Chapter Text
Beomgyu readjusts the backpack on his shoulder, huffing at the weight. The rocks inside surely don't help, but it's not like he has a choice in carrying them anyway. The moss makes his steps softer, quieter, and the thumping of his boots aren't as loud against the concrete anymore. Underneath his beanie, his hair shifts to adjust towards the subtle noises of rodents and birds moving a few meters around him.
There's not much to see here. Another dusty home left useless for people like him. No canned goods, not a single bottle of water to steal— to save, in his humble perspective. Not that he has any companion around to defend his answer against, anyway. He's a man versus himself, a lonewolf, and all that.
He clears his throat, just because he can, and also because he really should. Days have passed by without him using his vocal chords. Not even a single whisper had escaped his mouth ever since. Perhaps in his first days of complete isolation, Beomgyu has taken to talking to himself, but that has often led to unwanted encounters with other wanderers, especially— god forbid, alphas who basked a little too much in the feeling of luck once they realize they stumbled upon an omega, an unmated omega who had no one else with them, nonetheless, probably something straight out of their fantasies.
So no, he'd rather not go through that again. Beomgyu had chosen to screw his mouth shut during his trips and adventures. The last time he encountered an unmated alpha, someone almost died.
Whoever almost died is for him and his perpetrators to know, and for nobody else to ever find out.
He rakes his fingers through his hair. He should find somewhere to bath soon, preferrably this afternoon, since tonight he has to look for a new place to settle in. His last choice is to camp by whichever river or pond he comes across, if he even encounters any.
Somewhere around him, he hears a clattering sound. Not loud, but loud enough for his heightened hearing to pick up on. Quietly, he patters over towards the source of the noise. His feet lead him towards a different house entirely, but abandoned all the same. Perhaps an old rotting village wasn't a good idea to scavenge through for resources.
In all honesty, he can just go back and live in his small town. He knows his way around by heart, he knows which street sells the pastries, where to get free coffee every day, and if he passes by two streets more, it's where the fastfood restaurant that takes in part-timers runs, and he can apply for a job and earn for himself. On the other side of the road is a school that includes kindergarten learning, where elders of all ages hang around while waiting for their grandchildren or children alike, where some would greet Beomgyu whenever he passes by for his morning walk and he greets back before making small talk because it's just that easy to be friends with warmhearted people who only want to live the rest of their lives being lovely to everyone.
But, there's also the pressure that came with discovering a significant part of himself. He also knows by heart the heavy words that had started coming every now and then. Have you become part of a coven? Have you met an alpha to your taste? Has no one courted you yet, dearie? Do your parents—
"Can't you be any more careful than that?" A rough voice gritted. Beomgyu straightens up and leans against a wall to conceal himself.
"S-Sorry, man, this place just gives me the creeps." Another voice, much more meek, responded.
"In broad daylight? Are you a wimp? Why'd I even keep you around?" The other grumbled. Then, underneath their breath, as if only they would hear, they muttered, "betas, fuckin' useless."
Beomgyu instinctively covers his neck with his gloved hand. He knew it was unnecessary, because he just drank a scent-suppressor the day prior, it wasn't going to run out any time soon.
The sharp intake of breath he heard brings his attention back towards the faceless pair. Of course the other guy— a beta, he'd rightfully assume— would feel offended. Whatever they have going on with each other wasn't any of Beomgyu's problems, though. He was currently more preoccupied with worrying about how to move away from the quiet town, knowing his movements could easily be heard if they were hybrids like him, just as how he heard theirs.
"Listen, you were the one who wanted me to stay—"
"Don't say it like that, brat." The alpha cursed, despite the beta being far from a brat. At least, they both seemed way older than Beomgyu was. "I only said I'd keep you around until my rut's over. After that, you're on your own. We both know who's more capable of surviving on our own here, don't we?"
A heavy silence stretches on for just two seconds.
"If you choose your words and act right, I might just keep you for a few more days after."
Beomgyu was wasting his time here.
He doesn't bother paying attention to their quarrel any longer. He uses the alpha's booming voice to cover the light thump of his footsteps, along with the soft rustling noises of his backpack.
If he ends up getting caught, Beomgyu has a knife strapped to his thigh and a bat secured by the belt of his bag for him to use, but for now, sneaking away is the best choice he has. It doesn't seem like the pair was being useful and productive for his scavenging, anyway.
