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"Okaerinasai, Yurikun. How was practice today?" Yuri ignored the dark haired man's question and stomped down the hall to his room, long tail flicking behind him. He thought that stupid Katsudon would have understood by now, he's been giving him the cold shoulder for over a week! Only talking when he really has to. It'll be easier this way.
His ear twitches when he hears the Old Man come in to their apartment a few minutes later. He can't hear everything the couple is saying but he can feel the angry pheromones through the door.
At eight years old, Yuri is still unpresented, so he can't quite make out the pheromone's scent. Just a very muted version of other's strongest undertones and more reactive emotions. And he's been smelling this one on Viktor a lot this week. But his parents... His guardians (he still hasn't managed to correct himself, he keeps thinking of them as his Dam and Sire when he knows they never will be) finally seem to understand that something is off, they just haven't figured out what yet. And he won't give them the pleasure of watching him beg to stay. Not when he knows they're having a real baby. A cub of their own. He'll be kicked out by the end of the month, maybe the year if he's really lucky.
"We're home, Lyubimiy. How are you feeling today my Yuuuuri? Is our little kotyonok treating you alright?" Viktor presses a quick kiss to his mate's forehead and swipes the scent gland on his wrist over Yuuri's still not quite showing baby bump.
"I'm fine, Vitya. Mame-chan hasn't given me much trouble today at all!" Viktor can tell his mate's lying with just a glance. The morning sickness was awful, whoever named it that was a pridurok. Poor Yuuri is sick all day, from the moment he's forced awake in the morning to the minute Viktor can finally get him to lie down and take a nap or go to bed he's nausous. Just about everything in their home seems to trigger random puking sessions (from Yuuri's favorite cypress candle's, to Makkachin's fur, to his miso and tofu meals). The dark bags under his lover's glasses and the drooping ears atop his head tell Viktor everything he needs to know. "Why don't you go lay down, Miliy? Yura and I can make dinner tonight."
As soon as the words are out of his mouth, Yuuri's whole face droops. Tears prick the corner's of his eyes, his tail tucks itself gently between his knees, and his ears lay flat in his hair. His Yuzu and Peony scent turns more acidic as well.
"Miliy? What's wrong?" Viktor returns from hanging up his coat to wrap his mate in a hug.
"Yurikun. He- he's been acting weird all week," Yuuri sniffles into the taller man's shirt. "He won't talk to me, he barely looks at me, he doesn't want me preening him before bed. I don't know what to do, Vitya! Watashi wa yoi hahaoyade wa nai nodeshou ka?" He says the last part so softly that Viktor doesn't think he'd have caught it even in English or Russian.
"Lyubimiy, Yura's always been a sour puss. You know that," even as he's speaking Viktor can feel his own anger rising, the scent of fir quickly over powering Glintvein before he can reign in his pheromones.
"But he's not even being loud about it. Normally he-he calls me Katsudon and he gets hyper-critical and then he feels bad and comes to cuddle in the nest with me," Yuuri starts to ring his tail anxiously between his hands before Viktor reaches down to softly remove it (lest they end up spending several hours dematting it...again). "Now he's just flat out ignoring me, he doesn't seem to want my attention on him at all. It feels like it did when we first brought him to live with us, when he expected That Woman to come back and take him away again at any second." Viktor flinches at the image it paints, 7 year old Yura (slightly smaller than he is now) sitting at the table with a scowl on his face. He'd barely acknowledged them back then, if it didn't have to do with Yakov or the ice than they didn't really speak. It took a long time for them to pull him out of his shell. And Viktor could admit he too had noticed the difference in behavior recently.
"I don't know, Miliy. Do you want me to talk with him?"
"Ne-ah," Yuuri takes a stuttering breath in and grounds himself in Viktor's arms. He can feel himself calming slightly with his mate's scent and fluffy, white-spotted tail wrapping around him where his arms don't cover. His sniffling comes to a halt a few seconds later. "Sorry, the hormones are making me cry at the drop of a hat," Yuuri chuckles lightly. "Maybe he just needs some time to tell us what's bothering him. It's okay Vitya, I'll speak with him soon if he doesn't bring it up first."
