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"But alphas are so arrogant and only think with their knots."
Draken pauses, he can sense the others faltering as well.
Their admin meeting just ended so they're all filing out of the room, but he can see at the bottom of the steps are Takemichi, Hakkai, Chifuyu and Angry.
The four omegas of Toman.
He quickly backpedals, causing some people to hiss as they step on each other's feet, there's a shove and a curse, but Draken silences them with a look over his shoulder. Mitsuya and Smiley get the clue first and quiet down and stop trying to elbow each other as they go back inside the room, settled at their previous positions. Baji has a mischievous smile on his face catching on immediately, and Pahchin is just confused, but follows their lead.
Mikey hasn't even moved from the couch, but he gives Draken a questioning look.
Draken carefully opens the door so that it doesn't creak and leaves it slightly ajar as a response. Mikey raises his brows.
"I know right," Takemichi's voice filters into the room, and Mikey pauses, seeming to hold his breath, and Draken leans back against the wall watching the others while shamelessly eavesdropping. "But, if you had to choose…" he trails off suggestively.
They all seem to straighten up at that, even Pahchin who doesn't know what's going on leans his ear closer.
"Wait, you mean out of Toman?" Hakkai asks.
"You know other alphas?" Chifuyu asks a bit incredulous and yeah alphas did exist outside of Toman but it still sounded like a foreign concept.
Draken didn't think Hakkai spent time with anyone else barring those three outside with him is Mitsuya. He glances at his friend and sees him leaning forward in anticipation, too.
"Well…"Hakkai says dubiously and Mitsuya frowns.
"I'm not allowed to interact with alphas," Angry quietly offers, and Draken gives Smiley a look, but the alpha just smiles sharply. The aura radiating from him is dark so Draken decides not to bother.
"How come?" Takemichi asks.
"My brother says alphas are manipulative, and despicable so I should avoid them unless I want to be used by them," Angry recites.
Everyone turns to look at Smiley.
Smiley scratches the back of his head with what could only be awkwardness from the sadistic alpha.
"But isn't your brother an alpha?" Takemichi's asking the real question, sounding confused.
"That's different," Angry says resolutely.
"Yeah, because he's a creep," Hakkai says and someone chokes while Smiley's smile sharpens on his face. His aura grows even more menacing.
"No, he's a lot kinder than most people," Angry says stubbornly like it's the undeniable truth.
Smiley turns around at that, hiding his face from them but Draken can just tell that he's blushing. His pheromones are giving off how pleased he is by that statement too.
It's a given that Smiley would be nice to his twin brother but it's hard to believe that he could be kinder than most people.
"Okay but who do you imagine during your heats helping you out?" Takemichi asks, and Draken is really not sure if he wants to just stand here and listen to this, but he gets a warning look from Mikey to stay put when he sees him moving, so he stands still.
But now he really knows what it means to reap what you sow since he's the one responsible for stopping everyone else in the first place.
"Well," Angry starts tentatively and Smiley is whipping around so fast that there's a slight breeze in the room, and some people take instinctive steps back at the sight they see on his face.
He's not smiling and his eyes are wide open.
Which is probably the scariest expression they've ever seen on Smiley before.
"I always thought about-" Angry mumbles the next words out and even straining Draken can't hear.
"Seriously?!" Chifuyu shouts in surprise which just leaves them all in suspense.
"Yeah, but please don't tell anyone else, it's already bad enough that nii-san doesn't trust them."
Smiley seems to know who his brother is talking about if his intentful look of rage is any indication.
"Okay, but if I have to choose any alpha," Chifuyu suddenly says, and forunately the tension bleeds away a bit as they all mouth the name before the omega even reveals it, "it would be Baji-san."
Even as predictable as it was, Baji still reacts like he heard something shocking, his jaw drops and eyes bulge out; Draken and Mitsuya roll their eyes, and Mikey scoffs.
"Yeah, that's obvious," Takemichi mutters.
"Then who would you choose?" Chifuyu challenges.
Mikey shoots up like a bullet, his eyes deadly sharp, his body still and head tilted to the side as if to hear better, and the tension in the room skyrockets and no one seems to be breathing with how silent it's become.
The anticipation builds up and makes Draken sweat on his brow, and he can see that there's a praying hope in everyone's eyes that they expect, will it to be, Mikey, just for easier days.
Takemichi has never been rational though.
He says shyly, but it sounds like an eulogy to Draken, who hears blaring sirens then the fading rings of church bells:
"Draken-kun."
Mikey's face is inscrutable.
The moment Takemichi said Draken's name, Draken decided to make their presence known and slammed open the door, ending the charade.
He then strolled down the steps and pretended like he wasn't running away from a fight he wanted to avoid as he alerted the omegas that they weren't alone.
