AN: -This is another one-shot that became longer than I expected lol. So just for clarification the story is not nichu, it's rochu ( Ivan x Yao), Kiku is just the narrator, although there are brotherly elements I guess.

-And as for warning: just the usual stuff that comes with ABO, mpreg, and discrimination... There may be suggestive sexual material.

-I hope you will like it!

In the house that I grew up in, there used to stand a stone dragon. I wonder if he still stands there. In the center of the garden surrounded by cherry blossom trees, he viewed the world with sightless eyes. He was doubly blind, not only with stone but unendowed with even a pretense of sight. Whoever carved him had left the eyeballs blank. It seemed strange to me that this magnificent beast of legends should guard the family legacy without knowing who we were at all. But my father told me that he was bought from Italy at a terrible expense and was pure white marble.

My brother always liked the statue. He used to tell me that one day the dragon would come alive and fly away from the small town that we called home. Now many years later, I suppose he was merely trying to scare me. He did try to give him eyes with paint, although that ended with father yelling at him and thirty whips down his back. He didn't cry. He also refused to say he was wrong.

Wang Yao was the eldest child of my parents. My father was a merchant who owned the biggest store in those prairie lands, and he reminded his children constantly about their ancestor being the founding father of the town. Everyone knew my brother, the pretty black-haired omega child of Mr. Wang. My mother died giving birth to me, so father never looked at me the same way he looked at Yao. Perhaps I resembled too much of her and Yao resembled him, even though he was an alpha and Yao was an omega.

Right when he was a child, he had an air of arrogance about him. Maybe father's words about our superiority had gotten into his head that he was indeed better than the other children, but he liked to act as if he was wise beyond his years. And when he did stumble down from the cherry blossom trees with bleeding knees he shrugged it off like it was nothing. I later heard him crying while the nanny stitched up the wound. He told me he never shed a tear, but I knew better.

Always dressed in the finest silk, he hated getting his clothes dirty and any implications of imperfection. Those alpha boys used to tease him when he refused to touch the dead rats in the basement, and he just rolled his eyes. "Al you're so immature, maybe that's why your daddy didn't want you."

And the little alpha's face flamed up. Alfred was one of our playmates when we were children, but nobody truly wanted to play with him because of his family situation. No one knows who his father is, and they called his mother horrible names because of that. Yao called him horrible names. Fatherless Al. That was his nickname for him. But no matter how mean my brother was to him, little Alfred kept his head high.

Yao thought he was the mature one out of all of us, but I believe Alfred grew up the fastest, supporting his sickly omega mother when the whole town laughed behind their backs and pitied his existence.

Now, my brother wasn't a mean spirit. Not really. We were just children. And as much as I can try to defend for him, I know he was prideful like our father. There he was, a pint-sized peacock, strutting around town, resplendent, haughty, hoity-toity, Mr. Wang's prized omega son.

While I knew I could never win over father's approval, Yao despised his expectations of him. Father told him because he was an omega he had to try harder in life, he had to find an alpha who could take care of him. Yao was only eight years old when he told me that he hated alphas and would never marry them if they were all like father.

I laughed back then because I knew he would eventually marry an alpha. He had to. Freedom was not a privilege granted to first-born or omegas.

I was lucky being a beta even though that meant I could never truly understand my father or Yao.

These days I am rampant with memory. My old age is finally taking a toll on me, and despite not often indulging in the past, I can't help but to remember the times when we were children. I seem to recall Yao's life more than my own. How funny.

In the summer of his fourteenth year, father had sent him away to a prestigious academy across the country. Cost him nearly a fortune but he thought it was worth it as long as his son could obtain a rich alpha after his studies. Yao didn't rebel against his wishes. I think he was glad to be away from him.

