Chapter Text
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” - Emily Brontë
Taehyung stills in the middle of people’s screams and the thud of falling bodies, closes his eyes and waits.
Time gets suspended only for a few seconds, but it’s already more than he expected. That short moment is enough to think of every good memory he owns—There aren’t many of them. The infamous flashing of the whole lifetime shows Yoongi’s smile, the garden behind his house and the grip of his father’s hand back when it wasn’t stone-cold yet.
And then his body strikes the ground.
ʚїɞ
When he regains his consciousness, he blinks multiple times before he catches anything else than the pitch darkness that he seems to have been thrown into. Am I dead? He registers a single candle casting a minimum light on him from behind the bars.
Everything feels as if put in a slow motion, so it takes a moment to gather the energy to try moving. His attempts end up being futile when his wrists stay in place, contained by something heavy, harsh, clattering—chains.
Taehyung feels panic mixed with sorrow building up inside him, something more binding than the chains wrapped around his body. He desired death, not this. No more restraints, no more enduring. He wanted his soul to cease into nothingness.
“You’ve awakened,” says a voice to his side, hiding in the shadows. Taehyung’s eyes immediately snap towards its source, but there’s no one visible. Just endless darkness around a faint flare.
There’s no end to the questions flying through his head. He could ask: who are you? Where am I? What do you want from me? Instead, he spits,
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
On a battlefield, Alphas who momentarily lose their focus get killed in an instant—Omegas know no mercy. There’s no announcement to it and no time to mourn afterwards. The clusters of dead bodies fallen to the ground are like sea waves; it’s hard to see when one ends and another begins.
Taehyung killed a person. Once. He was never allowed to join the battles because of his special blood lineage and he always considered himself lucky for that reason. After all, he never saw much meaning in senseless violence.
However, there was a time, one time, when the dormant animal inside him surfaced and took over all of his instincts. Blinded by the urge to take revenge, he tore apart another body with his bare hands alone, the body of someone who did the same to his best friend. Sometimes fighters did that; they dropped their weapons and attacked with their hands and teeth, giving in to all of their animalistic impulses.
The revenge didn’t bring him any solace. If anything, he started dreaming about Yoongi’s disappointed face. His friend would hate that Taehyung bloodied his hands for him.
Maybe that’s the reason why he ran into a bloodshed with nothing but an urge to be taken away. He couldn’t bear the fact of continuing living as someone who Yoongi would despise.
Why wasn’t he killed the moment he closed his eyes, he doesn’t know.
“Are you asking because you really don’t know? And here I thought Kim Taehyung would be sharper.”
Taehyung’s heart stutters at the sound of his name because he didn’t expect that person would know it. Obviously, something must have exposed him on that battlefield.
“So you kept me alive to leech off my power, is that right?”
The guy behind the low voice comes closer to the metal bars confining him, heavy feet shuffling on the ground. The sound of his steps is the only way Taehyung can identify his position, since the other doesn’t emit any odor. It’s common knowledge that Omegas mask their scents with special suppressants in Alphas’ presence.
“It’s being decided right now whether your abilities would be of any use for us. You could also pose as a bargaining card. Or simply our own enjoyment while we end you. There are a lot of options,” he says, a hint of wicked amusement in his voice.
Taehyung sees him stepping near enough for the candle’s flame to catch a part of his silhouette. Nothing else but his eyes are visible with the way he’s dressed, of course. The sight of black robes covering each part of the body is already engraved in Taehyung’s mind.
There was a time when Alphas and Omegas used to live amongst each other, but Taehyung doesn’t know of a time when there was ever a harmony between them. Alphas always abused Omegas, taking them for their mates without consent, enslaving them and degrading them to their lower rank only.
Taehyung’s not surprised that at some point, they had enough.
Courage. Their desperation for a better life gave Omegas immense decks of courage and strength to stand up to Alphas. They separated themselves entirely and trained their naturally weaker, flimsier bodies to be able to fight Alphas on an equal ground. They started covering their whole figures with dark attire, only bringing their eyes to the light, as an act of claiming their bodies back. They learned to be fierce, unforgiving, openly hateful towards the kind that made their lives a living hell.
And maybe Alphas would give up at some point, allowing the deserted to live their lives as they please. Maybe they could understand the magnitude of their wrongdoings and let the other kind exist far away in peace—if it wasn’t for one fact.
Omegas can reproduce without Alphas, but Alphas can’t reproduce without Omegas.
Taehyung knows firsthand how proud Alphas are of their own kind. They’d never jeopardize it with a prospect of extinction.
And so it led to tens of bloody battles during which Omegas were captured to forcefully bear children and Alphas were brutally killed without a shed of empathy. Again, Taehyung’s not surprised. Ever since he can remember, Alphas were always first to attack. They are the ones who need something from the other side. Omegas are just not scared to refuse anymore.
“Decided by who?” Taehyung snorts tiredly.
“By our higher-ups. Equivalent of what your father is, only that they’re not vile bastards.”
“I bet they can be bastards alright, when it comes to people like me.”
“And you think you don’t deserve it? Son of a bitch,” the other spits out.
Taehyung doesn’t argue that he never thought of Omegas as something lesser, never had a say in the decisions his father made. He was born as an Alpha; his dominant instincts and his rare powers always spoke for him rather than words. It never mattered what he had to say.
“Were you the one who took me down?” he asks instead, knowing that his attempts at explaining that he’s not like them would be futile.
“No. The captain of our troops is at the meeting as well. He will come to see you.”
When the guy becomes one with the darkness again, walking away, Taehyung speaks quietly, knowing that he’ll hear him,
“I wish you just killed me.”
The bulky door gets closed with a loud creak, wafting away the candle’s spark, and he’s left in the obscure darkness alone.
ʚїɞ
The next time Taehyung hears some commotion outside, he doesn’t know how much time has passed. There’s no way to assess it. His whole body aches from the uncomfortable position, sitting against the wall with hands chained behind his back, and his stomach yearns for food.
Despite everything, he doesn’t wish for the hard floor to be replaced with the soft bed back at his mansion. He wishes that there was nothing at all, but sometimes even disappearing is too much to ask for.
Taehyung recognizes that this is someone else entering the room just from the way the person takes steps. The previous Omega’s walk wasn’t as measured.
The first thing he notices about the person is the faint smell of roses. He easily recognizes that it’s not a natural scent, but rather soap because it’s too artificial, not affecting his instincts in the slightest. Again, he didn’t expect an Omega to bare their scent to an Alpha. Of course, they wouldn’t.
To his surprise, the newcomer doesn’t stay in the shadows. He lights up the candle and then comes up to the steel bars to unlock the narrow slot in them, stepping inside his modest prison. He approaches him, puts down a bowl full of meat and a cup of water next to his feet, and then he crouches down to unchain his wrists.
Taehyung’s weary eyes gaze at the other man in moderate curiosity, since he doesn’t remember ever being so close to another Omega. He was taken away from his mother the moment he was born, because her duty was never to be an actual mother to him. Just a container with a womb inside.
As expected, the person’s whole body is swarmed up in black robes reaching the floor, head and face covered with equally dark shawl, hands hidden in gloves. They really don’t allow even a speck of their skin showing in Alphas’ presence.
“Aren’t you scared to unshackle me?” Taehyung asks once the heavy chains fall to the floor.
The man raises his head to look at him and in that moment, something tugs at Taehyung’s soul. There’s something captivating about the other’s eyes in a way that he’s never experienced before. Their stares are fixed on each other for a while before the man speaks in a near whisper, so coldly that even Taehyung feels uneasy despite his uncordial nature.
“You hold no more strength than me.”
He stands up and leaves the cell, locking him behind the bars again. Taehyung brings his shaky hands before himself, glancing between his bloodied wrists and the man who’s already reaching for the door to get out of the room.
“Wait,” Taehyung rushes to say, still feeling unsettled from their eye-contact. “Are you the one who captured me? I was told you’d come.”
The man stands motionless with his hand gripping the door handle, but he doesn’t answer.
“Has the decision been made? Regarding what to do with me,” Taehyung urges, craving some information after hours of confinement.
This time he gets a reply, albeit after a long moment, “It’s still being discussed.”
And then the Omega walks out, leaving him alone once more. Taehyung extends his hand to grab the bowl of food. Holding it turns out to be much harder than usual, his limbs so numb that it’s hard to be in control of them even while doing trivial tasks.
The meat tastes much better than would be expected from a literal prison, but maybe it’s just his hunger playing in its favor.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung stirs awake from his feeble sleep when someone enters the room again. He quickly identifies calm, steady steps. The captain of the troops.
“How long has—it been?” he stutters out, tired, so tired.
The man walks inside his cell, takes the used bowl and replaces it with one full of food and a glass of water. Taehyung’s stomach rumbles in hunger anew, so it must have been at least a whole day.
He doesn’t get an answer. The man heads to the exit without sparing him one glance.
“Wait,” Taehyung says. “Do I get a round to the toilet?”
“I don’t care if you roll around in your own filth.”
Taehyung grins slightly, glad to finally get some kind of response, no matter how crude.
“I bet you don’t, but that wouldn’t be easy on your nose, would it?” he snorts lightly, knowing very well that a strong sense of smell is not only Alphas’ attribute.
At that, the man stills for a moment. Taehyung hopes for a positive answer because he made a good point, but he learns that any faith in the kind that imprisoned him is simply in vain. The Omega walks out and closes the creaking door with a loud thud.
“Fucker,” Taehyung mutters under his nose, hugging himself around his aching stomach.
He wonders what actions his father has taken in regards to his kidnapping. Has he sent out a multitude of arrays ready to take him back? Has he come up with a strategy? Is he willing to have a conversation, or is violence the only method he will resort to?
The only thing Taehyung is sure of is that his father won’t abandon him as long as he knows that his son is alive. Not because he cares about him, but because his powers are too valuable. Maybe that’s why the discussions over his future are taking so long. There’s a lot at stake.
His hands reach out for the bowl of meat.
He’s confused when the door gets opened again after a short while, his bowl of food barely having managed to get emptied.
For some reason, the man returns. He walks up to him and Taehyung doesn’t protest when he binds his wrists again. He clutches the other end of the chains and tugs. “Stand up.”
Taehyung tries to comply, but he’s too weak. The other grows tired of his attempts and pulls at the chains hard, helping him up to upright position. Shit, he’s strong.
“Don’t be so abrupt, I almost pissed myself,” he complains, feeling as if his bladder was about to burst. Hasty movements definitely don’t help with holding his urine back.
The other grimaces, if the way his eyes narrow slightly is anything to go by. Taehyung snickers in amusement since he finds pushing the other man to show some reactions weirdly entertaining.
He’s forced to propel his legs into motion when he’s dragged out of the room, pulled by chains as if on a leash. They walk down a wide corridor and Taehyung keeps looking around, registering the new space. There’s not much to take note of, though—just a row of doors stretching along a never-ending wall.
They come across a few Omegas and the glares they send his way could be as well daggers piercing through him. It’d be easy to curl up under such evil eyes, but Taehyung isn’t affected. He keeps his expression neutral.
The man guiding him stops and opens one of the doors. Taehyung’s led into a small room, but still twice bigger than his previous cell. There’s a mattress in the corner and a toilet paired with a sink located across from it. The walls are completely bare, no windows, not even one clock in sight. The space is lit up by a bulb hanging on the wire coming from the ceiling.
“I was beginning to believe that your kind didn’t have electricity,” Taehyung jokes. When one is left alone to their thoughts for so long, even a candle can become a legit subject of wonderment.
The other doesn’t answer, obviously, and unlocks his chains. He must be really confident in his strength, convinced that he’d take Taehyung down the moment the Alpha misbehaved, because he’d never endanger fellow Omegas wandering just outside the room.
Even considering the Omega’s great power that he must possess, Taehyung could still freeze him in place with one word said in a dominant tone. The other surely knows this, so why is he so unafraid? During the battles, Omegas not only avoid any eye-contact, but they’re also resistant to Alphas’ voices, so it is a common assumption that they clog their ears in prevention. They devoted years to discreetly planning out how they could ever beat an Alpha, and then even more years putting those plans into life through immense training.
Right now, the Omega can certainly hear him, and yet, his posture is bold.
“What’s your name?” Taehyung asks, but the man only glances at him, still not willing to respond. He realizes that he’s never known an Omega by their name.
He sighs, looking around the room again. “I understand that this sink will also act as a shower?”
“This is already more than you deserve.”
Taehyung’s eyes widen at the response. It’s said so calmly, quietly, in no way spat at him. However, it’s also dripping with venom, spoken as if there wasn’t anything else the other was more assured of.
He doesn’t have a chance to say anything before the man leaves the room, the sound of turning the key in the lock hitting his ears. At least his hands remained free.
Taehyung finally relieves his bladder, groaning at the feeling, and then he goes to plop down on the thin mattress. This might indeed be more than he deserves, since these living conditions are not far from how the kidnapped Omegas are kept in the areas where he grew up.
ʚїɞ
With each passing hour, Taehyung feels himself becoming more insane. There’s absolutely nothing to do in the tiny room and he’s left to his thoughts only, something that he can barely deal with. Mostly, he thinks about Yoongi, refreshing each memory of his late best friend.
The weave of their lives that was cut short. The smile that gave everything meaning. The person with whom he shared his dreams, the one who didn’t see him only as his powers.
Taehyung thinks that he also could feel resentment towards the kind that took his best friend from him, but it would be pointless. Alphas attack and Omegas fight back. The fact that Yoongi found himself on that battleground against his will doesn’t matter. The way he was unfairly outnumbered holds no importance. Taehyung took revenge for a personal gain, seeking relief that eventually never came, but his anger was never directed at Omegas in general. Rather at the whole system surrounding their existence.
The captain that captured him keeps coming back with food and that’s the only way for Taehyung to differentiate that a new day has arrived. The man still keeps quiet, not wasting more of his attention on Taehyung than necessary.
Taehyung has a bizarre wish to know his name.
“Meat again? Men need some variety, you know?” Taehyung retorts while looking down at the bowl that’s been dropped next to his mattress. He knows his complaints are futile, though. He doesn’t even get a glass of water, doomed to drinking tap water from the sink.
“Wait,” Taehyung says when the man turns around, heading back to the exit. “Can you at least tell me why the decision-making process is taking so much time? Can you hurry? Kill me, use my powers, just—fuck, just let me out of this room.”
Taehyung is not sure whether appearing desperate in front of an Omega is a good thing to do, but he really feels himself losing his mind. His thoughts are tormenting and there is no way to shut them down. They’re the reason he wanted to disappear.
The man halts in his tracks, his back facing him, and he answers him coolly. “Complications.”
That one, vague word does little to satiate his restless body. The man proceeds on walking towards the door and Taehyung hates the prospect of waiting hours until he sees him again, hopefully with a more definite answer.
“Wait.” But the other doesn’t listen.
Feeling a bit frenzied, Taehyung does something very rash. He gets off the mattress and quickly runs up to the man, catching him by his wrist just when he’s extending his hand to grasp the door handle.
The man flinches, harshly tearing his arm from his grip as if he was burned.
“Don’t touch me!” he yells, for the first time sounding different than his usual, calm stance. He brings his arm close to his chest, breathing heavily, and his big eyes are frantic.
Taehyung looks back at him with equally wide eyes, more careful now. He knew his touch wasn’t welcome, but he didn’t expect such a reaction.
Taehyung thinks about how this man before him must really despise him, hatred rooted deep into his veins, and maybe for the first time he wishes that wasn’t the case. His usually impassive demeanor breaks a little.
“I’m sorry, I… I didn’t mean to—I’m not going to hurt you,” Taehyung says quietly, trying to reassure him, even though he knows that the other is not scared of him.
