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Cale slumped on the bed, any planning he wanted to do beforehand had dissolved into thin air. Why would he do something so troublesome? When there was a perfectly soft bed in front of him?
As is customary, the redhead pulled the weighted blanket over him, he missed a rumbling coming from his teeth when the blanket enveloped him, covering him with comforting warmth. That warmth pressed down on Cale, it always felt oddly safe, grounding him to feel the things his senses previously ignored. The smooth fabric below ensured an easy night sleep, the blanket however, was rougher in texture but made up for it by how much heavier and warmer it is, like somebody was hugging him. They both smelled nothing like him due to the fact that he religiously wore scent patches around, he liked the absence as it wouldn't be irritating to his omega hyung(nor any of his family). He felt a piece of cloth snuck to his nape, and a tingle was sent down his spine involuntarily, Cale noted how cool his exposed head was. Unexpectedly, a recollection of his hyung giving a head pat to Lark played in his mind, Cale remembered it, because for a moment, a phantom hand was making the same motion of his hyung, he felt the distinct sensation of it, the slight suggestion of weight that his body registered as real as any hand.
The sound of his breathing easily flowed between the ambience of machinery, as he replayed the memory over and over, to gain that phantom hand again, each time it left a faint and fainter impression on his senses, until the memory slipped passed and he couldn't recreate the sensation in his imagination anymore. So Cale decided to just settle deeper into his blanket, at least then he would know it was real as his body claimed it to be.
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Something was missing and keeping Cale from sleeping, so today is the day I couldn't sleep, huh…Cale huffed an indignant tone, though that couldn't hide the slight anxiety creeping up on him. He wondered if the room was too hot but anxiety kept telling his body was actually cold, irritating his newfound headache further, and the room had been so empty and getting larger to swallow him whole. The redhead tried to deal with it like how he always did, ignore it until it's gone.
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Only, it didn't go away and Cale was still laying there, restless.
Am I in a rut? Half heartedly coming to a conclusion, he briefly questioned the validity though blamed his foul mood on it anyway. It was true he had a lot of little bouts of ruts after his 15th birthday, it wouldn't be completely ruled out as a possibility. Cale really wanted to ignore the anxiety gnawing at him, but the room is so damn big and for what? For no one to be in it, it just felt too empty, it stressed him out how dependent he was, on Kim Rok Soo hyung and his entourage. Anxiety overrode his shame as the redhead took his phone, and opened an audio file, Cale told no soul about this, the content only consisted of voicemails sent by his two servants, Ron and Beacrox.
[“Young master, can you keep an eye on that hyung of yours-”] Cale instantly relaxed at the familiar voice, [“-I think he's causing trouble again.”] Beacrox’s usually monotone voice with a slight inflection at the end, only because his charge was always stressing him out. The redhead’s heart fluttered at the fact he spent such a long time with the Molans that he could now pick apart the subtle cues, like Beacrox hyung’s barely repressed sigh whenever he saw Choi Han, or how a weight left Ron’s shoulders whenever he was tormenting others.
(He half regretted being able to know when Ron was angry or annoyed. Cale sometimes had the urge to run away to another room.)
They both have always maintained a steady tempo when talking, Cale had long accepted their voices as a sign of safety, and often was lulled to sleep by their conversations, they tend to talk openly in their native tongue any time the redhead was asleep. The topics were surprisingly normal for assassins, Cale would really saw their relationship as father and son considering Ron’s habits of bringing up embarrassing childhood stories, he once overheard the chef talked about Cale’s and his hyung’s propensity for sleep, he doubted that the Molans would expect him to learn their language to eavesdrop.
[“I have some business to attend to. So goodnight, young master Cale.”] His heart almost melted at the softened tone at his name, only because the rabbit knew it was purely a customary gesture, otherwise the annoying tears would pour out at any moment. Except it already was, well, if he ever needed the cue to start actually sleeping.
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“-ung master?” A muffled voice came through his haze of sleepiness, Cale had half the mind to act up for whoever above to ignore him(it was strangely effective because they usually leave him alone for days at a time), but the headache dictated that staying still was more agreeable than causing a ruckus. The disembodied voice continued to pester him with nothing but nonsense, something about safety and medicine, the rabbit let out a grunt in hopes of them stopping.
