Chapter Text
Six o’clock meant one thing and that is Zee would be dropping by soon at Solace, the flower shop Nunew poured his heart into. It had become their quiet routine. Nunew tending blossoms and Zee, heir to an underground empire, slipping in just to see him.
This would be another night where Nunew still wondered how something so gentle could have begun from a night so chaotic.
⊱ ─── ♡ ─── ⊰
Flashback
Rain had been falling for hours, turning the sidewalks into sheets of glistening silver. Nunew tightened the hood of his thin jacket as he hurried home, his satchel pressed to his chest to protect the last of the flowers he’d failed to sell that day. The storm made the whole city feel smaller, quieter except for the distant echoes from the main road and the occasional thunder that chased him from behind.
He was halfway across the block when he heard it.
A rough, muffled hiss. Sharp. Pained.
Nunew froze mid-step.
As an Omega walking alone at night, he had been taught his whole life not to stop.
Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t look in alleyways. Don’t go toward danger, no matter how much your instincts tug.
And yet his instincts tugged.
Another hiss followed, this one scraped with a low growl, the kind an injured Alpha makes when cornered or trying to stay conscious. Nunew’s heart thumped hard. Every sane part of him whispered, Go home. Don’t get involved.
But the rain carried the sound again, thinner this time. Desperate.
Nunew swallowed, exhaling shakily.
“Just a quick look,” he muttered, as if that made it safer.
He stepped toward the mouth of the narrow alley, breath caught somewhere between his ribs and his throat.
That’s when he saw him.
An Alpha—tall, broad-shouldered even while slumped against the wall—drenched in rain and blood. His jacket was torn open at the side, a dark patch spreading beneath his palm. His breaths were shallow, uneven, like he was forcing each one through clenched teeth.
When Nunew whispered, “Are you—are you okay?” the Alpha’s head snapped up.
A dangerous growl vibrated through the air.
Nunew flinched backward. His entire body tensed, instincts screaming Run but he held his ground when he saw the way the Alpha’s fingers slipped, smearing fresh blood against the bricks.
The Alpha’s eyes—dark, wild, fevered tracked him sluggishly.
“Don’t… come closer,” he rasped.
Nunew swallowed hard. “You’re bleeding.”
“No shit,” the Alpha hissed, trying to shift his weight. His legs buckled immediately.
Nunew darted forward on instinct, catching the Alpha under the arm. The growl he received in return was deep enough to rattle his bones but the man didn’t push him away. He couldn’t. His strength was draining too fast.
“You’re hurt,” Nunew said, trying to steady him. “If you stay here, you’ll—”
“Leave,” the Alpha ground out. “Omegas shouldn’t… be near men like me.”
“Maybe,” Nunew murmured, breath shallow, “but I can’t just leave you to die.”
The Alpha blinked at him, confused, as if kindness was a foreign language he’d never heard spoken.
Rain dripped from the Alpha’s lashes as he tried to straighten up but another wave of pain bent him forward with a soft grunt. Nunew tightened his grip without thinking.
“My apartment is two blocks away,” he said softly. “I have a med kit. Let me help.”
The Alpha shook his head weakly. “I don’t need—”
His body disagreed.
His knees buckled again and Nunew lunged to keep him upright. This time, the Alpha didn’t growl. He just breathed—shallow, rapid, on the edge of collapse.
“Please,” Nunew whispered. “Let me help you.”
For a moment, it seemed like the Alpha might still refuse.
But then his eyes flickered, the fight bleeding out of him as exhaustion won.
“…Fine,” he muttered, voice strained. “But if you try anything—”
“I won’t,” Nunew promised quickly. “I just want you alive.”
It took time.
Painful, uneven steps under the battering rain but eventually Nunew managed to guide the Alpha out of the alley, supporting most of his weight as they moved. Every few steps the Alpha winced, breath catching, muscles trembling but he didn’t stop.
By the time they reached Nunew’s small apartment, the Alpha was half-conscious, leaning heavily against him.
Nunew unlocked the door with shaking hands.
“Sit—right here,” he instructed gently, guiding the Alpha onto the low couch.
