Ties

by xxavia_quasar

Summary:

Hyunjin, Changbin and Felix are building a nest.

 

//Despite technically being a part of series it can be read as oneshot just fine!

Notes:

I started writing it more than half of a year ago and updated my notes sporadically so it might be inconsistent.

This work is a part of a series but it doesn't matter that much honestly, as this one doesn't use any canonical events of main series or even setting that much.

But if you're interested, it is set parallel with "Medicine-induced" in time.

"Errr… no. Absolutely no. Sorry, Chan, but not this time," Changbin says to the other on the phone while his roommates – if he has the right to call them like that – are actively shuffling around in living room, bringing there as many soft and warm things from all around the flat as possible. "No, Hyunjin won't be able to go either – had you even heard what I've been saying?" he tiredly rubs the bridge of his nose. "No, Felix will be busy too. Chan, we're literally building a nest. We have the only omega in our team going into harsh heat, and you want any of his mates just leave him?" Chan groans something unintelligible, partly embarassed, partly irritated – more by the fact that Changbin, beta and his old friend – more than friend, – suddenly became a "mate" to someone else than him than by anything else in this situation. "Yeah. I don't know, we don't have that much of a choice, send Minho with him. Well, he might be a newbie and might be weird, but still do you want things to be done or not?"

"Changbin!" fierce whisper is heard from the room, and he puts phone away from his ear.

"What?"

"We need to… prepare," Felix whispers again quietly, gently hugging Hyunjin who already looks like he's out of it even though his heat hasn't even started, and will not for some days ahead.

"Bye, Chan, we all have our own business. Yeah, thanks, alright," Changbin finishes the call and throws the phone to the table, hurrying inside the room. "What exactly do we need?"

"W-well," Felix just shakes Hyunjin lightly for him to focus on outer world. "Can you say what do we need?"

Hyunjin literally looks like a buzz in his head prevents him from perceiving reality, but he still tries to find anything in his thoughts.

"… F… food?" other two just exchange looks, and Changbin secretly shows Felix the list of purchases for this which Felix approves after thorough reading, "um… water?" they nod silently. "I… I think we also should call the lab."

"What?" Changbin asks surprised.

"Why?" Felix adds, surprised no less and not really having any business with lab aside from medical help during half-dead states.

"I-I've heard they have something to make it, umm… easier. Like, not so painful. We were chatting with Seungmin the last time we were paired on a mission, and he said he can do something."

Changbin dials the lab almost instantly – after all, with everything Chan's said, they don't have much time before at least one of the chemists will be unavailable for much time, and maybe second one doesn't know a bit about these things (which was pretty hard to believe in if you take into the account that seungjeong were literal mental twins in everything that touched the science). Seungmin answers immediately, clearly disturbed in a middle of chat with Jeongin (his voice is still heard on a background for the first seconds, but Seungmin shoos him, and Jeongin quiets, but, as it seems, comes only closer). Changbin explains the situation to him, and agitated Jeongin's voice is heard again, then some shuffling and what can be described only as sounds of lab – some chair screeching on the floor, glass ringing, light knocking of something being put on a table, some papers cracking and whatnot – during it Seungmin keeps silence as if waiting for something.

"So you won't be accompanying me?" he just asks while sounds on a background become just more chaotic, as if someone runs around from side to side. "Got it. And Hyunjin won't be too, right? So this mission will be postponed? We don't know when the next moment like that will appear."

"Umm… no," Changbin rubs his eyes. "We'll send you with Minho. Do you know him?"

Seungmin is silent on the other side.

"Alpha?" he whispers so quietly that Changbin more guesses that actually hears what've been said.

"Yeah. He might be a bit rash and whatnot, and still…"

"No, I mean, that might be a problem," Changbin almost asks why, but then Jeongin's voice is heard again, and Seungmin clearly doesn't want to discuss it with other nearby. "How can we send these things your way? Or you'll come here?"

Changbin turns his head back to face the room and asks if others are okay with the idea of him leaving now – or all three of them coming outside. Hyunjin is trembling a little, hugging himself by the shoulders, but he says that they'll need to go shopping anyway, so Changbin just tells their chemists to wait until they'll come to the lab themselves, mildly surprised by this turn of events.

"Jinnie, are you sure?" Felix asks instead of him, "I'm sure we have everything we need at home, and we can just order here anything else we don't have."

Hyunjin looks like he's gonna die from embarrassment.

"I-I think I'll need new clothes after this. And… other stuff?"

"Which stuff?"

"Err… children kind of stuff?.." he says uneasily, words almost unintelligible closer to the end.

It takes several minutes for other two to understand what is behind these words.

"Wait, what?" they ask almost simultaneously.

"Have you discussed these things with Chan?" Changbin asks, ready to dial the leader again, and Hyunjin just huffs angrily. "Or what do you mean?"

Other just looks like he's gonna combust.

"I- err- it's still not his business, but- yeah, we kind of had. Anyway it's not like my position makes me stay in the eye of a storm every time? I still can work from the back lines, just as always? With new technologies and field agents and everything-"

"Do you think we're responsible enough for such responsibility?" Felix asks again just at the moment when Changbin wants to say the same thing. "You didn't quite discuss it with us."

Hyunjin rolls his eyes tiredly, still gripping his own shoulders.

"Well I sure had. I have the recordings of that!"

"You have the recordings of everything???" Changbin says as if it's the fact that surprises him more than anything else.

"That's literally my work, Bin," Hyunjin responds and shuffles in his place, clearly trying to stand up, though Felix still tries to make him stay in a sitting position and not move around too much in his state.

"Err… yeah, I remember something like that…" he says, "but it was so much time ago! It's just not fair, Jinnie!"

"… Okay, let's discuss it now," Hyunjin plops on his seat again and crosses his hands on his chest, still trembling a little but trying to hide it. Changbin and Felix hurry to sit around, trying to find a place in softness lying around.

"So…" they start at the same time and nervously chuckle from this coincidence.

"So." Hyunjin looks at them piercingly. "Children."

Felix looks frozen from this bluntness and Changbin isn't better in his place.

"Are you sure you needed to say it like that?" he asks, nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Does it scare you? There is no need in tiptoeing around topic in hand."

Felix sighs.

"I'm not against children," he says, and Hyunjin looks at him hopefully. "But still, are we mature enough for them? It takes time and… we don't have it that much even these days. And leaving you alone to raise the child… it's just not right. In the end, it's clearly dangerous with our- our job," he finishes uneasily.

Changbin silently nods, and Hyunjin looks a bit offended by this reaction.

"I know that you care about both me and the gang, and still – I think this is the time for me to change the way things work, call it hormones or sixth sense. Maybe I won't be able to feel it at all after that. Our life is dangerous indeed, so we need to take a risk everyday, so why not take it now?" he looks around, searching for something in their faces. "And anyway, we still will have the time to reverse everything if we take this chance – if not in some real hospital, I'm sure Seungjeong will invent something to end it. They have years of experience in researching human bodies, I'm sure they have something prepared for this. We literally can ask them today."

Other two seem to mulling this thought over for some time.

"I just ask you for no contraception this time," he adds, clearly defeated. "And then we discuss it again. We don't have much time before it starts, and- my brain doesn't work good enough to explain everything I want to you."

"… Okay," Changbin as the oldest one decides to answer. "But don't take things too far. We are not buying you things in advance."

Hyunjin huffs with lowered head and then jumps from his place agitatedly, hurrying to go outside. Felix and Changbin follow him, watching over so he won't traumatize himself at home already in his gait.

***

In the mall Hyunjin decisively puts in their shopping cart dozens of sweet bars – at least cereal not chocolate ones, but it's still concerning.

"Why so many?"

"Ah, every time after I feel hungry like five wild tigers, and I crave for sweets so much! Well, and now I need to eat healthier, so I thought…"

"We still haven't decided on it for sure," Changbin interrupts him resolutely, and Hyunjin looks at him as if he wants to bite him in a shoulder, so Felix even has to put his arm on his back to soothe him.

"Well," he continues nonchalantly, "I still need to think about my health more! It's you who's always scolding me after that that I eat too much sugar, isn't it?"

Changbin mutters something unintelligible in return. Next minute he is asked to help with tugging something presumably heavy from the highest shelf.

"You can perfectly do it yourself," he grumbles, trying to at least touch thing with his fingers, because something Hyunjin has chosen stands so high. Felix just stands to the side, not trying to help, probably because of all three if them he's not tall neither physically strong enough to do so. Or maybe he just likes seeing his elder suffer.

Just as mysterious thing gets into Hyunjin's hands, he looks at it and easily puts it back as if it weights nothing, saying that it's not what he wanted.

Changbin groans.

After several torturous hours of preparing the food for upcoming heat (Felix and Hyunjin argued for at least half of these hours about which instant noodles they must take and how much) they go out of the mall and put all plastic bags (the most heavy of them are, of course, Changbin's responsibility, and Hyunjin, as the one with weakened state, holds only boxes of sweets and cereals and a pack of juice) into the car's trunk, but just as Changbin is ready to sit inside on driver's place, Hyunjin tugs them back into the mall.

"Wha?! What else do we need?" Felix asks, trying to catch up with long Hyunjin's legs after being grabbed by the wrist.

"We need to buy clothes."

"We are not buying you anything in advance," Changbin almost growls and tries to tug him back to the parking lot, but he is interrupted:

"No, silly. You need to buy yourselves new clothes."

"Eh? What for?" Felix finally frees his wrist from a painfully hard grip and rubs it soothingly.

"Because I won't return you anything that got into my nest," Hyunjin answers slyly. "Now these things are mine forever," and winks devilishly.

As it is revealed, aside from casual home clothes (Hyunjin advices them to buy them also because he is bored of seeing them walking around in the same clothes for years, not only because they will not be returned), Changbin has to buy himself a new sweater for field operations, because one that he previously had, drenched in sweat, blood (not only Changbin's) and other things to the point of smell not being able to be washed out, is digged somewhere deep in a giant nest. Felix has to buy new towel and also set of underpants (just in case). Hyunjin also secretly buys himself some things (just in case, and overall, the same size he has now, so there is nothing suspicious) while they are distracted.

After this he announces that they definitely need to buy more duvets and pillows.

"And why them? I thought the nest was alright as it is? Or are they not for nest?" Felix asks, already panically seeking for any kind of shop selling them on mall's map.

"Well, I think it might be alright for one, or maybe for two, but absolutely useless for three to get into in a proper way."

"Wait, three?" Changbin asks from a far, already went ahead a little.

"Are any of you planning on leaving me? This would be unfair indeed."

Hyunjin looks at him disapprovingly, and Changbin looks at him suspiciously in return, so Felix, standing between them, readies himself for peacemaking. Changbin just lowers the gaze and turns away.

"I thought you'd need only alpha for yourself," he mutters, so quietly that even Felix is hardly able to catch it. But Hyunjin has his hearing naturally better, and it becomes only sharper near his heats, so he just squints his eyes, gazing at the older piercingly.

"And why should I not need a beta for myself? Who said?"

"I mean, if there is a choice…"

"Why should I choose if I can literally pick both? Or are you against it?"

Changbin huffs defeated, but still doesn't seem to be convinced.

"It's more natural for omega to crave for alpha than for- especially for both!" he mutters from his place, still standing relatively far away.

"Screw nature!" Hyunjin hisses heatedly, because after all they are still in a public place. "There is nothing un-natural in this either! And if you are not blind enough, you could perfectly see how we literally have alpha-alpha pair in our rows!"

Felix watches this quarrel with wide eyes. What-what kind of pair? Whom? It sounds clearly shocking, and he's a bit offended that the two of them know something he doesn't and don't seem to plan to share this information.

This argument finally shuts Changbin up, but the rest of their shopping walk he stays silent and tense. They go to the several stores selling duvets and pillows, and Hyunjin rejects all of them saying that they literally smell like chemicals and that this scent would not be washed out or over-scented by anything milder in that short time they have before actual heat erupts. Then he tugs them to some charity slash second hand shop that he found accidentally and hugs some extremely ugly pillow, hardly alive in one piece, for hours during the rest of shopping and drive to the base. They find some duvets – thinned out from being thoroughly used, but still very comfy – and some pillows there, and though some of them literally smell like dust and old people, Hyunjin is beaming over them so much that others can't just refuse him.

***

Luckily the lab is relatively far from main headquarters of the base, so the chances to cross their way with Chan are a bit smaller, yet the perspective of seeing him still fills them with dread – for completely different reasons.

