizen of Endeavor. The proximity to the house his family lived in on land was a good reason, as well as the fact that Tetsutetsu could be assigned as a guard there. If things worked out the way that the healers were hoping, Neito would have the babies just before the coronation. Now that Prince Fumikage could visit Ingenium and make treaties with the new Kings, things were working out much more smoothly.
Neito sat up slowly, pushing himself up to rest against the bed-spot.
Things were still uncertain, he thought, waiting for Tetsutetsu to pull things out of the bag. There were still problems and there were still things they needed to work through.
But they were mated.
Official mates.
He had his mate and his family and a support system. If the company ever came after them again, he had people he could rely on. Neito was not alone in the world anymore. There were people who cared about him beyond the placeholding provided by an experiment they had been running. If the people he’d grown up knowing came after them again, they would be ready.
Tetsutetsu held out a book, catching Neito’s attention with a soft trill. “I did not know if you wanted it, but I found this in that house.”
That house.
The phrasing was always how Tetsutetsu referred to the house Neito had been kept in, growing up. The empty house with cold rooms and smiles no one actually meant. Taking the book in his hands, Neito turned it over and frowned. “It has a few photos,” Tetsutetsu chewed on his lip for a moment, shrugging. “They haven’t come back to the house yet, it’s staying empty. There’s no sign that says it’s for sale, so I think they’re keeping it but the indicators I laid out are still intact. No one has come through any of the openings except for me.” He set his bag to the side, pulling Neito into him. Humming, Tetsutetsu nuzzled against Neito’s gills. “I think they’re still out there, waiting, but they seem to be leaving the house alone.”
“That’s something to deal with in the future,” Neito leaned into him, his hands clasped tight around the book. “…You said photos?”
“Here,” Tetsutetsu nudged the book open, the magic he’d wrapped around it to keep it safe and dry flickering into an active state. “They aren’t great photos and it’s a little not-good to see it, but,” he lay the book out flat in their combined hands. The photo was of a mer in a tank, pressed against the glass with an expression of consideration.
The mer had a silver tail and matching hair streaked with bronze. The eyes staring at the camera were teal.
Neito touched a finger just under his own eye, feeling his heart trip on a beat. “That’s him,” he ran his fingers across the photo. The date told him that it was taken not too long before his father’s death and dissection. The mer in the photo was Sana, he knew. The notes around the photo were about where he had been found. When Neito turned the page, there was another photo.
Sana, looking angry, held an infant to his chest.
From the coloration of the tail, the way it was all patterned, Neito could tell it was him. “You grabbed this for these photos?” he turned his head to meet Tetsutetsu’s eyes. His mate nodded, looking nervous for a moment. Neito reached up to turn his head, kissing his cheek and then just staying there. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you so much.” His mate wrapped both arms around him, around the twins he carried, and Neito pressed against him. They couldn’t change the past, couldn’t alter it in any way, but they could shift the outlook of the future.
Tetsutetsu’s tail moved against his, clutching him closer.
There were things that still needed to be done, questions that had to be answered, choices that had to be made.
With the pieces of his life pulled back together, Neito knew he wanted to help others do the same. If his captors had raised him in one part of the company, what was the other part? Where was it located? When he and his father had been captured, the company had been on an ocean shore. Yuuga had been thrown to safety in the water, followed by Sana lashing out to keep them from following after Neito’s brother. According to Keigo, Sana had come in with injuries that almost killed him. They had managed to talk for a little while – Keigo had found out that Sana had tried to also throw Neito but the injuries had been retaliation.
The story wasn’t over, Neito knew that much, but they could let it rest for the moment.
The twins wiggled in his stomach and he laughed, pulling one of Tetsutetsu’s hands over top of the movement. His mate laughed and trilled, looking spellbound.
Everything they had gone through had been so much but here they were. There were problems ahead and dangers to face but they were going to be parents. There were bright spots amongst the horrors they were living with, light against the blackened, burnt background of Neito’s past. There was so much he was grateful for, even with how much trouble it had brought him. One of the biggest changes in his life had been one of the best – being dragged along for the ride when Hitoshi and Prince Shouto had been setting out to find Prince Izuku and bring him home.
Their first daughter, a green-and-white speckled mer, was named Suzume. She had Izuku’s freckles and Shouto’s eyes. Prince Shouto had been roughly three months along when Izuku had figured out that Neito was carrying.
Princess Suzume was two months old, now.
Neito was due any day.
There were still problems to solve and monsters to face and questions to answer.
But there were children and lovers and mates and happiness as well. The world could only be lost to darkness and anger if they let it be.
And Neito had no intention of letting it happen. Not when he had just gotten his family back.
His hands laced together with Tetsutetsu’s, Neito let himself drift off into a doze.
If he had to, he would fight to defend the life he had built.