Chapter Text
“Did you sleep at all?” Yoongi asks when Taehyung stumbles down the stairs to join him on the table. Dark shadows are visible under his eyes, and he looks so exhausted that Yoongi’s instincts begin to pull the sea scent to the surface. “If you’re having second thoughts about this—”
“No, I really want to go.” Taehyung takes the coffee mug from Yoongi’s hand with thankful eyes. “There will be only one other alpha next to Namjoon, right?”
“I think so,” Yoongi says. “They’re doing the barbeque for him as far as I know as he lives in the capital most of the time.”
“Why is it so easy for you to talk to Namjoon?” Taehyung sighs, carefully sipping on his hot coffee while he’s still eyeing Yoongi.
At first Yoongi can’t make out the subliminal spike of scent, but then it dawns on him. “Tae, you can’t possibly be jealous!”
“It’s just that I used to be the one you were talking to about everything.” He looks even more tired now, and contrary to what he should feel, Yoongi feels his affection for Taehyung swell inside him.
“I don’t tell him anything I wouldn’t tell you,” Yoongi sighs, pushing some of Taehyung’s bangs back, “And whatever happens today won’t change anything about that.”
“I think I know now why you were jealous of Jeongguk in the beginning.”
“I had no reason as much as you have no reason now.” Yoongi empties his own mug while the porridge he made for both of them with some fruit on top is still untouched. “I’m nervous as well. I’m scared that we’re too different from them. That we won’t fit in. That Jeongguk won’t want us there.”
It turns out that Taehyung has the same worries, the same ones that had kept him up all night, but they both know that they’ll only ever find out if they go there.
“We should bring something,” Yoongi suggests. They spend the whole morning making some dips for the barbeque. It keeps them occupied, keeps their anxiety at bay, so they’re almost surprised when it’s time for them to leave the guarding walls of their home.
—
It’s just another three minutes, but Yoongi feels like his heart is going to jump out of his chest. It all happened so fast. Trusting Namjoon, coming here, agreeing to a surprise that could go horribly wrong, meeting a lot of new people at once. Socializing isn’t Yoongi’s forte, as he never had the chance to learn it, always cautious, always expecting betrayal and danger. Yoongi shakes his head to get rid of the negative thoughts.
“It’s gonna be alright,” Taehyung says quietly, although all color has drained from his face. Gently, he squeezes Yoongi’s hand. “It’s strange. It’s only been five weeks, but I feel like we haven’t seen Jeongguk for a lifetime.”
Yoongi can only nod while he’s trying to control his breathing and his heart rate along with it. It’s all for nothing when Namjoon comes within sight, heavily laden with grocery bags, Yoongi’s heart topples, then starts to race with a velocity that causes some beads of sweat form at his temples despite the cold.
“Hi,” Namjoon says, but they both look past him, watching how Jeongguk turns the corner, a few steps behind Namjoon, his gaze more on the cloudless sky than on the pavement under his feet although he’s carrying two pots of herbs in his hands, and a heavy looking backpack.
“Jeongguk,” Taehyung whispers, his scent a witness of how hurt his heart has been from being without his best friend for so long.
Yoongi doesn’t know if Jeongguk has heard the soft breath of his name, but in this moment he looks up, and for a second it’s as if the world stops - unable to tell where it will all go from there. Jeongguk freezes on the spot, his eyes impossibly wide with disbelief until they soften, filling with tears. Namjoon moves first, calmly walking up to him so he can take the herb pots from Jeongguk’s hands, and the bag from his back.
It’s as if with the things taken from him, a heavy burden has been lifted from him as well. He runs to them, throwing himself in Taehyung’s arms first, as it was to be expected.
“I’m so sorry,” he sobs. “I’m really sorry.”
“We’re sorry too,” Taehyung says, his voice broken.
“What I said wasn’t fair,” Yoongi adds, switching places with Taehyung, “Please know that we didn’t have more knowledge than you. We just tried to do the best we could think of, which wasn’t much, but—”
“It was everything,” Jeongguk hiccups quietly, “It was more than enough.”
Yoongi can feel him still in his hug, breathing in consciously.
“Your scents are so beautiful,” he says as he draws back from Yoongi’s hug to let himself fall in Taehyung’s arms once more, his tears spilling over again. “I’m so sorry you had to hide them.”