Jeongin opens the door for them even before they knock and welcomes them inside. Lab is still spacious, and Seungmin with Jeongin still stay as close to each other as humanly possible even if they don't have the need to be.

Jeongin looks agitated, almost happy with the sight of them, while Seungmin sits on his place with gloomy and sad face – just as always, though. For now his depressive sight could be seen as a part of his personality and natural face. Both Hyunjin and Changbin know that his outer appearance doesn't betray his inner world that much to judge, though he is still prone to… melancholy overall.

Jeongin puts several bottles with something hardly-coloured and almost transparent on a desk before them.

"This is isotonic," he says pointing on long thin bottle with something mildly blue, "it is similar to sports drinks, but doesn't contain sugar and has different balance of electrolytes made specifically for hormonal storms and… whatnot," he's blushing and averting the eyes. "Ahem! This one," he holds small bottle with something looking slightly like cherry juice inside, "is scent stabilizer, natural kind of. Formula is universal", by some reason he looks back to Seungmin, "but it works only with natural hormones. Ahha, I guess you won't have any artificial ever, anyway…" he rubs the back of his neck and turns to Seungmin again. Other just looks up from his phone and looks back surprised, so they both blink at each other several times, as if discussing something telepathically. "A-anyway, if you'll feel that your hormones will stand in a way of work, or- err- anything you see as important enough, you can use it! Of course, you won't be able to stop an actual heat or rut, it's made just to make it dissolve faster. But I mean, you do not need to stop it for real, right?" he looks at them intently, and suddenly all three of them are avoiding his gaze, embarassed before something they're gonna do. Seungmin quietly snickers from his corner from their reaction, and Jeongin burns a hole in him, pretending to be angry, because of what Seungmin snickers only louder, closing his mouth with his hand. Jeongin sighs tiredly – or at least tries to, because tiny smile is present on his face. "This one," he shows something blueish in a wide low jar, "ermm… how exactly does it work, Minnie?" he turns to his back, and they exchange blinks again.

"Well," Seungmin starts, looking a bit dumbfounded, "I don't remember it clearly myself. We made it too long ago."

Jeongin arches his brow.

"I mean, it's something for inside of storm state? Something for your cycle?"

"Oooohh…" something sparks in Seungmin's eyes. "I remembered!"

"And what is it?"

"It…" he puts a finger on his lower lip as in a deep thought. "It's made to easy the hormonal grip of actual cycle. But this one is only for omegas."

"And… what exact effects it has?"

"Well… um…" Seungmin looks at him like at a dummy, but then looks at the three of them and just nods silently. "It gives you an ability to be in a right mind in a middle of heat. It can be useful for, errm… eating and sleeping? After all, it's hard to sleep when you are overcome with… wishes," he scratches his forearm thoughtlessly. "But with it it can prolong heat a bit if you take in too much, as hormones still will need to be weared off somehow and you hardly will go with the flow by your conscious will, ha-ha," he actually barks in laugh. "Well, if you know that heat tires you too much, you can take it to rest and eat in a middle of it, and then use stabilizer to make it come faster, probably?"

Jeongin turns to them and then glances back to Seungmin.

"And we don't have anything for other two sides of dynamic?"

"Well…" Seungmin turns his head to the sides, clearly trying to see something in lab. "We had a bit of it, but I guess now it needs to be disposed of already. All hormonal things can be stored for a very limited time. Even these ones," he vaguely gestures to bottles standing on a table, "are already close to expiration date, so use them as fast as possible. Like during this week or so."

They just nod – heat is coming in a day or two anyway, so they definitely have the time.

"Anyway, now I'll give you instructions on how to take it and in which doses," Jeongin says and then shuffles around on other desk. "There," he hands them a pack of papers, full of wrinkles and handwriting, and then looks at it himself and stops mid-move. By the way he squints his eyes and has to close his face with the paper to read someone could think that he's gone blind. "Ah, it's Minnie's penmanship, I hardly understand it myself, lemme write you a new one," Seungmin looks at him clearly offended, pursing his lips as if he holds a frog in his mouth, and Jeongin just glances on him wryly, so they exchange some weird gazes yet again. "What does this one mean?" he addresses to Seungmin, and other just gets up from his chair and comes closer, so they discuss things in hushed tones for some time. Then Seungmin just decides to dictate text to him instead, and they work together in harmony for another row of minutes, Seungmin whispering words and Jeongin hastily writing.

"Honestly it looks no better than mine," Seungmin comments, and Jeongin almost slaps him on the back of his head in faux offense.

Finally he hands them finished list. Seungmin looks at it from behind his shoulder and clearly says some joke, whispering right in his ear, with a very sly face, and Jeongin looks at him questioningly as if striken by the dumbness of it. Sadly for them, it's not loud enough, but Hyunjin still is able to catch something, so he shortly snickers from behind their backs and then waves his hand, not really wanting to share it with others.

They take everything from the table and carefully put it in a bag together with the instructions.

***

Already at home, when Changbin reads the instructions and Hyunjin makes a digest of them on his phone, Felix makes dumb face and spaces out weirdly for several minutes.

"They're strange," he says surely.

"Whom?" Hyunjin asks not rising his head from the phone screen.

"Like… them. Seungmin and Jeongin. Have you seen them looking at each other?"

"Mmhm," Hyunjin hums, "I can swear I've seen them kissing several times I came to the lab without warning," he adds lightheartedly, and Felix nearly chokes on air.

"What?"

"What." Even Changbin rises his head from the paper during this dialogue, looking back and forth between them, but stays silent.

"They what?" Felix even jumps from his place, utterly shocked.

"I mean, you didn't know?" Hyunjin arches his brow in surprise. "Oh, well, I guess it's not obvious from the outside…"

"So… so… it's them?"

"Them what?"

"That alpha-alpha pair you've talked about."

"Mmm. Well, yeah," and he just pushes Changbin's shoulder for him to continue reading from the page.

They don't talk for a while, Felix nervously putting bought goods on the shelves in the kitchen and Changbin trying to understand Jeongin's handwriting.

"… Does Chan know?" Felix asks through the wall, and Hyunjin just sends questioning look to Changbin.

"Why does he need to know everything?" he responds, laying comfortably in a bunch of duvets, but then sniffs the air and rearranges them for several minutes straight with focused face. "He's not our father, after all. It's only their business who they are to each other. Just like with us."

"And still-"

"They still work efficiently, don't they? Then there is no problem whatsoever."

Changbin huffs with unreadable face.

"Remember we started living together just to work more efficiently too?" he says mockingly, and Felix even partly comes into the room – only with his head inside and body in the corridor – to look at him questioningly.

"It's… different," Hyunjin resolutely waves his hand and rolls his eyes, laying on a softness again and closing his eyes as if going to sleep.

"We started living together for efficiency reasons?" Felix asks dumbly, still mostly inside the corridor.

"Well, we had a row of missions for a half year together, so we had to live together just to gather in one place quicker," Changbin explains, and Hyunjin only nods with closed eyes. "As it seems, it mostly was to wake up Hyunjin because he always was late."

"Hey!" he stirs in his place and scrunches up his nose, still pretending to be asleep.

"You still are going to be late evеrywhere if not woken up in time, Jinnie. It's proven for years."

Hyunjin wakes up and fakes a fight with Changbin, looking more like tickling fight than something heated. All discussion naturally dies down, and comfortable silence takes place instead. They can't clearly say when the actual heat will start – maybe in two days, or maybe tomorrow, because the end of pre-heat, when Hyunjin felt as normal as in his usual days, wasn't consistent ever and could last from several hours to dozens of them. Just because of that – just in case – they lie into nest already not bothering with leaving for rooms and beds. Well, at least try to, because Hyunjin scrunches up his nose even further and arranges duvets, pillows and clothes for up to the midnight, putting things back and forth to the same places several times. He usually was more or less laid-back when it came to the nest – if he made it at all that much – and sudden concentration he had over this one was pretty… surprising. Maybe this heat is special indeed.

The next day they just wait. Hyunjin reads some book, half-lying on a pile of duvets, Changbin makes plans for the upcoming operations on his phone, and Felix, somehow the most restless, tries to clean the place around just to fight off the boredom. Nothing happens up to the very evening, and Felix makes them instant rice and chops some vegetables for the last meal, because they'll need some energy but nothing too heavy. Hyunjin tries to have an energy drink sneakily, but other two notice it in time and four-handedly have to drag him away. Hyunjin whines that it usually helps to ward off weariness for him, but is scolded both by Changbin and Felix that it's unhealthy overall and specifically unhealthy in their situation. He is given a box of energy bars instead which he gloomily munches on under two heavy gazes (Felix and Changbin also take one bar each – Felix rummaging through the box trying to find the flavour he likes the most), and then they try to lie inside the nest to sleep – try, because once they lie more or less comfortably, Hyunjin whines that they break the order of things and overall stay too far from each other, so he kind of manhandles them in a new position that is quite literally a bunch of limbs where no one can say where one person ends and other starts. Changbin lies on the bottom of a pile, with Hyunjin and Felix lying on his chest and hugging each other and him. He doesn't really know where to put his hands, so he decides to put them on his partners' spines, snaking hands under their waists, while it's not too uncomfortable.

It's night around, but Changbin can't sleep, even if presence of other two never felt so calming. He thinks.

They have never declared their relationship and never really explained it even to each other, as if the explanation wasn't needed ever. It was something unobtrusive, never taking too much thinking or attention – they just lived together, spent their cycles helping each other, probably never really made out with each other and hardly felt horny for each other outside of the cycles. It was probably fully platonic thing, and Changbin was more than content with it. They were… friends? Maybe friends with benefits, because they still spent cycles together, but friends still do that, right? So what if they dedicated all of their free time to spending it just as three of them? What if they learnt new things to help each other? What if whenever shopping alone they still thought about what other two would like? Friends still do this, right?

He can't say that he is bound to sex in this relationship – he's never too interested in sex overall, even if there is someone in cycle nearby (Seungmin explained that it was probably because he perceived pheromones even worse than average beta, being technically blind to their addictive effect), and usually when either Hyunjin or Felix are in their hormonal storm (they don't have it synchronised probably because no one of them was mated to anyone), they just spend it together as a pair, Changbin working in the next room and occasionally checking on them to help them recover. He never really participated in these activities, being not too interested in… this process in either position.

So when Hyunjin resolutely says that he'll need both of his mates for this heat, he's kinda dumbfounded. It's not like he's against it, no – there is nothing to be against honestly – but the very same fact that Hyunjin just called them his mates, bluntly and with it both – was… shocking. He doesn't know how he haven't shown it on his face nor did his voice waver when he explained it to Chan – he is surprised how Chan hasn't questioned it at all.

Maybe this physical tug all of them felt whenever other two were far away was too obvious?

He doesn't know when exactly it started – this longing for others when they are not nearby, this wish to be close, to feel others' presence nearby – if not physically, at least through text or sound. It feels ironic how they weren't that interested in relationship in triplet at first – Changbin liking Hyunjin, Hyunjin clearly feeling sympathy for Felix, and Felix… probably feeling something for Changbin? He still doubts if someone would really choose him over dazzling Hyunjin or gentle, caring Felix. They looked so good together like a pieces of puzzle clicking just right, and he felt as if he was third wheeling sometimes even if they haven't given him reasons to feel so. He was content with what he had, and this new turn of events scared him shitless. What if Hyunjin will understand that he's not the one he really wants as his mate? What if Felix will be disappointed with him somehow? What if it all is just a cruel joke? How long will this fragile peace last?

 

Then Felix just hugs him tighter in his sleep, laying his fluffy head on his naked collarbone, and he wishes it would last forever.

***

It starts in the morning, kinda abruptly: one moment Hyunjin is stretching after waking up, and the next he's already panting, gripping his abdomen, as if he's suffocated. His head powerlessly falls back as his face is frowned in pain.

"Shhh, shhh, Jinnie, we're here," Felix is already near him, touching his shoulder lightly. "We're here to help you."

Changbin is scared. He rarely saw how his heats started, and anyway this one doesn't look the same as those he saw either. Is it supposed to be like that?

"Bin," Felix's voice disrupts his thinking, "help me undress him."

They hastily take off his pajamas four-handedly, and Felix tugs down Hyunjin's underwear. The smell coming from him makes Felix squint and hung his head. He starts breathing faster, almost panicked.

