Chapter Text
Blue light erupted in the dewy darkness of Hitoshi's room alongside an urgent buzz-buzz that sent his phone skating briefly across the nightstand. He made a vaguely inhuman grumble at the interruption of his sticky heat-nap. It hadn't fully set in yet, but it was creeping into his bones and fluffing the edges of his mind.
In the pitch-darkness, a pale arm slipped out from a puffy, black comforter. The sheet wasn't heavy, perfect to curl up under and sweat about it without sweating to death. He slapped around for his cell phone, getting it in his hand on the third attempt. It was quickly dragged under the top sheets of the nest to join its owner in the balmy blackness.
Hitoshi didn't really want to strain his heat-sensitive eyes to look at the screen, but he was told there was a good possibility he'd be contacted in the next 24 hours. An unknown number. He didn't open the message, just read the notification.
All it supplied was a street number for an alley a block over from his apartment and a color hint. Hitoshi knew what it was about. He deleted the message without having opened it or responding. Once he picked up the drop they'd contact him again with a different number whenever they wanted him to do something with it anyway.
Gopher shit. It was annoying, but it was the quickest way to get paid in between real jobs. People didn't always want or need his quirk or even his information services, but they did always want drugs, either sold to them or for them.
Hitoshi begrudgingly wriggled out of his nest without disturbing much of it. The familiar, uncaring bluntness of the message made him assume it was Goshima or one of his friends. An unassuming guy, really. One would never guess he sat on the throne of the narcotics trade in Musutafu and a couple neighboring towns. Hitoshi didn't really care that much about such things. Drugs weren't something he considered evil or political or whatever. Mostly, they were just a way to make a living for him. He'd even accepted jobs to supervise shipments of amphetamines flying out of the country, usually baked into rubber and looking like nothing more than a business moving surplus stock of camping supplies or tarps or tires—clever things Hitoshi could appreciate even without the paycheck and free weekend vacation.
This wasn't exactly one of those things. He hoped his contact knew he was in heat and would either have to break-in or wait until next week to get their shit back. Maybe that was the plan, hold it until it cooled off. An omega in heat was a good cover. Hitoshi didn't care. He expected money in his account in the next two hours to comfort him through the aches and pains.
He struggled ungracefully into a pair of pastel green shorts that were, in hindsight, probably too short for going outside in his condition. He also just about tripped trying to slip his feet into some sandals in the dark. The small studio was intentionally blacked out, but it was also still dark outside. Some liminality between twilight and dawn. There was light but only enough to see the ground.
Thankfully, he only had to take a single step down upon walking outside or he might've fallen in his heat-addled, unbalanced glory. He definitely stumbled a bit just trying to walk straight, forget stairs.
Hitoshi jaywalked to the other side of the street without looking around. There weren't any lights and things were just about silent, so it wasn't like he was going to get hit by a car or anything. It rained overnight but things were clear now. The humidity wasn't that dissimilar to being in the cocoon of his nest.
He barely thought. It was a good thing, if you asked him. Usually, Hitoshi would think himself in depressive spirals while doing these things. He wanted to be a Hero once, wasn't that funny? Stupid, childish dreams. He was lucky to not be standing with the girls waiting by the convenience store “for a ride.” Life had a record of not exactly going well for him, so Hitoshi's current situation was a net positive, honestly.
He wasn't on the streets. He was in control of his own finances. He didn't do things he enjoyed, really, but even selling pornographic pictures of himself online and drawing furry porn kept his fridge stocked. The drugs paid his rent. Information brokering and scamming businesses or the occasional tourist got him a few nice things here or there but mainly bolstered his savings.
He trudged through the connecting alleyways, shoes scraping the damp cement when he failed to pick them up high enough.
He wanted a house. He wanted a cat. He wanted money in the bank in case of emergencies. He wanted more tattoos. He wanted…
Better.
For right now, though, he was just happy to not have to go to bed hungry anymore.
Any other omega of his particular skillset and predilections would probably just hunt wealthy older men, but Hitoshi didn't really have that luxury. If he wasn't too tall, he was too scary because of his quirk. Maybe he wasn't cute enough in the face, too sculpted instead of round like omegas were “supposed” to be, or he wasn't pedigree enough to be a respectable trophy, born in the impoverished gutters with his mentally unstable family who lost legal rights to him when he was seven. He might've been just a little too muscular from all the running he did. Not to mention his very searchable police records that got worse with time. Maybe he just didn't smell good. Hitoshi didn't care about those things anymore.
He'd given up on finding a romantic partner or even real friends back in high school. It was mostly his quirk rather than anything to do with him, he knew that… most of the time. It was fine. He didn't need a Hero. He didn't need anyone. He would thrive on his own.
Eventually.
He deserved it, damn it.
Who cared how he got there? It wasn't like he was robbing banks or killing people.
Although, he could probably rob a bank quite successfully, if he ever put his mind (and quirk) to it. Probably not too different than clearing a display in a jewelry store and ditching before the employee even knew they weren’t actually in control. The risks weren't exactly worth it for someone like him, though. Maybe if someone bigger asked and offered a good cut…
Hitoshi padded around the narrow street sheltered by buildings. Other apartments. A tiny electric car could ride through fairly easily but anything bigger would hit the dumpsters. His clue sent him scanning a rusty blue one, glancing around each side and behind it.
There wasn't even much loose trash around. Some soju bottles. A flattened plastic bag. Bits of scrap that were utterly unidentifiable in the dark. Nothing resembling any packages he'd be familiar with.
Weird.
He was too gauzy to think much more about it other than blaming his stupid ass for trashing the text too soon. He probably read it wrong like a dumbass. He started scouring the alleyway. If he couldn't find anything there, he'd risk turning on his phone's flashlight to search thoroughly before moving on to neighboring streets in the event of him having gotten the address wrong.
He sloshed drunkenly through a puddle and grimaced about the dirty alley water splashing his toes.
Annoying. This was why he hated the gopher shit.
His hackles picked up suddenly as a chill prickled his neck despite the humidity practically suffocating him in a tacky blanket.
He didn't even get the chance to look around.
His body was shoved against the nearest wall, the rough masonry scratching the gossamer skin of his cheek and jaw. The shock of the force at his back and the position he was now in ripped up the heat-haze in his head. Weight—heavy, strong—pressed him more firmly against the wall before he had enough wits about him to so much as plant his hands on it.
“Hey—” Hitoshi was quick to find his voice, though. He was surprised, sure, but this wasn't the first time some prowling fuck of an alpha tried to pin him down.
“Omegas in heat should not be wandering around outside in the dark.” It was a deep voice, a gravelly baritone that sounded more like he'd just woken up rather than stalked the streets looking for a target. Hitoshi tried to sink his quirk in, rolling his eyes.
“... or peddling drugs, but that's its own issue.”
Immediately, Hitoshi's sweat froze on his skin. The pearls of his ultraviolet eyes dilated as a glacial shot of adrenaline tore through his veins. He desperately flicked his gaze back in a futile attempt to glimpse his assailant.
The powerful arm braced across his shoulders readjusted to pin him at the nape so he couldn't turn his head much.
“Hey—who are you? Let go—” He tried again, heart rate skyrocketing.
The alpha smelled faintly of wood or sage or something similar; the scent-blockers were good. He mostly smelled damp, like the rain, and salty, like the humidity had taken its toll on him, too. So, the guy was definitely human, at least.
“Your buddy Kadoukawa was an avid collector of your photos and videos.” That didn't explain why the guy wasn't Brainwashed. The alpha leaned in so Hitoshi could feel the man's breath ghost over his skin where his shirt was too big to sit right on his shoulders. “I think he has a crush on you.”
Wait— “Are you—? Are you a fucking cop?” Hitoshi's voice wasn't very steady, too pitchy. He tried to struggle out from under the alpha, tried to throw his elbow back towards the face he knew was there.
