Lee
When he woke up, it was in a different place all together…he wasn’t in the forest anymore, leaving the jumpsuit clad omega to wonder where he was and why only Neji was by his side right now.
It would be helpful if he could move more efficiently now, but in the position he’s in, he’s left trapped by the Hyuuga alpha’s side.
His current position is simple enough: he’s resting on a chair while Neji is holding him close to his body, his arm supporting his waist and his head laying against his chest. It makes Lee wonder how long he’s been like this as well as where Tenten is, and if there are others here as well, “Neji, what’s going on? Why am I here? What happened to Tenten? Is she alright? How about Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke? Are they okay? What happened to the alphas I was fighting? What—“
He was cut off by Neji giving him a short summary of everything that’s happened: “You are here at the tower in the Forest of Death. We passed the exam, Lee. Tenten is talking to Hinata, Kiba, and Shino right now since they too have passed. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto I believe are fine. Just know that the people from the Sound Village are dealt with and no one is immediate danger any longer.”
“Don’t tell me you fought my battle for me again…you know I want to win on my own merit!” he countered to the alpha, who could only shrug while keeping his hold on him strong, “Lee, that doesn’t matter now. You can win on your own merit in the next part of the exam.”
“Still, I don’t want to win by dirty tricks or risky measures. I want to win because of my own power and skill.” and it was this sort of blind, naive belief in himself and his own abilities that Neji found to be cute in the same way one would find a small dog cute.
Though it’s not like he’d ever tell Lee that. The last thing he’d want is for the omega to think he’s can use this to his advantage to get whatever it is he wants.
“Whatever you say.” Neji keeps it cool, but it doesn’t do anything to stop Lee’s anxiety and fears around his mark from spiking in that moment in response to the alpha’s nonchalance surrounding everything that’s happened, “Neji, why can’t you tell me what that mark you left on my hand does? I know how to get rid of it, but it seems like it’s not just a harmless thing I can put off getting rid of—“
Neji silences him once more with a kiss and this time, when it ends, Lee is mad for many reasons, “You cannot keep silencing me with kisses like that! Just answer my question so I can stop feeling so scared over the mark on my hand! Can’t you have at least enough respect for me to tell me the truth?”
To this, Neji gives him a small glare, his grip on his waist tightening, “You, going off on respect to me…when you couldn’t even respect me enough to tell me the truth about your being an omega? You cannot demand respect me when you never showed me any for the past year we’ve been in the same team together by keeping that lie of yours up.”
“What?”
“Hyuuga alphas do not mate betas. We mate omegas to keep our bloodline as strong and pure as possible.” the grip on his waist tightens further yet and makes Lee release a whimper to this because Neji’s scent is slowly becoming more hostile and with the alpha nearing his first rut, he feels incredibly scared to be alone in a room with him right now, “I thought you were a beta…this whole time, I truly believed you were a beta because of your scent alone. You do not know how much this tormented me as I began to want you more and more with every passing second of every single day we were together. Do you not understand what you did to me, how badly you made me want you? Of course you don’t, because you were allowed to live your life in ease while I wasn’t.”
Lee doesn’t let the pain stop him from giving the alpha the truth he needed to hear, “I didn’t tell you the truth and I’m sorry about that, but it was only because you say horribly sexist things about omegas all the time. I knew if I came out to you as an omega, you’d treat me poorly and not take me seriously during missions or training. I wanted to beat you at your best when I was at my best. I told you before the exams because I finally felt I was strong enough for you to respect me as an equal, only for you to put that mark on me instead.”
He tries to bargain with the alpha then, hoping he will feel generous to tell him what he wants to know now that he knows the truth of why he didn’t tell him anything, “Now, can you tell me what all it is this mark does?”
“I will, but only if I get to have my first rut with you.”
Now Lee feels all sorts of stupid because he doesn’t really know much of anything about sex or his own body while his eyes divert away from Neji’s, “Um…what happens during a rut, Neji?”
Neji’s deadpanned reaction didn’t help matters either, but at least his grip on his waist loosened, “…Lee, are you meaning to tell me you do not know what a rut is or what happens during it?”
“N-No, but that’s only because my family doesn’t talk about that stuff. We're a lot more conservative about that sort of thing.”
The byakugan bearer doesn’t say much to him about it other than, “It’s a time where our most base instincts kick in as we have sex with our mate, crush, or lover in order to ease our urges.” thanks to his family being too conservative to ever speak about it to him, he feels as though this is the best, most basic explanation he can give him.
On Lee’s end, this didn’t really help to explain anything, his mind still drawing a blank on the word ‘sex’, “I don’t know what sex is.”
