Archive of Our Own

Nicholas had never pictured himself as the type who would fall in love with his best friend. That kind of thing belonged in cheap rom-coms and half-finished manuscripts, not in the real world where midterms piled up and rent was always due and life moved too quickly for something so foolish. 

Yet here he was, leaning against a sticky table top that smelled like cheap beer and lemon cleaner, watching Euijoo butcher a song he clearly didn’t know the words to.

It wasn’t even a good performance. Euijoo kept laughing too hard to catch the next line, nearly dropping the microphone twice while the crowd cheered him on as if he were a celebrity. 

His cheeks were flushed from alcohol and adrenaline, his smile bright and wide, unaware of the effect it had on anyone watching. 

Nicholas should have been embarrassed for the younger omega. Any normal friend would be. But all he could think was how badly he wanted to drag Euijoo off that stage - not out of shame, but because he couldn’t stand how exposed he felt watching him like this. 

It was too easy to fall deeper when Euijoo’s joy was spilling out everywhere, loud and unfiltered. Too easy to notice the curve of his throat when he tilted his head back to laugh. Too easy to feel something twist in his chest when Euijoo looked toward their table just to make sure Nicholas was watching.

The younger omega waved at him, nearly losing his footing, and Nicholas’s stomach dipped with an unwelcome mix of affection and dread. He raised his drink in a weak salute, pretending the warmth spreading through him was from the alcohol and not from three years of wanting something he had no business wanting.

He hadn’t meant for it to turn into this. 

He and Euijoo had just clicked - two omegas trying to survive university, sleep-deprived and overworked, sharing an apartment that was too small to avoid each other and too comfortable to complain about. 

Somewhere between shared meals and shared blankets and whispered conversations at two in the morning, Nicholas had stopped seeing Euijoo as just a friend. He’d never told him. 

And now he was stuck in the back of a bar, helplessly in love with someone who was currently shouting the wrong lyrics into a microphone while the crowd screamed in delight.

The worst part was that Euijoo looked incandescently happy. So happy that Nicholas almost - almost - forgot the ache that lived behind his ribs.

If Euijoo was happy being friends, that was enough. 

It had to be.

The song finally stumbled to its triumphant end, Euijoo bowing with exaggerated flair as if he’d just performed at a sold-out arena. The crowd ate it up, cheering loud enough to rattle the cheap lighting strung above the stage. 

Nicholas shook his head into his empty glass, half in disbelief and half in reluctant fondness. He clapped along, his heartbeat louder than the noise around him.

But then Euijoo didn’t step down. Instead, he stayed where he was and started waving wildly in Nicholas’s direction. A full-armed, frantic wave as if the older omega were across a football field rather than ten metres away.

“Come sing with me!” Euijoo called, voice carrying over the low hum of the speakers.

Nicholas groaned under his breath. He already knew exactly what song Euijoo was going to cue up. It was going to be the one they screamed together during late-night cleaning sessions or when cooking ramen at two in the morning. The one that somehow made the terrible days feel less heavy. The one Euijoo insisted they had “ownership rights” over.

Nicholas lifted his beer, eyed the last quarter left in the bottle, and downed it in one long, resigned gulp. The bitterness slid down his throat, taking with it whatever embarrassment he was still capable of feeling for himself at this point.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, snorted softly, and muttered, “You’re going to be the death of me, Juju.”

The omega stood up, and wove through the cheering crowd. When he reached the steps, Euijoo extended a hand towards him with a grin that could have lit the whole room. Nicholas took it without hesitation, letting his best friend tug him up onto the stage.

The opening notes of their favourite song chimed through the speakers, and Euijoo beamed at him, eyes sparkling with alcohol and affection. 

The bar lights felt too bright, the crowd too loud and Euijoo’s smile too devastating but Nicholas stood beside him anyway. Because saying no to the younger omega had never been something he was particularly good at, and tonight wasn’t going to be the miracle exception.

The two omegas had met on the third day of orientation week. Nicholas had been sitting alone in the student union building, cross-legged on the edge of a bench with a cup of tea he wasn’t drinking and a notebook he wasn’t writing in. 

The room around him was chaotic - voices ricocheting off the high walls, student reps shouting over one another, the crush of bodies moving in unpredictable tides. Nicholas stayed very still, curled in on himself like a shadow trying not to be noticed.

He always struggled with spaces like this. Too many scents layered together, too many seniors prowling around trying to recruit fresh talent for their clubs, too many people speaking too loudly as if their confidence made the room theirs. And then Euijoo dropped into the seat beside him like gravity had chosen that exact spot for him.

He arrived in a burst of movement - breathless, pink-cheeked, hair messy from the wind outside. He carried two iced coffees, condensation dripping down the cups, and absolutely no awareness that he’d sat next to a complete stranger.

“Please tell me you’re not allergic to caffeine,” the omega said, thrusting one of the cups out as if this were the most natural introduction in the world. “The barista gave me an extra and I’m not about to waste it.”

Nicholas stared at him. Then at the drink. Then back at him.

“Thanks,” he murmured, taking the cup. “I’m Nicholas.”

“Euijoo,” the boy grinned, bright enough to cut through the fluorescent lighting. “First-year dance program.”

Nicholas blinked. “You’re in the dance program?”

“Yeah. Why?” Euijoo cocked his head. “Do I not look like a dancer?”

Nicholas considered him - wide eyes, sunbeam energy, limbs that looked like they were built for momentum rather than grace.

“You look a little lanky to be a dancer.”

“Rude,” Euijoo gasped, though he was laughing. “Guess I’ll have to work on my image.”

And that was how it began.

Their personalities didn’t match, not in the way people usually meant when they talked about compatibility. Euijoo was observant, quiet when he was thinking, loud when he forgot to stay small. Nicholas was affectionate in a way that surprised even himself, always touching, always drifting toward warmth like a plant seeking sun. 

But they clicked in the way only two omegas trying to navigate a heavily alpha-dominated campus could. They understood each other’s instincts, the unspoken social currents, the complicated etiquette of scent and space that others always overlooked.

They shared routines without discussing them - meeting after classes, syncing their walking pace, choosing seats beside each other without hesitation. They soothed each other’s scent spikes on stressful days. They crashed into late-night food runs after long labs and even longer rehearsals. They napped on each other’s beds without thinking. 

By second semester, they were each other’s emergency contact.

By the start of their second year, they were living together.

And Nicholas never expected to be in love. But somewhere between iced coffees and warm blankets, he had fallen anyway.

Their first heat together hadn’t been planned. It hadn’t even been a possibility in Nicholas’s mind when he’d grabbed his backpack that evening, left the library and walked across campus to Euijoo’s dorm. 

They were supposed to be studying since midterms were creeping closer but the moment Euijoo opened the door, he knew something was wrong.

Nicholas stood in the hallway with a distant, glassy look in his eyes - like he was half-present, half somewhere deep in his own head. His fingers wouldn’t stop tugging at the sleeves of his top, twisting the fabric, then releasing, then twisting again.

He stepped inside, dropped his bag by the desk, and folded himself onto the bed without a word. He curled sideways, shoulders hunched, knees drawn up like he was trying to make himself smaller.

Euijoo sat beside him, cross-legged. “You okay?”

Nicholas shook his head once, barely moving. “I think my pre-heat started,” he whispered. “Too early.”

The words hit Euijoo like a stone to the chest because he knew exactly what that meant for Nicholas with no heat partner, no pack nearby, and no family within reach of campus. The university clinic was always overbooked, and Nicholas had always hated the idea of going there alone. Heat made everything lonely, even for people who could handle it.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” Euijoo offered.

Nicholas flinched - not from the question itself, but from what it implied. The idea of going back to an empty apartment, of riding out the worst part of an omega pre-heat in silence and isolation, made his throat tighten.

“No,” he whispered. “I don’t want to be alone right now.”

Euijoo didn’t even think about it. “Then stay.”

His dorm room wasn’t big enough for two people on a good day. The twin bed barely fit one but Euijoo stood up anyway, walked to the closet, and began pulling down every soft thing he owned.

Nicholas blinked, confused. “What are you doing?”

“Making a nest.”

“In here?”

“Obviously.” Euijoo tossed him a worn school sweater. 

Nicholas caught it, stared at it for a moment, then held it against his chest. His breathing steadied a little simply from the scent.

“You don’t have to - ”

“I want to,” Euijoo said, already spreading old quilts across the floor. “Come help. You’re the picky one.”

They worked without speaking, both of them pretending the silence was concentration rather than fear or tenderness or need. Euijoo layered blankets, and Nicholas adjusted them. 

They arranged pillows in a rough circle, tugged them closer, shifted them apart, rearranged them until the lopsided nest finally felt right - like a small, imperfect sanctuary in the middle of a cramped dorm.

Nicholas stood at the edge, hands trembling. “I’ve never done this with someone before.”

Euijoo looked up. “It’s just me.”

And that was the thing about them. It was always just them - in the safest way that meant.

Nicholas nodded and sank down into the centre of the nest as if his body had been waiting for someone to give him permission to fall apart. Euijoo followed quietly, lying beside him at first with a polite inch of space between them. 

Then Euijoo shifted closer, and Nicholas reached out without thinking, pulling him in, burying his face into the younger’s shirt and scenting him like the world outside had become too sharp to breathe in without help.

“Thank you,” Nicholas murmured.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Euijoo said softly. “I’d do this a hundred times.”

That night set everything in motion. Every heat after that, they shared the space, the blankets, the trembling hands and whispered reassurances. They curled up in the same bed, wore each other’s shirts, and breathed through the worst waves together. They kissed most times. They fucked sometimes. Other times they just held each other and whimpered into the dark until it passed.

Once, during Euijoo’s third heat of their course, Nicholas stayed up the whole time. He soaked cloths in cold water, pressed them to Euijoo’s forehead, kissed his hair, and fucked him slowly through the worst of the cramps when Euijoo begged for it. When the fever finally broke, they lay together, Nicholas spooning Euijoo, fingers stroking gentle lines down his arm.

“You’re the only one who knows how to take care of me,” Euijoo whispered.

“I’ll always take care of you,” Nicholas said, instantly. As if the idea of doing otherwise was unthinkable.

It would’ve been easy to love him out loud. Easy to kiss him sober and mean it or to say everything they never said during the comfortable quiet of morning. But they didn’t risk it.

There was no heartbreak, no falling out, no betrayal. They weren’t afraid of losing each other. They were terrified of choosing wrong and losing everything familiar - the safety, the warmth, the unspoken understanding that held them together.

So they stayed in the safest place. The almost.

They dated other people but nothing stuck until Euijoo once came home from a date with a beta who complained omegas were “clingy by design”, and Nicholas had to take a deep breath before he did something illegal.

So they stayed best friends. Like queer little planets orbiting each other, close enough to feel the pull but never close enough to collide.

And it stayed that way until the night everything shifted again.

It was late in their fourth year, the point in university where everything felt both temporary and permanent, where routines had settled into familiarity and the idea of graduation felt unreal. Euijoo met an alpha named Kei through a mutual friend from an off-campus dance program who insisted Euijoo join a class “just for fun.” 

Kei was nothing like Nicholas. He was loud, confident, and charismatic, the kind of alpha whose presence drew eyes without him trying. But beneath that bright surface, he was clever and attentive in a way that surprised Euijoo. He listened and more importantly, he remembered things. He made space for conversations and always looked at Euijoo as if whatever he was saying mattered.

Nicholas noticed how serious it was before Euijoo ever said a word.

He noticed the way Euijoo smiled at his phone. How he lingered a little longer in front of the mirror on days he knew he’d see Kei. How he mentioned the alpha’s name casually, but often, as if every second sentence had a reason to circle back to him.

“He walked me home today,” Euijoo said once, shrugging as he kicked off his shoes. “Said he worries about me walking alone this late.”

“That’s sweet,” Nicholas replied, smiling, steadying his voice. “You like him?”

Euijoo blushed. “Yeah… I really do.”

Nicholas’s chest tightened, but his smile only widened.

“Good,” he said. “I’m glad.”

He meant it. Even if something inside him twisted.

Then one night Euijoo came home with that dazed glow that only came from a genuinely good date. Nicholas was in the kitchen, half-asleep over a cup of chamomile tea, when Euijoo stepped in and leaned against the doorway.

“We kissed,” he said.

Nicholas blinked. “Kei?”

“Yeah.”

“How was it?”

Euijoo’s smile softened - something dreamy, peaceful, certain. “It felt like… like it’s supposed to.”

Nicholas set his mug down and walked over. He wrapped his arms around Euijoo, pulled him close, held him longer than a normal friend might.

“I’m so happy for you,” he whispered.

And he was. Even if he had to hold the hug a little tighter to keep all the unsaid things inside.

But what Nicholas didn’t know was what happened just before that kiss - on a quiet bench under flickering lamplight, city noise fading into the background, the kind of small moment where two people decided whether they were stepping forward or stepping back. Euijoo had turned towards Kei, nerves fluttering down his arms, fingers fidgeting with the hem of his sleeve.

“I need to tell you something,” he said, voice unsteady.

Kei’s expression softened into something patient. “Okay.”

“If this is going anywhere… you need to understand something about me.”

“I’m listening.”

Euijoo swallowed, looking Kei directly in the eyes.

“Nicholas - my best friend - he’s not optional.”

Kei didn’t interrupt, so the omega kept going.  

“I mean it,” Euijoo continued, words spilling faster now. “He’s not just a friend. He’s my person. We lived together for years. He held me through my worst heats. I know him better than anyone, and he knows me. And if that’s a problem - if you want me to pick - then it’s better if we don’t keep going.” He finished breathless, braced for disappointment.

But Kei only blinked once. “You don’t have to pick,” he said simply.

Euijoo stared, stunned, so Kei continued, voice gentle but sure.

“I’ve seen the way you look at him. It’s not something I need to compete with. And it doesn’t scare me.” He brushed the back of his knuckles over Euijoo’s hand. “I don’t want part of you, I want all of you. And that includes the parts still tied to someone else.”

Euijoo choked on a breath, blinking quickly. “You mean that?”

“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t.”

They kissed shortly after that and Euijoo went home glowing.

After graduation, everything shifted as classes ended, schedules opened, the campus emptied of all its usual noise and suddenly the three of them were adults with proper leases and real decisions to make.

Kei and Euijoo found an apartment together first. It wasn’t fancy, but it had wide windows and a kitchen Euijoo loved and a neighbourhood Kei insisted was “safe enough that even Euijoo couldn’t get lost in,” which earned him a shove and a kiss on the cheek. It was a two-bedroom with warm lighting and a balcony just big enough for a potted herb garden Euijoo kept insisting he’d maintain.

Nicholas had come along for most of those tours. He turned on taps and tested door hinges because he always thought of small details that never occurred to anyone else.

And the first time the estate agent or property manager asked, “Is this for the three of you?” Euijoo nodded enthusiastically while Nicholas shook his head. 

“Me? No, no. I’m just moral support.”

But Euijoo didn’t let that slide. 

“We want you to live with us. Think of how easy it’ll be! We already know each other’s habits.”

Kei added something teasing, like, “Think of all the rent you’d save,” and, “We’ll keep snacks at your shelf height if that helps,” which earned him another shove.

But when the signing day finally arrived, Nicholas stepped back.

He smiled, soft and lopsided, and said, “As much as I love you both, you deserve a Nicholas-free space.”

He meant it as a joke and even chuckled right after, hoping it would land lightly enough but Euijoo frowned. 

“Nichol…” the younger omega said, voice thinning around the edges. “That’s not funny.”

Nicholas lifted both hands in surrender. “It’s just - look, you’re a couple now. You need a place that’s yours. Your routines. Your quiet mornings. Your arguments about laundry. Your… everything. I shouldn’t take up space meant for the two of you.”

“But you’re not taking up space,” Euijoo insisted, stepping closer. “You’re part of it.”

Nicholas’s smile gentled, though something warm and painful pressed under his ribs.

“I’ll still be around,” he promised. “I’m just… giving you room to build the life you deserve.”

Euijoo stared at Nicholas far too long before eventually nodding, reluctantly, like he was agreeing to something he didn’t fully accept.

So Nicholas chose a small apartment of his own, only three blocks away. It was a place just large enough for a couch, a bed, and a collection of mismatched mugs Euijoo kept “accidentally” leaving behind. He chose to come home to a place that was empty, even when every part of him longed for anything but.

However, there was a deeper truth he didn’t touch often. Something Kei and Euijoo didn’t know, and Nicholas had no intention of ever explaining.

A handful of their mutual friends - people from university who claimed to be “looking out for everyone” - had pulled him aside more than once. Not maliciously, just carelessly honest in a way that still stung when Nicholas thought about it.

“Don’t you think they need space? I mean, they’re dating. You’re… always around. Don’t make it weird for them.”

None of it was said with venom but it cut anyway. Because Nicholas knew he’d slipped into their lives too easily. He knew how much Euijoo relied on him. He knew Kei had accepted him into the orbit with surprising grace.

However, Nicholas was stubborn at heart. He was stubborn in life, stubborn at work, and painfully stubborn in love. So even if he tried to keep his distance, and even tried not to hover around their apartment like he used to, he couldn’t stop Euijoo and Kei from finding their way back to him. 

They showed up with groceries when he hadn’t asked, invited him over for dinner before he could make excuses, and dragged him out on weekends. They filled the empty corners of his new place with their scents and their laughter until it barely felt like he’d moved out at all. 

Nicholas kept telling himself he needed space - for them, for himself - but the truth was simple: they were his gravity, and no amount of stubbornness could keep them from orbiting him.

The applause was still ringing in their ears as they stepped offstage. The room was hot, the air full of stale beer and the sharp edge of too many scents mingling at once, but Euijoo looked like he’d drunk sunshine rather than three vodka sodas. Nicholas’s phone buzzed in his pocket.

[Kei:] I’m outside. 

Nicholas showed the message to Euijoo, who only shrugged as if he hadn’t been two minutes away from commandeering the mic again. They grabbed their jackets, said their goodbyes to the people they vaguely knew, and stepped out into the cool night air where it felt easier to breathe.

Kei’s car was idling at the curb with the window rolled down and Nicholas barely had time to straighten his jacket before Euijoo stumbled forward, tripping over the curb. Nicholas caught his elbow just in time, steadying him with a gentle hand at the back.

“Alright, superstar,” Nicholas murmured, “front seat for you.”

Euijoo beamed at him, cheeks flushed from the heat and the drinks. Kei leaned over from the driver’s seat to push the door open wider as Nicholas helped Euijoo climb in, guiding his legs inside and buckling the seatbelt when Euijoo fumbled it twice.

The moment Euijoo settled in, he looked over at Kei with that soft, sleepy smile that made the alpha’s posture relax instantly.

Nicholas closed the door gently and slid into the back seat, sinking into the familiar scent of Kei’s car - clean leather, pine air freshener, and the warm undercurrent of alpha pheromones that somehow never overwhelmed him. 

Once everyone was in, Kei pulled away from the curb with one hand on the wheel and the other resting casually palm-up on the centre console. Euijoo immediately linked their fingers, letting his head fall onto Kei’s shoulder as if they’d been doing that motion for years.

“So,” Kei said, glancing between the road and the two omegas, “how was the night?”

“Great,” Euijoo said instantly, voice bright but slurred at the edges. “Nichol and I killed it.”

Nicholas huffed a laugh. “We butchered at least half the lyrics.”

“Artistically,” Euijoo corrected.

Kei nodded with mock seriousness. “Of course. Naturally.”

Then he looked at Nicholas in the rear-view mirror - really looked, eyes lingering a half-second longer than necessary.

“And you?” Kei asked. “Did you have fun?”

Nicholas smiled. “Yeah. It was a good night.”

“Good,” the alpha said softly, eyes returning to the road. “I’m glad.”

By the time Kei pulled into the underground car park, Euijoo was half-asleep against his shoulder and still humming their last song. But when he heard the sound of Kei and Nicholas unbuckling their seatbelts, he immediately perked up. 

“Come upstairs,” he said immediately, as if the thought had only just arrived and was now the most important thing in the world.

“Euijoo,” Nicholas began, pulling his hands back, “it’s late. You two should - ”

Euijoo was already opening his door and stumbling out onto the concrete floor. “Nope. No excuses. Up. Now.”

“Euijoo - ”

“Nicholas.”

His soft but determined tone was the one that always made Nicholas fold. The older omega shot a helpless look at Kei, silently mouthing, Help me.

Kei only grinned. “Looks like he’s made up his mind.”

“That’s not helping,” Nicholas muttered.

Kei shrugged, unbothered. “I don’t fight battles I can’t win.” Then he nodded toward Euijoo, who was swaying gently as he waited by the elevator doors. “And that one? Definitely unwinnable.”

Nicholas sighed, defeated, and climbed out of the car. Euijoo immediately latched onto his sleeve, fingers curling in tight, and tugged him toward the elevator with the conviction of someone on a very important mission.

“Come on,” Euijoo mumbled, leaning heavily against him as the doors slid open. 

Kei stepped in behind them, hitting the button for their floor before leaning back against the wall. Nicholas stood in the centre of the small space, Euijoo pressed firmly to his side, cheek resting against his shoulder.

“You should get some sleep. I don’t want to intrude.” Nicholas tried once more. 

Euijoo tightened his grip until his fingers were curled into the fabric of the older omega’s shirt. “You’re not intruding. You never intrude.”

Nicholas swallowed hard and glanced at Kei again. The alpha’s reflection met him in the metal doors. His eyes are amused so the older omega lets out a slow breath and wraps an arm around Euijoo’s waist to steady him. The younger curls into him even more, humming contentedly, fingers toying with the hem of Nicholas’s sleeve like he needed the texture under his hands to stay anchored.

When they reach the apartment, Kei uses his fingerprint to unlock the door, the electronic sound of the deadbolt sliding open echoing softly down the quiet corridor. Euijoo all but drags Nicholas inside the moment the handle turned, their steps stumbling a little as they crossed the threshold.

Immediately Nicholas is hit by Kei’s scent. The black tea, pine and sage was sharp and grounding, threaded through everything like an anchor. Euijoo’s linden blossom and fresh linen clung to fabric and corners the way early morning light clung to curtains. Together, the scents blended into something Nicholas had never quite found a word for except home-adjacent.

There was a large, grey sofa and a low wooden coffee table in the middle of the living room and plants crowded the window ledge in varying stages of survival; Nicholas counted at least four he’d seen Euijoo resuscitate more than once. The lighting was warm and low. Kei hated bright overheads, so a row of small lamps glowed from corners - gold and amber, giving the illusion of a late sunset caught indoors. 

The kitchen was to the right, neat and tidy except for a forgotten mug in the sink, the rice cooker still plugged in, a drying rack cluttered with Bento-making tools. A tiny whiteboard hung on the fridge with their schedule written in differing handwriting.

Down the hallway, Nicholas could see the faint light spilling from beneath the bedroom door - Euijoo never remembered to turn off the bedside lamp - and further still was the guest room, which had slowly become a storage space for whatever Euijoo refused to throw away.

Kei locked the door and made his way to the kitchen. He opened the fridge, grabbed three bottles of water, before reaching into the pantry for a bag of chips. He poured them into a bowl and brought everything over to the sofa.

By then, Euijoo had already flopped onto the cushions, half on top of Nicholas, half melting into the upholstery. 

Kei set the bowl down and took his usual spot on Euijoo’s other side. Only then did Euijoo perk up, grabbing a chip like he hadn’t just been falling asleep in the lift.

“Oh!” he said suddenly, mouth full. “We have to tell you - Nicho and I got a standing ovation.”

Kei’s eyebrows lifted. “Did you?”

“Of course we did,” Euijoo said, nudging Nicholas with his thigh. “We’re icons.”

Nicholas choked on a quiet laugh. “We were loud. That’s about it.”

“It was the crowd’s fault,” Euijoo insisted. “They wanted us to sing loudly.”

“That is how karaoke works,” Kei laughed.

Euijoo grinned back at him, and launched into a story about their evening. He told it the way he told everything - too animated, too dramatic, hands moving as if the details wouldn’t land unless he sculpted them in the air. 

“Anyway, that was our night.” Euijoo leaned over Nicholas to steal his half-finished water bottle. “How was your night?” he asked, turning fully toward Kei. 

“Mm,” Kei hummed. “Just grabbed dinner with Fuma.”

“Fuma?” Euijoo repeated, brightening. “How is he? Did he ask about me?”

 “Of course he did. He always asks about you. I told him you’ve been doing well.” Then he added lightly, “And he says hi. It was nice to see him again. We had a beer or two and caught up a bit. Work’s been keeping both of us busy, so it was overdue.”

