Chapter Text
Daeyoung thinks he just woke up early.
He cracks open his eyes carefully, testing that he was in fact in reality, and squints at his phone reading the time confirming it to be true. He’s awake ten minutes before his alarm. Huh.
Rubbing his eyes with a groan, he sits up before his brain could even think about going back to sleep. He feels like complete shit honestly, something must be wrong, but there’s no time to dwell on it. He’ll feel better after a shower.
Letting the water blanket him in warmth, he sighs feeling some sort of normalcy again. What’s considered normal in their lives is questionable, but a good morning is probably on the list. Getting dressed he feels the obnoxious ache from before finally subside a little. He finishes his routine with his face cream rubbing it in in circular motions. Fully refreshed, he comes out of the bathroom and is suddenly face to face with a shocked Yushi. The shorter’s eyes widen a little, taken aback. He looks him up and down.
“Oh my god, you’re up.” Daeyoung chuckles with a little grin at how caught off guard he is.
“Yeah I woke up early today. I was feeling a little weird. Like sticky and achey I dunno.”
Yushi huffs, “huh, okay,” but nods his head, “well come out for breakfast. They’re gonna be so shocked that it didn’t take me twenty minutes to get you up. They literally just sent me in here.”
Daeyoung stares a little too long at the shorter titling his head in confusion before jolting back with a head shake. They head out of the room, Daeyoung following the older. Out in the kitchen the rest of the members are enjoying their breakfast.
This week Sion decided, since it was really just practice every day and therefore a safe week to switch around the routine, to have the members of the other dorm come to their dorm to have group time to themselves before work. It’s their space on their time to be connected in a way no one else gets to understand. Sion started it early once they moved into these dorms. They joke that it’s some sort of separation anxiety he has but they all truly appreciate the team bonding in this way. It’s not for cameras or in front of the watchful eyes of staff. Just them as a pack.
Ryo notices first as the two newcomers take their seats at the table and points at Daeyoung.
“You! That’s like the new record,” he exclaims, receiving a playful snort from the accused. The other members pause everything to stare for a second, mouths hanging open at the rather quick appearance of their bandmate. Yushi just shrugs unsure how to answer.
Sion takes control of the table with a cough to clear his throat, “okay everyone enough gawking, we have little time this morning so eat up.”
The table then returns to its bickering. Normally Daeyoung would laugh along with everyone but today he just can’t shake the feeling that something is off. He thought he had shook it off earlier during the shower but it has stubbornly stuck around. The side of his head pulses with pain and he scrunches his eyes shut for a second in a grimace. Sion immediately hushes the younger members and approaches Daeyoung cautiously.
“Baby you alright?” he coos rubbing Daeyoung’s shoulder near his nape and placing the younger’s head to his torso. Daeyoung melts into the omega’s touch, the tightness quickly disappearing from his face and eyes fluttering closed, softer this time. The other members sit in a new found silence as they glance at each other waiting for a sign to resume as normal. Daeyoung takes a minute, letting Sion bring him back to a safe rhythm, before opening his eyes and humming positively in response.
“Hmm. Tension headache or something. Thank you, sorry.”
“Hey,” Sion tilts Daeyoung’s chin up to look him in the eyes, “don’t apologize. I just want you to be okay. Okay?” he softly shares with a smile.
He turns away from Daeyoung’s gaze to look at everyone at the table.
“Guys it’s all good, our Daeyoung is fine. It was just too loud for him so,” he uses his index finger to point between them all squinting his eyes, “be on your best behavior and stop screaming so much alright?”
He gives a little laugh because of course he’s slightly joking and it gets a snort from Sakuya.
“okay I’ll watch my decibels Captain!” Sakuya mischievously grins while saluting Sion. Riku starts giggling at the youngest’s antics while Ryo starts complaining about Sakuya causing a scene at the table right after being told not to. Sion watches with a content smile before returning his watchful gaze to Daeyoung who seems much more soothed.
“You should eat,” he says placing a plate in front of the younger who nods in appreciation.
From across the table Yushi sits staring at Daeyoung, his own breakfast barely touched. He watches as the younger begins to eat while smiling at something Ryo said, his eyes sharply following the chopsticks from the plate to the other’s mouth. Sakuya points at him imitating the scowl he didn’t know he was putting on. Yushi playfully slaps the younger’s hand away.
Things return to normal.
They pack into the van to head to the company for practice. Yushi is in the back sandwiched between Riku and Ryo while Daeyoung is in the middle with Sakuya. Sion’s in the front with the manager. Yushi pays no mind to the conversation that is happening over him between his two seat mates as he instead focuses on staring at Daeyoung again. Something about earlier he just can’t seem to drop. It confuses him and won’t let the voices in his mind calm themselves.
He finds himself smiling in relief hearing the younger’s laugh finally pierce through the overall noise of the van. It doesn’t seem louder than anything else happening around him, but to his ears it’s sharper, clearer. It satisfies something in him and he finally sits further back leaning his head against the seat with a sigh.
