No one's
"What the fuck?!" Azrael shouted after a few seconds of silence. They were unnerved by the fact that someone just came here and stabbed Asea's hand like... And before they can stand up to get the guy, he was quick to leave, the metal door quickly opening and closing.
"Asea!" Emerald was quick to pull Astraea to her side as they quickly attend to her bleeding wrist. Asea didn't even scream, she was too shocked to react. "Aeria, find...find anything." Aeria took a few seconds to react to what Roo said. The scalpel's still on her wrist and she's going pale by just looking at it.
"Let me." Ethan, who looks worried, offered his hand but Asea stopped him. She raised her left hand carefully, pushed her knees against her chest, and pulled it in one go, a groan coming out of her mouth.
"Asea, what the--" Jace was stopped by Ethan quickly holding her hand to steady it as blood quickly bleed out of the opened wound. Aeria came, quickly opening the kit as she tries to calm herself, the sophomore lessons of her course finally becoming useful today.
Yet, what happened just made them feel like Lego blocks scrambled out of formation. They couldn't move fast, they couldn't do anything but watch. "Asea, calm down, okay?" Emerald asked her as she quickly nodded.
Ethan, which they really thought is a mysophobe and wouldn't touch anyone, not even his friends, was quick to get a bandage just to stop the bleeding. "Don't sleep." Ethan snapped his other hand on Asea as she nodded subtly, relaxing as Ethan presses hard on the wrist. "Ethan's a Nursing major, don't worry," Yasser assured her friends as Roo blinks fast. The salty man is actually helping them, wow. That's new.
"Sophomore?" Aeria asked as Yasser smiled and nodded. "We're all in our third year here, are you?" The way he still has this calm, gentle smile amidst this bleeding incident, made Aeria momentarily forget that she just found out Yasser's bonded. Made her momentarily forget she was actually affected by the unfortunate fact when she just met him a few hours ago. Bullshit.
"No. Sophomore. I'm just a sophomore." He nodded and looked back at Ethan who just finished expertly bandaging Asea's wrist. By the time he finished, they fell silent. Not knowing what to do. To even think. Where to even start? The guy just came in, asked for who has the fucking asterisk, whatever that is, and stabbed the nearest on the door, Asea, on the wrist. How fucked up is that? Too.
"Asterisk. Asea has the asterisk..." Em said, her worried eyes looking at them, to Roo and Jace especially, to Yasser and Trey. Roo stared at Em and realized what could've been running on her mind. Anyone who has the asterisk would get hurt? Is it really that?
"This is fucked up. This is fucked up!" Azrael pulled on his hair in frustration as they all fell into an even deeper silence. There are two ways to react here. Freak out or just stay silent, bottle it up, and wait for it to explode.
They can also use their remaining sanity to think of what to do. Find whatever that hint is or find a way out.
If they can stay sane, that is.
😶😶😶
Aeria's
Okay. Aeria decided. She'll have to stop thinking about the fact that they were kidnapped and trapped in this comfortable hell. She has to be calm because if she dropped, it will be more things to stress about by her friends.
Asea's already laying on Em's lap as she stares off to space as if that would help ease the pain on her wrist.
Aeria wanted to say something, anything, in the sense of, "Asea, that would stop hurting soon, don't worry." Or "let's just be thankful that it's just the wrist, right?" The former would come out forced and would be fillers to silence that can be filled conveniently with nothing since thinking in times like this strives in silence. The latter would be just insensitive of her and just plain bullshit. She didn't want to be the bullshit one today. They have already too much on their plate and it's hard to take in even if they were called smart by the medals that hang their necks before college (fucking hell) existed.
And yet now, there's another problem in the air, literally in the air. It was her first, then Roo, Emerald, Jace then Asea. Their scents are now naked for everyone to sense. And they're with fucking alphas who claimed they're fine with their scents yet she still couldn't be sure. Very good, fate.
