Ryuji and Kellan Tsutsumi were surprised when they received the call from Aosh’s principal. Their child had good grades and obeyed the rules, so it was odd to hear the stern voice over the phone say that they needed to have a meeting; an urgent one at that.

Luckily, Kellan worked from home and Ryuji,by the grace of his mother-in-law whom he worked for, was allowed to get off early. The two sat patiently in the principal’s office while they waited for their child to be fetched. Fluorescent lights illuminated the primary colors that littered the room in the form of a small table with equally small chairs, several posters with positive sayings, and childrens books in various bookcases.

Ryuji played with the buttons on his shirt, not really too concerned why they were there. Kellan on the other hand racked his brain to figure out what could’ve happened. For as calm and stoic as he looked on the outside, he tended to be a closet worry wart. Improbable scenarios ran through his brain, going so fast he couldn’t even focus on one to worry on at a time; it was beginning to become a garbled mess in his head.

Without looking up, Ryuji reached out and gave the Alpha’s thigh a reassuring rub. He knew his husband long enough to know when his brain was about to overheat.

Witnessing it over a multitude of situations, whether it was because a manuscript wasn’t going to be finished on time or they forgot to pick up something important from the store, Kellan had a tendency to ‘shutdown’ when his head was thinking about too many things at once. The hand the Omega placed on his thigh rubbed small, soothing circles into the fabric of his pants. It was a small gesture but it helped the Alpha come down from his own thoughts.

The door opened finally. In walked the principal, a Beta female in a very modest business-casual pantsuit, and next to her their child with his head hung low.

“Aosh take a seat.” the principal said, bringing a child sized chair next to Ryuji, patting it once for emphasis. 

Aosh quietly complied, refraining from looking at his parents. This only caused Kellan to worry more and Ryuji to narrow his eyes in suspicion. This child was just as talkative as his father; for him to be this silent was…odd to say the least.

“Thank you both for being able to come on such short notice, I’m afraid this couldn’t wait much longer as it needs to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible. Your son has been very disruptive in the classroom as of late and even went so far as to bite another child today at recess.”

“What?!” the men exclaimed.

They both eyed the boy in question, as if their mild mannered baby was even capable of doing such a thing. Aosh continued to look down at his lap; his bottom lip jutted out in a pout and his eyebrows furrowed. The principal continued.

“I can sense that this isn’t usual behavior at home?”

“Yes… He is usually very talkative but never disruptive and he’s never bitten anyone before, even when he was a toddler.”Kellan explained.

“What kind of things are happening in the classroom?” asked Ryuji.

He put a hand on Aosh’s back in an act of reassurance that they weren’t mad at him. The Omega could tell the boy was two seconds away from becoming a bawling mess by the way he held himself. It would be impossible to get him to talk if that happened. Before Aosh could answer his father, the principal cut in.

“He’s been getting into arguments with his classmates and teacher on multiple occasions, all regarding that ‘thing’ on his arm.”

Both fathers failed to notice when the other two came in, but it was clear now that Aosh was holding one of his forearms close to his chest; the arm that was wrapped in bandages only two weeks prior. Ignoring the cold tone of the principal, Ryuji prodded his son for an answer in a gentler tone.There was a moment of silence before Aosh’s small voice could be heard.

“…My classmates keep making fun of me for my mate mark…my friends said Tiza was stupid…I told them not to talk about Tiza like that and I didn’t want to be friends with them if they said mean things about Tiza.” He clutched his arm tighter as he continued.

“Sabrina was telling me I need to get it removed like a regular Alpha. Like her parents took her to get her mate mark removed…She kept getting in my face and I screamed at her to go away. She went away…but she came back and said that if I wasn’t going to remove it then she would…She took the teacher’s marker off her recess clipboard and-and-and-” Aosh couldn’t finish his sentence through the tears that started freely flowing down his flushed cheeks.

“What did Sabrina do,honey?” Kellan implored. Aosh slowly showed them the arm he had kept close to his person. Where the mate mark was, there was now a giant black scribble over it, a child-like attempt at crossing the words out; it looked to be done in permanent marker. There were smudges around the outside of the marks, like someone had tried to rub it off with no avail.

The fathers glanced at each other only briefly before Ryuji asked if that was the reason why he bit her. His wild mane of hair bounced ever so slightly at the minuscule nod he gave them;still not daring to look up from his lap. The principle interjected.

“When his teacher reprimanded him, he chose to yell at her as well and refused to apologize. She tried to tell him it wasn’t worth hurting one of his friends over and that mate marks are insignificant; he wanted to argue with her and tell her she was wrong. Now, this has been occurring ever since he came to school without those bandages on and it has only escalated since then as you can see. I strongly suggest getting that blemish removed and you teach your son how to respect authority. Despite his sub-gender being Alpha, he is not above his teachers or his friends.”

“Wait, you think this is because he is asserting his dominance?!”Ryuji said incredulously.

“I think that’s exactly what it is.It isn’t uncommon for Alpha males to become aggressive, I’m sure you know, Mr. Tsutsumi.”

