"I think we should break up."

The moment of silence that followed Noya's words was immense. Asahi felt as if the seat has just fallen out of his chair. But he didn't fall towards the floor, and he kind of wished he would, if only for the excuse to not respond.
The world within the café kept moving around them, and Asahi suddenly understood why Noya insisted they go out today. The silence would be even worse if it filled an entire room.
Asahi lifted his mug to his lips with shaking hands, but he couldn't find it in him to take a sip of the sweet tea, so he lowered it again and swallowed thickly.

"Why?" He asked, his voice quiet. His head was filled with reasons, and he prayed none of them were right.

'Noya's met someone else. Someone better'. Echoes again and again. Fighting for space was an even worse thought. He's realised you're a bad omega. 'He doesn't want you anymore'.
Across the table, Noya sighed.

"It's just…not working."

"I thought it was working." Asahi almost whispered in response, without even meaning to speak.

"It was. At first."
The 'at first' was alarming. They'd been together close to seven months. How much of that counted as 'at first'? How much of it had Noya not wanted to be there for?

"But during your last heat I…realised something."
Asahi's last heat. He swallowed again.

"That was almost two months ago."
Noya put his head in his hands, looking down in shame.

"I know. I thought I could get over it, but-"

"Get over what? Noya, please tell me, I can't take this."
Noya took a deep breath in, then lifted his head, looking straight at Asahi. Asahi wanted to look anywhere but Noya's determined and slightly sad eyes, but he couldn't.

"I can't lift you. You were in heat, and I couldn't hold you properly. I couldn't do anything." He took another breath, but Asahi interrupted. It wasn't like him, but how could he not, given the situation.

"But you did do something, you helped me."

"Not in the way I wanted to. If I had an omega, I mean, one I was bonded to, I'd want to be able to really take care of them when they went into heat. Scoop them up in my arms, you know, carry them somewhere comfortable and give them whatever they needed. With you, I just… I had to let you do it, because I can't."
Asahi tried to really listen. He tried to pay attention to every word. But all his brain would let him focus on was that fact that he wasn't a proper omega. He was too big, too tall, too heavy. Too much of a burden. Not little and light, like an omega should be. That second, he was also far too close to crying.

"It's not just that you're tall!" Noya added quickly, and it felt so much like an excuse it was almost unbearable. "I mean, I'm pretty short for an alpha, so that makes it trickier too. If I was Tsukishima's size it'd probably be okay, but I'm not, you know?"

"You said it didn't matter."
Noya's eyes fell from Asahi's face again, and Asahi copied the motion, staring down at the hands that were still wrapped around his mug.

"I know. But when we started, I really thought it didn't. I'm sorry, Asahi. I've thought about this a lot. If we-" you "-were different-" better "-then maybe it would work. But as we are, it just can't. Not for me. I'm so sorry."

"Is-"Asahi's voice cracked, and he had to clear his throat. He still didn't look back at Noya. "Is there someone else?"
The pause before the answer came was just a second too long.

"No."
Asahi screwed his eyes shut. A tiny part of him was pleased Noya would try to spare his feelings like that. A much larger part was devastated at the lie.

"Asahi. I know this isn't nice, and I really am sorry. But, can we be okay? I mean, we've still got the team to think about, and I'll always have your back on the court, I promise. We're still friends, aren't we?"
Asahi wanted to sob. They were in public, so he couldn't exactly cry anyway, but Noya was really asking about that now? He really expected Asahi to go from 'absolutely devastated omega' to 'responsible third year and ace' just like that?
He didn't have a choice.
He forced his head up. Forced himself to meet Noya's gaze. Then used the last of his energy to force a tiny smile.

"Of course we are. I'm still the ace and you're still the libero. This doesn't change that." It just changes everything else.
Noya looked so relieved that Asahi almost felt a little better. It didn't last long.

"Great. I'm glad. I really thought I'd screwed everything up for a second"
Asahi didn't respond, and after a second, the libero coughed.

"So, uh. You probably need some time, or something, right? And I've got a bunch of homework, so I'll just go. Is that – is that okay? Will you be alright getting home?"

"Yeah. It's fine." The quiet response was a complete lie. Asahi was only holding it together because they were in public and Noya was sitting less than a meter away from him. None of this was okay, and he was bound to be crying the whole way home. But that wasn't the sort of thing anybody said in a situation like this.

Noya must have said goodbye, and he paid for their drinks, but Asahi either didn't hear it happen or forgot hearing it immediately after, because the next thing he knew he was alone and in a very bad way.
His head was so loud it made the conversations around him sound whispered.

'You're such a failure. Too tall, too big. You're a terrible omega. A fake omega. How could you think he would stay? He was never going to stay. You knew that before this even started. You know how he looks at Kiyoko-san. She's pretty and curvy and slim. Look at you. You shouldn't even be an omega, you can't make an alpha happy.'

