"Merry Christmas, Carlos."

"Merry Christmas, Luis," Carlos said, leaning against the railing to catch his breath. Two more weeks and they could move into their house. No more stairs.

Resting his hand on the massive thrust of his belly, he froze in place as something inside shifted. The movement was barely there, but it drew every speck of his attention more than anything short of an explosion. It started a few days ago, so faint he thought it was his imagination.

His babies.

When the doctor told him he was having twins, he cried. Not necessarily out of happiness. Twin pregnancies were hard enough on women; in omegas, they were considered high risk. Now he had doctor's appointments every week, and at each one he was warned he could end up on bed rest if he wasn't careful.

Teddy just nodded and told the technician they didn't want to know the genders. He'd gotten an earful when they got to the car, but he just said he didn't want to say anything until they were sure. Like his guesses weren't better than other people's calculated wisdom.

"Fucking witch," he muttered. "Don't tell your dad I said that," he added to his stomach.

"I'm not a witch."

"You keep saying that," Carlos said, turning slightly to watch Teddy come up the stairs behind him.

"You keep not believing me," he replied, pressing a kiss to Carlos' forehead, his hands warm against the omega's waist. "Did anything come in the mail today?"

Carlos snorted. "You act like I checked." He smoothed Teddy's coat with one hand, gripping the railing with the other. "You have no idea how glad I am that classes are over. I'm not coming down the stairs again until you take me to the new house."

"You have a doctor's appointment tomorrow," Teddy said apologetically. "Let me go check the mail. I'm expecting something from Marcus." The lines around his mouth deepened for a moment before he turned away. "I can give you a foot rub when you get upstairs."

"Can't you just conveniently forget my appointment tomorrow?" Carlos called, hauling himself up a few more steps.

"No."

"Stick in the mud," he grumbled.

The landing at the top of the stairs was as good a place to stop and catch his breath again as any, and he was still there when Teddy came up with a package in his arms. He was carrying it effortlessly under one arm while he texted with his free hand. He looked delicious and just a little bit dangerous with his eyebrows furrowed and his jaw set. Carlos felt desire curl around his spine even as he was jealous of the easy way the other man was able to get around.

"Why do I get the feeling that isn't a Christmas present?" he asked. He held up a hand when Teddy looked guilty. "I know. It's work, so I won't pry. How's the site doing?"

The project was still unfinished, waiting on the replacement counters and another load of tiles for the bathrooms and kitchens. He knew how much it grated on Teddy they hadn't been able to get families into their new homes by Christmas.

"They moved the scaffold over to one of the unfinished buildings," Teddy said with a grimace, unlocking the door and letting Carlos precede him into the apartment. "It's still unstable."

The room was stripped down to the bare bones, all of his stuff packed up and waiting in the storage container with Teddy's furniture from Connecticut. There were a few surprises packed away, too, gifts from Teddy's friends, one of whom was a furniture designer. Or possibly knew a furniture designer. He couldn't keep them all straight.

"What did the state inspectors say?" he asked, settling back on the bed with a sigh. His back was killing him.

"That it was unstable," Teddy said, rolling his eyes. He carried the package over to the kitchen counter to cut it open.

Carlos laughed. "Sounds about right. I think you're the only man in town who actually cares about having things done right."

"You do," Teddy said, pulling a stack of papers out of the box. "Shit." He shot Carlos a guilty look.

"Don't mind me," he said, stretching out on the bed. "My plans consist of nothing more exciting than taking a nap. You can give me that foot rub when I'm awake enough to enjoy it."

"I love you," Teddy said, taking the three steps necessary to give him a soft kiss.

The words curled around Carlos' chest, warming him from the inside, but he still couldn't bring himself to say it back. "I'm pretty awesome," he said instead, nipping at the alpha's lip until he deepened the kiss.

He definitely wouldn't have gotten that nap if the phone hadn't started ringing. They both stared at it for a moment before Teddy reached out and sent the call to voicemail.

"You can't ignore her forever," Carlos said. He didn't have to see the caller ID to know who it was. His mother had been getting increasingly frustrated at how upset her 'Mrs. Connelly' was over her grandson's lack of communication. Only divine intervention kept her from giving Teddy an earful.

"I won't," he said, making no move to check his voicemail when the phone chimed.

Carlos sighed, shuffling pillows around until he was comfortable. "Did you find the yarn you were looking for?" he asked, not wanting to rehash the same argument again.

"Not exactly, but I found something that will work," Teddy said. "I left it in the car, though. I'll show it to you tonight."

"You should work on the blanket for a little while. Let the papers wait." It still amused him Teddy knitted. It was such a random, eccentric thing for an alpha to do that it fit him perfectly.

"Papers first," Teddy said. "I'll work on the blanket after your nap."

"Suit yourself," Carlos said, feeling drowsiness settle over him like a weight.

It was dark outside when he woke up, the light from the street lamp on the corner making shadows across the ceiling.

At first, he thought Teddy had left, the room was so still. When he opened his eyes, though, the alpha was sitting on the chair they'd crammed into the corner of the room, staring at his phone. The papers from earlier were back in their box, sitting on the floor beside him.

