Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn’t a surprise, really, when the royal family announced that the younger of their two sons was an omega. Princess Philip had always been, if not small, slender and delicate, friendly and amicable, his many quirks considered charming in the face of all that he was. The House of Lester already had their alpha heir, anyway, who’s upcoming marriage to a minor Lady from a neighboring kingdom was a highly anticipated event, so the omega Princess was a beautiful curiosity rather than a lineage ending disaster.

Dan, for his part, had never really cared much for news of House Lester. He was from a small farming village far from the royal city and the direct influence of the King, who’s people were content to be more or less ignored until taxes came due.

At eighteen, Dan was a gangly newly presented omega, a fact which- to his great resentment- brought him out of the fields and back to the schoolhouse with the other omegas and small children. He had been considered fit enough to help with the labor before he presented, his designation as an alpha something of a foregone conclusion, so his confinement with the weaker sex was a frustrating and unexpected change. It had been a disappointment to his alpha father, of course, but there was nothing to be done about it. He’d be mated soon enough, anyway, the town alphas already sniffing around him. He wasn’t deluded enough to think that it would really be his choice, when it happened. For now, though, he spends his days in the omega homemaker’s classroom.

The unmated omegas spend their days learning to cook and sew and gossip under the watchful eye of a rotating cast of village omegas rather than a real teacher, and Dan finds it all so dull. He’s not a natural cook, he’s stabbed himself with a sewing needle more times than he can count, and the scarf he’s currently knitting resembles nothing more than a tangled ball of yarn. He’s not really sure if he actually misses working the fields, the hot sun and the dirt and the ache of his muscles at the end of a long day.

“This is stupid,” he complains, unwinding another row of soft blue yarn. “Bet the omega Princess doesn’t knit.”

“What do you think a Princess does all day?” another of the omegas asks. Her scarf actually resembles a piece of clothing, and Dan is absolutely not jealous. He doesn’t care about the stupid knitting. “I’m sure the Crown Prince has duties, but the poor delicate little omega probably spends all day lounging in bed being fed grapes.”

“And occasionally takes breaks to meet respectable alphas, no doubt,” Dan says. The fact that Princess Philip is still unmarried a few years out from his presentation is something of a scandal, but they’re probably just waiting for the right alpha to come along. Maybe he’s picky, or smells weird, or is secretly a terror who no alpha wants to take on. They make him look nice enough in the official paintings they occasionally get out of the Royal City, but Dan bets that’s an exaggeration. No one is actually that pretty.

Dan is just re-winding his loose yarn into a ball when there’s a knock at the door, and a man wearing the uniform of a royal guard enters. Every omega in the room sits up straighter. The man is a beta, but he’s clearly the highest authority their little village has ever seen. Dan fidgets in his chair, eyes flicking between the King’s seal on the scroll he holds and the metals pinned to his chst.

“By decree of the House of Lester,” he reads off, “for the benefit of the Princess’s education, a school for omegas is to be established in the Royal City, open to all unmated omegas in the kingdom. Any omega who wishes to join the school will be boarded in the palace at the expense of the Royal Family and their families fairly compensated.”

So that’s how Dan finds himself in a convoy north to the Royal City with a handful of other omegas. He had parted ways with his parents for a small amount of gold and grain, which suits him just fine. There had been no great emotions passed between them, in the end. Dan’s not sure if he’ll ever get to come home, and he’s not sure it matters to him. It’s not like there was much for him to look forward to in Wokingham, other than an arranged mating to one of the knothead alphas of the village who would beat him when they weren’t knocking him up, just like his omega mother. Better to be in the Royal City, under the protection of the King and Queen. The same education as the Princess, maybe even the same alphas- the ones who don’t meet the Princess’s standards, anyway.

It’s a long journey, many nights at inns and days gathering more omegas from the small villages that lie between Dan’s home in the south and the Royal City. The omegas in the convoy chatter nervously, sharing rumors and speculations about what their lives may be in the city. The towns this far south are all poor, the omegas scruffy and uncultured. Dan can tell which ones come from the larger port city- a little more robust, a little snobby. As they get closer to the Royal City, there are fewer of Dan’s scruffy kind and more of the others, who he knows look down on him already.

