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This part was supposed to be easy.
Of course, Khun knows to take the Tower seriously. Climbing it is no easy feat, but that’s supposed to come later. Not on the first damn floor—okay, second, but still.
This team was not what he anticipated. Some of the tests, too, were not what he was banking on. The thing with the doors, in particular, was essentially created to mess with him. Things weren’t unfolding according to plan at all, especially not since he met the boy with the Black March: Bam.
Someone like him defied every expectation Khun came in with. He was a walking contradiction: kind, firm, blessed with power he didn’t know how to use, and equipped with no self-preservation skills for pretending otherwise. By all accounts, Bam didn’t belong in the Tower, but Khun found himself wanting Bam to keep making it onwards anyway, just to see how far he’d get. A twisted curiosity.
But then, Bam began to change what Khun himself believed in. Khun found himself being fond of the strange boy, curious about his worldview too rather than just his abilities. Besides, Bam was a wild card, someone he should keep tabs on given the level of his weapon and how he was beloved by shinsu. He could even be a powerful companion for the future if Khun played his cards right, especially since Bam had taken a liking to him too.
That’s what Khun told himself when he placed the crown atop Bam’s head. That’s what Khun told himself as he waited for Bam to wake up in the aftermath of the crown game.
Bam was too interesting to fail here, and Khun was sure that he wouldn’t fail—as long as he woke up.
Khun easily aces his practice sessions as a light bearer. This test was definitely more his speed. Realistically, he could probably skip ahead to the final examination now, but then he’s reminded of the fact that Bam still hasn’t woken up and thus, hasn’t taken a single class. The only reason he hasn’t failed yet is that it seems that he’s loved by Lady Luck as well, having been afforded grace by his wave controller instructor being horrendously late. But every day he remains asleep is a risk, and so every day Khun spends his free time by Bam’s bedside, silently willing him to open his eyes already.
Eventually, Khun hears news that the wave controller instructor is slated to arrive tomorrow. He’s all high strung when he goes to visit Bam that same afternoon, more restless than he’s been for a long while.
It’s as if Bam knew he’d be out of time if he waited any longer. Khun practically leaps to his feet when he hears Bam stir, a groggy noise from the lump on the bed indicating that Bam’s alive. Hopefully, he’s well enough to participate tomorrow so he won’t automatically flunk out.
Khun then does a double-take. Shit, he really has grown too attached to this boy. Sure, it’d be a waste if Bam fails here, but Khun shouldn’t be so pleased at the mere prospect of Bam being up and kicking again. It’s been a while since he’s cared so much about another person.
Bam’s closed eyelids twitch and a full body shudder runs through him, obvious to Khun’s practiced gaze even underneath the blanket. It seems that his wounds have taken quite a toll on him, Khun thinks with a touch of concern, even with all the rest he’s had these few days.
“Bam? How are you feeling?” Khun asks, leaning over to examine Bam’s condition. “Can you open your eyes for me?”
Bam only groans in response, sliding an inch deeper beneath the blankets, hiding his mouth from sight. It’s as if he wants to avoid the outside world—or avoid Khun—but whatever it is, it’s not a great sign.
“Should I call someone to come take a look at you?” Khun tries again.
Bam makes a whining sound in protest, nuzzling his face into his covers. There’s an undercurrent of something lying in wait, nestled deep in his voice, and it convinces Khun that it’s because of more than just Bam getting too comfortable from the warmth of the bed. He reaches out and places the back of his palm flat against Bam’s forehead, and it barely makes contact before Khun instinctively recoils, eyes dilating in shock.
Bam was so hot, burning hot with a fever that shouldn’t be affecting him anymore this deep into his recovery. Shit. This is such bad timing.
Khun straightens, his mind made up in an instant. “I’m going to get someone. Stay where you are, Bam.”
“N-no,” Bam speaks for the first time, breathily with fluttering half-lidded eyes.
It would’ve stopped Khun in his tracks even if Bam wasn’t already holding onto his wrist, his arm having poked out of the blanket to grab onto Khun before he could turn away. “Stay here, Khun-ssi, I’m…I’m okay.”
