Hey! I have another prompt because I love you're writing so so much. Carlos is an omega but Omegas are almost always female. So thats how people treat him and it causes him dysphoria and he really is a guy god damn it. So Jay (alpha or beta) helps him reaffirm that he is male no matter his status. I hope this prompt is ok! Thanks for your time and the awesome works you make!
This has been sitting in my ask box for three years, I hope it's worth the wait @darkprinceofdarkness! One of my recent favorite things about ABO fics are exploring the gender dynamics with alphas/omega and what it means to be a dominant/aggressive girl or a submissive/dainty guy. I think there's a lot to explore about the intersectionality of what it means to be a boy/girl with what it means to be an alpha/omega, so enjoy!
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Pretty.
Delicate.
Petite.
Carlos doesn't consider himself to be any of those things. Not just because he's from the Isle either. (Though Evie is somehow all of those things despite the Isle shaping her into one of the most vicious girls Carlos has ever met.)
But he's a boy. Carlos doesn't want to be those things, he isn't those things. But that's what omegas are supposed to be.
That's what they are in the magazines and in the movies and in the textbooks. They're portrayed like girls.
And it shouldn't bother Carlos, he knows Auradon is weird about gender norms, it's a conversation he's had many times with Lonnie and even a few times with Chad. It's so heavily enforced by the older heroes, those who are so afraid of change, but there is a new generation in Auradon Prep who know that boys can be feminine and girls can be masculine and those who aren't quite boy or girl can be anything in between.
It's one of the few things Carlos feels superior to Auradon for - his open mindedness.
It shouldn't upset him that Auradon wants him to be...girly. But the few strides Auradon has made with breaking down gender stereotypes haven't even touched the stereotypes with someone's role, their secondary gender. Even Chad, an omega boy with lip gloss and manicured nails, still quirks a brow at Carlos' callouses and grease stained shirts.
Carlos fits sometimes - his love for fashion, his adoration for small dogs, his dark eyes that seem just too wide when compared to other omegas - but he doesn't fit at the same time. He's got more muscles than any omega he knows, he flinches when people try to do his hair, his skin is marked with scars and imperfections, a history of a hard life that most omegas don't have.
"C? You good?" Jay calls from his bed. "You've been in your own head for a while now."
Carlos looks past his own reflection - he's been standing at the vanity for far too long - to meet Jay's eyes in the mirror. "I think so?"
Jay tilts his head, but doesn't move. He waits for Carlos to continue, gives him time and space to form his own thoughts.
"I don't understand why Auradon wants me to be..." It shouldn't upset him that Auradon is okay for a boy to be like a girl, but it pisses him off that Auradon expects an omega to be like a girl. And it shouldn't piss him off either because Carlos has never cared what Auradon thought of him, never cared what anyone thought of him, not anyone who wasn't Jay or Evie or Mal.
But Jay understands the words Carlos can't say. "Ah, like how Fairy Godmother keeps trying to tell me that long hair isn't appropriate for a boy?" He smirks because of course Jay isn't bothered by disapproval from authority, he thrives on it.
"It's not being a boy, it's..."
"Being an omega?"
Carlos finally pulls away from the vanity and collapses into bed next to Jay. "Their open-mindedness is really just another form of closed-mindedness. How can I argue that an omegas shouldn't be feminized without saying boys shouldn't be allowed to be feminine?"
Jay nuzzles his shoulder. "That's a big question that I don't have an answer to, C."
"It's not your job to have a solution," Carlos sighs and nuzzles right back into Jay's chest. "I just want to be me, you know?" He wants to be Carlos, who likes fashion because he just does, who likes mechanical engineering because he just does, who likes dance because he just does.
"So then be you."
Which is such simple advice and if Carlos could do that, he would already be doing that!
Jay seems to since his irritation with that answer because he huffs. "Fuck them. People give me shit for being an alpha and a boy with long hair and earrings and fucked up nail polish." Jay flexes his fingers in front of them chipped red polish that Evie did just yesterday. "There are so many things Auradon hates about us, we really can't fix all of them."
It's so much easier said than done though, especially with so much of Auradon expecting him to be the random things they say an omega should be.
His silence prompts Jay to continue. "You know I talk about you at R.O.A.R. practice sometimes, to younger Freshmen omegas, guys and girls who are worried people will give them shit for playing such a rough sport."
Carlos blinks at him. He doesn't understand how he would ever come up at R.O.A.R. practice since he quit last year.
"I tell them that you're an omega and you played for a year and that you did tourney for a year."
"Only because you were there."
"Dude, you helped score so many goals in tourney though. You were faster than half the players, you set up so many shots." Jay flicks his ear. "I tell them about how much ass you kicked, then Lonnie tells them you stayed as long as you did just to give a metaphorical middle finger to anyone who said you shouldn't. It makes them feel better, C. Like they're not weirdos for wanting to play sports."
"Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"
"No way, I never lie about R.O.A.R." Jay says soberly. "Or to you. I never lie to you."
Carlos punches his chest and Jay punches right back, not treating him like he's some delicate creature who needs to be handled with care.
"I know it's not a solution, but this fuck all attitude you have, that we all have, I think it's helping some of the kids here. Think of all those baby faced omegas who will look at you and want to be like you."
Carlos flushes. No one has ever wanted to be like him.
"Just be you, dude. Everyone will think you're just as cool as I do."
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Ahhh, I'm so rusty!! I have to work on re-learning their voices. I think the discussion of gender norms is too complicated to be explored in a one-shot, especially when used in an ABO setting, but I hope I did it some justice.
