Roth’s hand curls on the sink as he takes a look at his own reflection in the lab bathroom mirror, noting every difference he can see between the photos he took from the past few weeks. A notebook, scrawled with rushed notes in messy handwriting lays next to him, his other hand scratching down in pen his observations.

See, Roth was a beta. Despite his teenaged yearning for his presentation to simply be late, he never actually presented. Not at 16, not at 18, not at the latest known presentation age as of now of 22. By 23, he knew it was never going to happen. Or, well, at least he thought he knew.

Now he’s 32, and he isn’t so sure anymore. It started small, with him noting the scent of you, his lab partner, absent-mindedly one day before he registered what he was doing. A little swelling around the canines. His daily runs feeling a little too easy. A couple off-handed comments about his posture looking great- unusual for the man whose posture was usually best described as a “standing shrimp.” Then, there came a tipping point where he looked at the mirror and realized those little differences that made his own face seem uncanny. It was so much small stuff though, that he felt like he’d sound like he was going crazy if he went to a doctor about the changes.

But, he was a scientist. An animal biologist, at that. He knew that the smallest of differences could mean a world of answers, given the right circumstance. That’s what started his own little personal experiment. Don’t change any part of his lifestyle, just take pictures. Once a week. Take a moment to scrutinize each photograph and write down observations. Visible muscle growth. Thickened eyebrows and hair. Mild hair texture changes, light redness by the undeveloped scent gland area. Note down over the course of the week those little comments people made about his behavior. He was grouchier than usual, this week. Snappier. More intimidating. You commented about his scent. Said you liked “whatever cologne he got recently.” He never got a cologne. So, stronger scent. Probably. And you liked it.

He didn’t really know how to feel about how that comment made his heart jolt like that.

Regardless, his observations did line up with male alpha presentation- a few changes, considering he was a full-grown man before he even started changing. Like, he wasn’t starting to grow a beard or anything, he already had to shave each morning. But the stuff that didn’t come with being an adult beta- that stuff had started to change. If he wasn’t worried about potentially losing his job over a couple blood tests from lab supplies, he would be taking a look at the genetics himself. Of course, he was, and the commercially available tests were notoriously unreliable, so he didn’t. Still, he had enough that he was pretty sure he could explain his changes to a doctor without sounding totally insane. He thinks.

How long has he been in here again? Roth jumps a bit at the sound of you knocking on the door. Damnit. Long enough for the work day to start and you to look for him-

“Coming!” Roth shakes his head as he gathers his notes quickly, going to hide the photographs in the notebook.