There are some fifty omegas when they finally arrive to the palace. The guards escort them to a small set of rooms in an out of the way wing of the palace, probably modest by the Royal Family’s standards but nicer than anything in Wokingham, and they’re instructed to wash and dress in their best clothes to meet the omega Princess. Dan’s best clothes are suitable for church back home but kind of embarrassing to be meeting a Princess in, but it’s the best he can do. He takes his time trying to get his curls to lay right so he doesn’t look so much like a street urchin, and then they’re all being brought into a receiving room. To Dan’s surprise, they’re met by the whole Royal Family- the King and Queen, the Crown Prince and his omega fiancee, and the tall, slender Princess Philip. Dan has always been the tallest omega in the village- part of the reason they were so sure he would be an alpha- so he’s sort of surprised to see that the Princess is of a height with him. His blonde hair is topped with a delicate golden circlet, the blue gems set into it making his wide eyes glow, and the air is momentarily knocked out of Dan’s chest.

It’s not like Dan has never looked at another omega before, is the thing. As a teenager, before anyone had presented, Dan had been drawn to the delicate future omegas, never really into the muscled alpha thing. Fooling around as an unpresented teenager had been fine, and even with another omega- it’s perfectly acceptable, after all, for omegas to see one another through heats, or for a bit of youthful fun before you settle down with a proper mate- but the omega Princess’s entire purpose, biologically and politically, is to marry a high born alpha and have an heir, and he can’t do that if he has some dumb fucking farm boy omega chasing after him. So, Dan absolutely isn’t looking. He can’t be looking.

And then the Princess’s eyes meet his through the crowd, and he smiles, just a bit, and Dan is fucking gone.

It turns out that Lady Cornelia is the one who’s actually organizing the school, based off of omega education in her kingdom, where the high and low born are educated together and allowed to mingle with alphas at social events and parties. This was where Lady Cornelia had met the Crown Prince, who had been invited to attend one of the balls her school had thrown. She’s a minor Lady who’s marriage prospects had never included Princes, but it had been a love match.

Cornelia is confident, smart, and funny, her bright red curls and smoky wood fire scent commanding attention, every inch a future Queen.

She’s also the reason, apparently, Princess Philip has not been married off. “My parents are quite progressive. They believed an omega should never be forced to marry, and I am hoping the King and Queen will allow Philip the same,” Cornelia says. A small group of omegas has gathered around her as they mingle with tea and cakes, the alphas having left the Princess and Lady to their new schoolmates. “I was allowed to wait for the right alpha, and in the end it wasn’t because he was a Prince, he was just the one.”

Dan grabs another tiny, intricately decorated cake off the tray, glancing around the room. The Princess is entertaining his own little group across the room, and the way he laughs with his tongue between his teeth is so endearing it makes Dan’s heart jump. He’s so unbelievably fucked.

“When are you officially mating?” one of the omegas asks curiously.

Dan tunes out of the conversation about heats and private consummations and public mating ceremonies and conflicting traditions, preferring instead to watch the Princess lick the icing off of a cake. It’s obvious he doesn’t think anyone is looking, so when he catches Dan’s eyes he flushes all the way down his neck. Dan grins, swiping the frosting off of his own cake with a finger and sticking it into his mouth, and he’s rewarded with that tongue laugh before the Princess quickly turns away, back to his conversation.

“So, where did you say you’re from?” Lady Cornelia asks, and Dan abruptly realizes people are trying to get his attention.

“Uh- Wokingham. Farming village way down south,” he says, pulling his eyes away from the Princess and attempting to look interested. Cornelia just gives him a knowing half smirk, and he flushes.

“I can introduce you properly, if you like,” Cornelia says casually. The group has more or less dissipated, everyone wandering off to more interesting conversations. Dan, embarrassed at having been caught, rubs his neck awkwardly.

“Don’t know what you mean,” he mumbles, taking a sip of his tea.

“It’s Dan, right? You shouldn’t be shy. Come, meet my brother.” And she links arms with him and leads him right to the Princess, who seems to be attempting to hide in the corner. “Phil, you must meet my friend Dan, he’s a farmer from the south.”

Phil swallows a mouthful of cake, coughing awkwardly. “Cornelia! You snuck up on me,” he accuses, and Dan hands him his own cup of tea. “Oh! Thank you.”

“Uh- your highness,” Dan says, face heating up. He just knows the silly fucking red patch on his jaw is flaring up, fucking embarrassing. “Pleased to meet you! The party’s- great.”

Phil rolls his eyes, taking a sip of Dan’s tea from Dan’s cup, and he hadn’t quite thought about the implications of that until this moment. “The party is- forgive my saying- a little much,” he says.

“I wanted a small gathering to welcome our schoolmates, and the King and Queen throw a feast,” Cornelia sighs. “Still, the food is good.”

“If you want to sneak off and find Martyn I’ll cover for you,” Phil says good naturedly, and Dan nearly laughs. Cornelia sighs, relieved this time, and pulls the crown from her head, rubbing at her scalp.

