They Were Only Friends

            Kyuhyun’s arms shook as he held the shelf.  Changmin was trying to screw it into the side of the entertainment center, but he couldn’t line up the screw when the hole kept moving on him.  After several failed attempts, he gave Kyuhyun an impatient look.  “Can you try a little harder to stand still?”

            “I swear that I am,” Kyuhyun said, setting the wooden piece down and sitting down on the floor.  He rested his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands.  “I just don’t feel well.”

            “Because you drank too much with Wook?  Even I don’t buy that,” Changmin said, sighing heavily.  “You know how many times you hang out with me, get completely wasted, and still beat me at every video game we play?  That takes incredible hand-eye coordination!  There’s no way you’re stumbling around the day after drinking!”

            Kyuhyun rolled his eyes.  “You just at playing and you don’t want to admit it.”

            Victoria walked into the room with a tray of coffee and little pastries.  “I could have built that by myself by now if Changmin would let me,” she complained, looking over the half-built entertainment center.

            “You’re not building furniture while you’re pregnant.  I won’t risk you having an accident and harming the pups,” he informed her, taking the tray from her and setting it on the table.  “Besides, we should have had it finished already.  Kyuhyun is just jittery today for some reason.”

            Victoria looked down at Kyuhyun with narrowed eyes.  Sure enough, the alpha was shaking, as if he were cold, except he was the warmest blooded wolf she knew.  Was he coming down with a fever?  “Perhaps I shouldn’t have brought you out coffee.  That probably won’t help calm you any.  Why are you jittery?”

            “He and Ryeowook drank too much last night.  He’s hungover.  Or so he claims,” Changmin told her, pouring himself a cup of coffee.            

            The short omega stared Kyuhyun down, hands on her hips.  Even with a protruding stomach and walking around barefoot because her feet were swollen, she still looked intimidating when she focused on you with those molten, chocolate eyes.  She watched as Kyuhyun raked his hands through his hair, as if on edge. 

            “I remember having a reaction like that once,” she said, her lips spreading into a smile. 

            “You do?” Changmin asked, sounding relieved.  “What did you do about it?”

            “I went back home to my mate,” she answered.

            Changmin’s brows furrowed as he looked down at his wife, who looked so smug suddenly, and then turned to look at his best friend.  Kyuhyun fell back into the plush carpet and covered his face with his hands.

            “Woman, you have gone mad!” Changmin declared.

            But Victoria continued to smile down at the unsettled alpha lying on their floor.  “I’m right.  Aren’t I?”

            “You two have to promise not to tell anyone!  I swore to him that I wouldn’t tell anybody!” Kyuhyun cried.  Quite literally, there were tears forming in his eyes, he was so frustrated.  He’d fantasized nearly his whole adult life about mating Ryeowook and finally his dreams had come true, only everything was a complete nightmare.  Nothing had happened as he wanted or expected it to.  Of course, in truth, he never thought the y little omega would mate with him at all.  But if it had somehow happened, he always expected Ryeowook to want him back.  Everything was a mess and he didn’t know what to do.

            Victoria knelt down beside the distressed alpha and grasped his arm.  “Who?  Ryeowook?” she asked.  “Please tell me that you’re mated to your crush or I shall start crying as well!”

            Changmin desperately shook his head.  “No, no!  You don’t need to both start crying!” 

            Kyuhyun moved his hands away from his face and then wiped away his tears with the back of his hand.  “It is Ryeowook.”

            Victoria still teared up anyway.  “Why are you upset?  Isn’t this what you always wanted?”

            “It’s a long story.”

            “I don’t care!  We’re your friends,” Victoria insisted, squeezing his arm.

            Kyuhyun nodded and sat back up.  Then he told them everything he could remember: how Ryeowook had called him after his fight with Yesung, how they drank together, how Ryeowook started asking him about the way Kyuhyun kissed him.  Then Kyuhyun told them the parts he remembered that came afterward and how they’d woken up the next morning, only to find that he’d marked Ryeowook.

            Victoria grasped both his hands.  “How do you feel about that?”

            “You already know that I’ve loved him a long time,” Kyuhyun pointed out.  “But Ryeowook doesn’t feel the same.  He wants to find a way to undo it.”

            “There isn’t a way,” Changmin confidently told him.  Then he thought it over and looked down at his mate.  “Is there?”

            Kyuhyun gave her a panicked look.

            Victoria cupped Kyuhyun’s face.  “Kyu!  Ryeowook is in love with you!”

            Kyuhyun tried to shake his head but the little omega wouldn’t let him. 

            “He’s been in denial of his feelings for you throughout your whole relationship.  Why that is, I don’t know.  Perhaps he feared that you didn’t feel the same.  Perhaps he was afraid of ruining your friendship.  Whatever the reason, it is not enough to keep you two apart.  Everyone who knows the two of you understands that, eventually, you will be together.  We’ve all spoken about it!”