Also, their argument is starting to sound like it was laced with a certain tension that wasn't just frustration. It feels weird to listen to knowing they seemed to be the same age as the construction workers Beomgyu used to joke around with back in his hometown.
Pre-rut, huh.
Beomgyu decides that he has to get out of here before anything else.
"You kidding? You think I like being with you? I'd rather accept my death right now than have to deal with your doomed, pre-horny ass."
While Beomgyu agrees with the sentiment, he'd personally rather fight for his life than actually die before having to deal with an unwanted not-only-one-night-stand.
He droops lower, going on all-fours to begin crawling behind the kitchen counter— his only obstacle to reaching the broken-down doorway that leads directly outside the house, with all its ruined, rundown glory. The dust feels familiar to his arms, he just hopes his backpack doesn't do anything stupid like fall from his back or something.
"Fine, guess I just have to make do with what I have, don't I?" The alpha mocked.
He hears a scoff before the beta speaks. "What the fuck, man, want me to show you 'what you have' right now?"
Oh what would Beomgyu do to avoid hearing this conversation right now. Is this how hate sex usually starts?
If they actually start going at it right now, and not in the fun way, Beomgyu would have to interfere and have them go at it in the fun way.
"Right here? Really? Let me see you try, then."
He's so, so close to the doorway, to the opening where his hands would meet grass and his nose would breathe in the not so fresh air of the rundown town, but Beomgyu genuinely thinks he wouldn't make it, not when he hears the telltale sound of hands grabbing onto cloth, along with a grunt, and he'd rather disrupt the unwanted scenarios in his head right now before they actually happen before him.
So Beomgyu, in the middle of their frenzy, sits on the ground and grabs a conveniently placed piece of rubble beside him, and then swiftly throws it, successfully hitting the plant pot nursing a dead flower.
Like the epitome of an innocent child, he sits with his legs spread out, hands in between, and listens to how the pair abruptly stops moving, and how the pot falls and crashes against the concrete. He breathes in as the sound echoes within the incomplete walls of the house.
And like the crazy, adrenaline-driven person he is, he goes back to his crawling position and starts moving towards the doorway.
"What the— who's there!?"
Like anyone would answer to that, dumbass. Beomgyu huffs quietly.
"Are you dumb? They're not gonna answer, stupid."
Beomgyu wouldn't ever agree with an eccentric alpha on a normal day, but alas, there's a first time for everything.
He continues crawling and finally has one of his hands touch the grass of the outdoors. He's one hand out and still has another hand and the rest of his body to go, but that's when he's finally spotted by the pair.
"Hey! You!"
Fortunately, with how slow the beta moves, Beomgyu was able to push himself off from one foot and start running. He ignores the startled shouts of both the alpha and beta, letting his feet bring him out of the town and into the woods.
The abandoned site was useless, anyway, he thinks. He didn't have a reason to stay there any longer.
"Hey! Hey! You forgot something!"
Who even says that—
"Why the hell are you trying to help him!?" He hears the alpha shout. "Just keep it, dumbass!"
Despite the words intending to be against him, Beomgyu still found it in himself to agree. The beta couldn't be that dumb, could he?
"What the fuck are we gonna do with a jar, man?"
Oh.
Beomgyu digs his boots against the dirt and turns around. He still has half of his mind to remember not to show them any weak spots, to not appear vulnerable.
The other half, however, has his hand bring itself to grab at his chest and realize that the sole thing keeping himself together has fallen into the hands of— whoever they were, and "whoever they were" meant that Beomgyu doesn't know their names, or who they are, and that means they're dangerous.
"Give—" he clears his throat, "give it back."
The pair stops arguing, finally setting their eyes on Beomgyu, and Beomgyu does the same. The alpha, as expected, was more muscular, bigger than the beta, not by much, but it was still evident that Beomgyu would have trouble taking him down compared to the latter. The beta was smaller than him, but he was still both taller than Beomgyu. He could picture how he'd look beside them, scrawny and small, malnourished, weak.
Familiar territory.
Beomgyu watches the alpha's eyes narrow at him, glance at the necklace, and smirk. He snatches the necklace from the beta, ignoring the indignant squawk he lets out, and looks at Beomgyu straight in the eye as he raises it at his eye level.
"This important to ya?"
Beomgyu can't even laugh at how corny his words were when the jar was at the mercy of someone he barely knew, barely trusted. His entire focus is on his necklace, and the alpha must have taken his silence as fear.
