self indulgent au incoming 🎉 im calling this the "omega neil almost rips riko's throat out" au. with that being said. warning for attempted rape/noncon with riko inducing neil's heat (nothing occurs due to the aforementioned throat being nearly ripped out) also formatted on my phone so it's Messy
Neil wakes and immediately knows something is wrong. For one, it's harder than normal to rouse himself into awareness, one of the first skills his mother beat into him. He blinks open heavy eyes, staring up at the dark ceiling.
Something is wrong, more than the dried blood caked around his wrists, remnants of the handcuffs Riko has taken to forcing on him each night.
Neil runs his tongue over his teeth clumsily, his thoughts syrupy and slow as he tries to assess what's raised his hackles. He swings his gaze heavily across the room, grateful that Riko is nowhere to be seen.
Jean is a lump in his own bed, covered entirely by the blanket except for the top of his head. Neil frowns, body recoiling slightly in disgust at the thought of being covered in the red and black fabric.
His own sheets are crumpled at the edge of the mattress like he was fighting them in his sleep, but he's still hot enough that he can feel sweat gathering in the divots and folds of his body.
It's odd; the Nest is always cold, the kind of cold that seeps into his bones and stiffens his marred skin. It sends alarm bells ringing in his head, but Neil can't connect the reasons as to /why/.
He curls into himself at some point, grateful that Jean had taken the cuffs off him last night. He wants to stumble into the bathroom, wipe away the dried blood and sweat, but his limbs can't seem to cooperate. Small tremors rock through his body, and he only curls tighter, a meek attempt at comfort. It doesn't help; he wants to bury his nose in his pillow, but it smells just as wrong as the rest of this place.
Neil freezes, eyes opening wide in panic, taking a deep breath only makes it worse. He can smell more than his own blood staining the sheets; he can smell strawberries, faint but growing stronger.
On some level he understands that it's his scent, unfamiliar after years of suppressant injections and Mary's punishments. Except it can't be, because Neil still has months before his next injection, because it's growing stronger, sweeter, and that shouldn't be possible. It can't be possible.
"Jean," Neil's voice comes out weak, and he hates himself for it. He repeats himself, stronger this time, and it's not long before Jean is bolting out of bed and too his side. His hands are shaking minutely as they hover over Neil's curled up body.
"I should have months left," Neil says hoarsely because there is no denying he is going into heat, not after Jean's reaction.
"There is a drug," Jean whispers lowly, "It can be used to induce heats, but it doesn't- It doesn't make sense."
Neil narrows his eyes as he feels the onset of aching in his stomach. He has only been through one miserable heat, shoved in the backseat of a honda with a belt in his mouth to keep him quiet.
Neil hated Mary for that, but his hands clench in the sheets as he realizes this will be worse. Much worse.
"What do you mean?," Neil rasps, "Why doesn't it make sense?"
Jean flinches slightly, "None of your transgressions befit this kind of punishment."
Before Neil can unpack /that/, the door to their room swings open. Neil is growling before Riko's smug face comes into view, baring his teeth aggressively when he has the audacity to step through the door.
"Now Nathaniel, is that anyway to treat your alpha?" The stupidity of Riko's words is nearly enough to stop the growl in his throat, if only from sheer confusion.
"What the fuck are you talking about." Neil's hackles raise further as Riko steps closer to the mattress. Jean moves away from his side, an expression of fear Neil can't blame him for but despises anyway.
Riko scowls, "We have already established you were supposed to be mine, before your bitch of a mother stole you away."
Neil scoffs, "Your delusions know no bounds. Maybe you missed the memo, but alphas present /before/ 18, even I know that." He curls his lip, "An alpha complex and daddy issues? No wonder the main family does its best to pretend you don't exist."
Riko's hand shoots out to grasp his neck, cutting off his airflow as Neil scratches bright red lines into his wrist, "It won't matter in a few hours; you'll be begging for my cock like the pathetic whore you are."
Neil spits in his face; it's worth it even with the way Riko's backhand whips his head to the side.
"Make sure it takes," Riko spits towards Jean before storming out.
Neither of them move for a beat, and then Jean is sprinting for the bathroom. Neil hears him gag violently over the toilet as if he's under water. His lungs don't want to take in air, as if Riko's hand never left, and he can't tell if it's the lack of oxygen or the heat beneath his skin that leaves him feeling dizzy.
He loses awareness, his heartbeat loud in his ears like the waves of the California shore. Jean comes back at some point, the back of his hand pressed against Neil's sweat drenched forehead.
Neil shudders at the touch, at the silk sheets which feel like sandpaper beneath him, at Jean's panic filled scent. The heat is coming over him in uncontrollable waves, unfamiliar and terrifying and each stronger than the last.
