Beast scowled. He did remember. It had been a few hours back, before he’d been forced to deal with a ton of real-life bullshit related to the money laundering. “Right.”
Knight gestured for him to get up, but a sneaky smile was already stretching his mouth. “I know what’s going on! You’re getting cold feet, Daddy.”
Cold sweat was an immediate presence on Beast’s back, and he rose, wiping bark fragments from his jeans. “Just tell me where they are.”
“Oh, come on, you must want to talk about it. I know I do.” Knight pulled a hood over his head, looking as if he was a kid going on a ghost hunting adventure, not a seasoned criminal about to risk his life talking to a potentially menacing being from the other side.
“Not really.”
For a moment, they trudged through the damp grass in silence, but when Knight spoke next, he no longer sounded like his sole purpose was mockery. “Look, you know I practically raised some of my siblings. I’ll help with whatever you guys need, but you have to relax. You’ve been so tense lately I can hear you creak when you move.”
Beast rubbed his jaw, following Knight down a barely-there path into the woods. The sun shone through the green canopies above and painted a picture that didn’t agree with their reality at all, as if Nature had no idea of the upcoming doom.
“I don’t want to talk about it because it’s a difficult situation. We’re dealing with Baal now. He should remain our focus,” he said so firmly it left his throat achy.
“It was Laurent’s idea, wasn’t it?” Knight asked, for once leaving Beast space to think about his answer.
Beast exhaled. “It was a spontaneous decision. It felt right at the time, and now I... just don’t know.”
“You haven’t talked about this before? I know it’s silly, cause he’s such a baby sometimes, but Laurent does have a traditional view on many things.” Knight peeked at him, as if he were trying to gouge Beast’s opinion without pressing for answers.
“What are you trying to say? That he sees me as his wife, who he doesn’t have to ask for an opinion, or something?” Beast snapped, but he knew he’d overdone it when he saw Knight’s scowl.
“Wow. Okay, is that how you see it? Maybe you two should clear the air real fast, because all I wanted to say is that it might be obvious to him that the two of you should have babies. He actually suggested to me once that there’s no time to waste. You know, since you’re already in your thirties.” The smile was back on his face. Idiot. Of course he found it hilarious.
“Maybe. And I suppose I’m the idiot, because I could have said I needed time to think about it, but then he looked at me, all disappointed, and I didn’t stand my ground.”
He wouldn’t have voiced it to anyone, but he occasionally worried what would happen if he refused Laurent too many times. Laurent was a beautiful young man with a multitude of choices. What was there really to keep him at the side of a professional criminal with a burnt face if he couldn’t get what he needed out of a relationship? Affection could only get them so far if what Laurent needed was children.
Knight shoved his hands into his pockets and they walked is silence for a while. “Do you want kids? I know it’s kinda late to ask that, but what you want should matter too.”
Beast stopped and raised his arms before letting them drop. “I know that this is such an obvious thing to most people. But I just... don’t know. I can’t say I ever actively thought about wanting them. But now it’s done. There’s a fetus, and it’s developing, and Laurent wants to keep it, so that’s what’s going to happen.”
Knight sucked in his bottom lip and pushed back his long hair. “Hate to break it to you, but if you want to have Laurent, you will have to be a father to that kid. You need to deci—”
The thought of not having Laurent in his life was so nauseating Beast shook it right off. Laurent was his purpose, the love he’d been waiting for all his miserable life, and he would stand by him whatever happened. But that didn’t make the whole egg-pregnancy any less weird or stressful. “There’s nothing left to decide anymore. But we’ve been together for less than a year, and we’ll already have another person within this relationship. I feel like I haven’t had enough of him yet.”
Knight smirked. “Ah… So that’s it. You’re already jealous of his attention. I can see what you’re saying, but the idea is that this kid won’t just be his. You’ll take care of him together. And when you need time off, there’s always uncle Knight.”