Archive of Our Own

Sieun presented as an Omega later than most.

He was never worried about his secondary gender; he had always assumed he would be a beta, like his mom, like his dad.

They told him not to worry. That he could focus on college prep way easier this way. He could ignore the overpowering scents of his peers if he was a beta. Could ignore his primal urges to mate and have pups when he presents as a beta.

Sieun listened to them, agreed with them, and ignored all the buzz throughout school as their classmates presented one by one.

It was sudden.

He had no time to prepare when his heat hit him on the way to school in his third and final year of high school, Sieun was shocked to say the least.

The pain, the desire, the burning heat; it all was so unexpected, it wasn’t gradual either; it hit him all at once, and Sieun ached with it all.

He doesn’t remember much. Doesn’t see his classmates look at him wearily as he limps past them back to the bus station. Doesn’t see the omega bus driver keep a stern eye on him as he sways in his seat, daring anyone to try to mess with her favorite most polite passenger.

He made it back to his house in a sweaty daze. His mind focused on only two things.

Getting back to his nest, and Suho.

Sieun cringed as his omega preened as he walked back to his room, setting his eyes on his bed, his nest.

Sieun tried to stop the train of thought that kept using these words, they were foreign to him, he hadn’t paid much attention in their secondary gender classes, he was certain that he would present as a Beta, there was no need to listen.

He spent the lecture time doing more important things. Studying for his upcoming math bowl, midterms, basically anything besides listening to the teacher drone on about the blooming of their bodies, and the changes they were soon to go through.

Sieun regrets his choices as another wave of scorching heat and pain ripples through his body, and he doubles over with a startled cry.

“Fuck-” Sieun fell onto his bed and his brain whirred at what a pathetic excuse it was for a nest.

No scents, no soft fabrics, no Alpha.

Sieun cried out again as his mind was now set on an Alpha, a mate, Suho.

Sieun shook his head, his mind bringing up Suho again had him embarrassed and excited at the same time.

Suho is his friend, his best friend, he keeps reminding himself, reminding his Omega.

The thought brings an anguished feeling to his Omega; it whines as he denies such imagery.

Sieun works on autopilot.

His brain is getting fuzzier, and he moves on instinct around his room.

Shuffling blankets and pillows from the hallway closet into his room and setting them up with a precision that Sieun isn’t sure what to think of.

Sieun’s Omega still isn’t sated as he finishes; it was still scentless.

The only smell was of a distressed omega, no smell of comfort, no Mahogony.

Sieun, against his better judgement, starts rummaging around his pockets for his phone.

He blinks and suddenly his phone presses to his ear, ringing.

“Sieun-ah? Where are you? Class is about to start.” Suho sounds worried, and Sieun can’t stop the content smile from stretching across his face despite the amount of pain he was in.

“Suho-” Sieun is breathless, and he can practically feel the worry spike across the line.

“Sieun? Are you okay?” Suho’s voice is rough with concern, and Sieun can feel his mouth water with desire.

“Need-” Sieun worries his bottom lip between his teeth. He was still trying to fight his Omega off, trying to regain control of his instincts.

“What is it?” The background noise of chatting students grows faint and Sieun can’t stop himself.

“Your scent.” Sieun is panting, his stomach is cramping painfully and every second without Suho’s strong smell of mahogany covering his room is growing to be unbearable.

“Sieun?” Suho grows quiet, and Sieun can feel the last of his present mind slip away as he falls into his heat in full force.

“Suho-yah, Alpha, please-it has no smell.” Sieun whines and he writhes around his bed trying to find a comfort that won’t come.

“My nest, needs to smell like you, please.” Sieun is crying now, tears flowing slowly. His heat is coming on strong and painful, and it seems that it will only get worse.

“Holy fuck-Sieun. Okay, I’m on my way.” Suho breathes in a deep breath trying to calm himself down as he grabs his jacket and pink bunny pillow and practically runs to his bike.

Sieun doesn’t know how long Suho takes. His mind is stuck in a loop of wanting to call him to ask, getting side-tracked by cramps, to then getting distracted by his own scent of distress.

Sieun perks up as he hears the sound of electrical beeping; his door code being punched in quickly, with familiarity. His distress gets put on a pause as his omega is preparing for his mate instead of wallowing in self-pity.

He sits up in his nest and waits patiently as he hears footsteps walking towards his room with hurried steps.

“Sieun-ah? Are you alright? It smells awful.” Suho taps the door lightly before walking in.

Sieun feels his bottom lip wobble and watches as Suho strolls in with a laundry basket full of clothes oblivious to his mistake.

“You don’t like my scent?” Sieun asks and Suho’s face drops.

“No! I mean yes- I- it just smells like you don’t feel… well?” Suho is frantically explaining himself, but Sieun’s eyes are locked into the clothes that Suho is carrying, why he was upset was already forgotten to him.

He points at them with no words; his distress immediately curbed and content washing out the foul scent from before.

Sieun preens when he sees Suho take a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing as the smell washes through him.

Suho sets the basket down next to Sieun’s bed, and Sieun wastes no time getting to work.

“I brought over some of grandma’s stuff too, she said that parental smells help.” Suho rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. Sieun grins happily, and he smells each item of clothing deeply before finding a spot for it in his nest.

Sieun works determinedly until he’s satisfied, and Suho watches him with curious eyes as he works.

Sieun leans back on his heels looking for any last finishing touches and when he can’t find an issue with it, he looks back to Suho, waiting for his approval.

Only then does his mind conjure up an idea and the moment it pops into his head, he knows it won’t budge.

“Those?” Sieun points to the clothes hanging off Suho’s body.

Suho looks surprised, like he can’t believe Sieun would ask something like that.

“My clothes?” Suho points at the items on his frame and Sieun nods.

“How will I get home...?” Suho asks thinking out loud more than asking the question to Sieun, but he knows he made a wrong decision when the room begins to fill up with upset pheromones once again.

Suho looks startled at the sudden change in moods, and Sieun bubbles up with tears again.

“You’re not staying?” Sieun hiccups.

Suho’s eyes bulge and he quickly begins to take off his clothes and set them on the bed.

Sieun’s tears recede and his hums happily as he puts the last items, the ones covered in Suho’s scent the most, on his pillows, close to where his head will rest.

Suho stands in the middle of Sieun’s room in nothing but his boxers and Sieun whines again.

“You don’t like my nest?” Sieun looks at him with bated curiosity, his Omega needing the affirmation that his Alpha approves.

“Of course I do Jagiya, it’s beautiful.” Suho gushes and Sieun perks up instantly.

“Then come in.” Sieun reaches his hand out for Suho and pulls him towards the bed once he makes contact.

Suho tries to get in the nest as carefully as possible, not wanting to disrupt the meticulously placed objects.

Sieun sighs in content as he pushes Suho down and lays on top of his chest and purrs.

Suho can feel every tip of his body flush red. His heart is hammering in his chest, and he hopes that Sieun can’t hear how loud it’s beating.

He wasn’t expecting his day to turn out like this, not in the slightest, but at the same time, he couldn’t complain.

Sieun had presented as an omega. He wanted Suho’s scent, Suho’s presence; he wanted him.

Even though Sieun was having insane mood swings, and Suho was one misplaced word away from making him cry, he couldn’t feel happier about this turn of events.

Sieun woke hours later, running hot, but he couldn’t stop the content purring as he nuzzled deeper into Suho’s neck, inhaling his scent directly from the source.

His heat had him pouring in sweat and sometime during his nap, he had pulled his clothes off, their skin flushed against each other.

Suho swallowed harshly; Sieun listening to his instincts so freely had him a lot more worked up than he’d like to admit.

