Chapter Text
It’s as they’re all getting up to leave the training room that every single one of them simultaneously goes radio silent as the scent of slick begins filling the room.
”Yuu…ta,” Inumaki whines quietly, though it might as well be a yell given how silent the room is.
It’s like a punch to the gut, and the step forward Yuuta takes is pure instinct; he immediately takes action to soothe the omega. His omega.
Impossibly, his movement causes the atmosphere to become even more charged and tense than it already was; the wave of possessive alpha pheromones oozing off Yuuta causes Kugisaki and Itadori’s eyes to widen and their bodies to stand up straight. He sees Maki immediately start to posture from the corner of his eye before taking a small step forward and angling herself so that she’s half in front of Kugisaki. The younger girl's face is pinched, though whether it be because of Maki's protectiveness or the fact that her instincts rendered her silent he isn’t sure.
But after a brief moment Itadori somehow manages to snap out of it and jump in front of Yuuta, effectively blocking his way to Inumaki. He stretches his arms in front of him, palms out. “Hey, hey, hey, wait, you’re not thinking straight.”
Without even meaning to, the obstacle Itadori has made himself tears a growl from Yuuta so fierce that he still can’t believe he’d been the one to make it.
Yuuta and Fushiguro both notice the way that the sound causes Itadori to blink slowly and his eyes to momentarily glaze over. It has the latter practically materializing in front of Itadori, acting as a barrier.
The shocked and disbelieving expression on Fushiguro’s face directly reflects how Yuuta himself feels, though he can’t spare any time to think about it right now. Not when Inumaki is in heat and calling out for him. “He's mine.”
The sentiment has the omega releasing another quiet whine, successively snapping Yuuta out of his protective haze enough that he shifts his gaze to look at him. His eyes are blown wide and the scent of slick is now even stronger. It’s intoxicating.
(And thank fuck that the two alphas here are already mated; neither Maki nor Fushiguro are affected by Inumaki’s scent.)
But that’s of course not the case for him, because not only is Yuuta unmated, it’s the omega in front of him that Yuuta wants to mate.
So he takes another step forward.
He’s stopped again by a mostly-recovered Itadori, who has used the fact that Fushiguro has his back to him to sidestep out from behind him.
Itadori raises his hands again placatingly. “Okkotsu-senpai…”
“Didn’t you hear me the first time?” Yuuta finds himself growling again. ”He’s mine.”
He sees the way Inumaki nods frantically from the small space between Itadori and Fushiguro. “Salmon,” Inumaki says desperately, and Yuuta's jaw drops.
Itadori bites his lip, expression contrite. “I know you do, but Okkotsu-senpai…”
Yuuta can see it on Fushiguro’s face the second that the implication behind Inumaki’s words and Itadori’s response fully sink in.
He meets Yuuta’s eyes and, despite the tension in his shoulders and the furious expression on his face, there’s a small flicker of understanding in his eyes. It seems to say, accident or not, if you ever dominate Itadori like that again I’ll kill you combined with I know we’d both act the same way if our positions were reversed.
Once Yuuta nods in agreement—because it was an accident, and if Yuuta was to ever do it again he'd gladly hand Fushiguro the knife—the younger boy does a complete 180: his lip quirks up slightly and he gives a subtle nod before turning around to face his omega.
Yuuta can hear him sigh when he notices how Itadori moved out from behind him while he wasn’t looking. He grabs his wrist and pulls him back.
“It’s okay,” Fushiguro says slowly in that voice Yuuta has only ever heard the boy use when speaking to his mate. He brings his hand up to cup the back of Itadori’s neck. “Let them go.”
It's then that Kugisaki finally speaks up, though unlike Itadori she hasn’t moved from her place behind a silent and still-posturing Maki. A smart move on her part. “Like hell we will–”
“It’s mutual,” Fushiguro cuts her off without tearing his gaze from Itadori. “Trust me.”
With that Yuuta looks at Inumaki, and the moment they meet each other’s gaze the omega all but flies across the room and into Yuuta’s arms. “Yuuta,” he breathes into Yuuta’s chest where he’s rubbing his face all over it as if to spread his scent.
It’s obvious he’s barely holding himself together; they need to get to a safe place before Inumaki goes over the edge.
“Let’s go back to your room, yeah? Back to your nest,” he whispers.
It’s as if the words flip a switch in Inumaki’s brain, because he’s immediately dragging Yuuta out into the hallway.
“Be safe!” he hears Itadori yell after them, and the fact that the omega is talking to him, isn’t furious at him, is mind-blowing.
I'm going to have to do an insane amount of groveling after this, he thinks absently as they scramble into Inumaki’s bedroom. He’s surprised to note that he’s completely fine with that.
The second the door closes Inumaki is down on his knees and pulling at Yuuta’s pants like he’s starving for it, and Yuuta decides he’ll deal with that when the time comes.