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It’s two months after they sleep with Jackson Wang that Hoseok starts to get sick. He’s throwing up in the morning, rough retching that wakes Yoongi up from a deep morning sleep. Four days in and they both know that it’s not food poisoning.Yoongi comes back from the corner store with a paper bag with a box of tests in it. Hoseok stares at it.“I’m not,” Hoseok says and then takes a deep breath. “I mean, what are the odds? First time I sleep with an alpha in years and he knocks me up?”“If he did,” Yoongi says, pulling the tests out of the bag and setting them down on the white porcelain of the counter, “then we should probably know now.”“Can you take one with me?” Hoseok asks, and he’s uncharacteristically nervous so Yoongi agrees. Technically they both slept with Jackson - a wild sort of birthday gift for Hoseok, who had drunkenly suggested that he wanted to maybe sleep with an Alpha if that would be okay with Yoongi, and he had wanted to see Yoongi get fucked too.It had been… nice? Jackson was a friend of a friend, someone that Hoseok kind of knew through the dance studio. He had been pleasant and non-territorial and had brought them a bottle of bourbon that hadn’t been completely awful, and they’d had a good time.Now though, Yoongi is looking down the barrel of the potential consequences, and he’s not sure how he feels about it. He still pees into a cup and then sets both his and Hoseok’s cups on the counter top. There’s something like a science experiment about it. Something a bit gross, if he’s totally honest.“This is some sitcom shit,” Hoseok says.“I’ve never had a pregnancy scare,” Yoongi says, and he knows that Hoseok knows but Hoseok nods.“It’s uh,” Hoseok says, trying not to stare at the cups or the tests, “It’s a right of passage, I guess.”“What do you,” Yoongi starts to say but before he can finish the sentence, the timer goes off on his phone. He silences it. Hoseok grabs his test and stares at it, and Yoongi tries not to read anything into his expression.“Oh,” Hoseok says, “I’m pregnant.”Yoongi reaches out his hand, grabs Hoseok’s knee to steady him. Then he looks back at the cups. Hoseok had grabbed the wrong one. That’s Yoongi’s test. Yoongi doesn’t think he can breathe. He doesn’t think he can do much of anything, except he has to know what the other test says.He reaches out his free hand and pulls the test free. It’s one of the fancier models - he had figured it was better to be safe than worried over whether he could read the mode and so it says in plain English: pregnant.“Yoongi?” Hoseok says and Yoongi realizes that at some point he’s slumped to the ground and he’s looking up at Hoseok, sitting on the closed toilet lid. He can’t bring himself to say it, so he just shows the test results.“Oh,” Hoseok says and he grabs the test, tossing them both into the sink and sliding down onto the floor with Yoongi.“Fucking fucker,” Yoongi says from the soft mat on the floor, “of course he was that fucking fertile.”“I think it’s virile,” Hoseok says, his face buried in Yoongi’s neck.“Does that make it better?” Yoongi says and Hoseok huffs half of a laugh.“Just more accurate.”They climb off the bathroom floor because they’re no longer in college and they’re both pregnant, shit, fuck, and then they climb into the stupid big conversation pit that Hoseok had insisted on when they had been renovating this apartment. It’s big and comfortable and right now all Yoongi wants to do is to nest with the love of his life on a plush sofa.Hoseok turns on a nature show, the volume all the way down and Yoongi curls into his chest and neither of them watch the tv or move.Hoseok is the first to speak because he’s always the one to take initiative. It’s why they’re together. Because Hoseok saw some scrawny producer who wanted to make a name for himself, and thought that Yoongi would not only amount to something, but be someone worth loving.“Do you wanna…” Hoseok asks, pauses. Licks his lips. “Do you wanna have an abortion?”“Just me?” Yoongi says.“Well,” Hoseok says, “I know we haven’t discussed it before or anything. Cause, y’know, we’re both omegas and it’s not like I can knock you up. But you’ve never really seemed that interested in carrying, before.”Yoongi thinks about it. It’s not an illogical thought. He hasn’t thought about having kids before. At least not carrying them. Yoongi has always known that while he’s bi, he’s interested in omegas 99% of the time. Getting pregnant without an Alpha means hormone therapy, it means fertility doctors and a litany of the small indelicacies of the healthcare system. Better to adopt, maybe. Foster some kids. Something else. It was all very far off.Until it wasn’t.“It’s okay,” Hoseok says, “I won’t judge you if you don’t want to go through with it.”“But you,” Yoongi says. “You want to do it?”“Carry?” Hoseok says, a hand reaching out and touching his own stomach. Reverent. “Have kids? I mean, yeah. I’m great with kids. I know that it wasn’t something that we could necessarily do, just the two of us. But now that it’s happening kind of by accident? I’m…” He thinks a bit. “I’m kind of happy about it? Is that fucked up?”“Two accidental pregnancies isn’t usually the cause for happiness,” Yoongi says and Hoseok laughs. It’s good to hear him laugh. Yoongi loves to hear Hoseok laugh.“But that’s for me,” Hoseok says. “I’m happy that I’m pregnant. But you don’t have to be happy that you are.”Yoongi thinks about it. Thinks about Hoseok getting round with pregnancy, the way that his body will shape and change. He tries to imagine it happening to himself and—he can’t really get there. But he thinks about the children they would have, about having a kid with Hoseok. Two, even. About those kids running around together. Growing up together.“I don’t know if I’m happy about it,” Yoongi says. “But I think…I think maybe I want to try?”
Park Jimin knows Jackson Wang. Of course he does. He throws the best parties, wild ragers in abandoned shipping container-filled warehouses and intimate hotel get-togethers. You’re lucky to get an invite and Jimin is exceptionally lucky. Wonderfully lucky.He’s nice enough. Certainly easy on the eyes. He wouldn’t kick the man out of bed.Three months later, he’ll be re-evaluating that thought, but right now they’re in the back of some second-rate club and he’s letting said Alpha rail him in a bathroom stall. It’s good, without question, and Jimin can appreciate the way that they’re basically the same height so he doesn’t have to get real acrobatic to stay on two feet, to properly brace himself.“Are you going to..” Jimin says, and he’s trying to catch his breath because honestly, Jackson Wang can fuck like a machine. “Are you going to knot me?”“Want me to?” Jackson says and Jimin can almost feel the smile. Accommodating. Fucking ideal Alpha, if Jimin was blind to the fact that the man cannot keep it in his pants.Jimin tries to do the mental calculus on his own fertility. He’s got like a month or two til his next heat. He’s probably fine. He’ll get a morning after pill just to play it safe in the morning, but he can let this hot man knot him in a bathroom stall. He’s young. What does Annie say? He needs to live a little.“Yeah,” Jimin says, and Jackson obliges.It’s good. Jackson helps him clean himself up and gives him a high five, which makes Jimin laugh, and they go back to dancing in the second-rate club.He drinks a bit too much that night, waking up hungover and racing out the door so he doesn’t miss his first class of the day. Sunrise yoga.He doesn’t take the pill.When his next heat doesn’t come, it’s a trip to the pharmacist to sort out what he already suspected.“Fucking Jackson Wang.”
