Archive of Our Own

***

Namjoon is sweating. 

Partly because the small room he is in is stifling. It’s small and feeling overcrowded with him, his Dam, a pack council member and the pack matchmaker all huddled into a small den-like room. There are no windows and most of the light is radiating from a collection of candles while the elder beta matchmaker sits with her eyes closed.

Namjoon is also sweating, however, because this is his last chance to be paired up with a mate within their pack. 

He’s met with the matchmaker three other times before. The first time, like it is with everyone, was when he first presented. More an introduction than anything, very rarely did anyone get assigned a potential mate at first presentation but it wasn’t entirely unheard of. Some were just destined to be together. When he had been younger, Namjoon had been a bit of a romantic and had dreamed about his first meeting with the matchmaker resulting in an instant pairing. 

Perhaps his dreams had been somewhat dashed back then, but not entirely crushed.

Namjoon’s second meeting should have been his last, he should have been assigned a mate picked out specially by the matchmaker but instead … well, instead she had only looked him over … his limbs gangly and long. He was growing so tall and so quickly. When he had walked into the matchmaker's small home he had tripped over the entrance way, nearly knocking down everything in his way as he stumbled a few steps trying to find his footing.

“No…” the beta had said simply, a hand held up to stop Namjoon from coming in any further. “You are not ready, come back again another time.”

For weeks after, both Namjoon and his Dam had tried to ascertain what “not ready” had meant. Did he need more lessons? Did he need a nicer tunic? Did he have to spend more time helping the other omegas in the pack? No one had ever been told they weren’t ready at their second meeting! So, with no real guidance on what that meant, Namjoon could only guess and try his best to become a ‘better omega’.

Days turned to weeks and weeks turned into months. It had taken nearly a year and a half before Namjoon had finally been invited back to the matchmaker’s home. This was it, he had thought full of confidence. He would finally be matched!

Once more the elder had merely looked him over without a word. He had, at least stopped growing taller, but no doubt by then, stood almost a head taller than most omegas in their pack. Namjoon had also started to fill out more, unintentional as it was, it wasn’t like he was training with the alpha’s (at least not purposefully) it wasn’t his fault they liked his size and stature as a sparring partner.

And, so what if he liked sparring a little too! He had to admit it was significantly more fun to wrestle and roll around in the dirt and play than pay attention to the cooking lessons he was supposed to be attending. 

“Hmmm” She muttered simply, walking around Namjoon inspecting him from every angle before coming back face to face with him and shaking her head. “Not yet,” was her simple response. And just like before, Namjoon had been dismissed. 

For days after the last dismissal Namjoon had been distraught. What was wrong with him?! Why wasn’t she telling him what to fix? Was there really no match for him within their pack and if so … if so, his options were bleek at best. He could stay in the pack, alone and unmated; they would never make him leave. But if he did want to find someone then he’d have to leave and hope to find someone on his own. The latter option seemed undesirable, he didn’t want to leave his home or his family never to return.  

“Let’s not worry hmmm” his Dam had said, forced calm and reassurance. “She said ‘not yet’ not ‘no’. So, we just keep waiting, yeah?”

“Yeah, I’ll just keep waiting.” Namjoon had said with a small nod and his own forced smile of reassurance back. 

His once partially dashed dreams suddenly looking more and more shattered by the day. 

Yet again, days and weeks and months passed and another full year had gone before Namjoon was being summoned back to the matchmaker once again. This, he had known would be his last chance - nearing his adulthood and the time when he was supposed to be finding a mate. If there was no match to be made this time there would never be one.

So, yeah, Namjoon is sweating and he’s doing his absolute best to stay calm and relaxed as he watches the beta before him meditate over her candles. His Dam squeezes his hand while they wait and the council member… Well, honestly, Namjoon doesn’t even know why they’re here. 

But he has no space left in his brain to worry because he’s too busy tormenting himself over not wanting to leave his pack but also not wanting to be alone.

“Yes, yes, I see it now, there is a good match for you finally Namjoon-ah” the elder says, eyes opening as she looks past her candles and finds Namjoon’s gaze. She smiles kindly at him, a nod of assurance. 

Namjoon exhales so hard that several of the candles on the low table between them go out. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I uh… here let me relight those and…”

“No no no!” Everyone in the room seems to rush to stop him all at once. 

“Namjoon-ah, you have waited a long time to find your mate and the truth is, I wasn’t sure if the right mate would ever appear but I see it now there is a perfect match for you here should you be willing.” The matchmaker continues once everyone has calmed back down. 

Namjoon’s hand finds his Dam’s once more as he squeezes back. “Yes, yes, please I’m ready to know.” 

“Alpha, Min Yoongi,” the beta announces.

Even Namjoon’s Dam can’t stop herself from taking in a sharp breath of surprise. “Are you… sure?” She asks, tentative.

At the same time, Namjoon is much more blunt in his response. “What?!”

Min Yoongi. The name feels bitter in his mouth and Namjoon hasn’t even said it out loud yet. Min Yoongi, alpha Min Yoongi who… who Namjoon, like everyone else in the village doesn’t even think belongs in their pack.

And really he doesn’t. He wasn’t born here, his family line doesn’t run through their pack history and if rumours were to be believed, he’d been abandoned by his own pack, picked up by the hunters when he’d been found in the thick woods all on his own.  

“That’s the only reason he’s here. Couldn’t turn our back on a pup”

“If they’d known he was going to be an alpha they probably would have left him out there.”

“Did you see those scars? There’s something unnatural about him. He's so violent.”

As time passed, Min Yoongi’s mysterious past eventually faded, if only to make room for his reputation of being quite possibly the meanest alpha in the pack. Unfriendly and antisocial, rarely if ever partaking in the pack festivals.

Namjoon frowns. 

An arrogant or stubborn alpha, Namjoon thinks he could handle but Min Yoongi; a shiver runs down Namjoon’s spine. Wasn’t that just unfair?

Pack life has certainly changed over the many generations, with more modern age came modern lifestyles. The more traditional group lodgings had made way for individual housing for smaller family units (mated pairs, dam and sire, and so on). However, most of their pack still chose to build their homes close enough to one another in order to continue to foster a sense of community.

Min Yoongi’s cabin though, from what Namjoon remembers, is more removed, away from everyone else. 'Because of course it is', Namjoon thinks to himself. 'Antisocial alpha'.

“Min... Yoongi?” Namjoon finally repeats the name aloud. His frown only deepens with the memory that Min Yoongi already had a mate, or well he was supposed to have a mate. Park Jimin, sweet gentle Park Jimin who Namjoon had once been so bitterly jealous of. He was beautiful and perfect and everything an omega should be (and everything Namjoon was not). Namjoon had been jealous of the way everyone praised him, he had been jealous that he himself couldn’t look like such a perfect omega. The older Namjoon got however, he realised his jealousy was perhaps misplaced, but still present none-the-less. It was hard when you so blatantly didn’t live up to pack expectations of what a natural omega should be.

And yet, even perfect Park Jimin couldn't handle Min Yoongi. 

The rumours had spread quickly once it became clear that despite the official paring, no formal ceremony had ever been held. Jimin has certainly been run off, terrified of the mean alpha who lived out in the woods. Namjoon thinks there is some truth to the rumours, because he doesn’t think he’s seen Park Jimin around ever since.

Namjoon can’t help but swallow down his own bubble of discomfort. 

“No, please, this must be a mistake!” Namjoon says out loud before he even realises it’s him that’s speaking. “There must be someone else? Anyone!” His words start to sound as desperate as he feels. 

“This is the final decision,” the council member, who Namjoon had all but forgotten was there, finally speaks up; their voice if firm. “If you do not wish to partake in the ceremony with Min Yoongi, then of course, you do not have to.” They clarify. “But you will not be permitted to mate within the pack and you will have to leave if you wish to find a mate on your own.”

Ah, so that had been why they were there. An enforcer of the rules. A reminder that Namjoon is no different from anyone else in the pack and to stay here, means to follow the rules their community was built on. 

How long till everyone knew he’d been paired up with Min Yoongi?

How long till he had to face his great misfortune?

If there had been any semblance of Namjoon’s once dream of fated love remaining, it surely was all but gone now.

***

As expected, the announcement is made the next day and the whispers run rampant in their small village. Namjoon feels like everyone is staring at him as he goes through his final preparations before moving into Min Yoongi’s home. It’s hard not to curl in on himself and wish he could just disappear.

Both Namjoon’s Dam and Sire try to stay positive, telling him to ignore the whispers and the worries (but tell him all the same that if he wants to, he can just call off the match). Namjoon doesn’t know if he’s supposed to feel relieved or more worried by their words. 

Small comforts, Namjoon supposes (though he's not entirely sure ‘comfort’ is the right word) is that times are not like they were before. It’s not an arrangement he has to make without any experience. He’s permitted to move in with Yoongi, for their “One hundred days”. It's meant to be a chance to get to know one another a little more before their final mating ceremony. 

To make sure their match is a good one.

To run away and refuse. His mind whispers like a lifeline or maybe a threat all the same.

-

Yoongi’s cabin feels secluded and too far away from everyone else and that is just one of the many things that makes Namjoon uncertain. He’s been so used to being in the thick of their village, small but bustling. Out here in the woods, it's… quiet.

Everything is quiet and still and scary. 

Min Yoongi too, Namjoon think, is quiet and still and scary. 

When Namjoon first arrives Yoongi mostly keeps his distance. He helps to carry in some of Namjoon’s belongings but other than that he doesn’t linger much in the omega’s space. Namjoon, himself is pleased to find he gets his own room and that alone offers him a tiny bit of relief.  Maybe he has some fleeting thoughts of locking himself away for one hundred days straight and calling it off after it’s done. Ultimately though, Namjoon doesn’t really get to have a good initial gauge on Yoongi, the alpha seems to make himself scarce the moment Namjoon has all his things moved into the room.

Still, even left to his own devices to get settled, Namjoon can still feel his apprehension only growing. 'Settling in' becomes an ironic joke to the omega with each passing day.

Yoongi isn’t the biggest alpha that Namjoon has ever met, hell Namjoon himself is taller but Yoongi is intimidating. His presence feels looming and large and all around even when he’s not physically there. Like Namjoon is going to be constantly reminded that this is Yoongi’s home and Yoongi’s space.

Admittedly, Namjoon’s not exactly sure how he’s supposed to endure this or for how long when he’s already ready to run from the cabin back home to familiarity. He wonders how long Park Jimin lasted before he made his run for it. 

But - Namjoon’s rational brain tries hard to finally make a point, fighting against the crashing tide of Namjoon’s irrational fear - Min Yoongi is a part of the pack (enough so the matchmaker paired them), and hadn’t that been what Namjoon had wanted all along. To find a match within the pack. To stay with his family. To be happy and safe and to stay in his home.

Ugh. 

Yoongi has technically been part of the pack longer than Namjoon (even if he hadn’t been born to the pack). ‘Not that much longer, a few summers at most’. Namjoon adds in for good measure. Yoongi is part of the hunting group, has been for ages and… well, uh, actually Namjoon supposes that might be the only thing he really knows about Yoongi (other than the usual village gossip).

The alpha seems to wear his scars like a badge of honour regardless so it does little to sway Namjoon from believing every bit of the rumours. 

