Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/13147824. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Rape/Non-Con, Underage Category: M/M Fandom: IT_(2017), IT_-_Stephen_King Relationship: Eddie_Kaspbrak/Richie_Tozier Character: Richie_Tozier, Eddie_Kaspbrak, Maggie_Tozier, Wentworth_Tozier_ (mentioned), Mike_Hanlon_(mentioned), Beverly_Marsh_(mentioned), Ben Hanscom_(mentioned), Bill_Denborough_(mentioned), Stan_Uris_(mentioned) Additional Tags: A/B/O_Universe, Bottom!Richie, Omega_Richie, Alpha/Beta/Omega_Dynamics, Alpha_Eddie, Top!Eddie, very_briefly_mentioned_sexual_abuse_from wentworth_but_no_gory_details, Technically_Trans!Richie?, he_gets_a_vag at_the_end_to_bring_out_the_babies_but_he_gets_the_dicc_back, Mpreg, they present_at_13_but_no_legit_sex_until_they're_in_high_school_as_seniors, Aged-Up_Characters, The_twins_don't_show_up_until_Richie_and_Eddie_are almost_24, they_go_to_college_and_get_nice_jobs_first, it's_set_in_the mid_1990's, Accidental_Pregnancy, Condom_Broken, dammit_richie_your_dumb buck_teeth_ripped_the_condom, Eddie_protecc_his_omega, Richie's_height difference_between_him_and_eddie_is_mercilessly_abused, imm_going_far into_hell, seriously_this_is_fucked_up_but_lmao_so_is_It_in_general, will have_multiple_chapters_this_time_wow!!!, they_end_up_with_4_kids, none_of those_kids_were_planned, but_they_show_up_in_like_chapter_3??, it's_short chapter-wise_but_don't_let_that_fool_you Series: Part 2 of Now_THAT’S_What_I_Call_Painful_Headcannons! Stats: Published: 2017-12-25 Completed: 2018-02-21 Chapters: 3/3 Words: 11912 ****** Bottom Richie? Who is She? I've Never Heard of Her? ****** by acefusti138, trxshmxxth Summary Did you say Alpha Eddie and Omega Richie? No? Did you even ask for ABO in the first place? Still no? Too bad! It’s here because that’s what I do! Now buckle in and take a fuckin’ sip babes. Richie is an Omega and that never means good things. Some shit happens, some good, some bad, but then again, when you grow up in Derry, isn't that kind-of a given? Notes See the end of the work for notes ***** Eddie McFucks a Lot of Things ***** Chapter Notes what up fuckers i'm back at it again at krispy creme, eyebrows on fleek, the fuck? Nah i'm joking i'm just here to leave this steaming pile of hot, good shit on ya lap. Enjoy B) //update: fixed some formatting issues that had been bothering the shit out of me,, Did you say Alpha Eddie and Omega Richie? No? Did you even ask for ABO in the first place? Still no? Too bad! It’s here because that’s what I do! Now buckle in and take a fuckin’ sip babes. So, Omega!Richie. This poor boy, with no family support system— because he doubts his parents even know he’s presented and frankly, he doesn’t want them to know— deals with his first heat by himself. It’s hellish, and with no toys and no help he basically suffers through the week and swears as soon as it ends he’s buying a toy for himself. Turns out he can’t buy one on his own. So instead he finds a way to barter with the older kids to buy him sex toys. Picture this; Richie goes into the pharmacy all like “Hi sexy pharmacist dude. Bev flirts with you to get shit, can I do it too to get some shit to help my heat?” He, as it turns out, can. He does and he gets that good shit because he ain’t no pussy, and because if he wants good shit from the older kids to kill the heat, he has to provide good shit first. If he gets caught —which only happens once after a failed attempt to get two packs of cigarettes into his pocket at once— he takes the punishment that the older kids can’t, but in return they give him whatever he wants. He just needs a proxy. But toys only do so much. It’s the scents that usually drive his poor brain crazy. Richie probably has a whole little routine, mostly along the lines of stealing Eddie, Mike or Bill’s shirts and jackets. Shirts borrowed at sleepovers because “Shit, Mike my man I didn’t think to grab anything but sleep pants, you mind sparing a shirt?” His gayness is contained to his friends. And he only opts for anyone’s else’s shirts because he always feels guilty about using Eddie’s so lewdly, even it’s only his nose buried in it. No, most definitely because if he had to pick someone to find out what he does on his own that it wouldn’t be Eddie. Doesn’t want to destroy that friendship and relationship. Bill finds out first. “Never r-re-return the stuff y-you use for t-th-that, I d-don’t want it back a- after that. B-But you do you I guess.” Mike is also fairly chill about it, he rewear some stuff once it’s washed because he knows Richie has real bad urges and wonky admit how much the Fresh Scent™ helps. But the best shit is when Eddie comes over for sleepovers or even just to hang out and neither of them notice it but they always end up right next to each other no matter what they’re doing. Eddie once tries to sleep on the floor because Richie’s small twin bed can barely fit Richie as it it, no need to try and kill it further with another person too— He wakes up with Richie burrowed up against him on the couch cushions that Eddie sleeps on. Richie literally is hanging off the side by like an inch, but he won’t move from how he’s curled up against Eddie. His head is in Eddie’s shoulder, his nose brushing up right where Omega’s leave their mate marks on their Alpha, and holy shit he looks vulnerable. Yeah, sure, Eddie had known Richie was an Omega, this kid had no qualms about his nature and letting people know about it, but it had never showed so clearly directly to him. Richie is an Omega and he comes to me for comfort even in his sleep. Richie, this tol little bean, had already been inseparable from Eddie as it was. But after the sleepover incident, they both end up as the closest two people could be without dating and mating. Dating just ends up being nodded to without any official mention of when they started dating. After five years of dating, once they turn 18 they mate properly, with lots of healthy discussion and serious thought to it. They love each other dearly. But they face quite a lot of stigma. People often assume roles. While out at the mall, they’re walking together and holding hands, someone just goes “Wow, you two make such a cute pair!” they turn to Richie and wink, “You’ve got the prettiest Omega.” Richie is going bright red because this happens rather often and it makes both him and Eddie rather uncomfortable to have their heights and builds assume who is who. Before he can correct the person, Eddie just grins. “I know, isn’t he just the cutest?” He leans up and kisses Richie’s cheek, Richie is grinning because fuck Eddie is wonderful and helps him so much. The person is embarrassed and they rush off but it really just is more proof for Richie and Eddie that roles be damned, they just love each other. In a different universe, they almost mate when they’re 13. Richie had yet to present, almost everyone else in his grade has presented and he has yet to give a damn. But Richie’s father finally catches wind that Richie hasn’t presented his nature, and tries to trigger it forcefully. He’s thankful his body knows better than to respond with any sort of heat when his father tries to….. Punish him for not presenting. He ends up beaten to the floor and his mental stability is nearly destroyed. He comes into school the next day with a black eye, his cheek is swollen and he has a busted lip, he’s limping and trying not to wince at every move as he goes to his locker. Eddie is horrified, he thinks Richie got taken by Henry Bowers or his goons, he dragged Richie into the bathroom and cleans him up, Richie is babbling about anything but what happened, diverting the subject or starting to fidget and pretend to notice something. It hurts to watch his best friend sit there and ignore the very clear pain he’s going through, and finally Eddie just gently grabs Richie’s cheeks and pleads for him to just tell him the truth, Richie won’t look him in the eyes and in a moment of passion Eddie kisses him to try and convince him that he’s serious. Richie melts against him— sure Richie is taller than him but sitting on the little bench in the restroom, Richie is just underneath him and then Eddie is grabbing Richie’s hips, asking “Is this okay?” as he moves his hands down Richie’s back to his hips, moving closer to him until they can’t get any closer. Richie is clutching to Eddie’s sweater vest, one hand keeps slipping and the entire bathroom is much too hot, then it’s like the spell breaks and they both get ahold of themselves. “Wowwie-zawowwie Eddie Spaghetti…. That was…. Yowzah!” Richie is speechless for once and Eddie quickly