Ryuji gasped. Whether this bitch was implying that he had to deal with aggressive Alphas because he was an Omega, or insinuating that his docile, worry wart of a husband was aggressive, Ryuji was offended either way.

‘I’ll show her aggressive’ he thought as he rose to his feet. Kellan reached a hand out to stop him but it was quickly shook off.

“Listen here, how dare you think we haven’t taught our son about respect. How dare you tell me what to do with my child’s body, and how dare you think my son is being aggressive for the sake of being aggressive. My son only reacted the way he did because he was being bullied and ignorant people are feeding him a fucked up narrative about how he should live his life.”

At this point Ryuji was leaning over the large mahogany desk that separated them. He tried to evoke an air of intimidation, but the Beta simply ignored the words spat in her face and addressed the other parent.

“Would you please reign in your husband, Mr. Tsutsumi.”

Ryuji would’ve already been over the desk had his husband not pulled him back. The Omega clenched his teeth at the blatant lack of respect; his face flush with anger. Kellan quickly spoke before his husband could go on another tirade.

“We will definitely have a serious talk with Aosh when we get home. In regards to his mark,… we will consider it.” Kellan tried not to notice the intense glare coming from his spouse.

“Thank you for being more reasonable. I’ve already talked to his teacher to work out a suitable punishment for the next week after school. Oh, I’ll also give you this.”

She reached into a drawer and pulled out a pamphlet. It contained information about mate mark removal, that much the Alpha could tell from the outside. Reluctantly he grabbed it.

He ushered Aosh, who was quiet once more, and his husband out of the suffocating office. Once out of the office, neither man said a word until they reached their car in the parking lot. Ryuji hoisted Aosh into his car seat and didn’t fail to notice the steady stream of tears still falling from his eyes. Using the sleeve of his shirt to gently wipe away the tears, he cupped his son’s face to look at him.

“I need to talk to your Dad, ok? So just sit tight.” A gentle nod was all the response he got. Closing the car door, Ryuji came to where Kellan stood; waiting behind the car.

From inside the car the little Alpha could hear his parents arguing. They very rarely fought like this and the angry muffled voices caused Aosh to shrink in on himself and cry even more. Tiny sobs racked his body as he rationalized that they were fighting because of him; that it was all his fault his parents were unhappy. Today had been a roller coaster of emotions for the boy and Aosh didn’t want to think about what happened anymore, but every time he looked at his arm he saw those ugly black marks.

It brought back the intense feelings of that moment every time he looked at it. Feelings of fear and anger; like Sabrina had physically taken his favorite thing and smashed it to pieces in front of him and made fun of him for even liking it. The boy couldn’t even remember biting her; he barely remembered yelling at his teacher as she scolded him, that’s how angry he was.

As tears continued to fall and fell onto the graffitied arm, fruitlessly Aosh tried to rub the offensive marks away. Solemnly he wondered if he would ever see Tiza’s name again, whether the marks would ever fade or if his parents decided to have his mark removed.The thought scared him and he clutched the forearm to his chest once more.

For something the boy only had for a little more than a few weeks it was the most important thing in the world to him. He stayed like that, holding his arm in silence until his fathers returned to the car. The ride home was quiet until Aosh found the heart to speak up.

“Daddy…Papa… are you going to make me get rid of Tiza?”

A moment of silence.

“Aosh, honey, we aren’t going to make you do something you don’t want to. Do you want to get rid of Tiza?” Kellan looked into the rear view mirror at their son. Seeing his son in so much pain made his chest hurt.

“No!”

“Do you understand that it was wrong to bite your friend? And that you’re not supposed to yell at people just because they hurt your feelings?” Ryuji questioned.

“What should I do then…?”

Ryuji clammed up, realizing he definitely was not the best to answer this as his immediate reaction earlier was to leap over that bitch’s desk to shut her mouth for her. Noticing this, Kellan picked up where he left off.

“Sometimes…sometimes we have to be nice even when our feelings are hurt. Even if a friend or your teacher makes you mad or sad it’s better to not yell or bite because it doesn’t make you feel better. When things like this happen it’s always better to be nice, stay friends,and respect others. Do you understand?”

The boy nodded.

It’s not the answer Ryuji would’ve given. Kellan was very non confrontational and Ryuji was the opposite. As much as he wanted his child to stand up for himself and not get walked over by others, the reality was he was almost seven and dealt a better hand of life then the Omega was growing up; definitely without the need to be so harsh to those who treated him poorly. As much as Ryuji hated the passive minded advice his husband gave he truly didn’t have anything better to say.

Children could be cruel and he was certain that this wouldn’t be the last situation like this they would have to face; Aosh was his child after all, once he decided on something it was hard to get the boy to change his mind. Ryuji just hoped that his son would learn from experience and remember what consequences were reaped from his actions and that he would grow stronger from it.

Aosh truly was like Ryuji in many ways, because in his delicate heart he had steadily decided on three things. That he would never make his parents this mad ever again,always try to not hurt others,and that he would protect Tiza at all costs; especially from permanent markers.