Work Text:
Today is the day when Chan actually seems interested in thing he with Jeongin are working on for the last half of a year. It's not like he wasn't interested in this before, but unlike all previous months of gentle nagging with questions like "when will it finally be done?", now it sounds more like an actual Alpha order which Seungmin finds himself unable to answer "no" to, both because Chan is that higher than him in hierarchy and because he really thinks that it's the time to show the finalized results to the boss of their gang, because to be allowed to go to the field work, he must prove that he's able to do this work at all first.
And now he is standing before boss' workroom door and he can't stop violent shudders he feels wracking his body from time to time. There is no one at the base now, only him, Chan and several ampules of his invention that might ruin his relationship with Chan, as well as his life, forever.
Probably Chan is seeing him through cameras, probably he's too loud standing outside, or maybe it's just his sixth sense, but he asks Seungmin to go in through the closed door.
Boss is working on a laptop, clicking keys on it too loudly, maybe even a bit aggressively. When Seungmin closes the door behind him, he just raises his head and sends a piercing glare to Seungmin through the spectacles in thin frames. Seungmin tries to calm himself, because every added nervousness could ruin the effect of ampula or distort it to the unknown extents, but when he thinks about all possibilities he might face with – mostly mournful ones… Well, there is a slight chance of this meeting ending more or less happily for everyone, but more than a half of routes Seungmin had thought on in his head include his death or eternal trauma – not always physical one. Well, maybe even more than half. Most of them, frankly.
They stay here in silence for several nerve-wracking moments, and Seungmin almost opens his mouth to at least greet him, when Chan starts first:
"So I've heard some things about what are you working on recently… It's something that is prohibited by law?"
Seungmin's mouth goes dry. Of course it is, by both Korean and international law, and he's sure that there are several UN conventions that severely punish any country for even trying to invent this thing. Will Chan be on their side? Well, they were a gang, criminal one above everything, but their boss still was as lawful as he could be in his position. Seungmin opens the mouth to say something – probably some nonsense, because his mind is completely blank from this accusation thrown on him in the very first minute – but Chan just nonchalantly continues, stopping him with the wave of his hand: "Well, it doesn't matter as far as it's useful for the group, right?"
Seungmin finds himself breathing again. It wasn't that like the normal Chan, but with the situation the gang found itself in, probably anything that could help them survive would be seen as positive.
"I've also… heard something about that thing messing with pheromones. Is it right?"
By the way he says this, it's brilliantly obvious that it's not hearing that led him to these conclusions. Something might have leaked from the shut lab's doors after all. Maybe he have heard something… suspicious too, and maybe even seen their extended camaraderies that he with Jeongin had performed several times while testing – he needed an assistant to write down the process and results of it, after all!
Seungmin finds himself profusely blushing from shame. What at all had Chan seen and heard? What does he know? There is also a possibility of Jeongin spilling some core info to him in casual talk, because Jeongin really looks like a softie who will trust Chan with everything he has, both because he's not secretive enough and because of highest respect he has to most of his hyungs, but this possibility… seems slim nonetheless.
"W-well", he starts, already stuttering, "this thing makes people around think that i- that person who took it is an omega in heat, and side effect of it is that person taking the ampule is able to order around like alpha can to the helpless omega. L-like that", he clenches his fists trying not to cover his face with his hands.
Chan glances at him very tiredly. He looks like he is trying to mull over something in his head.
"And… does it work on everyone?"
"W-well, for now it's only me who can take the ampule for sure with all effects, but-"
"No, I mean, you can order everything to everyone who is around?"
"W-well", Seungmin tries not to fall as his knees suddenly feel weak. With one hand grasping the table edge, he awkwardly rubs his neck by the other, but stops momentarily when remembers that he shouldn't touch his neck at all for now. "Well, technically? I mean, it's not like we could show this to anyone outside the gang or… well, we don't know for sure but theoretically… We're sure that it will work on anyone."
"Even on omega?" Chan just arches his brow without any emotion crossing his face.
"W-w-well…" Seungmin feels that his vision is darkening on edges from stress. From one side he is sure in what he'd – they'd – done, but he doubts he can convey it in the words easy enough to someone not accustomed to chemistry and biological tricks to understand. "I mean, it's pretty hard to find an actual omega in the leadership of our enemies, right? Even if it doesn't work on them now, we can wait to the moment we'll need this exact formula to pop up. I mean-"
"Okay", Chan just closes his eyes calmly, but it looks like defeat.
"You know what I mean! Everyone who we want dead and everyone who has the valuable information are alphas! And- and-" he has to gulp the air, because he feels that his breathing is suddenly constricted. "You know how we tried similar methods before, still with alphas. Most of them don't seem to be interested in any unusual dynamics. We barely saved Felix one time it had gone wrong."
Chan looks pained. It was one of the greatest fiascos they had throughout all the time organisation existed, and Chan nearly lost one of his most precious brothers, so they all are still shooked by that.
"And you want to take the risk instead of him? How's that better?"
Seungmin purses his lips. He doesn't know what to say in return. Most of his thoughts on the topic are self-deprecating, and Chan totally will try to psychoterapy him out of them, so he can't allow this talk to come to this. Because probably Chan will succeed, as he always does, and all the suffering that ignited him inside and drove him to experiment, test and invent can just evaporate into thin air. It all would be pointless.
"It's totally safe", he lies – they both know it, – "and we really can go much closer to our goals without raising too much suspicion."
Chan looks at him like at a madman who totally went crazy and dumb out of his mind.
"Okay", he says instead, "then show me that it really works."
"Ha-hha", Seungmin makes the sound similar to nervous laugh, "on-on whom?"
Of course, they both know, on whom. At least it was the only way Seungmin had imagined this meeting before.
"On me", Chan's voice doesn't waver even a little. If something happens, it should happen with him, inside these walls, while they have at least the illusion of control over situation.
"Okay", Seungmin just rummages in his pockets and takes out small ampule with liquid center. It cracks on his teeth, and he gulps nervously, almost choking on it.
He finally sees the chair on the other side of the table and goes there on slightly wobbly legs.
"I don't feel anything out of normal", Chan says, trying to sniff the air secretly and failing.
"W-well, it doesn't work instantly because it would give me too much attention from people around. And I think I'll have to take it pretty long prior coming closer to the person so he won't see me digesting anything weird, so… Moreso, gradual growth of pheromones level looks much more natural overall, a-and?.. Well, I kind of can control the level of pheromones emitted so I won't catch anyone else's attention and lure in any additional people before I will be face to face to the actual goal", he suddenly feels himself much more brave than before, probably because he talks about things he's sure of.
"So when will it actually start?" Chan closes his laptop and leans on the back of his chair, as if trying to pretend to be relaxed. It looks poorly performed, to be honest, and if anything, now he seems only more tense.
Breath hitches in Seungmin's throat. First symptoms of upcoming medicine-induced haze have just kicked in. Now he needs just-
The glance Chan is sending him is fiery, dark and unreadable, and suddenly Seungmin fully understands that he is now in the position of omega in heat, technically during his alpha's rut, before other alpha whose pheromones, scent trace and actual power are all unknown to him and to his body. What could happen? It wasn't the same with Jeongin with whom he was hundred percent sure that he will be safe no matter how medicine would work. Jeongin was softer naturally, and he definitely had a soft spot for Seungmin himself, and his own pheromones were added to the chemical mix, so of course they just clicked into place like the perfect pieces of a puzzle, times and times again. Chan was a total enigma to him for every biological parameter, but this was the only way to test this unholy thing in the real-life situation. After all, he couldn't be choosy with the ones he should be luring in for missions.
"So… what now?" Chan's voice is already a bit raspy during some syllables as if he is unsure in his own breathing process, and Seungmin tries to wrack his head and remember what did it mean during all laboratory tests before. His head is already too foggy for his liking, and he scrapes for the last chunks of a rational thinking he still has to continue this experiment to the winning end. He has to win. It was the only way.
"W-well, you might start feeling a little h-hazy", he feels embarrassed just by the thought of Chan – almighty leader of them – being downgraded to hazy mess. The thought is indeed torturous, and he feels guilty of himself by doing this to him, and even prays now so the medicine wouldn't work properly. "You also can think of me as of trustful person with whom you could open your heart", he is surprised by poetic way he allows it to be said. The truth isn't that high-styled, and by the disapproving look Chan sends him Seungmin understands that he got the underlying meaning too. Chan clenches the pencil in his left palm with such vigor that skin over his bones is whitened, and Seungmin almost hears the sound of wood cracking under his fingers. Chan puts the pencil – still in one piece – on the table and lays his chin on interwined hands, shutting his eyes as if in pain.
Of course, Chan isn't Jeongin in every sense possible, and he's been an alpha for that much more time than anyone in organisation – after all, he's the oldest. He's also the most composed, so it's obvious that he won't snap that easily and won't do… anything to make medicine reaction obvious yet.
"So… how can I prove that it works?" Seungmin asks just to be sure. There might be many consequences of it working, including less chaste ones, but he doubts that it would be enough.
"Well…" Chan rubs his eyes wearily, as if he has a splitting headache, and Seungmin is afraid that he actually hurts him with his invention. "As you've said, it was created to get the information out of victims, right?"
Seungmin gulps – it feels as if there is something in his throat – and nods. This was another way to put it, too.
"Then I ask you to get something from me."
Seungmin contemplates variants. Would Chan lie to him if he would be too sober? Would he set a trap? What info would be true and enough for him to believe that medicine worked?
"You can ask me anything you want", Chan adds, as if seeing his doubtful state. "Just not something that is a common knowledge inside the gang."
Frankly speaking, Seungmin is afraid just to think about asking anything from him, both because Chan looks still clearly sober enough and because of a difference in their hierarchy – it was scary just to think about doubting their places this way, even as a part of a test.
He is nervous as hell, and this is what saves him from falling into total haze, but it also prevents pheromones from being intense enough to mess with other people's heads. Chan's dark look from the other side of the table doesn't make things better. No matter will his invention work or not, something in their relationship would be ruined by it anyway.
He tries to calm down and even closes his eyes to run from predatory gaze Chan sends him from across the room. Is it the result of pheromones or is it his normal state? Maybe he's just that furious with Seungmin failing after so much work. He feels it – light prickling all over his skin and his body temperature raising uncontrollably. Once he allows himself to start the reaction for sure, there would not be going back and stopping it till the end. Just… how would he come to the end?
Sudden gush of panic sobers him enough to not start doing some dumb shit immediately. He thinks he hears Chan's moaning – but he can't trust himself now, especially with eyes tightly shut from embarrassment – and it sends sweet tingles up his spine.
Well, he still needs to do something, anything, just to prove that all their work wasn't in vain.
He pulls himself together and comes closer to Chan. His legs still feel desensitized and numb, and it's the only side effect that he couldn't fully overcome over dozens of changes in formula and all the tests they've done, so he has to lean on a table a little to not fall in his gait.
