Chapter Text
“It’ll be fine, I promise.”
“You know, the more you say that, the less fine I feel.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“We die in a fiery car crash.”
“Okay, fair.”
He glances at Ricky for only a second, but it’s enough for the Omega to shoot him a panicked look as he quickly commands Gyuvin to “Keep your eyes on the road!”
“I am, I am!”
“If we survive this weekend, I’m buying you your own car once we get back,” Ricky tells him, before running his hands over the dashboard of his car like he’s petting it. When he speaks again, it’s with a soft cooing voice, the way one might speak to an actual child, “My poor baby having to go through all of this stress. Don’t worry, daddy won’t let this mad man drive you ever again.”
“I really don’t think I’m doing that bad,” Gyuvin insists.
Though that may be due more to the one hundred different safety features that Ricky’s car has programmed into it. Including a button that would make the car park itself! Sure, maybe he did almost try to change lanes in a way that would have put them a little bit too close to the car behind them, but they hadn’t actually gotten into an accident (mostly because Ricky’s car rejected his request to change lanes until after the other car has passed), and Gyuvin wasn’t that bad of a driver.
He had finally passed his driving test, after all, just in time to drive him and Ricky up to his parents place for Thanksgiving.
“You know, this drive is actually a lot easier than driving your family to the hospital during that snowstorm,” Gyuvin points out.
“Yes, well tragically, I missed that lovely drive because I was in an ambulance,” Ricky replies sarcastically.
He knows that Ricky’s mostly clinging to his snappy sarcasm and worries about Gyuvin’s driving right now to cover up the fact that he is genuinely worried about what the visit with Gyuvin’s family will involve. They talked about it a little bit in preparation, what they would do, and when they would very delicately bring up the baby situation. Though every time they’d discussed it, Ricky had looked nervous, clearly convinced that Gyuvin’s family would not be supportive of them.
And while he’s sure that wouldn’t be the case for all of his family members, Gyuvin’s well aware that it will certainly be a big surprise for them. Hopefully one that at least some of them will handle tactfully.
Especially considering that it wasn’t just him and Ricky coming up for the holiday anymore.
Gyuvin had made the mistake of letting it slip to his mother that it was totally fine for Ricky to come up because the Shen Pack never celebrated Thanksgiving and thought the whole holiday was a sham, and that even if they didn’t, it wasn’t like they had any family to visit due to their parents being in jail. Though technically, Chaehyun and Hanbin did have parents that they could have visited, but Xiaoting had insisted that Chaehyun’s parents didn’t really like her, and that if they did go up to Iowa to visit them normally, she wasn’t invited. And then Hanbin said that his family was too busy making pies for every other family in the city to have for their Thanksgiving celebrations, so they normally skipped the holidays. So somehow, the offer to have everyone come visit his family for the holiday had gone from sounding like a silly joke his mother had suggested to a legitimate thing that was actually happening.
Which, to be fair, Gyuvin’s family preferred to celebrate the day after much more than Thanksgiving itself. Though his mother, who usually avoided actually making a turkey at all costs, suddenly was dedicated to the cause of making a proper Thanksgiving, and had called him many times to ask about the dietary restrictions of the various Shens to prepare a perfect Thanksgiving meal, clearly wanting to make some sort of good impression on them.
Everyone had, of course, insisted upon taking separate vehicles for the drive up (which, considering how awful it had been to once be in the same car as Xiaoting and Hanbin, he couldn’t blame them). Part of why Gyuvin had been driving a little bit faster than the speed limit was that he desperately wanted to be at his parents place before any of Ricky’s siblings arrived. All too well aware of how all of the Shens act around strangers.
Which was… Not very polite, usually.
While he could count on Chaehyun to keep the peace at least, and the pups to charm his mother (and hopefully ease her into the idea of a grandkid of her own coming soon), he didn’t have much faith in the rest of them to make a good impression without Gyuvin there to temper things.
Thankfully, by the time they make it to his parents place, only one of the cars has beaten them there. Hanbin’s car is parked in the driveway, where they are still in the process of actively unloading things and making introductions, which means they probably haven’t been there too long.
Hopefully.
“You ready for this?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Ricky replies, as Gyuvin parks the car.
Though the Omega still looks a little bit nervous, despite his words.
There’s a flurry of movement once the car is parked, especially as he steps out of the driver's seat, because despite telling his family that he really did finally pass his driving test, it seemed none of them had readily been able to believe it.
“I was worried you two ended up in a ditch somewhere,” Taerae calls out, when Gyuvin steps out of the car.
He only feels a little bit envious when it seems that in the few minutes prior to them showing up, his brother Taerae has already managed to charm Hao completely, the two of them had been chatting together off to the side, while Gyuvin’s dad and sister help Hanbin unpack the almost absurd amount of pies from his trunk. How is it that he had taken months for him to have one conversation with Hao that ended on a positive note, but Taerae had the Omega laughing at one of his jokes within fifteen minutes of them meeting each other?