A big, rough hand grabbed his arm and nearly encircled the whole thing. He was promptly thrust flat against the wall with the alpha's entire weight thrown into him. He let out a startled grunt.
“Higher tax bracket, but I can put you in contact with the entire station if you want.”
Shit. Hero. That was even worse.
“I'm sure Kadoukawa would be glad to see you, barely dressed and in heat.”
Compromised. Hitoshi understood clearly in that moment. Their supply line was compromised. He just happened to be at the bottom of it—damn it.
He would sell out Goshima in a heartbeat when tossed in front of a judge. Kadoukawa's bitch ass obviously wasn't that loyal either.
Ew, he had Hitoshi's nudes…
Ew, this Hero saw them, too, ugh.
“I know who's at the top; I've met him,” Hitoshi leveraged all he had left. “I know a lot of the people up and down the line—”
“I know you do,” the alpha cut him off. Hitoshi grunted in disgust as the man's large hand pawed around his pockets, eventually finding his phone and sliding it out of his shorts. “Goshima's days are numbered, don't you worry.”
That was frustrating. His plea deal was out the window, then. Regardless, he felt good about his chances of just walking away with a slap on the wrists since there wasn't actually anything on him. So what if some drug dealers had his phone number?
All that confidence evaporated as the Hero leaned down close enough that Hitoshi could feel the prickle of stubble on his shoulder when the guy sniffed at him. “You're the one I wanted… Shinsou.”
That genuinely chilled him. Feeling cornered, he lashed out with his quirk again. “What? Why? What'd I do?”
“Sex trafficking is a helluva charge,” the alpha almost sounded mocking. “I don't think even you could bat your eyelashes and get out of that one.”
Sex—?! Hitoshi's brain fired frantically as panic set in. His pornography probably didn't count to that end, right? There was no way, right? That was ridiculous. Was this asshole setting him up?
“What? No! I don't do anything!” Hitoshi defended, struggling harder against the bigger body. “I know people! It's not a crime to know people—!”
“You gather and transfer information that directly facilitates forced prostitution of minors—”
Fuck, “No! That's not—I don't know what—” Hitoshi slammed his mouth shut before it got him in trouble. Sometimes, his job had… unfortunate circumstances. He didn't deal with body shoppers much because they usually wanted to add him to the menu rather than work with him. He played dumb. “I don't do anything! I don't have anything to do with that stuff! You're wasting your time! I'm not going to jail!”
“Correct,” the man whispered darkly. “You're going to prison.”
Cold fear shot down Hitoshi's spine.
No, no, no—
If he was less frantic and not under the effects of heat, he might've been astute enough to see through the threads of deception.
“What did I do?!” He squeezed his eyes shut and willed away the humiliation of tears. He pushed back hard against the unmoving alpha. “What did I do?! I didn't do anything!”
Why wasn't his quirk working?!
The next series of sentences out of the Hero's mouth tickled his ear and just about sent him into hyperventilation. “I know all about what you do, boy. I have enough minor charges piled up on you alone to put you down.” To punctuate, the alpha pressed Hitoshi harder, overpowering him easily. “The rest are a treat for the judges.”
A frightened whine rang out, sharp like a bell in the quiet darkness.
Neither of them spoke for a few, panicked breaths on Hitoshi's end.
“You're in deep, Omega,” the alpha taunted quietly.
“No, I'm not…!” Hitoshi whined. He was just a scratch beneath the surface, hardly deep. That probably wasn't what the Hero was talking about, though.
“You need a deal.”
A sharp little gasp ripped out of Hitoshi, eyes snapping open. There was a twinge of concern, as there always was as an omega. “What do you mean? What kind of deal?”
The Hero sighed, lifting his body away from Hitoshi but maintaining the pinning pressure of his arm across the omega's slender back and neck. “The judicial system is soft on omegas. There's a quiet little heritage law no one talks much about because no one uses it.”
Hitoshi waited with bated breath and a tense brow. He couldn't think of anything specific himself.
“Unmated omegas can dodge legal repercussions… if they consign themselves to an alpha qualified to oversee their rehabilitation.”
Icy dread clawed up Hitoshi's back. All his omegan fears were confirmed. He didn't need to ask to understand that a Hero would be considered qualified for that.
Hitoshi desperately willed himself not to cry. The tears filled his eyes anyway. He shut them again in hopes of containing the evidence. He swallowed thickly and breathed through a sob so it wouldn't sound like one. He didn't want to be pathetic. “You can't do this…” the words just tumbled out, soft and broken. “I'm in heat; you can't do this. It's coercion. What kind of Hero are you? You can't…! I wanna go home—!”
His quirk failed to land again, but it was different this time. He felt the snag, only momentarily. He had a string connected for just a blink.
It was severed immediately.
“You should've thought about that before walking this path. You could've done it all the right way and we would have never met.”
That was… That was…
Rage superheated in Hitoshi's veins in no time at all, boiling over without an ounce of control. He snarled and threw all his strength into pushing himself from the wall, almost staggering the Hero and forcing the man to bare all his weight down again. They fought each other like that while Hitoshi swore, swung, and stomped at the alpha, and hit the wall with his hands in unfiltered anger. “Right way?! Fuck you! You think I didn't try the right way, asshole?! I can't even get hired because of my quirk! What other right way?! Go to school? Get an alpha?! Fuck you! No one wants me! Alphas don't want me! What other way?! What other way?! No one wants—” his voice finally broke, “no one wants me…!”
He was crying. How embarrassing. The Hero still had a good grip on him. How embarrassing. He sobbed and sagged against the wall. How embarrassing.
Long fingers carded quickly through the back of his hair and pulled.
Hitoshi gasped at the feeling even though it, to his surprise, didn’t really hurt that much, but he also didn't exactly fight as his head was tugged back and his neck was exposed.
“I want you.”
He froze, tears and breathing all stopped at once. That was both the best and worst thing he'd ever heard in his life, and his mother once told him he was just like his father before trying to kill him in the bathroom.
The alpha reiterated and clarified, “I want you. I want your quirk. I want your connections. I want you on my side, working with me. I will take you here, and help you through your heat, and then you will continue exactly as you have been, understand? And I'll dismantle everyone you are and ever will be in contact with. That's the deal.”
For a couple seconds, Hitoshi just stood against the man holding him still, blinking as overwhelming reels of his shitty life played out over the wall he was staring at. Each breath came in clipped, heaving puffs. His body was hot. It was starting to get light out.
He didn't want to go to prison. Horrible things happened to omegas in prison.
Some of the contacts he had killed rats without trial. If they so much as suspected betrayal, they wouldn't even risk it. Dead.
Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. It'd be quick and sudden, probably.
He'd surely suffer less at the hands of this Hero before he was taken out than he would spending most of his life in prison.
The alpha leaned down to his ear again. “Say yes, Omega.”
Hitoshi shut his eyes to the horror of reality. He took a breath and swallowed it. Shakily, he agreed with a small, fragile tone, “okay…”
There were teeth in his neck in the very next instant. Big, alphan canines broke the skin effortlessly and punctured the pulsing gland in the junction of his shoulder, tight and swollen on account of his heat. It gave with a faint, distant pop and little to no resistance.
At first, the shock of it left Hitoshi numb and stunned. He'd flinched involuntarily before actually feeling anything. Like a bullet wound. The scar in back of his leg was a regular reminder of how capable the brain was at ignoring pain impulses when it was wholly unaware of anything happening.
He wished his brain had continued to brush off the nerve messages.
Pain exploded suddenly, surging like a wave and burning. It burned. His lungs sucked in an automatic, gasping breath. The fire bloomed across his neck like a blazing spider lily, stinging his collar, chest, shoulders, and back before he could truly register the situation. For that moment, he was too stunned to cry.
