Work Text:
Chanyeol’s day was not a normal one.
Prior day, Saturday, he invited two of his friends over to his house—where he lived with his parents—to hang out since he was going to have the house empty for the night.
But he forgot the fact his friends are troublesome idiots that will cause any type of chaos every time they can.
A night that was intended to consist of being at peace and watching shows with his friends ended up with two little fucks bickering about some random topic, and the situation managed to convert to his friends using his home as a playground.
Their playful fighting and them running around led to his mother’s favorite plant pot—yes, a plant pot—to tragically fall to the floor and break into little pieces.
He was doomed.
He knew how much his mother liked that pot. (He still doesn’t understand, and probably won’t, how she can adore a piece of… ceramic… to even consider it a prized possession.)
He created an agreement between his two friends, making them give him money to be able to replace the pot the next day.
And so that’s what he did the next morning.
He woke up early, a very strange thing for him to do, and as soon as he got ready and saw his parents were knocked out, he headed out to the store for gardening, he managed to remember the same store his mother bought the pot from.
But odd things started happening to him in the store.
The store was close to empty, it was an early sunday morning, there wasn’t going to be many people.
He started walking through many of the aisles, his breathing got deeper and his vision became sharper.
Hearing soft and small steps behind him made his head rapidly turn back many times, checking his surroundings carefully.
Nothing.
There wasn’t a single trace of anyone or anything near him, a sense of anxiousness rose through his body.
Chanyeol sped up his step, wanting to get to the next aisles as soon as he could.
He reached the pots section, exactly what he was looking for, he needed to find the exact one his mother had and get out of the store.
He walked to the shelf the pots were on and started looking for the right one.
He was about to grab one of the pots to check it- but arms wrapping around his back caused him to jump up and gasp.
“You- you smell so good…”
Those words are muttered into his back by a soft-spoken voice.
Chanyeol has been debating for three minutes between his two ideas: push the stranger as hard as he can and run away, or calmly turn around and ask the stranger what he needs and wants.
He removes the stranger's hands from his body and turns around, and he’s welcomed by the sight of not a huge guy trying to kidnap him, but a short boy no older than twenty years old. He was relieved knowing he wasn’t in danger.
However, he doesn’t remember seeing this guy anywhere before, and he’s confused about what happened.
“Erm, is there anything you need?” He speaks up with a frown on his face.
The short boy with black locks stares up at him with lost eyes, his lips are slightly open but zero words come out from his mouth.
“Hello?” Chanyeol says, waving his hand in front of the boy’s face trying to get his attention.
“I’m not trying to sound like an asshole, really, but what do you want?”
“I…” He finally acknowledges Chanyeol’s words, shaking his head and blinking quickly.
“I’m- I'm sorry!” The boy yelps and backs up, his eyes starting to water. “Your scent attracted me a lot when I saw you so I followed you and- I thought you could maybe be my alpha-“
“My what? Your alpha?” He interrupts, disorientation written all over his face. If he has to be honest, he has met some quite strange people before, but he’s never heard someone say such things. Is this guy into roleplaying as the moon people?
He inspects around, thankfully there isn’t anyone near them, he wouldn’t like someone to hear the ridiculous conversation he’s having with this guy.
“Listen… There must be some type of misunderstanding, I'm not your…. alpha… or whatever you think I am.” he chuckles nervously.
The boy tilts his head and raises his eyebrows, gasping as if he had a realization.
“Oh! So you’re a beta? That’s okay!” He cheers.
“I think you’re very confused right now. I’m not into that kind of stuff… and I have no idea who you are, so please, are you going to waste my time or is there anything you actually need? I’m kind of in a hurry.” He firmly says, catching a breath.
All Chanyeol could see on the stranger’s face was dejection.
The shorter boy’s lips were trembling, his joyful posture drooped. A subtle tear warning to drop down the latter’s face, panic began rising through Chanyeol, making a stranger cry in the middle of a gardening store wasn't his plan.
“S-so you don’t want me?” The latter bawled out.
“Hey- Listen-“ Chanyeol bites his lip, sighing as he brushes his hair back with his fingers.
“I don’t think this is something we should discuss here, we should take this somewhere else.” Chanyeol says.
The boy nods and wipes his tears with his fists.
Chanyeol cautiously grabs the latter’s wrist and starts walking out the store rapidly.
It was going to be a very strange day.