huffs out for Richie to stop calling him Eddie Spaghetti. The bell rings and they awkwardly scramble to class, but by lunch, Richie isn’t there. Eddie finds out from a rumor going around that someone presented as an Omega halfway through first period. His stomach clenches and he suddenly needs to know where Richie is. He can’t focus for the rest of the day, what if Richie was being hurt by his father or if some Alpha had already tried to hurt his Richie— where the hell did that come from? He tries to ignore that thought. He gets home and opens a window, it’s too hot and something smells amazing outside, he had smelled it as he was walking home. He takes a cold shower to try and calm down because it’s still too hot, his mind is drifting to if Richie knows how hot it is. He has to know, the heat feels almost overbearing even with the window open. As soon as he gets out of the shower, which had effectively cooled him off and cleared his mind, it’s way too hot in his room. Even with the cool night air starting to seep in from the still-open window, it feels like the middle of the day. Before Eddie can think anything else of the humid air clinging to his skin, the phone rings. Thank fuck his mother isn’t home –still at work with a late shift— because as soon as he picks up the phone, the heat just boils over. “Eddie, please come over. F-Fuck, j-just… Come over and help…!” Richie’s voice was all whiny and breathless, like when they were in gym and had to run laps and he started complaining that it was just a torture method. Eddie had his clothes on and was already climbing up the backside of Richie’s house to his bedroom window. He climbs onto the roof, he’s worried sick that Richie’s parents ignored some illness Richie may have and now he was in his room throwing up his guts or something else equally horrible. But no, he reached the window and oh fuck the amazing smell he had gotten a bit used to on the way home was much stronger, and the window is open. He slips in, the curtains had been hiding the sight before him and he almost falls over in surprise. Richie is curled up in a horrible excuse of a nest, the few spare shirts Eddie has left over at his house for when they have sleepovers layered on top of the scratchy old sheets and pillows he managed to find in the hall closet. He’s shaking so badly Eddie thinks he’s crying. “Rich, Rich, can you hear me?” Eddie rushes over to him, kneeling next to the bed so he and Richie are at eye level, “‘Chee, what’s happening?” He hates not knowing what to do, he knows basic knowledge of heats and the smell seems to have confirmed that Richie is presenting as an Omega, but why is he crying?! Richie, is in fact, not crying. He looks up at Eddie, his pupils are blown so wide his eyes look black in the low light, and he just gives a broken little groan. He nods to his legs, and there Eddie can see why Richie is so upset. Slick has soaked most of the pillow pressed between his legs, and it seems to have been used as a poor excuse of a way to get off. “Fuck, shit, fuck, okay, Richie you’re um— obviously you know you’re presenting— okay, shit— What do you need me to do?” “Me.” “Richie, be serious!” “I am!” Eddie bites his lip. He’s no Alpha lies but his best friend is in heat, on the verge of tears in need and called Eddie to help him. The younger boy can’t just leave Richie like this. God knows what the boy’s father would try to do to him—and that thought alone sends anger surging through his veins– and Richie trusts him. He slips into the nest, kicks off his shoes and takes off his shirt—it’s still too damn hot in here, presses behind Richie and hesitates. He was kinda running on autopilot, but now was blanking on what to do. “Rich, what am I—” Eddie’s hand had brushed against Richie’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, but it felt like electricity had sparked through him at the contact. “Hn….!” Richie is loud for a minute and then he goes quiet, panting and whimpering into another pillow, holy fuck did he just—? “Richie, did you just—?” “Yes.” Oh god that makes heat throb in Eddie’s stomach before he can think better of it. Autopilot seems to start functioning again because he’s moved closer, and then his arm is on Richie’s bony hip, asking if it was okay and getting a nod in response. Asking Richie that if was too much that he would speak up yielded the same response. He doesn’t touch Richie, not… Below his hips, but he can feel Richie squirming back against him, he can hear the little whines coming from Richie’s throat and damn if he isn’t responding to it. “Eds, I’m gonna turn around.” “Okay, what does that have to—?” Richie turns around and is kissing him, and then the dam breaks. Eddie is on top of him, pinning Richie’s hands down on either side of him and straddling his hips, making out with him as intently as he can. Yeah, he can feel Richie’s hips bucking under him and he’s trying to end his heat, but Eddie knows better. He’s no Alpha, Richie has his whole life to choose who he wants to be with and getting down by a mate mark not even twelve hours after presenting is just cruel. “Eds– Hn…! Alpha, please!” Take that back. Eddie didn’t want a single Alpha looking at Richie like a piece of meat to be taken for their own ever. “Shh… ‘Chee it’s okay, it’s okay. Breathe, I’m right here.” Eddie gently strokes the damp curls out of Richie’s face, his best friend is sitting underneath him, tears starting to dampen his eyes and his breath nothing more than needy whines. “Eds, please, make it stop, make it fuckin’ stop…!” Eddie has half a mind to scold Richie for calling him ‘Eds’ but Richie is literally on the verge of tears and shaking so badly under Eddie that the bed is starting to move too. Eddie takes care of Richie as best his mind can explain within reason. He doesn't fuck him, they’re too young and he’s pretty sure they wouldn't be able to handle it, but he does everything in his power to keep Richie calm and content as can be. Sure, it’s only two days —thank fuck it’s the weekend– but he knows now a few things. One; he’s presented as an Alpha thanks to Richie’s heat, as he knotted the air after watching Richie come. Two; He is never letting another Alpha look at Richie the way he has. Three; His pining of Richie Tozier was beyond clear. He was beyond in love with him, he would fight every single person who made Richie upset. Even if it was something reasonable. No matter what universe, they’re unofficially mated. Richie and Eddie are ‘together’ until 8th grade, then make it official. They spend their heats and ruts together, many pillows are bit because they don't think they can handle a legitimate bond just yet, and it’s clear they love each other to the moon and back. Eddie is so fuckin’ possessive though, and once they’re in high school, with Richie now a solid 6’3” and Eddie just barely brushing past 5’4” he abuses the height difference mercilessly. He’ll sit in Richie’s lap and people think Richie is the Alpha, yet all Eddie has to do is use his Alpha Voice™ and Richie melts into a whimpering, squirming mess. One whisper from Eddie that if Richie is a good boy then he’ll be knotted when they get home and Richie is trying his best to be good. Eddie, that little fucker, has his hands on Richie’s hips and is gently massaging them —thank fuck that senior study hall is only run by a fellow senior teacher aid thanks to cutbacks— when Richie breaks. His head is burrowed in Eddie’s shoulder, whimpering weakly that he’s soaked and he needs Eddie now, Eddie drags Richie out to the shitty pick-up truck that Richie’s dad gave Richie and he has his Omega knotted in minutes. Eddie croons in Richie’s ear that he’s such a good boy, that he’s taking him so well and is such a good Omega… Richie revels in the praise and Eddie is head over heels for him beyond belief. High school ends in Derry and college begins in New York City. Richie with a full-ride scholarship with the Yankees for baseball and Eddie with a partial- scholarship on secondary nature studies and prenatal care. Dorm mates for two years and then their first apartment together their junior and senior year, they graduate with internships and promising futures because the economy hasn’t destroyed everything just yet. It’s the 1990’s, and these now 22 year olds finally officially mate on Richie’s 23rd birthday. With their official mating they save up for a bigger apartment closer to the heart of downtown, and even with Eddie taking night classes to finish up his doctorate degree, it’s clear big changes are coming. Eddie still loves Richie unconditionally, and their lives are going