Chapter Two—The Library And A Talkative Twit

Arthur was panting as the Alpha pulled him along. He was too damn fast and he did not even seem to notice that Arthur was falling behind.

"S-Slow down, would you?" Arthur huffed. The other man did not seem to hear him, or did not bother to listen, like a typical Alpha. The Omega was about to repeat his statement but suddenly, he was brought to an abrupt stop, his body bumping into the other male's as the force jerked him forward. Fortunately, the Frenchman stayed balanced and caught him just in time, preventing both of them from sprawling onto the ground.

"We're here," the Alpha proclaimed, looking down at the dazed Omega in his arms. He laughed before continuing, "And aren't you a clumsy thing, mon ami? Should have paid attention to where we're going, non?

Arthur scowled and wiggled his way out of the other male's hold. "It wasn't my fault that you were going so fast—I am hardly to blame." He tidied up his uniform, getting rid of any creases and brushing off the non-existent dust. "Now, I thank you for bringing me here but, if you'd excuse me, I'll be going in now."

With that, Arthur turned away from the Alpha and walked into the library, planning to forget ever meeting the eager man. Too bad for him, fate wasn't letting him off that easily.

"Wait!" The Frenchman called from behind him, as he ran to Arthur's side. He placed his hand on Arthur's shoulder. "I'll stay with you."

Arthur shot him an irritated glare. "No thank you, I'd rather you not." He shook the other man's hand off and headed towards the first large shelf of books, inwardly squealing at the vast amount of books he saw. Goodness, this place was like Arthur's heaven on earth! He could spend all his free time here and hold no regrets. He touched the cover of one book reverently—it was an old book, actually leather-bound and not paperback like books these days were. Oh yes, Arthur would take pleasure in reading this, if not for the content then for the experience of flipping through the pages. The Hetalia College's library was like a treasure trove, honestly and Arthur was glad that he was here to enjoy it.

But yet again, the annoying prick of an Alpha snapped him out of his bliss. "It's lonely in here—why not let me keep you company? I can't allow such a lovely face to be by himself."

At this point, Arthur was prepared to punch the Alpha's face and file a complaint on harassment. But instead, he decided to be a reasonable person and just ignore the other male entirely. He removed the aforementioned leather-bound book from the shelf and headed towards the closest table.

Sadly for him, the other man really did not know how to take a hint and followed him to the table, taking a seat across from him, a wide smile on his face. Arthur grumbled under his breath but did not protest. He didn't want to cause a scene—especially not in a library—even though there was hardly a single soul there and he would only disturb the two librarians and some potted plants.

He looked at the book title, and saw that it was a book on the occult, or to be more accurate occultism, not really surprising since the shelves were sorted in the Dewey Decimal System and he had browsed through books in the 100 class.

Lucky me, Arthur thought with a slight smile. He had always been interested in the occult, and it first caught his attention around the time he realised his position in society, when his brothers first started actively shunning him for his nature. He was taken in by the magical part of it and he had searched for spells. Spells to change people's mind, spells to prevent people from bullying him. Things like that. Once he had even snuck in a potion that he made into his brothers' meals, hoping that it would make them treat him nicer. Of course, he had not succeeded but he preferred to believe that it was due to his lack of prowess and experience in that area to thinking that magic did not exist. Now, even though he had stopped trying to practice spells and had gotten rid of his occult books, replacing them with medical ones, he still appreciated cracking open an occult book once in a blue moon.

Arthur started reading, so engrossed in it that he almost forgot that there was a git sitting across from him—almost.

"So—what's your name?" The Alpha asked casually, leaning forward in his chair. Arthur groaned. Why can't he just keep quiet? This is a library after all, people aren't supposed to talk in here. "I'm Francis Bonnefoy or Professor Bonnefoy and I'm truly honoured to meet a beauté such as yourself."

Letting out a sigh, Arthur replied, "My name's Arthur Kirkland. Now could you please stop bothering me? If you hadn't realised, I came to the library to read in peace, not socialise. Thank you." Arthur then returned to his book, crossing his fingers that Bonnefoy would understand and finally leave him alone.

Francis chuckled and decided to disregard Arthur's words. He said, "But I did you a favour, guiding you here in the first place so the least you could do is hold a conversation with me."

Arthur wanted to shout at him that he had only asked for bloody directions and that he had been the one who dragged him away without his consent. Yet, he didn't, for some reason. He mumbled insults under his breath but other than that, he did not respond.

