Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Seungmin was getting ready for bed, face washed, teeth brushed, and pajama-clad when he was interrupted from his nighttime routine by a pounding on his door. Dammit. Seungmin sighed and let his head fall to rest on the bathroom countertop, the cold stone cooling the flush of his skin. 

He wasn’t supposed to have anything else tonight. After three days of sleepless nights and constant calls, Seungmin had finally had a break, but now someone was yelling his name and threatening to break his door down with their frantic knocking, and judging by the voice, Seungmin was pretty sure he knew exactly who was in trouble. 

With one last forlornful look into his bathroom mirror, imagining all the fun he could have had tonight if not for the person at his door, Seungmin sighed and made his way across his apartment. Sometimes Seungmin wished he were a worse person and could just ignore the people in need that came to him at all hours of the night. Alas, Seungmin was cursed with a heart and the person at the door knew that and wasn’t likely to stop knocking until Seungmin answered. 

“Yes?” Seungmin asked, wrenching his door open, Jeongin almost tumbling into Seungmin’s apartment in surprise. 

“We need your help.” Jeongin recovered quickly, training his wide, desperate eyes on Seungmin. “Chan, Changbin, and Minho went out on a mission and it was supposed to be quick, but they didn’t come back in time, so Felix went after them and—”

“Now it’s been what?” Seungmin checked his watch. “Two hours? And none of them are back and you, Jisung, and Hyunjin are worried, so you came to find me.” 

Jeongin nodded. “Please, you have to help us.” Jeongin reached toward Seungmin but seemed to think better of the movement and grabbed onto Seungmin’s door frame instead.

Seungmin really should turn Jeongin away and head back to his bed and try to catch a couple of hours of sleep before he had to be up in the morning. He had no obligation to help the little alpha on his doorstep, especially when he knew that he wasn’t going to get compensated at his normal rates for this. 

“Fine.” Seungmin stepped back from the door and gestured for Jeongin to enter. 

“Really?” 

Seungmin rolled his eyes. “Hurry up before I change my mind.” 

“Thank you so much! We’re going to owe you for this! Hyunjin told me that you wouldn’t help and that I was wasting my time, but I thought that—”

Seungmin tuned out Jeongin’s rambling as he picked his way to his desk. Seungmin usually liked to keep his apartment tidy, but the past couple of days had been rough and cleaning had been one of the last things on Seungmin’s priority list. “You can sit down over there.”

Jeongin headed to the couch Seungmin had indicated, his rambling ceasing for the time being as he wrinkled his nose at the takeout containers of half-eaten food scattered across the coffee table. “Is this all you eat?” Jeongin asked, poking at a McDonald’s bag as if he was scared it was going to come alive. 

“Do you want help or not? We don’t all have hyungs who cook for us.” Seungmin’s computer finally finished booting up. “Now where are your hyungs?” 

“They said that there was a disturbance nearby that they were going to check out.”

Seungmin resisted the urge to smash his forehead into his keyboard. “Is that really all you know?” Seungmin was going to need a drink after this. Maybe three. 

“They headed southwest when they left and said that the disturbance was only a couple blocks away. That was five hours ago.” 

“I thought you said that they were going to be quick? Why did Felix wait three hours before heading out after them?” Seungmin understood Jeongin’s hesitance in coming to find him, Seungmin wasn’t known to be the kindest or most helpful of people and his rates were steep, but why would Felix wait so long to check on his pack? And why did Felix head out, but not Jisung or Hyunjin? 

“Um.” Jeongin shifted uncomfortably on the couch.

“I can’t help you unless I know the full story.”

“Well…Jisung is in heat.”

Oh. Yeah. That would do it. “So you’re saying that I can’t rely on Jisung and Hyunjin to help find the rest of your pack?”

Jeongin shook his head. 

Seungmin regretted opening the door. “Okay, great. Three members of your pack left five hours ago heading southwest and never came back so another member chased after them leaving an omega in heat, his beta, and a baby alpha home alone. Am I getting this right?” 

“I’m not a baby alpha,” Jeongin protested, a growl creeping into his voice. “I presented 5 years ago. I’m a full-blown member of the pack.”

He was, but Seungmin liked to tease him about it. His pack was known to be overly protective of their maknae and the teasing distracted from the fact that Seungmin was only a couple months older than Jeongin. 

Seungmin pulled open the street camera feed and tracked Chan, Changbin, and Minho from their apartment to an alleyway where there was a group of what were presumably alphas beating up two probable omegas. Crimes against omegas were only illegal in the way that property crime was illegal. Omegas weren’t people, but rather the property of alphas. That’s where vigilantes like Jeongin’s pack and Seungmin came in, dealing justice that the law wouldn’t. 

Changbin approached the group of alphas and started throwing punches. Seungmin couldn’t help but sigh. Maybe if he had taken a second to assess the situation he would have realized that this was more than it appeared, but after Changbin started throwing punches, Chan and Minho quickly joined in and it was easy for the person hiding on the rooftop of the nearest building to shoot them with alpha tranquilizer darts. 

“Who was behind the attack?” 

Seungmin startled and turned to look at Jeongin who was now standing right next to him instead of sitting on the couch like he had been earlier. Seungmin really needed to start getting more sleep. 

“I’m not sure, recognize any of them?”

Jeongin shook his head. Of course, it couldn’t be that easy. Seungmin was going to have to track the car that Jeongin’s three pack members were thrown into across the city. He was in for a long night. Seungmin considered if he could call out of work tomorrow. He still had a couple of sick days saved up. Even if Seungmin did end up going, he was probably going to be no help, already Seungmin could barely focus on what he needed to do to track the black minivan across the city. 

“Do you guys have any enemies?”

“Lots. We’re vigilantes who beat up alphas who otherwise would only get a slap on the wrist.” 

“Yeah, but known enemies who would do something like this? Have you angered someone in power lately?” 

“Hmm, Minho did mention going after some CEO recently.”

Seungmin was going to beat his head against the wall. Why was Jeongin’s pack like this? Why couldn’t they just keep their heads down and go after the small fish instead of shooting to take down the whole system? 

“Who?” 

“I think the one in charge of that omega makeup brand that’s super popular? With all the billboards?” 

Seungmin couldn’t help but drop his head into his hands. “Why would you do this while Jisung is in heat?” 

“It came early!”

Because that made things so much better. Seungmin was going to have an aneurysm. He couldn’t believe that this was now his problem. All Seungmin had wanted was a calm, peaceful night and this is what he got instead. 

“Okay.” Seungmin took a deep breath and collected himself. “At least this means I know where to start looking.” Seungmin pulled up a map of all the warehouse locations of the makeup brand that Minho had pissed off and then it was only a matter of figuring out which one was the closest to where the minivan was heading. Fifteen minutes later, Seungmin had located the footage of the black minivan pulling up to the warehouse and figured out that the same people had grabbed Felix when he had gone searching for his lost packmates. 

“Here you go.” Seungmin handed Jeongin blueprints of the warehouse. “Go rescue your pack.” 

“What? Me? Alone? I can’t go up against all this by myself.” 

Seungmin didn’t see how that was his problem. He had located Jeongin’s packmates, that was all that was required of him. It was past Seungmin’s bedtime. 

“Seungmin, you have to help. Jisung is in heat so he can’t help and Hyunjin can’t leave him and can’t do this all by myself. The blueprints won’t help when what I need is more manpower.” 

“Don’t you have friends?” 

“Yeah, but they’re probably all asleep by now and this can’t wait.”

Seungmin should be asleep right now. “I’m not a field agent.” He stayed nice and safe behind his desk and didn’t leave.

“Do you really want the deaths of my packmates on your conscience? When you know that you could have helped?” 

Seungmin dug his fingers into his hair, pulling at the strands. “Fine. I’ll drive. Do you have any guns?” 

“Those are illegal.”

Seungmin stared at Jeongin. He was too tired to play these games. 

“Fine. Yes, we do, but you can’t tell anyone.”

Everyone had guns in the vigilante business these days, it was a dangerous profession that made dangerous enemies. Seungmin didn’t say any of that, though, just grabbed his laptop and let Jeongin lead the way out of his apartment and to the car he had driven. 

“I’m helping, but I’m only the getaway driver, okay?” Seungmin said as he climbed into the passenger seat of the car. It resembled more of a soccer mom car than a getaway ride for a vigilante group, but Seungmin wasn’t judging. 

“Take a right here. We’re going to go to the backside, then you’re going to climb through this window and your packmates should be held in this room right here.” Seungmin circled an area on the blueprint and turned it so that Jeongin could see. “I have literally no idea how many guards they have or what kind of shape your packmates are in, so be careful.” Seungmin usually planned better than this, but he was sleep-deprived and had come up with this plan in under an hour, so it wasn’t necessarily his best work. 

“How do you know they’re going to be there?” 

“It’s a small interior room with a lock. It makes the most sense to be the place where they hold three alphas and a beta. Hopefully, because it’s 4 o’clock in the morning there won’t be too many people guarding. Every reasonable person is asleep right now.”

“We’re not asleep right now,” Jeongin pointed out very unhelpfully. 

Seungmin let his head thump against the headrest. “I should be asleep right now.” 

There was a beat of silence. “Thank you for helping us out. Stray Kids will owe you.”

It took Seungmin a minute to remember that Stray Kids was the silly name Jeongin’s pack had chosen for themselves. Seungmin had heard worse, but he never understood why vigilantes always had names, it wasn’t like they were a band. 

“Yeah, whatever.” Seungmin waved his hand. “Just pay me my regular fees.” Seungmin sat up so that he could see the streets better. “Turn left here and then we’ll be there.” 

Jeongin pulled into the loading zone that Seungmin indicated. “Okay, let’s go over the plan one more time and then you’ll be on your own.”

“We’ll have earpieces though, right?”

“Yes.” Seungmin had grabbed them before they left. “But you can’t rely on that because I won’t help you if you get into trouble, all right? I’m only the getaway driver. I couldn’t manage to hack their camera system on such short notice so we’re flying blind.” 

“It’s okay.” Jeongin patted Seungmin on the shoulder and Seungmin held back a flinch. “I have you on my side so everything’s going to be alright.”

Seungmin wasn’t on Jeongin’s side. Seungmin was a hired freelancer and it would be good for Jeongin to get that into his head, but Jeongin was out of the car, slipping a handgun into his waistband before Seungmin could remind him of that fact. 

Seungmin climbed over the middle console into the driver’s seat and hoped for his sake that everything went to plan. Seungmin wasn’t a field agent, he wasn’t ever supposed to leave the safety of his apartment. But here he was, breaking all of his rules for some stupid vigilante pack that couldn’t even think before they acted. 

“I’m in,” Jeongin’s voice cracked in Seungmin’s ear. 

“Great, go down the hallway to the room I showed you on the plans and try not to be seen.” 

Seungmin pulled up the cameras surrounding the building on his laptop so that he could see if Jeongin had triggered some sort of alarm and tell him if reinforcements were coming. Of course, if that had happened, Seungmin wasn’t going to stick around, that was far above Seungmin’s pay grade. 

“There’s two guards in front of the door.”

“I guess that means we have the right spot then.” 

“Seungmin, what am I supposed to do?”

Wasn’t Jeongin supposed to be the expert on this sort of thing? “I don’t know? Take them out? Quietly would probably be preferred.” There was the sound of three gunshots in Seungmin’s ear. “That was not quietly!” 

“I had a silencer!” 

That didn't necessarily make the gun quiet necessarily and Jeongin knew that. They had a matter of minutes until Jeongin was swarmed and Seungmin hoped that Jeongin could work quickly. 

“Felix! Chan! Changbin! Minho! Are you guys okay?” 

Well at least Jeongin had found all of his packmates. Seungmin couldn’t quite hear what they said in response to Jeongin, but Seungmin figured there was probably a lot of hugging and unnecessary pack things. 

“Hurry up, you only have a couple of minutes,” Seungmin said into the earpiece. 

“Is there another way out?” Jeongin asked. “Felix and Minho are injured and won’t be able to climb back out the window.”

