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The sound of marching MT squads - the grinding of metal armor and the sweeping ping of their scans - faded into the distance, but the echo that reached the mouth of the cave was a reminder that the danger was still very real.
Being robots with a limited artificial intelligence, they would follow their program until the search pattern was completed and then return to report the results to their superior officer at the imperial base that now controlled access to the Disc of Cauthess.
What with the state he was in, Ardyn didn't have enough time left to lie low and wait them out.
Noctis moved back from the entrance, where he had observed the enemy, and deeper into the shadows. He wrinkled his nose at the smell that greeted him. The omega pheromones poured off Ardyn's heated skin in thick, cloying waves that left him with a dry mouth.
After four hours of this his self-control was stretched to breaking point, his erection hot and heavy within the chafing confines of his damp trousers. That Ardyn had at one point peeled most layers of his lavish garments off, revealing a faint scar and well-defined muscles that rippled with each of his harsh pants and shone with sweat, didn't exactly help matters.
Noctis gave in to the urge and scented the air. There was something achingly familiar and enticing about Ardyn's smell. The sight of him was also very appealing, the way his hips jerked helplessly, as if he were using a toy - or begging for it.
Noctis grimaced, realizing that he was in even worse trouble than he had at first thought. Unlike cheerful and submissive Prompto, with his need to appease and be the glue that held their group together, Ardyn was... Well, to put it simply, both physically and in manner as far removed from the usual omega attributes as one could possibly get. -- Which was exactly what Noctis was looking for in a potential mate.
"Do not even think of touching me," Ardyn hissed, baring his teeth, as the heavy weight of eyes on him made him shudder.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Noctis lied, stopping after a few steps to lean against the lichen-covered wall of the cave and using the position to covertly adjust his trousers.
"No?" Ardyn rolled onto his side and bend his knees. He was using his coat and scarves as a makeshift nest of blankets. The fabric fell away to reveal the sight of three of his fingers, plunging with frantic speed in and out of his slick and lax hole. "Mayhap I should feel offended."
"Mayhap you should stop putting on a show," Noctis grated out between clenched teeth, his ears filled with the siren song of that wet squelching.
Ardyn laughed, a slightly hysterical sound, that broke to a harsh whimper. His balls were heavy and his angry red cock twitched, smearing his flat belly with more milky precum. -- But there was no relief to be had in the throes of a heat, not by his own hands, and they both knew it.
The enticing smell of him shifted, became domineered by adrenaline and other stress hormones as hollow pleasure turned to waves of excruciating pain. Noctis winced in sympathy as Ardyn began to claw at the stone and his own skin.
"Look, I –"
"Not you," Ardyn muttered, so softly that what had surely been meant as a biting protest came out sounding more like a heartbreaking plea. "Anyone but you."
Noctis should have felt insulted. He had recognized Ardyn's omega status pretty much instantly, long before Ignis had thought to bring it to his attention, and he couldn't think of a single time where he had treated him with anything other than respect - and as a friend, in fact.
He was hardly known for an alpha's oh so typical superiority complex or temper, his ruts were fairly tame, and he couldn't have cared less for the old Lucian traditions of total submission and subservience that denied omegas their right of self-determination. And besides, the only available alternative would have been Gladio - if he ever made it past all the Niffs outside - and him and Ardyn had clashed often enough since their first meeting at Galdin Quay that Noctis suspected his friend would have enjoyed humiliating the suffering omega a little too much...
The thought alone made an altogether different heat rise up through Noctis' veins. He clenched his hands into fists, leaving crescent marks on his palms, but mindful not to conjure one of his weapons by accident.
There it was, the first trace of fierce protectiveness that came with being an alpha, that warred with the thought of Gladio as a potential rival just as much as his own growing need to simply claim the man for himself. But there was more to it, the instinct to comfort, because Ardyn had sounded truly torn. Unlike other omegas, he clearly hated how vulnerable his heat made him, the loss of control, how his own body turned against him -- there had to be a story there, a past experience that had scarred him.
Of course, Ardyn would hate that even more, would surely mistake sympathy for pity and find it unbearable.