He stood up so quickly his chair scraped along the floor with a horrible sound. Almost everyone turned to look at him, but he didn't care. He couldn't breathe properly, and he just wanted to get outside.
If he'd been thinking right, he would have known to stay around people, but he wasn't, so he headed towards a little cut through between two shops, where it was darker, and quiet, and he could lean against a cool wall.
People moved out of his way as he stumbled forwards, shaking his head to try and dislodge the thoughts.

To most people, Asahi's height, facial hair, and general build made him look like an alpha or a beta. You had to know he was an omega already to know it when you saw him, and most people didn't. So, to most people who saw him then, he seemed like an alpha who was either very drunk, or near a rut. Not like an omega who was about to drop.

Oikawa Tooru was not most people. Though, thank god, he was like a lot of people in the way he liked to go out for lunch with his friend at the weekend.

"Iwai-chan, look over there."
By the time Iwaizumi had turned to look where Oikawa was pointing, Asahi was gone.

"Look at what?"

"I thought I saw Karasuno's ace. You know, the tall guy, what's-his-name, Beard-kun."

"Azumane?"

"Yeah. He didn't look good."

Iwaizumi shrugged, and went to turn away again, fully planning to enter the small restaurant they had planned to eat in, but Oikawa started
walking. So, with a sigh, Iwaizumi followed the other alpha instead. There wasn't much point arguing. Sometimes he could be reasoned with, but most the time when Oikawa decided to do something, he was going to do it. Going after Asahi was apparently one of those things.

"Shittykawa, if he's in heat and somebody calls the cops on you, I'm not bailing you out."

"He's an omega?" The fact that that was all he'd gotten from what Iwaizumi said caused another heavy sigh. But just as he opened his mouth to reply Oikawa rounded the corner to the cut-through, gasped, and dashed forwards.
Asahi was there, unconscious and on the floor, and within seconds Oikawa was on his knees by the omega's side.

"Azumane? Azumane, can you hear me?"

"He's dropped." Iwaizumi said simply. After a glance up at his friend, Oikawa pulled his phone from his pocket, moving Asahi's head onto his lap with one hand as he dialled Hinata with the other.

"Hi Great-King-kun! You never call me! What's up!"

"Shrimpy, I need your help. We found Azumane in the shopping district, he's dropped."
There was a gasp on the other end of the phone, and a sniff, as though Hinata was trying not to cry. Then there was a muffled voice – Kageyama, if it was as grumpy as the murmurs sounded. Then Hinata was yelling, and definitely crying.

"The great king found Asahi! He's dropped! What do we do, what do we do!?"
There was more murmuring, but Oikawa tried to talk over it.

"Shrimpy. Hinata. Hinata! Oh for goodness sake, put it on speaker." There was some shuffling, so Oikawa paused. "The head omega in your team, it's Refreshing-kun, right?"

"Suga, yeah." Hinata was still sniffling and crying, so Kageyama was the one who replied.

"You need to get hold of him. Tell him to come down here as fast as he can. I'm here with Iwaizumi, and we won't leave Azumane, but he needs people he knows. Shrimpy, stop crying, he hasn't been down for long. Just call Suga, he'll know what to do."
There was another strong sniff, then Hinata's voice was back.

"Okay. I'll call him right away! Please take care of Asahi!" Then he hung up.
Lowering his phone, Oikawa took a shaky breath in. Unsure of what else to do, he gently stroked Asahi's hair. The omega didn't move, which was worrying, but Oikawa tried to stay calm so his scent wouldn't distress the omega further.

"What set this off, hmm?" He spoke softly. Still no movement, but Asahi's scent got stronger. It was sour, since he had dropped, and Oikawa wrinkled his nose against it.
His phone beeped a few minutes later, and he nodded, speaking both to Iwaizumi and the still-unconscious Asahi.

"Shrimpy spoke to Suga-chan, he's on his way. Don't worry, you'll be right as rain in no time."
It felt like a very long time passed before Suga arrived, but according to Iwaizumi – who was timing everything so they knew roughly how long Asahi had been down for – it was only about 12 minutes. He appeared, visible from where they were, but didn't spot them right away.

"Sugawara. Over here." Iwaizumi called, and the setter headed over, kneeling beside Asahi. Oikawa shifted, holding Asahi's head up, so that Suga could take his place.

"Asahi, sweetheart, it's alright. I'll wait for you, okay? Just come back to us soon." He didn't seem like he was too worried, and Oikawa frowned.

"Refreshing-kun, does he do this a lot?" Suga sighed, giving a small shrug.

"Not a lot. But he worries so much, he drops more than any omega I know. He's normally back in about 20 minutes or so. You get used to it."
Oikawa would have been relieved to hear that, had Asahi not started twitching a moment later.
That got Suga looking worried.

"Oh dear. That's not good. …Were you two here when he dropped? Do you know what happened?"

"We saw him just before, then got here just after. We didn't see anything." Iwaizumi answered, and Suga bit his lower lip. Then, he dug his phone out of his pocket. It kept buzzing with texts from Hinata, but he ignored those, and pressed call on one of his contacts. They picked up after a couple of rings.

