Chapter Text
“I’m sorry, Louis, but…” Legosi’s head was pure static sounds, every input he received from the red deer just turned into a mess of information that didn’t bother making sense in his head. “I’m still not quite getting… can you explain again?”
Louis dropped his fork on the table, with a groan of frustration with his canine friend. He took a few deep breathes before staring at the man on the other side of the table as if he was about to scold him. “Really? A 5th time? God, Legosi, just… look, if you don’t want to, you can just say no, and I can look for someone else.”
“No, it’s not that! I swear, I’m just… sorry, this is just very surreal to me.” Legosi also dropped his cutlery, his appetite gone, substituted in his brain by confusion and the fear of pissing off his friend.
“Fine, then for the last time.” Louis looked directly into Legosi with an intensity that almost made the wolf want to look away. “I want you to be the sperm donor for my child.”
“And… you want to carry my child?” The alpha said that with a tone that almost made the words seem forbidden. Whispering with his head down, the total opposite of the factual way his friend approached the issue.
“I want to carry my child.” The omega corrected. “I want you to be the sperm donor for that.”
“Why?”
“I need to have a child sooner rather than later” Louis admitted with a deep sigh. “The Horns Conglomerate wants an assurance that my line will continue. They’re watching everything about me, and they won’t let me adopt, because they’re trying to get me to marry someone else this time. So, the alternative is, I’ll just have the baby myself. All I need is an alpha donor.”
“Louis,” Legosi called, his voice serious for once. “I won’t help you have a kid as a political move. That’s not a reason to have a kid.”
Louis didn’t flinch, but he received the observation with open arms.
“I agree, but I’ve been thinking this over for months and delaying any political marriage as much as I could, it’s either this or getting with a stranger and having the kid out of obligation.” Louis took a moment before continuing. He stared at the salad dish in front of him, drank a little, before continuing, with some bashful expression in his face. “And… I’ve been warming up to the idea. It doesn’t seem bad, having a kid, I mean.”
“Why me, though?”
It was only when Legosi asked that he realized that it was that question, in particular, that was causing the confusing static in his brain. Why, out of all the people that he had access, out of all the already existing donors, he chose Legosi, an uneven hybrid with a pretty seedy history and that never finished high school.
Louis seemed to be expecting the question, to the point that regained his composure, the conversation was back on the track he always expected it to be. He took his fork back and went back to eating.
“I just feel that going through the process with someone close to me, and whom I trust would be good,” He said, an answer that almost felt practiced. “You are the alpha I’m the closest to, you are extremely healthy, no drinks, drugs, or smoking. I’d be… more reassured, I suppose if it was you.”
There was a brief moment of quiet between them. Louis seemed focused on his salad to not focus on the alpha in front of him, but Legosi was in silence, very intently listening to every sound he made and waiting for him to continue.
“Now, I want to be very clear about some things. First, this is my child, and I will raise them myself. You will be free to visit them and to be on their life, but they’re my child.” Louis was very serious at that moment, building a brick wall between Legosi and this hypothetical child early. “Of course, I’ll bankroll the entire process, and the child, you won’t need to worry about paying anything; I’ve already prepared a contract to make sure I can’t ask anything from you.”
“I… don’t think I have enough for the Horns Conglomerate’s head to even ask for.” Legosi joked, but that did not change the serious mood.
If anything, the joke only worked to make the mood even more awkward.
“Listen, Legosi… I know this seems like a lot. You can just say no if you don’t want to participate in this, and I’ll never bring it up again, but I… I want you to consider it because I want to do this and I don’t know anyone that I’d like to do this with more than you.”
At that moment, Louis’ eyes seemed to brim with nothing but the utmost sincerity. Louis never pleaded for anything, and Legosi feels odd by being the person to ever hear the closest he came from doing so.
“Okay. I… I’ll think about it.”
“Thank you, Legosi.”
*
This was not what he wanted, though.
This was not the way he wanted things to happen.
Having a kid with Louis. Yes. That was his dream, his life goal. To be with the man he has carried a torch for years now, to have a child and start a family, to raise a little cub with him. Every part of it was a dream come true, but it felt like he asked a monkey paw for that wish, because it came true in the worst way possible.
Yes, Louis would have his child, and he would raise them, but Legosi was being locked out of his dream. The child was not his, it was Louis’ and his alone, and he would not be their father. He’d get to watch from afar as the child that was not his was being raised by the man he couldn’t be with. If he was lucky, he’d get to be a cool uncle, but he knew the role would be filled by Haru in a heartbeat.
