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britcision · 3 months ago

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Hey remember when I dropped that super long Dungeon Meshi omegaverse post for absolutely no reason?

Have a present! 😁 Iiiiiit’s chapter one of Some, and I don’t actually know how long it’s gonna get, so we’ll see!

AO3 link:

This is my first ever actual omegaverse fic, largely because I’m more of a fan of subverting the usual omegaverse tropes than following them, so go in prepared for that

Featuring: kabumisu, omega Mithrun, beta Kabru, Kabru’s POV, alpha Flamela, background cithela because I can and my agenda will not be slowed, beta Lycion Who Has A Knot Anyway For Werewolf Reasons, excessive lore dumping, and Kabru’s excessive and unstoppable overthinking

Warnings - Kabru’s murderous impulses, some insinuations about Mithrun’s previous heats and his squad which are not accurate (rip Kabru’ overthinking and murderous impulses), intentional caregiver neglect, Kabru is an unreliable narrator

The lads are gonna fuck eventually but I’m having far too much fun with Mithrun’s entirely indifferent ass so it’ll be another chapter or so at least

Which I guess technically makes this a slow-burn but nothing is burning except Kabru’s self control

So without any further ado! The Least Sexy Heat Fic Of All Time!

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See, the thing was that Kabru should have known better. He knew. He really did!

Not many of the shorter-lived humans knew that almost every Canary warden was an omega; there were rumours, but there were so many rumours circulating about the Canaries at all times anyway. The omega thing wasn’t even the most unbelievable, but people who’d never met any in person still tended not to believe it.

For tall-men, half-foots, and even gnomes, omegas were people to protect. They were smaller, more delicate than bulky alphas, or even most betas. Omegas shouldn’t fight; whether it was an instinct protecting those who could carry a new generation, or just cultural taboos keeping caregivers and smaller people away from violence, it was a pretty firmly held belief.

(One that dwarves also didn’t seem to share, which Kabru found fascinating. A lot of people didn’t think dwarves had alphas or omegas at all; all dwarves were solidly built, muscular and powerful, and they didn’t seem to show any differences or interest if the subject was brought up.

But they were still just as human as everyone else - they just didn’t add any of the extra baggage onto either sex, primary or secondary. Except for a few noticeably isolated exceptions.

Kabru was pretty sure Daya was an omega, and she’d actually walked away from her clan without a second thought when someone ordered her to become a mother.

That on its own was hard enough for any dwarf, their communities were closely knit to the point of insular, but the idea of an omega doing it… refusing even the possibility of family if it wasn’t on her own terms… he’d always admired Daya.)

But Kabru had been raised by elves, by a former Canary warden, and it had been almost impossible not to notice as soon as he began to present. Milsiril had answered his questions after another trip to the Canary headquarters to visit Rin, apparently uninterested in the whole mess.

Because you see, unlike shorter-lived humans (and to elves even gnomes almost counted, reaching only half of an elven lifespan), the elves were a lot more sensitive to population pressures. They grew slowly, aged slowly, and started families slowly when they had a choice.

And they died even slower, and while elven betas and alphas both had unusually low fertility, elven omegas more than made up the lack. Tall-man aristocracies had enough trouble working out appropriate inheritances for all of their children, and they didn’t even make it to a century - the number of children an elven omega could have before they were ready to retire would turn an arduous task into a nightmare.

Too many incautious omegas getting pregnant even on an elf’s multi-annual heat cycle (as opposed to the more common bi-monthly cycle) could have led to an explosion of underaged elves very quickly. They didn’t need to have that many more children to keep their population growing; even if most elves never actually got close to the full five hundred years of their lifespan, they had much more trouble keeping their population stable.

So elven omegas were less protected, to their minds less cosseted than omegas from other groups. Of course, elves had other strange approaches to alphas and betas too.

(For most humans, alphas were larger, more physically powerful, and tended to be disposed to leadership roles. Strong instincts to protect the pack, hunt and gather resources, and keep their loved ones safe made it feel natural to have the alphas take charge.

But elves didn’t actually have much if any sexual dimorphism along either sex; male elves might be only slightly taller, often from a longer neck, female elves and omegas might grow slightly larger breasts, but for the most part it was almost impossible to guess an elf’s sex from physical appearance unless they were fully naked.

Their gender presentation wasn’t all that much clearer if you didn’t grow up with them, but Kabru liked to think he was pretty good at all of the subtle intricacies of dress, placement of jewelry, and hair ornamentation. With the option of clothing choices replaced by a uniform, Canaries were hard mode, so he’d learned the more subtle versions first. Free elves were much easier.)

Elves tended to consider alphas (and most shorter lived people) to be barbaric, their fighting instincts something base to be looked down on rather than a natural inclination to be accepted (and often worked around). They were easier to provoke, and more likely to make quick decisions, which elves almost always assumed would be wrong.

Why hurry to a quick conclusion when you could spend several years weighing every possible consequence and interpretation before acting? It wasn’t like time was limited.

So among the elves, it was usually betas who held important positions, and omegas who ruled. They weren’t actually all that much freer from instincts than anyone else so far as Kabru knew - they just interpreted it the other way around.

Like alphas, omegas had strong instincts demanding they care for the pack. They could be as single minded and obsessive as any alpha, and just as driven to take charge if they thought they could do it better.

But if the default “alpha” position to authority was to challenge and sometimes even fight for dominance, the default “omega” position was compromise - working together, collaborating, and absorbing any useful new members directly into the family.

(In actual practice that was just as much bullshit as the idea that female alphas were better caregivers, or that all omegas were happy to stay in the home. As was shown immediately the second you looked at the omega elf Queen’s foreign policy.

Or, y’know, tried to convince any group of Canaries to try and actually work with anyone else, rather than against them.

But it was widely accepted and societally enforced bullshit, which enforced its own order.)

And that was really the thing that made most other humans not actually believe the Canaries could be omegas; alphas fought, omegas didn’t. The thought of letting an omega go into battle felt just plain wrong for a lot of people, even if they did tend to be more adept spell-casters.

And since all elves basically looked like omegas anyway (small, slender, gracefully built rather than muscular), it was easy to assume anyone telling you a Canary was an omega was just mistaken. Most of them were on suppressants; it’d be easy to get it wrong.

Unless you also knew that elves didn’t think alphas were fit for leadership. Unless you also knew that despite what you were told, omegas did have violent instincts - and much starker ones.

Because the idea that omegas shouldn’t fight had come from somewhere, after all. Somewhere old in the hindbrain. When danger loomed, alphas stood in front to protect the pack, and omegas gathered the children and dependents.

And if the fight got as far as the omegas, it meant no help was coming. So if the fight got as far as the omegas, and they were the last thing between their dependent loved ones and danger… omegas didn’t have any instinctual reserves, or mercy. If the fight reached them, it ended. Quickly, almost always fatally.

Alphas fought for dominance, for posturing, and in some places just socially as a way to bond; they were large and physically strong, powerful and efficient fighters. And most of the time, they fought to a win, not the death. It was easiest to see in rut, when most of the socialization and personality differences were riding shotgun to instinct - alphas fought to a pin, to put the opponent on the ground as many times as necessary, and moved on.

Omegas in heat (if something actually managed to break the heat-haze) went straight for the throat, and wouldn’t be stopped until they were completely certain the threat wasn’t in their nesting area, or they saw the body.

It was part of what made the Canaries so brutally efficient in a dungeon. And kept unneeded omega spares from the noble elven families from further diluting family lines.

So yes, Kabru knew that Captain Mithrun was almost certainly an omega; or at least that he had been. The wardens were all sterilized as part of their training, but their pheromones and scent cues usually remained unchanged.

Captain Mithrun didn’t smell of anything at all, except whatever he was wearing or covered in. It had been almost upsetting until Kabru’d realized - he knew as a beta his nose wasn’t as sharp as an alpha or omega’s, but he’d worked hard to learn to detect and decipher what were completely obvious scent cues to other denominations.

It gave him valuable information about the people around him, and it was often easier to get what he wanted from people if they believed he was an alpha… or, on the rare occasion he was dealing with elves or needed to seem more vulnerable, an omega.

He could detect most of the cues from tall-men and gnomes, although he sometimes needed other hints for dwarves and elves. He shouldn’t have needed any hints for the captain - he was a Canary warden, he would be an omega.

Except that Kabru had clutched the man to his chest, personally bathed him, and massaged him to sleep over their weeks in the dungeon, and Captain Mithrun smelled about as animate as a rock. Occasionally a dirty rock, but with nothing that would serve to identify him.

That alone was enough of an identification really; everyone else Kabru had ever met had their own scent, although most of the time it just mingled with whatever soaps or oils they’d been using. A slight difference if two people wore the same product.

But Captain Mithrun didn’t. Like he didn’t have any desires, didn’t feel hungry or thirsty. Kabru had studied everything he could find about all aspects of humanity including secondary sexes, but he had no personal experience to draw on for answers.

Perhaps being an omega was somehow tied to a desire the demon could consume. Perhaps the trauma to Mithrun’s body had simply been too great, and he no longer expressed his presentation. Perhaps the scent cues, usually tied to emotions, just didn’t really trigger when most of what he felt was nothing.

So he’d assumed that Captain Mithrun had once been an omega, but for whatever reason he just… didn’t experience that part of his life either. It pulled at something in his chest, a sad ache almost a longing for the emptiness he felt sure that had to cause. The loss of something Kabru himself had never had.

And then he’d moved on, quietly happy that at least they hadn’t had to worry about an impending heat cycle in the dungeon too, and stopped worrying about it.

The other Canaries all had well established protocols to handle their heats. When Captain Mithrun had returned with most of his squad in tow, Kabru had quietly made sure that all of their usual options would be available to them in Melini.

And when Fleki had shown up at his door stinking of pre-heat to shove Mithrun at him and cheerfully told him to keep an eye on the captain until they were done, he’d taken that as confirmation - Mithrun didn’t have a cycle.

Heat cycles synced up with each other just the same as they’d sync for a rut. Mithrun clearly hadn’t synced with his squad, completely unaffected as soon as he understood that Kabru would be taking care of him while the squad were busy.

(That had been… interesting.

Kabru had still been living in the castle, not having found the time to arrange a house for himself. It seemed such a huge and important undertaking, the kind of thing that would surely take weeks or months to do properly, and he had a whole kingdom to build.

But they’d had nothing at all in the dungeon, and Captain Mithrun had slotted into Kabru’s daily routine in the castle just as easily. He occupied himself during the day, mildly cranky about being kept from his monster hunting but staying out of trouble.

Kabru had made it a point to share a meal with him at least for breakfast and dinner (which had also meant he actually ate those meals himself), and had a room made up close to his for the captain to sleep in.

