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Dongmyeong wakes up feeling nauseous. He curls in on himself hoping to ease the need to vomit. It doesn’t work. He runs to the bathroom and throws up. He rests his head on the cool seat of the toilet, immediately feeling better. There must have been something wrong with the food he ate yesterday.
“Myeong baby? Are you okay?” He lifts his head and regrets it immediately, as his stomach turns again. In the doorway is one of his four mates.
“I’m fine Harin, I think I ate something off yesterday.”
“I’ll get you some water, do you want one of us to stay with you?”
“I’ll be okay, don’t wake up the others for no reason.”
“If you’re sure.” Dongmyeong gives a small nod. “Give me a shout if it gets worse.” Dongmyeong nods again and rests his head back on the toilet. He still feels rough, but he doesn’t think he’ll throw up again.
Harin returns with a glass of water and sits on the floor next to his smaller mate. As Dongmyeong takes the glass from his hands, he curls into Harin’s side. The cool liquid soothes his throat, and his stomach starts to settle.
“Thanks,” Dongmyeong murmurs. Harin presses a kiss to his forehead.
“You know I’d do anything for you.”
“Shut up and let me be grateful.” Harin chuckles, glad to see his mate back to his sassy self.
“Are you sure it was something you ate?” Dongmyeong looks up at him confused. “You’ve never had food poisoning that’s woken you up at 3AM before, is all.”
“I don’t know what else it could be, maybe norovirus but I really hope not cause then you’ll get it cause that shit’s super contagious.” He punctuates his sentence with a sigh.
“Let’s get you cleaned up and back to bed, yeah?” Dongmyeong nods and lets Harin take charge of brushing his teeth and cleaning the toilet. He then washes both of their hands and gently dries them. “Want me to carry you?” Dongmyeong wouldn’t usually say yes, but usually he doesn’t wake up at arse crack AM to throw up; he hooks his head on the elder’s shoulder and wraps his arms round his neck.
***
The next morning Dongmyeong throws up again and his mates are beginning to get more concerned. It can’t be food poisoning or norovirus because the symptoms have only been in the morning.
“This isn’t normal Myeong; Harin might have gone easy on you yesterday, but you should really go to the urgent care centre.” It’s unsurprising that Yonghoon is the one to bring up hospitals, but Dongmyeong is adamant that he’s okay.
“If it continues, I’ll call 111 but I’m not wasting NHS resources just for them to tell me to eat plain foods, drink plenty of water and rest. You know I hate the questions they always ask.” They all nod. Having four mating bites is extremely uncommon and most people aren’t the most welcoming to polyamorous mates.
“You’d have to go today or tomorrow though,” Giwook speaks up timidly. “My heat’s due tomorrow and if one of you take him then only two of you will be here and I haven’t had a heat without all of you in years and I know Dongmyeong should see someone, but I don’t know if I’d be able to cope if you weren’t all here. What if it’s worse than usual, what if I it goes back to how bad it was before, what if..." Hyungu pulls him into an embrace which stops Giwook in his tracks.
“We’ll all be here for you baby. Focus on your breathing. In and out, in and out.” Hyungu helps the omega to return to his regular breathing and plants a kiss on the crown of his head. “You’re so strong and even if Dongmyeong has to go to urgent care tomorrow, I’m sure Dongju can take him. The rest of us will be here for you.”
“Nurses are more willing to listen to people with only one mate, it makes life so much easier.” Dongmyeong scrunches his brow in contempt. “I hate it.”
“Only if you’re ok with Donju going with you, instead of one of us.”
“Yonghoon, I haven’t even decided to go yet, but yeah I’d want Dongju to go with me, he’s actually really comforting to be around when I’m sick. He makes surprisingly good chicken soup.”
“You should tell him you’re ill,” Harin says.
“He probably already knows, but I’ll give him a call later.”
***
The next day he's sick again and as soon as he starts to feel better again Yonghoon thrusts a phone in his hand with 111 already dialled.
They ask the basic questions, birthday (10/01/2000), where you currently are (home), sex (male), what your a/b/o status is (beta with multiple mates), are you alone (no, my mates are with me) and symptoms (vomiting in the morning three days in a row). They tell him not to worry and that if symptoms continue he should visit urgent care.
