Chapter Text
“Jun-kun? Where are you?” Sho was walking down the hallway towards the green room, calling out for the younger alpha. His nose was twinging at the strange mixture of scents in the hallway, which seemed to be coming from the green room. There was a new but alluring scent of rain, citrus and …coffee?, overlying Jun’s scent, and frankly speaking, the alpha could hardly pull his attention away from the new enticing scent.
It would have been mouth-watering, if anything, if not for the fact that there was the accompanying scent-or-almost-stench of something or someone very, very sick.
The door to the room was closed, but he could faintly hear something/one huffing or panting, which made the alpha wary and cautious. He didn’t like barging into the room, really – impolite and all, so he reached up and knocked.
“Jun-kun? We were looking for you – we were planning on dinner, remember? Are you okay?”
Again, the panting sound continued, but then Sho’s sharp alpha hearing caught a faint whimper. There was a sharp peak in the enthralling scent, followed by the heart-plummeting scent of omega distress hormones.
What in the world?
His natural alpha instincts refused to let him turn away from the source of the distress hormones, even if that couldn’t have been Jun (because Jun was an…alpha, right?).
“Hello? Is everything okay?” He sharply rapped at the door again. “I’m coming in, alright?” Reaching forward, he turned the knob, quickly opening the door.
And then immediately entering and slamming the door shut when he was hit by a wall of spicy heat pheromones. Holy fucking. Something smelled really good…and off all at the same time. Sho was tempted to just run away from the room because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to jump the source of the scent or check if he or she was okay.
“…S-sho?” came a weak voice from the couch.
In his bid to restrain himself, the alpha had failed to notice the limp figure lying on the couch. Sho looked up, focusing on the figure amidst the haze of jumbled up alpha instincts.
A sharp coldness shot through his heart and cut across the haze immediately.
“What the fuck?” The words escaped Sho before he could even hold it back.
Jun was an alpha. He has always been an alpha, right? And yet, here he was, letting off the most enticing smell and was clearly in some form of heat; Sho was uncertain if he should jump the alpha – no, omega – or if he should walk away feeling betrayed – because there is that feeling of betrayal, or—
Another mewl of distress escaped Jun, and the sudden spike in omega distress hormones in the air quickly brought the alpha into attention that whether the man in question was an alpha or an omega, there was something wrong with him. Quickly coming closer, Sho’s sharp eyes surveyed at the figure curled up on the seat.
He didn’t look good: Jun was clearly showing the textbook signs of an omega in heat – flushed and sweat-slicked skin, a temperature far higher than usual, the panting and of course, the heat scent. But accompanying them were symptoms that the alpha knew was not normal – he was trembling, shaking even, deep tremors that seemed to be not be ceasing anytime soon, eyes tear-stained and bloodshot and hand tightly wrapped around his abdomen as though he is in pain.
“S-Sho, p-please don’t be angry.” The omega whispered frantically, trembling hands reaching out to try to grab onto the alpha. “I d-didn’t mean to hide it from e-everyone but –“ He whimpered, curling up further on his side in some form of pain. Sho *did* want to be angry – he was angry at the betrayal and at the hiding of secrets and he always hated people keeping secrets from him, but he couldn’t be angry at Jun right now.
“I’m s-sorry, so so sorry,” the omega continued to babble in a half sob. The sight of the usually collected younger man in almost frantic desperation drove whatever resentment he had away and replaced it with alarm and half panic.
Dropping his knees onto the carpet next to (clearly, now) the omega, he shushed the panicked and pained whimpers coming from Jun, reaching out to cautiously feel his forehead. “It’s okay, don’t worry, I’m not angry.” He soothed. He was half afraid of touching him even, given that this was an unbonded omega in heat (sick, but still in heat) and he was an unbonded alpha; even with his restraint, he wouldn’t know how Jun would react.
“It hurts.” Jun whimpered, flinching away from whatever contact.
His skin was burning – even Sho knew that it was at a far higher temperature than what an omega
Inwardly panicking, he wondered what he should do – hospital? Or the rest of the group? Another omega – Nino. And Ohno, because he was already a bonded alpha and wouldn’t be as affected by the heat pheromones as he was. And Aiba, because he was a beta and heat pheromones don’t affect him at all. He was entirely the wrong person to deal with this right now.
Jun let out a small sob of pain. Under his palm, Sho could feel how strong he was shaking. Fuck, hospital probably. He softly crooned at the omega, intentionally releasing just a tiny bit of alpha pheromones to hopefully soothe the man. “I’m going to call for an ambulance – you need to go to a hospital.”
That was clearly the wrong thing to say, because the next moment Jun was panicking and sitting up to grab the hand that was reaching for his phone. “N-NO! No ambulance, n-no one can find out.”
“Jun… you’re sick and you’re in heat. There’s something wrong and you need help.” The alpha reasoned. “They’ll help you. Why didn’t you take heat suppressants if you weren’t feeling well and knew it was coming?”