“Yeah.” Seungmin pulled up the blueprints and scrolled through them. “Take the second hallway to the left all the way down and there should be an emergency exit door to one of the bays. I’ll drive over there to pick you up. An alarm will sound when you open the door, but I think that’s the least of our worries right now.” 

“Got it! Thanks Seungmin!” 

Seungmin put the car into gear and drove to the bay he had told Jeongin to head towards. This was going to be close. Closer than Seungmin was comfortable with, but then again, Seungmin had already risked this much for Jeongin’s stupid pack, what was a little more? 

Seungmin got the car into position and unlocked the doors and waited until the emergency exit door burst open, an alarm blaring through the whole complex. Jeongin stumbled out first, Felix’s arm thrown over his shoulder, his leg scraped and bleeding. They were followed by Chan and Changbin, a barely conscious Minho dragged between them. Jeongin practically threw Felix into the car and then climbed in after him to help get Minho into the car. Chan climbed into the passenger seat. 

“Go!” Changbin yelled as soon as he closed the door, but Seungmin was already flooring it, peeling away as people burst through the door Jeongin and others had just escaped through, guns blazing. 

“Don’t get shot!” Chan yelled, grabbing onto the handle. 

“Do you really think I want to get shot right now?” Seungmin yelled back, swerving down a narrow street. 

“I didn’t know that you could drive, Seungmin,” Felix said from the back. 

Seungmin turned down another street, wheels squealing as he narrowly avoided hitting the side of a building. They were going to have a tail soon if Seungmin didn’t drive evasively enough. Even then, Seungmin wasn’t about to drive this car back to his apartment and he didn't think that Chan and his alphas would appreciate Seungmin leading their enemies to their base when they had an omega in heat at home. Seungmin wasn’t technically supposed to know where they called home, but Seungmin had been too tired and Jeongin too desperate to notice that Seungmin hadn’t asked earlier. 

“I didn’t think you ever left your apartment, Seungmin,” Changbin said.

“I don’t.” Seungmin swerved around a pedestrian. In his opinion, it was their fault for walking around at 5 am. Who even did that?

“How much is it going to cost us?” 

Chan choosing right now to be practical seemed a little ridiculous to Seungmin considering that he had just gotten almost his entire pack kidnapped, but whatever, it wasn’t like Seungmin was judging or anything.

“I don’t know.” Seungmin ran a red light. “I haven’t really figured out what my rates are for this yet. Where do you want me to drop you off?” 

Changbin rattled off an address that Seungmin recognized as a popular doctor’s office for vigilantes. “They have a parking garage that you can park in.” 

“Perfect.” Seungmin took a turn a little too fast and almost ended up on the sidewalk. He hoped everyone had their seatbelts on. 

“Where did you get your driver’s license? Do you even have a driver’s license?” Chan asked. Seungmin didn’t appreciate the questions. He was still wearing his pajamas, they were on the run from some big makeup company people, and Seungmin hadn’t had a good night’s sleep—or any sleep really—in days. 

“You were supposed to turn back there.” 

Seungmin turned down the next street. It was fine. He was just taking the scenic route. 

Five minutes later, Seungmin pulled into a parking garage next to Yeosang’s doctor’s office. Chan and Changbin immediately hopped out of the car to help Minho and Felix inside, but Jeongin lingered. 

“Thanks for your help.”

“You’re going to be getting an invoice from me.” 

Jeongin smiled even though Seungmin wasn’t joking. “You didn’t have to go out of your way to help like this, we owe you. Without you, I’m not sure that I would have gotten them back.”

Seungmin shrugged. “Don’t go around telling anyone I did this, okay? And don’t expect it to happen again. This was a one-time thing.” 

Arms were wrapped around Seungmin’s body. Oh. Jeongin was hugging him. Seungmin couldn’t remember the last time anyone had hugged him. At some point through the night, Jeongin’s scent patches had started to wear off and Seungmin was surrounded by the soft scent of warm bread.

Before Seungmin had a chance to return the gesture, Jeongin was pulling away. “Thank you. Do you need a ride home?” 

“No. The buses are running now, I’ll be fine. Go be with your pack, they need you.” 

“Thank you again, Seungmin! See you soon!” 

Seungmin would not be seeing Jeongin soon. He would be taking a break from working with vigilantes for the time being. At least until he caught back up on his sleep. After the excitement of tonight, it was probably best if Seungmin laid low for a little while. 

Seungmin wasn’t sure how he managed to get on the right bus back to his apartment, but at least he had the forethought to text his boss that he had woken up feeling unwell before collapsing into his bed and immediately falling asleep.

Chapter Text

Two days later, there was dinner on Seungmin’s doorstep. Home-cooked by the looks of it. Chan had already paid Seungmin’s invoice in full without complaints, so he didn’t know why there was suddenly food at his door, a sticky note stuck to the top with a note that read “So that you can stop eating McDonald’s every night -I.N. :)” 

Jeongin couldn’t cook, so that meant he had convinced one of his packmates to cook on Seungmin’s behalf. Seungmin knew that he should just throw the food in the trash, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn down a good meal. He would just return the tupperware with a note telling Jeongin not to do this again and Seungmin’s problem would be solved. 

It wasn’t like Seungmin could be in a pack anyway, he wasn’t the type of person for that sort of thing. Being in a pack meant being vulnerable, it meant that the secret Seungmin kept close to his chest would be exposed and Seungmin wouldn’t let that happen. He had worked too hard to get to this point to let all of his dreams be crushed by some pack who wanted to court him. 

The food was delicious though. Seungmin knew how to cook, but he wasn’t good at it, the food he made could be called edible and that was about it. And these days, Seungmin ended up ordering food more times than not. Seungmin’s name had gotten around and it meant that he had more business than ever for his side hustle, but that also meant he had less time for things like cooking or sleeping. 

These days, Seungmin seemed to have a perpetual headache that he blamed on lack of sleep. Seungmin knew that he either needed to quit his day job or scale down his operations on his night job, but his day job was the one that provided access to all the cameras in the city and Seungmin liked his night job. He liked helping the packs of vigilantes, in feeling as if he was part of something good, was changing the system for the better, even if all he did was help find omega-abusers and provide comms for the groups that hunted them down. 

If only Seungmin could get rid of his headache. And maybe get more sleep at night. That would probably be good too. 

The next day, there was another tupperware full of food waiting for Seungmin when he got home from work. Seungmin couldn’t even bring himself to complain, scarfing down the food before logging on to help TXT with taking down an omega-abuser whose wife had been seen with makeup covering her bruises at work for the past month. 

It was an easy enough job, but Seungmin didn’t end up going to bed until 2 am, barely remembering to take his meds before collapsing into the embrace of his blankets. A scant 5 hours later, Seungmin’s alarm was ringing. Seungmin went to work with more coffee in his veins than blood and eyes that were only half open. 

That night, there was another tupperware. Seungmin ate it before collapsing on his couch for a power nap before he would have to be up almost all night helping out two different groups. 

It became a routine. Seungmin would stumble home from work to home cooked food waiting for him by his door. It meant that Seungmin’s kitchen was just collecting dust other than his microwave, but also that the takeout bags that had lined his coffee table and counters were gone now. 

Seungmin knew that it was wrong for him to accept the food that was clearly a courting gift left for him each night, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop even if Seungmin could never be a part of a pack. Seungmin wanted. Seungmin wanted so badly. He wanted to curl up with others in a pile of blankets, wanted to feel human touch on his skin, wanted people to talk to, people to call his own. But Seungmin had relegated himself to a lonely life a long time ago and there was no changing it now. Seungmin wasn’t made for packs and that was never going to change. 

It didn’t matter that the thought made Seungmin’s head throb, made his heart ache, his inner wolf want to cry out for help. Seungmin had made his choice when he presented and he wasn’t about to go back on it now. 

Seungmin still accepted the food. Common sense told him he should stop, that he shouldn’t lead on a pack like this, but Seungmin couldn’t bring himself to. 

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Saturdays were the days that Seugmin caught up on sleep. Sundays were for chores and Saturdays were for sleep. This Saturday, someone was out to get Seungmin because he was woken up at 10 am by the ringing of his phone. 

“Hello?” Seungmin asked without looking at the caller ID. People didn’t tend to call him at 10 am on Saturday mornings unless it was an emergency. 

“Hi Seungmin! It’s Jeongin. I was wondering if you would like to get lunch or something today? We could go to the movies too if you wanted.” 

Seungmin almost hung up the phone, but he was pretty sure that if he did that, then Jeongin would just call him back assuming that the call dropped. “Um, I don’t really do packs and stuff, I’m sorry.” 

“That’s okay! We can just go out as friends.” 

“Oh, I don’t have friends either.” And with that, Seungmin did hang up. He felt a little guilty afterward, but it was for the best. Seungmin was a lone wolf for his safety. 

That night, Seungmin was fully planning to sort through the pitiful contents of his cabinets to scrounge something up for dinner, but he was surprised to find a tupperware of food still waiting for him outside his door. There was a pink sticky note on the top. “Don’t worry, I don’t feed you as a friend or a packmate, but rather as a stray dog on the street that I feel bad for.” Seungmin couldn’t help but smile and bring the tupperware inside for dinner. 

Even though Seungmin didn’t talk to Jeongin or anyone in his pack, the tupperware dinners kept showing up every night without fail. Seungmin knew that it was wrong of him, but he couldn’t help but accept the dinners. Seungmin knew that by doing so, he was giving Jeongin a false hope that he would one day be able to court Seungmin, but the dinners were just too good for Seungmin to turn down. 

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Seungmin’s head hurt. No matter how many pain meds Seungmin took, that seemed to be a constant in Seungmin’s life. That, the nausea, and the mind-numbing exhaustion Seungmin always felt was enough to make his life more miserable than usual. It was almost enough for Seungmin to consider cutting down on the number of night jobs he accepted, but that meant less omegas were going to get help and Seungmin didn’t want to let that happen. 

So Seungmin pushed on, ignoring the fact that his body was slowly starting to betray him as much as possible. Seungmin took his meds every night, took the max dose of painkillers that he could, and persevered. 

Everything was going well until one day, Seungmin grabbed his pill bottle and when he shook it out into his hand, only two pills came out. Seungmin stared at the two little white circles in his palm in horror. Was the 3rd Sunday of the month really in two days? How had Seungmin lost track of time? It was true that Seungmin’s days recently seemed to only consist of work, sleep, and suffering, but Seungmin had never lost track of time like this before. Seungmin usually meticulously tracked the number of pills he had left, counted down the days until he had to get more. 

It wasn’t the end of the world, Seungmin’s supplier knew to expect him on the third Sunday of every month, but it was disconcerting for Seungmin to lose track of time like that. Seungmin really hoped that catching up on sleep tomorrow would solve some of his problems. 

It didn’t. Seungmin woke up on Sunday as nauseous as ever with an incessant pounding behind his temples. Like always, Seungmin opted to ignore his symptoms and power through the pain. He had a long day ahead of him. 

It started with Seungmin dressing in a black hoodie and a pair of jeans and taking the subway to the city center. From there, Seungmin hopped on two more buses and then walked 15 minutes until the streets narrowed and the buildings loomed over him ominously. This part of the city was quieter than the rest. There was only the occasional car driving down the street, sputtering and wheezing as it bounced through the potholes. The houses were silent. If Seungmin didn’t know better, he would think that no one was home, that the shuttered windows meant that the apartments were abandoned. All of the shops were closed, metal grates locked over their entrances. This part of town shut down on Sundays. 

Seungmin drew into himself as he walked down the street, trying his best not to draw attention to himself, trying to not announce to everyone that he wasn’t from this part of town, that he was an outsider. 

Seungmin always hated this part. He felt like everyone could tell that he didn’t belong here, that he was up to no good. He knew it was just his own subconscious, but Seungmin couldn’t help but feel judged as he walked down the street. 

When Seungmin reached his destination: a basement shop under a bar, he didn’t breathe out a sigh of relief. Instead, Seungmin stopped and stared at the dark wood of the door, debating how badly he needed his medicine. Without it, Seungmin wouldn’t be able to go to work, wouldn’t be able to keep doing what he loved. 

