As much as Ezra could have just stayed there for the rest of the day, contentedly cuddling his newfound mate, eventually time constraints and familial responsibilities start pressing in on him, reminding him that he had a mandatory family dinner that he was supposed to attend that night. He held out for as long as he could, not wanting to leave Hiro, but when his adopted sister, Sabine, starts blowing up his phone with reminders from their parents that he needed to be home within the hour, he knows that he has to go.

"Hiro?" he whispers, gently shaking his mate's shoulder. "Hiro, can you wake up for me?"

"Mm?" Hiro, who had pretty much stayed in an either passed out or semi-passed out state for most of the afternoon (presenting took a pretty large toll on the body, and combined with the trauma that had come with his, Ezra had thought it best to just let him sleep as much as he wanted to), blinks his eyes open, smiling as he looks up at him. "Hey…"

"Hey," Ezra answers, gently kissing his forehead (Hiro had seemed fairly receptive to light kissing, which the Alpha was extremely happy about) before saying softly, "I have to go."

"What?" Within moments, Hiro was wide awake, clinging to Ezra's arm. "Go? Go where? You can't go!"

"Hiro, I know this isn't easy for you." Ezra pulls him close. "It's not easy for me either. But I have to go home-my family's expecting me."

Hiro lets out a quiet whine, giving him his best puppy eyes. "Stay…" he quietly begs.

"I want to stay-so much." Ezra hugs him tighter. "But I really, really have to go. I promise, I'll come back to see you as soon as I can, and I'll text you tonight as much as I'm able to."

Hiro still didn't look happy about it, but he allows Ezra to gently unlatch his fingers from his arm. Still, when the other teen is finally free, the Omega curls up on the floor and tries to look as pathetic as possible, doing his best to make one last argument for him to stay. It almost worked, but another text from Sabine reminding him of what she'd do to him if he was late made Ezra sigh and climb out of the closet, knowing that he had to go or else risk incurring her wrath.

"Wait!"

Ezra knew he shouldn't turn around because if he did Hiro would probably find some way of convincing him to stay, but when he felt a hand wrapping around his arm he can't resist and he looks back to make sure that his mate was okay.

Hiro seemed fine, but he had pulled off his hoodie for some reason and was holding it out to Ezra.

"What's this for?" Ezra asks, gently taking it from him.

"Well, I kind of took yours," Hiro answers, flushing slightly. "So I figured you should have mine…"

"You don't have to-!" Ezra starts to protest.

"Ez, I want you to have it." Hiro was being adamant for reasons the other teen couldn't fathom until he finally says, looking slightly embarrassed, "I took your hoodie 'cause it has your scent on it… So I figured maybe you'd want something with my scent on it?"

"Oh!" Ezra finally understands and, smiling slightly, he accepts the gift and puts it on-it was a bit small for him, but it did have Hiro's scent, and that was all that mattered.

"Thank you." Ezra gently leans in and pecks his mate's cheek.

"You're welcome." Hiro smiles happily back at him.

"I'll talk to you tonight, okay?" Ezra tells him, squeezing his hands one last time.

"Okay," Hiro agrees, squeezing back before finally letting him go.

Ezra had to take a streetcar home from the Cafe since his whole family was already at the house and he didn't want to make any of them leave just to pick him up. He didn't really mind having to take public transit-if anything, he was sort of glad because it gave him more time to think about what he was going to say to his family. Even if he ditched the hoodie (which there was no way he was going to do), he was still going to have Hiro's scent all over him, and there was no way that anyone in his family was going to be able to miss it. In some ways it was frustrating-he wasn't sure he was quite ready for his whole family to know that he and Hiro had imprinted when the two of them were still trying to figure things out. On the other hand, it did save him the awkwardness of having to figure out how to broach the subject with them, so he guessed the pros and cons balanced each other out. By the time that he reached his stop, he had pretty much made his peace with what was coming and was ready to walk into the house with his head held high.

It wasn't that he was really that worried about how his family would react-Sabine, as another Alpha, might be a little jealous because he'd imprinted before her, but for the most part she'd probably be supportive, even if she would tease him endlessly about it. His adopted parents, Hera and Kanan, were both Betas and really didn't care about the whole Alpha/Omega/Beta mating system, so he knew that they'd be happy for him as long as they knew that he was happy. And his Uncle Zeb (also an Alpha like himself and Sabine) would probably be extremely proud of him for finding someone. All of them loved Hiro-they'd practically adopted him on as a part of their family as it was-so Ezra couldn't see any of them having any problem with him being his mate. All in all, Ezra was feeling pretty good about letting everyone know the truth as he lets himself into the house.

About thirty seconds after he'd gotten inside, he found himself being pounced on by Sabine-literally, as she had leaped off of the stairs and knocked him to the ground, pinning him to the floor. He was glad that she'd at least waited until he was in a carpeted area of the house so it didn't hurt too much when he went down-she wasn't always so merciful when it came to play-wrestling.

