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”Lin Ling, when you become a hero, you’d be the coolest alpha in town.” A thirteen-year-old Nice fluttered his fingers towards the sky above them. Lin Ling had just presented as an Alpha, and of course, in such a small town where news spreads too fast, he needed to tell his best friend himself. “And then we’d have your name plastered around here, too! The pride and joy of—”
“Nice,” Lin Ling whined, tugging on the grass from where they were laying on. “I’m not even sure if I could be a hero like this.”
Nice propped himself up on his elbow to get a good look at him. Lin Ling loved it when the omega did this, his eyes always seemed to blend in with the sky. “You’re an alpha, and you’re strong, and you’re kind. Everyone loves people like that.”
Lin Ling chuckles, “I think they’d like you more.”
The corners of Nice’s lips twitched upwards. He let himself fall back onto the grass beside Lin Ling. “I doubt that.”
Lin Ling loved his omega.
It has been years since he saw Nice without the use of pixels on TV and billboards, but he was here, now, in his arms. Trembling. It was a foolish decision to dive after Nice’s falling body, knowing damn well that between the two of them, he wasn’t the one capable of flying to stop them fram crashing into the pavement, and so as the wind rushed past them, Lin Ling only tightened his grip around the other and clenched his eyes shut.
He only opens them again when he hears heavy breathing against his ear.
They were inches away from fully hitting the ground, Nice had saved both their lives.
“Nice?” Lin Ling was the first to crack through the silence, his own trembling hands combing through Nice’s hair. “Nice, hey. Hey, look at me, I’ve got you.”
“Lin Ling…” Nice breathes out, color slowly coming back to his face. He doesn’t say anything else, but Lin Ling feels the omega’s fist clench around the back of his shirt. It was enough.
A footage of Nice’s nearly successful attempt to end his own life was quick to spread through the media, unfortunately, despite all the cover-ups his agency tried to make, the true story continued to spill out. The numbers on the perfect hero’s wrist go down little by little; around 10 believers are lost every day. Nice says it’s because perfect omegas and perfect heroes aren’t supposed to reach the point of throwing themselves off buildings.
As Nice’s numbers began to decrease, a count started on Lin Ling’s. It started from a hundred in the first few weeks of being called ‘The Commoner’ who saved a hero, and now, in the fourth week, he had gathered around a thousand.
Lin Ling didn’t want them.
Lin Ling didn’t want their eyes on him whenever he went out, he didn’t want countless hero agencies trying to reach out every hour of the day. All he wanted was his omega to look at him.
“Nice,” Lin Ling whispered as he took quiet steps into Nice’s apartment. He finds the other staring into the city sky below, the windows were open, the ones big enough to give him a view of half the city. “I brought some soup.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Miss J told me you haven’t eaten anything all day.”
Silence. “Why are you still here, Lin Ling?”
“Because I’m wo—”
“No,” Nice cuts him off, “Why did you save me in the first place?”
“You’re my best friend.”
“You left me.” Nice hissed. “You promised to stay with me, even if it meant being stuck in that town forever, but you left me to chase your stupid fucking dream.”
Lin Ling was silent. He couldn’t see Nice’s face with the other man’s back turned towards him, but it was enough to make his throat tighten.
“You said I’d be your omega,” Nice whispered, “But you left.”
“And where did that take me? I spent most of that time trying to catch up to you.”
“You still left.”
“I’m here now.”
“I wasn't perfect enough for you.”
“Nice, you could tear the earth down from where you stand, and I’ll make sure your hands stay warm anyway, so please, please, come back to me.”
The silence is crisp as the tension in the air thickens. Lin Ling only lets himself release his breath when Nice finally tears himself away from the open windows and runs into Lin Ling’s arms.
“Oh, I’ve got you.” Lin Ling breathes in his scent, “I’ve got you, my love. My Nini.”
“I’m not perfect.”
“That’s okay.”
“I don’t want to be perfect.”
“That’s okay too.”
“I just want to be Nice.” His omega trembles in his arms. Nice grasps onto Lin Ling’s shirt as if letting go meant crumbling down into dust, but that’s okay, it will be okay, because Lin Ling will be there to catch him anyway. “I just want to be yours.”
“And you are,” Lin Ling says, his voice a lullaby to the distressed omega’s ears. “You don’t have to be anything else.”
“I’ve got you, Nice. I have you.”
That was the truth. Even if his trust points skyrocket into a billion, or if Nice’s drops to a single digit— it wouldn’t matter.
Even if every time Lin Ling closes his eyes, he sees Nice’s body dead on the cold, hard ground 10 floors below him.
Lin Ling will catch him, and pull him back together again.