"Alpha pheromones will make him feel better."

Bambam would have held onto Jackson anyway even without Youngjae's explanation, but it was Mark's offhanded comment beforehand which was really stuck in his head. "What do you mean he's mated to Jaebum?"

"Jaebum-hyung." Jinyoung corrected idly. 

Mark blinked at him. "He's . . . mated to Jaebum." His brows furrowed and he cocked his head. "Didn't you notice? It happened during his last heat. It's not like they've been dating since we were trainees or anything."

Jackson whined in his arms, trying to crawl further up his body and stick his face into Bambam's scent gland. Of course, Bambam let him. He could never deny his favourite hyung anything. 

"Hurts." Jackson whimpered into his collar. 

"Dont worry, honey.' Youngjae soothed. "Jaebum will be here soon to take care of you."

Jackson hummed contentedly with that, apparently imagining his mate and Bambam didn't know how to feel, being a scenting stand-in while their leader rushed from his interview to take care of his mate.

Suddenly Bambam felt sick. "Can't one of you take him?"

Youngjae may be the textbook definition of an omega - soft, cuddly, sweet, homemaker by nature - but the glare he sent his way was downright poisonous. "I get your knot stops you from seeing past yourself, but sudden heats like this hurt. He needs alpha pheromones around him right now and I don't care what kind of wounded pride you've got going on over Jaebum getting to him first, but you are going to take care of your hyung and so help me God if you say anything else until Jaebum gets here."

Bambam immediately shut his mouth and shrunk away. The omega in his arms followed him and he idly his hair.

"Hey, are you okay?" Yugyeom whispered against his ear, patting his shoulder. 

"Me? I'm fine." 

The other omega, only in the approaching stages of his first proper heat, leaned his head on the young alpha's shoulders. Some days, Bambam really wished that Yugyeom was more than just a friend to him, that he found the younger man attractive like that. Instead, his dumb fell in love with an omega that was not only taken, but mated, as in, for life. 

Yugyeom whined a little in the back of his throat, nuzzling more into Bambam, trying to comfort the older man. Jackson had fallen asleep with his face buried in Bambam's shoulder, his deep breathing through his nose driving Bambam's senses haywire. He was rigid as a board, hands clenched at his side as he resisted the impluses to scent Jackson, to feel across those gorgeous muscles, to indulge his fascination and make his want that much more unbearable. 

A distant door was thrown open and moments later, Jaebum rounded the corner, eyes skipping from person to person before they landed and honed in on Jackson. Bambam didn't know what he expetced as the other, more masculine and more intimidating alpha came up to him, but it certainly wasn't a gentle pat on the head and Jaebum tenderly taking Jackson. 

"Thank you." Jaebum smiled, winking. "His heats, when they sneak up on him like this, get really painful really fast. Normally it's not a problem with us together all the time, but I'm glad you were around."

Bambam blinked, uncomprehending. "Aren't you mad I got my scent all over your mate?"

Jaebum shrugged even as Jackson blearly awoke, sleepily and needily pawing at his alpha. "You smell good too."

Bambam stared after him as he lifted Jackson up, walking them back to his bedroom. Jinyoung would be sleeping with Mark for the next couple of days, for sure. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" Yugyeom whispered to him again, a hand on his shoulder. 

"I just need a shower and some sleep, I think." He cracked a broken smile he knew his roommate seen right through. "Schedules are hellish this week, aren't they?"

They'd done a commerical and some concept group meetings. Hardly a difficult week by any standards, but Yugyeom let it pass with a concerned nod. "Well, don't take too long and use up all the hot water, okay?"

"Noted, chief." He gave a finger salute and waltzed off to the shower, not only to clean off the shatteringly enticing scent of Jackson and forbidden temptation from his skin, but to try and stitch up the over-invested wound in his heart.

---

You're being an idiot. Jackson was never yours to begin with. You didn't have any claim to him to be hurt like this.

As much as reasoning with himself helped his mind soothe, it did nothing for his heart. He just couldn't get over his crush on Jackson. And he was pretty sure he would know if it was possible to will away feelings for someone because he's been trying to resist wanting Jackson since he met the buff omega. Jackson hadn't been the first omega he'd ever met and certainly not the only one to break societal moulds, both by Thai and Korean standards, but there was just something innate about Jackson that no one could resist. He'd endeared himself quickly to everyone in Got7 - he made Mark talkative and open, coaxed a level of comfort out of Yugyeom that no one else could, helped Bambam wtih his desperate and painful homesickness, broke past personal boundaries with Jaebum and Jinyoung which allowed them to open up their established relationship to the rest of the group and made Youngjae proud of not only his singing talent, but his omega status, which had previously made him nervous, fretful and constantly anxious. There was no one who disliked Jackson and dozens in just the idol community who adored him. BTS treated him like an unofficial member, VIXX giggled and played with him, EXO members broke from their company's standard stoicism to poke and prod back at him and Amber - like the oddity of a female alpha that she was - treated him like a twin brother she didn't actually have. They hung out as much as they could without a care or concern and, surprisingly, there never came any dating rumours from it. To be fair, though, when Jackson was in a relationship, it was so similar to his normal affectionate self it was rather hard to tell if he hadn't been with nearly every idol and they just still adored him too much to rat him out.  

You're not helping yourself. Jackson's not perfect, so stop pretending that you think he is. You've even complained about how loud and weird he can be before. Stop mooning over him.

A sudden knock on the door to his bedroom startled him out of his musings. Yugyeom was out with Jinyoung and Mark to get snacks for a late-night anime binge they were going on tonight and Youngjae was out with a friend for dinner and a drink to catch up. That meant the only other people it could be were Jackson or Jaebum and he didn't know whether to be terrified or elated with the options. 