Carlos sat up, unsurprised when the redhead didn't seem to notice. With difficulty, he hauled himself out of bed to lean over Teddy's shoulder. "Call her," he said, pressing a sleepy kiss to the back of his neck before waddling off to go pee.

"What if she doesn't answer?" Teddy said, appearing in the doorway a moment later.

Laughing, Carlos shook his head. "Nobody calls that many times just to refuse to pick up the phone," he said. "She's going to answer." He glanced at the clock in the kitchen, just visible around the edge of the door. "Maybe not right now, actually, because it's late. But at a sane hour."

He fidgeted, and Carlos made a grab for the phone, surprised when he wrestled it free easily. Teddy didn't normally let his phone out of his hands, too dependent on the reminders it provided him.

"Do you want me to call her?" he asked. It wasn't like he hadn't heard so much about the woman from both his mother and Teddy that he felt like he knew her.

"That's not very..." He waved his hands in frustration. "It's not very macho, is it? I should do it myself."

"Do you care?" Carlos asked, snorting at the thought of Teddy trying to be macho. "And if so, why? I'm the only one here to impress, and I'm kind of a sure thing."

Teddy laughed a little at that, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Am I really being ridiculous?"

"In my professional opinion? Yes," Carlos said. "I'm not saying I blame you, though. People tend to suck. I just don't think your grandmother is one of them."

He took a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing a little from where he had them up around his ears. "Okay. I can do this." He held out his hand for the phone.

"Go away so I can finish peeing," Carlos said, mock glaring as he handed it over.

"Just because you're shy," Teddy muttered, a small smile revealing the crow's feet that were the only sign he was well into his thirties.

"I am not shy," Carlos shouted, pushing the door closed in his face.

He was still smiling a moment later when he heard the very soft "Hi, Nana," and the click of the front door closing.

The nice thing about bad news was it didn't take long to tell, and the fact they talked for almost an hour eased a lot of the worries that he wouldn't admit to Teddy. He stuck the dinner his mom had left them in the oven to reheat, cleaned counters, and untangled the blankets so he could liedown again.

He must have dozed off because the next thing he knew, Teddy was urging him awake and the apartment smelled like spices.

In the ugly fluorescent light from the kitchen fixture, the alpha looked terrible. His eyes and nose were so red that he might as well have been on a three-day binge. He was smiling, though, a big grin that showed off the dimple in one cheek.

"She wants to meet you," he said.

"Oh, no," Carlos groaned, flopping back on the bed.

* * *

"Here, have a plate, dear."

Carlos didn't have a chance to do more than clutch the lime yellow plate to his chest before he was dragged into a hug. For a little old woman who barely came up to his shoulder, she had some serious upper body strength, maneuvering him into a seat before he could protest.

"I'll be right out with the tea," she said, dragging Teddy into a similar hug. It really was laughable how tiny she was next to him. "Sit down and make yourself comfortable."

Staring after her, he turned the plate over in his hands. "What am I doing with this?" he whispered urgently to Teddy.

"Throw it if you feel like it," Teddy said, grabbing a tiny cake off the silver tray on the table and picking the decorative flower off the top. "It's tradition."

"You people really are crazy," Carlos said, setting the plate down on the table.

"Yes," Mrs. Connelly said, appearing in the doorway with a tea tray in her hands, "but only because the Connelly men make us so."

"Amen," he muttered.

"Take Teddy's father, for instance. I love my son, but he's bound and determined to be an asshole." She smiled at them both as they choked. "Tea?"

"Yes, please," Carlos said faintly.

"Imagine," she continued, pouring three cups before he'd finished speaking, "my own son trying to imply I would be in any way distressed by a pregnant omega." She passed him a cup, black with gold trim on a saucer that matched the plate. "As if he'd never met my papa or your granddad's grandpapa for that matter."

Carlos, halfway through downing his tea like a shot, choked, spraying tea everywhere.

Carlos couldn't help it. He laughed. He laughed until his sides ached and the twins were rolling around in his belly in protest. Tears dripped down his nose and onto that horrible lime green plate, and he still couldn't stop.

"That's right, dear. It's all a bit ridiculous, isn't it?" A delicate hand patted his arm as he gasped for breath.

"Yeah," he said, wiping his eyes. "It really is."

"Would you like to hear about the time Teddy decided he was going to run away and join the circus as a fortune teller?" she asked. "He had a turban and everything. I have pictures."

The look of absolute horror on Teddy's face set him off again, and he howled. He had to set the tea down so he could clutch at his swollen belly with both hands. "Ow, ow. Oh God," he groaned when he could spare the breath.

Finally, exhausted, he slumped against the arm of the chair and grinned. "Yes, please," he said, dabbing at his sweaty skin with the napkin she handed him. "Tell me everything."

"I like him," she told Teddy, her eyes twinkling. "It was the summer he turned seven. Or was it eight?"

Carlos leaned forward in his chair, ignoring the way Teddy groaned.