Ch. 2 Good morning, dad

It was still dark in the hidden cave and the only visible lights were the stars from above, from the tight fissure on the roof, and blue shining rings, from the crystal clear pool, underwater. Few noises and gentle sounds echoed in the cave, a soft deep snore, some happy splashing while crickets sang outside and owls hooted their presence.

Soon, the splashing became louder, followed by happy strange chirping. The big creature stirred in his sleep, gently moving his long tentacles in the shallow water curling around rocks. Two little creatures surfaced and chirped once, yet, seeing no reaction, they followed a series of glowing ring climbing up a tentacle. The parent let out a loud snore, he jerked up, sneezed and flopped back down on his pillow, turning his head to face the other way. One of the tiny things giggled and bravely climbed up more, ending on the parent's back. There, it found his white dry shirt and decided to crawl under it. The sibling followed, but slipped off, ending against the parent's left side, on the soft mattress. It cried once, not happy of the result of his adventuring, but immediately got back on his path and crawled away heading for the big arm. In the meantime the first cub had reached the collar and it was happily nibbling at the big pointed ear it found. The second one had to squeeze itself under the armpit to reach the parent's chin and once it found it, it started curiously tapping it with its little baby hands, leaving tiny marks with its small harmless claws. Not receiving any answer again, it let out a single grumpy chirp and started climbing the pillow to reach the parent's hair, while its sibling accidently rolled off the shoulder ending upside down in the nook of the neck, flapping its little chubby tentacles against the parent's cheek.

The big creature growled impatiently. "Fine, I'm up, I'm up…" Filipe lifted his head and soundly yawned. He opened his eyes, big electric blue rings in the dark with a black centre, and he searched in the dark for his kids. "Where's the other?" He asked the one in his arms and, sincerely, he wasn't surprised to suddenly feel a bundle of tiny tentacles on his nose. He sleepily smiled and lowered his head to let it slide down next to the sibling. The waiting one was on it as it landed, tackling it and playfully biting its tiny tentacles, both brushing against their parent's chest.

Filipe shook his head, sighing, and turned to the far clock. He didn't need light to see and clearly noticed it wasn't even 5am. He growled annoyed and the cubs froze as he let his head fall on the pillow again, trapping them. They protested and crawled over the pillow, meeping and poking his nose. "You two won't let have few more minutes, will you?" As answer, the oldest cub flopped on his cheek biting his ear again. "I guess not."

With still the baby attached, he propped himself up on his elbows, waited for it to fall on the pillow and yawned again. It was too damn early for getting up…way too early… in fact, he laid down again, this time on his side, grabbed both the little pests and tacked them under his open shirt hoping they would get tired soon of playing. They meeped, they bit and they giggled, but soon, being cocooned in their parents protective arms, they slipped in a deep sleep, tangled in each other's tentacles, tight against his warm chest.

As usual, Filipe naturally woke up at 7.59am, beating the alarm of a minute. His long tentacle stretched to it and lowered the volume of the radio to not wake the little twins up as soon as it turned on. He slowly moved away from them and quickly removed his shirt, covered them with it and glided into the pool.

"Ahhhh…." He gladly exhaled just before completely disappear underwater. Nothing better than a morning fresh bath to wake your mind up… He quickly shook his head letting his long curly dark hair wave in the water, rubbed his face and swam back up, elegantly exiting the pool. Standing straight, he used his tentacles to smoothly move on the ground and went to hob. His stomach growled as he started preparing his usual bica, the smell of hot coffee always caused him to get his stomach grumbling. He settled few Pastéis de nata he had prepared the day beforein a dish on the table and sat on one of the chairs, enjoying the company of the radio's announcer.

If he thought about it, just few things changed in his life… without counting the main changes of the last and an half years… He was still the same man he used to be, he still had his morning routine, his usual little things he enjoyed… He brewed himself the bica and took a bite of his breakfast, thoughtful. There were still so many things he had to fix, first of all his contacts with his family. He still had his father and his older brother in Colares, Portugal, and they knew nothing of his last….changes.

Since the day he left home for America, years before, they all knew their contacts were going to get difficult to keep, and since he joined BLU he could send them a letter once each few months. He forgot when was last time he wrote them and he felt pretty guilty about it. Now, though, he was free from his contract and he made BLU lose all his tracks, for the company he resulted dead after the experimentation on his person. He somehow had managed to hide and thanks to his lover he had kept it so. In fact, if it wasn't for Keegan he would have probably ended dead for real.

Bless that man. He thought, fondly remember the times they were together before and after his transformation. He never left his side, he gave him all his support in all conditions and he was working hard to find a solution for their settling despite still working under contract with RED. Filipe's caves had been organized with quite many luxuries thanks to his help and few members of his team, good friends of his, collecting furniture with a teleporter's activity. They didn't know Kegan's lover's true identity, only their Medic knew since he helped them when the twins arrived, for the others Filipe was just a lady who lived in the nearby town, down the valley, who ended having Sniper's twins. Filipe snorted thinking about that and the gifts they sent.

His family knew about his relationship with Keegan and they had accepted it, wanting to meet the man as soon as they could. How am I supposed to meet them now as I am? With the twins nonetheless…

A confused chirping made his ears twitch and he saw the youngest twin popping out from the sleeve of his shirt. Filipe stood up and crawled back to the bed nuzzling the cub's hairy little head to calm it down. Soon the sibling appeared and started nibbling at the parent's dark-blue-skinned arm.

These little things had been such a shock for everyone, yet… very welcome. Filipe adored them in a way he would have never imagined and Keegan adored them and him all the same. They both were just too cute, both with big green eyes. Yet, neither of the parents could tell if they were girls or boys… they still had no idea even after two weeks after their birth, and so they had remained nameless as well. Keegan for now was calling them "Cuties", while Filipe called them through sounds he could make only.

The proud daddy kissed their round tummies making them squeak and giggle aloud, and gently nibbled at their chubby tentacles, being extra careful with his sharp fangs.

It was still too early for Keegan to arrive. Filipe had to feed them first, then he would have taken them in the tunnels to show them the ways to the other hidden caves. He picked his white shirt up and wore it flattening his back fin-crest, and then he moved back to the hob again and heated up some milk. Among the gifts from the team members he found a couple of baby bottles and he had to admit they were pretty useful. It was a challenge to see what the little pests liked, and he, Keegan and Medic had carefully tried few things. So far, baby human food was perfect.

He tested the milk's temperature and bottled it with his tentacles, out of habit, and headed back to his little chirping twins. He gently picked them up and held them against his neck, and they started purring against his gills. He still couldn't believe how tiny they were, each could easily stay in one webbed hand, just like a kitten. He laid down on his belly, letting half of his tentacles sink in the fresh water and the other half stretch in front of him, forming a ring with two, while the other two held the bottles.

"So," he leaned on his elbows with the twins in between, "who's hungry?"

And with that the twins eagerly grabbed each a bottle and started to suckle under the vigilant and warm look.