Chapter Text
Hybrids.
The culmination of love between two different species. Against all odds, love had taken form into an awkward being and lived past conception.
No longer a concept.
A true, living being.
Legoshi's concept of what his child with Haru would be was a little off the mark. He was certain they were going to have a boy. So much so, that Haru got annoyed with him every time he insisted.
Her temper was shorter than usual during gestation.
She refused to let Legoshi pick out anything meant for a male pup. The color blue was banned from the nursery. She was sure they were going to have a girl.
"What makes you say that?" Legoshi had asked her one day. They were fighting over what color to paint the nursery again. For months, the walls were bare. They didn't have to paint it, but Haru wanted to. Of course, they couldn't agree so it felt counter intuitive.
A wall of swatches stood before them at the craft store. Hues upon hues of colors to choose from. It was dizzying. The repetitive patterns of squares were setting off his canine brain.
Haru straighted out, erecting her ears so that she would appear taller than she was. "Mothers intuition," she replied. "That's how I know."
"Really?" Legoshi scratched the side of his face. "That it?"
Haru puffed out her cheeks indignantly. "Well it's better than your explanation. What the hell is an Imaginary Chimera anyway?"
"Uhm..."
He hadn't told her about Kyuu or his training and thought it best to leave it at that. That was a couple years ago, their lives have moved on from the Black Market and Legoshi wanted it to stay that way— for the baby's sake.
They settled on painting the room a navy blue. Legoshi would've pointed out that navy blue was still, technically blue, but he wouldn't hear the end of it if he did. She only compromised by letting the nursery be themed after the night sky.
"We can paint the moon and stars," she said. "Ooh! Maybe we could get some of that glow in the dark paint! Wouldn't that be cute?"
Now that they weren't going back and forth anymore, Legoshi could truly stand back and admire her. Actually, he never stopped. Even when she was cross with him, he knew she didn't mean it. That was just the hormones speaking.
Part of him really liked it when she talked to him like that.
But now, she was practically lit up at the prospect of finally painting the nursery. He could feel the excitement wafting off of her.
"Yeah," he smiled. "Very cute."
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The nursery quickly overflowed with gifts from the baby shower that it was nearly impossible to open the door. Legoshi wanted to start assembling the crib as soon as possible, but there was simply no room to do so.
Louis had gone all out with the presents. He knew that Legoshi and Haru were going to struggle financially— what with Haru trying to run her restaurant as well as paying mortgage for the apartment on top of it. Louis was even fairly knowledgeable on child rearing, seeing as he had his son with Azuki a few years prior.
"You have to be prepared for any kind of situation," Louis had told Legoshi one day. "Especially for your hybrid child, you must consider how their genetics would affect them."
And thus, Legoshi and Haru were left with twice as many newborn and baby products.
Stuff for herbivores and stuff for carnivores.
Binkies, blankies, mittens, booties...
Overdoing it was an understatement.
There were other gifts from Haru's family as well as Legoshi's friends and grandfather. They had been so happy to contribute. Even Gouhin chipped in.
Though, he had only given them a bit of cash to put away for a rainy day. He couldn't be bothered to pick out a gift for the baby.
Legoshi dedicated an entire day to clear out the nursery and sort through it all. Carefully, be sifted through the boxes and determined what sort of objects could be displayed immediately and what could be put into storage until further notice.
Each time a box was opened, love permeated the room.
Love for his unborn child.
Whatever sort of animal they turned out to be, they were going to have a large support system. The world was still warming up to interspecies relationships and were fairly cold on the topic of hybrids. However, there was nothing that could prevent the progression.
Hybrids were here to stay.
When Legoshi got to the final box, he realized that it was from Haru's mother. It was a small decoupage box with a carrot pattern on it. She didn't have to, bug Haru's mother went out of her way to put the box together herself rather than purchase one with a pattern already on it.
It was sweet, Legoshi thought. Just the sort of hobby he would imagine a mother having. He could picture Haru in another decade having a midlife crisis, gluing decorative paper to all sorts of surfaces.
Legoshi lifted the lid carefully, mindful to not scratch the paper. Inside were two loveys for the baby, seemingly handcrafted as well.
In the middle of the loveys were heads of stuffed animals for the baby to cuddle when it got slightly older.
One rabbit.
And one wolf.
They were silky to the touch, sitting lopsided at the bottom of the box. Clearly they were supposed to be miniature versions of Haru and himself. Similar to Louis' thinking, Haru's mother couldn't pick one beast to base the design off of. It wouldn't be fair for the baby to have either a rabbit or wolf lovey.
So, she made both.
The loveys were leaning on one another with sewn on smiles, eternally happy.
