Kyungsoo was late getting home.

The appointment with Minseok Kim had gone long. Often when an alpha mate came to an appointment they aggressively asked questions and sniffed for any sign the doctor might be attracted to their mate. Kyungsoo hadn’t been an exception during Jongin’s pregnancy. However, Jongdae, Minseok’s alpha mate, was incredibly amiable and focused on what he could do for Minseok. The aggressive one had been Luhan, Minseok’s omega mate, who did everything but demand to see Kyungsoo’s credentials. Minseok had been embarrassed, but Kyungsoo told him he was lucky to have mates who were so invested.

Making sure he thoroughly answered all their questions, and got a chance to do a physical exam on Minseok, meant Kungsoo’s later meetings were rescheduled. Then Boa pulled him in for a consultation on some of her patients. Female alpha pregnancy had a tendency to be mildly easier physically than male alpha pregnancies. However, female alphas were more prone to have violent outbursts and paranoid delusions during the third trimester. Or so Kyungsoo had observed. As had Boa. She had written a paper on it, which had been rejected by the medical board for further study.

By the time Kyungsoo left the clinic it was well after eight and he didn’t get home until nine.

Yuri was sitting on the couch in the living room working on a knitting project. The beta took care of Soojin when both he and Jongin were working. She was an excellent hire and never complained about all the extra hours the erratic schedule of a doctor and fashion model asked her to work.

“Sorry,” Kyungsoo said as he shrugged out of his coat.

“No worries,” Yuri said with a smile as she packed the knitting into her bag. “Soojin’s had dinner and her bath. I tried to put her to bed, but she wanted to wait up.”

“That’s fine,” Kyungsoo said. It wasn’t too much past her bedtime. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Do you need me to get her from school tomorrow?”

“My mother and Eunjung are taking her on a belated trip to the gardens,” Kyungsoo said. He didn’t know who was more excited, his mother or daughter.

“Then I’ll see you the day after,” Yuri said, giving him a kiss on the cheek on her way out.

Kyungsoo went to his daughter’s room and knocked on the door, poking his head inside. She was wearing pink pajamas with blue polka dots and sitting at a small table surrounded by a small fraction of her stuffed animals, having a tea party. The number of stuffed animals in the bedroom was becoming obscene, and no doubt another would be returning with Jongin from Singapore.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep, Soo?” he asked as he stepped into the room. Other than a pile of dirty clothes in front of the hamper instead of in it, a habit of Jongin’s she was imitating, he was proud of how she kept her room neat.

“Dad!”

Several plastic tea cups fell over and rolled to the floor as she jumped up and ran over to him with her arms outstretched. Kyungsoo leaned down and scooped her up, settling her on his hip. “How was your day? Are you still feeling well?” Today was her first day back to school after being sick.

“Yup. I’m all better,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and snuggling close. She was trying to be extra cute and soften him up for something. Just like Jongin. “Since Daddy’s not here, can me and Fred sleep with you?”

Kyungsoo knew he should say no, but he didn’t mind it when Jongin wasn’t home. “All right, but just for tonight.”

Soojin’s grin was from ear to ear. “Thank you, Dad!”

Kyungsoo patted her on the back and set her down. “I’m going to change into my jammies. Can you put the tea party away?” She crinkled her nose but nodded. “Then, if you and Fred want to pick out a book, we can read a little, all right?”

Her eyes glittered at the idea of not only getting to sleep in the big bed, but getting a story read. Kyungsoo left her to clean up and select a book with the stuffed rabbit. He took out his phone as he went to the master bedroom. Normally, he’d call to wish Jongin a goodnight, but it was early enough he was sure the other alpha was in the middle of an after party or some work event. He tried not to bother Jongin too much while he was working. So, he sent a text instead: Going to sleep with a cute, petite alpha and a fuzzy omega. Hope you don’t mind.

He dropped the phone on his bed as he switched the pillows so he would have the one that smelled most like Jongin. His phone buzzed with a reply as he was on his way into the walk-in closet.

V. Jealous. Wish I could make your a 4some. Give her a kiss 4 me.

Kyungsoo smiled and sent back a quick response: Hope work is going all right.

He set the phone on his nightstand and changed into blue and white striped pajamas he only used when Soojin was sleeping in their bed. Both he and Jongin preferred sleeping . They were having to adapt to at least having on underwear at night. Soojin was at that age where she wandered in on them a lot.

Soojin was waiting for him with a book and Fred tucked under her arm when he came out of the walk-in closet. “Did you pick out a good story?” he asked and he went over and sat on the chair in the corner of the room.

“Yup!” Soojin said, climbing onto his lap.

It was the Little Omega in the Red Hood and the Alpha, one of her favorites. She rested her head on his chest as he started to read and was almost immediately yawning, but making herself stay awake. “I can read another time,” Kyungsoo offered.

“You’re never home early enough to read,” she said, stifling another yawn behind Fred’s ear.

Kyungsoo grimaced. Jongin was probably on to something about him needing to take time off to spend with their daughter.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand midway through the story, but Kyungsoo ignored it favor of finding out who was in Grandmother’s house. The clinic or Jongin would have rung through, not just notified him.

Soojin was snoring when Kyungsoo finished the story. He carried her over to the bed, tucking her into Jongin’s side. She hugged Fred tight to her chest and nuzzled into his pillow, kicking her feet. He bent down to give her a kiss on the forehead from Jongin.

He got himself a drink and picked up his own book, a new study on alpha physiology, and sat back in the chair to read for a while. There were new discoveries being made all the time regarding the slight differences, especially hormonal, in omega, beta, and alpha biology. But, as he said to Yura earlier, almost nothing on alpha receptive fertility or the behavior patterns of pregnant alphas. His opinion on the necessity of such studies was incredibly biased, but four years of running a clinic specializing in non-traditional obstetrics and high risk pregnancy confirmed for him that alpha pregnancies were happening a lot more than the medical community wanted to admit.

Kyungsoo glanced over at his daughter as he thought about the possibility of another miracle. Even if he could get over every other issue, from observation, second time pregnancies were physically harder on alphas than first time pregnancies. He had no idea why, as second pregnancies tended to be easier on omegas and betas, and no one wanted to study it, apparently.

He shook the thought off as he closed his book and went to bed.

The lights were off when he remembered to check his phone before falling asleep. The earlier message was a bank notification about a withdrawal from one of their joint accounts. Kyungsoo didn’t care how much money Jongin was spending, but when he saw the amount, he needed to make sure his mate was the one spending it.

Just checking. Did you move money out of our checking? Got a notification, he sent.

Jongin must have been looking at his phone, because the screen didn’t even have a chance to dim before there was a response. Sorry. 4got it would msg you. Don’t worry about it.

Good styles this season?

Sometimes Jongin fell in love with a designer’s collection and decided he needed one of everything. It wasn’t abnormal for him to come back from work trips with new suitcases filled with new clothes and new accessories. And with Soojin getting older, he was starting to bring home more than stuffed animals for her, too. At least he’d mostly given up on trying to make Kyungsoo’s wardrobe interesting.

Yeah, was Jongin’s reply.

Kyungsoo stared at the single word answer and felt strange. He didn’t think he had ever asked Jongin anything about fashion and received only a one word reply. Usually Jongin’s texts had designer names and gushing about bias cuts and in colors and whatnot.

Everything all right? he sent back.

Jus busy. Have 2 go. Luv you.

Love you too.

Kyungsoo set the phone on the nightstand and tried to close his eyes, listening to Soojin’s soft, soft snores. Instead he stared at the ceiling and tried to rationalize the sour feeling in his gut.

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