hybrid_prince | Open Post

"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."

Oh man, what a line. Teddy laughs and shakes his head. "If there are, they aren't Kree or Skrull make. Skrull keep their hands free for small shifts. Kree have learned to biometric lock their weapons."

Mostly because of getting their ass handed to them by Earthlings a b it too much.

"There's other aliens out there. Some of them don't even abduct people, probably," Tommy said wryly. Since there was definitely at least one kind out there that did. But someone could probably make some kind of thin mittens or artificial skin or something that could cover. But like he told Teddy, there was no point in worrying too much about it until Billy and David had tried to see what they could do.

Thomas picked up some of his fruit and threw it fussily to the floor, making a general noise of dissatisfaction. Tommy smiled at him. "Guess dinner's getting to be over?" he said, reaching to give Teddy another nugget.

“There are,” Teddy agrees, and he frowns at the suggestion. “And what they might do to get an advantage on an Emperor through his children…”

Nope, he’s not pleased by that idea at all. But the situation with the food needs dealt with. Oh dear.

“Yeah, it’s bath time,” Teddy agrees, and immediately gets protests from the twins. “And after that they gets some time with the nanny while I eat for real.”

Tommy shivered unhappily at the idea. "They've got you for a dad and Billy for an uncle. And maybe we should put some kind of tracking spell on them until they get older, just in case." He should have asked Billy about that when he got back ... but he hadn't. Probably because his subconscious was fucked up and half hoping if he got taken again he'd be back with Teddy.

David had a point about Tommy needing the therapy he hadn't actually given a chance to work, maybe.

He smiles at the immediate whining. "You just need fun bath stuff," he said. The kids he watched sometimes had toys and stuff. One had crayons you could draw on the shower with and Tommy would play tic tac toe with her when she had her bath. "Eat with Billy and David and talk, afterward, I guess?" He was kind of reluctant to give up any time alone with Teddy - but he owed Billy that right away, Tommy figured.

“They’ve got you for a dad too,” Teddy counters. And Tommy always fought tooth and nail for his family. So Teddy thought that probably helped. “And they’ve GOT fun bath stuff.”

Teddy sighs as he moves to scoop Thomas into his arms. “They have all the toys and when they get into the water they LOVE it. But they whine before. Because they know their hair is getting washed. I can get help for this, if you want to go back to our room and rest? Or go seek Billy out.”

"Yeah, but my shit's not all the way locked down yet," Tommy said.

He hesitated, but then stood too, carefully hefting Kathryn into his arms. He'd already held her, but it felt a little like he should ask permission first, even if he knew Teddy would say otherwise. He smiled at her and pressed an absent kiss to the top of her head and then looked back at Teddy, shaking his head. "I want to stay with you." He was kind of paranoid about letting Teddy out of his sight, honestly. He'd find Billy afterward, with Teddy, hopefully. "I'll stay out of the way."

Oh no, Teddy was SUPER down with teaching the children consent. If the children didn't want him to pick them up and there was an argument for it, he'd let it go. But for things like this he'd tell them he understood no, and why he was doing it.

Listen, he was a pretty nice Dad.

"Good, because you'll get splashed otherwise," Teddy laughs, tilting his head for Tommy to follow as he heads for another door in the room.

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