Because The Night

Five

After helping the twins - named Tawan and Lawan by jubilant, if a little shell shocked, parents - to latch at Gulf's nipples and take colostrum, Mew had only one goal: To keep them all warm.

He gathered together sparsely scattered branches and sticks from the floor of their cave - bountiful outdoor wood would take days on end to dry out - yet when he made, then, to venture out to the next grotto along in search of more kindling whilst Gulf dozed with his sleeping pups on the padded floor of the nest, he found he couldn't.

He simply couldn't leave his omega and pups, those freshly awoken alpha instincts wouldn't allow it. Every beat of his heart drummed 'protect, protect, protect' in those moments.

So Mew lit the fire with what they had, pulled Gulf back until his head was resting atop his lap, and cradled both babies to his own bare chest for skin to skin contact, giving what little body heat he had within to his children.

His children.

As dawn broke and, at last, clouds were chased away like naughty imps to other nursery pastures, a clear, blue sky of hopeful, winking sunshine and paintbrush strokes of sweetheart pink emerged above hazy, morning mists.

The scene outside was a tableau vivant of storm destruction: Felled trees and pylons strewn as a game of 'pick up sticks' for giants. Local rivers bursting banks to flatten crops and smash buildings to smithereens in their wake. Apocalyptic.

Yet just then, in those moments, Mew felt that the world was utterly perfect. He had everything he needed - things that only 12 hours earlier he hadn't even known existed - there in his arms.

//

Gulf yawned awake some hours later, roused by the cries of his hungry pups. Lifting each to suckle at his chest once again, he scolded gently, "Slow down little one, let your sister feed too" - unaware of the effect his tone and words had on the watching alpha's heart, swelling it until Mew felt that he could simply burst with pride and happiness, exploding out into the world as a glittering rainbow, brightest light after a darkest storm.

Awaiting rescue, the two men talked and kissed and cuddled - making use of the passing hours to fill in remaining gaps of their story together...

Mew told of how he'd secretly, faithfully searched for Gulf through each month that passed - returning to that same bar every 14th, in lonely anniversary for the one he could not forget. Gulf in turn sharing his turmoil upon realising that he was pregnant, and indeed a carrier - the misplaced guilt he felt towards Mew for backing him blindly into a corner, fear of the elder man's rejection that held him back from meeting him as he ached to do.

They sang songs as lullabies to their little ones - giggling like teenage sweethearts as they recounted the final lyrics from the night they first met:

'With love we sleep
With doubt the vicious circle
Turns and burns
Without you I cannot live
Forgive, the yearning burning
I believe it's time to heal to feel
So take me now, take me now, take me now

Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Because the night belongs to lovers
And everybody says
It belongs to us'

Then, just as the faithful fire finally flickered its last, the sound of distant voices pierced their bubble.

"Mewwww, Mewwww", travelled the calls of Axel and Fon on the fresh breeze, and within moments two weary, worry-lined faces had arrived upon the scene, paramedic uniforms wet, torn and mud-splattered. Initial abounding joy at having located their friend and the missing patient, quickly made way for undisguised, inquisitive incredulity as their eyes surveyed the nest: A near-naked and shivering Mew, unidentified omega and offspring in his close embrace.

"Bro, what's...?" - Axel's question interrupted by the melodic tinkling of an incoming video call, phone masts re-connected somewhere down the chain...

"Mew, thank Gods you're safe" - June was brushing away tears of relief from the dry carpets of the dispatch room - "What a fucking night. I'm just sorry you didn't get that beer or whiskey I promised-"

"-No worries", the alpha interrupted, grinning in mysterious reply, "I actually ended up with a whole lot more than that" - tilting the phone's angle to reveal a smiling omega and pups in his arms, as he made it official: "Meet...my family!"

// THE END //