Archive of Our Own ^beta

He had always lived his life being rejected, hadn’t he? By everyone around him, for things that he couldn’t control and it…hurt.

It did.

And it had broke Sakura in a way that he didn’t think was possible—shattered his heart to bits and pieces that couldn’t be put back together again.

Until he had met him.

Hajime Umemiya.

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There were a thousand other things that Sakura could and should be doing right now. Working on homework, patrolling the town or anything other than this. Standing here on the school rooftop during his lunch as the sun beamed down on him while he listened to Umemiya rant about his garden.

“So, this here is a Momotaro tomato and they need—”

And yet, there wasn’t anywhere else that he would rather be. How strange. Umemiya was the one that Sakura had come to defeat, to become the top dog, but all he wanted to do was listen to the omega talk about all the things that he enjoyed or disliked—anything and everything, it wasn’t enough, he wanted to know all that he could about Umemiya.

“—They need to be watered regularly, about this much—”

It was the little things that he adored about Umemiya, even if he had only just met the omega months ago. He was enraptured by his beauty, wisdom, charisma and that endless kindness that seemed to overflow from him like a broken tap.

“—Have to be spaced 2 to 3 inches apart if you want them to grow well and—”

Umemiya was kind and forgiving, the exact opposite of the type of person that Sakura was. He held grudges, Sakura would be the first to admit that, knowing that his trauma and rejection from others was what led him to being the person that he was today.

“—You want to be careful how much you water them when they begin to ripen—”

Someone scared, skittish and fearful of opening their heart up again, to take the risk and grab the hand offered to him—because he couldn’t take another rejection, not anymore and not again. Sakura’s heart was a broken, cracked and scarred thing, that he had carefully stitched back together again, one thread at a time.

“—Ah, these ones here are actually ready to be picked—”

And yet…

“—Here, try it!” Umemiya says, standing to his feet with two tomatoes clutched in hand, one that he holds out to Sakura with that sweet smile on his lips.

Was it Umemiya’s scent, a mix of freshly ground coffee and spring blossoms, that had his mouth watering, or was it the tomato that the omega tries to push into his hand? Sakura knew the answer, even as he tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. To try and savour ever bit of that lovely scent that was the omega’s. Sometimes he wondered if Umemiya liked his scent, he’s afraid to find out the answer.

“…I’m good, thanks.”

“Aw, come on! Just one bite, for me?”

His words only have Umemiya pouting and shoving the tomato closer to him, blinking those brilliant eyes down at him, as if he knew that he had Sakura wrapped around his pretty finger. That if he told Sakura to jump, then there was nothing that he could do but follow the command of the one who had unknowingly pilfered his heart.

“You don’t have to whine. I’ll try it,” Sakura grumbles, feeling his face heat at Umemiya’s soft laughter.

The omega was tearing all his efforts apart and forcing his way into Sakura’s heart through hairline fractures to make his home within it. Filling it with a warmth that he hadn’t felt in so…so long. It was exhilarating, this feeling within him, as if Sakura was alive again, his heart fluttering to the beat of Umemiya’s laughter.

That he adored and found himself trying to bless his ears with again, doing all that he could to make that lovely voice pitch in joy, while those kind eyes crinkled in delight. He would devour it, all these little things that Umemiya would sweetly give him unknowingly.

“How does it taste?” the omega asks, curiosity in his gaze and lips stained red from the tomato.

Sweet like the tomato that his teeth tear through now while Umemiya watches on in anticipation, the sun glinting off snow white and windswept hair—that Sakura wished he could rake his hands through.

Did they feel as silky as they looked?

How pathetic was he, to be envious of the wind that had the privilege to touch Umemiya’s skin, tussling his hair and clothes? These feelings were strange, ones that he had been struggling with for weeks now, no, since he had first laid his eyes on Umemiya all that time ago.

Something in his soul had sung when he had met the omega for the first time, no, even before that, his heart had skipped a beat at the sound of his voice during announcements. Making his inner alpha howl and rage within him, demanding that they find the owner of that voice.

And they had.

But how could Sakura have known that the owner of that lovely voice would be the divine being before him? He had come here to fight, because that was what Sakura was good at, not…not whatever this was. Still, he couldn’t say no to Umemiya, not when the omega had caught him heading to the vending machine to grab a drink at the start of lunch and had dragged him up to the rooftop to show-off his latest harvest.

He couldn’t have said no, not to Umemiya.

Not to the omega that Sakura wanted so dearly, to reach over and brush aside Umemiya’s windswept bangs from his gentle eyes—he wanted more than that, didn’t he? Sakura wanted to take the omega as his own and to have Umemiya take him as his alpha.

“Sakura?”

Umemiya’s voice cuts in, dragging him from his meandering and lovestruck thoughts, that only make his face flush further, as if the omega could read his mind.

“What?” he finds himself hissing, the half-eaten tomato threatening to burst in his hands when he clenches it in ire.

The omega gives him a bemused look, that washes away for that familiar kind smile he always graced everyone with. Sakura only wanted Umemiya to gift him with that smile, him and only him…when had he become such a possessive and jealous thing?

Like a child that refused to share their favourite toy, holding it close and running off when faced with the threat of another taking it. But there was no threat here, not when it was just him and Umemiya, who quirks a brow at his techy behaviour.

“Well, how is it? Is it that bad? I mean, mine tastes fine, maybe that’s a bad one or—” Umemiya mumbles, eyeing the tomatoes thoughtfully, his gaze darting to Sakura when he shoves the rest of the tomato in his mouth. “…Maybe not.”

“It’s fine,” Sakura mutters, wishing that he could hide his face that must be as red as those tomatoes that Umemiya adored. “It’s just a tomato.”

Those words have Umemiya humming softly and searching his face, for what, he isn’t sure, but the omega must find what he’s looking for with the fond look that settles in his eyes.

“I think that’s fair to say, but…they tell a story. All the vegetables and fruits that we take for granted,” the omega starts, crouching down before his garden again and reaching out to gently clip another tomato from a stem. “They were grown with love and care by someone, it could be me or anyone else—a farmer, mother, teacher, officer—anyone. To be used in the dishes we eat, on our own or with others. They give us the energy that we need to go through our day, to laugh, smile and live. And there’s beauty in that, isn’t there, Sakura? Making a meal to share with our loved ones?”

“I…”

What did one even say to that? Everything that Umemiya said was right, maybe Sakura cared little for it before, when he was on his own, unloved and lonely—when meals alone were just another reminder of how he had been abandoned, ostracized and rejected.

Rather than what they meant to him now, a moment in time to laugh freely with the ones that had welcomed him into their fold and taught him to trust again. The first friend that he had made when he came to Makochi was Kotoha, wasn’t it? Who he had saved and who had made him a meal at the café that he found himself going to daily, on his own or with the others.

A place that was always filled with happiness and joy, that was the anchor that kept him from drifting away. His first friendship in this town had begun over a meal with something as simple as vegetables, Sakura reflects, his eyes skirting away from the back of the Umemiya’s neck when he stands up from his crouch, another tomato clenched in hand and a chuckle on his lips.

He can’t get used to it, the way that his instincts want him to mark the omega’s neck, unprotected by a collar and on show for all to see. It’s a terrifying thought to imagine what struggle he would have if suppressants and scent blockers didn’t exist. Would he be able to handle the true brunt of all that Umemiya was?

“Hey, relax! It’s not a quiz or trick question,” Umemiya jokes, handing him the tomato before he wipes a hand over his forehead, smearing it with dirt that Sakura found himself wishing he could be. “Give that one a bite.”

Sakura doesn’t get it, a tomato was a tomato, what difference was there to see? But with Umemiya’s words in mind, he brings it to his lips, the flavours bursting on his tongue, the same as it had before.

