dunkaerion ft. feral omega!aerion - pack-building edition
kind of a companion piece to the very first post i made on tumblr
ahhhhhhh because the concept of omega!aerion who has sensory issues is dear to my brain, like this bad boy is touch-averse and touch-starved at the same time, he's had rotten sleep ever since they left the red keep and his own comfy bed/nest, the food's not great, things smell weird, the wind blows differently, everything's just off and awful all the way around.
also the concept of alpha!dunk not even consciously figuring out what's going on, he just knows that wrapping aerion up in his arms calms the omega somehow. there's always that token fighting, aerion testing dunk's hold on him, but then every time dunk's letting go of him or loosening his grip out of worry, aerion's hissing and snarling at him and pulling dunk's arms around him tighter.
eventually they just decide together that aerion using claws and drawing blood was a good enough marker of him actually being uncomfortable. otherwise, he can wiggle and squirm and kick all he likes, but dunk's just gonna readjust his grip and just keep holding aerion. guy's pretty much a giant weighted blanket. shares the prince's tent each night, but the guards posted outside report there's nothing untoward happening between the alpha and the omega inside.
maekar, of course, is losing his mind at the sheer impropriety of it all but then again, aerion's not threatening to hurt or maim or kill people, so a win is a win, even if he's not happy that his second son is practically attached to a hedge knight.
say lyonel invites dunk to his own private tent, but aerion comes along too cause he's not losing his support alpha. the instinctive posturing is almost instant, only it's an alpha and an omega scrapping over another alpha in growls and snarls, and lyonel is the one who snaps out of it first when he realizes that he's acting almost feral and possessive for no reason? and lyonel looks away first, freezes, and starts swearing up and down and sideways as aerion takes on a very smug look on his face, leaning back into dunk as he watches lyonel come to the realization that he essentially "lost" the fight.
dunk is oblivious to this fight going on, he only knew that both lyonel's and aerion's scents were getting pretty strong - not rotten strong, like aerion's got when he was upset, only strong, then lyonel's tapered off and aerion's smelled of great contentment. the scent of woods and ozone and rain gets undercut by mountain creek, orchards at harvest, well-kept furs in storage. but somehow the scents work together.
i haven't figured out what dunk's scent is yet. rich earth, wool/lanolin, sun-warmed grass? sure, why not.
and lyonel is a little at odds, a little confused as to what exactly he's meant to do with dunk and aerion attached to each other. maybe lyonel has an old hawking glove he doesn't use anymore, and his thing is just letting aerion bite at his hand in the glove - doesn't hurt him, it's more pressure than anything, but aerion gets that biting instinct out of the way.
anyway, point being, dunkaerion will run into alpha!tanselle next, the puppet-destroying and finger-breaking didn't happen, but aerion again feels threatened, again the feral challenge that tanselle didn't expect, but she backs down once aerion starts smelling distressed and then angry at the distress. her thing with aerion becomes playing with his hair, scratching his scalp, etc.
essentially aerion's accidentally collected a pg/pg-13 harem of alphas to meet his touch-starved/sensory needs, only they have to be precise-ish about how they're touching him otherwise he's gonna riot. now, adding daeron and valarr might edge close to rampant misunderstandings, but then again, everything is platonic except for the dunkaerion pairing, so let's roll.
with daeron, he knows that aerion liked having his tummy gently rubbed/massaged when he was little. even in the cradle, when aerion was a fussy baby and dyanna wasn't readily available, daeron could soothe him by rubbing his little tummy and singing to him. so if daeron somehow happens upon this "calm the feral omega down" campaign that's going on, he tries rubbing aerion's belly again. takes a little hissing and snarling before daeron figures out the pressure aerion likes, and then daeron's able to soothe aerion faster than just about everyone aside from dunk, and then it's a close second. aerion fights dunk to get comfortable. daeron just needs to figure out the right amount of pressure, and aerion's scent goes sweet and easy.
but yeah! aerion's well taken care of during his heat, and this is the first heat he's had where he's not absolutely miserable. he can't (or shouldn't) go out into the tourney while in heat, but if he does, then he's not going to be killing horses. i think that he's electing to stay out of the tourney this time, since all this proper attention is really very nice. his mind's quiet for the first time, he's not in aches and pains and hurting in a hundred different spots for the first time, and that must feel like euphoria to him, so nah, aerion's not giving up being petted and coddled for a tourney.
and since it's not like everyone's gotta be giving the omega all the attention all the time, lyonel and dunk and daeron can go off to do tourney things. but that just leaves aerion with tanselle, who's still got her puppet shows to run, unless he's actually sleeping deeply for the first time by himself, napping in his tent that now smells of all the alphas and him. mostly him. but enough of the other alphas to be comforting, as well as their contributions to his makeshift nest.
mind you, aerion's still a little feral even if he is feeling better, and that's not likely to stop. the base instincts might just run a little deeper with him, maybe the explanation is that the ancient ones are made known a little clearer through someone like aerion, the old ways, the forgotten ways. in which case, the "harem" is more of a pack, like the olden days.
let's talk about egg! again, in this au, aerion didn't go sneaking into egg's room to be weird and gross. he wasn't nice to egg, per se, but he wasn't that level of messed up. and really, by the time aerion's heats hit, he was just miserable and snappy at everyone all the time. now that he's got proper attention and treatment, though, aerion's sweeter to egg, maybe a little more warm, that's a pup there, that's a little guy, and a pleased omega isn't likely to lash out at pups.
all egg really knows is that aerion used to yell and throw things, and while none of it was really at egg, egg tended to bear witness and that's pretty bad. but now aerion's actually happy to see him? and is making those soft chuffing, chirping noises that dyanna used to make that egg barely remembers. and aerion's scent isn't rotten-sour-decaying, it's actually fresh and rich and content. so it might take a little while for egg to get used to the concept of aerion not losing his temper every time the wind shifts, but all the combined scents in aerion's tent might be comfy, and aerion's whispering apologies while patting the air around egg's head, not wanting to touch him and scare him.
at some point, dunk might come back to the tent to see egg cuddled up with aerion and they're both napping in aerion's nest. there's something soft and tender in dunk's chest that aches a little seeing this, and he just covers them up with a cloak or two (his and daeron's, so they're familiar scents) before leaving.
to be continued?
