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Multi smelt like radiation. He shouldn’t have, of course not, but nobody couldn’t deny the overwhelming scent of metal. At first, it’d been barely noticeable. When he’d first built his reactor, and was only beginning his journey of constant contamination, he had the typical omega scent. Sweet. Faint. Quiet and kind like all omegas should be. Stereotypes had a habit of not coming to fruition, not in the real world, but his case was spectacularly different.
Katie remembers the first time they’d met– vaguely. To be fair, she had a bad memory to begin with. It was before his big career, before he was a hotshot. Back in the start of this neighbourly little island where everybody knew too much of the others. He walked around, healthy to a stunning degree given his current state. Walked up to her, talked excitedly about some… building. An establishment? Her mind fuzzies. Neither them, nor Quackity, had any idea what it would lead up to— though she can only guess the minds of those two omegas. Maybe they had known all along. Always planned to take over. It was like them, ambitious, and god were they stubborn to live up to their plans.
Despite these holes in her memory, she remembers one thing quite certainly. His scent. Woodbark and chemically cozy. Already painting the image of somebody cold and calculated, but faint. Like omegas should be.
Katie was an alpha. There were a few in the island, betas o’ plenty, but more than the omega population. That was to be expected. She had never cared much for scents or second genders. If she liked a person, she spent time with them. In the past, if she liked them more, then she’d date them. Naturally, as tall and athletic as she was, she attracted omegas, but that didn't change her view on the whole matter. She had a keener sense of scents than most, but a greater control over herself as well.
Due to all these traits of hers, she was awfully aware of scents. What they said of a person, what they represented. Multi’s scent was ever-changing. She doubted nobody else noticed, but perhaps not as sharply as she had.
His scent over the months became what she could only describe as unnatural. Contaminated. A seeping flavor of wrongness and man-made science infiltrating the edges of a beautiful natural process. It felt too strong and heavy. Wrong.
She couldn’t get enough of it.
That’s how she ended up here, deep in the polish caves in a location she shouldn’t trespass in, following that familiar smell. Every turn was filled with ragged rocks and the unpolished, natural scene of nature’s brutality. Browns and greys and occasional green moss. Ewron had pissed her off earlier, because of course he had, so she’d come here to seek out a chance to take nacho. She’d relied on that egg ever since her husband's dea— disappearance. They looked similar. All federation members did, of course, but she believed those two especially. Nacho’s white was eerily similar to Tomate’s. They were both kind and playful and…
Multi’s scent was strong. Too strong. Unusually so, even given how fast it changes under the influence of the radiation. She had no real idea where she was going, and had long since disregarded the idea of ever turning back the way she came. If asked, she couldn't tell you whether she last turned left or right. All she knew in this current moment was scent. Multi. Multi’s scent.
Katie didn’t know what took over her. She hurriedly opened doors and locks and searched through the hallways with a twitch in her fingers. Eyes wide and nostrils flared to keep that momentum. Her feet more so clawed the floor than stepped, desperate and greedy. She searched and looked and opened and within minutes the whole place was in disarray.
Multi’s scent was intense. Too much. It flooded her head and her mind and she couldn't think. Her body moved by itself. She wanted something and had no clue how to get to it. She wants and she wants and she’s always been greedy but she couldn’t help with the way that scent-
Her fingers curl around the door knob, finally having found the holy grail. Inside that room, inconspicuous amongst the rest, is Multi doubled over his desk. Tubes and other sciencey equipment she couldn't force a shred of care for were spilled over the surface. Papers in disarray, the whole room looked like a burglar attack. In the middle of it all, an omega violently tries his best to push away the heat.
He doesn't feel her behind him, or maybe he does, but is too distracted fighting pure instinct to care. She can’t help but feel giddy, and the idea of his deliberate trust. Slowly, not wanting to scare away that stray cat, she steps closer. Multi’s head just barely rises so his perpetually tired eyes can attempt to glare at her. The emotion loses tension when he’s in such a vulnerable position. Katie smiles akin to a grin she knows is familiar.
Her arms find themselves on him. Not his ass, or his thighs, or his tantalizing waist usually hidden with a stuffy lab coat, but one on his shoulder and the other slung around her neck. She’s taller than he is, much more so, and is forced to lean down. Her spine dulls an ache she knows will only grow into actual pain later on. But that’s a problem for future Katie. A Katie that will survive knowing her pain roots from a good deed.
Multi finally makes some sort of noise. She knows this is because of her scent, her presence, calming his own inner nature. Multi usually runs from nature, and mocks it with his faux experiments of attempting to create his own. Katie’s always has an affinity for it, though, and unfortunately, he cannot run from DNA. An omega is designed to preen at an alpha while in heat. It’s the way the world was designed. Neither of them particularly like the idea, but she’s good with using things to her advantage.
Her exploitation turns against her. He seems to have a sudden burst of energy, pushing himself away from her dramatically. “I need to work, Katie!” his voice sounds whiny due to his sensitivity. She can’t help but not take him seriously, clinging on. She’s stronger than he is, physically, though she’s sure he could concoct some nuke to blow her up if she ever got the wrong idea. At this moment, he cannot force separation.
“No.” She pouts. Why couldn’t he just accept her kindness? Why was he so obsessed with his work, to put it above his own health? “You need to rest, Multi!”
“I know what I’m doing!” They’re both screaming at this point. Katie because she’s naturally loud, Multi because he’s getting increasingly desperate. Then, there’s a pause in the tension. Like he just realised something. Katie cautiously stops her strong hold on him, as he relaxes into his— still mid-escape— pose.
She waits. He doesn’t seem to realise the world is still spinning. He’s sniffing, she triumphs. He’ll smell her scent and immediately let her help him.
“Ugh– Fuck off!” And suddenly, he’s back at it with twice the intensity. Multi’s face is typically a scarily porcelain, but he blushes a tinted pinkish-green at times. Never has she seen it to this degree before. Too bad it doesn’t match his current rudeness. “You smell like shit!”
“What?!” She gasps. That’s too far. Especially because she knows it isn’t true. “No I don’t! My scent is of flowers and grass and–” her explanation turning rant only makes him angrier, and her even sadder. They tussle for a bit, hands catching and attempting kicks to move away. One defense, one offense. Eventually, the offense trips and takes the defense player down with him, colliding them both onto the ground. She hisses at the fall and fears that the pants of her suit need to be checked afterwards. After so many such incidents from her own clumsiness, she truly only has so many left…
Katie slowly opens her eyes and immediately meets Multi’s wide-shot ones. Their faces are inches from each other's. Her hand is behind his head, softening his land and perhaps the only reason his head isn't currently cracked open, or at the very least extremely hurt. Multi hasn’t attempted to move, despite being aware of their position longer than she was. The thought makes her grin. A couple seconds pass of this tension, a buzz between them like fire sparking once, twice, and thrice to be sure.
Katie pulls away.
Multi goes along with it, uncharacteristically docile. He does not fight back when she pulls him up. Not when she half-carries him through the halls, her confusion palpable. He mutters out directions and leads her to his room. He tells her where his room is. He lets her into his room. He lets her put him down onto his bed. He lets her stay a little longer, lingering. Watching, not doing much. Helping out a little, when he asks. Quiet like she hasn’t been before. A voice in the back of his head comments her subservience, her sudden kindness. The voice says she’d be a good mate, to whoever is lucky enough to get her. Because it won’t be Multi, he knows that. He knows because by the time he finally wakes up from a small doze in the comfort of her lovely scent, she is gone.
She feels like this trip was worth the trouble.