Her Doll [GB]

When Ze Ruo went out for the first time as a child, she couldn't take her eyes off the beautiful doll in the shop window.

She pointed at it and said, "I want that one."

The woman holding her hand turned cold. "You're an alpha."

Ze Ruo said nothing more, her eyes reflecting the beautiful doll in the window.

When she was fifteen, Ze Ruo came across a doll on the road that was exactly her size.

The delicate, slender boy had long lashes and pale hands and feet. His damp, soft black hair clung to his dirty forehead.

He looked just like a beautiful doll that had been soiled.

Ze Ruo's eyes lit up. Unable to resist, she took him back to a house and hid him there.

Ze Ruo devoted herself to the doll, taking care of everything personally. She wiped him down, washed his face, cleaned his nails, adjusted his clothes, and dressed him just the way she liked.

This was her doll, even better than the ones she had never gotten to have before.

The day Ze Ruo presented as an alpha was also her coming-of-age day. Excitedly, she told the doll about her hopes for the future, then said earnestly, "I'm an adult now. I don't play with dolls anymore. You can go."

Before she could finish, a shadow fell over her.

The boy lowered his long lashes, his voice soft. "If you don't play with dolls, then play with an omega."

*

The day she rejected him, Yu Jue couldn't control himself. Gripping her shoulder, he said what he should never have said.

The next day, Yu Jue put on ragged clothes that barely covered him again. He sat with his knees drawn up along the route she always took, his dark eyes fixed on the neatly dressed female mercenary.

Reader's guide:

* Alexithymia x obsessive green tea

* Written for my own tastes, with lots of personal headcanons and enough melodrama to set off alarms. It may hit some people's squicks, so please bear with me.

Theme: Feelings left unexpressed do not disappear