“Hey there, National Champion.” The doctor greeted Azaki with a wry smile, took him by the hand, and ushered him into the cramped office as if they were good friends. On the door hung the man's name and title, Maynard Oulwitz, Dormant Omega Specialist. Azaki glanced at the moniker and had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He’d be happy to never have to step foot in this room again after today.

“Hi.” Azaki replied, lilac eyes scanning the various degrees and certifications that lined the far wall with a detached sort of interest. ‘This dude must have really wanted to help omegas to go through all this,’ The thought was quick and fleeting, something that slipped away as quickly as it came, and yet deep in his heart Azaki knew that it was true.

He never really gave his Doctor enough credit.

Over the last two years the man had gone above and beyond for Azaki, trying his best to assist him with adjusting to his dwindling pheromone levels while also offering solutions for potentially getting those numbers up to semi-normal levels. Not that any of his advice had ever been properly listened to or taken into account by Azaki, who’d taken great pains to literally never follow the man's advice.

Azaki frowned a bit, kind of feeling like a jerk for having never brought up the truth of what he’d been hoping and praying for all long.

I don’t want to be an omega. His thoughts then turned to how he thought the good doctor would react to such information. Would he have tried to talk him out of such thoughts? Would they have been able to work together to achieve Azaki's goals? Would he have earned himself a long lecture about being accepting of who he was and coming to terms with his gender?

He wasn’t sure, but the pangs of uncertainty started to make him feel uneasy. Maybe he should have just been honest with the man from the beginning. A subtle sigh crossed his lips

Azaki lowered himself into his normal seat and waited for the doctor to settle in across from him. The older gentleman sat slowly, a testament to his aging form, and took a moment to adjust his glasses before looking back up at Azaki with an unreadable expression.

Azaki lowered his hood, giving himself a moment to shake his hair free from its confinement while he waited on the doctor to settle into his chair. Once the man was properly seated, silence stretched between the two for just a moment before the doctor leveled his gaze in Azaki’s direction with an empty grin.

“Let’s get down to it then.”

Azaki smirked. He honestly couldn’t help it, but seeing the defeated look on that doctors face sent a wave of excitement through him. ‘Has he finally given up on me?’ The thought was exciting, though Azaki had to strain himself a bit to keep that excitement from showing. “Yes, lets.”

The doctor pulled out a file and began to shuffle some of the contained paperwork while reading it over silently. Azaki tried not to fidget too much while he waited for the man to reveal the information that would change his life forever, it wasn’t easy.

The doctors silence was causing him a bit of distress and as if the man could sense it, he finally spoke up, his voice as calm and clinical as usual. “Alright. As you know we tested both the levels of pheromones produced and pheromones released.”

Azaki nodded, trying to keep his excitement under control. This was the moment he’d been waiting for; The doctor was going to tell him that his declining released pheromones were finally under the limit to have to register as an omega. The man would then, again, warn him about the dangers of not releasing enough pheromones while his ability to produce them remained normal. Then, the man would apologize to him as if being an omega was something to be happy about and Azaki would nod solemnly and pretend that it wasn’t the best news he’d ever received.

That is what should have happened.

“Well,” The Doctor continued, his tone lightening as he looked over the report, “I’m happy to say your pheromone output is up 3% from last year!” Azaki paled.

“What do you mean?” His heart sank into his stomach and he felt the walls in the room start to close in around him. His expression darkened as he lost control over his face and though he didn’t know it, the pheromones that came off him in small waves soured. When he next spoke, his voice was shaky and panicked. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying Congratulations,” The completely oblivious asshole said with a genuine smile of happiness, “You’re getting better! Maybe all hope isn’t lost for you.”

Emotions flooded through Azakis’ mind in rapid succession. How could that doctor honestly think that this was good news? He was going to have to continue to legally be an omega now. Would he be able to find a decent job even with his National Coding Champion status? Were his only options going forward going to be living in constant fear of going into heat at random or isolating himself from the world?

His stupid traitorous body had stopped doing the one thing he wanted it to be doing and betrayed him again.

Tears pooled in his eyes before he had a chance at replying. The doctor must have assumed, for a moment, that the young man had been relieved to hear the news. But only for a moment. When the tears started falling down his face and staining his cheeks, the man recoiled at the horror he saw on the young man’s beautiful face.

“Azaki, are you alright?”

“No,” he managed to barely squeak out over his sobbing.

Azaki wasn’t sure what happened after that; He remembered struggling to continue taking breaths which made him start gasping wildly for air, and then his body started to shake and his vision started to blur from tears. The man continued to weep and thrash in his chair for a moment before his consciousness faded into a comfortable darkness.

‘Am I having a panic attack?’