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The alarm clock on his nightstand had shown 10:37 the first time he checked. He had turned back over to try and sleep more. Blackout curtains prevented the morning light from waking him up. He was a heavy sleeper, even on the worst days. Waking up before his boyfriend returned from his patrol in the early afternoon wasn't something that happened often.
It usually only occurred when he had gone to bed at a reasonable time. Just past 6 in the morning hardly seemed reasonable. His patrol shift was late and long. It conflicted with Hizashi's, so they tended to sleep when the other was gone in an effort to spend more time together.
Shouta sighed and rolled back over to check the time. 11:58. He had been tossing and turning for the better part of an hour. Giving up on falling back asleep, Shouta realized that something felt… he wasn't quite sure how to describe it. Not right.
Not just in a tired way. Shouta tried his best not to be dramatic — that was more his boyfriend's thing — but something in his bones felt wrong. A bad gut feeling to the hundredth degree.
He took a minute to try and dissect the wrongness. His body ached. The sensation of his long sleeved pajamas was unbearable. The room was hotter than he had ever felt it.
Usually the whole apartment was barely above freezing. Hizashi, like most alphas, tended to run hot. Shouta had never minded wearing jackets and huddling under blankets, so they kept it cold.
Shouta pushed himself up off the bed. Two of his three issues could probably be solved by changing. As soon as he stood up he got lightheaded and had to sit back down.
He must be sick. That would explain it. Shouta stood up again, slower this time. He made his way over to his closet. He opened the drawer with his shirts in it and picked up the first one. He had never been picky about clothes but something about that shirt felt wrong.
Shouta thought that as a beta, he should be exempt from whatever sort of instinctual bullshit was going on. Being sick was already annoying enough. He put the shirt back and grabbed a different one. Same thing. He tried again and again but none of his shirts felt just right. Stupid. The whole thing was stupid. A shirt is a shirt.
Beyond frustrated, he opened the drawer that held Hizashi's shirts and picked one at random. It was the first one he didn't seem to have an immediate aversion to, so he took off the long sleeved pajama top he was wearing and put it on.
The relief was immediate. It seemed a little extreme to feel so much better after changing shirts but he certainly wasn't going to complain. He decided not to bother going through every single pair of his own shorts. It would probably go the same way as the shirts had, so opted to skip the whole process and grabbed a pair of Hizashi's.
Shouta was glad that his boyfriend's day-to-day clothes tended to fit much looser than his hero costume. Hizashi was taller than him, but leaner since he tended to fight long range. If all of his clothes were as tight as that leather prison he called a hero costume Shouta wouldn't be able to wear them as comfortably. Or at all.
Having nothing better to do, Shouta decided to go out into the living room. Hizashi would be home soon enough. He wished Hizashi was home right then. Shouta wasn't used to being awake before the other man returned.
Maybe now that he wasn't approximately the temperature of the sun he could go back to sleep. That would help pass the time. Then Hizashi would be home and they could eat dinner and watch a movie or something. Thinking of dinner, Shouta realized how hungry he was.
He grabbed a jelly pack from the kitchen and ate it before going to lay down on the couch. It wasn't quite a meal, but it would be enough to quiet his stomach until dinner.
Shouta wasn't usually one to be hungry when he was sick, but he wasn't really one to get sick in the first place.
He threw away the empty jelly back and sat down on the couch. Had it always been this itchy? He usually had pants instead of shorts, but there was no way he had never touched the couch in the year they had lived here.
This was the most annoying day in the history of days. Shouta stood back up to grab a blanket from the basket next to the coffee table. He laid it down on the cushions and all but threw himself on top of it.
That was much better. And it smelled like Hizashi. That was nice. He couldn't usually smell his boyfriend's scent very well. Betas typically didn't have the heightened sense of smell that alphas and omegas did. They didn't have their own scents either.
Every once and a while he was able to smell Hizashi's, but he thought part of that came from spending so much time with the alpha. Like now. He was missing his boyfriend much more than usual, and was probably subconsciously seeking his scent out.
Surrounded by Hizashi's scent and dressed in his clothes, Shouta fell asleep almost immediately.
***
He woke up to Hizashi gently shaking his shoulder. Shouta opened his eyes and rolled over to face him. Hizashi was crouched down by the couch so they were at eye level with each other and his hair was slightly damp, presumably from the shower.
He must have really been asleep if Hizashi had gotten home and showered without waking him up.
"Come here." Shouta mumbled, still half asleep. He reached out and wrapped his hands around Hizashi's arm.