He very tactfully does not stick his tongue out at Taerae, because he is a mature and respectable adult now, and not just because his parents would scold him for being rude in front of Ricky’s family. Plus he has to set a good example for Yujin, who is currently running in circles around Hanbin’s car.
But he does pout when Ricky agrees, “We almost did!”
“Really!?”
“No,” Gyuvin protests, “It wasn’t that bad!”
“We only didn’t because my car did her very best to keep us safe,” Ricky wobbles a little when he stands, patting the top of his car, in both an action to steady himself and to tease Gyuvin.
Though before Gyuvin can move around the car to help Ricky walk, Gyuvin’s mother beats him to it, fussing over the Omega and helping him get his crutches from the truck so that he can stand up properly without risk of tumbling over.
He lets his mother fuss over Ricky, the Omega preening a little under the attention. Despite his nervousness, he knows that the one person Ricky isn’t too worried about liking him is Gyuvin’s mother. Instead of interrupting them, he makes his way over to where Hanbin is unloading his pie collection.
“Sorry,” Hanbin apologizes as he hands yet another pie to Gyuvin’s sister. Dayeon only looks a little bit distressed by the sheer amount of pies that she has been handed. “My parents own a bakery, but only for pies, and my mother was very adamant that the best way to get in all of your good graces would be with pie.”
“Actually, Gyuvin’s going to be quitting his job at the evil coffee corporation soon and working for them,” Ricky calls out, “Soon, he too will suffer through Mrs. Sung’s pie making classes and emerge a pie master.”
“Hey! I haven't committed to that yet!”
He was considering it though, mostly because after Sullyoon had cornered him to give him a lecture on how chain coffee shops were harming the small business market, he kind of felt bad.
Also, free pie.
Hanbin’s face lights up, “Oh thank god, we could use help for the holiday rush,” clearly ignoring the part where Gyuvin said he hadn’t committed yet. He’d heard the Alpha moaning the other day after how with fewer kids taking tennis lessons during the winter, he was picking up more and more shifts at his parents’ pie bakery to pick up the slack.
Something that Ricky had been trained to help with, before he broke his foot and became limited to working the cash register at most. Ricky had agreed to stick with them through the holidays, but once his cast was off, he’d be leaving to start his ‘internship’ at Shen Global.
“I thought I sent you to that city for you to study medicine, not bake pies,” his dad says, though despite his words, he is eyeing one of the pies Dayeon is currently holding with clear interest.
“You are,” Gyuvin insists. “The job is for saving up for other things.”
“Don’t you have a rich boyfriend? Why do you even need a job,” Dayeon asks.
“My ‘rich boyfriend’ has ears,” he hisses back at her.
“Your rich boyfriend agrees. Quit your job, that way you can focus on your studies,” Ricky says, before adding, in a quieter voice so that only Gyuvin can hear, “And me.”
Technically, he and Hao did go ring shopping, or more like ring browsing. He and Ricky definitely weren’t at that step yet, so it wasn’t something he needed to be ready to buy just yet, but having gone to look at a few shops with Hao quickly put into perspective just how much a wedding ring would eventually cost.
Which was why despite Ricky insisting many times that Gyuvin should simply quit his job now that he was a member of the Shen Pack, and had a Shen Pack credit card with his name on it, linking back to Xiaoting’s seemingly endless supply of money, he knew he couldn’t.
Buying a ring on his own would mean a lot more than relying on Ricky’s family to help him buy one.
So, he was saving up.
Not for now, but for one day, when they were ready.
Until then - “Oh they’re here!”
“Apologies in advance,” Hao quickly says to Gyuvin’s family, “Our sister can be a bit overbearing . I would advise not to take any unkind words she says to heart, she probably does mean them, but she has no filter, and well… You’ll see.”
It wasn’t the most glowing review of Xiaoting, but probably one of the more honest ones.
“You’re probably going to regret inviting everyone ,” Hanbin mutters, as Chaehyun’s sports car pulls to a stop in their driveway.
“Bin, not helpful,” Hao tells his husband.
Despite Hanbin and Hao’s warnings, everyone plasters on a bright smile as the car pulls to a stop, and the last three members of the pack step out. Though that may be more to do with the fact that Yeseo is the first one out, bouncing around in her bright orange Thanksgiving dress that probably had a price tag higher than what his family had spent on Thanksgiving dinner, as she went around to introduce herself to everyone.
Chaehyun follows after her daughter with equal levels of enthusiasm, pulling Gyuvin’s parents in for hugs in greeting as if they’ve been friends for years and are not simply meeting for the first time today.
It’s Xiaoting who lingers back, apprehensively looking over the group, before her gaze finally settles on Gyuvin, and she says, “I see you two survived the drive. I was worried.”
Did everyone have that little faith in his driving abilities?
