Thread by @raeinthe

Is it still #omegalwjseason?

Because today my thoughts are consumed by modern LWJ’s omega instincts going completely out of control when his alpha BFF adopts a baby.

LWJ is a little surprised when his best friend WWX shares the news that he’s adopting a child. Not that he wouldn’t make an amazing father (LWJ has pictured that scenario in embarrassingly specific detail), but:

They’re young. They only recently graduated and are early on in their careers. LWJ just assumed that children were something that would come later for both of them.

(Preferably, for both of them at the same time. Preferably, after LWJ finally gets up the nerve to confess his feelings for WWX, and WWX tells him he feels the same and can’t help but ravish LWJ on the spot, and, oops! LWJ gets knocked up!)

LWJ has heard WWX mention this baby, Wen Yuan, before: he’s a cousin of Wen Qing and Wen Ning, and he’s been staying with the siblings ever since he lost his parents, but they aren’t able to keep him long-term.

WWX has the biggest heart in the world, so of course he falls in love and wants to adopt A-Yuan himself. And he’s got a decent job now with a predictable 9-to-5 schedule, which helps. It’s a bit non-traditional for an unmated alpha to adopt on their own, but not unheard of.

So when WWX confides some insecurities around whether he’ll be enough for A-Yuan, LWJ does his best to shut that down immediately: WWX is great with children, and LWJ has never bought into the traditional alpha/omega stereotypes anyway.

As an omega, LWJ doesn’t think he’s any more naturally inclined toward parenting than WWX. Sure, children like him, but that’s more because he doesn’t talk down to them & speaks to them as seriously as he would any adult, not because of any special omega-specific traits he has.

Which is why it catches him completely by surprise when he meets A-Yuan for the first time and his omega instincts go haywire.

When LWJ arrives at WWX’s place & is greeted by WWX with an armful of baby, he doesn’t think: my friend & my friend’s son. He thinks: my alpha. Our son.

Not that he thinks that consciously! It’s just, it’s the man of his dreams, looking exhausted & happy to see him, holding the cutest baby LWJ has ever met. (He hasn’t been around a whole lot of babies, but his cousin’s kid Jingyi kind of looked like an old man when he met him.)

A-Yuan is 8 months old, WWX explains. He smiles a lot, can sort of give high-fives when he’s not feeling too shy, and wants to get into EVERYTHING.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do when he starts crawling, which will be any day now,” WWX says, beaming with proud papa energy.

When LWJ hands A-Yuan his welcome present (a soft bunny plushie that’s about the same size as the baby), A-Yuan screams like a pterodactyl, clumsily hugs it with his pudgy little arms, and flashes LWJ a gummy smile. LWJ is a lost cause. He’s in love with them both, now.

LWJ already spent a lot of time with WWX before he adopted A-Yuan, so he doesn’t think anything of it when he finds himself going over to visit several times a week. He meticulously helps WWX babyproof everything. & he spreads his scent all over the entire house while he’s at it.

The mortifying thing is, he doesn’t even realize what he’s done until a couple weeks later when Jiang Cheng stops by while LWJ is over and mistakenly thinks that LWJ has moved in.

When WWX corrects him, Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes and complains about how the place reeks of LWJ and anyone with a nose would make the same assumption.

When JC leaves, LWJ can hardly look WWX in the eye. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

WWX looks sheepish. “Lan Zhan, I’m sorry, I know you didn’t do it on purpose. And I didn’t mind, really! JC was just being a jerk, you smell nice.”

LWJ means to be more diligent about suppressing his scent after that, and he also totally means to get WWX some (non-toxic, baby-friendly!) odor remover. But… he forgets. Because WWX thinks he smells nice ✨

The mostly-unconscious scenting is just the beginning though. A-Yuan seems to have some magic power over him. Whenever the baby is in the same room as LWJ, LWJ’s eyes are on him immediately. If he makes a sound of distress, LWJ is by his side.