Chan indeed looks… disheveled from this close, so at least medicine has some actual effect on him. He's blushing, and his eyes are a bit glassy, and the way he breathes makes him look like he had run a marathon mere seconds ago. Aside from all of that, he still looks like a normal Chan. Well, he doesn't do anything suspicious to Seungmin himself, even if it was something to be expected. He is relieved by that and worried at the same time. It was one thing to do something with Jeongin, one thing to imagine him doing this with complete strangers that should be killed afterwards, but totally another – to think about Chan, his leader, brother and even father figure in some sense. He feels sick, though he's sure that he will be totally desensitized to any upcoming thoughts like this after some minutes from now.
Chan gulps loudly, and Seungmin is mesmerized by the way his Adam's apple moves with it. He licks his lips, and Seungmin is overcome by the wish to finally make a move and kiss him. Even if these thoughts are dictated by the medicine working, he still tries to resist them as far as he can.
"W-wellll…" Chan's voice is totally harsh now as if he hadn't drank water for several days. He shuts his eyes hard, clearly trying to blink the reverie off, and Seungmin finds his own eyes itching with upcoming tears. Damn, this was the effect he hated more that anything this medicine made him do. "H-how exactly does it work?" he grabs the edge of the table, and his posture screams that it's the only thing stopping him from any unneeded active moves.
Seungmin's mind is buzzing with weird wishes that splash on him like a sea waves, but he's grateful for any distraction.
"Ah…" he hardly suppresses the moan from leaving his lips, "you know how omegas have extreme reaction that makes them…" he just shakes his head. That won't do. Too hard to comprehend in this state. "I just activate my rut artificially, but the pheromones my body produces are swapped with strong omega ones, and… there's a trick we made so everyone is affected by them… by that extreme omega reaction tied to alpha's scent trace…"
Chan hums with lowered head, and it doesn't really seem that he's listening. His hands gripping the table are tensed enough for some veins to protrude, and his breathing is shaky.
Seungmin tries to touch his elbow in some comforting gesture, but Chan just catches his wrist mid-move and growls right in his face, baring his teeth. They both are on a verge of snapping. Seungmin lungs feel constricted, both by adrenaline and fear, and he tries to emit some soothing pheromones to make his fate better – after all, they both were alphas, and even if this thing should work in one way, it hasn't yet been proved absolute. Would Chan harm him in this state? It was hard to imagine him harming any alpha of his group and even harder to think so about omega – whom he was trying to pretend that desperately – but no one really knew his specifics of relationships between dynamics, because he hasn't really allowed any person during their cycle to work at the base and be around him.
Chan bites his lips strong enough that it nearly draws blood, but opens his mouth at the last second in almost panicked inhale. His fingers clutching Seungmin's wrist in a metaphorical chokehold finally relax.
Seungmin decides that it's the time to start questioning him.
"W…" he stops immediately, dumbfounded by his own thoughts. This question feels too silly even as a testing one.
Chan tries to focus on him, raising his head slowly, and the drunk-dazedness of his eyes and his pupils, unrealistically dilated, break something within Seungmin. It looks so pathetic, almost pitiful – strong leader being finally wrapped around someone's finger.
Wish to do… unholy things with him is almost unbearable, but Seungmin gathers all his willpower to stay in a right mind. It's just a question or two, and then he'll probably try to run away to solve the rising problems with his body, and Chan – well… he's strong enough to overcome it in the end.
"What have you eaten for yesterday's dinner?" he asks, walking several steps back, and Chan's posture tenses, his eyes following every motion he makes. His spine looks like a wound spring as if he's ready to jump in every moment.
For a second Seungmin's blood runs cold, because Chan is completely silent, and this way he would be seen as failure, and his experiments too, and-
Chan finally speaks, in a slow, lowly voice, almost as deep as Felix's.
"Bibimbap and some ramen."
Seungmin feels guilty as if he got his dirtiest secret.
"Were you alone during it?"
"No, we went out with… with Binnie", he exhales not louder than a whisper.
Shit. Then this info wouldn't be proving enough, as Chan could counterpart that he might have heard about it from Changbin (though they barely know each other – he with Jeongin hardly knew anyone here aside from Chan himself, to be honest).
"Okay…" he wracks his head again and takes another two steps back, pressing the balls of his hands to the eyes to stop tears from coming. Salt burns under his eyelids, and this feeling is torturous enough to keep him in a right mind, though his body is quite literally on fire. "What is the colour of your underwear today?" it is no less stupid of a question, but it was something that not so many people knew, that's for sure.
Chan visibly stutters before opening his mouth, as if mulling over this question.
"Pink", he says in an extremely serious tone, and Seungmin nervously snickers. Was it a lie? It most probably was a lie, though there was a way to check it, if they would come to doing unholy things today, but then the point of asking would be meaningless. Another miss.
Well, at least he should understand now if things coming from Chan's mouth are sincere or not. And maybe it was better to indulge their inner desires before things would uncontrollably spiral out of their rational minds reach.
He blinks, and tears make his vision blurry for a moment, and next second Chan is already looming over him – by some reason he looks like a giant several heads higher than him though they are at least of a similar height, if Seungmin's not taller than him. Chan visibly trembles with all his body and lays one his hand on Seungmin's chin. His gaze is unfocused and hazy, and Seungmin is sure that it's locked on his lips. He comes so unbelievably closer, taking a shuddering exhale right in Seungmin's mouth, and mere centimetres between them is the only thing stopping them from snapping. Seungmin is suffocated by his own pseudo-omega scent, and he might have accidentally released so much more of it, because Chan sniffs the air almost aggressively and grins with his canines glistening dangerously.
Seungmin doesn't even have enough time to let his fear before such sight bloom fully. He's roughly kissed, and one of Chan's hands is in his hair while other roams over his spine, as if he's trying to find some secret button on his body. He's not really in his rut – not like it would be triggered by artifical pheromones – but his alpha pheromones are still heavy in the air, asking for domination, and Seungmin fights with all his might to resist before they would done something irreversible. And fails.
Something snaps and breaks inside him, and he finds himself fully relaxing, bending to other's will and growing pliant and submissive even if it's not in his nature. Chan is alpha – mighty one with it – he's his caring brother, and he's his boss above all of that, so there is nothing wrong in spending some quality time with him if it would be a proof of him being useful to organisation to any way. If that's how Chan would see that he's indeed capable of saving them, even if in such an unorthodox way.
Seungmin is too dazed to record what's happening between them, too deep in the waves of pleasure and pangs of guilt. Chan is nibbling his neck – right near his scent gland – and it's a totally normal reaction for the victim of medicine, as far as all tests had shown. Not even once Jeongin really wanted to mark him, neither to dominate violently, and now he's sure that even with Chan things won't go too far from normal. Right when this thought crosses his mind, Chan sucks on his skin hard – almost bites – and Seungmin's knees suddenly buckle because of the harshest wave of searing white want. Now the only thing that keeps him upright is big Chan's hand groping his thigh possessively. It's mildly hurtful – older clearly can't control his own power in this state – and by some reason very pleasurable, even if it's totally diametral experience from ones he had with Jeongin, always painfully gentle and soft with him.
Next moment he gains the crumbs of conscience, he's lying on a table with both of his hands locked above his head in Chan's strong grip. His shirt in unbuttoned to a half, and free Chan's hand is currently roaming over his chest. Every touch feels like fire, igniting dozens of small tingling sensations under the skin. He understands that he's hard to the verge of it being torturous – so is Chan, most probably, but he doesn't know a bit about how they will solve this problem. Chan kisses him wetly – nibbles on his earlobe, then smooches his jaw and corner of the mouth, and Seungmin catches his lips in his when he feels him being close enough. The feeling is mind-boggling, and all coherent thoughts swirl inside his head like in a working washing machine, leaving only foam and bubbles of rational thinking.
They kiss feverishly, and Chan loosens the grip on Seungmin's wrists just to put newly-freed hand on his thigh and slowly let it slide higher, so his thumb is lightly massaging Seungmin's crotch. Breath hitches in Seungmin's throat, and he trembles from that little stimulation already. His hands feel boneless, yet he still manages to run his fingers through Chan's hair and slightly pull, diversing his attention from licking wet stripes onto his neck. They kiss, slower than before, as if Chan isn't quite there and doesn't exactly understand what to do. His palm moves to hover above Seungmin's crotch, making him whine thinly. Nails of Chan's other hand lightly scratch the skin around his right nipple, and it doesn't make things easier for him. He inhales deeply, and as if he gulped too much of fresh air, his mind is suddenly clearer a bit.
"Tell me your darkest secret", he finds himself asking in a low, sultry tone, and blood is roaring in his ears so loud that he almost misses his own words.
Chan almost coughs from the suddenness of a question – or at least his breath visibly hitches. Seungmin is sure that he's too dazed out of it to think straight and be able to resist his orders, but sight of Chan stopping in his routes fills him with dread anyway.
And then he whispers something – so quiet that Seungmin isn't even able to catch it fully. And things he's able to comprehend sound more like a nonsense than some deadly secret.
"Sorry, what?" he blurts out before he can stop himself, and Chan just repeats, slowly and patiently, as if explaining something to unruly child, and the fact that he still talks like that while being a victim of powerful chemical reaction scares Seungmin shitless. The message is still short – one sentence consisting of several words – and still doesn't make any sense. Maybe it's some kind of a cypher. Maybe he had just lost his mind in a haze.
"What that's supposed to mean?.." he mumbles more to himself than actually asks, but Chan still bends closer and says something right in his ear in a breathy tone – he tells a story.
Seungmin freezes, because his blood literally goes cold. While words itselves might not have any sense, by being told to the wrong person they can lead to the death of several people – dozens, probably, or even several gangs that are here around being wiped out. By being told to the very wrong person they can ruin the way this city runs itself.
He feels dizziness overcoming him. It kills some of arousal, but only within him, as Chan doesn't seem to be much bothered by his own words.
This is the moment when Seungmin understands – he had completely, totally fucked up. He doesn't know why he hadn't thought about future beforehand and why even with all his fearful imaginations he hadn't prepared for anything… unholy that would follow him using the ampule. For its effect to wear off fully he needs his own high, and to click Chan out of his state he needs to make him feel good too, meaning they still need to… make each other come, to put it chastely. He's sure that Chan won't violate him against his will, but not totally sure. Anyway, he's not prepared to any penetrative sex either mentally of physically. It's not that he is afraid of process itself – he believes he would endure it nicely if well-prepared – but the possibility of him ruining Chan's image in his own mind… Not saying how regretful would the other be after this. They were brothers and precious friends to each other, and this connection, no matter how thin, was sacred.
Seungmin tries to gather all his willpower to remove cotton-like sweet buzzing from his head. He should just make Chan feel good and then do something about himself, after all tests he performed both with Jeongin and alone it wasn't the problem.