"Bin… Lix…" Hyunjin mutters, pulling his hands somewhere in their direction. Felix is already behind his back, gripping his thighs and pulling him closer until Hyunjin, a writhing mess already, is seated on his lap and then on his dick. Hyunjin moans and throws his head back in delight, seating it on Felix's collarbone, and Felix just kisses him in sweatened temple.

Changbin is frozen in place. He should just go. Felix will do it, just like always, and there's nothing he can do better. He's useless in this situation, so he should just-

"Bin," Felix barely breathes, raspily, voice lower and breathier than usual, and his face contorts in equal parts of pain and pleasure. "Stay. If not for Jinnie, then- for me."

"He doesn't need me. He- he needs an alpha."

Felix frowns, his scent turning sour in distress, and Hyunjin follows – half-conscious, he still feels it somehow and starts crying, with fat, opaque tears streaming down his flushed face. He slowly opens his eyes and reaches his weak hand for Changbin. His pleading gaze breaks something inside Changbin, and soon he finds himself being yanked towards Hyunjin's chest, Hyunjin's hands hugging him as tight as they can in this state. Younger one just trembles, whining and hiccuping, and hugs him with his legs also, gripping his back through the fabric of his home t-shirt. He gasps, clearly trying to say something, but stops mid-move as if buzz in his head prevents him from formulating any coherent thoughts.

"I… I missed you so much…" he cries out, wetting dark fabric with his tears and snot, "dreamed so much about it," he nuzzles at the dip between his shoulder and neck and finally, finally stops weeping. Changbin feels Felix's hand snaking over Hyunjin's shoulder to run through the hair on the back of his head. It feels… strangely nice. As if something settles inside his soul after so much wandering.

Hyunjin's body slightly rocks up and down – after all, he's in heat now and the only alpha between them is helping him to go through it – and he puts his pale hands on Changbin's cheeks and untangles himself from hugging his back to become closer to his face. When they are mere centimetres away, Changbin doesn't have the time to react, and Hyunjin kisses him, closing his eyes in advance – wet and messy, not quite controlling his own body. It feels… wrong and so, so right at the same time.

"Stay," he begs, looking weirdly sober during these words, and the next moment he yet again falls into the overwhelming pleasure Felix is giving him. His small hands are roaming all across long Hyunjin's body, pinching and scratching, and Hyunjin is gasping every time his fingers graze over some sensitive zone.

"Bin", Hyunjin whines yet again, "c-can I- ah- suck you off?" he looks too out of it, but his wetly glistening eyes pierce Changbin right through the soul.

He doesn't know how they change positions, but in the end he stands on his knees, and Hyunjin swiftly tugs his home pants down together with underwear. In the next second his dick is engulfed in soft warmness, and even if he thought before that he's not interested in anything related to sex, he has to say that this sensation is still – pleasant, to say the least. He's not fully insensitive to anything related to his body, in the end.

Hyunjin's body is still softly rocking back and forth – Changbin sees heavy Felix's gaze from behind his shoulder – and it just helps him move his lips along the dick. His long fingers crawl to Changbin's crotch and circle the base of his cock and the underneath of it. It makes him gasp sharply as sudden lust pierces him in hot wave, and Hyunjin just hums contentedly. His scent turns unbearably sweet, engulfing them both, all three of them, and Felix moans loudly – Changbin feels goosebumps on his skin from this sound. Hyunjin still massages his balls, and when his tongue lays flat against his slit, Changbin hisses, and his eyes roll back in pleasure. It wasn't like that at all when he helped himself in these rare moments of arousal he felt naturally all alone.

Hyunjin sucks, harshly, and Changbin feels that he loses rational part of himself, falling into deep haze. He's shuddering and seeking for something to hold onto, so he runs his hands through the long Hyunjin's hair, tugging and scratching the scalp, balancing himself. Hyunjin moans wantonly on that, and vibrations from his throat go straight to Changbin's core. Felix sighs loudly on the other side and looks at him again with something unreadable in his eyes that makes him feel only hotter.

After some time of this – whatever it was, but it felt like sweet torture – he feels that tight knot in his lower belly is ready to untie.

"I'm… Jinnie… I…" he rasps, barely registering his own words and trying to make Hyunjin go away, but other seems to come only closer.

"Do it," Felix growls lowly, and it sounds like literal Alpha order, and by some reason Changbin can't resist it, so he breaks down, coming right into other's mouth. Hyunjin swallows everything with unsettling ease, licking the remnants from his softened cock and kissing him all around, his crotch, and his thighs, and lower belly too.

Still shuddering with aftemath of his orgasm, Changbin tries to flee already, but Hyunjin sacrifices his own heat resolution to stand up and keep him back in place by circling his hands over his waist. Somehow Felix appears behind his back, and his hands crawl across Changbin chest and lock here in the pretention of a loose hug. His hair tickles Chanbin's spine as he lays his head onto his back, trying to be closer, and sighs – partly tiredly, partly contentedly.

"We need you", whispers Hyunjin, blowing open-mouthed kisses all across his neck and collarbones.

"We want you," breathes Felix, licking and lightly biting his earlobe, and Changbin just feels how painfully hard he still is, standing behind him.

Felix grabs his hand, stiffenly placed in the air, and leads it to the back of Hyunjin's body, lower, lower, until their interwined fingers are not able to feel wetness leaking out profusely from his hole.

"He needs you there," he says in a sultry tone, words rumbling in his chest, small chin seated in the dip between Changbin's shoulder and neck. Hyunjin just moans in return, pushing himself back on their fingers and biting on his neck – more nibbling with his teeth than really biting. Felix is already here on the other side, doing the same, and though it's not even half enough to leave the mark, Changbin still feels tingles coursing through his veins from these small moves.

And even with all of this he still tries to back off.

"He needs…"

"He needs you," Felix breathes him right in the ear, and it feels as if he's talking straight from inside his brain, "if you only knew how much he begged for you when we were together," he bites Changbin's earlobe, slightly irritated even in his aroused state, "and you were never there. If you only knew," he licks a long stripe along the neck, "how much I needed you for all this time," his hands crawl across Changbin's chest, blunt nails scratching around the nipples. "We're both so greedy for you."

Changbin takes in shuddering breath, fully overwhelmed by this confession. It's just… it's too much.

"I still… I need…" he doesn't even know himself what exactly he needs – time, or space, or maybe something else, – but Hyunjin interrupts his train of thought by kissing him deeply. He gnaws on his lips and then licks inside his mouth, warm tongue touching his teeth and palate. It doesn't look like normal omega behaviour, but maybe he's desperate enough that it drives him to do something unnatural for his state.

For some minutes – hours, maybe? – they are just a bunch of limbs, tangled in each other so tightly that it's hard to move freely. Changbin's hugged from both sides, heated breaths hot on naked skin and sweat glistening in dim light. He feels hands on his chest, on the inner side of his thighs, on his cheeks, on spine – he's kissed everywhere, sweetly and heatedly, wetly and chastily. He falls into the haze of it, too overwhelmed with pleasure to protest.

In the end he finds himself looming over Hyunjin laying on his back, gripping his wrists above his head. Felix is behind his back, pushing him to come closer, to-

When he's seated inside the wet warmness fully, both Hyunjin and Felix moan so loudly, even though second one is just an overlooker and not a participant in this, that he feels deafened by the power of this sound and the meaning of it.

How could he evade from this for so long? The very thought of it feels insulting.

"Yes, good boy, keep up with this," Felix murmurs, grazing his teeth over his neck and clearly barely containing himself from marking his skin, "we love you so much…" he whines thinly as if the last filter is blown off from his mouth, and Changbin stops in his moves, choking on air. He feels the itching in his eyes and something warm and all-encompassing growing in his chest.

When hot tears drop on pale Hyunjin's skin, other stops squirming underneath him and blinks reverie off for a mere moment, looking him right in the eyes with a clearly sober, worried gaze, and just swiftly wriggles out of his grip and puts his heatened palms on Changbin's cheeks and tugs him closer, until their foreheads touch; Changbin breathes panically, gulping in air as drowning man, and Hyunjin is so eerily calm under him, closing his eyes and touching Changbin's lips with his – at first unsurely and chastely, but then more and more brave, heated and passionate. Long kiss makes his head spin, but also stops upcoming hysteric.

Felix is still behind him, plastered against his naked spine, curious hands roaming over the muscles of his shoulders and back, and he lets out muffled groans every time Changbin moves in wave-like motions inside Hyunjin. He still doesn't seem to get himself off though arousal this long must be painful. He whispers something unchaste in his dazed state, interchanging between licking and sucking the skin he can get to, leaving future bruises after himself.

Finally all three of them snap – no one can really say if it happens at the same time or not, but still it's really close. Omega scent peaks, flooding the space, and it becomes hard to breathe in this sudden engulfing sweetness. Hyunjin lies on duvets and pillows quietly, breathing deeply as in sleep, and his body is trembling in the aftershocks.

"Bin," Felix rasps, voice broken and harsh, "maybe it's time for… that blue thing? Jinnie is tired."

It takes time for Changbin to just ground himself from another high, and even more time – to register and understand words.

"What thing?.." his own voice is raspy too, unsteady and ragged, and he coughs, because omega sweetness seems to tickle his lungs from inside.

"That… which helps… one that we…" he jerks his head from side to side, clearly trying to shake the haze off. "Seungjeong," he just says instead, and something clicks inside Changbin's head. He untangles himself from the mess of limbs – Felix helps with that, gently opening Hyunjin's hands gripping Changbin's shoulders and hugging him tightly to stop the disappointed whining.

Changbin's whole body feels exhausted, drained of power – mostly because of a nervousness he felt over these… he glances over to the clock: it's far after midday. Gosh.

He goes into the kitchen first, completely forgetting that they left all the medicine in room near the nest, and turns around to get back, but then stops and grabs cups, some bottles of water and several energy bars (specifically seeking for Felix's favourite flavour in the box). When he returns, Felix and Hyunjin seem to fake a fight, tickling each other and blowing open-mouthed kisses all across their necks and cheeks. This sight unexpectedly feels him with happiness so bright it hurts, and he bites his lip to stop himself from smiling.

"Hey, look who has come," Felix coos, straightening himself up, sitting on Hyunjin with legs on both sides of his waist, and gently runs his fingers over his face. Hyunjin smiles tiredly, blinking slowly, and slightly turns his head to look at Changbin. His gaze visibly lights up when he sees the other, and he nearly tears up – Felix has to lean down and kiss him sweetly in cheek, grabbing Hyunjin's face in his hands, to soothe him.

"You're here," he whispers quietly, and his trembling voice conveys so many emotions at once that Changbin is nearly swept away by the wave of guilt, and hurt, and, more of all, pure bliss. He's here, just where he needs to be.

"I'm here," he echoes, sitting down next to them, and his own voice sounds unfamiliar to him. He hands Felix bottles with water and gives Hyunjin opened energy bar, turning around to take the jars with medicine from their place and a phone – to read the instructions.

Isotonic comes first – it's written that they need just one third of a cup to feel replenished enough, so he pours some slightly blue liquid in three cups with still unsteady hand.

It might be too early for scent stabilizer to go, so he grabs last one medicine, made specifically to ease the burden of omegas in heat, from its place, and reads the digest. They need just a little spoon of it to make hormones subside for around an hour, so he readily opens the jar just to see that Hyunjin is still lazily nibbling on energy bar, not even halfway through it. Well, maybe in another order. He softly tries to take the bar from Hyunjin's weak grip just to be met with long loud whine.

"Shh, I'm trying to help you," he involuntarily mimics Felix's tone at the start of the heat, "can you help me hold him?" he addresses Felix himself.

Felix almost jumps from his place in haste to help. He snakes his hands under Hyunjin's wide back and neck and lifts him a little – not without some struggle. Changbin pours several drops of deeply blueish medicine into the cup (he just hopes that it's safe to mix several kinds of them at once) and helps Hyunjin with drinking from it. He looks half-sleeping, opening and closing his eyes with big pauses, even gulping slowly as if he can't focus even on this basic thing. Finally when the cup is empty he goes limp and relaxed in Felix's hands, and they jerk from suddenness of it.

"Is everything alright?!" he raises his gaze to Changbin in panic. "We didn't…"

Right in this moment Hyunjin just turns his head and nuzzles into the bend of Felix's elbow, and they finally exhale. He's snoring lightly, but at the very least his body isn't feverishly hot and he isn't trembling and squirming, so they read it as a good sign.