Seungmin opened the door. 

The inside of the shop was dark, half of the lightbulbs were burned out and Seungmin didn’t know if the owner didn’t replace them because she couldn’t or because she preferred how the darkness made her shop seem mysterious. The shop was lined with rows upon rows of shelves full of an eclectic mix of items. Despite the fact that the shop was small, Seungmin knew that it was very possible to get lost for hours.

“Seungmin, you’re back.” The voice emerged from behind one of the rows of shelves.

“It’s the third Sunday of the month.” Seungmin said, forcing himself to relax and not look around for the shop owner. She liked to get a rise out of her customers. 

“So it is. I was hoping I wouldn’t see you this time.”

“I need my medicine.”

“Hmm.” 

Frigid hands grabbed Seungmin’s wrists and he held back a flinch. She always liked to sneak up on him. 

“You’re not doing well. This isn’t good for your system, you know. You’re going to have to face the fact that you’re an omega eventually.” 

Seungmin did flinch at that, averting his gaze from the icy-blue eyes that seemed to stare into his soul. The owner of this shop was an old omega, someone who had likely seen it all and had one of the weirdest shops Seungmin had ever seen. But the things on her shelves weren’t her main wares, she made most of her money by selling illegal drugs: heat suppressants and hospital grade scent patches. She also had some pheromone replacers, but Seungmin didn’t dare try those, posing as a beta that constantly covered his scent was good enough for him. 

“You’re not going to last more than a couple months at this rate.”

Seungmin didn’t say anything. They’d had this conversation before.

“You can’t hate your designation so much that you’d kill yourself over it.” 

“I do more good as a beta than I could ever do as an omega,” Seungmin said, staring resolutely forward. “Plus, if my job found out at this point that I was an omega, they’d throw me into a rehabilitation program and I’d end up mated to some abusive assshole.” 

“Don’t you have friends? People who can take care of you so that you can quit your job? Working isn’t very becoming of an omega, you know.” 

Seungmin didn’t point out the hypocrisy in her statement. “I have no one.” And that was the truth. Seungmin didn’t have friends, didn’t have people who cared about him. All he had was coworkers and paying customers. Both would move on quickly when Seungmin died, when he succumbed to the damage the years of suppressed heats had done to his body. 

She sighed and pressed a small brown paper bag into Seungmin’s hand. Seungmin handed her a wad of cash. “Thank you.” 

“I’ll see you in a month,” the old shopkeeper said. “If you even make it that long.” 

“See you in a month.” 

Seungmin wouldn’t say that he ran out of the shop, but it was a near thing. He would be happy to return to the safety of his home. He had a case he was helping out with tonight and those always made him feel better. 

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Seungmin stopped picking up the tupperware dinners Jeongin left for him. It wasn't fair for him to foster a relationship with someone when he was dying. Seungmin didn’t have friends, didn’t have a pack and he never would when he’d be gone in a matter of months. 

“Are you doing alright?” Taeyong asked. He was over to get a list of names and locations of omega-abusers from Seungmin. Seungmin honestly preferred to email or text people lists, but some people such as Taeyong insisted on going in person. 

“Of course I’m fine, why would you ask?” Seungmin asked smoothly. In truth, Seungmin hadn’t been able to keep anything down for the past two days. 

“Your hands are shaking.”

“Oh.” Seungmin looked down. The list was shaking in the air like a leaf in the wind. “Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to eat dinner yet.”

“It’s past midnight.” 

“So it is.” Seungmin wished that Taeyong would just take the damn list already. “I’ve been busy.” 

Taeyong finally grabbed the list from Seungmin’s hands. “You should eat something. We can’t have our best informant becoming sick.” 

“I’ll order takeout.” There was a fake smile plastered to Seungmin’s face and he wished Taeyong would just leave already so that he could take his medicine and sang a couple of hours of sleep before he had to be up in the morning. 

“Okay, bye Seungmin!” Thank god he was finally leaving. “Make sure you take care of yourself, alright?” 

“Will do, bye!” Seungmin shut the door behind Taeyong and slid to the ground, his aching head cradled in his shaking hands. Maybe Seungmin needed to shift all of his operations to online. That way people couldn’t fret over him, worry that their informant was going out of business or selling them bad information because he was in poor physical condition. 

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It had been two weeks since Seungmin had picked up his medicine and Seungmin could count the number of meals he had eaten on his hands. Seungmin just wasn’t hungry and when he tried to eat, it just resulted in Seungmin throwing the food back up. Seungmin’s cupboards were full of broth and saltine crackers, his fridge stocked with electrolyte drinks. 

A week ago, Seungmin had stopped going into work. He’d always had the option to work from home, but he rarely elected to do so, appreciating the separation of his day and night jobs that the office gave him. Now, Seungmin was too sick to go into the office. Standing up made the world spin and just walking to the bathroom made Seungmin out of breath. 

Seungmin’s body was slowly falling apart, but Seungmin still took his medicine every night even though he knew it was killing him. It was better for someone to find a dead body in his apartment than an omega. 

It didn’t matter that Seungmin’s head hurt so bad that he could barely think, it didn’t matter that his hands shook so hard that Seungmin could barely press the keys on his keyboard. It didn’t matter that Seungmin’s joints ached, that walking a couple steps across his apartment was a chore. Seungmin was going to die with his dignity intact and that was all that mattered. 

There was no one who cared about Seungmin beyond the service he provided to him. There was no one who would be willing to nurse Seungmin back to help, to care for an omega who had repressed themselves since their presentation. 

Seungmin was alone by his own doing and that’s how he was going to die. Seungmin just hoped that he was remembered by a few people, that the lists he had prepared would help someone out there. 

For now, Seungmin would just keep working, just keep doing what he could do. 

Seungmin’s skin was on fire. He felt like he was burning from the inside out, but his teeth wouldn’t stop chattering, his entire body shaking like he had sat outside during a snowstorm. Seungmin’s clock read 7 pm which meant that he had slept through his entire work day, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Seungmin had an online meeting with Jeongin and his pack at 9 pm, but Seungmin wasn’t sure if he was going to make it that long. Jeongin’s pack had wanted to meet in person, were almost insistent on it, but Seungmin had denied that request, and they had compromised on an online meeting. Seungmin wasn’t sure that was going to be happening anymore. He would have to find his laptop first. 

Seungmin’s hands were shaking. Instead of grabbing the cup of water on his nightstand, Seungmin knocked it over, contents of his nightstand falling to the ground. Water spread out from the now empty cup, creating a wet patch on the carpet of Seungmin’s bedroom floor. That was fine. There was more water in the bathroom. Seungmin’s throat was unbearably dry, drier than the desert. It hurt, but now that Seungmin was thinking about it, everything hurt, his joints ached and he was hot. So incredibly hot. 

Seungmin needed water. He had spilled his glass. 

Seungmin stood up on shaky legs and took a step. He crashed to the ground, muscles unable to support his weight. There was a cool spot of wetness pressing against Seungmin’s cheek, cutting through the fire that was his body. His carpet was wet and Seungmin couldn’t remember why. Seungmin was thirsty. He needed water, but his cup was lying empty on the floor. 

Maybe if Seungmin just closed his eyes for a second he would feel better. If Seungmin just went to sleep then he would feel better. If Seungmin was asleep, he wouldn’t be so hot, his joints would stop aching, and his head would stop hurting. That sounded good. Seungmin just needed to sleep a little bit longer. 

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Jeongin was worried. He could accept that Seungmin didn’t want to be a part of their pack or even that Seungmin didn’t want to be his friend, but there seemed to be more going on than just that. 

Seungmin had seemed exhausted that one night he had helped Stray Kids. His apartment had been a mess and Jeongin was willing to bet that Seungmin hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in days. So Jeongin had taken it upon himself to start feeding Seungmin. It honestly hadn’t been that hard to convince Chan and Minho to make an extra portion to all of their meals for Jeongin to drop off at Seungmin’s door and seeing the tupperware containers returned empty had made Jeongin’s chest fill with pride. 

But then Jeongin had called Seungmin and Seungmin had made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with Stray Kids or Jeongin. Then a couple weeks later, Seungmin stopped accepting Jeongin’s food at all. 

Jeongin would have accepted all of that at face value if it wasn’t for the reports that Seungmin had stopped hosting in person meetings. According to Taeyong, Seungmin had looked awful during their last one, his eyes marred with purple-like bruises under his eyes and his hands shaking. 

The report had worried everyone. Sure, Seungmin was just an informant, not part of any group, but the vigilante world was small and they all looked out for each other. Seungmin had saved everyone’s asses at least once and even though he kept to himself, people still cared about him. 

“Seungmin said he can’t do this meeting in person.”

Jeongin frowned at Chan’s words. 

“But we always meet in person,” Jisung said, leaning over so that he could see the screen of Chan’s laptop. He was sitting in Hyunjin’s lap—a disgusting display of affection that Jeongin was unfortunately used to by now. 

“We were told that Seungmin moved all of his meetings online,” Minho pointed out. “We’re clearly no exception.”

Jeongin had hoped that they would be. That night with Seungmin had been fun in hindsight when Jeongin was no longer fearing for his or his hyungs’ lives. Seungmin might have put up a tough front, but underneath it all, he clearly cared. 

“I’m worried about him,” Felix said. “Taeyong said that he didn’t seem well when they last met and he stopped accepting your dinners, right Jeongin?” 

“Yeah,” Jeongin confirmed. 

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, alright? Let’s just see how Seungmin looks during this meeting. It’s still going to be a video call.”

Jeongin hoped that the video would show Seungmin’s apartment in the background. He needed to see if takeout bags had taken over again, if Seungmin was maybe not doing as well as he claimed. 

At 9 o'clock Stray Kids all gathered around Chan’s laptop. Usually only 2-3 of them went to meetings with Seungmin, but Jeongin figured that Seungmin was going to have to suffer the consequences of having an online meeting. It’s what he deserved for stressing out everyone in the industry.  

The minutes ticked by and Seungmin didn’t join the call. Jeongin shifted in his seat. Seungmin was always punctual—almost to a fault. 

At 9:10, Jeongin stood up, unable to wait any longer. “Something is wrong.” 

“I can call him on his cell phone,” Changbin offered, holding up the phone that was already on Seungmin’s contact. 

“Maybe he’s just running late,” Chan said. “Things happen sometimes.”

“Seungmin is never late, though, that’s like his thing. I think Jeongin is right, something is wrong.” Jeongin was grateful for Hyunjin backing him up. 

“We should just run over there,” Jeongin proposed. “We live like 5 minutes away, we can just check on things, see if Seungmin is alright. It’s unlike him to be late.” 

“Okay,” Chan said. “But Changbin is going to call him, so keep your eyes on your phones in case he answers.”

“I’ll go with you,” Felix volunteered. “I like Seungmin, he’s funny.” 

“I’ll go too.” Jisung hopped off of Hyunjin’s lap. “There’s nothing more unthreatening than an omega.” 

That wasn’t true, Jisung was one of the best fighters in their team and Seungmin knew it. Jeongin, however, wasn’t about to say anything. Jisung was unstoppable once he set his mind to something and maybe having a fighter with them wasn’t the worst idea. 

“Be safe,” Minho called after the three of them as they headed to the door. “Call us if anything goes wrong.” He paused. “Actually, probably just call us either way.” 

“They grow up so fast.” Hyunjin wiped a fake tear from his cheek and waved dramatically. “Come home safe my beau.”

“Don’t worry, I will, baby.” Jisung blew Hyunjin a kiss. 

Jeongin met Felix’s gaze and rolled his eyes. Jisung and Hyunjin were always so dramatic. 

The hallway outside Seungmin’s apartment was silent. Jeongin almost felt bad for knocking as loud as he did, but then again, he had banged on Seungmin’s door harder than this past midnight before, he was sure that Seungmin’s neighbors were used to it by now. 

“Changbin said that all of his calls rang out and went to voicemail,” Felix said. 

“Should we break the door down?” Jisung asked. “I feel like we should break the door down. My omega senses are telling me that something is wrong.” 

