Archive of Our Own ^beta

Soobin’s lunch was always cute. He had one of those little bento boxes that Beomgyu always saw the lunchbox girls using on TikTok. He packed different things every day, but they were always incredibly cute. That day, he had two triangle shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts cut off, a handful of firm green grapes, the Aldi brand Goldfish crackers that were shaped like sharks instead of fish, and a brownie for dessert.

Beomgyu liked it when Soobin had the same lunch period as him (which he did - three days of the week). Though, admittedly, it was not just because of the super cute lunches, as much as he enjoyed the reveals. He had a list of reasons he enjoyed eating with Soobin.

1. When Soobin chewed, his nose and lips twitched a bit, so he looked like a little bunny.
2. It was prime viewing for Soobin and his sweater paws, as somehow, despite his size, all Soobin’s sweaters had ridiculously long sleeves, and Beomgyu really enjoyed the way they covered most of his hands and how his slender fingers would emerge to grab his food or to push his glasses back up his nose. 
3. Soobin was his friend! Everyone loves spending time with their friends.

“Did you have a good weekend?” Beomgyu asked as he opened his own lunchbox (it had Spiderman on it because adult lunchboxes were just so boring). It wasn’t nearly as aesthetically pleasing, but it had been Yeonjun’s turn to pack the lunches, and while he didn’t care much for making the food pretty, he did always make sure Beomgyu had lots of yummy things to eat. 

He pulled out his thermos and opened it, practically moaning as the scent of Yeonjun’s kimchi jjigae wafted out. To go with it, he’d sent a little Tupperware bowl of rice, apple slices, and a sandwiched baggy with a handful of Flaming Hot Cheetos inside (a real testament to how much Yeonjun loved him, honestly, as he did not like to share those). 

Soobin nodded with his mouth full. Beomgyu bit back the urge to coo over him. It had gotten him nasty looks from Ms. Carr (the computer teacher) multiple times. 

As Soobin swallowed, he spoke. “Brontë loved the cat toys.” He blushed and glanced down. “You guys didn’t have to get her anything.”

Beomgyu just waved him off. “Yeonjun loves shopping, as soon as he saw them in the bargain bin at Target, there was no talking him out of it.”

While it was true that Yeonjun liked shopping, it was also possible they’d gone out of their way to venture to the pet section of the store to get something for Soobin’s cat. There was just something about Soobin that made people want to spoil him. Perhaps it was simply that he was the world’s cutest omega, walking around their school with pink cheeks smelling faintly of something softly sweet.

Soobin, however, seemed completely oblivious to his charms. He just took what Beomgyu said at face value, nodding like he understood. 

“What about you two? How was your visit with the in-laws?” His voice was so soft and sweet, so deep. Not for the first time, Beomgyu thought Soobin would be very good at ASMR. Perhaps one of those podcasts where people read to you to help you go to sleep.

Beomgyu made a face. “It was alright, but traffic is so bad on Sundays, we should’ve left earlier, but Yeonjun’s old bed is just so comfy, makes it hard to get up in the morning.”

He watched, delighted, as Soobin’s ears turned red at just the insinuation of two people sharing a bed. Now, Beomgyu knew Soobin didn’t care much that he was mated to Yeonjun. He was one of the few teachers who hadn’t so much as batted an eye when they’d found out the two new teachers were in a relationship (unlike Ms. Carr, who had squawked indignantly when she’d caught Yeonjun kissing Beomgyu under the mistletoe at their office Christmas party). No, this reaction was simply because, well, Soobin tended to get a bit embarrassed over just the vague suggestion of some funny business going down. This, of course, only made Beomgyu want to tease him more. 

“So…any suitors lately?”

Soobin nearly choked on his hot chocolate. Beomgyu knew that even though he carried a to-go coffee cup, it never had coffee in it. Soobin hated coffee. 

Beomgyu grinned slyly as he watched Soobin sputter and fumble with the napkins as he patted down the table. Ms. Carr sent Beomgyu a glare, presumably blaming him for the mess Soobin had made. 

Soobin never answered, but Beomgyu didn’t mind. He didn’t really care what the answer was; he just liked knowing he could fluster the other so easily. He grinned as he took a big spoonful of soup and rice and shoved it in his mouth. 

Delicious. He’d have to do something extra special for Yeonjun later to thank him. 

𓂃۶ৎ

“Fuck, Gyu,” Yeonjun groaned, his head tipped back against the cabinet behind him with a thunk. Through half lidded eyes, he glanced down at where Beomgyu was on his knees in front of him, lips wrapped around his cock, and large brown eyes looking back up at him. 

Their house, which normally smelled a bit like Christmas - Beomgyu’s warm gingerbread mixing especially well with Yeonjun’s balsam fir - smelled a bit spicier than normal. Like someone had lit a candle that smelled like red hot candies…or the cinnamint flavored gum Yeonjun had chewed in college. It was heady in a way their normal scents weren’t. It made Yeonjun feel a bit lightheaded and his knees a little weak. 

And it was sinful how pretty Beomgyu was. It should’ve been illegal the way he’d hollow his cheeks, swirl his tongue around the tip, the slowly lean forward until Yeonjun was all the way down his throat. 

“Gyu, ah,” he gasped as Beomgyu swallowed around him. Yeonjun’s knuckles went white as he desperately clung to the edge of the counter. Beomgyu hummed in response, clearly pleased with himself.

Yeonjun wasn’t sure why he’d been jumped as soon as they’d gotten home, but he wasn’t going to complain. Especially after they’d spent the weekend practicing abstinence at his childhood home. 

“Oh fuck, darling-“ whatever he’d been about to say was lost forever as he cut himself off with a strangled gasp, spilling down Beomgyu’s throat. 

He watched, a bit in awe, as Beomgyu pulled off and licked his lips. Yeonjun found himself smiling even as he struggled to catch his breath. He reached down to thumb at Beomgyu’s bottom lip.

“What was that for?” He asked, once he could speak without sounding all breathless. 

Beomgyu grinned wickedly. “I just really like you.”

Yeonjun pulled Beomgyu up off the floor so he could give him a kiss. 

It was much later that evening, when sleepiness had begun to blur Beomgyu’s edges, that he lolled against Yeonjun’s side in bed and began reading over Yeonjun’s shoulder as he finished a chapter of a romance novel he’d picked up the last time they were in Target. 

It was good, if not a little cliché. But Yeonjun liked clichés; he liked cheesy. He lived for bad rom-coms and all the little tropes. Fake dating, best friend’s brother, only one bed…the works. 

“Are you nervous about tomorrow?”

The words had been whispered, but Yeonjun had heard. And he knew without even asking for clarification what Beomgyu was asking about.

“Yeah,” he sighed softly.

“Me too.”

𓂃۶ৎ

Tuesdays, if you asked Beomgyu, were easily the worst day of his week. It was the day he had to teach art to the second graders, which was somehow worse than both the chaos of kindergarten and the pre-pubescent angst of fifth grade. It was because between the ages of seven and eight…children learned to be sassy. Not that this made the children themselves any less nice. But having twenty of them in his classroom at once, all of them insistent on being as stubborn as possible simply for the purpose of making their peers laugh and gaining what one student had told him was “street cred” (what were they watching at home?)…It was Beomgyu’s own personal form of hell and would occasionally make him consider being less obstinate himself.

To make matters worse, Tuesdays were the day he had lunch duty. So he had to eat his lunch while standing and patrolling the lunch room, which wouldn’t be that bad if there wasn’t this big traffic light at the front of the room to help with “volume management”. Except, when the kids’ volume would, every day, inevitably hit “red light levels”, the most annoying alarm would start going off and wouldn’t stop until there’d been a full three minutes of complete silence (something that was difficult to achieve with a room full of children). 

But that Tuesday was worse than normal. Because that Tuesday was the day they’d hear back from the adoption agency to find out if they’d been approved. And they were really counting on being approved. 

Beomgyu and Yeonjun had no regrets over getting mated, even if it had lowered their chance of having pups. On their second date, which had unfortunately taken place at a tailgate party, Beomgyu had gotten gloriously drunk and accidentally confessed to Yeonjun that he wanted kids one day and would love it if they had his cheekbones. However, instead of being weirded out or even pointing out that it would be impossible for them to conceive together, Yeonjun had taken it all in stride. He’d admitted he also wanted kids one day and that he thought it’d be cute if they had Beomgyu’s bright eyes. 

As their relationship had gotten more serious, they’d started to talk about kids more seriously. But therein lay the issue. Because they were both alphas.

Back when they’d lived and worked in the city, they’d known a lot more couples who were the same subgender. And the number one reason they’d seen these couples get rejected was “house size” or “living in unsafe neighborhoods”. So, to increase their chances of getting approved, a little over a year before, they’d packed up everything and moved to the suburbs, where people were expected to, well, live lives that were a bit more traditional.

They checked all the boxes. They lived in a decent sized townhome in a very safe gated community. The area had good schools and they were college graduates with steady jobs. They had health insurance. They even worked with kids! Surely…surely they wouldn’t find a reason to deny them.

That didn’t stop Beomgyu from buzzing with nervous energy all day, though. Their interview a few weeks earlier had gone well…the agent that had been sent to check out their house had been impressed that “two alphas managed to keep the place so orderly”, which, while definitely a backhanded compliment, was a good sign…hopefully. But it was hard to be sure, because…there was no omega or even a beta in the equation. And stereotypes persisted. 

Yeonjun drove them home from work, the car completely silent and his knuckles white as he gripped the wheel. Nothing could hold their attention. They stood in the kitchen, looking at Yeonjun’s laptop on the counter and refreshing every few minutes to see if the email had arrived yet. 

Finally, at five minutes past five, an email materialized in Yeonjun’s inbox. The preview gave nothing away, only showing the Dear Mr. Choi and Mr. Choi at the top.

Hesitantly, Yeonjun hovered the mouse over the email and clicked.

𓂃۶ৎ

“That’s a cute cat toy,” Kai remarked as he settled down further into the worn-in floral print sofa in Soobin’s living room. 

Soobin hummed from where he stood in the kitchen. He couldn’t see them, but he had a feeling he knew exactly which cat toy Kai meant. It was likely the soft calico bunny that had catnip in its belly and a bell around its neck. One of the new toys Beomgyu and Yeonjun had given him and Brontë’s new favorite.

Thinking about the gift had a pleased, tingly feeling bubbling in the pit of his stomach and he stamped that down immediately. He couldn’t have his inner omega getting the wrong idea. Those alphas weren’t interested in him like that. They had each other. But, at that point, Soobin had been single for…his entire life. So, it wasn’t hard to believe that his omega would jump at the first sign of positive attention from, well, anyone.

“Yeonjun and Beomgyu got it for her.” Soobin pulled a package of premade dumpling wraps from his reusable tote and placed them in the fridge. With the last of his groceries put away, he meandered back into his living room. Kai was still on the couch, but Taehyun had migrated to the floor, lying on his stomach so he could play with Brontë.

Kai looked up as Soobin walked in and unceremoniously plopped himself down on the sofa beside him, pulling his legs up so he could sit cross legged. 

“I still think they’re courting you.”

Soobin scoffed. “I can guarantee you, they’re not.”

They’d had this conversation plenty of times since Beomgyu and Yeonjun had started working with him at Oak Grove Preparatory School. Kai thought they like liked him and Soobin insisted they didn’t. Taehyun was withholding judgment (but Soobin knew he agreed with Kai; he always agreed with Kai). 

Conversation lulled as everyone gazed at Brontë, watching as she tilted her head to give Taehyun better access to the underside of her jaw as he gave her little scratches. 

“They find out today if they’ve been approved to adopt or not,” Soobin said after the silence had stretched on for a bit too long. “I really hope they do, they’ve been wanting a pup for ages.”

Kai and Taehyun exchanged a look. Soobin’s stomach twisted uncomfortably.

“Did the agency ever call to use you as a character reference?” Taehyun asked as he rolled onto his back, watching as Brontë pranced away, probably to hide in Soobin’s laundry hamper. Despite having a cat tower and a little cat bed, Soobin’s dirty laundry was her favorite place to nap. 

Soobin shook his head no, pulling a frilly throw pillow into his lap so he could nervously finger the lace edge. Was that a bad thing? He hoped not. Maybe the agency was just so blown away by how in love the two of them were that they decided they didn’t need a character reference.

That evening, after his friends had gone back home, Soobin found himself baking. It was something he always did when he was feeling a bit nervous, which admittedly, was most of the time. Except this time, the chocolate chip cookies weren’t for himself (though he did try one…quality control). He plated the cookies before he went to bed. Hopefully, they’d be “congratulations” cookies.

𓂃۶ৎ

Beomgyu watched from the doorway to the teacher’s lounge, bags under his eyes, as Soobin began unpacking his lunch quietly and meticulously. He snapped open the lid and removed the first compartment, which held mini fruit kebabs on flower picks and what appeared to be a chocolate chip cookie. Likely, knowing Soobin, homemade. 

It felt weird to come back in after taking a day off. The fact that he and Yeonjun had both called in sick had to have been a tip-off. They’d been denied. Thinking about it was enough to make his blood boil. The worst part had been seeing how it had affected Yeonjun. He’d just crumbled. Whenever he shut his eyes, he could still see Yeonjun curled in on himself on the kitchen floor, wailing like a hurt kitten.

Because they’d checked all the boxes, they’d done everything right, and had still been denied. The agency had listed the reasons. They could always wait and try again at a later time. “Fix” the things that had had them deemed unsuitable to be parents. But it just felt a bit grim. They’d been denied because they’d gotten mated too young, because their home had a fireplace (even though Beomgyu had made it clear it was purely decorative, as it had been sealed). But it was the last one that had hit the hardest. That had made it clear that no matter what they did, their chances of getting approved would remain slim to none. They’d been denied because they lived too far from the closest playground.

Since when was living within walking distance of a park a requirement for adoption?

Beomgyu’s fists clenched as he remembered reading that sentence, thought about how smug that period at the end of the sentence had seemed. How sure it was that it was ruining their chances of ever having a baby.

They’d been rejected.

Still, Beomgyu took a deep breath, released his fists, shuffled inside, and took a seat across from Soobin, bracing himself for the inevitable question.

Soobin’s head popped up as Beomgyu sat down. He stood rather abruptly and walked over to the little kitchenette that sat along the far wall of the teacher’s lounge, where he picked up a saran wrapped plate of cookies off the counter and walked it over, gently placing it on the tabletop in front of Beomgyu.

“For you and Yeonjun,” Soobin mumbled, a bit shyly. “I was going to give them to you yesterday…” He trailed off, uncertain.

Beomgyu couldn’t blame him. He smiled, tired, and hoped it looked sincere. Because he really did mean it. He was thankful for the cookies. Glad that Soobin had the decency to not say anything forthright. And then shocked when Soobin raked his eyes over him and slid his lunch box to the center of the table. An offer.

“Do you want some? You’ve got to be hungry.”

Something warm unfurled in Beomgyu’s chest. He reached out and tentatively grabbed one of the tiny barbecue sliders Soobin had in the bottom compartment of his lunch box.

“Thank you,” Beomgyu mumbled before taking a bite and letting out a soft, blissful sigh.

He hadn’t realized he was hungry until Soobin had said it. He liked the pleased look on Soobin’s face, like Beomgyu had done something worth being proud of by simply swallowing a mouthful of food. He felt a bit guilty, too, like maybe the adoption lady had been right - maybe they were unfit parents if one “no” was enough to have the two of them forgetting to take care of themselves. Forgetting to do something as simple as pack a lunch.

Later, Beomgyu slipped into Yeonjun’s classroom while his kindergarteners were in P.E. to give him a banana and a little slice of what looked like slightly damp pepperoni pizza (a bit depressing, but it was all he’d been able to wrangle out of the lunch ladies when he’d haggled with them earlier).

Yeonjun was at his desk, staring blankly at the screen of his computer. A worksheet he’d been making all about jack-o-lanterns was sitting there, half-finished. As Beomgyu set the food down in front of him, he perched himself on the arm of Yeonjun’s desk chair and draped himself over his shoulders. 

“You should eat,” he murmured into the crown of Yeonjun’s head.

Yeonjun nodded and reached out for the pizza before hesitating and grabbing the banana instead. He peeled it and took a bite before turning and burying his face in Beomgyu’s stomach. He hummed contentedly. 

“Soobinnie made us cookies,” Beomgyu whispered.

Yeonjun huffed a laugh out. “Of course he did,” he mumbled, his words a little hard to hear as they were muffled by the thick fabric of Beomgyu’s emerald green half-zip. A shaky inhale, then, “What do we do, now?”

Beomgyu huffed and tangled his fingers into Yeonjun’s hair. “I guess…we have to keep going. We could-“ He cut himself off as Yeonjun looked up at him with wide eyes, shiny with tears. 

Everyone looked at them and assumed that Beomgyu was the more sensitive, the more emotional of the two of them. Beomgyu liked to joke that it was because Yeonjun had resting bitch face, but Yeonjun had always been soft. Emotionally vulnerable, incredibly empathetic, all his emotions ready and bubbling just beneath the surface. It wasn’t that Beomgyu wasn’t ever fragile himself, but that he was prone to deflecting. Through humor, through distractions, through throwing himself into the next project or the next step. Yeonjun had always needed that little extra nudge, the reassurance that it’d be okay, and it didn’t make him bad if he moved on or that it didn’t make him weak to need that extra care.

“We could what?” Yeonjun asked, a bit breathless.

Beomgyu gnawed on his bottom lip. It was an idea that they’d considered and ultimately dismissed, deeming it too exploitative. But recently, some of their friends from college… “Maybe we should ask Woo-“

Yeonjun shook his head. “We said we wouldn’t-“

“Still, it won’t hurt to ask. Asking doesn’t mean doing…and we haven’t seen them since the baby shower.”

There was a prolonged silence and then Beomgyu felt Yeonjun’s hand squeeze his hip through his corduroy work pants. “Alright,” Yeonjun sighed. “Let’s call them tonight. See if we can go over this weekend.”

𓂃۶ৎ

Wooyoung had, of course, told them they could come over for lunch on Saturday. Yeosang’s old college roommate was also stopping by and they could all eat together.

Wooyoung and San had been a pair, had been mated, for as long as Yeonjun could remember. But as a beta-beta couple, they also hadn’t been able to have kids on their own. However, they’d opted to get a surrogate instead of adopting. Yeosang had agreed to help them out - but in what had to be one of the most romantic (re: cheesy and cliche) twists of all time, they’d ended up confessing and mating with Yeosang. Which meant they were technically not a couple and a surrogate, and instead just a polycule that had a baby.

As they walked in, it was still a bit odd (though not in a bad way, Yeonjun noted, just new) to see Yeosang curled into San on the couch, their baby cradled in San’s arms as he and Beomgyu followed Wooyoung into the living room. In other ways, though, it was hard to remember what it was like before Yeosang had joined them.

“Yeonjun and Beomgyu are here,” Wooyoung announced as they rounded the sofa to join his mates.

Beomgyu took the armchair and Yeonjun slid onto the arm of it. Wooyoung took the final empty couch cushion. 

“Hi,” Yeosang smiled. He looked exhausted…but happy.

A ripple of jealousy curled through Yeonjun, but as quickly as it came, it left. He was happy for his friends. He really, really was.

“How’s little Jihu?” Beomgyu asked as he set the gift bag they’d brought with them down on the table. It wasn’t much, but they’d brought over some skincare things for parents and a baby book for Jihu.

“Oh, you guys didn’t have to,” San spoke through a yawn as he eyed the gift bag. “The baby is doing well, though. The doctor said he was very healthy.”

Yeonjun eyed baby Jihu; he was very round. At the moment, he was asleep, swaddled in a blanket with a little knit cap on his head. It was hard to believe a real person could be so small. So precious looking.

“Where’s-“ Wooyoung asked, looking at Yeosang, but they were cut off by the sound of a rather timid knock. 

“That must be him,” Yeosang said, before turning and giving Wooyoung puppy dog eyes.

With a sigh (and a smile), Wooyoung stood to get the door.

“So, how are you guys holding up?” Yeonjun asked, leaning over slightly so he was pressed against Beomgyu’s shoulder. They were both wearing scent blocking patches so as not to irritate the baby’s nose, but that close, Yeonjun could still smell a faint hint of gingerbread wafting off his mate. It helped ground him. 

He was happy for his friends. But he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t hard. Being there and seeing them with their baby when he’d just been deemed unfit for one. It was a rather confusing mix of emotions, being so happy for people he loved so dearly while also feeling this deep sense of loss. It was a weird feeling to mourn something that had never been more than an idea in your head. An abstract idea of your future. But that possibly made it worse. They’d never really had a chance against the system, had they?

San was answering, talking about how little sleep they were all getting and how he was getting better at changing diapers, but it felt a bit like the air had been knocked out of Yeonjun’s lungs. Because trailing behind Wooyoung into the living room was Soobin, who looked equally startled to see the two of them squeezed together onto one armchair.

It was the first time Yeonjun had seen him outside of work. So it was his first time seeing Soobin look so casual. He didn’t know why it was making him feel so breathless, so lightheaded. 

The omega was in a simple pair of jeans and a soft looking rugby shirt, his round glasses perched on his nose like always. 

“Soobin?” Beomgyu found his voice first, already up and moving to wrap Soobin in a hug. “You’re Yeosang’s college roommate?”

He watched as Soobin’s cheeks turned pink, and he nodded, tentatively returning the hug. His fingers slid out just far enough from his sleeves to delicately pat Beomgyu’s back. A little voice in the back of Yeonjun’s head noted how cute they looked together, Beomgyu the perfect height to hook his chin over Soobin’s shoulder or to tuck his face into his sternum.

As Soobin looked up and made eye contact with Yeonjun, he found himself smiling almost involuntarily. “Thank you for the cookies, Soobinnie. They were delicious.”

An odd look was thrown his way by Yeosang. Then San. 

“We work together,” Beomgyu started to explain how it was that they already knew Yeosang’s old college roommate. 

Wooyoung shot Yeonjun a knowing smile. Yeonjun didn’t like that smile; it meant Wooyoung knew something he didn’t, which could only ever mean trouble. “Small world,” he muttered. 

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin would like to think he wasn’t jumpy, that that was just some silly stereotype forged by years upon years of horror movie tropes like the boneheaded alpha that charged headfirst into danger - cocky to a fault, the level-headed beta that survived until the bitter end, and, of course, the jumpy little omega who screamed and managed to look drop dead gorgeous even while being mangled by some psycho killer. 

So, he wasn’t jumpy, but he was a bit spooked. And like, maybe it was a bit dramatic to say it spooked him to run into Yeonjun and Beomgyu outside of work, but it just wasn’t something he was used to seeing. Or, well, maybe spooked wasn’t the right word either. But he felt like he had as a kid when he’d run into teachers at the local grocery store.

Seeing them together outside of a professional setting just felt like he was crossing some boundary between friendly coworkers and something else. Even just sitting across from them at the kitchen table of mutual friends made him feel like he was encroaching on something. Invading their privacy. 

Maybe it was because of the way he’d discovered they were even together. There had been a staff meeting the summer before they’d started. Soobin had shuffled in and collapsed into the first open chair he’d seen. He’d ended up sitting next to Beomgyu, right as the principal had stood and introduced Mr. Choi, the new kindergarten teacher. He distinctly remembered Beomgyu leaning into his space, a mischievous lilt to his voice as he’d said, “The new guy is kind of hot, isn't he?”

And Soobin had looked at Yeonjun, grinning proudly at everyone in the room; his chest puffed out and his biceps being squeezed just right by the sleeves of his polo, his hair swept back like he was a leading man in a movie. The plushest, poutiest lips he’d ever seen. He’d been beyond hot; he’d been mesmerizing.

Before he’d thought twice about it, he’d nodded, then turned to see who was speaking to him and come face to face with yet another gorgeous man. Wide brown eyes, small lips tugged up in a teasing smirk, and a heart shaped face framed by soft brown hair - like Prince Charming come to life…but with a real personality.

Soobin’s brain had shut down and he’d blushed unbelievably hard right as Beomgyu had stood to be introduced as the school’s third Mr. Choi - the new art teacher.

How Soobin hadn’t put it together then, between the two of them starting together, the overly familiar way they’d spoken of each other, the jokes about them carpooling. 

But Soobin hadn’t been the only one to not notice; it seemed that, while they hadn’t exactly been trying to hide it, they also hadn’t been flaunting it.

So, yeah, he’d been a bit overwhelmed by the two of them in the beginning. How unbelievably pretty they were and how friendly they were. Yeonjun would always ask how he was when they ran into each other in the teacher’s lounge and would bring him candies and coffee (and then later, once he’d learned Soobin was not a coffee fan, tea) as a thank you for not getting upset with the kindergarteners when they had trouble sitting through story time (apparently the music teacher was not as patient). And Beomgyu had come crashing into his life, latched onto him, and decided to never let go. He would tease Soobin relentlessly, but not in a mean way. Never anything malicious. Just little comments about how cute his lunches were or how astounding it was that a man as long as Soobin still managed to find sweaters that were too long for him. 

It was nice. Soobin liked it. Had liked them. And then Soobin (with Ms. Carr in tow) had walked into the staff Christmas party holding trays of snacks for the refreshments table and seen the head of the party planning committee (Beomgyu) being pressed into the wall by the guy he’d recruited to hang the mistletoe (Yeonjun) and kissed to within an inch of his life and everything had just clicked. 

Soobin had been unbelievably embarrassed that he hadn’t realized. The way they’d both always smelled like the Christmas aisle at Yankee Candle, just faintly underneath their scent blockers, really should’ve been the final giveaway. Like, even without all the other clues, that one should’ve been obvious. Soobin had just been…naive, he presumed. A bit distracted by…everything else. He wouldn’t say he’d had crushes, though it would be a straight-up lie to say he’d never had the thought. But it made more sense like this. With the two of them together. Each as pretty and kind as the other. They matched each other well, Soobin thought.

Soobin was thinking that again as he cut his baked potato open for the loaded potato spread San had set out for everyone. He was thinking about it so hard that he didn’t realize his finger was in the way until the pain registered. And then he flushed bright red, gasping, as he dropped his silverware and jerked his hand back, cradling it to his chest, his uninjured hand wrapped around his bleeding finger and applying as much pressure as he could. 

It was embarrassing, he thought, that even now they were so distracting to him, when he already knew they were a thing, that he had hurt himself.

The clattering of his knife hitting the plate was too loud, the sounds of chairs scraping against the hardwood floors nearly unbearably high and shrill as Yeonjun and Beomgyu both stood, eyes wide with concern. However, it was Yeosang sitting beside Soobin who wound up standing, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, and steering him to the kitchen, where he instructed Soobin to rinse his finger in the sink while he got out the first aid kit. 

Yeosang, much like Taehyun and Kai, had heard both too much and too little about the kind alphas from work, but he didn’t say anything, just gave Soobin a pointed look as he handed him a tube of Neosporin and a bandage.