His body seized up and refused to move.
A sound, not overly human, burrowed out of his throat. A strangled, tormented sound, brief as it was.
He dug his nails into the wall, scuffing and chipping them.
He ripped more air into his lungs.
An involuntary noise, more human this time, fought its way into his mouth. Hitoshi did his best to stifle it. “Ah …!”
The burning pain pumped through him like a pipeline. Those few seconds felt like eternity.
Then, the flames started sputtering. Like a fire having eaten through most of its fuel, it doused to a sustainable simmer which pulsed in the tracks of the first blaze with pounding warmth. These waves radiated outward to surrounding tissue like aftershocks of an earthquake.
His vision clouded out of focus. Another sound spilled out of him, only stifled by the way it choked him coming up. “Ah-h!”
He couldn't tell if it was a reaction to the bite or his heat kicking into gear. His body teetered with slack, dropping back against the man behind him. Every beat of his adrenalized heart sent another thrumming wave through him from the epicenter of the alpha’s teeth, mouth hot and wet around his damaged gland. If Hitoshi could think with any level of clarity right then, he would find some smug solace that this damnable Hero was suffering through his own hellfire.
Breaking the primary scent gland was no simple task. If a partner wasn’t in heat or rut, the effort to crush it was probably more violent and extreme than most people wanted to force upon another, especially a loved one. So, even though swollen glands were much easier to claim, they were also pumped up full of pheromones like an overinflated balloon. Every little scintilla of one’s essence was packed in neatly and ready to erupt like a volcano through the olfactory channels of a mate. Each tiny trace and tittle of what made up Hitoshi’s scent profile just tore through the alpha’s skull to settle, to burn, to leave its mark so he’d never be able to forget. He’d be sensitive to Hitoshi’s every meager emotion for the rest of his life.
It was said it could be quite overwhelming, painful even. Just like it was to be on the receiving end.
Unfortunately, the pleasure was pulsing up through Hitoshi, now, and it was a concerning thought that this alpha was suddenly sensitive to it.
It wasn’t fair. He could barely even smell his alpha.
His uninhibited, heat-driven lizard brain was the only thing simplistic enough to withstand the blow. Hitoshi could practically feel his sentience crumbling away around it.
Thankfully, the alpha finally pulled enough strength together to let go. Jaws disengaged with a slight growl. Hitoshi collapsed like his bones were jelly against the man.
At least the Hero caught him.
He panted while warmth continued to flutter out around the bleeding mark on his neck. He kept trying to lift his arms only to feel as if he were drowning in molasses. With a few attempts, he eventually made contact with the wall again, but whatever the frayed plan was for this maneuver, it was completely lost by the time it was achieved. His head was as bleary and cottony as if fully in the throes of heat.
There was still enough of him left to feel something about that. Hitoshi drunkenly managed to lean forward enough to look down at himself. He hadn’t bothered with underwear, not assuming this trip would be very long or eventful. His shorts were dark between his thighs. He made a feral grumbling noise, something a bit more desperate and stressed out than the irritated variant he’d warbled out before leaving his apartment.
Why did he leave his apartment? Stupid.
He truly was just heat-stupid at the moment. The man had released the constricting hold on him entirely. He could’ve turned to look at the stranger breathing against his neck a little more heavily than even struggling with Hitoshi before had incurred. Could’ve turned his head to sink his teeth into the asshole’s jugular. Didn’t even think about it.
Alpha knows.
Scratchy stubble pressed over the bloody mark, sending an electric jolt of pleasure through his bones. Hitoshi jumped and clamped down instinctively on a moan. A breath later, he felt rough fingers prying around his waistband. A cold splash of awareness wrested enough control from the blurry haze for him to make a surprisingly coordinated grab to restrain the man’s wrist and arm with both his hands.
Hesitation.
The moment passed. Teeth pinched the raw, punctured skin. It struck Hitoshi like a lightning bolt. A soft, traitorous sound of appreciation tumbled out of him on the breath the shock evacuated from his lungs. He’d jolted in the man’s hold, but he didn’t remember the next few instances all that clearly. The electric heat scrambled his thoughts all over again, placing the mindless lizard brain back in charge. It was horny and happy to let Alpha shove his shorts down and touch him where he was sticky and needy.
Alpha will help. All the chemicals rushing through his system didn't simply lull him into complacency; it felt more like drowning under the feral desire to trust.
Let Alpha care for you.
Two big, alphan fingers straddled his cocklet, so swollen and wet it was a glistening magenta hue, pressing their pale, rough pads into the soft, tender outer petals to rub him thoroughly. Hitoshi watched the effort hazily, recognition failing, breathing out quiet, pitchy mewls while the—his—alpha worked him over. He could feel the unshaven face resting on his uncovered shoulder, could feel each deep breath the man took to gormandize his scent. The alpha—his alpha—was probably scent-drunk off him already.
It should've been funny to him that he managed to deseam a big, bad Hero to the point of fucking like wild animals in a dark alley, but his mirthless lizard brain had no use of humor. Or sense. Or awareness.
His alpha pinched his cocklet between a thumb he was barely bigger than and two fingers and stroked him. Hitoshi's head knocked back against the man's shoulder as a moan curled out of him, the sound ricocheting through the humid street. The scruffy jaw scratched his neck, agitating the wound there but it just felt hot—literally hot, and spreading even more warmth around his chest and back.
The other large hand that had helped support him before rolled his oversized shirt up enough to get under it and started to feel up his damp, overheating skin. The stroking fingers abandoned his engorged clit in favor of exploring the silky, burning folds below. There was little time wasted in finding and hooking into his molten pussy, slipping inside him boldly. They pumped in and out of him wetly, but not without regard.
The action was unfamiliar enough to Hitoshi to stir some of the flickering lights in his head. He craned his neck to dully observe what was happening. His alphas fingers created enough pressure and friction to throw surprisingly rich waves of tingling pleasure through his pulsing arousal. The soft sounds of agreement his throat produced would've been humiliating if he'd been present enough to hear them.
A calloused palm worked its way up his sweaty back, pushing his shirt higher as he was leaned forward into the wall again. Only when the fingers withdrew from his aching body and tugged his hips a bit roughly backwards did the coarse surface abrade the delicate skin of his face and slice a window of clarity through the scarlet haze.
Hitoshi groaned in confusion, brows coming together. He got his hands on the wall and twisted to look behind him. He could only groggily see the jet black form of a man, who seemed monstrously bigger than him in the dark, towering there. His alpha had stopped, one hand braced on his hip and holding him firmly against that—oh god—abundant hardness he hadn't been able to recognize against him before; and the other was propping his shirt up, fingertips barely sitting on his damp skin. Hitoshi was too foggy to figure it out right then, but his alpha was unmistakably admiring his tattoos. A low, grumbly chuff was all the indication given of the man's surely-inebriated approval.
Inside, Hitoshi preened as the barely-audible vocalization made his irresponsible lizard brain light up like Christmas with dopamine.
Alpha is pleased.
After a moment, Hitoshi managed to shake it off enough to not care. Because fuck this guy. The sparks of defiance tore a few more appreciated holes in the heady heat, allowing him to properly see the situation he was in. Practically naked in a public alley, pinned against a wall by a possibly-feral alpha he didn't know and who was rearing to breed him after establishing a mate bond. To add to the gradual panic returning, Hitoshi could now see and hear cars driving on the main roads all around them, passing obliviously by the two mere feet away in the darkness.
His alpha's hand flattened to his back and pushed up with some level of reverence to the back of his neck beneath his shirt. He could feel the fabric of the man's sleeve drag faintly along his skin. Worse yet, he could hear a zipper coming down before feeling his alpha pawing around back there.
Less dumb than he was earlier, Hitoshi hissed around a frightened breath and stubbornly tried just one more time. His voice was thin and breathy. “Hey, n-not here, my apartment's… nearby…”
He had to focus more than he was used to just to weave his quirk correctly.