Nicholas, who had been quietly sipping his water, blinked. The name tugged at him - familiar in a way he couldn’t place. He looked between the two of them. “Hold on. Who’s Fuma? I feel like I’ve heard that name before.”

Kei shifted his attention to him. “Fuma’s my best friend from university. We lived together for a couple of years. He’s… hard to describe unless you meet him.”

Euijoo snorted softly. “He’s intense.”

“In a good way,” Kei corrected, though he couldn’t hide his grin.

Nicholas watched them, brows furrowed, trying to line up the faint memory he had of Kei mentioning the name once or twice months ago. Something about sports. Something about them being “idiots together.” Something about -

“Oh,” Nicholas said slowly. “Was he the guy you mentioned before? The one you got into trouble with at school?”

Kei’s grin widened, eyes gleaming in that teasing, amused way of his. “Yeah. That would be him.”

Once the chips were reduced to crumbs and all three bottles of water were empty, Nicholas pushed his palms against his knees and tried to stand. It was late - past the point where buses had stopped running, deep into the quiet hours where even the city seemed to exhale. Kei and Euijoo always insisted he stay, but Nicholas knew better than to impose. He got as far as leaning forward before Euijoo latched onto his wrist.

“No,” Euijoo said simply.

Nicholas blinked. “Juju, it’s late. You should sleep. And I - ”

Euijoo didn’t budge. He tugged Nicholas back down with surprising strength for someone who could barely stand on a good day.

“Stay,” he demanded, snuggling into Nicholas’s side like a magnet snapping back into place.

Nicholas let out a helpless laugh, trying to untangle himself. “You’re drunk. Go to bed.”

“I will,” Euijoo mumbled, burying his face in Nicholas’s shoulder, “if you come with me.”

Kei stretched from the opposite end of the sofa, watching them with an expression that walked the line between amused and resigned. 

“Just sleep over,” he said, as if it were the most obvious solution in the world. “He’s not letting you out that door tonight.” He stood, collecting the empty bottles as if this were all routine, then headed toward the kitchen. “I’m grabbing more water. You two figure out the rest.”

Which was exactly the opposite of helpful.

Euijoo wasted no time. He grabbed Nicholas’s wrist again, tugging him up from the sofa and half-dragging him down the hallway toward the bedroom. Nicholas stumbled after him, trying not to laugh at how determined the younger omega was in his drunken state.

“I didn’t say yes - ”

“You didn’t say no,” Euijoo shot back, pushing open the bedroom door.

The room was warm and dim, and there was a basket of half-folded laundry that sat at the foot of the bed. Euijoo immediately crouched by it, rummaging through with both hands until he triumphantly lifted a soft, oversized hoodie.

“Here,” he said, pressing it into Nicholas’s hands. “Wear this.”

Nicholas held it up. It was unquestionably Kei’s - big enough to swallow him whole, and still carrying the alpha’s scent. Euijoo turned away and began peeling off his own clothes with the casualness of someone who had done this in front of Nicholas a hundred times before. 

Euijoo’s body was all long lines and effortless grace, even half-drunk and swaying a little. His skin had that warm, tanned glow that made every curve of his ribs and hipbones stand out in soft, elegant shadows. His legs seemed impossibly long, carrying that dancer’s build he’d had since first year - slim, and fluid in every movement.

There’d never been modesty between them, not really. How could there be? Their bodies had been pressed together through fear and through comfort. They’d held each other through heats that blurred the world at the edges. They’d slept back-to-back and chest-to-chest so many times it felt more natural to be close than apart.

Euijoo tossed his jeans into the laundry basket and pulled on a pair of soft shorts, still talking about something Kei had said in the car. Nicholas only half-heard him. He was pulling off his own shirt now, letting it fall to the floor before stepping into the sweatpants Euijoo had handed him. 

Euijoo glanced over as Nicholas tugged the shirt on, his smile soft, fond in a way that made Nicholas’s chest tighten.

“All set?” the younger omega asked.

Nicholas nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “All set.”

Euijoo threw himself backwards onto the mattress with a dramatic flop, limbs spread wide like a sleepy starfish. The duvet bunched under him, half on the floor, half trapped beneath one of his long legs. He let out a satisfied hum, eyes already fluttering shut.

That was the scene Kei walked in on - water bottles in one hand, eyebrows lifting as he took in the chaos of it. He snorted, the sound fond.

 “You’re not sleeping like that,” Kei said, nudging Euijoo’s calf with his foot. “At least get under the covers before you pass out.”

Euijoo hummed again, not moving an inch. “Too far,” he mumbled.

Kei rolled his eyes, set the water on the nightstand, and reached to pull the duvet free, but before he could, Euijoo suddenly reached out, grabbed Nicholas’s wrist, and yanked hard. The older omega stumbled forward with a startled sound, landing on the mattress beside him.

“Nicho goes in the middle.” Euijoo announced.

There was technically a spare room. Euijoo had insisted on it when they moved in, calling it Nicholas’s room even when Nicholas never claimed it. But most nights when he slept over, Nicholas didn’t sleep there. Most nights he ended up exactly like this.

Kei watched the whole thing unfold with the kind of expression that suggested absolutely none of this surprised him. 

“Middle works for me,” he said.

The alpha peeled off his shirt without ceremony, fabric dragging up over his torso in one smooth motion. Nicholas caught the glimpse before he could stop himself - the pale stretch of Kei’s shoulders, the toned lines of his chest, lean muscle defined from years of dance and training. Heat unfurled low in Nicholas’s stomach before he snapped his gaze away, rolling quickly onto his side.

He buried his face in Euijoo’s chest, as if the soft warmth there could smother the sudden rush of want he didn’t have the energy to unpack tonight. The younger omega let out a sleepy, pleased hum, curling his arm more securely around Nicholas’s back. His floral scent, softened by exhaustion, wrapped around Nicholas instantly.

Behind them, Kei tugged on a loose pair of sleep shorts and slid under the blanket, the mattress dipping with his weight. Nicholas barely had time to register the warmth at his back before Kei was pressed against him, chest firm and steady, one arm sliding naturally around his waist as if this were a position they’d taken a hundred times before.

Euijoo let out a noise immediately - a soft, pleased hum that vibrated against Nicholas’s collarbone. His hand reached blindly across Nicholas’s chest until Kei’s fingers met his halfway. Euijoo intertwined them lazily, tugging both of them nearer until they became a perfect sandwich. 

The mixture of both of their scents settled around Nicholas like a weighted blanket, his omega instincts recognising safety before his mind caught up. Euijoo’s leg slid more securely over Nicholas’s thigh. Kei’s broad palm rested just under Nicholas’s ribs, anchoring him with an easy pressure.

The omega let out a slow breath, eyes fluttering closed as he sank deeper into the pillows, letting the warmth seep into his bones. His tension unwound one thread at a time until even breathing felt easier. But then he realized there was another scent in the mix, something new. Something almost sweet. 

He tipped his head back just slightly, exposing the long line of his throat as he angled toward the source of the new smell behind him.

Kei responded immediately. The alpha leaned in, pressing his face into the curve where Nicholas’s neck met his shoulder. He exhaled slowly, the warmth of his breath spreading across sensitive skin as the omega inhaled at the same time. 

“You smell…” Nicholas paused, searching for the right word through the haze of comfort and instinct. “Different. But good.”

Kei chuckled, a quiet rumble against his spine. “Do I?”

“Mm.” Nicholas nuzzled slightly back into him. “Stronger. Sweeter than usual.”

Kei hummed thoughtfully, nose brushing along the side of Nicholas’s neck as he breathed him in again. “Probably Fuma.”

Nicholas blinked, surprised enough that his body tensed for a moment. “Fuma?”

“We hugged when we said goodbye. Mostly woodsy but a very faint smell of chocolate?” He asked and when Nicholas nodded, the omega could feel Kei smile from behind him. “Yeah, that’s him.”

Nicholas swallowed, unsure why the answer made his stomach flip. “Oh,” he murmured quietly. “That makes sense.”

Kei’s grip around his waist tightened just slightly, settling him again. “Don’t worry,” he said, voice softer now, close enough that the warmth of it sank right into Nicholas’s bones. “It’ll fade.”

Nicholas didn’t comment on the part of him that wished it wouldn’t.

Euijoo shifted in his sleep, tugging both their joined hands closer to his chest, his forehead pressing more firmly into Nicholas’s collarbone. The younger omega made a small, contented sound, instinctively scenting both of them at once.

Kei’s nose skimmed Nicholas’s neck again.

“And you smell good too,” Kei added under his breath, almost absent-mindedly. “Like all three of us.”

Morning arrived slowly, seeping in through the curtains in pale strips. The air in the bedroom was thick with three layered scents that had tangled overnight, just like their bodies had.

Nicholas was half on his stomach, one arm thrown over Euijoo’s waist. Kei curled protectively around him from behind, face pressed into Nicholas’s shoulder blade. And Euijoo had somehow sprawled perpendicular across the mattress during the night, somehow managing to intertwine all of their legs together. 

Euijoo was the first to stir. He always was. Even hungover, his body simply refused to sleep in past 9am. He blinked blearily at the ceiling and groaned softly, then gently peeled himself away from the warm cocoon of omega and alpha he’d wrapped himself around.

He sat up, hair sticking out in wild tufts, rubbing one eye with the back of his hand before shuffling toward the bathroom with the gait of a small, injured animal. The door clicked shut and silence settled again.

Kei was the next to shift. A slow inhale behind Nicholas, then a low sound in his chest as the alpha nuzzled just slightly closer, not fully awake but responsive in that instinctive way alphas always were when someone moved from their bed.

Nicholas woke from the other side of it. His eyes stayed closed for a moment, letting himself feel where he was before he registered why. Behind him, Kei stirred again, tightening his arm without fully waking, breath brushing the back of Nicholas’s neck in slow, warm exhalations.

Euijoo padded back into the bedroom, hair damp from splashing water on his face, cheeks still a little pink from the hangover. He took one look at the two occupants of the bed and flopped right back down onto them. He twisted and wiggled around before jabbing his foot directly into Kei’s hip. 

“Up.”

Kei gave a half growl. He tightened his arm around Nicholas as if the omega would shield him from Euijoo’s violent foot of justice. “Stop kicking me.”

“Make us breakfast,” Euijoo insisted, jabbing him again. “You said you’d cook this weekend.”

“Did I? I can’t recall.” Kei mumbled into Nicholas’s shoulder. 

“Move. Go be a good alpha and feed your household.”

Kei groaned into Nicholas’s back - a long, suffering sound that suggested this was a regular morning battle. Nicholas tried not to laugh and Euijoo kicked him again.

“Fine,” Kei snapped, rolling away with dramatic misery. “I’m going.”

He sat up, raking a hand through messy hair, glaring half-heartedly at Euijoo, who only smiled sweetly back. Then Kei climbed out of bed, muttering under his breath about ungrateful omegas and the injustice of morning.

The moment the bedroom door shut behind him, Euijoo beamed and immediately burrowed into Nicholas’s side like a cat reclaiming its favourite pillow.

“There,” Euijoo sighed happily, curling his arms around Nicholas’s middle. “Much better.”

Nicholas let out a soft laugh as Euijoo tucked his face under his chin, warm and clingy, their legs tangling effortlessly the way they always used to.

“You scared him off,” Nicholas murmured, stroking a hand down Euijoo’s back.

“He’ll survive,” Euijoo said, clearly unbothered. “I wanted alone time with you.”

Nicholas swallowed, heart tripping painfully at the honesty. The younger omega shifted just enough to look up at him, chin resting lightly on Nicholas’s chest. 

“Thanks for coming out last night,” Euijoo murmured. “I had fun.”

Nicholas’s hand slowed in its absent-minded path down Euijoo’s back. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Me too.”

“It’s been a few days. We’ve both been too busy. I missed hanging out.”

“It was nice. We should do it again.”

Euijoo brightened instantly, pushing up onto one elbow as if he suddenly had energy to spare. “You should sleep over again tonight.”

Nicholas blinked. “Tonight?”

“Yeah.” Euijoo nodded as though it were the most obvious answer. “It’s Saturday. We didn’t get to hang out long enough last night. And Kei won’t mind. And I want you here.”

“Let’s have breakfast first,” Nicholas laughed. “One thing at a time.”

Euijoo groaned dramatically and collapsed back onto Nicholas’s chest like a fainting actor. “Ugh, you’re impossible.”

Eventually, the promise of food and the faint smell of something sizzling in a pan forced the two omegas out from beneath the covers. They moved like newborn deer down the hallway, bumping into each other and the walls with equal clumsiness. 

They shuffled into the kitchen and collapsed into the chairs at the small dining table, heads dropping onto folded arms in near unison.

Kei immediately just slid two steaming mugs across the table - one to each omega - with quiet precision born of long practice. Euijoo’s mug was the matte navy ceramic one with the chipped handle, filled with tea brewed exactly the way he liked it: strong, no sugar, splash of milk. 

Nicholas’s was the white mug with the faded cartoon bear, filled to the brim with sweetened latte - frothy, borderline dessert, the way he always drank it in the mornings.

Nicholas wrapped both hands around his mug, letting the heat sink into his fingers. “Perfect,” he murmured.

Euijoo took a long sip of his coffee, then sighed with the kind of dramatic bliss reserved for religious experiences and good caffeine. 

“Hyung,” he declared, “you’re a saint.”

Kei, still at the stove flipping something in the pan, snorted. “I’m an alpha making breakfast for two hungover idiots.”

Euijoo beamed. “Same thing.”

Nicholas grinned over the rim of his mug, watching Kei shake his head in mock defeat. The kitchen was bathed in soft morning light, gold against the cabinets. It felt lived-in and domestic, as if this scene had played out a thousand times before.

Breakfast was simple - fried eggs, buttery toast, a little bowl of fruit that had been mostly eaten as it was being cut up. They ate without hurry, the soft clink of cutlery and the occasional sigh of contentment filling the kitchen. By the time the plates were scraped clean, the room smelled like warm bread and coffee.

Afterward, they drifted into the living room, collapsing onto the sofa in a heap of blankets and oversized jumpers. Kei stretched out in the armchair with his phone balanced on one knee; Euijoo curled against the older omega’s side scrolling through short videos; Nicholas lounged back with his feet on the coffee table, eyes half-open as he flicked through messages.

The sluggish morning haze eventually began to fade. Kei was the first to yawn and sit up straighter. Euijoo’s breathing evened out, no longer foggy with sleep. Nicholas blinked more alertly at the warm glow of the living room windows.

“Okay,” Nicholas murmured, stretching until his spine cracked. “If I’m staying for the day… we should do something before we all rot on this sofa.”

Euijoo perked immediately. “Like what?”

“That new thrift place that opened near that weird art store," Nicholas said. “You kept saying you wanted to go.”

Euijoo gasped dramatically. “Oh my god, yes. I forgot it opened.”

Nicholas laughed and pushed himself off the sofa. “Alright then. Let me shower.”

He padded down the hall, rubbing the last of the sleep from his eyes, and stepped into the bathroom. The tiles were cool under his feet as he turned on the water and waited for the pipes to warm, steam beginning to fog the edges of the mirror. 

His toothbrush was exactly where he’d left it months ago - tucked into a small ceramic cup alongside Kei’s and Euijoo’s, as if it belonged there as naturally as air freshener or extra toothpaste.

After brushing his teeth, he moved to take the hoodie off before realizing he had no towel and no spare clothes. He sighed under his breath, wrapped one arm around himself, and headed for the hallway linen cupboard.

He grabbed a towel and slung it over his shoulder as he made his way toward the bedroom to borrow something to wear. 

There was a light, breathy noise - a giggle, and then the unmistakable wet sound of a kiss. Nicholas stopped just shy of the doorway.

The bedroom door was slightly open and from where he stood gave him a clean, unfiltered view into the room. Euijoo was sprawled on his back on top of the duvet, shirt rucked up slightly at the hem. Kei was above him, caging him in with his body, their mouths pressed together in a kiss. The alpha’s hand had slipped beneath Euijoo’s shirt, thumb stroking a faint line over the curve of his waist.

Euijoo broke the kiss with another breathless giggle, head tipping back into the pillows. “Hyung,” he whispered, still laughing, “we shouldn’t - Nicholas is here.”

Kei bent down again, kissing along Euijoo’s jaw, voice unbothered. “It’s fine. He takes long showers. We’ve got time.”

Nicholas held his breath without meaning to, towel clenched loosely in his fist, every instinct telling him not to move a muscle.The older omega knew he should back away quietly and disappear down the hall before either of them noticed but his body refused to cooperate. 

Euijoo’s fingers curled behind Kei’s neck, pulling him down for another kiss. Kei murmured something Nicholas couldn’t quite hear, and Euijoo’s laugh softened into a quiet moan. The alpha shifted lower, mouth trailing toward Euijoo’s throat. 

Kei’s hand moved under Euijoo’s shirt again and wherever he touched made the younger omega choke on a moan, the sound barely escaping before Kei bent down and swallowed it in another kiss. The bedsprings gave a soft, rhythmic creak as Euijoo arched upward, fingertips digging into Kei’s shoulders.

The air was saturated with the first curl of alpha arousal braided tightly with Euijoo’s sweeter, softer omega response. Even at a distance, even in a completely different room, Nicholas felt it hit him like stepping into a heatwave. His instincts reacted before his mind did - skin prickling, heart stumbling, lungs drawing in too much and not enough at the same time. It was hot, watching them. Hot in a way that crawled under his skin and lit up nerves that had no business reacting.

Kei kissed Euijoo like he owned every quiet sound that left him. It was unrestrained in a way Nicholas had never actually witnessed before. Euijoo kissed back with the same eagerness, legs sliding up to bracket Kei’s hips, shirt riding higher as the alpha’s hand pushed further under it.

Then Kei shifted again, mouth dragging down Euijoo’s neck. Euijoo gasped and clung to him, back bowing off the mattress.

“Hyung… seriously… he’ll be done any minute…”

Kei’s reply was a low hum of confidence. “We’ll hear him coming.”

Nicholas’s chest tightened. He needed to back away. Now. He had two choices: Keep standing here like a voyeur with no self-control, or snap himself out of it before his scent gave him away entirely. 

The second option won by a thread.

He backed away from the doorway on unsteady feet, every instinct screaming at him to stay, to keep watching, to see how far Kei’s hand slid beneath Euijoo’s shirt, to hear what other sounds Euijoo made when Kei coaxed him open like that. But he couldn’t. 

So Nicholas took three long, shaky steps backwards and then deliberately slammed the hallway cupboard door shut with all the subtlety of a marching band.

The sound cracked through the apartment like a gunshot and then stomped down the hall, heavy, theatrical steps that could wake the dead, giving the couple more than enough warning that he was approaching.

By the time he reached the bedroom doorway, Kei and Euijoo had practically flung themselves apart.

Kei was sitting upright on his knees, breathing heavy, hair a mess, shirt wrinkled while Euijoo was flat on his back, face the colour of a tomato, shirt still riding dangerously high, eyes wide like he’d been caught committing a federal crime. Nicholas pretended not to notice any of it.

“Hey,” he said loudly, rubbing the towel against his wet hair for effect. “Can I borrow some clothes? I forgot to grab something before showering.”

Euijoo made a noise that was half squeak, half cough. “Oh - oh! Yeah! Clothes! Yes - right - clothes - I’ll get you clothes - yes - clothes..."

The omega shoved Kei backwards with both hands and scrambled off the bed, nearly tripping over his own feet in his rush to reach the closet.

“I’ll grab something!” he blurted, voice cracking adorably. He yanked open the closet doors with enough force to rattle the hinges. “Just - just wait there! I’ll find something good!”

Nicholas kept his expression perfectly neutral, towel draped casually around his shoulders.

“Sure,” he said mildly. “No rush.”

Euijoo let out a strangled noise from inside the closet that very much suggested there was a rush.

Kei finally met Nicholas’s eyes, one brow raised, expression somewhere between smug and all-knowing. 

Euijoo finally emerged from the closet clutching a mismatched bundle of clothes to his chest. He thrust the clothes forward without looking either of them in the eye.

“Here,” he said, voice a little too high. “These should fit.”

Nicholas took the bundle with a steady hand, pretending not to notice how Euijoo’s fingers trembled slightly as they brushed his. The scent of their earlier arousal still clung to the room, faint but unmistakable, and for a moment Nicholas thought Euijoo might actually combust from embarrassment.

“Thanks,” he said, keeping his tone calm and even. “I’ll go finish getting ready.”

He stepped back into the hallway and let the quiet settle once more around him. The moment he crossed the threshold, Euijoo exhaled, mortified or maybe relieved, and Kei muttered something under his breath that definitely involved the words close call.

Nicholas didn’t linger to hear the rest. He walked back toward the bathroom with measured steps, the towel draped over his shoulder and the borrowed clothes tucked under his arm. The steam from the shower still curled out through the half-open door, warm and inviting against his cooling skin. He slipped inside, closed the door gently behind him, and set the clothes on the counter.

The rush of water drowned out everything else. Nicholas let the water hit his back, closed his eyes, and breathed until the heat settled him. 

He tried not to think about what he’d seen, or how it made his stomach twist, or how the scent of their kissing had gone straight to his head. He tried not to think about Kei’s hand disappearing under Euijoo’s shirt, or the way Euijoo had giggled, breathy and sweet. 

He tried not to think at all.

Nicholas stayed under the water longer than he meant to. When he finally stepped out, the mirror was completely fogged. He wiped a hand down the centre, revealing damp hair clinging to his forehead and cheeks still carrying the faintest pink from the heat.

The clothes Euijoo had handed him were folded neatly on the counter. They were a bit plain, just some dark jeans and a black t-shirt so Nicholas put on the accessories he was wearing last night. A couple rings, two layered necklaces and thin chain bracelet he’s worn since first year.

By mid-afternoon, everyone had showered and gotten ready for the day. Kei locked the door behind them, and the three of them made their way down the building’s front steps into the warm air. 

The weather helped set the mood for the entire outing. The sun was warm without being heavy, the breeze soft enough to lift the hems of shirts and ruffle hair, and the air carried that faint early-summer freshness that made everyone feel a little lighter on their feet. Downtown buzzed with people heading to brunch, cyclists weaving through traffic, patio tables filling quickly with the first true warmth of the season.

They caught the subway at the station a few blocks away. The platform was half-full with late risers and families heading out for the day, the overhead speakers announcing incoming trains with their usual tinny echo. When the doors slid open, Kei guided Euijoo inside with a hand at his back; Nicholas followed, taking a place just beside them near the pole.

The train lurched into motion a moment later. The windows blurred with streaks of passing tunnels, then opened out again into brief flashes of light as they crossed elevated sections of the track. Euijoo leaned into Kei’s side, scrolling on his phone, excitedly showing them both pictures of funny memes he’s saved all throughout the week.

By the time they reached the thrift shop - a narrow storefront with wide windows and a chalkboard sign boasting new stock, vintage gems, and student discounts - Nicholas was already scanning the racks through the glass like a predator zeroing in on prey. Euijoo laughed at him, delighted, and Kei just shook his head with resigned fondness.

Inside, the shop was a treasure trove of organised chaos. Racks packed tightly with colour, rows of shoes stacked under mismatched shelves, displays of jewellery sparkling beneath warm hanging lights. It smelled faintly of old perfume and laundry powder - the aroma every true thrift shop seemed to have embedded in its walls.

Nicholas dove in immediately. He moved from section to section with laser focus, tugging shirts free from hangers, checking fits against his frame, piling clothes over one arm until he had to shove half of them into Kei’s hands for temporary storage. Oversized sweaters, cropped jackets, graphic tees from bands that had existed before they were even born - if it caught his eye, Nicholas grabbed it.

Accessories were worse. Bracelets, rings, chains, sunglasses - he sifted through trays like a dragon hoarding treasure, holding pieces up to the light, testing the weight of a necklace or the shine of a ring. Kei eventually mutters that they’d need a basket just for Nicholas’s jewellery finds.

Euijoo was no better, floating between aisles, occasionally squeaking in excitement when he found something in Nicholas’s aesthetic, shoving it into the growing pile without mercy. “Try this,” he kept saying. “No - this one. Actually, both.”

Nicholas didn’t protest. Not even once. By the time he staggered toward the change rooms, he had an armful so large Kei actually laughed.

“Going a bit crazy, aren’t you?” Kei teased lightly.

Nicholas shrugged, cheeks warm but smiling. “It’s a nice day.”

“And that translates to buying half the shop?”

“Yes,” Nicholas said simply, disappearing behind the curtain.

It was the kind of day that made indulgence feel justified. The kind where sunlight made the colours richer, where the weight of clothes in his arms felt like possibility rather than excess. And as he tried on piece after piece, stepping out occasionally for Euijoo’s enthusiastic approval or Kei’s more measured nods, Nicholas felt something he didn’t feel often - happy in a way that settled under his skin rather than flaring briefly and fading.

