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Rudo knew there were many things different on the ground than in the sphere. His first weeks below were proof of that, with the constant clash of previous ideologies and customs, as well as how people acted with each other. There were the same types of scoundrels and low-life jerks, but there were also many who were kind and caring, who didn’t look down on him and accepted him. Overall, there were plenty of differences.
The most notorious ones were regarding them and their secondary genders.
There were alphas, betas, and omegas, but soon enough, Rudo learned that, on the ground, they weren’t as neatly boxed as they were up in the sphere. People with recessive genes weren’t hidden, or at least treated as anomalies. Rudo had always found that simplicity and limits were another reason to despise it, with him being an omega that didn’t fit the status quo of the spherites, who wanted small but cute to the point of delicate and frail.
Down here, however, no one batted an eye at him not being fragile and small like omegas were, as he had learned. Sure, some fit the usual characteristics, but there were far too many variations that no one questioned, or even cared about, with as much intent as in the sphere.
Still, Rudo knew it was rude to ask, and unless told or mentioned, he was not going to say something. It didn’t take away that he made assumptions on his own and, more than once, had to correct himself when presented with the opposite of what he thought.
One of those that took him way longer than he’d admit was that Enjin was an alpha through and through.
Not only was the man a textbook representation of an alpha, tall, bulk, big hands, and reeking of confidence enough to make Rudo scowl, but he also smelled a lot of tobacco, which, in Rudo’s experience, was a familiar alpha scent. The guy was a beacon of confidence and reassurance that he’d seen mostly in alpha guys.
And yet, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
The first hint was right after he’d been welcomed to the cleaners; whatever Gris was telling him was cut short by the weight of Enjin’s arm on his head and his hair being messed over by the man’s cheek.
“Hey! Quit that!”
“Come on, man, you gotta eat something, this event is for you after all.”
Rudo scowled, but his stomach was growling, and he ignored the action and followed them for something to bite, feeling Enjin patting his head or using him as a pole to rest on while laughing at his scowl.
It didn’t stop there. At any given time, he’d feel Enjin messing with his hair, or patting his shoulder, or bumping into him in between conversations. At first, he thought it was some alpha trick of positioning himself around Rudo’s space, but Enjin didn’t show any hostility toward him, just a grin and patience that made him squint in confusion.
He had forgotten all about it until days later, with Riyo turning to look at him and smiling. He found that strange. Not the smiling, she always did for him, but the way her head tilted to a side and nodded as if she approved of something.
“What is it?”
“Oh, nothing, you finally smell like the team, how many times has Enjin rubbed on you?”
Rudo frowned at that. Come to think of it, the guy had been doing that nonstop, even after they went back from that failed mission and him finding out Gris was all well. Maybe it was a marking thing after all.
“Is that an alpha thing here?”
Riyo blinked. Her head tilted to the side again as she looked at him, and Rudo felt awkward right away. Had he overstepped? But then Riyo started to laugh and pat his shoulder.
“Oh, oh, I get it now, that’s a good one.”
Rudo only blinked in confusion. The topic was shifted to something else because they were called to Semiu’s desk, and he couldn’t work out what Riyo had meant after that.
He didn’t think about it until weeks later, when he walked his way to the little cafeteria area and spotted Enjin and Gris sitting by a table, Enjin yawning and leaning against Gris’ shoulder, who quietly sipped a mug of coffee.
Rudo could see their backs; they clearly were not noticing he was by the door. Curiosity won him over, as it was rare to see Enjin of all people so still and quiet. Besides, there was something in the way Enjin leaned against Gris’s body, relaxed while Gris absently patted the top of his hair, that he felt he was interrupting a somewhat intimate moment. He didn’t want to assume, but it was difficult not to when they were so close, and his eyes widened in surprise when he spotted right above the collar of Gris' and Enjin’s coat, the telltale mark of a bond bite on their napes.
He could have left, had it not been for the other members of the team waving at him to have a seat. Rudo gulped as he tried to hide his flustered expression while sitting on the opposite side. It was a coincidence that the two adults were getting ready to leave, Gris helping Enjin stand up and mentioning going back to rest for a few more hours, not without both patting Rudo on the head as they stepped out.
“Been a while since a long one,” Riyo mentioned while grabbing her mug, Zanka humming as he took another bite of his food.
“Are they alright?” Rudo dared to ask, seeing Elio sit next to Zanka with a cup of what had to be something like coffee. It looked more like a sludge in Rudo’s opinion, but he wasn’t going to comment on that.
“Looks like someone’s going to have some days off,” Riyo said, “probably a regular heat.”
