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The heavy rain is just beginning to let up when Euijoo feels a sudden pull in his gut, and a few seconds later he knows something for certain: humans have just breached their territory. While it isn’t completely unheard of for humans to accidentally wander into their land — a woodland a fair ways away from the nearest signs of civilization, accessible only if one is familiar with the area — it hasn’t happened in a long time, not since the residents of the nearest towns started spreading gossip of monsters that live in the woods. Monsters, werewolves, vampires, it’s all just the same to them, just another creature that needs to be killed and tortured in the most painful of ways, never to be seen in the daylight. Euijoo would be happy if he never has to see another human again as long as he shall live. Well, aside from Nicholas, of course.
Euijoo looks at his second-in-command to find Fuma already looking at him, clearly having felt the same tug of dread. Fuma nods at him as a way of confirming Euijoo’s instincts before turning to look at the pups, praying that whatever is to happen will not cause harm to them. Harua is asleep in his wolf form curled up on top of Nicholas, who is patting him gently while he watches videos on his phone. Yuma and Taki are creating chaos as always, chasing each other around and fighting for a pack of gummy bears, jumping up and down and around the well-worn sofa where Jo sits on one end, focused on his painting.
All of a sudden, Taki stops running and Yuma bumps into him, and the older boy yelps as falls on his butt on the couch. Taki sniffs the air curiously, his superior sense of smell prevalent even in human form. He quickly bounds over to where Euijoo is sitting by the window.
“Hyung, I smell humans.” He says, grabbing Euijoo’s arm. “Do you think it’s something dangerous?”
“I don’t know, Taki.” Euijoo replies, then pats the boy’s arm to comfort him. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you. To any of you.”
Fuma walks over to Euijoo. “What’s your plan?”
“I’ll go investigate.” The pack leader answers, no hesitation. “You stay here and guard everyone.”
“You know the rain will make it hard for you.” Fuma observes, looking out the window and seeing gentle drops of water hitting glass. “The worst of the storm has passed, but it still won’t be easy.”
“I can go with you,” Taki volunteers. “I can track whoever it is down easily.”
“No.” Euijoo firmly refuses with a shake of his head. “We don’t know what they want. You stay here with Fuma-hyung and the other pups until we know it’s safe.”
Taki scowls softly at being treated like a baby at the ripe age of fifteen, but Euijoo can see the slight relief that finds its way to his face regardless. “Okay, hyung.”
“Take Yudai with you.” Fuma suggests just as their oldest Omega enters the room, a plate of pajeon in each hand. The cubs (and Euijoo, honestly) have not stopped talking about their craving for scallion pancakes since the first drop of rain hit the ground, and even though it had been years since they moved away from Seoul, this particular rainy day tradition has deeply embedded itself into their weird, multicultural fusion of a pack, and is showing so signs of leaving. So Yudai gives in, as he always does where the cubs are concerned.
“I was just about to say the same.” He places the plates on the coffee table and Jo, Yuma, and Taki immediately start tearing into one without even giving it a second to cool.
Fuma drops a kiss to the top of Yudai’s head and nuzzles his neck where his bite mark lies, offering strength and comfort that Yudai welcomes each and every time. “I’ll keep the pups safe.”
“I know you will.” Yudai takes a second to scent his mate before making a lap around the living room to do the same to each cub, and Euijoo follows.
The Alpha then leans down to give Nicholas a kiss, and Nicholas rubs his wrist against Euijoo’s in return. As the sole human of the pack the action technically does nothing, he knows, but it settles a bit of the discomfort lodged in Euijoo’s heart just the same. “I’ll be back. Take care of the babies.”
Nicholas gives them both a smile, betraying nothing of how fast his heart is beating from the fear and nerves. But Euijoo can tell anyway, because of course he can, and he squeezes Nicho’s hand with his assuringly before walking out with Yudai and switching into their wolf forms, and the two of them disappear into the woods before Nicholas could even blink.
Yudai, although not quite as good as Taki who is gifted with unrivaled tracking powers, is still the second best of the pack at it. So Euijoo follows behind the white-furred wolf as he keeps an eye open for any danger that may befall them. According to his own nose, most of the humans have gone, but there is still the slightest trace of a smell that doesn’t quite belong. As a leader, he would not rest until he’s assured, and he knows Yudai feels the same. The Omega pauses for a second here and there, trying to follow the scent as best as he could. The rain has turned to a light shower, but the wet ground and the smell of mud and earth makes their task all the more difficult. They walk and walk until they make it to the edge of their territory all the way East, to a place that none of them regularly frequent due to its proximity to the nearest human dwelling.
And there, barely concealed by a sorry excuse of a cave and in plain sight of all the wildlife predators, is a dirt-stained, bleeding, crying human child sitting curled up on himself, who couldn’t be more than six years of age. Yudai feels his heart sink. The child is shivering, milk teeth chattering and his little body shaking uncontrollably. Yudai sniffs the air and senses no one else around them, at least not for miles and miles. Looks like whoever had come with this child had dropped him off in the woods and left him to die in the hands of whatever monsters they believe to live within. Yudai feels his blood boil, parental instinct geared up to a thousand even if the little one isn’t technically a cub.
“I’m scared. And I’m cold.” The child says into the void, his voice breaking. Euijoo looks at Yudai and they both very quickly come to the same conclusion — this child is nowhere near wherever he comes from, if the foreign language that he is speaking is any indication. Thankfully, Euijoo has spent enough time with Nicholas to know that this is a language his mate speaks, one that he uses with some of his friends from way back, leftover traces of a time before he found a place to call home with Euijoo and his chaotic little wolf pack. Yudai turns his gray eyes at him, and even without words, he can clearly read Euijoo’s mind, the leader’s command loud and clear. Get Nicholas. Now.