Khun frowns. It’s hard to believe Bam when the heat from his forehead still stings, an afterburn sprawling up his arm blooming from the spot where Bam’s fingers linger on his wrist.
“You’re burning up, Bam. You have to be ready for the test preparations tomorrow, or else you’ll automatically fail.”
“I’ll be okay,” Bam repeats softly, squeezing once on Khun’s wrist.
The thrill of the heat shoots up Khun’s spine at the familiar gesture of affection. It’s something Khun normally doesn’t care for, because as familiar as it is, it doesn’t mean anything.
“S-stay, please,” Bam utters, almost dreamily. “It feels good when you’re here.”
Khun furrows his eyebrows at the words and sighs.
“Do you just want me to keep you company while you recover? If you say that it helps, then…”
“Mmhm,” Bam hums happily.
That’s when he finally opens his eyes. They’re barely open, but a glimmer of gold manages to shine through, and Khun’s throat tightens awkwardly at the sight of Bam’s gaze resting solely on him. He shuffles a little on the bed, the blankets rustling with him, and before Khun knows it—mesmerized by the flush on Bam’s face, the fire licking up his wrist, curling around his abdomen—he’s pulled down into the bed next to Bam.
“Bam?” Khun questions weakly.
Bam doesn’t answer him with words, just gently pulls at Khun’s hand until Khun’s lying next to him atop the blankets.
A thought briefly blinks in his head—that if Bam was sick, if this was contagious, then he should really get out of here. But it’s a meek whisper at best and the rest of his thoughts are consumed by the inferno of Bam’s body in such close proximity to his own. It’s then that he realizes that he’s sweating—surprising given Khun doesn’t usually run hot—though this was hotter than anything Khun’s used to. Unnaturally hot, but there’s a strange comfort to it, the heat permeating off Bam’s soft skin.
“Khun-ssi,” Bam replies softly, nuzzling into Khun’s shoulder, his hair slightly ticklish on his bare neck. When did he get so close? “You’re so warm.”
‘I don’t think I’m the one who’s warm here’, Khun thinks to himself wryly. But before he can tell Bam that, a shock ziplines up his spine, another familiar sensation, but unwelcomed this time around.
Fuck, he’s not due for another two weeks, which was perfect timing given the test schedule. He knows some alphas have unpredictable cycles, especially in their youth, but Khun has been like clockwork ever since he presented. Sure, it’s never comfortable and brings out a side in him that he despises—thoughtless and frantic—but at least he could prepare for it, lock himself in a room and just ride it out until his sweat and semen run dry.
‘What the hell gives? Wait, no, that’s not important right now,’ Khun groans internally. What he needs to do is get away from Bam, before he sees a side of Khun that he definitely shouldn’t.
“Don’t go,” Bam mumbles, a second hand clutching tight onto Khun’s waist the second Khun tries to get up. “Please, don’t go.”
Bam then scuffles on the bed, the blanket lifts up, and one of Bam’s legs hooks onto Khun’s, tangling them both underneath the covers. Khun would’ve maybe misled or convinced himself into thinking this was just a very fever-induced cuddle—until Bam rolls his hips into Khun’s thigh.
Once, twice, thrice, both of them groaning aloud at the same time upon contact.
Bam, because it must feel good to get some relief from the friction—and Khun, because Bam’s in heat, and he had no idea.
Fuck, this really reiterates how badly he needs to get out of here. He’s never gone through a rut with another person before, much less an omega.
A strong, clueless, enticing omega like Bam. A person Khun actually knows, and dare he say, cares about.
“Bam, h-hey, listen to me,” Khun says, twisting himself the other way so he could look at Bam.
Bam, who has shut his eyes, softly panting with wettened lips, sweat glistening on his skin. Bam, who’s still holding onto Khun, thumbing absentmindedly along his hip, tugging at his waistband. Bam, who’s still languidly grinding against him, and it was slowly but surely taking its toll on Khun, heat pooling at his groin with each electrifying touch.