“Suho-yah.” Sieun mumbled into his neck, the vibrations sending a shockwave of arousal straight to his dick.

“Need you, knot me, please.” Sieun begged. He panted as the first wave of arousal coursed through him, and he gushed slick with each inhalation of Suho’s scent.

Suho breathed steadily through his mouth, trying to keep his composure.

It wasn’t working much; Sieun’s scent was so thick in the air with every breath it felt like he could taste him. The sweetness of honey and strawberries filling his mouth, making it water as his composure begins to crack.

“Please, it hurts, Suho.” Sieun grinds down pathetically onto Suho’s thigh, and Suho chokes out a groan.

“Alpha.” Sieun cries and Suho snaps.

“Fuck, Sieun, I can’t look at you, I don’t want to lose control.” Suho squeezes his eyes shut hard and desperate.

“I want it so bad, please Suho, knot me,” Sieun whines high and needy. He stares at Suho with wide watery eyes, and he knows that if Suho would look at him, for even a second, he would cave and give him exactly what he wanted.

“Alpha, please.” Sieun cranes his neck back, allowing his scent to flow more freely, and Suho slips up. He cracks his eyes open.

“Holy shit.” Suho’s voice is gravelly, he can’t stop his mouth from watering, can’t control the aroused pheromones spilling out.

Sieun gushes another wave of slick onto his thigh and grinds down again.

“Will you? Knot me? I want it.” Sieun slurs, his body is so slack and relaxed he wants to melt into the bed and let Suho take him.

Suho licks his lips, and he looks like he thinks it over one last time before he accepts his fate.

Sieun was stubborn, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before he got what he wanted anyway, so he might as well not prolong the inevitable.

Suho grabbed Sieun’s waist and flipped him around and pressed him into the bed.

Sieun rolled his eyes into the back of his head. Every touch Suho gave him sent another current of electricity through his heat-ridden body.

“I’ll knot you baby, Hyung will give you what you want, okay?” Suho whispered into Sieun’s ear hotly and Sieun gasped.

“Please.” Sieun tightened his grasp on Suho’s shoulders, grounding himself.

Sieun could feel the Omega inside bloom at Suho’s words; his Alpha will make him feel better, will knot him, fill him up, breed him.

Sieun moaned at the thought, the sound getting pulled out of him, his body burning with desire.

“Hyung, Alpha, please hurry, knot me, now.” Sieun demanded, and Suho grinned and slipped his boxers down, the last barrier between them.

His cock was already hard, to no surprise, his Omega’s words sending all his blood rushing straight to his dick.

Suho’s mind whirred with all of the things he wanted to do with Sieun, but he knew that the only thing to stop the pain for an omega in heat was through a knot, so he would have to save the rest for when Sieun wasn’t hurting as much.

“I’m ready, put it in, please.” Sieun dug his nails into Suho’s skin, his shoulders acting as his grip of stability.

Suho bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. Sieun’s mouth was filthy; each beg, each plead, was tipping him closer and closer to coming.

Suho lined himself up with Sieun, his hole glistening with his slick. The spot under him on the bed wet with his desire.

Sieun moaned as Suho finally made contact, his body moving on instinct as he scoots himself down further to try and hurry him up.

Suho inhales sharply as the tip of his cock pops into Sieun with little resistance, his heat opening him up for a mate.

“In, in, now.” Sieun begged he clenched accidently and Suho groaned as his cock gets sucked into Sieun’s heat.

“So good, hah, Alpha’s so big.” Sieun babbles to himself as Suho bottoms out, his cock sliding into Sieun with ease.

Suho panted trying to keep the orgasm at bay as Sieun squeezed around him once again out of contentment.

“You’re so tight Sieun-ah, you sucked Hyung’s cock in like it was nothing.” Suho’s mind is growing blank; the only thing he can seem to think about is how to make Sieun feel good.

Sieun cried out as Suho pulled out and drilled back in.

“Hyung-!” Sieun wrapped his legs around Suho’s waist, his heels digging into his back as he tried to pull Suho in even closer.

“So deep” Sieun drools.

Suho squeezes his eyes shut again. Sieun looked so gone. His face fucked out and so pleased.

Sieun moaned with every thrust on Suho’s cock, every throb of it, each groan that Suho let spill out of him.

Sieun couldn’t stop the orgasm from ripping through him.

His heels dug harshly into Suho’s back, his nails scratching long red lines down his arms as he threw his head back in a loud cry.

“Scent me, Alpha.” Sieun babbled as his cock spurt rope after rope of cum.

Suho wasted no time leaning down and rubbing his scent gland on Sieun’s. He wanted to bite down, leave his mark, stake his claim, but he knew that it would be too soon, knew that they were too young.

Suho continued to fuck into Sieun through his orgasm, knowing that it wouldn’t take him long to bounce back during a heat.

Sieun’s mouth falls open, and each snap of Suho’s hips forced a noise out of his throat.

Suho felt the slow buildup of his knot forming, and if Sieun’s babbling was anything to go by, he could feel it too. The stretch of his rim as it made room for his Alpha, the heat in his stomach slowly subsiding as it was so close to getting what it wanted.

What he needed.

Suho pushed his hips in one last time, his knot popping in with a delicious stretch and Sieun cried as his second orgasm was pulled from him.

He squeezed around Suho’s length and that was all it took for Suho to cum, his knot stopping it from spilling out and Sieun was back to purring.

“Thank you Hyung, feels so good, so full.” Sieun slurred, like moving his mouth was too much effort.

“Only for you Sieun-ah, my omega.” Suho crooned and covered Sieun’s body with his own. He wanted his scent to be all over him, for them to mix so that others couldn’t tell where Sieun’s began and his scent ended.

“My alpha.” Sieun whispered out, pushing as much effort into saying it as he could feel himself slipping into sleep.

“Go to sleep, I’ll take care of everything.” Suho peppered kisses onto Sieun’s face, and he allowed himself to be lulled to sleep, his omega and himself completely content and happy.

Going back to school after his heat was over was tense and awkward. Sieun had never considered the possibility of being an Omega, and he surely never thought he would have spent a heat with an Alpha as one.

Sieun was bonded, not fully, as they would’ve had to bite each other to seal it, but their emotional and physical connection during his heat had latched itself to a pre-bond with Suho. His omega was fully convinced that Suho would be his mate, and Sieun wasn’t exactly about to start thinking otherwise.

Nevertheless, walking into school, a new scent from presenting, tangled with the scent of Suho’s already known scent had doubled the eyes on him.

Whispers were hard to ignore as he sat down in his homeroom seat.

“Woah, I should’ve known he would be an omega, he’s kinda pretty.”

“Yeah, no wonder he’s so quiet, all the alpha pheromones probably had him nervous.”

“Aren’t male omegas kinda rare? Once Ahn’s stink wears off, I’m gonna shoot my shot.”

Sieun clenched his jaw, he wasn’t sure if the reaction was from him or his omega’s alpha being threatened, but he was livid all the same.

Suho strolled in the class moments before attendance began, unlike him as he was usually the first to arrive.

Sieun could smell him the moment he stepped through the door and smiled when they locked eyes, his anger moments before slipped away without another thought.

The rest of the week passed by in a blur, exams were coming up, so Sieun tried hard to not give any thought to anything besides his studies, tried to resume his life before he presented. When he was still perceived as a beta.

Suho understood Sieun’s need to focus, but he made it a point to scent Sieun after class ended each day regardless.

Suho texted him updates during his work shifts, and Sieun would seldom reply, which didn’t bother Suho any. If anything, it only made him grin harder knowing that Sieun was taking breaks from his studies to text him back every so often.

