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From an environmental perspective, this seemed a bit of a disaster.
Baekhyun watched the entrance to the den curiously, sitting himself on a jut of rock, a healthy dozen metres from the base of the Life-Tree. It wouldn't do to get too close, they all knew that.
Flowers bloomed around the mouth of the den, impossibly fast, a spring rainbow that burst into existence, hypertrophy in technicolor. And then, just as quick as they had appeared, they withered again- folding down onto themselves, cowed into a bleached death, covered in an equal bloom of hoarfrost. So this phenomenon occurred in waves: the frost would melt and the flowers would spring back, a fresh burst of verdant life, and then all would freeze over, going still and cold under the reaching rime. Spring, then winter, then spring again. The tricky part- with every fluctuation, the effect was spreading a little. What had been reserved for within the lip of the den now covered it, and was starting to stretch up the roots of the Life-Tree, across the ground around it. It couldn't be entirely healthy, that. The frost, Baekhyun knew from experience, was cold enough to burn- and the flowers, he didn't doubt, had some kind of pollen in them that would put animals into all manners of strange moods and excitements.
“They’re really going at it, aren't they?” This said Chanyeol, returned, who flopped down at the base of the rock where Baekhyun was sitting, absently rubbing his cheek on Baekhyun’s thigh. “Apple?”
What he had gone to fetch- a basket of the the silver apples, which were ripe today, that Baekhyun liked best. He purred as he took one, an entirely honest reaction, and Chanyeol grinned at him.
“Who do you think is more dangerous?” Baekhyun asked as he took a bite, tipping his head towards the transfiguring den.
“Well, Minseok,” Chanyeol answered, scratching behind his own ear. “Right?”
“I dunno,” Baekhyun answered. “Yixing doesn't just make plants that heal. I’m a little worried about those ones.”
Or not worried. Maybe it would be better to say, he was a little interested.
The matter was this: Yixing had returned. He had crossed the mercury ocean, leaving his homeland that lay on its far shore; back to them, their lone-wolf packmate, to all the gladness and jubilation he always brought. He'd brought something else this time, though. The journey was so long, he probably hadn't intended it, but it had happened anyway- he’d arrived on the step of the Life-Tree just falling over the edge into his rut. Now, that alone would have been fine- they would all have taken care of him- but for on that exact same day, Minseok had been warming, opening into one of his own long-awaited heats.
So there was no helping it. Everyone else used whatever passed for their good sense to vacate the chosen den; an alpha and an omega, both packmates in season, were best left to their own devices. Any even well-intentioned interference might lead to- unintended consequences.
It was those consequences Baekhyun was considering now.
“What- do you think-” Chanyeol looked up at him, wide-eyed. “D'you think it's like, sex-pollen? Like we’d all go into cycle?”
“Maybe,” Baekhyun replied. Teeth pinching his own lower lip, looking down from under his lashes.
“Oh, man, that would be bad,” Chanyeol said, even as his pupils swelled prettily in their beds, excited by the implication. “We’d destroy the tree!”
“You might,” Baekhyun answered. Because Chanyeol in rut could be difficult to deal with, even as cute as he was- so hot to the touch sometimes he burned a little- and in orgasm, objects around the den were liable to spontaneously combust. “I’m harmless.”
“No you’re not,” Chanyeol answered with a laugh, shaking his leg. “You know we have to wear blindfolds when you’re in heat, right? Permanent vision damage-”
“That's not the same kind of thing-”
“Yes it is!”
Giggling, pulled to the ground, rolling around a little. Chanyeol kissed him, and the flowers bloomed, and they froze over again. The basket tipped over, and the apples rolled across the earth.
The one that had been bitten began, very faintly, to glow; a pale silver light in the toothmarks. The handle of the basket, where it had been touched, started to smoulder.
…
From the high branches of the Life-Tree, Junmyeon eyed the distant pair of Chanyeol and Baekhyun with some suspicion. It was fine that they were playing, of course, and normal that they were excited when their older packmates were in cycle- but he had the same concerns about the flowers, and worried they might be a little too close.
At his side, Sehun whimpered softly. Face buried in Junmyeon’s throat, licking and sucking at the skin there, close to his gland. Needy young alpha, all worked up- he had to have gotten a dose of Minseok’s pheromones, but with Yixing in rut and taking the main role, he couldn't do anything about it. This was compensation, then.
“Easy, baby,” Junmyeon murmured, wrapping an arm around Sehun’s shoulders. “Don’t stress.”
A huff was what he got for that, but Sehun didn't pull away. Junmyeon smiled slightly, let himself purr, just a little. Hoped, absently, that this was just Sehun reacting to heat-scent- that he hadn't inhaled anything else- it had been hard to tell, in those first hurried, overwarm moments, what exactly was transpiring, and how. Perhaps something had been blooming even then.
Sehun wasn't the worst, in rut- high winds in the branches, the occasional dervish in a den. When Junmyeon was in heat it started raining, and rained until he was done.
Down by the base of the tree, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were rolling around- a little heavy petting. Hmm.
