Chapter 5 Isaac
Isaac
“I really like your bag. Did you make it yourself?” his new best friend asks from the couch.
He’s lying on his front, socked feet swinging like they’re at a slumber party rather than his mate’s office at Quest. Luca is the cutest thing Isaac has ever seen, with his short pleated skirt and his knee socks with embroidered cherries on the cuffs.
It makes Isaac wonder if there’s room in the apartment for an embroidery sewing machine, and he instantly regrets not splurging on that model last month when he’d upgraded his old one.
Isaac spins on the office chair, tucking his feet up on the seat. “Yeah, I did. Most of the materials are thrifted. There’s so much amazing shit, if you know where to look.”
Climbing to his knees, Luca nods. “Oh, I love thrifting. Or I used to. It’s hard to get out on my own these days.”
Isaac can only imagine. Being famous must suck, and he says so.
But his new friend just laughs. “Nah, it’s easier than you’d think.
Most people aren’t looking for Long Road Home’s guitarist in the local Goodwill.
No, it’s the kids. You’d think that with eight adults, there would be time, but everyone is so busy, and the schedules are already tight. Plus, our kids are…sensitive.”
“Do you mean allergies?” Weres were rarely sick, but somehow, some way, allergies survived. “Eli gets itchy eyes sometimes when we thrift, but he’s so much worse around cats. That’s why we have Hyunjin and Changbin.”
Luca makes an admirable effort to process that, but in the end, he caves. “Umm… who?”
“Our guinea pigs. They’re named after my K-pop biases.”
“Ohhh, I know who you mean. They did a collab with NSYNC, right?”
“Yes! Was epic,” Isaac sighs at the memory.
“I thought so, too. Do you have pictures?”
“I do!” Isaac pulls up his photo gallery again, this time paging through his very neatly organized folders until he finds his K-pop folder. He shows Luca his favorite photo of his guinea pigs’ namesakes.
“Whoa, those are some serious arms…but I meant your guinea pigs.” He shrugs his own surprisingly muscled shoulders. “I can see why you, uh…bias them, though.”
Heat sears his cheeks, and Isaac laughs, hoping he doesn’t look too awkward. Thankfully, he’s wearing his heavy-duty scent blocker patch so Luca can’t smell his embarrassment.
“Shit, not everything is Stray Kids, Isaac.”
“No, hey. Don’t do that. You like what you like, and you shouldn’t make yourself small for anyone. If you love them, then you love them. Fuck everyone else, yeah?”
It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to him.
“How’d you get so wise?” He can’t be much older than Isaac.
“Therapy. Gideon. My twin, Nixie. Being a dad. But really, I’m not so wise. I’m just doing my best, you know? Keep on keepin’ on.” He sings the last line as if it’s from a song—maybe even one of his own.
Isaac knows what it feels like to keep on keepin’ on, especially when life is coming at you full speed ahead.
“Yeah, life can come at you pretty hard sometimes. How many kids do you have?”
“Three. Two girls and a boy.” Luca’s grin is so wide that Isaac can see his back molars. That’s more than just pride—that’s joy. “Mari, Rosie, and Skye.”
Holy shit, three kids. Isaac can’t imagine having even one. Sure, omegas are out and proud, and the thought has crossed his mind more than once, but never during his heat, because that is a surefire way to make his passing imagination a reality.
Still, he likes kids; he just prefers someone else’s. At least for the next decade or so. Besides, there’d be no room for an embroidery sewing machine with a baby in the apartment.
“I’ll show you pictures of my guinea pigs if you show me pictures of your kids?”
They spend the next twenty minutes sharing random photos from their photo galleries. He learns that Luca is a romantic. He has photos on his phone dating back to middle school, and he tells Isaac all his mates’ names. Isaac even falls in love with the ugliest dog ever born.
Meanwhile, Isaac shows him photos of Elias and their place, as well as HyunnieBinnie, and several of his best crafts, but his list of special things and people is much shorter.
In the past, Isaac might have been a bit envious of Luca’s big pack—hearing how their big place can’t contain all the noise and the chaos, and how Luca overflows with love from every pore.
But seeing his new friend so happy just makes Isaac happy, too.
After all those years in seclusion, first with his parents out of some misplaced religious delusion, and then for safety, it gives Isaac hope that a life like that might be possible someday.
If he’s patient, anything can happen. Too bad patience is low on Isaac’s list of valuable personality traits. Le sigh.
“You’re so lucky, Luc.”
“I am. I never thought I’d have anything like this before we met our alpha. It was just me and Leo for the longest time.”
“Like Eli and me.”