He wrote letters home consistently detailing ordinary events that were enough to put father at ease. I had my doubts as to whether he was practicing his creative writing ability, but of course I was never one to rat out my brother. There were rumors as to what people did in those boarding schools, young omegas nearing the age of their first heat fooling around with local alphas. Father never believed in those things, I didn't either. Even if they were true, I doubt my brother, a boy who hated touching dirt and dead rats, would be one to lose his virginity that easily.

The large house certainly seemed more somber now with only father and me. I avoided going to the garden since I couldn't stand the piercing yet unfeeling gaze of the stone dragon. He could see nothing; his eyes were too blind to process the changing seasons and the years that passed without the eldest son around.

In some ways I was jealous of him. He got to see the world while I was stuck in this little prairie town. It wasn't fair that he was father's favorite. It wasn't fair that he was going to inherit the store even though he was an omega. When I was younger, I guess I despised my brother for the things he had no control over. In his absence, I was allowed to wallow in unreasonable jealousy and contempt. I imagined the kind of adventures he had in boarding school, all those people he got to meet, all the places he got to see. When he came back, I was going to ask him all about it.

Of course, I never did.

Five years disappeared while the town remained the same. Waiting for him at the train station I was reminded of when we were sending him off all those years ago. The person who came down from those steps was not the little boy who painted the dragon's eyes black.

"Kiku!" He waved to me excitedly.

He appeared to be surprised about my change in appearance just as much as I am unable to recognize the boy… no man standing right in front of me. Taller than our father, with lean muscles under a crisp white shirt and large coat, Yao smiled brightly at me. His tar-black hair pulled back into a ponytail draping down his back in ocean-like waves. "You've grown up so much!" He exclaimed.

Not nearly as much as him, I thought.

Father was proud of his growth, and deemed it a beneficial investment of sending his son away for studies. Now all that was left was to find him an alpha and take over his legacy.

I could say Yao was obedient and disagree with that. At the same time I could also say he was rebellious, and still find problems with that statement. It is always difficult to describe my brother as he is much more than just words on a paper. Anyways, even now I don't think I fully understand him, especially in his later years.

When he returned home, he worked as the assistant in the store. Father had planned out his entire life right down to the details and organized meetings with potential husbands one after another. And they left one after another.

Yao never said yes to any of them despite father's increasingly annoyance at his lack of willingness. I wasn't surprised.

Although many of those alphas came from high-caliber families, Yao dismissed them like they were pesky flies with a wave of his hand. One of them was Arthur Kirkland whom the old man hoped would win over his heart. There was nothing wrong with the alpha and maybe Yao would have liked him. But he refused. Again. I remember asking him why he didn't just agree to the marriage, and he said, "Well, father chose him didn't he?"

That was his way of opposing him. But his first direct declaration of war came when he told father that he wanted to be a teacher at the local school. The dining room was hushed to a silence and I waited for the explosive grenades that were ready to be set off.

"A TEACHER?! IN ONE OF THOSE SCHOOLS?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND WANG YAO?! I DID NOT SPEND THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON YOU JUST SO YOU COULD LOWER YOURSELF TO BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE! I WILL NOT HAVE YOU MINGLE WITH THOSE LOW-BORNS! DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU THERE? A MERE OMEGA NOT MARKED BY ANY ALPHAS! YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT SHAME OUR FAMILY!"

He clutched Yao's wrist with such ferocity that I was afraid it might snap it two. But what was worse than his physical display of power was the threatening look in his eyes. Amber reflecting against amber, Yao's eyes, identical to his own, glared back at him.

Yao said nothing, showed no signs of pain, as his proposition was shredded and burned to dust by the old alpha's words. When he finally let go of his wrist, a crimson line blazed in contrast to his pale skin.

Only after father left the room did the courage come to me to speak to him. "Yao…are you okay?"

He looked at me with blank furious eyes. He hated alphas; that never changed in eleven years.

Sure enough, after that he never mentioned about applying for a teaching position ever again, but his demeanor towards our father grew even colder. He was forbidden from going to local dances and social gatherings that our father deemed was full of inappropriate people that a desirable young omega like him shouldn't get mixed up with. Yao listened obediently but never meekly.