"So he just sleeps, right?" Felix whispers almost in awe. "It's so cool."

Changbin empties his own cup and stands up to go – somewhere far from here. Felix immediately glances on him with such betrayal in his eyes that he abruptly stops mid-move.

"Where are you going?"

"Umh," he doesn't even know what to answer on that. "To work?"

Felix looks so sincerely heartbroken that Changbin finds himself kneeling on the edge of the nest almost against his will.

"Please," Felix begs, his own eyes glistening wetly. "Why are you trying to avoid us? To avoid me?"

"I- I'm not-"

"You clearly are," he hisses, almost furious, and it sobers Changbin up.

"I'm… I'm sorry. What… what can I do?" he simply asks in return, and Felix carefully lays unconscious Hyunjin back into the softness of the nest and pats the place next to him.

"Sit here. Let's talk. And we need to sleep too."

Changbin crawls into the nest, careful not to disrupt intricate order, and sits next to Felix. Other just leans on him further and further until he fully lays on his chest, and Changbin has to hug him just not to let him fall anywhere from his position.

Felix sighs.

"Thank you," he blurts out right into the beating vein at the side of Changbin's neck, and other's hair stands up from this little sensation.

They stay silent for a while.

Finally Felix opens his mouth with wet 'pop' and then immediately shuts it down. Opens again and yet again shuts, biting his lip in uncertainty.

"What is it?.." Changbin says, seeing his struggle.

Felix is red up to the roots of his hair. He hides his face into Changbin's shoulder.

"It's nothing, truthfully," he mumbles, words imprinting hotly on naked skin, "it's really nothing." And then- "What would you think if I marked you?" he immediately hushes himself, turning away in shame.

"What?" Changbin asks dumbly both because he hadn't heard it clearly and because this idea is not settling in his head enough.

"I mean- it's nothing," Felix sighs, defeated.

"You want to mark me?" Changbin says straightforwardly, and Felix jerks away in fear before these words. He's breathing unevenly, chest heaving with deep inhales and shallow exhales.

"No!" he whispers heatedly, clearly not wanting to wake Hyunjin up, and tries to crawl away.

"I mean- it's alright- it's just-" Changbin is in loss of words. He catches Felix in his tight hug easily, immobilizing him, and other just shudders and goes limp inside the circle of hands. "Why not Hyunjin?" he's clearly confused.

Felix mumbles something into his forearm which is just before his face.

"What?" Changbin asks, lowering his hands until he loosely hugs him by the waist.

"Him too," Felix answers slightly irritatedly, "we just… had this talk already. And I needed you to… agree to this too."

"Why haven't you marked him then if he had agreed to it?"

Felix huffs as if it's something obvious even for a toddler.

"We don't want to do… anything without you. You're our mate, and it would be only right to mate you both at the same time," he mutters, barely audible, and goosebumps run all across Changbin's body. It's something… mildly shocking, but so, so predictable with it.

Felix blows hot air onto his hands merrily, looking as goosebumps fade. He softly nuzzles his cheek against other's shoulder.

"So what is your answer?" he asks so impossibly tenderly that Changbin has to close his eyes to ground himself, because everything around him – two beautiful, naked bodies, nest, room full of pleased pheromones – drives him absolutely crazy.

He just gulps nervously. The answer is simple, but it's oh so hard to spell it.

Felix looks at his face worriedly and apparently reads there something that makes his lip quiver.

Changbin immediately tugs him closer and hugs properly – chest to chest, heart to feverishly beating heart.

"Yes," he exhales before he has the time to stop himself, "of course yes."

Felix seems like crying, hugging him in return, fingers gripping his back like claws not wanting to let go.

"Hyung," he says suddenly, and his eyes shine with something Changbin can't quite name. "Can I… can I fuck you?" he visibly stutters, embarassed to no end. "Or… or you fuck me?" he hastily adds as if it would make things better. "I just wanted to do something with you for so much time… there was a time where I dreamed about it every night… about you pinning me to the bed and fucking senseless…" he looks hardly lucid as if some filter is completely thrown off from him. "I'm ready, hyung," he says resolutely, looking up right in his eyes. "We… practiced with Jinnie before."

This day is so full of surprises that Changbin thinks that he should stop being surprised at all. Was he really this dense all this time? Or others just respected his privacy that much?

He doesn't know what force makes him bend down and capture Felix's lips in his, and he doesn't know either what makes him say "of course, I will", but the happy squeal Felix lets out into the kiss is certainly worth it.

They kiss for some time, and then Felix suddenly leans back, until they both fall horizontally, Felix on his back and Changbin quite literally pinning him down with his weight. Felix giggles as if tipsy and runs his hands down his shoulders, looking at him in awe.

"You know, I always liked muscular men," he suddenly avows, looking so pleased that it's overflowing. "And you're definitely my type."

Changbin is so flushed already that he doubts he can be redder.

Felix just hums contentedly and closes his eyes, hands loosely hugging Changbin's neck.

"Sleep with me," he murmurs quietly, lightly tugging other closer until they are plastered against each other fully. Felix turns his head to Hyunjin, sleeping soundly nearby, and suddenly pushes Changbin in this direction up from himself, so he falls next to Hyunjin with a huff, too close to call it safe distance. Felix rolls closer from his place, locking Changbin between himself and Hyunjin. He smiles slyly, and his eyes crinkle in amusement.

"Can you hug him across the chest?" he suggests with the same sly tone, already inconspicuously manhandling him in this position by gently moving his arms.

Changbin obeys, though his height doesn't allow him to hug exactly the chest; skin on Hyunjin's waist feels really soft, and he twitches a bit when Changbin's hand crawls across his abs. Then he just nuzzles back against Changbin's chest and quiets again, snoring lightly and relaxing even more than before. Changbin is not sure at all, but he thinks that even his scent wavers, becoming mildly sweeter in content.

Soon he feels that Felix's hand also crawls across his own body in a loose hug, another one lightly caressing the back of his neck.

He doesn't really want to sleep and isn't really tired, but everything around him is so quiet and calming that after some minutes of tense laying on his side he just relaxes over softness underneath and falls into dreamless slumber.

 

He opens up his eyes to something resembling distant birds chirping. Chirping becomes giggling and giggling transforms to hushed voices.

Felix and Hyunjin sit beside him, cuddled in one shared comforter, and actively discuss something. When he fully wakes up, trying to sit with some involuntary groaning leaving his lips, they stop talking and look at him.

"How are you feeling?" Felix asks, voice unbearably gentle.

"Like shit," he strangely feels even more weared and tired than he was before, and his head slightly hurts.

"You might have overslept," Hyunjin gets in a conversation, "we didn't want to wake you."

It's a bit weird – how after everything they've dragged him through today anything would stop them from dragging him inside the heat of situation again, especially if they both must be horny as heck, but then he looks at Hyunjin, and question is solved by itself just by his look. He looks… pretty good for his planned state. A bit disheveled, a bit flushed – and a lot excited, eyes glinting with weird light, – but not at all in a horny way.

"You're not…" Changbin mutters, completely taken aback by the sight before him.

"Not what?" Hyunjin asks, surprised.

Changbin looks around the nest. It wasn't fake call before, right? Can there be fake calls for heat at all?

"Oh," Hyunjin looks to the side, embarassed. "I took that… thing. Blue one. Well, more like asked Felix to give me it, but… yeah."

"Again?"

"Again?" he repeats, surprised, a sends quick glance to Felix – other just jerks his shoulders in mild uneasiness. "He-he, didn't know."

"It will make your cycle longer," Changbin tries to explain, on which other only giggles more.

"Well, we'll not in a hurry anyway," he exchanges weird glances with Felix yet again. "And we have so many plans on this cycle so I kinda wish for it to be longer."

"We"? "Plans"? Who at all makes any plans for their heat? Do these plans include Felix? Do these plans include him?

By the way other two look at him it's obvious that the answer on both questions is "yes".

"What plans?" he still asks, even if it's probably will be proven fruitless – well, more like croaks – and Hyunjin smiles slyly. Felix, nudging him by the waist under the comforter, smirks no less slyly.

"You'll see."

He is both thrilled and scared to see.

 

It's already close to sunset outside, and even with all medicine Hyunjin's lucidity shouldn't last too long, so they decide to cook and eat something fast while they have the time – mostly because their beta, always supporting them during cycles, is tangled into cycle himself now. The only difference now is that now they don't allow him even to lift a finger himself, banning him from any kind of work, and since Hyunjin is the one officially in the middle of a cycle there, Felix does everything in the kitchen all alone. Changbin and Hyunjin are there too, sitting on a chair at the kitchen table, Hyunjin on Changbin's lap, exactly at the place that offers the best view on Felix's back and ass. Changbin can't say that he's horny enough to be interested in watching it, but the way muscles roll under the skin of his thighs when he walks around is definitely… entertaining. The only thing that he doesn't like that much is the amount of wiggling Hyunjin performs while still touching him skin to skin – pretty sticky from the sweat skin, he has to say, even if they cared for at least cleaning all three of them from other bodily liquids before his wake. What is mildly weird, though he's glad that it works for now, he doesn't feel any slick on his thighs from Hyunjin. It's mildly worrying, but probably medicine just works that good.

Of course, they decided that putting clothes on just to get them off later is just a waste of time. At least Felix thought about putting on an apron because he is near the stove where he boils water and… he's probably up for some frying also, so it's better to catch any drops of hot oil and water on the thin apron's fabric than on naked skin.

Hyunjin wiggles on his lap yet again, so Changbin has to tug him closer to himself by the waist just to not let him fall. Maybe it's the effect of medicine, maybe something left from the heat, or maybe it's his natural emotions, but he seems giddy and very giggly – much more than usual. If he was like it usually at all, because overall he preferred to be… on a melancholic side. Just like Seungmin, funnily.

"Hey Binnie," he half-whispers, cupping his cheek by his free hand – another lays on circle of Changbin's hands – and looking at him upside-down throwing his head back. He's naturally not in a comfortable position, because he's hella long, so he even wriggles down so other's hands now rest over his chest and his feet are touching the floor. Now he can arch his neck to look at him down-up more freely.

"Mmh," Changbin feels so impossibly calm around them, even though he should feel the entirely other way, and even his body is mostly relaxed and pliant and his brain is fuzzy like he's napping.

"Will you mark me?" Hyunjin asks nonchalantly, his free hand crawling to cup the back of Changbin's neck and lightly scratch the hair at the back of his head, and it takes about a minute for Changbin's brain to get at least an ounce of meaning from his words. Even then, all he can say in return is questioning "What about Felix?"

Hyunjin smiles lazily with only his lips, seeming really pleased.

"Oh, you can mark him too," he basically purrs, wiggling back up to put his head on other's shoulder, still scratching the back of his head with one hand. "It would make him the happiest person alive. You're the man of his dreams," he wetly smooches him behind the ear, nosing around just like a cat seeking attention, and it takes so much longer for Changbin to get this message.

"Wait, what?" he asks, completely dumbfounded, but Hyunjin only giggles further on that and jumps off his lap to sit on the couch when Felix puts plates with some meal on the table.

He's not conscious enough to understand what exactly it is – if it is something specific at all – but he sees some rice, vegetables and some meat chopped in such small pieces that it's almost minced.

They hurry to eat and drink while they can (Felix puts big cups with clear water before them next), and in the end Felix sends him pointed look as if he had heard their conversation with Hyunjin after all.

It all feels like some kind of feverish dream – nice one but still surreal. They both look absolutely whipped for him, and… he can't understand where it was before. Had they hidden it for all these years – almost half of decade? Longed for him but never really tried to get closer? Of course, it might be him to blame for this too, with his almost certain position that they should spend cycles only with each other and he won't be bothering them for anything aside from help with basic needs, and still… Why had everything changed so suddenly? Who snapped first to decide that things between them should change at all?

And why at all hadn't he been surprised at all when Hyunjin said that he would spend his next heat with "both his mates"? He should have been surprised by this, right? He tries to recall if there were some signs of them growing closer during recent time, but finds out that they have been close like that – including sleeping in one place, but nothing less platonic than this – for as long as he remembers, falling into this comfortable routine in span of first two years or even less. They've been "not quite friends" with each other probably from the very start of them living together – even if they didn't know each other before that well, if at all.