But it’s different this time, there’s gratitude and a strange warmth in his stomach and heart. These feelings went beyond the tomato that he was biting into now, it was what it represented and meant. Of all the meals that he had with his friends now and the ones that he would have as time went on.

Umemiya must understand him with the way that the omega tilts his head and his lips quirk, when Sakura swallows down the last bit.

“How does it taste now? It’s good, right?”

“Yeah…yeah, it is.”

“Well, there’s more where that came from! Here come help me with these before lunch is over!” Umemiya waves him over, pausing in thought for moment before he turns back to him and holds his pinky out. “We’ll make a meal together from scratch, okay? That’s a promise.”

It felt childish to do this, but those tender eyes on him are ones that Sakura couldn’t say no to. Not in this life or the next, nor the ones that came after.

“Fine. It’s a promise,” he grumbles, reaching out to wrap his pink around Umemiya’s.

To his shame, he can’t help but notice that while Umemiya was larger than him, his hands were smaller than Sakura’s, slender where his were rough…they were pretty, just like the rest of the omega. And just as gorgeous as the breathtaking smile that Umemiya gifts him with.

“I’m gonna hold you to that!”

“Tch, whatever.”

There truly wasn’t anywhere else that Sakura would rather be than here, at Umemiya’s side, watching the omega working away diligently on his beloved garden. Their hands brushing at times, only separated by gloves that Sakura wished he could tear away, to feel that soft skin against his.

Maybe one day, he reflects, eyeing the tomato in his hand, before glancing at Umemiya across from him. Who blinks up at him in confusion, before a smile settles over his beautiful face.

Yes, one day for sure, Sakura would offer his scarred, fractured and still bleeding heart to Umemiya—a gift that he would plead the omega to accept. But he should have known that things weren’t that simple, not when the day that he met the Shishitoren gang arrived and his true nightmare began.

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Sakura had been carrying the fragmented pieces of his heart all these years, held together by duct tape and spite, for this moment. For Umemiya to be the one to put him back together again, with those kind and gentle hands.

His other half, soulmate and fated mated, that’s what Umemiya was.

The one who had thawed the ice within Sakura’s soul and had brought the light back into his life…and yet, Umemiya would always be out of his reach, wouldn’t he? And all because of Sakura’s wretched nature, that he had lost the fight with.

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No matter how much Sakura thought about it, his mind kept trying to jump through hoops to make sense of things. He can’t accept or understand this rage brewing within his gut, that refused to abate no matter how hard he tried to smother it.

He wasn’t the type to be angry over things like this, to hold a grudge and act like a knot head alpha, but he can’t understand how Umemiya could be friends with Choji of all people. The foolish boy who had bitten into that swanlike neck, that he had no right to, and left it a mess of blood and gore.

Umemiya just didn’t care.

Or perhaps, it wasn’t that the omega didn’t care, it was that Umemiya was forgiving, kind, sweet and the apple of Sakura’s eye. All the things that had drawn him to the omega in the first place, but was infuriating him now.

Maybe Umemiya and others cared little because Choji was a beta? There was no fear of a beta forcing a mating bond on an omega, but that mattered little to Sakura, not when he can’t keep his eyes away from those bandages wrapped around Umemiya’s neck.

All he can think of now is being forced to watch Choji bite into Umemiya’s neck, breaking skin and staining the stage in red. He couldn’t stand it, being unable to do anything to help Umemiya, to save the omega.

To not have to live in this reality where the omega’s neck was marred by a bitemark that wasn’t meant to be there.

Not when Umemiya belonged to—

“Sakura,” Umemiya hums at his side, forcing him from his spiraling thoughts and back to the present.

Where Sakura finds himself blinking at the apartment keys in his shaking hand, that Umemiya takes from him to slot into his front door. He can’t clearly remember what had happened between leaving Café Pothos and to now.

It’s fragmented bits and pieces that he can remember, of trying to leave the café after winning against Shishitoren, but…Umemiya had pulled him back, hadn’t he? Sakura had been trying to leave because the rage was threatening to suffocate him if he had to see Umemiya’s bandaged neck any longer, no, that wasn’t right, was it?

He was trying to leave because he had felt wrong and sick, his body overheating in a way that it only did when Sakura was about to have his—

“You okay?” the omega asks, setting a gentle hand between Sakura’s shoulder blades to nudge him into the apartment, with the door clicking shut behind them.

No, Sakura wasn’t okay. Not when Umemiya had been bitten by another, while Sakura had been forced to stand by and do nothing like a forlorn lover. But those words would never reach the omega’s ears, even while he tried to ignore Umemiya’s concerned gaze and forces himself to slide his shoes off at the genkan.

Only to be stopped when Umemiya follows after him close behind after removing his own shoes, grabbing Sakura’s bicep to halt him. To give the omega a chance to press a cool hand to his forehead, his pretty face pinched in concern and bemusement.

“You hit your head pretty hard in your fight with Togame…and you’re burning up,” Umemiya mumbles while coaxing Sakura towards the couch.

If he had felt better, then Sakura would have been embarrassed to have the omega in his apartment. That was sparse, with only a small kitchen next to the front door and a couch across from it in the living area. He hadn’t had time to get anything else, not that it had mattered to him at the time, who did Sakura have to impress?

And yet, he regrets this being the first time that Umemiya saw his home. He had wanted it to be different, maybe it would have been after Sakura had courted him properly and asked the omega to join him for a home-cooked meal using the vegetables they had grown together?

Truly, he’s not even sure why Umemiya said that he would walk him home. No, Sakura was lying if he said that, because he knew that he had been acting strange as the night had gone on at the café. Enough that it had worried Umemiya, who waved the others off, stating that he would make sure that his cute kouhai got home safely.

Had it been any other time, where Sakura felt well, he would have been embarrassed and rejected Umemiya’s attempt to walk him home—not when he wanted to be the one to walk the omega home, as a good alpha should. And yet, he couldn’t say no to Umemiya’s request, not when he had given him that pretty smile that always left Sakura a breathless and flustered mess.

Like now, when Umemiya seats him on the couch before crouching down infront of him, soft hands reaching up to rake through his dishevelled hair. All while those lovely eyes look over the injuries on his body in worry.

“Mhm, there’s no bumps…no concussion…” Umemiya murmurs quietly, tilting his head with a hum when Sakura whines quietly, leaning into his touch. “Do you feel sick—do you feel okay?”

Of course he was okay, the day had gone well, they had kept the town safe again and Sakura had the one who had stolen his heart in his home. The only blight upon his day was the wound hidden beneath those bandages covering Umemiya’s lovely neck that Sakura’s teeth ached to—

“Sakura.”

It’s Umemiya again, his voice tight and pitched low, making something tickle the back of Sakura’s brain. He doesn’t understand it, until he does.

His scent is filling the room, the smell of an agitated alpha, on the cusp of his rut. That Sakura shouldn’t be having so soon, not when he had taken his suppressants as instructed and not when he already had his rut a week ago.

“Umemiya, I…” he tries to say, words slurring, watching with wide eyes when the omega stands to his full height.

Really, it should be terrifying, the height and size difference between the two of them. And yet it wasn’t. Not when all Sakura could see was Umemiya, the omega that had unknowingly taken his heart from his trembling hands with a sweet smile.

“Your rut is starting. I’ll call Hiragi and tell him to bring you supplies if you don’t have any,” Umemiya declares, covering his mouth and nose with his hand, to keep from inhaling Sakura’s scent.

Sakura knew what the scent of an alpha’s rut did to omegas, that it could throw them into a heat or worse.

Much worse.