"C-can you… step back and just stand still?" he begs brokenly, squeezing his eyes shut. Tears are still flowing out like one endless waterfall, and with all sweat he feels crippling on his body he believes that he will be hella dehydrated at the end of the process. And thinking back about how extra salivating Chan was… well, they'll need to drink a lot of water after it ends. Seungmin decides to hold onto this thought to not fall again into lustful abyss. Now he just needs to end it all.
Chan obeys – not so surprisingly, but Seungmin still chuckles in mild shock – he stands upright near the table, with his hands on his thighs, and just looks at him from under disheveled bangs. He looks dumbfounded as if he's а toddler whose candy was just taken from him or whose parent had just disappeared behind the closed palms. Seungmin takes his time to take some deep breaths and overall just rest a little. His heart beats like crazy, and he's half-sure that he will have some problems with cardiac muscles after another row of uses of ampules, but these things seem so blurry and far from now that he just lets it go. Even if he'll break somewhen in the future, it doesn't matter as far as he can be useful for the gang's prosperity and survival.
He allows himself to be hopeful over this. Being useful is the only thing he lives for.
Hesitantly he sits on a table and then slides back to stand on the floor. His legs feel wobbly, and the whole world around him spins for several seconds, so he has to clutch onto the wooden table for the dear life just to balance himself. Sight of a Chan looming over him yet again, just standing here unmovingly, isn't something that soothes him. If something, it looks just more unnerving. The other is totally silent and stiff, hardly allowing even his gaze to follow Seungmin's movements.
"You can do something, you know", Seungmin mumbles just because this state of his leader frightens him to no end. Chan exhales immediately, as if he was diligently holding his breath, and just puts his hands on the both sides of him, not yet touching his frame, but still close enough to feel the other's body heat. Seungmin shudders, more of embarassement before what he must do, and hesitantly again touches his pants belt in return. This isn't something made for special operations, so it opens easily, yet the pose itself and the muscles on Chan's thighs don't really allow this garment to fall on the floor, and Seungmin is really grateful for that. There is nothing else under the outer layer of clothes, just the underwear – pink, Seungmin thinks dumbly, with small wolf emojis all across thin fabric, – and he touches it lightly, not yet knowing what reaction he wants to get from him. Chan isn't by any means small, he could guess it just by his complexion overall, and in this aroused state he looks monstrous to Seungmin – or maybe he's too afraid so he hyperbolises everything he sees. Thank goodness that he really doesn't have any need in actual penetration like he had, apparently, at the start of experiment, take his words back, he would totally die. There is still a chance that he would need alpha's hormonal peak to stop being affected himself – this side effect wasn't consistent during the tests, by some reason – and he's still sure that Chan would not snap back to his normal self without it. It was similar with Jeongin – even after omega scent faded away after Seungmin's high, he still was aroused because of all cumulative effect of artifical pheromones. It wasn't that bad for the actual missions – probably it was even for good, so he could control his victims longer, either by triggering this state again by releasing new pheromones or just prolonging existing one without emitting any – but most if not all of his victims usually needed to be killed afterwards – he researched all their enemies thoroughly, – so he hadn't thought this thing through for the variant where he must also return them to their normal way of thinking.
What a pain in the ass, frankly.
He touches Chan's dick through the fabric with highest care, even gentleness. Chan leans into his touch, quite literally, bending down to almost lay on him with all his body weight (which is a lot). Of course, he still supports himself by the hands on a table, but he's not shy to put his head – which also feels heavy – onto Seungmin's shoulder and make some weird noises akin to purring right into his ear. Seungmin twitches both from suddenness of this sound and from the hot puffs of breath he feels on his skin, but gathers himself again. He just needs to make him feel good and then do something about himself.
Chan is so eerily calm over him – he doesn't know if it should be like that with everyone, maybe it's just Chan being overly composed even in dazed state, who knows, – and Seungmin finds himself releasing pleased pheromones, but he acknowledges that only when Chan emits similar ones as an answer, continuing with his purring-like sounds, but in another ear. He's palming the older's crotch steadily, and Chan gradually goes lax and too relaxed over him, closing his eyes and quite literally sitting on his knees (Seungmin thinks that his boss will break his hipbones with his weight, but he still endures this somehow). He's too embarrassed to actually allow himself skin to skin contact, but as it seems it's still enough for Chan, as after some time he whines thinly – first moment Seungmin thinks that it's something with gas pipe leaking – and goes absolutely limp in his hands. He looks like he's ready to fall asleep as he is, even if this strange pose – half-standing, half-sitting on the other, – but Seungmin just pushes him up and off from himself and leads him to sit on his chair, hastily buttoning his pants back. He's mildly intrigued by would Chan actually notice that they had to do anything out of normal here or not. Well, not like it wasn't obvious from their very appearance, but still, would he know what exactly did they do?
Chan is leaning on one of his hands, putting his pointy elbow on the wooden table, with the look of a great sufferer drawn on his face, so Seungmin feels pang of guilt gushing its way inside his heart. It was definitely easier with Jeongin who was too out of it for several hours after the end of experiment to feel anything strange.
Seungmin tries to invent the fast way to solve his problem, because he'll need his right mind to explain what happened to Chan, but nothing at all comes to his mind. So he decides just to do the same with himself – also not touching the skin itself, he doesn't have any wet wipes or such with him to clean his hands afterwards – and the extreme hotness that burns in his veins makes it easy, maybe even easier than usual ("usual" outside of tests, of course). He breathes heavily, sitting on a cold floor, totally messed up. Has he succeed in the end? They both are alive, and in the right mind, and he got something he could show to Chan as actual results.
He doesn't know how long he just spaces out, trying to blink tears and remains of haze from his vision, but the sound that catches his attention is Chan's groaning. It sounds pretty quiet, as if he tries to hide it, and this weirdness makes Seungmin alerted only more. He cautiously stands up from the floor, yet again holding on a table verge, because dizziness washes over him like strong sea waves, and looks at Chan. He looks back, almost frightened, as if he can't really catch on what's going on around. He squints his eyes, looks across the room several times and then returns to Seungmin, focusing on his disheveled state.
"Wh…" he is broken in harsh coughing session right after he opens his mouth, and Seungmin feels pity and regret over this sight. It was him who made his older like that. "What happened?" he frowns and squints again, as if just eaten several lemons.
Seungmin wracks his head to tell him anything coherent, and decides just to come with the truth.
"Well, you asked me to show you how my- our invention actually works…" Chan arches one brow like it's something he hears for the first time. Well- "And then I showed you how it works." Seungmin stops, not knowing how to explain.
"Okay, so… did it work?"
Seungmin can't quite wrap his head around this. Did Chan forget everything that just happened? It wasn't the same with Jeongin, but- Err, he probably should drop the topic of him at all, because he's totally different case. In theory – and they made many theoretical experiments too, they are not silly enough to just stay on practical side when human factor was so prominent – it could and would happen easily (that was also for the better in missions, if it was a common side effect).
"How at all does it work?" Chan asks dumbly, probably because he really had forgot, or maybe just needs a reminder.
"W-well", Seungmin blushes again and stutters, "this medicine makes people around think that I'm the omega in heat, and they lower their defense and are ready to comply to my orders."
Chan hums. This description is different from before, but Seungmin hopes that now it sounds better.
"And did I comply?" leader asks with equal parts of suspicion and disbelief.
"W-welllll…" Seungmin panics a little. What can he say? Would there be any solid proofs of it? "I mean, you asked me yourself to ask you about anything, so I kinda- errr- did?"
Chan yet again arches his brows in doubt.
"And what have you got?"
"Ehhh- well-" Seungmin squeezes his eyes shut. Things that he's going to say sound equally too irrelevant and too intimate at the same time. "Okay, first of all yesterday you had bibimbap and some ramen for the dinner."
Chan looks at him disapprovingly. "Okay", he just says colourless, devoid of any particular emotion. "Probably you've heard about it from Changbin."
Seungmin wants to argue that they haven't crossed each other's ways in recent days – months even – but it's not like he can prove this for sure, so he shuts his mouth.
"Umm…" he's full of shame before what he needs to say. "Your underwear is pink today."
Chan exhales through his nose loudly, and Seungmin even flinches from it.
"If it really worked as it should for the "thinking that you are the omega" part, I can imagine you seeing it yourself. I guess you had?" he says eerily calmly, and Seungmin shudders as if temperature in a room just lowered for twenty degrees.
He just purses his lips. Would Chan think of him as of total failure? Well, wait-
"…" he mumbles that nonsensical thing he'd heard from Chan last, and his leader just sits here for a moment dumbfounded, as if he can't catch the meaning of it himself, and even opens his mouth clearly to ask about it, but then suddenly something sparks behind his eyes, he gazes at Seungmin piercingly, and his look transforms from confusion to the one of the purest fury.
Next second Seungmin is able to comprehend reality, he's already falling on the floor, the back of his head colliding with it harshly, and Chan is sitting on him and constricting his breathing with his hand squeezing Seungmin's windpipe. He growls – quite literally – looming over him, and Seungmin is freezed not from suffocation itself, but more because of a sheer power of his posture.
"How do you know something like that?" he hisses, clearly murderous, and just squeezes his throat harder – not exactly to the point of it breaking and not exactly deadly, because he clearly wants his answers.
"You've… said it yourself…" Seungmin wheezes. He doesn't even try to push Chan's hands away because it would make things only worse. "I just nee… ded something to… to prove that… I can g… get anything f-from anyone…" he says with long pauses, but Chan is patient enough. In the end he squeezes his throat hard, so tears spring from Seungmin's eyes. He whispers panically, the only thing he's able to think of: "We don't have t-the time to change formula, we need to m-make a move now… I d-don't want anyone to suffer… I-I don't want Innie to suffer…"
Chan suddenly releases him and stands up. His breathing is heavy and his eyes are wide. He steps back and flees.
Seungmin blacks out and finally falls into blissful unconsciousness.
***
The don't have enough time indeed, as the first mission Chan sends him to is on the same week. It takes only several days of contemplation for him to decide that it's really the only way possible.
When they leave, he still looks like he wants to stop them, but interrupts himself and just sighs heavily, but Seungmin still sees from his seat how pained he is.
Today he is partnered with Changbin, man from Chan's inner circle and probably one of the founders of their gang as a whole. Changbin is their only beta – and it's the only thing about him Seungmin knows for sure, just because everyone in the group must know others' second gender. Changbin looks like a hitman who kills with brutal force from the close distance (don't mind him if he's wrong, he doesn't know what exactly specific people's positions are, so he relies on appearance and their uniform). He's buff, and somehow he looks both dangerous and kind at the same time – and he kinda is, because during all the ride he jokes to ease the atmosphere, but his humour is mostly dark.
