Rin presents during the fall of his second year in Australia.
He's running long distance with the swim team. Rin is on his third mile, keeping pace with the upperclassman he usually stretches with, when he gets the sudden urge to run faster.
Rin passes him.
The dry dirt trail under his sneakers puff small clouds as he begins to accelerate.
Screw pacing.
He well understands that this week's regiment was designed for endurance. He understands he should be focusing on building stamina, on controlling his breathing, on the overall health of his cardiovascular system.
Instead he focuses on the backs of the teammates in front of him and how unsettling it is to be behind them—to be behind anybody.
He passes them. One by one, he sprints pass them—earning several concerned and pointed glances. He doesn't mind; he's too overwhelmed by the need to run faster than the others, be better than the others, to beat them, to leave them all behind, to…
Oh shit.
Realizations dawns on Rin.
This is what they were talking about in all those health classes.
Phrases like 'Unnecessarily competitive behavior' and 'overly aggressive thoughts' run through the fifteen year old's head.
Do I need to see the nurse? Don't I need to take heat control now? No, that's for omegas! Fuck, don't I need to take birth control? Shit, no. That's only for female alphas, right? I can't believe I didn't pay attention to that one goddamned lecture.
It's when he spots the back of his upperclassman friend that he realized how fast he must have been going to have lapped him on this particular trail. He knew his prior physical limitations well enough as any athlete should, and he knew he sure as hell couldn't have run all this way and all that fast, on his own terms.
'Boost in physical aptitude' he recalls reading, Awesome.
Rin slows down to a trot as he approaches his coach's quad bike. As Rin straightens up to speak, he gets a faint feeling of being taller; as if he grew a couple new vertebrae during that final lap.
In his best English, he asks politely to be excused for the day.
His coach opens his mouth to accost the exchange student then suddenly recoils. His face softens a bit as he sniffs the air around Rin.
"Mahtoo-sookah!" he booms as his flat hand smacks Rin's shoulder, "I'm sure your mom's going to be proud as hell!"
"It's Matsuoka, sir. But, yeah, thanks."
He normally wouldn't have corrected his coach's poor pronunciation, but for some reason his newly presented standings makes him feel a tad bit entitled.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, kid." The coach takes his clipboard out and scribbles a few lines before handing the paper to Rin.
"Take this to the nurse, she'll give you a physical exam and probably excuse you from tomorrow's classes due to the chance of testosterone surges. I still expect you at practice, Mat-sow-kah. Just because you're an alpha now—doesn't mean you get to slack off."
Rin nods, takes the note, and turns to run towards the direction of school.
Nothing really changed. He runs a little faster, jumps a little higher, and gets a little bit more pissed off every now and then. He eats a bit more and gets hungrier quicker. He punched a hole into his wardrobe one year. Shredded holes into his pillows during a nightmare a few times.
The usual pubescent alpha stuff…
What Rin is spared from, however, are the forewarned urges to sniff omegas.
There were a few of them in school and they were occasionally harassed by other alphas—pressing them into lockers by alphas who shoved their noses into the lesser's hair and neck crooks. Most of the time, the animalistic hierarchy was reduced to lighthearted teasing and immature name calling.
This didn't happen too often, though. Only the older boys would play around like this, and only those who were wolf. Rin was actually one of the younger students to have phased in his Australian grammar school, which had a substantial population of non-wolves, and betas.
He assumed there would be a lot more friction when he returned to Japan for the last two years of high school. Samezuka was an elite, all-male high school with a competitive focus on athletics. The academy was also known for having the largest student-wolf population in the country.
Rin was ready to come home. He has learned all he could in Australia—despite phasing mid-semester and undergoing a mild state of depression. His instincts have been driving him to move closer to home. Gou had recently phased as an omega and it did not sit well with Rin to leave the responsibility of supervising Gou's inevitable courtships to their busy single mother.
By supervising, Rin really mean intimidating any suitors—alpha or otherwise—that thought themselves worthy to date his little sister.
To be honest, Rin was glad she fell into Haru's pack. All male, yes, but they were still a good pack.
'A good pack' mused Rin. A gay pack is more like it.
Haruka presented as an alpha soon after Rin left.
All that tension makes sense, huh. Rin thought. I was gonna be an alpha, Haru was gonna be an alpha. Haru wanted Makoto way before he ever knew the kid would end up an omega. Maybe he thought I was a threat? Maybe he thought I wanted Makoto? As if. My omega will sure as hell not be able to bench more than me... Damn shame Mako had to be an omega.
