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Jeongin's jaw hasn't ached like this since he had braces years ago.
It started as a dull soreness in his gums. He had barely noticed it, really, until the soreness began to throb with his pulse.
That's when Jeongin puts down the movie he's watching to inspect his teeth in the bathroom.
Nothing looks out of the ordinary, no red, inflamed gums, but the pain is still there, just under the surface. It's uncomfortable, a kind of tightness that reminds Jeongin vividly of the brace wires, but also somehow different. More focused. Tentatively, Jeongin prods his gums with his fingers — it feels tender, but there's no sign of injury.
And then he accidentally brushes his finger against his upper right canine.
"Ow, what the fuck?"
The pain sharpens to a sting almost immediately. Carefully, Jeongin presses his finger against his canine again, and hisses in pain. It doesn't happen with any other of his teeth, except the four canines.
Stiffly, Jeongin removes his fingers from his mouth and clasps the edge of the sink.
"Is this really happening…?" he asks his reflection. It's baffled, gobsmacked — stunlocked, as the gamers would say. "How is this even possible…"
Subgender presentation is… more of an art than a science. Stir-fried rice with anything tossed in, to be honest. And sometimes, the rice is forgotten and tossed in in the last minute, like a subgender presentation at the age of fucking 25.
After a moment, the pain dulls again, but it's still uncomfortable enough that Jeongin keeps his jaws parted as he wanders out of his room in shock. Overwhelmed, he leans against the doorframe and runs his hands through his hair.
He should go to Chan. Or Changbin. But 3Racha is out all day today.
Anyways, they would all make a fuss. All his hyungs would call Chan, and then they would call the managers, and then it would be a huge deal that would blow up and throw everyone into chaos. Just the thought of that makes Jeongin's already aching jaw migrate into the beginnings of a headache.
All he wants to do right now is relieve some of this ache quietly and deal with all of that later.
Jeongin is about to resign himself to his own room in solitude, when he thinks of one person who won't make a fuss if he asks them not to.
"Hey Seungmin?"
The only light in Seungmin's room is from his PC monitor, which cast the ceiling and walls in a pale blue glow. Seungmin has headphones on, the heavy duty kind that are noise-cancelling, but the volume of Felix's voice over the comms are so loud that Jeongin can hear the muffled yelling from the cracked open door.
He pushes the door open and walks over to the swivel chair. Seungmin doesn't look up when he calls his name.
"Seungmin, are you almost done with your—"
"Fuck! I was so close," Seungmin shouts into the headset. His fingers flash over the keyboard, no doubt typing mockery at the enemy on the screen. "No, I had it, I just didn't click my Zhonya's because I'm stupid—"
Urgency fueled by the pain in his teeth has Jeongin grabbing both of his shoulders and shaking. The whole gamer chair shakes, wheels rolling back and forth on the ground.
"Seungmin!" Jeongin hisses. There's a mute mic button on the side of the headset, and Jeongin clicks it so Felix won't hear their words.
"What the— Ayen what do you want?"
"I need to talk to you, please!"
"What? I can't pause League of Legends, dude, you know this," Seungmin says. His eyes are already back on the screen, mouse flying in sharp zigzags across the desk.
Annoyed, Jeongin waves a hand in front of the screen, earning him a grumble of indignation from the boy. "Your ARAM game is not more important than this. Seungmin," Jeongin pauses to check that he's still muted, "I'm teething."
Seungmin freezes mid-spell.
He stares up at Jeongin's face, and he can literally see the words processing behind blank eyes. On the screen in front of him, red lights flash, and the words 'Defeat!' appear — but Seungmin just keeps staring at him, even as Felix's confused voice buzzes from his headset.
Seungmin lifts one finger and clicks his headset to unmute it.
"Hey Felix, sorry, I'll have to call you back later."
More garbled sounds come from the headset, but Seungmin hangs up, and finally focuses his full attention on Jeongin.
Skepticism was made to fit Seungmin's features.
"What do you mean you're teething?" he asks slowly.
Jeongin just points to his open mouth, even though there's nothing to visibly see.
"Teeth hurt. Canines only," he says simply. It's uncomfortable even to close his jaw now, and he's glad he decided to talk to someone about it.
Seungmin doesn't bother leaning in for a better look.
"What if you just have cavities in those four teeth specifically?"
"What."
