Stolen Coffee
After arriving in the infirmary, Joel threw your legs over his shoulder, unceremoniously throwing you off, causing the floor to come awfully close to your face as you plummeted head first to the ground. Quickly throwing your arms out, you managed to help cushion the blow but you cricked your neck in the process and landed heavily on you back, your wounded side flaring with pain.
“Fuck,” You groaned, winded. “What the hell was that for!?”
Joel just shrugged. “You put a knife to Ellie’s throat,” He replied nonchalantly, like he was talking to a particularly daft child.
“Fucking knew you would be salty about that,” You grumbled as you staggered upright, brushing yourself off. Damn, you were pretty sure you had pulled a stitch or two.
“Oh thank god!” A voice exclaimed. You turned to find that it was a frazzled-looking Tommy, who beckoned you and Joel further into the infirmary. “We’ve been looking around everywhere for you – caused quite the commotion.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” You looked away from both Joel and Tommy as you were led down the halls, trying to ignore their questioning gazes as you felt guilt seize you.
“Everyone was at fault,” Tommy amended, obviously picking up on the nervousness that your scent was practically radiating. You always hated that part about heats – having no control over your pheromones.
Tommy opened the door to a little private room where there was a Beta nurse tending to Jesse’s wound as Ellie and Maria stood to the side in a quiet conversation.
No one noticed the opening of the door, but they certainly noticed your anxious scent pouring all over the place. The nurse quickly excused herself, but not without sending you wide-eyed look of shock – you wondered how many had actually believed Maria when she claimed Jackson’s new resident was an Omega.
“There you are!” Maria broke the silence; looking annoyed but also strangely relieved.
Ignoring the looks Ellie and the young man sitting propped-up in a makeshift hospital bed sent you.
“Now,” Maria sighed putting her hand on your shoulder, causing you to tense up minutely. “Let’s figure this out okay?”
You grimaced at her words, feeling like a little kid getting a scolding. But as much as you absolutely hated having to throw your pride out the window, you decided that an apology was probably deserved. Still, being treated like a two-year old who’d just thrown a tantrum didn’t make you feel particularly inclined to appease Maria.
“Sorry,” You grumbled, finding the wall to your left rather fascinating.
“For?” Maria prodded.
“For fuck’s sake! I said I’m sorry,” You hissed exasperatedly, hating how childish you sounded.
Maria just sighed, Ellie looked to be suppressing a chuckle and you could see Jesse looked rather amused. The two youths appeared to be more than used to Maria’s probing, still you could feel your hackles rising at blatant disrespect.
“Fine,” You huffed, turning to address Jesse, “Sorry for stabbing you and Ellie”- you looked towards her – “sorry for attacking you and making your Dad angry,” You sassed, jabbing your thumb in the direction of Joel, knowing you would hit a soft spot.
“H-He’s not my dad!” Ellie sputtered.
“Coulda fooled me,” You shrugged, feeling Joel’s eyes burning into the side of your face. Obviously, whatever you’d said had some effect on the two as, almost immediately, the room went deathly silent, filled with tense anticipation as Ellie glared at no one in particular. You ignored the sudden guilt over your pettiness, but was also selfishly relieved that the attention was off of you.
“Okay, okay! Settle down now children,” Tommy’s voice was placating but also held a small glint of anxiousness. “Now that, that’s settled we’ll hafta figure something else to make sure this won’t happen again and then we can continue our jobs, ‘kay?”
“Why don’t we get (Y/n) an alarm clock?” Ellie suggested, Joel’s attempts to catch her eye going ignored.
Jesse snorted, “She didn’t even wake up to us practically knocking down the door, doubt an alarm will help”
“Oi!” You defended senselessly.
“Well, we can at least try it,” Maria sighed. “Now everyone, back to work! Jesse you’ll have the rest of the day off.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Ellie, (Y/N),” Maria turned to address you, “You two can continue with your assigned infirmary chores, but only after (Y/N) gets her stitches fixed.”
You blinked, looking down at your top which had surely started to stain red. Yeah, you’d definitely pulled a stitch either when running like a madman or when Joel threw you over his shoulder.
