When Micah looked over his shoulder, the man’s mouth was glistening. He kind of wanted to kiss it - taste his slick on the man’s tongue, figure out if he was really as sweet as the alpha said.
“I didn’t get you in trouble, did I?” Micah whispered. His voice was shaking, too.
“No,” Jackson laughed. “Someone would have to snitch on us for that. I’ll just light up a neutralizer and call it a night.”
“But your…” Micah started, looking pointedly down at the bulge in the alpha’s pants. “Do you want me to suck it?”
Jackson looked so fond. He tilted his head and then shook it slowly.
“I’m okay for now. I gotta go join him downstairs before he starts chatting shit about me to the rest of the football team.”
Micah paused, brows furrowed.
Wait a fucking minute.
How had he not considered that Jackson might be an athlete? If Todd was an athlete and they were roommates, then it made sense. But Micah had obviously been a bit stupid these past few weeks and so it had never crossed his mind. The omega had certainly never been fond of sports, had never looked at any all-alpha roster and thought twice about the faces that stared back at him. Maybe Jackson was an athlete.
God damnit. Jackson was probably an athlete.
Micah took a few deep, shuddering breaths and rolled himself onto his back, wiping his hand along his softening cock to remove speckles of come. Jackson stood up off of the bed and readjusted his own pants, trying to move his dick in a way that didn’t make his erection too obvious.
“Are you an athlete, too?”
“Yeah,” Jackson laughed. “Been playing since freshman year.”
“Oh.”
“…you didn’t know?” Jackson guessed. “I’m not sure if I’m surprised.”
“I’m still learning you,” Micah reminded him. “We’re still learning each other. It’s not like we’ve known each other for years.”
“That’s the weird part. I feel like I’ve known you my whole life, so I keep forgetting that it’s only been a few weeks.”
Micah was feeling sleepy. He wanted to unfold all of the blankets and rebuild their nest, invite Jackson back to the bed so that they could cuddle away the rest of the week. Month. Fuck, maybe even the whole damn season. Instead, he wiped his hands on the sheets, knowing that they’d need to be washed before Jackson slept in them again anyway, and then he pulled his pants up properly. Jackson was already fiddling around on his desk, muttering while he looked for his wallet.
Micah had expected a hitch at some point, but he’d anticipated a good month or two before their euphoria began to mutate into anxiety. Hormones were such a strong influence and the bond was new and that meant he and Jackson were some fearless, unbothered versions of themselves. But much like a blushing bride in a veil, they were blinded by whatever cloth they were hiding behind.
As Micah came down from his high and the fog of his orgasm dissipated, the first thread of doubt appeared. It was foreign and so little - a small seed that settled like a paperweight in his gut, subtle enough to curb the panic, but clear enough that he had to acknowledge it. Micah, as a good omega, a logical man, a practical person, had nudged the possibility to the back of his mind. Maybe a few minutes after a mind-blowing orgasm wasn’t an ideal moment for him to confront the question niggling in the base of his brain, but… since when the hell was this situation ideal, anyway?
Nervously, Micah rubbed at his abdomen, wiping away the sticky evidence of the last ten minutes. Then he said, “Hey. Does it bother you at all?”
Jackson smacked his desk excitedly, yanking his wallet from beneath a small composition book. When he turned around and wiggled it in Micah’s direction, he looked so stupidly happy, and Micah had to maintain his furrowed eyebrows and slight chagrin.
“Does what bother me?”
“That we don’t know each other?”
“Uh,” Jackson said. His smile faltered briefly and he said, “No? I think we know each other just fine. I mean - what are we missing?”
“Everything, really. We don’t even have the basics right? Like your birthday. I don’t know that. How many siblings do you have? What do you wanna be when you grow up? What’s your major? Those kinds of things. I don’t know any of them.”
Jackson shrugged and pocketed his wallet. “Then why don’t you ask me? When you think of those questions, just throw ‘em out there.”