“I’m…listening…”
Bam doesn’t even bother to open his eyes, nor does he stop what he’s doing.
So Khun gathers his thinly spread self-control and grabs at Bam’s shoulders, shuddering at the heat radiating from the skin beneath.
“Open your eyes, Bam, you…you have to let me go. Or else I’m going to…we’re…” Khun shuts his eyes in frustration. How does he explain what happens during heats to someone who seems to have no idea that he was even an omega? He was already so oblivious to everything else in the Tower that—
“Bam, do you trust me?” Khun shifts gears, panting a little.
“Yeah,” Bam answers almost immediately in that airy voice of his.
He finally opens his eyes a sliver, his expression so relaxed and content that Khun’s heart catches in his throat, thick and unmoving. It’s unfair how downright irresistible Bam looks right now—and it would be easy, so easy to just to take Bam for his own before Bam even realizes what happened. Khun could pass it off as normal, just a thing people did when heat overcame them, nothing unnatural about it. Which is true; it’s only biology. Despite all the technology and workarounds in the world, it doesn’t necessarily mean it was bad to succumb to one’s urges.
“Then you have to let me go. Just for a little while. It’ll help the fever,” Khun says, as firmly as he could.
It’s not a complete lie. It will help the fever, eventually, with the least amount of dignity lost and friendship ruined along the way.
“You’re helping right now, though,” Bam murmurs, and his tongue darts out to mouth at Khun’s exposed collarbone.
Shuddering involuntarily, Khun briefly wonders if Bam even realizes that’s what he’s doing, sounding so distant and hazy that he might as well be gone already.
“I…You smell good. Feel good too. I don’t want you to go,” Bam says breathlessly, and he squeezes around Khun’s waist again, tighter, reaffirming the flareup of his irrepressible desire.
Fuck. He’s going to slip. Bam is clueless and kind, but he’s also clingy and desperate and good, so good in so many ways that Khun’s finding it hard to convince himself why he has to say no at all. He’d be doing Bam a favour, who’s so feverishly turned on by contact that any alpha would leap at the chance to give release to such a sweet-smelling omega—
“Bam,” says Khun feebly, and he gives one not-so-valiant attempt at slipping out from what feels like a chokehold around his torso.
Bam whimpers as a result. It seems Bam’s unable to accept the tiniest gap between their bodies widening any further, and the noise courses its way through Khun’s blood, wisps of flames that erupt so wildly, so quickly that Khun can’t possibly hold it back.
He’s actively making it worse for Bam. What kind of alpha is he, if he can’t even comfort—
‘Excuses,’ a small fading voice in his head mutters, but Khun’s already turning to wrap his arms around Bam, pulling him into his chest in a tight hug. Bam makes a pleased affirmative sound into Khun’s neck, his breath hot and velvety.
A sense of calm immediately washes over Khun’s whole body, clarity abound and beautiful. Bam’s right. He does help by being here, so that’s what he’ll do. He’ll hold Bam, monitor his fever, ignore the spot where Bam is rubbing into his thigh and try to keep his own increasingly more painful erection from touching Bam in return.
That white knight line of thinking lasts maybe ten whole seconds before it all goes to shit anyway because Bam’s shimmying out of his clothes, and that honey-slick smell that Khun’s been trying so hard not to name, to not lust after, hits him with full force.
Khun inhales sharply and instead of getting a mouthful of what should be cold air, that same smell settles on his tongue, potent and unavoidable. It’s everywhere, enveloping Khun all over as Bam cuddles and rubs against him, a perfectly naked, needy omega that Khun is utterly failing to take care of.
Bam’s breathing swerves heavier and heavier, each sound making Khun ache in more ways than one.
“What…Bam, you’re sick, you need to bundle up.” Khun makes one last-ditch effort at it.
He pulls one of his arms away in search of wherever Bam’s discarded his clothes off to, and finds Bam’s hand instead, moist and eager to have found his own.