Jeongin’s normal senses were telling him the same thing. 

“Maybe we should knock a little longer before we resort to property damage.”

Jeongin landed a solid kick on the door just below the handle.

“Or not,” Felix muttered. “Just break the door down, it’s fine.” 

Jeongin kicked the door again and it popped open. Seungmin was nowhere to be seen. There were no takeout bags lining every available surface of the apartment, but there was also no sign of food in the kitchen. 

Jeongin headed towards Seungmin’s room. It wasn’t a place he had ever been in before, the door was always closed during meetings, but it was open now and as Jeongin headed inside, his heart sank. Seungmin was in his room, lying on his floor, eyes closed, what looked like the entire contents of his nightstand on the floor around him. 

“Felix! Jisung!” Jeongin shouted, kneeling by Seungmin’s side, trying to find a pulse. “Help!” 

Chapter Text

The first thing Seungmin realized when he woke up was that he wasn’t in his room anymore. He was lying on his back on a bed that was way too hard to be his own, the walls painted a cheery yellow instead of the off-white that adorned Seungmin’s apartment. 

“Hey Seungmin, how are you feeling?”

Seungmin turned to see Yeosang standing beside him, dressed in his white doctor’s coat, clipboard in his hands. Seungmin closed his eyes. He didn’t understand why he was at Yeosang’s clinic, why he wasn’t dying on the floor of his room anymore. Maybe Seungmin was hallucinating things at the end of his life, his brain pretending that there was hope when there clearly wasn’t. 

“Jeongin, Jisung, and Felix brought you here, they said they found you unconscious on the floor of your room. They also found these on the floor next to you.” 

Seungmin opened his eyes to see Yeosang holding a bottle of pills. Seungmin’s heat suppressants. So his secret was out. Seungmin should be panicking, but he just felt empty, apathetic. Yeosang probably had him hopped up on so many drugs right now that it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that after so many years of keeping his secret, Seungmin didn’t even care when it was revealed. 

“I have you stabilized now, but you can’t take these ever again, okay? It’ll kill you.”

“I’ll lose my job if they realize I’m an omega.” 

Yeosang sighed. “Jisung’s an omega and no one cares, he’s one of the best fighters in Stray Kids. Hongjoong is an omega and he still leads our pack. I think less people will care than you think.” 

No, not that job. Seungmin’s day job at the precinct, but Yeosang didn’t seem to know that Seungmin helped the cops solve crimes by day and the vigilantes by night. Seungmin turned his head away from Yeosang, not wanting to talk anymore. 

“Is it okay if a couple of members of Stray Kids come in? Not all of them—that would probably be too much, but they seem really worried about you.” 

“Do they know?” 

Yeosang sighed. “I haven’t told them, but it’s going to be pretty obvious when they come in here, I think maybe Jisung has figured it out already.” 

“Whatever.” Seungmin didn’t care. He didn’t want to be an omega, but that apparently wasn’t an option anymore, so Seungmin didn’t know what to do now. His income from the vigilante side of things wasn’t enough to pay his bills and he obviously wasn’t going to be able to to work his normal job smelling like this. 

Jisung came in first. Seungmin was surprised, he thought that it would be Jeongin and a couple others, not just Jisung by himself. 

“Hey Seungmin.” Jisung crossed the room slowly to sit at the chair by Seungmin’s bed. “How are you feeling?” 

Seungmin didn’t reply. He didn’t know Jisung well. The only people in the pack that Seungmin had really interacted with a lot were Jeongin and Chan. Sure, Jisung had been around and Seungmin had seen him in action plenty of times, but they had never really had a conversation before. Jisung was usually glued to Hyunjin’s side and the absence of the beta seemed weird to Seungmin. As far as he understood, Jisung and Hyunjin were true mates and were almost never seen apart. 

“Oh, here, this will probably help.” Jisung reached up to take the scent patches off of his neck, a sweet chocolatey scent filling the room. Seungmin couldn’t help but inhale deeply, Jisung’s scent working to calm his racing mind. Seungmin couldn’t remember the last time he had smelled the scent of another omega. It was frowned upon for omegas to go outside without scent blockers on as just their scent could be enough to send alphas into a frenzy and in the vigilante world, everyone wore scent blockers to help with anonymity. 

“Your scent suits you, you know. Like oranges and honey, I like it.” 

Seungmin frowned. “You’re not supposed to know that.” 

“The others don’t know yet. I recognized the name on the bottle of pills, but Jeongin and Felix didn’t, and Yeosang hasn’t told us anything. Being an omega is hard in this world, I would know, but Seungmin, you have people who care about you, poisoning yourself with heat suppressants and constantly covering your scent isn’t a way to live.” 

“It was the only way,” Seungmin whispered. He was suddenly sad, tears burning at the corners of his eyes and he didn’t understand why. Seungmin had lived alone for years, why was he getting upset now? “When I presented, my parents told me I had two options: taking the pills or getting married off to the highest bidder. I wanted to go to college, so I chose the former.” 

“You’ve been on heat suppressants for that long? How are you still alive?” 

Seungmin shrugged. “I mean it did catch up to me eventually.” 

“Why didn’t you stop? After you graduated college? You know that no one would have cared that you’re an omega.” 

“Jisung, I work at the police department. That’s my day job. How else do you think I have access to all of the cameras and their records? Plus, omegas can’t be packless, everyone knows that. Alphas can’t either, that’s why I pretended to be a beta. Betas don’t need anyone.” 

“Seungmin,” Jisung looked pained and Seungmin couldn’t understand why. Was it really on his behalf? “Everyone needs someone. Even betas need friends. Did you think that you could just die and no one would care?” 

“Yes,” Seungmin answered truthfully, fighting to keep tears from spilling down his cheeks. It maybe would have been better if Seungmin had just died because now he had to figure out how to deal with people knowing his secret, knowing that he had lied to them all for years. 

“We would have cared, Seungmin.” Jisung took a deep breath, but didn’t quite manage to keep his tears from falling. “You saved our pack when no one else was able to help. Jeongin considers you his friend, did you know that? Did you think that we just feed any stray that we find on the street?” Jisung paused. “Okay maybe that was a bad analogy.”

Considering they called themselves ‘Stray Kids’ and Seungmin was almost certain that at least three of their members had been found that way, Seungmin was keen to agree. “I pushed Jeongin away though, he was supposed to be hurt.” 

Jisung smiled through the tears that were still falling. “Can I tell you a secret? I don’t think Jeongin was ever going to give up on you Seungmin. Even when you had given up on yourself. He’s like that with the people he cares about.” 

That broke the dam. The tears Seungmin had been holding back started to cascade down his cheeks. Jeongin wasn’t supposed to care about Seungmin, no one was. Seungmin was alone, he always had been. That was why it was okay for him to take those pills everyday. That’s why it was okay that Seungmin overworked himself, never slept, barely ate. It was okay because there was no one that cared about Seungmin so therefore there was no one Seungmin was hurting but himself. 

Jisung reached out his hand and Seungmin clung to it, pulling him closer until they were hugging, until Jisung’s scent was surrounding Seungmin, telling his inner omega that he was cared for, that everything was going to be okay. 

“Taeyong was worried about you too, he told us about the meeting when you were shaking and seemed unwell. Everyone was worried, not because you provide a service to them, but because they care about you. You’re part of a community, Seungmin, you never have to suffer alone again.” 

Seungmin hiccuped into Jisung’s shoulder. He didn’t know that people cared about him, that there were people he could rely on. Seungmin had thought he was alone, would always be alone. 

Jisung rubbed Seungmin’s back as he cried, held Seungmin close even as he got snot and tears all over Jisung’s clothes. Seungmin had never had a full conversation with Jisung before today and here he was, crying his heart out into Jisung’s shoulder. 

After several long minutes, Seungmin’s tears started to dry up and he pulled away, wiping at his face. “Thank you.” 

“Of course,” Jisung answered. “Us omegas have to stick together.” 

Seungmin faltered at that. He had never really been an omega before, didn’t know how to act, didn’t know what would now be expected of him. Where would Seungmin even go now? He couldn’t stay in Yeosang’s office forever and Seungmin wouldn’t be able to afford rent on his apartment anymore. 

“Hey, it’s okay.” Jisung rubbed Seungmin’s shoulder and Seungmin found himself leaning into the touch. That was weird, Seungmin usually hated it when people touched him. Just another thing that was changing. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you freak out.” 

It took Seungmin a moment to realize how Jisung knew he was panicking. Seungmin had long ago perfected the art of concealing his emotions, he could have a breakdown but still sit still, an apathetic look on his face. But now, Seungmin didn’t have on the scent blockers he had worn around everyone for years which meant that Jisung could smell Seungmin’s every emotion. 

“Sorry, it’s just a lot.”

“I know,” Jisung said. “It’s going to be hard, but I think it’ll be worth it.”

Seungmin nodded.

“Do you think you would be okay if the others came in now? Maybe just like Jeongin and Felix, possibly Chan.” 

Seungmin paused. He didn’t know. It was okay because Jisung was an omega, wouldn’t judge Seungmin for what he had done, the lies he had told, but the others wouldn’t understand the way that Jisung did. They wouldn’t understand how hard it was to exist as an omega, that Seungmin was forced to make the choices that he had for fear of having all of his choices taken away from him. 

“Hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to say yes,” Jisung soothed. 

“I mean they’re going to find out eventually.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t have to be right now if you don’t want it to be.” 

That was true, but then, Seungmin would just worry about seeing them again, how they would react when they found out that Seungmin wasn’t a beta like they had thought. “It’s okay, they can come in.”

“Okay.” Jisung slipped his hand into Seungmin’s. “Would you prefer it if I stayed too?” 

Seungmin nodded. 

Then, Jeongin, Felix, and Chan were entering the room. Seungin could see the exact moment when they smelled his scent, realized what Seungmin really was, what he had hidden from them. Chan’s brow furrowed slightly, Jeongin cocked his head to the side as if there was something puzzling he was trying to figure out, Felix’s hands flew to his mouth as he gasped. “Seungmin, you’re an omega?” 

There it was, spoken to the whole world. “Yeah.” 

“Oh.” Felix paused. “I think there’s a groupchat you can be a part of now, right Jisung? Have you added him to it?” 

Jisung looked like he was on the verge of laughter. “Yes, there is one, but I haven’t added Seungmin yet, it didn’t come up in our conversation.” 

“Hmm, well I’m glad you’re alive Seungmin, that was really scary. Can I give you a hug?” 

Inexplicably, Seungmin felt himself opening up his arms. Felix’s hug was warm and made Seungmin feel safe. He had expected the reaction to Seungmin’s secret to be anger, not…this. 

After the hug with Felix, Seungmin found himself looking at Jeongin who was staring at Seungmin as if he had seen a ghost. Seungmin decided that maybe this time he should be the one to speak first. “I’m sorry I stopped accepting your food and said I didn’t want to be your friend. It was a lie, I was really scared and I know that isn’t a good excuse, but you liked a version of me that was a lie because I’m not actually a beta and I know that me being an omega is a lot and—” 

“Seungmin.” Jeongin took a step forward and then seemed to think better of it. “I don’t care that you’re an omega. I’m just happy that you’re okay.” 

“Oh.” Seungmin blinked in surprise. He turned to look at Jisung for guidance, but Jisung’s face was stunningly blank. 

“Wow!” Felix clapped his hands. “That was great and you two can unpack that later when Seungmin isn’t recovering on his hospital bed.” Felix then grabbed Jeongin’s hand. “C’mon, I think I heard Changbin shout, we should make sure he didn’t get his hand stuck in the vending machine again.” 

Seungmin recognized what Felix was trying to do for him, but he couldn't help but ask “Again?”

Jisung shook his head. “It’s really best that you don’t ask.” 

Seungmin decided that he didn’t want to know. 

“So,” Chan said once the door had closed behind Felix and Jeongin. “You work for the police department, right?” 

Jisung looked up in surprise, but Seungmin just nodded. He had never tried to hide his job with the police and he knew that several people were aware of the details of his day job. 