Yudai sets off running at full speed, laser-focused now that he knows there’s a child’s life on the line. He feels sick with worry, thinking of all the possibilities that could have happened had he and Euijoo not gotten there as fast as they had. But now that the leader is watching over him and guarding him from any predators, Yudai knows everything will be fine. He also knows that they are both relying on him to get the child to safety, and back to the pack where they’ll watch over him as best as they could. He runs faster still.
Yudai reaches the pack house in no time, and he barely switches forms for a second before he’s pouncing on Nicholas’s leg, pulling the younger man out of his slumber.
“Hyung, what-"
“There’s no time.” Yudai says, tugging Nicholas up and accidentally waking Harua in the process, making the little pup whine. Yudai pats him in apology and drops Harua on Fuma’s lap instead, where the little wolf promptly falls back asleep again.
“What’s going on?” Nicholas asks, bewildered. “Where’s Juju? Is he okay?”
Fuma is raptly watching them with bated breath, and Yudai knows he needs to slow himself down before he scares them all. “Euijoo is fine.” He says.
Both Fuma and Nicholas exhale in relief, and Fuma begins gently patting Harua now that the fear has lessened.
“There’s a human child, maybe five or six,” Yudai begins to explain, and he watches as horror colors both Nicholas and Fuma’s expressions. “He’s been dropped off by that cave on the East. We don’t know who brought him, because by the time we got there, there was no one but the child. He’s shivering, and he’s very clearly terrified.”
Nicholas is brushing off his clothes, realizing Yudai’s request. “But he’s conscious?”
“He is.” Yudai continues, “but he was speaking in English. Me and Euijoo could barely understand him.”
“I got it.” Nicholas shrugs on his jacket that was hanging behind the door and Fuma nods at him, silently giving his promise to watch over the cubs with all the other grown-ups gone.
“Let’s go.” Yudai then switches to his wolf form, and sniffs the air to seek out any changes or danger. Finding none, he tilts his head as a signal for Nicholas to follow him.
By the time Nicholas and Yudai reach Euijoo, the rain has fully stopped. The soft ground made it impossible for Nicholas to run, even though he tried his best. His shoes and pants are covered in mud and dirt, but all the discomfort is forgotten when his eyes land on the tiny figure slumping inside the cave and seeing Euijoo standing guard at the mouth of it, just out of the child’s immediate vision. He steps in the cave carefully, and calls out to the boy.
“Hello.” Nicholas says, raising the pitch of his voice a little. He has been told that his deep voice scares people, and he would rather not take risks with an already frightened child.
When he lifts his head, Nicholas can see tears collecting in his warm brown eyes, his round face streaked with dirt and tears and little scratches all over. Nicholas’s heart feels like it’s been shot with a thousand arrows all at once, but he pushes the thought aside.
“Hi,” he tries again. “My name is Nicholas. What’s your name?”
“Hirota Riki.” The boy says quietly, and Nicholas has to lean in to hear him.
A Japanese name, for a child that doesn’t speak it. Nicholas’s head hurts with all the theories and possibilities. “Hi Riki. Are you from around here?”
The child shakes his head and begins to cry, so Nicholas takes that as a sign that he’s definitely not ready to talk about it just yet.
“My house is nearby,” Nicholas coaxes gently. “I live with my family, and some of them are children too.” They may be a decade older than you, but the pups are still children, he adds in this head.
“Your family?”
“Yes.” Nicholas nods, offering him a hand. “Do you want to wait with us until you feel better?”
Riki seems to weigh the pros and cons. Nicholas doesn’t blame him for the hesitation, and deep down he wonders what this child has seen and gone through before being dropped off in a random cave in the middle of a forest that is known to be haunted. After a while, Riki nods.
“Alright. Don’t be scared, okay? I promise I won’t hurt you.” Saying these words, Nicholas can’t help but wonder if someone has said them to the boy before, only to break their word later. But Riki just nods, though he doesn’t accept Nicholas’s offer to hold hands, and Nicho is perfectly fine with that. As they exit the cave, Yudai and Euijoo both step into the boy’s line of vision and Riki startles, hastily hiding himself behind Nicholas.
“It’s alright,” Nicho coaxes gently. “They’re part of my family. This white guy here is my older brother Kei-hyung, and the black one is my partner, and you can call him Euijoo-hyung.”
“Hyong,” Riki tries to say, but the word is foreign in his untrained tongue and ear. “They have the same name?”
“No, hyung means older brother in Korean.” Nicholas explains to him, soft and patient. “It’s a polite way to address someone older than you.”
“Oh.” Riki mumbles, then bows low. “Hi, hyung.”
Yudai feels the immediate need to scent the boy into oblivion just from how cute he is, but he suppresses it with all his might to not undo all of Nicholas’s hard work. He bows his head in greeting instead, and so does Euijoo next to him.
“This is Riki.” Nicholas tells them. “Riki, do you know how to greet in Japanese?”
Surprisingly, Riki nods. “Konnichiwa.” He says, bowing one more time.
“So you do know how to speak Japanese.” Nicho says to him, eyes lighting up. Not that Nicho isn’t willing to translate everything every day for him, but him being able to speak with the rest of the pack would make things a whole lot easier.
“Just a little.” Riki says, voice quiet. “I don’t like it. The strangers say it.”
Nicholas tries to work out his meaning, and comes to the conclusion that whoever dropped him off — The Strangers — must have been speaking in Japanese, so that he associates it with bad memories. But no matter, give or take a few days, he knows the pups will get rid of this way of thinking once and for all.
“Alright. Then you don’t need to say it.” Nicholas then turns to the two wolves, and switches to Korean. “The people who took him here spoke Japanese, so hearing it scares him. Let’s just use Korean for now.”
After the two wolves wag their tails in understanding, Nicholas continues. “He’s kind of hurt, scrapes and bruises all over his legs. I don’t think he can walk far, and I can’t carry him comfortably. Would it be okay if I ask him to get on your back, hyung?”
Yudai wags his tail once, then crouches down so Riki could get on. Nicholas explains the situation to Riki, who nods hesitantly and Nicho lifts him up to put him on Yudai’s back. The boy gently pats the white fur, and the corner of his lips quirk up when he feels the softness of it.