“It was too hot,” Bam protests in a small voice, and then his hand laces their fingers together, far too intimate for Khun’s liking. He gulps. “Here, it’s too…it won’t stop hurting.”
Bam then leads Khun’s hand further down until Khun feels the last of his self-control draw tighter and tighter, a taut string that snaps when Bam wraps Khun’s hand around his dick.
“It feels b-better when I touch you,” Bam mumbles into Khun’s shoulder, but Khun’s not sure if he needs to say anything more, if any of Bam’s soft, meaningless-seductions matter anymore. Not when Khun’s touching him, when Khun can feel the hot pulse of Bam’s arousal right in his palm. So it’s only right that Khun’s helpless to do anything else but stroke Bam in earnest, fed by the small mewls of pleasure in his ear.
“Does it still hurt?” Khun asks softly, swiping his thumb over the cockhead and Bam moans so beautifully that Khun would keep going even if Bam said yes, even if Bam pleaded with him to stop.
But of course, he doesn’t. It’s good, meant to be good, Khun’s mere touch a drug that overwhelms Bam’s nervous system with each twitch of his hand. Bam pants and gasps into his ear, his hair, and each sound feeds Khun, anchors him and nails him right there next to Bam.
See, Bam needs this. He needs it desperately, and who was Khun to even entertain refusing that, of giving Bam what he needs to recover? No, not just that—Bam needs this, needs him. He always did, and maybe after this, he always will, and Khun will be there for him, to satisfy him and lead him through the Tower as one.
Bam’s hips involuntarily thrusts into the heat of Khun’s grip until he comes. The small hum of satisfaction he gives is just so cute that Khun lets himself feel accomplished for a little while, even though getting off an omega in heat is less skill rather than being in the right place at the wrong right time.
As easily as the afterglow comes in, it fades. Bam stiffens and then wiggles forward, still hard and still seeking.
“Khun-ssi, it…again, please?”
Khun doesn’t even wait for Bam to finish his sentence before he starts to jerk Bam off again, this time with less patience. He growls when Bam comes again, faster than last time, his entire body shuddering in the aftermath, sweat-slicked and fraught.
It’s not like Khun doesn’t know this whole affair is useless. He could get Bam off a thousand times with his hand or his mouth or whatever else he has lying around, but it wouldn’t make Bam any less enticing. It wouldn’t make his heat go away any faster than just waiting the damn thing out. Which he tried to do already, so—
“M-more,” Bam says, his eyelids flickering half-closed.
Fuck it. Khun obeys anyway. Because he likes to hear this, savouring Bam’s pleasure as if it’s the same as his own, better than.
“Okay,” Khun repeats as he gets Bam off, again and again, holding him tight, hand snaking up and down his length, his chest, his jaw, trailing right by his scent gland.
Bam hums happily at that. “That’s…that’s good, Khun-ssi.”
“Yeah? What else is good, Bam?” He’s not mad that Bam isn’t asking him to nuzzle him there, lick there, bite, claim—“Is this good?” he whispers huskily, dangerously, dragging his fingers to pinch one erect nipple. “Here?” Down the soft skin of his belly. “Do you like this, Bam?” A curl around his cock, then in between his legs, soaked and wet and needy.
Bam nods with soft gasps in between each touch, his spine arching and the smell permeating off his skin so strong now Khun feels lightheaded.
“So good, I…Khun-ssi is so good to me. I’m so g-glad you stayed,” he replies, breath hitching higher as Khun circles one finger at his hole.
“You shouldn’t be,” Khun deflects automatically, clenching his teeth.
He already hates himself with each pleased noise coming out from Bam’s lips, the intoxicating smell of Bam’s hands clutching gently onto his body like preservation itself. Still, he doesn’t stop, his fingers on autopilot as sweat drips down his brow and Bam squirms prettily into his touch.
It’d be so easy to give in to that near overwhelming desire to shed his clothes altogether, to clutch onto Bam, fuck him full and make it permanent, never let him go.