Hitoshi waited with bleary anticipation, struggling to thread his focus between that and comprehending the moment he felt the thick, throbbing heat of his alpha's cock against his ass. Alarmed by this and yet another car passing on the road in front of him, Hitoshi's eyes widened as the heat-fog broke with adrenaline. He parted his lips to take another desperate stab at getting the man to respond to him, but the attempt was punched out with a strangled sound when that massive alphan rod made its own first attempt to get inside him.
It stung like nothing Hitoshi had ever felt before. He choked over… something. A plea. A breath. A curse. The tornado sirens were going off in his skull. It hurt. His alpha grunted, apparently thrown off by the incredible resistance the omega's body put up. It seemed the man got stuck on Hitoshi's mating band, the untouched ring near his entrance that would secure a knot in place. Hitoshi had never had anything bigger than a tiny, teardrop-shaped g-spot stimulator inside him before. His alpha's overwhelming girth was too much even though his body was in a state where it was meant to receive it, meant to be as wet and open as possible.
Well, “stuck” was a strong word. His alpha could've just forced right on through it, probably damaging the taut ring of muscle and the rest of Hitoshi in the process. The man had stopped, though.
“Please…!” Hitoshi eventually choked out, tears welling up in his eyes at the pain. He didn't know if it was better or worse that he'd regained control of his mental faculties because of the shock. Maybe it would've been better to let his mindless lizard brain cope with what was happening—
His alpha pinched the nape of Hitoshi's neck hard. He almost felt the bruising grip, but numb static flooded his nervous system and drained all the strength in his muscles in an instant. He went limp against the wall, sagging in his alpha's hands. He didn't even feel the scrape the masonry deepened into the side of his face.
Good news: He couldn't feel the insane shock of pain where his alpha sat inside him anymore.
Bad news: He couldn't move or speak.
His brain blanked, mostly surprised but also disoriented by the glitching signals. He felt the pressure, pressure, pressure of his alpha sinking deeper and deeper into him, evidently with greater ease now that his muscles were goo. Even that, though, was oddly overwhelming. It wasn't painful, per se, but something that was pain-adjacent. Uncomfortable. His chest spit up an involuntary, garbled groan that wasn't overly human-sounding. However, his alpha was fully seated, hips flush against the meat of his ass.
With that, he heard a quiet, rewarding purr, brief and gruff as it was.
Good job.
Praised for being just big enough to fit the man's unethically large cock. Forgive Hitoshi for not being overjoyed about it. Although, he would be lying if a tingle of pleasure didn't shoot down his spine. His alpha was happy with him, after all; lizard-brain was excited about it.
Big Alpha. Good for breeding. Good to Omega. Happy—happy—happy—
Hitoshi could feel a strange, building twinge of electric heat from somewhere deep in his core. His alpha was wedged up against something, and it was throbbing at the contact. He wasn't entirely sure if it was good or not, though. His alpha was rocking minutely side-to-side and pushing, pushing up against him, trying to get Hitoshi's body to make space for him, he supposed. Every other rut or motion ripped an uncontrolled, guttural sound from his chest. Sometimes, the electric throbbing prickled; an unpleasant, sudden, and unexpected pain in his numb state, making him nervous that his alpha wasn't actually causing some severe damage to him.
Then, he heard the wet suction of his alpha withdrawing some, not really feeling much comparatively. It was a surprisingly slow, careful thrust back in. The head of the man's cock gently bumped up against the beating wall inside him, sending a thrum of warmth shimmering through Hitoshi, then nudged his pussy around a little more before pulling back to repeat the process. The third time punched a breathless moan out of him, the startling crimson sparks of pleasure drawing his brows tight and his eyes closed.
Being scruffed numbed a lot of sensations, so to feel that much made him terribly anxious for when his alpha would, inevitably, let him go. For the time being, though, that thick cock ravaged him as gently as possible, it seemed. He supposed it was better than the alternative. Maybe it wasn't so bad being sculpted to perfectly sheathe the alpha he was now tied to, so long as it felt good.
Smooth, careful, rolling thrusts nudged Hitoshi like calm ocean waves, pulling back further and further to massage his soft and, evident by the noisy engagement of their bodies, wet inner walls more completely. Heat pulsed through him in pleasant beats, nothing too overwhelming anymore. He moaned again, more human in register and loosed freely as he didn't care to stifle it.
This was nice. This was fine.
He just wished they weren't in public.
It was bright enough to see the color of the cars driving by now. Drivers would probably be able to glance over and see them.
Another pleasant thrust lured an airless groan out of him. He watched a car and a delivery vehicle glide by, their lights momentarily sparkling off the puddles in the alley and damp tarmac. His body no longer felt tight, having loosened up rather quickly once it decided to. Even his face relaxed, no longer pinched in discomfort or concern. His pussy throbbed all throughout as his alpha filled it out quicker and quicker.
Hitoshi found the sound to be a bit embarrassing, but the scarlet haze of heat billowed behind his eyes and clouded his head. He hadn't noticed when he started slipping back into it. When he did, he didn't care to fight it, letting it overtake him.
Alpha will handle it.
The grip on his neck loosened incrementally. He almost didn't want it to. Static feeling glitched back into his fingers and toes first, then returned gradually to the rest of his limbs as the man released the skin of his nape.
Suddenly able to move, feel, and think better, Hitoshi groaned, either in dismay at having to be aware of the world around him again or because the return of all nerve responses made his head pound like a migraine for a couple seconds, and immediately planted his hands on the wall to support himself. All the air was instantly knocked out of him by his alpha gently pushing that lovely cock back into him without missing a beat.
The man didn't wait for Hitoshi to recalibrate, but he didn't speed up or get more aggressive with him either. Pleasure burst through his belly like molten lava, the efforts of his alpha butting up against his womb and sculpting his insides thrummed electrically all through his legs and back. He hadn't expected to feel so much. He pushed against the wall to get his face off it, trying to keep his voice down as each tectonic roll of his alpha's hips threatened to wake anyone in the buildings nearby who weren't already on the road.
He hoped no one walked by. He hoped they finished before any kids started walking to school.
Hitoshi bit his lip to stifle himself better. He couldn't stop himself from pushing back to chase the fat, hot cock turning his insides to quivering mush.
His alpha must've been gauging his reaction, making sure he wasn't hurt anymore or going to fight about it. Soon, the large, reassuring hand on his neck finally slipped away entirely down his back to grab his hips. He was promptly yanked back a bit more, forcing him to arch his back while also granting him more leverage with the wall. Hitoshi moaned with a heat-addled whine and braced his arms on the rugged surface, setting his head against them in the hopes that aiming his appreciation towards the ground would somehow make it less noticeable to anyone nearby.
The smooth, cautious thrusts were retired for faster, harder snaps of hips that were even more sonorous and messy-sounding than before. If Hitoshi's inability to control his volume didn't get them caught, the noise their bodies alone made would. The wherewithal to care was quickly leaving him as his heat fed on the pleasure his alpha was giving him, stuffing his skull with balmy cotton.
He felt the scratchy hairs of his alpha's chin at the base of his neck, barely aware of the man breathing hard and making extremely quiet, grumbly purrs in brief intervals, and felt lips, tongue, teeth as his skin was tasted and savored like a rare, high-class meal.
Hands were up his shirt again, feeling his ribs and messing with his nipples. When they slunk away, they stopped to pay tithes to his clit, ripping a shuddering, unruly moan from Hitoshi. Then, they moved onto his hips and thighs, groping up his ass roughly. His alpha moaned back, deep and breathless, in delight of what they found.
This alpha seemed so mercilessly attracted to him… After being told all the ways he was utterly undesirable his entire life, to suddenly have even this piece of shit Hero treat him with such care and awe was all it took to make Hitoshi croon. He tipped his head to give his alpha more access to his neck to love on him even more.