“It’s comfy, huh?” Nicholas asks him, and the boy smiles a little in response. “Alright. Let’s go slowly.” He then repeats it in Korean, and off they go.
By the time they reach the house, Nicholas can tell that all the pups are awake and fully recharged from the food Yudai cooked earlier. Excited little yaps and sounds of tiny howls make their way out despite the doors and windows being shut, and immediately he can tell Riki is tense. Nicho turns to his mate.
“Juju, why don’t you go inside first and let them know what’s going on?” He suggests. “This kid here might be more comfortable meeting everyone when they’re humans.”
Euijoo wags his tail and pushes the door open to excited barks and Fuma exclaiming “Joo!” before it shuts again, and the sounds become muffled. When the door reopens a couple minutes later, Euijoo is in human form and he greets them with a smile.
“Come in.” He says. Euijoo’s English is stilted and awkward — as it always is because he has no reason to use it — but Nicholas loves it all the same.
The kids seem to be on their best behavior when the three of them enter, and their eyes light up at the sight of a child on Yudai’s back. Nicholas gently lets the boy down as Yudai retreats to his bedroom, presumably to switch forms in private.
“Behave.” Euijoo warns before the kids (minus Jo, who is polite and sweet and good and never makes life difficult for anyone) can start howling and running around Riki. “He’s a little scared, like I said, so let’s be gentle with him, okay?”
Nicholas introduces him to the rest of them in age order, starting with Fuma and ending with Taki. The pups sit obediently through the entire ordeal, though Nicholas can tell that there is unlimited energy waiting to be unleashed thrumming under their skin.
“He can’t play with you guys just yet.” Nicholas says firmly when Taki looks at him with his literal puppy eyes, round and pleading, all before Taki even opens his mouth to ask. “He’s still injured, so let’s just let him recover first, yeah?”
“Okay, fine.” Taki rescinds, even though Nicholas knows he’s itching to get to know the little Riki. “Can I talk to him and tell him that we have the same name?”
“Sure.” Nicholas then relays the message to the little boy, but he just shakes his head.
“Did the strangers change his name, too?” He asks quietly. Nicholas freezes in surprise.
“What did he say?” Taki asks, excited. “Did he say it’s cool? Does he want to be friends? Does he think he and I can make a Riki hunting group?”
“Taki,” Yudai comes up from behind and tells him to quiet down. “Give him some space, please. Why don’t you go to your room and play with the others for a while?”
With all the pups out of the way, the four adults sit in the living room. Yudai and Euijoo gets reintroduced to him in their human forms, and thankfully he seems more fascinated than scared. After getting Riki changed out of his dirty clothes, Yudai starts to clean up his wounds and bandages the scars, taking care to do so gently as the child sits on Nicholas’s lap, exhaustion coloring his features.
“Did he say where he came from?” Fuma asks, concerned.
“I asked him if he was from around here, but he started crying earlier.” Nicholas explains. “And he said Hirota Riki isn’t his real name. So I’m guessing he was adopted from somewhere and they changed his name when he got here.”
“We need to find out.” Yudai pitches in, putting a bandage over a little scar on Riki’s ankle. “The faster we know something, the better.”
“I agree.” Euijoo says, eyeing the child on Nicho’s lap with worry. “We need to know whether or not someone else is going to come looking for him. You know that we need to lie low, and taking a child that doesn’t belong to us will bring so much unwanted attention.”
Nicholas’s hold on Riki tightens. “We can’t just let him go back. Clearly whoever he was with before doesn’t want him.”
Euijoo reaches for Nicholas’s arm wrapped around Riki’s middle and holds it gently. “I know. I’m not saying that we’ll give him up right now. We just need more information first.”
Fuma nods in agreement. “So until we know more, we can keep him here with us. And don’t let the pups out too far from the house, just in case humans come looking and wandering around here.”
Yudai looks at the boy, now fast asleep in Nicho’s arms. “Why don’t you put him in Jo and Yuma’s room, he’ll be more comfortable sleeping there and you can do your thing.”
By Do Your Thing, he means for Nicholas to reach out to his infinite number of Connections to see if anyone knows anything. Nicholas used to work for the government at one point in time as a consular officer, processing documents and providing assistance for Taiwanese people living in Seoul. It was on a random Monday at the office building five years ago that he came face to face with Euijoo, who was trying to bring Yudai, Fuma, and Yuma into the country when they were running from something. And even though Euijoo hadn’t been there to find love or an inside man, that’s what he ended up getting, all in the form of a sharp-eyed Nicho who was fresh out of university and looking desperately for a place to belong.
Following Yudai’s suggestion, Nicholas lifts Riki up in his arms and brings him into the middle kids’ bedroom. Inside, he finds Jo on his bed fast asleep, though he jolts awake the second Nicholas walks in, being the light sleeper that he is.
“Hey, sorry.” Nicho whispers. “He fell asleep and Kei-hyung said to put him in here, while we work some things out.”
“Oh. Come in, hyung.” Jo looks at Riki, still shivering even though he’s already gotten changed into some old clothes that Harua used to wear for winter. “He looks cold.”
“He is.” Nicho hugs the child tighter. “I think the rain did a number on him.”
“Would it help if he could curl up to me while I’m in wolf form?” Jo offers, being the absolute sweetheart that he is. “I don’t mind. If it would keep him warm.”
“That would be great, Jo.”
When Jo has shifted and is curled up comfortably on his pillow, Nicholas gently lays Riki down, and the boy subconsciously buries himself further into Jo’s brown, fluffy fur as he dreams. Nicho smiles at the sight and caresses both their heads gently before leaving the room and back into harsh reality.
If there’s one thing about himself that Nicholas can be proud of, it’s that he knows all the right people in all the right places. Within two hours of reaching out to his old friend at the consulate Matthew (who Nicho had a crush on as a Freshman, but that’s another story for another day), he is referred to someone by the name of Mark, who then referred him to someone else named Yang Yang, who claims to have found some old records that could have possibly belonged to Riki.
