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*
Leo is a bundle of nervous-excited energy, and Julian would laugh except he’s also feeling pretty nervous. And excited.
“When’s he get here, daddy?” Leo asks again.
Julian smiles and pulls him into his arms. “Baby boy, you just asked me that three minutes ago.”
Leo looks at him. “So?”
Julian kisses his collarbone and hugs him tight. “You promise to tell daddy when you start to get tired?”
“Yes, daddy,” Leo says, muffled against Julian’s hair. A second later, he straightens and turns towards the door. “They’re here, they’re coming, they—” He starts yanking at Julian’s shirt sleeve impatiently.
“I heard you, sweetheart.” Julian stands and opens his front door just in time for Rem to barrel through it on all fours.
“Pup!” Atlas shouts from the driveway, “what did I just say?”
Rem blatantly ignores him in favor of running deeper into Julian’s house. Julian glances into the living room and sees him rolling around on the floor with a very giggly Leo.
“Need help with the bags?” Julian calls over to Atlas, but he gets waved off.
“We packed light,” Atlas says, hauling out two large duffel bags. “Pup doesn’t need much once he’s in his headspace.” He walks up to the front door and effortlessly transfers the bags to hold them both with one hand so he can shake Julian’s hand with the other. Julian is only slightly insecure watching that display. “Thanks for putting this together, man. Rem’s been bouncing off the walls for days.”
“Leo has been, too.” Julian smiles. “You’d think they don’t see each other daily.”
Atlas snorts. “Aren’t daddies supposed to know better? Common sense is not a thing where pups and littles are involved.”
They walk inside and Julian shows Atlas where to tuck his things. “Drink?” he offers. “I’ve got water, soda, juice…”
“Water’s fine. Thanks.” Atlas leans against the kitchen counter and crosses his muscle-y arms over his muscle-y chest.
Julian mentally kicks himself. Leo is more than happy with Julian and clearly doesn’t care about having a daddy who is less…physically ready for violence on any given day. Julian isn’t even sure where this insecurity is coming from. There’s just something about Atlas that’s a little…much, specifically in a way that makes Julian feel a little less.
He hands Atlas a glass of water and gets one for himself.
“I spoke to Rem about being polite and careful since Leo’s going to be little today,” Atlas says. “Not sure how much of that actually processed into his pup brain.” He shrugs. “Or how much of it he’ll conveniently forget when the time comes. Sometimes that boy is just gagging for a good spanking.”
Julian almost chokes on his sip of water. “Well,” he says slowly, “I’m not really worried that Leo will be hurt by Rem if that’s what you mean.”
Atlas smirks. “Not really. But I agree with you there.”
Julian nods. “Leo and I don’t do discipline,” he says, deliberately ignoring the way it comes out almost apologetically.
“Yeah,” Atlas says easily. “Rem and I sure as fuck do.” Atlas straightens and lightly taps their glasses against each other. “Come on. Let’s go see if our boys want to play outside for a bit.”
*
Rem is a really hyper puppy. Leo knew this already, but. Rem is really hyper. Wow. Wow, wow.
Rem barks at him and jumps on him again, leaving sloppy, puppy kisses all over. “Puppy,” Leo tries to say through his laughter, “puppy, puppy.”
“Pup,” Atlas says from the other side of the room, sharp and wow so Dom-firm. Rem stops moving instantly and looks up, his body still but, like, vibrating in place. Leo reaches out to rest a hand on Rem’s side, just to feel all the vibrations better. “Are you being good, pup?” Atlas asks.
Rem wiggles a little and barks.
Leo hears and feels two sets of footsteps come closer, and he looks up when Julian’s feet stop next to him. “Hi, daddy,” he says, smiling wide.
“Hey, baby boy.” Julian crouches down next to him and reaches out with both hands to pet him and Rem at the same time. “You want to go outside and play?”
Rem perks up at that and starts barking wildly.
“Oops,” Julian says, glancing down at Leo with dramatically wide eyes. “Is ‘play’ Rem’s version of ‘walk’?”
“Yes,” Atlas confirms with a long sigh. He walks over and grabs Rem by the scruff of the neck. “Settle, pup. Settle.”
Rem whines and lets out one last, quieter bark, but then he’s still again.
“Good boy.” Atlas hooks a finger in the ring of Rem’s pup collar and tugs gently. “Let’s go. Heel.”
Leo sits up to lean against Julian’s side as they both watch Atlas walk Rem out the back door of the house into the yard.
“Wow,” Julian says quietly. “That was…”
“Scary?” Leo mumbles.
