Chapter Text
Lando was late to work because apparently nowadays your mate shaving his beard was a totally acceptable reason to have a breakdown. And who can blame him? Imagine falling asleep with your mate having a nice beard and then the next morning you wake up to that beautiful thing just gone. It was totally awful and terrifying and Daniel had to spend a good half an hour calming Lando down and feeding him his most recent craving – olives dipped in Nutella.
Personally, Daniel thought that it was the most disgusting combination he ever heard of, but he decided against commenting on it and just feeding the snack to his mate.
A little while later, Daniel stopped in front of Lando’s work and repeated the words that were a part of their day at this point, “Call me if anything happens, text me at least once every hour and don’t overwork yourself, please.”
Lando rolled his eyes and gave Daniel his have a nice day kiss, before finally getting out of the car.
Maybe the freshly shaved face is not that bad, it doesn’t scratch my face at all, Lando thought to himself, not ready to admit that out loud just yet. The beard looks nicer, anyways.
The day was the same as any other: Lando would serve some tables when it was the slower time of the day and if he felt like there were too many, he would quietly retreat into the office to work on the computer and nobody would question it.
“Table five requested you,” Seb smiled at him as he walked past Lando with empty dishes in his hands.
Lando looked up. Huh, did Daniel drag Max and Charles to have lunch here again just so he could see omega and make sure that he was okay?
When Lando walked out, a smile took over his face immediately when he saw Oscar and Carlos sitting at table five. They were finally back from their three-month honeymoon and Oscar’s face was painfully red.
“You didn’t tell me that you’re back already!” Lando squealed and stepped closer to hug a friend he hasn’t seen in ages.
“Wanted to do a surprise,” Oscar chuckled and stood up from his chair and pulled Lando into a hug.
What neither of them expected was for a loud growl that welcomed young alpha instead of a hug. Oscar quickly stepped back, his gaze flickering between omega and Carlos, as if waiting for either of them to say that he heard wrong.
“Shit, sorry, I–” Oscar started to apologise, but Lando interrupted him.
“No, I’m sorry,” omega said as he placed a hand on his chest where a growl had just escaped from. He explained, “I can’t really control it these days, especially around alphas.”
Oscar looked at him, now even more confused than he was just a second ago. “Did something bad happen?”
“Oh, no, no, it’s just– Oh fuck, I didnt tell you,” Lando slapped himself on the forehead. “I swear, I was planning on telling you, but then I thought that I wanted to tell you in person and not on the phone, and then it completely slipped out of my mind with all these changes and I can’t believe that I fucking forgot–” Lando started rambling.
“Lando, what's happening?” Oscar looked more lost with every single word that came out of Lando’s mouth.
Lando breathed in and said, "I'm pregnant.”
Oscar stared at him for a beat, and then, “Oh, cool.”
Carlos kicked the alpha in the shin before looking at Lando with a beaming smile.
“Congrats, this is such big news!” he said and was about to get up and hug Lando before he stopped himself and sat down on his chair again. “How long?”
Lando looked around, and after deciding that the restaurant was empty enough for him to take a break, sat down on the empty chair, ready to fill his friends in on what had happened over the past three months.
Eventually Lando had to get back to work, so they said their goodbyes and parted their ways: Carlos and Oscar went home and Lando went to serve some tables that were just seated.
Halfway through, Lando started feeling weird, though he couldn’t really pinpoint what was really wrong. Still, Yuki sent him home as a precaution, too concerned to ask Lando to work the rest of his shift.
Lando knew that Daniel was working on the newest murder case and didn’t want to bother him, so he just went home by himself, hoping that a walk through the park would help him to feel better.
Maybe there will be that waffle stand, omega thought to himself as distant, but fond memories flooded his brain.
Just like that, Lando found himself sitting on the bench, chewing on sweet dough, when his stomach did something strange again. He couldn't understand what it was exactly, but it didn’t feel like a regular stomach ache — this one was lower, right where his small baby bump was starting to appear.