The man whose name Taehyung really wishes to know schools his expression—his eyes back to their regular apathy.
“If there’s a next time, your arm will be broken.” And he leaves, his long robes swirling behind him with his hurried movements.
Taehyung hangs his head, something ugly simmering in his stomach. He clenches his fists and breathes in deeply, trying to ground himself. Breathing techniques don’t help him in finding composure, because soon after he’s kicking the bowl full of meat into the wall, the glass shattering from the impact.
His body itches and his mind hurts… The loneliness hurts.
“Yoon…” he whispers while walking in circles. “I wanna go where you are.”
After a few more minutes of idle walking, he falls back on the mattress. Falling asleep takes a considerable amount of time, but eventually he succeeds and without fail, he dreams of his best friend’s cheeky smile.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung wakes up when the door to the room gets unlocked again. He’s been constantly going in and out of the state of being awake, easily losing consciousness. As it turns out, having nothing to do is even more tiring than living in a hustle. Or so he thinks, because he never had to live in a hustle.
He slowly sits up on the mattress when the man who’s quickly becoming familiar sets down a bowl of meat next to his feet.
“Any more beef is going to make me nauseous,” Taehyung mumbles, but he’s probably going to take his chances and try eating the served food. His stomach burns from hunger since he skipped dinner yesterday, the remnants of the smashed bowl still laying shattered all over the floor.
The man eyes the glass pieces at his feet but he doesn’t comment on them, swiftly turning around to reach the door again.
“Wait,” Taehyung says, nearly pleads, and gets up from the mattress with wobbly legs, momentarily leaning against the wall when his head spins. He feels weaker than ever and he wasn’t even injured.
The Omega stalls and strangely, he even makes enough effort to turn back to glance at him. Taehyung rummages his mind for something to say before the other decides that he’s not worth one more second of his presence.
“I need a razor,” he blurts out for the lack of anything better to say.
The man squints his eyes slightly.
“I don’t particularly fancy a beard, so I’d like to shave it off,” he elaborates. “Also, could I ask for toothpaste? Even prisoners should have access to basic hygiene.”
His request is a long shot, but he holds onto anything that will make the man stay for a bit longer, not to say that those items would be indeed very useful. The other doesn’t answer him, but judging from the look in his eyes, he doesn’t find the question completely absurd either.
Taehyung is slowly learning how to read those eyes.
The man walks out of the room, which is a sight already engraved vividly in Taehyung’s mind. He leaves him with a speck of hope, though. If the other is willing to play even a few-minute distraction from his thoughts, then he’ll gladly take it.
Taehyung grabs the discarded bowl of meat and starts munching on it slowly in case gag reflex really hits. Maybe he’s spoiled after all. There are thousands of people who can’t afford to be picky about what they eat, but here he is, a literal prisoner , complaining about having to eat the same thing every day.
His chest feels just a tad bit lighter when the door to the room flutters open again and the man slips inside, this time with a cotton bag in his grasp. He extends the hand gripping the bag forward and Taehyung accepts it while carefully steering away from the gloved hand, promptly peeking inside in confusion.
He’s astonished to find there not only toothpaste and a razor, but also a toothbrush, a bar of soap, a towel and also what looks like a change of clothes. He looks up at the other man in question.
“You stink and I need to come here every day,” the man retorts, the tone of his voice still displeased, but not as tainted as usual.
Despite his words, Taehyung grins slightly. “I stink so much that you can’t stand the few seconds it takes you to drop the bowl of food and leave?”
“I don’t have to explain my reasoning.”
“Of course. Anyway, thank you,” Taehyung says sincerely and approaches the sink, eager to finally get rid of annoying facial hair.
The man lingers behind him and Taehyung sends him a questioning gaze.
“I’ll take the razor after you’re done.”
“Why?” Taehyung snorts. “I have no hidden intentions, I honestly just want to shave.”
“There are a lot of ways to use a razor blade.”
“Like what? Cutting my wrists? If I wanted to, I’d do it with the glass on which we tread, since no one came to clean it up.”
The man frowns. “No one is going to clean up your mess.”
Taehyung opens his mouth to clap back, but then a realization hits him. “This is the most you’ve spoken to me.”
Fuck. He shouldn’t have said that out loud. The moment the words leave his mouth, he knows that the Omega will immediately fall silent.
And he’s right. The man behind him promptly glances to the side, brushing him off. Taehyung exhales in surrender and busies himself with the task at hand. He soaks the soap bar, slides it a few times over the lower parts of his face, and then he starts running the razor down the planes of his skin. The whole procedure is quite smooth; he cuts himself only once, but he doesn’t even wince, swiftly continuing the hair removal.
He bends down over the sink, washing off the remnants of soap with water, and then straightens back up to inspect his work in the mirror.
Right then, he catches the gaze watching him in the reflection. The moment their eyes meet, the Omega quickly averts his stare again.
Huh.
Taehyung watches him for a moment longer, quite puzzled, but then he reaches for the razor again, lazily rotating it with his fingers. Eventually, he turns around, neglecting wiping his wet face, and extends his hand with the razor in it.
“Thank you.”
And then there are those eyes on him once more, searching, blinking, pulling. Taehyung doesn’t know why he’s so fascinated by them. Probably because that’s the only part of the man’s body that he’s allowed to see, so he latches onto anything he can.
The man takes the razor back and with the last fleeting glance, he turns around to leave. This time, Taehyung doesn’t stop him, silently listening to the sound of a key turning in the lock.
ʚїɞ
After the Omega leaves, Taehyung continues cleaning himself up. He uses the soap bar to wash both his hair and body, and then he also scrubs his dirty clothes with it. When he’s finally done, the bar is considerably smaller and everything smells of roses. Taehyung usually doesn’t prefer soft scents, but he likes this one a lot.
He puts on the clothes that the man gave him because his attire is dripping wet. It’s just a simple pair of black pants and a long-sleeved cotton shirt. He wonders whether Omegas wear similar garments under their long robes.
Then he lies down and forces his throat to swallow the cold slices of beef, bracing himself for the next dose of hours spent in solitude. Before Yoongi’s death, it was never so hard to be just by himself.
As it turns out, the day ends up being more eventful than he initially anticipated.
Taehyung glances in the door’s direction when he hears it being unlocked considerably sooner than it normally would. He can’t really grasp the idea of pace while being imprisoned with no clock in sight, but he can still sense what period of time is shorter than the other.
The usual Omega—the captain of the troops or whatever—enters the room again, this time holding chains in his hands. Taehyung never made a connection, but the chains look like the ones wrapped around the other’s waist. He wonders what their purpose is, because he doubts Omegas care about something as trivial as fashion.
“Hands,” the man states when he comes up to him.
Taehyung extends his hands without objections, watching as the other ties the chains around his wrists. “Are we going somewhere?”
The man doesn’t answer.
“What is it? Finally my execution?”
Again, he stays quiet.
“You’re no fun, you know that?”
At that, the man frowns at him, which exposes a hint of his eyebrows that are hidden under the shawl covering his forehead. Taehyung catches onto that small detail immediately and stares. When the man tugs at the chains to make him stand up, he easily complies.
Theoretically, it could be his execution that he’s headed to, but he can’t bring himself to worry about it. It seems that indeed, he has no ounce of care for his life anymore. Instead of that, he feels glad to be finally out of the small room.
He looks around the corridor with big eyes, the glares Omegas send his direction pouring over him. The way their chatter comes to a stop the moment they sense him with their nose is clearly noticeable.
Something else catches Taehyung’s attention more than anything else, though. Every person they pass bows to the Omega holding his chains. Taehyung already suspected that the man had a high status in his community judging by how he was the one trusted with the task to supervise a kidnapped Alpha. Taehyung knows he’s probably the only Alpha in this whole district.
Eventually, they enter an area that resembles a greenhouse. Taehyung promptly takes a deep breath, taking in the fresh air. The place’s enormous, filled up with many types of plants swirling up the glass walls and floating on the water tanks. The alpha district doesn’t possess a place like this. His kind is too hasty to devote their time to nurturing plants.
“Why are we here?” Taehyung voices out his thoughts even though he’s sure that he’ll get the answer sooner or later.
Of course, he doesn’t get a response from the Omega guiding him.
Taehyung quickly senses that they’re not alone in the area. At first, his nose gets relieved with all the various scents of vegetation around him, but soon enough he manages to catch smells that stand out, that are artificial.
That’s the reason why he’s not surprised when he sees a row of Omegas standing in front of a long table with a few potted plants set on it. The troops’ captain pulls on the chain harshly, making him stumble in his walk.
Taehyung stands on the other side of the table, facing all of the Omegas. The hatred they bear in their eyes is already familiar. They could throw him on a burning pile and they probably wouldn’t feel a speck of remorse.
He stands with his head high, not curling up under their vicious gazes, and waits for the explanation.
“Alpha,” the man directly in front of him speaks, slightly tipping his head down. His eyes are quite round, shoulders exceptionally wide for an Omega. These are the only characteristics Taehyung can detect under his engulfing attire. “We’ve been awaiting you.”
Taehyung finds the neutral tone of his voice unexpected. He knits his eyebrows, scrutinizing the other man closer.
“It seems like you’re indeed a jewel,” the man continues. “Your father wasn’t quite content to lose you. He’s been sending us letters full of threats and his troops even granted us a visit, not exactly a friendly one, you see. It’s a shame the poor man doesn’t know that the more he pushes, the more we intend to keep you.”
Keep. So these are not his last breathing moments after all.
“Are you sure the reason you won’t kill me is because my father wouldn’t know mercy then?” Taehyung huffs amusedly, tilting his head in question.
“Does he know mercy now?” the man laughs. It’s weird to see an Omega who wears their emotions on a sleeve. “Oh, sweetheart. We are not afraid of Alphas. We haven’t been for a long time.” The usual coldness appears in his voice. “We simply know which cards to discard and which to keep for our own benefit. That’s what allowed us to stand against, I admit, your mighty kind.”
Taehyung watches as another Omega standing to the man’s right steps forward silently and puts three of the potted plants at the edge of the table, directly in front of him.
“Come closer,” the round-eyed man urges, seemingly being the only one intending to speak during the whole encounter. He must be a leader of some sort.
Taehyung walks up to the table as per request. The hateful gazes follow each of his moves.
“You’re more compliant than I thought you’d be,” the man hums approvingly.
“I simply have no whim to disobey you.”
“Good, then,” is all the man says. “The plants put in front of you are echinacea, valerian and ginger. All in possession of medicinal properties. As you can see, all of them are in a poor state, courtesy of bacteria infection.”
At once, Taehyung understands what he’s doing in the greenhouse, regarded by Omegas who must be resisting the urge to hurt him in any way. They just stand there, motionless and wordless, but their eyes say enough.
“Heal them.”
Of course, of course. He should have expected it.
Taehyung takes a deep breath and then exhales tiredly, studying the wilted plants. “I can’t take my glove off with my hands chained up,” he says.
The man stares at him intensively, assessing. Eventually he nods at the Omega holding his chains, and only then, the bind around his wrists gets unlocked. They are really unafraid of him.
Taehyung braces himself to peel the glove off his hand. Just like Omegas cover their whole bodies, Taehyung has one part of himself that he doesn’t bare to the outside. The glove covers a stain on his supposedly flawless self, the downside of his blessing.
His weakness, if you will.
“What’s wrong? You’re choosing disobeyment, after all?”
“No.” Taehyung shakes his head and he takes the glove off in resignation.
Silence befalls as he extends his right hand towards one of the plants and swipes it gently over the wrinkled leaves. His fingers start tingling as the color begins to slowly sip into the plant, its leaves straightening up and growing.
He proceeds with the next plant when the first one regains its full health.
“Amazing,” the man says, sounding impressed. “Truly outstanding. I’ve never seen anything of the sort.”
Taehyung looks up at the praise and finds the man blinking between him and the herbs coming back to life under his touch, eyes more forceful. Taehyung feels no pull while looking into those eyes and that makes him wonder what’s so special about the Omega that keeps checking on him.
The Omega that—
Taehyung glances to the side. He sees then, the troops’ captain’s inquisitive gaze boring into his hand. Taehyung kept the glove on even when he washed his face earlier during the day, so the sight of his hand is news to him as well.
“Great,” the man who’s clearly the leader—or at least the spokesperson—says. “You’ll definitely come of use. In that case, I’ll entrust you to our gardener.”
“There are a lot of plants that need to be restored. The medics expressed immediate demand for climber leaves, so that’s where we’ll start,” says the man who was the one to set the potted plants in front of him and Taehyung recognizes his low voice. It’s the same person who was in the cell with him when he first woke up. He’s the tallest out of the men standing in front of him and his eyes are nearly devilish.
“I thought the rest of you weren’t allowed to speak,” Taehyung snickers.
“You won’t be allowed to breathe in a moment.” The tall man makes a step in his direction, his voice dripping with enmity.
“Hey, hey. There’s no point in resorting to violence, as long as our token Alpha here remains the good boy that he is.” The leader pats the angry Omega on the shoulder and the latter unloosens his fists, but the glare in his eyes stays unchanged.
“I already mentioned many times that you’d do me a favor by killing me,” Taehyung spits, growing bitter despite himself. Their threats of brutality don’t faze him. He could literally make them bare their necks to him with one word spoken properly and they know it well.
“Oh, killing you would be too merciful. I was thinking of something falling under torture category. No one likes that, but who knows, you could always be the first.” The leader shrugs and his eyes squint, clearly smiling under his shawl.
Soon enough, Taehyung’s hands are being restricted again and he’s led out of the greenhouse. All the way to his room, he’s looking at the robes of the Omega escorting him, enchanted by the way his long attire flows with each of his moves, and he’s not thinking about anything in particular.
Being assigned to a task during the day relieved him. His power getting exploited without an ounce of gratitude doesn’t bother him. He genuinely doesn’t care whether it’s his father or Omegas using his power for their own gain, that’s for sure.
The moment he enters the room, his prison, his wrists get unchained and he goes to sit on the mattress, leaning against the wall. He expects the Omega to leave immediately, but for some reason, the man falters by the door.
Taehyung looks at him, waiting.
“What happened to your hand?”
Time suspends. Taehyung stares with wide eyes at the man who’s looking back at him. He’s curious about something regarding me. He sits a bit straighter, clears his throat, puts on a more nonchalant expression despite his complete surprise.
“Want to trade question for question?”
The man’s gaze flickers away, his eyes stuck on some point on the floor, before he shakes his head lightly and turns around to leave.
“Wait,” Taehyung says hurriedly to stop him. It’s always wait, wait, repeated like a mantra.
Despite how he desires to know something, anything, too. Despite having his mind filled up with tens of questions, the most prominent one being, what is your name? Despite how he bared a personal part of his body to him and he wishes to get a hint of any skin in return, too.
Despite all that, he answers, because it’s the first question he was ever asked by him.
“I have no endless life in me. I give some in sacrifice of my own.”
The man stays rooted in place with his eyes still on him. Taehyung gets a feeling that he wants to say something more, but eventually, the other just nods curtly and leaves.
Taehyung sighs out as he listens to the key being turned in the lock. He takes off his glove and observes his wrinkled, shaky hand. Hand that should belong to an old man rather than a 21-year-old that he is.
All life has been sucked out of his right palm, all the way to curved fingers and yellowed nail plates. That’s the price he has to pay for transferring his energy into other living objects and it’s only going to progress further from his hand if his power keeps on being exploited.
ʚїɞ
Over the next few days, Taehyung frequents the greenhouse and per instructions, he heals the sick plants. The gardener that supervises the place doesn’t threaten him again, but he doesn’t shy from treating him like a slave. Taehyung puts up with the other’s attitude and fulfills the task with his tightly tied hands.