In fact, Yoongi has scars and marks that cover his arms and peek out around the exposed skin on his neck from under his tunic. His hands seem calloused and rough with veins that protrude through pale skin. His fingers are long and thick and Namjoon too notices a few fresh looking cuts on the back of his hands and one very fresh one that runs directly down the right side of Yoongi's face. A wound that reaches from just above his brow to the middle of his cheek.

When Namjoon had first shown up at Yoongi’s home, he had tried hard not to stare but it was so hard not to. He had even winced automatically when Yoongi had first opened the door and let Namjoon in; Yoongi had definitely noticed the reaction, seeming to make it a point to purposefully step far back and out of Namjoon’s way after that.

Namjoon’s new room for the most part is, well, quite bare. There is a bed in the middle of the room, of course, and there are blankets and even some furs piled neatly to the side. Nothing assumed to be laid out on the bed, which Namjoon … appreciates. 

When Namjoon inspects the blankets, they smell clean and neutral. Not at all like the fresh rain scent he’d come to recognize as Yoongi’s scent.

Actually, now that Namjoon’s thinking about it, most of the cabin had smelled quite clean and void of Yoongi’s scent when he had walked in. Odd, but once again Namjoon actually appreciates not being smothered in the alpha’s scent.

Namjoon clutches his own blankets that he had brought with him, along with his clothes, wanting (perhaps needing) the scent of familiarity to be brought with him if he was expected to be in a place that felt so foreign. In the end, other than clothes and blankets, Namjoon hadn’t really packed all that much. Truthfully he’d been a little unsure of what was considered acceptable to bring. Of what Yoongi might be less willing to accept in his home.

You did it so you have less to carry when you leave . That nagging voice in the back of his mind hissed.

Once Namjoon finally has his tunics put away and the blankets he had brought spread out onto the bed he can’t help but wish he had brought a few more things. Something to make his bare room a little more personal perhaps.

Namjoon feels a bit childish, but he pouts all the same. He already feels so homesick in his new home. This can’t possibly work. 

The first night is stressful. Namjoon hides himself away in his room for most of it until he hears Yoongi out in the kitchen. It takes him a bit longer to realise that Yoongi’s making dinner and by the time he remembers he’s probably supposed to be out there helping and doing that sort of ‘omega’ thing, dinner (what looks like rabbit stew) is already being set out on the table. 

“Sorry” Namjoon mutters quietly as he takes a seat and they both eat in silence for the rest of the meal. The first few spoonfuls of Namjoon’s stew struggle to make it to his mouth in full, his hand shaking with every reach.

It’s embarrassing and worst, Namjoon thinks, is that he can feel Yoongi’s glare on him. 

Eventually Yoongi finishes his meal, picks up his dishes and leaves them in the sink before leaving Namjoon on his own to finish his meal alone. 

Namjoon exhales the rest of his tension and eats the stew (with far less shaking). He also makes sure to clean up the dishes and kitchen before returning back to his room for the rest of the night. 

The truth is, Namjoon is mildly relieved he doesn’t run into Yoongi anymore that evening. 

***

The sun filtering in through a curtain that isn’t quite closed is what eventually wakes Namjoon up from a dreamless sleep. 

He startles a moment when the room around him isn’t familiar before his mind catches up and Namjoon remembers … this is his home now. Like the mature, young omega he is, Namjoon gets out of bed and hovers by his door, ear pressed cautiously to the side as he tries to listen and hear if Yoongi is out there. It’s only silence that greets him.

‘You can’t hide in here forever’ Namjoon huffs, before slowly pulling the door open and padding out into the small main room of the cabin. This time Namjoon can smell the faint traces of Yoongi’s scent, more than the day before but not all that strong. So he assumes Yoongi must have been here not that long ago. 

Namjoon wanders a bit more, into the small kitchen and sees food left on the table but no actual Yoongi anywhere. He wanders out of the kitchen and back to the main room, peeks towards Yoongi’s room, but the door is closed and he doesn’t hear anything. Namjoon even looks out the windows but, it all concludes to the fact that he’s here, alone.

He… well he doesn’t know what to do now. So Namjoon pads back into the tiny kitchen and eats the food left for him. He doesn’t know if Yoongi has a schedule he keeps with the rest of the pack hunters. If Namjoon had been home, er, well, his old home with his own Dam and Sire, Namjoon probably would have been out wandering the village. Probably running errands or visiting some of the merchants. His Dam no doubt would have probably been dragging him off to a lesson or two.

Namjoon sighs. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do. So, he sits… and stares and waits. 

And waits.

And waits.

It’s late afternoon when there is a knock at the cabin door and Namjoon practically throws himself across the small home to open the door, desperate for company.

“Oh hello Namjoon-ssi,” a younger omega greets, surprise clearly written over his features  at Namjoon’s sudden appearance at the door. The newcomer bows low before looking back up with a smile. He has long dark hair that curls slightly and big doe eyes. Namjoon knows who this omega is, well, sort of, he knows him insofar as they are of course in the same pack but he’s one of the few who no longer live close to the main part of their little village. 

“I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Jungkook, you’re uh, neighbour now I guess…” Jungkook smiles and nods slightly to the left to suggest that somewhere in that direction his own home lies. “Seokjin-Hyung, uh, my mate, is out with your Yoongi-hyung today so I thought I would stop by and keep you company and officially welcome you!”

The words ‘ your Yoongi-hyung ’ makes something a little uncomfortable twist inside of Namjoon. He doesn’t consider Yoongi his, anymore than he thinks he belongs to Yoongi - that is to say, not at all. 

The pause must make something uncertain also swirl up in Jungkook, who eventually clears his throat and looks like perhaps, he should make a quick exit. “Er, uh, I mean I can alway come back if you want…If you need more time to settle in?”

“Oh no, sorry, Jungkook-ssi, that’s okay. Uh ummm I guess it’s okay if you want to come in…” he steps aside to allow Jungkook entrance to Yoongi’s home, his home. 

“Thanks!” Jungkook says with a smile. “I brought some snacks too, well Seokjin-hyung said it would be rude if I showed up empty handed, so we made some cakes last night and I brought them. I ate a lot last night, too.” It’s Jungkook's very serious matter of fact tone that makes Namjoon finally laugh. 

Namjoon decides he likes Jungkook. He’s younger, by only a few summers but he’s been with his mate, Seokjin, for 2 summers now. He’s never lived in the central part of the village, his own Dam and Sire also preferring the quieter parts further out and… well, Namjoon supposes he never thought of it that way.  It had always seemed like such a strange concept to want to be further from the village and the pack community that he had always thought those who chose it were… well, different (read: odd). 

It’s a bit of an ugly realisation on his own part, Namjoon thinks as he spends an enjoyable afternoon with Jungkook.

“We all get along quite well out here” Jungkook adds with a shrug when Namjoon presses him on what it’s ‘ really like to be out here ’. Like perhaps after several cakes, the younger omega will be more liable to slip up on the hidden truth. “I don’t think it’s all that different from living in the main village, just, maybe we all like to have a bit of extra personal space sometimes.” Jungkook adds with a shrug and a little smile. “We all knew as soon as you and Yoongi-hyung got matched up. It was really exciting and … oh sorry, Seokjin-hyung said I shouldn’t talk about that stuff. Since you’re still not actually mated yet, I guess, you could always decide you don’t want to stay out here.”

There’s a bit of silence but it doesn’t last too long. Namjoon finds himself eager to ease Jungkook’s worry about having said something wrong. 

“You’re right, I haven’t decided yet, either way. But, I’m really glad I met you properly Jungkook. This has been a lot of fun!”

Jungkook absolutely beams at the compliment. 

Before the younger omega takes his leave, Namjoon sheepishly asks if he can keep some of the cakes for Yoongi and him (Jungkook is already shoving the entire bowl into his hands before he can even finish asking). 

They make arrangements to spend time with each other again later and for the first time since he’d arrived, Namjoon feels a little lighter.

With nothing much to do after Jungkook leaves, Namjoon unexpectedly falls asleep. Maybe he was more tired then he’d realised, moving and the anxiety of being somewhere unfamiliar likely catching up to him. Either way, it had been nice to nap and not have to worry about much else, the quiet around him for one feeling nice. When he wakes up some time later  it’s to the smell of something delicious wafting into his room and for a moment Namjoon’s mind fills with thoughts of his Dam and dinner with his family and…

Shit! Shit, shit! Namjoon pops up quicker than he means too, the room around him spinning slightly with the sudden bloodrush as he stands and skids out of his room and into the kitchen.

Yoongi is back. 

“Sorry” Namjoon mumbles, head bowed slightly when his sudden appearance seems to disrupt the alphas work in the kitchen. Namjoon also mutters out his apology for, yet again not doing the basics of what is probably expected as a new (potential) mate. “I can, um, finish preparing if you want…”

“It’s done. Sit.” Yoongi huffs back. 

Dinner feels tense and quiet and Namjoon once more can’t stop himself from staring at the scars that run up Yoongi’s arms. Most of them don’t look new, they look quite old actually aside from the ones on Yoongi’s face and hands. He wants to ask Yoongi what happened, how he got them, but truthfully, Namjoon is still so uncomfortable around the alpha.

Yoongi seems to finish his food quickly, not lingering longer than he needs to to eat his meal and clean up before leaving Namjoon alone once more.

And once more, Namjoon finds himself exhaling a breath of tension he’d been holding. Relaxing enough to finally eat.

It unintentionally becomes their new routine.

Yoongi leaves before Namjoon wakes up.

Namjoon loiters around the cabin and sometimes Jungkook visits.

He takes a nap and wakes up usually to Yoongi already making them dinner.

They eat, quietly and quickly and Yoongi is usually gone, slipping into his own room to leave Namjoon alone for the rest of the evening.

A routine, definitely - and a painful one.

***

Namjoon's days start to blend and he loses count, weighed down by boredom and fear. Sure, the days Jungkook visits help but Namjoon surely cannot live like this! 

It’s early one morning and he can hear the telltale signs of Yoongi getting ready to leave - belatedly Namjoon’s mind screams at him that he shouldn’t do this, that he should just try to lay low for a few more days (a few more weeks?) and then he can tell the matchmaker he simply cannot see a future with Min Yoongi. But the message is too little too late, Namjoon is already rushing himself out of his room, nearly crashing into Yoongi in the process.

“I don't want to stay here all day anymore!” Namjoon yells.

Yoongi to his credit looks more startled by the sudden appearance of Namjoon barreling into the small living room than the actual words he’s yelling.  

“You leave every day and I sit here and wait and it’s so boring and I don’t even have my books and… and…” Namjoon stutters to a stop not entirely sure where he was going with his yells but equally unsure as Yoongi merely stares back at him. “...aren’t you going to say anything?!”

Yoongi only stares back at Namjoon, the silence building between them. For a moment, Namjoon is sure the alpha is either going to snap or maybe finally display to Namjoon in person what makes him such a skilled hunter while he rips his throat out.

“So go out.” Yoongi says with a slight frow and crease between his brows.

“I…I can go out?” Namjoon replies a little dumbly.

Yoongi must also think Namjoon’s statement is a little dumb, he snorts slightly before going back to what he’d been doing before Namjoon had tumbled out of his room. “Of course you can go out, did you not go out when you lived with your Dam and Sire?”

Somewhere in the back of Namjoon’s mind he can’t help but register that this is the most he’s ever heard Yoongi speak before. His voice is deep and gravely but with that underlying authority all alphas seem to have. It’s… It’s annoyingly nice. 