"That means if you throw up tomorrow morning, I'm calling Dongju immediately and you are spending the day at urgent care whether you like it or not."
"Yes dad." Yonghoon winces at the nickname.
"You know I hate when you call me that. "
***
For the fourth day in a row Dongmyeong vomits almost as soon as he wakes up and much to his protest at it only being 5AM and that Dongju will be asleep; Yonghoon makes the phone call.
Dongju arrives at their house within half an hour wearing jeans and one of Geonhak's giant hoodies. He looks to still be half asleep, but he drove there and is functioning enough to not have crashed. Dongmyeong reluctantly joins him in the car after apologising to Giwook for leaving on the day his heat is due.
"What have you gotten yourself into?"
"That's what we're hopefully going to find out, if they even believe me. I feel fine now, if not a bit tired. Although the skin on my chest has been a bit painful to touch."
"Is that why your wearing Harin's softest hoodie?"
"Am I not allowed to wear my mate's clothes? I never mention it when you wear Geonhak's."
"Yeah, but I wear Geonhak's clothes all the time, you only wear one of your mate's clothes when there's something wrong."
"I hate how well you know me, just focus on driving, wake me up when we get there."
Inside the urgent care centre, Dongmyeong gives his name, birth date and symptoms before the receptionist sends them to sit in the waiting area. He hates hospitals: too many sick people, too much prejudice, too bright lights. He fights the urge to bite his nails, not wanting to ruin his manicure and rests his head on Dongju’s shoulder.
“Thanks for coming with me.”
“I’d be a shit twin, if I didn’t.”
The twins are only there for half an hour before Dongmyeong’s name is called and they follow a young looking nurse down one of the pristine corridors to another brightly lit room. She asks him to lie on the exam table and describe his symptoms. She checks his pulse, blood pressure and heartrate but finds no anomalies or issues.
“Would you mind giving me a urine sample and letting me take some blood just to double check everything?” Dongmyeong nods, knowing that his mates would be worried if he didn’t. “I’ll take some bloods first and then if you could take this cup to the toilets in the waiting room, just urinate in it and place it in the metal hatch by the door. I’ll give you a shout once we have the urine results back, the bloodwork will take a few days so someone will give you a call once they’re done. Would you prefer us to call your mobile or landline?”
“Mobile please.”
“And is this number on record the correct one?” She holds out Dongmyeong’s patient file on a tablet.
“Yes that number is correct.”
“Great, I’ll just go and grab a bloodwork set, it won’t be a moment.” As she leaves the room Dongmyeong lets out a shaky breath.
“It seems positive so far.” Dongju mutters, he doesn’t seem certain of his words.
“I really hope so, I don’t want Yonghoon to stress about me, he’s got enough on his plate already.” Dongju chuckles lightly. “What?”
“He’ll stress about you no matter what.” Dongmyeong nods in agreement just as the nurse returns. She starts to prepare the needle and a handful of vials to store his blood in.
“Ready?” Dongmyeong nods apprehensively. “I’ll put the needle in first, it should just feel like a sharp scratch. Deep breath in and relax.” She squeezes his arm at the same time and finds a vain easily. “There we go, vial one.” She waits for it to fill and then does three more. “And that’s four. I’m going to remove the needle and place some cotton there and then you can go and fill that cup for me.” He nods again as she tapes the cotton to his arm. “Great, get the cup done asap.”
“Will do, thank you.” The twins leave the room and head straight for the men’s toilets where Dongju waits outside. Five minutes later Dongmyeong is out, and they head back to the waiting room.
“How was peeing in that cup?” Dongju has a glint in his eyes.
“Difficult, the splash back was awful.” Dongmyeong shakes his head, as if to remove the memory. “Never want to do that again.” Dongju just giggles.
“You should try peeing on a pregnancy test.” Dongmyeong rolls his eyes and gets ready to wait around for a while, glad to see the place is still very quiet.
***
“Son Dongmyeong?” It’s the same nurse from earlier. When they get to her she speaks in a hushed tone, “you may want your mate to wait out here.” The twins look at each other in shocked disgust.