"Sabine, get off!" Ezra groans, not really in the mood for this with everything that had happened so far today.

"What, no 'Hello' for your big sis?" Sabine answers with a playful grin.

"Ugh…" Ezra just lets his head fall back against the carpet, too tired to try to fight her off.

"Hey, what's gotten into you?" Sabine asks, playfully prodding his cheek. "You never turn down a fight! You going soft on me?"

"Please just stop…" Ezra sighs, trying to not let himself get provoked-right now with the way his hormones were still a bit unsettled, he didn't know how he'd react if he actually got into a fight with her.

"You sick or something?" Sabine was actually starting to act a little concerned as she sits back, looking him over critically. "You actually smell kind of off-it's almost like you smell like Ome... Wait. Wait A MINUTE." Suddenly her eyes go wide and she leans back in, sniffing at Ezra's neck even as he tries to push her away.

"Sabine!" he complains, but it was obvious his sister had already discovered the truth.

"Oh my gosh. OH. MY. GOSH!" she cries as she finally pulls back, a huge grin crossing her face. "EZRA! Did you-?!"

"No clue what you're talking about," Ezra answers innocently, although he couldn't keep the creeping smile off of his own face.

Moments later, Sabine was leaping off of him and racing towards the kitchen, calling out, "Mom! Dad! Uncle Zeb! Ezra found a mate!"

Well, that was one way for everyone to find out, Ezra thinks wryly as he picks himself up off the ground, making his way towards the kitchen so that he could answer the questions that everyone probably had before Sabine could start inventing things in his absence.

When he walks into the kitchen, all eyes were on him, and he finds himself flushing slightly, partly embarrassed by all of the attention being focused on his person, partly proud for his family to be seeing him for the first time as newly imprinted.

"Ezra, is it true?" his adopted mom, Hera, finally manages to get out, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," Ezra answers, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling slightly. "It's true."

"Well, congratulations, little 'un!" Uncle Zeb, who was currently sitting at the table with Kanan, gets up and comes over to pull him into a playful bear hug. "I knew you had it in you!"

"Thanks!" Ezra laughs, hugging him back.

"Okay, so what's her name-or his name?" Sabine asks when Zeb finally lets him go.

"Well…" Ezra holds the suspense out for just a moment longer before finally announcing proudly, "It's Hiro."

"Wait-Hiro? As in Hiro Hamada?" Kanan asks, seeming as surprised as everyone else in the room.

"Yep!" Ezra agrees, beaming.

"I thought you said you were sure he was going to be an Alpha!" Sabine says, frowning in confusion.

"We both were," Ezra answers, shrugging slightly. "But he presented as Omega today, so I guess everything worked out!"

"He just presented today?" Hera repeats. "And you two already-?"

"We didn't mean for it to happen, but… Yeah. It just sort of… Happened," Ezra tells her, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Well I say good on ya!" Zeb says firmly, coming to his defense. "If you two are happy together, that's all that counts!"

"Right!" Ezra agrees, smiling gratefully at him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like I didn't approve," Hera apologizes. "I'm a little surprised it happened so quickly, but as long as both of you are okay with it-"

"Well I definitely know Ezra is!" Sabine puts in playfully. "He's been crushing on Hiro for ages!"

Usually Ezra would have tried to argue with that, but given he and Hiro were officially mates now it wasn't like he had to hide it so he just shrugs and smiles in response.

"How's Hiro doing with all of this?" Kanan asks. "I know being an Omega must have come as a surprise to him."

"It did," Ezra admits. "But I think hopefully he's doing pretty okay with it now. He was-kind of out of it when I left. He pretty much just slept through most of the afternoon after I got him home-he sort of holed up in his den and I stayed with him until I had to come here."

"You were in his den?" Sabine grins at him. "Wow, so things really got interesting-"

"It wasn't like that!" Ezra growls, feeling his face flushing even brighter red. "I was just trying to make sure he was okay!"

"And I'm sure Hiro appreciated that," Hera puts in gently, sending Sabine a warning look.

"It's good that you're taking such good care of him," Kanan adds. "I'm sure he knows how lucky he is to have you."

"T-Thanks…" Ezra answers with a small smile. "I felt kind of bad about leaving him-I don't think he wanted me to go, but I knew I had to get back here…"

"Ezra, if you'd texted and told us what was going on you know we wouldn't have minded you staying there!" Hera tells him.

"Well, I kind of figured it was something I should tell you guys about in person…" Ezra responds.

"Fair enough." Kanan gives him a sympathetic smile. "Still, if you need to head back over there tonight-"

"No, I think it's probably a good idea to give Hiro some breathing room right now," Ezra says honestly. "The hormones were making him act… well, not exactly like himself. So I think maybe I should give him a chance to calm down away from me so that he can think through everything clearly, y'know?"

"That very admirable of you." Kanan smiles approvingly at him. "Hiro's very lucky to have such an amazing young man as his mate."

"Thanks…" Ezra can't help but blush again at the praise-it was nice hearing from his family that they thought he was doing a good job, even if they might be a little prejudiced in his favor.