Namjoon doesn’t answer Yoongi’s question, because he suspects they both know the answer. Of course he’d been allowed to go out and of course he would be allowed to go out here too, the restraint to stay inside all day had been completely self imposed. Instead, Namjoon mutters that he’ll be going back to the village for the day. 

Yoongi doesn’t say much of anything else before he slips out leaving Namjoon alone once more.  

-

Namjoon thinks he wants to head home and pack up some of his books the most. Even with the revelation that he could have been leaving the cabin all this time … the trek to and from the main village is simply too much to be making daily.

Admittedly, Namjoon still feels strangely conflicted over his exchange with Yoongi this morning. On one hand, he’s frustrated and annoyed, why hadn’t Yoongi said anything the entire time Namjoon had been there! Didn’t he think it would have been nice to impart onto Namjoon that he indeed could have been doing whatever he wanted this whole time. 

On the other hand - Namjoon finds himself slightly embarrassed. He had been the one to assume Yoongi was going to be some kind of old school alpha tyrant demanding his omega fall into some kind of traditional homemaker role. When in fact, Namjoon thinks they haven’t done one single traditional thing from the moment Namjoon stepped foot in the cabin.

They hadn’t even scented one another. 

Namjoon’s thoughts distract him enough that the walk to the village goes by in a blur, a stark contrast from the walk to Yoongi’s so many days (weeks?) ago. That had felt like it had taken hours. Coupled with the weight of his fear and the impending doom of a would be failed match. 

Maybe it's all in your head ? Namjoon sighs to himself.

He doesn’t dwell, not when the village finally comes into sight and instantly Namjoon can feel himself calming for the first time since his move. Everything here is familiar and comfortable. The smells alone make Namjoon’s omega purr, the tension draining from his body and…er… wait…is…is everyone staring at him?

Staring and gossiping , Namjoon’s mind supplies, making that swell of discomfort he’d been feeling return as quickly as it had dissipated. Namjoon can’t help but frown as the whispers continue, not an ounce of shame in his fellow packmates apparently.

“I heard they stuck him with Min Yoongi because they didn’t have any other matches”

“Probably won’t even make it to the mating ceremony”

They’re both kinda odd… maybe it makes sense”

“His poor Dam, watching her only pup sent off to match with someone so nasty”

Namjoon isn’t sure why, but it’s the hushed whispers about Yoongi being horrible that make him the most annoyed. 

“They’re saying such horrible things about him and … and they don’t even know him” Namjoon whines as he plucks several books from the shelf in his old bedroom. “He’s not mean, I mean he’s quiet I guess and a little  intimidating but, I wouldn’t say he’s mean!” Namjoon explains to his Dam. When he’d first come through the door she’d been worried he’d already been returning to refuse the match. Running away from his potential mate only to be reassured he’d just come by to pick up some more of his things.

“So things are going well?” Namjoon’s Dam asks carefully.

“Well, it could be worse I suppose. We aren’t really …. bonding or, I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing really. Just kind of existing under the same roof.” Namjoon frowns, huffs out something slightly frustrated as he gives up on his book packing and sits down on his old bed. 

A part of Namjoon wants to just stay here and give up. He wants to return to something comfortable and safe and get rid of all the tension and worry he’s feeling. He tells his Dam as much, wondering if what he’s feeling is normal or a sign that none of this is going to work out.

“Your Sire and I went back to the matchmaker during our one hundred days and asked them if they made a mistake.” The older omega blurts out. “We were so certain we weren’t right for each other, we fought more than anything, especially in those first few weeks.”

Namjoon’s eyes go wide. He’s never heard this story before. In fact he’s never really ever heard anything but positive accolades of his parents matching. A perfect match, or so he had believed. 

“Being matched with someone doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect from the start, it’s not magic.” Namjoon’s Dam continues, coming to sit on the bed next to him. She smiles warm and soft, reaching out to comb his hair back out of his eyes. “I think… I think you should trust your instincts, you’ve always been very bright and if you think it’s right or if you think it’s wrong, we’ll support you either way.”

“I’m just, well, I guess I’m just scared.” Namjoon whispers back, leaning into the comforting touch he’s missed for so many days. His Dam’s scent blooms warm and rich and comforting trying to dampen his own anxieties.

“I know darling, but perhaps, he is too?”

***

It takes Namjoon a few more trips to and from the village to gather more of his personal belongings, filling up his room in Yoongi’s cabin and making it feel more like his own. Yoongi doesn’t say much when he sees more and more of Namjoon’s personal effects scattering around the place and so, Namjoon takes it as a good sign. 

It takes those subsequent trips for Namjoon to also realise that something else is starting to happen; he's starting to feel less comfortable walking through the village streets. The whispers and the staring from the others have started to weigh on him.

“They don’t even know what they are talking about!” Namjoon snapped one time when Jungkook offered to go with him for the walk to the village. 

Jungkook’s friendship has become immensely invaluable to Namjoon. Filling the void of sociability he’d been missing out on since he’d moved. But also, a strong support when he’d felt the shifting wave of judgement from the village starting to turn on him.

“They just don’t know.” Jungkook had tried to soothe. “You were unsure too when you first showed up.”

And…and Namjoon thinks Jungkook had been right. Yoongi had a reputation that surpassed him for a reason even Namjoon didn’t know why. When in reality, Yoongi had simply been quiet and reserved. He’d not once been the mean nasty alpha the village gossiped about and Namjoon had been expecting from the moment he walked into Yoongi’s cabin.

“Come and help me pick up some things?” Namjoon had added softly afterwards, pulling Jungkook off their original path back to Namjoon’s old home. “I… I’m gonna make Yoongi and I dinner tonight .”

-

In hindsight, dinner might have been a bit too ambitious. Namjoon’s still unfamiliar with Yoongi’s cabin and the entirety of the time he’s been here,  Yoongi’s been the one who had been making them food.

Not that he’s making them anything all that hard. Er, well he hadn’t thought it was that hard, watching his Dam prepare a similar meal hundreds of times before. He had some vegetables and some meat and mostly, he just had to put them all together in the cauldron with oils and herbs.  Simple, right?

Wrong. 

Yoongi walks into a sight that is Namjoon trying to battle flames leaping out of the cauldron itself. He hadn’t even put anything in but the oils? It sizzled and smoked and shouldn’t that have just meant it was warm enough. But then suddenly there were flames licking not just under but trying to escape from within - HOW DID THE FIRE GET INSIDE?! A splash of water and it had only made things worse and more and more smoke and …

“MOVE!” Yoongi had half growled and half yelled, pushing Namjoon back from the fire and reaching for the lid of the cauldron slamming it down hard and suffocating the flames. He quickly moved himself after that to take the smoking pot outside leaving a shocked Namjoon behind. 

For a moment there was only silence and smoke and Namjoon. Too stunned to move before Yoongi rushed back inside, eyes wide. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Yoongi yells.

Namjoon feels the pricking of tears, though it’s not entirely clear yet if it's from the smoke burning his eyes or something else. “I…” he starts only to have to suck down another breath when he finds himself fighting against an unexpected whimper. “I..just…. I wanted…” oh, okay, so it’s not the smoke making him cry. 

He feels like such a failure at this already and they’re getting closer to their halfway mark of their one hundred days. All he had wanted to do was make a nice dinner for Yoongi to show him he was trying. To show him he was a capable potential mate, to show maybe not just Yoongi but everyone who doubted him that he was a good omega.

But it had all gone up in flames, quite literally. 

Yoongi’s frown quickly morphs into a look of shock as Namjoon starts to cry, across the small room and surrounded by thick white smoke, it’s still easy to see the way his shoulders shake as he buries his face into his palms. 

“Come on… come on, let's go outside for a bit, it’s too smokey in here” Yoongi says a little more softer this time he steps forward and for a second his hands hover unsure around Namjoon until the land on his elbows and he carefully starts to guide the other outside. 

Namjoon’s crying only continues once they are outside the cabin. And he has just enough capacity to think that maybe it’s not just the food he’s crying about.

Maybe it’s… everything. Everything he’d been holding onto since he’d been matched, and everything he’d been holding onto since before he’d been matched all of it suddenly coming to a head when he couldn’t hold it in any longer. 

Yoongi lets him cry, he doesn’t even tell him to stop. He also -  Namjoon realises somewhere in between his sobs - continues to run a soothing palm up and down Namjoon’s back, hints of his rain scent battling against Namjoon’s own distressed one (and maybe against the lingering scent of smoke).

He …really likes Yoongi’s scent, Namjoon thinks offhandedly as his sobs start to slow. Yoongi continues to pet him.

“I burned the cauldron,” Namjoon mutters some time later, still a bit sad. The pout has yet to be erased from his lips.

“That’s okay.” Yoongi says simply.  He’d only just stopped running his palm over Namjoon’s back, and Namjoon has to admit he misses the warmth already. “I’m sorry for yelling at you and scaring you.”

The pair of them sit in their collective silence for a moment before Yoongi continues.

“I was worried you hurt yourself, you didn’t right?”

Namjoon only shakes his head in response. Holds his hands up and turns them over a few times as if to show proof.  “I’m not a very good cook.” He adds, and for a moment looks like he’s going to cry all over again. 

“That’s okay, I uh, I actually really like cooking.” Yoongi reasons.

“You do?”

“Yeah, a lot, actually.”

There’s more silence as the two of them stare at the now only somewhat smouldering cauldron. The silence is just long enough before Namjoon suddenly barks out a laugh, breaking the tension.  

“Oh thank gods, because I’m really bad at it.”

***

“Namjoon-ssi…” Yoongi speaks up one evening while they are eating, his gaze determined to focus on anything but Namjoon. “I was thinking of taking a walk after dinner, if, um, if you want to join me?”

“Really?!” Namjoon knows he’s grinning and he doesn’t care.

“Yeah, I mean I should show you around at night, in case you want to go out on your own sometime.”

“Oh, yeah… that’s probably a good idea,” Namjoon says with a little less excitement. “Don’t want to end up getting lost or something.”

“But, I mean, uh, if you want to come with me from now on whenever I go… or if you want me to go with you… I just mean, uh I mean…you're not like under my rule or something but we can still go together and I...ugh… I dunno what I’m trying to say…

Suddenly Namjoon can’t help that laugh he lets out. Yoongi looks so absolutely distraught. Tripping over his words and trying to correct himself. Namjoon thinks he understands exactly what Yoongi is trying to say a little better now. “I would love to go on more walks with you Yoongi-ssi.”

Yoongi still struggles to bring his gaze to Namjoon’s (something Namjoon has decided they are going to work on moving forward) but he seems relieved and happy.  “You can, um, call me Hyung, if you want?”

“Okay Yoongi-Hyung.” Namjoon’s grin is back. “Let’s finish dinner quickly, I’m excited for our walk.”

It’s the first of many, many walks they take together. Usually in the late evening when the sun is just starting to set. Namjoon is surprised to discover what he’d thought was a cabin secluded from the village was more like many cabins just a bit more spread out. 

A bit more privacy.

They walk past Jungkook and Seokjin’s home which is fun because sometimes they stop to chat and other times the mates will join them on their walk as well (Yoongi pretends to be annoyed by it, but Namjoon can tell he likes the extra company).

Sometimes Namjoon does go on his own and sometimes Yoongi does too but it feels nice, more like an excuse to find some quiet time and not like either of them is avoiding one another. 