Legosi couldn’t even think much over whether he wanted or not to go through with it on that afternoon. His mind was overwhelmed by the picture of Louis carrying around his pup away from him.
“If it was a girl, I’d like to call her Leano” Legosi whispered to himself, thinking of his mother.
Thinking of his mother was the trigger to the next catastrophic line of thought: his child, the hybrid.
He was not good with math but giving himself some time eventually let him get to the proportion of genes their child would have. 12,5% Komodo Dragon, 50% red deer, and 37,5% gray wolf. How would that child even look like? They’d most certainly have Louis’ horns. If Melon is anything to go by, the child will have to grow with some specific diet and care, probably be subjected to some prejudice, despite hybrids growing common, there’ll probably also be only very specific doctors that will be able to care for them.
But God knows that, as a parent, Louis would move a mountain for his kid. He did it for Legosi before. He gave him his leg.
How he started scrolling in his phone through information about hybrid children’s health is unknown to him. Before he knew, it was one hand on his phone, bookmarking any clinic that said they cared for hybrid children and had experienced doctors on the subject, another writing down any information he could find about how to cook for them, how to discipline them in their contrasting instincts.
The night kept going. More information flooded his mind, the challenges of omega herbivores carrying a carnivore’s child, how some experience the desire to eat meat, or even get meat withdrawal symptoms. The thought of a Louis with his child going through the awful symptoms he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy sent a protective, bewildered shiver down his spine. He felt the immediate need to check on his friend.
Legosi: LOUIS
Legosi: Herbivore with hybrid children get meat withdrawal!
Louis:... Yes, Legosi, I know. I did my research. It’s 11 PM, what the hell?
Louis: Are you researching the symptoms of hybrid pregnancy?
Legosi: Yes. Of course!
Louis: Look, all data you’re going to find I already have. I have a cloud full of it.
Louis: I am not going into this unprepared.
Louis: I’ll send you all the information there, and you can read it if you’re curious.
Legosi: Ok. Thanks.
Louis sent a link
Louis: You don’t need to worry about the pregnancy, that’s my problem.
It’s my problem too!
Legosi’s finger hovered over the send button. Louis’ insistence on creating that barrier between Legosi and the process got under his skin, he felt like he was being a kid, being slapped in the hand when he reached for a cookie. He decided against it though. He took a few seconds to get his composure back before sending a curt message.
Legosi: thanks. Sorry about the timing.
Louis: Don’t mention it.
The link led to a bonafide library of hybrid pregnancy knowledge. The files included articles about the changes and problems a herbivore’s body goes through when carrying a carnivore child. The meat withdrawal was just the start. Omega herbivores may get violent faux heats that can only be calmed by carnivores, regardless of meat withdrawal, some herbivores need to eat meat regardless of their wants, the hormones released can make a herbivore as wild as a carnivore if they get a whiff of blood. It’s a risky pregnancy, most of the articles say that this happens so rarely that they don’t have that much data to go from, so there’s a possibility that there are a plethora of other side-effects that they haven’t even observed yet, and a part of the information is also old from a time over 100 years ago when hybrids were more common, but science wasn’t as developed.
The books in PDF on those files included entire chapters to possible issues that some rarer cases may experience, including morning sickness having blood. Legosi’s mind ran rampant with the awful, horror movie-like possibilities. The idea of even a single one of those symptoms being inflicted on Louis had him on the edge, terrified even more by the fact that it was his child on him causing these things.
Maybe being with a herbivore truly is a bad idea.
But then there’s the alternative. There’s the possibility of Louis going after another alpha, possibly another alpha that also is a carnivore, and having a child with some random stranger.
The thought made him roar subconsciously.
His alpha already imprinted on Louis’ omega, ever since he ate his leg. Whether they’d be together or not is irrelevant to the voice on the back of his head that constantly describes Louis as “my omega”, and that makes him think of using antlers as handles and of licking and biting on red fur every time he has a rut or a wet dream.
Legosi closed his eyes until he could calm. Scratched his head, paced around the room, did anything to stop the horrific spiral of events happening in his mind, the imagery of Louis suffering alone or the image of him with someone else, both left him feeling bad.
Louis was an unstoppable force, and he had decided to have a child. A hybrid child, no less, considering the amount of research he had done. One of the files in the cloud was nothing but the contact information of a clinic that had experience with artificial impregnation with hybrids, with some notes beneath them. Very specific notes:
Experience with wolves and deers.
The omega has made a choice.
And whether Legosi decides to participate or not in that choice is the only thing he can do.