smoothly. They meet up with the Loser’s once every other week for the weekend to see shitty movies, get bad Chinese food then hang out at a bookstore until closing time to talk much too loudly in the ‘quiet reading’ area. It’s calm…. And then their first heat and rut as now official mate’s hit. It’s bad; Eddie comes home from his night course and as soon as he opens the door it’s like getting smacked in the face with hot, humid air like in the summer. Richie’s in his nest, his phone is dead and his eyes are bloodshot, he couldn't get ahold of Eddie with a dead phone but he couldn’t find his charger and just tried to use a toy, but quickly realized he hated it and just sat there and waited for Eddie to come home and help. He helps alright, but also fucks up, bad. It wasn’t his fault, in all fairness! Richie had been so cute, he had tried to open the condom package with his teeth like Eddie did every other time, but his usually adorable buck teeth ended up tearing part of the condom. Which Eddie finds out, he finds out the hard way. The hard way is when Richie, while fast asleep, curls up to him and a very odd, floral scent comes off of him instead of his usual, much less harsh, fresh linen and damp summer morning scent. It takes him about five minutes before it kicks in. Scents don’t change unless your Omega is carrying. “Fuck, fuck— Rich– fucking hell, wake up. Oh shit, part of the condom—oh god, it broke– fucking hell— your scent, it—!” Richie wakes up to Eddie having a flat-out meltdown, he’s hyperventilating and he looks terrified; Richie is confused as fuck. “Eds, slow down, what’s wrong?” He asks slowly, Eddie holds his shoulders and he’s still freaking the fuck out. “Richie, fuck, the condom broke! Your scent, it changed, oh god! I got you, fuck, fuck, I got you pregnant!” Richie just blinks at him, tilts his head. They have solid jobs, an apartment and have been together since they had presented. He doesn't get what the extreme panic is about. Sure, it’s a little unnerving, but he had always planned to have kids with Eddie at some point in his life and it just happened now. They were more than okay to handle a baby, they owned a three bedroom apartment in the heart of New York City, as a doctor and a professional baseball player. It didn’t stop Eddie from becoming protective of Richie. Richie has the most god-awful morning sickness, he usually can keep breakfast down for an hour, lunch for 30 minutes and dinner about half of the night, throws up at the ass-crack of dawn and repeats it for a month. Sometimes, on bad days, he’s exhausted and he’ll get sick in his nest, which is always a bad event to handle. Eddie cleans Richie up, replaces any soiled parts of the nest with clean, fresh pillows and blankets to calm Richie down. He’ll cradle him close and play with his hair, apologize for putting his best friend and the love of his life through all this pain because he was irresponsible. Richie, tired as he is, always insists he’s not upset with Eddie at all. Well, until their first ultrasound, and a little move of the cold wand- gel thing moves to show two grainy little blobs of something that is their— “Is that twins?” “Yes, but as seeing both you, Richard, are a twin, and your mother was a twin as well, I would think you would have known this was a high possibility.” It had in fact, not been expected, but they learned to handle it. Richie is a total power bottom and Eddie loves it, Richie is having twins and yet he stays fairly tiny, and Eddie takes full advantage of it. Richie is literally the biggest horn-dog ever and Eddie is constantly either fingering Richie or turning him into an overstimulated mess when he eats him out and basically the end of the first trimester is just Eddie being forced spend his weekends pleasuring his mate. That’s just the end of trimester one. His mother, having sobered up at the angry plead from Eddie to get her life together if she wants to ever see her grandchildren and help her son for once in her life, explains that he’s probably going to develop the birthing equipment known commonly as a vagina rather early. Lo and behold, first day of August, Richie shuffles to the bathroom to relieve himself and wets the fucking floor because he didn't have a dick to piss out of. So, if you thought that Richie, now in his 2nd trimester hormones and equipped a new, hypersensitive sex between his legs to bring their little ones into the world, would let Eddie leave him a horny, needy mess, you’re wrong. He would be damned before he let that happen! Richie explains it like this; “You know had bad my heats could get?” Eddie nods, “Well, think of it like that, but ten times worse because our children have decided that if Mommy doesn’t get fucked by Daddy in the next five minutes, they are going to destroy Mommy’s internal organs via a riot.” Eddie is basically tapped dry by the end of the first week of Richie’s second trimester. In the few days he takes to build up stamina he spoils Richie rotten and instead tries to tempt him with fingering him and eating him out, playing with his sensitive, budding chest. It works. Once Richie finally manages to fall asleep for more than half an hour without waking up if Eddie moves at all, he calls the doctor, because “Are all Omega’s this horny during the second trimester? Should I be worried? I don’t wanna hurt him and overstress his body, and end up inadvertently hurting the babies, but he gets so upset if I don’t touch him when he needs it!”The doctor is not amused. Honestly, for a kid in medical school Eddie could be a bit of a dumbass when it came to common sense reguarding his mate. Call it rose-colored glasses or what have you for anything surrounding his mate but Lord fuck this kid got scared over everything! “Once the vagina forms,” She sighs out, “It’s the mate’s responsibility to care for their pregnant mate however they wish. If he’s horny, he’s horny. Ignoring it would only make it worse on him and stress him out. If you tap out then buy a toy.” Richie is happily fucked all that next week as much as his lil’ Omega heart desires. ‘Til third trimester hits and then it’s keep him happy and safe or have him crying and stressing himself out to Braxton-Hicks contractions. Eddie has keep his mate sated and sleepy —usually with homemade food and quite a lot of coddling until Richie dozes off— because whenever he has to go to work or to one of his medical classes, Richie’s hormones wreak havoc and he’ll cry like it’s no one’s business. The first time Eddie went to go get Richie one of his craving snacks once Richie had entered the third trimester, he came home to Richie sobbing in his nest with every clean article of clothing Eddie owned blanketing him. Eddie stays home after that until the babies get there. ***** More Broken Condoms ***** Chapter Summary Good lord you two need to stop trying to be cute and realize tearing condoms is a serious problem. Like, a problem that has now lead to three of your children being born. God, get it together Reddie. Smdh. Chapter Notes idk what the hell this even is any more? just passion writing? idk fam if ya’ll enjoy it, glad to see it but I ain’t gonna stop posting it :3c See the end of the chapter for more notes Wow, so some of y’all stuck around. Nice! Well, lemme paint you this pretty ol’ picture. Richie is stuck at home, on mate-imposed bed rest. He’s had more Braxton-Hicks scares than Eddie will ever comfortably admit, and finally Eddie and Richie agree it’s safer for Richie to stay at home and rest until the twins make their actual appearance into the world. That only takes a week into Richie’s ninth month. It’s incredibly over-hyped, in Richie’s opinion. Eddie freaks out more than he does. It doesn’t hurt that badly; he doesn’t even take the offered epidural. “Richie, are you sure you’re going to be okay, I mean really, we can get you—” “Eds–” “Don’t call me that Richie—” “Anyways, I’m fine Eds, promise. It doesn’t even hurt that much! Seriously, I’m pretty sure it hurt more when they were beating me up because you weren’t fucking my—” “Richard, be serious!” “Pussy.” “Richie!” The twins only take 7 hours to get there, and Richie doesn’t even scream once. Yeah, some colorful curses and a few rough hand squeezes are given, and the worst happens when the second one’s shoulders pass and Reddie groans, but otherwise it’s rather tame. Eddie is the one who passed out once both little girls are presented to him to have their umbilical cords cut. Richie deadass laughs at him while he passes the placentas. Luckily, Eddie wakes up before they have to get him a hospital room. 12 