Captain Mithrun hadn’t used it. In the dungeon, he’d passed out where he lay and not moved an inch until he woke under Kabru’s hands. In the castle, his sleep was oddly more fitful. He woke every hour or so, and wandered from the room entirely.

Once or twice he’d actually wandered all the way to Kabru’s room, teleporting blind past the closed door to put himself inside (and giving Kabru a heart attack the second he was awake enough to realize he hadn’t simply closed the door behind him - although it wasn’t that much more dangerous than the captain’s regular teleportation, with his depth perception).

And he’d stayed there. Stood over the bed, sat on the desk, watching Kabru sleep wherever he was until hyper-vigilance woke him, alerted by another presence. Pretty quickly, he’d stopped bothering to bring the captain to his own room.

He’d settle Mithrun in his own bed, bid him goodnight, and return to his desk for just one more piece of paperwork. And that would become two, would become six, would become an urgent report that had to be handled delicately and immediately, just like every other night.

And then in an hour or so Mithrun would wander out of his room, and Kabru would catch him and guide him back to bed, planning to fix just one more mess before resting himself. He wasn’t quite sure when Mithrun had started telling him stories as an intentional tactic to keep him in the bedroom; he wasn’t completely sure it was intentional.

(He wasn’t even sure when he’d become “Mithrun” instead of “Captain Mithrun” more often than not.)

But Kabru’s curiosity was as insatiable as the demon’s hunger had been, and when Mithrun was willing to talk he couldn’t bring himself to pull away. They’d stayed up late enough one night that Mithrun had actually interrupted himself with a yawn, and been adorably puzzled by the experience.

(Kabru had immediately put a stop to the stories to put Mithrun to bed. And tucked himself alongside when he could barely keep his eyes open post massage.)

Mithrun slept better with a warm body beside him. Kabru assured himself it would work with anyone, and certainly had nothing to do with him. It was probably his dungeon crawling instincts, needing to be reassured that someone else was on watch before he could rest.

Fleki hadn’t actually come back to retrieve the captain for almost three full weeks, although even an elven heat should only have lasted two. And Kabru was a little ashamed to admit he’d spent that last week better fed, better rested, and more energized than most of the month before.

(His new good habits hadn’t lasted, having only himself to care for. It took less than a week before he was sleeping at his desk again.) )

That had seemed pretty definitive though, so Kabru was quite sure that he could be forgiven for this oversight.

Yes, he knew that Captain Mithrun was an omega. He’d even personally cared for the captain while the rest of his squad was on heat, so there was no way he could have expected… this. Of course he’d missed the first signs.

Captain Mithrun coming to visit him immediately on return to the capital, not even changing from his travelling clothes was a little unusual; Cithis insisted on long and luxurious baths, and had Mithrun join her as her excuse. He never bothered to argue, even if he didn’t care.

He’d been on edge too, a little more alert, eyes flicking around the room from the moment he entered. That had put Kabru on alert too, and he’d assumed the report was urgent.

It actually was; a breeding pair of dungeon rabbits, close to the border. That would very quickly become an infestation, and while the squad of ex-Canaries had cleared the two they’d found and their kits, the rabbits themselves had come from somewhere. You never got just two dungeon rabbits.

Suitably alarmed, Kabru had begun plotting the arrangements to let the squad leave again that same day (risking the wrath of both Cithis and Flamela, who’d taken over Lycion and Fleki from Pattadol, but no one else had their experience). Captain Mithrun had listened, nodded, agreed to head out and left, although Kabru had noticed his fingers picking at his cuffs.

He’d assumed Mithrun was impatient about the delay, and gotten their supplies and reinforcements organized as fast as he could. Same day… still hadn’t been possible.

So he’d gone to tell Mithrun personally, hurrying down the hall towards the guest chambers the squad usually took over.

Which was when he’d finally noticed the other thing that was decidedly out of place; just the very faintest trace of a new scent, one that absolutely should not have been inside these halls. A barely-there hint of unfamiliar body odour, overlaid with a shadow of pre-heat.

That would be a much more serious problem; the squad couldn’t head out again if they were going into another heat, but it felt much too soon after their last. Cycles were highly personal and tended to hit personal rhythms more than consistent schedules, but less than a year?

He’d never heard of an elf with such a short cycle. Ever.

Obviously it had to be one of their other guests. It must be. No alternative. He’d have to find out who, and ensure that they had the proper precautions set up for their heat… and make sure to move them away from the squad and any other visitors. It was rare, but there was nothing more likely to set off a surprise heat than the pheromones of someone else in heat close by.

Mithrun hadn’t been there when he arrived, which was only a little unusual. But Flamela had greeted him with her usual aggressive disinterest, while the convicts chatted on the other side of the room.

And then he’d mentioned getting them back on the road as soon as possible. And she’d agreed. And he’d said they’d have supplies ready by morning. And she looked utterly confused.

“By morning? Pain in the ass he may be, but we’re not going without Mithrun.”

And something icy cold had settled in Kabru’s gut.

“Why would you be going without him?” He’d asked cautiously.

And Flamela looked at him like he was stupid (even more so than usual).

“He’s not going monster hunting on his heat.”

And the bottom dropped straight out of Kabru’s world.

“He doesn’t go on heat,” he’d protested weakly, looking to the rest of the squad for backup. Only to find them all watching him with interest.

And Cithis had smirked, superior as a cat, and turned archly to others.

“I told you he wasn’t actually an omega,” she’d declared firmly, and Kabru would be picking that apart and doing damage control later, when the rest of the world made sense again.

Because Flamela had advanced on him, her ever burning anger beginning to spark.

“Of course he does. The lucky bastard just doesn’t do it often. He said you were going to arrange everything,” she’d said sharply, watching his face for the lie.

“I was arranging things for your return to the field,” Kabru had retorted, his own attention flickering from her to the convicts… who were exchanging looks of their own.

Cithis smug. Otta exasperated but definitely a little amused. Fleki full on cackling like she was watching the funniest show of her life. Lycion… absent.

And Kabru had run through about a million calculations all at once, and didn’t like any of the answers.

“Why the hell would we return now, when he’s going into heat?” Flamela had snapped, tossing her hands into the air.

And the words had come out before he’d decided to ask.

“Does he know?”

And from the way all four elves had frozen, he’d had his answer. Didn’t even need Flamela to round on the convicts, her eyes narrowed.

“What.” It was a statement more than a question, a demand for clarification.

Kabru had offered it without thinking, eyes fixed firmly on Cithis. Who smiled at him.

“Can Captain Mithrun tell when he’s going onto heat? He didn’t mention anything about it, and said you’d be ready to leave. Can he feel his heat coming, or does he need someone to tell him?”

And why didn’t you.

He hadn’t needed to say the words aloud; the flash of guilt across Otta’s face told him she’d heard them. Of course, Flamela had never been as subtle.

“Seriously? He even needs help with that, and none of you told him? Where the hell is Lycion, isn’t that what he’s for?” She’d growled.

And Cithis had shot her a much more soothing, placating smile than the sweet viciousness she’d given Kabru.

“Lycion is with the captain, he’ll be fine. We just thought that if Captain Mithrun went to arrange things with Kabru directly, clearly another omega would notice his condition and arrange for his heat too.” It was her usual gilded barbs, but another pang of worry had sunk too far into Kabru’s gut to care.

(Entirely independent from his sudden new revelations about why a beta wolf beastman would be integral to a squad’s group heat. No wonder Fleki had left Mithrun with him instead of Lycion.)

“When is the captain’s heat due to start?” He’d asked sharply, nasty suspicions flaring as he watched Otta squirm.

The scent was faint enough to his nose to be almost ignorable, if he hadn’t been so used to checking for it. In most cases, that’d probably mean several days before the actual onset, plenty of time to get somewhere safe to build a nest and make preparations.

But Captain Mithrun didn’t even have a base scent, and Kabru was a beta; his nose just wasn’t acute enough to pick up the earliest hints. But he hadn’t noticed anything with Mithrun in the same room, still sweaty from the road - and for it to get that much more intense that quickly, it probably wasn’t just a normal, slow pre-heat as hormones flared.

Flamela blanched, her cheeks a dingy grey, and Kabru had already been headed for the door before she found her voice.

“We rode hard to make it back early today. I thought he’d already be nesting.”

And she’d all but run to follow, shoving past him through the door, and he’d remembered at the last moment that Flamela was also unique; not just for her coal black skin and red eyes, which should have marked her as a direct candidate to the elven throne. For the same thing that had probably been the only reason she’d been able to join the Canaries at all and put herself at risk.

Captain Flamela was the only warden alpha. And one of the omegas in her pack (if not technically under her care) was potentially already going into heat alone, unprotected, in a strange place. She may not have been all that fond of Mithrun himself (and clearly had been planning to ignore his heat altogether, while she’d thought it was under control), but that was the kind of primal need it was hard to ignore.

He hadn’t dared try to grab her, well aware that she had a short fuse at the best of times - which this decidedly wasn’t. They needed to find Mithrun as quickly as possible, because if he actually did have no idea… if he couldn’t tell, if he went onto heat and just kept wandering about his business…

Well, the days when a lone omega was likely to be snatched up and stolen by another pack had long been over before the kingdom of Melini had been founded the first time. And Captain Mithrun was quite possibly the most terrifying fighter in the world, if not the most skilled.

And if any register of heat muddled his brain even a fraction more than his usual lack of depth perception, he would only be more dangerous to any attacker. So long as he was still able to cast.

It would likely depend on exactly who he came across first, and how many people. Kabru certainly wouldn’t vouch for every single member of the royal court, or every resident of the castle, but he was pretty certain there was at least no one was foolish enough to try and kidnap and breed a wandering elf, even in heat.

But he could certainly cause all kinds of other trouble as his pheromones set off conflicting reactions in every alpha and omega he passed. Actual kidnap, no, Kabru doubted it, but there’d be alphas like Flamela - the kind who reacted to an omega in heat as something to protect.

(He wasn’t actually sure if Flamela’s instincts were more likely to take the shape of lashing out and driving away any perceived threats or simply picking Mithrun up bodily and taking him somewhere safe to nest, but neither would go well for anyone not already extremely familiar to the captain. Mithrun could be passive, but anyone who didn’t know to hold him close enough to prevent teleporting would be in danger.

And that was before his angry pack alpha arrived. Flamela herself may be hot headed, no-nonsense and almost stereotypically alpha-aggressive, but she was also a defender by nature and training.

The fact that she hadn’t taken a swing at him, or stopped to chase him off made him hope it would be the latter - just grabbing Mithrun and taking him to safety. If she was just intent on reaching Mithrun before seeing off the “threat”, he’d be in trouble.)

And there might be some young, impulsive, freshly presented alphas who would get overexcited by the scent of heat and assume Mithrun was shopping for company. Trying to court the captain wouldn’t go much better for them than trying to bring him to safety; if Mithrun understood what they were trying at all, at best he’d ignore them… until they annoyed him enough to be put into a wall somewhere so they’d leave him alone.

