Ivan and Alfred were sitting on the couch, hugging and kissing and cuddling comfortably as they let the television drone on in the background. It was their weekly date, Saturday night. And Ivan had a little bit of a surprise for his mate. "I bought you a present, for us to share. Do you want it now?"

Alfred curled up onto Ivan's body, smiling as he rubbing their noses together before giving his lover another kiss. He slid his hand up underneath the man's sweater in order to feel the skin beneath. With a chuckle, Alfred remarked, "A present? That's different. Of course I want it now."

Grinning, Ivan rolled away and ran to his kitchen, where he came back with a bottle of the champagne they'd had on New Years' Eve and two flute glasses. "I remember how you told me that you enjoyed the bottle, so I thought that I would buy us another." He sat down beside Alfred and smiled to him as he started to pop the cork.

Alfred's grin disappeared at that. He held his hand out, his expression wavering between nervousness and false joy. "Whoa whoa, wait a sec there, Ivan. I'm...um...I'm not in the mood for alcohol right now." He rubbed his neck anxiously. He was pregnant, and he hadn't told Ivan yet. He'd decided he wouldn't tell Ivan until it became crucial...that he'd try to give Ivan hints of his pregnancy beforehand in an effort to make the news less surprising. He wanted to ease him into the information, he'd decided. But now Ivan was offering him champagne, and he couldn't accept it. Though the thought that Ivan had bought it just for him warmed his heart.

"What? Why not? You said that you really liked this one." Ivan was a little put off. Alfred was always in the mood for their usual glasses of champagne. "It's not going to be like New Years' again, I promise. I only wanted to have one glass with you." He wanted to see Alfred smile like he had on New Years' Eve.

"Not tonight. Maybe some other time, but I'm really just not in the mood for drinking right now, okay?" Alfred sounded a little more defensive than he probably should have. He smiled weakly, before adding, "But thanks for the thought, baby. I appreciate the gift. You can start drinking some, if you like. I don't mind you popping the bottle for yourself."

Ivan sighed and shook his head. "It's not any fun if I can't share it with you." He wasn't much of a champagne kind of guy. He only bought it for Alfred. "I'll just put it in the fridge, then…" He got up, looking rather disappointed, and placed the champagne in the kitchen before returning to Alfred's side.

Alfred frowned at the look of disappointment on Ivan's face, wanting to amend it. He rubbed his lover's shoulder, smiling softly at him, "Hey, I'm sorry...I know you probably put a lot of thought into the gift...and money. I appreciate it, I really do."

It hadn't been the rejection of his gift, it had been how adamant and defensive Alfred had been. "Why did you suddenly seem so…hostile to me when I pushed?" He knew that Alfred was probably just not in the mood, but it was unusual. Ivan didn't like when things got unusual.

Alfred became nervous again. His smile cracked and his voice wavered, "W-what do you mean?"

"Ah…well, you got defensive. I just didn't think you would react like that. I'm wondering why." Ivan could sense something…amiss here. Something was off- something Alfred wasn't telling him. "Is something wrong?"

Anxiety pooled in Alfred's gut. He couldn't keep lying to Ivan like this. Maybe he should just tell him? Ivan was the father afterall; he deserved to know. Taking in a deep breath, Alfred murmured, "You have to promise me to stay calm..."

A stone settled in Ivan's gut. Something was wrong. Something was very, very, very wrong. "Something is wrong-" He voiced these thoughts, "What is wrong? Tell me. Are you breaking up with me?" Ivan would cry if Alfred did. "What have I done wrong? Was it the champagne?"

"What? N-no, Ivan, baby, it's nothing like that." Alfred stared at him, wide-eyed, reaching out to grasp his hand and squeeze it tight. "No it's..well...I..." He took a deep breath, shutting his eyes tightly for a moment as he breathed, "I'm p-pregnant."

Ivan was silent, and still. Very still. When he finally did move, he took a breath first. He hadn't even been breathing. "Y-you're- I- we're- you're… Th-the… New Year…" He wasn't making any sense, just blathering on one or two words of a sentence before moving onto a new one.