“Come on,” Jackson wheedles and Namjoon sighs back into the pile of paperwork on his desk. “You never come out.”“I’m still recovering from that whole, like,” Namjoon waves his hand around and then remembers that Jackson can’t see him because this is over speaker phone, “flu cold virus thing. I was on antibiotics for like two weeks.”“Then you should be good!” Jackson says, “no one takes the last like four of those z-pack things anyway.”“I think that’s part of the problem,” Namjoon says and sighs. “What even is happening tonight?”“It’s very small. A listening party for a rapper. Friend of a friend. Low key, art ho vibes. Very you.”“I’m an art ho?” Namjoon says.“Yes!” Jackson says, and Namjoon can’t help but smile. “C’mon Namjoon, you know that I wouldn’t invite you to a thing that you wouldn't enjoy.”He’s right. For as long as Namjoon and Jackson have been friends, the man is a consummate host, and part of hosting is knowing what groups of people will mesh together.“Fine, fine,” Namjoon concedes, looking down at the papers he’s grading and sighs. “But I might have to call it an early night, I’m in the middle of grading.”“The papers will wait!” Jackson says, confident in his victory, “but your life won’t.”He doesn’t think much about hooking up with Jackson in the rapper-producer's guest bedroom; it’s certainly not the first time he’s hooked up with Jackson, the kind of easy sexuality that can exist between long term friends who happen to like sex, but not necessarily want to settle down with each other.Jackon’s a good lay. Namjoon likes being with someone who knows how to actually touch an omega, and how to do it without telling him all he’s good for is a knot. And besides, he’s on birth control.It’s not like it’s a danger he’s going to get pregnant.He tries to remember that, and to remember what Jackson had said that day on the phone. Your life won’t wait. Looking at the results from university health, confirming his pregnancy, it certainly doesn’t seem like they’ll wait.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” Jackson says as he bites down Jungkook’s throat, teasing and pleasant. Jungkook is pressed into the back seat of the car. It’s a nice car, though, and the seats are comfortable. He feels a bit squished, but honestly with as hot as Jackson is, he think he’d let him shove him into the back seat of a VW Beetle if it meant he kept using his teeth like that.“Pretty boy,” Jackson continues, his hand reaching under the waist band of Jungkook’s jeans and briefs in one go, touching him where he’s wet and open.Jungkook wonders if he should mention that this is his first time, that he’s never actually slept with anyone at all or done anything but heat-soothing with dildos and dilators in his room by himself—but he’s pretty sure that would ruin the mood, and he’s not ready to make Jackson stop. Jackson is hot, and here, and ready to fuck him, and Jungkook is ready to have sex.In the back of Jackson’s car, even. It’s a good car.“Can I do it without a condom?” Jackson asks and Jungkook doesn’t really stop to think about whether or not that’s a good idea, because it sounds hotter to tell him he can fuck him raw, and it does feel good to have Jackson slide inside of him.If he thought just fucking was nice, Jackson actually knotting him feels incredible. Warm and soothing, like a hug from the inside. Jungkook feels dopey with it.He doesn’t feel great when Jackson slides out of him post knotting, though he helps him clean up and offers to drive him home and tells him that he was great. He wants to be cool about it, wants to be cool about sleeping with someone and then not talking to them later. Cool and adult.He feels worse when he realizes that he’s pregnant.
Kim Seokjin stands with his back to the open patio, hoping the cool night breeze will give him some chance of ventilation. The party is miserable, and the host had been an awful older Omega woman with claw-like nails and horrific taste. She hadn’t liked anything he had put together and had been running his staff ragged all night.Normally at this point in the night he’s starting to pack up the catering van and he’s out, but instead he’s waiting here alone for last call, having sent most of his staff home. It’s late, and he knows that this host isn’t going to tip them for staying extra late.“Fuck her,” he thinks, and then someone else catches his attention. A fuckboy Alpha with coifed hair and startling cheekbones has snuck into the kitchen. Jin knows the type. Here to collect from the proverbial cookie jar. Jin is about to scold him off, but he turns to look at Jin and smiles and—damn. It’s a good smile.“Hey there,” the man says, “any chance you’ve got something I can snack on?” He looks Seokjin up and down, then gives him a long, slow look. “I mean, if you’re not available.”It is, objectively, a terrible line. But Jin is tired and he knows he looks like a sweaty mess and fuck, it kind of works on him.“Right,” Jin says and pulls out one of the serving trays. They’re small layered chocolate cakes. They hadn’t gone out because the host had decided as soon as they got there that chocolate was gauche. Luckily Jin had some meringues that could act as backup, but that also left him with an entire tray of chocolate cake.“Oh wow,” Jackson says, and Jin is happy that someone is suitably impressed. “Oh, these look incredible.” He grabs one and eats it whole, a look of bliss on his face. “I didn’t see these out there.”“The host didn’t want them,” Jin says.“Oh that’s so fucking stupid,” Jackson says, popping another one in his mouth. “These are incredible. Really would have elevated this party. It’s kind of a downer, to be honest. Bad music. Bad vibes. And not that the food is bad,” he points down at the cakes. “But this is obviously better.”“This party sucks,” Jin says.“Well of course it does, it’s not one of mine,” Jackson says and it should be obnoxious, but Jin is tired and stressed and he finds it, stupidly, charming.At least, that’s what he tells himself when he lets the Alpha fuck him in the back of the empty catering van. Jackson tastes like the chocolate cakes he’d been eating and fucks like he knows what he’s doing and has a knot that feels like stress relief. He even grabs Jin’s card, saying that he’ll book him for a later event, and then actually does.It’s not Jin’s worst hookup, not by far.He wants to fight the doctor at his physical when they ask him if he needs to have a pregnancy test. “I’m on birth control.”“Well if you’ve been sexually active, it’s always good to check. Never know!” she says cheerily, and Jin relents— only to be absolutely appalled when he finds out that he is, in fact, pregnant.“I’m on birth control,” Seokjin repeats, trying to keep his cool. “Did it fail or something? Are you going to tell me this is some true mates kind of thing, where the Alpha I slept with is somehow so compatible with me that he broke through my birth control?”The doctor squints, “Uh, no? That sounds like a drama plot. No, it’s more likely that, if you didn’t fail to take your birth control on time, something you ate or took messed with the efficacy of the birth control? Some antibiotics, activated charcoal. Anything that can stop the metabolization of birth control.”Seokjin remembers the black cupcakes he’d been taste testing and refining for weeks. Actívated charcoal, to get the perfect frosting. Right around the time he’d fucked that pretty Alpha fuckboy, Jackson. He’d been trying to find the right balance of charcoal to get the right color, without the taste.It hadn’t even been a good party.“Fuck.”
