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Lan Xichen had presented as an omega, a disappointment to all his family who had hoped for him to be an alpha, it just wasn't meant to be. When his brother presented an alpha, Lan Xichen was relegated to second heir, his younger brother took the head position after turning 22 and a less than desirable amount of time to prepare him for the job. Not like Lan Xichen who had been looking into it since he was old enough to read and stay put in one place for more than an hour, which was at a very young age.
He passed his heats all alone since they he announced he was omega, as a still heir to a big empire, he was secluded every time, given teas to calm his mind and to try to control his instinct to look for release. It was always painful and at the end of his 5 days of heat, he couldn't even move, his body feeling beaten up, stressed and most of the time, depressed and in tears for how lonely he felt.
His alpha brother at his 28, was married to an omega from the Jiang's corp, Wei Wuxian, and living in his own little part of the world and expecting his first pup in a few months.
At 32, Lan Xichen was never let out of his clan eyes, that's it until his brother decided to take care of him and at 34, he was an unmated omega living in his younger brother's house. It wasn’t as he couldn’t take care of himself, he really wanted to try and be independent for once, but as a very traditional family, the Lans had a lot of rules and Xichen had not options than to follow or leave. His brother put his foot down when Xichen tried to leave, citing a very concerned husband of his about a very difficult life outside for such a sheltered omega.
At the end, he followed his brother to his new home.
This was his third heat outside his old home, marking his third year living there, and as always, it was disrupting his now very pregnant brother's omega, this time more than normal as the omega was very sensitive to pheromones, also looked like he was feeling threatened by another fertile omega in his home, no matter how irrational sounded. It didn’t take long for his brother to take notice of it and, as efficient as he was, made arrangements for both of them. That's why he could smell another alpha at home on the second day of his heat.
Jiang Cheng was Wei Wuxian kinda adopted brother; Xichen had met him many times before and felt comfortable with him so Wangji had asked him to help his brother during this cycle, as he wanted to take his husband to another place where he couldn't be affected by such a painful heat.
Traditions in their family didn’t permit for this but the alpha was ragging knowing this omega, his blood, was suffering so much when there were options to make it easier, less painful and it didn’t have to break a lot of rules. His mate had proposed a good option, someone familiar to both of them, from a respected family, who had experience with omegas in heat, not directly Wei Wuxian who never had troubles taking care of his heats alone except for the bunch of clothes he stole every time from his adopted brother.
So, Jiang Cheng being the kind alpha (and favourite uncle too) came to help this distressed omega. Equipped with a bunch of new toys for the omega, recommended by the other omega and talked through a very distracted Xichen, he put a plan in place to make the man feel comfortable with him in there, and got into action.
Xichen was in pain, he felt hot all over and couldn’t stop crying, but the new smell make him try to open his eyes, see what it was, he saw but blurred forms through his tears. Something warms took his tights and his legs automatically opened following the hands. All of a sudden he felt something going inside where he should even been touched, ever.
It felt so good.
Time was spent barely conscious for Xichen, between his first orgasm and subsequent, he slept more, satiated, warm and taken care, the omega in him felt relaxed and trying very hard to lure the alpha in even if he barely had energy.
This day was supposed to be the last day of his heat, but felt more like it’ll never end. He was feeling discomfort, the plug entering his wet hole was new, a bit bigger than the ones used on him until now. And larger, so maybe it wasn't a plug?
He really wasn't paying attention, and his mind was lost in his heat, just concentrating on the feeling of being filled.
When Jiang Cheng stopped, Lan Xichen still could feel that the thing wasn't entirely inside.
"Please" he begged when Jiang Cheng still hadn't started to move it.
"Easy, a-Huan, let your body get used to it"
Lan Xichen whimpered, he was full but wanted more. So when Jiang Cheng started moving the new dildo in circles, he screamed. It was too much but his body kept on moving against Jiang Cheng hand.
"Please, please, stop. Nhg!, hurt, aah, please alpha, please" the dildo Jiang Cheng was using on him felt so good, the little knot that he discovered it had at the base, keep pushing inside his wet hole every time Jiang Cheng moved it, and the bash of pheromones the alpha had let out a few minutes ago kept his omega on edge, his just really wanted to come.
Jiang Cheng has helped him for three days know, and Xichen got to feel his first assisted orgasm and many more by his hand.
"You doing so good, A-Huan"
"Please, please"
With one last push, Lan Xichen came, his groans filling the room, his seed spilling on top of the sheets and, in one last act, Jiang Cheng kept moving the toy inside him, over stimulating until he came one last time. The omega's body relaxed on the bed, out of breath and enjoying the post orgasm bliss and care from the alpha.
The next morning, out of heat, Lan Xichen wake up alone in bed, his body feeling so relaxed, he didn't want to get up from bed.
