Work Text:
When people first met Yiyong, most of them assumed that he was a really calm person.
Not really a care in the world, going about his day, neutral to the things happening around him.
Maybe it was his cold expression that made people think that way. Or the way he talked about things.
And even if you knew him a little closer, the alpha still seemed to be cool about most things happening around him.
He didn't get seriously upset about things all too easily, he preferred to stay put and let things happen the way they wanted to happen.
Hell, he was talking to dead people and their obsessions on a daily basis. Things like that kind of make everything else seem not that special.
But apparently, there was one thing that made him lose his calmness.
And that one thing was his omega getting hurt.
"What happened!?" The artist breathed out in shock, pushing past Chuying to get to the doctor, who had barely made it through the entrance door.
Yiyong carefully took Guangyan's face into his hands, examining the damage from all angles. Chuying stood beside him, a similarly worried expression on her face.
But Guangyan only laughed awkwardly. "I fell on my way home...I guess it looks a lot worse than it is."
To be honest, he hadn't seen his face yet. His nose had been bleeding up until a few minutes ago but apart from that, he couldn't really tell how much damage could be seen.
It must be quite a bit though, with the way Yiyong looked him over, his fingers hovering restlessly over the wounds but never touching, too scared of hurting Guangyan.
The omega most likely also still smelled like adrenalin and fear...
"How would you even manage to do this to yourself while falling?!" Yiyong asked in disbelief, eyes jumping all over Guangyan's face. "You're bleeding everywhere! Oh god, I hope that one doesn't need stitches...We'll need to patch you up quickly! How are you even breathing with all that blood on your nose? Do we need to take you to the hospital? Are you dizzy? Do you-"
"Yiyong!" Chuying interrupted, grabbing Yiyong's wrist. "Breath god damn it. You look like you're about to pass out!"
"What else am I supposed to do!?" He looked between his omega and the beta in panic. "He's fucking bleeding and hurt!"
"It doesn't even hurt that bad," Guangyan tried to calm the situation back down. "It probably looks worse than it is! Let me just clean up the blood and then everything will look okay..." He quickly made his way into the bathroom before his pack could say anything more.
And upon spotting himself in the mirror, he cursed under his breath.
Yeah, maybe it was a little worse than he had feared...
His nose was covered in blood, his right cheekbone looked painfully bruised and there was a big laceration on his temple as well as a few smaller cuts all over his face.
Even after cleaning up the blood and taking care of the worst cuts with bandaids, he still looked quite roughed up.
Guangyan sighed helplessly.
He knew he was worrying his mate and best friend to death right now with how little he told them about what had happened but telling the truth was not an option.
They would overreact right away and make the situation even worse.
He would just need to swallow his guilt down and keep playing pretend.
Which was honestly harder than he had feared.
Once he got out of the bathroom, he avoided all conversation about his wounds, brushing his friends off or telling them the same lie until they eventually gave up, at least for now.
But the longer Yiyong was looking at him with that worried look in his eyes, the more guilt ate at Guangyan's insides.
When they went to bed later that night, Guangyan pretended to fall asleep right away, knowing that his alpha would never wake him up, not even for an important conversation.
The doctor wasn't even sure if he would sleep at all tonight but he kept his eyes shut and his breathing even, his head pillowed on Yiyong's arm.
He knew that Yiyong was looking at him. Probably looking at the wounds again, trying to imagine what happened.
It was not that hard to tell that Guangyan hadn't hurt himself with clumsiness like that, but that someone else had hurt him. Yiyong was most likely breaking his head over who would have done that to Guangyan and why. And also why Guangyan wasn't telling him the truth.
The doctor had to seriously keep himself from crying when Yiyong started placing soft kisses on his face, between the cuts, his scent heavy with concern. "Why won't you tell me...?" He mumbled against Guangyan's lips before placing a kiss there as well.
Because I don't want you to get in trouble... Guangyan thought.
If he told Yiyong the truth, the other would do something stupid that would get him hurt as well. And that just wasn't worth it...
Maybe by tomorrow, things would calm back down...?
===xXx===
Or maybe not. Because why would they?
The alpha insisted on bringing Guangyan to school today, and not just to the bus station but literally up to his school entrance.
"Text me when you finish, text me when you take the bus, and text me as soon as you get home alright?" Yiyong reminded, handing Guangyan the backpack that he had been carrying for him until now.
"I will. Don't worry, okay?" The omega leaned in to press a soothing kiss to his alpha's lips. "Now go to work, you're already late. And don't even think about leaving early just so you can walk me home."
Yiyong chewed at his bottom lip. "You know I would, right?"
"I know. Now go, I'll see you at home."
To be honest, Guangyan was genuinely surprised that Yiyong hadn't taken the day off already just to pick Guangyan up from school. It kind of made him fear that Yiyong was up to something...
Guangyan just tried to not worry about it too much and focus on his lessons instead. And it worked just fine, school serving as a distraction for him.
Up until school was over again faster than Guangyan had hoped and he now had to make his way back home.
He had two options, either he went the way he usually took to his bus stop, which led him along a sidewalk that was narrowly surrounded by some empty buildings that had never been a problem for him to walk along, Yiyong and him even took that same way to school today, or he would go in the other direction and walk a whole hour to the other bus stop.
Yiyong knew when his last lesson was, so texting him later to make up for the hour-long walk was pointless. He only really had one option.
