Chapter Text
There were some days that Nicky honestly couldn’t believe his luck. He was never supposed to have an Alpha who would accept him, to have a family of his own. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d given up on those things, taking to heart the news his doctor had given him and throwing away any expectations for his life he might have had before.
Nicky still didn’t know if he’d really wanted those things as a teenager or if he’d started wanting them in college. But after he’d met Joe… the combination of the forbidden and the impossible had swirled inside him until the thought of not having a family, not having one with Joe in particular, had been enough to drive him to despair.
Luckily, he knew better now. Countless conversations had convinced him of that.
“You know… we could have always adopted,” Joe had laughed at him one day, a twinkle in his eye as he cupped Nicky’s softly swelling belly. “It makes no difference to me.”
“I know,” Nicky admitted, sighing as Joe felt him up. “But you liked making the baby, you can’t deny that.”
“Why would I?” Joe purred, pressing kisses under Nicky’s ear. “We should keep practicing. Want to head back to my place?”
“Insatiable,” Nicky laughed when Joe shook his head back and forth, the hair of his beard tickling his neck. “We’re supposed to meet your sister for lunch.”
“Ugh,” Joe groaned. “Marya can wait a little bit.”
“No, we can’t do that to her,” Nicky chuckled, pulling away from Joe, though reluctantly. He groaned as he sat up from his couch, smiling as Joe moved with him. The sunlight filtered through the white curtains and the curls atop Joe’s head shone, a dark halo streaked with sunlight.
“I can’t believe the dinner with your aunt went so well,” Nicky confessed, watching respectfully as Joe stretched his arms out above his head. “The way you spoke about her, I thought she would be a nightmare."
"No one was more shocked than I was,” Joe said wryly. His dark, glittering eyes sparkled with delight as he thought of his Aunt Yasmine’s excitement about Nicky and the baby. She had found out about them somehow -- Joe suspected black magic -- and demanded to see Nicky before Joe introduced him to the rest of the family. Joe hoped his mother wouldn’t find out Aunt Yasmine had met Nicky first… though that was probably wishful thinking. “I should have known though; she’s been hounding me to find someone since I graduated college.”
“She just wants you to be happy,” Nicky said, reaching out to pluck at a wild curl. Joe smiled, grabbed Nicky’s hand and turned it over, pressing a delicate kiss to Nicky’s wrist and inhaling his omega’s sweet scent.
“I am happy,” Joe told him and began to press kisses higher and higher until he pressed a wet, sloppy kiss on the inside of his elbow. “Completely, perfectly, wonderfully happy.”
“No!” Nicky laughed as Joe rubbed his beard against ticklish skin.
“Tell me you’re happy too,” Joe teased, leaning up to kiss Nicky on the lips.
“I am,” Nicky said softly as they broke apart, cradling Joe’s face as he leaned into his embrace. “You know I am.”
“I like to hear it though,” Joe smiled, settling on the couch with a contented sigh.
“Joe, we have to get ready to meet your sister,” Nicky laughed, pushing at Joe until the other man groaned and finally stood up.
“Yes, I know,” Joe sighed.
He reached out, took hold of Nicky’s arms, and pulled him gently to his feet. Joe gripped his hips firmly to steady him before his hands began to wander, and Nicky fought back a laugh as he rubbed his sides and ass. It was as if Joe couldn’t stop himself from touching him every chance he could, and Nicky loved it.
“Did she mention why she wanted to meet up?” Nicky asked, moving around Joe to walk to the bedroom, determined not to let the alpha distract him again.
“No idea,” Joe shrugged. “Probably wanted to have a casual lunch before we meet my parents at her birthday party.”
“Ah, now that’s what I’m worried about,” Nicky sighed as he flicked through his brand-new maternity wear. He already longed for the day when he didn’t have to wear awkwardly cut shirts and stretchy pants, but his old clothes no longer fit him properly with the addition of his ever-growing baby bump.
“Your grandparents loved me,” Joe reminded him. “I’m sure my parents will be the same.”
Nicky snorted, lifting his sleep shirt over his head, and reaching for a bright yellow button-down.
“My grandparents and I are all the family each other have,” Nicky said, gently slapping Joe’s hands away from grasping his bare belly as he buttoned up his shirt. “They were going to be happy no matter who I brought home, but the fact that it’s you? Who wouldn’t be ecstatic?”
“They were pretty impressed with my job,” Joe laughed, finally deciding to change out of his pajamas and into jeans and a t-shirt. “I didn’t have the heart to tell them that corporate lawyers aren’t court lawyers.”
“They really like watching court dramas,” Nicky agreed with a sigh. “And they’re eighty-year-old retired restaurateurs, I don’t think they know what a corporate lawyer does.”
“To be fair, most people don’t,” Joe laughed, tugging on his jeans with an ease Nicky envied.
“What does your sister do again?” Nicky asked.
He’d only met her once in passing last week. Nicky had been arriving to Joe’s apartment after work and Marya had been on her way out. Her obvious delight and insistence that they should get lunch together before her birthday had been reassuring to Nicky’s anxiety about the event.
“She’s a dentist,” Joe told him. “She and her wife have their own practice downtown.”
“Oh?” Nicky asked, curiously as he awkwardly shimmied into his elastic-waistline pants. “Her wife is a dentist too?”
“She does admin or something like that,” Joe shrugged as he looked down and considered wearing either his brown belt or the black one. Nicky pointed to the brown one and Joe smiled, kissing him on the cheek before putting the black one back into the closet.
“That’s sweet,” Nicky said. “I’m sure they must enjoy spending all that time together.”
“Ha!” Joe laughed as put on his belt. “Whenever I talk to one of them all they do is complain about the other. But they’ve been working like that for five years now, I guess they must secretly like it.”
“I’m sure they do,” Nicky smiled. He sat down onto the bed and reached down to put his socks on.
“Let me do that,” Joe said quickly, kneeling down to grab the sock from Nicky’s hand.
Nicky laughed and left him to it, trying not to be too affected as the other man slid his thumbs along the arch of his foot, a mischievous sparkle in the other man’s eye as he leaned in closer to Nicky’s vulnerable belly.
“You’re incorrigible,” Nicky laughed as Joe pressed his face against the baby bump. “I’ll let you feel me up as much as you like later, but we should head out in the next five minutes if we want to get there in time.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Joe said with a bright grin, picking up the speed and putting Nicky’s second sock on with little fuss.
“Completely incorrigible,” Nicky chuckled, pressing a kiss to Joe’s lips and tried to ignore the temptation of letting Joe undress him and spending the entire day in bed.
“You’re just as bad,” Joe mumbled against his lips.
Nicky said nothing, simply breaking the kiss and slipping out from under Joe. He brushed his fingers gently across the exposed skin of Joe’s arm and laughed when Joe tried to make another grab for him. He led Joe on a merry chase around the bed for a moment or so, but quickly allowed his alpha to catch him. The two of them rocked back and forth in front of the cat tree, and Basil ignored them disdainfully, the way only a cat could, as they breathed in each other’s scent.
Nicky knew he was probably grinning like a fool. It felt wonderful to have Joe wrapped around him, willing to help him and to be around him, even if he didn’t need it. Whatever Nicky had wanted in a potential mate before that first fateful meeting in the coffee shop two years ago, Joe matched and exceeded it every day simply by being himself. And every day Nicky wondered if he was only dreaming, if he was destined to wake up and find himself alone in his apartment again, no lover by his side and no baby inside him.
If this was a dream, Nicky’s only wish was to never wake up.