Page 104 of Shifter Omegaverse AU

Milo gently placed Ruben down on the couch, avoiding his beady-eyed glare. “Come along, Ray,” they called, and after some angry-kitten glares, Ray stretched again before jumping from Rowan’s legs to the couch. He sauntered across it, flicking his tail at Milo, before settling down next to Ruben.

They immediately started grooming each other, and Milo sighed, externally this time. They grabbed one of their many throw blankets—also one of their additions to the apartment—and held it up in front of them.

Milo swore they heard Rowan chuckle, and when they glanced at him, he was wearing that small smile and pointedly avoiding eye contact.

It took a little more coaxing and a few gentle threats, which escalated into absurdity, until finally Ray and Ruben were back in their human skins and clothes, walking their human behinds out the door.

“Have a good night!” Ray said, a twinkle in his eye because he knew exactly what Milo was planning.

“You kids stay out of trouble, you hear?” Ruben said, with an equally knowing look on his face, which was…interesting. Milo had sworn Ray to secrecy, more so out of mild embarrassment than anything else, and he would never break that trust.

“So,” Rowan said as soon as the front door shut. He crossed his arms over his broad chest, stretching his Henley and making Milo’s toes curl in their fuzzy socks. “You remembered it was our nine-month anniversary, too?”

“Of course I did,” Milo said, bouncing up onto their toes. “I didn’t say anything when you scheduled a double-dinner-and-snuggle date for us because…well, you know how much I love those.”

Almost as much as they loved Rowan.

“I know you do, baby. That’s why I wanted it to be part of today’s plan.”

“Oh, wait, you…have a plan? For today?” Milo asked, falling back down onto the balls of their feet.

Rowan walked across the room, stopping mere inches in front of Milo. “I do, yes.”

Milo’s hands found the bottom of their jacket and tugged. “Does it also involve us trying out our new sex swing?”

Rowan’s eyes rounded, and his heart stuttered a beat. Milo had been getting better at picking it out from all the other ambient noise in the apartment, and now they could almost always hear it.

Like, right now? It was beating faster as Rowan coughed and cleared his throat. “Our…what?”

Milo grinned, almost as wide as their pony, as they pivoted on their heel and skipped off to the bedroom, scooping the instruction manual up off the dresser. With Ray’s help, Milo had been able to get Rowan to leave the house before their dinner date, and together, Ray and Milo had managed to put the complicated contraption together.

Everything except for—

“Ta-da!” Milo shouted as Rowan peeked his head in around the door jam.

His mouth fell open, but no sound escaped, obviously too overwhelmed with joy to say anything.

“Ray and I built it while you were gone! Once we figured out how to read all the tiny diagrams, it was a piece of cake—except for these ten screws,” Milo said.

They shook the plastic bag full of screws, which Ray had stapled to the instructions “just in case you ever need them again.”

“It’s…missing ten screws?” Rowan asked, cautiously stepping into the room like he was afraid the swing was going to get up and bite him.

“No, just six. It said it came with four extras, but I seriously can’t believe we would somehow miss six screws, so I’m sure these are extra, too.”

Rowan stared at the swing, almost imperceptibly shaking his head.

“Do you…not like it?”

Rowan continued shaking his head, but this time with a little more force. “No, baby, it’s definitely…exciting.”

“I thought that you could hold onto the handles, and if you don’t like the texture of them, we could make new handles for it,” Milo said, gesturing broadly at the swing. Rowan still looked surprised, and not in a good way, so Milo hurried to finish their pitch. “And then we can try out all different kinds of positions, and we can tie my legs up or over or behind or wherever, so there’s no chance of me slipping up and touching you. I know it really surprised you last week when I sneezed and accidentally hit your arm, and so I thought maybe we could try this, or if you hate it, there are other designs and styles and—”

“I want us to mate,” Rowan said.

Every thought, plan, and argument left Milo’s brain. “You…do?”

“I do. That was my plan for tonight. I know it might sound silly, but Raina and Troy mated on their third date, Ray and Ruben on their third week, and so I thought nine is three times three, so…”