“Yushi, you’re ready for practice today,” Riku smirks looking the other up and down. Yushi side-eyes him which gets another little laugh out of the older.
“It’s just, you seem to be energetic today.” Yushi rolls his eyes but cannot deny that it’s not at least a little true. He does feel a little different today. It’s not from what they think. Not that the breakfast wasn’t good, but he wouldn’t qualify it as the ‘amazing’ food that would get him in this mood. He can’t explain why he feels this way, but he also doesn’t want to share the strange feeling. He lies.
“Yeah well I had good food,” he shrugs nonchalantly as Ryo punches him in the arm.
“You’re actually a little devil you know that?” Yushi says as Ryo points at him all cocky.
“I know,” he smirks, “but do you know you have a staring problem?” Yushi drops his smile quickly and snaps his head up to look at the younger.
“You keep practically boring holes into Daeyoung hyung today what’s up with that?”
Yushi doesn’t answer right away. How to explain it feels like an irrational fear; a strange urge to make sure of something. He tries to sanitize his thoughts so they come out of his mouth kind of normal. “I don’t know. When I went to wake him up this morning he was just pretty. Glowing.”
“Oh?” The two beside him share a glance. Welp, that wasn’t normal enough to be classified as typical Yushi talk it seems.
He quickly backtracks.
“He was up early, like fully showered before I got there. Said he was sticky? Whatever that means, and then at the table . . I just hope he’s not getting sick.” He glances at Daeyoung again who thankfully heard none of that. Or at least is pretending not to. He can’t quite tell because Daeyoung is always polite like that. Who knows how many random secrets he holds in consideration. But Yushi convinces himself it’s probably the former as Sakuya seems to have kept him occupied for now. And Yushi’s not that loud of a talker anyways.
They arrive at the company and make their way to the practice room that they will most likely be spending the whole day in. Getting settled they start with stretching at their own pace.
Sion carefully watches the youngest members as they goof off chasing each other around the room. His gaze sharpens when he finds Daeyoung sitting silent with his eyes closed and his back pressed against the mirrored wall. Sion sighs as Riku plops down beside him.
“So,” he clears his throat, “you’ve noticed too?”
Sion turns to look at the younger with an eyebrow raise. “Well, it’s pretty obvious something’s been going on. These past few weeks I’ve been keeping an eye on him but it’s been really difficult. I’ve figured out some things, but not enough. It’s not enough. I still can’t get a timeframe. He’s strange.”
Riku nods as they both turn back to focus on the one being discussed, seeing him seemingly recovered and now sporting a big smile and joins in on the game Sakuya and Ryo were playing. Riku uses his head to gesture to Yushi.
“And what about him?”
“You know I really shouldn’t be discussing this with you Riku as you’re also unpresented,” Sion acknowledges. Riku huffs pretending to sulk but he understands why the eldest is being careful. It’s not societally correct to discuss this kind of topic with nonpresented people.
“Alright Mr head omega keep your secrets,” he looks directly into their leader’s eyes, “but ask for help if you need it.” Sion nods shallowly before breaking the eye contact and pretending to go back to surveying their practice room. He wants to be able to trust that he can, but also he doesn’t know if he could go all the way and break such an ingrained moral law. What would people think? The company surely would punish him. He silently hopes he’ll never have to take up Riku’s offer. Trying would put strain on everything and if he lost this . . . lost them. Forget about it.
“I can’t believe he’s presenting before me,” Riku’s voice strains as he pushes himself up from the practice floor. “Funny how life works.”
Sion reaches out and grabs Riku’s right calf making the younger look down at him with his big, cute doe eyes.
“There’s no competition, only a personal journey. Trust yourself.” They share small, awkward smiles. Sion gets up off the floor and heads over to the rest of the group, starting to wrangle them together so the lesson can begin somewhat on time, leaving Riku standing there frozen. The moment alone, separated from the rest, breathes a worrying ache in him. He closes his eyes.
Sion was just trying to reassure him but he’s also the one who’s been comfortable in his own skin for years so it feels kind of shallow. Obviously Riku knows it’s not his hyung’s intention to patronize, yet there’s no denying that it comes off that way. He didn’t have to be shoved in the spotlight incomplete with everyone eagerly and, more importantly, impatiently waiting for him to change next. There’s no pressure to be something else. He just is already. The envy is suffocating sometimes. How come Sion gets to be whole before he’s even an adult while here Riku is at twenty-three feeling disgustingly incomplete. He hates him a little bit and he hates himself moreso. It’s ridiculous and a painful part of himself he wishes he could cut out and ruthlessly squash, hoping Sion will never know it existed in the first place. The eldest doesn’t deserve that.
He pushes the annoying, unwanted thoughts back down deep as he turns his focus onto the present instead. Opening his eyes more determined than before, he follows to meet the other members.
