Chapter Text
Sakura didn't give a crap about secondary genders one way or the other.
It's just something that happens, not like you can do anything about it even if you wanted to.
You're born with it.
It isn't like a primary gender like male or female where you can go on hormones or have some surgery to change it. Once they stamp your birth certificate with that one stupid letter, your fate is sealed and there ain't a damn thing you or anybody else can do about it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't share his same opinion on secondary genders.
It seems like everywhere you go, they're trying to force it down your throat with targeted ads geared towards alphas and omegas almost exclusively.
Most of the alpha targeted marketing isn't so bad, if a little cliche—mainly focused on selling stereotypically masculine products like colognes or certain clothing brands but there are some idiots who think they can sell just about anything by throwing a half naked omega on it.
It's insulting.
But if those few sleazy alpha ads are insulting, the omegan marketing is down right disrespectful.
It's as if they think all omegas are some delicate flowers, made of glass whose virgin eyes can't handle a little violence or even a darker color palette on their advertisements.
As with everything else, the people of Makochi are nothing like the rest of the world when it comes to secondary genders.
Nobody bats an eye at an omega fighting here.
Not the townsfolk or his classmates, especially not after Umemiya himself accepted him into their pack so easily because that's what The Bofurin are—a pack.
Sakura never thought he'd have a pack.
Growing up looking the way he did, he thought he'd die just as he lived the rest of his life.
Alone.
He never thought he'd end up with a pack, let alone one as big as Bofurin and in a position of power as his grade's captain or that they'd choose him for it.
It was too good to be true, he should have known.
It happened after school on the day that he was elected as class captain.
Suo had asked him to hang back for a minute and stupidly, he had agreed thinking it was something to do with this dumb position he didn't even want after the idiot had volunteered to be his vice.
In all the commotion, he hadn't thought to question why it had only been him Suo pulled aside and not Nirei too as the third member of their newly formed little team of first year officials.
The classroom was empty when he got to it after patrol ended, spare a lone figure propped in the window sill.
Even Sakura could admit that Suo was an alright looking guy, though the alpha's crap personality definitely makes up for any attraction that could have been there.
That afternoon though...there was something different about him.
The classroom had been bathed in warmth from the sun setting over the horizon, lighting the alpha's auburn hair ablaze and softening his handsome features in a way that made him seem almost boyishly beautiful in a way in the same breath.
"What do you want?" He demanded, suddenly glad that it was the side with Suo's eyepatch facing the door so he had been saved from being caught staring.
The bastard would know doubt make fun of him for it if he knew.
"Ah, Sakura-kun! How kind of you to join me, I was beginning to think you wouldn't show." Suo turned to him with that same irritatingly easy going smile as always.
Like he was genuinely happy to see someone like him, like there's no one else he'd rather see walk through the classroom door in that moment.
Why had his face felt so warm all of the sudden at the way the other boy looked at him?
It didn't make sense, it wasn't even that hot in there despite the golden hour.
"Yeah, w-well I said I'd come so I did. There! You, happy?" He snapped, still lingering near the exit as if he was braced to run.
It's not like he would, he was sure he could take Suo in a fight and he's never been one to back down from a fight.
...even if he wasn't sure what he was fighting for.
He'd been brought out of his internal panic by a bright, easy laugh that only made his ears feel that much hotter.
The hell?
"Very, care to join me?" Suo responded, way too happy still as he shifted his legs off the windowsill to pat the space beside him casually in invitation.
Sakura gave him his best effort at a scowl but that stupid smile remained firmly in place.
"I'll stand, just tell me what you want already." He scoffed, trying to regain some sense of control over the situation as he cautiously moved further into the classroom with a slow stride.
He made sure to keep a good distance in case it was some sort of trap.
The alpha didn't seem all that threatening with an open, easy air about him like he'd just dropped in to say hi instead of calling him out here alone after hours to talk about...something but you can never be too careful in Sakura's experience.