Hitoshi's eyes had long since glazed over, but an odd noise brought some awareness back to them. He was staring down at the ground, at his feet while uncontrollably lifting to his toes in his sandals to meet his alpha's thrusts, and saw dark splotches all over the street between his glossy legs. Then, he watched in overheated disbelief as a few drops fell from his folds, off his cocklet, and splashed on top of the others. He had no idea how long he'd been drooling around his alpha's beautiful cock, but he was slowly working on making his puddle to match the others throughout the alley.
The moan that fell out of him was loud and overwhelmed in response. Another pushed out of him right after in wonder. He bit down on the next one as he pressed his back into his alpha's wide chest and reached back mindlessly to grab a fistful of the man's surprisingly soft and fluffy hair.
His alpha didn't seem to mind, just took it as an invitation to suck and nibble all kinds of marks into Hitoshi's neck and shoulder and grab one of his thighs, hiking it off the ground, to streamline the angle to the omega's quivering, abused core. Hitoshi saw stars, felt the weird tug of his alpha starting to but failing to catch on his inner ring, and distantly heard the sound of a truck horn.
His alpha's free hand was pawing at his chest, relying on Hitoshi to push back off the wall with enough strength to hold them steady. He did so with his life, enjoying the gruff, deep noises his alpha was beginning to make more readily. Hitoshi felt his stomach squeeze and his pussy pulse with an encouraging contraction.
Ready for his alpha's knot. Ready to milk it.
Hitoshi groaned noisily as the now-apparent thickness propping his rim open squelched in and out of him a couple more times before following the shaft in for a full sheathe…
And popped through his mating band.
Hitoshi jerked at the feeling and yelped, but it didn't hurt. It was just new and surprising. At first, his alpha didn't properly account for their predicament, tugging back a bit too hard, and that didn't feel too great, but Hitoshi heard the man growl softly into his skin before planting a hand beside his on the wall.
His own hand seemed so much smaller…
He wasn't mentally prepared for the abrupt, punchy humps that grinded his alpha's still-inflating knot into his g-spot and had the velvet cockhead wailing on his cervix. He couldn't keep it down if he tried. His brain felt like boiling soup in his skull. His whole body trembled with each crimson bolt of lightning pleasure pounding through him.
He wasn't ready for how big his alpha was. The knot stretched him wide and it already felt like too much, only to keep growing. His cries were soon choked out by the gasps of his overloaded nervous system trying to figure out if he was in pain or not. His pussy felt so tight and it wasn't stopping; his body jumped with each blow of hips. He was incredibly overstimulated, and yet his muscles kept squeezing. He wasn't in control of it at all. His body instinctively knew how to make its man pop, no input required.
Hitoshi was worried he may pop first if his alpha got any bigger.
A deep, breathless moan rumbled from his alpha's chest through to Hitoshi's.
He felt the damn, glorious thing stretching him taut on all sides pulse.
“Ah~!”
Smoldering fire scorched him where he was wedged open. It pulsed again. His muscles bared down.
Hitoshi shouted again. His alpha breathed out a groan and forced their hips together, hard.
Then again.
Hitoshi choked on a whiny moan.
Again.
He gasped. His alpha sighed, tormented and tired. Pressure built up in his core with each pulse, eventually feeling hot inside. A pleasant ache.
Hitoshi crooned over it and slowly lost strength in his limbs. He didn't know how many times he came. Maybe he didn't cum at all. He was too disoriented and gauzy. His body began melting, relaxed, like he'd had the best orgasm of his life. Maybe he did. He couldn't remember.
His belly was full.
His own juices dripped down his leg, the one still touching the ground. He'd lost a sandal. He couldn't remember when. Maybe when his alpha picked up his leg.
The more he melted, the more his alpha bore his weight, hooking him by the waist and settling him against the wall. He was supplied a strong arm wrapped loosely around his throat to rest his head on. Heat-intoxicated lizard brain was glowing with pride and taped down the dopamine button, flooding his cloudy mind with bonding chemicals and addictive happiness at having successfully bred with his mate.
Good Omega. Alpha handled it. Good Alpha.
He sort of understood the moment when his alpha stopped chewing on his shirt, took a long whiff of his hair, and purred softly at him. Mostly, lizard brain understood happiness-noises and Hitoshi immediately erupted into pulsating, floaty purrs of his own.
His alpha shifted a bit, and Hitoshi heard the sound of something scraping across the ground, but he didn't even react when that something was pushed up against his bare foot. Gently, the arm around his waist lowered to get a better grip, pulling him slightly off the ground. He was maneuvered back into his sandal with seemingly little effort.
The pulsing had barely stopped. The pressure sat in his belly. He purred a little harder.
Sleep called to him, safe and protected in his big alpha's arms.
He jolted back to reality after… he wasn't sure how long. Couldn't have been longer than a couple minutes. A car horn went off nearby. With road rage in the morning… Who needed coffee?
He was still against the wall, still in the Hero's arms, still on his alpha's cock. Fortunately, the momentary blackout restarted his brain. The sun would be peaking out over the buildings soon.
He felt a rough finger pulling and tugging his shirt around on his shoulders. Hitoshi moved to lift his hands, but one hit the firm meat of a clothed, muscular thigh fencing him in against the wall so the busy street couldn't see his naked hips. The other side of them was obscured by the rusty blue dumpster.
Hitoshi let out a breath and rolled his neck, tiredly leaving his head to rest against his alpha's bicep. His thighs were so disgustingly wet.
Soon, a gruff voice, sounding even worse than before, softly apologized. “That got surprisingly out of hand. For what it's worth, I'm sorry about all that.”
Hitoshi was content with letting it be.
“I hope I didn't hurt you.”
Hitoshi rolled his eyes to himself and continued to use his alpha as a pillow. His first hint that the man wasn't blindly heroically confident in every facet came with the next unprompted ramble.
“I didn't expect you to be so… tight.”
Hitoshi supposed he should be grateful this alpha seemed to care about his wellbeing at all.
“Is…?” The Hero hesitated and reconsidered the question. “Have you never been with an alpha before…?”
Fully devoted to ignoring him, Hitoshi almost let that slide off his back, too. Unfortunately, he felt vaguely offended that his alpha must've thought it improbable that Hitoshi had never fucked before. Did he seem slutty—?
Well, he did wander out of his house in short-shorts while in full-blown heat and did softcore pornography for money.
Hitoshi scoffed after a moment, bitter and cynical. “No one wants me, remember…?” Admittedly, his voice wasn't very strong nor did it have the sarcastic tone he meant it to carry. Too thin and quiet.
There was finally some silence Hitoshi would've called blissful if it had started ten seconds earlier before he opened his mouth. Instead, he felt awkward as he stared blearily at the wall while relying on this damnable Hero to support his weight. Not to mention humiliated by his own inability to protect himself. He sounded far more pathetic and lonely than he thought he was. Now, he'd never be able to convince his alpha that he was happy alone.
He was. He was fine…
“I meant it,” the gruff voice eventually offered gentle reassurance. “I want you.”
Hitoshi despised the way his heart fluttered. What a relief! The alpha that just finished taking advantage of him still liked him! Oh, how lucky he was…
He felt a calloused thumb glide along his shoulder, following the trail of one of the peacock feathers he had tattooed on his back. They formed an arch, part of a greater design that was still only half-finished. For a moment, Hitoshi fretted over the idea that his alpha might not appreciate that he wasn't some body purist. Omegas with tattoos were the focus of all sorts of stupid stereotypes, and it was still a common thought that they were less attractive than undecorated peers.
“I'm getting more,” Hitoshi grumbled defensively, shifting to stand straighter. “You can't stop me.”
