Chapter Text
-/-/-
“Alright!” Hunk began as he slammed down a tower of individual bentos for his pack. “In celebration of the new year and new beginnings, I have specially crafted a non-traditional bento for all three of you complete with color coded boxes for easy distinction.”
The three pack members in question leaned forward excitedly from their seats to take in Hunk’s gracious gift. The tower of three boxes, green, red and blue respectively with a yellow already set aside, nearly sparkled with what was surely perfect and well thought out meals for all of them. Keith felt his stomach growl in anticipation. He would never think of turning down a meal from his fellow pack alpha.
“First off is Pidge,” the alpha said, gracefully sweeping the top green box from the tower and lifting the lid. “Peanut butter and jelly wraps, complete with rabbit apple slices, strawberries, kiwis, peanut butter dipping sauce, and a brownie!”
Pidge smiled so large that sparkles nearly appeared and made grabby hands at the box while repeating, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“No problem, you’re welcome. Next, Keith. I got my hands on some pickled lotus root, so we got that along with rice and grains, egg rolls, and seasoned spinach salad ‘cause I know you like your food simple and efficient.”
“Oh hell yes,” Keith murmured. You couldn’t go wrong with simple when Hunk was making your food, it just meant that it was a higher quality.
“And last but not least, I got my best platonic life mate, Lance! I took some more artistic liberties with yours and made a little rice ball head with a sombrero, that part is made from a bit of tortilla wrap, with cheese for decorations. See, I even gave him a little, ridiculous mustache. Super proud of that. We also got rice with mixed beans, green and red bell pepper slices, and cantaloupe and melon balls because I know they make you giggle.”
Lance quietly reached out to take the lunch box from Hunk, but seemed to have a strained smile on his face. “Thanks, buddy,” he managed. “This, uh… looks great.”
“You don’t seem to believe what you’re saying.” Hunk gave their pack mate a flat stare, not necessarily mean but clearly suspicious.
“No, it does, everything you make is great, man! Just… not right now?”
“You sick?” Pidge asked with a mouthful of apple bunny. “Crappy time for that, it’s not even the end of the first week of being back to school.”
“I don’t know,” Lance sighed. He covered the bento back up with obvious remorse and put a hand to his head. “I just feel weird and off, ya’ know?”
“Probably not used to getting up early already,” Keith offered. “Bet you were sleeping over twelve hours a day during break.”
“You’re saying that as if I should be insulted.”
“Are you?”
“Yes! There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of a life with little to no responsibilities, mullet! And don’t act like you were up at the ass crack of dawn in… in the, uh… cranberry bogs, I bet you were sleeping in just as much, probably longer!”
Keith raised an eyebrow at Lance while Pidge and Hunk nearly choked on their laughter. Keith had come to learn since somehow joining the three that Lance thought they were laughing at his clever choice of words. Arguably that was indeed that case, but you had to omit the word “clever.” Either way, it made Lance happy to make people laugh, and a happy Lance was an adorable Lance.
For Keith, at least, who was way too deep in that rabbit hole.
“Anyway,” Lance continued, “I don’t think I’m sick. Actually, I’m wondering if I’m finally going into my first rut!”
The three quickly turned their heads to their fourth and only yet to be presented pack mate. Both Hunk and Keith were alphas while Pidge was a Beta. Lance was the only non-presented member and even then it was getting fairly late for him, what with being seventeen.
He seemed to be the only one unconcerned with that, however, since Lance was one hundred and ten percent positive he was going to present as an Alpha. And honestly, he had good reason to. Keith was shocked to hear that the entire Ramirez family were all Alphas. It wasn’t on purpose, either, it just kept happening that each mate they took turned out to be a fellow Alpha, which genetically tended to produce more Alphas. Considering how huge a family he had, if his stories and Hunk’s backing of his word were to be trusted, that was an incredibly impressive feat.
“Oh thank God,” Pidge practically moaned. “I have been waiting nearly my entire high school career for this, praise the lord that it is finally happening and we may now
be spared your endless ranting about being a soon-to-be-Alpha! As if that means anything.”
“If it means I get to boss you around, then yes, it means a lot,” Lance cockily snarked. His efforts got an apple rabbit tossed at his head. It was ignored.
“Dude, you know we don’t do that,” Hunk said. “And I hate to disagree-”
“Then don’t, buddy, come on!”
“-BUT my first rut started with me shoving somewhere around six feet of sub down my food chute. Keith?”
“Yeah, I ate, like, eight bags of spicy shrimp chips,” Keith answered. “And maybe tried to drink soy sauce? I don’t know, basically the thought of not being hungry was nonexistent so I’m with Hunk. Your scent is definitely off so you're probably just germ invested. How about you do us all a favor and leave for the day?”
Lance furiously whipped his head between the two before wincing. It seemed he had a headache, too? Keith was mildly concerned and was about to reiterate his previous statement, maybe in a nicer way, but Lance had that covered.
“Fine!” he said. “I know when I’m not wanted and if you guys are so insecure to have a third alpha in this pack thing we have going then maybe I need to find a new one!”
“Oh come on, we don’t mean it like that,” Pidge sighed.
“No, no, you don’t have to say anything else. I will be taking my bento, thank you Hunk you are excluded from my current mood.”
“Nice!”
“Now, good day to you all!”
With that, Lance flounced out the cafeteria, more than a few eyes staring at his mini outburst, then rolling at his declarations of alpha-ness. That was thing with him, though. Everybody knew who Lance was, hell, even Keith was vaguely aware of his existence before wandering into the metal shop where he met his three friends for the first time. He recognized Hunk and Pidge from being super smart, but Lance? Lance was known for not shutting up about how he knew he was an alpha before even presenting.