There’s a lot of carnivores that would take his place. Knock an omega up and never show up. He should know, he’s the son of one of them. To be fair, that was what his mother wanted, and this is what Louis wants now.
And he had a chance to alter the results this time. To be there for Louis and his child, as much as he would allow. Maybe he won’t be able to be a father, but maybe it’s something. His alpha sounded pleased at the thought that his and Louis’ kid would exist at all.
Maybe that’s all he would ever get. He might as well take what he needed from it.
He tapped his phone and called Louis.
“Goddamnit.” He heard the deer curse, followed by the ruffling of sheets. “Legosi, what the fuck, do you have any idea what time it is right now?”
“... 11:30 PM?” He tried, looking outside the window it was clear he was wrong.
“It’s fucking 4 AM” Louis complained, his voice was hoarse, but it seemed he was waking up slowly. “I swear if it’s anything short of an emergency…”
“I’ll do it.” Legosi blurted out before his mind could freeze on him.
“Do what?” The deer’s mind was still slowly gathering the information it needed to process the words coming from the phone. “Oh, that.” And suddenly, Louis sounded awake. “Are you sure?”
“I spent the night reading through everything you sent me” Legosi admitted. He was only finally realizing the lack of sleep was taking its toll on him. It truly was 4 AM. “I have some conditions.”
The line was silent for a moment. Legosi feared to have overstepped a boundary but wouldn’t back down. Louis sighed and had returned with his most composed voice, a tone he used on negotiations with clients and business partners.
Legosi didn’t like that the negotiation for his child was like that.
“Ok, shoot them.”
“If it’s a girl, I want to call her Leano” That was not a top priority, but Legosi figured it was the easiest of his conditions.
Louis seemed to ponder on the other side of the line, a sound he made got Legosi thinking he might have remembered that was his mother’s name. “Fine. If it’s a boy, his name will be Oguma, the second.”
“The second?”
“Yeah, it’s a family thing.”
“Ok, then it’s Leano or Oguma.”
“Oguma, the second.” Louis corrected.
“Oguma, the second.” Legosi agreed.
“Anything else? I remember you said conditions on the plural.” Louis asked, still in his negotiator mode.
“...” Legosi thought he could say it. He thought he could ask Louis to be a bigger part of this, but now the plea is choked on his throat. He didn’t know how to word it without making it sound like a confession of love.
“If that’s all, I accept” Louis continued.
“I want to be a part of it. I want to be there.” Legosi asked, it almost felt as if the words had rushed out of his throat by themselves.
“... Legosi, listen…”
“No, Louis. Those symptoms, all that, it’s serious, you don’t know what meat withdrawal is like, you don’t know what going feral is like. There are heats that can only be calmed down by a carnivore, do you intend to call a random carnivore that might kill you to soothe you?” Legosi blasted. His limiters were off, he knew what he wanted to say. As long as he kept ‘I love you’ to himself, he was fine. All his restraints were focused on simply not uttering that. “I can be there. I can soothe you, I can help you control yourself.” He stopped for a moment, catching his breath.
“I want to be there with you” He completed, and felt his heart almost leap out of his mouth, wondering if Louis might have taken it the wrong way.
There was silence again.
“It’s either that or else I can’t do this Louis” Legosi admitted.
It was a lie. His alpha was screaming and urging him to put his pup inside the omega he wanted the most, terrified of the possibility of him looking at another alpha for it, he wasn’t sure about his capacity to resist that desire, and he knew that if Louis made the right moves, he’d take whatever his conditions were, just so this kid he wanted so much would at least exist. But the part of him that was just a little smarter than his alpha demanded him to not only breed but also care and raise, and remembered him of a thought that terrified him: ‘would you be able to take it knowing that this man is with your child, suffering, and you can do nothing?’
And he didn’t know how to answer that.
The silence stretched a while longer. Louis was more savage than any carnivore in negotiations. He was never fooled by a bluff. God knows what he is thinking on the other side of the line. Legosi felt himself break in a cold sweat, his mind running through the worse case scenarios.
“Fine.” The voice on the other side of the line said, and Legosi felt free to fill his lungs with air again. “At the weekend, we’ll discuss some more about how we’ll do this, but for now, I’ll sleep, because it’s fucking 4 AM.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that” Legosi gave an awkward chuckle.
“And Legosi,” Louis called, once more. “Thank you for saying yes. I’m really happy that you’re doing this with me.”
…
Legosi felt his heart explode in tiny fireworks hearing that. He was a man in love. He was having a child with the omega he loved. With some extra steps.