Archive of Our Own

It was just a normal mission, as normal as it could be, Minho told himself. Usual. Easy.

They had just to infiltrate some rich fuckers' ball and… kill one of them? The only difference now was that instead of just shooting mf from the sniper rifle they had to poison him. Why such a long way? He couldn't yet understand all ways the leader's brain worked, but he wouldn't like to go against him now.

On the next seat from him Seungmin, their so-called "poison master", sat. Usually he with Jeongin sat stuck in lab doing magic with their "liquid deaths", but now he, by some reason, had to go there himself. Minho rarely had seen him outside if the lab – if he had seen him that much at all – and usually it was Changbin or Hyunjin to go on missions with him. He had to say, after these missions Hyunjin, the only omega in gang, returned quite… perturbed. Maybe this was the reason Minho was sent there with Seungmin today? Aside from Changbin and Hyunjin being busy with their own projects, of course.

Minho still couldn't connect the dots. If their goal should be killed via poison, why can't he go there all by himself? Why take Seungmin with him? Isn't his place in base, in their labs?

Aforementioned man just fidgeted more in his seat. He looked… anxious. More anxious than usual, if Minho could judge from mere hours of him seeing other through the years of working in organisation.

"So what do we need to do?" he asked just to break the uneasy silence in the car.

Seungmin suddenly sent him near-death glare. What the?..

"We just go there and play the role of a pair near break-up", he muttered, sounding quite angry. What is wrong with this man?

"Two alphas? Are you sure? It's quite obvious that we can't be a pair".

Seungmin closed his eyes and sharply inhaled, as if being harrassed by the mere thought of it.

"It all goes accordingly to a plan. Nothing wrong. Just stay away from me and keep a bitch face. Just as usual for you."

This fucker!..

Minho bit his lower lip and tried to even his breathing. This mission was extremely weird. This man was extremely weird. If it was just how it always was on these missions, no wonder Hyunbins decided to refuse the offer for the sake of their personal business.

They drove in silence. Seungmin tugged on his collar from time to time, as if trying to free his neck from the clothes. Minho could have sworn that he touched his scent glands more than once. What a pervert.

"Do you just need a driver?" Minho asked once again just to not feel so strange in the quiet dark car.

Seungmin jerked his head in a half-no.

"I can drive. Just… not now."

It gave Minho more questions than answers.

After another half of an hour they arrived. It was a place far from big city – giant building with several stories above the earth (and maybe several under it, by his experience), almost not seen in the twilight. Either the ball hasn't yet started or they had really good dark windows. Any way, it was suspicious.

It was a ball, masquerade one, so they wore masks, hiding more than a half of their faces. Aside from their masks, absurdly colourful, their suits were inconspicuous and hiding their real body shapes, so Minho was at least 50% sure they couldn't be tracked that easily. They also have used a lot of perfume so the sniffers couldn't find them by their smell.

Even before they went out of car, Minho could sense that something was off. Seungmin was continuously tugging on his collar and had bared his neck pretty much. He was fidgeting at his seat and rummaged through his bag, putting some ampulas and some other things (he couldn't quite see in the darkness) into his insanely deep pockets. Just as Minho went to open the door on his side, Seungmin nervously (or rather angrily?) pulled one ampule from his pocket and put it into his mouth. With a light crack he broke the ampule with his teeth and swallowed something that came out of it. Minho stopped in his tracks. What the heck??? Did he want to be killed instead of their goal? He finally showed his true coward face and decided to die on his watch?

He rushed back into the car, ready to do CPR if needed. Honestly he didn't know what to do. Poisoning obviously wasn't something he worked with very often, if at all. He was ready at least to report it to the base.

But Seungmin wasn't dying. When Minho loomed above him and held out his hand to touch him or otherwise try to help, Seungmin just catched his hand mid-move and threw it away from his face. He actively moved on his seat and then exited the car with a light growl. Like, real growl.

What a weirdo.

"You okay?" Minho asked casually – or tried for it to sound casual – and Seungmin only made strange half-growling half-moaning sound in return. Seriously, what's up with this man.

"Fuck off", he didn't even try to pretend that they were a real pair, walking several steps ahead of Minho who held their "ball tickets" (or at least how Felix called them, a vixen) without which they wouldn't be allowed inside.

Two bouncers – obviously sniffers – stood by the door. Seungmin came nearer and opened his scent glands for them to sniff. Huh, that's why.

When they asked for something – probably tickets, – he just vaguely gestured to Minho, who stomped several feets behind.

Bouncers looked up the tickets – small bits of yellow paper, without any words on them – and also sniffed them thoroughly. And then made the same with Minho.

"You have the cute slut", one of them said just as Minho was about to open the door, "very fertile."

"Lucky man", added other one.

W… hat?

He could understand if they just called Seungmin "slut" because they thought that he was a sub in their pair (which he probably wasn't, if you ask Minho for his unbiased opinion), but why "fertile"? How the fuck would they know? Fertility wasn't something that came up important for the alphas anyway.

When Minho finally made it inside the building and then inside the ball hall (not without the help of servants), he had already had tons of not spent up anxiety coming. What did the sniffers mean? Was Seungmin dying slowly? Where the fuck he was at all?

Well, if he was to die, he should at least take their goal with him.

The very same goal, obviously obese man, round as a coin, was at the other side of the hall. Thankfully, Seungmin was near him. Close to him, actually. Maybe too close.

By the time Minho did everything to enable his act of an average rich man (including some small talks about nothing with strangers, some flirting, done not too perfectly, and taking a champagne glass from servants), Seungmin and their goal came to the corner of giant hall, further from people. They were hardly talking – well, Seungmin did most of the talk, and their goal listened and tried to came closer to him, crouching above, nearly with head on Seungmin's neck. Wait, what? Did he just… well, he wouldn't. At least, it would be an absurd thing to do, because he and Seungmin were both alphas, as far as he knew. Maybe this man was just a some kind of pervert liking alpha-alpha relationships. Disgusting. Anyway, what Seungmin even did there? They needed their goal dead not enamored.

Suddenly Seungmin – in his dark blue mask with long feathers – looked straight at him, as if burning a hole in his place. He turned his head a bit – long feathers trembled – and said something to the man. Man snapped his head in Minho's direction, and Minho had to remember to play a part of "near break-up pair". He tried to make his look as sharp as possible, jealous and evil, and man only smirked with half of his mouth. He slowly turned back to Seungmin (who continued to look at him with something unreadable in his eyes), and the very next moment Minho found man's hand groping Seungmin's thigh. Possessively. What the fuck was going on.

Okay, okay, this should be just a part of some sick strategy. Presumably-not-dying Seungmin, their goal, looking at him like a shark which sensed the blood in the water, and Minho, standing really far from both of them, dumbfounded and a bit irritated.

The man continued to touch Seungmin's body (he showed some signs of discomfort, and even Minho could see it from his side), though Seungmin continued to talk with him bravely. After some time man came extremely close to him, so their bodies brushed together more often than not, and Minho could see not-so-accident kisses their goal made to Seungmin neck. Ewww.

When their goal was distracted by someone of his friends, Minho gestured to Seungmin with their gang's sign of distress, asking him if he should go save him, and Seungmin just jerked his head with another half-no and, as the man returned to him after small talk, took greasy man's hand and pulled him somewhere, momentarily disappearing in the crowd.

It took Minho another dozen of minutes to navigate through all the people around and find them – Seungmin took their goal into some kind of a balcony, closed space behind darkened windows. Minho couldn't see them very well from where he stood (partly because of how hardly transparent glass was), but he could see quite clearly that in some moment Seungmin pulled his mask off from his face, closed the space between him and the man and very obscenely kissed him in the lips.

What a dumb bitch! Not only flirting with their goal, but also showing him his real face? It was obviously a sabotage, so he rushed to them, wanting to end this fucking circus before it all blasted.

And just as he neared their balcony, squeezing through the crowd, they completely disappeared from the sight.

There was only one way out of this small space, aside from the entrance Minho used, – small door to some kind of tiny corridor leading to the living rooms. Some guests have obviously been there, the awful odor of perfumes and pheromones thick in the air. Minho pulled to the side and tried to even his erratic breath. He managed to lose his goal, his partner and maybe also his head, if the same partner would be a traitor of them. There was also a possibility of him losing his entire found family, if Seungmin will spill their base entire coordinates to someone who they were enemies with.