(He. Wouldn’t accept. Almost certainly. If he couldn’t tell he was on heat, he couldn’t desire a partner to make the heat easier on himself, could he? He didn’t even know he was on heat, he wouldn’t be passive enough to just follow someone home… right?)

Other omegas would probably follow one of two similar patterns too; an elf omega wasn’t instinctually a threat to anyone but another elf omega, so it was unlikely to involve anyone trying to actually chase him off. As far as Kabru knew, there weren’t any other elven omegas in the castle. Not really a problem.

No, other omegas would also be more likely to try and pull Mithrun to the safety of a nest… and if they were especially broody, trying to feed and take care of him during his heat. Which would probably only be a distraction while they were directly in his company, since there’d be no pack bonds, but it could still be a pretty big disruption.

There was a very small chance that a dwarf omega might actually try and get Mithrun back to his own nest; they got a little more territorial. That would be nice, the guise of a solution even if they did get a telling off for letting him get disrupted so close to his heat. The rest of the squad would certainly be getting that anyway from him and Flamela both.

All of that seemed almost manageable… except that Kabru very firmly was not thinking about the worst case scenario.

Nothing was more likely to set off an unexpected heat or rut than pheromones from someone already in heat.

There were a lot of alphas and omegas currently in the castle alone, never mind the entire rest of the city. If even a fraction of them suddenly had to spend the next week or so in a surprise cycle… gods he already had so much paperwork to handle all on his own. He’d never catch up.

So here he was, cursing every factor he could think of that had led him to this (and he could think of a lot), doing his best to keep pace with a combat trained alpha on a mission, all because someone (Cithis) thought it would be funny to see if he could spot Captain Mithrun’s heat.

And at the end of this, he would need to find somewhere for Captain Mithrun to ride out his heat. Kabru didn’t even know how long it’d last; his cycle was clearly abnormal, not triggered often or synced to his squad. Would it be over sooner, too? Or would it last longer, making up for the cycles he missed?

He’d need answers to all of that soon, but he wasn’t going to try and distract Flamela. She had to be scenting him out, they were moving too fast for Kabru to catch any of the almost imperceptible scent he’d noticed on his way to the guest quarters but with firm purpose. If he hadn’t actually made it back to the others after leaving Kabru’s office… where would Mithrun go?

He was only thankful when Flamela passed the turn down to the entrance hall without slowing. Much, much, much less thankful when she seemed to be heading directly for the royal audience chambers - Laios was due for a rut cycle in about ten days, which Kabru only knew because he had to organize everything both for that and to keep the kingdom going without its king for a week and a half, and a lot of that depended on Laios focusing long enough and getting shit done for the next ten days, and if he went onto rut even one day early he’d miss the banquet for the arrival of the ambassadors from Kahka Brud and Kabru would fucking kill him.

He’d just have to fucking kill him. It’d destabilize the region, probably incentivize the elves to try and take over the whole kingdom, and he’d probably have to make Falin the queen just to keep the whole mess afloat. But since the dwarves were only barely faking politeness anyway and still entirely pissed off about the loss of their entire coastline, all their ports, and half the economy, it was still the lesser of two evils.

If Laios blew them off from a banquet he’d planned (and Kabru had already considered killing him for scheduling it that close to his goddamn cycle but Laios was just so innocent and really, actually believed that the dwarves would prefer some time to settle in before getting to work anyway - as if Kabru wouldn’t be spending the entire time gathering information, preparing documents, and getting into heavy negotiations) then giving them his head on a platter might just smooth things over on that front.

Maybe his decapitated head would be enough to keep monsters away. That’d be worth something.

Thinking desperately over Laios’ schedule (and the odds that Laios would sneak out for a break at the worst possible moment), he found new reserves and sped up to draw even with Flamela.

“We can’t let him near Laios!” He gasped, knowing he couldn’t possibly explain it all until they’d stopped and he’d caught his breath.

It didn’t seem he’d have to though; as he’d hoped, Flamela’s nostrils flared for a moment and she simply nodded, speeding up.

Which. Was when Kabru’s common sense, apparently not keeping pace as well as the rest of him, realized that giving a worked up alpha a warning about something related to her missing, heated omega packmate, was probably a really bad fucking idea.

(Perhaps those fantasies about killing Laios were becoming a little more subconscious motive than he’d thought.)

And, while he probably could temporarily incapacitate Flamela - if she was fully focused on someone else, he’d have no trouble getting close enough to hit some pressure points - she almost certainly would never forgive him. And, while she didn’t bother to exercise any of her potential political power… the other elves wouldn’t let that kind of bargaining chip go.

He just had to hope that she was still thinking rationally enough not to go for a kill shot, should Laios appear at the worst possible moment.

Lungs straining, muscles burning, he sped up anyway. Best to just get to Mithrun before it ever became…

There. Lycion was just ahead, leaning casually against a wall and straightening as they approached. Which meant… yes, further down the hall. The captain was already being shadowed by a handful of half-foot omegas (three from the cleaning staff, two who worked in the libraries trying to salvage what records existed, one minor noble) who seemed afraid to approach him, but couldn’t back away.

And he was currently having his way blocked by three tall-man alphas, all guards who should have already dealt with the situation.

(Kabru knew all three by name - two were already mated and one had adult omega children, she should have known better. The third was young, freshly presented, and Kabru was pretty sure he heard him suggesting that Mithrun was out of his nest looking for a partner as they approached… to loud protests from all six half-foot omegas and a sharp clip upside the head from his coworkers.

At least none of them would grind the kingdom to a halt if they all went into surprise cycles.)

Lycion straightened as they approached, raising a hand to wave to Flamela.

“I keep telling them to get out of his way, Captain, but he’s in a mood. I wouldn’t try to touch him,” he added half over his shoulder, glancing back with that same slight smile as one of the older alphas reached for Mithrun’s arm, likely to pull him away from their younger colleague.

Before Kabru could cry out a warning, Mithrun’s head tipped down to look at the hand on his arm, his eyes narrowed, and the guard disappeared. The fact that nothing took his place probably meant he was fine… unless Mithrun had sent him straight up.

Between that and the sudden scent of furious alpha Flamela was giving off, suddenly the corridor was all noise and panic. Which would surely draw more people. Which would make this whole thing worse.

“What the hell did he do to Gaz!”

“Where did he go?!”

“Stop it!”

“Get away from him!”

“Of course he’s in a fucking mood Lycion, he’s in heat! Why the fuck isn’t he in his nest!” Flamela roared, easily louder than everyone else.

Lycion, the only person other than Mithrun not currently freaking out, just shrugged and jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Mithrun. Who narrowed his eye at Flamela.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re going into heat, Captain,” Lycion told him, sounding almost bored and entirely unsurprised when Mithrun turned away and ignored him… which was when Kabru realized he was also soaked almost to his knees in slick. How the hell had he not felt that?

And Kabru tried not to be annoyed at the way both guards had immediately circled to face Flamela, snapping to attention and focusing on her and Lycion, apparently for the first time. Because obviously the angry alpha was in charge.

“Ma’am, is he with you? Why isn’t he in his nest?” The older woman asked, carefully leaning back but not actually getting out of the way as Mithrun went to move forwards.

(Kabru tensed, but he just rocked to a stop instead of moving her. Or teleporting himself. So he was irritable, but not actually motivated to do anything at the moment.)

Flamela’s eyes narrowed, but her attention snapped almost immediately back to Lycion. Who, to be fair, was also directly her problem.

“No one asked you to wine and fucking dine him, he needs a nest! Shut him in and leave him there if he’s not interested but you can’t let him run around like this!” She snarled, eyes narrowed.

Her rage was almost as thick in the air as Mithrun’s heat; the two historians turned and fled, either for their own nests or just somewhere they could breathe. It almost wasn’t a surprise to Kabru when the young alpha stepped forwards, actually putting himself between Mithrun and the other two elves.

(Which was the first time Lycion tensed, and Kabru dearly wished he had the warden bond that would let him stop the beastman from changing. Things were already bad enough.)

“You left a sick omega in the care of a beta? Of course he’s not going to take care of him properly, he doesn’t even have a knot!” He declared loudly, and just like that Lycion was grinning viciously and Kabru knew exactly what was about to come out of his mouth.

Crossing the hall, he slapped his hand over it instead. Keeping his voice low (not that he needed to under the sound of Flamela and the older guard both tearing strips out of him), he hissed,

“I’ll give you his home address and you can show him your knot later. Please don’t wind Captain Flamela up further.”

For a moment he wasn’t sure Lycion would go for it, his golden gaze slipping sideways back to the young (and now heavily chastised) alpha. Half expecting to have his hand bitten (or licked, not that either would have worked), he relaxed when Lycion’s eyes met his again and the elf nodded.

Still. A little reluctant to remove his hand. But the crux of this issue was time, and getting Mithrun away and to a nest, and Lycion was generally at least a little more trustworthy than his squadmates.

Deciding that at the worst, nothing Lycion could do would be a more immediate problem, Kabru released him and turned… directly into the stern stare of one of the half-foot cleaners.

“There’s something wrong with that poor elf,” she hissed, and for half a second Kabru thought she meant Lycion. Which. He also wouldn’t argue with.

Then she shot a pointed look at Captain Mithrun, who was… who was wandering off again with all three remaining alphas distracted. Swearing to himself, Kabru hurried off after him, catching him at the end of the hall.

“Captain, please… I understand you feel fine, but you’re going onto heat, you need somewhere safe to nest,” he all but pleaded, catching the elf captain by the arm.

He didn’t even flinch when Mithrun snapped around, eye narrowed and other hand raised. He was already closing the last of the distance, tugging Mithrun back to his chest - and freezing.

It was automatic by now, pulling Mithrun into as much contact as possible to stop him from teleporting him into something dangerous.

But the captain was an omega, and not just starting but near fully in heat, whether he knew it or not. While he almost certainly wouldn’t object to close physical contact now any more than he had before, every other alpha and omega in the hall well might.

The moment of hesitation should have been more than enough anyway. He’d seen the speed Mithrun casted at, heart skipping as the hand came around.

And stopped in mid air. Mithrun glared up at him for a moment, then lowered his hand and stepped sharply away. A little startled, Kabru let him go, then remembered himself and stepped closer.

Fought not to take a deep breath, the heady scent of heat strong even for him. Honestly, doors wouldn’t be enough to keep it contained for long. This had to end, now.

“Please, Captain. Mithrun. Your legs are already soaked, I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner, but you need a nest. If nothing else, let me find you some clean clothing and a place where no one else will bother you?” He tried, fighting to keep his voice steady.

