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“Fuck,” Akutagawa says. He places his hands over his face and breathes. In and out. In and out.
Beside him, Atsushi laughs.
“That good? Did you enjoy your bitching?”
Akutagawa laughs and reaches out to grab Atsushi and pull him on top. Again. “Well, you are very good at it,” he rumbles. He nuzzles against his hair and breathes in the scent of him, green tea and rice and jasmine. He licks out and starts grooming Atsushi’s fuzzy ears. “You can bitch me any time.”
Atsushi trills in response and does not fight the hold. Rather, he snuggles into his chest and butts his head against his mates. After a moment of receiving attention he swaps and starts grooming Akutagawa. They are both still naked in the afterglow. He trails his hand across the weretiger’s spine.
“Good boy,” he purrs in his ear. “You always feel so good.”
Atsushi laughs again. “You really like bottoming, huh?”
It’s not very alpha of him, but when have either of them played by the rules? Atsushi is an omega, yes but he is also the more dangerous one- he can admit that fully. Sharp and deadly. He is a great father to Yume but making sure she is safe and happy falls on them both. Their relationship is unconventional by outside standards but it works for them. Six years in and they are still partners, a unit, and they cannot keep their hands off each other.
Case in point, tonight. Akutagawa is spent but Atsushi still squirms with energy. He has ideas on how to exhaust his mate - toys, his hands or mouth or thighs… or he could just let Atsushi go another round. He likes when Atsushi takes, enough so that he’s left crying and whimpering and driven out of his mind with pleasure.
He opens his mouth to tell him this, but before he can there is a noise at the door.
“Daddies?”
The doorknob jiggles, but the two of them are now very adapt at making sure the door is locked before they enjoy some intimacy. Yume has a habit of barging in unannounced.
“I’ve got her,” Akutagawa says. Atsushi rolls over onto his back and reaches off the bed for his own clothing as Akutagawa gets up to the do the same.
He falls over.
“Ryuu!” Atsushi looks over the edge of the bed, to where Akutagawa is sprawled on the floor. “Are you okay?”
“That did not happen,” he says as he uses the edge of the bed to stand up on wobbling legs. “Fuck, I’m never bottoming again. You’re a monster.”
Atsushi snickers and gets up. He pushes Akutagawa back onto the bed and tosses a pair of boxers at him. “Hang on Yume, I’ll be right there.”
“Daddy!”
He gets his own clothing on and makes sure Akutagawa has done the same and is back in bed before opening the door and scooping her into his arms. For a moment they just stand in the doorway and Akutagawa gets to appreciate their silhouettes. Atsushi’s broad shoulders, his daughter’s small frame. The way a white tiger tail wraps around her waist when he picks Yume up. The way his daughter’s ears are little radars, always alert and picking things up. Only rarely tucked back in fear or anger or sadness. His daughter will not have the same childhood either of them did. They will fight tooth and nail to make sure that is the case.
Atsushi carries her back to the bed and he realizes they are conversing. He’d missed what she had been whispering.
“It’s okay Yume. Just a nightmare.”
His expression softens. “Do you want to stay in here tonight?”
Atsushi slides into bed still holding her, but he kicks at Akutagawa under the sheets. He knows it is not the loss of future … entanglements tonight that has Atsushi lashing out, but rather that they have been trying to discourage their daughter from insisting on spending the night with them. Yet how can he deny her? He and Yume give Atsushi matching expressions and he sees the weretiger’s shoulders slump in defeat.
“You can stay for a little bit. Then it’s back to your bed.”
“Yay! I love you daddy,” Yume says as she snuggles against his chest. Ever the charmer - when she’s getting her way.
“What were you dreaming of?” Akutagawa asks. He turns to face the two of them and he settles a hand on her back. “I’ll fight it for you,” he offers.
He scans her face. She’s happy in Atsushi’s arms. Whatever the nightmare was, it’s nothing that will stick with her. Not like the nights when he and Atsushi have their own troubled sleep. She does not wake up screaming and clawing.
Akutagawa kisses her forehead and wraps his arms around them both.
Yume giggles. “Can’t fight a nightmare.”
“I’ll fight it anyway,” he tells her. “Anything that bothers you. Just tell me. Say the word and your enemies die.”
She stretches out her hands and he picks her up and pulls her into his lap. Her hair is a little mussed and he licks at it before doing the same to her ears to get the fur to settle down. “Papa!” she says, chiding.
Yume pulls away.
He watches her for a moment, then blinks in disbelief. He shares a look with Atsushi, who is watching but does not seem quite so worried about this change in behavior.
“You don’t want papa to groom you?”
