Chapter Text
The next couple of days are weird. I was fully looking forward to having us feel extremely close and Luca being very docile and sweet after his heat.
But of course I fucked up and then we had a fight and I even slept on the sofa, what a fucking cliché!
It’s good-ish between us now. Well, I think. He’s not exactly forthcoming about his thoughts, is he?
But now he is sweet and nice and cuddly. So it’s like before his heat. I could bite into my own ass! We could be that much further by now.
At least his friend is coming over, so maybe I will see a new side of him, like after Tom’s visit. Also, I hope we’ll relax slightly (yes, both of us) around each other.
Right now we’re both walking a little on eggshells and is feels just weird.
The doorbell rings and I tense all over. Luca sends me a worried glance. I force myself to chill out.
Stupid alpha instincts! Like a dog that barks at every passer-by. Embarrassing!
‘I’m fine. Go get your friend.’, I tell my omega.
As soon as he’s gone, I have to sneak after him. I have the strong urge to protect my bond and my home from a strange alpha, which is just ridiculous. I invited him here after all.
Luca opens the door and they both greet each other. I don’t hear them move so at least he’s not hugging MY omega.
Oh God, did I really just think that? I’m such a fucking nutcase!
Matty clears his throat after a minute or so. ‘So, I brought wine. It’s what adults do, right?’
He sounds insecure and my inner alpha stops growling and puts his head on his front paws. That’s no danger for our family.
‘I hope you like red. I just picked whatever bottle looked the fanciest. Look, there’s a bird on it.’
I hear Luca chuckle and am immediately pissed off that I’m not the one that amused him.
My inner human hits my inner alpha with a stick and tells him to be glad that Luca is chuckling, no matter the reason.
‘I like the bird.’, he says, polite little thing that he is. ‘I have no idea if I like red wine, though. Thank you, Matty.’
Matty scoffs and whispers. ‘He’s not making you abide by those stupid omega rules, is he?’
Luca laughs and I can imagine him shake his head. ‘Oh no, nothing of the sorts. I just didn’t have the opportunity to try wine. I realized that I don’t like beer, though.’
Matty laughs. ‘Nobody does at first.’
I decide that I like him and go back to the kitchen. Also it wouldn’t be wise to let Luca find out that I’m spying on him.
Luca brings the wine into the kitchen and Matty slouches along, clearly uncomfortable when he sees me. I smile at him and nod and he bows his head.
I make lasagne and green salad while I hear them walking around the house, talking to each other.
Luca gives him the tour and I feel deep satisfaction whenever he talks about ‘our stuff’ instead of ‘my stuff’.
They go into the garden and I wash up the pots and pans while the lasagne is in the oven.
I set the table and include wine glasses. Red wine and lasagne is a pretty good fit after all. Might as well open the present.
They both come back and I can see that they have grown more comfortable around each other since Luca opened the door.
Matty still sends me worried glances and is hilariously keen on keeping his distance to my omega as soon as I’m near.
I try to not let my amusement show but Luca knows me pretty well by now and has to grin as well.
The conversation is stilted at first but I let them continue their talk about old friends and it soon becomes more natural.
Matty asks how we met.
I pipe in now and then while Luca nails mimicking my grandmother. He’s really entertaining if he wants to be.
I guess slowly sipping his wine helps him. It seems to taste better than the beer, then.
He’s starting to have adorable red cheeks after a couple of sips and I briefly wonder if this was a good idea.
But then he gets tipsy. The kind of tipsy where he snuggles closer to me on the sofa, after we finished eating, so I decide that I don’t mind.
Matty exclaims when he sees the gaming console. Apparently they spent whole afternoons playing those games in Luca’s old home as children.
Soon, there’s a competition going on, while I watch them, slightly amused.
I never was much of a gamer. Tom and I were mostly outside, building ramps for our bike trail (he broke his arm like five times in his teens) or swimming in the lake.
Which reminds me, I have to take Luca there sometime.
I don’t even know if he learned to swim. Or ride a bike. I’m sure Matty knows those things about him.
The thought stings, but a look at Matty makes me realize that I’m being ridiculous.
He’s his childhood friend. Of course he knows him. But I have the rest of our lives to get to know him even better.
Matty is like an overgrown toddler. If I didn’t know he had moved out at 16 I wouldn’t think him capable of looking after himself.
I’m glad Luca has a friend that’s equally untypical an alpha as I am.
Matty drives the car against the wall at the game they’re playing and shouts at the screen as he loses because of this.
I watch Luca laugh. It makes me extremely happy to see him like this.
Then I turn to Matty. ‘You sure you live alone?’
He laughs good-naturedly. ‘Live, yes. Manage, oh no. That’s the first time I had a home-cooked meal in ages. And it was brilliant. Thanks for inviting me, Marco. Really. I don’t take it for granted. I was like so fucking excited when I saw Luca here again and then he had alpha smell on him and I thought ‘Fuck, I won’t be able to talk to him for long.’ And then the alpha is you, and you’re young and cool. I’m so fucking glad for you both.’