They didn’t talk about the changes that had been made since Sieun’s heat, neither of them brave enough to mention the bond they formed.

Ignoring it in favor of being clingy and intertwined.

Sieun and Suho were so caught up in one another they hadn’t noticed the glaring eyes, the jealousy of Suho getting the “prize” of the only male omega in their class, Suho who “won” again.

And when they snatched Sieun’s phone out of the box they needed to drop their phones in each morning, Suho hadn’t known about it.

He had run off that day early, like he had every Friday since the beginning of the year. His shifts started right after school ended, and he needed to rush if he wanted to make it on time.

When he got a message from Sieun on his phone later that day, his heart skipped a beat.

“Help -Location shared.” Suho nearly dropped his phone in his hurry to his bike.

He could feel his blood rushing in his ears as he pushed his gas to go even faster.

Suho didn’t think twice of the location as he hopped off the bike and ran into the building.

“Sieun?” Suho shouted as he pushed the door open. He faltered when he saw a handful of guys from his class.

“What the fuck? Where’s Sieun?” Suho growled; his eyes narrowed and deadly.

“Relax, he’s not here.” One of the guys pipes up and Suho’s eyes flick to him.

Wooyoung.

The rest of the guys were watching with bated breaths, glad that he had mentioned that Sieun wasn’t actually here. Wooyoung was smart enough to know that he would’ve lost if he had to go against a crazed Alpha who thinks his mate is in danger.

“How did you get his phone.” Suho steps towards the ring, his eyes laser focused on his old rival.

“That had nothing to do with me, these guys paid me to fight you, and how could I resist beating your ass?” Wooyoung grinned sadistically.

“Yeah, not happening, if Sieun’s not here, I’m leaving.” Suho turned on his heels. He’s had enough of fighting to last him a lifetime, and if he knows anything about Sieun, he knows that if he found out that he was fighting, alone no less, he would be livid.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Wooyoung yells out and Suho turns slowly to look at him again, his curiosity piqued.

“And why’s that?” Suho’s voice was flat, with no emotion. Trying to take a page out of Sieun’s book with a stoic facade.

“Because these guys want you to fight me because if you lose, they want your mate.” Wooyoung grinned. “And if you back down then you’re basically giving them permission.” Suho growls low and threatening.

He knows that he’s acting on anger, knows that in reality even if he were to walk out of the door Sieun would never belong to any of the losers who tricked him into coming here.

But he can’t stop his Alpha’s reaction. The threat of his mate. The challenge to his claim.

It’s pure instinct as he stomps into the ring.

And its habit as he throws his gloves on like he had in the past so many times before his accident.

And when Wooyoung throws the first punch, he leans into those feelings, those instincts as he punches back with much more force.

The fight doesn’t last long; he gets Wooyoung onto the ground easily. Suho might’ve been out of practice, but their gap in skills was still obvious as he stands back in victory.

Wooyoung stands seconds after, clearly not done with this fight and spits a wad of blood to the side.

The rest goes by in a flash.

A yank of his bad leg knocks him to the ground, the surprise attack throwing him off. He cranes his head to the side and sees a grinning Youngbin, clearly satisfied with his sabotage from one of his cronies.

Wooyoung takes the chance and lays into him, and if he had paid a bit more attention, he would’ve noticed a figure coming up behind him and gearing up a kick.

He could’ve rolled out of the way or threw his hand out to block the back of his head instead of his face or stopped the leg before it collided.

But he didn’t notice it.

The leg slammed into his head painfully and everything got fuzzy. His vision was spotting black, and he could hear panicked voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

He wants to stand back up; his fight hasn’t drained from his body despite the harsh blow to his head, but he can’t seem to make his limbs move. His body refuses to obey him, and he twitches painfully as his consciousness fades in and out.

The last thing he thinks about before his eyes close is Sieun’s face. A flash of their memories together, Suho thinks he's smiling as he loses his consciousness fully.

--------------------------------

When Sieun wakes the next morning, it’s from the noise of his laptop alarm that he set last night.

That very reminder that he lost his phone was enough to piss him off again, and it only made the gnawing sickening feeling that he had felt since last night intensify.

His skin felt too tight; his throat had gone dry, and no amount of water was fixing it.

Something had shifted last night, and Sieun could feel it deep in his gut.

Sieun perked up slightly with the knocking at his door. The only visitor he ever gets is Suho and even though something still feels off, a smile twitches its way onto his face as he stands up.

He walks quickly to the door and throws it open, trying to keep his excited expression off his face.

He’s glad that he did when on the other side of the door isn’t Suho at all, Youngyi stands there looking pale and shaky.

“Sieun, why the fuck haven’t you been answering your phone.” Youngyi shoves at his chest, and he stumbles back slightly, not expecting the push.

“I lost it yesterday at school, why?” Sieun was worried, and Youngyi scrunched her nose when Sieun’s pheromones began to pour out, distressed and anxious.

“Don’t freak out.” Youngyi holds her hand out like she was trying to put a barrier between her and Sieun if he were to react negatively, his scent spiking already a telltale sign that he was on edge.

“What’s going on?” Sieun could feel his heart speed up, became aware of his breathing getting fast and shallow.

“Suho-he...got hurt.” The words tumbled out like she was hesitant to break the news to him, and Sieun could feel the blood drain from his face.

“What?” Sieun exhales shakily and Youngyi shakes her head.

“I don’t know how, or what happened, he’s still unconscious, I’ll take you to him.” She holds out her hand, and he can feel his muscles relax before he smells the calming pheromones she trickles.

Sieun shakily grabbed her hand, thankful for the silent support of his only other omega friend and followed her with unsteady footsteps.

Sieun blinks fast and hard as he sets sights on Suho. His body and face were covered in bruises and shallow cuts. The loud whirring of the ventilator was slow, and he could see the push of Suho’s lungs with each gust of air pushed through the mouthpiece.

Youngyi tried to calm Sieun down, she rubbed her wrist on his and hoped that her calming pheromones would be enough, and when she failed, she silently begged Halmeoni to give it a shot with pleading eyes from across the room.

Sieun through gasping sobs, let her push his head into her shoulder, allowing the comfort of the only parent figure he had ever felt close to.

The room was quickly filled with omega scents, and Sieun was silently glad for the extra comfort and understanding of people with the same secondary gender as him.

“It’s okay honey, our Suho is strong, he will be fine.” She whispers and strokes his hair.

“He will come back to you, I promise.” She continues to shush him and at some point, begins to rock him back and forth and if Sieun wasn’t so emotional, he would probably be embarrassed at being treated like a baby, but for now he let her fret over him.

A nurse walks in and Sieun hiccups as his tears recede and tries to focus on what she says.

It’s almost like he’s fading in and out of consciousness himself as he listens to the nurse's explanation in spiels.

“TBI...Take weeks, or months to heal...suppressants...too fragile to go through his cycle...”

Sieun lets Halmeoni and Youngyi ask all the questions as his brain becomes sluggish and his eyes too heavy to keep open.

And he tries to pretend he didn’t catch the nurse’s last words before he lets himself pass out.

“His scent will fade gradually due to the- .”

Sieun woke up in a cold sweat, his mind still fuzzy, and confusion dripped on the edges of his vision.

A raging war crashed in his body; his heart felt like it was tearing, his mind unable to focus with the howling of his omega overpowering any thoughts he might’ve formed.

Sieun felt weak. His bones trembled with the weight of his new reality; his muscles tense and sore from the awkward angle he had passed out in.