“Daniel,” Lando breathed out when alpha answered, omega's voice cracking with panic, “Something is wrong. My belly, it feels strange,” he cried out, feeling tears well up in his eyes.
Daniel felt a chill run down his spine at the words, his blood turning cold at the clear fear in Lando’s voice.
“Lando, it's gonna be okay, don't panic. Tell me where you are, I will come and we will go to the hospital to check it out, okay?” alpha tried to keep his voice calm for the sake of his omega, even if he himself felt panic rising in his throat.
Daniel hurriedly collected his things from the desk and gestured to Charles that he needed to go now.
He couldn’t really tell how he got to the park, and he might need to pay a few speeding tickets and explain himself to Toto, but right now he gouldn’t give less of a fuck. His mate, his Lando, was stressed, alone and hurting. His belly was hurting, the same one which was so homely and soft these days, that was protecting their miracle baby.
Please be okay, both of you.
It didn't take long for Daniel to find Lando sitting near the waffle stand, rocking gently while his hands hugged his belly, trying to soothe and calm himself down.
“Lando,” Daniel felt like he could breathe easier, now that he was finally close to his mate. He sat down next to his mate and pulled him close, gently rubbing his back and burying his nose into Lando’s hair, breathing in milky berries which were now tinged with notes of wine. Alpha scented omega and gently placed fingers under his chin so that Lando would look at him. Daniel wiped away a bit of chocolate that had smeared on Lando’s lips and looked at his watery eyes. “Let's go, let's take you to the doctor.”
Apparently, being pregnant came together with some privileges, and once in urgent care, they were immediately directed to the doctors office.
“I see in the system that you're 22 weeks pregnant, right?” asked the doctor and glanced at Lando, who was plastered to Daniel’s side, still hugging his belly protectively.
Omega only managed to nod his head, so Daniel answered for him, “Yes, also it's been two weeks after our last check up and everything was good then.”
“Understood. Now let’s see what's going on,” older beta smiled warmly and gestured for Lando to lie down on the exam table as she turned on the ecoscope.
After sliding the probe over his lower belly and spreading the cold gel she stopped and smiled at the monitor, “I believe that the strange feeling you felt was your baby kicking you.”
Before Daniel could react, Lando cried out, "I'm such a bad dad, that even my baby kicked me.”
The silence in the room that followed Lando's words was suddenly cut off by the doctor's laughter. “No darling, your baby kicked you because you are doing a great job taking care of them.”
The couple visibly relaxed at that.
“So, everything’s okay?” asked Daniel, and lightly squeezed Lando's hand.
“Yes, everything is perfect. That was a kick, because you know, the baby is healthy and moving. Also, it was right about the time for you to start feeling it, didn't your doctor mention it?”
Lando felt his face heat up, because yes, now that he was thinking about it, his doctor did mention that the baby should start kicking about this time.
He buried his face in his hands, feeling so embarrassed, and mumbled, “Yes, they did say something like that.”
A couple of hours later, now back home and comfortably nestled in their nest, Lando was still marinating in his embarrassment while Daniel was practically glued to omega’s belly.
“C’mon, little one, just a little kick for me,” Daniel whispered and placed his head on the bump.
Lando chuckled. “You know the doctor said that at the beginning the kicks probably won't be strong enough for you to feel it, right?”
Daniel just waved him off, too concentrated on whispering encouraging words to Lando’s belly. Lando watched in amazement how happy and relaxed Daniel looked with his face glued to his now soft and slightly swollen belly, how alphas eyes were closed and smile stretched wide over his face as he waited to feel a move of their little miracle, even if he knew that he would have to wait for that.
But as weeks passed, previously weak kicks became stronger and stronger, sometimes strong enough to even wake Lando up from his sleep, and on a rainy Tuesday evening, when they were laying on the couch, Daniel’s head in its usual place on omega’s growing belly, it finally happened.
