Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sounds of birds singing were the first thing that greeted him as he started to awaken. It was soft and quiet but the familiar sounds of the creatures chirping was pleasant. Zack twitched, eyes still heavy and closed, body surrounded by soft furs and familiar scents. Remaining wisps of sleep still curled around his senses, even dulling some of the familiar movement of his belly.

Huffing slightly, the omega pried his sticky eyes open. He was greeted by fleeting beams of sunlight against the rock walls from the sheer curtain hanging from the entrance. Morning of a new day and yet his usual energy just wasn’t about.

A kick to his stomach broke any deep thoughts. With a yawn he shifted onto his back using what seemed like a great amount of strength. Unsurprising as he felt as big as a whale and had like an extra twenty pounds to his midsection. Clearly he wasn’t the only one bothered by the movement as his pups began to move and kick unhappily.

“O-kay….okay, settle down for mama please?” Zack whined softly cradling his stomach. Resting his upper body against a couple of stacked furs he hummed a soft Banoran lullaby that Genesis had taught him.

Almost as if hearing the song the pups started to settle with only very small movement here and there. Zack sighed, rubbing at the taunt skin. Everything about today was just starting to get to him - which was weird since he loved being pregnant and loved feeling his babies move. And yet, he just wanted them to stop and let him sulk.

He whined searching around the big empty nest, no mates and all alone. Shifting onto his left side, facing the wall he could feel his eyes grow hot with tears.

They’ve been gone for over two months at a conference where other leaders of various territories came together to discuss borders, laws, and such. The conference was relatively far away and took two weeks alone once they were there. Usually Zack was supposed to be with them but being pregnant with a large litter meant that the journey wasn’t safe for him to take.

Which was how he was currently six months along and without the support of his mates. Exhaustion seemed to settle into his bones, as if the past two months of being alone had finally caught up with him.

By this time he typically was up and about with the other members of the territory in the pool but no matter how much he urged himself to move, he just couldn’t. Closing his eyes he deeply wished that he’d fall asleep and when he woke up his mates would be there with him.

____

“Where the hell is he?” Reno rested against the cave opening to Zack’s den waiting for the bubbly omega.

He was already late for the daily hangout with the others which concerned most of them, and that eventually led to Tseng sending him to go wait for Zack. Twenty minutes later and he hadn’t heard a peep let alone seen movement from the nesting room.

Sighing he pushed off the rock wall and ventured into the den. With careful steps around the pack’s main room he headed toward where Zack most likely was.

“Fair? Where you at?” Reno called through the curtain. He waited a few seconds but got no response.

Okay that was weird.

He’s never not gotten a response from the omega, and if anyone talked more then him it was Zack. Reno vaguely wondered if maybe he was still asleep, he heard from Barret that he was really tired when he was having Marlene. But Zack never seemed to have excessive sleepiness as one of his symptoms, in fact excessive energy seemed to be what he got instead.

“Zack! Come on man, the others are wondering where you are!” Placing his hands onto his hips he once again received no response.

Now he was worried. Usually he would never enter another pack’s nesting room but with no responses or movement, if he didn’t check on him then Zack’s mates might actually kill him.

“Alright bud, I’m coming in!” He called and then whispered after. “Please don’t be dead.”

Quickly he pushed back the curtain and let his eyes adjust to the surprising darkness. Almost immediately he felt overwhelming concern for the omega.

First of all a sad scent filled the room, getting stronger the closer he got to the nest. Second Zack usually had all the candles in the room lit by this time as he didn’t like being in the dark but all of them remained unlit. And finally in the nest was the man he was looking for, completely still and facing the opposite direction.

“Zack?” He tried.

Nothing.

Inching around the edges of the nest he came around to Zack’s face and felt relief course through his body. The omega was luckily not dead but just staring vacantly at the wall. As Reno came into the omega’s viewpoint Zack’s eyes slowly made their way toward Reno’s face. The red-headed beta sat at the edge of the in-ground nest with a frown on his face.

“Hey man, what’s wrong?” Zack shrugged, circling his arms around his belly and curling into it protectively.

Reno sighed leaning on his arm. “Come on, clearly something’s up with you and I’m not leaving till you tell me.”

Zack just watched him, face startling blank but Reno could see he was fighting against something. The scent in the room had changed, going from sadness to something else; something he couldn’t quite figure out.

“Zack, you’re scaring me dude.” He sighed. “Is it the pups?”

That seemed to shake Zack from whatever stupor he was in, face quickly crumbling and his head shaking vigorously. Even suggesting the idea that something could be wrong with his babies freaked the omega out, which freaked Reno out. He didn’t know how to calm an omega! He was a beta, for starters, and even he knew that he was emotionally constipated.

So him calming down Zack? Yeah not gonna happen.

Internally he was panicking but….there might be someone who could help! Gods, why didn’t he think of it before?

“I’m gonna be right back, okay?” The omega says nothing, just turns his head into the nest’s furs.

With a sigh Reno pushed off the ground and made his way back around the edge of the nest and out of the den completely. Truthfully he didn’t want to leave Zack alone for that long and decided to quickly speed walk to the pool. Sure enough he came upon it to the sound of chatter and water splashes.

The pool itself was similar to a pond just being a bit bigger. Near the left edge were a couple of rocks at an incline where they liked to rest while still being in the water. Since all of their dens were carved into a large cluster of rocks in a circular formation (think of cliffs) while the pool stood in the middle of the semi-moon clearing. Plants grew along the edges with various blooming flowers whose scents were especially pleasing to the omegas.