Aeria decided it would be best if she just calms the fuck down, considering that both Asea and Em look uncomfortable with the fact that their scent is now naked. "It's really fine. Calm down." Trey said, smiling gently at Em who swallowed and smiled politely. Politely, because she might just freak out.
"No, look." Trey looked worried but he's hiding it with his smile. He runs towards his room and came back with his bag. He took his wallet out and produced a silver necklace. It has a silver circle locket with small intricate vines around it. Em stared at the shiny locket with her worried but innocent eyes. Trey smiled then said, "I can let you borrow this for a while."
"Why?"
Trey's eyes trailed off as if lost for a moment then said, "my sister would hold on to this when she thinks alphas around her finds out she's an omega because of her scent. Magically, the alphas would stop caring." That's...cute but idiotic? And Aeria just said she'll calm the fuck down and she's not being open-minded. 'Aeria, calm the fuck down, please.'
"That's just fooling yourself into thinking you have become invisible when you're not. Alphas would still smell you." Asea answered, in a matter-of-fact tone. She can be polite when she wants to but it seemed like getting stabbed in the wrist throws all the polite facade out of the window. Trey pouted a little but continued. "I promise it always works. Alphas won't even sense you." Here's the thing, Aeria knows Em can be a logical bitch when she wants to. Growing up with little siblings who says the most outrageous make-believe shits, Em is used to saying, "oh, really? That's cool." Even though she didn't really pay attention to half of those words because she knows, if she did pay attention, she will either get wowed for a little while or just straight-up raise her eyebrows and hopes she doesn't shatter this kid's dream by talking.
And yet, it seemed like, Trey is this five-year-old kid who still thinks Santa gets him the presents and not Mom, and the way he looked at her with his wide, sparkly gaze as if it's the most real thing he'd told all his life and she has to believe it or else. Fuck, your imagination's just too much sometimes, Aeria. Em smiled and nodded. "Okay." Trey lit up and quickly unclasped the necklace.
He puts it on behind her neck as she lifts her hair for a while. And when he's done, fuck, why am I still watching? just to suffer? he looked at her expectantly as Em's kind eyes cast down on the locket like some cliché female protagonist who just got a necklace from another stereotypical male lead who looks strong, handsome, and would be hit by a car later and get amnesia just to make everything back to square one. She smiled. Great. Oh my fucking god, Aeria, why are you so fucking bitter?
She closed her eyes again and calmed herself. System reboot. Fucking get it together and stop getting bitter about Em having Trey pay attention to her like that. Fine, fine. Whatev-- "Are you feeling okay? You look frustrated." Oh, of course. Yasser.
His warm eyes set on her as he smiled lightly. A fluttering on her stomach happened and she laughed nervously. Fuck. I know this. No, Aeria, you're going to die, shut the fuck up and calm your ass down. "No, no, no, I was just thinking about things."
"I know it seemed insensitive but don't think too much about the stressful things, okay?" Yeah. She won't. Not the fact that they're kidnapped and held against their will, trapped her for eternity until the hint. Or the fact there are five alphas around and there are no scent blockers and that she thinks that that tan, buff guy looks cute and yet, he's bonded. Yes, don't think too much. Of course.
"Do you play snakes and ladders?" All of a sudden? He didn't get shy about it and yet, his sheepish smile is to die for so nevermind the randomness. He pointed at the other room where they were a while ago. "I saw some board games there, maybe we can play just to take our minds off of things." She never nodded so fast on her life as they both scampered off inside the room. He opened one of the drawers and they saw four boxes of board games. Chess, scrabble, monopoly and, snakes and ladders. And when she lifted all four, there's also UNO cards. Wow, their perpetrators are concerned about their well-being, how sweet. And he just got the snakes and ladders and she smiled, realizing something.
He could've gotten the smart games, chess or scrabbles, or the money game, Monopoly, or the fun game UNO, instead he got the game for the ones with the simplest brain sense, like children, and herself, some of the times admittedly. She looked at him trying to hide his excited grin to no avail.