            Kyuhyun’s eyes began to water and his limbs were shaking violently.  “He was so upset about it this morning.  I think he even regretting sleeping with me last night.  Technically, he’s still dating Yesung.”

            “He is mated to you,” she reminded him.  “He no longer belongs to Yesung.”

            Kyuhyun exhaled roughly.  “I feel like .”

            “Mates react more intensely to being separated, the stronger their relationship is,” she told Kyuhyun.  “How long have you been away from Ryeowook?”

            The alpha glanced at their clock.  “About four hours.”

            Victoria’s eyes went wide.  “You need to get back to Ryeowook!  He is probably reacting as badly as you are at the moment.  Is he back at the dorm?”

            “I think he might be out with Sungmin,” he confessed, not entirely sure where his mate was and feeling a little embarrassed at not knowing.  Even when they were just best friends, he almost always knew where Ryeowook was at any given time. 

            “We need to find him before you both get worse,” she said, standing up and motioning for his mate to help Kyuhyun up.  “I don’t think you should drive home.”

            “I think I agree with you,” Kyuhyun conceded.

            “Changmin will drive your car back to the dorm with you and I’ll follow in mine, so I can bring him back home with me,” Victoria offered, grabbing her purse and heading for the door.  “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

            Changmin wrapped his arm around his best friend and slowly helped him to their front door.  “Why did you think this was a good idea, Kyu?  Everyone knows you can’t leave your mate right after you mark them.”

            Kyuhyun had a hard time concentrating at all, as Changmin handed him his winter coat and bundled up for the winter weather himself.  “I forgot,” he admitted, thinking about the future he’d always envisioned for himself.  “I never thought I would actually mate.”

            Victoria gave him a dumbfounded look as she pulled on her winter boots.  “You’re attractive, you have a fun personality, and you work hard.  Why did you think you’d be single your whole life?”

            Kyuhyun leaned against the wall after pulling on his coat, feeling unsteady.  “You don’t understand,” he said, fumbling to button up his coat.  “I’ve wanted Ryeowook for a very long time now and…and I never thought that would ever happen, Vic.  If it couldn’t be him, I didn’t want anyone else.”

            Victoria pressed her lips together in a sympathetic smile and walked over to help him with his coat buttons.  “Well, he is yours now.”

            Kyuhyun shook his head.  “No, I don’t think he is.”

            Victoria winked at her friend.  “I think you’ll find that he is and always has been.”

            Ryeowook gave Sungmin a horrified look.  “What?”

            Sungmin glanced over at Ryeowook.  “Alphas and omegas are more ually attracted to one another after they mate.  It’s not as bad as when you go into heat, but it’s still going to happen during the first few weeks you’re mated.”

            Ryeowook covered his face with his hands. 

            “But, as these things go, it happens more if you’re very attracted to your mate and much less if you aren’t attracted to your mate,” he pointed out, glancing over at Ryeowook.  “Just like the reactions of being away from your mate are more severe, the closer you are.”

            Ryeowook was shaking visibly.  He had been the whole car ride.  “But is that just concerning romantic relationships?  Because Kyu and I have always been extremely close.”

            Sungmin smirked.  “I don’t know.  I guess it might work for best friends, too.  But how many best friends do you think mate that don’t have any romantic feelings for one another?  That would be a hard thing to find statistical information on, I imagine.”

            Ryeowook closed his eyes tight.  “I feel horribly dizzy.”

            “Just imagine what will happen during your next heat if you don’t figure things out by then,” Sungmin pointed out.  “Awkward!”

            Ryeowook glared at his friend.

            Sungmin only smiled.

            Just then, Ryeowook’s phone went off and he pulled it out of his pocket.  It was a message from Kyuhyun.  He turned it away from Sungmin so the beta wouldn’t see him reading a message from his mate and further. 

            Where are you?

            Ryeowook began typing back.  On my way back to the dorm.

            Almost immediately, there was another message.  Do you feel okay?

            The little omega thought about lying, but Kyuhyun would discover the truth once he was within range again.  It hardly seemed worth lying to the alpha anymore.  No.  You?

            I have been shaky and unable to concentrate all morning.  And I keep worrying about not feeling the bond.

            Once he read the words, he understood it to be true.  The sudden silence was what upset him the most.  He could not sense Kyuhyun nearby and could not tell what he was feeling.  It seemed silly to be so upset about it.  They’d been friends for years and he’d never panicked like this over not knowing how Kyuhyun was before.

            Well, perhaps that wasn’t true.  Almost immediately the night of the car accident came to mind.  For a long while, they didn’t know whether or not Kyuhyun was going to live.  Certainly, Kyuhyun was unconscious most of the time after the accident, so a mate bond wouldn’t have helped him any.  But he had worried.  In fact, his heart nearly broke that day.

