Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

That night, after they'd all assured Ed that yes, they'd take care of Niall, and of course he could beat their asses if they ever hurt him, and yeah, here's some tickets to the concert in a couple days so you can keep tabs on us. Not tonight. We're not doing that tonight. After that, and after Niall was hugged by every single member of their crew, his new pack learning what jealousy was. And after an evening playing FIFA and stupid apps on their phones, anything to avoid the news where Niall's presentation had caught like wildfire. After that, Louis and Harry whispered together on the bed and Zayn had fallen asleep near their feet, curled into a ball. Niall settled next to Liam, and after some thought and fidgeting he leaned his head against the Alpha's shoulder.

Liam rested his cheek against Niall's head and continued texting. "What's the sisters got to say?" Niall asked, smiling at Liam's phone where he had a group chat going with his siblings.

"They suspected all along. My whole family knew I was about all of you and they just kept warning me not to get attached." Liam glanced at Zayn on the bed and smiled.

Niall tensed and said, too casually. "You wanted to be with me? Before - I mean, before I fucked everything up?"

Liam clicked his phone to sleep but continued to stare down at it. "You didn't fuck anything up, okay? You can't help your gender. And it's not like before. Look at James Corden. Hell, look at that German president - what's her name?" Liam wrapped an arm around Niall's shoulders. "And if anyone has a problem with it, they'll have three alphas to go through."

He paused and Niall picked at the threads on his jeans. His knee ached, and now that he wasn't on suppressants and didn't have to worry about mixing meds, he might actually get up for some ibuprofen. But then again, he could stay here. And alphas are so warm.

Niall heard Liam suck in a breath. "And - sweetheart. Can I call you sweetheart?" Liam let out a little laugh. "This isn't - I don't want you to think you're just a way for me to get to Zayn. Okay? I know we were pretty obvious - not that anything happened. But everyone was telling us to get an omega. And then you're that omega. And I always had all these big feelings for you, okay? You're not some omega, babe. You're Niall. And I'm so happy you've agreed to be mine."

Niall hummed and fiddled with the phone in his hand. Zayn had had it in his pocket and when Niall thought to ask for it after this crazy day he had more missed calls and texts than he cared to count. "Li," he said, clearing his throat awkwardly. He was always terrible at taking compliments. "When did you know you'd be Alpha?"

He loved Liam for taking the question seriously. The older boy wiped his palms on his jeans. "I guess I always knew I was a more dominant alpha, but you can't really know those sort of things without seeing what your pack's gonna be like. If Zayn or Harry had been super dommy there probs would've been a fight." He shrugged. "I'm glad it didn't come to that, though."

Niall worried his bottom lip between his teeth. He was pretty sure no one else was listening, and he trusted Liam with these parts of him, these deficiencies. "What if I'm a terrible omega?"

"You won't be," Liam said immediately. "No, hear me out. You're already an amazing omega, okay? You're - Niall, you're so brave. I can't imagine going through what you've been dealing with all week. Letting us take care of you through your heat. But even without that, omegas aren't supposed to be one thing. You can talk back and goof off. You can just be Niall. We can just be what we always were."

The bed above them creaked and there was the unmistakable sound of the youngest alpha taking off his pants.

"I didn't let you punish me, though." Niall said. He knew it sounded like he'd been worrying about this all day, which he had. "And I really kind of don't ever want to be punished, okay? Because - well, just because."

Liam looked at him thoughtfully. "What about that scares you? Cuz - I know I've never been an omega, but from what I heard it's not even supposed to hurt. It's about absolution."

"Someone swallowed a dictionary," Niall teased without thinking. But then he sat there and the movement above them got stronger and more regular. "I think - it's just weird. Like, worse than sex. I think mates can have sex and boyfriends have sex and it's okay, it's normal. But if you're my boyfriend and my bandmate and my alpha and you get to decide when you hit me?" He shook his head. "It just feels unfair."

"A power imbalance." Harry's voice was muffled as if he was in the process of licking something, but the words rang true.

"Exactly," Niall echoed. "A power imbalance."

Liam bit his lip. "The thing is, I think you'd feel better with some sort of guidelines. And - mate, look, I'd feel better with some sort of guidelines." He held up his arm where the scratches crisscrossed, some old ones so deep and thick Niall had to swallow past the thought of suicide. "I think it'd be better if I knew where your lines were."

Niall tried to think through this. "So, we can, like, draw up a list? Like, if I - I dunno - if I mouth off or whatever, that's five smacks, and if I disappear without telling you it's a whip."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Louis sat up and Harry slid off of him, arching his back so he could tug his jeans up his thighs. "We aren't using whips in this pack, guys, that's a red from me and I'm not even a part of it. You can hurt to easy with whips."