His emotions were bubbling up rapidly, the longer he was awake the more he felt himself losing to his instincts.

To protect his bond, his mate, his alpha.

Sieun was hardly aware of his body moving towards the door; his feet dragged against the cold linoleum. He couldn’t conjure the energy to lift them as he walked, and they scuffed the ground with an annoying sound.

He cast one last glance at Suho, the ventilator pushes air into his lungs, the beeping of the machines that connected to his body in a tangle of tubes and wires.

Suho looked fake, wrong.

His scent was faint; the sterilization smell overpowered his fading smell.

His heart ached as he yearned to be close to him. For Suho to pull him close and scent him like he had every day for the past few weeks.

His legs burned as he walked away from him, towards the people who did this to him.

Sieun’s sadness was slowly overcome by sharp anger. Suho, who was so young, so healthy, who had just found his mate, just spent their first heat together, reduced to a comatose body; it wasn’t fair.

All because of him. If he was a beta like he had meant to be, none of this would have happened.

His omega whined and clawed at the walls of his skin; he wanted to rip these stupid instincts out of him.

Pull them out until he was boring, scentless Sieun again.

Turn back time and use scent patches.

He didn’t want this reality, he didn’t care about secondary genders, he just wanted Suho.

Sieun walked through the doors of his school, the school that he and Suho had met, that they shared a class, ate lunch, walked the halls.

Sieun ignores the nervous glances and flinching of the people that he passed. He was on a mission, none of these people were important to him, he didn’t care that they scrunched their noses when he walked by. His pheromones full of the stench of burnt honey, and rotten milk, the feeling of his devastation as they smelled him.

He let his scorned omega take control of his limbs, his mind succumbing to the feral nature of his instincts.

He faintly felt the prickle of blood in his hands from shards of glass; his throat was raw and sore, and he could hear himself sob. It felt distant, like it wasn’t coming from him, like he was a bystander to his own misery.

His omega howled, his bond felt like it was slowly severing, his body couldn’t understand that Suho wasn’t gone, he was still here, locked away inside his own mind, his scent covered with medication.

Sieun tried to hold onto it, grasping an invisible string that tied their bond until his metaphorical hands were bleeding and cramped. It was no use.

Sieun passed out again once he reached Suho’s hospital room. His back hunched over his body, tears and sobs still racked his trembling frame.

He lets the smell of dried blood soothe him to sleep.

Sieun’s father casts him worried glances as he drove up to the doors of his new school. The only school that would accept him after what he had done. Especially, two months into the semester.

Sieun silently appreciates the concern his father had begun to slowly show him. It seems he’s had some kind of wakeup call with Sieun’s current condition and after the breakdown he’s had.

It wasn’t all forgiven though, and Sieun was still silent as his father wished him good luck, and he stepped out of the car without another glance.

Sieun had thick scent blocking patches on his neck and wrists, and he was slightly comforted by the passing students who had matching patches on their own skin.

Sieun would have had to wear them regardless; to cover up the smell of his rotting scent, his bond sickness and withering omega would have been a distraction to the other students.

With all the fights and rowdy freshly presented alphas the school made the decision to require the scent blocking patches to try and reduce fights, and if Sieun was anything like he was a month ago he would have been curious about what the results had yielded with this new change the school implemented.

He wonders if his old school had had the same rule if Suho would still be in a coma, if he would still be slowly climbing to death's door due to his bond sickness.

Sieun walked into the classroom, and he felt an irritation spike with the sight and sound of yelling and pushing. It seems that the scent patches weren’t a fix all solution.

He felt on edge, his hand instinctively going to his pocket to grip his pen. The feeling of the cool plastic calmed his nerves, and he waited awkwardly for the homeroom teacher to stop talking so he could say his name and sit down.

“My name is Yeon Sieun, I’m from Seoul.” Sieun’s face was blank; his tone was empty. The teacher casts him a sideways glance; he must know why Sieun had transferred, why no other schools would let him step foot into their buildings despite his countless math awards and top scores.

Sieun dragged his feet to an empty desk in the back, close to the door, easy for if he needed to escape.

He pulls the pink bunny pillow out of his bag, his heart panging slightly at the sight. He wants Suho to be the one to hold the stupid looking object. Suho to be the one to snore quietly in the back of class.

Sieun feels his eyes well with tears as he burrows his head into the pillow, nuzzling into the faint, fading scent.

Weeks have passed since Suho had fallen into a coma. Sieun was depleting more and more each day. Suho’s scent had fully dulled into a blank canvas like the nurses had warned.

The slight smell of bleach and fresh linen was the only thing Sieun’s nose could pick up in Suho’s hospital room.

He took the bus to the hospital every day, his bones tired and heavy but filled with a strong desire to see his mate.

Sieun could feel the steady decline in his body, the bond sickness chipping away at him slowly.

Sieun had been encouraged by Suho’s grandma to lay in Suho’s bed with him; she said it would help comfort him and Suho both.

Sieun hardly wanted to deny himself of such closeness with his alpha, so even after Sieun realized that his bond sickness still further deteriorated even with the contact, he continued to toe his shoes off and crawl into Suho’s bed.

The visiting hours had long since not applied to him, and Sieun had even begun to remember the nurses' schedules with how often he had visited.

Sieun sobbed dryly as he climbed in, pressing himself close to Suho, no tears falling. It felt like he had cried himself dry over the past few weeks. His body was in constant dull aching pain. His scent glands burned with the need to be scented; his omega howling in his ears for relief.

Sieun could only let himself fall victim to it all. No matter how hard he cried, begged, and pleaded, Suho remained still. Trapped inside his body.

Sieun hadn’t paid much attention to school since he transferred. Not during lessons, not with his classmates, nor with his schoolwork.

Today was a slight anomaly. He was startled awake with the sounds of jeering and the sound of fists meeting soft skin.

He watched with dull emotions as a smaller boy had tried to block punch after punch to the face and body.

Sieun felt unable to care.

He knows that once upon a time he would have been enraged. A group of people rallying around watching a much smaller guy get beat on.

But it wasn’t until Sieun accidentally locked eyes with the boy, his glassy eyes like a mirror image of his own, and something clicked inside of him.

He stood up with a screeching of his chair. He blinked, and he was across the room, his foot kicking a chair out of some guy's hand, his mouth forming words that he had replayed a thousand times before in his memories, the words that Suho had said to him once before.

“Don’t cross the line.”

Sieun in hindsight, should’ve known that Juntae was an omega, a male omega like him, two rarities that had somehow grown to be close.

Sieun wasn’t very talkative still, but Juntae didn’t seem to mind. He held onto Sieun’s wrist as they walked, their covered scent patches brushing together.

Sieun cringed every time Juntae reached out for him, his body rejecting anyone who wasn’t Suho.

Rejecting anyone who couldn’t repair the hole in his heart, repair his omega who had grown so weak it couldn’t even howl anymore.

Sieun let his arm stay limp as Juntae grabbed it.

It was hard for Sieun to be around Humin and Hyuntak. Every time their shoulder brushed against his own, he felt like folding in on himself. His skin crawled with the unfamiliar press of their skin on his.

It made his body burn with rejection, not the right alpha, not the right woody scent, not Suho.

There was never any relief with his bond sickness, late at night after he had finally peeled off the scent patches, and his room slowly filled with his rotting moldy scent, Sieun flinched before he hurriedly placed another round to replace the old ones.

He couldn’t show up to Suho’s hospital room with the trailing scent of decay.

When he finally worms his way onto Suho’s bed and is met with the expected dull smell of skin without Suho’s pheromones, he feels his throat tighten.