Euijoo slipped out of the shop the moment Nicholas headed for the till, waving over his shoulder as he announced he was going ahead to secure a table before the lunch crowd descended. Knowing his luck, he’d charm the host and have their favourite window seat waiting by the time they caught up.

Nicholas stayed behind with Kei, juggling four bulging thrift bags that rustled with every shift of his hands. Kei watched him struggle for all of ten seconds before reaching over and plucking the entire stack out of his grip with one arm, the way someone might collect a few pillows instead of half a shop’s inventory.

Nicholas sniffed. “I could’ve carried them.”

“You could,” Kei agreed, “but you looked like you were about to lose a finger.”

Nicholas opened his mouth to argue, but the woman standing behind them in the queue let out a soft laugh. She was older, maybe in her fifties, wearing bright red glasses and holding a neatly folded pair of jeans.

“That’s a good alpha you’ve got there,” she said warmly. “Carrying all your bags for you.”

Nicholas froze but Kei didn’t. He gave the woman an easy, charming smile - one of those effortless expressions that made strangers warm to him instantly.

“Someone’s gotta do the heavy lifting,” Kei said lightly. “That’s why he keeps me around.”

Nicholas choked on air, heat rushing up the back of his neck. Before he could correct the implication - or combust - Kei nudged him forward with the bags tucked securely under one arm.

Euijoo had managed to claim a small table near the window of the restaurant, one that looked out onto a stretch of busy pavement and a row of tulips blooming in the city gardens across the street. He waved them over the moment he spotted them through the glass, already halfway through a glass of iced tea.

“You’re slow,” he said as they approached. “I was starting to think you two got lost.”

Kei set Nicholas’s thrift bags on the empty chair beside him. “We didn’t get lost. Someone’s shopping habits delayed us.”

Nicholas shot him a look but sat down anyway, tugging his borrowed hoodie straight as the server came over to take their order.

Once food arrived - bowls of noodles for Euijoo and Nicholas, a chicken sandwich for Kei - conversation fell into a familiar, easy rhythm. The kind that came naturally after years of shared routines and evenings spent drifting between each other’s spaces.

Kei talked about rehearsals, about how his dance instructor kept changing the formation last minute, about a coworker who’d brought in homemade muffins that tasted like cardboard. Euijoo mentioned a new project at work and how his team kept missing deadlines because no one would stop arguing about the proper way to format their reports. Nicholas listened, chiming in now and then, twirling his chopsticks slowly between his fingers.

They left the restaurant in much better spirits than they’d walked in with. The sun had climbed higher, warming the pavement, filling the streets with that weekend looseness where no one was in a real hurry. Euijoo insisted they stop by a stationery shop “just to look,” which inevitably turned into him buying three gel pens and a notebook he absolutely didn’t need. 

Kei dragged them into a home goods store to replace a spatula he’d melted last week. Nicholas pointed out a plant he liked in the window of a boutique, it’s pot painted to look like a strawberry, and Euijoo immediately declared that Nicholas had to buy it, which he did without realizing it meant he’d have to carry the pothos onto the subway.

By mid-afternoon, they had a small collection of bags between them - some practical, some questionable, all adding to the gentle buzz of the day. They were halfway down the block when Nicholas slowed, hands tucked into the pocket of his borrowed hoodie.

“So…” he said, glancing between them, “if I’m staying over again tonight… What if we just stayed in? Played some games? Maybe… drank a little?”

Euijoo gasped as if Nicholas had announced a national holiday. “Yes. Absolutely yes. That’s the best idea you’ve had all week.”

Kei gave Nicholas a long, assessing look. “You want a night in?”

Nicholas shrugged. “Sure. Feels like that kind of day. And you two owe me a rematch at that card game from last time.”

Kei smirked. “We don’t owe you anything. You lost, fair and square.”

“I was distracted,” Nicholas retorted.

“You always say that,” Euijoo laughed, looping his arm through Nicholas’s. “But fine. Drinking games. Snacks. Movies. I’m down.”

“Then we need alcohol,” Nicholas said simply.

“That,” Kei agreed, “we can do.”

The liquor store was only a few minutes away. They walked there together, weaving through afternoon foot traffic until the chill of the air-conditioned shop hit them as they stepped inside. Shelves were lined neatly with ciders, wines, premixed cocktails, and more varieties of spirits than any of them had the patience to sort through.

Euijoo headed straight for the coolers at the back, scanning rows of colourful cans while Nicholas wandered toward the back shelves where the heavier bottles were kept. The glass reflected fractured light across his hands as he picked through labels, comparing brands with the quiet familiarity of someone who actually knew what he was looking for. He reached for his favourite brand of whiskey but then noticed they had a new mango flavour and went with a bottle of both instead. 

Kei watched him from a short distance, one eyebrow raised. “Planning to wipe out half the evening?”

Nicholas slid the bottles into the basket. “I like options.”

“That’s what people say right before they get absolutely obliterated.”

“You two drink like kittens. Someone needs to carry the team.”

“Hey,” Euijoo protested, “I can drink more than Kei.”

Kei didn’t deny it - he simply reached over, plucked Euijoo’s cooler six-pack from his hands, and added it to the growing pile without commenting.

With their purchases sorted, they made their way to the tills. The clerk barely blinked at the mix of coolers, beers, and high-proof spirits - weekend evenings brought in stranger combinations. 

The sunlight outside had shifted by the time they stepped back onto the pavement - lower now, gentler, brushing across the tops of buildings and turning the city into something golden and forgiving. People moved past them in loose waves, heading toward parks, patios, and early dinners. It made the three of them feel tucked into a pocket of calm in a world that was otherwise in motion.

Takeout menus were spread across the coffee table within minutes of stepping back into the apartment. Euijoo insisted on ordering from the Korean place down the street; Nicholas wanted dim sum; Kei claimed he didn’t care but vetoed anything involving “unnecessary fusion.” They ended up settling on a mix - dumplings, stir-fried noodles, fried chicken, and enough rice to feed a small army.

While they waited for the order to arrive, the living room slowly transformed into a familiar version of chaos. Bags were pushed aside and the assortment of alcohol they’d bought was lined up along the coffee table like a tasting flight. 

Kei fetched glasses and ice while Nicholas gathered the card games from the shelf and spread them out to decide which they’d start with. Euijoo dragged two blankets onto the sofa and curled himself into one of them like a smug cat.

Nicholas opened the first bottle - the flavoured vodka - and poured himself a generous amount before adding club soda and ice. 

The first game they chose was simple enough - fast rounds, quick victories, and plenty of easy opportunities to tease each other. Kei shuffled the deck while music played softly from Euijoo’s speaker - something upbeat enough to keep the mood lively, but not loud enough to drown out their conversation. 

Euijoo rolled a winning card onto the table with an exaggerated flourish. “I’m unstoppable tonight.”

“You won one round,” Nicholas reminded him.

“One important round.”

Kei collected the discarded cards and reshuffled them. “If you two are done bickering, I’d like to play again.”

When the food arrived, they ate sprawled across the living room in the most inelegant, communal way possible - Euijoo sitting cross-legged on the floor with a carton of fried chicken balanced on his knee, Nicholas picking at noodles straight from the takeout container, and Kei methodically transferring rice and side dishes onto a proper plate because he refused to eat anything mixed together.

By the time the food was reduced to scraps and the table was covered in empty cups and half-finished drinks, the three of them were comfortably drunk. When Nicholas lost the next round, Euijoo cheered far too loudly for someone who had won nothing in the last ten minutes. Kei flicked a card at him in retaliation. Nicholas cursed at both of them, but he was smiling.

Eventually they got lost in sharing stories, somehow talking about funny moments from back in their university days. 

“You two want to hear something,” Kei said, slurring only slightly as he set his glass down on the coffee table. “About Fuma.”

Euijoo perked instantly. “Always.”

Nicholas groaned dramatically. “Here we go.”

Kei ignored him and continued.

“So,” he said, leaning back on his hands, “second year of college, there was this stupid bet going around the team. Something about who could stay in the ice bath the longest without whining like a kicked puppy.”

“Sounds like hell,” Nicholas muttered.

“It was,” Kei agreed, “and Fuma took it personally. You know how he gets.”

Euijoo nodded, eyes bright. 

Kei rubbed his hand over his face, already laughing in anticipation of the punchline. “So he climbs into the tub, right? Ready to prove he’s the toughest bastard alive. Except…” Kei paused, swallowing another laugh. “Except he didn’t check how full it was.”

Euijoo snorted. “Oh no.”

“He stepped in,” Kei said, voice rising with amusement, “slipped, and went straight down like a sack of potatoes, and disappeared under the water.”

Nicholas almost choked on his drink. “Did he die?”

“No,” Kei answered, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, “but he came up screaming, swearing, and kicking like he’d been attacked by a ghost. And the best part?” He held up one finger. “He still stayed in longer than everyone else.”

Euijoo dissolved into giggles, clutching Nicholas’s arm for balance. Nicholas laughed too, more at Kei’s expression than the story itself. The alpha looked younger when he talked about Fuma - less guarded, more alive, the faintest edge of nostalgia softening his features.

“He sounds chaotic,” Nicholas said, shaking his head.

“He is chaotic,” Kei replied, leaning back again. “Loud, stubborn, impossible. But…” His smile shifted into something unmistakably fond. “He’s a good alpha. Always has been.”

Nicholas stretched out his legs, swirling the gin in his glass, and tilted his head just enough to give Kei a sly look. 

“So,” he said, voice warmed by alcohol and boldness, “all these stories about you and Fuma… you two sure you weren’t having the most aggressively homoerotic friendship on the entire campus?”

Kei broke out into a laugh that rumbled up from his chest. He didn’t get defensive or brush it away with bravado the way most alphas would. He just shook his head slightly, smiling in a way that softened the sharp lines of his jaw.

“It might have looked like that,” Kei said, still amused. “Wouldn’t be the first time someone thought so.”

Nicholas raised his brows. “No denial at all. Interesting.”

Kei shrugged, leaning back on his hands again. The lamplight caught in his hair, turning the strands a muted gold. “I love Fuma,” he said easily. “He’s… my person.”

Euijoo perked up, nodding enthusiastically. “See? I told you he’s like me and Nicholas.”

But Kei wasn’t looking at Euijoo anymore. His attention shifted directly to Nicholas. The room felt smaller when he did that, like the air folded in on itself. Kei held Nicholas’s gaze long enough for the meaning to sink in.

“I love him,” Kei repeated, quieter now. “The way you love Euijoo.”

Nicholas’s breath cut short for a moment.

Euijoo, drunk and oblivious to implications, curled deeper into his side and didn’t catch any of it. But Kei’s eyes didn’t waver. He wasn’t teasing or baiting him. He was stating a fact. One Nicholas had never given voice to.

The truth of it hit like heat rising under his skin. Nicholas lifted his glass without thinking and took a long, deliberate sip - long enough that Kei’s mouth twitched in a knowing smile before the alpha finally looked away. Kei was always too good at reading him.

Euijoo shifted against Nicholas’s side, reaching blindly for another cooler even though he’d already abandoned two half-finished ones on the table. He cracked the can open with a soft hiss and took a sip before glancing up at Nicholas with a lopsided grin.

“You really do need to meet Fuma soon,” he said, nudging Nicholas with his shoulder. “For real this time. It’s weird you’ve never met.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes, though the motion came out softer than he intended. “You make it sound like meeting your mate’s best friend is some rite of passage.”

“It is,” Euijoo insisted, poking him again. “And I think you two would get along. You’re single. Fuma’s single. You both like strong personalities, and - ” he paused for dramatic effect, “ - you’d look good together.”

Nicholas scoffed, taking another sip to hide the warmth rising in his cheeks. “You can’t just throw two people together because you think their aesthetics match.”

“Actually,” Kei said, voice steady, “we can.”

Nicholas shot him a look, but Kei didn’t flinch. He leaned back against the sofa, one arm draped lazily over the cushions, expression calm and confident in that infuriating alpha way he always had when he thought he was right.

“Fuma would like you,” he continued. “Probably too much. And you… you need someone who can push back when you get prickly. He’s good at that.”

Nicholas raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to pawn me off on your best friend?”

Kei smirked. “No. I’m trying to introduce two people who might actually stop pretending they don’t deserve something decent.”

Euijoo beamed triumphantly, clearly taking Kei’s agreement as proof that his matchmaking plan was flawless.

“See?” he said, leaning against Nicholas’s shoulder again. “If Kei says you’d be a good fit, then you would. He’s never wrong about people.”

Nicholas opened his mouth, ready to argue out of reflex, but he didn’t get a chance. Euijoo tucked himself under Nicholas’s arm with sleepy affection, cheeks flushed from alcohol, and Kei watched them both with that steady, assessing gaze that always felt too knowing.

“Besides,” the alpha said. “you’re a brat. Fuma would be a good, firm hand to settle you.”

Nicholas stared at him, affronted. “I am not a brat.”

Two sets of eyes lifted to him at once. They didn’t even need to speak. The combined look alone said everything.

Nicholas threw his hands up. “What? I’m not!”

Euijoo burst into quiet laughter, pressing his face into Nicholas’s shoulder. “Nichol… you are like that.”

“I am not,” Nicholas said, but the protest felt thin even to him.

Kei gave him a look that held far too much certainty. “You sass on purpose. You push buttons. You pout when you don’t get your way. And you like” - his gaze drifted deliberately, “being handled.”

Nicholas scoffed, but it came out breathier than he intended. “I don’t - ”

Kei didn’t even let him finish. “Fuma is an alpha who doesn’t negotiate with brats. He’d put you over his knee before you finished your first sentence.”

Euijoo giggled harder, drunk and delighted. “You’d love it too.”

Nicholas covered his face with both hands, trying to hide the heat crawling up his neck, but Euijoo pried one hand away and kissed his cheek loudly, like this was the funniest and truest thing anyone had ever said.

“I’m not that bad,” Nicholas mumbled through his fingers.

Kei hummed. “You asked earlier if I was trying to pawn you off on him. I’m not. I just know the type of brat you are, and Fuma knows what to do with that.”

Nicholas groaned, dragging his palm down his face. “Okay, maybe I’m a little - ”

“A lot,” Euijoo supplied.

Nicholas glared at him, which only proved their point.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Maybe I’m… sometimes… a bit of a brat.”

Euijoo cooed, nuzzling into him. “We knew before you did.”

Kei’s voice dropped again, smooth and certain. “And Fuma would know exactly how to handle it.”

Nicholas let the rim of his glass rest against his lower lip, studying the alpha through the soft, golden haze of the living room lamps. The alcohol in his system made his curiosity looser, his tongue less cautious.

“And how exactly,” he asked, leaning back against the sofa, “are you so sure Fuma could handle me?”

Kei’s mouth curved at one corner that held far too much confidence. “Because Fuma and I got up to plenty of trouble in university.”

Nicholas lifted an eyebrow. “Trouble how?”

Before Kei answered, Nicholas glanced at Euijoo beside him. The younger omega’s cheeks were flushed a deep, warm pink - not just from the cooler. His eyes darted away for a moment, only to drift back, eager and embarrassed all at once. Kei saw it too, and his smirk deepened.

“I told Euijoo this already,” he said, voice low and easy, “but back in uni, Fuma and I used to have threesomes all the time.”

Nicholas blinked as the words hit him harder than the vodka.

Kei continued, utterly unfazed. “Parties, house gatherings, sometimes after practice. If someone was looking for a good time, they knew they could come to the two of us. We had chemistry, and we were - ” his eyes flicked briefly to Nicholas’s mouth before returning to his eyes, “ - a bit competitive.”

Euijoo made a soft noise beside him, shifting in place like he couldn’t decide whether to hide or lean closer.

Nicholas swallowed, throat suddenly dry despite the alcohol. “So you two… together… with the same person?”

Kei nodded. “Often. It was easy back then. No bonds, no commitments, just… indulging.” His voice softened, gaining a deeper edge. “And Fuma’s the only person I’ve ever trusted to take someone apart the way I do.”

The room seemed to warm by a degree.

Nicholas looked down at his drink, then back at Kei, trying not to let his thoughts show on his face. He could feel Euijoo’s thigh pressed against his, faint tremors of his flustered laugh vibrating through the cushion.

Nicholas blinked slowly, trying to process what Kei was saying through the pleasant fog of alcohol and the not-so-pleasant spark of heat curling in his stomach. “You’re telling me this like I’m supposed to just believe it.”

Kei didn’t even flinch. “It’s true.”

Nicholas narrowed his eyes. “You and Fuma. Threesomes. Regularly.”

“Yes.”

“How did that even work?”

“We were both on the varsity teams - him on rugby, me on track and dance - and we got a lot of attention. Mostly from alphas and omegas who liked the idea of… well. Two alphas at once. We’d go to parties, or to bars, and people would approach us. Or we’d approach them. It wasn’t complicated. We’d take someone home, or back to their place, or sometimes just…” His mouth curved faintly. “Somewhere semi-private.”

Nicholas swallowed as Kei continued.

“I would approach first and flirt with them, get them comfortable, get them excited. And then Fuma would come in after. He’s darker about it - you know, more brooding, more presence than charm. He didn’t need words to make someone melt. People liked the contrast.”

Nicholas felt Euijoo shift beside him, thighs pressing together.

“And then we’d fuck them. Properly. All night.” Kei leaned back again, his gaze holding Nicholas’s without wavering. 

Nicholas felt his breath catch. It wasn’t jealousy - he didn’t even know Fuma yet - but something about the way Kei described it, so measured and confident, struck directly at his nerves.

“You’re serious,” Nicholas murmured.

“Completely,” Kei said as his gaze drifted between the two omegas - Nicholas flushed and leaning forward, Euijoo quiet but trembling slightly.

Nicholas’s heart hammered. “So you just… picked someone up and - ”

“We’d tag-team,” Kei said casually. “One in front, one behind. Or one of us fucking while the other used their mouth. Or - depending on what the person wanted - switching back and forth.”

Nicholas said it half as a challenge and half as a joke, but the words slipped out before he could rethink them. “If you’re so confident,” he murmured, “you should show me how you used to pick people up.”

Kei just shrugged once. “Alright.”

The ease of it startled Nicholas more than any clever comeback would have. Euijoo straightened on the couch, suddenly alert - eyes wide, lips parted, watching without pretending otherwise.

Nicholas pushed himself to his feet. His knees felt loose from the alcohol, but he steadied himself with a sip of his drink and moved a few steps away, letting the dim light of the living room settle over him. Standing there, he felt exposed in a way that wasn’t quite uncomfortable, more like anticipation humming under his skin.

Kei rose from the floor with quiet confidence, rolling his shoulders back as he approached like he was stepping into old skin he hadn’t worn in years. He tilted his head, assessing Nicholas the way he once assessed strangers across crowded rooms.

“Okay,” Kei said, smiling like sin. “Pretend you’ve never met me.”

Nicholas inhaled, letting the heat settle under his skin, letting the alcohol make him bold and soft. “I’ll try.”

Kei took a step forward, then another step until he was close enough that Nicholas had to look up at him.

“You look bored.”

Nicholas blinked. “What - ?”

“Parties suck when you don’t know anyone,” the alpha continued, eyes locked on his like he was reading every flicker of reaction. “I saw you standing here alone. Thought I’d keep you company.”

Kei reached out, offering his hand towards the omega. 

“I’m Kei.”

“Nicholas.”

Their hands met in a firm shake, steady eye contact but Kei let his thumb brush deliberately along the inside of Nicholas’s wrist, right over the omega’s scent gland. Nicholas inhaled sharply despite himself.

“I like your bracelets,” Kei murmured, still holding his hand. “They suit you.”

Nicholas suddenly felt too warm. “They’re… thrift store finds.”

“They look better on you than anybody else who ever else has worn them I’m sure.” Kei said, voice low enough that it felt like a private comment - meant for Nicholas alone, even though Euijoo was watching from the couch.

The younger omega sat frozen like a small animal in headlights, a pillow clutched tightly over his lap, face flushed crimson from hairline to collar. His eyes were wide, caught between embarrassment and fascination.

Kei leaned closer, his shadow against the wall merging with the imagined silhouette of someone taller, broader  -  someone who wasn’t there, but whose presence was felt in Kei’s movements.

“You know if we were at a real party right now,” the alpha murmured, “Fuma would be watching us from across the room.”

Nicholas swallowed. “…Watching?”

Kei nodded, eyes locked onto Nicholas’s lips.

“He’d be leaning against a wall somewhere, drink in hand, making sure I didn’t take too long to make my move.”

“And then?” the older omega whispered.

“And then,” Kei said, stepping even closer, “he’d come up behind you, just close enough to let you feel him there. The two of us would trap you between us.”

Nicholas felt dizzy  -  the alcohol, the heat, the imagery, all layered over Kei’s real scent wrapping around him. Behind them, Euijoo made a high-pitched, breathless whine.

The alpha slid his fingers along Nicholas’s jawline, tracing a slow path to the back of his neck. His palm settled there, firm and warm, guiding the omega’s head up just slightly so he was looking up at him again. His thumb stroked once along the side of Nicholas’s throat, feeling the flutter of his pulse.

“I’d start kissing them first and then Fuma would lean down and start on their neck…” Kei’s fingers slid slightly, enough to brush Nicholas’s scent gland. “…right here.”

“And while I kept their attention,” the alpha went on, “Fuma would slide his hands up their hips, under their shirt, or down the back of their pants.”

Nicholas’s eyes fluttered half-shut. His breathing was quickening, shallow, almost silent.

“By the time we were done kissing them, they were already putty in our hands. Could barely stand without leaning on one of us. And once they were that far gone, we’d take them home. Between the two of us… Fuma has stamina like you wouldn’t believe. He could go for hours without slowing down.”

Nicholas’s breath hitched so sharply it almost counted as a gasp. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to pull air into his lungs, but each inhale only caught more of Kei’s pine and sage scent had his own body reacting helplessly.

His scent flickered, mortifyingly sweet, and he fought it back with a clenched jaw. The pressure in his jeans was getting uncomfortable, slick threatening at the edges of his body’s instinctive response.

Over flirting. Not even touching, just the sound of Kei’s voice and the picture he painted. 

Humiliating. 

Nicholas stepped back too quickly, nearly stumbling over the coffee table. “Okay - right. Um. I’m tired,” he blurted, the words tumbling out in a rush that fooled absolutely no one. “Really tired. Like, wow look at the time! I’m just gonna go lie down.”

Nicholas glanced sideways, chest heaving to where Euijoo was. The younger omega suddenly straightened, face scarlet, thighs pressed together under the pillow he was still clutching. His voice cracked slightly when he spoke. 

“Do you, uhm, want to sleep in our bed again?”

Nicholas shook his head so fast his hair brushed his cheeks. 

“No. No, it’s fine. Vodka makes me restless. I’ll toss all night and bother you.” He cleared his throat, backing away another step. “I’ll, uh - yeah. I’ll see you in the morning.”

It wasn’t even a good lie. It didn’t matter. He needed to get out of the room.

And then he turned on his heel and bolted across the living room, down the hall, into the spare room. He stripped his jeans off the second the door closed behind him, the fabric catching painfully over the hard line of his cock. The relief was immediate, but the ache stayed - insistent and throbbing. He dropped onto the bed with a frustrated groan, one arm flung over his face, but even flat on his back his cock refused to soften. It stood flushed and rigid against his stomach, twitching with every pulse of his heartbeat.

He tried to breathe through it, tried to think about anything else - literally anything - but the moment he closed his eyes, Kei’s voice slid back into his mind. And worse, the memory of how close he’d been, the weight of the alpha’s hand on his neck, the faint scrape of his thumb along his jaw. His body reacted helplessly, slick threatening at the edges of his hole despite how hard he tried to clamp down.

Across the hall, a door clicked shut as Euijoo and Kei turned in for the night. The walls weren’t paper-thin, but they weren’t thick either. He could hear the murmur of their voices and Nicholas’s cock throbbed again, harder. 

The omega squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to roll onto his side and bury half his face in the cool pillow. He willed his body to settle, willed his cock to soften, willed the heat curling under his skin to finally ebb. For a moment, it almost worked. The apartment fell quiet and even the city noise outside dipped into a softer hum.

But then there was a soft thump and an unmistakable creak of a headboard hitting the shared wall. It was followed by a wet moan that had Nicholas’s eyes snapping open. 

He would know that sound anywhere. He’s heard it in every heat they’d spent curled around each other, every desperate night when comforting touches had tipped too easily into something more. Hearing it now, muffled through the bedroom wall but unmistakably real, hit him like a punch. 

Euijoo.