"I'm not going to punish you," Liam said, rolling his eyes at Louis. "That's between you and your alpha. It'll be me and Niall."

"And Niall's gonna go along with anything if he thinks it's good for the band, right?" Louis cut his eyes to Niall. "I'm sorry, love, but it's true. You're want to impress Liam so bad you'll let him do stuff you're not ready for because you think it's what an omega's supposed to do. So I'm putting my foot down. No whips."

Liam grumbled as he patted around his bag for a pen and paper. "I would've said red for that, too."

He clicked the pen and Zayn opened his eyes. "We making a pact already?"

A pact was an official declaration of partnership between alpha and omega. It was to protect the omega, mostly, so they have an emergency contact if their alpha goes too hard. But it was also a sign of love and respect, a mutual agreement on hard and soft limits, a contract that promised safe words and contingencies. Liam had never made a pact before and was thrilled, tingling down his spine, at the thought of making one with his best friends.

Liam nodded at Zayn, smiling softly. "Just so Niall knows we're not going to beat him if he breathes wrong."

Niall tried to laugh, his go-to response, but his phone buzzed in his hand. Again. Mum again. He stared at her picture for a long moment before clicking the call to voicemail. It was too much to hope no one noticed.

Louis, still on the bed, said, "Have you spoken to your mum yet, Niall?"

"Not everyone's best friends with their parents," Niall pointed out.

A flush crept up Louis's neck but he continued to stare Niall down. "Everyone's happy about pacts, Ni. Everyone. You're getting engaged. You should tell your mum about it."

But Niall shook his head and switched it over to voicemail. His mum had been calling him all day. She was a lovely woman who hated omegas, and if he said that sentence out loud to his pack they'd say a woman like that couldn't exist, but it was true. In a family of betas, alphas were revered and omegas were always ridiculed. He'd been checking off, in the back of his mind, all the times his mum and dad and extended family casually put down omegas, or made fun of them, or sighed things like "I don't know why they need to pervert the sacrament of marriage by marrying each other. Omegas need to know their place."

That was actually a sentence that had been said to him by his grandfather. And at the time he'd smiled wanly. He didn't take part in the heckling but he didn't condemn it either, and now it was too late.

"Too late for what?" Louis looked genuinely surprised, as if he thought every mother-son relationship was like his own, where he and his mum were best friends and confidants, where she had his back and he had hers.

But it was different in Niall's clan. Maybe because they were betas or Irish or Catholic, but they were just different. Niall was pretty sure he loved his parents but he didn't trust them. "If I tell them I'm an omega..." he began, and then actually thought about it. If he told them he was an omega, in all likely hood he'd be disowned and not welcome back in the part of the world he was most proud of. He tried to explain it to Louis, how omegas were seen by a lot of people as unworthy and stupid and slutty and slow but every one of the pack's face got harder with every word.

His phone rang again. "Pick it up," Louis insisted. "It can't be as bad as all that."

What could he do? Niall pressed the phone to his ear.

"Niall, are you all right?"

Liam motioned for Niall to put in on speaker phone, so he did, and the boys gathered around and leaned in close, like there was a show to do and this was the huddle. "I'm fine, mum, thanks for calling."

There was a long pause and Niall winced as it stretched. "I've been calling all day. There have been some awful things about you on the internet."

"Mmm," Niall hummed, because it was the only sound he could force out.

"People are saying you're an omega, dear, and that you've already had a heat and everything." When she said omega she lowered her voice, like she used to do when she cursed in front of him, like the word was dirty.

Niall cleared his throat and felt four hands touch him, his arms and his back and his shoulder. "Mum, I am an omega."

The pause was so long that Niall sat down. Zayn climbed on the bed behind him and hugged his shoulders close. "You're confused, dear. I knew this would happen if you moved away from home. So many people around all the time. You're just confused. You're a beta, dear. The whole family's betas."

"I'm not confused," Niall snapped. He couldn't help it - now it was either snap in anger for shatter apart. "I went into heat. I went into subspace. I have a pack, mum, and we made a pact."

His mother didn't speak and Niall didn't speak, and Liam took the phone gently from Niall's fingers. "Hello, ma'am, it's nice to speak to you again. I want to let you know that we'll take good care of your son."

"Liam Payne you will not be that boy's Alpha. I forbid it."

Niall snatched the phone back, his face red. "Mum, what does Dad say about this? Did you talk to him?"

His parents hadn't spoken in years, though they'd made an effort to be in the same room together during the X-Factor show and the performances. Of course he loved his mother but it was his dad's opinion that could break him.

