hybrid_prince | Open Post

Tommy snickered. "If they're not crying, then it's probably just juice," he reasoned. "Or them changing their color."

He looked up, startled at the sudden declaration. But Tommy smiled, leaning over between bites and kissing Teddy. It was quick and a little shy in front of the kids, who obviously had never seen their dads kiss before. But it just ... still hit him hearing Teddy say it. He'd been so sure Teddy couldn't stand the thought of him, even if he didn't hate him. Loving him back ... it was almost an impossible leap of thought to make.

"Love you too. Just ... yeah. So much." Tommy replied, awkward but sincere.

It's a good experience, Teddy thinks. Every now and then when Tommy doesn't seem to quite know what to do with taking care of the kids, he just runs his fingers over his bracelet, imparting the memories Tommy would have if he wasn't an asshole. And, eventually, the little ones had mostly eaten and been vaguely cleaned up. Teddy at last put his mostly cleaned plate from Kate back on the table and put a bowl of soft pieces of skrull fruit the children liked in front of them, to let them snack. It was all cut up very fine so they could eat it and not risk choking before Teddy could get there. But it was also clear almost instantly that a lot of it was going to get smooshed.

"And now the victorious parents get to eat," Teddy sighs as he takes a towel to wipe a bit of mushed peas off of his cheek. "But it's rewarding, knowing they're okay."

Tommy faltered each time those little nudges of new memory fluttered into his head, giving a view of what might have been. It helped him know what he was doing, and he liked seeing them, smaller or cranky or just with a version of him that they cared about.

Thomas took a little longer to finish, but Tommy got the feeling it was mostly because he was courting the extra attention from him, which made him smile. He put the plate aside when the little boy was done though, helping clean them up a bit - even if the fruit smooshing was probably just gonna mean they'd need it again - and then gave Thomas his fruit too.

As they ate and cleaned up, both kids just talked. Tommy could pick up words or general meanings sometimes, but for the most part it was just happy noise - fussy now and then when they didn't want more, or wanted something he wasn't giving them. It was sweet and kind of oddly soothing. It probably wouldn't be the first time they threw a fit over something, but for the moment, it was just nice.

He laughed, wiping another spot of peas off Teddy's chin with the tip of his finger, and then dotting that on the towel too, dropping down to sit next to him. "You did good with them. They're happy," he said quietly.

Teddys chuckles at the process of Tommy cleaning him up. No one else dared to touch him like that, and so he had more than a few instances where people tried to, clumsily, tell him that there was something wrong. It was never easy, but like this? It was. He leaned into that touch and when it was gone, he moved to sit with his former lover.

“Well, what do you think? Of the children? Of feeding them”

Tommy leaned into him as soon as he sat down, instant and easy. Natural. He didn't know how to be with Teddy and not be touching him anymore. It didn't occur to him to try without Billy or someone there to notice and make him aware of what he was doing.

"I think they're cute, and sweet. They're good kids. I think ... it's still a lot to work my head around, Ted. I've been thinking you just ... I thought I was an asshole, for liking what we had, when you had to like it and wouldn't have. You loving me, us being parents. It's hard to just figure out how to flip that around. But I'm happy, I think. Just confused still, too. And I wish I'd been here. For you." He half smiled. "Feeding them's kinda messy. But cute, too."

"I've had a lot more time to deal with it," Teddy admits. But he had learned to be alone. Very alone. And he's learned to be stronger for the experience of it.

"While you're here, you're welcome to enjoy it," Teddy promises.

Tommy lifted his head from Teddy's shoulder to look at him, trying to figure out what that meant. Did he want him to plan on leaving? Or did he just expect Tommy to leave? "Ted ... do you want me to go? Not right away, but later?" he finally just asked.

"I don't," Teddy sighs. "But... this is a lot. If you're here, you're here as their father. You're here as the Consort."

Tommy shook his head. "I guess this is part of what we need to talk to Billy and David about too. But Ted ... it's been two years. Long enough that I know I don't do that great without you. I missed you. I want to be with you. I don't know how I'll do in space all the time, maybe I'll need to take breaks on earth or something. Maybe you and the babies can come too. I don't know. But I wasn't ... I kindaofdidn'tplan on leaving as soon as you said you loved me."

Two years that he'd not done all that well during, leaning on his people. Leaning on his needs. And every time he'd been able to hear Tommy's voice had been agony. But this... was something.

"Then you'll stay? You'll try something that's us without, you know, pheromones?"

Tommy rolled his eyes, reaching over to tickle lightly at Kathryn's foot before sitting back again. "I don't need pheromones to want you. I didn't need them way before we got broken out of there. I haven't had them in a long time. And I want you all the time. No one else is ... it's not right without you anymore. Nothing is, okay? So yeah. I want to try."

"Then..."

Teddy smiles. And instead of reaching for his food, he reaches out to lay his hand over Tommy's.

"I'd like you to stay. If you're not ready for it to be as my consort, then as the father of my children, and as a liason to Krakoa.

