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Ahh, feels good to finally stretch my legs again!
Illuga trotted down the path towards Wavechaser Plains with a spring in his step, happy to be free again after such a long confinement stuck at home.
No one expected it, least of all Illuga himself when he presented a few days ago. He and literally everyone around him thought that he was a beta– It made sense. Illuga had no discernible scent, though only he and a few close companions knew that the true reason was because what would’ve been his scent glands were permanently damaged when he lost his village to the Wild Hunt as a child. The resulting scar on his neck was proof of that.
No, most people believed him to be a beta because he was mid-twenties and had never experienced a heat or rut before.
That was, until a week ago.
He woke up cranky and groggy this morning to pleasantly find that his first cycle had finally subsided, then unpleasantly find that apparently people had been taking bets on whether he was having a heat or rut.
What they learned, was that a freshly presented alpha has significantly less mercy waking up from rut.
Illuga felt a little embarrassed about the whole thing and was still adjusting to how overwhelmingly scented the whole world was, but his squadmates had, for the most part, sans-people-taking-bets, been kind to his new condition. They were the ones who suggested Illuga go out and take a walk in the first place– Stretch his legs out, and smell some new smells. Practice his new scent sensitivity as an alpha.
Pine amber, north. Winter Iceleas, due east. Sweet flowers, all around! Frostlamp flowers, just up ahead– Wait no, they smell kind of… different? Grassier, a little sweeter… Wait wait wait, frostlamp flowers don’t even grow on this island! What the hell?!–
Illuga followed his nose, feeling oddly eager to chase the sweet smell, and the sight it led him to was certainly a surprise– A long, and he means long trail of eviscerated enemies. Fatui tech, Wild Hunt, and radiant beasts.
At the end of that trail, a man who could only reasonably be the source of that smell.
…What the f– Heck?
He approached the man slowly, side stepping the corpse of a radiant bladehorn. At least, he thinks it’s a radiant bladehorn… all the carnage around him is hard to differentiate.
Illuga reached for the man’s shoulder, noticing how similar his armor was to Varka’s– A knight, surely.
“Hey, sir? Are you alr–”
In an instant, the man had a polearm pointed in his face.
And he gave no warning as he attempted to spear Illuga with it.
“Hey, what the hell?!”
Illuga jumped away quickly, reaching for his own spear to parry an attack from the man, who appeared to be breathing quite heavily and not in the right state of mind.
Is this guy some really evolved Wild Hunt or something?!
The man continued attempting to hit Illuga with his weapon. If Illuga wasn’t so used to deflecting surprise attacks from fighting Wild Hunt, he would most definitely be dead by now– Not only was the man strong, he was extremely fast and agile, even moreso than Illuga himself.
He felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead as the man clashed spears with him once more, pushing with enough force that Illuga felt the dirt under him shift. Just being on defense wasn’t going to work. If he didn’t end this soon, he’d be dead.
Steeling his resolve, the next time the stranger moved to try and stab him, he side-stepped him and managed to hit him straight-on with the blunt handle of his spear, jostling his balance– Which Illuga took advantage of to push him to the floor and quickly clamber over to pin him so he wouldn’t try to get up.
The man growled at him, and this close up, Illuga could tell he was definitely the source of that strange, sweet floral small. It permeated from him in waves, nearly drowning Illuga in the new but nice smell.
Is– Is it normal alpha behavior to want to get closer?
The strange knight bared his teeth and snarled at him, “What’s your fucking problem?! Let me go, before I kill you!”
Illuga was shocked– Who talks like that to a stranger, nevermind after spontaneously fighting them?
“What’s your problem?” Illuga shot back at him. “I’m checking to see if you’re okay, and you try to murder me!”
The man didn’t answer, he only wriggled aggressively trying to get free, “Let me go!”
Illuga only tightened his grip, forcing the man’s arms and legs to still. If the limbs were strong enough to fight him like this, they were probably okay and unharmed. His torso seemed fine as well, Illuga couldn’t see any rips or tears where a monster could’ve torn into him. If anything, all the blood that covered him did not seem to be his own. His eyes traveled to the man’s upper torso, noting the collar and a strange black band he wore around his neck…
Illuga leaned in. Partly to inspect his neck for injury as one of the few places the knight seemed to be showing open skin… and partly because the man smelled good. Enticing, even.
He thrashed harder as Illuga leaned in, desperately trying to kick him off, but then all of a sudden went very, very still.
When he looked down at the strange knight, his eyes were wide with something like shock, and… sparkles.