Namjoon’s favourite though, is when they go out in the afternoons and walk to a small valley next to the stream. They sit and relax and Namjoon will sometimes (well almost always) bring something to read. Yoongi likes to take naps, but they also sometimes talk about whatever Namjoon is reading. 

It’s … nice and something he would have never gotten to experience if he still lived in the main village. 

Secretly, Namjoon thinks he’s starting to like this more.

-

“Hyung” Namjoon says one evening before they both retire to their beds. He’s feeling brave, braver than he had weeks ago. “Can we…scent each other? I mean, before we go to bed, it’s just…I.. I think it would be nice and, um good for our wolves.”

The surprise is clear on Yoongi’s face as he looks back at Namjoon. “You, uh want to? With me?”

Namjoon thinks the question isn’t quite the words Yoongi wants to say, it looks like his surprise holds so much more in it than just the shock of being asked to scent. It makes something a little sad swirl around in the pit of Namjoon’s stomach. It makes him think there is so much more for him to understand about the alpha then he realised. 

Still, Namjoon doesn’t want to push too quickly and instead only nods and smiles back warmly, holding out his wrist for Yoongi. 

The first time they scent, it’s very polite. Yoongi rubs his wrist against Namjoon’s and vice versa. Their scents bloom around the room, intermixing and it’s wonderful.

Actually, Namjoon thinks it’s intoxicating just a little bit how much he actively starts to crave Yoongi’s scent even after only a few days of scenting. 

“Hyung, do it like this.” Namjoon’s bravery continues as he reaches for Yoongi’s hand one evening. He cradles Yoongi’s open hand in both of his palms before lifting it up to his own cheek.

Yoongi doesn’t resist. Fingertips brush over Namjoon’s warm skin, along his cheek and against his neck. 

Namjoon nuzzles into Yoongi’s palm, before turning his nose against the gland on Yoongi’s wrist and inhaling. “I love your rain water scent…” he says with a sigh, maybe only half aware of what he’s actually saying out loud. He already feels nice and floaty.

“I really like your wildflower scent too.” Yoongi says back amused as he pulls back his hand from (a slightly pouty) Namjoon so the gesture can be returned. He carefully takes Namjoon’s palm and presses it to his cheek, nuzzling into the soft skin before pressing his nose against the gland on Namjoon’s wrist. 

The scent of wildflowers and rain embeds itself on both of them. Namjoon can’t help but think their scents are a perfect match.

Like getting Yoongi to look at him fully when they talk, scenting each other slowly and steadily becomes a more natural task between them. It fills Namjoon with some kind of pride that he gets Yoongi to open up more to him.  And he laughs to himself a little more with the realisation that Yoongi was never the mean scary alpha everyone gossiped about; he was.. is… actually just adorably shy.

“Hyung, wait!” Namjoon calls after Yoongi in the morning before he’s heading out on a longer hunting trip with the rest of the hunting pack. He’s going to be gone several nights, leaving Namjoon home without him for the first time since he’d moved in. “I just… wanted to tell you to be safe.” He says catching up to Yoongi just outside their cabin.  Maybe he’s being silly, maybe he’s being over worried for no reason, after all, Yoongi has been a part of the hunting pack since he was practically still a pup (ok older than a pup but still!). 

“It’ll be ok.” Yoongi reassures the other, the faintest blush colouring his cheeks. He doesn’t know how long it’s been since he’s ever had anyone worry over him like this. “It’s a quick hunt.” he tries to appease, though that’s not entirely true. They have to head out further to find bigger game to bring back to start their preparations and rationing for the upcoming winter. 

Time is moving so quickly. It’s almost their one hundred days.

“I know, it’s just, don’t get hurt or anything.” Namjoon makes a face like he’s trying hard to keep his emotions in check. Like he’s trying to still stay calm and happy but there is something nagging at the back of his mind and he’s fighting to keep it in.

And there is. 

It had taken maybe just a bit too long for Namjoon to notice, and he thinks he might never fully forgive himself for it, but Yoongi’s eye, the one that had been subject to that awful gash down Yoongi’s cheek, was not getting better. The wound itself had healed, and much like many others over Yoongi’s body had left behind a scar. Raised pink and puckered skin not healing perfectly. A permanent reminder of whatever had happened; Namjoon still doesn't know how he got it that night but what he does know is that everytime Yoongi does go out with the hunting pack he almost always comes home with fresh scratches over his body.

But Yoongi’s eye…the colour is off, it’s not the shiny bronze like his other one, more a pale sand, with the pupil permanently blown wide. Namjoon is pretty sure Yoongi has lost some if not most of his vision in it. It makes him sad and worried all the same.

“I’ll be okay Namjoon-ah” Yoongi says, and moves forward until they are standing close, toe to toe. 

Namjoon leans forward and Yoongi does too, until they embrace, close enough to scent - this, this had been what Namjoon had hoped for weeks ago. When polite scenting steadily moved to more familiar to now, what would be considered intimate. Namjoon tilts his head enough for Yoongi to nose along his cheek and neck. He feels the gentle squeeze of Yoongi’s hand on his waist.  Namjoon’s own hands rest on Yoongi’s shoulders, waiting for his turn to scent Yoongi back in the same manner.  “If you do get hurt,” Namjoon warns “I’m going to be so mad at you.”

Yoongi only chuckles lowly.  Namjoon thinks he’s never going to get tired of hearing Yoongi’s laugh.

***

“We’re inviting you over for dinner!” Jungkook had yelled as he and Seokjin made their way towards where Namjoon and Yoongi had been spending the warm afternoon outside. Namjoon had been showing Yoongi some of his favourite poems, reading them to him and talking about them. 

“Jungkook-ah, darling you don’t have to scream, we’re heading right towards them!” Seokjin teases.

The young omega seems indifferent to his mate's words of wisdom as he bounds excitedly towards where Namjoon is lounging and throws himself at the other.  “You’re going to come right? Say you will come! Yoongi never wants to come to our dinners, but if you want to go…” Jungkook suspiciously looks over his shoulder at Yoongi and smirks before looking back at Namjoon “...but if you want to go, he’ll go. He’ll want to go if you do!”

“Jungkook!” Both Yoongi and Seokjin groan. The omega very much ignores them, grinning at Namjoon. 

-

Namjoon is excited for dinner and he’s excited that Yoongi seems, well, maybe not excited but content to attend dinner at Seokjin’s and Jungkook’s place as well.  Aside from the few casual lunches they’ve shared with the two, Namjoon hasn’t had a more pack style dinner in a while and he thinks his omega, his naturally sociable omega, is quite eager to be around a few more.

There is Seokjin and Jungkook of course.

Yoongi, obviously.

But there is also Hoseok, an alpha that Namjoon is slightly embarrassed to admit he doesn’t think he knows him all that well despite how close in age they are.

“My Dam and Sire have lived out here since before I was born, I was never really part of the main village crowd.” Hoseok had eventually explained.  

Then there is Hoseok’s mate, Taehyung and uh, their other mate… Park Jimin.

It had truthfully been a bit of a shock to see Jimin there, especially since Yoongi had been invited - Namjoon thinks that maybe for a solid minute he stares with his mouth open as the shock washes over him. Namjoon quickly turns to face Yoongi, worry in his eyes. “If you want to go, we can go. I can’t believe they invited him and …”

“Yoongi-Hyung!” Jimin screeched excitedly when Yoongi had followed behind Namjoon towards where Seokjin and Jungkook had been laying out dozens of dishes on the table just behind their cabin. “You came!!! Finally!!” the small blonde omega dashes so quickly from where he’d been across the small yard, throwing himself into Yoongi’s body for a hug.

Namjoon’s pretty sure his open-mouth shock had returned. 

“Ohmygosh, and Namjoon-ssi, I’m so excited you are here too! I would have come to visit you earlier but, well, you know, one hundred days and I didn’t want to make things weird.”

Namjoon is so, so, confused. 

He’s confused even after Yoongi hugs Jimin back and Taehyung pulls Jimin away to help with bringing over some more food. He’s confused while Yoongi runs his palm down Namjoon’s own back and tells him “ it’s fine, we’re fine. ” The confusion dissipates just a tiny bit while they all eat and drink and laugh and… ah yes he remembers what he was missing. This is fun and relaxed and everyone is a little bit tipsy. He doesn’t even think he remembers why he was worried!

“Now the omegas outnumber the alphas!” Taehyung had cackled in delight when they had all but puppy-piled together after the final bit of plum-wine had been served and the alphas were cleaning up. 

“Well, that’s… only…. If… if…. Namjoon-hyung… stays” Jungkook had mumbled sleepily, eyes closed and fighting for his life to keep his head up. 

“Aww Kookie, come-on I think we need to get you to bed” Tehyung snorts as the youngest of them all quickly fades to unconsciousness. 

It inevitably leaves both Namjoon and Jimin alone and that forgotten confusion and a bit of the worry that had been settled in the pit of Namjoon’s stomach, starts to swirl back up once more. For a while, Namjoon can feel Jimin’s gaze on him and admittedly is too nervous to look back over to him. 

He doesn’t know why, or well maybe he does.

Jimin was supposed to be Yoongi’s mate. They had been matched and Jimin had done the very thing that Namjoon was doing now, moved in with Yoongi and started their 100 days together. But … something had happened… Yoongi being a horrible alpha, if the rumours were to be believed and Jimin had called off the match. 

Rumours had also said Jimin went running and hiding in fear, but well that didn’t quite seem to be the truth, now did it? 

Still, Namjoon wonders and worries what Jimin is going to say to him now that it’s just the two of them.

“Namjoon-ssi…”

Namjoon swallows down his panic. 

“Namjoon-ssi, can we talk?” Jimin speaks softly, a gentle hand placed on Namjoon’s shoulder, a squeeze until he can’t ignore the other omega any longer. “Look, I know it’s not my place to tell you what to do or what decisions you are going to make…”

And here it is, Namjoon thinks. Jimin is going to tell him the truth, going to burst whatever little bubble Namjoon had made for himself, believing that things with him and Yoongi might work. Maybe he will tell Namjoon to run or give him some kind of cryptic warning?

“It’s just, Namjoon-ssi, if you’re not going to stick around then it’s better you leave now. Don’t drag Yoongi-hyung along and make him believe you care about him if you don’t… it’s …. It’s not right. It’s mean.”

The confusion swirls up inside of Namjoon like a storm. Jimin’s eyes are wide and wet, like he might cry at any moment. 

“Yoongi-hyung deserves to be loved just like everyone else. But if you’re going to be just like everyone else in the village and if you hurt him…”

Namjoon watches the way Jimmin’s sorrow filled eyes turn sharp and threatening.

“If you hurt him, I will never forgive you.”

“Namjoon-ah!” Yoongi’s voice breaks the tension between the two omegas as he calls for the other. “Are you ready to go home? Or do you want to stay longer?”

Namjoon looks between Yoongi and Jimin for a moment (Jimin who is back to being smiley and sweet). “We can go! I’m coming!” Namjoon yells back before turning back to Jimin. He takes a breath and steals himself.  “I’m not dragging him along Jimin-ssi. I care about him, alot!”

“Good.” Jimin says back without missing a beat. “Goodnight Yoongi-hyung!” Jimin calls back as he helps Namjoon up and, because what Namjoon can piece together of Jimin is all about confusion, hugs him tightly before running off to find Taehyung and Hoseok.  