Luca stopped laughing during his speech and put his head on my shoulder. I must have wrapped my arm around him without even noticing it, I realize.
‘So what’s your plan for the future?’, I ask Matty.
He shrugs. ‘Right now I just work some jobs, to pay the rent. But I’d love to study law. Yes, I don’t look like it, but I was very good in school.’
Luca giggles. ’He was. Always surprised the teachers. One moment he was being funny and loud and the next moment he could recite the whole lesson back to them. God, did you have Mr. Whitehead again?’
Matty laughs out loud. ‘Yep, had him until 10th grade, right before he went into pension.’
‘Is there a story there?’, I ask.
Luca smiles at me with a cheeky grin. ‘Oh, several. He was just the most unorthodox old man. He was always throwing his keys around when he thought we didn’t listen to him. Most times he hit the students that were listening. We were sitting in the back row, of course.
And-’, he laughs and his eyes glitter and I would love to throw Matty out and carry Luca into the bedroom but I’m also quite content to get to know him better and listen to him talk about his childhood without his usual shyness.
‘Oh God I just remembered! - he always cleaned the blackboard with a wet cloth and afterwards he dried it with a dryer, like you’d use for hair. And the lesson was on hold for five fucking minutes because he was only able to continue when the blackboard was completely dry.’
Matty cracks up. ‘Fuck, yes, he did do that. The best thing was the dead bird, though.’
Luca laughs out loud at this. He buries his head into my neck and his shoulders shake.
I rub his shoulders and smile down on him.
‘So, what about the dead bird?’, I ask Matty. I see him look fondly at Luca, but I don’t mind.
He’s no competition. He’s just extra security for my omega. And a friend. That’s good, I like that.
Matty downs his wine and shuffles forward on the armchair he occupies.
‘So, when we were like in fifth grade, there was a bird on the ground, right off the school grounds. And Li- Luca, being fond of animals like he is, just had to drag us to leave school grounds, so we could try to save the bird. But he had a broken neck. He must’ve flown against a window or a car.
So when we just finally convinced him to go back – he wanted to bury the bird, you see‘ I smile and nod. It’s too fitting of the gentle soul that is my omega.
‘-Mr. Whitehead appeared. It was a really bad offence to leave school grounds. But the red-head looked at him with his huge eyes- I guess you know his pleading gaze by now, he’s a right manipulator that one.’
I nod and Luca turns his head to look at Matty. I have a feeling he’s sticking out his tongue.
Matty chuckled. ‘Well, and the old guy always had a soft spot for Luca. He was an alpha, maybe he already guessed something and wanted to protect him. Um, yes. Huh, where was I?’
Luca snorts. ‘I was getting us out of detention.’, he reminds him.
‘Ha!’, Matty says. ‘You were the whole reason we had left school grounds.’
He scratches his head. ‘So, yeah. We sure thought we’d have detention for weeks, but Luca looked up to him and told him that there’s a bird. And it was our duty as citizens to try to save him. You could literally see Mr. Whiteheads heart melt. He was the biology teacher, so he loved animals.
‘So, could you save the bird?’, he asked us and Luca here started to cry and said. ‘No, he’s dead.’. And nobody ever wants to see Luca in distress, even before he presented, right?
So the teacher said: ’Let me look.’, and went to the bird. And Luca looked at him with hopeful eyes, because he was a teacher, and an alpha, so surely he could do anything, right?’
I grin so much, my cheeks hurt. Matty is really good at telling stories and having Luca giggling in my arms is doing the rest.
I have to ask for old pictures of him sometime. I’m sure he was the cutest kid around.
Matty takes a deep breath and Luca giggles in anticipation. ‘So the teacher looked at the bird, then at us boys, that thought he was some kind of superhero. And he picked up the bird. And he looked at it from all angles. Everyone could see that his neck was broken. And then he said- he said.’, Matty has problems telling the story because he’s giggling that much.
Luca pipes up. ‘He said: ‘That bird isn’t dead. Look at him fly!’, and then he threw the dead bird into the bushes.’
They both crack up and I chuckle, equally at their story and at them laughing.
‘So, you weren’t distressed that he threw a dead bird around?’, I ask him after we’ve all calmed down.
Luca shakes his head. ‘No. I mean, it was sad that the bird was dead. But he had been dead before. But Mr. Whitehead behaving that ridiculous and unexpected. That was just too hilarious.
And he even escorted us back into the building, excused us to the next teacher for being late and we never were punished for leaving school grounds.’
He looks smug and I kiss his cheek, noticing from the corner of my eye that Matty looks at us curious, but seems neither jealous nor embarrassed.
I save that fact in my brain for later use.
We have some more friendly banter. I see my chance to check one box, when Luca is going to the toilet.
I turn to Matty. ‘So, you’re not interested in your own omega right now?’
He sobers up immediately. ‘No, Sir. Or- do you know someone who needs an alpha? I’d always help an omega in a bad situation. Luca told me that he didn’t know who he was going to for a week and that just sucks. If I could help someone out, I’d do it. If that’s why you’re asking.’