“Let’s continue this inside, hmm bun?” Namjoon says, and Jeongguk tries to wipe his tears again with the tissue that Namjoon hands him.
“You’re coming inside?” Jeongguk asks disbelievingly, “You’re joining us for the barbeque?”
Us. Yoongi wants to be a part of Jeongguk’s ‘us’ again. If it means joining the pack, then he is willing to pay whatever price it may take.
“If that’s something you’d be okay with?” Yoongi takes one of the herb pots, and Taehyung takes the other while Jeongguk gets the backpack back on his shoulders again.
“Okay?” Jeongguk says, and it sounds suspiciously like a sob again, “You’re asking if that’s okay ? I missed you idiots so much.”
“Bun?” Taehyung chuckles, patting Jeongguk’s back, as they’re following Namjoon and Jeongguk up the stairs.
“He thinks I smell like cinnamon buns,” Jeongguk admits with a bashful smile, which only elicits more laughter from Taehyung.
“That’s so fitting!”
Namjoon just smiles silently when Yoongi looks at him. His scent is radiating so much affection, that Yoongi feels almost a little guilty to be able to witness it. It’s the first time seeing the two of them together, and none of the worries he had seem proven to be true.
“I gotta warn you,” Jeongguk says when they’re almost on the second floor of the townhouse which looks exactly like the pictures Namjoon sent them. “They can be a lot. I know I felt a little overwhelmed when I first met them. But they’re just curious. If there’s something you don’t feel comfortable with just tell them.”
“I didn’t tell them you were coming in case they couldn’t keep it a secret from Jeongguk,” Namjoon adds.
Yoongi feels a surge of anxiety again, but then it happens all so quickly that he can’t really dwell on the feeling. Jeongguk leads them to the spacious kitchen where the young men must have waited for Namjoon and Jeongguk to come back with the groceries. The two of them are welcomed with quite some noise, but when Namjoon says that they’ve brought guests they quickly calm down again.
Most of them are still very young. Yoongi doesn’t know if all of them have reached adulthood yet, but there are two that seem to be about their age. When they come closer to say hi, Yoongi realizes that they must be the omega mates Namjoon had told them about. Jimin and Hoseok’s scents are blended together like Yoongi’s and Taehyung’s have been ever since they got their scents back.
There is one scent of the younger pack members that sparks Yoongi’s interest but worry too. Too familiar is the cold clinical scent that underlies the scent of apricots and vanilla. His thoughts are interrupted when the missing pack member arrives with his mate on his side. A female omega that has the same level of confidence as her mate, Kim Seokjin. They welcome Taehyung and Yoongi with an open mind as well, there’s no questioning at all even though they must clearly smell that both of them are carrying alpha scents.
Only a little later, Namjoon pulls Yoongi to the side while Taehyung is unpacking the dips they brought, helping Jeongguk to plate them.
“Are you doing okay with all the ruckus?”
“It’s fine. I don’t know how to start a conversation or— it’s just hard for me, harder than it is for Taehyung anyway. He’s got plenty of practice with school and university, while I only ever saw my colleagues.”
“It will get better, no one expects anything from you here.”
“I guess”, Yoongi agrees.
“What I really wanted to talk to you about though,” Namjoon pauses, rubbing the back of his head. “Your and Taehyung’s scent— It seems that even though you were on the blockers, you naturally became mates over the course of time.”
Yoongi stumbles over the fact that he says ‘scent,’ singular. And then there’s this word that sounds even bigger. Mates. Not pledged partners. Mates. He doesn’t know what to say, he never thought they could be mated anyway. If he’s being honest, he’s not even sure what exactly it involves as the only people in his life he knew to be mated were his parents, but seeing that it didn’t end well, it wasn’t something he’d strived for.
“It takes a lot of trust and mutual understanding to reach that level of affinity,” Namjoon says. “You’ll carry Taehyung’s scent forever now even if the both of you should be apart for a longer time.”
Yoongi likes that thought, although he prays that he’ll never be apart from Taehyung for some reason or the other.
“Do you want to be mated with Jeongguk one day?” Yoongi asks. However much he tries it, he’s still feeling like he has to display some sort of protectiveness when it’s about Jeongguk.
“If he doesn’t get tired of me, then yes,” Namjoons says while the tips of his ears are turning red. “I’m very lucky to have met him.”