He had no idea how Captain Mithrun would usually handle his heat; he had a nasty feeling that it was however his squad decided he should, and since he wasn’t synced with them that could mean anything. It also didn’t much matter.

The only thing that mattered was getting Mithrun away and out of this corridor before-

A door opened around the corner. The low, solid creak of the audience chamber doors.

Heart hammering in his ears, Kabru nearly knocked Mithrun flat darting around the corner.

“No, close the door, don’t come this way!” He shouted desperately, momentarily horrified to see a distinctively soft, Touden-round face and light hazel eyes… and relieved a moment later when Falin blinked, squinted at him, and took a deep sniff.

Her eyes widened and she stepped quickly out, then closed the door behind her and cast a barrier spell.

“It’s okay, Laios, I think Kabru’s in heat,” she called through the door when a bemused knock came a moment later.

Sagging against the wall, Kabru just. Stared at her. For a long moment.

She. She and Marcille had to be a thing. Falin had to know that elves and tall-men smelled different, including for things like heat. They’d gone to the magic school, and Kabru knew for a fact that the school accepted anyone, and had accommodations for heat or rut.

Falin damn well had to know what a tall-man omega’s heat smelled like anyway didn’t she, even if she hadn’t been part of one?

Part of Kabru knew he was spiralling, grasping at irrelevant questions as things slipped from his control. Time stretched, but in reality it was likely only a few moments before Falin’s brows furrowed, and she sniffed again.

“Wait… no, who is that?” She asked, moving towards him at her usual calm, almost dreamy amble.

Falin going onto a surprise rut wouldn’t be half the disaster that Laios’ would be, but it still wouldn’t be good.

Kabru raised a hand to try and stall her, glancing back.

All four of the remaining omegas had clustered around Mithrun now (he looked more confused than annoyed at least), and the tall-man guards had both turned his way again, almost but not quite level with Mithrun.

Flamela… Flamela hadn’t actually moved any closer, although he could actually see the shadow of her magical daggers flicker out behind her.

Which was when he remembered he’d run near straight over Mithrun in his panic. The good news was, no matter what instincts screamed about a heated omega, Captain Mithrun was tougher than any six dragons you cared to name.

He looked pretty bad, pale cheeks rising to a heated flush and sweat beading on his face, breathing heavy, hair mussed… but not hurt. Nothing that wouldn’t be accounted for by a sudden onset of heat away from a nest.

Kabru hurried towards him anyway, his instincts (and probably the hyper-vigilance) demanding he check, fix any hurt he’d caused, when he remembered Falin was a healer. And probably couldn’t do anything about his heat anyway, he reminded himself sharply, hurrying back to Mithrun’s side.

All four half-foot omegas glared up at him this time, as if he might try to attack the elf, and the one who’d spoken to him before put herself squarely in his path.

“He needs. To go. To a nest. My lord,” she added with a roll of her eyes when one of the others gave her a gentle nudge. Then she folded her arms and glared at the alphas present. “He shouldn’t have had to leave his this close at all.”

And if Lycion had squirmed half as much as the alphas did, Kabru might have let her go on with his blessing. He was in full agreement, after all. But once again, Mithrun had to be his priority.

“You can’t really keep him anywhere he doesn’t want to be,” Lycion pointed out philosophically, shrugging as all eyes turned to him again. “He’s a teleportation specialist. You saw what he did to your grabby friend.”

Fighting not to grit his teeth, Kabru closed his eyes and counted to ten in lieu of taking a calming breath.

“He is right here and can hear all of you,” he snapped, then looked past the smaller omegas to Mithrun, who was watching them all like a play he’d lost track of.

Confused, not annoyed. That was an improvement anyway.

He forced a strained smile onto his face.

“Your legs, Captain,” he prompted gently, and this time Mithrun did look down.

His brows furrowed as he saw the spreading stain of slick now making serious progress soaking through trousers and thigh high boots. He reached down, touched the spot, then brought his fingers up to sniff.

Irritation flickered across his face for a moment, and then it smoothed back out into an almost eerie blankness.

Unable to actually move closer without running over members of the staff, Kabru held out a hand for him.

He didn’t actually know where the hell he could set Mithrun up with a safe nest within the castle (and leaving it was now certainly out of the question), but that only mattered if Mithrun was willing to go.

The slender elf stared at his hand for a while, then back to his face. A moment later Mithrun was stood directly in front of him, almost chest to chest as the half-foot omega stumbled back with a shocked cry.

Kabru nearly cried out himself, but fought it down. Didn’t succeed at stopping the shocked inhale though, and the dry almost cinnamon smell of heat made him light headed.

Hands rising automatically, he wasn’t sure if he was steadying himself or Mithrun as he held the captain close. Mithrun didn’t even pull away enough to look up into his face, his nod actually lightly butting Kabru in the collarbone.

“Fine. Take me where you want.”

Fighting down a sudden startling burst of rage at the implications, Kabru let his grip tighten around the elf for a moment. He was going to have words with Otta, Lycion, and Fleki. Short, angry words. Four letters long.

(He. Didn’t actually expect any better of Cithis. But they should know better.)

When he stepped away, Mithrun swayed a little towards him and Kabru hurried to steady him again, catching his shoulder but keeping the distance. It was hard enough to think already, and he had to actually find a place for the captain.

Luckily, it wasn’t like the castle had any lack of rooms.

Unluckily, there were only a few places currently cleaned, distanced from everyone else, and set up to supply a full rut or heat. It was on the list of things Kabru should be setting up.

Just.

Below things like “any roads whatsoever”, “food production”, and “land ownership”. With the kingdom still in its infancy, the Island’s existing heat and rut businesses had been almost enough; easily enough that anyone who actually really had to be in the castle for their cycle could be handled individually.

And if he had a typical elven cycle, Mithrun would still be in heat when Laios went on rut, and given Kabru’s luck thus far he just plain wasn’t putting them on the same side of the building.

He also didn’t have a better option right now, and they should still have ten days. Sighing heavily (and immediately regretting the breath in), he glanced at Falin… who was… staring intently at Mithrun from about three inches away… definitely breathing in just everything coming off him… and immediately refocused on the half-foots instead of dealing with that.

He gave the boldest his very best smile.

“You’re absolutely right, Doreamac, and with your permission, Mithrun?” He paused for a moment, glancing to the captain, who rolled his eye and gave him a flat look. Which counted as agreement, from him. “I’ll take him to the rooms we’ve prepared for the king, since we don’t have any nesting rooms ready.”

Her eyes widened at the implications, but before she could open her mouth to object, Kabru raised a placating hand.

“I know, it’s going to be a terrible imposition on all of you, and it’ll be reflected in everyones’ paychecks, but you’re going to need to set up a second room for the king’s rut on the other side of the castle.” He paused, glancing towards the other alphas and making a face. “And maybe a few extra rooms on the same side, just to deal with any more… surprises, after this.”

Behind her, the other omegas from the housekeeping staff already looked dismayed at the addition to their workload - most of the castle still hadn’t even been cleaned after its time under the sea; they’d have to get Marcille and the mages in to clear enough spaces in time.

But anyone whose cycle was set off by Mithrun’s would be unusually attuned to his pheromones, and with the double length of an elven heat he’d probably still be going when they started. The other side of the castle was probably far enough to keep it from being a problem.

He was actually a little surprised when it was Falin who answered, straightening and nodding firmly.

“It’ll be fine. I’ll put up a scent barrier around the rooms once you’re inside, and we’ll make sure the other rooms are ready early next week, just in case.” She gave him that soft, gentle smile, then paused and tapped a finger under her chin. “Oh… and the rest of us should probably all go bathe now. It might not make a difference, but it could help too.”

Slowly, Kabru’s shoulders eased down, tension draining out of him. Disaster had been avoided, by the skin of their teeth but avoided nonetheless. Things were finally getting back under control.

He even managed a more genuine smile as he nodded, turning back to the rest of their audience. On the plus side, it hadn’t grown. He was going to thank Flamela’s still-tangible rage.

“Right. Come along Captain, I’ll get you settled in and join the rest of you after,” he said brightly, and felt the moment when time stopped.

When Falin cocked her head, her brows furrowing.

“Oh, no Kabru, you’ll have to stay with him. You can’t open the door after I set up the scent barrier.”

Opening and closing his mouth a few times, it took Kabru a moment to articulate the question.

“But… can’t you just set it up after I’ve left?” He asked weakly.

Falin’s brows furrowed further, looking between Kabru and Mithrun.

“I could, but he’s already carrying your scent. That’d still be there, so he might come out to come looking for you.”

And see. Kabru knew the exact moment when this day had gone horribly wrong. It was when he woke up that morning and hadn’t immediately packed his bags and gone into exile.

Maybe even back to Milsiril.

A faint, hysterical urge to point out that Mithrun didn’t actually have to open the door to come looking for him was violently quashed. The whole point was to stop Mithrun from randomly wandering the castle on his heat.

Slightly dazed, he turned back towards Mithrun, half wondering what he’d actually set his pheromone enchantment to this morning. He… couldn’t remember.

“But… I only just touched him…” he protested weakly.

Flamela cleared her throat loudly, drawing their attention. She also seemed to be calming down, actually more uncomfortable than angry now.

“Actually, Kabru, I was going to ask you to stay with him anyway. I don’t think I can leave him alone for his heat after all this crap, and I’m sure as hell not going on rut with him,” she growled, irritation audibly rising as a shield between herself and her discomfort.

No wonder she wasn’t getting any closer. They were close enough to pack, she’d be a lot more sensitive than the rest of them to his pheromones.

Kabru looked desperately to Lycion, who actually looked mildly concerned for the first time. Surely Mithrun would be fine alone on his heat. He hadn’t even noticed it starting, he couldn’t need more than someone at the door!

“What about-”

“Hell no,” Flamela snarled, more bestial than Lycion had ever managed, shooting the taller elf a dark glare, “not after this fucking stunt. I’m going to deal with him.”

And alright, Lycion’s concern might have been for his own safety, but he didn’t actually react to Flamela’s statement, or rising menace. He just turned back to her, a small frown on his face.

“Look, I’m still probably the best person to take care of the captain. I’ve been doing it for years, I know what he needs.” And he didn’t actually shoot a smug look at the young alpha, but ignored him so thoroughly he might as well have.

He probably also didn’t miss the grumbled “no wonder he wandered off,” either.

Flamela was not swayed. She stalked towards him, eyes narrowed, and pulled up abruptly when her nose twitched.

Ah. Because Lycion had been following the captain. He was probably drenched in his scent. And had definitely noted Flamela’s reaction, ear flicking just a little.

Not that Flamela’s reaction calmed her down.

“You had your chance, convict, and that’s why he’s wandering the halls in the first place! If you wanted to take care of him you should have tried actually taking care of him,” she snarled, hands clenching into fists.

Lycion actually scowled back, probably only the third time Kabru had ever seen him visibly upset.