He took the communicator from his inner pocket just in time to see a new message from Seungmin: "Room 56. Follow my scent. Be quiet and wait for me to end".

So… the possibility of a betrayal seemed to become smaller, but just a bit. It could still be a trap.

Room 56 was… at the third floor. Minho tried to find the familiar scent of flowery perfume in the air, and it looked like he succeeded in the end. Flowery scent, too sweet for his taste, mixed with some cold forest smell, probably man's own perfume (he guessed not only them used artifical smells to cover their identity here), and Minho could have sworn that he felt something akin to chemicals in the air. And, strangely, the strongest odor of omega in heat. There was someone third with them? This floor seemed empty, so if there was indeed someone third, Minho could probably kill all three of them without unnecessary witnesses crawling around. His gun had a silencer, and it worked pretty great.

Door to the room wasn't locked, moreso, it was a bit opened, and the light came out to the corridor in a thin beam. He came closer.

Not wanting to get ahead of events and do some stupidity, he stood near door and hushed his breathing, trying to recognize some words from the also hushed speech.

He heard laugh. This bitch laughed! Minho clenched his teeth and told himself to wait. His gun and his mind were ready.

Whispers became more and more heated – now it was clearly a man who was talking, and to Minho's great surprise, he heard that man told Seungmin about their gang's business. It was some info he didn't know they needed, but it might come out handy, and still… what was happening there?

He looked through the thin crack what was happening in room. Man was sitting on the bed with his back to the door, fully naked with his right hand before him, hidden from the sight behind his wide back. Nor Seungmin, neither omega were anywhere in sight.

Sudden slurping noise catched Minho's attention. Man exhaled, raspy and tired, and Minho heard him petting someone's head with small "good slut" coming from his filthy mouth.

There clearly was an omega sucking him off.

Still, where was Seungmin?

"And what about your other branch?" Minho heard another voice – it was most probably Seungmin's, but still it sounded quite broken as if he was out of his breath and out of his throat. And without any warning thick wave of want pierced his body.

Omega in heat.

It wasn't something that could suddenly break all his limiters, but he still was dumbfounded by the sheer power of this smell. He felt lightheaded. It came all of sudden, completely from nowhere, and it took him hostage. He heard whisper – probably Seungmin's one – asking other questions: how many people of him was there, where were the black exits of this building, the code from some certain bank cell, – and man was answering on them in low tone, obediently, as if hypnotized. And against his will, Minho found himself wanting to answer on them too, even though he didn't know about any cells or exits or all business that was between man and Seungmin? Omega? Whoever it was. His mind was slowly clouded by the power of this enigmatic omega.

He has to bite his cheek on inside to clear his head a little, and then bite his thumb when initial pain wasn't enough for that. He didn't know what was happening, and honestly didn't want to know. For now he just wanted to understand when this man will die. It was their mission goal. Right?..

He closed his eyes and tried to breathe deeply to calm down and focus, but then understood that with every inhale he got more omega pheromones in his system, which made him as un-focused as it was humanly possible. Shit.

Behind the door strange sounds appeared. There was some gurgling and coughing, and then some sharp screaming after which came a loud thud.

Darn, fuck it!

Minho rushed into the room.

On the big bed there laid no less big man with his mouth agape. There was yellowish foam on his chin, and his eyes, a bit reddened, were wide open and rolled back. His pose openly showed that has was in agony… and then it ended – with his death.

Behind the bed, following the laboured breaths, Minho found Seungmin sitting fully naked on the floor – with his hair all musled and eyes puffy and red as if he cried.

"Where's omega?" he asked before anything else, because omega was an unnecessary witness who could possibly sell them up. Or set any other kind of trap.

"What?" Seungmin answered groggily, as if he was tipsy. No way this dumbhead decided to drink on a mission.

Minho rudely yanked him up from the floor. Seungmin still breathed heavily as if every inhale took half of his power and every exhale took another.

"Where. Is. The omega?" Minho growled right in his mouth, irritated to no end. Why has this mission went this way? He didn't know and for now he just wanted it all to end.

"There wasn't any…" suddenly Seungmin covered his own mouth with his hand and crouched, as if he was about to puke.

Shit!

Minho looked around the room while trying to take Seungmin, half-conscious, to the bathroom. The wasn't any trace of a third person being in room nor close to it.

Wait…

With all the adrenaline pumping in his blood he couldn't at first understand who was the source of mind-boggling smell.

It was Seungmin, with his neck red from bites and wet from licks.

Seungmin was the omega.

What the?..

He decided it wasn't the right time for him to ask. Smell was slowly fading, and all stress hormones luckily pushed the lust away, allowing him to think more clearly than before.

Seungmin sat on cold tile floor, still bare as newborn, and puked in toilet bowl a lot. His lips were red and also puffy like from some kind of allergy – or from being thoroughly used.

Minho, a bit guilty from what he saw, hurried to find his clothes. He found them lying all over the floor – his jacket losing cufflinks and his white shirt several buttons short. It was obvious that he was undressed hastily and rather rudely – and with the way things were played around, most probably not by himself. Minho, both guilty and by some reason also embarassed, just threw the bundle of clothing inside the bathroom and closed the door. He opened the windows – pulling on his gloves before to not leave any fingerprints – and inhaled fresh air. Fog in his head was slowly dissipating, but by some reason his body ached – literally ached as if every muscle in his body was cramping. It wasn't normal, and it was probably dangerous, so he should take Seungmin in his hands and flee – probably dragging Seungmin on his back. After all, now it seemed that he was as good as dead.

With Seungmin noisily putting on his clothes (Minho heard dulled thuds as if he knocked his body against the walls), Minho decided to search dead man's clothes for anything interesting. There it was – some keys, his credit card, some kind of pass card, IDs (for name that he didn't remember dead man having – after all, he remembered some info about his goal from before) and also several USB flash drives, one of which was in the secret pocket inside of his jacket. Rich loot.

Bathroom door opened, and Seungmin came out, nearly fell from the inside. Minho was barely able to catch him in his arms. Even with fresh breeze coming out of windows, Seungmin's skin radiated heat and smelled… ugh, let's just not think about it for now. He was all flushed, even the roots of his hair looked a bit red, and Minho could have sworn that it wasn't an exaggeration.

"I'll… lead…" breathed Seungmin and groggily went ahead. He looked around the room with squinted eyes, pulled both of his hands inside his pockets and started to count ampulas, grabbing them in his big hands, now trembling. One of the ampulas fell on the floor, and Seungmin nearly screeched when Minho was centimetres away from accidentally stepping on it.

"Don't!" shouted he shortly and coughed, covering his mouth with now empty hand.

Minho took the ampula and put it in his own pocket. Seungmin counted them again and had even use his fingers to do some inner math.

"Let's… go", he said in a small voice and went ahead. Minho wasn't a professional in secrecy and didn't really know how to erase all traces of himself – after all, he was mostly a sniper and rarely went close to their goals – so he decided not to push his luck trying to arrange the corpse and his belongings in some specific way. If Seungmin decided that they could already go, they could go. After all, there hardly was anything they could do anyway. If they were caught on the cameras – especially cameras inside the room, if there were any – they were screwed no matter what they would try to do.

He didn't really remember how they ended up being near their car, parked on a great distance from the building. Seungmin was looking pretty suspicious – all sweaty, red and reeking of heat – but people they must've come nearby must have thought that they were just a normal pair going to have a good time somewhere far from the official field.

Seungmin opened the back door – Minho saw how hard it was to him as if he was boneless by some reason – and got into the car. Minho was just about to get into the car also when wind brought him a familiar smell. He shuddered, feeling the wave after wave of heat piercing his body. Shit, Seungmin still was full of pheromones and Minho's adrenalin had all weared off to balance his feelings. He wasn't remembering their way here because of it, and now…

He held his hand on the car door's handle, contemplating about what to do now. He could report it to the base – he had some time before he snaps – but what then? He could just turn around and go for a walk, leaving squirming and weak Seungmin all by himself locked inside the car. But what if someone will break in and use him?

Seungmin suddenly disappeared from the sight, and Minho rushed to look what happened. As it seemed, he nearly fell from the seats in his wish to bend forward to hug himself.