“Can I just remind everyone that I did pass my drivers test,” Gyuvin says, almost wanting to fish his wallet out of his pocket and hold up his brand new license as proof, since nobody seemed ready to believe him. “They don’t just give everyone a driver's license!”
“I mean, they give almost everybody one,” Taerae counters.
“Actually, it was kind of embarrassing that you didn’t have one before now,” Dayeon agrees.
“I’m a good driver,” he insists.
“Ricky, is that true?”
“I feared for my life the entire three hours drive,” Ricky replies without hesitation.
“I’ve been in a car once when Gyuvin was driving. It was quite possibly one of the worst experiences of my life,” Xiaoting adds in a deadpan voice, “And that’s saying something, I had a terrible childhood, my parents are in jail. I did put them there, but you know, as a frame of reference. Gyuvin driving is worse than that.”
This time, he does glare when Taerae bursts out laughing and declares, “Oh, I like her!”
He’s not sure whether he should feel happy or not that his siblings are getting along with Ricky’s siblings at his expense. Though he supposes beggars can’t be choosers in these circumstances.
Though of course, the peace could only last a few minutes.
“I see Hanbin brought sugary desserts as an offering to you,” Xiaoting continues, looking over at the stack of pies with disinterest. Even though he’s certain that she had been there when they were loading all the pies in Hanbin’s trunk, so there’s no way she should actually be surprised to see the pies now. “Unlike him, I’ve brought a much more healthy, fresh, and sustainable traditional Thanksgiving offering.”
Gyuvin’s mother repeats the word “Offering,” with a clear note of confusion.
The same confusion that seems reflected on the rest of his family members’ faces, especially when Dayeon says, “Wait, is this like an ‘Alpha’ thing?”
“It’s really just a them thing,” Ricky tells her.
“I’m actually an excellent provider, and I have many years of experience looking after small vulnerable and helpless men that have needed my guidance,” Xiaoting continues to tell his parents. “Your son will be in good hands while in my pack.”
“What?”
Gyuvin does his best to try to silently communicate to Xiaoting that they need to change the topic of conversation. He had explained to his family that he and Ricky were back together and that he was now living in their penthouse with them, but explaining that their penthouse was actually a pack house and everything that involved had felt a bit too complicated for a conversation held mostly via text messages.
He’s still not exactly sure how he was going to bring the topic up, but now was probably not the best time for it.
When Gyuvin shoots a vaguely panicked look in Ricky's direction, the Omega nods in understanding (or what Gyuvin hopes is understanding) before Ricky moves to catch Hao’s eyes and mouth ‘Do something’ to his brother.
It’s Hao that then says, “Ting, I want you to try that sentence again.”
“Okay, sometimes they’re tall men that I provide for, or women or children. I am an excellent provider as mentioned,” she says, “Ask any member of my pack that is not named Hanbin, and they will tell you exactly that.”
“Why can’t we ask Hanbin,” Taerae asks her.
Hanbin answers before Xiaoting can, “Because she knows I’m going to disagree with her.”
“Speaking of which,” Chaehyun says, stepping in to try and save the conversation, “My love, why don’t you tell Gyuvin’s family what exactly it is that you brought for dinner.”
“A turkey, of course. A classic Thanksgiving delicacy.”
“Oh, that’s very kind of you,” his mother says, “We do already have a turkey. However, I’m sure a second one will be useful with so many mouths to feed. We can make that up tomorrow, maybe as a post-shopping treat! Wouldn’t that be lovely!”
“Or perhaps not,” Chaehyun says, clapping her hands together, “Maybe you won’t want to cook this one! Stay tuned!”
“Why wouldn’t she want to-” before he can even finish asking the question that is clearly on everyone’s mind, a loud thumping sound from the truck of their car interrupts his thought process.
“Ting,” Hao asks nervously, “When you said fresh before, you didn’t mean…”
“Oh she certainly did,” Chaehyun confirms.
“Hold on, are you saying that there is a live turkey in your trunk?”
“Well, I think it’s alive, I drove very carefully,” Chaehyun replies.
“I didn’t know if you wanted to kill this one yourself and eat it, or pardon it ceremonially, I’m not sure what this whole Thanksgiving thing entails,” Xiaoting explains. “We never had a Thanksgiving celebration, because as mentioned before, our parents hated us.”
“You know, Ricky did mention that last part when he came up to visit,” his mother says, though she looks a lot more nervous now about the idea of there being a live turkey in their trunk. “But I didn’t really expect this…”
“Nobody ever expects a live turkey, to be fair,” Hanbin says. “Not even us.”
“So this isn’t an Alpha thing,” Dayeon questions.
“Oh no, this is a Xiaoting thing,” Chaehyun says apologetically.
“Okay, but we should let out right, isn’t that animal cruelty to just keep a live turkey trapped in your trunk,” Taerae asks.
“You can’t just let a turkey loose on a residential street,” Hao insists. “The poor thing could get hit by a car.”
