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As the sun set over the city of Pyroxene, Leona stepped out of the taxi and onto the street outside of Cater’s condo. With Cater’s “day job” being working at Twisted Studios, the redhead couldn’t always stay at the Sunset Savanna palace all the time. It was easier for Leona, given he was a member of the capitol’s spelldrive team, but Cater had to be on the move more.
Leona didn’t like this condo. It was smaller than the suite the family had in the Sunset Savanna palace, despite both being “two bed, one bath” and having a kitchen and a living room, and Leona had to admit he loved the space he had back at the palace.
But that didn’t make this condo any less of a home for him, thanks to the people inside
He walked up the stairs to the second floor, and approached the door with the key in hand. With a quick turn of the key, the door was unlocked, and Leona stepped in.
“Papa!” A voice shouted, and Leona smiled as he saw his son running to meet him at the door. Leona bent down and picked up the boy into his arms.
“Hiya Gino.” Leona grinned at the boy. “How has it been with Daddy?”
“Fun!” Gino said as he pawed at Leona’s face. “The stu…Stu… Studio is fun! Vil is nice!”
“Vil is nice, huh?” Leona frowned, mostly playful in his disappointment. “I’m glad he treats ya good, at least.”
“You should come!” Gino smiled wide at him.
“I’ll definitely come while I’m here.” Leona said as he walked deeper into the condo, where Cater was smiling at him from the kitchen.
“Perfect timing.” Cater pointed at the pair with a wooden spoon. “Dinner is almost ready. So I need you two to go wash up.”
“You heard the man.” Leona grunted as he put down the boy. “Go wash your hands.”
“Yes papa!” Gino said as he turned and ran to the bathroom. Leona watched for a moment as the boy stepped on his step stool and washed his hands at the sink… Only for his viewing to be interrupted by a kiss on the cheek.
“Welcome home, babe.” Cater said before he went back to cooking.
“It’s good to be here.” Leona smirked and followed the redhead. He wrapped his arms around Cater’s hips and nuzzled into his neck.
“So, how was spelldrive training?” Cater asked as he placed steaks into the skillet with a delicious smelling sauce.
“Terrible.” Leona grumbled into Cater’s shoulder. “It’s no fun without my trophy husband t’ cheer me on.”
“I’m being serious!” Cater laughed as he nuzzled back. “How is the team looking?”
“Pretty good, honestly.” Leona nodded, and paused to keep up the snuggle, only to start talking again after he let go to wash his hands. “The team is looking great. The rookies seem competent enough. One of them might even be an opening player. I think we’ve got a league winning team.”
“You always say you’ve got a league winning team.” Cater smirked at his husband.
“And I’ve only been wrong twice.” Leona countered as he started to dry off his hands.
“You’re confident. I like that in a man~” Cater winked at him, before his smile turned softer, more genuine. “...I’m glad to see you though. I always miss you when we’re apart like this.”
“And you always say that.” Leona said as he leaned over and put a hand on top of Cater’s. “I’ll always be with you though.”
“I know you will.” Cater turned and gave Leona another kiss on the lips. “Now, grab a plate and get your steak before it turns medium.”
With that, Leona made two plates. One for himself, the other for his son. A rare steak each, along with broccoli and rice. The lion and his son both took their steak rare, the preference of their lion genes, while Cater took his medium. Under normal circumstances, Leona would consider it a sin, but since it was Cater he would let it slide.
He had warned the human on a steakhouse date that he was on thin ice though, many years ago.
Leona sat his plate down in front of his usual chair, and put Gino’s down in front of the child in the heavily cushioned chair for height. With the plate in front of his son, Leona went to the hard work of cutting up Gino’s steak into reasonable sizes for the child.
“Thank you Papa!” Gino said as he grabbed his fork. Leona ruffled his son’s hair before he sat in his own seat, and soon they were joined by Cater who held a matching plate. Cater and Leona ran back into the kitchen, and Leona grabbed drinks for himself and his son while Cater grabbed himself a drink along with a bottle of hot sauce.
“Alright, dig in!” Cater said, and the family started eating. The conversation was pleasant around the table, with Cater talking about his time at the studio and Gino excitedly chiming in at what he did during work time with Daddy, albeit in the excited, incomplete words of a three year old. Eventually the meal wound down and all that was left was the broccoli on Gino’s plate.
