Chapter Text
Kafka stared up at the concrete ceiling, his heart…or was it his core…was beating rapidly. His skin itched with anxiety, and he just…he just didn’t know what to do. Despite his stay of execution, he was terrified of what was to come. Would he still be treated as Kafka or just as No. 8? He already heard whispers from the soldiers who had escorted him to his room.
“And to think, that thing is an Omega.”
“Not a very good one if he’s that old and doesn’t have a mate.”
Kafka squeezed his pillow close, choking back a sob as that truth made him sick. A heaviness draped over him like a weight. He was too big, too dumb, too ugly. He was a failure of an omega. Even if he did find a mate now, would he even be able to have children?
‘Please God, or whoever is out there listening. I just want to know if everything is going to be okay?’
Kafka looked into the mirror and saw himself older, hair graying slightly at the ends, and wearing a kurotomesode. There was a garment box on the table beside him, containing the most beautiful white kimono he had ever seen.
“That shiromuku is beautiful, but heavy,” a young woman said as she sat before the mirror. “I don’t know how you managed to wear it while pregnant, Mama.”
“Auntie Mina said we get our stubbornness from Mama,” the young woman in a suit stated as she took the elaborate hairpins out of the bride’s hair before brushing it out.
“But Uncle Chiro said the same thing about Papa.”
Kafka looked at the two women in contemplation, noting the older woman’s appearance before looking down at the garment box in his hands. The white fabric was subtly embroidered with flowers, and on the obi sat an obidome of jade bearing the Hoshina family crest. He then looked closer at his own attire and found a mother-of-pearl obidome with the same crest.
These girls…they were Hoshinas. But they called Kafka ‘Mama’, and the bride had his mother’s hairpin. Did that mean…did that mean?
“You’re my daughters,” Kafka stated aloud.
The two looked over at Kafka in confusion before the bride squealed. “Mama! Are you on your Walk?”
“Hold on! I call Papa and our brothers!” the elder stated as she rapidly typed into her phone before stepping into the hall. “Yuki, you need to finish getting dressed.”
“Ok!”
“Brothers?” Kafka repeated dumbfoundedly. The bride nodded eagerly.
“Uh-huh, Suzume is the oldest, and I have three older brothers too,” she replied rather eagerly as she ducked behind the divan before quickly coming out in a pale pink kimono with a floral design along the hem. It looked a lot like snowflakes.
“Five?” Kafka stammered, his cheeks starting to burn.
Suzume quickly returned, accompanied by three young men streaming in behind her, wearing a mixture of teal and magenta accessories that brought out the color of their eyes. One, the tallest young man with a trimmed beard and heterochromia eyes, led Kafka to a chair, and another pressed a cup of tea into his hands.
“Please relax, Mama,” the young man in glasses stated.
“Papa is on his way down once he finishes with the wedding coordinator,” the young woman in the business suit stated as she put her phone away. “He’s told the band to keep the guests entertained for a bit longer. Yuki, we need to finish your hair.”
“That’s fine!” the bride stated eagerly as Suzume started to pull it back into a braided bun. “I really want to talk to Mama! Are you from the year before you and Papa met?”
“Are they from before the battle with Kaiju No 9?” the one with glasses asked.
“Have you unlocked your new form yet?” the long-haired one asked.
“Have you humbled Uncle Chiro yet?” Suzume asked.
“Guys, please. We don’t need to overwhelm Mama with spoilers,” the tall man scolded as Kafka sipped his tea. “For all we know, they haven’t inherited Kaiju No 8 yet.”
“I have,” Kafka replied faintly. “And No, yes, what new form and no?”
“Come on, Hayato, you can’t be a little curious,” the man with long hair exclaimed. As he waved his arms excitedly, Kafka caught sight of a smattering of red scales along his arms under the haori he wore.
“Your arms.”
The young man looked at his arms and flushed. “Whoops. Sorry, my vacation in Australia got a little gnarly. A Kaiju decided to pop up during the surf. On the plus side, I got to punch a shark Kaiju in the face and a pretty girl’s number.”
“I swear, Ryuu, if we didn’t inherit a healing factor, you wouldn’t be half this crazy,” the one with glasses sighed.
“Oh, like you’re one to talk, Natsume.”
“Kids, stop trying to spoil the future for your mother,” a man called out as he walked into the room. Like Kafka, he wore formal wear and carried himself with an air of dignity. But it didn’t take long for Kafka to realize that this was an older Soshiro Hoshina.
His heart clenched.
“Yuki, it would be rude to keep Hakuji waiting.” Soshiro gently chastised before turning to his elder children. “And I am trusting the rest of you to keep everything civil while Mama and I have a chat in private. Your aunts have my permission to scold you if you do.”
“Aww!” their children chorused before filing out of the room, with the eldest escorting Yuki to the reception hall. As soon as the door had closed, Soshiro led him out an adjacent door and down a stone pathway and into a large garden bordered by flowering trees. As Kafka looked around in awe at the extravagance, Soshiro chucked.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing, it's just so cute how you get. It’s our date to Hinadoriyama all over again.” Soshiro replied with his usual impish smile. They finally came to a stop at a small alcove surrounded by flowering magnolia trees.
“We can have some privacy out here. It must be a lot to get so many spoilers about your future at once. Especially at our daughter’s wedding.”
“It is,” Kafka replied uneasily. “I’m sorry.”
“For what, darling?”
“For making our children part-Kaiju.”
Soshiro held his hand tightly. “It wasn’t just you.”
“What?”
“We had a hiccup when you were carrying our second; it wasn’t your fault.” Soshiro quickly added. “A damn Daikaiju got a lucky shot. But that’s when we learned that they inherited a Kaiju factor through me as well.”
“Through you?”
“I acquired a number weapon for the battle with Kaiju No 9, and broke the limits on it,” Soshiro admitted. “Apparently, by doing so, I absorbed the Kaiju factors and passed them onto our children. I am just as much at fault as you.”
“Hoshina…do you love me?”
Soshiro froze before gesturing madly to the wedding ring on his hand. “WE ARE MARRIED!”
“Yeah, but…was it a formal arrangement to keep Kaiju No 8’s power or-?”
Soshiro tugged him close, pressing him against his chest, his coffee-laden scent washed over him as he started purring into his ear. “Darling, I waited years to find you after my Walk and was ready to propose that first night we met in person. When I finally had you all to myself, I couldn’t keep my hands off you. So it was no surprise when we finally had a formal wedding ceremony, you were already expecting.”
Soshiro leaned back, his smile becoming something warm instead of lustful as he cupped Kafka’s face with his hands. “I was so happy when you became pregnant with our first, and every child after that. My most precious mate, who had faith in me and encouraged me to keep moving forward, even when I was scared to take the first step. You gave me the love and the family that I had craved for the longest time.”
Kafka’s vision started to blur, from both tears and the fuzziness of the tug as his Walk came to an end. He leaned into Soshiro’s arms, whimpering as the Alpha held him tight.
“I don’t want to go.”
“It’s okay Darling, I will be waiting for you.”
Kafka waited patiently, waiting for Soshiro to come back. In his few free hours, he was outside, running until his curfew. Then, finally, one night, Kafka could smell that Alpha’s coffee-laden scent.