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ABO Meme

THE ALPHA/BETA/OMEGA MEME

In our world, sexual roles are commonly defined by genders -- male or female or other, by sexualities -- gay or straight, bi or asexual or in-between. But what if they were defined by something else entirely?

Alpha/Beta/Omegaverse is a fusion of fanfiction tropes and animalistic behavior. In this world, sexual roles are divided into three categories: the Alphas (the dominant, the protective and the aggressive), the Betas (ordinary humans) and the Omegas (submissive, fertile and able to carry children).

RESOURCES:
Fanlore on the Alpha/Beta/Omegaverse
Alphas, Betas and Omegas: A primer.

CONTENT WARNING: Below the cut contains descriptions of animalistic sexual behavior as applied to humans, situations of dubious consent, explicit situations, mpreg, and scenarios of societal oppression. Click with caution!

ROLES:
1 - The Alpha.
* Stereotypically type A personalities.
* Anatomically: Males have a penis; females may have a penis in addition to a vagina.
* Alphas knot their mates, meaning that the base of the penis swells and locks them inside their mate while they produce copious amounts of semen in an effort to breed.
* Strong sense of smell.
* Near an Omega in heat, they experience a compulsion to mate that is almost impossible to overcome.
* Alphas may go into rut, which is their equivalent of Omega heat, and drives them to mate.

2 - The Beta.
* Ordinary human being.
* Males have penises; females have vaginas.
* Can mate to anyone.
* Might be able to smell hormones of Omegas and Alphas, but will not be overwhelmingly affected by them.

3 - The Omega.
* Stereotypically submissive, quiet, intelligent and less physically able.
* Female anatomy is similar to Betas; males are self-lubricating and may have either an external or internal vaginal setup.
* Regularly go into heat, which involves being overcome by the urge to mate. They are unable to consent while in heat.
* May be made compliant by a bite to the neck. However, that may also induce a mating bond.
* Often regarded as second-class citizens or prizes to be won.

SITUATIONS:
1 - Bonding - Love at first sight. You've spotted your soulmate. You can smell them, you can feel them, you know that they'll be with you until the end of your days. Unless there's something between the two of you. It could be age - maybe one of you has to wait until the other has reached maturity. It could be that the bond is one-sided, and the other has yet to fall in love. It could be an unwanted bond, or society could have divided you into different places. Is your love strong enough to conquer?

2 - Heat/Rut - The need is coming on you strong. Everyone for a half-mile around can smell it. Better find someone to ride it out with, or hole yourself up in a room with a few bottles of water and a durable sex toy. And you'd better hope that there isn't someone out there who will take advantage of your pliable state. Best case scenario, there might be a Beta who can take care of you, or fend off anyone too predatory.

3 - Pregnancy - Whether through a heat or not, you're pregnant. Congratulations - or condolences. Is it time to start a family, or time to start panicking?

4 - Suppressants - You're using suppressants to keep yourself on an even hormone cycle, skipping heats, or maybe pretending to pass as a different class of society. After all, Omegas might want to be in the military, where they're not usually allowed - or an Alpha might want to take a job in a university or as a nurse. Shouldn't they be allowed to, if their hormones are suppressed? Just hope that you don't miss a dose.

5 - Mistaken Identity - That friend that you always thought was an Alpha, or an Omega, or a neutral Beta, turns out to be something entirely different, and your world is turned absolutely upside down. Does it challenge your preconceptions? Or does it just ruin the balance between you two?

6 - Unlikely Pairs - After all, there's no actual reason that Alphas have to mate with Omegas. Maybe two Omegas can satisfy each other. Or two Alphas. Or your intended mate could easily be a Beta. Maybe this is just about breaking out of your pre-established role and becoming something new.

7 - Manifestation - In some cases, an individual may not know they are Omega, Beta or Alpha until their first heat/rut/manifestation, usually happening in early teen years. It may take you by surprise; it may be a blessing, or may be a deep disappointment.