"But how can you be teething? You— I thought we all thought you were just a beta. It's so rare to see alphas that present at our age. Wait, aren't you supposed to present properly and then teeth, if you're an alpha? Are you… go into rut or something?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Jeongin says in exasperation at the barrage of questions he doesn't really know the answers to. He smacks a hand against his forehead, but it feels like a normal temperature. Shutting his eyes, he tries to remember the other symptoms of presentation through the dull throb. "I'm not going into rut, at least I don't think I am? Do I look like I am?"
Seungmin shrugs, palms up. "Don't ask me, I'm just an omega. Are you sure you're teething?"
"You're so helpful," Jeongin bites out. He rubs his jaw. "Ah— this sucks man. It hurts."
"So the correct thing to do here is to call Chan or manager-hyung," Seungmin says matter-of-factly. He steeples his fingers together and leans back in his gamer chair like L from Death Note if L had a 7-step skin routine. "But you didn't do either of those things. You crept your way all the way to my room, because you want to avoid all that."
He's right, and it's a little annoying how quickly Seungmin reads him. Seungmin loves reading people to filth just because it's funny.
Jeongin rubs his eyes and sits down on Seungmin's bed. "I'll tell them. Just later. I don't know, do you have Tylenol or something?"
For a moment, he looks like he's about to protest, but Jeongin was right about his assessment after all. Seungmin just shrugs and gets up wordlessly to rummage through his shelves — the dull pain in Jeongin's jaw is definitely concentrating at the root of every canine now, and he waits with his mouth open like a dog — until Seungmin pulls out a little pill bottle and uncaps it. He hands Jeongin a couple of capsules and a bottle of water.
"I don't know how much that's going to help, to be honest," he says as Jeongin swallows the pills. "There's a reason why alphas don't take Tylenol every rut."
"Ugh…"
Seungmin sits down on the bed next to him and stares as he works his fingers against his jaw, trying to soothe the aches there.
Then, he leans forward.
Seungmin dips his nose close to Jeongin's bare shoulder exposed by his tank top, and breathes in. When Jeongin tries to lean away, he latches a hand to his arm to keep him in place.
"W-what are you doing?"
Rolling his eyes, Seungmin sighs. "Checking for rut scent? Obviously? Stop moving."
"Do you have to be so close?"
"Let me see your teeth."
Jeongin has no choice but to oblige, and Seungmin more or less grabs his face and tilts it upwards so he can peer at Jeongin's teeth.
"Whanuargha—?"
"It might be confirmation bias, but your canines… kind of do look longer than usual…" Seungmin murmurs. He jerks Jeongin's head in a different direction, and his thumb pulls back against Jeongin's upper lip to reveal more of his gumline. "Oh wait, I can't really tell…"
"Hnguaorou— Ugnnhh! Hey!"
Without hesitation, Seungmin presses his thumb against the point of Jeongin's upper canine, hard.
It hurts at first, the pain releasing from a throb into a stab.
But then Seungmin keeps pressure, and suddenly— suddenly, relief like euphoria rolls out from the spot, like a switch being flipped. It no longer hurts, no, instead it feels blissfully good, like Seungmin had pressed the button that his body had been asking for the last couple of hours.
Jeongin's eyelids flutter and he sags, whole body releasing the tension in his muscles.
It needs to be harder.
Before he realizes it, Jeongin is pressing his teeth in harder against Seungmin's thumb, seeking the pressure and the gratification behind it. His bottom canine makes contact, too, and the feeling nearly makes his eyes roll.
He bites, fully bites Seungmin's finger.
"Ow! What the fuck, man?"
With a yelp of pain, Seungmin pulls his hand out of reach and shakes it — there's a little red mark where Jeongin had bitten, not injured but definitely bruised.
As soon as Seungmin's thumb leaves his teeth, the pain is back again, a little better but still strong enough that it radiates through his jaw and locks it open again. Jeongin pants, tongue lolling, and he shakes his head. The whole room feels warm now, and he feels warm, too.
"I— sorry, I don't realize I was biting," he says sheepishly. "But it… it felt—"
He can't bring himself to say it felt good, that was too weird to utter out loud. But now that he'd gotten a taste, suddenly it's like his brain had turned on and realized what it really wanted, because the urge to pull Seungmin's hand back is strong.
"— it felt better."
"Well," Seungmin says, dramatically cradling his poor hand. "It definitely didn't feel great for me, so we're going to have to find something else for you to chew on."