His personality be damned. By high school, he had the height and fill of a fully matured pack leader. Yet the poor kid was cursed with a weak stomach, gentility, and a stupid kind of compassion that practically screamed, 'take advantage of my kindness'.
Thank god for Haru. Rin thought. An emotional weakling like Mako would be the easiest rape victim during heat without an alpha's protection.
According to Gou's letters Nagisa presented, too: a beta. Just like the track-star basket-case boyfriend he heard so much about.
Things were so much easier for betas. Betas didn't have to plan around heats or testosterone surges. Beta males didn't have to deal with the pain of a whole new orifice ripping through their pelvises during puberty like omega males. Betas didn't turned into horny ass-hats at the smell of an omega like their alphas counterparts did. They got all the perks of wolf-culture without the stress of it all...
Rin had enough time to think about his sister and old friends' pack over the plane ride to Japan. His mother and sister drove him from the airport to the Samezuka orientation. They had both wanted to help Rin move in, but he forced them off campus as soon as he found some redheaded alpha flirting with Gou by the information's desk.
The dormitories were divided by athletic departments. To Rin's displeasure, the over-ambitious alpha he found sniffing around Gou turned out to be both his Resident Assistant and the swim team captain.
His roommate situation was a little less displeasing. The first-year was one of the youngest on the swim team. He could run for hours and swim for days with all the endurance in the world but he was a lot slower than Rin. He made up for it with iron-clad dedication. The kid had a pretty face and a nice body.
Legs like a chick, cute ass too. Rin would find himself thinking, I'll find an omega that looks like that. She'll be cleaner, too. If only submissions worked on Ai, I'd make him clean that fucking desk every fucking day...and I'd make him do it in shorts.
Yes, for some reason submissions and general alpha intimidations didn't work on Nitori. The kid claimed to be a Beta, but Rin suspected he was non-wolf. He didn't smell like a beta nor did he behave like a wolf whenever Rin or any other alphas tried to pull verbal submissions. Rin had a presence that would make any beta or omega stand down and back away when angered. Yet, whenever he'd yell at Aiichirou—the poor kid would just come closer and cling tighter.
Rin missed those days, before he phased. The days where the commands of other alphas were easily brushed off—instead of eliciting in him a primal urge to challenge their authority. He remembers being able to joke around with Makoto, throw an arm around his shoulder and laugh with him. Now a days, Haru bears teeth at any alpha that get too within ten feet of the poor guy.
Extra Scene:
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: haru-chan got suspended today! щ(llﾟдﾟllщ)
SENTCOPY: MatsuokaRin22
TEXT: Indecent exposure; saw it coming.
Stop texting me, I'm getting up in 4 hours.
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: wrong rinrin（へ＿へ）
he threw a table at a poor girl! ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡
SENTCOPY: MatsuokaRin22
TEXT: Wtf? Why? Did he finally succumb to the voices in his head?
I told you all that time living alone made him batshit. Nvm, more likely his diet.
Makoto really needs to take his nutrition more seriously, spoiling Haru with all that stupid fish.
Tbh, I don't give a shit. Stop texting me. Gn.
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: omgnoteven! (-__-|||)
ur so rude, rinrin!
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: so, sumika-chan cornered mako-chan and kissed him!
she's an alpha now [talk about a late bloomer, ne]
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: sumika-chan thought mako-chan would be the perfect boyfriend
but then haru-chan threw a table at her and told her to stay away from mako-chan!
( σ )
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: so dramatic!
u should of seen everyone! two alphas yelling at each other like that
rei-chan and i had our heads so low that i couldn't even se the teachers separate them!
`(๑ △ ๑)`*
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: i cant even imagine how mako-chan felt, being an omega
i really hate submissions (＞△＜Uu
promise me when you find an omega, u treat her really nice and never yell around her!
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: or him! no judgement!
i kno u go to a unisex school so theres probably more boycandy available for uthan girlcandy!
( ó㉨ò)ﾉ
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT: come home this weekend! carpool with ur swim captain! (/∇＼*)｡o○
he's driving to iwatobi b/c he's taking Gou-chan on a secret date on Saturday!
SENDER: RockhopperHazuki
TEXT:u haven't responded!i guess ur asleep. work hard tomorrow!
regards to ai-chan! goodnight!
ily! imy!ヾ(´ε `;