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With his pups sound asleep in the spare room Kim had offered to them, Kenta was careful to move slowly when he wanted to get up and do more to try to find information on Tony Chen. It’d taken ages for the boys to fall asleep, the two children unused to their new temporary home and anxious about the return of their grandfather. And then it’d taken longer still for him to be sure that they wouldn’t wake up as soon as he was gone. Buddy had especially grown more sensitive, needing him right there so he could sleep. But he didn’t want them to see him looking things up. He’d rather they get their sleep and not have to think about what was going on.
Thankfully, he was able to extract himself from the air mattress and go out to the living room, where he could pick up the tablet and phone he’d been given and start figuring out where he’d been dropped off by Tony Chen’s henchman. He sat down on the couch, which had been layered with some soft blankets and a few plushies that Kim had picked up for the boys. When he had the spot located, and Pete wouldn’t answer his phone, he got ready to leave. He tried to be quick about it, so Buddy wouldn’t notice his blood signature getting further away. The pups wouldn’t be happy to wake up without him in the morning, but it was better they be nervous about him going out than them spending all night nervous knowing he was off investigating. Taro looked sick whenever he heard them discussing the Foundation, still insisting that he and Buddy were responsible for Kenta’s safety instead of the other way around, and Buddy kept making Kenta promise that they could finally stay together forever, the little pup terrified that he and his brother would be separated from their dad again.
If they knew where he was going, they would want to come along, and it was safest for them to stay in the apartment with Kim. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel overly worried about leaving them with Kim for the night. He knew the driver wouldn’t harm them, that he’d look after them. It was a feeling of security he was unused to and didn’t let himself dwell upon, because it didn’t make sense. His pups had never been safe- couldn’t be safe until Tony Chen was finally out of the world and the three of them were far away from anything that wanted to control them.
Kim came out of nowhere to stop him, almost like he could sense that Kenta was off to put himself in danger. Lunging to intercept him, even. “Hey, hey, hey!” he called, and Kenta nearly went to slap a hand over the Alpha’s mouth. Taro and Buddy were light sleepers, and he was going to wake the kids raising his voice like that. “Where are you going?”
Kenta tried to squeeze past him, but Kim had no problem bodily blocking him from leaving. And when Kenta tried to stare him down, used to people letting him through by glare and intimidation too, Kim was entirely unaffected.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m just doing my job too.” The Alpha had taken them in in a heartbeat when he saw the kids peering suspiciously at him from behind Kenta, when Pete had dragged them there claiming it was the safest place for them to hide. He’d taken on the role of protector a bit too well. Kenta didn’t understand why. “What if you run into Tony? Then what? What about your pups?”
“I’m going to see Pete,” Kenta told him, then pushed forward yet again. But Kim was stronger than he looked, and held him back, even pressing him back. It’d be easy enough to fight, but Kenta didn’t want to hurt Kim, even if he was in the way, especially not when the sound of a struggle would definitely wake up and frighten the pups. Kim was good to them, and seeing their dad fight him would make them feel unsafe.
“You’re going to see Pete? What for?”
Kim was really being too loud. Kenta couldn’t help but glance back in the direction of the kids’ bedroom. He kept his own voice low, saying, “It’s urgent, alright? Quiet down. You’re going to wake up Taro and Buddy.” Still, Kim wouldn’t move. As much as he wanted his pups to get their sleep, ultimately they wouldn’t be safe at all until he and Pete had found Tony Chen and taken care of him. He needed to go. “Don’t get in my way. I don’t want to use force.”
“Why is force always your go-to?” Kim paused for a moment. “Is that all you know how to use?”
He wasn’t going to answer that. He wasn’t going to think about that. He tried again to get by.
“You can’t just leave the kids. They’re going to be upset if you’re gone.” They would be scared, but Kim would be there and could tell them he was just talking to Pete. He needed to do this, to protect them. “They need you here. If you’d just snuck out without telling me, what would I have told them, huh? Can’t lie and say that you’re fine.”
“Of course you can.” Kim’s apartment might have been safe, and the Alpha might have been kind to the boys, but Kenta’s heart pounded in his chest at the thought of Kim knowing. Knowing that the pups had powers. If anyone knew the full extent of either of the boys’ powers… Kenta knew he was the only person who saw them for what they were even knowing what they could do. His pups. Their powers scared him sometimes, and they were his. If Kim or the others knew what Taro and Buddy could do…
Kim scoffed. “Kenta. I know I can’t lie to them. I won’t ask, but you know Buddy will panic if I can’t tell him for sure that I know you’re safe.”
