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The thing is—it was an Alpha's world. They ruled most places. While the Betas stood by and watched the peace; holding onto the positions of power while the supreme "genes" worked the clock and kept it ticking. The Omegas stayed home. Listened and begged. Bared their throats for the collar.
And Tony...
Tony was born in an Alpha's world as the perfect Omega prince for the taking.
(If only.)
Fourteen is the age you present yourself to the world. It's the law.
Tony remembered his day all too well. His mama had been crying. Jarvis had worried himself sick. Howard... Well, he had been quiet and surly, whining about how he'd have to give away the business to some random Alpha now that the doctor had declared Tony Stark an Omega. It had been morning then and the real presentation was due in two hours. He was not allowed to drink on his son's most important day.
Then on the stage, the state's chosen Alpha had asked the golden heir to submit.
And Tony...
He had punched him in the face.
You see there's a reason why it was an Alpha's world. They had a powerful voice and a scent so strong no lesser Alpha, no lesser being could disobey. The Betas could argue. The Omegas could beg. But at the end of the day, the call was an Alpha's tool.
Tony was supposed to be an easy picking.
Instead, there was an Alpha crying on stage and his mama was giggling while still pretending to weep and Jarvis had fainted. Howard had tried to bring him to heel. Another Alpha had ordered him to apologize.
"Fuck this shit," Tony had yelled at them while flipping everyone off on camera. "I have homework!"
Tony was born in an Alpha's world as a wild Omega. Untamed. Unrestricted. Unstoppable.
And he had a mother who taught him music, grace and the art of subtle manipulation.
Jarvis taught him kindness and cooking.
His father, resigned and grudgingly willing, taught him the game. The business. The show.
Obie taught him fake smiles and fake sobriety.
He was drunk, spoiled and ignorant with a mind that raced ahead by decades. But he was a wild Omega and nobody took him seriously until he destroyed his father's legacy and built himself up from the ashes.
He rose above and beyond as Iron Man and spat on traditions, poked and prodded at lines drawn in stone.
So of course he would lock horns with Captain America—the Alpha, born and bred with a golden heart. (A fake.)
It raked at him—how everyone was ready to bend over backwards for a goddamn fossil. While he had been yelling and crying and breaking his back, desperate to be heard since the moment he'd presented as an Omega.
"Put on the suit, let’s go a few rounds."
"Fuck you. I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
In hindsight, the untimely explosion might have been his saving grace.
Steve Rogers was an Alpha alright. And Tony might have gone on to fall in love with him, if he didn't realize—
"Fuck no, yuck! You kissed Aunt Peggy!"
Steve looked slightly taken aback before his face drained off any color, only to recover by burning flaming red when Tony screeched ", Howard wanted you to be my godfather!".
Rhodey's laughter could be heard three floors down.
All in all, life turned out fine.
He had a queue of friends willing to watch his back. Willing to fight his fight and hear his softest whispers.
Tony wasn't lonely with them around.
Watching Wilson fly side by side Rhodey, Pepper play with Nat's hair and Steve dance around Sharon, he didn't feel alone.
But it still hurt, when someone he'd bring home tried to bark him to down to their will. When they looked at his defiance not with pride, but with annoyance. He hated the expected submission that came with his kind and he hated that him defying his natural instinct wasn't something to be celebrated. Rather it was something that needed to be corrected.
He was an anomaly.
A sickening occurrence.
He wasn't supposed to exist.
And every Alpha he met only wanted him to bare his throat for them.
Which would never happen.
Tony wouldn't allow it.
Then he met the Winter Soldier.
Or rather, he saw the Soldier through the screen snarling because...
"We don't know how he'd react. According to Hydra's records, he hasn't been allowed a close contact with any Omega after an incident in the seventies."
Steve looked like he was having an aneurysm when he told him what happened to that last Omega. He managed to utter the words ", ripped to shreds after a rut," before he had to hurl in a can.
Tony feebly patted his back, reeling from the garish details Natasha picked off on their Captain's behalf. With each passing second, he should have been scared and angry and revolted.
Not intrigued.
But the team was adamant, his AI was locking him out of his suits and Pepper was giving him this knowing, challenging look that should have scared him even more. But every new obstacle only tickled his curiosity.
Tony Stark had never met an Alpha whose nose he couldn't break (though Rhodey's had been purely accidental) and he wanted to see what made this one so dangerous.
"Fucking hell, you really do have a death wish," Barton minced his words around the mouth guard as he went toe to toe with the most fearsome Alpha of the house. Natasha only chuckled and ducked under his next swing, before spinning around in a graceful maneuver that pinned the beta to the ground.
