So, I just re-watched the entire Undertale musical, and I'm EMOTIONAL; anyway, that's totally unrelated to this chapter, I promise.
Zoe continues to be a very interesting character to write for, as I have a hard time relating to her; I can only hope I do her justice.
23. Αναμεταξύ
The project is running surprisingly smoothly, and the people involved seem decided to keep it that way. Jared and Alana are allowed to visit the abandoned orchard to take 'before pictures' of the place; which also will serve to help the people working on it to know what and where everything is.
The scent of ash is still there, but Connor's scent has disappeared when they finally go there; Alana was still a very busy person, so locking her down for the visit had been a bit of a hassle. The scent of ash is the strongest in what once was the storage, according to the people that are going to be working there; it all but disappears when you head further in to where the main building was.
Jared curses inwardly at its presence, he had noticed Evan's scent getting stronger recently, and fears what it means coupled with the existence of the ash. It's one thing to think of stopping Murphy from normal courting; to stop him from taking Evan during heat would require literal fighting.
As a leopard, Murphy is bigger than Jared, and as a feline he has the advantage in speed; he also has Evan's favor, and if the omega gets involved things could get nasty. The thought of fighting against Evan has become a lot scarier now that Jared knows the truth, and had a taste of the strength he had; Evan could very easily kill him without ever opening his mouth to breathe fire at him, and that shouldn't be hot, but here Jared is.
Evan Hansen just keeps making Jared question everything he knows to be right, first by being too small to be that alluring, and now by failing to make Jared want to rise to the challenge while being one of the most dangerous creatures on earth. Jared was supposed to want to subdue him, to see the strength and ferocity and find a way to get the upper hand, to be the fearsome one; instead, upon realizing Evan could easily fit his entire wolf form into his mouth in a single bite, Jared found himself oddly aroused.
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Zoe figured she should feel a little worse about the fact that she was practically spying on her brother; even if it was just keeping an eye on him in school. She wouldn't lie, it was weird to be so aware of what Connor was doing; but he had become an entire different person.
Less screaming, less fighting, less threats, less missing school; still the same heavy scent of ash, only now Evan carried it too, and that made Zoe revaluate.
Zoe didn't exactly know how the drug thing worked, but she was pretty sure Evan wasn't the type to do them, and that should mean the scent of ash should be banishing slowly; so the fact that it wasn't and that Evan seemed to get more and more covered in it meant there was a chance it was just part of Connor's natural scent, and that put things in perspective. Without the drugs to easily blame, Connor's aggressiveness, his zooning out, his general sluggishness; all pointed to something being wrong with him.
So Zoe kept an eye on him at school, saw him orbiting around Evan like he was partaking in a weird dance of sorts; where he stayed close enough to the omega that he could easily keep every other alpha at school away, but also at a surprising distance. Being a beta Zoe is immune to heats and ruts - a small blessing in a world so ruled by second natures -, that doesn't mean she doesn't know what they smell like; and Evan Hansen is definitely nearing his.
The fact that Connor would step away from him when his scent has become so potent is very telling, and that just adds to the newly formed pile of things Connor does now that he's interested in an omega that do not fit with the image of him Zoe had built. It tells her, most importantly, that Connor isn't playing, he's not just being difficult; Connor actually, legitimately, cares about Evan Hansen.
Zoe is unsure on how to feel about this discovery; she's glad to know Evan isn't tangled in some fuckery, she might not know him, but Zoe would never wish for someone to have to deal with her brother's bullshit. She's surprised when Connor agrees to having Evan over for dinner, reluctant as he sounds, she doesn't think him the type to boast, or to drag someone like Evan to the mess that are family diners in the Murphy household - especially considering he hates them with passion -; he must have a plan of sorts, but honestly, Zoe doesn't care.
- ... / .-.. - - -.- -..- / .. - .-. ... / .- .-.. .- -. .-
Alana noticed something off when she had finally managed to get Evan alone in order to talk to him about the Tera thing; he was acting as though he couldn't quite stay still, practically shaking in place as they spoke; only stopping when Alana mentioned Connor. Once she noticed the change in scent, it wasn't hard to put two and two together.
Evan had obviously been worried about his approaching heat and how it would affect whatever it was that he had with Connor, Alana knew the subject of heats was sensible enough to omegas to warrant his disregard of her warning; Alana didn't know what it was like, what with being a beta, but she sort of understood.
Society expected certain things from omegas, alphas expected certain things from omegas, and Evan had reason to be weary of his heat now that Connor spent so much time with him; especially because, if Alana remembered correctly, he seemed unable to afford proper heat blockers, and only got away with it due to his lack of popularity.
Alana always thought it was bullshit that alphas only looked at omegas from different animals if they were bigger than them, it was bullshit because omegas were naturally smaller than alphas; but Evan most likely considered it a blessing when his heats came around. She made a silent promise to keep a closer eye on both Connor and Jared, she highly doubted Connor would try and do anything, he seemed serious about courting Evan properly, and that meant not taking advantage of him; Jared was trickier, because Alana could see how on edge he'd become since Evan and Connor started being more obvious in public.
It was the role of a beta, to act as intermediator between alphas and omegas, and Alana didn't want Evan to be hurt, not when he was one of the few people that actually saw her.