“He didn’t listen to me! What was I supposed to do, haul him off somewhere against his will? I like not being part of the furniture, and I wouldn’t even know where to take him!”

Because the rest of the Canaries had spent their last cycle in one of the heat hotels in the city, except Flamela. Alphas couldn’t enter, but Kabru had made sure she had a private space in one of the rut rooms at one of the more well appointed inns. A rut didn’t emit half as much excess pheromone anyway, so it was easier to deal with.

Which did actually raise a question.

“So what were you going to do with him?” Kabru asked sharply, snapping both elves around to stare at him. Apparently reminding them both of his presence.

Lycion’s glare sharpened for a moment, then he shrugged and it faded. He gestured to the rest of their audience.

“Wait until someone who did know where we should be came along, and hope the captain would believe them about his heat.” And then he shot Kabru a sudden grin. “I figured you’d have found us a couple of hours ago, actually. I was almost worried.”

Which apparently wound Flamela up enough that she braved Mithrun’s leftover pheromones, grabbing the taller elf by a lock of hair in lieu of him actually wearing anything, and shoving him back against the wall.

“You call that a plan?!” She roared, and Kabru got the feeling she’d grabbed him specifically so her hands weren’t free to cast. “Anything could have happened to him!”

“Like I’d let it!” Lycion snarled back, eyes flashing. He mastered himself a second later, eyes closing as he drew in a deep breath.

Not. Usually a good idea, that close to an angry alpha. Especially not with an unusually sensitive nose.

But he did actually seem calmer when he opened his eyes again, meeting Flamela’s with only a slight frown.

“Look, you don’t want it to be me, fine. Get Otta to come take care of the captain then, she hasn’t done his heat but she’s got a lot more experience.”

On the plus side, his softer tones eased Flamela down enough that the blades flickered out of existence again. Might have been incentive to calm things down.

She still wasn’t swayed though, her eyes narrowing.

“Oh no, you’re all in deep shit for this. You more than the rest of them, sure, but none of you are skiving off for two weeks!”

Lycion almost rolled his eyes, leaning away from her a little.

“Trying to keep the captain fed and well is a full time job on a good day, it’s not easier when he’s on heat! You can’t just expect a tall-man to keep up with that,” he shot back.

Kabru frowned, a little offended.

“I took care of him well enough in the dungeon,” he argued, although he was still reeling from the idea that Flamela considered him an even remotely reasonable alternative. It wasn’t like Lycion had the uncommon opinion.

Flamela flapped a hand in his general direction, still glaring up at Lycion.

“Kabru will do fine, Mithrun’s an adult and I trust Kabru a whole lot more than I do any of the rest of you right now! Mithrun is going somewhere safe, Kabru is staying with him, and I am not chasing him down on his heat again because you lot decided to fuck around,” she growled, red eyes narrowed almost to slits.

Lycion still looked mutinous, but tipped his chin up anyway, baring his throat. For half a second Kabru almost expected Flamela to actually bite him despite the high collars they all still wore; he’d never actually seen an elf pushed to that kind of instinct (they usually thought it was beneath them), but he’d also never actually seen an elven alpha as angry as she was.

Most tall-men would have gone for it. (Gnomes preferred scruffing, for some reason, which rarely worked on gnomes anyway.)

She held him in place for a few moments more, then pushed away, knocking him into the wall and turning to the rest of them. From the tension radiating off her, she was still expecting some kind of fight. Just about the only person she wasn’t glaring at… was Kabru…

Normally that wouldn’t have been a problem for Kabru to defuse, but something else had just sunk in and was overriding all other brain functions.

Flamela didn’t trust Lycion, Otta, or herself with Mithrun on his heat (and alright, that last one might have had more to do with her not particularly liking Mithrun as a person, or just wanting to avoid a second rut so soon after her last one).

She trusted Kabru.

She trusted Kabru with her heated omega, to take care of him alone, after he’d been in danger. On his heat.

The omega Kabru had fucking kidnapped not a single year before, although he couldn’t say how close Flamela and Mithrun had been then.

An unexpected lump rose in Kabru’s throat.

Flamela saw him as part of her pack. That… was weirdly touching, really. Flamela didn’t bond easily or naturally with anyone, holding everyone at arm’s length with barbed comments and short temper. Just about the only people she seemed to actually like were Cithis (for some ungodly reason) and Falin.

At some point he’d gone from an annoying tall-man to a pack mate… so what did that mean for the other Canaries?

He found himself turning back to Mithrun, further protests about how he had far too much to do to miss two weeks dying on his lips.

The elf himself scowled up at him, still tucked in close, and turned away from him.

“I’m fine. I won’t want anything enough to look for you anyway.”

He sounded almost… hurt? No, it had to be annoyed. Again.

Apparently heat made Mithrun cranky, although he didn’t seem to be aware of any other effects. Who knew.

But he had just knocked something else loose in Kabru’s brain, which at least had the advantage of making him stop mouthing silently like a landed fish. Shaking his head in case that cleared it further, he caught Mithrun’s arm again before he moved away.

“Wait… Captain. Mithrun… This is your first heat since the demon fell,” he said slowly, feeling his way through the sentence. Not sure he actually wanted to make the insinuation, just in case nothing actually happened.

He saw the moment Mithrun reached the same conclusion, eye widening as he was reluctantly turned back. His mouth hardened into a thin line, jaw clenching, but that wasn’t anger.

Kabru knew exactly what Mithrun looked like when he was angry. He’d never seen this before.

Before he could finish the sentence, Mithrun shook his head roughly and pushed away, tension snapping every muscle taut.

“No. Nothing will happen. It’s not going to be any different.” It was almost a growl, and Kabru may not have been thinking especially clearly (or about how far behind this would put him) when he caught Mithrun’s arm again, drawing him back in until they were almost touching.

He. Couldn’t take two full weeks off. Couldn’t miss the arrival of the extremely important delegation from Kahka Brud. Couldn’t be out of touch at such a pivotal moment.

Couldn’t think about any of it over the rising excitement that even if Mithrun was right, even if nothing happened… they had found something else to try.

“But if we miss this chance, how many more years will it be until we can try again?” He asked simply, and with his full focus on Mithrun he caught the moment where his eye widened. Nostrils flared, probably in irritation but possibly seeking a scent.

Muscles tensed under his hands. And then Mithrun sagged away from him, face falling back to a deadpan stare.

“I still have my doubts. There was never a time when I wanted to spend my heats with another.”

Which probably shouldn’t have peaked Kabru’s excitement, really. Mithrun reacted to him, yes, and that was a good sign. But the words were a warning in more ways than one, shouldn’t have made hope blossom in him.

He’d all but forgotten they had an audience, hand smoothing gently down Mithrun’s spine.

“Isn’t that what we talked about, though?” He asked softly, felt the twitch as Mithrun stiffened and relaxed again, “Feeling new desires you never had before?”

Lips pressed to a thin line, black eye narrowed as Mithrun peered up at him. Still holding something back, which was already unusual for him.

The first time he hadn’t applied himself with fire and determination to the possibility of a new desire too. The first time Kabru could remember seeing him back away from anything.

They’d have the time to talk about it, if he remained this coherent.

Reservations definitely counted as part of a desire in Kabru’s mind; the desire not to do something, sure, but definitely a desire. That was a good sign already, hope lighting inside him that (while it really wasn’t the same as wanting something himself, in his right mind) this chemical cocktail might be enough to break through whatever the demon had done.

If Mithrun could want something under the influence of his heat, that could be a gateway to wanting things all for himself! All Kabru had to do was work out what he didn’t want, or wanted to avoid, and help him take care of it. And see how he could apply it to other things.

And sure, Mithrun wasn’t exactly the most in touch with his body, but how hard could it be to-

Unless Kabru was just being a fucking idiot.

Cheeks flaming as implications slammed into him, he fought not to immediately jump back. Kept in contact, kept his touch light, even as he stumbled over his words.

“I- of course I’m not going to touch you! Unless you actually want me to, of course, I never meant… I mean, I know you’re in heat, but I know you don’t feel needs, so unless you… I just meant that you might want company! Normal, not-sex company! Or feel hungry, or tired, or if you just wanted someone to hold you!”

Honestly, he felt like such an idiot. Worse than that stupid young alpha, he was surprised no one had kicked his arse yet.

Mithrun stared up at him for a long moment, lips still pressed together in some form of displeasure… that gradually pulled into a small smile. Not his usual one though; something dark hid underneath, self deprecating in a way Kabru was just too flustered to think about.

“Of course.” And there were layers there that Kabru couldn’t see through either, which didn’t… didn’t sound or feel like actual agreement.

Still, it was a smile, and they’d cleared up that misunderstanding, and it was better than Mithrun trying to pull away from him.

“This is physically painful,” Flamela snarled from down the hall, and Kabru jumped about a foot in the air at the reminder of her presence. That they were essentially street theatre, at the moment.

“I think it’s sweet,” Falin put in brightly, much closer, and Kabru barely resisted the urge to hide his face in Mithrun’s hair to try and suffocate himself.

Clearly he’d already breathed in way too many pheromones. He was never normally that slow.

And it’d only get worse over the next two weeks, wouldn’t it?

Looking to Flamela, Kabru hesitated for just a second. Forced his brain to kick back into gear, reading her body language, looking for angles. She was still poised for a fight, hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.

She might not settle until she actually knew Mithrun was safe, although given the distance she was keeping he wasn’t sure she’d bother following them to the rut rooms. Would she calm down if she just saw Mithrun leave with Kabru? Assume he’d be alright?

But then she’d probably go for Kabru’s throat the second she saw him until Mithrun’s heat had fully ended. She was badly unsettled, barely keeping any hold on civility at all, and that would have been bad enough in any human alpha.

Flamela was already impulsive for an elf on her own, but he’d never seen her this close to losing control before. Not even when the dungeon broke. He had no idea how long it might last, or what she’d do.

Diplomatically, Mithrun was still a son of the main line of the House of Kerensil. A war hero, a noble even if elves wouldn’t fully count him anymore. While so far, only his own squad were going to come away from this in trouble…

Realistically, which would be worse? Two weeks locked in a couple of rooms with Mithrun, taking care of him the way he had in the dungeon except with absolutely no chance of any monsters attacking them, or dealing with the fallout if he refused?

Flamela might not bother with diplomatic channels to show her ire, but Cithis sure as hell would. Cithis had Mithrun’s older brother at her fingertips, and she’d love a chance to set him on Kabru.

Except that it meant leaving Laios and Marcille to handle the delegation from Kahka Brud, and Marcille would be too busy clearing the new rooms for Laios’ rut to read any of Kabru’s notes.

Daya. He’d have to contact Daya, and her uncle, immediately.

