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There had been some unusual tension in the Shen household lately.
It wasn’t the twins, happy as they were, now two years old and excited to learn new things each day. Haoran and Haoyu were smiley, adorable little pups, always ready for holds, hugs and kisses. The tension was neither from Tian Xi, the rowdy four year old - she was temperamental, and spoke her mind, but tension wasn’t something she exuded. If you looked closely at the four kids of the family, your eyes quickly found the firstborn Lele - the usually happy and sweet child looking quieter, worried and full of preteen anxiety. Lele was almost eleven years old, nearing the age where most kids started to present. It wasn’t a particularly hot topic in their household, Wenlang and Gao Tu both deciding to let their son come to them when he wanted to. Both of them had presented around twelve or thirteen, and they did figure Lele would be around the same age when his secondary gender presented itself.
What the two parents didn’t know was that little Lele had been thinking long and hard about the event in his future. Of course he had, it was all his school mates talked about: who was going to be what, most of his friends hoping strongly to be alphas. It wasn’t a surprise, as everyone aspired to be a strong, powerful and cool alpha. Children were like that, seeing only the good parts of being an alpha, the boring parts of being a beta, and the bad parts of being an omega. And despite being raised in a family as… Progressive as his, Lele had been becoming more and more unsure about the matter. He had been looking at his fathers when they didn’t notice, gaze following his alpha father’s tall figure. Daddy was tall and broad shouldered, strong and powerful - everybody said so, even auntie Qing. His eyes were piercing when he looked at someone else than his family, that Lele had noticed - but always soft, loving and fatherly at them. The most soft his eyes got when he looked at their omega father, and that was a little confusing to him as well.
But when he looked at his omega father, his baba, he didn’t see what his classmates usually said about omegas. They said that omegas were weak, soft and easy to command, but… His baba was none of those things. He was almost as broad shouldered as his daddy, even if his waist was narrower, and was strong enough to move their dining room table by himself. He wasn’t a pushover either - Lele had seen his daddy get ordered around by his baba more than the other way around. The softness part was true enough, he supposed, at least to the kids their baba was always kind, loving and soft. But that was what Lele loved about him, why was that supposed to be a bad thing?
He didn’t understand any of it, and only got more anxious. It didn’t help that his classmates had recently started teasing him about being quiet, about how that and him being good at drawing meant that he would be an omega, and then he’d get bullied. He always told them to stop, that he was good at soccer too and that didn’t mean anything either, but the message stayed with him.
He slowly started being afraid of presenting as an omega.
The firstborn of the Shen family kept his thoughts quiet for a couple of weeks, the tension slowly becoming noticeable to his fathers as well. It was when he strolled back home from his after school club - art club, it was - and walked into the kitchen, that the secret he had been holding started to leak out.
”Welcome home, baobao”, his baba said with a smile, holding his little brother and nuzzling him. ”How was school?”
Lele just shrugged, discarding his dinosaur printed backpack on the bar stool next to the kitchen island. ”That bad, huh?” His other father said softly, his other little brother in his arms as he sat at the dining table. He felt like they were both watching him and waiting for something, only making him feel more anxious.
”How about I’ll make your favorite food?” His baba asked, offering him a soft smile and setting his brother - Haoyu, he presumed - down. The younger child immediately bounded towards him, small hands wrapping around him like an octopus as he giggled. Usually he would’ve laughed, too, but now he didn’t feel very amused. ”I’m not hungry”, he just mumbled, pushing Haoyu away from him.
Neither of his fathers missed the gesture, his omega father furrowing his brows and rounding the kitchen island to him. ”Baobao, is something wrong?” He asked, crouching to his level and searching for his gaze. Lele didn’t meet it, only stared down at his father’s stomach - if omega’s were so weak, how did they make actual humans just like that?
There was also the nuance of his uncle Shaoyou being an alpha and his uncle Yong being an enigma, which he didn’t understand at all, but that issue could wait.
”Everybody is talking about presenting at school”, he mumbled, feeling both his fathers’ gaze on him. ”I suppose it would be time for some of your classmates to start presenting”, he heard his daddy ponder. ”Are you excited?”
”No”, Lele blurted, words flowing out of his mouth without him thinking about it. ”I don’t want to be an omega…”
He could tell his baba froze for a beat. ”Why is that, my love?” He asked, petting his hair softly, a familiar herbal scent flowing around him. He had started sensing their scents some time ago, his uncles had told him it was a sign of his upcoming presentation. It didn’t mean it would happen soon, but that he was growing. He hated it.
His little chest felt tight and uncomfortable, and he couldn’t help just saying what he thought. ”Omegas are weak and stupid”, he mumbled, ”nobody wants to be an omega.”
Gao Tu couldn’t say that he was surprised to hear his son say that. He remembered being a child and how his classmates also said things like that, everyone worried about being a weak little omega. He just didn’t expect his son to be so… Well, worried about it, after all he had been raised by several safe adults, that all thought differently.
The omega had been expecting the discussion about traditional roles and secondary genders to arise, and he was about to gently lead the conversation towards softer thoughts, when he smelled the spike of iris. Angry, disappointed, strong. He heard his mate move, glancing at him over his shoulder. Wenlang was angry, Haoren sat down on the floor, eyes unusually sharp and mouth in a tight line. ”Wenlang, don’t-” he started, already placating his mate, though this time the alpha only shot him a look. ”Shen Lele”, he almost growled, ”go to your room. We need to talk.”
In front of him their son sniffled, hung his head and dragged himself to his room, leaving the two in the kitchen with their two year olds. ”A’Lang”, he said in a soft, scolding tone. ”You didn’t need to growl at him.”
