Anderson lifted his head from his pillow and yawned, blinked against the sunlight spilling through the windows. The clock told him he'd slept well past when the alarm had gone off. He turned to poke Lynn, went still in surprise when he saw the other half of the bed was empty. They'd only been home from their honeymoon two days—day and a half, really. Lynn had been even more exhausted than him, completely drained since the day before their flight home. Even after sleeping pretty much the whole remainder of the day after they'd gotten home, he'd been wiped and gone to bed early. Anderson had posed he might be sick, but Lynn had brushed it aside.
If he was up already, maybe he was finally feeling better.
Climbing out of bed, Anderson grabbed a quick shower then pulled on an old pair of jeans and a faded lavender t-shirt. Brushing his hair and pulling it back in a loose braid, he finally headed down the hall to the kitchen, chasing the scent of coffee and thinking lazily about cinnamon rolls.
He paused, though, when he reached the kitchen and found no Lynn anywhere in the front of the house. Another sweep located him outside, sitting at the patio table. He wore yoga pants and a pale blue tank top, hadn't bothered to put on a bra. His hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and he was frowning at his coffee mug like it was either the source of his misery or frustratingly failing to provide the solution Lynn sought. That particular frown said that Lynn had something on his mind that wasn't remotely good, and he hadn't decided how to share it.
Alarm ran down Anderson's spine like ice. Was Lynn sick after all? Seriously sick and he'd been hiding it? Thoughts of coffee and cinnamon rolls fled as Anderson all but ran out to the patio. Lynn looked up, face warring between pleasure and dismay. Anderson strode up to him, dropped to his knees, and rested one hand on Lynn's leg. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong exactly—"
"Stop bullshitting me," Anderson snapped. "You haven't been feeling well, all you do is sleep, and now you're out here brooding—" And he had been sporting breasts more often than usual. The pieces clicked into place like tumblers. "Oh, my god. You're pregnant."
Lynn slumped. "Yes. That last time we were in the ocean. I got careless, forgot to pay attention. I'm sorry, I know you wanted to wait a little bit—"
Anderson cut the flood of words off with a firm kiss, sliding a hand into Lynn's hair, sending the hair tie falling away. Lynn shuddered, shifted so he spilled out of his chair and onto Anderson, toppling them both to the patio. Anderson bundled him close, drew back only just enough to laugh softly. "Have you really been fretting about that this whole time? Are you ever going to learn not to make problems, you idiot calamari?"
"You didn't want them right away," Lynn mumbled. "I still remember when you weren't sure about kids, period."
"I couldn't picture them until you," Anderson replied. "I spent most of our honeymoon making nursery jokes, if you'll recall. As careless as we both tend to be, it was always a possibility. If I'd been super determined to avoid having kids so quickly, I would have politely requested you not bring out your baby-making bits." He nuzzled against Lynn's breasts, which were about one slight movement away from spilling out of the tanktop. Anderson slid a hand under the tank to lazily caress Lynn's skin. "So is this going to be a human birth or a kraken birth? You said it happened when we were in the ocean, so I'm assuming kraken."
Lynn nodded. "Yeah, kraken." He drew back so they weren't lying awkwardly on the hard patio stones, but the moment they were sitting up, he yanked his tank top up and cuddled up close to Anderson's side, head a familiar, always welcome weight on Anderson's shoulder. "I'll have to shift to half-form soon and stay that way to finish the process since a human body can only handle so much. It should only take a couple of days after that to lay the egg."
"Will you have to stay in the water with them the whole time?" Anderson asked. It was a conversation they'd meant to have a couple hundred times, but it had always fallen to the wayside as other matters took precedence and 'someday' always seemed off in the distance. "I mean, I'm sure you will anyway. Even I'm twitching at the idea of leaving them unsupervised for even five minutes." He smiled crookedly.
Lynn returned it with a wobbly one of his own. "Want to, definitely, but have to? No. I'd like to hire a nurse to stay with the egg during the day since we do have to go back to work and shouldn't stay locked up in the house anyway, no matter how tempting."
"Will they be okay sitting in the water?"