His new friends asked him where he went every night, why he was always busy and denying their invitations and Sieun never said anything more than “I go home.” And they take the answer at face value because even if they were to try and dig deeper, ask what is so important at home that he’s always locked away; they know that it would go unanswered.

Sieun likes it that way. If he talks about Suho to anyone else, then somehow that’s what makes it real. When Sieun is in his hospital bed curled up and leaning into the heat radiating off Suho, he can pretend that everything is the same.

He pretends that Suho is just sleeping, that once the morning rolls around, he’ll crack his eyes open and smile soft and warm and tell him, “Good morning.” Rubbing their necks together to merge their scents and Sieun would laugh airily and try to pull away.

Sieun knows this kind of thinking is not helpful. The waves of disappointment washing over him like cold water every morning when he looks at Suho’s calm, steady face. No indication of movement or waking up. It feels like he goes through the loss of Suho all over again.

Sieun has a reputation at his new school. He can’t say he minds it either. People glance at him wearily, rumors spread like wildfire that he had killed people, and Sieun doesn’t care to correct them.

He likes that people step clear of him when he walks down the hallway, that they avoid him like the plague when they see him walking their way. It makes it easier for Sieun to be alone, wallow in his own misery that the only person who could make it better couldn’t.

His new friends didn’t look at him the same way everyone else did, didn’t avoid throwing their bodies into his to tease him, didn’t care that Sieun’s eyes were a little too blank and dead.

He didn’t know that there was a video. Someone from his old school knew about him transferring, he doesn’t know all the details, he only knows that there's a video.

He had seen a brief clip of it peering over someone's shoulder, and his entire body froze. The emotions from that day washed over him, and it was almost like he was experiencing the same pain again.

Sieun sped down the hallway and rounded the corner to his homeroom and paused as he watched his friends huddled around one of their phones.

He knows what this will look like, knows how crazed his eyes are, how he limps down the hallway with no energy, screams with heavy despair.

But he can't help but watch them react to it. It was like watching a car crash; you just can’t look away.

The three boys gasp as the camera follows him into a classroom, a fire extinguisher dragging behind him, an ominous noise scraping against the tiled floor, Sieun can hear the audio from the video from around the corner.

“He’s not-?” Juntae asked with bated breath; his words cut off as the Sieun in the video lifted the heavy object over his head and with a scream brought it down, narrowly missing a boy's head.

Juntae began to cry silent tears.

It seemed as if he could sense despair through the screen. The desperate cries of Sieun punched him in the gut, and he could smell his deep pity for him from across the room.

The video stops abruptly; Humin scrolls to the second video that was sent to him, and presses play.

The angle was different. Sieun was walking away from the classroom that he was just in.

People lined on both sides of the hallway, clearing out of his way, not wanting to be another casualty.

A deep voice yells out. “Yeon Sieun!” A man with broad shoulders reaches out and grabs Sieun weakly.

Sieun shrugs him off and continues to walk.

“Sieun!” The man tries again and his grip on Sieun’s shoulder is tighter this time.

Hyuntak gasps when Sieun moves. It was quick, and probably instinctive the way Sieun threw his arm into the window.

Glass shards fly, twinkling from the sun as it lands on the floor. Sieun’s arm drips blood, and he turns to the camera for the first time since Humin clicked play.

“What the fuck do you want!?” His voice is cracked and broken; his sobs wreck his body as he stares and waits for an answer that never comes.

Blank stares and bated breaths watching him, waiting for his next move.

Sieun hiccups over his sobs as he turns around and drags his feet towards the exit.

Then the video ends.

“Sieun-ah.” Hyuntak speaks to the phone like Sieun was here. “Why didn’t you tell us.” The three of them fall silent, thinking the same thing.

Sieun turns and walks back down the hallway, away from his worried friends, away from the school.

Juntae, Humin and Hyuntak have been increasingly worried about Sieun.

When they met him, he was reserved and quiet.

But he still had a fire in his eyes, a rage and a will to not give up, not when Suho was still alive.

He went along with the Union drama, wanting to protect his friends, and help his school. Humin clenched his jaw tight, He could have done something, anything, and then Sieun wouldn’t be in the hospital right now.

He was the only one there when Sieun got the call.

His eyes widened as the only number that bypasses his ‘do not disturb’ rings loudly.

Sieun answered the phone with shaky hands and a stuttering “Hello?”

Humin couldn’t hear the other voice on the line, he didn’t even know who it was that was calling, but Sieun’s cry was loud.

It pierced his ears with a sharp stab, his head ducked as he used his hands to cover his ears.

Sieun hadn’t stopped.

He cried and yelled and howled.

Humin tried to ignore the ringing in his ear as he tried to calm his friend down.

But it was almost like he couldn’t hear him, couldn’t feel his touch, like he didn’t even know where he was.

Sieun passes out.

Humin yells out startled. “Sieun!” He narrowly catches him before his head hits the ground and now Humin is completely losing his shit.

The way to the hospital was a blur, Humin had called an ambulance and had muttered to them that they were friends, and to please let him ride with them to the hospital. He has no idea what is going on, only that his friend is hurting and Humin can’t help but feel it’s all his fault.

If he hadn’t gotten Sieun roped into all his drama, then maybe Sieun wouldn’t be in an ambulance going well over the speed limit on their way to the hospital.

Humin furrowed his brows when he saw another ambulance waiting for them. The nurses waving wildly at a clipboard and pointing at words that were too far away for Humin to read.

They let him into the back of the second ambulance, and he followed them out into the halls once they reached their destination.

Humin looked at his location on his phone.

Seoul.

He looked at Sieun’s retreating form, laying still on the bed, an oxygen mask placed messily on his face as they rushed him into the doors.

What was so wrong with Sieun that he had to be taken all the way to Seoul?

Humin waits for hours.

He begs the nurses to let him know what is going on; they look at each other with a sad look, and all they can do is shrug, patient confidentiality they mutter.

He shakes his leg impatiently, apparently having to wait for one of Sieun’s parents to arrive before he can figure out what was happening.

Humin was stuck in a daze, a constant whir of worry distracting him.

A small old lady walked down the corridor.

He misses the way the nurses smile sadly at her, welcomes her with her name, points him out as he stares blankly at the wall.

He snaps out of it when a light, fragile hand gently places itself on his shoulder.

Humin’s head yanks to the side, startled.

“Oh, I’m sorry honey.” She smiles weakly. “I heard you were asking about my Sieunnie.” Humin sits up straight.

“Yes, yes ma’am.” He stutters. “Are you his...grandma?” Humin asks with a pause, unsure if asking such a question could be deemed offensive.

“Mhm, you could say that.” She smiles again. “Come with me young man, I’ll take you to them.” Humin stands up before she can finish her sentence.

She holds her hand out, waiting expectantly.

Humin tilts his head, and it clicks when her eyes dart down to his arm.

“Oh!” He offers his arm enthusiastically.

She grabs onto him, and he walks slowly beside her, letting her lead the way.

“You said them.” Humin asks weakly.

“Hm, yes, I did.” Her kind and gentle smile is gone now, Humin looks away. The sight of such a kind-looking lady with a devastated expression made his heart ache.

Humin finally understood what happened when they reached the room. Realizes that he could have done nothing to change Sieun’s outcome.

The whiteboard on the wall with their information gives him everything he needs to know before pulling back the curtains.

“Ahn Suho- TBI, Coma, Bonded to Yeon Sieun.”

“Yeon Sieun- Extensive Bond sickness, Room pair together, Bonded to Ahn Suho.”

The older lady draws back the curtain slowly and pulls a thin blanket out of her bag.

