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[hybrid_prince]

Eventually something pretty and witty will go here.

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[zoomandboom]

Tommy's eyes fluttered at the touch. He stood still as Teddy draped the fabric into place and watched him, quiet and soft-eyed.

He tilted his head when Teddy got the circlet out. "Isn't that for like royalty?" he asked curiously, taking it and looking at it.

[hybrid_prince]

"In the eyes of my people, you're either part of a harem, or you're the Imperial Consort. The latter entitles you to a circlet."

Though he gets if that is a bit weird.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy blinked and then laughed. "I think the kids might roll with it, but everyone else is gonna be confused, Ted. They still think Billy's your consort." Since they'd said Consort Maximoff when they came in.

He gave Teddy a wry smile. "So you don't want a harem?"

[hybrid_prince]

"The only ones that might be confused would be Billy and David. Didn't you hear them earlier? Calling you Consort Maximoff?"

That was how Tommy was spoken of after all. Teddy had insisted. Tommy didn't connect to the shepherds after all.

"do you want me to want a harem to share with you?"

Clearly Tommy didn't want the coronet, so Teddy puts it away.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy frowned. "They ... meant me? I figured they still meant Billy and you just hadn't said anything to them." He was the consort? Because they were his kids. It made sense, he guessed. And it wasn't like he loved his name. "Hey ... I'd rather have your name than Maximoff, if I'm gonna be a consort, okay?" he said.

He laughed and shook his head. "No, not unless you get bored and need a crowd."

[hybrid_prince]

"Consort Altman? Wouldn't that be confusing?"

But he smiles opens the box, and takes the circlet out, crossing to Tommy and putting it lightly on his brow.

"Maybe we'll talk about that When you're sure you want to do this. Give it a month or so."

[zoomandboom]

"I don't know, Maximoff confused me already," Tommy said with a smile. "Plus doesn't everyone here call you Dorrek and a bunch of titles?"

He let Teddy put the circlet on and then nodded. "Okay, deal." They had time now, and it wasn't dictated by mysterious kidnappers who'd put them in a room and left them there. They got to set their own rules.

"Ready, I guess?" he asked.

[hybrid_prince]

"So what if they do? Names are... what we make them," Teddy suggests. "They call the kids a lot of things too. Made me give them HUGE names."

His fingers came up to cup the bottom of Tommy's jaw, tilting his face up so Teddy can kiss him, light and sweet.

"Come on, let's have dinner with the kids."

[zoomandboom]

"That's the name I want to make then." Tommy grinned. "So they've got crazy pretentious names?" That was always kind of cute on little kids. "Do they know how to shapeshift yet?"

He kissed back, leaning into it and then sighing softly. "Fuck, I missed you," Tommy said, quiet but full of emotion. He slid his hand into Teddy's, dropping a kiss into his shoulder and let Teddy lead him off to dinner.

[hybrid_prince]

"Technically they're Princess Kathryn Anelle Sar-Vell and Prince Thomas Dorrek Bil-Vell," Teddy admits. "And they're at the age where I expect it any day. At least if they're staying on a single level to go intangible they're less likely to run into something bad. But if they're flying?"

Teddy doesn't even know that he was flying almost before he was born. There was a reason Hulkling had been so GOOD at it so fast.

"I missed you too," Teddy agrees, fingers going out to stroke Tommy's hair.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy laughed, but looked touched too. He remembered that conversation, when they'd meandered around talking about a future neither of them had been convinced they had outside of captivity, and talked about kids and families. Tommy had never thought he'd be a parent, or that he should be. But if he had, he'd have wanted to name them after Kate or Billy. Teddy had remembered that, even when he didn't think Tommy would want anything to do with them. "Maybe put backpack leashes on them, so they can't fly that far, once we figure out the intangible thing." Figures it would be a power none of them had, so it wouldn't be easy to figure out.

Tommy hummed a little as Teddy's fingers slid through his hair. No one else quite petted it right - not that anyone but David really tried.

[hybrid_prince]

"OH fuck, that would be CUTE," Teddy laughs, pulling Tommy against him and laughing into his shoulder. This is the best idea and he loves it, so much. "I'm doing it. I'm going to have them made.'

[zoomandboom]

Tommy laughed, leaning into him. God, that was so fucking good. Just ... Teddy. He was warm and right there. Tommy felt like he could practically purr. "Just little green floating kid balloons," he said with a grin. "God, Ted. We have kids. That's nuts. They've got your eyes." Yeah Teddy's eyes could be anything he wanted. But they looked just like his.

[hybrid_prince]

"They have your hair. And your cheeks. And your heart already, I know, it," Teddy grins.

[zoomandboom]

"The hair, definitely. The heart - you're the one with the big giant heart." He leaned up, nuzzling his cheek against Teddy's. "You'll tell me right? If I say something wrong to them, or do something I shouldn't?"

[hybrid_prince]

"You won't," Teddy promises. "You're great with kids."

He pulls Tommy with him toward the door, and he pulls Tommy with him out of the suite.