He waited until the two tallied their scores before nudging Barton with his foot.
"What's the worst that could happen?"
"You could die and Cap would explode." Barton swatted at his leg. "He takes his godfather duties very seriously!"
Tony had never punched a Beta on the nose before.
Clint Barton became the first.
There was no lock, metaphorical or physical that could contain Tony Stark for too long. It was a lesson countless kidnappers, terrorists, double-dealing godfathers and SHIELD agents had learned the hard way. Either when he slipped through their fingers or blew something up sky high.
He was a wild Omega. So of course he found a way around his problem.
SHIELD agents were highly suspicious of every moving thing. But they were also creatures of habits. So when the time for the shift change came around, Tony didn't even have to show his badge to slip inside the "cage".
The Alpha wasn't sleeping, even though his eyes were shut tight. He knew that because as soon as he stepped through the threshold, Barnes' back went ramrod straight and blue eyes tinged with a ring of red shot open.
He looked straight at Tony and bared his teeth.
"Omega."
It was a bark.
A strong one.
Any other Omega would be going on their knees and baring their throat for the Alpha. But Tony could only feel flutter of it inside his head. Like an allergen trying to make him sneeze.
Fortunately, he'd been born with his antihistamine.
"Alpha," he barked back, already sweating because all security cameras were frantically pointing towards his face. Tony was going to be in a world of trouble when the team and Pepper got here.
"Kneel." Another bark.
"Nope. Not gonna happen."
He crossed his arms and watched the confusion spread across Barnes' face.
This was the fun part. Every Alpha's realization that he won't be doing their bidding anytime soon.
Barnes flexed his shoulders and took a deep gulp of breath. Filling himself up with Tony's scent. Natasha and Cap often said that his natural aroma was overpowering. Rhodey, however, called it annoyingly citrusy.
Some people found it attractive, in a way being doused with lime would be. This one—this rabid super-serumed Alpha apparently was one of those. He growled and snapped at him in Russian. Another bark. Another tug. And when that didn't work, he tried a myriad of different languages.
Tony watched him sweat and struggle with budding amusement, until Barnes snapped and pulled up his most frightening growl.
"I will rip you apart."
This wasn't Barnes. Not really. It was whatever less human version of him Hydra had forced onto this world. Tony knew that. And maybe he should pity him instead. But in the face of this half-crazed prisoner, Tony could only remember all the times some Alpha had tried to humiliate him, bring him down to his rightful place. It was rage, potent and poisonous climbing up on his throat that forced him to take the last few steps—that brought him face to face with the soldier.
"I'd like to see you try," Tony challenged him with the snarl.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
He heard Pepper screaming his name and Cap barking down orders to agents. It took only half a second of his attention wavering towards the ruckus outside for Barnes to lunge forward and for the chains to finally give away.
Tony felt the full force of a super soldier tackling him to the ground. The metal arm was squeezing around his throat as Barnes bared his teeth at him.
"Submit."
Another goddamn bark.
Tony had had enough.
"Fucking get off," he managed to choke around his own spit before the gauntlet deftly hidden under his glove took aim.
A conference happened right around his sick bed. Steve called that Tony would be kept under watch at all times, at least until "Bucky" is rehabilitated. When he opened his mouth to protest, out loud, that he was a grown man and he obviously had it handled (the mangled piece of metal arm was a proof of that) Steve shot him the foulest glare. His face reminded him of the Potoo bird, which Tony hadn't believed existed until he saw Thor petting it tenderly.
He felt like that now. He had thought that he'd received the good Captain's worst reception. But here he was. Steve was looking at him like—and there's really no other way to describe it—a parent watching his child after a horrifying PTA meet. Worse? He had tears—actual tears in his eyes.
"You obviously can't be trusted with your own safety," he snapped at Tony, somehow looking smaller even at his full height.
"Uh, Cap," Barton spoke up cautiously, eyes wide and surprised. "You alright?"
"Are you in a rut?"
"Thor!"
"What? That's a sound question."
"I'm not-oh forget it!"
They all watch him storm out of the room, no one daring to move a muscle.
Then quietly, as if not to disturb the stunned quiet, Bruce offered to take the first watch.
The thing about having a brain that ran faster than a racehorse? It was hard to stop once it picked its pace in one lane. Sitting on a five star issued bed, almost literally chained to it by the team, Tony's thoughts kept chasing back to the wholly deranged alpha. And no, he wasn't thinking about Steve, who suggested the babysitting duty in the first place.