hours, two baths and a very long nap later, Richie and Eddie officially announce the birth of Lucille Coraline and Michelle Joan Kaspbrak to the world on December 23rd, 1998. Richie’s status as a baseball player brought some press into their lives whether they wanted it there or not. Getting the twins home is the funniest thing Richie has ever done, and the most stressful thing Eddie has ever done. He wants to be in the back seat with Richie and the girls but he has to drive and he’s freaking out. “Richie, we can still have your mom come drive us and I can sit back there with you two, it’s not a big deal—” “Spaghetti-Man, we haven’t even left the parking lot. We’re fine.” “Are you sure? I don’t want Luci to start crying or something and then MJ—” “Eds, babe, do you need me to drive?” “What, no, no, I’m fine, I just wanna make sure you three are okay!” Richie drives them home. Eddie is every part the protective Papa, he stays up most the night the first week to make sure they're okay; make sure they’re sleeping safely and know their Papa is there and will keep them safe. Richie comes in and Eddie is asleep on the floor with Luci on his chest, staring blearily up her her father and MJ happily asleep next to her. One picture-turned-lockscreen-photo later and Richie gets the girls back in their bassinets and Eddie at least into the rocking chair. First week; calm. Second week; Luci reveals she is a small demon in disguise. The Loser’s all come to meet the twins, now that they’ve had time to settle and Richie and Eddie won’t go ballistic on someone intruding on their newborn babies. MJ, with her slight smattering of Eddie’s freckles on her nose and the beginnings of Richie’s fluffy curls, is a quiet, sleepy little one. She rarely cries, more whimpers and squeaks. When she does cry, it’s these weak, wheezy little wails —asthma, as the doctor’s confirm once both the girls have their shots and get their hearing and sight tested— that are almost painful to hear because of how weak they sound. She happily lets everyone hold her and coo at her, and she likes Stan and Mike the most. Mike is warm and he makes funny faces and tickles her tummy and he brings her a stuffed lamb she ends up sleeping with until she’s 18, it’s originally as big as she is. She absolutely adores it, and she gives these huge, gummy giggles and smiles to him. Stan always rubs her back and he ends up being the one who can get her to sleep within five minutes no matter what. Luci, on the other hand….. Oh my god. If you looked up hellspawn in a dictionary, she would be the picture in it. Eddie goes to give her to Bill, and literally the moment Eddie isn’t holding her she starts to screech and wail as loud as she can. It’s almost a blood curdling wail; her tiny lungs don’t care how small they are. She makes it clear that if her Mama or Papa isn’t holding her, she is’t having it. Even when Bill frantically gives her back to Richie, she wails for a good twenty minutes, until she tuckers herself out and falls asleep. She’s cranky and collick-y and a general handful. Her little sister is an angel in comparison: not that Eddie or Richie would ever change anything about either of their daughters. MJ is a pretty independent baby, she doesn’t cause a whole lot of problems for her parents—with the exception of the dreaded food transitioning. Breastfeeding was fine; she feeds like a normal baby and only occasionally fights with her older sister. Luci transitions from the tiddy milk to solid food just fine. Sucking from a flat boob was much harder than just eating already-made food, and she’s a lazy little shit, so it was buh-bye boobies and hello to those little yogurt puffs that looked like Cheerios but were so much better. MJ brings out her inner asshole. She won’t even smack the food away. She’ll just sit there and cry; the squeaky, asthmatic wails that usually lead to her wheezing and having an asthma attack. Eddie nor Richie can sit there and watch their daughter sit there and cry herself into a literal asthma attack when Richie’s body is right there, still producing more than enough milk for her to feed naturally. She doesn’t take a bottle, either. Never did. If a bottle was placed in front of her mouth, she wouldn’t latch on to it. Her mouth would be closed and she would just whimper and hiccup and sob until Richie gave in, because holy shit this kid would sit there for an hour and refuse to give in! It takes almost a year to get her from breastfeeding to normal food. But then they grow up, and when they’re almost two, it’s Halloween night and Maggie watches the girls and let them pass out candy while Richie and Eddie attend the annual Loser’s Halloween Party. They had taken the girls last year, but this year they knew was probably the last year they could get away with not taking the girl’s trick-or-treating, and it would probably be the last Halloween party the Loser’s club would have together before they were all real adults who were married and had little ones. Halfway through the night, five drinks in and Richie’s heat starts two days early. He falls all over Eddie and is promptly taken home by his mate. Eddie calls Maggie and explains that she needs to take the girl’s to her apartment for the next few days, and that he’ll bring what they need beyond necessities the next morning and payment as thanks for the short notice. “Eddie,” Richie whines, “Where’s my babies….? I gotta protect them—!” His drunken cry is complete with teary eyes and Eddie, poor thing, has to reassure him that they’re fine over and over. “Maggie has them baby,” He cooes, stroking Richie’s side’s and cuddling him while his Omega grinds back on him, “They’re safe. She’s gonna keep them while you’re in heat, just ‘til it’s not so bad. They’ll be home in a few days, and if it’s not too bad, they can come home a little earlier.” Richie seems to accept that, then heat-brain takes over maternal instinct and kills his mental filter. He grabs the condom and his drunken fingers fumble with trying to open it while Eddie is trying to find the lube, he gets it open but one little snag of his nail and a tiny tear has just created a possible major problem. Eddie realizes it this time when he pulls out and Richie is leaking his mate’s cum. “Oh fuck.” He swears; the tear had been close to the knot and once he knotted, it just made the tear that much bigger. Richie looks up at him, he’s still high from his orgasm and rather drunk, he blinks drowsily up at Eddie and tilts his head. “What?” “Richie, there was a tear near my knot—” “It got inside, didn’t it?” Eddie just quietly nods, and he looks very ashamed as he cleans Richie out gently. He already knows this can’t end well; Richie is dozing off and his instincts are kicking in. Eddie looks up from finishing cleaning out his mate and the Omega has one arm curled loosely over his abdomen, he smells soft and sweet and his body is starting to curl up towards Eddie for protection while he sleeps. The next morning, Richie wakes up and demands to have his babies with him. “Edward, I need them here. I need to know they’re safe. Heat be damned, I need my fucking babies–!” Eddie shushes him, grabbing Richie’s phone and calling Maggie so Richie can talk to her before getting up and starting to get ready so they can go get the girls. “Hello—?” “Mama, where’s Lucille and Michelle?” “They’re still sleeping hun, why? Is everything alrig–?” “I’m fine Mama, I need them here. Can– Can you wake them up and put them on the phone while we drive over? Please?” He sounds near crying, Eddie is already getting them both dressed while Richie waits for his mother to wake up the girls. She finally rouses them just as Eddie and Richie are getting in the car. “Here baby, it’s your Mama. Can you say hi?” “Mama…. Goo’ mow’nin’...” Luci’s cute little baby talk soothes Richie visibly. “H-Hi baby girl…. Did you and MJ have fun at Nana’s sweetie pie?” Eddie notes Richie is shaking. “Uh-huh…. ‘e ha’ lotsa can’y…..” “That sounds like you had a lot of fun sweetie. Mama and Papa are coming to pick up you and MJ. Is MJ awake? Can you give her the phone so Mama can talk to her?” “Uh-huh… Mich’y! Mama!” Richie can’t help but smile even as the first of his children screeches in his ear. “Mama….?” Michelle sounds even more sleepy than her sister, but at this point Eddie is nearing the apartment. “Yeah, it’s Mama sweet girl. Did you and Luci have fun at Nana’s?” “Yah…. Mama…. I s’eepy…. ‘anna go bac’ ‘o s’eep….” “I know baby. You can go back to sleep once Papa and I get there. We’ll be there in just a minute sweetie. Okay?” “O’tay Mama.” Richie only hangs up once