Soobin huffed a bit. But he rubbed the ointment onto his cut; thankfully, it wasn’t that deep, as he’d been using a rather blunt butter knife, and then wrapped the bandage around it. The band-aid was a rather cute one with little cartoon princesses on it. 

“Want to try to explain away why they both looked ready to fight the knife for you?” Yeosang murmured as he packed the first aid kit away.

Soobin avoided looking at him, keeping his eyes firmly on the little Snow Whites dancing across his bandage.

When it became clear Soobin wasn’t going to answer, Yeosang nudged him back in the direction of the dining table. Soobin listened and walked out only to gasp in surprise when, upon sitting down, he realized he had a new potato, already cut open and piled high with butter, sour cream, green onion, and bacon bits - a generous helping of shredded cheese on the top as well.

He didn’t even need to ask to know who had done it. His cheeks and insides warmed. He very quickly tried to shake the feeling off. It didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t.

𓂃۶ৎ

After lunch, Beomgyu found himself curled into Yeonjun’s side on the sofa as Wooyoung showed them photos he’d taken of Jihu with silly filters. The best one by far was the one that gave the baby a greying mustache and a monocle. 

Being full made him sleepy, and even though Jihu looked adorable, he was finding it harder and harder to keep his eyes open, especially with his nose pressed up against Yeonjun’s scent gland, where he could smell just the faintest hint of fir. 

As he allowed himself to doze off completely, he heard Wooyoung ask in a soft voice, “How are things going with the agency?”

Beomgyu’s chest tightened. It wasn’t as painful to think about it as it had been even just a few days earlier, but it bothered him that they’d have to keep having these conversations. He must’ve started squirming because Yeonjun’s hand found its way to his knee and squeezed gently. 

“We got rejected,” Yeonjun’s voice was equally soft as he answered. “Which is kind of why…we wanted to ask…”

Wooyoung hummed to let Yeonjun know he was listening. Beneath him, Beomgyu felt Yeonjun go stiff, so he angled his head so he could press a chaste kiss to his collarbone. Yeonjun inhaled deeply, relaxing on the exhale. 

“What was it like…having a surrogate?”

“A bit different from normal, I think, because we didn’t go through any of the official channels.”

Beomgyu fought back a snort. He remembered when Wooyoung and San had told them they’d put an ad up on Craigslistasking if anyone would be interested in being a surrogate for an beta-beta couple. At the time, he had to admit, he thought they were doing something insane. But what they’d ended up doing was meeting Yeosang, taking him on a few “friend” dates, realizing they were developing feelings, and then asking him if they could court him, to which he’d miraculously agreed. Then after months of courting, they’d spent a heat together, knocked him up, and mated him. It was like one of those soppy little romances Yeonjun was already reading and crying over.

“I think the best way to do it, honestly, would be to ask a friend or someone you could see being in the baby’s life after, someone you wouldn’t mind co-parenting with if they decided they wanted to be more involved after giving birth.”

Beomgyu slipped his hand into Yeonjun’s and squeezed. It was a lot to ask of someone, regardless. Would they even be able to find someone they’d feel comfortable asking to do all that? Going through an agency would include artificial insemination, clinical, but safe. Doing it the way Wooyoung was suggesting…that required a lot of trust. A lot of intimacy. Did they have anyone in their life who would agree to all of that? Or would they wind up making a Craigslist ad themselves? Somehow, Beomgyu doubted things would go as well for them as they had for Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang.

Apparently, Yeonjun had the same idea, because he mumbled something about how he didn’t think it would work for them.

“Really, you have no one you can think of to have a baby with? Not one person you’re even attracted to?” Wooyoung’s voice was heavy with disbelief and meaning. 

Beomgyu had a feeling he knew exactly what Wooyoung was hinting at. He thought back to not even an hour earlier, when, after Yeosang had taken Soobin to the kitchen to help him take care of his cut, Yeonjun had stood and fixed Soobin a new potato without even being asked. Without even having to ask what toppings he wanted. He’d just remembered, from the one time months earlier when the district superintendent had gotten them all a catered lunch at a workshop, and Soobin had gone crazy at the baked potato bar. 

Like he’d been summoned by the mere thought of him, Soobin and Yeosang came into the room then, baby Jihu cradled in Soobin’s arms. He had one arm curled under the baby and supporting his back with the other cradling his head. He bounced a little as he walked, a grass green burping cloth casually laid over his shoulder as he and Yeosang talked about an old professor.

Something stirred in Beomgyu’s gut at the sight of Soobin with the baby. 

Still, that wasn’t enough, Beomgyu thought. Simply thinking Soobin looked incredibly cute in his sweaters and glasses wasn’t enough…was it? They were friends! Beomgyu had watched enough of Yeonjun’s favorite (incredibly bad) dramas to know that once you spent a heat with your friend, everything would just fall apart. It was too much to ask. Especially when there wasn’t a team of writers working to make sure you got a happy ending when it was all said and done.

𓂃۶ৎ

They wound up leaving around the same time as Soobin. It was raining when they stepped out and it didn’t take a genius to notice the only car parked on the curb was Yeonjun’s silver Honda Civic.

Yeonjun frowned. “Soobinnie,” he drawled, turning to see the other frowning up at the sky from where they stood - still safe and dry under the overhang covering the front stoop. “Do you need a ride home?”

He could tell just from the way Soobin’s eyes went wide as his mouth opened that he was going to say no, like a stubborn idiot.

“Did you walk here?” Beomgyu asked before Soobin could say anything. He crossed his arms over his chest as he spoke, shivering a little as the chill from the rain began to seep through his worn out sweatshirt with a faded Guns N’ Roses logo on the front; an old one of Yeonjun’s from college, though Beomgyu knew the band better than he did, so he couldn’t begrudge him stealing it.

Soobin nodded his head. “I don’t live far from here, just on the other side of the park,” he stuttered out as he also drew his arms closer to himself, his teeth chattering.

Yeonjun grunted. “Let’s go, if you live close by, it won’t take us long to take you home, then.”

They watched as the gears in Soobin’s head began to turn, like he was trying to think of something else he could say to rebut Yeonjun’s argument. But before he could, Beomgyu was linking their arms together.

“C’mon, stay close and maybe we’ll stay a bit warmer,” Beomgyu huffed out before he began dragging Soobin toward the car. 

Like Mother Nature had sensed they were trying to make a break for it, the second they stepped off the porch, there was a crack of thunder - like the sky had physically been cracked open like an egg - and it began to rain harder. They were soaked by the time they’d piled into Yeonjun’s car. Yeonjun and Beomgyu up front and Soobin hunkered down in the back.

Yeonjun could hear Beomgyu’s teeth chattering and he’d barely needed to glance into the rearview mirror to see that Soobin was shaking. He quickly cranked up the heat but pressed his lips together, dismayed at how slowly his heater kicked itself into gear and the stale dusty smell it brought to the car as it started to warm them up. 

“What’s your address, Soobinnie?”

Soobin hesitated before whispering, “324 South Aspen Street.”

Beomgyu whiled around to glare at Soobin from his place in the passenger’s seat. “That’s not just on the other side of the park, that’s across town!”

Yeonjun bit back a smile as Beomgyu began to chastise Soobin, something that had the omega staring back at him with the cutest, dopiest expression on his face. His mouth parted, exposing his teeth, and his eyes were large and glossy. 

“What if you’d gotten sick because we let you walk home in a torrential downpour?”

Yeonjun huffed a little before shoving Beomgyu’s shoulder until he was facing the front again. “Go easy on him, Gyu.”

Beomgyu pouted the whole drive to Soobin’s house and Yeonjun had to fight the urge to coo and giggle every time he glanced over at him like that. He was slumped down in his seat, glaring at the dashboard like it had personally offended him, with his arms crossed over his chest. 

As they pulled up to the curb of Soobin’s place, Beomgyu stopped pouting so he could press his face to the window. “Dear god, Soobin, you didn’t tell me you lived in the cutest house ever.” His voice was just as accusatory as it was when he’d been lecturing Soobin over being stupid and lying about where he lived.

It was an extraordinarily cute little house. Like the kind Yeonjun was used to seeing on HGTV. Light blue siding that led up to navy blue shingles on the roof, the kind that were scalloped. He even had a little white wicker porch swing.

“It was my grandma’s,” Soobin murmured sheepishly as he began to fiddle with the door handle.

Belatedly, Yeonjun realized he’d forgotten to unlock the car doors to let him out. 

“Thank you.” Soobin’s voice was soft, his head ducked down as he practically threw himself out of the backseat of the car. 

Yeonjun let his car idle on the curb until they’d seen Soobin enter his house and then he pulled away so they could head home.

It was quiet for a moment; the loudest thing in the car was the sound of the windshield wipers squeaking as they slid back and forth across the glass. 

“Wooyoung thinks we should ask someone we know,” Yeonjun muttered as the car rolled to a stop at a stop sign.

Beomgyu was tracing the little paths left by the raindrops on the window with his finger. “He thinks we should ask Soobin,” he responded.

Another silence as the car rolled forward once more, but Yeonjun’s stomach lurched. Suddenly, he was nervous.

He shook his head like he could physically shake the nerves out of his body. “But we can’t.”

Another sigh, this one less resigned. Beomgyu almost sounded relieved. “Exactly…it would ruin things.”

The two of them didn’t live far from Soobin’s place. They turned on the road into their neighborhood just a handful of minutes after dropping him off. As Yeonjun pulled into their driveway and cut the engine, Beomgyu turned to face him.

“Maybe…we should just wait a while. Find another agency to try with.”

Yeonjun could tell that even as Beomgyu said the words, he didn’t quite mean them. They were likely to never get approved by any adoption agency. They both knew that. 

Still, Yeonjun turned to him and smiled. “Sounds like a plan to me, Gyu.”

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin felt like he was going insane. It had been a week since Yeonjun and Beomgyu had given him a ride home and he was still having these horribly vivid dreams about it. And he couldn’t tell anyone about them.

The thought had crossed his mind, of course. It would’ve been so easy to call Yeosang or casually bring it up during a game night with Taehyun and Kai. But he found that he just couldn’t. It was too embarrassing.

It was bad enough, he thought, that they were so unreasonably nice to him at work and that he was so affected even while knowing they were off limits. But to admit that he’d sat in the backseat of their car once, for maybe ten minutes, all wrapped up in their scents - the warm gingerbread and the spicy balsam - and that he was now having sex dreams about the two of them was too embarrassing to say aloud when he was by himself, let alone when he would have witnesses.

The dreams always started the same way. He would be sitting in the back seat of their car and Beomgyu would be scolding him for lying about something so insignificant because it really wasn’t a problem for them to give him a ride. And then, right when Beomgyu would get to the part about how he was being dumb, Soobin would slick up.

Sometimes, Beomgyu would notice first and his voice would trail off before he turned to face Soobin completely, smiling mischievously as he unbuckled his belt and crawled over the console in the backseat, where he’d sit himself on Soobin’s lap and loop his arms around his neck. Once he was comfortable, the teasing would begin. He’d talk about how obvious Soobin was and how silly he looked lusting after two mated alphas. Still, all the while, his fingers would be warm on Soobin’s hips and stomach and back as they slid up underneath his shirt to poke and prod and pinch while Soobin just sat there whimpering pathetically.

Other times, it was Yeonjun. He’d pull the car over on the side of the road and meet Soobin’s eyes in the rearview mirror before cooing over how red Soobin was and how good he was to just sit there and take it. To enjoy it. Then he’d climb over the center console and drag Soobin so his back was pressed to Yeonjun’s chest. He’d whisper nonsense into Soobin’s ears and pin his hips down while Beomgyu crawled back to join them, finding his place between Soobin’s spread legs. 

Either way, the dream always culminated in the same type of grand finale. Soobin sandwiched between the two of them, their bodies warm and sweaty, their scents so strong. It was almost suffocating. But Soobin just wanted more, more, more. He wanted to wear them like a scarf.

If he told Yeosang, Kai, and Taehyun, it would no longer be about his inner omega simply getting attached to the two nice alphas at work. He’d have to admit that maybe there were other feelings, too. Why else would he wake up panting, his sleep shorts soaked in slick, after dreaming about the two of them on him, in him, and wrapped around him?

It certainly didn’t help that Soobin now felt hyperaware of them at work. The slightest touch on the small of his back as Yeonjun had slid past between the shelves to help a student locate the Clifford books, Beomgyu’s lingering gaze as they ate lunch together, a gentle press of a knee to his under the table at a staff meeting…they all sent his heart alight. It would hammer in his chest as his mind raced, fighting with itself as he tried to convince himself it meant something and nothing at the same time. 

“I don’t think there’s any harm in you just admitting you could have a crush on them,” Taehyun said as he watched Soobin put the lid on another sourdough starter.

The three of them were in Soobin’s kitchen. And he was not stress baking because there was absolutely nothing for him to be stressed about. Taehyun and Kai were leaning against the countertop, watching him as he moved to rinse his hands in the sink before grabbing a pad of pink heart-shaped sticky notes (another random gift he’d gotten from Beomgyu - apparently they’d been left over from some art project he’d had the kids at school doing) and a pen.

Soobin shot him a look as he slid the jar across the counter. “You guys can have that one. I’ll write out the baking instructions for you.”

Kai signed, moving from his place beside Taehyun to drape himself over Soobin’s shoulder. Soobin ignored him and continued writing out the directions even though he knew they would inevitably call him and he’d either talk them through it on the phone or wind up at their place to just do it himself. Writing it out was a nice distraction from the conversation they were trying to force him to have.

“It’s not a bad thing, you know. You can develop feelings for them without it being morally wrong.” Kai’s voice was so soft.

The pen stopped moving as Soobin froze, halfway done writing out how long the oven would need to preheat. “I know that,” Soobin exhaled. “I just know that if I say it-“

Kai hummed like he understood and began rubbing soothing circles into Soobin’s tummy.

Soobin’s eyes were feeling suspiciously pinched, like he was suddenly trying not to cry. So he rolled his eyes and threw Kai off his back so he could turn around and look at him head on. He pointed the pen at him rather aggressively. Kai’s eyes widened as he took a step back, mere centimeters from being poked right between his eyes. “No, no, no. I just know that you are trying to convince me they’re crushing back when they are not.”

Taehyun huffed out a laugh behind them, and it was only then that Soobin realized he’d just slipped up.

Kai put his hands up and grinned sheepishly, too nice to directly call him out on it. “I still think they do, but you know them best.”

“Right,” Soobin said, “I do.” Then he went back to scribbling down the steps for baking bread. But he couldn’t shake off the nagging little voice in his head as easily as he’d shaken off Kai.

That night, as Soobin sank into yet another impossibly tantalizing dream about being taken apart by two handsome alphas in the backseat of their car, he couldn’t help but ponder the what-ifs.

There were the gifts, the attention; his friends thought there was something there. Soobin’s omega did, too.

His instincts had gotten things wrong before…but it had been years. Surely, by now, he’d know - would be able to tell if it was all in his head. Right?

𓂃۶ৎ

Before Yeonjun and Beomgyu had come to town, apparently, party planning had been Ms. Carr’s thing, and, like no offense to her, but the woman had clearly not had an ounce of whimsy in her bones. The two of them had shown up to her Halloween party the year before and it had essentially just been everyone in the gymnasium eating pizza. Not a single decoration. So…Beomgyu had wormed his way onto the party planning committee, and, aside from being caught making out with Yeonjun, his staff Christmas party had gone off without a hitch. And there had been a clear theme. As well as activities. So, now, he had been tasked with this year’s Halloween party.

In hindsight, maybe that was why she kept giving Beomgyu nasty looks. 

Party planning politics aside, Beomgyu was having a bit of a crisis. 

Beomgyu was staring down at the bob for the apple station he was setting up for the party. Was the plastic cauldron too cliché? Should he have gone for the tin basin instead, like Yeonjun had suggested? No, no, he’d picked correctly - the theme he had come up with was spooky. And tin basins full of apples weren’t scary; they were quaint. They wanted to be giving Tim Burton Halloween, not Rodgers and Hammerstein.

“Thinking about how you should’ve gone with my suggestion for the basin?” Yeonjun quipped as he walked by with a freshly carved jack-o-lantern in his arms. 

Beomgyu allowed his eyes to linger on Yeonjun’s arms, exposed by the rolled-up sleeves of his black turtleneck. He was still dressed like he’d been for the Halloween Book Parade, and unfortunately, even in a tacky, sequined, felt pumpkin vest he’d picked up from the Goodwill, he was still very, very sexy.

And when Soobin stumbled in with the spookiest and most forbidden-looking books from the reference section (as per Beomgyu’s request), saw Yeonjun, and then faltered mid-step, tripping over himself and dropping said books on the floor…well, it immediately became clear that he agreed.

Beomgyu stifled a laugh into the sleeve of his white dress shirt. True to theme, he was dressed as Victor from Corpse Bride.

“No,” Beomgyu shot back as he moved to help Soobin pick up the books he’d dropped.

Together, they added them to what would be the refreshments table. Soobin watched as Beomgyu stacked them artfully before draping the fake spiderweb he’d made across them, topping it off with some rubber spiders he’d picked up from the dollar store.

“Thanks for helping us, Soobinnie,” Beomgyu crooned as he led the other back over to where Yeonjun was arranging his freshly carved pumpkin at the center of the pumpkin painting station.

The tips of Soobin’s ears were horrendously red. He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Yeonjun stepped back and gave Soobin a sharp pat on the ass. He let out a ridiculous squeak instead of whatever he’d intended to say.

Seemingly oblivious, Yeonjun just grinned in his direction. “Yeah, thank you,  Soobinnie.”

Soobin mumbled something about how it was no problem before rushing off to finish getting himself ready for the party. 

As the gym doors swung shut behind him, Beomgyu turned and smushed his face into Yeonjun’s stupid pumpkin vest. Even with the plastic beads digging into his cheeks, Beomgyu couldn’t bring himself to move.

It was hard to not think about the obvious elephant in the room. The Soobin of it all.

To be fair, the problem wasn’t Soobin. The problem was the little seed that had been planted by their visit with Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang. The insinuation that…with Soobin, things would go well.

“I was thinking about…” Beomgyu trailed off. Was it inappropriate to kickstart this conversation at work?

Yeonjun nodded and began heading back toward the doors. Presumably to get his costume out of the car. Beomgyu trailed after him like a lost puppy.

“About what?” Yeonjun asked as he pushed his way outside, Beomgyu hot on his heels. 

“It.”

It was terribly vague, too vague, Beomgyu thought. He’d never felt like he needed to dance around Yeonjun like this before. Even during their fights, he’d always felt like he was able to be perfectly honest and blunt. 

He could remember a particularly bad blowout back when they’d been in college together, where Yeonjun thought they should move in together, but Beomgyu had said no because he hadn’t wanted to leave Heeseung without a roommate. The fight had been about Beomgyu putting other people above Yeonjun. Even then, Beomgyu hadn’t been afraid to tell Yeonjun that he was being an unreasonable, jealous prick. And Yeonjun hadn’t been scared to explain that it had hurt his feelings to learn that Beomgyu hadn’t even considered the idea that Yeonjun might want to live with him. 

They weren’t even fighting…so why was this so nerve-wracking?

They’d both stopped walking and had turned to face each other. Yeonjun swallowed thickly and Beomgyu watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. “Do you think we should…”

Beomgyu hated that Yeonjun couldn’t finish his sentence. Think they should what? Ask Soobin for help? Apply through an agency and pick some random omega based on a profile in a little book? Post an ad on Craigslist? Give up on having children?

They all made Beomgyu feel a little sick. 

The two of them must’ve been standing under the little awning over the side door longer than Beomgyu realized. Just standing there as if they stared for long enough, they’d figure out how to communicate telepathically or read each other’s minds. But Soobin was approaching them as he walked arm in arm with the school’s third-grade teacher, Arin. 

Something ugly flared up in Beomgyu at the sight of them together in matching costumes. He hated how far into Soobin’s space Arin was and that Soobin was giggling at something she’d said with his cheeks all pink from the wind. His irritation only grew as the two of them got closer. 

Arin was in a green mini dress with a brown fringe vest and Soobin was in a ridiculously large orange sweater, a little red neckerchief tied in a bow around his throat. They looked stupidly cute.

Yeonjun grimaced as they walked up to the two of them. Beomgyu lowered his gaze to the cookie platter Soobin carried. It was piled high with little brownies that he’d topped with purple and orange bat-shaped sprinkles. The platter itself was even designed to look like a little ghost. For a brief moment, Beomgyu was irritated at how effortlessly cute Soobin was being as he looked up at them and smiled, his dimples appearing.

It was such a silly thing to be irritated by. Arin was Soobin’s friend. Arin was also already mated to a nice beta named Jiho. She ran the little boutique on Main Street that sold Vera Bradley lunchboxes and stationery sets. 

But suddenly, being happily mated was no longer a decent defense. Anyone could - no, anyone who knew him would fall for Soobin.

The thought appeared so quickly in Beomgyu’s mind that it felt like an electric shock to his system.

He pushed those thoughts aside and smiled. “You two look cute. Shaggy and Velma, right? Where’s Scooby?”

Arin laughed as Soobin blushed. Beomgyu felt rather smug knowing it was him who had Soobin squirming where he stood. 

What was wrong with him?

“Jiho has the Scooby costume; it was a bit small for Soobin, so he decided to be Velma instead.”

Soobin nodded in agreement, looking a bit sheepish. 

“It’s very cute, it fits you,” Yeonjun spoke, his eyes darting around as he did so, almost like he couldn’t decide where to look.

Beomgyu knew that Yeonjun thought Soobin was cute. It was something they agreed on. Their cute omega coworker. But lately…Beomgyu had to wonder if that was all it was. 

Surely, it was all just friendly. 

But…what if it wasn’t?

It would be a bit of a relief in a way. Then maybe, instead of propositioning Soobin for the express purpose of being a surrogate, they could be together. But, on the flip side, what if Soobin didn’t feel the same way? What if he turned them down? What if he didn’t want to be courted by two alphas that were already mated? It was a big ask.

Then there was the other issue. What if Beomgyu was reading Yeonjun wrong? What if he didn’t have feelings for Soobin? What if it was only Beomgyu? What would that mean?

In the past, with ex-boyfriends and lovers, he’d always been called flighty. Insatiable. He didn’t think he was that demanding; he really hadn’t asked for much, but he’d been told over and over again that he was impossible to please. And there was a tiny voice in the back of his head telling him that maybe they were right. He didn’t like the way that felt at all.

𓂃۶ৎ

Yeonjun wasn’t entirely sure who had snuck the spiked apple cider into the office Halloween party, but it was quite amusing to see his coworkers slowly lose their inhibitions.

Arin and Soobin were making a particularly good case for getting a little tipsy as the two of them laughed and stumbled around the center of the gymnasium, spinning in a circle to the tune of Damn It, Janet while Ms. Carr looked on disapprovingly.

Yeonjun half-wondered if it was her who’d spiked the punch in an effort to get Beomgyu in trouble so she could be the party planner again, but while she seemingly constantly wore a tight scowl, she wasn’t actively malicious. 

Beomgyu appeared at his side and straightened his cravat and suit jacket. With his dark hair slicked back off his forehead, he looked nearly identical to Victor. “I figured out where the hard cider came from,” he murmured as he reached out to finger the beaded puff sleeves of the dress Yeonjun wore. 

He’d been talked into wearing the 80’s lace monstrosity to be the Corpse Bride herself. Not that he minded. Once he’d gotten used to how itchy the neckline was, it was quite comfy.

“It was the lunch ladies,” Beomgyu huffed out a laugh. “They’d mixed it into the punch. Allegedly, they thought it was normal apple cider.”

Yeonjun snorted. 

Beomgyu sighed and shook his head, but the corners of his mouth twitched as he fought back a smile. “Are you gonna try some?” He waved back in the direction of the refreshments table, where Ms. Carr was going in for a cup of punch.

Yeonjun shook his head. “I don’t think so…we might want to finish that talk later.”

Beomgyu nudged him with his shoulder as a slow smile bloomed on his face. “Sounds like a plan.”

 A little later into the night, Yeonjun watched from across the room as Beomgyu and Ms. Carr painted pumpkins together side by side. Ms. Carr had had more than a few cups of punch and the whole thing had mellowed her out. Her greying bob, usually sharp and severe looking, had gone a little wonky to match her loopy, lopsided smile. 

Yeonjun turned away from them to focus on piling snacks onto his little paper plate. It looked like a witch’s hat (Beomgyu really had thought of everything). He was in the process of hunting down a corner piece from Soobin’s brownie platter when the man in question stumbled over and slumped against the wall behind the table before sliding down to sit on the floor. 

Yeonjun grabbed a couple more snacks and one of the mini water bottles the principal had donated to them before moving to sit with Soobin.

He didn’t look great, but he was still cute. His entire body was flushed pink from the alcohol, his eyes were shut, and his head was tipped forward so his chin was resting on his sternum, with his glasses slipping down so they were perched on the very tip of his nose. 

After squishing his voluminous skirt to the side so he could get a bit closer, he nudged Soobin’s foot with his own. Soobin stirred and his head swung in Yeonjun’s direction like his neck was made of rubber.

“Hmmm?” Soobin asked before smacking his lips a few times.

Yeonjun pushed Soobin’s glasses back up his nose for him before twisting the lid off the water bottle and handing it to him. “Drink this,” he prompted as he urged Soobin to take the water.

Eventually, Soobin managed to wrap his long fingers around the bottle and Yeonjun did his best not to flinch when their hands brushed. He watched as Soobin pressed the bottle to his lips and took a couple of small sips before turning back to Yeonjun, almost like he was waiting for more instructions.

“Here, you can nibble on this,” Yeonjun handed Soobin one of the crackers off his plate before taking the brownie for himself.

Soobin was happily munching on the cracker, but he stopped when he realized Yeonjun was eating one of his brownies. His eyes lit up and he leaned farther into Yeonjun’s space. That close, Yeonjun couldn’t help but notice how incredibly sweet-looking Soobin’s face was. Round cheeks, round nose, round eyes, round mouth…

“D’you like it?” His words slurred a bit, but they were still easily understandable.

Yeonjun couldn’t tell if the water and crackers were already doing their job or if Soobin just hadn’t been as drunk as he’d initially thought.

“It’s very tasty…everything you bake is.”

Soobin’s face broke out into a bright grin, his dimples making an appearance as he shifted back into his own space, his fingers slotted together on his stomach as he fiddled mindlessly with his sleeves. 

The two of them sat together for long enough that Soobin dozed off again with his head tilted to the side, where he could rest it against the wall where it jutted out around the large storage closet. 

Beomgyu eventually joined them. He took a seat on the other side of Yeonjun, not even caring that he was sitting down on the mountains of tulle that made up the skirt of Yeonjun’s dress. He hooked his chin over Yeonjun’s shoulder and snatched up one of the gummy eyeballs on his plate, popping it in his mouth.

“You want to ask him, don’t you?” Beomgyu whispered.

