Chapter Text
Ace stood in the doorway, hunched in on himself pitifully. Yuu was, as far as Ace could tell, a beta, so his act might not work on an instinctual level like it would on an alpha, but Yuu should at least know how to treat a sad little omega on his doorstep –.
Yuu opened the door in what looked to be the most uncomfortable pajamas known to man (Ace swore he could hear the canvas chaffing against his friend’s skin even from here). He didn’t immediately offer to take Ace in. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all for a long time.
Long enough that Ace risked peeking up at Yuu through his bangs.
Which was, apparently, what Yuu had been waiting for. He crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s been five minutes, why are you back already?”
Ace spluttered. “It’s not like I want to be here!”
“Great,” said Yuu.
He closed the door in his face. Ace got the feeling he would have slammed it if the dorm's foundations had been any more stable.
Ace stood there in open-mouthed shock. “You can’t just leave me here!”
“I can!” Yuu retorted, but he did open the door again. “You done trying to get me to pity you?”
“... fine,” said Ace, throwing his hands up in a mocking surrender. “Just let me in, will you? My asshole Housewarden kicked me out.”
Yuu glanced him up and down a few times, before shrugging and stepping out of the way so Ace could brush past him and into the dorm.
(Calling the place a dorm was, in his opinion, generous. The wood was rotting beneath their feet. There were more holes over their head than there was actual ceiling. The few scattered pieces of furniture that weren’t covered in sheets were broken beyond repair.)
“Maybe I should have risked the wilderness,” Ace muttered.
“Grim’s trying that out right now, actually. If he doesn’t come back by tomorrow, then that means that sleeping on the forest floor was officially better.”
“Encouraging,” Ace said, sarcastically.
Yuu sent a playful glare his way, but didn’t seem to actually mind Ace insulting his new ‘home’. “You want some tea?”
“The Sevens know that I’ll need it to sleep in a place like this.”
“That’s the spirit,” Yuu joked, before motioning for Ace to get comfortable on a very uncomfortable-looking couch. There was a spring sticking out of one of the cushions, sharp enough to gouge a hole through the unwary, and Ace made sure to give it a wide berth.
Yuu came back a few minutes later with two mismatched cups. Ace grabbed the red one. Staying on brand is important, after all.
“Got any sugar?”
“Not any that I can guarantee is safe to eat,” Yuu said, sitting as far away from him as The Spring would allow. Which wasn’t very far. If Ace reached out, he’d still be able to touch him.
Ace sighed, but accepted his too-bitter tea without complaining any further. Yuu was clearly living on scraps at the moment, it would be mean to get onto him too much when he couldn’t help it.
“So,” said Yuu. “What happened?”
“I ate a tart.”
“That’s crazy,” Yuu said, dryly. “What actually happened?”
“Exactly what I said,” Ace shrugged. “I was a little hungry, so I went down to the dorm kitchen and found some tarts in the fridge. Three whole tarts! Big ones, too! So I took one slice, and the Housewarden started screaming at me!”
Yuu thought it over. “You should apologize.”
Ace glared at him. “You’re kidding me. He took away my magic. Over a tart.”
“And that was wrong of him, too,” Yuu conceded. “But. You really shouldn’t take other people’s food without asking.”
“What, should I ask you for permission before I take another sip of this tea, too?”
“Nah. After last night we’re, like, trauma bonded or something. What’s mine is yours.”
Ace dramatically flung himself against Yuu’s side, hand to his forehead like a Queen of Hearts-era peasant waif who was about to faint from the plague (it was hard not to break character when Yuu gave a little squeak of terror as his tea threatened to spill over the side of his cup). “If only I had been sorted into your dorm.”
Yuu raised an eyebrow. “You want to stay here? Even I don’t want to stay here.”
Ace looked around. He winced. “It’s a fixer-upper.”
“Didn’t know you could be polite.”
“It’s a skill I have,” Ace said, grinning.
“You should use it more often, then.”
“Nah. Gotta keep you on your toes.”
Yuu scoffed, lightly, but otherwise seemed content to leave the conversation there. It was pretty late, after all, and they’d had an eventful day yesterday, what with them almost dying to a monster several times. Frankly, Yuu being as awake as he was was surprising.
He should probably ask now, while he was awake, then:
“Can I really stay here?”
Yuu sighed, absently bringing a hand up to ruffle Ace’s hair. “Sure, if you can find a place to sleep.”
“Just let me stay with you. I'm real skinny, I won't take up much space.”
Yuu snickered, rolling his eyes. “Sure, whatever.”
Ace blinked in surprise a few times, sitting up straighter to squint at Yuu. He didn’t seem to have any… ulterior motives.
“I guess you’re a beta, so it doesn’t matter that much…” Ace hedged.
Yuu sent him a mildly confused look. “A ‘betta’? What, like the fish?”
Ace’s eyebrows knit. “Do they call it something else… where you’re from?”
(Ace still had his doubts about the whole ‘other world’ thing. Even assuming he did believe that there were other universes that were somewhat similar to his own, which was a big assumption to make, how do you accidentally travel to another universe?)
