Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“My heat is in a week.”, Puffer casually says between bites of his burger, “Just a heads up.”

He might as well have dropped a bomb right into the living room as everyone starts talking at the same time.

“Guys, calm down! It's not a big deal.”, Puffer laughs and Grizzy and Smitty talk over each other trying to deny it.

“Not a big deal?! Puffer!”

“Of course it's a big deal, Idiot!”

It's gonna be his first heat with the pack and he says it's not a big deal! Smitty is baffled sometimes by Puffer's apathy towards these things.

Puffer just rolls his eyes and continues eating his burger.

The pack has only been official with claiming and all the stuff that comes with it for about half a year and while Smitty and Pezzy have had their fair share of heats with the pack already, Puffer is on suppressants, meaning he only has a heat every three months, a more intense and longer one, spanning about a week instead of the one to three days a normal heat would have. For the first one he had been visiting his family so this will be the first one with them.

When asked why he is still on suppressants Puffer had shrugged, quickly joking that two heats a month are enough hassle for the pack. Smitty and Pezzy had played offended at that, Puffer continuing teasing them and the question hadn't come up again.

Everyone is giddily looking forward to it, trying to prepare as much as possible, imagining what it will be like because no two heats are the same. Some are filled with sex, other just with cuddling or a mix of both. Sometimes the whole pack is present, sometimes just the Omegas or Betas or Alphas or just a select group of people from the pack, or just one other person even if that is rare. It's all up to the Omega.

For example Pezzy likes sex, Grizzy always present in the heat and the other pack members rarely pushed away. Smitty is a more cuddly kind of guy and he sometimes only wants his fellow Omegas in the nest and sometimes just the Betas. Their heats are pretty consistent and predictable if you know them.

No one is sure what Puffer's will be like.

John, Matt and Droid try to go on a supply run with him to see what he likes in heat but Puffer just shakes his head, “I already bought everything I need.“

“What?! You bought your stuff alone? That's against the rules! We're the Betas! You stole our job!”, Droid whines and Matt laughs, making a joke about Mexicans and stealing jobs, earning him a few “Ayooo”s and “That's crazy”s from the others. “But for real. Terrible manners.”, John jokes, looking at Puffer who grins back and shrugs, “You snooze, you loose.”

“We didn't snooze!”, Droid defends them and an argument gets kicked into gear, the rest of the pack snickering along.

The Betas prepare in their own way, instincts telling them to stock up no matter if Puffer tells them he already has everything, the pack nest has a few new blankets as well to mostly Pezzy's delight, who likes burrowing under them the most.

John frowns a little to himself while looking at Pezzy rearranging the new blankets, Puffer clearly not that interested if his absence is anything to go by, unsure what Puffer would actually want and unhappy that he doesn't know. Even more unhappy that Matt and Droid don't know either but he shakes it off for now. He can just pay attention during the heat.

Grizzy is in high spirits the whole week, already imagining a heat driven Puffer in his bed. Not that they haven't had sex before but heats just hit different. He ignores for now that it's just as likely that Puffer will just want a few cuddles. A bit of wishfull thinking should be allowed after all.

Smitty and Pezzy are over the moon, imagining together how much cuddling they can get out of a blissed out, heat drunk Puffer. Puffer is a prickly guy, never really initiating physical contact, much less affection. He doesn't reject it either, Smitty has never been turned away during his moods even if he playfully bitches at him the whole time and Pezzy regularly uses him as a pillow or seat, sometimes using him like a component of his nest, making the most of his big stature. Despite being a moody fucker, rather dying before backing down and independent to a fault, he also clearly likes when Grizzy goes a little Alpha on him or when the Betas get a bit over enthusiastic with making sure he is fine. Even if he would never admit that.

When Smitty asked him one time why he never touches first Puffer had snarked back that not everyone is a touch hungry bitch and Smitty had taken the bait for banter, forgetting to keep the topic and he hasn't asked since, figuring that Puffer must have his reasons. Besides as long as he doesn't avoid them Smitty doesn't worry.

