"Do you see him?"

"No."

"Check harder."

"Tino, I don't think he's- wait! Wait, I see him! Yeah, he's over there!"

"Good. How's he holding up?"

"Uhm... It looks like he's just listening to some coworker talk or something." Mathias adjusted the zoom feature of his binoculars. "Don't think he's in immediate danger."

"Are you sure, Mathias? Check his body language, and check really closely! He may be showing signs of discomfort, instead."

Mathias sighed and backed away from the potted fake plant both he and Tino were hiding behind. He let the tiny binoculars hang on his neck as he said, "Tino, look, I can't believe I'm the one who has to say this since this job sucks, but I really need to go back to doing my work."

"And what? Leave Berwald alone and defenseless against these... predators?" Tino glowered around pointedly and Alphas that were nearby enough to hear him use the nasty term returned the hate-filled (and slightly confused) stares. He sneered at them and returned his attention to Mathias with his arms crossed and frown wide enough to frighten anyone. "Are you really going to abandon him in his greatest time of need even though it is your fault that he's in this predicament to begin with?"

Mathias scoffed. "What? Whaddya mean my fault?"

"If you had taught him the proper sex education, regardless whether he's an Omega or an Alpha, I wouldn't have to worry about some office creep trying to nab my mate!"

"Your mate?"

Tino's throat made a choking sound as he realized what he said out loud. His hand going to scratch the back of his hand, he said, "Uhm, did I say my mate? I mean, ah-" and a split second later, his arms flew down to his sides with his hands curled into fists. "Listen here, you Dane! I am the best darn mate for Berwald, and probably a much better caretaker for him than you or anyone else in this building can ever be! You're better off letting me make my move and helping me to keep these Alphas away, especially since none of them know Berwald like you or I do!"

"Ew, so this isn't about protecting Berwald at all, you just want his ass all for yourself!" Mathias shook his head and groaned. "I shoulda known that this was the reason you wanted to watch over Berwald; Alpha's an Alpha no matter who it is."

"Of course it's about protecting Berwald, that's my top priority right now! Even if Berwald might not choose me as his Alpha, I'd still like for him to not be unsafely lured in by a random pervert that he doesn't know. Something that should be your job if you weren't so damn dense about your own little brother's nature!"

"Tino, I literally didn't know anything about this Alpha-Omega stuff myself until I was maybe 15? What am I supposed to do about stuff that I have no knowledge of?"

"You can crack open a book on it and read, maybe."

Mathias looked over his shoulder and turned around swiftly at the newcomer's voice. "Wha- oh, Lukas. Hey, what are you doin' here?"

Lukas raised the cup of water up to his lips and sipped. "I can honestly ask you two the same thing, but I guess the conversation you guys are having is really important if you are gonna yell behind this fake plant. What's going on, anyway? You two usually don't argue like this."

"It's Berwald," Tino sighed tiredly. "Mathias never taught him how to ward off unwanted attention from other Alphas, so now we have to follow him around and be sure that no one takes advantage of him."

"Ah, so he's in heat again?"

"Wait, you knew too?" Mathias gasped.

"Uhm, yes?" Lukas paused to take a drink, wondering to himself why Mathias seemed so surprised. He then giggled behind his cup and had to lower it so he didn't choke on his drink. "You didn't know that he was an Omega, did you?"

Mathias threw his hands up in the air. "No! No, I didn't! I'm telling you, I just didn't know about this stuff."

"How did you not know-?"

"No one taught him," Tino spoke up before Mathias blew a gasket. He cut him a warning scowl and continued as Mathias calmed himself, "except for what he learned on the streets."

Lukas' eyebrows rose in amusement. "Wow, what a terrible way to learn about this stuff. 'S no wonder you're always trying to get the first Omega that makes eye contact with ya. And then there's Berwald." He shook his head and brought the cup up to his mouth. "And then there's Berwald..."

"Look, Lukas, are you going to help us or just stand there and passive aggressively judge my big brotherly skills?"

"I'm in the mood for the latter, but, sure, I'll help ya." Lukas shrugged. "Might be a good learnin' experience for Emil on mating and heat cycles for when he gets out of his younger stage, right, little brother?"

Tino and Mathias raised their eyebrows at each other as Lukas stood there with a small, blissful smile on his lips. "Uhm, Lukas," Tino said, raising his finger to point out the empty space where he assumed Emil should've been.

