Chapter Text
Just before he drove into the CBD district, the traffic became congested.
Xiao Zhan stepped down lightly on the brakes, and slowed down his speed a little. He pressed his lips together, and looked a little nervous.
It had just rained that afternoon, and large and small puddles still remained on the ground. Now and then, the raindrops that hung on the tree leaves would be blown down by the wind, and hit his car windows.
He drove forward another few meters, and then came to a complete stop.
Many cars stretched out in front of him, and he could only see the motorcycle stopped by the side of the road and the uniformed traffic officer. Behind him, there was someone impatiently honking, and at the intersection there were also construction workers, and overall everything seemed messy and chaotic.
The noises from outside very quickly reached the inside of the car; Xiao Zhan frowned, and then leaned backwards, and shifted the car into neutral.
He hadn't thought that his luck could be bad to the point of running into a drunk-driving inspection at 1:30 am on a weekday.
The evening wind blew in from the outside, and he became a little more clear-headed, and his hands gripped the steering wheel with a little more strength.
Suddenly, the window on the driver's side was knocked upon. He was startled, and looked out through the half-open glass window, and saw Wang Yibo.
"Climb over to the passenger side," Wang Yibo said, and pointed at the other side, then looked at the end of the street with more people. "Quickly."
Wang Yibo's speaking tone didn't contain that much emotion, it didn't sound mean, yet it also didn't sound gentle.
"Oh."
Xiao Zhan glanced at him again, then nodded, adjusted his seat, and then climbed over to the passenger side.
As he climbed, he bumped his head twice, and his knees knocked against the shift stick three times, and he almost hit the glass of the car window on the other side.
After he finally managed to sit down, Xiao Zhan thought, he was definitely going to get rid of this car for a different one.
Wang Yibo waited for Xiao Zhan to settle down in his seat, then sat down in the driver's seat.
In the moment that he entered, Xiao Zhan smelled that scent on his body very clearly — a scent mixed with the scent of desiccant.
He frowned a little, brushed at his bangs, and then looked at Wang Yibo.
"This coincidentally?" Xiao Zhan said, and smiled a little after he finished speaking.
Perhaps it was because he'd drunk a little.
Even though the ABV wasn't very high, it was enough to cause him to become relaxed; Xiao Zhan's slightly buzzed state caused his entire person to radiate a kind of easy, loose aura.
Wang Yibo didn't say anything, and nodded slightly.
When he wasn't speaking, he looked a little austere, and had a standoffish appearance.
In reality, it really was this coincidental.
After Wang Yibo had finished discussing something with a friend, his friend drove him home, and ran into the drunk-driving inspection on this stretch of road. Originally he thought he would just wait in line to be inspected, and didn't expect he would see Xiao Zhan's car.
The white sedan that Xiao Zhan drove was a bit old; it was a car his father used to drive, and was then given to him.
Wang Yibo remembered that Xiao Zhan actually really disliked it, and had said he wanted to get rid of it for a different one.
Originally, Wang Yibo also hadn't planned to greet him, all the way until the two lanes of cars moved forward, they became positioned more or less side-by-side, and he saw Xiao Zhan's face through the half-opened car window; his bangs were swept back, and he seemed a little panicked, yet also looked out in front of him very casually.
Wang Yibo was sure Xiao Zhan had drunk, though it looked like he didn't drink that much. Therefore he told his friend, and then got out of the car to knock on Xiao Zhan's car window.
In front of them was a stretch of chaos, and no one noticed them.
After being stuck in traffic for a while, a traffic officer walked over, gestured at Wang Yibo to lower the car window, and breathe out into the breathalyzer. He also inspected his license and car registration.
"Xiao Zhan? The car isn't yours?" The traffic officer glanced at the registration and asked.
"Mm, the car owner is him." Wang Yibo pointed towards the person to his side.
"Oh, you're free to go." The traffic officer didn't say anything, glanced at Xiao Zhan, then let them leave.