“No, no we’re brothers, twins. We’re not mates.” The nurse looks horrified.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, I just assumed, I shouldn’t have. You may want your brother to wait outside.”
“I’d rather he was in there with me, is it really that bad?” Dongmyeong’s voice is slightly pitched up.
“Not necessarily bad, just surprising. He can come in if you’d prefer.” Dongmyeong nods and she leads them to the same room as before. This time she motions them both towards the chairs at the desk. “First, I just need to double check you’re a/b/o status.”
“I’m a beta.”
“Are you absolutely certain?”
“Yes, I’ve never experienced a heat or rut or had any other alpha or omega characteristics. Why?”
“So there’s no chance you could get pregnant?”
“No.” Dongmyeong sounds unsure of his answer. He can’t be pregnant, there’s no way for beta males to get pregnant, Giwook is the only one of them that can get pregnant and they’re all so careful about it. He feels Dongju’s hand on his shoulder and remembers to breathe.
“Well, there might be a mistake with the urine test results then, but I would recommend going for an ultrasound with your mate. Just in case some scientific miracle has happened, and you are in fact pregnant. We have an appointment available tom…”
“Wait. I’m pregnant? But that’s not possible.” Dongmyeong can feel panic rising in his stomach.
“It is highly unlikely; and you might just have a hormone imbalance. However, it is best to be on the safe side. There is an ultrasound appointment available tomorrow at noon or at 2:30 pm if either of those work for you. It is just a recommendation, but it is better to be safe than sorry.” Dongmyeong nods weakly.
“I’ll take the noon appointment please.”
“Great, that’s booked in for you.” She smiles softly. “It will be in the maternity unit, which you can access by the doors you came in today and taking the lift to the third floor. I would suggest bringing your mate with you, rather than your brother. It would be a shame for him to miss out on the news.”
“What if I have more than one mate?” Dongmyeong hopes she won’t make some awful comment.
“I would suggest bringing the one most likely to be the father, not that it makes them more important, but this seems to be the case with most polycules. Also, since you’ve been vomiting, it’s been at least 2 weeks since conception, if you are pregnant. There is no harm in bringing all of your mates, but not all of the nurses here are as accepting as me.” Dongmyeong nods and thanks her profusely as he stands up to leave. “Take care of yourself.”
***
Dongmyeong has been stood outside his front door for five minutes trying to gather the strength to open it. The others are probably too busy taking care of Giwook to have smelled him return. He takes deep breaths and starts planning how to tell them the news. He’s too lost in thought to hear someone approaching the door until it’s already open and Harin pulls him into a hug.
“The others wanted to wait for you to open the door, but it was killing me; knowing you were out here stressing about it. No matter what it is, we all love you and we won’t stop.” Harin practically crushes him as he talks into Dongmyeong’s hair.
“Thanks. Is everyone awake?”
“Yeah, Giwook’s pretty tired but he’s been refusing to sleep.” They both laugh lightly and walk to the bedroom hand in hand. Giwook is curled up across Hyungu and Yonghoon’s laps and Dongmyeong craves to be that close with all of his mates, so he crawls onto the bed and buries his face in the back of Giwook’s hoodie.
“Hey baby,” says Yonghoon. “Myeong’s back.” Giwook shifts slightly to take Dongmyeong’s hand.
“You’re ok right, you’re not going to die?” Dongmyeong chuckles softly at Giwook’s weak voice.
“Well they don’t think I’m ill, but the nurse was really shocked by my results.” Giwook manages to turn around to face Dongmyeong and stroke his cheek.
“What is it?”
“I… well… I’m… the nurse thinks I might be pregnant.” He refuses to make eye-contact with any of his mates, his voice muffled by Giwook’s soft hoodie. They all tense up almost imperceptibly.
“How is that even possible? You’re a beta?” Harin says incredulously. Dongmyeong’s four mates form a circle around him.
“She said there’s just a chance I have a hormone imbalance, but I have an ultrasound booked for tomorrow to make sure.”
“Do you want one of us to take you?” Hyungu asks. Dongmyeong, who can’t bring himself to answer verbally, lifts his head and nods. “Who do you want to take you?”
