Chapter Text
‘Edelgard, can you come over? There is an Omega at my apartment that needs an Alpha.’
Dimitri hadn’t meant for one simple message to send the group chat into the complete and utter disarray that it had. He had expected a ‘Sure’ or an ‘I’m busy’ from his step-sister, in which case he had hoped someone else in the group would volunteer to come over. Maybe he’d get a few expressions of concern or a ‘What’s going on?’ sent over in a private message. Definitely not the flood of shock and horror that assaulted his ears with a wave of text alerts that came through all on top of one another.
‘Dimitri, are you serious?!’ from Ingrid.
‘MY EYES!’ from Sylvain, followed a few seconds later with ‘If you need an Alpha, tho… ;P’
‘Is this supposed to be in the group chat?’ asked Ashe, and right in the middle of Dimitri typing up a long explanation, Edelgard’s message came through.
‘Get some help, Dimitri’ she sent, while Dimitri huffed out a breath and continued pecking away at his screen. He could only imagine what his friends must be thinking right now. And hope that Sylvain wasn’t already on his way. And that Edelgard hadn’t muted her phone. Because, well… it wasn’t the first time he’d stuck his foot in his mouth like this, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. He just hoped that everyone stuck it out to hear him explain himself this time.
‘Not me!’ he sent through first, just to get that out of everyone’s minds as he continued to type away. ‘I mean that I round one. I was out on my mornng run and heard a commotion down a side street. Upon investing, I found an Omega being hounded by a Groupon Alphas that I had to chase off. I brought him back here, he is currently hiding in the bathroom. I need assistance.’ After sending the message and rereading it, he quickly added ‘*found, *morning, *investigating, *Groupon, my apologies’ and sent that through. Then ‘*GROUP OF’ while the answering messages came in.
‘Thank god.’ That was from Felix, whose face Dimitri could only imagine right now. Everyone else responded with variations of ‘Ooooooooh,’ including Sylvain’s ‘Ooooooooh :(‘. And then, after a few stretching seconds, Edelgard responded.
‘I see. Dorothea is going to drive me over, I’ll be there in 15.’
Dimitri lowered his gaze from his phone and let out a deep breath of relief, his head thunking back on the bathroom door where he leaned. From within the room, he heard a small sound like ‘yipe!’ and then a low, hissing whine. Turning his head to stare at the wooden barrier between them, he spoke to the frightened Omega on the other side. “It’s okay,” he called, just as he had done ten minutes ago. “I’m getting help for you. It’s going to be okay.”
He was at least 90% sure that what he had closed in his bathroom was a Feral Omega. At least, the people who had been harassing the curled up young man had kept referring to him as one. “Little Omega, come here,” had been the noise that interrupted Dimitri’s run. That, and the hissing. He had turned to look into the alleyway and seen three tall, powerfully built strangers looming above this hunched, dirty young man with wide green eyes that screamed for help and bared teeth that were rather ineffective at warding off the unwanted crowd. One of them had grabbed at the man and dragged him to the ground by his long nut-brown hair and that had been when Dimitri interceded, letting out a booming shout of “Leave him alone!” that made the other three turn tail and run. The shaking Omega had curled up around himself again, small and fragile-looking, and perhaps Dimitri hadn’t really been thinking it through when he ran over and just grabbed the man himself because that immediately backfired. The stranger had begun kicking and screaming and clawing and hissing – all things that made Dimitri’s mind label him as feral – right up until the moment Dimitri got the man’s face against his neck and the wild thing was able to smell for himself that, despite having a build and a voice that suggested otherwise, Dimitri was not an Alpha. The Omega had sagged into his arms then, shaking and sweaty and clearly exhausted from whatever had happened, and Dimitri had promised to get him somewhere safe. The man had nodded but not said a word, even when Dimitri asked his name or what had happened or if he had anyone to call. The wild little thing had just been silent, shaking like a leaf in a storm as Dimitri carried him the whole way home.
They had arrived only fifteen minutes ago. Dimitri managed to get the door open with one hand, but when he stepped inside he’d sat down the other Omega so he could latch it properly. When he turned around he discovered the man had disappeared, shortly followed by the sound of a door slamming shut. Dimitri groaned and headed down the hall to discover the bathroom door closed and immediately he had pulled out his phone. He had no idea what to do with a Feral Omega, so he had turned to the only resource he had: the internet. The first article that had come up when he had searched “what do you do with a feral omega?” had told him that Feral Omegas need an Alpha and Dimitri had read no further and immediately texted the group.
That led to now, when he was sitting in the hallway, listening to the sound of his shower curtain being removed from its rod. He wasn’t an Alpha, but the poor man on the other side of the door both looked and sounded so distressed and Dimitri was bent on getting him anything he needed, even if that meant calling his sister in. He made little shushing sounds through the doorway whenever he heard a random clatter or thud, wondering just what the hell his unexpected guest was doing in there until finally there was a knock at the door. Dimitri leapt up so quickly that it startled his guest into making another of those little yips of fear. “Sorry!” Dimitri called over his shoulder as he ran towards the door. “Don’t worry! Help is here!”
