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[anita_blake]

Anita gets into the Jeep, eyes on Animator's, Inc., and she lets out a long breath. The conversations with Damian and Demeter have been swirling around in her head for a couple of days now, and she knows they're both right. She pulls her cellphone out of her jacket and dials Richard's number. It's well past six in the evening, and she crosses her fingers that Richard didn't have a date tonight as the phone rings.

Comments

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

There's a faint quirk to his mouth because his brain caught one piece of that specifically. "Kids?" He'd known every part but the kid part in that. That he didn't remember ever coming up.

[anita_blake]

Anita lips curve into a little smile.

"It had been something I'd thought about," she says. "Kids and housework and cooking and working part time... I had a whole fantasy life, as normal as anything could be for us."

She's just as guilty as him for wanting the happily ever after, but it was just a fantasy, a dream she'd finally let go of.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard can't help the grin that spreads across his face. To hear that pulls at something in him, he doesn't have the words for, but it's there. Offering a faint feeling or surprise but happy surprise that slides through the marks.

"I knew I had that fantasy, I didn't know you had it too."

[anita_blake]

"Well, we didn't have much time before that sort of fantasy had to be replaced by another," she says. "But, now you know. I had thought about it... with you."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

"Still, it's..." he's not sure what word to use, though the smile probably says more than words how special that is to him. "I'd ask if you've thought about kids with anyone else but I'm not sure there's been all that much time to even think that way with everything that's come through this town." And part of him isn't sure he wants to know if she's ever thought about kids with any of the other men, given the possibility.

[anita_blake]

Anita shakes her head.

"No, I haven't. None of the men in my life other than you could knock me up anyway."

At least, as far as she understood the status quo.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

He could argue both Nathaniel and Jason could. It's the principle of the matter though, that he cares about. That aside from the ya or nay or whether they could, she hadn't thought about it.

"And if I say, not the point?" The who could.

[anita_blake]

Anita laughs softly.

"Yes, I'll allow you the moment to bask in your masculine pride that I'd choose you to father a baby with me," she says, eyes sparkling.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard grins, standing from his chair and moving behind hers so he can wrap his arms around her. There's a kiss to her hair. He's not even sure he can express what that actually means to him.

[anita_blake]

He doesn't need to say it, she can feel it along the marks.

"Maybe," she whispers. "In the future, when some things settle down, we can... talk about it."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

He bends so he can look at her without removing his arms from around her. Almost scared to hope, "Seriously?"

The important part of the house, kids, wife fantasy was Anita and the kids. And talking about it lead to it being an actual possibility.

[anita_blake]

Anita meets his gaze, her own steady.

"We'd need to figure a lot of things out, and you'd need to come to terms with everything," she says, not willing to sugar-coat anything. "But, yes, seriously. The only way for us to know if it can happen is if we talk, right?"

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

"The coming to terms with everything, I'm working on." Slowly, but he is. He hasn't snarled at Nat in ages for no apparent reason. He's not really grumping about sharing her. And he's come as close as he's ever been to accepting his wolf.

He smiles, softly, "And true." He leans in to steal a soft, chaste kiss.

[anita_blake]

He can't steal what she willingly gives.

She might not want the white picket fence and the 2.3 children and a dog in the yard, but she wants something. Anita wants something to show for everything, for how much she loves these men -- how much she loves Richard.

"You're doing very well," she compliments between kisses. "You even defended Nathaniel and Asher when I flew off the handle."

Color Anita impressed.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

It would mean more than Richard would ever be able to express to be able to even have that much with Anita. To have a little him or her running around that he helped create.

He chuckles softly into the kisses, "I did, didn't I." The only reasoning he has for the why is that Nathaniel is a good friend of his wolf, so he's caring by extension.

[anita_blake]

"You did."

She smiles at him, her fingers stroking his cheek.

"I should take a lesson from you and Micah about being a leader. I'm still stumbling around."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

"We all make mistakes in judgment sometimes. You're leopards are a family. It's more than some leaders hope for, Anita." She's slapped him verbally occasionally for his screw ups, when he was being unfair to a wolf.

He rests his forehead against her hair, "You just can't rule in the heat of anger."

[anita_blake]

"I've noticed," she sighs. She tilts her head so she can see him a little better. "My pard is small. It's easy for it to be like family. The pack... it's like the rodere... it's huge."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

"I meant you can't be doing too bad with the stumbling because you have that." Richard shifts, pulling her chair out from the table a little so he can squat in front of her. His hands rest on her knees, "But you also have to have the crime fit the punishment when you punish."

From what he's seen, the only leopard to ever need punishing has been Elizabeth, and that's becoming less needed as well. He deals with it a little more because like she said, the pack is huge.

[anita_blake]

And she had punished Elizabeth. They could have lost Nathaniel because of Elizabeth's oversight.

"I have issues with anger," she says with a half-smile.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard smiles, hands squeezing gently. "So wait until you're not angry to make judgment calls and punishments. Especially for leopards who don't usually break the rules."

[anita_blake]

"With them, it's more like kicking a sick puppy," she sighs. "I'll... try to wait next time."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

"They aren't as sick or broken as they once were, Anita." Just because he usually doesn't say anything on or about the leopards doesn't mean he hasn't watched them when they've all been together. She's done a pretty good job of fixing most of them. "And good."

[anita_blake]

"You think Nathaniel is better than when they landed in my lap?" she asks. "If he is, I think it's Asher's doing, not mine. Not... well, not all of it."

She thinks it's more a joint effort, really, Asher picking up where Anita had refused to go.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

"I know he's better than when you took over the Pard, Anita." He doesn't pay enough attention to know who was responsible or not, just that he's noticed that Nathaniel has been more independent recently.