8 - Other - Adventures in getting jobs, making families, fighting bad guys, and anything else you can come up with!

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Well, that was a surprise. He was about to immediately agree to going out- that sounded fantastic. But Jim was a little too quick to correct himself, so Sasan didn't quite get to accept that date.

The wager was such a bad idea, when it came to an Alpha that wouldn't admit he felt jealous or protective or any of those confusing emotions. But Sasan had done dumber things in bars, and it would get them out together, so Sasan was all in.

"I'm game," Sasan said, with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. With his hair mussed up by the towel, it was a special sort of playful look in his expression. "Loser pays the tab?" Not like either of them were worried about money, but that did make it a wager.

Boring. It wasn't a wager if the prize couldn't be interesting. They both made enough money for that small dent to hardly matter. "Loser picks up the tab of the entire bar," he said, feeling a little better already without really thinking it through. The gloomy, dour looking former Captain had a brightness in his eyes that never stuck around for long but was impossible not to be swept up in. He looked younger when he smiled and he was smiling hard enough to give himself dimples.

Sasan probably didn't know how long it had been since Kirk had had any fun but he might guess by the change in posture and the reflection of his companion's playfulness. It was as if Jim had rediscovered that it was nice to have friends sometimes and nicer still to live a little while there was still time.

"I'll let you pick the place. Text me when you're ready to go." He figured that if it took Sasan two hours to get ready for weight lifting and a self defense class, it might take most of the night for him to get ready to go out. "And Watson. Physical. While you're still sober."

He was going to take time to prepare too. Shower. Haircut--

Once upon a time he didn't believe in no-win scenarios. Sasan was cute but Jim had class.

Jim upping the wager only made Sasan grin more. "Ooh, making it interesting. Of course, the loser might become the winner after that." He laughed, a light-hearted chuckle that encompassed how happy he was to see Jim with that life in his eyes again. Regardless of how tonight turned out, he expected some fun.

He'd almost forgotten about the physical again, so it was good Jim reminded him. He agreed to text Jim, noting that it was fairly dangerous letting Sasan pick the place, and then he headed off to Medical.

He spent most of his time on the way planning out his hair and outfit in his head. There were a few pieces in his wardrobe he was saving for going out. He was sure he could make himself pretty irresistible. He bet he could surprise even Jim.

Having seen Sasan's style, he had a pretty good idea of what the other man was capable of...but he really had no idea. Wearing suits or dress shirts to the office and something colorful and casual yet flattering on the weekends did not prepare Jim at all for a Sasan that was going out. Actually, maybe it did. He was expecting a muscle shirt and sparkles. Wasn't that what raver kids in LA liked these days?

While Gabriel and Jack were out at an expensive restaurant drinking expensive sparkling water and nibbling on the most delicious porterhouse steak on the planet with all of the fixings, Jim stood in front of his closet and frowned. His wardrobe was minuscule.

But that was all right. He owned a leather jacket. A little gel in his hair, black jeans, a white dress shirt and a skinny black tie held loosely around his neck and... It was only seven o'clock.

Jim got himself a beer and plopped down on the sofa. He'd probably be asleep when Sasan got around to texting.

Sasan was actually pretty good, for him! He texted Jim around 8:15 and said he was ready to go and would be at his door in ten minutes. Hopefully, Jim wouldn't be in such deep a sleep that he'd wake up for it.

Sasan would possibly surprise Jim. He was wearing a light blue dress shirt that folded back once at the cuffs and was tailored so perfectly that even the wrinkles complimented him. It was unbuttoned at the top, showing off just a tiny amount of chest hair. He also wore dark grey skinny jeans and a perfectly color-matched blazer. His brown leather belt tied the whole thing together, with its round, silver belt buckle. His hair was even 'swoopier' than usual, looking like it was practically floating of its own volition. Sasan thought the whole thing was a very sophisticated look, and it should go well with the place he'd chosen.