“Wasn't going to.” The man tugged Hitoshi's shirt until it revealed more of his arm. A skeleton full of rose petals—album art of a band he liked.
“I mean it…” Hitoshi's brows furrowed in frustration even though his alpha didn't exactly sound insincere. Maybe he wanted the man to be difficult, unlikeable. He twisted to pick a fight about the scenario in his head, eager to look the guy in the eyes when he made it clear he wasn't tamed just because the asshole stretched his pussy all out of whack.
The argument died in his mouth the moment he saw his alpha for the first time. Haloed in the young sunlight was a (unfairly) handsome man, and the severity of his features only highlighted his austere beauty. It had been more than a day since he last shaved, if the dark but not unappealing scruff around his face was anything to go by. Black hair fell in long, unmanaged waves, and his equally dark eyes carried all the exhaustion the rest of his profile didn't show.
They weren't… unkind eyes, though. There was a distant warmth to them despite obvious apprehension. His eyelashes were pretty, too.
The onyx gaze met Hitoshi's wonderstruck stare briefly before returning to perusing his tattoos. Either the man wasn't nearly as impressed by Hitoshi or he just wasn't surprised because he knew what the omega looked like already. It was devastating but Hitoshi hoped it was the latter.
“Me too.”
Hitoshi nearly forgot what they'd even been talking about. His face felt hot, and not in the way his heat normally made him hot. He tried, and failed, a couple times to take in something else, to understand whatever the hell was wrapped around his alpha's shoulders. His gaze kept jumping back to the man's punchably attractive face. There was a crescent-shaped scar under one eye, giving Hitoshi peace in knowing he obviously wasn't the only one who felt irrationally angered by the alpha's good-looks.
Dark eyes flicked back up to regard him again. The Hero looked marginally unsettled this time, snapping Hitoshi out of his slack-jawed staring. His face burned even hotter as he finally managed to tear his gaze away.
He hated the way he flustered and practically begged for validation. “You like them?”
His alpha didn't answer right away, but Hitoshi felt the towering presence lean over him. After a second or two, the man hummed in confirmation and rested his scratchy face near Hitoshi's neck, inhaling a quick dose of the rampant omegan pheromones. “They suit you.”
Hitoshi flushed impossibly deeper, heart rate soaring concerningly.
He felt lightheaded. He probably should've eaten something before curling up to let his heat take him last night.
A hand pressed around where their bodies were stuck. “Hold still. Let me see if I can get us out of this…”
“Oh…” Hitoshi stuttered in acknowledgement but hadn't really made sense of what the Hero said yet. He was a little preoccupied with being embarrassingly happy to have his alpha's approval. Then, a swift tug resulted in a startling pinch. “Oh—!”
The unapologetically grotesque sound was worse than the stint of pain. Hitoshi grunted in alarm when the suction made his insides feel like they were going to fall out, too, and froze in dismay at the gush of fluids racing to escape his body all at once. He groaned in overwhelmed disgust.
Was this what being with an alpha was like? Funny how no one bothered to mention the unpleasantness of decoupling. The combined efforts of high school sex ed and science class both failed to warn him about the burden of knotting. He whined pitifully, swaying on his feet when his alpha withdrew. He heard a zipper.
Just as quickly, his alpha's hands were on him again. “Please, bear with it a moment…”
Hitoshi grimaced but remained still as his shorts were hastily yanked back up from around his calves. They'd absorb some of the mess, at least. He was too afraid to move lest even more pour out. Thankfully, his alpha seemed ahead of the curve, effortlessly scooping Hitoshi up like a princess.
A wet, sticky princess.
He let out a quiet, startled noise and instinctively reached to hang onto the Hero's shoulders. His hands vanished in the coil of fabric that felt inexplicably metallic somehow. At least it was something to distract himself with.
His alpha carried him easily to the street, pausing for a car to pass before taking long, quick strides towards the door of Hitoshi's apartment. In the meantime, he toyed with the odd scarf, fascinated by its material composition. It wasn't shiny or anything, yet it reminded him of steel wool. It also wasn't coarse, though. It wasn't soft exactly, and there was a stiffness to it, but it lacked the abrasive grit of the closest thing he could compare it to. Incomprehensible. What was this shit—?
The door shut behind them, casting Hitoshi's investigation into darkness. Well, dimly lit darkness courtesy of the golden light piercing the curtain covering the kitchen window.
“You should be more careful about locking your door…” his alpha chastised gently, walking with some blinded caution through the main room towards the bathroom.
Hitoshi pouted petulantly. It wasn't like he expected to get pinned down for twenty minutes by a conniving alpha. His task should've taken all of two minutes.
He didn't think much of the man knowing where he lived. The Hero obviously stalked him for a bit in order to find him. For all Hitoshi knew, his alpha was already aware he was in heat prior to luring him out. Might've even been a deciding factor in when to strike.
Asshole.
Hitoshi hated him again suddenly, glowering angrily when he was carefully set down on his feet in front of the shower. He scowled at the man's dirty boots all over his clean bathroom tile. “Couldn't even take off your shoes? Who raised you?”
“Sorry,” the alpha responded quickly but didn't look or sound all that apologetic. “I'm heading back out, if that makes you feel better.”
It didn't, actually. Hitoshi's lips pinched unhappily. He crossed his arms. “Oh, just hitting and running, then?” He scoffed, “classic alpha behavior.”
Fortunately, his alpha was patient and unperturbed by his ungratefulness. A man more like his father might have even hit him for it. “Sorry. I'll be back in ten minutes.”
Hitoshi twisted away, irritated and shamefully warm in the face. “Get lost for all I care.”
The Hero lingered a moment too long, causing Hitoshi to whip around and level him with an earth-shattering glare. Even in the dark, he could see the alpha's pensive gaze eyeing him carefully.
“Are you in any pain?”
Hitoshi's mouth opened to snap aimlessly but shut again when the question registered. He felt all fluffy and shit again, gross. He had to remind himself he hated this guy. He rolled his eyes forcefully and tried to sharpen his tongue. “Nah, having my body pried open by a ball of meat bigger than my fist wouldn't leave any residual pains at all.”
In truth, Hitoshi hadn't even noticed the way his insides ached tiredly until then. He just wanted to give his alpha a hard time. Now that it was brought to his attention, though… His legs hurt, too, and he could feel the scrape on his cheek dully. His neck didn't feel super great, either, now that all the fun, sexy chemicals ran their course.
“It might take a bit longer…” And yet, his enduring alpha didn't react to his attitude. Rather, the man turned without another word and left.
Hitoshi stared after him in annoyed disbelief. He only started the shower when he heard the door shut in the other room.
He sat on his plastic shower stool in hopes of giving his body some rest, but it didn't feel particularly pleasant at first. His insides complained for several minutes straight while he idly wasted his hot water. At least that felt nice running over the exhausted planes of his slender frame. His brain tortured him with self-deprecating thoughts and anxious considerations of the future. It also seesawed back and forth to empty-headed lizard brain when he focused too much on what had or currently did feel good.
After some of the aches began to subside, Hitoshi sluggishly started cleaning himself up properly. He bolstered his hatred for the alpha while he was at it, blaming the man for everything. He was too tired and heat-addled to think reasonably about an escape plan, but he'd have time to consider his options after he was back to normal.
Good Alpha.
No, Hitoshi tried in vain to redirect his instinctive, primal feelings. Bad Alpha. The fucker tricked him, after all, and hurt him in the process.
His brain supplied the very recent memory of the worried dark eyes and the man asking if he was in pain.
Hitoshi's expression pinched with a tumultuous run of emotions. He didn't even know the alpha's name, barely knew what the guy who raped him in a dirty alley smelled like.
It didn't matter that he agreed by technicality! The legal system wouldn't be on his side about it because of the circumstances, however. And his alpha seemed apologetic about it. A feral couple breaking several public indecency laws; that was all it would be viewed as, and because of that first part the punishment would probably just be fines. No one cared how either party felt about it while sober.
