ten

second chance...

day 11 + 12

***

"Congratulations!"

Ivan sat beside Jeremiah, continuously glancing over at him and his dejected expression. He looked away as he smiled at one of his father's colleagues.

"Thank you. It was after not having him this whole time that made me realize how much I need him. I feel horrible for having embarrassed my father the way I did. I hope this makes up for any troubles I've caused."

"I believe it has. Now the people see that rules apply to everyone, that there aren't those who don't apply or get special treatment. It looks quite honorable, because that means he stands by his word, to have everyone abide by the rules." The man nodded proudly.

Except despite Ivan saying what he knew others wanted to hear, he was mainly concerned about Jeremiah. The one who wasn't happy or even remotely excited.

He was just...quiet and hasn't broken one smile.

Jeremiah was disappointed in himself. He was disappointed that he let his instinct sway his actions.

Made him look easy...and he couldn't even fight against it. Before he could fight it so much better than that, but that time, it was impossible.

Now, in just a span of seeing Ivan again, he has already been roped and wrapped around his finger. Set to marry him once again when he hasn't forgiven him in any way.

If anything, this made him resent him more.

Because he felt like Ivan wouldn't and couldn't change.

"What about you?"

Ivan flinched when the man moved his attentions onto Jeremiah. He looked at him anxiously because he had no idea what Jeremiah would say. It was a gamble what would come out of his mouth.

"What about me?"

"How are you feeling about this exciting news, for the both of you? I heard that you two grew up together and that this one day was going to come."

"Did you now?" Jeremiah mumbles, Ivan looking forward as his face began to become hotter. "You don't need to congratulate us, we've been through the beginning stages of this debacle before. I doubt it should be any different than it was last time."

Ivan leaned back against his chair, holding himself back from any anger. He could see the confused expression on the man's face only for him to chuckle awkwardly.

"Okay, good luck to the both of you."

As he walked away, Ivan began to remember when they both were congratulated. When he shot down the congrats and brought up clubbing instead.

"You don't have to congratulate us. I just want to know what are the nearest fun things to do?"

He brought his hand onto his lap, beginning to pick the skin anxiously. This wasn't working well whatsoever.

This wasn't even a part of his plan. Not once did he even plan for them to get married under these kind of circumstances, but Tate made this happen.

He could tell that just in being beside him and the words 'you are getting married' keep getting shoved down their throats, the more it seemed to upset Jeremiah. His anger and resentment was more obvious than ever.

Except instead of being more angry, he was more resentful and that left him unable to act properly. He didn't know what to say or what to do.

Because he just felt like they were repeating history all over again.

Nine days... Ivan thought to himself, already aware that he'd have to...sleep with Jeremiah again somehow. Except it wasn't how it was before where Jeremiah acted on instinct.

Now he was acting on his mind and with his heart. His heart was still broken from his words and his choices... That exceeded his now satiated instinct.

"It...will be different." Ivan starts, looking directly at Jeremiah as he couldn't even look at him. "I am not the same person. I-."

"Why would you do this to yourself Jeremiah?!"

Ivan recognized that irritating voice anywhere, looking back to see Tate rushing their way. He stood right before Jeremiah and ignored Ivan, because he didn't care for him.

"I...told them what we did not to get you in trouble, but to save you-."

"You didn't save me from anything. I didn't need your saving, and because of your actions, I had to make a choice."

"And yet, you chose the worst choice."

"I chose the choice that wouldn't hurt you the most. I'd...be lying to myself and you if I married you. You know that I can't love you the same way I once loved Ivan, you know that. We'd just hate each other in the end. You'd hate me for not loving you the way you deserve, and I'd hate you for putting me in that predicament to...dominate my life." Jeremiah breathed in realization.

Tate's expression softened, but he felt his heart hurting for him. He never wanted him to look this way.

"I just thought..." He looked away sadly because he realized how much his desire to hurt Ivan, only gave him what he wanted.

Now he was looking at Jeremiah who sat beside him.

How sad Jeremiah looked and how afraid Ivan looked.

They both looked worse than they did the first time being engaged. Despite how Ivan treated him, Jeremiah still looked so happy with him. While despite Ivan's way of acting, he was happy with the marriage to Jeremiah too.

They both looked happy despite the words.

Now, there was no happiness.

"I did this to you...I'm sorry." Tate whimpered to Jeremiah as he felt his heart hurting. "I shouldn't have said a thing. I just thought..."

Tate lost his voice as his throat became clogged with tears. Only to run away, Jeremiah watching his retreating back. Except Ivan just grinned, content with the results of things.

Because of his foolishness, the plan for Jeremiah's forgiveness and confession can run more smoothly. Unaware that Jeremiah seeing his cocky grin only infuriated his already aching and angry heart.

"You infuriate me." Jeremiah told Ivan straight in his face, Ivan's smile ceasing. "You make me hate myself for putting myself in this predicament with you once again! Why can't I deny you? Why can't I just...be the stereotypical Alpha and be above how you treat me? What's wrong with me-?"

"Nothing is wrong with you, I promise-."

