Archive of Our Own ^beta

When their last guest finally leaves, Mark leans on the door for a moment, exhaling loudly. Doyoung pats him swiftly on the shoulder, and just as swiftly, he is off to his and Hyuck's bedroom.

The party had been for him, and yet Hyuck had disappeared before the last guest was gone, leaving Doyoung to take his place in seeing the guests out. Taeyong was busy elsewhere probably directing the cleaning staff on what to do. Mark couldn't say he wasn't worried. He knew tonight's ritual would be invasive and that Hyuck didn't like other people in their business, but if this is what it would take to have a baby, so be it.

In their room, it is dark, with a little light coming from the window. Mark can just make out the outline of Hyuck's body on the bed, Tens lithe one parallel to his as he strokes the younger omega's hip.

“Hey,” Mark says light-heartedly as he enters. Hyuck seems to seize up when the door swings shut behind him and there's a small moment where no one in the room seems to breathe, until Ten breaks the silence by sitting up.

“He's bathed. We just have to wait for Yong and Doyoung,” Ten explains.

Mark nods absent-mindedly as he sits on Hyuck's side of the bed. He's lying on his stomach, his arms folded beneath his head. He turns to look at Mark with a quietness that was extremely unlike him.

“Sorry, I was tired.”

“It's okay,” Mark assures him, moving his hand up and down Hyuck's back. “Its been a very long day. Thank you for cooking, everyone loved it.” Mark pauses and then says, “But you can't be too tired yet. There's one more thing to do.”

Hyuck laughs a little, awkwardly. Mark can hear the unease in his voice.

“Can we not? Just for tonight?”

“Oh, Hyuck,” Mark coos, stroking his hair. “You know we have to.”

Before Hyuck can start whining, Mark squeezes his nape.

“We have to, Hyuck,” he says. His voice is gravelly and sure. He feels uneasy about using this kind of tone, but Hyuck needs to know he's being serious. ANy other time hed jump to give his omega the moon and the stars but they needed to do this.

Hyuck, in turn, peeks at Mark from the corner of his eye and does not like the picture he sees. Mark's jaw is stiff, his mouth rounded with determination as he gives Hyuck this sort of pitying, disappointed look.

“Please, Mark,” he whispers. “Not tonight.”

“But we need to try, Hyuck,” he says. “I'd give you anything, you know that. Why can't you just do this for me? How do you think it makes me look? A man like me with no children two years after marriage?”

“You said we could wait.”

Mark pauses, visibly holding his tongue. Softer, almost pleading, he says, “We need this baby, Hyuck. It doesn't even have to be an alpha. A beta or omega's just fine. We just need a child, or else this marriage is null.”

With that, he nudges Hyuck to turn around. He holds his small face in his hands and places soft kisses on his forehead and cheeks. Somewhere on the bed, Ten perches. This would be his, Taeyong's and Doyoung's roles tonight; to keep watch and pray as Mark fucks a baby into his omega.

Last time it had been Johnny, Jaehyun and Kun who had stood watch. That ritual had failed miserably, but at least Mark was now aware that he always pulled out too early, spilling the best of his seed on Hyuck's pussy rather than within it.

Mark's hands are on Hyuck's thighs before he can stop himself. It takes nothing to lift the skirt of his nightgown, reuniting himself with miles of the caramel skin he loved so much. He shoves his panties to the side, stroking Hyuck's clit as he whispers for him to relax.

The hollow bamboo shoot Ten had worked into him earlier peeks out from between his lips, spreading him wide. It was supposed to be some fertility charm, suggested by Kun. Mark eyes it as he kisses the inside of Hyuck's thighs before easing them flat against the mattress. He is quick to get between them and ease the bamboo shoot out of Hyuck being careful not to hurt his omega in the process. He notices Hyuck wincing all the same, and reaches a hand up to soothe him, only to find Taeyong's hand already there. He and Doyoung must have slipped in earlier then.

For his part, Hyuck is overwhelmed. He feels Taeyong's thighs bracketing his head and the hand he has softly stroking his cheek, and that makes him feel a little more grounded and a little bit more whole. In contrast, Mark's touch has made him want to clam up but Donghyuck can't do that to his husband. It was hard for both of them but Donghyuck knew Mark's patience was running up.