It was just a blessing that he’d been able to convince the old dwarf to stay and take a role within Melini’s cabinet after what Mithrun had done to him. (Which. He’d deserved, anyway. He’d been planning on killing them both.)

The old shadow governor was politically astute, and while he’d certainly find some way to spin this whole mess to his advantage, he also pretty reliably only spun things to his own advantage. So long as Melini doing well remained to his advantage, Kabru almost trusted him.

And the old boy had a soft spot for Daya a mile wide, as the only one of his clansmen who’d also walked away. And Daya was very happy in Melini, and with Kabru as a friend.

Alright. Things might be less awful than he’d thought. And, while he was fully aware he didn’t really have a choice, he could probably spin this into at least another few favours from the elven Queen. And from the elves here right now.

So long as they thought he was doing them one.

Sighing heavily, he schooled his expression into one of his more obviously worried smiles. It. Wasn’t exactly a reach.

“Of course you know I’m always happy to help, Flamela.” Something else struck him and he looked quickly back down to Mithrun. “That is, so long as you don’t object to my company, Captain?”

Mithrun frowned up at him, and for a moment Kabru worried that his sour mood would make things difficult; if he did decide he didn’t want Kabru around for whatever reason, they’d need some other way to satisfy Flamela’s instincts to keep him safe.

Now that he’d come to terms with losing the time, he’d rather do it within the comfortable rut rooms than sit on guard at the door.

But he’d chosen his words carefully, and Mithrun’s frown smoothed back to indifference. Although… a slightly more tense indifference than usual.

“I don’t care what you do. My usual cycle is two and a half weeks, but if I’m already in heat we’re mostly through the first day.” It was riding the line of his usual oversharing, but Kabru was going to take him not immediately breaking down the full schedule as a positive sign.

Two and a half weeks.

Great.

Well, he’d still be out before Laios was, so he’d still have time for damage control. Suddenly realising that he was basically still holding Mithrun close, he stepped back a little and turned back to Flamela.

“Then I’d like to borrow two of your communication pixies for the duration; Marcille still has one, but given the short notice I’d also like to be able to communicate with King Laios directly.” Marcille would have some way to be able to get any paperwork or reports he needed to look at to him. And it wasn’t like he’d be completely incapacitated looking after Mithrun full time.

Flamela didn’t even blink, nodding sharply, still up on the balls of her feet.

“You’ll have Lycion’s. And Otta’s. And whatever else you need from us to make up for the intrusion,” she snarled, most likely at Lycion although she didn’t so much as glance over.

It was probably supposed to be part of their punishment, but Kabru didn’t really care. He nodded, turning his attention back to Mithrun with a slightly more genuine smile.

“Well then, Captain, we should get going. I did actually have some things I wanted to run by you at some point about more regular monster hunting patrols for our outlying towns and villages. They’re not exactly ready yet but I’m sure I’ll make better progress with your help.”

At least that worked; some of the tension left Mithrun’s face, his mood visibly lightening with the chance to keep up his work in some capacity.

Kabru could relate. Oh, and…

“Ah, first I think I also have to get your supplies on hold too. Lady Falin, do you think you could run down to the stables? I had some rather urgent preparations made that’ll be able to wait until we’re done,” he added, turning back to see his current (usual) favourite Touden.

Falin nodded brightly, still watching him and Mithrun with interest.

“I can do that once I’ve done the shield spell. Oh, and make sure the kitchen knows to send food up early. Two and a half weeks, right?” She asked Mithrun directly, and Kabru felt a flood of affection for her.

He knew how self destructive those people pleasing habits could be (intimately), but it was just so much easier to deal with.

And too many people started talking past Mithrun to his caregivers. Even Kabru occasionally got sucked into it, and he hated that. Even if Mithrun himself didn’t care.

Mithrun nodded, but Flamela raised her voice from the other end of the hall.

“Put our supplies off for at least four weeks. He’s getting a full checkup once he’s out,” she added in tones that brooked absolutely no argument.

She almost got one anyway, Mithrun’s brows dipping mutinously, but Kabru was already on damage control.

“We’ll send another group out to check on the dungeon rabbits in the meantime, Captain. They should be back a little after you’re done anyway, so if you wait you can check in with them before heading out again,” he offered quickly, adding yet another task to his mental checklist.

Really, of all the times for Mithrun to go into heat… well, next week would have been significantly worse, but any time before now would have been better.

Mithrun considered it for a moment, irritation still clouding his features, then nodded. And, apparently bored of waiting for Kabru to get everything in order, turned and began walking away.

Honestly, with his sense of direction, not knowing where they were going was barely relevant… and he did actually end up heading in almost the right direction.

Shooting a round of smiles at their impromptu audience, Kabru decided to wrap things up quickly.

“Once again, Captain Flamela, I’m terribly sorry for any inconvenience, and we are of course more than happy to put the rest of your squad up for the duration. We can talk more once the pixies arrive, if there’s anything else you wish to discuss?” He asked, doing his very best not to actively twitch to keep Mithrun in sight.

Before she could respond, Lycion slipped around her and hurried towards him, calling back over his shoulder.

“I’ll go with them, Captain. So that we know where Captain Mithrun is, and to give him my pixie,” he added before she could argue.

Eyes narrowing, Flamela settled herself back onto the floor. It was a neat compromise; she would know the omega was safe, with two of her pack members, she’d know where he was, and she didn’t have to get any closer or keep exposing herself to Mithrun’s pheromones.

Possibly also blatant sucking up, but Kabru doubted that would help.

Either way, Flamela nodded stiffly.

“Bathe before you come back,” she ordered, turning on one heel and shooting a glare at the older guard. “You need to discipline your boy there,” she growled, not bothering to keep her voice low. Luckily, it seemed that the older guard was in full agreement, shooting her young colleague a glare of her own.

“Oh, he’ll be on gate duty at best until he learns to control himself.”

Kabru waited just long enough to see the young alpha reluctantly lift his chin, properly chastened, then hurried after Mithrun. Falin had already caught up to him and begun gently redirecting him towards the rut rooms, but Lycion was hanging behind.

Odd.

Unless he wanted to talk.

His own patience with the beastman decidedly not at its highest, Kabru drew level and matched his pace, but didn’t look at him. Not that it mattered, since Lycion spoke almost immediately anyway in a low whisper.

“Look, leaving some of your clothes or used bedding with the captain should be more than enough. Flamela’ll probably have us standing guard at the door anyway, and if you take my pixie we can let you know if he leaves or when Flamela will be out and about.”

Kabru bristled, nerves raw enough that he couldn’t fully control the motion. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on Mithrun’s back, his voice low and tight.

“And what makes you think I trust you any more than she does at the moment? Why are you so eager now for a duty you clearly weren’t taking seriously?” He shot back sharply.

Why didn’t he want anyone else close enough to watch over the captain.

Why the hells had it come to this at all?

Caught a falter in Lycion’s step from the corner of his eye.

Kabru rarely showed his teeth these days. Never really had in the dungeon either; even when he’d drawn on Lycion it had been more blatant panic than anything else, and they hadn’t even exchanged blows.

Still, nothing seemed to wrong foot him for long, and soon he was back at Kabru’s elbow, long silver hair wafting over exposed skin.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re all protective. It’s cute. But I’m trying to do you a favour.”

“I’ve dealt with the captain before,” Kabru cut him off sharply, fists clenching.

Beside him Lycion sighed, shaking his head.

“It’s different when he’s on heat. I get we shoulda been more careful, and this whole thing was a bad idea, but if Flamela actually understood she would never-”

Words were suddenly no longer enough, rage boiling over as Kabru stopped, turned, and pushed him up against the wall.

“And just what do you think you can do for him so much better than I can?” He demanded in a hiss, surprised by the abrupt vehemence of his feelings.

Because there was really only one thing Lycion had that Kabru didn’t. Only one reason not to want someone else in the room with the captain on his heat.

(And alright, there were half a dozen, but just one had filled his head with fire and nothing else could get through.

But then, all the adrenaline, anxiety, and stress hadn’t had an outlet yet. And there was just no way he could be even remotely calm about this, about such a blatant abuse of the captain’s condition; not even if Mithrun hadn’t been coating the pair of them in his pheromones already.)

Lycion looked genuinely bemused by the sudden action, his brows furrowing.

If he mentioned his fucking knot, Kabru would apologise to Flamela later, but he was going to kill him.

“What? You just said you were busy, so I thought-”

“Oh, were you being considerate? Like you considerately mentioned to anyone that Mithrun was going onto heat and needed accommodations? Why are you so intent on it being you, Lycion?” Kabru snarled, cutting him off.

Lycion’s expression froze. Then got colder than Kabru had even guessed it could. Even while staying completely elven, there was very little humanity to it.

“I’m going to put that accusation down to a stressful day and remind you that I suggested Otta take care of him,” the beastman growled back, and for half a second Kabru would swear he saw teeth lengthen.

He stumbled back when Lycion shoved him, reeling a little inside and out.

Because.

Oh.

Yeah. Otta. Who absolutely didn’t have a knot, and absolutely couldn’t have been even remotely persuaded to lay a finger on any man, probably even to save his life.

Oh, Kabru was aware he had a bad habit of seeing the worst in people. Jumping to conclusions, starting at the worst case scenario. But he’d really been this close to just stabbing someone over an idea. A half formed accusation based mostly in bad smut.

Lycion glared at him a moment longer, then sighed and shook his head.

“Actually, this is exactly what I mean. Have you ever looked after an omega during their heat before?” Pushing a hand through long silken hair, he gave Kabru a questioning once over.

The bristling was an involuntary reaction, but Kabru forced himself to breathe through it. To settle his head, as much as he could.

“Not… directly. Milsiril had a few attendants that would come and see to things during her heat, and Rin and I escorted a few omegas to heat hotels, but…” well, it wasn’t worth mentioning that until he’d dragged Mithrun down into the dungeon, Kabru had never actually even looked after himself single handed before.

Honestly, he’d never smelled anything but pre-heat in any kind of proximity before, and that only rarely. Alphas were easier, he’d helped Holm with his rut several times, but that had just been making sure he had privacy and fresh food.

(Almost always. Not even being in the room with Holm in full rut made his head half as fogged, and there had been one or two occasions that he’d leant a more personal hand, or been by right after he’d finished.

But that didn’t count.)

Lycion’s lips twitched in a slight smile, and then he shook his head.

“Right. Well, it messes with your head. And yeah, I know you’re a beta, always did despite your little spell or whatever,” he added before Kabru could interrupt again, waving a hand dismissively, “but that doesn’t matter. It won’t be as strong as if you were an alpha or omega, but you’re still going to get pheromone head.”

He hesitated then, giving Kabru a more searching look. While Kabru himself tried to work through that revelation, as well as that literally all of this could have been avoided if Lycion just mentioned that to Cithis so she didn’t play this bullshit game (ignoring that she might play it anyway).