Yeonjun shivered. He hadn’t expected Beomgyu to bring it up again right then. 

“Still, asking someone to be a surrogate is a lot, and I just-“

“What if instead we asked him to-“ As Beomgyu cut Yeonjun off, Soobin stirred and Beomgyu’s mouth snapped shut. 

Yeonjun’s stomach swooped a little as he thought of what Beomgyu had been about to suggest. The part of Yeonjun that knew he was a bit too into the fantasy of love wanted to be cynical, but the other part of him was louder. What if they courted Soobin? It felt like a fantasy and not something that could feasibly be a part of their reality.

But before he could ask Beomgyu for clarification, Soobin sat up and, squinting in their direction, swayed a little as he said, “I’ll do it.” His words were still running together a bit. 

Silence. Even the sounds of the Monster Mash blaring obnoxiously through the speakers seemed to become muted as suddenly Yeonjun’s ears were ringing. He felt a bit lightheaded, like it was him who had gulped down four cups of spiked punch.

What had Soobin just said?

Even drunk, Soobin got sheepish as he realized what he’d just volunteered to do. “I mean, I would…if you wanted.”

Yeonjun felt like his heart had just jackhammered up into his throat. Beside him, Beomgyu’s mouth opened and shut.

“Maybe we should talk more about this when we’re all sober,” Yeonjun mumbled, not quite sure if he was addressing Beomgyu or Soobin or both of them.

Of course, Arin picked that moment to walk over to them. “Jiho’s here to take me home,” she said as her gaze traveled over Beomgyu and Yeonjun to land on Soobin. “Soobin, did you still need a ride home or…” She trailed off as her gaze slid back to the couple. 

Yeonjun cleared his throat. “We can take him home; we already know his address.”

An odd look passed over her face for a moment before she smiled and nodded. “Thank you, get him home safely, please.”

“Of course,” Beomgyu chimed in.

Arin looked over at Soobin one last time, like she was checking that this was okay with them. He offered up a wobbly smile and then she was scampering off toward the exit.

The car ride home was silent. Soobin was sprawled out in the back seat and snoring softly as Yeonjun drove. 

“Let’s take him to our place,” Beomgyu whispered.  “I’d feel bad leaving him alone even if he isn’t that drunk.”

Yeonjun hummed in agreement. He felt oddly tense. But then Beomgyu reached across the center console and squeezed his knee. Yeonjun melted under the simple touch.

𓂃۶ৎ

The first thing Soobin realized upon waking up was that he likely wasn’t home. No, he definitely wasn’t at home. He was sprawled out on a bed in clothes that weren’t his. The air smelled like a Christmas tree farm and he smiled before cozying down into the pillow beneath his head. The detergent used was faintly familiar and calming. 

And then he remembered where, or rather on who, he’d smelled it before.

He gasped as he snapped into an upright position. Probably a bit too quickly, as the movement sent his head spinning. 

It was quite obvious he was in a spare bedroom. The actual furniture was sparse. There was the bed he was lying on and a small side table with a single lamp sitting on it - the lamp wasn’t even plugged in. Once he’d fumbled around to get his glasses on his face, he could see that the walls were bare and the floor space was covered by boxes labeled things like “Christmas” or “Thanksgiving” in bold, black Sharpie.

Soobin swung his legs out of the bed and stood to shuffle toward the closet, empty except for the full length mirror hanging from the open door. He took in the fact that the sweatpants he wore - while appropriately baggy, too big even around the waist - were the length of high waters. And then the shirt…a novelty tee someone could buy from a rest stop or gas station…there was a kitten dressed like a cowboy on the front, brandishing a rifle. The swirly font announcing that someone had just buttered their last biscuit. It would’ve made him laugh if his head hadn’t been pounding. Or if the shirt didn’t smell like gingerbread. Gingerbread mixed with…balsam.

Soobin buried his face in his hands and then tentatively moved toward the door to the bedroom. He pushed it open and was slapped in the face by the smell of breakfast. So he edged himself out of the room and into the hall, following the smell of waffles into the kitchen, where Yeonjun stood at the stove in a very fluffy bathrobe with his hair messily rumpled. 

Like he’d sensed Soobin’s presence, Yeonjun turned and smiled at him over his shoulder. “Wow, you’re up before Gyu.”

Yeonjun motioned for him to take a seat at the bar and Soobin wordlessly slid onto one of the stools. Yeonjun was chattering about how breakfast was close to being ready and talking about how if Soobin didn’t want his waffles with chocolate chips in them, he could cook him some plain ones, but Soobin barely heard a word as the memories of what he’d offered to do the night before came rushing back to him.

The worst part, he thought, was that he actually would. If they asked him now, he’d say yes, even stone cold sober. He didn’t want to think about why or how pathetic that would make him. 

He blinked and a glass of water and an Advil materialized in front of him. Yeonjun grinned at him as he set out three plates of breakfast. “I’m going to go wake up, Gyu. You can go ahead and start eating.”

Soobin swallowed the Advil before grabbing his fork and using it to sort of poke mindlessly at the waffle.

They shuffled out of the master bedroom together, Beomgyu leaning his entire body weight onto Yeonjun, his hand gripping the front of the robe and pulling it down just far enough for Soobin to get a glimpse of Yeonjun’s chest. He averted his eyes before his omega could do anything stupid. 

Beomgyu was helped onto the stool next to Soobin’s and it was impossible not to take a peek at him. His cheeks puffy, his hair a fluffy mess, the teddy bear printed pajama pants, and, Soobin noted, the existence of a second gas station graphic tee - this one, at first glance, looked like a relatively normal shirt from D.C., but upon closer inspection, all the founding fathers were done up like drag queens. 

Beomgyu’s head stayed down, his hair obstructing most of his face from view, but when he sat up to unceremoniously drown  his waffle in syrup, Soobin got a good look at his droopy eyes, the way he blinked slow and heavy - everything about him still thick with sleep, even his voice as he turned to face Soobin and offered him a lopsided grin along with a gravelly, “Good morning, Soobinnie.”

So, this was how Soobin learned Beomgyu wasn’t a morning person.

“Morning,” he mumbled back, still feeling shy under the mortification of his drunken offer to…to bear a child for them.

Breakfast dragged on and the waffle refused to go down easily. Soobin felt so off that he didn’t even remember to volunteer to wash the dishes and instead just sat there while Yeonjun sipped his coffee and Beomgyu rinsed each plate before loading them into the dishwasher.

Beomgyu and Yeonjun shared a glance as Beomgyu pressed the start button and the dishwasher whirred to life.

“Soobinnie,” Beomgyu started, most of the sleep having left his voice after he’d downed several cups of coffee and a sizable stack of waffles. “Do you remember last night?”

Soobin blinked a bit stupidly, but nodded. The little bit of waffle he’d managed to swallow was going to make a reappearance soon if they didn’t hurry up and put him out of his misery.

“Do you - did you mean it?”

The smell of burnt sugar began to waft through the air as the telltale pinch of unshed tears behind Soobin’s eyes began to make itself known. Fuck, Soobin didn’t want to cry in their kitchen.

There was a subtle change in their demeanor as they moved closer. Soobin tilted his head back, his entire body red in embarrassment. Of course, his scent blocking patch had been taken off - they could smell that he was distressed. 

Yeonjun stood and abandoned his coffee so he could rub gentle circles into the small of Soobin’s back. “We’re not upset, we just want to make sure you knew what you were agreeing to,” he murmured, every so softly.

God, Soobin was such a mess. He couldn’t believe they were having to coddle him. He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. All he had to do was say no, admit it was nothing more than a drunken rambling, and he would be off the hook and this whole thing would be over, and he could go home, change his name, quit his job, and move far, far away.

He opened his mouth, the denial on the tip of his tongue, but instead what came out was, “Yeah.” Way too soft and breathy.

Fuck.

The silence that followed was expansive, Soobin felt like it was going to swallow him whole. He almost wished it would, as the air was suddenly much warmer and the atmosphere more stifling than it had been before. 

And then Beomgyu opened his mouth, reaching over the sleek, marble counters so he could fit his hands over Soobin’s. “You can say no if you want to,” he breathed out.

“I know.” It felt like Soobin was choking on the words. The unspoken I don’t want to hung in the air between them.

“You might…” Yeonjun cleared his throat behind him. “You might change your mind when you hear the rest.”

They exchanged a glance over Soobin’s shoulder.

Beomgyu inhaled deeply. “We-we don’t want to do it through a clinic.”

It took a moment for the full weight of those words to hit Soobin. Not going through a clinic…that would mean…

Oh.

A little thrill ran down his spine, his ears turned red as his mind drifted back to his dreams about the two alphas ravaging him in their back seat.

Before he could give it a second thought, Soobin found himself exhaling, somehow much easier than before. “Alright.”

“Really?” Beomgyu’s eyes went so wide it looked like they would pop out of his head. 

Soobin gave on firm nod. “Really.”

And really, Soobin thought, he didn’t think he’d ever be capable of saying no. The fact that he’d even considered it was laughable.

𓂃۶ৎ

It was Yeonjun who insisted they draw up a contract of sorts for the whole arrangement. It was a bit awkward seeing it written out with all their signatures at the bottom. Paragraphs about how, in the build-up to Soobin’s heat (according to his heat tracker, it would start around Thanksgiving), they’d start seeing each other more, scenting each other, and more, to make sure the heat went as smoothly as possible. Mentions of how Yeonjun and Beomgyu would be helping Soobin by providing clothing, blankets, and pillows for Soobin to use in his nest. Agreements on how payments for baby supplies would be divided, agreements over what hospital to use, and future custody arrangements. 

The logistics of it all, to be quite frank, bored Beomgyu to tears. But he was ready to drop to his knees and eat Yeonjun out as a thank you for all that meticulous planning when, on Monday, he walked into the teacher’s lounge and saw Soobin wearing his large, green sweater vest all speckled with paint from years of wear and tear. 

Beomgyu hadn’t been sure what he’d expected Soobin to do with the clothes they’d given him on Saturday, but sitting across from him at lunch, he felt like his heart had leapt up into his throat. Because Soobin was at work. Smelling faintly of Beomgyu. 

In an attempt to appear casual, he unzipped his lunch box and began slowly unpacking it, barely registering that Soobin was struggling to open a little dip cup of peanut butter. His attempt at playing it cool ultimately failed when he fumbled and dropped the plastic jar of overnight oats Yeonjun had sent with him. 

“Nice outfit,” he quipped as he snatched the jar off the ground and then set it to the side. 

“Oh,” Soobin answered. He looked a little embarrassed, but it was clear that most of his attention was still on the stubborn lid of his dip cup. “Sorry, it just smelled good.”

From across the room, Ms. Carr shot them an odd look, but Beomgyu couldn’t even bring himself to care. He felt like a bottle rocket that had just been shot sky high. And like, Beomgyu knew he smelled good. But it was different hearing it in this specific context. 

Puffed up with pride over the compliment, he reached across the table and gently took the little pot from Soobin. He attempted to twist the lid open - the idea being that he, an alpha, would be able to do so with some of that innate strength his high school P.E. teacher had insisted he had - but he struggled just like Soobin. His face was undoubtedly scrunched up in that way that Yeonjun insisted made him look like a troll - brow rumpled, lips curled up, and teeth gritted. 

It wasn’t until Ms. Carr was clearing her throat and holding out her hand in a silent command to fork it over that Beomgyu realized he was posturing. And then to make it all even more embarrassing, Ms. Carr twisted the lid off in one go without even so much as a grunt.

Their lunch was unusually quiet after that, but Beomgyu didn’t miss the small smile Soobin wore as he swirled his apple slices in the peanut butter.

𓂃۶ৎ

Yeonjun stared down at his hamper with his hands on his hips. It was weird, he thought, that he was spending so much time standing over his dirty laundry trying to figure out what clothes he wanted to bring to Soobin. Maybe it was because it was him Soobin had shuffled up to during the kindergarten library period, to timidly request some clothes where their scents were stronger. 

Beomgyu had picked all the things he’d wanted to give to Soobin so easily. He’d nabbed his favorite half zip, a handful of oversized band tees, and even a few pairs of boxers and socks.

“Just pick something you’d like to see him in,” Beomgyu murmured into his ear as he passed by, holding two to-go coffee cups. 

Yeonjun blushed. That was easy for Beomgyu to say. Soobin had been wearing his clothes to school all week. Still, picturing Soobin in his clothes did give him some clarity. He grabbed the duffel bag that was sitting on the bed and began shoving his clothes inside it. A soft houndstooth cardigan, his favorite hoodie, his sweatpants with the stars on the butt, and…his white Oxford shirt. The nice Ralph Lauren one that was a little sheer in the right lighting. 

He zipped up the duffel and threw it over his shoulder before turning to see Beomgyu perched on the bed quietly sipping his coffee, a knowing look in his eye. Yeonjun walked over and flicked the tip of his nose and smiled as Beomgyu whined. “I’m ready, let’s go.”

Things Yeonjun was not ready for: the door to Soobin’s house swinging open and revealing Soobin standing there in Yeonjun’s UNC sweatshirt with the graphic of the little cartoon ram peeling a bit on the front. Somehow, the sleeves were too long, but the torso was too short, the hem of it skimming the waistband of his jeans, and then when he turned to lead them into his home, Yeonjun’s eyes were drawn further down to Soobin's very cute and round butt.

Beomgyu elbowed him, a little grin on his face. “Stop drooling,” he teased. 

“I made breakfast,” Soobin said as he led them to his kitchen. It was small and L-shaped. The fridge was tucked into the corner by the doorway and a built-in china cabinet was across from it. Checkered black and white tiles led the way further into the room, where there was a wall with a ton of counter space. A sink sat in the middle, directly under the window and the oven with a little stove top was on the end. There was a pantry door that had a collection of photos and holiday cards from over the years tacked to it and pushed against the wall was a little round kitchen table with three chairs. 

Sitting on the table was a basket of banana nut muffins and three bowls of oatmeal. “I added peanut butter and berries to the oatmeal,” Soobin continued as he grabbed three juice glasses from one of the overhead cabinets. “If you don’t want it, I can just save it for myself to eat later.”

Beomgyu grinned as he slid into the chair. “No, it’s perfect, thank you, Soobinnie.”

“Is orange juice okay? I really only have orange juice…or milk.”

“We have coffee,” Yeonjun spoke gently, holding up his own travel cup.

Beomgyu nodded around a mouthful of oatmeal, pointing to his cup with his spoon. Soobin blushed and put two of the glasses back into the cabinet. 

Yeonjun slowly took his seat as Soobin pulled a carton of orange juice out of his fridge. 

The house smelled like Soobin. It was Yeonjun’s first time smelling him so clearly, no scent blockers or other scents around to dilute it. The whole house smelled warm, like freshly baked cookies and something uniquely Soobin. Yeonjun could tell it wasn’t just lingering from a past baking project. Yet, it wasn’t quite what he’d expected. There was a twinge of something…sour.

His eyes followed Soobin as he moved over the counter and began to pour his juice.

“Oh!” Soobin gasped and jumped back as orange juice splattered against the floor by his feet. His hands shook as he set the carton down and struggled to twist the lid back on. 

Beomgyu was out of his chair and on the floor with some paper towels he grabbed off the counter before Yeonjun could even blink. He looked up at Yeonjun then, a silent question in his eyes, and Yeonjun sprang up to help them.

We’re all nervous, Yeonjun realized. And somehow that made Yeonjun feel braver, more settled. He’d been so worried that it was just him with reservations. And, to be frank, Yeonjun wasn’t used to being insecure about things. He’d always been described by those around him as confident. In high school, he’d been voted Best Dressed and Most Likely To Succeed in Senior Superlatives. 

After the spill had been cleaned up and Beomgyu had taken it upon himself to pour Soobin’s juice, the three of them sat down together. 

Beomgyu immediately began tucking in again, but Yeonjun and Soobin just sat there. He watched as Soobin gingerly fingered the rim of his glass. Beomgyu then sent Yeonjun a meaningful look and motioned to the oatmeal that was growing colder the longer Yeonjun spent just sitting there watching Soobin. “Just eat it,” Beomgyu mouthed. “He wants you to.”

Yeonjun picked up his spoon and took a bite right as Beomgyu let out an exaggerated moan as his spoon scraped the bottom of his bowl. It snapped Soobin out of his stupor, and he swatted at Beomgyu’s shoulder playfully before picking up his spoon and beginning to eat, a little contented smile on his face. 

 A delicate little sniff let Yeonjun know that the sourness had dissipated from Soobin’s scent. In fact, he sniffed again and smiled around his spoon. He decided the smell of sugar cookies mixed wonderfully with gingerbread and balsam. 

Yeonjun looked up and made eye contact with Beomgyu, who shot him a wink before turning to Soobin. “You’re wearing Yeonjunnie’s shirt today, hm?”

Soobin, who had slowly been returning to his normal color, was suddenly bright pink all over again. “Smells nice,” he muttered, before shoving a spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth. He was avoiding looking at them. Suddenly, he was very invested in studying the framed sketches of turnips and green onions hanging on the wall over them.

Beomgyu’s foot nudged his under the table and suddenly Yeonjun felt like he was seconds away from exploding. Or worse, crying. Yeonjun had always been a bit soppy. Beomgyu could tell, too. He scoffed playfully. “Don’t inflate his ego even more, Soobin; he’s horrendously full of himself.”

Immediately, the urge to cry evaporated and he pointed at Beomgyu with his spoon in a manner that was meant to be intimidating, but wasn’t based on the way Beomgyu was laughing. “I’m full of myself? I’m not the one who asked Siri to call him His Handsomeness.”

“Oh, please.” Beomgyu waved that thought away and crossed his legs before turning up his nose. The picture of arrogance. The corners of his lips were twitching as he fought the urge to laugh more gave him away, though. “That was only for a year in college and what nineteen-year-old isn’t a self-centered, arrogant, dick?”

Soobin watched their back and forth with an amused look on his face. 

“But speaking of us smelling good…” Beomgyu grinned as he trailed off, watching as Soobin buried his face in his hands. “We brought the clothes you asked Yeonjun for.”

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin’s living room was just as cute as his kitchen. Lots of frilly throw pillows covered the floral loveseat. In the corner was a cat tower and various cat toys were scattered around the floor. Beomgyu was glad to see the calico animals he and Yeonjun had bought among them.

“Sorry, it’s a bit of a mess in here,” Soobin said as he motioned for them to take a seat. 

Beomgyu grabbed the duffle from where they’d left it by the front door and passed it to Soobin before sitting and pulling Yeonjun down to sit with him. 

Soobin clutched the bag to his chest as he sat down in a pink high-back chair - the end table acting as a barrier of sorts between him and the two alphas. 

He opened the tote bag and Beomgyu found himself holding his breath. Yeonjun’s hand wormed its way into his. Soobin’s gaze settled on their joined hands before he looked away and unzipped the bag. 

Watching their combined scents, much stronger and fresher on the recently worn clothes, hit Soobin was breathtaking. Soobin’s eyes dilated and the entire room grew warmer and sweeter. His little mouth parted around a small gasp and Beomgyu found that his eyes were inexplicably drawn to his pouty lower lip. 

Beomgyu had always loved the effect his scent had on Yeonjun and the way Yeonjun’s scent made him act. When they’d first started dating, Beomgyu had been insatiable, spending long periods of time sitting on Yeonjun’s cock and lapping at his scent gland. Even after all their years together, Beomgyu’s favorite place to be was tucked into Yeonjun’s neck, where his scent was the most concentrated. But, as two alphas, their reactions hadn’t been so intense physically. 

Those reactions weren’t necessary, Beomgyu knew that. It wasn’t like anything was missing in their relationship. But like all the politicians and naysayers liked to point out, as an alpha, they were biologically engineered to respond to omegas in certain ways. It wasn’t anything that Beomgyu felt he needed to be fulfilled. And the argument that alphas only belonged with omegas because of these reactions was baseless. Scientists had proven again and again that these biological responses were not indicative of a relationship being healthier or happier. There were no health benefits, either, according to medical professionals and mating experts. 

Still, his inner alpha puffed up. Beside him, he could see that Yeonjun was also posturing in a way. His shoulders were suddenly squared and he was subtly flexing. Generally, Beomgyu found posturing obnoxious. But this was different, because even as Yeonjun was posturing, he was turning to Beomgyu and melting into his side with a silly smile on his face. 

“Thank you,” Soobin said, after they’d all calmed down a bit.

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin stood with the bag of clothes in his hands, the urge to add it all to his nest immediately overriding anything he’d been taught by his grandmother about manners and entertaining guests. Which, he supposed, was the reason he panicked and blurted out, “Do you guys want to come see my nest?”

He led them out of the living room and toward the back of the house. There was a small guest room and then the master bedroom. He pushed open the door to the master and immediately started feeling shy. 

Soobin refused to look at Yeonjun and Beomgyu as he headed straight for his bed. 

Despite it being the master bedroom, it was still pretty small. He had a relatively large bed shoved into the far corner with a single nightstand beside it. There was a decent sized built in closet and multiple large bookcases. 

Soobin crawled into his nest, carrying the duffel bag with him. Methodically, he pulled out the new clothes and began arranging them among everything else. There were pillows piled up against the wall and the headboard, with blankets tucked between them. Soobin’s clothes were tucked into the footboard and under the pillows at the head of the bed, as well as clothes from Kai, Taehyun, Yeonjun, and Beomgyu. Though it was hard not to tell that the scent of alpha was by far the most prominent. The realization alone had him blushing. 

He looked over at the other two as he finished. He found himself settling on his knees with his hands folded in his lap. It was embarrassing, but he couldn’t help himself as he asked, rather primly, “Do you like it?”

“Of course,” Beomgyu said at the same time Yeonjun blurted, “Yeah.”

Soobin hated the way he preened slightly after gaining their approval. Still, he looked back down at his lap with a pleased smile on his face as he gathered the courage to ask, “Do you guys want to come sit?”

Beomgyu started to bound over, but Yeonjun held him by the shoulder. “Are we allowed to?” He asked.

Soobin blinked rapidly. Am I being rejected? He shoved that thought away. “I-I don’t actually know." He tipped his head back as his fingers dug into his jeans. “I’ve never had an alpha in my nest before.”

Admitting it was embarrassing. What kind of omega was he if he’d never been with an alpha like that before? But when he looked back at the two of them, Beomgyu was now gently pulling Yeonjun forward. And they didn’t look appalled or even shocked. They wore soft smiles, bright and open. 

“We’re honored then,” Beomgyu remarked as they reached the bed, right before he climbed in and settled on one side of Soobin.

Yeonjun crawled in after him and settled on the other side. “This is my first time inside a nest, too,” Yeonjun remarked as he ran his hands along the soft blanket, patterned with Sanrio characters dressed up as witches - a loaner from Kai. 

“Really?” Soobin found that hard to believe. Beomgyu and Yeonjun were…perfect alphas. There’s no way they’d never had omegas chasing them.

Yeonjun just shrugged. “It’s true.” He placed his palms down on the bed behind him and leaned back. “None of the other omegas ever really caught my eye,” he teased.

Soobin smiled, and behind him, Beomgyu gagged. “That was awful. Was that a line you got from one of those trashy novels you’re always reading?”

“Oh please,” Yeonjun shot back, still smiling even as he rolled his eyes. “You love those novels, why else would you always be reading over my shoulder?”

As the two of them bickered, Soobin rearranged himself so he was sitting criss cross applesauce. He didn’t want to interrupt them or intrude in any way. It made sense when he thought about it. Maybe Yeonjun had just never been into omegas before. There were plenty of alphas that were primarily attracted to other alphas. But he liked the way he’d phrased it. Like Soobin was just special, even if he knew it wasn’t true. 

“What are you thinking about, hmmm?” Beomgyu asked.

Soobin jumped a little as he realized how close the two alphas had gotten. Beomgyu’s hand hovered over Soobin’s head, like he was asking for permission. Soobin gave a slight nod and then Beomgyu’s fingers were combing through his hair.

“Soobin,” Yeonjun started from the other side, making Soobin turn his head to look at him. “What if we tried scenting?”

He gaped at him for a minute before nodding, far too eagerly. It was a little less embarrassing, though, when Yeonjun’s face broke out in a wide grin, and then, he turned to see Beomgyu smiling, too, like they were all equally eager for it. 

Before Soobin got a second to overthink it, Beomgyu’s fingers stopped carding through his hair and slipped down to his nape, gently tilting his head, so he could lean down and-

Oh, Soobin gasped a bit as Beomgyu’s nose and lips brushed over his scent gland. He felt his eyes slip shut as his body began to heat up. The room was soon swallowed  by the smell of sweet cookies. Soobin swore he could practically tastethe gumdrop buttons that adorned gingerbread men. And it kept getting better as Beomgyu kept going. He went from gently nosing to lightly nipping, and when Soobin shuddered, Beomgyu’s mouth parted, and Soobin felt his tongue slip out to lightly taste him. Soobin felt like he’d gone boneless and he slumped into Beomgyu as he continued to gasp and shiver at every new sensation.

Soobin had been scented before, sure, by family and by friends and even some former partners, but it had never felt quite like that. 

Soobin managed to pry his eyes open as someone gently took hold of him and helped him move so he was sitting between Yeonjun’s legs with his back to his chest. He bit his lip to hold back a groan as he was reminded of his less than appropriate dreams. But he wasn’t allowed to dwell on that for too long before Yeonjun dipped down and began nosing and mouthing along the other side of his neck. 

He worked differently from Beomgyu - using his pillowy lips to his advantage as he lathered Soobin’s scent gland in soft kisses, sucking gently at the skin until Soobin was panting and squirming in his hold. He felt one of Yeonjun’s arms move to wrap around his waist and Soobin grabbed onto his forearm, tried to use it as an anchor, but it was difficult when everything smelled so good and felt so good and slowly but surely a gentle purr began to build up in his chest as Beomgyu crawled closer and hovered on his knees over Soobin’s lap. 

“Soobin,” Beomgyu spoke softly but firmly, his fingers found Soobin’s chin so he could make sure they were looking at each other. “Can I kiss you?”

As Beomgyu asked, Yeonjun’s teeth sank into sensitive skin behind Soobin’s ear and he let out a quiet moan before rushing out, “Yes, please.”

Beomgyu, Soobin noted, kissed a bit like a man who was starved. He parted Soobin’s lips with what could only be described as impatience. But every little swipe of the tongue sent a pleasant little shock down Soobin’s spine. He was beginning to feel a bit like he was melting into a little omega puddle with Beomgyu’s mouth on his and Yeonjun still working on smothering him in the scent of Christmas trees. 

Soobin let go of Yeonjun’s arm to reach up and grab onto Beomgyu, tugging on him until he settled fully into Soobin’s lap. He heard Yeonjun coo softly into his ear. “Do you like kissing Beomie?”

It took Soobin a moment to realize Yeonjun was talking to him. And a few more seconds to realize he was whining into Beomgyu’s mouth - little desperate noises that Beomgyu kept swallowing greedily. 