When LWJ and WWX are hanging out after A-Yuan’s asleep, every background noise sounds like a baby crying.

Once or twice, when A-Yuan is crying his hungry cry, LWJ is startled to find himself leaking milk. It’s not even enough to be useful, just enough to ruin a shirt.

His only consolation is that, when it happens, he gets to wear one of WWX’s soft teeshirts home. (And LWJ, usually very diligent about returning items he’s borrowed, just keeps forgetting to bring them back.)

The last straw for LWJ is when he catches himself feeling territorial around Jiang Yanli, of all people.

In spite of the fact that she’s WWX’s sister, already mated, and very pregnant with her own child, LWJ is very unsettled seeing another omega around WWX and A-Yuan.

He finds himself watching JYL like a hawk when she’s with the baby, and after she holds him, LWJ just can’t get over the feeling that A-Yuan smells all wrong. He ends up excusing himself to go home, because he knows if he’s rude to JYL it’s all over for him.

LWJ makes a doctor’s appointment for the next day, because clearly, something is very wrong.

But the doctor doesn’t seem all that concerned.

They explain that these behaviors are very common in omegas who are new parents, but can sometimes come about when omegas take a mate who already has young children. It’s part of the bonding process, and usually calms down on its own within a few months.

It appears that, even though LWJ’s brain knows that WWX is not actually his mate, his body doesn’t understand those boundaries at all.

So, he resigns himself to being a little extra embarrassing around his long-time crush for a few more weeks, and hopes WWX will continue to be graceful about it.

One day, WWX calls LWJ in a panic. There’s a fire to put out at work, and they really need WWX to stay late, and he needs someone to pick A-Yuan up at daycare and babysit him for the evening.

He apologizes over and over again on the phone.

“I’m so sorry, trust me, I know A-Yuan is my responsibility and I shouldn’t be begging my friends to cover for me. My boss just cannot comprehend that I don’t have an omega at home who can handle childcare, & he’s made it pretty clear that if I leave it’ll come back to haunt me.

Normally I’d have emergency backup, but Jiejie could go into labor literally any minute now and WQ and WN both have shifts at the hospital, & you have a spare key to my place… although actually, I guess I could call Jiang Cheng… wait, sorry Lan Zhan, I’ll do that! Never mind!”

LWJ nearly audibly growls at the idea of JC being higher on the list of emergency babysitters than he is.

“Wei Ying, please don’t apologize. I am happy to care for A-Yuan any time. Just send me the address of the daycare and I’ll be there.”

When LWJ arrives at the daycare, A-Yuan is crying. “He’s been fussy all day,” the daycare worker tells him. When they hand A-Yuan to LWJ, the baby nuzzles his tear-stained face in LWJ’s jacket and calms down.

WWX’s place is messier than usual today. There had clearly been a rush to get out the door in the morning. There are several unwashed bottles by the sink, toys and pacifiers scattered around. On the changing table there’s a wet diaper that didn’t make it into the diaper pail.

WWX’s lunch sits forgotten on the counter.

In other words, an off day.

WWX wasn’t expecting company. LWJ thinks about him getting ready for work and getting A-Yuan ready for daycare in the mornings, no one to help him out. He wonders when WWX manages to shower.

He wants to help. When A-Yuan goes down for a nap, LWJ tears through the chores with scary efficiency. Then he wrangles the contents of the fridge into a healthy dinner that WWX can reheat later. He steams & purées some of the extra vegetables to make a quick homemade baby food.

He basically displays superhuman feats of domesticity.

WWX comes through the door late that evening looking exhausted and in a visibly sour mood. When he notices his suddenly-immaculate living space, he’s not relieved, like LWJ would have hoped. He just looks hurt and angry.

“I appreciate you watching A-Yuan but I didn’t need you to clean my house, Lan Zhan.”

“It was no trouble. I wanted to help.”