"I'll take that your silence means you agree with me. Magnifique! Now, tell me, you're a student here, oui?"

"Yes. I am. I would think it was quite obvious. And I am assuming from your introduction that you're a teacher here, right Professor?" Arthur sneered.

"Honhonhon! Oh yes I am. How observant! You're a smart one! And don't need to be so disgruntled; I'm sure you'll have the chance to be in one of my amazing classes. In fact, I'm certain you will be!"

"I'm hardly upset about that!" Arthur denied. "I've already told you I want to be left alone and I'm pissed because you absolutely refuse to."

"You hurt me, mon ami, I thought we had a connection." Francis put both hands onto the place where his heart would be (if he had one, Arthur tagged on in his mind), feigning pain. His blue eyes lit up. "By the way, you're an Omega, aren't you?"

"Yes…?" Arthur was confused by the question. It was such a redundant one. Anyone would be able to tell his nature by his scent, just like how he had known Francis was an Alpha.

"Hm, interesting… You don't act much like one."

Arthur narrowed his eyes. "Is there something wrong with that?"

Francis raised his hands in surrender. "Non, of course not! Don't get me wrong. It's just that you remind me of my sister, that's all."

"Oh?" Arthur retorted. "What about her—?"

Arthur trailed off as he noticed Francis' eyes darken.

"She's passed on," Francis said shortly, clearly not too keen to elaborate on that.

Minutes ticked by as silence befell them, the atmosphere getting uncomfortable from the turn the conversation had taken. Although Arthur had wanted silence from the start, he could not leave it at that (even if Bonnefoy had been the one to start the topic in the first place) and shifted forward, hesitantly putting a comforting hand on the other's arm.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sure she was a wonderful person," Arthur whispered, albeit awkwardly. He wasn't very good at this comforting thing, even to himself. His fairy friends were the ones to comfort him whenever he was feeling down and he hardly had many friends to practice consoling on.

Francis released a deep sort of laugh, one that had a certain sadness to it. "She was a temperate Omega, always going against the society norms, trying to improve Omega rights. She was brilliant."

He glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "Oh look at the time. It sure passes when we're having fun." He got off the seat and offered a hand to Arthur. "I believe you have an orientation to get to. It starts at ten, you do know that right?"

Arthur checked his watch and saw, to his alarm, that he had ten minutes left to get to the auditorium for orientation. And he had barely read through ten pages. Arthur sighed, brushing away Francis' hand as he stood up by himself.

"I know when the orientation starts, git."


Author's Note: This fic will have a rather slow start before the romance kicks in so bear with it, please. I just have to set up everything first. Also, I don't approve of Student/Teacher relationships in real life, but in this society, it is accepted. And if you're wondering how Francis is a College Professor even though he is rather young (he's 25, six years older than Arthur) it is partly due to the fact that he's an Alpha (you could say that in this society, being an Alpha is quite advantageous in such jobs. Betas would mostly be in services though they get 'equal' opportunity. Omegas have less chances, if any at all, in many professions, since society prefer they stay home) and also because he is good at what he teaches (sort of a prodigy at it, even).

So far,

FrUKUS - 26

USUK - 23

FrUK - 16

Wow, you guys sure love the FrUKUS option. Although, just to clarify, in that option, Francis and Alfred would be sharing Arthur but they won't really be in a relationship with each other, since I'm not particularly fond of FrUS. I hope that's okay.

You can still vote on the poll for this on the profile page, as well as through reviews and PM if you want.


Some Omegaverse Stories

(I didn't include the ones that are purely smut, and they are all USUK with Arthur as the Omega - I couldn't find any FrUK Omegaverse, sorry and I prefer Arthur as the Omega)

A Queen and his King by AlexithymicVirable [Complete]

Capricious by avalonrose [Incomplete]

Attitude by AGajillionAndFivePercentDone [Incomplete]

Of Social Importance by sweetayako15 (on AO3) [Incomplete]

Altruism by Evidentiality [Incomplete]

Ashes to Ashes by Hellie Ace [Incomplete]

A New Life by jagaimo-chan [Incomplete]

(I didn't put the links because FF. net doesn't allow it but you can just search the title and it'd probably come up)


Thank you for all the reviews! I'm astounded at how much feedback I've gotten for this fic. I hope we can maintain that :D

To camille (guest): I'm sorry to tell you but Alfred is an Alpha in this fic. :P However, I might write a Beta!Alfred next time. I've read a Beta!Alfred fic before, although I forgot what it's called, sorry.