they’re in front of the door to Maggie’s apartment; she moves to New York City a month before the twins are born and fresh out of rehab. Cleanly divorced and broken-bonded from Richie’s father, she’s been sober for almost 3 years and loves her grandchildren to pieces. She spoils them rotten, and both Eddie and Richie know she’s trying to redeem herself for the neglect Richie faced his whole life thanks to her drinking. It hurts, and Eddie sometimes sees Richie watch his mother interact with their children with a wistful, pining look on his face. He never felt that attention from her once in all his childhood. But the current issue was that as soon as Maggie opens the door, Richie bolts past her and scoops up the twins, cuddling them close and scenting them. He’s had many heats with them gone, being watched by their grandmother or one of Loser’s for the week while Eddie and Richie bang like rabbits as their nature’s demand. Maggie notices what’s different right away. “He’s—” “I know,” Eddie sighs, raking a small hand through his hair and praying they can handle it. But by the time he goes to Richie to make sure they’re alright, he’s both both twins cuddled up in his lap, Luci is dozing and hugging his abdomen and MJ is fast asleep with her head over his heart. He’s just sitting on the floor cuddling them, rubbing MJ’s back and playing with Luci’s haphazard little curls. She’s his little carbon copy, except for the brown hair and hazel eyes like her father’s. “Rich, are you okay?” “Eds, I’m–” “I know, ‘Chee. It’s my fault, I should have checked it yesterday before we started,” Eddie goes over and sits down beside his mate, rubbing his back and kissing his cheek. Richie looks tired; he had woken up the moment his scent had changed and had immediately demanded to see his babies. Poor thing probably only had gotten a few hours of sleep at the most. “How about we get them home and get them in the nest? I’ll make you four breakfast and we can…. Figure out what to do after you take a nap. Alright?” Richie nods, and with Maggie’s help the soon-to-be family of five heads back home. The change is immediate once Richie has the girls in his nest. They’re impossibly clingy, and within the week they both seem to have reverted a bit to more dependent on their parents. Any progress that had been made with potty training was lost and their somewhat-sentences go back to one word sentences. They sleep with Richie in his nest most the of the first week— the second night Eddie tries to coax them to sleep in their cribs, but by midnight he literally has three wailing beings on his hands. Richie doesn’t wanna leave his nest but he’s panicking, his babies aren’t with him and he is freaking the fuck out. Luci and MJ can both feel their Mama’s distress and want to get to him, but they can’t get out of their damn cribs and are wailing for Richie. Last time Eddie tries that. If they need to be close for some reason, he’ll be there and keep them safe while they rest. The first two weeks are like that, but then, like it never even happens, it all goes back to normal. Ultrasounds, converting Richie’s office to a nursery while looking for an actual home while they’re still ‘ahead’ and thinking of names all crosses the horizon. They finalize on the purchase of a home about two months before Richie is due— he doesn’t even look like he’s expecting— and move in two weeks later. Only about two blocks away from their previous home, spacious and with 6 bedrooms, it seems to be a perfect fit. It’s near a good school system the girls can go to and is still commutable to work with almost no real time difference. Only once Jackson Michael Kaspbrak is born does a problem present itself. It’s late summer of new millennium, Jack is born on the 23rd of July and is finally home. It’s hot, he’s colicky and the girls have decided they want to be as difficult as possible to try and gain their parents’ attention to them. Luci starts throwing temper tantrums and figures out how to escape her crib, Richie wakes up and finds her burrowed up against him and long story short, he can’t move and Eddie has to give Jack a bottle instead. But she seems angelic compared to MJ. Now, to be fair, she didn’t seem to be doing her thing on purpose, but it had very quickly become a hiccup in caring for a newborn. She won’t eat her solid food. Just like before, she won’t get mad; she just curls up in her booster seat and cries in her hands until she gives herself an asthma attack. Now closer to three years old, while Eddie calms her down she cries that Richie doesn’t want her anymore. “Sweetie, you have to eat,” Eddie tries to coax her with her favorites while she’s in his lap, but she just curls up and hides in his chest, “Mama is taking care of Jack honey, he still loves you and Luci very much. But you and Luci are big girls now, you don’t need as much help as Jack does. You know how he was in Mama’s tummy all those months?” “Uh-huh…” “And how he just came out from Mama’s tummy? How he was wrinkly and red?” “Yeah….” “He’s still very tiny sweetie. He can’t eat big girl foods like you and Luci can yet, he has to have Mama help him. Papa helps him too but for now, Mama is very busy making sure he isn’t hungry. Mama is the only one who can feed him right now.” MJ seems to understand, yet she still won’t eat. She’ll drink fine, and Eddie manages to coax her with smoothies for a few days but then she won’t even take that. “Maybe she’ll eat if she sees that I’m here with her,” Richie offers, “While Jack is doing tummy-time maybe I can try and give her her food instead.” Well, it isn’t too far off the mark from what ends up happening. MJ comes in to Richie and Eddie’s room, curls up in the nest and just hugs herself close to Richie while he plays with her hair. “Sweetie, Papa made you a yummy smoothie. Do you want to share some with Mama while Mama reads you Madeline?” MJ looks up at him from where she’s curled up in his lap, her little head is burrowed in his chest and over his heart and even though she’s tiny, Richie’s chest is sensitive and he tried to coax her off because it hurts to have her there. “Mama. Jus’ wan’ Mama.” Richie looks a little confused, but then she starts tugging at his shirt. It turns into trying to get her to wean all over again. Richie is a softie and honestly, even though he knows he shouldn't spoil her, his maternal instincts scream for him to comfort his baby first and worry second. She’s not doing it to be bad; her nature just seems to be driven on the fact that Richie is the baseline comfort that she goes to when she’s distressed. Really, considering how attention and comfort driven Richie is, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Chapter End Notes broken condoms are no joke. also, there’s two Easter eggs in this chapter and Oliver is probably gonna be the first to guess the second one. the first one is kinda obvious. (**hint: think birthdays?**) ***** Supportive Parents and Developed Kids WHOMST? ***** Chapter Summary Character development, world building AND a closer look at how the kids all interact with their beloved parents and vice versa? Yes, PLEASE!! Chapter Notes i'm?? alive?? WOW! yeah no ive been dealing with a LOT of shit lately, and it fucked me up. but hey, i actually finished a fic!!! more to come, ive thrown myself into writing with all the shit ive been dealin with, so thats??? good?? good for you guys anyways, more of this delicious shit i call my content!!! in all seriousness, i really hope yall enjoyed this, i love writing and reddie just makes it hurt so good. enjoy B))) See the end of the chapter for more notes Back at it again with the final chapter of this good shit. Reformatted, and better than ever.   