Bond Brothers

Robbie would rather starve than have dinner with these psychos

A/N: A big shout-out to my pal BeanSpouse who beta read (bean read?) this week's chapter for me and suffered through my many emails. What an incredible legume, right?! Beans totally nailed it and deserves all the love.

I'm posting a day early because I'm travelling for a few weeks from tomorrow onwards. I don't think it should affect my capacity to post every weekend - but just keep it in mind that if I'm late, I haven't abandoned this fic!

Trigger Warning!

Derogative mentions of infertility. 

Robbie warily eyed one of the portraits that was glaring at him. He assumed they were all ancestors of Polly's, not only because they were hanging in her family home, but because they'd all mastered the same look of superior contempt that Polly used to scare people shitless.

Robbie had never been to a house like this. Was it even called a house when it was this big? When did a house become a mansion? How many square meters– was that a goddamn fountain in the next room?!

He was nudged out of his internal monologue by Carter, who was fidgeting so nervously next to him on the loveseat that he'd probably fall to the floor if he didn't cut it out soon. Robbie was an excellent best friend, so he elbowed him in the ribs. Hard.

"Oof," Carter grunted, shooting him a glare that said 'that was unnecessary.'

Robbie shrugged. It was possible that his frustration with the guy was getting the better of him. Carter had, after all, spent the better part of a week singing praises about Robbie's biological mates at every opportunity. He went on long tangents about how 'understanding' they were by keeping their distance ("They invited themselves to dinner with your in-laws! How is that keeping their distance?!"), and how 'open-minded' they were for not forcing a marriage on him ("Oh, sure, let's not forget that they didn't drag me off into the sunset kicking and screaming. The sheer romance of it is overpowering."). Not to mention how 'rational' they were for not being intimidated by his close relationship with an alpha who happened to be his best friend.

"It's called blatant manipulation, Carter," Robbie had told him stubbornly. "Winning over the best friend is like the first lesson in Getting into an Omega's Pants 101."

"I'd have taken that class," Carter had nodded back seriously.

"Your GPA couldn't have handled the failing grade," Robbie had muttered back.

Then, of course, there was the whole matter of Polly.

Carter, the worst liar Robbie had ever met when the stakes were high, just had to fall in love with the most diabolical omega in existence. So when Robbie asked his best friend in the world not to tell his traditionally-raised girlfriend that he was the bond runner the whole world (very much including Polly) was obsessed with discovering, Robbie wasn't sure what he'd been expecting.

What he hadn't anticipated was that when he showed up at Carter and Polly's flat so they could all carpool together to Polly's suburban family home, Polly was giving him the silent treatment.

"Are you seriously mad at me right now?" Robbie finally demanded after the third time Polly had totally ignored something he'd said to her on their lengthy car trip. "Should I remind you that just last week you insulted my fiancé multiple times to his face, then got in my face about breaking up with him like it was any of your business to begin with!"

Luckily for Robbie, Polly was far too easily riled up to successfully execute a long-term silent treatment.

"Like you haven't been poisoning Carter against me all week to get back at me for that," she said snidely.