The impulse was in him, too, it seemed. He nosed Sehun out from his throat, and kissed him on the mouth instead. He’d just thought to comfort- a steadying little peck- instead, the kiss turned deep, lips parting and tongues meeting, a wet shiver down the back of his neck.
A breeze shook the branches, and the clouds darkened overhead.
…
Jongin was pacing on the far side of the tree, while Kyungsoo and Jongdae sat on a root. They couldn't see the mouth of the den from here, of course, although they could all guess what it looked like. Surely, the circumstance was a rhyme; only two members of the pack were made of things that bloomed. In that way, frost and flowers were the same.
“I could pop in,” Jongin said, as though this was at all a reasonable suggestion. “Just- make sure they’re okay, that they don’t need anything. Water, or whatever.”
“You just want to peek,” Jongdae answered. “You’re as bad as Baekhyun.”
“I am not.”
“Then ‘pop in’ on Junmyeon in the tree. Get his permission.”
A snort. “He’s busy, I think.”
The hint for this was the darkening sky, the smell of incoming rain. A wind that had picked up, tugging at their hair. Summer storms, what Junmyeon and Sehun made.
But the clouds could become a lot of things- this Jongdae thought, tipping his head back to watch. The sight of them tugged lowly at his gut, sparkling in his fingertips. But why was he like this? Usually he wasn't so bothered by the cycles of his packmates. He considered himself a very rational alpha. But still- Jongin’s shirt was a little short, it exposed a bit of his belly, a hint of tan skin at his waist. That was nice, wasn't it? Ozone buzzed faintly on his tongue.
Kyungsoo, quiet, was watching Jongin’s pacing with a frown on his face. Not angry- some kind of intense, hungry contemplation. A bit of a blush across his cheekbones. But he was the type who stayed stoic until the end- never saying a word about it, until the ground began to shake. Kyungsoo in rut, and an earthquake split the world; there were craters in some places still, as evidence of it.
“I think something-” Jongdae started, and then clicked his tongue, unsure of what he wanted to say. The sky was circling to black above the Life-Tree, curdled clouds that wound around each other, tightening into a coil. Evidence of too many interests. The rain, the wind, the lightning. It was quite the storm, what they all together could make. When Jongdae kissed Minseok, there was hail.
“What?” Jongin asked- and when he paused to do so, he flickered, vanishing for just a second; returned in less space than a blink. He barely seemed to notice he had been transported- and there was a flush there, too, on his cheeks.
Shit.
Jongin controlled his power better than any of them- it only troubled him when in heat. Only then did it happen at random- fucking in a den, only to blink and realize you were in a meadow, blink again and it became a desert- impossible, whirling disorientation. That his flickering was happening now, that the air was tightening with electricity, was a dangerous portent.
From the far-off mountains, a distant rumble. The earth rolled faintly under their feet.
“I think something’s…affecting us,” Jongdae managed. “Something-”
He was cut off. Kyungsoo stood, as cold and determined as he always was, crossing the earth in a few paces; cupping Jongin’s face in his hands, and tipping his own up to kiss the omega on the lips.
A chirp, a soft moan; Jongdae felt the flash in his heart, and a few seconds later, the thunder followed.
Jongin and Kyungsoo flickered together, gone away and come back again. They made a nice picture, hands on waists, tongues licking into each other’s mouths- a nice enough picture something in Jongdae ached.
So there would be a storm. Well, he didn't see the point in trying to stop it.
Better to rise, then, and join them.
…
“Ah- ah- ahhh- !”
Minseok was cutest when he was getting fucked. Or at least, this was what Yixing was thinking.
He didn't like to do it in the traditional ‘breeding’ position. As an alpha, he liked to see his mate’s face, instead. And this way, didn't he get just as deep? Legs hiked up around shoulders, folded in half and pressed down into the bed. Nothing to do but lie there and take it. Surely that was pleasing to omega psychology. Surely, that too was a healing balm.
Minseok’s cheeks were covered in frost. A filigree glaze, dainty and beautiful beyond imagining. The ice formed a pattern across the bow of his lips, like a brooch, or the centrepiece of a crown. Hands clutching at the frozen sheets, fingers curling in the fabric. As tight and wet and lovely around Yixing’s cock as anyone could ever want.
It was cold enough in the den to have Yixing’s breath fog before his face- but it wasn't a dry kind of chill- not the lifeless coldness of an actual winter. For all that froze, another thing was melting. A constant drip, slickness between their legs, down Yixing’s broad back. He could feel the pulse of his own power, the sweet smell of new growth; was certain a crown of his own had formed around his head, lilies and buttercups and asters. So this was as natural as any other thing- alpha and omega, life and death- spring and winter. Fucking Minseok was making the moment between these two seasons over and over again, recreating the first thaw, the final freeze. No point in trying to make sense of the impossible space the den had become- all icicles and strange plant material- it didn’t matter, as long as they had enough room to do this.
Some particularly sweet thrust, and Minseok’s head rolled back, lashes fluttering; an adorable, broken little moan. Perfect. A reaction that satisfied all alpha impulses.
