Hi everyone, this is a bit later than my intended weekly publishing schedule... turns out I forgot about Halloween. Anyway, chapter 17!

Also update to this, I had a really hard time figuring out where to set this and finally decided on Switzerland. I always imagined this would be in either Germany or close and I visited Switzerland shortly before lockdown and that's kinda what helped me make up my mind on the location here. So on that, the legal drinking age for beer and wine in Switzerland is 16, so this all fits!

Also PSA, setting this in 2007. So current timeline with all the characters being 16/17 is set in 2007. Dated references will happen in the future.

"Oh lord, I'm going to die," Arthur laughed between desperate gasps for breath as they walked, a hand was clasped onto her arm to keep himself from doubling over and falling on his face. "Did you see that plonker's face when you flipped him the bird? I thought he was going to explode!"

"I know," Elizabeta giggled along with him, "but it's not my fault! He deserved it for giving us that look!"

"Wait, wait," Arthur stopped mid step and stumbled to stand straight. "He gave us a look? Why was he looking at us?"

He twisted in place and looked back over his shoulder to see if he could spot the man Elizabeta had flipped off but he was nowhere to be seen. He could only see two of his bodyguards trailing slightly behind.

"Yeah! He gave us this dirty look for being drunk or something, I don't know. I just didn't like it," she answered and grabbed his arm to keep him walking, taking a step forward as he came tumbling towards her to steady him.

"Rude!" Arthur snapped. "How dare he? Omegas can enjoy an odd drink every now and then just like everyone else!"

"Yeah, but, it would have been nice if the guy in the off licence served us…" she lamented almost solemnly at the thought of being denied beer due to being a little bit inebriated. Honestly, she thought, it wasn't like they were falling over drunk, they were just a little tipsy, happy even!

"Eugh, don't talk," Arthur groaned in agreement, "let's agree to never go back to that offy again."

"But it's so close to your house!"

"I know but… wait, hold on a minute," he froze on the spot and looked around. "We've gone the wrong way, we should have gone left instead of right back there."

"Oh, we have," Elizabeta agreed and glanced around. Sure enough, they had taken the wrong path through the park and had probably doubled their journey back. Not that she cared though, it meant more time out of the house and just enjoying the cool Autumn weather.

They stood there for a moment longer, staring at each other before bursting back into laughter.

"Oh god, this should not be this funny," he wheezed.

"I know…" she laughed, "it's just so fucking stupid!"

"Ok, ok, we need to breathe," Arthur tried, but his gasps for air only succeeded in making the teenage girl laugh even more. "No, no, we need to get back home to raid my parents' bar and then figure out what you are going to do about that fiance of yours."

"No, let's just stay out and go to the pub!" Elizabeta begged. "I don't want to talk about Roddy!"

"Liz, you know we can't. Remember the festival? And Christmas? And the beach? I don't want another headline saying some shite about royal growing pains."

The memories of being mobbed by journalists desperate for some scoop on the young royal Omega's life was enough to sober him up a bit. He shuddered at the thought of having his face plastered over yet another magazine for being "a terrible influence on youth culture" and from how Elizabeta stilled her laughter, she was clearly on the same train of thought. However, their momentary silence was suddenly brought to an abrupt stop.

"Oh! Hey guys, what are you up to?" A loud voice from behind them.

Spinning, they saw Alfred and Gilbert making their way down the path in front of them. Alfred was grinning like an idiot and frantically waving at them, Gilbert it appeared had just noticed them and quickly sent them his trademarked smirk.

"Well, well, well," he called, "if it isn't our favourite Omega's out for an evening stroll."

"Eugh, go away Gilbert, nobody wants to talk to you," Elizabeta spat back at him and settled him with a glare.

"Sorry, what was that?" he replied, holding a hand up to his ear, "I can't hear you over how awesome I am and how much you really really love me."

"As if I would be in love with a bastard that vanishes for 3 years without telling me a thing!"

Everyone froze at the words and the anger emanating from Elizabeta was like electricity in the air as the pair stared each other down. Gilbert's smirk had all but vanished and was replaced with a more serious expression, his lips pressed into a thin line as he contemplated his next move.

"Arthur, we're leaving," she declared and spun on her heel, grabbed Arthur by the shoulder and pulled him after her.

"Wait!" Gilbert called after her. "I didn't want to go… I mean, military school. I wanted to tell you, really, but I couldn't…"

He trailed off, diverting his gaze to the ground as she turned to meet his eye again.

"You couldn't, what?"

Gilbert continued looking at the ground, shuffling slightly at the gravel with his shoes. He could feel Alfred's awkward looks towards him and almost hear Arthur shouting at him to "get the ruddy hell on with it" or something extremely English to that effect. Sucking in a breath he resigned himself to coming clean, or at least enough to placate her anger. With a final sigh, he looked up at the clouds and muttered how she was going to find out sooner or later then started talking.

"Well to start, if it wasn't obvious enough, I didn't have a choice. Like, I'm awesome, so I wouldn't have just left without saying anything to you, you were my best friend and that's just not awesome.

Second, I didn't want to have you dealing with all the bullshit I was trying to protect you from and I clearly failed there, so off I went leaving you none the wiser. Cause ja, you are the reason I was sent off. My vati wanted rid of me cause his wife hates me and she convinced him my awesomeness was 'too much and disruptive' and to send me off. You were kinda the final nail in the coffin."

"What?" she tried interjecting, but Gilbert held up a finger to stop her.