“I think I found what you’re looking for.” The voice on the other end says in their shared mother tongue. “You’re lucky I still remember working on this one myself.”
“Thank you for your help.” Nicholas says, and three pairs of eyes watch him talk on the phone closely despite not understanding a single word leaving his mouth.
“Okay. So you said the child is about five or six?”
Nicholas makes an affirmative sound.
“Right. I have a record here for a little boy called Maus Riki. Born February 17th, 2020. Blond hair, brown eyes.”
So he’s five, Nicholas thinks. Riki’s hair color has darkened to a light brown, but Nicholas knows that this is likely to happen to blond kids.
“That sounds like him.” Nicholas confirms. “His hair is darker now, but he definitely looks mixed. So he could’ve been born with blond hair.”
“Right. And you said they changed his name?”
“They named him Hirota Riki.” Nicholas replies. “So I guess they just changed his last name, to fit whoever adopted him here better.”
“Seems to be the case.” There’s a shuffling of papers on the other end as the man gathers more information. “It says here he was born to a Japanese-Spanish mother and German father. They were living in Berlin, but his parents recently passed away from unknown causes. The authorities contacted his mother’s closest relatives and they brought him back to Japan.”
Nicholas thinks back to how Riki was behaving, and he doesn’t know if that’s how one would act around their own family. “He called the people who had him strangers, though.”
“I don’t know anything about that, sorry.” Yang Yang says, and to his credit he does sound apologetic. “All I know is that his custody was processed to a close relative and that’s all I have on him.”
“So he doesn’t have anyone else to take custody of him?”
“Not here, as far as I know. Father didn’t have any listed relatives.”
“And the mom?”
“Out of my jurisdiction, sorry. But I could give you the number of someone who might know.”
Nicholas ends the phone call after acquiring the number of one Honda Hitomi, a social services worker with rank and stellar reputation. He then dials her number, tells her about Riki, and the process starts all over again.
By the time Nicholas gets off the phone, the sky has darkened considerably, and Yudai is in the kitchen preparing dinner with Fuma. It’s a little later than they would usually have dinner, but the day has been insanely long and Nicholas is beyond tired. The weight of the task feels lighter however, as Euijoo stays a grounding, comforting presence next to him while he makes call after call, asks question after question, and gives answer after answer. It’s never easy to dig into someone’s past like this and Nicholas feels guilty towards Riki, but there’s little he can do about the fact.
The pups eat dinner as well as they usually do, though they seem to know that the adults are having a serious dilemma at the moment, and they try their best to not cause trouble. Say what you will about their pups, but they are well-behaved when they need to be (although Nicholas knows from experience that the second the gloomy cloud of uncertainty over their heads is gone, they will multiply the raucous tenfold). Riki is exhausted, and he stays half asleep even as Yudai spoon feeds him the pups’ favorite gyudon, of which he manages to get half a bowl down. At bedtime, they unanimously decide to push Harua and Taki’s beds together to make one queen-sized bed, and they all sleep together in a big puppy pile in their wolf forms, save for little Riki who they keep in the middle for safekeeping and warmth. It’s all very adorable and wholesome that Euijoo has no choice but to let them do as they please.
After all the bedtime routine noises are reduced to quiet snores, Nicholas sits the others down in the middle of the living room and relays all the information he has acquired on Riki. His parentage, his adoption, his supposed relative, and the name change. He tells them that apparently, his mother had left the country several years ago, due to the fact that several of her family members had previous run-ins with the law concerning distribution of controlled substances. And although the relative they had given custody of Riki to didn’t have a criminal record, he has been missing for the last few days with no traces, so as far as custody goes, there is no one to look after the boy.
“This is... a lot.” Yudai says, after a minute of silence following Nicholas’s story. “Poor baby.”
“We can’t let him leave us now.” Nicholas insists, voice cracking with emotions he doesn’t know how to rein in. “He has nowhere to go. He’s got no one else.”
Just like the rest of us goes unsaid, but they all hear it loud and clear anyway. Euijoo takes Nicholas’s hand in his and doesn’t let go for the rest of the night.
So Riki stays with them. Although his physical wounds and scars heal after a few days with no trouble — not with Yudai there to constantly monitor it to make sure nothing gets infected — he was quiet as anything, barely speaking up despite the pups’ relentless attempts to get him to play along. He would talk to no one but Nicholas, relying on the only other human member of their family for anything and everything. Nicholas gets him new clothes, his favorite foods, a variety of toys, and everything else he needs under the sun — and in just a short while, he becomes a precious addition to their pack.
Under Nicholas’s gentle care and love, Riki slowly starts to come into himself. He smiles more, laughs more, speaks up more. They discover the most adorable of dimples on not just one, but both sides of his cheeks, and Nicholas pokes at it whenever he is allowed, though Nicho is still the only one he doesn’t shy away from. Day by day, he blooms little by little, like the sweet, bright boy he is and always was, way before experiencing the things he had gone through. Eventually, Riki starts to give in to the abundance of affection openly — much to everyone else’s delight, what with all their touchy-feely and puppy-piling tendencies — and he seeks their love like a sunflower chasing warm sunlight, letting the gentle rays in, and allowing the petals that surround his vulnerable heart to open, inch by painstaking inch.
It’s on the twelfth day of Riki being in their care that he warms up to Yudai. The oldest member of their pack takes care of the wellbeing of everyone like clockwork, ever reliable and never ending. One day when all the pups are at school and the other adults are working (Fuma works at home, but Euijoo and Nicholas don't have the luxury), Riki tugs on Yudai’s pant leg for the first time.
“Hyung,” he says, pronunciation scarily accurate for a child who is just only starting to learn the word.
If Yudai is pleasantly surprised, he shows nothing of it, in case it scares him off. “Yes?”
“Food.” Riki says in accented Japanese. “Please.”