Lando felt a kick and Daniel’s head shot up.
“Did you feel that?” He asked, his gaze darting between Lando’s face and belly. “Was that a kick?”
Lando laughed in disbelief. “It was, and a strong one at that.”
A wide smile stretched over alpha’s face.
“C’mon, do it again,” he said as he gently placed his palm right where he felt the first kick. “Do it for daddy.”
As if on cue, there was another kick right in the same place, this time even stronger. Lando groaned at the feeling. It was starting to get really uncomfortable.
“Oh my God, they did it again. I felt the ki ki kick!” Daniel said loudly, his voice full of amazement as he sat up properly. “Ki ki ki, rah! Ey ey ey!”
Lando deadpanned at him. “I swear to God, Daniel, if I hear this shit again, you’re sleeping on the fucking floor.”
But, thank God, Daniel didn’t need to sleep on the fucking floor, because as annoyed as Lando was, he also needed Daniel near — or, preferably, touching — him at all times.
Part of that was because Lando was always kinda clingy, always preferring to stay close to his mate if he could. But now, as the baby bump steadily grew, his libido was growing too, forcing him to always be plastered to Daniel, demanding his attention every other minute.
There were no complaints about that from Daniel’s side, of course. He happily indulged Lando whenever he could — be it for a simple cuddling session, or for some more tiring activities. It felt like a fresh gulp of air after those three months of almost zero action in their bedroom.
So their devastation was totally understandable when, at the beginning of 7th month, the doctor told them that due to baby’s safety concerns, they should hold back on actual sex.
A couple days later Daniel was already home, lounging on the couch, when Lando came back from work and unceremoniously threw himself beside alpha.
“I’m so fucking tired,” omega whined and wiggled around to place his head on Daniel’s lap.
“You can take a leave, you know that, right? Yuki would be okay with that,” Daniel said as he dutifully tangled his fingers in Lando’s curls, coaxing a deep sigh and a quiet purr from his mate.
A comfortable silence fell over them, disturbed only by purrs and a TV show quietly still playing in the background.
Eventually Lando hummed and looked up at Daniel. “I don’t want to stop working yet,” he said and closed his eyes when Daniel gently pressed his fingers against his temples. “I enjoy working, but today was just very tiring.”
“Okay then,” alpha said and picked a throw pillow to put under Lando’s head so he could get up. Daniel pressed a wet kiss to Lando’s forehead “You rest while I make us dinner.”
He was about to step away, ready to go into the kitchen, when Lando’s hand suddenly gripped his thigh.
“Can we start from the dessert?” Lando asked, sounding almost innocent, but something in his voice made alpha stop and turn back to his omega.
“Dessert?”
Lando just looked at him and wiggled his eyebrows, his eyes glinting in that way that’s so familiar to Daniel that he didn’t even need to elaborate what he meant with that suggestion.
“And how would you like to have that dessert?” Daniel asked, already turned on from the words and from Lando’s hand, which was currently slowly travelling up his leg, slowly squeezing alpha’s toned leg.
“What do you mean how ? How do people usually have their dessert?” Lando asked and batted his lashes while his hand quickly untied the drawstring of Daniel’s sweatpants. Omega licked his lips, looking like the epitome of innocence when he was actually anything but. “I like my dessert in my mouth.”
It felt like air was punched out of him, making Daniel feel breathless.
Alpha cursed when his sweatpants were pushed down his thighs. “Are you sure?”
Lando was never too much into giving blowjobs, but this time he was salivating at the look in front of him. Omega looked at Daniel through his lashes, exaggerating the movement when he licked his lips.
That was all the confirmation that Daniel needed. He stepped closer to the couch and gently threaded his fingers through his mate’s dark curls. “Well then, enjoy your dessert,” he said with a smirk.
Daniel watched as Lando looked at his dick with shining eyes, as if it was his favorite popsicle. The sight was so mesmerizing, that Daniel had to pray that he wouldn't come in two minutes like a young, just-presented alpha after seeing a naked butt for the first time in his life.