The door cracked open and Jackson's head appeared around the corner. His hair was wet, meaning he likely just got out of the shower. It would make sense, since he just ended a four-day binge. "Good. I was hoping you were home."

Bambam sat up immediately. "Of course, hyung. Come in."

Jackson did as he was bid, coming to sit down beside Bambam, shoulder to shoulder, and laying his head there. He sighed through his nose and took one of Bambam's hands. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being all clingy and everything. I get that way during my heat and this time it was really strong. Honestly, I don't remember much more than really liking how you smelt and Youngjae telling me to wait just a little bit longer for Jaebum."

Bambam was happy that Jackson wasn't looking at him because he was pretty sure he didn't hide that wince very well. 

"I hope I didn't do anything inappropriate or that made you uncomfortable."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, last time this happened, I was with Mark after a filming of After School Club and I d him everywhere I could reach. It took him, Eric and Jimin to lock me in a dressing room until Jaebum was free to come get me. I hope I wasn't like that with you."

"You weren't. Even if you were, it wouldn't be a problem."

Jackson hummed a chuckle. "Oh no?"

. "I mean, you're clingy and touchy all the time. It can't be much worse than that."

"I mean, I only stuck my hand down Mark's pants and snarled at Jimin when she tried to get me to stop, but yeah, no big differences to be seen anywhere." Jackson could laugh about it now, but he knew it would have taken weeks of Mark's ressurances in order to get the omega to calm down and not feel like .

"Eh. Not really."

"So, I didn't do anything bad when Youngjae pawned me off on you?"

"Nothing at all, really. You just cuddled up to me and buried your face in my neck."

"Really? That's all?"

"Yeah. Why? IS that weird for you?"

"Well, I'm only submissive like that with Jaebum." Jackson sat up properly and regarded Bambam, then leaned in again and pressed his nose to Bambam's scent gland. The alpha couldn't hold back a shiver, but tried his best. "You don't smell even a little bit alike."

At the risk of his mental state . . . "What does Jaebum-hyung smell like?"

Jackson innocently met his gaze. "Vanilla mocha. Rich and warm, but still smooth."

"And me?"

Jackson cocked his head again. "Sweet chocolate ice cream. Like, milk chocolate gelato."

"Gelato?"

"Remember that ice cream we had from Italy? The really, really good one? That's gelato."

"Oh! Yeah, I do. So, I smell like chocolate?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know what you smell like?"

Jackson paused for a moment. "No, actually." He chuckled. "Green tea and spinach, probably. That's all I eat."

"You smell like-" sex, sin, want, lust, perfection, desire- "- cinnamon rolls and cream cheese icing."

Jackson blinked. "I smell like a Cinnabon?"

"Yeah. Strong, too. It's really thick around you and makes me hungry a lot."

Jackson squealed. "That's so cool! I can't actually smell myself, so that's awesome to know!"

"I imagine Jaebum-hyung enjoys it a lot." He didn't mean for his voice to trail off, but it slipped and Jackson caught it. The man was an observant little when he wanted to be. 

Jackson's hand was gentle on his shoulder. "You didn't know I was mated to him, did you?"

"No, I didn't. I guess it wasn't important for me to know?"

Jackson pulled him under his arm and pressed their foreheads together. "Jaebum and I got together in the first year because I kept getting my heats even though I was on suppressants."

"You burned through them?" It wasn't exactly common, but it wasn't unheard of for an omega's pheromones to absorb and redirect the hormones in suppressants. They wound up getting heats - strong ones - even though they weren't supposed to get them at all.

"Yeah, I did. So, instead, I was set up with birth control and Jaebum agreed to be my partner, since my heats last fifteen days without a partner and we couldn't afford to have me down for two weeks straight every three months." His eyelashes fluttered against Bambam's cheeks as he sighed. "Because he was the leader and I trusted him a lot for his self-control, Jaebum became my heat-handler. Eventually, we got really attached and started informally dating. We did that for a couple of years before we decided that we wanted to stay together forever. Well, maybe that's not the proper truth."

"Huh?"

"Jaebum started to imprint." Jackson explained. "Alphas can't help it, right? They imprint on omegas they fall in love with and once it gets to a certain point, its irreversible. Well, without either of us knowing, he imprinted over the course of one of my heats. Three days and it was sealed."

"Holy ."

"Yeah. He tried to bite Mark when he brought us food and Gatorade. So we decided that we should mate. It's the only way to soothe the imprint and reign in Jaebum's instincts. But we're happy together. I don't ever see myself leaving him."

"Oh." Well, there went that hope. 

Jackson, again, seemed to sense what he was thinking. "Kunpimook?"

"Hmm? What is it, hyung?"

Jackson pulled his head forward by the back of his neck and pressed their lips together. Bambam froze, hands slasming on his lap, not knowing whether to pull him closer with his own desire or push him away with the image of Jaebum that popped into his head.  Jackson pulled away, but before Bambam could get properly outraged or demand answers, there was a finger to his lips and Jackson's breath against his neck. 

"Jaebum told me you like me and at first I didn't believe it. We're really close, but you're very good at hiding your emotions. If I kissed anyone else, they would have thrown me off and started yelling, but not you. You should have told me, you know. Even now that you know that Jaebum's my mate, you should know that he's not adverse to sharing."

Jackson left a couple of minutes later, but Bambam was left there in silence. His broken brain kept repeating the fact that Jackson would want him, that if he asked, Jaebum might let him . . .