Chapter Text
Foggy woke up on a Monday with a fuzzy head, feeling oddly flushed and overheated in his normally cool linen sheets. After getting ready for work, he stopped by his little kitchenette and buttered a piece of toast. He took one bite, and then promptly dropped it into the trash can. The bite sat like sandpaper on his tongue. His stomach had felt strangely off the past two or three days. Not sick, exactly, but his appetite seemed to have disappeared altogether. The thought of eating food didn’t interest him right now, at all. Not even his leftover Indian last night from Priya’s could tempt him.
Regardless, work didn’t wait. He shrugged off his lack of appetite, and the strange, too tight feeling of his skin, and took off for the office. There was a heavy feeling in his lower belly, right above his pelvis, like the twisting of a corkscrew. It made him feel a little squirmy, a little lightheaded, but that was probably just due to the lack of food he’d had over the past few days. Once he got over the low grade fever that he seemed to have picked up out of nowhere, he would feel much better. He was sure of it.
On the way into work, he noticed two things.
One, New York seemed especially pungent that morning. On an average day, an omega’s sense of smell was generally below that of an alpha’s, but above a Beta’s. As an unbonded omega, Foggy could normally scent any unbonded alphas within a 20 ft. radius, and bonded alphas within a 10ft. radius, as well as any betas in his immediate vicinity. Today, however, it was like everyone in New York was wearing scent enhancing spray like they were in a club trying to attract a bondmate by their next heat cycle. He could smell everyone. An alpha, bonded, looked to be mid-40s, strode in front of him, talking distractedly on the phone. Foggy idly noticed the breadth of his shoulders, and the timber of his voice, before giving himself a little mental shake.
Keep it in your pants Nelson.
He quickly crossed the street at the light, stopping in front of the coffee cart that was on his regular commute. When he and Matt walked to work together, they normally stopped here for a fresh cup before getting into their office and braving the liquid death that Karen was prone to brewing in their ancient coffee pot. Matt wouldn’t be into the office until a little later that morning. As part of their working arrangement over his night time activities, Foggy had told Matt to sleep in a few days a week and work later to make up the time.
Foggy was mentally going over his checklist for the day, when he felt a prickle on the back of his neck. All of the little hairs on his arms seemed to stand up at once. He took a deep lungful of air. Alpha.
The man behind him was standing perhaps a little closer than necessary. Foggy knew without looking that he was tall, big. He could feel his breath on the back of his neck, ghosting over his scalp with every exhale. He could feel the man’s eyes on him; knew that he was staring. The man’s phone was in his hand. He had been texting, but now he held it limp and forgotten. All of his attention seemed to be trained on Foggy.
“Coffee, cream, two sugars please.” Foggy told the barista once he got to the front of the line.
The alpha - unbonded - his mind supplied unhelpfully, reached around Foggy and slapped some cash on the bar of the coffee cart. “I’ve got his.”
“Thank you,” Foggy said, turning for the first time to look at the alpha behind him. He was indeed tall, with an impressive breadth to his shoulders. He was sort of generically handsome - brown hair brown eyes - wearing a suit that fairly screamed Wall Street. Of course he works in finance, Foggy thought somewhat derisively. But the sarcastic thought died when the man locked eyes with him, grabbed his coffee from the barista, and then gently grabbed him by the elbow and steered him out of line, into a corner of the busy sidewalk against a wall, so that the rush of people walking to work flowed around them like a stream around a rock.
“What’s your name?” The man asked him in a low voice. Foggy blinked. “Um, it’s Foggy,” he stammered, slightly taken aback. The alpha raised his eyebrows. “Really?” Foggy felt a stab of annoyance over the familiar dig of his nickname. “Actually, it’s Franklin. But I don’t think that I really look like a Franklin. Do you?”
The alpha slowly looked him up and down. His eyes trailing over his body in a way that made heat erupt everywhere on Foggy’s skin, and a blush creep up his neck.” “No,” he said, amused. “No, I guess you don’t. Foggy seems fitting for you somehow.”