“Of course.” Yudai lifts the boy up to his hip and opens the fridge so they can inspect its contents together. “What do you want to eat?” He makes the eat gesture while he speaks, to help the boy understand easier.
“This.” He points at the carton of eggs, and Yudai pulls it out. He puts both the egg carton and Riki on the kitchen island to get everything else ready.
“You want to help?” He asks slowly, but Riki just tilts his head in confusion at the unfamiliar word.
“Here.” Yudai hands him an egg, and demonstrates how to crack one in a big bowl. “You try helping.”
Riki tries to follow, but he accidentally gets a fair bit of eggshells in. He looks at Yudai, tears welling up in his eyes in fear. But Yudai just smiles and pats his head, and fishes the shells out with a fork.
“There. All fixed.”
“Angry?” Riki asks in English, but thankfully Yudai knows enough to understand.
“Not angry.” The Omega smiles at him. “See?”
Riki watches his face for a good few seconds before nodding. “Okay.”
When Fuma peeks into the kitchen to check on Yudai a few minutes later, he finds the two of them with their heads pressed together hunched over a mixing bowl while whisking eggs, and he leaves them to it with a fond smile on his face.
The next day at dinner time, instead of climbing onto Nicho’s lap like all of them expected, Riki climbs on to Euijoo’s instead. He perches himself there cutely, balancing carefully on a lean, muscled thigh. Riki then opens his mouth expectantly, waiting to be fed by him. Everyone looks on curiously at the development, and Nicholas is even half expecting the boy to jump off Euijoo’s lap to go on his at some point during the meal. But it doesn’t happen — not when Riki finishes off one bowl of udon, and not even when he finishes off a second and half of a third. When he’s done eating, Riki gives Euijoo a quick hug that has the man’s eyes welling up. Nicholas then wipes the tear away with a thumb, and Euijoo doesn’t tell anyone about the fact that he cries more about it later that night (Nicholas knows it anyway, but he will take this secret to the grave).
Fuma is the next one that Riki warms up to. Riki is standing behind a door, watching the man run through his morning exercises and stretches. The other cubs are still asleep, seeing as it’s basically the crack of dawn, but Fuma and Euijoo are already up for the day with their pack leader preparing breakfast for everyone.
“Hi.” Riki says in a tiny voice, rubbing his eyes.
“Good morning, pup.” Fuma greets him with a smile. “You’re up early.”
Riki nods, and Fuma can’t tell if he understands him or if Riki is just agreeing with everything he doesn’t know the meaning of.
“What are you doing?”
“Exercise.” Fuma tells him, repeating the word twice for Riki to copy.
“Exercise.” Riki repeats in a tiny voice, and Fuma nods in approval.
“Good job.” Fuma pats his head. “You want to exercise too?”
Riki nods, and he plops down on the floor next to Fuma, copying the way the man was doing pushups. He gives up after a few attempts, much to Fuma’s amusement. Fuma then takes to using Riki as weights — he gets Riki to sit on his back as he does push-ups, on his shoulders as he does squats, and on his back as he runs out in the forest, making sure to stick close to the house.
When they come back inside, Riki has the wildest, happiest grin, his cheeks flushing an adorable red from the cool morning air. He jumps down in glee, and gives Fuma a little pat on the head as a thank you, much like Fuma does to him. Yudai watches the entire thing with a shit-eating grin on his face, and gives his mate a chaste kiss for his accomplishment in winning over Riki’s heart.
One Friday evening, Yudai prepares a big meal to celebrate Yuma winning a dance competition at school, and everyone sits in a circle on the living room carpet as they get ready to eat after congratulating him. Little Riki comes in from where he was playing with blocks on the dining room table, and plops himself down on Yuma’s lap. The teenager startles, but he quickly collects himself and holds on to Riki to keep him from falling off.
“Congratulations.” He whispers in Yuma’s ear, and the word is still foreign in his mouth, but he gives it his best shot after hearing everyone else say it.
“Thank you, pup.” Touched, Yuma gives him a hug, which the boy reciprocates.
When dinner is over, Yuma turns on some music he remembers from his childhood and teaches Riki little beginner dance moves, pulling a happy laugh out of him every few minutes when he attempts one and succeeds. Everyone else cheers and claps for them, hyping them up like they won a daesang even if all they’re doing is twirling in unison. By the end of their little lesson, Riki even lets Yuma ruffle his hair and pinch his cheeks, and it feels like the sweetest victory of all.
The next person that Riki warms up to after that is Taki. After more than two weeks of being locked up at the house aside from when they’re at school, the pups are going a little stir crazy. Euijoo knows this — how could he not, when all he sees is how frequently the kids gaze longingly out the window at the sunny weather and the endless stretch of trees that await them?
“Euijoo-yah, maybe you should let them go out for a little while.” Fuma suggests when he sees Harua heave a big sigh as he opens a window to let fresh air in. “Just don’t let them go far. It’s been two weeks and nothing has happened. I don’t think anyone is coming for Riki.”
“I know, hyung. It’s just…”
“I know.” Fuma pats his shoulder in sympathy. “You want them to be safe. But keeping them locked up like this isn’t good for them, and you know it.”
Euijoo nods in resignation. Fuma then calls out to the kids as he opens the door, and less than ten seconds later, there are four wolves sniping at each other’s tails and running around the area that surrounds their pack house. Riki comes running out a minute later, having heard the barking and howling from where he was napping on the living room couch. He looks at the open door, then at Euijoo, then at Fuma.
“You want to go play?” Euijoo asks. When Riki nods, Euijoo scoops him up into his arms and takes him outside.
“Pups,” he calls out, authoritative but not overly demanding. “Riki wants to play with you. Make sure to watch him, okay?”
Riki fits into the chaos perfectly, running around chasing Yuma who is pretending to be slower than he is, just so Riki could brush against his tail every once in a while. Jo and Harua are off somewhere out of Euijoo's immediate vicinity, but he trusts them not to wander off into dangerous territory.