However, there’s one particular scene that leaves him feeling quite unsettled. The tall guy stays in his vicinity at all times, overlooking his work, and one day, Taehyung catches him stroking the leaves of the grapevines weaving up the walls. He definitely lets his guard down at that moment, and his eyes are so gentle that Taehyung stills his movements, completely stupefied by the unfamiliarity of it.
Taehyung read many books by long deceased authors while he was growing up. He always liked absorbing the knowledge about the world’s history, their society, the dynamics between people. In many of those books, Omegas were described as people soft in nature, calm and submissive.
In their current reality, all of those characteristics couldn’t be more of a myth. The Omegas of today are brutal and unforgiving. Taehyung has seen it, has experienced it. Their hatred for his kind is so sharp that it seems like there’s nothing more to their existence. The gardener who keeps an eye on him is a good example of that. He glares at Taehyung as if he considered him the world’s worst scum.
But he also filled the greenhouse with various plants, painstakingly nurturing them to their full bloom, and he caresses them with adoration in his eyes.
Taehyung wonders how many traits Omegas had to force on themselves to appear cold-blooded and how much more they hide beside their bodies.
That curious thought sprouts in his mind and it doesn’t leave.
After each day spent on passing his energy to the plants, he feels drained. The benefits of the whole situation are that he falls asleep more easily thanks to the exertion and also that just for a moment, he can place his focus on something else than his harrowing thoughts.
The troops’ captain still brings him a bowl full of meat every day. He’s the one who accompanies him on his way to and from the greenhouse, and occasionally, he brings him a razor, a soap bar when there’s a need for a new one, and even nail clippers.
Every time he comes and goes, Taehyung wants him to stay for a bit longer. He has no idea what the source of that strange wish is. He tries to come up with some excuses to make him talk, but all of his attempts are futile. Every time, the man brushes him off and hurriedly leaves, even more so than before.
At some point, Taehyung gives up trying. He’s convinced that he’s going insane, brash and confused beyond words.
After all, why would he ever want anything from an Omega?
ʚїɞ
One time, Taehyung thinks that he’s being escorted to the greenhouse as usual, but he ends up in a room with a round table in the middle, Omegas gathered around it. He’s noticing a pattern to all of those rooms; they have no windows, no heating system, barely any furniture. The walls are depressingly white.
He blinks at the scene before him, studying people sitting at the table and the papers scattered all over it.
“Alpha,” the leader who spoke back in the greenhouse tips his head in a greeting. “Sit.” He points to the empty chair with a slight gesture of his head.
Taehyung does as he’s told to. The Omega holding his chains sits next to him, but there’s still a significant distance between their chairs.
“First of all, I wanted to say that I appreciate your help in the greenhouse. All of the infected plants have been healed, so our medics can proceed on making herbal remedies again.”
Taehyung is lost for words, since he hasn’t expected any of the Omegas to ever show him any gratitude. Even the other men in the room glance at the speaker with surprise in their eyes.
“I hope that our cooperation prevails, which brings me to the reason why you’ve been called here in the first place.” He moves a map across the table's surface towards him. Taehyung quickly recognizes that it’s the vast, uninhabited area between alpha and omega districts. Stretching forests, rivers and waterfalls fill up the distance between the two areas. It takes a few days to cross that path on foot.
Surely, Omegas have fled far away from them.
“Point on this map the course your troops take to advance towards our district, preferably with the resting spots.”
Taehyung smiles briefly, looking up from the map at the man in front of him. “You think I’m part of the troops?”
“We’re aware that you’re not. The night we captured you was only the second time our army has ever seen you on the battlefield. The first one was when you brutally murdered one of our brothers, a very skilled soldier. The way you were dragged away from the field a moment later by fellow Alphas confirmed your identity,” the man muses slowly. “You were not allowed to fight.”
“So why—”
“You’re the son of the main strategist behind all the attacks. You must know something, so speak,” the Omega’s voice becomes more demanding, dire. If their ranks got swapped and Taehyung was an Omega, he would immediately submit to such a tone. Instead, it pours over him, not affecting him in the slightest.
Taehyung skims his eyes through the map languidly. The man’s right, he’s not clueless about the attacks carried out on Omegas. Everything he knows is not because of his relation to his father, but because Yoongi was forced to participate in those cruel raids. Every time his best friend came out of them alive, Taehyung hugged him tightly and listened to his stories.
After a long moment engulfed in silence, he reaches out his tied hands to swipe one of his fingers down one particular fragment of the map.
“We came from the east, this way. During drought, Alphas never travel down the rivers, since it’s too obvious. Here,” he points out. “This area is full of ponds. The water is dirtier, but this space is thickened with trees and there are no wild animals, so it poses as a good resting spot. Also, up to this part,” he draws a line in the middle of the area separating the two districts. “There are built roads that can be traveled by trucks. We use them to carry weapons and people.”
The information certainly takes all the men aback. Their eyes widen in an evident surprise. Of course, no Omega would ever risk traveling close enough towards Alphas’ place of residence to see the roads. That is, except those who get kidnapped.
“I see.” The leader in front of him nods. “Anything else?”
“Alphas get hot easily. If possible, the troops rest next to the waters, but there’s an underground cave here.” He moves his finger slightly to the left. “The troops sleep here most often, but it’s also a hiding place for food supplies and ammunition.”
The leader stares at him for a long time, scrutinizing, while he extends his hand to take the map back.
“Why did you share all that information with us?”
“You asked me to.” Taehyung frowns, confused.
“And I’m asking you now, why are you so pliant?”
“I told you, I have no whim to disobey you.”
“You, who has dirtied his hands with the blood of our brothers and sisters. We know of one, but you must have slaughtered countless Omegas on a whim, didn’t you? That’s why I can’t begin to understand why you would be so compliant. I can’t help but suspect you of ulterior motives…”
Taehyung takes a deep breath, looking down at his hands resting on the table when the Omega’s eyes become too intrusive. They’re piercing as if the other wished to look inside him.
“One person,” he speaks after a moment, quieter than before. “I only ever took one life. The life of a person who killed someone I loved, and that person just happened to be an Omega.” He looks up from his hands at the man in front of him. “I hold no personal vendetta against you. If I cared enough to hate anyone, I’d hate my father rather than anyone from your kind.”
Silence befalls in the room, the men staring at him more carefully than before. He doesn’t blame them for being wary because his words didn’t sound believable, not while coming from an Alpha’s mouth.
In that moment, something pushes Taehyung to look to the side and he’s met with those eyes, more candid and transparent than he’s ever seen them. He feels drawn to them again, to the way they blink, the way they tremble just slightly, the way they look back at him.
Taehyung only breaks eye-contact when someone pushes the chair back abruptly until it falls to the floor. The gardener stands up, his eyes showing how enraged he suddenly got.
“You think you’re better than us, don’t you? You bastard!” he shouts and the leader raises his hand to stop him, but eventually it hovers in the air until he changes his mind and brings it back to his body. “The only reason you supposedly don’t hate us is because it’s not your kind that has been consistently mistreated, abused, raped, fucking… reduced to nothing. If you don’t hate us, as you claim, it’s only because you have the privilege to do so,” he spits viciously.
Taehyung looks back at the man, not caving in under his glare.
“That’s enough,” the leader sighs out, glancing at the troops’ captain sitting next to him. “Take him away.”
The Omega nods and soon enough, Taehyung’s being led out of the room. The corridor they walk and the steady pace of the steps the man before him takes, it all has become familiar.
When they enter the small room—cell, Taehyung holds onto the chains when the other attempts to loosen them.
The man looks up at him in question.
Taehyung smiles lightly when their eyes meet. “I thought you were the leader around here, but that other Omega surely holds some power over you, huh?”
His words make the man frown even more. He roughly tugs at the chains, but Taehyung’s grip on them is relentless.
“I don’t know what your scheme is, but you better stop it,” the man says in a low voice after a few more failed attempts to unlock the bind around his wrists. Taehyung feels accomplished at the sound of his voice, no matter how icy it is.
“There’s no scheme.”
“There’s no other sensible reason why you’d initiate a conversation with me.”
Taehyung falters at that, taking in the other’s words. Ever since he arrived in the omega district, they haven’t said one thing that was unfair towards him.
“You’re right,” he admits at last, because even though there is another reason, it makes no sense even in his own head.
The man pulls at the chains one more time, and when Taehyung still doesn’t back down for a reason he doesn’t understand himself, the other drops the chains to the floor and walks out of the room without unlocking his wrists.
ʚїɞ
The next few days are the hardest yet ever since he’s been seized on that battlefield. He tosses on the mattress and walks up the walls. He talks to himself. He can’t fall asleep.
The Omega comes and goes, dumping food on the floor without sparing him a glance. Taehyung doesn’t say anything. There’s only one instance when he extends his wrists upwards when he realizes he needs both of his hands free to wash himself, and the other man unbinds them in silence.
In moments like this, so torturous and meaningless, he doesn’t know why he hasn’t reached yet for a piece of the scattered glass that’s still lying on the floor to end his misery.
But those eyes.
Taehyung is convinced he’s losing his goddamn mind.
He finally breaks down when the Omega visits again, the same brown bowl in his gloved hand. The man puts the bowl in the usual place at the foot of his mattress and promptly turns to the exit.
“Wait,” Taehyung says and the man stops, hand gripping the door’s handle. “The thought of killing myself has risen through my head lately.”
At that, the man turns around to look at him. He’s clearly taken aback by such an admission. A few seconds pass before he frowns and takes a step in his direction.
“You wish to return to that initial cell, chained up to the wall?” he asks, a hint of anger sipping into his voice.
“No, but there’s something else I wish for,” Taehyung answers and the Omega squints his eyes at him, waiting for an elaboration. “Take me outside.”
The Omega promptly snorts, clearly finding his request ridiculous. He flips his eyes through the room, halting at the crushed bowl on the floor. He walks up to those bits of glass and Taehyung watches with wide eyes as he raises the hem of his robes and gathers the glass into the pouch that the fabric has formed. Under his outer attire, he’s wearing black, wide pants that don’t expose a hint of skin nor the shape of his legs. Taehyung’s still staring, though, because he’s so unused to seeing any layers underneath the dark covering the other is always engulfed in.
After collecting the glass, the Omega heads back towards the door.
“Please.” Taehyung gets off the mattress, borderline desperate. “I’m going crazy in this room. I need air, I want to see the sun. I really can’t stay here any longer.”
The man hesitates by the exit.
“Please,” he repeats, not shying from begging an Omega for something.
And maybe not everyone of their kind is as cruel as they claim to be, because the man stares at him for a long moment, his gaze inquisitive, before he comes up to him slowly. He hooks the hem of his robes on the chain wrapped around his waist so the glass doesn’t fall out, and then he ties Taehyung’s wrists.
“Walk in front of me,” he instructs when they leave the room and Taehyung smoothly complies, feeling an ounce of excitement after a long time.
Taehyung never understood nature. Its complex ways have always been beyond his comprehension and he never dwelled over it for too long. However, every time he read a book, he prefered to do it in the open air. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature and Taehyung never appreciated it until he got locked in a cell with no access to the blue sky.
There are so many things people take for granted, but then again, who has time to pause and appreciate every little matter?
They walk down the long corridor until they reach a huge, oak door that Taehyung has never seen before. He extends his hands to open it, but the Omega steps ahead of him and pushes the door forward. “Don’t touch anything,” he says.
The moment the door opens and Taehyung feels a waft of wind, he sighs out in relief. He can finally breathe. The Omega tugs at his chains so he comes out of his stupor and walks out of the building, looking around as if he was seeing the outside world for the first time.
The path of wild dandelions leads to the dense forest that’s standing tall just a short distance ahead of them. Taehyung can hear chirping birds and rustling leaves, he can feel the breeze ruffling his hair, he can smell daisies at his feet. The area is flourishing with life.
He sits on the grass and absorbs the blooming atmosphere. The sun is high on the horizon, singalising that it’s afternoon. Before exiting the building, Taehyung didn’t know whether it was day or night. Ugly feeling simmers inside his stomach, dread sipping in at the thought of going back to that room, and so he tips his face up and closes his eyes, soaking up the rays of the sun for as long as he’s allowed.
He spends a few minutes like that, sitting on the ground and trying to recognize every little noise he can catch. He wishes he could spend his days in this district surrounded by nature and with a book in hand. It’d be so much easier on his mind, prisoner or not.
He only flutters his eyes open when he feels a gaze transfixed on him as if it was something tangible. The Omega is looking down at him, eyes penetrating him in a suspicious manner.
“You can drop the shield, I really have no ulterior motives,” Taehyung says.
The other doesn’t loosen his cautious stance, so Taehyung just sighs, glancing away to look at how branches move in the wind. It’s uncanny how much longing he had for such a simple sight.
However, as it turns out, it’s not the vibrant wildlife that draws his whole attention and completely sweeps his breath away. It’s an airy sound. Brief but cheerful. Wondrous and rapidly addicting.
A laugh.
Taehyung feels the thinnest hairs rise on his skin and he’s disoriented, in need of a few seconds to identify the foreign sound, but his eyes quickly fall on the man standing next to him. The Omega stands still in order not to startle a blue butterfly that has settled on the tip of his covered nose. He gives another chuckle, this time more muffled.
Nature falls to the background while Taehyung looks at the other with wide eyes, feeling as if he was seeing him for the first time. In a way, he is. At once, every matter in his life comes down to one thing only: to hear that laugh again. To be the reason for that laugh.
The butterfly flies away and the Omega follows it with his eyes for a moment, but eventually he focuses on Taehyung again. He seems surprised to see that Taehyung is looking back, and with amazement at that. He flickers his eyes away, tugging at the chains.
“Let’s go back. I have matters to attend to,” he says in a stern voice, but it’s closer to neutrality rather than the usual coldness.
Taehyung gets off the grass, only fleetingly registering sadness over going back to that confined room. His mind keeps playing that lovely sound over and over again.
They head to their destination in silence. Taehyung gets a few evil eyes from Omegas hanging around the corridor, but he doesn’t pay them any mind. When they reach the room, the Omega unfastens the lock around his wrists. Taehyung’s chest tightens at the thought of being left alone again, but the other man doesn’t leave immediately. He hovers next to the exit, so Taehyung looks at him curiously, waiting.
“Did that short outing help in getting rid of the difficult thoughts?”
His questions feel like a cooling balm. Yes, it really did. “Yes. Thank you.”
The other nods curtly, glancing elsewhere before linking their gazes again. Somehow lost. Taehyung’s already aware of how the imprisonment made him a bit frenzied, his feelings making no sense inside his head, and so he doesn’t think out the way he tilts his head and smiles, trying to appear as earnest as possible.
“What’s your name?”
Bad try. The Omega’s gaze hardens the moment the words leave his mouth. Taehyung’s smile falters.
He can’t do anything when the other turns around and darts out of the door. Of course, he remembers foolishly, he hates me. It’s just him who’s having irrational thoughts, mind affected by the confinement he’s been thrown into. Outside, nothing has changed. How could it? Omegas’ hatred is their driving force, a permanent fact.
That night, he dreams of that beautiful, beautiful, beautiful laugh.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung jumps to his feet the moment he hears the knock on the door, the pattern of the soft taps against the wooden surface extremely familiar. Their own, special code. He hurries to open the door quickly.
“Hey,” he breathes out at the sight of his best friend. He vaguely inspects him for any wounds that are deeper than the usual cuts on his skin, and he hugs him tightly when he finds none. “I couldn’t sleep, I’ve been waiting. Come in.”