“Ok, well, thanks for the coffee,” Foggy said, going to grab it from the man’s hand. The alpha stepped back, raising the coffee just slightly out of Foggy’s reach as he did so, so that Foggy would have had to stand on his tiptoes in order to reach it. Foggy felt a flush of embarrassment, and with it, annoyance. Ok, so this alpha was just like every school yard bully he had encountered after he had presented as an omega when he was 16. Just an alpha looking to taunt the poor, helpless omega. “Look,” the man said, his voice pitched low, “you really shouldn’t be out in your condition.”
Foggy was momentarily so taken aback that even his trademark quick retorts escaped him. “What?”
“I’m just saying” the man said, his voice still low like he was trying not to be overhead on the busy street, “It’s indecent. Do you have an alpha? Does he know that you’re out like this?”
“You know what,” Foggy snapped, “keep the coffee. And your lecture. I don’t need this bullshit.” And with that, he flounced off, leaving the alpha staring after him.
Foggy’s victory was short lived once he got into the office, however. He was the only person there. Karen was taking the day off after having worked late the last couple of days, and Matt wasn’t in yet. Foggy tugged at his shirt collar. Was it always so hot in their office? It felt stifling.
Foggy went into his own little office and collapsed into his desk chair. He unbuttoned his cuffs and the top two buttons of his shirt. The ends of his hair were sticking to his neck. The heavy feeling in his lower belly had turned into a cramping that was starting to radiate into his hips. He felt restless and uncomfortable. He put his head down on his desk with a groan. The confrontation with the alpha was making him feel more unsettled than it should have. Like any omega, Foggy was used to a certain amount of unwanted attention from alphas. Being on suppressants stopped his heat, and dulled his scent somewhat, but people could still tell that he was an unbonded omega. Since he had presented, he had had to deal with the usual catcalls, solicitations and provocations. He was usually able to shrug it off with nothing more than a flick of his hair and a middle finger raised, but now, for some reason, he felt shaky and off kilter. The alpha’s scent had been strong, and he had fairly towered over Foggy when he was talking to him. Foggy felt the man’s scent clinging to his clothes like a film. He wondered if Matt would be able to smell it.
Fuck, he really was sick. If he didn’t have so much work to get done, he would call it a day and go home now for a day of reality TV binging and naps. But they had clients who were relying on them, and Foggy had a deposition he had to get done before noon. Fuck it, he thought. He would finish the deposition and tell Matt that he was going to work from home for the rest of the day. Matt should understand, considering the state he normally showed up for work in.
It was a testament to just how out of it Foggy was that he didn’t even register Matt’s scent until the man himself had walked into their office.
“Foggy?” He heard Matt’s startled voice. Picking up his head from his arms, he looked up. His best friend and law partner stood at the entryway of their little office room looking like a deer caught in headlights. He stood stock still, staring at Foggy - well, not staring, but looking in his direction - with an expression that Foggy couldn’t read. Matt abruptly dropped his bag onto the receptionist desk and strode into Foggy’s office instead of his own. At the doorway, he stopped suddenly and jerked back like the door had been slammed in his face. Foggy saw his nostrils flare, and his jaw tighten. Matt hesitated for only a second, before walking briskly into Foggy’s office. He turned and closed the door behind him, and locked it with a firm ‘click.’
Foggy’s nose twitched. Matt smelled strong too. Like the alpha at the coffee cart, and the alpha walking in front of him on his morning commute. The cramping feeling in his lower belly seemed to get marginally worse.
“Hey Matty, what’s - “
“Foggy,” Matt broke in, his voice low and tense. “Are you…are you feeling ok?”
Foggy blinked at him. “Well…now that you mention it, I actually have been feeling off for the past couple of days…I was actually just about to tell you that I am planning on finishing up this deposition, then was going to work from home the rest of the day.”
“The past few days.” Matt said, sounding slightly strangled. “You’ve been feeling off for a few days?”
“That’s what I said, yes.” Foggy said shortly. He looked at Matt. Matt was still holding his cane in one hand, folded up, and he was clutching it so tightly that his knuckles were white. His face was expressionless, which normally meant that he was trying very, very hard not to react to something. “Ok, what’s going on? Why are you looking at me like…like that?”
