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Kei had to admit that he hated going grocery shopping. There were always too many people, too many scents mixing together, and the lights in the grocery store were an annoying fluorescent that bothered his eyes. Tetsurou would sometimes offer to go on his own to get what they needed, but Kei turned down that idea almost every time, including earlier that day.
“Why don't you just let me get the shopping done and you can stay here, Moonshine?”
Kei clicked his tongue in displeasure, sending his mate a glare with no real heat behind it.
“No way, you’ll get all the wrong things and won't know what I want.”
Tetsurou huffed out a breath of a laugh, coming over to the couch where Kei was sitting and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.
“That's because half the snacks and groceries we buy, you grab because it sounds good in the moment,” Kuroo says, earning another glare for his words.
“That's not true.”
“Hate to break it to you, Shortcake, but it is. We bought five bags of jalapeño chips two weeks ago, but you hate spicy food, you say it gives you ‘tummy rot.’”
Kei rolled his eyes, but he unfortunately knew the black haired alpha was right.
“Maybe so. Tadashi went through two of the bags the other day during movie night though, so maybe I’ll keep them stocked for him,” he shrugged.
Tetsurou snickered and relented, pushing Kei’s hair away from his forehead and pressing another kiss there.
Kei knew Tetsurou was fully capable of doing the grocery shopping on his own, but there was just something so… domestic about doing it together.
Growing up, especially in middle and high school, Kei never really thought that he would get to have something like this. He wasn't your typical omega; he was tall, towering over people, and alphas didn’t usually like that. Society expected omegas to be sweet, caring, maternal… everything Kei wasn’t.
Kei and Tadashi had dated for a bit in their first year of high school, and Kei thought he would have been happy to settle down with his beta best friend, but they had both soon realized that they were much better off as best friends.
When Kei had first met Kuroo, he had wanted nothing to do with him. On the surface, he had seemed like just another cocky alpha. However, after getting to know him better through their training camps, Kei began to see the alpha’s true personality. Sure, he could be cocky and came off as a jerk, but he was also kind, patient, and cared about his friends and team to a fault.
Looking back on it, Kei knows that there's no way he couldn’t have fallen for him.
He was jostled out of his thoughts by Tetsurou placing a hand on the back of his neck, gently rubbing his scent gland with his thumb. When he glanced over at his alpha, he had a questioning look on his face that would soon turn to concern.
“You alright, Firefly? You looked pretty spaced out there for a minute.”
Kei nodded, “I’m alright. Just thinking about how you should have brushed your hair before we came to the store.”
Kuroo let out a squawk of indignation, earning a quiet laugh from Kei.
“Cmon, Tetsu. I want to go to the bakery and see if they have my strawberry shortcake back in stock.”
They did in fact have it back in stock, and once Kei was content with the two small cakes in their cart, he started to get out his phone to check their grocery list, but was interrupted by a soft tug on his pants and quiet sniffling. He looked down to see a small girl, probably no older than four years old looking up at him nervously with tears streaming down her face.
Kei glanced over at Tetsurou before kneeling down in front of the crying girl and waited until she looked up at him until he said anything.
He spoke quietly in a voice he hoped was gentle and soothing.
“Are you alright? Where are your parents?”
The little girl’s bottom lip trembled before she let out a wet sob and threw herself at Kei. He got over his shock quickly enough and wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her tiny back with one hand. He looked up at Tetsurou in alarm, but he seemed just as lost as the blonde. Kei quietly asked his mate to go grab some tissues either from the bathroom or a pack they would end up buying, and Tetsurou nodded, quickly darting off to find some, leaving the cart behind to not slow him down.
Kei continued rubbing the girl’s back, softly muttering reassurances to her in hopes that he would be able to calm her down enough to get some information out of her.
Children often tended to drift closer to omegas than alphas, sometimes even betas, and from that point of view he understood why she came to him. On the other hand though, he generally didn't look very approachable, but he knew his strawberry scent had the tendency to be quite noticeable.
After another couple moments the girl’s sobs started to slow down until she was just sniffling pitifully in his arms. Kei pulled back slightly to look at her, trying not to cringe at the small trail of snot connecting her nose to his sweatshirt. Tetsurou came back at that moment, having already opened the new box of tissues and handing a couple to the blonde.
Kei took them gratefully and gently wiped at the girl’s face, getting the snot and tears cleaned up a bit. Now that she wasn't crying, he could get a better look at her. She had shoulder length black hair that was tied in low pigtails, large brown eyes, and a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks.
Kei couldn't help himself from cupping one side of her face and rubbing his thumb over her cheekbone in a way that must have been soothing from the way her eyes fluttered as well as the sigh she let out.