Yoongi lets himself be led up the stairs to his bedroom in the mansion. He sits down on the bed with a heavy sigh, Taehyung still keeping his arm around his shoulders.
“How was it?” he asks.
There’s an outstretched silence before he gets any answer. “Usual. I stood there, taking down anyone who attacked me first.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Taehyung says, still overwhelmed by the sheer relief.
“No, Tae.” Yoongi shakes his head. “Next time, I won’t fight back.”
“What?”
“I can’t… I can’t. I pray that you never know how it is to forcibly take a person away from their home.”
“But if you won’t fight back, then… I’ll lose you.”
Yoongi smiles softly. He looks worn-out and lifeless, a wreck of a person he once used to be.
“You’ve already lost me.”
Unknowingly, a few tears escape Taehyung’s closed eyes while he keeps on dreaming.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung tears his eyes off the cockroach circling in the middle of the room when he hears the key being turned in the lock. The Omega has good timing, almost as if he could sense what was happening behind the closed door. He never burst in while Taehyung was washing himself by the sink or using the toilet. Mostly, he gets visited when he’s just lounging boredly on the mattress.
He slowly straightens his posture when the man comes up to him. “Hi.” He smiles, growing curious at the lack of the usual brown bowl in the other’s hand.
The man’s only response is extending hands gripping the chains in his direction. Taehyung raises his wrists, letting him tie them together.
“Where are we going?” he tries again.
Again, no answer. Taehyung feels a bit dejected, but he doesn’t let it show. He stands up and follows after the other.
“You know, the chains are of no use. I wouldn’t try anything.”
This time, when Omegas on the corridor send him dirty looks, he glances away. It should be affecting him less each time, but quite the contrary, the more he’s exposed to those gazes, the more they weigh down on him. Taehyung was never the type to care about what others thought of him, but the hatred directed his way is not personal. It’s the same one that used to be directed at Yoongi, and maybe only now he’s realizing what his best friend must have felt.
They enter the section of the building that he hasn’t seen before. The corridors seem to be never-ending and he wishes to go outside once again to check if he could see the end of this construction.
He promptly recognizes the sterile smell of antibiotics and also undertones of the artificial fragrance contained in soaps and cleaners.
“What is this? You have a prison and a hospital in one building?” Taehyung snorts while darting his inquiring eyes through the area, even though his nose tells him much more. He smells the herbs that he healed, and blood, and some sweet scents that he can’t pinpoint yet. Those pinch his nostrils the most.
They meet with another Omega in an open, big space, resembling both a reception and a lounging area. Around them, the doctors keep on rushing around, but they still manage to take a few seconds to scowl at Taehyung. He stops looking around and focuses on the Omega that they’ve approached.
“Hey.” The unfamiliar man nods without taking his eyes off the notebook he’s hurriedly scribbling in. Only after finishing the sentence with a firm dot, he looks up. Taehyung immediately recognises him, because he was present during the gatherings with other Omegas as well. He’s a bit shorter and his posture is slimmer, but on the contrary, his eyes are intimidating.
It’s no surprise to see him in a hospital, since he kept on picking up the medicinal herbs the moment they had been healed. However, what’s unusual is the color of the robes he’s wearing. Taehyung’s used to watching the other kind move like black shadows, but this Omega’s garments are beige. He assumes that it’s something to do with his status in the hospital.
“Hello,” the man holding his chains answers him.
The other Omega snorts in amusement. “Hello, Captain. What an honor to have you here,” he feigns a lower tone and bows slightly. It’s easy to sense that he’s just teasing.
The man next to him squints his eyes at him. Taehyung glances between them, intrigued by their dynamic. It seems like they are not only linked by professional ties.
The Omega who’s clearly a medic only gets distracted when someone comes up to him, evidently nervous judging by how the person doesn’t spare Taehyung a glance.
“The condition of the patient with the fractured skull has worsened. We’re expecting the worst to happen in the next hour,” says the woman, or at least that’s what Taehyung assumes from her higher timbre.
At once, the medic’s stare becomes strict. He immediately starts walking and Taehyung is pulled by the chain to follow after them.
Right when he’s led into one of the rooms, the sweet scent that he picked up on earlier hits his nose, intensified in strength. He freezes, particularly distraught by the fragrance. It rubs him off the wrong way, giving him goosebumps. Of course, he instantly understands that the scent is coming from the unconscious Omega lying in the middle of the room in a hospital bed.
Taehyung has never known any Omega’s scent.
The medic comes up to the bed. “What about the parameters?”
“The blood pressure drastically dropped. If we don’t do anything, then…” the woman says, both her body and voice trembling.
The medic’s gaze turns towards him and it anchors itself there. Taehyung knows why he was allowed in this room in the first place. He easily guessed the reason the moment he noticed the chemical smell engulfing the place.
"Heal her."
Of course.
Taehyung looks between the medic and the person lying on the bed. The patient’s face is covered by the white scarves, but something in their smell tells Taehyung that they’re a woman. It’s just so nectarous to the extent that it irritates his nose. The whole room feels stuffy.
He walks up to the bed slowly. He remembers Yoongi’s words then: I wish there was a way to give back everything I’ve taken from them. And as much as he’d rather keep his power to himself in that moment, he respects his best friend’s wishes more. He’d do anything to make him proud, since he believes that the other is looking down on him.
“I need to touch her in order to transfer my energy.”
The medic studies him closely while the woman gasps, “Oh, heavens! Could we willingly let an Alpha touch our fellow sister?”
Taehyung knows that being touched by an Alpha became something shameful in the omega community over the past decades, so he’s not surprised by the woman’s reaction.
“Currently, her life holds the most importance,” the medic says and slowly, he uncovers the patient’s head, leaving the lower part of her face under the scarves. He brushes her hair out of her forehead and lets his hand stay buried in the dark strands. “Go ahead.”
“My hands—”
The man holding his chains doesn’t let him finish the sentence, stepping closer to free his wrists. Taehyung takes off his glove and calmly, he reaches out his hand to press his fingers against the patient’s forehead.
The first time he ever touched an Omega, it was when he was born, the time he obviously doesn’t remember. The second time was when he killed one. The third time is this—healing the wounded person. All those instances pose a great contrast to each other.
There was also that fleeting moment when he grabbed his guard’s wrist in an attempt to stop him from leaving. He didn’t graze any skin then, but that skin is the one he’s the most curious about.
His guard. Better than referring to him as the Omega or the troops’ captain in his mind all the time.
The medic keeps his hand in the patient’s hair, close to where his own is located, probably as a precaution in case he was about to harm her. Taehyung has no ill intentions, but there’s no way to prove it. Words have never been enough.
He takes a deep breath and his weary fingers start tingling. At once, he feels weaker, since using his power on another human being requires a lot more energy than on a plant or even animal. He gets a bit faint and his hand starts shaking against the warm skin, but he breathes in and out deeply, withholding.
He doesn’t need to glance to the side to know that his guard is staring at him—his hand in particular. He can feel the intensity of his gaze. It makes him want to squeeze his fist and hide it. His hand is simply horrid to look at.
With a heavy exhale, he takes a step away from the bed. One second later, the Omega lying on the bed opens her eyes. She looks greatly disoriented, but she still manages to utter, “Where am I?”
And then her eyes fall on Taehyung.
She promptly sits up, eyes equally shocked and furious. “What is an Alpha doing here?!”
“Your condition was critical, so we needed him to—” the medic starts calmly but the woman quickly cuts him off.
“Why am I… He can see me, he knows my scent…” She brings her hand to her forehead and then back to her nose. “He touched me?!”
“Please, calm down.”
“No! How could you let him touch me?!” She pierces Taehyung with her spiteful gaze. “You son of a bitch!” She throws at him the first thing at hand, which is a half-full mug of coffee. His guard grabs his sleeve and drags him out of the room while she keeps on shouting, “Bastard! You took everything I had! Everything I—”
The door gets shut, and with every step away from the room her shouts become more muffled, but it doesn’t matter since they stay ringing in Taehyung’s mind. He hangs his head, watching his feet move forward while he’s being pulled by his guard.
Each word spit his way was justified, so why in the world does his chest feel strained? He has no right to be upset.
Getting to his room is kind of a blur. He walks up to his mattress and plops down on it, feeling significantly more drained than before. That’s how his future in this place is going to be, he supposes.
Taehyung only looks up, his sight slightly unfocused, when he notices that the other man remained in the room with him.
“It must feel good for you to see an Alpha treated like that. I know you think I deserved it,” he says matter-of-factly, not an ounce of enmity in his voice.
The man stays in place, not responding.
“You never answer me.” Taehyung sighs, leaning back against the wall. “Am I not worthy of your responses, too?”
He tenses when the man comes up to him slowly, but he’s quickly filled up with disappointment when the other halts next to the mattress and bends down to pick up the bowl full of food. God, what was he expecting? A questioning gaze falls on him then, and Taehyung’s convinced that those eyes hold him hostage more than any chains ever could.
“I felt sick when I tried to force the meat down my throat.”
The man nods and heads back to the door, taking the bowl with him. However, he stops by the door. He exhales heavily, clearly hesitating to say something. Taehyung observes him, skin tingling with anticipation to hear literally anything coming from his mouth.
Eventually, his guard says nothing. After a few more seconds of evident turmoil, he walks out, his long robes swirling after him.
Taehyung spends the next few hours wondering what the other could possibly want to tell him.
ʚїɞ
Helping at the hospital becomes his norm in the following days. He’s told to heal the patients enough to recover them from the critical conditions and he’s careful to leave the rooms before they wake up. At first, his usual guard insists on keeping an eye on him during those times, but the medic manages to convince him that he has everything under control.
“If he slips, I’ll bite his limb off,” the medic says, and the other Omega evidently grimaces, but apparently he also trusts him enough to leave and attend to different matters.
That’s how Taehyung ends up healing unconscious patients, accompanied by the medic only. He monitors him cautiously, but unlike the gardener’s attitude towards him, his gaze is not as vile.
“I assume the attacks happen often. The wounds are consistently fresh.” Taehyung gives it a shot, attempting a conversation. After spending a few days in his presence, something tells him that the Omega might answer him.
And he’s right.
“They do,” the medic responds shortly, but Taehyung still gets surprised.
“I didn’t realize so many women were fighters. Isn’t it giving Alphas what they want? Female Omegas are much more fertile than males are.”
Alphas kidnap Omegas to force them to bear children. It’s a commonly known fact that male Omegas are barely ever able to get pregnant anymore, there are less and less of them each passing decade. He remembers how his father often used to say that their recent gains—meaning the Omegas they managed to capture—were useless since they couldn’t catch. In Taehyung’s head, it only made sense to train males in fighting and leave females out of battles. Otherwise, isn’t it enabling Alphas’ reaching their goal?
“They’re fighting for their kids’ future,” is all the medic says.
Indeed, that might be enough of a reason to risk one’s life. Some people have parents that love them.
Taehyung pulls his aching hand away from the patient’s shoulder, a gunshot wound. His father’s engineers have really taken to producing more of those deadly weapons. A few years ago they weren’t as common, but currently, they’re steadily changing the course of battles. It’s easier to wield a gun than a bow.
“That’s all for today. Your beloved warden should be here soon to escort you.” The medic plops down on one of the chairs in the lounge area. Taehyung stands to the side, taken aback by the lack of chains around his wrists. “You’re really more compliant than we expected.”
“I assume the attacks are carried out in my name, so healing the injured is the least I can do.”
The medic regards him calmly. “If I only had one reason to trust your words, I’d call you a decent person.”
Taehyung cracks a smile despite himself. “Fair enough.”
The medic continues to observe him in silence until they’re approached by another person. Taehyung glances at the newcomer, already expecting who it is. And indeed, it’s the person he finds the most familiar in the whole omega district, but there’s something unfamiliar about him at that moment.
Taehyung’s gaze immediately falls on two strands of hair that lie uncovered at the corner of his eye. The dark hair disappears under the shawl covering his face from cheekbones downwards. A sudden longing to see more hits him. Now that he knows that the other’s hair isn’t very short, how long is it exactly? Does it reach the tip of his nose, his jaw? Does it wave slightly or is it completely straight?
His guard also looks at him. He promptly notices his free hands and reaches for the chain wrapped around his waist.
“There’s no need, he’s a good boy,” the medic retorts.
“But he could—”
“You won’t use your little alpha voice on us, right?”
Taehyung thinks he nods absentmindedly, but he’s still stuck on those unruly strands of hair. His guard looks confused at being stared at so intently. The medic comes up to him and tucks the hair under the hem of the shawl for him, touching him so easily.
Taehyung’s hands itch.
“Look in the mirror before leaving home, would you?”
The man’s eyes widen considerably when he realizes that he was showing more than he intended. Taehyung wonders if he should have lowered his gaze, since he knew it wasn’t for him to see. Then again, does he have to be so respectful while he’s the one who has been imprisoned? It might have been an accident, but the other allowed him that sight himself.
“Shit, I had to hurry. Was it…?”
“It’s all good, it was just a bit of hair.” The medic pats him on the shoulder. “We’ll talk later. Take him to his room first.” He gestures in Taehyung’s direction.
The man nods. He addresses Taehyung then, “Walk in front of me. You know the way.”
They fall into steady, big steps. Taehyung doesn’t like walking the corridors, at this point sick of Omegas’ vicious gazes, so he rushes through it, glad that he can be the one setting the pace for once.
Back in his room, a surprising smell hits his nose. He spots two plates lying next to his mattress, one with sauerkraut and the second filled up with rice.
“Leftovers,” the Omega mumbles dismissively.
The other clearly tries to brush off the whole situation, and even if those are indeed leftovers, Taehyung feels thankful. Anything other than beef is going to taste blissfully. He turns to the Omega, grinning.
“Thank you.”
The Omega frowns at his gratitude, seemingly uncomfortable. Surely unused to it. He looks at him for a long time and Taehyung’s glad for at least this one connection that they’re allowed to have. Soon enough, he turns to leave, but Taehyung stops him with a short admission,
“I like books.”
The man stays rooted in a place for a few more seconds before he walks out without acknowledging his words. Taehyung smiles slightly to himself despite his exhaustion and he proceeds to dig into his food.
ʚїɞ
The next time the Omega visits him, he brings yet another food. Lasagne. Taehyung starts eating it the moment it lands in his hands.
“It’s good,” he hums approvingly, wondering briefly who’s the one cooking it. Does omega military camp have their own canteen with hired cooks? It seems very plausible. “Leftovers again? Who would waste such food?”
The man flickers his eyes all over the room, not responding. Taehyung stares at him curiously, mouth crammed with food.
Eventually, the other reaches underneath his robes and takes out a book, extending it in Taehyung’s direction. Oh. He feels stunned, his chest weirdly tight while he accepts the book slowly.
“Lee Kwangsoo.” Taehyung swipes his thumb over the author’s name inscribed on the cover.
“I took whatever was at hand.”
“It’s good. I’ve read many of his books, this one included, but I’ll gladly read it again. He lived approximately three centuries ago, so he had the ability to shift.”
“Really?” the Omega sounds curious.
Taehyung looks up at the other, glad for his unusual interest. Or at least, unusual in his presence.
“Yes. In his books, he describes how it feels. There are whole chapters on the breaking bones and instincts sharpening, the exhilaration it entails. He emphasizes how all the statuses humans prescribe to themselves don’t matter in that state, and that there’s no weaker and stronger between us,” he points to himself and to the man standing in front of him, “since we complement each other.”
“Alphas have successfully ruined that reality.”
“They—We did.” Taehyung sighs, putting down the book to reach for the food again. “We treated your kind as powerless like utter hypocrites, I’m well aware of that. We can’t exist without you, so who’s truly the lacking one?”