Micah paused and looked at Jackson pointedly. He was still rubbing his warm skin, dirtying himself up with his own come. Now, though, it didn’t feel erotic at all. Instead, it just felt like a sticky mess. When Micah didn’t open his mouth to speak for a minute, Jackson continued, “I mean, would knowing those answers change anything for you? How you feel about all of this?”
Fucking yes. It would probably change a few things.
Did anybody really want to be bonded to a stranger? Wasn’t that a strange position to be in? Micah was lucky. On the surface, his mate was attractive, selfless, and understanding. Omega traits on the body of a god. Jackson was truly the best of both worlds, and yet…
“Sex can’t be the only thing that connects us,” Micah said softly. He fixed his shirt and sat up. He crawled out of bed slowly, hesitant to move once his bare feet had touched the cold ground. “Don’t you want to know those things about me, too? You’ve never asked them.”
“Of course I do.”
“Then how can this not bother you?”
Micah wondered what he looked like right now. If sweat was still cooling on his forehead. If his cheeks were still pink. If his eyes were unfocused and glazed over. Whatever he looked like, Jackson’s expression softened as soon as the omega made eye contact. The alpha’s shoulders sagged just a bit and he leaned back against his desk.
“Micah, babe. It doesn’t really bother me. It didn’t bother you either until a second ago. Am I missing something? I was under the impression that we had time to figure it out as we went along, so I wasn’t rushing to figure it all out. It’s only been a few weeks and so it’s still a bit weird. But if you want to know more about me, I can tell you whatever you wanna know. You just have to ask.”
Micah grabbed his neck awkwardly, biting his lip when he felt the scar tissue beneath his fingers. The skin had healed beautifully, another sign of their physical compatibility. And Jackson had been so gentle with him. The alpha had yet to cross a line or step over a boundary. He’d taken care of Micah’s body so well that the beginning of their relationship had been more a vacation than a storm. It made Micah a bit speechless, and for a tense moment, the omega wondered why he had bought the topic up at all. It was only cracking the thin screen of their elation.
“I know that this isn’t normal,” Jackson said carefully. Quietly. “We’re not normal. Our bodies kind of made this decision for us and so we’re still figuring it all out, but-I’m glad it was you. I like you, okay?”
“You like my sex.”
“No, Micah, I like you. I mean, what I’ve seen of you.”
“You don’t know me,” Micah breathed, and that was the problem, wasn’t it? The lack of variables. The blank spaces that they’d yet to fill. “I’m not scared. I’m just… I mean, geeze, you’re an athlete. Would I have figured that out three months from now when you were handing me tickets to your game?”
Neither of them sounded necessarily upset. Micah spoke carefully, logically, and Jackson followed. It was almost like a dance, just a gentle back and forth with one another. The alpha’s mouth opened and closed, stuttering around a response. Eventually, he put his wallet back down on the desk and folded his hands over his lap.
“Fine. So if I wanted to know you, then, where would I start? What should I do? Make a list of questions and then take you out to dinner? Eat your ass and then ask you how your grandmother’s doing? Tell me. I’ll do it. ‘cause I’m your alpha and I wanna take care of you. I wanna keep you happy,” and after a brief pause, he asked, “are you happy?”
“I…” Mica
h trailed off. He was happy. Of course, what else could he call the daily butterflies in his stomach or the way his brain lit up whenever Jackson so much as breathed in his direction? This… this had to be happiness.
But if it was, then why couldn’t he say so?
Could you really gauge happiness after only a few weeks with one another?
That seemed ridiculous.
At the silence, Jackson’s composure shifted for the first time. Just a thin web of cracks over a pane of his emotions. As if he hadn’t expected any of this and the rug was slowly being removed from beneath his feet. “Don’t you feel what I’m feeling, or am I alone in this? I’m happy. I’m crazy happy. These last few weeks have been wild, but I’ve been on fucking cloud nine. It’s not the same for you?”