“You and everyone else. I’ve learned I have to deal with this shit from all the other omegas I know, but I didn’t expect it from you too.”

Now, WWX has had a loooong day. He is not great with his words at this moment. If he had a clearer head, he might have thought to tell LWJ about the constant feed of judgement & unsolicited advice that’s been chipping away at his patience today.

How the daycare worker who had been so pleasant to LWJ had barely concealed an eye roll that morning when WWX dropped off A-Yuan in a shirt that was on backwards.

How, when he stopped for groceries on his way home, the omega in line next to WWX criticized his baby food choices, saying they had too much sugar, he should really go for the starchy ones since they’ll help his baby sleep through the night. Didn’t his omega make a list?

(He had already tried starchy foods, thanks, it didn’t work. A-Yuan likes prunes, he will eat the prunes and not spit them onto his shirt, he’s getting A-Yuan some damn prunes.)

He might tell LWJ that coming home to find his best friend has cleaned his house makes him feel like LWJ is passing judgement on him, too, and it hurts. Then they could talk it out and maybe cuddle on the couch and watch a movie until WWX feels better.

But, he doesn’t. He says, I didn’t expect this from you too, and LWJ hears: I’m sick of you acting like you’re my mate, I am not interested.

LWJ does not cry often. He is most certainly not going to cry in front of WWX. So, without a word, he folds up the novelty apron he was wearing (“Dad’s Barbeque: The Man • The Grill • The Legend”) and goes to leave. As he’s putting on his second shoe, WWX’s face softens.

“Lan Zhan,” he says, the anger snuffed out.

But LWJ can’t right now. If he doesn’t leave immediately he’s going to completely lose his composure.

So, with uncharacteristic haste, he crams his foot into the shoe and rushes out he door, then goes home to sob into WWX’s teeshirts until he falls asleep.

In the morning, waking with a headache after the second worst night in his life, LWJ starts to feel the beginnings of a heat. It turns out his recent hormonal changes had rendered his usual suppressants ineffective.

He fires off a text to his brother to let him know what’s up, so he won’t freak out when LWJ doesn’t answer his calls, then turns off his phone.

LWJ has a couple of very sad, very horny days.

When he emerges from the fog of his heat and powers up his phone, he has 27 unread messages from Wei Ying. While he normally loves waking up to WWX’s late-night text barrages, this morning it makes him feel sick.

8:23 pm
WWX: I’m sorry
WWX: I was awful
WWX: and I know you probably need space for awhile
WWX: if not forever
WWX: and I will totally give you space I promise
WWX: I just

WWX: I need to make 100% sure that you know it wasn’t your fault
WWX: because of course it wasn’t
WWX: and I just really hope that you’re very angry with me right now
WWX: (BECAUSE YOU SHOULD BE)
WWX: and not sad
WWX: because I don’t want to ever make you sad

WWX: that’s all I have to say I’ll give you space now sorry

5:41 pm
WWX: ok I lied
WWX: I am weak
WWX: I tried for almost a whole day but I need my Lan Zhan

(LWJ tries not to think too much about the words “my Lan Zhan”. He knows WWX doesn’t mean it the way he wants him to.)

WWX: how can I fix this
WWX: what if I buy A-Yuan rabbits and let you play with them any time you want. If I bribe you with rabbits can we talk??
WWX: I’m so sorry Lan Zhan I shouldn’t be so pushy

WWX: you put up with so much bullshit from me
WWX: and you are always so good
WWX: I never deserved any of it
WWX: ugh look at me still not leaving you alone

8:32 pm
WWX: Lan Zhan can we talk
WWX: Please??
WWX: sorry
WWX: I promise I’m done

WWX’s messages stop after that. LWJ wants to respond, but he doesn’t know how. The last thing he wants is for WWX to give him space, but he doesn’t know how to tell him that. If he did, he would have told him years ago.

