Chapter Text
Felix’s laugh was usually enough to breathe warm air into his lungs, enough to bask in his light like a cat stretches in the sun. It had been like that for as long as Chan could remember, from the moment they met: Felix, a young pup, scared, culture shocked, and isolated by the nature of foreign speech, and Chan himself feeling like he was stepping into his official role as protector of the sunshine boy at only 13 years old. And even to this day, just his voice could quell the flames of his anger, could anchor the waves of his upheaval. His sunshine boy. His happiness.
Usually. It was crazy how a sound that could usually inspire such joy could make him groan in horror. “Stop laughing,” he begged, fingers of his left hand at his temples, rubbing, massaging, circling the drain like his thoughts, as his right hand held the phone to his ear. “This is a very serious matter.”
“A very serious—” Felix started to mimic in a higher voice, trying to imitate Chan’s whining—in a way he found a little rude, honestly—and then laughed louder, his beaming delight echoing over the tinny edge of the phone call. “It’s…It’s not…I mean…it’s just…” Felix blubbered, trying to start a sentence and organize his thoughts, but hearty laughter kept cutting him off. He sucked in a gasping breath. “It’s just sex, Channie. We have it all the time. I’m planning a marathon of it when I get home in a week.”
Chan would not let himself get derailed by the mention of marathon sex with his true. He was brave. He was strong. “I know it’s just sex, Lixie,” he near-whined, trying not to sound like a child who giggled awkwardly over the idea of sex and still believed in cooties. “But it was also screaming. At about 2 in the morning.”
“Screaming?” Felix gasped excitedly. “Oh ho! Good for Hyunjin! And Binnie, of course, but Jinnie hasn’t gotten any in months!”
“How would you know?” Chan asked weakly. “You haven’t really spoken, right?”
“I just know,” Felix answered loftily. “Hyunjin isn’t like that. I’ll guarantee it. So the point stands: Good. For. Hyunjin.”
“Very good, as it sounded,” Chan grumbled to another rousing bout of laughter from his true. He moved his hand from massaging his temple to cushioning his chin as he sat at the round table. He hadn’t gotten much sleep, which was pretty normal for him, but especially last night.
Han stumbled into the kitchen, eyes essentially glued shut from exhaustion and the crustiness at his tear ducts from sleep. “Hhhh,” he grunted, just a soft sound that Chan was sure translated to a hello. He trudged to the coffee bar and sluggishly started the rote procedure of brewing and pouring himself a giant mug’s worth of the caffeine.
“Morning,” Chan greeted and then told his phone, “Hannie’s awake.” He pulled his phone away from his ear in preparation for what he knew was coming.
“Morning, Hannie!” Felix yelled down the line, clearly audible to Jisung, who was across the room, staring at his filling cup with surgeon-like focus.
Chan watched Han clear his throat, swallow a few times, and then speak. “Morning, Lixie,” he garbled out in a scratchy sleep voice. He grabbed the cup after it was filled and took a long sip of the scalding liquid, walking to join Chan at the table. “Did Channie tell you about our early morning shared voyeur experience?”
“Wimps,” Felix teased loudly, and Chan just sighed, pressing the speakerphone button so his voice would project better. “A bunch of blushing virgins,” he chuckled.
Han laughed back. “Far from it, I just didn’t expect to get woken up with porn-like moans and screeching, like pterodactyl-adjacent wails, Lixie, truly impressive stuff, and to be honest—no, listen, Lixie, listen,” Han interrupted himself as he heard Felix cackling. “To be honest, I’d watch their lovemaking tutorial. A little how-to. Maybe a sing-along, we can follow-the-bouncing-ball our way through this, I just think they’re doing something right—”
“Stop! I c-can’t breathe!” Felix begged breathlessly, huffing as loud laughter crackled the audio.
“He’s not wrong,” Jeongin walked into the kitchen, stopping to kiss Han’s head of hair. He continued onto the fridge, pulling out a container of pre-cut strawberries and dropping them on the table. “They must be exhausted. Hyunjin might need tea for his throat.”
“Like Changbin was any better,” Han snorted loudly, Felix still cackling, and Chan sighed, holding his hands up, needing to get his arms around the situation.
“Okay, okay, let’s not turn this into a circus, it was just…loud. And late. But we’re not pups, we can handle our packmate having sex,” he said in what Felix lovingly dubbed his leader voice. His two boys bowed their heads a little in agreement, still shooting smirks at each other, as Felix’s chuckles calmed down over the line.