“They’re safe here. They’ll be fine while I’m out talking to Pete.”
“You’re really set on going? Fine, I’ll take you myself,” Kim decided.
Kenta blinked. “What? No, I can go by myself. The kids-”
“They’ll be fine. I’m trying to help and you still want to go alone? How exactly are you planning to get there? You gonna hail a taxi and let Tony’s guys know where you are? Where the kids are?”
It was really starting to grate on him how much Kim was mentioning the kids. It wasn’t fair that Kim was jabbing at his weak point, over and over.
Kenta’s mind went blank as Kim popped his snack into his mouth and then grabbed him by the wrist to pull him to the door. “Come on, let’s go.”
Then he snapped back to his senses and resisted as the driver grabbed his keys. “What are you even doing? You can’t come with me. The kids can’t be alone.”
Lifting up his keys and dangling them in front of Kenta, Kim replied, “Don’t worry, they won’t be alone.”
It took him a moment to realize what Kim meant. Before Kenta could stop him though, Kim turned and yelled in the direction of the kids’ bedroom, “Taro! Buddy!”
Kenta could have killed him. But it was too late. The damage had been done. There was no way the pups hadn’t heard Kim shout.
For a moment, silence. And then in an instant after that, in a panicked flurry of rushed little footsteps and worried cries for Daddy, the kids came sprawling around the corner to see what was going on. Kenta growled at Kim and his smug look before stepping forward to catch the pups and assure them that everything was fine. With both children latching onto him and pulling him down to get a hug, Kenta could do nothing to prevent Kim from telling them, “Get your shoes on, guys. We have to go talk to Khun Pete.”
“Okay. Buddy, I’ll get your shoes for you, don’t worry. You don’t have to let go of Daddy.” Buddy just sniffled in response to his brother, burying his face against Kenta’s chest.
-
“Kenta. Ah- why did you bring the pups here?” Pete’s eyes went wide as he opened the door. Then he frowned, glancing down at himself and then at something back inside. He pulled his shirt closed.
“Couldn’t leave them alone at home,” Kim replied simply. “Kenta has something to tell you.”
“I see. Come in.”
“Somebody’s inside…” Buddy murmured to his brother, holding on tightly to Taro’s hand as they trailed after their dad. Kenta didn’t like the sound of that, but figured it was one of the X-Hunter crew. Otherwise, surely, Pete would have turned them away instead of risking exposure of his brother and nephews.
“Way…”
“Uncle Way?”
Seeing what looked like Way laying on Pete’s couch, Kenta went into defensive mode. Kim grabbed his arm as Pete rushed to assure him that the person who looked just like a fucked-out Way was not the dead Enigma, and was instead one of his researchers from Beyond. It was too much to deal with. Pete answering the door when he’d been in the middle of sleeping with one of his employees, an employee who looked almost exactly like their dead foster brother, exposing him and his pups not only to an awkward situation but also to some stranger they couldn’t trust. Pete’s researcher at least had the decency to cover himself up a little quicker and look a bit embarrassed when he saw two kids glaring at him from behind the people Pete had brought right in.
Taro bristled beside him, moving to stand in front of his brother, putting himself between Buddy and the person who looked like Way, a person who had elicited such a strong negative reaction from their father. Kim reached down to put a hand in front of the kids as well, keeping the pups from doing anything either. Pete had the audacity to ask them if they really needed to talk to him now, as if he hadn’t just brought them all right in, and as if they were just there on a social visit when they were supposed to be laying low.
“It’s important,” Taro snapped up at him. “Why would Dad come here if it wasn’t important?”
“That’s-” Pete floundered, flustered as a twelve-year-old got angry with him. Kenta doubted Pete had ever really interacted with a child in his life.
He glanced down at his oldest, giving him a warning look, and Taro huffed and went quiet. Buddy was still looking at Chris, an odd expression on the pup’s face that Kenta couldn’t quite read. Apprehension? Confusion? He reached down to take Buddy’s hand, squeezing it to try to comfort him as he told Pete, “It’s about that person.”
Finally, it sunk in to Pete that they were there about Tony Chen and that it really was something urgent. He apologized to his guest, and the researcher brushed him off and easily stood up to leave.