Minho opened the back door.

It was a mistake.

Strong wave of smell rushed into him, almost making his legs weak. With the great embarrassment he noticed that he was actively salivating.

His last coherent thought was about the stupid fucker who had decided that it was alright to send an omega near his heat to the mission.

And he snapped.

***

He didn't quite remember how he ended up in the car; nor did he remember who closed the door, locking the enticing smell inside.

Everything around him became just a row of flashes, here and there, too disconnected from each other to try to remember them clearly.

There was something warm on his lips – Seungmin's lips, probably? He felt that his jacket and shirt were taken off from him – or rather that he was ordered to take them off, and he obeyed, happily as if it was just how it must be. Next thing he remembered was how he nosed a dip between Seungmin's neck and shoulder – bared and ready for him, enticingly sweet, alluringly warm. He licked it thoroughly and then bit – not yet as a mark, but close to one. Seungmin was pliant and soft under his arms; his body, slim and a bit toned, flushed in red down to his very ribs. He moaned brokenly when Minho licked his chest, nibbled around his nipples, run his hand through his already messy hair. Seungmin wasn't fully passive either; Minho felt him moving, and the next moment he sat on Minho's lap, kissing him in lips. Seungmin put both of his hands on the sides of Minho's face, and he opened his mouth for Seungmin to put his hot tongue inside. They just kissed for some time, with such fervor as if it was their last day on the earth, with their chests brushing against each other.

Finally Minho touched a place between Seungmin's thighs – after all, wasn't it the final prize, something that craved for his attention? He dipped two of his fingers inside – not without some resistance – and Seungmin moaned – or rather groaned, rising up from his fingers a little. There wasn't so much slick there – honestly speaking, hardly any slick whatsoever.

A wild thought sounded the alarm in Minho's brain, coming through the soft fog: wasn't it strange? Wasn't he in his heat?

But then Seungmin's hand was on his painfully hard dick, and all and any coherent thought in his head had evaporated.

They moved inside the car – Minho backing up up to the door, almost lying on it, and Seungmin lying upon him, licking his chest and neck almost aggressively. He nibbled at the side of Minho's neck and then bit, not really hard, but quite possessively nonetheless – it sobered Minho up a bit, something was off. It wasn't how omegas in heat usually behaved. His brain, accustomed to the pleasant fog, started to work, and even to-be hickeys that Seungmin had actively been sucking on his skin weren't enough to stop him from thinking. Seungmin was an alpha, for all did he know, and he was hundred percent sure of it. Maybe he wasn't a "standard" alpha, but he still wa-

His dick was suddenly enveloped in the soft warmth. Darn. But it wasn't the worst moment – the worst was the fact that he felt suffocated in a new wave after wave of sweet omega scent. His brain switched off like a broken lightbulb, and he didn't remember anything after it at all.

***

Seungmin was breathing heavily above him – tired and laboured rather than pleased. Minho frowned, trying to understand the situation. He felt negatively aching – every muscle of his body was trembling from overexertion. His back was in pain from the weird pose he found himself in, and added weight above didn't made anything better. His stomach felt funny – something sticky was upon it, already drying up. His head was empty, and he felt dizziness upcoming. Seungmin kissed him – kissed him, what the heck?! what is wrong with him – and he felt salt in the corners of his lips.

Wait. Why at all Seungmin was kissing him?

And moreso, was his dick still inside the other's body?

"Wait-wait-wait", he tried to sit up, forgetting that not all of his body was fully free, and Seungmin bared his teeth in an angry hiss. "What is going on?"

Seungmin wasn't that sober and clearly thinking still, and he just growled with his eyes down.

"What are you doing?" Minho snapped, clearly irritated by the way tables turned.

"Waiting", came the answer in a quiet whisper.

"Do you have to wait on my dick?" Minho tried to free himself from Seungmin, but he just tightened around his dick to the verge of it being torturous.

"You know that I am in power of chopping the ligaments on it off? Stay still, I say."

"What kind of pervert you are?!" Minho stopped in his tracks not wanting to become eunuch that early in life. There always was a possibility of trauma at work with their type of a job, but losing such organ in such a stupid way was just ridiculous.

"Who says", grumpily answered Seungmin, rising up a bit. With great disgust Minho understood that the point of their connection was all slick – and not with any omega slick.

"Have I come?"

"As if I give a fuck", hissed Seungmin, clearly bothered by the fact that they still were connected in any way, but doing literally nothing to stop it.

"What are you waiting for?" Minho decided to be more thoughtful. Seungmin was their poison master, after all, and in their position it was a bit more dangerous to irritate him than Minho.

"I'm waiting for the effect of a capsula to wear off", came the answer, and Seungmin visibly relaxed – even the part of him that took Minho's body part hostage.

"What effect?" Seungmin sent him near-death glare and raised a bit again with the blessed sigh. "Is it something for your heat?"

"My what?"

"Your… errm…" suddenly Minho had the revelation that Seungmin had never gone to their missions with alphas – only with Hyunjin, who was omega, and Changbin, their only beta. He decided to ask straight: "Are you omega?"

"What? No! Are you dumb?" his tone was indeed poisonous, as it should be for his place in a gang. But it didn't answer the question.

"I mean… everything… that happened", to his embarassement Minho felt heat rising to his cheeks. He hadn't considered himself sexually resctricted or something along the lines of that, but this assault… By Seungmin's unintelligible groaning he understood that it wasn't a pleasant topic for him either.

"Nothing happened", he hissed and finally freed Minho's dick from himself.

"So why at all this "nothing" has happened?" hissed Minho in return. He also could be evil if needed, and this fucker gave him tons of reasons to be so.

To his surprise, Seungmin just quietly sighed.

"I'll look for something to clear us", he said and started blindly fumbling around the car, even going that far as to crawl to the front row of seats and further. After some time he returned with a small, almost empty pack of wet wipes. "You can take only one", he warned.

Full of righteous irritation, Minho took two. In the next moment he had his fingers nearly bitten off.

"What the hell are you doing?! First you mess with our goal, and now what?!"

"I'm just doing what I was said to, and I've done it perfectly! The problem is clearly in you!"

"You little-"

Seungmin wriggled in his place and fastly pulled one ampula from his jacket and put it inbetween his teeth. They both stopped, breathing heavily.

"What the fuck are these things?!" Minho hissed, trying to be as far from him as possible.

Seungmin sighed again and put ampula back into his pocket.

"It's our… Innie's mostly, but… it's something that make you smell like an omega in heat…" he started, licking his lips nervously, "and be able to dominate over other people as alphas."

Minho couldn't wrap his head around it. Okay, smell. It must affect people around him. But… as far as he remembered, Seungmin had behaved weird too. Or was he indeed a pervert ready for a quick fuck with literal stranger, person who knew only some generic data about him and with whom he was acquainted for mere hours?

"There are certain side effects, of course…" Seungmin ran his fingers through his hair, making it even more messy, "for example, you not only smell like omega, you also feel like one".

Ow.

Minho again thought about Changjins who obviously weren't alphas enough to satiate "pseudo-omega" fully.

"And what do you do if there isn't any alphas nearby?"

Seungmin snorted, as if it was something really funny.

"Well, I just need to be over the peak for some time for it to wear off, so I don't need someone specific for it. With Jinnie it was pretty easy."

What?

"Well, he is an omega."

"Well, he is extremely good with his mouth. Oh, fuck off, you clearly don't understand."

Minho just huffed. He clearly couldn't understand indeed.

"And why out of all people in gang it's you who uses it? Wouldn't it be better for normal omega to do it? Or for beta? Anyone else than you?"

Seungmin sent him another piercing glare.

"Well", he started sarcastically, rolling his eyes, "you need to be a normal alpha for it to work as it should. And it has to do with your personal scent trace, so for now I'm the only one who is capable to use them at all. Innie wanted to made some for his scent trace, but… you know, it's Innie, so I stopped him from doing so."

"Why?" Minho could have sworn that he saw something akin to sadness in the look Seungmin sent him.

"Well, I… he's just too innocent to be dragged in this mess. Like, we started this experiment several years ago when he was especially young, and now I'm too deep in it, and I have to say that it isn't an experience I wished for someone else to have."

