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Every adult Shiro ever knew always lamented the sleepless nights that followed the birth of a newborn and all the burdens of parenthood.
The taking turns feeding, changing nappies, the mountains of laundry.
He, Lance, and Keith all had to do that too. But it’d be worth it. Difficult to juggle, maybe,- especially in the case of them being new parents.
But at least they were in it together.
Or...at least that’s how it was supposed to be- if Lance didn’t hog their son.
“Lance, can I please hold him?” Keith asks for probably the tenth time in the last five minutes. Honestly, Shiro wants to as well but with the narrow eyed look Lance is shooting them both he doesn’t want to risk it.
Shiro’s hands are busy holding balloons and a stuffed animal he picked out months ago.
Which is why he can’t dodge when the cordless phone Lance has at his bedside gets thrown.
Keith manages to though.
Which Shiro thinks is unfair because if anyone should be getting hit with a phone it’s Keith. Shiro’s almost certain he’s racked up enough karma to deserve it.
Shiro yelps.
Keith curses.
Lance hisses.
The baby cradled in Lance’s arms mewls.
Lance hisses louder and Shiro sees the end of the world in his eyes.
The door opens and a smiling and crying Hunk waltzes in, arms piled high with gifts and Pidge.
Lance screeches.
Hunk screams.
Pidge falls.
XxX
“He gets it from his grandmother.” Lance’s mother kindly informs them in the hospital waiting room almost half an hour later. She’s smiling and apparently completely missing the sight of the bandage taped to Shiro’s forehead.
“Denia almost ripped off Leonys’s arm when Lance’s father was born.” She adds, gently patting a distraught Keith’s arm. His body hunched over in his chair and cradling the stuffed rabbit Shiro brought.
Shiro had stitches in his forehead. Why wasn’t his arm getting patted?
“It’s all those pheromones filling his nose.” Pidge chimes in beside Shiro, holding an ice pack to their head. “He probably thought we were a threat and was trying to protect his newly born offspring.”
Keith makes a hurt noise and Shiro immediately follows.
Hunk is making aborted motions with his hands at the Green Paladin.
Pidge continues.
“I mean I read about omega pregnancies when I heard Lance was creating life cell by cell- which, respect , by the way- so I saw a few articles about postpartum aggression but I didn’t think Lance would get it-then again if what mom says is right then he is genetically predisposed to it-”
Hunk slaps a hand over Pidge’s rambling mouth, a light ‘clap’ sound filling the room at the sudden move. Pidge’s brows furrow, their nose scrunching up in confusion before suddenly shifting to Keith and Shiro slumped over each other, Mrs. McClain offering them sympathetic pats with one arm and texting the rest of the family with the other.
“D-Don’t worry about it guys!” Hunk exclaims, smiling warily as Pidge began making spitting noises behind his hand. “I’m sure Lance’ll come around soon enough.”
Pidge heaves a wide gasp of air when they finally manage to heave Hunk’s arm off their mouth, their cheeks and chin covered in spit.
“That’s not how it works Hunk! It’s-”
“Shuusshh.”
For a moment, it seems like Hunk’s words work. Keith perking up slightly and Shiro letting a slow breath out, their eyes meeting each other with the edge of a light glimmering between them.
That light is immediately extinguished when the five of them hear the distant sound of a window breaking and moments later two hospital security guards running in the direction of Lance’s room.
XxX
Two hours later, Shiro does get to hold his, Lance, and Keith’s son.
Of course he’s sitting in a chair a foot away from Lance’s unconscious, sedated body and he’s listening with half an ear as a doctor is rambling about Lance and ‘excessive violence-’ and ‘-attacked several hospital personnel’ and ‘I have a family too ya know, I was so scared-’.
Keith is at his side, needling and prodding at him, whining without actually whining until Shiro pulls back the hospital blanket a little and lets Keith have a glimpse of little Ryou’s face.
Ryou is small, like a little jelly bean. His skin is almost translucent, still pale from being brand new but Shiro can still tell it will darken with time. Darker than him but lighter than Lance. His hair though, his hair is purely Shiro. Dark and black like someone spilled ink on a baby’s head. (A sure sign of inexperience with children and a hazard to your child and Shiro should know, he’s been reading up on the signs while looking up preschools for Ryou on his phone).
