Chapter 24
It may seem as though Sebastian had misjudged how far away Anthony would be with the girls, as his and Chris’s alone time together is cut shorter than they would’ve liked. Even so, Sebastian makes no move to get up off Chris as he lays atop of him on the couch, a bit of an awkward position given their similar heights, but they’ve managed to make it work nonetheless.
“Sounds like Anthony is back with the girls.” Chris says, running his fingers through Sebastian’s hair, as he looks over towards the direction of the front door.
Sebastian sighs, snuggling up closer to Chris, resting a hand on his still kind of flat stomach. “I don’t fancy getting up anytime soon. You’re just too comfortable.”
Chris chuckles, shaking his head. “I appreciate that, Seb. But you do know that once Anthony walks through the front door with the girls, the first thing the girls will do when they see me is jump on me.”
“Well, of course they will, Chris.” Sebastian sighs. “They haven’t seen you in nearly a month.” He reminds him. “Besides, I think once they see the puppy, they’ll forget that you’re even home. You know how much the girls have been wanting a dog.”
Just like Chris said they would, as soon as the girls walk into the living room, with Anthony following along behind them, pushing along Sabrina’s pushchair and carrying a few shopping bags, the girls are running straight over to their father. Which as a result, causes Sebastian to have to get off of Chris, so they can both sit up on the couch.
“Daddy’s home!” Taissa exclaims as she and Emma run over to him, climbing onto the couch and hugging him tight, while Sabrina squeals in delight at the sight of her father as Anthony gets her out of the pushchair.
Anthony falters slightly as he sees Chris sitting there on the couch with Sebastian. He thought Chris would still be gone for another week, but here he is now, at home. Glancing over at Sebastian, he can’t help but feel as though the guy is going to blame him for going behind his back and telling Chris about the pregnancy. Which he did not do, as much as he felt like he should do so. Omegas need their alphas home with them as much as possible during this time. Apparently it makes it just that much easier to go through instead of the omegas having to deal through it alone.
“Alright, Seb.” Anthony starts, once he’s got Sabrina out of her pushchair. “Before you say anything, I did not call Chris.” He backs away a little, expecting Sebastian to jump at him, accusing him of going behind his back and telling Chris.
Sebastian laughs, shaking his head. “I know, Anthony.” He says, which causes the Anthony to relax. “He came home early.”
Anthony sighs in relief, nodding as he goes to take the shopping into the kitchen. Though he stops as soon as he sees the puppy curled up asleep in the middle of the kitchen floor with one of the cats, Nala, sitting next to it, purring as she licks the top of the puppy’s head.
“Uh….” He trails off, looking from the cat and the puppy, over to Sebastian and Chris. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but it seems like one of your cats - Nala from the looks of it - has found a puppy, and appears to be… uh... mothering it….” He’s never really seen a cat and a dog look that content in each other’s presence.
He also doesn’t recall Chris and Sebastian ever having a puppy, and considering he’s been staying here for the past week to help Sebastian out around the house and with the girls, he’d know if they have a puppy or not. It’s not like a puppy is an animal that you don’t even notice is in someone’s house.
Sebastian huffs out a sigh, looking at Chris, then to Anthony. “Chris brought a puppy home with him.” He then looks back at Chris. “ Without telling me first.”
Chris shrugs at Anthony, trying to ignore the frustrated glare Sebastian is sending him. “I found him on the side of the road.”
“The side of the road?” Anthony questions, looking back towards the puppy. “You sure he didn’t already have an owner?”
“Doubt it.” Chris says. “I found him out in the middle of nowhere last week, and no one came forward to claim him after I put something up about him on one of the lost and found pet pages on FaceBook.”
“Right….” Anthony nods, before continuing on to put the shopping away in the kitchen. It’s not a lot of stuff, just whatever Sebastian had said to get ore of from the store, which was mainly bread and milk, along with a few extras that he had asked for. Mostly chocolate and junk food to help with his cravings, which involves an alarming amount of salty foods….
“You got a puppy, daddy?” Taissa asks excitedly, overjoyed to hear that they’ve finally got a puppy.
