Chapter Text
Robin was strewn across the bed, curled up happily amongst pillows and blankets.
Kon’s old leather jacket had made a reappearance, alongside one of Cassie’s old tank tops. Bart’s leg warmers were being used as sleeves, covering up small bruises from Tim’s most recent mission. His fingers dug into the soft, worn-out fabric of the black and white tank top while Tim instinctively burrowed his head further into Kon’s jacket.
He was practically dead to the world. His heat hit him hard and fast, and now it was wearing off. It wasn’t necessarily pre-heat or even when the heat was full-on, when omegas were the most vulnerable. No, it was when their heat was dwindling and their body decided that it was time to recover by going into a deep sleep.
Tim’s sweet and enticing pheromones hung in the air. They were gentler than they were earlier when he was scraping at Kon’s arms to not leave and begging Bart to stay still so he could hug him. Cassie had laughed at the boys, only to soon find herself being pulled into the bed and forcefully draped along the mattress with them.
They could have all easily left and escaped Tim’s clutches. He may be Robin — or was it Red Robin now? — but he was still human. Compared to a demi-god, a half-Kryptonian, and a speedster, a human was nothing. Except they just went along with him, soaking in his whines as he stuffed his nose against their necks.
Tim was an omega. They had known that for a while now. He presented a year or two ago. Most people had bet that he was either going to follow in Bruce’s footsteps as a beta, or be more like the other bats and present as an alpha. No one was expecting someone as cunning as the third Robin to be an omega.
The hero world, and vigilante world, didn’t have a lot of omegas. At least, not active ones in the field. Omegas weren’t weak — no one was dumb enough to say that — but they were just… They didn’t tend to do well in the field. Not because they couldn’t fight, but rather because no one else could fight alongside them.
It was the smell. The enticing scent and ethereal aura of omegas. Heroes and civilians alike would trip over themselves. And Tim, who was unclaimed and smelled like something divine, like someone who was heavenly, would cause chaos.
He already had, actually. Titan’s Tower went on lockdown two weeks ago because Tim had shown up as a civilian just grabbing some of his things. It wasn’t abnormal for heroes to walk around in civilian clothes, but Tim didn’t even have suppressants clouding his scent. He had left after grabbing his files, unknowingly leaving a mess of heroes in his wake.
Cassie scoffed at them, watching as even Raven seemed to be a little dizzy by the faint lingering omega scent in the air. Kon and Bart reacted similarly, asking the others why they were behaving oddly. It was Megan who had to point out that none of them were omegas and didn’t regularly interact with unclaimed omegas either.
Bart was confused for a while. He came from the future, after all, and sub-genders weren’t all that important. He could have been counted as a beta because most scents never did anything to him, but he was an alpha despite what many thought. He was very in control of his emotions and instincts and yet Tim came along and broke all of his preconceived notions.
Kon called the others dumb and flew back to Kansas. He would never admit that he knew instantly why the others were acting so oddly. He had been just as shocked the first time Rob, his Robin, had elected to reveal his scent without any suppressants or scent blockers. Kon didn’t function for days, the scent practically stained into his bedroom where Tim had played video games all night.
Kon couldn’t help it. He was part of Lex Luthor. Even though Kryptonians didn’t have sub-genders, Lex Luthor did. He was all alpha, and that made Kon an alpha as well. It was quite annoying because it made Kon fight against instincts that felt alien to him.
But as he stared at Tim sleeping peacefully, his hair askew to reveal his neck, Kon was beginning to think that his alpha instincts weren’t necessarily wrong. His mouth ached for an unfathomable reason. He ran his tongue over his teeth, finding that his canines had sharpened into points.
He had moved without meaning to. Cassie’s arm held him back. Kon reflexively sent a glare at her while Cassie raised an unimpressed eyebrow. Kon stuttered to a halt, then, and realized that he was about to try and claim an omega without consent.
Cassie shook her head, then went back to staring at Tim as well. He cradled her shirt like it was important. It was so old, thin in almost all places. Tim didn’t mind it, just snuggling closer to Cassie’s soothing alpha scent.