Ivan's freak out resulted in Alfred's own folly. Unable to bear that look in Ivan's eyes, that look of fear...Alfred wasn't selfish. He knew what this baby would do to Ivan's career. It'd be over. Kaput. Done with. There was only one way to protect Ivan's reputation, and Alfred knew it would end badly. Regardless..."It's not yours!" He blurted out the dangerous lie.

Ivan went still again, staring at Alfred with unblinking eyes, lips parted slightly in his disbelief. He got to his feet and backed away. He shook his head, as if he were unable to say anything, and turned away, shoulders shaking as he gripped the table beside him for support. He was weak at the knees.

Alfred didn't dare move. Not yet. He went as still and rigid as ever, staring down at Ivan's carpeted floors. His eyes were blank, but began to water nonetheless. He could sense that something very bad was going to happen. What other sort of thing could come out of such information? Trying to amend it, he whispered, "L-look, sweetie..."

Ivan whipped around and struck Alfred across the cheek. "It's his child, isn't it?" He meant Gilbert of course. Who else could it be? "You lied to me. You said that you would only-" Ivan sucked in a deep breath and turned away once more. "…Get out."

Alfred yelped at the slap, eyes widened as he gripped the side of his face, his hair tousled from the force. He had not been expecting that. Not listening to the man's demand, he continued to try to fix it, "L-look, i-it was just a one night thing! I mean..." It was a lie. All lies. He'd never fucked anyone other than Ivan; however, he needed Ivan to think the baby wasn't his. He needed to disprove that the baby belonged to Ivan...for his sake.

"I said get out!" Ivan shouted as he whipped around once more, looming over Alfred. He was using his influence, but not in a way before. This was to make him look bigger; scarier. "Get out and never come back! I should have known better… I was a fool to let you 'cover' our relationship with that boy. It was just an excuse for you to be a whore."

"B-but I love you." Alfred squeaked, tears threatening to fall over. He shook violently in his seat on the couch, terrified by the way Ivan was reacting. He should have expected it, of course, but deep down...deep down Alfred had hoped Ivan would have supported him anyway. That he'd be understanding and help him cope with the pregnancy. "I love you, I-Ivan. N-nobody else."

"If you loved me you wouldn't have been whoring yourself around." Ivan took his steps back, and went for the kitchen. He pulled out a bottle of vodka and popped it open. "I told you to leave. And I don't want to ever see you on my doorstep again."

Alfred stood from his seat, but he didn't head towards the door. He timidly strode towards Ivan, reaching his hand out cautiously. "Sweetheart, I-I'm sorry. Don't you think y-you're overreacting? We can get through this..." He was still crying, tears streaming down his face.

Ivan swatted the hand away without a second thought. "Either you get rid of his child, or you leave and take a hint when a relationship is over. That is the only way anything at all will be salvaged here. But rest assured I'm never going to touch you again." Ivan wanted nothing to do with Alfred then, and that was clear. "Get out. I'm tired of telling you."

The boy wiped his eyes, glaring at the other with hurt, painful eyes. He stood there in silence for a few moments more, merely sniffling and weeping and trembling before he swiftly turned on his feet, finally heading towards the door. He stopped right before he put a foot through the doorway in order to call back to Ivan, "You know, you should be grateful that it isn't yours. You didn't want kids to begin with, remember?" Alfred knew he had no right to be angry; he'd caused this breakup, but he couldn't help but feel bitter about Ivan's ease to just throw him away like this.

"Get out of my fucking house!" Ivan threw the vodka bottle at Alfred. It crashed against the wall. He was running towards Alfred, and promptly gave him a shove on the shoulder. "Get out and never come back! And try and transfer from my class while you're at it." With those words, he slammed the door in Alfred's face.

