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If you asked Yoichi what his favourite season is, he’d be inclined to tell you autumn. Winter might be a close second, but that’s only whenever Yoichi is in the mood and if winter has been nice to him recently.
Unfortunately, this year, winter has chosen to be his enemy.
Snowstorms aren’t entirely uncommon in Japan, but you’re more likely to get them the further out into the country you go. That doesn’t mean they never happen, though. Yoichi glares out the window of his dorm, cursing the billowing winds and the violent snowflakes that are falling too fast. They’re in Tokyo, for crying out loud, but there’s inches upon inches of snow and everyone has been advised to not travel outside in these conditions—even most, if not all, of the subways aren’t running. Public transit is at a halt.
And now Yoichi is forced to stay inside with his two idiot roommates that don’t even get along for gods know how long.
Nagi is fine when he’s not bored out of his mind, but he’s often bored. Barou is fine as long as you help upkeep the dorm room—which Yoichi does, but Nagi doesn’t. They haven’t gotten along since they first began university several months ago, and Yoichi still has half a year left with them.
So much for visiting with his friends for the winter break. This snowstorm has everyone boxed in, and Yoichi is already done with it. He should have left for his trip earlier.
The biggest thing that Yoichi hates about rooming with Nagi and Barou is the fact that they’re both alphas. It makes living with them even more insufferable, especially as an omega. Their situation is as cliche as you can get. Yoichi wishes he would have been roomed with Kunigami or Chigiri—Kunigami is an alpha, but he’s kind and fun to be around, and Chigiri is a beta who could absolutely pass as an alpha when given the right circumstances. At least then Yoichi wouldn’t have to feel like he’s never taken seriously around them.
“It’s still snowing?” Nagi yawns, padding out of his shared room with Barou, ruffling the back of his hair.
Yoichi rolls his eyes. “Hasn’t stopped,” he mutters, sighing as he steps away from the window. “The news said it won’t stop until sometime tomorrow. No one should be traveling for the next three days or so.” He grimaces as he says so, cabin fever already starting to itch inside of him.
“Three days?” Nagi mumbles, leaning his head into his palm. “Mm. Reo’s not gonna be happy about that.”
“You had plans with him?” Yoichi asks, mostly out of curiosity.
Nagi nods, though he’s yawning again as he does. “Yeah. Reo always makes winter break plans for us. Think it had to do with snowboarding again.”
Again, Yoichi thinks disdainfully, Must be nice being rich. Having rich friends.
Yoichi doesn’t hate Reo, not really, but he certainly knows the young man is extremely privileged. And so is Nagi, since the two of them are conjoined at the hip. Yoichi’s nor sure how Nagi does it; he and Reo are practically opposites.
Barou emerges from the bathroom then, glowering towards them. His hair is down from its ridiculous updo, wet from his apparent shower. He looks better this way. Yoichi blinks, before shaking his head slightly. He heaves another side, crossing the small living area space to the kitchenette.
“Just try not to kill each other while we’re stuck here,” Yoichi says, nearly mutters, annoyance probably palpable in his tone. “No one would be able to come get me with the two of you rotting away in the place.”
He gets an annoyed growl from Barou in response, the same time as Nagi says, “He’s the one who needs to behave.”
Great. He’s accidentally started a fight already, hasn’t he? Yoichi’s not going to be able to last these three days.
He just isn’t.
He lasts for nearly two days before the dam breaks, and that’s because Yoichi hasn’t noticed any of the signs that he’s been headed into pre-heat. His heat isn’t meant to be for another two weeks, but the sudden overexposure to not just one, but two alphas’s scents in such a small space. Their scents are wild—angry and annoyed, sour and a little nauseating, because when they’re like this, the scents don’t meld at all. Yoichi is normally able to handle them just fine, but two days of constant exposure and little to no real ventilation of the dorm room? Yoichi can’t stomach it as well.
It happens quickly, and all at once.
Barou and Nagi are arguing, again. But it’s really just Barou complaining and Nagi not giving a shit about whatever it is they’re arguing about. Yoichi’s lost count, and it’s been over just about everything over the past day or so. Yoichi’s head is killing him and he doesn’t know what to do. He’s already taken medicine for it, but nothing has worked.
“It’d kill you to clean up just once, wouldn’t it?” Barou hisses, pointing down at Nagi on the couch.
Nagi peers up at him from over the edge of his phone, scowling. “When you’re a dick about it, yeah.”
For some reason, Yoichi bursts into tears.
The two alphas must hear him, because as soon as he starts, the dorm goes silent. Yoichi presses a hand to his mouth, trying to be quieter about it, but it doesn’t help. He’s in pain, and he’s tired, and he just wants to curl up in bed and—
It occurs to him, then, that these are all his pre-heat symptoms. Ones that he usually takes care of by spending time with Bachira, the other omega in their friend group, because he always knows when his next heat is going to be.
