Chapter Text
This felt like a defining moment for little Shouyo as he sat uncomfortably in seiza next to his little sister. He was only six, his sister barely four, but to Hinata Shouyo, this moment felt important.
Three pairs of stern eyes looked on the small Hinata family; father, mother, brother and sister. The eldest Hinata sat with his back straight, proud to be here. Shouyo barely understood what was going on, but he knew his parents were excited.
“Is this her?” asked the tall man from across the room, eyes scanning over Shouyo’s sister, Natsu. She shrank back against Shouyo, and he wrapped an arm around her, eyes watching the man across from them. They had only one child, and he sat staring straight ahead, uninterested as far as Shouyo could see. He was handsome for eight, already shooting up like a weed, probably going to be tall like his father. Shouyo stretched out his back and sat as tall as he could.
“Yes,” murmured Shouyo’s father proudly, smiling at the other man. “She’ll make a fine omega bride one day, Ushijima-san.”
The man named Ushijima-san nodded, eyes glittering a little. “This would be an advantageous marriage, both for our family and for yours, don’t you agree, Hinata-san?”
What Shouyo didn’t understand at the young age of six, was that this was a meeting of two very powerful, important families: Ushijima-san, whose family had run the Ushijima Corporation for generations, a well-established business, and Hinata-san, the owner of a highly successful, multi-million dollar start up. Though the Hinatas were new to wealth, no one in the business world looked down on them, for the eldest Hinata was brilliant, and his company benefited all the other multi-billion dollar corporations. Ushijima-san had been the first to seize the opportunity that had been presented to him, as the father of a young boy, from a strong line of alphas, and he had been the one to approach Hinata, with a young daughter who would surely be a beauty, and an omega when she bloomed.
Shouyo blinked as a contract was pulled from Ushijima-san’s kimono.
What Shouyo did understand was that he didn’t like the way the two fathers looked at each other, plotting the future for two young children who didn’t know each other at all. Shouyo stared wide as sake cups were exchanged and signature stamps pulled out. What he did understand was that this was somehow very, very important, to Natsu’s future and his own.
“When your daughter blooms and the time is right, we will come together again and plan their wedding,” nodded Ushijima-san with a decisive nod as Hinata pressed his own stamp down, signing away his daughter’s future for his company’s financial security.
“We will look forward to the day that our children will be wed,” chimed the Hinatas as they bowed their heads, Shouyo staring wide-eyed at the passive, uninterested youngest Ushijima, as his parents bowed to the Hinatas as well.
The children were all too young to truly understand that their lives had been set in stone from this moment.
x
Shouyo calmly combed his sister’s hair as they sat in their shared bedroom. Today was the day that he would go to find out his second gender. In their world, there were male and female, of course, but every person held within them a second gender, one of three. While Shouyo had already begun to show specific characteristics, nothing was set in stone until the doctor tested the child and determined their second gender, whether alpha, beta, or omega. His parents were hopeful for an alpha son, or at the very least a beta, but Shouyo just stared blankly at the top of his sister’s head; as long as he could protect her, his second gender didn’t matter to him at all.
“Nii-chan, are your nervous?” Wide brown eyes looked back and up at her older brother. She was now just 8, and Hinata was nearly 11, but they both understood very well what today meant. The eldest Hinatas had sat their children down just a few days ago to explain the dynamics of second genders, to explain about the arranged marriage between the Ushijima boy and Natsu when she came of age. For two such small children, their minds still reeled from the information even now, but everything so far seemed to be falling into place, and what could two small kids really do? Two years ago, the Ushijima boy had become the talk of the town as, just as his parents had predicted, he was determined to be an alpha at his second gender examination. In school, he had become revered as some kind of god, the children parting ways when he walked down the hall. While the Hinata children both attended the same school, and despite the contract their parents had with each other, the kids had no contact with each other. Ushijima Wakatoshi had never spoken a word to Shouyo or Natsu, let alone looked in their direction. To him, it did not matter that his parents had accepted the Hinatas. In their school, the prejudice was much stronger than amongst the adults: old rich wanted nothing to do with nouveau rich. And so the Hinata children, unbeknownst to their parents, were cast aside and seen as lesser by the children around them.