“No, no. It’s like that for me too.”
“Then…”
“Then it’s fine,” Micah cut in. Fuck. Now he felt like an idiot. “It’s fine. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Jackson opened his mouth to argue. His scent was mutating, turning just a bit sour, and though the alpha’s face remained an impassive slate, his composure as calm as before, it was clear that he was affected. He shifted his weight fully onto the desk and just sat there, staring at Micah as he thought of how to respond.
Micah approached him restlessly and Jackson opened his arms. Even though his smell was more pungent than before, slowly cloying up the space around them, Micah wound his arms around the alpha’s waist and burrowed his nose into the crevice of Jackson’s neck. It felt good to be held like this. Micah’s omega reveled in it, loved how it made him feel warm and safe. Jackson rubbed the back of his neck kissing his forehead and then nuzzling him deeply. The behavior was strangely possessive, and almost archaic, but it was hard to complain when Micah’s omega went docile.
“I need to go back to my dorm.”
“Now?”
“Yeah,” and then quietly, “don’t you have a dinner date anyway? I can’t stay here by myself.”
It seemed like Jackson had forgotten all about it. He hummed and gripped Micah more tightly against him. Micah whined.
“Are you upset?” Jackson asked.
“No. It’s not a problem.”
“That’s not true,” Jackson said. “I can smell you.”
Micah turned his head and tilted it enough to catch Jackson’s lips in a kiss. It was a gentle thing, a subtle reminder that his emotions weren’t bad enough to chase him off. Confusion was normal for a situation like theirs. Hesitancy was expected. Micah didn’t like the feeling of free-falling back into his reality, but he knew it was coming, and worrying only meant he would suffer twice.
“We’re fine,” Micah said easily, the warmth of Jackson’s mouth acting like an anchor for his soul. He was secure here. Protected. With one last kiss against the alpha’s cheek, Micah said, “We’ll be okay.”
* * *
The semester began and winter had her iron claws dug into every part of campus. The weather was relentless; instead of clear pathways, students trudged between buildings with their bodies swamped in thick coats, scarves hiding their faces, and their bags squeezed tightly against their chests.
Walking to the first week of class was a lot like hiking up mount Everest. It physically hurt and the elements were doing nothing to help. The omega was exhausted every day, losing focus because of sporadic headaches that incapacitated him. The few hours he had to himself, he spent in the library pouring over materials to prepare for his classes, and since he’d spent so little time during winter break with his books, it almost felt like coming home to an old friend. Cracking open the pages of a novel and flipping through the words, the aroma of dusty, old pages settling against his skin like a perfume.
The time crawled on until the first Friday of the semester was looming over all of them. Micah buried himself in his texts, finding comfort in his busyness, and while he worked, Jackson left him small and sporadic notes of encouragement. He’d been doing that the last few days, just sending sweet reminders or thoughts or messages that Micah could passively digest between pages. Little things like,
Have a good school at day
day at school ha
Or
im thinking about you today
its so strange not having you here
Micah’s heart jumped in his chest with each notification. Though he was endeared by the action, he’d stopped responding after the first few, opting instead to just coo over them whenever a particularly cute message arrived.
That Friday, curled up in the furthest, quietest corner of the library, Micah was three chapters into a humanities book on omegan characteristics in preparation for a class. His excitement for the course had been short lived. Within the first few days, the instructor had gone from inspiring to batshit insane, and while Micah usually thrived under pressure, it felt too early to have the semester breathing down his neck already. The course was an introduction to mating rituals between subgenders, something that Micah was particularly curious about now that he’d been formally courted. The older manners of courting were fascinating; from hunting and presenting that kill at a village meeting, to stockpiling snacks and other trinkets and continuously gifting them to an omega in the hopes of impressing them. Micah tried not to smile too wide down at the book, remembering the way that Jackson had emptied his pockets of stolen sweets and given them to him.