Of course, it was also a fairly 'quiet' outfit by Sasan's standards. He couldn't go without any color at all, even if it was a study in color contrast and different textures. So he was also wearing a small beaded bracelet with a rainbow of colors.

He knocked on Jim's door with the excitement of a first date- even if this totally wasn't a date. It was close enough for Sasan.

Jim had never been a light sleeper and he certainly wasn't about to change anytime soon. Blue eyes opened, not at the text, but the knock at the door, and he jumped to his feet. The leather jacket was left over the back of a barstool but he answered the door anyway, not sure what to expect when he saw Sasan framed by the jamb...it certainly was nothing like what he received.

His eyes wandered. There was little help for it. Nor was there much help for his hair, though he had the very good fortune of looking devastatingly fantastic with mussed up bed-head. It was effortless. Much of the way he looked was.

He swallowed with a dry mouth and decided to excuse himself to rinse with some mouth wash before his breath earned him absolutely no numbers that evening. Sasan was sure to say something sassy to draw his attention to a part of his body so Jim decided to beat him to it. "I thought there would be more glitter." But shit. Sasan looked amazing.

Oh wow, Jim looked fantastic. Sasan always knew he could clean up well, but this was on another level. Simple but with subtle touches. Sasan wondered how many of them Jim meant to put in there.

Apparently, Sasan had been successful as well, because Jim had to go collect himself. The glitter comment got an easy laugh. "There is a time and a place for glitter," he acknowledged. "But it doesn't really work with me all that well. Plus- we need to stand out." No explanation on that, for the moment.

"You ready to go? It's not far." Oh, and he spied that leather jacket. Jim had a very classic quality to him that seemed timeless, and Sasan wondered how a future spaceman managed that so well. He also wondered how all these clothes would look draped over the floor, but he shook that thought away. "You look amazing, Jim. How did you get your hair that way? I'm never able to get mine quite right when I go for the messy look."

Was it a real compliment or was he trying to psyche him out? Jim frowned at himself in the mirror as he finished rinsing his mouth and glanced at the mop of hair on his head. It wasn't how he remembered doing it but as long as there weren't any recognizably flat spots, what did it matter?

"I passed out for a little while," he said, truthfully. "I think the key to making it look like you didn't put any time into how you look is to literally put no time into how you look."

His eyes stayed on Sasan's face during the elevator ride. His hands stayed in the pockets of his coat on the walk over.

"No inflating the ratings with made up numbers," he said, defining rules not because he needed to but because he wanted the distraction. "How you get them is up to you. No holds barred."

Jim didn't exactly cheat... But he liked to stretch the rules in his favor.

Sasan gasped out a small laugh as Jim told him how his hair got that way. "I think you are the only person that works for, Jim." Out of everyone he knew, this was the only time he'd seen such perfect bedhead.

Jim might've kept staring at Sasan- well, Sasan frequently glanced over and smiled. He did not mind the view at all, and knowing he was getting attention (undisguised, even?) was lovely. He practically basked in it. As Jim went over the rules, Sasan thought them through and nodded. "All right. That sounds...reasonable." He was interested to see what Jim considered 'no holds barred'.

They reached the place and Sasan gestured up to the colorful flags hanging around the place. "We're here. Welcome to the Wow Bar. Good luck." It was three stories high, and the atmosphere inside was very bright. The furniture was orange and black, with the occasional zebra print, and the modern-looking fixtures were silver. There was a large collection of very interesting-looking people around here. Sasan looked very at home, and went up to order his first drink- he was starting light with a mojito- and set up a tab.

There wasn't really such a thing as a gay bar where they were from considering how gender worked in this reality but the mix of characters, some obviously in drag even this early in the evening signaled that while Sasan might be at home here, Jim was going to have to test the waters a little bit. He didn't head to the bar. Instead, he gave himself a tour, forcing the protective streak he always had over Sasan to go away for the evening. Jim read the colorful fliers on the wall announcing a Beta Night, first cocktail free with entry and Wednesday night Omega and Alpha mixers from ten to two. Come meet miss or mister right for just one night, the tag line read. That made Jim frown too and he carefully removed the poster from the wall before Sasan could see it.