“I don’t have any supplies…I ran out—I didn’t get a chance to restock. I already had it a week ago,” Sakura rasps, struggling to string his words together and think past the growing heat within his body.

Umemiya reaches down and smooths his hair back, pushing out the soothing scent that only an omega could.

“I know. But…when you’re just a pup, it takes time for the body to regulate ruts or heats properly. You can get them on schedule, not at all or…well, something like this. Strong emotions or high stress—anything really, can trigger a rut or heat in pups. There’s nothing to be ashamed off,” the omega explains, there’s no accusation in his voice.

And yet, it’s only shame that Sakura can feel when Umemiya pulls away, still keeping any eye on him, while taking his phone out from his uniform slacks to call Hiragi. He wanted to be the type of alpha that Umemiya could rely on, not this pathetic…pup, that needed to be doted and coddled.

“Mhm, it’s ringing…”

He knew that Umemiya was filling the air with his scent, an attempt to ease Sakura’s rut and pain, until Hiragi could take over. It stings in a way, that Umemiya doesn’t leave his apartment like most omegas would in the face of an alphas rut.

But of course, the omega wouldn’t, not when he viewed Sakura as nothing but a pup and not a suitor, mate or threat. Usually, Umemiya’s scent would soothe all his fears, hurts and worries, but it does nothing here.

Not when Sakura can smell blood hidden beneath the scent of coffee, spring blossoms and the bandages covering that darling neck.

Sakura wouldn’t forget the blood that had been spilled today infront of a crowd. Umemiya had been debased, hadn’t he? Being bitten by a beta, yes, but still having his neck marred by another who had no right to the omega.

“Ah, it’s going to voicemail…maybe he went to sleep or—”

Shameless, that’s what Umemiya was, if Sakura truly thought about it.

Who had done little to push Choji off, holding him closer if anything, doing nothing that a proper omega should do. It’s an awful thought to have, that Sakura knew he had no right to think, not when he wasn’t that type of person or alpha.

Not when he knew what it was like to be treated less than for things out of his control—of seeing his reflection in the mirror day after day, wondering what it was about his looks that made others treat him so poorly.

Like his mind urges him to do now to Umemiya, to take the omega by his scruff and punish him for letting another taint his nape, for being such a wanton whore—

“Hiragi, hey! It’s me, Umemiya—oh, you probably already know that, right?”

God, what was Sakura even thinking?

“—Give me a call me back as soon as you can.”

This wasn’t him and yet his reasoning was running away from him. Slipping from his grasp, between his fingers as his rut makes itself known.

“Umemiya, y-you need to leave…”

The oblivious and naive omega gives him a concerned look, a frown on those pretty lips that Sakura wanted to fall open for him—to beg him for his touch and mark.

“I’m not going to just leave you like this! All the shops are closed and obviously I don’t have any rut supplies. You’ll get sicker if someone isn’t here to take care of you—to make sure that you eat and drink,” Umemiya mutters, voice muffled by the hand over his mouth, as if he couldn’t bare to inhale Sakura’s scent. It would have been offensive if it was any other situation. But Sakura couldn’t blame him. “I’ll wait outside for now until Hiragi calls me back. Will you be okay on your own or—”

“Yes.”

It didn’t look like Umemiya believed him, not with the way those eyes drift over his flushed and sweaty face, at the way that his body trembles from the rut beginning to take over.

Were all omegas so foolish and naive?

Most Omegas would have some sense to run away in the face of an alpha who was in rut and wasn’t their mate. And yet, Umemiya was acting as if there was nothing to fear. Almost like he believed that he could overpower an alpha in rut, simply because he was the top dog.

Foolish, that’s what this pretty little omega was, who would be screaming for Sakura by the end of the night.

He almost isn’t able to stop the nausea that crawls up his throat at those thoughts, of his damned inner alpha that wanted to twist and mould Umemiya to his desires.

How could he think such awful and foul thoughts about Umemiya? The one who Sakura adored, respected and loved. He had always hated this alpha side of himself, that he tried to repress, to push down with suppressants, because he didn’t want to be like all those knot heads that hurt omegas.

And yet…that’s what he’s doing now, isn’t it?

“…I’ll try calling one of the others to see if they’re available,” the omega announces, face beginning to flush a lovely red, phone still in hand as he takes a step back, his instincts were finally kicking in and blaring that red alarm in that lovely little head of his.

No, Sakura wouldn’t let his omega leave now. Not when all he could smell was the mouth-watering scent that could only belong to an being as sweet and lovely as Umemiya.

His hands are moving against his will, to grab at Umemiya’s wrists, taking him by surprise when he tugs him down onto the couch. Flipping them over until Umemiya’s splayed out beneath him with his wrists clenched in Sakura’s hand above his head. He can distantly hear the clatter of Umemiya’s phone on the floor, muffled by the words that leave him.

“Sakura!” Umemiya’s yelps, nostrils flaring in the face of Sakura’s scent, while he blinks those wide doe eyes up at him, that had no right to be as darling as they were. “This isn’t the time to play around—”

Naive, yes, that’s what Umemiya was, he decides, tilting his head and studying the beautiful omega splayed beneath him. How silly was Umemiya to serve himself on such a divine platter for him, all but offering himself to his alpha by following Sakura home—an alpha in rut.

Almost as if Umemiya had wanted this to happen—

No, no, no, Sakura couldn’t do this. He was better than this and yet his body refused to listen to him, his inner alpha overwhelming him.

Umemiya frowns at his silence, his scent tinged with worry and hair spread out on the couch like a silver halo. He looked like a work of art, a breathtaking beauty that Sakura wanted to take and hide away from the world.

“…Hey, it’s okay. Ruts happen and sometimes they make you act different—I get it,” the omega tries to placate him, shifting and wincing at the way his bones grind from Sakura’s harsh hold. “But, ah, ouch! E-ease up on the wrists!”

How funny was this, that while Umemiya was the exact opposite of what a typical omega should be with his height and strength, he was still slender like one. His dainty wrists held in Sakura’s unforgiving grasp, that offers no mercy, no matter how much the omega struggles, eyes widening at the reality hitting him.

“—Not really a funny joke—”

But Sakura wasn’t the typical alpha either, was he? Too short and small compared to other alphas his age, unlike Umemiya, who at first glance would pass off as an alpha. But…the omega had never hidden his designation, had he?

No, he hadn’t.

Umemiya used the typical suppressants that omegas did, that muffled their scents and made their heats easier to bear—similar to alpha suppressants. And yet, those same suppressants were failing Sakura now. He’s never been so deep in a rut before, but never had Sakura had a rut come again so soon after the last one. Almost as if it had been triggered by—

“—I don’t want to hurt you, but—”

Oh.

“—I’ll use force to get through that thick skull of yours if I have to—”

Yes, things made sense now, didn’t it?

If Sakura tried hard enough, he could pretend that it’s not the glint of fear blooming in Umemiya’s eyes.

His darling Umemiya was his fated omega, just like Sakura had known this whole time and like any good alpha, his rut had been triggered at the sight of his omega being bitten by another, hadn’t it? Like in one of those fairy tales where the prince would go into a rut in the face of his princess being harmed, using that rage and strength to save his fated one.

“Sakura!”

It’s not the call of his name from those lovely lips that drags his attention from his spiraling thoughts, but the tremble in them that he had never heard come from Umemiya before. Not when the omega was the living embodiment of confidence and showed no fear.

Like he does now.

Wide eyes locked onto him when Sakura blinks dumbly at Umemiya beneath him, at his free hand that had rucked up the omegas shirt to reveal his shuddering chest. Covered in bruises and marks from his earlier fight with Choji. It made his inner alpha snarl to see his fated one coloured by the hands of another.