The Omega stays silent, so Taehyung busies himself with eating. Eventually, the other starts retreating, so he clears his throat to say, “Thank you.”
The man turns around to gaze at him, so Taehyung elaborates,
“For the book. For talking to me, too. You only said three sentences, but hey, progress.”
“I don’t understand why you insist on a conversation between us.”
“I—” I don’t understand why, either. His reasons make no sense. There’s this pleasant timbre, less cruel with each spoken word. There are those eyes that link with his nearly every time he says something, which is enough of a reason to not stop talking to him, ever. There is that dazzling laugh, and the urge to know how he looks, and even the bigger urge to know facts about him.
There is the possibility that every next conversation could lead to knowing his name.
Taehyung’s reasons really make no sense. He’s scared to begin thinking what it all means.
For once, Taehyung is the one who doesn’t respond, and the Omega leaves without sparing him another glance.
ʚїɞ
The next time Taehyung is in a hospital, he becomes a patient himself.
The thing about his power is that transferring energy to another human being is heavily draining. Healing a few people in a row is impossible on his body, but he doesn’t blame the Omega medic for leading him from one room to another, since he wasn’t aware. Taehyung himself thought he was okay until he wasn’t anymore, so it’s not like he could warn anyone before he fainted. And anyway, he doesn’t like sharing his weaknesses with others.
So, it wasn’t anything deliberate. The fact that the medic would probably still insist on exerting his power even when he knew about its flaw is another thing.
Taehyung groans while his consciousness comes back to him slowly.
“Well, hello,” the medic greets the moment he squints his eyes open. “Care to explain why a big and strong Alpha as yourself suddenly fainted like an Omega in heat?”
Taehyung flips his gaze through the room. He’s lying on a hospital bed and the medic is standing next to him. His guard is also present in the room, leaning against the wall to his right with crossed arms. At once, he feels embarrassed to be seen by him like this.
“Healing people… is a lot. I can only manage a few at a time,” he says, squeezing his shaking hand into a fist. It’s burning in pain.
“And why didn’t you mention it earlier? Is pretending to be all enduring an alpha syndrome?”
Taehyung rolls his eyes. The medic can’t make a comment without pointing out that he’s an Alpha. It’s annoying, but at least he’s more talkative than before and there’s no actual venom in his words either.
“Is bitching about everything an omega syndrome?”
The medic snorts amusedly. “No, it’s just me. Does that guy bitch to you about anything?” He tips his head in his guard’s direction.
Taehyung looks at the man standing by the wall. “I suppose he doesn’t, no.”
“Stand up. You’re of no use here at the moment,” the medic says and slowly, Taehyung raises to an upright position. He still feels a bit dizzy, but it’s not bad enough to make him lose his balance again. He takes a deep breath and gets off the bed.
His right hand trembles profusely and it takes a few tries to put on the glove. He brings it against his chest to give it some support.
He travels through already familiar corridors with his guard a few steps behind him and no chains around his wrists.
Only when the Omega steps a bit closer to him to unlock the door to his room, he smells it. His own scent on the other’s outer attire, so faint that it’s barely noticible. Taehyung’s heart stutters inside his ribcage.
“Why is my scent on your clothes?” he asks after entering the room and watches the Omega’s eyes fall on him, significantly widening. His gaze quickly snaps elsewhere.
“I put you on the bed.” The Omega shrugs and the realization hits Taehyung unpleasantly. He touched him. He willingly touched him and Taehyung doesn’t remember it in the slightest.
“Oh.”
The other man shifts his weight between both of his feet. “Rest,” he says eventually and before Taehyung has a chance to sort out his thoughts, he walks out and locks the door.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung doesn’t get asked to help in the hospital during the next few days and he wonders whether they really allowed him to take a breather or there are just no patients in critical condition to attend to. Obviously, he only assumes it’s been days, because the days blend into one unfixed moment. He spends that time rereading the book until he coaxes his guard to bring him a new one.
At first, he thoroughly enjoys the new book, especially because he wasn’t familiar with its author. It’s about omega customs and how they’ve changed over the centuries, so it’s definitely an interesting read that absorbs him, occupying his otherwise agonizing thoughts.
Or at least, he revels in it until he gets to one, particular part.
Betrothed Omega ought to carry a chain on their waist as a pledge to their beloved.
Taehyung gets stuck on that sentence, staring until the words start spiraling before his eyes. An ugly feeling stirs inside him and clings at all of his senses. Why? Why is he feeling like this? He casts the book aside, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. Each of his instincts down to his core feels wronged.
He only looks up when the door to his room flutters open.
His guard enters with a bowl of food that smells unfamiliar, but inviting. Taehyung doesn’t glance at what it is, since his eyes immediately flicker to the chains winding around the other’s waist. Suddenly, he feels sick.
“Let’s go outside.” Taehyung stands up from the mattress and heads towards the door. The Omega stretches out his arm to block the exit.
“I’m needed elsewhere,” he says and extends the bowl in his direction as if it should be enough to placiate him. It looks like a stew, but it smells different from what he’s used to. There was a whole chapter on omega cuisine in the book he discarded, so he knows that their recipes vary.
“Please.”
The other narrows his eyes, studying him closely for a long moment. Suspicious.
Taehyung watches with wide eyes as the other man unwraps the chains from around his waist, holding them out towards him.
“Hands,” he finally says, commands, and Taehyung is stunned beyond words. He briefly registers the fact that his wrists are being tied up again after days of his arms swinging freely. I haven’t gained any trust, he’d be wondering in surrender if only the chains of such significance weren’t so casually used to confine him.
Aren’t they meaningful? Forbidden to Taehyung’s touch?
“I thought you stopped with the restraints,” he manages to say in a low voice.
The man looks him straight in the eyes, answering just as quietly. “I won’t be your fool.”
Omegas’ stares are as always excessively displeased when he walks through the corridor, but the huge, oak door is like a light at the end of the tunnel. He takes a deep breath the moment he steps into fresh air. This time, he pays attention to the size of the building and indeed, he can’t see the end of it. He’s surrounded by either walls or the forest.
The chains around his wrists are heavier than usual.
Taehyung sits down in a dandelion bath and starts plucking them to make a flower crown. It’s uncomfortable with his wrists tied, but his experienced hands manage to make it work. He used to adore weaving the flowers blooming in the garden at his mansion.
He focuses on the task at hand while silently hoping for a butterfly to pay them a visit.
The Omega is standing above him, outwardly staring at his actions. When he seemingly understands what Taehyung’s doing, he snorts mockingly.
“What?”
The man brushes him off, looking to the side.
“What?” Taehyung repeats firmly, too curious to let it go. Even the slightest reactions the other man gives him are intriguing.
“I can’t figure out whether you’re a good actor or an anomaly.”
“You’re trying to figure out stuff about me?” Taehyung grins, halting at braiding the flower stalks.
“You pose a danger, I shall have thoughts.”
“Thoughts about me?”
The Omega sends him a threatening gaze, but it’s not half as cruel as the one he gave him when they first met. Taehyung feels the corners of his mouth rise involuntary, but then he remembers about that one sentence that made him pause reading the book and his chest pricks unpleasantly. He smiles softly to himself, continuing weaving the flowers.
Of course, the other man has his own life in the district and of course, there’s no place for Taehyung in it. He’s simply a temporary hindrance. He could never be something more.
Taehyung finishes the dandelion crown and puts it on his own head. Then he curls up on the grass, wrapping his arms around his bent knees, and he listens into the forest. He can hear ticking cicadas and a gentle rustling of the trees and—
“Do you hear it?” He frowns, slowly getting off the ground.
The man takes a few seconds to answer, clearly focusing on catching the sound. “The whimper of an injured animal. I do,” he says at last and promptly walks off into that direction. Taehyung naturally follows after him because of the chains but also because he wants to see the source of that whining for himself.
They enter the forest, but they don’t go deeply beyond the edge of it, the enormous building remaining visible through the tree shafts. In the bushes lies a fox with a bloody leg. The sight of it paired with the hurting wails is quite somber.
Taehyung squats next to it. “Free my hands, I’m going to heal it.”
The Omega immediately shakes his head, flipping his eyes through the forest, his gaze intent.
“It’s not a scheme, I just happened to hear it.” Taehyung sighs, aware that the situation might seem dubious. It’s as if he lured him inside the forest the moment he got the opportunity.
“I don’t trust you.”
Taehyung stands back to his feet and approaches the other, stopping right in front of him.
“I promise I have no hidden motives. I just want to heal it.”
The words don’t make the other man appear less uncertain. Once again, he scans the forest with his attentive eyes and there’s an evident skill in the way he does it. Well trained.
“Move the fox into the open area.”
His decision sounds final, so Taehyung doesn’t argue with it. He picks up the fox quite harshly, but he can’t coordinate its body well with his restricted hands. They pass into the vast, green field again and he lies the fox back on the ground, this time softly. The animal keeps on whining in pain, but it’s compliant.
Taehyung hesitates. “I still need to take off my glove. Can you free—”
“Put your hand on the ground.” The man directs and Taehyung does what he’s told to, confused. The Omega steps on his hand with his heavy boot. “Pull.”
Taehyung resists a grimace at the pressure his hand suddenly receives. He recognizes that the Omega stepped on it lightly since it’s not broken like it definitely could if the other wished for it. It wouldn’t probably hurt at all, only if his right hand wasn’t so worn out and feeble.
He draws his hand towards himself and the glove stays on the ground. After that, he presses his fingers to the fox’s hind leg, just above the bloodied fur. The sun makes the strain in his hand even more painful, but he persists.
The Omega squats on the other side of the animal and strokes its back, seemingly going for a soothing gesture.
“You like animals,” Taehyung states matter of factly.
“More than people,” the man shares surprisingly, his quiet voice that’s meant only for Taehyung to hear tingling his skin in the same way the occasional waft of breeze does.
“Even Omegas?”
“Omegas are people, too.”
“I know.” Taehyung promptly nods and then stays quiet for a long moment, listening to how the fox’s whining gradually quiets down, before he speaks again, “Can you believe that our ancestors were able to shift into such animals?”
“Into foxes?”
Taehyung snorts. “Must you be so meticulous?”
The other only shrugs. “Bodies evolve. Omega males used to bear children, but now there are just a few who can catch, and only during heat. Also, our men never possessed the ability to impregnate someone, but now a few of us can. We’re constantly changing.”
“Are you any of those Omegas?” His grin widens, feeling warm from the other’s willing responses. This is the first time they’re having an actual conversation and he doesn’t know what has changed, but he wants this moment to last as long as possible.
The man huffs, not answering.
“At least you have that. It’s impossible for two Alphas to reproduce regardless of the passage of time. Things would be different if we could…” Taehyung sighs, also caressing the fox’s fur when the whines turn into soft purring.
“It’s not like it’s easy over here either. There are barely a handful of kids getting born every year but Omegas prefer extinction over submitting to Alphas ever again.”
Submitting, allowing a touch, having anything to do with them.
Taehyung looks at the other while he utters those words, enchanted by the way he glances to the side, lost in thought. He appears so serene. The bridge of his nose looks high and Taehyung imagines it unveiled. He imagines the planes of skin stretching down below the eyes that he’s thankfully permitted to see. He imagines the length of the hair that he had a chance to peek at, and the lips that curl up when a butterfly comes close. Contemplating about it all is an enigma and yet, if he stops then there will be nothing left for him in this place.
It’s because of how captivated he is that he doesn’t notice his hand straying too far in an attempt to caress the purring animal. He instantly snatches his hand away when it accidently touches the other man's gloved one.
“Sorry,” he hurries to say, the threat of a broken arm still vivid in his mind. He doesn’t know if he’d fight back if the other insisted on fulfilling his promise.
The Omega doesn’t look mad, though. His gaze links with Taehyung’s, a bit confused, a bit inquisitive. Taehyung holds his breath when he feels a tentative touch on his hand that immediately tickles more than the energy flowing through it ever did. The Omega’s eyes are far away and a little frenzied, as if he didn’t know why he was touching him too, or maybe not even registering doing it in the first place.
“What are you—”
“Captain! Gods, you brat! Where are you?!”
The Omega immediately jumps to his feet, looking… aghast. He swipes his hand down his head as if he tried to run his fingers through the hair that is covered, eyes blinking rapidly.
Taehyung stays in his leg-crossed position on the ground even when the fox runs off, startled by the sudden commotion. His heart’s beating quickly, not comprehending what just happened.
“There you are!” The medic finds them in the middle of the green field. “What are you even doing here? I’ve been looking for you everywhere! There’s an attack incoming, the fourth wing has heard the thudding of feet impending this direction.”
At once, his guard’s gaze turns serious. “The fourth wing? That’s so close to the borders.” He tugs at the chains and Taehyung is pulled to an upright position without much effort. They start walking towards the building in big, fast steps. “Is everyone in their position? Armed?”
“Yes, everyone is in their position, just like you are.” The medic rolls his eyes. “They rushed to get ready. The district got informed and people have hidden in bunkers. You’re needed at the front now.”
“Can I help somehow?” Taehyung blurts out. This is the reality his kind enforces on Omegas. Their hatred is indeed very much justified.
“This is all your fault, what do you think you could do?” the medic hisses.
Taehyung wants to tell him that they made him guilty of those attacks the moment they kidnapped him. Before that, those raids weren’t his personal responsibility.
He doesn’t say anything though, because it’s all meaningless.
The medic runs off in another direction and his guard pulls him harder, at this point also nearly running. When they reach his room, the man pushes him inside without waiting for him to go in, touching him willingly once again.
“Wait,” Taehyung rushes to say, stopping the door from getting closed.
“I have no time—”
“Be careful.”
The Omega looks at him for a moment too long considering the current circumstances. Taehyung doesn’t get any other acknowledgment before he has the door shut in his face.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung doesn’t know how much time passes until the door creaks open again, but his disturbing thoughts make it seem entirely too long.
He worries.
He imagines people dropping dead and dandelion fields stained with blood. He can hear the screams if he digs deeper into his memories. He thinks of Yoongi’s trembling body after each escapade, and he thinks about how his guard, a person with such airy laugh, is the troops’ captain.
The hollowness in his chest strikes into a sudden strain when it’s not his guard that enters his room. The medic comes in casually, like he’s the one that’s been bringing him the food for the past weeks.
“Hello, your daily food service—”
“Where is he?” Taehyung cuts him off, straightening up from his lying position on the mattress.
The Omega halts his steps, squinting at him inquisitively.
“What happened? Is he okay?” A bit of desperation drips into his voice despite how much he tries to control it.
Now, the other’s gaze is simply puzzled. “Calm down, your scent has spiked up. You smell like a wet dog.”
“My… scent?”
“Yes, your foul odor just went up my nostrils. A reaction evidently driven by cortisol, so I’m asking you now…” The medic drops the bowl of vegetables on the floor and squats down right in front of him. “Why are you nervous?”
Taehyung stays quiet. He tried to keep his voice at bay, foolishly forgetting that his scent has been informing Omegas about his emotions all this time. It was easy to ignore that fact when he wasn’t allowed to catch any of their scents himself.
“You won’t answer?” The medic tilts his head. “A shame. I’m very curious as to why you’d have any care for your warden’s well-being.”
“He’s the most familiar person to me here.”
“Aw, don’t get attached. You certainly know better than that, don’t you?” He stands back and uses his foot to gently move the bowl in Taehyung’s direction. “Eat up. You’ll be needed in the hospital later and we don’t want you fainting again, do we? I’ll come to fetch you in an hour.”
Taehyung sighs, grabbing the bowl into his hands. Boiled carrots, asparagus and potatoes.