Matt licked his lips, and Foggy noticed his wide eyes darting nervously behind his glasses. “Foggy, you said you were feeling off, what are your symptoms, exactly?”
Foggy ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “Jeez, I don’t even know, ok? Does somebody want to explain to me why everyone is acting so weird toward me right now?! First that alpha at the coffee cart, now you, it’s like the entirety of Manhattan has - “
“An alpha at the coffee cart?” Matt broke in sharply. “What alpha?”
“Just some guy who paid for my coffee,” Foggy muttered, shrinking slightly back in his chair at the look on Matt’s face.
“An alpha.” Matt said flatly. He didn’t look pleased. “Foggy, have you been taking your suppressants?” Foggy gaped at him.
“What kind of question is that?! What the hell Matt?!”
“I’m just asking,” Matt interrupted him before Foggy could go off on him. “Every day? You didn’t maybe miss a day?” You’ve been busy lately. It would be easy to forget, to get off track.”
“No. I didn’t miss a day.” Foggy snapped. “For your information, not that it’s any of your business, but I have actually, you know, been taking my suppressants every day since I was 16. I’m not very well likely to fuck up and just forget to start taking them now, am I?”
“Foggy,” Matt cut himself off abruptly. He stared at Foggy for a few seconds, then took a deep breath, and continued. “Foggy I, I don’t really know how to tell you this…but you’re in heat.”
Foggy stared at Matt. His brain whirred inside of his skull, but no thought or comment was forthcoming. “No, I am not.”
‘Yes,” Matt said evenly, “You are. Foggy, I could smell you from two blocks away. I knew it was your scent, of course, but I thought maybe there was an omega in heat on the street, and the wires were just getting crossed. I didn’t realize, until I stepped into the office, that it was you.”
“That is not funny Matt,” Foggy said shakily.
“I know it’s not.” Matt said quietly. “”Have you ever known me to joke about something like this? About you? There’s no mistaking it, Fog.”
“Oh my god,” Foggy whispered, staring at Matt. The events of the past few days all lined up in his mind, toppling over one another like dominoes. All of his symptoms that he had brushed off. His low grade fever that he couldn’t seem to shake, his lack of appetite. An omega’s appetite always disappeared 2-3 days before heat, as the engine of the body shifted focus to reproduction. His increased scent capacity, his body’s way of attempting to scent out an acceptable mate. Foggy thought of the coffee cart alpha’s strange comment, does your alpha know you’re out like this?
“Oh my god,” Foggy said again, faintly, “No. no, no, no. It’s not possible. It’s not.” “Foggy,” Matt interjected. But Foggy ignored him, as he started scrambling for his bag by his desk for the little packet of pills he carried with him at all times. He took out the packet, his fingers shaking slightly. 19 days, He was on the 19th day of his cycle, and there were 19 pills missing from their little foil packets. “I didn’t miss a dose,” he said blankly. He lifted his eyes to Matt, who was still standing by the door as if he was trying not to get too close to Foggy. “I didn’t. I swear Matt, I didn’t.”
“Foggy, I believe you,” Matt said gently. “Just calm down ok? We can figure this out. We can - “ Matt cut himself off with a noise of distress, as Foggy, in a move that probably set omegas back 100 years, sat back down in his chair, put his face in his hands, and promptly burst into tears.
He was vaguely aware of Matt finally moving, coming to stand next to him by his desk. Matt pulled him out his chair and wrapped his arms around Foggy, as Foggy buried his face in his chest and sobbed. “Foggy, Fog, please don’t cry. It’s going to be ok, ok? You’ll get through this, I promise. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“No everything won’t be ok Matt!” Foggy cried. “I can’t be going into heat! We have clients! And - and that deposition! And - I haven’t done this since I was 16! I don’t even know how - and my apt is -” Even to his own ears, he was babbling hysterically.