He bit his lip in weird emotion, squinting his eyes. Minho remembered the salt taste on his lips. Had he cried?

"It's just too awful. I don't want Innie to feel it ever."

"Why not using someone else's s… scent trace or how do you call it? We have six alphas in group, after all."

Minho couldn't believe it, but he almost started to sympathise this fucker despite everything he had dragged him through today.

Seungmin lowered his gaze.

"Just drive me back. You're just my driver, after all."

Minho could have sworn that in darkness surrounding them he saw Seungmin's eyes glistening wetly.

***

In the next several days he couldn't find Seungmin anywhere in base. He did even hang around the labs area for some time, so Jeongin had to shoo him away pretty angrily, justifying it with the fact that something dangerous could be in the air.

"Where's Seungmin?" Minho asked him as younger man forcefully pushed him out of the lab. Jeongin was in safety glasses and gas mask, so maybe something really happened. But he didn't know, maybe it was just their uniform and Jeongin only used some kind of emergency as a distraction.

"I need to talk to him."

Jeongin looked at him disapprovingly from behind a transparent plastic.

"He won't want to talk to you."

"What?! Why? We were partners just for one evening and he already hates me? What a-"

Jeongin nearly slapped him with his gloved hand.

"He's just not in the mood to talk to anyone now. You're not special."

It suddenly stung. Minho hadn't even considered a possibility of becoming "special" for someone in his life, but such explicit words messed with something inside his brain.

He needed to conduct a believable lie fast, if he wanted to… he hadn't really known what he wanted to do yet.

"You know", he carded a hand through his hair, "Chan is planning an operation of similar kind soon, and he needs Seungmin's help. And I don't see him working here these days. Does he work from home?"

Jeongin squinted, so the whites of his eyes disappeared. He looked… weary and dangerous.

"I can tell you where Minnie lives… but you won't be doing anything rash yet."

Minho hardly suppressed the wish to beam.

"Of course, it's up to him, but… please tell Chan that now he isn't in the right state to repeat the process", Jeongin's eyes darted around the room, as if trying to escape from Minho's look, and he sighed, hugging himself uneasily. They stood in silence for a long time, unmoving, as if younger hoped, that this way he would become invisible.

"So?.."

Jeongin sighed.

***

Seungmin lived in apartment complex several blocks from the base, in a completely normal flat with a completely average inconspicuous flat door. At least from what Minho sees, standing before it for, as it seemed, an eternity. He couldn't really understand what he wanted to do now and why at all had he came here, but he had a gnawing wish to meet with Seungmin in person to… what?

He still couldn't muster up his thoughts on this topic.

He knocks the door almost absentmindedly.

Had Changbin and Hyunjin also felt this guilty?

Wait, what.

It's nothing. Nothing happened at all. He had nothing to feel guilty for.

And still, he is there, anxious and with nerves at the verge of wracking.

There are some shuffling sounds behind the door, and soon the door slowly opens.

"Innie, if you are about tha-" Seungmin meets Minho's eyes and forcefully closes the door with a loud thump.

"What?! Hey, open the door, don't be a jerk!" he banges the door, feeling powerless. He hated it when something wasn't under his control, and Seungmin was one of these things. He didn't even know him enough to judge, but still he was able to grow the full-blown hate for him.

"Why the fuck should I do that?!" his voice is hoarse and a bit dulled, as if there was something with his throat.

A slut indeed. Bet he was sucking another spoiled man off-

Minho tried to suppress these thoughts. There wasn't any logical reason for him to do that, with all honesty.

"You wasn't there at work! Chan needs you!" he lied again, hoping that Seungmin wouldn't communicate with him straight.

There is thoughtful humming behind the door, and then coughing. Was he using his ampulas again?

"I'm taking my days off as I'm allowed to! I don't know what Chan has to do with your scheme, but I don't believe any of your words!"

Minho clenches his teeth. If Seungmin will connect with Chan aside from this talk, Minho might be screwed, to put it lightly. He needed to come up with some specific reason for Seungmin to open the door.

"You lost something during that mission, and I came to return it to you."

Silence. Then some shuffling. A tired sigh.

"Give it to Innie, I trust him with my belongings."

Well.

"You lost something too personal for him to keep."

Seungmin snickers on the other side.

"If you wanted to joke about my virginity, I have lost it years before you, thanks. There isn't anything of my things that is "too personal" for Innie."

Minho huffs, defeated. What was with this man? Why was he so complicated, as a kid in his puberty?

"Okay, I just wanted to tell you something. In person. And I wouldn't like to tell it to In- to Jeongin."

The silence is too loud. Minho looks at his phone – he went here too late to stay that much longer – and he almost turns around to go, when door opens.

First thing he notices is – was Seungmin always this short? Then he has to remind himself that his working boots have quite giant platforms, and Seungmin, well – he's nearly crouched in half.

Seungmin bores a hole in him and quietly goes away from the door and into some of the rooms. Minho follows, trying to close the door after him and fumbling with unfamiliar lock for several minutes. Of course, this fucker decided to leave him alone with this problem.

"Do you want tea? Water?" comes quiet voice from the kitchen. "I don't drink coffee these days, sorry."

The flat is… minimalistic. There isn't that much of a furniture nor any kind of decor aside from papers laying in stack on glass table.

"Okay, you will drink tea then."

Minho just sits on the couch – or at least, tries to, because he is met with the sign of something looking suspiciously as sex toys lying all around the light fabric. Some of them look freshly used.

He is indeed a pervert, huh.

"If you'll make any snarky comment on this, I will put poison in your tea and make you drink it. And be sure, I am capable of doing so. This will be a great miss, but Chan will understand."

Seungmin stands in a doorframe with two cups of tea in both his hands. He looks kind of… disheveled.

Next thing Minho notices is a faint – not so faint now as he sat there for a while – scent of alpha's rut. It's something metallic, like a blood, and something extremely chemical. Bleach, maybe? With it by some reason Minho is sure that it is indeed pheromones and not natural smell.

"Have I interrupted something? Where's your alpha?" he asks casually, leaning back on the couch. His cup stands unused on the glass table.

Seungmin stops with his mouth near the cup's brim and jerks his head up.

"What?"

"I mean, all of that", he vaguely gestures around and makes a serious face when Seungmin shots him death glare, "there is some alpha in rut here. Fucking you?"

Seungmin puts the cup on a table – with more force than needed – and glass trembles.

"As I see, you still are imagining people. Maybe I should tell Chan that we have a schizophreniac in our rows? It doesn't seem useful for the gang", hisses he through clenched teeth.

"What do you-"

"This alpha is me. I'm in rut now. Pleased?" he huffs and massages his eyes with the heels of his palms.

"Huh, I thought you have used this medicine again for some mighty alpha to come and fuck you senseless", founds himself Minho answering, and Seungmin snaps. Next thing Minho is able to comprehend is Seungmin's forearm, long and hard, pressing against his throat, stopping the air from coming. He coughs, and Seungmin victoriously looks at him and then slaps his right cheek with his opened palm – hard. What a fucker.

"What did you want to tell me? Tell and go out, while you are alive", he whispers angrily yet looks cold-blooded and almost unperturbed.

And he is yet again sitting on Minho's lap.

"Or what? Poison me with your pills, little princess?" Minho doesn't know why is he saying such things. It wasn't planned, but he found himself neck deep in some useless argument with Seungmin. For how many times already.

"So what if I do?" he hisses, clenching his fingers on Minho's shoulders. Painful.

Also about poison…

"By the way", Minho continues much more lightheartedly, and Seungmin just blinks several times, struck with this sudden change of tone. "Is this your omega medicine?"

In his hand there is an ampula – the ampula, one of those that were there with Seungmin during mission, one that fell down and migrated in Minho's pockets. No one had asked for it for days, but he didn't want to cause wrath of poison master by having it around, and he couldn't have given it to Jeongin – by some weird inner logic of his.

"It is, but…" Minho quickly closes the palm and hides it behind his back. "Hey! Give it back!"

For some time they are messily entangled with their hands and legs trying to punch the other, and then Minho fastly opens his mouth and cracks the ampula. Seungmin stops, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Please. Just spit it out", he asks patiently, almost gently, patting his shoulder and already half-way standing up from the couch.

Minho swallows. Seungmin screeches.