"It hurts... ngh... hurts...," Ardyn whimpered, insensate to his surroundings. His blunt nails had dug in deep and left red lines all over his chest and nipples. "I need..."
Noctis couldn't watch any longer. "I'm the only one who can help you now and you know it. I'm sorry, but there's no choice."
He moved closer, kneeled at the very edge of the spread out coat, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. The age-old problem of consent issues aside, it was only a matter of seconds now until they both succumbed to the imperative of their own biology. No matter how hard they might struggle, it would still happen and that was the truth of it.
Ardyn watched him with wary, heavy-lidded eyes. Noctis licked his lips and the omega copied, a first sign of reluctant imprinting, then inhaled deeply, mapping out the scent of the alpha that would claim him.
Curiously enough, they shared that scent: earthy, with a sting of ozone that clung to those that used the Crystal's magic - or magitek, like Ardyn's guns.
He reached out slowly, but suddenly, Ardyn sat up and grabbed the collar of his jacket with both hands. Noctis was pulled close, could see how his knuckles turned bone-white.
"I will not be your plaything!"
Their proximity backfired. The moment the seething words brushed against his lips like a declaration of war Noctis welcomed them, caught them in a bruising kiss that clicked their teeth together. He licked into Ardyn's hot mouth that instantly opened for him, moaned at his taste and into the sloppy duel of their tongues, while his hands cupped cheeks rough with stubble.
"You won't be," Noctis assured him as they broke apart for air.
The next few moments were reduced to a blur, a pushing and pulling and fumbling with buttons, as Ardyn almost ripped the clothes from his body, revealing the athletic and lithe build Noctis was pretty proud of. Then they were both stark naked and so flush with arousal that the slightest touch, even only the cool breeze within the cave, sent fireworks along their raw nerves.
Noctis watched with a predator's hunger as Ardyn laid back down and splayed open his long legs, displaying his clenching hole that was drenched in viscous slick. He used one finger to trace along the puffy red rim, eyes fluttering at the tease of the pleasure to come, then spread it open even further with the help of a second.
"Do you like what you see?" Ardyn asked, his voice low and husky.
Noctis, feeling as if his higher brain functions had turned to mush, could only nod. But he wasn't yet so far gone that he would have overlooked the disgust that curled around the edge of Ardyn's inviting smile.
Whoever hurt you, I'm nothing like them, Noctis thought, but did not dare say out loud.
He had meant it - Ardyn may be an omega, but that did not make him a toy, a tool to be used, subject to the will of another. And yet, right here and now, what did it matter? It was a noble sentiment, but he was an alpha and in front of him lay an omega, presenting his body to be taken and fucked, even if Ardyn was too proud and in control still to beg for it.
"I do."
Just barely able to defy the urging of his nature that demanded that he breed the omega immediately, foregoing any foreplay, Noctis leaned down and took Ardyn in his mouth.
"Oh!"
The look of shock and surprise on Ardyn's face was almost comical to look at, but then his strong fingers threaded through Noctis' hair. They held his head in place as Noctis licked from the base up along the shaft, followed the throbbing veins with his lips, gently sucking, then dipped the tip of his tongue into the overflowing slit.
That was all it took. Ardyn's balls drew up and he keened like a wild thing, spine arching off the ground as he came deep down Noctis' working throat. He choked a little, but managed to swallow every last salty-bitter drop.
Noctis nuzzled his still hard cock while Ardyn shivered and gasped through his orgasm, lapping it clean without any of the shame an alpha should have felt at such a 'demeaning' act.
"No more," Ardyn protested weakly in-between loud, panting breaths that turned to whimpers; shaking his head from side to side. "Let the insanity come full circle. Make me yours. And shall we both live to regret it."
In response, Noctis reached out with one hand and cupped Ardyn's neck, kneaded the taut muscles there until amber eyes fluttered shut and the omega became boneless and pliant where he lay.
Ardyn tilted his hips upwards. "Do it."
It was all the permission Noctis needed.