“Much appreciated,” she says, glancing about the room before sneaking out. Dan snorts behind his hand, watching her red hair flick out of the room.

“Not one for parties?” he asks.

“Well, we do try to keep each other sane,” he says, handing Dan’s tea back. “They’ve been attached at the hip since the day they met, really.”

Dan nods, putting his mouth on the spot where the Princess had just had his mouth to take a sip of rapidly cooling tea. “You’ve not met anyone like that, I take it?”

Phil raises an eyebrow, bright blue eyes locked on Dan’s. “We’ll see, I suppose.”

Chapter Text

Omega finishing school in the Royal City is just a bit more intensive than the schoolhouse in Wokingham. Sure, they still do the cooking and the sewing and the gossip, but they also have lessons in things such as history, which Dan tolerates, etiquette, which he hates, and music, which he genuinely enjoys. He also genuinely enjoys Lady Cornelia, who’s upcoming mating and wedding is the topic of much of the gossip, but Cornelia herself doesn’t seem too fixated on it. 

“I’m looking forward to getting the whole thing over with,” Cornelia confesses as the three of them walk through the Palace gardens one afternoon. 

“When are you expecting your heat?” Phil asks. He’s linked his arm with Dan’s, keeping him close by his side. Dan’s not entirely sure how he managed to get himself into the Princess’s inner circle, but he’s not complaining. Cornelia groans and starts in on a tangent about pre-heat symptoms. 

“What, all the times you’ve snuck into his rooms at night haven’t triggered it?” Phil teases, and Cornelia squaks and hits his shoulder. 

“Phil! You’re going to embarrass me in front of Dan!” she complains. Dan laughs and butts his head into Phil’s shoulder, taking in the sugar sweet scent of him. 

The thing about Princess Phil is that you would be inclined to think he’s popular because he’s the Princess, but he is legitimately kind, making it easy for the other omegas to gravitate to his side. Phil has friends, even alpha suitors, but he still mostly seems to want to spend time with Dan, which is as confusing as it is awesome, because Phil is great. They read all the same books, and they’re both competitive in games, and Phil is as awful at knitting as Dan is. He giggles, high and bright, when Dan pulls out the scarf he’d been making back home. 

“That’s- it’s not so bad,” the Princess attempts to reassure him, poking at one of the knots. “It’s my favorite color!” 

Dan groans and considers stabbing his own eyes out with the needles. “I’m going to unravel it, you can have the yarn.” 

“No!” Phil says, grabbing his arm. “Don’t undo it, you’ve worked so hard! You have to finish it.” He looks at Dan with those wide, pleading blue eyes, the same color as the yarn, and it knocks the breath out of his chest. 

“Okay,” he says, voice softer than he meant it. He clears his throat, twisting a bit of loose yarn around his fingers. “Will you wear it? When it’s done.” 

Phil startles, a minute little motion that brings his entire body to attention, eyes somehow wider than they were before. “Yeah!” he says enthusiastically, grabbing the end and wrapping the too-short length around his throat. Dan swallows hard at the thought of his scent all over the yarn, has to resist from snatching it back to rub against his own neck. “Does it look good?” 

“Great,” Dan says, fidgeting with the end so it lays flatter. His fingers brush against the pale hollow of Phil’s throat, and he feels his breath hitch. “Fit for a Princess.”

Later that night, in the room he shares with a few of the other omegas, he presses his nose to the scarf and falls asleep with Phil’s scent in his nose. The next day, during their free time in the afternoon, he carefully adds a few rows, fingers clumsy and unpracticed. They come out somehow neater than the rest, which makes Dan’s chest rumble in a pleased little purr. Fit for a Princess, indeed. 

The other omegas think he’s sucking up, that he has aspirations beyond his station, but he genuinely doesn’t. He just likes Phil and wants to spend time with him. He’s not angling for royal favor or introductions to alphas or an invitation to the wedding, he just likes sneaking off from the endless social events to hang out with Phil outside, splitting pilfered plates of sandwiches and cakes and talking so long they lose track of time.

And Dan is fine, really. The Princess is fucking beautiful and funny and smells like a dream, and he’s going to marry some high born alpha and be taken away from Dan, and it’s fine, because he has this, right now. They’re sitting on the edge of a fountain, the All Hallow’s Eve masquerade going on behind them, and Dan curls into the Princess’s side, swiping the frosting off of the top of a cake.

“No, like-” he says, licking the frosting off of his finger. “That’s the point -”

“Wait, Dan,” Phil giggles, reaching out to wipe the frosting off of Dan’s face. His fingers linger at the corner of Dan’s mouth, a soft touch that sends buzzy lightning down his spine. Dan freezes, his story trailing off, letting Phil touch his face. The faint light from the ballroom and the street lamp above them cast Phil’s beautiful face in stark shadows, his eyes wide and mouth slack.