"I did speak to him and he thinks it's despicable."

All the air seemed to leave Niall's body. Bobby Horan loved everyone and everyone loved him. He was a kind philosopher who never raised his voice and could drink even the stoutest Irishman under the table. And he was a very laid-back beta. Niall had always hoped, even expected, that Bobby would be on his side.

"Despicable that you jumped right into a heat with your bandmates. What happens if you break up? Or the band goes downhill? Or someone leaves? You're so young. You're so incredibly young. If you come back to Ireland, Niall, we can put you on suppressants. You can be a beta again, like everyone else."

"I'm not going to break the pack," Niall hissed, his head throbbing. "I just wanted to tell you. I want to see where I stand in me own family."

His mother didn't speak. And then she did. "If you're going to ruin your own name you're not ruining this family's. You're not welcome at home. I hope those alphas you have knew your true colors before they got into bed with you. Defective. Disgraceful."

Niall didn't even have the pleasure of hanging up.

"Niall," Harry whispered.

He shook his head. He wasn't even crying. He'd expected this and didn't know why they'd expected anything else. "She's right."

"She's wrong!" His whole pack exclaimed at once.

"She has no right to disown you," Zayn said, eyes like twin embers in his beautiful face.

"She shouldn't say that stuff to you," Harry muttered, pulling Louis close.

"Who's she to tell you you can't go back home! You're of age!" Louis spat.

"And she shouldn't talk to you that way," Liam pointed out. "Ever."

"She's right," Niall said, and swiped a hand across his face. He really, really hoped the wetness in his eyes didn't turn to teats. "I'm defective. I've been an omega for a week and I've already made this pack the talk of the nation." He knew he sounded bitter and he couldn't bring himself to care. "I don't want punishment. I don't want subspace." He laughed but it was all wrong, high and hysterical. "I can't even kneel right. It's what I've been saying. I don't want to embarrass the band. Or you. Never."

Louis was the one to break first, coming up to Niall and hugging him. "Oh, Sunshine. Don't cry."

Because that's exactly what he was doing. The alphas surrounded them, cooing and comforting. Harry was crying himself. Liam just looked stunned. "I'm - Niall, I'm sure your dad doesn't think you're bad at all. He loves you. If we call him -"

But Louis shook his head. "You think he can go through that again? Let's go back to the pact. Let's work ourselves out first."

So they all sat down and Zayn produced a small stack of papers that he'd printed out, a cut-and-paste contract available for free. They'd have to get it notarized and dig up all the proper documentation - visas and birth certificates. But this was the most important - a stack of papers and a closed door.

"So this is basically just some suggestions of what our pack can be. We can be really strict, collars and leashes and - don't worry, I'd hate that, too." For the first time Niall realized that Liam's smile was also watery. "I mean, some alphas don't even let their omegas talk without permission, but what would we do without your pretty voice?"

Louis spoke up. "And - we don't even have to do punishments. It's fucking 2012."

Harry bit his lip and even Liam looked unsure. It was Zayn who spoke up. "We can talk about that. But, Niall, I think you should try punishments. Like, I think you might like it. I hear omegas like it."

Louis tightened his arm around Niall's neck, but the Irish boy just shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Maybe."

"It's not even physical, all the time," Liam jumped in. "Like, most couples and packs grow out of physical correction. I know with my parents usually it's a long lecture, and my mum, you know, she's omega, she ends up lecturing as much as dad." He started ticking off on his fingers. "There's also, like, isolation, what else? Lectures, I already said that..."

"Is this a punishment, then?" Niall asked, foisting a smile on his face. "Cuz this is a hundred percent a lecture."

Liam poked Niall's chest and continued. "Food deprivation, kneeling - maybe not those -"

"I can kneel!" Niall protested. Kneeling was common, even in low-key relationships. An omega kneeling, head on an alpha's thigh, the alpha combing fingers through the omega's hair - he'd seen the position everywhere. Television and talk shows and restaurants. But - "I just can't kneel for very long."

Liam waved his hand. "It's a stupid display of submission and I hate it."

"But, like," Niall groped, "like, if I don't kneel for you, and you don't punish me - it doesn't sound like an alpha-omega relationship at all."

"No," Liam agreed. "It doesn't. Is that okay with you?" The Alpha bit his lip when Niall didn't move. "Cuz I could make some rules - or, like control your bank account - but I never -"

Niall launched himself at the Alpha, laughing. Louis piled on next, and Zayn bumped against them as Harry pulled Niall close. And Niall felt his heart burst at how very lucky and in love he was with these lovely boys.