He hadn't meant to be rough but he couldn't hold back from plunging his leaking and aching cock straight into Ardyn's eager hole. They both moaned as he bottomed out on the first thrust, meeting no resistance at all, just a rippling of loose muscles that tried to grip and milk him only to fail because of all the slick. It gushed out in thick ropes with a lewd, wet noise as Noctis built up a quick and deep rhythm that dragged along Ardyn's prostate, pummeled that swollen sweet spot without mercy, and set both their spines on fire.
"Don't stop!" Ardyn whined, all self-control gone as he tried to bear down, his pupils blown wide. "Deeper! Ah...!"
Noctis ground his teeth together as blunt nails dug into his shoulders and he was dragged closer, into a frantic embrace of arms and crossed ankles that was meant to trap him. Then he felt it, the delicious contractions as Ardyn's omega nature took over and his body forgot the shape of his last alpha, his last heat, and adjusted instead to Noctis' girth and length.
It was only as he pounded into that tight channel, carved a place for himself, that Noctis noticed how oddly textured it felt whenever Ardyn's inner walls and muscles tried to pull him deep enough to breach the cervix.
Scars, he thought, horrified at the implications, but then the haze of his rut drowned out his rising concern.
"Noct...," Ardyn bared his throat, face twisted in ecstasy, and tried to pull him down for the claiming bite. "Can't... Ah!... Going to..."
Noctis felt it too, the sparks of electricity that raced along his spine, the inner pressure and promise of sweet relief as his knot began to swell, stimulated by the friction of the tight channel that clenched around him and their mixing pheromones.
They had somehow managed to hold out for so long that their mating would be over quick. -- Not least because Ardyn was in his early forties and had most likely taken high-quality suppressants for years on end.
Afterwards, Noctis would have no idea how in Eos' name he had managed it. But the moment his knot caught on Ardyn's obscenely stretched rim, aware that the next thrust would lodge it in deep enough to both bond and breed, he pulled free of the embrace that tried to hold him in place.
And just in time too as Noctis came with a low moan. The spurting flood of his semen washed over the omega's clenching hole and back out; harmless.
"No..."
Ardyn reached aimlessly for Noctis, then shuddered and shouted. His eyes rolled back until only white showed and his toes curled in the throes of his second orgasm that spilled across his heaving chest.
The urge to claim him had not lessened, was still overwhelming, but Noctis looked away from the temptation that was the nape of Ardyn's neck and bit hard into the base of his own thumb. Salt and copper flooded his mouth, and the pain of his teeth breaking skin and tearing at the flesh and sinews underneath cooled him off a little, snapped him out of his rut just enough to roll away until he came to lie on his side on the rough ground.
Cradling his left hand close, Noctis groaned, feeling nothing short of miserable with his own come running down his thighs and legs in endless spurts that were anything but satisfying. In fact, they were outright torture, thanks to the vicious throbbing and pulsing of his knot.
For a few minutes the cave was filled with silence, only broken by the distant sound of dripping water, the rustling of leathery wings in the next chamber, and their harsh breathing.
Noctis felt too drained to do more than wait, half of his attention on the spell he used to heal his wound, while his other senses were focused on the older omega, who recovered from the ordeal of his heat with insulting ease, all things considered.
"I do suppose I should thank you," Ardyn finally said, using one of his many scarves to try and get rid of the mess of semen and slick that covered most of him.
Noctis slowly turned around to look at him, ignoring the protest of his body that was sticky and aching and beginning to itch. He actually managed a wry smile. "Only if you feel like it."
He watched as Ardyn tossed the soiled fabric aside as a lost cause and leaned against the wall, wrapped only in his coat. Ardyn stared back, taking in his sorry state, almost as if he were seeing Noctis for the very first time.
Ardyn raised his hand to the nape of his neck, then let it drop to rest on his knee. "Well, at the very least, I do applaud your remarkable display of self-control."
"Yeah, me too." Noctis chuckled softly, though it was hardly a laughing matter. "I hadn't thought I had it in me, to be honest."
"Be that as it may, you were quite right. There was no choice," Ardyn admitted, though each word seemed to pain him. "Except for when you refrained from claiming me, despite it being within your rights, according to Lucian traditions. So know that I am, in fact, grateful."