“I’ll take care of it,” Ellie piped up. Maria nodded in acknowledgement as everyone filed out of the room, leaving Jesse to recover. Ellie grabbed your wrist and dragged you towards… wherever she was headed, ignoring Joel calling after her.
Joel sighed as he watched Ellie hightail out of the room, ignoring his attempts at calling after her.
There was a slight rustling of fabric before one of Tommy’s large hands clapped him on the shoulder. A silent question rested in his eyes, and Joel shook his head, not particularly wanting to talk about this now and instead shrugged Tommy off.
“Joel—”
“No.”
“Seriously, you can talk to me abo—”
“I said no, Tommy!” Joel snapped, before immediately grimacing at the sudden outburst. Christ, he was feeling so on edge lately.
Tommy blinked, unsure. Joel watched as his younger brother not-so-subtly scented the air, before a teasing smile grew. “Shouldn’t you be happy the girls are gettin’ along? From what I hear, that’s always an issue when welcoming a new lover into the family,” Tommy said struggling not to sound too sardonic.
“Fuckin’ hell,” Joel grumbled. Of course Tommy’s first reaction at being brushed off would then be to needle his older brother in an attempt of goading out an answer. Joel regretted having made the rash decision to carry you to the infirmary, the proximity of you two had left Joel’s clothes with the slightest smell of lavender and lemon grass – ammunition he’d unwittingly handed straight to his meddling little brother.
“You two seem to have become awfully close, should I start preparing my shovel talk? I’ve never had the honour of dishing one out, since you were always such a recluse.” Tommy babbled, immune to Joel’s glares as he followed him out of the infirmary. “Then again, you’re so smitten that you’d probably beat my ass for even vaguely threatening your mate-to-be.”
Joel froze at the one word he’d been trying very hard not to think about – especially not in the same sentence as you.
Tommy paused, noting he’d hit a nerve. “Too soon?”
“There ain’t nothing between us,” Joel glowered. “Barely even acquaintances.”
Deciding he was in need of a drink, Joel changed his route and started to head towards the Tipsy Bison.
Tommy snorted, “Pretty sure I ain’t seen you ever voluntarily choose to be so close to someone you don’t know, or at the very least, don’t like.”
Joel pointedly ignored the truth in those words. He wasn’t a touchy-feely person by any means, never has been. The apocalypse had reinforced that need to keep his physical distance from others, not knowing whether they would take advantage of the false-sense of security that came with those moments of intimacy to, quite literally, stab him in the back. But being with you, the weight of your body against his own, felt comfortable – natural in a way that was unfamiliar to Joel. It was odd… But not terrible.
Goddamn it, Joel was really regretting having thrown you over his shoulder and carried you to the infirmary. Your scent was messing with his Alpha.
He’d thought indulging in the instinctual urge to be closer to you would sate his lizard brain and get his Alpha to shut up, but apparently, not only was he wrong about his own instincts – those which were itching to turn around and check you were ok after having popped a stitch, when he knew logically that you were absolutely fine and in no danger at all – but also about how he was so obviously smitten with the Omega to those around him.
“—et yourself just try and settle down?” Tommy had started ranting at some point after Joel had tuned him out, oblivious to Joel’s straying thoughts. “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so distracted!”
“What?” Joel asked, just further proving Tommy’s point.
“Exactly! See!?”
Stifling a sigh, Joel pushed open the double doors to the bar, immediately regretting doing so at the strong smell of Alpha penetrating the air. He wrinkled his nose. Seth must be covering for Amelia this morning.
Before Joel could decide whether he could still leave without being noticed, Seth’s beady eyes caught his. As tempting as it was to just turn around and walk back outside, Joel knew it’d only cause unwanted drama. Lord knew he already had enough of that already.
As Joel dragged his feet towards the bar, Tommy following closely behind, Seth quickly detached himself from another customer and quickly made his way over. Joel tried not to gag at the stench of cigarettes and fish that followed. Whether Seth had never been enlightened over his rather awful scent or if he was just being a domineering asshole, Joel wasn’t sure. Probably the latter.
“Gentlemen,” Seth drawled, eyes flicking between the two brothers. “What can I—”
The man suddenly stopped, hands stilling at his task of cleaning a glass with a grimy rag. His nostrils flared, eyes sharpening as they pinned onto Joel.