He checks his other messages. A text from his brother, saying to let him know if he needs anything. And, surprisingly, he has several messages from Jiang Yanli from the past hour or so.

She says that WWX and A-Yuan are sick, and she’s asking LWJ to go check on them. She just had her baby and doesn’t want to risk getting A-Ling sick, and isn’t supposed to drive for a couple weeks anyway.

LWJ is still hurt, and a little afraid to face WWX after the last few days of silence, but he will always, always be there when WWX needs him.

He makes a stop at JYL’s house to pick up some soup she keeps in her freezer for emergencies, & goes to WWX’s house & lets himself in.

LWJ starts the soup gently simmering on the stove & makes a mug of tea. There’s a small pile of dishes, but he holds himself back from washing them while he waits for the soup to warm. Instead, he walks down the hall to WWX’s room. The door is half open, but he knocks anyway.

“Wei Ying, may I come in?”

“Lan Zhan?” Answers a hoarse voice. LWJ takes that as invitation enough to push the door open the rest of the way.

WWX is curled up on the bed holding a sleeping A-Yuan. He looks awful. LWJ loves him so much.

LWJ warily approaches and sets the mug of tea on the nightstand. He’s not sure if he’s intruding.

As he steps away, WWX whines & reaches toward LWJ the arm that isn’t supporting A-Yuan. He scoots over in the bed to make room.

LWJ can’t help it. He climbs into the space next to WWX.

He’s never been in WWX’s bed before, they’ve never crossed that boundary. But it feels right, laying here next to him and A-Yuan.

They will definitely need to talk later. But for now, they don’t say anything. WWX and LWJ just hold each other close, scents mingling and soothing A-Yuan, until the soup heats up.

When A-Yuan is sound asleep, WWX and LWJ sit at the kitchen table, WWX with a bowl of soup, LWJ with a mug of tea.

“You made me soup.” WWX says, fond and a little sad. LWJ isn’t quite so sure how to read his expression right now.

“Your sister made you soup,” LWJ replies. “I delivered it.”

“You didn’t deliver it. You didn’t just drop it off and leave. You came inside and heated it up and… and climbed into bed with me and helped get A-Yuan down for a nap. You made me soup after I was awful to you.”

“You were having a bad day.”

“That’s no excuse.”

It shouldn’t be. LWJ /had/ been hurt. He’s pretty sure he should still be upset, but somehow it’s easier to talk about this calmly after spending the last half hour cuddled up to WWX.

“Mn. I was not respecting your boundaries. You were not wrong to be angry.”

WWX snorts.

“Come on, Lan Zhan. Since when do I have boundaries with you? You’re being too nice.”

If you ask LWJ, there are still so many boundaries between them. He wishes desperately he could cross them all.

Maybe he’s still drunk on their cuddle session, or maybe it’s because he’s already been to every emotional extreme the past few days, but he finds himself speaking a bit more freely than usual (though he is still holding so much back).

“I treated your home as if it were my own, I have been treating A-Yuan as if he were my son. I know you do not want that with me, and yet I did not respect that.”

WWX looks weirdly hurt.

“You mean /you/ don’t want that.”

“When have I ever said that?”

Okay, so they’ve never /actually/ talked about it. There have been a few times they’ve gotten dangerously close to that topic, but WWX has always been very quick to change the subject, presumably to spare LWJ’s feelings.

“At Nie Huaisang’s graduation party.”

LWJ thinks back, and, yes, that was one of the times it had come up without /actually/ coming up. But he doesn’t understand how he could have said anything to make WWX think he wasn’t interested, unless…

“I drank that night. I don’t remember, did I… say something to you?”

WWX shakes his head vigorously.

“No, before that. We played never have I ever.”

They had, although WWX had dropped out of the game early on. It was a drinking game, but LWJ had been playing with seltzer.