They exchanged worried looks but then forced smiles and acted like they were just waiting around, as they all stood up from their spots.
Angry anxiously hovered behind, until his brother took him aside and started dragging him off.
Chifuyu and Takemichi look at their respective captains; in return Baji blushes and avoids eye contact, while Mitsuya looks like he's seen death.
"So, how was the meeting, Baji-san?" Chifuyu asks eagerly. The alpha makes a strangled noise in his throat before garbling out an invitation to dinner. The omega accepts it happily.
Takemichi waves at his friend as he walks off with a red faced but glowing Baji, and looks back in concern at his captain.
But Hakkai is the one who asks, "Is everything alright, Taka-chan?"
Mitsuya nods. "I'll walk you home," he says, pulling onto Hakkai's arm, power walking out of there and Takemichi flounders at suddenly being left behind.
Then he notices Draken standing there.
"Hey, Draken-kun!" The omega smiles.
Draken swallows.
He should've escaped when he had the chance like everyone else.
This is awkward as hell, and Mikey is still skulking around.
"You should go home," he stiffly says.
"Right, I just wanted to know if everything's okay," Takemichi says, then he nods. "I'll see you around next time, Draken-kun."
But the omega doesn't leave. His eyes flit around and he even tips up on his toes to look over Draken's shoulder.
"Um, everyone went home already?" Takemichi asks, fiddling with his sleeves.
Draken raises a brow.
The omega blushes. "I didn't see Mikey-kun leave…" his head tilts to the side.
"He's inside," Draken says, relief and understanding taking over the uncomfortable awkwardness he was stifled with.
"Oh. Then, goodbye," Takemichi says, but Draken reaches out, lightly planting his hand on the omega's back to stop him from leaving.
At that moment Mikey is stepping out of the door.
And he sees this.
"This is not what it looks like," Draken says quickly which just makes him sound more suspicious and Mikey turns his nose up at them and walks down the steps to bypass them without a single word or glance.
Takemichi's face falls at the snub.
Damm it, what even is his life?
"Oh, so," Draken starts, thinking of anything to say to get rid of the solemn mood, he ends up blurting out"you'd pick me out of all the alphas, huh?"
Takemichi looks up at him with a horrified look, and he puts a hand up to cover his mouth as he stares wide eyed at Draken.
Which is a little dramatic, he thinks but to be fair, the omegas weren't aware that anyone was listening in on their very private conversation-
Takemichi bursts into tears suddenly and raises his arm to wipe his face.
"Uh," he quickly looks around and is relieved that they're all alone because this looks like he's picking on the smaller boy. "Sorry?" He says awkwardly.
"How much did you hear?!" Accusation coats the smaller boy's words as he starts glaring and he looks too much like an angry kitten for Draken to take him seriously, but he does feel a twinge of guilt.
"Not much," he says, "but we heard you guys talking about alphas."
"You mean-" Takemichi clutches his chest and takes a breath, ,"everyone everyone?"
"Yeah, even Mikey."
"No," the omega gasps in horror and Draken starts to feel more than just a little bad. The younger boy's head swivels around quickly like he's searching for someone- for Mikey certainly yet they've just seen the alpha leave. Seeing how useless it is, Takemichi slumps and hangs his head low.
Then he lifts his head and glares at him fiercely.
"Draken-kun, is nothing sacred to you anymore?!" The omega suddenly shouts and Draken winces, it's not like he thought it through, he didn't expect for it to be so awkward.
He's always just wondered what omegas talked about when they weren't around.
Because alphas talk too.
"Just, why did you have to say my name," he asks in exasperation, "if Mikey is the one you actually-"
"It's not about that. Mikey is not some alpha I can even think about like that because I like him too much!" Takemichi shouts with flushed cheeks and shiny eyes and Draken is so relieved that he can kiss the omega right now but not really.
Because Mikey is standing right behind him, having stormed back over while Takemichi was shouting, but when he hears the confession he starts to look less dangerous than before instead his expression is overtaken by awe and the happiness he glows with actually causes Draken to smile.
"Well, if that's the case then maybe you should ask Mikey who he thinks about," Draken says casually.
The omega let's out a bitter laugh. "Like I can talk to him after what happened."
"Takemitchy," Mikey says without missing a beat and the omega stills with his eyes widening in shock before slowly turning around to face the alpha. The atmosphere is all set for them too since it's a nice sunny day, and somehow Mikey's face manages to soften up even more.
Draken takes this as his cue to leave when he sees them staring intensely at each other like they're the only two in the world right now, but he hears the other alpha confess as he walks away:
"The only person I think about like that is you, so forget about Kenchin, he's not as strong as me, or as handsome and I'm a way better alpha-"
"..."
Draken sighs.
He didn't know what he expected. But at least the two of them got their shit together.