“Fog, listen to me,” Matt took his chin firmly in one hand and tilted Foggy’s tear stained face up to his. “Don’t worry about any of that stuff, alright? I’ll take care of the deposition. And I will reschedule our clients. The only thing you need to be thinking about right now is yourself. We need to get you home. It’s not safe for you to be out right now in your condition.”
Foggy shuddered, as Matt’s words sank in. You really shouldn’t be out in your condition. Were all alphas taught about omega biology using the same textbook or something? His thoughts were sliding around each other like water. He noted that the air in the office was heavy and still. He noted that Matt’s arm was still around his waist, and the hand that had been cradling his face was now lightly gripping the back of his neck. The pressure felt good. He noted that his nose was slightly pressed into Matt’s shirt collar, by his collar bone, and that this close, Matt’s scent was very strong, and was making him feel light headed and slightly woozy, as if he were drunk.
Matt shifted slightly, the fabric of his suit sliding against Foggy’s palms, where they were resting on his chest. “Come on,” he said softly. “Gather your things. We need to leave right now.”
Moving as if he were in a trance. Foggy gathered up all of his personal items, and let Matt pull him gently out of the door, down the stairs, and onto the sidewalk. Foggy roused himself as they started down the street. “Karen.”
“I’ll let her know that we’ll be out the next few days,” Matt said.
“I, I don’t want her to know that I’m - “ the words stuck in his throat. Infuriatingly, tears filled his eyes again. Damn hormones.
“I may have to tell her,” Matt said gently. “She’ll worry if she thinks you’re sick, and missing work for a few days. She’ll want to stop by and check on you.”
Oh god, the full enormity of what was about to happen hit him again. He could very well be out for a full week. He had no way of knowing for sure how intense this heat would be, or how long it would last. It wasn’t like this was a regular heat cycle. Foggy had a sudden flashback to his last doctor appt., six months ago. His regular doctor was a pretty young beta, and Foggy generally liked her for her peppy attitude and her no-nonsense personality. They had gone down the usual checklist, done the usual pelvic exam, etc. Foggy was sitting on the little exam table, feeling naked under his thin sheet, swinging his feet slightly like a kid waiting for a lollipop. “Everything ok down there doc?”
His doctor frowned slightly, as she looked at something in her notes. “Mr. Nelson, I believe that we discussed during your last visit, that you would be taking a break from your regular suppressant dosage for the next month or two. How did that go?”
Foggy stopped swinging his legs. “Um…it didn’t. I’m sorry doc. I couldn’t stop taking them. We had a big court case come up, and then we were busy onboarding new clients, and then -”
“I understand that it’s inconvenient, Mr. Nelson,” his doctor cut in. “But you have been on a suppressant dosage for the past 12 years straight, with no breaks. You need to allow your body to experience a natural heat every few years. If you don’t plan for it, it’s very possible you’ll have a suppressant failure, and go into heat unexpectedly. And I promise you, that will be much more inconvenient, if not outright dangerous.”
Foggy had promised her that he would. And then promptly forgot all about it as soon as he had left the doctor’s office. What he really wanted to tell the doctor, but couldn’t, was that his best friend - slash - law partner was an unbonded alpha. Not just any alpha, but an alpha with super senses, who would most definitely notice if he was off his suppressants. And that this same partner just so happened to moonlight as Hell’s Kitchen’s very own favorite vigilante. So no, Foggy couldn’t very well take some time off to have a heat cycle. Not if he wanted to keep his little law firm afloat.
Idiot. He told himself savagely. Idiot idiot idiot. You only have yourself to blame for this.
He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice them stopping at a light on a crosswalk, until he almost walked out into oncoming traffic. Matt pulled him back unobtrusively from the street. “Careful,” Matt told him quietly. “Sorry,” Foggy said miserably.
In front of them was a man who was staring down at the phone in his hand. Alpha. Unbonded. Foggy thought. He watched as the man’s head snapped up from his phone and he looked around, as though he had lost something, before fully turning around. His eyes locked onto Foggy’s. Foggy felt himself flush as the man’s nostrils flared, obviously scenting him. Beside him, he felt Matt go tense as a wire, his spine stiffening as he pulled himself up to his full height. Matt’s grip on his arm tightened, and he pulled Foggy firmly against his side.
