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Noah handed over the last bag to Melissa with a slightly rueful smile. With a look like she was doing her absolute best not to laugh at him, she got stowed it away with the rest in the trunk, while he leaned into the back seat to give both the twins one final kiss goodbye for the night. They barely seemed to even register it as they continued to giggle and grizzle at each other, staring around the unfamiliar vehicle in wonder from beneath their many layers.
“Thanks, Mel, I’ll owe you one.” He gave her a brief but thorough hug in deference to the chill winds whipping around the driveway and tossing her dark hair around like a banner.
“I don’t mind in the slightest, you know that. They’re too tiny to be too much trouble yet, and frankly I love to see the look of low-key panic on Scott’s face when he sees me with them because he’s worried I’m going to start asking about grandkids.”
Noah snorted out a laugh and gave her one last squeeze before stepping back. “Well, glad to be of assistance then.”
“Exactly. Speaking of, get back in there and look after my other boy. It’s freezing out here, and I’ve got these two.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he cheekily replied, tossing her a jaunty salute as he stepped back inside. He waited until he saw her drive off with a last wave before heading towards his bedroom.
Chris was still curled up where he’d left him, looking miserable but clearly trying to be stoic about it. They all had their fair share of recurring aches these days, courtesy of both the creeping march of time and the sometimes rather unfortunate events of their lives, but due to both his father’s...well, Noah might call them training methods if he were feeling particularly generous about it; which he rarely was...and a couple of hunts gone rather severely wrong, Chris’ bad pain days tended to be far worse than Noah or Peter’s. A passing weather system was causing plummeting temperatures and frankly horrendous pressure changes, and Noah was currently feeling occasional twinges in places he didn’t even know could twinge. He couldn’t even imagine how much worse it was for his husband right now.
Exchanging his more outdoor appropriate attire for a t-shirt and flannel pants, he gingerly climbed up onto the bed and curled up as close as he could to where Chris was propped up with the specially shaped and supportive pillows left over from Noah’s pregnancy, a heating pad across his shoulders and around one knee. At least two layers of blankets were draped over him to help hold the heat in, with more piled at his feet if needed. He leaned over and pressed a gentle, lingering kiss to ruffled ashen locks, his hand almost instinctively reaching out to tangle with Chris’, his thumb stroking soothingly along one side as their rings clinked quietly against each other. A brief green glow lit up their twined fingers as he sent a burst of healing energy across. Some of the tension flowed out of Chris’ muscles, letting him melt more comfortably into the cushions, and Noah. He knew it wouldn’t help for terribly long- neither it nor the pain drain did- but it was something he could do to help at least ease some of his soulmate’s suffering, so he’d do it as frequently as Chris would let him.
“Still doing okay?”
Chris heaved a soft sigh and tilted his head to nuzzle his cheek against Noah’s. “No worse, at least.” There was the faintest twitch of Chris’ shoulders in what appeared to be an attempt at a shrug.
“Is it time for your meds yet?”
“I don’t really want to take any more for a bit if I can help it, make me feel too fuzzy,” he said with a slow shake of his head.
“Need anything?”
“Just you.” Chris sent him teasing look up through his lashes with the tiniest little adorable smirk on his face. Noah very badly wanted to kiss it off him, but figured that would be starting something his husband was in no shape to finish. “And Peter,” Chris continued with a glance past Noah’s shoulder, “if he ever manages to make it back.”
They’d managed to clear the house of all but themselves for the day so Chris could have some peace (they loved their kids, but there were just. So many of them.) The older kids were all at a party at Kira’s house (he supposed if anyone could keep most of their hellions and a handful of other kids under control, a 900 yr old kitsune could…), Ben was at a sleepover at a friend’s, and Melissa had generously offered to take the twins to her place since she’d had only a short, early shift today. The resulting freedom had lead to their husband announcing that it was high time they acquired some new films for their collection that they could enjoy for the first time without any “extraneous familial commentary.” After ascertaining that Peter was not intending to buy them any more porn, Noah reluctantly sent him to scavenge the used DVD section of the local Half-Price Books, slightly concerned what sort of travesties he might return home with, but knowing that their Alpha desperately needed to get out and do something to feel useful.
Almost as if Chris’ words had summoned him, Noah felt a tingling on the edge of his awareness that he only ever got around his husbands just as he caught the heavily muffled whir of the garage door opening and closing. Sure enough, Peter soon came waltzing in, one of their reusable bags dangling from his fingers and an elegant cream-colored box in his hand.
“Greetings my lovelies. I come bearing gifts,” he breezily announced, tossing his windblown hair out of his face with a move like he was in a damned shampoo ad. Noah was deeply irritated at how well he pulled it off.
Peter laid the items at the end of the bed and stripped off his coat and jeans, pulling his phone from his pocket and tossing it haphazardly towards the headboard. He gathered up the bag and box without bothering to put anything else on, climbing up next to the two of them in just his boxer-briefs and henley. Leaving his video findings to the side for the moment, he very carefully placed the box in Chris’ lap, lifting up the top flap with a surprising minimum of flair. The bounty contained within was a luscious looking pile of chocolate iced cream puffs, the scent of strawberries and cream wafting heavily in the air. They looked freshly made and richly decadent.
