Ewon

"Oppa, can we stop at the pet store? I don't have any homework today."

I inwardly groaned. Sica had been after a pet ever since she got her room set up. She was sure a room that size needed more than just her, although she was very clear that her baby nephew was NOT welcome to fill the extra space. No, she wanted a pet. At first she though about a turtle, but more recently she'd moved onto a fish tank after one of her teachers mentioned how watching a fish tank was good for you and can help your eyes focus on the letters on a page better.

"Why?"

"To look for a book on how to take care of rabbits. The one my teacher has is old. Like older than you old, and if we're going to keep Fluffy alive we need current information."

Sica never ceased to surprise me. I knew that they'd recently acquired a pet rabbit on loan as part of some 4-H outreach, but she had only mentioned it in passing.

"I'm pretty sure it is the same, but we can stop." I mean how much could rabbit care change? It was nice to finally be able to give her these little extras when I hadn't been able to for so long "As long as you don't try to convince me we need a fish tank again." although I was on the cusp of saying ' it' and getting her one of those single fish that glow in the dark and live in the little tanks. When I looked them up, the amount of care they took seemed manageable enough.

"I know. I know." she sighed from the back seat. I'd gotten so used to Nichkhun driving her to and from school, me often joining her in the back, that it felt almost odd to have her not even in my view except through a quick glance in the mirror.

"They are a ton of work and you can't even shuggle them." she added, parroting my no-fish arguments.

"Exactly." I wanted to do a happy dance for avoiding the entire 'no you're not getting a fish tank' sad face.

"That's why I was thinking about a puppy." motherfu-. She sounded entirely too excited by that prospect. I might have caved on a single fish, but there was not a chance on this planet that I wanted to train a puppy. Maybe-possibly, I might consider an adult dog after the baby and any others that might come our way after him were out of diapers, but until then, it was not gonna happen.

"Puppies poop all over the place." and halk the time they stuck their nose in it afterward. Just no.

"So do babies and we're getting one of those." she counter-argued as we pulled into the plaza with the pet place.

"In a diaper." I made a note to not go down the aisle where the store sold the doggie diapers. I'd never hear the end of it.

"Hyuna says her baby brother poops in the tub and peed on her dad so I think it's pretty much the same."

"No means no." I pulled into an expectant parent space. They were the best things ever. Whoever designed them deserved cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. I might have had a month and a half to go in the pregnancy, but that didn't mean walking to the back of the lot with an armful of groceries was fun. Not that my men let that happen, but still.

"Can we look at the puppies?" she asked as I let her out of the car. Nichkhun already insisted that we needed the child locks on for the baby who was not going to be able to open a car door for a very long time, even after he was born. Mine didn't have them, which of course parlayed into a new car, one I didn't want, but somehow still ended up with. Taecyeon could be stubborn. Sica and I just rolled our eyes anytime either of us needed to be let out of the car, both of us realizing how ludicrous the locks were, but loving Taecyeon enough to go along with it.

"Absolutely not."

"All of the dogs here are rescue dogs." she took my hand as we walked to the store. It was nice that as grown up as she was, she still allowed herself to be a little girl like this. I knew it wouldn't last long and treasured every moment "It's not like I'm asking you to support puppy mills or anything so dastardly."

"Vocab word?"

"Yep." she beamed, filled with pride over all she was accomplishing at her new school. The school year was winding down for most places, but Cloverville Academy held a summer semester so for the first year, at least, she'd be going almost nonstop. Something she talked about often as "the best thing ever".

"So no puppy?" I didn't need to look to know she was giving me what I affectionately referred to as 'the lip', where she curled her lip down in the most pathetic-looking face imaginable in an attempt to meet her goal, in this case a puppy.

"No puppy. But we can get the book."

We walked inside and after spending a half an hour on which was the best book to get in her class, I caved and we looked at the dogs. I had to admit, it was tempting to take one of those little buggers home, the way they acted like each and eveery one of us were made of something amazing, wagging their tails and giving us little kisses. Tempting, but not enough. Even if I'd decided then and there we needed a puppy, which I did not, it wasn't just Sica and I anymore.

It was still surreal that I had not one, but two men who wanted me in their life. And not just as a 'let's get it on and then you go home' way that so many people I'd worked with at the coffee shop found in their dating.

Dating. That was such a wrong way to describe what we had going on. We were building a family. But then again, I had no idea what we should or even could call ourselves. We weren't married, not all three of us anyway. We weren't even mated. It was all too confusing. I tried to not think too much on it, knowing that when I was with them, they showed me with words and actions that Sica and I were important to them and that was enough.

We drove home, Sica whipping out a green sheet of plastic that somehow helped heer read and placed it on the pages of the book reading me little bits here and there. Her reading was still not what anyone would consider strong, but given that less than a year earlier she could read nothing, it was huge. So huge, I didn't even give her the lecture our mom gave me about reading in the car causing headaches.

As we rounded the corner, our house came into view. OUR house. our home. We no longer felt like guests or impositions, we were family. Pregnancy had a way of amplifying my emotions, but I knew that this joy was not because of hormones and nesting, it was because of love, and who could ask for anything more that that?

I pulled into our driveway, s