The bedframe creaked again, harder this time. Nicholas’s cock jerked, hard enough to make him gasp silently into his pillow.

“Shh, Juju… quiet.” Kei’s voice cut through the quiet in a low, commanding murmur that Nicho felt directly in his spine.

“Hyung, it’s too much -” A soft gasp followed, then a muffled moan of Euijoo trying, failing, trying again.

“You gotta be quiet. Unless…” the alpha’s tone deepened, edged with amusement. “You want Nicholas to hear you.”

The older omega’s entire body went electric. His cock throbbed so sharply he nearly jolted upright, a slick pulse of heat spreading across his inner thighs. He slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from making a sound.

On the other side of the wall, Euijoo whimpered again, a breathy, helpless sound that Nicho recognised instantly - the sound he made when someone’s hand was in his hair or when he was being pushed open just right.

“Good boy. Take it.”

Nicholas’s body moved before thought could catch up. He slid his hand down the front of his underwear. The fabric clung damp to his skin, sticky with precome. The second his fingers wrapped around his cock, his whole body jolted like he’d touched something molten.

“Fuck.” he whispered into the empty room, biting the inside of his cheek to keep quiet.

He was already wet and his cock throbbed violently in his fist. Every pulse sent a warm spill of precome over his knuckles, easing the glide as he stroked himself. 

Another moan came through the wall, higher this time and hips lifted off the mattress involuntarily, like his body was trying to chase the sound. He squeezed harder, stroking down the length and back up with a trembling hand. His breath came shallow and hot against the mattress. He tried to stay quiet but a soft whimper caught in his throat anyway.

“You’re doing so good, baby.”

Nicholas dragged his shirt up to his mouth, panting into the fabric as he fucked up into his palm, every motion slick and wet and humiliatingly needy. His whole body felt tuned to the rhythm of their sounds - every moan from Euijoo, every breath from Kei, every shift of the bed frame translating straight into his bones.

His hand moved faster now, strokes messy, his hips jerking up off the bed with each pull. Precome smeared warm across his stomach, each slick slide making his toes curl.

The omega forced his eyes shut, but shutting them only made everything sharper. He could hear the unmistakable cadence of bodies meeting again and again. Wet skin on skin. 

He squeezed tighter around the base, stroking upward with a pace that bordered on frantic, trying to sync himself with the rhythm of their fucking. The wet slide of his own fist sounded obscene in the quiet room, but he couldn’t stop. His thighs trembled, muscles tightening every time he imagined the scene unfolding metres away.

Kei was probably behind the omega, one hand gripping his hip, the other laid flat between his shoulder blades, guiding him down into the mattress. Euijoo on all fours, chest sinking, back bowing into a helpless curve, mouth open as each thrust punched a sound out of him.

Nicholas sucked in a shaky breath, cock pulsing in his hand. “Oh fuck…”

He imagined Juju’s pretty brown eyes glassy with pleasure, tears forming at the corners, his voice cracking as he begged. Imagined Kei’s expression as he fucked him from behind - focused, but beginning to loose composure from the pleasure of it all. 

Nicholas’s hole fluttered and clenched, slick pouring out of him in warm pulses he couldn’t control. It soaked the inside of his underwear, slicking between his thighs. He jerked himself harder, frantic, matching the rising tempo of Juju’s moans as best he could. His stomach clenched, pressure building fast and unbearable.

The headboard hitting the wall again in a rhythmic thump matched the sound of Euijoo’s moans, each one sweeter than the last. 

“Hyung, please- ”

“Shh, it’s okay baby. You can take it.”

The moment Euijoo’s moan dragged on into something long and low, Nicholas’s whole body snapped tight. Hot, thick pulses spilled over his fist in frantic bursts, messy and overwhelming. His stomach clenched hard enough to make his legs shake, slick dripping down between his thighs as his cock throbbed wildly against his palm. Each spasm sent more cum spilling across his knuckles, wrist, and lower belly, his hips twitching helplessly into the aftershocks.

But then the moan cut off, abrupt and muffled, like a hand had been pressed over Euijoo’s mouth. Nicho’s eyes flew open, chest heaving. He could picture Kei’s palm covering the younger omega’s mouth, forcing him to be quiet as Euijoo convulsed around him.

Nicho lay there catching his breath, his pulse still thudding in his ears, his hand sticky and warm where it rested against his stomach. The last tremor of orgasm shivered down his spine, leaving him boneless and light-headed on the mattress. 

A muffled sound drifted faintly through the wall. Not a moan this time, but a soft, breathless whimper - as if they were being held and soothed after being pushed too hard. Nicho pressed his forearm over his eyes, swallowing around the tightness in his throat. He found himself wishing he couldn’t hear it, even as he strained for every trace of the moment.

After cleaning himself off with tissues, he turned onto his side, body heavy and warm, and pulled the blankets up over his body. He exhaled slowly and let his eyes close, though sleep felt impossibly far away.

If there was one thing Nicholas had mastered, it was pretending.

He’d been doing it for years - long before Euijoo ever met Kei, long before things got as tangled and tender and complicated as they were now. He knew how to keep his voice level, how to smile without letting anything slip, how to tuck his feelings neatly behind jokes and busy schedules and casual affection that never crossed the line he desperately wanted to cross.

He was good at pretending he wasn’t pathetically in love with his best friend.

Good at acting like Euijoo’s laugh didn’t hit him somewhere deep in the chest, like the way Euijoo curled into him on the sofa didn’t make his whole body soften, like the scent of Euijoo’s hair after a shower didn’t make his throat tighten with a longing he never dared name.

He was good at pretending he wasn’t quietly, stupidly drawn to Kei too.

That part had crept up on him - slowly, insidiously, and inevitable. Kei was too good. He was careful with Euijoo, and worse, he was perceptive in a way that made Nicholas feel stripped bare whenever those dark eyes settled on him. 

Crushing on your best friend’s mate was humiliating enough; crushing on an alpha as self-assured as Kei was a kind of emotional masochism Nicholas tried hard to ignore.

He pretended he wasn’t imagining what it would be like to slide into their relationship as naturally as he slid into their bed in the mornings. Pretended he wasn’t longing to be held by both of them - not just once in a haze of heat or affection, but every day, as part of something real and claimed and mutually understood.

He pretended he didn’t ache for it. Didn’t ache to be looked at the way Kei looked at Euijoo.  Didn’t ache to be touched with that same gentleness, that same intensity.  Didn’t ache to be wanted out loud and without hesitation.

He was good at pretending all of that.

Especially now, lying alone in a spare bedroom with his thighs still damp from slick and the taste of orgasm still shaking through his body, listening to the faint, soft hum of Euijoo and Kei settling down after the kind of connection Nicholas pretended not to crave.

Being pathetic in love was one thing. Being lonely while pretending not to be was another.

And Nicholas had become an expert at both.

Euijoo’s heats had always run like clockwork. Nicholas could have marked them on a calendar without ever asking - two days long, never early, never late. 

Euijoo used to joke that his body was more punctual than public transit. So of course Kei thought it was perfectly safe to leave town for a night.

He'd been chosen as chaperone for the younger kids recital at his dance studio. It was being held in a town a few hours away, and he’d promised Euijoo he’d be back before the heat window even began.

His mate had waved him off with a kiss and a chirp, assuring him everything was fine.

So when his phone buzzed near noon that same day, he didn’t expect it to be Euijoo.

“Nicholas?”

Immediately, Nicholas sat up in bed. “Juju? What’s wrong?”

There was a soft, shaky exhale on the other end of the line. “I think my heat’s starting.”

“It’s not supposed to be for another three days.”

“I know.” Euijoo’s voice cracked, thin with nerves. “But I - I’m hot. And my stomach hurts. And my scent won’t stay down no matter what I do. I tried calling Yudai but the service out there is terrible and - ” Another little whimper of frustration. “I don’t know what to do.”

Nicholas was already out of bed, pulling on sweats with one hand while keeping the phone pressed to his ear. 

“Are you okay otherwise?” he asked.

“No fever yet and my cramps are manageable.”

“Okay, good. I’m coming over.”

Euijoo breathed out like he’d been holding his lungs tight the whole time. “I didn’t want to bother you - ”

“You’re not bothering me.” Nicholas grabbed his keys and wallet too. “You call me anytime. Especially for this.”

A small, quiet sniffle came through the receiver. 

“It’s just… early,” Euijoo whispered. “I don’t know why. And I don’t want to be alone.”

“You’re not alone,” Nicholas said firmly, shutting his door behind him. “I’m on my way.”

He didn’t have to think about the route; his feet knew it by memory. The high sun painted long shadows across the pavement as he set a brisk walk. 

Euijoo's apartment wasn't far and Nicholas knew he could make it there in under 15 minutes if he kept his pace fast. 

He made a quick stop by the corner shop without thinking, grabbing the usual things - electrolyte drinks, granola bars, fruit gummies, a couple of pre-made sandwiches since Euijoo always forgot to eat during the early surge. 

By the time he stepped into the apartment code, he was already a little out of breath. The smell of honey and peonies was thick in the apartment, giving the signal that Euijoo was starting to get into the thick of it. 

Nicholas kicked off his shoes, set the bag of snacks down on the counter, and moved straight toward the bedroom. He pushed the door gently, and it creaked just enough for Euijoo to turn his head.

The younger omega lay curled in the centre of a half-built nest - blankets everywhere, pillows shoved into a loose circle, sheets rumpled like he’d tried to settle and couldn’t. His hair stuck to his forehead, cheeks flushed deep pink, and his scent was sharp with anxiety, sweetness muddled by pain. The second he saw Nicholas in the doorway, his face crumpled.

“Nichol…” His voice cracked on the second syllable, and he pushed himself upright with trembling hands. “You came - ”

Nicholas crossed the room in seconds.

“Hey, hey,” he murmured, sitting on the edge of the nest and reaching for him. “I’m here.”

Euijoo crawled straight into his lap, burying his face against the older omega’s shoulder. His body shook with the strain of holding himself together - too early for instinct to take over fully, too late for calm conversation.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Euijoo whispered, voice wobbling. “It hurts and Hyung’s not here and I got scared - ”

“I know,” Nicholas said quietly, smoothing his palm along Euijoo’s back. “You did the right thing calling me.”

The younger sniffed, a tiny sound that stabbed Nicholas square in the chest. “I didn’t want to be alone.”

“You’re not.” He tightened his arms around him, steady and certain. “I’ve got you.”

Euijoo sagged against him, breathing unevenly. The scent of his heat - sweet, warm, rising fast - threaded into Nicholas’s senses, tugging at something deep and instinctive. His own body reacted, a faint flicker of heat low in his belly, but he tamped it down. This wasn’t about him. It never was, not at first.

For a while, the room held a fragile kind of quiet with soft breaths, warm bodies pressed together, the comforting weight of Nicholas’s arms wrapped around Euijoo as he tried to keep him calm before the worst hit. 

The younger omegas fingers stayed knotted in his shirt, clutching tight like letting go would make everything worse. So, Nicholas kept his cheek against Juju’s hair, rubbing slow circles down his spine, letting his own scent soften the air.

But then another wave hit and Euijoo’s breath hitched in a thin, broken gasp as he pressed his forehead into Nicholas’s collarbone as though the pressure might stop the pain.

“Nicholas , it hurts.”

“I know.” Nicholas smoothed his hand lower on his back, fingers steady even as worry spiked through him. “Just breathe.”

As they got older, Euijoo’s heats didn’t mellow the way some omegas’ did. They sharpened instead, deepened, became heavier and more consuming. What used to be something Nicholas could soothe with steady touch and a good, grounding fuck gradually shifted into something his body wasn’t designed to answer.

Back in university, when everything was simpler, his heats had been manageable. Euijoo would curl into Nicholas’s nest with trembling thighs and that soft, pleading look, and Nicholas could slip inside him, hold his hips, and fuck him slow or deep or frantic - whatever the younger needed. It worked to settle the storm in his belly.

But as the years went on, Euijoo started needing more. More pressure. More fullness. More intensity than any omega could give. He started needing knots. And that changed everything.

Nicholas had done what he could back then - hands, mouth, toys, anything that kept Euijoo from collapsing under the pain of those waves. But even at his most desperate, Euijoo always came down easier when a knot was involved. It broke the heat’s waves and pulled him through the worst of it.

“Do you still have any of your knotting toys? The ones from our old apartment?” Nicholas brushed Euijoo’s damp hair off his forehead. 

Euijoo blinked up at him, pupils blown wide, lips trembling. He shook his head weakly. “No… I threw them out.”

Nicholas’s stomach sank. “Why would you - ”

“Didn’t think I needed them anymore,” the younger omega mumbled, voice watery and thin. “Hyung’s always here… he always knots me… I didn’t think - ” His breath hitched sharply as another wave crashed through him, making him double over against Nicholas’s chest. “I didn’t think I’d ever need them again.”

Nicholas held him through the tremor, rubbing slow, grounding circles across his lower back. 

“And there’s no response from Kei?” 

Euijoo shook his head against Nicholas’s shoulder, breath warm and shaky against his skin. “No… nothing. I tried calling, texting… it’s all going straight to voicemail.” His voice wavered. “Even if he gets the message soon, it’ll be hours before he can get back.”

Nicholas exhaled slowly. “Alright. Then I’m here until he does.”

That reassurance must’ve landed hard because Euijoo’s whole body relaxed for one brief second before another wave tightened through him, and he let out a soft, breathless whimper as he nuzzled deeper into Nicholas’s neck. His scent thickened again, warmer, sweeter, curling around Nicholas’s senses like a hand closing around his throat.

Then, suddenly, Euijoo threw one leg over the older omega’s hip, pulling himself fully into Nicholas’s lap to grind down against him in a desperate slide.

“Euijoo…” Nicholas murmured, breath hitching as the younger omega pressed in closer, heat radiating off him in a way that made the hairs at the back of Nicholas’s neck stand on end.

Euijoo tried to answer but only managed a low, needy sound as he rocked once more, his thigh sliding over the fabric of Nicholas’s sweats. His face was buried in Nicholas’s neck now, mouth open against his skin, breath trembling. Each soft grind dragged a needy, involuntary whimper from him, like he couldn’t stop his body from searching for friction or relief.

“I c-can’t get comfortable,” he whispered, voice frayed and thin. He clung tighter, fingers digging into Nicholas’s hip. 

“Juju,” Nicholas murmured, brushing a hand down his spine, trying to soothe him through instinct alone. “You’re winding too tight. You need to let some of this out.”

Nicholas tightened his grip on Euijoo’s waist, steadying him through another trembling roll of his hips. The younger omega’s breath hitched against his throat, warm and frantic, and Nicholas felt the moment instinct finally overpowered fear.

Euijoo was shaking, scent spilling uncontrolled, body pressing into him like he couldn’t bear even a millimetre of distance. The younger omega whimpered and tried to hide his face again, embarrassed even through the haze.

Euijoo shook his head helplessly, fingers twisting in Nicholas’s shirt. “I - I can’t - Kei’s not here, I should wait, I -”

Another wave hit him mid-sentence; his hips jerked involuntarily, grinding down against Nicholas’s thigh without his permission. He let out a broken moan, ashamed and desperate at once.

“Hey,” Nicholas murmured, voice low and steady, guiding Juju back into a slow rhythm so he didn’t hurt himself. “Look at me.”

Euijoo lifted his head, just barely. His eyes were glazed, pupils blown wide, tears gathered at the corners from the pain and pressure. His bottom lip trembled as he swallowed hard.

“Juju,” he said softly, firmly. “You won’t make it if you try to hold it in. You know that. I’m here. Let me help you.”

Euijoo whimpered, forehead pressed to Nicholas’s sternum.

“But Nichol, I don’t want to take advantage -”

“You’re not,” Nicholas cut in, cupping the back of his head and pulling him closer. “You’re hurting. And we’ve done this before. There’s nothing wrong with needing me.”

Euijoo trembled at the reassurance, breath coming quicker, his scent turning molten and thick with need. That was all the confirmation Nicholas needed.

“Come here,” Nicholas coaxed, guiding Euijoo’s hips with careful, steady hands.

Euijoo obeyed at once - instinct overriding fear - swinging one shaking leg over Nicholas’s thigh and settling into his lap. The moment their bodies aligned, Euijoo gasped, back arching, slick already dampening the fabric between them.

“That’s it,” Nicholas whispered, sliding his hands to Euijoo’s hips. “Use me. Take what you need.”

Euijoo made a high, pleading sound and rocked down. The friction dragged a shiver up his spine, and he repeated the motion, grinding again, this time harder, as though the pressure itself soothed the ache deep inside him.

His face crumpled, pleasure and pain blurring at the seams. His scent flared again, sweet and frantic, and Nicholas felt the damp heat soaking through his sweats as Euijoo rocked down with growing urgency.

Euijoo’s body shifted into pure instinct, hips rolling down in messy, unsteady circles that dragged sharp bolts of pleasure and pain through him. His cock was straining desperately against the front of his shorts and each grind pushed that swollen length against Nicholas’s lap. The friction was rough, the angle a little wrong, but Euijoo didn’t seem to notice or care. His need had swallowed everything else.

Nicholas definitely felt it, though.

The drag of Euijoo’s cock against his own was enough to make him grit his teeth, the fabric of his sweats catching painfully along his sensitive skin. His own cock was just as hard and leaking steadily into his boxers but he didn’t breathe a word of complaint.

He held still beneath Euijoo, hands steady on the younger omega’s hips, guiding the rhythm but not pushing for more. The point right now was to help him ride the surge, not to chase his own relief.

Euijoo’s whimpers grew thinner, more desperate, his thighs trembling on either side of Nicholas’s hips as he ground down again and again. Each movement smeared more slick through the fabric of his shorts until dark patches spread across the front, then down the inseams, warm and damp where their bodies met.

Nicholas swallowed a groan of his own, thighs tensing beneath the weight of Euijoo’s rocking body. The heat of him, the scent of him, the overwhelming need radiating off every trembling line - it tugged at Nicholas’s instincts in a way he barely managed to hold back.

Euijoo was a breathtaking mess above him, framed by the soft afternoon light spilling through the half-closed curtains. The sun caught on the sheen of sweat along his collarbones, turning every sharp inhale into a shimmer across his skin.

His hair stuck slightly to his forehead, cheeks flushed a deep rose that made his freckles stand out in warm, uneven constellations. His eyes were squeezed shut, lashes trembling. His mouth hung open, lips parted around every broken moan that tumbled free each time his hips rolled down.

Nicholas could barely breathe for how beautiful he looked.

Euijoo braced his hands on Nicholas’s shoulders, fingers flexing weakly as another wave shook through him. His hips never stopped, grinding in tight, needy circles that dragged sweet agony across Nicholas’s lap.

The wet heat radiating from Euijoo was overwhelming - slick soaking straight through his shorts, through Nicholas’s sweats, warm and sticky where their bodies met.

Nicholas’s own body responded helplessly, his own slick starting to leak even as he tried to stay calm. He tightened his hands around Euijoo’s waist just enough to hold him through the frantic rise and fall of his hips. The muscles under his palms flexed with each movement, Euijoo’s breath catching, chest arching forward like he couldn’t bear to hold himself still for even a second.

“God, Juju…” Nicholas’s voice came out rougher than he expected. “You look so good…”

Euijoo’s thighs trembled at the praise, the motion becoming shaky, more desperate. He let out a cracked moan, head tipping back just enough for the sunlight to catch his throat - long, elegant, pulsing with the rapid beat of his heart.

“Nichol, please - oh fuck - I’m getting close,” His voice cracked, high and pleading.

“I know,” Nicholas murmured, sliding one hand from Euijoo’s waist to the waistband of his shorts, “Let me help.”

He hooked his fingers into the elastic and yanked the shorts down just far enough for Euijoo’s cock to spring free, flushed and dripping. The warm air hit him and Euijoo let out a sound so sweet and desperate Nicholas felt it in his spine.

“There you go,” Nicholas whispered, and wrapped his hand around him.

Euijoo’s whole body arched, a raw moan tearing out of his open mouth as Nicholas stroked him - slow at first, then firmer when Euijoo bucked helplessly into his palm. Slick and precome smeared through Nicholas’s fingers instantly, warm and sticky, making every stroke glide too easily.

Nicholas kept his other hand steady at Euijoo’s waist as the younger omega rocked down into his lap, hips stuttering as he chased the pressure, breath breaking into sharp, helpless whimpers.

“Good boy,” Nicholas murmured, barely recognising his own voice. “Let it out. You need this.”

He only had to stroke him a few times before Euijoo’s entire body tensed, thighs shaking as a sharp gasp cut through his breath. Nicholas felt the moment the wave hit him, felt Euijoo’s cock pulse violently in his grip.

“Oh!” Euijoo choked out.

And then he came, spurting hot across Nicholas’s hand, splattering up his bare chest and across the soft cotton of the borrowed shirt. His body curled in on itself as the pleasure ripped through him, shaking apart in the older omega’s lap, clinging to him like he was the only thing anchoring him through the surge.

Euijoo eventually slumped forward against him, panting, trembling, cum cooling on Nicholas’s skin in messy streaks. His scent settled just a little - still heavy with heat, but calmer, relieved.

Nicholas pressed his cheek to Euijoo’s damp hair, breathing him in.

“Good job,” he whispered softly. “Just rest now. okay?”

Nicholas eased Euijoo onto his side, careful not to jostle him too much. The younger omega made a soft sound but he let Nicholas move him, pliant and boneless after the release.

Nicholas sat up just enough to peel his shirt over his head. It came away wet and heavy in patches, sticking to his shoulders before he managed to tug it free. He bunched it in one hand, ready to toss it blindly toward the laundry basket or the floor or anywhere it could land out of the way. But before he could throw it, Euijoo reached out with sudden, startling speed. His fingers latched onto the fabric, snatching it straight out of Nicholas’s grip.

“Juju?” Nicholas blinked.

Euijoo didn’t answer with words, he just tucked the shirt straight into the nest, dragging it close to where his pillow sat. Only then did he flop back down, cheek landing on the blankets with a soft thunk.

But Euijoo didn’t stay still for long. After only a few breaths of quiet, he sat up just enough to grab at his own clothes, tugging his damp shirt over his head with clumsy hands, then wriggling out of his shorts and underwear with all the grace of someone half feral. He whined softly, as though the clothes themselves were the thing tormenting him.

Nicholas bit back a smile as Euijoo tossed the entire bundle - shirt, shorts, underwear - toward the edge of the nest without looking. They landed in a messy heap on the floor, forgotten the moment they left his hands. Euijoo made a small frustrated noise, kicked the blankets around until he carved out a warm pocket, and then burrowed under the covers completely naked, curling into the heat like it was oxygen.

He reached out blindly, fingers searching until they brushed Nicholas’s bare stomach, tapping insistently. Nicholas sighed, fond and helpless, and lifted the covers to slide in beside him. Euijoo wriggled closer the moment the older omega lay down, pressing every warm inch of his naked body against Nicholas’s side like he was trying to fuse their skin together.

He looped an arm over Nicholas’s waist, tucked his face into the curve of the older’s throat, and let out a deep, satisfied exhale that vibrated softly against his skin. Nicholas draped an arm around him, pulling him even closer, feeling the younger omega’s thigh slide over his hip with familiar ease.

“There,” Nicholas murmured, brushing his fingers through Euijoo’s hair. “Better?”

Euijoo hummed - a soft, content, utterly vulnerable sound - and snuggled tighter under the blankets.

Nicholas closed his eyes, breathing in Euijoo’s scent and trying to ignore the slow throb between his legs. His cock was still half-hard - more than half, if he was honest - and every small shift of Euijoo’s warm, bare body against him made it twitch with helpless interest. The heat rolling off the younger omega was potent now, rich enough to sit heavy in Nicholas’s lungs, tightening something instinctive and old in his stomach.

But he didn’t even think about stroking himself off. He couldn’t afford to. If Euijoo needed him later, like, really needed him, then Nicholas would have to last. He’d have to have enough control left to fuck him properly. Touching himself now would be nothing but a waste of strength.

So he lay still, breathing slowly through the ache, focusing on the soft weight of Euijoo’s thigh draped over his hip and the little huffs of warm breath against his collarbone. Every inhale brushed along Nicholas’s skin, feather-light and sweet, the scent of honey and fresh petals growing thicker as Euijoo slipped deeper into that semi-dreamy heat haze.

It must’ve been an hour or two later when Nicholas felt vibration against his ribs. He blinked awake, groggy and disoriented for a moment, until he realised Euijoo’s phone had slipped halfway under him sometime during their nap. It buzzed again, louder this time. 

Euijoo shifted with a faint whimper, his face scrunching as if the noise was poking at the edge of his sleep. So Nicholas grabbed the phone quickly, thumb swiping to answer before the vibration could start again.