Neji didn’t feel like explaining it to him (though he is more than annoyed that they weren’t taught such basic things in the academy thanks to people like Lee’s family who were too conservative to properly prepare their children for the real world), but his offer still stood, “I am not having that talk with you. Ask Guy sensei about it, I’m positive he’ll tell you everything you need to know. Either way, if you want to know more about the mark on your hand, you’ll have to share a rut with me.”
The omega frowned and worked his way out of his grasp to tell him, “Nice try, but I am not doing something out of desperation like that. I don’t need to know everything right away; it won’t matter because I will beat you in battle and this mark will be gone from me for good.”
He doesn’t do anything to stop the omega from getting up and leaving the room because he knows that, no matter what he says or what front he tries to put up, Lee is scared of this mark and he’s getting pretty convinced he cannot beat his own destiny.
When Lee had left the room to find Tenten, he was off put by the way Neji acted when they spoke. Maybe it’s because he never saw such a look in his eyes before, but whatever it was, it was enough make Lee feel a bit worried when in his presence.
Being out of the room definitely helped things—he didn’t smell that suffocating scent in the air and he didn’t feel trapped by Neji’s grasp on him anymore. Though when he did try to find Ino or Naruto to talk to (he really did need to tell someone about this, but he didn’t feel comfortable speaking about it to an alpha or beta. He’d rather speak to an omega if he can; at least then he’d feel a lot safer speaking about it without having to worry about fear or repercussions from any alpha or beta for speaking about his experiences.
It’s sad that he once used to feel safe going to someone who is a beta or an alpha for his problems, but after how Neji reacted to the news of his being an omega…he doesn’t feel safe to do so anymore.
He never actually thought lowly of alphas like Ino or the infamous Deidara, but he also didn’t deny sexism existing in their world like blindly optimistic Naruto does. He actually took a bit more nuanced approach to alphas: you have your nice alphas like Guy sensei and Tenten, who don’t care if a person is an omega or not, they will still treat them like equals and on the other hand there are alphas like Neji who think lowly of omegas and see them as inferior. Lee used to believe that with enough hard work, he could earn the respect of alphas like Neji and help them change their sexist views. Now? He’s left feeling a bit shaken over it because it seems like every time he tries to earn an alpha’s respect, it gets him nowhere which leaves him feeling as though his hard work wasn’t worth it.
Then he remembers what Guy sensei said about how it’s not all worth it if you don’t believe in yourself…and he usually can pull himself up from that alone. This time, though, it’s so much easier said than done.
He tries to find some sign of Ino or Naruto in the building, only to be disappointed when he doesn’t find them at all. At first, he considers maybe telling Tenten what is going on, just to be reminded of how mad she would be if he did. He then considers maybe seeing if someone else is here to speak to, like a beta or someone else who would be somewhat neutral on this issue.
He certainly did not expect to hear the deep voice of someone behind him addressing him so openly, “Omegas are allowed to become shinobi here?”
He paused in his step and without turning around to face the person, was able to say, “I don’t know if you’re from Konoha or not, but I am here because omegas are allowed to be ninjas by law. I know it’s not that way in other villages, but I hope you can be understanding of it.”
Nothing is said for the longest time, but then he sees some sand flowing past him for a brief moment before it disappears, “I have no problem with omegas competing. If they want to die, then so be it. After all, why would anyone stop them from fulfilling their dreams?”
He was about to argue with this person on that claim when he heard another comment being made: “…You have a soothing scent. It’s like it’s…something…comforting.”
The sand came to wrap itself around his neck in a thin line, but it was enough for Lee to feel the scratchy yet smooth sensation there. What’s interesting is it did not go over his jugular once, No, it…mainly seemed to focus on his scent gland, which was weird and gave him a bad feeling about their entire conversation no matter how strange it was.
“Ah, thanks I guess? I’m amazed you knew I’m an omega right away. Most people mistake me for a beta at first, actually—you must be very sharp to spot that out.”
Lee is trying to keep the atmosphere light so he doesn’t go into a darker one so soon after what he just left with Neji. What winds up happening instead is the sand vanishes and he hears the mystery person give him a piece of advice in the dark, sort of dingy hallway, “Get yourself a mate. Anyone with a scent like that shouldn’t be entering their death wish unmated like this.”
As the other ninja walks away, Lee is left to make a decision: keep going and run into creepy people like this guy or quit now and go back to Neji.
Going back to Neji felt a bit worse to him, so he kept looking for Tenten in the midst of his wait in the hopes he would either find her eventually or find Ino or Naruto by mistake so he can finally get this weight off of his chest.