“Well, that would make it easier to cook,” Ricky says.
Gyuvin’s not sure how to feel about the fact that his mom was quick to nod her head in agreement with Ricky’s statement. Mildly horrified. Maybe more than mildly.
“Mother! I want to see the turkey!”
Yujin joins in on his cousin’s nonsense by picking up a chant of, “Turkey! Turkey! Turkey!”
“It might be suffocating in there,” Dayeon suggests, with a slightly worried tone.
The turkey inside the trunk thumps against the side of the car, as if in agreement with her.
“Hanbin, why don’t you stand there and watch how a real Alpha catches a turkey. This can be a learning experience for you!”
“I could catch a turkey if I wanted to! I just don’t because I don’t want to! Because normal people don’t bring live turkeys to a Thanksgiving dinner, they bring pie!”
“So now you’re being prejudiced against us because of our unfortunate childhoods,” Xiaoting says. “Hao, you know I have the numbers of many divorce lawyers on file. You just say the word. I can take care of this, really, you don’t want your girls to grow up under such prejudices.”
“Bin, ignore her, she is baiting you!”
“Appa! I wanna see you catch the turkey!”
“Yujin, no.”
“Yujin, yes!”
It’s a chaotic mess, and he is a little bit afraid that any second now, the turkey is going to slam against the trunk hard enough to set itself free in the middle of their spirited debate. Setting a live turkey free in his front yard, which would certainly make for the most interesting Thanksgiving yet, but at least they’d have a story to tell.
He’s so caught up in watching the messy debate about what to do with the very much alive turkey trapped in a trunk, that he misses Ricky leaving his mother’s side and walking over to Gyuvin’s side, until the Omega nearly crashes into him.
Quickly, he moves to wrap an arm around Ricky’s waist and steady him. The Omega relaxes at once into his hold, leaning against his shoulder. He swears he feels something like relief settle inside of his chest, the warm and happy feeling that seems to be an echo of the love he feels for Ricky spilling over whenever the Omega is close to him.
It’s probably all just in his head, especially since everyone said a Beta doesn’t feel a pack bond consciously after the first few days of bonding, unless someone their bonded to is feeling extreme emotions, but he swears he can still feel the lingering sensation of Ricky’s love for him.
“This is all my fault,” Ricky whispers, leaning his head against Gyuvin’s shoulder. He speaks so quietly that only Gyuvin can hear, though he need not have gone through the effort, everyone else is so focused on the great turkey debate that he’s sure they’re hardly paying him any attention.
“It’s fine,” he says, squeezing a little where his hand is around Ricky’s waist in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. “I mean, everyone’s a bit surprised, but it’s fine. It’s not your fault.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Ricky says, “Yesterday when you were in class, I gathered up everyone and asked them to be as over the top as possible this weekend, so I would look normal in comparison, and your family would be happy you ended up with the normal one.”
Gyuvin can’t help but laugh. Even more so when he sees the little worried pout on Ricky’s face. Suddenly, the way Chaehyun and Hao are really only poking at the fire rather than trying to fully put out the heated debate between Xiaoting and Hanbin on the best turkey catching practices makes sense.
They’re all in on the bit.
“Wait, are you saying you asked your sister to catch a turkey with her bare hands?”
“No! She came up with that one herself!”
“Okay, but you know what we have to do, right,” Gyuvin asks Ricky.
Ricky nods, “Ten steps ahead of you.” As soon as he says the words, he makes a thumbs up motion in Yeseo’s direction.
Which is all the seven year old needs as an incentive to cause chaos, as a second later she reveals that hidden away in the pockets of her very poofy Thanksgiving dress are apparently the keys to her mother’s car. A seven year old, who promptly presses the button to open the trunk of the car, setting the still very much alive turkey free of its trunk prison.
There’s a flutter of feathers, and a loud noise that sounds much more like a squawk than a gobble, as the turkey darts past both Xiaoting and Hanbin with ease, before the turkey begins to run for its life out onto the street at a speed that is honestly quite impressive for a bird of that size.
He supposes that’s one way to end the turkey debate.
“Well, there goes dinner.”
*
“Ricky’s family seems… Nice.”
“You can be honest.”
His mother hesitates, clearly not wanting to say anything actually insulting about the Shen Pack, despite everything that had just occurred in their front yard.
Eventually she settles on, “They are little… Well… You know, Ricky seems like such a sweet boy, you would have never guessed his family was so energetic .”
Energetic was probably a nice word for it.
Gyuvin did feel a lot better now that he knew most of what had occurred outside had been an elaborate act put on by their family to try and make Ricky look like the most functional member of their pack. Which had clearly been successful. At least Taerae and Dayeon did seem to be entertained by it all.
“It’s a good thing he has you to help keep him sane, with a family like that, oh that poor boy,” his mother says after a moment, patting Gyuvin on the back. “And you moved in with these people?”