“So there is an Omega in town.”
Tommy and Joel shared a look at the impassioned tone, unsure of how to handle the situation. Unsure if there even was a situation to handle yet.
“Maria had announced at the mess hall the other night,” Tommy cleared his throat, sending Seth a strained smile. “Were you not there?”
Seth scoffed. “’Course I was, but you can’t blame me for not believing ‘er. An Omega in this day and age? Thought they were all extinct… What d’you plan to do with her?”
Joel pursed his lips, not liking the line of questioning nor the tone Seth was using. Given the panicked look Tommy was sending him, he supposed his scent had started to sour in distaste. Joel couldn’t particularly bring himself to care.
“She’s ta stay at Jackson… As a resident,” Joel said evenly. “Like all newcomers are welcomed to.”
Seth’s nose wrinkled, seemingly confused at the idea. “Should have her open up a brothel – Jackson could use one y’know?”
Joel’s jaw tensed, teeth grinding together. Yeah, I’m sure you’d like one too Seth.
“Might get some better use outta her then. Not like she’d be much use anywhere else – will either just attract all the infected or just end up begging to be fucked anywa—FUCK!”
“JOEL!”
There was a tense silence in the bar, the other patrons having gone quiet at the scene before them. Seth was pulled halfway over the bar top, hands struggling against the fist that Joel was using to hold the man up by the collar of his shirt. Joel could feel his chest vibrating, and knew he was probably growling – a sound no one had ever heard from him before. A man that was always so infuriating in control having lost his calm. Seth had gone pale and clammy at the murderous look on Joel’s face.
“Joel,” Tommy whispered harshly, pushing at his brother’s shoulder. “That’s enough.”
With a huff, Joel shoved Seth away before storming out of the bar. Tommy sent the room a sheepish grin, “Hangovers, am I right?”
There was a round of awkward, forceful chuckles before the earlier chatter started up once again. Tommy peers over the bar where Seth was sitting on the floor, breathing ragged.
“You okay?”
Seth scowled, scrambling to his feet. “Leash your fuckin’ dog, Tommy.”
Tommy pursed his lips. “I do apologise for him, but I would also like to make it clear that our new resident, (Y/N), should still be respected and treated the same as everyone else despite her secondary-gender.”
“Whatever,” Seth spat. “Don’t blame me for try’na warn you – we both know it’s inevitable.”
Tommy didn’t deign him with a response, instead sending the man a curt nod alongside another hollow apology before setting out to find his brother, following the angry scent of burning leather.
You stumbled through the winding hallways of the infirmary, Ellie dragging you by the wrist all the way to a secluded little storage room of medical supplies. You swore this place didn’t look so big from the outside.
There was a charged air of tension surrounding Ellie as she grumpily pushed you to sit on a box near the door before turning and rummaging through some of the shelves for needles, thread, alcohol – the lot.
Silence hung between you as Ellie wordlessly crouched in front of you, wetting a rag with alcohol before pulling up your shirt and wiping away the blood leaking from your recently-stitched wound. You hissed at the sting of it, but resisted the urge to pull away or submit to the angry Alpha.
You knew Ellie wasn’t necessarily angry at you, but you couldn’t help the instinctual urge to placate an angry Alpha for your own safety—
“Breathe,” Ellie murmured, watching you carefully.
You hadn’t noticed that you’d stilled, barely breathing as your shoulders had hunched around your ears and your body had started to curl in on itself. You forced yourself to relax slowly, one muscle at a time, before letting out a shuddering breath. You nodded at Ellie to continue.
The silence returned as you valiantly tried to focus on your hitched breathing as Ellie removed the torn stiches before threading the needle and gently piercing your skin, grumbling a soft apology at your gasp of pain.
After gently wiping away the remaining blood on your skin, Ellie quickly deposited of the needle and rag, before shuffling to stand in front of you.
“Let’s get shit straight,” Ellie said, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked down her nose at you. It was easy to tell that she was trying to come across as authoritative and stern, but you could see it was just a façade through the tense line of the girl’s shoulders and the hesitancy in her eyes. “Joel and I aren’t related, let alone have anything to do with each other, got it?”