However, it’s his cheeks that Shiro thinks is the true defining feature. They’re huge and flushed, like a frog blowing up it’s vocal sac. The sight of them reminds Shiro starkly of his own baby photos, where his parents posed him in little sailor outfits and baby suits. But no amount of cute clothing could disguise the massive size of Shiro’s cheeks that his face wouldn’t grow into until he was well into his tweens.
“What’s wrong with his cheeks?” Keith asks, an edge of concern in his voice. “Is he sick?”
Keith may as well have stabbed Shiro in the chest.
“It’s likely swelling from birth.” The doctor offers. “It will go down eventually, nothing to worry about.”
Apparently it was ‘take a shot at Shiro day’.
Shiro’s lips are pouted slightly and rather than defend adolescent Shiro opts to tilt his head down and lightly scent the newborn, paying special attention to the crown of his head. Logically, he knew that the baby would be mostly dependent on Lance’s scent until they developed their own but that didn’t mean Shiro couldn’t help.
Keith is mimicking him in an instant, rubbing his wrists lightly into Ryou’s still undeveloped scent glands and softly stroking his cheek whenever he made the slightest noise. As soon as Shiro’s head is lifted away, Keith is pawing at the blankets and Shiro hands Ryou over without much of a fight.
Keith is instantly on him, cradling his head carefully in his hands as he buried his nose into Ryou’s hair.
Shiro watches him breath in deeply, his shoulders rising with the action as Ryou blindly mewled and curled his tiny fingers.
“He smells just like sweet milk.” Keith says with a breathless reverence, grey eyes glittering with something that looked like amazement. “He’s so perfect.”
Shiro felt his lips tug into a soft smile, holding out a finger for Ryou to latch onto as Keith began scenting him.
“He is,” Shiro murmured, eyes locked on Ryou’s furrowed eyebrows, “our little Ryou.”
Keith’s eyes flickered to Shiro, frowning slightly up at him as his lips twitched down in confusion.
“Ryou?” He asked, brows furrowed remarkably similar to Ryou. “I thought we agreed we’d name him Akira, after my dad.”
“Wha- no? I thought you guys liked Ryou?” Shiro asks, just as confused as Keith. Shiro had been mentally referring to the baby as Ryou since they found out it would be a boy.
Keith’s eyes narrow slightly, lifting his head slightly to meet Shiro’s gaze.
“Well there’s only one birth certificate.”
Shiro felt his own eyes begin to narrow at the clear challenge.
“We need a tie breaker then.”
Almost immediately, both their eyes flicker to a drooling Lance.
Okay well it seemed like their usual tie breaker was down for the count.
At once, Keith lifts a curled fist up, keeping a tight hold on Ryou with his other hand as he stared down Shiro. Shiro easily met the stare with his own, offering up his own fist.
“One round.” Shiro offers and Keith immediately nods, lips pursed and gaze stony.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot -”
XxX
Two days later Keith and a smug Shiro come back to the hospital to pick up a now awake Lance and Ryou.
Or more like, come pick up Lance so he stopped scaring the doctors and nurses. Unsurprisingly, Lance had warmed up to Keith first (if warmed up meant he didn’t try to bite him every time he so much as breathed in Ryou’s direction.)
The closest Shiro had come in the same amount of time was offering Lance a pen to sign the birth certificate with. And even then he’d stared Shiro down the entire time with his omega fangs out clear as day.
Now Shiro’s never considered Lance to be an ‘intimidating’ person, mostly because the other boy never tried to be anything but friendly. Sure he’d stray into rude and judgey territory but that was usually because Shiro would forget to start the dryer for the laundry so all their clothes would come out smelling musty (which was fair). But the sight of jagged shark teeth had him stepping carefully and using his mechanical arm to refill Lance’s water pitcher.
Shiro and Keith pull into the discharged patients pick-up, spotting Lance in a wheelchair with two nurses behind him and a fair distance away. Ryou is in a butter yellow blanket that Mrs. McClain knitted especially for them.
Out of everyone, Mrs. McClain was the only one that Lance would let help him while he was healing and that was mostly because he looked cowed and on his best behavior every time she entered the room.
“I mean it’s pretty clear that Lance’s family is a beta-archy.” Shiro remembers Pidge saying once. “And since Lance and you guys are gunna be new parents, it’s mom’s job to check up on him and make sure he’s settling in alright.”