"Jiang Cheng?" No one answered his call, so he was alone in the house. He felt hurt, the Alpha didn't stay more than necessary. His heat was over, so he left. Lan Xichen hugged another pillow to his chest, trying not to think.
The voice of his brother woke him up again, calling him from the door.
"Brother, how do you feel?" Lan Wangji asked when he found him still in bed "you seem comfortable and happy"
"I am, brother"
"Did something happened?"
"Nothing, really. He was an amazing alpha, didn't lost control like the elders told me they tend to do with unmated omegas, never tried to knot me, he took good care of me. So he's gone now" he shouldn't be feeling this sad and relaxed? His body felt so good, like after a full night of repairing sleep, which he kinda had, but his heart and mind were sad.
"Mn. Would he become your heat partner as Wei Ying suggested?"
"I don't know maybe I'd like that. He was really caring and this was the best heat so far, so having an alpha really helps, isn't it?"
"Mn, Wei Ying said so" Lan Xichen snorted. His brother knew nothing about omegas except all the stuff his husband told him, which in fact, was more than Lan Xichen was told by the people caring for him back home, where he spent so many heats in suffering because they told him was the only options for him. An heir. "Ask him. I trust him. He's good, and you look better than the last time"
"Thank you, brother"
"I brought you some congee for breakfast. Wei Ying will be back in the evening"
"I'm sorry you both had to leave. This is your home"
"Nonsense. This is your home too. Wei Ying says you must feel safe during heats, it’s a requirement, he said. And he got to visit his sister for a few days. He's happy"
"Thank you, brother. Do you mind if I take breakfast here?"
"I'll bring it"
After they both finished their food, his brother left again to go back to his mate and pick up their things; and Lan Xichen just kept lying in bed, curled up around his pillows in the middle of a very destroyed nest. Around fifteen minutes later, the door opened again, and he concentrated, trying to identify who was shuffling downstairs.
"Oh, you're awake" the alpha was standing by his door.
"Jiang Cheng! You're back" he sit up really fast, the omega in him surprised but happy.
"Sorry, the fridge was totally empty after I used every last to kept you and me from starving these days" he said while he tried to tidy a bit around the omega.
So he went shopping! He didn't left for real!
"My brother got me congee already" that’s what he said instead of how happy he felt right now or how sad and disappointed he was when he woke up and though he had left him so soon.
"Oh, well. I'll just restock this then"
"I thought you had left already"
"Mn? No! Omegas still need to be cared for after heats, that’s a well known fact, so I'm still here. I wouldn’t be such a heartless person to leave you alone when you’re still coming out of your heat. Although, I can leave if you want me to?"
"I..." he was still looking after him! What a great alpha! "No, not really. Not yet"
"Ok" Jiang Cheng turned around to go downstairs to the kitchen and started to arrange his shopping into the fridge and the pantry.
Xichen stayed in his room for a few more minutes, thinking about this new development in his life and how good he felt at the moment, how his body felt relaxed, his mind felt at ease and there wasn’t the common anxious feeling he got after his heat, like the omega in him felt insecure, ugly and inadequate. So the option his brother gave him was the better option, really.
He got up form bed, took some clean clothes and went to take a shower. Once clean and comfy again, he started to descend the stairs towards the kitchen.
"Jiang Cheng... Would you be my alpha?" Lan Xichen asked from the door after a few minutes.
"Sorry?" Jiang Cheng sputtered from the pantry in the back of the kitchen, coming out still holding a pack of sweet bread in his hands
"I-I mean, if you'd like to keep helping me with my heats" oh gods, he was so embarrassed, he tried to hide his face from the alpha, feeling mortified.
"If you feel comfortable and your direct alpha approves, I'd like to help you." Jiang Cheng responded, putting the bread aside and walking towards him.
This alpha was so old fashioned and respectful, not directly touching him, and never once he tried to scent him during his heat! Why?!
"Because you second gender may be omega" oh, he had said that out loud, "but that doesn't mean you're not your own person, you deserve respect and to be consulted before anything is done to you"
"But you just told me that I need permission from my direct alpha!"
"No, I'm the one that's need permission from your alpha. I'm an alpha too. We're both unmated and he is my brother-in-law, and I prefer to not cross him concerning you."
"Why?"
"I'd like to get to know you and if you let me, to court you"
This man was nuts, he what? Really? Court him? Xichen never got to try and be friends with an alpha, and he barely could talk with other omegas inside the Lans, and this man, who he had seen a few times wanted to go be al proper and court him?
"Before you start" Jiang Cheng put a hand up the moment Lan Xichen opened his mouth to protest, "you come from a very, very important family, rumoured to be very old and with a lot of rules, of which I don’t know a lot. If you'd let me, I'd like to do this correctly by you and your family".