==
“So- your name is Baekhyun?” Chanyeol asks and the latter nods. “And I'm Chanyeol.”
Chanyeol took Baekhyun to a park nearby, just a few blocks away.
“And if I’m catching up right, you thought I was your… alpha?” Chanyeols says.
“You are my mate… but- I’m confused about you… are you an alpha or a beta?” Baekhyun asks confidently, as if it’s something normal to ask anyone.
“Uh- A person? I think there’s something missing here. I have no idea what you mean by alpha or beta.”’ He says.
Baekhyun sighs, frustrated over the other not understanding him.
Is he trying to act as if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about just to reject him? He could just reject Baekhyun right there and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
“You- you can just say you don’t want me. You don’t have to pretend.” Baekhyun says.
Chanyeol is taken aback by the accusation from the guy he just met less than 2 hours ago, he didn’t know how to respond properly.
“I’m being very serious, I honestly don’t know what you mean by alpha or beta- I’m just a human?”
Baekhyun widened his eyes and gasped.
“So my mate is actually a human?! I never expected this!” He exclaims.
And Chanyeol is more lost than ever before.
He was supposed to buy a damn pot his friends broke for his mother, and he ended up with a shorty claiming they’re some type of mates.
“Let’s say I understand what you’re saying, so what happens if we are ‘mates’? Anything happens to me?” Chanyeol remarks the word mates.
“Uhm- You court me, or I court you- anything is okay- and we become lovers…?” The latter replies, bouncing his leg.
“Woah woah! I think you missed a few chapters there! Court? Lovers? I barely knew your name a few minutes ago!” He says, addled at Baekhyun’s words.
Chanyeol rubs his temple and sighs, he takes out his phone and opens the contacts app.
“Add your number here- I’d like to understand what you’re trying to say but I don’t have any time for this right now.” Chanyeol says, putting his phone on Baekhyun’s hands.
“I’ll try to contact you or whatever when I can, but I really don’t have time right now.” He said calmly.
Baekhyun types down his phone number and returns it to Chanyeol, staring at him with hopeful eyes.
“Will you actually call me back someday?” Baekhyun questions.
“Of course I will. You’re trying to tell me something but I clearly don’t understand and I kind of need to know, so oh yes, I will.” Chanyeol reassures him.
“Please do… I've been trying to find my mate for so long…” He begs, pleading with his droopy eyes.
He nods and stands up, many questions flashing through his brain as he starts to walk away, leaving Baekhyun sitting on the bench.
He needed to talk to his friends as soon as he could.
==
He rang the bell when he arrived at his friend’s house, waiting a few seconds for the door to open.
“Chanyeol? We just saw each other yesterday with Jongin, need anything?” Sehun asks, a friend who Chanyeol has had for a couple of years.
“You always think I need something when I come over.”
“Because you usually do.”
“Whatever, are you gonna let me go in or…” Chanyeol says.
“My bad! My parents aren’t home so go upstairs to my room, I'll get something from the kitchen quickly.” Sehun says, moving from the door to let the other in.
==
“So what happened? Did you buy your mom’s pot?” Sehun says as he walks into his room with a glass of water, he sits on his desk’s chair.
“Now that I remember- I didn’t. And how’d you know something exactly happened?” Chanyeol asks, raising an eyebrow with his arms crossed.
“Because something always happens to you. Start talking and stop beating around the bush.” Sehun scolded.
“Well- It’s a very strange story.” Chanyeol scratches the back of his neck.
Sehun shrugs, telling him to start the story.
Chanyeol starts ranting to Sehun, explaining how someone he thought would be a creepy stalking kidnapper ended up being a shorty that barely reached up to his chin.
How the same boy—Baekhyun—asked if he was an alpha of beta- and claimed they were somehow mates.
Sehun blinked and sipped water from the glass.
“So?” Those are the only words Sehun said after his twenty minute long rant.
“So? So?! What do you mean ‘so’?!” Chanyeol scoffed.
“So what? You found your mate, congrats.” Sehun said firmly with no evidence of sarcasm in his voice.
“You- you can’t be serious- you think you’re one of those moon people too?” Chanyeol says, desperation all over his voice.
“Huh?”
“Uh- you know, the ones that live in the forest or something like that.” He says with furrowed eyebrows.
The noisy laugh Sehun let out made him furrow his eyebrows even more.