Cassie expected to be an omega. Her mom was an omega. Her dad was a beta. Then she was revealed to be a demi-god, oh, and then she was an alpha. She felt like groaning into her hands but she couldn’t help but lick her lips as she looked down at Tim. He had curled tighter and tighter into himself, ruffling the blanket enough to offset it so that his shirt was hiked up and revealed his bony spine.
Bart’s mouth was dry. He was thirsty. He zipped out, then returned to the room with four bottles of water. He drank one as he passed the bottles out, leaving Tim’s on the bedside for when he woke up in a few hours. Kon numbly took his while Cassie gulped down her own with a perplexed expression.
“What the fuck do we do now?” asked Cassie, turning to Kon and Bart.
They weren’t technically a team anymore. They all branched out, mostly doing their own thing with the occasional odd team-up on a case. They still trusted each other the most, after all. It was probably all of the near-death experiences together. They were a mish-mashed pack but Cassie was content. But she was also supposed to be the leader when Tim was compromised.
Kon awkwardly replied, “Don’t we just stick around, make sure he eats when he wakes up, and send him home?”
Cassie sighed. Loudly. She held the bridge of her nose. “Do you know what will happen when he wakes up?”
Bart eloquently replied, “Uh… No. Are we supposed to?”
Kon hummed in agreement. “I don’t know shit about how packs work.”
“We’re not exactly a pack,” reminded Cassie. Bart and Kon both folded their arms and frowned at that idea. “Okay, so we’re a pack, but we’re not officially a pack. Packs tend to be larger, you know, like 20 or more people. 3 alphas and an omega isn’t a pack by normal standards.”
Bart pointed out with cheer, “We’ve never been normal.”
Right. None of them could claim to be normal. Bart or Kon or Cassie would like to claim that they were the weirdest among them, but Tim took the cake easily. It was because he was batshit insane while being human. No self-preservation instincts existed in his little bird brain. It was just as disheartening as it was adorable since Tim sincerely didn’t realize how awful his self-awareness was.
“That’s not the point,” said Cassie. She gestured to the sleeping Tim. “He just had his first heat, right?”
Kon and Bart nodded their heads. Yes, this was Tim’s first heart. They had thought he would spend it with the Bats, but they must have gone away or been on a mission because Tim invited them to his apartment for the weekend.
“He chose us,” said Cassie. She said the words like they meant something. “He chose us as his heat companions. Do you know what that means?”
Kon shook his head. Bart tilted his head.
“It means,” stressed Cassie, “that he’s ours now.”
“... That doesn’t sound right,” murmured Kon.
Bart agreed quietly, “I thought that you had to bite someone to claim them.”
Cassie exhaled loudly, sending Kon and Bart into straightening their backs automatically. Cassie was scary when she was angry. Or overprotective.
“It means that we have responsibilities to always be with him during any future heats. In fact, we’re probably going to scent mark him when he wakes or else it might send him into a strange limbo. Omegas are different from alphas. We can spend our ruts with whomever we want, right? We mostly do it with each other or alone.”
Kon hummed in the back of his throat.
He had only had a bad rut once before. He found himself in Gotham. Tim had laughed at him, dragged him to his room at Wayne Manor, and called for Cassie and Bart so they could all head to Titan’s Tower to snuggle. After that, he had a few ruts alone at home.
“However, omegas need heat companions. They don’t do well on their own. Tim inviting us into his nest was basically him ensuring that we were his pack, while also letting us have a standing invitation to all of his future heats.”
Bart raised his hand then began talking immediately. “Uhm, not to ask something dumb, but weren’t we already going to support Tim with or without permission?”
Cassie groaned and Kon felt sympathetic.
“He chose us,” repeated Cassie. Her eyes were serious, now. “He chose us as his heat companions. That means we don’t let him get hurt.”
“Right…”
“Right?” Cassie bobbed her head up and down. “Tell me, what do you think will happen when the Justice League hears that Tim had his first heat?”