Their main goal now is a woman, and Seungmin is chilled to the bones with this perspective. They hardly had researched how classical a-b-o triplet works in men, and he's not even sure that women can be in any position of dynamics, but at the last moment Changbin reassures him that Seungmin's personal goal is her assistant, ordinary alpha, who isn't even that strong mentally of physically (he just frowns at these details – how would they know that?), and he just needs to interrogate that man in private. He is given the list of questions – some sound absurd, but he minds Chan's secret and just learns all of them by heart, repeating them soundlessly with just his lips. To be sure that he won't forget anything in process (or, as Changbin jokes, in case of his death) he's also given a small voice recorder disguised as a button on his jacket.
Before they go in, Changbin makes him wear colourful contact lenses – especially weird colour, something like turquoise – and even put on some makeup. He does it himself, mostly painting something on Seungmin's cheeks, chin and nose. When Seungmin looks at himself in the rear view mirror, he can't even understand whom he looks at, because his face shape looks entirely different, as if the bone structure itself had changed. He doesn't know how Changbin can be so maddeningly good at it, but he supposes other has his reasons.
He thinks that Changbin will lead and follow him into the building, but they part ways almost a block before – Changbin just disappears into the shadows in a blink of an eye, and Seungmin stands there alone for a straight minute (as he thinks himself, in reality he spends about a dozen of them just wandering around in total confusion) before his communicator lights up with the message with the room he needs to go to to cross his ways with his goal.
It's the office building, small pretention on a skyscraper, and it's buzzing with people. Today is the day of some economic forum, and suddenly Seungmin thinks that his turquoise eyes will catch too much attention, but he sees how people around him are dressed all pompous – too pompous for average businessmen – and calms down. Well, not calms calms, because it just means that they are not the only mafia out there.
Room he needs to find is on the seventh floor, and he decides to go there by stairs (less time to be captured clearly on cameras and less people to see him, and he also needs to check the black exits). By the fifth floor he's already tired – he doesn't work out at all, mostly because he's in lab 24/7, and even if he wasn't always busy with experimenting and tests, his work wasn't that physical anyway to care about the state of his body. He panics a little – what if his victim is already gone? – and rushes the last two floors purely on a willpower.
Room is inconspicuous, just a small office for small meetings. Seungmin contemplates a little – should he take the ampule now, when he's not sure that his victim is there, or check it beforehand and only then do something?
He decides that he won't have enough time to do anything if that person will suspect him in being an enemy, so he takes the ampule and concentrates on releasing pheromones quickly and intensively. He needs to lure him in during the first moments they'll see each other.
There come strange shuffling noises behind the door, and Seungmin dashes to open it. Room is dark, and looks totally empty. Seungmin more feels than actually sees the movement behind him and steps to the right just in time to avoid a vertical punch.
Man before him is angry, baring his teeth in the sight of helplessness more than of actual danger. In twilight surrounding them Seungmin hardly can distinguish his facial features – but yes, this is the one who is set as his goal.
Man tries to fight – actually fight him, tries to hurt him physically and beat the shit out of him, but his resistance is deceased almost instantly. He blinks repeatedly, as if not understanding what's going on, and holds his head in his hands as if he has a headache. Seungmin's pheromones get sour in the sight of distress, and man suddenly leaps closer to him and coos something… comforting?
Seungmin just tries to run away, walking around the table, and his goal just follows him as if mesmerized. After one full circle around the table Seungmin just comes closer to the door and locks it for sure so no one else could break in in the middle of a process that easily. He even thinks about making a barricade with a chair, but these chairs don't seem to be suitable for it.
Man suddenly catches up to him and puts his hands on Seungmin's shoulders, so he shudders both from the suddenness and disgust. Man makes weird slurping noises already, and Seungmin is totally sure that he doesn't want to know what will come next, yet he needs to do his job.
Seungmin just waves his hand before his goal's face, and his eyes are following hand's movement just as snake would follow the melody of a flute.
Seungmin tries to come up with any neutral question that would show him that man is ready to be interrogated seriously. He decides to ask the man about his name and age, and other answers, with his eyes glassy and pose submissive, as if he thinks of Seungmin as of some kind of demigod. Probably god even. He's hella aroused already, and Seungmin doesn't even feel a bit of a fire boiling in his veins yet.
He asks the first question from the list. Man answers in intoxicated, almost drunken tone, trying to touch him everywhere, and Seungmin has to allow him that just to not raise any resistance. He still hasn't tested it on that many people, so he couldn't predict the borders of how sticky the medicine effect could be.
He feels his mind finally becoming hazy, so he turns on the voice recorder and just asks the same thing again. Person answers – so quietly that Seungmin is afraid that the sound will be lost, but his time is limited, and this answer isn't too important anyway, so just because he needs to check all the list while he can, he simply continues.
Man tries to kiss him somewhere between his jaw and ear, and Seungmin barely stops himself from backing off from this. He's thinking about future – about the fact that he needs to get accustomed to such unchaste touches and moves, because not everyone would be this weak and some will definitely try to fight back against artificial pheromones and dominate him. Well, even he himself won't be able to resist the effects of his own medicine, as he never did during all months of testing and experimenting. It was one thing to do it with Jeongin and Chan, both of whom clearly weren't interested in dominating him violently, and entirely different to be thrown in the same space against someone with killing intent. Of course he had envisioned these things beforehand, but reality once again hit him hard with how awful he really felt doing even the smallest things with someone whom he couldn't trust at all.
He asks the second question. Man's eyes looks glassy as if he's a porcelain doll, and his movements are stiff and slightly trembling. He holds onto Seungmin for the dear life and whispers something inaudible before the actual answer – something very, very lewd. His hands, already sweaty, are roaming across Seungmin's body, and other is flinching from touches closer to his face.
Seungmin asks the third question, though it becomes hard to formulate words straight as if his tongue is made from liquid lead. Man tries to smooch him right in the lips, and sour grin that blooms on Seungmin's face the same instant is more than enough for him. He whispers something frantically, fast and slightly unintelligible, and Seungmin just prays that it would be recorded well, because he can't understand a word himself and can't find the power within himself to listen to it all again.
He asks the fourth question when his blood actually boils in his veins and the wish to just get humped in any way becomes unbearable. Hand that roams across his thigh suddenly feels pleasurable, and he just catches it with his own hand and interwines their fingers. He shudders with wave after wave of pure want that threatens to shut his brain down completely. He can't just submit to it now, he just can't-
He asks the fifth question after several torturous minutes filled with painful resistance and moaning. They both are cuddled on the table's verge, man standing between his spread legs. Seungmin can't quite catch what exactly are they doing now.
He asks the sixth question.
He asks-
Everything is a blur. The only thing he can feel is constant mental pain and overwhelming bodily pleasure.
Next time he finally gains consciousness enough to remember things, he's already onto the man's body, plastered across the floor, roughly shoving his fingers into man's mouth. What is he doing?..
Man's eyes roll back, but in pain, not pleasure, and he starts shuddering violently, after what yellowish foam comes out of his half-opened freshly-chapped lips. Right. After all, before all this business with omega medicine their lab was known for creating poisons. He's still poison master, after all.
Right in the moment Seungmin pulls his fingers out of other's palate to not have them bitten off, room's door is opening – well, more like blown off the hinges with one powerful kick. Changbin stands behind it, lowering leg he just used, and sniffs suspiciously.
"You smell weird", he just comments, as if it's really the only thing that is weird here.
Room is a mess. Man had gotten undressed almost fully, with his garments laying here and there. Several chairs lay on the floor, clearly knocked over. Seungmin himself is not in a better state, with his hair all musled, face teary and shirt barely in one piece. His pants are torn open – well, not exactly torn, thank goodness, – and he feels slicky down below. Man also has dark patch on his underwear very prominent.
Seungmin exhales. Okay, the worst hadn't occured. He's back in his right mind and his goal is dead. Changbin is here and if anything, he can help him return to the base. He- gosh, where is his voice recorder?!
Changbin just collects his clothes from across the room patiently. He looks at his jacket – that specific button with recorder – and pulls it off, putting it inside his breast pocket. Then he gives the bunch of clothes to Seungmin and waits while other tries to get a hold about where his limbs are. Seungmin feels dizzy and slightly achy all over – probably just cramps because of ampule's side effects – and Changbin helps him stand upright and then walk to the door.
"W… e don't need to hide our traces?" Seungmin can't quite wrap his head about it. This kill is messy, and there are probably tons of his bodily liquids all over, not saying about threads from fabric and fingerprints, but Changbin still just shakes his head silently and says "No need", and these are the only words Seungmin hears him saying for the rest of the walk back. They take some other stairwell, secret one, and then wander for what feels like eternity in the inner yards further from big streets to shake off any tail.
Changbin smells weird himself, that's what Seungmin understands when they both are inside the car. Lights are dimly lit, but he still sees thin scratch on Changbin's right cheek and dark splashes of something over his black sweater and pants. In this state Seungmin is slightly more sensitive to scents and fragrances, so he catches something metallic radiating from his skin and clothing.
"This bitch tried to poison me back", he tiredly rubs his neck where Seungmin notices two red dots left from injections. "Luckily I had universal stopper with me, but we still have to go to the lab to find the right antidote", he wriggles in a driver's seat as if questioning himself if he should stay there. "How long will this shit keep me alive?"
Seungmin nods dumbly before he concentrates on a question itself.
"About forty minutes at max, depending on original poison."
Changbin chuckles dryly.
"Then we need to avoid any traffic jams and red lights."
He buckles his seatbelt and pushes the gas pedal to the floor, breaking all speed limits on a way.
"Thank you for inventing this thing", he blurts out out of the blue as they are nearing the base, and Seungmin just nods. Poison stopper was totally a Jeongin's idea, and even if he had to poison himself several times to test its work, he still can't say he did enough to be thanked for.
He falls asleep.
***
As far as Seungmin understands, this mission is successful. He's not interrogated himself, so probably voice recorder is enough for Chan to prove anything. As he accidentally learns after – when Changbin comes to the lab to check if the poison is fully out of his system already – there is nothing too important or unknown for a gang from all the info he gathered, so it was… just an another test, he supposes. Changbin scolds him for acting recklessly all by himself in the end, but still compliments him for being brave enough. He is mildly surprised that Seungmin had at all decided to kill anyone himself and not wait for help or flee.
Seungmin just turns his head away in embarrassment while Jeongin watches Changbin suspiciously from the corner.
***
After initial mission Chan doesn't bother him with other ones for almost two months, even if recovering process, with balancing the hormones and whatnot, takes only five days. During all this time they just work on decoding some sophisticated biological code they were provided by their "foreign intelligence agent" Jisung (whatever his position meant) and also try to invent antidotes for some shit Changbin brings them in ampulas regularly.
Seungmin is tired of waiting. He had proved himself enough, right? He did what he was asked to, and as far as he gets, it was more than enough. Why Chan isn't sending him anywhere? He goes to Chan straight, but other just dismisses him instantly almost aggressively. When he tries to come to Changbin with the same question – Changbin seems close enough to the leadership to solve this – he just says that Chan doesn't like these methods, so Seungmin hardly will have any field work anytime soon, if ever.