He hears Mark unzip his pants, and then feels the familiar wait of his body on top of him. He slots in perfectly as he always does, but Hyuck still tenses up and somehow Mark feels it.

“Shh, it's okay,” Mark says. “Its okay,”

Hyuck forces himself to relax, burying his nose into the skin of Taeyongs thigh. “Okay,” he says.

There are tears in his eyes by now, but he blinks them away and focuses instead on Taeyong's clean laundry smell. He always got offended when they described his scent as that, but there was no better comparison. Taeyong was warm, sun dried laundry on a lazy summer's day. It was one of Donghyuck's favourite scents, somewhere up there with Johnny and Taeil. They were family scents, homey and warm. He loved Mark's scent too, but in a different way.

There are tears in his eyes by the time Mark lines his cock up with his entrance. He takes deep breaths, teeth sinking into his bottom lip. “Okay,” he says again, but finds himself gritting his teeth against the pain when Mark enters him.

Ten's fingers and the bamboo shoot hadn't been enough, but Hyuck has no time to complain. Mark thrust himself into and out of him, and Hyuck continues to moan, louder and louder.

He wants Mark, desperately, always, but his body and his mind often shut down when it came to the various rituals he had been getting subjected to for the past few months. He didn't like drinking tonics or moonbathing, or being forced to watch everyone else's pups in the hopes that his body would catch the hint. He wanted Mark, and only Mark; would be okay if they never had pups, but that was never what his alpha wanted.

Breeding Donghyuck had only been fun until the results refused to show.

So Donghyuck grits his teeth while Mark bottoms out. They breath in synch as he tries to adjust and then takes another breath when Mark begins moving. The pain becomes more sharp, more wilful until Hyuck can't keep stomach it anymore. ‘Please!’ he finally screams, but Mark, nor anyone else in the room seem to hear. He tries again, squeezing Marks bicep this time. ‘Mark, please stop.’

Mark keeps thrusting, lowering himself to kiss Donghyuck. He always got panicked like this, and Mark understood that the thought of having a baby was still overwhelming to Hyuck. That would change when he got pregnant though. Mark thinks of the shaman and their fertility doctor, how Donghyuck had been cleansing for a week straight in preparation of this mating. The dinner had been for Donghyuck too, to please their friends, families and neighbours. Their guests had certainly left in good spirits, Jaehyun even elbowing Mark's side in encouragement when he'd left with his pups.

For that, Mark feels optimistic, excited even at the thought of Donghyuck conceiving tonight. The room is dark, but for Mark there is light. Light he couldn't see before; not after the numerous negative pregnancy tests over the years.

‘Please,’ Hyuck says again.

Mark quietens him with another kiss. “Just a little more, baby, I'll give you what you want.”

Mark takes in his mates pleading, the whimpers and cries, but what he hears are sounds of genuine pleasure. He doesn't hear Hyuck asking him to stop, only his constant begging for Mark to hurry up and breed him. Mark thrusts with the desire to gratify, and all the while he envisions their future after this night: Hyucks stomach growing, and him holding a little baby months later. It's pink and has his alien head, as Donghyuck would say. Mark carries the child as their face changes and morphs a little more into Hyuck's, and as its downy hair grows to resemble his omega's soft curls. He holds their pup as they start teething, take their first steps and say their first words all to the backdrop of their apartment. And when Baby Lee is big enough, Mark carries the child on his shoulders. He sees their pup run through fields of sunflowers back in Jeju, and swim freely as if they too belonged to the sea. And when they start school, Mark can see that too. The child is happy and Mark, imagining them, is happy too. Donghyuck would be happy too.

Hyuck continues to moan from the pain so loudly that even Doyoung is drawn out of his prayers. He opens his eyes and watches Hyuck's face for a moment, hopeful and anxious at once. Doyoung takes in the moaning, takes in the heightening of Hyuck's voice. He nods in approval, happiness overwhelming him as he grabs Hyuck's hand and squeezes it.

He hears those moans the same way Mark does: sounds of pleasure rather than pain.