-

Maybe it’s the wine that’s coursing through him. But Namjoon thinks it’s the curiosity more; either way the silence on their walk back towards Yoongi’s cabin doesn’t last. 

“So you are still friends with Park Jimin?” Namjoon asks tentatively, casually looking over at Yoongi while they walk. 

For a moment Namjoon thinks Yoongi isn’t going to answer him, his silence feels so much louder than Namjoon’s own before the alpha finally lets out a low laugh. 

“You’re not about to get territorial on me are you? Tell me I can’t talk to Jimin anymore or something?”

Namjoon scoffs, feels his cheeks burning up at the accusation he might be some kind of stereotypical possessive omega. “No!” he quickly replies. “It’s just …” and oh, Namjoon’s brain catches up with him almost too late. The words on his lips, accusation of a mean alpha and a scared omega and a doomed match from the start. “...uh, nevermind.” He says instead.

The feel of Yoongi’s hand on his wrist, stopping them from their walk, firm but still gentle turning him so they are facing one another. 

“You should just ask. Isn’t it better to know the truth?”

Namjoon doesn’t know why he still feels embarrassed and ashamed. Maybe it’s because he subconsciously already knows whatever stories he had heard had to be a lie. Yoongi - the Yoongi he’s gotten to know and not the Yoongi from all those whispers is far from the mean and nasty tyrant alpha. So, maybe Namjoon just needs to think of a better question to ask, the right question.

“Why… didn’t things between you and Park Jimin work out? I mean, you seem… uh, well, you both don’t hate each other.”

Yoongi snorts with some kind of amusement. “No, we don’t hate each other.”

They start their walk back once more, Namjoon letting Yoongi mull around with his thoughts a little longer before the alpha finally continues.

“Jimin and I care a lot about one another. He was very sweet and very kind to me when we were first matched. Like you, I think he was told all kinds of stories about what to expect but he came out here so fearlessly and determined regardless.”

Namjoon’s brow furrows.

“But Jimin’s heart belonged to someone else. It wasn’t hard to see, even if he was trying to hide it. We spent a lot of time talking about expectations and traditions and … judgement. You know that he’s with Hoseok and Taehyung now, right?”

And Namjoon nods.

“But he was with Taehyung first, the both of them, omega … I think the only reason the pack matched Jimin and I up was because they didn’t like the idea of two omegas together. But,  out here… away from everyone who has their nose in your business, it’s easier to be yourself. Then Hoseok came along and … the three of them, they just work.”

Namjoon feels like he’s been dropped in the river. Everything washes over him with a shock, certainly sobering him up from his too-much plum wine. It takes him the rest of their walk home to process, to understand and make sense and to connect stories and erase rumours from his mind.  “But, what about you?” he frowns with his question as they finally cross the threshold back inside.

“I … I was more happy to see him truly happy. I’m already not an easy person to love, I know that, but it becomes an impossible task when you already love someone else.”

They both move apart once inside. Falling into their own familiar routines as they wash up and get ready to sleep. Namjoon thinks most of his dreams will be filled with memories from dinner and his new friends and the laughs everyone shared. It’s a nice feeling, a warm one and comfort he’d once upon a time believed he wouldn’t ever be able to find out here away from the only thing he ever knew. How silly. How immature of him.

But before he retires to his nest, Namjoon needs to do one more thing. 

“Yoongi…hyung?” he says quietly, knocking on Yoongi’s door. “Are you still awake?”

He thinks Yoongi is, there’s a slight shuffle but the alpha doesn’t come to open the door. But somehow, Namjoon knows the other is listening. 

“You are.” He says a little firmly. “You are an easy person to love.”

***

Don’t ask Namjoon why he does it, because he doesn’t know why either. He thinks maybe he became possessed by his omega one afternoon while Yoongi was out hunting, only coming to his senses just before Yoongi had come home. 

There in the middle of the main room was, undeniably, a nest. Or, well, as much of a nest as he could make with only the blankets he had from his room.

“Oh.” Yoongi had said rather eloquently when he’d walked in and Namjoon had felt slightly mortified. Though, he’s not sure if it’s because of the fact he made a nest itself, or, if because the nest he made was so pathetic. 

Namjoon is about to apologise, but Yoongi’s words cut him off. 

“You can take whatever you need from my room too, whenever you want.”

Clearly possessed by his omega yet again, Namjoon is running off to raid Yoongi’s room of his blankets and pillows without a second thought. 

After dinner, Yoongi gently prods and asks Namjoon if he wants to show him his nest to which, yes, gods, yes! does he want to and he doesn’t know why. 

They move to the main room and Namjoon easily crawls into the middle, hands smoothing over the soft materials of the nest. It had felt so much better to add the extra blankets and pillows. He’d even found some thick furs that were probably meant for the winter but they had smelled so much like Yoongi that Namjoon couldn’t resist adding them. He’d rearranged everything, of course, re-scenting some of his own blankets and then intermixing everything. It felt so good to have both of their scents together.

“It looks really good Namjoon-ah, you did such a good job.” Yoongi says, squatting just outside of the nest. He’s careful not to touch it as he does.

Namjoon can’t help but watch the alpha as he inspect the nest, but is careful not to touch or enter it. The praise makes him feel good, makes him feel proud like he did something right. 

Like he was a good omega.

“You can come in…if you want.”

Namjoon likes the way Yoongi’s gaze darkens slightly, the softest smile pulling at his lips before he crawls in to join Namjoon in his nest. His tummy does something funny, a squeeze and a twist all at once. At 90 days Namjoon thinks they’ve gotten pretty comfortable with their scenting - lightly before Yoongi leaves to hunt, much more thoroughly when Yoongi gets back home, safe. Sometimes just casually when they are lazing around and always, always before bed. He loves the way Yoongi noses along his neck, and just below his jaw. He loves the feel of Yoongi’s hands running over his shoulders and arms, wrapped around him, enveloping him in his scent - it's comforting and safe.  

“Can we try something? Namjoon asks when Yoongi leans forward to bury his nose in Namjoon’s neck; his wildflower scent blooming instantly. 

“Yes, whatever you want.”

Namjoon laughs, pulling apart just slightly, hands coming to cup Yoongi's cheeks. “Let me ask first.” He teases. 

“Okay, ask.” Yoongi’s grinning, and Namjoon thinks he looks so much more like a sweet puppy than some mean nasty alpha. He never was. 

“Can we take these off?” Namjoon says, tugging at the hem of Yoongi’s tunic. 

“Yes.” Yoongi says, a little breathy already feeling the effects of their scenting. 

He easily lets Namjoon pull off his top and then he does the same to Namjoon. It’s so much better like this, Namjoon thinks. He can feel Yoongi’s hands, his fingers and palms slide over his skin, his touch warm and soft. Namjoon too, likes that he can touch Yoongi; smooth down his shoulders and chest, along his arms and over his sides. Yoongi has scars here too, though not as many as his arms and legs but Namjoon can’t help but press a kiss to an old pink scar just below Yoongi’s collarbone.

“Oh we’re kissing?” Yoongi says.

“Yes,” Namjoon replies easily. “It’s about time, don’t you think?”

“Yes…” Yoongi grins, reaching to tilt Namjoon’s chin up just enough to press a proper kiss to the omega’s lips. 

Yoongi is soft and gentle but he explores Namjoon’s body with assertiveness. He makes Namjoon sigh and moan (oh gods should he be embarrassed that he just moaned?) with touches and caresses. With kisses and licks all of which Namjoon easily tilts his neck back for.

When he can, he sneaks in his own kisses, to Yoongi’s shoulder, to his lips and his own neck. To the pink scar that starts above his eyebrow and runs down his cheek. “We’re so dumb, we should have been doing this weeks ago!” Namjoon whines around several more kisses as he pulls Yoongi over him, laying back into the nest he’d made.

Namjoon wants… he wants more. Anything, everything, whatever Yoongi will give him. Yoongi’s lips trail down his neck and chest, teeth scraping against one nipple than the other. Namjoon can’t help but hiss, both pleasure and a bit of pain, fingers fisting into Yoongi’s hair.

“You feel so good” Namjoon pants, both of them pressing into one another, chasing delicious pressure and friction. “Let's take these off too…” Namjoon tugs at Yoongi’s waist band and just as quickly as they had removed their tunics their pants had followed. 

Traditionally, they aren’t supposed to mate yet, not until their ceremony, but it doesn’t mean they can’t do other things. Things like this - with Yoongi’s mouth exploring all over Namjoon’s body and vice versa. But they do, perhaps get a bit carried away when Namjoon ruts against Yoongi’s own growing hardness, the sensation blooming pleasurable between the both of them.

“Ah…wait… wait… we shouldn’t” Yoongi pants. “I won’t be able to stop myself.” Yoongi takes a moment to catch his breath, forehead pressed to Namjoon’s chest. 

The omega can’t help but giggle. “You like me that much?” he says, only teasing.

But Yoongi looks up once more, finding Namjoon’s gaze, more serious than before. “I like you so much.”

There is heavy panting and silence between them as they hold one another’s gaze before Namjoon wraps his arms around Yoongi’s neck and pulls him in for a kiss. It’s deep and slow and so, so needy. Licking into one another’s mouth, the taste of each other mixing.

He likes Yoongi too, so so fucking much. 

“Let me make you feel good” Yoongi breathes, when they break apart, moving to travel down Namjoon’s body. He presses kissing to his chest, to his tummy and hips. 

Namjoon lets Yoongi move him, spreading his thighs apart and pushing them back slightly. Namjoon also tries not to be embarrassed by the wet feeling of slick already slipping out of him but Yoongi seems more than pleased to see.

“Such a good omega, aren’t you? His voice is deep, and almost like a rumbled purr. 

Namjoon supposes he’s not so well versed in intimate exchanges, he hadn’t even had a heat partner once he’d presented, always feeling strange and awkward about his body type. So the feeling of someone else touching him, someone who cares so much for him is thrilling. 

He can’t help the slight shiver that runs down him when Yoongi’s fingers prod around his opening, the glide of slick making it soft and easy, he swipes at the slick that’s being produced coating his fingers before gently going beach to circling Namjoon’s rim. 

“I bet you taste as good as you smell” Yoongi says, eyes dark, “Can I?” he asks, looking back up to meet Namjoon’s gaze.

The omega can only nod. 

Yoongi’s mouth latches over Namjoon’s heat. Sharing space with his fingers at are still massaging him gently and now, the pressures he feels from Yoongi’s mouth and, ugh, fuck, his tongue. 

Namjoon can’t help but keen, and whine at the sensation. Hot and wet and stiff as Yoongi’s tongue pushes inside of him. 

“Fuck!” Namjoon gasps when Yoongi slips a finger in when Namjoon is ready.

“Are you okay? Is this okay?”

‘Yes, yes, please, please don’t stop, don’t stop, alpha…” Namjoon whines, eyes closed as he presses back into the soft scent filled nest below him.

“I got you, don’t worry, I’m gonna take care of you” Yoongi growls back softly as he continues his thrusting, a second finger added as Namjoon opens for him beautifully. 

Namjoon doesn’t know if he’s supposed to be embarrassed by the squelching wet sounds his body makes or the thick bloom of his pleasure filled scent filling the room. But Yoongi's dark lust filled gaze make Namjoon only feel desired and nothing more.  

