Chapter Text
It darted fearlessly across the bathroom floor right when Chris got out of the shower. The longest earwig he’d seen in his entire life, with the largest pincers. A sinister shadow scuttling from corner to dark corner, biding its time, watching Chris with beady, glowing eyes.
Chris froze with his towel halfway off the bar, his hair and skin dripping onto the bathmat. This was the most vulnerable and private moment of his entire day. His ass was out. His dick was out and so was his nutsa*ck. Baleful visions of what those gigantic pincers could do to any of those sensitive areas invaded Chris’s mind.
He shrieked and ran. He sprinted up the stairs buck naked and still wet, towel flailing behind him, and burst into Matt’s room. Matt was already up from his gaming chair and throwing his headset off.
“What the f*ck, Chris?” he hissed. “What if I’d had my camera on?”
“There’s—there’s—” Chris stopped to catch his breath. “A bug. An enormous one. Biggest one I’ve ever seen. Matt—”
“Okay, calm down,” Matt said soothingly. He reached for the towel dangling from Chris’s hand and wrapped it around his midsection. “Where is it?”
“In, uh, in my bathroom,” Chris said. “Matt, please. Please kill it.”
“Of course, baby.” Matt pressed a kiss to Chris’s cold cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
“Be careful,” Chris called after him.
Matt rolled his eyes affectionately. “I’ll be fine.”
Just like he’d promised, Matt was only gone for a couple minutes. Chris rubbed himself dry in the meantime and inhaled the comforting scent of his brother’s room. Well, his mate’s room. They were both. In moments like this, however, when Matt was acting as Chris’s protective older triplet instead of his submissive omega, Chris tended to think of him more as his brother.
“It’s done,” Matt announced, as he strode back into the bedroom. “Big ass earwig.”
“Biggest one ever, right?”
“Mm, not sure about that. But up there.” Matt sat next to Chris at the foot of the bed and stroked a lazy circle between his shoulder blades. “You know they’re harmless, right? They mostly just scavenge dead stuff.”
“I don’t think anything with pincers that big is harmless. What if it latched onto my nutsa*ck?”
Matt snorted. “Why would it do that, Chris?”
“Don’t know.” Chris shrugged. “Can I sleep in here tonight?”
Matt took a moment to consider the request. For a bonded alpha-omega pair, they had a somewhat unusual relationship. With the necessary exception of Matt’s heat—when biology dictated that they had to spend the entire five days together—they mostly slept separately. Actually, Chris slept in Nick’s room more often than his and Matt’s rooms combined.
The reason, of course, had to do with their careers. Incestuous bonds weren’t illegal between adult alphas and omegas, but they were still scorned and stigmatized. That was especially the case among the 90% of the human population that were betas, since they had no frame of reference to understand the physiological imperative that operated between alphas and omegas. Said physiological imperative only intensified in effect when a bonded pair spent excessive time with each other between heats, since the buildup of pheromones eroded and eventually erased the self-control of both partners. The negative stereotype of “scent-drunk” alphas and omegas, so prevalent on social media and trashy reality shows, was something Chris and Matt studiously wanted to avoid. For their sake, for Nick’s, for the rest of their family, and for their young fans who deserved positive role models.
So, Chris and Matt slept separately most of the time: Matt by himself, cuddling a plushie in place of Chris; Chris upstairs with their beta brother, snuggling into his bearlike warmth as a pale substitute for his true mate. One day down the line, when they didn’t have to be camera ready three weeks out of the month, when their fame fell off and they left YouTube behind, they’d finally share a room, a bed, the way they both wanted to. Somewhere in the woods, Matt had said. Chris didn’t like thinking about all the insects that lived in the woods, but at least Matt would be there to squash them.
“Okay,” Matt finally said, smiling. “You can spend the night, Chris.”
Chris had known his brother would say yes all along, but Matt loved drawing things out, teasing Chris a little. Most of the time, Chris let him get away with it. He wasn’t one of those boneheaded alphas who needed to bully their omega to feel better about themselves.
“Alright,” Chris cheered. “Do I have any underwear in here?”
Matt chuckled as he went to his dresser and tossed Chris a pair of his black Supreme boxer briefs. “Too scared to go back to your room?”
“Dude, what if he had an entire family, and now they’re plotting revenge on me as soon as I go back there? I don’t want pincers up my butt, in my peehole—”
“Can you stop?” Matt said. “You’re going to give me nightmares soon. Especially because, if they’re planning revenge on anyone, it’s going to be me.”
“Don’t worry, babe.” Chris tossed his towel to the floor and flexed both arms. “I’ll protect you.”
“Oh, yeah. Big strong alpha.” Matt leaned in to peck Chris’s lips. “Pick up your towel and hang it in my bathroom.”
“I would protect you,” Chris insisted. “From anything. Even creepy-crawlies. If I had to.”
Matt fixed Chris’s damp hair, pulled the strands neatly away from his brow. He gazed into Chris’s eyes and grinned indulgently.
“I’m serious. I—I could take care of those bugs on my own. But I get you to do it because you’ve always just done it for me. Even when we were kids. I mean, before….”
Chris trailed off and looked down at the floor. He could feel the heat in his cheeks spreading to his ears and neck. He wasn’t sure why he felt so self-conscious about this. Sure, alphas were supposed to have evolved to be the strong, competent provider in their relationships, but he and Matt weren’t typical bondmates. Matt was still his big brother. He may have come out the other side of their shared puberty as an omega, but he was still a strong, competent provider in his own right.
Chris had always loved that about him. So why was he feeling more embarrassed about it lately?
“Go hang up your towel,” Matt said again. He patted Chris’s butt through his boxer briefs. “Then we can watch something and cuddle.”
“Oh, W,” Chris said with glee. He picked up the towel, paused in the doorway. “Can…can I be little spoon tonight?”
Matt laughed. “Sure, baby bro. Now hurry up.”
Chris left for Matt’s bathroom feeling practically giddy. No, the two of them weren’t the typical alpha and omega. Most people wouldn’t understand wanting to mate with your brother; most people wouldn’t want to. And yet Chris loved what he and Matt had. He wouldn’t change a thing.