Micah hadn’t been paying much attention to his surroundings, chewing mindlessly on the end of his highlighter until it was a mangled, plastic mess between his teeth. Pockets of the library were eerily quiet, just the white noise of chattering every few feet where excited students were gathered around computers or books, or even just sprawled out over the furniture giggling at their phones. It was too early in the semester for the fluctuating crowds.
When someone spoke to him, the noise was almost too loud.
“Look who it is. Almost didn’t recognize you.”
Micah startled, highlighter slipping from between his lips. It landed on the page of his book and marked it with a long, discordant line of yellow. When he looked up, a familiar face was beaming down at him. Micah sucked in a deep breath.
“Oh my god,” he choked. “Oli?”
“The one and only,” the boy responded, arms open as he spun himself around dramatically.
The omega was as petite as ever, swallowed in his usual sweater and skinny jeans. He’d bulked up a bit, but omegas were small by default and somehow, Oliver pushed that boundary further. He was little, though what he lacked in body mass he made up for in spunk. His personality was… vivacious. It was one of the reasons Micah had wanted to be his friend in the first place - his lack of timidity in the face of bigger and more powerful men and women.
Micah closed his book and set it aside and breathed,“It’s so good to see you.”
Oliver wrapped his arms around Micah’s neck, laughing into a hug as they greeted each other properly. The man felt even thinner than he looked. It wasn’t Micah’s place to say anything, but he released Oliver and looked him up and down pointedly.
“You look… you look good.”
“Bad heat,” Oliver said without preamble. Then, he raised his eyebrows and said, “And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“That smell’s not yours, you son of a bitch,” Oliver laughed, reaching out and smacking Micah’s shoulder playfully. It was barely more than a feather-light touch.“I almost walked past you ‘cause of that. Seriously. All that shit you talked about mating-”
“No, it’s-”
“And here you are, with a god damn crater on your neck. I’d ask how your break was, but looks like I already got my answer.”
Micah rubbed his nose and sniffed, looking down at his feet. He’d somehow avoided the scrutiny until now. Attending all new classes meant that he could escape a handful of the students who might criticize his mating bite as ironic or hypocritical. It wasn’t that Micah had ever argued against mating bites, but he
’d done his best to take apart the systems that fell into place as a result of them. The mating bite was almost like a shackle; it was powerful, so loaded with hormones that it became an excuse to withhold rights from the omega population. Micah had wanted, more than anything, to fight against hormone-related laws.
He was reconsidering that position now, but not everyone knew that.
Boldly, Oliver gripped Micah’s arm, raising it and staring at the bracelet as it slid down the omega’s thin wrist.
“For fuck’s sake, Micah,” Oliver laughed properly. “I really can’t believe it.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Who cares what I think? You’ve got a bracelet. You’re mated,” Oliver said. “How it happened, I haven’t the foggiest fucking idea.”
This… was not how a reunion was supposed to go. Micah hadn’t seen Oliver since last semester, and suddenly their meeting was tarnished by his new status as a mated omega. Micah chalked his sudden irritation up to his budding preheat. Though it killed him to admit, he’d likely be out of school by the end of next week, locked up in one of the cold and dingy heat rooms with Jackson. There had been a light itch beneath his skin for a day, and his rapidly fluctuating mood was just another sign that preheat was incoming.
He couldn’t believe that his heat was approaching again.
Once a month was far too often.
“I didn’t have much of a choice,” Micah admitted finally.
“Uh… what?”
“I didn’t choose my mate.”
Oliver dropped his arm and frowned at him.
It was only after a stiff moment of silence that Micah realized what he’d said, and fuck - he’d phrased it wrong. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to feel like his alpha had forced him to mate. Jackson hadn’t done anything wrong and Micah had no intention of making it seem that way. Quickly, he backpedaled.
The Omega Awakened: A M/M Omegaverse Erotic Short Fiction (Omegan Tales Book 1) Page 9