“Hello?” he whispered, voice still thick with sleep.

There was a rush of breath on the other end, followed by Kei’s familiar voice laced with relief.

“Nicholas. Thank God. I was getting worried.”

“He called me earlier,” Nicholas murmured. “Said his heat was starting so I came over right away. He’s sleeping right now.”

Kei let out a long exhale, like he’d been holding it for hours. “Good. He’ll sleep better when you’re there.”

Nicholas hesitated before speaking again. “He said he called you a few times.”

“I know, I didn’t hear it. My phone was in my bag backstage. I should’ve checked sooner.” Kei murmured. “How are his cramps? Did he get a fever? He said earlier it felt like it was starting too fast.”

Nicholas glanced down at Euijoo again. His hair was damp at the temples, cheeks flushed with heat, limbs twined limply around Nicholas like he couldn’t bear any distance. 

“He, um…” the older omega hesitated, his voice dipping as he adjusted his hold on the phone. “He was cramping a lot at first. And his temperature spiked pretty quickly.”

“Did he manage to settle at all?”

Nicholas licked his lips, debating how to phrase it without sounding guilty. His heart thudded a little too hard, because even if he knew he’d done the right thing, saying it out loud felt like crossing some invisible line.

“He needed… relief,” Nicholas finally whispered. “So I helped him get off once. It calmed him down enough that he fell asleep.”

He braced for even the faintest hint of discomfort or jealousy but Kei’s reaction was immediate and completely opposite.

“Good,” the alpha said with absolute sincerity. “That’s exactly what he needed.”

Nicholas blinked, tension bleeding out of his shoulders. 

“I thought you might -”

“No,” Kei cut in gently. “Nicholas, I asked how he was doing because I know you know how to take care of him. If you hadn’t helped him finish, he’d be in agony right now. I’m relieved you didn’t hesitate.”

“I just… didn’t want to overstep,” Nicholas murmured, his cheeks feeling warm.

“You didn’t,” Kei said simply. “You helped him. That’s what matters. That’s all I want.”

Nicholas looked down at Euijoo tucked into his side, breathing softly against his ribs, and felt Kei’s words settle into him.

The alpha then sighed softly on the other end of the line, the sound edged with frustration.

“It’s still going to be a few hours before I can get back,” he admitted. “One more troupe has to perform, and I can’t exactly abandon a bunch of ten-year-olds mid-recital. Their parents would skin me alive.”

Nicholas huffed a quiet breath that was almost a laugh, though his chest still felt tight. “Right. Of course.”

“But,” Kei continued, “I’ll be home as soon as it’s done. I’ll drive straight back.”

Nicholas nodded even though he knew Kei couldn’t see him. He looked down at Euijoo again. The omega was clinging to him without waking, fingers curled into the skin at Nicholas’s stomach, nails barely grazing him each time he shifted. There was no mistaking how deeply Euijoo was leaning on him already.

“Until I get home,” Kei said, gentle but unshakeably firm, “I’m entrusting my mate to you. Fully.”

Nicholas’s throat tightened. “Hyung… I don’t know if I’m -”

“Yes, you are,” Kei interrupted, no hesitation at all. “You’ve handled his heats longer than I’ve even known him.”

Nicholas swallowed. “That doesn’t mean I should be the one -”

“Actually,” Kei said, “it means you’re the best person for it. No one else knows how to help him through the worst parts like you do. Not even me.”

Nicholas’s breath caught at that.

“I trust you. And Euijoo trusts you. There isn’t anyone more capable of taking care of him than you.”

Nicholas felt his resolve waver, warmth creeping under his skin where Kei’s confidence settled like a hand on his shoulder.

“Nicholas, if you need to actually hear me say it, then listen carefully.” the alpha said. “I give you permission, full permission. Whatever Euijoo needs, whatever his body asks for, you do it. If he needs to be fucked, you fuck him. If he needs you to hold him down during a surge, you hold him. If he needs you inside him to ease the cramps, you give him that.”

Nicholas closed his eyes, heat pooling low in his stomach. It was one thing to imply it. It was another to hear Kei say it outright, without jealousy, without hesitation, like this was simply what needed to happen.

“Kei…”

“I can’t give him a knot from three hours away. You can give him relief right now.”

Nicholas looked down again. Euijoo had shifted in his sleep, nose brushing Nicholas’s ribs, breathing deep and soft. His thigh was hooked over Nicholas’s hip. His scent clung to every square inch of the blankets.

Nicholas felt something deep inside him give way - an overwhelming swell of loyalty and longing and the heavy, terrifying privilege of being chosen for this. He brushed a strand of hair from Euijoo’s forehead.

“Alright,” he whispered. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Good,” Kei murmured. “Then take care of my omega. I’ll be home soon.”

Nicholas ended the call quietly, heart pounding as he lowered the phone to the mattress beside them.

When Euijoo woke up sometime later, his limbs stretched slowly like a cat unfurling from its nap. His eyes blinked open a moment later, hazy and glassy, pupils blown wider than they’d been earlier.

“Nichol?” he murmured, voice soft and rough around the edges.

Nicholas brushed a thumb gently along Euijoo’s cheek. “Hey. You fell asleep for a bit.”

Euijoo hummed and nuzzled into the touch, but then the faint crease between his brows returned. “Hyung…? Did he call?”

“He did,” Nicholas said. “He’s still a few hours out. One more group of kids has to perform before he can leave.”

Euijoo nodded slowly, though Nicholas could tell he wasn’t absorbing half of that. The older omega returns to scrolling through videos on his phone, Euijoo sleepily watching until the heat under his skin once again became too much. His hips began rocking against Nicholas’s leg, his cock already hard and leaking onto Nicholas’s thigh.

Nicholas inhaled and slid away, shifting down to settle between the younger omega’s knees. Euijoo spread them without needing to be asked, his whole body open and trembling with the need to be touched. The sight of him flushed, needy, and thighs parted like he was offering himself up was enough to make Nicholas’s own cock ache painfully.

The older omega leaned in, placing a slow kiss to the inside of Euijoo’s knee before dragging his lips down the length of his thigh. His mouth traced a line of warm, soft bites along the supple muscle, savouring each small gasp he could pull from the omega as he worked his way lower.

By the time his lips reached Euijoo’s pelvis, the younger omega was shaking. His hips kept lifting off the bed, as though his body were begging for more contact. Nicholas let his lips hover just above the flushed tip first, close enough that Euijoo could feel his breath but not close enough to satisfy anything. The younger omega whined and Nicholas gave in only a little, dragging the softest lick across the leaking slit.

Euijoo’s entire body jolted. Another lick followed, slow and teasing, tongue tracing just beneath the crown. Euijoo tried to lift his hips for more, but Nicholas pressed a steady hand to his pelvis, holding him down with just enough pressure to keep him from squirming out of control.

“Nic - Nicho -” Euijoo gasped, voice breaking on the last syllable.

Nicholas hummed in response, the vibration shooting straight up Euijoo’s spine. He gave one more teasing lick, then closed his mouth around the head properly, sucking just hard enough to make Euijoo choke on a moan.

The younger omega’s hips bucked violently, his cock slid deep into Nicholas’s throat, the warm suction pulling another helpless sob from him. Slick gushed from him at the same time, dripping onto the blankets.

Nicholas let Euijoo’s cock slide from his throat to his lips, keeping a tight seal around him as he moved. He sucked slowly at first, drawing the younger omega back into his mouth inch by inch, letting his tongue drag along the underside in a long, deliberate stroke. Euijoo keened at the sensation, fingers trembling where they tangled in Nicholas’s hair.

The older omega swallowed him down again, cheeks hollowing, throat relaxing to take him deeper. His hands slid up to Euijoo’s hips, thumbs pressing into warm skin as Euijoo began trying to fuck his mouth. Nicholas loosened his grip just enough.

“Go on,” he murmured around him, voice muffled but permissive.

Euijoo whimpered like he’d been waiting for that. His hips rolled forward, shallow at first, the head of his cock brushing the back of Nicholas’s tongue. The older omega’s mouth stayed open and warm, throat ready, tongue slick and soft beneath every thrust.

Soon the movements grew more desperate and Euijoo’s hips snapped forward with a broken moan, pushing himself deeper into Nicholas’s mouth, fucking into the heat and suction like he’d lost any ability to hold back. 

“Oh god, feels so good - so good,” he gasped, voice cracking into high, breathless cries. 

Nicholas hummed deeply around him, letting the vibration run through Euijoo’s cock. Euijoo nearly folded in half from the sensation, hands clenching in Nicholas’s hair as he fucked into his mouth with helpless, needy urgency.

The older omega let his hands slide up and down Euijoo’s thighs, kneading gently at the tense muscles there. Euijoo’s skin was hot under his touch - fever-warm and slick with sweat, smelling so intensely of heat that Nicholas felt light-headed from breathing him in.

“N - Nicholas, ” Euijoo choked out, the warning barely a whisper. “I’m gonna - ”

Nicholas tightened his grip on Euijoo’s hips, holding him right where he wanted him. He sucked harder, tongue stroking insistently along the underside of his cock as Euijoo gasped. 

The younger omega’s whole body arched off the bed, toes curling, thighs shaking violently as a long, broken moan tore out of him. His hands fisted hard in Nicholas’s hair as hot spurts of release filled Nicholas’s mouth.

Euijoo had always tasted good - like honey, soft and floral, coating Nicholas’s tongue in a way that made his own cock ache painfully. He kept sucking even as Euijoo shuddered through the aftershocks, coaxing every last drop from him, licking gently at the sensitive tip until the younger omega whimpered his name.

When Nicholas finally pulled back, Euijoo was boneless on the blankets, chest heaving, tears shining at the corners of his eyes from the intensity of it. But his cock was still stubbornly hard. His thighs squeezed together, then fell open again like his body couldn’t decide what to do with itself.

“More,” he whined, voice cracking. “Nicholas, I… I need more. I feel empty.”

“I know. I’ve got you.”

Euijoo shuddered at the words, his hips lifting as though trying to offer himself up. Nicholas gave the younger’s cock one slow, lingering lick from base to head - tasting the last traces of honey-sweet cum - before shifting lower. His hands slid under Euijoo’s thighs, lifting and spreading them so the younger omega was utterly exposed to him.

Nicholas kissed the soft skin where thigh met pelvis, then dipped his head further, mouthing at Euijoo’s balls. He took one into his mouth, rolling it gently over his tongue, sucking just enough to make the omega sob and clutch at the blankets.

“Don’t tease,” Euijoo whined. 

Nicholas soothed him with a low hum against his skin, then let his tongue trail lower until it swept right across Euijoo’s hole.

Euijoo cried out, high and broken, his whole body arching off the bed as if the touch had ignited him from the inside. Slick spilling out in a warm gush that coated Nicholas’s tongue.

“Oh, oh god, ” he babbled, voice dissolving into raw need. “More please -”

Nicholas anchored his hands on Euijoo’s hips and licked again. His tongue pressed flat against the wet hole before sliding in tight circles around it, gathering every trace of slick he could reach. The taste was intoxicating, rich and sweet in a way that made his own cock throb painfully.

He pushed his tongue inside, fucking Euijoo with slow thrusts at first, then deeper ones, searching for every sensitive point he remembered from years of helping him through nights like this.

Euijoo sobbed, body shaking violently as Nicholas tongued him open, lapping at the slick leaking from him like it was the most perfect thing he’d ever tasted. He pulled back just enough to suck hard on Euijoo’s hole again, lips tight and wet around him.

By the time he pulled back for air, Euijoo was trembling uncontrollably, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, cock hard again and leaking onto his stomach. Nicholas wiped his mouth against the back of his hand, but it did nothing to clear the taste of Euijoo from his tongue. Slick and heat and sweetness lingered there, humming through him like a drug. 

Nicholas dragged his fingertips through the slick gathered between Euijoo’s cheeks, coating them generously, before circling one thick finger around the twitching rim. Euijoo gasped at the contact.

“Nicholas,” he whimpered, toes curling. 

“I’m right here,” Nicholas soothed.

And then he pressed in. The younger omega’s hole parted around the first finger immediately, sucking him in with a wet, desperate ease. Slick coated Nicholas’s knuckle almost instantly. Euijoo’s cry was high as his hands flew to the blankets, gripping tight.

Nicholas pushed in the rest of the way until his finger was buried to the base, the soft heat of Euijoo’s body clenching around him in rhythmic pulses. He paused there, letting Euijoo get used to the stretch, brushing his thumb soothingly over the omega’s hip.

“Good?” he asked quietly.

Euijoo nodded frantically, hips already rocking down onto the intrusion, trying to fuck himself on just that one thick finger.

“More,” he begged, voice cracking. “Please, Nicholas more, need it so bad -”

Nicholas slid in a second finger with almost no resistance. Euijoo’s slick was everywhere now - coating Nicholas’s fingers, dripping onto the blankets, warm enough that Nicholas felt it even on his wrist. 

The third finger slid in with almost shocking ease, Euijoo’s body swallowing him down until all three thick fingers were buried to the base. Euijoo let out a sound that ripped out of him from deep inside.

His thighs were shaking violently, muscles quivering as he writhed on Nicholas’s hand. Nicholas stabilised him, one palm pressed to the inside of Euijoo’s thigh, keeping him open while his other hand worked him open with deep, steady thrusts.

“Breathe, Juju,” Nicholas murmured, his voice shaking in spite of himself. “You’re doing so well for me.”

But Euijoo was far gone. Every thrust of Nicholas’s fingers made his cock twitch, leaking fresh streams of pre-cum down his stomach. His cries were getting louder, pitch climbing, his body almost vibrating from the effort of holding back the orgasm he was seconds away from losing to.

Nicholas leaned down, unable to help himself, and closed his lips around the flushed tip of Euijoo’s cock - just a warm, wet seal around the head that sent a shock through the younger omega so intense he nearly screamed

Euijoo came again with a cut-off cry, back arching hard off the mattress. His thighs clamped around Nicholas’s shoulders for a split second before his muscles gave out completely, trembling uncontrollably. But Euijoo wriggled just a bit too much, and his cock slipped free just as the first spurt hit.

Hot cum splashed across Nicholas’s cheek, then his jaw, another streak landing across his lips. Euijoo sobbed through the pleasure, body shaking violently as Nicholas kept his fingers deep inside him, easing him through the climax while cum pulsed out in warm ribbons.

Euijoo lay there shaking, breath catching in shallow, broken little gasps as the last pulses of his orgasm faded. His eyes fluttered open, glassy and embarrassed, and the moment he saw Nicholas’s face streaked with his cum, a tiny mortified whine slipped out of him.

“S-sorry,” he whispered, voice thin and trembling. “I - I didn’t mean to mess you up like that…”

Nicholas let out a quiet laugh, still breathless himself. 

“Juju,” he murmured, shaking his head, “don’t apologize.”

Before Euijoo could protest again, Nicholas lifted a hand to his cheek. His fingers were wet with Euijoo’s release, slick and warm across his skin. He dragged them slowly over the lines where the cum had landed, gathering it with deliberate strokes, then brought those fingers straight to his mouth. He sucked them clean slowly, eyes half-lidded as he tasted the sweetness again.

Euijoo’s breath hitched, a helpless sound escaping him. His thighs squeezed together weakly, like his body reacted before he could even think. Nicholas licked the last of it from his knuckles and leaned forward, brushing the back of his hand over Euijoo’s flushed cheek.

“Nothing to apologize for,” he said softly. “I like the way you taste.”

Euijoo let out another shaky exhale, colour blooming deeper across his cheeks. His gaze drifted downward, settling on the obvious bulge straining against the front of Nicholas’s sweatpants. The younger omega pushed himself up onto shaky elbows, reaching with single-minded urgency. 

“I want to help,” he said softly, already tugging at the waistband of Nicholas’s sweats with trembling fingers.

“Wait, you don’t have to -” Nicholas began, but the words dissolved the instant cool air hit his skin.

Euijoo had yanked Nicholas’s sweats and underwear down in one determined pull, freeing his cock. It was flushed and leaking pre-cum in long sticky strings that clung to his stomach. It bobbed slightly with the sudden movement, heavy and desperate, the head an angry shade of red. Euijoo inhaled sharply, his breath catching at the sight.

“Oh,” he whispered, almost reverent. “You’re so hard…”

“Juju -” Nicholas tried again, but it came out strangled as Euijoo’s hand wrapped around his cock immediately.

His grip slid perfectly down the length of him, and Nicholas’s hips jerked up without his permission, a helpless moan punching out of his chest.

“Fuck,” he gasped, eyes squeezing shut. 

Euijoo kept stroking him, messy and eager, his thumb smearing pre-cum over the swollen head before working it down the shaft. His hand was small compared to Nicholas’s cock, and the sight of Euijoo’s delicate fingers trying to wrap around him properly nearly made Nicholas lose his breath.

Nicholas shifted without thinking, instinct tightening his muscles and dragging him forward until he was braced over Euijoo’s chest, knees sinking into the blankets on either side of the younger omega’s ribs.

Euijoo looked small beneath him - flushed, slick-soaked thighs spread wide, hair sticking to his forehead, lips parted around shaky breaths. And Nicholas, panting above him with his cock throbbing in Euijoo’s fist, felt something inside him unravel.

He absolutely knew he wasn’t going to last long like this.

Euijoo’s hand was already working him with desperate heat-slick strokes, wrist flicking just a little on every downward pull, spreading Nicholas’s pre-cum in messy, intoxicating circles. Every time Nicholas’s hips jerked forward, Euijoo made a soft sound in his throat, eyes rolling up to watch him through heavy lashes.

“Juju…” Nicholas breathed, voice cracking as he fought to stay steady. “Fuck, you’re… you’re going to make me cum too fast -”

Euijoo didn’t slow. If anything, his hand tightened, stroking him with more focus, like he wanted to pull Nicholas apart stroke by stroke. His cheeks flushed deeper at the weight of Nicholas’s body hovering over him, the scent of omega-slick and arousal thick in the air between them.

Then the younger omega opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue - pink and slick with saliva - in a wordless plea.

Nicholas’s whole body jolted, a shudder running down his spine so strong he nearly toppled forward onto his hands. He grabbed the headboard behind Euijoo to steady himself, muscles trembling, cock twitching violently in Euijoo’s slick fist as he hovered just inches above that open mouth. His cock throbbed painfully in Euijoo’s grip, a bead of pre-cum falling right onto that outstretched tongue. Euijoo moaned at the taste.

His cock jerked violently in Euijoo’s hand, a warning pulse he couldn’t hold back even if he tried. Nicholas’s hips thrust forward on instinct, his entire body tightening as the orgasm ripped through him.

Thick, hot spurts of cum shot from the head of his cock in heavy pulses, the first landing directly on Euijoo’s outstretched tongue. Euijoo moaned at the taste, eyes fluttering shut as another thick ribbon spilled across his lips, then his cheek, then his chin.

“Fuck Juju,” Nicholas groaned, sweat beading at his temples as he spilled the last of his orgasm over Euijoo’s waiting mouth.

The younger omega licked his lips, catching the last streak of cum at the corner of his mouth before swallowing deliberately. His cheeks were flushed, eyes still hazy, but the smugness was unmistakable when he let his head fall back against the pillows.

“Mmm…” he murmured, voice warm and lazy. “You still taste like icing sugar.”

Nicholas let out a short, breathless laugh and rolled his eyes as he slid off Euijoo’s chest, collapsing onto the mattress beside him. “You’ve been saying that since university,” he muttered, dragging a shaky hand through his hair.

Euijoo scooted closer, still glowing with the aftershock of both orgasms, still buzzing with heat in every line of his body. “Because it’s true,” he said, nudging Nicholas’s shoulder with a satisfied hum. “Sweetest omega I’ve ever tasted.”

Nicholas snorted. “You only say that because my scent used to make the library hungry.”

Euijoo grinned, pressing his nose briefly to Nicholas’s cheek. “Everyone thought you were smuggling pastries in your bag.”

“And you,” Nicholas reminded him, “used to complain every time we studied together that I made you crave shortcake.”

“Still do,” Euijoo whispered, teeth grazing Nicholas’s jaw in a teasing nip. “Except now I get to taste the source.”

Nicholas huffed a laugh and flopped an arm over his eyes, trying to pretend he wasn’t already responsive again. “You’re impossible.”

“I’m in heat. You don’t get to complain.”

Nicholas let his arm slide away so he could look at him properly - flushed skin, dilated pupils, slick drying on his thighs, contented smile softening his whole face.

He sighed, defeated and fond. “Yeah. I know.”

And Euijoo burrowed even closer, his scent blooming warm and sweet between them, ready for whatever came next.

Nicholas must have drifted off harder than he realized, because the room was dimmer when he surfaced again, the movie playing quietly in the background. For a moment he didn’t understand why he’d woken until a wet, warm pull around his cock registered properly.

He blinked down, vision clearing just in time to see Euijoo between his legs, cheeks flushed, lips stretched beautifully around his half-hard cock. The younger omega was sucking him with slow, needy determination, slick fingers curled around the base to steady himself. Every few seconds, a soft whimper rumbled from his throat, vibrating around Nicholas in a way that made his spine arch off the mattress.

“Juju…?” Nicholas’s voice was rough, sleep-thick and strained as he blinked the haze from his eyes. 

Euijoo’s eyes when they flicked upward were glassy, pupils blown wide, heat-drunk and unfocused. He pulled off with a wet gasp, a string of saliva clinging to Nicholas’s cock before dripping onto his thigh. 

“Come here,” Nicholas said.

Euijoo swayed a little when he crawled forward without thinking, practically collapsing against Nicholas’s chest. His eyes drooped, his head lolled slightly against the older omega's shoulder, slipping so far into his wave Nicholas could feel it humming under his skin.

Euijoo’s breath ghosted hot against Nicholas’s throat as he shifted in his lap, thighs trembling, slick already smearing across Nicholas’s skin. His voice came out low and hazy, thick with the kind of need that left no room for modesty.

“I really need you to fuck me,” Euijoo whined, lips brushing Nicholas’s jaw as he spoke.

The words hit Nicholas like a physical thing. His breath stuttered, his hands tightening instinctively on Euijoo’s hips as he pulled back enough to see his face. Euijoo looked wrecked already - sweaty, flushed, pupils blown wide, his whole body leaning into Nicholas like gravity no longer applied anywhere else.

The older omega’s cock was perfectly normal sized thankyouverymuch, but he was still just an omega at the end of the day and that meant he was lacking everything an alpha had. 

“Even though I don’t have a knot?”

“I don’t care,” the younger omega said, the confession tumbling out in a rush. “Your cock is perfect. I want you. Please, Nicholas. I want you to fuck me.”

The compliment rolled through Nicholas like a spark in dry tinder. His cock throbbed against Euijoo’s slicked entrance, and the younger omega gasped, whole body tightening as if the faint pressure alone lit him up from the inside.

Nicholas exhaled shakily, his hand sliding down to squeeze the swell of Euijoo’s hip.

“Alright,” he murmured, voice dropping low as instinct settled heavy and certain in his bones. “If you want me to fuck you, Juju… I’m going to fuck you.”

Nicholas guided him back onto the blankets with steady hands, lowering the younger omega’s trembling body beneath his own. Euijoo’s legs wrapped around him immediately, instinct pulling him close, slick dripping warm and constant between them.

“I’ll fuck you so good,” Nicholas whispered against his ear, teeth grazing the curve of it just enough to make Euijoo arch. “I’ll give you exactly what your body’s begging for.”

Euijoo moaned at that, already utterly undone.

Nicholas lined himself up, positioning the head of his cock at Euijoo’s slick, swollen entrance. The younger omega’s hole fluttered hard, clenching around nothing, aching and ready. And then he pushed in, Nicholas had to squeeze his eyes shut the moment Euijoo’s body clenched around him.

The heat was intense - slick and tight and molten, gripping him in rhythmic pulses that made his breath stumble in his throat. It had been a long time since he’d topped anyone, let alone during a heat this strong, and the sudden, engulfing pressure dragged a curse out of him.

“Fuck…” he muttered under his breath, jaw going tight as he forced himself to breathe through the sensation instead of thrusting blindly the way his instincts were urging. “Juju - god, you’re… you’re so tight.”

Euijoo only whimpered, the sound thin and broken, his thighs tightening around Nicholas’s hips as if his body feared he’d pull away. His hole fluttered around Nicholas’s cock, clenching greedily, slick squeezing out around the base in warm, messy leaks.

Nicholas gripped the sheets beside Euijoo’s head, knuckles whitening as he rode through the first wave of overwhelming sensation. Thank god he’d come earlier - anything pent up would’ve detonated the moment he pushed in. As it was, he could just keep a grip on himself, the afterglow buffering him enough to stay present.