“You’re beautiful,” Dan breathes into Phil’s soft fingertips. Phil swallows, his hand drifting to Dan’s jaw.

A nd Dan is a coward, but Dan knows how this ends, so he stands up a little too quick, knocks his bear mask to the ground and then nearly steps on it. “I’m going to- go,” he says, scrambling to pick it up. “I’m sorry. I’ll see you inside.”

Phil grabs Dan’s arm gently and takes the mask from him. Dan stands perfectly still as Phil ties it on behind his head, surrounded by his scent. Phil smiles, kind and a little sad.

“Perfect,” he says quietly, fingers lingering in Dan’s hair for only a second.

The rest of the ball goes okay, Dan thinks. He dances with a few alphas, but they can obviously smell his disinterest. They probably think he’s taken, some secret alpha he’s sneaking off to see. They have no idea he’s got himself wrapped around the Princess’s delicate fingers.

Phil is dancing with Sir PJ when Dan finds Cornelia against the back wall. The Crown Prince is off in the crowd somewhere, no doubt fielding offers for his brother’s hand, so she’s alone for the moment. “Think he’s got a chance?” Dan asks, nodding towards the alpha who’s spinning Phil around the floor.

“I think,” Cornelia says slowly, “they both have their eyes elsewhere.”

Dan frowns. “If Phil’s got his eyes on someone he hasn’t told me,” he says. Cornelia rolls her eyes.

“You’ll figure it out,” she says. “Anyway, Sir PJ’s not likely to make an offer, I think. They’ve been friends since childhood, I don’t think either of them are interested in something more.”

Dan nods, watching Phil laugh at something PJ says as they glide through the other dancers. Dan is a shit dancer. He’s always stepping on someone’s toes. Phil is clumsier than he is, but somehow he makes it look graceful as the alpha leads him.

“- no , mum, I’ll be fine, just like I always have,” Phil’s voice comes through the nearly closed door of his sitting room, and Dan freezes in the hall.

“You know it isn’t good for you to go through so many heats alone,” The Queen responds. “Really, Philip, it’s beyond time for you to get mated.”

“I won’t be alone , mum, I’ll do it like I always have.”

The Queen sighs. “You can’t rely on other omegas forever,” she says. Dan clamps a hand over his mouth to try and stay silent, the idea of helping Phil with his heat rushing through him in a hot wave of want. It’s not unusual for young omegas to help each other out, especially with the stronger early heats, but it’s not a habit that many keep up. It’s unseemly, an omega in his 20’s rolling about with another omega like a pair of teenagers instead of finding a mate or riding it out alone. He hadn’t thought the Princess would be the type.

“Well, I don’t have an alpha,” Phil says stubbornly. “As hard as you’ve all tried to marry me off.”

“Cornelia certainly isn’t helping matters,” The Queen says. “All these modern sensibilities. When I was your age, we were married off good and proper, no talk of a love match or any such nonsense.”

Dan scrambles to act like he wasn’t listening in as the Queen walks out of Phil’s room and almost runs into him headlong. “Oh! Excuse me,” she says.

“Sorry, ma’am! Your Majesty,” he says, bowing awkwardly. “I was just- coming to speak with the Princess. About- a school matter.”

He scrambles into the room and shuts the door firmly behind himself, face flushing bright red. “I just ran into your mother,” he says. “Literally.”

Phil laughs, tongue caught between his teeth. “Sorry, I should’ve warned you,” he says. “She’s been on me about finding a mate before my next heat, I keep telling her that none of these alphas are my type.”

Dan sits in one of the chairs, tapping out a rhythm with his fingers. “Uh- what is your type?” he asks. “You know, in case I meet an alpha I think you’ll like!”

Phil rolls his eyes. “I don’t want you to set me up,” he says. “Besides, I don’t know that I want an alpha at all.”

Dan clears his throat, looking anywhere but at Phil. “Well, you know,” he mumbles, kicking his foot back and forth. “If you were looking for someone for your heat. I could do it.”

Phil grins, face brightening. “Yeah, alright!” he says, and Dan relaxes into the chair. He tries not to think about Phil not wanting an alpha as he launches into a complaint about the novel Phil had reccommended to him. One heat, that’s all it is. Maybe they’ll get it out of their systems, and then Phil will get mated properly, and Dan-

Dan won’t. He doesn’t think he will. Even here in the Royal City, all of the alphas smell wrong. Phil is the only person who’s smell he wants on him, and that’s fucking depressing, because Dan can’t have him. Not really.