→ Sosuke:

“What the fuck…” Sosuke mumbled and raised up enough to reach into the opening. He felt around the object and realized it was like smooth, rolled-up paper. He pulled it out from its confinement and sat back down. A black ponytail tie was wrapped twice around what he now realized was probably a magazine, so Sosuke slid it off.

The magazine unraveled to reveal the smiling face of a rather masculine-looking black lady. Sosuke would’ve put it right back where he’d found it if he hadn’t seen the sleek ALPHA title across the top a second later. He knew his mom still had ALPHA magazines! To think she’d been hiding them behind the damned wire rack this whole time? Smooth, Su, real smooth. And she made such a point to burn them all after Sosuke presented as an omega years ago (especially the TEEN ALPHA ones she’d catch him sneaking in from school).

Sosuke had never seen a lone female on the cover of an ALPHA magazine before, so it certainly begged his attention for further inspection. The cover mentioned a special interview with Charles, the CEO, about “Miss Josephine Livingston’s transformation.” Sosuke had no idea who that was, but he assumed it had something to do with the lady on the cover.

He flipped it over to see who was on the back and was surprised to see the same lady, only it was her backside walking away. Usually ALPHA only did that if a top model was retiring or something, so he was surprised to see this lady given the same treatment.

Who the fuck is this? Sosuke mused and flipped to a random page in the magazine. He could’ve easily gone to the table of contents, but what teen actually wasted time with such nonsense? The first page he stopped at was the centerfold, and it showed Charles shaking the hand of the same lady at what looked like some kind of celebration dinner. Several paragraphs of text were superimposed on the left side of the image, but Sosuke couldn’t be bothered to read all of that.

Sosuke skimmed a few more pages until he was greeted with a large, bust-up image of Aeddon leaning over a railing outside some glass, corporate building. He was staring at a black iPhone 14 Pro Max and had a rather sharp, purple-and-gold Rolex on full display on the wrist closest to the camera that took the picture. His platinum blond hair was impeccably styled into his usual side-sweep with a few strands curled over his forehead, and his iridescent blue eyes gleamed where the sun hit them just righ—

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hawwwwt—oh no, no, no, no, noooo! Sosuke dropped the magazine and held his face in his hands. This was precisely why his mother had eradicated her glorious collection, so teens like him couldn’t use them for unsavory means.

Now, this wasn’t to say that Sosuke was bad like the alpha boys in his school. Tobias just happened to talk him into practicing one day when they were in the eighth grade to, well, “prepare” for what they’d eventually have to face. Sosuke liked omega girls initially, but something had always felt off, and that something became clear to him when he presented back in the sixth grade. It had taken a few years for him and Tobias to get used to their unfortunate predicament, but once they had, Tobias decided then it was time to step up their game and quit complaining.

And this moment of enlightenment came to Sosuke’s best friend after he’d caught a couple girls giggling over a teen magazine in their middle school library.

Tobias managed a sneak peek over their shoulders when he was passing and about died when he saw the TEEN ALPHA covers strewn across their table. He then took it upon himself to borrow an older issue and bring it to Sosuke’s attention in their parkway hideaway.

“Tobi, isn’t that a girl’s magazine?” Thirteen-year-old Sosuke had said then, munching on a Hot Cheeto from their secret stash.

“Yes and no,” Tobias said as he sat on the log. The pair’s “hideaway” was a secluded pine tree in a small park close to their middle school. The tree had a large underbelly that was obscured by its thick, hanging branches, and a long, abandoned log perfect for sitting within the space. The tree base also had a large hole convenient for stashing things, which is where Sosuke tended to keep the guilty pleasure snacks he couldn’t have at home.

“I actually did a bit of reading and realized that this magazine was actually made for teen guys,” Tobias continued, waving the magazine around. Sosuke sat with his legs crossed on the part of the ground that was cleared of pine needles. He gave his friend full reign to blab away while he enjoyed his cheetos. “Like, it has tons of tips on self-care and relationships and little activities like quizzes and, of course, what clothes are ‘in’ for teen alphas.”

“Uh huh,” Sosuke added in-between cheetos and Tobias sucked in a huge breath.

“It’s just that the girls in school use it to, you know, look at ‘hot guys’ they can only dream of dating.” Sosuke snorted and Tobias smacked him with the magazine. “And they do…other things with it,” Tobias coughed and crossed his legs. Sosuke raised an eyebrow at him and set his Hot Cheetos bag aside.

“So what’s your point?” Sosuke said and started rocking back-and-forth.