Humin smells the wood and earthy scent radiating off the blanket as she tucks it around Sieun.

Sieun, who was curled around the unfamiliar boy, his nose pressed to his skin on the taller man’s neck.

“My poor baby, he comes here to sleep every day.” She looks pitying at Sieun whose breathing had slowed and calmed after Suho’s smell had covered him.

“He said he can’t sleep at night when he’s at home, I begged the nurses to leave him be, I guess they couldn’t say no to an old lady like myself.” She brushed Sieun’s hair slowly with her fingers.

“Suho used to come home all giddy.” Her smile peeks through again. “Sieun-ah looked so cute today, he smells just like me now, we went to Han River.” She laughed as she recalled the memories.

“That boy was so in love.” Her hand stills. “Is in love.” She corrects herself and sits down in the chair next to the bed.

She pats the empty seat next to her, and Humin blindly follows her instructions.

“How long has he been like this?” Humin bites his lip; he doesn’t know much about bond sickness, but he knows it can be deadly.

“It’ll be five months in a week or so.” Humin nods weakly and his eyes turn to his friend.

Sieun purred low and weak. At some point while they were talking, he scrunched the blanket under his nose and nuzzled further into Suho.

Humin looked at his hands. It felt wrong to see Sieun like that, he hadn’t shared any of this with them for a reason, and he feels like an intruder.

“I should go. My friends…” Humin trails off and Suho’s grandmother nods understandingly.

“Tell them they can come and visit, Sieun shouldn’t be up here alone as often as he is.” She looks towards them again her mouth pulled into a tight-lipped expression and Humin hums in agreement as he stands up.

Inside Sieun’s head has grown quiet.

When he got the call, his heart had stopped. His blood ran cold, each vein in his body thrumming with ice as he stopped in his tracks.

He was distantly aware of someone screaming.

He thought it was fitting for his scenario, amazed at the coincidence that someone else was getting terrible news at the same time as him.

His body lurched forward. Doubling over in pain, feeling as though someone had punched him in the stomach. His teeth teared at the skin on the inside of his mouth.

His tongue lapped at the blood on his teeth subconsciously and only then did he notice his mouth was open.

The sound of howling coming from his own throat.

Terror ripped through him once again, his mind repeating only one thing.

SuhoSuhoSuhoSuhoSuho.

His knees scraped at the concrete uncomfortably, he could feel every sensation tenfold, but his mind was distant.

His omega pounding on the inside, crying to be let out, to be taken to his alpha.

AlphaAlphaAlphaAlpha.

Muffled voices surrounded him.

They were panicked, asking him questions he couldn’t hear or understand. He howled weakly, his vision was cloudy and edged with black.

Sieun tried to gasp in a breath. His chest was moving up and down frantically, but he still couldn’t get a good breath in.

He tried to make his mouth move, his tongue to untie and tell whoever was near him to bring him to Suho, tell them he needs his Alpha.

“Suho-Hyung?” Sieun tried to speak, he squinted his eyes at the body hovering above him.

“…his name?” Sieun catches onto the end of a sentence from one of the unfamiliar figures above him.

Sieun blinked and suddenly bright lights shone into his eyes, and he closed them tight.

His head thrummed painfully behind his eyes, and he tried to focus on the words coming from the people around him.

“Seoul hospital…bonded pair…”

Sieun sobbed loudly, and the voices got more hushed.

He hadn’t even meant to react to what they were saying, it had triggered a reaction to hear people talk about his bond with Suho, how his bond sickness was draining the life out of him slowly, how he couldn’t be strong without Suho, his omega was so pathetic, how could his Alpha want him after he finds out about his bond sickness?

His vision fades in an out.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed since he passed out in the street, but he hasn’t felt so calm for a long time.

His Omega is quiet; the howling has stopped, and it doesn’t feel like his insides are being torn apart.

He nuzzles into the warmth, and a purr tumbles out of his throat before he can process what’s happening.

Sieun cracks his eyes open and winces from the dull light above his head. He cranes his neck and notices he’s in the hospital, the window to his right is dark, and he realizes that it’s night, with no clue what day it is, how long he had been out, and unsure of what happened to him he tries to sit up.

A blanket wrapped tightly around him stops him, and he looks down and all the calm that he had felt moments before had washed away in an instant. His heart hammered in his chest painfully, and his throat clenched tightly.

“Suho-yah?” His scratchy voice comes out, and he surprises himself with the sound.

Sieun lays back down slowly as no reply comes, and he lays his head on Suho’s chest listening to the faint thrumming of his heartbeat.

“Please.” Sieun calls out again, and clenches his eyes shut as tears prick his eyes.

Sieun falls back asleep to the achingly familiar silence.

A nurse comes in a couple hours later and Sieun doesn’t recognize her. With the frequency that he visited the hospital he had grown familiar with the nurses; they were kind and understanding, and he knows they had grown fond of him which helped when he wanted to stay past the visiting hours.

This one looks at him with pure sympathy, the other nurses seemed able to school their sadness for him.

She must be new, Sieun thinks.

She works in silence changing out the medicine in the hanging IV bags and Sieun watches with analyzing eyes.

“Your friend that came here with you was worried.” She suddenly speaks up and Sieun scrunches his brows.

She twisted her neck to look at him when Sieun continued to sit in silence and once she saw the look of confusion on his face, she elaborated.

“Bulky kid, Redish tinted hair?” She describes and Sieun’s eyes close slowly.

“Is he...not a friend?” She grows worried from Sieun’s reaction, and she relaxes slightly when Sieun opens his eyes again.

“He is.” Sieun doesn’t continue. If she had talked to any of the nurses, then she should have heard from one of them that he isn’t much of a talker.

“Maybe you should give him a call, tell him you’re alright?” She suggests and Sieun nods curtly, hoping that would be enough for the lady to leave him alone. Of course, with his luck, she continues.

“I know how you feel.” She shares as she checks Suho’s vitals. Sieun’s stare grows hard.

His silence is deafening, and this lady seemingly has no self-awareness and trucks on.

“My wife, she was on her way home from work.” Sieun’s face relaxes slightly and his ears perk up as she keeps talking.

“Drunk driver hit her a few miles from the house. I could feel it the second she died.” Sieun’s mouth tightens.

He knows exactly what she’s talking about.

He had the same gnawing gut feeling that something was deeply wrong. It festered until he got to the hospital with Youngyi and he saw his mate connected to what seemed like hundreds of wires and tubes.

“I’m sorry.” Sieun’s voice is tiny, the empathy foreign on his tongue.

“I hope he wakes up soon, for your sake.” She smiles sadly and Sieun bites the inside of his cheek.

She leaves the room without another word and Sieun reaches for his phone.

The hospital makes Sieun stay for two more days for observation.

Suho’s grandma brings in more of Suho’s clothing to soothe his omega and embarrassingly it works.

She tells him that she’s saving them for when he needs them, afraid that the clothes will lose their scent and Sieun will grow sick and have no relief. She hoards them for when they are in dire need.

His friends visited him after he had made his call to Baku after the nurse had suggested it to him, and it helped him more than he had anticipated.

Juntae brings him a heating pad for when his bond sickness makes him cramp, Gotak brings him a stupid stuffed panda that he says will keep him company (and that Sieun secretly loves). When Baku brings him his gift, he has to hold back his tears.

A tiny bottle of perfume.

“It’s Mahogony scented, Suho’s grandma told me that was what he smelled like so... I don’t know, I guess I thought it might help.” Baku seems sheepish as he explains and Sieuns eyes are sparkling when he looks up from his intense gaze on the bottle.

“Thank you.” Sieun looks at his lap nervously.

