Birds of a Feather

Chapter 12

Author Note: Hello everyone. I hope you're all doing well. I saw a lot of questions regarding the personality changes you were seeing in Cas. I had planned on addressing this much later in the story line, but realized the conversations happening in this chapter worked perfectly for addressing the issue.

Hope you all enjoy!

-Book

A light push has the door opening and the two betas sighing in relief. Hopefully they can still salvage something here if Cas isn't upset enough to lock them out of the nest. They start to walk into the room, pausing to look at Cas snuggling with what looks to be Jungkook's pillow. Her nose is shoved into it as she continues to sniff every couple minutes.

Namjoon and Yoongi move to sit down on the bed, tucking their legs underneath them. They both sigh as Cas sits up, holding the pillow in her lap. She refuses to make eye contact as her shoulders hunch forward and she says defeated, "I know. I overreacted and I'm sorry."

Yoongi and Namjoon glance at each other with raised eyebrows before Yoongi takes the lead, "We appreciate the apology, Cas, but we aren't really the ones that need the apology. Or at least, I'm not. You really hurt Jin's feelings. Also, I think Joon would really like his friend back considering you haven't acted like Cas in a while."

Cas's eyes snap up to see Namjoon mimicking her defeated body language. She gasps before launching herself at him. He falls back to lay on the bed with Cas on top of him. His arms wrap around her waist almost instinctively as Cas begins to nose at his throat whispering I'm sorry over and over again.

Yoongi smiles softly before excusing himself so the two friends have a chance to talk. Namjoon gives Yoongi a look of thanks before releasing calming beta scents for Cas.

It takes roughly 10 minutes before she finally calms down. She moves her head to lie against Namjoon's chest and mumbles, "I'm sorry Joonie. I don't mean to be so difficult."

He stops himself from sighing and moves his hand to rub across Cas's back, "You're not being difficult Cas. You're being emotional and before you say they're the same thing they're not. You are completely entitled to be emotional, especially after what happened with your last heat. BUT, you need to communicate your issues with us. You never used to change moods this much and I'm just trying to figure out what happened that caused this character shift. I want to help you but I can't if you won't talk to me."

The tears start up again and Cas buries her face into Namjoon's chest, her words coming out in a wail, "I don't mean to. I don't. It's just overwhelming. There's so many emotions and they're there all the time. And I don't know how to process them. I knew how to cope with it before I presented. I had stimming techniques then. But none of them work now. Everything is just so much more intense and my omega just takes control. It's like I'm watching from a back seat. And I hate it, but I can't get my brain to work with me and it's scary and I don't know what to do."

"Oh Cas." Namjoon exclaims softly, "Why haven't you talked with one of us?"

"Scared. And my omega keeps taking control whenever one of the alphas gets too emotionally. I only get control when I'm by myself or it's just Jungkook and me. Or... well. I guess just betas and me."

Namjoon does some quick math, realizing that means Cas has been struggling with being out of control for an entire year. They had all noticed the changes in her behavior, but has assumed it was an Omega thing and would settle out.

His voice gets raspy as he asks, "What about asking Youngjae?"

"Doesn't happen around him or his pack. Didn't want to bother him because he's super busy too. Already helps enough."