Lan Xichen was really affronted; he left his family home because all of the rules, all the suffer, all the traditions that keep making feel caged. To not be under their thumbs, to not be controlled. He was 34! And here comes another alpha talking about propriety and traditions and family. Ugh!
"I don't need their permission, I'm my own person, they don't have a say in my life!"
Jiang Cheng smiled.
"I met you at our brother's wedding, and you were the most beautiful person my eyes have seen. I had the fortune to be your heat mate this one time and I know how you smell, I love it. When I met you I thought you were already married, how not to with how magnificent you are? You're kind and everything I'm not, of course I want to do right by you so we can't be separated. Of course I want to take the chance with you".
Oh, mnm, ok, what does it has to do with his family and permissions? Oh! OH!
"This isn't anymore about helping me with heats, right?"
"Yes and no. I still need Lan Wangji permission for it because he’s your direct alpha and this is his house, right? But, well, as I said, I really like you" Jiang Cheng ears became the colour of tomatoes.
"Isn't it a bit too much? Too fast?"
"If you only want my help during that time of the year, I'll do it and leave it at that. I promise to not overstep the boundaries you set" Jiang Cheng smiled and left the kitchen.
And Lan Xichen? Well he felt confused. He wanted the alpha during his heats, he really liked not hurting and feeling like he may die from pain during and after. Will he find another alpha who was a respectful of him as Jiang Cheng? Was it possible or it was only him? He felt safe, taken care of, and happy. But enough to accept a courtship? And a marriage? It was a little too much a little to soon for him, he decided.
He believed in love and always thought that he would share his heats with his mate, an alpha who would love him and he would love back.
Jiang Cheng, although was the stepbrother of his brother's mate, was still a stranger.
Fast forward two years, and Lan Xichen was ready to beg the alpha to knot him, to take his first time, and to mate him. As old as the customs were, Jiang Cheng truly kept to his words and never ever touched him outside helping him come during his heats or soothing him after them, a few times to coaxing him to eat and one time to help him take a bath. He never contacted him if Lan Xichen didn't initiated it, but always polite and caring, he kept on bringing him gifts and sweets for him when he visited and always asked Lan Xichen for his permission before his heats. He took as a responsibility to know when his heat was starting so he could ask and prepared beforehand.
And after seeing him taking care of his baby nephew, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian’s newborn, Lan Xichen couldn't stop thinking what a good father he'd be and how good he looked calming the baby, and feeding the little one.
Oh, how he enjoyed every time Jiang Cheng came for uncle duty.
Just, he didn't know how to retake that old conversation, what if Jiang Cheng didn't want to try with him anymore?
So, he was sitting watching Jiang Cheng on babysitting duty with two toddlers and a wishful dream in his head, would it be like this? To have his own family to spend time with? Along Jiang Cheng or another alpha?
Oh, he was just a silly omega, alright. Dreaming of a gentle alpha to sweep him off of his feet and away from his troubles. He was bloody 36 now, he wasn't getting young.
"Did I lost my chance?"
"Sorry? What was that?" Jiang Cheng was looking at him from the floor, with baby a-yuan bouncing by his arms and his other nephew, Jin Ling trying to escape under the table..
Oh, again his brain and mouth with no filters.
"I just, well, I was thinking if, mhm, if well, maybe I lost my chance in love? I'm not young really, so, maybe that's why, they, I mean, I'm not a desirable omega now?" Oh, why?! Just shut up! "The elders haven't send word of proposals for me in maybe two years now… maybe I0mjust too old for marriage now..."
"Would you like for them to choose your partner?
" What?! No! No! I Just, I don't know, I… there's no one interested, at least before they sent people that were interested in me, you know? But now, well, maybe I’m past my fertile years? And after a-Yuan was born I'm not longer heir to the Lans, so I guess there's no value for anyone in taking an old omega now".
"Do you believe that? You still have heats, you’re still fertile."
"I don't know, I just… I wonder"
"Xichen" oh how he wished Jiang Cheng could keep calling him a-Huan outside heats "you're still in your prime, and handsome, you know, just more mature."
"Am I? Then why?" He was going to start crying any second, he could feel it, this man just called him more mature but here he was, trying to keep his tears at bay, because Jiang Cheng had told good things about him except that he was desirable or that he still wanted him. This wasn't fair!
Jiang Cheng kept silent after that, so it was obvious that he lost interest.
"Don't you want me?"
"Xichen"
"Not even during heats? Do I not temp you?
"Xichen"
"Answer please, tell me. I, I'm not a good omega, right? That's why you can resist, that's why it’s easy, right? The rules were an excuse for my elders so I couldn’t shame the family. The Lans producing a bad omega. And you really never tried anything with me considering you once told me you wanted me" Lan Xichen was crying, distressed really.