Only Puffer seems completely unaffected, going about his days as usual, sometimes raising an eyebrow at his packmates good mood. No one thinks anything of it. Puffer is a bit stoic after all.

The evening before the heat should hit everyone goes to bed high with anticipation. The Betas and Grizzy in their own rooms and Smitty and Pezzy in the pack nest. Puffer can just collect who he wants and bring them to his nest or join them in there when his instincts have finished deciding how they want the heat to go.

Waking up the next morning, still cuddled together, Smitty is disappointed that Puffer isn't there, obviously having opted for spending his heat alone with Grizzy. He moodily scents Pezzy until he wakes up too, overriding his natural scent nearly completely.

Pezzy snickers at his crankiness, letting himself be scented without protesting, “Don't pout. If that's what Puffer's body wants then that's it.” Huffing, Smitty whines, “I knooooow but still.”

Pezzy agrees but still teases him a bit, the two staying in the nest for a while until hunger forces them to stand up, Smitty checking his phone and frowning at the text in their group chat.

Puffer: Heat started. See you in a week.

He overdramatically pouts all the way down the stairs and he and Pezzy laugh together at his theatrics.

Stepping into the kitchen, they stop short at Grizzy standing at the kitchen island, grumpily eating some cornflakes and talking with Droid and Matt. Their heads turn to them at the same moment that they stop and they stare at each other in disbelief, a tense, foreboding feeling rising in the air.

The tension is broken when John comes up behind them, not yet having seen Grizzy, and teases, “Oh? Puffer decided to get fucked instead of cuddled to death? Sucks for you.” Instead of answering, Smitty spins on his heel and pushes past him, to the stairs and back up, closely followed by Pezzy. John says a surprised, “Grizzy? What..?”, when Grizzy quickly rushes past him as well and in no time at all the whole pack is standing in front of Puffer's closed door.

Smitty immediately tries opening it but it's locked to the surprise of no one. Sniffing, there's no scent coming through the cracks at all and Smitty furrows his brow. Matt runs one finger over the edge and says, “He must have stuffed every little crack with something. “

“I thought he was in the pack nest with you when he didn't come to me and I saw his text.”, Grizzy says, eyes locked on the door in horror and disbelief and Pezzy's scent sours considerably, whining in distress, making Droid quickly gather him in a hug, “We thought he was with you! Why isn't he? He's not seriously planning to spend his heat alone, right?!”

The possibility of Puffer locking them out hadn't occurred to Smitty, hadn't even crossed his mind, wouldn't have crossed his mind in a million years. Heats can be shitty even with all comfort one could ask for granted, have shitty parts always. Discomfort, pain. Feeling restless, scared. Even the monthly ones Smitty and Pezzy have. Puffer doesn't want to spend his suppressed, intense heat alone, right?

Apparently he does if the door staying closed for the whole week is any indication and the whole pack gets more jittery and distressed each day.

Droid and Matt loiter around aimlessly at first, stopping by Puffer's door multiple times a day, anxiety over not being able to help when Puffer must be suffering rising steadily. They are distracted, absentminded for the first few days until they channel it into intensive checking on the rest of the pack, following everyone around and trying to ease every discomfort that could be had. Smitty likes attention, especially from his packmates but it's getting stifling fast.

Pezzy hasn't left the pack nest at all, seeking comfort in their combined scents and the cuddling that inevitably occurs when someone comes in while Smitty switches between sad misery (Why would Puffer do this to himself? The pack is right here! Aren't they enough? Why would he choose to be alone?) and indignant hot anger (Why would Puffer do this to them? The pack is right here! Aren't they enough? Why would he choose to be alone?) rapidly, getting exhausted from the intense emotions.

John tries to keep everyone and everything together and running, forcing them to eat, to rest, to do something other than staring at Puffer's door. He keeps as busy as possible to distract himself from his regret of deciding to wait for the heat to figure out what Puffer wants and the guilt churning in his stomach after realizing that not a single pack member had talked to Puffer about it. Everyone had just assumed how it would go.

