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It was no use, there was absolutely no way Jimin was going to be able to sleep tonight. The t-shirt he’d borrowed (okay, stolen, since he’d never actually asked Yoongi if he could take it) had lost its scent. It smelled only of his own sweet floral omega scent, and none of the comforting blend of coffee and tangerines that he craved.
It took Jimin another hour of tossing and turning, mood slowly slipping from frustrated to tearful, before he was willing to give in. He needed the alpha’s scent back or he’d never settle, so Jimin resigned himself to confessing his crime and taking the hit to his pride to go begging for help.
As he quietly padded down the hallway to Yoongi’s room, shivering without the warm protection of his duvet and nesting blankets, Jimin berated himself for being so needy - this was definitely going to make things weird. He’d only met the alpha a few weeks ago, when he’d answered an ad for a roommate for a two bed apartment that was close to the dance studio he worked at. Yoongi had been a great roommate thus far, quiet and tidy, and often offered to share his home cooked meals with the omega. The two were still closer to acquaintances than friends, but they had a good thing going.
The alpha’s scent, for reasons Jimin hadn’t allowed himself to think too deeply into, called to him like no other. In a moment of weakness, the omega had pinched a t-shirt out of the pile of laundry Yoongi had put in front of the washing machine, before getting distracted by a phone call. Jimin had nabbed his prize and squirrelled it away in his nest before the call had ended and Yoongi resumed doing his laundry.
That had been three weeks earlier, and not once had the alpha even hinted that he was missing clothes, so Jimin was pretty certain he’d gotten away with it. But now, the scent had faded and Jimin was going to have to admit his crime. There was a good chance Yoongi would be annoyed, he had every right to be, but Jimin had become so reliant on the scent to sleep that he was desperate.
At 3:50am, Jimin knocked on the alpha’s bedroom door. A light switched on and there was movement inside, but the door didn’t open, so Jimin tried again. This time the door swung open to reveal Yoongi, eyes barely open and with adorable messy bed head. He was wearing a grey matching pyjama set and his natural scent seemingly amplified, his daily scent blockers no doubt having been washed off in the shower.
“Jimin? Is everything ok?” Yoongi’s voice was even deeper than normal, gruff with sleep.
“I, um, no?” To Jimin’s absolute mortification, he began to cry. He slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle the noise, turning his body away slightly as if to hide.
“Baby, what happened? Let Alpha help.” Yoongi’s providing and protective instincts kicked in immediately, wanting to fix the problem, the pet name slipping out to comfort the omega. The alpha’s hands twitched at his sides, unsure whether or not to reach out to Jimin - they weren’t exactly on hugging level yet.
Wordlessly, Jimin held out the t-shirt he’d been tightly gripping.
“Oh, so that’s where it went.” Yoongi looked confused. “…thank you?”
Jimin shook his head. “M’sorry. I’ve been nesting with it.”
“Oh! Wow! Uh, that’s alright. You don’t need to give it back. Is that why you’re upset? You’ve had to disturb your nest to return it to me? Because you really didn’t need to, you can keep it.” Yoongi pushed the t-shirt back towards Jimin’s chest, unwilling to take something that had been reclassified as a nesting material.
Jimin’s bottom lip wobbled, as he tried to prevent himself from crying further. The alpha was so sweet, caring about his nest - except it wasn’t the t-shirt itself that Jimin needed, it was the missing scent that was causing a problem.
“Your scents gone! It doesn’t- I can’t sleep- my nest doesn’t smell safe anymore!” Jimin cried, unaware that he’d just given Yoongi the highest compliment an alpha could get - that he made an omega’s nest safe. Nests were built by omegas as places of comfort, to hide when scared, to resettle themselves into feeling safe. It was an honour to be even be allowed to see an omegas nest. But to be considered an integral part of it? Yoongi was blown away. His chest puffed up in pride, an omega felt safer because of his scent! He must be such a good alpha.
“I know it was wrong of me to steal from you, and I am sorry- I, I’ll buy you more shirts!- but please, Alpha, please I need your scent.”
Yoongi finally took the shirt and began rubbing it directly on his neck scent glands, doing his best to spread his scent onto every millimetre of the fabric.
“No, no. You don’t need to buy me anything, I’m happy you like my scent.” The alpha’s cheeks were dusted with pink as he spoke.
“I do, I really do like your scent.” Jimin admitted, with a blush of his own. “I am sorry for being so burdensome though, I shouldn’t have woken you up for thi-”
“Omega!” Yoongi cut in, his tone taking that dominating alpha edge. “Always wake me up if you don’t feel safe.”
It was an overdramatic response, but somehow also the right one. It wasn’t as if Jimin was refusing to disturb Yoongi’s beauty sleep when an assassin broke into their apartment and the omega needed a knight in shining armour. He just really liked the alpha’s scent, nothing serious. But having Yoongi react like that validated Jimin’s feelings, making him feel as if his silly nighttime comfort was every inch as important as his physical safety.
“I…I will.” Jimin titled his head to the side, blinking up at the alpha.
“There, that should do it.” Yoongi passed the shirt back. “You should check it, make sure I haven’t missed a spot.”
Armed with the alpha’s permission, Jimin lifted the shirt with the intention of demurely sniffing it - then buried his entire face in it instead. “Sooo good.”
The alpha chuckled fondly. “Go fix your nest, Omega. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“G’night Alpha.” Jimin peaked out from the t-shirt, only his eyes visible, then tottered back towards his room with his nose still buried in the cloth.
-
It turned out that they didn’t see each other the next morning, as Jimin slept deeply until mid afternoon, by which point Yoongi had long since gone to work. A little embarrassed by his behaviour, the omega was anxious about seeing the alpha that evening. Jimin worried throughout his own half day at work, and even stayed a little later to avoid going home. Eventually he decided he was being ridiculous and it was time to face the music.
But when he got home from work, and headed straight to his bedroom to change as usual, he found that Yoongi had left another shirt on the floor outside his door. It was neatly folded with a note that said ‘Freshly scented for you. I’ll let you know if I run out of shirts - Yoongi.’
The omega squealed with happiness, turned on his heel and all but ran to the kitchen where Yoongi was making dinner.
“Hey how was wor-” Yoongi’s pleasantry was cut off by the omega crashing into his chest, hugging him tightly.
“Thank you, Alpha.” Jimin let out an involuntary chirp - the sound of a happy omega, and Yoongi replied with a deep, satisfied purr.