He thinks so hard over that, unfocused on the outer world, that totally misses how Felix quickly washes the plates and makes Hyunjin drink a bit more water from the fresh bottle, neither he feels how no other than Hyunjin himself crawls onto his lap again – with his eyes already glassy and hormone-drunk. He re-focuses on things happening in reality only when Hyunjin loosely links his straight hands behind his, Changbin, neck, and his knees painfully press on the meat on his thighs.

"Ugh," he hisses, trying to get a hold of situation. "What are you?.."

Hyunjin sends him heated look, then bends down in his position, tugging him closer by the interlinked palms on the back of his head, and licks long wet stripe from his collarbone to the very end of his jaw. It isn't even something that intimate, it seems, judging by amused gaze Hyunjin has like he just did come mischief.

Felix comes closer from the other side, weightly putting hand on his shoulder and slowly leading it further across his back, thin fingers drawing soft lines on the skin.

It feels like these traces are made of liquid fire.

Changbin just looks at them, slightly taken aback by sudden change. Felix doesn't quite look like his rut is triggered by Hyunjin's heat, but he definitely looks heavily affected, with his pupils unnaturally dilated and face frozen in some dangerous, yet also sweet expression. Well, it would be only natural for a hecking alpha to be affected by omega pheromones, especially so potent they are already suffocatingly sweet and tickling not only his lungs, but the skin at the nape of his neck and his forearms too, just like the other parts of his body. It's so suddenly sweet that he feels as if the scent is crawling inside his body with every inhale, pumping through blood, ingested inside his stomach and going even further into his intestines. It wasn't so overwhelming before – right?

By the predatory gaze Hyunjin performs moment before he crouches down to bite into his lips – literally bite, with drops of blood flowing out from sharp tug of teeth – he can get that Hyunjin somehow can control intensity of it all, and he most certainly wants Changbin to be wrecked by his pheromones – and be wrecked by him in return. Sadly he's still totally blind for the call of them, but it doesn't mean that Hyunjin's and Felix's combined moves don't have any effect on him – of course they do. Oh, they do, but it's not because of any pheromones but his own will.

Felix comes only closer, putting his other hand on Hyunjin's back, locking them both in a resemblance of a hug, and leans down himself to lick on Changbin's earlobe. He grazes it with teeth seconds after, and all these sensations – ache mixed with pleasure – just make Changbin think why at all both of them are obsessed with pleasing him above themselves – so much that it makes them forget about their own needs which normally should be irresistible.

"Should we go back?" Felix asks raspily, in voice that low that it makes goosebumps run across his spine.

Technically, Changbin wonders how at all Hyunjin hadn't come back to nest the first moment he felt his heat returning. But yet – Changbin is here so he supposes that's why other two stay here too.

He tries to push Hyunjin off his lap, but other doesn't budge even a bit, gripping his shoulders so hard it hurts. Okay, Changbin thinks, he's strong enough to carry him to the nest himself.

He gropes his asscheeks – already wet under the tips of his fingers – and stands up with a huff. Hyunjin isn't that buff or weighty, but he's definitely tall enough so it wouldn't be easy to balance him. Especially if he actively tries to distract him from further walking by nibbling on his earlobes and hugging him with his legs, insanely strong in comparison to his other physical abilities. Felix follows them, staying plastered over Changbin's back as if glued there with some kind of superglue. He feels Felix tracing the muscles of his back – he might have some kind of such kink after all – and then interwining his fingers with Hyunjin's, still busy making him embarrassed and aroused (he has to say, other might be even too good at it). Now he licks and pecks his neck thoroughly, especially near the place scent glands are supposed to be.

Honestly, sometimes Changbin thinks that he's not presented at all and lacks scent glands overall, even if doctors and their chemists reassure him that he's just a beta, maybe not usual one, but not too unusual either. Maybe some of his organs linked to dynamics don't work as they probably should, but he's said it's not an anomaly between betas as a whole.

Already comfortingly nestled inside the nest, with Hyunjin straddling his hips, Changbin is tugged into bruising kiss, while Felix shamelessly pinches his nipples, sucking to-be hickeys all around the backside of his neck and shoulders. While sincerely trying to preserve his composure and not to fall into the haze of moment, he can't not think about his position on hormone-induced behaviour. His main problem with heats or ruts lied in lack of conscious consent present. It was one thing to go intimate with person by the call of your heart (and support of your brain), and definitely another to long for any person who clicks with your side of dynamics regardless of their personality. He never wanted to ignite lust in anyone against their will nor feel it ignited in himself by pheromones, so while he sometimes regarded himself as defective, he was more or less glad with his part of dynamics. He preferred – naturality? – over everything, maybe that's why their relationship with Chan, during that time still too dependent on his hormones, hadn't worked out, maybe that's why he left Hyunjin and Felix take care of each other, because they obviously hadn't had any objections to the way their bodies worked. But still… The attraction these two felt for him seemed genuine – at least it followed them into lucidity. They had literally planned all of this while still being in their right mind, as far as he could catch.

So when Hyunjin blatantly starts riding him, engulfing his dick with tight warmness, he just thinks that he has all right to indulge in it without feeling guilty as much as his heart desires – and oh, how hard it desires. Blood roars in his ears, hot as liquid lava, and it's not exactly attraction – or at least, other kind of it, that kind where he sincerely cared about them and felt physical tug to others and also felt comforted by their presence and wished for them to be safe and sound with or without him – but anyway it's definitely arousal, not something he feels that often by himself. He likes being pleasured and wants to give them pleasure in return.

Hyunjin kisses him deeply, his tongue touching the upper row of Changbin's teeth and his palate, and when he suddenly pulls away and tilts his head, Changbin, dizzy from the lack of oxygen, startles, before he more hears than sees – it's not that easy to turn his head that much – as Felix and Hyunjin are kissing wetly above his shoulder. Their fingers are still interwined behind his neck, twitching and occasionally tickling sensitive skin there, and he feels warmth not just because of a heat of two bodies surrounding him, but also because they are here, together, and no one is left behind in the end.

It feels very weird to feel how Hyunjin and Felix untangle themselves from each other's grasp, and especially weird to hear husky, impossibly low Felix's voice in his ear while Hyunjin licks into another (they have very obscene obsession over his earlobes, he has to say).

"He probably needs to be knotted afterwards," Felix rumbles, the mere sound of his voice sending tingles down Changbin's spine, and even Hyunjin, hardly distinguishing the words themselves, but still able to hear low roar, moans and grinds against Changbin's stomach, his achingly hard dick smeared with precum.

"After what?" Changbin asks, hardly gathering himself for any coherency.

"After you're finished with him," Felix puffs some air right into his ear in the end and lightly bites, almost playfully, raising the army of goosebumps in its wake. One of his hands roams lower, lower, until he grips the base of Hyunjin's dick, making him whine pathetically. "Wait a little, baby," he says, not really understandable, to whom of two, because other his hand circles around the base of Changbin's dick, still seathed deep into other, and his fingers massage the underside of it and ballsack, Hyunjin's warm slick making every move smoother.

How at all would they know that he's so sensitive there, if he himself didn't know it? He's really grateful for this revelation, though it makes him uneasy to think that they somehow know more about his body that he himself knows.

After some time of this sweet torture – he's sure he's borderline overstimulated – and raspy "Baby, come for me" from Felix, said right in his ear and piercing through his soul, he comes inside warm body above him. Body – Hyunjin – emanates loud sound of contentment over it, and he feels that Felix manhandles them both into some new position, Hyunjin on his back with his ass higher than his head, pushing a bunch of duvets and pillows under it for sure, and pulling Changbin out of him just to thrust into warmness himself at the next moment. Hyunjin groans – Changbin can't say for sure, but Felix must have swelling knot catching on his rim already – and Changbin just sits on his knees nearby, watching as Felix frees Hyunjin's cock from his grip and thrusts another bunch of times before stilling and shuddering slightly. Hyunjin moans only more and follows with his high the next minute, bending backwards, so Changbin is even afraid for his spine, but Felix holds both the small of his back and the back of his head in his arms, preventing him from harming himself. The bead of sweat runs down Felix's forehead, and he licks it mindlessly when it drops on his lips. When Hyunjin stops trembling violently, Felix kisses him all across the chest and cheeks soothingly, keeping his face in his palms softly. Hyunjin sighs contentedly, relaxed, and just as Changbin wants to stand up and go somewhere else to leave just the two of them (because it suddenly feels too personal for him to be near), Felix catches him by the wrist and tugs back, until he plops back down awkwardly. He's still inside, as he will be until his knot recedes, so he has to move Changbin both with the hand on the nape of his neck and some words – other can't catch exact ones but still crawls closer as hypnotized. Felix continues with his hand on Changbin's neck until their faces are mere centimetres apart, and then he just dives in (Hyunjin moans – as it seems, knot moves within him too) and captures Changbin's lips in sensual kiss. Soon his second hand appears on his neck too, and he's tugged into tight embrace, so he even has to put both his palms on Felix's shoulders for leverage not to disturb pair before him further. Felix licks into his mouth (it's mildly painful – after all, Hyunjin had bitten him for real), and then maneuvers him this way so his neck is just before Felix's face. He then starts sucking his throat dedicatedly like he drinks some rich wine, and Hyunjin even whines frustratedly that he doesn't quite see it (Changbin yelps surprisedly on these words, feeling Felix's smile against his skin), so Felix lets him free for a moment, turning his body instead so his seeking mouth on the side of Changbin's throat is perfectly seen for the third one. Hyunjin whines again, frustrated for entirely other reason, and throws his head back, burrowing into the pile of scented clothing and visibly trying to inhale familiar smells to calm himself. Felix smirks, not quite going far from his previous place on other's neck, and sucks harshly on the place where scent glands are usually located.

"B-Binnie," Hyunjin whines, hands gripping duvets laying in a thick layer on the floor, "you smell so nice."

He… he smells? He does have a smell?

Felix is nosing across his neck and collarbone.

"So, so nice," he rumbles, low purr coming right from his chest, "I love your scent."

"What is my scent like?" he whispers, as if afraid of ruining this dream.

"I don't know," Felix just continues with nosing him, visibly comfortable with just touching him lightly. "Like home."

He puts his forehead on Changbin's shoulder as if tired, so they stay like that for some time until Felix's knot fully recedes and he groans and slowly pulls out. Hyunjin whines yet again, thinly this time, and slowly rolls to the side until he's on his stomach, ass still higher than head, lying on top of rolled up duvets. Felix looks at this sight with mild uneasiness.

"… Sorry," he mumbles all of sudden, "I guess we haven't prepared enough," he says with a tint of sadness in his voice.

"Prepared for what?" Changbin asks quietly, hoping that Hyunjin won't be able to hear, but of course he can – with his heightened in cycle hearing.

"For pregnancy," he groans irritatedly. "I want to get pregnant from you, so I need all possible chances for your seed to get to its destination," he explains breathlessly, crawling back even further until he's bended in half. "I wish I could've been plugged longer."

"Sorry," Felix apologizes again with guilt clear in his voice.

It's so embarrassingly intimate – and quite kinky – that Changbin feels his ears becoming hot.

"I want children from you so much," Hyunjin almost cries, his face down and a bit muffled by all fabric that is under him, "I want to be a real family with both of you."

Felix blinks wetly for a moment, and Changbin sees that he rubs his eyes with his fist as if they're itchy.

They stay silent for some time, Felix throwing his head back and breathing unevenly, as if trying to blink tears back into his tear ducts, and Changbin is mesmerized by the thin white trail of their mixed semen leaking out of Hyunjin's hole no matter how much he tries to prevent it. It's… so… too much. Realization hits him like train, only in this moment: it's his come too. He fucked Hyunjin. He might be a father of his children.

Other wants him to be the father of his children. Other wants to be a family with him – with them.

He feels the itch in his eyes too, and his chest swells with something that big and indescribable that he chokes on this feeling for some moments until this wave of strong feeling doesn't fade.

"You want to feel good too, Lixie?" Hyunjin mumbles out of the blue, turning his head lazily to stare on other over his shoulder, with his cheek still on softness underneath and eyes half-lidded.

"What are you- I had, it's alright!" Felix hastily adds, brushing his hair from his face and looking at man underneath with something akin to fear.

"No, you want to have fun with Binnie too," Hyunjin murmurs almost inaudible, burying his face in scented clothing as if trying to muffle himself preventively.

Felix huffs, or gasps, or both at the same time.