While Seungmin walks to the kitchen to find something for him to bite, Jeongin stays at the bed and tries to block out all thoughts of pulling in the omega's arm and gnawing on it like a chicken bone, like some animal. Even so, he begins to feel restless, too warm. A sheen of sweat had collected on his forehead — he didn't notice it until it trickled to his brow. Jeongin touches it tentatively.
Could this actually be… rut?
"Here, this is all I had."
Seungmin hands over an apple, which Jeongin crunches into with one huge bite —
— and nearly moans.
The relief is instant: like the weird kind of pleasure that comes from pressing into a bruise, Jeongin's canines still pulse with soreness, but it's completely overwhelmed by the mind-numbing satisfaction of sinking his fangs into something and feeling it give in his jaw. Not only did it give relief like pressing on one tooth did, but it's his entire jaw now, and it feels so, so good.
But it's only temporary.
As soon as the apple gives to the pressure of his teeth, Jeongin snaps his jaws again, crunching into it harder, trying to get more of it between his teeth. He doesn't even really chew the piece he bit off; juice drips from the corners of his mouth, and down his jaw. But then that part of the apple crunches and breaks down, too.
"It needs to be… more solid," he gasps at Seungmin. The omega is side-eyeing him with wide, vaguely horrified eyes. "But biting, good. It wants me to bite."
"Okay, okay, hold on."
This time, Seungmin comes back with a bowl of ice cubes. He doesn't point out that by this point, Jeongin's canines are definitely longer and larger — Jeongin can feel the way they bump at his upper lip and rest unnaturally against his tongue.
The ice is better, it's definitely harder than apple flesh.
But it's still only good for a minute or two. As soon as Jeongin clenches his jaw tighter, the solid ice cubes crack under his teeth, and he needs to stuff another one into his mouth.
"Okay, so I vote we call Chan now," Seungmin says as he watches Jeongin go through ice like a shark in Jaws. "Because I don't have anything else, and you look kind of insane right now."
"No, I'm fine, I just— Is it kind of hot in here?"
The bowl is empty, and water is dripping down Jeongin's face, and he's definitely sweating now. His head is hazy, unruly thoughts threatening to overtake the calm, logical ones.
Seungmin picks up his phone. "This is definitely rut. You're not going into rut for the first time in my room, I'm going to call—"
"No—! No other people, I don't want it," Jeongin growls. He presses both palms to his forehead. Out of ice, his teeth begin to ache again, and he snaps them a few times reflexively. "I just need… do you have something wooden?"
"Like fucking what, the chair? Pencils?"
"I don't know, ow—"
"Well, I'm certainly not going to let you gnaw on the furniture. Jesus, Iyenie, isn't there like, an adult pacifier made specifically for this or something."
"I just—" Jeongin grimaces, desperation setting in shockingly quickly. It's hard to think, when his body feels like it's a hundred degrees, and something that's never happened to him before is unfolding so unexpectedly. His brain wants nothing more than to bite, to relieve the ache, to claim.
"Can I have your arm?!" he asks way too loudly. Jeongin takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "Seungmin, can I please have your arm?"
"What? No! I'm not letting you tear off a chunk of my arm!"
"No, I won't I'll be gentle, I promise," Jeongin begs. He clasps his hands together and gives his best puppy eyes, even though from past experience, Seungmin is generally immune.
"Bro, I just watched you demolish ice cubes like a hydraulic press."
"No, this is different, this is different. Hyung, please—"
"The 'hyung' pull is crazy." But it's working, Jeongin can tell. Seungmin is getting that funny, squinty-eyed look when he's thinking through something seriously.
Here's the thing about Seungmin. A little pain doesn't scare him.
Everyone, every one of the members, knows Seungmin has a thing for a little bit of roughhousing. Not dishing it out, but being the happy victim of a twisted arm or a headlock. Jeongin generally finds it unsavory and goes out of his way to avoid learning about Seungmin's penchant for Changbin's strong grip, but selfishly, it might be helpful right about now.
"You promise you won't draw blood? Because if you do, it's Chan and the managers you're going to have to answer to, you know."
"I promise," Jeongin says earnestly.
A loaded pause hangs in the air.
Then, Seungmin extends one pale arm palm up, like an offering.