"Just let me finish. Remember right after your heat and I was acting weird and dressing differently?" She nodded. "Well, your dad and mine came up with a plan and I didn't completely agree with it but I didn't have a choice. It was that or be shipped off. That plan was to turn you into a perfect Omega who wore dresses, didn't talk back, cooked, cleaned and did all that boring Omega shit you hated. At the start I thought I could be awesome and just get you to wear some dresses and pretend you were a perfect princess, but I couldn't… cause I didn't want you to change."

He stopped for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to ignore the confusion and hurt etched on her face.

"So then I was just shipped off and I couldn't tell you cause you'd be pissed at your dad and it would have made things worse. I thought at least you're stubborn and kickass enough to be able to handle things on your own now that you had Art, but then I guess I was wrong. That priss did exactly what your dad wanted me to do instead. I mean, look at you, you're wearing a dress and cook and shit. Don't get me wrong, you're hot as fuck in it, but damn, it's just not the girl I knew."

Silence fell over the four and they just stood, watching each other, Elizabeta's face unreadable as Gilbert just looked back at her, his hands in his pockets just waiting for her to say something. Meanwhile Arthur and Alfred remained a step back from their friends, unable to say or do anything until Elizabeta finally broke spoke.

"Yo… you're lying," she stammered, they could see tears building in her eyes and her hands balling into fists. Gilbert subconsciously took a half step back, only slightly afraid of being hit.

"Why would he lie about that?" Alfred answered before Gilbert could get a chance to. "I mean, it's no secret I got sent off to military school cause of what went down with Art, and it's definitely not a coincidence we ended up in the same group. You know, the one for young Alphas who step out of line around really powerful Omegas…"

The words hung in the air like a death sentence. Cold, impossible to ignore and even harder to come to terms with.

"Art," she finally choked out, "did you know about any of this?"

Arthur's attention snapped back to her. He had let it fall on Alfred for just a moment but now he was back to watching her, his eyes wide at the question.

"No, I didn't," he gulped, "I had my suspicions when he came back and even back then, but I didn't know."

"He didn't," Gilbert added hastily. Yes, he had been accosted by the Brit earlier, but that was different. The English teen was acting on assumption then and as far as he was concerned, now was not the time to bring it up.

Elizabeta returned her gaze back to Gilbert.

"So… all of this," she grasped at her dress, "was a ploy by my father to get me to act more like the perfect Omega?"

Gilbert nodded.

"Ok… then…" she choked out. "I have Roderich now, I'm… I'm happy now, I'm getting married and… oh god… I need to go"

With that she fled, turning and running back down the path and leaving them behind. She could feel the tears starting again like they had earlier, but now she didn't care. She let them fall as she made her way out of the park as quickly as possible. Without any care to where she was going, she found herself turning a corner and froze at the sight in front of her. There on the bench was her fiance Roderich and his childhood friend Basch, kissing. Neither of them noticed her standing there, just frozen in complete shock. Oh today was really not her day.

"What the fuck?" The words fell from her lips before she could stop them and the pair instantly split apart, horror and panic written across their faces.

"Elizabeta! It isn't what it looks like!" Roderich proclaimed, springing from the bench to reach out and take her hand. Basch remained seated, his horror ridden expression now mellowing into something closer to contempt as he watched her with cool green eyes.

"Then what is it?" she demanded, stepping away and pulling her hand out of his reach.

"Roderich, can we stop this?" Basch asked, seemingly annoyed at having to pretend to be doing anything else. "We've been hiding for years, she's caught us, it's over!"

The words hit her like a ton of bricks. Years. They had been at this for years. That meant they had been together the entire time, no longer than her and Roderich had been together… but wait, Basch was an Alpha, this wasn't possible unless…

"You're gay?"

Roderich didn't answer, shame and despair evident in how he kept looking at the ground and barely met her gaze.

"He is, we both are," Basch answered for him.

"Shut up," Roderich snapped at him, quickly coming out of his daze.

"Why did you…" she was cut off by Basch.

"Because he was asked by your dad and he's too afraid to tell his parents about us."

"Basch, I swear, shut up!" Roderich demanded, but he was ignored.

"I'm tired of pretending, Roderich. I love you, you know this, now either stop your stupid charade or we're through."

Roderich froze, paling at the thought and it was as clear as day to Elizabeta that she never had a chance and suddenly it all made sense. His disinterest in her beyond friendship three years ago when she had walked in on him practicing. His sudden need to ask her out on a date just over a year ago and everything that came snowballing afterwards. It was all too obvious and she was blind to it. She was there to see all the small, awkward glances the two teenagers in front of her shared. She saw the quick movements and flustered explanations when she walked into a room they were previously alone in. Most of all though, she saw the soft looks that Roderich cast Basch's way when he thought she wasn't looking, soft looks she thought were born from fondness you would have for a friend. God, she thought, she was such an idiot. So easily led by a friendly face who led her down a path she had never seen for herself. So suggestible and happy to comply with his wishes. It was almost funny.

"Well?" Basch's voice snapped her out of her musings. "What's it going to be Roderich?"

Her attention was now back on the Alpha's and she watched as Roderich stared between them, distraught at what to do.

"I don't care anymore," she told him with a small sad smile. "I'm a fool and I should have seen this." She gestured between them and heaved a sigh. It was over. The whole charade as Basch called it, the engagement, the agreement her father had with Roderich and even Gilbert. The secrets, all of it, was over. "Just… tell my father that you ended things. I don't care how, I'm just done."

With that, she scuffed her shoe against the ground and stepped back and ignored the pair's frantic conversation as she left.

So that happened and it only took literal years... anyhoo, I'm gonna go eat some bread and play Skyrim.

If there are any mistakes here, lemme know cause proof reading? Who has the time, honestly...