And. Being weirdly touched that Lycion had… respected his privacy? Not commented, for whatever reason.

Whatever he found, Lycion clapped him companionably on the shoulder. His smile wasn’t quite as generally good-natured as usual though; Kabru focused on that, compartmentalising yet another screaming fit for his next moment of privacy.

(In about three weeks. Joy.)

He looked sympathetic. Usually a bad sign, in their acquaintance. Confirmed by the elf’s next words.

“And it’s a lot worse when it’s an omega you’re already attracted to. That’s why Otta’s a good backup.”

Kabru. Stopped. Felt his cheeks heat to a sudden blazing intensity, although he had absolutely no idea why they would. It wasn’t like there was any truth whatsoever to what Lycion said.

“I’m not attracted-” he trailed off, unable to keep going in the face of Lycion’s horrible, stupid, sympathetic and disbelieving smile.

“You were going to stab me,” the beastman pointed out affably, like he was commenting on the weather.

Kabru snapped his mouth shut and settled for a glare.

“Oh, and the captain’s gone again.”

And near completely forgot about Lycion altogether, spinning and desperately scanning the hall. Empty. Which meant Falin was gone too, so hopefully they’d just been left behind (and dear gods if Mithrun had heard any of that conversation Kabru would just have to kill them both) but if the captain decided to wander off again…

He broke into a dead run, almost bouncing off the wall to make the turn at the end of the corridor… where Falin and Mithrun stopped together, half way down, to look back at him in mild curiosity.

If Kabru had been any good at magic whatsoever, he’d have loved to be able to sink straight through the floor. There was a window at the other end of the hall that he could throw himself out of, but that would involve passing them.

He just about managed to catch himself and slow before he reached them, pulling out a smile like he hadn’t just given himself a heart attack. Very nearly sunk an elbow into Lycion’s stomach when the bastard caught him a second later, following at a light jog and fucking humming.

He was just. Never speaking to him again. Ever.

Not even when Lycion tossed an arm around his shoulders and leaned in close enough to whisper so quietly not even another elf would hear it, “yeah. It’ll be better once he’s in his nest. At least you won’t have a rut?”

It might have been more an awful attempt at comfort than the smugness Kabru expected, but either way? Not helping.

“Sorry, don’t let us hold you up,” he called to the others instead, waiting until Falin had nodded and started leading Mithrun off again.

Then he counted to one hundred, in twos, then in threes, sixes, and sevens. Because if he let himself look at or think about Lycion, he was apparently going to do something else monumentally stupid.

Maybe it would be better if he didn’t have a pixie to communicate directly with Laios, if he was going to be feeling like this the entire time. Marcille could pass messages on, and was much less likely to say something to make him want to strangle her.

Although. He’d be stuck in the rooms, so it wasn’t like he could actually do it.

His plan of “Ignore Lycion Until One Or Both Of Us Die” was unfortunately short-lived. Without talk to distract them, they caught back up to Falin and Mithrun pretty quickly.

Falin was asking Mithrun questions about his own heat, already wildly inappropriate by the time Kabru and Lycion joined them. But no, Mithrun was answering all of them with his usual calmness, so Kabru bit his tongue and kept counting.

It was. Fine. If the captain was happy to discuss his cycle with everyone and anyone. How his heat felt. How it was different after he was traumatised by the demon.

Sure.

What he did with the time. Whether or not he felt sexual stimulation. If he was more sensitive in other ways, or everything remained deadened.

Fine.

He definitely needed to hear the king’s sister casually sharing her own experiences with rut in return, unprompted. And a “funny story” about Laios’ first rut, which he hadn’t noticed was coming until the family dogs started following him around and tried to “protect” him from their father. Which Falin assumed was because all of their female dogs had been spayed after their first heat, so they’d obviously assume Laios would also be taken to the vet.

Delightful.

Actually, Kabru did need to know what Mithrun usually did with the time he spent on heat, so he reluctantly tuned back in. And Lycion decided to join in, cheerful as anything. Like this was a perfectly normal day and discussion.

“Really, it’s a lot easier than dealing with the rest of the squad’s heat. Oh, except you shouldn’t ask Kabru to practice hand-to-hand with you, Captain, he’ll worry too much about hurting you.”

Mithrun made a dismissive noise that made Falin giggle, but Kabru was busy forcibly reigning himself in yet again.

“You do combat training with him? On his heat?!” He hissed, doing his very best not to think about the size difference, how small Mithrun was, how easily he could be… wait, no, Mithrun was the elven equivalent of an actual minotaur, short but solidly built and sturdy.

Lycion snickered and nodded.

“Yeah, and you kick my ass every time, right Captain?”

“You over-rely on your claws and size,” Mithrun replied dryly, like he was giving a performance review.

Kabru sucked in a deep breath. Held it for three. Breathed out for five.

“You do combat training in your wolf form?” He asked through gritted teeth.

It satisfied something dark in him when Lycion backed away, believing for a moment that he was avoiding Kabru’s anger. Then a small, warm hand grabbed his chin, yanking his head around to the frowning face of the captain.

“I am not less competent, nor less capable because I am an omega. Not even when I’m on heat,” Mithrun told him bluntly, irritation flicking across his face. “I do not need your protection, or to be coddled.”

He held Kabru’s gaze for a long moment, stern and uncompromising. And then a slight smile pulled across his lips.

“And Lycion is hardly worth training with in any other form,” he added as an afterthought.

Somewhere to one side, Lycion didn’t bother stifling a chuckle.

“Ah, but I can take a beating with the best of them.”

“Still.” Releasing Kabru, Mithrun shot Lycion a dismissive glance. “It’s an inconvenience when my casting is compromised.”

“I’m not much of a healer, and casting spells gets a lot harder in heat. Getting the intensity and targeting right kinda goes out the window, and it’s important for healing,” the beastman explained brightly, mostly for Falin’s benefit as she frowned. Then he grinned at the captain again. “Actually, you’re the only omega I’ve met who can cast at all after the first few days.”

“Marcille can cast while she’s on heat,” Falin put in thoughtfully, yet another thing that Kabru just plain didn’t need to know (although it was interesting… Would it be a half-elf thing? That was… wait, Marcille’s heat?) “I don’t think she’s fully in control of it though.”

“What makes you think that?” Lycion asked curiously, apparently just as oblivious to social boundaries as either of their companions.

Falin’s cheeks pinked.

“She, ah… she marked her nest with her mana. And almost turned it into a dungeonarium.”

Lycion cackled loudly, tossing his head back, but Kabru had a sudden, more pressing question.

“Wait… I thought Marcille was a beta?” He asked slowly, working back to try and remember where he’d gotten that idea. She hadn’t gone on a heat that he’d known of, but she was an elf; it hadn’t been that long since they’d met.

She didn’t smell like an omega, although given the situation they were in at that exact moment Kabru wasn’t sure he trusted his own scenting abilities. He was just sure it had come up in conversation at some point…

“Oh, she is,” Falin said happily, then turned back to Mithrun like any of that made sense. “I can cast for most of my rut, but I did notice it gets harder to control. I always thought it was because I use the gnomish magic system; can elven alphas not normally cast?”

Mithrun shrugged, apparently having no questions about that.

“You should ask Flamela. I’ve never had a breeding heat.” He paused for a moment, considering something. Then shrugged. “I never tried to cast before the demon consumed my desires, so I can’t say whether I was incapable or just not inclined to try.”

Kabru sucked in a sharp breath, fighting the inclination to close his eyes. He’d walk into something.

“We don’t call it a breeding heat for humans, Captain,” he sighed, resigned even as he said it to Mithrun not caring. Still, the second last thing he needed was for Falin to repeat the phrase anywhere.

And as expected, Mithrun looked at him for about three seconds, then went back to looking straight ahead.

“Alright.”

He didn’t sound convinced, and Kabru simply was not up to wondering if he’d ever run across that particular kink. He kept his mouth shut.

“I guess it doesn’t make much of a difference either way,” Lycion mused, shrugging himself, “but I’ve been a lot of peoples’ heat buddy, and not even Cithis even tries to cast a couple days in. Fleki can still do her familiar thing though,” he added as an afterthought.

Falin nodded along, because clearly everyone else thought it was fine to discuss each others’ sex lives. Kabru should have gone out the window.

“Well, so long as the familiar exists it doesn’t need to have a separate spell casting,” she mused. Then brightened, gesturing to the door ahead. “We’re here!”

Lycion shot Kabru a look that couldn’t have said “last chance to change your mind” louder if he’d actively screamed the words to the entire castle.

Not that it mattered. He hadn’t been planning to stay because of what he’d thought the alternative - well, he hadn’t actually fully formed that thought when he’d made the decision.

As tempting as skipping the whole mess sounded, he was not playing hide and seek from Flamela for the next three weeks. With his luck, they’d wind up sharing the baths. And he wasn’t risking Mithrun going for another wander, either.

He’d rather miss the time personally than run the risk of Laios being exposed. Much as he drove Kabru to despair… he did actually like his king most of the time.

Laios was sweet. Oblivious, not too concerned about anything but his own areas of interest, and a little too willing to believe anything he was told, but sweet. He was a good man, exactly the good man he seemed - the one Kabru had assumed was too good to be true, and covered up a much darker nature.

And he was almost certainly the best king Melini could have, even before his demonically bestowed qualifications. A king who cared about his people, all of them, equally. Who really, truly wanted to make everyone happy, but not by placating them.

Three weeks tending to the same elf captain he’d already personally shepherded through a dungeon for half that time was a worthy price to pay to not have to kill Laios. How hard could it be?

So Kabru firmed himself once again to ignore Lycion, fixed a bright smile on his face, and stepped up to open the door himself.

“Come on, Captain. Take a look and see if everything is to your liking, if there’s anything you’d expect that we’ve missed. These rooms were set for a rut, not a heat, so there might be differences,” he said brightly, and felt triumphant when a flicker of mild interest crossed Mithrun’s face.

In all honesty, and having experienced neither, Kabru didn’t really think there were that many differences, but for an omega who’d never encountered anyone in rut it had to contain some new discoveries.

There were some basic supplies, clean drinking water for the full week of a tall-man rut, some preserved foods like jams and jerkies that Laios almost certainly would have avoided - fresh food delivery each day was part of the set up, thanks entirely to a dozen lectures from Senshi. While not as dangerous as dungeon diving, rut was still a tax on the body, and dangerous. You needed good food, and enticing an alpha to actually eat anything meant it had to be appetising.

There were also additional lubricants, and some knotting toys - that is, the kind of toy that could take a knot, and give it the pressure it needed until it died down. Those almost certainly wouldn’t be needed, but Kabru also was not going to unearth them from their discreet closet in company.

Especially not Lycion’s company. He did not want to know how size differences between an alpha and a werewolf stacked up.