Grizzy suffers the most though, not just moping like the rest but getting hit full force by his instincts, stalking up and down the hallway most hours of the day. Only going to bed when the Betas drag him to his room or the pack nest and Pezzy and Smitty bring out the puppy eyes and make a whole deal of ‘Not wanting to sleep alone, Alpha.’

Normally such cheap tricks wouldn't work as none of them are usually this controlled by their baser instincts but Smitty can understand why Grizzy is breaking down so bad. He's the only Alpha in the pack after all, making him the default pack Alpha. Not to mention that Puffer is his favorite Omega. Everyone, even Grizzy himself, would protest that, claiming Pezzy his favorite and in a sense they would be right. Pezzy and Grizzy are certainly closest to each other but being the favorite person and being the favorite Omega are different things entirely. He knows that Pezzy agrees and he thought Puffer knew that too.

He isn't so sure anymore, isn't sure of a lot of things anymore, as he watches Grizzy tear himself apart in guarding the door. He had to apologize multiple times already for growling at one of them for coming too close to the door. Surely Puffer must know what he is doing to the pack by locking himself away during his heat. Right?....right?

Smitty wakes up on the sixth day and detangles himself from Pezzy and Grizzy, making his way down to the kitchen to grab something to eat only to stop at the door.

Puffer is sitting at the kitchen table with usual resting bitch face, bickering with Matt like it's a normal morning, like he didn't make the whole pack suffer for a week and Smitty feels angry indignation for a moment, ready to lay into him until he hears what he and Matt are bickering about.

“Dude, stop force feeding me. I'm not that hungry.”, Puffer bitches which Matt resolutely ignores in favor of shoving another waffle onto his plate, “You look like shit! You should be grateful that John is not here or he would force feed you for real. I hold you down and he shoves the waffles down your throat” Puffer snorts, “As if you could hold me down.”

Taking a closer look, Puffer does look like shit. He lost more than a few pounds and he is white as a sheet, slightly trembling with exhaustion. Before he can make himself known to the two people in the kitchen, a growl comes from behind him, making their heads snap in his direction just in time for Grizzy to push past Smitty, beelining for Puffer. He's oozing ‘Displeased Alpha’ and Puffer wrinkles his nose, not as used to it as the rest of the pack has become over the last week, “Well, good morning to you too. What crawled up your ass and died?”

Not answering, Grizzy picks Puffer up, carrying the tall man as if he was light as a feather and Puffer squeaks in surprise, starting to protest to no avail. Smitty follows, already knowing where Grizzy will go and true enough, Grizzy stops in front of the pack nest door, trying to open it while wrestling a resisting Puffer, still over his shoulder. Smitty opens the door for him and Pezzy looks up surprised as they come in.

Throwing Puffer onto the nest of pillows and blankets, right beside Pezzy who scrambles back at the surprise man thrown at him, Grizzy doesn't waste any time in crawling after him, looming over him and reaching for his neck. Puffer's eyes widen and he clamps one hand over it, resulting in a struggle between the two, “Grizzy!?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

It ends with Puffer on his stomach, under Grizzy, arms pinned down by his body, and Grizzy ripping the scent blocker off of his neck. Smitty hadn't even noticed the little patch or the absence of Puffer's scent until now, too distracted by the chaos.

‘Bewilderment, confusion’ crashes into him now, with deep undertones of ‘hurt, pain, pack come help me, alone, miserable’. That must be the last traces of his heat and Smitty and Pezzy start whining at the scent, Pezzy scooting closer again to cuddle into Puffer and Smitty throwing himself into the nest as well, both putting out calming, soothing pheromones.

Grizzy's scent briefly spikes with distress before turning to ‘safe, calm, protective’ as he pushes his nose against Puffer's neck and raises his wrist to rub against his scent gland to soothe and override the scent. The combined pheromones of two Omegas and one Alpha make air in the room thick and cloying and Puffer's struggle weakens more and more, getting hazy from it.