The alpha smirks again, Beomgyu can't fathom how ugly it looks. "Listen, let's have a fair trade, yeah? You let us look through that bag of yours, and I'll hand this thing over to you."
In no universe would Beomgyu let that happen, but he had to think over his next course of actions here. The beta.. he could handle, heck, he would probably leave the alpha behind if they really hated each other, but sensing their sense of survival, he has a feeling he wouldn't, just because they still had benefits to gain from one another. On the other hand, the alpha would be tricky. He'd be more aggressive, especially since he's in pre-rut.
The worst case scenario would be them accidentally getting a whiff of his scent through his sweat after engaging in a fight and finding out about his subgender. The next worse case would be..
The jar dangles mockingly from the alpha's hand. It reflects the sunlight and glints in Beomgyu's eyes.
His clamps his mouth shut and stops a hiss from slipping.
"He's not answering." The beta said.
"He's thinking, dumb beta." The alpha gritted, thinking his words had only been heard between the two of them. Louder, he speaks, this time addressing the words towards him, "but honestly, I don't know any other way for you to get out of this unscathed, little guy."
His eyes zero in on the fairly-sized branch that has been laying at the space between them.
Beomgyu makes a decision.
He slouches his shoulders, letting the slings of his backpack slide down just a little. He starts walking slowly, padding closer towards the pair.
His face morphs into one of defeat. Eyes smaller, looking at the patch of grass between them, pace slow and skittish. Beomgyu keeps his hands clutched tightly onto his bagstraps.
"Asshole, stop scaring him!" His ears pick up on the harshly whispered words of the beta. "He can't be older than us! Don't you feel sorry?"
"Shut up, he hasn't given me any reason to."
In the midst of their not so quiet argument, Beomgyu moves.
He drops down in an instant to pick it up, with his other hand grabbing onto as much dirt and mud it could grab on, and then in one swift movement, he throws the branch straight towards the alpha's right eye. As expected, it hits the man right where he wants it to hit, right before the beta could even shout in alarm.
Without wasting a second, he throws the patch of dirt towards the alpha's other eye, and quickly surges in to grab the jar necklace out of his shaky grip. Beomgyu raises a foot and doesn't hesitate before pushing to kick the alpha's crotch. Now that the jar was in his hands again, he couldn't hide the small smile from his face, delighted by the curses falling out of the man's lips.
"Oh shit—"
Beomgyu, with his muddy hand, grabs the baseball bat by his bag and swings.
A pathetic yelp echoes through the trees. Beomgyu's amused to see a flock of birds fly away from the corner of his eye.
He watches the beta slowly open his eyes, his entire form shaking and— is that a wet patch in his pants? How pathetic can he get?— Beomgyu narrows his eyes at the man.
"Fuck— dude! I can't fucking see! Where'd he go!?"
"He— woah!" The beta stops talking just as Beomgyu raises his bat in a threat to swing again, this time, they both knew Beomgyu wouldn't stop just by a centimeter away from his head.
The beta scrambles away, moving to help the alpha up instead. Beomgyu watches for a while, seeing if the alpha would be able to recover any time soon. Fortunately, he only continues to claw at his face.
Beomgyu turns around and starts to run again. They fought by the mouth of the woods, this time he knows it'd be easy to have them lose him. Still, he doesn't risk getting caught and speeds up his pace, weaving through the trees as quickly as he can.
"What the fuck're you actually useful for? You just let him go!?"
"Dude, man, listen, did you not see his.."
Those are the last words his heightened hearing had picked up on. Beomgyu happily lets it trail off and lets out a breath of relief. If even his ears can't hear them anymore, then they're now out of his range.
What's there to see, anyway?
Little by little, his wide steps slow down to a light jog, and then settles into a walk. Flying would have been more convenient, but it's not like his backpack shifts with him when he does, so Beomgyu has to settle with running.
Except compared to how useless the abandoned town had been, the forest could probably be even more useless than where he was just a few minutes ago. Still, Beomgyu tries to console himself with the thought that if he finds a single body of water within the woods, he'd be delighted for the rest of the night. He also needs to wash his hands. Dirt and grime may be familiar to Beomgyu, but he'd prefer it if he could keep himself clean.
Just as he thought so, his ears pick up on the faintest sound of what he's been looking for. Running water. A river, if he wanted to guess. He huffs and hops on his feet in contained joy.
He starts walking over towards the direction of the sound, his hair shifting just a bit to let him hear it more clearly. The closer he gets, the more he hears just which direction the water runs to. Growing excited at the thought of getting clean, Beomgyu picks up a skip in his step and slowly transitions to running once more.