“Uhhh…”
Illuga experimentally lifted weight off one of his limbs. The man didn’t immediately try to kill him, so Illuga gave him a little bit more freedom– No murder attempts. He climbed off fully, and sheepishly offered him a hand to get up.
“Soooo. Do I get an explanation?”
The man took his hand to stand, and weirdly didn’t let go, even as Illuga tried to shake him off.
They stared at each other awkwardly. At least, Illuga felt awkward. The other guy just looked at him with this wide-eyed stare, like he was expecting Illuga to do something.
“...I’m going to need an explanation,” he demanded, “But later. If you don’t try to kill me again, I can get you to Piramida for a checkup to make sure you’re alright. Just follow me!”
He tried to walk off, even allowing the strange man to continue holding his hand for whatever reason, but he didn’t budge.
Illuga groaned.
“Do you have to make me do everything the hard way?!”
He walked back up to the starstruck knight, "Last chance or I’m dragging you to Piramida myself.”
The man took a deep inhale and Illuga thought he’d finally get an answer from the guy, but he whispered something that kind of sounded like– ‘Put me’ or maybe ‘Fup me’? Illuga didn’t care anymore, he was done with this really nice smelling, really pretty, really handsome, really strong, and did he mention really nice smelling– What… what was he talking about again?
Regardless, the man didn’t have a single word for him as Illuga scooped him up in his arms. It seemed like he had no complaints– He had the opposite of complaints, in fact. The foreign knight happily looped his arms around his shoulder, leaning in oddly close to Illuga’s neck. And, even stranger… Illuga had no complaints either. He wasn’t the type to let unknown people so physically close, but something in his newly developed alpha brain said it was more than okay, so…
Illuga went all the way back to Piramida, with, unknowingly, an omega in the highest point of his heat.
–
The knight had fallen asleep in his arms snuggled to his neck as Illuga took the elevator into Piramida, setting foot in the metal city and immediately wincing from all the overwhelming mingled scents. The floral-y sweet man in his arms was so much more pleasant by comparison.
He walked towards the city’s medical hall, willing himself to ignore the whispers and stares of people around him, so blatantly and openly gaping at him as he walked down the street. Illuga flared with embarrassment– His extremely late presentation as an alpha must be quite the hot topic among lightkeepers right now, but could they at least have some shame and respect for his privacy?!
Illuga heard a lot of whispers surrounding him,
“The squad leader works fast, damn…”
“I thought I’d at least have a chance after he presented!”
“Isn’t he taking it a bit too fast?!”
“How’d he find one this quick when I haven't even been on a date yet?”
He willed himself to shun it all out.
As he approached the medics on standby, a loud stomping run from behind him caught his curiosity and he turned around, still holding the small sweet man.
“Illuga!”
It was Nikita running up to him.
“Pops!” He beamed, it’s really been a while since he’s seen his father.
“I heard you presented as an alpha, my boy! How are you fe–”
Nikita’s words died on his lips as his eyes fell on the soft, sleeping boy in Illuga’s arms.
“Sorry pops, we’ll have to catch up later. I need to get this guy here some medical attention– I found him fighting monsters in the wild, and then he fought me, so I pinned him to the floor to immobilize him and check him for injury, then he refused to come with, so I carried him all the way here!”
The sleeping knight nuzzled into his neck lazily.
Nikita is still way too young to die of a heart attack, but Illuga sure gets him close.
“Son…” He coughed, putting on his best ‘father-gives-his-son-TheTalk™-voice’, “That boy you have there does not need medical attention… take him home. Your home. Out in the open is no place for an omega in heat.”
“Pops, respectfully, sir– I found him in several day’s worth of carnage, there’s no way he hasn’t sustained at least a few–”
He paused to think for a moment. A very, very dangerous moment.
Then, very loudly, in the middle of Piramida he screamed.
“THIS GUY’S IN HEAT?!?!”
–
This is definitely top 5 for worst weeks of Illuga’s life. First he had to lock himself away for several days feeling unbearably horny, accept the fact that that’s going to happen again and again for the rest of his life now, and of course, the very common pitfall of Fighting, subduing, pinning, and carrying an omega in heat through an open city and announcing to that city at the top of your lungs what an idiot you are.
The silver lining… if there even can be a silver lining to the most mortifying experience of his life, is that rumors about him bedding a vulnerable omega have evaporated completely. Instead, rumors circulate that the Nightmare Oriole’s Squad Leader has zero game.
Lovely.