After Yuma leaves to go after Harua and Jo, Taki sets off to a little stream nearby, wanting to take a dip in the water before the weather gets too cold. When his eyes are closed, he feels the water ripple and the sound of a tiny splash, and he turns his head to see little Riki wading in, one pant leg rolled up to his knee and the other fully soaked in the water. He’s running over to Taki, and splashes him with the water as he laughs. Taki yips, and swishes his tail around to get Riki back.
After a while, Riki comes up behind Taki to pat his sopping wet fur with a tiny hand. “I wash you.”
Taki lets him do so, watching as his fur turns darker from its usual pale gray shade. He sees the grin on the little boy’s face, and howls in poorly concealed cuteness aggression. Riki follows suit, howling in his tiny, adorable voice, and Taki howls back at him.
Later on, Taki goes home with Riki on his back, both of them creating puddles on the floor. Euijoo tells Taki off for it and makes him clean it, but Taki finds he doesn’t mind the chore when he gets to watch little Riki try to wipe up the wet floors next to him, insistent on helping.
Later that same night, when everyone has finished their nighttime routines and the house is settling down, Nicholas offers to tuck Riki into the bed of his choosing. Being as large of a family as they are, there is already a shortage of bedrooms, hence why the middle kids share a room and so do the two youngest. And with the addition of Riki, there’s really no easy way to divide up their living space, so Riki always gets the final say on where he wants to fall asleep for the night. Most nights, he alternates between Jo (he loves sleeping with his face smushed into Jo’s thick, brown fur) or Yuma (he always falls asleep quickly while hugging Yuma’s fluffy white tail), but that night, he takes them all by surprise when he goes into Taki and Harua’s room instead. Even more surprising still, is when he climbs up right onto Harua’s lap instead of sitting on the bed.
“Read, please.” He gives Harua one of the children’s books that Yudai had bought for him, easy enough for Nicholas to read and Riki to understand with his limited Japanese. (Nicholas and Yudai have taken to alternating reading bedtime stories to him every night, just to get the boy used to the language before they figure out what to do about his schooling situation.)
“Me?” Harua asks, and when Riki nods his affirmative, Harua smiles his signature bunny smile at him.
Riki smiles back, dimples appearing briefly before he settles his back against Harua’s front to listen. That night Riki sleeps soundly, head pillowed on Harua’s stomach, and he wakes up with Harua stroking his hair softly the next morning.
Riki warms up to Jo a few days after that. Jo is lying on his stomach on the floor of his bedroom surrounded by all his art supplies, when all the other kids are down for a nap in Taki and Harua’s room. The weather has been terrible lately, with unpredictable rain coming down at the most inconvenient times. So in the afternoons when they would usually go out and run around, they’ve taken to sleeping instead. Jo opts to indulge in his hobbies — drawing, coloring, or painting, whichever he feels like doing that day — and at that exact moment, Riki comes into the room. His big, curious eyes intently study Jo’s fingers as it flies across the page, bursts of color following his practiced movements.
“What are you doing?” Riki asks him carefully, and Jo temps down a smile at how cute the little boy sounds when speaking a new language.
“I’m drawing.” He tells him. “You want to try?”
“Try,” Riki repeats, the word familiar now that he has learned it from Yudai. “I try.”
“Okay.” Jo pats the space next to him, and Maki plops himself down on his stomach as well.
Jo draws a picture of familiar pine trees, of the clear blue sky, and of white, fluffy clouds. Riki follows his example and adds on splotches of colors that are supposed to be flowers, black blobs that are supposed to be birds, and a lopsided circle that is supposed to be the sun. He shows off his creation to Jo, proud as can be.
“Good job.” Jo says in English, and gives him a thumbs up.
Riki grins, showing off a gap in his front teeth because one fell off a couple days prior. When Nicholas comes in to call them for dinner, Riki gives the picture to him as a present. Nicho hangs it on the fridge alongside all the other kids’ creations and achievements, and Riki smiles a little every time he goes in the kitchen.
It’s after a little over two months of Riki living with them when the issue of his education gets brought up. The cubs are all down for the night, and last Nicholas checked, Riki is fast asleep in Taki’s arms, because for some reason he prefers their youngest pup in human form over his wolf form. Either way, it was an adorable sight to behold.
“He needs to attend school, Nicho. I know you think keeping him here is the best thing for him, but it isn’t.” Yudai says, leaving no room for argument. “He’s a child. He’s going to turn six soon. He needs to go.”
“I’m not saying he can’t go, hyung.” Nicholas replies. “I’m just worried for him. He’s only now learning how to communicate, and not to mention that the people who dropped him off are still out there somewhere. We don’t know who they are, and we don’t know if they’ll ever come back for him.”
Euijoo and Fuma have been quietly observing for the past five minutes, being the best listeners that they are, letting their partners talk things out before intervening.
“I don’t think they’re coming back for him. They left him here to die, and we all know it.” Yudai remarks, point blank.
“I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Nico,” Euijoo cuts in, gentle as he always is. “Keeping him locked up here is doing him a disservice and I know you know it, too.”
“What do you suggest, then?” Nicholas asks, desperation seeping in his tone. “We can’t just let him wander around here, where they can easily track him down.”
“There has to be a middle ground somewhere.” Yudai suggests. “And we need to figure out what that is, if we want what’s best for him.”
In the intensity of their discussion, they completely miss the pitter-patter of tiny, light footsteps standing by the door when it’s left slightly ajar.
“Well first of all, I agree with Nicholas.” Fuma comments. “We can’t have Riki stay here for much longer.”
“Exactly!” Nicholas exclaims. “It’s just not safe.”
Euijoo nods. “I know. I agree.”
“Okay, look. We have gotten away from dangers before, I’m sure we can do it again.” Yudai interjects. “Let’s just discuss our possible options for now. How about-”
As the four of them continue to deliberate with increasingly loud voices to make themselves heard over the storm going on outside, they once again fail to notice the same footsteps walking away from the door, slow and heavy.