Beomgyu knows he's there when he sees how the trees slowly lessen in depth, and vaguely sees bigger sunrays casting down in the distance. When he arrives at the clearing, the sparkling water reflects against his big eyes, mixing along with the genuine sparkles that showed his giddiness.
Still, he begins walking by the flow of the river, hopping onto rocks and wood logs alike as obstacles along the way, and only stops when he deems himself far enough from the spectacle which was the pair of men he encountered around twenty minutes earlier, now. Better safe than sorry.
When settled, Beomgyu removes the weight from his shoulders and sighs at the relieving feeling, rolling his shoulders backwards a few times before stretching his neck after. A few joints pop, much to his satisfaction, and he finally starts stripping himself to wash his clothes. He only has two pairs of clothes on him, with the other one being inside his bag, ready to be worn after his scrubbing session. He discards his used clothes and starts washing himself in by the river, relishing in the cold water.
Beomgyu lets out a sound similar to a coo, shortly whistling right after.
He dries himself by shifting into his counterpart, letting out a tiny hoot, just because. Beomgyu takes to the skies and takes his time flapping his wings, only initially struggling with the wet sensation.
By the time his wings feel lighter and he doesn't feel like a wet sock, he descends back by the river and shifts back into his human form. Beomgyu quickly slips into his second pair of clothes and washes his first, hanging them by the makeshift rack he keeps in his backpack— a string he ties onto branches, with the clips doing the rest of the work, really.
By the time the sun has began to set, Beomgyu gets ready for a night of just.. staring. He doesn't feel tired yet. His trip earlier in the abandoned town had been spontaneous, meaning he just woke up right about then. His bedtime is when the sun rises, and he wakes up a few hours before it sets. So, Beomgyu gets ready to spend the night safeguarding his belongings, knowing he'd be the only one awake, as the forest sleeps at night.
He hoists his bag up a high branch, securing it by the trunk. His clothes can continue hanging on the rack. If anyone were to try and steal them, Beomgyu could just peck and claw on their heads.
Well, now that he's getting ready to spend the night, he belatedly realizes how counterproductive it was to shift back to his human form to wear clothes just to go back to his bird form half an hour later, but nobody was there to care. Beomgyu just sighs and slips his clothes off again.
Once he shifts back into an owl, he occasionally starts letting out hoots and coos. His owl voice is different from his human voice, obviously. He likes being more vocal in his bird form, even if there was no one to talk to, so Beomgyu settles for whistling a soft tune, settled on the branch where his backpack was on, waiting for the night to pass by.
Beomgyu doesn't sleep during the night, and not sleeping at night up to sunrise means he tends to see the morning routines of the world around him.
So, naturally, he sees— more like hears, initially, how a pair of footsteps slowly approach the area he was settling in.
His entire form goes still, letting his black and white coating shield himself among the shadows of the trees. Beomgyu keeps his eyes wide open, surveying the approaching intruder. By the pace he was hearing, he would assume they weren't in a hurry. In fact, they seemed more relaxed, as if the place was familiar to them.
Beomgyu curses. That means there's a chance that he accidentally settled into charted territory.
He's stuck on the branch wondering just how exactly this place was already someone else's, with how dominant the forest life was. Aside from a few squirrels and spiders catching prey, he hasn't heard any humans.
Did he miscalculate? Surely not. If he trusted any of his body parts, it would be his ears the most.
The footsteps suddenly halt, grabbing his attention once more. His eyes immediately focus on the intruder— or, well, technically he was the intruder, and this person could was the owner all along.
Beomgyu whistles one more time, cooing as he surveys the man a few meters away from him. A man, surely, definitely around Beomgyu's age, too. His snowy white hair softly frames his pale face, a big contrast from Beomgyu's mixture of black and white. While Beomgyu's hair ran down to frame his face up to his neck, the man in front of him had much shorter hair, with a little wave for volume.
He also can't deny that this man looked simply.. ethereal.
Beomgyu lets out a short trill.
"Oh?" A soft voice echoes against the equally soft atmosphere of the approaching dawn. "A bird friend?" The voice adds on, an excited tone slowly lacing within it. Beomgyu tilts his head to the side, finally making himself silent. He wants to know the intentions of this.. puppy.
The way his ears perk up and tail starts wagging at the sight of a bird slightly irks Beomgyu. He's just glad he's settled on a branch and not on the clothing rack.