“My ‘point’ is that we can use this as a way to, like, get used to alphas?” Tobias leaned forward and draped his arms across each leg, magazine rolled up tight in his right hand. “I know you always wanted a busty girl, but you and I both know that’s never gonna happen now that we’re the omegas here.”

Sosuke hated it when Tobias was right, and his best friend was often right when it came to things like common sense and personables. But Sosuke still had him beat in the academic department by a long shot, at the very least, and his book-smart brain helpfully added that beta females still existed.

“There’s nothing wrong with dating beta girls,” Sosuke argued and raised his brows again. Tobias rolled his eyes as Sosuke grabbed for the Hot Cheetos bag again before some bugs crawled into it.

“True,” Tobias agreed, and Sosuke waited for the rebuttal. “Buuuuuut my abuela said that true omegas should only get with true alphas, or else we’ll have to live a life of ‘unfulfillment’ and emptiness, as she put it.”

“There you go with that true omega crap aga—”

“Hey now, at least hear me out!” Tobias cut Sosuke off, so he threw a Hot Cheeto at his friend. Tobias easily whacked it away in time and swatted at Sosuke with the rolled magazine.

“Such an asshole,” Tobias laughed and Sosuke grinned like a fiend. “The doctors literally did a test and said we’re ‘true omegas,’ so deny it all you want, but you know we probably have some fated mate out there, and I doubt it’s an alpha female.”

“You never knoooooow,” Sosuke said in a terrible, sing-songy voice and Tobias swatted at him again—except this time, Sosuke was ready for it. He grabbed the magazine and pulled Tobias down to his level. Tobias actually knocked Sosuke back, and they ended up rolling around a few times in a fit of laughter.

“Just take a look and see if you find one of the models attractive, okay?” Tobias said after they’d calmed down, laying on their backs beside one another. “I don’t want to do this alone…”

“Yeah, yeah fiiiiine,” Sosuke huffed. “But I promise nothing’s gonna happen.”

Tobias nudged his shoulder and waved the magazine in front of his face. “Five bucks says you’ll pick a blond guy.”

“Oh, you are so on!”

Sosuke unfortunately lost that bet, because he ended up feeling some type of way about the seventeen-year-old TEEN ALPHA model, Aeddon O’Brien, who just so happened to be a blond boy with just the right amount of freckles. He hated that Tobias had called it, but the other models couldn’t hold a candle to the Irish immigrant. It also didn’t help that Sosuke had looked up a few interviews and had to actually hear the teen’s accent. He could still feel the shivers down his spine like he was listening for the first time again.

Sosuke was so sure he only liked girls, but all throughout high school that one guy had him questioning himself, and he was ashamed that he indulged in the self-pleasure Tobias told him about at sleepovers.

These occasional, nightly endeavors were also how his mom eventually found out about the magazines and banned them from her house, especially after Sosuke had to turn to the adult magazine when Aeddon graduated. Sosuke just didn’t feel the same spark that particular alpha gave him with the other teen alphas, so it was necessary to move on to the “adult” magazine. At least Aeddon had been a teen when Sosuke first started reading them!

Sosuke uncovered his face and looked down at the fallen magazine. The pages had returned to the centerfold, but Sosuke no longer cared to find out who the lady was. He picked up the magazine and rolled it back up. He’d kept the ponytail tie around his wrist to keep from losing it, so it was easy to fold it over the roll and slide it back down into its previous position. He put the magazine into the wall crack and sat up straight with a sigh.

At least his poop had come easy after that.

The tired teen cleaned up as quickly as possible and returned to his room. He flipped onto his red-and-blue comforter and scooted up to his pillow like an inchworm, groaning the whole way. He screamed into his Charmander Squishmallow for about thirty seconds, and then brought it down into a hug. A newfound resolve was brewing within him.

Sosuke reached for his old Android he left on the nightstand. As much as he wanted to call Tobias, he knew his best friend was definitely sleeping by now, so he shot him a text instead.

We’re calling the scary lady 2mrw, Sosuke typed up and stared at the screen for a moment longer after he sent the text.

It was a disgusting reason, but Sosuke thought it would be nice to at least have the opportunity to meet his middle school crush, if nothing else. Sosuke closed out of his messages and went to put his phone away, when a notification popped up.

Bestie: alrdy planned 2 😉

So Tobias was awake, after all. Sosuke placed his phone face-down then rolled over, still hugging the Charmander Squishmallow. He only hoped Tobias actually got some sleep because at least one of them had to be in their right mind when they called the CEO later.