It irritates him to no end. He feels like he's frown upon, like he's not taken seriously. All things he's done are done by his own will. If Chan is afraid to get him dirty he should probably just exclude him from the gang overall somehow. That's not how the world works, after all, you can't just stay clean and pure for all your life, especially if you want to achieve some things. Chan is too gentle with him as if he's fragile, but Seungmin sees how other members work – after all, their lab also works as a medical station for situations where people need immediate pre-hospital help. He'd seen almost everyone – at least five of them – half-dead, and he…
He feels his headache growing.
He goes to Chan again after several days, when he's in his workroom with Changbin, clearly caught in a working frenzy. This time it's Changbin who talks after Chan decisively dismisses Seungmin's ask again: "Hyung, he's not a child anymore, and we're not your children to care about us so much. He just wants to work just like we all do. Let him do what he wants, if this is really his own will".
Chan is frowning, partly angry, partly feeling betrayed by this turn of events. He huffs, leaning on a table as if weared out.
"I still don't approve these methods, but if it's really what he wants…" Seungmin is nodding so desperately that his neck hurts, "… okay, I'll… I'll try to find something for him", he says with such a gloomy and mournful tone as if Seungmin had already died on a mission.
It takes another week of waiting for him to finally get what he needs.
It's the second mission when things go entirely wrong.
This time his goal, alpha, is a mighty one, so Chan specifically asks him to be prepared for anything. Anything, – he emphasizes, and Seungmin just nervously squeezes his eyes. It won't be all fun and games as it was with Chan, and it won't be that gentle as it was with Jeongin, so he prepares in advance and also takes some additional things with him. His clothes are casual – soft pants and hoodie with a giant pocket on belly that is full of things needed, – and he has to meet with his victim in а small café several streets away from them, eerily close to the base for his liking.
Changbin parks the car near the café, close enough for Seungmin to get there fast, but also far enough to not get into any cameras recording and be seen from the windows. Their goal, he says, is meeting with his friends today – no one from actual mafia circles, but Seungmin still should be at least a bit careful for them not to call someone for help. He says that this time he won't be accompanying him at all, even as а backup, because this person knows Changbin, and Seungmin is a new neutral face no one will be suspicious with yet. Changbin asks him to take the ampule beforehand and stay for some time inside for the scent to be imprinted on his skin, and Seungmin nervously complies. They count ampulas with poison together and check his belongings for… other things from a list. Everything is ready, yet his own mind is not. Changbin instructs him that he literally needs to kill this person without any additional questions asked and do anything that is in his power to make it look like a drugs overdose – this place is known for such kind of deaths, so police will shrug off another drug addict death easily, and if something, they can push and pull enough for this case investigation to be ceased, – but Chan was certain in his words that there are some things he extremely needs taken from the man, and Seungmin wants to overdo the plan to prove… his own worth? That he is capable of being more than just a cannon meat? He wants to be useful so badly.
Seungmin understands that it's the time to go when Changbin sniffs the air suspiciously and winces. "You smell-"
Seungmin jumps off the car before other finishes the sentence.
His goal is sitting on the other side of the café, in the corner place beside big round table, glistening with plastic covering in dimmed light. He's alpha in his group – not biologically but rather socially – and he's the first one to notice Seungmin coming closer.
"Hey guys! Look what a chic!" he exclaims loudly, so loud that Seungmin hears him from the middle of the area, only halfway to their place of dislocation. Some heads turn to the man disapprovingly, but most turn to Seungmin himself. Their looks are dangerous and hungry, and Seungmin has to gather all his willpower to stop icy goosebumps from running all across his spine. He exhales, trying to concentrate on a mission and especially on one specific person beside him. The very same person just barks in laugh – too impolitely loud again – and shouts: "Hey little chic, how about coming to us? We're gonna have a good time", he winks, filthily and very obvious in his intentions, and people around him whom he hugs loosely – a girl and a beta on the other side – just snicker, covering their mouths.
He feels nauseous. Probably he's sent to such goal right at the second mission just because this man is an obvious pervert and it would be easy for him to lure him in (probably even without medicine, yet he seriously doubts that he's handsome or pretty enough to be seen as lovable or at the very least fuckable).
After painfully long walk to their table he sits down – or rather tries to sit, because the moment he lowers himself on a free chair he's forcefully raised and moved, from one pair of hands to another, until he's located at his goal's lap. People gathered around the table – Seungmin counts six of goal's friends – all look at him lustfully, even the girl who pretends to drink her coctail just to the right from them. After mere seconds he finds himself in this compromising position he feels her thin hand crawling its way onto his thigh, her long nails scraping at his skin even through pants. He doubts it's the effect of medicine – probably she's just high. Maybe all of them are – he sees how their eyes are glassy and not perceiving enough. They probably don't even see him clearly, and paired with medicine's effect hardly will remember his face.
For some minutes the conversation by this table just continues as if nothing weird had just happened, and Seungmin even relaxes a bit, but then his goal grabs him by his chest and pushes his body closer to himself, so Seungmin perfectly feels his stone-hard dick under his ass. Man has the audacity to slide both his hands down his thighs and lay his pointy chin on Seungmin's shoulder, so his conversational voice, by some reason lower and breathier than before, goes right into Seungmin's ear by little puffs of air. Seungmin's brain is ready to shut down already, even without this sultry behaviour, and then man just ends his sentence with light bite to his earlobe, and Seungmin flinches from pain, pleasure and panic. He needs to do something, anything now.
"I-I need to go", he wheezes because his throat is absolutely dry, and his goal just laughs lightheartedly, as if some wind bells are ringing.
"Let him out", he asks – there is something commanding in his tone, so no one of his friends tries to step in – and just as Seungmin is free from the prison of their company, he stands up and gets out of his place too, less than secretly following Seungmin.
Well. Seungmin looks intently at people surrounding them, sending the angry and distressed pheromones their way, so they just wince and turn their heads away, and acts all happily with the man who nonchalantly leans onto him from the back and clearly tries to grope his breasts in his big rough palms.
He goes to the restroom – other customers try to pinch him or grab his elbows, but alpha plastered over his back just hisses lowly or glances at them with such murderous gaze that they instantly keep their hands back to themselves.
They are already in restroom stall – both at the same one, because alpha is certain in what he wants from the body before him – when it happens. Man's pheromones spike uncontrollably, and Seungmin is suffocated by this heady scent so much that he starts coughing. It's not rut, it can't be the rut, but it definitely seems like it. Seungmin finds himself salivating so much that some of his spit falls on the floor from his slack mouth.
Alpha is extremely pleased over him.
Seungmin is crouched over the toilet bowl, with one his knee on its closed lid, and alpha's imitating some wave-like movements beside him, groping his asscheeks harshly. His vision blackens periodically, and his head is splitting in contradicting wishes – to have alpha's cock inside him and to fight against other's shout for dominance. He's arguing within himself for too long, so alpha grows impatient and growls right in his ear, clenching muscles under his palms to the verge of bruising: "You're a good whore, right? Will you be good for me?"
It's the first time Seungmin is actually called this word, and it slaps him hard. He knew what he signed himself for, but it still was another thing to hear this in real life. Tears – either shameful ones or from medicine – are present in his eyes, and alpha just grins wider, licking salty traces from his flushed face. Seungmin squeezes his eyes shut and takes in a shaky breath. Alpha hums – partly impatiently, partly irritated – and turns him around so he sits unnaturally on а ceramic box with his legs slightly angled to the side. Seungmin anticipates upcoming kiss and bites man's lips just out of spite, so the next moment he is slapped hard – with nails accidentally scratching his cheek – because of a disobedience. Alpha clutches his shoulders with his hellishly strong grip, and Seungmin winces in pain and anger. Why doesn't it work?! Was this alpha too powerful for him to crack?
Alpha's pheromones, intense and thick like a storm cloud, surround him, and Seungmin yet again trembles, trying to regain his own will. Something bad is going to happen is he allows himself to fall.
"Well?" man asks in a suggestive tone, and Seungmin just tries to release more artifical omega pheromones to fight his alpha ones. It changes situation, but not to the better, because instead of making man pliant it makes him just more fierce. He's suddenly all around Seungmin, circling him with his hands and legs and pressing him into himself tougher. He looks at Seungmin with drunk-dazed, absolutely crazy eyes, half-hooded and with pupils unnaturally dilated, and Seungmin feels the sparks of want igniting in his lower belly. His mouth is suddenly dry, and tears still are flowing out freely, and his thoughts are all around the place. He needed… needed…
It's a blur again, but this time Seungmin is grateful for it. His perception of reality consists of rough shreds of sensations here and there – alpha's fingers between his asscheeks, touching previously slicked place, other man's hands grip on his ankles, raising them over his head and bending his back in a very embarassing way. He doubts in what he perceives, but he can bet he hears man's grunts when he pierces his helpless body, again and again several times in a row. It's not that painful – at least the preparations were enough – but the shame over the position he finds himself in makes him feel like drowning. He can't control what is happening to him, just going with a powerful flow of natural chemical reactions. Man kisses him – Seungmin's mouth is suddenly wet like the new oasis bloomed inside of him – and man whines weirdly, stepping back a little. His pheromones level subsides, allowing Seungmin to take a break. His head clears a little, and he does the only thing he feels himself born for – he asks.
Man chuckles, a bit bitterly, and Seungmin huffs, as if he's one in control now, as if it's not him who's wrapped around other's finger and whatnot. He just asks again, raising his chin proudly, and man looks at him suspiciously with unreadable look, and then just grins again, a bit weak, and tells him this and dozens of things surrounding the main object of a question, with such an easy tone like he really wanted to have this conversation from the start. He continues to mumble something when he kisses Seungmin's neck, more sweetly than aggressive, and it feels a bit pleasurable for real. Alpha noses the dip between his shoulder and neck and licks several wet stripes over this place. He's suddenly much slower and – more tamed? Seungmin doesn't feel like the one in control though – he feels dirty, and broken, and also extremely aroused. Thoughts in his brain are swirling like in some washing machine, water inside making a lot of noise, some shuffling, some knocking, and he concentrates on this inner picture to not lose himself again. Alpha awakes only disgust in him, and Seungmin is so enraged by all what had happened because of the man that he can't control the way his fingers clench into a tight fist and the way this fist punches his assaulter down-up in this little soft place under the chin and between the jaws where tongue is located inside.
