#that opening scene was me projecting my MOM hard onto Angel lol XD

[starlitangels]

You Picked Right

Pups AU! The Shaw kiddos are back as lil teeny tiny kidlets! Not sure if this was technically a request but I treated the ask as one. About a former crazy ex of Davey’s meeting his family. And I didn’t want to take away anyone’s interpretation on Davey’s sexuality from them so... gender neutral crazy ex! 1.7k words

—

David leaned against the archway that spilled the stairs out into the basement, a small smile on his face. His angel was dancing with their two children. Natalie was on his mate’s hip, held close to their torso with their arms. The two-year-old toddler was belly laughing with all the bouncing. Gabriel was “dancing” on his own. Meaning, the three-and-a-half little boy was spinning in circles with a big goofy grin on his face.

“Shake your groove thing—shake your groove thing yeah-yeah! Show ‘em how we do it now!” his mate sang along with the song playing from one of the smart speakers. They bobbed side-to-side, which only served to make Natalie laugh harder. David’s smile widened a small fraction when their wedding ring caught the light and reflected right into his eyes. Mine. My mate. Our children. My family, he thought. He couldn’t imagine being happier.

Gabriel giggled and flopped over on the basement sofa, declaring, “Dizzyyyyy!” through his giggles.

David’s mate chuckled in amusement as Gabriel covered his eyes—as vibrant green as David’s own—and wiggled on the sofa cushions like a particularly energetic worm.

God, what would I do without you three? David thought. What did I ever do before you?

From his position furthest from the speaker, and closest to the stairs, David was the only one who heard the doorbell ring upstairs. He glanced over his shoulder, debating on whether or not to go answer it. If it was a pack member they would have let him know they were coming—most likely. Unless it was an emergency.

The thought of an emergency led him to reluctantly leaving the entertaining scene of his mate and their children behind to climb the stairs and go to the front door.

Sometimes he regretted the lack of little windows on either side of the front door so he couldn’t see who was standing there. Today was one of those days. He didn’t like not knowing what to expect. He loved their house—and God knew they needed the upsize from their old house after Natalie was born—but he didn’t like the unknown.

Cautiously, he opened the door.

His mouth dropped open in surprise. “Oh. Uh... Taylor. What... what are you doing here? How... how did you find this place?”

Taylor was a former partner of David’s. His last before he met his mate. Their relationship had ended by going down in flames and it had been over seven years since he’d seen them. Though it could have been closer to nine years... David couldn’t remember exactly at the moment.

Taylor shrugged. “Just the grapevine,” they said. Somewhat evasively. Which David didn’t trust at all. David didn’t imagine Taylor had changed much since the two of them broke up. He figured their obsessive tendencies hadn’t gone anywhere.

“What are you doing here?” David repeated.

“I miss you. I know we haven’t been together for a long time, and I know our breakup was my fault. But I’ve missed you every day since we broke up. David, if you give me another chance—I promise I’m not the same as I used to be. I’ve done a lot of growing up and I still want you and—”

At that moment, Natalie emerged from where she’d been crawling up the stairs and bolted at David, slamming into the back of his leg and wrapping her arms around it. “Daddy! Dats wi’ me!” she squealed with a big smile. She still struggled to pronounce dance, so she said it as dats. David, barely taking his gaze off of Taylor, bent and picked her up, settling her gently on his hip.

Taylor blinked, looking surprised. “Who... who’s this?” they asked.

David wrapped a hand protectively over Natalie’s back, making sure it was the hand with his wedding ring on it, in Taylor’s full view. “This is my daughter,” he said.

That was the moment Gabriel caught up to his sister. “Daaad! Natty ran awa—” He reached up and clung to the hem of David’s shirt. “Who’s that, Dad?” Gabriel was staring, wide-eyed, at Taylor. And Taylor was looking down at Gabriel. At the green eyes that were undeniably David’s.

Taylor met David’s gaze again. “You... you have children.”

“Mmhmm,” David grunted, adjusting his grip on Natalie so she was only held up by one arm so he could put a hand on the back of Gabriel’s head, holding his son against his leg. “Kids, this is Taylor. An old friend.” His kids were too young to understand the concept of an ex, and David didn’t miss the way Taylor’s eyes flashed when he said friend.

Gabriel waved politely, still ducked more timidly behind David’s leg. “Hi,” he said softly. Taylor surprised David a bit by waving back.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Taylor asked David.