"I know," Lukas sighed. "Excuse me while I go look for my baby brother first, then I'll be right back to help you and Mathias." He turned away, but he stopped to sniff the air. He quickly glanced over his shoulder at some place behind Tino and Mathias and added before he left, "Oh, and nice job on keeping an eye out on Berwald; he's getting groped down the hall right now as we speak."

"What?!" Tino and Mathias snapped their heads around to look for Berwald. Their eyes caught him down the floor's hall as Lukas said, pushed up against the wall with another person, Elizabeta with her red lipstick lips curled up seductively, "subtly" pushing her knee in between his legs and running her nose up and down his neck as other Alphas walked passed with envy in their eyes. Mathias and Tino snarled in their throats and all but ran to the two people in the distance. When they reached them, it took all Tino had to not yank the woman by her collar and toss her away from Berwald, but with so many people around and the risk of getting suspended already high, he instead chose to do the lesser and pushed her away.

Elizabeta regained her balance and bared her teeth. "Whoa! Hey, what the hell?!"

"He's GAY!" Tino roared in her face. "He's gay and you know it, Liz, so leave, godammit!"

Elizabeta scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she said in irritated resignation. She mouthed "I'll call you" with her pinky and thumb next to her face and left the group of men alone.

The atmosphere settled down with her absence, and Mathias gave out a low whistle. "Man, that was a close call."

"Too close of a call with that damn shameless pervert." He crossed his arms and shook his head. "Now do you see why we have to do this?"

"Yeah."

Berwald looked from one man to the other. He had a folder in his hands that held up to his chest as if it was a shield. "Do what?" he asked, regarding them with a quirked eyebrow. "An' what was that just now?"

Mathias opened his mouth to speak, but Tino stepped in front of him and spoke up. "Nothing, nothing! We just noticed that she was making you uncomfortable and came to put an end to it, that's all."

"Oh, uhm, ya didn't have'ta do that, but thanks."

Tino waved the thanks away and slid his hand in Mathias' elbow. "No problem, Berwald, no problem! See you later!" He towed Mathias behind him as he got away, with the taller man trying to prevent himself from falling over from the sudden act.

Berwald stood in his spot and watched his brother and crush until they disappeared behind the corner. "Hm... strange people," he thought aloud, and he too went on his way to get back to his work.

With his back towards them, Berwald didn't see Tino and Mathias poke their heads around the corner to watch him and to keep an eye on any Alphas showing even the slightest in him.

"So... why didn't we tell him?" Mathias asked.

"Because we don't want to scare him." Tino moved from the corner and started after Berwald with Mathias following behind again. "If he learns that he's in heat and that we're following him around to prevent Alphas from claiming him, he'll probably get creep out and angry at us for trying to claim him ourselves.

"And there's the fact that if he does figure out what's going on, it'll just frighten him and make the heat worse. He'll attract the entire building of Alphas just wanting to protect him from us, and that's only going to make our job harder." Tino sighed and shook his head at the thought. "So we'll have to keep it to ourselves until we can find the right way to tell him."

As Tino spoke, Mathias raised his eyebrows with how impressed he was. "Wow, you figured this whole thing out pretty quickly, man; that's some fast thinkin'." When Tino flashed him a proud grin, he stated, "Still not letting you have him, though."

Tino stopped in his tracks and asked indignantly, "And why not?"

Mathias paused as well and simply shrugged with his hands in his pockets. "Dunno, man, just don't really think anyone's the right fit for my little brother. Nothing personal, Tino." He added the last part with a twitch of the corner of his lips, and had to turn away before Tino noticed it.

"Wha-, but you can't- Berwald isn't your-!" Tino kept grumbling and searching for a rebuttal, but when no strong ones came and Mathias kept moving on, he hurried to catch up with him and grabbed him by the shirt tail. "You didn't care who Berwald got with when you still thought he was an Alpha like you!"

Mathias reached back and pulled his shirt out of Tino's grasp. "Yeah, because back then, that's when I thought he had a bigger choice in the matter," he replied. "But now that he's in heat, he's probably gonna be taken up by a bunch'a Alphas trying to mate with him. I mean, look at him, he's a freaking super model around here, and that scent..." Mathias' nose scrunched up in repulsion at the bittersweet tingling his airways. Even though that repulsive factor was strong to him, there was no denying that he can detect an appealing scent of coffee and pine forest, a strange combination but a bold and delightful one.

