I'm so sorry for disappearing. I'm competing in the national college Q&A show and after long rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday I've spent the last three days lying around doing nothing. I hadn't turned my computer on in five days before I turned it on earlier.


Leo can't sleep. Law's snuggled against him, arm thrown over his waist, Kid pressed against the smaller Omega from the other side; the Alpha's hand occasionally brushing against him from its place on Law's bump. He's thinking about Orchid; Alexandra; James and Isabelle; Eve; Christopher and Rachel; Michelle; Vanessa; Charles and Harper; Noah, Dennis, and Aaron. He wonders what they look like. What their voices sound like. What they think about the new additions to the family. Five more siblings. Nineteen kids. He's just seventeen.

He wonders if he should have his womb removed after the pregnancy. It hurts to just think about it, but there'll be six babies to take care of.

He wonders whether Kid fully understands the implications of taking him in. He'll have eight mouths to feed, and he hasn't even finished secondary school. He knows the Alpha's family is well off with Mihawk's unchallenged position as the world's greatest swordsman, but Kid won't let it all rest on his parents; he's too proud, obstinate, and Alpha for that to be acceptable to him.

His grandfather had been well off with his very careful handling of money, but Leo doesn't know whether the money will be available to him with the circumstances of his grandfather's death. He'll have to ask Kalifa.