"Probably, but I'm way more paranoid than that," Lynn replied with a laugh. "We can order a case. I have several bookmarked; we can pick it out tonight and expedite the shipping. It will control water flow, temperature, even protect during storms and such if necessary, though if anything like that happens I'll be in there. And you too, obviously, if you want." He kissed Anderson's nose. "Until you get waterlogged anyway, silly earthbound."
"So you think just one kid?" Anderson asked, not sure if he was disappointed or relieved.
Lynn nodded again. "Though we could wind up with twins, given that's a thing in my family."
"I hope they take after you. Little krakens would be cute, and they'd have way more options for shifting and such." Miniature Lynns were still one of his favorite things to daydream about, even if he also stressed about what a handful they'd be if they had even half of Lynn's bossy ways.
"I'm voting for a baby Sparkleson," Lynn replied with a grin. "How cute would that be? I could dress them in little flouncy skirts and ribbons and whatever else I come up with as suitable for a miniature unicorn."
"I hope they prefer flannel and no-nonsense work boots, just to see your head explode," Anderson replied and laughed when Lynn pinched his side.
Lynn pinched him a second time. "Don't say such things. I have all the clothes picked out and only a limited time before they start forming their own opinions, and if that opinion is work boots, I will blame you forever."
"There's nothing wrong with work boots."
"Says the man who now owns more Italian shoes than me," Lynn retorted.
Anderson lifted his hands. "Alright, I concede that point. I guess it's more than obvious we don't really care how the miniature us comes out." He cupped Lynn's face and drew him in for a long, soft, lingering kiss. "I love you, Wriggly."
"Love you more, Sparkles," Lynn replied breathlessly, then drew him back into a much more heated kiss.
Drawing back with extreme reluctance, Anderson said, "Are you sure we should be—"
"It's fine, worrywart. Though a change of scenery would be nice." He stood and pulled Anderson to his feet, dragged him back into the house and down the hall to the bed Anderson had so recently vacated.
Anderson stripped off their clothes and pushed Lynn gently down into the bedding, spread him out, and decided to start at the top with that lovely mouth he never got tired of tasting. When Lynn was panting and his lips were red and swollen from use, he continued down the long line of Lynn's elegant throat, licking and sucking up new marks, nibbling at the ones already there, until sharp nails in his shoulders warned him to keep going or else.
Next were those lovely breasts, the nipples already hard. Anderson sucked on each one, kissed down the space between them and slowly worked his way even lower, lingering at the mark he'd left a few days ago on Lynn's stomach. By the time he got put his mouth and tongue to work on Lynn's clit, he was shivering, wet and eager, those nails still biting into Anderson's skin, one hand occasionally moving to tug demandingly at his hair. He shifted lower still, spreading those thighs wide and holding firm as he plunged his tongue in and made quick, dirty work of eating Lynn out.
Lynn came with a hoarse cry that was more or less Anderson's name. Drawing back, Anderson wiped his mouth and stared in satisfaction at Lynn, mussed and wrecked and beautiful. Wrapping a hand around his cock, he stroked off hard and fast, spilling across Lynn's stomach and torso.
Too lazy to go far, he used the snarled sheet to half-heartedly clean them up, threw it on the floor, then dragged Lynn close and dozed off smiling.
When he woke again, it was once more to an empty bed, but he could hear the shower running and Lynn singing. Smiling, Anderson went to join him, slipping into the shower and wrapping his arms around a wet, warm, soapy Lynn. He kissed the back of Lynn's neck. "Hey, sexy."
"Hey, yourself. I made fresh coffee, pulled up the websites, scheduled some nurses to interview."
Anderson chuckled. "Oh, I see. Wore me out with sex so you could sneak away and do all your fussing and controlling. Did you order paint and furniture for the nursery, too?"
"I bookmarked some strong possibilities," Lynn muttered, then turned around and ran soapy hands down Anderson's chest. "Wash up and let's get to work because I think by tomorrow I'm going to be stuck in the water."
"Yes, my lord," Anderson replied and laughed when that got a bar of soap slapped against his chest before Lynn finished rinsing off and slipped away. Turning into the spray, Anderson put his full attention on following orders.