He felt immediately ridiculous after and sighed at the folded piece of paper before a girl in a tight lime green dress and white thigh high stockings leaned against his elbow. She was wearing the gender symbol for Omega on a chair around her neck and she had a beer in one hand. "You know they put that stuff up on Facebook too, right? Or do you need the physical reminder of when to come back for a good time?"

Jim wasn't interested but he smiled just the same. She would be his first prize that evening after less than ten minutes of chatting. Her friends came over to collect her after that and he smirked as he sent Sasan a text of the screenshot proving his first jump on the leaderboard.

Sasan watched the Alpha (he thought of Jim as 'his Alpha' before he corrected himself) wander off in a separate direction. He wasn't surprised to get the text from Jim, but Sasan was in the midst of an entirely different tactic.

He nursed drinks and watched the world rotate around the bar, saw the ebb and flow of people, who was loud and friendly and who had their marked-out groups. He always liked the more alternative bars- perhaps it was just how he'd spent adolescence growing up in a lot of these places, occasionally sneaking in when it wasn't even a Youth Night. He liked that there was a place where people could be comfortable with themselves.

With his friendly and interested 'I'm an out-of-towner' demeanor, he floated towards those people who seemed to pull others into their orbit. And he completely avoided the drag performance going on upstairs. If it was any good, no one would be paying attention to him- if it wasn't, he'd hear about it soon enough.

It wasn't long before a large bearded man noticed that he hadn't seemed to come with anyone and asked if he was new to Cardiff. After a bit of conversation, he was pulled into a group of six (at least currently), all men enthusiastically enjoying their night. He was on his fourth or fifth drink by then, but he suspected he was going to be going through them rapidly from here on. He got a selfie with all of them smiling and laughing at the camera and sent it to Jim. It wasn't phone numbers, not yet, but it would be soon enough. There were always plenty of guys willing to 'help through a heat' if they found out about Sasan's Omega status.

The reception wasn't as good as one might expect and so Jim didn't get the photo right away. He didn't need to, sitting back with his beer by that point to watch Sasan. There were enough people by then to mask one set of eyes and Sasan had so many on him anyway. He'd been upstairs, prowling unsuccessfully. He'd skirted the dance floor without any desire to join anyone out there or grab another fringe dweller to enjoy the thump of the music.

By Sasan's fifth drink and likely suitor, by the time the shot girls were called out and money was laid on their trays in buckets, Jim had stopped playing the game.

He'd been approached twice more during that period, both women though he couldn't tell their gender status. He had never been interested in that with bedmates before Spock. He'd dated aliens who had no gender and ones that had four. And don't get him started on Andorians!

Alpha, Beta, Omega... That didn't matter. And he'd given up on them all anyway.

Jim was half growling into his beer when a pretty man with pale skin and paler eyes sat down beside him. "Go and talk with him, mate." Irish, an out of towner like himself. Jim ignored him. "You've been staring that way for half an hour."

Okay, that got his attention. "I have absolutely no excuse," he sighed. "I was trying to think of something witty."

"Oh! American? Beautiful. How about you but me a drink? I'm having scotch. Neat." Jim actually found himself smiling and called the bartender up to get them both some scotch. He was going to need it.

Sasan was having a good time with these fellows, but continued to check his phone with increasing frequency. Jim wasn't sending any more numbers. He wasn't trying to 'up' Sasan. Or maybe he was and was just really focused now. With so many drinks under him, Sasan couldn't find the man in the crowd, so he kept making sure he didn't miss a text.

He was usually good at hiding it, but he still hadn't gotten used to these giant screens, so the man who had flagged him down first- George, as it turned out- caught him on it a couple times. "Not having any luck making your ex jealous, eh?" he asked with a wink.