Strong firm fingers, three now, pump into Namjoon and - oh fuck, “Ah, yes, ungh, alpha…ah…” Namjoon feels the wrap of Yoongi’s other hand around his neglected cock; slick and precum making the slides of Namjoon’s own cock in Yoongi’s fist smooth.

He’s close, shit he’s so close as Yoongi seemingly expertly stimulates both inside and outside of his body. The tension coils in his stomach, he feels himself clenching around Yoongi’s fingers and… and… everything erupts. Namjoon cums, his cock releasing with warm pulses over Yoongi’s fingers, and more slick squeezes out around the fingers pumping in and out of him, strong hard clenches with Namjoon’s orgasm. 

“Good boy, good omega” Yoongi encourages as he works Namjoon through. “There you go, good job love, so good.”

Namjoon pants and arches into the aftershocks as everything washes over him. Fuck, fuck he feels so good. “Kiss me, please…” he whines and Yoongi does. His fingers slipping out of Namjoon carefully, before he leanes back over and presses their lips together. 

“You too” Namjoon mumbles around kisses “You… cum…too.”

“It’s okay” Yoongi tries to soothe.

“No, want you to… need you to mark me …”

Yoongi’s eyes go wide when he realises what Namjoon is asking for. To be honest, if Namjoon wasn't so keyed up and desperate sounding he might have found it far more amusing.

“Are you sure?”

“YES! PLEASE, ALPHA…” he whines, he fucking whines.

Yoongi moves back until he straddles over Namjoon’s thighs, grabbing onto his own hard cock. His fingers are still covered in Namjoon’s slick as he starts to stroke himself.

Namjoon watches, his gaze dark as he watches his future mate pleasure himself. Yoongi’s knot, not yet popped, sits teasing at the base of the alpha’s cock. Fuck, he thinks, he can’t imagine what that’s going to feel like. 

It’s not long before Yoongi is spilling his own release over Namjoon’s tummy, it’s intimate and possessive and Namjoon loves the way everything smells like sex and, and them, just them.

“Thank you” Namjoon says lazily, words slurring a combination of scent drunk and exhaustion taking over.

- 

Namjoon admittedly doesn’t realise he’s fallen asleep until he wakes up. He’s curled into Yoongi, arms secured around the alpha’s middle cheek pressed to Yoongi’s chest. For a while, he does little more than stay like that. Enjoying the feeling of Yoongi’s hand running up and down his back. Enjoying the feeling of their closeness.

“You’re awake?” Yoongi says gently, his hand moving from Namjoon’s back to comb through his hair. 

Namjoon hums, purring as he snuggles closer. ”But we don’t have to move yet or ever” he adds, feeling Yoongi laugh in response. “Hyung… I want to ask you something, but I don’t know if I should.”

It’s Yoongi’s turn to hum. “I thought we already decided, it’s better to ask and know the truth?”

“I know, I just don’t want to make you upset or hurt you in any way if I say something I shouldn’t. It’s just… it’s just I don’t get it!” Namjoon reluctantly sits up properly, looking back at Yoongi. “Why do they talk about you like that, they don’t even know you!”

“Oh… Namjoon-ah, I don’t care what they say…”

“But It’s not right!”

Yoongi pauses, nodding in understanding as he considers Namjoon’s words and what he’s feeling. He takes a bit longer to answer, pushing himself up to sit properly as well. “Well, I think,  it’s because a lot of the older members still think of me as an outsider.” Yoongi starts. “You know I’m not born in the pack, that’s true and for some it’s been a sore point.”

“You were abandoned, kicked out by your old pack when you were just a pup…er… sorry.” Namjoon cringes to himself. “That’s so insensitive of me.”

“I wasn’t abandoned.” Yoongi says with a shake of his head. “Is that what they’re saying now?” He seems more amused than angry. “My Dam and Sire weren’t part of a pack, they both left their natal packs when they were young and found each other. But … something happened, a sickness… First my Sire passed and then when my Dam felt herself getting sick she went looking for help. This pack, the hunting group, alpha Choi… he found her and me, but she was too weak by then.”

Namjoon thinks he knows this story, faintly like it had been something he’d heard long ago but no one had really talked about it. There had been sickness that had run through the pack as well, likely, he thinks, whatever was the cause for Yoongi’s own family. It had been a hard year, difficult with too many too afraid to leave the village and their own homes. Alpha Choi, though, Namjoon had always thought he’d been like those who chose to live outside of the village - a bit of a mystery, a bit of a mislabeled loner. 

“They had been afraid I was sick too, but he wouldn’t abandon me, he raised me himself, giving up everything he had in the village.” Yoongi continues his story. 

It all, very slowly starts to click into place for Namjoon. He understands a little more about who Yoongi is and how he came to be a part of their pack. He can’t help but laugh at some of the lighter stories Yoongi tells - being raised by an elder alpha was an adventure all its own apparently.  

“He’s of course the reason I joined the hunters, I think he’d been training me from the day he took me in.” Yoongi smirks slightly, but the tail end of it falls off to something a little sadder. 

Namjoon remembers when Alpha Choi died. It had been a big deal in the village, they’d given him a big ceremony and celebrated his bravery. Namjoon was still young himself, but he remembers a bit, there had been a bear terrorising and he had gone to chase it away but it had turned on the small group of hunters with him. He had fought it off, saved the rest of them.

“Were you there that day in the village for his funeral?” Namjoon asks carefully, wondering if he had crossed paths with a young Yoongi without even knowing it.

Yoongi only shakes his head. His hands running over his own scared arms, almost self-soothing. “I was… recovering.”

“Oh, Yoongi!” Namjoon whines, his scent turning sour with the realisation. Yoongi had been part of the small pack that had gone with Choi that day. He had tried to help him, or maybe he’d been attacked initially and that had been the reason for Choi’s own sacrifice; either way Namjoon’s heart can’t help but break. 

“It’s okay, Namjoon-ah. Hey, stop that… It’s been a long time, I’ve… made peace with it. I mean I miss him terribly but…the past is the past, all I can do is keep moving forward. For him.”

Namjoon lets himself be pulled back into Yoongi’s arms as they snuggle back into the warmth of the nest. 

“Thank you for telling me,” Namjoon whispers, squeezing Yoongi a little tighter. 

“Thank you for listening.”

“Whenever you want to talk about him, or your Sire or Dam, I will always be here to listen.” Namjoon adds, pressing a kiss against Yoongi's neck.

***

“Are you sure?” Namjoon laments for the umpteenth time, eyes seeking out Yoongi’s. “They will come here, it’s no problem at all!”

Yoongi only returns an unimpressed stare. “Namjoon-ah, I know you of all people are familiar with the traditions. And since my Dam and Sire are no longer here, it’s yours we need to visit.”

Namjoon makes a noise, kind of like a whine but mostly like a frustrated huff. They had been going back and forth over where the visiting with Namjoon’s parents should be. Tradition would have meant for both Namjoon’s and Yoongi’s Dam and Sire to all attend Yoongi’s parent’s home for their official meeting before the ceremony. However, that wasn’t an option and so …. 

Namjoon’s parents. 

In the village. 

Which had steadily and slowly started to feel less and less welcoming to Namjoon the longer he stayed away. 

“I just don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.” Namjoon had mumbled, sullen in his inability to get Yoongi to change his mind. 

Yoongi snorts, reaching over to grab Namjoon’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “I really want to do this, Namjoon. It’s going to be okay.”

And maybe Namjoon makes it a point to hold onto Yoongi’s hand the entire walk back to the village and the entire walk through the village - whispers and stares be damned.

“Come in, come in, come in!” Namjoon’s Sire welcomes them, ushering both Yoongi and Namjoon inside. Everyone is nervous, Namjoon can tell when they sit around the table. Yoongi is doing his very best to be the most polite. Offering to help when he can and blushing slightly when Namjoon’s Dam shoos him away and tells him he's a guest.

Namjoon’s own parents are trying not to stare at the scars and marks Yoongi is adorned with. He can tell by the way their gaze lingers unintentionally (but Yoongi politely ignores it).

“I almost burned down Yoongi-Hyung’s cabin!” Namjoon blurts out suddenly. 

“What!” both his Dam and Sire say back in shock; but it works. It breaks the tension and soon everyone is talking and laughing and Yoongi is insisting Namjoon is making it sound worse than it really was. 

-

“So…” Namjoon feels himself being pulled back to a slower walk, letting Yoongi and his Sire walk ahead. “One hundred days Namjoon-ah, you’re going to have to make a decision.”

Namjoon nods, arm looping through his Mother’s. “I know.”

“And you know, whatever you decide, we will support you.”

“I know.” Namjoon says again with a nod and a smile. 

“So…”

Namjoon's smile widens as he leans into the older omega and nods. “He’s the one.”

***

Namjoon is sweating. 

Partly because the robes he’s wearing are heavy and warm. Designed for winter wear but it’s still only fall. But they are beautiful and Namjoon has always imagined himself wearing the same robes his own Sire wore for his mating ceremony. 

Right, reason number two why Namjoon is a sweaty mess: because he’s moments away from his mating ceremony with Min Yoongi. 

It feels surreal, and not in the way he once has to admit that the thought of being with Min Yoongi was surreal. It’s not a feeling of fear or worry but pleasant surprise.

Eagerness. 

Happiness, because when he remembers how much he’d dreamt about finding his match in the pack and how happy it would make it; he remembers it's happening, right now and he doesn't know if he wants to laugh or cry. Or probably, some combination of both.

Their ceremony is held outside of the village, it just feels right. Namjoon’s parents come, the matchmaker and the council member (not that either Yoongi nor Namjoon are particularly eager to have them there). Seokjin and Jungkook are there as well as Hoseok, Jimin and Taehyung. Namjoon truly feels warm and loved and surrounded by all (well mostly all) the people who matter the most to him.

Yoongi presents gifts to Namjoon’s parents and they give their blessing on the union between Namjoon and Yoongi, welcoming him to their family.

And then… it’s just Namjoon and Yoongi. Promises to one another and words of affirmation. Final question asked, a chance to part ways if either wants but neither does. Namjoon’s hands squeeze tighter on Yoongi’s shoulders and Yoongi does the same to Namjoon’s waist.

When the final exchange is given, everyone is quiet as Yoongi leans towards Namjoon and Namjoon bares his neck. 

The bite is firm and sharp, sharp teeth pierce his skin, but Yoongi holds him tight and the pain is quickly overrun by the feeling of something warm and comforting pulsing through him.

Namjoon follows Yoongi’s example when he returns the bite to Yoongi’s neck but this time when he bites his new mate, the warm feeling intensifies - both of them connected.

Everyone cheers but the only thing either one of them hear is the “I love you”, “I love you so much” both Yoongi and Namjoon murmur quietly to one another, foreheads pressed together.

-

There are more who show up to celebrate after the ceremony and everyone is welcome. Food and wine and cakes and they all enjoy equally for a while. 

Eventually,  though, Namjoon and Yoongi take their leave, only saying a proper goodbye to Namjoon’s parents before they sneak out (not wanting to risk embarrassing teasing from their friends).

Namjoon doesn’t think he’s let go of Yoongi’s hand once since their ceremony has ended. Everything feels like so much all at once, that it’s nice to have something … someone to ground him. 