Chris smiles at her. “Sure did!” He says. “But your mother isn’t too pleased about it- Ow!” He looks at Sebastian, who just elbowed him in the ribs, and not very gently either.
Sebastian just smiles innocently at him, acting like he didn’t just elbow Chris in the ribs.
Chris isn’t wrong though, Sebastian’s not too pleased that they’ve now got a puppy. More so because of the timing though, and because he wasn’t informed beforehand. To be fair though, he never informed Chris beforehand when he adopted Nala, and never exactly talked it through with Chris before he caught Sooty. Though technically Sooty just made himself at home in their backyard, so there wasn’t really much catching the cat per se.
“Anyway….” Chris starts, turning his attention back to the girls. “He’s agreed to let us keep the puppy if we look after him, while mommy looks after his nasty cats.”
Both Taissa and Emma nod in agreement, agreeing to help their father look after the puppy while their mother looks after his cats. Sabrina on the other hand, just laughs, clapping her hands in excitement. Chris isn’t sure whether it’s excitement in having a dog, or she’s just excited that he’s finally home.
“Hey!” Sebastian goes to hit Chris, as soon as he realizes what he had said, but Chris catches his arm before he can do so. “My cats aren’t nasty, Chris!” He tugs his arm out of Chris’s hold. “Besides, you treat Nala like she’s your own cat Mr. I don’t like cats .”
“Well, Nala is an exception.” Chris states. “Sooty is well... he doesn’t really take much notice of me so he’s okay. But Muffy? That old bast- boy is evil incarnate.” He catches himself from saying bastard around the girls. Though, it’s not exactly like he hasn’t said it around them before… mostly when he’s yelling at the TV when the game is on…. “And I’ve never said that I don’t like cats… just Muffy.”
Sebastian rolls his eyes at that, shaking his head at Chris. “Muffy is not evil incarnate, Chris.” He sighs. “He just doesn’t like you unless you’ve got food for him.” He must admit, he’s getting tired of Chris complaining about Muffy, and how evil he supposedly is.
“Yeah, well… you’ve just never seen how evil he can be.” Chris says, turning his attention back to the girls, as Sebastian sends him a frustrated look, which he interprets as Sebastian getting fed up with what he’s always saying about Muffy.
Though if Chris is honest, he already knows that Sebastian is fed up with all the times he’s called Muffy some manner of evil. He’s surprised Sebastian hasn’t yet lost his temper completely about it yet. Then again, Sebastian has never really been one to lose his temper.
“Alright, girls.” Chris starts. “You want to see the puppy now?”
Both Taissa and Emma nod excitedly, while Sabrina just claps her hands at him, giggling with excitement.
Strangely, Sabrina hasn’t yet said her first word, but the doctors had assured both Chris and Sebastian that nothing is wrong with her, and that she’ll talk when she’s ready. Chris and Sebastian were expecting her to start talking a lot earlier, seeing as both Taissa and Emma were both somewhat talking when the both of them were around Sabrina’s age. Sabrina has started to walk though, and she’s perfectly healthy, so Chris and Sebastian aren’t too worried. She’ll start talking at her own pace.
“Chris.” Sebastian says, stretching out on the couch as Chris gets up to take the girls to the puppy. “Just so you know, you’re on mommy duty until further notice.”
Chris looks down at him. “And what is it you might be doing during that time?” He questions. Although he already has an idea of what he’d be doing. Resting and eating his way through the pregnancy.
“Well, right now , I’m gonna take a nap on the couch while you tend to the girls.” He yawns, mentally cursing at how tired he gets while pregnant.
On the plus side, he likes sleep, so it’s not really that much of a bad thing in his personal opinion. The main things he hates about being pregnant, is the pain and the morning sickness… and the fact that he has to pee a lot. At least something wonderful comes out of it all, and it’s worth going through the pain in the end, so he’s not suffering through it all for nothing. He still hates the constant peeing though…. He absolutely hates it .