“The nurse said whoever was most likely to be the father, but I don’t know. I don’t want to pick. I want all of you to take me, but nurses can be so judgy about having multiple mates.”
“How about we play rock paper scissors, and the winner takes you?” Dongmyeong nods at Harin’s suggestion. “Because Giwook is still in heat, the other two will stay here with him.” The three oldest chant rock paper scissors. Harin throws rock. Yonghoon throws scissors. Hyungu throws paper.
“Even the universe wants us all to go.” Dongmyeong whines petulantly, falling backwards into Harin’s lap.
“Let’s try again,” Hyungu says. This time Yonghoon and Hyungu both throw scissors and Harin throws rock.
“Looks like you’re stuck with me.” Harin chuckles.
“Right,” Yonghoon asserts. “There are some important things to discuss, if you are pregnant: 1. Will you keep the baby. I personally think the decision is 100% yours to make and will support you whatever you decide; 2. Will you want to do a paternity test to find out which one of us is the biological father. Once again the decision should be yours, but we are all here to make this easier for you.”
Dongmyeong nods slowly, brain turning the thoughts over in his head. These were both things he had been mulling over, since he found out he might be pregnant.
“I want to keep the baby.” He pauses. “We’ve all been talking about how we want kids and I know we were going to wait until we all had more stable jobs, but I want this and if you’re all here to support me and the baby I think we can do it.” Dongmyeong speaks so fast his words blur together.
“Breathe baby,” Harin whispers. Dongmyeong folds further into Harin’s big, strong arms and receives a kiss on the top of his head.
“I don’t want to do a paternity test, I don’t care who the other biological parent is, the baby will be all of ours. If, when they’re older, they want to find out which one of you idiots impregnated me, then we can do a paternity test.”
“There’s the sassy Dongmyeong I know and love,” Yonghoon cooed, while placing a reassuring hand on the second youngest’s knee. “I support you 100% in this, and I’m going to try so hard not to get my hopes up about having a child.” The smile on Yonghoon’s face is almost unbelievably wide. The quintuple have always spoken about how good of a dad Yonghoon would be, and the thought of it coming true for him sends his heart fluttering.
“I also am fully behind you in this,” Hyungu hummed.
“I’m here for you every step of the way,” Harin whispered into his hair.
“Me too,” Giwook mumbled. “Can we nap.”
“Of course baby.”
***
The next morning, Dongmyeong wakes from a restless sleep, still wrapped in the arms of his mates. All he wants, is to find out, if and how he’s pregnant. He carefully manoeuvres out from the tangle of limbs and blankets, to get a glass of water. He’s barely finished pouring it, when he feels small arms wrap around his waist.
“I missed you yesterday. Not just because I’m in heat and having you here would have made it slightly easier, but also because I was worried.” Giwook rests his forehead between Dongmyeong’s shoulder blades.
“I hate that I couldn’t be with you, I was worried about you too. It sucks that I’m not gonna be here again today.”
“And you're taking Harin,” Giwook moaned.
“And I’m taking Harin. I really am the worst boyfriend.” Dongmyeong turns, so he is facing Giwook. He smiles, cheekily and tucks the youngest’s hair behind his ear. “At least today you won’t have to worry about me.”
“I am worried though; yesterday, when you said you might be pregnant, the first thing I felt was jealousy. I don’t want to be jealous of you for being pregnant, I want to be happy and excited. It’s probably because I’m in heat, but what if it’s not? I don’t want to spend nine months disliking a part of our relationship.”
“The fact you’ve brought this up with me, just shows you’re willing to work on it. Just keep talking to me and we can make us both as comfortable as possible. We have nine months to figure this whole thing out.” His voice drops to a whisper. “I’d probably be jealous of you if you were pregnant too.” Dongmyeong pulls him into a tight squeeze. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Giwook leans back and looks him in the eyes. “ I’m glad there’s nothing wrong with you.”
“Me too.”