When he was once more clean and dressed, he wandered down the hall and sat at the bar, muttering thanks around the coffee Lynn gave to him. "So when do you want to tell everyone?"
Lynn shrugged as he sat down next to Anderson and sipped his own coffee. "Not immediately. I'd rather wait until after the egg is settled. Plus, I'm peopled out, and the moment my family finds out, they'll be over here as quickly as the speed limit and lack of cops permits."
Anderson rolled his eyes, but he couldn't refute that. But thoughts of Lynn's family dredged up thoughts of his own. He preferred not to think of his family at all, but the urge to tell them was there all the same. When they'd gotten home, it was to find a card from them with a wedding gift in the form of a shockingly large giftcard to one of his and Lynn's favorite clothing boutiques. How they'd known, Anderson couldn't begin to guess, but he'd sent them a thank you and had no idea where that left matters. The thought of them interfering with his child left him feeling sick, but maybe a grandchild could do what he couldn't.
"Stop fretting about it," Lynn said. "Old habits die hard, but you're not actually obliged to tell your family shit, even if they did something nice. If you decide to tell them and let them visit, fine, but if you decide not to, they're the ones that burned that bridge." He kissed Anderson's nose. "Stop worrying about it for now. We've got plenty of other decisions to make."
"Bring it on," Anderson said and started munching on a sprinkle-laden donut as Lynn dragged his laptop over and began to talk a mile a minute.
It took them one hour to pick out a suitable case for the egg. It took them two weeks and eleven arguments to decide on a nurse, mostly because Lynn seemed to think it was possible to find someone who was basically him and Anderson perfectly combined into a caretaker and getting him to calm the fuck down and see reason was a feat to make even his mother throw up her hands.
By the time that was settled, Anderson was almost relieved to go back to work, except it meant leaving their children in the hands of a stranger, and that was definitely harder to do than he'd anticipated once the moment was upon them.
In the end, they'd both taken half days the first week and stopped only when the nurse proved herself by being more terrifying than any of the crazy ass criminals they'd hunted down in their Bureau days.
Throughout, they hadn't broken the news to anyone but Lynn's family, and them only because Anderson had required Lynn's mother to help him convince Lynn to be reasonable.
And of course, his first real day back at work, he was running late because of a storm knocking the power out, making the roads damn near undrivable and reducing the city to a swimming pool. By the time he finally made it to the office, two and a half hours late for a meeting with an important client, he was ready to just fucking quit and go back to bed.
"Sorry I'm—" He broke off as he was inundated in cheers and congratulations and belatedly noticed the office had been drowned in 'yay, baby' decorations. Anderson was torn between smiling and scowling. In the end, the smile won out. "Who told?"
The receptionist, a handsome selkie by the name of Kyrie, giggled. "Wasn't all that hard to guess, actually. Only so many reasons to be acting like you have, with all the leaving early and fretting and grinning whenever no one is looking… But Lynn called us yesterday to spill the beans because he knew you'd like a surprise, and we like an excuse to drink champagne before noon. We got that crazy sweet cake you love to shatter your defenses."
"Damn it," Anderson said, salivating at just the thought of it. "What about the meeting with Edg—"
"Meetings were stealth handled or rescheduled," said Stern with a smile.
Rudy snickered. "Honestly, Anderson. The first clue was how distracted you've been. It's been crazy easy to sneak stuff past you. Lynn said you're having twins! We're so excited for you!"
Kyrie cheered again and rushed forward to give Anderson a tight hug, and that was all the excuse everyone else needed to do the same. Then it was food, champagne, and more champagne. Somewhere in the cheerful mess, Lynn and his whole office showed up to join the fun.
A short time later, while everyone was drinking yet more bubbly and getting rather bubbly themselves, Anderson dragged Lynn into his office to steal a few kisses where they wouldn't get mercilessly teased. "Just couldn't resist, could you?"
"Why would I bother trying?" Lynn replied, preening. "I like when people give you all the attention you deserve." He scowled briefly. "As long as they don't get too grabby."