He keeps the weak struggle up until Grizzy places his teeth against his neck. Not biting, not even applying pressure but it's enough in his scent drunk state to make him go limp in submission, whining faintly. They rearrange themselves until Puffer is in the middle, getting cuddled from all sides and Smitty looks up when John and Matt appear in the open door.

Matt's eyes glaze over almost immediately at the thick scent in the room and he stumbles forward while John takes a step back. ”I'm gonna get some food. Droid?! Come to the nest!”, he shouts the last part into the hallway before moving away. Matt, meanwhile, has inserted himself into the cuddle pile and Droid caves to the scent just as quickly when he peeks around the corner.

The rest of the day is spent force feeding Puffer and suffocating him with cuddles. They can rip him a new one over doing something this stupid when he isn't sickly pale anymore, Smitty decides.

Chapter Text

Puffer wakes up in the pack nest, Grizzy draped over his back and Matt curled up in his arms, buried into his chest. Smitty is just behind Matt, curled up similarly in John's arms and Pezzy and Droid must be somewhere out of eyesight.

It has been two days since his heat and he hasn't been able to leave the nest once since Grizzy threw him in, spending most of his time scent drunk and hazy, squeezed between the others who have apparently decided that it's officially “Coddle Puffer” week. Someone is always touching him, the pheromones in the air stay thick and comforting, food gets eaten in the nest. It confuses Puffer when he is cognizant enough to question it. What the fuck has gotten into them in the last week? Did something happen?

Smitty stirs, turning around in John’s arms and meeting Puffer's eyes over Matt's head. First they only fill with sleepy affection as he smiles at him but the more awake he gets the more his expression changes until he seems angry and he sits up abruptly, waking John in the process.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!”, he loudly scolds, hitting Puffer in the shoulder, not strong enough to really hurt but still getting a point across. Matt flinches awake and Grizzy groans into his ear, tightening the arm around his waist as he wakes up. Grumbling from somewhere behind them tells him that Pezzy and Droid woke up as well.

“What do you mean?”, he fires back, getting dragged into a sitting position when Grizzy sits up but doesn't let go of him. Matt stays lying down, looking between them and Pezzy and Droid are now visible to Puffer, sitting up behind John. They all look a mix of angry and worried and Puffer can't for the life of him tell what's going on.

Smitty just bristles, angry frown still on his face, “Fucking spending your heat alone?! What do you mean what do I mean?!”

That just confuses Puffer more, the Pack seemed pretty adamant that the Omegas can spend their heat any way they want. That's unusual in Puffer's experience and one of the things he loves about his Pack. Why would it be a problem if Puffer wanted to be alone? He never commented on Smitty's bossiness or Pezzy’s possessiveness during heats, “How I spend my heat is none of your business!”

“None of our business?! We are your pack! Why would you lock your door when we are right here?! You just spend a fucking repressed heat alone!!”, Smitty seethes, voice getting louder and Puffer unconsciously shrinks a little into Grizzy's chest behind him.

“Bro, I don't understand what the fucking problem is! My Exes were always glad when they didn't have to spend my heat with me.”, he defends, voice carefully belying only annoyance, still bewildered at the reaction.

None of his Exes ever liked his heats. He's too demanding, too snappish, not docile enough. In short, not omegan enough. They seemed to think that his personality would just disappear when in heat, that he would morph into a meek little Omega like the stereotype dictates. It's bad enough that he is too tall to fit neatly into the perceived Omega standard but does he have to be so difficult to handle as well?

The mood after a heat was always tense, pushing all the blame on Puffer for being a ‘bad Omega’. Even if not all explicitly said so, Puffer could still feel the sentiment and while had rolled his eyes at first after the third Alpha behaved that way Puffer couldn't help but wonder if it was true. Perhaps his heats are just as miserable for other people as they are for him.

So he was doing everyone a favor when locking the door to his room instead of jumping Grizzy and afterwards forcing everyone into the pack nest like his instincts were screaming at him to do. Why even try it if he knows the outcome already?

Smitty's angry demeanor crumbles, giving way to a horrified expression, “Your Alpha refused you during your heat?!”