***
Dongmyeong and Harin are in the waiting room of the maternity unit, anxiety leaking from every pore in the younger man’s body. Harin has a muscular arm reaching round to squeeze Dongmyeong’s shoulder and his other hand gently rubs his knee. They arrived early and have been sat there for at least half an hour. In that time they had filled out the necessary paperwork and started playing a reluctant game of I spy to keep Dongmyeong’s mind occupied.
“Son Dongmyeong?” a nurse calls from the doorway. He stands up quickly and pulls Harin towards the room. They sit in chairs across the desk from the nurse.
“So which one of you is pregnant?” Dongmyeong looks rapidly between the two sets of eyes on him.
“We think he might be pregnant, even though he’s a beta. The nurse we spoke to at urgent care booked the appointment.” The nurse gives a look that can only be described as sceptical.
“If you says so. Right get on the bed and hold your shirt up to your chest. Depending on time of conception, if you’re even pregnant, we might not be able to see much.” With no warning she slathers the ultrasound gel on his stomach, he tries his best not to flinch. Harin is staring daggers into her back at the way she’s treating his mate. She prodded the probe against the gel and looked at the screen. “Well there’s definitely a uterus and a lining, this void looking spot suggests that an egg has been fertilised, however because you’re a beta I cannot confirm this.”
“I’d like a second opinion,” Dongmyeong speaks up. Harin has pride radiating from his eyes. The nurse stands up defiantly.
“I have to get you that even if I don’t see how that’s necessary.” She stands up defiantly and leaves the room.
“God she was awful,” Dongmyeong scoffed.
“I’m really proud of you standing up to her.” Harin brushes a hair off the younger man’s forehead. “She was awful to you, hopefully whoever does the second opinion will be better.” A blonde man in scrubs walks into the room.
“Hi, I’m Ross, I’m here to give a second opinion, Karen didn’t give me much to go off of. So what can I do for you?”
“Well, my partner is a beta, as far as we know, and we were sent here after urgent care told us he could be pregnant. Karen, who didn’t even introduce herself to us, was rude and dismissive and we would like to have someone else look at the ultrasound.” Harin explained.
“We’ve had a few complaints about her, I’m sorry about that.” He looks sheepishly at Dongmyeong. “Can I have a look?” Dongmyeong nods. Ross gently presses the probe on his stomach. The same image Karen saw before appears on the screen. “There is definitely evidence of pregnancy. I have some necessary questions to ask first, if that’s ok?” He passes Dongmyeong a paper towel to wipe down his stomach.
“Go ahead,” Dongmyeong nods, pulling his shirt down.
“Are you going to keep the baby?”
“Yes, we’ve discussed it and it’s what we want.” Dongmyeong’s answer is quick.
“And is your partner the father?”
“Maybe?” Dongmyeong’s answer is definitely a question.
“But you still want to keep it?” The nurse is just curious, there is no judgement in his words.
“Well, we have multiple mates, and any one of them could be the father really. We have no interest in doing a paternity test at the moment.” It’s Harin who speaks up.
“My sister has three mates, she’s so happy. Sorry this is about you. Okay and finally I just need to make sure that you understand at this point in pregnancy the chance of miscarriage is rather high, so maybe keep it to yourselves for the next nine weeks. Also, because you’ve never shown any signs of being an omega, you’ll need extra appointments just to make sure everything is going smoothly.” The two men nod.
“Thank you for being so understanding. Not everyone is open minded to relationships like ours.” Dongmyeong smiles giddily at Harin as he speaks. He can’t believe that he’s really pregnant.
“I’ll make sure all of that information ends up in your notes and the right information booklets and letters about future appointments make it to you. Good luck with everything.”
“Thank you,” they say in unison as they walk out of the door. They leave the hospital hand in hand, smiles wide on their faces.
***
When they get home, they’re ambushed at the door by three fully grown men acting like puppies. They manage to shoo them all into the living room.
Before anyone can ask Dongmyeong lets loose. “Yes I’m pregnant, but the chance of miscarriage is very high.” Giwook is the first to crowd him into a hug and Dongmyeong’s heart swells. “We’re gonna be dads.” Dongmyeong is tearful as he says that aloud for the first time. Harin and Hyungu join the hug.
“Oh my god we’re gonna be dads,” Yonghoon exclaims and wraps his arms around all four of his mates.