Their walk back to the cabin is quiet. Namjoon’s stomach swirls with nervous anticipation. Namjoon has made their two separate rooms into one, moving his things into Yoongi’s larger room. He’s also made a nest combining all their blankets and pillows, a soft and safe space for them to return home to.

Together. 

As mates. 

Namjoon thinks he’s nervous Yoongi might not like the new room, or the nest he’s made. Which, perhaps, is a silly reason to be nervous given that Yoongi has never disliked anything Namjoon has done - not even those horrible cakes he tried to make that one time but had used the wrong spices.

They wash up and change, or rather, remove their ceremonial robes and join one another naked in their nest. 

“Namjoon-ah, I can feel how nervous you are,” Yoongi soothes, reaching over to run the back of his hand down Namjoon’s cheek. “We don’t have to do anything tonight, it’s just silly traditions, we can just sleep. It’s been such a long day.”

“I… what if… you want to leave me” Namjoon says quiet, eyes downcast.”

“What?” the surprise Yoongi answers with, Namjoon can almost feel radiate through him. “Why would I leave you? Especially now?”

“Not now!” Namjoon whines. “Eventually! Like later, when you realise I’m not a perfect omega.”

“Jagiya…”

“I’m not small or delicate, I’m not…a pretty omega.” Old insecurities seem to suddenly bubble to the surface.

“Namjoon, Namjoon-ah, you are so pretty. You are so beautiful. And what even is a perfect omega? Hmm? You’re a perfect mate, a perfect partner. I don’t know what I would even do without you. I’m so lucky Namjoon, you don’t even understand.”

He doesn’t know why he feels so self-conscious all of a sudden, maybe the stress of the ceremony had kept him distracted.  Maybe he can’t believe it’s all finally come true.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Nothing is wrong with you Namjoon-ah, you are perfect. I’m sorry if I haven’t told you enough, I’ll tell you every day from now on.” Yoongi says with a kiss to Namjoon’s forehead, and then his cheek and then the other.

When Yoongi moves to pull away, Namjoon pulls him back for a proper kiss. It’s not rushed, it’s slow and sensual like he wants to explore every inch of Yoongi. Namjoon can taste the plum-wine on Yoongi’s lips and tongue. He’s sure the same is true for Yoongi. 

Your mate , Namjoon’s mind whispers to him.

Yoongi’s lips travel along Namjoon’s jaw, and neck and Namjoon easily tilts his head, giving Yoongi easy access. Kisses and gentle nips over the still sensitive mating mark as they both run hands and fingers and palms over the other’s skin.

Namjoon hadn’t been shy about exploring Yoongi’s body after that first night together. He thinks he knows every dip, every scar and freckle intimately by now and he’s thankful for it. Because he’s not nervous to finally mate with Yoongi, he’s not worried about what the other might think of his own body and more than anything he’s not afraid; because Yoongi will take care of him. Like he always does.

As if reading his mind, Yoongi pauses long enough to pull apart and find Namjoon’s gaze. “Are you sure? We can wait, there is no need to rush.”

“No, I mean, yes, I’m sure, I’ve been waiting for this. For you, for my mate my whole life.” And maybe it's cheesy and maybe that would have made some other alpha groan and roll their eyes, but Yoongi only nods, a slight blush on his cheeks as he leans back in to capture Namjoon’s lips.

“Lie back,” Yoongi says, helping Namjoon find a comfortable position in their nest. “I want to see you.”

Namjoon’s pretty proud of the nest, himself. He had worked hard to make it comfortable and safe. It smells equally of the both of them and he thinks, if they want to stay here for the next few days, he wouldn’t complain. He thinks, no he knows Yoongi likes it too. Could feel his mates own settled ease when they'd both settled into the nest after their long day. He's happy. Namjoon is so, so happy.

Yoongi’s hands smooth down Namjoon’s body, over his arms and his chest making goosebumps of anticipation spread. He loves the way Yoongi touches him, casually, romantically, or like now intimately. Namjoon always feels safe, always feels cared for. He likewise can’t help but run his hands over Yoongi. Down his shoulders and arms, pressed to his chest and his abdomen, his hips.

Namjoon thinks one of the things they forget to talk about during their gossipy whispers of his new mate is just how gorgeous and sexy he is. He’s more fair skinned than most of them with pitch black hair. Namjoon loves the dusting of freckles on Yoongi cheeks and the bridge of his nose, the same freckles on the tops of his shoulders because he spends so much time outside. He too loves Yoongi’s unique eyes, one bronze and one pale sand, he even supposes he can confess to loving Yoongi’s scars if not because of how he gets them, but because they are simply a part of who Yoongi is.

“You’re so gorgeous” Namjoon whispers while watching Yoongi intently.

Yoongi only smirks, “I was just about to tell you that.” His hand trails softly down Namjoon’s tummy, gently pushing between Namjoon’s legs, spreading them apart. The alpha easily finds himself between Namjoon’s legs, when he leans forward to press another reassuring kiss to Namjoon’s lips, Namjoon’s lower half lifts with him and…

Namjoon’s eyes widen. “Oh my god, this is so embarrassing…” he hisses, feeling how wet he already is.

“Don’t be, I like it, it makes me feel good that I make you this excited.” 

Yoongi’s kisses don't lessen and Namjoon is thankful, they feel good and distracting from his nerves. “This okay?” Yoongi asks, with the first prod of fingers at his rim.

Namjoon nods.

He feels himself falling apart more and more. With Yoongi’s fingers spreading steadily with delicious pressure and steady thrusts. His scent is strong between them and the squelch of slick and the light whines and moans slipping from Namjoon fill their nest.

Yoongi has made him cum like this many times, but he doesn’t… he doesn’t want to this time. He knows, his wolf knows… they’re mates, he needs his mate, he wants to feel his mate in every way. “Okay, okay…I’m ready…” Namjoon pants. 

Namjoon thinks he’s become fairly familiar with Yoongi’s dick. He’s seen it, touched it, hell he’s even tasted it but he’s not entirely prepared for the initial press of his alpha’s cock head to his entrance.

“Jagiya, try to relax …” Yoongi sits back, hand petting over Namjoon’s belly and hip. His fingers trail ever so lightly over Namjoon’s own hard and weeping cock, utterly neglected this whole time. “I can make you cum this way first, it will help you relax…”

“No… no, I want to cum on your knot, like we’re supposed to.”

Yoongi can’t help but snort. “And who's gonna know? It’s our nest, we can do whatever we want.”

Namjoon pouts.

“Okay, okay, sheesh, my omega is such a traditionalist” Yoongi teases, leaning in once more to press a kiss to Namjoon’s pout. He licks over Namjoon’s already swollen lips, pushing his tongue into Namjoon’s own mouth until the other is finally kissing him back. Deepening their kiss, until they are swallowing down moans and growls. 

Distracted by their kissing, Yoongi’s able to push into Namjoon slowly, tight wet heat slowly taking every inch the alpha is willing to give. “Good boy, good omega, look at you, taking me so well now, huh?” Yoongi encourages.

It’s an amazing feeling, the way Namjoon’s own omega body just instinctively knows how to respond. He feels more slick dripping out of him, his body opening more and more.

“Shit, oh shit, you’re big…” Namjoon whines, just when he thinks he’s reached his fill, Yoongi keeps pushing in. 

‘ He could fill you up with puppies easily ’ Namjoon’s brain screams and he nearly cums at the thought alone. 

“Okay?” Yoongi says, voice a little strained for the first time and Namjoon realises he’s finally stopped pushing in. 

Namjoon exhales his own breath, closing his eyes and feeling everything. He feels, he just feels so close to Yoongi - literally - connected intimately, but maybe something more. Their bond is still fresh between them, only a few hours old but it’s like he can just feel Yoongi’s heart beating with his. “Okay, you can move…”

And Yoongi does. 

He’s gentle, of course he is, at first, gliding slow and steady out and back in both of them overwhelmed by the feeling of the other. 

“Faster” Namjoon says, feeling the building swell of tension, chasing the feeling that … that feels so so good. “More… more” he rambles, wrapping his arms around Yoongi’s neck as the two of them find a way to move with each other 's body. “Yes, yes, like that, keep going….. Ahh… feels good hyung, feels so good.”

Yoongi’s thrusts are shorter but deeper, every connection Yoongi’s cock makes, brushing over that sensitive spot inside of him Namjoon’s toes curl, his stomach flips. Shit, shit he’s so close, his own cock throbs with the need to release.

“My knot…” Yoongi mumbles somewhere in between his grunts and growls.

Namjoon can feel it, can feel the added pressure trying to push into him and he wants it - HE NEEDS IT- his omega screams.

“Yes, yes, knot me, alpha, I need your knot.” Namjoon’s only kind of aware of his demands, as his body lights up with every pleasure censor it has. 

It hurts, there is no denying the extra stretch to accommodate Yoongi’s knot is a shock and though he’s practically pouring out slick, it still burns but only for a moment, because that’s all it takes. His alpha knots him, and Namjoon’s own orgasm finally crashes over him, violent and perfect all the same. Pleasure erases all the pain as clenches down hard and his release explodes between them both. Yoongi’s hand quickly wraps around Namjoon’s dick, sliding with the mess of cum and slick, milking him thoroughly as he rides his wave of pleasure.

Namjoon clenches again, and again, and above him Yoongi groans, his still consistent thrusting rhythm faltering with one, two, three sharp, hard jerking thrust pushing Namjoon deeper into the nest below him before he finally cums.

Fuck, he can feel it. He can feel Yoongi’s cock pulsing inside of him, releasing as he goes through his own orgasm and Namjoon can't help but pull Yoongi onto him, holding him tightly. “Good alpha, my good alpha, my perfect mate” Namjoon whispers into Yoongi’s ear, petting the back of his hair as Yoongi buries both his nose into Namjoon’s neck, and his cock deep inside.

Perfect mates . Yoongi doesn’t have to say it out loud. They both know it. They can feel it. 

“Holy shit” Namjoon exhales, fingers still carding through Yoongi’s sweat soaked hair a little while later.  “We’re doing that every night.”

Yoongi can only chuckle, pushing to sit back carefully. “I need a few minutes, then my knot will go down” he adds, soothing his palms over Namjoon's thighs.

They’re both still trying to catch their breath. 

“Then we can go again?” Namjoon asks brightly. 

***

Namjoon thinks, it doesn’t matter how many times he’s already had to put up with Yoongi going off on one of those extended hunting trips, that he’s ever going to get used to it. 

Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook had come over to keep Namjoon company - to distract him really, but once they had left the worry he had been feeling had come right back.

‘ You just miss him ’ Namjoon had pouted to himself as he’d crawled in his and Yoongi’s bed, pulling the covers over that still smelled strongly of Yoongi. Winter hunts were always longer. He knew that, Yoongi had explained that. But something inside of Namjoon, something his omega had tapped into just didn’t feel right. 

He had already told Yoongi he didn’t want him to do these hunts anymore, asked him to just do the shorter ones from now on:

“Why not just let the younger pups handle these ones?”

“Yah, are you calling me old?”

But his darling mate was so damn stubborn sometimes. One more night though, Namjoon supposed he could handle one more night for now. 

His dreams, especially when Yoongi wasn’t home, were always strange. Blurred images of landscapes or old memories he doesn't think belong to him. His sleep is also always a bit restless, tossing and turning, never fully comfortable. It’s probably why he still hears the cabin door open even though the other is trying to be quiet.