He curls the two fingers inside of Bam upwards and Bam keens into it, moaning so perfectly that Khun knows he’s wrung another orgasm out of Bam before he feels the splatter, so perfectly that Khun wonders how Bam would melt into him if he fucked him right there, again and again and again until he can’t possibly come anymore.
Fuck, he’s in so much trouble. His brain is never wired right when he’s rutting like this, with Bam so blissfully nuzzling into him, pliant and sweet and enjoying himself as if Khun’s not taking advantage of him.
“Why?”
Khun inhales sharply, momentarily forgetting himself.
“Why…why what?” he asks.
“Why wouldn’t I…want you to stay?”
Bam slowly opens his eyes, staring straight into Khun’s eyes and it knocks whatever air is left in his lungs right out. He’s so taken back by the bright amber of Bam’s eyes, dreamy and lost in a haze of pleasure that shouldn’t be so attractive but is, his lips pink and glossy with saliva.
“I…I’m,” Khun shuts his eyes, intent on escaping the honesty that the mere act of looking at Bam is attempting to extract from him. “I’m not, not supposed to…Bam,” he hisses to a full stop when Bam’s hand closes around his cock through the fabric of his pants. “What are you…?”
“It’s bothering you too, right?” Bam cocks his head, almost too innocent to be real, a faint, faraway, smile on his face. “Let me help you, Khun-ssi.”
“That’s—” Khun cuts himself off mid-way when Bam’s hand squeezes, twists, and his dick throbs painfully and wonderfully under Bam’s unpracticed touch. “Bam, no.”
“Is it bad?” Bam’s face scrunches up tightly in worry, that small smile slipping off his face and it’s like a shinsu-packed punch straight to the gut. “How can I…it was so good when you did it…”
Bam’s grip softens, and he moves to lighter strokes as he takes in Khun’s face with shaky eyes watching for validation. Khun bites his lip so hard he tastes iron on his tongue, acerbic and tangy. It’s good—of course it’s good, Bam is touching him—and he’s so hard, so unbelievably turned on because Bam is right here, honey-sweet and radiant and oh-so-submissive, looking at Khun like he’s making everything better when he’s only going to make things worse.
“Khun-ssi? Please, I just…why do you look so sad? Oh…” Bam trails off, his hand slowly down and he leans in, sunshine in his eyes when he stares at Khun’s mouth. Fucking hell, why is Bam looking at him like that? He’s in heat, he can’t possibly want Khun like…like…
Bam raises his other hand and gingerly brushes past Khun’s bottom lip with his thumb. It stings a little when he swipes past the open cut on his lip, but that’s not the thing that catches Khun off guard. It’s Bam glancing down at his thumb, slightly stupefied, before bringing it towards his mouth. His tongue pokes out to lick at it, a small flick at first, and then more purposefully, until whatever blood on his finger is all cleaned up and he’s left staring at Khun with an unnameable type of hunger.
“Bam—”
“You smell good, but you taste even better,” Bam says dreamily with a loose smile.
Then he’s reaching over for Khun, his tongue sweeping over right where Khun bit his lower lip open, and Khun’s entire being falls victim to it, dizzy with Bam’s taste too, overpowering and dense and—
Khun hauls Bam into his body all the way to kiss him back. Oh, Khun kisses Bam so hard he can map the exact shape of Bam’s mouth gasping into his, so hard the cut sting jabs deeper down his spine, but he doesn’t care. He grinds into Bam with a grunt, yanking one of Bam’s legs over his torso so he could rub his clothed erection against Bam’s cock, underneath it, where the slick oozing from between Bam’s legs.
In return, Bam makes soft muffled noises of pleasure. He laps greedily at Khun’s lip, begging entrance into his mouth and Khun opens it without a second thought. Any taste of Bam he can get, all of it if he could. And it only gets better, closer, as Bam rolls his hips to meet Khun’s increasingly more erratic thrusts.
“B-Bam, I…” Khun breaks apart for air first, because okay, what the hell lung capacity does Bam have?
Bam’s panting, but he’s also looking at Khun with such honest fondness that it makes Khun’s chest abnormally tighten.