When he opened his eyes again, Euijoo was already gone. The younger omega lay beneath him flushed to his ears, pupils blown impossibly wide, lips parted in dazed, helpless little gasps. His head tilted back reflexively, exposing the line of his throat, the sweat-damp skin at his collarbone catching the low light. His entire expression was wrecked, blissed right to the edge of tears.

Nicholas braced his palms on either side of Euijoo’s head, drawing in one slow, steady breath before shifting his hips. The movement dragged his cock along the younger omega’s swollen walls, and Euijoo’s answering gasp was so needy it punched straight through Nicholas’s remaining restraint. The older omega pulled back and slammed forward, the wet sound of slick and skin filling the room instantly. 

His hips snapped forward again, harder this time, and Euijoo’s hands clawed helplessly at Nicholas’s skin - shoulders, arms, anywhere he could reach. Blunt nails dragged down Nicholas’s biceps, leaving hot, stinging trails in their wake. Every thrust knocked another moan out of him, louder than the last, his voice echoing off the bedroom walls without shame.

“Ah - ah - Nicholas oh my god, f-fuck don’t stop - don’t stop.”

Their foreheads pressed together, sweat collecting at the point where skin met skin. Every breath was shared - each gasp from Euijoo brushing across Nicholas’s lips, each low groan from Nicholas shuddering against Euijoo’s mouth. 

Their movements were frantic and instinctive, bodies sliding together in a slick, overheated rhythm that left no space between them. Nicholas fucked into him with steady, overwhelming force, and Euijoo’s whole frame shook with each thrust, the mattress protesting under them.

Nicholas kept his gaze fixed on Euijoo’s face - the flushed cheeks, the trembling mouth, the way his lashes fluttered like he was trying to hold himself together and failing miserably.

When Euijoo’s eyes finally cracked open, glassy and wet, Nicholas felt something punch through his ribs. Euijoo looked wrecked and desperate in a way that made Nicholas’s heart stumble.

“Ni - Nichol…” Euijoo whimpered, voice cracking, his nails dragging down Nicholas’s back before clinging to his shoulders again. “Kiss… kiss me please. I need - just kiss me - ”

Nicholas’s pace faltered for a second. The request shouldn’t have startled him - they’ve kissed before during heats but that was years ago and Nicholas feared that kissing him now would crack open too many things he had spent those years in between holding shut. 

He must’ve hesitated too long to answer because the younger omega’s face crumpled immediately. Euijoo’s watery eyes blinked up at him, already shining with hurt. His lips trembled, his brows pinched, and a small, devastated sound escaped him. The kind of sound that tore straight into Nicholas’s chest.

Nicholas leaned down instantly, closing the distance and pressing his mouth to Euijoo’s in a deep, urgent kiss before the younger omega could fall apart further.

Euijoo sobbed into it, relief bursting out of him as he wrapped his arms around Nicholas’s neck, pulling him closer, kissing him like his life depended on it. Their mouths moved against each other in messy, hungry, desperate motions, teeth brushing with the intensity.

Nicholas felt all the sweetness, the heat, the years of unspoken emotion sparking like fire under his ribs but he kissed Euijoo harder anyway, drowning in the taste of him, the sound of his whimpers, the heat of his shaking body.

Because fuck the danger and fuck the consequences of his own feelings. Right now, Euijoo needed him and Nicholas would break every rule he’d ever made for himself before he let his best friend feel unwanted in his arms.

Nicholas deepened the kiss without thinking, cupping Euijoo’s flushed cheek in a steady hand as he pressed their mouths together fully. Euijoo always let him take the lead, always. Whether it was a shy exchange of gentle pecks in the dark or a fevered, messy make-out session during heat, Euijoo followed Nicholas’s pace like it was instinct. 

Even now, trembling beneath him, delirious with heat and pleasure, Euijoo tilted his head just enough for Nicholas to angle deeper. His lips parted on a needy sigh, granting Nicholas full access. And Nicholas swept his tongue into Euijoo’s mouth slowly, deliberately, savouring the familiar warmth.

Their tongues brushed softly at first with the kind of slow stroke that sent a shiver down Nicholas’s spine. Euijoo whimpered into the kiss, hands sliding up the back of the older omega’s neck with slow, searching intent, fingertips trembling before they threaded into his hair. His nails grazed Nicholas’s scalp, and the older omega shivered, tilting deeper into the kiss without meaning to. Nicholas’s hips moved in a slower, rolling cadence, matching the flow of their tongues.

One second he was lost in the quiet sounds Euijoo made when Nicholas licked softly into him and the next, something twisted sharply in his stomach. It was too much. Too intimate. His chest tightened painfully, breath catching on something that felt like longing and fear tangled together.

He broke the kiss and pulled back with a sharp inhale, eyes squeezing shut for a second as he tried to gather himself. His cock was still buried deep inside Euijoo’s slick, pulsing heat, but he needed a breath that wasn’t filled with Euijoo’s scent.

Euijoo blinked up at him, dazed and trembling, lips pink and wet, fingers still caught in Nicholas’s hair. He was going to ask for another kiss. Nicholas’s chest squeezed painfully. He couldn’t let that happen again. Not when his brain was already slipping somewhere tender he had no right to be. He was here for Euijoo’s heat, not for the feelings clawing their way up behind it.

So before Euijoo could speak, Nicholas dropped his mouth to his neck, right against that warm, sensitive spot just below the jaw, and licked a long, slow stripe over the thudding pulse there. Euijoo gasped, the sound high and startled, his body shivering beneath Nicholas’s weight.

Nicholas followed the lick with a sharp bite, just enough pressure to make Euijoo’s breath break into a moan, just enough to jolt himself out of the softness threatening to swallow him whole.

Euijoo tipped his head back instantly, throat exposed, offering more without a second thought. His hands slipped from Nicholas’s hair to his shoulders, fingers gripping tight as Nicholas mouthed along the line of his throat - biting, sucking, marking.

Nicholas let his hands slide down Euijoo’s sides, fingers digging into the slick-damp skin of his thighs. Then he grabbed them and pushed them back, folding Euijoo open so he could watch the way his cock was still buried deep inside the younger omega’s wet, swollen heat. Euijoo moaned brokenly at the position, hole clenching around him in desperate pulses.

Nicholas set a fast pace immediately, fucking him with sharp, relentless thrusts that jarred the mattress and made Euijoo’s entire body tremble. The sound of their bodies meeting echoed against the walls, slick splattering beneath them. 

“Yes, yes! Don’t stop please -”

Nicholas locked his arms around Euijoo’s thighs and pinned him down more firmly, breath rough against the younger omega’s cheek. Euijoo clamped down so tightly around his cock Nicholas almost swore aloud.

“Jesus,” he gasped, leaning over him, forehead brushing Euijoo’s cheek. “How the hell does Kei even manage to fit his cock into you? You’re so -” He groaned as the younger omega clenched again, the slick heat pulsing around him like it was reacting to every word. “- so fucking tight, Juju. It must be a struggle every single time.”

The sound Euijoo made was nothing short of obscene. A choked, desperate moan ripped from somewhere deep in his chest, his entire body arching up into Nicholas like he didn’t even realize he’d moved. His hole squeezed so sharply that Nicholas’s breath stuttered, the muscles along his spine tightening.

“Oh, you like that,” Nicholas panted, voice cracking on a laugh he didn’t quite manage. “You like thinking about Hyung trying to stretch you open, don’t you?”

Euijoo whimpered, eyes squeezed shut, throat exposed and trembling. He didn’t say anything - he couldn’t - but the way his body clenched down over and over was answer enough.

Nicholas’s grip tightened on his thighs, holding them wider, pushing him open just a bit more so he could watch every twitch, every flutter. Euijoo moaned helplessly, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes as his body jolted with every thrust.

Nicholas leaned down and captured the younger’s mouth in a deep, hungry kiss once more. Euijoo whimpered into it, lips trembling, hands flying up to clutch at Nicholas’s shoulders as his orgasm slammed into him. 

His cock jerked between their bodies, spurting thickly across his stomach, then Nicholas’s. At the same time another gush of slick spilled around Nicholas’s cock, slicking his thrusts, making every movement loud and soaked and perfect.

“Oh fuck,” Nicholas groaned, the feeling nearly knocking the air from his chest.

Euijoo’s hole clenched around him again, milking every inch of Nicholas that was buried inside him. The older omega felt his own control snap like an overstretched elastic. 

Nicholas groaned and his hips jerked forward, burying himself as far as he could go into Euijoo’s soaked heat. His entire body tightened, breath stalling in his throat as pleasure surged through him.

He came hard as thick, hot spurts of his release spilled deep inside Euijoo, each one met with another trembling clench from the younger omega’s overstimulated hole. Nicholas groaned again, forehead pressing into Euijoo’s shoulder as his cock throbbed and emptied itself in helpless pulses.

His breath stuttered against Euijoo’s skin as he rode out the final waves of his orgasm, body trembling, cock still twitching deep inside the younger omega’s slick-filled heat. Euijoo gasped at the warmth filling him, legs wrapping instinctively around Nicholas’s hips as if trying to pull him impossibly closer.

Their breaths tangled between them, both uneven, both shallow. Nicholas’s chest rose and fell against Euijoo’s as he tried to steady himself, the aftershocks still flickering in his spine. Euijoo’s hands clung weakly to his shoulders, fingers twitching every so often like his body hadn’t decided whether it was done shaking yet.

When Nicholas finally managed to breathe again, he didn’t move right away. He gave soft, almost absent-minded presses of his mouth against Euijoo’s damp neck, the curve of his cheek, the warm stretch of skin just below his ear. 

“You were perfect,” Nicholas murmured against his cheek. “So good for me, Juju. Took me so well.”

A soft whimper answered him, Euijoo’s lips parting on a breathless sigh as the praise sank into him. His body tightened faintly just enough for Nicholas to groan quietly into his skin.

He shifted his hips, carefully sliding out of Euijoo’s overstimulated hole, and the younger omega gasped at the loss but Nicholas soothed him with more kisses, guiding him onto his back. Time slipped strangely after that. Euijoo’s legs were still loosely looped around Nicholas’s waist, their bodies pressed together, their breaths slowly settling into something calmer. 

Their mouths found each other almost accidentally at first. Nicholas leaned in to check on him; Euijoo turned his head at the same moment, and their lips brushed. Then Euijoo made a small noise and Nicholas kissed him properly. 

Euijoo kissed like he needed it to breathe, fingers tangling in Nicholas’s hair again, pulling him closer, urging him deeper. Nicholas groaned into his mouth, the sound swallowed between their lips.

He could feel Euijoo’s poor, still hard cock against his hip so he reached down to wrap his hand around him. Nicholas stroked him in one long, firm pull, and Euijoo moaned straight into his mouth, whole body arching.

The ringtone shattered the rhythm. Both of them jolted as the phone vibrated insistently beside the nest of blankets. Nicholas fumbled blindly for it, his hand still slick from stroking them off, his breath unsteady as he finally caught hold of the device. The screen lit up with a familiar name.

Kei.

Nicholas’s stomach tightened as he answered the video call.

“Hey,” Nicholas said, trying - and failing - to make his voice sound normal.

“How’s he doing?” Kei’s voice came through the line. His face was half-shadowed in the dim interior of his parked car, dashboard lights casting faint blue across his jawline. 

Before Nicholas could answer, Euijoo perked up at the sound, a tiny chirp slipping out of his throat. He reached blindly toward the phone with one shaky hand, pupils blown wide, lips parted and wet.

“Hyung?” Euijoo breathed, voice thick and syrupy. 

“Hey, sweetheart,” Kei murmured, leaning a little closer to the camera. “You doing okay? You holding on?”

Euijoo’s whole body reacted. His pupils blew even wider, if that was possible, and he let out a purring sound. He nuzzled at Nicholas’s chest like he was scenting him, but the moment Kei spoke again, his head lolled toward the phone, lips parted in a dazed smile.

“Hyung,” he breathed, voice slurred with heat. “mmh… miss you…”

“I know, baby.” Kei’s reply wrapped around the two of them like a warm hand on the back of their necks. “I miss you too. You’re doing so well.”

Euijoo purred again, his fingers dragging weakly up Nicholas’s stomach as if reaching for something that wasn’t there. His cock twitched against Nicholas’s, smearing more slick and precome over both their bellies.

“Is he taking good care of you, sweetheart?” Kei asked, even though they all knew the answer. “’Course he is. Anyone would want to take care of you, you’re such a good omega.”

Euijoo melted. His whole expression went soft and dreamy, mouth falling open in a loose smile. Another purr rumbled out of his chest, followed by a string of barely coherent murmurs - Kei’s name, Nicholas’s name, little whines of pleasure that rose and fell like he was drifting between waves.

Nicholas swallowed hard. Hearing Kei talk like that - talk to both of them like that - did something to him he wasn’t ready to admit. 

Kei kept talking in that soft, praising tone, every word dripping affection.

“You’re doing so well for us. Let Nicho keep taking care of you until I’m back.”

Euijoo nodded weakly, like he’d obey anything the alpha said.

Nicholas shifted his grip on the phone, trying to keep Euijoo’s flushed, dazed face in its view. He swallowed, breath still uneven, and cleared his throat enough to talk.

“He’s… he’s doing well,” Nicholas managed, even though his voice was thick with arousal. “He’s had two orgasms already. Maybe three.”

Euijoo whined at Nicholas’s voice, hips giving a faint thrust up into his fist. Nicholas instinctively tightened his hold, stroking slow just to calm him, but Euijoo only moaned louder, purring toward the phone like he wanted the alpha to hear everything.

“When are you coming hooommee…?” he slurred, hips giving a needy little roll that pressed him back onto Nicholas’s cock.

“I’m an hour out maybe, just had to stop for gas.”

“I missed you…” Euijoo mumbled, voice wobbly. “But… Nicho fills me up so good…”

Nicholas nearly dropped the phone at the admission. He didn’t realize what a blabbermouth Euijoo was in his heat.

“I know, baby. He fucks you good, yeah?” the alpha chuckles through the speaker. “He should prove it then.”

“Wait, what?” Nicholas blinks. 

“Euijoo says you’re taking good care of him and I want to see. So, show me.” Kei said, the teasing now unmistakable.

Nicholas swallowed hard, pulse pounding in his throat. “Are you sure?”

“If I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t be asking.” 

Nicholas shifts first, adjusting his grip on the phone and giving Euijoo’s trembling hip a steadying stroke. The younger omega followed the touch like he was being guided, his body pliant and eager in that heat-soft way that made Nicholas’s breath catch.

He let himself be moved, crawling forward onto his hands and knees with a shiver that rolled down his spine. The movement parted his thighs, lifting his hips, his back arching instinctively as he presented.

Nicholas shifted forward on his knees, bracing one hand on the mattress beside Euijoo’s trembling shoulder while angling the phone downward with the other. He took a breath to steady himself - a pointless effort, considering he was already shaking. 

When he finally lowered the camera, Kei’s screen filled with the sight of Euijoo on all fours, thighs parted shakily, back curved in that instinctive, submissive arch that only omegas in deep heat ever showed.

The soft curve of his hips were framed by the low golden light in the bedroom and his hole was the center of the frame - swollen and flushed a deep pink, and glistening with slick that ran in slow trails down the backs of his thighs. Every faint clench made it pulse open and close, as if his body was begging for something to fill it again.

Nicholas felt a wave of heat roll through his torso just looking at him. Kei clearly felt the hit as well; Nicholas could hear his sharp intake of breath through the speaker. 

“Jesus, Juju…” he murmured, voice low enough to vibrate through the speaker. “You’re soaked. Look at you presenting like that. Such a good omega.”

Euijoo let out a helpless whine, head dropping between his shoulders, arms trembling with the effort to stay upright. His back bowed beautifully, hips tilting up even higher as if Kei’s praise alone was pulling him open.

Kei exhaled again, this time shakier and more affected.

“Now hold him open,” he said, the command threaded with heat. “And fuck him.”

Normally, maybe in any sane moment, Nicholas would have hesitated. But the smell of Euijoo’s slick was overwhelming, dizzying, thick enough to suffocate every lingering thread of shyness. It felt like Nicholas’s entire bloodstream hummed with need. So, he followed Kei’s instruction without question.

Nicholas shifted his hips and placed the tip of his cock against Euijoo’s wet entrance. Even the lightest touch made Euijoo gasp, his fingers curling helplessly into the sheets, his thighs trembling as he pushed back instinctively.

The phone's camera perfectly captured how he dragged the head slowly, smearing the glossy wetness further, as his cockhead glided over swollen skin, brushing the rim, tapping lightly where Euijoo was most sensitive. 

Nicholas’s pulse roared in his ears. He lined himself up, rubbing the head of his cock over Euijoo’s entrance one last time, watching the rim squeeze tightly in anticipation. Then he pushed in.

He pushed forward carefully, the head of his cock slipping past the swollen rim with a soft, wet sound. Euijoo gasped, his arms shaking as he sagged deeper into the mattress. His hole stretched beautifully around Nicholas, clutching at him, sucking him in inch by inch as if his body had been waiting for this exact intrusion.

Nicholas groaned under his breath, trying to split his focus between the overwhelming tightness around him and holding the camera steady. 

“Fuck,” he breathed, watching the way Euijoo’s slick glistened around the thick head disappearing into him. He nudged deeper until half his length was inside and Euijoo was trembling from head to toe.

Euijoo whimpered, pushing back just slightly, greedy even in his haze and Kei made a low sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh.

“Good,” he said, voice dark with heat. “Just like that. Let me see all of it.”

Nicholas started slow, drawing out each movement so Kei could watch the entire motion of his cock disappearing into Euijoo’s tight, dripping hole. Each thrust widened Euijoo’s trembling rim before disappearing into the swollen heat again, slick spilling everywhere, coating Nicholas’s thighs, shining under the dim light.

Euijoo moaned with every stroke. He pushed back into Nicholas’s hips without real coordination, just instinct, just hunger, presenting harder each time Nicholas slid in.

“Harder.” the alpha spoke again and Nicholas’s entire body reacted before his mind processed it. A shiver ran down his spine, his cock throbbing inside Euijoo so violently he had to grit his teeth.

Nicholas shifted his knee, spread Euijoo just a little wider, and drove into him with deep, punishing thrusts, fucking him hard enough to make the bed frame slam into the wall with each thrust. Euijoo collapsed onto his elbows, arms giving out entirely, his mouth open in wrecked moans as Nicholas pounded him.

“That’s it… just like that,” Kei murmured. “Look at him take you. Look how perfectly he opens for you, Nicholas.”

The alpha’s voice poured steadily through the speaker - low, warm, and commanding in that effortless alpha way that slid straight under the skin. And Nicholas felt every syllable. Felt it in his spine, in his breath, in the way his hips moved without conscious thought, as if the tone alone tightened something in him that hadn’t been touched in a long time.

Nicholas groaned before he could stop himself, thrust faltering for a moment as heat travelled down his back in a sharp ripple. Kei’s voice was doing something to him - something primal and embarrassingly easy.

It had been years since he’d had an alpha so close, their scent and tone pulling at instincts he ignored most of the time. But Kei wasn’t even in the room and Nicholas’s body was already reacting, pliant and responsive in ways he hadn’t felt since… well, since before university.

“Nicho,” the alpha said, a quiet click of his tongue following the name. “Come on. I know you can fuck him better than that.”

Nicholas’s thrusts faltered just long enough for him to reach forward and set the phone carefully on the bedside table, propping it up against the lamp just enough to secure the angle. The screen filled with both of them and now Kei could see his mate’s flushed face buried in the sheets but still visible, tears clinging to his lashes as he fought to keep his eyes open.

He could also see the way Nicholas’s body hovered over his mate, one hand gripping the younger omega’s hip, the other braced on the mattress, muscles flexing with each deep thrust. Kei inhaled softly through the speaker, clearly pleased by the new view.

“That’s better,” he murmured.

With both hands free, Nicholas grabbed Euijoo’s waist - his narrow, delicate waist that fit perfectly in his palms - and tugged him back in one sure, fluid motion. Euijoo gasped, shoulders trembling as he was yanked backward onto Nicholas’s cock, the movement forcing the older deeper than before.

He slid out a few inches and then pulled Euijoo back hard, their bodies meeting with a wet, loud smack that made Euijoo yelp and arch. Each thrust drove the younger omega forward, only for Nicholas to drag him back onto his cock again, using his waist like a handle and guiding him exactly where he needed him.

He drove into Euijoo harder, faster, the force rocking the younger omega forward on his hands until he was collapsing into the pillows, crying out with every thrust.

“Nichol!” Euijoo gasped, voice breaking. “Oh god, too much, oh -”

“Keep going,” Kei ordered. “He can take it.”

Nicholas obeyed so quickly it startled even him.

His hips snapped forward, thrusting deep and fast, driving Euijoo into the mattress with each movement. The wet clap of slick-filled skin echoed through the room, rhythmic and loud.

Euijoo’s fingers scrabbled for purchase in the blankets, his thighs shaking violently as he was pounded through the next wave. He tried to speak once, but it only came out as a sobbed cry, his voice dissolving into sounds that didn’t form words anymore.

“Alright… I need to… fuck. I need to hang up before I speed the whole way home.” Kei’s voice returned, thick and frayed at the edges. “I’m hanging up now - keep going.”

The call ended and Nicholas shifted forward until the heat of his body covered Euijoo entirely. His chest pressed flush against the younger omega’s sweat-slick back, every breath he took rolling down Euijoo’s spine. The closeness meant each thrust drove them together as a single, trembling shape on the mattress.

Euijoo whimpered at the contact, voice breaking into soft, open-mouthed cries. His arms had long since given out, leaving him collapsed against the pillows, hips still lifted by instinct, offering himself helplessly as Nicholas fucked into him with hard, steady strokes.

Nicholas slid one arm beneath Euijoo’s body, wrapping it around his waist to pull him even tighter. With the other, he reached down between their bodies, fingers gliding over the warm mess of slick and sweat and precome smeared across Euijoo’s belly.

He found Euijoo’s cock easily and wrapped his hand firmly around it. Euijoo cried out, high and startled, his whole body jolting forward as though the touch had shocked him.

“Shhh,” Nicholas murmured against the back of his neck, voice trembling with effort and need. “It’s alright. I’ve got you.”

He started stroking him in purposeful pulls from the base to the tip, his thumb sweeping through the leaking pleasure at the crown. Euijoo collapsed further into the mattress, his hips fighting between pushing back onto Nicholas’s cock and thrusting helplessly into the older omega's fist.

“N-Nicholas, oh - oh god - ” Euijoo’s voice dissolved entirely, breath catching on a sob as Nicholas fucked into him from behind and jerked him off from the front, the dual sensation overwhelming him completely.

Nicholas groaned into his shoulder, the sound raw and wrecked, his thrusts growing more focused as he felt Euijoo’s walls clench and flutter around him, squeezing rhythmically, begging for release.

“That’s it,” the older omega breathed, stroking him harder, angling his hips deep enough that their bodies met with sharp, slick sounds. “Let me feel you. Let me feel you come for me again.”

The younger omega came first, but only by a heartbeat. Euijoo’s orgasm tore out of him in a cry that cracked halfway through, his cock jerking violently in Nicholas’s fist as thick, hot stripes of cum splattered across the sheets.

His thighs shook uncontrollably, hips jerking forward and back all at once as pleasure ripped through him in waves, each clench of his slick, desperate heat pulling Nicholas deeper.

Nicholas didn’t stand a chance. The moment Euijoo’s hole squeezed down again, the older omega’s thrusts faltered. His breath punched out of him in a broken moan as his pleasure surged up too fast to stop. His hips slammed forward once, twice, and then he was spilling deep inside Euijoo in thick, heavy spurts that made the younger omega gasp at every hot wash of cum inside him.

Euijoo shuddered through it, still coming, still clenching around Nicholas like he was trying to drag the orgasm out of him. Nicholas collapsed forward, chest pressing Euijoo fully into the mattress as his cock emptied itself in slow, overwhelming pulses.

For a few seconds, they were just noise and heat and shaking limbs - Euijoo sobbing softly into the pillows, Nicholas groaning into the slope of his shoulder, the two of them stuck in the same trembling aftershock.

Nicholas forced himself to pull out slowly, the motion sticky and reluctant, and Euijoo whimpered at the loss but didn’t fight it. The younger omega sagged into the mattress, boneless and trembling, his thighs still twitching from overstimulation. Nicholas eased him onto his side and reached for the pack of wet wipes he’d pulled from the bathroom earlier.

He worked gently, wiping the slick-streaked skin along Euijoo’s inner thighs, sweeping away the drips of cum that had trailed down to the sheets, then brushing over the spent mess on Euijoo’s stomach from earlier.

