Capricious

Part One

'Underneath and unexplored
Islands and cities I have looked
Here I saw
Something I couldn't over look'
- Islands, The xx

Alfred had encountered Arthur a few times around campus. The Omega was friends with Francis who was friends with Gilbert who was friends with Alfred. They didn't bump into each other on a regular basis thus the only words they'd spoken to each other had been artificial pleasantries. Well, Alfred had attempted to be pleasant but it was a lost cause, Omegas like Arthur cared little as to whether Alphas were courteous or not. The embroidered, lilac patch baring the letters 'ERO' was perpetually visible on any of Arthur's clothes and gave away that Arthur loathed Alfred on principle.

It was typical of Alfred, of course, to have developed a minor crush on an ERO Omega. And maybe the crush was a little more intense than 'minor' but that was merely a matter of semantics, or so the Alpha told himself.

Alfred wasn't entirely sure what it was that sustained his attraction to the Englishman. Arthur was pedantic, snooty and when he was mad, which was often, the current of air around him almost crackled with the viciousness that was his bad temper.

Then there was the obvious. Arthur was a member of the Equal Rights for Omegas movement, a very zealous follower in fact. For all it was worth, they may as well have called themselves the Anti-Alpha movement.

Alfred was by no means against equality amongst Alphas, Betas and Omegas, he was all for it in fact and could acknowledge that Omegas had been denied rights that Alphas and Betas hadn't. The ideology behind the movement itself was perfectly reasonable and fair, they campaigned for changes such as equal wages and equal job opportunities (within reason, an Omega sealed inside a submarine for months wasn't exactly a good idea), and Alfred himself hoped things would change for the Omegas.

The downside to this was that a good portion of the ERO Omegas deemed it necessary to hate Alphas, pigeonholing them as prejudice and privileged.

It was also common for ERO Omegas to take scent and heat suppressants. The complete lack of Omega scent and slightly medicinal smell Arthur carried revealed that he was taking these suppressants. ERO Omegas justified these suppressants with qualms about the inconvenience of heats, the pain of unmated heats and that Alphas took advantage of Omegas and their scent only encouraged Alphas into thinking they had rights over an Omega's body.

Personally, while these validations held elements of truth to them, Alfred thought the suppressants were used out of spite. Ridding an Omega of their scent was dangerous, an Alpha can't detect if an Omega is in trouble or ill without a scent and subduing heats could jeopardise an Omega's fertility and cause sickness due to hormone imbalances.

It was a shame; really, Alfred pined to know what Arthur's scent was like. Alfred fantasied he would smell salty-sweet, like a buttery, homemade apple pie. Just thinking about it sent Alfred dizzy.

Arthur was an uncharacteristic sort of attractive. He was slender with spindly fingers and bony wrists. His dress sense was, frankly, ridiculous, no one should be wearing sweater vests in 2014, especially at twenty-one years of age, but his eyes were large and vividly green and his skin was pale and gingerly decorated with freckles.

Arthur was odd but Alfred had it bad for him.

"You look nice today," Alfred murmured fancifully, his elbow propped against the table and his cheek resting in his hand. Then he halted. Shit.

Arthur's head whipped around to face Alfred and he looked positively noxious.

The two of them had been left alone together in a Starbucks. Before Alfred's comment, Arthur had blatantly been waiting for a socially acceptable amount of time before he could swiftly leave. Alfred had been having lunch with Gilbert until Francis had joined them, bringing a disinclined Arthur with him. Francis and Gilbert had only been sat down for five minutes before both Betas had to take off for an impromptu lecture.

Which left Alfred and Arthur awkwardly in each other's company.

The Alpha squirmed under Arthur's unshakable glare. How could an Omega be so intimidating? Alfred wondered if the smaller man was true to an Omega's submissive nature in any aspect of everyday life. Maybe he reserved that for private affairs? There was something so decadent about the thought of Arthur letting himself go, the man was so strait-laced and unapproachable, it must have been almost impossible for it to actually occur. Alfred could imagine the Englishman being submissive for him, could imagine Arthur beneath him with his legs spread, his eyes glossy and his lips parted and... Bad train of thought, very, very bad train of thought.

"I suggest you keep those sort thoughts to yourself," Arthur said accusingly. In light of where Alfred's brain had just been moseying off to, Arthur's words ignited something in him.

And suddenly, Alfred wasn't cowed anymore, in fact, he was pissed off. All he did was say the guy looked nice but he might as well have stepped on a rattlesnake's tail instead. "Hey, I was only paying you a compliment. What, am I not allowed to do that either? Are you going to stop Alphas speaking all together soon?" He really should have stopped but he just couldn't. Alfred didn't know where all this was coming from. "Just because you're an Omega doesn't mean I was hitting on you. I just said you look nice. Anyone with manners would have said 'thank you'."

Arthur went a colour that, if Alfred hadn't known otherwise, it would have seemed as if Arthur was suffocating. "I assure you, I have better manners than a pompous, outspoken Alpha like you! And do not try to play innocent, Jones, there's motive behind every word that comes out of an Alpha's mouth," the Englishman's face soured further. "And never an innocent one at that."

Was the guy reading Alfred's mind or something?

"Yeah?" Alfred swung his messenger bag across his shoulder and shoved himself out of his chair. "Well, I'm gonna have to punch a hole in that dumb-ass theory of yours, because there was no motive, there will never be a motive. I have no intention of seducing you, I don't find you attractive and I wouldn't mate with you even if you were the last Omega on the planet. So there's one thing less you have to worry about."

It wasn't within Alfred's nature to be cruel or a liar but Arthur had sent him toppling over an edge with a very unforgiving drop.

The satisfaction of dressing down the Omega down never manifested, however, because Arthur didn't throw anything at him, scream at him or bark out any threats. As Alfred left, there was a terrible lack of sound from Arthur and the Alpha spied a crestfallen expression skitter across Arthur's face before it was quashed and the man became inscrutable.

Mission 'Get Arthur to Like Him' was going just swimmingly so far.

I've fallen quite deeply in love with Omegaverse so I thought I'd try my poor hand at it.