One night when father was away for business, Yao asked me to bring him to the dance taking place in the barn a few blocks away. Okay if memory serves me right, he didn't exactly ask. It was more of an either you can come with me or I'm going by myself situation. I tried to reason with him not to go, told him it was boring and filled with people he wouldn't give a second glance to, but Yao…stubborn Yao never listened to his little brother.

I figured that I could at least keep him out of trouble if I went with him. Besides those dances were usually little gatherings, harmless compared to what father made them out to be. What was the worst that could happen?

I did not know that Yao was in heat and had taken pills to suppress the symptoms and the pheromones. Did he want to get marked that night? Was he expecting himself to? I still don't know the answers to these questions. If I forced him to remain at home that night, would his life have been different? Or was his mate destined to be that man…

"Look at that, your highness has finally decided to grace us peasants with your presence," Alfred said mockingly. Yao didn't take his remarks seriously and looked around at the 'debauchery' he was denied for so long. I couldn't tell if he was disappointed or pleased. It was an ordinary social event with ordinary people dancing, laughing, and talking among themselves. He lingered at the sidelines, quietly observing the townspeople making merry.

I don't know if he looked at Yao first or if Yao looked at him, or if they both caught each other's eyes in that life-defining moment, but I do know that Yao asked me about the man across the room.

"Who's that talking to Alfred over there?"

"Oh that's Ivan Braginsky," I said, peering to where, or who he was looking at. "One of the farmers, no one you need to concern yourself over."

"Ivan Braginsky…" he rolled the name with his tongue, a hint of curiosity wrapped in dangerous fascination. Then I saw them looking at each other, and Yao looking away first with a tinge of red in his cheeks.

Moments later, he approached my brother for a dance. To both his and my surprise, Yao said yes.

There was nothing I could do to stop him. Did I say anything to Yao to keep him from taking his hand? I'm not sure. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. What difference did it make? I could only stand in utter disbelief as I watched my brother dance with a man whom father referred to as common as dirt.

I watched him put his hand around my brother's waist. I watched him bringing their bodies close together as their feet moved to the rhythm of the drunken beat. I watched Yao's face breaking into a smile while his eyes became lost in those mundane blue.

Scintillating amethyst, Yao once told me. But it was just blue.

What was it that made my brother fall for him? Till this day I still have no idea. Ivan Braginsky was no one in this town, a mere farmer in his early thirties who was crass and uneducated. Although he always seemed to wear a gentle smile, people were weary towards those like him.

I didn't understand their feral attraction. I thought he didn't deserve my brother.

As the night advanced, I lost sight of Yao, and my worst fear became true.

"Where's my brother?" I said to the snickering alpha.

"Yao?" Alfred said, raising his eyebrow, feigning confusion.

"Yes Yao," I answered impatiently. "Have you seen him?"

"Sure I have. He left with Braginsky a while ago. Who would have thought, right? Wang Yao and that-"

I stopped listening and turned to leave. I will admit, the initial fear I felt was not concerning the safety of my brother but rather the dread of facing our father's wrath. Yao was the older one. He must have known what he was doing by leaving with Ivan. He must have realized his foolishness…

"Alphas have terrible thoughts."

Didn't he remember what father said?

Sleep didn't come to me that night. Neither did Yao return home. As I turned and tossed in my bed, my mind strayed to my fallen brother. It wasn't like I haven't seen those gratuitous images of alphas and omegas mating on adult magazines. Oozing with animalistic desires, their bodies were coated in sweat and smeared in each other's essence. Their limbs melting and connecting in a crud way, it burned my eyes. Oh lord. Forgive me. I did not want to imagine my brother in those positions with Ivan Braginsky. I could not stomach the images of that bear on top of him pushing himself into him. Nausea washed over me, but I could not stop thinking about my prim older brother being dirtied and spreading his legs for…

I think I threw up.

