The Frail Omega Is Always Fought Over

Qing Dengci is one of the lowest-ranking Omegas in the Dusk District.

Poor, frail, and timid, with nothing going for him except a breathtakingly beautiful face and an Alpha boyfriend from a poor family with a promising future, his life seems to have nothing else to offer.

The landlord laughs at him for having the airs of a princess without the fortune to match. He runs a low fever and is anemic all year round, and even walking a few steps leaves him breathless.

He rents a room on the eighth floor of an old, badly maintained apartment building with a dim stairwell. Every night, after working late, he climbs all the way up, his face as white as paper.

In his cold, damp little room, he curls up in a corner of the cheapest electric blanket, his fingertips numb with cold as he carefully writes a birthday letter to Huo Jinyuan.

He says it's okay. As long as they keep going together, the future will get a little better.

By the time Huo Jinyuan comes home, dawn is nearly breaking. Qing Dengci is feverish and barely conscious, a sheen of sweat on the pale skin of his neck.

With a cold expression, Huo bends over him, one hand supporting the back of the Omega's neck as he pries open his jaw and presses a pill to his lips.

"You can curse me once you're awake." The young man's voice is low. "Take your medicine first."

The corners of Qing Dengci's eyes redden. He says nothing, only gently nuzzles the man's long-fingered hand, as if trying to be just a little sweet without making it too obvious.

...He did keep going, in the end. He just didn't make it to a future with Huo Jinyuan.

The winter solstice is especially cold. He stares at the words "advanced-stage genetic disorder" on his test results, his mind going blank.

They can't begin to afford that treatment. The doctor at a small clinic thinks he's handsome and hints that "there might be another way." He doesn't respond.

He just walks out and stands motionless in the wind and snow for a long time.

When he gets back to his rented room, he revises the letter again and again. In the end, he breaks up with Huo.

*

But no one could have imagined that the always-obedient Omega would dare climb into the bed of someone so far above his station.

Fu Siyao is the most untouchable Alpha in S City, a man at the very top of the power pyramid. Born into privilege, deeply calculating, and wielding immense power at a young age, he has never indulged in romance.

But that night, he doesn't send Qing Dengci away.

The man sits leisurely at the head of the bed, watching those dewy, fawn-like eyes slowly draw near. Qing Dengci's legs are weak and trembling, but he still reaches out with shaking hands to undo his buttons.

Fu Siyao doesn't rush to touch him. His warm fingertips trace slowly and lightly down the back of Qing Dengci's neck, with endless patience, as if inspecting a treasured possession long kept in his care.

"Xiao Ci." The man's voice is surprisingly gentle. "Are you sure you want to go on?"

Qing Dengci doesn't dare lift his head. He only bites his lip and clutches the Alpha's clothes with trembling fingers.

...By the time he can't take it anymore and tries to run, it's too late.

For a long time, whenever the Omega sees him, his lower abdomen turns achingly soft against his will.

*

Qing Dengci has always known his place.

He doesn't even qualify as a lover. A wretched existence like his is fit only to be a plaything, summoned and dismissed at will.

Yet when the Alpha asks, "Xiao Ci, will you marry me?" his eyes are so earnest that Qing Dengci lowers his own and doesn't dare ask if it's a joke.

For a while, Fu Siyao is in a good mood and says he'll take him to meet his family.

Qing Dengci knows he has a younger half-brother on his mother's side. They are close, and he's the only "family member" Fu Siyao has ever brought up of his own accord.

By then, Qing Dengci has already rehearsed his opening line in his head. Be polite, be sweet, and act like a respectable "sister-in-law" who has been accepted by the family.

*

For a while, Huo Jinyuan disappears without a trace.

No one knows where he went. They only know that when he returns, the once cold and unruly eldest young master Huo has become unflappable and finally looks "ready to take over," as the elders put it.

Fu Siyao asks him to come back, saying he wants him to meet someone.

Huo Jinyuan doesn't think much of it.

His brother never brings people up lightly, so anyone he goes out of his way to introduce must be more than just a casual fling.

Until the moment he opens the door.

...Even before then, Huo Jinyuan has been searching for his first love.

Before returning to the Huo family, he tried every means at his disposal, only to learn that the man had been treated for amnesia, couldn't remember his past, and had left no way to contact him.

Until this moment.

The Omega stands beside Fu Siyao, looking as though he's been well cared for. He stands right in front of Huo Jinyuan, his features still as beautiful as a painting, and cautiously calls him:

"...Little Brother Jinyuan."

*A refined scoundrel, a wicked and manipulative dom older brother x a cold, wild, seemingly cool younger brother who's terrifying when he snaps; a frail beauty like a lantern, possibly a flirtatious seducer*

Theme: Love is an anchor amid the tides.