The younger omega watched while Nicholas cleaned him with careful hands, fingertips soft even when his own body was still trembling from aftershocks.

“You okay?” Nicholas asked quietly, brushing a stray curl from Euijoo’s forehead.

Euijoo nodded, eyes half-open, pupils unfocused but clearer than before. “Feel… better,” he murmured, voice rough. “Lighter.”

Nicholas smiled faintly and moved on to himself. He wiped the slick from his hips, his lower stomach, the smudges of drying cum on his chest.

Everything smelled overwhelming - Euijoo’s heat-sharp sweetness, Nicholas’s own warm bakery scent, the faint alpha undertone that still clung to Euijoo from Kei. It hung thick in the air, but not in a frantic way anymore. The edge had softened.

When the wipes were tossed into the garbage and the sheets pulled up just enough to give them some fresh surface, Nicholas helped Euijoo sit up. The younger omega blinked sleepily but didn’t protest when Nicholas handed him a sleeve of crackers and a bottle of water.

Euijoo tore into the snack like he hadn’t eaten in days. Nicholas leaned back against the headboard, sipping his water while the younger omega devoured his share and then reached automatically for another. 

Euijoo leaned into Nicholas’s side, head finding its familiar place on his shoulder. “Mm. Thank you.” He nuzzled into Nicholas’s neck instead of finishing the sentence.

Nicholas wrapped an arm around him, holding him close. He wasn’t fully himself yet, not by a long shot, but the frantic edge had eased. They stayed like that for a few minutes, letting the room settle around them again. 

Euijoo was curled against him, head tucked under Nicholas’s jaw, breath soft and even as he let himself drift in that gentle space between waves. Nicholas kept tracing slow lines down his spine, more to steady his own pulse than anything else.

“Thank you,” the words slipped out before the older omega could stop them. “For… trusting me. For letting me take care of you. I know your heats can be rough, and I just -”

He stopped. His throat tightened. It felt stupid to admit, but the truth pressed up anyway.

“I’m grateful you let me be the one here.”

Euijoo lifted his head just enough to look at him. His eyes were still heat-glazed, pupils blown wide, lashes damp, cheeks flushed but behind all that was clarity. 

“Nicho,” he whispered, voice a little cracked from moaning earlier. “I didn’t let you. I wanted you.”

Nicholas blinked, breath caught somewhere halfway in his chest.

Euijoo reached up and cupped his cheek with a shaky but deliberate hand. “I’ll always choose you. Always. Heat or no heat.”

Nicholas felt the words everywhere - low in his stomach, high in his lungs, right through the thrum of his heart. Euijoo’s scent, warm and honeyed and softened by post-release calm, wrapped around him in a way that made his eyes sting.

“Juju…” he breathed.

Euijoo nudged their foreheads together, a small, sleepy smile tugging at his lips. “’Course I will. You’re my Nichol.”

Nicholas closed his eyes for a moment, absorbing that, letting it settle into the places he never looked at too closely - the ones that ached with longing on normal days and burned tonight.

He stroked Euijoo’s back again, gentler this time. “I’ll always show up for you,” he whispered.

“I know,” Euijoo murmured, already drifting, voice soft and certain. “You always have.”

The front door slamming closed startled them but the scent that pushed it’s way through the crack in the bedroom door was familiar.

Euijoo’s head lifted first, pupils dilating so fast it was dizzying. Nicholas felt it too, the pull of Kei’s presence tugging on every instinct woven into his omega body, but Euijoo reacted like he’d been plugged into an outlet. His breath hitched and his entire body leaned toward the hallway before the footsteps even reached the bedroom door.

Then the knob turned and Kei stepped into the room - hair a little messy and chest rising and falling like he’d ran through the building, eyes landing immediately on the tangle of blankets and the two omegas inside them. His expression softened, but something hungry flashed through it too, like seeing them soothed something deep and agitated in him.

Both omegas perked up, but Euijoo reacted first. He lurched forward onto shaky knees, nearly losing his balance on the mattress before stumbling toward the edge of the bed and into his mate’s arms.

Kei caught him effortlessly. The moment Euijoo’s body hit the alpha’s chest, the younger omega broke into a chorus of soft chirps, low purrs, needy little whines pressed into Kei’s skin as he burrowed his face into the alpha’s neck. His arms wrapped tight around Kei’s torso, fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt like he was afraid Kei might disappear again.

Kei exhaled, deep and relieved, and closed his arms around Euijoo with a low, grounding rumble in his chest. He held him firmly but tenderly, one hand cupping the back of Euijoo’s head, the other anchoring him by the waist.

“Hey, baby,” he murmured against Euijoo’s temple, voice warm and thick with emotion. “I’m here. I’m right here.”

Euijoo chirped again and nuzzled deeper into Kei’s throat, scent glands pressed deliberately against the alpha’s skin. His body trembled with how hard he was purring, vibrations rolling through Kei’s arms.

Nicholas stayed where he was on the bed, watching the reunion with something soft and complicated tugging at his chest. Kei’s scent filled the room quickly now that he was inside it, mingling with the sweet, heavy heat of Euijoo and the faint bakery-warm trace of Nicholas himself. It made the room feel fuller, like the pack core had finally clicked back into place.

Kei kept one arm tightly around Euijoo but lifted his gaze toward Nicholas. His eyes were warm, grateful, and edged with something deeper and instinctual and approving that made Nicholas’s throat tighten.

“Thank you,” Kei said quietly.

Nicholas swallowed, his voice coming out lower than he expected. “He needed me.”

“I know,” Kei murmured, glancing down at the omega clinging to him like gravity depended on it. “And I’m forever grateful for the way you look after him.”

Euijoo made a tiny noise at that, somewhere between a whine and agreement, before dragging his face up Kei’s neck to press messy, eager kisses beneath his jaw.

Kei chuckled softly, rubbing a thumb over the nape of Euijoo’s neck in slow, soothing circles. “Easy, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.”

But Euijoo only clung tighter, body melting against the alpha as if he was trying to crawl inside Kei’s chest and never leave.

Nicholas felt the moment settle with the thick warmth of Kei’s presence, the way Euijoo melted into the alpha like every nerve in his body had been waiting for him. It was right. It was what Euijoo needed. And it meant Nicholas’s part in this was over.

A knot twisted low in his stomach, something that had nothing to do with leftover arousal and everything to do with that old, familiar ache he never quite touched directly.

Euijoo was safe now. Kei was home. Nicholas should slip out quietly and let them be a mated pair again without the ghost of a third body lingering in the sheets.

He swallowed hard, forcing his muscles to move. He slid off the edge of the bed as softly as he could, body protesting at the sudden change in temperature and the loss of contact. He kept his eyes down, not trusting himself to look at either of them while gathering the scattered pile of his clothes from the floor.

His heartbeat embarrassingly loud in his own ears and his fingers were clumsy as he pulled on his sweats, grabbed his shirt, and took one cautious step toward the door, hoping Kei was too focused on Euijoo to notice him leave.

But a firm hand wrapped around his arm before he made it two steps, halting him mid-stride. An anchor stopping him from walking straight out of the room and out of whatever strange, fragile space the three of them had been orbiting all night.

“Nicholas,” Kei said quietly. “Where are you going?”

Nicholas froze and a heat rushed to his face in a sudden wave of guilt and self-consciousness. He couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t look at Euijoo either, still clinging to Kei’s chest, though he sensed the younger omega lift his head at the sound of his name.

“I… my job’s done,” Nicholas managed. “You’re back. Euijoo’s okay. I should -”

Euijoo’s head lifted from Kei’s chest the moment Nicholas spoke, his expression shifting so quickly it was almost painful to watch. The soft, hazy warmth in his eyes snapped into something wounded, his lower lip trembling before the sound even reached his throat.

“You’re leaving?” he whispered.

The whimper that followed was small and fragile - a broken sound that cut straight down Nicholas’s spine. Euijoo looked like he’d just been told someone was taking his oxygen away. His pupils blew wide, heat-dazed and frightened, and tears immediately glazed his eyes as though his body didn’t know how else to respond.

“Euijoo -” Nicholas started, hands lifting helplessly. “It’s not - I just meant Hyung’s back now. You don’t need -”

The younger omega didn’t let him finish as a sharp, distressed whine tore out of him, louder this time, the kind that came from deep in his chest. He pushed against Kei with surprising force, reaching toward Nicholas with both arms like a child waking from a nightmare and needing comfort.

Nicholas barely had time to brace before Euijoo grabbed his arms and yanked him forward, dragging him back toward the bed with surprising strength for someone whose legs were still unsteady.

Nicholas stumbled, caught himself, and suddenly Euijoo was plastered against his chest, arms locked tight around his waist, face buried against Nicholas’s skin as he clung like he was seconds away from falling apart.

“You’re not allowed to go anywhere,” Euijoo choked, voice thick and cracking. “Nicho, no - no, you can’t leave. Not now. Not -”

He whimpered again, a sound drenched in instinctual panic, scent spiking sharp and terrified. His whole body clung in frantic pulses, trying to pull the older omega as close as physically possible. Nicholas’s heart collapsed in on itself.

“Oh, Juju, I wasn’t - I didn’t mean it like that,” he murmured, arms circling around the younger omega automatically, one hand sweeping along his back, the other cradling the back of his head. “I just thought you wouldn’t want me here now that Kei’s home. I thought I was in the way.”

Euijoo shook his head furiously against his chest, nails lightly digging into Nicholas’s sides.

“You’re never in the way,” he whispered, voice thick with emotion. “You’re my Nicho. My safe person. You don't get to leave just because Yudai’s here. You stay. You stay with me.”

The desperation in his tone was raw enough that Nicholas felt an ache blooming under his ribs, a rush of warmth and disbelief flooding in at once.

“Nicholas,” Kei said, stepping closer. “If you walk out of this room thinking you’re not welcome, then I’ve done a terrible job making things clear.”

Nicholas’s heart stuttered as the alpha moved closer in slowly, so that nothing that might startle either omega. His hand remained steady on Euijoo’s back while he leaned in toward Nicholas, the warmth of his breath brushing the older omega’s cheek before his scent followed, sliding into the space between them like a soft, claiming fog.

Nicholas’s body answered his unasked question, chin tilting just slightly as Kei’s nose traced the sharp line of his jaw. The alpha inhaled deeply, a low, approving hum rumbling in his chest as he pressed his face to Nicholas’s neck.

His sage scent rolled over Nicholas in slow waves, soothing and overwhelming all at once. Kei rubbed along his jaw, up behind his ear, down the column of his throat, marking him in gentle, intentional strokes that made Nicholas’s skin prickle hot.

When Kei reached the corner of his mouth, he pressed a soft kiss there. 

“You did so well,” the alpha whispered against his skin and Nicholas’s knees nearly buckled. “You’re such a good omega. Such a caring omega. I knew he’d be safe with you. I knew you’d give him everything he needed until I could get back.”

The praise slid into the older omega like warm honey, coating every frayed nerve. Nicholas’s head went light, vision softening at the edges as this sudden daze pulled him under. Kei cupped the back of Nicholas’s neck, thumb stroking steady circles there, guiding him through the fog rather than pushing him deeper into it.

Nicholas shivered, soft and pliant between the alpha holding him from the front and the omega clinging to him from the side, his thoughts dissolving into warmth and cedar and the gentle certainty of being wanted.

Kei drew in another slow breath against Nicholas’s throat, and this time the sound he made was lower and more raw. His hand slid down Nicholas’s spine, steady but trembling at the edges, and when he spoke again his voice had dropped into that deep alpha register that scraped straight through both omegas’ bodies.

“I’m not going to lie.” Kei’s nose brushed along Nicholas’s throat before he lifted his head, eyes half-lidded but burning hot. “You have no idea what you two smell like right now. The mix of your slick mixed together is driving me insane.”

Nicholas’s pulse jumped. Euijoo, still pressed to his side, let out a soft, needy chirp.

“Both of you,” the alpha nodded. “get onto the bed.”

Nicholas felt a pulse along his skin, low and warm, telling him to obey without thinking. Euijoo reacted immediately, whining softly as he climbed back onto the mattress, unsteady but eager, already pawing at pillows like he wanted to make room for the alpha.

Nicholas’s legs moved before his mind caught up, climbing onto the bed beside Euijoo with a soft, involuntary exhale. His head was still woollen from Kei’s scenting, his body warm and loose, and the command slid into the fog like a hand closing around his spine, guiding him without resistance.

Kei watched them, chest rising and falling with slow, deliberate breaths as he shut the bedroom door behind him. His cock was obvious in his jeans now, straining against the fabric, but he didn’t rush.

He approached them instead with a steady, predatory calm, eyes dark with intent, scent thickening the room until both omegas shivered. Then his fingers found the hem of his shirt, hooked into it, and he pulled it up in one smooth motion.

Nicholas inhaled sharply and Euijoo let out a soft, breathy whine as Kei’s torso came into view, every line of him cut clean: long, lean muscle across his stomach, the faint taper of a dancer’s waist, shoulders broad.

His skin was pale and smooth but marked with subtle strength - the kind that came from years of using his body with purpose. A faint trail of hair led down from his navel toward the low waistband of his jeans, catching the light just enough to make Nicholas’s throat go tight. He tossed the shirt aside without breaking eye contact.

His hands went to his belt next. The sound of the buckle sliding free sent a shiver through Nicholas, heat curling low in his belly as Kei eased the denim past his hips. Kei’s jeans hit the floor, and there he stood in nothing but his briefs, the fabric pulled tight over the unmistakable heavy outline of his cock which was already hard.

Then briefs slid down and off, leaving Kei completely bare. His cock was thick, flushed, heavy at the base with the early swell of a knot that hadn’t fully formed yet. Nicholas’s mouth went dry.

His body reacted instinctively with warmth pooling low, muscles softening, his breathing turning unsteady. Euijoo looked ready to melt straight through the mattress, fingers clutching the sheets as high, needy sounds kept slipping out of him.

Kei stepped toward them at last, the slow, confident stride of an alpha who knew exactly what his presence did to omegas - especially these omegas. He let his gaze sweep over them slowly before reaching out to stroke Euijoo’s cheek with the back of his knuckles.

“Baby,” he murmured, voice deep and coaxing. “You said Nicho took good care of you, yeah?”

Euijoo nodded so fast it was almost frantic. His eyes were wide and shining, pupils blown, lips already parted as if the memory of Nicholas inside him still lingered on his tongue. 

“Yes,” he breathed. “So good. He took such good care of me.”

Nicholas felt heat crawl up his neck at the praise, but Kei’s attention remained on Euijoo, thumb brushing over the younger omega’s lower lip, smearing the faint sheen of saliva clinging there.

“Well,” Kei said, voice dipping into something darker, “then it’s only fair you return the favour, isn’t it?”

Euijoo’s breath hitched as he gave another eager nod. He turned immediately, instincts taking over, and scrambled across the bed toward Nicholas.

“Nicho,” he whispered, voice trembling with heat. “Let me please,”

Nicholas barely had time to breathe before Euijoo was between his thighs, settling on his elbows and knees like a starving man crawling toward water. His hands pushed at Nicholas’s legs, spreading them wider, and then Euijoo ducked his head without hesitation.

His mouth wrapped around Nicholas’s cock in one smooth motion, lips sealing, tongue flattening hot and wet beneath the older omega’s length. Nicholas let out a sharp, broken gasp, his hand instantly tightening in Euijoo’s hair.

“Good,” Kei murmured behind them, climbing onto the bed. “That’s it, baby. Just like that. Take care of him the way he took care of you.”

Euijoo sucked greedily at Nicholas, taking him deeper with every bob of his head as Kei settled behind him, large hands gliding up the younger omega’s hips. Nicholas’s head dropped back, a shudder ripping through him as Euijoo sucked harder, eager to prove himself.

Nicholas tried - really tried - not to look at Kei but it was impossible to ignore him. The alpha was right there, only an arms length away. 

Nicholas had never let himself imagine being on his back, legs spread, his best friend’s pretty mouth wrapped around him while his alpha mate knelt behind them, watching the way Nicholas’s body reacted to every desperate suck. He’d thought he would hate the exposure but instead the awareness of Kei’s gaze made his cock throb in Euijoo’s mouth.

He flushed deeper, cheeks warming, breath coming thin. He almost tried to look away, to pretend he wasn’t reacting to it, but Kei’s presence was a gravity all its own, dragging Nicholas back every time.

The alpha looked interested in every small twitch Nicholas made when Euijoo sucked him down to the base, every gasp he let slip, every time Nicholas’s hips trembled and tried to push up for more. He wrapped his hand lazily around his own cock and stroked at the same pace Euijoo was going.  

“Well, I can see why you like sucking Nicho off.” Kei murmured, voice smooth and taunting as he watched the two omegas together, “It must be nice to actually be able to take him into your throat without gagging.”

Euijoo let out a startled, muffled noise around Nicho’s length - half protest, half embarrassed moan - while the older omega’s face flushed deep red. A smirk curled slow across the alpha’s lips as he dragged his fist up the length of his own cock, thumb swiping across the head, spreading precum in a slick shine.

“Euijoo gags on me every single time he even tries to take the tip. But Nicholas is nice and easy, huh? Smaller so you can take him all the way down.”

Nicholas groaned, hips jerking despite himself. Euijoo whined around his cock, eyes shining with humiliation and arousal in equal measure. The younger omega bobbed his head faster as if to prove the point, sucking greedily until spit dripped down his chin.

“Savour it while you can. Mine won’t ever be that easy.”

Nicholas swallowed hard and tried to steady his breathing as Euijoo bobbed deeper, saliva slicking his cock in warm, messy strokes. The younger omega’s throat fluttered around him, and Nicholas’s toes curled involuntarily.

Something that made his thighs fall wider apart, made his fingers slip deeper into Euijoo’s hair, made him tilt his chin up just enough to meet Kei’s gaze again.

Kei dragged one of his hands down the curve of Euijoo’s spine before cupping the swell of his ass. The younger omega moaned when Kei spread him open. His slick clung to Kei’s fingers in long, glossy strings. Kei hummed under his breath as if pleased, and then pressed three fingers into Euijoo at once.

Euijoo yelped around Nicholas’s cock, and he pulled off with a wet gasp, saliva slicking Nicholas’s length as he dropped his forehead onto the older omega’s thigh. His body pushed back instinctively, grinding down against Kei’s hand, thighs trembling as his hole fluttered around the sudden stretch.  His whole body shivered like he was being plugged into a live wire.

Kei’s brows lifted, genuinely taken aback for a moment as his fingers sank into the knuckle without resistance. Slick dripped down his wrist in warm, vicious trails. 

“Huh.” His tone was mild, almost conversational, but edged with something darkly amused. “Nicho did a good job stretching you out.”

Nicholas felt heat punch through his stomach, a mix of pride and arousal making his breath sputter. Euijoo, still panting against his thigh, whined at the praise, pushing harder against the alpha’s fingers like his body wanted them deeper.

Kei’s patience eventually thinned and he withdrew his fingers, and repositioned himself with a smooth shift of his weight. In one motion he rose onto his knees at the edge of the bed and hooked an arm around Euijoo’s waist.

“Come here,” he murmured.

Euijoo let out a helpless sound as Kei pulled him down the mattress, dragging him away from Nicholas’s lap.

The younger omega ended up on his side, one leg stretched long on the mattress while the other was lifted and folded back, pressed up against Kei’s chest, the position opening him completely. Kei draped that leg over his shoulder, holding Euijoo in place like he weighed nothing.

Kei’s hand slid down the lifted thigh, fingers curling around the soft skin just above the knee. The other hand braced beneath Euijoo’s hip as his cock dragged across the younger omega’s slicked entrance, thick and heavy and impossibly wide. The head caught for just a heartbeat and then the alpha pushed forward.

Euijoo cried out, the sound high and overwhelmed, as Kei’s cock breached him. The rim stretched wide around the blunt head, swallowing him inch by inch. Slick spilled out in messy streaks down Euijoo’s ass and onto Kei’s thighs as the alpha sank deeper, claiming every fraction of space inside him.

Kei groans, his grip on Euijoo’s leg tightening.

“Fuck,” he breathed, voice trembling with restrained hunger. “You’re so tight, baby.”

Euijoo’s fingers dug into the sheet, knuckles white, his breath coming in sharp, broken gasps. “Yudai, oh my god -”

Kei pushed the rest of the way in with one smooth thrust, seating himself fully inside. The pressure made Euijoo’s whole body arch off the bed, mouth falling open in a wordless cry.

Nicholas could only watch, breathless, as Euijoo’s small, slick hole stretched around the thick base of Kei’s cock in a way that made Nicholas’s stomach twist with a wave of heat he couldn’t fight.

“Nicho, come keep his mouth busy.” The alpha calls out to him and Nicholas feels the command straight down his spine. He moved until he was beside Euijoo’s head, the bed dipping slightly under his weight, his cock still hard and wet from earlier.

Euijoo turned his face toward Nicholas immediately, lips parted. His pupils were blown wide, glazed from heat and pleasure and the overwhelming fullness of Kei stretching him. He looked up at Nicholas with a dazed devotion that made the older omega’s stomach turn molten.

Then Euijoo opened his mouth all the way - tongue slipping out - as if offering himself without hesitation. Nicholas’s breath broke on a soft curse and he guided himself forward, one hand cupping Euijoo’s jaw to steady him.

The younger omega shivered at the touch, eyes fluttering as Nicholas’s cock pressed against his slick tongue. Euijoo let out a desperate, hungry whine.

“That’s it,” Kei murmured as he leaned forward just enough to press a trembling kiss to Euijoo’s calf before he began to move. “Good boys. Keep going.”

Euijoo’s tongue curled around Nicholas’s cock, his mouth sucking greedily as Kei fucked him from behind, each thrust rocking his body forward and pulling Nicholas deeper into his throat. His jaw hung open in a desperate attempt to keep taking Nicholas, but his whole body was shaking under the double stimulation.

Nicholas felt Euijoo struggling, his mouth slipping, and so he reached out, grabbed both sides of Euijoo’s head to thread his fingers into his hair. Then he pulled the younger omega’s mouth forward onto his cock.

Euijoo gagged softly at the sudden depth, but the noise curled into a moan the second Kei slammed in again from behind. Nicholas guided him, moving his hips in short, controlled snaps that let him thrust into Euijoo’s throat in sync with Kei’s brutal pace.

Kei groaned at the sight of his mate pinned between them, body shaking, mouth stretched and hole dripping. The sound of their bodies meeting filled the room until it felt like nothing else existed. Tears slipped from the corners of Euijoo’s eyes, his lips glossy and swollen, drool spilling down his chin.

Kei’s pace only intensified, hips snapping with a savage rhythm that made the bed frame slam against the wall. Euijoo’s throat clenched around Nicholas, his body squeezing around Kei, pleasure and overstimulation twisting through him until he could barely make sounds at all.

The alpha’s thrusts never faltered as he shifted his weight forward and reached out with one hand, sliding it straight onto the older omega’s body. Nicholas jerked when the alpha’s palm travelled down his back, following the dip of his spine. Kei kept moving lower until his hand cupped the curve of Nicholas’s ass, thumb brushing the warm crease where his thighs met.

Nicholas gasped around a choked groan, the sound vibrating deep in his chest. His entire body trembled, caught off guard and overwhelmed.

“How does his mouth feel?”

Nicholas tried to answer, tried to force words out past the heat clogging his throat, but Euijoo chose that moment to swallow around him, sending a shock of pleasure straight through his hips.

Nicholas’s head dropped back, eyes fluttering shut as pleasure surged through him in dizzying waves. The smell of the three of them tangled together in the air like something intoxicating.

“He’s - fuck - he’s incredible,” the older omega gasped out, hips twitching forward into Euijoo’s mouth. “I can’t believe…”

He couldn’t finish the thought. The truth pressed hard against his ribs, too raw and too heavy to speak aloud. He was in bed with the two people he adored beyond reason and they were letting him take part in something they usually did as mates, alone. 

Euijoo was completely undone between them, reduced to a dripping, trembling mess. His face was soaked, spit smeared across his chin and Nicholas’s thighs, tears slipping from the corners of his eyes in thin, shining trails. Every moan he tried to breathe out was swallowed by the cock filling his throat, turning into broken, wet vibrations that travelled straight through Nicholas’s body.

Then Kei slid his hand back up Nicholas’s spine, tracing the line of tense muscles until his fingers found the nape of the omega’s neck. The alpha’s thumb stroked once at the base of Nicholas’s skull, a light scruffing touch that sent heat crawling down his spine like molten sugar.

Nicholas shuddered violently, a full-body tremor shaking through him the moment Kei’s fingers curled around the back of his neck. His breath stuttered; his vision blurred; his cock twitched hard in Euijoo’s mouth.