Upon opening the door, Dimitri was immediately confronted with the sight of his step-sister and her girlfriend, Edelgard and Dorothea. The both of them were Alphas, and Dimitri smiled upon seeing them. This was perfect! He had gotten double the help he’d requested for the poor Omega. This was a good thing, right?
Dorothea and Edelgard didn’t seem to think so.
“Ugh, Dimitri!” Edelgard exclaimed before even crossing the threshold, pinching her nose shut and gagging. Dorothea looked equally repulsed, but Dimitri had no idea why. His brow furrowed in confusion as he glanced between the pair, but before he could ask anything, Dorothea heaved great sigh and gave him a look of sympathy.
“You really are noseblind, aren’t you?” she asked, and Dimitri’s face fell. He had been taunted for a long time by his friends about his apparent lack of smell. Especially as an Omega. He was supposed to have a sensitive nose that would alert him to the emotional states of others, to make him empathetic and sensitive like a good Omega was supposed to be. But Dimitri’d never been able to smell much of anything at all. He still had the empathy that most Omegas did, but without the intuition that scenting gave most people, it often led him into making blunders. Sometimes they weren’t so bad, like when Dimitri had spotted Dorothea looking so lonely at a bar and he had encouraged confident Edelgard to go over and cheer her up. For some reason he’d thought Dorothea was an Omega, despite having no real reason to, and Edelgard had been looking for someone to go home with. He’d been wrong about Dorothea’s secondary gender but it had worked out anyways. His sense of smell (or lack thereof) didn’t always lead him into making big mistakes.
But from the look on Dorothea’s face, it definitely had today.
“Why?” Dimitri asked, only able to guess at why Edelgard looked so repelled and Dorothea looked so sympathetic. “What’s it smell like in here?”
“Rotting meat!” Edelgard answered, and Dimitri grimaced. For someone like vegetarian Edelgard, that had to be an especially disgusting scent. She glared up at Dimitri, who couldn’t smell a thing, and shook her head. “Dimitri, when you said you had someone here that needed an Alpha, I assumed that you meant they’d asked for one.”
“Well…” Dimitri said, ducking his head a little bit towards his chest. “Well, no, but he won’t say anything at all! I wasn’t sure how to help him, so I asked Bing, and it said that Feral Omegas need Alphas-”
“Dimitri, I’m pretty sure the last thing that Omega needs right now is sex,” Dorothea said, and Dimitri’s eyes boggled.
“Wh-Who said anything about sex?!” he asked, “I figured that he just needed an Alpha to… to perhaps hold him, make him feel protected? Maybe?” he said, unaware of just how naïve he sounded. Edelgard rolled her eyes. She was still pinching her nose, but Dorothea took another tentative little sniff before pinching hers again as well.
“Dimitri, I think this might be the strongest distress scent I’ve ever smelled,” Dorothea said. When Dimitri just continued to look confused, she sighed. “Omegas in distress… they smell… rotten, rancid. It’s especially potent to Alphas. The scent keeps away danger, it’s a self-preservation tactic…” she explained slowly, and Dimitri’s eyes widened. The Feral Omega was putting out a scent that repelled Alphas. He wanted them to stay away. Goddess- if he could smell Edelgard and Dorothea from the bathroom, right after Dimitri told him he was ‘getting help’ for him… what must he be expecting to happen now? Dimitri noticed how his apartment had gone suddenly silent, and he imagined the man hiding in there, quiet as a rabbit, completely frozen in fear.
“Dimitri,” Dorothea murmured. “I don’t think he wants an Alpha.”
“Wh… What do I do, then?” Dimitri asked, and Edelgard growled at her brother’s obliviousness.
“Help him, Dimitri!” she said. “Get in there! You’re an Omega, he trusts you!” Before he could ask his sister how she could be so sure, she continued, “He let you bring him here, didn’t he?” she asked, and Dimitri nodded. The man hadn’t struggled as soon as he got his face against Dimitri’s neck. He had lain placidly against him all the way home… it wasn’t until they arrived that he fled. Dimitri had let go of him and the other Omega’s instinct spurred him into hiding. He’d retreated to the first small, enclosed space he could find and barred himself in. His terror should have been obvious, but without the nose to smell his distress all Dimitri’d been able to do was take a woefully uneducated guess about how to assist.
“Get in there, Dimitri!” Edelgard told him again, grabbing the door out of his hand and yanking it closed in front of him. “Get to it!” she shouted once more before she slammed the door. They left, and Dimitri was all alone with a terrified stranger.
What could he do?