For the briefest of moments Namjoon is excited, happy to have his mate home and early too! Maybe he’s going to tell Yoongi they’re going to stay in bed all night and then all day tomorrow to make up for his absence and …oh, no, Namjoon can smell Yoongi’s sour scent even from the other room. It’s the fastest Namjoon thinks he’s ever moved. Bolting from bed to the main room. It’s dark in their home but the moonlight is enough to illuminate through the windows and he can see Yoongi’s doubled over form.

“Hyung…” he calls, worried. Yoongi’s scent is thick, walking into the room is like walking into a brick wall. Hurt, pain, and frustration.

“It’s okay” Yoongi wheezes, voice hoarse through gritted teeth.

Namjoon frowns, straightening up to his full height. “Like hell it is,” He moves closer to Yoongi’s side, he’s still dirty and sweat soaked but Namjoon can smell the copper scent of blood too. That’s not entirely unusual, Yoongi is unfortunately often scent soaked in the aftermath of his hunts most times until he washes and then once more smells like fresh rain but this … this is different. “Hyung, you’re bleeding!” It looks like a quick patch job on Yoongi’s ribs had been done or attempted to be done but the bandages are soaked through, and a large red spot is starting to seep through on his tunic.

“I… I didn’t see it,” Yoongi says in response, a little dejectedly, as he lets Namjoon pull him towards their kitchen. “I.. I… don’t tell them…they’ll kick me out of the hunting pack.”

The omega ignores Yoongi’s rambling as he sets to carefully pulling off the other’s tunic, grimacing slightly at the bloody mess underneath. 

Seokjin had been the one to teach Namjoon how to treat wounds. He had helped Namjoon stock the proper herbs and healing salves and shown him how to properly clean and patch. Namjoon had understood then that Yoongi had often gone to the older alpha for help with such things after Choi had died. It still broke Namjoon’s heart a little to think Yoongi felt so disconnected from the pack that he couldn't even ask for help in situations like that.

They have no idea how much he does for them . He had cried to his Dam.

Well now he has you and us . She had tried to empathise.

“I don’t think it’s deep enough you’re going to need stitches” Namjoon spoke as he moved methodically through the process of cleaning and checking Yoongi’s wound. “But you are going to have to be careful. Once I patch you up, you’re going to lie down and not move an inch, you understand.”

“I can’t … I have to go…”

“YOU WILL NOT MOVE UNTIL I SAY IT'S OKAY!” Namjoon growled, the worry and demand in his eyes. 

Yoongi doesn’t argue after that, head down as Namjoon finishes his work on the wound and then helps move him to their bed. 

Yoongi sleeps for nearly two full days, and doesn't even budge when Jungkook and Seokjin show up and Namjoon tells them what happened. Seokjin says he will let the hunting team know Yoongi is okay and home and will come back with more supplies for Namjoon to treat Yoongi.

Hoseok, Jimin and Taehyung stop by to check on them as well and to drop off some food so Namjoon doesn’t have to worry about anything other than making sure they are both okay.

It takes three more days before Yoongi can move well enough to finally wash and clean away the dirt and grim he’d carried home that night. Namjoon helps with strong, gentle hands and then settles Yoongi back into a nest he’s made in the main room of their home, just like he’d done so many months ago.

“Jagiya,” Namjoon whispers, fingers caressing Yoongi’s cheek as he lays next to him in the nest. “You have to stop.”

“I can’t…” 

And Namjoon understands, but only because Yoongi has been so open and honest. His past, and how he came to the pack. The way he’s felt like an outsider ever since. The fact he thinks his only worth is throwing himself headfirst into every dangerous hunting situation - like he owns the pack a debt for alpha Choi.

“Is it because they are more important to you then I am?” Namjoon asks, neutral, careful not to sound accusatory. 

“What, no, I love you. You’re my mate!” Yoongi shoots back quickly, before the realisation even catches up. 

They talk and cry because it seems just par the course for their conversation and for Yoongi to realise he does, in fact have to stop. His vision is not what it was, and he’s not only putting himself in danger but the rest of the hunters too.

And frankly, Namjoon simply will not allow Yoongi to die.

“You’re not allowed, you understand?” Namjoon said with a bit of a wet laugh, breaking the tension in the room. 

“Okay, Namjoon-ah, hyung will stop.”

Namjoon goes with Yoongi a few weeks later once he’s healed enough to walk without worry of reopening his wounds. The bruises are still dark in some spots but a faded yellow in others. Yoongi is healing, and Namjoon is happy. He goes with him to talk with the head hunter, to tell him about his vision and that he needs to step back.

To Namjoon’s surprise and maybe to Yoongi’s too, they insist on having a proper celebration for Yoongi to thank him for all he’s done. It feels strange but right, and Namjoon is glad they are showing him the appreciation he deserves. 

“Yoongi-ssi,”  one of the pack leaders, catches up with Yoongi and Namjoon before they depart from the celebrations. “I was wondering if you might be able to stop by tomorrow, so we could discuss your place in our pack.”

Namjoon squeezes Yoongi’s hand next to him in silence, trying hard not to react to such a bold statement. Yoongi’s place? Had they not just been celebrating everything he had done for the pack? Could they not just let him live in peace?

However, Yoongi agrees but they don’t linger long after that, maybe because he can sense Namjoon’s annoyance as he pulls him along back towards their cabin. 

They have their own private celebration together that night and Namjoon forgets about everything else, anger and annoyance floating further away with every kiss and caress Yoongi lays on his body.

***

“Yoongi-ssi, let me be frank, our pack has not always been the kindest to you,” the alpha before Yoongi speaks. He’s a little older than Yoongi but not by much and he’d taken over as one of the council members when his own Sire had stepped down. Part of the small change that was slowly happening through the pack as times continued. 

“But, we know you have given to the pack more than you have ever asked for, and we know we are more in debt to you than you are to us. Which is why, I feel a little foolish asking you this, and of course would understand if you do not wish to accept.”

Yoongi is so utterly confused. When he had left this morning, a quick kiss good-bye to Namjoon and a promise to be back soon, he’d really had no idea what it was he was being summoned for. 

Maybe they would want him to move further out of pack territory since he no longer has a serving purpose?

Or maybe they want to force him to move closer, because they don’t trust him?

“Alpha Choi was one of our strongest hunters and would he had lived to proper retirement…would have taken his spot on the council to represent the hunters and as well, to help train the pups.”

Yoongi feels his chest squeeze with the familiar sadness he feels anytime he is reminded that the man who raised him is no longer there.

“Well, it seems only right that you, who he had imparted his wisdom on, and you who has so clearly and properly learned hunting from him and… who as far as some of the council members here are prepared to stand by, are his proper heir and his son, we would like to extend the offer to you.”

-

Yoongi is pretty sure he’s in shock as he leaves his meeting with the council. He knows he’s in shock, actually because he’d promised to stop by Namjoon’s parents while he was in the village and completely forgot. He walks back home slightly dazed and a lot confused.

For a moment he laughs, when he walks through the door and Namjoon looks just as confused. Albeit because Yoongi is home so soon and not because he’d just been offered a council position. Namjoon’s face is much more comical when Yoongi tells him that bit of information. 

“You said yes, right hyung?”

“Yeah, I said yes.” Yoongi replies quiet and shy. 

-

Namjoon is proud and maybe just the slightest bit cocky, as he watches Yoongi fall into his council role with ease. There are still village members who gossip and whisper but there are more, it seems at least, that are slowly being swayed by Yoongi’s calm quiet confidence. 

It helps, too, that the likes of Seokjin, Hoseok, Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook make a point to visit the village more and sing Yoongi’s praises. 

But it’s watching Yoongi with the pups that makes something in Namjoon unfurl and bloom like the many wildflowers his scent imitates. Namjoon started his own work archiving the pack's history and documenting it all for later generations. So they sometimes get to walk together to the main council and then walk back home together at the end of the day.

But sometime, Namjoon has to go find Yoongi out on the training grounds with young pups that he’s teaching how to hunt and trap. He also teaches them how to fight if they need to and pounce with confidence. The older ones he takes out for small hunts in the nearby forest, small harmless game where they can practise their skills, but the really young ones…

Namjoon watches a small figure sneak up behind a crouched Yoongi, she’s hardly as tall as him even when he’s crouched. Yoongi’s watching a few more pups play-wrestle in front of him, hands gently keeping them from tumbling to roughly. The pup behind Yoongi crouches herself, wiggling slightly as she does and Namjoon sees the way Yoongi stops the two in front of him for a moment, tilts his head just slightly and waits.

The little pup pounces with a shout of “yeah!” and Yoongi plays along a hand scooped behind her to keep her on as she clings to him and he stands lifting her up into the air. The two others that had been wrestling stopping their match to cheer and chase after them both.

“The pups love him so much” a voice next to Namjoon says and when he turns to look Namjoon realises the little pup who had pounced on Yoongi is the spitting image of the omega next to him. 

“He loves them just as much,” Namjoon says, grinning so wide his dimples pop. 

“You’re lucky, when you’re ready to have pups, he’s going to be an amazing Sire.”

Their conversation is interrupted by a chorus of yells and giggles as Yoongi dramatically falls to the ground and all three of the pups climb over him in victory. 

“Aigoo! Don’t step on Yoongi-ssi!” the woman next to Namjoon yells as she goes to collect the  pups.

Namjoon thinks his cheeks are still burning red well after she leaves.

-

“You’re being very quiet” Yoongi says later, over dinner, or well the tail end of dinner in their cabin. 

“Mmm?” Namjoon shakes his head, out of his thoughts as he looks back at the other. “Sorry, just umm, thinking a lot today I guess.”

Yoongi hums in understanding as he gets up, slowly clearing off their table. “Good thinking or bad thinking?”

Namjoon opens his mouth to say something but snaps it shut quickly, a blush spreading furiously across his cheeks.  Thankfully, Yoongi doesn’t press him too much after that. It’s easy to just go through their routine, of cleaning up and relaxing. Namjoon had found an old poem in the records he wanted to share with Yoongi, so they read it together and then Yoongi entertains Namjoon’s very long and in depth discussion on it afterwards. 

When they get ready for bed, Namjoon helps put the medicinal salve on Yoongi’s eye. It hasn’t bothered him in a long time, but the skin still needs attention. Namjoon sits cross-legged in front of Yoongi gently dabbing the salve with his fingertips onto Yoongi brow and cheek, the smell of rosemary and mint blooming between them from the small container. 

Yoongi’s own hands rest on Namjoon’s knees, gently rubbing his hand over the omega’s warm skin. His eyes are closed as Namjoon works. 

“Have you … ever thought about pups?” Namjoon asks as he continues to gently rub in the salve.

Yoongi’s grip on Namjoon’s thighs tightens slightly, but he keeps his eyes closed. “Well, I work with them now, so, I guess I do.”

Namjoon snorts. “No, I meant … like… us.”

This time Yoongi does open his eyes. “You want pups? Like, with me?”

“No, with Kim Seokjin.” Namjoon deadpans and Yoongi growls playfully. “Yes, with you, I mean if you want.”

“I do,  I … I just didn’t know you wanted a pup.”

“I think I want a whole litter of them, Yoongi.”

Yoongi looks slightly panicked. “Okay, well, maybe we just start with one?” 

Namjoon can’t help but lean forward, cupping Yoongi’s cheeks, holding his face gently between his palms before pressing several kisses to his lips. “Silly alpha.”

***