“So pretty, bǎobèi,” Yixing murmured. “I should take you back across the ocean with me. Like we used to. Bring Chenchen too, hmm?”
Minseok only shivered. What would have been sweat on his throat was instead crystal, gathering there like a lace collar. But Yixing hadn't expected a reply; that was, he knew, no longer a rational dream.
Too long since he’d been back; too long a time spent wandering, packless. His body had told him so the moment he’d stepped into the valley, the moment he’d seen the distant tower of the Life-Tree. It had come over him with no warning whatsoever. A prickling down his spine, a flush across the nape of his neck. Hormonal yearning. Flowers had bloomed in every one of his footprints. Perhaps, flowers of a kind he hadn't intended.
And what serendipity when he’d arrived there at the base of the tree, and found Minseok waiting for him. Minseok, for whom the sky was snowing ever so slightly, even though it was summer. Heavy eyes and fluttering collarbones and a head tilted in feline interest. Xiumin.
“I’ll take you back, and get you pregnant,” Yixing continued, the words falling out without his entirely intending to; psychological exposure, stripped bare by the cold skin pressed to his. “Nothing to worry about- I’d take such good care of you, hyung-”
Something about this made Minseok laugh, sharp teeth suddenly bared; he unfolded his arms from the back of Yixing’s neck, cupping his cheeks instead.
“Then I’d really be baozi, wouldn't I?” he cooed, voice ragged with pleasure. Yixing laughed too; helpless, curling into each other, nuzzling at each other’s necks. Gentle, licking kisses, a flood of sweet scents in the den. Minseok was so wet inside Yixing couldn't help but wonder if he’d already cum, at least once. A good thing if it were so. Like any alpha, Yixing liked to know he was doing a good job.
“I missed you,” Minseok murmured, breathless in Yixing’s ear. “Oh, fuck, I missed you-”
Picking up the pace again. No keeping either of them calm, not in a cycle like this. How long would it last? At least a few days. A few days in which the patterns of their bodies lined up perfectly; fitted puzzle pieces in the shape of their desires. A nip at Minseok’s collar and he was shuddering, always so sensitive there, belly arching up to meet Yixing in a wave; a gush, hot and slick around Yixing’s cock. The only hot places, there and his tongue, when everything else was frozen.
“Did you just-” so exciting, the prospect, Yixing only fucked harder. “Did you just cum, Xiu- ?”
A nod, gasping sweetly, open-mouthed; a vine curled around the length of his throat, just tight enough to be possessive, and withered in the frost in the same instant.
“Fuck, you’re too hot,” Yixing continued; he licked the seam of Minseok’s lips, melting for an instant the ice there. “You’re so- no way the others didn’t notice. The other alphas-”
Saying this, thinking of them, there came to the back of his mind another awareness. Even without seeing, Yixing could tell the plants had gotten out of hand- that they smothered the entrance to the den almost entirely, that they stretched up the roots of the tree- covering the dusty ground in a pool at its mouth. He could feel the pulses of their birth as little flickers of pleasure against his own skin. Could feel another thing- a tightening in their petals, nervous system awareness. The knowledge that living things had, of an incoming storm.
“I bet-” Yixing started, and Minseok licked his ear, cutting him off in a low groan. “I bet they’re all worked up out there. God, the smell of you-”
“You too,” Minseok murmured; Yixing realized he was purring, as softly as he always did, and his hips stuttered. “You're even sweeter than I am.”
Yixing thought about the flowers he had left in his wake, crossing the valley to the Life-Tree. The blooming feeling he had felt when Minseok had thrown his arms around his shoulders and kissed him, wanton and ice-cold. He wondered if he made a mistake. Surely, not such a bad one.
If they all went together, what would the storm be like? Heavy clouds spun by high winds, from there both hail and summer rain, and lightning that kissed the shuddering earth. Fires would break out alongside the flowers, and here and there would appear phosphorescence, illusion lights from nowhere. Not a storm that could stay put in only the valley of the Life-Tree. Like a contamination it would spread, transported to other parts of the universe- a love that would flicker into being everywhere.
“I think- I think I made everyone-”
Minseok breathed a cloud of frozen air across Yixing’s face, the crystals sparkling across his own cheeks before melting. Lascivious and entirely aware of himself, this omega, all his other shyness frozen away.
“Everyone’s going into cycle,” Yixing managed, and the awareness felt like a shock, even as he ground his cock deeper into Minseok’s body. Minseok's lips parted, surely from pleasure as much as surprise. His pupils took up almost the entirety of his iris- and in the paler ring left around them, there too were miniature verglas formations.
“We’ll destroy the world,” Minseok murmured, and then he laughed. Delirious, maybe, but not unhappy- Yixing joined him, and then pressed their lips together in a kiss. Apocalypse, after all, only meant ‘revelation’.
“Let’s go out,” Yixing said, suddenly warm in his chest, suddenly thrilled. “Let’s join them. All of us, together.” We are one.
“In a minute,” Minseok answered; a narrowing of those feline eyes, a hunger. “Knot me first.”
Yixing laughed at the demand, and then obliged.