“I’ll be right back.”

“Alright,” Alta agreed as he watched Rian walk to the bathroom, his body still sore from their morning session as he curled up under the blankets. His heat had finally subsided, and Rian had already apologized a dozen times for needing more. That he would keep needing for two more weeks. Alta didn't really mind; as Ysemna had said, he did this to himself and it was still better than what Yna would've done . 

Yna. Allssaai.

Alta hadn’t thought about her much in the past two weeks, although to be fair, he generally did his best not to think about her when he didn’t have to. It was what made the centuries without her control endurable; he’d learned how to keep his mind clear of her. No open doors. No stray thoughts. Just discipline, silence, and the long, slow forgetting that time offers if you don’t pick at the wound.

But she had changed the rules. She had not allowed him his centuries of peace. As soon as his Rosa died, she had shown up. Waiting. Eager. 

Excited.

Alta knew why. He wanted to act like he didn’t, but as soon as he heard his name from that alpha’s voice, he knew she had noticed. The exhaustion. The weariness. How each master was chosen with less and less care and each alpha given more and more of his heart. Everything he had tried to hide to buy himself more time. 

Now here he was, with a master whose name he still didn’t know and an alpha he had forced into marking him. Alta felt the tears in his eyes, but he swallowed them. He was the criminal here; he had no right to cry, even if he had no other choice.

“1,200 years,” Alta muttered, closing his eyes. “Too fucking long.”

“Sorry,” Rian’s voice made Alta look up, and he saw the alpha’s golden eyes meeting his. No longer lilac, but back to his normal green and he glanced at the bottle in the human’s hand. “I just wanted to get this, since well, you’re no longer in heat.”

“Thanks, but that wasn’t at you,” Alta shrugged, lifting the blanket as Rian slid back under them with him. The alpha slid his arms around Alta easily and he allowed himself to settle into the cuddle. “Just complaining,”

“About?”

Alta groaned, hating the way the words wouldn’t even form in his throat. He wasn’t even sure if Yna had intended the curse to function this way, but regardless of intent, it was this way. Once his name was given away, so was his ability to talk about what she had done to him. He could no longer call himself an ifrit, no longer able to articulate what exactly had been taken, twisted, or rewritten. Every attempt collapsed into silence or worse.

“Being old.”

“How old are you?” Rian’s gentle curiosity made Alta smile and he rolled his eyes. Damn, he really could see himself falling for this silly golden human.

“Gods, what year is it again?”

“...One sec.” Rian released Alta as he got up to recover his phone and Alta chuckled softly at the sight. “It’s January 11th, 20XX.”

“I was born around the year 240,” Alta answered, doing his best not to laugh as Rian frowned. Gods, why was this human so much fun to tease? “A little more than 1700 years old, Rian.”

“I got that, it's just…”

“Old?”

“I was gonna say ancient,” Rian settled back into Alta’s side, sliding the phone onto the nightstand. “I mean, you look great for your age. Feel good too.”

“One, I don’t age and two, rude,” Alta said with a dry smirk, voice low as he pulled the blanket higher around them. “Don’t they teach you kids anything nowadays?”

Rian's laugh was light and warm, muffled against Alta’s shoulder. “Apparently not the etiquette for sleeping with immortal beings, all things considered.” 

Alta made a noise as Rian reached up, his fingers trailing absently over Alta’s chest. The idle contact might have been soothing if Rian's words hadn't sent Alta back into his thoughts. Yna’s voice still echoed, slippery and cold, threading through the corners of his mind even though her name was now a dead word to his mouth. 

Almost my perfect omega.

The rules were different now. She had no intention of allowing him peace. No, she intended to close the jaws of the trap she had spent centuries curating. One that gave Alta no choice but to surrender to her.

“So,” Rian said, interrupting the silence as he pressed closer, “that number earlier. What was it?”

“Which?”

“You said… 1,200?”

Alta made a noncommittal noise, exhaling through his nose. He had hoped Rian hadn’t heard that part. “I can’t tell you.”

“Genie thing?”

“Genie thing.” Alta confirmed, feeling the shift in Rian’s body as the alpha leaned back, gaze narrowing faintly with not just suspicion, but also concern. Curious, persistent concern, the sort that didn’t pry so much as wait, quietly, for permission. Alta hated that look. Hated how it reminded him that silence wasn’t the same thing as safety.

Still, he offered Rian a crooked half-smile, a quiet truce. “It’s not dangerous. Just... annoying.”

For now. 

It was clear from the way Rian’s frown returned that he heard the words Alta didn’t say. Alta always hated lying, but there was only so much he could say. It wasn’t like he wanted things to be this way, to have to speak in riddles and half-truths like some old conjurer bent under the weight of too many years. But it wasn’t a choice. 

It had never been a choice.

Alta shifted closer, resting his head briefly against Rian’s shoulder, his fingers drawing slow, thoughtful lines over the alpha’s stomach. He could feel Rian’s warmth, the steady cadence of his breath. Not comforting, not yet, but familiar. 

Outside the window, the wind was picking up. A low whistle curled through the half-open frame, bringing with it the sharp bite of winter air. Snow. Alta could smell it before it even started to fall.