You looked Ellie up and down, unimpressed over her apparent need to have this conversation now. “You know, crossing your arms is a sign of defensiveness,” You pointed out pettily.
Ellie flushed, quickly dropping her arms, before thinking better of it and crossing them again and repeating the process. You watched as Ellie fidgeted under your scrutiny, before she huffed agitatedly. “I’m being serious here!”
You felt your eye twitch and long-forgotten anger surface.
It wasn’t that you were necessarily angry at Ellie. No, it wasn’t that. The girl hadn’t even done anything. But you remember very clearly how skirting around your feelings and fear had left you.
Letting out a long suffering sigh, you felt your face harden as you looked Ellie straight in the eye. “Look, I don’t give a shit about your relationship with Joel, but even I can see that you care for him – don’t shy away from it like a coward and pretend you don’t. It’s not gonna help anyone.”
Ellie’s face suddenly went completely blank and you wondered if she was going to punch you. But, in the end, she just looked away from you, shoulders sagging.
“You wouldn’t understand,” She muttered.
“Well, maybe not your circumstances – not that I know anything about them, but…” You paused, waiting for Ellie’s eyes to trail back to yours. “I can assure you that I’ve been through the same, just a different scenario.” You felt your eyes soften as you watched Ellie hesitate, processing your words.
Being an Omega automatically made you have a strong mothering instinct, but you also always had a soft spot for children, no matter how gross they could be. Kids will forever be the death of me, you sighed internally.
“Hypothetically,” Ellie started, drawing you out of your thoughts, “If someone close to you… betrays you but doesn’t tell you until you, uh, kinda find out yourself… What do you do?”
You hummed in thought, the answer already clear to you. “Well, hypothetically, I’d ask you whether this person hurt you enough to make you hate where you are now, how far you’ve come and make you yearn to go back and change reality.”
You let Ellie think over your words for a moment before reaching out and flicking her on the forehead.
“Hey!”
“I can basically hear your thoughts from here,” You nagged playfully, thankful that you managed to tug a shy smile out of the girl. You groaned as you stood up, waving off Ellie’s attempts to help you. “Now, what are we s’pose to be doing?”
“Oh! Uhh, we’re supposed to restock all of the medical supplies,” Ellie paused, watching you thoughtfully. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but obviously thought better of it. “Everything’s in here.”
Gesturing to the boxes of medical supplies scattered around the storage room you were in. You sent Ellie a smile, ignoring the throbbing of your side.
“Right! Let’s get to it then!”
Being in a heat daze wasn’t exactly any different to your usual day-to-day as an Omega, except for your lack of control over your pheromones and the sweet aroma of heat that clung to your skin. There was also the fact that you were more than aware of your Omega – the instinctual pull towards an Alpha’s scent, your slightly flushed skin and overall desire to hole up in your rooms and nest.
It put you on edge more than anything. That low thrum of heat niggling in the back of your mind, but too far to act on. Heat dazes were never fun, they left you restless and vulnerable. You were also more than aware of the fact that you hadn’t had the opportunity to try and cover your scent with your home-made scent blockers after your turbulent morning (though you knew the attempt would more likely be in vain).
Sighing, you continued to bumble around the infirmary, delivering packages of medical supplies before organising them onto their dedicated shelves in each room, like Ellie had shown you.
Ellie had left a little while ago to go and grab some lunch from the mess hall, so you were left on your own to continue the chores. You packed away the carboard box to be used later, depositing it in the corner of the storage room before eyeing the heavy boxes of rubbing alcohol. Ellie had refused to let you carry anything too heavy, not wanting you to strain yourself after having already managed to pop a stitch not even 24hours after getting them.
Shaking your head, you bypassed the heavy boxes, and instead picked up a small box of hypodermic needles. You knew that the operation rooms needed some more… Now, you just needed to remember how to get there. You were pretty sure they were upstairs.
It was about 5 minutes later when you decided you were officially lost. You glanced at the two Alpha doctors eyeing you from one of the break rooms, immediately deciding against asking them for directions.
There were quite a few Alphas that appeared to work in the little make-shift hospital, and though they hadn’t tried anything, their curious gazes were more than a little unsettling. You were glad that it was now well into lunch-time and most people had vacated the infirmary to grab themselves something to eat.