The Alpha exhaled roughly, head tipping back, eyes slipping shut as Nunew rushed to grab towels, warm water and his old med kit.
When he returned, the Alpha’s breathing was ragged, his scent—stormy, sharp, distinctly Alpha filling the cramped room.
Nunew knelt beside him.
“This might hurt,” he whispered.
One of the Alpha’s eyes cracked open. There was something unreadable in his gaze. Distrust, confusion… and something softer buried deep beneath the pain.
“You’re strange,” the Alpha murmured.
“Why?”
“Because you’re not afraid.”
Nunew smiled faintly, dipping the cloth in warm water.
“Then let me be strange a little longer.”
And as he pressed the cloth gently to the wound, the Alpha didn’t growl this time.
He just breathed out, quietly like the first sign of trust.
The night they met began with pain.
But something else, small and fragile, had begun to bloom between them in the tiny apartment.
⊱ ─── ♡ ─── ⊰
Present
When the chime above the door finally rang, it made Nunew jump more than usual. Still, he looked up with a smile ready on his lips.
“Zee—”
He nearly said you’re late, teasing, affectionate.
But the smile faltered the second he saw Zee.
Zee stood at the threshold like a stranger. Damp from the rain, hair plastered slightly to his forehead, shadows curling under his eyes. His scent, usually warm and something musky that made Nunew melt was muted and distant.
That alone felt like a slap.
Alphas didn’t mask their scent around their bonded omega not unless something was terribly wrong.
“Zee?” Nunew tried again, voice tightening around the edges. “Did something happen?”
Zee didn’t answer right away. He shut the door behind him but didn’t step inside fully. Didn’t take off his coat. Didn’t cross the space between them like he always did—closing the distance as if it physically hurt to be far from Nunew.
Instead… he stood there.
“Nunew,” he said, tone too controlled. “We need to talk.”
A rush of nerves coiled low in Nunew’s stomach. His hands still dusted with remnants of baby’s breath.
He swallowed. “Okay. Then talk to me.”
Zee’s gaze finally lifted, meeting his.
And Nunew wished it hadn’t.
There was nothing soft there, none of the quiet affection that used to linger even on Zee’s worst days. His eyes were guarded, tightened around the corners like he was forcing something down, like every word tasted wrong.
“We need to break the bond.”
“…What?” he whispered, voice thin, fragile.
Zee didn’t repeat himself gently.
“End the bond,” Zee said flatly. “Tonight.”
Nunew blinked, chest tightening as if the bond itself recoiled in protest. The pull between them snapped taut, sharp with panic, his omega instincts clawing up his throat.
“W–why? Did I—did something happen? Are you hurting? Are you—” He took a step forward, hand shaking. “Hia, please talk to me. You’re scaring me.”
Zee flinched barely—a twitch, almost invisible at the word Hia but he masked it quickly, shoulders steeling.
“This isn’t a discussion,” he said. “Do it.”
Nunew’s breath hitched. “No. Not without a reason. You promised me—you always said you’d talk to me first, we never hide things, we don’t make decisions alone.”
His voice cracked. “So why now? Why this?”
Zee stared at the floor. At the flowers. At anything but Nunew.
“Hia,” Nunew whispered, stepping closer. “Look at me.”
Zee’s jaw clenched. “Don’t.”
“Then tell me why.” Nunew’s voice trembled, desperation bleeding through. “We haven’t even fought. You were fine this morning. You told me to eat breakfast. You kissed me before you left—” His breath broke. “So what changed in the last six hours?”
Zee’s hands curled into fists inside his coat pockets.
Nunew reached for him by instinct but Zee stepped back.
As if Nunew burned.
The rejection hit harder than the words, harder than the coldness threading through Zee’s voice, harder than anything Nunew had ever feared. It was a quiet kind of devastation that didn’t explode outward but folded inward, crushing his ribs and cracking something delicate beneath his sternum, leaving the bond trembling like a snapped violin string.
“Hia…” Nunew choked, tears beading hotly in his eyes. “Please. If you’re angry, I’ll fix it. If I messed up, tell me. If someone said something, I’ll clear it. Just don’t do this. Not like this.”