Much.

Today, anyway. There’d be other opportunities.

The biggest difference was probably the padding, which Kabru was most sorry to the cleaning staff about. He. May have insisted they go overboard with the padding.

Making sure there were no sharp edges or corners in heat or rut rooms was fairly standard; people weren’t in their right minds, and wouldn’t be stable enough for normal medical attention potentially for days. It was just common sense. A lot of furniture was specially made with sloped or curved edges just for that purpose.

Thicker, softer carpets or rugs were common for the same reason, although an omega usually would be extremely reluctant to leave their nest until their heat ended, so heat rooms tended to be a little more lax. Alphas usually had a little more padding around doors too, because they were more likely to move around.

Thick, training room padding covering the entire floor, every wall, and all the door frames wasn’t actually standard anywhere. In Kabru’s defence, Chilchuck and Marcille had both solemnly agreed that it was probably necessary.

And then Marcille had enchanted cushions onto all of the edges of the rest of the furniture. Nice ones; superficially, it was all beautiful and ornate and could pretty convincingly be passed of as luxury befitting a king. It wouldn’t do for anyone else to know just how little the current king’s closest advisors trusted him not to kill himself on the edge of a desk.

Kabru was about 90% sure that Lycion would see through it immediately, and firmly did not look at the man. He could get his confirmation from Falin on their way back, and almost certainly would.

Mithrun, however, seemed rather pleased with it. He walked into the middle of the room, bouncing in place a little to test the give of the floor. His dark eye flicked around from one wall to the next, the doors, the large table that took up most of this entry room. A small smile pulled across his face.

“Hm. This will be useful,” he noted, and Kabru bit his tongue hard enough he almost swore he tasted blood.

Training. He had to be thinking about training.

And for all that wrestling with a heated omega just felt wrong on a primal level, his conscious mind was suddenly much more concerned with not letting Mithrun bounce him off the walls and floor like a rubber ball.

Even if Mithrun specifically wasn’t likely to forget who he was (or see him as even remotely a threat), that would not be fun. It just wouldn’t.

Unable to stop himself, he half glanced back towards the others at the door.

Falin was beaming, very happy to have helped solve the problem. Lycion… had apparently moved on from sympathy to only barely not laughing at his discomfort.

Well, fuck him anyway. It wasn’t like Mithrun was likely to have the will to argue Kabru into sparring with him if Kabru didn’t immediately agree anyway.

Focusing on Falin, he gave her a bright smile in return.

“I think we’ll be just fine, Falin… oh, but if you could send someone into my office, to gather all of my papers? I can use the table here and keep on top of things, just…” he hesitated, a sudden intense foreboding warning him against trying to explain to any Touden which of his papers were important, encoded, or simply dross. “Just send everything,” he finished lamely.

Falin nodded brightly, fingers tracing up and down the length of her staff.

“I will! Is there anything else that you guys will need?” She asked, leaning around Kabru to peek at Mithrun.

Who ignored her, wandering into the small bedroom.

“Hot water,” Kabru said firmly, leaving no room for argument. It’d probably be futile, since the captain wasn’t likely to stop overproducing slick until his heat ended, but at least he’d feel better for the chance to have a bath.

Falin looked momentarily puzzled, then nodded happily.

“Oh! Yes, there should be bath oils and things already, I’ll get them to send some up with the food. And-”

“And whatever else you think is necessary, Lady Falin,” Kabru cut her off with an only slightly strained smile. “I trust you’ll think of everything.”

Given how overwhelmed she suddenly looked at this level of responsibility, he almost immediately regretted it. He squashed that down, turning to bestow an even sweeter smile on Lycion.

“I’m sure Flamela will be sending Otta to the door soon, so if you could have her bring some more of the captain’s clothes?” It wasn’t actually a question, but Lycion treated it like one anyway.

“I mean, I could, but he’s not likely to wear them now that he’s on heat. There’s not much point,” he said with a soft chuckle.

Kabru’s eye twitched.

“Still, I’m sure Captain Flamela would much rather that he have clothes to wear when his heat ends,” he ground out pointedly.

Lycion shrugged, flicking his fingers and gesturing, an equally long haired pixie flitting across the room to sit on Kabru’s shoulder.

Where the hell had he been keeping that? Kabru wondered briefly, then promptly banishing the thought before he found an answer.

Of course, the pixies were living things. Spell creations, but alive. It was totally normal for it to be… warm?

“You can ask her yourself. I expect we’ll send Otta’s pixie straight to Laios, so he can call you when he gets it. Captain, is there anything else you’ll need?” He called around Kabru.

Mithrun stuck his head out of the bedroom, caught sight of the other door along the wall that held the bathroom, and teleported over.

“No, this will be fine.”

Kabru resisted the immediate impulse to grab him. Depth perception shot to hell or not, Mithrun could not and would not be stopped from teleporting himself when he wanted to. All anyone could do was be ready to chip him out of a wall and hope he could breathe in the meantime.

At least it wasn’t near anyone else. And the only person he’d be risking for the next few weeks… was Kabru.

Joy.

Sucking in a deep breath, he forced a smile back to his face and moved to close the door, with himself very firmly on the inside.

“Then I suppose I won’t see you again for another two weeks.” His lips twitched suddenly into a more genuine smile as a thought struck him. “Try not to resink the kingdom while I’m gone.”

The immediately considering look that pulled onto Falin’s face was more than punishment enough for his levity. She really did look like she was working out how to do it…

“I think we can promise that…” she mused slowly, then nodded. “No resinking! Now I’ll go get your things, and-”

Cutting her off before the door fully closed, Kabru grabbed her arm.

“Falin! Bathe and a change of clothes first,” he reminded her sharply.

This close to Mithrun, however much of his scent he’d left on the rest of them was easily ignorable. And still probably more than enough to cause trouble.

Falin blinked, stared down at her arm like she’d never been touched before, then grinned sheepishly at him.

“Oh! Right. Okay. Come along then, Mr Lycion…”

“Just Lycion is fine,” the elf assured her with a chuckle, reaching up to toss an arm around her shoulders, “just lead the way. I have to say, it’ll be nice to be able to skip one of the captain’s heat cycles.”

About to close the door, Kabru hesitated. Pulled it back from the barest crack to frown at them both.

“What do you mean? Is there something I should be aware of?” He asked, trying not to display any actual concern in his tone. Wasn’t sure he’d succeeded when Lycion gave him an all too knowing smile.

“Nothing I didn’t already tell you. It’s not easy taking care of a heated omega if you’re already attracted to them.” And then the bastard just turned and walked away, engaging Falin with a bright and cheery grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “So! While Kabru gives himself blue balls for two and a half weeks, why don’t you show me the royal baths? There’ll be far too many people in the common ones.”

And Kabru. Could have called after them. Could have demanded Falin not actually bring Lycion into any of the royal chambers, which were supposed to be private, especially not when he stunk of heat. Could have demanded answers, though he wasn’t sure he knew what the questions were.

He shut the door carefully instead, hearing the latch click.

That… had felt rather a lot like a confidence. Commiseration. He’d always had suspicions, it was half of what had fuelled that utterly ridiculous assumption, but…

Honestly, he wasn’t sure he could have done it. Walked away from someone he truly cared about in such a vulnerable condition, with a near stranger. Hells, he had no idea how Lycion trusted him so much more than he’d been able to trust Lycion.

He was no alpha who’d be risking the blind need of a rut, but he was still going to be alone and essentially beyond reproach for anything he did over the next two weeks. With Mithrun, who’d let anyone do anything to him without a care.

Remembering how quick and hot the rage had built at just the thought of leaving Lycion, a trusted colleague of the captain’s who’d known him for years and already done this before… Kabru was pretty sure he couldn’t have done this.

He’d thought he was getting better at trusting in others after all these months with Laios…

Maybe there was something a little fundamentally broken in him.

Turning from the door, he fell back against it when he nearly bumped straight into Mithrun. Close enough he couldn’t even see the captain’s face, just looking down at the top of his head as he leaned around Kabru to place a hand on the door.

“Has Falin already finished the barrier?”

With absolutely no space to back up and put distance between them, Kabru stared down at the top of his head stupidly, trying not to gasp. He didn’t need another huff of pheromones. It was already hard enough to…

And then the words sunk in.

And he spun around, nearly knocking Mithrun opened as he wrenched the door open and yelled down the corridor.

“FALIN GET BACK HERE!”

———————

Not me casually folding in the Adventurer’s Bible at every possible opportunity for my “elves have no secondary sexual dimorphism” agenda, nope, couldn’t happen 👀

The original omegaverse post, in case anyone was wondering

(Also yeah this fic is basically the reason for alpha Flamela because normally her being so classically rambunctious alpha would make me go omega

But there was less than no chance of her not featuring in this fic because Im Love Her and frankly this dynamic for her and Mithrun is so much fucking fun I am all about it)

The second chapter is on the way too, along with 80 billion other little ficlets in other AUs, so I make no promises about when anything will be happening. But because I’m a kind and caring writer, enjoy the meme versions of several scenes!

Kabru: OH MY GOD I WOULD NEVER TOUCH YOU IF YOU DIDN’T WANT ME TO I TOTALLY WOULD NOT I DID NOT MEAN TO IMPLY WE WOULD GO HAVE SEX

Mithrun, staring at Kabru’s hand on his arm: you are literally touching me without my permission this exact second you absolute cheese curd but by all means keep freaking out

Kabru: *evil squints* and what do YOU do with the captain on his heat, Lycion

Lycion: *shrugs* sleep in his bed and steal his snacks

Kabru: HOW DARE YO- wait I thought you were heat buddies cuz of the knot thing

Lycion: well technically it’s cuz of the nose thing, but I did ask him the first time

Kabru: what did he say

Lycion: he said “do what you want”

Kabru: *twitch* so what did you do

Lycion: got him comfy, cast a sleep spell on him, turned into a wolf… and chased my tail for about six hours until he woke up

Kabru: … oh

Lycion: and then he kicked my ass and did a million push ups until we did it all again

Kabru: … captain, are you sure you don’t want to have sex with me

Mithrun: I don’t want anything. Why do you keep asking?

Kabru: because I took three minutes to bathe and you immediately stripped naked and sat in my lap and I’m more covered in your slick than you are

Mithrun: …… alright I can see where you’d be confused

Kabru: I have never been more aggressively scented in my life and I lived with Milsiril. She had squirt bottles.

Mithrun: …. Huh

Kabru: I’m pretty sure I’d literally smell less like you if we’d just fucked

#dungeon meshi omegaverse #kabumisu #kabru/mithrun #omegaverse #omega mithrun #beta kabru #the least sexy heat fic of all time #but i’m having a wonderful time #dungeon meshi fanfic #i hope y’all have half as much fun reading it as i did while writing it #poor kabru

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