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It was supposed to be an easy mission, its always supposed to be an easy mission; but now both Satoru and Suguru are all but bolting through the forest, four mangled and incredibly pissed off curses on their tail.
An easy mission, huh.
It started like any other, with Satoru getting on Suguru’s nerves, being handed a caramel candy to shut him up, and a curtain being drawn. But the second they were surrounded in darkness, the cursed energy around them seemed to spiral, Satoru even flinching when his six eyes seem to jump and spin around them, unsure of which curse to focus on.
One first grade turned into four.
And for the first time in a long time, the strongest were both scared. Suguru did everything he could to clamp down on his pheromones, not wanting the curses to sense his fear and anxiety and use it to their advantage. Satoru wasn’t as lucky; cursed energy he could control, but anything to do with the omega side of him? He was inexperienced. His pheromones had gotten so strong that Suguru had gripped onto his hand and placed a gentle kiss to his temple, the alpha in him prickling at the sight of his omega becoming distressed so fast.
“I’m fine.” Satoru had tried to snarl, but Suguru had simply raised his eyebrows, and then his infinity was up.
And now, here they were, sprinting to a clearing to gain the upper hand on their opponents. Two were disguised as wolves, the other’s looking more like a fox-cheetah hybrid than anything. They were fast , too fast. And soon enough, one of the hybrids is tackling suguru to the ground, sending him tumbling a good few feet ahead of Satoru. He panics at the sight of his alpha collapsing, halting when the hybrid seems to circle his body with a low snarl.
He’s surrounded now too, all three curses glaring daggers through his infinity; he can feel them calculating his next move, sensing his pheromones and the cursed energy that’s building up and circling his fists.
He could summon his domain, get this over and done with fast, but he can’t reach Suguru and he can’t put him at risk, he refuses to.
So he stands still, letting them calculate his next move, letting himself be circled and watched like a prey caught in a bear trap.
Suguru groans and begins to move, and the hybrid jumps to life.
It happens fast enough that Satoru barely recognises his own movements; he bolts, throwing his body towards his alpha and quickly transferring his infinity to him.
He barely recognises the scream as his own.
The next few moments pass in a blur, a large growl, the feel of arms circling around him, Suguru postering to protect the mangled body of his omega as he releases curse after curse. The first grades are down within minutes, and soon the only sound is Satoru’s harsh breathing, mixed with whines and whimpers as he curls up in Suguru’s arms.
He manages to press his nose to the crook of his alpha’s neck, a weak hand coming to grip the fabric of his shirt. He can smell the pheromones, hanging thick and heavy in the air he nearly goes dizzy from scent, or perhaps the blood loss, who knows? He doesn't realise he’s talking, the vibrations of his chest and the low rumble of his voice dragging the omega away from the haze of pain and confusion.
“-theart? Baby? Focus on me, show me your eyes.” Suguru sounds worried, the tone of his voice soothing, gentle, but there’s an edge to that shows Satoru just how scared he must be.
He makes a low whine in acknowledgment, not wanting to move away from the safety he’s found. His body is jostled as Suguru tries to reposition him, likely to get a better look at his wounds. But all it does is cause a gasp of pain to rupture from Satoru’s throat, and the scent of fear and worry only grows thicker.
“I know- I know it hurts baby, I know. I need to see to make it better, alright? Let me look.” So soothing, so kind and sweet and… Satoru still whimpers, glazed eyes now staring absently up to the night sky. He could see the stars now, a small relief. At least the curses were gone.
“Hurts…” He wanted his bed, his blankets and Suguru’s clothes, He wanted to sit and eat shitty takeout in the halfhearted nest he’d made in the corner of his room; he just wanted to cuddle while Suguru played video games, tease him for his horrific aim and bask in his scent and safety.
He wanted to be anywhere but this cold forest, blood seeping through his clothes and the scent of worry permeating the very fibers of his soul.
—-
Suguru thinks he’s going insane, or at least he’s about halfway there already.
His omega is in pain, writhing in his arms from the injury he protected him from. It’s all Suguru can do to keep his anger at bay, he doesn’t want Satoru, already terrified, to smell the rage that burns through his veins; it's not his fault after all, Suguru is angry with himself, with the higher ups for underplaying the danger of the mission, with the curses that made his omega scream so loud that Suguru swears he can still hear it ringing in his ears.
“I’m going to lift your shirt, okay? I've called Sensei, help is coming, I swear.” He receives a small nod in response, Satoru’s head now pillowed against his shoulder. He knows he wants to hide in his neck, but Suguru needs to see his eyes, no matter how dazed they are.
“A-alpha… make i-it stop…” Satoru whines and whimpers, weakly holding onto him.
The alpha thinks even he is going to choke on the flood of raw protectiveness and possession that flows from him.
His omega is begging, so weakly and shakily, for him to make the pain stop, and yet all he does is cause another whimper to fall from his pale lips as he lifts his shirt.
The claw marks are deep, dangerously so, oozing blood onto his lap. There’s a deep bruise around his ribs from where the curse had thrown itself at him, and the swelling of his wrist is likely from how he’d fallen when trying to protect Suguru’s body.
His heart clenches painfully.
“You did so well. my good boy. Protected me so well, Your alpha is so proud…” Strings of soothing words fall from his lips, and soon enough, there’s a flashlight coming his way.
