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“Someone is going to have a great week,” Mardon said, sitting down in a booth at Saints & Sinners.
Len looked up from the blueprints he was studying. “What are you talking about?”
“Sometimes I forget that you’re a beta, Snart. But come on, even you must smell this? There is an omega in here, with a scent that just screams ‘looking for heat mate’,” he grinned at Snart. “Too bad they seem to have been here for too long to follow the scent, it’s everywhere.”
“How about you worry about getting laid after you give me the files.”
“Hey, no need to be cranky, just because you already found yourself an omega...”
Len’s eyebrows shifted together. “What gave you that impression?”
“Come on, you suddenly reschedule a meeting and neither Mick or Lisa now why, and you come in the next day smiling. I think one of the new guys almost wet himself because he thought you were replaced by one of those pod-people from last August. And now, I can smell their scent on you,” Mardon grinned. “Even through the the smell in here.”
Len must have let some of his alarm show, because Mardon continued, “Don’t worry, it’s pretty faint but I have always had a good sense of smell, even for an alpha.”
Len tried not to react. He had been using the same blocker as always, same amount. Maybe there was something wrong with it? There had been a faulty Alpha blocker some years ago that had resulted in a few incidents and lawsuits before they managed to recall the batch.
He had to find out fast.
“My sex life is none of your business, Mardon. Now show me those plans, I do have other places to be today.”
The moment Len was out of Saints and Sinners, he opened a private tab on his phone’s Internet browser and looked for news about Omega blockers. There didn’t seem to be anything, but it could be that he was just one of the first to notice. As long as it was faint enough to be mistaken as second-hand scent, it wasn’t a problem, in fact being thought of as a beta that managed to have a repeat omega lover would get him more respect in quite a few cycles. Still, after a quick stop to get some food from the supermarket and new blockers from a pharmacy he trusted to be discreet, just in case, he would go straight home.
Len had just started putting the groceries away when Mick stumbled into the kitchen, still half asleep. There had been a pretty big forest fire somewhere and he had probably stayed up the whole night watching the news.
He slowly blinked at the bags covering every surface and held up a bar of dark chocolate and considered for a bit before asking, “Everything okay boss?”
“We could use some more storage room in the next safe house, this kitchen is tiny. Otherwise, everything’s fine.” He put the last bit of meat into the freezer by a shoving it inside and closing the door quickly. He looked up from the freezer to see Mick watching him contemplatively. “What?”
Mick put the chocolate down and walked over to Len.
“Mick?” Len asked with an edge of worry.
Instead of answering, Mick came even closer and put his face next to Len’s.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Had it been anyone other than Mick or Lisa, Len would have punched them in the face before they’d ever gotten this close to him.
“You’re going into heat.”, Mick stated.
“Don’t be-” Len stopped mid-sentence. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck. Fuck! All the signs were there, he’d -
“Been preparing. Could feed a small country with the stuff we have in this room alone. The new blankets you bought yesterday. Throwing my entire wardrobe into the washer. And now your scent is getting too strong for your blockers,” Mick listed.
“Fuck.”
Mick calmly waited for Len to speak again, and it reminded him of his first heat, when Mick had been the first to notice, too. They had already been partners and were laying low after a robbery. Mick had suddenly left and Len had thought that he was annoyed at Len for getting cabin fever and checking and rechecking their supplies and fighting over small things like the room temperature and laundry.
Only when he had returned, Mick had thrown a bag at Len without a word.
Inside the plain brown paper bag, instead of the alcohol Len had expected, there was a first heat preparation pack. Len had stared at it while he put two and two together.
“You started to smell. I’ll be over at Paul’s place, he still owes me.” He had turned towards the door but then had hesitated, “You gonna be okay, boss?”
It had taken Len an embarrassingly long time to find his voice. “Yeah. It’s not what I expected, is all.”
Mick had grunted in agreement and left.
They had been close before that, but afterward there was a level of trust between them that Len hadn’t thought he could have with anyone other than Lisa. Especially after Len found out that Mick had used the time without Len to read every sex-ed and omega rights book that the libraries in Central City had to offer, and then some more that he had liberated from bookstores and left out for Len.
And now Len was almost as unprepared as he had been then.
“Shit. It’s been over four years. I thought I was through with this.”
“Yeah, but you weren't fucking an alpha back then.”
Len wasn’t surprised Mick knew about Len’s… fling? Affair? But he hadn’t thought Mick would be able to tell Barry’s secondary sex. His surprise must have shown on his face, because Mick continued, “Only reason you’d be so secretive.”
Len chuckled. If only Mick knew about the other reason he kept this quiet. “I'll never understand how people can think you're stupid.”
“That’s because they are. Want me to leave? Or are you going to your mystery lover’s place?”
“No. We're casual, I don’t want him to think it's more than it is.”
“You sure? If he triggered your heat again, spending it without him could make it worse.”
Len frowned. “Mick.”
“Just saying boss.”
“I haven't been on birth control for two years, I am pretty damn sure.”
“Good point,” Mick grimaced. “I’ll stay at the safe house in Oak street and tell everyone you’re in one of your planning moods so they don’t disturb you.”
“Great.” Now that Len knew what was coming, it was really hard to ignore the symptoms and he really needed to be alone. “And Mick? Thank you.”
“No problem boss.”
Once again, he threw a brown bag at Len and left the safe house.
Only this time when Len opened the bag, there, wrapped around heat supplies, was a black S.T.A.R. Labs t-shirt, formerly belonging to one Barry Allen and still permeated with his scent.