Dimitri made his way back through the apartment and to the bathroom door. Once there, he paused to listen; absolute silence greeted his ears. The Omega was definitely still in there, Dimitri would have heard if he had come out of the bathroom and fled somewhere else. Taking a deep breath to rally himself, Dimitri put his hand on the doorknob and twisted it. The very moment it moved, there was a stifled scream from inside and the sound of several things falling over. The noise was so cacophonous that Dimitri couldn’t help but be concerned. He flung open the door.
“It’s me! It’s okay, it’s just me!” he said, holding his hands up as he stepped inside. His bathroom was a wreck. Dimitri kept a pretty tidy home, usually; his friends teased him by calling it part of his nesting instinct, but Dimitri just liked to have things organized. Thus, his eyebrow twitched when he stepped into his bathroom, which looked like it’d had a run-in with a very tiny tornado. The shower curtain had been torn down, and that clattering noise must have been the shower rack that held his shampoo hitting the ground. His towels had all been pulled out of their cubbies in the wooden tower he had beside the sink, which had also been knocked over to form a barricade between the door and the rest of the bathroom. Dimitri couldn’t help but be frustrated by the sight of the chaos wrought in this little corner of his apartment, but as he hefted the tower out of the way and saw what was on the other side, his irritation died immediately.
“There you are…” Dimitri cooed. He spoke as though he was talking to a cornered wild animal… in a way, he was. The little Omega was hunched in the fetal position, lying among the towels in a hastily constructed, scraggly little nest. He had both of his hands wrapped around his head, covering his ears and shielding his neck as though he expected the world to cave in atop him at any moment. He had dragged the shower curtain over his body like a stiff blanket, and, goddess help him… he was whimpering.
Dimitri’s heart broke.
“Shh…” he whispered, kneeling down. He crawled forward on his hands and knees, keeping a careful eye on the other all the while. Dimitri may not be able to smell his distress, but he could certainly see it. He approached slowly to try and keep the little thing from lashing out at him in fear, but in reality Dimitri didn’t think the Omega could get any more afraid. He went slow, anyways. Sliding on his belly as he got closer, Dimitri got the chance to actually take in the appearance of this stranger for the first time. His tousled hair was nut-brown and fell in long, tangled curls. A bit of unkempt stubble along his jaw marked him as older than Dimitri initially thought. He had seen that the man’s eyes were green and wild. He wondered, now, if it was because he was actually feral… or if he had just been scared. There were bruises on his wrists and neck and Dimitri felt fury when he made out the distinct shape of fingerprints.
What had those Alphas in the alley done to this man? What had happened to him before Dimitri got there?
Dimitri decided he didn’t want to think about that.
Instead, he just kept moving forward. Inch by inch he approached his guest, who remained motionless. He was entirely frozen, tensed like he was ready to pounce. Dimitri just had to hope that he wouldn’t when he finally got close enough that he could rest his forehead against the stranger’s. The man’s breath caught. He didn’t move. Neither did Dimitri.
For a few moments, there was only silence as Dimitri tried to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do.
Then, instinct kicked in. Dimitri could feel pressure in his chest, and when he released it, it came out in a low purr. The reaction was instantaneous. The other Omega gave a full body shudder and the tension slowly ebbed out of his frame. He didn’t purr back, but something clicked. He realized that he wasn’t in danger and his hands loosened their grip and slid to the floor. Forehead to forehead with Dimitri, he breathed.
Suddenly, tears.
There were tears rolling down the other Omega’s face. He began weeping, and in response Dimitri purred louder. He had no idea what this man had been through… but he could gather that it was Not Good. “Shh,” he whispered, the only thing he could think to say. “I’m here. I’m here, you’re safe now,” he purred, hoping it would be comforting. It definitely seemed to help. Over the course of the next few minutes, the Omega slowly shifted, nuzzling closer until his face wound up in Dimitri’s neck once more. When he settled there, Dimitri tentatively lifted his hand and brought it to brush through the other’s hair. Finally – finally – a soft purr answered his.
“There… there now,” Dimitri whispered, murmuring this and other sweet nothings for an indeterminate amount of time. He just laid there in the floor with his guest, petting his hair, whispering to him, until his tears dried up. Eventually, he thought the man had gone to sleep.
But he hadn’t. When Dimitri finally silenced aside from his purring and petting, a soft voice reached his ears. It was… hoarse. Weak, and strained. It took Dimitri a moment to actually understand what the Omega had said to him, but when it finally processed, he realized that it was a name.
“Claude,” the stranger had whispered.
“…Claude,” Dimitri repeated, and as the volume of the purring against his neck increased, Dimitri’s heart clenched. “Claude. Shh… shh… it’s over now, Claude. You are safe with me. Nothing and no one can hurt you here. You are safe. You are safe. You are safe.”
“…thank…” Claude whispered in his hoarse little voice, but Dimitri just shushed him again. Thanks could come later. A lot of things would come later. For now… there was only this. Claude’s face in his neck, Dimitri’s hand in his hair, and a peace that, Dimitri hoped, helped.