            Before he could figure out what to send next, he felt the slightest hint of emotion coming from the bond.  Kyuhyun was nearby.  Ryeowook relaxed into his seat and took a deep breath, feeling some of the tension within him release.

            His phone went off again.  How close are you to home?

            A couple minutes.

            I’ll meet you in the ramp.

            Was that necessary?  It would only take him another couple minutes to ride the elevator up and head down the hall, to their dorm.  And then what?  How did one make these strange feelings of emptiness go away?

            Ryeowook didn’t have long to ponder this when they pulled into the underground ramp.  He could see Kyuhyun pacing back and forth near the elevators, but the alpha jogged over their direction once Sungmin parked the car.  The omega could feel his heartbeat loudly thumping in his ears as he opened the car door only to find Kyuhyun standing there, looking a little disheveled and restless. 

            Kyuhyun held his hand down to help the omega out of the car.  As much as Ryeowook wanted to dodge the alpha still, he felt rather unsteady and didn’t trust himself standing up.  The moment their hands touched, it felt like an electrical charge shot through Ryeowook.  Once it subsided, he felt far more relaxed then he had all morning.

            Kyuhyun’s brows furrowed as he stared into Ryeowook’s eyes.  Ryeowook could feel both the relief and confusion.  Clearly the alpha had felt the same sensation run through him.  They both just stood there, in shock, still holding hands.  Neither of them knew what to do next.

            “Meeting us at the car?” Sungmin teased.  “Did you miss your best friend so much?”

            Ryeowook looked over his shoulder at Sungmin.  “Be nice, hyung.”

            Sungmin just smiled and walked away.

            “I told him,” Ryeowook confessed, turning back to look at Kyuhyun. 

            For some reason, Kyuhyun seemed excited to learn this.  “I told Changmin and Victoria.”

            Ryeowook grimaced.  “They’re going to tell everyone!”

            “No, they promised not to,” Kyuhyun insisted.  “I needed to talk to someone about this.  It was driving me crazy.  You’re usually the one I go to when I need to talk to someone.”

            The omega nodded.  “You’re usually the one I go to as well.”

            Kyuhyun stepped closer, lowering his voice.  “Please tell me that we haven’t messed that up.  I still need you.”

            Ryeowook leaned in, resting his forehead against Kyuhyun’s shoulder.  The feel of the alpha pressed against him grounded him and the dizziness began to fade.  But the spinning of his thoughts did not cease.  He only became more and more confused.  How could they go back to being friends now that Kyuhyun had marked him?  Nothing was the same anymore.

            “I don’t know, Kyu.”

            Kyuhyun abruptly pulled away, upset by Ryeowook’s answer.  As Kyuhyun backed up a couple steps, Ryeowook panicked and fell back against the car, his legs still unsteady from the long absence.

          “Don’t leave me!” Ryeowook pleaded.  He’d never sounded so desperate before and felt just as baffled by his own reaction to Kyuhyun pulling away as Kyuhyun looked upon hearing it.  “Please, don’t leave.”

          “I’m not!  But I need you, too!” Kyuhyun shouted, pointing at his own chest.  “I need you!  You promised me that you wouldn’t run away.  We need to face this together.”

            Ryeowook felt himself tearing up, his lip quivering.

            “!  I can’t even yell at you anymore because I can feel your reaction,” he complained, lowering his voice.  “Come here,” he said, opening his arms wide.

            The little omega shook his head.  “I can’t walk very well.”  The separation had clearly gotten to Ryeowook more and the omega wasn’t sure if that meant something or not.

            Kyuhyun stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Ryeowook and then lifted him up into his arms.  Ryeowook reflexively wrapped his arms around the alpha’s neck and his legs around his hips.  Although once he was in that position, his memories from the night before flooded back to him once again and his cheeks began to burn.  Ryeowook hugged Kyuhyun tight and buried his face into his neck, trying to hide his embarrassment.

            “I’m sorry I yelled at you.  I feel strained from being apart all morning,” he confessed, his lips very close to Ryeowook’s ear.  “I don’t like being away from you.”

            “You never have,” Ryeowook pointed out.  “Even before last night.”

            Kyuhyun’s warm breath tickled his ear.  “No, I never have.”

            Ryeowook pulled back enough to look Kyuhyun in the eyes.  “Have you ever really thought of me just as a friend or have you always wanted more?”

            The alpha never answered his question.  At least, not with words.  Kyuhyun leaned in and pressed his lips against the little omega’s.  And perhaps Ryeowook was still under the effect of having been separated from his mate for the last several hours because he could not find the willpower to pull away.  Instead, they ended up kissing a long while, softly pecking, , and into each other’s mouths.  And Ryeowook forgot to remind himself that this was not how best friends usually behaved.

Were they ever really just friends?  Maybe, maybe not.

Comments?