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There was something strangely exciting about seeing Jon with Damian' shirt on.
As much as Damian had a well-placed stature and broad shoulders that one would have expected from an alpha like him, despite being an omega Jon was physically bigger thanks to his Kryptonian genes, and it was rather ironic the nonchalance with which he hummed and circled the room looking for his stuff, with his toothbrush in his mouth, his hair still damp from the shower he had just taken and that short shirt on him. He waddled around as if nothing was wrong and didn't seem very aware of the effect he was having on Damian, whose body had literally begun to vibrate as if he were purring. Jon was not the classic omega who needed protection, and before his sixteenth birthday everyone had believed that he would turn out to be a full-fledged alpha, so even his father had been surprised when Jon had reached Kryptonian puberty and smelled the omega scent engaging his son, worrying a little about how he would be treated by the rest of society.
Damian, however, had never cared about all that crap. Jon had been his friend before he was even an omega, and Damian had made it very clear to anyone when they were just boys that he would be the one to look after Jon's needs. At the time he had not thought about what his words would imply, too young to realize what he had said during the Wayne Enterprises Gala, but now that he and Jon were mate he was sure he would repeat them again and again. They had faced some challenges, sure. Spending a lot of time together had impregnated Damian with Jon's scent even without the mark - Clark had explained to them that Kryptonians released special pheromones in the presence of loved ones, and such people were therefore marked even without any bite - and many had wondered why he had not claimed yet him as an omega, why Jon didn't wear the collar, and why he didn't wear the family crest, but Damian had always snarled at all the malicious tongues of Gotham's elite to defend Jon's honor, even though Jon pointed out to him that he didn't need to, that things worked differently in Kryptonian society, and that he should therefore not bother. And Damian had really tried not to... at least until Jon's first heat.
It had been intense, suffocating, he had felt himself drowning in it, and he had struggled not a little to maintain his stoic concentration, especially to prevent one of them could have been in danger during the delicate situation they had found themselves in that night. Sudden heat had been on their minds, but that heat would present itself during a patrol had been the very last thing on their minds and had definitely hurt. Damian's alpha instinct had awakened as if it had been dormant until that moment, and when Jon had curled in on himself in spasms and pain, Damian had tried to protect him, immediately sending an emergency signal to the rest of the family while holding Black Mask's thugs at bay. He only vaguely remembered snarling at Grayson as well - or perhaps it was the other Kent who had come to their rescue? He had never really asked or remember -, too addicted to the scent that had impregnated his nostrils and sent him to the brink. Now that he was twenty-four, he definitely had more control over his instincts, but seeing Jon wandering around like that certainly didn't help Damian's position. Ah, damn.
«You're driving me crazy,» Damian blurted out of the blue, and Jon, who had just come out of the bathroom where he had finally rinsed his teeth, looked at him with both eyebrows raised and a funny expression painted on his face.
«My voice didn't seem to bother you last night,» Jon taunted him, absentmindedly waving a hand as he headed for the closet in search of something more suitable to wear. In theory they had an event to attend, in practice they were already an hour and forty-five minutes late, but neither of them really seemed to care, given the way Damian seemed to be taking his time as well.
«I didn't mean that.» Damian rose only to join him, encircling Jon's hips from behind with one arm to rest his forehead against that broad back. Jon had always been taller than him, and at first it bothered him, but now he seemed to find it strangely arousing. «Your smell. You're spreading pheromones all over the room.»
Jon laughed, humming a few more verses of the songs before casting a glance at him. «Mhn... you say that like it's a bad thing,» he affirmed, pulling back his shirt collar to allow Damian to sniff his gland as he stood up on tiptoe. Damian hadn't bitten him yet, and to the eyes of Gothamite society they had made no bond, but the Kryptonians who populated the planet kept well clear of him, given the smell of spice and ground that literally bathed him from head to toe.
«Just a little. We're late.»
«And what can they possibly do, kick Bruce Wayne's son out of a public event?» Jon joked, laughing at the grumble that vibrated against his skin moments later.
«Idiot. If it were up to me, I wouldn't even show up.»
«Are you really ready to endure hours of scolding from your father, D?»
Damian snapped his tongue under his palate. «I'm an adult, I shouldn't have to submit to his rules and show up at these stupid events just to keep up a stupid cover. And then...» he interjected, feeling anger bubbling up inside him, and Jon could tell not only by his increasingly pungent smell, but by the nervous beating of his heart. So he was forced to release more of his omega pheromones to calm him, feeling Damian slump a little against him.
«I'll be fine,» Jon said in patting his arm, realizing what he was thinking. He had known Damian for years and knew that topic made him extremely nervous, as Gotham's elite did not seem to see eye to eye on that relationship between them. «Or I could stay here,» Jon proposed, but the air in the room seemed to freeze up sitting there.
«Don't even think about it. I have no intention of going there alone like I'm embarrassed of you.»
«Then try to stay calm». Jon turned, lowering his gaze so he could observe his alpha in those deep green eyes, though he had thinned his eyelids a bit. «I'm used to it, D, it's not a problem. I don't care what they whisper behind my back.»
«But it matters to me.»
Jon chuckled, shaking his head. «I like this protective alpha side of you, but you know I don't need it.»
A long silence fell between them, broken only by their breaths and the purring that Jon had begun to do, perhaps in an attempt to calm Damian and make the atmosphere less tense than it was at that moment. They had been dating for years, had shared his warmth and what his father had always called “iahron”- the Kryptonian equivalent of alpha rut, only a thousand times more powerful and destabilizing -they had faced a thousand challenges as a pair of heroes before they had even become a full-fledged couple, and Jon had even been knotted together by Damian... but for society it would never be enough, and Jon felt that that weighed on Damian a little. He loved him and had never doubted it, but the fact that Damian couldn't bite him - his skin was of steel, hard to scratch even during heat - and hadn't given him pups yet despite the knot - no matter how many times they tried, the species difference was an aggravating factor -, it stirred up all of Damian's alpha instincts a bit as heat time approached. And Jon would have it soon, so he understood why Damian felt so overly protective of him.
It was Jon who broke the silence a few moments later, leaning down to kiss the tip of Damian's nose, which, in response, curled it and made Jon laugh. «Let's stop thinking about such things and get a move on, D,» he sentenced as if nothing had happened. «Don't know about you, but I'm hungry and you wouldn't be happy to see a hungry Kryptonian omega,» he tried to dilute the atmosphere and, though letting a small grunt escape, Damian briefly lifted one corner of his mouth in a smile.
«You're always hungry, J. I don't see what's new.»
«Then go get dressed, there's an event waiting for us.»
Damian's hand moved automatically, and he grabbed Jon's wrist before he could even think of moving. «What if it waits a little longer?» he asked in a whisper, and Jon at first frowned, except to laugh amused a few moments later.
«They'd better not have finished all the snacks by the time we get there, then,» Jon ironized, drawing him to plant a big kiss on Damian's lips as the cell vibrated abandoned on the nightstand.