So, we’ve got Michelle. Michelle Joan. Precious, sweet little MJ. The quiet baby out of the pair of twins, and the soft-spoken toddler. She handles things very different than Luci, who falls into rage-induced crying fits and then will shut down mentally afterward. MJ cries. She cries, and she cries, and she cries some more. It’s her nature, and it’s hard to watch sometimes. She’s the sweetest little thing; couldn’t hurt a fly and follows Luci’s lead not because she has to, but because she wants to. She’s a bit quieter and Luci tends to speak for her, but that doesn’t stop her from being her own person. But being her own person quickly becomes too much if Luci isn’t there with her. Giggled and dimpled smiles very quickly become wheezing, whimpering sobs of distress if it becomes too much. One such incident was when she and Luci had been at a school carnival, just barely seven years old and trying to show Eddie they could handle themselves for a few minutes while he let Jack play a few games for the younger kids. ———— “Luci, can we please just go find Mama?” She pleaded, “It’s crowded here, we shouldn’t go this far! What if Papa can’t find us?!” She tried to say over the loud clamor of other children. Luci just grinned, blowing one of her many haphazard curls out of her face. “We’re only in the third-grade wing, Michy! Papa can find us, no problem!” She reassured, dragging her younger sister along through the throngs of older children. A few gave them odd looks, and MJ could feel each one bearing down on her head and burning marks on her back. Two-second graders running down the third-grade carnival hall wasn’t normal, and MJ knew it. Finally, she dug her heels into the polished linoleum, wincing at the grey scuff marks it left. “Luci, I wanna go back to Mama!” She tried to stand her ground, still holding the older girl’s hand as only to keep her from running off. Luci stopped, giving an impatient frown. “Why?” She groaned, “Mama knows where we are! C’mon, the fun games are down here! They got Dum-Dums down here!” She grinned, wiggling her eyebrows as if to tempt her younger sister to give in. MJ just shook her head, biting her lip out of nervous habit and taking a deep breath. “N— No! I wanna go back to Mama!” She tried to raise her voice like Luci always did when she wanted something; a test of sorts to see if it would work. It did not. “Quit bein’ such a crybaby Michy! Mama knows we’re here! He’s not gonna get mad! I wanna go get a Dum-Dum!” Luci just raised her voice back even higher, which MJ took about as well as a baby did to a loud noise. Her face crumpled, and in an instant, she turned tail and ran back from where she had come from. She could hear Luci calling for her to come back, but at the moment, she just wanted her Mama and her Papa back. She was trying to avoid bumping into people, not wanting anyone’s germs on her, but that proved counterproductive when someone had tried to get out of her way and ended up causing a collision. She felt her knees hit the floor, which got the attention of most the people running the booths. One of whom was her teacher, Ms. Werner, a young woman who had only started about two weeks prior. “MJ? Are you alright?” She asked, standing up from her booth and kneeling next to her. MJ just sobbed out, shaking her head and trying to bat the woman’s hands away. “Wan’ Mama!” She wailed, scrambling to her feet and sprinting into the nearest bathroom, sitting in front of the door and breaking down into loud, wailing sobs. She was starting to wheeze thanks to her running and very quickly realized she couldn’t breathe. Thankfully, Ms. Werner had been smart enough to get Richie, informing him of what she had seen. It took not even a minute for Richie to get there and know what was happening. He could hear his daughter’s wheezing sobs, and quickly went towards the restroom, knocking on the door. “Michelle, baby, it’s Mama. Can you let me in please honey?” He asked softly, trying to keep himself steady with the tiny swell of his middle while kneeling. There was a wheezy whimper, then the tell- tale squeak of sneakers against the tiles, which allowed him to push open the door. MJ was clearly having an asthma attack, gasping and wheezing between sobs and doing her best to keep breathing. The Omega was quick to press her little inhaler into her mouth, sitting her up and rubbing her back until she was calmed down, tastefully ignoring just how badly the little girl was shaking in his arms. Even once he pulled away from the inhaler, she just collapsed against him, wailing into his shoulder as if she was a toddler all over again. “Michelle, honey, honey, breathe. You’re gonna work yourself up all over again,” It was really all Richie could do while he was waiting for Eddie to find Luci. He couldn't pick up the seven-year-old, he was five months pregnant and it just wasn’t safe. MJ just clung to him, careful of the baby bump where her little sister was still residing, her head burrowed in his neck and weak cries slipping past her. It took ten minutes for Eddie to show up with Jack and a very flustered Luci in tow. Luci had been firmly scolded for running off, and the red puffiness at her own cheeks hinted that she had started crying either when MJ ran off, or when Eddie scolded her. Likely the latter. “Thank fu– frick,” Swearing was a bad habit Richie had yet to drop, even after almost eight years of trying not to swear around his kids. “Michelle, honey, Papa’s here. He can carry you, but you know Mama can’t hold you right now. Not with Charlie too,” MJ reluctantly let her father scoop her up, quietly pushing her head on his shoulder as he layered soothing kisses on the crown of her head. She was quiet as a mouse as Eddie lead them back to the cafeteria, where the parents running the booths could store their things. He sat down, keeping her in his lap and rubbing her back. “Michelle,” He started softly, feeling her tense and trying to calm her, “Shh, it’s okay, honey, you’re not in trouble. I just wanna know what happened,” MJ didn’t raise her head at first, and had she not tensed up beforehand he might have thought she had fallen asleep. “Got scared,” The younger of the twins began, not lifting her head and instead clutching tighter to the pastel material of Eddie’s polo, “Got scared Mama wouldn’t be able t’ find us, Papa. L-Luci didn’t tell him where we were going a-an’ he coulda got scared and put baby sister in bad,” As she spoke, Eddie caught sight of the sympathetic look on Richie’s face, and sighed. “So, you were worried that if Mama hadn’t been able to find you two, he could have put Charlie at risk too?” When MJ nodded, Eddie sighed again, letting his shoulders sag, “LIsten, honey, I know you love Charlie lots and lots, but give Mama a bit of credit. While I agree, Luci shouldn’t have lead you two off somewhere without telling us first, you were still both in the school. Mama or I could have found you two; there’s no need to get so scared that you have an asthma attack. That’s much scarier,” He explained, MJ sniffling and raising her head a tiny bit. “Sorry,” She looked so ashamed, and it just broke Eddie’s heart. Richie, poor thing, wanted nothing more than to scoop up his youngest daughter and cradle her close, but he knew it wasn’t safe with another little one on the way. ————   Most situations are handled similarly. Try to reassure her that not everything needed tears and that putting herself at risk wasn’t the best option if she was upset. That just kinda happens to be the wrong way to go about it. Since she was an infant, MJ had been so much like Eddie, it was almost uncanny. Sure, she had actual asthma, but even her little mannerisms and how she would cry were just so much like Eddie. Crying was her go-to response if she didn’t know how to handle a situation. As she grew up, her parents learned it wasn’t always because she was upset, sad, or scared. Half the time, it was only because she was overwhelmed. She would just crumple into tears if nothing more than because she knew it meant someone would hear her and help her. It’s heartbreaking and almost impossible to break her out of the habit. Either Eddie and Richie could leave her to cry and grow more and more overwhelmed, usually into an asthma attack, or they could help her and just reassure her that crying was the best way to get out of a situation that she was overwhelmed with. By the time Charlotte is born she’s not much better. As Luci calls it none-too- kindly; she’s a giant crybaby. If she gets an assignment in class that she knows she can’t do, she’ll excuse herself to the restroom and just start crying into her hands behind a bathroom stall. Luci usually comes in a minute later with MJ’s inhaler, that, nine times out of ten, is forgotten in MJ’s bag in haste. Despite being teased, Luci decides that a ‘Fuck You’ is the only thing she says to anyone who thinks she’s gonna let her little sister have a panic-induced asthma attack all alone in a cold bathroom. The number of detentions she’s gotten from saying just that to a teacher before bolting off to them regardless of if she has permission or not is high into the hundreds by the time she’s ten. Richie is damn proud, which the school isn’t too pleased with. He doesn’t particularly give a fuck, as seeing he knows just how badly his youngest daughter can shut down. Even with how often she misses class time due to panic, the number of days she ends up going home is bigger and the days she doesn’t even show up is the biggest by far. She