thethespacecoyote:

jack maybe being a little less creepy will bring rhys around a little more readily, just a thought

modern au, suburban setting

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Jack and Rhys’ properties were separated by a waist high marble wall that split through the grass all the way down to the sidewalk. Hemmed on one side by Jack’s squat little hedges and on the other by Rhys’ brightly colored cacti, it proved a nice vantage point over which he could watch and sling small talk at Rhys whenever he ended up outside as the omega pulled into the driveway.

He timed this so it happened fairly often.

Jack liked to keep a close eye on Rhys. There used to be an alpha that came and went alongside Rhys. Bastard had driven a pretty nice car—Dodge Challenger, a sleekly remodeled classic that’d hummed like a kitten every time he’d pulled up to Rhys’ curb. An alpha like that, with a healthy interest in vintage autos, could’ve easily been a friend, but considering he’d disappeared right around the time Jack had first noticed Rhys’ smelling of pregnancy—yeah. Jack didn’t want to hang out with anyone who’d dump such a cute little thing over something that should be a blessing for any serious couple.

If that was what’d really happened. Jack liked to imagine what had gone on between Rhys and his ex. Maybe the omega had killed him and buried him in the backyard, sold his car off to start a college fund for his baby. It wouldn’t exactly be out of nature for him, Jack thought.

See, Rhys was one of those go-it-alone, do-it-yourself kind of omegas, something that Jack could respect well enough. It was more attractive than someone who just wanted to lay the day away doing nothing and getting fat on someone else’s paycheck, but, well.

A little bit of vulnerability wouldn’t kill the kid. Rhys could at least try to act a little fragile until Jack had wormed his way into his good graces. Then he could go back to being an independent little hard-ass with a career on one arm, a baby on the other, and a mate somewhere in between.

Jack mostly blamed the pregnancy for his sudden resurgence of Rhys-related affection. Sure, he’d had a bit of a crush ever since the eye-catching omega had first moved into the house next door, but he’d only seriously started snooping when Rhys had gotten pregnant. He chalked it mostly up to instinct—Rhys was with pup, unbounded and alone in a big house, and even as far removed as they were from the wild, being shacked up in upscale suburbia and all, Jack couldn’t deny the needly urge to protect whenever he spied Rhys entering or exiting his house, or managed to strike up a conversation with him.

It didn’t help the alpha’s attraction that Rhys wore pregnancy pretty damn well either.

In fact, a particular pleasure of Jack’s was watching the evolution of Rhys’ clothing over the past couple months. Before he’d gotten pregnant, Rhys had enjoyed a wardrobe of sleek, fashionable clothing: straight-legged pants with a perfect crease, dress shirts neatly tucked into a cinched waistband, blazers darted in around the waist to complement his slight omega curves.

Rhys, to his credit, still retained as much of his style as he could given the changes his body was going through, but Jack had still started to notice an upset in the usual fashion rotation. The kid was still pretty early in his pregnancy, but within the past week or he’d definitely been showing more. Opting out of the belts and dress pants for roomier slacks and shorts. Jack had even caught him in a pair of striped blue sweatpants one morning earlier in the week, going out to check the mailbox as Jack had enjoyed his coffee from the big window opening his breakfast nook out to the front yard.

The dress shirts had remained a mainstay, though Jack was interested to see for how long. Buttons could only handle so much strain, and one could only buy up in size for so long before their arms and shoulders were swimming in a shapeless tent. Sooner or later, Rhys was gonna have to revamp his wardrobe a little more intensively, and Jack wanted to be there when the big shift finally came.

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