When it didn't, as if on instinct, he pounced on the offender by the collar, pulled them down to his nest, and held them close to his chest so they would shut the hell up. A faint lemony scent made itself known to him, definitely one of the Molans, supplied his brain, if Cale were of sound mind he would’ve screeched knowing what he did. But for now, the redhead purred at the prospect of finally having a familiar scent accompanying his nest. The body next to him along with the voice both stopped for a moment, then attempted to gently push him away at which Cale responded with a whine,
“You're the one who annoyed me, accept the consequences.” He spat, making himself comfortable that translated to placing his head on top of theirs like a while ago. It seemed like the offender accepted their fate by the way they settled down closer to him.
Maybe he will be having a nice nap today after all…
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Now this was an interesting sight, Ron mused. It was true after all, it's not everyday that one finds their son cuddling with his troublesome charge. The dread of potentially finding Beacrox stained with the young master’s blood dissipated as a passing thought the moment he found them here, in Cale’s room that was left open. The butler had to admit, this was a surprisingly peaceful resolution, alphas are especially violent during ruts.
“Father please.” Beacrox glared, telling him to get the adorable Cale off.
“How did you come to this point, my son?” The face that held the usual scowl intensified slightly more, embarrassed by the fact his father was laughing and refusing to get him out of this predicament. How could he? Seeing a perfectly content Cale, Beacrox must've been over the moon.
Gradually, the young man began reluctantly accepting that he would be stuck in the young master’s room, likely for hours. They both knew they were too tired to deal with Cale’s tantrum, much less while he was in a rut, it didn't distill the resentment directed at Ron though, stubborn as ever he was. Silently, Beacrox held a phone up to him.
“Father, do you know anything about this?” His son played the audio file on it.
[“We’ll be home late tonight, young master Kim is currently injure-”
“I'll be out this morning Beacrox will take over my duty temporarily”
“Young master Cale, where are you? Your brother is on the verge of a breakdown.”]
It was unusual to say the least, “Doesn't look like he's trying to pin us on any crime…” Ron thought aloud and Beacrox nodded in agreement. The entire audio file only consisted of voice messages sent the father-son duo, all entirely innocuous, the butler was a bit surprised that they all added up to 10 hours worth of recordings and from what he heard so far, none are repeated, however it made sense considering its efficiency made the duo favored them over other method. Amusingly, the file was named “stress relief”, one would normally deal with their rut by nesting, but not Cale apparently, the bunny rather rot in his room than spending a minute with the family.
“How did you find this, son?”
“I thought he was upset so I checked in on him, and I found it next to the sleeping Cale.” No matter how much his son tried to hide it, Beacrox clearly has affections for the bunny, he was the kind of person to be protective of a loved then feigned ignorance when he was called out for it. How much of it was self denial, the older man couldn’t tell.
“And did he call for his hyung?”
“I hate you.” his son's consistent glare slowly turned into a look of concern, “Young master Cale was dropping a while ago.”
“It certainly isn't surprising.” Ron didn't dare to acknowledge the pit in his stomach, his son would disagree, as his scent had turned slightly more bitter… it can't be helped then, if his son really cared for that young master as his dongsaeng, he would have to care too. Ron would have to teach this young master to open up lest he break Beacrox’s heart.
“We’ll have to teach him some self preservation then.” He's as bad as Kim Rok Soo, Ron felt years of his life being siphoned at the thought of the korean, the butler was a bit relieved knowing Cale couldn't hide as much as his older brother. Fixing this damn nest was a start, Cale’s nest, if it could even be called that, it consisted only the bare minimum of pillows and blankets, devoid of the signature peppermint scent as if they were newly bought, a nest like this would make its occupant more stressed.
“I'll leave you to it then.”
“At least lock the door for me.”
Ron hummed an affirmative and left
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Cale woke up feeling quite refreshed, who knew crying was effective sleeping medicine, this would be a great day, or night. Until he caught all the lemon scent surrounding him, the rabbit jolted straight up and to his horror, there was a coat on top of him. He should be happy that the person had the sense to leave him alone. But his instincts cried at the too empty bed, Cale fought to calm it down, yet the repeated questions made him dizzy, where was he? Why did he leave me? Wasn't he safer with me?
He just needed to know whether the coat’s owner was safe or not. The spinning vision was doing everything it can to dissuade him, but the two alphas with lemony scents were more important. He made his way to the secondary kitchen before he actually registered it, and only after the sweet lemony scent had engulfed him. His alpha worried him, why was his scent tinged so sour? The rabbit wanted to calm the alpha down with his own pheromones, oblivious to the scent patches. A faint order came to him “-take off your scent patch-” and he followed it to the letter.
