Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jin Rulan watches from where he’s leaning in the doorway of the living room, arms crossed resolutely over his chest despite the small smile tugging up the corners of his lips. Jingyi is by his side, trying and failing not to giggle at the scene unfolding before them.

Wuxian is currently being guided, forcefully, across the room by a much smaller Sizhui while Wangji stands in the opened front doorway. He’s watching the spectacle as well, hands clasped politely across his back and doing absolutely nothing to hasten the process.

“But A-Yuan!” Wuxian wails exaggeratedly as he leans backwards, practically folding himself over and putting all of his weight onto the little alpha behind him. “What if you–”

“We won’t!” Sizhui lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Okay, but don’t forget–”

“I know, I know…” Sizhui laughs before really putting his back into this task. He continues playfully shoving his resistant father, step by step, out the door and into the waiting Wangji’s arms. “We’ll behave Baba, I promise. Now go have fun on your date.”

With one last wave, and much to Wuxian’s pretend dismay, Sizhui closes the door and then ushers Rulan and Jingyi back to his room where their video game and bowls of popcorn are waiting. “They act like this is the first time they’ve ever left us home alone before – like we’re not teenagers already!”

Rulan shrugs but doesn’t comment. Jiang Cheng does the same, reminding him of all those rules he already knows, and making sure the house is locked up tight, but he wouldn’t dare try to push the man out of his own home – playfully or otherwise. Not that he could even if he wanted to. The alpha towers over his much smaller omega frame. He sits down and picks up his controller, waiting for the other two to do the same before pressing the home button and bringing their screens back online.

“You think they’ll be okay?” Jingyi takes his seat next to Rulan and then pulls the popcorn bowl into his lap. He plucks out a few pieces and pops them into his mouth before grabbing his own controller.

“I’m sure Zhan Ba will get his mind off things soon enough. He’s had this date planned for over a month now.” Sizhui stretches one last time before finally plopping down next to Jingyi.

“They’re almost done courting now, aren’t they?” Rulan starts the game and the race is on. “It’s been, what? Almost a year?”

“Yeah. Ying Ba has been complaining for weeks that he wants us all to live together, but Zhan Ba wants to do things properly.” Jingyi leans as his car takes a sharp curve, pulling ahead of the other two.

“I’m not sure there isn’t anything Lan Wangji does that isn’t proper.” Rulan teases, but deep down, his omega thinks it’s sweet. He can’t help but think about Xichen and Jiang Cheng’s own more recent engagement.

“You’re not wrong– hey!” Jingyi cries out as Rulan’s car knocks into his, sending him into a tailspin.

Rulan chuckles at the faux pout on his friend’s face. The sweet syrup in his scent is bubbling up to the surface, but he doesn’t mind so much when it’s just the three of them. He maneuvers his car out of the way of the shell that Jingyi shoots and watches as it hits the back of Sizhui’s car and nearly knocks him off the edge of the track.

“No fair!” Sizhui’s still smiling as he works to get his car back into the race.

There are two laps left, the trio changing places often, and hitting each other with each powerup they can. They laugh and elbow and playfully shove each other while munching on their snack. In the end, it’s Sizhui who pulls ahead by a small margin just before the finish line to claim the victory. He raises his arms in victory, much to the exaggerated groans of his friends.

Jingyi flops back with a small huff. “Wanna play again?”

“I dunno. That’s like the fourth round. I’m getting kinda bored.” Rulan lays back too, his head only a few inches from Jingyi’s, close enough to smell the beta’s subtle scent. “We should do something else.”

“Like what?” Jingyi glances over at him. His scent is stronger than it was before, full of crisp, juicy fruit and soft linen. It reminds Rulan of spilled punch on freshly washed laundry.

“We could play truth or dare.” Sizhui leans over the pair of them, just enough that his own scent – figs, rosemary, and freshly fallen snow mixes with the others.

Rulan thinks that he’ll never find a scent that mixes as perfectly with his own as theirs does. He’d always found his own too sweet, but Jingyi and Sizhui balance it out somehow; like they were always meant to be this close.

“That’s a kid’s game.” Rulan’s brows scrunch, his tone sharper than his thoughts.

“You’re just saying that because you’re scared.” Jingyi reaches into the bucket still by his side and launches a piece of popcorn at Rulan.

“Am not.” Rulan pouts as he picks the bite off his shirt and eats it.

“Prove it.” Sizhui pipes in, a mischievous smile on his face.

“Fine. I’ll play your dumb game.” Rulan knows he’s being goaded, but he won’t back down now. When he sits up, he finds that his knee is still brushing against Jingyi’s. And he can’t help but wonder if the other boy feels the same small jolt of warmth up his spine.