"Noya, hey, yeah, do you know if anything bad happened to Asahi? …Well he must be upset but he hasn't said anything because- Noya shut up -he's dropped. Badly. …He's twitching, if we can't get him back up- Noya. …What do you mean- no, we need you here- …..Oh. I see. …No, no, don't, it'll be okay. I….I'll fix him."
He hung up and sighed heavily, stroking Asahi's hair.

"So? What happened?" Oikawa asked.

"He was dating Noya. Our libero. Now he's not."
The taller setter looked confused for a moment, before realisation kicked in.

"Oh. Poor thing. It must have been a rough break up."

"Asahi, you really do have a glass heart. Come on sweetie, it's okay. There are other boys out there. Other alphas."
Asahi jerked at the word 'alphas', which made the two setters sat with him flinch.
Oikawa felt useless, all he could do was watch. But then, watching was what he was good at. Reading people, watching for the slightest change and deciphering what it meant.
And Asahi's face had changed. Before, yes, he had been unconscious, and that wasn't good, but now he actually looked upset.
Something clicked. An omega, just broken up with an alpha. Of course he was upset. He'd probably thought they were long term, that they were going to bond. Now, it was probably a case of being afraid it was his fault, something wrong with him made the alpha not want him. From there, he could even be worried that no alpha would want him. It was so obvious. Oikawa couldn't sit and do nothing.
So, he edged closer, reaching one arm out towards the still unconscious omega, then looking up at Suga.

"I'd like to try something. Is that okay?"
Suga looked lost, petting his friend's hair, and he nodded.

"You might as well."
Oikawa moved Asahi gently, drawing the omega closer, and shifting so he was leaning the ace against his chest. He wrapped his arms around the other, and nuzzled softly into his hair.

"It's alright, Azumane."

"Asahi." Suga interrupted softly, and Oikawa nodded.

"Asahi." He repeated. "It's okay, Asahi. You're alright. What a silly alpha that little libero is, letting you go." He felt Asahi shudder in his arms, but kept talking. "You've been down for a little while now, Asahi, you really should come back to us. It's worrying, you know. You've got a very good friend here, and two alphas, and we're all worried. Come on, you're a wonderful ace, don't tell me I'll never get to see your spikes again. Your form is fantastic, and you know, you're the only omega ace I know. Isn't that wonderful? You brilliant, sweet omega. Glass-hearted but fantastic anyway. Where's the Asahi I get to see, hmm? Where's the one who hits spikes so strong they could knock me flying? Can I see him, please?"

Suga watched this unfold, almost in awe at how gentle the 'Great King' was being. Iwaizumi was shocked too, watching Oikawa act so sweetly to an omega he barely knew.
But it worked. Asahi began to stir, his eyes fluttering open.
They closed a moment later, and he groaned, one hand coming up to cover his eyes.

"Asahi! Don't scare me like that!" Suga was the first to speak, digging Asahi in the ribs, which caused the taller omega to yelp, uncovering and opening his eyes. That led to him seeing the alpha he was still leaned against, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Oikawa? What are you… Suga, what happened?"

"You dropped. These guys found you, and Oikawa just brought you back up."
The first thing Asahi felt was a stab of guilt. How could he be brought back up by an alpha he wasn't even dating, it was always his omega friends or Noya. Oh. Noya. The guilt was completely pointless.

"28 minutes." Iwaizumi spoke up from where he was standing a couple of meters away. "That's how long you were down."

"You're lucky, that's longer than you usually go for, if you'd hit 30 I'd have called you an ambulance."
Asahi groaned again as Suga spoke, letting his eyes close and his head fall back against Oikawa's shoulder.
Against Oikawa's shoulder. Shit.

The ace jerked forwards, sitting up too quickly and sending himself dizzy. Suga and Oikawa both reached out to steady him, and it was almost funny how both setters had reacted the same way.

"Careful, we don't want you going down again." Oikawa's hand was warm where it rested on his back, and Asahi nodded slowly, taking a moment to get his balance back.

"Can you stand yet? We should get you home." Suga, now with the jab to Asahi's ribs out of his system, was much more gentle, standing and taking Asahi's hands to help him up. Oikawa was still there too, his hands ready to support Asahi from behind if he needed it. But Asahi got to his feet alright. He just looked a little pale, and a little tired, but nothing too major.

"Will you be alright? We can walk back with you." Oikawa offered, but Suga shook his head. Asahi wasn't light, but he was holding enough of his own weight that the arm over Suga's shoulders was really just for balance.

"It's alright, I can get him home. Thank you for your help." The two omegas bowed their heads, and headed off, leaving Oikawa and Iwaizumi to go and get their lunch, over 30 minutes after they'd planned too.

As they were walking towards the restaurant, Iwaizumi's hand landed on Oikawa's shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"Tooru. Are you alright?"
Oikawa smiled, tilting his head to one side slightly.

"I didn't expect that to happen. But, I'm glad Asahi's awake again."
It wasn't a direct answer, but Iwaizumi understood.