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Bakugou said he’d help.
Shouto remembers it. It was right after patrol, and the heat cramps were bad, and he was sweaty and shivering and still too proud, despite it all, and Bakugou’s hands were big and warm on his lower back, and he whispered I’ve got you, sweetheart in that deep, low voice of his, and then—you know.
Shouto ended up pregnant.
Well—
There were a few steps in between. If they’re being thorough. There were, um, definitely steps in between.
But those are fuzzy around the edges, because Shouto mostly remembers Bakugou’s teeth at his neck.
How nice it felt.
How right.
How the omega thing in him whined and begged and pleaded and scratched for moremoremore, and Bakugou didn’t say no. Not even once. He just. Took care of Shouto. So well Shouto didn’t know what to do with himself. So he just clung to him and decided maybe—just maybe—it couldn’t hurt, this one time, if he let someone else take care of him.
And now he’s got a round belly and unsustainable sugar cravings to show for it.
At least Bakugou is good at back massages. And pregnancy pillows are cozy, Shouto will admit that much. Nesting with them is a lot of fun.
But—
He can’t help but worry about when the baby comes.
They haven’t talked about it.
Bakugou moved in. Bakugou takes him to all the baby appointments. Bakugou helped him paint the nursery. He makes dinner. He no longer attempts to switch Shouto’s blueberry cheesecake ice cream to the vegan low-fat low sugar kind. They have, on all accounts, reached near perfect mutual understanding.
Except, you know, the whole what are we going to do after the pup gets here thing.
Because they aren’t mated. No matter how incriminating the purrs that slip out of Shouto when Bakugou says things like here you go, princess, and kisses his forehead before handing him a warm plate of food might be. Bakugou doesn’t bring them up.
So Shouto doesn’t either.
He just—
He’d like his pup to have a dad. A real one. Not just someone who takes her to ballet practice and picks her up on the weekends and never even holds mommy’s hand.
And, out of all the alphas he knows, Bakugou isn’t so bad.
And maybe it’s all the pregnancy hormones, but instead of starting the conversation off like that, Shouto blurts, “Why won’t you mate me?” right in the middle of dinner.
Bakugou chokes on a bite of his Katsudon.
(He made Shouto’s less spicy, because he read something about the risks of hypertension in pregnant omegas, like, a week after Shouto told him he was pregnant, and the joys of high sodium meals have been lost to him since.)
“I, uh—shit. I didn’t know you wanted to be mated?”
“I didn’t either.” Shouto pouts. Considers it. “Well... maybe a little bit. But it’s supposed to be the alpha’s job, you know. I already let you help with my heat.”
“Right.” Bakugou smiles knowingly. “My bad, princess.”
It’s embarrassing. He’s embarrassing. And he’s doing it on purpose. Because he likes to tease. He always likes watching Shouto get flustered because of him. Especially when it ends up making his cheeks puff up and go red, and then he pouts, and—and, one time, he even whined alpha.
Not Bakugou. Not even Katsuki.
No.
Alpha, because—
Well, that’s the one that keeps rattling around his chest.
The thought of calling Bakugou alpha, so big it slipped out of his head and planted itself right in Shouto’s chest, and now every single heartbeat is a little betrayal, and Shouto has to bite his lip when he says thank you so he won’t tack on alpha.
(Sometimes, he wonders if that’s what love looks like. If he slipped. If he fell and didn’t notice, because Bakugou was too busy calling him sweet things and making him dinner, and all Shouto really wanted was to snuggle up to him on the couch.)
“Your fault,” Shouto whines. “This is all your fault. Look at me—I own more stretchy pants now than I had clothes altogether before this.”
Which—okay, he’s always liked being cozy, so maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but seven and a half months ago, the baggy cotton t-shirts were a willing choice, and not the only thing that actually fit comfortably.
(Bakugou’s shirts are nice, though. They smell just like him. The pup likes it, too.)
“You want me to take responsibility?” Bakugou asks. “Wanna get mated? Wanna go on a nice honeymoon? Want me to bite you like that?”