“I’m sure he thinks so too,” Yoongi says, then his gaze falls on the young omega again, the one Yoongi is almost sure he smelled scentblockers on. “Namjoon, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, anything.” Namjoon follows his gaze, his eyes telling of realization. “Oh, I know. You probably smelled the scentblockers on Beomgyu, hmm? He’s born as an alpha, but feels completely like an omega. Not unlike you, but for him it’s more than that. He’s doing well now, only bridging the time until he can get on the hormone therapy that will change his scent ultimately. But you should talk to him yourself one day as he knows of a lot of things that can help with gender dysphoria, even if yours is a little different.”
“I will,” Yoongi agrees, “I also wanted to say that I’m sorry for the way I misjudged you. I’m still trying to find something that will prove that this is just a joke played on us, but it’s getting better.”
Yoongi can smell Taehyung coming closer before he’s hugged from behind, Jeongguk is with him. Yoongi smiles, knowing now what the anchored scent of snow in Taehyung’s scent means.
“Taehyung, now that you’re here too. I know you didn’t decide anything yet, but whenever you feel that this is something you want, you’re welcome.” Namjoon gently pulls Jeongguk closer, kissing him on his temple. “After all, the second pack is the true pack. And we’d love to have you.”
The second pack is the true pack.
Something stirs inside Yoongi, unleashing something he wasn’t aware of missing. He turns around in Taehyung’s arms, hiding his tears but Taehyung is crying too.
“Hey,” Jeongguk says softly, “Hey, enough of crying, hmm?”
It happens with the heartfelt scenting of Jeongguk and then Namjoon, with the ease of how the day proceeds, the naturalness of being with everyone, the shared food, and the closeness that seems to be a given.
In a quiet minute he tells Jeongguk what the cuddling had meant to him, tells him how he feels about himself, and how much peace it had brought to his omega side that he was allowed to come so close to him.
It happens while he falls asleep, Taehyung on his right side, Jeongguk on his left, close to his partner, with the other pack members not too far from them. All of them have found a spot on the living room floor where they’d built something that Yoongi calls a pack nest in his mind.
It happens when he can feel that Taehyung is ready for it too. Letting go not to be tied down by cruel expectations and desolation again, but to be linked to the kindest and most caring people they could’ve ever met.
A new scent manifests on their skin, adding the prominence of the night sky, the sweet and spicy scent of cinnamon, blended together with the scents of the other pack members, as one of stability, a scent that is filling the gape in Yoongi’s heart.
They belong.
—
Two Years Later
“Yoongi, can you help me with the banner?” Beomgyu is holding the cord out to him, so they can put up the banner where Jeongguk had told them it should go.
“Sure, give me a second.” He cleans his hands from the residues of sugar that are still clinging to them from trying to decorate the cupcakes - Yoongi’s are nothing compared to the ones Jeongguk and Taehyung decorated, but then again he isn’t an artist.
It turns out that Yoongi isn’t of much help here too because he can’t reach the spot where the cord should be fastened, but at least he can hold the other end so the banner doesn’t drag on the floor. Beomgyu has grown a lot during the last year. While the hormone therapy had helped with his scent, it didn’t stop his growth, and Yoongi knows how much Beomgyu hates this.
He looks at the banner once it’s up.
New Diversity Youth Center
He couldn't be prouder of Jeongguk for creating such a space not only for subgender nonbinary and trans AO people like him and Beomgyu, but for teens and young adults who were born into mundane families too. A space of safety, acceptance, and learning, expanding the moral values of their pack to a space that is open to everyone.
Seokjin and Namjoon had to put on quite a fight before they got the permits they needed to open the center. Jeongguk had been on edge for the past few months because it was something he wanted to give back to the community. After graduating from university he noticed that just continuing with his art wasn’t enough for him.
Yoongi watches him as he checks the last tasks from his to-do list, stressed out but with a happiness that Yoongi understands. Seeing how Jeongguk’s own life went, up to the point when he met Namjoon, seeing how Yoongi’s and Taehyung’s life could have ended if they didn’t get the selfless help they needed after they’d been exiled from their pack, it was what made Jeongguk realize that there was so much more that could be done, and the whole pack was more than ready to help him get everything up and running.
Yoongi knows that they can’t make sure to reach everyone that is in need of help, but he knows that it’s the small changes that ignite fundamental ones.