"YOU DUMB BITCH!" he shouts, punching Minho in the guts as if it would make things better, and then pulls him closer by his collar. "If it won't kill you, I'll do it myself", he hisses, but seeing something in Minho's eyes, fastly stomps back and hurries to the other room.

"Innie?" his worried voice is heard through the wall, "do you have any antidote for the omega… umm… for the omega thing?" he sounds strained, as if he tries to not spill some info. "No, it's not- Yes, it's for me, of course. No, it was an accident. Sorry for bothering. Can I wait for you? How long will it take?" Jeongin answers something, and Seungmin groans – more like growls – in annoyance. "Yes. Thank you. Okay, I'll help myself with it, just as always. No! You don't need to send anyone my way. It could be dangerous. Err, yes, I was kinda experimenting, and… I'll explain later, bye!" he throws phone away and runs back, sitting near Minho. "How do you feel?"

Minho doesn't feel anything strange. Maybe only a small prickle all around his skin, but for now he discards it as nervousness and thrill. He just looks Seungmin straight in the eyes with something like superiority in his look.

"Why have you done it?" Seungmin half-hisses half-whispers, more worriedly than angrily, and frowns.

"Just wanted to feel in your skin."

Minho raises his head and dangerously looks at him. If this thing will work as it should, he will just show this fucker how he must do his job.

Seungmin, reading something in his face, tsks and turns away.

"I know what do you want to say about me! Okay! If you will be dying, just call me, I will happily end your suffering!" he snaps and briskly walks out of the room, closing the door behind himself.

Fine, Minho thinks. He will just show him that he must not be a slut to do his job properly. This fucker. Being a whore full-time and then just killing ones who fucked him to hide the traces, and possibly threatening the witnesses so Chan wouldn't see how lowly has his man fell. Changbin and Hyunjin are too soft to not be hushed if asked nicely, and oh, he must had behave nice with them.

He sits here quietly for some time, just thinking about what exactly he will do next. The effect was in smelling like omega, but dominating like alpha, right? He should just make this fucker do something he would regret for the end of his life. Maybe blackmail him? He could record some video of him…

Prickling on his skin becomes more obvious, and Minho trembles from weird feeling. What the fuck. He feels the heat coming all the way up to his neck.

Well, the effect must have just kicked in.

He stands up – not without some strange resistance from his legs, they feel wobbly and jelly-like, but he probably just sat there for too much – and walks to the kitchen.

Just the moment he opens the door between them, he feels a lighting of pain piercing through his entire body. Okay. He'll endure it. It's nothing new for him, honestly. Yes. Just a pring of pain.

But when he comes closer and closer to Seungmin – thoroughly ignoring him and trying not to sent him side-eyed glances and reading something on his phone – pain becomes only stronger, and it ends with something that big and hurtful that he blacks out from the shock for a moment and founds himself half-lying on kitchen's floor, with Seungmin looming over him. His warm hands are on his shoulders, and he visibly tries to tell something, but Minho can't understand a word because of feeling of soft cotton-like clouds obscuring his consciousness. He feels so… warm. It's almost pleasant – just to sit here in comfortable silence being enveloped in warmness and nice scent of metal and bleach.

Seungmin splashes cold water into his face, and Minho's mind clears a bit. Wait, he thinks, metal and bleach? Pleasant? How the fuck could he think that. He needs to punish the man before him, and he will do anything for it.

Seungmin shoves his fingers into Minho's eyes – he tries to fight, but finds himself too weak for that – and tries to see something in his pupils. He swears.

"Fuck", he breathes in horror, and Minho's cheek feels hot after a moment – as it seems, Seungmin slapped him again. "Listen to me!" he shakes him by the shoulders, more forcefully than needed, and Minho's head feels dizzy from all moving back and forth. Why can't he just stay still. He just needs to…

"HEY!" Seungmin shouts right in his face, and Minho tries to focus on what is his man saying. Honestly, he doesn't care, but it seems important. "You will stay here for some time. I'll call Innie to send me some scent erasers, and only after it we will do something with you. Okay? Before that, stay away from me!"

Huh, "stay away"… so he had already understood what Minho wanted to do? What a smart fucker. As if he cared.

Seungmin tries to stand up from one knee, but Minho pulls him back with hands harshly clenched onto his chest.

"You're a little… slut", he hisses, and Seungmin headbutts him with such power that he nearly falls back. Minho hears him scurrying away from him and locking the door. "Open up!" he tries to shout, but words come out of his mouth as a hoarse whispers. "You little-!"

"STAY THERE! IT'S ONLY FOR YOUR SAFETY!" Seungmin shouts back through the door, sounding as if he's already in tears. As he should. "Innie? INNIE, THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HERE! I NEED SCENT ERASERS! As quickly as you can", he suddenly hushes his tone. Minho hardly hears anything through the fog in his head, but he hears clearly that something akin to pained wail comes out of Seungmin's mouth. "No, I guess… Shit! I mean, they would come out handy?.. Bye, Innie, I'll explain everything later! What?.. NO, DON'T SAY ANYTHING TO CHAN YET! I WILL DO IT MYSELF! Please, Innie, can I trust you with this?" he sounds really desperate.

"Thank you, Innie. Bye."

He just breaths, erratic and clearly on the verge of hyperventilation, on his side. This formula mustn't be used on anyone but him! Who knows how Minho's body would endure it? After all, if even Seungmin himself felt like shit after every use of this, who knew, what would happen to someone who wasn't accustomed to it and had distinctively different scent trace? And without scent erasers there was a certain possibility of… gosh, it all went to hell extremely quickly.

"Do you hear me?" he puts a hand on door. "Minho?" he knocks the door. Is he alive there at all? This thing fucked with hormones greatly, who knows if it could actually kill someone. "HEY!"

Well, shit. Seungmin quickly raises to open the door. His hand trembles from nerves, and he almost feels lightheaded with his breathing that uneven.

Just calm down a bit. Nothing will happen in fifteen seconds.

Minho wails. It sounds so broken and pained that Seungmin has to rush inside the room.

Minho lays on the floor, hugging himself tightly, and shakes in wave after wave of shudders. Seungmin can see the tears still wet in his eyes.

Shit!

It was a familiar symptom, but it was too early. Usually it took about fourty minutes or more for him to become a wriggling mess. Minho made it in less than a quarter of an hour. What was happening?..

Minho sharply sniffed the air, his unfocused eyes darting around the room, and Seungmin understood.

This time there was an alpha in his rut nearby.

Okay, okay, just calm down. You made it in one piece even after goals in rut. Nothing too different from usual, right? Right?

"Shh, shh, I'm here, everything will be alright", he coos, sitting on one knee and trying to hug Minho tightly in a sign of safety. "I'm here, we will go through this together. Okay?" he feels his own smell waver, sensing the omega near, and suppresses the wish to gnaw into "omega" at the very same moment. He knows what to do, and he will do it. He had done it dozens of times. "You just need to get off. Some minutes in pleasure, hormonal wave, nothing too hard, right?" he sighs. Why at all does he explain anything to him? This man clearly is as good as dead in this sense. Maybe it was just some kind of self-reassuranse. To remind himself how to end this fuckery.

"I will help you."

He tries to think fast. Should he do it right there, on the floor? Or probably take him to the bed? Even after the medicine will wear off fully, Minho would be disoriented for several minutes, so Seungmin will probably be able to run away from him to not be killed – if he will wake up from his slumber with such thoughts. It wasn't a normal possibility, but he couldn't underestimate this weird man.

Probably it was safer to put him in bed?.. Seungmin puts his hands under Minho's back and knees and raises with huff. Minho is quite buff, he has to admit, and his constant moaning and wriggling doesn't make things easier for him.

Minho wetly nibbles on his left ear, and Seungmin shudders with sudden strike of searing white want that goes through him. After all, he's alpha in rut, and there is a person reeking of omega in heat in his hands. Of course, his rut isn't unbearable yet, and he tried to easy the hormonal grip of it before Minho came, but the continuous presence of strong scent could trigger something savage in him.

He hardly reaches the couch when Minho starts moving more actively – to be more precise, when he blindly seeks for his face and kisses him in lips. Answering would be a mistake – hormones-filled saliva would thin out his already thin patience, and he might snap and do something they both will regret. So he has to yank Minho from of him and throw him to the couch.