When they drove out of the stretch of road where the inspections were happening, the road in front of them became unimpeded.
On the side of the highway overpass were newly-constructed night lights, connected and circling around on both sides, flashing lights that weren't very bright in the night.
Xiao Zhan leaned back against his seat, and looked like he'd relaxed a lot.
"Thank you," he said.
"No big deal," Wang Yibo answered. "How come the high beam headlights are on?"
"Oh, you have to lift it upwards," Xiao Zhan said, then leaned over, and voluntarily helped Wang Yibo turn off the full beam lights.
At this distance, Wang Yibo's scent smelled even stronger, just like a airtight space filled with desiccant, where very little moisture was left, and in this enclosed space it became especially concentrated and intense.
Xiao Zhan remembered the first time he saw Wang Yibo; in his home, the two of them were placed to sit on a sofa not too far from each other, and across from them sat their parents.
His father looked a little nervous, and obviously held this meeting in high regard, whereas Wang Yibo's parents looked a lot calmer.
That day, Xiao Zhan had taken a four hour long afternoon nap, and thus when he woke up his entire person felt a little bloated and dazed, he he didn't look very cooperative.
Later, he talked about it with his friend Edward, and when he mentioned this person what he said was: "I don't really remember what he looks like, but…… his pheromones smelled really……"
"Very what?"
"Very…… uncommon." Xiao Zhan searched around in his lexicon for a while to find a term he felt was appropriate.
"Why is there someone who's pheromones smell like an airplane cabin?" Xiao Zhan wondered aloud.
But Edward was just a regular person, and couldn't give him any kind of meaningful response.
"Do you have all your things together?" Halfway there, Wang Yibo suddenly spoke and asked.
"Mm?" Xiao Zhan was a little started, and then immediately understood and answered, "Mm, almost."
"When will you move out?"
"I'll wait until after my dad's wedding." Xiao Zhan's voice lowered a little, and he seemed a little frustrated.
"The timing right now isn't too good."
This was Xiao Zhan's father's third marriage.
His stepmother was a 29 year old female omega, very beautiful, but her foot was a little crippled and she couldn't walk around very easily.
Xiao Zhan's mother had passed away the day he was born, due to hemorrhaging during the difficult labor.
When Xiao Zhan was 21, his father met the woman he would soon be marrying; she'd been kept outside their home for many years, and were together in everything but name.
A while ago, Xiao Zhan's father told him he was preparing to give her a wedding, because she was pregnant, and the doctor had said the probability of the child being an alpha was very high.
His father's greatest wish in this lifetime was to have an alpha heir.
Back when Xiao Zhan had still been inside his mother's stomach, a screening test reported that there was a 80% chance he would be an alpha; his father had been overjoyed, and waited to greet this son.
But very regrettably, when Xiao Zhan was fifteen, he presented as an omega; and, due to some factors from his mother's womb, he had a pheromone disorder and the innate flaw of being infertile.
This meant that he sometimes secreted pheromones and sometimes did not; when he didn't, there was no difference between him and a regular person, and when he did, it was strong to the point of being a little overwhelming.
Xiao Zhan gazed out the window; outside, the noise isolation barriers of the overpass blocked his line of vision, and so he could only move his gaze back, and look towards the more boring view directly in front of him.
He reached a hand back to touch the back of his neck; there, a skin-colored patch was affixed, and it looked almost exactly the same as his smooth skin.
This thing could help stabilize him, and he had it on basically all the time, ever since he presented.
"Okay, let me know in advance." Wang Yibo glanced at him, and spoke in a low voice.
Xiao Zhan didn't speak again, he just hummed lightly, and didn't know whether Wang Yibo heard him or not.
The alcohol in him had some effect; he felt a little sleepy, and thought of what his friend had said to him when he was at his place.
"Then you should think it through, this kind of thing can't be treated that lightly."
Xiao Zhan turned his head a little; this angle was just enough for him to see Wang Yibo. He was focused on driving, and looked like he wasn't thinking about anything.