I nod. ‘No, I don’t run some omega saving operation, but I appreciate it. So are you looking into joining a pack? An alpha living by his own is highly unusual, that’s why I ask. Also you seem to be the kind of person that needs to be around other people.’
Matty sighs heavily. ‘Oh you have no idea.’
I keep silent because I feel there’s more. Matty looks deep in thought, then continues speaking.
‘The thing is…I don’t know a lot about packs. I grew up in a family, as most of my friends did. I know Luca’s pack and, well, that’s not a prime example to be honest.’
That raises my interest. ‘How did he grow up? I don’t want to pry, because he’s awfully closed-off about it. Was his father abusive?’
Matty shrugs and looks at the door before turning back to me. ‘Well, there were slaps and back-hands as educational measures, yes. But he never ‘fell down the stairs’, as far as I know and I don’t think any of his omega step-fathers ever ended up in hospital so the alpha could have been worse.
Awful sucker for the right way to do things, though. Social etiquette must be obeyed always and that kind of stuff. I think at home the rules were a lot less strict, otherwise Luca wouldn’t be that much of an independent person he is today. I don’t want to think about what would have happened to him if he had a different alpha.’
I nod. I figured that much. Luca obeys social rules I didn’t even know of. He surely didn’t need to be told five times about the right protocol before we bonded, like I did.
And he was so terrified when he thought we weren’t doing the sex part right, the poor soul.
I listen for him, but he takes a while. I turn to Matty again and lean a bit forward. He copies my posture right away.
‘You know. I’m thinking about founding a different kind of pack. Not that much hierarchy. Kind behaviour, no corporal punishment. Basically a commune where friends live together and become a family instead of a business organisation?’
Matty raises his browns and nods. ‘That sound great. Good for Luca as well. He needs to be around people. And the unusual aspect sounds fun.’
I smile at his opinion. ‘Yeah. I know. I would’ve loved to grow up in a pack like that. So I guess I’d love my children to grow up like that in a couple of years? But I’m unsure about all this.
Like how would an alpha-alpha dynamic play out in enclosed quarters? And do there need to be contracts beforehand? What if someone wants to leave? What if someone wants someone else to join? I’ve grown up in a family, too. A pretty dysfunctional one. So I have no fucking clue how to bring people together.’
I fell silent. I knew I had those concerns but saying them out loud seems unreal. To my surprise, Matty grins at me.
‘But you already do. You invited me over. You didn’t have to. Luca didn’t expect you to. I didn’t. But here I am and that’s great. And I accept you as my superior, don’t worry. There’s something about you that smells powerful as hell. And you’re not even 20.’
Now it’s my turn to raise my brows. Matty looks sheepishly for a second there but then speaks on.
‘And you’re also friends with a beta and introduced him to Luca. He told me. That’s bringing-people-together 101.’
Huh. I haven’t seen it that way but what he says makes sense. And it’s awfully nice to point it out like that. ‘You really think so?’, I just have to ask.
Matty nods. ‘Yes. I guess you’ll do great with forming a pack. But if you’re unsure, maybe ask some other pack leaders for advice? I mean, if you speak to Luca’s father you’ll know what to do and what not to do, classic win-win situation.’ We both chuckle at that, then Matty becomes serious.
‘I hope you’ll still have me over sometimes, I’m really glad I met my favourite red-head again. And you’re good together. I think we could be friends?’
‘Of course you can come over.’, I quickly tell him. Then I have a thought.
‘Do you plan to move in the future?’ That would be shit. I can’t ask him what I’m thinking about asking when he’s planning to leave someday.
Matty shrugs. ‘I have no idea. I’d love to stay near, but I don’t really have a reason to. And studying nearby is more expensive than studying abroad.’
I nod. It makes sense, I was also thinking about those things when I had finished school.
But it’s also promising that he sounds like he’d rather stay.
‘And if you wouldn’t have to pay that much rent?’, I ask, not very subtle.
Matty narrows his eyes at me. ‘What are you-‘, he breaks off when we both hear the bathroom door.
I smile at him. ‘Let’s forget about it for now. But yes, I was implying what you thought I implied.’
Matty looks astonished, then he looks worried at the door. Luca is leaning in the doorframe and he’s very pale.
I jump up immediately. ‘Darling, are you ok?’
He leans into me when I reach him. He smells like toothpaste and a little bit like booze.
He shakes his head. ‘I don’t feel so good.’, he murmurs and I snort softly.
‘Too much wine, huh? Let’s get you to bed.’
Luca struggles out of my arms. ‘No, we have a visitor. I’m so sorry.’, he looks at me, then at Matty with wide, distraught eyes. Matty jumps up in an instant.
‘It’s late anyways. I was just waiting for you to say goodbye.’, he lies smoothly and winks at me.
Luca relaxes a little. ‘Oh. Ok.’ I guide him to the door and we say our goodbyes, Luca already half-asleep.
I wrap my arms around him and put my nose near his earlobe as soon as the door is closed. He buries his nose under my adam’s apple.
We just inhale each other for a couple of minutes, before I softly clap on his back.
‘Let’s get you to bed, honey.’