Taehyung sits in the doctor’s office, his suit folded perfectly in a pile on the sterile looking chair, wearing only a paper gown. The woman checking him in had been confused when he showed up, alone, to take a pregnancy test.“Your alpha?” she had asked, but Kim Taehyung didn’t have an Alpha. What he did have was a spreadsheet on his phone with a cross-referenced list of names and desirable traits. Athleticism. Charisma. Attractiveness. Intelligence. Height. He didn’t really need a specifically tall Alpha - for an Omega, Taehyung was a bit tall himself. The other traits were more important. And of all the names on the list, composite scored in each category by Taehyung himself, Jackson Wang knocked it out of the park.The sex had been fine. Good even, if he had been interested in that at all. But as a rule, Taehyung wasn’t interested in sex with Alphas.He was interested in what his ovulation app had determined was the precise time that he would be his most fertile. So on a Tuesday night, he had tracked Jackson down to a party he was throwing at some second-rate bar. Jackson had already slept with someone else that night, a pretty little Omega that he’d taken to the bathroom—and while it wasn’t necessarily ideal for Taehyung to be the second person he slept with that night, from a sperm count perspective, he figured his chances were still good.The medications he was on to superovluate would help.Which leads him to the OBGYN, sitting in a paper gown, waiting for his test results. He wonders what his baby is going to be. Boy? Girl? Alpha? Omega? Beta? He doesn’t have any preferences, not really, but he’s kind of hoping for a beta girl, with Jackson’s cheekbones and Taehyung’s smile.That, he thinks, would make this all worth it.The doctor who comes in is quick and officious, but the kind of friendliness you usually get in OBGYN omega care. She’s polite, confirms his pregnancy and asks if - since it’s been nine weeks since the likely conception, he’s ready to have an ultrasound.Even with all of his planning, he isn’t quite ready when she tells him that there isn’t just one heartbeat.“Twins?”
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Jimin tells Annie first, but mostly out of practicality. Jimin works at a yoga studio, a soft space largely dominated by Omegas of both genders, and Annie is his boss.“Did your doctor tell you when you have to quit working?” Annie asks.Jimin, who hasn’t even seen a doctor, gapes. The little perpetual water machine next to the register conks as it resets.“Well,” Annie continues, “unless something is wrong, you should be able to. Jieun did through her whole pregnancy, even though her Alpha got a little weird at the end and had to sit in the back of every class.” Annie looks at him, up and down. Calculating, “We don’t have to worry about a territorial Alpha, right?”There is no Alpha. Jimin is pretty confident Jackson Wang is the dad, but he hasn’t figured out where to even find the man. He shakes his head.“Perfect,” Annie nods, tapping through the iPad that is their schedule. “How do you feel about taking over the prenatal yoga classes? I think that would be like, real empathetic? Is that the word? People would love that.”And that’s how Jimin, without saying a word, comes to teach prenatal yoga.Hoseok doesn’t want to be envious of his partner, but at this moment, he absolutely is.Min Yoongi is a natural at being pregnant.Intellectually, Hoseok understands that anyone who is pregnant is natural at it. It’s not a competitive thing, and no one can be better at it. But objectively, Min Yoongi is fantastic at being pregnant. He actually seems to glow. His skin and hair seem softer. He isn’t showing yet, but he’s also not throwing up. He’s not nauseous every time he tries to brush his teeth. He doesn’t have Hoseok’s new least favorite thing, where all meat smells rotten. No, Yoongi just has—thicker hair. Better skin. A healthy, paternal glow. Eating a little more than usual.By any measure, Hoseok is not having a great pregnancy. His body hurts. He’s constantly sick, and having a hard time keeping weight. He’s so exhausted he has to find someone to take over his classes at the studio. He can’t seem to find the energy to do much more than lay in their conversation pit and mope.Yoongi is cooking him dinner when he brings it up.“Dae, one of the other Omegas at the studio, suggested we try prenatal yoga,” Yoongi says, carefully neutral. Hoseok doesn’t mean to be irritated at him for being healthy and beautiful and well. But puking and being hangry all the time is bringing out the worst in him. Yoongi brings him a bowl of rice and plain vegetables, one of the only things Hoseok seems to be able to keep down.“Why?”“He said he had a hard pregnancy,” Yoongi says, “and that he found it relaxing.”“Do you need relaxing?” Hoseok says, knowing the answer is no, knowing how grumpy he sounds. Like the rest of Yoongi’s perfect pregnancy, he’s also taken on the vaguely beatific air of a saint. Paternal, calm, unruffled by Hoseok’s childish, irritated mood swings. It suits him. Hoseok still feels bitter about it, and then bitter about how bitter he feels.Yoongi takes his hand - gentle pressure, kind - and says, “We’re in this together. You’re not doing a bad job, Hobah, this isn’t something you can be bad at.”The problem is that he is wrong, and Hoseok is doing a bad job at it. Yoongi watches bad dramas while he eats and, when Hobi throws up after, pets his head. Hoseok rests his head on the toilet.“Sure,” he says, dull and hoarse. “Anything to feel better,” and Yoongi schedules the classes.Namjoon feels like a stalker, but he clicks through Jackson’s Instagram page nonetheless. Tokyo. Chicago. Namjoon tilts the phone in confusion, but it really does look like Jackson just uploaded a pic from Azerbaijan.Is there any place the man isn’t?It’s not that Namjoon can’t reach out to Jackson. He absolutely can. But he feels like “hey, you’re a dad now” is the kind of thing that needs to be said in person. How many times will Jackson find out he’s a dad, after all?He flicks to another photo. Jackson on a yacht with—he squints—the Eurovision winner? Namjoon sighs and puts his phone down. He needs to get out of the house.Kim Seokjin is too practical to mope. At least that’s what he tells himself after a few days of a healthy stay in his nest, playing Maple Story, and only eating takeout.There’s a yoga studio next to the commercial kitchen he rents space in. It’s cute, all pinks and whites and a neon sign buried in faux flowers for people to take selfies in front of. Their website says that they offer prenatal yoga. Low impact. A sense of community. Seokjin isn’t sure if he’ll have a lot in common with the kind of people who do yoga, but then…he’s going to be one of the people doing yoga.He’s a new man. Pregnant. Two men. Sure. Whatever. Maybe he can be the kind of new man who does yoga.He orders a mat online because it’s cute, and if he’s doing this, he’s doing it right. He orders a matching set of pregnancy yoga pants and shirt, because he’s going to look great, even if he’s sweating.Jin takes the bus in, the same one he takes to get to work, and he’s early. So he dawdles. He doesn’t really want to talk to anyone at the class. Doesn’t want to have to answer the questions about his Alpha (non existent, fuckboy, one night stand) or whatever it is that pregnant Omegas talk about.He’s leaning against the wall, trying to shove keys into his crammed yoga bag, and can’t help but notice the other man outside of the studio. Omega, soft with curly dark hair, long around his ears, wearing dark, oversized clothes. Like he’s hiding something. His pregnancy? Hiding his pregnancy at a prenatal yoga class?Jin introduces himself and learns the younger Omega is Jungkook. Bunny smile. Cute. If Seokjin was in a position to romance anyone he’d certainly consider trying him. But a cute boy like this? No way he’s unmated. Except—he is.