A few hours later, when Euijoo does a final check on the pups when they’re all about to turn in for the night, Riki is nowhere to be found.
Nicholas cries. Yudai is distraught. Fuma paces furiously. And Euijoo feels nothing but guilt weighing on the entirety of his being, like an anchor is lodged underneath him and drowning him in the wild ocean currents, like he has broken the only compass and can’t find his way back to shore. The smell in the air turns unpleasant like it has never before, sour and bitter and putrid. And the sound of rain hitting the windows makes it all the worse, serving like a reminder of what it was like the first day they discovered Riki. Euijoo shuts his eyes and tries to be strong, even though all he wants is for time to turn back to before Riki disappeared.
Fuma steps up next to Euijoo and puts an arm around him, noticing instantly how he needs the support and a shoulder to rely on. You’re my leader, Fuma-hyung, Euijoo had told him once upon a time, when the weight of the world feels too much to bear and the responsibility of it all has him suffocated. And this statement still holds true now, because as much as Euijoo has led the pack during some of their darkest, toughest days, he knows that Fuma will be there to pick him up when he can’t do it alone anymore. And today is one of those days.
“You stay here with Nico and the kids.” Fuma says, sure and strong. “Yudai and I will get him back.”
Euijoo nods. He can’t even argue, not when he knows he himself needs the support as much as Nicho does. And if there is anyone in the world that Euijoo can let himself cry and break down in front of, it would be Nicholas — the one person who has seen every broken and bruised part of Euijoo inside and out, and holds him close to his heart like he is treasured gold anyway.
“Thank you.” He whispers, voice breaking with the weight of it all.
“Riki couldn’t have gone far. And he knows a lot of the land now, since the pups take him out to play regularly.” Euijoo doesn’t know if Fuma is trying to convince himself or him, but it does plant a little seed of hope in Euijoo’s heart regardless.
“I’ll make sure everything is fine here, hyung.”
Fuma pats him in reassurance one more time before switching forms and running out with Yudai into the night, thunderstorm and pitch-black darkness all around them be damned.
Not even the worst of rain and thunder and lightning can shake Yudai’s determination, especially not when it’s possible that Riki’s life is on the line. He cuts through the trees like an animal possessed, zipping through the obstacles easily and ignoring the heavy raindrops pelting his fur. He howls in hopes that Riki could hear him and howl back, like he has been doing playfully at home with the pups. It doesn’t happen. Fuma follows closely behind him, keeping watch and guarding the Omega to make sure nothing can hurt him.
When they’re going downhill to head to the cave where they found him for the first time, Fuma catches a glimpse of the boy wrapped in one of Yuma’s old winter jackets, wobbling down the hill unsteadily in a slow gait. He and Yudai race towards him, and Yudai unsurprisingly reaches Riki first. He bumps Riki with his snout to make the boy turn and immediately notices his red, tired eyes, his sniffling nose, and the chattering of his teeth.
Fuma grabs him by the back of his clothes like one would a newborn kitten and he drops him right on Yudai’s back, the oldest member of their pack already crouching down to accommodate the movement. The two of them set off towards the house faster than Riki could process the situation.
When they push the door open, six red-rimmed pairs of eyes greet them. Yudai sees Taki, Yuma, and Jo cuddling as a pile on the floor as a way to comfort themselves. He sees Euijoo standing behind them on high alert, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. He sees Harua sobbing with Nicho’s arms holding him tight, voice laced with what Yudai knows to be fear. The young Alpha has his emotions under control 90% of the time, but the few times he has seen him cry were times when he had been terrified, and this time is no exception. Nicholas is trying to stay strong for the kids, Yudai knows, but his trembling hands give him away.
“Riki!” Euijoo is the first to leap towards them, with Yuma and Taki close on his heels. “Why were you out in the rain in the middle of the night?”
Riki looks at him, confusion and fatigue written all over his face.
“Juju, slow down. He can't understand you.” Nicholas pushes the Alpha aside gently, kneeling down in front of the boy. “Riki, are you okay?”
The rest of them can only watch as Nicholas gently coaxes him into speaking, immediate relief flooding their faces when the little boy nods.
“Why were you out there? Did you hear something?” Nicholas prompts. “Or you were looking for something?”
“No, I…” Riki looks around the room at everyone studying him, and tears begin to collect in the corner of his eyes. “You said I can’t stay. So I’m going.”
“What-" Nicholas raises his voice subconsciously, and he takes a deep breath to not scare Riki. “What do you mean you’re going? Going where?”
“I heard you.” Riki whines, a hot tear trailing down his round cheek. “You guys said you can’t have me here anymore. And it’s not safe. So you were going to leave.”
“When did we say that?” Nicholas can hear his own voice breaking, the accusation cutting through him like a knife to the gut.
“Earlier. I heard you. You were sitting in that room.” He points towards Yudai and Fuma’s room where the adults had been talking. “And you said, I can’t stay because it’s not safe for you. And that you got away from scary things before. So now you will do it again.”
“You…” After a second of contemplation, it connects in Nicholas’s mind. “You overheard us talking?”
Riki nods.
“And you heard that you can’t stay? That’s why you’re leaving?”
He nods again, miserable.
“Oh, no. No, baby.” Nicholas pulls the boy to his chest, and the dam breaks. Riki cries, full sobs wrecking his little body. “No, that’s not what we meant.”
Nicho pulls back a little so he could look into Riki’s eyes, holding his full cheeks in his hands as he wipes the tears away. “When we said that you can’t stay here, we didn’t mean with us. We meant here, as in this area, because the strangers you were with before might find you, so it’s not safe.”
“You said you got away from scary things…”
“Yeah.” Nicho nods. “We don’t mean you. Never you. You’re our baby.”
“I am?”
“Of course.”
Riki bursts into tears again, though Nicholas can tell its from relief this time. Relieved that he can stay, relieved that he will always have a place to call home, relieved that he is wanted, above all else. Nicholas tugs Riki in for a hug and places a soft kiss on the top of his head.
