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With a rattle and a concerning splutter, Steve’s beemer finally dies on the side of the road. It had been making weird noises for the past few miles, but he’d just been hoping like hell he could make it to the next town before it broke down completely.
No such luck.
He’s in the middle of nowhere, on some quiet back road, and it’s not far off getting dark.
And it’s cold.
Steve sighs. Walks around to the front of the car, lifts the hood, stares at the engine like he’s got half a clue what he’s meant to be looking for.
Yep, looks like…an engine.
Frustrated, he kicks at a tyre, then slumps back into the driver’s seat.
When he tries turning the key again, nothing happens. Completely dead.
Great. No heater either, then.
He runs through his options.
There aren’t many – try to walk to the next town, except he’s got no idea how far away that is and it’s getting dark, or stay here and hope some kind passerby stops to help him.
He decides on the latter.
Zips up his jacket, grabs his duffle from the backseat and pulls out his spare coat, laying it over himself like a blanket.
It’s fucking cold.
He should’ve just stayed in Hawkins.
No.
He couldn’t.
Not after he’d presented as omega, not after his parents had raged and kicked him out of the house when he’d refused to go on blockers, not after they’d…they’d threatened to have Dr Brenner section him, to force him to undergo surgery to reverse his designation. The doctor was an old friend of his father’s, and he’d do it, Steve had no doubt.
But he didn’t want to be an alpha.
Omega felt right for him. No matter what his dad said, or Tommy, or his basketball coach.
He wasn’t going to be forced into being something he wasn’t.
So, several days ago he’d packed a bag in the middle of the night and slipped out of the house, driving off into the dark in search of…something better.
At the time, it had seemed like his best option.
But now, a couple of states away, cold and hungry and alone, he’s not so sure.
Despite the chill in the air, his palms are clammy with anxiety as he stares in the rearview, hoping to see headlights. Without thinking, he grabs more clothes from his bag, bundling them up on his lap and spreading them across the centre console, unconsciously nesting in response to his stress.
Finally, he spots headlights approaching. Steve shoves himself out of the car, waves to the oncomers.
Their horn blares, and they speed right on past him.
Steve’s shoulders slump. Raindrops patter against his jacket, mussing up his hair.
Dejected, he stomps back to the car. Shivers away inside, waits.
At some point, he nods off.
And wakes to someone tapping on his window, headlights glowing behind him.
He jumps, arms curling around the mass of clothes in his lap.
There’s a man standing outside. An alpha, with long dark hair, wide brown eyes, and breath misting in the cold.
“Hey, you ok?” the man asks through the window.
Steve takes stock of himself. His rumbling stomach, his fingers and toes cold and stiff, his body devoid of any warmth.
He shakes his head.
“Can I open your door?”
Steve nods and fumbles for the doorhandle with numb fingers, but the alpha sees his struggle and opens it for him. Slowly, carefully, so that Steve and his haphazard nest don’t spill right out.
He gets a whiff of pine and leather, a hint of whiskey tang.
“Careful.” The man grabs for a t-shirt that falls from Steve’s lap, hands it back to him. “What’cha doing all the way out here? Not a common spot to park up for the night.”
“Broke down,” Steve says, teeth chattering.
“Shit, you’re freezing.” The alpha rumbles, deep in his chest, a noise of discontent. “You can’t stay here till morning, let me take you somewhere? Um…where were you trying to get to?”
Steve shrugs. “Just…away. Anywhere.”
The alpha’s eyes search his, and some level of understanding is reflected back there. “Do you want to come spend the night at my place? It’s not much, but I’ve got a half decent couch, and you could shower and warm up. It’s gonna get even colder out here, heard some people talking about snow coming.”
The omega thinks for a minute, eyes running over the stranger.
He’d been wanting help, yes – but he’d been hoping it would come in the form of another omega, or maybe a family, rather than a slightly wild-looking lone alpha in the middle of the night. He wasn’t an idiot; he’d heard stuff, stories about alphas taking advantage of packless omegas…
“I’m Eddie,” the alpha adds, sensing hesitation. “I live in a cabin a little further up the road, with my uncle Wayne, although he’s away on a fishing trip at the moment. Back tomorrow, though, and he’s a mechanic! Maybe he could look at your car. And I promise I’m not gonna…do anything. I just can’t leave you here all night to freeze.”