You sighed as you aimlessly trudged your way through the winding halls trying to find the stairs that led back down to the ground floor – you were at least comfortable asking Bettina for directions, the old Beta seemed kind enough. You were so in your head trying to remember where you were going that you didn’t realise someone was in front of you until you bumped into them.
“Gosh- I’m so sorry!” You blurted automatically, fumbling to keep your grip of the box of needles.
“You gotta stop bumping into me, you’ll get a concussion.” You recognised Joel’s voice immediately and absolutely hated him for the amount of amusement he managed to stuff into that sentence.
“Then move outta my way cowboy,” You snarked back, rolling your eyes.
You jumped when you felt a hand on your shoulder, not realising Joel had slipped behind you. Craning your head back to see him, you quickly noticed that Joel was leaning rather close to you. So much for personal space, you thought bitterly, ignoring the way your face heated.
“Did you…” Joel started, his eyes searching yours as a small frown graced his features.
“Uhh?” You were starting to sweat anxiously from the close proximity, and Joel’s scent very quickly reminded you that you were in a heat daze. You could feel your Omega lapping at the back of your mind, soaking up the Alpha’s attention. Attention whore, you scolded weakly.
“Did you steal my coffee?”
“Huh?” You said dumbly, not processing the question fast enough.
“Did you steal my coffee?” Joel repeated slowly, narrowing his eyes.
“Psh. No,” Joel didn’t seem to buy your answer, but like fuck you were going to let him know you stole his coffee – you valued your life, thank you very much. “I’m in a place I don’t know, surrounded by people who can do whatever the fuck they want with me – considering my state. I don’t think it’d be wise to steal from them right of the bat.”
You appraised Joel with a judgmental look, which was heavily returned. You could feel sweat start to bead at your brow and you thanked the Lord for your ability to lie so fluently.
“Says the girl who stabbed someone right off the bat.”
“That was an accident!” You squawked. Joel just let out a deep chuckle, before retreating from your personal space. He still looked unconvinced but seemed willing to let it go.
“Do you know where Ellie is?” He said, craning his head to see if she was anywhere in the vicinity.
You blinked, of course Joel had come in here to talk to Ellie, not pester you. You ignored the pang of hurt that shot through your Omega. Jesus, you hadn’t even known the man for two days and you were already so attached.
Shaking your head, you looked back up to Joel. “No, she said she was going to grab some lunch a while ago. I haven’t seen her since.”
He nodded belatedly, before grumbling a quick goodbye and heading back in the direction he’d apparently came from.
You blinked at the 180 in behaviour. One moment he was teasing, the next he was subdued and brooding. You shrugged, opting to ignore it; it wasn’t your business anyhow.
After finally locating the operating rooms, depositing the boxes of supplies, Ellie had finally reappeared, two sandwiches in hand.
“You ready to ditch this place?” She asked, mouth full of bread as she chewed.
“I- is that bread?” You sputtered incredulously. Jesus, you hadn’t had bread since the very beginning of the outbreak.
“Huh? Oh! Yeah, pretty cool, right? It’s a whole process, but damn if it doesn’t taste good.”
You nodded dazedly, a little flabbergasted by the appearance of such a luxury food. You reverently took the proffered sandwich, feeling as though it was a figment of your imagination and followed Ellie out of the infirmary.
You didn’t question the early departure, more than thankful to be able to escape the increasingly unsettling glances that were being sent your way by every goddamned Alpha in the vicinity.
The two of you walked back to your place and, after inviting Ellie inside, ate lunch together whilst chatting along.
Ellie was quite sweet and had a shit ton of dad jokes at her disposal. You had learnt that Ellie and Joel had spent quite some time together travelling before they settled down at Jackson, and that Ellie was obsessed with dinosaurs and practically anything to do with space – which you shared all of your knowledge on.
You were glad that Ellie had seemed to open up a little more to you, not so apprehensive of talking about Joel after realising it was the one topic of conversation you would rarely ask questions about. She seemed to appreciate your tact towards the issue.
It wasn’t long before you had Maria knocking on your door with, apparently, one of the loudest alarm clocks she could find. You weren’t exactly impressed by that, but oh well – beggars can’t be choosers.