Alpha almost gasped when Lando leaned in and put a wet kiss on the very tip of his dick, head already wet and red from how desperate it was for something . And then he actually whimpered when Lando smiled at him before immediately diving down and taking all of Daniel in one go and enveloping him in wet heat.
Against all his body wants, Daniel forced his hips back and tugged at Lando’s curls. “Don’t hurt yourself,” he said breathlessly.
Lando looked up and met his eyes and fuck. Omega looked almost insulted by his words, but that angry, yet lustful gaze, paired together with lashes fanning over his cheekbones and Daniel’s dick still heavy on his tongue, it almost made him come on the spot.
The picture in front of him was something pulled straight out of his wettest dreams.
Daniel relaxed his grip on Lando’s hair, leaving himself to Lando’s mercy.
Omega set a steady rhythm of sinking down until the tip of his nose brushed against the sparse hair at the base of Daniel’s dick, gagging a little when it hit the back of his throat, then pulling back and sucking on the tip before doing it all over again.
Daniel moaned with every move, his hips moving to the rhythm of Lando’s movements. His hand was still in omega’s hair, tugging at his mate’s curls and helping him move his head.
“ ‘M close, love,” he warned and squeezed his eyes shut, having to focus on not coming so fast, like a teenager.
But it seemed like the warning didn’t reach Lando’s ears. Omega didn't slow down even a little bit, too focused on the task at hand, bobbing his head in a steady but fast rhythm.
Daniel felt heat pool in his lower belly, hurtling towards the edge — fast and inevitable. He grabbed Lando’s hair and quickly yanked him back, not wanting to finish in his mouth without warning — watching as the ribbons of white painted omega’s cheeks and still open mouth, creating an obscene artwork in front of him.
“Fuck,” Daniel cursed and watched as Lando raised his fingers to his face, collected the come from his cheeks and licked it off his fingers while maintaining eye contack with the alpha.
“Dessert is supposed to go into my mouth, you know,” Lando cocked his eyebrow.
“Shit, sorry,” alpha breathed out, brain too foggy from his orgasm to think of anything smarter to say.
“It’s okay,” Lando hummed and licked the last of it from his lips. “I’m a bit of a messy eater.”
And yeah, if Daniel hadn’t just come, he would be coming again just from this alone.
He felt his legs shake, so he slowly let himself sink down onto the carpet. He looked up at Lando, who was looking back at him with a twinkle in his eye and a huge smile on his face, way too proud of how fast he made Daniel come.
“If the doctor hadn’t said to refrain from it…” Daniel said and turned his head to capture Lando’s lips in a gentle kiss, tasting himself on his mate’s tongue. “Right now you would be whimpering under me. Or on top of me, it wouldn’t matter to me.”
Lando pulled back and looked to the side. “I googled a bit,” he mumbled and blushed.
Alpha raised his eyebrow at that. Sucking Daniel’s dick didn’t make him blush, but this — whatever this is — did?
“What exactly did you google?” alpha couldn’t help but ask, too curious.
“Um, a thing that we can do… you know, without penetrating ,” Lando whispered and hid his face in his palms, too embarrassed to look his mate in the eyes.
“Care to share your research’s findings with the class?” Daniel asked and leaned closer to Lando, placing his head on omega’s lap. The smell of sweet slick tickled his nose pleasantly and he felt himself slowly getting hard again.
“There's this thing called sumata," Lando whispered even quieter, barely loud enough to be heard. "Since now my tights are a bit, you know, fuller, I think we could try it.”
“And what is this sumata about?" Daniel lightly teased him, wanting to hear Lando stutter and splutter while trying to explain the word to him. Truth was, Daniel already knew what it was, thanks to his own hormone-fueled research a couple days ago.
But Lando didn’t need to know that, obviously.