Hizashi let out a quiet laugh and pat Shouta's hands with his hand that wasn't being held hostage. "I'm right here."
"No." Shouta shook his head and pulled at Hizashi's arm. "You're too far. Come here."
"Sit up for a second, let me get up there with you, then you can lay back down."
Shouta complied, pushing himself up into a sitting position so Hizashi could sit down where his head had been. As soon as he was sitting, Shouta laid back down with his head on Hizashi's legs.
He felt a hand start running through his hair. This is what he had been missing earlier. Hizashi's hand brushed against his forehead to make sure there wasn't any hair in his eyes but paused for a second.
"Do feel okay?" Hizashi asked, he turned his hand over and pressed the back of it to Shouta's forehead to feel his temperature better. "You're a little warm."
"I think I might be sick. I feel better than earlier, though." Shouta really was feeling better. His body still ached but it was much more manageable. For some reason he really wished he had a blanket, but he didn't go get one because he was still a little warm.
"Are you alright?" Hizashi asked, concern evident in his scent. That was weird. Shouta could smell him much better than usual. "Normally you're under a bunch of blankets. It's a little cold in here, even for me."
Something in the back of Shouta's mind decided that was completely unacceptable. Hizashi was cold and he needed to do something about it. Logically, he knew that Hizashi would be okay. That if he was really that cold he could get a blanket for himself. Rationally, he knew that the comment had been more about Shouta's abnormal behavior than Hizashi's temperature.
Typically Shouta was a very rational and logical person. He attributed most of it to his hero training and overall personality, but would but the first to acknowledge some of it had to do with his designation. Betas were seldom plagued by the instincts that effected their alpha and omega peers.
Today had been anything but typical. He wasn't sure if there was some new cold strand that mad people act weird, but with the quirks he had seen he didn't doubt it.
Shouta pushed himself up off of the couch and took the few steps to the basket of blankets, very much to Hizashi's confusion.
"Are you alright?" Hizashi repeated the question that Shouta hadn't answered.
Shouta opted to ignore the question again in favor of scooping up every single blanket inside the basket.
"Are you… cold?" Hizashi was understandably confused. Hell, Shouta was pretty confused. Probably for different reasons, but still.
"No, I'm pretty warm." Shouta stated plainly, as if it would explain everything. If the look on Hizashi's face was any indication, it didn't explain much at all. Truthfully, Shouta wasn't sure how to explain what was going on. The odd behavior flu, probably.
All he knew was that something in his brain was screaming at him to make sure his mate was comfortable. Since when had he started thinking of Hizashi as his mate? They weren't bonded. Rather than process the new development, Shouta dumped the armful of blankets onto his boyfriend.
Said boyfriend was looking up at him and sporting a look of absolute bewilderment. "Thank you?"
"It's not right." Shouta frowned at the pile of blankets. He had thought that making sure Hizashi was warm would fix whatever felt off with him. It hadn't. Maybe if he adjusted them? It certainly wouldn't hurt.
He set to work, taking a blanket from the top of the pile and tucking it between Hizashi's leg and the armrest. Hizashi moved his leg away just enough to let Shouta do whatever the hell he was doing. "What's not right?"
"The blankets." Shouta took another and studied it. Maybe if he thought hard enough a secret blanket arranging ability would unlock itself and he could be freed from the wretched curse of whatever the hell was happening.
"Yeah, no, I got that part. You look like you're trying to blow them up with your mind. What's not right about them?"
"It's-" Shouta paused, trying to collect his thoughts. What wasn't right about the blankets? "I want them somewhere specific, I think."
"Do you need me to move?" Hizashi sat up a little, ready to get up if Shouta said that would help.
It certainly did not help. That weird feeling that made Shouta want to bury his boyfriend in blankets also seemed to want him to stay on the couch. Shouta nudged Hizashi back until was sitting how he had been before. "No. No, not that. I don't know where I want them."
"Elaborate." Hizashi was obviously picking up on the plethora of odd behaviors being exhibited by his normally predictable boyfriend. Being observant didn't equal being omniscient, though, so he was still unbelievably confused.
"I don't know what's going on." Shouta plopped down on the couch next to Hizashi with a sigh. The blanket he had been trying to find a space for was still in his hands. He rubbed his thumb back and forth against the smooth fabric while trying to think of something better to say. "It feels like something's off. I felt really weird earlier. I thought it was better when I woke up, but now I'm thinking maybe it's not."
"Weird how?" Hizashi studied Shouta's face, looking for anything that might clue him in to what was wrong.