Yume looks away. Then she reaches out to Atsushi again and Akutagawa tries not to take the preference as a slight. “Grooming is for omegas,” she says.
Now they’re both paying attention. Atsushi brushes her hair from her face and says, “Where did you hear that?” he asks in a carefully neutral tone. It is not something they’ve told her, for certain. Akutagawa likes grooming them both, likes having them in his arms and giving love and affection until Atsushi chuffs or Yume purrs. It’s a form of bonding she’s enjoyed from both of them. Until now.
Yume’s tail swishes back and forth and he flares his nostrils to take in her scent. Not scared… but not quite happy either. He looks at Atsushi. His keener nose lends itself to picking up more emotions in a scent than he can, but Atsushi is just watching Yume right now.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he croons to her. Yume is sitting up in his lap. She bites her lower lip. Atsushi continues, “You’re not in trouble. But it’s okay that daddy grooms you. It doesn’t have to just be an omega thing. Did someone say something?” He leans forward and brushes their noses together.
“Akemi did. She said that it’s weird that I get groomed by an alpha. Or that you pick me up from daycare. Can you do that next time papa?”
Akutagawa sits up. There’s a growl forming in the back of his throat but it stops dead at a warning look from Atsushi. His eyes narrow. “Which one is Akemi?”
“Ryuunosuke, you are not fighting a child.” Atsushi glares at him before turning his attention back to Yume. “Just because I’m an omega does not mean I’m the only one who can pick you up.”
“I’m sorry Akemi’s alpha parent doesn’t love her as much as I love you.”
“Ryuunosuke!”
“It’s true.”
“Yeah, but you shouldn’t say it.”
He smiles slightly at that. Atsushi could be a bitch when he wanted - especially when it came to Yume’s care. Akutagawa knows well that he’s agreed with. Atsushi just has a thin veneer of being polite to maintain.
Atsushi rolls his eyes at him. “Yume, both your dads work. Sometimes papa will come get you and sometimes daddy. If Akemi says something to you again, you can-”
“Bite her,” Akutagawa suggests.
“You cannot bite her. We don’t bite to deal with our problems. You can tell a teacher. Or uh -”
“No, no, continue weretiger. How do you deal with this?”
The problem with Akutagawa and Atsushi’s upbringings is that trying to navigate something like preschool is proving to be woefully out of their depths. Apparently what worked for Akutagawa on the streets is … frowned upon. Atsushi’s background also does not lend to a healthy framework.
Atsushi kicks him under the covers again. He makes an expression over Yume’s head that he knows he should interpret as ‘stop being a pain and help’.
He debates. On one hand, he lives to vex his mate. On the other, they are a team. Fun as vexing Atsushi is, they are a unified front when it comes to Yume. “He’s right, Yume. You can tell a teacher. Or just tell her that she is wrong. Grooming you, or picking you up, or caring for you - that isn’t something that just papa does. We both love you so much.”
He punctuates the words with a kiss to her forehead. “But if you do need me to fight her, or your nightmare, or anyone or anything, I will. I’ll tear this whole city apart for you.”
Akutagawa expects Atsushi to sigh or temper his words or tell him to take it back. Instead he just says, “We both will.”
“I’ll do it. Uncle Chuuya has been teaching me to fight. Watch!”
It’s then that Yume tries to bite Atsushi’s shoulder and the night goes downhill from there.
“I thought once we made it past the terrible twos things would improve,” Atsushi bemoans as he slinks back into bed after putting Yume back to bed.
He flops onto his stomach and Akutagawa nudges him off the blanket so he can wrap them both up in the covers.
“I think she’s biting less. Too bad she has more teeth now,” he remarks.
Atsushi groans and buries his face in his shoulder. “This kinda sucks,” he says.
“The omega stuff?”
“Why does she have to interact with other people? Can’t we just keep her here? It’s safe here. If she’s with us, nothing bad will ever happen.”
“Oh, weretiger. You know that’s not true. Terrible things happen to you all the time.”
“Rude.”
Atsushi turns from him. He closes the distance between them. “Listen. She had to deal with someone at daycare putting nonsense in her ear. It’s not a nail in her foot. It’s not starving on the streets. She has it better than we ever did. That’s what we wanted. But there are going to be things she has to deal with and better to do it now, when we’re here and can support her because eventually she is going to have to make her own way.”
“Look who’s been reading the parenting books lately,” Atsushi snarks.
“Shut up, weretiger.”
“You first, pretty kitty.”
“Make me,” he challenges.
A claw tips his head to force him to meet Atsushi’s eyes. They gleam gold in the dim light of their bedroom.
“Yeah?” Atsushi breathes out.
He nods slowly. “Yes,” he says. Then he says nothing more as Atsushi surges forward and does as promised.