“About that…” He should probably mention the whole ‘joining a pack’ thing, even if it did feel a bit weird to explain, and he didn’t really understand how to explain it.
“Mom! Gyuvin! Come here!”
Ah, well, maybe he’ll have to save that one for later.
He follows the sound of his sister’s voice out to the living room, where most of their families are gathered. The pups had opened some sort of board game on the floor that Taerae had been in the process of teaching them how to play, with Hanbin and Chaehyun helping while Hao watched on nervously. Meanwhile, Dayeon was sitting on the couch next to Ricky and Xiaoting, having clearly been in the middle of a conversation that she stopped to call them over for.
“What’s the matter?”
“You have to hear this,” Dayeon says, patting the space next to her, and gesturing towards the set of siblings with an overly excited look on her face. Gyuvin does feel a little worried at how quickly his sister and Ricky’s sister are getting along. That can only end in disaster, probably for him, at some point in the future. “Can you tell them what you just told me?”
Ricky gives Dayeon an odd look before explaining to Gyuvin and his mother, “I had been asking Dayeon what the plan for the evening was, and she mentioned everyone going to bed early so that we could wake up to go Black Friday shopping tomorrow.”
Gyuvin nods, he did brief Ricky on that being the general plan that they held to. “Yeah, that’s usually the plan.”
“Yes, but then my lovely sister said,” Ricky pauses, gesturing to Xiaoting.
Who says, “I don’t see why we need to wake up early to go shopping when I can buy you whatever you need right now, and then everyone can just sleep in tomorrow.”
“Things are cheaper on Black Friday,” he explains. Though he knows as soon as he says the words what their answer will be.
“Money is not an issue for us,” she says, “Tell me what you need, and I’ll just buy it now. It’ll save us all the trouble, the pups don’t do early mornings well, Yeseo needs her beauty sleep. It’s important for her modeling career that she gets a full eight hours of sleep each night.”
He hears Taerae mutter, “her modeling career,” from the floor.
Meanwhile his mother says, “Oh, that’s very kind of you, but you really don’t have to do that.”
“She bought me a new MacBook Pro,” Dayeon tells them, sounding far too excited. “Show them! Show them!”
Xiaoting turns her phone screen around to show that she did indeed just drop two thousand dollars on a computer for his sister without a second thought, so that she could sleep in tomorrow. He’s not sure why he’s surprised. This was the same woman that offered to pay a year's worth of rent for them without asking for much in return, and who paid to rent out an entire art museum for Hao’s wedding.
“Dayeon,” their mother scolds.
“What! She offered!”
“You can’t just take advantage of people’s kindness.”
“Dayeon mentioned you needed a new air fryer,” Xiaoting says, unbothered by the implication that Dayeon had taken advantage of her. Honestly, Xiaoting probably didn’t see it that way at all. Gyuvin had quickly learned that her favorite method of apologizing for things or making friends was to throw money at people, buying people lavish gifts until they were happy with her. “Would you like to pick one out yourself? I personally enjoy a smart sensing machine, the model we have at home is this one here.”
“Oh really, if you insist, I’m sure whatever you have is,” his mother starts to say, though she falls silent when she sees the one that Xiaoting has on the screen. Gyuvin takes a quick glance at the screen, taking in a nearly five hundred dollar price tag, much nicer than the one that his mother had circled on the advertisement for tomorrow that was coming out to a crisp eight dollars. “... Oh wow!”
“Would you like something more advanced than this,” Xiaoting asks, misunderstanding their mothers reaction. “I can find another, or-”
“No, no, need to do that, this is lovely,” she says, before asking, “Are you absolutely sure, this seems a bit much honestly?”
“Please, allow me,” Xiaoting insists. “As I said, money isn’t an issue for us, just give me your shopping list and let me take care of it.”
Taerae lets out an appreciative noise from where he’s sprawled out on the floor, before jumping in to say - “You know, I also could use a new MacBook, if you’re offering.”
“Copycat!”
“You know, one of us is actually going to university,” Taerae replies to their sister. “And could actually use a new computer!”
“I’m going to community college!”
“Gyuvin, do you need one too,” Xiaoting asks, “Or anyone else for that matter?”
“I mean, if you are offering,” he says, not one to refuse a gift, even if he knows it’s mostly being offered as a bribe to get into his family’s good graces.
Though his mother seems less willing to so quickly accept Xiaoting’s generosity, and says, “You three stop that, I don’t want Ricky’s sister to think your brother is only dating Ricky for his family’s generosity .”
“Don’t worry, if Gyuvin was just dating my brother for the money. I’d know.”
“He’s not,” Ricky insists, reaching out to grab Gyuvin’s hand and tug him down towards the couch. There really isn’t room for four people on the couch, so he settles to sitting on the arm of the couch, that way he can be as close to Ricky as physically possible. The Omega laces their fingers together, letting out a contented sigh.