“I’m not mad, but I need you to let go of me…now,” Umemiya demands, no, it’s a command.

Similar to the one that the omega would give to the others and Sakura, that would have them all rushing to obey him. But his inner alpha chuckles in the face of the foolish little omega that dared to command it.

At the way that Umemiya hadn’t broken free or used force like he had said that he would. Because the omega could do nothing, Sakura muses, his hand brushing over a dusky nipple that had his lips pulling up into a smirk at the shudder he gets in response.

Not when Umemiya’s instincts were demanding that he give into the alpha that was holding him down, here and now on this lumpy couch. How pathetic was it, that despite all the advances in medicine, humans were still at the mercy of their baser instincts?

That an omegas instinct would force them to freeze, fawn, fight or run in the face of a predator, an alpha, like Umemiya does now against his will, tilting his head without his say-so to bare that lovely neck of his.

Sakura can see the desperation and dread in those eyes, at the way that the omega tries to fight against his instincts that demand that he give into Sakura—that likely had Umemiya resisting the urge to present himself to him.

He opens his mouth, to do what, Sakura isn’t sure. To tell Umemiya off or beg him for forgiveness? Or maybe to sob and wail, to tell the omega that he wasn’t an alpha like this, that he didn’t want to do this, but only a growl leaves him.

Just as Umemiya was losing to his baser instincts, so too was Sakura. He was losing this war against his inner alpha that demanded he put this omega in his place. That Umemiya was his fated mate, the true reason that Sakura had found himself being drawn to Makochi.

It wasn’t to become the top dog.

No, it was to find his other half, the beauty that laid splayed beneath him, wrists caught in his grasp and those eyes on him. He had wondered what had drawn everyone to Umemiya, hadn’t he?

Everyone was drawn to Umemiya, it wasn’t fair, someone would snatch the naive omega away.

“I’m being serious. Let go of me,” the omega finally snarls, baring his fangs at him. “I’m not asking anymore.”

And yet, it’s all false bravado, from those small omega fangs to the way that Umemiya tried to act tough. He was a sitting duck, one for Sakura to take, break and mate.

As it always should have been.

His mouth finally deems itself to be capable of working now, his lips parting to spill apologies and beg Umemiya for mercy that Sakura didn’t deserve.

But things never worked out for Sakura, did they?

“O-Omega…” he rasps, saliva filling his mouth, as he feels himself losing control of his body the deeper that his inner alpha dug its claws in.

Umemiya’s lips press into a thin line, his face never showing the fear that’s clear as day in his eyes. This wasn’t what Sakura had wanted. No, not really. He wanted Umemiya to be his, and his only, but not like this.

Never like this.

The omega would never accept Sakura as a mate or suitor now, not with what he had done and what he would do, his mind wails to him. He wanted to yell at Umemiya to leave, to use that damned strength that the town was in awe of, to throw Sakura off or beat him to a pulp.

But the pretty omega can’t. Not when Umemiya was a slave to his instincts.

Sakura hated this, the way that his body moved without his say-so, hand tightening around Umemiya’s wrists, making the omega wince and cringe away from his other hand that slides down his chest to where it finds its way to his belt.

“W-woah—wait! Stop!”

This wasn’t what he wanted to do.

He’s not focused on the words tumbling from Umemiya’s mouth, one after the other, while he twists beneath him. Failing to break free, even while he tries to knee him in the stomach, when Sakura’s hand snaps away from his belt to grab at his ankle.

“Don’t—”

When he thinks on it, he’s only ever heard the sounds of bones snapping in a fight, it wasn’t something that Sakura had ever dreamed he would hear outside of one. Nor in the situation that he was in now, with a wounded cry leaving Umemiya when Sakura snaps his ankle with ease, strength augmented by his rut.

“Ah—!”

It’s the worst thing that Sakura’s ever heard.

The sound of the omega’s cry was music to his ears, a beauty that Sakura wished he could bottle to keep at his side forever.

“Beautiful…” he whispers, no, it wasn’t Sakura.

Wretched, terrible and disgusting.

Never.

And yet it was him, whose cock was straining in his slacks at the sight of the exquisite meal in tears beneath him—who lets out a muffled whimper, biting into pink lips to keep his cries in. It’s almost a pity, Sakura would have liked to hear more of them.

“Ngh…s-shit…ha…s-stop—stop!” Umemiya shouts, when Sakura’s hand clenches down on his wrist and ankle.

It wasn’t enough.

“Ah! It hurts—Sakura, you’re hurting me—”

He needed more, he needed to—

“S-stop—” Sakura chokes out, gasping and trying to swallow down the growl crawling up his throat.

Struggling to wrangle his inner alpha and rut, that was ravaging his body, no, more than that. Taking his empathy and love for the world around him away.

It was turning him into a monster.

Alphas were predators that should be put down.

“Y-you’re stronger than this—you’re better than this!” the omega pants, sweat on his forehead from the pain no doubt, but from having to face the full brunt of Sakura’s rut and scent.

That was demanding that he submit to his alpha like a good little omega should.

He’s barely able to force himself to release Umemiya’s wrist and ankle, who lets out a grunt at being jostled when Sakura throws himself off the couch. As far as he can as he stumbles to his feet, backing up until his back hits the wall.

“Ngh, s-shit—ha,” he pants, hands scrambling up to grab at his dual-coloured hair, clenching the locks while his fangs ache and throb with the desire to tear into a lovely neck.

Sakura was losing it, that’s what was happening, this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be…because if it was, then he had hurt the person that he admired so—the one who was his fated mate.

Who forces himself up on the couch, his eyes never leaving where Sakura’s huddled against the wall, jaw clenched from the pain no doubt, but more than that, it was the scent of a feral alpha in rut that Umemiya was trying to block out.

A trembling hand snapping up to cover his mouth and nose again while the omega tried to get up from the couch. Stumbling when he sets his foot down, his ankle, that would be marred by a bruise in the shape of Sakura’s hand, dragging a yelp from Umemiya when he crumples to the ground.

Teeth clenched and holding in the muffled whimper that left him. It’s strange to see Umemiya like this, weak and in pain, when the omega had taken every punch from Choji like it was nothing. But Sakura knew the reason why, didn’t he, despite how he tried to ignore it?

Umemiya was going into heat.

Something that shouldn’t have happened, if not for the fact that his neck had been marred earlier by Choji, throwing his body in a loop, and then for him to take the full brunt of Sakura’s impromptu rut.

“No, no, not here—not now,” Umemiya gasps, his hands scrambling to the pockets of slacks and coat, to find what, Sakura’s not sure.

Until Umemiya pulls out a small packet.

Suppressants, he reflects distantly, wanting to snap at Umemiya to just leave, broken ankle be damned, when the omega lets out a despairing moan and drops the packet to the ground.

It’s empty.

“Oh no—”

“G-go—leave—” he tries to say, his words slurring and vision blurring, body overheating with his sense of reasoning becoming a distant background noise. “Umemiya—just go, you idiot!”

It’s unfortunate that Umemiya can do anything but escape, smothering a groan of pain when he tries to crawl to the front door as fast as he can.

He’s not fast enough.

Sakura knew that and he’s sure that Umemiya was aware of that as well, with the way that the omega’s scent sours all the more with fear and distress. He never wanted his fated mate to be scared of him, no, never, and yet that was what had happened, wasn’t it?

Even if it made his inner alpha preen at the sight of his omega caught within its maw.

Umemiya won’t be able to escape in time, even he got out the front door, he wouldn’t get far with his broken ankle and oncoming heat. Not when Sakura’s body moves before he knows it.

Cutting the space between them in seconds and reaching down to grab the omega’s broken ankle, pulling a broken warble from him when he uses it to drag him in the direction of the couch again.

