Twelve: Entanglement

*thanks to Niya, nikolazglav, gelfling65, sphinx2030, Entity, lilybethra96, Sofylia, and bleh_bleh for your support!*

***

Vincent picked Wren up promptly at five when Wren’s workday ended. Wren almost went to slide into the back seat of the taxi out of habit but changed course and slid into the passenger seat. It would be weird to still sit in the back, right? Obviously if he was picking Wren up for a personal conversation, then he wasn’t working.

Vincent offered him a smile when he got in the car and while Wren wanted to return it, he was too nervous to make his facial muscles work properly, so he just nodded in acknowledgement, and without a word they drove off.

Considering that Vincent was still pretty much a stranger, Wren probably should have asked where they were going before getting in the car. Wren didn’t think Vincent was likely to turn out to be a creep or a psychopath, but better safe than sorry. It was too late now, however, so Wren stayed silent and nervously twiddled his fingers in his lap.

He couldn’t help but wonder what Vincent wanted to talk to him about. Naturally, his mind wandered back to Vincent’s confession outside the grocery store. Was Vincent expecting a response from Wren? He seemed like he was okay with waiting for a response, but maybe he was getting impatient. Wren could understand. He wouldn’t want to waste his time on someone who couldn’t make up their mind either.

But if that was what Vincent wanted to talk about, how would Wren answer? He still didn’t know. Vincent was an unknown. Wren didn’t know him or anything about him except his name, his (supposed) profession, and that he liked Wren.

This was the first time Wren had ever been asked out in his twenty-eight years. He’d never kissed anyone, or even held hands. Vincent seemed so experienced, so confident. What if Vincent wanted to rush right into a sexual relationship? Wren wanted to go slowly, to experience those firsts one at a time. But that would make any alpha impatient, right?

Wren thought Vincent was attractive, and he knew Vincent thought the same of him. But Wren knew Vincent’s idea of him didn’t measure up to reality, and he wasn’t sure if he could take it when Vincent made that discovery.

Vincent pulled up outside a small diner. Despite it being time for the dinner rush, this diner was mostly empty save for a few couples scattered here and there.

The hostess led them to a small booth in the corner, and a waitress came over not more than a minute later to take their drink orders. Wren played with his rolled-up silverware, wrapping it and unwrapping it, needing to do something with his hands. Vincent cleared his throat. His gaze seemed to catch on Wren’s hair, oddly enough.

“Thank you for coming here with me. I know it’s short notice.”

“It’s fine,” Wren replied quickly. “What did you want to talk about?”

Vincent opened his mouth to respond, but just then the waitress came back with their drinks and he clammed up. She took their order, and when she left, Vincent leaned forward across the table and Wren held perfectly still as Vincent’s fingers brushed his bangs, gliding softly against his hair. Wren didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly.

A moment later, Vincent pulled his hand back to reveal a piece of fuzz that must have attached itself to Wren’s hair. He blew on it and it floated out of sight. And like Vincent’s breath was his own, with that puff Wren could suddenly breathe again, his heart pounding unsteadily in his chest.

Not even five minutes in and Wren was already having heart troubles. This wasn’t good at all.

“Sorry,” Vincent said easily, not noticing that Wren was having difficulty breathing properly. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you a huge favor. And please, feel free to say no. Don’t feel obligated on my account.”

Wren swallowed. Well, at least this wasn’t about Vincent’s confession. He nodded for Vincent to continue and, looking oddly…nervous, Vincent did.

“Well, to start…how much do you know about Entanglement?”

Wren frowned immediately. In the past, alphas and omegas had strict courting procedures. It was almost ritualistic really, and while courting processes could vary depending on region, they mostly consisted of the same five steps.

Entanglement, Devotion, Affinity, Vows, and Marriage.

Entanglement was the first step, and it was essentially just the stage of meeting someone and dating them to find out if you could be more. However, traditionally, the step of Entanglement included a meeting of the families of the intended pair, and for the omega to stay with the alpha and their family during the entire Entanglement period. Entanglement was entered into with the expectation that the couple would eventually get married, and so the purpose of the omega staying with the alpha’s family was to acclimate the omega to what their new life would be like living with the alpha. Back when these rituals were created, it was always the omega who would leave home to live with the alpha, not the other way around. In modern times these rules had relaxed a bit, but only in very special circumstances.

Devotion was when the couple officially decided they were going to get married. It was engagement, essentially, and it involved a large masquerade ball to celebrate. Why, Wren didn’t know. He could only assume that people back in those days just really liked to throw parties.

Affinity was the stage where the couple completely established their compatibility. They had already determined that they had chemistry, that they liked each other, but the Affinity stage involved a week-long discussion between the families to ensure that they were compatible in every other aspect. I.e., were they of equal enough class and bearing? Did the families get along with each other? What is your family going to give ours in exchange for us letting your kid marry mine? It was when the dowry was decided, essentially, and if it was successful, another ball was thrown. Because why not, right?

Vows was the ‘tying the knot before tying the knot’ stage. During another extravagant ball, the couple would have their wrists tied together for an entire evening to symbolize their devotion to each other. It sounded very inconvenient to Wren, but he supposed if you loved someone you wouldn’t mind being tied to them all day.

Marriage, of course, was the final step. And while these kinds of marriages usually involved a lot more ceremony than normal marriages, the gist of it was still the same.

These steps were basically just the process of meeting someone, falling in love, and marrying them, but drawn out with ceremonies for each step, official declarations that a couple had proceeded to the next step, etc. It was all very extravagant and proper, and the practice had been abandoned by most people because it was a lot of pomp and circumstance for something very simple. These courting rituals were also typically designed specifically for alpha/omega pairs, any other pairing went against tradition, which was yet another reason why the practice had pretty much died out.

However, there were a few traditional families who still maintained these courting rituals and even insisted on them. These families were usually the wealthy members of society. They would have to be to afford to throw all those parties.

Wren nodded to Vincent’s question and Vincent blew out a slow breath, fiddling with a sugar packet.

“Wren…would you like to be Entangled with me?”