Shiro knew about two people who were part of beta-archies and that was Lance and Pidge. And as they pulled up to the curb he couldn’t help but wonder if they should’ve asked their mother in-law to come along.
Keith hops out and carefully helps Lance up while Shiro starts preparing the maze of seat belt harnesses for Ryou’s car seat.
Surprisingly, Lance doesn’t hiss at them, allowing Keith to help him settle a squirming Ryou into his seat. Lance coos and is pressing soft kisses to a whimpering Ryou’s forehead while Shiro tests his luck and begins buckling him in.
When Lance doesn’t immediately go for his throat he relaxes slightly.
Lance slides in beside Ryou, and doesn’t even notice when Shiro pulls his seatbelt over his chest, buckling him in.
When he slides back into the driver’s seat, glancing at a cooing Lance through the rearview mirror, he can’t help the small smile tugging at his lips. Because it looked like Hunk had been right.
XxX
Shiro almost takes it back hours later when he’s in the kitchen and trying to discreetly talk to Lance’s mom on the phone while occasionally peeking around the corner.
“It was probably the hospital that made him so aggressive-” Mrs. McClain chatters. “New place, strange faces you know? Lance will come back to himself eventually.”
“Yeah I know mom.” Shiro whispers as he cranes his neck closer to catch a glimpse of Ryou’s nursery at the top of the stairs. “And I mean, he’s cooled down a little but now he’s kinda just…”
Keith races down the stairs with a giraffe lamp in his hands, practically throwing it at the couch before digging through a box of baby shower gifts from months ago. He plucks out a night light with a butterfly decal and shoots back up like a rocket.
Shiro hears the distant sound of Lance exclaiming in glee.
“It’s just...I think he might be nesting?”
The line goes silent for a moment. Before a round of cacophonous laughter fills the receiver. Shiro recognizes the laughs of Lance’s siblings and mother and a hot flush of red fills his cheeks.
“Hey! You- am I on speaker?!” Shiro garbles out, half hearing the sound of Ryou’s bassinet getting dragged against the hardwood upstairs.
The laughter continues.
“Mom!” Shiro yells, half whining. Mrs. McClain’s laughter slows to chuckles as Shiro hears Lance’s brother murmur in the background.
“I told you momma. Lance is high maintenance, even when we were kids he would-”
“You’re on your own with this one Shiro!” He hears another one who sounds suspiciously like Marco call out. “Lance and grandma are the only omegas in the family! And she’s gunna be at the casinos until...like...the end of the month! So good luck!”
Another cackle follows and Shiro is reminded of why Marco is his least favorite brother.
The sound of shooing and half-serious scoldings prevent Shiro from saying anything and soon it’s just him and Mrs. McClain again.
“Shiro.” She begins, and Shiro can almost see the smile on her face. “I know how Lance can be- even as a baby he was very overdramatic-”
Yeah, Shiro could see that being true.
“And nesting or not, Lance is as new at this as you and Keith are-”
Well Shiro wouldn’t say that, he’s pretty sure he read twice the amount of baby books as Lance and half as many as Keith. So he feels like he’s due at least a little more credit.
“But Lance loves you-” She continues. “-and he loves Keith and my little grandbaby Ryou. Give him a chance to get all those new parent jitters out of his system.”
Shiro nods even though he knows she can’t see him.
“He’ll come around, you’ll see.”
XxX
It turns out Mrs. McClain is right (she always is).
Eventually, Lance simmers down a bit when he seems satisfied with the complete and total reorganization of Ryou’s nursery. Though ‘reorganization’ is putting it kindly since it was mostly just Lance having Keith shift everything in the room an inch to the right, replace a lamp or two, and completely move the bassinet to their room.
Now Shiro has to cross the entire house if he wants to change a diaper. Functional? No. Make Lance happy? Yes.
Though Shiro has learned that Lance usually ends up a few steps ahead of everyone else when he really wants to. And that in addition to textbook nesting, he actually has a purpose behind his sudden renovations.
XxX
“You’re on babysitting duty tonight.” Keith says lightly as he strolls past Shiro in the hall, his hands piled high with baby bibs fresh from the dryer. Shiro’s been on babysitting duty the last three nights, which normally he’d cry foul to but Keith was also Ryou’s favorite night time caretaker (so what if Keith read a bunch of bullshit baby guru blogs? It’s not like they were written by actual babies, what would they know?).