When Beomgyu pulled back, Soobin leaned up to follow him, a dismayed noise lodged in the back of his throat as his eyes popped open. Beomgyu was smirking down at him, his lips pink and swollen. “Yeonjun, do you want to try?” As he spoke he reached up and took Soobin’s glasses off his face and setting them to the side. He’d hardly even realized that they’d slipped down to the end of his nose, he’d been too busy kissing Beomgyu to even think about it.

“Do you want to kiss me, too?” Yeonjun asked, voice a little small despite the teasing lilt to his words.

Soobin’s chest was still heaving and he didn’t quite trust himself to speak. So, he nodded. 

Beomgyu slid off his lap and Soobin turned around. Beomgyu began moving their limbs, arranging the two of them like they were nothing more than little dolls. Soobin found himself straddling Yeonjun with Beomgyu pressed to his back and draped over his shoulders. “Is this okay?” He murmured right against the shell of Soobin’s ear. 

Soobin shivered and nodded again. 

And then Yeonjun kissed him. While Beomgyu had dove straight in, it seemed Yeonjun wanted to toy with him a bit. He started with soft pecks and as Soobin started to grow more desperate, pressing himself closer and huffing every time Yeonjun pulled away, Yeonjun just laughed. “Patience,” he chastised, not unkindly. But Soobin was rewarded with longer kisses, with Yeonjun’s teeth sinking into his bottom lip, and his tongue slipping into his mouth. Soobin practically moaned in relief. 

With Yeonjun’s tongue in his mouth and Beomgyu’s mouth on his throat, it was really hard to stay clear headed. His inner omega was practically jumping for joy and Soobin was struggling to keep up with all the things he was feeling. It was just a lot. Not in a bad way. But a lot, nonetheless. 

He blamed that, the overwhelm, how long it had been since he’d been kissed like that and scented like that, for how he didn’t even realize he’d started to slick up until he heard Beomgyu gasp behind him. Because they could smell it, of course, they could.

His first instinct was to be embarrassed. Yeonjun pulled away just long enough for him to let out a little noise of distress, to try and move away. But then strong arms wrapped around him from behind and held him in place as a soft voice went shhhhh into his ear. And then Beomgyu pressed his body forward so he was flush with Soobin. And he felt it. Beomgyu was hard.

Beomgyu was hard. 

He looked down at Yeonjun. His pupils had dilated and his chest was heaving. And like he knew exactly what was going through Soobin’s mind, he grabbed his hips to bring Soobin back down while pressing one knee up. An invitation…

Soobin ground his hips forward, the sensation of his jeans on Yeonjun’s jeans very much not enough, but with every slide forward, he could feel Yeonjun’s growing hardness and with Beomgyu staying pressed against his back, it was too much, and he needed more. 

Like he’d sensed it, Beomgyu reached around and flicked open the button of Soobin’s jeans. “Is this okay?” He asked, his own breathing ragged. 

Soobin had nodded and then both alphas had their hands on him, helping him slip out of his jeans. And in just his underwear, he could feel everything so much better. He whimpered and whined as he dragged himself up and down Yeonjun’s thigh, humping him; the friction and pressure against his clit were just so delicious. He could feel it building and building and building. Taking him higher and higher and higher. 

Beomgyu’s hands slipped around his torso and under his shirt to toy with his chest while Yeonjun’s hands slipped around his waist and down the back of his pants to squeeze his ass. And then, the two of them leaned forward and shared a sloppy open mouthed kiss over his shoulder. And it reminded Soobin so much of his dream, where they’d sandwiched him between them. It clicked then that this was almost exactly like his dream. But much, much worse. Because it was real. They were in his nest. They were kissing him and touching him and…

“Shit,” he hissed. Right as he came in his underwear like a horny teenager. 

And he would’ve felt bad about it if Beomgyu hadn’t groaned right by his ear as he’d arched back against him. His thighs squeezed around Yeonjun’s leg as he keened high in the back of his throat. Yeonjun cursed under his breath. Beneath him, he felt Yeonjun’s body tense. Behind him, he felt Beomgyu’s hips kick. 

Had they all…

“Oh my god,” Beomgyu panted as he flopped forward, crushing Soobin underneath him as the two of them collapsed onto Yeonjun. One large heap in the middle of Soobin’s nest. 

Yeonjun groaned. “That was so sexy, oh my god.”

But as the two of them slowly pulled themselves up and started the clean up process, putting everything back in order so the three of them were fully clothed and standing in the middle of Soobin’s room, he felt his blood run cold. 

Because it had been great. And now, the two of them would leave. Together. And Soobin would still be alone.

𓂃۶ৎ

The puzzle Taehyun and Kai had brought over sat untouched on the coffee table as they gaped at him with open mouths.

They’d come over for some Sunday afternoon puzzle time (and to, predictably, steal a slice or five of the carrot cake he’d definitely not stress-baked after Yeonjun and Beomgyu had left the day before) and, upon walking into Soobin’s home, could immediately smell that he’d had alphas over.

Kai’s face had twisted up in confusion before it was like a lightbulb had gone off in his head. It had been almost comical how quickly his face had shifted from baffled to excited before finally landing on smug. He’d opened his mouth, the I told you so had been sitting on the very tip of his tongue and then Soobin had blurted out, “They’re going to spend my heat with me,” and it was like all hell had broken loose.

Immediately, Taehyun and Kai began talking at the same time. Switching between congratulations, questions about birth control, and demands to know what exactly had changed since the last time they’d all hung out. Which of course meant Soobin had led them over to the sofa and told them…everything. He started with the Halloween party and their contract and finished with the scenting turned make-out session turned…well, maybe some details were left out.

“Oh,” Taehyun finally managed to breathe out. Then, a little louder, “Are you going to be okay?”

Soobin pressed his lips together and nodded. But the truth was, he really didn’t know.

His fingers curled around the sleeves of the soft cardigan he wore - another one from the assortment of clothing the alphas had given him. It smelled like a blend of the two of them, but he was pretty sure he'd seen Yeonjun wear it a few times - the houndstooth pattern seemed like something he'd pick. 

Soobin wanted to do it; that much was clear. But he was aware that with every kindness they showed him, it was getting more and more difficult for him to quiet his inner omega. He sighed heavily and buried his face in his hands, letting out a pathetic little groan when a fresh wave of gingerbread and fir hit his nose. 

They hadn’t indicated being interested in him beyond friendship (he told the little voice in his head that insisted kissing someone and helping them get off wasn’t exactly friendly behavior). And Soobin knew that, he did. He didn’t have ulterior motives for agreeing to be their surrogate. He was well aware this was not going to end with him being added to their union. He knew, he knew, he knew. 

Yet, that didn’t stop him from wanting. 

“Just…be careful.” Kai reached over and squeezed Soobin’s knee.

So, Monday morning, Soobin walked into school feeling a little…off. He’d always enjoyed opening up the library in the morning. He liked the quiet; he enjoyed the routine of booting up the computers and making sure all the last minute Friday returns were shelved correctly. And usually, he enjoyed the space it gave him to just sit and think through everything he was going to do that day. But that morning, his body felt unusually sluggish as he finished shelving books and sat down in the chair behind the circulation desk. He found his thoughts drifting farther and farther away from the story time he was planning. 

He looked down at the shirt he was wearing. This was turning into a bad habit, he realized. Him wearing their clothes. He fiddled with the buttons on the shirt as a weird brain fog crept up and soon the only thoughts in his head were of his nest and alphas. 

Soobin was startled out of his head as the door was thrown open and Beomgyu and Yeonjun strode inside.

As they approached, Beomgyu stretched himself over the top of the circulation desk so he could peer down at Soobin. He had a soft smile on his face and droopy eyes. “Good morning, sunshine,” he croaked, voice still thick with sleep. 

Soobin pinched the inside of his arm to keep himself from doing something stupid. Like, trying to kiss him.

He inhaled sharply and tried to figure out where that thought had come from, but before he could get to the bottom of it, Yeonjun was plucking one of the cups out of the tray and offering it to him.

On the side of the cup, in the sprawled handwriting of whatever barista had served them that morning, it read Soobinnie - Earl Grey. He accepted the cup and immediately took a large sip, like the hot tea would put his omega in its place, where it was whining and begging for its alphas. 

All it did, though, was burn his tongue.

“Thank you,” Soobin muttered, before he took another sip of the tea. 

Beomgyu turned his gaze onto Yeonjun, who was leaning forward. The tray of drinks he’d been carrying was forgotten off to the side as he leaned forward so he, too, was invading Soobin’s space. 

Soobin panicked and averted his eyes before placing his tea onto his desk and spinning in his chair to grab a random book from the donation box. 

The book landed on the table top with quite a loud thud. He glanced up again to see that Yeonjun hadn’t been deterred. And unlike Beomgyu, who had slunk over the table in a way that was almost lazy, Yeonjun moved with a lot more intent. Like he knew exactly what he was doing. It was almost like he was trying to be alluring. 

The thought alone of Yeonjun trying to seduce him sent Soobin’s head spinning. And then, Yeonjun reached out to finger the undone collar of the button down. Soobin swallowed thickly and tried to prepare himself for a comment about how he was wearing the alpha’s clothes. Or maybe even a reprimand about dressing appropriately for work, as it was unbuttoned a touch too far. He inhaled shakily and wondered if it had always been so warm in the library or if it was just him.

“You’re showing off a lot of chest,” Yeonjun murmured as he let go of the shirt to ghost a finger over Soobin’s collarbone. His foxy eyes zeroed in on the goosebumps left in his wake. He smiled. “Sexy.” The word was so soft, Soobin wasn’t sure he’d even meant to say it out loud. He watched as Yeonjun’s cheeks slowly colored until they were as red as the crewneck he wore. 

Beomgyu made an affronted noise, like he was personally offended by Yeonjun's flirting. Maybe he was offended. His mate was flirint with someone else, after all. 

Soobin came out of his head just in time to see Yeonjun grab Beomgyu by the back of his collar, not dissimilar to the way a cat grabs their kitten by the scruff, and pull him away. They called out a goodbye as they stumbled out the door together, coffees in hand. 

Soobin just sat there and inhaled shakily. His fingers fumbled with the buttons as he struggled to fasten them. He didn’t stop until they were all buttoned, even though he usually didn’t like shirts to be so tight around the neck. He just suddenly had the urge to be covered. He didn’t want anyone else to see him.

No one else, just alphas…he’d unpack that later. 

A little distracted, he flipped open the book and grabbed the library stamp so he could stamp the inside cover. As he glanced down to admire his handiwork, he realized the stamp was upside down. He threw his head back and groaned. 

𓂃۶ৎ

They had a staff meeting after work. Yeonjun always dreaded those, mostly because, well, all those meetings really could’ve just been emails. 

The principal was explaining how they would be handling the car rider pickup line the day they got off for Thanksgiving break. It was weeks away, but any day before a holiday usually saw an increase in families using the car rider line, which meant more parents who didn’t know how it worked and more students who would need watching out for as they sat crammed together on the sidewalk outside the school waiting for their parents to arrive. So, they were basically going to be sitting in a room for an hour while their principal told them they’d need extra teachers working pick up. 

He was sitting with Beomgyu, both of them had sunk low in their chairs, and Yeonjun watched as Beomgyu methodically began folding the little square he’d taken off the memo pad in the center of the table. He’d made a little heart and was cheekily offering it to Yeonjun when Soobin stumbled in, looking just as rumpled as he had that morning. 

Except…something was off about it. 

Under the table, Yeonjun nudged Beomgyu with his foot and he turned to peer at Soobin from over his shoulder. 

Soobin had slumped down into the empty chair beside Ms. Carr; his shirt was buttoned all the way up and sticking to him in off places, while his hair looked matted and sweaty, and his skin pale and clammy. Even his glasses seemed to have fogged up. He looked sick. 

Ms. Carr looked at Soobin, her eyes going wide before she turned to look over at Yeonjun and Beomgyu. Her brow had furrowed up the way it did when she was having trouble with a Sudoku puzzle. 

Beomgyu’s hand wrapped around Yeonjun’s wrist as he started sniffing the air. Yeonjun sniffed too. Everything smelled sugary. Sweet and gooey…like the center of a freshly baked cookie. 

It hit them at the same time. 

The principal walked in, a handful of the orange vests they wore to work the car rider line in one hand and a clipboard with a sign up sheet in the other, but Beomgyu and Yeonjun had stood. Everyone turned to look at the two of them, except Soobin, whose eyes had slipped shut. 

Beomgyu moved toward the front to start explaining what was going on to the principal while Yeonjun jogged around the table until he got to Soobin, and then he crouched down by his chair.

“Soobin, Soobinnie, hey,” he whispered as Soobin peeled his eyes open. He could feel Ms. Carr’s eyes on him; it felt like they were burning a hole into the back of his head. “Hey, Beomgyu and I are going to take you home, okay? Your heat-“

Soobin shook his head, his bottom lip puckered out as he softly insisted, “My heat isn’t for weeks.” But even as he insisted, Yeonjun could see everything coming together in his mind. He looked scared. 

“Hey, it’s okay, let’s just get up, we’re going to go home. To your nest.” Yeonjun had never had to do anything like that before, but in all the workplace romances he read, bringing up that they’d get to climb into their nest usually worked really well when it came to keeping omegas calm in situations like these. 

Beomgyu was always telling him how unrealistic those movies, dramas, and books were. Yet, it worked. Soobin began nodding along the moment Yeonjun mentioned his nest. Slowly, Yeonjun helped Soobin stand. Holding onto his hand to keep him steady as Soobin’s knees wobbled. 

Another wave of fresh cookie scent flooded the room, warm and sugary sweet, and Soobin whimpered. Yeonjun blushed as he watched the fifth grade teacher turn and begin whispering in the ear of the music teacher. 

Beomgyu appeared on the other side, his arm wrapping around Soobin’s waist. Together, they were able to move more quickly, rushing outside and helping Soobin into the backseat of the car, Beomgyu crawling in after him. 

His cheeks turned a little pink as he met Yeonjun’s eyes in the rearview mirror. Soobin’s glasses hanging from the front of Beomgyu’s shirt. He must’ve slipped them off the other once they’d made it out of the school. Beomgyu had also pulled Soobin’s head into his lap and was gently stroking his head and fiddling with his hair. “Physical contact is soothing for omegas entering heat,” he explained. He looked away as Yeonjun grinned; that had been a major plot point in the romance novel they’d read together the month before.

They got to Soobin’s house and the reality of what was going on began to set in. Soobin’s heat was starting. Early. 

They hadn’t gotten to pack bags, prep meals, or anything of the sort. The two of them helped Soobin inside and watched as he knocked back some painkillers before hopping in the shower. 

“What do we do?” Beomgyu asked. 

“I don’t know,” Yeonjun admitted. There was just so much more he’d wanted to do before it got to this. “Let’s see what he has in his kitchen. If we need anything, we should order groceries before it really hits.”

Beomgyu nodded and scampered into the other room, Yeonjun hot on his heels. 

𓂃۶ৎ

When Soobin stepped out of the shower, he could already feel that familiar, dull ache settling in the pit of his stomach. He took a deep breath. His heat was here. And he couldn’t figure out what had triggered it. 

He pulled on his pajamas as he thought back over everything that had happened. Surely it wasn’t because of… But that was the only thing that was new, the one new variable was Yeonjun and Beomgyu and the scenting. 

Soobin sank into a squat and buried his face in his hands before he groaned. His omega was so good at embarrassing him. He’d always been worried about getting attached to people too easily. And here his body was, getting attention from alphas once and then deciding that meant it was time to lock them down and get himself knocked up. He had to remind himself that was kind of the point of the whole thing. He was trying to get knocked up.

There was a knock on the bathroom door then. “Are you okay in there?” Beomgyu’s words were a bit muffled.

“Yeah,” Soobin called back. 

“Good, then you can come out and eat before it really kicks in.”

Soobin’s stomach twisted. He’d never really had much of an appetite while in pre-heat; he didn’t know many omegas that did. A little ironic considering that was probably when his body needed food the most.

Still, he swung open the bathroom door and looked down at Beomgyu’s smiling face and allowed himself to be led to his kitchen, where Yeonjun had thrown together most of what had been left in Soobin’s fridge to make some soup. 

“It’s not much, but it’s something,” Yeonjun said as he placed a bowl on the table for Soobin. 

He slid onto his chair and squeezed his legs together to keep himself from slicking up over something as simple as being cooked for. He grabbed his spoon and hesitated to take the first bite, but then there was a light touch on the back of his neck, blunt nails tracing patterns into his skin and tangling into the hair on his nape. It settled the uncomfortable buzzing under his skin just long enough for him to swallow a spoonful. And before he knew it, he’d finished the entire bowl.

He blinked owlishly at the sight of his spoon scraping the bottom of the bowl.

“Do you want more?” Yeonjun asked. 

Soobin thought about it, then shook his head, as a deep exhaustion began to sink into his bones. 

“Alright,” Beomgyu said. “Then let’s head to the nest.”

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin slept for hours after eating. It gave Yeonjun and Beomgyu time to eat, put the leftover soup into Tupperware containers, prep a few other easy meals, and store them all in the fridge. They took turns showering and decided to forego the pajamas, slipping back into just their underwear before joining Soobin in his nest. He didn’t so much as stir, even when Yeonjun crawled over him to get to the other side, so they could all fit without having to make him scoot over. 

“We should get some sleep,” he whispered to Beomgyu.

“We should,” Beomgyu whispered back.

But Yeonjun felt wide awake, and he could tell by the look in Beomgyu’s eyes that he did, too. 

Between them, Soobin let out a light snore. He was burning up already. 

“I can’t believe this is real,” Beomgyu broke the silence. “I never imagined us…here.”

Yeonjun propped his head up on his fist before reaching across Soobin to hold Beomgyu’s hand. “Does it make you uncomfortable?”

As much as Yeonjun wanted this, he would pull the plug on everything if Beomgyu had changed his mind. But Beomgyu shook his head no. “I just really want this to all work out.”

As if on cue, Soobin shifted between them - a small whine escaping his mouth. Beomgyu let go of Yeonjun’s hand so he could card his fingers through Soobin’s hair. 

“I think it will,” Yeonjun said. “I know it will.”

𓂃۶ৎ

Beomgyu blinked himself awake. He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep. The first thing he saw once he’d rubbed the sleep from his eyes was Soobin. Staring at him. Panting. Bangs clumped together with sweat. 

“Is it here?” The answer should’ve been obvious with the overpowering smell of omega in the room and clinging to everything - with how thick the air suddenly felt, but it was the only thing Beomgyu could think of to say. 

Soobin’s eyes squeezed shut and he nodded. His face scrunched up like he was in pain. 

“Oh,” Beomgyu breathed out, watching as Soobin started to curl in on himself as much as he could in the overcrowded bed. 

He sat up and leaned across Soobin to shake Yeonjun awake. Yeonjun stirred easily and blinked up at Beomgyu. “What time is it?” He mumbled 

“Doesn’t matter,” Beomgyu said. “It’s here.”

He watched as Yeonjun’s senses caught up. He grabbed onto Beomgyu and used him as an anchor as he pulled himself up. “How long?”

“I don’t know, I just woke up.”

Yeonjun sighed and they turned to Soobin. Like they’d planned it (they maybe had), Beomgyu moved so he could grab Soobin by the armpits, hauled him back so he was propped against his chest, while Yeonjun grabbed his legs and pulled him into his lap. 

“You should’ve woken us up sooner,” Yeonjun said, quite sternly. It took Beomgyu a moment to realize he was talking to Soobin.

“I-I thought maybe you could use more sleep,” Soobin gasped as Yeonjun ran a hand up under his sweatpants. 

Beomgyu watched as Yeonjun’s face softened a bit. “That’s not how this works,” he said, a bit gentler. “When you need us, say so. We want to help.”

Soobin hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. 

Yeonjun broke out into a wide grin. “Good boy.”

Beomgyu slipped his hands down Soobin’s front, amused at the way his hips twitched at Yeonjun’s words. “Cute,” he commented. “Can we take off your clothes, Soobinnie?”

Soobin nodded again and the two of them got to work. Yeonjun yanked his sweatpants down as Beomgyu eased him out of his t-shirt. Beomgyu nuzzled into Soobin’s neck to start leaving soft kisses against his scent gland, watching through hooded eyes as Yeonjun’s fingers curled into the waistband of Soobin’s underwear to drag it down his legs - tossing it to the side once Soobin had kicked to get his feet out. 

Maybe it was a bit dramatic, but once Soobin was fully naked, Beomgyu gasped. He watched as all of Soobin flushed red at the attention. Yeonjun’s hand skated up the inside of his thighs, which were glistening with slick before he ghosted them right over Soobin’s core. 

“Pretty, isn’t he, Gyu?”

“The prettiest,” Beomgyu replied. And he wasn’t exaggerating. He hadn’t been with many omegas before, but out of all of them, Soobin was easily the prettiest. 

Soobin whimpered in response. “Please.”

Yeonjun grinned and looked up at Beomgyu, and Beomgyu took that as his cue to start. He turned Soobin’s head and captured his lips. Soobin responded eagerly, craning his neck so he could match Beomgyu better, moaning into the kiss and making the softest little noises for Beomgyu to swallow. He smiled against Soobin’s mouth as the kiss got sloppier. Slipped his hands back down his front so he could pinch his nipples and roll them between his fingers. He had Soobin gasping, squirming, and arching off of him from that alone. 

They were still kissing when Soobin pulled away with a shocked gasp. Beomgyu glanced down to see Yeonjun looking up at the two of them. He was making what Beomgyu referred to as his naughty kitten face. Wide eyes and pouty lips, a perfect portrayal of faux innocence. But the thumb he had pressed against Soobin’s clit was more than enough to let Beomgyu know he was guilty.

“Careful,” he murmured before gently biting Soobin’s earlobe, making Soobin gasp again, “our Soobinnie is sensitive.”

Our Soobinnie…he hadn’t even thought twice about phrasing it that way. But he liked the way it sounded. Theirs. Their Soobinnie. Their Soobin.

Beomgyu felt his shorts grow tighter as Yeonjun’s tongue darted out to swipe over his bottom lip. “Don’t worry, Beomie.” And then he slipped a finger inside, making Soobin’s leg kick up and his hands curl around Beomgyu’s forearms - his nails leaving behind little crescent shaped indents. Beomgyu didn’t mind; he liked the sting. “I think he likes it.”

They continued like that for a while, with Beomgyu leaving sloppy, open mouthed kisses on Soobin’s shoulder and teasing his chest while Yeonjun fingered him open. Soobin lay between them, making cute little noises of pleasure. 

“M’close,” Soobin gasped, and suddenly, Yeonjun pulled away, leaving Soobin gasping and whining and begging for him to keep going. 

Beomgyu grinned. He immediately knew what Yeonjun was playing at. It was something that, when drawing up the contract, Soobin, blushing like a fool, had admitted he’d be okay with. Who knew that sweet little librarian Soobin would want to be edged?

“How evil,” Beomgyu commented dryly as Soobin continued to whine and beg between them - heat-ridden Soobin clearly not on the same page sober Soobin had been on. 

Yeonjun grabbed Soobin by the ankles and pushed back until he’d essentially been folded in half. Without even being asked, Beomgyu grabbed him behind the knees to keep him in place. 

“Okay?” Yeonjun asked. 

Soobin nodded. Punctuated it with a pitiful little sniffle. 

And then Yeonjun lowered his gaze to Soobin’s dripping center, licked his lips, and dove in, nestling his face between Soobin’s thighs. 

“Oh,” Soobin gasped, one hand shooting down so he could get a firm hold on Yeonjun’s hair while his other grabbed Beomgyu’s wrist and squeezed. “Oh, fuck.”

Beomgyu watched, absolutely enthralled, as Soobin’s eyes screwed shut and his head fell back onto Beomgyu’s shoulder. His entire body was shaking, trembling with pleasure. 

“Oh, god, I’m gonna-“

Yeonjun pulled back before he’d even finished the sentence and a sob heaved out of Soobin. Quickly, Beomgyu let go of his legs and let them fall, leaving them to be propped up by Yeonjun’s shoulders, so he could stroke Soobin’s sides. But Soobin wasn’t having that - he grabbed Beomgyu’s hands and slotted their fingers together before he squeezed so hard Beomgyu heard his knuckles pop. Fat tears rolled down the rounds of his cheeks, but his eyes fluttered open and he took a deep breath. 

“Still good?”

Soobin nodded. 

Yeonjun smiled and gave Soobin’s leg an affectionate pat before leaning in and beginning to eat Soobin out again, with a renewed vigor. He quickly worked Soobin back up, so he was squirming and moaning in pleasure once more, and then he’d draw back. Over and over and over again. Until Beomgyu was pretty sure he was so hard he was going to explode just sitting there watching it happen. There was just something so alluring about Soobin being so frustrated and Yeonjun toying with him.

The sound of it was obscene, Beomgyu thought. Everything was just so wet, he could see Yeonjun’s tongue as it dipped in and out, watched as he wrapped his lips around Soobin’s clit - like he was giving it a kiss, saw as he took one of his hands and slipped two fingers back inside so he could use both his mouth and hands to finally push Soobin over the edge. 

Soobin jolted. “M’closem’closem’- ah, please, pleasepleaseplease, oh, oh god, m’gonnacome, m’gonna-”

Beomgyu craned his head toward Soobin’s and kissed him, easily swallowing Soobin’s high pitched cry as he came. Beomgyu could hear the slick gushing out of him and the way Yeonjun moaned, the vibration from the sensation making Soobin gasp and wriggle about as a second wave of pleasure rolled through him. He pulled away from Beomgyu, eyes slipping shut as he went completely boneless, collapsing against Beomgyu’s chest.

Beomgyu glanced up then to see Yeonjun grinning at him, lips pink and cheeks covered in slick. He couldn’t remember a sight that had ever turned him on more.

𓂃۶ৎ

Helping an omega through a heat turned out to be more different than helping an alpha through a rut than Yeonjun expected. Maybe it was the coziness of the nest or just the amount of pheromones in the air, but Yeonjun felt like everything was a little fuzzy. He remembered being much more alert whenever he helped Beomgyu with ruts. 

It didn’t matter, he supposed, as long as they were still able to take care of Soobin. They’d bring him to orgasm and, satiated, he’d drift off. Yeonjun had expected there to be more hanky panky between him and Beomgyu during Soobin’s lulls - that’s what the blogs he’d read had said often happened, but the two of them never exchanged more than a few sloppy kisses or rushed hand jobs before they’d be pulled under and into a light sleep as well. Waking up whenever Soobin’s heat spiked again - his pheromones kept them both half-hard nearly all the time.

The first day of Soobin’s heat drew to an end and Beomgyu stumbled out of the bedroom to bring back the apples Yeonjun had sliced for the occasion. Reluctantly, they’d woken Soobin up to feed him and he’d blushed and marveled over the fact that Yeonjun had cut the apples into little bunnies. 

“Cute,” he’d muttered under his breath before chomping down on the little rabbit ears sticking out of his apple slice. 