Hera looked like she was about to say something when suddenly there's the sound of someone knocking on the door, and everyone turns in the direction of the noise.

"Who could that be?" Hera asks, frowning slightly.

"Ah, about that…" Zeb rubs the back of his neck. "Speaking of mates… I hope you don't mind, but I sort of invited someone else to dinner tonight…"

"Wait, what?" Sabine gasps.

"Zeb, you never told us that you found a mate!" Kanan looked as shocked as the rest of them were feeling.

"Well, he's not officially my mate yet…" Zeb answers, possibly for the first time in Ezra's entire history of knowing him actually looking embarrassed. "But… I've been seeing him for a little while now and we think there's a very good chance of us being mate compatible."

"Zeb, that's wonderful!" Hera beams at him.

"Bring him in, we all want to meet him!" Kanan adds as they hear knocking on the door again.

"All right," Zeb agrees, smiling a bit nervously as he goes to answer the door.

"Do you think it's a Beta?" Sabine whispers curiously to Ezra. "I've never smelled Omega on him."

"Maybe…" Ezra answers with a slight shrug-Beta's didn't have as strong a scent as Omegas so it's possible that's why they'd never picked up on an unfamiliar scent on him before.

The two teens watch the door curiously, eager to find out anything they could about their uncle's potential mate. They heard him talking in a low voice to someone, and they could see flashes of the newcomer around Zeb's large frame, but it wasn't until he actually stepped back to let the other man in that they got their first good look at him. He was tall-not as tall as Zeb, but then it was rare to find anyone near as tall as their uncle-with neatly kept golden hair and sideburns. He was dressed in business casual, looking as if he was someone who spent a reasonable amount of time taking care of his personal appearance, a stark contrast to Zeb who usually just rolled out of bed and started the day with whatever he was wearing. But it wasn't until the newcomer was halfway down the hallway that the most important and possibly most shocking thing about him was revealed as Sabine and Ezra catch the first whiff of his scent.

"Alpha?" Sabine whispers, looking over at her brother in surprise.

Ezra just shrugs in response-he was as shocked as she was, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit excited. As glad as he was that things had worked out for him and Hiro like they had, he still liked the idea that it was possible for two Alphas to be together. It made him feel as though, even if Hiro had actually turned out to be an Alpha, maybe there was some way that they could have worked. And if Uncle Zeb wanted to date another Alpha, he was going to be in complete and total support of that.

"Everyone, this is Kallus," Zeb says as he gently ushers the other male into the kitchen. "Kallus, these are my very good friends, Hera and Kanan, and these are their kiddos, Ezra and Sabine."

"Hello." Kallus waves, looking a bit nervous but still managing for the most part to keep his composure. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you-Zeb's told me so much about you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," Kanan answers, smiling as he gets up and goes over to shake the other man's hand. If it at all bothered him that both Zeb and Kallus were Alphas, he showed absolutely no sign of it, and neither did Hera when she joined them as well.

"We're very happy to have you here," she says warmly before gesturing to the table. "Won't you sit down? We're just about to have dinner, and you're than welcome to join us!"

"Thank you very much, that's very kind of you," Kallus answers, giving her a grateful smile as he allows Zeb to lead him over to an empty chair.

"Hi!" Ezra says once he's given him a chance to get situated, very curious to learn more about his uncle's boyfriend.

"Hello," Kalls answers, looking him over quickly. "You're... Ezra, correct?"

"Yep!" Ezra agrees cheerfully.

"You'll have to forgive him if he acts a bit oddly tonight," Zeb tells Kallus playfully. "He just imprinted with his mate today, so his head's probably still up in the clouds right now."

"Hey!" Ezra protests, glaring at his uncle but not feeling too angry.

"Well, congratulations!" Kallus smiles warmly at the teen. "Have you know your mate long?"

"We've been best friends since we were kids," Ezra answers with a shy smile. "I just never thought it would work out because I thought we would both be Al-" Realizing that he was about to majorly put his foot in his mouth, he quickly cuts himself off, but he knew that Kallus probably already knew what he had been about to say.

"And I kept telling you not to worry about it," Zeb puts in firmly, coming to his rescue. "Even if Hiro had presented as an Alpha, there's no reason you two couldn't have been mates."

"Yeah," Ezra agrees, grinning gratefully over at him. "We could have made it work."

"Of course you could have!" Zeb tells him, grinning as he reaches over to gently take Kallus' hand in his own. "Status shouldn't affect who you can or can't be with! You should be with whoever makes you happiest."

"I quite agree with your Uncle," Kallus says, smiling as he gently squeezes Zeb's hand.

Ezra beams as he watches them, knowing that they were right. No matter how things had turned out, he knew that he loved Hiro, and somehow, some way, he would have found a way to be with him, even if they'd both presented in a way that made society say that they weren't supposed to be compatible. And knowing that made him feel that much better about having Hiro as his mate. No matter what, they were meant to be together, and that was a truly amazing feeling.