"So you're just going to uphold this double standard then?" Tino said with his arms crossed.

"As long as it protects Berwald, yeah."

"You do know that that sort of discrimination is what the Omegas are complaining about, right? And that Berwald hates most?"

"I'll deal with that later." Mathias gestured with his hand. "So are ya gonna do this or not? Since it was your idea an' all." He started walking without hearing Tino's answer.

Tino stood there and pouted. His nose picked up on Berwald's lingering scent, and knowing that the Alphas were smelling the same thing, he groaned and stomped after Mathias.

Back in his office, Berwald worked nonstop all over his desk, entering data in his computer, transferring calls to his superiors, and passing along documents to workers that stepped into the room to pick them up. The workload was tiresome, stretching him thin to the point that he felt like he was going to yank his hair right out of his roots the way everything needed his instant attention. But it kept him busy, and busying himself was what he needed to keep his mind off the cramps that were not going away.

Balancing the phone receiver on his shoulder, Berwald twisted off the cap of his medication bottle and took two more tablets out to pop into his mouth. He quickly shoved the bottle into his drawer and slammed it closed when his nose caught the approaching scent of another worker. As he typed with one hand, he held out a manila envelope with the other, saying to the person on the other line of the phone, "The survey was tak'n three months ago, and according to the results, the rates of compatible partners plannin' on having children in this economy went down by three hundred percent."

"Three hundred percent? Geez, are you sure?" The other person asked. "That's too high of a number."

"Hm? Oh, wait, my apologies, I was reading what was on my computer." Berwald squeezed his eyes and exhaled in frustration as the new worker finally came in and took the envelope out of his hand. "It's not three hundred percent, it's thirteen percent." He scrolled through his Excel to find the numbers taken from the mentioned survey. "So it looks like if your company up the shipment of contraception by ten percent, it should be enough for profits. I'll email the information so you can get started on the orders."

"Alright then, thank you."

"Not a problem." Berwald placed the receiver back in place and flicked the red switch on the phone to cancel out incoming calls. Taking his glasses off his nose, Berwald placed his elbows on the wooden desk and ran his hands up his face until his fingers combed through his short hair. He inhaled through his nose and blew the air out of his mouth. "Ugh, I can't keep doing this."

"It's one of those weeks, hm?"

Berwald moved his arm to see whom has spoken. All he saw was a blurry figure before he placed his glasses back on his face. "Roderich?"

Roderich tucked the envelope behind a clipboard he was carrying and pat Berwald's shoulder. "I guess the cramps are really kicking your tush, hm?"

Berwald felt like cringing away from the uninvited touch, yet at the same time there was something wonderful and nurturing about the way Roderich squeezed his shoulder in the gentlest touch Berwald ever felt, and with his senses heightened during the Omegas' heat season, his body felt attuned to the comforting gesture. Relaxing under the touch, Berwald slouched in his chair and let his head hang back over the chair's back. "Ugh, Roderich, they're terrible. I can't get my work done and nursin' it isn't doing anything."

"Are you taking any medication for them?"

"'Course, but they still don't work." Berwald held in a small moan of content when Roderich's hand massaged deeper into his muscle. He started to think of how soothing the massage would be if he could get Roderich to rub his cramps, but he soon forced his thoughts away from that. Even though he felt no attraction to Roderich- which he admit is odd as an Alpha with an Omega in heat being attentive to him- such a thought was maybe too intimate to suggest. Clearing his throat, Berwald pat Roderich's hand and sheepishly moved it away. "Um, that's enough, Roderich, thanks."

Roderich did stop giving the massage, but moved the back of his hand up to Berwald's forehead. "Is there anything you need at all? Your face is getting red, is your heat giving you a fever?"

Berwald reached up and removed the hand again. "No, Roderich, I'm fine- wait, heat?"

Roderich nodded slowly. "Yes, the heat that's been making you sick?"

"No, I'm not in heat, Roderich."

"Um, I think I can tell when another Omega is in heat, Berwald."

"But I'm not an Omega..." Berwald shook his head. "What makes you think I'm an Omega like you?"