Oh fuck. Am I going to be stuck with him? Fucking sure.
😋😋😋
Jace's
"Can I join?" Ourie's the quickest to sit down on the floor and Aeria smiled, a friendly one at that. "Sure, the more, the merrier, Kuya, you, too!" Aeria basically pulls Jace's hand to make him sit down on the floor with them. "Are we like...5?" He asked sarcastically, but it wasn't of bad intention. The sarcasm in Jace's voice is there, rain or shine.
Ourie smiled happily as Yasser already opened the box and laid the snake and ladders down the table. He laid the box with dice and 4 different colored markers on it. And Aeria got the green, of course, as Yasser nodded. "Sure, I'll let you get the green, but just for today."
"I wouldn't let you get the green, ever." Aeria teased. "Aeria, I didn't know you were a monster." He clicked his tongue, faking disappointment. "But green is my favorite color--"
"Mine, too--"
"Oh shit, really?!" Both Ourie and Yasser laughed at the sudden curse.
"Haven't you seen my bag? It's green!" Jace thinks both Trey and Aeria could pass off as grade school students and no one would think twice. He looked around and saw Em listening to Trey animatedly talking about something, his hand opening and closing as Em laughs, covering her mouth as a habit. Okay. Okay.
Ethan's dozing off on the far couch. Roo is looking around yet again, either trying to find a way out or wondering how a certain design was incorporated to fit the overall look of the interior. Roo's always so passionate even when he's just plain walking along the side of the road, wondering about the measurements on his head or measuring it with his arms. Sometimes, he just wants to leave him there and he wouldn't even notice because he's busy looking closely.
They started playing and he ignored the pads of Ourie's fingers pressing on his opened palm when he was waiting for what's left of the markers. He's too focused on looking around and waiting for his turn to roll the dice. Azrael seemed to have visibly calmed down and was on the kitchen leaning back and staring at the wall opposite him, pouting a little in concentration. Astraea was on Em's lap just a while ago but she's already sleeping with her glasses still on. Must be so painful--
"Your turn, Jace." Ourie said, rolling the dice towards him. And when he was shaking it inside his closed hand, acting like a small cage, his eyes searched his then said. "If it's six, the universe agrees that you're the cutest person there is." He almost choked at what he said, disgruntled and scandalized as Yasser hits his back hard, the smirk not leaving his lips as he chuckles. He's straight-up hitting on him. What the fuck. Right when they were kidnapped and it's just the first fucking day.
He silently prayed it's not six and when the dice stopped, he cursed inwardly. He stared in disbelief at Ourie who dared to smile at him as if his mind would change that he's a weirdo. How did he even know it would be six? And why was he straightforward? "Oh. My turn." Aeria's teasing smile isn't helping at all but he ignored it. Just a fucking coincidence.
And, as they played, somehow, it took his mind off things. Aeria's being her usual giggling and silly self making Yasser laugh. Yasser has puns that Aeria would trash about and laugh inevitably, because oh god, it's so obvious that Aeria's fond of Yasser. Ourie has these witty remarks that actually, fuck, he's really admitting it, just tells him that Ourie's smart. And then, he just stares at him, then casually says, "You look really cute."
"Yes, I am." Ourie smiled at his confidence as he ignored him yet again to go back to the game. "Yes, you are."
That night, they slept in different rooms. He was able to sleep easily, surprisingly, waking up the next day tells him that the others haven't. The lights automatically open at a specific time, as if a poor attempt to give them some sense of time.
Roo initiated cooking their breakfast. "I think we need to talk about the chores...I mean." Yasser paused, as they pay attention to him while they eat. Jace thinks Yasser's the most responsible of the five. "I don't mean to normalize all this but..."
"Yeah, we still need to maintain this cage livable." Ourie agreed. And yet, while they talk, though he knows how to cook, she didn't really volunteer. He lets Em and Roo volunteer on cooking because apparently, the alphas are not really too into cooking.
