Page 55

“Perhaps,” Titan said, smiling shyly as he looked down at the twin in his arms. “But perhaps I also enjoy listening to your explanations, my wise, intelligent, resilient, sweet Ezra.”

“Barf central,” Corbin and Jude muttered in unison, and Ezra’s heart soared.

It was less than fifteen minutes later when the egg on the right hatched, and two identical boys tumbled out, blinking in confusion and overwhelm as they took in the breadth of th eir new surroundings.

“Aw, more basic bitches,” Corbin cooed, while also grimacing slightly as one of the twin girls—mobile and eager to explore already—climbed his leg like an iguana.

And indeed, the nearly identical twin boys did, in fact, sport infinity symbols, one twin with it on his left bicep, and the other with it on his right.

“This is very peculiar,” Titan said, not unhappily but definitely with interest. “Our nieces and nephews are more human than our own children, yet carry traditional Darvrokian markings. I cannot explain why our much more Darvrokian children have been marked with Earth symbols.”

“My marking matches Papa’s,” Starr interjected happily. He was no longer a cat, opting instead to disguise himself as a tiny, mustached Corbin, likely because it was clear that Corbin found it extremely disturbing, and this amused him.

“Babe, they’re just going against expectations,” Ezra said proudly, scooping up one of the boys and rocking him in his arms, basking in all the unconditional love the baby was feeling for him. “They’re unpredictable.”

“As it should be,” Titan agreed.

With two of the three eggs hatched, the attention turned to the remaining egg.

It looked like it was about to crack into a million pieces, but nothing at all was happening.

It was almost like the babies inside had realized how close they were to leaving the safety of their shell, and had gotten scared and stopped.

It was while they were waiting on this egg that the doorbell rang, and shortly thereafter, Kyle returned to the room, bringing with him Joe, who was hauling… something.

It was hard to tell exactly what it was, but judging by the humongous wicker basket and cellophane, it felt safe to call it the world’s weirdest gift basket.

“Yo yo yo,” said Joe as he joined them, the…

everything about his personality making him seem larger than life in the crowded room.

“Big sorries for sliding in late, but there was a gnarly traffic jam. Oh, hey! Looky here!” He set the giant basket of…

just so many things on the ground and scooped up one of the twins who had crawled over to investigate his arrival.

“Welcome to the universe, little homie!” he said, beaming at the baby.

“Um. Corbin? Jude? This is my dad, Joe,” Ezra said, gesturing awkwardly toward Joe, who did a shaka with his baby-free hand and stuck out his tongue.

“Right. Uh. Nice to meet you,” Jude said politely, while Corbin—holding Starr, who was still disguised as a miniature version of him—snorted, then quickly attempted to cover it with a yawn.

“What’s, uh… what’s all this, then?” Ezra asked, nodding at the basket on the ground. From where he stood, the following items were visible:

At least a dozen Slim Jims

A bottle of super glue

Condoms

Anti-diarrheal medication

A twelve-pack of Mountain Dew

An inordinate amount of scratch lottery tickets

Lighters

A variety of cigarette packs

What appeared to be an aisle’s worth of candy

A stack of New Mexico postcards

Sunglasses

and god only knew what all was buried underneath. Joe had, evidently, bought out a gas station.

“Oh, well, back before I came to Earth and shacked up with your mom, I spent a lot of moons in Sector 2.72.3 doing a spiritual journey with the Slime Worms, and I really jived with their culture, if you know what I am saying. And in their culture, it is customary to bring a gift whenever a new child is born. I got lots of gifts while I was there and thought it was totally radical, so I wanted to do the same for you. Feel me, dog?”

“Sure,” Ezra said after an awkward beat. “Um. Thank you. We appreciate it.”

“No worries,” Joe said. He planted a wet kiss on the baby’s head and set him down, then came over to look into the bassinet. “What’s the sitch with these dudes? They look like they’re about to bust out of their cell, but they don’t seem to be making it that high of a priority.”

“We don’t know,” Ezra said, glancing at the egg with mild trepidation. It kept moving slightly, so he knew that the babies inside were still alive, but it was distressing to see them both so unwilling to come out.

Titan nodded. “I considered an attempt at reading their emotions, but I fear that if I touch the egg in its precarious state, it may shatter, and forcing the offspring out of their shell could cause irreparable damage to their psyches.”

Joe nodded thoughtfully, then, without warning, put both of his hands on either side of Ezra’s face and clamped his eyes shut, like he was trying to concentrate.

“Um,” Ezra said, voice distorted as Joe pressed his cheeks together. “What are you doing?”

“Darvrokian infants have an emotional link to the parent who birthed them that doesn’t require touch,” Joe explained, not opening his eyes. “So when the babies inside a shell are like, ‘Hell nah, dog, I do not wish to come out,’ sometimes a birth parent can coax them out using that link.”

“And how do you know this?” came a stern, skeptical voice at the door.

Ezra, unable to turn his head as it was currently in Joe’s death grip, looked as far as his eyes could go to see Mr. Leon watching Joe with distaste.

Joe opened one eye to c ast a glimpse at Mr. Leon, and then shut it and went back to concentrating.