"Yeah, and I take it back! You'd be a horrible father, you unsympathetic piece of shit!" Alfred screamed at him through the door before he broke down and cried. He trudged down the oh-so-familiar steps of the apartment building, bawling all the way. He didn't know what he'd do for the night; he couldn't return home like this, not in this state. Covering his face he stomped down the steps until he got to the bottom floor where he slumped up against the wall, doubling over and crying. He couldn't bring himself to do anything else.

Ivan was shaking from the ordeal, a few tears escaping him. He grabbed the bottle of champagne and promptly emptied it out in the sink, then got himself another bottle of vodka to sate his anger and regret and all the sorrow he had left in him.

Monday came around too quickly. Alfred had spent the rest of his weekend locked inside his room, crying his heart out over the situation. After he'd calmed himself down enough to be presentable, he'd called Mattie to come pick him up in the middle of the night. He'd told his brother they'd broken up, but he didn't leak specifics. Just that it'd been heart-wrenching and horrible...and Ivan had slapped him. And thrown a vodka bottle at him. The retelling of the story was very much biased to Alfred's favor, but he didn't care. He was upset and angry with Ivan. Sure, he'd known he was setting himself up for disaster with that move, but he hadn't thought that Ivan would have been that unsympathetic towards his case. After all they'd been through, he just kicked him to the curb without a second thought. Although Alfred was angry, he did want reconciliation. He wanted to set things right with Ivan. Maybe if he just gave the man some time and space, they could come back together and talk things through? Alfred hoped so.

Alfred's hopes were ill placed. The moment Alfred came into his sixth period class, the room went frigidly cold. It was Ivan's doing, of course. The mood of a class 1 Alpha could drastically affect everyone in the room. With Ivan in an awful mood, just from seeing Alfred, everyone else was either squirming in discomfort or soon becoming just as sour and bitter.

Alfred could feel the effects too, but to a much lesser extent. Due to his status as a class 1 Omega, the boy was able to resist much of Ivan's influence. However, the mood Ivan was in did concern him. He'd never seen the man like this before. Walking quickly, Alfred took a seat just as the bell rang, hurrying to unpack his belongings. He mentally cursed himself when he realized that he'd forgotten to complete his homework in the midst of things.

Ivan called for homework as the first thing, not even sparing Alfred a glance. When Alfred didn't hand in the paper, he glared at him. "Nothing to give, Mr. Jones? That's alright, don't bother. It won't be worth anything anyway." 'Like you.' Ivan didn't say it out loud, but it was clear in the atmosphere, it wanted to be said. It would be communicated somehow.

Alfred caught the implication of Ivan's words and went still, swallowing thickly. However, he didn't say anything. Not a word. He did have to bite his lip to keep from crying again though. He never expected anything like this.

Class went on as expected- Ivan snapped at everyone, his bad mood shining through. It wasn't just Alfred who ended up scorned, though he did receive the brunt of it. Ivan was right when he said he had been afraid to lapse into 'old habits' of his younger years.

Alfred tried to be the good student and pay attention during class, but it was becoming increasingly hard. Not with the sneers and glares Ivan shot his way every few minutes, not with the fact that the man he'd loved, the man he'd once called his mate hated his guts. It was becoming unbearable for Alfred.

"Does anyone know what the trial represents?" Ivan asked as he pointed up to his powerpoint. "This part is important, I'm looking for a specific answer. he canvased the classed, frowning as he saw that no one had their hand up. "Come on, I'm waiting."

Alfred timidly raised his hand, smiling weakly. If nobody else would answer the question, then he supposed he could. Maybe Ivan would be impressed by his knowledge or something. Wishful thinking.

A deep sigh left the teacher. "Mr. Jones." It took a while for Mr. Braginsky to actually call out his name. But he finally did it.

"The trials represent the oppression of African Americans and the effect false accusations based on racism can have, sir." Alfred grinned slightly, satisfied with his answer. He hoped his good attitude would heighten the spirits in the room.