“Reno? Where’s Zack?” The first person to notice him was, of course, Aerith.

“Uh, he’s having a moment.”

Aerith furrowed her brow and swam over to the pool’s edge. “What do you mean he’s having a moment?”

This now gained the attention of various others in the pool including the one he had come for. Along with Aerith now Tseng swam over almost as if sensing Reno’s purpose for being there.

“So you left him alone?” Tseng raised an eyebrow as Reno sputtered, flailing his arms around as he tried to come up with an explanation. Tseng merely shook his head and pulled himself out of the water trekking over to his beta.

“Relax, I know you came to get me. Let’s go.” Ignoring Reno’s (very loud) sigh of relief the black haired omega shook some of the water off his tail and hair while walking over to Zack’s den. Reno, who was trailing a bit behind, quickly jogged over and stopped Tseng before he entered the den.

“Listen, listen. He’s acting kinda off so just warning you in case he, uh….” Reno trailed off as Tseng just raised his eyebrow and gave him a look.

“In case he, what?” Tseng narrowed his eyes waiting for a response but like he figured he got none.

Shaking his head, the black-haired omega entered the den going straight for the nesting room. Pushing the curtain aside he could tell that Reno was right which was mildly surprising. Something was very wrong.

Zack shuffled in the nest seemingly surprised by Tseng’s presence, enough so that he turned onto his opposite side to stare down the other omega. Reno shuffled up behind his pack omega glancing over Tseng’s shoulder.

“Hey he moved! That’s good….right?” Tseng gave his beta a glance and said nothing.

Tseng carefully climbed into Zack’s nest, knowing he was welcome due to being an omega like his pregnant companion. Zack’s eyes followed him as he laid down next him, letting his body be guided to rest against Tseng. Reno instead sat at the edge near both of their heads keeping an eye on both.

Silence filled the space as the two omegas cuddled, Tseng grooming Zack as the other placed his ear over Tseng's heartbeat. A few minutes passed, Reno watching as the tension bled out of Zack’s muscles relaxing into Tseng’s hold.

“Alright,” Tseng started, voice soft against the quiet. “What’s wrong?”

Zack shifted so he met Tseng’s gaze, teeth biting at his lip mulling over an answer. The pregnant man kept flicking his eyes over various parts of the room and his scent seemed to permeate more heavily.

“I….” Both Reno and Tseng could hear the crack in Zack’s voice. The omega shook his head, wiping away the beginning of forming tears.

“I don’t know.” He confessed all but collapsing into his fellow omega’s hold. “It’s like I woke up and it just caught up with me how long my mates have been gone.”

Reno met Tseng’s eyes and was surprised to see the other nodding his head softly as Zack continued to ramble. This confused the beta at first because his omega seemed to pleased with the crumbling emotion in Zack. Ooooh, it must be because he was getting all off it his chest. Tseng did the same in their pack, he had a weird ability to make them spill their feelings and did make them feel better.

He was caught off-guard as he heard a loud sob come from the one of the omegas. Reno looked down to see Zack crying into his omega’s chest, arms clenching at his belly and legs curled up.

Tseng purred, holding the pregnant omega tightly, rubbing circles into the other’s back. It was kinda surprising to see how soft Tseng was around Zack, or around other omegas in general. His pack omega was usually a leader, quiet and stern with little to none caring ability.

And then you place him around another omega watching as a switch was flipped; and boom! Soft, sweet Tseng.

Zack’s cries started to eventually tapered off, sniffing the air listening to Tseng’s purring. Within a few moments Zack let out a weaker purr in response.

“Feel better?” Reno asked. Zack laughed quietly and nodded, giving his fellow omega one last squeeze before sitting up.

Tseng kept his hand on the omega’s back giving him support while he sat up, midsection heavy enough to cause some trouble. Zack smiled once he was comfortably sitting in the nest, Tseng removing his hand assured that he wasn’t going to fall backwards. From the outside Reno helped his omega out of the nest giving Zack a chance to stretch out both hearing some of his bones crack.

“Sorry about that guys,” The pregnant man started, twisting to look at the two. “I guess all the emotions just caught up with me y’know?”

“Zack, don’t worry about it, we’re all here for you.” Reno piped up, placing a hand onto the omega’s shoulder. Zack shook his head despite the soft smile on his lips.

“Come now, let’s get you out of here and into the pool. Everyone’s waiting.” Tseng pushed himself off the ground using a hand to pull Reno up with him. Zack seemed to hesitate a bit mulling over whether or not to join them but he knew staying in the nest would ultimately do more harm than good. Raising his hands he was happily and gently pulled to his feet by the other two.

With a soft grunt he stepped out of the nest swaying softly on his feet both Tseng and Reno placing their hands out to catch him just in case. He shook them off with a laugh eventually balancing out, quickly supporting his stomach with his hands.

Reno grinned, bouncing slightly on the heels of his feet, placing a hand on the small of Zack’s back pointing out to the exit. “Come on then Mama Fair, the water’s awaiting!”

Tseng came around to Zack’s opposite side lacing their arms together, “Well?”

Zack gave a last look to his empty nest still feeling some of the sadness linger but he knew that everyone else would not hesitate to stay with him until his mates came home. And that was enough for him.

“Alright, let’s go!”