"Omega, Xichen, calm down, you need to breath"
"They never let me meet alphas, they always hid me, I'm not good, even my brother had to take care of me, even when he already has a family… they all knew, they all knew…"
He felt arm around him, strong arms, Jiang Cheng arms and the scent of lotus buns and spicy congee. It wasn't fair, it wasn't, he need to do better. Maybe if he improves, Jiang Cheng would look at him again.
"Xichen, breath, please. You're safe and you're loved. Lan Wangji wants you here were he knows you can be free to do as you please and live your life. Not there, hidden in a room and mistreated, suffering under rules so out-dated that were hurting you" he said after sitting beside Lan Xichen.
"But, but they'd have married me, I could have a family already…"
"I remember you saying I was going too fast, do you think an arranged married to be better?"
"No, no, no. But, I, I wouldn’t be left unmated? Alone? Invading my brother's family? I'd be someone else burden by now."
"You'll never be a burden, not for me and I believe not for you brother. You can stay at my house if you want, I'll be happy to have you."
"But we're unmated!"
"So? You were the one saying how old-fashioned I was."
"I'd never.." wait a minute, he had thought it, did that also escaped his mouth? How embarrassing! Why did he keep doing it? He borrowed more into the embrace, hiding himself.
"You never?"
"Shut up, you didn't hear that…"
"Ok" Jiang Cheng tried to hide his laugh, Xichen felt it anyway.
"I still think you're a pretty omega and a wonderful person, Xichen. And I'm happy you still trust me to help you get through your heats, even if I sometimes feel jealous that one day you'd have someone else to be with, you lover and mate"
"I don't have one" he answered still hidden in Jiang Cheng arms.
"You'll find them, be patient" Jiang Cheng kissed Xichen head, gave a big sigh and rested his check atop of his hair.
"What if I’ve already found the one I want?
"You have? Then what are you waiting for? Xichen, you must go and tell them!
"They haven't show interest in me, no anymore…"
"What are you saying? They did before but not now? How's that possible?"
"Because, I don't know, I may have rejected them when they showed interest so they moved on?" he closed his eyes really hard, tears escaping again.
"Xichen, what…?"
"I'm sorry I told you no, I should have accepted-"
"Xichen"
"But I was stupid and I didn't know, I didn't know-"
"Xichen, look at me"
"And now you're not interested in courting nor asking my brother or anything, you just are gentle and serviceable because of my heat, since you’re such a good person and I just can’t help taking advantage of it considering I rejected you, and I missed my opportunity, I left it pass me and, and I'm sorry."
"Don't be, Xichen" Jiang Cheng had stopped trying to make him look up. "You didn't want it, for whatever reason, and I respected that. I still do. But why do you think I still share your heats?
"Because my brother asked you" he hiccupped between tears.
"No, silly. Because I needed to make sure you were happy and well taken care of during and after. So no other alpha could take advantage of you when you were vulnerable… 'cause I couldn't stand not being the one you called for. I…"
"A-Cheng?" Lan Xichen asked timidly. "You still want to court me?" The wonder.
"Should I send a courtship announcement to your elders?"
"No necessary" a new voice added.
"Lan Wangji"
"Brother!"
"I've told them two years ago that any decision regarding the omega Lan Xichen would be under my discretion and no one else." Lan Wangji's face was soft looking at them cuddled up on the sofa, even if Lan Xichen still had tears on his face. "Brother is free to choose his mate at any time" then he looked at Jiang Cheng directly, "I thank you for being so patient with my dense brother"
"Wangji! I'm still older than you!"
"Well brother Xichen, it took you two years to make a move" Wei Wuxian entered the sitting room from behind Lan Wangji. "My brother keeps coming here so frequently just to see you, you know? I was thinking about give him a permanent room."
"Wei Wuxian!!" Jiang Cheng barked, while Lan Xichen just hid again trying to cover how red he was.
"Alpha?" Oh, how hot was that outside bed, Jiang Cheng had to use every trick to stay calm and not jump such beautiful omega. "Can we, during my next heat... to, you know…"
"Not before your wedding, brother"
"But how would they know they're compatible in bed, husband?"
"Exactly! As Wei Wuxian said!" Lan Xichen looked up to his brother.
"You're next heat is too close to even try to prepare a fitting wedding, be patient".
"Brother" Lan Xichen whined.
Of course they didn't, and two months later Lan Xichen was bonded to Jiang Cheng, had tasted his first knot while in heat and enjoyed it every time after. Was he trying to get pregnant? Well he wasn't opposed to that, but he was sure his brother would be cross if that happened before he was wedded. And Jiang Cheng was too careful taking care of him, including not getting him pregnant.
Their wedding happened a year after their talk in front of the children, and three months later, the Jiang heir announced they were expecting their first child.
Lan Xichen wanted three, Jiang Cheng wanted as many as Xichen declared, and at 37 almost 38, he didn't want to lose any more time, so sue him.