“And I presume that you’re not going to be able to take heat suppressants or wear those scent blockers anymore?” 

“Not if I want to live.” Jisung flinched, but Chan seemed unaffected. 

“So you’re not going to be able to work at the police department anymore?” 

Seungmin shook his head. It was the thing he was most nervous about right now. 

“You can move in with us if you want. Just until you get back on your feet or maybe even longer. There’s a couple of people in my pack that seem attached to you and I don’t think the others would mind.”

“They better not,” Jisung growled.

Chan pressed a finger to his lips and Jisung fell silent. Chan’s pack always had a lot of energy, but Chan still managed them well. It was clear all of the members of his pack trusted him. 

“What’s the catch?” Seungmin asked.

Chan shook his head. “There isn’t one. We’re just helping out a member of our community who has fallen on tough times, no expectations, no strings attached.” 

“Okay,” Seungmin agreed, only because he didn’t have any other options. His savings could last him 6 months, but after that, Seungmin was screwed. He was more likely to end up in the government’s custody than he was to successfully figure things out by himself. 

Chan smiled. “Great, I’ll tell the others. Unless you don’t want me to?”

“It’s fine, they’re going to find out eventually.” Eventually everyone was going to know. Seungmin wasn’t sure if he was ready for that, but then again, he supposed he didn’t have a choice. It would be easier with Stray Kids by his side, though. Of that, Seungmin was certain. 

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Seungmin stayed in Yeosang’s office for two more days for monitoring until he was finally sent home with Chan and his pack under strict orders to never touch heat suppressant again and only think about low-grade scent blockers after two months had passed. Yeosang had also prescribed lots of physical touch, nesting, and encouraged Seungmin to lean into his omega instincts as much as possible. Seungmin was going to be weaker and more tired than usual, so Yeosang didn’t seem to think it would be very hard. 

Yeosang had also warned Seungmin that he was going to get heats again. He didn’t think they were going to start until Seungmin’s inner omega felt safe and his body had recovered, but according to Yeosang, the first heat was going to be a doozy and Seungmin was going to need an alpha to help him through it. Seungmin tried not to think about that too hard. His heat wasn’t going to happen for several months by Yeosang’s prediction and hopefully by then Seungmin would have his life a little bit more together. 

Only Chan and Jisung came to drive Seungmin to the pack house, they didn’t want to overwhelm Seungmin with everyone at once, which was probably smart because these days Seungmin felt as if he was held together with duct tape. 

“You’re going to have your own room!” Jisung explained excitedly from the front seat. Seungmin was sitting in the back trying not to vibrate out of his seat from the nervousness. “I decided it was finally time to just move all of my stuff into Hyunjin’s room because his is the biggest and I literally slept there every night anyway. My old room is really nice though, so don’t worry and we made sure to descent the whole thing so that it really is yours.” 

Seungmin nodded like he cared. He’d sleep under the stairs if that was all they were willing to provide. Seungmin just wanted a place to lay his head at night where he wouldn’t have to be afraid of anyone hurting him in the middle of the night because of his omega status. And Seungmin did trust all of Chan’s pack, they had quite the reputation for being courteous. 

“Don’t be nervous, everyone is under strict orders to stay in their rooms until you’re settled in and you’re welcome to eat dinner in your room if you want. We don’t wear scent blockers around the house, so it might be overwhelming at first.” 

All of the Stray Kids members had already taken off their scent patches in front of Seungmin one-by-one so that he could get familiar with their scents before they moved in together, but Seungmin imagined that being in their house was going to be quite different.

Seungmin’s house had never really smelled like him. He had conducted business in it, so it needed to smell neutral at all times, not like an omega, so he had worn his scent blockers 24/7. 

“We’re here!” 

Jisung gave Seungmin the tour, Chan disappearing almost the moment that they had entered. The pack house was nice, spacious and well decorated which Jisung informed Seungmin was all from Hyunjin’s influence. The kitchen was large and there were four full bathrooms for everyone to share. Somehow they had arranged it so that Seungmin had a bathroom all to himself. 

It was all very great, but also very overwhelming, so Seungmin couldn’t help but breathe out a sigh of relief when Jisung finally left him in the room that Seungmin was to call his own. It was nice if not a little bland compared to the rest of the house. 

The bed was huge though, so much bigger than Seungmin was used to and there were piles of blankets and pillows in the closet, clearly meant for Seungmin to nest with. The only thing was, Seungmin had never nested before. The heat suppressants Seungmin had been taking since his presentation completely eradicated the desire for it and Seungmin had been afraid to try anything characteristically omega. 

This all meant that Seungmin was stuck staring at the mountain of supplies knowing that nesting was doctor-prescribed, but having no idea where to even start. Seungmin was half-tempted to text Jisung for help, but Jisung had already helped Seungmin so much over the past couple of days and Seungmin knew that the other omega was likely to be enjoying time with his mate right now. 

Oh well. Seungmin would just have to figure out the whole nesting thing later. For now, his priority was taking a much needed nap. 

It seemed like all Seungmin did recently was sleep, but Yeosang had told him that was normal and it was important for Seungmin to get his rest. So Seungmin curled up on the floor with a blanket, too scared to touch the bed because in his mind a bed that large required a nest and Seungmin wasn’t ready for that yet. 

In a matter of minutes, Seungmin was fast asleep. 

“You know that you’re supposed to sleep on the bed, right?” 

Seungmin blinked up at Jisung, eyes still crusted over with sleep. 

“Sorry to wake you, but Yeosang says you can’t skip meals, so I brought you dinner.” Jisung held up two bowls. “Minho made one and he’s a great cook, so it’ll be super good and Jeongin made the other one. Jeongin’s dinner…” Jisung trailed off. “Um well, let’s just say that he tried.” 

“Is it a courting gift?” Seungmin couldn’t help but ask. 

“I sure hope not. I think he was just trying to do something nice for you. If Jeongin decides to start courting you, his gifts should be better than whatever this is. Minho told him to just make ramen, but he clearly decided to branch out for whatever reason.” 

Jisung handed over the two bowls and Seungmin could quickly see what Jisung was talking about. Minho had made a soup that looked delicious while the meal from Jeongin looked like some type of meat and rice, but the meat was charred and the rice was a watery lump. Seungmin took a tentative bite, not wanting to be rude and almost spit it out. The rice was wet but also somehow undercooked and the meat was so tough that Seungmin thought his jaw was going to break from all the chewing. 

“Tell Jeongin I said thank you for the meal.” 

“Of course,” Jisung replied with a smile. “You’re braver than me for taking a bite. I won’t judge if when I come back, that bowl is still full. And don’t worry—I won’t tell Jeongin anything other than conveying your thanks.”

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

Seungmin finished the bowl of soup that Minho made and didn’t take another bite of whatever it was that Jeongin had made. It was really cute that Jeongin had tried though. 

Seungmin put the bowls by the door for Jisung to pick up later and laid back down on the floor with his blanket, still not ready to try building a nest on the bed. Maybe tomorrow. 

Seungmin slept in which meant that he woke up at 8 am. From what Seungmin had learned about Stray Kids, they tended to sleep in, but Seungmin was tired of staying in his room, staring at the nesting supplies he was supposed to use and decided to explore a bit. 

Seungmin ended up in the kitchen where Minho was cooking breakfast. “Good morning,” Minho said cheerfully. “You’re up a lot earlier than everyone else.”

“Yeah,” Seungmin responded. “I’m used to getting up early for work. Do you need any help with anything?” 

“Do you know how to cook?”

“No.”

Minho shook his head. “You can just sit down then. Most people in this pack don’t know how to cook either and I’m honestly scared to let them try.” 

“Jeongin cooked dinner for me yesterday.”

“Did you eat it?”

Seungmin didn’t respond, suddenly finding the countertop fascinating. 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have either, he did it while I was eating dinner, I didn’t even realize he was in the kitchen until I smelled something burning. He had Felix in the kitchen with him and I don’t know if Felix was helpful or a detriment to his cooking.”

“Did you cook the meals Jeongin was leaving for me?” Seungmin asked. 

“Yeah, me and Chan would.”

“Thank you, I really enjoyed them.”

Minho waved his hand. “Of course, when you’re cooking for seven it’s really not that hard to cook for eight. It was Jeongin who did all the hard work of delivering the food.”

Seungmin wanted to ask Minho why he would cook for someone he didn’t even really know, someone who wasn’t even grateful for the food, but he was too scared. Instead, Seungmin just went back to mindlessly tracing patterns on the countertop. 

“I know that all of this must be hard for you.” Seungmin looked up to see that Minho had stopped whatever he was doing in the kitchen and now had his full attention on Seungmin. “Your whole life was turned upside down and now you’re forced to live as something you’ve never allowed yourself to be before and you have to live with seven loud people when you’re used to living alone.” 

Well when Minho put it like that…

“If you ever need a break or something, just let me know. I can cover for you. I love these guys, but they can be loud and overwhelming and they’re not really the best at boundaries, so just let me know and I’ll tell them off for you.” 

“Thank you.” Seungmin was yet again surprised by the kindness he was being shown. It made him feel a bit awkward. Luckily, their conversation was saved from awkward silence by Changbin entering the room. 

“Good morning! Oh, Seungmin, you’re awake. How did you sleep?” 

“Good, thank you.”

“Great!” Changbin patted Seungmin on the shoulder and then pulled out a stool to sit at the kitchen counter. “What’cha making, Minho?” 

After breakfast, Seungmin retreated to his room, slightly regretting ever leaving it. Minho and Changbin were great, but breakfast was awkward. The two of them clearly had a routine as the earliest wakers of the pack and Seungmin’s presence threw them off. None of them really knew what to say to each other. All Seungmin ever talked to people about was work, the only things he ever did were work related. Seungmin didn’t have time for anything else. 

Changbin had asked Seungmin what he liked to do in his free time and apparently work wasn’t an appropriate answer. Seungmin hadn’t had anything to say after that, he didn’t go out with people, he didn’t watch any shows, didn’t have any hobbies. He came home from his day job and ate dinner, maybe showered, and then he hopped on his computer to start work for his night job. 

“Seungmin!” 

Seungmin looked up to see Jeongin walking down the hallway, clearly having just woken up. His hair was sticking up in all directions and he was wearing a large t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants. Seungmin couldn’t help but think that he looked cute like this, hair tousled and face puffy from sleep. Jeongin’s scent was warm and welcoming and Seungmin couldn’t help but relax slightly when he smelled it. 

“Did you already eat breakfast?”

“Yeah,” Seungmin answered. “Minho is a great cook.”

Jeongin smiled. “He is! How are you feeling? I was thinking that we could head to your place today to grab more of your stuff, then I could help you set up your room if you wanted. I thought it would help you feel more at home.” 

Seungmin was tired and his head hurt and his muscles ached, but he wanted his stuff, so he nodded and smiled. “That sounds great, thanks Jeongin.”

Jeongin beamed, dimples poking into his cheeks. “I’ll see you after breakfast then!” 

Two hours later, Seungmin was back in his apartment, deciding what he wanted to keep and what they should get rid of. After being in the pack house that Hyunjin had so meticulously decorated and was full of the scents of the habitants, Seungmin’s apartment felt flat. The walls were blank, Seungmin had never taken the initiative to hang anything up, and the whole apartment was practically scentless. There was a hint of honey and oranges in the bathroom where Seungmin would shower and change his scent patches, but other than that, there was nothing. 

“I’m sorry it’s such a mess,” Seungmin apologized, looking at his overflowing trash can and papers that were scattered on the table. 

“It looks way better than my room,” Changbin assured Seungmin. “It’s so impressive that you were living and working and doing everything all by yourself. I can’t function without the pack, the other day I made a doctor’s appointment by myself for the first time.” 

“And I still have to drive him to it.” Minho rolled his eyes. 

“Didn't you get lonely without a pack?” 

Seungmin shrugged. “I guess so.” Packs had always been the last thing on Seungmin’s mind, he had always been so focused on surviving, on assuring that no one ever figured out his secret, that he had never really paused to evaluate how he had felt. 