“Ngh, ah—w-what?!” Umemiya rasps, glassy eyes darting to Sakura, struggling to twist in his grasp and kick back at him, as if that would free from this horror show. “Sakura, stop!”

Whatever kicks that Umemiya does land, feel no different than the feeling of wind against his skin. Sakura can’t say if this was his rut making him stronger or if it was the omega himself becoming weaker the more that his heat took over.

Why?

Just why did Umemiya have to be such a good person and care about Sakura, he wanted to weep. To tear at his hair and scream at the world for giving him a mate as sweet as Umemiya, but to only snuff out any chance between them by allowing this desecration to occur.

He wished that Umemiya had rejected him like so many others had, at least he would have been spared.

It’s laughably easy to wrangle Umemiya onto the couch again, despite their size difference, it didn’t matter. Not when an alpha would always be stronger than an omega, doubly so in a rut.

And Umemiya must know this too, with the way that his face twists in desperation the moment his back hits the couch again. The omega watching him with wide eyes, pressing himself further into the couch, as if he could get away from Sakura by melding into it.

If only fate was so merciful.

But fate was an unkind and vicious thing, that showed no mercy to anyone, including someone as kind and giving as Umemiya. Who would be taken apart, here and now, by Sakura’s forsaken hands. That he wished he could tear off and away from the omega.

He didn’t deserve to lay a single finger on the soft skin beneath his hands, that make short work of pulling Umemiya’s belt off, ignoring the shuddering gasp that leaves the omega.

“Sakura, listen to me—” Umemiya yelps, jaw ticking when Sakura grabs at those weak and sluggish hands that shove at his chest, unable to push him off as his heat worsened.

Maybe that’s the thing that finally broke Sakura, the reality that Umemiya was unable to fight against his baser instincts and designation, despite his strength. That the omega was weak at the end of the day, no matter what he did or said, Umemiya was and would always be an—

“Omega,” Sakura snarls, holding Umemiya’s wrists in one hand.

His other hand wrapping the belt around them, tightening it to the point that Umemiya groans, wincing at the rough treatment, but never giving up, not when he headbutts Sakura, making him gasp in pain as his hand dart up to grab at his bloody nose.

“Ha…you’re gonna have to try harder than that!” Umemiya pants, a smile as bitter as his scent on his flushed face while those pretty eyes look at him, searching for an answer that he wouldn’t find. “I know you’re in there somewhere…”

He’s looking at him with sadness, fear and pity that Sakura doesn’t understand. This omega was his and yet he was making it harder than it should be, acting as if Sakura was the one who should be pitied, rather than Umemiya who was caught within his maw.

“You have to fight it! This isn’t you—ah!”

It’s a pitiful sight to see the way that this omega breaks beneath him, the betrayal and hurt clear in his eyes when Sakura’s hand had snapped out to strike his cheek. That would bruise and be another mark for the omega to remember him by.

Good, that’s what he wanted, for the world to know that this pretty omega belonged to him and only him. That Umemiya was coloured in the marks of his love, ownership and adoration.

And not Choji’s.

Whose mark laid beneath those white bandages that Sakura’s hands scramble for, uncaring of Umemiya trying to buck him off, knowing where this would lead. Of course he would, it was an omega’s greatest fear to be forcefully mated, wasn’t it?

“Wait—”

No, Sakura wouldn’t wait, not when he had wanted, longed and hurt for so long. Not when his Eden was so close that he could taste it. That sweetness that he wanted to coat his mouth and tongue in, that he had sought after all these years.

The beauty that had stolen his heart, bloody and bleeding, was his now.

“S-Sakura—”

The silly omega’s words are white noise, muffled by the sound of his own heart pounding and that pathetic voice wailing in the back of his mind—begging his inner alpha to stop and not lay a hand on the lovely being beneath him.

“Let go, please—”

He cares little for it, what’s right and wrong, not when his eyes lock onto the mark colouring his omega’s neck. The wound was bleeding again in spots that the scabs had been pulled off of when the bandage had been ripped away.

Disgusting, Sakura reflects, a snarl on his lips at the sight of the mark staining Umemiya’s neck. That should only bare his mark and only his. How could he make this omega understand that Sakura wouldn’t stand for this, for Umemiya to flaunt his beauty to the world and others?

To let anyone lay a hand on him, whether in a fight or otherwise, as if they had the right. As if Umemiya wasn’t made for Sakura, to be found by him and—

Sakura gasps, his jaw aching from the strike that Umemiya sends his way with his bound hands, a scowl on those pretty lips and resolve in his eyes.

Beautiful.

That resilience was what had drawn him to the omega in the first place, wasn’t it? Umemiya wasn’t like the typical omega, but he still was breathtaking with that narrow waist, those long legs and a face that eclipsed the beauty of all the stars within the galaxy.

If Sakura could, he would go back in time so he had never come to this town.

“I said stop!” Umemiya pants, sweat dripping from his forehead while he struggles against the throes of this unwilling heat.

And had spared Umemiya from having the misfortune of meeting him.

No, Sakura would never stop, not now and not here. Not when it was his rut and inner alpha that had taken over, pushing him to the depths of his mind while his body followed its instincts to mate with his fated omega.

“Don’t! You can’t—”

His hands tangle in silky strands, uncaring of Umemiya striking at him, satisfaction blooming within him at the broken whine that escapes the omega when he forces his head to the side. Barring his mating gland, spoiled by the bite of another that he wanted to erase with his own.

“If you do this then—”

And so…he does.

“No, Sakura—A-alpha!”

A wounded and guttural wail leaves those bitten red lips, as Umemiya thrashes beneath him when Sakura’s teeth break skin. The taste of iron is so sweet on his lips, bursting upon his tongue and dripping down his throat.

Delicious, Sakura had found his soulmate and fated one. There was no one else in this universe or the next that was made for him. Not when this omega tasted like the last meal that Sakura would plead for.

It’s better than anything Sakura’s tasted, and it almost made him want to bite down harder, to let these fangs of his tear through this neck that he so adored—that would carry the evidence of his ownership forevermore.

“Ngh…ah…”

Perhaps he’s being crueller than he should be to his dear omega and he had been harsh on him thus far, hadn’t he? But could Sakura be blamed when Umemiya had pushed him to this point? That the naive omega had walked him home in the dead of night, as if unaware that he was stepping into the home of an unmated alpha.

Sakura could only wish that this hell would end.

Umemiya seizes beneath him, whimpering and gasping before he stills when Sakura finally releases his neck. It’s a mess of blood that greets his eyes when Sakura leans away with a lick of his lips to gaze upon his work of art.

That he would awake from this nightmare to a world where Umemiya was safe and sound.

Yes, that’s what this was. Umemiya was the canvas that Sakura would paint his desires, love and obsession upon. Even if those lovely eyes were staring up at him in utter betrayal and agony.

Rather than sullied and defiled by Sakura’s hands.

He didn’t want to hurt his pretty omega or for things to go this way, no, Sakura didn’t. But he can’t deny it, that he wanted to make Umemiya his. He didn’t want to hurt the omega and yet…that was what Sakura had done, wasn’t it?

The omega twitches, blinking sluggishly and turning his head towards Sakura when the hold on his hair is released.

“A-alpha…” Umemiya rasps, breath hitching, but he makes no move to fight back, too overrun by the hormones running through him from being mated and his heat.

It’s easy to do what he wills with the omega in the dazed state that he’s in, to reach down and slowly tug his slacks off to reveal those slender legs that Sakura’s thought of more times than he can count. That he runs his hands over, from Umemiya’s ankles to his thighs.