He hears man's teeth clacking, and blood splashes from behind closed lips, staining his hoodie and some of the open skin of his neck and lower part of the jaw. Man is either unconscious or just stunned for a moment, or maybe even dead, but anyway Seungmin hastily shuffles in his pocket and puts several – just to be sure – ampulas with liquid death inbetween his teeth, forcefully cracking them and allowing poison to flow into man's throat. He is half-lying, his back leaning on the stall's wall and his legs bended unnaturally, stuck between other wall and toilet bowl. Seungmin is totally afraid to open the door – body lacking any life can just fall out of it – and there is not enough place to relocate it. He hardly even can step over man's limbs to come to the door overall. Moreso, his state is extremely suspicious – all disheveled, flushed to the roots if his hair, with blood on his hoodie and prominent boner in his pants – so he just stands there for some time, desperately thinking about how he could flee without being caught by the first person he sees. He even wants to write something to Changbin – yet he both stops himself from doing so, too proud to give up so easily, and doesn't have any communicators with him anyway, because if something would go wrong, he needed to not leave any trace leading to his gang.
Then he realises that the effect of the medicine is still here – in fact, it's stable and unwavering. It might be a chance for him to run away – just make everyone around charmed enough so they won't question his appearance. He's the new face not yet known for criminal circles in town, and yet there hardly are any witnesses who can picture him clearly – goal's friends too immersed in their own drunken state and random people just not interested enough– so if something will come up, it wouldn't be instant.
He opens the stall's door carefully and steps outside. Man's head bangs loudly on a tile floor, and Seungmin cringes from the sound. It's hard to close the door back, and he doesn't know how to lock it from the oustide, so he just gives up on this whole idea in the end. This kill is messy too, and he doesn't have either possibilities or wish to clean up the place, especially in his current state, so he just ignores all alarms ringing in his head, because it doesn't matter, he would be either caught or not now – or never, he's sure that other gang members can erase all digital traces of him and shuffle physical ones enough to make forces above them totally confused. And if they are not able to do so… well, he might believe in his fellow members too much then. It doesn’t look like a drug overdose at all, in the end – or maybe it does, he's not a pro in such things, but there is probably something illegal in man's blood already and poison remnants have structure similar to some synthetic drugs too, so there is still a slight possibility of everyone around thinking that it was just an unlucky case. With some blood, yes. Maybe he just had seizures.
Path back is a thorny one: his legs are wobbly and almost boneless, so he has to touch the walls periodically just to have some solid surface to lean onto. People are looking his direction, mildly interested gazes following him, but luckily or not, no one asks about his outer appearance. Even barista – probably omega or beta – just looks at him lazily and aside from brief glance ignores him completely. Some people try to touch him, but Seungmin sends concentrated irritation-filled pheromones their way, and they jerk their hands away as if they just touched fire. Café building seems stuffed to the brim with pheromones, scents and people, and Seungmin is so tired of them, with his enhanced sense of smell being able to catch several weird wishes flowing in the air, so he hurries to the exit, almost runs, absolutely not giving a shit about any conspiracy ever. Gulp of fresh air makes him much more sober, but also too aware of his body state: he's still hard, horny and wishing for a quick and intense fuck. Even if his thoughts are much clearer for now, he doesn't know for how long.
He's barely able to come closer to the car when his body suddenly is broken in a series of painful seizures that don't make any sense. Luckily to him, Changbin sees it from his seat and rushes out, literally carrying him in his hands. Seungmin clearly tries to smooch him in the lips the first moment he feels freed from shudders, so Changbin just bends Seungmin's body over his shoulder and carries him like a sack of rice, throwing him on the back row of seats pretty roughly. Seungmin's body emanates distressed pheromones, and Changbin has to close his nose when he gets inside and sits on a driver's place. He glances at Seungmin through the rear view mirror, and sight before him worries him to no end: his teammate is fully out of it, hardly understanding what's going on and probably also non verbal if the absence of any coherent sounds aside from moaning and raspy laboured breathing means something. He locks the gazes with Changbin, mostly by accident, and rushes to the first row of seats to come closer to him. It's hard to keep him in place and even harder to return him back, but eventually he's harshly thrown at seats again, and Changbin exits the car, gaining him pained wail as an answer. Moments after he just opens the back door and crawls inside, careful not to entangle in other's ball of limbs.
"How can I help, buddy?" he purrs, very gently, because Seungmin looks like he's in a great pain, and younger one just leans on him, looking at his face with pleading eyes as if asking to be petted like a stray cat. Changbin runs his hand through his messy sweaty hair, and Seungmin just sighs contentedly and closes his eyes. Then he shuffles around, very carefully, and tries to climb on a Changbin's lap, which other allows not without some resistance. This one clearly needs some comfort, and what good of a teammate Changbin would be if he wouldn't provide that little to his fellow gang member? He writes Chan a short message, partly about how Seungmin had returned and partly about in which a weird state, and Chan answers him that he's going to ask for details from Jeongin, because he himself isn't sure of all side effects this medicine can perform, even if he had read most of experimental reports already.
Seungmin is currently nibbling on his neck, near the place where scent glands are usually located, and even with all heady smell that flows here around and concentrates inside the locked place he feels more ticklish than aroused. Maybe it's because he's beta, not so sexually interested in anyone overall (he guesses it comes apart from his second gender and is just a part of his personality), maybe because this medicine works only one way for now. It's really hard to tell.
Communicator lights up with the message, pretty short one: "Make him feel good, it should end it", and Changbin just frowns. Well, it wasn't an impossible task, but wouldn't Seungmin be offended by it? Well, he thinks next, isn't he offended already by what happens to him during missions? Another one small offending case probably won't break him.
He gently pushes Seungmin off his lap, so other is now sitting on the nearby seat. Their car has one side-mirrored windows, and it's the only thing that frees him from embarrassment. He doesn't think about what people would think about him, he's worried about his younger brother's image more, even if it was pretty ruined before. If he makes it quick, he will have the time to delete all today's cameras records from the café and nearby streets and probably also make phone signal in the area unstable for the time they are here. He already started on it just when he noticed Seungmin coming out from camera-devoid corner, but had to set it aside at the sight of his distressed teammate.
Seungmin moans demandingly and puts his hand near Changbin's heart through his leather jacket. He just looks at his hand, with fingers bended like claws, dumbly for several moments, when Changbin just takes this hand in his and kisses the wrist tenderly. Seungmin's mouth opens in shock prettily, and he flushes, so innocent like a child who just got how kisses work like. Changbin kisses the back of his palm again, and Seungmin whines thinly, a little bit irritated by that little stimulation. He decides to take matter in his hands – quite literally – and hugs older teammate tightly, hiding his nose inbetween his shoulder and neck. It's very pleasant, and though Changbin is grunting unhappily because of a suffocating way this hug is performed, his rough hands still find their way onto Seungmin's crotch, squeezing firmly yet questioningly. Seungmin just nods with closed eyes, too lazy to make any sound whatsoever, and Changbin continues with his little ministrations, massaging the aching organ and accidentally touching his tensed thighs. It doesn't take too much time – it never does when medicine effect is active – until Seungmin is bended backwards is blinding ecstasy. Changbin is mildly surprised by this reaction – he hadn't done that much at all – but he lets it be, after all he wasn't a chemist or a biologist to judge if it was normal or not. He was here just to support the other and deliver him back if he would survive. He did, so now Changbin just has to do his part of a deal.
***
Seungmin is sleeping soundly on the back row of seats, buckled criss-crossed with two belts, because Changbin isn't sure that one will support his unconscious body enough. He comes to his senses three hours later, and Chan immediately calls him to his workroom to chat, and Seungmin comes after a change of clothes and a quick shower. They talk for a long time, in hushed tones, and Changbin, no matter how curious he is, isn't able to hear them. He catches only two things: their goal is dead, and some info Chan wanted so desperately in his hands finally came to him.
When Seungmin exits the workroom, Changbin is already before his face, looking strangely tall, though Seungmin always thought that older one is relatively short. He says something in incredibly fast pace and immediately walks away with some determination. When Seungmin just stands on one place, weary and still hardly thinking straight – his thoughts are slower than a dead snail – Changbin just resolutely grabs his hand and tugs him somewhere.
He blinks, and next time he opens his eyes he's already at Changbin's apartment, strangely cozy and relatively big for one. "Well", other explains, rubbing his neck in some awkwardness expression, "I don't live here alone", he just giggles, in an absolutely childish way, and leads him to the living room to sit on a wide white couch before no less wide TV.
"I'll go make some popcorn for you, okay?" he just says as if it's just a normal day and they are just normal friends who tend to spend free time together, and Seungmin doesn't find it in himself to respond negatively to this offer.
Changbin returns after less than a quarter of an hour with giant bowl of popcorn and finds younger one just spacing out looking through the turned off TV screen. He just sighs in defeat. Seungmin definitely needs some time to live this through. But he still wants to be a good brother for him and make him comfortable in a real world, no matter how harsh it could be sometimes. He doesn't know what had happened during these two missions, but boy's state spoke for himself. He hadn't heard that much about the thing he used, but it was something very unnatural and certainly illegal, something that bended not only reality laws themselves but also person's own will.
He just sits near him and puts bowl between them, lightly touching Seungmin's shoulder. The other blinks repeatedly, like an owl awaken in a middle of deep slumber, and yet again looks around as in disbelief, clearly wanting to ask where they are.
"We're in my home and we're going to watch some movies and relax, okay?" Changbin asks almost worriedly, and younger one frowns, still not quite catching his words. "I just thought that you would need some company this time. And Chan kinda recommended to keep an eye on you overall."
Frown on Seungmin's face becomes only deeper at the mentioning of Chan's name, and he huffs and moves further into the couch, putting his feet up and hugging his knees. He looks at Changbin intently and then on TV, implying something, and other just jumps from his place to turn all of it on.
They both don't really watch the film itself, too deep in their inner world to care. It's something very cheesy, full of glances but devoid of touches, and there should be the only one kiss of main romantic pair somewhere closer to the end, as far as Changbin understands, because the rating of this film is the lowest possible. He's mildly afraid that it still would show any things inappropriate for his younger brother's state, but Seungmin just munches on popcorn mindlessly, keeping his fingers in his mouth for more time than needed, not in any way perturbed by the sight before him. Somewhen in the middle of a movie entrance door thuds loudly and voice, clear and young, is heard from the hall, calling Changbin's name.
Seungmin is alerted by it. Enigmatic person doesn't talk more for some time, but Seungmin still feels familiarity over that short phrase he's heard. This voice… he knows it. Thoughts about the past swirl in his head, and he concentrates on a doorframe to catch the moment person comes near. He's so concentrated that although he sees his face, he completely misses what other says.
It's Felix, bright and smiling widely, and Seungmin just frowns so hard that his head hurts. It was… the reason. He remembers Felix's lifeless body, gushed open like a tin can, and blood everywhere. He's tugged into the lab as the only space sterile enough for him not to die from blood infection, considering his already half-dead state. They also need to do something, anything, with the fact he was poisoned with some chemical they know next to nothing about, Felix's small face both darkening from it and colourless from massive blood loss.
Happily, he got to the hospital in time, yet even with it he was in coma for several months and barely lived through some emergency conditions that brought him closer to the clinical death.
Seungmin doesn't know much about Felix – only crumbs of information here and there, hushed whispers and worried glances – he doesn't communicate with others that much anyway to get any data whatsoever, but all gang is tense from what happened, and it's in the air, stiff and gloomy around the base.