—
About two months ago Sion started seeing random, small signs around the shared dorms. As the only currently presented member within nct wish he had the privilege of knowing certain things the rest were unaware of. With some good old fashioned sleuthing, good thing all the members were kind of nosy and in each other’s business making his behavior not seem too insane, he found what he was looking for. The majority of the signs of a presentation approaching stemmed from the other dorm. He had sighed in relief confirming that. Not that he wouldn’t absolutely baby and care for the maknaes if it was one of them, and he absolutely will when it is, he’s just happy to have someone from the hyung line to finally emphasize with. Upon further inspection, however, he successfully pinpointed who was the lucky winner.
Daeyoung.
It was Daeyoung.
It did kind of surprise him at first. Not hyung line after all. Of course there is no right age to present, Sion himself presented at seventeen, but with the group hierarchy it was just a little interesting for a middle child to be before others. But Daeyoung was strong, dependable, sweet, charming, and surely very capable of handling himself well.
So Sion started keeping an even sharper eye on the younger trying to find out how much time there was before the main event arrived, yet there were no upfront, direct changes. The only things that were there were barely noticeable unless one were watching closely like he was. He found that Daeyoung would need to take an extra break or two during practice and Sion of course let him. He let him take as much time as he needed despite the small complaints sometimes coming from other members who wanted to go home on time. He started packing more snacks in his bag to ensure the younger always had something to munch on when he needed. When confronted about this by the other members he let them also take and share snacks both to ease suspicion and make Daeyoung feel better about eating. Sion carefully watched every time he happily enjoyed his favorites none the wiser that his body was burning through energy so fast that these snacks were genuinely helping him to stay as normal to his normal as possible. And if Daeyoung needed to take a nap, Sion was always there to lend a shoulder for an exhausted head to rest on. This usually resulted in group cuddle piles, all six of them sleeping comfortably together whenever some sort of break in the schedule allowed a short time for rest. Staff were never really surprised to find them like this. Sion was grateful these things were understood or at the very least tolerated.
But none of this was too crazy or too out of the ordinary to get a reaction out of anyone including Daeyoung himself. The younger really was just kind of blissfully unaware he was changing. Honestly it drove Sion insane trying to track anything about him. He could see it, sense it, aid it, but not track it. He thought after a month of it that perhaps it was close but there’s been no hint of his scent glands coming in during the elapsed time. His body seemed to refuse to prepare for the final shift. So what was Sion seeing? Little glimmers appearing here and there playing peekaboo but never committing? How long until this hurts Daeyoung. It’s been stressing Sion out every day waiting for the pin to drop.
But today, hearing Daeyoung woke up early, it might not seem like a big change but for him this was incredibly noteworthy, along with how openly he reacted to Sion’s attempt to calm him from his noise sensitivity, another exciting sign, Sion knew something had definitely changed. Finally a clear, upfront sign they were getting somewhere and soon. He didn’t want to spook the younger by saying anything outright, but he was really happy with how well Daeyoung reacted to his pheromones this morning. For a while this limbo worried him that the younger would not get there on his own, but his body just needed a little more time it seems. Better for him to not have to go to a facility. He felt it this morning, the main scent glands finally starting to come in and it wouldn’t be long now before his scent would bloom all by itself in the next few days. It excited Sion to finally be able to help with a presentation of someone he cared so deeply for. His first pup.
Yet the elated feeling was short lived as he suddenly noticed this morning how weird Yushi was being. Sion had been intently observing the table at breakfast, watching with narrowed eyes as Yushi watched Daeyoung eat. Whatever this development is, it’s moving quickly. How did Sion not catch it before today? It’s concerning. What else was going on that he was not aware of?
Overhearing the conversation in the van, they weren’t as quiet as they thought they were but he will also admit he was using intentionally listening, also made Sion start to question. Daeyoung felt a physical discomfort this morning, that’s not out of the ordinary for where he is, and he seems to be on track for Sion to finally talk with him within the week, but what Yushi said in response to Ryo was not something Sion had planned on. That was more than just the mere crush he’s seen the younger display before for their puppy. He’s not that oblivious, come on. Obviously Riku also caught a sense of something stranger than normal from it, even without being able to sense other signs, which is why he started prying, but again it’s not his business and not appropriate.
And Sion can’t share his concerns with Riku like that. He wishes he could let some of the burden of knowledge slide off his shoulders; be able to confide in someone, however he also hates the idea of sharing such personal information.
It’s honestly stupid but he’s embarrassed to talk to any of the nct hyungs. Maybe once he’s not the only presented of the group it’ll feel better to entertain the idea. He’s also thought about going to Riize many times, actively hovering over an open KakaoTalk chat with Wonbin in debate, but he’s never done it. He sees the omega in the hallway with his own bandmates and catches up on the random, mundane work things instead.
And it’s cowardly, he knows that. How can he be a leader and not be confident enough to ask for help? Since his own presentation years ago, he’s found the solitude to have been manageable. He’s been fine so far. But now it’s not just him; now he has a team. A group that makes Seoul finally and truly feel like home. The members are the best thing to ever happen to him, and he wants to be their everything. He’s their hyung, their leader, their authority. So just a little longer of keeping it to himself.