He tries to cast his mind out, to Fox Tower and the first bed he's slept on in who knows how long, but his thoughts dart just as quickly to the Columbia house, to the key he's memorized the shape of.
He thinks of Andrew in Easthaven. Andrew's whirlwind scent while drugged, the indecipherable emotions, and the brief moments of sobriety, when Neil had to stop himself from drinking in the placid steadfast scent of rain and smoke.
Neil wonders how long he's been here, if Andrew's back already, if his scent is finally under his own control. He wants that right now; he wants Andrew's scent surrounding him, soothing and just a bit dangerous.
The desire crytstallizes so suddenly that Neil needs to bite his lip to stifle a whine. Andrew would make this better; Andrew would keep him safe; Andrew would hold Riko down while Neil skinned him alive for doing this.
He tries to ignore the traces of arousal building in his gut, but the memories of Andrew's strength and stability have damned him. He groans as slick starts to drip from his hole and down his thighs. He feels himself clench, barely able to think around his want for Andrew; the need quickly burning through the rest of his body.
Somewhere Jean is panicking, and somewhere Riko is luxuriating in his false sense of victory, but Neil has no thoughts left to spare on them.
He whimpers, not wanting to touch his hardening cock as the pain starts to settle in. He cracks his eyes open, looking for something suitable to nest with but everything here is wrong wrong wrong wrong. He shudders, digging his nails into his thighs hard enough that they start to bleed.
Distantly, he hears Jean chirping in worry, but Neil's senses hone in on the footsteps approaching their closed door.
He growls, pupils sharp as pinpricks when Riko's face comes in view. His smell is faint, but still clear enough that Neil instinctively jerks backward in disgust. He's speaking, incomprehensible words that become no clearer as he moves towards the bed.
Neil feels his fury build, shaking with the last bits of control he can hold on to.
What's left of his coherent mind knows this needs to go right. He waits until Riko is too close, face inches from Neil's, arms boxing him into the mattress.
Neil lunges. The blood that coats his tongue is warm, sweet with satisfaction, and Neil presses his canines in harder as he distantly registers the screams. Something rips when he pulls back, and the weight that settles next to him is loud and grating on his ears.
Neil catches sight of the open door, still swinging on its hinges. He forgets about Riko, the screaming, the blood painting his face and dripping from his mouth; he bolts.
His legs have finally started to cooperate, no longer aching under his weight as he runs for the stairs. The Nest isn't easy to navigate, but Neil's past the point of thinking. His body knows where he needs to go, pulling him far away from here into the arms of another.
When he finally makes it to the door, he's met with a keypad, a lock Neil can't pick. He wants to cry with frustration, hands shaking and scrabbling at the door pathetically. He freezes as another hand joins his, calmly typing in a 6 digit code before it lights up green.
Neil's next frantic push meets no resistance as he tumbles into the night air. He meets Jean's eyes for a split second, and then there are car keys being pushed into his grip by sure hands.
Neither of them speak, Neil incapable, Jean unwilling, as he shuts the door between them.
Neil doesn't think as he clicks the lock button, watching as a black suv in the lot suddenly lights up.
/Palmetto/, Neil thinks as he turns the key.
Andrew is sitting on the porch with a cigarette in his mouth when a car pulls up. He's been back from Easthaven for nearly a week, brought out early thanks to Bee's intervention.
/Not early enough/, he thinks and immediately discards the thought. He'll handle that later, once things have died down, once Aaron's trial is no longer a concern.
He hasn't spoken to anyone but Bee since returning, aside from Nicky filling him in on what occurred in his absence. The trip to New York, Neil's uncle, and his still missing presence.
Andrew hates being right nearly as much as he hates being wrong. Neil was always going to run, the choice to reveal his name and hidden designation never should've swayed Andrew, but they had.
Neil had, and now Andrew can only reckon with the fact he was stupid enough to want again.
It's those thoughts that are circling his head when the car pulls up. It's not smooth, he watches as the driver goes over the curb, half parked in the street half parked on their lawn. It almost puts Nicky's driving to shame, though Andrew doesn't care enough to tell them off for their horrible park job.
Not until Neil Fucking Josten practically collapses out of the driver's seat, beat to all hell and with red hair to boot.
Andrew is at his side before his conscious mind realizes, his body already having made the choice for him. He smells blood, and fear, but they're overpowered by the sweet scent of strawberry sorbet pouring out from Neil's neck.
His mouth starts to water as Neil practically folds into his arms, pupils blowing wide as he catches the heat scent of slick in the air. He has a second to curse before Neil is looking up at him, glazed eyes blinking heavily before getting stuck on Andrew's face.