Zee looked at him then.
But it wasn’t the look of a lover, not the warmth he had learned to rely on for two years and it wasn’t even the look of someone trying to be cruel. It was emptiness folded over itself, a fragile, suffocating kind of despair, the look of someone forcing themselves to drown while standing on solid ground, as if every ounce of life and affection had been wrenched away and all that remained was the weight of inevitability.
“Break the bond, Nunew,” Zee said. “And don’t make me say it again.”
Nunew’s heart dropped straight through the floor.
And as the bond trembled violently between them, fraying at the edges, he couldn’t understand why it felt like Zee was hurting too.
Zee drew in a sharp breath, as if bracing himself against the inevitable. “Nunew,” he said, voice scraped raw even through the forced coldness, “I’m breaking the bond.”
The words landed like a physical blow.
Nunew’s lips parted soundlessly at first. No voice, no air, nothing but disbelief and rising panic.
“Hia..what? Why? Why would you—?”
Zee shut his eyes like he needed a moment to gather whatever strength he had left. When he opened them again, they were dark, determined and unbearably distant and the sight hit Nunew harder than the words had because never—not once, not even at their worst had Zee looked at him without love lingering somewhere in his expression. Even in arguments, even when they were frustrated or tired or misunderstanding each other, Zee’s eyes had always softened the moment they met his.
“Because this is the only way to keep you safe,” he said quietly.
Safe.
Safe?
Nunew’s breath stuttered, a fractured sound bubbling up in his chest. “Safe? What does that even mean? I am safe. You take care of me. You—you promised—”
“It’s not enough anymore.” Zee’s tone hardened but his fingers twitched at his sides, betraying the crack beneath. “My world is changing. My position is changing. That puts you at risk and I won’t let you suffer for my place in the mafia. Not anymore.”
Nunew shook his head violently, vision swimming. “No—no, that’s not a reason—people have threatened us before, we handled it—Hia, please—please don’t do this—”
“Nunew.” Zee’s voice broke on his name just for a heartbeat but then he steeled himself again. “If you stay with me, you die. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but they’ll use you to get to me and I won’t let that happen. Even if you hate me for it.”
Nunew felt the floor tilt beneath him.
His heart, his instincts, his bond. Everything rebelled at once.
“You can’t decide that alone!” he cried, voice tearing. “We—we promised we’d face everything together. You can’t just—throw me away because you’re scared!”
Zee flinched, jaw tightening. “I’m not scared for myself.”
Nunew felt something collapse inside him at those words and then his legs simply gave out.
He sank to his knees, not out of choice but because they couldn’t hold the weight of what he was hearing. His palms hit the floor. His breath shattered. Tears blurred everything.
“Hia—” his voice cracked, high and trembling, his omega instincts fully crashing. “Please. Don’t. Don’t break it. Don’t break us. I’ll do anything—just—just don’t—”
He crawled the small distance forward, grabbing desperately at the hem of Zee’s coat, fingers shaking so violently he could barely clutch the fabric.
“I’m begging you,” Nunew sobbed, his voice disintegrating into something ragged and childlike. “Please, please, you can hurt me, yell at me, ignore me, anything—just don’t take the bond. Don’t take you away from me. Please—Hia, I can’t live without you—”
Zee’s breath hitched sharply. His jaw clenched so hard it trembled and he took a half-step back, but Nunew followed, clutching harder, hands shaking uncontrollably.
“Nunew, stop—” Zee whispered, voice shaking despite the cold mask. “Please, stop. You’re making this harder.”
That single crack in his voice made Nunew cry harder.
“Then don’t do it!” Nunew wailed, almost incoherent, tears streaming down his face. “If it hurts you, then don’t—don’t break it, Hia, please—I’ll be careful, I’ll listen, I’ll stay hidden if I have to—just don’t leave me—don’t—”
Zee’s eyes squeezed shut like the words were knives carving into him.
But he didn’t kneel. He didn’t hold him. He didn’t pull him close the way he always had when Nunew cried.
“Nunew,” he said, voice barely holding together. “You have to let go.”