“Do they call what something else?”
Ace hesitated. He glanced down, meaningfully. “What you… have.”
Yuu was quick to cover himself, a blush spreading across his face. “What – you mean male?”
“No, no, the…” Ace waved his hands vaguely, helplessly. “Can you have kids?”
“I think so?” Yuu said. His face was getting redder and redder by the second. “I mean. I haven’t checked. But probably?”
“So, you have a womb,” said Ace, sighing. Yuu was a little bit bigger than the average omega, but he supposed it wasn’t impossible. “Here we call that an ome –.”
“No?! Why would I have a womb?!”
Yuu was being weirdly defensive about this. Were omegas still frowned upon back where he was from? Maybe that was why he was wearing scent patches to masquerade as a beta. Ace had just assumed it was nearing Yuu's time of the month, but that made sense, too.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I do, too.”
Yuu didn’t seem relieved. Or offended, really, not anymore. He just looked flabbergasted.
“You what –?!” And then something seemed to click into place in Yuu’s head. He, awkwardly, reached out and patted him on the shoulder. Once. Twice. Settled the hand there in a way that was clearly his best attempt at comforting Ace. “I. Uh. Appreciate you feeling like you can tell me? I’ll… keep your secret safe?”
Ace had the horrible feeling that they were no closer to being on the same page.
He caught Yuu by the wrist before he could pull away. “This is getting us nowhere. Can I –...?”
He trailed off, awkwardly, hoping that a small tug on Yuu’s arm would be enough to give Yuu a hint. Yuu had, unfortunately, not gotten any better at understanding Ace’s cues in the last minute or so since they’d started having this disconnect.
Ace took Yuu’s wrist in both hands and started massaging the skin there. Even if Yuu was a beta, as Ace suspected, he would have some kind of scent that Ace could stimulate. He’d deal with the consequences of that later (if there even were any – Ace was around 99% sure the guy wasn’t an alpha, so the worst-case scenario was that he accidentally sent the guy into an early heat if he was an omega… which would be a pain, but not that bad for him, at least). But, for some reason, Ace couldn’t find the slight indents in Yuu’s skin where his scent glands were hidden. And, of course, Yuu was of no help, just staring at Ace with a look on his face that was closer to morbid fascination than anything actually useful for determining the guy’s secondary sex.
Finally, he gave up, pressing his nose to Yuu’s wrist and trying to find anything of interest.
Yuu smelled… artificial. Like he had taken a shower just before bed, and Ace was smelling the soap residue on his skin.
Beyond that, he wasn’t getting much of anything. He smelled a bit of himself, some of his scent must have rubbed off on Yuu when he ruffled his hair, but that wasn’t helpful. Maybe a bit of sweat? But everyone smells of sweat if you dig deep enough, that’s just part of being human. And it wasn’t like it was particularly musky or sweet… so, a beta? Maybe?
But even betas have scent glands. So, what was going on?
“Um, Ace?” Yuu said.
Ace drew back to look at Yuu, who looked… mostly confused. A tad uncomfortable, too.
Ace dropped his arm immediately, though not without a frown. “I don’t get it.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think I know what’s going on, either,” Yuu admitted.
“I… think you’re what we call a beta, here,” Ace said. “It’s a person who isn’t an omega – who gives birth – or an alpha – who… helps people give birth.”
“A beta sounds like an intersex person,” Yuu said, which could be true. Ace had certainly never heard the term before. But all hopes of finally being on the same page as Yuu were dashed immediately when he said, “And, uh, I’m not that. I’m an… alpha, I guess?”
Ace shook his head. “You can’t be, you don’t smell like one.”
“What, just because I’m hygienic I can’t be a guy?”
“Smelling like an alpha has nothing to do with being hygienic… and what does being an alpha have to do with being a guy? What are you talking about?”
Yuu’s eyebrows knit in absolute confusion. “I mean, I guess you don't have to be an alpha to be a guy, but they’re… strongly correlated, I feel.”
“Not really.”
Ace and Yuu stared at each other.
Ace lifted his wrist to Yuu’s nose. “How do I smell?”
“Huh?” Yuu asked, frowning. “Nice, I guess?”
Ace stared at him incredulously. Not because he didn’t think he smelled nice – he smelled like cherries and was proud of that, thank you very much – but because Yuu couldn’t seem to understand why Ace would ever ask him that.
And he didn’t seem to have any scent glands on his wrist…
“Holy shit, you’re actually from a different world, aren’t you?”
Yuu just looked more confused. “Yeah?”
Ace glanced behind himself. At the spring sticking out of the couch, looking just as deadly as the last time he’d seen it. But now it was very tempting to throw himself onto it and let it take him out of his misery.
He hopped to his feet, grabbing Yuu by the wrist (absently running his thumb over the spot where his scent markers just weren’t there it was so weird -) and yanking him to his feet. “Alright, get up, we’re going to the library.”
“Huh? Didn’t take you for the studying type, especially not so late at night –.”
“I’m not, but apparently you desperately need some Sex Ed.”
Yuu went very, very pale.