”I’ll apologize”, Wenlang promised, voice now softer and more worried as he looked at him. ”I won’t allow for talk like that in our home. Never.”
Gao Tu studied his alpha’s face for a moment, looking at the softness in his eyes, the disappointment on his face, the pure worry. He knew what Wenlang worried about - he saw his own bigoted ways flashing in their son, and was now desperate to make sure he wouldn’t become like he was. The omega felt his heart clench, and he sighed softly, embracing his mate for a quick moment. ”Be gentle to him”, he murmured, ”he looks up to you and is just a boy.”
”I will”, his mate promised, flashing him an uncertain smile before he padded off, towards their son’s room. Gao Tu hoped he didn’t have to become a peace keeper later.
When Wenlang stepped in the room his son was sitting on his bed, little hands twiddling anxiously and eyes darting quickly to him. His previous anger was only a quick spike that had already flattened to a quiet disappointment, that he tried his best to not show so clearly. He sighed quietly, sat next to his son on the bed, looking at him for a moment. ”Lele”, he then started, ”do you know why I got angry at what you said?”
His son sniffled and shook his head, the movement so small he almost didn’t catch it. ”I got angry, because you were talking about your baba as well, when you said that”, he stated, waiting for his son to register his words. ”Baba isn’t weak or stupid”, Lele replied, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. ”That’s right. So why would anyone else be, just because they are an omega?”
Another silence followed, his son mulling over his words and trying so hard to think about them. ”People say all kinds of unkind things about omegas”, the alpha sighed, ”most of it is just prejudice, or being a mean person. Someone’s designation doesn’t tell you anything about how strong or smart they are.”
”Wu Weijie said that you could only be an omega if you were weak”, Lele muttered, and Wenlang couldn’t help but hug his son close. ”Wu Weijie is wrong, because he’s still a child”, he hummed. ”If you look at your baba, do you see weakness?”
”No.”
”Good. Do you know that people have prejudices about alphas too? They think alphas are all cruel, selfish and emotionless people. But that’s not true, either, is it?”
His son pondered again, thinking of his aunt, his uncle, of his father. Of the kind alpha man at the ice cream parlor, who always gave him an extra scoop of ice cream for free.
None of them were cruel or emotionless, not even his father whose eyes had scared him for a while. No, his daddy had cried when Haoyu and Haoren had started walking, when Tian Xi had said I love you for the first time, when he himself had brought an A+ graded essay home, titled My hero: daddy.
”No”, Lele admitted, ”it’s not.”
Wenlang smiled, hugging him close and nuzzling his hair. ”Whatever you and your brothers and sister present as, you will be good, kind people”, he promised. ”Omegas can be as loyal and strong as alphas, betas can be as protective and soft as alphas and omegas, and alphas can be weak and stupid, but still gentle and loving. Your secondary gender doesn’t define you as a person, and it doesn’t need to push you into a mold. You are who you are, Lele, and that doesn’t change when you present.”
He heard a quiet sniffle, and a small nod was pressed against his chest. ”I’m sorry that I scared you”, the alpha murmured softly, stroking his son’s back. ”It’s okay, daddy”, Lele answered, ”I’m sorry for what I said.”
”Good boy. But tell that to your baba, too. After that you can do your homework, come get me if you need help.”
His son wiped his eyes and nodded, looking him in the eye for the first time that day. As Lele got older he saw so much of himself in the child - the same worry and anxiety, the seeds of prejudice trying to grow roots in him. Yet at the same time he also saw softness, quiet consideration and thoughtfulness, things that let him know his son wasn’t drifting away. He was just a child in need of direction, much like he was in his past.
He breathed deep for a moment, staying alone in the room, until he stood up and strolled out. From the doorway he watched as his son spoke quietly with his baba, both looking each other in the eye, Gao Tu smiling at their son with an indescribable softness on his face. He could tell his mate forgave their child immediately, kissing his forehead and ushering him to the living room with his homework, and thus giving him the chance to join the omega in the kitchen. Gao Tu smiled at him and didn’t resist when he embraced him, pressed his face against his neck and just breathed in. ”You’re a good father”, the omega murmured. ”You don’t need to worry so much.”
He just hummed quietly to himself, surrounding himself with the fresh, earthy scent of sage. ”I lectured him about the stereotypes of omegas and alphas”, he then said, chuckling quietly. ”And I told him no matter what he and his siblings present as, they’re good, kind people.”
His mate nuzzled him softly, a quiet, appreciative purr escaping from somewhere in his chest. ”You got angry for me”, Gao Tu whispered, looking him in the eye. ”You’re still so protective of me.”
”I always will be. I won’t have anyone in this house or outside of it disrespect or hurt you.”
”Those four will end up breaking our hearts one day, inevitably”, the omega sighed, leaning his forehead against Wenlang’s. ”They’ll say things they don’t mean, do things that scare the shit out of us and make choices we won’t approve of. But they’ll always come back to us.”
A cute, quiet whine emerged from the alpha, and Gao Tu couldn’t help but chuckle. ”Sorry, my love”, he smiled, ”but you can’t stop them from making mistakes and learning from them. Better to just strap on and enjoy the ride. Who knows, they will probably find partners that drive you off the wall.”
”They can take any mate as long as it’s not the son of a certain lunatic.”
The omega snorted. ”I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I think there might already be some infatuation there”, he teased, pressing a chaste kiss on Wenlang’s mouth. ”Thank you.”
”For what?”
”For being mine.”
The alpha smiled softly, kissing him slowly and lovingly.
”I’ll never stop.”