“H-Hyung,” Nicho gasped, voice breaking, “I’m gonna - fuck - I’m gonna cum.”

“No.” 

The command startled Nicholas, who glances up at the alpha, eyes wide. But his hips keep thrusting so Kei plants one hand on Euijoo’s chest and pushes him. 

Nicholas’s cock slips out of the younger omega’s mouth with a pop. The sound that tore out of him was wet and startled, echoing Nicholas’s own strangled cry when the sudden loss hit him like a strike of cold air.

The older omega’s cock throbbed painfully in the open air, slick and spit-slicked, twitching against his stomach. He whimpered without meaning to, hips jerking helplessly as his body searched for the pleasure he’d been denied at the last possible second.

Euijoo gazed up too, lips swollen and wet, strands of saliva still connecting his mouth to Nicho’s cock. His pupils were blown wide, his chest rising in frantic little breaths as he looked between them the two above him.

Kei’s thumb stroked the back of Nicho’s neck again, slower this time, almost soothing.

“I said no,” he repeated, the command softened by the faintest note of amusement. “I didn’t give you permission, did I?”

Nicholas’s whole body shuddered, frustrated. “No, you didn’t…”

“Then you don’t cum,” Kei said simply.

The omega whimpered, need clawing up his spine unbearably.

“Please Hyung, please, I’m so close,” he gasped, words tumbling out in a broken rush. “I - I was right there. I deserve to cum. I’ve been helping Juju so good. I did everything you asked all night. I took care of him while you were gone - I helped him - I fucked him for you - I made him feel good - ”

Kei’s laugh was amused in a way that made Nicholas’s stomach drop and tighten all at once. The alpha slid his hand from the omega’s nape to the side of his throat and squeezed slightly to guide his trembling body back into stillness.

“You think that earns you something, pretty boy? You think helping my omega means I owe you a reward?”

“Kei, please - ” Nicholas begged again, voice hoarse. “Please, I - I’m trying - I’m really trying…”

“Oh, I know you’re trying,” the alpha drawled. “I can see it.”

Before him, Euijoo let out a soft, needy noise as Kei repositioned his hips. The alpha’s hand slid to the younger omega’s waist, steadying him before pressing the blunt head of his cock back to Juju’s swollen, slick-dripping rim. Euijoo shivered, thighs trembling as the pressure returned, breath catching high in his throat.

He pushed until the head slipped back inside, stretching Euijoo open again. The younger omega moaned, body arching, face pink and damp as he clung to the sheets. Kei exhaled through his nose, gaze flicking back to Nicho while his hips began to move in a deliberate rhythm.

“But you know what else I’m seeing? I’m seeing you be a little bit selfish.”

Nicholas’s breath hitched. “W-What?”

“You’re shaking like you’re the one who’s dying of heat.”

Each slow thrust drove another broken little sound out of Euijoo, slick spilling down his thighs, his hole clenching desperately around Kei’s thick length. Kei’s grip on his neck tightened and Nicholas whimpered, the shame and need twisting together so tight it was dizzying.

“But you’re not,” the alpha continued as he picked up his pace, slamming into his mate. “Euijoo is and yet here you are trying to cum before the poor omega who’s actually in heat?”

Nicholas’s breath shuddered out of him, eyes squeezing shut as his cock throbbed painfully, dripping against his stomach. “I - I didn’t mean -”

“Nicho,” Kei said with faux disappointment, “you were two seconds away from shooting down his throat.”

Pleasure built so sharply it bordered on pain, but Nicholas held himself still under Kei’s hand, panting, throat working around the alpha’s fingers.

“Juju cums first,” Kei said plainly. “Then maybe I’ll let you.”

Kei adjusted his hold on Euijoo’s hips so his fingers were digging in hard enough to leave marks, and then thrust forward with a brutal snap of his hips that shoved the younger omega right back to Nicholas.

The force of it made Euijoo’s mouth fall open in a breathless gasp, the hot puff of air landing directly against the slick head of Nicholas’s cock.

Instinct did the rest.

Euijoo let out a helpless whine and immediately lowered his head, lips sealing around Nicholas like he’d been starved for taste. He sucked greedily, cheeks hollowing with each pull, tongue dragging along the sensitive underside in long, messy strokes. Nicholas’s entire body jerked, a strangled groan ripping out of him before he could stop it.

Kei’s next thrust shoved Euijoo even deeper onto Nicholas’s cock, making the younger omega choke wetly around the length filling his throat. Tears beaded at the corners of Euijoo’s eyes, but he didn’t pull away, just pushing down harder as if the pain and pleasure were twisting together into something too potent to resist.

Nicholas’s hand flew to Euijoo’s hair, fingers trembling as he threaded them through the soft strands.

“Juju,” he gasped, voice raw. “God - fuck - you look so fucking pretty like this…”

Euijoo let out a muffled, desperate sound around him and the vibration shot straight through Nicholas’s cock, making his hips buck helplessly. With a low, pleased growl, Kei tightened his grip and began ramming into Euijoo harder, each thrust deep and punishing, forcing the younger omega to bob uncontrollably on Nicholas’s cock.

The room filled with messy, obscene sounds of the wet slap of Kei’s hips meeting Euijoo’s ass, the slick drag of Euijoo’s mouth sucking Nicholas down to the root, the broken noises slipping past Euijoo’s occupied lips.

Nicholas couldn’t keep his thoughts straight. Heat coiled low in his belly, each pull of Euijoo’s lips dragging him closer to the edge. 

“You’re doing so good,” he whispered, breath hitching as he stroked Euijoo’s cheek with his thumb. “You should cum. You deserve it. You’ve been such a good omega…”

Kei thrust particularly hard, punching another wet gasp out of Euijoo. Nicholas felt rather than saw the moment it hit Euijoo - felt the sudden, trembling tightness in his shoulders, the way his thighs quivered violently, the high-pitched sound muffled around Nicholas’s cock.

Then Euijoo came untouched. His body bowing forward as slick gushed down his legs, dripping over Nicholas’s thighs, splattering onto Kei’s pelvis with each aftershock. His mouth stayed sealed around Nicholas’s cock even through the violent spasms shaking his whole frame.

Nicholas nearly lost control right there. He stared at Kei through glazed, desperate eyes, silently begging, silently pleading for permission. His cock twitched dangerously in Euijoo’s mouth; he was seconds away from spilling whether Kei allowed it or not.

Kei dramatically sighed. A long, tired exhale like a man inconvenienced by something trivial like Nicholas asking to cum was the same as asking him to grab something from the fridge right as he sat down on the couch. 

“Oh for god’s sake,” the alpha muttered, sounding annoyed even though the corner of his mouth twitched in amusement. “You’re like a puppy. I swear.”

Nicholas whimpered, his head falling back as Euijoo sucked harder at the sound, as if trying to draw the orgasm out of him by force.

Kei rolled his eyes skyward with a dramatic sigh and flicked his fingers toward Nicholas. “Fine. Go on then.”

Barely a word but it tore Nicholas apart. His orgasm hit with a guttural curse dragged from somewhere deep in his chest. His hips jerked forward, and he grabbed Euijoo’s head with both hands, holding him down on his cock as the first hot pulse of release shot down the younger omega’s throat.

Euijoo gagged softly, choking slightly as thick spurts flooded his mouth. His throat worked around Nicholas’s cock, struggling to take everything. More overflowed, sliding out of the corners of Euijoo’s lips, dripping down his chin, streaking his fingers where he clutched Nicholas’s thigh for balance.

When the last twitch of his orgasm ebbed, Nicholas loosened his grip just enough for Euijoo to pull back a few centimetres - only for the younger omega to whine and press forward again, licking and sucking for the last drops.

Kei didn’t give Nicholas time to recover, his command cutting through the haze.

“Back against the headboard.”

Kei’s command was barely out of his mouth before Nicholas backed up, shoulders hitting the headboard as he settled against it, chest rising and falling with sharp, uneven breaths. He drew his knees up slightly as he watched the alpha reclaim Euijoo with a focus that made heat spark low in his stomach all over again.

Kei’s hand slid up Euijoo’s spine in one slow, deliberate stroke, palm dragging over every trembling vertebra. The omega shivered under the touch as the alpha’s fingers slid through his hair. Kei wrapped a firm grip at the roots and yanked Euijoo upright with a force that punched another loud sound out of the younger omega’s chest. 

Kei didn’t stop pulling until he had Euijoo fully upright, forcing the omega to kneel with him. Euijoo’s spine pressed flush against Kei’s chest, his head tipped back sharply from the grip in his hair, his mouth falling open in a stunned, breathless moan.

Kei’s cock stayed buried to the hilt so the position only pushed him in deeper - so deep Euijoo’s his hands were flying to grip Kei’s forearm as if he needed something to hold onto just to stay conscious.

“Good. Stay right there.” Kei’s mouth brushed Euijoo’s cheek, hot breath against flushed skin as he tugged his head back a little more, exposing the long line of his throat.

Euijoo’s chest rose and fell too fast, sweat glistening down the centre of it as his hips trembled on Kei’s lap. His legs shook under the effort of kneeling while so full, while stretched so far open around the thick length inside him. Nicholas couldn’t look away, his cock twitching with interest as he watched.

Kei shifted his grip, releasing Euijoo’s hair only long enough to slide his arm under the omega’s thigh. His hand hooked beneath the back of Euijoo’s knee, fingers spreading wide over warm skin, and then he lifted, exposing him utterly.

Euijoo gasped, his whole body jolting forward before Kei’s arm around his waist pulled him right back, locking him firmly against the alpha's chest. The new angle made Euijoo’s rim stretch tight around the thick length buried inside him; Nicholas saw it clearly from where he sat.

Kei started rolling his hips upward in deep thrusts that forced Euijoo’s body to rise and fall with every push. The lifted leg left the omega unbalanced, only held aloft only by Kei’s strength. The other knee dug weakly into the mattress, offering no real support as the alpha began to fuck him in long, claiming strokes.

“Took Nicho so well but your tight little hole was still greedy for an alpha cock, isn’t that right baby?”

Euijoo sobbed out a sound that might have been yes so Kei kept going, hips hammering up, leg lifted high in his grip. Nicholas felt his cock throb with every sound that slipped out of his best friend’s swollen, bitten lips.

Nicholas couldn’t stop staring. From where he sat against the headboard, he had a clear view of Kei’s cock moving in and out of Euijoo’s stretched, dripping body and he saw the change as soon as it began.

At first it was subtle, just a thicker push at the base each time Kei drew back, but then the swell became unmistakable. The alpha's knot was growing, spreading the slick-glossed skin wider with every deep thrust.

And every time Kei thrust back in, the growing knot dragged visibly, tugging at Euijoo’s hole before disappearing inside again with a wet, helpless sound.

Euijoo noticed the same time Nicholas did. His breath hitched, then caught entirely, his moans lifting into something thin and desperate. The knot dragged harder this time, visibly larger, and Euijoo gave a broken, startled cry that went straight to Nicholas’s spine.

The alpha’s breath fanned hot against the side of Euijoo’s throat, his hips still grinding that swollen knot against the trembling rim of Euijoo’s hole, never quite pushing it in - just letting the pressure tease, letting Euijoo feel exactly how close he was.

Euijoo was shaking so hard Nicholas could see the tremors all the way from the headboard, his lifted leg quivering in Kei’s hold, his fingers clutching blindly at the sheets.

“Do you want it?” Kei murmured. “Do you want my knot, baby?”

Euijoo nodded immediately, the motion jerking his whole body.

“Beg for it.”

“Please,” Euijoo whispered, the first tear slipping hot down his cheek. “Yudai - Hyung - please I need it - need your knot - please, please, please - ”

Kei groaned, the rumble coming from his chest and straight into Euijoo’s back. He turned Euijoo’s face toward him and ran his tongue slowly up the tear-streaked cheek, licking the salt right off his skin.

“Good boy,” he murmured, voice shaking with want.

Then Kei’s hand slid from Euijoo’s thigh to his back and without warning he shoved the younger omega forward. Euijoo toppled onto the mattress with a startled cry, landing right on Nicholas’s lap, cheek pressed to the soft muscle of the older omega’s thigh. 

The alpha grabbed the base of his cock and shoved back into his mate in one deep thrust that knocked the air out of the younger omega in a broken scream. Euijoo’s back arched sharply; his fingers clawed at the sheets; slick gushing out around Kei’s thick length. The alpha groaned, the sound vibrating in the air as he braced one hand on Euijoo’s lower back and started to move.

Kei set a brutal pace immediately, fucking into Euijoo with relentless force. His hips slammed forward again and again, each thrust punching the thick, swollen knot against Euijoo’s stretched rim. The pressure was intense - so much that Euijoo’s back arched into a deep, helpless curve, his fingers digging into Nicholas’s knee.

Nicholas instinctively threaded his fingers through Euijoo’s damp hair, trying to steady him, though his own heartbeat was hammering hard enough to shake his ribs.

Euijoo clung to him, fingers curling weakly against Nicholas’s skin as Kei continued to drive into him from behind. His tears streaked down Nicholas’s skin, and each sound he made vibrated through Nicholas’s entire body. Kei growled deep in his chest, the sound rough and fraying with the effort of holding himself back as his knot continued to swell.

His hand slid down to Euijoo’s swollen, slick-rimmed hole, thumb brushing the stretched skin just as he thrust in again.

“You gonna open up and let me in, baby?” Kei panted, pushing Euijoo down onto Nicholas’s lap with one heavy hand between his shoulder blades.

Kei thrust again harder and the knot forced Euijoo’s rim wide, stretching him almost obscenely. Nicholas watched, breath tight, as the knot bulged against the trembling ring of muscle, slipping in a little deeper each time Kei drove forward.

Euijoo let out a loud moan of overwhelming pleasure, the sound almost a yell as his body seized and trembled. His fingernails scraped helplessly at Nicholas’s thigh, leaving red crescents in his skin. 

“Hyung, hyung, oh my -” His words dissolved into noise, his entire body jerking with every tug of the knot.

Nicholas felt Euijoo shake, his breath hot against his inner thigh, slick dripping down onto his leg in messy, uncontrollable gushes each time the knot caught and dragged. 

Kei’s rhythm broke all at once - one sharp, guttural sound punched out of him as his hips snapped forward with a force that the knot, already huge and straining at the edge of Euijoo’s rim, finally pushed past the last band of resistance and slammed fully inside.

Euijoo’s mouth opened against Nicholas’s inner thigh, a broken scream ripped straight out of his chest as the knot finally sank all the way in and locked tight.

His orgasm hit like a lightning strike - sudden, sharp, and almost painful. His cock barely managed to spurt, only thin, trembling strings spilling out onto Nicholas’s calf, but the intensity wracked through him in violent waves.

His whole body shook uncontrollably, toes curling, fingers clawing desperately at Nicholas’s skin as he moaned into the older omega’s thigh, the sound raw and strangled.

Kei groaned above him, the sound low and feral, his hips grinding forward as the knot throbbed and swelled even further inside his mate’s stretched rim. He moved in deep, rolling grinds, pushing the knot harder against the sensitive walls inside until Euijoo sobbed through clenched teeth.

“That’s it,” Kei panted, voice shredded. “Take all of it. Good boy - fuck - you’re so tight.”

The alpha came with a deep, shaking groan, his body pressing flush against Euijoo’s back as hot pulses of cum spilled inside the tight seal of his knot. Thick spurts filled the omega’s hole, pushed deeper by each grind of Kei’s hips. The pressure forced slick and cum to leak around the base of the knot in bubbly, sticky dribbles.

Kei buried his face against Euijoo’s shoulder, panting through the last waves as his knot throbbed with each pulse of release.

“Perfect,” he whispered, voice barely there. “My perfect omega… took me so well.”

Euijoo only managed a small, broken sound in response, his whole body trembling as the knot settled deeper inside him, sealing Kei’s release exactly where his omega needed it most.

Nicholas exhaled shakily, still pushing his fingers through the younger’s hair, almost overwhelmed by how intimate and beautiful the moment was with Euijoo knotted and trembling against him.

Kei shifted carefully, guiding Euijoo with him until they were lying on their sides, the younger omega still knotted tight, pressed back into Kei’s chest in a loose, protective spoon. Euijoo whimpered softly as he adjusted, but Kei soothed him with a murmur and a kiss to the side of his neck.

Then the alpha reached out, his fingers curling gently around Nicholas’s wrist and tugged. 

“Come here,” he murmured.

Nicholas let himself be guided without thinking. His body felt too worn out to argue. He slid down onto his side, facing Euijoo and Kei. His forehead settled near Euijoo’s, close enough to breathe in the younger omega’s hot, fluttering exhales.

Euijoo blinked groggily at him, eyes glazed from the knot, and made a tiny sound that was half purr and half whine, as Nicholas’s presence soothed him.

Kei's arms stayed anchored around Euijoo’s waist, knot still locked deep inside the younger omega, but his free hand drifted back to Nicholas. With slow strokes his fingers traced over the older omega's cheek, down his jawline, brushing a knuckle along his temple, fingers sliding into his hair to comb it back gently.

Nicholas’s eyes were half-closed, breath soft and shaky as the last threads of sub-haze loosened inside his mind. Every slow pet of Kei’s palm over his skin helped pull him back to himself little by little.

“Hey,” Kei murmured, voice gentle, “look at me for a second.”

The older omega blinked and forced his eyes open a little more. The alpha leaned in close enough that Nicholas could see the softness in his expression.

“Good boy,” Kei whispered, thumb brushing along the omega's cheekbone. “You listened so well tonight.”

Nicholas’s chest lifted in a tiny, involuntary breath as his gaze flicked down to Euijoo, still trembling gently in their arms, fingers tangled tight in his best friend's hand. The younger omega murmured something unintelligible and Nicholas instinctively squeezed him back.

Kei watched the exchange with a soft exhale before he leaned in just enough to press a brief, gentle kiss to the corner of Nicholas’s cheekbone. 

“Thank you,” Kei whispered. “For being here tonight. For taking care of him when I couldn’t get back faster.”

The praise curled through him like heat, melting him from the inside out. It was ridiculous how quickly he unraveled under the alpha's voice. How easily the words slipped past every wall he’d been holding up for years. Nicholas blinked rapidly, overwhelmed, so Kei’s fingers slid into his hair again.

“You did everything right,” the alpha murmured. “Everything he needed. Everything I needed. I’m so proud of you.”

Nicholas exhaled shakily, pressing his forehead lightly to Euijoo’s.

“I’d do anything for him,” he whispered.

“I know,” Kei said. “That’s why I trust you with him.”

Even with the warmth still humming through him and his mind soft around the edges from Kei’s praise, Nicholas couldn’t quite silence the little curl of mischief that always lived somewhere in his chest. 

His eyes half-opened, lashes sticking faintly together, and he let out a slow exhale before tilting his head just enough to look at Kei over Euijoo’s shoulder.

“Well,” he murmured, voice low and lazy, a thin smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “If I did such a good job… does that mean Juju can return the favour during my next heat?”

The alpha's lips twitched in amusement, and he reached across Euijoo just enough to catch Nicholas’s cheek between his fingers. The pinch was gentle, but it startled a soft yelp out of Nicholas all the same.

“You're cute,” Kei laughed. “Very cute.”

Nicholas tried for innocence, failed miserably, and let his smile widen instead. Kei shook his head, releasing his cheek only to brush his thumb once along Nicholas’s jaw in a slow, grounding line.

Nicholas huffed a quiet breath and let his eyes drift shut again. Kei shifted closer, moulding himself to Euijoo’s back, and buried his face into the warm curve of the younger omega’s neck. A deep, contented hum vibrated through him as he breathed Euijoo in, his lips brushing lazily against damp skin. 

“My good omegas,” he mumbled, voice low and thick with exhaustion and satisfaction. 

Kei’s arm draped protectively over Euijoo’s waist, hand resting on Nicholas’s forearm as if to keep all three of them connected even in sleep. 

The words seemed to soothe Euijoo even further; the younger omega let out a soft, trilling purr, the sound vibrating against Nicholas’s chest as he tucked himself deeper between their bodies. 

Nicholas lay still, watching the two of them in the soft spill of lamplight. Kei’s face relaxed in a way Nicholas didn’t often get to see - unguarded, devoted, utterly gentle.

Euijoo looked beautiful like this too, cheeks flushed from pleasure, lashes damp, lips parted slightly as his purring faded into a sleepy hum. Together they looked like something impossibly perfect, a pair that fit as naturally as breathing.

He wanted this.

Not theirs, exactly. Not to take Kei’s place or Euijoo’s or wedge himself somewhere he wasn’t meant to be. But he wanted someone of his own - an alpha who would hold him like that, bury their face in his neck, pull him close with steady hands and steady warmth. 

Someone he could cling to without guilt, without hesitation. Someone who would curl around him at night and stay until morning.

Nicholas watched Kei nuzzle into Euijoo’s shoulder, listened to the soft, sleepy purrs vibrating through the younger omega, and let his own eyes finally drift shut. 

The next morning the living room smelled faintly of coffee and fabric softener, sunlight slipping in through the windows. Nicholas curled at one end of the couch, socked feet tucked under him, while Euijoo perched sideways beside him. 

The drama playing on the TV screen flickered over both their faces, and Euijoo kept nudging Nicholas whenever something ridiculous happened, his laugh light and unbothered now that the worst of his heat had eased.

Kei sat at the dining table, hair still sleep-tousled as he scrolled through his laptop, only lifting his head when the couch erupted into laughter again. 

It was a peaceful moment which was probably exactly why Euijoo decided to speak.

"Hyung, we should meet up with Fuma soon." Euijoo suddenly spoke, clearing his throat as he looked at his mate. 

Kei was sitting at the dining room table, scrolling through his laptop while Nicholas and Euijoo were sitting together on the couch, watching a drama on the tv. The alpha just blinked at Euijoo for a moment, Euijoo pointedly staring back until a sudden look of realization suddenly came over his face. 

"Ah, yes. You're right, we should! I think he said he's free this weekend. We should go check out that bar by the studio."

"Great idea, Hyung!" Euijoo gasped before turning back to Nicholas. "Nichol, you should come with us. Finally meet Fuma-hyung once and for all."

Nicholas just stared at his best friend suspiciously. He had heard of Fuma, yes. Several times in fact, and Kei had mentioned that Fuma would be the perfect match for the omega... in more ways than one. 

"Why are you trying so hard to set me up?"

"Because you deserve someone good." Kei said without hesitation. 

"Maybe a little," Euijoo admitted innocently. "But he's single, attentive, super attractive and -"

"No." Nicholas interrupted, looking back towards the TV. 

"Why not!"

"Because it's weird! He's your guys friend so if something goes wrong then it'll just be awkward."

"Nothing will go wrong," Kei assured and Euijoo nodded. 

"Exactly, plus technically, he's Hyung's friend. Not mine. Which means you wouldn't have to worry about it getting messy between us."

"You sound like my therapist." The older omega muttered. 

"It's just dinner, Nicho." Kei laughed. "You're not agreeing to marriage."

"A double date means we'll be there. So there will be no awkward moments and you don't even have to flirt if you don't want to!" Euijoo reached over to squeeze Nicholas's ankle. 

“I hate you both.” Nicholas groaned, dragging a pillow over his face.

Euijoo grinned and leaned in. “You love us.”

“Unfortunately.”

Kei smirked. “He’s nice, Nicho. And you deserve to go out with someone who doesn’t make you roll your eyes the entire night.”

Nicholas peeked out from under the pillow. “That is… a very low bar.”

“Then it’ll be easy to clear.”

"I'll even pay for your drinks." Euijoo promised.

"Fine. If you say he’s good for me… then he probably is.” Nicholas sighed. “But if he's weird then I'm ghosting him and I don't want to hear anything else about him ever."

"Deal!"

"And if you two start doing too much PDA, I'm going to walk out."

"That's not fair." Kei frowned. 

"Too bad! Those are my conditions."

Euijoo moved to be able to lean his head on Nicholas's shoulder, smiling like the sun. "It's going to be fun. I promise.”

Kei arranged everything faster than Nicholas expected. By the time Euijoo’s heat had fully passed and he’d bounced back to his usual bright self, the plans were set.

Kei kept mentioning that Fuma apparently “was really looking forward to it”, which Nicholas absolutely refused to think too hard about.

On the evening of the date, Nicholas stood alone in his apartment, the quiet pressing around him. He buttoned his shirt slowly, adjusting the collar of his jacket, smoothing the fabric. 

He leaned closer, checking again, then sighed at himself. It was just drinks. No reason for his stomach to be doing somersaults or for his hands to feel a little unsteady.

Nicholas swiped his lip gloss across his lips one last time before stepping away from the mirror. 

“This Fuma guy probably isn’t even all that.”