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Rosewood and Smoke

Summary:

He'd known they would struggle, but he couldn't have imagined it would be like this.

Written for Day 1 of the Ghost Writer's Discord's Whump Month: "Are you okay?"

Work Text:

He feels like the biggest fool to ever walk the earth, guilt and misery combining with that horrible sinking feeling of realizing something you should have known all along to settle deep like a weight inside him. Terzo draws his arms closer around himself, chewing on his bottom lip as he watches Omega stare blankly into the koi pond. He's taking the news hard. Why wouldn't he? This was all his idea all along. He was the one who had wanted so desperately to start a family together.

He just wishes that either of them had come to their senses earlier. Before Omega had lured him in with talk of Ghoul kits with mismatched eyes and just how breathtaking he'd look carrying his clutch. Before he'd spent months pumping him full of eggs that Terzo would never have the means to fertilize. Before both of them had gotten their hopes up. For Lucifer's sake, how could they have been so stupid. How could it never occur to either of them that they both produce eggs? How could they just go on blindly assuming that since their genitals fit together, they could reproduce with one another? The embarrassment alone is enough to make him want to disappear through the floor. The set of Omega's shoulders, though, is enough to convince him to stay.

"Omega? Are you….Are you okay?"

It's a stupid question, but it's the only one he can think to ask. It receives no answer. In fact, Terzo would assume Omega hadn't heard him at all, were it not for the way the ghoul's ear twitches involuntarily, picking up the sound of his voice. He takes a few steps forward, dropping a hand to his shoulder and rubbing soft, soothing circles against the material of his uniform with his thumb.

"We can still….you know…..raise a child together, if you want to." He continues. He knows he's babbling just to fill the silence now, but he can't bring himself to stop. "We could find someone else who can carry our clutch, couldn't we? If not, I'm certain there are plenty of men and women alike in the church willing to uh…contribute to helping me carry. Or we could adopt! There's always going to be children in need of stable homes to grow up in, sì? We have options."

"I know."

They're the first words Omega has spoken since he'd broken the news, and Terzo stops abruptly, startled by the break in the silence. He brings a hand up to cover Terzo's, squeezing it softly, and Terzo lets out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.

"I know this is not the end. It is only a setback. But I need time to mourn what will never be. Forgive me."

There's a raw sort of honesty in the statement that opens up a deep chasm of emotion within him. Emotion that Terzo had been pointedly ignoring in favor of angrily blaming himself and pretending as though he'd merely passively gone along with Omega's plans, indifferent to the outcome. The truth is that even if it hadn't been his idea, he had wanted it just as badly, and maybe he too needed a moment to grieve for a dream that can never be realized. He wraps Omega into an embrace, kissing the space right between his horns as he holds him close.

"There is nothing to forgive, amore. Take all the time you need."

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