Julian snorts. “Kinda, yeah.”
Leo looks over at Julian and sees the little worry-nervous tightness around his eyes that isn’t usually there. “Daddy,” he says quietly.
Julian immediately turns all of his attention to him. “Yeah, baby?”
“I love you, daddy,” Leo says. “You know that right?”
The words make Julian melt right in front of Leo’s eyes. “It always makes daddy so happy to hear that.”
Leo kisses him and hugs him so tight. Daddy-tight. “I love you, and I love how you’re my daddy. I’m glad you don’t talk to me like Atlas does. I’d be sad.”
Julian exhales and seems to fully relax at that. “Yeah? I can see the appeal, honestly. And Atlas is…really strong.”
“You are too, daddy,” Leo says seriously.
Julian looks over at him and smiles, kissing his forehead. “Well, if my baby boy says so, then it’s the truth. Thank you, baby. Daddy really needed to hear that today.”
Leo nods and rubs his head against Julian’s shoulder.
“Hey,” Atlas calls from the door, “you’re about to have a pup jumping all over you, trying to figure out why you haven’t come outside yet.”
Leo snickers and gets up from the floor, holding out a hand to help Julian up. “Play time,” he says.
Julian smiles and kisses Leo’s collarbone. “Play time. Go have fun, baby.”
*
Everything in Julian feels lighter as he steps out into his backyard with Leo at his side. He shouldn’t be surprised Leo saw right through him – his baby boy is one of the most observant people Julian’s ever known. But he was caught off guard in the best way.
I love how you’re my daddy.
He sits himself on the porch with a glass of ice water while Leo joins Rem on the grass, running circles around each other. Atlas is down there too, one of his duffels open at his feet and spilling out lots of toys. He acts like a magician-facilitator, offering up toy after toy to Leo as soon as Rem starts to get bored with the current one.
“Water break,” Julian says after about thirty minutes, joining everyone on the grass to hand out water. For Rem, he crouches down and offers some frozen berries he’d bought the other day. Rem slurps them out of his hand and barks excitedly, nosing around for some more. Julian looks over at Atlas and says, “I wasn’t sure how Rem hydrated in puppy space.”
Atlas shrugs. “We play it by ear.” He sits down next to Rem and wiggles his glass of water in Rem’s line of sight. “Thirsty, pup?”
Rem barks and clambers into Atlas’ lap eagerly. Julian smiles as he watches Atlas carefully remove the pup mask and angle the glass to pour the water into Rem’s panting mouth.
He feels two tugs on his shirt sleeve and he looks over with a wide smile. “Want daddy to give you your water too, baby?”
Leo shakes his head and points at the porch.
Julian isn’t entirely sure what Leo’s asking for, but he obediently gets up and starts walking towards the porch. “Ah,” he says when he gets closer. He grabs the bag of Leo’s favorite chips off the table and brings them back to where everyone else is sprawled on the grass. “Here you go, baby.” He opens the bag and pulls out a handful, letting Leo pluck the chips one at a time from the small pile.
After everyone is suitably hydrated and fed, Julian stays down on the grass while Leo and Rem go back to their antics. Atlas sits next to him with a heavy sigh.
“The actual answer to your question earlier,” Atlas says without any warning. “About why Rem and Leo were both so excited for this.”
Julian glances at him curiously.
“They see each other all the time, yeah. And they’re both the kind of sub that’s pretty much always a little submissive. People don’t notice if they don’t know what they’re looking for, but for you and me…we know their submissiveness isn’t that far below the surface. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Julian agrees. He’d never thought about it like that, but Atlas is right.
“Yeah, so. They’re both really close. They’re both playful subs. But they can’t be like that in their…jobs.” Atlas shrugs. “They’ve never been able to go deep and let go like this before.”
“Because they never had someone there to watch over them.”
“Exactly.” Atlas claps him on the shoulder and clearly does it at half-strength because it doesn’t send Julian flying in the neighbor’s yard. “You did good letting them have this, man. You’re a good daddy.”
“Thanks.” Julian looks at him. “You’re a great handler. Rem clearly adores you.”
The smile that crosses Atlas’ face is almost shy. “Yeah?”
Julian nods. “Oh, yeah.”
“Daddy!” Leo calls, and Julian immediately looks over. He can’t help his laugh. Rem is running off with the rope toy Leo had been playing with. But Julian knows that tone of daddy – that’s a “fix it, daddy” voice. He starts to stand up, but Atlas sits up from his side and says, “Pup, bring that back. Now.”