Rudo looked up from his plate. It was then that he also caught a whiff of a scent that lingered around them, something sweet beyond the tobacco and the smell of food in the space.
“Smells like jasmine.”
It was another thing to find out in the ground, how several scents still exist despite many not knowing them. It was as if trying to describe something new to some, while Rudo recognized them from his time in the sphere. Jasmine was one of those, even if it was a surprise to find that in tea down in the ground. Elio looked up from his cup and sniffed the air before taking another sip.
“Like we said, Enjin’s.”
Rudo blinked at that. The logic did not make sense in his mind.
“He has another partner?”
Rudo stared at how Elio spat his coffee and coughed, startling him for causing the guy to choke on his beverage. He panicked, but Elio waved a hand off at him while Zanka gave him small pats on the back, giving Rudo a stare.
“N-no, nothing like that,” Elio said after a moment, “that jasmine was Enjin’s.”
Rudo looked back at the door. Then back at the other three.
Then at the door again.
“No way; Enjin’s an alpha, he smells like tobacco, and he’s… well.”
Riyo started to laugh. Zanka rolled his eyes. Elio just gave him a small smile.
“Rudo, Enjin’s not an alpha.”
“Yes, he is.”
“Not that it’s any of our business,” Zanka said, looking at Rudo again, “But yer wrong.”
Rudo scowled. They had to be messing with him, right? There was no way that Enjin, laid-back, confident brick of a guy, was nothing but an alpha.
Rudo ate his words exactly two hours later.
It happened in a way that made him learn something he didn’t know about omegas yet, and that would be beneficial for him in the future.
There was a difference between ‘having a heat’ and ‘being in heat’ beyond the grammar of the sentences. The latter was the one he’d learned about in the sphere, the one for mere reproductive purposes. The former was more of a hormone adjustment situation and a need for comfort and reassurance of an omega’s connections.
In this case, the team.
And Rudo learned about it while showing Elio one of his latest improvements with his jinki, when he spotted Gris walking their way, and Elio standing up to dust off the front of his pants.
“Well, wish you luck.”
“What? Why?”
“You’ll see.”
Well, that was ominous, Rudo thought, but Gris was already waving at them both and, before Rudo could say something, was being hoisted up to rest on his shoulder.
“Wh—”
“Like I said, good luck.”
Rudo couldn’t see Gris’ face, more confused than anything when the supporter turned to Elio.
“You know you’re more than welcome to join us.”
“Maybe next time, this is a team bonding one…”
Rudo tried to squirm his way out to try and get an explanation, but Gris was already walking back to the building, apologizing to Rudo for the sudden treatment and his being carried like that, until they were by what Rudo had to assume was either his or Enjin’s room, followed by him being dropped on the softest surface he’d been on.
“Ah, there he is!”
Rudo turned to see his surroundings. It was a bed, the biggest one he’d seen that covered most of the room space, with an assortment of pillows and tattered blankets around its corners. But he wasn’t alone in it, as Riyo and Zanka were each on one of the corners, while Gris sat by the edge to untie his boots.
“What is happening?”
His response was a hand on his head, messing his hair, and a strong scent of jasmine hitting his nose.
It was as if all the pieces slotted together; his body, which kept a tension most of the time, slumped in between the mingling of comfort that was the scent of the room. The aches were still there, but they felt like a dull ache that made him sway and about to fall had it not been for Riyo covering his fall with one of the pillows. The smell of it was sweet but not overwhelming, and Rudo found himself nuzzling into it as the weight of the bed around him dipped.
Rudo heard them talk, heard Enjin mention Eishia’s name in between, and Zanka talking about the linens, but his head felt as if floating, and before he knew it, he was closing his eyes into the comfort.
He woke up hours later, sandwiched between Enjin and Gris, with Riyo sitting by his feet, and looking at Zanka, who was asleep behind Enjin’s side. He sat up, careful not to rustle anyone, and rubbed his eyes. He felt well rested, and his body was relaxed, which was something he hadn’t had in such a long time.
“This is a type of heat then?”
“A regular one,” Riyo hummed, pulling up her knees to lean her cheek against them, “Enjin is very proud of his nesting abilities, so to have you so comfortable so fast will make his ego fly.”
“So he’s…”
“A very tall omega.”
Rudo nodded. So that was something he and Enjin had in common, he thought as he looked back at him.
“I see what you meant before then.”
The pats, the messing with his hair, that was all scenting. And he noticed it, now that he knew what to look for, like an invisible blanket on top of him that made him part of the team. It made the corner of his mouth twitch.
It made him feel as he belonged.