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Hizashi jolts awake in bed, panting and drenched in a cold sweat. Looking over to his alarm clock, he reads that it’s only three-thirty in the morning.
He hasn’t had that particular dream for a while now, but it still has the same effect on him. Hizashi hates to relive the fear that ran through his veins as he had to watch his mate crumpled after the USJ incident. It took months after that disaster before Hizashi stopped apologizing to his mate for what he thought was failure as a mate. It wasn’t until Shouta insisted that Hizashi see a therapist before he was able to work through his fears.
It’s been a while, but that doesn't mean he’s completely forgot about it.
He reaches around in bed until he is able to feel Shouta sleeping and alive next him. The alpha sighs in relief, feeling like he can finally breathe again. Okay, what did his therapist teach him about panic attacks like this? He thinks it was five breaths in and then hold it and then breathe out? He can’t remember perfectly at the moment, but it was better than nothing.
When Hizashi was able to calm himself down, he felt the intense need to have his family together. Shouta was accounted for, but where are his pups? Hizashi knows what he needs to do.
At two months, Shouta was already exhausted by the pregnancy, so it doesn’t surprise the alpha that he barely wakes when he picks his mate up from bed. Usually, Shouta would be alarmed if he was picked up out of bed when sleeping, but he knows his mate’s scent which immediately tells him he’s safe.
“Zashi?”
“Shhhhh, you’re okay. I’m just taking you to the nest. You can go back to sleep.”
“What’s going on?”
“Please just trust me,” Hizashi whispers. He doesn’t want to disturb him too much. Once the alpha lays his mate in the nest, he licks a stripe up his neck, over his bond mark, and up the side of his face to scent him.
“Ugh, Hizashi,” Shouta groans, not too keen on being licked when he isn't in heat.
“Sorry,” Hizashi responds, not sorry in the slightest. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
Before he can leave the nest, Shouta is already deep in sleep again. The man was on a mission, he had to get his pups.
Hizashi gently opens Eri’s door, but immediately notices that she’s not in her bed. He closes the door before rubbing his eyes and opens the door. Please just be a trick of his eye. Please tell him that his daughter is sleeping away in her room.
Nope. Where is his pup?!
He bolts down the hallway to Hitoshi’s room and lets out a sigh of relief when he sees Eri wrapped in a ton of blankets in his bed. But now where’s Hitoshi? The young alpha’s absence is less alarming given his son’s odd sleeping patterns.
Hizashi scoops Eri into his arms in her bundle of blankets and brings her to the nest with Shouta. His mate immediately wraps his arms around their daughter and pulls her close. The scene calms Hizashi’s alpha a little bit, but it would be better if his son was here, too.
It doesn’t take Hizashi too long to find him when he notices that some of the downstairs lights are on. Making his way down the stairs, he finds Hitoshi looking like a zombie in the pale light of the fridge, only in a large tshirt and a pair of boxers. Why Hitoshi doesn’t bother to turn on the kitchen lights, Hizashi doesn’t know. Teenagers are weird.
“Dad?” Hitoshi calls out, voice cracking slightly. If Denki was here, he would have roasted his boyfriend to a crisp.
“What are you doing? It’s three-thirty in the morning.”
“Getting a snack,” he responds, motioning to the open fridge.
“How hungry are you actually right now?”
“Not really hungry, just bored. Eri woke me up a while ago when she had a nightmare, and I haven’t been able to fall back asleep.”
“Great, come on,” the older alpha waves his hand so that Hitoshi would follow him back upstairs.
“What are we doing?” Hitoshi asks, closing the fridge.
“I need you to be in the nest.”
“What, why?” Hitoshi wasn’t used to being in Shouta’s nest.
“I need to know that you’re safe.”
“Fair enough.”
Hizashi follows his son into the master bedroom and into the nest where Eri and Shouta sleep peacefully. Hitoshi lays down at the bottom of the nest and pulls some blankets on top of himself. With the scent of Hizashi and the pregnant, milky scent of Shouta, Hitoshi can already feel himself fall asleep, which is impressive given his track record for insomnia.
