Chapter Text
“Jin-hyung. Jin-hyung, wake up.”
Seokjin lifted one arm to swat at the offender tugging at his shoulder.
“Jin-hyung!” came the slightly louder, more urgent whisper.
Seokjin opened an eye and squinted through the dimness of the airplane cabin to the person who had inauspiciously woken him from his half-hearted attempt to nap. “Yaaah, Jungkookie, what are you doing waking me up like this? Don’t you know uninterrupted beauty sleep is important? I can’t have bags under my eyes.”
Jungkook shifted and glanced back across the middle row of the first class cabin before turning large, dark eyes to focus intently on Seokjin. A slight, bitter acridness tinted the young alpha’s sea salt and mandarin scent, hinting at a growing anxiousness over something that roused Seokjin to immediate alertness. Jungkook lowered his face closer so that his whisper tickled Seokjin’s ear. “Hyung, there’s something wrong with Taehyung.”
Jungkook would play pranks but was not one for dramatics. If he had come over to wake up one of his bandmates during the flight, then there was potentially a larger issue. Seokjin’s hands rustled against the side of the seat, scrabbling to find the button to raise it enough for him to slide into the aisle. He could see Jungkook wince as the slight hum of the mechanism moved the seat back into position filled the quiet cabin, and the younger alpha glanced back across the row again to where his seat mate was a dark huddle in the window seat across the way. “What’s wrong with him? I know he had a bit of a stomach ache when we boarded. Did it get worse?”
“I’m pretty sure it has. We ordered him a soda earlier after he took the stomach medicine, but he it seems like it’s gotten worse instead of better. He smells off. And…” Here he paused, sliding his eyes away from Seokjin’s to look at a point beyond his left ear. His voice lowered even more, so that Seokjin had to strain to hear him above the hum of the plane.
“And…I think he’s bleeding.”
Blood was not a good sign. Blood meant something serious, and they were still two hours from Seoul, the closest international airport. Seokjin shoved aside his blankets onto Namjoon, who remained completely passed out and oblivious, before sliding into the aisle into the space Jungkook had vacated. The young alpha led the way to the front and across the first class galley, where they waved off the two flight attendants, and made their way to the other side of the plane. Taehyung was wrapped in two of the dark grey airplane blankets and was curled on his side facing the window so that his head was tucked into his chest. Seokjin slid into Jungkook’s empty seat and slid a hand under the beanie pulled low across Taehyung’s forehead. The beta was feverish and slightly clammy, and the temperature difference between Taehyung’s heated skin and Seokjin’s airplane cool hand caused Taehyung to pull away and issue a slight groan. The blankets shifted down slightly, releasing a bit of his scent that had been trapped and causing Seokjin to jerk back, wide-eyed.
That was not Taehyung’s soft beta scent.
Seokjin took a deep breath in. His sensitive nose filtered through the various smells that accompanied the stale, recycled air on board a flight. Most people wore scent dampeners prior to boarding a flight, so there were no offensively strong scents nearby that he could identify. Taehyung’s sweetening scent had not yet permeated the air around the cabin, and if they worked quickly they could keep it from becoming noticeable until they landed. “Jungkook, go get Jimin and tell him to bring his bag. Then go sit in my seat for the rest of the flight.” Seokjin caught the young alpha’s eyes, which, though giving off a deer-in-the-headlights vibe, were firmed up by the determined set of his mouth.
“And you need to wake up Namjoon and tell him that Taehyung is presenting. Tell him to stay over there for now, but we’re gonna need to be ready to get home as soon as possible when we land.”
Jungkook’s eyes grew even larger, if possible, but he gave a sharp nod and made his way back to the other side of the plane. Seokjin turned back to the huddle of blankets.
“Heeey, Taehyungie,” he crooned. “I heard you’re not feeling well. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
Taehyung pulled further into himself, and a shiver worked its way up his spine. He turned his head so that his eyes peered out from the blankets and beanie at Seokjin, hazy with pain but clear with understanding.
Dynamic presentations were hard. While people went through an initial puberty during their early teen years, dynamic presentation normally occurred somewhere between the ages of sixteen through twenty, although there were both early and late presentations due to factors such as genetics and environmental stressors. The initial presentation was physical. Alphas did not go into rut and omegas did not go into heat, but the various parts necessary for reproduction came into full maturity during this time. Most were born with the organs to either inseminate or carry children. The hormones present during dynamic presentation determined whether the individual would be alpha, beta, or omega. For alphas, this meant that the unused uterus shriveled and was consumed back into the body and the knot dropped. For omegas, the internal reproductive organs began an initial cycle and the vaginal opening, which was previously sealed tightly shut, opened. Heats and ruts would factor in later, once the body had settled itself a bit, but neither dynamic escaped without pain for several days.
In short, it was a dramatic and confusing time that Seokjin wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Taehyung’s tongue came out and swiped at dry lips before he rasped out in his low baritone, “No one told me presenting would hurt this much. It feels like my organs are having an MMA match in my stomach.”
Seokjin barked out a quick laugh. “Well, they are rearranging themselves in there. I’m not going to lie, you’re going to hate life for a few days until everything settles down in there.”
Taehyung’s hand tightened on the blanket and he closed his eyes for a moment. “I think I’m going to just hate life anyway now.”
Jimin’s presence brought an end to that line of thought, though Seokjin promised himself they were going to revisit it at a later time. He was clutching his carry on and crouched so that he was leaning over Seokjin to peer at Taehyung. “Oh, Taetae. You poor thing, having to go through this on a plane. I brought some things that may make it a bit easier.”
“I want to curl up and disappear.”