And there he is, radiating with energy like a small sun, looking totally unharmed and pleased by his life. Seungmin can't quite wrap his head about this change. Maybe Felix had lived through many things after that, but Seungmin's life is uneventful, and he remembers pain and horror as clearly as if it was yesterday. Dark determination that drove him to do the impossible. Self-sacrifice for the sake of others, just so he was the only one suffering. He doesn't regret it a bit.
He's so deep in his thoughts that he completely misses all conversation his hyungs have right beside his eyes and understands that Felix is gone just when doorframe is empty for a whole minute.
He blinks confusedly, and Changbin suddenly explains:
"I live here with Felix… and Hyunjin. Haha", he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, while Seungmin just tries to comprehend what at all it should mean. It was so hard to imagine gang's members living in a group, mostly because he and Jeongin lived all by themselves, alone, if you don't take into account all neighbours that Jeongin had in the apartment where he rented a room in. But the younger one hardly communicated with them too, if he had even crossed his ways with all these people, returning home in midnight or frequently spending his nights in lab. All times Seungmin asked him to sleep in his house just because it was closer to the base he was so shocked and embarrassed that in the end Seungmin just stopped asking him at all, for the peace of them both.
He doesn't quite remember how the movie had ended, or how he was driven right to the door of his flat, or how he layed down on his couch and blacked out for the rest of the day. Small meeting with Felix woke up the old feelings that he buried deep inside his soul, so he's torn between the wish to rest peacefully forever and keep fighting to his death.
It takes him another round of begging – literal begging which is more embarrassing that anything he'd done in life – to be allowed on missions again. Every time Chan fights against his idea with all his might, but gradually his resistance is thinning, and although he looks pained every time he tells him the mission contents, they become an almost stable thing in his timetable.
After every second mission Changbin invites him to his shared house, and in a blink of an eye it becomes their usual routine. Seungmin never meets Felix again and doesn't see Hyunjin even once.
***
This time all gang is torn in a secret war that occurs in the city's underbelly, so Changbin is too busy to accompany him. His partner, as Chan says, will just be his driver and help him get to the place and back, but during the mission itself he will be totally alone without any backup possible. Seungmin just nods: it's not his first mission of that kind and isn't even the tenth one, so he's experienced and desperate enough to do things all by himself without fear.
The car is clearly the Changbin's one, big and black, pretty posh and noticeable, and at first he's confused – had hyungs changed their mind at last? But his partner today is Hyunjin, glancing at him nervously and trying to adjust the driver's seat made too specific for his height and complexion. He continuously tries to push the seat back for his long legs to be comfortable with pedals, but then just huffs and gives up completely. He's silent and a bit pale.
Seungmin doesn't know much about Hyunjin – things he knows are either common knowledge inside the gang (for example, that he's their only omega) or some random crumbs of information Changbin shares with him during their movie evenings, which is… not a lot. He knows that Hyunjin is talented in painting – he'd seen some of his arts on their shared apartment's walls and he's impressed – that he's pretty dreamy and can be a bit… sensitive? (This is a quote, don't mind him, Changbin can be weird with his way of conveying his thoughts). Even from this point Seungmin can see where does this come from: Hyunjin looks like someone bohemian, not exactly in this moment and place. Seungmin can literally hear how gears in his partner's head are spinning in planning and deep thought process. His appearance is also a bit… cute, he has to admit, and Seungmin is embarassed to think that he can look like a stereotypical omega from a certain angle with his pretty face and soft body shapes, yet he also sees the resolution in Hyunjin's eyes and decisiveness in his posture and way he drives – carefully but not afraid to break the rules. They go far from the city, to the spoiled men's party Felix (this sly fox) got the tickets for.
It's small scene of parting when he sees this "sensitive" part himself: Hyunjin glances around nervously and asks him several times if everything will be alright. He's constantly wincing, clearly disturbed by all smells and sights around, and makes Seungmin repeat the plan with all details several times. In the end he just takes Seungmin's hands in his, pale and cold with thin and long fingers, and just holds them for a straight minute. After this he sighs, with the face saying that there's nothing more he can do, and pushes him off from the car to the mission building.
He says that Seungmin should check his communicator from time to time for messages from him, and for the first half of a mission he is even afraid that Hyunjin will write him every several minutes, but the message comes only closer to the end, single one, short and rather serious: he says that he relocated the car because his cover was mildly compromised, so Seungmin should be a bit more cautious on a back way. He sends him the map of the building and a schematic way to the car hidden in the forest, clearly hand-drawn but yet also clearly understandable.
This case is messy as always, and Seungmin even has additional kill, more accidental than not, and he has a bit of an understanding that this place will blow up rather soon, because he hears gunshots from all around the place, and from an inner balcony he sees that first floor is a literal blood bath already. His medicine hasn't weared off fully, he literally couldn't do anything to make this happen because of how violent all interaction with his victim and his impromptu helper was (he suspects that his arm bone is at least cracked, and his head is buzzing from being forcefully pushed into the wall, and he probably feels warm blood still present on his hair and oozing out from small crack somewhere in his skull), but the pain makes him sober enough not to be distracted by his own body trying to betray him with all its might. He understands that medicine would be useless against people with guns, because they would be too far away to be lured in and enchanted enough to surrender, so he just hides in shadows and tries not to lure anyone in so there would be less people around him. This building has tons of secret doors and a maze of behind the walls paths, so he runs forward not even trying to be quiet, especially when the gunshots are so deafening on the other side.
When he finally manages to make it oustide of a building, he totally forgets that Hyunjin had to move, so at first he goes to the place they parted ways. Two people – corpses – lie here unmovingly, with their temples pierced with something sharp and blow powerful and precise enough to kill them instantly after one small dent in the bone. One of corpses' hands is crushed, dark traces of car's tires marking dedman's shirt. This view is so irrational for Seungmin's mind that he blacks out for a second, panic, fear and nausea washing over him, and gains consciousness again only after a minute or so of standing on all fours on a dark forest soil. Gunshots sounds are still prominent around and seem to be only getting closer, so he hastily gets up and tries to navigate in this place by the hand-drawn map. He wanders a little in the thick forest, trees everywhere and no car in sight, when sound of gunfire catches up to him and he feels someone jumping at him from behind and falls down with them on his back. Another gun shots right above his ear, and there is a broken shout of someone and muffled thud of lifeless body falling to the ground.
He blinks – tears start flowing from his eyes yet again – and tries to get a hold of a situation through the ringing in his ears. Person on his back, pushed him from the way of a bullet, is Hyunjin, in goofy sound-absorbing headphones, with big gun in his tensed hand, still trembling from the impact a bit and even smoking a little. Hyunjin himself is frowning, looking around with piercing look, and only when he sees that there is no one around, he slowly stands up and helps Seungmin to do the same. His right shoulder is roughly bandaged, white fabric all crimson with blood, and his face is a bit dirty, gray and black traces of forest soil bright on his pale skin. The corner of his lips is also bloody, and Hyunjin checks it with his fingertips periodically, squinting his eyes in pain. They both breathe heavily, and Seungmin realises that medicine just took another round of work, so his body produces wave after wave of artifical omega pheromones. Hyunjin looks at him weirdly, mildly disturbed and a bit disgusted, so unharmed side of his mouth bends in a sour grin.
"Let's get out of here", he says in a raspy voice and coughes harshly.
When they finally get into the car, Seungmin understands that he'll be as good as dead just in a few minutes. Hyunjin leaves him alone in a locked car to check how harmed it had got during the fight – Seungmin sees him running his fingers along the deep fresh scratch and hears him hissing loudly over big dent on the car door – and then he just jumps onto the driver's seat angrily and starts the engine without even buckling a seatbelt, so they both are freely moving inside the car while Hyunjin is maneuvering through the roadless forest. When the main road is already in sight, but they are still hidden by trees, Seungmin begs him to stop.
"What again?" Hyunjin turns to him almost angrily, his palms clutching the car's steering wheel are white-knuckled. He's furious, and Seungmin doesn't yet understand if it's because of him too or not.
"I-I need… help…" he breathes helplessly, putting his sweaty hand on his partner's shoulder, and other flinches, hardly stopping himself from throwing his hand off. His nostrils widen when he inhales, and he squints his face as if pained.
"… What do I need to do?" he asks warily, avoiding looking at Seungmin even through rear view mirror.
"I-I need t… to come", he answers bluntly because there is hardly anything he can do to ruin his reputation further.
Hyunjin bites his lips. Small wound on the corner starts ozzing with blood again, and he mindlessly licks thin trail or red from his face.
"… Okay", he just says numbly and comes out just to get into the back row of seats seconds after. He's trembling with some weird emotions Seungmin can't quite comprehend.
He honestly tries to keep his hands by himself – he got much better in resisting these lowly wishes with time – but it's really hard not to touch Hyunjin who looks so vulnerable next to him. He accidentally grazes bandaged hand, and Hyunjin snaps momentarily, pushing him on his back and growling in his face. Hyunjin's hands, even bandaged one, grip his shoulders with such power that Seungmin is seriously afraid that he would have more bones cracked or broken today. They are rolling around in the ball of limbs, either fighting for real or attacking each other with unchastity, he can't quite grasp, but it ends with them angrily kissing each other and Hyunjin's hands under his shirt, sharp nails agressively leaving red marks on his skin. Then he pushes Seungmin down on his back, and his pale hands are already roaming around his spine, clearly going to leave several deep bloody scratches there. Seungmin moans, and Hyunjin just sucks on his vibrating throat, lightly biting – they both see how hard it is to him to hold back the wish to really harm body under him. Omega pheromones are thick in the air – artifical and natural ones – and they create a weird mix of hardly contained emotions within them. Seungmin tries to resist it – this was an unknown case, and it was plainly dangerous to do rash things unsupervised – but it's so hard to resist.
He falls into some haze where he can't control his own body, but still is painfully aware of all that's happening outside of his head: Hyunjin biting his neck from all sides, Hyunjin's hands pulling his pants down, Hyunjin's wet mouth on his dick. He grazes sensitive skin here with teeth yet again and sucks – with dark, evil eyes looking right through his soul. His hands are balled in tight fists on both sides of Seungmin's waist, and he's trembling, not really knowing what to do with them. His gaze is dazed – not exactly lustful as any of his victim's, but to the same amount lost – and he growls irritatedly even in his compromising position, so vibrations from his throat shot right through Seungmin's dick. Hyunjin contemplates between biting his dick off and grazes it with his teeth harshly several times, and then resolutely decides not to push his own patience and goes back, thin thread of saliva still connecting their bodies. He pumps Seungmin's organ several times with his hand in a painfully tight grip, not really caring about other's comfort, and Seungmin is both scared shitless by this change in other's behaviour – maybe he was like that all along? – and aroused enough to balance it, so even harsh, mostly dry stimulation is enough for him to come. His body is like on fire, lava boiling in his veins, and it's something he should be used to already, but other's omega scent, heady, concentrated and sour makes this reaction hundred times harsher, almost torturous. It might be obvious – they have researched extremal omega reaction to make the ampules – but he never knew he could trigger one himself. Does it work with every omega, he wonders, or with Hyunjin it just clicked into the place too right?