"I… I want, but… ehh…" he squints his eyes and then fully closes them as if trying to shut off reality around. "Are you still up to your word?" he addresses Changbin, who just flinches from suddenness of a question and blinks at him in return. Before he can ask for context, Felix adds, visibly stuttering: "That one we talked before about."

"About you fucking Lixie senseless," Hyunjin cunningly adds, still face down.

"W-well, yes, but-!" Felix looks like he's halfway descending to the otherworld, mortified from embarrassment. "You could say that in other words, Jinnie."

"It was shorter," Hyunjin snorts, watching him over his shoulder down-up with a charming pout.

Felix's still not brave enough to look straight at Changbin from where he observes the floor, covered with clothes and blankets. "So are you still up to it?.. If it's possible?" he fiddles with his hands, avoiding other's eyes, and just slaps Hyunjin's hip without any real power behind it when he hears him snickering over his misery. It's more sound than pain, as it seems, because Hyunjin just starts giggling uncontrollably, his body trembling from it. He sends pointed look to Felix, encouraging him to act finally, so Felix sends pointed look to Changbin in turn, and they hold each other's gazes until it becomes too awkward to do so.

Changbin licks his lips, his mouth suddenly too dry, and Felix follows his tongue moves with his eyes.

"Um… I think… If you're up to it still?" he half-whispers, partly because he feels raspy, partly because loud sounds feel inappropriate for this atmosphere. He doesn't yet understand fully what exactly Felix thinks of – any option sounds wrong for some reasons and certainly normal outside of stereotypes and all other social garbage – but it seems fair to pay them for all nice things they have done to him anyway, so he's up to any thing Felix thinks of. He trusts them enough to get that they won't do something he would be critically against of.

"I am," Felix avoids his gaze again, his cheeks flaring. "More than ever."

They sit still for some time, and then Felix stirs and puts his open palm upon Hyunjin's spine.

"I… I'll need your help, dear," he confesses as in sin, looking uneasy as heck.

"Mmhm," Hyunjin hums and slowly gets up on his hands, standing on all fourth, as if contemplating if he should get up fully at all or not. Then he pushes himself back by his hands until he's sitting on his knees, duvet roll right before him. He looks displeased by this position, brows furrowed, but still stands up, unsteady, and Felix hurries to help him stay upright.

"We're gonna go to the bathroom," Hyunjin exclaims, Felix's face red as if he's gonna combust, "wait for us, please," he asks sweetly, still a bit hormone-drunk and his mind visibly foggy.

"I'll need that blue thing again," Changbin hears him demand right before bathroom door clicks shut, "I want to be able to remember it. I want to watch."

***

Hyunjin and Felix swiftly sneak into the bathroom – so fast that he can't even ask to use it himself to clean up. He hears shower starting behind the closed door, and Hyunjin almost wails painfully when he, apparently, steps there (at least sound of water distorts for a moment, and Felix hurries to hush him). If he understands right, he's still affected by his heat and his wish to breed, so the fact that he has to clean himself off his… mates makes him hurt.

Changbin knocks the door impatiently. Honestly, it's not a big deal, and still he feels a bit dirty with the remnants of their intercourse drying on his body.

Felix shyly peaks out of barely opened door and hides back behind it, and then sneaks out again, trying not to open door too wide by some reason, and hands him wet towel. He's really red, and he just jerks his head in a short nod when Changbin takes the towel and runs away to the kitchen, clearly avoiding him. He returns mere minutes after, with cup in his hand, and takes used towel back to the bathroom, his eyes always glued to the floor and barely tracing over Changbin's form.

Door locks again with a click. Well, as it seems, they need some privacy over anything they'll be doing in next… however much it'll takes. He doesn't really know what are they up to, to be honest.

He can't say that he's hungry for real, but as it seems, he's still not against some drink and sweets, so he goes to the kitchen and takes random granola bar from the box. His cup (one he used to pour isotonic into before) stands here, so he supposes Felix (or Hyunjin, or them both) just returned it back from the nest when he fell asleep. Was it here already during their snack? Hm, maybe. He felt hazy enough not to remember details back then. Is it how cycle supposed to feel for anyone involved in it?

He grows rather impatient and bored again. Behind the door Felix yelps, and Changbin knocks both because he needs to use the toilet (sadly they have it shared with bathroom) and because he's mildly worried. Felix moans, some thud and light hissing are heard, and Changbin knocks again. Lock clinks with metal for a long time, as if someone opening it struggles with it greatly, and then it's silent aside from some hushed murmuring and soft sighs. He somehow feels embarrassed before anything that awaits there.

He opens the door slowly, as if afraid to disturb the pair with his presence, and from some side he's right in this, because when he finally is brave enough to raise his gaze, first thing he sees is the curve of Felix's thighs, one of them held up in the air by Hyunjin's arm, other arm knuckles deep in-

Felix glances at Changbin quickly, overlooking him from head to toes, and just throws his head back with a raspy moan, hands gripping Hyunjin's shoulders just constricting uncontrollably.

"Add fourth," he more purrs than really says, and Hyunjin just kisses his shoulder soothingly, moving his fingers inside.

"Just in case," Hyunjin smirks into Felix's shoulder, casting a quick glance at Changbin himself, and Changbin just hurries to… to… anyway!

 

After what seems like impossibly long and embarrassing time after he was done with his little business and quickly went out of bathroom, Hyunjin and Felix emerge from it too, faces equally flushed and necks almost glistening with both sweat and saliva. Their mixed smell wafts in the air with contentment.

Changbin waits for them in the nest, wrapped in a blanket because after the adrenaline rush fell his naked body had finally caught on temperature around being not too comfortable for completely bare skin. Blanket still smells lightly of dust, as it was the one from charity store, but then above it there is unmistakable scent of passion and sex, and under it – something so indescribably homely that makes him feel calm and relaxed instantly. He almost dozes off, comfortably sitting with pillows and duvets in a pile around him, when Hyunjin plops down right in the center of this pile and makes grabby hands at Felix, who prefers not to do any rash moves and carefully sits between Hyunjin's spread legs, back to other's chest.

They wait. Changbin just lazily blinks at them, barely awake to this moment, feeling sleepy over gentle silence around.

Hyunjin grabs backs of Felix's thighs quite roughly – he sees how slender fingers dig into soft skin with visible force, meat of Felix's legs dimpling under it. Felix twitches from suddenness of it, looking quite uneasy, and tries to bring his legs together, but to no avail, because apparently heat has heightened not only Hyunjin's hearing and sense of smell, but made him a bit stronger too.

Felix breathing hitches, and he makes a shuddering intake of the air, as if he's really nervous. Hyunjin, still gripping his thighs, only makes him spread further and kisses his shoulder soothingly, hair tickling other's neck.

"He's all yours," Hyunjin proclaims seductively, and it takes some time for Changbin to understand what does he mean by that. He looks at their current disposition – with Felix, flush almost painfully strong on his skin, his lower part of body on full display, almost forcefully opened for it, leaning on Hyunjin who in his turn keeps sending him suggestive looks – and just dives deeper in his thoughts for a moment.

Felix wants to be under him? Under him, a mere beta?

That's his first doubt. Second is… he doesn't really know what to do. Like of course, they have made many things during this day, but all in all he was in the heat of the moment, carefully guided by Felix, Hyunjin being so ever understanding. But now?

"If something, lube is in the drawer near the door," Hyunjin says suddenly, "and in the bathroom, we kind of left it on a sink. Of course, we used an excessive amount of it overall, but if you'll need even more…"

Changbin glances to where Hyunjin clearly suggests him to look, and indeed, Felix's hole and all skin around it is glistening from lube – artificial one, as he can understand, even if he wouldn't be surprised if they used Hyunjin's natural one too.

They stay still for a while again, silence becoming awkward and deafening. Changbin tries to send pleading looks to the Hyunjin, because Felix is avoiding his gaze with all his might, thoroughly embarrassed and, as it seems, starting to be anxious, and thankfully, other understands him, freeing one of his hands and tugging him closer, up until Changbin nearly falls on their tangled bodies, chest flush to Felix's chest.

"Help him, darling," Hyunjin purrs darkly into Felix's ear, just as brightly pink as the rest of his body, "our little Binnie isn't quite used for it yet."

Felix raises his head, and they finally look at each other's eyes. Maybe Changbin's confusion over their poses is that obvious, or maybe Felix is able to read something underneath it, but he just tugs him even closer, up until they all lie down one on another in a happy pile, touches his dick almost gently, gliding up and down on it with slicked hand (he gathered some excess of lube from his skin), and after some gentle petting, when he's hard, guides Changbin's dick inside him himself, carefully watching the older's reaction.

It's – different. He even wants to say that it's nothing like Hyunjin at all, tighter and hotter and overall more… awkward?.. but there is something similar between them too – Changbin's genuine wish to please. He might not feel the same emotions, or might not understand how things work, or how he should feel about this all, but the wish is there. He is happy if other two are happy too. He definitely wants it, longs for it.

So when Hyunjin just orders him to move, he does, trusting the other that he would know how it must go. He slowly thrusts deeper, and Felix moans-whines, both thinly and deep, and this sound makes him all tingly all the same. He likes it, likes feeling the other taking obvious pleasure from it, and his own body just supports this, growing warmer by the seconds passing. Felix leans further on Hyunjin, laying his head on other's shoulder, and Hyunjin tenderly kisses his cheek and just leaves in this position, lips still close to his face, providing him skin to skin contact ever so slightly.

After some time Changbin works out some resemblance of a rhythm, taking notice in small changes in Felix's face – what makes him open his mouth in silent screams, what makes him squirm and just push the heels of his feet, which he has now on Changbin's back, deeper, and what makes him exhale, trembling and short. Overall, he looks absolutely blissed out, eyes rolling into his head, lips wet from saliva and freckles contrasting with his skin suddenly, and this sight sincerely fills Changbin's belly with butterflies. He's so in love.

In love.

It was maybe the first time he allowed himself to think of this word applied to their relationship, to him – of this concept overall. He might not be horny for them as much as they wish he truly was, but he's so in love with them in many other ways, and he's sure they're in love with him too, even if it might be totally different for them.

His eyes are itching from unexpected wave of emotions, and he harshly blinks and dives down, capturing Felix's lips with his own, drinking his mewls and moans like some sort of mulled wine, warmth and spice all the same. His soul shines in delight. He's in his place. He's home, in their arms.

Felix does jerk his head back abruptly, though, scaring them both with sudden movement, and he feels two pair of eyes roaming on Felix's skin in silent questioning. Is something wrong?

The other just tries to calm his breathing, clearly wanting to say something, so Changbin slows down, allowing him to gather his thoughts. Words that come out of his mouth still catch him off guard though.

"Mate me," Felix pleads, not entirely clear, whom exactly, and Hyunjin instantly noses the dip between his neck and shoulder, gently licking his skin and nibbling lightly for now. "Mate me, Changbin, too," he says in the end with frightening clarity, and Changbin's breathing hitches for a moment. He puts his lips on Felix's other shoulder then, closing his eyes and allowing something alike to instincts to lead him for now. He had never mated with anyone before – and hardly will in the future, with anyone aside from these two beautiful creatures that his mates are.

Mates. The word fills him with warmth, with sureness, with understanding. So when Hyunjin opens his mouth wider for a bite, he does the same, so they pierce Felix's skin at the same time.

He feels blood filling his mouth – not too much of it, though, so he hopes that it's not too painful for the other, – and pheromones suddenly spike up tenfolds, content alpha's and omega's scents mixing and tickling the inside of his nostrils, almost making him cry. He might not feel the call of them, but this is something above it, basic chemistry mangling with his brain. They fit, like puzzle pieces, not only Felix and Hyunjin, but him too, all three of them working in perfect harmony.

He feels his high nearing, and by the look of it, Felix is close too, so he thrusts harder several times until he feels tight knot in his abdomen unraveling. It feels a bit embarrassing – Felix is not an omega, so he shouldn't even think about someone coming inside him, but there he was, asking him about that when they still were at the safe space of shared bathroom. They're both clean – they all are clean, the three of them, – and it was what he wanted. What he actually dreamed of. It all feels so surreal.

He tunes out from reality for a bit, too deep in his thoughts, and snaps back out only when he feels Felix's tiny fingers tracing the wet tracks on his cheeks. He still cries, but these are the tears of relief.

"I love you so much," Felix whispers as if it's the biggest secret, and kisses him – softly, barely touching his lips, almost chastely. Hyunjin is here too, freeing himself from the weight of Felix, who was now fully sitting on Changbin's lap with his dick still seathed inside him, and just kisses his neck, sucking lightly, not enough to leave any kind of bruise.

