***

For as long as he'd known him, Jun had been the one with the staring problem in their relationship. But now the roles were reversed. Damon stared at Jun in complete silence, unable to formulate a response to everything he'd just heard. He only realized he'd been staring blankly when Jun grabbed his knees and wrinkled his eyebrows, probably wondering if Damon was having a stroke.

Damon did vaguely remember this incident. But he'd forgotten almost all the details – it was ten years ago, for God's sake. The memory was faded around the edges. He remembered helping out a kid in the Venus pack – he even vaguely remembered the little girl. But he was having trouble reconciling that child he'd helped with the man kneeling in front of him. The man who had, apparently, known him when he was sixteen, remembered him, and followed him all the way to Ganymede pack.

But there were still a lot of questions unanswered. Jun had given the why. But the how – as in, how he's managed to peacefully transfer to Ganymede pack despite being the Venus Alpha's son – remained a mystery.

And now Damon had a feeling that Jun's request for Damon not to judge him had something to do with that 'how.'

Damon's blank stare slowly morphed into a narrow-eyed glare. He ignored his fluttering heart – he would come back to the knowledge that Jun had literally had a crush on him for a decade later, when he was less likely to spontaneously combust – in favor of getting answers. "Jun," he said sternly. "Tell me you got permission to transfer to Ganymede pack."

...Silence

"Jun," Damon repeated, straightening up less in disbelief than in panic, "tell me you got permission."

Damon knew Jun was someone capable of leaving the Venus pack without saying anything. Irresponsible as it was, Jun would do it if he felt he had to. But Damon, knowing what he now knew about Jun, knew that there were certain consequences – bad consequences – for an Alpha's son to abandon his pack without getting express permission.

Damon consoled himself with the fact that thus far, there was no pack war that Damon was aware of, so some kind of agreement must have been worked out. But Damon didn't know any details about that – and thus he was very anxious.

Who could blame him? Leaving one's pack was serious business, only done in the most dire of circumstances. It certainly wasn't something allowed simply for the sake of getting a boyfriend. Damon didn't know what had happened with Jun's fiancé – who, though Jun hadn't stated it explicitly, Damon could guess was the little girl Damon had helped fool all those years ago. However, he would bet anything that Jun's engagement was still very much intact – meaning that Jun would have been even less likely to be allowed to leave Venus pack.

Even if Jun was here now, a member of Ganymede pack, and Venus pack was okay with it for the moment, they wouldn't be okay with it forever.

Jun didn't seem to see the urgency of the situation. His lips tightened slightly – petulantly. Damon's eyes narrowed further. He was not above beating a grown man's ass if it came to it.

"Not...quite permission," he said, confirming Damon's fear. Great. Perfect. So not only was Damon probably going to be lynched by Jun's family, but by his fiancé too.

Like...I appreciate the romance of transferring packs for me, Damon thought. But couldn't you have just sent a letter or two?

Though completely unconcerned over the consequences of his own actions for some reason, Jun was more than capable of reading Damon's face and the thoughts behind his expression. He frowned and got off the floor to sit next to Damon.

"I did not transfer just for you," Jun admitted slowly. "You prompted it. I was curious about you and wanted to know more. But I also wanted to get away from my responsibilities."

That, strangely, made something tight loosen just a bit in Damon's chest. He was worried, he supposed, that he had been the cause of conflict between Jun and his family and fiancé, that he alone was responsible. But if Jun had done it not just for Damon, but for himself too...It was slightly more acceptable.

Not better. But acceptable. Damon scrubbed his hands over his face. "Alright. If you didn't get permission...you at least told someone what you were doing, right?"

Jun nodded fiercely, happy to pass at least this test question. "I told my family what I was going to do. They did not allow it, but they knew. They – " Jun paused, a bit hesitant now, "they treat it as a vacation of sorts. Once I'm done 'playing' I am meant to go back."

Okay. Okay, so...all that meant was – was that...

That Damon and Jun couldn't become mates. Because like it or not, Jun still had a fiancé to go back to.

But that was fine, Damon told himself. It wasn't – it wasn't like he'd been planning on becoming Jun's mate. He bit the inside of his cheek, hard.

Jun read his mind again. He leaned forward until his forehead was leaning against Damon's shoulder and whined in the back of his throat. "I was...waiting," he started, voice slightly muffled in Damon's shirt. "I was waiting until more time had passed before I was going to ask you."

"...Ask what?" Damon asked, voice unusually small.

Jun was quiet for a long time. Damon didn't dare speculate on the answer.

Jun sneakily moved to grip Damon's elbow, as if afraid he would bolt. "Ask if you would – would transfer to Venus pack. With me."

It was suddenly very hard to swallow. Technically, as long as Jun's fiancé wasn't someone super important in Venus pack, or as long as she wasn't the type to cling – then it shouldn't really matter to Venus pack which omega mated with their next Alpha. In fact, mating with a foreign wolf might even have benefits for relations between packs.

It wasn't an unreasonable request, by any means. It wasn't like transferring packs would mean Damon would never get to see his family and friends again. But he and Jun...

Maybe it wasn't fair to still be indecisive after all of that. Jun had just confessed that he'd been into Damon since before Damon knew him. They had slept together. And Damon really liked Jun. But Damon couldn't just – up and leave. His parents weren't back from their trip. Damon had just started his job. And he didn't know for sure if he would even be accepted as Jun's mate if he transferred or not.

"Jun, I – "

Jun's head shot up, and he moved to put a finger on Damon's lips to stop him. Damon paused, staring into Jun's eyes from barely an inch away, caught in the way Jun looked at him like he was precious.

"Don't say anything now. Wait until after the Season. Only when you're comfortable."

Then, contrary to the serious mood, a tiny smirk lifted the corner of Jun's lips, and he crossed the distance between them to place a tiny kiss on his own finger separating their lips.

"Speaking of the Season," he said lowly, lips just barely brushing Damon's with the movement, "If you're still up for it...I believe we have something to sign."