"Really warm and achy when I woke up. And unusually sensitive to fabrics? My shirts all felt weird and the couch was itchy. I thought I was sick, but also I'm hungry. Usually when I get sick I don't have much of an appetite." He let out a sigh and rested his head on Hizashi's shoulder. It helped a little. He felt some of the uneasiness fade away. Doubly so when he felt Hizashi's fingers start carding through his hair. "The blanket thing too, that was weird."
Hizashi laughed a little at the last sentence. "Yeah, that was a little strange." Then he took a breath like he was about to say something, but the words never came and his hand stilled in Shouta's hair. Shouta looked up at him and was met with a quizzical look.
"What's that look for?" Shouta questioned, lifting his head so he could face Hizashi, who seemed to be thinking really hard about something.
"I want to test something out real quick." Hizashi pushed himself off the couch. "I'll be right back. Stay there." He started to walk away.
"What? Where are you going?" Uneasiness started to crawl its way back into his mind. Shouta didn't want Hizashi to leave.
"I'll be right back!" Hizashi yelled, picking up his pace.
The rational part of his brain insisted that it would be okay. Hizashi said he would be right back, and he had gone into their bedroom. He wasn't leaving the apartment, just the room.
The less rational part of his brain urged him to get up and follow Hizashi. To bring him back to the couch and surround him with blankets and latch onto him and never let go. It was a compelling thought, just as much as it felt completely out of character.
Shouta decided that he would ignore the request that Hizashi had made for him to stay put in favor of following him into the other room.
Right as he was about to get up, Hizashi reappeared in the doorway of their bedroom with his arms full of bedding. Shouta stayed put as Hizashi walked towards him and dumped the mess of blankets and pillows on top of his head, not unlike what Shouta had done to him minutes prior.
"Just a second!" Hizashi promised. Shouta couldn't see, but he heard him walking out of the room once more.
He pulled the blanket off the top of his head and one of the pillows tumbled to the floor. He could smell Hizashi's scent on it. That was really nice. Being able to smell the alpha's scent three times in one day when he usually couldn't at all was calming enough that he didn't stop to consider why it was happening. He pressed the blanket to the lower half of his face and sunk back into the cushions, waiting for Hizashi to return.
He didn't have to wait long, a minute later Hizashi walked backwards into the living room, dragging the spare futon from the guest room. On top of it was, seemingly, every spare blanket and pillow in their entire apartment.
Hizashi stopped when he bumped into the coffee table and stood up, holding a small stuffed cat that Shouta hadn't noticed. It was the one Hizashi had gotten for him on their first date. It usually lived on their dresser. Hizashi set it on top of the blanket that was still pressed to Shouta's face, making sure it wouldn't fall over before stepping away.
Shouta watched, strangely content, as Hizashi pushed the coffee table away from the couch. He dragged the futon until it was pressed up against the front of the couch.
All the blankets were swept off of the futon and onto the ground. Hizashi took the pillows and put them around the edges of the futon like a little wall. Then he grabbed blankets and started covering them up, tucking the edges in under the pillows.
"What are you doing?" Shouta's question was slightly muffled by the blanket.
"Making a nest!" Hizashi smiled at him. Alphas didn't usually make nests, but Hizashi was always a little odd in other aspects of his life so why would this one be an exception? Shouta didn't question the reasoning. "Will you help me?"
"Okay." Shouta agreed, maybe a little faster than he normally would have. Betas built nests even less, but he had to admit it sounded really nice. It would probably do wonders for whatever part of his brain was wanting him to bury Hizashi in blankets earlier.
Shouta slid off the couch and landed in the middle of the half constructed nest. He took the blanket Hizashi was holding out to him and looked around for a spot to put it. The corner would be a good place.
They worked together in peaceful silence for a few minutes. Shouta didn't think too hard about where he was placing things, just looking around and putting them somewhere when it felt right. With both of them working together, they completed it fairly quickly.
Shouta noticed that despite it being Hizashi's idea, he wasn't inside the nest. He was sitting on the floor beside it with a contemplative look on his face. That just wouldn't do.
"Come here." Shouta held his arms out towards his boyfriend, who was currently much too far away.
Hizashi smiled, still looking a little lost in thought, but climbed into the nest nevertheless. Shouta pulled him into a hug before listing to the side without letting go, taking Hizashi down with him so they were both lying down. Their arms were still wrapped around each other, and Shouta was half on top of Hizashi.