“Though that reminds me, Gyuvin?”
“Yes?”
“I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you agree to never speak to my brother again,” Xiaoting says the words so casually and dismissively. As they all already know he’s going to refuse.
“No.”
“Five thousand?”
“No.”
“Ten thousand?”
“Not a chance.”
“Fifty thousand?”
He knows it’s a test, and not a serious offer. Even if it was a serious offer, he’d never take it. Ricky is worth more than all the money in the world. He’d choose Ricky no matter what the offer was. Even if it meant that they would have to figure out things on their own with not a dollar to split between the two of them, it would be worth it.
Those three weeks when he and Ricky hadn’t been together had taught him well enough that a life without Ricky wasn’t a life that he wanted to live.
Still… Fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money.
So Gyuvin pauses just a moment before replying, mostly for dramatic effect, and for the offended noise that Ricky lets out before using his free hand to pinch at Gyuvin’s leg. The Omega pouts at him until Gyuvin tells her, “There’s no amount of money you could offer me.”
“He did hesitate though,” Hao points out, eyeing him suspiciously.
“I was joking!”
“For fifty thousand dollars, I’ll never talk to any of you again,” Dayeon says.
“Thanks, Dayeon,” Taerae says, rolling his eyes.
“Admittedly, I’d probably hesitate over fifty thousand dollars,” Hanbin says.
Hao gives his husband a scandalized look. “Need I remind you that we are married, and I’m pregnant with your daughters right now.”
“Daughters!”
“Oh twins, that’s exciting!”
He’d almost feel thankful for the change in topic. The way his mother and sister seem ready to gush over Hao’s baby and drop the whole topic of whether or not people are being dated for their money.
“You must be so excited to have two new little sisters coming,” his mother says to Yujin. “You look like you’ll make such a good big brother.”
Yujin scrunches his face up, unhappy about the sister predicament and says, “No!”
“No?”
“Babies are awful!”
“Yujin, be kind,” Hao tries to lecture his son.
Though that thankful feeling doesn’t last for long, not when he feels Ricky tense beside him, just a second before it all gets that much worse, as if the Omega had been able to anticipate the impending fall out.
It’s Yujin that slips up in the end. Sweet, innocent Yujin, who still isn’t happy about the fact that he’s getting two sisters, not when he didn’t even want one.
“I don’t want any babies! Not daddy’s babies or Uncle Ricky’s baby or any babies! All babies are smelly, boring and ugly!”
There’s silence following the four year olds outburst. Not just because he still isn’t excited at the prospect of sharing his house with any younger siblings, but because - “Wait, did he just say…” Taerae starts to say, trailing off as his eyes settle on where Gyuvin and Ricky are sitting together. “Is Ricky pregnant?”
There’s a sort of anxious feeling that bubbles up inside of Gyuvin, fear so clear, a feeling that he knows is not just his own feeling, but the emotions felt by the person beside him so intense that they overflow through his pack bond.
The rest of the members of Ricky’s family look equally distressed, and suddenly soft notes of vanilla, honey, cinnamon and cherry fill the air. Clearly in an attempt to soothe and comfort Ricky, where he sits frozen in place next to Gyuvin.
Yujin seems to have realized his error now, the pup moving quickly to hide behind his Alpha parent with a guilty look on his face, clinging onto Hanbin’s sleeve and looking like he may start crying any second.
This is certainly not how they intended for this reveal to go, but it was too late to take things back now.
“Oh god, you two really have never heard of a condom, have you,” Taerae says, breaking the awkward silence.
“Taerae,” their mother scolds. “Be nice to your brother.”
“Uh… surprise,” Gyuvin says hesitantly, looking around at his family.
It’s hard to judge how his parents are feeling, though shock is the most clear emotion. Taerae looks mildly amused by the whole thing (because of course he would be), while Dayeon’s covering her mouth in shock.
“A baby isn’t a ‘surprise,’ you had sex without a condom, what did you expect? A plasma tv?”
“How far along are you,” Dayeon asks.
“A little over three months,” Ricky replies, still looking terribly nervous.
“So when you guys were here for Gyuvin’s birthday, you were already pregnant?””
Ricky nods, “I didn’t know at that time, or I swear I would have said something.”
This time, when he catches Taerae’s eye, he can see that his brother’s amused expansion has shifted into a more guilty looking one, no doubt realizing that when he had convinced Gyuvin that the two of them should maybe take things slow or take a break all together, that Ricky had been pregnant at the time. Even if neither of them had known about it then.
In hindsight, breaking up with Ricky had clearly been a mistake, and there probably were better ways to handle it. He’s not so sure that Taerae’s advice had been all that bad though. It had taken some time apart for Gyuvin to realize just how much he wanted to be with Ricky. Regardless of whether or not it was the best or easiest choice for them. Ricky was worth it to him. Worth all of the struggling.