Legoshi could only hope that their real lives would reflect this.
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Haru sat on a stool in the restaurant below their apartment. It was supposed to be closed momentarily as Legoshi forced maternity leave on her.
"You're the boss! You can take breaks whenever you want!"
And he was right. Nothing was stopping Haru from closing up shop except for her own inhibitions. Haru was too prideful to stop working, especially if so much money went into the restaurant to keep it running.
Legoshi used up most his savings from being one of the Beastars and used it for schooling as well as fixing up the apartment complex he used to live in. Whatever was left over went on a down payment for the building they were currently living in.
Now, his job at the insectorium provided a lot of the funds they needed to live— often dipping into Haru's funding for her restaurant. She had opened it a year ago. The ingredients came from her garden up on the roof. It was supposed to be self sufficient and she was supposed to profit off of it without Legoshi's help, but she hadn't been so lucky.
Haru sighed. Before her were different variations of the menu design. Maybe a bit of a rebrand was in order.
"I hope by the time you're born, your mother isn't a failure."
Speaking aloud was supposed to be good for the baby, the doctor has said. It would facilitate a connection between the parents. In order to get one over Legoshi and win at something, Haru spoke to the baby all the time.
"Maybe when you're all grown up, this place could be yours."
Haru could see it now, a lovely hybrid hostess with a restaurant full of carnivores and herbivores. Zebras, tigers, birds, mice— beasts of all walks of life. They would all smile when they saw her, their wolf-rabbit hostess.
"A hostess," Haru said, "because you're going to be a girl."
Haru was still adamant about that fact. It was a gut feeling. The females in her family outnumbered the males, there was just a high probability.
She would be bold and captivating, lighting up the room by simply entering it.
By then, hybrids would be widely accepted.
A rabbit could hope.
It was a wonderful concept.
Her body had gone through many changes throughout the duration of her pregnancy. Size difference was of no matter, but to anyone who would see Haru walking down the street with Legoshi, they would whisper terrible amongst themselves.
Terrible, horrible things that Haru hated to imagine.
"What if the baby takes after the father and eats her?"
"Wasn't there a serial killer who was a hybrid a few years ago?"
"That baby isn't going to live very long."
Haru gripped the sample menu until it crumpled. Gosha told her that these things would happen. As long as she focused on her family, these whisperings would fall to the wayside.
Though, it was simply hard to ignore when one had such exceptional hearing.
Haru could hear Legoshi in the apartment above. It was his day off and yet he was still working. He was finally clearing out the nursery, which they had both neglected after it had been painted. It was easy to chuck the gifts in there, saying that they'll deal with it some other time.
Haru sighed and abandon ship. She couldn't think in these conditions. She was supposed to be distracting herself of feelings of impending doom. At times like these, there really only was one cure. Haru left the menus on the counter and trudged upstairs.
Alerted to her presence, Haru heard the faint thumping of Legoshi's tail from the nursery. She found him sitting in the middle of the floor, staring at the contents of a box her mother gifted the baby.
She had completely forgotten about it. It was... Handmade from what Haru could recall.
Haru padded her way over and peered over Legoshi's shoulder. "Are you crying?"
"No," Legoshi sniffed.
"Don't even lie!" Haru pulled on his cheeks affectionately. "I can see your eyes watering!"
"Er—"
"And if you cry, I'm going to cry and you know it's going to be worse because it's harder to control my emotions like this and it's all your fault."
Legoshi flattened one of his ears. "My fault that you're pregnant or my fault that you're crying?"
Just about everything out of her mouth was a contrivance these days. Then again, Haru was always like this. He couldn't so easily forget how she insisted that they'd get a divorce once they're married, right after proposing to him.
Always keeping him on his toes, his wife.
"Mm..." Haru draped herself over Legoshi.
"It's just that... The loveys your mother made for the baby. They're cute."
"That made you cry?"
"Oh, c'mon!"
"Blehh."
"Just last week you cried because we ran out of strawberry yogurt!"
Haru crinkled her nose at the memory. "Because you ate the last one!"
"I said I was sorry!"
Legoshi was prepared to apologize all over again when Haru started giggling. "I'm just messing with ya," she said. "Always so serious."
He sighed with relief and closed the decoupage box. "I'm going to kiss you."
Haru drew back. "Wha...?"
Legoshi's tail thumped across the floor. "Who's serious now?" He'd pin her down if she wasn't pregnant, but for now, she was at perfect kissing height from how he was sitting.
As their lips met, all fears of the future melted away in favor of indulging in the moment.
Maybe they could be like those loveys, Legoshi thought— eternally happy, smiling all the worries away.