Other whines in need, and the sound sends tingles down his spine.

Focus, he prays to himself. It wasn't that hard. Just some simple processes…

"I'm going to get you off, right? Okay?" he whispers, already feeling heated and ready to snap in any moment. He clearly wasn't a fan of doing these things, choosing to let his hormone-fogged brain lead him in it, but now he had to do it in his right mind. Fuck.

He undresses Minho as far as he can – thankfully he wriggles out of his shirt himself, and also out of his pants – and hesitantly hovers his hand above his underwear. He can't say that Minho is that big or that hard, at least for now, but the mere thought of doing something with other man's dick disgusts him. They weren't even friends!

He palms his crotch, and Minho throws his head back in delight, baring his neck. The thought of biting it never was so enticing in his life.

"Shhh, wait just a bit", Seungmin says more to himself, continuing to touch other man's organ through the fabric. It wasn't all that hard, right? Just get him off, nothing more. Mere minutes of joy.

He feels both salivating and that his mouth is dry. Omega scent tingles in his nostrils, and he finds himself licking his lips in hunger.

Just a minute longer, please, just keep yourself together for some time. It all will end soon.

Suddenly he is manhandled in some weird position, both his hands yanked to grip Minho's thighs. Minho himself bares his neck again and breaths in deep huffs. At least his eyes are closed, so he isn't able to see how embarassed Seungmin is because of this. Minho's hands, both dry and soft at the same time, tug at his palms, interwining their fingers. It feels… nice.

Seungmin feels that he stands near the deep fall.

Focus!

It gets harder and harder to stand against the possibility of having this pliant body all to himself. He wants to eat, and wreak, and bite – he feels lightheaded just thinking of all the possibilities of using this cute little omega all he wants.

Seungmin bites his tongue, and then the inside of his cheek, and it sobers him a bit. He can't use his hands? Okay, he was waiting for something like that to happen.

Shuddering from disgust – only because of a feeling of fabric between his teeth – he pulls other's boxers down.

Enticing smell is strong here – after all, omega's dick if full and leaking, and all of his body liquids wear a scent mark. Seungmin shudders again – from horror before something he must do – and licks.

He begs himself not to swallow, not to pay attention to the dance of smells around, but Minho only bends back, and another laboured breath comes out of his wet lips, and Seungmin feels himself slowly falling – more like drowning – in something instinctual, losing last hope for staying in right mind.

He licks – and sucks – and licks again, feeling proud of making omega under him feeling so good. He untangles his fingers from Minho's and grips his thighs tighter. As, sweet omega. He moans under Seungmin, and whines, and wriggles, when Seungmin kisses-licks the inner side of his thighs, and then bites possessively, leaving some marks and much of his saliva on pale skin.

Next thing he founds himself doing is sucking on Minho's nipples. Man under him trembles from pleasure and arches his back – his chest coming only closer to Seungmin's seeking mouth. He bites lightly around the areola, and the sound omega makes with it is the sweetest sound Seungmin has ever heard. Minho's hands are now in his hair, massaging and scraping his scalp hesitantly, as if he had already lost control over his fingers, and it relaxes Seungmin enough to close the distance between their faces and kiss. The kiss is messy, wet and trembling, a little bit salty from tears, and Minho licks into his mouth with all his might. Seungmin allows it, but he lightly bites his lower lip in return.

Minho's body feels boneless and pliant under his seeking hands. Seungmin feels his body emiting more pheromones, as if air becomes steamy and temperature in room raises uncontrollably. He bites omega's neck – gently, by some reason, not enough to mark him at all – and heat smell spikes and envelops them as a thick blanket.

Just one push, nothing more, please.

Seungmin has to back up and sit straight above omega. What did this sudden thought mean? After all, weren't them alpha in rut and omega in heat, doing something natural that their bodies wanted them to do? Of course, maybe Seungmin takes it in a too slow pace, but it isn't like he is so well accustomed to taking care of omegas.

Some buzzing thought comes through the fog in his head, but he can't really grasp the exact meaning of it. He needs to do something simple, too simple for the average omega courting. But what exactly?..

Omega under him whines at the loss of contact and other's body warmness. Seungmin can see tears streaming down his flushed face. His eyes are still closed, and it saves Seungmin from another wave of embarrassment when he crouches above his face and licks salty tracks from other's face.

Well. This little omega looks pained enough that it would be nice to indulge him a bit, right? He shouldn't make him wait too long for a bit of a pleasure.

Seungmin finds his hand on other's leaking dick, gently moving his fingers up and down and circling around the slit. He kisses omega under him again, as sweet as he can, and this small action added to the touches to the lower side of his body does wonders – heat smell spikes again, harshly than before, and man under Seungmin comes.

Seconds after alarm goes off in Seungmin's head. Something was wrong in this situation, right? It wasn't planned?

If he could at least remember the plan.

Then omega whispers something, clutching at his arm in a strongest grip, and Seungmin remembers. Sudden wave of panic and pain makes his mind a bit clearer.

It all should end with Minho being brought over the edge. Medicine's effect should gradually subside.

Then why at all it seems to become only stronger?

He should think quickly before his mind will be again a foggy place. What did he do wrong? Was it because Minho's scent trace was different? Was it because medicine-induced hormonal wave caught Seungmin's own scent trace that must have clicked in place too well? What should he do to finally stop it before he'd done something irreversible?

"Alpha… I need…" Minho under him is panting, breathing with great pauses as if it comes hard for him to control the way his lungs work. He only wriggles in place, blindly trying to find Seungmin's hands and baring his neck further, half-nodding in a kind of invitation.

No. No, no, no, no.

Honestly, mark didn't really mean that much, especially on alpha's neck, and, as Seungmin thought, especially from another alpha and not from their omega pair. But even if it wouldn't mean anything in particular, the very same fact of it existing could drive Minho mad to the extent of him trying to kill Seungmin off. And even if he would say something like "I made it only for your own safety", things won't be that better, he is sure of it.

Heat aroma spikes again, turning a bit sour in a sign of distress. Medicine-induced heat-like condition became only worse during these minutes. Seungmin shudders when sudden wave of markclaimwant courses over his mind and body. He will certainly do some irreversible stuff.

Okay, okay, slow breathe in and breathe out. If you're gonna fall into this trap again, you should at least prepare for this long fall.

Luckily for him, the stuff he used on himself before Minho came over is still laying around. He just needs to find what is necessary.

As he grabs the tube with lubricant, he already feels his hands trembling with the want to touch, to wreak, to break him down. He understands perfectly that unlike all previous fun and games now he won't be able to restrict himself from doing something proper alpha would do with needing omega, even if he's so against this with his rational mind.

When Seungmin tries to push the lone finger inside Minho's hole, he feels just how tight he is – both from nerves and obviously being virgin in this sense. Heat smell is tickling inside his nostrils, and it takes all willpower he has just to go slow and not break inside other without any preparation. His body is like in a fire – not something he ever felt even in harshest ruts – and he just grits his teeth, stopping himself from any damage he could do to other by reckless actions. Oh, how he hates that man. Why at all should he do that?

Minho wails from pain and pedals his legs trying to go away from the source of hurtful sensation, and Seungmin tries to focus on hate not to lose control over himself and transform it into pity to help the other relax. He tries to emit some soothing pheromones and touches the inside of Minho's thighs in gentle feather-like touches, momentarily regretting looking there, because teeth marks are still very much present on other's skin. If he sees it when he'll be sober, Seungmin is screwed, that's for sure.

Well, for now he just needs to numb Minho for a bit for him to become more pliant and relaxed, right? Right?

Huff.

Seungmin licks his lips. The searing hate – pity, or fear, or anything he feels now – won't be able to stop him from falling if he does what he might have to do.

Then Minho slowly opens his eyes – still wet with fresh tears – and his drunk-dazed look breaks something inside Seungmin. He tries to whisper something – probably again something about his omega-like needs – but Seungmin dives down to his face and kisses him, silencing him for sure.

Smells of rut and heat are dancing around, and Seungmin feels his patience thinning out too quickly. He mustn't succumb to his instincts, not yet.

Minho becomes relaxed enough for proper preparations after several minutes of feverish kisses and nibbles. Seungmin almost bites him near his scent gland – harsh enough to mark – but thankfully stops himself from doing so at the last moment. Will the mark itself be enough? Maybe he won't need to go all the way?

