"Gene!"
Sophie called out to the tall man leaning against one of the kindergarten swings' poles. But even as she closed in boisterously while half skipping, Eugene didn't answer. In fact, he didn't even stir, just staring absentmindedly toward the kindergarten door.
"Gene?"
Sophie tilted her head, staring at the man's blank face. Dark, long eyelashes cast a shadow above pale cheeks, making Sophie sigh inwardly. This guy needed to come out more and interact with the glorious sun--she thought. Fortunately, the money in his account was enough to eliminate the need for additional gigs and, in turn, those dark circles that marred his beauty.
But then again, there was always a market for people who loved dark, gloomy, cold beauty aesthetic.
"Hmm...at this point, he's asking for it, isn't he?" Sophie muttered while stroking her chin. With a grin, she scooted closer and raised his hands. "One, two--hoop!"
"Gah!"
Eugene almost jumped when someone poked his waist hard from behind.
"Gotcha!" Sophie laughed in satisfaction while raising his arms high and twirling as if she had just completed a mission.
"Isn't it time for you to stop doing stuff like this?" Eugene grumbled while rubbing his side. That was a rather mean poke she did. "What if the kids copy you?"
"So what if they do? It's better for them to copy my cheerfulness than this gloomy face," she pounced forward before Eugene could dodge and squeezed the younger omega's cheeks, rubbing and smushing them as if she was handling a soft dough. "What a waste of such a good face!"
"What a waste~"
A familiar voice came from their side, as Hannah and Toby were smushing and squeezing each other's faces while giggling. It seemed the afternoon activity class ended while Eugene was receiving Sophie's ministration, as the children poured out of the building and ran happily toward their caretakers.
"See? They're copying you," Eugene clicked his tongue while pulling his head away from Sophie's hold.
But there was no need for that, since she already let go of him to fetch her phone, gasping. "Aaah! So cute!" The clicking sound from her camera phone resounded endlessly. "Keep doing that! Again, again! "
Eugene let out an exasperated sigh while shaking his head--although it wouldn't stop him from asking for the photos later. A laugh came from his back, and his gaze shifted to a man neatly dressed in a suit.
"Quite unchanging, isn't she?" the man smiled gently, warm eyes gazing at the scene of an impromptu photoshoot at the kindergarten playground.
Eugene scoffed. "That's your fault, isn't it? You spoiled her too much."
"What's the use of my existence if not for spoiling my wife and children?" Allen McClaire replied easily, in a casual tone as if telling Eugene it was what a husband should do--or rather, what an alpha should do.
Children? Eugene raised his brow. "Are you planning to have another one?"
"One can hope," Allen shrugged. "It's all up to her, though."
Eugene smiled, hiding how envious he was. A wonderful, considerate, protective alpha partner was so rare in today's society, which had seemed to decline more and more in galantry. Even just having an alpha who didn't force themselves on their partner during rut was already considered a blessing.
Something that should be a bare minimum in a modern society...was considered a blessing. A trait to be grateful for.
Eugene felt like society had been walking backward.
In a way, Jude was more or less based on Allen, since Eugene didn't have a lot of good alpha examples around him. At that time, he was so fascinated that an alpha like him existed that he unconsciously incorporated Allen's trait into the alpha he wrote.
Of course, 'Jude' himself was quite different from Allen. Since it was a self-insert to some point, Eugene didn't want to be accused of having a crush on his friend's husband, especially when he considered Allen--who was older than both him and Sophie--as a brother he wished he had in place of those two bastards sharing a blood connection with him.
"Why don't you come over for dinner, Gene? It's been a while since you both came over," the ever-kind and brotherly alpha proved once more that the rich weren't always an asshole.
It was just...receiving too much kindness felt burdensome sometimes, especially when he didn't have a way to return it.
But as if she knew what Eugene was thinking, Sophie ended the photograph session and jumped toward him again. "That's right, Gene! We have a box of nice, fresh, plump Dungeness crabs shipped this morning."
"C-crab...?" Eugene replied dazedly; so dazed he was that he didn't even flinch when Sophie held his shoulder from behind, whispering like a siren.
"You know they tasted the sweetest around this time, don't you?" she lured the gulping, drooling sailor. "Don't you~?"
"Donchu~"
"Donchu~"
The kids copied her again while giggling and running around their parents. It took another gulp before Eugene snapped out of his daze with embarrassment. "Ugh--I understand, so stop it!" he hissed while pushing Sophie's face away from his ears.