“I’ll go first.” Jingyi smiles brightly, eyes bouncing between the two other boys. “A-Yuan, truth or dare?”

Sizhui’s eyes go wide at finding himself chosen first, but he straightens his shoulders resolutely as he says, “dare.”

“I dare you to show us the last embarrassing photo you have on your phone.”

“Easy.” Sizhui scoffs as he grabs his phone and flips through the most recent photos before settling on one to show them.

When he turns his phone, Rulan finds that it’s a photo of Sizhui asleep in the car. It’s clear that it had been taken from Wuxian’s phone and sent to him. His and Wangji’s faces are painted like a tiger and rabbit respectively, and Jingyi’s is done up like a puppy. He’s asleep, mouth hung open, a snack stick held loosely in his hand, and with red-colored drool dripping down his chin. Rulan thinks it’s unbearably cute, but Jingyi chuckles and gets shoved playfully by Sizhui for his trouble.

“A-Ling,” Sizhui says suddenly, making the small, goofy grin slip from Rulan’s face almost instantly, “truth or dare?”

He mulls the question over for a moment, fully realizing how little he wants to play this game, and yet resolutely not saying so just because he likes how happy it’s seeming to make the other two. He doesn’t want to be a stick in the mud. “Truth.”

“What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?”

He thinks for a moment before shaking his head and sighing. “I had this one dream where I kept hearing jiujiu’s voice. I tried to follow it, but it kept moving around the house. Upstairs and then down. I was looking in closets and under tables. I swear I searched the whole house twice over and then finally heard it clear as day in the kitchen. I ran and found him standing in the kitchen, but he had this stupid grin on his face. Like… a blank, but happy stare. I asked him what he was doing and he just kept looking at me, blinking real slow like he didn’t know what I was saying. And then I heard his voice from behind me and when I turned to look, there’s Fairy just sitting there, tail still and almost… glaring up at me like I forgot to feed her or something.” He pauses, a small smile tugging up the corners of his lips as he remembers how surreal it had all felt in the moment. “And then she opens up her mouth to bark, and my name comes out in jiujiu’s voice.”

Rulan watches as Sizhui and Jingyi both double over with laughter and he can’t even blame them for it. He knows how weird and silly it all was. What he doesn’t say is how he’d woken up to find Fairy on the bed, watching him as he’d slept and then sat up. How he’d stared at her for a long time before whispering, hello, and still half-expecting Jiang Cheng’s voice to say it back. Nor does he say how he’d stared at the dog until he’d apparently unnerved her enough to get up, let out a small whine and then lick his face before settling back down curled up in the crook of his arm.

“A-Yuan,” Rulan says, arms crossed over his chest in challenge. “Truth or dare?”

Sizhui takes a moment to think before nodding and settling on, “Dare.”

“I dare you…” Rulan thinks, eyes raised to the ceiling for a moment before an idea finally comes to him. “…to send a text to your crush.”

Sizhui’s cheeks flush, fig in his scent growing full and sweet but, undeterred, he picks up his phone. “What if I have two?”

“Flip a coin, I guess.” Rulan tells himself that he doesn’t really care. It’s just a dare, after all. But deep down, he really does. He’s had a crush on both of his friends for a while now – not that he would ever be so bold as to tell either of them.

He watches as Sizhui goes to his nightstand and pulls out a coin. It’s flipped, a quick message typed out and then, “there. Sent.”

He takes his spot back on the floor, cheeks redder than they were before, just as Jingyi’s phone vibrates. Rulan expects it’s probably a message from his parents, but when an all-too familiar fruity scent swells, his heart sinks. It only takes one look between the two boys before Rulan realizes that Sizhui’s crush had been in the room with them all along.

That longing that he’s always ignored starts to swell. The tangy iron in his scent wants to follow, but he controls it quickly. He doesn’t want to play anymore, but he doesn’t say so. There’s no sense ruining everyone else’s fun just because he’d hurt his own feelings.

“A-Yi, truth or dare?” Sizhui asks, his cheeks still pink.

“Dare?” Jingyi’s voice sounds uncertain, but it only seems to exacerbate the mischievous look growing in Sizhui’s eyes.

“I dare you to take something out of my parents’ room.”

Jingyi stiffens and even Rulan’s eyes go wide, momentarily distracted from his own internal dilemma by the boldness of the dare.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know…” Sizhui shrugs, obviously affected by his own dare. “Just grab a shirt or something out of one of the drawers.”

“But what if they notice it’s gone?”

“A shirt? Come on, I can just sneak it into the hamper or say that I wanted it for my nest or something.”