“Can I have some ice cream, Daddy?” Gino asked with a smile up to Cater. Both of his parents frowned and looked at the broccoli on his plate.
“...Are you full, Gino?” Cater asked. Given the couples’ work with nutritionists in their separate occupations, both had agreed they wouldn’t force the “clean plate club” on their kids for the sake of overeating… But knowing if someone was full was easy when you had animal senses and a child who didn’t know how to neatly lie yet.
“Yeah…” Gino said nervously. Cater glanced over at Leona, just to confirm, and the lion shook his head.
“You can’t have ice cream if you don’t eat your veggies.” Cater said. “Come on, they’re good for you.”
“Nooooo… Broccoli is weird… It’s gross… Makes my… mouth feel gross…” Gino frowned and looked down. He wasn’t throwing a tantrum, but instead just felt sad.
“Gino, I-” Cater started, before his voice hitched and he shook his head. “No, it’s fine. No ice cream, but you don’t have to finish your broccoli.”
“Aight…” Gino was relieved, and he got up from his table to go back to playing with his toys. Cater took Gino’s plate, and Leona got up with his own plate.
“No, no, go play with Gino.” Cater said as he reached out for Leona’s plate.
“Are you sure?” Leona asked as he gave Cater the plate. Cater nodded.
“Yeah, go play with Gino.” Cater put on a fake smile. Leona frowned a bit, but the lion was willing to let Cater cool off from the veggie argument.
“Alright. Thank you.” Leona smiled back and turned to go play with Gino. He walked into the living room, where Gino was playing with some building blocks that Yuu had gotten them for a baby shower. ‘Duplos’ the human had called them.
“...Papa, is Daddy mad at me?” Gino asked as he looked up at Leona. Leona knelt down next to Gino and shook his head.
“No, he’s just…” Leona sighed and picked up a block. “Being a Daddy is hard sometimes, because we’re looking out for you… We care about our family, you know.”
“Okay…” Gino frowned. “...Is Daddy crying?” Leona glanced up. Apparently both he and Gino’s lion hearing could hear it.
“I’ll go check on him, alright?” Leona put on a smile and gave his son a kiss on the forehead, an attempt to keep him calm. “He probably just nicked himself cleaning off the knives.”
“Nicked?” Gino asked.
“A small cut. I’ll be right back.” Leona explained before he headed right back out into the kitchen, where he found Cater sitting on the floor, knees hugged to his chest. Leona sat down next to him, put his arms around him, and started softly shushing.
“Hey, hey, I’m right here.” Leona whispered. “Focus on me. Focus on me. Deep breath. One, two, three, four, five… Now out. One, two, three, four, five.” He could feel Cater’s shivering form start to calm down, and the sobbing seemed to stop as well after a few rounds of breathing.
“I-I’m sorry…” Cater whispered with a soft laugh, an attempt to calm down even more. “I-I don’t know why that hit me…”
“I don’t think either of us want t’ be mean t’ Gino.” Leona said as he rubbed Cater’s sides. “He’s our son…”
“No, I…” Cater took another deep breath. “Talking about broccoli somehow made me think… Trying to get him to eat veggies made me remember when my sisters force fed me sweets, and… I can’t do that to him.”
“Feeding him broccoli ain’t one to one with what they did at all…” Leona started before Cater shrugged in annoyance.
“I-I know, it doesn’t make any damn sense…” Cater pulled away slightly, before he ended up leaning back against Leona for comfort. “...I-I’m sorry that my brain is like this… I-I just want to be a good dad and…”
“Hey, hey, we are good parents.” Leona said. “... Or at least competent… And we’ve got each other… I can be the dick parent when you can’t.” Cater laughed and gave one last shiver as he leaned against Leona.
“...Thank you…” Cater whispered. “Once Gino is in bed, I… Want you just to hold me…”
“Of course…” Leona said before he gave Cater a kiss. “Think you can stand up now?”
“Yeah, I can.” Cater said, and he slowly stood up. “...Thank you Leona.”
“You’re welcome, Cater.” Leona put on a small smile as he got up to his feet. “...Gino and I’ll be waiting with the blocks.”
“I’ll be right there.” Cater said. He took another deep breath as Leona turned to go back to parenting… Both men grateful for the family they had.