“Well you have us now,” Changbin said as if that solved everything, as if Seungmin wasn’t just staying with their pack temporarily until he was back on his feet. 

“What did you eat?” Minho asked, in the process of going through Seungmin’s cabinets and fridge. “Actually, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know. It really was a good thing that Jeongin was bringing you food. If you thought that a couple of crackers was enough to survive on.” 

Seungmin rolled his eyes. “You can get out of the kitchen. Minho, there’s nothing in there that I wanted to keep and I don’t know if you remember or not, but the whole point of this is to bring the stuff that I want back to your pack’s house.” 

“I remember,” Minho replied, stepping out of the kitchen. “It’s just that most people have things that they want to keep in their kitchen. Like plates, silverware, pots and pans.”

Seungmin had one plate, one bowl, one pot, a spoon, and a pair of chopsticks. It wasn’t like he had ever needed more than that. “Anyway,” Seungmin said. “I want to pack up my computer and laptop, my toiletries, and my clothes.” 

“Is the furniture yours?” Jeongin asked. 

Seungmin shook his head. “It came fully furnished.”

“Well that makes things easy.” Changbin flexed his arms. “I won’t even have to put these bad boys to much use.” 

Minho slapped Changbin on the ass. “Come on Mr. Strong Man, let’s get Seungmin’s computer and monitor packed up.”

“Do you want to start in your room?” Jeongin asked.

“Um.” Seungmin looked after Minho and Changbin worriedly. 

“They’ll be careful,” Jeongin promised. “I know they look like bubbling idiots, but they know enough about computers to not damage your stuff.”

“Okay,” Seungmin acquiesced. “You can’t judge me for anything in my room though.”

Jeongin held up his hands. “I promise I won’t. I live with 6 guys, there’s nothing in your room that I haven’t seen before.”   

Seungmin was less worried about Jeongin judging what he had, but rather what he didn’t. But then again, Jeongin had already been in Seungmin’s room, had already seen Seungmin at his worst. “Okay,” Seungmin agreed. “I don’t think there’s too much to pack up in there, though.”

Seungmin had been wrong. Apparently packing up his room wasn’t just as simple as throwing everything into boxes, Jeongin felt the need to evaluate what was superfluous and what things Seungmin needed but was missing. 

“Why on earth do you still have these?” Jeongin held up a pair of pants that Seungmin had owned since high school. They had seen better days, the seams ripped and fraying, holes ripped through the knees. 

“Just put them in the throw away pile.” Seungmin rubbed at his head, a headache starting to form behind his forehead. 

“You seem to only have work clothes and lounge clothes,” Jeongin said. “But all of the lounge clothes are basically scraps of cloth that are far past their prime.”

Seungmin wasn’t sure what other clothes he could possibly need.

“It’s okay though because I’ve already texted Hyunjin so he’ll either go shopping with you or just order you some stuff.” 

“Okay, are we finally done with my closet?”

“Yeah,” Jeongin responded. “Are you ready to move on to the bathroom?”

“Sure.” Seungmin hoped the bathroom would go quicker than his closet had. He stood up from the bed, ready to head into the bathroom, but the moment Seungmin got to his feet, the world started to tip on its axis. There was a loud buzzing in Seungmin’s ears as his vision started to go dark at the edges, Seungmin feeling dizzy and off-kilter. 

“Whoa.” Jeongin grabbed Seungmin’s arms and helped him to sit back down on the bed. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Uh.” Seungmin laid down on his bed, hand pressed to his forehead as he willed the dizziness to go away. 

“I think we’re done for today,” Jeongin said. Seungmin felt the bed dip where Jeongin sat down next to him. “Yeosang did say that you would feel weaker than usual and be prone to dizzy spells.” 

He did say that, but Seungmin hadn’t realized how truly awful he would feel. His limbs felt like they had lost all of their strength, were made of jello instead of muscle and bone. Seungmin wanted nothing more than to return to the pack house to lay down in his room there, maybe watch a movie on his laptop until this feeling went away. “Can we go back?”

“Yeah of course,” Jeongin answered, his voice soft. “Let me go tell Changbin and Minho and then I can help you to the car, okay?” 

Seungmin nodded and threw his arm over his face, hoping that he would miraculously feel better by the time Jeongin returned. 

Unfortunately, Seungmin could never be that lucky and Jeongin had to practically carry him to the car, Seungmin’s legs refusing to work. Once they got back to the pack house, Seungmin slung his arm over Jeongin’s shoulder and they started the slow procession to Seungmin’s room. Once Jeongin got there, he paused.

“Your bed isn’t made.”

Seungmin flinched. “No, it’s just that I knew I was supposed to make a nest on the bed, but I’ve never made a nest before and it seemed like a lot of work and I didn’t know how to do it, so I’ve just been sleeping on the floor. The carpet is really comfortable actually.” 

“Well you’re not going to be sleeping on the floor tonight.” Jeongin helped Seungmin to sit down on the corner of his bed. “How about I make your bed for you? I’m not going to let you sleep on the floor for another night. Then I can hand you blankets and pillows and stuff from this closet and you can decide what you like. You said that you’re not tired right?” 

Seungmin was tired, but there was no way that he could sleep, feeling too wired from going through the contents of his apartment earlier. “There’s no way I could sleep right now.”

“So do you want to do this?” Jeongin smiled at Seungmin, all cute dimples and there was no way that Seungmin could say no. 

“Okay, but no promises I’ll make a nest.” 

“You don’t have to make a nest,” Jeongin replied. “I don’t care about that. I just want you to sleep in an actual bed tonight.” 

“I’m an omega though, omegas are supposed to have nests.”

Jeongin shrugged, already starting to rifle through the closet. “I don't really care what you’re supposed to do. Alphas aren’t supposed to do housework, yet Minho and Chan do all the cooking. Omegas are supposed to be weak and not fight, but Jisung is one of our best. Betas are supposed to be calm and collected, but Hyunjin and Felix are the most dramatic people I know. You’re not defined by your subgender, Seungmin, no one is. However.” Jeongin turned to look at Seungmin. “You’re going to sleep in a bed tonight. I do care about that.” 

“Okay.” Seungmin held up his hands in surrender. “I’ll sleep on the bed. But, you have to make it first.” 

Jeongin smiled. “Deal.” 

The sheets Jeongin put on the bed were soft, way softer than the cheap sheets Seungmin had on his bed in his apartment. Seungmin couldn’t stop running his hands over the fabric, marvelling at how smoothly his hand glided over them. 

“You still down for going through the blankets and stuff in the closet?”

“Yeah,” Seungmin answered. He knew that if he didn’t do it now, it was never going to get done and nesting was doctor-prescribed although Seungmin didn’t really know why, he still didn’t feel the instinctual call to the blankets and pillows that he was apparently supposed to have. 

“Okay, first one.” Jeongin tossed a chunky knit blanket to Seungmin. It was soft, but Seungmin didn’t like how there were gaps between the yarn in the blanket. He put it to the side. 

The next blanket that Jeongin tossed Seungmin was light blue and big, big enough to cover the entire bed if Seungmin wanted. Seungmin put that one on his bed to organize later. It would be cozy to sleep under it. 

Jeongin passed Seungmin a pillow next. It was lumpy so it went on the floor. Seungmin liked the pillow after that, so he put it on the bed near his head. 

So it continued, Jeongin handed Seungmin things from the closet and Seungmin either discarded them or put them on the bed. After a while, Seungmin reached out to Jeongin for the next item, only to realize the closet was empty. 

“I’m done already?” Seungmin looked around and realized that there was a small mountain of items that he had discarded on the floor, and when he looked at the bed, there was a certain…arrangement to the items he had decided to keep. The pillows lined the side of the bed with blankets twisting them together, the light blue blanket thrown over the whole thing for Seungmin to sleep under at night. If Seungmin didn’t know any better, he’d say it almost looked like a nest. 

“Does it feel better to know that you’re going to be sleeping on a real bed tonight?” Jeongin asked.

“Yeah,” Seungmin admitted, suddenly feeling sleepy. He wanted to curl up under the covers in the center of his bed and never emerge. 

Jeongin seemed to notice the sudden change in Seungmin’s demeanor. “I’m going to help Chan with some stuff, but I hope you enjoy your bed.” Jeongin stepped towards Seungmin and reached out his hand as if he was going to ruffle Seungmin’s hair, a motion that Seungmin had seen Jeongin do lots of times with the members of his pack, but then Jeongin seemed to realize who he was reaching towards and pulled back. 

Seungmin grabbed Jeongin’s hand before he could leave. “Thank you for helping me. I don't think I would have ever done this without you.” Seungmin avoided using the word “nest”, he wasn’t ready to acknowledge that he had made one yet, but Jeongin knew what he was talking about all the same. 

“I’m glad I could help. I just wanted to make you feel a bit more at home.” Jeongin turned towards the door. “I hope you enjoy sleeping in a real bed.” 

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Seungmin’s nest was great, but there was something off. Something missing. Seungmin knew he could ask Jisung for help, but several days had passed since Seungmin had made the nest and he still had yet to tell anyone of its existence. So Seungmin was forced to wander around the house until he found the missing piece.

First Seungmin ventured into the kitchen, but he quickly realized that it wasn’t snacks or drinks that were missing. Seungmin had heard that some omegas liked having a stash in their nest, but maybe that was more of a heat thing? Because when Seungmin opened the cabinet, he could only think about how messy his nest would become if he ate in it. 

Seungmin then decided to head to the living room where all of them had watched a movie together the night prior. It had been loud and chaotic and very little watching of the actual movie had happened, but despite all of that, Seungmin had found himself enjoying it. He had spent too much of his life alone in his apartment and being around others, even if they were loud and overly touchy, was fun. 

Seungmin entered the living room and that's when he saw it: Jeongin’s hoodie draped over the arm of the couch. He had taken it off when he had gotten too warm after Jisung decided that he wanted to sit under a blanket and that everyone on the couch also had to be under the same blanket. 

Seungmin felt inexplicably drawn to the hoodie, grabbing it from the couch and pressing the fabric to his face. It was soft, and best of all, it smelled like Jeongin.

Immediately Seungmin knew this is what his nest had been missing. Without a second thought, Seungmin brought the hoodie to his room and tucked it into his nest, positioning it near his head where Jeongin’s scent of freshly-baked bread would invade Seungmin’s dreams, enveloping him as he slept. It was perfect. 

The guilt set in a couple days later when Seungmin overheard Jeongin asking Jisung if he had seen his hoodie. “No,” Jisung answered, “but maybe it ended up in the laundry? I’m washing clothes later today, so maybe it’ll turn up then.” 

“Okay, I wanted to wear it today, but I guess I’ll pick something else.” 

“I’m the one who stole Jeongin’s hoodie,” Seungmin admitted to Jisung later that day as he helped him hang up the freshly-washed clothes on the drying rack. 

“I wondered if you had started nesting yet.” 

“Do you think he’ll be mad?” Seungmin hadn’t realized that the hoodies was one of Jeongin’s favorite when he took it, he had only been focused on having Jeongin’s scent in his nest. 

“Nah, I steal people’s clothes and stuff all the time. I mean I am in charge of laundry for a reason. Jeongin probably asked me because he thought I had taken it.” 

“Will he want it back?” Seungmin wasn’t willing to give up Jeongin’s hoodie until it had entirely lost its scent and even then, Seungmin wasn’t sure he’d want to part with it. 

“I think that if you tell Jeongin that his hoodie is part of your nest, he’ll be so honored that he’ll just let you keep it forever.”

But that would require Seungmin to admit that he was the one who took the hoodie and that he wanted Jeongin’s scent in his nest, that Jeongin’s scent was the only scent in Seungmin’s nest that wasn’t his own. How embarrassing. Seungmin decided that he wasn’t going to tell Jeongin unless he absolutely had to. 

Three days later, Seungmin was sitting at the counter watching Minho cook dinner when Jeongin walked into the room, looking a little lost.

“Hey Minho, weird question, but have you seen my cream colored hoodie anywhere? Jisung says he doesn’t have it.”