And not to normalize all this shit but as days pass by, some things just started becoming a habit. Right to the wall, Em and Trey seemed to be enjoying talking to each other for long periods. Their laughs and their silly conversations that only the two understand. Sometimes, they play with Aeria and Yasser together, playing the board games but mostly, it's just Aeria and Yasser talking while they play board games.
It's weird. Yasser seemed to find Aeria comfortable to talk with, maybe because Aeria says yes to every game he thinks they should play at that moment. Or maybe because Aeria likes Yasser? She visibly brightened up these days, and he's glad, though he wouldn't admit that since Aeria's not thinking too much about their situation and not letting it affect her.
Ethan is a confirmed mysophobe and a clean freak. He spends lots of time during the day, making sure everything is clean. And since they don't wear any slippers or anything, but he would ask them to not walk around when he just mopped the floor. When Ourie tries to put his arm around his shoulder that he does to all his friends, he flinches and scowls at the guy and gets in their room, to come out already bathed with his clothes changed. "Try touching me and I'll kill you." He would always say. Jace and his friends are smart enough to not go near him because if he would get mad at his friends for accidentally touching him, what else would he do if it's from people he has no idea about?
He loves being alone, disinfecting everything before and after he used it. It smells disinfectant here and the pandemic made them get used to it. He uses masks except when he's eating. He looks handsome, more than fine actually, like all of them but when he's always hiding it and getting mad at everyone who doesn't listen to him, it would be a shame. Seriously, Jace. You're checking out that mysophobe? Shame.
Roo seemed to have taken this well. He's his usual hey look at the brighter side but it's limited within their circle, of course. Sometimes, when he's not cooking, they both talk. Even if they try to talk about their usual topic: Architecture, sketching and anything art-related, they always have these silent gaps as reality sets in as if shouting at them to talk about it. And they will, they do. It's just, they can't keep it up.
"Do you think they're looking for us?" Jace asked some time. He nodded and smiled.
"We're missing for days now, and it's not like we would just run away without any clothes or anything."
"Do you think we can get out of here?"
"I think, yeah. I know we will."
Silence enveloped them then Jace smiled then said: "This is the part where we make promises and cry while holding up our pinkies." They both laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation, but the silence that followed is the cold, iron truth finding its way to materialize on their heads again.
"Do you think we should?"
"Why not? Except for the crying part please."
Roo ruffled his hair, his eyes casting down as he sighs. Gone is the usual, and Jace just waits for him. "I promise I'll let us out here, no matter what." Jace swallowed and forced a smile. "Wow, that's too brotherly for you, I might just cry." Roo laughed at what he said though his eyes say he's serious. That he'll do it, he'll make sure of it. And he knows Roo.
When he says he will do it, he will. And even with the fears and the doubts, they all try to push away by living normally, he knows he can trust his word.
"Do it then, Roo. Don't disappoint us." He said lightly. A soft smile painted his lips. "I won't."
Azrael, on the other hand, loves playing chess alone. He talks quietly and he seemed to have calmed down these days which is a really good thing because the last thing they need right now is a meltdown. Which is highly probable, with the fact that they can't see the sun and they're trapped here. But, as much as they can avoid it, they try.
He's silent, only talks to his friends. Sometimes to Roo and Em because, anyone from the get-go, would think Roo and Em would be the most responsible among them. It's not that he's irresponsible, just, he just lets others do it if they can do it better. Makes sense, right? Why are you even defending yourself? He's silent and serious. Never really saw him smile or laugh. Yet, one interesting thing is that he seemed to not tolerate Asea.
Not tolerate because he found him glaring at her a few times like Asea just made a huge mistake by breathing. Was it because she managed to shut him up the first time they met? Petty. He doesn't seem like one, though. Maybe he hates her guts?