Boxers are what he expected the omega to wear and they’re easy to remove like Umemiya’s slacks, the omega twitching when Sakura pulls them off and throws them to the side. His hands tremble when he lays them on Umemiya’s thighs, as if trying to resist his command, but he gently pushes them apart to eye the space between them.

It’s nothing like he expected and yet, everything that Sakura had dreamed of.

A cunt, that’s what Umemiya had and what they had been taught about different body parts for omegas, alphas and betas. And yet, the sight is still astounding to him. It’s a bit like a flower, like one of the many that Umemiya had started to grow amongst his garden on that rooftop full of memories. He thumbs at it, gently parting the lips to reveal the pink and slick insides that Umemiya had hidden from the world.

That was for Sakura only, from here on out.

There’s no reaction from Umemiya, nothing other than a quiet gasp while the omega’s chest trembles with every breath—he’s too out of it, pupils blown wide and face flushed from his heat and the forced mating.

In a way, it’s a bit disappointing, he had wanted to hunt and take his omega as an alpha should, but to have the omega fall so easily…it left a bad taste in Sakura’s mouth. That washes away at the first taste of Umemiya’s pussy, that he finds himself leaning towards to lap at the slick dripping out.

As if the omega’s body knew that its fated one was here to take it.

Umemiya tasted sweet, a mix of his scents of coffee, spring blossoms and strangely enough, tomatoes. Something in the back of his mind aches at the thought and taste, as if Sakura was forgetting something important.

Stop it, stop it, stop it—

And yet, what could be more important than savouring the meal that he had finally caught after all this time? He’s lapping at the omega’s entrance like a starving man who had been lost in the desert and had finally found his oasis—that parched his thirst and eased the ache within his soul.

Please, please, please—

He’s never tasted anything so divine, nor did Sakura want it to end, even as he feels Umemiya’s walls clenching around his tongue when it slides into his hole. Tasting every little bit of the omega that he could and ignoring the slick that coats his mouth to drip down his neck.

“H-ha…” the omega rasps, legs twitching against Sakura’s head.

It’s almost disappointing that he has to stop here, the need to finally shove his cock and knot into that warm hole taking over. He needed relief, anything to soothe his rut and the pain beginning to course through him. But most of all, he needed to fully consummate their mating like a proper alpha should.

Don’t! Damn you, stop—

There are other ways to go about this, to prepare the omega enough that he’ll take Sakura’s cock with ease, but he had little patience. Not when he pulls his straining cock free from his uniform slacks and shifts to settle between Umemiya’s spread thighs.

“Omega,” Sakura growls, stroking his cock and slicking it with precum.

While his other hand throws Umemiya’s uninjured leg over his shoulder, that he nips at, smiling against it at the whine that leaves the omega.

How long had this been in the making for?

Why had he waited so long when he could have just taken the omega earlier? When Sakura could have pressed Umemiya to the ground on the school rooftop and devoured the meal offered to him.

He eyes the omega’s cunt, flushed and dripping slick, with his cock pressed against the entrance—it looks laughably small, too minuscule to take his dick, let alone knot. But it would fit because the omega was made for him.

And so, he does.

The omega whimpers when Sakura begins to press into him, even when he uses his free hand to rub at his clit—it does little to ease Umemiya, whose face was scrunched in pain when he glances up at it. A pity, he would have liked for his omega to enjoy this, but…

Another time then.

This moment would be for him and only him.

Tight, it’s the first thought on his mind when the head of his cock finally breaches Umemiya, sliding home and bottoming out when he snaps his hips forward. His patience finally cracking and rut in full motion.

“Ah! H-hurts—” the omega groans tearfully, glassy eyes darting from Sakura and to the space between his legs, as if he couldn’t understand the reason for his pain.

To the bulge in his lower abdomen and the blood that’s coating Sakura’s cock when he pulls back out to slam back inside. It had him preening, to be the first and only one that had taken his omega. Who must have dutifully waited for him all these years.

“Stop! Stop, stop, stop—S-Sakura—”

That name sounds familiar, but he can’t think beyond that, not when he’s focused on trying to ease the boiling heat in his gut. To fuck into the sweet prize and omega that was split open on his cock, who weeps so beautifully.

“H-ha—”

That was what this omega was, the leash that would keep him from losing control and taking this rage that he had carried within him out on the world—a collar and muzzle, to stop him from staining the streets in the blood of the ones who had hurt him.

His darling star, that would shine so brightly for him, now and always.

The omega still struggles, writhing beneath him and continuing to slam his bound hands against what part of Sakura that he could. Cute. The omega was adorable in the way that he still fought against destiny and fate that led them to this moment.

“Slow down, please! Slow—”

Where the omega’s eyes widen when a moan is forced from those pink lips when Sakura ruts into him. At the pleasure that must be beginning to settle in within him, as his body betrayed him and made him clench around Sakura in want.

“N-no—No! I don’t—stop!” Umemiya weeps, scrambling to pressing his bound hands to Sakura’s lower abdomen, as if he could stop him from making him feel this pleasure. “No, no, no!”

“Yes,” he snarls, drool pooling in his mouth and dripping down onto the omega’s chest that shudders with breathless sobs. “Omega. Mine.”

How strange, most omegas would have lost themselves to their heat, and yet this pretty star continued to fight back. Wonderful. This omega was strong and the type that would bear him worthy heirs.

The omega’s voice pitches with a broken whine when one of Sakura’s hands drifts down to his cunt again to rub at his clit. Making Umemiya’s mouth fall open, a moan and cry being forced past those pretty lips.

“Oh!”

Gorgeous.

That’s what this omega—

No, Umemiya. This was Umemiya and Sakura was—

“Omega,” Sakura grunts, his thoughts falling away at the tight heat that flutters around him with every snap of his hips and flick of his finger against that flushed nub.

“Don’t touch me!”

He knew that the omega was close with the way that his back begins to arch, head thrashing against the couch and his body trembling from the way that Sakura plays him like a fiddle. It's as if he knew the omega’s body like the back of his hand, knowing just where to lick, suck and fuck to make him sing for his alpha.

Umemiya strains, as if trying to stop the inevitable from happening, that had his lovely doe eyes dart up to Sakura’s, a desperate plea within them. “No, I don’t—I can’t! I can’t—stop it!”

Even with the way that the omega weeps and tried to get away, his true feelings couldn’t be hidden. Sakura knew that the omega wanted this, how could he not with the way that his body clenches around his cock, as if trying to keep him from leaving?

“You can,” he growls, knowing that this was their destiny, despite how much the omega tried to deny it.

“No, I’m—n-no—!” Umemiya babbles, jaw clenching as he swallows down the moan that tried to escape, muffling it when he falls apart on Sakura’s cock. “Mmph!”

It’s too much and not enough at the same time, the way that the omega’s cunt tries to milk him for all that he’s worth. Clenching and tightening around him sporadically, until all Sakura can do is fall apart in turn.

The omega must know what’s to come when he feels Sakura’s knot begin to catch on his entrance, forcing him to come to life again. Punching and hitting any part of Sakura that he can, that he barely feels.

“Not inside! Not—Sakura—not inside!”

Foolish little omega, where else would he spill his seed, but within the future mother of his children? He feels a snarl pull at his lips while his thrusts become erratic, slamming into Umemiya and making his body jolt against the couch.

“P-please—”

Filling the room with the slick sounds of their mating and Umemiya’s sobs—that he wished would end. They made his heart twist in a strange way that Sakura couldn’t understand. But something within him was weeping and breaking, nothing else could explain the way that his vision blurs, nor the tears dripping from his eyes.

“I know you’re in there—”

A wounded keen leaves the omega when Sakura finally comes, his knot forcing its way inside him. A distant part of him thinks that it must be painful, to take a knot and it looked like it hurt, with how Umemiya’s tear-filled eyes clench shut. Quiet gasps leaving him, those hands clenched against the omega’s chest that hitches with every sob.