And then Seungmin walked into the kitchen, fully dressed and grinning. “So, how are we teasing Binnie Hyung about last night? Have we already decided, or is the Board still open to votes?” He sat down next to Jeongin, scooting his chair closer and dropping a lazy chin on Innie’s shoulder. He reached out and snagged a strawberry, bit it, and then spoke around his chewing. “Because I vote we start taking bets now on who screamed first.”
“Oooh!” Jeongin turned his head to face his true, fully invested, chaotic grin in place. “That’s a great point, the soundproofing dulled a lot of the early moans. I say Binnie!”
“Hyunjin,” Minho walked in, looking and sounding aged. He rubbed his face, making a direct path to the coffee and pouring his own cup. “You can put my vote in for Hyunjin.” He said again, softer, closing his eyes as he took a long sip.
“Boys, again, we can all recover from this; it was just—” Chan tried to speak over the muttering voices as the concept of a bet between them was introduced. But the muttering persisted, and Chan eventually sighed, sitting back in his chair. He picked up his phone and turned the call from speakerphone to a regular voice call, lifting it to his ear. “Felix?”
“Yes, baby?” His omega asked sweetly.
“I don’t think our pack listens to me much,” He whined a little, watching all his boys start throwing cash on the round table, Han excitedly scribing everyone’s prop bets.
“They listen to you when it matters,” Felix returned soothingly. “But this got a bit away from you, yes.”
Chan sighed, snatching a strawberry from the container.
The room collectively straightened and froze, turning to look at the entranceway together as the strong scent of lavender, with the now permanent accompanying sweet honey, congregated. And there Changbin was, one of the men of the breakfast hour, looking shrewd and wary, eyes darting over them all. “Morning,” he said with an upward inflection, almost turning it into a question.
Chan turned and shot them a quick, authoritative look with lips pressed together, and they all filed into line, taking seats and ushering the cash off the table with wide sweeps of arms. “Good morning,” Chan greeted, smiling and taking a big bite of the strawberry pinched between two fingers, trying to appear unfazed by the approach of the beta wolf.
It didn’t work. Somehow, it never did with Binnie. He walked closer, narrowed eyes watching him closely, then turned to the others. He huffed a big sigh and braced his hands on the table, facing them all. Almost as if he had called a meeting, he met eyes with each one. “Hyunjin will be coming out of the bathroom soon, so whatever you have to say, say it now. Please don’t embarrass him. I don’t want him to overthink it.” He bit the inside of his cheek. “So go ahead. Out with it.”
A moment of silence fell as the pack absorbed Changbin’s plea. Even the chaotic gleam in the younger members’ eyes abated at the blatant protective concern their precious beta was showing for Hyunjin. It starkly reminded them how much Changbin had grown in such a short time, just by meeting him. For a moment, they shared an appreciation for all the good things Hyunjin’s love had done for Changbin.
A moment that swiftly met its end.
“Binnie Hyung, you absolute beast—”
“I’ve got twenty on you screaming first, so if it was Hyunjin, just lie, okay, between you and me, just lie—”
“Jisungie!”
“You’re both insanely lucky that we live out in the woods, because the noise complaints that we would be getting right now—”
“Look! I’m just saying it woke me up and then I was horny, there were a lot of moving parts—”
“Alright, alright!” Changbin waved an arm, shooting a backwards glance behind him toward the stairway, and turned back. “Yes, I’m aware I’m amazing, you can all be impressed at what an incredibly skilled and unselfish lover I am any day, I am at your disposal. I am not confirming anything, and our living in the woods directly correlated to my willingness to be loud. And you can all suffer in your horniness, I exist on the other side of a door through all of your mating cycles!” He sniffed, rolling his eyes.
And that, they all unanimously agreed, was a good enough point.
But money still changed hands under the table when Hyunjin entered the kitchen with a beaming smile, carefully chose not to sit, and sipped an herbal tea with his lavender-infused honey courting gift, eyes soft and gooey as he looked at Changbin. Because one prop bet was evident, at the very least.
And Chan wasn’t surprised when Felix sent him a screenshot text conversation between himself and Hyunjin, it appearing that the other alpha was reaching out for the first time in half a year. It was apparent to all of them that Hyunjin and Binnie were about as close as any unmated couple could be, so Hyunjin could risk reattaching himself to his first, if inferior, love. It was heartening to see the love of his life, his sunshine boy, gain something back that he’d lost, even if it was only a temporary loss and for a very good reason.
But he choked on his spit when he saw what Felix had texted the up-to-now silent Hyunjin:
Just wanted to congratulate you on the sex, I hear it was something to be heard. You deserve it, bro. Love that for you.
He wouldn’t be surprised if Hyunjin didn’t text him for another half a year.