“No way…” Jingyi’s eyes dart to the door as if he expects Wuxian or Wangji to magically appear.

“Chicken,” Rulan teases playfully.

“I am not,” Jingyi huffs before standing. He shifts his weight from foot to foot before finally leaving the room.

“Bet he doesn’t do it.” Rulan nudges Sizhui with his elbow.

“I don’t know. He might surprise us.” Sizhui smiles as if he’d half-expected Jingyi to chicken out too.

It’s only as they sit quietly, waiting for the other boy’s return that Rulan begins to ruminate on the feelings he has for them – feelings that he’s going to work to keep pushed down so he doesn’t come between them. Sizhui’s crush is obvious now, as is the way Jingyi returns the sentiment. He can now make sense of those little glances stolen between them before. They liked each other. And he’s happy for them… even if it hurts.

He’s still thinking, working hard to control the iron in his scent when Jingyi comes barreling back into the room and slams the door behind him.

“What’d you get?” Sizhui is on his feet in an instant and Rulan follows. “Come on, let us see!”

Both boys are staring at the panting, out of breath kid with pale cheeks and wide eyes staring back at them. “I don’t know… I… I didn’t even look. I just yanked open the door and grabbed something.”

“Probably grabbed something from the kitchen instead.” Rulan’s playful teasing earns him a glare from Jingyi.

“Did not!” Slowly, his hand comes from behind his back. Small tufts of red fabric are peeking out from the sides of a tightly clenched fist before Jingyi finally opens it.

All three sets of eyes go wide as they take in the small piece of lacy red fabric. Jingyi goes scarlet – almost as red as the fabric in his palm and he drops it suddenly as if it had burned his hand. It floats down to the floor between them, lingerie of some sort, but none of them quite know what or how the small scrap of clothing could possibly be worn.

Sizhui’s eyes go wide and Rulan laughs.

“I didn’t know!” Jingyi’s scent sours like rotten fruit, his panic evident as he wraps his arms around his waist. “I just shoved my hand into the first drawer I opened and grabbed what I could.”

“You have to go put it back.” Sizhui’s own scent grows harsh, the rosemary burnt and overwhelming at the realization that there is no way he can sneak this into the hamper.

“Me?!” Jingyi practically whines.

“You took it!”

“You dared me to!”

Rulan tries to keep his own scent soft. He even sweetens it just a bit to help calm both his friends before attempting a distraction from their current predicament. “Who’s do you think it is?”

The question draws both of their eyes to him and then to the garment on the floor at their feet.

“Definitely Ying-Ba’s,” Sizhui says, but his voice doesn’t sound quite so sure.

“Why do you think that?” Jingyi leans down, not touching it again, but studying it.

“It’s his color, for one,” Sizhui explains.

“Lan Wangji could wear it if he knew Wei-gongzi would like it,” Rulan counters.

“Yeah, but he’s not an omega.” Jingyi’s words are said mostly in passing, but they hit Rulan like a punch to his gut.

He knows there wasn’t anything meant by the statement – that his friends don’t see him as less than just because he’s an omega, but they’ve also never been subjected to those stereotypes. Omegas should be small and quiet. Pliant and pleasing… Jin Rulan knows that he’s none of those things except small. And while he will tell anyone quite loudly that he doesn’t care, there’s a part of him that can’t help but wonder if maybe that’s why his friends liked each other like that, but not him.

“Omegas aren’t the only ones who can wear lingerie, you know.” Rulan’s tone is biting, the iron in his scent heated.

Both boys are quick to rush in with their small platitudes of “we know that,” and “of course,” but the hurt has already started to root its way into his core. If that was their first thought, then what else did they think of him?

“We still have to put it back.” Sizhui glances at the door as if he expects the adults to walk in at any moment, even though they won’t be home for hours, before picking the garment up.

“I don’t want to.” Jingyi’s arms tighten around his midsection as if he has a stomachache.

Rulan sighs softly before snatching the small scrap of fabric from Sizhui’s hand – at least they’d never be able to tell him that all omegas were scaredy cats. “I’ll do it…”

He stalks to the door without looking back, not even to acknowledge when Jingyi tells him which drawer and dresser it was pulled from. He wants to be done with this whole mess before they get caught, but mostly, he just needs out of that room because he’s starting to lose control of his scent and he doesn’t want either of them to smell that.

The walk down the hall is slow, much slower than it needs to be, but he can’t seem to make his feet move any faster. It feels weird to be sneaking around like this. He tells himself that he’s not scared, that he’s just helping his friends, and he reminds himself that neither of the adults are supposed to be home until much later so it’s perfectly fine.

