Tiza fully expected to see the Alpha the next morning in the usual way, sitting at the same table with his coffee ready to go. So he was a little surprised when he came in and Aosh was nowhere to be found. This was the first time he had to pay for his coffee in weeks.

Was it a little entitled of him to feel annoyed? He should be happy, that means the Alpha was finally going to leave him alone. It’s not like he was expecting to see him today anyway, it’s not like he brought Aosh’s phone to give back to him or anything.

Instead of heading home, Tiza chose to take a seat at Aosh’s usual table. He sat there for a while, drinking his coffee and taking small bites of his muffin, trying to draw out the time he spent there. His eyes kept coming to the door when someone walked in, expecting to see the Alpha saunter in.

‘What am I doing?’ he finally asked himself.

  He felt stupid sitting here and waiting. Getting up abruptly he grabbed what was left of his muffin and angrily chucked it into the trash can and walked out the door.

The next day was the same. Tiza went to the coffee shop and waited then left when Aosh never showed. This was a good thing, he told himself. This was exactly what he wanted.

‘Then why do I feel so angry?!’

Tiza couldn’t focus during his lessons, or even in the quiet of his own home. Even in his room, his sanctuary, there was no solace. Those damn flowers kept reminding him of the harsh words he said to Aosh. His guilty conscience weighed on him like a ton of bricks that only became heavier and heavier as he realized how cruel he had been.

He always thought protecting himself no matter what the cost was, was how he should be handling things, even if it was at the expense of others. Tiza had long decided to no longer give a fuck about what others thought, he preferred to be alone because the only person who couldn’t hurt you was yourself.

It’s only when other people got involved that things became messy and things had indeed become messy. His mind felt like a mess; guilt, anger, shame, and a warm feeling he couldn’t put a name to all mingled together haphazardly within his head.

Tiza couldn’t even understand the last feeling, all he knew that Aosh had caused it; and knowing that brought about the other emotions. By the third morning of not seeing the Alpha sitting there with that stupid smile and offering him coffee, Tiza felt suffocated by the onslaught of his emotions and left without getting anything.

He returned home promptly, the Omega’s mind was set on only doing one thing. Approaching Momo in the middle of making breakfast for herself, he asked, as kindly as he could, if she could drive him somewhere before she headed to work. She eyed him after the Omega said where he wanted to go.

“You know he won’t be happy that you’re going there again.”

“I know, that’s why I’m asking you to take me, and I know you’re not a snitch.”

Momo chuckled while she plated her food.

“So what’s his name?” her chuckle turned into a mischievous smile.

“It’s not like that.” the Omega followed her to the table and sat next to her.

“Mhm, sure it’s not,” she took a bite of her omelet, “So those flowers just magically disappeared from the trash by themselves?” an accusing fork was pointed in his direction.

“You went into my room?!”

“Ha! Didn’t have to,” she grinned, happy she got the answer she was looking for. The atmosphere shifted into a more serious one as she questioned him further.

“Is this guy actually messing with you, or is Sean getting ahead of himself again?”

“Well, yes, or er-, no really…I think at this point it’s the other way around…” Momo chewed in silence, studying Tiza curiously, “It’s complicated! Look, all I know is that there are still some things I have to say to him.”

“Well, it’s your business so I won’t butt in like my husband, but… if I catch wind of anything happening I will do something about it; you’re like a brother to me too ya’ know.”

At this point, she had finished her meal and placed the dirty dishes in the sink.

“Let me get changed and then we can go.”

The farmers market had only been open for a few hours before Tiza arrived, but he hoped Aosh would be working this early in the day. It was the only time he could come since Sean had classes he taught this early; he only had so much time during the day when his brother wasn’t around.

Entering the open space filled with vendors and customers flitting about, Tiza quickly realized he didn’t know where Aosh usually worked. He walked around aimlessly before remembering that the first time they saw each other here the Alpha was working one of the cash registers up at the front.

He had no luck up at the front either until one of the managers saw that he looked a little lost and approached him.

“Did you need help with something, sir?”

“Um, yeah…is Aosh working today?”

“Oh he’s unloading a truck right now, let me go get him for you.” They turned and walked away before Tiza could say anything.

Tiza stood there for a while and awkwardly waited. He stared out at the bustling market and began to lose the courage he built up before he came here. After all that he said could he really face the other so soon? Tiza had already decided that he had to, but as the time drew closer his nerves began to get the better of him. Turning on his heel he began to leave.

Until he ran into somebody and fell to the dirt and then was covered from above in more dirt.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorr-“

Aosh stood above him, the large bag of soil he was carrying lay busted open on the ground by Tiza’s feet, half of its contents covered most of the Omega.

