Warning: (semi) mature content.
The journey to Mew's condo in the business district took less than twenty minutes and, on arrival, Mew thanked and dismissed his chauffeur before ushering Gulf into the lift. Neither spoke, but they held hands - as they had from the minute they left the lecture hall.
It was an unnatural thing for Gulf, to accept these acts of affection, but at that moment it really was a physical necessity. With pheromones so heightened, wild and unchecked, the gaping ache that would creep across their bodies if they broke contact was an acute threat. The alpha needed his omega, and the omega needed him right back.
Gulf had a complex relationship with his omega identity. Fiercely proud of who he was and an unwavering advocate for equal rights, it terrified him that he could be limited by simply having been born to be a certain way. He was thankful that advances in medicine over recent decades ensured that he had the tools and the prerogative to control whether he would experience a heat and to choose if he wanted to bear children or not.
Scent suppressants too, gave him power over his own sexual experiences and ensured that he could be clear headed and autonomous in bed.
Although at the opposite end of the secondary gender spectrum, Mew shared remarkably similar beliefs. Yes he was an alpha, but he hated any discourse that said that that defined him.
So it was not an easy thing for the two men to hold hands for this reason. Not because they didn't want to hold hands, but because they didn't want to have to hold hands. Yet, hold hands they had to.
Entering the condo via a key pad system, they kicked off their shoes before Mew reluctantly released Gulf's hand - the younger omitting a pained little yelp - in order to bring towels from the linen cupboard.
Momentarily alone in the room and trying to distract himself from the ache, Gulf's eyes took in the open plan living area, the modern, industrial lines and decor, and floor to ceiling windows across the outer wall. He could only imagine how many millions of baht this condo, and everything in it, added up to.
"Spoilt brat", he muttered darkly to himself - not really meaning it, but finding comfort in being prickly.
It wasn't the interior decoration of the condo that held Gulf's attention, though, but rather the smell that had pervaded his nostrils on entrance and now seemed stronger by the second. It was a dense pine forest with a cool breeze that nudged trees gently, their reflection captured in the glassy mirror of an alpine lake. Gulf closed his eyes and swayed with the trees as their greens and browns became deeper, and the sky turned to night. There was a buzzing in his ears.
Moving - suddenly unsteady - towards the nearest sofa, Gulf tugged off the throw that lay over the back cushions. Burying his face in it, he breathed: Mew. Inhaled Mew. Gulped in the green scent hungrily. Yet still the pine forest grew stronger. Taller, stronger, branches tangling until the throw was pulled from Gulf's hands, the scent saturated, and Mew stood before him, wide-eyed and erect beneath his towel.