"We love you so much," he adds, voice quiet and so, so sincere that Changbin's heart is almost bursting from fullness.

He's so in love.

***

They come to rest after that, Hyunjin falling asleep almost instantly, lying with his head on Changbin's chest, and Felix crawls out of the nest to take some painkillers, because even with the way they've done the bite it still can be painful in the end. Pain is natural in the process, and overall they are prepared to bear with it – more or less.

Felix also gives Changbin a pill, because his body isn't in the best shape either, with dozens of already bruising hickeys all across his back, shoulders and neck. Felix sends him apologizing look and smiles meekly, lying nearby and taking his arm in his. He clinges to this arm and almost nuzzles his face into his palm, like some giant affectionate cat, interwining their fingers. Felix plays with his fingers for some time mindlessly, and then mumbles something almost inaudible. Changbin's mind goes pleasantly fuzzy yet again with natural post-coital tiredness so he totally misses the words.

"… Sorry?.." he whispers raspily, careful not to wake up Hyunjin. "What have you said?.."

Felix just lies his head upon his other still free shoulder, so their faces are one kiss distance apart.

"I said," he pauses, searching for something in Changbin's face, eyes crinkling with some ethereal light and his own face brightened with merry, "that you make us so happy. You make me so, so happy." He gently holds Changbin's arm with both of his, closing his eyes, as if praying. "I wish it could be like that forever." He looks at him with his piercing gaze. "I wish we could make it all happen sooner."

And he just shortly pecks Changbin's nose and visibly relaxes, also quickly falling asleep.

Warmth in Changbin's chest grows only bigger and never subsides.

***

"You smell different," Hyunjin noses up Felix's neck almost feverishly, clearly confused over this fact, and Changbin almost hears from the other side of the table as cogs in his brain whir and overheat.

For a second he even forgets that something unusual is going on – the atmosphere around is so… normal, if put aside the fact that they all are fully naked. They just eat noodles (Hyunjin almost got his hands on spicy sauce, but was four-handedly tugged away from it, so as a measure of equality they agreed that if Hyunjin can't eat or drink certain things, neither can they), drink awfully weakly brewed tea and just… vibe here in comfortable silence, basking in a sense of familiarity strenghtened with all confessions that came up during this day.

Some things are different, though.

For example, they had literally set the timer for the time when Hyunjin's heat will return, to get all their business resolved to this time. Changbin still thinks that the other two behave really weird over this, just allowing Hyunjin to skip heat time again and again and thus clearly prolonging the cycle. Just for how long they think Chan will allow them to miss the missions? How long will he allow the same for Changbin?

Second thing that is different – and he can't ignore it forever, it becoming only more obvious with the time passing – is changing Felix's scent. He naturally had it pretty mild for an alpha, not spicy at all, and there is something so… Hyunjin-like in it now, making it only softer and sweeter. But there is also another thing that doesn't smell Hyunjin-like at all, something bringing back the sensation of being wrapped in circle of mother's hands, scent of warmth, of… of home.

Something clicks inside Changbin's mind with this thought, and Hyunjin just confirms his suspicions, slapping Felix's shoulder with faux irritation:

"You smell more like Changbin than like me, you traitor!" he barks in laugh loudly, smiling so much that it's obvious that he's not against it at all. And Felix himself? Felix glows.

"That's because he's my favourite," he half-jokes with straight face, sending him a shy gaze from under the eyelashes, cheeks warm with embarrassment.

He is Felix's favourite. And Felix will smell like him for a while, up until the time the mating bite should be renewed.

The mating bite. The thought itself fills him with contradicting emotions, happiness and anxiety tearing him in half. He does feel butterflies in his stomach, but he also feels brewing fear that once upon a time Felix will realise that Changbin isn't someone good for him, that he doesn't want to have anything in common with him, and it all will be over.

As it seems, his emotions are obvious from the outside, as they both come closer, Felix taking his hands in his.

"What's the matter?" he asks so impossibly tenderly that Changbin feels like breaking again.

"What if?.." he inhales deeply, swirl of feelings tugging on his guts, "what if you'll understand that I'm not the one you wanted?"

Felix looks pained, almost betrayed, and Hyunjin isn't better near to him.

"I love you to the Moon and back," Felix whispers, loud just enough for them to hear, clenching his hands tighter over Changbin's fingers, "and I'm deeply sorry that I couldn't show it properly during all this time. We're sorry."

He kisses his forehead gently.

"Nothing will change that, ever." He says with a scaring clarity, and despite everything Changbin seems to believe the words just this time. Somehow he ends in a circle of Felix's hands, and then out of the blue finds himself hiccuping, nosing the dip between Felix's neck and shoulder in a seek of comfort. Hyunjin quietly lays his hand on his back and slowly strokes it in soothing motions, from up to down, up to down again.

Alarm rings.

***

Felix looks uneasy. They just had a conversation with Hyunjin in heated whispers, and now Felix is embarassingly red and squirming in place while Hyunjin is just lazily laying on his side, stopping himself from trembling only by willpower.

"So… Um," Felix starts and shortly jerks his head back to shot a quick glance on Hyunjin, "there is… one thing… Thing," he mindlessly plays with his fingers, purposefully avoiding Changbin's eyes, "well, one thing Hyunjin usually craves during, umm… during heats," he shakily inhales, becoming so red his freckles almost shine on his skin, "and I don't know if you… umm… would be comfortable with it?" he raises his gaze just for a moment and lowers it shyly just as their eyes meet. "So all in all we… don't know if you would like to participate," Hyunjin, also thoroughly flushed, just rolls down on his back and throws his head into the softness of scented clothes. He's already pretty out of it, eyes glassy and mouth opened wantonly, so his wet tongue, tracing the higher row of his teeth, is perfectly seen.

"But we still want you near," he exhales with some difficulty and interwines their fingers, tugging Changbin closer.

He feels his vision trembling a bit from upcoming tears, still sensitive to this sincerity and insecurity that Hyunjin and Felix have in these questions – their doubts they have in everything concerning him being close to them.

"Of course, I'll stay," he promises. Felix jerks his head up as if in disbelief and smiles shyly. He exchanges quick glances with Hyunjin, and other just turns to lay on the stomach, or rather… situate himself on a rolled duvet yet again, ass higher than head and folded hands.

Felix traces the outline of his hip gently with the very tips of his fingers, crawling closer on his knees, and Changbin can't stop himself from following the path of other's hand with his eyes – the milky pale soft skin of Hyunjin, the dip of his spine and the smalls of his back, the way leaking out slick glistens wetly under dimly lit lights. Changbin is so mesmerised by this sight that does click out of his frozen state with a twitch only when he sees Felix's tongue going across it, licking this intimate place with his eyes closed, anchoring himself by gripping Hyunjin's thighs tightly. From his side, Hyunjin shakily moans and thrusts back, closer to Felix's warm mouth. It all looks so… intimate, yet again, and pretty dirty, but Changbin still can't take his eyes off of the sight before him, as if hypnotized.

Finally after some time Felix detaches himself from Hyunjin (who meets it with thin whine) and looks back at Changbin – with his pupils unfocused and wide-blown and lips puffy and wet, his breathing uneven. Somehow he appears really close before him and… kisses him, tugging Changbin down with the palm at the back of his head.

This kiss is… sweet, to Changbin's surprise. It tastes like soft caramel, actually, and even if he had heard that omega's slick usually tastes really nice, he always thought it was some kind of exaggeration. Well…

Felix backs down from him and looks up at him with these hormone-drunk eyes that are almost glowing with delight.

"Wanna try yourself?" he asks with a smirk (a smirk?) and tugs him closer to Hyunjin by the wrist.

Well, that was a bit… unexpected.

It still feels weird, and quite… awkward, and many more things, but Hyunjin looks at him with such desperate look in his eyes, on a brink of tears, and he whines so sadly, and Felix soothingly pats his head and runs his slender fingers through Changbin's curly locks, and suddenly everything feels so right that he just dives down without any hesitation.

 

Flavour from the source is somehow even more sweet, with aftertaste of… nuts? As if some fancy chocolate bar, but without chocolate part. It doesn't feel overwhelmingly sweet though, so even if he gulps it down lick by lick it only makes him feel replenished and not sickly sweet in his throat like actual chocolate bars did.

"Hey, shoosh, we aren't in a hurry, slow down," Felix purrs in his low velvety voice, slowly stroking his back in calming moves, up to down, from his neck to the lower curve of his spine. "You can try to suck, he likes that even more."

And he does suck, catching this rim of contracting muscles, eliciting the pleased moan from Hyunjin and making him move back, closer to him. He's so… warm, and soft, and so pliant under Changbin's fingers digging in his hips, and all in all it feels close to absolutely euphoric.

He pulls back from Hyunjin only for a gulp of air, absolutely breathless. It felt so… weirdly natural, like something he was supposed to do by his very fact of birth. All thoughts about dirtiness of a process and awkwardness of it have evaporated from his head, now pleasantly fuzzy with comfy cotton-like clouds. It doesn't really seem to be hormone-drunkiness, but it definitely looks like one, and even if this thought should normally arise the panic in him, he's eerily calm. Everything is alright. He's in peace with himself so much he never was before.

Someone shuffles in duvets and pillows of a nest, and suddenly Hyunjin is all on him – hugging him with legs and hands, chest pressing into the chest, and hungry lips on his lips. He kisses Changbin with almost feverish fervour, tasting himself and exchanging saliva. Pleased omega pheromones are all around them in the air, and for a moment it becomes suffocating, yet with every new inhale other's sweetness in lungs becomes nearly natural.

They make out sensually for some time, Hyunjin keeping so close to Changbin as if he wanted to fuse into one with him, and then half-whines brokenly, spine curving backwards and eyes rolling up. Felix smirks softly from behind him, lifting his hand, fingers wet with slick, and licks his palm slowly, looking Changbin dead in the eyes with his own, dark from desire.

Hyunjin shakes under them.

 

It actually takes some time, interchanging between licking, fingering and kissing Hyunjin (and then each other) for him to come and fall tiredly into sex-smelling bedsheets and blankets, half-asleep already.

They lay on the both sides of him, breathing shakily and trembling from agitation. Felix nuzzles into Hyunjin's neck, licking and sucking on his scent gland as if addicted, and air becomes only more stuffy with pheromones – so much that Changbin sneezes from them tickling the inside of his nostrils. Hyunjin glances at him lazily with his half-lidded eyes, and Felix snickers, looking at him with affection so bright his irises are nearly glowing with it. His arm snakes over Hyunjin's wide body until he catches Changbin's hand, interwining their fingers.

"You know…" he starts with a gravely low tone, and Changbin just murmurs "it tastes like chocolate bar with nuts…" more to himself than to any of them, and Felix bursts into tiny restricted laughing, trying not to wake Hyunjin back from his light slumber.

He just noisily breathes for several minutes, trying to calm down, and wipes the tears in the eyes off Hyunjin's round shoulder.

"Yeah… yea…" he still giggles involuntarily, "actually, yes!" he just presses his burning face further into Hyunjin's skin, no less heated. "When we first tried this, I was so wary of them for months!" he giggles again, and Changbin turns away from them to hide his frown. When they first tried this… so many times that Changbin wasn't a part of it. So many times when they craved for him but couldn't dare to ask.

"I think I'm traumatized," he dryly half-jokes, both about flavour and missed times, and Hyunjin scrunches his face in disgust, still with closed eyes.

"I will be traumatized if you won't stop discussing how I taste like," he mutters in faux irritation, turning on his side and tucking himself in blankets further.

 

***

It takes some more time for Hyunjin to decide that it's the right time for him to get marked too. Changbin catches the glances that he sends to Felix's neck and shoulders zone, fondness and enviousness equally pronounced in them.

But there is a mild problem. As nice as it would have felt if they did it during actual heat times (which was probably the only "normal" way to do this) Hyunjin wants to be in his right mind for it – or at least as right as he could achieve while still in cycle.

"I want to… remember it. As much as it would be natural to be marked in heat, I want it to be a conscious decision and not something that seems driven by hormones. It would be not fair."

Changbin seriously doubts that Hyunjin knows about his mental stand on hormone-induced behaviour, but he's so, so grateful for his thoughtfulness now. There wasn't in fact anything wrong with being mated during a cycle, especially if all sides had actually agreed to this while in their clear mind, but still this one decision was so… so precious to Changbin, especially if Hyunjin indeed didn't know about his inner turmoil.