“Ah,” Jungkook says, blushing in a way that makes Jin want to throw something, “no, it’s just me.”Seokjin is going to kill a man.“It’s not,” Jungkook says, looking awkward, then fudges. “He doesn’t know. It was just a sort of one night thing, you know?”Seokjin does, in fact, know. He makes a decision, looping his arm around Jungkook, his yoga mat in the offhand. If Jungkook is here alone, then Seokjin is going to snap him up. “Come on Jungkook, you’re my yoga buddy now,” he says, and is rewarded by a too-large smile that makes Seokjin’s perfection instincts go haywire. He tightens his grip on Jungkook’s arm and returns with his best stock photo smile. “Let’s go learn some yoga!”The inside of the studio is just as cute in real life as it looked every time Seokjin saw it through the window. There's a Japanese water feature near the desk that clunks when it resets, and a woman with a heart shaped face behind the counter who checks them both in.“Oh you’re going to love Jimin,” she says, and points them to the studio's main room, large and warm, wooden floors and windows covered in a film to cast the whole space in a soft glow.They’re the first there, aside from a blonde Asian man in tight pants, his own stomach lightly bulging with the weight of carrying. He’s flawless—his blonde hair pulled up into a tight and tiny ponytail at the top of his head, his face bare and smooth. He smiles warmly at them, eyes crinkling to half moons, and Seokjin might be in love. If Jungkook’s gasp is anything to go by, the feeling is shared. Who could look at Jimin and not be in love?“Oh hello,” Jimin says, “Well, aren’t you beautiful?” Seokjin is immediately smitten; sweet with an undercurrent of sass? His ideal man. “Sorry, that was a bit inappropriate. But thank you so much for joining my class. Since you’re first, you get to pick out the best spot. It’s the one closest to me.”The room fills out with pregnant Omegas. A clearly bonded pair, a taller man with dimples and a shaved head, a sweet-looking younger man with curls like a poodle. The room is, overall, devastatingly attractive, which makes sense since Jin is also here.Jimin hands out mats to those who were not as prepared as Seokjin, and has them arrange them in a comfortable circle. No one does pack shit in the twenty-first century except for polycules in the hills, but this sort of behavior settles Jin. Makes him feel part of a group, a family. His own is far away, too busy to see him, and he needs the connection. It feels nice to sit in a circle and breathe with other people.He’s already happy he came out.This is definitely the hormones talking.“Before we get started, based on everyone’s intake forms, we’re actually all about at the same point in gestation,” Jimin says. “If everyone can commit to this time, we’ll plan to keep it just to everyone here today.” Jimin sits in a butterfly stretch that barely looks comfortable, but which he seems to find easy. He takes a deep breath and continues. “The way we structure prenatal yoga is to have focused exercises for our changing bodies as we go on this physical journey together. I’m excited to have a group of Omegas to go on this journey with,” he says, then smiles, eyes down, a little self-deprecating. “Especially since I’m a single Omega.”Seokjin is really starting to question the state of Alphas in this world. First, cute bunny-like Jungkook? Now this flexible sweetheart? All single?“I know that may not be the case for all of you. But Annie, our owner, has made a request that we don’t have any territorial Alphas in the studio, because it might be unsettling for our other guests. So please just let me know if that’ll be a problem.”The room is silent.“Oh, I don’t have an Alpha,” the poodle-haired one chimes in. He looks further along than the rest, but Jimin said that they’re all pretty much at the same point. Seokjin thinks there must be a lot about pregnancy he doesn’t know. “Just me!”“Same,” dimples says.Jimin laughs and continues introductions. It turns out that, aside from the bonded pair - Yoongi and Hoseok - they are all single Omegas. Seokjin marvels at the state of Alpha men.The yoga ends up being fine. Jimin is a good teacher, but even well dressed, Seokjin feels uncoordinated, and like his body isn’t his anymore. He’s naturally a bit bendy, so he’s got that going for him.And Jungkook keeps staring at him like he’s the most beautiful man in the world.If, after yoga, he takes the younger man out for lamb skewers, and then takes him home and eats him out on his couch til he cries, that is the best possible ending to the day.Seokjin supposes there is nothing wrong with a regular, weekly standing appointment to flex in a room of extremely attractive, mostly available men.It’s a few weeks of yoga before Namjoon manages to make the connection. By accident. They’ve finished for the day, though Taehyung hasn’t shifted out of child’s pose and Hoseok is starfished on the floor. Last week when they’d gone to a record store together, Yoongi had told Namjoon that the pregnancy was hitting Hoseok harder and he’d been sicker than he let on.Taehyung is talking about his latest appointment, his head tilted to the side so he isn’t simply speaking to the floor.“The nurses at the office are polite, but I think what happened makes them uncomfortable.”“What do you mean?” Jimin asks, standing nearby with a bottle of water. Namjoon thinks a man should not look that attractive sweaty, but he’s powerless to Jimin, nature and reality.“I wanted to get pregnant,” Taehyung says, “and it’s not like I’m baby trapping some Alpha. I didn’t even tell Jackson that he got me pregnant ““Jackson?” Hoseok says, sitting up from the floor.“Yeah, the Alpha I slept with. I put together a spreadsheet, did some comparative analysis. I wanted the best possible kid, and Jackson Wang was objectively the best Alpha for the job.”The sound Namjoon makes is a first for him. The room is otherwise silent. Jackson Wang. That has to be a coincidence. Yoongi comes back into the room from the bathroom. He stands there, hands on his hips.“The energy in here is really weird,” Yoongi says. “What’s going on?”Jungkook seems extra quiet, but he’s the one who speaks first. “Taehyung was just telling us that his Alpha…”“Not my Alpha,” Taehyung says, oblivious. “I don’t even like Alphas. Jimin is more my type.”Jimin makes his own sound there, but Namjoon is distracted. How many Jackson Wang’s could there be?“His…sperm donor…” Jungkook continues, diplomatically, “is Jackson Wang.”“What the fuck?” Yoongi says.“Which…” Jungkook continues, “which is weird… because so is mine.”“Your what, bunny?” Seokjin says.“He’s the one who knocked me up.” Jungkook says. “At a party. Well, in the backseat of his car. He throws a lot of parties. Kind of his thing.”“Oh,” Seokjin says. Namjoon’s chest is doing something funny. He makes a sound that could best be described as an agonal wheeze. Seokjin continues, voice trying really hard to be cheerful: “Well, me too probably. I didn’t catch his last name, but honestly… how many party-throwing-fuckboys named Jackson are there in this town?”“What the fuck?” Yoongi says.“Who here,” Jimin says, “was bred by an Alpha named Jackson Wang? Show of hands?”Everyone raises their hands.Namjoon thinks about the Instagram feed, of Jackson overseas. Of the room of single, pregnant Omegas, all carrying his children.Fucking Jackson Wang.