“Are you feeling a little better now, pup? Can you tell me your name? I’m Kei, and this is my mate Tetsu.”
The girl looked over his shoulder at the alpha who smiled at her, and she hid slightly in Kei’s arms again before peeking over his shoulder at him.
“I’m… I’m Koizumi Airi, I’m four years old, and I live in Sendai.”
She said it in a way that seemed like she had been taught to say it and practice it in case she ever got lost, and it made Kei’s heart clench.
“Hi Airi, it’s nice to meet you.”
Kei looked around for a moment again to see if there were any frazzled customers looking for a lost pup, but found none.
“Did you come here with anyone, sweetheart?”
Kei felt a brief flash of panic when Airi’s lower lip started wobbling again, but she held it together long enough to tell them that she was here with her mom, but she got separated from her a bit ago. Behind him, Kuroo made a sympathetic sound before coming around to Kei’s side and dropping down to one knee to be more eye level with the girl.
“Hey, that’s alright pup, we’ll get you back to your mom in no time, yeah?”
He gave her a goofy grin, causing Airi to pull back from Kei enough to look at the alpha, a small smile breaking across her face as she nodded.
“Your hair is silly, mister.”
Kei couldn't help the bubble of laughter that came from him at that as well as Kuroo’s fake offense toward the little girl.
“Silly? Me?! Never! This hair is perfectly sculpted by the gods, I’ll have you know!”
Airi only laughed harder, leaving her safe space in the omega’s arms to move closer to Kuroo, reaching up to pat his hair.
“It just looks like bedhead!”
Kei chuckled again, then got lost in his head for a moment looking at his mate interacting with the girl. Tetsurou was ‘defending’ his hair, laughing with the pup and ruffling her own hair, telling her it’d be as bad as his when he’d be done with it.
It made Kei feel… a certain way that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He and Tetsu had mated two years ago, and they had talked about kids here and there in passing, but had never really sat down and talked about it.
It didn’t help that Kei has always had an… interesting relationship with being an omega. He had wanted to be a beta his whole life, to get by largely unnoticed. He and his family had thought he might be an alpha when he hit his growth spurt, but then they were all surprised when he got his first heat.
He didn’t want his secondary gender to define him, so he hid his omega side for a long time. He wore scent patches, used scent neutralizing shampoo and body wash, and took his suppressants religiously. Kei did all of it until halfway through his first year of high school, when something changed.
Or rather, someone changed him.
Kei was pulled back to the present by a gentle hand on his cheek, the callouses on the palm long familiar. He looked up to see Tetsurou, his mate, his reason for changing, smiling at him, as if he knew what he had been thinking about.
“You ready to try and find Airi’s mom, Moonshine?”
Kei saw Airi, happy as can be, getting a piggyback ride from Tetsurou, small fists bunched up in the alpha’s shirt and giggling into his shoulder.
This.
This was something that Kei could have, if he just let himself.
Kei smiled and nodded at Tetsu, grabbing their cart to head to the customer service desk.
Once the three of them arrived at the front desk, Kei took Airi into his arms while Kuroo went to talk to the person at the customer service desk. Airi seemed content in Kei’s hold, her head resting on his shoulder and looking up at him, telling him about anything and everything that came to mind. Her current topic was pets, specifically what she wanted.
“My sister has a cat named Bao, because she was so so little when we got her and she was like a little bao! And- and my brother has a buncha fish! He’s got a really big tank, and at least like a million fish!!”
Kei laughed quietly at the over-exaggeration of ‘a million fish.’
“But- but when I’m old enough I want a snake!!”
Kei couldn't help the laugh that tore out of his throat at that, not expecting this small, sweet girl to be so enthusiastic about having a pet snake.
“Don’t laugh!! I want a snake!”
Kei muffled his laughter before giving her a smile.
“I wasn’t laughing at you, hon, you just remind me a lot of me when I was younger. You wanna know a secret?”
Airi’s eyes went wide, then she nodded furiously and leaned in closer.
“I have a pet snake at home that I’ve had since I was in high school.”
Airi’s eyes went even wider and her face broke out into a grin.
“Can I see!! Please can I see a picture!!”
Kei smiled fondly at her and pulled out his phone.
When Kuroo came back over to them a couple minutes later after asking the front desk clerk to make an announcement about Airi, Kei still had the girl in his arms, and they were going through pictures on his phone, the omega telling her about his snake in quiet tones. Airi was completely enraptured, eyes flicking between the phone and Kei’s face with rapt attention.
It was strange - but not in a bad way - for Tetsurou to see Kei like this.