"How are you feeling now?" Hizashi asked, hand migrating to Shouta's hair and starting to twirl a strand with his finger.
"Much better." He answered, truthfully. Either whatever strangeness he had been feeling earlier ran its course or Hizashi had a secondary blanket-powered healing quirk. Both options seemed pretty good.
"Remind me what was bothering you before." Hizashi spoke softly, continuing to play with Shouta's hair.
"It was a bunch of weird stuff. I was hot and achey and hungry, which wasn't too strange." He was still hungry, but the last thing he wanted to do was get out of the nest where his boyfriend was holding him close. "I just felt off in general. Plus the whole blanket thing, but that was probably unrelated."
"You feel better now?"
Shouta nodded.
"What helped?"
He thought about it for a second. He wasn't entirely sure. "Maybe it just needed some time? I don't know. Maybe the nest? That sounds sort of stupid, I guess. Nests don't really do much for betas, I'm probably imagining it."
"I'm going to say something." Hizashi started, sounding a little hesitant. "It's probably going to sound crazy, but I need you to actually think about it. Okay?"
"Okay." Shouta agreed.
"I don't think you're a beta."
Shouta's immediate impulse was to deny the statement. Of course he was a beta. If he was going to be an alpha or omega those traits would have presented themselves years ago.
Even late bloomers would find out that they weren't betas by high school. Traits typically started showing by the time someone was a teenager. Things like scents and nesting instincts being the first for most people.
Shouta didn't have a scent. The blanket thing had been weird and the nest had certainly helped but it wasn't to the level of what someone who was presenting might experience. Right?
As much as he wanted to say Hizashi was wrong, he also wanted to know what his reasoning was.
"What makes you say that?"
"Pretty much everything you've said since I've gotten home. Being achey and hot and hungry aren't abnormal, but put that with everything else and it's pretty textbook preheat symptoms."
Preheat? There was no way. That was for teenage omegas. Shouta wasn't a teenager and as far as he was concerned, he wasn't an omega either.
"I thought that I might have just been imagining it." Hizashi continued. "But when I got home it smelled different. I thought you maybe lit a candle or something. Then we were sitting on the couch earlier you put your head on my shoulder. I realized it was you. You smelled different."
Hizashi picked up Shouta's hand and brought his wrist to his face. He smelled it then brushed his own wrist against it.
Shouta felt a wave of calm crash over him almost instantly. That was certainly… unsusal. Is that was people felt when they scented each other? No wonder it was such a common practice.
Hizashi waited a moment before he kept speaking. "You have a scent. You wanted to nest, that's why the blankets didn't feel right earlier. The sensitivity to fabrics with your shirts and the couch is pretty typical for preheats. You're hungry because your body is trying to store up extra energy if you go into a full blown heat."
Hizashi cupped Shouta's face with his hands. "You're not a beta."
Oh, he really wasn't, was he?
It was a lot to process, but it made so much sense. It explained all of the strange things that had been happening.
The only thing he couldn't figure out was why all of this was happening now. Why hadn't it happened years go?
"Why do you think it's happening now? Most people present by high school. You did."
"I've heard that sometimes when someone's body doesn't think their environment is safe they won't present. Sometimes it's not until they feel safe, sometimes they don't at all." Hizashi spoke as if he'd had an answer ready before Shouta had even asked his question.
Damn Hizashi with all of his well thought out and reasonable explanations for Shouta's weird day.
That would make sense, though. Shouta's home life in high school had been less than ideal. It wasn't abusive, but he could see how his body would want to hold off. His parents had hardly ever been home, when they were they treated him more like a roommate than a son. It probably didn't help that they were both betas.
Here though, with Hizashi, he had never felt safer. Something about it just felt right. Especially now, in his boyfriend's arms in the nest they had built together.
Shouta laid his head down on Hizashi's chest, ear pressed to his heart, and took a deep breath. He could smell Hizashi's scent still, which made sense now. Contrary to basically everything he believed about himself until a few minutes ago, he was an omega, which meant he would have a much easier time smelling people's scents. Shouta had his own now, too. It was faint but present, and mixed nicely with Hizashi's.
It was probably the most relaxed that he had ever been. The whole omega thing really didn't seem too bad now that he knew what was happening.
"You doing okay?" Hizashi asked quietly, pushing the hair away from Shouta's face.
"Definitely better. I'm tired though." Shouta let his eyes close and tried to pull Hizashi closer even though he was already laying on top of him.
"Go to sleep, I'll be here when you wake up." Hizashi pressed a kiss to the top of his head. Shouta was already asleep.