Nunew shook his head wildly, broken, terrified, clinging so hard his knuckles went white. “No—no, no, I can’t, I can’t—Hia, don’t make me—please—please, I’ll die, I’ll die if you do this—I can’t—”
His words dissolved into sobs so violent his whole body shook with them, shoulders trembling, breath hitching in painful gasps. He wasn’t even speaking clearly anymore. Just crying, pleading, chanting Hia like it was the only thing tethering him to the world.
“Please,” he whispered one more time, the tiniest sound, trembling and soaked with desperation.
His words dissolved into sobs so violent his entire body shook with them, shoulders trembling uncontrollably, breath breaking into sharp, painful gasps. The bond pulsed at the base of his neck at first a faint throb, like a warning… then another, sharper, harsher until it suddenly flared into a searing, electrifying burn that ripped through his nerves.
Nunew cried out, a small, broken sound punched out of him as his hand flew to the mark behind his neck. It felt as if something sacred was being peeled away from him. Slowly, cruelly, mercilessly. His vision blurred. Every heartbeat sent another shockwave of pain radiating down his spine, stealing his breath.
And Zee felt it too.
He sucked in a harsh breath, his own mark flaring beneath the collar of his shirt. A muted echo, but enough to jolt him, enough to make his composure waver. A sharp twitch ran through his jaw as pain pulsed along his neck but he forced himself not to react, forced himself to stand still even as the bond screamed between them.
“Hia—Hia please—please—” He choked on the plea, voice cracking apart, the pain in his mark stealing every coherent thought.
“Please,” he whispered one more time, a tiny, crumpled breath of a word. “Hia… don’t let me go…”
But the next wave of pain didn’t give him time to breathe.
It tore through him so viciously his back arched, a raw, involuntary scream ripping from his throat.
“H–Hia—it hurts—! Hia, our bond—Hia, it hurts—!”
The sound cracked, shattering mid-cry as the pain dragged him under. Nunew’s hands clawed blindly at the floor, at his clothes, at the air, at anything except the mark, because every time he got close to touching it another shock of agony lashed through him, punishing him for even trying. His fingertips scraped against the tiles, nails catching, leaving desperate, broken marks along the surface.
“Please—please—my mark—Hia I can’t—Hia it hurts—” He choked, the words falling apart into sobs, into breathless whimpers that barely sounded human anymore.
Zee stepped forward instinctively. His body betraying him but stopped himself just short of touching him. The movement alone sent a jolt of sympathetic pain through his own mark, a sharp sting that made him flinch, teeth grit. It was nothing compared to what Nunew was feeling but it was enough to make his vision blur for a heartbeat.
Nunew’s whole frame shook, shoulders quivering as he doubled over, forehead almost touching the ground. Tears streamed down his face as his sobs rose into panicked, broken screams.
“It hurts—Hia, please, please, I’ll do anything—just don’t—don’t—don’t—” His voice strangled into a wordless cry as another pulse slammed through his bond, tearing another piece of it loose.
He clawed at the edge of a chair, gripping it so hard his knuckles whitened but the moment he tried using it to steady himself the pain buckled his arms and he crumpled again, face contorting in agony.
“Hia—!”
It was a scream drenched in heartbreak, terror and unfiltered agony.
His body curled in on itself, trembling violently, as if his instincts were trying desperately to protect something that had already begun to fall apart.
And all Zee could do was stand there. Breathing hard, jaw clenched, eyes squeezed shut as the faint echo of each pulse stabbed into his own mark because stepping in would undo everything, and stepping away would save him.
The bond shuddered in response on the brink of breaking entirely and the pain only grew.
Nunew’s breaths turned thin, ragged, barely pulling into his lungs. His hands, still clawed against the floor, began to slip as his strength leaked out of him. His vision wavered. Edges darkening, shapes blurring as if the room were folding inward. Even through the pain, Zee caught the moment Nunew’s eyes unfocused, his body swaying like he couldn’t tell up from down, like consciousness itself was slipping through his fingers. His lips parted around a final, desperate breath—
“I… lo—…ve y—”
The words collapsed with him.