Daniel watched in amusement as Lando’s cheeks turned even deeper shade of red. It was hard to believe that a few minutes before, the same blushing omega sucked him dry without a second thought.
“Well, I’m supposed to keep my thighs squeezed tightly and you…” Lando trailed off, not sure how to explain it without dying of embarrassment. Yes, he had done a lot of things together with Daniel, but this, for some reason, was so embarrassing to explain. He looked alpha in the eyes. “And you’re supposed to… Umm, you know…”
“I know, love, I'm just teasing you,” Daniel eventually took pity on Lando, even if watching Lando struggle was really entertaining. Daniel stood up, feeling his knees crack, and picked Lando up in his hands. “I also know how to use Google. And now that I’m thinking about it, I really hope that Toto won’t check my search history for whatever reason.”
Lando laughed at that and lightly punched alpha on the shoulder, earning a soft bite on his ear. Daniel carried him to their bedroom and carefully lowered omega in their nest. He quickly took off Lando’s hoodie and looked at him hungrily. He looked divine – slightly swollen pecks, soft belly, sparse hairs of his happy trail disappearing below the waist of his joggers. He looked like the epitome of a dream.
“You look devine,” Daniel choked out and reached to remove the last piece of clothing hiding omega from his eyes.
Lando’s inner thighs were already glistening with slick, the scent punching Daniel straight into the nose now that there was nothing dampening the sweet scent. Alpha had to refrain himself from just sticking his face between wet thighs. Instead, he lowered his hand between them and brushed his fingers over, collecting slick in his palm.
“Squeeze your thighs for me,” he said in a low voice and licked his finger, humming at the taste before coating his dick in remaining slick to make the slide easier.
Lando immediately obeyed, bringing his thighs together and raising his legs.
Daniel stroked himself a few times before shuffling and positioning himself. He slowly slid in between omega’s thighs, groaning at the feeling. It wasn’t as tight as it would be if they were having actual sex, but the moan that escaped Lando’s lips when their dicks rubbed together made it worth it.
Daniel set a fast pace, helping Lando keep his legs together with his hands. With how pent-up both of them were with current doctor’s recommendations, it was no surprise when it didn’t take long at all for Lando to come with a loud whimper, his thighs shaking from the force of his orgasm. Daniel followed him soon enough, the sight of Lando, spent and messy enough to tip him over the edge with a groan.
They both silently watched as their mixed come slowly dripped over the side of Lando’s round belly. Only their breaths could be heard in the room as their eyes followed a drop that slowly rolled over the side of it and dripped on the bedsheets.
“ Hot ,” Daniel mumbled to himself before slowly letting omega’s feet down on the mattress and reaching for a box of tissues on the bedside table.
Daniel cleaned them up as much as he could without getting out of bed, throwing used tissues on the ground and getting comfortable in the nest. Lando snuggled up to him and fell asleep before Daniel could even cover them with a blanket, dinner completely forgotten in the post-orgasmic bliss.
Next morning Daniel woke up with a flinch to his blaring alarm, cursing silently while he looked for his phone and turned the alarm off before it could wake Lando up. The omega was plastered to Daniel’s side, still snoring quietly into the crook of alpha’s neck. Daniel stayed like that for a couple of minutes, drinking in his mate’s scent and sleepy warmth, fighting with himself to not give in to a voice in his head saying that no one would get hurt if he skipped one day of work.
Eventually he carefully extracted himself from Lando’s arms, feeling the need to crawl back into the nest and never leave again. It was like that every time he needed to leave Lando alone, but this time it felt a bit different – something pulled him back to his mate in a way that was impossibly hard to resist, that made him feel like something would happen if he let him out of his sight.
He let himself have ten more minutes, quietly kissing and scenting sleeping Lando everywhere he could reach before reluctantly peeling himself out of the nest and hurrying to leave for work.
Right around the lunch break Daniel heard his phone ringing on his table. He got up from Max's desk to check it, smiling when he saw Lando’s name on the screen.