Alpha didn't mean it.
It didn't matter! It happened! And it was humiliating!
Why didn't his fucking quirk work?!
His expression crumbled briefly. The one thing that always saved him and allowed him to be so prolific at dealing with the seedy underworld had failed him. His quirk had always served him well, from rounding up information on sex traffickers for potential clients to quietly persuading police that those weren't fake IDs for minors or bricks of cocaine in his backpack. For all the trouble his quirk gave him growing up, he was owed at least some facet of its usefulness.
It had always protected him from alphas before.
More than anything, Hitoshi supposed he was just angry. It wasn't fair. Things never went his way. When they did, it was a tease to get his hopes up before everything came crashing down around him.
He just wanted things to be better.
Maybe… he'd been too cutthroat with his steps to achieving better. Was this karma?
Maybe he deserved it all from the very beginning. Everyone always said he was destined to be a villain. His quirk was evil, so he was evil. He'd been born that way. Was it all really fate?
It wasn't fair.
He didn't want to be some Hero's little housewife. He didn't want kids. He didn't want to be at some shitty alpha's mercy.
He didn't want to cry. It was pathetic.
He just wanted to be normal. Why couldn't he have been born a beta? Why couldn't he have been born with a lousy, do-nothing quirk? Why couldn't his parents have been loving and not fucking crazy? Was he crazy…?
Was he crazy?
Was that why he was bad…?
His spiraling was interrupted abruptly by the sound of his door closing noisily. Hitoshi hissed in a startled feral state before reasserting his grip on himself.
The bastard was back…
He growled next, a much less annoyingly unimpressive sound in his mind. Now just pissed off instead of racing towards a depressive episode, Hitoshi angrily washed his hair and scrubbed himself thoroughly.
Not quickly, either.
He took extra, livid time to gingerly fish around inside himself with his fingers to scoop out as much of the alpha as possible. He wasn't as tender to the touch as he would've thought.
His hackles were up the whole while, but the water saturated his hair too much to show it. The skin around his neck and skull tightened unpleasantly, tugging on his broken scent gland.
When he finally decided to get up and turn off the shower, he almost sat back down in protest. His body hurt worse after being still for so long. He got angrier to fend off the hovering dread and despair, growling even more to the empty bathroom as he dried himself off.
Without a change of clothes, Hitoshi wrapped his towel around his body before walking to his bedroom. His shitty alpha didn't deserve to see his nudity, not even in passing.
Hitoshi cussed the man out in his head with each step.
He was positively irate to see his curtains pulled aside and the bastard in question standing by the light, leafing through one of his sketchbooks. A truly vicious growl rumbled out of him, not of his own accord this time. A territorial warning.
His alpha didn't visibly react much more than glancing up at him, but the sketchbook was immediately closed and slowly set on the corner of his bed. Onyx eyes remained watchfully glued to him as the man straightened, showing his palms in surrender.
Hitoshi didn't know if he was mad about it or not. His stupid alpha obviously didn't take him very seriously, yet still submitted to his unspoken threat to honor his territory.
Good Alpha.
Hitoshi huffed, lips pursing into a thin line as if that could somehow control the way his dumbass lizard brain was trying to make him feel. He was glad he didn't have to say anything for the guy to know to clear out. The alpha approached him carefully, needing to get around him to get to the door, but Hitoshi was rooted to the spot in borderline-feral defense mode.
He growled loudly when his alpha was close, shoulders tensing.
Again, this didn't actually seem to bother the man, but he still paused. “I took my shoes off this time.”
Good Alpha.
Hitoshi growled about it some more, twisting away in aggravation and instinctively stepping back now that he had to guard his blushing face. He squeezed his towel tighter in his hands. As his alpha walked by, he could see the man's silent, socked feet as confirmation that his rules were upheld.
He didn't bother closing the door, just threw his towel down and hastily found some clothes to put himself in. He didn't want to leave the asshole unattended in his apartment for too long.
Midway through pulling on a pair of basketball shorts, a mouth-watering smell finally registered behind his emotional barriers. Food.
Something fried and full of calories. Shrimp. Something sweet, too.
He poked his head out of the door, violet eyes wide with disbelief and desire. Hitoshi sniffed the air more aggressively when he saw the large paper bag on his kitchen table and nothing else because the tunnel vision kicked in.
Alpha provides.
Alpha provides, Hitoshi agreed and slipped out of his room in a hurry.
In his defense, he wasn't totally human at that moment. One aspect of his heat had been temporarily satisfied, but there were still other survival matters that had to be resolved. His inebriated lizard brain wouldn't let him starve.
It seemed his alpha wouldn't either.
The man quietly watched him from the kitchen, phone screen illuminating those attractive features. Hitoshi didn't exactly look, though, laser-focused on the take-out, otherwise he might've noticed it was his phone. He pushed down the side of the bag and nearly shoved his head into it like a feral raccoon.
Short work was made of the plastic cartons withholding his meal. A whole bunch of large shrimp, fried rice with vegetables, and a couple helpings of takoyaki; the exact sort of calorie-packing he should've been doing before going into heat. He stuffed his mouth with shrimp and fried bread with a ravenous haste he wasn't in control over.
He didn't really try to fight it, though. He also cared not for how it reflected on him in front of his alpha to be tearing into food like a starving animal.
He kind of was a starving animal, after all.
Besides, he had his back to the guy. It wasn't trust or acceptance; it was desperation.
Hitoshi might not have been in financial straits anymore, but he still carefully rationed his groceries. He didn't bother himself with the extra meals his body wanted during preheat preparations. He'd gone hungry through so many heats in the past that he just didn't care. He thought little of it.
Consciously, anyway.
The less-than-human part of him, though…
Once he stopped feeling hungry, he started to regain awareness again. He didn't stop eating or anything, ripping another shrimp off from its tail shell as proof, but he did slow down and actually see the table. It wasn't just food his alpha had brought him.
There was a big paper cup nearby. Hitoshi paused long enough to lean over and sniff at it appraisingly. Some kind of latte. It smelled way too sweet to be healthy, which delighted the primal dregs in the corners of his mind. He didn't normally crave much sugar, but omegas in heat were notoriously attracted to it. Hitoshi wasn't any different in that regard.
He unceremoniously dropped the half-eaten octopus roll he'd begun working on into the rice container, taking the cup in his hands instead. He lifted it to his lips and whirled around like he just remembered there was a strange man in his kitchen still.
Not coffee. Tea. Chamomile and lavender. Coconut milk so it wouldn't be so heavy on his stomach on top of everything else. Cinnamon. It might as well have been candy. When his heat passed, he'd probably want to try it again with about half the sugar content. As it was, lizard brain was telling him to purr.
Good Alpha.
Hitoshi locked eyes with the man, barely catching the soft look being aimed at him before it hardened into the tired stoicism he was just beginning to get used to. The shift was fast. He probably would've missed it if he hadn't turned so quickly. Violets flitted up and down the man's frame, unsure himself what he was searching for. He tilted his head back to drink some more, returning his attention to the table while the warmth filled him.
That was the point in which it finally occurred to him how he'd decimated most of the provided meal. He didn't care, but it amused him a little. Hopefully, his wild presumption that it was all for him was correct because there would be none left.
The only reason the rice was still untouched was because lizard brain didn't know how to use chopsticks.
Hitoshi set down the cup and broke the wooden sticks apart. He shoved a mouthful of rice and broccoli passed his lips before reaching over to grab a plastic bag that came from the nearby pharmacy. Another oddity feral him utterly ignored.