“I... should have told you guys.” Sieun picks at the lint on his new panda friend as he avoids eye contact.

“It’s okay Sieun! We understand, I’m sure it’s been hard to deal with by yourself.” Juntae’s voice is filled with warmth and Sieun feels Lucky.

These are the kind of people that Suho would want me to be around if he can’t be here himself.

“He would like you guys.” Sieun decides to say, his friends came all this way to try and make him feel better; he can be vulnerable, he decides.

“Oh, of course he will.” Gotak gloats and Sieun smiles at the change of grammar to future tense.

“I’ll make sure he knows what good care we’ve been taking of his mate and then he will have no choice but to be swayed by our charming good looks and personality.” Baku nods and looks up wistfully and Juntae giggles.

“You’re so stupid” Sieun huffs with a barely noticeable smile and the hospital room that is usually filled with his gloom and sorrow begins to brighten.

Sieun misses the slight twitch of Suho’s finger.

A startled gasp makes Sieun’s neck twist at an alarming speed.

Juntae looks a mix of horror and glee as he points.

Sieun’s gaze follows where Juntae is pointing, and Sieun’s heart stops.

Suho.

His hand moves slowly towards him.

Sieun’s arm reaches out with a speed he hadn’t known he possessed, and he grabbed Suho’s cold hand.

“Suho?” Sieun’s voice shakes harshly, and Sieun whips his head back around to look at his friends.

“Go get the nurses please!” Sieun cries and they trip over each other as they run out the door and Sieun looks back to his mate.

“Suho? Please wake up, I’m here, please.” Sieun is sobbing now and his grip on Suho’s hand probably hurts, but he can’t stop himself.

“I’m here, it’s your omega, please, Suho-Hyung.” Sieun chokes on a sob as Suho’s eyes crack open slowly.

“Alpha. Suho.” Sieun is crying tears of joy now and the door swings back open with a force as it thuds against the wall and the first person in the door is the nurse from two days ago.

She works fast, doing something Sieun can’t process. His emotions are up to the roof, and the tears are clouding his vision, but she works like it's someone she cares about on the bed instead of a random high-school boy she had never seen awake.

Sieun mutters out thank you’s to her as she works, but he isn’t sure if anyone can understand his blubbering.

“Suho-yah?” Sieun calls for him again in the craziness of the bustling room.

“Can someone clear the room?” A doctor shouts as he walks in.

His friends are promptly ushered out, and Sieun feels a hand on his shoulder to guide him out, and he doesn’t know what comes over him as he growls.

“No.” His voice is strong, and the new nurse looks at the doctor with a deadly glare.

“He stays.” She says with an air of finality.

“We can’t work with him in here!” His voice is stern, an Alpha, Sieun can tell just by the way the man speaks with too much undeserved confidence.

The air fills with pheromones in an instant. So many nurses that he recognizes are looking at the doctor with nothing but unfiltered disgust.

“If you had any clue about this patient or even read his chart you would know that this is his mate. His mate that is admitted for bond sickness. His mate that is probably the sole reason he woke up.”

The doctor's confidence visibly falters.

“He stays.” She repeats again, her confidence unwavering.

Sieun scoots closer to Suho with the permission of his new favorite nurse.

“Hyung.” Sieun sniffles and he wants to take the ventilator off of him, wants to hear his voice, wants to hold him.

“Okay, Sieun-honey, I need you to look away for just a moment, okay?” Sieun looks up at her with sad eyes. He doesn’t want to take his gaze away from his mate for even a second.

“I know, but you won’t want to see this, I promise.” She practically reads his mind, and Sieun gnaws on his bottom lip in worry.

“Trust me.” Sieun nods and turns his head around.

A gargling choking noise is the first noise that Suho makes and Sieun starts to turn around to make sure everything is okay when another nurse pops into his vision.

Her small hands hold his face forward, and she smiles kindly.

“He’s okay Sieun, just one more moment and you can look.” Her thumb rubs soothingly on his cheek.

Sieun hiccups and his breathing is erratic, and he knows the only thing that will calm him down is his mate. Rustling from behind replaces the choking noises and Sieun feels his shoulders relax slightly as the nurse continues to hold his face.

A puff of an oxygen machine whirrs to live behind him, and she slowly lets go of him and nods her permission to turn again.

“Suho.” He weeps.

Suho, instead of the ventilator, now has an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. Suho’s eyes are still droopy, and he stares back at Sieun with familiarity, but he can see the spark of confusion swimming in his gaze.

Sieun isn’t sure if he’s meant to share Suho’s condition with him, so he tries to calm his breathing, and his hands roam Suho’s face checking for any injuries that may have occurred in the couple of minutes he was forced to look away.

Sieun does it mostly to sate his Omega, but he can’t deny the instant relief he feels when everything is normal on Suho’s face.

Suho’s mouth opens to speak, and the noise that comes out sounds painful and scratchy.

“Sie-?” Suho practically whispers it, his voice unstable but Sieun soars with joy.

“Hyung.” Sieun falls into Suho’s neck nuzzling into the warmth of him and only slightly falters as his scent is still faded.

The fast-paced rustling around him never stops, but he ignores it in favor of wrapping his arms around Suho’s neck and laying his head on his chest, matching his breathing to the slow heartbeat of his mate.

Sieun’s bond sickness wasn't completely erased even with the awakening of his mate. Suho’s recovery has been harsh, and emotionally taxing.

Physical therapy was hard for Sieun to watch. He wasn’t able to step in and help when he saw the look of anguish on Suho’s face. He wanted to take the pain from Suho no matter how much he wished he could.

Suho’s scent was slow to come back as well. His body was still on heavy doses of suppressants but as his body recovered, his doctors began weening him off of them.

Sieun was a mix of nervous flutters as his omega began to get hints of his alpha's pheromones for the first time in over seven months.

The day that Suho was released from the hospital, Sieun was buzzing with a need to bundle Suho in his nest and lock him away for the foreseeable future.

Sieun hadn’t felt his nerves bristle with this much ferocity in months, and he wasn’t sure where to place the thrumming energy.

Suho smiled and looked at his mate from the corner of his eye. Suho tried to hold his laugh in as his mate ran his hands over Suho’s arm. Suho isn’t even sure that Sieun is aware he’s doing it.

Sieun exhales slowly, his body adjusting to the senses of being in his mate's room. It was a hard adjustment to make when Suho first awoke.

Of course, after the unstoppable sobs that wracked his body, Sieun was overjoyed. His omega, however, had a harder time accepting the new reality.

His instincts were mourning Suho, his body not quite understanding that Suho was always meant to return to him.

Now that Suho’s scent was brimming, ready to unleash and infiltrate his omegas innate desires to smell the woodsy scent again, did Sieun begin to acclimate.

He could faintly feel and hear the rumble of a purr in his throat, and Sieun’s face burned with excitement, happiness, arousal, something.

Sieun’s thoughts whirred by so fast he wasn’t quite sure what he was thinking or feeling, all he knew was he needed to be close.

Much closer than he was now. Sieun blinked owlishly at Suho as he mindlessly scooted closer.

“Sieunn-ie?” Suho’s mouth ran dry as the outpouring of omega pheromones of Sieun ran rampant in the small confines of Suho’s room.

Their scents mix with ease. Sieun sniffs the air deeply and his eyes grow glassy.

Suho could almost see the transition of Sieun’s present mind fading as his omegan instincts took the driver's seat.

Sieun’s tongue darted out of his mouth to wet his bottom lip, and Suho’s gaze was locked into Sieun’s movements immediately.