Sasan had looked at George and smiled, and decided to be honest. ...well, partially. It was never a good idea to be fully honest with the drunk. "No, of course its more complicated than that. I've had my eye on him, but he's not looking." George's eyebrows raised but Sasan shook his head. "Not attached, just not looking. But I finally got him out to have some fun, and I'm worried he's off moping somewhere. He hasn't checked in."

George, the big friendly guy that he was, reacted at least somewhat as expected. He clapped Sasan on the back and said to go find the guy and bring him there. The more, the merrier. "Thank you, darling," Sasan replied with an affectionate pat to his cheek. "I'll be back."

Having got up to survey the room, Sasan was surprised to find Jim at the bar, talking to someone. Huh, maybe he did have it wrong. Sasan did his best to sneak around unnoticed, and informed the bartender that he'd be taking care of everyone's tabs, as part of a bet. And yes, he was aware how much that would probably be.

With his eyes off of Sasan, Jim was paying no attention to the other man as he leaned his elbow on the bar and found himself smiling at Mister Silver Eyes. He was sure that they were green or the palest of blues but in the dim light and the throw of color from the very colorful sort that pushed their way up to the bar, they looked metallic, ringed in molten lead, and fringed by lashes that very, very likely had been given a little help with makeup to force them to plump up and stand out.

“Elliot,” the Irishman said after a few moments, clinking his glass to Jim’s before he downed the entire glass like it was a shot. The blond’s eyebrows rose up completely.

“Jim,” came the expected response, but he did not follow that up by how single malts of this caliber were meant to be savored. He doubted the man he was speaking with cared. That doubt was officially dispelled when Elliot, who had indeed seen Sasan move closer to the bar, wrapped one bare arm around Jim’s shoulders. The blond did not reciprocate but it was impossible to see. “Aren’t you friendly. Do you want another drink?”

Elliot wasn’t quite looking at him, but there was always something interesting here to catch the eye and so Jim thought nothing of it. “I’d like to dance.”

“Wrong tree,” Jim said, but he ended up being dragged away from the bar anyway by insistent hands, chuckling.

Jim was evidently still playing, but Sasan didn't want to, anymore. They'd had their fun, but he wanted to check up on Jim and spend the rest of the night at least in his proximity. ...huh, he hadn't been here long, had he? Usually he could go all night, bouncing from group to group.

But that was fine. He'd be the one waiting for awhile, declare Jim the winner when he got the opportunity, and then they could both laugh about their exploits. Hopefully. And maybe he'd introduce Jim to George's group. They seemed like nice, friendly guys.

Paying the bar bill took a little while- they had to check and make sure he was good for it, he had to request to be kept anonymous, they offered him another drink (which of course he took). So by the time he got away from the bar, he had to go search for Jim again. It looked like they were heading off to dance, so Sasan wandered in that direction, keeping his eyes peeled for his Alpha.

“At least try!” Elliot laughed, having to lean in to be heard. He had his hands on Jim’s hips in an attempt to make them contort properly.

The blond still wasn’t really going for it, but there were so many bodies (mostly shirtless regardless of what they had up top) here that it didn’t really matter. Jim was jostled. That was close to dancing. He didn’t bother to respond but Elliot was right. He was suppose to be having a good time, not using this time to figure out where Sasan had gotten to because he didn’t see him surrounded by those men from earlier. Was he earning himself a few more phone numbers? Had he moved on? Was he—

Elliot brought his face back around with a touch to his chin. He knew exactly where Sasan was, he could see him at the edge of the dance floor, looking almost pensive, just for a moment, until the blokes from earlier came back to tempt him away.

“Oh honey, I see what you’re doing.” It wasn’t George. He had a higher voice but still wore the hipster beard that hadn’t quite made it’s way into LA even though it had covered Portland, Seattle and San Francisco. In the end, it didn’t really matter what this man’s name was. He had been with the group from earlier and was very ambitious with his drinking. “Come back with me, sweetheart. Tell me what you like about that blondie of yours and I bet I can hook you up with someone even better. No strings attached.”