“It will be okay,” declared Shouyo with a big smile. He’d already cried out all of his frustrations and nerves last night, so that he could face his sister today, to not make her anxious. “Whatever happens, I will always protect you, Na-chan.”
Natsu’s long hair swished as she turned towards her brother, arms hugging him tightly. She was scared, but in the face of her brother’s optimism, she could not let it be known. Her brother, who was her world, had always been her strength, her rock from the time she could remember. Nothing mattered as long as they were together. She gripped him tightly and nodded her head, setting her face to a comedically stern expression, and Shouyo laughed when they pulled apart. His sister was beautiful already, long silky hair the shade of the setting sun, and pale brown freckles to dot her ivory skin. Next to her, Shouyo looked like a wild child, messy curls and darker, scattered freckles over his nose and cheeks. On his chest and even on his back, his freckles had spread everywhere, and when he blushed, they stuck out like stars in the night sky. He abhorred them, but Natsu liked to calmly trace them in the bath, humming a song she’d made up about her brother’s “dots”.
“Are you both ready?” Their mother knocked on their bedroom door, her face betraying her own nervousness. This was an important time to adults, more-so than for the children who it was happening to. She was a beautiful omega from a middle-class family, and when she had met her husband, it had been a bit of a scandal, for he was from a lower-class family. But he was an alpha, and there was no denying their chemistry. Five years later, he had made something of himself with his wife by his side, and now no one complained about their union at all. It was funny how those things went...
“Yes!” chirped Natsu in nervous excitement, Shouyo nodding quietly. The two children ran up to their mother and took each a hand of hers, and she proudly marched them out to the living room where their father sat. Shouyo felt uncomfortable in the stiff suit he wore, a little too big for him, but Natsu looked like a little doll in her pink dress.
“Look at you two,” beamed Shouyo’s father proudly as he stood, looking dapper in his own suit. The two children ran to him and hugged his legs as he patted their backs and laughed heartily.
“Are you nervous?” he asked Shouyo, but Shouyo raised his big eyes and shook his head of orange curls.
“No, Papa!”
“Good!” boomed the father’s voice, and he smiled at his beloved wife. “Let’s go.”
The hospital had built a separate wing specifically for things to do with the second gender. Doctors who had trained their whole lives in the subject had offices here, and there were special treatment rooms and a small operation room for anything to do with issues regarding a person’s second gender. Shouyo and Natsu clung to each other as they looked around the vast waiting area, ignoring the stares of the other children in their kimonos, the old rich judging the nouveau rich, but the two were used to it by now. When a nurse came out and called their family name, the four shuffled to their feet and made their way into a small exam room, a row of Hinatas sitting with Shouyo in the middle.
“Hello,” greeted an older man as he walked in, wearing a white coat over his button up shirt and slacks. He appeared pleasant, and business cards were exchanged between the two men. A rolling chair squeaked as the doctor sat, and he looked at Shouyo with a big smile. “Are you ready, young man?” he asked, looking around at all the faces watching him, before his eyes drifted back to Shouyo.
“Yes!” he squeaked, and the man laughed, patting his head of orange fluff.
“Good answer! Let’s begin!”
x
“Hey, did you hear...?”
“Shh! He can hear you!”
Giggles resounded around the hallway, but Shouyo held fast to his sister’s hand, head raised if only for her. Inside, he was trembling like a leaf. His parents had been shocked, but they weren’t disappointed in him, and Natsu hadn’t seen him any other way than before, but Shouyo felt different. Their schoolmates felt it, too, and word had spread even more quickly about Shouyo than about Wakatoshi.
He was an omega. It was rare, but not unheard of, but in this prestigious environment, it was only natural that he’d be looked down upon. Still, it wasn’t like it was anything he could have helped, but the other children didn’t see it that way. The two siblings just tried to keep their heads down as they walked around school.
Suddenly someone blocked Shouyo’s path, and a booming voice barked, “Hey, Omega!”