“N-no…”

Whatever happened, seemed to have put the omega in a listless state, eyes looking distant and staring past Sakura at the ceiling above them, while they wait for his knot to go down. He laps at the fresh mating bite while they wait, a pathetic attempt at an apology to his omega, though it’s unsurprising that it does little.

It could have been minutes or hours before Sakura’s knot deflates, but he doesn’t pull his cock out, not when he’s hard again. His rut gives him no mercy and the omega twitches when he shifts, tired eyes sliding down to the mess between his legs.

At all the blood and cum that’s coating them, a despairing moan leaving him at the sight of Sakura’s hard cock.

“Please, I can’t! Not again! J-just let me rest—”

The omega could rest when Sakura’s rut was over and he was carrying his heirs, then and only then, would he be given the mercy that he so desperately sought. He bites at the mating mark again harshly in punishment, to make the omega hurt for continuing to try and reject him.

It’s easy to fuck into the omega thereafter, even while Umemiya whimpers, weeps and pleads beneath him. Sobbing for him to stop, for someone named Sakura to come back to him and—

“S-Sakura!” the omega weeps openly, bound hands punching his chest, as if he could finally find his strength again and go against his biology. “Y-you promised!”

(“When I said punches are a language, I didn’t mean actual words. I meant they’re a way to make thoughts known. To understand. A method older than language. More primitive. So, what they can convey is also primitive.)

“You promised that we’d make a meal together—” Umemiya tries to say, words breaking off into a pained whine when he pounds into him roughly.

(“Primitive how?”)

The omega talked too much about things that Sakura couldn’t understand, that made him want to tear his own heart out to stop it from hurting. But…Sakura had promised Umemiya that, hadn’t he?

(“Y’know, things like love and hate.”)

And yet, here he was, breaking that promise because Sakura was a slave to his instincts, unable to free himself from the hold of his inner alpha and save Umemiya from himself.

He was a wretched thing, a monster and freak like all those people had called him.

Sakura had been trying to run from their words and cruelty, but maybe because a part of him knew that they weren’t wrong. They couldn’t be, not with how he’s hurting the one who held the other half of his heart.

“I—S-sorry—” he chokes out, his tears dripping onto Umemiya’s bruised chest.

Umemiya breaks all the more at his pathetic apology, as if understanding that Sakura was trapped within the confines of his body and suffering too. He’s never hated himself more. Sakura’s not sure what look he had on his face, but it’s one that makes the omega’s tears fall all the faster.

“…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Umemiya rasps, jaw ticking at every shift that no doubt made his aching cunt hurt all the more. The omega swallows down a pained whine, bringing his bound hands up to loop around Sakura’s neck, dragging him down and allowing Umemiya to press his face against the crook of his neck—that dampens with tears as he weeps. “It’s okay. D-don’t cry. It’ll be okay—everything will be fine.”

“S-sorry, Umemiya. Sorry. I’m sorry—”

“It’s okay,” he sniffles, as if Sakura hadn’t ruined everything.

Still, the apology is nothing in the wake of his rut, that showed no signs of easing, that Sakura loses himself too again. Falling into the backseat of his body while his instincts take over. While he fucks into the omega roughly, uncaring of how his body jolts with every thrust and makes his injuries ache.

Not when he’s close, when he can feel his knot catching on the omega’s pussy, that strains against it while he pounds into it, until it finally locks them together again. With him curling over Umemiya, arms on either side of his head, so close that he can feel the omega’s every shuddering breath against his lips when Umemiya pulls his bound arms back to look up at him.

When Sakura can count every single lash and all the tears that spill free from those eyes that had every star in the universe within them—that look at him in hurt, resignation and…forgiveness.

“Omega…” Sakura rasps, leaning down to capture those pretty pink lips as tender hands cradle his face, wiping his own tears away while he devours the sobs that Umemiya gifts him as his thrusts become erratic.

It doesn’t feel good, not truly, when he spills into the omega again, who clenches down around him, body spasming from his own release. The omega whimpers when Sakura follows his instincts that demand that he leans down again to lap at the freshly bitten mating gland.

It’s sweet, this blood, like the tomato that the omega—that Umemiya, had shared with him all that time ago. Was it worse to have these moments of clarity and awareness, where Sakura was able to catch glimpses of what he was doing to Umemiya, or would the alternative be worse?

To be unaware of what he did and would do to his falling star?

The omega shudders beneath him, so different from the Umemiya that he knew, who would fight to his last breath and wouldn’t give up. Who would do anything other than tremble and weep like the omega does now, neck a bloody mess while the air was filled with their scents.

“Ume…miya…”

“I’m here. Sakura, it’s okay. I’m here,” Umemiya whispers, despite looking as if he wished for death to take him.

“S-sorry…I’m sorry…” he weeps, vision blurring and his cock twitching to life again within Umemiya.

He’s not sure if it hurt more to know that Umemiya would forgive him for this and everything else that Sakura would do to him. It killed him either way, to know that he had been the one to pluck this beautiful star from the sky to crush within his palm.

How pathetic was it that Sakura chased after the darkness at the edges of his vision, that begins to take over after he’s taken Umemiya for what had to be the fifth time now—to run from reality and those tender eyes filled with forgiveness.

─────────

Umemiya had found Sakura to be interesting in more ways than one. This alpha, nothing but a pup, who had come to take his spot as the top dog. Endearing, that’s what Sakura was. And so, what if he found the way that the alpha blushed at the sight of his smile cute?

Could he be blamed when Sakura was the one that Umemiya felt himself being drawn to?

Almost as if it was fate or destiny, and it might have been with the way that he found Sakura’s scent so wonderful. That made all of Umemiya’s fears abate and put him at ease.

Even during his fight with Choji, when his inner omega reared its ugly head in the face of being bitten. That almost had him breaking apart there, but he couldn’t, not when Sakura was watching and cheering him on.

Not when Sakura’s scent, the musky scent of the morning rain and burning wood, soothed all his terror and brought him back into himself.

How strange, it was almost as if Sakura was his—

─────────

Umemiya’s not sure what hurt more, the utter betrayal from his own body or the pain of knowing that Sakura would blame himself for all that had happened and would happen.

An outcome that was out of their control.

He wished that he could soothe the hurt that this nightmare would bring, that he could still face Sakura in the aftermath of all this. A part of Umemiya blamed himself, for being so stupid to not leave and wait outside when he realized that the alpha’s rut was beginning.

“H-hurts…” he rasps, trying to blink the dark spots from his eyes, his body felt wrong, as if it was his, but wasn’t.

And it wasn’t his anymore, was it?

Not when his neck throbs, making him wince and bite down on a whimper that threatened to escape. He can’t do anything like this, not with Sakura’s arms wrapped around him and his knot still trapped within him.

It hurts.

More than anything that Umemiya had ever experienced before, there’s been no fight or injury, that could compare to the pure agony radiating from between his thighs. From his cunt that he knew would be a mess of blood, slick and cum if he were to look.

He doesn’t want to.

And he refuses to, because…if he looked and saw the evidence of what had occurred, then he wouldn’t be able to pretend that everything was okay. That Sakura hadn’t gone into a rut and taken Umemiya apart.

His strength doesn’t come back to him, his body sluggish and coming down from the heat—struggling to make sense of this forced mating. He always hated his heats, not because he was ashamed of being an omega, but he abhorred what it entailed.

They made him weak in a way that he despised, trapping him within the confines of his home and nest until it passed. Too weak to fight back, not when all that his body could focus on was finding relief and when his strength was all but sucked out of him.