Yoichi is so lost in things that he doesn’t hear or notice either of the two approaching him, jerking wildly when Barou’s hand touches his shoulder. He hisses quietly, smacking at Barou’s hand and glaring towards the two alphas.
“What?”
“Isagi,” Nagi starts, eyes narrowing slightly.
“Shut up,” Yoichi hisses again, grabbing at his temple. “You’ve both given me a headache, and I’m in pre-heat right now, and I don’t want to hear a single fucking thing out of your mouths.”
Nagi’s eyes go wide, and Barou’s seem to grow a miniscule amount—even though Yoichi has displayed annoyance with them, he’s never snapped at them like this. Yoichi snuffles as he rubs at the corners of his eyes, wiping away the tears. He needs to go start making his nest already.
He pushes past the two of them, inhaling a little as he does—despite how heated the two men had been before, their scents are much calmer now, and Yoichi finds himself enjoying them for a brief moment. Yoichi ends up in his room a minute later, the door mostly shut behind him. His brain turns off and focuses purely on nest as he pads around his room, grabbing his blankets and the clothes he’s kept from his friends to shove into the sides of his nest.
Time passes as Yoichi gets his nest ready, and as soon as it’s ready, Yoichi climbs his way inside of it and curls up, the headache starting to slowly fade. He’s not sure how long he stays there, curled up, his nose pressed into one of Bachira’s hoodies that still has most of his scent attached. Soon, though, there’s a knocking on his door and Yoichi makes a somewhat pained noise in response.
He catches Nagi’s and Barou’s scents as he lifts his head, half-lidded eyes peering towards his door through the opening of his nest. Nagi stands there awkwardly, shifting slightly on his feet, and in his hands are—clothes. Through his haze, Yoichi recognizes one of Barou’s jerseys and one of Nagi’s hoodies. His inner omega keens immediately, happily recognizing the offerings of two alphas—and it makes Yoichi internally cringe, dreading the fact that he’s an omega at this moment in time.
Slowly, Yoichi sits up, staring at Nagi. He turns his eyes down to the clothes. “Are those for me?”
Awkwardly, almost mechanically, Nagi nods. He glances over his shoulder, back into the hallway, before looking back at Yoichi. “Uh… yeah. Yeah, Barou said you’d—want them?”
Want is a funny word for Barou to use, considering the fact that Yoichi’s never asked either of them for articles of clothing before. Especially for his heats.
However, his inner omega barely gives Yoichi a choice. He crawls close to the edge of the nest and reaches out, holding his hand there. Nagi seems clueless for a moment, before he holds the clothes out to him, and Yoichi snatches them up quickly. He turns around so his back is to Nagi as he buries his face into Barou’s jersey, breathing in deeply—aloe with the spicy scent of cinnamon, with Nagi’s scent of cotton and sandalwood bleeding through from his hoodie.
Yoichi nearly moans in relief, curling himself up around the pieces of clothing and shuffling further back into his nest again.
Nagi continues to stand there, staring at Yoichi through the nest’s opening, his eyes darting around occasionally. Yoichi doesn’t notice for another minute or so, basking in the glory of the new alpha scents in his nest. When he does notice, Yoichi looks at Nagi through his lashes, blinking slowly.
Unbidden, Yoichi mumbles, “Do you want to come in?”
Nagi’s eyes are wide, before his pupils dilate just a bit. He glances off before he nods. Yoichi preens for a moment then grimaces a little at himself, shaking his head slightly. He shifts inside the nest and jerks his chin a bit.
When Nagi doesn’t move, Yoichi grumbles loudly, “Get in.”
Nagi does as he’s told. He slowly makes his way through the nest’s opening, sitting on his knees for a brief moment, looking confused as to where to go, until Yoichi grabs his arm and yanks him down to lay next to him.
“Turn around,” Yoichi mumbles, trying not to glower, and Nagi does so.
Yoichi plasters himself against Nagi’s back and sighs, shoulders sagging, the alpha’s scent becoming so much stronger now that he’s closer. He can sense Barou somewhere outside his nest, can still smell his scent—much fresher than the jersey—and it makes him just a bit annoyed.
“Barou,” Yoichi mutters against Nagi’s back, “Get your ass in here.”
It takes a minute, but Barou eventually concedes. Yoichi only hears the other man entering the nest, his eyes closed with his forehead pressed between Nagi’s shoulders. A rumble comes from the other alpha as Barou presses against Yoichi’s back.
Yoichi’s inner omega is in heaven . Yoichi himself feels utterly embarrassed, his heart beating a million miles an hour in his chest. He can’t believe where he’s currently at, sandwiched between Nagi and Barou. He’s dreading his heat fully coming within the next few days.
But maybe, Yoichi thinks, grabbing one of Barou’s arms and curling it around his waist. Maybe I’ll have some help this time…