"Everything is wrong with me. I am about to let myself marry you, the person who almost drove me to end my life because of your words alone. I was becoming independent from you, I was growing into the person I know I can be without you! The way you are, the way you speak, the way you act towards me...it's detrimental to me!" Jeremiah shouted in Ivan's face despite him looking at him pleadingly to stop.

They were before others and Ivan knew he deserved to hear all of this, but he didn't want it to be done here. Except he remembered how he would speak to Jeremiah...right in front of others.

Without a care in the world for how it would make him feel.

Now...that was happening to him right now. Except this time, Jeremiah was doing this because it meant something. Not because he wanted to truly hurt Ivan.

Ivan couldn't say he went about things the same way.

"I don't do that anymore-."

"It doesn't matter! What matters is that you once did. You did it for years, we graduated only a year ago. I - when I was eighteen, you - when you were nineteen. You started treating me horribly when we learned what we were. I was twelve, you were thirteen. For six years, I dealt with your abuse that sought to ruin me as an Alpha, as a person! You wanted to ruin the part of me people wish to be because you couldn't be it, an Alpha. When in reality, you don't deserve such a title.

"Because if you're an Omega and you treat me like this already...I can only imagine how you'd be as an Alpha. Your idea of what an Alpha should be is wrong, Alphas would never take things to this degree. They know when to quit, and when to fight for what's right. You...weren't right, ever! You were just an envious, mean, cruel, and horrible person! You never loved me! You just wanted someone to fuck up, just to be as fucked up as you..." Jeremiah drifted, his eyes widening at his own words.

He saw the way Ivan's eyes watered, looking around to see that they were still in front of everyone.

Seeing Ivan's father, whose eyes were set somewhere else and avoiding to look their way. Jeremiah already knew that instead of Ivan fucking things up, it was him this time.

Sitting back in his chair, he refused to look at Ivan now. He could already hear him crying...he didn't need to see anything for proof.

Unaware of Ivan beginning to lose his mind. As the Luna laughed in his head, only he could hear her mocking laughter.

"So you see now?" She questions him, Ivan trying not to respond aloud. "All that you're feeling: shame, embarrassment, anger, frustration...heart break? Jeremiah felt that everyday, and yet, because of my blessing - he still loved you. So far, your ninety days aren't looking that good, Ivan."

Ivan looked at Jeremiah, noticing how...done he was. His eyes were lowered and he just didn't understand.

The words he asked for...he could say them now.

"I'm sorry..." Ivan whimpered, seeing Jeremiah glance over at him. Only for him to look away as a solemn smile came to his lips.

"Don't waste your breath." Jeremiah mumbled, Ivan's eyes becoming blind with tears. "You're only sorry because you're now getting your way. You wouldn't have ever apologized if I hadn't told you that's all I needed. So...fuck that."

Ivan watched Jeremiah face him, his eyes blazing with hatred for him.

"I hate-."

Suddenly, everything and everyone became frozen. No one moved and no one spoke. Ivan remembered when this happened when Jeremiah cried for him, his head whipping around to see the Luna.

She stood before them, her eyes only set on him.

"With the way things have gone, you aren't going to make it to the twentieth day. Jeremiah will only further suppress his instinct to spite you, and he has also come to resent you much more than he did before. I must say, Tate was someone in your first reality, but he made no impact because you two never separated. I see now...you see now. In this reality, everything is set against you." The Luna tells him, seeing the continuous tears that kept streaming down his face.

She approached, cradling his face as she looked on at the pathetic display. Her eyes wandering off, removing her hand from him.

"Jeremiah...the Jeremiah you know, prays nonstop for you to not die," The Luna informs him.

Ivan's eyes widen in shock, standing up from his seat in desperation. His hands clasping together as he consciously lowered himself before her. He made sure she was taller than him, so that she was looking down at him.

She saw the way he submitted himself as his hands shook. Such a display that Ivan would have never done before.

"Please...send me back. No matter what I do, no one sees that I wish to change. That I love Jeremiah...I want his forgiveness. I want...to be with him, I accept that he's an Alpha now, I do-."

"But have you accepted that you are not?" She asks him softly, lowering herself before him.

Crouched before his lowered head, she taps his shoulder.

Ivan looked up timidly, his eyes hurting from the tears that wouldn't stop streaming. The very thought that Jeremiah...his Jeremiah, was still praying for his life despite what he had done to his was too much. He even felt like right now, he deserved to die.

Because everything in this reality that Jeremiah had told him, was nothing but the truth. Why should he be able to go back and have someone as perfect as Jeremiah?

It felt...wrong to him now.

"It...it doesn't matter how I feel or think, it's just him," He whimpers, his head drooping as his hand clutched at his chest, "I just want him back. I want him to hold me close and I want...I want..."

"You want what?" She urges him softly, waiting for the words that he needed to say.

The words he never once said to Jeremiah.

"I want my Alpha back." Ivan cried out, hurting immensely within his own heart.

She didn't need to be fooled because she could see that within his heart, he meant that. He meant those words and she grinned.

The lesson was learnt.