For a second the man just stared at Foggy, before the light turned, and the crosswalk started beeping at them that it was safe to cross.
“”Light’s green,” Matt snapped at the man.
The man shook himself, and then turned around to start walking as the flow of people moved around them. “If you don’t want people staring, maybe keep your bitch home next time he starts his heat,” he shot back, before disappearing into the crowd. Foggy stared after him, his heart pounding in his ears, feeling faintly sick with shame and embarrassment.
“Asshole,” Matt growled at the man’s back, then pulled Foggy to hurry along beside him. “Ignore him Fogs. Come on.”
They went another block before Foggy noticed something.
“Wait, where are we going?” He asked Matt. “This isn’t the way to my apt.”
“We aren’t going to your apt.” Matt told him as he continued pulling Foggy along briskly. “We’re going to mine.”
“Matt - “
“Foggy, I’m not letting you spend your heat in that broken down building you call an apt.” Matt snapped. “You were just telling me that two people on your floor had break-ins last month. It isn’t safe. My place is much more secure than yours. And I can look after you much better there.”
“Wait, what,” Foggy shook his head, sure that he had misheard. “Matt, what are you - “ He cut himself off as they arrived at Matt’s building. Before he knew it, Matt had ushered him up the stairs, had unlocked his door, and was pulling him inside. Foggy took a deep lungful of air as they walked in. If Matt’s scent had been strong in their shared office, it was nothing to what it was like in the man's own apt. Here, there were no other scents to compete with Matt’s, and everything smelled of him. Foggy felt something clench inside of him like a closed fist. His knees felt honest to god weak. He swayed where he stood. Matt guided him to the couch and gently pushed Foggy down on it. “Rest for a second Foggy, you seem like you’re going to pass out.”
Foggy didn’t fight it. He lay down on the couch and closed his eyes briefly. It was still morning, but he felt like he had just worked a full day. He still felt overheated, and the clothes that he was wearing were starting to feel heavy and uncomfortable. He pulled at his collar restlessly. He wished he could strip down. Hell, maybe he could, after all Matt was blind. He pushed his face into the couch pillow. He could feel something like a whine or a whimper in the back of his throat.
Matt was rummaging around in his kitchen, and Foggy felt more than heard him come around to his side of the couch. Foggy turned his head to look at him, as Matt sat down on his coffee table facing Foggy, his knees bracketing him. He was carrying a plate with a sandwich and a banana on it. “You need to eat something Fogs.”
“Not hungry,” Foggy whined. Why was everything so hot.
Foggy saw Matt take a deep breath. “I know, I know you aren’t, but you need to try, ok? You told me you started feeling symptoms a few days ago. Have you eaten anything in the past 12 hours?”
Foggy’s silence told Matt everything he needed to know. “Just a bite ok? Please Foggy, do it for me.”
Foggy struggled to sit up, and then wordlessly took the plate from Matt. Matt hovered over him while Foggy nibbled at the sandwich and the banana. When he was satisfied that Foggy had swallowed a few bites. Matt took the plate back from him and set it aside on the coffee table.
“Ok, I have a few things to take care of for work. You should go rest in my bedroom. You’ll be more comfortable there,” Matt said.
“Ok,” Foggy said dully. He guessed it didn’t much matter if he was at his own apt. or at Matt’s. Matt was determined to take care of him, and Foggy was honestly grateful for the assistance, since the thought of dealing with this on his own made him want to lie down in the middle of 5th avenue. What’s going to happen when you really do go into heat, asshole? His brain helpfully asked him. And you have an unbonded alpha around you. Not just any unbonded alpha, but your best friend?
Foggy ruthlessly shoved the thoughts to the back of his mind. He would just have to cross that bridge when he came to it. He felt suddenly too tired and lethargic to argue with Matt about anything. He walked to Matt’s bedroom, shrugged off his shoes, and then collapsed face down onto Matt’s ridiculously large and comfortable bed. He was asleep within minutes.