Chapter Text
Langa watched in horror as Reki dropped limply into the snow, blood staining the white from his still-bleeding wound. The air turned rancid with something Langa had never experienced before, something he’d only heard about: an omega drop. He learned in school why mating was so serious, because if it was done incorrectly, the omega could drop, meaning they were essentially shutting down, going into a hibernation of sorts. It could either end in recovery or death, and the survival rate was not promising at a horrifying 65%.
Adam moved back towards Reki, still in the snow and clutching his head, and Langa launched himself at the man, throwing him face down in snow drift, just out of Reki’s reach. Adam struggled against him. “Get off of me! I can help him!”
The desperate tone of Adam’s voice made Langa pause. Holy shit, Adam actually cared about Reki in his own twisted way. But even with this realization, Langa used all of his strength and adrenaline to force Adam back down. “You aren’t going anywhere near him!” he snarled.
The sirens in the distance were reassuring but Langa wasn’t sure they’d find them out here, not with the wind howling, the snow piling, and Adam anxious to escape. He needed to do something and fast.
He struggled against Adam, being smaller than him, his adrenaline fading, and he contemplated how to knock Adam out before he got away, or worse, got to Reki. But then, nearby, over the wind and sirens, Langa heard his name bellowed.
Langa’s heart shuttered and swooped in hope. That was his dad. Holy shit. Dad!
Langa put all of his weight on Adam and screamed out, using everything he had, “DAD!”
Adam threw Langa off, scrabbling towards Reki. Langa quickly caught himself, sliding in the snow, before barreling back after the other alpha and grabbing his leg by the fabric. He dug his feet into the snow, trying to gather purchase on anything underneath, if only to just slow the man.
“Langa!” his dad roared, soaring from the cliff above them and dropping into their midst with a loud powdery thump. “Alright, you sicko!” Dad addressed Adam before aiming a kick into the man’s side.
Adam gasped, going down, his eyes wide with fear and anger, and he quickly started to struggled to his feet. Dad seized him, yanking one arm behind his back, and forced Adam back face down into the snow.
Langa skirted around their struggle to Reki, dropping to his knees. “Reki. Reki?” he called to him, pressing his numb fingers to Reki’s face. The boy’s lips were turning blue and he looked as frozen as Langa felt.
Langa, still thrumming with adrenaline, used all of his strength to pick Reki up with a grunt, barely feeling his weight and slung him over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. He needed to get Reki to safety.
“Dad,” Langa started.
“Go,” Dad told him gruffly, using his body weight to push down on Adam again. “Get help while you’re at it. I’m not sure how long I will be able to hold him.”
Langa didn’t waste any breath, turning and squinting through the snow to look for the best way up the hill again. When he found one, he working his way slowly up, panting with each drag of his foot. Reki smelled worse with each passing second and it was Langa’s motivation to keep pushing himself and not collapse of exhaustion. When he made it to the top, he could hear the sirens more clearly and there were policemen in the forest. Langa could see them.
“Over here!” he called, keeping himself moving forward whether they could hear him or not. He needed to keep going, for Reki.
One of the men ran for him. “I can help!”
“No, help my dad! He’s got Adam pinned and he can’t hold him!”
The officer shouted for the others and they raced in the direction of Langa’s pointed finger. Another still went to Langa, “I can carry him.”
“No,” Langa growled, his fingers digging into Reki’s waist protectively.
“He needs urgent care,” the man argued. “You can keep carrying him. I’ll just help you with him!” He looked at Langa seriously as he promised, “I won’t take him from you.”
Langa almost wanted to ignore him and keep walking, but Reki was starting to weigh on him and he begrudgingly admitted to himself that he couldn’t make it on his own. “Fine,” Langa said, heaving Reki from his shoulder.
The officer took Reki from under his armpits and Langa took his feet. Together they shuffled through the deep snow in the direction of the police lights reflecting off the trees. When they got closer, the officer called out to the paramedics and they came rushing forward, helping Langa and the officer to support and carry Reki. By now, Reki looked half-dead.
Langa spotted his mom standing at the top of the ditch by her car on the side of the road, her hands clasped together as if in a prayer, and when she spotted him and Reki, she started down the hill. Langa tore his eyes away and back to Reki, just as the paramedics started to pry his fingers away.
“We need to take him.”