Shouto shakes his head. “No,” he says. “I don’t want to wait that long.”
They’ve already waited long enough.
Besides—
What are they going to tell the pup when she asks? That mommy and daddy were really, really dumb? That daddy had to get mommy to stop eating so much ice cream before they could get mated?
It’s stupid.
“Okay, we don’t have to wait,” Bakugou says. “You want me to do it right now?”
Heat crawls up Shouto’s neck. They’ve been sharing a bed. It helps. All the baby books mentioned how much the alpha’s presence helps. And it’s comfortable. And Shouto likes it. And it feels like home, almost, if he lets himself be silly and dream.
Like they could keep doing it forever.
But still, they haven’t—
“You want to?” Shouto asks. “Even when I’m like this? I’ve gotten so fat.”
“You’re beautiful,” Bakugou blurts. “Makes my teeth itch, you know. And I feel like an asshole, because you’re not mine. You’re not mine, and I know it, princess, I swear I do, but—fuck. You look mine. And you smell mine. And you go around wearing my clothes. And then you start purring, and I have to pretend I don’t notice because I know it’s just the—the pregnancy stuff, and—”
“No,” Shouto interrupts. “It’s not just the pregnancy.”
Bakugou blinks. “It’s not?” he asks. “Really?”
He sounds so happy. It makes something in Shouto’s stomach swoop. And the baby kicks enough for him to know it’s not just more of that, so.
“I like you a lot,” Shouto admits. “I just—I didn’t realize until you started acting all sweet and making me food?”
“I’ve been making you food since we lived at the dorms,” Bakugou huffs. “Spoiled omega.”
“Mm,” Shouto says. “But back then I thought you were making fun of me when you called me princess. I thought you hated me. Or, um, that it bothered you? That I was an omega? And that’s why your face got so red all the time?”
“My face got red all the time because you were the prettiest thing I’d ever seen and I didn’t know what to do about it. Stupid pretty boy. Probably wrecked a training gym because of you.”
“Oh,” Shouto says softly. “That’s why sensei used to tell me to pick my alphas better? Did he think we were fighting, back then, or...?”
Bakugou’s ears get all red. It’s cute. His alpha is so cute.
“Yeah,” he says. “My bad. I used to yell stupid pretty boy a lot, back then. I think sensei noticed.”
“I didn’t notice,” Shouto says. And then, “I’m sorry. Does it, uh, help that I’m having your child?”
Bakugou laughs. “A little,” he says. “I’ll forgive you if you finish your food and let me bite you. Deal?”
Shouto brings a hand up to the side of his neck. To his bare mating gland. He thinks about Bakugou’s mark there. About Bakugou’s teeth, no longer just teasing, no longer just the soothing pressure omega instinct needs during a heat, but—real.
Him and Bakugou, forever.
It doesn’t sound too bad.
“Deal,” Shouto says seriously. “But only if you cuddle me after.”
“What do you take me for?” Bakugou huffs, all affronted. “Of course I’ll cuddle you. I’ve been cuddling you all this time, you brat.”
“Yes,” Shouto says. “But it’s special when you’re mated, isn’t it? I promise I won’t cuddle other alphas anymore.”
“Yeah, right,” Bakugou says. “Like I don’t know Ponytail would bite my head off.”
“Well—,” Shouto agrees, “besides Momo. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, half ‘n half,” Bakugou says. “That’s great.”
So Shouto reaches across the table to press a kiss to his cheek. And then he whispers, “Thank you, alpha.”
It’s nice. He should say it more. Even if Bakugou still makes him finish his food before taking him to bed, so it doesn’t work as well as intended.
Still.
Shouto wants to say it.
(So he says it laughing when Bakugou scoops him up like he doesn’t weigh a thing and carries him to bed, and he says it with please following right after when he presses his canines to Shouto’s neck, and he says it again, purring into his alpha’s chest with the pleasant sting of a fresh mating bite still buzzing through him.
And Bakugou holds him.
That’s the best part. How warm it is.)