“No I haven’t,” Minho responded, eyes meeting Seungmin’s with a knowing look.

Jeongin sighed. “Okay, no one has seen it lately though and it’s my favorite.” 

“That’s unfortunate.” Minho turned back to the stove. 

Jeongin, for some reason, then decided to turn to Seungmin. “Have you seen it anywhere?” 

“Um,” Seungmin said intelligently. He felt a little bit like a deer caught in headlights, thoughts coming to a complete halt at Jeongin’s question. “I—uh.” What was Seungmin supposed to do? He was terrible at lying, especially when Jeongin was looking at him with his puppy-dog eyes. “I have to go.” 

Seungmin stood up and practically ran to his room, ignoring Jeongin calling after him. Seungmin closed and locked the door behind himself and them collapsed face first into his nest, getting a noseful of freshly-baked bread. Even though Seungmin was currently on the run from the owner of that scent, smelling it still made him relax. 

A couple of minutes later, there was a knock on Seungmin’s door. “Seungmin? Are you the one who took my hoodie?” Wow, that hadn’t taken long for Jeongin to figure out, but Seungmin supposed that his mad dash to his room was pretty suspicious. “I’m not mad, I promise.” Seungmin didn’t respond. Jeongin may not be mad, but he would probably want his hoodie back. 

“Is my hoodie part of your nest? Is that why you’re so embarrassed?”

Seungmin groaned. Jeongin was too smart for his own good. 

“Seungmin, can I come in? I think we should talk.”

Seungmin didn't want to talk, but he also knew that he didn't really have a choice and that if he didn't suck it up and talk to Jeongin now, then he might find himself locked in a room with Jeongin later, courtesy of Minho. “Fine.” Seungmin pulled himself out his nest and went to unlock the door. 

“Hey Seungmin.” Jeongin smiled and tried to peer over Seungmin’s shoulder to see his nest, but Seungmin blocked Jeongin’s view with his body.

“Is my hoodie really a part of your nest now?”

“Yeah,” Seungmin was forced to admit.

Jeongin’s smile brightened? “Really? Do you have anyone else’s scents?”

Seungmin shook his head, warmth flushing his cheeks at the admission.

“So I’m the first one? Do you want anything else of mine? You’re welcome to literally any of my clothes. I’m glad that you like my scent and that it can bring you some comfort.” Jeongin’s dimples were out in full force and he was practically bouncing on his heels.

Seungmin was saved by further embarrassment by Minho yelling “Dinner!” 

Jeongin turned to look down the hallway. “We should go, Minho hates it if we're late.”

The next morning there was a dark blue fleece blanket and a green hoodie that Seungmin recognized as Jeongin’s folded up in front of his door. They were both absolutely soaked in Jeongin’s scent, to the point that Seungmin wondered if Jeongin had slept with them to make sure that they smelled like him as much as possible. 

Seungmin was unable to resist picking up the gifts and putting them in his nest, but once Seungmin realized what he had done, he stared at his nest in horror. Those were typical courting gifts and if Jeongin had meant it that way, then Seungmin had just accepted Jeongin’s courtship. Seungmin could fix this all by putting the blanket and hoodie back, but Seungmin couldn’t bring himself to do it. Jeongin had brought Seungmin those for the explicit purpose of them ending up in Seungmin’s nest and that made Seungmin’s inner omega happy. 

Seungmin had only just gotten used to feeling his inner omega and it was apparently important for Seungmin to listen to it, and to be honest, it wasn’t like Seungmin didn’t want Jeongin to court him, it was just that Seungmin was scared. 

What if Seungmin messed everything up? What if he was too broken to be courted? Seungmin was sure to mess something up, he didn’t know how packs or any of this worked. 

Seungmin knew who did though. He took off towards Jisung and Hyunjin’s room. They were certainly still asleep, but Jisung had told Seungmin that he could bother him for any reason anytime, so Seungmin was cashing it in now. 

It took several minutes of Seungmin pounding on Jisung and Hyunjin’s door before Hyunjin answered, hair sticking straight up, dressed only in boxers. “Seungmin? What are you doing here? What time even is it?” 

“I need to talk to Jisung, it’s an emergency.”

Hyunjin’s eyes widened. “One second,” he told Seungmin. “Jisung baby, are you dressed? Seungmin has a problem.” Hyunjin turned back to look at Seungmin. “Give Jisung a second, his coordination is really bad in the morning so he’s currently struggling with a pair of sweatpants.” 

A couple of minutes later, Seungmin was let into the room and Jisung was fully dressed. “Seungmin!” Jisung patted his bed, an invitation for Seungmin to join him in his nest. “What seems to be the problem?”

Seungmin threw himself into Jisung’s nest and buried his head in a pillow that luckily smelled more like Jisung than Hyunjin. “Jeongin gave me what I think is a courting gift this morning,” Seungmin siad into the fabric of the pillow. 

Hyunjin squealed from across the room, in the process of putting on a shirt. “Oh my gosh, really? My Innie is all grown up!” 

“Did you accept it?” Jisung asked, having a bit more tact than his mate that was still freaking out in the corner. 

“Yeah. It was a blanket and hoodie that smelled like him and I put them in my nest before I had fully processed what they meant.”

“A blanket?” Hyunjin asked. “Which one?”

“It was dark blue,” Seungmin answered.

Hyunjin squealed again. “That’s his favorite! Seungmin, Jeongin gave you his favorite blanket! Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening!” 

Jisung started to rub Seungmin’s back as Seungmin buried his face even further into the pillow, wishing that he could suffocate in it. This was so much more mortifying than Seungmin had expected. 

“Hyunjin baby, do you want to maybe take a shower or something?” Jisung asked.

“But I just put on clothes.”

“I think I should rephrase: go take a shower, baby. This is omega business.” 

Hyunjin whined, but did eventually leave for the shower. Once the door closed behind him, Seungmin lifted his head from the pillow. He’d never been in Jisung’s nest before, but it did seem to have a lot of clothes in it. Seungmin noticed a pair of what seemed to be his sweatpants in the mix. It wasn't like Seungmin could complain though considering that Hyunjin had bought him half of his clothes after Jeongin had told him the dire state of Seungmin’s closet.  

“Do you want Jeongin to court you?” Jisung asked. 

“Yeah,” Seungmin admitted, surprising even himself a bit. “He’s so nice and caring and super cute, but the thing is, I don’t know if I’m good enough for him.” 

Jisung flicked Seungmin on the forehead.

“Ow,” Seungmin whined, rubbing the hurt spot. “What was that for?”

“Don’t be mean to yourself. Jeongin is obsessed with you and you’re perfect for him. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but you fit in with our pack so well, Seungmin, and I know it’s hard for you to live as an omega for the first time, but you’re doing a great job.”

Seungmin shook his head. “No I’m not.” 

“You are,” Jisung insisted. “Plus, there’s no one way to be an omega. You can behave however you want and still be a good omega.” Jisung paused. “Maybe within reason, you should still be taking care of yourself, which you are doing now, so therefore you’re a good omega.”

Seungmin shook his head. Jisung’s reasoning was so dumb. 

“I think that if you like Jeongin and Jeongin likes you, then there’s no problem. You two will figure things out. He’s already seen you at your worst and he still wants you even after all that, so I mean, you really have nothing to worry about.”

Seungmin wasn’t sure that Jisung’s reasoning was that solid, but then again, Jisung was very happily mated to Hyunjin, so maybe he really did know best.

“Except I would maybe be worried about Chan. He’s really scary and Jeongin is like his baby.” 

“Great.” Seungmin grabbed a blanket at random to bury his face in, except he just so happened to grab one that Chan had scented. Seungmin threw that blanket to the side and grabbed another that smelled like Felix. That was much safer. Felix smelled like marshmallows and campfire and it was perfect to clear Chan’s pine scent from Seungmin’s nose. 

“Can I stay in your nest today?”

“Yeah,” Jisung agreed. “I’ll make Hyunjin bring us our meals. You are going to have to face Jeongin eventually though.” 

Seungmin whined at the reminder. “I’ll talk to him tonight, I promise. I just need some omega time first.” 

“Of course, take as much time as you need.” Jisung wrapped his arm around Seungmin’s shoulders and Seungmin leaned into the touch. 

Seungmin went to Jeongin’s room just before dinner and knocked on the door. His heart was thundering in his ears, his hands slick with sweat, but Seungmin knew that he had to do this. 

“Seungmin?” Jeongin looked surprised when he opened the door. 

“Hi, I got your blanket and hoodie this morning.” Seungmin took a deep, steadying breath. “And I put them in my nest.” 

Jeongin took a minute to process Seungmin’s words and then his face lit up. “Really? You accept my courtship?”

“I do.”

Seungmin was suddenly enveloped in a warm hug, Jeongin pulling Seungmin close to his chest. Seungmin wrapped his arms around Jeongin in turn. “Thank you,” Jeongin said. “I’m going to be the best courting partner, I promise. I’ll get you all of the best gifts because you deserve that, Seungmin.”

Oh, that was nice, that was so nice. Seungmin’s eyes suddenly felt wet and he pulled Jeongin even closer. “Thank you, I’ll look forward to it.” 

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Seungmin managed to avoid Chan for two days, but on the third, he ended up cornered while vacuuming the living room. 

“Hey Seungmin, do you  have a minute to talk?”

“Yeah, sure,” Seungmin tried to say as casually as possible even though he was practically shaking at the prospect of talking to Chan. 

Chan gestured for Seungmin to sit down and he did, scared that he would fall over from how much his legs were shaking if he tried to stay standing. “You know you don’t have to vacuum, that’s Felix’s job.”

“I know,” Seungmin said. “It’s just that I don’t really have anything to do, so I get bored.” He had taken to helping everyone with their chores. Seungmin wasn’t used to such a laid back lifestyle when he had been working every second of every day for the past several years.

Chan sighed. “You’re supposed to be recovering.”

Seungmin smiled guiltily.

“I guess I can’t judge you too much, I would do the same. We can work out some things for you to do though that’s not other pack members' chores. But that’s not the purpose of this conversation.” Seungmin winced. “I heard that you and Jeongin started courting?”

Seungmin nodded. “Yes, we have.” 

“Jeongin did ask me for permission beforehand, so don’t worry about that, I just wanted to check in and see how you were feeling.”

Seungmin blinked at Chan in surprise. He thought that he was going to get the shovel talk, not whatever this was. “Uh, I mean I’m feeling nervous since I’ve never been courted by anyone before, but also I feel really excited. I like Jeongin, he’s so nice to me and honestly sometimes it feels too good to be true.” 

“I’m glad.” Chan smiled. “I was worried that you’d feel forced into accepting Jeongin’s courtship since you’re living with us right now.” 

“No, I don’t feel pressured into anything. I mean I don't think Jisung would let me court Jeongin out of a sense of obligation.”

Chan laughed. “That’s true, Jisung has definitely taken you under his wing, I think it’s good for him to have another omega in the pack.”

“In the pack?” Seungmin asked, slightly confused. He wasn’t part of Chan’s pack, he was only here to recover. 

“I mean, you don’t have to be if you don’t want to be, but since Jeongin started to court you, I assumed that meant you wanted to stay? Unless I’m just completely off.”

“Oh, I mean I didn’t really think about it. I thought that I was going to have to leave once I recovered.”

Chan furrowed his brows. “Of course not, everyone in the pack really likes you Seungmin, I’ve already asked them and they’d all be okay if you wanted to join one day. I mean no pressure obviously, I know that you’re still figuring out some things about yourself and what you like, but just know that the offer is there if you want to accept.”

Seungmin paused to think about his time with Chan’s pack. He got along with everyone really well. Seungmin had been super nervous in the beginning on how things were going to work out considering Seungmin had never been part of a pack before, but Seungmin got along with everyone and enjoyed the pack bonding nights. He could see himself staying. “I think I would like to be a part of the pack.” 

Chan beamed, he had dimples just like Jeongin. “Great! I’m not going to start pack courting you yet, though. I think you and Jeongin need time to figure out your relationship a little more and you’re still recovering. This isn’t a rejection or anything, it just feels a bit soon for me.” 