Shortly after they’d finished their snack, the bowl was placed on the nightstand, and Yeonjun watched as Beomgyu rolled Soobin onto his stomach and crawled on top of him, sliding in from behind, bringing him to orgasm right as the sun started to come up, soft oranges and pinks peeking into the room through the cream colored curtains. 

The second and third days of Soobin’s heat passed in much the same way. They took turns slipping out of the nest to take dirty dishes back to the kitchen, find wash cloths to help clean everyone as much as possible, bring snacks to make sure everyone was well fed (including feeding Brontë), and of course, they took turns fucking Soobin silly. 

Yeonjun liked to pin Soobin beneath him on the bed, settling between his thick thighs so he could watch every tiny twitch of his face as Yeonjun pushed inside. Beomgyu liked sitting with Soobin in his lap, making him work for it until he was too tired and frustrated to keep going, and then Beomgyu would grip his hips and dig his heels into the mattress to buck up wildly until they’d both tipped over the edge.

And then they hit day four. 

Yeonjun could immediately tell things were different because instead of being awoken by Beomgyu or by Soobin pawing at him, he jolted awake because someone was crying. 

He turned to see Soobin lying between them, face buried in his arms and pillow between his thighs as he clumsily humped his hips down. Beomgyu had also been startled awake. He reached out and tentatively placed a hand on Soobin’s lower back. He was trying to soothe, but the touch just made Soobin sob louder, great heaving cries that rattled in his chest and sounded like they were forcibly clawing their way out of his throat. 

Beomgyu snatched his hand back and looked up at Yeonjun, alarmed. Yeonjun wondered if they’d done something wrong, if maybe they’d fallen into too deep a sleep and Soobin hadn’t been able to wake them up. Yeonjun’s mind scrambled to remember everything he’d learned in health class. Was Soobin feeling abandoned? Was he frustrated and feeling unsatisfied or angry?

The reprimand, the reminder that he didn’t need to suffer like this - that he could wake them up whenever he needed was on the tip of his tongue, but he found that the words died there. Something was off and they needed to get to the bottom of it.

“Soobin, what’s wrong?” He spoke softly, but received no reply, Soobin shaking his head no as he twisted his hands up in his sheets and clawed at the wall of his nest. 

“Hand me my phone,” Yeonjun whispered to Beomgyu. Beomgyu snatched it off the bedside table and handed it over. Yeonjun grimaced as he saw it was sitting at three percent, but what else was he expecting? He hadn’t charged it since Monday. He’d just have to move fast. 

Swiftly, Yeonjun opened Safari and typed directly into the search bar omega inconsolable during heat. The very first thing to pop up was, of course, a Reddit thread. Yeonjun skimmed the answers, his eyes going wider and wider the farther they went. 

Of course, of course, it was so obvious. Heat wasn’t just about pleasure. It was about making pups. And to make pups, they needed knots. 

Knots weren’t actually required to get an omega pregnant, but they certainly increased the chances of conceiving significantly. And according to the good people of the r/Help!FirstTimeHelpingAnOmegaInHeat subreddit, not giving an omega in heat a knot could result in their inner omega feeling abandoned, which could trigger a more…animalistic state, edging them into omegaspace. 

Yeonjun locked his phone and handed it back to Beomgyu, who dropped it unceremoniously back on the nightstand. “So?”

“He needs a knot,” Yeonjun said.

Like it was what he was waiting for, Soobin took a deep, shuddering breath before turning to look at them from over his shoulder. He’d stopped humping the pillow and his crying was starting to subside - the loud sobs being replaced with little hiccuping gasps. But his face was still awfully wet, pink, and swollen.

“Knot?”

There was an odd vacant look to Soobin’s eyes, and despite how furiously he’d just been jerking his hips against his pillow, his movements were sluggish as he tried to roll over.

Beomgyu reached out and hesitated only a bit before helping Soobin roll onto his back. Yeonjun pressed closer to both of them, placing a hand on the soft skin of Soobin’s stomach and his other on Beomgyu's shoulder. As he used his thumb to rub small circles into their skin, he looked between both of them and then sank his teeth into his bottom lip. He and Beomgyu hadn’t knotted yet, but when he glanced down, he could see at the base of Beomgyu’s cock where the beginnings of a knot had already formed. Likely from the overexposure to horny omega pheromones. His eyes lit up.

“Would a knot help you feel better?”

Soobin nodded, his eyes going a bit glossy with want. 

“Alright,” Yeonjun cooed. “Alpha will give it to you.”

Yeonjun soon found himself kneeling on the bed, with Soobin’s arms wrapped around his shoulders and their chests pressed together, while Beomgyu slowly pushed into Soobin from behind. The position was one that reminded Yeonjun of the porn videos he and his friends had watched at sleepovers in middle school, except better. Because Soobin wasn’t letting out over-exaggerated grunts or engaging in cheesy dirty talk. No, as Beomgyu pressed himself farther and farther into Soobin, the omega let out tiny little moans in Yeonjun’s ear. And Beomgyu wasn’t the stoic, quiet type either. With every shift, thrust, and movement, he let out his own grunts and moans. And it all went straight down to Yeonjun’s cock. 

Soobin’s grip on Yeonjun started slipping when Beomgyu began thrusting, and Yeonjun couldn’t help it. Soobin just looked so cock dumb. He squeezed his cheeks between his hands and pressed a kiss to his lips. And then another and another. Soobin could hardly kiss back; he was trying his best to keep up with Yeonjun, but eventually gave up and just panted into Yeonjun’s mouth as Yeonjun kissed him and giggled against his lips. 

“Yeonjun,” Soobin mumbled against Yeonjun. “I wanna, please.”

Yeonjun pulled back to give Soobin the space to speak and Soobin looked at him with his big brown eyes and said, “Wanna suck you off, please.” And who was Yeonjun to say no to that? 

Behind Soobin, Beomgyu groaned. “Fuck, that’s so hot,” he panted as he watched Yeonjun shift Soobin so his chest was pressed to the top of Yeonjun’s thighs with his mouth right in front of Yeonjun’s achingly hard dick. The movement caused Soobin’s back to arch further, pressing his ass up higher in the air and changing the angle at which Beomgyu was thrusting into him. Beomgyu groaned and let out a long string of swear words as Soobin keened - high and thin and reedy in the back of his throat. 

Yeonjun sat as patiently as possible, watching as Beomgyu tipped his head back, squeezing Soobin’s cheeks in his hands as he began thrusting with renewed vigor. Yeonjun could tell just from the set of his jaw that Beomgyu was getting close. 

He opened his mouth, ready to tease Beomgyu, a little playful and a little mean - just the way he liked it, but before he could, he felt a little kitten lick against his tip. He glanced down just in time to see Soobin, with a hungry look on his face, lean forward and-

“Oh, fuck,” Yeonjun hissed as Soobin swallowed him whole. His eyes slipped shut, and it felt like the world narrowed down to nothing but how overwhelming the whole thing was. The thrill that ran down his spine as Soobin swallowed around him, the little noises of contentment and pleasure he made as he sucked and swirled, combined with the way Beomgyu’s voice got higher and higher and breathier and breathier the closer he got to tipping over the edge.

“Soobin, Yeonjun, I’m-“ Beomgyu cut himself off with another long, drawn out moan. 

Soobin pulled off Yeonjun, and Yeonjun groaned at the sight of the little thread of saliva that connected Soobin’s lips to his tip. Then, like it couldn’t get any worse, Soobin opened his mouth and started begging. 

Inside, please, please, need it, I need it, inside, please. 

Soobin’s hand found Yeonjun’s length at the same time that Beomgyu’s hips stuttered. Soobin’s back arched and his mouth opened around a silent scream as Beomgyu pushed his knot inside him. Beomgyu let out a relieved sigh and his hips jumped, shoving Soobin forward once, then twice, as he started to come. The three of them panted together, Beomgyu squeezing Soobin’s sides, Soobin’s hand lazily jerking Yeonjun off, and Yeonjun watching as Soobin’s stomach started to round out slightly. Just enough to show. He’d never quite gotten used to just how much Beomgyu came when he knotted - it was always an obscene amount. The whole thing was erotic enough that Yeonjun groaned and then, without warning, he came - finishing on Soobin’s face. The apology was on the tip of his tongue when Soobin let out a low groan and pressed his face into Yeonjun’s crotch, hips twitching weakly as he finished, too. 

Oh my god, Yeonjun thought. His brain scrambled to connect the dots there. 

They stayed like that for a moment, catching their breath. And then, “Let’s move to a more comfortable position.”

Yeonjun helped the two of them as they moved so they were sitting, finding the wet wipes so he could help clean his come off Soobin’s face. 

Once they’d settled, Beomgyu was sitting with Soobin on his lap, and Yeonjun crawled closer so the three of them could cuddle up together. It was cute, Yeonjun thought. Beomgyu’s little face peeked out from over Soobin’s shoulder as they sat there, stuck together. Overcome with a sudden swell of affection, Yeonjun leaned over them and pressed a chaste kiss to Beomgyu’s lips and followed by pressing one to Soobin’s as well. 

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin soon learned that one knot was not enough to satiate his omega. He wondered if it was because he’d gone his entire life without ever spending a heat with an alpha - his omega getting a taste of a knot mid-heat, realizing what they’d been missing out on, and deciding to make up for all the knots he’d never gotten. 

He’d already gotten a knot from Beomgyu and was currently curled into Yeonjun as he waited for his knot to go down. Yet, already he could feel his heat curling through him again - demanding more. He whimpered as that familiar ache returned. Gasped as it turned sharp, pointed, shooting - much more intense than he was used to. It just didn’t make sense. If anything, his body should be calming down, the heat should be getting easier. He felt Yeonjun tense below him and Beomgyu snake an arm around his waist so he could press closer. A light kiss was pressed against his temple and part of Soobin just wilted. 

He’d miss this, he was pretty sure. All the casual affection the two of them doled out, so willingly. He hadn’t even had to ask; they’d just given it. Inside his head, he could hear his inner omega whimpering, upset at even the idea of getting separated from both alphas. 

“Need more?” Beomgyu asked, his voice so kind and understanding, but Soobin knew he had to be tired. Exhausted even. It wasn’t like they were getting much sleep. Or food. It had to be exhausting, keeping up with him and his body. And Soobin just wasn’t used to having to…burden others with that. But he was also too weak to say no. 

So, he bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. Then willed himself not to blush when they both cooed over him. 

“A needy little thing, aren’t you?” Yeonjun was smiling, his voice light. But the words hit Soobin like a bag of bricks. Needy. 

He shut his eyes to keep himself from tearing up. He’d cried enough already. Tears of pleasure and frustration - he wasn’t going to add “tears because he can’t handle a little ribbing” to the list. 

“I don’t understand,” Soobin finally managed to bite out. 

Yeonjun and Beomgyu exchanged a confused glance. 

“It’s not supposed to…I’m not supposed to…I’ve been knotted. Twice. It should be-I should be-“

Silence fell over them all as they continued to sit there, as the alphas digested what Soobin had been trying to get at. And then, it was like a lightbulb went off in Beomgyu’s head. “I have an idea.”

It was kind of a dumb idea. The kind of thing that’s pitched as a premise for a flimsy porno plot. A clickbait title to lure people to a shady site that steals your identity and gives your computer sixteen different viruses. HOT: Horny Omega IN HEAT needs TWO KNOTS AT ONCE to Feel Satisfied (REAL!!!!)

But Soobin hadn’t said no. In fact, when Beomgyu had suggested it, he’d practically started drooling over just the idea of taking two knots at once. He felt a bit like he’d gone insane. Was it possible to be driven mad because of dick? Or maybe he’d just been fucked dumb.

Either way, he let out a little gasp as he sank down on Beomgyu’s length. He stayed perfectly still as Beomgyu peppered his face with kisses and rubbed his wrist against Soobin’s neck, smothering him in the smell of gingerbread. He felt it as his body relaxed and his shoulders dropped. Felt it as a wave of slick rushed out of him, coating Beomgyu’s lap. He whimpered a bit, a little embarrassed by it, but Beomgyu didn’t seem to mind as he tipped his head back and groaned about how it was so hot. 

They had to look a little silly, Soobin thought. Beomgyu lying on the bed, flat on his back, and Soobin curled up like a turtle on top of him. But the ability to think left him altogether when he felt Yeonjun’s hand on his waist, followed by the press of another cock pushing its way inside him. 

His mouth dropped open and he clenched around them both, hard. There was a spike in their scents and Soobin’s insides warmed - like he’d just taken a long sip of a spicy gingerbread latte or had settled down in front of one of those wood burning stoves Christmas tree farms used as heaters. And, just like that, his body relaxed. He was rewarded with a soft, good boy and a press of lips to his temple as Yeonjun inched himself further inside until his hips were flush with Soobin’s ass. 

Soobin was so full, he was pretty sure he had no room for anything inside him but cocks. It felt like he could feel them in his throat. Or like he was the stuffed turkey about to be thrown in the oven and then served for Thanksgiving lunch. It should’ve been unpleasant, but it wasn’t. It was good, so so good. He started purring as they sat there, trying to adjust to just how much they were all feeling.

Beomgyu’s mouth found his in a sloppy kiss - more panting than anything else, at least from Soobin’s end - but before he’d really gotten a good handle on whatever Beomgyu had been doing with his tongue, Yeonjun joined them. He tilted Soobin’s chin in his direction, stealing him away mid-kiss. Below them, Beomgyu made a disgruntled noise and when Yeonjun pulled away from Soobin, a cocky grin on his face, he then surged forward - the new angle made Soobin gasp in surprise as it pushed someone even deeper inside him - to kiss Beomgyu.

Soobin felt his heart plummet. They were allowed to kiss each other, of course they were - he’d woken up multiple times over the past few days to see them exchanging small kisses and reassuring each other that everything was fine. It was sweet. Soobin was glad that they had each other. But it was like the most unnecessary reminder ever that they weren’t there for him. No, Soobin was simply a means to an end. 

Before he could get too existential mid-threesome, Yeonjun began to slowly pull out and suddenly all Soobin’s thoughts were just no no no no no no. Embarrassingly, out loud he said, “No, wan b’full.” 

“You will be, baby,” Yeonjun whispered. “Patience.”

Baby. The pet name sent Soobin reeling. That had to have been a slip of the tongue. 

“Oh!” Soobin shouted as Yeonjun snapped his hips forward, sliding home in one smooth thrust. The force of it sent Soobin sliding forward and beneath him, Beomgyu let out a deep moan, his voice so alluring that just the sound of it had Soobin gasping. 

Soobin whined as Beomgyu then kicked his hips up, setting up a rhythm that was unrelenting. Soobin barely had time to breathe. They alternated thrusts, but occasionally they would slip up and end up sliding into Soobin at the same time and, whenever that happened, Soobin would shake so hard he felt like he was going to vibrate right out of his skin. 

Fuck, so good, feels so good, baby, Gyu darling, fuck, so good, so, so good, oh - god!

All Yeonjun’s little words and noises were being breathed right into Soobin’s ear. His lips would follow, nipping at Soobin’s ears and shoulder and neck. All the while, his hands had a grip on Soobin’s waist that was so tight it felt like it would bruise. 

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, ah.

Beomgyu’s voice was much gruffer than normal and the pitch slowly started to slide up and the higher it got, the breathier he sounded. Like he’d taken a peek into Soobin’s head and figured out exactly what he could do to enhance his sexiness and drive Soobin even crazier. 

Ah, ah, ah, ah. 

Soobin was incapable of forming words at all. Incapable of doing very little besides sitting there and taking it. He was quivering in anticipation, could feel his stomach tightening, a little puddle of heat pooling right below his abdomen. 

Gyu, darling, are you-

Yes, god, fuck-

Soobin wasn’t even sure what they were talking about anymore. Everything was starting to go a little hazy. It didn’t feel like anything Soobin had ever experienced before. It was almost like he was seeing double. He could feel saliva pooling below his tongue and then dribbling down his chin, but he could hardly think straight, let alone get himself to shut his mouth. He could feel his gaze becoming unfocused as his core tightened. The first wave of pleasure washed over him and he sighed, but it didn’t stop. 

He screwed his eyes shut, the beginnings of the alpha’s knots catching on each other and on him. It felt like his insides were being rearranged to make room for them. Just for them. And he was warm, so warm, but not in that familiar heat way, no, this was different. It wasn’t painful, just comforting. A soft little buzz under his skin. He heard himself whining and moaning, heard the vague mumblings of the others, but had lost the ability to focus enough to figure out what they were saying. 

Soobin’s knees slid out from under him, his legs kicking up behind him and caging Yeonjun between his thighs as his hands scrambled to get a hold on Beomgyu’s shoulders. The movement jostled Beomgyu just right and his knot slipped fully inside, trapping him there. 

There were warm tears rushing down Soobin’s cheeks. He wasn’t sure when he’d started crying, but he felt soft lips kissing his face and a soft hand in his hair. 

Hold on, baby, hold on…

Yeonjun slowly started pushing his knot up, up, up. Soobin inhaled sharply and quivered with it. It was too much; there was no way it would fit.

Too full, too full, too full.

Beomgyu got very still. “Relax,” he whispered against the crown of Soobin’s head. 

And, miraculously, Soobin’s body listened. He let go, body relaxing just enough for Yeonjun to shove his knot up so he and Beomgyu were pressed together. Beomgyu choked, Yeonjun cursed, Soobin screamed. 

And then everything went white. 

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin wasn’t sure what he had expected to have happened when he woke up. But he was surprised to find that Yeonjun and Beomgyu were both still in his nest with him, cradling him between the two of them with all of their legs tangled together.

He should wake them up so they could all shower. So they could go home. But Soobin was selfish. So he opted to stay still, to stay quiet, and to just…watch them sleep. He couldn’t see Beomgyu’s face at all as it was smashed into the center of a pillow. But his dark hair was in disarray, all disheveled and tangled, but still shiny. Soobin turned his neck to the side, then, so he could get a look at Yeonjun. Yeonjun’s face was pressed into Soobin’s shoulder and his lips were pouted forward. It made him look young, Soobin thought. His cheeks looked squishier when he was like that - less sharp. 

He must’ve stared for a bit too long, because soon Yeonjun began to stir. Soobin watched as Yeonjun’s eyelashes fluttered and he blinked himself into awareness before arching his back and stretching like a cat. 

“How are you feeling?” Yeonjun asked, his voice scratchy. 

“Good,” Soobin croaked before his eyes went wide. He hadn’t expected himself to sound so hoarse. 

“That’s good,” Yeonjun whispered. He reached out and gently pushed Soobin’s bangs off his forehead. Hummed a bit as he pressed the back of his hand to the skin there. “Your heat really broke.”

Soobin nodded as the realization washed over him. He wasn’t covered in sweat and slick anymore. Only the dried remains of their last round. He blushed as he recalled it, what had likely put an early end to his heat. 

Yeonjun sat up then and stretched again, this time lifting his arms over his head. “Alright, baby, why don’t you go shower? I’ll get Beomie up and then we can figure out where to go from there.” He punctuated the sentence by leaning over and pressing his lips, ever so briefly, to Soobin’s forehead. 

Soobin was so stunned he couldn’t bring himself to respond. Just blushed and carefully crawled over Beomgyu to get out of the bed. As he headed for the door, too tired to care about the fact that he was still fully nude - it wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen at the point anyway - he turned back to look at them. Took in the sweet smile Yeonjun saved just for Beomgyu, the gentle way he shook and coaxed Beomgyu into rolling over and it squeezed his heart a bit. It wouldn’t do him any good to linger, Soobin thought. Why ponder the what-ifs if you knew they would never come true?

They stayed much longer than Soobin had anticipated, not that he minded. He enjoyed all of it. The extra cuddling, the way they cooked him one last meal, and even stuck around to help him do multiple loads of laundry to clean everything that had been used in his nest. He enjoyed that they wore his clothes. Beomgyu’s t-shirt - one that was already comically oversized on Soobin - practically came down to his knees, and Yeonjun, despite having to loosen the waistband on the sweatpants he’d borrowed, also had to cuff them at the ankle so he wasn’t treading on the hems.

It all made it so much easier for Soobin to trick himself into thinking it was real. That the three of them were the picture of domestic bliss. He liked the way Yeonjun rested his hip lazily against the counter as he drank his coffee and scrambled eggs. He liked the way Beomgyu knelt on the floor and sang softly under his breath while he folded and sorted laundry. He liked the way it felt to fall asleep after a good meal together, curled up against the arm of the sofa with the alphas draped over him.

But all good things must come to an end. 

“Call us if you need anything,” Beomgyu said, taking both Soobin’s hands in his as they stood on his little front porch to say goodbye. 

Soobin could only nod. If he spoke, he was worried he’d do something stupid. Like cry or beg them to stay.

He stood on the porch, waved goodbye as they backed out and pulled away from Soobin. He stood there, rooted to the spot until they’d turned the corner at the end of the street and disappeared from sight. 

As the front door slammed behind him, it sank in what Soobin had done. He’d had two alphas with him during his heat, had allowed himself to get used to that feeling of being taken care of, and now? He was back to being alone. Except now it was worse. 

Soobin found himself crouched down on the floor, arms wrapped around his legs and face pressed into his knees. He was stupid for thinking he could handle it. For thinking it would be okay. That he would be okay. He felt…abandoned.

No, no, no. Soobin took a shaky inhale and stood. He refused to cry over this. He’d known what he was signing up for. He just needed rest. He’d sleep on it and then he’d be fine. It’d all be fine.

𓂃۶ৎ

Beomgyu was rather sick of dancing around it all. So when he and Yeonjun collapsed into their bed, still wearing Soobin’s clothes, he figured that was the time to address it. He wanted to be out with it because it felt like it was eating him alive. 

His feelings for Soobin had stopped being plausibly friendly the moment they’d kissed the weekend before Soobin’s heat and snuck up on them. And he’d had the entirety of the heat to stew on it. 

While it was difficult to keep one's thoughts straight when they were feeling all fuzzy and cuddly and unbearably horny…Beomgyu had managed to organize his thoughts into a neat list. 

1. People who were just friends probably didn’t look forward to kissing each other and then, after they’d kissed, weren’t desperate for it to happen again.
2. If you were just friends, you probably didn’t get jealous thinking about your friend having other people in their nest and then feeling relieved to learn you were (one of) the first alphas they allowed into that space.
3. Considering the idea of talking to your mate about potentially courting the friend you asked to be a surrogate was maybe not a super platonic thing to be pondering.

And, here’s the thing. As far as Beomgyu could tell, Yeonjun felt the same way. But they weren’t talking about it. Not in so many words. And he just really wanted to make sure they were on the same page, so he could stop feeling…guilty. 

“So, Soobin is baby, huh?” He’d blurted it out before he’d even fully settled on the bed. It wasn’t how he’d meant to start the conversation, but he figured it was better than not starting it at all. 

Yeonjun shifted a bit uneasily on the bed. “I…it just sort of…slipped out. I didn’t even realize at first…I’m sorry.”

Beomgyu felt his mouth drop open in shock. Yeonjun looked guilty.

“Why are you sorry? I’m not mad about it,” Beomgyu said. He scooted over so he was close enough to loll against Yeonjun’s side and wrap their hands together. 

Yeonjun glanced at him before focusing on their joined hands. “You’re not?”

Beomgyu ignored Yeonjun’s question and pushed forward. “Do you want to kiss him?”

Yeonjun shifted uneasily where he sat. Beomgyu looked away from him and began playing with their fingers, hoping it would make Yeonjun less nervous.

“I think so,” Yeonjun finally admitted, softly, like he thought he was about to get in trouble for it. “Does that bother you?”

“No,” Beomgyu said. “At least, I don’t think so.”

“Beom, what does that even mean? You know it’d be normal for you to be jealous, right?”

“Yeah,” Beomgyu replied. “That would be normal.” He scowled then. “Which is why I think it’s weird that I’m not jealous. I think…I think it’s hot when you kiss him…I like to watch.”

Yeonjun threw the blanket off his lap and rose to his knees. 

“Jesus, Yeonjun, what are you doing?” Beomgyu snapped as he was nearly toppled over. “Are you okay?”

“You want me to kiss another man?” He planted his hands on Beomgyu’s shoulders, forcing them to look each other in the eye. 

Beomgyu shrugged. “Well, Soobin isn’t just another man…to me.”

Yeonjun just stared at Beomgyu. It was like he could see the gears turning in his head as he struggled to wrap his mind around what Beomgyu was getting at. They knew. They’d known for a while that they were both attracted to Soobin on some level. 

Beomgyu could remember, clear as day, the first time they’d seen him. The two of them had been moving boxes into the school together. It was early in the morning, well before the staff meeting where they’d be introduced to the other teachers. They hadn’t expected to see anyone else there; the custodian who had let them in had been shocked to see them. But as Yeonjun helped Beomgyu unload his art supplies and classroom decorations, they passed the library - right at the front of the extracurriculars wing. 

The door had been open, the lights had been on, and there had been the softest voice, singing lowly as they worked. Naturally curious, Beomgyu had poked his head inside. The room had smelled like old books, like paper that had been sitting out under the sun, and the sunlight streaming through the windows had hit Soobin like a spotlight. It was so bright, you could see the dust particles floating around him in the air as he sang and worked, sorting through the books and arranging displays. He’d looked so serene, Beomgyu hadn’t been able to look away. 

Yeonjun had come up behind Beomgyu then, likely intending to scold him and remind him that they needed to finish unloading his stuff because they were kind of parked in a fire lane, but before Yeonjun had gotten a word out, he’d seen who Beomgyu was looking at and just froze. Eyes widening and mouth dropping open as he took it all in. It reminded Beomgyu of what Yeonjun called the oh moment in his favorite books. 

It made him feel a bit silly for not noticing sooner that these feelings weren’t new. But now it was out there. They liked Soobin. And that made it feel real. Which was a bit terrifying. 

The silence between them stretched on and Beomgyu braced himself to hear that he’d read everything wrong. That Beomgyu was alone in wanting Soobin and then he’d have to face the fact that all those assholes he’d seen before Yeonjun had been right and he’d never be satisfied because he was just too much.

“Me either,” Yeonjun admitted before swallowing thickly.

Beomgyu blinked. “What?”

“He’s not just a man to me, either.” Yeonjun exhaled heavily, like he had just discovered something about himself and also just gotten a massive secret off his chest. 

A wide grin bloomed on Beomgyu’s face and he practically tackled Yeonjun back against the mattress. It felt weird to smell their scents blooming so fully - the lingering pieces of Soobin intermingled - and knowing they were like that because of Soobin. 

Beomgyu lay there, sprawled out on Yeonjun’s chest, and lost himself thinking about what they could do now that they were both on the same page. He imagined them cornering Soobin in the library and then him coming home with them after school, where Yeonjun would cook them dinner and then they’d have marathon sex and get mated and then pick whose house they’d move into - probably Soobin’s because it was a bit bigger - and then they’d all live happily ever-

“Should we try courting him?” Yeonjun’s voice sounded small, uncertain.