Asea's silent these days and just spends her time lounging in their room and reading and napping. She does her cleaning chores, comes out at breakfast, lunch, and dinner to eat, but other than that, she's almost always in the room. Was this the guts that Azrael seemed to hate? Because she seemed lazy? Or there's something else?
It's not surprising that the week passed, which they know by counting the times the lights would wake them up, that these things became a habit. Aeria and Yasser playing games and joking around to pass the time. Em and Trey having their little world sitting by the wall. Ethan being a clean freak and would nag them for being dirty. Roo who's open to talking to everyone, everyone being alphas. He's too understanding and casual it somehow infuriates him for some reason. Azrael's visibly calmed down and casual to them but he prefers being alone. Asea stays in the room and naps and naps and naps. Then, fucking Ourie who thinks it's so fun to call him cute and handsome every day, greeting him so loud, like "Jace, Jace!" And wouldn't stop calling him until he turns to him. Then he would proceed to say, sometimes useful but mostly not useful facts about almost anything.
What would he do about the fact that there's an association called NAMBLA which is "a pedophilia advocacy organization who aims to abolish age-of-consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors and campaigns for the release of men who've been jailed for having sexual relations with minors without coercion."? Or sometimes, he would say like, cockroaches are attracted to volatile fatty acids coming from bread and beer so it's not likely that mosquitoes can crawl inside our ears since it would be "a safe place for them to eat and rest."
It's like he just reads random things and tells it to him as if he cares. And of course, he learns new things every day. Those facts were his conversation starters and even though mostly, it's Ourie who talks and just happy whenever he answers, he somehow enjoys his presence even though he always purposely put two stacks of pillows between them just so he wouldn't just slide towards him just because.
This particular morning, Jace just sat down on his usual spot on the couch when Ourie came from his room, as he grumbles under his breath knowing that the annoying alpha would talk his ear off again. He would always come from the back of the couch, lifts himself up, and slides down the backrest to plop down the spot beside him. Asea eyed him when she, surprisingly, sat down on the opposite couch with a book in hand. He showed his usual smirk-like smile, still not knowing if it's just his smile or he has intentions behind every smile he makes. Fuck.
"You know, a German scientist found that 70% of people bend their heads to the right when kissing." He blinked fast and looks at him, confused as to why he said something about kissing today. "Okay? Then?"
"I don't know why." They fall into a comfortable silence, wondering why it's the right side and not the left. What's with the right that the left doesn't have?
He looks at his hands and figured, maybe because of the righthandedness? Left brain or right brain theory perhaps? He looked back and was stopped when he realized Ourie had been staring at him for a while now.
He swallowed. Why the hell is he looking at him? And Jace's eyebrows quirked up as if a poor attempt to will away something that he couldn't understand whirring softly against his chest. "What."
"Nothing." Ourie looked away then looked back at the kitchen. And told something about "raiding the refrigerator and the pantry for snacks."
Ourie didn't bring it up for the rest of the day. And he just ignored that thing that's whirring softly against his chest. It doesn't matter.
😙😙😙
No one's
Take the hint, take the hint, take the hint.
Emerald slightly flinched when, in the middle of the night, Asea got startled awake. She goes back to sleep, not seeing Asea go towards the other bed and waking Jace up.
The door opened and closed.
That morning, Asea sat down by the opposite couch again. Ourie sat down beside Jace as the latter gets the two pillows on his lap. "I am still thinking why they tilt their heads to the right." Ourie started. Jace looked back.
"Let's see then."
Ourie's eyes widened when Jace laced his fingers on his hair and leaned closer, his lips touching his. Ourie's lips are surprisingly soft. And his shock and frozen state didn't help to what Jace wanted and so, Jace licked his lower lip making Ourie gasp.
Jace tilted his head to the right as Ourie accepts timidly.
Jace closed his eyes and he pulled his hair lightly, kissing him deeply, making the other realize what's happening.
A cough. Then another. Another forced cough.
Jace is kissing Ourie. And they all witnessed that.