"Don't be. This could have gone so horribly wrong...," Noctis trailed off with a grimace. "I'm sorry. This should not have happened."
"Regrets are no more than a waste of energy. Besides, the fault lay with me."
"Still –"
"Hush," Ardyn interrupted, flashing his familiar, mocking smile. "Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Eos et Astralis. Amen."
Despite the pain he was in, Ardyn's theatrical words shocked a laugh out of Noctis, especially since they were accompanied by the flowing movements of the Sign of the Six, that the Oracle's priests and nuns used during service and prayer.
"You're hereby absolved of all guilt, my sweet prince."
"Thanks, I guess," Noctis said, a little put off by the new nickname, but he quickly grew sober again. No matter the circumstances, spending a heat together tended to complicate and change things; in particular the people involved. "But I don't think things will be that easy."
Ardyn lifted his chin and his tone gained a hard, warning edge. "They will have to be."
Noctis nodded, hardly ignorant of the fact that Ardyn strove to regain his inner equilibrium, and would thus prefer to pretend that sex between them had never happened. After all, there was nothing like intimacy to make yourself vulnerable.
"Understood."
I guess as the injured party, Ardyn has the right to decide how we deal with this, Noctis thought. Not that I know how I feel about us almost mating... And then those scars...
Lost in his thoughts as he was, it took Noctis a moment to notice that Ardyn had dressed in the least soiled of his garments and was busy building himself a makeshift bedding out of the rest. Biting his lip in relief as his knot finally began to go down, Noctis forced himself to get up and hunt for his own clothes.
He used his undershirt to wipe off what had not yet dried to a itching, flaking crust on his skin, then tossed it behind a formation of stalagmites and sent a small fireball after it that reduced it to ashes.
"Gross," Noctis complained under his breath, but having no other choice, he slipped into his damp boxers and trousers. At least his jacket and T-shirt were clean... except for mud stains.
When he was half-way presentable again, Ardyn had already lain down, using his arm as a pillow. He looked about as pale and drawn as Noctis felt, but then, they were both dead tired.
"Come," Ardyn said, lifting his coat in invitation. "The night will be unpleasant enough as it is."
There was an odd note to his voice, as if he were questioning his motives. It was cold in the cave and would get only worse, now that the sun had set, so sharing body heat was the logical thing to do. But Noctis could guess that Ardyn was worried that it was instead his omega nature that had prompted him to make the offer.
"I should stand guard," Noctis said, not because he thought he could take on even a single MT in his current state, but to give the other man an easy out.
Ardyn's lopsided smile made it clear that he had noticed. "Neither of us is in any condition to stay awake, much less fight. Let us take our chances."
"Alright."
With Ardyn watching him for any sign of hesitation, Noctis walked over and settled down beside him, leaving only a small gap between their bodies. The coat draped over him with the rustling of surprisingly heavy fabric - and then nothing, because Noctis was out like a light.
XXX
He woke perhaps two hours later to find himself the little spoon caught in Ardyn's tight embrace, who was currently busy nuzzling with his nose through his hair and behind his ear; inhaling his scent.
An erection pressed into the crease of his ass, hot and hard, but not insistent. Noctis felt the flush that spread all over his face and stifled a cross between a helpless laugh and dismal groan. He also reminded himself sternly that this didn't mean anything, that it was a reaction to be expected in the aftermath of what had been a very unconventional heat.
Absolutely certain that Ardyn was still asleep and thus blissfully unaware of how he basically hugged him close like a favorite teddy bear, Noctis settled in to suffer through it and held still.
Very still. After all, he had seen what Ardyn was capable of, even without his guns.
XXX
They had just decided to head out when the sound of pebbles skittering along the slope that led to their hiding place alerted them to someone's approach and thus potential trouble.
Ardyn fell back and drew both of his magitek-guns from the black leather holster cinched around his hip, ready to provide fire support, while Noctis conjured his Engine Blade and dropped into a fighting stance.
"Noct! You in there?"
Hearing Gladio's slightly distorted voice echoing towards them, they both relaxed. Noctis dismissed his sword in a shower of glowing crystal shards, acknowledged Ardyn's rather pointed stare with a small nod, and then jogged to the mouth of the cave.