Grizzy whines a hurt noise, arms around him tightening and Puffer starts feeling a bit claustrophobic with the shift in mood.

“No?”, he tries sounding incredulous, steadyfast ignoring the slight wobble in his voice and the panic itching in the back of his mind, “They just didn't want to be there because my heats fucking suck.”

“Puffer, that's horrible!”, Pezzy whines and distressed pheromones waft over, putting Puffer even more on edge. He recoils when Matt reaches out to touch him and starts picking at Grizzy's arms in silent request to be let go, “No, it's not. It's just how it is.”

“What? Dawg, that’s not normal! Your Alpha should help you!”, Droid says, a little too loud for Puffer's frayed nerves and he flinches. The air gets thicker with distress by the second. Pezzy and Smitty start agreeing in equally loud voices.

“Guys? Let's calm down a little ”, John tries defusing the situation, seeing the way Puffer's face closes off and he eyes the door, but no one listens, too caught up in the moment.

Instead of letting go, Grizzy pulls Puffer impossibly closer, growling angrily at the thought of him being abandoned in his heat and Matt tries reaching out to touch him again and the others seem to only grow in volume and Puffer finally snaps.

“Let go!”, he hisses at Grizzy, not just picking at his arms anymore but pulling, and snaps his teeth at him when he doesn't at first. He rips himself out of the nest the second a stunned Grizzy, not expecting this level of aggression, lets go. Everyone stares at Puffer, huffing and trying to get his composure back.

Taking two deep breaths, Puffer's face turns blank, saying in an apathetic voice, “It's not a big deal and I don't want to talk about it. Drop it!”

“Puffer!”, Smitty tries but Puffer is already out the door and soon after they can hear his door bang shut.

“Shit.”, John says quietly and everyone can't help but agree.

—--

Throwing himself onto his bed, Puffer resists the urge to run back and sooth those horrified expressions away, to curl back up in Grizzy's arms and bask in the pack scent that's absent from his room. At least it doesn't smell like his heat, someone must have aired the room out and washed his sheets while he was confined in the pack nest.

He curls his blanket around him, not bothering to stand up to gather more for a proper nest, and tries to shove away the feelings that crawl up his chest, threatening to choke him.

Puffer had been hesitant when the Pack wanted to make things official. Burnt too often to not be. But his friends had been too different from his previous relationships to say no for long.

And it's been truly amazing so far.

Grizzy never complains about Puffer's standoffishness, not seriously anyway, but then again he always found it surprisingly easy to submit to Grizzy, to soften his edges. In a way that it wasn't with his Exes. Grizzy never forces submission, had been clumsy in the beginning even, backing off when Puffer snaps at him. It had taken him a shockingly short amount of time to figure out when he can push and tease and when he should leave Puffer alone. It just feels natural to relax into his side when he grabs him and he never makes him feel like he is doing something wrong when he isn't in the mood and pushes him away.

His mother had always frowned at his tall stature, never saying anything but Puffer could feel her disappointment at her Omega son not fitting with her expectations of how an Omega should be. Smitty and Pezzy seem to like his height just fine. Seem delighted by it even, fighting with each other about who gets to curl up in his lap, stealing his clothes with the same intensity they do to the other tall Pack Members or hiding behind him when Alphas comes too close, trusting him to hiss them away.

John, Matt and Droid mother hen him the same way they do for Pezzy and Smitty. Sure, they back off when he becomes annoyed but they never ignore him like most betas do under the assumption that he wouldn't need any coddling because of his dismissive attitude. Droid somehow always appears to ask for a cuddle when he starts feeling lonely, seemingly having a sixth sense for that. John's eyes wander over him to check on him just as often as they do for Smitty and Pezzy. Matt may be subtle in his care taking, masking it with humor and needling, but it's there nonetheless.

None of his pack ever made him feel less than. He's never felt this….accepted before.

But his heat is another thing. He's driven too many people away with it.

He loves his pack a lot and couldn't bear to lose them. He just didn't want to make them reconsider him.

Because he is sure he would do just that.