“Yeah? Leo and I didn’t even see it coming. One day, Leo found him and…well.” Luca’s mouth tightens for a second, a small frown flickering there before he forces a big smile and a shrug. “Then we found Rowan and Gray. Then Finn. Three years ago, we met Gideon here.”
Ah, that explains Luca’s reaction during their office standoff.
“Then came Nix. It all comes together when it’s supposed to, you know? I’ve learned that. Well, not exactly the hard way, but it sure has been an adventure.”
Luca’s expression implies there’s a story there, but when nothing is forthcoming, Isaac just nods.
“But to be honest, whether we were two or three or seven, we were content, ya know? But now that we’re eight, it’s perfect. And the kids are the cherry on top.”
“Elias and I feel the same.” Most of the time, it’s perfection—just to be in the present with the love of his life. Elias makes it that good.
Sometimes, though…it feels like they’re waiting, and that’s not always easy.
Heats are the hardest, but they manage twice a year. It’s probably harder on Elias than it is on Isaac, who spends most of it out of his mind.
Come to think of it, he’ll have to give some thought to that, as his is around the corner.
Halloween will be a trick and a treat.
Isaac chuckles at his inside joke, wishing he knew Luca well enough to share it. Maybe next time they meet.
“Hey, do you wanna go thrifting and get a matcha sometime? I know lots of really out-of-the-way places that have the coolest vintage stuff. My bag is made from a pair of destroyed Levi’s from the seventies.”
“O.M.G. yes! Give me your phone. I wanna see HyunnieBinnie for real. I could bring our doggo, Tsuki; she loves critters. Oh, and you have to meet Nixie. He’s a dreamboat.
” He accepts the phone but pauses so he can look into Isaac’s eyes.
“I know we’re friends now, but you have to remember he’s taken. ”
Luca looks damn serious, so Isaac just nods, not blaming him for his biased view. Nix Rhodes is otherworldly, and that’s just in pictures.
“No problem, I am not in the market for anyone else at the moment.” He’d meant it when he said he and Elias are doing just fine on their own.
Luca hands his phone back with a grin, and Isaac’s text tone buzzes on the table in front of them. “Do you think lunch will be ready soon? I am starving. Gideon said Elias’s meal is worth waiting for, but I am considering gnawing off a limb. Breakfast was too long ago.”
“Let’s check. At the very least, we could steal something from the fridge.”
Isaac gets the door, and when it swings open, Elias is grilling something while laughing at something Gideon said.
The older man had taken Isaac’s words to heart—thank the Goddess—and let Elias have the run of his kitchen.
Both men stop suspiciously, and while Isaac might have let the obvious go, Luca does not.
“Were you talking about me, Sugar?”
“Of course. Only good things. You’re my favorite topic of conversation. Come.” Gideon holds his hand out, and Luca ignores it to run the short distance and leap into his mate’s arms with no regard for PDA or that his short skirt pops up in the back.
Holy shit. Is he not wearing any underwear?
Elias’s handsome face is red from the heat of the grill, but he’s also a little embarrassed, trying not to watch the other couple making out four feet away.
Isaac has no such trouble. Hot couple make-out sessions are high on Isaac’s kink list, and somehow, he thinks Luca wouldn’t mind.
“Izzy!” Elias whispers to get his attention. “Quit it.”
“Hmmm?”
“Could you pass me the small bowl from over there?”
“Sorry. Busy.” Isaac teases.
Luca giggles and jumps down, much to Gideon’s disappointment.
“Izzy and I were wondering if lunch was ready?” Just as the words leave his mouth, his eyes light up. “Yes! He’s here. Come on, Sugar. I wanna say ‘hi.’”
Gideon rolls his eyes. “Sure you do.”
“He’s so grumpy, it’s fun. Come on!”
Taking Luca’s hand, Gideon grins. “You can serve whenever you’re ready, okay? And if I didn’t say so before, thanks for this.”
Whatever passed between them while he and Luca were becoming best friends must have been big, because Elias nods. “No problem. I’ll serve in twenty. Enough time?”
“Of course. Come on, Trouble. Let’s go make the big man’s day.”
“Talk to you after, Izzy, ‘kay?” Luca yells as they disappear out the door.
He’d hoped to catch a glimpse of Gideon’s cousin, maybe see what Luca meant by ‘grumpy’. Maybe see how Luca keeps the stoic Gideon on a leash, metaphorically speaking.
One can’t know too many ways to make your mates love you to distraction.
Sighing, he doubts Elias would let him press his nose to the crack under the pass-through window shade.
There is a loud, boisterous laugh from what sounds like a giant, making the urge to do it anyway almost impossible.
Elias sets aside salad for Isaac before mixing the rest in with his house dressing.
“Come eat. You said you were hungry,” Elias says, the food enough of a distraction to pull Isaac’s brain off course.