“Do that again,” Bam says, pulling Khun closer.
Then he looks towards Khun with an expression that looks off on his face, an emotion that Khun can only characterize as disdain. He figures out why approximately two seconds later, because Bam’s pawing roughly at Khun’s shirt, his tie already falling off. And okay, his skin feels so hot already that he’s more relieved than annoyed to shrug the rest of the sweaty fabric off his shoulder.
“Do that, again,” Bam commands, insistent. His hands are already making a grab for Khun’s belt and waistband, and Khun can only nod eagerly, his cock straining to escape its confines. “I want you closer, Khun-ssi.”
“How close, Bam?” Khun hears himself saying, his tone low and near growling.
He kicks his pants off, steadies his hands upon Bam’s shoulders before pulling them flush together. Bam makes a string of unintelligent but affirmative sounds, encouraging Khun when he nosedives into the crook of Bam’s shoulder.
With abandon, Khun takes a long hard whiff where Bam’s scent is splaying out from uncontrollably. Fuck, it’s so good, and Bam moans in agreement, tilting his neck towards Khun. It’s impossible not to now, so Khun mouths at his throbbing scent gland, and that’s enough to send Bam into a minor frenzy. He grinds harshly against Khun once, twice, and then comes with a full-body shiver, sticky and hot between them with nowhere else to go.
“You want me like this?” Khun purrs.
He licks up the tender slope of Bam’s neck, delighting when Bam quivers and lets out small pleas of ‘yes, yes’ again and again.
“Closer?” He presses their hips flush against one another, uses one arm to trace down Bam’s scorching hot spine, sleek with sweat and want, follows it down the perfect curve of his ass, even wetter than before, positively dripping.
“Even closer?” Khun thrusts in two fingers at once, and Bam whimpers into his shoulder.
“Yes, yes,” Bam babbles. “C-closer.”
Khun doesn’t even bother asking him to turn around, just manhandles him until Bam’s ass faces him on the bed like a personal invitation. He leans in to rub his cock between Bam’s thighs, then sinks into that tight, seductive heat that he had fought so hard to resist. And for what? Bam’s so perfect like this, wrapped around him as he encases Khun whole. Khun should’ve fucked him sooner.
He’s so good, so, so good. Khun murmurs those words with every thrust—into Bam’s hair, in his ear, buried in his hair. A steady crescendo builds with Khun’s increasingly rougher movements, but Bam doesn’t mind it at all. In fact, he keeps trying to meet Khun’s tempo, only succeeding partially. His movements are clumsy and desperate, half the time slipping on the sheets, but it’s clear that Bam enjoys the whole damn thing.
Yeah, Khun won’t say he isn’t pleased when Bam can’t help himself from moaning Khun’s name, again and again, even dropping the honorific near the end. He’s pretty sure Bam comes untouched two or three times in the process, shaking and gasping exquisitely when Khun’s hips rock into him faster and faster, as Bam’s scent grows stronger and stronger and Khun loses himself in it.
Khun comes, his whole body drained when he does. He locks himself right there into Bam, his knot swelling. The rhythm of Bam’s slowing breaths overlays atop his and the room spins to a standstill. Not long enough to satiate an entire rut, but the haze is better now, which means fuck, he…fuck.
“Khun-ssi,” Bam mumbles, his mouth partially pressed into a pillow. He sounds awfully pleased, hopefully looking pleased too, even though Khun can’t see his face. “Closer.”
Khun laughs quietly, wiggling his hips just a little to prove his point. “I…I don’t think I can get any closer.”
“Then…don’t leave, stay like this. I…I was right. You feel…it feels good now. I don’t feel sick anymore.”
Khun doesn’t bother correcting Bam: that it’s not sickness and he can’t leave even if he wants to, that when he gets around to disentangling them, all he’s going to want is to fuck Bam over and over until they both lose their minds. Because once is once too many, so who cares if he brings Bam to the brink over and over and over until they’re both spent and happy and deliriously, irrationally, in the moment good together?
So he says the only thing he can, the only thing he wants to. “Okay.”