“Morning sunshine, just woke up?” he answered, mood immediately better now that could hear his mate’s voice.
But his smile quickly fell when no usual witty remark followed his greeting.
Instead, “I promise– I didn't do anything,” and a sob greeted him on the other side of the line. “I woke up like this, I promise.”
“Lando?” Daniel asked, his mate's whimpering filling his ear. Daniel stood up straighter. “Lando, what happened?”
“There is blood, a lot of blood, Daniel,” Lando choked out. “I don't know what's happening.”
“Call an ambulance to my home, now,” Daniel instructed Max, who was already beside him with a worried look on his face, alerted by Daniel’s voice and a sudden change in his scent. “Lando, don’t panic, I'm with you and help is on the way. I will meet you at the hospital, okay?”
“Come home, please,” Lando begged, “I’m scared.”
Daniel cursed at himself, knowing that the ambulance would definitely arrive faster. "Lando, love, I’m too far, I won’t make it in time.”
“They will be there in seven minutes,” Max informed him. “I’ll drive you.”
In the next seven minutes Lando kept his phone pressed to his ear, listening to Daniel’s calming words while the doors slammed and steps echoed through the station hallways in the background.
When Lando heard sirens in the street, he let Daniel know that, “They are here.”
Soon enough, he heard the doorbell ring and forced himself out of the nest. He felt a squeeze of fear in his throat when he stood up and saw blood trickling down his naked legs.
He slowly walked to the door on shaky legs, too scared to care about being completely naked.
As soon as the door was open, a woman–paramedic–walked in and scanned Lando from head to toes, her gaze stopping by his bloody inner thighs and his hands protectively clutching his small belly.
“Oh darling…Let us help you.”
Lando didn’t even realise how–too disoriented by everything that was happening–but soon he was in the ambulance, swaddled in a warming blanket but still shivering. A monitor beside him was beeping in a too fast rhythm, betraying how fast his heart was beating. The paramedic was asking him way too many questions and giving way too little answers.
The only thing that he managed to catch when the woman radioed the hospitals was that they should get ready for an emergency C-section.
The next ten or so minutes passed by a blur, the hospital’s staff rushing around him as soon as he was wheeled out of the ambulance.
Lando didn’t know where they were taking him and what was happening, the only thing that he knew was that he wanted Daniel. No, he needed Daniel, his mate, the love of his life.
He was so damn scared that he didn’t know if he really heard Daniel calling his name before they wheeled him into the operating room, or if that was just his imagination.
But Daniel did call his name. He screamed it when he ran into the labour and delivery unit and was hit by the strongest scent of fear and blood that undoubtedly belonged to Lando.
He was frantically asking everyone he came by whether they knew where his mate was until a kind-looking nurse stopped him and explained that Lando was taken in for an emergency operation and will be out in about an hour. Then she sat him down on a chair in an empty corridor and promised to be back when there’s any news.
It's too early.
Lando.
He was so scared.
Daniel was spiraling into a full-blown panic attack when there was a hand on his shoulder and a familiar scent of Max.
“Hey,” he quietly said and gently took Daniel’s fingers from where they tightly gripped at his curls. “They’re gonna be okay, he’s strong.”
Daniel looked at his friend through tears in his eyes.
“Twenty nine weeks, Max,” he whispered. “It’s way too early. What if the baby doesn’t make it? What if Lando doesn’t make it?”
Max tugged Daniel into a tight hug. “Don’t think like this, it’s gonna be okay .”
“But what if–”
“No,” Max didn’t let Daniel finish that sentence. “Don’t go there. Be strong. For Lando.”
Daniel didn’t know how much time had passed, but he and Max were sitting on the chairs, still hugging tightly when the doctor came over to them.
He cleared his throat and looked at Max before his eyes settled on Daniel. “I assume you’re Daniel, right?”
Alpha sprang to his feet at the words and nodded his head.