Still, it’d be nice to spend some quality time with his baby rather than following Lance around as he stalked the Cuban countryside and beaches from sunset to sunrise.
So Shiro takes a shot at a possible negotiation.
“Says who?”
“Me, bitch. Now get to it.”
XxX
In hindsight, Shiro’s babysitting duty really wasn’t that hard. He knew Lance’s usual route (established it pretty well after waking up to the sight of him sneaking out their bedroom window one night). So it was just a matter of following him in the cruiser with his high beams on and crossing his fingers that no trouble making teens were out and messing around (lest they incur the wrath of a newly territorial omega dam).
Shiro can spot Lance jogging a few hundred feet ahead of his cruiser, dressed in all black like he was some kind of cat burglar. He stifles back a yawn and adjusts his grip on Ryou’s baby blanket in his hands. Shiro pushes the cruiser forward as Lance gets further into the distance and settles into his seat.
The dull hum of the audiobook narrator he downloaded last night comes on just as Lance reaches the peak horizon where the moon is beginning to rise.
‘Chapter Seven: Territory Marking. A vestigial behavior trait in about 23% of all omegas. Observed as mainly perimeter marking, an omega with suckling pups will often leave their nests (referenced in Chapter Three: Dens and Burrows) to clear an area of potential threats…’
XxX
Eventually Shiro manages to get Keith to tag in and finally gets to spend the night standing guard over Ryou (so Shiro doesn’t have to content himself with swiping and smelling Ryou’s baby blankets just to feel close to him, the guilt tipping point for Keith and something Shiro will definitely be using in the future).
Ryou’s bassinet is set up right between Lance and Keith’s shared bed and Shiro’s single one (because apparently Shiro ‘sleeps like a starfish’ and Lance would literally rather die than not be able to get an uninterrupted night of sleep- ironic given how he sleeps in the days now to charge up for his night of terrorizing the locals and wildlife)
Ryou is easy to put to bed once waking up in the middle of the night. He’s nothing like all the horror stories about babies and clumsy new parents he’d read about in the month leading up to his arrival.
A warm bottle and a rocking motion and he was out like a light. Any fussier and he usually settled down when anything with Lance’s scent was wrapped around him. Shiro and Keith had been trying for weeks to get Ryou to accept their scents, but so far he’d seemed dead set on Lance, crying out for him in the mornings when he’d come back from his patrols and covered in pheromone laden sweat.
Ryou is settled down for the night and Shiro has his audiobook set to the lowest possible volume out of fear of disturbing him. It’s late and Keith and Lance have been gone for several hours already, based on his mental map they should be finishing up with the beach coast and heading towards the woods that separated different properties.
As the narrator babbles on about omega fangs and their proper dental maintenance, Shiro peeks over the edge of his bed to spy down at Ryou.
He’s in a soft white onesies, fuzzy white socks, and little mittens so he doesn’t accidentally scratch his eyes while he sleeps. He’s grown softer and chubbier since he left the hospital, much to the excitement of Lance’s family when they stopped by for their weekly visit. Their approving chirps as they passed around a half-out of it Ryou was enough to have all three of their chests puffed up in pride for the rest of the day.
Shiro watches Ryou’s tiny breaths as he cradles a pillow to his chest, slotting his chin further over the edge.
A smile tugs at Shiro’s lips and with the sound of dry narration and the sight of his baby sleeping soundly, he closes his eyes.
XxX
Shiro and a still-sleepy-but-refuse-to-go-back-to-sleep Ryou are in the kitchen when Lance and Keith finally return.
Shiro can heard their distant bickering as they make their way up the driveway.
Ryou is cradled in his arms but suddenly starts fussing when Shiro hears the front door click open.
Lance immediately makes a beeline in his direction and Shiro offers up Ryou before Lance has a chance to ask. Keith follows behind at a more sedate pace, Cosmo right at his heels.
“I just don’t see why you have to go out every night, Cosmo would sense if there was anything approaching the house.”
“Hey!” Lance protested, pausing for a second to press his lips against Ryou’s forehead and cheeks. “I’ve been patrolling to make sure our baby is safe! And I’ve been working out to get back the slammin’ body you love fucking so much!”
Shiro begins tugging down mugs from the cabinet, his robotic arm floating across the kitchen for the red kettle Lance bought to replace Shiro’s electric one.