There’s something about his face. The little crinkles at the edges of his eyes, the soft smile.
And he smells…right.
Steve’s omega uncoils a little inside him, interest piqued, and pushes their scent back towards the alpha.
Steve trusts him. Trusts this alpha, Eddie.
“Ok,” he says softly. “I’m, um…I’m Steve.”
*****
Eddie can’t help but sneak glances across to the omega in his passenger seat while he drives.
Steve. He looks around eighteen to Eddie, at a guess.
He’s still shivering, holding his bag tight on his lap.
Eddie reaches out and cranks the heater even higher, doesn’t care about the extra gas it’ll use. He’s barely got enough money to fill the tank again, but it doesn’t matter.
What matters is making this omega warm and comfortable.
“So, uhh…” Eddie clears his throat. “You said you were…going away?”
“Uh huh.”
“Where to?”
Steve looks out the window. At the dark forest they’re passing through. “I dunno. Couldn’t stay at home. Not after presenting. They didn’t want…they didn’t want me. Not as this.”
“An omega?”
“Yeah.”
Eddie’s hand tightens on the wheel, white knuckling it. He’s not sure how anyone could look at Steve, at this pretty, soft-spoken boy with honey eyes and strong hands and not want him.
Not that Eddie’s some kind of creep.
It’s not like that.
It’s just…when he’d seen the omega hunched up in the beemer, he’d thought for a moment he was dead – it was that cold out, and he’d been pale and unmoving in his sleep, surrounded by a hastily put-together nest. But when Steve had jolted awake, when he’d looked at Eddie with those wide hazel eyes and hopeful expression, Eddie’s alpha had woken up. Had sat up, taken notice, had gotten one whiff of salt-sweet and summer flowers and screamed at Eddie to protect.
“I’m sorry, Steve,” he says, for lack of anything better.
“S’ok.”
It isn’t, but Eddie’s doing his best to keep his alpha locked down and calm, so he doesn’t dwell on it for now. “Here we are.” He turns down a gravel driveway, then parks the van up outside his cabin.
It’s small, his and Wayne’s place. But it’s cosy and it’s home.
“Here, let me take your bag,” he offers, grabbing the omega’s duffle and heading on up the steps. Steve follows, and Eddie unlocks the door and offloads the bag on his couch, immediately busying himself with stoking the fire. The coals were still glowing orange, but he needed to coax the flames to roaring, needed to warm Steve up.
His alpha whispers that there’s a better way he could do that.
Eddie shivers, and clenches his jaw as his alpha settles with its heavy, fond gaze on Steve.
The omega sits on the couch, hands rubbing at his thighs to warm up, looking idly around the small room. “How come you live all the way out here?” he asks.
Eddie shrugs. “It’s nice. Peaceful. I used to live in the city with my dad, but he got thrown in prison when I was twelve for dealing drugs and stealing cars, so I moved out here with my uncle. I finished school last year and I just kinda…stayed.”
Steve nods. Fiddles with the strap of his bag, looks into the glow of the flames Eddie is doing his best to nurture.
His stomach rumbles.
Loudly.
Eddie jumps to his feet, quick enough to startle the boy. “Food! You need something to eat. Let me find you something.”
Feed, provide, give, his alpha demands.
“It’s ok -”
“Nope, you’re starving. You stay here, get warm, and I’ll rustle something up for you.”
“Thanks, Eddie.”
“No problem, sweetheart.” Cheeks colouring at the pet name he’d let slip loose, Eddie rushes to the kitchen.
His alpha is crooning.
*****
“I can’t just take your bed,” Steve’s insisting as Eddie bounds around his bedroom, tidying.
Well, it looks like he’s trying to tidy, but he’s really just grabbing dirty clothes and dumping them into the corner.
“Yes you can,” Eddie tells him. “When I said I have a half-decent couch, I meant for me, not for you. You need some room to spread out, to get comfy, to…” The alpha flaps a hand at the clothes half-hanging out of Steve’s bag. “…to put your nest, if you like. I know that’d help you feel more at home, right?”