There was silence, and finally, "That's correct, Mr. Jones. I'm glad you could actually answer this. But of course, you'd know all about 'oppression,' wouldn't you?" The words bit into the frigid air- Ivan meant it to be cold; it was a low blow. It wasn't that Ivan didn't have ammunition, he had plenty of it. But he wanted to hit Alfred in all the sore spots.

Alfred was lost for words for a moment. He couldn't believe that Ivan would say something like that to him. He began to tremble slightly in his seat, his smiling face wiped clean off his face. In a small voice, he croaked out, "What exactly is t-that supposed to mean, sir?"

Ivan didn't even bother with a response for a moment. He glared at all the students who looked quizzical. Many students looked concerned. Their teacher had never acted like this before. "I'm just saying that as an Omega you're much more prone to what you might call oppression." What he might call oppression.

"Might call oppression?" Alfred asked, becoming angry with this. Oh, he and Ivan were going to have one hell of a talk after school, guaranteed. He could understand if Ivan wanted to breakup over this...he could understand if it made Ivan angry. But there was a fucking line, and he had just crossed it. Did this really upset Ivan to the point where he was stomping all over his own personal beliefs?

"We can talk about this later, Mr. Jones, but right now I have to teach." Ivan went on with his lesson, promptly ignoring any hand that Alfred had to raise later on. Right before the bell was about to ring, he called Alfred out, "Mr. Jones, see me to talk about your grades. We need to get you some help." He said it out loud for everyone to hear.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Braginsky, but I'm pretty sure I have an A in this class." Alfred grit his teeth as he shouted that back, just as loudly. He flushed as all the eyes inevitably landed on him at Ivan's profession of his supposed poor performance in the class.

"You're missing several homework assignments." Alfred had never made up any assignments he'd missed just because Ivan had waved them off as nothing, told him it was fine. Well, they were coming back, now. It didn't lower Alfred's grade significantly- a lot of the grade was just participation. But it still brought him down to a solid B. "See me in a moment."

A slick, uneasy feeling went through Alfred's body at that. Ivan had specifically told him not to worry about those homework grades...since he'd been sick or had had some trouble at home. Was he really going to bring those back? Was he really going to stoop that low? Eventually the bell rang, and all of the students scurried out of the classroom, not wanting to spend another minute with their teacher. Only Alfred remained.

Mr. Braginsky looked up from his computer. "Well, are you going to leave?" He had no intention of actually talking to Alfred about his grades. "You have to get home, don't you?" He wanted Alfred out of his classroom and out of his face.

"You told me to stay after to talk about my grades, just a minute ago..." Alfred was confused. He walked up to Ivan's desk, standing there expectantly.

"You have a B. Make up the homework you missed and you'll be fine. I recommend you switch out of this class. Mr. Zwingli teaches just as well as I do. You can leave now." Ivan didn't want Alfred there, and he was making that quite apparent.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Alfred asked suddenly, his anger from before showing itself once more. He crossed his arms as he glared at Ivan. "You're being ridiculous. It was a one night stand. It...it was dumb of me, and I've apologized. I'm really really sorry about it, alright? But...but I love you and I don't...don't want it to be like this."

"You should have thought about that before sleeping with him." There was bitter contempt in Ivan's voice, breeding further cold in the room. "Because apparently you were off your pills a little longer than just a day, when we forgot a condom. I actually thought it was mine." He finally graced Alfred with his gaze. "Well I'm glad it's not." He slammed his computer shut and unplugged it. "I have to go to the library, go home."

"You don't seem glad." Alfred mumbled, not moving yet. He looked deflated and dejected; he crossed his arms for a moment due to the cold draft in the room. "What would you have thought if it were yours?"

Ivan stopped, looking back over his shoulder. "Then I would have tried to support you. I wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't leave you. But it's not mine. So it doesn't matter. Go home." Ivan didn't stick around, he just left and slammed the door in his wake. It would lock once Alfred closed it behind him.

Alfred remained in the classroom for a couple more seconds, sighing discontentedly as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He leaned against Ivan's desk for a moment and contemplated whether or not he'd really made the best choice when he'd lied to the man.