Oh. Beomgyu turned that thought over. The two of them didn’t have much experience with that, but it felt like the kind of thing Soobin would enjoy. The kind of thing Yeonjun would like doing. And Beomgyu…he loved seeing the people he loved happy.

“Yeah, I think we should,” he whispered. He smiled as a low rumble built up in Yeonjun’s chest and let it lull him to sleep.

𓂃۶ৎ

If Yeonjun was an expert on anything, it was romance. Or at least, contrived romance plots and tropes. So he laid out everything he and Beomgyu would have to do to properly court Soobin, writing it out in a little Muji notebook Beomgyu had bought years ago and then never used. He handed it over to Beomgyu as he was waking up the next morning. 

Beomgyu absently fingered the handle of his coffee mug as he looked it over. “Is this the order we’re supposed to go in, because if so, I fear we might’ve jumped the gun.”

His eyes were definitely stuck on the last bullet point, which was sleeping together. And that fell after scented gifts, which sat at number five, and confessions of love sitting at number eight. 

“Well, I figured we could adapt it a bit,” Yeonjun said. “Obviously, we’ve missed some important steps and skipped to others.” He cleared his throat. “I thought maybe our next step could be…family introductions. I was thinking maybe we could work something out for the holidays.”

Beomgyu frowned. “Our parents aren’t doing Thanksgiving with us…your parents are at the beach and mine are visiting my brother.”

Yeonjun smiled as he sipped his coffee and waited for Beomgyu to get it. 

“Oh. You want to meet his family.”

The two of them decided to ask him about Thanksgiving together and Yeonjun managed to find a time on Monday where his class would be watching a puppet show and he could leave them for a bit with the teaching assistant to crash Beomgyu and Soobin’s lunch. He had a limited window to make it work before he had to rush back to the gymnasium to collect his kids, so he practically skidded into the teacher’s lounge as he arrived, startling everyone there. 

His heart warmed when he saw that the two of them were sharing food. Soobin eating his homemade kimbap and Beomgyu taking some of Soobin’s heart-shaped strawberries. 

All eyes were on him as he cleared his throat and pulled out an empty chair at their table, sending an apologetic nod to Ms. Carr as he did so. 

Soobin swallowed the food he’d been chewing, a timid look on his face as his eyebrows scrunched together in concern. “Is there-“ he cut himself off and gnawed thoughtfully on his lower lip as he looked between the two of them. “Is something wrong?” He’d lowered his voice, clearly thinking that they wanted to talk to him about their arrangement. 

Beomgyu slid his hand into Yeonjun’s under the table and gave it an encouraging squeeze. They’d heard through the grapevine (the very gossipy school nurse) that Soobin didn’t have much family around, so they figured it wouldn’t be too big of an undertaking to invite Soobin (and anyone he wanted to bring with him) to their place for Thanksgiving. But as the moment to ask had come, Yeonjun began to realize just how presumptuous they were being. Just because Soobin never talked about spending time with family didn’t mean he wouldn’t already have plans. 

Still, Yeonjun inhaled sharply. “WouldyouwanttospendThanksgivingwithus?”

They watched as Soobin turned a rather pleasant looking pink color. Over his shoulder, Yeonjun watched Ms. Carr as she coughed lightly into a napkin before shooting a rather bewildered look their way. 

“Oh,” Soobin murmured. “I’m sorry, I spend Thanksgiving every year at my cousin’s house.”

Yeonjun felt his heart sink. Sure, they could try something else, schedule a different meeting time, but his alpha was taking this as a rejection. He was trying to get it to shut up and stop whining when Soobin shifted a bit in his seat like he was thinking very hard about something. 

He opened his mouth then, and only hesitated for a second before he said, “It’s rather small, though…if you wanted to come?”

Beomgyu’s nails dug into Yeonjun’s palm,  a silent question. What do they say? They hadn’t planned for this turn of events!

“We wouldn’t want to impose,” Yeonjun replied, smiling sheepishly. It was really their fault for assuming just because of some workplace gossip that Soobin would have zero plans for a major holiday.

Soobin shook his head. “It wouldn’t be imposing. Yunho is always complaining about how he wishes I’d bring a date.” He turned rather red as he said it, like he was only just realizing what he was insinuating as the words left his mouth. 

Yeonjun felt Beomgyu perk up beside him; if he’d been a dog, his tail would’ve been wagging like crazy. Yeonjun’s own lips pulled into a smirk. “A date, eh?”

Beomgyu elbowed him, as if to say don’t push it, before chiming in with, “We’d love to go to Thanksgiving with you, Soobinnie.”

Soobin looked a bit startled for a moment, like he hadn’t expected them to say yes. But then he grinned and Yeonjun fought back the urge to reach out and poke his dimples. “Okay, we can go together if that’s okay.”

“More than okay. Yeonjun loves driving.” Beomgyu shot him a teasing grin as he offered him up as chauffeur. 

Yeonjun nodded along anyway. 

Suddenly shy, Soobin looked down at his lunch box and began to fiddle with the tinfoil he’d wrapped his grilled cheese sandwich in (it had ladybugs printed on it). “I’ll let Yunho know you’re coming.”

Yeonjun was giddy and he could feel Beomgyu practically vibrating in excitement beside him, but the moment was ruined when the timer on his phone went off. He jumped up and pushed his chair in. “Excuse me, then, I’ve got to get back to a puppet show.” He leaned over and pressed a celebratory kiss onto Beomgyu’s forehead before he darted out of the room and back down the hall. He couldn’t wait for Thanksgiving.

𓂃۶ৎ

Brontë was perched on the top of Soobin’s dresser, her tail flicked in what could only be judgment as he paced back and forth in front of her - half his closet spilled out on the floor around him. He was having a bit of a fashion crisis and Yeosang was being no help. He was sitting amongst the mess on Soobin’s floor surrounded by all the sweaters that had been sent to the reject pile. And, well, Yeosang was being helpful in the sense that he was re-folding all Soobin’s clothes so they wouldn’t wrinkle. Soobin just wished he’d tell him what to wear instead of continuing to hound Soobin for details on Yeonjun and Beomgyu.

“You mean to tell me, you spent a heat with those two alphas and they agreed to spend Thanksgiving with you and you still think they don’t like you?”

Soobin groaned and buried his face in his hands. He pointed a finger at Yeosang accusingly. “No, you have to stop. I’m delusional enough as it is. If you keep pushing and I keep entertaining my omega, I’m going to-“ His voice cracked and he shook his head. “We just need to drop it.”

Yeosang looked up at him, a sad look on his face. “No alpha that didn’t like you would be doing all this for you.”

Soobin opened his mouth to protest, but it shut it again when Yeosang shot him a cutting glare. It was difficult to have this conversation with Yeosang because he wasn’t sure how to explain it to him. It frustrated him that it even needed explaining in the first place, since Yeosang had been there when Soobin had tried dating in college. He’d seen the way alphas and betas and even other omegas had never taken Soobin seriously, but had pretended to. They’d talk to Soobin, call him sweet, buy him lunch or coffee at one of the dining halls or on-campus cafes, and then ask him out. But the dates had never been real dates. They’d been home dates. They’d come over with a movie to watch or a puzzle to put together, but whatever activity they’d planned would be forgotten as they’d corner Soobin against the wall of the small dorm room and get what they really wanted from him. And later, when Soobin would be upset because they’d never call him again or ask him out a second time, the excuse had always been that it had never been that serious. 

“Don’t say it’s just because you agreed to have a baby for them, because we both know this has been going on for much longer than that.”

Soobin turned back to his wardrobe and pulled out two more sweaters. He wasn’t even going to bother answering. So what if these alphas weren’t leading him on intentionally? So what if he was letting it happen despite knowing better? Maybe they’d just been playing the long game - he’d never really had a reputation for being easy. One of those omegas you had to pretend to court to get what you wanted. His stomach twisted just remembering what dating in college had been like.

 “Which one would be better with my corduroy pants?” He turned around to show the sweaters to Yeosang. One a thick fisherman's knit from L.L. Bean in a stark ivory, and the other a vintage sweater he’d snagged from his grandpa’s closet back in the day - a rich navy with an argyle pattern on the front. 

Yeosang eyed him for a long time, like if he looked for long enough he would figure out what Soobin was thinking, before he sighed. “The ivory.”

Soobin nodded and threw the ivory sweater onto his bed before walking over to Yeosang and taking the stack of neatly folded sweaters from him. “Thank you,” he whispered before he began putting them away. 

“Anytime, Bin.”

𓂃۶ৎ

“You look too fancy,” Beomgyu complained as Yeonjun pulled into Soobin’s driveway. He was eyeing Yeonjun’s outfit with an expression of mock disgust. It wasn’t that fancy in the grand scheme of things - the black bomber jacket and baggy jeans definitely gave it a more casual vibe, but that did not change the fact that Yeonjun had donned a shirt and tieto go to Soobin’s cousin’s house. Beomgyu had found at least five different ways to call him a dork in the very short ride over to Soobin’s. 

Yeonjun smiled but rolled his eyes. He put the car in park before he reached over to tug on the hem of Beomgyu’s white t-shirt, which was sticking out from under the hem of his fuzzy green sweater. “At least I don’t have a tail.”

Beomgyu pulled his leather jacket tighter around him like he could use it as a shield as he opened his mouth to tease back. But his mouth snapped shut when the front door of Soobin’s house opened and he scrambled out holding a pie tin. They wanted to put their best foot forward today and something told him riling up Yeonjun until they were getting handsy in the front seat and spilling the big pot of mashed potatoes Yeonjun had insisted they make was maybe the opposite of a good impression.

Soobin slid into the backseat, cheeks pink from the cold, and smiled softly at them. He rattled off Yunho’s address for Yeonjun to plug into the GPS, and they were off. But something about Soobin had Beomgyu's eyes on him in the rearview mirror. He looked like he was glowing. Beomgyu couldn’t quite put his finger on why.

“What skin cream do you use?” He asked rather absentmindedly. 

Soobin blinked a bit stupidly. “Um…Pond’s night cream…why?”

Beomgyu shook his head. “Nothing, you just look really pretty today.” He hadn’t meant it like that, but he was still pleased to see Soobin hiding a smile behind his muffler. 

It didn’t take them long to get to Yunho’s house. He lived on the outskirts of town. Too far out for it to be the suburbs still, but not quite in the boonies. It was a low-sitting brick house with a carport attached and a large yard surrounded by a wooden fence. 

The carport had two cars sitting in it already and there was another car parked on the curb. “This it?” Yeonjun asked as he pulled up behind the other car. 

Soobin nodded. 

They climbed out of the car and approached the front door together, Soobin a little ahead of Yeonjun and Beomgyu. Beomgyu leaned over and nudged Yeonjun with his elbow. Yeonjun nudged him back. And then door was swinging open to reveal a man who, on one hand, looked startlingly similar to Soobin and, on the other hand, was very obviously not Soobin. 

He was tall with shaggy brown hair and large brown doe eyes (the same), but he had another tall man with a crooked smile attached to his back (not the same). “Come in, come in,” the first man said before stepping aside and allowing the three of them to enter. “Taehyun and Kai are already here.”

The place was cozy in a way that made Beomgyu think about watching John Wayne movies on TCM with his dad when he was little. The floor was carpeted and while it had once likely been a nice cream color, it had greyed with age. The walls were wood paneled and the smell of a tobacco pipe, one that likely hadn’t been smoked in a very, very long time, still faintly clung to everything. It was mixed with much stronger and fresher scents. Cedar and something a little brighter and cleaner that reminded Beomgyu of the fabric softener his mom used to use. Presumably, the scents of the two men before them.

“Yunho,” the one who looked vaguely Soobin-like supplied, then motioned to the man draped over his shoulders. “And this is Mingi. Don’t mind him, his rut starts next week, so he’s extra clingy.”

At hearing the word rut, Beomgyu took another tentative sniff of the air. The only omega he could smell was Soobin (who smelled extra sweet, almost mouthwateringly so); everyone else was alpha. But the smell of cedar was definitely extra sharp; Mingi definitely smelled of pre-rut. 

“This is Yeonjun and Beomgyu…my….friends…from work.” Soobin cringed a bit as he finished his sentence and Beomgyu had to fight the urge to do the same. It rubbed him the wrong way to be referred to as just a friend. 

Yeonjun held up the pot of mashed potatoes he was holding. “Where should I put these?”

“Oh, the kitchen is this way, follow me.” Yunho gently shook Mingi off his shoulders and led them into a narrow kitchen. It looked like it hadn’t been updated since the 1970s. The countertops were a mustard yellow and the cabinetry was all vintage hardwood. There was a backsplash behind the sink with yellow tiles that had obviously had little flowers hand-painted onto them. The brown floor tiles really tied it all together. Funky and vintage, Beomgyu decided he liked it and he liked that Yunho and Mingi hadn’t gutted the place and turned it into a beige wonderland. The house had character. It was charming. 

“I love this,” Beomgyu said as he looked around at the retro floral kettle that was sitting on the stove top and the yellowing striped wallpaper that peeked through the gaps in the cabinets. 

“Thank you,” Yunho smiled. “We bought the place years ago with the intention to flip it, but got in here and just didn’t have the heart.”

“It’s really a great place,” Yeonjun added as he set his mashed potatoes on the counters with the rest of the Thanksgiving spread. There was a plate of shredded turkey, a casserole dish of creamed corn, a bowl of green beans, a basket full of Sister Schubert rolls, and, on the very end, Soobin had placed his pie on a cake dish that looked like it was made of amber glass. 

Beomgyu found himself wandering closer to Soobin despite all the room they had to spread out. He only stopped when he’d gotten so close that if he cocked his hip out, it’d be brushing against Soobin’s. Yunho cocked an eyebrow at that but didn’t say anything. 

“If someone wants to grab Kai and Taehyun from the living room, we can go ahead and start lunch,” Yunho said. 

“I’ll get them,” Soobin spoke up, a bit too quickly. He slipped away and out of the room before Beomgyu could even blink. 

And then Mingi was sliding past him to once more attach himself to Yunho. 

Soobin returned, two omegas in tow and a line quickly formed as they began to fix plates for lunch.

Yunho was at the front of the line, juggling two plates. “Princess,” he called. 

Mingi, who was already sitting at the table, glanced up.

“Do you want me to butter your roll, or are you going to do it yourself?”

“You can do it,” Mingi answered, and Yunho smiled at him. 

Beomgyu peered over his shoulder to see that Soobin was over at the table, setting out silverware. Something inside his chest stirred at the idea of the omega not eating. He knew it was an irrational thought and that Soobin would be making himself a plate after he’d finished setting out wine and water glasses in front of each of the faded burlap placemats. But, before he could talk his inner alpha out of it, he’d grabbed a second plate and was giving Soobin an extra hearty helping of everything set out for them. 

“Here, Soobinnie,” he said, placing the plate down between his own and Yeonjun’s on the other side. 

Soobin shot him a slightly surprised look, but it wasn’t hard to tell that, on some level anyway, he was pleased as his lips pressed together in a small smile. 

“Oh, thank you. You didn’t have to,” he murmured.

Beomgyu grinned and pulled out the chair in front of Soobin’s plate. “I know, but I wanted to.”

For a second there, it felt like everyone in the tiny kitchen had frozen and was just watching as Soobin meandered over and took a seat. Soobin refused to look up at anyone, though, and instead began fiddling with the fancy cloth napkin his silverware was laid out on.

As everyone else finished making their plates and joined them at the table, Yunho stood with a bottle of wine - a cheap red wine that Beomgyu knew for a fact was sold at Target because he’d had a bottle (or five) with Yeonjun before for date nights. Yunho was pouring everyone a glass, but he got to Soobin, and a little awkwardly, Soobin slid his hand over the top of his glass and looked up at Yunho as he was bent over the wicker cornucopia acting as the table’s centerpiece. He blushed and looked away when Yunho raised an eyebrow.

“I can’t,” he muttered. 

On the other side of the table, Taehyun and Kai - Beomgyu had yet to figure out which one was which - were both fighting back smiles, but the taller one looked seconds away from vibrating out of his chair in excitement. 

Yunho frowned and put the wine away. “Are you on antibiotics or something?”

Soobin’s mouth opened and shut, then opened and shut again. It hit Beomgyu then, how odd it had to be to explain to your friends and family that you were having the baby of some alphas you knew from work. 

Under the table, Beomgyu reached over and squeezed Soobin’s knee. 

“I’m pregnant,” Soobin blurted then, like Beomgyu’s little squeeze had given him the burst of courage he needed to get it out. 

The table fell completely silent. Beomgyu guessed it was probably a bit surprising, especially given how conservative the area they lived in could be and- wait. Had Soobin just said he was pregnant? As in…confirmed? As in…Yeonjun and Beomgyu had successfully knocked him up?

Soobin buried his face in his hands and let out a little whine. Beomgyu was frozen in shock, but Yeonjun - thank god for Yeonjun - possessed the will to turn to face him and place a hand on Soobin’s shoulder. 

“Soobinie,” he said softly, “are you really…”

Soobin lifted his head but sank lower in his chair. “I-I took the test this morning,” he whispered, then tilted his head back and groaned. “This wasn’t how I wanted to tell you guys.”

Taehyun and Kai both began talking rather excitedly over each other, Yunho had turned and was piddling about in the pantry, clearly looking for something, and Beomgyu found himself shooting up out of his chair and yanking Soobin up so he could hug him properly. 

“Oh my god,” he kept muttering. “Oh my god!”

Soobin let out a weak little giggle into Beomgyu’s ear. “Is that all you can say?”

“No! But, oh my god!”

“I knew you could do it,” Yeonjun said as Beomgyu finally let go of Soobin. He slid into Beomgyu’s place and hugged Soobin, lifting him off the ground and spinning him as he did so, knocking his glasses askew. “I knew everything would work out.” After placing Soobin on the ground, he rose up onto his tiptoes and grabbed Soobin’s head with both hands, bending him forward just enough that he could smack a loud kiss onto his forehead. 

Beomgyu surged forward then, to try and wrap his arms around the both of them. He could feel tears running down his cheeks and he allowed himself to give in to his most primal instincts, just this once, and he gave Soobin a soft little bite on his shoulder. Through his thick sweater, it probably didn’t feel like much more than a nip, but he still let out a little yelp in surprise. 

Yunho came back to the table holding out a bottle of Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice rather triumphantly. “Here, let me pour you a glass, Bin.”

Soobin let out a slightly wet laugh. “Thank you.”

Everyone started to settle again once the excitement was over, but Beomgyu felt too keyed up to eat. He spent his time watching Soobin’s food intake and then scraping some of his picked-through mashed potatoes onto Soobin’s plate so he could eat those, too. Across the table, Kai and Taehyun had become the official peanut gallery, it seemed, as they kept giggling and tittering whenever Beomgyu helped Soobin to some of his food. It took Beomgyu a full five minutes to realize that while he was scraping potatoes off his plate and onto Soobin’s, Yeonjun was assembling full bites on his fork of turkey and gravy and green beans and attempting to feed Soobin with it. 

“I can feed myself,” Soobin mumbled, still a bit red in the face. 

“We know,” Beomgyu murmured back. 

“It’s their instincts, Bin, just let them feed you.” Yunho gave them a knowing look over the rim of his wine glass as he finished speaking. 

Immediately, Beomgyu wanted to argue that it wasn’t just his instincts. He’d always had the urge to sort of take care of Soobin. He was the world’s cutest omega, after all. But that was the kind of comment that would probably make Soobin want to shrivel up and die if made in front of so many people, so he bit his tongue and just clucked a bit in agreement. 

“Yeah,” he said in his best whiny brat voice, “let us feed you, Soobinnie.”

Soobin shot him some side eye, but the next time Yeonjun’s fork ventured toward his mouth, he obediently parted his lips and accepted the bite without putting up a fight. 

Under the table, Beomgyu squeezed his knee again. This time, in a silent thank you. 

𓂃۶ৎ

After lunch, they all settled in the living room to watch the rerun of the Macy’s Parade. It would’ve been a bit more relaxing if it hadn’t felt like everyone was watching them. As in the three of them. Yeonjun and Beomgyu had insisted that Soobin sit between them on the sofa. It had worked out in the end with Kai and Taehyun taking the smaller love seat together and Yunho and Mingi cramming together in an old leather recliner. 

As they watched a larger than life Bob the Builder float down the street, being held by hundreds of volunteers dressed in construction outfits, Yunho cleared his throat. “Bin, can you help me pack some of the food away?”

Soobin nodded and stood and almost immediately Yeonjun felt off. He felt a bit crazy. It was like he needed something to tether him to the sofa so he wouldn’t float off without him. That was a new feeling. He scooted toward the middle to fill the gap Soobin had left, so he could press himself against Beomgyu. But that odd, itchy feeling that said something was wrong didn’t go away. It took entirely too long for him to figure out why.

“You guys are cute,” Kai giggled from the velvet loveseat to their left. 

Yeonjun’s head swung in their direction just in time to see Taehyun elbowing Kai in the ribs, not like that deterred him.

“Y’know, usually it takes a bit for alphas in these situations to start feeling possessive over surrogates - if they ever do.”

Yeonjun frowned. Possessive didn’t sound like quite the right word to describe how he was feeling. He didn’t want to own Soobin, per se. At least not in the traditional, “Rahhh, I’m Alpha, hear me roar” type of way. But it was true that something inside him didn’t like Soobin not being near him. Being out of sight. 

“Unless, of course, you already had feelings for him.” Kai leveled the two of them with a look that felt a bit like a challenge. 

Yeonjun opened his mouth. To say what, he wasn’t sure, but beside him, Beomgyu beat him to the punch. “We’re courting him.”

Kai’s mouth dropped open in shock, and beside him, Taehyun’s eyes had nearly doubled in size. 

“I knew it,” Kai hissed at the same time that Taehyun said, “You admitted that faster than I thought you would.”

Yeonjun blinked furiously. “What?”

Taehyun waved him off and turned to look back at the TV. “Kai, look, it’s Pikachu!”

Kai giggled again before leaning over the arm of the love seat to get closer to where Yeonjun and Beomgyu were huddled together. “Listen, don’t worry too much about it. We just had a feeling you guys were into him based on what he’d told us. We were just teasing, really.”

Yeonjun nodded, but he was at a bit of a loss for words. Not that Yeonjun had been hoping to find obstacles, but usually in the novels he read, when meeting the families, that was usually where the objections would start to appear, and potential love rivals would pop up. Now, Yeonjun was grounded in reality. He wasn’t expecting long-lost childhood loves to pop out of the woodwork and attempt to steal Soobin away. This was his cousin, too, so he wasn’t exactly thinking Yunho would make crazy demands like declaring the two of them needed to break things off with Soobin because they were ruining his reputation and the family’s reputation or anything like that. But due to the conservative nature of the area they lived in, he hadn’t expected Soobin to announce to everyone that he was pregnant and he certainly hadn’t expected everyone to be so okay with it all.

But if Soobin had been talking about them…

And it clicked suddenly. If Soobin had been engaging in “girl talk” with his friends and talking about the two of them, did that mean Soobin liked them back?

Beomgyu seemed to have come to the same conclusion because the smell of gingerbread got just the teensiest bit sweeter. 

Yeonjun was suddenly overcome with the desire to have Soobin close. And he stood and began to meander toward the kitchen. As he passed the armchair, he felt Mingi’s eyes on him and he gave him a small smile and a nod, which Mingi returned with a thumbs-up. 

He was feeling ready to waltz right into the kitchen, snatch Soobin away, and drag him back to the sofa where he and Beomgyu could see him and feel assured knowing that he was (literally) right under their noses. 

But he halted in the threshold, blocked from sight by the cabinetry, when he heard Yunho ask, “It’s the alphas you brought, isn’t it?”

Soobin merely hummed. “None of these lids fit this container.”

“Use tinfoil then.”

There was the rustling of tinfoil and then a sigh. Yeonjun peeked around the corner to see Yunho leaning against the fridge with his arms crossed, giving Soobin a meaningful look as Soobin used arguably too much concentration to smooth the ends of the sheet of tinfoil over the edges of the Tupperware bowl that had been filled with the leftover green beans. 

“You’re not doing this just because you think it’s your one shot, right? You’re not thinking about those jerks from college?”

Soobin huffed and turned to look at him. “This is why I didn’t tell you earlier.”

Yunho’s face softened until he looked like a sad puppy. “Sorry, sorry, you know I’m not mad, right? I just worry sometimes.” 

Soobin’s hands fell away from the Tupperware bowl. “I know.”

Yunho moved forward and wrapped Soobin up in a hug and Yeonjun suddenly got the distinct feeling that he was hearing things he maybe shouldn’t be.

“They seem really nice…I hope this works out for you, Bin…even if they eavesdrop.”

Soobin whirled around and Yeonjun felt his ears go incredibly red. 

“Sorry, um, I just…uh, your friends, and I, Beomgyu and I, we uh, we didn’t want you to…you missed Pikachu.” It was the most uncool Yeonjun had ever felt in his entire life, partially hiding behind a cabinet and uttering complete bullshit. 

Luckily, Soobin and Yunho just laughed and Yunho grabbed Soobin by the shoulders and pushed him in Yeonjun’s direction. “Go back to your alphas, I’ll finish up in here.”

𓂃۶ৎ

After Thanksgiving, there was a definite shift in Yeonjun and Beomgyu’s behavior toward him. They continued to give him scented clothing items to wear, and as the weather got colder and colder, they insisted on picking him up on their way to work, which turned into them coming over and scenting him a bit before they put on their scent blockers to head to school. They’d even run the ready-made meals he’d thrown together for Yunho and Mingi out to their house for him once Mingi’s rut had hit (he could only hope nothing else of his dismally uneventful love life had been shared with them while he’d not been around) - something Taehyun had laughed about and Kai had made some very odd comments about how their possessiveness was reaching new heights if they were afraid to let him be around family just because they were alphas in rut.

They also began consistently spending time on the weekends together. They took him out with them to movies, on Target runs, and to the new farm-to-table brunch place that had opened up on Main Street. Yeosang had made multiple jokes about how he’d never pegged Soobin as the type to ditch his friends for dick. 

And that was without the gifts. Never anything big, but they got a lot more frequent and were seemingly more intentional than they’d been before. Now, instead of extra school supplies or bargain bin cat toys, Soobin would get home and find that one of them had snuck his favorite candy into his coat pockets or fancy pens and bookmarks from his favorite local bookstore into his tote bag. 

Brontë was getting used to them, too. She’d even shown Yeonjun her tummy and given him slow blinks during an impromptu movie night, causing Beomgyu to make a series of jokes that amounted to the awful mental image of Yeonjun being featured on the cover of those terrifying Animorph books that were so popular with the upper elementary kids being seared into Soobin’s brain.

There were also the doctor's appointments they took him to and the ultrasounds. They began to put together a baby registry together and would send each other product reviews they found on various websites and mommy blogs. 