He still can't be sure, and he certainly isn't sure that he himself will be able to push himself away from Minho even if medicine-induced heat will subside.

So he pushes several slick fingers inside and scissors them there for as much time as he feels is needed for other's body to be able to adjust to him. His dick isn't that big even in ruts, but he is pretty self-aware that it isn't that small either. With it he should take into account that the person – the body under him hardly was used to any intrusions of that kind, he is sure of it.

He kisses Minho again, body under him flushed with heat and boneless yet again. Well, at the very least he's not in pain now.

He contemplates about what to do first – mark him or… he's embarrassed by the mere thought of it – knot him. His mind is already losing signal, and buzzing sensation inside his veins and under his skin makes it even harder to focus on any coherent thought. Mark will release hormones from omega's side, knot – from his. What would be enough to stop this feverish state of medicine-induced heat?

Unable to decide, he snaps and does both, roughly pushing through the ring of muscles and blindly searching with his lips for the soft place between Minho's neck and shoulder. Minho moans loudly – his throat vibrates – and only hugs him with his legs and hands tightly, pulling him that much closer.

After this he doesn't remember enough to collect the full picture. He feels Minho's nails on his back, scratching long bloody lines down to it, he feels blissful tight heat of his body, he can swear he hears some whispers that are far from chaste ones. Minho answers on his kisses and bares his neck in such an alluring way that he can't resist it – and considering the situation, resisting might be harmful even. He bites – harsher then needed, and Minho whines thinly when sudden pang of pain blooms in his shoulder. Bitemark is deep – bloody – and Seungmin is one hundred percent sure that he grazed some wrong blood vessel, if the dark colour of liquid leaking out is any sort of indication. He licks several times to mix his pheromone-rich saliva with blood to start the needed reaction, and when he's sure that other won't die from blood loss, he pulls away. Minho doesn't allow him to back off far from his body though, catching his face in his palms and kissing him deeply, metallic taste of blood still fresh on their lips. Heat smell whirls around, subtly changing, but still not subsiding the slightest. Minho just bends his legs, tugging him closer – deeper, – and for a moment Seungmin allows himself to dive deep into instinctual daze and think that everything they do is alright and natural.

Next time he gains consciousness is only when knot is already growing inside. He exhales. If at least something will come as planned – which he doubts now – after mere minutes they'll be free. Well, from this situation, but then will come the next one.

Heat pooling in his guts makes him forget about all mournful things for some time. He feels his inner alpha being satiated – at least from technical side. He rarely spent his ruts with anyone else, and never spent them with omegas – or someone pretending to be one chemically. It is the first time he feels so… right.

He falls asleep as soon as he feels his pheromones spiking after properly taking care of his omega.

***

He wakes up when it's already dark outside, and only street lamps' light makes twilight around not so deep. Minho wakes up right after him, at first just twitching his fingers still lying on his back, and then with groan trying to understand what's going on.

Seungmin just sighs contentedly and hugs him tighter, trying to prolong this blissful state of mind as much as possible. He understands that no matter what Minho will behave like, he will regret it. They both will regret, honestly.

Minho wriggles under him, seemigly trying to get a hold on where all of his body parts are located. When he understands that his legs are currently on other's back, he hums weirdly and tries to free himself from this position, but then faces with the fact that he's… um… bended in a very unnatural, extremely explicit way.

"Stay still, please", whispers Seungmin, gripping him in a tight hug, and by some reason Minho doesn't fight this and stays as he is, trying to come to his senses fully. He feels… weird. Aching a bit here and there, and also hormone-drunk – if he's right about the reason the fog in his head exists at all. He feels fatigue, natural kind of, maybe some tiredness. What he does not feel though is anger – one thing he really wanted to feel this day. Something that would be simple and understandable.

"What happened?" his own voice comes out raspy and weak.

"We fucked, dumbass", bites back Seungmin, but it comes out absolutely venomless, almost… humorous?

Minho tries to look around the room, and sudden gush of pain in his neck makes him gasp.

"All okay?" asks Seungmin worriedly, coming closer to him the same second it happens, as if they weren't plastered against each other already.

Minho untangles his hands – trembling and weary, by some reason – from other's back and tries to touch the place still burning. It's dark around, but he still sees something liquid and wetly glistening on his palm. Gaps in his skin feel suspiciously like teeth marks under his fingertips. He looks at Seungmin, and his eyes are absolutely horrified for a second, and then soft, and then regretful and disgusted for a blink.

"Sorry", he looks away almost shamefully. "It was the only way. Sorry."

And just in this moment, Minho seems to agree with anything he's told.

"What at all happened?" his own voice sound groggy.

Seungmin looks at him as if he wants to be evil, but then his look softens in something akin to melancholy.

"Well, I don't know why you did… certain things, but then this… ahm… "omega medicine" made you behave weird, and it seemed that…" he shuts his eyes tightly, and Minho can guess that his face is bright red from embarrassment right now, "overall, I had to court you like… like normal omega. With marks and so on. I tried to told you to stay away, but…" his voice raises, and Minho only touches his shoulder to stop him from conclusions.

"I'm… sorry too. For all of… this. Inconvenience?.."

"You better be!" Seungmin whispers almost irritatedly and huffs.

Minho tries to move and finally understands that they are still connected – and, like, in a very deep and intimate way.

Seungmin hisses and grips his shoulder to stop him from rising up.

"Please, let me do it myself, okay? This time it's you who can chop my ligaments off, and…"

Minho barks in laugh, and Seungmin, interrupted in his righteous fury-induced speech, looks at him tiredly and very sarcastically.

"If I'll hear another chuckle from you, I will totally poison you", he warns and slowly pulls out. Minho has to shut his mouth, because the sensation of something moving right there, paired with the feeling of some kind of liquid generously leaking out, isn't something he could be prepared for. He gulps, and then almost shreaks, when Seungmin has to hold his thighs to manhandle him into proper position to finally untangle them from each other.

He can be fully sure in this darkness surrounging them, but Seungmin, as it seems, is shaking a little.

"I think you need some water and, um…" he stands up – almost falls over, so he has to hold to the back of the couch, – and walks to the corridor. His steps are quite uneven, if Minho can judge by the shadow of him swaying from side to side in his gait. "I'll prepare you a bath."

Minho is left alone in this room. Light switches click, and he has to cover his eyes, adjusted to the darkness, when light from bathroom beams here, and then several doors are opening loudly, so he flinches from sudden noise. When he tries to get up from his sitting position, he becomes perfectly aware of himself leaving liquid traces of their… whatever it could be called, on a couch fabric. Sudden guilt clenches his heart in tight grip. Maybe he came here to be evil, but not in a such… lowly way.

"Hey!" he wants to call Seungmin by his name, but founds himself unable to say it aloud. "I'm sorry for your couch!"

Seungmin barks in laugh through the wall.

"Forget about it!" he sounds both tired and amused by some reason, and it makes Minho just more embarrassed. Some old emotions that were fucked out from him now are resurfacing, and he feels himself becoming standardly snarky again.

But he doesn't have any time to show it: Seungmin literally yanks him up and pushes out of the room and into the bath. Water is too hot, but he's literally shoved inside the bathtub, so fast that he can't even grasp what's happening, and the next moment his lower back already harshly hits the acrylic bottom, and some water splashes out from the impact.

Seungmin exits the room and closes the door, and first minutes Minho sits there on high alert, not allowing himself to relax, even if warmness of water feels very nice. Why at all this fucker decided to be all caring and nice? Shouldn't he be, umm… at least angry? After everything Minho dragged him through today? Of course, Minho himself also fell the victim of circumstances, but luckily he doesn't remember a bit of what was going on.

When Seungmin comes back with a cup in his hands, Minho nearly falls into the water face deep, being violently tugged out of his reverie.

"Tea", says Seungmin colourlessly and gives him the cup. Their fingers brush against each other, and Minho founds himself jerking away from the touch as if it was forest fire.

Liquid in the cup looks like anything but the tea. It's something with slightly metallic bloody scent, also looking like drops of blood dissolving in clear water in a big red whirls. Minho squints. It definitely looks like blood.