Yuuri can't be patient any more. It's been two weeks of Yurikun's cold shoulder. Two weeks of not hearing his pup's laughter, two weeks of not cooking together, or watching movies, or scenting. His pup doesn't smell like him or Viktor anymore. What little he can smell when Yurio is actually around is the barely discernable scent of apple blossoms and milk. His pup’s smell. But it doesn't feel right for that scent to be on it's own anymore! Yura is their’s now! He should smell like all three of them, he should smell happy. He should smell content. All Yuuri smells is longing and sadness or anger and disinterest.
He needs to fix this now.
"Yurikun? Can I come in for a bit?" He asks already entering the pup's bedroom. Yurio glares at him from where he's stretching on the floor, only slightly less angry when Makkachin manages to squeeze past Yuuri to lap happy kisses at the child's face.
"What do you want, Katsudon?" Yuuri tries not to flinch at the name. Sure it stung a little that Yurio had called him that for the first year they'd know each other back when Yuuri was just Viktor's student. But it's been close to three years now, he'd hoped the boy would call him something else by now. Like Yuuri or Oba or even...Okaachan.
Yurri squares his shoulder's a bit and settles on the bed near where Yurio is on the floor.
"I wanted to talk to you about something, something that's been bothering me for a bit now." Yurio flinches hard enough that it nearly makes a noise.
"...I'll be out in the morning." The blonde bites out angrily to the confused Japanese man.
"Out? Out where in the morning?"
"I'll get Dedushka to come get me. I'll be out of your hair," Yuuri is struck with a moment of shiver inducing terror at the thought of his pup leaving the nest like that.
"H-hold-hold on, what!?" Yuuri rushes to gently grab ahold of Yurio's arm as he starts to shove clothes into the old backpack he'd first come to them with. "Please, Yurichan tell me what's wrong? Why do you want to leave?" Yurio looks at him like he's been slapped.
"What's wrong? What's wrong!?" He throws the bag across the floor, it flashes past Yuuri's eyes so fast he flinches, hand unconsciously resting on his still flat stomach. "That’s my replacement, isn't it? Should I be happy that I'm getting kicked out because you and the Old Man went and made your own baby. What do I need to hang around here any longer for?" Yuuri's heart breaks at the scent of dispair coming off of his pup.
"Yurochka!" Both boys look to the Alpha who's just come into the room. His ears are forward and alert, tail straight and swishing angrily. And his pheromone's are so strong Yuuri nearly bares his neck (and he does in fact make a pitiful little whimper that he'll be embarrassed about later). "Apologize to Yuuri-"
"Why? I don't owe him anything!" Yurio rubs furiously at the frustrated tears on his face as his parents- his guardians look down on him. "You guys got to practice on me and now you're done, right? Why should I say sorry when I'm the one being abandoned again?"
"Yurichan, no!" Yuuri pulls the trembling blonde into a tight embrace as he tries briefly to escape before accepting the contact and breaking down further into his Dam's arms. "No, baby, no."
"Yurochka, who said anything about abandoning you?" Viktor spoke quietly as he rubbed the boys back.
"That's what happens, isn't it?" Yuri snuffs back the mucus threatening to leave his nose as he angry cries. "You didn't want me in the first place, you only got me 'cause Yakov didn't have the room. And now that you're gonna have a baby of your own you won't have the space for me either!"
"Tigryonok, how did you even find out about the baby?"
"I heard you and Katsudon talking on the phone a few weeks ago. About how you can't have me and a baby. It's not fair! I was being nice! I was good! I did my homework, I helped at ho- aro-around the apartment. Why are you getting rid of me so soon!"
"Yurichan, honey, we weren't saying anything about not having you and the baby." Yuuri whispers as he scent marks the crown of Yuri's head and across his back, both him and Viktor slowly but surely maneuvering him back towards his bed.
"I heard you!" The blonde tiger hisses angrily, his ear's pinned back and baby fangs on display. "Don't lie to me, I know what I heard. I'm not a durak!"
"Yurikun, we're not calling you baka. But I know you didn't hear the whole conversation. First of all," Yuuri and Viktor manage to get their son onto the bed before Viktor bends down on his knees infront of them and Yuuri sits beside Yuri on the bed. "We very much wanted you in the first place. We've always seen you as pack, even before Viktor and I got together." The adults share a small but knowing smile at this truth. "Our attachment to you only grew when we found out how That Woman was treating you away from practice. We had to protect you any way we could. When Yakov said she'd left you with him and didn't plan on coming back of course we wanted to bring you home. We wanted to be your Mama and Papa, we already saw and still see you as our pup."