“You won’t tell me whether he’s okay?”
The other exhales exasperatedly. “Yes, he’s okay. Almost got shot by those fancy revolvers your kind uses because his hormones started going crazy in the middle of the battle, but yes, he’s pretty much excellent! Is that enough, or do you require a more detailed explanation?”
A long silence. Initially surprised by the Omega’s outburst, Taehyung quickly fits the puzzles together.
His guard is having a heat.
Just beginning to think about it gives him slight shivers, so he reaches for one of the books scattered on his mattress, desperate to get rid of those weird feelings altogether.
“It’s enough. Thank you.”
The Omega rolls his eyes. “You’re welcome. Now, excuse me.” He bows theatrically and leaves in a hurry.
ʚїɞ
During their usual healing session, the medic hovers over him in silence like a shadow. It’s bizarre because usually he’s the one to talk a lot, but obviously Taehyung doesn’t question him. It’s only when the other escorts him back to his room that he finally speaks.
“I have the tendency to… say more than I intend, sometimes. Especially when I’m frustrated,” he says while he unlocks his door. Taehyung stands next to him, his hands free of any chains.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I realized that I slipped out something that should have never been disclosed, especially to an Alpha like you.”
“Why? So what if my guard is having his cycle? Isn’t it natural—”
“Don’t even speak a word about it. An Alpha like you shouldn’t be aware of such a thing, we all know what repercussions of this could be. Your people can’t control themselves even in regular circumstances.”
“I won’t hurt him! Or any of you, for that matter. Haven’t I proved myself yet? All this time, I’ve been doing everything the fuck you asked me to.”
“Why would I believe you over everything I’ve ever known?” the medic asks and his voice drips with genuine inquiry, the desperation to be proved otherwise.
“Not everything is black and white,” is all Taehyung says.
The medic shakes his head and opens the door. Taehyung steps in and expects it to be locked behind him, but the Omega lingers in the doorframe.
“You’re decent to us and we’re decent in return, but don’t expect to make friends here.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t wish for that.” Taehyung chuckles coldly. “So what? Are you going to be making me heal people until the last bit of energy is sucked out of me?”
“I don’t know,” the medic admits. “But if that’s the case, then that would pose a due redemption for everything you’ve done.”
I haven’t done anything, Taehyung wants to say but the medic leaves the moment he utters his last words.
ʚїɞ
His guard doesn’t show up for a long time and despite himself, Taehyung becomes worried. He tries to busy his mind with books and sporadic meetings he has with the supposed Omegas’ leader. The other asks him more questions regarding Alpha’s organizational structure and Taehyung willingly answers. It’s not like he feels as if he was betraying his homeland, because he doesn’t feel any attachment to it.
So like… lotto. He doesn’t care.
The Omegas don’t snarl in his face and that’s progress, but also they’re not someone Taehyung can ask to go outside with to see the sun. So he waits.
ʚїɞ
One day, the medic leads him upstairs to a secluded area, no living soul present around. They enter a room that looks like an office and Taehyung curiously scans the huge windows, since he’s unused to the sight. It’s storming outside and he feels a sudden urge to stand in the rain and let it drench his whole body.
In the middle of the room sits the Omegas’ leader, clearly awaiting his arrival.
“Welcome!” he exclaims. “Usually I don’t receive anyone in this space, but you’re definitely a special guest. Will you take a seat?” He points to the chair in front of him.
Taehyung does as he’s instructed, glancing between the man and the downpour outside. His heart gives a harder thud when a thunder echoes in the room.
“Are you scared of a storm?”
It puts my mind at ease. It makes me feel free and insignificant. “I love it.”
“Hmm. In this area, the storm often means that our oppressors are sneakily proceeding towards our home under the cover of nature’s loudness, so I can’t say that I’m also a fan.”
Taehyung knows that it’s easier to give a surprise attack when the rain masks the sound of impending steps until it’s already too late. He doesn’t answer anything.
“Anyway, we’re not here to discuss weather. I’ve received yet another letter from your father, but this time, it’s a proposition rather than a threat. Seems like he’s getting desperate to have you back. Are you the apple of daddy’s eye?”
Taehyung snorts. “He wants me only for my powers. The same reason why you won’t let me go.”
“I take it that you don’t have an exemplary relationship with your father?”
“I thought I made it pretty clear every time you mentioned him.”
“Oh, honey, you haven’t made anything clear. Your words are mere entertainment to me.”
Taehyung keeps his facial expressions impassive, but deep down, he’s frustrated. People hear him talking, but they always find a reason to not listen. His words only ever mattered to Yoongi. His best friend always implicitly believed him without an ounce of doubt.
“Here,” the man slides the letter in his direction. “See for yourself.”
Taehyung holds the letter and reads it. It’s short, pithy and completely lacking any human tendency.
“And? What do you think?”
“What’s in the letter?” the medic asks, stepping beside the desk at which they are seated.
“We’ll talk about it later in a meeting, I want the kid to be there as well. Any news regarding him?”
The medic glances at Taehyung briefly before his eyes focus on his leader again. “Coming back tomorrow at the latest.”
Obviously they’re talking about his guard, but Taehyung picks up on one, curious word. The kid. Is he much younger than the rest of them? His eyes have fleeting moments when they look very youthful, but never when his gaze is directed at Taehyung. Then, it’s wary and still quite cold.
“I’m glad… In short, the head Alpha suggested giving up twenty Omegas of our choice in exchange for the gentleman sitting in front of me.”
The medic takes a few seconds to digest the other’s words. “Motherfucker,” he hisses under his breath at last. “He thinks he can play with our lives like that?! Twenty Omegas?! That’s how many he’s taken over the past few months, what about the years before that?!”
“Calm down,” the leader says firmly. “We can’t allow our emotions to take over us.”
“I can’t just shut them down, I’m not another statistic, I’m a person—”
“Enough! This is neither the time nor the place!” the man cuts him off, pointedly looking at Taehyung.
They’ve surely mastered the way to make him feel awfully unwelcome. At first he was unphased, but after months of seeing the consequences of the actions his father continuously takes, he feels the weight on his shoulders growing heavier.
“Why am I here? What do you want me to do about this?” Taehyung asks.
“I have a few ideas, but that’s yet to be discussed. The only thing that’s certain is that you won’t sit idly this time.”
ʚїɞ
The next time the door to his room is opened, Taehyung’s eyes link with the ones he wished to see for days. He immediately sits up from his lying position, crossing his legs, and observes his guard with wide eyes.
There’s a lot of words that flow through his mind, but they’re ridiculous even to himself, so he nips them in the bud and ends up saying, “Hey.”
The Omega gazes at him in silence before he starts proceeding deeper into the room. He puts a bowl full of food and also some ointment in a tube next to his mattress. Taehyung notices the smallest details, how he places the items in a gentler manner than a few weeks ago when he just dropped the bowl, not caring if any food spilled out.
“What is this?” he asks, grabbing the tube with one of his hands.
“Scent suppressant. Smear it on your scent glands after I leave.”
Taehyung doesn’t have the time to take in how good it feels to hear his voice again, much less why it feels good in the first place. He halts, feeling a sting in his chest.
He doesn’t know much about heat cycles, all his knowledge comes from books, but after each of his ruts, his sense of smell remains overly sensitive for a few more days. In that tender state he can’t stand scents that he finds repulsive and he can’t help but think that that’s currently the case for his guard.
“Why? Is my scent revolting to you?” Taehyung chuckles, masking how wrong the sheer prospect of it feels.
The Omega ignores his question. He turns around to head to the door again.
“Wait.” Taehyung rushes to stop him. “I thought we could go outside after you… come back.”
“I’m in a hurry right now.”
In a hurry to attend all those matters that Taehyung has no clue about, of course. Matters that might have something to do with the chain encircling his waist. The greed to know things about him only grows in intensity and Taehyung doesn’t know how to stop it.
“Alright, well…” Taehyung flips his eyes around his surroundings, trying to find some reason to make him stay for a bit longer. “I’ve read the books you brought me multiple times already. I liked them.”
“I will bring another one if I remember about it. Anything else?”
“Just—” He stands up from the mattress and it makes the Omega take a step back. Ah. He stays rooted in place and shakes his head slowly. “No, that’s all.”
His guard nods and walks out of the room. Taehyung falls back to the mattress and groans into his hands.
ʚїɞ
The only thing that’s certain is that you won’t sit idly this time.
Taehyung finds out what the Omegas’ leader meant by that some days, or maybe weeks, later. He doesn’t have time to ask questions when the medic bursts into his room and forces him to wear the black robes—the attire characteristic to their kind.
Then, the medic ties one of his hands. “So that you won’t escape,” he says and propels him to rush outside. The material covering his forehead keeps on sliding down into his eyes and the robes feel heavy on him.
He’s completely perplexed to see where he’s been taken. A battle.
The medic hides behind a wide tree bark and keeps him close so that he’s safely hidden by it as well.
“What the fuck are we doing here?” Taehyung spits while staring at the battlefield with wide eyes. It’s nearly empty except for a few Alphas who are advancing forward, protected by shields. Ever since guns have become an essential weapon during the attacks, only fools run into an open area without any type of security.
Just like Taehyung did.
He can see Omegas hiding behind trees before him, scattered closer to the battleground. They occasionally shoot from a pistol or a bow, but it’s mostly futile when their opponents are sheltered by a heavy metal.
“We’re here so you can see the consequences of your father’s—your kind’s actions with your own two eyes,” the medic answers him.
“Are you asking me to stand here and watch the massacre happening in front of me?!”
“Shut up! We’re medics, we stay on defense,” the other hisses while there are shouts coming from the Omegas in front of them, mentioning how the oppressors are advancing too quickly.
Taehyung feels a strain in his chest. He doesn’t like watching people die. “I never agreed to be one of your med—What?!” he exclaims in confusion when suddenly, the ground shakes and there’s a huge explosion. The medic instinctively grips his arm to steady himself, letting go of him the moment he regains his balance.
There’s smoke, lots of it, and Taehyung needs to exert his eyes to see what exactly is happening. He sees a silhouette throwing themselves into the fog.
“Is that…”
“What is that idiot doing?!” the medic yells, very distressed.
Taehyung also feels nervous while he observes his guard run through the field, the fumes and flames wafting behind him akin to how his robes do. The sound of firing guns stops, and he doesn’t know if it’s because the Omegas can’t see their opponent in the smoke, or because they’re too busy watching their captain progress towards a row of shielded Alphas.
He doesn’t know what the fuck is happening. He’s not a fighter.
He scans his surroundings once more, trying to collect himself, and that’s when he notices it. An Alpha hiding behind one of the trees to their right and aiming his gun at the running figure. The Omegas dispersed in front of them are too far away to catch that someone has sneaked behind their back.
“Give me your gun,” Taehyung promptly lets out, not waiting for the answer before he reaches for the medic’s gun that’s attached to his waistband.
“Are you fucking insane—” The medic snaps away, obstructing his access to the weapon, so Taehyung acts on an impulse and pushes the other against the tree. He quickly snatches his gun and in one swift move, he aims it at the Alpha standing a few trees away from them.
There’s no hesitation, no thoughts whatsoever registering in his mind, when he fires the pistol in the Alpha’s direction. The man gets striked in the thigh and he immediately lets go of the gun he was targeting at his guard, falling to the ground in pain.
Taehyung lowers the weapon slowly, his heart pounding uncontrollably in his chest. He blinks out of his stupor and looks around again. Some of the Omegas before them are looking in their direction, surely startled by the shooting sound, and the medic—he’s staring at him with wide eyes in shock.
Before he can ask, there’s a shout given by a familiar voice, now!, his guard’s hand raising in a clear command to advance, and the rest of the omega troops run towards the battlefield while screaming in determination.
After that, everything happens in a blur. It takes a few minutes to hear the victorious cheers and only then the medic runs after those acclamations, leaving him behind with a tie uselessly hanging from one of his hands.
Taehyung glances at the Alpha he shot, sees him curled up on the ground, and he sighs out. He follows after the cheers as well.
“Is anyone hurt?!” the medic exclaims when he gets to the eye of the battle’s remnants. There are bodies lying around Omegas who are proudly hovering above them.
“Here!” someone answers and the medic runs in that direction, Taehyung following in tow.
They find an Omega sitting on the ground, clutching at their shoulder, and his guard squatting next to the said person and clutching their shoulder. Taehyung watches him reach underneath his shawl to take out earplugs. So Omegas indeed clog their ears during battles, or maybe just those who fight on short distance.
“Where does it hurt?” the medic asks, crouching next to them.
“My arm has been shot,” the Omega informs and Taehyung assumes that it’s a girl based on her higher timbre. “No one has been taken,” she says in a much joyful tone.
“That’s amazing, you did very well. I’ll stop the bleeding for now and we’ll take care of the rest in sterile conditions. You,” the medic briefly points to Taehyung’s guard before he quickly gets down to his work, “scared the shit out of me when you threw that grenade.”
“I needed to block them before they got too close. Shit, I need to get out of here, I can’t—” And then he abruptly falls silent when their eyes meet. “What is he doing here?”
“I wanted him to watch—”
“You wanted what?! Does Seok—Does our chief know about this?”
“Yes, it was his idea.”
“What?! Why did no one tell me, then?”
“Because you’d be distracted, and anyway…” The medic glances at him in the same way again, as if he was seeing him for the first time. “He saved your stupid ass, so shut up for now.”
“What?” his guard repeats and shakes his head in question, his eyes confused beyond words. This is the first time Taehyung sees him so expressive and in that moment, he seems to be incredibly young.
“We’ll talk later, let’s get out of here. Can you stand up?” the medic addresses the wounded girl and she nods, slowly getting off the ground with his help.
“What about…” Taehyung gestures to the field full of defeated bodies, some still alive, but in his mind he mostly refers to the Alpha that he shot, still lying behind that tree.
“They’re going to get taken care of by our patrol. Don’t worry about it,” the medic says while taking measured steps in the building’s direction, cautious of the girl at his arm.
Taehyung doesn’t have to inquire further what taking care of them entails.
His guard glaces at him one last time, his eyes unreadable, before he approaches the pair in front of them. “That’s going to take an hour,” he says and in one effortless move, he picks up the girl and proceeds towards the building at a much quicker pace.
The medic just huffs and turns back to Taehyung. “I’ll check if anyone else got injured. Follow him.”
“Okay, but… isn’t it dangerous? What if more Alphas are creeping somewhere deeper in the forest?”
The medic chuckles wryly. “Don’t worry about me. I’m not defenseless.” He motions to the gun that Taehyung handed him back. “And usually, once the captain leaves, the rest of the troops follow. You’re really not much of a fighter, are you?”
“Today was the first time I wielded a gun.”
“Gods. The privilege.” The medic shakes his head disapprovingly. “Anyway, go before you lose him.”
Taehyung nods and forces his legs to move. He has to run to catch up to the Omega and once he’s beside him he adjusts his pace. They walk into the building in silence, heading straight to the hospital area. The moment his guard helps the girl sit on the chair, there are already medics attending to her. For once they don’t spare him a glance and Taehyung thinks that covering both his scent and face might bear benefits even for him.
The adrenaline’s remnants still make his body shake.
“Should I stay here in case my healing abilities are needed?” Taehyung asks his guard.
“I don’t think anyone was severely injured. Let’s go,” he says and starts walking in a direction that Taehyung knows well. It makes his chest tighten in consternation. He absolutely doesn’t want to go back to that confinement.
“Can we go outside instead?”
His guard halts in a brief contemplement, but he easily turns into the corridor leading to the huge, oak door instead. Taehyung sighs out in relief.