“I d-did. I d-don’t know why this is happening.” The omega clutched at the alpha’s wrist, eyes half glazed and body starting to sway dangerously from its upright position. Sho quickly steadied him with his shoulders. “N-no hospital. I-I’m o-okay. Please, I’ll be okay.” He begged at the alpha.
The older man shook his head. “Okay, maybe not a hospital, but I’m going to call Nino here.”
“Nono please. They can’t know. No one is supposed to know.” Jun trembled even harder. “They’ll be so angry at me. I d-didn’t mean to. I’m n-not allowed tell anyone. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. They’re not going to be mad.” Sho soothed, one hand starting to type a quick message to Ohno. ‘Green room now urgent bring nino and aiba’ “Jun? Jun, look –“ he dropped his phone onto the carpet and cradled the omega’s face (who was still rambling out apologies) between his hands, “right now you’re an omega emitting heat pheromones and I’m an unbonded alpha. I can control myself but I’m out of my depth here and you need someone who can help you.” He knew his eyes were probably blown wide with the intoxicating scent, no matter how laced it was with wrongness.
“They’re not going to be angry, okay?” He tried to soothe, stroking the sweat soaked hair of the omega, inwardly begging for the rest to just hurry up and get here as Jun’s breaths became increasingly laboured and irregular, either from panic or from whatever was wrong with him.
The omega whimpered in response.
From outside the hallway, Sho’s heightened alpha hearing could faintly hear approaching steps, which broke out to a faster run the closer they got – likely because they managed to get a whiff of omega distress hormones or heat hormones. The door was quickly opened, revealing the other three members of the group, although they looked stunned when they realized what was happening.
Sho hissed, quickly slamming the door shut and locking it behind the three still shell-shocked men. In front of them, Jun half-whined and half-sobbed, curling into a pathetic looking ball with a stream of apologies escaping his lips at the mess everything’s becoming. Nino quickly found his composure the quickest, concern shooting up and pushing away the shock.
The gamer lowered himself down to the omega and pressed his own small hand against the trembling fevered skin, swearing almost immediately at the heat. Again, Jun flinched away, but Nino persistently kept in contact with him. “What did you do, Junpon?” When he spoke, it was with a gentle but concerned tone, the only thing betraying his panic and concern was the wide eyes he gave to the rest of the group.
“I-I’m so sorry please don’t hate me.” Came the response. Nino quickly cooed.
“We don’t hate you, right Ohchan? Aibachan?” A quick agreement came out, with the other two quickly coming forward in equal concern, hands fluttering with uncertainty. “What’s happening, Jun? What’s wrong?” the beta whispered with poorly concealed fright.
“I don’t know. T-they’re not working.”
“What’s not working?” Nino asked urgently, suddenly extremely panicked, recognizing the symptoms for something most omegas are taught to avoid from a relatively young age.
“Suppressants.” Jun half-sobbed.
This time Nino did swear out loud, hands cupping the omega’s rapidly whitening face. “How long did you take them for, Jun? Jun? Look at me.”
Jun’s eyes fluttered, focusing on the gamer’s face and recognizing worry on the everyones’. “N-nearly a month.” He whimpered.
“Shit. Ambulance, hospital, now.” As it was with Sho, Jun resisted, suddenly panicking and grabbing onto Nino and begging not to. “Jun, you need to go to a hospital – you’re not supposed to take suppressants for more than 2 weeks at most. After that it becomes toxic and it’ll stop working. How long have you felt sick? You need to see a doctor as soon as possible.”
“C-can’t. Please. N-no one’s supposed to know.”
“Why not?” This time it was Sho who asked. “You said you weren’t allowed to tell anyone – who told you that, Jun?”
“…Johnny-san. I-it was part of my c-contrac-,” Jun was suddenly interrupted by Nino standing up, expression dark and clearly angry. The older omega stood up, reaching for his phone and started to walk away. Jun panicked at the sight, crying out for Nino. “N-nino! I’m s-sorry. I’m sorry. P-please don’t be angry. I d-didn’t mean to.” His eyes were bright with anxiety and panic as the omega walked away.
Ohno quickly took over from his bondmate’s position, hand reaching out to stroke the omega’s hair and crooning to soothe the panicked and fevered man. “Kazu’s not angry at you, Jun. No one is.”
Keeping himself at a distance from the source of the alluring scent, Sho dragged his attention to Nino, who was now murmuring angrily at his phone, expression furious. He could only faintly make out a few words from what Nino was saying, but his eyes widened when he realized that a) Nino was on the phone with Johnny-san and b) he was swearing at their boss.
Less than 2 minutes later, he got off the phone and walked back to the four, sitting on the couch and wrapping Jun’s limp arm around his shoulders, gesturing for Ohno to do the same at the other side. He threw his phone at the stunned beta and alpha, which was lit with an address of a private hospital.
“That’s the hospital we’re going to. Johnny-san said that you’ve been there before and they know to keep things quiet, so we’re bring you there right now and you’re going to get help, Jun.”