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Kim is aware that his mate did not have the best sense of normalcy. Kenta’s time with the foundation meant he had limited understanding of social cues and pop culture from the last 15 years. Usually, it only became obvious when someone at the garage, typically North, would make a reference, which usually led to his lovely partner adding to an ever-growing list of things on his phone to look up or watch. Most nights, the two of them will cook dinner, and Kim will encourage Kenta to pick something from the list for them to watch or talk about while eating at the breakfast bar they used for meals when it was just the two of them. It was some of Kim’s favorite moments to be able to sit and listen to Kenta talk. To express what he liked, disliked, or didn’t understand without any fear or hesitation. It had taken so much time and patience to get Kenta to feel safe enough to start flourishing. Kim would do whatever was necessary to protect that safety for Kenta.
However, as Kim walks through the door of their condo that night, toeing off his shoes by the door and storing them properly on their little shelf, he’s taken aback at the lack of his mate’s greeting. Normally, on a late night like this, Kenta is usually in their kitchen waiting for Kim and would call out to him. Seeing their empty kitchen and living room, he makes his way towards their bedroom, where he hears some shuffling behind the closed door.
“Kenta. Is everything al-” Kim asks as he swings open the door in search of his partner, only to be stopped in his tracks by the sight before him. Standing in the middle of the room, wearing just a pair of comfy black sweats that sit low on his hips, is Kenta. But the more surprising part of the image before the racer is the infant wearing a light yellow onesie that his mate is cradling and cooing at in his arms.
Kim has always felt neutral about children. Most that he had encountered were pleasant enough to be around, and when he was a younger man thinking about his future, there was an amorphous image that involved a mate and a pup. But as he grew older, dedicated himself to racing, his vision for the future had changed. He loved Kenta, but the two of them had never discussed having kids of their own. Kenta’s struggles in the aftermath of the foundation meant he had a different and tenuous relationship with the children. There was the additional aspect that they were two male Alphas, and Kenta’s former association with Tony meant it would be impossible to consider adoption through the normal channels.
Kim hadn’t considered it a loss for their future as they had each other and their days were plenty filled without the addition of a little one. But as he watched his mate coo and lightly rock the strange baby, he couldn’t help but get a little choked up by the image.
The other Alpha finally noticed the younger had entered the room. He turns so he’s faced towards Kim and takes a few steps to close the distance. Kim immediately catches the light milky scent of the pup now, clean and innocent. Kenta moves his arms so that the other can get a better look at the baby. Her eyes are focused as she giggles at the new face before her. Her chubby arms raise as if asking Kim to hold her.
“Meet Yuna.”
Kim, at a loss for words, drops the bag he was still carrying absentmindedly into their bedroom. Creating a facsimile of a cradle with his arms, he silently allows Kenta to transfer the bundled pup over to him. Yuna raises one of her fists and waves it close to Kim’s face, nearly catching him on the nose. He hears his mate chuckle, and as the racer looks over at him, he sees that Kenta’s eyes have not broken their gaze from the little girl.
“Kenta, jagiya. Where did you get Yuna?”
“Pete let me know that they found another former buyer. We recovered some kids there, some from the foundation, and some not. She was there.”
“I’m sorry that must have been hard to hear. Why is she here and not at one of the care facilities that Pete set up?”
For the first time tonight, Kenta’s face flashed with a look of such sadness. He moves a little closer to Kim and Yuna. With a gentle finger, he starts likely stroking one of her chubby cheeks.
“We couldn’t find any information in any of the paperwork we recovered. She didn’t even have a name. Just a number and a barcode that held the bare basics about her; length, weight, gender, birthday. She’s barely 6 months old, Kim.”
Kim looks down at the pup in his arms. At some point, she had started to drift off and was failing to blink away the sleep that started to cling to her eyes. She was so small, and already she had been abandoned by the world.
“I picked her up and held her when she cried out from all the strange smells from the new people. I couldn’t leave her at the facility. I couldn’t leave her with people who would be clinical and distant with her. Who wouldn’t hold her and scent her properly when she got upset again.” Tears start to gather in the older man’s eyes. Kim knew that he wasn’t only describing Yuna at that moment. He shifts Yuna so he can hold her steady with one arm and use the newly freed one to wipe a stray tear that had escaped.
“I can’t explain it, Kim. But I held her and I just knew that she was ours.”
The racer spoke gently so as not to further upset his mate,“I don’t think that’s how it works.”
Kenta swept Yuna from Kim’s arms and held her close to his chest in a somewhat protective posture. Cradling her as if afraid that Kim might come and rip her from his arms. His stance is every bit that of a protective parent. His face defiant and ready to fight to keep the pup.
“She’s our daughter. Our little Yuna. She had no one before, and she will have us now.”
Kim looks at Yuna and then lifts his eyes to his mate’s face. He sees a look that has become so familiar to him over the years. Plastered all over the former bodyguard’s face was a look of deep love. The kind of love they both used to be so afraid of, for fear of what it could do to them. The kind of love they ran from, rejected, and fought against until it wore them down and brought them so much closer.
Kim takes slow steps to close the distance that Kenta had created. He releases a bit of his soothing sage and sea salt scent to calm his mate and smells the responding scent of mandarins and cinnamon from the other. Gazing down at the little girl in Kenta’s arms, he knew that one look in a mirror would show the very same look of love spilling from his own tired eyes.
“Our little Yuna.”
The tiniest of nods from Kenta before he moves to nuzzle his face into Kim’s neck to self-soothe with his mate’s scent. “優奈. I picked it because it means gentle.”
Kim whispered, “유나. Our gentle little girl.”