“It’s your turn,” Rian finally said, breaking the quiet in a voice low enough not to disturb the fragile peace between them. They had started this game after the second day, a way to try and use the hours in between sex to make up for the fact they were strangers. They basically just took turns asking questions when they remembered and Alta closed his eyes as he considered what he wanted to ask. He wasn't sure why Rian insisted on this game, but maybe it was to help the human decide what to do with him.

He had already asked about Rian’s work, his birthday, hobbies, favorite color; all of the basic things you should know before having sex with someone. It had to be something not too pointed, but still interesting enough to peel back one more layer of the man whose body now fit so neatly beside his. His mind turned to a question Neralle mentioned asking their alphas and Alta grinned.

“Tell me about the first person you wanted,” he said finally, his voice soft against the hush of the room. “Not loved, wanted. The difference matters.”

He felt Rian’s body still beneath his fingers, the easy rise and fall of his chest halting for a moment as the human considered the question. A beat passed and then another before Rian let out a slow breath. 

“Shit,” he said, almost under his breath, but not annoyed. Thoughtful.

“I mean, if that’s too weird for you–”

“No,” Rian cut in. “No, it’s not. I’m just… it's a bit awkward. Surprised you wanna know.”

Alta tilted his head slightly without answering. He didn’t need to explain himself. Curiosity had always been part of what made the centuries bearable. And when you couldn’t be honest about your own past, sometimes the next best thing was understanding someone else’s.

“My cyphora activated when I was sixteen, so I got to go to highschool for a bit,” Rian started, his voice calm, though there was a thread of caution woven through it. “ My lull was… pretty long for an alpha.”

“Well?” Alta prompted, starting to notice the red in the alpha’s cheeks. 

“She was… another alpha who lived near me. Only a couple years older but she was… more fully developed.” Rian was now avoiding Alta’s gaze completely, and Alta felt his chest ache with how cute this man was acting. This was the best question he could have asked. “I wasn’t sprouting yet and I thought since I was attracted to an alpha, I had to be an omega.”

“You didn’t!”

“I did,” Rian muttered and Alta finally lost the fight with his laughter, curling into Rian’s side as it rippled through him. He rolled away from the alpha’s face, doing his best to stifle his chuckles. “To be fair, like I said, I hadn’t had any physical changes. Luckily, she told me no and I was identified as an alpha a while later and had a safe quarantine.”

“Oh gods,” Alta finished his laughter with a slow exhale, the feeling settling low in his chest, still glowing faintly. Gods, it had been months since he laughed like that. 

Months.

Alta’s smile faded. 

His new master likely only had months to live, and thanks to Rian’s heat, he hadn’t gotten a chance to leave and talk to the beta. He still hadn’t even told the man what he had tricked him into and worse, he hadn’t gotten to ask how long he had. How long he was safe before Yna would be circling him, ready to take it all away. 

“Hey,” Rian’s voice slid over Alta’s skin, and he shivered as he felt the alpha kiss his shoulder. Alta realized he was crying and arms wrapped around him again, pulling their bodies against one another. Rian’s body was still running hot thanks to his rut and being under the blankets with Alta, but he didn’t mind. The heat was better than her cold touch. Gold was better than pink.

“Sorry, I–”

“It’s okay,” Rian insisted, pressing another gentle kiss to Alta’s skin as he pressed his hand to the genie’s collarbone. Alta felt the tears pouring over his face, unable to help his emotions now that his heat was over. Now that he didn’t have his body to distract him, he had to live with everything again. Think about everything. Feel everything. “It's… okay. You're safe here. ”

Alta lost the battle with his tears as he clung to Rian’s hands around his waist, not trying to hide the ugly sounds that shook from his throat. His pride had already been bled too thin over the centuries to care much about what he looked like anymore. Rian didn’t try to hush him, didn’t offer any pretty words or clumsy reassurances. He just held him. Strong, grounding arms wrapped tightly around Alta’s middle, anchoring him in a body that didn’t flinch from pain. 

He was so tired of this. He wanted his name back, his life back. His right to exist as himself, to share his name with who he wanted to have it. But Yna had made sure there was no way for him to have that. Even the condition to break his curse required him to crawl back to her and every century without her, every alpha she forced to say his name pushed him closer and closer to giving in. 

“I’m tired.”

“Then sleep. I can hold out a few more hours.”

“Not that… tired.” Alta admitted, his voice barely audible as he closed his eyes again, head resting heavily against Rian’s shoulder. He could feel the soft shift of the mattress as Rian adjusted them, arms never leaving his waist, just curling tighter, folding the both of them into a shape more bearable than alone.

He didn’t say anything else for a while. There were too many things inside his head. Too many years. Too many buried names and buried moments and buried selves. Kind hands and hearts between decades of pain. 

And now there was Rian, golden and bright, and warm like the desert had once been before it burned. Alta always loved alphas like him the most, the ones who treated him like a person. Who loved his age, his sass, and his ability to still care. He could have a dozen and never get tired of them, like chocolate covered strawberries perfectly dipped.

Alta wanted to love him. To taste love and kindness one more time before he was plunged back into a darkness he would never escape. But this had started all wrong. He had taken advantage of Rian to save himself from her and while Rian must understand if he could explain, Alta couldn’t. And now…

He just didn’t know if he had time to make things right.