Chapter Text
Prologue
Yugi
Looking outside his window and witnessing the calm sea had Yugi feeling strangely nostalgic. There was something about the moon’s reflection on it, and the glittering stars in the sky that usually eased his mind. This used to be a sight he loved, a scenery he sought out whenever he felt upset. He had always been able to soak in the stillness of the night, the quiet rushing of the waves, the feeling of the breeze, and it had always been exactly what he needed to relax, to let go of his anxieties, to forget the pressure he was under. Most nights when he immersed himself in the scenery outside his window, he even forgot how unhappy he was.
Yugi had hoped that he would get to feel this state of tranquility one last time, but his wish was not granted. He didn’t feel calm and he couldn’t relax. The moon and the stars were beautiful as always, but they couldn’t ease Yugi’s sadness this time. It was as if they were saying goodbye to him as well, telling him in their own way that he couldn’t rely on them for his peace of mind anymore. It was true, of course, but that didn’t make it any less painful.
As difficult as his life was, he didn’t want to leave his home.
It wasn’t like he had a choice of course, he never had a choice in anything, and he certainly wasn’t about to go against his father’s wishes, but for once he had truly hoped that maybe his opinion would be taken into account. Just this once.
It had been a foolish hope, Yugi knew that. His opinion never mattered, but he had still hoped, despite all odds, that he would at least get a say when it came to choosing his future husband.
When he had learned that his father had asked the king of the neighboring country to consider taking Yugi as his wife, Yugi had been livid, and incredibly relieved when, just a month later, the rejection was delivered via letter. His father had been incised, and the whole palace had smelled like angry alpha for almost a month afterwards. It had been distressing, but Yugi had been glad about the rejection. That king had been old; powerful, but still old enough to be his father. Of course Yugi was aware that unions with such a great age gap were very normal among royalty, but just because it was normal didn’t mean he had to personally agree with the custom.
Yugi’s biggest issue was that he was a bit of a dreamer and a romantic.
He had grown up under the stifling rules of royalty, his father was the king of Crete, after all, and he was rather insistent on following the traditions. This was probably the reason why Yugi was his least favourite child. Because of his unique condition, his father had needed to break with several traditions, just to keep Yugi safe. He was grateful for it, of course he was, since his protection was the only way in which he had been shown parental love. He had been kept at a distance from the rest of the family ever since he could remember. He had asked for the reason once. The answer had been that this was also in order to ensure Yugi’s protection. That they couldn’t spend too much time with him. If they did, his scent would linger on them, and then Yugi’s secret would be blown.
It had made sense when Yugi had still been a child, and had still been allowed to dress according to his gender, but he didn’t see the point in hiding the fact that he was an omega after he had been forced to pretend to be a girl. There were plenty of female omegas out there, after all. It was nothing special. Yugi suspected that it had more to do with the fact that him being a male omega was creepy, that they didn’t know what to do with him. That, and the fact that his two older brothers were proper alphas, his two older sisters were omegas and his two younger brothers were betas. Yugi was the only outlier whose dynamic didn’t match his gender. He was convinced that his family was ashamed of him, that the reason why everyone kept their distance from him had less to do with his protection and more with the fact that nobody wanted anything to do with a freak like him.
After all, male omegas weren’t supposed to exist. Sure, there were legends and tales about male omegas, but everyone considered those to be made up stories, nothing more than fantasies, spun by drunk perverts.
In all fairness, it had probably been a shock to Yugi’s parents when he had been born. Now that he was old enough to understand these things better, he couldn’t fault them for what they had done to him. What they had done for him. When Yugi had been only six years old, he had been made to wear ankle-length chitons, as opposed to the knee-length ones that were worn by other boys his age. Yugi had been told he needed to wear girl’s clothes, that he needed to speak softly and lean into the high tone of his voice. He hadn’t been allowed to join his older brothers in sports, he had never been allowed to play-fight. Instead, he had to learn how to weave together with his older sisters. But unlike them, he wasn’t allowed to go into town, he wasn’t allowed in the throne room either. He was the only one in his family who had no duties to speak of. Yugi’s only duty was to be as invisible as possible.
When Yugi had turned ten years old, he had asked for a mentor, like those his older brothers had, but he was denied even that. He had turned to ask for something more specific then. He had begged his father for a teacher in literature, someone who could teach Yugi how to read and write, and maybe even another language.
His father had been unwilling to allow it, he had told Yugi it was too much of a hassle to find someone with those skills, but in the end, he had sighed, and granted his wish with an annoyed scowl on his face. Of course Yugi knew that reading and writing was the most useless skill to have these days; literacy was not needed and the few people that were literate for one reason or another, were hard to find. But Yugi knew that, down in the catacombs, even below the dungeons, were still rows and rows of shelves housing scrolls with the old scripts. If Yugi could learn how to read it, how to understand it, he would at the very least have something to do for a long time to come, and maybe even get distracted from the uselessness that was his existence. It was fitting in a way, he figured. The freak son that couldn’t be used for anything found an equally useless hobby.
It had taken his father many months, but he eventually found someone to teach Yugi. She was a beta, which was a lucky break; betas had no enhanced sense of smell like alphas and omegas did; they were entirely neutral in their dynamic and only focused on their primary gender. Yugi had wondered if his father could have found someone to teach him earlier if he hadn’t specifically looked for a beta to teach him, but he decided not to think about it. It wouldn’t change anything and he couldn’t be ungrateful now that he finally had a teacher.
