Chapter Text
Adam woke around four in the morning as always, and sleepily looked around the room. It was still dark outside, the only source of light the screen of his cellphone as he turned off the alarm. The silence was broken only by Elias' loud snoring. Adam gazed down at him and smiled. He seemed so young when asleep, so... harmless.
Adam lazily stood and tottered into the bathroom as he tried his best to pick up scattered clothing. Elias insisted their clothes should stay in the bathroom. "Otherwise the whole house will smell of filth," he said. And that made the laundry bag in the bedroom pretty much useless even when it was easier for Adam to pick them up there, not to mention avoid getting them wet.
The ten minutes Adam spent in the warm water were his only moment of peace for the entire day. He knew this without a doubt. He tried, always, to stretch these moments but he couldn't afford to. He begrudgingly climbed out of the tub, dried himself, dressed for work
and combed his hair. His chocolate curls were too long for his liking, impracticality brushing against his cheeks. It exaggerated his status as an omega.
Adam didn’t have a problem with
being an omega; when he was younger he took advantage of it, sleeping with everyone regardless of their gender, living in fancy apartments, no responsibilities, no expectations.
Even when he fell for Elias, after years of saying he would never settle with an alpha, he’d had a plan. They would move to a nice neighborhood, a pretty house, and he would keep his job. Maybe after a few years worth of mind-blowing heats with his alpha's perfect knot, they would have a pup or two.
His plan seemed reasonable to him; most omegas wanted nothing but to breed and produce scads pups until they couldn't give their alphas anymore. But Adam enjoyed his freedom to work, so two pups was a good number, one that allowed for possibilities.
That plan burned down faster than a haystack. He knew many omegas around town, they normally had to try a few times before getting pregnant, and even after giving birth they would have to wait around a year for the hormones to settle for trying again. Not Adam.
After fewer than six years of marriage, they already had five. Five fucking pups! What had he done to deserve so many "little angels" as Elias called them?
Adam knew. He’d been a dick his entire life. It was probably punishment.
He made his way to the kitchen to set the coffee maker. It was at around 5:00, the time the chaos was to be unleashed. He had to wake up the kids, and of course, every one of them hated waking up, being ripped from their warm beds. Well, Adam hated making them unhappy just as much.
The oldest children, Jacob, James, and Anne could nearly fend for themselves; they made a mess, but it was a necessary mess that Adam needed them to make in order to feed the rest of the litter, Josh, and baby Elizabeth.
Elias sat at the table with them for the mess-making breakfast. Somehow Adam had managed to have the best-behaved litter in the world. Not because he was a great father, oh no; he taught
them in order to make his own life easier because, well, Elias was terrible with the kids, specifically, when they cried. He was sweet and gentle, caring to a fault, and he loved playing with them and he teaching them all sorts of things, but that was the end of his parental influence.
Elias was insecure about handling them; he would never carry them, and he waited until they could walk before being willing to them where they needed to go.
At first, Adam thought that was rather cute. Maybe it was just the fear that accompanies the firstborn, everything being new and all. But Adam was wrong. Elias avoided causing any discomfort to the pups at all. Adam bathed them, changed their diapers, dressed them, cleaned their messy faces, and dealt with it if any of the above made them cry.
Elias couldn’t handle it when they cried because it felt like he was at fault, that he was what triggered the little one's pain. And no matter how many times Adam explained to him that babies cried
because, well, that’s pretty much all babies did, Elias refused to understand. And so, the pups had to behave at all times in order to keep Elias from turning into Adam's sixth baby.
And breakfast was always as complicated as five pups could make it. Adam was already in a bad mood, feeding Josh with a spoon while Lizzie silently sucked on his chest, his favorite shirt smooshed to the side.
"Coffee, angel?" Elias asked, but Adam shook his head. Why bother? It would be cold before he’d get a chance to drink it.
"Are you certain? It is quite good, it’s from Colombia." Elias said. Adam tried to pay attention as he cleaned Josh's mouth and stopped Anne from overturning her cup of milk at the same
time.
“I guess you are doing a very smart thing,” Elias continued. “Coffee is most effective if consumed between 9:30 am and 11:30 am. Maybe I should have waited too."
"It good coffee, don't let it go to waste," Adam sighed, buttoning up his shirt. He was going to be late.
"Did you know coffee is the world's second most valuable traded commodity, only behind petroleum?"
“Really?” was Adam’s dismissive answer, but Elias didn't seem to notice, excited as he was with sharing his knowledge on the subject. Adam was already behind the counter, piling up the kid's plates. He would need to wash them before lunch, but he couldn’t do it now if he wanted to get the kids to daycare on time.
"Papa, what's peto...petroleum?" James asked. Elias began a very complicated explanation for his son as he cleaned his pups hands.
Adam interrupted his mate’s diatribe and said, “We need to go, James. Go get your bag, ok?"
"But..."
“James, I’m not going to ask you again,” Adam replied. The boy pouted but did as he was told. Was it too harsh? Anne already had her bag in hand; if the rest could walk over to the car, Adam would only have to carry Lizzie and Josh, the former already dozing on his chest, the latter a mess of mashed food and drool his father tried to clean up without waking the baby up. Thank goodness Adam had decided not to wear his favorite green scarf today.
Elias watched the kids as they walked over to Adam. The omega hated how comfortable and sated his mate seemed, still at the table with his newspaper and a warm meal.
“Your breakfast, angel?” inquired Elias.
“Fuck…” Adam sighed. He needed to eat too. Oh well, not today.
"Don't curse in front of the children! They will do it too and become rude delinquents!",
instead Elias, a disgusted expression on his face. Adam sighed.
“I'm sorry...I'll just...have something at work. Don't worry.” Adam said calmly, clinging to his last shreds of patience. Elias seemed disappointed, but Adam honestly couldn’t care at this point. He grabbed up his keys and bag. “Ok, say goodbye to Papa.”
A chorus of “Bye, Papa”s had Elias smiling again, giving each of the kids a gentle kiss on the forehead. Anne giggled as his mustache brushed her skin. Adam got Josh close enough for a kiss, and gave Elias a quick peck on the lips before walking away. He was already five minutes
late. This was going to be one of those days.