Suddenly, the reminder that omegas usually retire from crime-fighting filled Kon’s brain. He flinched at the idea of no longer working alongside Rob. That couldn’t happen. Tim would be devastated. They couldn’t let anyone kick Tim out of the field. It would ruin Tim’s headspace. He had finally become comfortable after a miserable time getting Bruce back from Darkseid.
“Could we use suppressants?” asked Bart, his voice off from the idea of no longer being able to smell Tim’s scent in full-blast.
“They don’t work long-term. It’s not healthy.” Cassie vetoed it instantly. “However,” she said, eyes sparkling a little, “guess what would tame his scent and let us work beside him no matter what case we were on?”
Kon shifted uneasily. The words sounded too good to be true. He glanced at Bart to see the man buzzing in his skin.
“You’re talking about claiming Tim!” uttered Bart, a wide grin across his face.
“Yeah,” Cassie confirmed it with a hesitant smile. “Even one alpha would make his scent softer and harder to smell. But all three of us? We’d be the only ones able to smell him. He wouldn’t have to worry about being a liability in the field.”
“There’s got to be some sort of trick, though, right?” Kon’s mouth was dry and his canines were sharp. “It can’t be that easy.”
“It is,” assured Cassie. “But you’re right. If we all claim Tim, then we’re bonded together no matter what. Not only would each of us have ties to Tim, but the overlapping bites would also mingle together so that we claim each other.”
That wasn’t anything bad. Kon said, “That doesn’t seem like a problem.”
Bart murmured, “There’s got to be something else, yeah?”
“No.” Cassie shrugged. “There’s nothing else. It’s just… It’s not a common practice, is all. Most omegas have large packs but only one alpha that claims them. But we’re a small pack so having odd dynamics wouldn’t be strange, I don’t think.”
“So we can all fight together and be bonded together forever?” Bart had awe in his voice. “Why didn’t we do that ages ago?”
“Tim,” said Kon.
“Ah.”
Cassie added, “Tim still has to agree to the plan. I… I don’t want to force him. He might want something else.”
Kon scoffed. “As if we aren’t the most important people to him.”
Bart cheered on, grinning, as he tugged Kon and Cassie in one arm each. Hugging them, he said, “We’re the best pack ever.”
When they separated, Cassie said, “Have either of you courted an omega before?”
Bart and Kon blinked at her as if she was talking nonsense.
“Right.” Cassie sighed, shaking her head. “Tim’s from Gotham, but he’s also someone high-up in society. He’s from old money, both from his parents and from the Wayne’s. If the world finds out Timothy Drake was claimed without any sort of public and proper courting, his name will be slandered.”
Bart cringed, his fingers ticking beside him. He remembered when Tim was outed as an omega at one of the Wayne Gala’s. It made the headlines for weeks, spreading outside of Gotham. How could Bruce Wayne trust his glorious enterprise to an omega, after all? It took weeks and weeks for the news to die down, and Tim had pretended like it didn’t matter, but they all saw how tired he was from it.
Tim had simply commented that he was glad that the news stopped running reports of him and Tam Fox’s engagement— Tam was an omega as well, which automatically made everyone assume that they were wrong about her and Tim’s relationship. Instead of a torrid love affair, the tabloids wrote about how Tam and Tim found comfort and safety in each other’s gentle embrace as omegas at Wayne Enterprises.
“We have to pull out all of the stops.” Kon was grinning, his eyes alit with chaos and excitement.
Bart vibrated, practically sinking through the floor. He stopped himself, then tugged his teammates into a hug again. Cassie chuckled into his shoulder and Kon patted their backs. They stayed like that just long enough to finally relax their shoulders.
They only came back to the real world when Tim made a small whine-like noise when he rolled over in his sleep.
Bart instantly cooed over him, sinking down into the blankets to let Tim settle against him. Kon huffed out and did the same. Cassie followed not a moment later, uncaring if anyone thought their pack was strange. They only needed each other. It was them against the world sometimes but right now it was just them with each other.