"I'd kill to be a beta right now" Keith mumbled as he curled in on himself, wrapping his arms around his torso.
He couldn't decide whether it felt better to lay flat and stretch out or to crunch himself up into an Omega pretzel. Either way, the cramps still attacked him and he felt like someone was stabbing a very jagged, rusty blade into his gut, over and over.
Hunk crooned to him from where he was laid out behind Keith, careful not to get too close because Keith couldn't stand the extra heat radiating from the large Alpha's body. He settled for rubbing a gentle hand up and down Keith's back. Lance was sitting near Keith's head, idly playing with the black locks. Keith was too sensitive and sore and hot to want to be touched right now and they were lucky he was allowing them this much and that he hadn't chased them out of the room.
Keith was in pre-heat. And his body was running amok. He was so hot he bordered on feverish. And his skin was clammy. He was constantly trying to stretch his limbs out because his entire body ached, but he also just wanted to curl up and hug himself because the cramps were getting pretty unbearable.
Lance didn't envy him. If this is what Omegas had to go through every heat, he was glad he wasn't one. He ran his fingers through Keith's hair a little rougher, making sure to scratch his scalp just like the Omega liked. Only Keith growled and shook his head once before hunching his shoulders and ducking his head away from Lance's hand.
The Omega had stripped himself of all his clothes except his boxer briefs, and he'd only kept those on because he didn't want to leak slick everywhere. Eventually, when his heat really set in, the briefs wouldn't be able to stop much of it.
With another huffing growl, Keith launched himself up from the half-made nest, which was really nothing more than a few blankets and articles of clothing on the floor of Keith's bedroom. He came to rest on his haunches and he just stayed there, head down and panting, body trembling. He looked awful, and Lance felt so bad for him. He wished he could help his Omega, but there wasn't much either he or Hunk or anyone could do until Keith's body calmed down enough to accept them.
The rest of the pack was waiting patiently, not wanting to intrude on Keith's nest until he was ready for them. Lance and Hunk had been allowed in, Keith had decided after nearly an hour of suffering alone, hoping their Alpha pheromones would push his body into proper heat and then he could just fuck it all out of his system. They'd been laying with him for nearly another hour and his body did not seemed inclined to hurry up at all.
Keith whimpered, a high-pitched Omega sound, drawn out and tapered off into a desperate little huff of a cry at the end. He hunched over, head almost to the floor and arms coming around to wrap protectively around his torso. He continued whimpering, breathy little noises that tore at Lance's heart. His instincts screamed at him to help his Omega, and he knew Hunk's were doing the same if the way the big guy's hands clenching at the empty space in the nest were any indication. Lance really hoped this pre-heat would be over with soon, but realistically he knew that pre-heats could last up to a few days.
Granted, he'd never seen a heat this bad. Most Omegas starting their heat spent the days leading up to it hoarding food and gathering items for their nest. Most weren't debilitated by their body's symptoms. Sure, there was the occasional bout of cramping and the jitteriness caused by aching limbs, but Keith's body seemed to have gone into overdrive. Shiro's pre-heat was never this bad.
Lance looked back at his Omega, at a loss how to fix this; he couldn't even touch Keith without making it worse. Poor little thing.
Still crying those helpless little cries, Keith suddenly lunged towards Lance. All graceless limbs and burning heat, he crashed into Lance, knocking the Alpha onto his back. Lance's arms automatically came up to cradle the Omega and Keith wasted no time snuggling into the other teen, nuzzling his face into Lance's throat, under his jaw, repeatedly, almost as if trying to dig himself in deeper there. One arm gripped Lance's shoulder with a feverish intensity, but the other reached out blindly in Hunk's direction.
"Alpha…" Keith whined, sounding desperate and needy and in pain all at once.
Hunk seemed to understand and crawled over to the other two. Lance managed to roll onto his side while still holding onto Keith and once the Omega had righted his position, head still securely tucked into Lance's neck, Hunk laid himself out along the Asian teen's back. The bigger Alpha wrapped an arm around Keith's waist and pulled him back so that Keith's ass was flush with Hunk's crotch. He rolled his hips forward a few times, enjoying the feel of that tight, little ass against his clothed cock, but Keith whined and tried to roll away.
"Alpha," Keith panted. "Just...hold me".
So Lance and Hunk did, wrapping the little Omega up in their arms and legs, trapping him between them. He was still near-fever hot and he trembled and huffed out little cries still. He occasionally tried to stretch himself out of their hold, but Lance and Hunk stayed, holding him through the worst of it.