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Yoongi doesn’t really know how he ended up on his own couch, in his own apartment, with his guitar, letting Kim Seokjin show him how to play. Yoongi is a professional musician. But Yoongi isn’t good at flirting and when a beautiful man offers to play guitar for him, he isn’t going to say no.“Right,” Jin moves his hands down the neck of Yoongi’s guitar, “this is a chord.” He strums along the strings. “I feel like you would be so good at the guitar, you’ve definitely got the hands for it.”“I think that’s more of a thing with pianos,” Yoongi says, which is both a lie and the truth. He doesn’t look at Hoseok, who is on the couch nearby. Doesn’t want to break the spell of Seokjin’s entire attention.“I can’t believe you have a guitar and don’t know how to play it,” Seokjin says, his fingers long and steady. He’s an absolutely stunning Omega, modelesque. Yoongi has a thing for Omega’s taller than him, and he tries his best not to drool.There’s a small swell to his stomach that changes the way he holds his guitar, and he thinks it helps sell the illusion that he doesn’t know how to play the guitar.“Well, you know,” Yoongi says, “I’ve been really busy.” Yoongi pretends he doesn’t hear the aborted laugh coming from Hoseok, who is pretending very hard to look at something on his phone. Jin hums and shows him a few more hand positions, most of them correct, before he pulls back.“Fuck,” Jin says, standing up, “I have to go to the bathroom. Anyone else have to pee like, all the time?”“I think that’s normal, hyung,” Hoseok says. He doesn’t have to point out where the restroom is, at this point, Seokjin just knows. He’s been coming over a lot more recently, especially as they try to triangulate Jackson’s actual location. Triangulate like they’re actual spies and Jackson is somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle and not on a party bus somewhere outside of Miami with his phone turned to silent, not answering Namjoon’s text messages.He lets the silence spread between himself and Hoseok. They’re used to silence, even though this one feels a bit loaded. He hears a door further in the apartment, the hall bathroom, close. Yoongi doesn’t need to look up to know what Hoseok’s face is doing. He’s definitely looking incredibly smug.“You don’t know how to play guitar?” Hoseok teases, “Oh Yoonie…”“Don’t.”“It’s so fascinating watching you flirt,” there’s a smile in Hoseok’s voice. It’s nice. “You don’t know how to play guitar? Yoongi, you have an entire album of guitar tracks. Tower Records called it the best instrumental album of 2020.”“Well,” Yoongi says, looking down at the guitar in his hands, “I mean everyone has a slightly different technique.”“Yeah,” Hoseok says, “I’m sure that’s what’s going on.”Thankfully Yoongi is saved by a knock at the door. He jerks up, waddling towards the door so fast his socks skid on the hardwood. It’s Namjoon, breathless and a little disheveled and also stupidly hot. Damn, Jackson Wang had good taste.Yoongi leads him back to the nest-like living room, where Hoseok remains perfectly lounged. Seokjin joins them again, looking surprised at Namjoon, “Oh, Namjoon! I didn’t know you were joining us. I was just teaching Yoongi how to play the guitar.”Namjoon looks over at Yoongi and raises an eyebrow, which Yoongi pointedly ignores. Kim Seokjin might be slightly unaware of who Min Yoongi is, but Namjoon is not. Namjoon and Yoongi have gone to the record store together, have talked about music into the small hours of the morning. But even then, even without hanging out, Namjoon had recognized the producer nearly on sight.He knows that Yoongi knows how to play the guitar. Yoongi needs to shift the conversation topic quick.“Joon, not that you need a reason,” Yoongi says, “But why did you stop by?”Namjoon smiles, and fuck, dimples. Yoongi needs to get past the part of pregnancy that apparently makes him freakishly horny for every Omega man he sees. Probably. He stares more at Namjoon’s smile. Definitely.“I found Jackson. He’ll be back in Seoul tomorrow, and I’ve set up a meeting with him.” Namjoon says.“Really,” Hoseok says from the couch, sitting up and cradling his stomach. He’s been sick this week - the obstetrician says that it’s something called hyperemesis. Yoongi has been making sure he takes a pile of medicine regularly (b6 & unison & phenergan & reglan & Benadryl every 6 hours and if none of this works then they’ll start with the steroids—Yoongi had tried to keep notes but it was so much) but he still doesn’t feel great and it makes Yoongi’s horny inklings worse.“Yeah,” Namjoon says, “I didn’t tell him why I wanted to see him. I think Jimin wants to spring it on him? All at once?”“And what Park Jimin wants, he gets,” Seokjin says, sliding down on the couch next to Hoseok.“What, are you going to tell him no?” Hoseok says. Seokjin reaches over and grabs Hoseok’s ankle, stroking along the bone there.“I’m not interested in telling beautiful Omega’s ‘no,’ obviously,” Seokjin says.“I was wondering,” Namjoon says, “If we could confront him, I don’t know, here?”Yoongi looks around his comfortable living room. His nest. His den. He wonders about how comfortable he’d be letting Jackson Wang back here. But he gets anxious when Hoseok gets too far from home, too far from safety, and he doesn’t really want to have this conversation in a public park or a hot pot restaurant or the back of a club. “Yeah, Joon, we can have it here.”Seokjin hadn’t really thought about seeing Jackson Wang again. Honestly, after he had gotten knocked up, he hadn’t factored the Alpha much into his plans. Jackson Wang was a decent (excellent) fuck, but he didn’t strike him as father goals and Seokjin was comfortable enough on his own. But it had seemed important to Jimin and to Jungkook and Seokjin was nothing if not incredibly permissive to beautiful Omegas.The Omega’s had all been sitting in Hoseok and Yoongi’s conversation-pit-living-room for at least an hour when the Alpha showed up. Seokjin hadn’t necessarily been nervous, but he had prepared canapés. For the ambiance.Namjoon had offered to play the saxophone, a thoughtful diversion, but then there had been a knock on the door.Jackson Wang was here.Namjoon answers the door and Jackson greets him with a hug. It’s a surprise, but Jin had forgotten just how small the other man is. He’s just as attractive as Jin remembered though. Damn maybe Taehyung had the right thought - Jackson Wang is the kind of Alpha whose genres were perfect for kids.His expression doesn’t even falter when he looks at the people in the room. He looks confused, of course. This isn’t necessarily the party that Namjoon had used as bait to get him here. But he looks at each Omege in the face, and it’s clear that there’s some thought behind his eyes. Oh good, Seokjin thinks, at least the father of my child isn’t an idiot.“I think he’s put it together, Joon,” Yoongi says from the couch, leaning heavily against his partner.“Oh,” Jackson says, “Oh is this like a sex intervention thing? Because I’ve slept with all of you?” He looks back at Namjoon, “I know I fuck around, but man, I’m good. I can stop anytime.”“No, Jackson.” Namjoon ushers him forward, “this is not a sex intervention.”“Oh, was I…” Jackson doesn’t try to say this quietly, the cat is already out of the bag, “Did you all not necessarily know that I had slept with you all?”“Do you even remember my name?” Jin asks. He does not know exactly how to handle this much fuckboy behavior. A sex intervention? How many people do you have to sleep with for there to be both a) a party of people who would attend and b) an actual, staged intervention. To be fair, he does know that in roughly a calendar month Jackson Wang had slept with seven distinct Omega’s, so maybe he does need a sex intervention.“Of course, Seokjin” Jackson says, “I remember everyone’s name I’ve slept with. And also you made those killer chocolate cakes that were so good I had to have them at that party for my sister in law.”Jin feels a little bit chastened. Those were good cupcakes. Besides, it’s not exactly like Jackson intended to knock him up. He wonders if the hormones are making him go a bit wonky, and eats a canape. Jackson and Namjoon sit on opposite couches, Yoongi and Hoseok behind Namjoon. It looks cozy.“We are here for a reason,” Namjoon says, because he’s good like that. Leading a discussion. He would be such a good leader.