“I have spent the entirety of my life studying how species all over the galaxy reproduce, man,” he said breezily.

“I am very knowledgeable of how these things go down.” He held Ezra’s face for several more seconds, then, just as suddenly as he had grabbed him, let go.

He blinked his eyes open and, letting his arms drop heavily to his sides, he searched Ezra’s face with an uncharacteristic sadness in his expression.

“Oh dog,” he said with a grimace. “That is not tubular at all.”

“What’s not tubular?” Ezra asked, furrowing his brow. Joe sighed and nudged Ezra’s mom gently. She got the hint and went to perch on the side of the bed, patting the spot beside her invitingly.

Ezra, not sure in the least what was going on, went and took a seat.

“Sometimes certain offspring are more sensitive to emotions than others,” Joe explained, speaking with great care and compassion, more like a nurse than a ginormous space slut. “Those homies in there? I think they feel your emotions to a significant degree, and it’s making them afraid.”

Ezra’s gut lurched at the news. “Why? I want them to come out, and I’m super happy. What about that would scare them?”

“That’s the thing, homie… you’re not.”

“I’m not what?”

“Look, you got this vibe about you that’s super chill and easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? But that’s not what your offspring are feeling. They can feel the emotions that are here.” Joe tapped his chest.

“In my heart?” Ezra asked.

“No. That is not where Darvrokian hearts are, and also emotions originate from the brain. The heart is used for blood circulation. This”—he tapped his chest again—“is where Darvrokian adrenal glands are, and this is where you feel fear, homie. Deep down, you feel a lot of fear, and I ha ve got to give you a hella amount of sorries, because I am pretty sure it’s my fault. ”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Ezra said, but his words came out small and shaky.

“I think you do know, actually,” Joe argued with a sad smile. “’Cause I think you might have been feeling this way for many moons. I think, perhaps, since I left you. Perhaps… because I left you.”

Ezra brought his thumb to his mouth and began chewing on his cuticle, casting his gaze to his lap so he didn’t have to keep making eye contact with Joe.

“You think I left ’cause you were not worth staying for, but that is not the case, homie.

You think that I must not care about my offspring because I have so many, but this is also an untruth.

Every species in the galaxy has different expectations for fathers.

Some grow to adulthood quickly, some do not require fathers at all.

Humans and Darvrokians are ones that need both of their parents around, though, and you gotta trust, homie, I woulda been there for you if they had not come and thrown me in the slammer. ”

If Ezra could have sunk his gaze any lower, he would have done it. The feeling of dread from before—the one dredged up from some deep, dark place inside of him when he’d seen his mom standing alone as the babies were born—had a chokehold on him, and its grip was only tightening.

He understood the circumstances?—

He understood that Joe had not wanted to leave?—

But that didn’t change the fact that he’d been gone.

That Ezra had been alone.

Pain like that didn’t resolve just because the truth came out. He’d grown up with it, and it—the gnarled and gnashing monster that it was—had grown up with him.

And right now it was whispering that if Joe had really loved him, he wo uld have found a way.

“I have always had love for you, Ezra,” Joe said softly, quietly. “You must believe me. Your offspring are afraid to come into the world ’cause you are afraid of being abandoned, but you have never been abandoned, my main man. You do not have anything to fear, and neither do they.”

Ezra swiped at his eyes, mortified to feel himself tearing up. He couldn’t bring himself to lift his head or even speak, so instead he just nodded.

“And before any more un-dope thoughts find their way into your brainmeat,” said Joe, “I love all of my offspring, and there are many of them.”

“So I’ve heard,” Ezra muttered with a chuckle.

“I mean, there are so many.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Like, think of how many you think is a lot, and then double it. I have a lot?—”

“Yep, you’re a slut, I get it, message received!” Ezra said, throwing his hands up.

“Which is all to say that my love is not limited—not by number, not by distance, and not by time. But perhaps it is not enough to say it. Perhaps you must know how I feel.”

At that, Ezra looked up. “What?”

But Joe did not answer.

He wrapped his hand around Ezra’s bare arm and let him experience the truth instead.

Ezra was not as sensitive to touch telepathy as other Darvrokians seemed to be—hell, he’d struggled with getting a read on his own eggs—but when Joe touched him, the connection was immediate. The love in Joe’s heart was so powerful, Ezra didn’t need to reach for it. It was pushed into him.

And there was no faking something like that.

The tears he’d swiped away came back en force. They streamed down his cheeks and collected under his chin before dripping onto his thighs .

Joe wasn’t lying.

He loved Ezra deeply.

Yeah, he’d made mistakes, but he hadn’t stayed away because he’d lost interest in being Ezra’s dad.

Love like that was the kind that made people stay.

“Ezra,” Titan said softly, setting a hand on his lower back. “Look.”

Ezra blinked the tears from his eyes and looked at the bassinet just in time to see the final egg come apart. The two babies inside rolled gracelessly out of their shell and started chirping and clicking, prompting their siblings to come over and say hello.

“They feel safe,” Titan said, and Ezra laughed wildly.

It felt like his heart was in flight.

“It’s not just that,” he said. “They don’t just feel safe—they feel loved.”

And he knew it beyond any possible doubt, for that was exactly how he felt as well.