ends up taking off so much time during Richie’s pregnancy with Charlotte off that it’s a small miracle she’s able to pass the second grade with her sister. Her teachers are all convinced it had something to do with Eddie and Richie sliding some money under the table to the principal, along with a healthy dosage of threats to go to the school board with a complaint for discrimination against the mental dependency that young Omegan children can experience during their first few years of schooling. They wouldn’t be wrong. Luci relays to her parents that sometimes, MJ will just mentally shut down during class. When prompted by her sister, MJ explains very quietly that when she’s away from Richie while he’s pregnant, her body just? Stops functioning? It took one instance of MJ literally collapsing against Luci for the older of the pair to believe her. MJ only needs to Luci that she misses their Mama, needs to go home and have a hug from him and their Papa, and Luci gladly kicks her usual plan into action. ———— “Ms. Werner,” She had yelled at one such instance, only about two weeks before her mother would be on official maternity leave, “Me an’ Michy gotta go home right now!” MJ had her head resting in her arms, folded on the desk in front of her and completely oblivious to the annoyed glares and snickers coming from her classmates. “Lucille, please get off of your chair and sit back down. You know we don’t yell in class, and if we have a personal question, we raise our hand and ask for help,” Ms. Werner was honestly fed up with how often Luci would act up in class. Ever since Spring Break had ended and the twins had come back, every day was some new issue from one or both of them.  “I don’ care if I gotta raise my dumb hand! Michy needs to go home right now an’ I’ll scream ‘til you call my Papa and let her!” That got a whole round of giggles from her classmates, and for once, the freckled girl didn’t even respond to being the usual spotlight of attention that came with being the class clown. That should have been Ms. Werner’s warning that Luci was being dead serious. Lucille Kaspbrak never missed an opportunity to revel in the limelight of her classmates’ attention. But right now was no time to care about her usual five minutes of fame; she had to get MJ home to their parents. Her little sister meant way more to her than any bit of attention from her class ever could. “Lucille, please, just sit down. I can send MJ to the nurse—” The blonde woman should have known to expect the blood-curdling screech that emitted from the oldest of the Kaspbrak twins, yet she still jumped a foot out of her skin at the suddenness of it.  “Michy needs to go home right fucking now, you bottle-blonde shrew!” As Luci’s teacher called Eddie and come to take his children home, she couldn’t help but feel like the seven-year-old had gone directly for a sore spot. ————   Eddie is the one who leaves work to come pick his little girls up from school; if MJ is struggling, he’ll scoop her up and reassure her she’s okay the whole time. His job had long-since accepted that his children came first to the Alpha, and as one of their best workers, they could either lose him or let him do as he pleased when it came to his family. Half the time, any teachers who didn’t know any better thought that he was the mother of the Kaspbrak twins. Not that he cared; he often had an upset daughter clinging to him and crying on his shoulder. The fact that she was sobbing to him that she’s sorry, but that she desperately needs to see her Mama and be held by him— that’s way more important. That always takes first priority. Luckily, Richie is always more than ready to cuddle with his youngest daughter up for hours at a time while he works from home. Being a self-employed, successful infant photographer let him do that fairly easily. He mostly works from home as it was, but being pregnant left him mostly completely paperwork and such from his nest. If working from his nest with MJ burrowed up in his lap listening to his heartbeat while he rubs her back or plays with her hair was entailed, he didn’t mind one bit. It was very doable for the Omega. MJ never said anything or tried to do anything as it was; she genuinely needed the contact from him. Just as sensitive to stress as her father was as a child, with all the desperate need for attention that Richie had growing up. Despite how often she has her mental shutdowns, she’s incredibly smart. It’s half the reason the teachers can get away with letting her go home so often: MJ excels in almost all of her classes. Her homework is always correct, even with her missing lessons or sometimes even full units. Sometimes she can even explain it to Luci, who never understands the teachers and will just get frustrated and give up, and Luci understands it. Sure, kids make fun of them, but MJ genuinely doesn’t care about any of them. She really only cares about her twin sister, and it’s fine with her if people don’t like her. She really doesn’t give a damn about any of them. Luci hates half of her classmates because of what they say about MJ, how she’s a little freak and how she’s not ever going to be able to survive without her sister. Luci doesn’t deal with that shit; MJ is her best friend and her little sister . She’d gladly fight anyone who talks badly about her. She loves her to pieces. They rarely fight, if ever. While the twins are incredibly close to each other, both of them love their baby brother beyond words.   Sure, he’s a very different child from them, but they don’t mind one bit. Jack is a lot more like Richie physically, where his sisters more take after Eddie physically. He’s incredibly active, hyper and usually is the one who gets to plays rough with Luci. He bounces off of the walls and will horse around with his oldest sibling whenever she asks. He never seems to tire. Luci, who loves her baby brother to pieces and will happily play whatever game her wants because playing is fun, and homework can suck it. So what if he was younger than her? He plays LEGO’s with her and lets her bring in her toy trucks with Barbie dolls for drivers. She can’t do that with her twin. While MJ sometimes will play dolls with her, she prefers to draw and create more 2D things. Playing with her older sister and younger brother is a little too fast-paced for the asthmatic girl, so she’s more than happy to watch and play referee while they roughhouse. Half the time, roughhousing ends up with Jack asleep on the couch with his big sister. Luci is conked out too, curled up with her baby brother and drooling on her arm while he’s curled up at her side. Eddie usually has to carry both of them to bed— his hyperactive little babies just melt his heart with how adorable they are. At least when they’re happy and calm, anyway. When Jack gets upset, he practically becomes Eddie, in every sense. He gets scared easily, and fight or flight is really fighting with flight combined for him. He’ll scamper off to his Mama and Papa in an instant if something doesn’t sit right with him. He doesn’t cry at first, one of the only differences he has with his father; he just clams up until Richie or Eddie has him, and then all hell just breaks loose. He just starts wailing like a banshee, loud and proud as a terrified three- year-old be. When the wailing starts, it rivals Luci’s and wins only by a very small margin. He gets top priority in Richie’s arms, and half of his time spent with MJ is in the shared sanctum of his Mama’s lap. Richie can really just sit there and cradle them close while they curl up together and soak up the comfort their mother provides. They both have a solid dependency on their Mama, as most children of Omegas do, is compared to children of Betas or two Alphas.   That’s where little Luci becomes the odd one out.  