“Right,” Jackson says. “Which is?”“Jackson Wang, you’re about to be a father,” Namjoon says, in a rush so fast it’s almost one word. Jackson doesn’t make him repeat it. He grins broadly.“Really?” He doesn’t go in to touch Namjoon, just grins broad and bright. “Oh Namjoon, wow. That is…wow. That is so cool. I mean, I don’t think I ever really intended to be a dad but…”“Me too,” Hoseok says from behind Namjoon and Jackson quirks his head.“You too?”“I’m pregnant too. It’s yours.” Hoseok says, “Fuck it’s weird to say that still.”“I mean it feels weirder to me. I’m barely even attracted to Alphas,” Yoongi says, holding Hoseok across the shoulders. They look comfortable. Jin wishes he could climb into a cuddle with them. Maybe after.“Wait,” Jackson says, “All of you? You’re all pregnant by me?” Jackson pauses, “Are you sure it’s me?”“Are you, what, slut shaming us?” Jimin says.“No,” Jackson says, shrugging, “If anything I’m the slut here. It’s not like y’all had sex with each other.” Seokjin pointedly does not look at Jungkook, but Jackson seems to be pick up on that, and smiles. It is somehow, remarkably, not greasy. Jackson Wang has a gift, “Oh, sick. I mean, you can also obviously fuck each other.”Seokjin wonders, not for the first time, how he left this man fucking knot him in the back of a catering van.“Thank you,” Jimin says, drily, “for the permission.”“Oh wow I’m really fucking this up, aren’t I?” He looks around at each of the seven Omega’s he’s already impregnated, “that is probably not the right choice of words.”“You are being a bit…indelicate,” Namjoon confirms. It’s easy to see that Namjoon and Jackson were at least friendly with each other before this. Jin can see that in the way that Namjoon is a bit more careful with Jackson’s feelings.“You all seem kind of mad,” Jackson says. “Like, if you weren’t mad I feel like you would’ve just…I don’t know. Reached out to me over Instagram. This feels kind of like a confrontation?”“I’m not mad,” Jin says, because he isn’t. He didn’t really expect anything from Jackson, so he isn’t surprised that the man he let fuck him in the back of a catering van (he really needs a better thing to tell his child when they’re born) is not the most delicate of creatures.“I think…” Jungkook says, and it’s quiet. Measured. He hasn’t spoken really at all the entire time that they’d been at Yoongi and Hoseok’s. “I mean, I’m not mad? Mad seems the wrong word. But I think I wanted you to know? But I didn’t know how to tell you. Because it was my first time…”“I think we’re all first time carriers, bun,” Jin says, trying to gentle the conversation.“No, like my first time having sex,” Jungkook says and the whole room holds its breath. Now, Seokjin thinks, he’s mad.“Oh,” Jackson says, and he looks really concerned and focused, all of his attention on Jungkook, “Oh, man I did not know that. You didn’t say anything?”“I thought you would have stopped?” Jungkook says.“Yeah, I mean, probably,” Jackson agrees. “Not ‘cause you’re not great, c’mon, Jungkook you’re fantastic.” Jungkook smiles, a bit watery, “But because I didn’t know, that means I didn’t handle you with more care? Like I just kind of zipped up and walked out.”“It was in a car,” Jin says, drily, “You seem to have a real penchant for vehicular coitus.”“Vehicular coitus?” Yoongi says and Jin glares at him. He’s still a little mad.“I’m not one of those sex is sacred guys,” obviously “but like, I would have done things differently if I’d known that it was your first time. We definitely would have worn condoms.”“Do you ever use a condom,” Yoongi asks.“Sure, if my partner wants one.” Jackson continues, “but like, I’m sorry your first time was like that.” He says that to Jungkook. It helps sooth Jin that he actually seems sincere.“The sex was good,” Jungkook says and Jackson smiles.“Well that’s good at least,” Jackson says, “But I wish I had known so that I could have made it better.”Somehow, Seokjin thinks that this is going to work out.Later, after Jackson leaves - having put everyone’s numbers in his phones and giving Yoongi the name of his attorney (because Jackson has an attorney) - they all settle into a more comfortable pile on the couches. The fireplace is going and outside the city is dark and still.Namjoon doesn’t know what to make of this. Of any of this. Six months ago he was just working on his own thing, and now he’s not only pregnant by a friend who he has no romantic inclinations for, but he’s somehow acquired seven…partners? He doesn’t know what to call them. He doesn’t know what to make of any of this. Has he somehow fallen into a harem?His therapist would say that he’s hung up on the details, but he hasn’t talked to her in over two weeks and he didn’t know what to say after “I met my artistic crush and his hot boyfriend and they both kissed me on their expensive terrace” and “i’m trying to track down the father of my child because he is overseas throwing parties for a living.” It sounded too messy to describe.“It’s kind of like cats,” Jungkook says, from where he’s nestled under the large heft of Taehyung’s alarming belly. Taehyung had gotten pregnant a little bit after the rest of them, according to his exhaustive spreadsheet, but carrying twins made him look much further along.“What, bun?” Seokjin asks from where he’s nestled alongside Namjoon, his hand loose on his own growing stomach.“Like, cats raise their young together. The whole colony comes together to raise the same kittens,” Jungkook says.“Am I having kittens?” Taehyung says, drowsy.“Just,” Jungkook says, “I think it might make sense if we all did this together. I mean, I think we know that Jackson is nice enough,” Seokjin makes an abrupt sound but doesn’t interrupt, “but I don’t really think he’s going to be a stable presence.”Namjoon, knowing Jackson, doesn’t disagree. Jackson is nice - he’s got a good spirit and a good heart - but he’s not really the family type. Not yet maybe. In another ten years, he might settle down with some Omega and stay tethered but honestly, Namjoon doesn’t even see that. The idea that he would be a positive influence for all of their children? Sure. But more in a Fun Uncle way than as a steady, paternal influence.“Like, Yoongi would be a better dad. He has dad vibes,” Jungkook says. “You can be my kids dad, hyung.”“That,” Yoongi says, “is the weirdest way that someone has asked me to join a polycule.”“But not the first time?” Jimin says, on the opposite side of Taehyung’s heft.“We don’t have to sleep together,” Jungkook says, like Jimin hadn’t interrupted him.“Not all polycules fuck,” Hoseok says, nodding from where he’s pressed into Yoongi’s side. Complacent. It seems like whatever the OBGYN has Hoseok on, it’s helping. His color seems better than the last time that Namjoon had come over.“But I think I’d like to,” Jungkook says.“Aw,” Seokjin says, “my little former virgin.”“Wait, are we joking about that just yet?” Jimin says, and Jungkook shrugs. Unbothered. “Honestly though, I still have other questions about these polycule invitations that hyung has been turning down.”“Who says I turned them down?” Yoongi says.“It’s not a bad idea, bun,” Seokjin says. “I mean, I think I have better dad jokes than Yoongi,” Yoongi snorts at that, “But I think. I mean. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I would raise children with all of you.”“I’m already going to be a parent,” Yoongi says, “twice over, really. What’s, I don’t know. Another six more?”“Good math,” Taehyung says, patting Jungkook's hip as he tries to settle around both his own stomach and with Jungkook as the little spoon, “glad pregnancy brain hasn’t killed that for you.”“Is that even a thing?’ Jungkook says.“I don’t know,” Taehyung says, “I was never that good at math.”Namjoon likes the sound of it. Likes the idea of coming to a home (nondescript in his mind, but full of sound and life and color) to a group of people who care about each other, to a cuddle pile of children and the smell of food. The true ideal of a home. The kind of thing he’d figured he would never have, had written poems about how he could yearn for a settled down future even if it was never going to be a reality for him.It could be the future for him. They’re offering that future to him now, casually. He wants it so much.It’s terrifying. He let’s Seokjin pull him back in. Damn. He really needs to go back to therapy.