“I didn’t get back with Ricky just because he’s pregnant,” Gyuvin tells them, before anyone can suggest it, “We got back together, and he is also pregnant, and I sort of found that out the same day, but I’d already decided I wanted to get back together with Ricky before that, because, it’s a long story actually and not really family friendly, but uh… I knew I made a mistake ending things before I even knew about the baby, so…” he trails off, looking over at Ricky.
They’d talked about it a lot.
Ricky had asked him over and over again if he was sure.
And he was sure.
Baby or no baby, he’d still be here.
He’d known the second he saw Ricky in his apartment again that he would do whatever he could to get Ricky back, to make amends and apologize for all the time that they were apart. Everything that came after that was an unexpected blessing, one that might make their lives a lot more complicated, but one that he and Ricky would figure out with a little help from everyone in the room with them right now.
“I need some air,” Ricky says, standing up at once. Their hands are still linked together, so when he stands, Gyuvin is pulled up too. Not that he would have let Ricky walk away anyways without him.
He lets Ricky tug them both out of the room. Though Ricky drops his hand once they are out the front door of his house, so that he can sit down on Gyuvin’s parent’s front porch. Gyuvin can still feel all too clearly the fear that is coming off of Ricky. The Omega had spent the last few weeks worrying about what his family’s reaction to the baby news would be, prepping and planning for how to bring up the topic, all of which had gone down the drain with one slip up.
He sits down beside Ricky, taking the Omega’s wrist in his hand and rubbing small circles on the inside of Ricky’s wrist. He’s not sure he’s doing it properly, never actually having scented anyone, and without a scent, unable to really do it right at all. But it had felt soothing that one night, when he was worried about Ricky and Xiaoting had done it to him, so he hopes Ricky can feel a similar feeling now.
And maybe it is the placebo effect, but he swears the tension in his own chest lightens just a little, and while Ricky does still look worried, he does sigh softly before leaning against Gyuvin’s side.
“I’m sorry,” Gyuvin tells him, once Ricky feels more settled.
“Not your fault,” Ricky mumbles. “I’m not even upset with Yujin really. I just… This wasn’t what we planned, and I… I don’t know.”
“Ricky?”
“I’m scared.”
“I know,” he tells him, rubbing at his own chest with his free hand. “I can feel it.”
He groans, “Of course, that would be the one thing you feel from me.”
“Not the only thing,” Gyuvin tells him. “Normally, I feel this happy fluttering feeling whenever I hold your hand, right now it’s just tense.”
Ricky’s voice goes soft when he says, “Oh…”
“If you want, we can get in your car right now, and I’ll drive us back home,” Gyuvin tells him. “Leave your family to deal with my family, and we can get out of here.”
That earns him a small smile in return, and while he can see Ricky genuinely considering his offer, eventually the Omega shakes his head. “It’s probably better to face it now. Running away never actually fixes things in the end, does it?”
“Not really,” Gyuvin agrees.
“Then should we?”
“I guess.”
Though before they can stand up and go back inside, and face whatever his family’s opinions on the whole baby situation is, the front door opens just enough for one person to sneak out.
Well, two people.
A certain very apologetic pup, followed by his father.
“Yujinnie is sorry,” Yujin says, as he does his best to wiggle into the space between Gyuvin and Ricky, so that he can apologize properly. “I don’t really think your baby will be ugly, your baby will be pretty like you, Uncle Ricky.”
Gyuvin huffs out a laugh.
He’s pretty sure Yujin completely misunderstood why Ricky had been so upset, but the apology is still very heartfelt, and the pup rubs his face on Ricky’s arm, clearly trying to scent him the way that he’s seen grown ups do. It’s probably about as effective as Gyuvin rubbing his fingers against Ricky’s wrist had been, which is to say, not at all.
Still, Ricky smiles a little, even if he still clearly is nervous, and says, “What about your sisters? WIll they be pretty too?”
Yujin wrinkles his nose. To be fair, that was probably pushing it. “No.”
“Yujin!”
“Sorry, appa, don’t tell daddy,” he says, blinking his eyes up innocently at Hanbin.
Hanbin just sighs, before he asks them, “You two planning on making your escape now?”
“We considered it,” Ricky replies.
“And,” Hanbin prompts.
“We’re staying,” Gyuvin tells him, standing up, and then helping Ricky up too. “For now.”
“For now,” Ricky questions.
“Well, that depends on how my family takes what I’m going to say next,” Gyuvin tells him. “Come on, let’s go.”
Everyone had been talking when they came back into the house, though the conversation quickly falls silent, as every set of eyes in the room turn to watch them. He needs to do this. Not just for Ricky, but for himself, even if he feels a little like he’s going to be sick to his stomach even bringing it up.
“Look I know this probably came as a big surprise, and maybe not a good one. We were surprised too, I mean, Ricky didn’t even realize he was pregnant until his brother pointed it out, and I know, condoms and things, our bad, okay, whatever,” Gyuvin tells his family. “But this is happening, and whether you want to be a part of things or not is up to you, but I… I’m doing this. With Ricky. We ’re doing this.”