Seungmin's arm is warm under Jeongin's tongue — he tries not to lick and make this any weirder than it already is, but at this proximity, Seungmin's scent is clear and cloying. For the first time in all the time Jeongin has known his friend, it scratches an itch in his brain he didn't know was there until now. His own scent must be unravelling around him like an aura, because Seungmin's breath catch before he even bites.
Teeth meet skin.
His canines must be a centimeter longer than their usual length, Jeongin guesses, by the way he has to stretch open his jaw even wider to get a firm bite.
When he bites down slowly, the dull ache bursts into dopamine in his brain, each prick of pain increasing in intensity under the pressure until they blossom into pleasure. He gnaws a little bit, grinding his molars in a little bit, so his tender gums can be soothed of their irritation. It feels amazing to bite into something pliant but firm, but more importantly, something responsive…
Seungmin makes no sounds, lips sealed tight as Jeongin latches onto him, but Jeongin has known him long enough to know what a non-response response looks like on him — his ears turn red, and his cheeks soon follow, his breathing is faster, and goosebumps spring up all over his arm. Most incriminatingly, Seungmin's scent sweetens under his tongue out of his control.
Jeongin holds on for just a minute.
When he lets go, the imprint of his bite are etched into Seungmin's skin in a soft red.
This is a bad idea. This is an awful idea.
Jeongin lets go of his arm, just to stare at the bite marks there. When he looks up at Seungmin again, his eyes are different… a little more crazed, a little less collected. Whether Jeongin is aware of it or not, his scent is unbelievably intense at this point, and the moment his teeth sank into flesh, it had twisted with arousal so obvious Seungmin almost…
…well.
Seungmin would never deny being a pervert.
Yes, Jeongin's vampire-looking canines did hurt, but some kinds of pain are different, aren't they? At least that's what Seungmin tells himself.
He doesn't really knows how it happens, but one moment they are sitting side-by-side on his bed, and then the next he's flat on his back, head brushing the wall. Maybe he was pushed, or maybe he pulled, it doesn't matter — Jeongin is half on top of him, jaws parted and panting, looking at him like he's the most delicious snack in the world right now.
Jeongin is mumbling something now.
"I'll be careful, I promise, I promise. Hyung, I'll be careful, no blood…"
Jeonginnie never calls him hyung.
Like an offering, Seungmin cranes his neck just a bit, and that's all the invitation the teething alpha needs.
It's good Jeongin can't see his face when his face is buried in his neck, because Seungmin's eyes roll as the alpha bites — the ring of nerves where Jeongin's teeth circle are lit up with intense feeling, the thin skin around his scent glands turning what should be stings into welcome stimulation. Jeongin licks too, hot tongue pressed flat against sensitive skin, and Seungmin can't help it; a sigh, too heavy to be innocent, escapes his throat.
Fuck. This was an awesome idea, actually.
They should have just done this from the beginning.
Jeongin's whole body is pressed against his side, a leg thrown over his torso to keep him in place, muscled arms tight on his shoulders like he's prey. He doesn't linger in one area long, after the initial bite. He nips at Seungmin's neck, but at his traps and the space above his collarbone too, then at his shoulder and back up to the soft flesh under his jaw. He's going to have a whole necklace of hickies, Seungmin already knows, but like the freak he is, he kind of wants to push his thumb into the bruises afterwards just to feel them sting again.
Whatever haze Jeongin is in is starting to overtake him, too — no doubt the crazy amount of alpha pheromones he's breathing in as he gasps at each bite. He knows, because he's starting to hate lucid past Seungmin who made Jeongin promise not to draw bite. With every sink of his teeth, present Seungmin wants more, wants the euphoric feeling of skin being pierced by the eager alpha's fangs.
Ugh. Seungmin is hard.
Jeongin is hard, too, and not as immobile as he is right now. His biting slows, preferring to latch onto one spot as he grinds his hips down harshly against Seungmin's thigh, seeking relief there instead now.
Dimly, noises from outside the room pull at his attention, but everything that's happening to his body — fingers and teeth digging in, an ever-increasing pressure against his hip — is overstimulating in the best way.
"Seungminnie? Iyenie?"
A harsh knock on the bedroom door has them both jolting in surprise.
"Why does it smell like alpha in he— what the hell is going on???"
Chan and Changbin stand in the doorway, gym bags in hand. Jeongin freezes, but doesn't let go of him. Seungmin just closes his eyes and cringes at the ceiling.
They are so fucked.