He paused, nose against David’s nape, the other man’s sleeping chest moving softly against the gentle press of his hand. Last night he had assumed the close, milky scent of David’s scent had been from the bath, that the heady, rich aroma that lingered at his elbows, the backs of his knees, had been a result of the herbs and flowers that had floated around them as they touched. But it remained, and in the light of the dawn it seemed stronger than before.

Frowning, his brow furrowed as he pushed his nose in closer to David’s neck, causing a soft, sleepy sound of discomfort. 

“What?” David’s voice was a rumble, mouth crushed against the bedsheets. 

Joe didn’t answer, too consumed with moving his nose carefully along the other man’s pulse, the steady stream of it, like a fingertip dipped in honey that traced all the way from David’s face to his toes. It was pure, sweet, warm like sunlight, and pails of milk, strawberries glistening with dewdrops.

He wasn’t naive. David smelled like a peach tree on a summer day, and in the depths of his heat he smelled like a thunderstorm rattling the branches, like lightning and rain. He had never smelled like milk, or honey, or anything of that ilk. For an omega’s scent to change could mean only one thing.

David lifted his head, his eyes barely a sliver of Autumn sky as he blinked curiously over his shoulder. “What?” he asked again, his voice sounding more awake, more annoyed.

“You…” Joe began, his first words of the day cracked with fatigue, with uncertainty as he met the other man’s gaze, heart stuttering with tension. “You smell like milk,” he finished softly, voice barely raising more than a whisper.

The soft divot between David’s brows smoothed over, the sleepy set of his jaw going loose and wide, lips parted. His eyes were big, shadowed by disbelief, and Joe could see the footsteps of his whole life tracked through them, the way he was likely praying for this to be a dream that he’d wake up from. He would wake up, kiss Joe, and would return to his kingdom in three days time, and somehow they would manage to love one another without the whole world getting in the way. A child would never be a part of them. David’s status would never be more than a passing cloud in their life, the way he’d always wanted it.