“Yaga-sensei?” He whispers, shifting to a crouch with Satoru still in his arms.
“It’s me. kid.” He hears the man call out, but it does little to calm his frazzled nerves.
One hand holds Sstoru’s head to his chest, the other wraps around his waist and presses him close to his body. The alpha twists slightly, protecting the broken body in his arms with his own.
“Who’s with you?” He doesn’t mean to growl, but Satoru whines are getting quieter, and his instincts take over.
Your omega is in pain, your omega is hurting. Fix it, fix him, make it stop fix it fix it-
“ It’s just me and Shoko, i promise.” His voice is much closer now, drawing him away from his inner turmoil to see his teacher crouched not too far away. Suguru’s hold tightens, Satoru has stopped making noises, stopped whimpering, Suguru knows they don’t have long left.
“H-he’s hurt- they hurt him…”
“I know, kid, I know, But we’re here now, we wont let anything get to either of you.” He’s never heard the man sound so gentle, his palms are raised in a show of surrender.
Shoko is in his eyeline now, her brows are uncharacteristically furrowed with worry, her flashlight aimed for the half-hidden body of Satoru. She crouches down too, sensing the territorial nature of her friend's posture. “Geto-kun, you need to calm down.” Is the first thing she says, her voice is enough to lighten the tense fog of fear and protectiveness that still lingers. “Can I see him, please? Let me heal him, I promise I won’t hurt him.”
“Promise?” He feels pathetic, weak, his omega had protected him ,and now he was bleeding out and all Suguru could do was hold back the tears that threatened to fall.
“I promise.” He relaxes at that, twisting back to face them and uncurling his omega’s body from his, still holding him across his lap.
He grimaces when she lifts his shirt, Yaga coming to rest beside him, a strong hand placed firm on his shoulder. “You’ve done well, kid.” He whispers.
—
The first thing Satoru’s notices in the deep ache in his bones, his back feels sore and there’s already a sharp pain behind his eyes. His eyelashes flutter nonetheless, blinking slowly as he takes in the room.
He’s in his bed, dressed in Suguru’s shirt, the man in question slumped over in his desk chair, cheek pressed against his first; he’s snoring quietly,
and it would be endearing if not for the shooting pains Satoru receives when he tries to sit up.
He lets out a quiet groan, hand coming to wrap around his ribs protectively; the sound wakes the sleeping alpha, the man blinking and turning his head towards the bed.
There’s a small, soft smile on his lips when he sees Satoru’s bright blue eyes. “Morning, sweetheart.”
“Mornin’ babe…” Suguru is quick to perch himself on the edge of the bed, scanning Satoru’s body when he sees his eyebrows furrowed in pain.
“Where does it hurt?”
“Just my ribs.. head too, i guess.” There’s no point in lying to him, Satoru knows, he can read him like a children's book.
Suguru stands and shuts the blinds, picking up a few things as he goes.
“You did something stupid, you know that?” Suguru doesn’t want to lecture the injured man, but the anxiety is still clawing away at his chest, albeit less painful than before, but still present enough that his hands tremble and his breath catches in his throat.
Satoru nods, lips downturned and eyes cast in what Suguru thinks is a mix of disappointment and shame. “I couldn’t just… you would have died-“
“You nearly died, omega.”
And Satoru see’s this for what it is, the primal instincts kicking in. This isn't Suguru, one of the strongest sorcerers lecturing his lover, his classmate, on how dangerous he had acted. It’s an alpha reprimanding their omega for putting themself in danger.
Satoru’s ears would flatten against his head, his tail would tuck between his legs if he had one.
Instead he whines quietly, bares his neck in a quiet act of submission; im sorry, goes unsaid, i know i scared you
I won't do it again.
It’s a silent exchange, the way Suguru’s shoulder’s slump and he goes back to his spot on the bed, the gentle kiss he places on Satoru's scent gland, the careful hand that runs through his hair.
“I’m not angry with you, angel. I'm angry at myself for letting the situation get like that , for putting you in that position.”
Satoru just shakes his head, reaches for Suguru and tries to tug him into the bed. “‘s not your fault, babe. It’s the higher ups, they're the ones that lied.”
He’s not wrong, Suguru thinks, as he lays his back against the headboard and tugs Satoru’s body into his lap. “Nest and takeout?”
—
They spend the night like that, curled up in the nest in the corner. Satoru is sitting in Suguru’s lap, the side of his body pressed against his chest as he eats his way through the giant pile of food they’d ordered. Chinese or Pizza? And they’d gotten both. He’s dressed entirely in his alpha’s clothes, the sweatpants tied around his waist, the hoodie and shirt are both his too. Suguru is playing video games, mumbling every now and then and nuzzling into the omega’s neck at every cut scene.
Satoru wakes in the night with a scream, but he’s quickly put to rest when his lover wraps him back up in his arms, placing a plushy between them for him to cling onto.
No one says a thing when they refuse to part ways for the next few weeks, they’ve always been glued at the hip, but it’s obvious how different this is. Their desks are pushed together, but they push Shoko’s closer too; it seems they’ve both grown more protective of her too. Satoru will sometimes pull Suguru into the bathrooms so he can hide his face in his neck, a few moments of safety and peace before they’re back in the world of death and danger.