Peering inside, he discovered his alpha had brought him a couple bottles of naproxen, square bandages, and a pack of nutrient pudding—something made specifically for the vitamin and mineral needs of omegas in heat who often can't or won't eat regular meals. Hitoshi wasn't that far gone yet, although he was getting pretty close. He'd never bought those for himself before. Too expensive.
He was used to crawling out of heat malnourished, dehydrated, drained of electrolytes, and deficient in every vitamin, anyway. It was cheaper that way.
If he was going to die, he was going to die.
He jumped in alarm when he felt the presence at his side before seeing it. His alpha was terribly quiet without those damn boots on. He watched with a slight frown as the man reached into the bag to withdraw the box of bandages. He frowned a little deeper when his alpha took out one and silently peeled the paper off.
He blushed when the bandage was pressed delicately to his face, covering the damaged skin scraped up by the wall outside.
Good Alpha.
He wanted to be mad. He wished he was. He tried to remember that he hated this asshole, who was gently stroking the bandage smooth across his cheek and had brought him much needed food geared to his current needs. Thanklessly caring for him without a word.
Another bandage was applied to his neck with much the same tenderness.
Soon, the man's shoulders sagged with a breath and that dark gaze found Hitoshi's undoubtedly reddened face. “I understand there's a gaping wound where our initial foundation of trust should be but…”
The alpha tipped his head towards the table. “I'll continue to help you through your heat like I promised—”
Hitoshi felt his own mouth drop open as he shot a quick glance at the table.
“Even if it's just transactional, I hope you'll be willing to work with me, too.” The man met his baffled eyes patiently.
“What?” Hitoshi sputtered, unable to reconcile the fact that his alpha apparently never meant to fuck him at all. “But—” He threw a frantic glance at the door, then back at the table. “Just this—? And not… Not… That's it?!”
Even his whiny lizard brain was distressed at the notion of not getting bred all week.
It was starting to turn on him, now, making him feel like a bad omega and like he had to do something quick to entice his alpha into bed or the world was over.
There was a faint, confused pull in the man's brow when he tilted his head at Hitoshi's evident stress. “If that's… what you want, I supposed I could… do more.”
“What I want?” Hitoshi couldn't believe this. He threw an accusatory hand out towards the window in pointed reference to outside, the plastic bag flailing dramatically in the air. “That's what you did! What do you mean?! That's what you did!”
His alpha flinched with a pained expression, reeling back when the verbal blow created the hairline fracture in his mask. Like before, he was quick to apologize. “I'm sorry… I've never mated, I… was unprepared for how it affected me. I don't anticipate forgiveness, but I didn't mean for that to happen.”
Alpha didn't mean it! Good Alpha! Alpha provides! Good for breeding!
Great, it was happy again.
Hitoshi felt a bit dizzy. He was also reeling from trying to figure out where he got so tangled up in certain anticipation that his alpha would be there to fuck him through his heat, regardless of how he felt. Like some divide of church and state, he rationally didn't want to be friendly but irrationally wanted the man inside him again. That was the worst part, conscious understanding. He might've turned a little bit redder.
“But…! You're supposed to—” He could barely separate the matted strands of his thoughts in time to vomit the words. “That… That's… That was… How could—? But you're supposed to!”
He was going in circles. His head was spinning.
The bag was gently tugged from his frantic hands and set aside. With a soft tone, his alpha asked, “is that what you want?”
All at once, Hitoshi froze, mouth agape around more unspoken objections. If he wasn't so panicked and wedged in between conflicted states of lucidity and heat inebriation, he might've clocked the way his alpha's gaze flicked down to stare briefly at his small, omegan mating teeth.
Thankfully, the muted light through the curtains probably didn't allow the man to see the full effect of the surely impressive shade of red Hitoshi turned all the way down from ears to chest. He scrunched in on himself a moment later, desperate to hide this development but also not wanting to lose out on a week of sitting on that fat knot some more. He tripped over ways to confirm without it sounding like he wanted to, “I— Well, that's… Why not? I mean, you already did, so… Why wouldn't you…?”
He hoped he didn't sound too begrudging… and also hoped he sounded way more scolding than he was. If he had to gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss his way into getting whatever he wanted with this asshole, he would. Hitoshi always did what was best for himself. No one else did. No one else would…
He glanced over reluctantly at his quiet alpha, who was eyeing him thoughtfully.
No one…
He quickly averted his gaze to the table and all the things the man brought to… care for him.
Better than Hitoshi ever did for himself…
He hardened all over again because, really, how long would this treatment last? As long as he was in heat? As long as his alpha was sorry?
A stinging needle in the back of his mind poisoned his thoughts with worse doubts. Maybe he doesn’t even like you. Hitoshi had heard of post-nut clarity. Fuck, he'd heard of post-ovulation clarity, even. All his body image insecurities flooded back to the surface, and he suddenly felt like an unwanted child drowning in his own oversized clothes. He gripped the hem of his shirt and hated how much he cared about his unomegan features now because this one stupid alpha didn’t think he was pretty.
He hated the alpha a little more, too, because it was all the asshole’s fault. Hitoshi would’ve been fine without him fucking up his head.
In his periphery, he glimpsed the startled jolt as the man jumped in alarm—
Oh, yeah… Hitoshi’s emotions basically didn’t belong to him anymore either.
Cynically curious about how the guy was going to react, Hitoshi peered up in time to catch him shoot a hurried glance at the small microwave on the counter.
It didn’t take much intricate math work to deduce the time on the faintly glowing clock was the object of interest.
Hitoshi took the blow like it was one of his parents delivering it instead. He’d always been inconvenient to them, too, unless his mother needed to rave at him about something he or his father did in her latest daydream.
Casting his eyes down, not even wanting to look at the man anymore, Hitoshi suddenly felt sick. His teeth were grit behind his lips. It was so terribly humiliating.
“Look, I can, um–”
Hitoshi didn’t want to fucking hear it.
He couldn’t even fake the forceful ferocity if he tried. He lifted a hand to his brow in disgust and quietly cut off the excuses with a blunt, “just get out.”
The Hero hesitated, failing to do even the simplest favor for him.
So, Hitoshi made it more clear, turning away from the table; he wasn’t hungry anymore. “You got what you wanted, right? Don’t let me burden you, Alpha.”
Withered by his primal instincts scolding him harshly for being disrespectful to his alpha and for being just a god-awful omega in general, Hitoshi moved to swerve around the larger figure. And in an act of defiance against both his alpha and himself, he coldly muttered under his breath, “I don’t fucking need you.”
Because he didn’t.
He nearly bit the hand that struck out to grab his wrist, laying a positively baleful glare on the taller man for the infraction.
The look must’ve struck the words out the alpha’s mouth because he clammed up to rethink whatever he was about to say. He actually looked a bit stressed. Hitoshi just rolled his eyes, hoping the motion would help fend off the pressure building behind them.
Worse yet, Hitoshi detected a hint of disappointment, and that just pissed him right off.
He wasn’t going to apologize for not being the perfect little omega next door that was maniacally overjoyed to get even a smidgen of his alpha’s attention or approval. Who the hell did this guy think he was dealing with, anyway?!
The man shook his head, “please, don’t call me that.”
Hitoshi thought he might actually bite the bastard. He’d scoffed before the alpha could continue, ready to snidely remark that there was nothing else to call the fucker.
“I know it’s about forty minutes too late to be appropriate, but you can just call me Shouta…”
“Great.” Hitoshi spat out venomously and wrenched his arm free.
He was sure his alpha wasn’t pursuing him, but, just in case, he slammed his bedroom door shut behind him once he reached it, shattering under all the hormones and emotions before even reaching his nest.
It wasn’t fair.
It had been a long time since he felt so cornered, collapsed in the plush embrace of the cover over his bed, that there was only one escape he thought he could bear.
Was this all his life could amount to? Did he deserve it? Why was he even born, then…?
At that point, Hitoshi just wished he could dissolve into his sheets and disappear.