The next day he came home and announced he was going to marry Ivan Braginsky. Even though he was properly dressed in his clothes from yesterday, his hair was messy and I could see hay straws in them. Being a beta, I'm not that sensitive to scents the same way alphas and omegas are, but I could still tell something was changed about him. Father noticed the smell.

Words were being thrown like bullets and spears. I had never seen the old alpha being so mad. This was worse than Yao painting the dragon, worse than him saying he wanted to be a teacher. He looked like he could kill his own son right there and then, or he might just die of a heart attack first.

For the first time his age had truly shown. The grey in his hair dominant, his wrinkles deepened, and his bones trembled.

"You will not marry that worthless animal!"

"I'm almost twenty years old. I'll marry whomever I like." Yao kept his voice composed, but his hands tightened into fists.

"NO!" The old man roared. "Absolutely not, I forbid this! You child, do you even realize what you're saying?!"

"I know what I want."

"I will not allow it. There's not a decent omega in this town who would wed without his or her family's consent," he said. "It's not done."

"It will be done by me," Yao challenged, "because he marked me. His child may already be inside of-"

He slapped him.

That sound echoed painfully throughout the room, travelling past empty halls and signifying the end of a dynasty. My father's dynasty.

Although Yao was disowned on the spot, I thought he looked the opposite of being defeated. If he wasn't an omega, if he wasn't born in this wretched world, I was sure he would be a great warrior with his fiery and unyielding eyes.

Later I was told that he was the one who wanted Ivan to mark him on that night at the dance. While Ivan was entering inside him, he was hesitant to tie the knot since he thought it was better to get the elder's approval first and wait for their wedding night. But apparently Yao urged him on and said he couldn't wait any longer and wanted to feel the knot. Yao laughed as he told the story, making fun of the face I was making.

I couldn't comprehend the bond between omegas and alphas, their instinctual attraction towards each other. Love at first sight? Well, I thought it was less romantic than that. Ivan was everything our father wasn't. I knew Yao despised the ideals of our father, but I was surprised by how much he was willing to stake just to spite him.

As years passed it became clear to me that he grew to love Ivan deeply. I asked him if it was pure lust at first that made him blind to his actions. Yao just shrugged and said, "I can't deny he is good in bed. Heck, I dare say that's the only thing he's good at."

Shortly after he was disowned, and just days before the wedding, Ivan came to visit me. Truth to be told, I had never spoken a word to the man before that day. I heard rumors about the people he hang out with, and the illegal things he was involved in, but when he stood right in front of me, I was quite at a loss for words. Thankfully he spoke before I made any awkward small talks.

"I will take care of Yao."

His voice didn't suit his appearance in the slightest. It was too soft, too gentle, too childlike for his age and stature. But I could also tell strength in his tone, a virility that radiated from deep within. I didn't know why Yao chose him, but I was beginning to see. He could be good for my brother; he looked like a good man despite of the things I heard. He was a man of few words, but out of the things he said, they were not lies.

He promised he would do everything in his power to make Yao happy and I believed him. Although they were too different for their own good, if Yao decided that this was the man he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, I wished them happiness.

I didn't attend their wedding. Father didn't either. Not many people did knowing my father's influence, but I don't think the newlyweds were bothered by the lack of guests. Even though I was not there, I imagined them smiling at each other as their fingers became interwoven in vows. I regret not being there on my brother's big day, on one of his happiest days in life, if not the happiest day of his marriage.

Pride was his fatal flaw. For both my father and Yao.

In the years that followed, the old alpha's health worsened drastically, but he never once spoke of his estranged son. Even on his death bed he refused to acknowledge the son who disappointed him. He never even saw his grandchildren.

TBC.

AN: -I promise I will update my other ABO fic, I didn't forget about my other stories T.T

-Will try my best to post the next chapter soon!

-Inspired by Margaret Lawrence's "Stone Angel"

-Thank you for reading!