Becoming the Luna

Shana had given up on trying to convince Mae about the information she had gotten from Dale and they spent a good part of the morning bickering about it.

"I'm not falling for your prank, Shana." Mae was saying while trying to get their daughter out of bed. "It might have been plausible if you said that hey guess what? Our only human friend is now a Beta wolf but no! an Omega, a male Omega!" She exclaims, visibly upset.

Shana runs a hand over her short hair wincing. "This is about that time with your charm and the Blueberry finches isn't it?"

Mae cuts her a cold look, giving up on rousing Ruby and just picking her up in her arms to make her way to the bathroom.

"We're not discussing this..." She mutters darkly, clicking the door shut a little violently.

Shana just goes back to dressing up for work, Mae had spent a lot of time on a complex charm that was supposed to attract Blueberry finches whose feathers were supposed to be invaluable to some special potion.

Well Shana could have sworn she saw a bird like that once at night and Mae had kept watch for two days before realizing it was just an ordinary Robin.

She wasn't surprised Mae wasn't believing her this time even though she never meant to trick her.

She wanders into the bathroom when she was all set to go, Mae dutifully washing up Ruby who was still sleepy, playing clumsily with the bubbles floating around.

"I'll be back early so we can take Ruby on a run." She kisses Mae's cheek.

"Sure, we'll spend the morning at Hayden's bookstore." She huffs, still in a peeve.

Shana chuckles at this. "He won't be there, Virgil's in a rut."

"How convenient." Mae scoffs, letting Ruby give her a wet kiss as well to imitate her Nana.

Shana shakes her head, knowing that Mae couldn't be stubborn when she wanted to be. "When you run into Dream, ask him if he has a crescent moon birthmark." She throws over a shoulder after kissing Ruby on the cheek and letting her return the favor.

"W-What?" Mae stands up in a hurry but Shawn was already long gone.

"Is Ma okay?" Ruby asks seriously, brown eyes staring soulfully up at her.

All the irritation burning under her skin at her girlfriend immediately melts away. "I am now, baby." She says softly, cupping her daughter's face.

"So what do you want to eat for breakfast?" She asks Ruby when they were done with the bath and she was rubbing her down with a fluffy towel.

"Ice cream!" Ruby yells without a second thought.

"N-no... no baby." Mae immediately holds on to her to stop her excited jumping while she was trying to dry up the child. "You can't have ice cream, Ru." She says in her most adult voice.

Ruby immediately sobers up at this point, pout slowly forming. "But Ma asked." She grumbles, crossing her chubby and over her pale, freckled chest.

"Yes but ice cream isn't a breakfast food." She tries to explain as simply as possible.

Ruby throws her an incredulous look. "Nana says we can eat ice cream anytime!" She gasps in disbelief.

Mae just barely stops herself from cursing her girlfriend out, rubbing her cheek in frustration. "How about if you eat your eggs and toast then you can have some ice cream?" She offers nervously.

Ruby immediately beams. "Deal!" She squeals, pulling on the soft brown pants and white top that was today's ensemble.

Mae facepalms, she couldn't imagine she had been reduced to bargaining and it was all Shana's fault, it was like raising two little girls.

She found her mind wandering when they were both settled down to eat, it was such a ridiculous thing for Shana to come up that she would have believed it if it wasn't Shana.

Plus she couldn't get to Hayden and Dale was also on the group chat saying the same thing but really, it's Dale, she definitely saw him agreeing to something like this.

Unless she heard this from Virgil himself, because even Hayden could be convinced to play along by Shana and Dale, then would she believe.

Or, she could just ask Dream about the birthmark?

•~•

"Ma? Look! A kitty, just like Apple." Ruby hurries around the table to show her mom.

Mae looks into the big wildlife book Ruby had, had her head buried in for the past fifteen minutes so see a white cat. "Oh, yes, it's a cat."

"Cat." Ruby repeats solemnly, making Mae grin.

"Yes, baby! That's correct! You're doing so good." She doesn't hesitate to praise her, pulling her into a hug so that their cheeks were mushed together.

Ruby giggles at this, a bubble of happy warmth settling in her stomach as she hurries back to her seat to keep looking at pictures of pretty animals.

She smiles softly at her daughter, black hair in a single braid as she radiated warmth and sunshine.

She had decided to wait at least a couple months before she started easing Ruby into schooling but she was already showing a lot of interest that it might have to be sooner.

The store was fairly busy and she was only slightly surprised to find out that Hayden hasn't come in yet.

Jennie didn't seem to mind, hopping from shelf to customer like a gay butterfly.

Mae could feel the first inklings of excitement bubble up within her, if Hayden was truly a part Werewolf, that would be wonderful news.

But she had to wait patiently for Dream, knowing the other Omega's affinity for Hayden and stuffing Ruby with cupcakes, it would be soon enough.

Like she summoned him, the door dings at this moment and she turns around to see Dream walk in, looking harried than usual and distracted.

He gets to the counter before realizing that Hayden wasn't behind it, he exchanges a couple words with Jennie before making his way over to them.

"Honey!" Ruby squeals when she catches sight of him, her nose fished him out first though.

Saying that he smelled like honey so she promptly forgot his name and referred to him as Honey, Dream didn't seem to mind.

"How's my little girl doing?" He asks, easily catching her when she throws herself into his arms.

"Fine! Fine!" She nods vigorously, already looking him over and sniffing him before he can even put her down. 

"Looking for this?" He asks smoothly, bringing out a small box of cupcakes from behind him.

"Yay!" Ruby whisper yells, doing a little dance.

The occupants of the bookstore had already gotten used to her little explosions and thought her cute. "Thank you, Honey!" She barely gets out, stopping herself from grabbing the little pink box before he hands it to her.

"You're welcome, sweetheart." He bops her nose, giggling in pleasant surprise when she tugs him down to place a loud smacking kiss on his cheek.

"You'll spoil her if you keep this up." Mae says without heat, totally approving of the daily cupcakes but also needing to be the only stern authority in Ruby's life.

Dream just waves her words away. "She deserves it, do you know what's up with Hayden? I can't get to him." He tags on, settling on the couch beside Mae and simultaneously bringing out his phone.

"According to Shana..." She starts, making air quotes. "Virgil's in his rut."

"What?" Dream startles at this, visibly worried.

"Before that, if you don't mind me asking, do you have um, a weird looking birthmark, like a crescent?" Mae asks hesitantly, awkward.

This stops Dream's barrage of questions right in their tracks. "What?" He frowns slightly. "That's an oddly specific question but yeah, I do, it's on my left hip, what does this have to do with anything? How do you even know this?"

The book in Mae's hands drops to the table with a soft thud, surprise coloring her features. "You really do?? Oh my God! Shana wasn't lying that little..."

"Mae?" Dream cuts off her escalating rant. "What's going on? Where's Hayden?"

Mae cups Dream's shoulders with both hands. "Hayden is fine, he's more than fine actually and he also has a matching birthmark as yours."

"W-What?" Dream stutters slightly, eyes wide. "What does that mean?"

Ruby on the other hand was unaware of the drama happening on the other side of the table, happily munching on her cupcake and watching butterflies fly across the page of her book.

"That Hayden is also an Omega." Mae whisper yells, shaking Dream slightly.

Dream throws her a very doubtful look. "Because we have similar looking birthmarks?"

"No, no, although yes! That's a very huge possibility, you've had it all your life right?"

"Well yes?" Dream mutters, suspicions increasing.

"Well, Hayden didn't, and because he is a part Werewolf he got his a little late."

"That sounds like some voodoo shit." Dream makes a face.

"I'm a literal half-Witch." Mae says dryly.