“Shh!” yelped other voices even as they giggled. With big, brown eyes, Shouyo looked up, his blood running cold. The biggest alpha in school stood before them, and Shouyo pushed Natsu behind him.
“Aww, is the little omega gonna protect his baby sis? How precious~” the bully teased. Shouyo had to bite his cheek to keep his eyes from wavering. His heart stopped when the big boy sang, “Isn’t this adorable, Wakatoshi?”
Ushijima Wakatoshi stepped out from behind the other boy, his eyes far away as he didn’t even look at the two Hinatas, his future family. In fact, he didn’t say a word to them, or in defense of them. “Let’s go,” he murmured, bored. He walked away, expecting the other boy to follow. With a laugh, the bully did, and Shouyo’s heart was allowed to sink to the ground.
“Shouyo,” whispered Natsu as she stepped around her frozen brother. “Let’s go...”
Shouyo nodded stiffly. To him, his second gender meant barely a thing, because he was still himself. But at 11 years old, Shouyo realized with a start that to the rest of the world, it mattered an awful lot.
x
“What’s this?” hummed Shouyo’s mother in confusion as she picked through the boy’s hamper, separating clothes to wash. She held up carefully a blue shirt, his gym shirt, the front stained with a bit of blood. Shouyo stared at it with wide eyes. Natsu was the one to speak.
“Shouyo fell at school, Mama. His nose bled a little and he had to stop it with his shirt.”
“Oh,” nodded their mother. “You have to be more careful, Shouyo, darling,” she said with a smile as she gathered an armful of clothes. Shouyo watched her walk out of their bedroom, and slowly his eyes shifted to his sister.
Silently, they regarded each other, until Shouyo bowed his head and gave a meek, “Thank you.” With his head full of curls lowered, his sister sank her hand into his hair with a laugh.
“You have to think of these things beforehand, Shouyo. What if I hadn’t been here?” Natsu grinned wide, rubbing her brother’s bed head. He nodded quietly, turning to smile at his little sister.
“You’re right,” he murmured with a proud smile, and Natsu nodded decisively.
“Good boy,” she teased.
x
Nothing got any better. Months passed and still certain people seemed fixated on Shouyo’s second gender. The bully, in particular, seemed entrenched in it.
“Hey, hey, Omega~,” he sang as he slipped down the hall to where Shouyo stood waiting for the bathroom, his hand pressed between his thighs, knees crossed in an effort to hold his bladder in. He winced when he heard the voice, fear curling tight in his stomach. Not now, not now, he begged, but the universe was a cruel mistress. A hand descended hard against Shouyo’s back and he yelped aloud. “Gotta pee, Omega? Shouldn’t you be waiting in line for the little girls’ room?”
Hands pulled at Shouyo’s arms, roughly, and it took everything in him just to keep his grip on his pants, scared he’d spill everywhere if he let go.
“Hey, is it the same down there for little omega boys like you? Huh? Show me, show me!”
The other children in the hall looked back at the two, but no one said a word in Hinata’s defense, and tears began to burn in his eyes. When Natsu wasn’t there, Shouyo found it nearly impossible to be strong. He clung to his pants.
Big hands grabbed under his arm pits and suddenly Shouyo was high in the air, the fear almost making him leak everywhere. He yelped and gripped himself tighter, begging anyone out there who would listen to please not let him pee his pants. “Why do you look so scared, little Omega, or is it just your nature?” the big boy taunted as he waved Shouyo’s small body about in the air.
“Please don’t-!” squeaked Shouyo in a whimper, tears threatening to spill now.
“Aww, is the little Omega gonna cry~? Go ahead, cry, little Omega!” Booming laughter shook through the hallway, and Shouyo glanced down desperately at the line of boys waiting for the bathroom, but no one was looking at him now as they shuffled forward, only two boys ahead of him now.
“Let me see what’s in your underwear!” Hands scrambled at Hinata’s own, and he felt dread wash over him like a wave, drowning him. Tears fell as his hands sank away, no stopping it now.
Wide eyes stared at Shouyo, snot and tears running down his face, and in between his legs, pee dripped over his slippers and down to the floor. The bully couldn’t even react in time as a little dropped on his own slipper.