Once they reach the dandelion field, Taehyung sits and promptly gets down to weaving the flowers. His guard sits down decently away from him, his eyes boring into the ground absent-mindedly. Taehyung wants to see the way the setting sun is reflected in his eyes, so he thinks about saying something that will make him look up.
It’s eerie how serene everything suddenly seems after what they experienced just a moment ago. The other’s still in bloodied clothes, the fact that Taehyung can pick up with his nose rather than eyes. The black robes seem to be hiding more than they intend to.
Around them, though, the sunset makes everything sparkle.
“It’s a pity that other flowers don’t grow here. The dandelions have a bit thick stems, the weave is not as strong.”
“Can you… not talk?” his guard asks quietly, still looking down.
That makes Taehyung pause for a second. He’s not the one who just led the troops through a battle, but even he’s still unnerved. Sure, the man beside him had done it many times, but perhaps it’s something that one can’t get used to.
“So you don’t want me to tell you that your hair’s showing?” Taehyung asks, trying for a light tone. He keeps glancing at his guard, because his hands know how to work on a flower wreath on their own accord.
The other’s hand doesn’t snap to his head like Taehyung thought it would. Rather, he raises it slowly to pat the area around his eyes.
“It’s not.”
“I know, I lied.”
That does it. His guard lifts his gaze to look at him in confusion and Taehyung grins, deeming it a success. The topic reminds him that his own face is still covered, so he takes the shawl off his head and runs his hand through his hair a few times.
“It’s stuffy with it on.”
“It’s alright.” The other shrugs.
“Yeah? You like wearing it?”
“I’m used to it.” He shrugs again.
“Hmm. I suppose you are.” Taehyung smiles when their eyes meet again. The sunset drowns in them. He stares into those brown irises for as long as he’s allowed and when the other man looks away again, he continues quietly braiding the flowers.
“What did he mean when he said that you saved me?” his guard breaks the silence by asking, obviously referring to the medic’s words from before. Getting questions from him still gives Taehyung slight thrills.
“It doesn’t matter now. The most important thing is that you’re okay.”
The other looks up at him with puzzled eyes. Searching and not finding the answers he wants. “Why would you be concerned about my well-being?”
Taehyung doesn’t have an acceptable explanation for that. Ridiculous reasons. Just ridiculous. “I don’t know… I just am.”
His guard frowns, clearly lost. “I… I don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand it, either.”
Silence befalls again. When Taehyung sees his guard break out of his stillness, his heart drops because he thinks that the other wants them to go back. However, he only reaches out to pluck a few dandelions growing next to his crossed legs.
“Could you…”
“Seriously? You want me to teach you?” Taehyung asks in a sheer surprise and a single, short nod he receives in return is the opening to his favorite moment he’s had since he got to this place. The smile he sends the other is definitely the most sincere expression he’s had on his face since then. “Sure! Here, look. Take one stem from the outside right and place it between the other two.” He slowly shows him the sequence.
The Omega tries to repeat it, but he fails. “My fingers can’t do it.”
“They can, it takes practice. Try again.” Taehyung demonstrates him once more and after a few more attempts, he succeeds.
“How do I add another flower?”
That’s how Taehyung spends his happiest moment amid the confinement. It stretches out, and out, and then some more with each flower his guard adds to his wreath. He’s making it slowly and Taehyung’s glad for that, because he doesn’t want this moment to end, ever. It reminds him of days spent on reading books in his garden and conversations with Yoongi. That ease.
The sun has already set when the Omega finishes his flower crown. He puts it on himself, but it’s very small so it immediately falls down with a slight movement of his head.
Taehyung chuckles, laying his own wreath on the other’s head. “Here.”
“Um…” The other clears his throat. “We should go back.”
There’s a sinking feeling, but also understanding. They already spent more time on the field than Taehyung initially gambled for. “Okay,” he says, feeling glad that the other doesn’t take off his dandelion wreath even on their way back.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung hasn’t been anticipating it at all, but then again, he doesn’t really know how much time has passed since he arrived in the district. Probably months.
At first he feels hot. It doesn’t make sense that the temperature in the room would change, since it’s so deep inside the building with no windows, constantly stifling. That’s why he knows that the sudden warmth is coming from inside of him.
Obviously he needs to go through that once in a while, but it completely escaped his mind with everything that’s been happening recently.
Taehyung strips to his boxers when he feels cold sweats pour all over him, his whole body covered in goosebumps. Taking off his clothes doesn’t significantly help since the room is stuffy, probably reeking of his scent. He lies down on his mattress, groaning. Everything hurts, especially in his crotch area, and he can’t do anything about it because someone could come in at any moment. He hopes that his guard delivers his food soon, because with each passing second he cares less about decency.
This is the first time since he arrived in the omega district that he’d prefer to be at his mansion instead. The privacy, the comfort of his sheets, the large bathtub that provided a temporary relief, allowing him to immerse into the cold water and pretend that the whole world has been shut down.
Other Alphas helping him to get through it because he’d never request an Omega to touch him when he knows that each of them is trapped there against their own will.
Fuck, he hates it so much.
It feels like eternity has passed when the door to his room finally gets unlocked, which means that after that short visit he’ll be hopefully granted some privacy, especially when the Omegas learn what state he’s in.
His guard enters the room, but he barely makes one step inside before he abruptly stops. It takes Taehyung a few seconds to focus on the newcomer because there are specks dancing before his eyes.
The moment their eyes meet, Taehyung feels that familiar pull, but stronger. Tugging at each of his fingers, chills more protruding, desire filling him up abruptly. He never felt this way about any of the Alphas that accompanied him during these times and he wonders if he’d react this way if it was any other Omega that came into his vicinity at the moment.
He isn’t losing control, even though his guard’s gaze makes it impossibly hard. The other flickers his wide eyes through his whole body, up and down, up and down, otherwise completely motionless. Taehyung wonders whether he’s just startled, or if he’s revolted by the strong scent swelling in the room, or maybe he’s scared which seems the least probable. Alphas are known for being lunatic and uncontrollable during their cycles, but the Omega doesn’t seem like he’d be scared of anything.
At last, he manages to utter, “Y-you’re…”
“Having a rut? Happens to the best of us.” Taehyung groans when he feels another wave of heat strike him. He wipes his forehead with his forearms and glances at the other again when he still hasn’t moved. “Are you just going to stand there and stare?” he asks, impatient. This is the only time he wishes his guard left quickly.
The Omega is stuck in place, though. Taehyung can only imagine what he’s seeing, him sprawled on that mattress, half-naked, body shining in sweat and a prominent tent in his boxers. The other’s gaze on his body feels tangible, more dangerous as the time keeps ticking away.
Taehyung really needs him to leave.
“Can you—” And then it hits him.
A scent of roses.
It’s rich and stirring, instantly addictive. Taehyung feels as if his body functions locked in place and then awakened with an increased force. A single flame inside him turns into a wildfire and he gasps for breath, but it only makes him inhale more of that scent. Fuck, fuck. He feels himself losing his mind.
Taehyung sits up at the same time as his guard drops the bowl of food to the ground and his shaky hand snaps to cover his already hidden nose.
“Shit.”
“You—”
“Shit.” The Omega frantically reaches for the door and Taehyung promptly gets off the mattress to run in his direction. For what, he doesn’t know. Just inadvertently following that scent.
“Wait!” Of course he doesn’t make it in time before the lock is being turned. Taehyung hears a quick patter of feet moving away, running instead of the usual, measured pace and then he’s left alone.
He slides down against the door, shaken up. That scent doesn’t disperse, already engraved in each of his senses.
His guard wasn’t repulsed by his scent. He was aroused.
ʚїɞ
The next few days are agony that Taehyung hasn’t known before. After knowing that hooking scent, it’s impossible to think about anything else. He feels enslaved by it more than by the confinement that his small room poses. He feels the urge to smell it again, for it to be close, all over him.
The Omega doesn’t enter his room anymore, but just sticks his hand inside the room to dump the bowl of food and then a second later, he’s gone. Sometimes Taehyung doesn’t notice his fleeting visits. Not when his senses are in a daze.
Only after his head clears up a bit, he can think again and that’s exactly what he does. He thinks about everything he’s read in books and learned from other people. Something that’s a known fact but Taehyung never dwelled on it because he knew that no Omega would ever look past their hatred for it to be possible.
People choose mates based on their scent and all Taehyung knows is that he’s never smelled anything more intoxicating than those damn roses.
He’s terrified.
The pull he felt when he first locked eyes with his guard, the bizarre sympathy that he feels for him, the urge to spend time together—it all simultaneously makes sense and is beyond irrational.
Surely he wouldn’t fall for an Omega, right?
He spends those days restless, confused and lonely. Unreasonably mad at himself and the artificial rose fragrance of his soap makes him only more angry.
ʚїɞ
Taehyung has no clue how much time has passed when someone entirely steps into his room.
“God, it stinks here.” The medic grimaces while approaching him.
“It’s not like there are any windows to air this room,” Taehyung says, closing the book and sitting a bit straighter at the sudden company.
“I thought you got scent suppressants?”
“I used them, but apparently the scent in the room lingered… Is it that revolting?”
“Your scent? Yeah, it reminds me of Alphas in general. No offense, but it makes me want to puke.”
“None taken.” Taehyung sighs, thinking of the difference in Omegas’ reactions. His guard wasn’t put off, not in a way that Taehyung would expect him to.
“Why are you reading this?” The medic changes the topic, glancing at the book in his hands and then at a pile of books lying next to the mattress. “These are all school readings,” he laughs.
“What?”
“Books required from us in school. Why are you reading these?”
“My guard brought these. I didn’t know they were school readings, he said he took whatever was at hand.”
“Gods, that guy seriously doesn’t own any proper books, probably didn’t read these as well.”
“He was a bit surprised when I told him what one of the books was about...”
“Ah,” the medic shakes his head in disapproval. “How did he even graduate… I will bring you better stuff.”
Taehyung frowns, confused. “You will?”
“Yes. And anyway, aren’t you tired of sitting here all the time?”
“Well, it’s not like I have a choice.”
The medic clicks his tongue. “Don’t pity yourself and get your ass up, we are going on a trip.”
“A trip?” Taehyung questions again, not understanding what is the reason behind the medic’s weird behavior. He can’t imagine where he would take him except the hospital.
“Yes, don’t ask questions and come. I hope your clothes are not drenched in your foul scent, because no one wants to smell that.”
“I washed them yesterday, but I don’t know, I can’t tell.”
The medic studies him closely, humming, “Let’s go, then. Hopefully no one pukes.”
Taehyung gets led through unfamiliar corridors, thankfully absent from any other Omegas. Walking the halls while vicious gazes try to take him alive has become the thing he dreads the most. His initial impassiveness has been teared off of him the moment an Omega screamed at him that he’d taken everything she had.
Now the only thing he can think about is how all hostility has been earned on his end, no matter if he ever took part in his father’s escapades or not.
He’s guided to an exit and then for the first time he steps into a scenery other than the dandelion field. The nature is not as rich in this area, grass trampled with countless steps. He immediately hears commotion on the side—and then a gunshot.
“W-what?” Taehyung startles.
“Relax, it’s only training.”
“Training?”
“Yup, come on.”
Taehyung has absolutely no idea what compelled the medic to bring him to such a place. Once he’s led into another building, more spacious, he sees for himself where the sound of the fire shots was coming from. The ground’s still dirty, the only equipment in the room is shooting targets lined up in a row, and there are Omegas standing in front of them.
His guard spots them quickly. His eyes widen when he notices Taehyung and he immediately looks away.
Huh.
“Why are we here?” Taehyung asks the medic, still mostly focused on his guard’s silhouette. The other proceeds to attend to his students, ignoring him.
“So you can see further consequences of your father’s little games. You can consider it a lesson two.”
“I don’t need any lessons, I know that my father’s actions are fucked up,” he replies, slightly irritated, but then he takes a glimpse of the students, suddenly aching for them. They have to go through something that he never had to experience.
Another gunshot, another shiver down Taehyung’s spine. Missed target and his guard’s encouraging hand patting the student’s shoulder.
“It’s different to see the scope of it with your own eyes.”
Taehyung nods, agreeing with him. “How old are the youngest?”
“13.”
“They start at 12 where I come from.”
“Gods.” The medic looks at him, his eyes aghast. “This is truly horrid.”
“I know.”
They stand in silence, watching kids learning how to kill. His guard teaching them how to. Taehyung wonders how much time has passed since the other was in the students’ skin, wielding a gun for the first time.
“Let’s come up to them.”
Taehyung follows after the medic, albeit hesitantly.
“Hi, guys,” the medic says, waving his hand lightly.
“Hello.” The students promptly bow. Taehyung’s surprised since Alphas are not taught such manners.
His guard’s avoiding his existence, eyes stubbornly focused on the medic instead.
“I came today to introduce you to our local Alpha,” the medic says as if he was an animal in a cage. “He’s not good at shooting so why don’t we let him try and have some fun laughing at him?”
The kids also have covered faces. They’re definitely not friendly, but the hatred in their eyes hasn’t had time to cultivate yet. Taehyung knows it’s just a matter of time.
“I thought every Alpha is excellent at shooting,” says one of the students.
“The ones you’ll encounter on the battlefield are. Never let your guard down,” his guard says and then he approaches the medic, asking, “What are you doing here?”
“Just having some fun—”
“Does it look like we’re having fun here? Why would you bring him here, free of any chains—”
“Calm down,” the medic says firmly and then he glances at him. “He’s… harmless.”
Taehyung feels stunned by those words.
His guard snorts like what the other said was straight up ridiculous. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Careful of how you address the elders.” The medic squints at him.
“Are you a bad Alpha?” one of the students asks Taehyung when his guard just shakes his head and steps away. They clearly waited until their superiors’ conversation ended.
“Every Alpha is bad,” another student chips in dryly, this one slightly older judging by the height.
Taehyung has no answer. He forces a smile and asks, “Do you think I am?”
“I think you’re not. You’re not good at shooting so you must also not be good at killing.”
Taehyung laughs lightly but in reality his chest tightens. “I don’t know if I’m a good Alpha but I’d surely never hurt any of you.”
“Can he try? Just once?” a boy with round eyes asks, glancing at his guard for permission. Taehyung doesn’t want to hold a gun at all, finding the whole situation absurd.
The medic surely knows how to spice up his days in the omega district, he’ll give him that.
“Once,” his guard says finally, but evidently with a lot of discontent. He still doesn’t look him in the eyes while he hands him the weapon, his gaze firmly stuck on his hand as if Taehyung was about to misuse it any second.
The gun’s so heavy in his hand. He slowly raises it, fumbling to position his fingers correctly, and then he shoots the target right in front of him. The bullet hits its edge.
“Oh, you’re really not that great!” The kids cackle.
“Let me show you,” the boy with round eyes says and takes the gun into his own hand as if it was a toy, naturally. Taehyung glances at his guard, checking if the boy was allowed to do that, but he just frowns at his student without uttering a word.
The boy shoots the target’s center.
“Wow, you’re very good,” Taehyung says and then he wonders if it’s something worth complimenting. In the Omegas’ current reality, he supposes that it is.
“Of course, my brother taught me everything he knows.”
“Oh, is he a good fighter?”
“Um…” The boy glances briefly at his guard standing next to him, and then back at the ground. “The best.”
“Give it back.” His guard extends his hand to take the gun and suddenly, it strikes Taehyung. Oh. The resemblance in their eyes.
Oh. Could it be…?
“We’re occupied, so I suggest you leave,” his guard says.
The medic looks at him with soft and sad eyes, the same expression he had while he looked at the kids a while ago.
“Let’s go, then.”
They leave the shooting range without his guard sparing him one glance.
“I don’t think you’re a bad person,” the medic says quietly when they reach his room.