It would, yes, except – “I don’t really have much of a nest, anyway. It’s just like…my clothes from back home. An old blanket from when I was little, that kind of thing. I don’t have…it’s not a proper nest.”
A nest was supposed to be a collection of items both from the omega themselves and their loved ones.
Their pack.
But Steve didn’t have a pack.
All he has is a bag full of old clothes he’d bundled together in the middle of the night.
Eddie pauses in his whirlwind of cleaning. Looks at him, and it’s sad.
Steve glances away.
“Do you want something of mine?” Eddie ask softly. Steve looks back to him, and Eddie wrings his hands, twisting the ring on his index finger. “Sorry, that was stupid, you don’t even know me -”
“Yes,” Steve blurts, before he can stop himself.
His omega is crying out for something of this alpha’s to add to their nest. Preferably something drenched in that pine forest scent.
Steve recovers. Takes a deep breath in. “I mean, if you don’t mind. Be nice to have something from someone else.”
Eddie had already given him so much already – a place to spend the night, food, a hot shower.
Eddie’s eyes are wide as saucers, almost comically so. Then he nods, quickly, and flings open his little wardrobe, shoving coat hangers aside as he searches. “No, no, no,” he mutters under his breath. “Ah!” he exclaims, then looks over his shoulder to Steve. “Something soft, right?”
Steve nods. His omega likes soft things.
Eddie plucks out a black hoody, clearly well-worn and well-loved, and holds it out to Steve.
The omega takes it. Carefully, feeling the softness of the fabric in his hands, then brings it up to his face and rubs his cheek across it. Immediately, Eddie’s scent washes over him.
Perfect.
Slightly embarrassed, he drags it away from his face, feeling Eddie’s eyes on him.
“It’s ok?” the alpha checks.
“Uh huh,” Steve says, doing his best to keep his voice steady, light-headed from that scent. “If you’re really sure about taking the couch -”
“I am.”
“- then I’m just gonna…” Steve gestures awkwardly to his bag and rubs the back of his neck. It’s not that he doesn’t want Eddie there while he tries to rearrange his things into some semblance of a nest, it’s just…it’s just he hasn’t done this very often, and never in front of anyone else. What if he fucks it up? What if the alpha thinks he’s stupid, or babyish for not knowing what he’s doing, or –
“Oh! Right, you want me to step out?”
No! Steve’s omega whines immediately. “You don’t have to. It’s your room.”
“It’s ok, if you want some privacy.”
“Stay?” The word slips from Steve’s throat, and his omega does a happy little tumble-turn inside him.
Eddie exhales a little shakily. “Ok. Sure, you do your thing, and I’ll just…keep tidying up.”
Carefully, Steve arranges his clothes on Eddie’s bed. His cheeks are red, his hands shaking a little as he goes, but he concentrates, lets his omega guide him. It takes him some time, but finally he’s got everything where he wants it, including Eddie’s hoody right up by the pillow. The whole bed smells of the alpha anyway, but that hoody was gifted to him, it’s special.
When he looks over his shoulder for Eddie he spots the alpha leaning on the wall, watching him fondly, any pretence of tidying up gone.
Steve shifts a little. “Eddie, um…” There’s something building in his chest. Something primal, something strong, his omega surging and practically screaming with want.
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“Just stay here tonight?” Steve blurts. “With me. In your bed. Don’t take the couch.”
Silence for a moment. Steve panics quietly, thinks he’s just shoved his stupid, needy omega foot in it, he’s made things weird –
“You want that?” Eddie breathes. “You want…me?”
“Yes.” Steve swallows. “If you want that too.”
Eddie looks at him with such warmth that Steve can feel it, and it does more to warm him than the old A/C in Eddie’s van had, more than even the open fireplace in the next room.
“There’s nothing I’d want more,” the alpha replies.
Steve smiles.
*****
With the content omega curled up beside him, Eddie’s never felt so at peace.
His alpha dozes within, occasionally stretching out, basking in Steve’s sweet scent before settling again.