Seungmin was honestly relieved. “No, I understand. I honestly wouldn’t want to start courting with any pack until after my first heat.”

“Great, we can have another conversation about this after that then! Do you want to start talking about jobs and stuff you can do? I’m going to warn you that you’re only allowed to work a couple of hours a day and I will have someone checking on you.” 

“I just want to stop feeling so bored, I’m used to working constantly so not working at all feels weird.” 

“Okay,” Chan nodded. “What would you be willing to do? I was kinda thinking that you could help us out a bit in your normal capacity of manning the communications from inside. I mean we really haven’t been doing our normal vigilante things for the past couple of weeks while you got settled in, but if you’re feeling alright, we could start up again?”

“That’d be perfect! I already have a list for you.”

Chan raised one of his eyebrows. “I thought that you were taking a break.”

Seungmin rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I mean I was, I just had some extra time.” 

Chan shook his head. “It’s fine, but in the future, you’re not working more than a couple of hours a day until you’re fully recovered and I’m serious about that. If I find our you’re working too much, you’re cut off, okay?”

“Okay,” Seungmin agreed. At least he got to help again, got to do what he loved even if it was limited hours. 

“Great.” Chan stood up. “And Seungmin, just so you know, if you hurt Jeongin, I know plenty of places to hide your body.” 

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For Jeongin’s second courting gift, they went out together to a restaurant. It was much better than Jeongin’s attempt at cooking. Jeongin drove Seungin there in a sleek sedan that Seungmin hadn't even known that the pack owned. All Seungmin had ever seen them drive was the beat up minivan. 

After dinner, Seungmin and Jeongin walked along the river holding hands. It was sweet and romantic. 

Jeongin’s third courting gift was a trip to an ice skating rink. Jeongin’s style of courting gifts was maybe a bit atypical, but Seungmin loved it. He had never gotten a chance to go outside and enjoy things, too busy with work  and too scared of alphas recognizing Seungmin as an omega based on his statue or something. Seungmin was a bit tall for an omega, but he was also small for a beta. 

Seungmin was atrocious at ice skating, but it was still fun and it gave Seungmin an excuse to hold Jeongin’s hand the entire time. 

On the way home, Jeongin took the scenic route and stopped on top of a hill with a view of the city. “Do you like it?” Jeongin asked.

“It’s beautiful,” Seungmin answered.

“But not as beautiful as you.” 

Seungmin turned to look into Jeongin’s eyes, cheeks flushed red. Jeongin cupped Seungmin’s face and leaned in and then they were kissing. It was just a quick brush of their lips, but it left Jeongin feeling giddy for the rest of the drive home. 

Upon reaching the pack house, Seungmin immediately went to Jisung’s and Hyunjin’s room to tell them every detail of the date. Hyunjin squealed the whole time, hugging a pillow to his chest. 

Kissing Jeongin became somewhat of a regular occurance after that, but both of them were too shy to do so in front of the pack. In fact, they rarely even held hands in front of the others, the complete opposite of Hyunjin and Jisung who were happy to french kiss and grind on each other on the communal couch. Seungmin and Jeongin both agreed that they would never do that. 

Seungmin’s nest also started to grow as he spent more time with the pack. The first scent in his nest other than Jeongin’s was from Jisung’s beanie that he had leant Seungmin after he had seen him eyeing it. “Just take it,” Jisung had said. “I can’t bear you looking at me like that any longer.”

“But it’s one of your favorites,” Seungmin had protested.

Jisung had just waved his hand in dismissal. “I’ll make Hyunjin buy me a new one. It’s no big deal.” 

The next scent in Seungmin’s nest had been Hyunjin’s, but Seungmin felt as if it was more of a case of Stockholm Syndrome than anything else. Seungmin spent a lot of time with Jisung which meant that he was around Hyunjin a lot too and somehow one day while helping Jisung with laundry, one of Hyunjin’s shirts had ended up in Seungmin’s bag and then was subsequently tucked into Seungmin’s nest. 

After Hyunjin had come Minho. It had become somewhat routine for Seungmin to sit at the counter while Minho made breakfast and chat with him. Seungmin was never allowed to cook, but they did bicker goodheartedly while Minho cooked. One day, Minho had become hot while cooking and he shed his sweater, somehow the sweater ended up in Seungmin’s nest. It really wasn’t his fault, the sweater had been left out right in front of him, what was he supposed to do?

Felix was the next victim, but to be honest, if anything Seungmin was the victim. Felix was assigned to making sure that Seungmin wasn’t overworking himself which meant that once a day, Felix dragged Seungmin from his computer with promises of watching a movie or trying to bake something together. Seungmin had simply demanded something of Felix’s as retribution and he had ended up with a cute pink bunny plushie in his nest. 

Getting something from Changbin was surprisingly easy. Seungmin had mentioned to Jeongin that he was missing Changbin’s scent in his nest and then the next day a tank top covered in Changbin’s scent showed up outside his door.

Seungmin had been scared of asking Chan for anything. Despite the fact that Chan was nothing but nice to Seungmin, Seungmin was still scared of him. So, he had simply stolen one of Chan’s shirts from the laundry and let the blame fall on Jisung. Jisung didn’t even know that it was actually Seungmin who had taken the shirt because Hyunjin was in pre-rut so Jisung’s nesting instincts were stronger than usual and he had plundered half the laundry basket. 

Overall though, Seungmin was settling into the pack well. He had a schedule he enjoyed, he had a well-formed nest and Seungmin was getting more used to his omega instincts by the day. Not to mention that Seungmin was courting the cutest alpha in existence. 

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Two months after Seungmin had been revealed to be an omega he woke up feeling off. His nest was wrong. The whole thing needed to be rebuilt, but Seungmin didn’t have enough supplies for it, he needed a whole more of everyone’s scent, but especially Jeongin’s. 

When Seungmin emerged for breakfast, he was in a bad mood. His nest was off and there was nothing he could do to fix it and his stomach hurt. 

“Wow,” Minho said when Seungmin slipped into his normal spot at the counter. “Someone’s in preheat.” 

Oh. Things suddenly made a lot more sense. “I’m not in preheat,” Seungin protested obstinately even though he definitely was and he knew it. It was just that being in preheat meant that Seungmin’s heat was coming soon and Seungmin had never had a heat before and Yeosang had said that the first one Seungmin had was going to be worse than usual. 

“Have you talked to Jeongin about your heat yet?”

“No.” Seungmin had thought that he was going to have more time. 

“Well you should do that, you probably have about two days until it hits.” 

Seungmin groaned and pressed his forehead into the cool stone of the countertop. 

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll make you whatever you want during your heat, even if it’s the most atrocious food combination known to man. I won’t even judge you that hard for it since it’s your first heat ever.” 

“I don’t want to go into heat.”

Minho ruffled Seungmin’s hair. “Well you better get that sorted out soon because it’s going to happen whether you want it to or not.” 

After breakfast, Seungmin found himself with Jisung and the pack’s dirty laundry in his room. Jisung was sitting in the corner while Seungmin completely redid his entire nest.

“It’s really not that bad, I promise.”

“Yeosang literally said this was going to be like the worst heat ever.”

“Well you’ll have Jeongin to help you through it. You should really ask him to eat you out if your cramps get super bad, it helps so much I swear.” 

Seungmin threw a pillow at Jisung to get him to shut up. “What if he doesn’t want to spend my heat with me?”

Jisung rolled his eyes. “Okay so that would literally never happen and you would know that if you would just talk to him.”

Seungmin groaned and collapsed face first onto his bed. 

“And everyone says I’m dramatic,” Jisung muttered. “It’s really not that bad, Seungmin. You feel hot and crampy and horny and then Jeongin will knot you and you’ll feel better and then the cycle will repeat for like three days and then it’s all over and you’re really sore, but everyone dotes on you so it’s okay and then you don't have to do any of it again for three months. It’s kinda like a three day sex vacation.” 

Seungmin was this close to kicking Jisung out of his room. 

“I know you don’t like being cared for or whatever because you’re an independent omega, but everyone caters to your every want because they all think that heats are the worst thing ever, so it’s honestly kinda great. I heard that Minho was going to cook you whatever you wanted? That’s kind of incredible because he doesn’t even do that for me.” 

“I’m scared,” Seungmin admitted, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. “I’ve never had a heat before and it sounds so scary. I’m going to be hot, horny, and in pain and craving sex like I never have before? I have to rely on others to take care of me otherwise I could overheat and die? Does that not sound terrifying?”

“It does,” Jisung admitted crossing the room to give Seungmin a hug. “But we’re all going to be here for you Seungmin, we’ll take care of you. I know that’s scary for you, but that’s what packs are for and you’re going to be part of ours.”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Seungmin reminded Jisung. 

“Whatever,” Jisung replied. “You know we see you as one of us regardless.” 

“So, would you like to spend my heat with me?” Seungmin was standing awkwardly outside of Jeongin’s room, Jeongin in the doorway.

A smile split Jeongin’s face in two. “Of course I will! I was worried you would never ask.”

“Are you sure? I’m going to be like super horny and a lot to take care of.”

Jeongin laughed and pulled Seungmin in for a hug. “Seungmin, I know what heats are like. Hyunjin is my best friend.”

Seungmin made a face and pulled away from Jeongin’s hug just so that he could see Seungmin’s disgust. “You know the details of Hyunjin’s and Jisung’s sex life?” 

Jeongin playfully hit Seungmin on the arm. “As if you and Jisung don’t talk about it too.” 

They did, but Seungmin would never admit that to Jeongin. “We would never. I literally do no want to know about how Jisung likes it up the ass and—” 

Jeongin cut Seungmin off with a kiss and Seungmin melted into it, letting Jeongin wrap his arms around Seungmin’s waist and kiss Seungmin until Jisung and Hyunjin were the last things on Seungmin’s mind. 

“Oh,” Seungmin said once Jeongin pulled away. 

“There’s more where that came from,” Jeongin winked at Seungmin.

“Gross.” Seungmin pushed at Jeongin’s chest. “Save it for my heat.”

“After my heat can we talk about me joining the pack?” Seungmin asked Chan at dinner.

“Of course,” Chan replied, looking surprised. “But don’t focus on that right now. Do you have everything for your heat? Snacks? Water? Condoms?” 

Jeongin choked on his food and Felix had to pound his back while Hyunjin cackled, probably happy that it wasn’t him for once.

“Unless you want to have kids, but I wouldn’t suggest that for your first heat—”

“They have condoms,” Jisung interrupted. “The kind that work with knots. I’ve also put a stash of water and snacks in Minnie’s room and Minho has promised to cook whatever meals Seungmin’s wants.”

“Oh.” Chan blinked. “It sounds like you guys are all set then. Don’t hesitate to ask if you guys need anything else.” 

“We will,” Jeongin promised. “I’m going to take good care of Seungmin.”

Warmth blossomed in Seungmin’s core.

“Nope.” Changbin covered Jeongin’s mouth. “You’re not allowed to say anything else to Seungmin for the rest of dinner. If you keep talking like that, you’re going to send him into an early heat.” 

Jeongin licked Changbin’s hand and he yelped. “That’s so gross! Why would you do that? I was trying to protect the sanctity of family dinner.” 

Seungmin’s heat had honestly kind of sucked. He had been all hot and sweaty, constantly feeling like he was on the verge of overheating and his cramps had eased when Jeongin knotted him, but they had never gone away fully. 

It had left both Seungmin and Jeongin completely exhausted by the end of it and Seungmin was so sore that he was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to be able to walk for days, but honestly, it could have been worse. Seungmin’d had Jeongin by his side for the whole thing and that had made it all bearable. Not to mention the fact that afterwards, Seungmin was treated like royalty by the pack. He was wrapped up on the couch in countless blankets and hand fed by Jisung, Felix, and Jeongin. Seungmin would never admit that he liked it, but he also got endless cuddles from the pack. 

Seungmin had exited his heat without any bites on his neck, but was sure that the same wouldn’t be true after his next one. Jeongin’s bite would go on the right side of Seungmin’s neck while Chan’s pack bite would be on the left.