Rem grumbles but trots back over and drops the rope toy next to Leo. Atlas shakes his head and gets up. “Clearly someone’s getting antsy.” He dips into his duffel back and pulls out a small foam ball. “Let’s play fetch.”
He goes to Leo’s side and hands him the ball, speaking quietly as he clearly tries to explain how to play fetch. Julian watches them happily, enjoying the wide-eyed but also totally-not-tracking expression on Leo’s face. This long being little, Julian knows that Leo’s barely clinging onto his words and is one well-placed “baby boy” away from tumbling into little space entirely.
Atlas demonstrates, throwing the ball gently. Rem goes after it, barking wildly, and brings it back immediately. Atlas passes the ball to Leo and steps back to give him some room. Leo grips the ball in both of his hands, tongue sticking out between his lips just a little in his super-focused-concentrating face, and he raises his arms…
In all honesty, it’s a very good throw. It’s just that Leo forgets to let go of the ball until the very end. So the ball flies straight into the grass, only to immediately bounce back and hit Leo square in the chin.
Julian’s already in motion as soon as he realizes what’s happening. Leo is standing there blinking rapidly, lip trembling. “Oh, baby,” Julian coos and he gets close enough, and he reaches up to gently cup Leo’s face and angle it down towards him. “Did the mean ball hit you? Come down here, let daddy make it better. I’m gonna kiss all the ouches away, okay?” And he proceeds to kiss every stretch of Leo’s face he can reach.
Leo whines and folds himself around Julian, which conveniently brings more of his face into kissing range.
In the background, Julian spots Atlas hovering next to Rem awkwardly. “Shit, pup,” Atlas mutters. “Fetch isn’t great to play with a little, huh?”
Rem barks softly and head butts Atlas’ leg.
Leo makes the two-tone whine that means daddy when his words are gone. “Yeah, baby boy, daddy hears you. You’re sure tired now, huh?”
Leo nods and tugs twice on Julian’s shirt.
“Let’s go inside and wind down,” Julian says, loud enough for Atlas to hear.
“Yeah, good idea,” Atlas says quickly. “Is he okay?”
Julian smothers a smile. “Yeah, he’s fine. Just tuckered out and ready for a nap.” He leads Leo back into the house and sits him on the couch while he goes to fill a bottle with juice. He and Leo have found that the bottles are extremely convenient when Leo wants to drink while lying down without worrying about spilling from a glass. It has the added bonus of confusing the hell out of other caregiver doms at the club who think they’ve found a fellow regressed little for their own littles to play with.
When he comes back, Atlas is coming back into the house from the front door, a very soft doggy bed tucked under one large arm.
“This okay?” Atlas asks.
“More than,” Julian says easily. “It’s great.”
“Okay.” Atlas sets it up in the corner and smiles as Rem herds Leo into it.
Julian hands Leo the bottle after he’s curled up next to Rem on the doggy bed and smiles at the quick double tap he gets as thanks. Atlas joins them all, gently removing Rem’s pup hood and ruffling his hair. He has to get stern again when Rem wants to just lie down instead of hydrating, but eventually he has Rem guzzling from a bottle of water. Julian brings over more frozen berries and gives them to Rem to eat.
“Good boy,” Atlas says, ruffling Rem’s hair again.
Julian kisses Leo’s forehead and goes to sit on the couch. Atlas sits next to him and sighs. “Shit, man, little tears are no joke.”
Julian glances at him. “Leo didn’t cry.”
“No, but he looked like he wanted to. I haven’t been that scared since my first tour.”
Julian snorts. “You know, you act like this big tough guy, but…”
“Oh, screw you,” Atlas mutters. “I’m plenty tough where Rem’s bratty ass is involved.”
They sit in comfortable silence for a minute, watching their boys sleepily curl around each other on the dog bed. Leo ends up half on the floor, because that doggy bed was not built for someone of Leo’s size, but he seems blissfully content. Rem’s head is on Leo’s stomach, and their arms are sprawled all over each other.
Julian pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and drapes it over both of them, reaching down to gently pull the half-empty bottle of juice from Leo’s fingers.
“So,” Julian says when he returns to the couch. “You said Rem would get a spanking if he was too rough with Leo while he was little.” He looks at Atlas with a shit-eating grin. “What kind of punishment do you get?”
Atlas stares at him blankly for a second, then starts laughing. “You shit. Daddy gonna punish me?”
“I already told you,” Julian says, “I don’t do discipline. But you do.”
*