David’s eyes narrowed slightly but he managed not to scoff. “Because we haven’t spoken in seven years, at least,” he replied shortly, tightening his grip on both children. Natalie squirmed—then met Taylor’s eyes and ducked to hide her face in David’s shoulder.

“What’s going on? I look around and suddenly everyone has left me alone, dancing by myself,” David’s mate exclaimed, cresting the top of the stairs. They approached the front door and scooped Gabriel up from behind David’s leg, setting him on their hip. They leaned over and kissed David’s cheek. “Hi there,” they added to Taylor.

—

The stranger at the door’s eyes widened slightly. “And you are?” they asked, voice tight. I scrunched my eyes slightly as Davey shifted his weight so he was slightly blocking me from the visitor’s view. Protective, to the end.

“This is my mate,” he said to the visitor. He glanced at me. “Angel, this is Taylor.”

Ah. I’d heard David’s stories about Taylor. His obsessive ex. Ash referred the tales as “horror stories” and liked to give his version of things—while Davey rolled his eyes because Ash’s version tended to paint David as an idiot. Probably for entertainment value. Ash certainly didn’t have to try too hard to get me and his mate to laugh when he told them.

I held Gabriel tighter against my side with one arm and held a hand out to shake Taylor’s trying to be polite. “Nice to meet you.” I’d set Gabriel on my right hip, so I extended my left hand.

Taylor shook it tentatively, eyeing my wedding ring.

I could practically see them turning green. That little envy monster rearing its head inside.

“Were you just stopping by to say hello?” I asked, plastering an obviously-fake smile on my face, making it obvious I was pretending to be polite while the look in my eyes was very much back off. This is my mate and not yours. Davey was still slightly ahead of me, so I couldn’t see his expression well, but I imagined it was similar.

Taylor’s eyes flicked between me and Davey—then briefly at our children. “I... I...” They clenched their jaw and stormed away, heading down the porch steps and toward the street.

David blinked a few times before firmly shutting—and locking—the front door. He moved to set Natalie down, but she clung to his shirt. “Daaaddy! Dats wi’ meee!” she insisted.

David chuckled. “Of course, baby girl. C’mon.” He took her back downstairs.

Gabriel tugged on the collar of my shirt. Politely. Unobtrusively. We hadn’t tried to teach him how to get our attention gently, it was something he’d just had in him. God knew he didn’t get that from me. I imagined it was something in David’s genetics from one of his parents. David didn’t know a lot about his mom, but from what I’d heard about Gabe, my son might have inherited his softer, gentler nature from his grandfather.

“What is it, sweetie?” I asked.

“Who was that, really?”

Three-and-a-half and smart as a whip.

“You know how me and Daddy are married?” I asked. Gabriel nodded. “Well, before we were married, we were dating. That person was someone your dad was dating before he and I met.”

“He loved them?”

Apparently David and Taylor hadn’t dated for very long—half-a-year, at best—so I couldn’t speak to that. “Maybe,” I said. “C’mon. Let’s go dance. Uncle Ash, his spouse, and Evie should be here soon and then we can really get this party started.”

Gabriel nodded.

—

David sat Natalie on his lap in the rocking chair in her room, picking up the small basket of kids’ books next to the chair. “Okay, baby girl. Which one do you want me to read to you?”

She grabbed a large book with a purple border around a small portrait of a mermaid. “Dis one!”

David chuckled. She had this version of The Little Mermaid memorized, and still she asked for it almost every night. “Okay,” he said, setting the book down next to the chair again.

He opened the thick cover and flipped past the copyright and dedication pages to the actual story.

“Daddy?” Natalie piped up before he could start reading.

“Yeah?”

Natalie squirmed until she could turn around enough to mostly face him. Her big eyes—his mate’s eyes—looked up at him. “You picked right,” she said, nodding as if she’d just given him the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

“What do you mean, baby girl?”

She sighed dramatically and pointed to the small picture frame on her wall. A picture of their family. “You picked right,” she repeated, more insistently. “Gabe said you used to love the person at the door today. But you picked right, not picking them.” She was too young to notice when David flinched at her calling her brother Gabe, but her mouth had a hard time forming all of Gabriel.

David smiled and brushed her damp-from-her-bath short hair out of her face. “Thanks, baby girl. I’m glad I picked my mate too. Because now we have you and Gabriel.”

She smiled. David bent down to kiss her on the forehead. She straightened up and kissed his cheek with a loud, “Mwah!” David chuckled.

She spun back around so she was facing forward, looking at the book. “Mermaid! Please?”

“Of course, baby girl.”