Chapter 9: Lights by the dining table
There's a heavy weight on Aki's chest when he comes to his senses. The sound of birds tweeting is clearer than it normally is at Aki's house and there's a light chatter in the background. A few people are walking past the door when Aki finally decides to open his eyes. He looks up at the ceiling before turning his head to face Hiroto.
Hiroto's arm is tightly wrapped around Aki's waist and his mouth is partially open, causing Aki to giggle and pinch Hiroto's nose. The alpha whines and tilts his head away before returning to sleep. Clearly, he wasn't a morning person. Aki peels Hiroto's arm off of himself and sits up, groaning as he feels a stinging pain in his lower back from the angle he had been in when Hiroto sucked him off. He massages it with a hand and turns to Hiroto, pulling the blanket off as revenge for last night. But as he did, Aki realises that Hiroto had dressed them up again and cleaned their mess.
"You're annoying but did a good job today," Aki mumbles, pulling the blanket back over Hiroto and pushing himself up by his hands, slowly stumbling over to the door.
He slides it open and sees a couple of maids rush down the corridor. Aki looks around and starts following them, figuring that he could probably ask them where the toilet was. They all turn corners so quickly and are walking too fast for Aki, so he slows down before realising that he had no idea where he was. He turns around to head back to the room, but then every turn looks exactly the same and there's no decorations on the walls to help him know if he had seen a certain place before.
"What are you doing here?" Aki hears a familiar voice and turns out with a scowl on his face. "No need to look so angry, I'm just asking a question."
Aki glares at Kiyoshi and folds his arms. He looks childish, getting angry over a question, but he doesn't know what Kiyoshi's intentions are. "I was just following some people but got lost along the way."
"That can happen," Kiyoshi sighs, walking over to Aki. He looks a lot calmer than he was yesterday. Compared to how he was so quick to start an argument with Aki, it was as if he was talking to someone different. "If you just go straight down this corridor and take your first left, then a right and the fifth door should be Hiroto's room."
Aki stares at Kiyoshi with narrow eyes, doubting his words. Kiyoshi catches on to how he was looking at him and rolls his eyes.
"Calm down," he says, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I'm not going to eat you, I'll lead the way, come on, follow me."
Kiyoshi begins to walk down the route he had explained as Aki slowly traces his footsteps. What was with the sudden change in behaviour? Was the person Aki met yesterday someone else, or was he drunk last night? Kiyoshi doesn't say anything as they walk, probably not looking forward to any small talk. They make it to Hiroto's room in no time and Kiyoshi reaches the handle to slide it open when suddenly Hiroto's face appears in front of him.
"Kiyoshi!" He exclaims, surprised to see his face first thing in the morning, his lips tugging up into a small smile. Then his eyes darted to Aki, who was standing behind him with a limp. "Aki, where did you go?"
"I saw a bunch of people running across the hallways so I ended up following them," Aki confesses shyly.
Hiroto shakes his head and grabs his hand, pulling him back into the room. "What are you, a little kid who got distracted by sweets?" He turns to Kiyoshi and smiles softly. "Did you help him back here?"
"Why do you sound so proud?" Kiyoshi asks, looking away as his cheeks warm up. "You know what, nevermind. Just make sure to come to breakfast on time. You know how your dad gets when no one's on the table by eight."
Kiyoshi spins around and practically stomps down the corner. Aki glances over at Hiroto before turning back to see Kiyoshi one last time as he disappears. "I had to ask," Aki says, his fingers gripping onto Hiroto's sleeve. "What's your relationship with Kiyoshi?"
Hiroto turns to him surprised. "Didn't he say he introduced himself to you, I had assumed he had already told you." Hiroto scratches his head awkwardly before smiling. "Remember I told you about my older brother who was an omega, that's him. Kiyoshi's my older brother."
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Breakfast has never felt this depressing as it did when Aki sat on the dining table in Hiroto's house, scraping his chopsticks against the plate as he gathered up the rice. No one was talking, no one was telling each other what their plans for the day were, and no one had even looked up from their food. Not even Hiroto.
"So, Aki, was it?" Hiroto's mum says, waiting for Aki to nod at her. "How did you meet Hiroto? He's always been such a quiet kid, barely ever spoke to anyone and made any friends."
Aki glances at Hiroto, who was clenching his hands into fists before turning back to his mum, figuring he should add a filter here. "We met at university through a friend, although we're in different departments."
"Ohh!" She exclaims, clapping her hands together. "What course do you do then?"
"I'm a writing major," Aki tells her proudly. It had taken him ages to decide what to do in life. Haruki had suggested that he didn't need to work when he was ready to take care of Aki, but being dependent on his older brother wasn't what he wanted in life. Hiroto shoots him a smile when he glances over at him, but then his mum snickers.
"A writing major?" She asks, already giggling to herself. "What are you, an omega?"