First of all, they try to decide how at all the process would go. Hyunjin still wants it to be during sex, because he's afraid of pain that might come after, and he's all in "nice things first, bad later" policy. Soon they get to the conclusion that it would be best for him to be in the middle of "sandwich", or rather Hyunjin himself decides that, and to the questioning gazes explains that he would really really like to try be on a penetrating side with Felix (honestly speaking, with anyone out of them two, but he's too embarrassed to ask Changbin about something this intimate still). It seems a bit funny, in fact, that Felix with his lithe body, pretty lanky Hyunjin and Changbin, sturdy and medium-sized, seem to have, dynamics differences aside, dicks the same size. Felix even has to confess, awkward to no end, that he used to feel insecure a lot about this, being not stereotypically big for alpha, so Hyunjin has to interrupt him with similar confession about him feeling unappealing to others because of the tricks with height and complexion his body did to him. Changbin just looks at this friendly banter with an empty face, not really understanding why partner's anatomy might matter to someone that much to find them not… worthy enough? Beautiful? Normal?

So he tells just that to them, getting fond gazes in return and both of them leaning on him like cats with quiet "you're the best" falling from their lips.

Second of all, Hyunjin has to admit that while this medicine stops his heat-induced haze, it also stops slick production, so they might have to use artificial one to prepare him. Felix, previously agreed to be the side of a "sandwich", adds that he must be prepared too, so they both might need to lock themselves in the bathroom yet again, because it's still… a bit too much for them to show, even to their mate. Or?..

Third of all, it's Hyunjin who says that his own pheromones make the room stuffy and that it's too humid and warm to be comfortable, so they must open some window. But then there's the problem with the temperature, because if they will do something physical in the room with window opened, they might catch a cold… So Felix opens the window in the kitchen and only for a bit – in this room, and Hyunjin comes up with a genius idea of doing this in the bathroom, more precisely in a bath itself filled with warm water. Of course, they still have concerns about returning to the room after, but Felix suggests them just taking some comforters in bathroom with them to keep them warm and then exit it while being already wrapped in fabric, and more importantly, be dried and free from sweat and other liquids to that time. All of this sounds like some overcomplicated plan, but honestly, what they have to lose? It won't hurt to try.

And this also would mean that Changbin will have to see them fingering each other, because by no means they will leave him alone in windy room, awkwardness or not.

Somehow they manage to do every step of plan, up to the moment where they have to get into bathtub as all three of them. It's not exactly comfortable, especially with water inside, but in the end they get inside, all tangled limbs and bated breaths. After some time of nervously moving back and forth all three of them finally connect, and Hyunjin shudders visibly from double stimulation, eyes rolling back in his head from immense pleasure. They let him accustom to the sensations before moving, and prepare him to what to come by nibbling and kissing his neck and shoulders. Felix takes initiative in this first, and Changbin follows, silently led by other's glances and tender hands.

They bite, all three closing their eyes, and air explodes with omega's pheromones, so suddenly potent that they make their eyes water involuntarily. Changbin even coughs several times, lips slightly crimson from blood, tiny drops falling into the bath water. It's not exactly a comfortable position for any of them, but there is a homely feeling lingering in the air nonetheless.

Finally they get back into the nest, windows closed, everyone wrapped in several comforters, with water bottles and cereal bars close. Despite all pain, still bothering Hyunjin even after taking painkillers, he's glowing with happiness, symmetrical bitemarks on his dips between shoulders and neck. He repeatedly touches them with his fingertips as if not believing this still. When he starts feeling drowsy (probably from remaining cold from the outside), he arranges them in a pile of tangled limbs yet again, falling asleep easily and peacefully.

***

Following days go in a similar manner: they make love, sleep, eat and talk about sweet nothings when Hyunjin takes blue liquid. Even with all care about Hyunjin who is the only one actually thrown in throes of cycle, it becomes obvious after some time that Changbin is the star of the show, thoroughly pampered and praised both by words and actions. It's so… nice, a really nice change of pace, and after Chan's assurances that they should take as much time as they need, because the gang is gonna stay low for several months ahead, he suddenly feels so weirdly free. It all is so… familial, warm and lovely, full of affection and unsaid confessions. He feels so… happy. Undeniably happy.

So the guilty and suspicious-looking glances Hyunjin and Felix do exchange between each other seem really scary to him. Is something wrong?

There is around ten minutes before cycle-stopper will stop working, so Hyunjin uses this time to discuss some serious matter with Felix, both wrapped in duvets like some caterpillars in cocoons. They don't really invite Changbin to their place and visibly try to stay away from him and talk in hushed tones.

Changbin's heart falls. Is it this moment, moment when this fairytale is gonna crush? Well, at the very least it was nice while it lasted.

"Ahem," Felix starts, awkwardly coughing into his fist, "umm…" he exchanges glances with Hyunjin yet again.

Changbin, on a verge of crawling out of the nest and starting making plans, stops.

Hyunjin lightly punches Felix in the shoulder, as if suggesting him to continue.

"So… we…" Felix bites his lip nervously, gaze running around the softness of nest under them.

"We want to mate you," he says synchronised with Hyunjin, and they blink surprisedly to each other.

"But we don't know, err…" Felix lowers his head, face red from embarrassment.

"We don't know how," Hyunjin adds, looking no less uneasy. "Or if you even want it at all."

Heart swells in Changbin's chest. It's such a relief to hear this instead of the words plaguing his head that it hurts.

And still, all three of them are in loss of words – for different yet similar reasons.

"I, um…" Changbin starts quietly and cleans his throat to continue a bit louder: "I would be glad to. I mean… Be mated with you?" he finally spells, and it's like some dam breaks loose, Hyunjin and Felix hanging off him like some fancy arm weights. They are hugging him so tightly that he feels a bit – or probably not just a bit – suffocated. "Fine, fine," he tries to shoo them off himself, waving arms as well as he can, "now get off me, you gremlins."

Both of them just sit before him on their knees, faces glowing with smiles. Soon they fall, though, and they exchange nervous gazes again.

"What else?" Changbin asks suspiciously, seeing as both of them are painfully red in the cheeks.

"Um…" Hyunjin squints his eyes tightly, opens and closes them several times, as if it would help him to run from awkwardness.

"Yeah," Felix adds, supporting some unsaid point.

"I mean-"

"-It should be pleasurable, right?"

"Right?"

They both stop mumbling incoherent things and shyly look at him.

"What we mean is… umm… usually people are mating during sex," Felix's voice gradually fades away until it's barely heard. "Yeah. Um. Pheromones and all that, haha," he looks to the side with all his might.

Changbin just opens his mouth to say that he's beta and doesn't even have some specific pheromones (probably?), when other two are whispering something quietly to each other yet for another time.

"We mean, it might hurt," they both look equally guilty, "and we don't want you to feel… only pain? So…"

Changbin blinks back at them for stupidly long time.

"Well, I could just take painkillers before-"

"No, no, what if something goes wrong and we won't notice? It's dangerous to take it before… all this act. Maybe we would bite wrong?"

Changbin wonders if it's even possible to bite wrong.

"Then I could just… endure it? I swear I won't keep any hard feelings at you if it would really hurt. I swear."

Other two still look uneasy, especially after looking at a timer.

"Maybe if we… after… it would still be nice?" they mumble something in hushed tones.

Finally Hyunjin turns to him with undeniable resolve in his gaze. He crawls to him across the nest quietly and sits right before him on his knees. He is suddenly unsure again, putting his feverishly hot palm at his cheek and closing the distance between them before his lips don't touch Changbin's in a soft kiss. It doesn't become heated even, just a sweet gesture of trust, nothing more. Felix somehow appears behind Changbin's back, kissing the nape of his neck tenderly, and overall it feels like they treat him as something fragile, something precious, and this thought makes him shudder and lower his head shamefully. Does he even deserve this?

"Hey," he hears Hyunjin's voice as through the waterfall, blood in his ears roaring, "look at me. It's okay." Hyunjin gently raises his head with his slender fingers on the chin and looks in his eyes piercingly, as if knowing his inner monologue – string of "bad, bad, not worthy enough" ringing in his head. "We want to do this. This all was just for you."

They scoot closer, caressing him with feather-like touches, light kisses peppered all around his body. Finally they stop near his shoulders, looking at each other from different sides and silently deciding something, and without any further preludes bite.

He prepares for pain. Waits for it.

 

Pain doesn't come.

 

All that comes after is searing, scorching pleasure, consuming him whole and roaring inside his veins. Initial sensation of teeth piercing his skin feels not more than a tender nibble, almost nice, as if something heartwarming. He feels it – strong, potent scent of home, tickling his nostrils, almost making his eyes water, clearly coming from inside.

 

The scent explodes, filling the whole room, already changing and mixing with two others for something eternal. Their personal forever.

 

He blacks out.

***

 

True mate.

 

Changbin was their true mate.

 

It wasn't something that everyone had these days, but also wasn't something extremely rare – balancing between being a city legend and down-to-earth reality. Back in old times all matings were held only between true mates, but with the evolution of society, politics and humanity expanding all across the globe it became more and more hard to find your true mate, especially if you had mixed heritage or your ancestors migrated too far. The chances to find your true mate had substantially dropped in the last decades, and still…

 

There he was.

 

They had suspicions for years, ever since their first – and only – synchronised cycle that happened when they started living together with Changbin. These suspicions grew only stronger with every cycle where the longing for someone else, for Changbin also grew, in the end becoming physically painful, almost hysterical. And nonetheless – they were scared. Their relationship with Changbin always was borderline official, and he visibly took his beta role too seriously not even trying to get into any closer personal relationships with them and always leaving them alone with each other during their cycles.

 

It became unbearable in the end.

 

Hyunjin snaps first, his heat nearing, resolve burning in his eyes. He discusses the matter with other members of the gang, dissecting problem bit by bit between all of his opponents – his wish to become a family, his blooming feelings, his pain. He even calls Jisung, who spent most of their time in gang stuck overseas, to ask for advice. Seungmin, always depressed after his missions, just listens without an answer, but that's enough for Hyunjin to sort his thoughts nonetheless. Chan sighs and allows them to take their time, sparkles of quiet understanding shining in the depths of his tired gaze.

 

Their suspicions are confirmed when during the bites exchange they feel it, the mix of pain from one bite and pleasure from another.

 

Hyunjin and Felix aren't true mates to each other, and that's alright. It's a well-known situation when several people are connected to one and the same person but aren't interconnected, this type of links becoming more common than paired or fully connected ones these days. They aren't true mates to each other, but it doesn't mean they don't harbour the same feelings for both of their partners, mates or not. Well – maybe they are not the same for now, with all accumulated longing being saved up inside for half of decade, seeing their true mate close but not daring to… anything. Touch. Talk. Explore. Nothing after neutral friend-like line, for the pain of true mate rejecting you might be worse than anything else they might feel by just being near and not communicating. Might not be, though, but the chance of it happening is already too scary to try.

 

But there it is. Sign of them as true mates, bond that will tie them stronger than any secular bonds could. Sign that in the end they are one, now and for the rest of their lives.

 

Hyunjin is crying freely, hiding his face behind his palms and then in the dip between Changbin's neck and shoulder, near the fresh bite. Changbin is still too out of it, too consumed in sensations from double bites to be able to comprehend outer reality. His scent is all around them, comforting and all-engulfing, changing not so subtly now, taking in itself the Hyunjin's sweetness and Felix's mellowness. Hyunjin hugs him tightly, hiccuping and smearing his snot over heated Changbin's skin, and then tearing some more – with tears of happiness and desperation, desperation for this to not end ever. Felix just sits still, touching Changbin's spine with his fingers and with his forehead put against his shoulder blades, and counts other's heartbeat. It's all is suddenly too much – and not enough with it. Their biggest hope coming true, but with it – wouldn't it be better for it to happen in better place, in a better time?

Then he sees sparkling Hyunjin's eyes with his eyelashes wet and glued together because of it, takes in their modest flat, the nest – constructed both from their own clothes and linen and from someone else's, sold for charity, takes in the sun rising above the horizon, colouring clouds in light peach hues, all this serenity, and like puzzle pieces come together, creating an ideal picture. Harmony. Beauty. Love, all interwoven together.

 

They're home.

And it's not the end.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 4 of Medicine-induced