It was light like the first snowfall the night that he first noticed. Yona was snuggled up close to him in their only tent like normal, and Yun was just closing his eyes for the night. The night like a hush gently pressing down on him, gently covering them, its own quiet blanket.
And Yun with his eyes shut found that he had to focus more on the scent. There was no scent of danger, no incoming bear curious about what food they'd have, nothing like that. Instead he was hit with Yona's scent, a little mixed in with the earth, just like all of them smelled like. A little worn down, a little earthy, like branches, grass, trees, bark, and dirt. They all smelled the part after so long traveling together, nature seeped into them.
And Yun is hit with a sudden wave of comfort that feels a lot like nostalgia. Yona's scent is familiar, and he has no idea when it happened. Just over all these days, slowly hour after hour, her scent became one that is no longer unfamiliar, no longer strange for Yun, instead he's caught up in the familiarity of it, of how comforting that is.
It isn't comforting, because she's an Alpha and he's an Omega; it's comforting, because she's Yona and he's Yun. It's a tidal wave laying hold to his heart. It's like when Yun slowly realized that Ik-Soo's scent was reassuring in a way that no one else's had ever been for Yun.
And it's Yona, laying asleep at his side, so close that he can feel her warmth seep into his skin, so close that every breath of hers echoes in the tiny tent they share. It's reassuring in a way that Yun doesn't have words for. He huddles closer to her, overwhelmed at how easy comfort seeps in from everything that Yona is. He hadn't meant to love others like this, to let them into his heart.
A survivalist like Yun never needed to, but Ik-Soo came out of nowhere. And the two of them became a pack slowly, like a family that Yun doesn't remember ever having before Ik-Soo. And Yona's right by his side, as familiar as Ik-Soo had become.
She's family. And Yun can't help the fact that this fills him up with so much unrestrained joy and comfort, but also fills him up with so much fear. Before Ik-Soo, it was only Yun. And being alone meant that grief and loss weren't possible. But then Ik-Soo became Yun's first family, and he never wanted to see the priest die and was still grateful that Ik-Soo was alive. Grief and loss had kept their distance from Yun so far, but life with the Happy Hungry Bunch was hard enough, in ways both similar and dissimilar to how hard things were with Ik-Soo, that they never felt out of reach.
Yun hopes he never has to go through all of that. As he huddles close to family that he hadn't expected having.