“Take him where?” Langa asked desperately as they took him away, even the officer letting go to let the paramedics take over. “Where?” he asked again as he walked after them.
One of the paramedics looked sympathetic, and she told him, “We’re taking him to the hospital.”
“Which one?”
“The nearest omega hospital,” she explained, helping her coworkers lift Reki onto a stretcher. Laying there limply, he looked so small. It scared Langa.
“I promised him I would get him out,” Langa recited, unable to tear his eyes away from his friend. He went to go to him but his mom grabbed his arm, holding him back.
“You got him out,” she told him. “You did what you promised.”
She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him but also holding him back as they lifted Reki into one of the ambulances. “I’ll see him soon, right?” Langa asked her, using every fiber of self-control in his body to keep himself from running after Reki.
“We’ll find out what hospital he’s going to,” she told him. She gave Langa another squeeze while the ambulance turned its lights and sirens on and pulled carefully into the snow covered street.
They were taking Reki away from him but he had to hope that they would save him. He had to believe that his parents and Kiriko would help him find Reki after this. He would see him again.
Another paramedic coaxed him to the 2nd ambulance, sitting him down on the edge of the open door, draping a heavy blanket over his shoulder and starting to check out the bite on his arm. He watched them numbly with his mom standing at his side, a hand hooked protectively against his shoulder. He was glad she was there, keeping him grounded. It was silent now that they’d turn off the sirens and it was even more silent with the steady snowflakes.
He watched as the policemen emerged from the woods minutes later. In their grasp, they held Adam between them, cuffs trapping his wrists at his back, and the man sported a bruised face and a grim set to his mouth. The alpha no longer looked smug. In fact, he didn’t even look at Langa as he was led to a police car and was pushed inside. Langa wasn’t sure if that was on purpose or not but he felt relief at not having to look the man in the eyes again.
Dad, who’d been following their procession out of the woods, veered off and joined them at the ambulance. “Are you alright, Langa?”
“I’m okay,” Langa said, looking down to the bite wound that had a bandage over it and the split knuckles, no longer bleeding. “It’s just Reki I’m worried about.”
Dad nodded. “You did well, son,” he said proudly.
Langa’s vision swam at the praise. “Thanks, Dad,” he said weakly, glad he said the words. He didn’t feel like he did enough for Reki, but maybe he did just enough to save him. He hoped so.
One of the officers approached them. “Do you mind answering a few questions about what you witnessed? We’re trying to get a full picture of what happened.” He looked at all three of them, clearly meaning to ask all of them questions.
“Of course,” Dad said.
“After Langa is treated,” Mom tacked on. “They’re checking him for frostbite.”
Langa was still cold, but he was warming up under the blanket and in the heat coming out of the ambulance, but he knew he would need several minutes before he got the full feeling back in his toes and fingertips.
“Alright, after,” the man nodded in agreement.
Everything after that was a blur, even if it did take hours. Langa was patched up and sent on his way. From there, he and his family went to the police station to answer question after question about everything they noticed, witnessed, and heard from Reki up to being almost mated. Langa talked about what happened to Reki in the woods and what he did to help, and Mom listened with a pale face. Dad just stared resolutely at the officer.
When that was all over, Langa asked, “Where did they send him? I want to visit him as soon as possible.”
The officer shrugged. “I’m not sure. An omega hospital, I know, but we haven’t been sent word on where yet. If we find out and are able to, we will tell you the location.”
“If?” Mom prompted incredulously.
“Well,” the man said awkwardly, “You aren’t his family and he’ll likely be under federal protection services because of the severity of this case. Besides, I don’t think they let alphas into the Drop Ward.”
Langa stilled. There was a possibility that Reki wouldn’t make it out of the drop and they might not even let him see him? “You can’t be serious,” Langa said numbly.
“I’m sorry,” is all the guy had to say.
Dad rubbed a comforting hand down Langa’s back. “You’ve got Kiriko’s contact information, right? She’s been in contact with Reki’s family. We can work with her to see if we can see Reki,” Dad rationalized.
“Right,” Langa said breathlessly, nodding.
Mom stood. “We should go. We’re very tired, you understand,” she said to the officer. “Langa needs his rest.”
“Have a good night,” the officer said.
Langa couldn’t imagine a worse night, but he stood mechanically and followed his parents out.
