dare you to move [birth]

Any nervousness or uncertainty he felt was always immediately dispelled by just how calm and confident Venom was in him. Her faith in him inspired Maverick to overcome those doubts that haunted his heart. When he was with her, he felt invincible. Her tired chuckle brought a little smile to his lips—gods, how he loved the sound of her laugh—and she reassured him that he'd have beginner's luck on his side when it came to naming their puppies. She did thankfully give him some pointers to start with though, explaining how her first litter had been named after her ex-husband's family. Mav's nose wrinkled up at the thought. He had cut all ties from his birth family, and he wasn't nearly conceited enough to want to honor his awful family in any way. Then she offered to name the pups after him and Maverick nearly balked at the idea, giving a sudden burst of laughter that he had to quickly silence with a paw over his muzzle so he didn't disturb the feeding pups.

"Sorry, I uh, wasn't really expecting that," he replied with a sheepish smile. But then Venom teased him by calling him "her renegade rogue" and a lightbulb went off in the ruffian's head. "Hey, those are pretty good, actually!" He leaned over Venom's swollen side to pick out their children in the order they had been born, finding the pale boy first and the dark navy one second. "Our eldest is Renegade, and our second born is Rogue." He thought to himself for a moment, trying out each name in his head as he looked between the two boys. His expression brightened up with glee. "Yeah, I think that can work!" That left the names for the other two then. He looked to the third boy, scratching at his head for a moment. What other words were synonymous with Maverick? "How about... Rebel for the boy? Hmm... nah, that's a bit too feminine when I say it out loud. Maybe Rebel for our daughter then? Since she's the only girl, she's the rebel out of the boys." Yeah, that made sense, right?

"Sooo... Ruffian for the third boy? Oh, but do I really wanna give up my favorite nickname to him? I dunno if that's really fair. He needs his own name." Again, Maverick tapped a paw to his chin, mulling it over. "Dang, I really don't know that many words," he lamented with a bashful chuckle. "How about Rampage? Because it's, like, you rush around in a rampage, and that's kinda how you met me, rushing all around your borders with no fucks given. Plus it also begins with R, so it's thematic." Maverick grinned, proud of the correlation he drew up between his suggestion and their dating history. At least he was until he realized what he'd just said and his expression fell. "Oh shit, I just cursed in front of the puppies. They can't understand me yet, right? I didn't just ruin them, did I?" Another beat, and then, "Damn, I just did it again!" Mav flinched, praying that their children's first words didn't turn out to be swears they heard from their idiot father.

"Venom & Maverick"