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Yoongi loves being pregnant.He was low-key discomfited by this fact. After all, he hadn’t wanted to be pregnant. As a queer Omega, he had always assumed it wasn’t an option. When it happened he had taken the chance, right, but it wasn’t something that he had signed up for.Worse still is the way that the whole process is actively hell for Hoseok. Constantly nauseous. He feels gross and bloated. He tells Yoongi about it, because they’re good partners and Yoongi listens and he feels a little bit bad. Because none of this is Yoongi’s experience with being pregnant. His skin feels clearer. His hair thicker and more luxurious. He has the occasional odd craving - deeply spicy food and the smell of gasoline - but nothing he couldn’t accomplish. He even has a ready excuse to simply not do something, to stay comfortable and warm in his and Hoseok’s nest.He feels, maybe not sexier, but definitely more powerful. Strong. He has never bought into the sacred bearer shit, and he still doesn’t. But there is….something…to carrying a life inside of himself.He is also unbelievably horny.With Hoseok as sick as he is, this is the part that he hates the most. It makes him feel like a bad partner, to have a gorgeous, sick mate who he loves desperately, but also having a kind of hard time not wanting to ride his dick into oblivion.He isn’t an idiot. Hormonal, sure. Emotional, absolutely. But he does the correct thing: he talks to Hoseok.“You’re worried that you’re horny?” Hoseok says, pale and a little too thin. They’re in the conversation pit and he has a large jug of water on his hip, one of the main things he’s able to keep down without effort. He smiles, a bit weakly, “That honestly might be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”“Yah,” Yoongi says, “I’m being a good partner.”“I mean, yeah, I guess. But just cause being pregnant is making me feel like…insanely out of control of my own body. And sick. And just….impossibly gross,” Hoseok shrugs, “like it doesn’t mean that I want you to feel like that.”“I…didn’t.” He did. He does.“If you wanna top Namjoon,” Hoseok says, “I don’t see why not.”“Yah, who said anything about Namjoon?”“We both made out with him last time he was over,” Hoseok says, “But honestly it was even odds between him and Seokjin. You like a broad man.”“I like you.”“You love me. But right now if we had sex I think I would cry,” Hoseok says, “or vomit. No. Then vomit.” He unwraps a ginger candy and sucks on it.“You wouldn’t feel,” Yoongi thinks, “Abandoned?”“Nope,” Hoseok says, “Honestly, after this pregnancy is over, I would absolutely love to try them both out. All of them, honestly.”“We really are going to become one of those cat colonies that Jungkook was talking about.”“It’s called a clowder,” Yoongi stares at him, knowing he looks disbelieving, “No, really, I looked it up.”“I’m not calling it that.”“You don’t have to,’ Hoseok laughs, and Yoongi loves it. Loves him. “Yoongi. Darling. Love of my life. Go fuck someone.”“Not Jackson Wang.”“I honestly don’t think any of us will be doing that again.”—--Yoongi sleeps with Namjoon, who seems incredibly surprised by the whole thing, and is sweet and just the right kind of big–shouldered for Yoongi to have him bent over the couch and sobbing on his strap.Then he sleeps with Seokjin, who has a delightful mouth and invites him to join him and Jungkook sometime. Apparently the college student had moved in with Seokjin, and for a recent virgin, he’s apparently been a quick study.“He won’t mind me telling you this,” Seokjin says, still damp with sweat. “But he’s an absolutely phenomenal lay. Apparently he does some personal training? And the pregnancy has ratcheted up his libido so much.”Yoongi says he’l think about it. But first he sleeps with Namjoon again. Then Jimin.It’s still fantastic.Yoongi loves being pregnant.—Jimin leads the class into cool down.Annie tells him that he’s glowing but he’s honestly not sure. Any more he just feels swollen, large. He isn’t opposed to his pregnancy - no matter how poorly his parents took the whole “yes I know who the Alpha is, no we’re not dating” thing - but at 7 months he feels every single extra inconvenience to his life.He could use a drink. He doesn’t. But as soon as he can, he’s getting drunk enough to laugh at the reality TV that Taehyung has been insisting they watch together.Right now he’s so emotional that every single time one of the incredibly manufactured couples break up or fight he tears up. Kurt and Youngjae getting into their fourteenth argument of the season should not cause him to tear up more than his omega father telling him that he didn’t raise a whore.Taehyung says its something to do with hormones and cycles and whatever but Jimin just wants the whole thing to be over and for him to have an actual child in his arms instead of a large stomach and aching ankles.He grabs chicken on the way home, because Taehyung keeps insisting that lean protein is good for pregnancy. There’s no way this much grease is good for him, but he can’t handle the high salt in corner store ramyeon since the second trimester. He’s further along than Taehyung (about three weeks, according to Taehyung’s intensely kept calendars) but still smaller. More mobile.He juggles the bag of chicken and the jangling keys and lets himself into the apartment. Taehyung - and even this far into their relationship, Jimin doesn’t know what Taehyung does for a living - calls for him from the living room and they dive inelegantly into the chicken and some acidic beet juice that Taehyung is currently obsessed with and which Jimin puts up with because he’ll taste it from his lips anyway.“So what do you think about Seokjin,” Taehyung asks, sitting on the edge of the couch in what Jimin now thinks of as their living room. Jimin hasn’t quite let his lease lapse, but he’s positive that the plant Namjoon had optimistically given him months ago is now dead in his windowsill at home.“Like, terrifying and in charge,” Jimin says.“But you’d definitely let him top you?” Taehyung says, nodding. Jimin isn’t sure that’s exactly where he was going, but agrees. Jimin is equal opportunity on secondary genders, but when he does end up with Omega’s they’re usually (not always) broader and larger than him. Taehyung fits that bill, even pregnancy soft, and so does Seokjin.“I know pregnancy is supposed to be like, great for your hair and nails,” Taehyung sighs, “But it’s unfair how great it looks on him.”Jimin can’t be annoyed that Taehyung wants to fuck Seokjin. He does too.“Taehyung,” he asks, “What do you even do for a living?”Taehyung laughs, holding up his bare feet into the air: “Feet pics.”Jimin laughs and finds he doesn’t even care if it is the truth.—-Jackson Wang offers to throw them a party.First he offers, and basically everyone turns him down. Taehyung doesn’t know why he’s the one who has to convince everyone to have the joint baby shower. But when he tries at something, generally speaking Taehyung succeeds at it.After all, he’s pregnant. By the time of the shower, they’re all immensely pregnant.Yoongi doesn’t seem interested and Hoseok isn’t doing great physically, but he gets the two of them to agree to something small. Low key. Jimin says his family isn’t exactly excited about the whole situation, but he’s game if Taehyung wants it and Taehyung does not consider that maybe asking while he was in the middle of fucking Jimin to be underhanded. Seokjin and Jungkook come as a package pair. Namjoon’s parents apparently have been asking him for it for awhile, so he agrees the most readily, even though he is entirely hands off with planning.Taehyung tries to remember that he’s the only one who planned to be pregnant.He isn’t that surprised at how into the planning process Jackson is .For all of his himbo qualities (the charisma and charm that made him partially ideal for being the father of Taehyung’s children), he’s also an excellent planner and strategist. He quickly takes control of the whole thing, though not in a domineering way, but in the comfortable sort of way of someone who knows what they’re doing and can call in all sorts of favors.Gender neutral colors. A DJ with industry connections who doesn’t try to bring out every club banger. A prime location - a restaurant in the back of a florist - with tasteful decor and an easy distance from Hoseok and Yoongi’s.The real coup, as far as Taehyung can tell, is Jackson successfully stopping Seokjin from catering his own baby shower. When they met for one of the planning meetings at a shit ramen spot that Taehyung’s pregnant brain has become obsessed with, he had expressed his concern about Seokjin taking over the catering spot while deeply pregnant.