“Hey! What are you laughing at, idiot!” Chanyeol stands up from Sehun’s bed to walk up to him, trying to give him light punches.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Sehun says, wiping tears from his eyes, trying to contain his giggles.
“So you know the moon people are much closer to us than you think, right?”
“Yeah sure, very funny though. Nice try.” Chanyeol says, rolling his eyes.
“Chanyeol… do you actually not know they don’t only live in the forest… they’re almost everywhere around us. You can’t be serious…” Sehun stutters out, his voice full of worry. Chanyeol is an idiot, but he can’t be such a huge idiot to not know about that.
“No?! I fucking don’t?! I can’t recall meeting any moon people before in my life, I always thought they lived far away from the city!” Chanyeol snaps.
And he still hasn’t bought that stupid pot for his mother.
“How do you even know about that? Have you ever met them before in the city?” Chanyeol says.
“You never pay attention to anything I ever say, do you?” Sehun sighs, putting the glass cup on his desk.
“Remember how I told you about the very weird way my parents met?” Sehun asks and Chanyeol nods.
“Well… my mother is a human, my father is not. My father is an alpha, a moon person, he found my mother through her scent, in the city. I’ve told you this story several times before!” Sehun explains to Chanyeol. He really is a fool.
“So… you’re telling me I have a wolf-like human that’s strangely attracted to my smell as a ‘mate’?” Chanyeol says, there’s no way a moon boy claimed they’re mates, he’s giving up on trying to find any logic.
“Why do you have to describe it in such a weird way? You really need to catch up! Go home and start researching!” Sehun says, making Chanyeol leave his room, leading him to the front door.
“Wait! If your dad is a moon person wouldn’t that make you one of them too?” Chanyeol asks.
“Good question... I didn’t really inherit any traits… only thing is I can smell people’s scents, but I won't feel attracted to them over their scent- It’s just some weird trait I got. I barely pay any attention to it though, doesn’t bother me much.” Sehun replies.
“Well that’s all you need to know! Now go home and research some stuff, which you really need to do, and don’t forget to call that poor boy! Bye!” Sehun says as he closes the door right in front of Chanyeol’s face.
“You little son of a…”
==
When he arrived home, his parents were busy doing their own thing, they didn’t ask or question where he was. Thankfully, his mother hasn’t mentioned the missing pot from the table.
He went to his room, sat down on his bed, and started to search up tons of things about moon people.
Everyone knows about their existence, but he never thought he would meet any since they all lived in very reserved places. And him, a human, suddenly finding out he’s the mate of a moon boy made him almost lose his mind.
He read an article describing physical characteristics of moon people’s second gender, and Baekhyun fit the description of an omega perfectly.
But he also read other articles that worried him, moon people were mates for life.
Chanyeol can’t remember the last time he had a relationship he committed.
Would have he been able to choose another partner if he wanted to? What if he didn’t want his mate? Wasn’t he going to be allowed to choose his own lover?
But he found no clear answers to those questions.
His only option was to talk to Baekhyun who had claimed him as his mate this day.
==
A few weeks later after that weird day, he finally had the courage to call Baekhyun.
He learned enough information about moon people, and he processed everything, almost.
Around eleven in the morning he dialed the number Baekhyun saved on his phone. It took a while to get a response, but when the phone got picked up, he felt extremely nervous.
“H-hello? Who is this?” The same soft-spoken voice he heard at the gardening store spoke up.
“Hey… It’s me, Chanyeol. It’s been a while. Remember me?” He feels awkward, he dislikes phone calls.
“Mate!” The latter on the other line exclaims.
“Uh- yeah that’s me. I’d like to see you- whenever you can.” Chanyeol says.
He hears the words my mate wants to see me be whispered through the phone.
“Yes! I can see you today!” Baekhyun exclaims.
“Alright, where would we meet?” Chanyeol asks.
“Would you… like to come over to my place? I live with my parents by the way…” Baekhyun mutters.
“Uh sure! Send the address to this number and I'll get there in a few hours. See you, Baekhyun.”
The call ends and he puts his phone away.
He’s not sure if he should trust Baekhyun, he’s still just a stranger he talked with for less than a day.
He just hopes this day isn’t as weird as that last one.
==
When he arrived at the address, he was surprised at the sight of a very nice house.
He knocked on the door and waited for Baekhyun to open it, but he didn’t expect an older woman to open the door.
“Oh my gosh! Is it you?!” The lady cheered, with a very bright mood.