"Are you serious?" Roderich asked, his voice subtly taking on the snooty tone that Berwald knows so much. When Berwald didn't reply immediately, Roderich's lips quivered into a laughing smile. He brought his hand up to cover his mouth, but the small laugh, so unintentionally condescending- at least Berwald hoped that it was unintentional- yet motherly gentle, came out anyway. It was soothing yet insulting. He cleared his throat. "Well, for starters, it seems like you have a really strong scent coming from your body." He sniffed lightly, and the act made Berwald's spine shudder. "Smells like a wonderful coffee break in a lodge during winter."

Berwald brought the front of his shirt up to his nose and sniffed it. After inhaling deeply and only catching the scent of coffee he had earlier and clothes detergent, he shook his head again, his lips frowning incredulously.

"You aren't going to detect your own scent, silly! That's the most basic knowledge of heat cycles-!" He gasped, his eyes lighting up in realization behind his glasses. He reached out to touch Berwald's shoulder, patting it sympathetically this time as he stated, "You never learned about any of this stuff, have you?"

Berwald started to reply, but went silent as he thought more about the question and the memories that came with it; although no one was there to teach him anything about heat cycles and mating, he did learn some basics of it on his own time, to prepare to be the Alpha or Beta his older brother kept claiming him to be. But the lessons he provided himself came from old textbooks so outdated that he learned more about past civil wars and the few rights Omegas won than what it means to be an Alpha, so would that really count? As Berwald pondered this, Roderich dug into his blazer fold and took out a stack of pamphlets. He placed them on the desk in front of Berwald.

"What are those?"

"Some pamphlets for you to read. You poor soul, you are going to need to learn so much on this!" He huffed and placed his hand on his hip. "That damn Dane, what big brother doesn't teach his younger siblings these things?"

His words went unheard as Berwald opened up the top pamphlet to the first page, his eyes quickly taking in the information printed on the paper. The more he read, the stronger the pains in his stomach became, but not from what he now knew was heat.

"Berwald, I think you're getting worse! You're getting paler now!"

"So what is our situation, now?"

Mathias read down the handwritten list of work that Berwald had that day. "Filling out census forms, making copies, delivering the original forms to the notary office to be viewed and stamped, and then heading down to the first floor to sort the work out into their designated drawers," he read aloud to Tino. He shrugged and stuffed the paper in his pocket. "Basically what he does every workday."

"So, he'll be all over the place, then," Tino muttered sullenly to himself. He eyed the passing Alphas competitively, making them walk a little further away from the alluring scent of Omega that he knew they were enjoying.

"And in rooms where there are a shit ton of Alphas and Betas," Mathias added. He scrunched his nose again and held a hand over it to block out the jealous scent Tino gave off. "Looks like we're gonna have a lotta running around to do to keep him safe from predators. Damn, there goes my pay for the day."

Tino ignored Mathias' nose-covering gesture. "Try a week, Mathias." He checked his watch. He and Mathias have stood far away from Berwald's office enough so that when he finally comes out to go make copies, they can see him leave and follow after him without being seen. "How long do you think he's going to be in there?"

Mathias did a one-shoulder shrug and pursed his lips together as he thought. "He's doing some merchandise inventory and statistics right now, so maybe it's going to take him another half hour to be in there until- hey, there he is! Ah, no, wait, that's just Roderich. Hey, man!"

"Mathias, darn it, don't draw attention to us!" Tino hissed. He yanked down Mathias' waving arm.

"What, it's not like he's gonna tattle to Berwald about... uh, is he angry at me?" He raised an eyebrow and pointed at Roderich, whom was standing a little outside Berwald's doorway and narrowing his violet eyes at Mathias' direction. A few moments passed and the man rolled his eyes, visibly huffed, and strutted away with his head shaking from side to side. "Whoa, what's his damage? Did I do somethin' wrong?"

"Maybe," Tino said passively; he was still focused on sending waves of vicious scents and glares and the occasional snarl to get Alphas to back off. "Forget him for now, Mathias, we still need to focus on the mission." He rubbed his forehead where a sore was developing from all of the glaring. "Ugh, this is going to be hard..."

"Here comes our help, though!" Mathias said as he stared off at the side, where Lukas towed his pissed-looking baby brother by the wrist behind him. "Hey, what took you guys so long?" He asked when they came closer.

"Sorry, I had to search all over the floor for this little guy. Finally found the little sneak in a closet sexting his boyfriend! On career shadowing day of all days!" He turned to Emil, his face twisted in false weeping. "Why, Emil? Why? Was my job not fun enough for you? Couldn't your teenage hormones wait?"