“He’s really passionate about cooking,” Taehyung said, “but his doctor has also recommended that he walk less. But you know how hyung is.”Jackson is the one who gets Seokjin to not cater through a successful round of compromise and flattery. In the end, Seokjin helps pick the catering. It’s a good compromise - Taehyung is legitimately impressed. He hopes that that kind of temperament carries through in their children.He plans something small and quaint - perfect for the mated couple and Hoseok’s regular bouts of sickness. Jimin’s yoga coworkers come, but his parents don’t - Jackson says that a bouquet is from them, and it’s such a good story Taehyung doesn’t bother to check if it’s true. Jungkook has some friends from college, sweet faced and wide-eyed, trying not to stare at Yoongi, and failing. Namjoon’s parents come, and haven’t stopped talking about how Namjoon has “finally settled down with that Jackson boy after all these years.”Taehyung wonders if they’re stupid. They must be, considering the level of oblivious they’d have to be to not notice the way that Yoongi is staring at their son. Or the fact that Namjoon keeps telling them that’s not the case. Taehyung hopes that their intelligence is not hereditary, though considering Namjoon he assumes it’s not.The whole thing is just the right vibes for seven pregnant omegas with different social circles and family involvement.Taehyung’s aunt - the only family member he cares to speak to - arrives and traps Jungkook into conversation about the necessity of a good daycare. She has no children. Jungkook nods along, looking worried. Maybe he’s just hungry. Taehyung considers saving him, but he feels like the moon - large, splendidly round, and content to simply orbit.He feels unaccountably pleased.——“Do you think that we could have like, I don’t know, made it work?” Jackson asks, holding a non-alcoholic spritzer in one hand. He looks every inch the dapper, put together Alpha that Namjoon’s parents have always prized.“Jackson…” Namjoon sighs.“We’ve known each other forever,” Jackson says, “you’re not like, my oldest friend. But like, we’re good together.”“Jackson…” Namjoon says, “It’s because we’ve been together forever that I know we would never work. I’m not sure you’re ready to settle down quite yet.”Jackson shrugs. “Eh, was I at least good in bed?” Jackson Wang has the ability to say the sleaziest things like they’re charming. Damn, Namjoon hopes that all of Taehyung’s predictions about genes hold true because he is devastatingly charismatic.Namjoon laughs, “Sure.” He thinks for a second, “But Min Yoongi was better.”——Hoseok has been feeling awful all day. He has been gravitating through feelings of extreme nausea, followed by chills and vertigo. Before his pregnancy he would have thought that nausea and vertigo were the same, virtually indistinguishable. In the midst of his pregnancy he knows that he’s a fool, and should have appreciated them in their distinct awfulness.Taehyung had been politely pushy about the baby shower, and now that he’s here he can appreciate the whole thing. The gentle music (Yoongi had approved), the food - even he can’t eat it. He appreciates it.Honestly the thing he appreciates the most is the way that Namjoon’s parents seem to think that he and Jackson, who has been nothing by surface level cordial, are an item.“Do you think they know that…” Yoongi teases and sick as he is, Hoseok still has to laugh.“Absolutely not,” Hoseok says.”“What, are we talking about how absolutely oblivious Joonie’s parents are?” Jimin says, sidling up to the two of them. He hands Hoseok a sparkling water and an apple, one of the only things he’s been able to keep down this week. A year ago, Hoseok would have never imagined a spitfire little omega yoga teacher in his life, but deep into his pregnancy, outside of Yoongi, Jimin has been his absolute rock. A constant and beautiful presence in his life.He sips gingerly on the water. His head pounds, but the image of Namjoon, roundly pregnant and looking anxiously between his parents and Jackson, is incredibly funny.“Do you think I could get Jungkook to say the thing about cats again?” Jimin asks.“Even if you did,” Yoongi says, “I think they’d likely just think it was sweet and completely ignore the implications.”“Maybe get Taehyung to uh…” Hoseok feels worse, unaccountably, like there’s a gaining pressure on his lower spine, “talk about like…one of those uh…pack polycules.”“He’s enjoying this too much,” Jimin says, but then he looks back at Hoseok with a look on his face, “Are you ok?”“Hobah,” Yoongi says, his hand on Hoseok’s back feeling too big, too heavy, “Are you alright? If we need to go home, we can.”“No, no,” Hoseok says, feeling a bit light headed, “You know how it is, I’ve been…ah..sick all the time. Just that.”“Are you sure?” Jimin asks.“Yes,” Hoseok lies, because this feels worse. But every day lately has been feeling worse. The pressure on his bladder. The pressure on his spine. The nausea and vertigo and random pains and his headache. Everything feels bad. But this event is important to Taehyung. It’s theoretically important to him. He can stick it out.Another pain.Probably.“Maybe you could just kiss him,” Hoseok says, not even sure who he’s talking about.”That might be a bit of a spectacle,” Jimin says, his voice not entirely losing his concern, though he tries to play along with him.“Because we’re both omegas?” Yoongi says.“Because we’re all about to pop,” Jimin says, pointing to his own gravid belly, “like two elephants running into each other. Or that Pygmy hippo.”“That what?” Hoseok says, trying to concentrate on his breathing, trying to keep it natural. This will pass. Every spell like this has passed.“Pygmy hippo. Moo Deng, I think,” Jimin says.“What even is…a…uh what even is a Pygmy hippo?” Hoseok says.“Hobah,” Yoongi says, “love, I think you need to at least sit down.”Hoseok doesn’t know if that’s a good idea. The pressure on his back is increasing, and he doesn’t know what that means, but it doesn’t feel good. His bladder too and he feels a release. Shit, he thinks, I’ve definitely pissed myself. It’s not a lot, just a little. He hopes no one has noticed.Yoongi notices. Yoongi always notices. Fuck, is this why they’re in love? Hoseok thinks there’s nothing more beautiful than the fact that he fell in love with a man who always know when he needs him.“Hobah,” Yoongi says and Hoseok looks at him, and he thinks then, he’ll tell his kids later. Their kids. He’ll tell them later that this is when he knew.“I think…” breathe, “I think I’m in labor.”It’s a lot then. There’s a line up in the hallway of 7 matching go bags (Seokjin bought them, a unique color for each man, his of course was pink) and Jackson Wang shuffles to the side to handle the guests and Hoseok just…He feels relief. And a little bit of terror.They’re loaded into the elevator, all seven of them, deeply pregnant - Taehyung’s aunt is bringing the bags with her, following them close behind - and Hoseok pants a little because it’s the only thing that feels right and Yoongi is there, always. Beside him. With him.“Yoongi,” he says, “we’re going to have a baby.”“Yeah,” Yoongi says, “Between us and the clowder, I think it’s going to be a pretty full house.”Hoseok laughs, but it hurts and he hates how much he hopes that this means it’ll all be over soon. How soon he’ll be sitting with his love and his community and all of their children. Together, as improbably as that all sounds.—-It is, of course, at this moment that Namjoon’s water breaks.