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Beacrox didnt know which disturbed him more, taking off Cale’s scent patches without his knowledge, or Cale taking them off so obediently. This was to say, the situation was very bad, awful even. He never thought he would have been grateful for the young alpha's close proximity to him, in a vulnerable state like this, any other alpha could take advantage of his young master.
He could tell his father felt the same when Cale –with his bunny ears thrown back– came to them and immediately took off his scent patch at the mere suggestion made by Beacrox. At least it confirmed their suspicions, their young master was stressed out because they left for a moment and wanted to know if they were safe, he spiraled enough to follow commands from an alpha that didn’t even use his alpha voice. Beacrox questioned why the redhead didn't scent him but that was a question for another day.
“Let's get you back to bed, ok young master?” The chef said, not sure whether Cale understood it, the response wasn't clear, however the fact that Cale was content being with was as good as any response he supposed, he even let out some of his pheromones to make up for his indiscretion earlier.
“Y-You don't have to do this…” a silver of awareness came back to his young master, his eyes were a little more clear now. His voice low and nervous, clearly not used to the situation.
“You should know better than anyone,” Ron planted a hand on Cale’s head, similar to those times where he had to reprimand his son, “that a rabbit spending their rut alone is dangerous.” He continued, exasperated. And chose to ignore the way the little bunny melted under his touch.
“How?!”
“Stress could kill a rabbit, young master.” Beacrox supplied.
“...” The young master stared at him as if he had grown two heads, “Who actually fuckin believe that?” was said in one key higher, the disbelief was evident.
In hindsight, leaving a kid to their own devices had more consequences than they thought.
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At their stunned silence, a realization dawned on him, “Oh.”
Though he still looked like he rejected the proposal on principle, “...Fine.” he eventually caved. A sweet peppermint smell suddenly came to their focus, something bloomed in Beacrox, making him almost giddy, the younger man looked over to Ron and found no reaction at this new development. The chef had barely known the bunny’s scent given Cale regularly wore scent patches, but seeing how the once muted scent raised to a peppermint so sweet and palpable he could taste it, Beacrox could muster up an educated guess as to why. The brat was always on the verge of biting anything and anyone that annoyed him, Cale tried to be subtle about his anger issues, however the ever attentive pair noticed his sometimes clenched jaws and resisted thumping. The brat was still troublesome, but more subdued now(and cute).
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Cale Henituse regretted his acceptance the closer they got to his bedroom, actually… only half regret because his rut kept interrupting his thoughts, from how warm the body he was clinging to was, to how exhilarating it is to be surrounded by those sour scents he was attached to.
His instincts were terrified at the prospect that the father-son duo would leave him the moment they reached his bed, and frantically tried to pull Beacrox in with him too, if only for a moment.
“Shhh, it's ok Cale, I-we’re not going anywhere” hyung reassured him with head pats, the rabbit could not believe his words, still, he purred at the attention, at least he noticed unlike father…
The redhead sensed a hand coming for his nape, apprehension dispersed as he met with a pleasant massage, that calloused hand could hardly be mistaken for anyone other than Ron, and out of reflex, Cale groomed the fox in front of him. He could feel his eyelids becoming heavier by the minute, sleeping meant he would be unable to watch over his alphas, the mentioned duo began to release more calming pheromones, it’s weird being seen like this, the redhead felt entirely exposed without his patches.
Papa Ron grabbed his wrist and rubbed his own scent gland all over, he was too deep in his rut to really listen to the old fox, perhaps it’s related to comfort or something, it certainly felt more permanent than filling the room with their scent, Cale briefly wondered if erasing his peppermint scent was an intended effect. His instincts dictated that now was the time to sleep, somehow believing the scent on his wrist would last until he woke up. And so he succumbed to sleep, purring contently, with both of the Molans by his sides.
After this little incident, it naturally became known that the bunny didn't know there were ways of relieving pain during ruts, though he only admitted he was in any pain after a long while of coaxing from the butler, and even more gentle coaxing for the stubborn one to accept the clothes for his nest. Beacrox was practically glued to the young master for the entirety of his rut, the chef made use of the time to shower the Cale with affections, the bunny responded particularly well with head pats, purring louder than what Beacrox had ever heard.
The duo would find that Cale knew shockingly little about what secondary dynamics entailed, that he basically ignored everything after the baby-making part, deeming it too irrelevant to his life. Affected him it did not, not when he drove everyone out of his vicinity, nesting and scenting wasn't exactly a one man tango, Cale believed the specifics were reserved for couples and did not matter in families.
Except for the times it did, but that's another lesson for another time.