It happened without warning.

One day, Chanyeol woke up and his alpha was broken.

He had no idea why or how it had happened. He just woke up one day, using his y, gravelly morning voice to coax his sweet omega into some lazy morning ... and Jongdae had cooed at him.

Cute, he'd called him.

Cute.

Chanyeol had been baffled back then but in retrospect, it was quite mortifying. Everything had been mortifying since that cursed morning, actually.

Before, every omega and many betas had been flocking around him, pulled in by his musky scent, manly hormones, and impressive height. Now everything Chanyeol got to hear was how soft his hair looked, how cute his large ears were and how his eyes sparkled. And in the rare case Chanyeol made it to second base, they’d laugh hysterically when he announced being a top.

But this is going to change, he told himself.

Enough with the baby boy pillow prince agenda.

And the one who'd help him fix his alpha was none other than Byun Baekhyun - the most dominating alpha on campus. His sheer aura was so powerful that no other alpha dared getting near him.
Maybe Chanyeol's alpha really was broken because he had no issues whatsoever sliding into the chair across him.

"I need your help."

Baekhyun looked up from his lunch - a raw steak - and arched a perfectly groomed, silver eyebrow with a look of utter boredom.

"I can tell."

The three words were enough to make Chanyeol's heart beat faster.
Yes, it had to be him. He was so, so alpha.

When Chanyeol explained his dilemma, Baekhyun offered his help - not without having a good laugh first.

"Well, I could think of a thing or two," he trailed off.
Chanyeol nodded eagerly.

Anything to fix his alpha.

_

Three months later, it dawned on him that maybe Baekhyun wasn't taking him seriously.

"Aww, what gave it away?" said alpha asked idly, snatching the crispiest piece of chicken off the plate.

"I had my doubts about opening up a business," Chanyeol admitted, "and the lacquer pants were questionable enough, but this?"

He pointed at the lump in his hand that had been on his face for two hours.

"A face mask containing omega slick? How is that even supposed to work? Where did you even get this-"

"Oh, wanna know so you can directly complain to them about their fluids being inferior?" Baekhyun asked without missing a beat. At Chanyeol's horrified expression, he only shrugged.

"Look. Becoming a CEO has been a fool-proof plan - maybe being CEO of a café wasn't good enough? Ever considered that?"

"What do you expect me to do, become the boss of Apple?"

With a groan, Baekhyun stretched out on his couch like an overgrown housecat. A domineering one, of course.

"Fine. Did you ever consider the mafia?"

"In my nightmares? Maybe."

"Becoming a jock?"

"Is that some kinda sport?"

"Helping omegas through their heat?"

Chanyeol shuddered, vividly remembering the way a sweaty Minseok had looked at him upon suggesting such.

Withering would be an understatement.

“I’d rather not."

"Yeesh, talk about being uncooperative."
Chanyeol sighed.

"I feel like you’re not even trying to help me."

"Slander."

"Maybe the key to fixing my alpha is not letting you boss me around anymore," he grumbled, to which Baekhyun reacted by poking his toe into Chanyeol's cheek.

"Stop being such an omega. Yanno what, maybe you just need to go back to the roots. Take control of your inner wolf."

Chanyeol hummed, fingers drumming over the other's ankle.

Take control... of the wolf.

Sounded logical.

_

"I don't know what I expected, but this sure ain't it," Baekhyun quipped upon arriving at the zoo.

"Shut uuup," Chanyeol whined, wincing as one of the staff members inspected the largest scratch on his arm, deciding that it wasn't deep enough to bother with it. "You told me to take control-"

"-of your inner wolf. I don't see how that led to you getting into a brawl with zoo animals," Baekhyun deadpanned. "It was clearly a metaphor."

"Well, I thought nothing would be more alpha than being a pack leader?" Chanyeol asked, still sitting on the ground in his half-shredded hoodie while Baekhyun talked to the staff.

When had the other become his emergency contact again?

Chanyeol slumped down. What did it even matter? Nothing mattered right now. It was hopeless. He'd never be able to fix his alpha.

"So what?" Baekhyun asked, crouching down next to him, interrupting his pitiful soliloquies. "Maybe the real alpha was the friends you made along the way."

"What does that even mean?"

"No idea," Baekhyun admitted, patting his head.

When Chanyeol started to cry for real, the other's blasé expression cracked.

"Hey now. Come on. That's not very alpha-"

"Nothing about me is!" Chanyeol cut him off dramatically. "I'll never be as alpha as you are-"

"You're much more alpha than I'll ever be," Baekhyun cut him off with a shrug, but there was a vulnerable undertone to it. "Cause I'm an omega. Always have been."

Chanyeol stared at him.

Commanding, intimidating, strong-willed Baekhyun? An omega?

"You're kidding."

"Look. I didn't ask for this, okay? I'd also prefer a reality where people don't drip slick whenever I look their way. It would be kinda cool if people would sit with me for lunch of something. It gets kinda boring, yanno?"

"I sit with you," Chanyeol commented, small and petulant.

Baekhyun's expression softened.

"Yeap. You do."

He hesitated, then added, "Actually, my heat is coming up soon."

Chanyeol sighed but he wasn't mad.

"I can help you. It's the least I can do after all this. You can do me. Only this once though."

Baekhyun blinked.

"Are you kidding? I love myself some . Inside me, preferably."

Chanyeol lit up.

"Really?"

Baekhyun punched his arm.

"Why, changed your mind on beng a top?"

Chanyeol smiled.

Maybe Baekhyun was right, after all.

The alpha had been in him all along. Metaphorically speaking.