Chapter Text
Kou cradled his prized staff in his arms as he stood in front of the main hallway of his new school, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of the elegantly fancy black oak door before his eyes.
All at once, he got the feeling that coming here was a big mistake. It was much too high class for him. He ran a nervous hand through his messy blond hair as he looked around the hallway of his dorm. The bright strands stuck out in all directions but fell on his face with the back reaching to his neck. Teru had strongly suggested that he get a haircut to resemble the rich looking boys they had seen in the brochure but Kou had been completely opposed to the idea. He was now starting to regret his decision.
Even for a high class school, it really was too big. Kou was sure the entire building of his middle school could fit into the space of his dorm alone. He had been given a map of the school campus during the tour but he wasn't sure how to read it. Besides, he was certain it wouldn't tell him where to find his dorm room even if he could understand it.
The only thing he could do was ask for help. The main problem with that though was that all the students he had encountered so far were elite city kids who had pretended that they couldn't understand him (or maybe they actually couldn't understand. Who knew?) He had considered texting Teru for help but he didn’t want to rely on his brother so quickly; not when it had been a hassle just to convince Teru to let him come along in his mission.
Kou groaned, looking down at the cardboard box full of the few prize possessions he had and feeling more out of place than ever. This place really was too much for him, but the demonic activity found in the school had gotten to the point that something had to be done and Teru alone hadn’t been able to handle it so far.
Kou scanned the hallway once more, looking for someone to ask to help him find his room when he spotted a boy that looked around his own age, sitting next to one of the fancy school pillars and fiddling a camera.
"Hey!" Kou called out as he approached the boy, sticking his face near the camera to check what he was doing.
The boy looked up, startled, and Kou found himself looking into a pair of large rose-colored eyes that stared back at him in surprise.
"I'm Minamoto Kou," Kou grinned, scratching the back of his head.
The boy paused for a second before replying with a soft, "Mitsuba Sousuke."
"Mitsuba-kun? Nice to meet you," said Kou. Mitsuba blinked before he smiled back and Kou could instantly tell that from the almost shy attitude that Mitsuba wasn't an alpha. He didn't look like an alpha either. His soft-looking hair was pastel pink color and was slightly long for a guy, and covered half his face. Even though he was sitting, Kou guessed that Mitsuba couldn't be very tall. Plus he had a lean frame that was only emphasised by the baggy clothes he was wearing. If it wasn’t that he was a Kamome academy student, Kou would have pegged him for a fellow omega.
"Nice to meet you too." Mitsuba replied.
"I know this might sound stupid," Kou started, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "But I'm lost and I've got no idea where to find my dorm room. It's room 234. Could you help?"
He glanced up and for a second, Kou was nervous that he wouldn't reply, then he gave a small nod. He slung his camera across his neck and slowly stood up from the ground, stretching his arms as he did so.
“Room 234? I think I know where that is. Follow me.” Mitsuba started walking in the direction of the large central staircase in the middle of the hallway, and Kou rushed to follow. Luckily for him, it didn't take much effort to match his strides.
"So how is life here?" Kou asked, eager to strike up conversation and learn as much about the academy as possible. Teru hadn’t been coming back for home visits much since he started attending the academy and Kou wanted to prove himself by stopping the being behind the supernatural activity at the school before his brother could. As much as he cared for his brother and knew his brother cared for him back, Teru had a bad habit of underestimating him just because he was younger and an omega.
"It's alright," Mitsuba still sounded friendly but there was a small change in his voice that gave Kou the impression that he had just brought up a subject Mitsuba wasn't really eager to talk about."I guess."
"Do you know anything about the the ghost rumours here?" Kou asked, finally getting to the question he had been dying to ask. “It sounds interesting.”
Mitsuba looked up at him, meeting his eyes for a second before looking away. "I don’t know what you mean.”
"Really?" Kou continued on, staring at Mitsuba. “I heard that-“
"I haven’t heard anything.”
Kou presses his lips together, knowing when it was hopeless to continue. “I see. What year are you by the way?”
“I’m a first year.”
“Me too.” Kou grinned. “We might be in the same class. I saw the picture on your camera. I think it’s amazing for someone my age. “
“Really?” Mitsuba looked taken aback.
“Yep," Kou gushed. "I'm sure you must love photography."
"I just like to capture beautiful things," Mitsuba shrugged. He made a sharp turn right and Kou followed after him, keeping close to his heel.
“This entire place is really beautiful.” Kou said, his eyes wide as he stared at the chandeliers lacing the ceiling. "You must get a lot of inspiration from being here.”
“You’d be surprised.” Mitsuba’s comment was cryptic.
“I mean, as an ome-“
A nervous chuckle escaped from Kou's throat as he stared around the hallway, hoping that Mitsuba hadn’t caught his little slip of tongue. He couldn't believe how stupid he was. It was only his first day yet he had already managed to almost tell someone his true gender. How was he going to survive the next three years of high school?
Mitsuba merely nodded at Kou's words, looking like he was lost in his own thoughts. Kou decided it would be safer to limit the amount of talking he did, at least until he got into the habit of not revealing his class. In his middle school, everyone had known he was an omega, yet no one had actually cared. He was just plain old loud mouthed Kou to everyone, no different from anyone else. He knew that things were different everywhere else though. In other places, omegas were treated like rare fragile beings, forever being protected and coddled by alphas and betas alike. That was one of the reasons he didn't mind having to mask as a beta to attend the academy since it was one of the old school academies that still prohibited the enrollment omega students.