Seokjin interjected, “I know. It sucks. Can you tell us what you’re feeling right now? We’re going to try to get you as comfortable as possible right now, but we need you to tell us what’s going on.” Jimin pulled a bit closer to Seokjin, and twined the fingers of his right hand through Seokjin’s left for comfort, rubbing their wrists together for the comfort of a familiar scent.
“My insides are trying to rip themselves a new hole in my body. Literally. I’m pretty sure I’m bleeding. And everything is just….too much.” Taehyung shivered again. “My skin feels like needles keep running over it, and I’m hot but I’m cold and everything just smells too much.” His voice quavered at the end, cracking and deepening in register due to his frustration.
Although it was their instinct, neither Jimin nor Seokjin reached out to touch the newly presented omega. The sudden onslaught of feeling, senses, and pain was often too much for a presenting person, and touch at this point would be exacerbating if not initiated by Taehyung. It was difficult, though. Every instinct drove them to comfort their distressed friend with both touch and scent. Jimin’s grip on Seokjin’s fingers tightened, and the slight hint of salt in the air signaled that Jimin was having a difficult time seeing his Taehyung in such pain. “Well, I’ve got some extra-strength painkillers with caffeine that should help with the cramping and fever, and I’ve got a liner and a pair of leggings to deal with the other problem. And,” he glanced over at Seokjin, “And I’ve also got a deodorant stick and some really good scent neutralizer. So let’s get the drugs in you and the spray on you, and we’ll get you over to the bathroom to change, ok?”
Taehyung nodded, but otherwise didn’t move.
“C’mon, Tae. We need to get you cleaned up and ready to go before the cabin starts moving about again,” Seokjin gently prodded. There was already some movement, most likely Namjooon discussing the current situation with their entourage. Taking the elder’s cue to get moving, Jimin began talking to Taehyung in a bright but gentle voice as he pulled everything out of his black clutch. As the bottle of painkillers emerged, he waved them triumphantly.
“Here we go. These’ll help.”
Seokjin took the pain pills and poured out three into his palm. “Here, sit up a bit and take these.”
The sound of the pills clinking out of the bottle and the promise of the drugs finally drove Taehyung to sit up slightly, enough for him to at least unwrap a bit from his cocoon and chase the pills down with the water Seokjin handed to him. Next came the scent masking deodorant, which was applied at the wrists, on the neck scent glands, and under the arms for good measure. It was followed with a quick spray of an aerosol scent neutralizer on the prominent scent glands at the neck.
“Aha!” Jimin crowed lightly. “It’s your lucky day! I even have a heat pad to help with the cramping.”
Seokjin allowed himself a small smile. “It makes up for the fact that the leggings will be too short for Taehyungie.” He glared at Jimin as the younger omega whacked him lightly. “Yah! What was that for?”
“At least I have something with me! They are plenty long!”
Taehyung let out a small snort. “Barely. I’ll be rocking the cropped fashion at the airport. Just wait, it’ll be the latest trend on all the blogs tomorrow.” He took a minute to slide into the aisle, swaying and standing slightly hunched as he made his way to the bathroom with Jimin hovering at his elbow just in case.
Seokjin allowed himself a moment to look around. While they tried to be quiet, there was inevitably quite a bit of movement and noise that they had made trying to get Taehyung presentable. Luckily the seats behind and next to the bulk head where they were located were empty, but both Namjoon and Jungkook were looking over at him from across the plane. Seokjin made his way passed the flight attendants in the galley for a second time, stopping this time to ask for two hot teas to be brought to Taehyung’s seat, before he reached his formerly assigned seat. Jungkook was now seated in the window seat that had previously been Namjoon’s domicile, head phones on and sweatshirt hood up but eyes darting towards Seokjin’s figure as he crouched next to Namjoon.
Namjoon exhaled. “I honestly thought we were done with this after Jungkook presented as an alpha last year. And another omega…”
Seokjin’s eyes narrowed and his chin jutted forward. “Another omega, that’s right. Just like Jimin and I. Bangtan now has three omegas, and you just have to be ok with that.”
Namjoon raised his hands and pulled back slightly. “I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. It’s just…really unexpected. It’s a lot to handle when we thought for sure he settled as a beta.” He rubbed at his eyes tiredly, the unexpected strain of the situation showing in his slightly downturned mouth. “He’s never been good at doing what he’s supposed to, is he?”
Seokjin opened his mouth, but Namjoon rushed to keep Seokjin from answering the rhetorical question. “As much as I want to say this isn’t going to change anything, this is going to change a lot of things. I don’t think there’s ever been an idol group with three male omegas.”
“I know.”
“What are the chances?”
“Bangtan is a bunch of overachievers.”
“Anyway,” Namjoon continued in a low voice, “I just talked with manager-ssi. The flight attendants are going to let us get off the plane first, and we need to take Taehyung straight to the car. You and Jimin don’t worry about the bags. We’ll see you at the dorm. Get him settled. We’ve got a lot to talk about, but Taehyung comes first.”
Seokjin could see hesitation in Namjoon’s lingering glance that skittered across the omega’s face. He must have looked more overwhelmed than usual, because Namjoon placed gentle hands on Seokjin’s shoulders and reeled him in close. It was a bit of an awkward set up while kneeling in the aisle of airplane, with the plastic arm rest digging into his stomach. Seokjin just tucked his face into the crook of the alpha’s shoulder and breathed in deeply. Their world was shifting as surely as they were flying at full speed to Seoul. But the scent of Namjoon, metallic and fiery, pulled him in and blocked out the roaring hum of the plane and the countless rows of seats, each containing a body that would judge and stare and expect….
He closed his eyes, and breathed.