“So what’s this about, Kenta?”
“I wanted to take you to look for clues on Tony.”
Unbeknownst to the Omega, Chris glanced back when he heard Tony’s name. When he did, however, he saw the younger pup openly staring at him, his gaze far too intense for a child that couldn’t have been more than four or five years old. A bad feeling settling in his stomach, Chris turned back and left as quickly as he could, hoping the child hadn’t been suspicious of him lingering.
Once the door had shut behind Chris, Pete told the pups that they could go get food from the kitchen if they wanted. “Feel free to explore if you’d like. The grown-ups have to talk for a bit, alright?”
Kim nudged the boys in the direction of the kitchen, but they dug in their heels until Kenta gave them a nod and gestured with his chin for them to go. They reluctantly padded off.
While Taro opened the fridge to see if there were any snacks his little brother might like, Buddy saw something that caught his interest and headed towards it, slipping away from his brother’s side. His mouth opened as he looked up at the shelves covered in- well, Buddy didn’t know what they were, but they all had funny keyboards on them, and there was a lot of them. Things had been extremely stressful for the pup since his grandfather had returned, and for the vast majority of his life, so the wonder of something harmless and new was very welcome.
He reached up for the nearest one he could get to, and it clicked when he pressed on one of the keys, a little piece swinging up and the top shifting. He jumped a bit, startled, but then realized it was fine and began to tap on more of the keys. The other ones also did the same thing as the first, so he tried typing on a few of them.
Spotting a red one amidst a wall of black ones, Buddy was drawn by the bright color and eagerly went to press on that one as well. That one made a different noise, more digital than the others. He pressed down on it with his whole hand, and gasped when it made a loud buzzing sound and flashed a red light instead of the clicks he expected. Already on edge after waking up to his dad not being in bed with them and on his way out, and being at Khun Pete’s house where his dad had gotten upset at the person who had felt weird, Buddy could not take being startled by what he thought was some kind of toy. Frightened by the incorrect passcode alert, he cried out, “Daddy…!”
“Buddy?” His dad and his older brother rushed over to see what was wrong, ready to protect him from whatever had scared him. With nothing obvious around him, his dad went up and lifted him up. “What’s wrong, Buddy? Are you alright?”
Pointing down at the red typewriter, Buddy sniffled, “It made a weird noise…”
“It’s a typewriter, Buddy. They make noises,” Taro informed his brother, eyeing the collection with confusion as to why there were so many.
“It made a different noise,” Buddy insisted, then tucked his head against Kenta.
Unsure of how that could have scared his brother, Taro reached for the red typewriter as well. And Kenta could have killed Pete, as his former foster brother caught up with them and went, “Don’t touch that one!” That made Taro jump, making the pup hiss, and then Kenta had two freaked out sons to deal with.
“Why? Is it bad?”
Kim shouldered past Pete. “They’re not going to break your collectibles, Khun. Lay off. They’re good kids.”
Once again flustered, Pete tried to explain that he hadn’t meant to scold the pups. “It’s just- they can play with them, of course, but-” He sighed. “That one isn’t- it’s a keypad. See?” He went over and punched in the code.
Kenta could only stare in disbelief as it opened some hidden door behind one of the shelves, revealing a secret room with a bar and pool table. Buddy glanced at the room as well, then made a whimpering sound and hid his face once more against his father’s neck, clinging on tight to him. Taro stared at it as well, then turned to look up at his dad, horrified. His son’s unspoken plea was clear. His pups did not want to be there any longer.
“You two can play in here if-”
“No,” was Taro’s immediate response. “We’re not going in your secret room.”
Pete tried again, suggesting, “You two can play pool-”
“No!” the older pup growled.
“Daddy, I don’t wanna go in the scary room…” Buddy mumbled.
“It’s… not scary?”
Kim stepped up and put himself between the pups and the secret doorway, as well as blocking Pete. “We should bring the kids back to my place before we go out.”
Right. They were in the middle of looking for Tony. Kenta forced himself to ignore how weird Pete had turned out to be after leaving the Foundation. It was best to not think about the secret pool room. Kim was right, they needed to bring the pups back to Kim’s apartment before they left. The kids couldn’t go with them when things could be dangerous, even if they were bound to kick up a fuss about it once they left them at Kim’s place, and there was no way he was leaving them in Pete’s apartment, which was easily broken into and filled with weird things and weird researchers.