a world on fire

bleach

The first thing he notices when he wakes up is that he's so cold. The heat is gone, the flames have died down. He doesn't know whether he should be relieved or not. When he glances down at his body, clothed in nothing but a thin blue gown, his skin is not red. His normal tan colour is back. The second thing he realises is that he's not in his home. He's laying in a hospital bed, the fabric of the sheets itching roughly against his skin. There's a demanding scent of bleach in the air, sterile, but underneath it all he's able to smell faint mint.

Yoongi. He's sitting next to Namjoon, hands clasped tightly onto one of the omega's own as if he were to let go the younger boy would drift off forever. His mint coloured hair is a mess, sticking up at all directions, ends slightly frizzy and damaged from over bleaching. Namjoon decides Yoongi is like a piece of coral then, bleached bone white from the growing acidity of the oceans. Most of the alpha's face is hidden by his hair, but Namjoon sees enough to know he is crying. He's rarely ever seen Yoongi cry, and he quickly decides he doesn't like it.

The alpha's head whips up then, feline-like eyes connecting with Namjoon's own. More tears curiously slide down the alpha's face, and if Namjoon felt like he had control over his arms he would have moved them to wipe the tears away. He really doesn't like seeing them there. There are only two scents mixing in the room now, but the omega can faintly smell the scents of the rest of his pack, with the exception of roses and cinnamon. The oldest and youngest members of the pack have not come to visit him, and something close to unease aches in his heart. He doesn't know why he finds himself sniffing to catch the scent of cinnamon.

"How are you feeling?" Yoongi's voice is strong, authoritative, it's alpha, despite the tears staining his cheeks.

Namjoon doesn't trust himself to speak, so he goes with a shrug. Shrugs are safe. They're up to interpretation. They could mean, 'I'm fine', or they could mean, 'I feel like I've been hit by a truck'. If he's being honest with himself, he doesn't know if he even has a voice anymore. He feels weak under the intense stare of the alpha, but he would do now, the urge to submit overwhelming. The memories of the shower are firmly implanted in his brain. He's an omega now.

"Namjoon," Yoongi's face changes from his classic stony expression to one of worry, "do you remember what happened before you fainted?"

Namjoon shakes his head, fear sinking into his chest and making his gut ache deeply. He doesn't really want to know what happened to him, but he knows he won't be able to avoid it.

Yoongi's voice cracks when he begins speaking, "T-they thought you were going to die. They were right, but to keep you alive you had to be knotted. Jungkook mated with you."

Jungkook. Mated.

He's going to be sick. Something must have been clear on his face to tell the alpha about what he was going to do, because before he can throw up all over himself Yoongi has reached for a brown paper bowl, shoving it under Namjoon's chin as he weakly throws up stomach acid. The bile painfully stings in his throat and he coughs, head going dizzy from the force of his stomach twisting. He's lucky that he had passed up on dinner last night. He knows the reason why now, they all do.

Jungkook. The phantom scent of cinnamon fills his nostrils and crowds his senses. Memories come back to him slowly as if he is watching last nights events through a hazy TV screen. Hands on his body, spreading his thighs apart, gripping onto his waist. He shifts on the bed and feels the ache in his lower back and deep inside of himself, where the younger alpha had knotted him. He isn't aware that he's doing it at first, not until Yoongi has pulled him into a hug, but he's begun crying as the full memories of that night come back to haunt him.