"He saved my life," Sasan said, suddenly. The not-George guy (Sasan never caught his name) seemed to be having a bit of trouble processing that, either due to alcohol or the surprise of it. So Sasan made up a story that got the gist of it across. "Someone pushed me in front of a subway train. He jumped in and got me before it hit. He almost died."

And that hardly went into everything he'd found out he liked about him after the fact. Sasan sighed, crossing his arms and waving the hand not holding his drink in the air. "I think I'm in love with him," he told this man he didn't know. If it'd been George, he probably would've gotten a hug. As it was, this guy just frowned and said, "Rotten luck, love. It looks like he's already taken up with someone. You give it another few minutes, but don't stew for too long. It's not good for the soul. You've got plenty of people who'd want to be with you."

Sasan knew that, and it was a little tempting to pretend he didn't feel the way he did, to go downstairs and carry on with all of these lovely fun-seekers, just like he did back home. But he knew it wouldn't amuse him like it used to, not anymore.

"Oh, this is silly," he said, setting his drink down on the nearest surface and walking over to Jim. As soon as he got within viewing distance, he smiled at the man. His dance partner wouldn't be pleased- Sasan had seen the man glancing his way once or twice- but that was only a bonus, as far as Sasan was concerned. "You win," he mouthed at Jim more than he said. Jim wasn't going to hear it with this music, anyway.

You win—?

Jim stopped moving and tilted his head, regardless of the arms around him. Elliot was cute, Elliot was nothing like Spock or Sasan or Gabriel, and Elliot was interested…but not interesting. That made all the difference.

“How?” More mouthed than spoken, though Jim did shout it for good measure. He’d seen Sasan with enough people tonight to fill a shoe box with numbers. All right, that wasn’t even remotely true but Jim hadn’t been trying too hard and he’d gotten distracted.

Pink, blue and orange light strobed over Sasan’s dark hair in patterns and as the beat thumped up to some exciting part of the song, nozzles released smoke from the fog machines overhead. Everyone went crazy, hands in the air, and that included Elliot… And some big bruiser of a fellow with stubble on his face and large, bear-like hands happy to pull Sasan back against him.

It might not have been too bad if he wasn’t sweaty and didn’t smell like he was probably seconds from going into pre-rut in the middle of the dance floor (he was probably high on something, maybe he even took inducers as was always popular in the seedier clubs. Whoever the jerk was with the roving hands, Sasan was not left to his clutches for long.

Jim was the handsy sort too, afterall, and split his knuckles with the first well aimed punch to Sasan’s aggressor’s face. No one touched Sasan. No one.

He'd been about to explain how when the music hit a good spot, and everyone went nuts. This seemed to include Sasan being dragged into someone's arms.

Well. Sasan didn't care for that much, but it was often an honest mistake. He was fairly well-experienced at wiggling out of the way of slightly over-enthusiastic drunken plays. It was the occasional down note when coming to these sorts of places.

Of course, he hadn't detached himself much by the time Jim intervened. Sasan saw the punch in spectacular close-up, although it unfortunately meant the guy grabbed onto him harder as he went reeling. He didn't fall, but he did push over a couple of dancers as he took a couple steps back in surprise. "What the hell, mate?" he yelled. Sasan flailed a bit and stepped hard on the guy's foot, which finally got him released.

It was a little telling that Sasan immediately flung himself in Jim's direction, leaning on him with his hands on Jim's shoulders. He probably should've been concerned about stopping a fight, but that was hardly on his mind right now. "Thanks," he said, although who knew if Jim heard it.

The dance floor, meanwhile, was still pumped up enough that the bit of shoving the burly man had done had rippled through it. It was rapidly turning the whole thing into a mosh pit.