He's losing the ability to think straight, as well as think overall, falling into dreamless slumber.
***
It's already night outside when Seungmin wakes up. He's still in the car, they still are near the road in the forest, lights are dimmed and the only source of something bright is the screen of Hyunjin's phone – other sits calmly on the other side of the car, in driver's seat, and chats with someone, smiling shyly. He's shaking his head from side to side in a slow rhythm, so his goofy headphones have music in them, as Seungmin can suppose. He grunts and groans – his body is stiff and cramped as always after use of a medicine – and Hyunjin flinches, blocking his phone immediately and turning to him. Darkness reigns inside the car, and Seungmin is barely able to see other's eyes glistening wetly in twilight.Then Hyunjin just turns on built-in lamp above his head and shuffles to fully face his passenger.
"How are you feeling?" he asks in such a worried tone, nearly on a verge of crying his eyes out, and his lips tremble. Seungmin blinks dumbly.
"What happened?" he asks in return, as if it's up to the victim of a medicine to know. Hyunjin just bites his lip guiltily.
"Sorry", he blurts, "I guess I d-did something…" he closes his mouth with his hand and hiccups.
Thoughts swirl in Seungmin's head. What at all is he talking about?
"What… have you done?"
Maybe it's something about mission? Had he betrayed the gang? Well, if he did it was weird for him to leave Seungmin alive. Did something happen to others because of Hyunjin's slip while they were out? It was also a weird way to go.
"You… you are hurt because of me…" his eyes are already red and he just avoids looking in his direction overall, as if trying to run away from guilt. Tears stream down his face in thin rivulets. Was it really the same person who had just…
Aaah, that's what he's talking about. Seungmin looks for the lamp on his side of the car, and Hyunjin clicks the button easily with his long hand even from his seat. Seungmin smiles weakly in answer.
His body is indeed not in a perfect shape, scratches and teeth marks all around the reddened skin – he feels them on his neck with his fingers and clearly sees everywhere lower, even on his arms. Luckily he was too out of it to remember most of the pain, but it was still strange how he managed to miss absolutely most of these sensations overall and chose to concentrate on… specific ones. Well, he guesses, it's to the better – for him, but Hyunjin is still traumatized by what he's done.
"Hahha", he chuckles humourlessly, and Hyunjin looks at him offended and confused, "it's alright. It's not your fault."
Other huffs.
"Well, it might be worse if you were alpha, I suppose?.." he's not that sure of it, as he's not sure that this reaction would be present every time they will meet in such kinds of situation, so he is just ignited with the new fire within him – what he could do to make formula even better, more universal and making all sides of dynamics behave the same? Hyunjin sniffs from his seat, rubbing his nose with tensed fist, and Seungmin sends him reassuring glance in return. Hyunjin smiles, though not so sincerely.
They try to have some kind of small talk – it was a Seungmin's idea, just to distract his partner from self-deprecating thoughts – but in the end return to the topic in hand, so Seungmin has to explain how extremal omega reaction could work, because it's something they've used for the formula – tied special types of omega pheromones to alpha's scent trace to create a totally unnatural mix. He doesn't know what had triggered this reaction in Hyunjin – artificiality of pheromones itself, extremal pheromones added to the mix or the fact that it was in fact rut masked by heat – but he really wants to know.
This time his recovering process takes about three weeks – he indeed has cracks both in his skull and arm, and bites and scratches all around his skin also need attention to not become scars – and Jeongin is strangely silent beside him, hardly even managing to look at him fully. Seungmin is so hyped over Hyunjin's case that he mulls it over for several days in a row, but Jeongin doesn't seem to listen.
He can't just invite Hyunjin in for the round of experiments – both because lab was his and Jeongin's sacred place and because Hyunjin was extremely busy – so he has to wait until Changbin would be torn between missions again to be paired with Hyunjin. Other is much brighter today, though still extremely nervous – anticipating what will happen after – but Seungmin is full of positivity. He hadn't yet changed the formula – first of all he needed to see if such kind of reaction would be triggered again or if it was one-time type of thing – but he decided to make things different today for his partner not to suffer that much.
Mission is a blur, quite literally: he's so concerned about experimenting after its end that he almost forgets the reason he got there (luckily he at least remembered to ask some specific things before killing the victim). He's still aroused, and he contemplates between helping himself now or asking Hyunjin for help. Hormonal grip of a medicine isn't that strong today – probably because killed alpha had gone through his peak before – so he might not need someone else's involvement. This time, he reminds himself, he wanted to make Hyunjin comfortable around him too, and just the aftershocks of a medicine should be enough to see the reaction and consider it experimenting. So he jerks off in a quiet hotel's room beside dead body, so immersed in a wish to open new scientific page that even corpse nearby doesn't make his high less bright. He tries to clean the place as much as he can, but he’s reassured that cleaning workers on this building are secretly on gang's side, so he doesn't try too much only doing what is possible to do fast and erasing obvious things that otherwise would dry and be hard to remove.
Hyunjin just winces over his weird scent but doesn't comment it. Seungmin feels fatigue, as he always does after medicine's effect wears off, but he resists the wish to fall asleep as long as he can, watching Hyunjin from a back of the car. At first he looks mildly irritated, shaking his head as if some housefly is buzzing around him, and then, when artificial omega pheromones fully subside, he's blushed to the roots of his hair, his lips nervously trembling as if he's stopping himself from grinning. This is the second phase of medicine – Seungmin's artificially started rut finally provides him with natural alpha's pheromones – and though it bothers his partner, it's nothing too bad.
He falls asleep when he's content with all additional data he gathered.
They are parked near the base, Hyunjin yet again chatting with someone in his phone and beaming. When Seungmin opens his eyes and blinks sleepiness off them, Hyunjin suddenly starts speaking: how cool Changbin was and how Felix had to teach him doing his makeup for the undercover missions, and how the three of them are planning on go shopping next Monday, when it will be the only free day in all three of their timetables, packed to the brim with missions and behind the scenes activity, and how he wanted to get a dog, but with the life he has it is impossible, but he still hopes that several years after today all criminal wars would cease enough for them to get any pet in their little nest – he literally says "nest" in a dreamy voice, and Seungmin even flinches, because it makes him remember that Hyunjin still is, in fact, an omega above everything else – he talks about this and that, and words flow freely from his mouth like a mighty waterfall, and Seungmin is almost lulled to sleep again. He is awaken from this dreamless slumber-like state when he realises how often he hears Hyunjin repeating Felix's and Changbin's names – probably for about twentieth or so time, and he flees from this, embarassed and ashamed by the feelings that wash over him like a sea. He doesn't go to the lab today, even though he's supposed to, and doesn't even take a change of his clothes, even if ones he have have pretty disheveled appearance. He takes the wrong bus, and then just walks several blocks from the wrong bus stop to his house, just to close the door behind him and limply fall to the floor.
He feels so empty. He always thought that with the life he had – life of a mafia's son – it was only natural to be alone. With it the sight of Hyunjin, Changbin and Felix living together and communicating feels him with weird kind of jealousy and envy. The only person he had ever been close to – the only one he is close to – is Jeongin, and with this new turn of Seungmin's life, with all missions and recovering process, with all new people coming to check on him – including Chan, Changbin and Hyunjin – they don't even communicate. Of course, most of the time they're both at work they are at the same space, be it their small kitchen or tiny lab, where despite real spaciousness of it they still stick close to each other like two wrongly cooked dumplings, but it's not the same. Before all of it they were… friends. Now Jeongin just looks at him from the corner of his eyes and sighs, not even able to touch him firmly as if Seungmin is made of glass. Sometimes they forget about the tension and just chat lightheartedly, but every time in the end this blissful state shatters, and they feel like strangers again, suddenly shutting their mouths and keeping the silence for the rest of the work day. No one can scold them for becoming less effective – they are still good as a team of professionals, after all, and they can work together if it's needed for science – but something is still deeply wrong in their relationship overall. Even Chan notices this and tries to free Seungmin from the burden of a field work, but then Seungmin just volunteers to do it times and times again when he hears bad news about someone being a lone menace to the gang's existence.
He even changes the formula, making it more precise, gaining more control over pheromones release and more control over his mind in process overall, but he makes it all by himself because for some reason Jeongin just asks for a long vacation because of his family situation and leaves for more than a month. His return coincides with Seungmin's first mission with new formula used. Seungmin is a bit offended, a bit irritated by the fact that Jeongin left right in this crucial moment, and especially because of what (he doesn't know anything about other members' families, only that Felix had some relatives alive in another country and Hyunjin also had someone living in the neighboring city), but when he asks Chan about that, he just shrugs his shoulders and doesn't comment on any part of this situation. Days are already a blur for him during this month, and on a mission he just wants to return back to the base faster so he doesn't even make his victim feel high, and hormonal grip of the medicine is the strongest of all he've felt ever for this time – years – but formula is different, and Hyunjin who's partnered with him today isn't triggered badly by it, he just cries all the time though still helps Seungmin with his situation, and Seungmin helps him in return, and natural omega pheromones peaking are enough to wear off artifical ones. Seungmin blacks out for mere hour or two, and when he is awake again, he comes into the lab, but Jeongin totally avoids him and then even blames him for something – he can't quite catch for what exactly, because his head is hazy from the second phase of medicine. He is forcefully pushed out of the lab, and then Chan catches on him – he was called by Jeongin – and recommends him to go home, well, just takes him into the car and drives there, and then watches him lock the door behind.
This rut, triggered artificially by the ampule, is probably the strongest of all he had in life, and he has neither power not ability to make it easier, so he just watches like from the third face that his body is broken by hormones making him immobilised for the most day, and just sees as he makes himself instant noodles for every meal and some coffee (it makes his state worse, so he just drinks plain water instead), and this day is played on repeat several times. No one bothers him during that time, neither calls or messages, and he doesn't know if he's grateful for that or feels miserable.
After several days – weeks, or maybe a month? He doesn't know already as he hardly perceives reality anymore – artificial rut ends, and he even wants to return to the work, asking Chan if he has any missions for him. Chan is silent for hours, and then he orders Seungmin to stay at home. Then he just asks if there's something he could do in a lab, and Chan says that he shouldn't go there either as Jeongin will be busy there with some of his personal projects.
Seungmin feels numb. Jeongin – and personal project all of sudden? There never was anything personal between them, ever. Without any work, without the feeling of usefulness, he feels empty. With Chan aborting all missions and Jeongin clearly trying to hide something from him, devoid of any ties that some members of the gang have, he feels utterly, completely alone.
It gets worse before it gets better.