On Nie Huaisang’s turn he had said, “never have I ever been in love with anyone at this party”. WWX seemed pretty mad, though NHS insisted he didn’t understand why, & WWX quit the game on the spot. LWJ, who was very, very much in love with someone at the party, had to drink.

Instead of seltzer he took a swig from the cup WWX left behind, staring wistfully at his friend who’d clearly bowed out of the game to save him some embarrassment. Everything after that is a bit fuzzy, but WWX /says/ LWJ didn’t say anything to him.

He waits for WWX to elaborate.

“NHS came and found me after I dropped out. He told me you had to drink. And then after you got drunk you were just openly staring at Nie Mingjue all night, so I put two and two together.”

LWJ is puzzled. Why would he be following his brother’s boyfriend around while he was drunk? And then he remembers:

“Nie Mingjue was my ride to the party. I went there with him and my brother. I… must have wanted to leave. I thought my feelings been exposed.”

“And… what feelings were you afraid of having exposed?”

LWJ thinks it’s pretty obvious at this point. He doesn’t understand why WWX needs him to say it explicitly.

“Think about it.”

WWX watches him for a moment, unreadable. Then, suddenly, he’s in LWJ’s space, & his lips are on LWJ’s, slippery & spicy from the soup and perfect.

LWJ’s brain is just catching up, & he’s just starting to lean into the kiss, opening his mouth to WWX’s when WWX pulls back.

“Lan Zhan! I’m so sorry. I’m going to get you sick too, I wasn’t thinking.”

LWJ chases his mouth. It may be shortsighted of him, but he’ll happily be sick for a few days (or months, or the rest of his life) in exchange for kissing WWX like this.

“Wei Ying will take care of me,” LWJ murmurs.

“I will,” says WWX between kisses. “Of course I will. Always.”

“Always,” LWJ agrees.

They stay like that for awhile, kissing slowly, sweetly, taking their time with each other (WWX isn’t at his usual level of energy, after all) until they’re interrupted by a shriek from A-Yuan’s room.

They go to him together. WWX feeds the baby a bottle, then hands him to LWJ. This time, LWJ doesn’t try to suppress his scent, doesn’t hold himself back from thinking: our son. He rocks A-Yuan to sleep and hums a lullaby, heart full.

When he lowers the sleeping A-Yuan into the crib, he looks up to see WWX with tears in his eyes.

“Wei Ying?”

“Sorry, Lan Zhan,” WWX says as he wipes his eyes and wraps his arms around LWJ. “I’m a huge sap. I just love you both so much.”

LWJ can’t help but answer that with a kiss, & then they’re across the hall in WWX’s room, changing into pajama pants in the lamplight, snuggling up under the covers, sharing warmth.

LWJ knows they’ll have to keep it tame for tonight: WWX is exhausted and they both need to rest.

But they’re in love, and trading kisses under the covers, and he finds himself getting slick as he and WWX press their bodies together. WWX grows hard, and soon the pajama pants are off, warm skin against warm skin.

By the end of the night, they’re asleep in each other’s arms, with no uncrossed boundaries remaining between them other than LWJ’s unmarked neck.

(That’s one thing they feel should wait until everyone’s feeling better, but they both know it’s inevitable now.)

LWJ does, indeed, get very sick. And WWX does take care of him, in spite of LWJ insisting that he wouldn’t hold him to that promise, that WWX had A-Yuan to look after and LWJ didn’t want to trouble him.

He stays at WWX’s house and WWX brings him tea and broth and cold medicine.

And after that, they’ve grown used to each other’s warmth at night, and it’s hard for them to sleep apart.

They’re bonded within a month.

At A-Yuan’s first birthday party, it’s still too early to tell most of their friends & family, but the two of them know they are expecting a sibling for A-Yuan. And by the time A-Yuan’s sister is born, A-Yuan fully recognizes LWJ and WWX both as his parents.

🍼 THE END ･*☆

From the top:

https://twitter.com/raeinthe/status/1462940610948648960