There was a spectacular baring of teeth, truly remarkable given that Jim was not exactly feeling any hormonal rush thanks to having his little glandular issue tended to years before, and Jim put one arm around Sasan. If Elliot said anything, thoroughly ignored by now that Sasan’s weight was against his chest, Jim didn’t hear it, didn’t care to hear it, and completely had forgotten that Elliot existed.

He’d be embarrassed for this outburst later. Right now…he sort of really wanted to fight. It had been so long since he had gotten into a good one that wasn’t part of the day to day stuff he encountered during missions.

This was extracurricular.

Now that Sasan was secure, Jim putting his body physically between him and the idiot evidently up for the challenge, Jim decided it would be fantastic to get up into the larger man’s (Alpha, his body told him) face. The crowd helped, surging against him, pushing him forward.

This was going to be amazing. In fact, he still thought so even after he was thrown out, eye blackened and lip split. Not bad…not bad at all for an evening out. Plus, he got to protect his…Sasan. Whatever Sasan was to him. It put a spring in his step.

Sasan was torn between worry and pride as he followed Security and Jim down to the street. As soon as they had left Jim's sight, Sasan appeared behind them, rushing to put an arm around Jim.

"Ohmygod, are you okay?" he asked, although the worry in his eyes was complimented by a smile. "Never had anyone take on an Alpha for me like that before. It looked like he regretted it, too." A really nasty look came to Sasan's face for a moment, but then he got a better look at Jim's face and his features softened. "Oh, we should get some ice on that eye..."

Sasan was feeling chatty and mothering and pleased with this night. He was glad Jim seemed to be pretty happy with it, too. Even with having been hit pretty hard once or twice.

"Yeah, well, and I highly doubt that you've never had alphas fighting over you," Jim grinned...his teeth were bloody, but he was happy, that was the oddest thing. "An old friend of mine said I was only as happy as I was in a bar brawl when I was in the Captain's chair."

His ribs ached, but in the best of ways. Fighting was ever in his blood.

"But okay. Ice. I can deal with ice. C'mon. Limp with me home."

Sasan couldn't believe that Jim was actually more attractive with his teeth nearly knocked out, but it was true. "If I'd known that, I would've taken you to a different bar," Sasan murmured, amused. But it looked like it worked out the way Jim liked, anyway. He'd gotten his fight.

It wouldn't take long to get back to Jim's place. Sasan talked about inconsequential things most of the way- what he thought of the bar's atmosphere, the best drinks there, stuff that didn't matter to either of them. As they got close to Jim's place, though, he veered off those topics. "Oh- right. You wanted to know how you won? I kept forgetting to get numbers. Somehow I never asked. So your one beat me out. Don't worry, paid the tab before we got thrown out," he added with a smirk.

Buzzed on alcohol and the adrenaline of the fight, when Sasan helped him to the couch, Jim just kept on grinning, happy to lucky and not yet feeling the pain. He felt triumphant, something he hadn't in a long while. Tonight had been an odd mix of emotions, trickling down into something trickier than he thought was physically possible. The chatter helped dissolve away most of the peripheral thoughts.

And everything else-- everything else centered on the man who hadn't bothered to get anyone's number because he didn't want Jim dancing with someone else.

The blond said nothing as Sasan got him his ice. It was only when eyes so familiar but looking so unfamiliarly earnest returned to meet his own that Jim felt the heat of the moment.

"I don't see him when I look at you and it makes me feel guilty," he said, wincing as the ice moved to his eye.

Sasan stood next to Jim, having gathered and provided the ice. With Jim's admission, his mouth pulled back into a sad smile. "...I can see how it would," he said quietly. "But it's a good thing, I think. We might look alike, but I'm not him. It's good to have us separated."

He had a question on the tip of his tongue, but he hesitated to continue. For once, it seemed time to let Jim speak, if he wanted. And Sasan would certainly push this fragile moment too far, if he gave himself the opportunity.

"Thank you for defending me tonight," he added quietly, in spite of himself. He didn't think he'd properly said it before. The gratitude was warm and sincere.

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