“Lando is gonna be okay,” the doctor started. “The operation was tricky and he lost a lot of blood, but he’s stable now. He’s in the recovery room right now, still sleeping, so you will be able to visit when he’s awake, probably in a couple of hours.”
Daniel felt himself relax, but couldn’t help but notice how he didn’t even mention the baby.
“What about…?” he started, but was too scared to even finish the question.
Luckily, the doctor seemed to understand him anyway.“ The baby is in the NICU right now. He will need respiratory support and full monitoring, but it’s looking promising.”
Daniel’s legs almost gave out from how much relief washed over him. His mate will be okay. His baby will be okay too.
“Oh my God,” Daniel scrambled for anything to say, but came up empty.
“It’s okay, take your time,” the doctor gave him a small but genuine smile. “I will ask you to go see your son soon, he needs his parents' pheromones as soon as possible. A nurse will come and get you when we can let you in.”
Your son.
Then the doctor excused himself and disappeared, leaving him and Max to sit in silence, this time not as panicked as they were a couple of minutes ago.
“They are okay,” Daniel whispered more to himself than to anyone else.
Max hugged him from the side, squeezing his shoulder encouragingly. “The kid is already as stubborn as you two, of course he’s gonna be okay.”
It didn’t take long for a nurse to walk over and ask Daniel to come with her.
They stopped in front of a closed door and she looked at him. “He’s very small, smaller than you would expect” she warned him. “And he’s got a lot of tubes connected to him, so be ready for that.”
Daniel just nodded and swallowed thickly.
“I know that it’s scary, but it’s gonna be okay,” she looked at him with gentle kindness in her dark brown eyes. He absently thought that she reminded him of his mother.
When Daniel stepped into the room and sat down in the chair that the nurse pointed to him, he felt his throat close up again. In front of him, in an incubator, was his son.
My son . It still felt surreal to know that this was real.
But he was so small, like he could fit into Daniel’s palms. And his skin looked so fragile, almost translucent. He almost didn’t look real.
Daniel knew that babies of male omegas were always significantly smaller simply because of their anatomy, but seeing it in real life was different, especially when their baby was premature.
Daniel bit his wobbly lip, hoping to keep himself from crying, but the tears silently streamed down his face. Something in his chest felt so heavy that he found it hard to breathe. It killed him that he couldn’t touch the pup yet too, but he tried to calm himself down, remembering how the nurse explained to him that the baby needed calm pheromones, not the stressed ones that he was sure he was emitting now.
Alpha sat there in a small, bright room for a few hours, trying to think about beautiful things: Lando's smile, with that little gap between his teeth, his eyes, especially when he laughs too much and they start to tear up.
He heard babies crying in other rooms and wished to hear his son cry, but their room was filled only with the sound of Daniel's heart beating too fast and the quiet hum of the incubator.
Daniel jumped a bit in his seat when the nurse opened the door and informed that Lando was going to be awake any second now. After whispering I love you, stay strong to his son, alpha followed the nurse to one of the rooms. He felt a strong smell of wine as soon as the nurse opened the door in front of them.
Lando was still asleep, so Daniel just sat next to his bed and took his hand that was free of tubes and wires into his own. There was dried blood under his mate’s nails, and a dried tear on his cheek. His heart squeezed.
He sat quietly, listening to Lando’s even breathing, waiting for him to wake up.
“Where is the baby?” a quiet whisper reached Daniel’s ears and he whipped his head up.
“You're awake.”
“ Baby? ” Lando asked again, his eyes filling up with fresh tears.
“He is alive.”
“ He, ” Lando smiled weakly at that. ”How is he?”
Daniel thought back to all the wires and tubes that surrounded their son, how tiny and fragile he looked.
When Daniel was quiet for too long, Lando squeezed at his hand.
“Danny. Say something, please.”
“He is so small,” Daniel whispered and felt hot tears sprang to his eyes. “But he’s alive and they say that he’s gonna be okay.”