He had a tendency to bring it up whenever he could, he was very proud of his family and the fact that they didn’t waste the money on early testing. Why bother? When everybody had presented as Alpha for generations there wasn’t much of a need for it. Sadly, it ranked him up there with the snob crowd in regards to annoying hierarchy, despite his pack knowing that wasn’t why he was obliviously bragging.
Quite simply, that’s just what Lance did and you either hated it, like a good portion of the school, found it funny, like Hunk and Pidge, or found it endearing, like poor, poor Keith. Speaking of…
“Wow,” Pidge muttered. “Mind if I ask you something, Keith?”
“Yes.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Lots of things.”
“I mean in Lance Land, what the fuck was that just now?”
“Me suggesting that Lance take care of his health and go home for a good rest?”
“Yes, in the most rude way possible! I mean really, if you still plan on confessing to him after he presents then if you want any hope of him returning your feelings then maybe, I don’t know, be nice to him?”
“Aw, you’re really waiting until after he presents?” Hunk butted in.
Keith stuffed an egg roll in his mouth before glaring to the side.
“Dude, that’s adorable! But, uh, sorry to burst your bubble, Lance says you’re a huge jerk who thinks he’s better than everybody else, so, yeah, he’ll probably reject you.”
Keith almost choked on his egg roll.
-/-/-
It wasn’t until after basketball practice, a sport that Keith begrudgingly played under orders in hopes of keeping him “off the streets,” but whatever, he was awesome at it, that he received a text from Pidge regarding Lance. Now, Keith hadn’t been too worried about him outside of wondering if he got his appetite back, but there had definitely been something… off about him at lunch. Like his scent was subtlety different, in a way they were unable to pin down. Considering it was obvious he wasn’t going into rut, the subject was quickly dropped in favor of mocking Keith.
Clearly this was a mistake on their part if Pidge informing Hunk and himself to respond “RIGHT FUCKIN’ NOW” was any indication. Making sure to shoulder check the captain, Lotor, on his way to distance himself from the other players, Keith quickly typed in a response of just a question mark.
Hunk was a little more to the point with his, “what’s wrong?” complete with a frowny face.
Keith waited patiently while Pidge took her time typing, and wiped some more sweat from his body. Either the beta was having trouble putting her words together or had a lot to say because it was taking a surprising amount of time. Enough time to let Lotor not so accidentally smack his back with a rolled up towel. Right before he was about to retaliate, however, a ping alerted Keith that Pidge was finished.
And yes, there was a pretty decent sized wall of text that greeted him.
Pidge: okay so like you all got how lance was all weird smelling right? And not eating hunk’s food is a HUGE red flag that we should have noticed something and yeah keith nt so helpfully told lance to go home but a lot of good that did sinc he didn’t and just ran off but thn in calculas he was still being really wird and just smelled more and more strongly of that not lance smell then he starts sweating right?! Hes sweating and I can smell him from across the room and shit so could everybody else now that think about it FUCK but anyway I eventually just get up and since the whole freakin school knows were a kind of pack they let me because damn I bet the teacher smelled it too an i take him to the nurses and she tarts freaking out and tells me to leave and oh my god you guys this is iduclous
Hunk: pidge you’re seriously freaking me out right now with all of this incorrect spelling and grammar what’s wrong?!
Pidge: … you guys trust my judgment, right?
Hunk: yeah, you have good analytical skills… oh my god, what cancer does lance have?!
Pidge: NO CANCER just, once I thought about it he has all of the signs and then I did some more research after the nurse told me to leave and so I’m like 95% sure that… well…
Hunk: PIDGE
Keith: wtf is going on?
Pidge: LANCE IS AN OMEGA
“HE’S AN OMEGA?!”
Keith immediately slapped his hand over his mouth at his exclamation. He could feel the back of his neck heating up as he slowly turned around to face the entire basketball team in the now deadly quiet locker room. Sure enough, all of them were staring at him with varying degrees of comprehension slowly dawning on their faces. It didn’t take too much thinking to figure out who Keith was talking about in regards to his outburst. He was pretty known throughout the school what with being a “bad boy” as well as a star player on the team, as were Hunk and Pidge given their academic achievements, and Lance since the four of them made a pack.
And everybody also knew that Lance had yet to present out of the four of them since he never shut up about "knowing" he’s an Alpha.
And there weren’t any male omegas currently in the entire school.
And it also didn’t take long for Keith to realize he may have just made life a lot more complicated for his crush.
-/-/-
“Holy crap, did you hear?!”
“Be more specific, hear what?”
“Lance Ramirez is an omega!”
“Who?”
“That guy who was so sure he was an Alpha!”
-/-/-
“Aw man this is the best thing I heard all day!”
“Serves him right, karma is a bitch.”
“And so is he now!”
-/-/-
“Good, now he’ll know his place. He was way too loud.”
“Think he will? We might need to teach him how to behave.”
“Man, bet he’ll look good all pretty and demure.”
-/-/-
“How long do first heats normally last? I can’t wait to see him come back with his tail between his legs.”
“Somewhere around a week. Might take longer for dudes. Think we should start planning?”
“Way ahead of you, man! I bet we can have him on his knees before he even gets in the school. I hear he gets coffee for his pack near every morning at the Dunkin Donuts.”
“Sweet, then we’ll get some food and a show.”
-/-/-