Only... right now he doesn’t feel so happy about being pregnant again, but he can’t bring himself to tell Chris that. Nor can he bring himself to get an abortion now that Chris knows. Of course he’ll love and care for the baby no matter what, but this time, he’s just not really happy to be pregnant. He didn’t plan on getting pregnant again just yet, but there’s not much that can be done now, and at least he has Chris home now to help him through it.
“Alright then.” Chris laughs, shaking his head. “You just rest, and I’ll look after the girls.”
Sebastian just shoots him a thumbs up, before he’s attempting to get some rest, a Chris takes the girl into the kitchen to see the puppy.
As soon as the girls see the puppy sleeping on the floor with Nala sitting next to it, they run straight over to the puppy, who wakes as soon as he hears the girls running to him. The puppy stands up, wagging his tail and barking excitedly as he sees new people, and rushes to meet the girls. Nala on the other hand, stays sitting where she is, purring as she watches the puppy interact with the girls.
“What’s puppy’s name, daddy?” Emma asks.
“Can we name him Scooby Doo?” Taissa asks.
Chris laughs, shaking his head. “His name’s Dodger.” He says, watching as the girls play with the puppy.
While the girls are occupied playing with the puppy, Chris walks over to Anthony, who’s standing over by the kitchen counter making himself a coffee.
“Hey, man.” Anthony says, turning to face Chris. “I hope you don’t mind that I was here for the past week while you were away.”
Chris shakes his head. “Nah, I’m good with that.” He assure him. “And, thanks for staying here and helping Sebastian out.”
“Anytime, Chris.” Anthony says. “Though I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as stubborn as he was last week. I know he can be stubborn as hell when he wants to be, but damn….”
“I’ve noticed that while he’s pregnant, he’s a lot more stubborn than usual.” Chris says, looking over toward the living room where Sebastian is out getting some rest on the couch. “How bad has it been hitting him so far?”
Anthony sighs, taking a sip of his coffee. “Pretty bad.” He says. “It took so much for me to resist calling you and telling you. If I did go behind Sebastian’s back and tell you even when he made me promise not to….” He shakes his head. “I don’t fancy facing the wrath of an angry pregnant omega. Especially one that’s six foot tall, and taller than I am.”
Chris nods, understanding what Anthony’s saying. He’s the one that’s got to live with Sebastian after all, not Anthony. Not that it’s a bad thing, just that omegas can be a little scary when they’re angry and pregnant, especially when they’re six foot tall and don’t exactly look like an omega at first glance, such as Sebastian.
“Well, you don’t need to worry about that now.” Chris says. “Well… at least I don’t think you will.”
Anthony laughs, shaking his head. “Well that’s reassuring.”
The both of them laugh, leaning against the kitchen counter as they keep a close eye on the girls as they play with the puppy.
Thankfully the puppy appears to be getting on well with the girls, and so far only one out of three cats, and Chris is going to take that as a good thing. He’s got a feeling though that the puppy won’t get along with the other two cats, or at least just not get along well with Muffy. He’s not too sure about Sooty though, but judging by the fact that Sooty is closer to Muffy than anyone else in the house, Chris is guessing that he won’t get along with the puppy.
Suddenly hearing his phone going off in his jacket pocket, Chris pulls it out to find that it’s Steve that’s calling him. He’s not entirely sure what it might be that his boss is calling him for right now, maybe calling to tell him what had happened to Bucky, seeing as he is rather worried about what could’ve possibly happened to the guy, but he’s not sure. It’s probably just something regarding work.
“It’s my boss.” He says, looking up at Anthony. “I better take this.” He’s excusing himself, before making his way outside to the backyard to answer the call where it’s quiet.
“Hello?” He asks, as soon as he’s pressed answer and is leaning up against the back of the house.
There’s a bit of silence on the other line, along with hushed voices, and what sounds like someone complaining, until Steve finally speaks. “Hi Chris. Sorry to bother you, and this may sound a bit odd, but I didn’t know who else to call...” He starts. “But uh… you and Sebastian don’t happen to have any spare newborn baby girl clothes that you don’t need do you?”
Now that, Chris definitely wasn’t expecting to hear at all…. “Wait… what?”