Langa laid in his bed the following Saturday morning, clutching his phone and waiting anxiously. He’d emailed Kiriko late last night about what happened, where they seemed to take Reki, and asking her to keep him updated. She’d responded that she was going to get contacts for Reki’s case, that she’d already reported her police station to the federal authorities earlier for their corruption, and that she would get in contact with Reki’s family. She said she would update him when she could.
Langa knew these things took time, but he couldn’t help but feel frustrated by the lack of information in the hours he’d slept. Mom checked on him a few times that morning and he assured her he was fine in a quiet voice, but they both knew he wouldn’t be okay until he heard about Reki.
His phone buzzed and he picked it up excitedly, but quickly deflated when he saw Julia’s name on the caller ID. He sighed but he knew he had to answer. He owed it to her to tell her what happened.
“Hello?” he murmured into the phone, sitting up. He’d dressed reluctantly earlier, in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
“Langa,” she said breathlessly. “Langa, I just heard.”
He wasn’t surprised. Mom had mentioned in passing that they were already reporting on Reki’s case vaguely on the news. They didn’t give much details except to mention Adam, who was arrested, and an unnamed minor omega who was in critical condition. Julia could figure it out from there, he was sure.
“Yeah,” Langa breathed in defeat. Hearing Julia’s voice acknowledge what happened made it all the more real.
“It’s true, then,” she said, her voice shaking. “It was really Reki who’d been kidnapped.”
“Yeah,” Langa repeated. “Adam tried to fucking mate him last night.”
“Shit,” she gasped. “The news didn’t say that. They just said that Adam was arrested for kidnapping and assault on a minor, I didn’t realize—”
“I don’t know where he is, either,” Langa said. “Even if they did tell me where, they said they wouldn’t let alphas into an omega hospital either.”
There was a pause on her side of the phone. “If you find him, I can go in for you. They let betas in.”
That was great and all, but Langa didn’t want someone to go for him. He wanted to be there with Reki. “Thanks,” he said anyway. “I’m gonna go, okay? I’m tired. Call you later?”
She sounded sad as she said, “Okay, Langa. Keep me updated, alright?”
“I will.”
When he hung up, he forced himself to his feet and down the stairs. He met his mom’s gaze at the kitchen before he reached the front door and he felt compelled to tell her where he was going, even though he went out all the time on his own. “I’m going outside. I’ll be right back.”
“Outside?” she asked, tilting her head.
“Just want some fresh air.”
She nodded her consent and Langa left hastily. Really, he had no intention of standing around in their driveway or anywhere on their property. Instead, he walked with purpose across the snow to the empty house next door.
He paused when he caught eye of the caution tape already draped across the front of the house. What, did they not expect Reki to come back home?
With a pang he realized, oh. Reki wouldn’t come home. Not to this one, anyway. There was nothing left for him here.
He’d intended to sit in Reki’s room, to feel closer to him, but now he felt compelled to save Reki’s belongings, to keep them until he saw Reki again. He ducked under the tape and tried the door. It was unlocked, surprisingly, so Langa went in, wrinkling his nose at Adam’s lingering stench.
Langa closed the putrid scent away when he arrived in Reki’s room and then looked around. It was just as bare as he remembered it from when he was here last time. Though, he quickly tried not to think about what he’d witnessed Adam do when he’d hid under this bed.
He ignored the bed in favor of looking through Reki’s things. He found two of Reki’s favorite hoodies and he tucked them under his arm after checking that they smelled like him. Langa looked through Reki’s desk but there was almost nothing in it. That wasn’t right; Langa knew how much Reki drew…
Checking behind the curtain, he expected there to be a notebook still propped up in Reki’s window, but there wasn’t. Instead, he looked down the crack from the windowsill and the desk and found what he was looking for. A sketchbook.
He opened it and something flittered out of it. Langa caught it before it fell completely and he felt unsteady when he realized it was their mall pictures. He looked away from it to the sketchbook, flipping through the pages. There were sketches of all sorts of things, each beautiful and unique.
He stared a few beats longer and sighed, closing it, looking around the room. That was it. The only real possessions Reki had was this notebook, a singular strip of pictures, and a couple of sweatshirts. Reki deserved so much more.
Well, Langa supposed, he would just have to buy Reki the world when they reunited.