He stares in a mixture of resentment of pity at the peaceful omega, snoozing happily in his bed. Illuga embarrassingly had to describe to his own father how the omega had reacted to him getting close, which in terms of omegas in heat had apparently been a positive one. Illuga was trusted enough to not jump the knight in heat since he wasn’t even tempted when he was too foolish to realize the other man even was in heat, thus Illuga took the omega home while he waited for someone from the Knights of Favonius to come pick him up.
Oh, also, a kind lightkeeper had informed him the omega in his arms was none other than the Knight’s Vice Captain of the 5th Company, Lohen.
Good to put a name to the man causing his suffering.
Lohen smelled like a close, Mondstatian cousin of the frostlamp flower, apparently. There’s a variant in Mondstat that’s smaller, more bittersweet, and glowed, and that was Lohen’s omega scent. For someone who’s caused him so much suffering today, Lohen really did look quite sweet and adorable sleeping curled up as he did. His cheeks were rosy with heat and his limbs twitched like he was fighting in his sleep. Illuga couldn’t tell much else, far too embarrassed to get any closer to the omega as an alpha himself, cringing as he remembered how he’d pinned an omega in heat to the ground– How improper! He’d have to apologize once Lohen–
“Mmm… are you looking at me, alpha?”
–woke. Up…?
Illuga stared blankly at the drowsy man, only to remember that he’s the alpha Lohen was referring to.
“Oh, um… Hello. I’m Illuga, a ratnik who leads the Nightmare Orioles Investigation Squad. I am deeply sorry for my poor behavior earlier, it was entirely inappropriate of me to pin you to the floor like that.”
Lohen blinked very slowly at him. “Oh yea, that… Hey, can you do that again?”
He asked like it was casual. The same voice you use to talk about the weather.
THIS IS NOT THE WEATHER!!
Sensing Illuga’s hesitation, the omega frowned and bit his lip, pouting at the lightkeeper, “I like you, alpha. You can spend my heat with me.”
The knight stared him dead on. Illuga waited for a ‘just joking!’ or a ‘haha, got you!’ moment, but that never came.
Lohen stretched from where he curled up in his blankets, moving his body closer to Illuga’s. He tilted his head, revealing that black band around his neck again.
“Illuga, you said? You’re strong. I like that. Is this your bed? It smells nice. I still smell your rut. Where do you keep your spare blankets and worn clothes?”
THIS IS STILL NOT THE FUCKING WEATHER!!!
The alpha gaped at this bold omega in his bed, sniffing around and analyzing his surroundings like he was checking that this was a suitable nesting location– Illuga’s room! That he spent his rut in up until last night!
He blanked on what he could possibly even respond to an offer like that, he’s been an alpha less than a week but even he knows courting is not supposed to look like this. This omega is in heat and the alpha is barely out of rut!
Thankfully, he was freed from having to respond to the crazy knight by a knock on the door, which he’s never ran faster to open.
He came face to face with a mild looking man with buttercup yellow hair, with no discernible smell. A beta, probably.
“Er– Hello. I’m Mika, with the Knights of Favonius. I heard you found Vice Captain Lohen? I’m here to bring him back to camp. He’s supposed to be kept within the Favonius Keep for the duration of his heat, but it seems Vice Captain escaped again…”
The man heaved a troubled sigh, and Illuga hears him mutter under his breath ‘Why me?’
“...This happens a lot?”
Mika nodded with the look of a man who’s seen horrors.
“Apparently. Nod Krai isn’t my permanent station, but my fellow knights tell stories… I’m supposed to be on my way back to Mondstat, but the Grandmaster asked me to retrieve Vice Captain first. He says he would’ve come himself, but Sir Lohen can barely tolerate Grandmaster Varka on a good day. Alpha pheromones don’t mix well with our Vice Captain.”
Illuga gulped.
“Oh… uh, how so? Hypothetically.”
The beta knight grimaced. “He tries to, er– Tear apart any alpha he smells. Sir Lohen’s heats are quite the dangerous thing, all alphas at camp go on full alert for the week…”
He felt a shiver run down his back. And then, a hand.
A third voice joined the conversation, whiny and deliriously in heat, “Alpha?~ Why did you leave? Come back to the nest, I added more blankets!~”
Lohen plopped his head on his shoulder and nuzzled at the scar on his neck like he belonged there.
Mika looked at Lohen. Then Illuga. Then Lohen wrapping himself around Illuga who is, allegedly, an alpha.
“I can explain–”
But it was too late, as Mika immediately went red in the face.