Tommy curled his fingers back through Teddy's. "Yeah. I'd like to stay. Consort is ... that'd be like married, right? Or whatever Skrulls call it? Maybe wait on that, at least until we all get used to the idea. But I wanna be with you. Get to know them. Figure out ... how we are when there's more than one room." He didn't know what kind of liaison he'd be ... they might not even want him here without a chaperone for all he knew, they still got nervous about his powers. But he could give it a try.

"Consort would be similar, but it's not quite the same. I wouldn't mind you being the proper Prince Consort, though. The wedding would be overwhelmingly huge though."

The Alliance needed something to celebrate for a change, other than their prince and princess.

"I imagine with more than one room, you won't be brushing my hair with your fingers just to have something to do."

Oh yeah. Wedding a space emporerer for two races. That'd probably be ... a huge thing. For Tommy, who still has issues with crowd and noise after their time in captivity, that's a little overwhelming to think about all on its own. But ... yeah he might do it. For that, no matter what.

He smiled. "Yeah ... having books and shit back has been nice. Still like your hair though." Teddy would grow it out longer to let Tommy play with it when Tommy was out of his head bored, sometimes. And as Tommy's got long, he'd like it when Teddy played with his.

Not like it couldn't be done in a quiet room, but broadcasted for his people. But they'd figure something out.

"Well, after dinner, you can help me give these two a B-A-T-H if you want."

Tommy gave him a deeply dubious look. "If you're spelling it out, I'm guessing they don't like it. Maybe I should be the fun dad who only does the stuff they like," he teased. He shrugged though, head dropping back onto Teddy's shoulder. "Yeah, okay. I can do that." He was quiet a moment, just watching the twins play with their fruit, babbling a little as they did, but plainly starting to wind down. "I'm glad they get to grow up together," he said finally.

"I'm sorry you couldn't have that with Billy," Teddy answers, and finally lifts an honest to god chicken nugget from his plate. Sometimes Emperors need spoiled. "They have their own language I think. And I don't understand them. They've given me sleepless nights, and it pains me that until I figure out how to handle it, the little ones can't be trusted to hold hands, but... I'm glad they have each other."

And the chicken nugget goes into his mouth. Because yum is why.

"Me too, sometimes. But maybe it's better. If we were together, maybe we both would have gotten world-destroying powers at the same time and then screwed everything up," Tommy said wryly.

He looked over to see what Teddy was eating and snorted at the nugget. Not exactly dignified food. "Can you get them some kind of gloves they can't get off, until we get their powers sorted out?" he said. "So they can touch?"

Well, there is that, but Teddy reaches out to touch his lover’s shoulder.

“You’re not going to destroy anything,” he promised before offering over a nugget. “And I’m not putting mittens on the kids. I don’t know that it would help.”

Tommy smiled and shrugged. "I came kind of close," he admitted. "Figuring out new powers sort of sucks." Especially when you're in the middle of being a depressed wreck for most of it. But Tommy figured he still had it easier than being a single dad.

He took the nugget by biting it out of Teddy's fingers with a quick grin, eating it before answering. "Hey, kids in mittens are cute. But hopefully Billy can figure something out. Or magic a solution until they're a little older."

“Mittens can be cute, but… depriving them of the ability to touch each other seems… cruel.”

And yet he’s doing that anyway, isn’t he? It’s been hard, this last week, trying to deal with the new changes in his life. But he knew what it was like to need to touch someone, and it was not easy on the twin as he wished it could be.

"Yeah, but they can't really touch now you said, right?" Tommy asked, reaching for another nugget and feeding it to Teddy this time before going on. "So touching through mittens would be better than nothing, right?"

Tommy ate another couple of nuggets too, then fed Teddy another one before leaning back up against him, reaching with one hand to swing Thomas' fingers back and forth when he reached toward them. "But don't worry about it too much anyway - Billy or David might have a better idea." He went quiet for a moment, watching the twins and then asked Teddy quietly. "You okay with that? Billy and David?"

It's both a complicated question, and a very simple one. Why should he be concerned about them when he had already sworn himself to Tommy in the ways that mattered? But it was a serious question because it was someone who had wanted him with someone who he loved.

"I'm glad they're happy," Teddy decides at last. And, to try and not linger there too much... "I suppose I can see about mittens. And clipping them to their clothes so they don't take them off."

Tommy wasn't really happy about the lack of answer, even if he understood. Even if Teddy loved him, that didn't mean he didn't love Billy too, or that they hadn't shared something special for a long time. Plus him and David had kind of sparked. It made sense if Teddy had complicated feelings about it, especially if he just found out today, the same way Tommy wasn't unhappy about the kids, but still hadn't processed everything he felt about it, either.

So Tommy got it. But he couldn't help a little stab of hurt too, no matter how much it didn't make sense. He shoved it down and let the topic go. "There's got to be some cool sci-fi alien mittens that are better than ours."

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