"No," Emil replied plainly. He shoved Lukas' face back and held out his hand. "And give me my phone back!"

Lukas shook his head and turned back towards Mathias and Tino. He crossed his arms and said, "So, what's going on now? Anyone else hit on Berwald while I was away?"

"None so far besides Elizabeta. Tino made sure of that." He slapped a hand on Tino's shoulder. "Didn't you, little man?"

Tino shrugged the hand off. "Please don't call me little man."

"Wait, what's going on here, anyway?" Emil looked from his brother to Mathias to Tino, eyebrows pinched together in confusion as he tried to connect these tidbits of information. "What's this about Liz hitting on Berwald? And why is that strange? All Alphas try to attract available Omegas this time of month."

"It's strange only to Mathias; guy didn't know that Ber's an Omega."

"For real?!" Emil gaped at Mathias. "You didn't know your own little brother was an Omega, why-?"

"Oh, my GOD, can we not do this now?" Mathias shouted up at the ceiling. He threw his hands up in the air and slammed them back down at his sides again.

Tino grabbed Mathias' forearm. "Mathias, please!" He put his other hand up in Emil's direction. "Emil..." The group became silent and Tino clapped his hands together. "Good. Good. Anyway, Emil, right now we're waiting for Berwald to leave his office so that wherever he goes, we can keep an eye on him and protect him from any unwanted advances."

Now Emil gaped at Tino. "Uh, wow, Tino, don't you think you're being a little too...?"

"Jealous?" Lukas finished for him.

"Yeah, that."

"No. I simply do not want Berwald to be targeted by so many Alphas when he doesn't even know that he's an Omega."

"Berwald doesn't even know his own nature?" Emil narrowed his eyes. "What the hell?"

"And we don't want to tell him, either," Tino said.

"Why not? Don't you guys think he has a right to know his true nature instead of thinking that he's...whatever he thinks he is?"

"We don't want to scare him and make his heat worse if he learns that Alphas and Betas are going to come after him; he might not even be comfortable with the fact that he can get pregnant."

"What do you mean? He's all about children!"

"Just because he likes children doesn't mean he would want to bear some. Look, just be sure that he doesn't find out until we can tell him privately, okay?"

"Ergh, you guys are just making it harder for yourselves," Emil grumbled. "Well, there he is, so what now?"

Tino, Mathias, and Lukas turned their attention towards the office door. Berwald was out of his office with a folder of papers in his arm, slouching forward with his other arm wrapped around his pelvis. But unlike before, he was shaking, his face ashen and sweaty as he looked out into space. His steps were slow as he walked away from his office, but they way he dragged his feet seemed like more than just being drained from an illness, it was like watching a man give up on eve the most basic tasks.

"Oh, Berwald; his heat must be awful," Tino wondered aloud. He looked back at the others, and started moving after him. The others followed him.

Another quarter-hour into the "mission" and already the self-appointed protection group already had to shove off Alphas standing to closer to Berwald, chase away Alphas getting too friendly with Berwald for their (Tino's) comfort, and ward off Betas with subtle warnings.

A quarter-hour turned into a full hour, and as the group squeezed behind a desk out of Berwald's view, Emil whispered to the others, "So, this is our plan? Just stalk him until the day's over and scare off other Alphas like some possessive creeps?"

"Pretty much," Mathias replied a little shamelessly.

Emil grumbled some swears under his breath and rolled his eyes. "Jesus fuck, you guys, that's not going to work!"

"Probably not, but it sure beats paperwork," Lukas muttered.

"You, be quiet," Emil pointed to Lukas. He waved his finger at the other two. "You two, listen. This seriously isn't going to work. We look like a bunch of creeps slacking off at work, and I don't know why, but I'm guessing by some miracle no one went to report you guys to the superiors, especially with that jealous act you're pulling, Tino."

"I'm not-!"

"And he hasn't caught us yet, but he may sometime soon. So we need a better plan then stalking Berwald like a cult and getting attention drawn to us."

Mathias peeked over the desk to be sure Berwald was still there. "What's your plan, little guy?"

"Whatever the plan is, can you fools discuss it away from my desk?"

The men looked up and apologized as they started moving away from a disgruntled Arthur standing behind them. They moved as quickly and quietly as they could to another location still close to Berwald and crouched around Emil to hear his plan.

"Okay, guys, so here's my idea..."