Ok, this was the third time the Alpha had made him come tumbling to the ground since they’d known each other. At this point, it was getting a little ridiculous.

The apology got lodged in Aosh’s throat seeing Tiza again, the last time he saw the other the Omega was yelling at him. Now he sat on the ground staring up at him with a face Aosh had yet to see on the man before; his face was a deep red under the freckles that dusted his cheeks. His immediate reaction was to reach a hand out to help the other up. Aosh was about to do it too but stopped himself, and reluctantly backed off.

Tiza got up and futility tried to bush and kick the soil off of his light-colored jeans and top, he had just changed before he got here too!

“Ah..um..I’m…sorry…” Aosh barely mumbled out, fully ready to get an earful.

Which Tiza was totally about to do, but lost the fire to do so taking in how crestfallen the other looked. Studying him a little closer, Tiza noticed Aosh had a black eye that looked to be healing and several bandages on his hands.

“Look, you just need to stop knocking me over so much…” Tiza tried to joke, it sounded far from light-hearted in his ears though.

Aosh gave a small nod, bent over to pick up what was left of the bag, and started in the direction he was headed earlier.

“Wha- Wait!” Tiza called.

Aosh stopped and turned around confused. Having the Alpha’s attention once again, Tiza dug into his pocket and presented the phone before him.

“You-!”

Aosh assumed it got stolen when he didn’t find it at work today. He’d lost all hope until now and was thinking he would have to use that crappy old phone until he could scrounge up enough money for another.

“You left it! Um, the last time we…talked. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to bring it sooner.”

He wasn’t about to tell Aosh he had waited in the coffee shop to give it to him for the last two days. Tiza fiddled with the phone in his hands, looking for the words he wanted to say.

“I also wanted to say thank you. For the flowers and stuff. And I’ve been thinking a lot lately and um..uh… UGH!” he threw up his hands, frustrated he couldn’t wrangle his thoughts into a coherent sentence, “Look, I’m sorry! I’m sorry for being such a dick to you! You…don’t deserve how I’ve treated you.”

He couldn’t look at those obsidian eyes any longer as he continued.

“I’ve-I’ve had  a…hard time trusting people, especially Alphas, for a long time. That doesn’t make what I did to you right. You’re…not…a bad guy.”

Holding the phone out to Aosh, Tiza finished his apology.

“I don’t want a mate. Period. But I don’t dislike you, Aosh. I didn’t dislike talking with you or seeing you every morning and it was just recently I realized I never played my half of the question game during your private lessons. So if you’d like we can be….”

Tiza mumbled the last word he said, handed Aosh the phone, and left. Aosh heard what he said loud and clear though.

‘Friends.’

After Tiza left Aosh felt like he could finally breathe again, the sudden apology taking him by surprise. Friends, he thought. If the idea to be friends with his fated mate was posed at the beginning of all this Aosh would’ve scoffed; he didn’t wait this long to just be friends.

Now Aosh’s perspective has drastically changed. He was deeply affected by the pain that Daniella had to endure. It was becoming more apparent to Aosh that a lot of Omega’s had to endure it as well.

Seeing Daniella’s mate go off the deep end and treat her like a mere possession, fighting with the guy, and helping piece Daniella back together the last few days gave Aosh the perspective he didn’t know he needed. He felt like he could understand, if only a little, of how Tiza felt. In his mind, Aosh had already justified the way Tiza had treated him and decided to give the other space for a while, for a long while.

If Tiza felt more comfortable now, then that wasn’t necessary though and Aosh was relieved. He deeply loved Tiza, and he truly felt that nothing could change that; to force himself to stay away from him was going to be torture. Now the only torture he would have would be being stuck with the label ‘friend’.

Everything would be ok though, Aosh saw what happened when you rushed into things. He wanted to be wanted by Tiza, being friends was the first step. Friends weren’t so bad anyway. Friends were confidants, friends were people you can spend hours on end with, and real friends would always be there for each other.

It wasn’t the kind of fast and heavy romance he was after, but it pulled at his heartstrings just the same if not more.

Tiza paced around his room with his phone in his hand, his freshly washed hair dripped onto the carpet while he walked, his new clothes stuck to his skin. Momo said nothing after he returned to the parked car covered in dirt, she just sent a questioning look and held back her laughter. Now, freshly showered, he typed out a message that he had re-worded in his mind the entire car ride home.

It still didn’t sound right though so he deleted it and retyped it a few more times until it sounded less stupid in his head. Every time he tried to send it, he clammed up, so he decided to schedule it to be sent later while he was teaching. That way he wouldn’t be by his phone waiting for a reply. The message simply said this:

[I don’t want to see your face at the coffee shop tomorrow morning. I’ll treat you to lunch later instead.]