Anderson snorted softly. "Possessive squid. I think the miniature spawns of the deep in our backyard prove you do the best grabbing."
Lynn just puffed up more and dragged him in for more kisses, and Anderson was more than happy to continue doing just that until someone finally noticed they were missing and dragged them back to the party.
By the time it all wound down, it was just after dark. When they got home, they bypassed the house entirely and went right through the gate and straight on to the pool. They bid the nurse, Amelia, a good night and then Lynn stripped down and slid into the water. Anderson stripped down to his boxers and sat at the edge of the pool. The lights they installed showed everything clearly: Lynn at the bottom of the pool, gently lifting the egg out of its protective case to cuddle close in his tentacles. It was soft, faintly squishy still, just translucent enough they could already see the two faint smudges that would eventually become their children.
Lynn reached up with two tentacles and curled them around Anderson's legs as he dipped them into the water. The tentacles reached up just far enough Anderson could stroke them, and Lynn looked up at him with a warm smile that Anderson immediately returned.
It was almost exactly the kind of life his family wanted to thrust on everyone. The kind of life that Lynn's thriving business proved wasn't for everyone. But Anderson wasn't the least bit sorry it had turned out to be the perfect life for him.
Though it didn't seem quite as perfect several months later when the alarm went off way too damned early. Anderson groaned and contemplated murder. He'd fucking turned the alarm off. Why—
Wait, that was a text. Lynn's text chime, in fact. Why was Lynn texting him when they were both at home today? Dragging his head out from the pillows and blankets he'd hoped to stay in the whole morning, he fumbled his phone off the nightstand and read, Come outside now.
Shit, shit, shit. Was it time already? Anderson threw back the blankets and bolted through the house out to the backyard, practically falling down the porch steps in his haste to get across the yard to Lynn's pool.
Lynn was, of course, there. He rarely left the pool anymore except when he needed a break or to get some proper sleep.
Anderson slid into the water by way of the steps that led into the pool, staying well out of the way, submerged up to his stomach. Across the pool, Lynn had slipped beneath the water, and Anderson could just see him fussing over the swollen egg that had begun to show signs of readiness a few days ago. Lynn had thought it would take a few days more, but Anderson wasn't at all surprised their children were already showing indications they'd inherited Lynn's impatience.
His heart went from beating a hundred miles an hour to approximately five hundred as Lynn surfaced and swam over to him with two pale little bundles in his arms. Lynn settled on the steps, tentacles reflexively twining and wrapping around Anderson. "Here, take one."
"They're—" Anderson stopped, swallowed. He had just assumed they'd come out kraken or unicorn. He had completely forgotten in the simple scary thrill of having children that unusual things happened when different types of shifters crossed.
"Kelpie," Lynn finished softly, stroking over the soft, slick pelt of the little water horse he still cradled against his breasts.
Anderson cuddled the other one, melting into a puddle of soppy contentment as they gurgled and fussed and then settled in close against him. Their skin was bone white, not unusual given they were primarily water creatures. They had dark hair, which was unusual given neither he nor Lynn had dark hair. Their eyes were closed, noses warm as they nudged against Anderson's chest. The little front hooves dug into his skin, and the tail fins itched, but he didn't care in the least. "How long until they can shift?"
"About six months," Lynn said. "We're going to have to build an indoor pool, I think. Something. Even after they shift, they'll probably stay like this most of the time until they're a little older. I was kind of hoping they'd be kelpie, but it's so rare, I didn't want to say it aloud and jinx it."
"It never even occurred to me," Anderson said, gently running a finger along the slick skin, so similar in texture to Lynn's tentacles but slightly softer, like they were overlaid with velvet. "They're beautiful."
Lynn looked up, eyes the brightest, the happiest, that Anderson had ever seen them. Only their wedding day drew close. "Aren't they perfect?"
"Yes," Anderson agreed softly. "Mother and twins." He leaned over to give Lynn a kiss, lingering over it, loving the feel and flavor, and more the familiarity of it. The rightness of it and the promise of many more years to come.
FIN
Mobilism=)