“Ew!” He yelled as he violently tossed Shouyo to the ground, face shifting from teasing to anger. “What a disgusting Omega! Go grovel in dirt and die-!”
“Stop!”
Sitting in a puddle of his shame, bladder now empty, Shouyo’s bleary eyes looked up as a familiar voice rang through the hallway, shrill with anger.
“Don’t touch my nii-chan!” screamed Natsu as she slid between the two boys, arms raised wide. Shouyo saw too late that the bully’s hand had been raised, that he’d been about to strike Shouyo, but now he froze in the face of the sister’s righteous anger. Something that Shouyo couldn’t describe leaked off his sister, a chill to the air that made him shiver violently, his shame forgotten in the face of his sister’s overwhelming presence.
“What the...” murmured the bully as he slowly lowered his hand, but Natsu wasn’t done.
“Your sister told me you’re a beta!”
Big eyes went wide, and anger flared in the bully’s face. He raised his hand again and Shouyo yelled, but with his eyes shut tight, he never heard the slap. When he looked up again, dark olive eyes regarded him quietly, and Shouyo remembered with mortification that he was still sitting in a puddle of his own pee.
“Stop this now,” murmured Wakatoshi’s low voice, eyes shifting away from Shouyo out to the hallway, and Shouyo realized with pure dread that this was the first time the other boy had ever looked at him. His face was unreadable, but as he walked away and called for the bully to follow, Shouyo washed over with embarrassment and something else, something much more important. Natsu sank to his side and his eyes shifted slowly to her, wide. In the corner of his eye, he watched Wakatoshi walk away. His savior, whether he’d meant to be or not. Shouyo shivered as he looked up at Natsu’s eyes, burning with a ferocity that scared even Shouyo.
“Natsu-“ he whispered, eyes wide and ears ringing. Natsu just laughed, but Shouyo could see that she understood as well as him what had just happened. “Natsu, you-“
“Hush,” she whispered. “That doesn’t matter right now.”
She took his hand and held him up, marching him with head held high into the boys’ room like she belonged, there among the other alphas. Like her, like his little sister.
“Now I can be the one to protect you, nii-chan,” she murmured proudly to his red ear, and Shouyo wondered what the future would look like now.
x
“We can’t tell,” hushed Shouyo as he and Natsu huddled together in her bed, hands clutched. The rumors would spread soon if they didn’t put a stop to it. If it was revealed that Natsu was an alpha, what would their parents do? How would their school life change? Soon enough, they would find out; now that Natsu was presenting, she’d be taken to the doctor’s soon for an examination.
Natsu was quiet as she combed her brother’s hair, thinking. They bid each other good night as they always did, small bodies carrying massive burdens slipping under warm sheets. She thought all night and into the early morning. Quietly, at the break of dawn, she slipped out of bed and made her way to their bathroom, Shouyo stirring at the loss of his sister’s heat. Blearily, he rubbed at his eyes, looking for her until he noticed the light under the bathroom door. He slipped out of bed and towards the door, a soft sound growing louder as he approached. Confused, he pushed the door open, blanket in one hand and fist rubbing at his sleepy eyes. Everything fell away when he saw his sister standing on the little stool in front of their sink and mirror, scissors and a chunk of her gorgeous red hair in her two hands.
“Good morning, nii-chan,” she greeted like she wasn’t cutting off her beautiful hair, the hair he’d combed and cared for and helped her grow until now.
“Your hair-!” he choked out with tears already in his eyes, streaming down fat and hot.
“I’ll look like you,” she said proudly as she let a chunk of hair fall, moving to cut another.
Their mother found them like that, Shouyo wailing to the ceiling as his sister cut off the hair she loved, for what? For him? To prove a point? To make him feel not so alone?
“Natsu!” cried their mother. “Your hair!” She stared in horror at the mess of locks on the floor and then up at her little girl. Natsu turned with fierce eyes and smiled as she set her scissors down.
“Mama, it’s okay. I’ve to protect Shouyo now, so it’s okay.”