“Isn’t that term ambiguous?”
“Not around here, no.”
You’re bad if you’re a killer. Maybe it’s that simple. Taehyung wants to remind him that he killed a person once and he doesn’t see a difference between that and thousands.
“I wish you could do something,” the medic says when Taehyung doesn’t answer.
“Me? What could I do?” he asks, but he also wishes that was the case. The medic must have recognized the ache in his eyes when he looked at the kids. He can’t help but imagine how in a year or two they’ll be using their skills on a bloodbath, some falling to the ground, some being kidnapped for Alpha’s use.
He thinks of the round, innocent eyes, how a brother has to teach a brother how to kill, and his blood rages with a sudden anger.
But he feels hopeless.
What could I do?
“Anything,” the medic answers, some desperation dripping into his tone. “But I also know that the way you feel about your guard will make you resent our kind. So I don’t have high hopes.”
“What?” Taehyung’s eyes immediately snap to the other, heart jerking painfully.
“You didn’t hesitate to kill for him.”
“You’re wrong,” Taehyung disputes promptly, the only words he knows, the only ones that make sense. “I don’t—feel. Anything. You’re wrong.”
The other is looking at him with pitiful eyes and it stings more than the enmity ever did.
“There’s no point in denying it.”
“He’s an Omega.”
“Well, obviously—”
“He’s engaged.”
“How do you even know that? Anyway, it doesn’t matter.”
“You’re wrong!” Taehyung raises his voice, completely rattled to hear someone else acknowledge his feelings before he did it himself.
“I’m not. You’ll fall deeper, and you’ll hurt him, and I’ll be forced to kill you. I don’t look forward to it, though. I told you already, you’re actually a pretty decent person.”
“Shut up, shut up. Get out.”
“Maybe in another universe we could be friends.”
“Get out!”
The medic sighs in resignation and he walks out, leaving Taehyung with millions of thoughts clattering his mind and no one to help him sort them out.
ʚїɞ
When Taehyung first arrived in the omega district, he was void of any feelings except the immense longing for his late best friend and that was what ultimately made him want to disappear. He knew that it would make his memories of Yoongi cease to exist, but those memories were too hard to bear.
Contrary to a popular belief, Taehyung isn’t strong. Not really.
He didn’t expect how many unfamiliar feelings his stay in the district would awaken.
There was sudden compassion while looking at the kids learning how to hold a weapon, and shame while healing injured fighters, and frustration while being looked down by other Omegas, and anger towards his father. There was his heart squeezing painfully and hands yearning every time a certain man came into his vicinity, the most ridiculous one.
All those feelings make him feel simultaneously the most alive and lonely he’s ever been. There is no one he could talk to. He grasps that one night while sitting alone in his room, and that prompts him to pretend that he’s talking to Yoongi, that he’s there, listening to him and responding. He imagines his best friend’s replies and talks more, and then he rubs his tearful eyes when he realizes how absurd he’s being.
Talking to himself. Very on brand with everything that’s been happening to him during the past months.
He’s interrupted during one of those cases, quickly cutting his monologue off when he hears someone approaching the door.
His guard enters the room, eyeing him in a slight confusion. He doesn’t ask, though. He fulfills his usual task by putting the bowl at the corner of Taehyung’s mattress and then he’s heading to the exit.
“Wait,” Taehyung asks as always. “Can we go outside?”
His guard stays still for a moment, but eventually he nods without turning around. Taehyung resists a groan while standing up, an action that has been requiring him to put some effort recently. He should plan some exercises to do while he’s stuck in the small room, but then again, it’s hard to be motivated in such circumstances.
Their short path to the field is filled with silence, Taehyung walking ahead of the Omega with the bowl of food pressed to his chest. He’s too hungry to leave it behind.
Once they step outside, he takes a deep breath. It’s already dark, the sun on a brink of setting, and Taehyung likes its warm rays pricking at his skin, but he also likes the serenity of the night. There’s no time of a day or a season he genuinely dislikes.
He goes to sit in a dandelion bath, but something else catches his attention.
“What’s this music?”
His guard sighs like he doesn’t want to answer, but the heartfelt curiosity in Taehyung’s eyes must be persuasive. “A festival,” he replies quietly.
Taehyung ends up gaping at the other. A festival. Something he’s only read about in books.
The music sounds very distant, so he decides to ask, “Can I see?”
“Let’s stay here.”
“Please, I’m only curious. Festivals don’t occur where I come from.”
The man stares at him as if he was trying to understand something. He appears troubled and Taehyung tries to convey his honesty in his facial expression. At last, he steps away in an unknown direction and Taehyung follows after him. They go around the building and the endless steps they have to take only confirm his assumptions about how huge the whole place is. With each of their strides, grass grows taller and cicadas are louder, wilderness more prominent.
And then the lights start gleaming before Taehyung’s eyes.
He gasps, walking up to the edge of the hill to take in the town stretching out below him. It’s hard to grasp where it ends, as if it was a never-ending sea. There are modest buildings, difficult to tell apart from each other, and colorful, moving dots—people—bringing life to the whole scenery. Music and joyful shouts. Flickering street lights.
The omega district, a place that no Alpha has ever managed to see despite their notorious attempts.
“You’ve built all this in the past 70 years?” Taehyung lets out in awe. It hasn’t even been a century since Omegas decided to revolt, and yet they’ve accomplished so much.
His guard doesn’t answer, but it was a rhetorical question anyway. Taehyung sits at the edge of the hill and starts eating the fruits from the bowl while still admiring the town. It’s difficult to pinpoint most things from a significant distance, but everything’s swarmed in colors. It’s clearly a jubilant time and Taehyung’s glad that they’re allowing themselves that much. It’s never been the case for his own land.
The Omega sits next to him, albeit hesitantly. He wraps his arms around his bent knees and watches his hometown with eyes that seem far-away.
“Why are you not there?”
“It’s better to keep watch here while everyone else lets their guard down.”
“Hmm. So I assume this building behind us is your main base of operations?” Taehyung asks and continues when the other doesn’t respond. “Perhaps it’s clever to divide those two realities. I would often see an army marching through my hometown streets when I was a kid. All bloodied, short of limbs… public decency was never a thing out there. The main military base is located in the middle of the capital, you see. My father used to call it the heart of our district. I guess he wanted everyone to see our fighters’ greatness, or at least that’s what he thought it was. I spent most of my days at my mansion so I was lucky, awfully privileged, really, but still… in my 21 years of life I’ve never seen anything like this.” He points to the town ahead of them. “Even our movies wouldn’t be allowed to display such a joyful gathering within a community, knowing the propaganda and all the restrictions.”
Taehyung falls silent and throws some more apple slices into his mouth. He’s comfortable talking by himself and he doesn’t expect his companion to talk, either. Ever since that incident when the other ran out of his room, things have shifted between them. Taehyung keeps thinking about it, constantly reminded of that addictive scent. Now, his guard won’t even look him in the eyes and Taehyung feels lost. He wants to mention that situation, but he also doesn’t know what he could possibly say.
“Movies?”
“Oh!” He swallows the apple and clears his throat. “Considering how surprised you were when I spoke about trucks, I should have guessed that you don’t have tellies, too. It was only invented in the last decade, but yeah, a telly is a device that displays moving pictures. You know what the pictures are?”
“Of course. There were pictures in the books I gave you.”
“You’re right, I didn’t think about that.” Taehyung chuckles. “So imagine that you could capture a moment for more than a split second… even for minutes. That’s what movies essentially are, a meld of those moments. Sometimes they’re adaptations of books, but only those which were permitted by the government. Like I said, all the official media function within the rules. Having a telly is still considered a luxury, but I had one in my bedroom. Um, I don’t know if I’m explaining it well?”
The Omega doesn’t answer, but Taehyung doesn’t pay it much mind anymore. He discards the bowl aside and occupies his hands with weaving daisies instead. Their stems are more feeble than dandelions, so he takes off his thick glove to be more precise and comfortable.
“Creating movies requires a whole industry around it. There are actors who have become famous in the last decade. Like I said, most people don’t own a telly, but they know the actors from the posters. But maybe it’s a bit refreshing, being known by something other than your fighting skills…”
His guard shifts a bit on the ground, glancing at his hands braiding the flowers. Taehyung smiles when he sees that the other proceeds to do the same.
“We have stage plays,” he says quietly.
Taehyung’s heart pounds at the prospect of a conversation.
“So do we, stage plays are definitely more accessible than tellies. You like them?”
“I don’t know… I haven’t seen many of them.”
“Why?”
The other just shrugs. Taehyung notices how he’s struggling with waving the flowers, so he leans towards him with extended hands. “You need to hold this stem with your thumb while making the loop.” He shows him. The Omega tries to repeat the sequence, but he fails again. “I think it’d be easier if you took off your gloves, like I did. Um, not that you should do it…”
The other gives up, throwing the flowers away. Taehyung observes him for a moment, the way he seems to curl up on himself, hiding his already covered hands in the sleeves of his robe as if a mere mention of showing skin made him uncomfortable.
Taehyung has an urge to apologize, but he bites his tongue and finishes his wreath. He spends a few minutes hesitating whether or not he should put it on the Omega’s head when something else catches his eyes.
“Woah,” he breathes out, watching as the whole sky gets engulfed by the rising lights. Lanterns. Another thing he’s only read about.
The flower wreath in his hand gets completely forgotten as he stares at the lanterns dispersing all over the sky, people cheering below them. It’s truly a breathtaking sight.
But even then, despite how dazzling it is, his eyes travel to the side on their own accord. The Omega looks enticed by the view, looking at it with big, round eyes. Taehyung likes the way the lanterns reflect in his irises, so he stares.
He really wishes he knew his name.
Eventually, the other senses the eyes on him and he also regards Taehyung, slowly, somewhat disoriented. Maybe it’s the first proper eye-contact after days, or maybe it’s something else that compels Taehyung to reach out and graze the other’s arm. An easy touch. He gets more confident when the Omega doesn’t pull back.
If there’s a next time, your arm will be broken.
Taehyung isn’t sure what has changed, but he can’t afford wondering about it at the moment. His mind is completely dazzled. He can’t feel anything other than a smooth fabric, but it doesn’t take much to imagine warm skin. It’s almost attainable, paired with a memory of the rose scent and round eyes looking back into his.
The moment breaks when inhabitants of the town give an ovation again. Taehyung doesn’t manage to see why they’re applauding, his whole focus solely on the man who immediately lurches back and jumps to his feet.
“Stop this.”
“I’m not doing anything.” Taehyung raises his hands defensively, but he knows it’s not entirely true. He got carried away.
“You’re doing… something. You need to stop, you—Oh gods, I must have lost my mind.” He keeps walking in circles, eyes flickering everywhere but not on him.
“I’m sorry—”
“Let’s go back.”
“We don’t need to go, let’s just—”
“Stand up,” the other says firmly, his tone leaving no place for objection. Taehyung sighs hopelessly, grabs his flower crown and the glove, and he follows after his guard.
ʚїɞ
It becomes even more awkward after that.
Taehyung could wonder what would be a proper thing to do in order to get rid of the weird ambience between them, but it doesn’t matter when he doesn’t have a chance to make an attempt. His guard visits, leaves the food or other necessities by the door, not even reaching his mattress anymore, and then he’s gone in an instant without sparing him a glance.
It would drive Taehyung insane if it wasn’t for the medic who keeps him company more often than not. He’s still obnoxious, arrogant and snarky, and Taehyung understands what he meant when he told him that they could be friends in another universe. Once again, he finds himself experiencing longing for something that could have been if it weren’t for too many ifs.
ʚїɞ
Another attack happens a few days after the festival. Taehyung learns from the medic that the festival was held to celebrate the harvest month. Full of bitterness, he thinks about how back home the only occasion to celebrate is capturing a satisfying number of Omegas during an escapade.
The medic doesn’t take him to a battlefield again, but he finds out about what happened when he’s led to the hospital department. Upon the smell of blood, his own boils in his veins.
He’s angry.
He attends to every patient and he doesn’t think about how his power is being exploited. Oh, he owes them so much more.
In the whole duration of the healing sessions, he doesn’t spot his guard once and that makes him worry. He tries to focus on the matter at hand, but it’s hard when said matter is people fighting for their lives, entirely dependent on his ability.
When he comes back to his room, he’s completely exhausted. He drops on his mattress like a dead body and groans at the burning feeling in his hand. It’s stinging and shaking to the point that he can’t move his fingers.
Despite how tired he is, he still sits up when the door to his room gets unlocked again. Relief pours over him when he sees that it’s his guard with an usual brown bowl of food.
“Hey,” he says weakly, coughing, and stands up even though all his muscles scream at him to rest. “I was worried about you.”
“Worried… about me,” the man repeats as if the words made no sense.
“Yes.” Taehyung decides to be truthful because really, what does he have to lose? He already accepted that he might have gone mad. That’s how confinement might affect a person, he presumes.
His guard might have more to lose, though, and the chains around his waist are the first proof of that.
The other appears genuinely troubled by his admission. He slowly puts the bowl down and then he grabs the door handle. Taehyung expects him to leave, but he stays there, motionless, before he takes a deep breath and turns around again.
Taehyung quietly observes his evident turmoil while leaning against the wall. He’s so tired.
“I…”
“What’s wrong?”
The Omega glances at him and then quickly flickers his gaze to the side. “I… My…”
“What is it?” Taehyung frowns, more curious with each passing second. He’s never seen the other so lost.
“For some reason, my body wants you.”
Those words, said in a hush whisper, quite literally turn Taehyung’s world upside down. His heart skips some beats, chest strains painfully, every scrap of his skin tingles. He gapes at the other man in astonishment, but the latter doesn’t look back. He has his gaze stuck on the floor, arms crossed on his chest in a defensive manner.
“And are you going to do something about it?” Taehyung asks when he finds his voice again. He doesn’t remember the last time his heart was beating so hard.
The other’s eyes snap to him, wide and shocked as if he said something appalling.
“W-what?”
“Are you going to give your body what it wants?”
“You’re an Alpha.” He shakes his head.
“I’m an Alpha, but I’m also just another person. I also…” Taehyung exhales, leaning back from the wall to make a few steps in the other’s direction. “You can’t say what you just said and then walk away. Please.”
The Omega takes a long while to answer. He swallows audibly, his tentatively blinking eyes looking incredibly young in that moment.
“Close your eyes.”
Taehyung immediately complies.
He hears hesitant steps coming in his direction and his whole body pricks with anticipation—for what, he doesn’t know.
Absolutely nothing could ever prepare him to feel soft lips pressed to his own. The gentle touch makes him realize how gone he is. It sets a fire within him. Makes him feel as if nothing else has ever mattered. It’s timid and it takes Taehyung a few seconds to break out of the initial shock and try to give back.
It’s also very fleeting.
Taehyung has no time to reciprocate anything before commotion outside of the room makes them part.
“S-shit.”
“Can I—” He means to ask whether he can open his eyes, but it’s futile when the other runs off and closes the door behind him with a thud.
Taehyung flutters his eyes open and only then he realizes how shaken up he is. There were lips on his. Lips. Warm and real. The same ones that curled up at the sight of a butterfly. The same ones Taehyung wondered about, but he never was allowed to see them. That still hasn’t changed, but this time, he could feel them.
Holy shit.
He takes a few steps back and falls against the wall again while some Omegas converse just outside his room. He can’t focus on any of the words they say because there’s buzzing in his ears. His guard kissed him. An innocent touch, and yet Taehyung’s about to descend into madness.
One thing’s certain, though: He’s not the only one bearing these unexplainable feelings and he doesn’t know if it’s relieving or that much more terrifying.