Soobin enjoyed all the attention; he really did. But he couldn’t help but feel like it was misplaced. That the love and care they were showering him with was borrowed, just like their time together. He hated that Yeonjun had heard him and Yunho talking on Thanksgiving. He would lie awake in his bed at night, surrounded by the scents of the alphas but knowing they weren’t there, that they were at their house, wrapped up in each other, and he would wonder how much of all this attention was being fueled by their instinct to protect their pup and how much of it was pity because they were now aware, on some level, that he was “unlucky in love” as his grandma used to say. 

And then there was the guilt. Because he wanted more. He hated being alone at night when he tossed and turned and he hated waking up alone in the morning and having to take care of himself and his morning sickness before he could get ready to start his day. 

The others would occasionally try to check in with him. Kai and Taehyun taking him out to lunch on Sundays so he wouldn’t have to cook for himself. Yunho coming over for an impromptu sleepover on a Friday when he didn’t have plans with “his alphas” as everyone had taken to calling them, Yeosang came over with a babydoll and some diapers Jihu had outgrown and gave him a ridiculous demonstration of how to change a baby boy’s diaper. But Soobin still felt off.

Apparently, it showed, because Ms. Carr strolled into the library to greet him one morning before work. Her eyes, magnified by her wiry glasses, roamed over his face before she clucked once. A disapproving sound if Soobin had ever heard one before. 

And he knew he didn’t look good. He was a little pale - paler than normal, even - and despite being pregnant, his face was a little gaunt with deep, dark under-eye circles. 

Ms. Carr sighed and reached into her purse. A large leather satchel she’d been carrying since she’d had Soobin as a student nearly twenty years earlier, when she’d taught kindergarten and Soobin had been going through a phase where he refused to eat anything but macaroni and tootsie rolls. She pulled out a Tupperware container of her garlic macaroni and handed it to him. 

“Care to explain why you look like a ghost and smell like the other Mr. Choi and Mr. Choi?”

Soobin blushed and looked down at the papers strewn across the circulation desk. He’d been in the middle of filling in the late return letters for a few students who had yet to return library books that had been due the week before. 

Despite none of them coming straight out and saying anything, Soobin knew that after the little kerfuffle that had been him going into heat during a staff meeting that the other teachers were talking about them. Particularly about his involvement with the school’s two newest teachers. He’d mostly just been happy no one had asked him about it outright, but he should’ve known Ms. Carr would come to him eventually. She’d been like his very own guardian angel since the day he’d started working there. An old friend of his grandmother’s and his family.

He fiddled with the sleeves of his (Yeonjun’s) wool half zip. It was a bit too big in the shoulders, which added to the length of the sleeves, giving him ample room to ball his hands up into sweater paws. The undershirt he wore to keep the material from itching had been a long sleeve of Beomgyu’s. It was a bit too tight around the shoulders, but was soft and stretchy enough from years of wear and tear that Soobin wasn’t doing irreparable damage to it by wearing it. He should’ve known how it would look when he came to work every day in their clothes, smelling like them. He had no doubt that their coworkers thought they were together. Or at the very least, that he was being courted. 

“I think,” he started before sucking his bottom lip into his mouth and working it over with his teeth. “I think I’m in a bit over my head.”

“Are they not taking care of you?” Her gaze turned cold and Soobin flinched. He knew she wasn’t upset with him, but the idea of her taking Yeonjun and Beomgyu by the ear and scolding them for neglecting him wasn’t one he particularly enjoyed. Especially when they were fulfilling their end of the bargain. They were doing everything they’d promised to do in their contract and then some. 

Soobin swallowed thickly. His eyes felt like they were burning as he fought back tears. He couldn’t cry over this, especially not at work. “It’s a bit complicated. It’s just hard to keep my omega in check these days.”

He watched as Ms. Carr’s face softened. Her mousy gray hair was piled in a bun on top of her head and her permanently puckered lips (like she’d been frozen in time while sucking on a lemon) smoothed over. She reached over and smoothed his hair down in the back like his grandma had done for years and years. 

“Oh, sweet boy, what have you gotten yourself into?”

And that did it. Soobin burst into tears. Ms. Carr rounded the circulation desk with a surprising amount of agility for someone of her age and pulled him into her. It was a bit awkward, considering Soobin kind of towered over her, but she still managed to tuck his face into her neck while she stroked the back of his neck and hummed softly. 

Distantly, he heard the door to the library swing open again. He heard the chattering of Beomgyu and Yeonjun as they pranced in.

“Soobinnie, we made you a tea in the teacher’s lounge,” Yeonjun called, practically cooed. 

They’d already driven him to work and now they were bringing him tea because he’d said he had too much to do to make his own. An off-handed comment he’d made as they’d shuffled through the cold air and into the building together. The idea made him cry harder because he didn’t deserve it. 

It felt like the temperature in the library - which had been quite nice and toasty seconds before - dropped as the alphas seemed to realize that Soobin was cowering behind the circulation desk and sobbing into Ms. Carr’s shoulder while she soothed him like he was a baby. 

He could hear cursing and loud footsteps as they rushed over and Ms. Carr’s sharp hiss of, “Decorum, please, Mr. Choi,” had him thinking that at least one of them had probably attempted to jump over the desk to get to them. 

“Soobin, are you okay?” Beomgyu whispered like he was afraid being too loud would spook him into crying more.

“Soobin, baby, can you tell us what’s wrong?” 

Soobin could practically picture the pinched-up look Yeonjun had on his face as he spoke. He’d seen him make it when trying to coax one of his students into telling him who had pushed them or stolen their slap bracelet. 

He opened his mouth and tried to stand upright so he could look at them while he was speaking. It was hard to get words out around hiccuping cries and all the sniffling he was doing, but he’d figure it out. And after, he’d have plenty of time later to let himself be embarrassed over the scene he was causing. But as soon as he was standing up straight, the world seemed to tip to the side. It almost looked like there were two Beomgyus and two Yeonjuns. He shut his eyes in an attempt to make it all stop and then two sets of arms were wrapping around him as someone gasped behind him. His head was heavy and his stomach turned unpleasantly. His morning sickness had never lasted quite so long before. 

Soobin felt himself being maneuvered into his chair and when he peeled his eyes open, it was to see Ms. Carr standing off to the side with her hand pressed to her mouth. Beomgyu and Yeonjun kneeled in front of him, gazing up at him - their eyes shining with concern. 

“Are you okay?”

“Did you eat breakfast?”

“Do you need to go home? We’ll let the office know you’re sick.”

It felt like everyone was yelling and they were speaking at the same time. All the noise had Soobin shutting his eyes again. Which question should he answer first? He wasn’t even sure how to answer some of them. All he knew was his head was swimming, it felt like everything was throbbing, and he was so, so, so overwhelmed. His omega wanted nothing more than to be comforted by them. He smelled like them, so he was theirs and they were his and this was just a misunderstanding, except he knew that wasn’t true and just that thought had his omega howling and adding to all the noise. 

“No,” he bit out. His voice still sounded a bit wet. 

More questions followed as all three of them spoke over each other once more. Soobin winced and shut his eyes again. 

Like she’d sensed it - Soobin had to remind himself she probably had, considering she’d known him since he was five - Ms. Carr quieted down and began shushing the other two. 

“Did you eat breakfast?” Ms. Carr repeated, moving closer to peer over the tops of Yeonjun and Beomgyu’s heads and really look him in the eye. 

“No,” Soobin mumbled, “was too sick.”

She hummed like she understood and then pointed to the plastic bowl of macaroni noodles she’d given him just moments earlier. 

Beomgyu understood first and snatched it up, prying the lid off and getting a forkful of noodles that he brought up right under Soobin’s nose. 

Soobin turned his head in that direction to see that Beomgyu had situated himself beside him, perched on the edge of the desk. On his other side, Yeonjun’s hand found his ear and began gently pulling and rubbing at the soft skin of his lobe. 

“Open up and let Beomgyu feed you, baby. You probably feel sick because you didn’t eat.”

Soobin wanted to insist that he felt sick because he’d spent his morning with his head in the toilet, but something about the way Yeonjun spoke and the way Beomgyu was looking at him so earnestly with his big, brown eyes made Soobin want to listen. So, he opened his mouth and allowed Beomgyu to feed him a forkful of noodles. 

One forkful became three and then suddenly he’d been spoon fed the entire bowl. As he swallowed the last mouthful, he had to admit he did feel much better. 

“Thank you,” he said while avoiding eye contact. Now that he wasn’t crying or feeling dizzy, he had regained his ability to be overwhelmingly embarrassed by it all.

A glance around showed that Ms. Carr had quietly slipped out of the room. He blushed again at the thought of her seeing Beomgyu feed him and Yeonjun petting him. She knew better than anyone that they were taken and that Soobin had embarrassing crushes on both of them. She’d even been offended on his behalf when they’d learned they were together after, in her words, “leading him on all term”. 

He sniffled again and sighed. His face would undoubtedly still be puffy later when the second graders arrived for their library period. But he no longer felt dizzy or heavy or nauseous. And he knew it wasn’t just from eating the food. He knew he was denying his omega by not allowing himself to cling to the alphas at all times, that him refusing to give in to his instincts, that spending every night in an empty half-made nest was likely intensifying his morning sickness. But he couldn’t just say that. He didn’t want to come across as too needy. 

“Do you need to go home? Should we see a doctor after work?”

Soobin shrugged their hands off him and stood, much steadier on his feet now that he had food in his stomach. “I’m fine, just forgot to eat.”

He watched as the two alphas exchanged a look like they didn’t quite believe him.

“Thank you for the tea,” Soobin tacked on. He grabbed the stack of envelopes he’d already sealed and written student names and grades on. He’d need to make a detour to the mail room before he could begin prep for his first class of the day to make sure the late warnings went home with the kids that day. 

Like they’d planned it out, Yeonjun moved to block Soobin’s path at the same time that Beomgyu grabbed his hand to keep him in place. 

“Would it help if we helped with breakfast in the morning?” Yeonjun asked. 

“Yeah,” Beomgyu gave Soobin’s hand a small squeeze. “We wouldn’t mind.”

The concern on their faces and in their voices was genuine. That almost made it worse. They were already doing so much that they didn’t need to. That they arguably shouldn’t have been doing. Like taking him to the grocery store and helping him decorate his Christmas tree.

“No, it’s okay.” Soobin forced a little smile. “I’m gonna take these to the mail room now.” He waved the envelopes around. He’d finish stuffing letters later. He just needed to get away. “See you at lunch,” he tacked on awkwardly before he scurried away, leaving two concerned and confused alphas in his wake. 

𓂃۶ৎ

Beomgyu felt weird the whole day. The little voice in his head insisted that he needed Soobin near him so he could watch him and make sure he was safe. Even during lunch with Soobin right in front of him, he found he couldn’t relax. Soobin had brought soup in the cutest little thermos (it was pink with bunny ears), but he couldn’t bring himself to coo over it or crack jokes or anything. Instead, he picked at his food and watched as Soobin ate. He was so focused on Soobin eating that he hardly heard a word that was said. He just had this feeling that something was wrong. And he very desperately wanted to get to the bottom of it.  

He was still sitting there staring into space even after Soobin had said goodbye and packed up his things to head back to the library. His brain was running a mile a minute. Was something wrong with the pregnancy? Was Soobin getting sick? Was it a biological response like in those dramas - like Soobin’s body was rejecting them and their scents and their baby because it knew they weren’t mates? Was he overreacting? Was-

“Mr. Choi.”

He blinked and his gaze snapped up to where Ms. Carr was standing over him, looking down her nose at him with a stern gaze. 

“Are you okay? You haven’t touched your lunch.” Her voice was clipped and laced with authority, but there was something soft about it. Almost gentle sounding. 

Beomgyu blinked like an idiot. “My lunch?” He glanced down and realized she was right. He had an untouched bowl of leftover Chinese takeout in front of him. 

Ms. Carr sighed like she maybe thought Beomgyu was being intentionally obtuse. “I see.”

Beomgyu blinked again as his mouth fell open. It was undoubtedly the stupidest he’d ever looked in his life. “See what?”

“I’ll be heading back to my classroom, now, Mr. Choi. I’d suggest you eat quickly before you run out of time. Can’t have another one of you going all weak-kneed today, can we?”

Beomgyu sat in the teacher’s lounge for far too long after she’d gone and eventually meandered back to the art room in a daze. He still felt wrong. All wrong, but he’d managed to swallow down some of the lo mein and that’d have to be enough to get him through the rest of the day.

𓂃۶ৎ

Beomgyu sat cross-legged on the sofa, knitting furiously. He was glaring at the yarn in his hands like it had personally offended him. 

Yeonjun was sitting in the corner of the sofa with his arm laid across the back and his fingers absently picking at the puckered seam. The two of them had taken to staying up until they were too exhausted to keep their eyes open. It was the only way they’d get any sleep. Otherwise, they’d find themselves tossing and turning for hours on end. 

“Should we put on a movie?” Yeonjun asked. He was bored, but a good movie might be able to keep him awake until Beomgyu was ready for bed. He normally didn’t have an issue turning in before his mate, but lately, it just made it even more difficult to sleep. It made him feel entirely too alone. 

Beomgyu turned his glare onto Yeonjun and the older flinched. Beomgyu smoothed his features out. “Sorry…you can go ahead and go to bed if you want. I’ll be right there.”

Yeonjun grimaced and shook his head, his lips puckered forward so he looked like a sad duckling. He’d heard that before; it wasn’t an intentional lie, but Beomgyu was stubborn and also on a mission to finish whatever he was working on by some self-imposed deadline. 

“It’s fine, I’m just gonna put on a movie.”

“Okay,” Beomgyu responded quietly. His focus was already back on his knitting needles. 

The next morning, the two of them were predictably tired, but they dragged themselves out of bed and got ready anyway. 

“I know Soobin said we didn’t need to bring him breakfast…” Beomgyu trailed off.

“Already on it,” Yeonjun responded. He currently had enough French toast sticks to feed a small army crammed into their toaster oven. “I think we have a jar of citron tea in the cabinet from our last H-Mart run if you wanted to make him a tea.”

“Already on it,” Beomgyu said. The coffee machine and kettle were both already whirring gently to life on the counter behind him. 

They arrived and let themselves in; Soobin had let them know where his spare key was the Monday directly following Thanksgiving, because he felt bad about making them wait in the cold while he was rushing around finishing getting ready.

“Soobinnie, we’re here,” Beomgyu called as he slowly opened the door. 

Yeonjun tightened his grip on the plate of French toast sticks they’d covered with a dishcloth to try and keep them warm.

“In here,” Soobin called back. He was back in the bathroom with his toothbrush dangling out of his mouth. 

Yeonjun sniffed and sniffed again as he and Beomgyu approached. It smelled like Clorox. It almost completely overpowered Soobin’s scent of freshly baked cookies. 

They watched, in real time, as Soobin realized they’d brought him breakfast even though he’d said not to. Yeonjun began nervously chewing on his lower lip as he eyed the plate of food Yeonjun was holding and the three to-go tumblers that were being juggled between the two of them.

He spit and rinsed before turning to face the two of them head on. “You really didn’t have to.”

“But have you eaten yet, Soobinnie?” Beomgyu cocked his head and widened his eyes. It made him look like an eager puppy. 

Soobin looked away and pushed through them to head back to the kitchen. “Come sit if you’re going to eat.”

Yeonjun and Beomgyu exchanged silly grins. That meant no.

They followed him and got settled at the kitchen table before removing the dish towel and unveiling the small mountain of French toast sticks. Yeonjun felt himself puffing up with pride when Soobin’s eyes went wide and his tongue swiped out across his bottom lip. 

“Do you guys want anything? Powdered sugar, syrup?” 

“Yes, please,” Beomgyu crowed, tipping his head backward in his chair so he could watch as Soobin gathered the bottle of maple syrup and a little white shaker of powdered sugar. 

Soobin set everything down as he joined them at the table. 

“Thank you, Soobinnie,” Yeonjun said. 

He and Beomgyu both waited to eat until Soobin had finished pouring himself a little dunk cup of syrup and downed three sticks. Under the table, Yeonjun hooked his ankle around Beomgyu’s and he heard the younger start to build up a soft rumble in his chest. Yeonjun wished every morning could be like that.

𓂃۶ৎ

Beomgyu cooed at baby Jihu as he was bounced up and down on Wooyoung’s knee, the little hood of his powder blue, quilted, bear onesie slipping off his head as he gurgled happily. They were on a double date at a cafe. Soobin, Yeonjun, and Beomgyu were sitting across from Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang. Wooyoung had called them the other week, begging for updates on the courtship as he’d taken to calling it (and an excuse to get out of the house).

Of course, Yeonjun, ever the one for romance, had taken to telling Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang all about this epic courtship. One that involved taking Soobin with them to Christmas tree farms simply for the ambiance, asking Soobin to teach them how to make banana bread just so they could see how cute he looked covered in flour, and dragging him to the mall to buy him cute maternity sweaters even though he didn’t need them yet. 

And Wooyoung, overly invested, had wound up insisting they get together for a double date so he could see all the lovey-dovey courtship shenanigans in action (it was an excuse for him to make fun of Yeonjun and everyone knew it). 

They’d wound up scheduling their double date for a Saturday afternoon and they met up at The Witch’s Brew, a local cafe that was owned by witches. Beomgyu wasn’t actually sure if they were real witches actually practicing witchcraft or if it was just a bit to sell the place, but it was a wonderful little cafe. The workers all wore tall, pointed, black hats and the decor included crystal balls and small gargoyles perched around the place on antique bookcases. There was a small stash of puzzles and board games for customers to use and the place always kind of smelled like herbs. Beomgyu was afraid to ask if it was the scent of the owner or some sort of incense type of thing.

“So,” Wooyoung dragged out the ‘o’ as he started. “How is everyone?” He asked as San held the straw of his iced latte up to his mouth. How he was able to drink iced coffees in the cold, Beomgyu didn’t understand. But Yeonjun was the same way. Two peas in a pod, those two. 

Yeonjun took a long sip of his own iced coffee and smacked his lips before answering. “Oh, we’re doing great. Aren’t we?”

Soobin was sat between them, Beomgyu’s hand on his knee and Yeonjun’s arm slung across the back of his chair. He kept avoiding eye contact with Yeosang, who was giving him very meaningful stares. Beomgyu opted to ignore that.

“Amazing,” Beomgyu tacked on in a baby voice as he gave a little one-finger wave in Jihu’s direction.

“That’s great!” Wooyoung said. 

“How’s the courtship going?” San teased.

Yeonjun let out a laugh as Beomgyu grinned and squeezed Soobin’s thigh. “Oh, I’d say-“

“Courting?” 

It was so soft, Beomgyu wasn’t sure Soobin had meant to say it out loud, but the table fell quiet. Wooyoung even slowly stopped bouncing Jihu on his leg. The confused look on his face turned into a frown as Soobin stood a bit abruptly.

“Sorry, just…excuse me for a second,” and then he turned and bolted in the direction of the restrooms. 

Yeosang swatted at San’s bicep, not enough to hurt, but San had the good sense to duck his head in remorse anyway. “I’ll go check on him,” Yeosang mumbled as he stood and followed Soobin.

Another silence fell over the table as they all watched him go. And then Wooyoung was placing his hands every so delicately over Jihu’s ears and leaning over the table to hiss at them, “What the hell guys, does he not know you’re courting him?”

Beomgyu couldn’t bring himself to speak. He wasn’t even sure he was breathing. Was it possible that Soobin hadn’t realized?

“We thought we were making it obvious,” Yeonjun admitted. 

But to Beomgyu, his words sounded muffled and far away. His brain felt a bit foggy. He blinked a couple of times and gripped the edge of the table, hoping it would help ground him.

“Well, did you tell him that’s what you were doing?”

It was a good question, because they’d told Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang they were courting him. They’d told Taehyun and Kai, too. Why had they never thought to tell Soobin, too?

Wooyoung and San obviously took their silence as their answer because then San was, quite gently, explaining that you were kind of supposed to announce your intentions. Yeonjun was blubbering on about romance and Wooyoung was talking over him, going on and on about how romance novels aren’t realistic. 

It sounded important. Beomgyu knew he should be listening and paying attention. After all, Wooyoung and San had successfully courted and mated Yeosang. They had the experience. But it was like all their words were being put through a food processor in his head. He couldn’t fully focus on anything. His instincts were telling him to-

He stood so quickly that he knocked his chair backward. Jihu startled at the noise and the sounds of the baby working himself up to a cry knocked him back into his body.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

Wooyoung waved him off. “Our fault for bringing him out during nap time.”

It wasn’t, but Beomgyu was glad he wasn’t mad. “I think I’ve got to…” he trailed off, looking in the direction of the restrooms.

“Go,” San said. “I’m sure this is something the three of you are going to want to talk through in private.”

Beomgyu nodded before he grabbed Yeonjun by his arm and dragged him out of his chair and off in the direction of the restroom.

𓂃۶ৎ

Soobin felt a bit ridiculous. But courting. Courting. It was like his body and brain couldn’t figure out if they were happy or not. Which was stupid, it was so stupid. Who acts like that - getting up and running off to get sick just because they found out the alphas they wanted to court them were actually doing so? It just didn’t make sense.

The whole thing almost felt too good to be true. Because wasn’t it just them acting on their instincts? How could they be sure they really wanted him? What if the three of them did something drastic and then, after the baby was born, they realized they didn’t actually want Soobin around like that?

“Oh,” Yeosang puffed out as he entered the restroom and crammed his way into the stall that Soobin hadn’t thought shut or lock behind him. 

Soobin braced himself for the I told you so, but it never came. Instead, he felt the heel of Yeosang’s palm gently press into his back as he began to move it in soothing circles. The cold from the tile floor was beginning to seep through his jeans and he shivered involuntarily. His breath was shaky and he hated that he was crying - why was he crying? It didn’t make sense.

“Just let it all out, you’ll feel better after.”

Soobin squeezed his eyes shut and wished that were true. It just felt so silly. He shouldn’t be upset over this. Finding out the people you were in love with loved you too wasn’t supposed to be…distressing. His insides shouldn’t be all twisted up over this. A little whimper left his mouth as his stomach heaved, but nothing else came up. 

“I, we-we thought you knew,” Yeosang whispered as Soobin desperately tried to gather himself. “They told us…so we just assumed that…”

It made sense then, Soobin thought, why after Thanksgiving everyone had stopped hounding him so much about it being a courtship. They thought he’d been aware, that he’d accepted it. It just made him feel a bit crazier, it made him feel a bit like the butt of a joke. Why did everyone but him get to know their intentions?

He’d no sooner had the thought than Beomgyu and Yeonjun were barreling through the door of the bathroom. 

There was only one stall as the restroom was incredibly small. Entirely too small for four grown men. Yeosang backed away just in time for Beomgyu and Yeonjun to crowd around him, so the three of them were pressed together, shoulder to shoulder, on the floor of the restroom. 

It was like they’d come running as soon as they’d sensed his distress (Soobin had to remind himself that he wasn’t being delusional, that they very likely had sensed his distress - he was carrying their baby after all). It should’ve embarrassed him more, but instead his body began to settle, yet he refused to lift his head from the toilet bowl. He couldn’t face them just yet. 

Like his omega was punishing him for being stubborn, his stomach lurched one last time. After, Beomgyu’s fingers combed his bangs off his forehead and he used his other hand to grab some toilet paper and help clean Soobin up. 

“Is it always like this?” Yeonjun asked, lowly. 

Soobin didn’t bother answering; he just rocked back on his heels and hung his head. They seemed to take that as a yes, and soon two arms were winding their way around him and helping him to stand. 

He thought about letting them know that, despite the display he’d just put on, he didn’t actually need help getting up. It wasn’t anything like the other morning in the library. At least, he didn’t think it was. But as soon as he’d even thought about opening his mouth to speak up, his inner omega had protested, and all he’d been able to do was whimper again. Pathetic, he was so pathetic. 

“We’re going to take him home,” Yeonjun whispered to Yeosang.

Yeosang nodded. “Let us know when you get there.”

𓂃۶ৎ

The car ride to Soobin’s place was silent. Yeonjun kept glancing in the rearview mirror to get a peek at where Beomgyu and Soobin were curled into each other in the backseat. Soobin looked like he was in a daze, eyes a little vacant and brow furrowed, while Beomgyu’s eyes and nose were starting to look a little pink - a sign he was trying not to cry. 

Wooyoung and San’s words turned over and over in his head. You’re supposed to announce your intentions…especially since you’re already mated…it’s easy for accidental rejections to occur in cases like these… And the two of them would know, perhaps better than anyone else, wouldn’t they? It made Yeonjun feel a bit stupid. He had been acting like a naive fool, thinking his silly romance books were all he needed to learn how to court an omega. It felt obvious in hindsight that books like An Alpha for Hire and An Omega for Christmas wouldn’t have the most true-to-life depictions of what works in modern dating and courting. Back in college, he’d even announced to Beomgyu what his intentions had been when he’d pursued him. So why had he thought they wouldn’t need to do the same for Soobin? What made it different? The very obvious answer, of course, was that he was an omega. The idea that they should be well acquainted with things like courting traditions and naturally attuned to pick out an alpha’s intentions…fuck. They’d messed up.

After he parked by the curb of Soobin’s house, the three of them stumbled down the walkway and through the front door before stopping to hover awkwardly in the entryway. 

“I’m sorry,” Soobin blurted out at the same time that Yeonjun said, “I think we need to talk.”

And then, Beomgyu burst into tears. 

Yeonjun startled and Soobin’s jaw dropped as Beomgyu stood there, sobbing. They reached out to him at the same time and wrapped him in a hug. 

“Beomie, what’s wrong?” Yeonjun asked at the same time that Soobin began pushing out a thick, comforting scent - wrapping them all up in the smell of warm cookies fresh from the oven, tinged with something soft and milky. Yeonjun fought the urge to fight back a laugh as he realized how festive the three of them together probably smelled. Christmas trees, gingerbread, and cookies with milk. 

Beomgyu shuddered and buried his face in Yeonjun’s chest as he let out another hiccuping little sob. 

It was a bit difficult, but the three of them managed to shuffle over to the loveseat together, where they collapsed in a little heap. Yeonjun on the bottom with Beomgyu stuck to him like the world’s snottiest (and most adorable) little leech, and Soobin draped over the both of them. It took Yeonjun a moment to realize that Soobin, with his face buried in Beomgyu’s neck, was crying. And it took him until Beomgyu was lifting his face out from between his pecks to try and wipe Yeonjun’s tears to realize that he was crying, too. 

“Oh, god,” Yeonjun groaned. “We’re a mess.”

“We’re like the three idiots.” Soobin wiped his nose on the sleeve of Beomgyu’s flannel. Yeonjun wrinkled his nose in distaste, but Beomgyu ignored it.

“We’re like if Larry, Curly, and Moe were in a weird throuple,” Beomgyu managed to bite out. 