It was almost 5pm by the time Ellie left your house and, boy, were you drained. You’d forgotten how tired socialising was. You debated going to bed, but you weren’t very physically tired, it was still early after all.
Humming, you busied yourself with making some coffee. Even though you should probably attempt to have a make-shift dinner of out-dated cereal, you were still relatively full from the bread.
You snorted. “Fucking bread. Who’d have thought 20 years ago bread would be a common man’s wet dream?”
The smell of coffee flooded the room as you tried to think of as many artisan foods no longer accessible… Which honestly felt like all of them.
Suddenly, there was a knock on your door. You tilted your head in confusion, wondering who it could be at this hour – you were pretty sure all expected visitors had already come and gone. Grabbing your cup of coffee, you took a sip of it as you opened the door before you practically chocked on it.
Joel stood out front of your house, looking decidedly unimpressed. He raised his brow at your choking before he must’ve realised what exactly you were drinking.
“I knew you stole my coffee,” Joel accused, though his earlier anger seemed to ease out of his face.
You spluttered. “No! This is… uhhh” Joel watched you amusedly as you fumbled, racking your brain for some sort of excuse. “This is mud!” Fuck!
“Mud?”
“Uhh, yep! 100% mud!” You strained a smile, “It’s very good for your skin you know?”
Joel looked somewhere between pissed and wanting to burst out in laughter. You very much hoped it was the latter.
“Well,” Joel’s husky voice was like a melody to your ears, “Can I have some?”
“Wow, you can’t just ask me to share my mud,” You chided, cradling the mug to your chest.
Joel let out a bark of laughter, and whilst you were distracted by the melodic sound of it, he quickly pried the cup from your hands and knocked it back.
“Wait—”
“I gotta say,” Joel paused, seemingly to consider the taste of your ‘mud’. “This mud tastes a lot like coffee”
Shit…
“Yea well…” You trailed off. It was then that you had the wonderful idea to slam your door in Joel’s face to make sure he couldn’t barge in and take the coffee himself. Probably not your smartest idea.
“Hey!”
“Sorry but finders keepers, losers weepers” You chanted mockingly.
“That ain’t count!” The Alpha shouted petulantly. “You stole it!”
“Noooo, I found it,” You waited for Joel’s response and when no noise was heard after a couple of minutes, you frowned.
Opening the door a crack, you peered outside before a large hand wrapped itself around the door and wretched it open the rest of the way.
“Fu- No!” You cried from your new place on the ground as Joel stormed into your house and quickly located the instant coffee that you’d left on the kitchen bench, before snatching it up and making his way back to you, mockingly leaning down towards your figure on the ground.
“Now,” He said slowly, drawing the word out, “I’m pretty sure this is coffee and not mud,” He said before quickly pulling the tin out of the way as you tried to snatch it back, “Nah-uh, this is mine sweetheart.”
You flushed at the nickname, giving Joel enough time to make his escape.
“Hey!” You cried out as you quickly scrambled to your feet. “Give that back!” you shouted at Joel’s retreating form.
“Hell no!” Joel replied, flipping you off as he sauntered away. “Also, you’ll be with me tomorrow so be up on time!” He called out.
“Yeah, fuck you too!” You shouted before murmuring to yourself, “Asshole.”
You closed the door, sealing off the frigid winter’s air, as you mourned your lost coffee.
Joel strode away from your little dwelling. He couldn’t really bring himself to be angry about you stealing his coffee – not when your attempt to defend yourself was so amusing.
His earlier anger at his brother’s meddling had melted away the moment he’d seen you, despite the fact that it was your fault Tommy was giving him grief in the first place.
Sighing, Joel looked down at the tin of coffee.
He didn’t know what to think about you, didn’t particularly want to. The last thing Joel needed was to be reminded of how incapable he is of love, let alone caring for someone over his own needs.
The loss of Ellie had almost shattered him, only her continued presence in his life being able to soothe the hole her absence has left in his chest.
Mate-to-be… Tommy’s words rang mockingly through Joel’s head.
“Fuck that,” Joel muttered. You were a stranger, he was a stranger. There was nothing but hormones between the two of you. And Joel would make sure it’d stay that way.