Aki blinks slowly in confusion, wondering how the conversation had suddenly gone in that direction. He feels Hiroto's hand slide into the hand he was resting on his thigh.
"Excuse me?" Aki tilts his head and raises his eyebrows. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, you know," she flicks her hand to the side and makes a small gesture to Kiyoshi. "Omegas are the ones who always go for the easy jobs because their bodies and brains aren't as well developed as alphas."
Aki coughs in surprise, shocked to have heard such a narrow-minded idea in this day and age. He looks at Hiroto, who only keeps his eyes down to his plate in shame. Why wasn't he saying anything? His own brother was an omega and he was staying silent. Aki turns to Kiyoshi to see the older boy casually collecting rice on his plate, paying no attention to his mum badmouthing him.
"Omegas aren't less developed than alphas," Aki starts, feeling heat rush to his cheeks as the anger catches up with his thoughts. "Sure, there are biological differences that make them stronger and more fit. But that doesn't mean omegas are any less than them."
"Why are you defending omegas so passionately?" Hiroto's dad cuts in, placing his chopsticks to the side. The moment he places them by his plate, everyone else on the table let's go of their own as well. Aki looks around the table and feels irritation build up in him. "Are you an omega?"
"I am," Aki admits proudly, feeling no shame in telling others about his second gender. "And I don't see why you're harbouring such ill intentions towards omegas when they haven't done anything to you."
"And who are you to say that?" Hiroto's dad grunts, slamming his hand on the table. The plates shake and a glass almost tips over, but Kiyoshi was fast to catch it. He places it on the side and stands up, causing everyone's eyes to follow him. "Where are you going?"
"Come on," Kiyoshi says, grabbing Aki's hand.
Hiroto's dad shouts Kiyoshi's name and tells him to stop and take a seat but the omega pays no mind, simply leading Aki out of the room. They pass by a few servants who seem surprised to have seen Kiyoshi react to his dad like that.
"Is he always like this?" Aki asks once they've made it to the garden. It's a lot quieter here and the warm air is refreshing. The sun's already high up in the sky and Aki suddenly remembers that he hadn't called Haruki up since last night.
"Kind of," Kiyoshi replies, taking a seat on one of the benches. He saves a spot for Aki, who cautiously sits beside him. "As you can see, this household doesn't like omegas," Kiyoshi chuckles and averts his eyes to the ground. "They've been clear about their hatred towards omegas since before I was born. They had asked the doctors if there was any way to check I was going to be an alpha or beta, but obviously there wasn't.
"Once they had found out that I was an omega, it wasn't long before they began to plan for another child. They barely even looked at me," Kiyoshi's voice cracks so he clears his throat and smiles. "But I've gotten used to it. See if you live in a place where everyone hates you, it doesn't take long before you get immune to it all."
"Even then," Aki shakes his head and reaches for Kiyoshi's shoulder. "You shouldn't take their hate just because you've gotten used to it. Why don't you ever fight back?"
"What will I do by fighting back?" Kiyoshi laughs bitterly. "They forced me to drop out of school when I was younger and didn't allow me to get a job. They're literally just feeding me so they can send me off to someone else's house to sit there and look pretty."
"That's so," Aki shuts his eyes out of frustration and clenches his fists. "You need to get out of here."
"How exactly could I do that?" Kiyoshi laughs heartily before standing up. "Hiroto tries his best to be a younger brother. It's because of him that I'm even still in this house, otherwise I probably would've been sent off to someone's place to warm a stranger's bed." Kiyoshi looks like he's about to say something else when his eyes dart past Aki. "Well, it was nice having a talk with you, though you're quite an eyesore."
Aki glares at him and stands up to follow when he feels a hand clasp his and pull him back. He stumbles into Hiroto's arms and looks up to him in surprise. "When did you get here?"
"Just now," Hiroto stuffs his head into the crook of Aki's neck. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Aki brings his hand up to Hiroto's head to pat it gently, running his fingers through his hair. Kiyoshi is almost through the door when he steals one last glance at them before hurrying away. Aki squints at where he left and sighs. Kiyoshi wasn't that much of a bad person, now that Aki had seen what he had to deal with all the time.
"I should've defended you," Hiroto's voice is quiet and soft. He's clearly apologetic, but Aki doesn't understand why he was speaking up now rather than earlier. "But I can't talk back to Dad. I just, I can try to but when he gets angry he's very—"
Aki pulls away from him and turns around so that he is facing Hiroto. He grabs his cheeks and squeezes his face. "It's alright, I understand what you mean. Speaking up against someone who's been such a dominating figure in your life can be difficult. I don't blame you. But you should really try finding your voice from time to time, for Kiyoshi's sake."
"Since when did you two get so close," Hiroto hums, rubbing his cheek against Aki's hand. He smiles at the gesture before pinching Hiroto's nose.
"We're not close but I guess you could say that we relate to each other?"
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