“Uh- hi, Is Baekhyun home?” Chanyeol asked, he looked around not knowing what to do.
“Oh! Baekhyunee! Your mate is here!” The lady shouted inside the house.
So it is true. Baekhyun is a moon boy.
Chanyeol chuckled nervously at the woman’s words, she must be Baekhyun’s mother.
“Mom! I told you not to-” A muffled voice started to get louder as he heard footsteps coming near to the entrance.
It was Baekhyun. He walked outside to stand next to Chanyeol and shoo-ed away his mother, telling her to go back inside.
“Chanyeol- I’m sorry for that. I’m glad you’re here now, I was scared you wouldn’t call me back.” Baekhyun said.
“Don’t worry about it. Is there somewhere we could talk? I don’t think talking at your door is the right thing.” He jokes, trying to make the atmosphere not so awkward.
“Oh sure! Let’s go to my backyard. We don’t have to go inside my home, there’s a small path by here that leads to it. Follow me.” Baekhyun says, showing Chanyeol his smile.
Last time he saw him he wasn’t able to fully pay attention to his features since he was in a big rush, but he definitely is a pretty sight.
With pouty jelly-like lips and a tiny mole above them, smooth fair skin, and droopy eyes that look like a sad puppy’s eyes. Baekhyun is short and has a delicate figure.
If he hadn’t met Baekhyun in such a strange way, he would’ve definitely been interested in him.
When they reached the backyard, he was welcomed by many plants and flowers all over the place. It seems like Baekhyun or his family is really into gardening, the plants looked very well taken care of.
Baekhyun guided Chanyeol to two chairs that were next to a small table, and they sat down.
Chanyeol clears his throat and proceeds to talk.
“So- there’s a lot of talking we have to do.”
Baekhyun nods.
“How does this mate thing work with humans?” Chanyeol gets straight to the point.
“So you’re actually a human?” Baekhyun asks.
“Yes… I am. Sorry for acting like a jerk last time. I was truly confused about everything and I didn’t believe you were part of the moon people, I wasn’t aware they were so civilized like humans.” Sincerity in Chanyeol's voice.
“It’s okay… it’s not really your fault. I’m also sorry for approaching you in such a creepy way… I made things awkward and weird between us.”
“Our lifestyle is not much different than yours, sure we do have some strange differences… but we’re still partially human.” Baekhyun says.
“It’s not normal for humans to be attracted to someone within a day… but we feel attracted to our mates no matter the time.” Baekhyun continues.
“Would you… would you let me try to convince you I’m worthy of being your mate, Chanyeol? it’s rare for us omegas to do the courting… but I will!” Baekhyun finishes.
Chanyeol swallows thickly, thinking about Baekhyuns’s words.
There’s nothing to lose. He hasn’t been interested in anyone for the last months, and a cutie offering to ‘court’ him isn’t something he gets offered everyday.
He would see himself romancing his partner, not the other way around, but does it really matter?
“Baekhyun- I can’t assure you I'll like you immediately, but I’ll let you try,”
“And you need to teach me a lot of things about moon people.” Chanyeol says.
“I- really? Chanyeol, I'll show you! And I will!” Baekhyun cheers.
Chanyeol smiles back at him, his dimple making an appearance.
“I know this’ll sound weird but… m-may I hug you for a little? Your scent is very strong and it’s kind of affecting me-“
“Uh sure? Yeah sure-” Chanyeol stammered, sitting up to stand up in front of Baekhyun.
He can’t think of anything that’ll go wrong.
==
His relationship with Baekhyun is going better than he expected.
Throughout their many days of talking, Chanyeol and Baekhyun learned many things about each other, and Chanyeol learned many things about moon people.
It didn’t matter to him that Chanyeol wasn’t a moon person and wasn’t able to smell how he felt, because he loved solving problems by communication.
Baekhyun explained many things to him about mates and scents.
How courting was an essential part of becoming mates and having a relationship full of love.
And as Baekhyun taught him new things about moon people for weeks, he didn’t realize how hard he fell for the other.
How passionate Baekhyun was when talking about his love for gardening, how he liked learning about the meanings of flowers.
How Baekhyun’s eyes shine whenever he talks with Chanyeol.
Baekhyun also explained to him one of the most important celebrations moon people have, a festival very far away from the city.
Festival which Baekhyun invited him to go to.
The festival in which he tasted Baekhyun’s lips for the first time.