[zoomandboom]

"Yeah ... but they weren't my kids. And not usually this little," Tommy said. But he goes with Teddy, going quiet as they left the space that was just them. He knew this was still a family thing, so it wasn't going to be some royal dining hall or anything. But still. He didn't know how to navigate kids yet, let alone how to navigate what he and Teddy were to each other in public. They'd figure it out, but they hadn't yet. Even with the nerves though, he didn't pull away at all.

[hybrid_prince]

This isn't that much public. It's just Teddy pulling close, an arm around his waist as he guides Tommy down the hall. There aren't many present. He guides tommy past a few doors before he gestures to some guards that open the door. A small, relatively private dining room, where the woman who collected the twins was, putting them in high chairs. Far enough apart that the two can't grab each other's hands. The doors close behind them and Teddy smiles at the woman.

"Thank you. Tommy and I will tend to them," he assures the nursemaid, who bows and walks out of the room. And look, there's already food on the table.

And when Kathryn and Thomas notice their fathers they start grinning and making grabbing hands at their parents.

"Most of the time," Teddy whispers in English. "It's you that has dinner with them. Sometimes I do. But I always say Papa is busy."

[zoomandboom]

It's still more than just the two of them. Tommy and Teddy have never existed together as a couple or lovers or whatever they are in a space that wasn't just for them - at least not knowingly. Tommy's not sure how to act exactly. He just doesn't care enough to actually not stay glued against Teddy.

He smiled at the woman when she left, and then looked at the kids, who were all waving hands and big smiles. They really were cute. He nodded to Teddy and walked over, hesitantly grabbing each of their hands with one of his, swinging their arms lightly. "Hey," he greeted. "Hungry?"

The little boy - Thomas, Tommy guessed. They were going to have to work out the names. He answered with a stream of babble that it took Tommy a second to realize he wasn't supposed to be able to understand, since it was mostly babytalk with a few words of Skrull mixed in.

[hybrid_prince]

They weren't fully conversational yet. They were only a year old after all. But Teddy stands back and watches the man he loved with their children and wow. That's... good.

"The Little Lamb is very anti-mushy peas, but Kitty cat loves them. Lamb gets the chopped carrots, and the beefy dinner. Kitty gets chicken."

Teddy moves to the kids, kissing each on the brow in turn before picking up one sectioned animal plate and carrying it to Kathryn, scooping up some peas.

"The kids eat first, and when they're done with what they'll eat, they get little bowls of small snacks they can eat. Baby cookies. I have to get them from Earth, because they don't like some traditional Skrull foods."

"Dada," Kathryn says, hands reaching out toward the plate he has.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy had been wondering about that, all the earth-centric food. He laughed though, watching Teddy and then picking up the other plate for Thomas. "I guess they don't take after me. I was always a trash can - I ate everything." As far as he remembered, anyway. Then again, growing up it'd been a definite "eat what you have" kind of house, so if he didn't like it, he didn't get anything else.

Tommy watched Teddy to see how he fed Kathryn, and then mimicked him, offering Thomas a bite of his carrots, grinning when the kid just started to babble again. "Uh huh," Tommy said, nodding sagely as if he understood.

[hybrid_prince]

"They're too young to eat everything just yet," Teddy coos at Tommy in Skrull. Because with the charm, he knows Tommy will understand. But he loved how quickly Tommy got the right feel of it. Teddy was mostly just proud to know he'd called that reaction properly.

"I'm told language development goes better when you just talk to them lots, encourage noises too."

He smiles and gets some of the chicken gravy and potatoes onto a spoon to feed Kate. And after she takes the spoonful he leans over to kiss Tommy's temple.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy nodded, watching both kids, curious and avid, taking in the little mannerisms and the way they reached for him or for Teddy, or for each other. One would say something and the other would answer. He wondered if him and Billy would have been like that, if they'd been raised together.

"Yeah. There's a little kid in Krokoa, one of the mutant couples adopted him, but he barely talks. I think it's cause he always got told to shut up when he was little, so no one would notice him." He was cute, but he had visible mutations - lizard-looking eyes and a sheen to his skin. Tommy would watch some of the kids sometimes, to give the parents a break. Or at least he did now that they weren't as worried he'd explode time or something.

He turned when Teddy kissed his temple, startled, but smiled. Christ. They were feeding their KIDS together. Like a family. Which he guessed they were, just ... a weird one.

He was startled out of thinking about it when Thomas smacked at his hand demandingly, and Tommy snickered. "Sorry, little man." He scooped up a bite of the beef and offered it to him, wiping a dribble off his chin when only half of it went in his mouth.

[hybrid_prince]

"You're clearly a natural. And he's got attitude, like his Papa. But Kitten is going to be the problem when she grows up. She's going to wrap us around her little finger."

Teddy smiles and offers a clean cloth from the table behind them to Tommy.

"Papa num!" Kathryn said, hands reaching for Tommy and the food he had.

"Oh dear, she's going to be fussy too.l"

[zoomandboom]

"Yeah, let's hope he's not that much like me," Tommy said dryly.

Tommy took the cloth, wiping up and then laughing at Kathryn. "She just wants what she doesn't have, probably. Grass is greener, right? See, that's our fault for naming her after Kate."

Still, he gave Thomas another bite before offering one to Kitty too, reaching to carefully brush fingers through the white hair on one small head, then the other.