When Wang Yibo wasn't smiling the corners of his lips were very flat, and even tilted downwards a little.
In reality, whether he smiled or not, he was different from Xiao Zhan; perhaps because of the characteristics of an alpha, all of his emotions seemed very restrained.
"What are you looking at?" Wang Yibo asked, but didn't turn his head.
"Nothing," Xiao Zhan said, and then he laughed a little. Taking advantage of the alcohol, he said, "You're very handsome."
Then, he added on: "Edward, that friend of mine that does research, said it, he saw your interview last time."
Very-flat-lipped Wang Yibo seemed to smile a little, but perhaps it was just Xiao Zhan's misperception.
Actually, he still had a follow up phrase, "It's too bad you met me," that he didn't say out loud.
Xiao Zhan felt like the him that had drunk a little bit wasn't suited towards discussing that category of conversational topics: anything relating to him and Wang Yibo's relationship.
After all, in his life, which didn't count as a very long time, he'd never seen an alpha and omega pair like them, who had no way of attracting each other.
No matter if they'd been tested to have a compatibility as high as 97.6%.
Xiao Zhan remembered his father telling him: "Now, people like us are becoming rarer and rarer, and already there's not that many alphas to be found. Try it out with Yibo."
He'd thought about it for a while. Then, looking at his father's face, he'd said to him: "This is the last time."
Xiao Zhan's father held in his hands the compatibility test results that just been sent over, and the phrase "97.6%, every indicator shows the source of the samples have an extremely high degree of compatibility." written upon it gave him a sense of assurance.
He accepted his son's terms.
The night Xiao Zhan moved into Wang Yibo's place, the two of them slept on the same bed.
The bed was very large, enough hold three people comfortably, and there was a bit of space between him and Wang Yibo.
It was different from what Xiao Zhan had imagined; not only did they not immediately fall together like flames on a pile of dry wood the moment they stepped into the bedroom, they actually didn't even touch each other the entire night.
That night, Xiao Zhan had a dream.
He dreamt that he was in a empty airplane cabin; the strong scent of desiccant swirled around him, and caused him to feel thirsty. The temperature of the airplane cabin was also too warm, and the warm wind caused him to feel very hot, and he really wanted the plan to land faster.
After he woke up from the dream, Xiao Zhan moved around a little, and found that the person next to him had gotten very close, like he really didn't have a sense of security.
But because they were each under their own blanket, even though they were very close together, they still couldn't touch each other.
It was very quiet in the room, there was only the sound of the humidifier's fan and the sound of Wang Yibo's breathing, which was a little heavy when he was fast asleep.
They started to live together, like a pair of cohabitating same-sex partners. In their daily life, no one knew that their basic nature different.
In this society, people like them, had long before become the minority.
A week ago, Xiao Zhan had said to Wang Yibo: "How about, we let this go."
Wang Yibo had said: "Alright."
Xiao Zhan thought, if there was anything in this relationship that could be called a good user experience, then perhaps it was Wang Yibo's "total indifference."
After all, he looked like he also wasn't attracted by Xiao Zhan, just like how Xiao Zhan felt towards him.
The car sped towards a new residential area; the headlights didn't light up too much of the road in front of them, and you could see the dust particles diffused in the air.
Wang Yibo turned around a corner, thought about it, and then said to Xiao Zhan: "In the future, you shouldn't tempt fate anymore."
"Ah?" Xiao Zhan was a little dazed and didn't understand, and turned his head to look at him.
"Don't drive after drinking."
"Oh."
What he'd drunk tonight had been imported by his good friend Edward, who'd said it took a great deal of effort.
Originally he hadn't planned to drink, but as they chatted, he still raised the glass. After drinking a few steps, he realized he had to drive home, and immediately placed it back down.
"Drink, it's this high quality." Edward had drunk a fair amount, and looked at him with a flushed face, sitting on the sofa, he smiled and said, "Ask Wang Yibo to come pick you up."
