Chapter 21 - Bite Me

                                    

                                          
They took a bath together, trying out the features in the big fancy tub, the jets and taps, the bottles of scented salts and bubble bath lining the sides.
                          
Taking turns scrubbing each other, kneading the knots out of each others' sore muscles and kissing lazily in the hot, fragrant water.
                          
Just enjoying the feel of skin-on-skin, of weightlessness, of being able to unhurriedly explore every inch of flesh without it leading anywhere.
                          
Just being together.
                          
They sat there until their skin wrinkled and the bubbles receded, Red's mind wandering, turning solemn, fingers tracing circles in Robin's forearms. 
                          
"Did Kieran deserve to die like that?" he asked quietly.
                          
Robin was silent for a bit, arms wrapped around him from behind, the omega resting against his chest. 
                          
"...No-one deserves to die like that. But he tried to do something unforgivable to you. And nobody forced him to follow our father. I'd known him for years, worked with him - and I won't be grieving."
                          
He sighed, shifting. "How do you like everybody?"
                          
"I don't. You just don't like anybody."
                          
"I like you." 
                          
Red's heart gave a squeeze. He really shouldn't indulge Robin's obsession with him - he knew that, had long known that.
                          
But he loved it...loved the way it mirrored his own. 
                          
"I haven't spent much time imagining a future where I'm not involved in running the shelter full time," he mused.
                          
"But now that I have the money and time, I might like to...to go back to school. Eventually."
                          
Robin didn't scoff at him, or exclaim in surprise.
                          
"What would you study?" he asked instead, bending to rest his chin on top of the older boy's head. 
                          
"...Law. Family law."
                          
At the masquerade ball, Red had just been trying to annoy that conservative old alpha when he said he was going to study law. It had been a spur of the moment declaration. 
                          
But since then, the idea had kept niggling at the back of his mind, refusing to let go.
                          
 "A big problem for omegas that have been stay-at-home parents is that their spouse can often afford much better legal counsel. Of course there are attorneys that take on some pro-bono cases, but it's not nearly enough."

                          
Robin drew him closer, spilling suds over the edges of the tub.

                          
"Perfect. I always wanted to marry a doctor or a lawyer."
                          
"You always wanted to marry your brother, you - "
                          
"Maybe I am a disgraceful alpha, like father always said," Robin told him, dragging Red up slightly so that he could nuzzle into his neck.

                          
"What do you mean?" the omega asked sharply.
                          
"Because I never dreamt of making you mine. Only of being yours. That's all I wanted."
                          
Red let out the breath he'd drawn in to argue.
                          
"...You never had to make me yours. I already was. And you were already mine. Because the two of us, we go together. Right?"
                          
"Yeah. That's right."
                          
"'Sides, if you're a disgrace, you're in good company," Red said, rolling his eyes. "People tell me all the time I'm too argumentative to be a proper omega."