Kuroo had always liked kids; most of his cousins were younger than him and he always had fun watching and playing with them. He had always been the “cool cousin,” and when his sister had her son he became the cool uncle, which he took very seriously.
He had been concerned when Airi had first run up to them, but had frozen up for the briefest of moments when Kei had barely hesitated to kneel down and comfort the girl. This was a side of Kei that Tetsurou didn’t get to experience very often; it was still his Kei, but softer, gentler, and Kuroo wasn’t prepared for the wave of love and emotion that took up every corner of his mind while he had gone to grab tissues.
He and Kei had officially been mated for two years, and their second wedding anniversary was in three months. He knew a long time ago that Kei was who he wanted to spend his life with, but seeing him today, comforting a random crying child, keeping her entertained and being so soft … it felt like he was falling in love with the blonde all over again.
Tetsurou wasn’t sure if Kei wanted kids. Hell, he wasn’t even completely sure he himself wanted kids. But as he walked back over to Kei, his mate, his husband, his forever , he felt sure they would figure it out.
After another couple minutes filled with the three of them talking, Airi still snug in Kei’s arms and Kuroo’s arm around his waist, they looked up when a woman let out a shout of relief as she beelined for them, teary eyes focused on Airi. The girl let out a shrill cry for her mom and leaned out towards her until the woman was close enough to pull her into her arms, immediately burying her face in her daughter’s hair for a moment. When she looked up at the two of them, she gave them a watery smile.
“Thank you, thank you so much! I turned away for just a moment and Airi was gone!”
She tightened her arms slightly around the girl, who had her face contently in her mother’s neck.
“Hey, it happens to the best of us. I love my mom but I made it super difficult for her to keep an eye on me,” Kuroo said with a laugh.
Airi’s mom smiled gratefully in understanding.
“Airi, what do you say to them for helping you?”
Airi turned around to look at them again, a smile back on her face.
“Thank you for helping me find Mommy!”
Kei and Tetsurou gave her matching fond looks before Kei spoke up.
“You're very welcome, Airi. Stay with your mom next time, okay?”
Airi grinned and nodded in agreement before they said their goodbyes, until Tetsurou and Kei were standing with their cart, both their minds racing with similar thoughts.
“Well, Moonshine, shall we finish getting our groceries?”
Kei nodded, leaning forward after a moment to press a kiss to Tetsurou’’s cheek.
Several hours later found the two of them curled up on the couch together, Kei’s legs thrown over the alpha’s lap, arms around him and his head on his shoulder. Tetsurou had one arm around Kei’s waist, his hand under his shirt and rubbing his thumb over soft, pale skin. They had a documentary on in the background, but neither could bring themself to fully pay attention to the screen.
Both men were unknowingly thinking similar things, about their lives, their future together, and the possibilities of kids. They had skirted the topic for most of the evening through cooking and sitting down for dinner, and now through three quarters of the way through a documentary neither knew the topic of.
After another couple minutes, Kuroo let out a deep sigh and turned the volume down before looking at Kei.
“So uh… Airi was a real cute kid, huh?”
Kei hummed in agreement, raising an eyebrow for him to continue.
“Have you… I knew we haven’t really ever-”
He let out another sigh.
“What do you think about kids, Kei?”
He stared at the other for a moment before his face started filling with color, quickly averting his eyes down to where he was fiddling with the hem of Tetsurou’s shirt.
“I’m… not entirely sure.”
His eyes narrowed and his nose scrunched in concentration, and Kuroo gave him a couple moments to collect his thoughts in a cohesive way.
“I never really imagined having kids… until more recently, in the last couple years.”
He spoke carefully, in the way he often does when he feels he has to consider each word. It had always been a struggle for Kei to communicate, his words coming out differently than he wanted them to. It was clear to Kuroo that Kei had put a lot of thought into this.
“I never thought I would want kids, partially because I never thought I’d be with someone who I’d want to have kids with. But… it’s not that easy. There’s so much that goes into having a kid and being a parent, and it’s… daunting, to say the least.”
Kuroo nodded in understanding, but he was honestly over the moon from Kei’s words.
“I get that, Moonshine. You’re right, there is a lot that goes into it.”
Tetsurou paused for a moment before continuing, “but I don’t think it would be nearly as scary if you were by my side.”
Kei’s cheeks and ears flushed dark red at his words before closing his eyes contentedly when a kiss was pressed to his temple.
“We can figure it out, there’s no rush to this, Kei. It’s our life and our future.”
Kei gave his husband a rare, soft smile before leaning in to kiss him.
“I can’t wait to spend it with you.”