“What are you talking about?” Keith asked, brows furrowed as he stepped forward. “I love fucking you no matter what you look like.”
Lance smiled, his cheeks getting pulled up by the blushing apples of his face.
“You two are absolutely ridiculous I hope Ryou takes after me.” Shiro conks them both on the head as he passes by to get to the fridge and warm up some of Ryou’s milk.
“Unbelievable.”
Shiro hears Lance mutter.
“Left, right, I’m getting it from all sides today.”
“Yeah.” Keith says, as he slips into a barstool at the kitchen island. “And should you really be hoping for our son to get such an unfortunate fate? Huh, froggy?”
Shiro hears the smirk in his voice and immediately pouts, he knew he shouldn't have shown Keith any of his baby photos or told him about his childhood nickname. He swears the photography just made his cheeks look bigger than they were.
“Don’t be a jerk, Keith.” Lance immediately protests, sidling up to Shiro’s side to reach the packets of refrigerated milk. “Ryou is perfect just as he is! And we need to make sure he knows that because lemme tell ya as someone who grew up in Varadero, the nicknames people can come up with are brutal .”
“Really?” Keith asks, a tone of curiosity in his voice. “Like what?”
“Well in highschool everyone called me McCLAIM.”
“Wow.” Shiro can’t help but say, because it’s not as though Lance’s multiple claiming bites were a secret anymore, but he didn’t know there’d been a time before Lance had covered them up. “And none of your siblings said anything?” He couldn’t help but ask.
Lance shrugs, the motion jostling Shiro’s shoulder and getting a little sound out of Ryou.
“Ehh I was kinda slutty in highschool-”
“ Was? ” Keith asks. Lance perfectly ignores him.
“-and Marco was the one who came up with it.”
Ah. Shiro always knew Marco was the bad egg. Knew it from the moment he hogged the chicken salad at the family picnic.
“It’s alright though.” Lance continued. “I got him back by telling everyone he had a piss kink. Everyone called him pee-drinker for years.”
Shiro has no idea what to say but apparently he doesn’t have to because at that moment Ryou decides he’s waited long enough and lets out a little sob.
Lance immediately melts and begins making little cooing noises, laying soft kisses on his cheeks and filling the room with his dam identifying scent. Keith crowds as well, the night apart from Ryou having heightened his senses towards their baby.
Silently, Shiro watches them, inching around the kitchen for the hot water to make tea and heat up Ryou’s bottle.
Shiro moves around without difficulty, the three of them stitching together and moving like a practiced unit to calm their whimpering baby.
By the time Shiro gets to him, Ryou’s cries are mostly calm and Keith has him holding onto his pinky finger as Lance gently rocks him.
Shiro holds the bottle to Ryou’s mouth and the three of them watch, quietly, as Ryou slows and the furrow in his brow gently disappears.
XxX
If Shiro were to guess, he’d think that Ryou’s earliest memories would probably be of his parents bickering with each other as they changed his diaper together because if you weren’t the one doing it then you sure as shit were gunna be there for solidarity.
“But I just washed the dishes!” Keith pouted, as he gently powdered a drooling Ryou. “Now I have to wash my hands again ?”
“And you’re complaining?” Lance asked from where he was pulling a fresh diaper off the pile. “After all the work Shiro and I did to bring this beautiful angel into the world?”
“Work?! All Shiro did was masturbate to his ex-boyfriends into a cup!-”
Shiro feels his jaw fall open in offense from where he’s standing in the corner, the dirty-diaper trash can held in front of him like it was a basketball hoop. He gets this treatment? And after he just called out that Keith’s diaper shot was a three pointer? Because as a matter of fact, the clinic Shiro went to offered magazines and a computer for him to do his business. He’d finished to a porno of a beta topping the shit out of an alpha- it was so good he even showed it to Lance on the ride home.
“-I masturbate to you all the time!” Keith continued. “Where’s my congratulations?!”
As if to offer his own two cents, Ryou makes a little gurgle immediately followed by the sound of Keith sputtering, his hands forming a shield in front of his face.
“He’s peeing!” Keith yells, and Shiro can see the edge of a stream briefly over Keith’s shoulder when the other man briefly turns to look at them. “Lance! What do I do, he’s peeing! The blogs never said anything about this!”
Almost immediately, the balm of karma soothes Shiro’s heart.