He braces himself for the worst.
For being disowned, or something.
But none of that happens, instead, after a moment the silence following his declaration, it’s broken by Taerae asking, “How do you not know you’re pregnant?”
“I thought I was getting sick from the stress,” Ricky answers him.
“Huh.”
“What your brother means to say is that we’re happy for you two. If this is what you want, you have our support. And now, I do think in the basement, I might still have some things I saved from when you were a baby,” his mother says. “Perhaps since we don’t need to wake up so early tomorrow, we could look through those things tonight after dinner, and see if there’s anything you might want for your baby.”
He swears the relief he feels isn’t just his own, especially with the way he can see Ricky smiling and finally looking like he’s not stressed to be visiting Gyuvin’s family.
“I know you kids can probably buy whatever you need brand new, but sometimes it’s nice to have something with a little bit of family history,” his mom says.
“What do you think, Ricky?”
Ricky nods, “I’d like that.”
“I might even have some of Gyuvin’s baby pictures down there.”
“Now that I think we all want to see!”
“Hey!”
*
“I almost forgot, I have one more thing for you boys.”
“Mom, I’m not sure we can fit anything else in Ricky’s trunk,” Gyuvin insists.
Technically, he supposed they could put things in the trunks of the other cars, maybe not the one that had once housed a Turkey, but Hanbin’s was probably most clean.
“This one won’t take up much space,” his mother reassures him.
“What is it?”
“I’m sure that boy of yours is used to nicer things than this, but I thought if the only reason you were keeping that coffee shop job of yours was to save up for a certain ‘something,’ that you may want this,” his mother says, before placing an old velvet box in his hand.
“A box?”
“It’s what is inside of the box.”
“Oh, right.” Gyuvin carefully opens the top of the box, still at once when he sees what is inside of the box.
It’s a ring.
Not a flashy one, like the one on Ricky’s brother’s finger, or a big one like the one his sister-in-law wears. It’s just a simple band really, with a few gems inlaid in it, but it’s old enough to carry memories within it.
“Now, don’t use it just yet, wait until you’re both ready.”
They weren’t ready yet.
But one day, they would be.
And he would be ready when that day came now.
“Thank you,” he tells her.
After dinner, his mother had kept true to her word and dragged him and Ricky into the basement, where she had again made sure to reassure them that his family would be there to take just as much of an active part in their baby’s life as Ricky’s family intended to.
Something that Gyuvin hadn’t realized just how much he had been worried about until he heard the words. He had been so focused before coming up here on reassuring Ricky that his family wouldn’t hate the Omega for being pregnant, that he had never stopped to consider that his family might be upset with him for being the one to get Ricky pregnant, until they had all already gone through the act of reassuring him that they weren’t upset with him.
Which really had been a relief.
Even if it did lead to everyone seeing a collection of his baby photos, and an absurd number of hand knitted blankets now taking up space in the trunk of Ricky’s car.
Though this ring means a lot more than any of those blankets does. So he can’t help the tears that spill down his cheeks now, a reflex, considering how happy he feels.
“Ah, my sweet boy, don’t cry,” she tells him.
“They’re happy tears.”
Gyuvin rubs at his cheeks quickly, doing his best to brush the tears away, though not quick enough, because as soon as he does so, the door to their back porch slides open, and Ricky stands there with a worried look on his face. “Gyuvin, everything okay?”
Quickly, Gyuvin tucks the box his mother had given him away and into the pockets of his jacket, turning to try and smile his best smile in Ricky’s direction, and convince the Omega that he had not just been crying.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“You sure,” Ricky asks, “I felt you.”
He’s never going to get used to that. The way Ricky always seems to know when he’s upset now.
“It was a good emotion,” he tells Ricky. “I promise. Now come on, let’s go introduce your family to the wonder that are s’mores.”
He’d been honest when he told his mom that he was happy.
He is happy.
And he loves Ricky.
And Ricky loves him.
It’s not perfect
Certainly not like he planned.
Nothing in life ever really is, though.
But he’s happy.
They are happy.
And that's all that matters in the end.
“I love you, always and forever, no matter what, you know that right,” he tells Ricky, as they head back outside to where the rest of their family members are gathered around a bonfire in his parent’s backyard.
There’s a coy smile on Ricky’s lips as he replies - “Even if I was a worm?”
“Especially then,” Gyuvin promises. “I’d take care of little worm you and our tiny worm baby and then I’d track down the witch that turned you into a worm and force her to turn you both back.”
Ricky laughs at that.
His happiness feels infectious, a warm and bubbling that fills Gyuvin up too. And maybe it is all in his head. But he swears he feels something like a spark in his chest, when Ricky meets his eyes looking so bright and happy. No longer nervous or worried what anyone else might think of them.
And says - “I love you too.”