Even though it’s fairly clear she’ll present as an Alpha once she grows up, while her twin and younger brother will be Omegas, she’s fairly independent. A bit of a black sheep, she’s a natural-born leader and despite being a clear Alpha, she’s the most like Richie by far. That similarity can sometimes drive her apart from her mother, even if neither of them means to. She’ll want to play with him, to roughhouse and start fulfilling a need to prove her strength. Richie, who’s still pregnant with Charlie and unable to do such a thing, ends up butting heads with her quite a lot. She has a mouth on her, and she’s got all the spitfire of Eddie with all the smack-talk of Richie. She has a problem with authority, and never listens to rules unless she deems them just. Doesn’t matter who dishes them out; she’ll speak her mind if she thinks something is bullshit. Being scolded and punished is a norm for her, and it doesn’t faze her unless it comes from Richie. Sometimes Eddie would worry that Luci acted out so often because she lacked the close bond with her mother that her younger siblings did. That turned out to be bullshit. ———— In the one instance where Richie had really scolded her, after calling her teacher “A useless fucking cunt” , he had very firmly scolded her. It had resulted in a screaming fit, and finally, Richie yelled back at her. “I’m not having this argument with you, Lucille Coraline! You don’t call your teacher a useless cunt, no matter whatshe said to Michelle!” “I’ll call her one if she’s gonna be one t’ Michy. Mama!” “Lucille—!” “She’s a cunt! Cunt, cunt, cunt—!” “Lucille Coraline Tozier, up to your bedroom, right now!” That happened to be the wrong thing to do because Luci went red in the face and angrily stormed off to her room, slamming the door so hard the walls shook. Richie, who at the time was teetering on nine months pregnant and beyond angry, went to calm down and take a bath. Eddie came home from picking up MJ from school, and Jack from kindergarten, and calmed Richie down upon finding him in the bathroom crying. Ten minutes of coaxing and calming later, Richie went to go make amends with his oldest daughter. He was instead gifted with a gut-wrenching sight. She was curled up under the hoodie he’d been missing for weeks, and her entire room was absolutely decimated, which was odd, because surprisingly, out of her and her sister, she was the neat freak. “Lucille?” Richie started hesitantly, very carefully trying to wade through the sea of clothes, toys, dolls, drawings and various collections of rocks, “Baby, can I talk to you please? I want to apologize,” Luci didn’t even move the tiniest bit beyond the very shallow rise and fall of her side, which showed she was at least still breathing. That seemed to be it, though. See, that was the thing; she was never desperate for Richie when she got upset or stressed, but once she hit a limit, if anything, she was the worst out of all three  Kaspbrak children. It’s rare, but when she melted down, she melted down so violently she would just mentally check out, and then the beginnings of depression would kick in. “Lucille?” Richie started again, heavily sitting on the bed and gently resting his hand on her shoulder. She jolted only the slightest bit, and Richie was partially convinced that it was from himself, and not her. He coaxed her into rolling over to face him, but she just looked… Defeated. As soon as she made eye contact, her little face just crumpled, and she bit her lip, starting to tremble as Richie pieced together what was happening. “Shh, hey, hey, baby, come here,” As fast as someone in the end of pregnancy could manage, he scooped her up into his arms, cuddling her close and kissing the crown of her head, her freckle-splattered nose, and her chubby little cheeks, trying to do everything he could to reassure her he still loved her unconditionally. “I didn’t mean to yell at you sweetie,” He started, still getting nothing but a few shaky whimpers in reply, “I just— Luci, hun, you can’t call someone in authority a ‘useless fucking cunt’. I would know, I’ve gotten in trouble quite a lot for saying shit like that,” Hoping to get at least a hint of a smile out of her, instead he just received a half-hearted noise of something- a noise of acknowledgment or the starting of a sob, he couldn’t determine which. “Alright, C'mon,” He sighed. Nothing was going to fix this other than a good ol’ cuddle session in the nest, and he was long overdue to have one from his oldest. “Let’s get you to the nest and cuddled up, yeah? Maybe Papa will be nice and make us some ice cream while we watch some dumb old movies?” She nodded numbly, which he took as a sign of improvement, no matter how small it was. ————   It doesn’t do as much as Richie had hoped. After two days, it becomes apparent that she’s hit one of her depressive episodes. But this had to have been her worst one to date. Both Richie and Eddie have to be there as often as possible just to get her to sleep and eat, and she will legitimately just stop functioning if left alone. She won’t eat, she won’t talk, she won’t play or sleep; she just curls up in a ball and she won’t even cry. She just loses all her will do so anything and both Eddie and Richie have to gently coax her back into everything. It takes days of reassurance that ‘No, Lucille, you’re not an annoyance to us, you have never been and you never will be,’ after her first words in three days had been “I’m annoying to everyone.” That had broken Richie’s heart, and Eddie had to take over because Richie could not stop his hormones from leaving him a blubbering mess. “I’m such a bad parent, Eds—! She— She thinks she’s annoying to us! I’m no better than my parents!” Eddie had two distraught messes on his hands that day and spent the day trying to calm and soothe both his mate and his oldest daughter down from their respective meltdowns. Not that he minded in the slightest; nothing is more important to him than his babies and his precious mate. School and work be damned; they would never be his main priority if anyone in his family, especially his sweet baby girl or the love of his life, was this upset. After that hurdle halfway through the week, Luci starts to improve slowly, but she needs MJ and Jack there too afterward. Her mind has just completely turned on her. It had convinced her into thinking she was an annoying, worthless brat that everyone in her family hated. It really becomes a whole family effort to calm her and reassure her that she’s loved and they all appreciate her. She still clings to Richie the most while the whole family is cuddled up together. Richie can’t even work, not that he needs to, but a distraction from seeing his first child so distraught twenty-four/seven is a bit easier on his hormone- addled state. Not that he would ever tell Luci that. Whatever she needs, be it him telling her over and over that it’s okay, or that he’s here and that he understands, he does. He gets it. Really, he does. Richie had felt the exact same way as a child— that he was a bother, a nuisance and unwanted— but his parents wouldn’t do anything to help him. He later learned that his father had agreed with his son’s sentiment, and his mother, at the time, had been too drunk to really realize he was in such a state. Richie had to force himself to function until he literally couldn’t when he was growing up. He would have awful bouts of not functioning for weeks on end, up until when Eddie came into his life and finallysomeone realized what was happening. Eddie had stepped up to the plate, even before either of them had presented, to help his best friend through the episodes when his parents wouldn’t. As Richie so proudly claimed to Luci and their little ones, Eddie had been a good Alpha to him before they even knew what it meant to present and be mated. So while Richie understands how crucial it is for Luci to know her parents care, he also knows it really is about support in general. Had it not been for Eddie, he shudders to think how he would have ended up. Probably like his father, or, more likely, his mother. Had he gotten himself into a loveless mating like she had, he knew he would have drowned his sorrows in alcohol just as she had. Not to mention, even with Eddie’s constant support from the time he was ten up into the present, ten years of total emotional neglect had fucked him up mentally and had left its scars on him. It still does pain him sometimes, knowing up until the twins were conceived and his mother had gotten her shit together, his parents didn’t care about him, well, really at all. He would rather die than have his baby girl feel the same way at any point in her life. He gladly supports all of his children unconditionally, no matter if they were planned, accidental, brought along a surprise sibling, or sent him through a hellish pregnancy. He loves his babies. Chapter End Notes go an read some more of my stuff if you liked this, it's all along the same-ish lines of ABO and MPREg bc a) the It fandom does NOT have enough of it and 2) its what i do B)C End Notes there's gonna be three chapters, idk what the hell is happening with the viewpoint of these headcannons, sometimes it's in standard fic format and sometimes it's headcannons. Will I ever get my shit together? Probably not lmfao Works inspired by this one Halloween_Heat_Wave by acefusti138 Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!