They should talk about it, Yeonjun knew. There had clearly been some sort of misunderstanding. There was a good chance they’d fucked it all up completely. But Soobin was dozing off even as he huffed out a little laugh into Beomgyu’s shoulder. And Beomgyu’s eyes were looking a little droopy as well. They were warm and comfortable and it was so easy to just give in and sleep. So, they did. 

𓂃۶ৎ

At some point, they had migrated - half asleep - to Soobin’s bedroom and piled themselves into his bed. It was there that Yeonjun woke up, his hair sticking out in every direction, and glanced around. He felt a sharp pang in his chest as he realized that their clothes were still tucked into Soobin’s bed, like he’d been making half-hearted attempts to construct another nest. 

He glanced down at Beomgyu and Soobin, still strewn out on the bed. Soobin’s shirt had been rucked up and Beomgyu’s arm was slung rather possessively over his stomach. It was cute. Carefully, Yeonjun began crawling over the two of them, giving into temptation and giving each of them a featherlight kiss on the crowns of their heads as he did so. 

Quietly, Yeonjun padded out of the room and back to the kitchen, where he filled Soobin’s electric kettle with water and began rummaging about for some tea bags. He should probably wake the others up soon, just so they stood a chance of getting any decent sleep that night. He knew for sure he and Beomgyu were going to have a harder time than normal after sleeping so much that morning on top of already struggling with being away from Soobin. 

“Making tea?”

Yeonjun jumped about a foot in the air when he heard Soobin’s voice, deeper than normal and thick with sleep, behind him. He whirled around to see him slumped into the doorframe, blinking slowly as he watched Yeonjun. 

He suddenly felt a little caught, but he didn’t know why. Yeonjun cleared his throat, but couldn’t bring himself to speak anyway. So, he just nodded. 

Soobin yawned and meandered closer. “Good for the nerves,” he said before hoisting himself up so he was sitting on the counter, leaning his head against the cabinet. His eyes were on the kettle, but Yeonjun was still blushing. 

He began fumbling with the mugs he’d pulled out, just to give himself something to do. 

“Earlier…you said we needed to talk. What did you want to talk about?”

Something about the way Soobin still wouldn’t look at him set Yeonjun on edge slightly. Had he done something wrong?

“We-we wanted to apologize. To you.”

He risked a glance at Soobin and watched as an odd look passed over his face. 

“Did you think we were courting you?” Yeonjun asked before he could think it through. Soobin’s reaction back at The Witch’s Brew should’ve made the answer obvious, but Yeonjun just wanted to check. He didn’t think Soobin was nearly as oblivious as he was coming across and they needed to figure out where Soobin’s head was at. 

He watched as Soobin carefully thought it over. “I had convinced myself you weren’t.”

Something about that answer bothered Yeonjun. This didn’t feel like a rejection, but it felt like Soobin was trying to let someone down easy. Like he was trying to let himself down easy.

Soobin swallowed thickly. “My friends all tried to tell me you were. It was just…hard to believe.”

Realization washed over Yeonjun as his mind involuntarily flicked back to the conversation he’d overheard on Thanksgiving. He’d never considered before that Soobin wouldn’t have been courted prior to this. But between the admission that they were the first alphas to ever be in his nest and the realization that Soobin had a history of dating jerks, as Yunho had called them…it made sense why he wouldn’t realize. Why he might consider himself…Yeonjun couldn’t bring himself to even think it. Beomgyu had about a trillion lists about why he found Soobin so cute and so endearing, and Yeonjun agreed with every single point. It was so clear to him, so painfully obvious that they - in some way - had desired him since the beginning. From the day they’d first laid eyes on him, shelving books in the library. He wondered what was wrong with all the guys Soobin had been with in college that they couldn’t see how wonderful he was. 

So, Yeonjun couldn’t blame Soobin for not knowing. 

“It’s okay,” Soobin started again. Yeonjun glanced over in surprise and saw that Soobin had managed to shrink in on himself, even while perched so precariously on the counter’s edge. “If you didn’t mean it,” Soobin clarified. “If it was like a joke, or something.”

“No!”

Yeonjun and Soobin both jumped just as the kettle began whistling. Beomgyu was standing in the kitchen, breathing heavily. He looked like a madman. 

“Jesus, Beomgyu, you can’t sneak up on us like that.”

Beomgyu sniffed as he walked closer, his nose stuck up in the air as he elbowed Yeonjun out of the way and took over tea making duties. “Well, I wasn’t the one trying to have important conversations without one third of the throuple present.”

Soobin and Yeonjun mumbled out apologies. Beomgyu smiled; he wasn’t truly upset, just annoyed. Yeonjun understood why. The whole reason they were having to have this conversation in the first place was because he and Beomgyu hadn’t spoken with Soobin about the courting. 

“The reason we’re in this mess right now is because…” Beomgyu trailed off and then turned to look at Soobin. “It’s not a joke. We just - we’re just stupid, okay? We thought if we just started courting you, that you’d just get it and understand. Back at The Witch’s Brew…I thought maybe you hadn’t realized because you didn’t want us. But…”

Soobin pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes and kicked his legs like a kid throwing a tantrum. “This is so embarrassing,” he hissed. 

“Why?” Yeonjun asked. “If we all like each other, why is it embarrassing?”

“Because it was obvious and everyone could see it, everyone knew, but me. And I just-I felt so alone, you know? Like you guys would be here and I felt guilty because you were doing so much more for me than you needed to. You were inviting me on your dates and bringing me breakfast and I enjoyed it all so much…but then you’d leave. Together. To go back to just being the two of you and…it was like you were clocking out. Like placating me and my omega was just a job…like you were just doing it because of your stupid instincts.” Soobin was crying again and his voice had taken on this whiny tone that almost made him sound like a petulant child. “Fuck.”

But hearing it put like that. 

“We haven’t been able to sleep,” Beomgyu blurted out. 

“What?” Soobin croaked. 

“Yeonjun and I…we…we have to stay up until we just can’t keep our eyes open any longer…or we can’t sleep.” Beomgyu’s face was bright pink, but he kept going. “Because we miss you too much.”

“And we should’ve told you…but…this is going to sound so stupid,” Yeonjun started before tilting his head back to stare at the white ceiling fan. 

Beomgyu pressed a warm mug of tea into his hands and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“We came up with this courting plan based on some books and movies I like…and in them there was always the moment of realization and then the confessions and then the happily ever after, but we failed to consider some of our extenuating circumstances…and the fact that sometimes good communication is more romantic than the…oh moment.”

The kitchen fell quiet, then. Soobin’s mouth dropped open and his mug froze right in front of his face as he digested Yeonjun’s confession, forgetting to take a sip. Slowly, Soobin set his mug down beside him and took a deep breath. “You guys are so stupid.”

Before they could apologize, Soobin reached forward, grabbing them both by the fronts of their shirts and yanked them forward so he could wrap his arms around them, crushing them to him in a group hug.

“What if we moved in?”

𓂃۶ৎ

“This feels a bit fast,” Soobin mumbled, a little frown on his face as he watched Yeonjun organize their closet by color and fabric type - mixing all their clothes together as he did so. 

Taehyun and Kai were perched on his bed with him, watching as Yeonjun - with help from Wooyoung - made a mess of all their clothes. 

“I’d argue it’s a bit slow, actually,” Taehyun said with a shrug. “You are have a baby together.”

“Thank you, Taehyun. That’s why you’re my favorite,” Yeonjun teased as he slipped his and Beomgyu’s hoodies into the dresser drawer where Soobin’s were, making sure to fit them between each other so their scents completely permeated everything. 

Soobin shifted on the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. He knew they’d agreed to do this, but considering Soobin hadn’t been able to admit that they’d actually been courting him until he’d had a small breakdown over it a few weeks earlier, it felt a little sudden. He wanted them there, he did, he just still had a hard time believing this was real. 

He yelped as he felt someone pinch his arm through the sweatshirt he was wearing (another one of Beomgyu’s - it was about three sizes too big for Beomgyu, which meant it was still massive on Soobin…plus it had Snoopy on it, so it was basically the perfect sweatshirt). 

“What was that for?” He glared at Kai as he rubbed the spot he’d been pinched. 

Kai grinned. “You looked like you were doing that whole ‘I can’t believe this isn’t a dream’ thing, so I figured I’d save you the trouble and go ahead a let you know it’s real.”

Soobin rolled his eyes, but smiled. 

There was a large crash, then, from the direction of the living room, followed by loud cursing. 

“Soobinnie,” Beomgyu called. “I think Brontë is going to kill me.”

Soobin sighed. “I'd better go see what that was.”

Taehyun nudged him off the bed, then. “Go, we’ll make sure Yeonjun doesn’t throw out your Minions shirt.”

Soobin left, but not without giving Taehyun the stink eye. As he got closer to the living room, he could hear Beomgyu muttering under his breath and when he rounded the corner he quickly saw why. Beomgyu had managed, somehow, to completely destroy the little fuzzy cat hammock that used to swing on the bottom floor of Brontë’s cat tower. 

He couldn’t help but let out a laugh as he saw Beomgyu arranging hammock pieces on the floor like it was a puzzle. Beomgyu peered over his shoulder at him, an apologetic look on his face. “Give me like fifteen minutes…maybe thirty, I gotta figure out what box my glue gun is in.”

“Brontë never really used the hammock, it’s okay. I left it up because it looked cute.”

“Please tell me you’re not just saying that, I can’t stand that she already likes Yeonjun more than me.”

“I’m being one hundred percent honest,” Soobin said, smothering another laugh behind his hand. 

Beomgyu looked so cute like that, with his floppy brown hair falling in his eyes and his lips puckered forward in a pout. It felt freeing, Soobin realized, to know he was allowed to think so. That he’d been allowed the whole time. 

“Thank god,” Beomgyu breathed out before gathering up all the little hammock bits and tossing them in the garbage. 

“How did that even happen?” Soobin asked as he got down on his knees and began going through what looked like an entire box of decorative pillows. Why did they have so many pillows?

“Tripped over a cat toy,” Beomgyu mumbled and his ears turned a bit pink. 

Soobin couldn’t help it; he laughed again. 

“Stop laughing,” Beomgyu whined. 

“Make me,” Soobin snapped back before he’d even thought it through. 

The glint in Beomgyu’s eye as he looked back at him had all laughter dying in his throat. He should’ve known better than to use such a silly line, but it had been on his mind ever since Yeonjun had made them all watch My Christmas With the Alpha Mob Boss - a movie so terrible that Soobin had spent most of it watching through his fingers and Beomgyu had ignored it all altogether, choosing instead to focus on some knitting project of his that he was apparently already behind schedule on. 

“Later,” Beomgyu promised. 

They spent the rest of the day unpacking, arguing over throw pillow placement, rearranging the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, and disassembling the full sized bed in the guest bedroom to make room for the baby’s things. 

Beomgyu got way too excited about seeing Soobin’s cabinet where he kept all his lunchbox making supplies when they were cramming their things into the kitchen as well. 

Though Soobin had to admit, Yeonjun was right and his sleek retro looking coffee machine looked much nicer on the counter than Soobin’s old black plastic one that he’d inherited from Yunho and Mingi when they’d upgraded their own appliances a few years earlier. 

By the time Taehyun and Kai were piling out the front door, it was well past ten and their entire Saturday had been dedicated to moving Yeonjun and Beomgyu in. 

Soobin watched the front door shut behind them before he collapsed back onto the sofa. 

One minute, he was sitting there thinking about how sore he was going to be and how they still had to take down all the Christmas decoration now that it was past New Year’s and the next, he was being tackled into the cushions. He gasped as Beomgyu leaned over him, straddling his hips. 

“It’s later,” Beomgyu whispered, his voice huskier than normal. “Soobinnie, can I kiss you?”

Soobin nodded, a bit in a daze. He’d failed to consider that the two of them moving in, the two of them being with him, meant he’d also get to have them like this. He sighed in relief as he felt Beomgyu’s mouth meet his own. Arched up to meet him and panted into Beomgyu’s mouth as Beomgyu’s fingers slipped into his hair and tangled themselves up in it, gripping hard and dragging Soobin’s head into the position he wanted. 

Beomgyu had moved to latch onto Soobin’s neck, Soobin’s fingers twisting themselves up in Beomgyu’s t-shirt as his eyes fluttered shut, letting out soft little whimpers with every single graze of teeth against his skin, when someone let out a low whistle.

The two of them flew apart immediately to see Wooyoung and Yeonjun standing behind the sofa. Yeonjun looked like he was trying really hard not to laugh, but Wooyoung had picked up the spray bottle Soobin used to mist the herbs he was growing in his kitchen window, and he spritzed them both with it. 

“You’re like rabbits in heat,”  he mumbled as he handed the spray bottle to Yeonjun. 

“Rabbits don’t actually go into heat,” Soobin pointed out softly, doing his best not to blush (it wasn’t working). It was just embarrassing to be caught like that. 

“I don’t care,” Wooyoung called out as he headed toward the door. “Just wait for me to leave before you start ripping each other’s clothes off.” He whirled around quickly to point at Yeonjun. “That goes for you, too. I could smell how much you wanted to join in.”

All Yeonjun did was grin and shrug. They watched as Wooyoung left, silence blanketing them after the door swung shut behind him with a soft thud. 

“I forgot he was here,” Beomgyu admitted, sending all three of them into a fit of giggles. 

Everything slowed and fell silent once more once they realized Beomgyu was still in Soobin’s lap. He swallowed thickly and leaned forward to graze his fingers over the red mark he’d left on Soobin’s neck, when his thumb came up to swipe at his lower lip Soobin opened his mouth without thinking, sucked Beomgyu’s finger inside and let his eyes slip shut once more as he swirled his tongue around it. 

“Fuck.”

Yeonjun cleared his throat and Soobin’s eyes flew open as Beomgyu pulled his thumb free. 

“As much as I would love to see you two christen the loveseat, how about we move this party to the bedroom?”

The three of them managed to get to the bedroom, crawling into their bed before they stripped off their clothes and it wasn’t long before Soobin found himself being pressed into the mattress, Yeonjun’s lips hungrily working against his while Beomgyu settled between his legs. Soobin’s thighs were shaking as Beomgyu lapped up the slick he was leaking, slowly moving closer and closer to Soobin’s core. 

Soobin wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones, the same ones that had him bloated enough that he had a little faux baby bump - only visible when he was naked (one that Yeonjun was completely obsessed with and constantly sneaking his hands under his shirts to touch). Or maybe it was simply the fact that now he could, and he wanted to make the most of it, but either way, Soobin spent the weekend feeling insatiable. He almost would’ve felt bad about being so demanding, except Beomgyu and Yeonjun seemed to want it just as much. 

He came as Beomgyu ate him out and then again on Yeonjun’s cock and then he watched as Yeonjun rode Beomgyu. They tried to watch a movie after dinner and it just ended in Soobin, perched in Beomgyu’s lap, bouncing up and down like his life depended on it while Yeonjun complained about how they were missing all the good parts (the way his hands had worked itself down the front of his pajama pants let them know he wasn’t really that upset by their little…show). 

They woke up Sunday morning and had soft, sleepy morning sex. Moaning quietly in each other’s ears as the morning glow painted them a soft golden color, like the sun was giving them her blessing. Yeonjun’s delicate fingers slipping between Soobin’s legs and pulling soft whines from his lips while he whispered filthy things in his ears that involved the circulation desk and Soobin’s slutty little glasses, Beomgyu humping Soobin’s thigh all the while - letting out his own little noises that just seemed to spur Yeonjun on even more. 

By the time Sunday evening had arrived, they were spent. The three of them went to bed early but were just lying there together, all tangled up, when Beomgyu asked, ever so quietly, “So I know we’re still technically courting and all…but…” he swiped his thumb across the side of Soobin’s neck, right where a mating bite would go. 

Soobin gasped as he realized what Beomgyu was talking about.

“Would you want to?” Beomgyu’s big brown eyes glittered as he asked. Like he was falling into a daze just imagining it. 

“Do you guys want to?” Soobin breathed out. “Are you sure?” He knew it was maybe a bit premature, but he wanted it. So badly. But there was that part of him that had gotten so used to being someone that was looked over as mating potential, that he still didn’t quite believe it. He was worried that the two of them were rushing into this thing they didn’t want. And biting him…mating him…it was a big step. A permanent one. And that was a little terrifying. 

“Oh, Soobinnie, of course we want to,” Yeonjun crooned in his ear as he slipped behind him, so Beomgyu was sprawled out across Soobin’s legs, and Yeonjun was pressed up to his back. 

He swallowed thickly as he remembered the last time they’d had him sandwiched between them like this. It had been during his heat. Fuck. He could feel himself slicking up already. And they noticed, it would be impossible not to. Yeonjun laughed lightly and Beomgyu pushed himself up so he was sitting on Soobin’s lap.

“We never did tell you, did we?”

“Tell me what?” Soobin gasped as Beomgyu began tracing little shapes into his exposed skin and allowing his fingers to slip just underneath the hem of Soobin’s sleep shorts. 

“That first day, the reason I flirted with you in the staff meeting…it was because we thought you were cute.”

Soobin blinked owlishly up at him. “Me?”

“Yes, you.”

Yeonjun’s hands had joined in, rucking his shirt up so he could trail his fingers across the soft skin of Soobin’s abdomen and then higher, just enough to tease him before slipping back down. 

Soobin’s eyes fluttered shut as he digested this new information. Everything began to click into place, their behavior, his friends insisting they were interested…he almost let himself feel a bit stupid over it - gearing up to beat himself up over his own stubbornness again when behind him Yeonjun sighed. 

“We were just so dumb,” he chuckled lowly and it sent a shiver down Soobin’s spine. “Took us too long to realize that the reason we were making a fool of ourselves over you was because we had a crush.”

Soobin was done for. He liked that they’d liked him for just as long as he’d liked them; he liked that they could so freely admit it; he liked that they didn’t blame him and his obtuseness for the misunderstanding, and he liked that they were there. With him. That they’d already been perfect together and had chosen to have him anyway. 

“Okay,” Soobin whispered. “Let’s do it.”

“Are you sure?” It was Beomgyu’s turn to ask. 

“Yes.”

Soobin lifted his hips to help Beomgyu work him out of his shorts and then raised his arms so Yeonjun could help him out of his shirt. 

“How do you want to do this?”

Soobin shivered as Yeonjun's breath hit his ears, ever so sensitive. 

“Yeah,” Beomgyu said, sliding back so he could situate himself between Soobin’s legs, taking his hand and beginning to rub at Soobin’s core through his already soaked underwear. Soobin whined, his head tipping back so he had to look down at Beomgyu through his bangs. He gave Soobin a knowing smile as he continued to dance his fingers lightly over Soobin, teasing him. “We can do this however you want.” He slipped his finger under Soobin’s briefs and swiped at his entrance. 

“Inside, inside, wan’ you inside,” Soobin blurted. 

Beomgyu stopped for a second and leveled Soobin with a serious look. “Which one of us?”

Yeonjun chose that moment to slide his hands up from where he’d been stroking Soobin’s sides to drag his fingers in slow circles around Soobin’s nipples. Soobin flinched.

“Or…does Soobinnie want both of us?”

There it was again, that nagging little voice in his head that told him if he said yes, that he was greedy and needy. But then Yeonjun and Beomgyu were all around him, smelling like desire, telling him all the ways in which they were greedy and needy, too. How they’d wanted him for so long…and for the first time in a long time, his inner omega was louder than the little voice of doubt. 

“Both,” he said, with more conviction than the others had expected. They both paused in shock before going a little loose-limbed as everything seemingly melted into something sweeter. 

“Look at you, Soobinnie, so sweet, so good,  telling us what you want.” It sounded like Beomgyu had injected his voice with honey and as he spoke, he curled his fingers into Soobin’s hair, gently. Like he was petting a puppy instead of touching a lover. Not that Soobin minded, he quite liked being talked to that way. Being treated that way. Like something small and mindless. 

Soobin swallowed thickly. It was different this time; he was far more lucid than he’d been at any point during his heat so he just felt everything more. The stretch of Beomgyu pressing into him from behind when he was already so full of Yeonjun, the way the bed and him shook with every snap of their hips, the heat radiating off them as they sandwiched him between them, the intimacy of them all lying there like that - on their sides, the way it all just seemed to build. 

Their voices getting thinner and higher, gruffer, words less coherent as they kept going, the simmering heat sitting low in his abdomen, coiling tighter. The way his hands scrambled to grab onto any part of them, warm skin pressed to warm skin. Sweat, slick, tears, and drool. 

He liked the way Beomgyu’s hair flopped about, the way his mouth hung open as he panted like a dog. He liked the way Yeonjun effortlessly switched between snapping his hips hard and fast and rolling them softly. The pet names he sprinkled so casually into all his words, so that even some of the sillier things he’d said, like, “Fuck baby, how do you feel about triplets?” felt sweeter. 

He felt his eyes slip shut, his fingers slipping and sliding off them as they pushed him closer and closer to the brink. He heard the way his own desperate pleas and whines were drawn out until they were nothing more than just mindless little noises - his mouth no longer capable of forming words or anything that closely resembled one. And then, like they’d planned it (they very likely had), he felt teeth, sinking into his neck and it’d felt like he’d been struck by lightning, his entire body jerked and he cried out, sparks of pleasure kept him twitching and quivering, desperate for more, more, more. And as soon as one bite was done and the pain began to register, another bite quickly followed - he shook with it as pleasure flooded his body again, his core pulling tighter and tighter. He needed a release, as it all just kept mounting, taking him higher and higher.  Every time it peaked, he expected to come down, and yet it just kept going and building. One high rolling right into the next one. He felt his face being led, placed in the crook of someone’s neck, and without even thinking, he opened his mouth and bit. He groaned into it, finally feeling like he had an outlet for all the pleasure coursing through him. It was just too much, far too much. As he pulled away, he blinked his eyes open just long enough to see his teeth marks over Beomgyu’s on Yeonjun’s neck, and then his head was turned the other way. He leaned in and bit Beomgyu, too, and when he did, all three of them gasped. 

If this had been one of those movies Yeonjun liked, there would’ve been fireworks and a ‘90s pop song playing as the credits started to roll. 

Instead, the three of them lay there, boneless as they struggled to breathe, the remnants of pleasure still coursing through them. It felt like there was sunshine coursing through his bloodstream, the warmth of it all, the multiple orgasms, refusing to fade. Not that Soobin minded, he liked the feeling. 

It wasn’t until the next morning, when all three of them were getting ready for work, that they seemed to remember the very fresh and very noticeable bite marks on their necks. 

Yeonjun, the only one of them who currently knew where any of their clothes were, managed to find three turtlenecks, but it wasn’t enough. 

Beomgyu scoffed, pulling at the roll neck style of the sweater Yeonjun had shoved into his arms. The soft knit was warm and cozy, but the droopy neckline meant his fresh bite mark was still visible. It was the same for the others. Yeonjun’s black turtleneck too tight, sticking uncomfortably to his neck, and Soobin’s a mock neck that only covered about half of his two new bites. 

“I have something that can help,” Beomgyu said before he scampered off. “I was trying to finish them for Christmas, but…” Beomgyu trailed off as he came back into the room and opened his Abbey Road tote bag, pulling out three scarves. One red, one blue, and right between them a purple one, almost like he’d blended the first two scarves together like paint to make the third.

Yeonjun’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Is this what you’ve been working on?”

Beomgyu nodded a bit sheepishly before handing the red scarf to Yeonjun and passing off the baby blue one to Soobin. He wrapped the soft lilac one around his own neck. It wouldn’t keep their coworkers from gossiping and putting it all together, but it would at least prevent the kids from noticing. 

“Well,” Yeonjun said, a big smile on his face. “Let’s go into work, we need to get there early enough that we can go say hey to Ms. Carr, I want to see what kind of look she gives Beomgyu once she figures this out.”

 𓂃۶ৎ

There were a lot of things Beomgyu liked about his life and his family. 

1. They had the cutest baby ever. 

The three of them were walking through the grocery store, Soobin was reading the grocery list out loud while Beomgyu grabbed everything off the shelves to put them in the cart. Yeonjun trailed behind them with baby Naeun strapped to his chest. He was singing her favorite song (Heffalumps and Woozles, of course - Beomgyu would never raise a Coco Melon baby) in a silly voice while bouncing his way down the aisle. 

At nearly a year old, she had quite a surprising amount of hair and they’d taken to collecting little clips with ribbons and characters on them to pin to her. At the moment, she had a little white Miffy hair clip in. And then there were her eyes, large and brown. She had round little cheeks and dimples, too. Beomgyu liked to think she looked like the perfect mix of all three of them together, like they’d managed to fuse all three of their DNA strands together to make the perfect baby, even though Taehyun had repeatedly assured them that that was impossible. 

Once they’d finished up at the store, the three of them headed home together and Soobin began prepping for lunchboxes for work the next day. 

2. Since they were all mated and living together, everyone got super cute Soobin lunches now. 

Beomgyu had been absolutely delighted when Soobin had packed him a lunch for the first time. He remembered it perfectly because he’d made an identical lunchbox for Yeonjun and the two of them had obviously spent the entire thirty minute lunch break at work marveling over it all. The heart shaped pizza bagels, the fruit kebabs where the fruits had looked like flowers, and homemade gingerbread Christmas trees with the sprinkles intentionally placed to look like ornaments. 

These days the lunches were still adorable. And even baby Naeun got her own when Soobin would pack her snacks for daycare. Usually something a lot simpler, like applesauce and crackers or fruit cut up really small, but still equally as adorable.

3. There was just something very nice about the simple domesticity of it all. 

Waking up on Saturday mornings to watch Sesame Street with Naeun while Yeonjun made waffles. Forcing Soobin into a Cinderella dress for the school Halloween party with Beomgyu as Prince Charming, Yeonjun as the Fairy Godmother, and having baby Naeun as the pumpkin. Getting to go to work dressed in clothes that always smelled like family. Sitting on the sofa after dinner to watch a bad romcom while Naeun breastfed. Not to mention Naeun’s first Thanksgiving. She’d decided right away that Uncle Mingi was her favorite, she’d been so enraptured by him - completely oblivious to the fact that she was missing the Elmo parade float on TV. Their first vacation as a family had truly been a highlight. Getting to pick out baby swimsuits had about sent Yeonjun to the moon. And the four of them together, toes in the sand as they eaten a picnic lunch together had easily been one of the top three greatest days of Beomgyu’s life. 

He reflected on it then, as Soobin finished his lunchbox prep and joined them in the living room. Naeun sitting between Yeonjun’s legs as he helped her play with some blocks. Brontë curled up in front of her, tail flicking. Soobin took a seat on the floor beside Beomgyu and Beomgyu curled into him. The two of them laughing when Brontë turned to glare at Yeonjun after he accidentally knocked Naeun’s tower over. 

“Maybe for Halloween this year, Yeonjun can be the big bad wolf and the rest of us can be the three little pigs,” Soobin teased. 

Naeun didn’t seem to mind her tower being knocked over, though. She was laughing and clapping. The happiest baby in the world. 

4. They’d managed to achieve all of this without having to put an ad up on Craigslist.