“I am, but I’ve an idea about that for the future.” He kissed Taggart’s pouty mouth and sucked on his lower lip, nibbling.
Taggart groaned, clinging a little tighter, then small hands roamed over his bottom before Soren cuddled into his back. He couldn’t get over how being in the middle of a mate sandwich made his belly quiver. “I’m the peanut butter and jelly filling,” he said breathlessly when Daddy stopped kissing him.
A wide grin appeared as Arlo lowered him to the floor. “Is that so, then what are Soren and Daddy?”
He giggled joyously as Soren wound his arms around his waist and pressed a cheek against Taggart’s back. “The bread, silly.”
Arlo
His mind played over the continued security issue as he witnessed easily his boys slipping from their little spaces back to big ones as they sat pressed against one another, Soren’s arm around Taggart’s waist as the bigger shifter leaned against him. It had been twos days since Bash’s crew had installed the cameras which it turned out were so sensitive that the security app opened on Arlo's phone several times a day to show him a trio of squirrels and a bunny who’d made the yard their home. While Taggart’s yard had a fence, it was wooden and only four feet tall, adorable and covered in flowering vines, it was wonderful to look at, but good for little else.
Still, he hesitated about making any decisions beyond the cameras, not without a full discussion with Taggart first. He hadn’t even moved his possessions in, the last thing he wanted was for his new boy to feel like he was taking over. Not until he gave explicit permission for Arlo to handle any and all security matters that cropped up.
“I don’t want to look at anymore video today,” Taggart said, pulling Arlo from his thoughts as they sat cuddled after taking an afternoon break to play. “I-I know I need to, there is still so much to look through, but I-I just, I need a little longer before I go back to it. T-there was just so much. I know everyone needs me to do this, b-but—”
“Shhhh,” Soren said before Arlo could speak up, so he waited to see how their little bird handled such a big problem. “You don’t need to go back to it until you’re ready. Why don’t we go outside and pick up some sticks?”
“Sticks, why?”
“Because it’s windy out,” Soren replied, grinning widely. “And when it’s windy, it’s the perfect time to make a kite.”
“Make a… you know how to make kites?”
“I sure do, and I’m going to teach you, but first, we need to go outside and find sticks, then we need to see if Daddy will sacrifice one of his T-shirts.”
Startled, Arlo watched as first Soren and then Taggart turned bright, hopeful expressions towards him. As if one set of slightly watery eyes and pouty lips wasn’t enough, having two was more than sufficient to prompt him to strip his T-shirt off and pass it over. Moving in tandem, his mates lifted it and brought it to their faces, inhaling his scent together before sighing and rubbing their faces against it.
“Thank you, Daddy,” they replied, peering up at him over his shirt.
Grinning, he gathered them in his arms, hugged them tight and kissed the tops of their heads.
“Soren is very right, darlin’,” Arlo murmured in Taggart’s ear. “You do not have to look again today or any day when you feel like this. My priority is looking after you, now let’s go outside and find those sticks.”
Arlo felt Taggart’s weight increase against him as Taggart melted between them. He shifted to take more of it.
“Thank you, Daddy,” Taggart murmured.
“You never have to thank me for looking out for you,” Arlo replied before turning them loose and following them outside into the bright, beautiful blustery day that awaited them.
While they collected sticks, Arlo walked the perimeter, looking for the marker plates on the property boundary lines.
“Taggart,” he said, when he was finally ready to broach the subject that had been on his mind, “would you be opposed to having a stone fence installed behind the wooden one?” Arlo was already figuring out logistics. “You could still enjoy the wooden one and its flowers, though we may need to move it forward a little so the stone one fits inside your property line. It would be taller, and we would have privacy when we were back here.”
“Would we be able to have a wallow too?” Soren questioned hopefully. “Or are they only allowed on crash lands?”
“You lived beside a wallow, didn’t you?”
“Uh-huh, my whole flock did. Sometimes three and four generations in each big house. We just added on when we needed space. But we always stayed near the wallow because the rhinos had their homes there too.”
“Were there any meerkats?” Taggart asked, his curiosity peeking out.
Soren smiled and nodded that soft, sad nod of his. “Yeah, they were amazing, I grew up with several meerkat friends. We were a whole community.”
“The same as we have become here,” Arlo assured him.
“Did the meerkats play in the wallow too?” Taggart questioned, his eyes bright with interest.
“We all did and rinsed off in the sprinklers and bird baths outside before we were allowed back indoors, too.”