"Do you have a friend? Did they just leave you alone to guard their clothes or something?" The dog hybrid asked, slowly inching closer towards the tree Beomgyu was perched on top of. Beomgyu follows his movement with his head, pondering if he should respond or let the guy continue speaking.
While Beomgyu still thinks of the man as an ethereal being— really, he hasn't seen a face like that.. aside from his own— he also thinks he's starting to get desensitized by how the man slowly becomes more like an overgrown child by how excited he seems at the sight of an owl perched on top of a branch.
"Are you sure you're not stuck up there? Why are you not moving?"
Did he really just talk to a bird and ask if they, a bird, were stuck on a tree?
Beomgyu chatters, and abruptly unfolds his wings. This startles the man, making him take a few steps backwards.
"Woah, okay, why do I feel like I just offended you..?" Well, Beomgyu wouldn't say he was offended. But dumbfounded, incredulous? Yes. "Taehyunie will definitely make fun of me for this," the boy chuckled to himself, "..well, he just doesn't have to know."
Beomgyu suddenly finds this man interesting, and whoever Taehyun was, it is now his mission to snitch and tell what just happened.
But first..
It's not exactly that Beomgyu doesn't want to show his human form to this guy, as harmless as he seems, but he's definitely not going to show himself naked, not when his clothes are in his bag again with the other pair still drying on his rack.
So Beomgyu does the next best thing that he can and starts looking for the chance to start pecking the man. With no clawing, because his claws are only for hurting the target, and he only wants to temporarily scare this puppy away from his temporary-claimed territory.
"So? I'm guessing they stopped by here to take a quick bath. I get it, though, really. Sometimes this is where I bath in my other form! The water's cold and refreshing."
Beomgyu lightly coos at the image of a white dog enjoying his bath in the river. A cute sight, he'll admit.
"Why am I even talking to a bird? I can't be this lonely." The man huffs towards himself, shaking his head. He isn't looking at Beomgyu anymore, now actually talking to himself instead of the owl. Beomgyu simply watches how the dog hybrid spends the next five minutes standing right below him, with a hand against his chin, thinking deeply.
The sun would be fully rising soon, and Beomgyu's starting to get drowsy, but he isn't going to sleep any time soon with a stranger standing near his possessions. He lets out a short hoot to remind the man of his presence.
Immediately, the hybrid looks back up at him, and beams.
"Right! Owls sleep during the day, right? I shouldn't disturb you. I should take my leave, then. I guess my morning bath would have to wait for another day." Once the words have left the man's lips, he halts, and then stares at Beomgyu for a good three seconds.
Of course, not one to back down, he stares back at him, tilting his head at the side for good measure.
"Will I see you again, birdy?"
What a silly name, Beomgyu huffs, in his head this time.
He doesn't even bother answering, only letting out a short coo. It's up to the man to decide if he wants to be a little delusional and wonder if a bird was genuinely answering him or not. However, him finding out that the bird in question was actually an owl hybrid was up for Beomgyu to decide.
His eyes are seriously starting to droop, and he needs this man to go away fast or else he might actually do more than a few pecks.
The man must have finally been satisfied with their interaction— it was an interaction, no matter if he was aware or not— and finally starts waving his hand towards Beomgyu, smiling widely. His face fits his.. everything, really. Beomgyu hasn't been this charmed by someone's physical features ever since his elementary teacher— he wasn't even sure if he actually found her attractive or only went along with the rest of his classmates, but whatever.
"Bye, oreo owl!" Now, that's admittedly a better name than just 'bird', so Beomgyu lets out his satisfaction through a short trill in response. The man seems even more satisfied with this, his smile turning brighter before turning around to start jogging back to wherever the heck he came from.
He realizes that the dog hybrid was running by the river, and concludes that if he wanted to spy, he'd just have to fly by the same direction up until he reaches whatever place the puppy was residing in.
But for now, Beomgyu lets out a few more coos and whistles, listening to the sound bounce between the trees, and finally closes his eyes.
He'll wake up, dress up, and probably meet the guy properly tonight. Screw him, it's the first time in a while that Beomgyu encounters someone who wasn't out to tear him apart right on their first meeting. Disregard the fact that he was an owl when they met.
He's been alone for months, of course he'll jump at the first opportunity of making a potential friend.
He'll see me again, alright, Beomgyu thinks amusedly, eyes slowly beginning to shut as the sound of footsteps finally disappear, just not in the way he'd expect.