"Andrew," He says his name like no one else ever has, possibly ever will.
Andrew feels his heart stutter in his chest before starting to race; Neil has no right saying his name like that, like it means something, like it means /everything/.
The dried blood staining his face, possibly even his teeth(?), only registers as Andrew watches Neil's eyelids start to flutter. In the next moment, Neil is slumping fully into him, entirely dead weight as he loses consciousness.
Andrew wants to hit something, jaw clenched hard enough to crack as he cradles Neil to his chest. He thinks of Kevin's face when Andrew arrived at Abby's unannounced, the guilt which erupted from his scent before being tucked away. Kevin has done his best to avoid Andrew since; he suspects it has something to do with the distraught and bloodied omega in his arms.
He kicks hard at the door, ignoring the way it rattles on its hinges, before doing it twice more.
"Jesus Andrew, why are you-" Aaron's mouth drops open in shock.
"Move," Andrew grunts out.
Aaron sidesteps, giving Andrew enough room to slide inside, "Is that Josten??" Andrew ignores him.
Nicky is fluttering into the room next, gasping dramatically as he takes in the crumpled form of Neil. "Oh my god is he bleeding? Is he okay? Andrew, where- shouldn't we take him to a hospital? Or Abby's?"
He catches sight of Kevin, doing his best impression of a much smaller man, but doesn't pull him aside to talk, not yet.
He takes Neil up to his bedroom, unable to ignore the instincts screaming at him to keep him safe, keep him cared for well fucked, keep him in sight. He places him gently on the bed, heart seizing as he watches Neil unconsciously bury his nose in his pillows.
"Aaron," he calls down, unable to pull his eyes away. Aaron doesn't take long to appear, brow weighed down as he takes in Neil's position.
"Grab the first aid kit. He's in heat, and he smells like blood." Aaron stiffens but does as Andrew says. "And tell Kevin to come here."
Andrew watches the rise and fall of Neil's chest until Aaron returns, first aid kit and wash cloth in hand; Kevin dragging behind him. Andrew goes for the wash cloth first, swiping at the dried blood surrounding Neil's mouth not unkindly. The smell of blood doesn't leave entirely, but if Neil is carrying any wounds they're not visible, and Andrew refuses to undress him while he's unconscious.
"Leave it," Andrew nods towards the kit, "and if Nicky is stress cooking tell him to meal prep for Neil's heat."
The sweetness of Neil's scent died down when he passed out, but it's still mouthwatering, distracting enough that Andrew regrets bringing Kevin here.
Aaron's jaw clenches, but Andrew expects him to remain silent as he leaves. He's surprised to find that's not the case, "You can't seriously be planning to help him through his heat."
Andrew raises an eyebrow but remains silent.
"He shows up like this after clearly lying about his whereabouts, and his fucking second gender, and you're just going to- what? Let it slide? Fuck that," Aaron spits.
Andrew turns back to Neil's sleeping form, "I knew he was an omega."
"I knew where he was," Kevin says quietly, barely even a whisper.
Aaron scoffs, annoyance clear in his scent as he stomps away.
Andrew does not turn to look at Kevin, "Where."
"I think you already know."
"Do not make me repeat myself," Andrew bites out sharply.
Kevin's scent is filled with something close to grief, "He went to the Nest. Riko cornered him at the winter banquet. Jean gave me his ticket."
Andrew clenches his jaw, "And the heat?" He looks at Kevin out of the corner of his eye, seeing him go pale. "He told me he wouldn't need another injection of suppressants until June."
"There's a drug Riko uses sometimes; it can induce mating cycles even when a person's on suppressants," Kevin stammers out an explanation.
Andrew sees red, barely able to get out a dissmissal before he's slamming the door shut behind him and locking it. He presses his knuckles into his eyes, hard, before abruptly turning to look over his sheets.
He'll have to raid the linen closet before Neil wakes, grab Nicky's food, force Kevin to go on a run for nonperishables and water bottles, but he can't bring himself to leave Neil's bedside.
It's not even the heat scent still floating through the air, or the desire to familiarize himself with the strawberries bursting on his tongue. It's the way Neil had looked at him, like Andrew was too good to be true.
It's the way the scent of terror, fear, adrenaline, had melted away as soon as Andrew's arms came around him, replaced by an overwhelming emotion Andrew refuses to name, but smelled a lot like gratitude.
Neil whimpers, curling into himself as if in pain, and Andrew barely stops himself from reaching out. His alpha is screaming at him to soothe, to comfort, to wrap Neil in bubblewrap and possibly a gps tag so that this can never happen again.
Instead, Andrew takes heavy steps to the door, biting his tongue as he forces himself to unlock it so that he can gather supplies, and maybe his wits.