Truly, it wasn’t a secret that Umemiya was an omega, and he hadn’t been treated differently for it by the others…only when his heat was nearing, making them overprotective, knowing that he was at his weakest and most vulnerable.

“…S…aku…ra…” Umemiya croaks, biting down on a whine when the alpha shifts, tugging at the slowly deflating knot inside him.

Would it be better if he woke Sakura up or should Umemiya collect himself and leave? He could pretend that none of this had ever happened and…and…

There was no way that Umemiya could pretend that nothing happened when his neck was marked by Sakura.

And yet, pretend he would, because if nothing else, Umemiya had to be strong for Sakura. Who would punish himself to the end of time for what had happened. It wasn’t his fault, even if all he wanted to do was blame the alpha—when Umemiya wanted to scrub his skin until it was raw, broken and weeping red.

He would never be clean again.

Umemiya’s never been sure of anything else before. It’s a foreign feeling and a distant thought while he slowly untangles himself from Sakura, but this had been his first time, hadn’t it? He’s not sure if it was Sakura’s first time, he hoped not, Umemiya didn’t think that he could feel any sicker.

But he does.

It’s pathetic, the way that he stumbles off the couch and drops to the ground with a pained whine when that knot pulls out of him. He had forgotten his broken ankle, but even beyond that, everything hurt too much. His legs wouldn’t hold his weight, not after his body had been taken more times than he could count.

Disgusting, that’s the first word that comes to his mind when he gasps against the floor at the feeling of wetness spilling from his aching cunt. At the mess of red and white that would be clinging to his lower half. He had to leave and go somewhere far from here, because…

No, Umemiya couldn’t leave Sakura to pick up the pieces alone, not that he could go anywhere with this broken ankle. Still, he would rather be anywhere but here, but here is where he would be until Sakura woke up.

The only mercy that he’s grateful for is that at some point Sakura must have removed the belt binding his wrists, though, it mattered little in the end, didn’t it?

He doesn’t have to wait long, fortunately or unfortunately, the alpha shifts what has to be 10 minutes later. When Umemiya had given up on trying to drag his broken body to the bathroom, to try and clean up some of the mess—to erase the feeling of hands in places that they shouldn’t be.

“Mhm…”

Sakura wasn’t to blame, but Umemiya can’t help the way that his body stills in fear from where he’s curled up on the floor next to the couch—his head snapping up just in time to lock eyes with Sakura’s sleep filled ones.

That stare at him blankly for a moment before they widen and a keen leaves Sakura, who scrambles up and heaves. Hands darting to cover his mouth, but even that must fail with the way that Sakura leans to the side of the couch to throw up.

“Gah…ha…”

“Sakura—”

“No, no, no—please. I—no, please tell me that I didn’t—this is a bad dream,” Sakura babbles, wiping at his mouth before turning to him with wild eyes filled with a desperation and a plea that Umemiya can’t answer.

“I’m sorry.”

Umemiya’s not sure what he’s sorry for at this point. For coaxing Sakura into letting him walk him home, for not leaving at the first sight of the alpha’s rut or was it because he knew that their lives were changed forever now?

That they were tied together for the rest of eternity, all because of the mark that aches on his neck that Sakura’s gaze dart to know. Making the alpha heave again over the side of the couch with a sob.

“S-shit! No, shit, shit, shit—”

How did one explain this to, not just their friends, but…to the world? Umemiya’s ankle was broken, he needed to have it treated and with the state that he was in, it would be clear to anyone with eyes what had happened. He couldn’t bare to see Sakura punished for something out of their control.

“Sakura.”

“Oh god, f-fuck. No, ah, shit—this isn’t happening—”

The alpha was losing it, switching between heaving and grabbing at his hair with tears in his eyes. He didn’t want to be cruel or rush Sakura, but Umemiya was…hurting. Everything ached and throbbed, as if someone had stabbed him with a poison coated dagger.

“Sakura—”

“This isn’t real—”

“Sakura, get yourself together!” he snaps, watching the alpha jolt at his raised voice, at the way that his scent soured all the more, despite how hard Umemiya was trying to push out a soothing scent. “I…I need to go to the hospital.”

It’s only now that he can see that Sakura finally was getting a good look at him, at the bruised, bloody and debauched state that Umemiya was in. At the mess clinging to his skin, the partially scabbed mating bite on his neck and at his broken ankle.

That’s swollen, red and hurting with every breath that he took, though Umemiya tried his hardest to keep the pain off his face. He must not be doing a good job with the way that Sakura’s face falls and a guttural whine leaves him.

“S-sorry! Oh, fuck, I’ll—I’ll call an ambulance,” Sakura chokes out, scrambling to his feet and stepping over their clothing scattered around the room.

“Don’t,” Umemiya sighs, watching Sakura still where he’s grabbed his phone from the floor, confusion flicking through his horrified and pained stare.

“What do you mean don’t?! Look at you! You’re—”

“If you call them, you’re going to get yourself arrested.”

“…Good. I should be! I’m a monster—”

“No, you’re not. You’re…you’re a good person, Sakura. This isn’t your fault,” it's my fault, he wanted to say, giving Sakura what he hoped was a kind smile. “Just give me my phone and I’ll call Hiragi.”

“Umemiya—”

“Please.”

Sakura does as he’s told, handing him his phone that had been laying in the corner of the room, and grabbing a blanket on the way back. Throwing it over Umemiya’s shoulders before he scrambles away as if burnt.

He hated this, to have Sakura punish himself for crimes that weren’t his fault. But Umemiya was tired and hurt, he just wanted to go home, take a bath and sleep this off—to find mercy in the reprieve of sleep before he awoke to the reality of what had happened.

“You should go somewhere else for now,” he mumbles wearily, punching in Hiragi’s number, before glancing away from his phone and towards Sakura who was throwing his clothing back on.

The alpha pauses, giving him a bemused look. “I can’t just leave you here! What if—”

“Hiragi will kill you if he gets here and sees this. He won’t listen if you’re here,” Sakura opens his mouth to argue, even though he looked as if he wanted to run away as well, but his mouth clicks shut at Umemiya’s plead. “Please, alpha.”

Sakura looked ill at his words, giving him a jerky nod before he’s scrambling to finish putting his clothing on and running to the door. Where he stops, waffling and body jerking as if wanting to go back to Umemiya. And he felt it too, that pull from the new bond between them that demanded they stay close to one another.

But he couldn’t.

Not now and not when all Umemiya wanted to do was fall apart in peace.

“Go. I’ll…I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Umemiya says, gaze drifting over to Sakura, who looked so young.

Too young to be dealing with something like this and yet he would have to—they would have to, wouldn’t they?

“P-promise me,” Sakura whispers, flinching at his own words that he scrambles to take back. “I mean—you don’t have to—”

He gives Sakura what he hopes is a reassuring smile, though he’s sure that it eases none of his worries in the present state that he’s in.

“It’s a promise.”

Sakura gives him one last searching look, eyes swollen and filled with bitter tears, before he disappears out the front door. Leaving Umemiya to glance at his phone clenched in his trembling hand when it starts to ring moments after Sakura had left.

“Hiragi? Hey, it's me, Umemiya. Yeah, I know that you know it's me, but…” he starts, lips wobbling and strong front beginning to crack in the aftermath of all that had happened. “Ah…c-can you come get me? Please?”

All he could do now was wait, Umemiya muses to himself when the dam bursts, failing to keep his tears and sobbing at bay. Listening to Hiragi's concerned voice while his mind struggled to make sense of how to tell the others—of how to keep everyone from killing his naive and sweet alpha.

Yes, that’s what Sakura was to him now, wasn’t he? His mate and the one that he would be tied to for the rest of their lives.

Whether Umemiya or Sakura wanted it.