“My route home happened to take me past that patisserie you’re so fond of just in time for a new batch of these to be coming out.” He received matching fondly exasperated looks for the sheer unlikelihood of that statement, but neither called him on it. “I thought they’d make excellent snacks for our viewing marathon if you feel up to eating at any point.” As he spoke, he leaned in and sniffed delicately at Chris’ neck to try and get a read on his mood. Finishing with a soft nuzzle to his temple, he leaned back and glanced between the two Omega’s gazes.
“Thank you, Peter.” Chris’ face lit up with that happy little smile that always made Noah’s heart flutter, the faintest hint of a blush suffusing his cheeks. It was far preferable to the pale, pinched look he’d had most of the day, and Noah wanted to kiss Peter for putting it there. And also because his gorgeous husband was currently half naked and wearing smirk that managed to be somehow smug and shy all at the same time. And because he’d been gone for more than a couple of hours now and he still hadn’t gotten an I’m-home-and-I-missed-you kiss. Okay so he maybe had a lot of reasons to want to kiss Peter. Sue him.
Chris glanced consideringly down at the box, biting at his lip. “The nausea from the pain meds is still fading, but should probably be gone by the time we decide on a movie. I’ll look forward to them.”
With a happy little nod Peter moved the box to the far nightstand and snatched up the bag of DVDs. “Very well, gentleman. Allow me to share the wondrous artifacts I unearthed for us today.” Looking at the design of the labels on a couple of them, Noah wasn’t entirely certain Peter was kidding about that. He’d easily guess those titles to be fifteen to twenty years old at least. Their Alpha proudly scooped up one and held it up for their inspection.
“This delightful little dystopian number stars a former wrestler as a cop who gets captured by a gang of adorably young would be drug-runners and has to rescue both himself and his lady love. It looks astoundingly, laughably bad, but the gang leader is just absolutely precious, so I just couldn’t resist.” Noah wasn’t even sure where to start with that, and Chris was already looking amusedly resigned. Peter switched out the DVD for the next one, which Noah recognized and then had to fight the urge to facepalm.
“Next, we have this amazing cult classic that I know for a fact you have not had the joy of experiencing yet, Chris. I have had the pleasure, but it’s been rather a while and I was feeling nostalgic.”
“...Is that the one where they’re fighting demon ninjas to save the world or something…?”
“Indeed it is, in a glorious and amusing display of horrendously cheesy effects and impressive martial arts. So many sexy people beating on each other; it’s really quite enjoyable. I’m rather fond of one of the male leads myself.” He gave an exaggerated little shimmy. “Love me a man who can do the splits.” Chris rolled his eyes with an intensity that would have dropped him back into the pillows if he weren’t already there at that declaration, while Noah just reached up to pinch between his eyebrows for a moment. Blithely ignoring both of them, Peter swapped for the last DVD case. A gun-wielding Wolf Man style werewolf in a deputy’s uniform snarled out from the cover. Noah pinched a bit harder.
“This one is rather new, but I’ve heard good things about it. It’s also supposed to be mind-numbingly goofy, but surprisingly smart at the same time. Also it’s apparently chock-full of references to older, well-known classics of the werewolf genre.” Noah could practically feel the rant about lore inaccuracies building up under his fellow Omega’s skin. That sort of thing tended to drive Chris absolutely crazy, but it was so cute to watch him vent (a refreshing change to his tendency to suppress most things in the interest of harmony) that they just couldn’t help themselves sometimes. “From what I understand the first part of him to shift is his dick.” Noah dropped his forehead to Chris’ shoulder just in time to feel the full body twitch that went through the hunter.
“You do recall that I mentioned I picked up the box set for Stargate: Atlantis the other day, right? You know, the one with Jason Momoa? I told you both about that, right?” Noah tried with much desperation but little hope to dissuade his husband from his chosen films.
“Yes, yes, dear, so you’ve said several times now. We’ll get to that eventually,” Peter replied without even pulling his gaze from his perusal of the back of the case. He distractedly reached over and picked up the Omega’s joined hands, lifting them up to place an absent, if drawn out kiss to the back of Noah’s. At the same time, he saw black lines begin to snake up his veins from where his fingers linked with Chris’ own. Chris sagged gratefully back into his cushions, sighing somewhat blissfully at his temporary reprieve. Noah was tempted to keep arguing, if only for the sake of his eyeballs, but the wolf looked calmer and less frazzled than he had since they’d first realized it was going to be one of THOSE days for their husband, and Chris looked more comfortable than he had in a while, so he resigned himself to his fate with a mostly performative reluctance.
“Let’s get this horrorshow on the road, then,” he said, snuggling in closer to Chris. Peter snorted, grabbing up the first DVD and heading over to the TV stand. The deliberate sway to his hips as he walked was confirmed as he reached the TV and threw a sassy wink back over his shoulder. The two Omegas didn’t even bother to pretend any innocence, raising their eyebrows at him in sync as they continued to appreciate the view. He shamelessly repeated his performance on the way back to the bed, grabbing another blanket to layer over them as he crawled up to press as close as he could to Chris’ other side. Noah managed to snake an arm between a fold in the pillows so that he could reach across to Peter without jostling Chris, and placed a grounding hand at the bend of the alpha’s shoulder and neck. The tensed muscles there loosened fractionally, and he felt Peter drop a grateful peck to the side of his wrist in thanks. Giving a quick squeeze of their still clasped hands, Noah caught a glimpse of that tiny smile back on Chris’ face as he tucked his own into the side of Chris’ head on the pillow, breathing in the familiar scent of his shampoo and trying (and sadly failing) to ignore everything that was happening on the screen.
Ah well, he thought, not an entirely terrible day at least.