His body sagged forward, all strength draining out at once and Zee barely had time to react before Nunew hit the floor.
Zee froze.
For a split, stunned heartbeat, everything went quiet.
Then—
“Nunew.”
His voice cracked like something tearing.
He lurched forward, catching Nunew’s upper body and pulling him into his arms. Nunew’s head lolled against his chest, his eyelids fluttering with fading awareness, his lips still parted around the ghost of the words he’d tried to speak.
The world narrowed to the trembling weight in his arms and the faint, shivering flicker of the bond sparking weakly against his chest.
Zee felt it. He felt all of it.
The way Nunew’s mark that used to be bright and warm for years was now spasming violently, sending painful, shock-like pulses through the back of Nunew’s neck.
His own mark throbbed in response, a muted but sharp echo that shot down his spine.
Not enough to incapacitate him. Just enough to remind him that breaking the bond hurt them both.
But nothing compared to the agony in Nunew’s face.
“Fuck—” Zee sucked in a shaky breath, pulling him tighter, his fingers splayed across Nunew’s back as if touch alone could keep him alive. “Baby, breathe. Just… breathe.”
Nunew’s reply was a small, broken sound.
Zee pressed his forehead to Nunew’s hair, jaw clenched until it trembled. He reached for his phone with shaking hands and dialed the only people he trusted with Nunew.
Net answered immediately. “Zee? What—”
“I need you here,” Zee rasped, every word scraped raw. “Come get him. Take him to the hospital. Now.”
Net went silent. Processing the gravity, the fear in Zee’s voice.
“We’re coming. Two minutes,” Net replied.
Zee hung up and gathered Nunew into a full bridal carry. Nunew’s hand slipped off his chest, fingers twitching as if trying to hold onto him even unconscious.
Zee’s chest tightened so violently he almost staggered.
“Don’t…” he whispered, voice cracking against the shell of Nunew’s ear. “Don’t make this harder, please.”
His mark pulsed again.
Zee carried Nunew out of the shop floor, through the quiet backroom. The soft couch they always shared during late-night visits sat against the wall, a blanket still draped over the arm from the last time Zee insisted Nunew napped between shifts.
He lowered Nunew slowly, gently, as if he were made of something delicate and breakable.
Nunew let out a soft, pained exhale when his head touched the cushion.
Zee brushed his bangs aside with trembling fingers. Even unconscious, tears clung to the corners of Nunew’s lashes.
That destroyed him.
Without thinking, Zee leaned down and pressed a slow, lingering kiss to Nunew’s forehead.
He pulled back only when he felt wetness roll down his own cheek.
A tear.
He didn’t wipe it away.
He let it fall onto Nunew’s temple because it was the last part of him he could give.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice barely holding together. “I’m so damn sorry. This is the only way to keep you safe.”
Outside, the screech of tires cut through the silence, followed by car doors slamming and the rapid thud of footsteps racing toward the shop. Net and JJ were close. Zee could feel it in the shift of the air, in the urgency gathering at the entrance. He straightened slowly, his hands hovering over Nunew for a heartbeat longer before he forced them to pull away, fingers curling into fists as if physical pain was the only thing keeping him upright. Every instinct in him screamed to stay, to hold him again, to take it all back but he pushed himself to his feet anyway, forcing each step toward the door like he was dragging chains behind him.
His mark pulsed sharply. One last, vicious throb that echoed Nunew’s fading pain so precisely it nearly brought him down. Zee swallowed hard against the burn in his throat, refusing to look back, refusing to risk even a glance because he knew if he did, he would break completely.
He couldn’t stay. Not if he wanted Nunew alive.
So he stepped out of the flower shop at the exact moment Net and JJ burst inside, their scents flooding the room as they rushed toward the couch where Nunew lay unconscious. Zee didn’t stop. He didn’t turn. He let the door close behind him with a soft, final click that sounded far too much like the end of something sacred.
And as he walked away leaving Nunew trembling and hurting on that small couch. He carried with him the bitter, undeniable truth: he had broken the bond to save Nunew… but the act was tearing him apart just as brutally, leaving cracks in his chest that he knew would never fully heal.