The only lesson he had to learn for himself...was that he was never going to be an Alpha. He was an Omega, and always meant to be.

Right then and there, she pressed a kiss upon his temple. Only for his body to collapse into the floor. Taking his soul from the body it was placed, back into its original place.

The place where his body lay in the hospital. Where his Jeremiah stood before him at his bedside, looking over him fearfully.

Unaware that the prayers he sent to the Luna had been answered. Answered in the form of Ivan's lesson.

In his reality, Ivan has been in a coma for eleven days. The only reason why he hasn't ended his life was because he held out in the hope that he'd wake up again.

Except the longer Ivan went not waking up, the worser he felt.

"Ivan..." Jeremiah breathed, feeling sicker as he looked at his state. "I shouldn't have pressured you. I shouldn't have asked such a...such a stupid question! I only asked because I thought it'd help you. Except...it only hurt you more."

He flinched when he heard the door be open, turning around as he saw Ivan's parents again. Smiling awkwardly, he looked away in shame.

"I'm sorry once again. I failed your son."

"You didn't fail anyone Jeremiah, and stop saying that you did. Ivan...he..." His mother drifted, looking at the state of him right now.

Except when she looked at Jeremiah, his state seemed much more dire.

"You haven't been treating yourself properly since he ended up here. It's getting harder to convince Luka that the two of you are okay. Even if...you feel like dying, remember who else you have to live for. Ivan wouldn't want you to take your life for his sake, I know that much. Especially if it means you'll leave Luka behind." Ivan's father tries to persuade him despite Jeremiah's depression worsening. "You're quite...affected by this. More than I'd ever expect-."

"How could I not be?!" Jeremiah found himself upset, offended that they'd even say that to him.

When he walked before them, they all were even taken aback by his anger. His uncontrolled pheromones that enveloped them and told them all they needed to know.

To know that he was suffering without Ivan. That no matter how he has treated him, he still loved him.

"Until death do us part..." Jeremiah breathed, his head shaking as Ivan's parents had to hold their breaths to avoid such an overcoming scent. "I will always love him. Despite the words he's said and how he has been, I will always love him. Even if what he had said and what he had done hurt me, I know he doesn't mean it. I know he loves me, you...you would never understand."

Jeremiah turned his back to them now, rushing back over to Ivan's bedside.

"My love for him transcends beyond your comprehension."

"It appears so."

The both of them remain silent, not saying anything else.

They watched as he was about to touch him, but just when he was a loud gasp filled the room. Ivan's gasp as he sat up from the bed.

Ivan sat up quickly, breathing heavily as he heard loud noises. The beeping that echoed throughout the room panicked him as he looked around at his predicament.

Before, he was talking to the Luna, but now...?

He saw needles in his arms, realizing that he was in the hospital. His hand went to the back of his head to feel that there was something pressed to it. No...it was wrapped around, but just from lightly touching it, he gasped at the pain that it caused.

That's when it hit him.

He became full of excitement, throwing his legs over the bed. About to rip out the needles until he finally looked up.

His eyes making eye contact with Jeremiah's...the eyes filled with so much shock, worry, fear, but most of all - joy.

All of the pain and misery he felt from the idea that Ivan was possibly going to die, ceased. That urge within him took over. The urge to comfort the one person who meant the world to him.

Unaware of what happened to Ivan, all he believed was that his prayers to the Luna were answered. To awaken Ivan despite everything he's done. That he couldn't be without Ivan...and it took everything in him to not just end his life.

If he had died, he might've too.

Slowly approaching, he stood between Ivan's legs as his hands shakily cradled his face. Looking within his eyes, the green eyes he missed so desperately.

Amazed by how beautiful he could look despite his predicament.

"You're awake, right? I'm not losing my mind?" Jeremiah breathed, looking at Ivan closely as he was startled by the soft expression in his eyes.

He smiled shyly, his eyes welling up with tears as he shook his head.

"If...you want me to remove my hands from your face, I will not. I have to touch you... I missed you so much. I thought you were going to die." Jeremiah whimpered, leaning his head against Ivan's. "Luka doesn't understand what happened to you. I just told him you were taking a long nap, but... What if you hadn't woken up?"

Ivan felt his heart racing at the Jeremiah he knew. His own body becoming warm and his hands gripping his shoulders.

He pulled Jeremiah against him, shocking him most of all as he clung to him. Holding onto him desperately, even his parents were at a loss for words.

"Ivan..." Jeremiah breathed his name, shocked himself by his softness. It even had him wondering if it had anything to do with him getting hurt.

Except it was not.

Not in the slightest.

"I missed you..."

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♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚🍌:;

↳ ❝ [ i will be updating this once a week (all depends, but at least, every five days). i want to keep people wanting more- 🙇🏽‍♀️. did i succeed? ] ¡! ❞

and now...

is where it all begins.

any lessons learned?

maybe.

but "his" Jeremiah was never gone.

do you think he learned anything?

or will he revert back?

because in that 'second chance' lesson...

he failed once again.

will he fail the third time?

what'd you think? 🥴

vote, comment, follow~

- yolo🍖