“So? What was it?” Euijoo asks, urgency coloring his voice. “Did he see something? Did we miss it somehow?”
“It was just a misunderstanding.” Nicholas says briefly, standing up to carry Riki to the bathroom to bathe and change him into warmer clothes. “I’ll explain it to you later, okay?”
After Riki is washed clean and changed, he asks to be tucked into Jo’s soft furs to sleep for the night, because he thinks Jo is the warmest out of everyone. Their tallest child doesn’t put up a fight, just switches into wolf form wordlessly and lies down so Nicholas can put Riki where he wants to be. The other pups soon follow, switching forms and basically piling themselves on top of their youngest baby to make sure he doesn’t escape again during the night. Nicholas tells the kids that everything is okay and that Riki will not be leaving them ever again in place of an explanation, though he does promise the other adults that he will explain it all to them in detail once morning comes and they can think straight.
After all the kids are asleep, the adults follow suit, lying down on the living room carpet to surround the pups, not wanting to sleep in separate rooms after the events that transpired. Euijoo, Fuma, and Yudai take turns scenting the pups and then Riki, even though they know it does little. Still, the familiar scent of their pack mixing together makes the house feel safe and complete, a welcome change from how it was just hours prior. Before he loses consciousness, Nicholas reaches out a hand to hold Riki’s as the boy loses himself in his dreams, and doesn’t let go even after the sun is high in the sky and its warm rays find their way through a gap in the curtains.
The kids miss school the next day. Instead, they spend the entire day sticking close to Riki, not letting him out of their sight even for a second. When Riki goes down for his nap curled up against Yuma and Harua, Taki and Jo guard the door to make sure he doesn’t leave. When Riki goes to the kitchen for a snack, Yuma, Jo, Harua, and Taki surround him from all sides (with Taki pretending to be a security guard, much to Jo’s amusement). And when Riki is outside playing with the pups and Yudai, Nicholas receives a phone call that he has been waiting for since the first day they found Riki.
“It’s done.” Honda Hitomi’s warm, cheery voice says on the other end, and Nicholas feels relief wash over him instantly. “Hirota Riki has officially been registered under Murata Fuma and Koga Yudai’s care. None of his relatives are able to take him in, so he would’ve been put in the foster system otherwise. It helps that your friends are already registered foster parents with a good record to boot, so it was a relatively quick process. Congratulations.”
Nicholas feels so happy he could burst — like a firework of ecstasy exploding in his chest, its sparks spreading to every inch of his being, setting fire in his bloodstream to keep him warm for the rest of the time. “Thank you so much for your help.”
“I’ll call Koga-san with more details tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know in advance, since you were the one who brought the case to my attention.”
“Yes. Of course. Thank you. I’ll be sure to let him know.”
When Nicholas relays the good news to everyone, Yudai is the first to cry, pulling Riki into his chest and showering him with kisses all over his tiny face.
“Nico?” Riki calls out as he sits perched on his lap while being fed his dinner of galbi-tang (because not only is it Euijoo’s turn to pick the Menu of the Day, but they also want Riki to be fully immersed in their multicultural pack habits and taste buds, and the boy has been doing wonderfully thus far).
“Yes?”
“Can I change my name?”
“You want to change your name?”
“Mhm.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want the one that the strangers gave me.”
Which, fair enough. Nicholas doesn’t know the semantics of getting one’s name changed, much less if they were a child with no current living relative, but he thinks he could find out for Riki’s sake.
“I understand. Do you want your old last name back?”
“Hmm…” Riki thinks for a moment. “Kind of, but not really. I want a cool name, like Taki-hyung.”
Nicholas raises his eyebrow. “Yeah? He came up with it himself, when he needed-" to get away from his abusive foster parents doesn’t sound like something Riki needs to know, and he catches himself just in time. “When he got adopted by Kei-hyung and Fuma-hyung.”
“Do I need to be adopted to change it?”
“Maybe?” Nicholas guesses. “But we can change what we call you in the meantime. How’s that?”
“Oh. Okay!” Riki taps his chin in contemplation. “What sounds good… Pikachu?”
“Um.” Nicholas chokes out a laugh. “Maybe not. How about something with your parents’ name instead?”
“I liked the family name my parents gave me.” Riki turns to look at Nicho. “But didn’t Euijoo-hyung say going back to my old name would make it harder to blend in? Because it’s not local?”
“You know, you pick up languages way too fast for a kid.” Nicholas flicks Riki’s forehead gently. “And you shouldn’t be eavesdropping on adult talk, even if it’s about you.”
Riki shrugs. “I was curious.”
“I’m sure you were.” Nicholas scoffs. “Since you liked the name your parents used, and you think Taki’s name is cool… How about Maki?”
“Maki.” He tries it out, repeating the name over and over and over. “Maki. A combo of my old name, and my real name. Right?”
“Yes.” Nicholas nods. “You’re very smart.”
“Mhm, I am.” Riki agrees. “Okay. I like it. It’s cool.”
“Alright, then. Starting from today, you’re our little Maki.”
Maki nods in satisfaction. And when Maki and Nicholas tell the others of his new name, he gets a cheer from Taki who shouts now we both have cool new names! and by the end of the day, it was like his old one never existed.
Six months later, when the official adoption and name change has been processed and he is officially recognized as the youngest child of the Murata household, the nine of them celebrate by taking family pictures together, right in front of their new pack house in a new city — Yokohama, this time.
“Welcome to your forever family, Maki.” Fuma says, ruffling his hair proudly like a parent does.
Maki smiles widely at that, more sincere than ever before — the twinkle in his eyes and the twin dimples that appear on his flushed cheeks giving away the complete and utter joy he feels. He then looks around slowly, sweeping his gaze across every single member of his newfound family as they look fondly at him, eyes dripping with so much gentle affection that Maki doesn’t quite know how to deal with.
Maki’s eyes fill with tears. “Tadaima.”
“Okaeri.”