"That's alright," Xiao Zhan shook his head, and pushed the glass back; a whiskey glass with a large ball of ice in it, shining very nicely underneath the lights.
Edward glanced at Xiao Zhan, took a sip of whiskey, and joked: "What is it? Still not getting along?"
Xiao Zhan pressed his lips together, thought about it for a moment, then lifted his head and said: "I was thinking, of letting it go."
"Letting what go?" Edward was a little startled.
"With Wang Yibo." Xiao Zhan's voice lowered a little. "We don't seem to be compatible."
Edward asked him what wasn't suitable, wanted to say something then stopped himself, and then after a long while, added on: "Not compatible in bed?"
He and Xiao Zhan had known each other for almost ten years, and talking about these kinds of things didn't really cross any lines.
"We…… still haven't," Xiao Zhan said.
"Ah?" Edward was once again startled, and glanced at him. "How could that be?"
"This is just how it's been," Xiao Zhan brushed his bangs back a little, and used his large eyes to look at Edward. "We still haven't had sex."
"Why?" Edward leaned in a little closer. "I thought…… if people like you have a high degree of compatibility, then won't you have…… in those kinds of matters, a maximally good experience?"
Xiao Zhan said yes, and then suddenly laughed to himself. His eyes curved, and he said again: "I don't know if something went wrong with that report, if they got the samples mixed up. In any case, it just hasn't worked out."
"I was the one that made the samples, there's no way something went wrong," Edward denied it very quickly, then thought about it some more. "Have you removed the patch?"
"Not yet, I think from the very start it didn't work out……"
"Mm?" Edward seemed very surprised.
"Mm what?" Xiao Zhan had drunk a few sips of whiskey, and his face was a little heated. He leaned against the leather sofa, his arms and legs stretched out, looking very casual, and he laughed a little.
"Logically speaking, you two should be very compatible."
"According to the logic from your microscopes and petri dishes?" Xiao Zhan said.
Edward glanced at him, thought silently for a second, then said: "So you're planning to end things?"
"Mm." Xiao Zhan nodded. "Actually…… there's no reason to be determined to pass on this kind of DNA right."
After all, in this world, regular people like Edward were the majority, and it was people who were like Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan who'd become the minority.
Xiao Zhan had once seen a news report from Russia; an omega had married a regular person, and besides being unable to have children, there weren't any other issues.
He didn't really understand his father's persistence.
Edward had finished all the whiskey in his glass; he glanced at Xiao Zhan, and ended up swallowing the words on the tip of his tongue.
Although Xiao Zhan looked very gentle, he was actually someone very self-possessed, and just as he said, microscopes and petri dishes had no way of convincing him.
If logic and emotions had to be regarded separately, then in Xiao Zhan, emotions definitely had the upper hand.
His life up until now had been smooth, and he hadn't undergone too much hardship. Other than the fact that this relationship with Wang Yibo had been imposed upon him by his elders, in everything else he could do whatever he wanted to do.
Of course, now he also planned to end this only "exception."
The temperature in the car was a bit low; the wind slipped in from the small crack in the windows, and Xiao Zhan hunched in on himself a little.
Very quickly, the car window was pulled up by the person sitting in the driver's seat.
*
In the evening, Xiao Zhan couldn't fall asleep.
He tossed and turned in bed, and just couldn't sleep, thinking over the decision that he'd made.
Suddenly there were knocks on his door, which scattered Xiao Zhan's thoughts, and he was a little startled.
"It's me," Wang Yibo said from outside the door.
"Oh, what is it?" Xiao Zhan got out of bed and opened the door; Wang Yibo was standing outside in his pajamas.
The two of them had started sleeping apart one month ago; Xiao Zhan started sleeping in the guest room, and Wang Yibo continued sleeping in his bedroom.
The person in front of him looked like he was thinking about something; when Wang Yibo wasn't speaking, he would lower his eyes to look at others, just like how he was currently looking at Xiao Zhan.
Perhaps it was because of alpha characteristics, he naturally carried with him a intimidating bearing, especially when he drew closer.
