Pull The Pin: Save Your Grace

Instead of answering his quizzical look right away, Ikigai shook her head as if she was exasperated with him which just made him look at her with more confusion as she came to sit beside him. It wasn't until her delicate paw took his much larger paw in her own and lifted it to rest on her belly that he slowly began to realize what she was trying to tell him. Even as she shared that they were finally getting their second chance it was almost as if his mind couldn't fully grasp the idea. His eyes widened with disbelief, his mouth hanging open with a response that couldn't quite form itself. His paw gently stroked across her belly that was already beginning to show that distinctive, rounded shape of their growing pups and even with the clear evidence at his toe tips his brain couldn't quite catch up with the reality that was in front of him. He had noticed a couple of times in the last couple of weeks that maybe her figure was a little more full than it tended to be, but he had always written it off as a trick of the light or maybe the effects of a large meal. He never allowed himself to believe it could be anything more than that.

She explained simply that she had wanted to be sure, giving a reason for the fact that he was only just now finding out about their growing children when she was now clearly showing the signs of it. They weren't just expecting, they were far closer to being parents than he had even realized. He still wore a stunned expression as she mentioned that the basket was for birthing while the strawberries were for her. All of the pieces of her surprise were finally clicking together for him and a grin crept across his face, his gaze dipping from her face down to where his paw still rested on her belly for a moment until she asked him how he was feeling, calling him daddy. His eyes returned to hers as a soft, giddy laugh escaped him, his vision clouding a bit before he even realized the happy tears had snuck up on him. The heat in her words certainly didn't escape him and a similar love and heat burned in his own gaze behind the haze of joyous tears as his paw slipped away from her belly to wrap around her waist instead, easily scooping up her smaller frame into his embrace. He captured her lips with his own as he held her tightly against him, expressing the absolute gratitude and love he had for this woman in the only way he really knew how.

Deimos cradled his mate in his forelegs as he finally broke away gently from their kiss, a wide, overjoyed smile pulling across his face as he looked down at her with more love than he ever thought he was possible of feeling. "My mate... Oh you've made me the happiest brute on this whole damned continent," he rumbled quietly as he leaned down to nuzzle against her cheek. He already knew from their first attempt that he couldn't sweep her off to bed any longer, but gods he wanted to. He peppered her face, ears, and the top of her head with affectionate kisses, feeling more like a giddy pup than the grizzled old man he was quickly becoming. Even though he would never wish the tragedy they had gone through on the worst of his enemies, he couldn't help but feel as though everything was truly happening as it was meant to be. The loss of their first litter had brought them even closer together and had truly forced him to evaluate not only what he truly wanted from his life but how much he actually loved the woman that was his mate and now the mother of his children two times over. He was more grateful for this gift than he ever would have been before. Maybe the Ancients truly knew what they were doing. "I love you more than I could ever put into words, Ikigai. I can't wait to meet our children."

"Deimos & Ikigai"