"This is your room," Mitsuba suddenly stopped in front one of the rooms, pointing at the wooden door.
Kou glanced at the door in wonder, taking in where he would be spending the next year of his life. The door was decorated with pictures of Osaka in summer, and Kou faintly recalled his tour guide saying something about them decorating the dorm rooms in accordance to some theme. He knew his mother would have loved to be here with him, taking pictures, but he had managed to convince her otherwise, knowing she would have a heart attack if she found out her omega son was masquerading as a beta and sharing a room with an alpha.
There were two names written on tiny sheets of paper on the door. One of them was his own name, and he guessed that the second was that of his roommate.
"So your roommate is Yugi-san," Mitsuba remarked quietly, playing with his fingers.
"You know him?"
"I think you should ask for a room change as soon as you can. Before it’s too late.” Mitsuba said, ignoring Kou’s question.
"What do you mean?"
Mitsuba shook his head. “Just trust me on this. You don’t want to stay in this room.” He lifted his eyes off the floor and giving Kou what appeared to be a small smile as he pointed at a room across the hallway. "I have to get to class now now but that's my room. You can come to me if you need anything. I'll be looking forward to seeing you, Minamoto-kun."
And just like that, he was gone. Kou stared after him for a moment, hoping that he had just made his first friend in school, even if he was somewhat odd.
Kou took a deep breath, picking out his bottle of heat suppressants from the cardboard box and slipping them into his schoolpants pockets for comfort. It didn't matter that his roommate was an alpha. He had marked out the predicted dates of his heats, resolving to use heat suppressants two days before the heat was expected and faking a sudden illness so he could go home and pass his heat there, where he could build a nest without giving himself away. As long as he played it safe, no one was going to find out his true nature. With that in mind, Kou slid the key into the lock of the door and twisted it before grabbing the handle and pulling the door open.
The room was scarcely furnished, no movie posters or family pictures or anything else to give the room some sort of personality. The only indication that someone lived there was a small pile of dirty clothes on the floor and the rumpled royal blue bedsheets and blanket on the top of the bunk bed that was pushed against the wall. There was a switched off TV and a games console on the opposite side of the room, though he couldn't spot any games do or DVDs but all in all, he thought it was a pretty nice room.
Kou dumped his box of belongings on the ground and looked around the room, this time spotting a shelf full of old books. His eyes widened to the size of saucers as he moved closer, looking up at the various books. He longed to grab one to examine it properly but unfortunately for him, he was too short to reach.
That didn't stop him from attempting though. He stood on his tip toes, stretching his hand out to grab the nearest award when he heard an ice cold voice, making him abandon his idea hurriedly.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
Kou slowly turned around to be faced with who had to be both the strangest looking boy he had ever seen. He wore a smile on his face that didn’t reach quite his eyes and sent shivers down Kou's spine as he pressed himself against the wall, hoping it would magically disappear so that he could escape from this serial killer looking guy.
To his dismay, the boy, who he could only guess was his roommate Yugi, moved closer and Kou instantly tried to slink himself further into the door, cursing his omega instincts as he did so. Both of them were the same height but had to be the most intimidating alpha he had ever met, and coming from an all beta family, Kou wasn't sure exactly how he was going to handle living with him.
Yugi slunk closer to Kou, closing the gap between them. There was no more space for Kou to retreat to; his back was pressed up against the wall. A pair of hands found their way to either side of Kou's head, locking him in place.
"Who are you?"
"I-I'm Minamoto Kou," Kou paused, trying to keep his voice steady but it was too difficult as the boy was so close that Kou could see his surprisingly pretty honey-colored eyes. "Your new roommate."
Instead of responding, the dark-haired boy just let out a small purr as he removed his hands, allowing Kou the chance to fall onto the floor in relief. Being in such close proximity to an alpha was normally nerve wrecking on its own, but an alpha like that was worse. Kou gave a small shiver that he hoped wasn't that noticeable.
"So you’re Amane’s new roommate? You’re on the bottom bunk."
"I'm fine with that," Kou replied, his voice cheery as he recovered from his previous scare. Now that he wasn't being scared out of his mind, he could see that his roommate was what his mother would call a ‘pretty boy’. With his fair skin, pitch black hair and large amber eyes, he looked more like a model from a magazine than a normal high school student. Kou couldn't help glancing down at himself and feeling inferior.
He sat down on his bunk, fiddling with his box of possessions when the door to the bathroom is opened and an exact copy of the other boy walked out.
“Tsukasa, I told you-“ the copy stopped suddenly when he noticed Kou.
“Amane, this is your new roommate.” Tsukasa smiled as suddenly slid into the bed as well and draped an arm around Kou’s shoulder. Kou shivered at the action, wanting to leave but not knowing how. “Isn’t he cute?”
“What are you doing here, Tsukasa?” Amane groaned.
“Mean,” Tsukasa let out an exaggerated sigh as he pouted. He finally dropped his arm from Kou’s shoulder and hopped to his feet, rushing over to Amane’s side just to take his hand. “Let’s go to class together.”
Kou watched from his bed as Amane ran a hand through his dark fringed hair, an unreadable expression clouding his face. Even for twins, the physical resemblance between them was remarkable. He finally sighed and nodded, letting Tsukasa take his arm and wordlessly pull him out of the room.
Kou grimaced the moment they left, finally understanding Mitsuba’s warning to change rooms. Just a few minutes with those twins had been unbearable. He made up his mind to see the residential director once the school day was over. With that in mind, he grabbed his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and rushing out of the door without looking back.
.