"Gladio."
Noctis witnessed with a sinking feeling how the relief at seeing his royal charge unharmed immediately morphed into a deep frown, as Gladio took in their disheveled state - and pungent smell.
"The way you two stink!" Gladio said, blunt as ever, and wrinkled his nose in pure disgust. "What the hell –"
"Don't ask," Noctis interrupted him. "Just... forget about it."
Gladio looked back and forth between them and clearly got some gutter level ideas from Noctis' awkward shifting and the fact that Ardyn, for once, failed to match his intense gaze with a derisive one.
Noctis, for his part, didn't much care for the lewd grin that accompanied Gladio's realization that they must have spent a heat cycle together, but then, his sworn Shield was an Amicitia alpha. Which was to say that his family still valued the old traditions, as did the whole of Insomnia. - Noctis hadn't been called 'wayward' and 'rebellious' for nothing.
"Not gonna happen," Gladio said, sounding far too amused and eager to get every dirty detail. "Come on, Noct –"
Unable to shake the feeling that Ardyn's silence was meant to test him, and disappointed by his friend's insensitive macho behavior, Noctis got right into his face, a feat he managed just fine despite their respective heights.
"Gladiolus Amicitia, that was not a suggestion," he snapped, using Cor's infamous drill sergeant tone.
Gladio actually took a step back, though that might have been more due to the flash of purple that made Noctis' irises glow. "Understood, Your Highness. My apologies."
Noctis waved him off and brushed past him, more than ready to leave that damn cave behind. "Let's go."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ardyn smile at Gladio in a wicked way that promised trouble when he least expected it and the death glare that met the challenge head-on, but then their masks were back in place - one of nonchalance and alert professionalism, respectively.
Making his way down the slope, Noctis sighed. He really needed a long soak, a change of clothes, something to drink and eat, and a quiet place to work through what had happened.
"Gladio –"
"We can stop at a gas station before meeting up with the others," Gladio offered, having anticipated his request. He fished his cell out of his jacket pocket and hit speed dial. "I'll call Ignis to let them know."
"Thanks."
With Titan gone, the landscape of the Disc of Cauthess had changed dramatically, but this far away from the Astral Shard all they saw were newly formed ravines that weren't too deep, and a lot of debris. There was also no sign of the MT search squads, besides the sparking remains of those robots that the Archaean had picked up and tossed away during the fight.
It took them no longer than ten minutes to reach the parked Regalia. Noctis let his hand trail over the sun-warmed hood and grimaced at the dents and scratch marks that marred the paint job.
"Cindy will rip us a new one."
"Just leave her to Prompto," Gladio suggested. "So, who's driving?"
"Not you." Noctis slipped into the passenger seat and suppressed a yawn. All he wanted was a quick nap. "You can't be trusted with her."
Gladio snorted. "Once! It happened once."
"Ardyn, she's all yours."
"My, what an unexpected honor." Ardyn took his place behind the wheel, catching the keys Noctis tossed him with ease. "Rest assured, I am known as a safe driver."
"You better," Gladio grumbled from the back seat, though he seemed to like having all that leg room to himself.
The tuned engine came alive with a soft purr and soon after, they were on the highway, racing past the rolling hills and forests that lay between them and the next Coernix gas station, with Lestallum being their ultimate goal to reunite with Ignis and Prompto.
Noctis made a disgruntled noise deep in his throat as the wind ruffled through his hair, making it harder than it should have been to drift off. All that being cuddled had kept him awake until dawn.
"What is the matter, my sweet prince?" Ardyn asked, his tone brimming with false sympathy. "One would think you did not get enough sleep last night."
"You should know."
Noctis belatedly realized two things. One, that Ardyn had actually sounded curiously fond despite his habitual mocking, which made for quite a change. And two, that he was very glad that Gladio hadn't taken the accidental bait.
He wondered if all this was a good sign or just the famous calm before the storm. Then Noctis shrugged and closed his eyes, giving in to exhaustion and welcoming sleep.
Guess he would find out.