“Oh. Oh. OH.” He stammered in a panic, “I am so, SO sorry! I see that Sir Lohen is in good hands so I will be leaving now, bye, I–I’ll come by soon and leave birth control at the door so please don’t knock up our Vice Captain–”
“NO!” Illuga screeched with all the agony of this past, awful week. “WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK WE’RE MATING? I FOUND HIM! THAT’S LITERALLY IT! PLEASE TAKE HIM, I DON’T WANT HIM!”
The omega clinging to him staggered, looking up at Illuga with big, wet eyes.
“My alpha doesn’t want me?”
He said it with such a dejected tone, Illuga’s newly developed inner alpha absolutely melted. He was one bad decision away from scooping up the teary omega and bringing him back to their nest, where he can keep him safe, comforted, and well bre–
NO!! IT’S NOT EVEN OUR NEST!! NOT EVEN MY OMEGA!! HOW AM I EVEN AN ALPHA?!
“I haven’t done anything to him, I promise,” he pleaded for his innocence, feeling absolutely insane. He was a beta last week. A normal, functioning beta who did not have to exist as an alpha nor fend off feral omegas in heat. “He woke up clinging to me! Take him, he’s not mine!”
The beta seemed awfully hesitant, hand hovering in the air and still red in embarrassment. Finally, he seemed to judge Illuga trustworthy.
“Alright, then… Sir Lohen, it’s time to go.”
The feral knight hissed, gripping onto Illuga’s shoulders tighter, “NO!”
Illuga and Mika worked together to physically pry the omega off him, which they only succeeded in when Illuga regretfully slipped his jacket off, catching Lohen by surprise and giving Mika a chance to restrain him.
He’d never smelled a distress scent before, being so new to his sharpened sense of smell, but this must be it… what a powerful weapon for omegas to have. Lohen looked at him pitifully, begging for rescue from Mika’s, admittedly rather weak grasp. He clutched that jacket up to his nose like it was the only thing keeping him sane, and Illuga’s resolved to just let him keep it. It’d be a lost cause trying to get it back.
“Alpha,” Lohen whimpered softly, striking a deadly arrow through Illuga’s heart. “Come to me for your next rut, okay? And come to me for my heat– We’re already synced! Please?”
“G-go home!” He stuttered, feeling faint and weak-hearted at the omega’s pleading voice. The air was saturated with the smell of desire, Illuga had half a mind to go back inside and rip off his newly developed alpha parts just to get them to shut. UP!
Mika looked like he very much didn’t want to be here.
“Thank you again for finding and taking care of him,” the beta said not awkwardly at all. “Sir Lohen’s heat should be ending in two day’s time, you are free to, ah, visit, i-if you’d like. W-we’ll be going now…”
With that, the two knights set off, one getting hauled by the other.
Illuga didn’t know if he felt sad or relieved.
Suddenly, a scent wafted towards him from the side– He perked up thinking it was somehow Lohen by the familiar sweet floral notes, but the smell was cooler with a bitter edge, and native to Nod Krai, not Mondstat. Actual frostlamp flowers. He’s never smelled this before, but he’s almost completely certain he knows who the scent belongs to.
He looked to his side.
“Young master, I came to check how you were doing after I heard that you experienced an unexpected late presentation. Imagine my surprise, you’ve found a mate already…”
“Flins,” he begs his old friend. “Don’t. You know the truth. Don’t even pretend. I’ve had too many rumors about me today…”
The older lightkeeper tuts softly, “Perhaps I am speaking for the future, Master Illuga. You see, when an alpha and an omega love each other very much–”
Kicking an omega’s shins would be ill-advised even if you weren’t an alpha, so Illuga only strongly considers it instead of going through with it.
“I am not in need of the ‘knot-talk’ from my own friend, Flins,” he mutters dryly.
The freakishly tall omega chuckles, placing a polite hand over his mouth that excuses absolutely none of the brutal teasing Illuga knows he’ll be experiencing soon enough.
“Well, if you ever find yourself in need of my knowledge, Master Illuga… I believe you’ll find the information very helpful, very soon. Perhaps even your next rut– You can expect one in approximately 3 months. Completely unrelated… that omega you hauled around Piramida today will be expecting his heat at the same time. Ah– Did you know that couples with synced mating cycles tend to be significantly closer and a better pair for one another?”
Illuga shook violently. He needed to either lock himself up and never show his face again, or go on a murder spree. Is… is this same feeling why Lohen was out hunting in the middle of his heat?
“And one more thing, Master Illuga… a shower would be most recommended. You smell nearly identical to me. Small lampgrass does not suit you as well as it suits an omega, my friend.”
Scrap the locking himself away idea. Definitely murder spree.