"Yaay! We're having a seafood party!" the overgrown child raised her arms excitedly. Of course, the kids were quick to copy her too.
"Party!"
"Party!"
Eugene pursed his lips and glared at the male alpha who merely laughed at the merry spectacle. "This is all your fault, Allen."
"Yes, yes~"
Allen smiled fondly and--infuriatingly for Eugene--actually looked rather proud of himself. He smirked smugly at Eugene before leading the kids toward the car that would bring them to the McClaire residence.
Indeed, it had been a while. When Hannah visited to play during the holiday, a driver usually came to pick her up from the apartment, so Eugene didn't have to accompany her. It wasn't a mansion or anything, but a cityhouse in the middle of a prestigious neighborhood was something Eugene never entertained imagining, since it felt impossible for his paycheck. Still, perhaps because the owner was like that, the inside of the house felt warm and cozy without any hint of pretension.
Like a proper 'party', the kids had their own table, attended by Toby's nanny, allowing the adults to leisurely enjoy the spread of crab gourmet.
"Ahh..." Eugene, with crab meat running through his bloodstream, looked at the ceiling and sighed in satisfaction; the surprising, stressful encounter that afternoon slowly vaporated from his mind. "Is this heaven?"
"As expected!" Sophie snapped her fingers. "The easiest way to lure Eugene is with money or food!"
"You make it sound like I'm going to follow anyone who offers me those," Eugene rolled his eyes before downing a bowl of crab broth. Placing the bowl back on the table, he shot Sophie a sharp look. "Just so you know, I only do so if it's from someone I trust, okay?"
Eugene belatedly realized his blunder when Sophie's lips broke into a mischievous grin.
"Oh, my~" Sophie curled her eyes while nudging her husband. "Did you hear that, Mr. McClaire? Someone he trusts, he said~?"
"Indeed, Mrs. McClaire. What a wonderful thing to hear," Allen nodded while stroking his chin like a profound scholar.
"I'll let you off this time because you feed me well," Eugene grumbled vaguely while stuffing more crab meat in his mouth.
The married couple merely giggled together while watching Eugene eat everything their cooks made out of the whole box of seafood. Even though he looked like someone who consumed nothing but black coffee in his life, Eugene was surprisingly quite a foodie.
It was just...
"It's good that you like food and all, but why do you keep making strange stuff?" Sophie shook her head in exasperation, recalling Hannah's report on the bizarre stuff born out of her father's adventurous mind.
Eugene replied nonchalantly after swallowing, waving a red claw in the air. "It's called an experiment, Mrs. McClaire."
"Stop doing useless stuff!" Sophie slapped the dining table. "Just because tofu tastes good in a soybean stew, doesn't mean it goes well with regular meat stew, you know?!"
"How would you know before you try it?" Eugene grumbled.
"Just follow what the professional already did, okay?" Sophie complained. "There's a limit to how adventurous someone can be with food. Don't you pity Hannah?"
"I only gave her the successful one," Eugene said--although saying it while avoiding his gaze pretty much damaged his credibility.
"And you ate the failed one? Just stop poisoning yourself, wouldn't you? Geez!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
"Listen to me well, you brat!"
"Brat!" a cute voice chimed in from the small table.
"Brat!" another cute voice followed.
The giggling children gave Eugene enough reason to shift the topic. "See? You keep on giving them a bad influence!"
The children were giggling, and their parents were bickering. Allen laughed at this contrast, which wasn't entirely unpleasant. He remembered how Eugene looked when he first met the omega: lifeless, like a lost doll with a severed string. Eugene at that time looked like someone whose world had gone in flames, who could barely bring himself to eat anything or take care of himself.
Was it pity or sympathy that made Sophie so attached to Eugene at that time? They no longer care. Their desire to pull Eugene from that darkness and stand on his two feet was genuine. Seeing the man who looked so full of self-hatred and called their help 'charity' was now able to act shamelessly and exchange banters with his wife brought a smile to his lips.
"Hmm...come to think of it, there's another one who will get easily lured by food," Allen tilted his head up, recalling someone who used to follow him around in the past, when they were children.
"Who--ah! That guy!" Sophie clapped her hands once. "I think he's also the same age as Eugene, right?"
"I think so."
"It's been a while since we saw him," Sophie tapped her lips as she tried to form a face in her memory. "What was his name again? Arthur?"
Across the dining table, a piece of crab shell almost hit Eugene in the eye.