At the same time, his pheromones became concentrated and strong, a scent of desiccant mixed with wood, making Xiao Zhan thinking of an airplane cabin during a long-distance flight.
"My parents said they're coming over tomorrow," he said, "and want to have a meal with us."
"Oh, okay," Xiao Zhan said.
After he and Wang Yibo had moved in together, he'd only met his parents once. They usually lived on the outlying islands, and didn't come into the city often, and very rarely lived here.
"Don't let them discover tomorrow," Wang Yibo said, like he was instructing Xiao Zhan.
The tone he used with this sentence was a bit stiff, but as always it wasn't mean, and also wasn't gentle.
There was a pause, and then Xiao Zhan finally realized what he meant, and nodded in agreement.
"But, we'll have to let them know sooner or later," he said.
"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it," Wang Yibo said.
"Alright," Xiao Zhan said. He prepared to go to sleep, and backed a few steps into his room.
"Wait," Wang Yibo called him.
Xiao Zhan looked at him, and before he managed to ask what the matter was, he was wrapped up in Wang Yibo's embrace.
It wasn't a tight hug, but Wang Yibo's arms were very long, and they could encircle Xiao Zhan. Large palms pressed against his back, and then slowly moved upwards, until they were at the nape of Xiao Zhan's neck.
There was a scent-blocker patch there.
"Afraid of them finding out," his voice became very low, and the gaze he had fixed on Xiao Zhan also became very dark. "Let there be a bit of your scent on me."
Saying this, he peeled off that scent-blocker patch. There was the sensation of some baby hairs being pulled, and Xiao Zhan felt a little bit of pain, but very quickly, this pain was covered by the kiss from Wang Yibo that descended.
Wang Yibo kissed very slowly, and not very deeply. His lips paused on Xiao Zhan's lips for a while, and then he reached in with his tongue. His hands returned to Xiao Zhan's back, and pressed him against himself.
The scent of Wang Yibo's pheromones flooded over him, and made him feel a little short of breath.
Very quickly, Xiao Zhan's pheromones also started to spread out into the air, so thick it was a little ostentatious.
The two of them leaned against the door, wrapped up together in a kiss, and looked like a sweet pair of lovers. Even the rain outside seemed to begin pattering down more fiercely out of jealousy.
The alcohol in Xiao Zhan's body had yet to dissipate, and in this kiss that stretched on for a little too long, he closed his eyes, and became a little dizzy from lack of air due to the wet kiss.
He felt like he'd entered a empty airplane cabin, and on this airplane cabin's carpet, a cake smeared with too much cream had been dropped; the air was filled with the sweet, rich scent.
There was a bite on his tongue, and after Xiao Zhan let out a small whimper, Wang Yibo let go of him.
He was panting slightly, but not much emotions could be seen on him. Because of this kiss, Xiao Zhan's eyes were shining with a layer of dewiness.
In this world where not many omegas were left, Xiao Zhan's pheromones was the most unobtrusive and also the most ordinary kind — even a little cliche — like a cake that had been filled with too much cream, and even smelling it was sickly sweet enough to make someone want to shrink backwards.
Xiao Zhan thought, on a long-distance flight, dropping a cream cake that had been accidentally made too sweet, really wasn't very dignified.
Wang Yibo glanced at him. In actuality, before he'd peeled off that scent-blocker of Xiao Zhan's, he hadn't been sure whether those unstable pheromones of his really would be secreted.
And this was also his first time smelling the scent of Xiao Zhan's pheromones: like the cream cake an aunty had coaxed him into eating when he was younger, with too much cream, sweet to the point of causing goosebumps.
He frowned a little, and put the scent-blocker patch back onto the the back of Xiao Zhan's neck; his fingers didn't linger even one extra second.
"Good night."
After saying this, Wang Yibo left the room, and helped Xiao Zhan close the door.
The rain was once again falling; the sky outside the window seemed like huge black stage curtains that had been drawn up.