She was a great teacher, too. Yugi practiced how to write the symbols in the sand of the training grounds of his brothers whenever they weren’t training. He poured his whole being into it and, according to his teacher, he made great progress. For the first time in his life, Yugi had been praised for something he had done, and he hardly knew how to react to it. He had blushed, and stuttered helplessly and had even almost slipped up in his act. Remembering it was a bit mortifying, but it was a pleasant memory nevertheless.
Three years later, Yugi had been all but proficient in the ancient script and he had positively devoured the old scrolls and tablets in the catacombs. Most of them were boring records, but he had found fantastic stories scattered among them as well, and those were a delight to read. However, now that Yugi had learned of the possibilities, he thirsted for more.
He knew that most texts had been destroyed long ago, there was no chance for him to leave the palace and search for any remaining documents anyway, his father would never allow it. So Yugi had taken to writing his own stories. In his stories, Yugi was allowed to be a normal boy, a normal man. He was allowed to leave the palace and to explore the town, to talk to the people instead of having to stand off to the side whenever there was a need for the whole royal family to make an appearance on the balcony for the public. In his stories, he was allowed to make friends and he was allowed to have a mentor. He wrote about what he imagined having a friend was like, a true friend he could trust, someone who would never betray him and accept him for who he was, who would even accept him being a male omega. Who wouldn’t shy away from him and call him a freak of nature. He wrote about how he wanted that friend to trust him in the same capacity, how that friend would confide his own insecurities in him, how dear they would be to each other.
In short, he wrote about everything he knew he could never have.
One day, his teacher told him about the biggest news in the whole kingdom; that a new kingdom had been discovered just a three day journey by boat to the south. She had told him that while communication with the locals had been difficult, they were not hostile but rather welcoming to new trade. Apparently, they were highly cultivated and very advanced in their technology.
Those were the most exciting news Yugi had heard in a while, and while he was grateful for his teacher sharing this knowledge with him, he was sad that he hadn’t learned any of this from his father. Surely it was a great achievement for the kingdom to establish trade with such a thriving country? His father only mentioned the southern country to Yugi when he let him know that he had offered Yugi’s hand in marriage to the king of said country.
Yugi hadn’t taken well to that; in truth he had lashed out, and said some choice words he shouldn’t have. His father had subdued him quickly of course, with a slap to the face and prohibition to see his teacher again indefinitely. But how could Yugi have reacted in a different way? He knew that he would be married off someday in order to secure an alliance, it was unavoidable, really, but he at least wanted to have a say in who he was going to marry if he didn’t have a say in anything else in his life.
One of Yugi’s older brothers had told him later that the proposal had been rejected; his father had refused to see him after that argument. That was, until a few years later, when he had informed Yugi that he had sent another offer to the king of that very same country.
Unfortunately for Yugi, there was no rejection this time. Instead, his father had been invited to present Yugi to the king, the Pharaoh, as he was called in that country, apparently. The decision to accept the offer or not would be made only after the Pharaoh had met Yugi in person.
Truthfully, Yugi couldn’t understand the change of heart. While it had been a few years since the last offer, the age gap hadn’t diminished and Yugi was still incredibly reluctant to accept his new situation. He couldn’t understand what his father hoped to achieve in any case. Yugi was to this day forced to behave like a girl whenever he wasn’t by himself. So how did his father expect him to deceive that Pharaoh? If he was supposed to marry him, it was for one reason only, and that reason was to bear heirs. Yugi could in fact do that, but if he would, the Pharaoh would most certainly find out his true gender. He would find out that Yugi was a freak.
In truth, Yugi was not well educated, at least compared to his siblings. He had never been taught the details of why exactly he was considered a freak of nature. He only knew that men weren’t supposed to be able to give birth, but nobody had bothered to explain to him why it was such a bad thing to be able to do it. In Yugi’s mind, being able to do something shouldn’t be considered a deficit, but his family very obviously disagreed with that assessment.
Other than that, nobody had ever explained anything regarding dynamics to him. Yugi only knew what he had picked up on for himself. He knew that everyone had their own distinct scent, he knew that alphas in particular could be incredibly scary and were easy to anger and he knew that betas were the lucky ones not having to deal with scents. Yugi had heard of heats and ruts but he had no concept of what either of those were. They were only ever given as an excuse as to why one of his siblings couldn’t attend dinner.
In short, Yugi felt incredibly ill prepared for his meeting with that Pharaoh. He knew nothing, and he was sure to make a fool of himself. He couldn’t think of any convincing reason why the Pharaoh should marry him, and while he was rather happy about it personally, he didn’t want to disappoint his father even more than he already was with him. It wasn’t like he could escape his sole duty forever anyway.
In the end, Yugi had quietly accepted his fate. He was set to leave tomorrow morning, together with his father, one of his older sisters and one of his younger sisters. He was pretty sure they came along in case the Pharaoh was unhappy with Yugi, as a means for his father to fall back on to ensure the Pharaoh’s continued good-will.
Yugi sighed heavily. He had been staring out his window for the whole night, reminiscing about his life so far. He wanted to say that he was going to miss Crete, that he was afraid of growing homesick, that he would miss his family. But he would be lying if he did. He had been imprisoned inside the palace for his whole life, he had never once set foot in the town just outside the palace walls, never mind the rest of the kingdom. He couldn’t miss something he didn’t know to begin with. He didn’t think he would miss being ignored by his family, either.
The only thing he knew he was going to miss, was this view of the ocean.