He pauses outside the door to Wuxian and Wangji’s room. His heart is racing. It takes him a long moment to work up the nerve to finally push the door open, and even longer to finally step inside. It’s a perfectly normal looking room – as if he’d expected something else – and it’s clear that they both sleep here. Most everything seems to have a place. There’s an obvious flow to most of the room that speaks very clearly to Wangji’s sense of order and style, but here and there are little touches of chaos – a shirt tossed over a chair, and several knickknacks crammed onto a shelf – that remind Rulan of Wuxian’s influence. Seeing it feels, not awkward like he’d thought it would, but soft.

He wonders if he’ll ever have something like this someday – a room that belongs to him and another, and a shared nest filled with their scents… And with that thought, the rest of the day comes crashing back down onto him. The feelings he’d been sitting on and the revelation that had happened between Sizhui and Jingyi are all rushing to the front of his mind and it makes his heart hurt all over again. He’ll be happy for them. Of course, he will. They’re his friends and he loves them. He’s not so selfish – despite what some people think – to wedge himself between them.

Rulan quickly finds the right drawer and stuffs the lingerie back in its place and then leaves, closing the door behind him as if none of them had ever stepped foot inside. He stops at the bathroom along the way to splash some cold water on his face and make sure his scent is under control. When he feels like he’s ready, he continues to Sizhui’s room and finds the two boys on the floor, quite lost in kissing each other.

Hurt and longing flare in his chest, making it feel tight and his breath come shallow, but he ignores them as best he can. He grabs his handheld game and quietly flops onto the bed, back pressed against the headboard and ankles crossed. He’s pointedly not looking at them, his eyes fixed on his screen, but over the top of his game he can still see them. They’re not kissing anymore, just sitting close and holding each other, whispering and smiling.

Rulan decides to switch from his racing game to something harder, something that requires concentration so that his gaze won’t be able to wander. He settles on an RPG game, one with a boss battle he’s been struggling with. He’s only just started and already he’s lost a quarter of his health. It’s frustrating, but it’s familiar and it pulls his focus in completely.

He doesn’t even hear them whispering to each other anymore or see the way they’re leaning into each other. He’s down to half-life, but so is the boss, when he feels the bed dips near his knees. It’s not unusual for them all to curl up in the bed when they sleep over, so it’s easy to ignore. It feels almost normal again if he doesn’t think about it for too long. Not even the shifting or whispering that happens after bothers him. A head finds its way to his shoulder. Rulan refuses to look but the fresh, summer fruit scent tells him that it’s Jingyi.

Not long after, the other side of the bed dips and Sizhui’s head finds its way to his shoulder too. His heartrate ticks up, and Rulan has to remind himself that this is normal for them. Neither of his friends like to play these kinds of games, but they like watching him play. He finds it comforting, when he thinks about it – that maybe things like this didn’t have to change just because two of them have found that they like kissing each other?

He’s doing better with them beside him. His character is still at half-life and the boss is down to the final quarter of his own when their hands begin to cross over his sides and across his midsection to meet in the middle. Fingers skirt over the soft skin of his stomach where his sleep shirt has ridden up and then lace together.

Those small touches have always sent a heat up his spine and made his scent sweeten, but Rulan tries to resist the urge now. The distraction costs him several hit points and he grumbles. His scent stays neutral though until Sizhui shifts and that slender nose begins trailing along his jaw and then down to inhale against his scent gland.

“I told you I had two crushes, didn’t I?” Sizhui’s voice is soft, his breath warm where it ghosts over Rulan’s skin.

“Yeah.” He tries to keep the strain out of his voice, resolving to blame the game’s difficulty if he gets called out on it.

Sizhui doesn’t answer him. Instead, Jingyi’s movements begin to mirror the alpha’s, nose dragging over a jaw and then downward again. Rulan’s eyes flutter closed at the feeling of both of them against his neck. When he opens them again, a bright red GAME OVER screen glaring up at him.

He turns to look at the alpha, a snarky, what about it, dying on his lips as they’re taken in a soft kiss. Sizhui’s hand comes to cup his face and Rulan loses himself in that kiss, mouth moving to meet the other’s until Sizhui pulls away. Rulan feels breathless, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and his scent sweet and heavy on the air.

It takes him a moment to come to his senses and realize what he’d done – what he’d allowed to happen. His cheeks flush scarlet and, embarrassed, he turns to apologize to Jingyi only to find the beta now capturing his lips in a second, more heated, kiss.

Sizhui chuckles softly before pulling the game out of Rulan’s hand so they can lace their fingers with his. “Turns out Jingyi has two as well.”