Hizashi snuggles up to his mate, wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him to his chest. Hizashi finally feels content enough to fall asleep, knowing he has his family with him.
---
All four of them were still sleeping by the time the alarm went off that Monday morning. There was a collective groan as the alarm continued to ring, especially from Eri who was used to being awakened by one of her fathers instead of a loud and annoying noise.
“Where am I?” Eri asks while yawning and stretching her arms over her head.
“Nest,” Shouta mumbles, causing Eri to sigh and try to close her eyes again.
Shouta gives his husband a worried look over realising he brought them all to the nest. He was way too sleepy last night to fully recognize what happened.
Before he can ask his husband about last night (or this morning), Hitoshi bolts from the nest.
“I call dibs on the bathroom!” the young alpha yells as he races down the hallway to the bathroom he shared with Eri.
“No fair! I want to take a bath!” she yells, running after her brother. Hizashi and Shouta wait to hear the pounding on the bathroom door since Hitoshi has learned to immediately lock the door or else Eri will barge in on him.
“Dad!” Eri shouts.
Shouta and Hizashi share a look before the omega starts to get up from the nest. His conversation with his husband could wait a little longer.
“Eri honey, how about you help me make breakfast?” Shouta calls after her.
Hizashi listens as she tries to argue with her dad, but begrudgingly goes downstairs with him. While sometimes their mornings were a little hectic, Hizashi wouldn’t trade it for the world and couldn’t wait for them to be more hectic in seven months.
After Hizashi takes a shower and gets dressed, he makes his way down to the kitchen to switch places with his husband so that he can also get ready.
When Shouta passes him, he leans in to whisper in his alpha’s ear. “Let’s skip the first period this morning after we take the kids to school. I have a couple favors I can call in with Nemuri to cover my classroom, and I’m sure Mirio will watch Eri today.”
Hizashi widens his eyes at that. Shouta never, and he means never, offers to skip work. He must be pretty worried if he’s offering a quiet morning on a school day. The alpha nods his head at his husband who then pecks his cheek before leaving the kitchen.
The rest of the morning went by rather quickly. Hitoshi caught on to the mood of his parents and offered to drop Eri off at Mirio’s apartment before walking back to school, which they accepted easily.
The second the house is quiet, Shouta plops himself down in Hizashi’s lap and nuzzles his husband’s neck with his own scent glands. “Can we talk about last night?”
Hizashi feels so loved by his mate in the moment. He knows how difficult it is for Shouta to talk about more emotional topics, so the fact that he is trying to engage Hizashi into talking means a lot to him.
Hizashi leans forward to rest his forehead in the crook of his husband’s neck and wraps his strong arms around his waist. “I’m sorry, and I know it was stupid. I didn’t mean to throw everybody off. I just really needed to know that they were all safe, alpha instincts and all that,” he replies, sheepishly.
Shouta rubs the back of his head to soothe him. “It’s not stupid, I promise.”
“I just feel like I have no control and that I’m not enough. Shouta, villains are everywhere! How am I going to protect you and the pups?” Hizashi continues.
“Hizashi, you’re enough by just being here and loving us. We both know the world is unpredictable, but we’ll protect the pups together.”
Hizashi leans back so that he can look at his Shouta’s face. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Shouta smiles and presses a light kiss on his lips. “Do you think you want to see your therapist again? It could be good to talk about this with an outside source.”
Hizashi hums. “I’m thinking about it. I want everything to be sorted out before our pup makes their debut.” The alpha places a hand on Shouta’s stomach and rubs little circles. “I can’t wait to meet you, Mini-Me,” he whispers.
Shouta shoots him an incredulous look. “Mini-You?”
That makes Hizashi smile. “Well, yeah. Pup’s going to have blond hair and strong vocal cords, I can feel it in my soul.”
“Hizashi, do you know how unlikely that is? I have black hair.”
“Baby, I said my soul is telling me.”
“It’s not gonna happen,” Shouta teases his husband.
“Pup’s gonna have blond hair out of spite now.”
“Nuh-uh. We don’t need another loud blond around here.”
Hizashi leans in and gives his mate a passionate kiss, leaving him a little breathless. “We’ll see about that.”