everymonstrousthing | (no subject)

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marcus

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They find a rhythm. Two babies means there's always something to be done, something that needs to be happening and, gradually, they figure it out. For the first time in his life, Kaz trusts other people with his businesses so that he can stay home with his wife, his children. His family. Maybe a time will come when thinking that word doesn't feel like somebody has suddenly kicked him in the breastbone.

Inej is sleeping. There's laundry running, bottle sterilsing and both of the children are quiet but alert in their bassinets. The alertness might last, the quiet probably won't. Kaz knows that it's a while until their eyes start to focus, but, sometimes, he could swear that they're watching the world go by.

When the doorbell rings, he buzzes Marcus up and leaves the front door of the apartment ajar, going back into the kitchen.

"We're through here," he calls, when he hears boots at the threshold.

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"This is a good Kerch house," says Kaz, rolling his eyes. "There's always coffee brewing. How else do you seal a deal when it's done?" He pauses, for a moment, fixing a sling across his chest, getting Ana situated, before he walks back into the kitchen. "Twins usually are, I'm told. They were early. Needed to make a grand fucking entrance like their mother."

"I never did much sealing of deals in my life," Marcus answers. "Usually a bad idea when you're dealing primarily with demons."

But he doesn't want to talk about demons now. He wants to focus on the babies.

"Is Inej prone to dramatics?" he asks with a grin. "And have you let her hear you saying that?"

"There's a lot of people in Ketterdam who would have said that about me," he says, coming back into the sitting room with two cups of coffee, gesturing for Marcus to sit down, setting his cup where he'll be able to reach it when he wants it. "Absolutely not," he says. "Though you can never be quite sure when she's listening. We don't call her the Wraith for nothing."

"And I feel you and I have beaten that particular horse to death," Marcus answers with a soft little smile as he sinks down with the baby still in his arms. Kaz is who and what he is, but he's not the demon he might have once been.

Or maybe he is. Maybe Marcus is just lucky.

"Well, I do hope your Wraith is taking the opportunity to rest," he says. "I imagine you'll both need it."

"It's definitely not an argument that we need to have again," says Kaz, padding back into the kitchen to get his own coffee and then settling, freeing Ana from the sling and settling her in the crook of his arm. "She is. I'm trying to let her sleep. It helps that they'll take a bottle."

Marcus has had no doubt that Kaz will be a present father, helpful to Inej, and there for his children. It doesn't surprise him at all that he's letting her rest, glad to hear it.

"That's probably the happiest you'll make her," he says with a grin, then looks down as Jordie's eyes open and he blinks up at Marcus. "Hello, again."

"I do my best," says Kaz, and he knows that there's nothing in the world he wouldn't do to make his wife happy. Ana makes a soft snuffling noise and he ghosts one hand over the top of her head. "That suits you. Holding him."

"Mm, I'm a natural," he agrees with a faint, but pleased smile. There's no sense pretending he doesn't truly adore this, holding this sweet little boy, born of a man who has become a truly good friend.

"I was never going to have any of my own," he says. "And I've always been very comfortable with that, but it's nice to be around others who have. I get to enjoy all the parts of it I always knew I would."

"Well, you're family now," says Kaz, looking from Ana's face, a smile just touching the corner of his mouth. "So you can enjoy it."

It's an incredible thing to hear, something Marcus had never imagined for himself. Never expected. Something he thought he never really wanted either, but he doesn't mind having been proved wrong in this instance. Everything he's always been good at, protecting others, it can mean something else here but still be of the same importance.

"Want to switch?" he asks, grinning over at Kaz.

"Absolutely," says Kaz, shifting so that they can start the process of transferring the babeis between them. "Though, you should be warned - she's got her mother's temper."

"Well, as her mother's never been anything but terribly kind to me, I should figure that's a good thing," Marcus answers, grinning as he takes Ana and transfers little Jordie. "Though she does put up with you, so I suppose there's quite a fierce woman behind all the kindness she's shown me."

"That's because you're on her good side," he says, settling Jordie into his arms, curled into the crook of his elbow. "Long may you stay there. You wouldn't want to be on the other side." Kaz has been there himself, one or twice. It's not necessarily a fun place to be.

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