Eddie keeps his eyes open. To trace the back of Steve’s head in the moonlight, the thick mop of brown hair, the moles on his neck.
He must’ve been exhausted, Eddie realizes – he’d fallen asleep mere minutes after flopping into the nest, immediately hugging one of the alpha’s pillows to his chest.
The image is permanently etched behind Eddie’s eyelids.
He wonders what tomorrow will bring. Or…later today, he supposes, since it’s well after midnight.
Would Steve be eager to leave? To get back on the road again? Would Wayne be able to fix his car quickly?
A selfish part of Eddie hopes not. Hopes instead the omega will stay with him, let Eddie dote on him and take care of him like clearly no one ever had.
He shifts, props himself up on his side to better watch Steve sleep.
The omega’s lips are slightly parted, his face lax and peaceful. He snuffles slightly, twitching as he dreams.
Good dreams, Eddie hopes.
He reaches out. Can’t help himself. Lays a gentle hand on Steve’s arm, squeezes lightly when the omega starts to twist and huff, his dream clearly turning sour.
Steve stills. Relaxes under Eddie’s touch.
And then he starts to purr.
Softly, barely there, but unmistakable.
Eddie chuffs in response, the automatic response of a pleased alpha.
He slaps a hand over his mouth. Embarrassed.
Steve’s not his omega.
Inside him, his alpha, now wide awake, rumbles.
Isn’t he?
Eddie snatches his hand away from Steve, pins them both to his own chest.
But the other boy is moving. Rolling towards Eddie, seeking him out in the dark.
The alpha’s heart thuds as Steve settles beside him, one arm slinking across Eddie’s waist.
Gingerly, his hand lays on Steve’s arm again.
The omega purrs a little louder.
“Eddie?” Steve mumbles, voice thick with sleep.
Eddie’s afraid to move, doesn’t want to startle him away. “Yeah, sweetheart?”
“S’your uncle a good mechanic?”
“Um…yeah, he’s pretty good. Why’s that?”
Steve sighs. Eddie’s still not entirely sure how awake he really is. “Was hoping maybe he wasn’t so good. Maybe…he’d take a while to fix my car.” He moves a little, propping his head up with one hand, the other still resting on Eddie’s stomach.
Fully awake, then.
“Oh?” Eddie tilts his head a little, stares back at Steve, blinks slowly. Tired, but dripping with fondness. “You’re not in a hurry to get back on the road, then?”
Steve shrugs, averts his gaze briefly. “Not really sure where I was going, anyway. Or what I was…looking for. But I think maybe I found something.”
Eddie’s stomach swoops. “You can stay. If that’s what you want, you don’t have to leave as soon as your car is fixed, if that’s what you’re worried about. Wayne won’t mind, and I…I’d really like it if you stayed. Or we could hit the road for a while, I got nothing better to do. We could see the country, go…anywhere. I’d like that.”
It’s the understatement of the century. There’s nothing Eddie wants more on this planet right now than more time with Steve.
“Yeah?” Steve whispers.
“Yeah. Yes. Stay, please.”
“If you’re sure you don’t mind -”
Eddie can’t hold back any longer. He twists, wraps an arm around Steve’s waist, and buries his nose in his neck. Inhales deep, slow, breathes in the scent of the omega he’d found out in the cold and welcomed into his home and heart.
Steve chirps, the sound warming Eddie down to his toes.
“Steve?” Eddie murmurs.
“Mmm?”
“Can I kiss you?”
“Please.”
Eddie surges forwards again, presses his mouth to Steve’s. The omega’s lips are soft, parting easily for Eddie’s.
The alpha sighs into his mouth, slumping further onto his omega.
Steve wraps his arms around his waist, brown sugar and sea salt scent tickling at Eddie’s nose.
He could drown in it.
“I’m so happy your car decided to break down on my road,” Eddie whispers.
Steve smiles, laughing softly. “Me too, Eddie.”
Eddie gathers him up, holds him close like he’s been longing to do all night, one leg sneaking in between Steve’s.
When he finally falls asleep, it’s to the sound of Steve’s soft purrs.