Paying attention so ferociously, so attentively, Suho tracked him like a predator tracks their prey.

Sieun was far from anyone's prey though, and they both knew it.

Sieun’s movements were performative; his omega doing exactly what it knew would rile any alpha up, but most importantly would rile his alpha up.

Sieun was running hot. His face burned, and it felt like the blood rushing through his veins were lit on fire, but he moved closer to Suho anyway.

He needed to touch him. Everywhere.

Sieun wanted to crawl into Suho’s skin, wanted to be pressed against him so tightly you couldn’t tell where one of them started, and the other ended.

Sieun crawled into Suho’s lap.

His neck craning into Suho's. Rubbing their scents together straight from the source.

Suho gasped brokenly.

“Sieun-” He called out but the words faded as they left his tongue.

Suho absentmindedly grabbed the sides of Sieun’s waist. His fingers digging their print into his skin. Suho panted as Sieun nuzzled closer to him.

His scent brimmed; it felt like it was hanging on a hair before it would burst out and flood the room with his arousal filled pheromones.

It was almost like Sieun was aware of the situation Suho was in though as Sieun hesitantly gave the sensitive area of his scent mark a kitten lick.

Suho gasped as it felt like his body cracked.

Months of suppressed pheromones escaped in what felt like seconds. The room flooded with an overpowering amount of his smell.

Arousal, Need, Lust, Love, Excitement, Nervousness. Everything.

All his emotions painted the room with a different aroma. Each corner of the room caked with his scent.

Sieun pants. He sniffs tentatively like he doesn't trust what he’s smelling. But Suho can see the shift in his eyes as Sieun processes his tiny inhales. See’s it when his dark eyes widen and when he closes his eyes with a deep inhale.

Sieun begins to slick almost immediately.

Suho’s eyes follow his mate as he slowly begins to grind on his thigh. His slick already leaving a wet patch on his sweatpants, but Suho couldn’t find it in him to care because for god sake, Sieun was on top of him getting slicked from his scent alone.

Suho digs his nails into Sieun’s hips harder, and Sieun cracks his eyes open like he didn’t know he had closed them in the first place.

“Suho-yah, I think you’re in a rut.” Sieun has a tiny amount of drool on the corner on his lip from his panting, and Suho wants nothing more than to reach over and claim it with his tongue.

He hardly registers what Sieun is saying his mind was stuck in a loop of MarkMarkMark and ClaimClaimClaim.

His mind finally processes his words. If he wasn’t in an active rut, he probably would’ve been embarrassed, but his own words are escaping him before he could think about it.

“I think you’re in heat.” Suho licks his lips like he can taste Sieun’s pheromones on them, and Sieun’s pants turn into quiet moans.

Suho looks down to see that Sieun’s hips had never stopped its movements.

The small patch of slick has turned much bigger since he first noticed it, and Suho needs to do something before he goes feral with his alphas' need to touch.

Sieun watches as his mates' eyes pupils expand, leaving nothing but black in its wake. Sieun knows with full certainty that Suho is in full rut now. It was only a matter of time before Sieun would follow suit and be thrown fully into the crashing ocean of his own pheromones.

Sieun whines high in the back of his throat. Suho looks hungry, ravenous even.

In the blink of an eye Sieun is flipped around and his back hits the mattress with a soft thump.

His mind unhelpfully flashes with the memory of Sieun’s last heat that he had shared with Suho. The way he had pulled the same move, had effortlessly tossed Sieun around.

That’s all it takes for Sieun to let himself be carried away by his heat.

“Alpha” Sieun purrs as he tilts his head back.

“Mark me, please, Alpha.” Sieun licks his lips in anticipation, but no bite ever comes.

Sieun cracks his eyes open- which he can’t remember closing in the first place- and he meets Suho’s eyes already staring back at him.

“My omega.” He grumbles with a small fangy smile.

“Waited for me so patiently, we should reward you, hm?” Suho rips his shirt off and takes no time to do the same for Sieun.

Suho straightens up and scoots back on his knees.

“Lift your hips.” Suho directs him, authority dripping from his voice. Sieun can feel a new wave of slick trickle down his thigh.

He whines again but obeys with shaky legs lifts himself up and lets Suho pull the remainder of his clothes off.

“That’s better.” Suho licks his teeth, his eyes scanning every inch of Sieun’s pale skin.

“You got too skinny. Alpha needs you nice and healthy if you want to carry my pups.” Suho tilts his head as he analyzes the bones that stick out from Sieun’s collarbones and hips.

Sieun cries out pathetically.

“I want to, please, I can do it.” Sieun’s bottom lashes collect his tears as he looks up at Suho who has slowly began running his fingers slowly across Sieun’s thighs.

“Alpha-“ Sieun cries out again when Suho digs his nails into the soft flesh.

“I’ll be a good omega, breed me, I can-I can do it, please.” Sieun continues to beg and Suho is thrumming with the need to do exactly as Sieun wishes.

“Of course I will baby. Alpha will breed you; I’ll make sure I cum in you so much there’s no way you won’t get pupped.”

Suho pushes Sieun’s thighs up, hooks them over his own thighs as he clumsily pulls his sweatpants down.

Suho’s cock is already leaking at the tip, he looks so hard that Sieun thinks it might be painful, and-

Sieun gets a gasp stuck in his throat as he looks down and sees the base of Suho’s dick had already started to swell with the beginnings of a knot.

“Suho-need your knot, need it, please Alpha.” Sieun sobs and he needs Suho’s knot so badly he can’t think about anything else.

In one thrust Suho fucks into him. Sieun tries to scream but the noise doesn’t come out and Sieun see’s white.

Suho doesn’t stop drilling into him as he comes, Sieun blubbers “feels so good-“as Suho grazes his knot against his hole with every thrust, not quite ready to pop yet, he continues to use Sieun.

“So fucking hot Sieun- you can’t ever be with anyone else, you’re mine.” Suho growls. If Sieun wasn’t drowning in the same pheromones and wasn’t still dazed from his mind-altering orgasm, and the sex that is still currently going on, he might’ve scoffed.

Alphas are so possessive, Sieun used to think, so annoying.

But right now, all he can think about is how much he loves it.

“Yours-Yours-Ah!” Sieun moans out.

Sieun feels the knot swell even bigger and he starts to grow worried that it might not even fit inside him.

“I’m about to knot you baby, fuck, I’m gonna cum so deep in you, fill you up.” Suho pants into his neck and Sieun cranes his neck again.

“Bite me- please, own me, I don’t want anyone else.” Sieun rasps and everything happens so fast.

Suho grunts and his knot pushes into him for the final time. Sieun can feel every spurt of Suho as he cums inside him and it feels like it might never end, Sieun doesn’t want it to ever end.

And before he can process that, a sharp stinging pain pierces into his neck.

Sienna explodes. He’s never cum so hard in his fucking life, it feels like his soul literally leaves his body.

A rush of pheromones clouds his mind thicker than before, a new sense, an alpha sense. A rut.

Sieun feels small licks lapping the blood that prickles his neck, and he feels his teeth stretch painfully before he lifts to mark a matching bite on his mate’s neck.

Suho cums again.

Sieun purrs and wraps his legs around Suho’s waist tighter.

He knows the knot will keep them in place either way, but he can’t help but want to make sure they stay connected as long as possible. Want’s Suho’s seed to stay inside of him. Want’s to be bred.

“Suho.” Sieun nuzzles into Suho’s neck with a sigh. He blinks wearily at him and lets the world fade around him as the brown in Suho’s irises come back and look at him with so much love pooled in them that Sieun can’t help but fall asleep. Feeling more content than he has ever been before.