Work Text:
Eddie was halfway between High School and his ‘fortress,’ when the yummy scent struck. Nutty and chocolate-creamy, it warmed the winter air like a lavish barista coffee. Intoxicated, Eddie forgot to watch his feet.
He tripped, landing crash-bang on his knees in the iced mud.
Ooooow! Wtf?
He jumped up, growling as he spied a Tigers scarf stretched across the path. Had somebody deliberately tripped him? Played sabotage the freak?
Unlikely.
On Wednesday afternoons, most forced-conformity morons would be playing ‘balls-in-laundry-basket’ games. Eddie had taken his billionth ‘sick-day’ to escape and conjure angsty gore-drenched lyrics. Still, this mysterious discovery proved distracting.
He plucked up the scarf, plastered it to his face. That sweet coffee scent drenched it, unmistakably Omega. Moments later, he found a sneaker then, following an unlikely treasure trail, he peeled a sweater from the dirt. Its deliciousness had a bitter edge, like burnt coffee beans.
Omega in danger! Find! Now!
Eddie snorted at his inner Alpha.
Discarded kit most likely equalled some jock meathead getting jiggy with one of the Omega pompom-brigade.
He followed his twitching nose anyhow and spotted the sumptuous-smelling Omega huddled alone at the bottom of a tree. They wore a cheerleader's outfit waaaay too skimpy for an alfresco December jaunt and hugged themselves with naked arms. Eddie recognised that drooping head of immaculately sculpted and blond-highlighted hair.
His jaw dropped. “Harrington?”
Steve’s face snapped up with a hiss: “Get lost.”
Nope. Eddie couldn’t do that.
Steve’s cherry-flushed cheeks and spacey eyes suggested he was helplessly going into his first heat. Or, more likely, experiencing symptoms of the wild hormone fluctuations most newly presented Alphas and Omegas endured.
If Eddie left now, Harrington would freeze into an undeniably hot, Omega-shaped popsicle.
…
Today was supposed to be different.
Steve had practiced cheer routines with Chrissy for weeks. Finally, he would face his fears, try for the cheer-squad, let the world know the real reason he’d dropped out of basketball, avoided locker rooms, taken endless sick days, and then… then…
He'd been on his way to meet Chrissy—his cheer outfit hidden beneath baggy sports-kit—when his skin started crawling, itching, then burning up. He’d slumped against the lockers, head-spinning, trying to catch his breath when, Whoosh!
His scent clouded around him so thick he gagged.
OMG, noooooo!
Dumb teenage hormones and Omega pheromones. So much for nuclear-strength suppressants and kickass blockers.
A dozen heads whipped around, some kids pinching their noses, others giggling. Steve’s face was literally on fire.
He ran.
Straight outta school, across the sports fields, feet skidding, shedding clothing as he stumbled.
Hot, too hot!
Eventually, his legs buckled. He’d stripped to his brand-new cheer outfit, and still he felt like he was on fire, and now… now…
“Get lost!”
An Alpha had found him, all alone in the woods—freaky, scary Eddie Munson, and Steve was too wibbly to run. He hissed again, stripped to a helpless prey animal. Yet Eddie’s eyes were kind, for sure. The Alpha approached, palms raised, slow and cautious-like.
Steve gasped in his scent. Cranberry sauce and fresh-from-the-oven bread-rolls…
“Hey, not gonna bite,” said Eddie. “You need help?”
Steve pressed curiously glacial knuckles to his cheeks, and whispered, small and scratchy, “M’burning.”
“Sweetheart, you’re muddled. Can I touch you?”
Short breaths hitching on Eddie’s yumminess, Steve nodded.
Next thing he knew, he was gathered against Eddie’s hip. The contrast between his bare limbs and the strong arms wrapping around them proved an eye-opener: “Shit! I’m f-freezing, not b-burning… God… how could I… b-be… s-so d-dumb?”
“You’re on hormone suppressors, right?” asked Eddie, while Steve’s nose gravitated to Eddie’s throat, irritatingly shielded by a scarf with snarly skulls on it. “It’s hard to find the right balance when you first present. The wrong dose turns you loopy. Seriously, I had this mini-rut that had me humping the drum-kit in Gareth’s garage. His parents found me, naked, slick with cold sweat, and covered in goosebumps.”
Steve hooted. “Seriously? Oh, um… sorry. It’s not funny.”
“In retrospect, it kinda is. Listen, your body is probably aping a heat or something, making you feel mega-toasty, when actually you’re not. Pretty dangerous without—”
“—somebody to look out for me.” Steve’s knee crept onto Eddie’s thigh. His arms crawled around Eddie’s neck. Next minute… Oooops! He was full on cuddling in Eddie’s lap.
The fever-like burn settled into a pleasant shimmer. His shivering body notched into Eddie’s so freakily naturally, that he simply nestled there, letting Eddie stroke and soothe him.
Then his brain caught up.
His life was ruined.
“Oh God! I should’ve taken another sick-day. People saw… and smelled! They’ll gossip, and… Uuuugh, I so wanted to be on cheer-squad before I came out as Omega. So I’d have somewhere to fit in, and wouldn’t be a… fr… fr…”
“A freak?” offered Eddie. His toothy grin made Steve’s belly flip.
Steve nodded, dry lips quirking toward a smile. Which was definitely freaky.
He should want to punch things, yell at the injustice of life.
Yet, here he was, sitting in the lap of a stunning Alpha, who smelled edible, and who’d stopped him freezing into a jello-pop while believing he was being microwaved.
Tho’ Eddie was the one Steve craved to lick…
“Let’s get you somewhere warm,” said Eddie, so kindly Steve’s heart turned to melted butter. “School? Or somewhere else?”
“You know, my parents are outta town,” he whispered, because, yeah, Eddie had ignited a different sort of burning between his legs now.
“Sweetheart, that’s your crazy hormones talking,” said Eddie, tho’ Steve swore he heard the Alpha’s heart thunderclap. “How ’bout we go somewhere for hot chocolate?”
“Okay,” sighed Steve, peeping at Eddie’s gooey-eyed, dimpled gorgeousness. “I’m paying. Seeing as you probably saved me from hypothermia.”
“Deal.”
Steve inhaled Eddie’s scent till he tingled with it and tentatively wondered if this was fate, and if they could be scentmates. Their courtship officially started over peanut-butter mochas, spiced-cranberry cookies, and extra-toasty snuggles.