With a sigh, Guangyan sent Yiyong a quick message that he was done with school now before walking along his usual way, his shoulders already tense as soon as the first buildings came up.
The omega rushedly walked along the sidewalk, his guard high up, paying close attention to everything around himself.
He was about ready to believe that he would make it out of here unharmed when movement to his right caught his eye and before he could react, he got pushed against the next best wall.
"Brave of you to come here again after yesterday."
Guangyan swallowed, looking up at the alpha crowding him against the wall. His burned wood scent stung in Guangyan's nose just as badly as it had done yesterday.
"Didn't I teach you enough of a lesson yesterday, omega?" He spit the words out with so much venom, that Guangyan could see the alpha's girlfriend flinch where she stood further to the side, along with the alpha and beta that seemed to be the guy's backup.
The doctor swallowed down as much of his fear as he could manage before glaring up at the alpha. "Fuck off already."
He could hear quiet laughter along the pack. "My, you really are a brave one. Didn't your Alpha teach you some manners? Probably not, otherwise you would know better than to barge into another pack's territory and wave his scent around."
He reached out for the omega's neck but Guangyan reacted faster, slapping his hand off. "What are you, a fucking wolf? This isn't anyone's territory! Those times are over, deal with it! And stop acting like you can order me around because of my secondary gender. Those times are over as well."
His defensive talk was rewarded with a punch to his gut, almost making his legs give out from under him as he yelped in pain.
"He really didn't teach you any manners, huh? Too bad, now I have to do that for him."
Guangyan clutched at his stomach, trying desperately to think of a way to get out of there. Any more bruises on his face and Yiyong would die from concern.
The other alpha that stood to the side piped up with an evil grin. "How about you sent him home smelling like another alpha?"
The beta next to him hastely nodded while the omega girl didn't look too fond of that idea. But the alpha in front of Guangyan seemed delighted. "Good idea. Either he will properly handle you then, or you won't have an alpha at all after that. Either way works for me."
Guangyan's eyes went wide, scrambling to push past the alpha and make a run for it but with how badly he was shacking, he wasn't fast enough.
The alpha slammed him back into the wall and pinned him in place, reaching out for Guangyan's neck once more, this time to actually scent him.
The omega wanted to gag, fighting against the alpha's grip but it was to no avail since his body still wanted to curl in on itself from the punch earlier.
He clutched his eyes shut, preparing himself for getting drowned in the disgusting smoke scent when he caught a whiff of brown sugar breaking through the burned wood and in less than a second, the alpha was dragged away from Guangyan and thrown against the wall next to him.
Guangyan's eyes flew back open, looking to his side to see Yiyong pushing the other alpha against the wall, a hand closed around his windpipe.
The brown sugar started to smell burned with Yiyong's anger, his fangs bared while he growled at the other.
In the back of his mind, Guangyan registered Chuying's apple blossom scent, telling him that Yiyong had backup as well if needed but that didn't seem to be the case...
As soon as the alpha and beta moved a muscle, Yiyong growled at them as well, making them stop in their tracks. "Stay out of this!" And neither of them dared to get any closer.
So Yiyong focused his attention back on the wide-eyed alpha, chocking off his air supply. "Listen to me carefully," the artist said, using that gravely deep alpha voice that sent shivers down Guangyan's spine.
"If you touch my omega again, I'll kill you. If you talk to my omega again, I'll kill you. If you look at my omega again, I'll fucking kill you.
And if you hurt my omega again, death will be the nicest thing I could do for you. Do you get me?"
The other alpha nodded, trying to prye Yiyong's hand away from his throat but Yiyong was surprisingly much stronger. "The same goes for your pack. Any of you touch him I'll make sure none of you touch anything else ever again."
With that, he finally released the other, who quickly scrambled to his feet and made a run for it, the rest of his pack following as soon as Yiyong looked at them.
The artist's body was still trembling with anger, his chest heaving and Guangyan was starting to get worried that Yiyong would snap at him next because had lied to his alpha.
His scent must have given away as much because Yiyong's head shot toward him immediately, all rage leaving his features as he quickly pulled the omega into his arms, mindful of his bruised abdomen.
The alpha buried his face into Guangyan's neck, taking a deep grounding breath of his lemon cupcake scent while pulling him closer.
Guangyan wrapped his arms around Yiyong as well, letting the brown sugar scent wrap around him, calming his nerves.
They stayed like that for a few moments, just holding onto each other and regaining their normal breathing before Yiyong pulled back a little, taking Guangyan's face into his hands. "Why didn't you tell me...?"
The omega looked at the ground in shame. "I didn't want you to get hurt...I didn't know you could do...that. I just didn't want them to go after you as well because of me."
Yiyong pressed a soft kiss to his lips, making Guangyan look up once more. "Tell me next time. Nothing hurts as much as seeing you hurt and not being able to do anything about it..."
Guangyan nodded, hiding his face in Yiyong's neck this time around, basically laying all his weight onto the alpha.
Chuying finally dared to step close to them now. "Seriously though, since when can you do that?"
"I don't know," the alpha admitted. "I just...I saw my omega taking a punch and then he wanted to scent him and Guangyan smelled so terrefied...Something just snapped."
"Even I was scared of you for a second," the beta admitted. "Sugar never smelled that scary before."
The omega couldn't help his little chuckle. Yiyong just shook his head with a little smile. "Let's get you home already..."
The omega nodded, placing a kiss onto Yiyong's lips before taking his hand, and letting himself be guided back home.