"What is it?" he simply asks, trying to return the cup, and Seungmin just sits on a bathtub rim and firmly grabs his wrist, stopping him from doing so and then moving the cup closer to his lips – still by the grip on his hand.

"It's…" Seungmin makes a full circle with his eyes, as if trying to come up with something believable, "it's scent stabilizer. I use it after… every use of "omega medicine", huh, if I feel that my hormones come in the way when they shouldn't. I just thought that it could help you overcome possible side effects."

Minho sniffs the cup contents suspiciously.

"I swear it won't make things worse. This formula is universal, but it works only with…" he hums in thought, "with artifical hormonal waves. Like the ones that usually come after the capsulas."

Minho mulls this over. Something clicks in his head, and he feels gears in his head turning.

"Your rut isn't natural?"

Seungmin sighs – slightly irritated, but not fully angry yet.

"Yes. That's why I take days off in the first place. Even stabilizers can't be used that often, so when I have the time I just wait until hormonal high won't end naturally."

"«That often»? Often like how?"

He can't wrap his head around this. It's like he misses something very, very big from the complete picture.

Seungmin sighs again, and then inhales deeply, clearly trying not to snap at him.

"Will you drink it or not? I have my own business to do."

The looks he sends him is deadly, and Minho just swallows down cup contents in one big gulp, not even realizing it as he does.

Seungmin silently takes empty cup from his hands and leaves.

After some time Minho hears something – quiet words, not really hushed but not loud enough to hear everything clearly through the door.

"… Umm, Innie, … no, I mean… it's something that was… just free me some place in lab, okay? I'll be on work tomorrow. No… I mean, it's not something that can wait. Please, Innie. Let's do it in secret?.. No, I don't have secrets from you, it's just… ugh", Minho hears him shuffling and walking around anxiously. "I just need some lab equipment and reagents I don't have at home. I'll explain it later. I swear, Innie! I swear. It's not a big deal honestly, just… ugh. I need to talk this thing through with some other members of the gang. No, Innie, it isn't dangerous, just… I'm not going to endanger myself that much more, I promise. Do you believe me? I won't do this", he says something after it, but so quietly that Minho isn't able to tell if he still talks or just shuffles around and whatnot. Then he loudly exhales and comes in through the door, closing it behind himself with a thud.

"I need your blood", he exclaims, trying not to look at Minho.

"… Okay…" he dumbly agrees, because it's not like he is at power to resist. "Right now?"

Seungmin is visibly uncomfortable. He stands with his back to the door, almost leaning on it, as if he tries not to flee from this talk.

"I- I guess? The freshest one for now, and also sample for tomorrow to see if the effect of capsula had weared off- err- It won't take long, I have some syringes and test tubes at home, so-" he wants to exit again, but Minho raises in bathtub and grabs him by the edge of his shirt – fresh one that he didn't see on him yet. Seungmin flinches, but gathers himself and turns around, trying to look cold-blooded and impassive and failing miserably. "What do you need from me?!" he finally snaps, slapping his hand off.

"I mean- Just answer one question! I… I really need to know", Minho feels his voice break. By asking this he will have to admit he was wrong from the start, and this thought irritates him to no end.

Seungmin has his cheeks reddened – partly from anger, partly from looking at other's body, naked and visibly harmed by him. Scarred, probably.

"What again?"

"I mean-" he tries to sit straight, but teeth marks on the side of his neck decide to open in this very moment, and he shreaks from sudden pain he feels. Seungmin flinches from the piercing scream and tries to become invisible or hide away as much as he possibly can. "Stay where are you staying-" he clamps the wound with his hand, feeling as warm blood leaks through his fingers, "we still need to talk this through, just as you said."

Seungmin looks… betrayed. Disgusted even. He clearly hasn't thought about anyone being that interested in his phone calls.

"I don't owe you anything", he snarls, looking at his neck uneasily.

"I think you do", Minho just wants to joke about them being too intimate today, but sees the look of true horror in other's eyes and shuts his mouth. "I mean, I need to say that I'm sorry. I was… I wasn't right with you and… ehh… I don't know how to explain myself. I don't deserve being excused for something like that", he tries to laugh lightheartedly, but it comes out more weak than anything else. The hand clamping over teeth marks is fully dark red now, and drying blood makes fingers sticky.

Seungmin sighs, and there is some determination in his eyes.

"Stay here- I mean, don't move too much, okay? I'll go get some bandages for you, maybe something to desinfect the… this."

He returns mere seconds after with bandages in a roll and a pack of gauze napkins. After them he takes from somewhere small bottle of medical alcohol.

"If it will hurt – and it will hurt, well… endure it", he jokes humourlessly and pulls Minho's palm away from teeth marks. The sight itself makes him cringe and make a face. Minho tries to look away, suddenly embarrassed.

Seungmin pours some alcohol on a napkin and lightly touches the wounded skin. It burns as hell, and Minho hisses and tries to breathe through clenched teeth. He couldn't even imagine that marks could be this painful, if they really were brought to the world as some evolutionary adaptation. While Seungmin desinfects the skin, he vows not to mark anyone, several times in a row. Maybe it's because he's alpha and not an omega that it has gone so wrong, but what if the proper omegas would feel something similar too? He suddenly feels guilty even though he haven't marked anyone yet and hardly will – with his kind of work.

Finally Seungmin ties a bandage around his neck and exhales noisily, as if he held his breath during process. Minho gulps several times just to check that bandage doesn't put too much pressure on the neck, and it seems to be tied just alright.

"So…" he starts just as Seungmin gathers things and obviously tries to flee again, "can we talk?"

The other only puts all his equipment in bathroom's locker, deciding not to put it too far away.

"What again?"

"You've said that… this thing", he makes some movement with his head, "that you couldn't use it this often. How often at all do you use your omega medicine?"

Seungmin squints at him, eyes turning sharp.

"With how many enemies we have now… every month or so", he answers in a low tone, no louder than a whisper.

Minho still tries to understand what is there behind these words and behind this fact.

"And every month you allow someone to bend you over for… what?" it comes out more snarky that intended, and Seungmin flinches in his place. He closes his eyes, and his nostrils flare in hardly contained anger.

"It's just the only way for us to get all needed information without too much collateral damage", he answers, still with his eyes tightly shut.

"By being a whore?" his words aren't intended to be spiky, and he regrets them the moment they come out from his mouth, but apologizing would make things only worse by clearly stating that his words were rude. "I mean- does Chan know?"

Seungmin half-smirks with one side of his mouth.

"Of course."

Minho feels like his blood runs cold for several moments, and even warm water around doesn't help his nervous chills. Of course, they were a gang – criminal group above everything, but sending one of his men to do the prostituting? It broke the image of their leader in small bits. What else he allowed himself and others to do?

"I mean-" Seungmin hurriedly adds, seeing his obvious distress, "it's not like he agrees with these methods, but like… we clearly don't have the ability nor the time to change them now", he tries to smile – really smile reassuringly, "we have in plans to change the strategy when we will have enough time to work on it, but… ugh… if there is someone new coming for our necks every month or so, we don't have the time to invent and test something before using it."

"Why at all we should use such gruesome methods?"

Seungmin panics – his eyes blinking faster than usual and his look darting around the room – but bites his lip and tries to answer calmly.

"At first it was just- just an idea", he says averting his gaze, "nothing more that a game, like you know, doing what media taught us – that some seduction could open us many doors. It did open them, with all honesty, but- well… I volunteered just because others were too busy with their own stuff, and, well, after the obvious discovery that not everyone from our goals is a fan of unusual dynamics we had to invent something to hide natural scent, and I volunteered again, well-"

"Why not use Hyunjin for this?"

Seungmin looks like he's in great pain.

"He's… too important in his own role. It's too dangerous to just allow him to be possibly harmed."

"And you aren't?"

"What?"

"You're saying all of this as if you aren't important."

Seungmin looks away and nervously exhales through his nose – almost sniffles.

"It's… it doesn't matter now", just when he tries to open the door, Minho pulls him away from it by the shirt. "Fuck off from me!" he shouts and slaps his hand away again, harsher than before. Minho can swear he sees Seungmin's eyes glistening wetly.

"S- Seungmin, stop for a second! I…" he finally has the guts to call him by his name. "What I wanted to ask…"

"Would you mind inventing the medicine for me then?"