Their poor mother stared in shock as she slowly figured out what was going on. Quietly, she stepped into their small bathroom, picking up the scissors Natsu had discarded as she combed her daughter’s choppy new hair. Calmly, she began to cut and style her daughter’s hair, the way she always did Shouyo’s. He watched it all with wet eyes and a leaky nose, quiet now though, understanding the weight of this moment.
Quietly, their mother murmured to them, speaking of things neither of them knew she’d known about. “Natsu, darling, it’s up to you now to protect Shouyo. You have to be a good sister and keep him safe. Don’t let anyone else hurt your precious brother, okay?”
“Yes, Mama.”
“You have to be a good girl now. Keep him safe.”
The two children were quiet as their mother cried, as she cut her Alpha daughter’s hair, her Omega son standing just behind. When she was done, she set the scissors down and cleaned the bathroom, telling the two to dress as she went to wake the patriarch of the family. Around the dining room they sat a few minutes later, everyone quiet.
“No one can find out,” their father said stiffly, hands spread wide on the table as he looked over his family. “This is not just about the marriage with the Ushijima family. This is about our pride as Hinatas.”
Brown eyes shifted to Natsu. “Natsu, do as your mother says and keep your brother safe, but you can’t let anyone know. This has to be our biggest secret.”
He reached forward and took his children’s hands, rubbing at them gently. Quietly, the family made a pact. Natsu took Shouyo’s hand and walked him back to their room.
“What about the marriage?” their mother whispered quietly to her husband, two pairs of eyes meeting each other as panic set in for the elder Hinatas.
“I don’t know... Not yet. We have to wait it out and make sure-“
“Darling-“ she whispered fiercely. “Our daughter is obviously an Alpha. There’s no denying it.”
The patriarch clenched his fists and nodded. “I know, but we need this marriage.”
“I know,” mourned the matriarch quietly.
x
“Shouyo, who did this?” Natsu whispered fiercely as she wiped at her brother’s bloody nose, but Shouyo was deathly quiet. He’d watched quietly as his sister grew before his eyes, her features changing to something sharper, while his own face grew soft, round. Natsu was quickly growing taller than him, even as she desperately clung to her femininity. Shouyo could no longer protect her, and so he’d grown quiet, bearing everything silently upon himself. He’d told no one of the daily scuffles, the feet tripping him in the hallway or the judgmental eyes. It wasn’t even just one person anymore.
Natsu bristled at his silence, teeth gritting together. “Take your clothes off, Shouyo!” she demanded when she knew there was nothing else she could do but this. She began to undress herself as well, the two hidden away in a back corner of the school, their schoolmates in the courtyard for recess. Shouyo stared at her with wide eyes as she stripped down, her body lean and flat, strong. Shouyo curled up, arms hugging himself, ashamed, but Natsu quietly undressed him. With wide eyes, Shouyo watched as she pulled on his clothes, handing her own over to him. She combed out her pigtails and pink clips, fixing her brother’s hair as he quietly slipped into her blouse, skirt, and pantyhose. When he looked up, it was a hit to his delicate ego. Like he should have looked all along as he grew, Natsu looked perfect in his clothes, a good Hinata alpha male.
“Oh,” she whispered as she looked her brother over. She didn’t say it, but he could see in her eyes that the same was probably true for him. He looked better in her clothes than his own. He clenched his fists into her skirt and looked down at the ground.
“Shouyo, give me your slippers too,” she murmured as she rubbed at his arms. This time, he obediently stepped out of them, and they traded their school slippers, their names written in black marker on the sides, switched identities.
“From now on, Shouyo, I’ll protect you like this. You just have to be strong, be me, okay?”
“Natsu,” he begged in a shaky voice, wet eyes looking up.
“Everything will be okay, Shouyo,” she whispered as she kissed his temple. She, who was beautiful and strong, despite being younger, was now the one who would take care of her brother and keep him safe. “You did well until now, nii-chan,” she murmured to him proudly.
Hand in hand, they stepped out together, sister and brother, the two pretending to be the other. Shouyo walked to his sister’s class quietly, head down. No one said a word to him. No one asked a thing.
With his heart on the floor and his pride in shambles, Shouyo relinquished his role as protector to his Alpha sister.