He stops a couple feet back to give himself room to evade any attack, glaring back at the alpha grinning at him like the cat that caught the canary with his hand tucked into his pocket in mock nonchalance.
He can see the alpha's canines when he smiles like that and it makes his stomach squirm with nerves.
"Well—I wanted to talk to you, of course." Suo says as if it's obvious and his scowl deepens as he tries in vain not to get distracted by the way his stupid earring sways when he tilts his head to the side a little.
He hates those dumb earrings, he hates how distracting they are.
"Yeah, no shit. What do you want to talk about?"
"Hmm...do you recall Umemiya-san telling us that we're all like family now?" Suo hums, studying his face intently with his lone crimson eye as if searching for something.
"Yeah?"
"I disagree."
"What the hell does that mean?" He snaps, reaching his breaking point with all this cryptic bullshit as he balls up the fist not in his pocket tightly at his side.
A dark shadow passes over the alpha's face and for a moment, he looks dangerous as his red eyes glares out of the darkness trained on him and him alone and Sakura is pinned under all the suffocating weight of that too intense stare.
"What I mean to say is, I have no intention of acting as your brother." Suo answers, deadly calm with none of the usual playfulness to his voice.
It makes him sound threatening, frightening.
For the first time in his life, Sakura wants to run away instead of trying to fight and he's rooted to the spot as his limbs lock up on him.
He's scared.
He's scared.
He's-
"Make no mistake, I still fully intend to act as your second. I simply have no desire to form a bond with you of the...brotherly nature." Suo continues as if nothing happened, that threatening aura slipping back to whatever deep pit of pain and suffering it surfaced from as he waves his hand in dismissal.
"...fine." He managed to choke out once he'd swallowed his heart that had taken up residence in his throat out of sheer fright he'd never felt before or since that day.
Sakura couldn't get out of that damned classroom fast enough after that.
He'd made some excuse, something about having an errand to run which had only earned him a knowing smile that he didn't stick around long enough to question.
After that afternoon, he made it a point not to be alone with Suo any more strictly necessary.
Him being his vice captain and all, it wasn't exactly easy but it wasn't impossible.
For the most part, all he had to do was make sure Nirei joined them on patrol or to discuss any official business that couldn't be handled in the presence of their fellow classmates.
Honestly, the blonde beta had become something of a human meat shield that Sakura placed between himself and the alpha.
...and yet, he could still feel that unnerving stare on the back of his neck as he made a point to never look back and catch that lone red eye boring a hole into the back of his head.
It didn't matter if it was only Nirei or if there was a sea of classmates between them, he could always feel that damned eye on him—making his stomach churn with an uneasy feeling, making him anxious for what the alpha is plotting behind that deceptively charming smile of his.
Not afraid like when they'd been alone in the classroom...just anxious.
"The hell are you looking at?" He snaps one day on patrol, sniffing as he furiously wiped the blood off his upper lip where he'd just gotten into a minor scuffle.
Suo smiles at him, looking as perfect as always without a single hair out of place despite easily being outnumbered by four other guys he'd been fighting on his own.
It shows his sharp canines, the pointed fangs glinting dangerously in the sunlight.
"Nothing, just observing our great captain in action." The alpha responds, a fond smile taking over his handsome face as he stares at him with something Sakura can't place in his eye.
His hands are neatly clasped behind his back but it doesn't make him feel better.
If anything, not being able to see Suo's hands only makes his anxiety all that much worse as he drops the guy he forgot he'd even been holding by the front of his bloodied shirt with a dull thud as he hit the ground.
Suo looked pleased at that.
"Yeah? Well, patrol's over so...so just go home already." He snaps, already walking ahead to do the same.
He doesn't have to look back to know Suo is watching him, he's always watching him.
"Of course, anything for you Sakura-kun."
The dark promise to the words makes him shiver despite the hot sun beating down on him through his school jacket and he doesn't answer as he quickens his step to get home that much faster.