"Da, we would have adopted you in a heart beat already if that svoloch-"
"Viktor!" Yurri's scent spikes in anger as he glares at his husband, hands resting lightly over Yurio's ears. "Language!"
"If that Woman would just sign the paperwork."
"Y... You w-want to ad-adopt me?" Yurio whispered it like if he said it too loud they'd take it back. Yuuri brushed his hair back from his forehead and gave him a light kiss. "Yo-you would be my Mama?" Green eyes bore into brown in a desperate plea for love and familial warmth.
"Of course, Yurichan. Of course I would." Yuuri smiles at the pup lightly as more tears fill his eyes, these seem slightly less sad but his scent is still not back to normal (the little Yuuri can still smell under the protection and warmth his and his mate's scents have layered over it).
"But- but you said..."
"Tigryonok, we would never get rid of you. We will never replace you."
"I know exactly which conversation you heard, Yurichan. We weren't saying we can't have you and the baby. We have more than enough room for you and mame-chan. We have more than enough love to give to you both. What you heard was me telling Vitya that we can't tell you about the baby."
"But...but if you want me an-and maemaechin, why can't I know about it?" Yuri was confused but at least his nervous system seemed to be calming down bit by bit.
"Because Mame-chan has only been here for about 8 weeks right now."
"What's that got to do with anything?" Yuri grumps as his tail pulls his plush cat closer to him so he has something to fiddle with.
"Babies are in their Mama's tummy for about 10 months. Sometimes those babies come too early and have to go back to the earth to try again." Yuri's eyes widen and he hugs his little Potya closer to his chest.
"Like, like they die? Like where Otets went?" Yurri smiles at him sadly and Viktor rubs his knee in soothing circles.
"Not always, but sometimes. So lots of Mama's and Papa's will wait until the baby is 12 weeks along to tell people. That's when most of the danger is gone. We were going to tell you after that safe period arrived because we didn't want you to get attached to an otouto or imouto that decided they couldn't stay with us."
"Toto or ima... what?"
"Mladshaya sestra or mladshiy brat," Viktor explains. Yuri's eyes sparkle a little at the thought. He never imagined he'd have parents who loved him. Let alone a little sibling. He flinches at the thought that they might not be around because Yuuri is only 8 weeks.
"How do we keep them here? How do we make sure they don't die like Otets did?"
"Well, Yurochka, we give them lots of love," Viktor explains as he pulls his mate and his cub further into the bed, Yuuri starts to move the blankets around to cocoon them in a warm nest of their scents. "We try to be patient when they make Yuuri sick," Yuuri rolls his eyes and immediately regrets it when the nausea roars it's head for a second and he groans. "And we make sure Yuuri isn't too stressed out or picking up anything too heavy," Viktor chuckles to himself, oblivious to the look of horror on Yuiro's face.
"Are they gonna die because I was mean?" Both parents head's snap to their child's face in confusion and fear.
"Yurikun, why would you think that?"
"Yura, what do you mean?" The questions overlap but they both demand answers. The floodgates holding back Yuri's tears open and the water works just won't stop as he cling's tightly to Yuuri.
"I di-didn't know that they could die! I don't want them to die!" Yuuri shushes him gently and frantically, his own eyes tearing up as well.
"Vitya was just joking honey. Stress is not going to kill mame-chan. And if it could, which again it won't, I would need to have been a lot more stressed for a lot longer of time. And even though I was worried about you, and I didn't know what was going through your head, you could never push me into that bad place. I know you too well, you're too good of a person to do something malicious."
"Delicious?" Yuri questions in a hiccupping daze.
"Malicious, tigryonok. It means evil and bad." They fall safely back into the nest as their pup is calmed by their soothing pheromone's and their own inner Alpha and Omega are grounded by a sense of family fulfillment.
"I really get to stay?" Yuri whispers one more time a few minutes later, eyes fighting back sleep.
"We would never let you try to leave," Yuuri confirms as he kisses his pup's temple.
"Da, Yura. You're stuck with us forever. Mama Yuuri and Papa Viktor will never let you out of our clutches again.” They all break into tiny smiles at that, the sound of Yuuri's purrs and Viktor's soft, deep chuffing lulling them into a nap.
"Thank you for loving me, Mama," he leans forward and nuzzles into Yuuri's neck like a newborn. "Thank you for letting me stay, Papa." He whispers from his spot in Yuuri's arms, content and safe for the first time in ages as he drifts to sleep surrounded by his family.