Barnes had been conditioned by Hydra. Decades upon decades of information fed through a funnel. Everything he had learned about Omegas had been first scrutinized by Nazis then served on a dog bowl as edible mush. And maybe Tony's bored mind was making excuses but—he couldn't really fault Barnes for having a skewed view about the world.
About Omegas. About Tony.
Steve had ranted to him once, back when Thor and Tony had finally achieved the seemingly impossible and gotten him drunk as skunk. Hydra was viciously cruel and simple minded about Omegas. They were only valued behind closed doors and only when Alphas needed them.
It had been awful. Listening to the horror stories Steve had told them, and Barnes...
He had spent nearly a century with those stories. He had enacted them according to his handlers' will.
And now, suddenly he was thrown into this world. A world where Omegas had fought their way to the top, with great difficultly and persistence. Tony desperately wanted to know how he'd react to it.
How he would react to any Omega who would heel to his call.
It was pathetic how easy it was to hack his way into SHIELD. He did it in the bare seconds between when Thor left and Barton arrived to take his place.
As soon as the archer's whiny ass touch his bed Tony spoke up.
"I'm bored."
"You're not leaving this room. I don't want Captain America tanning my hind with his shield."
"Too many mental images, and none of them good," Tony said while swinging out a holoscreen from thin air. "Besides, I'm not leaving this room. I wanna play I-spy with Jarvis."
Barton was squinting, poking holes in his expensive sheets with the tip of an arrow.
"And what are we spying on?"
Tony gave the Beta a cheeky smile. He received a thoroughly unimpressed stare in return. But at the end of the day, Tony Stark was one spoiled Omega amidst a group of highly trained weak, weak Alphas and Betas. Clint Barton was unfortunately one of them.
"Fine. But this is a stupid idea. And you'll only dig yourself into a deeper hole."
"Pffbt," Tony said cleverly and signaled Jarvis to open the feed from Barnes' cell.
Barnes was wearing a faded pair of hospital jammies. The one empty sleeve of his arm fluttered helplessly as he paced the room. He looked rankled, harmless and even innocently young. He was, Tony remembered—when he fell into that gorge, he had been terribly young.
"Nice shot on the arm," Barton praised, and Tony felt himself flush with pride.
But then there was a knock and Barnes' cell was being swarmed by agents and doctors. He stopped pacing and watched them all with mild curiosity.
"Sergeant Barnes," Doctor Raynor spoke first with a feigned disinterest—except her eyes kept flickering with the same kind of curiosity a cat would show for a mouse.
Tony recognized her from the SHIELD mandatory Avengers group therapy. He wasn't worried about her. She was a Beta. A Beta who had successfully tamed a damaged group of superheroes with one fixed stare.
He was however, worried about the stoic SHIELD agent right at the back. The one who looked like an Alpha poised for an attack, but was masking his Omega scent with suppressants.
Tony had great respect for him, despite his frequent teasing about him playing Galaga on the helicarrier.
He didn't want to see his will shattered by a feral Alpha on the loose.
"What the hell are they thinking?" He barely made a move to get up when Barton grabbed him by the elbow and yanked.
"Sit down, will ya?" He waved his hand lazily, looking for all like his co-worker wasn't about to get mauled on screen. "Just watch."
"But-"
"Wait." He smiled serenely. "And watch."
Barnes took a deep whiff of Doctor's scent. And nodded.
"I've been told that's my name."
"It is," Raynor said as if he'd gotten a ten on ten score on a questionnaire. "Do you feel like it is?"
He shrugged. "Maybe." He took another sniff of the room. This time a little longer.
"You brought an Omega."
"Yes, we—"
"Sit," Barnes barked and Galaga went nearly tumbling to the ground in his haste to carry the order.
Barnes grinned.
Both Galaga and Tony snarled. But then Galaga did something that both surprised him and doubled his respect for him. He stabbed his own thigh and caught himself in the nick of time. One of the Alphas at the back growled, eyes tinged with red. But she held herself back. Only moving forward to help him when Galaga called her.
His girlfriend, Tony realized with a jolt.
"Huh, didn't know he was taken."
"Nat set them up."
"Of course, she did."
Barnes looked taken aback. Then he broke out into a smile. A deranged, very disturbing—belonging to a serial killer sort of smile that sent shudders down Tony's back.
"Fiesty. But not immune. At least..."
The agents tensed.
"Not like Tony Stark."
Tony let out a squeak.
"Suit up," came Cap's orders from the speakers just as Barnes raised his single fist as an invitation.
Tony was in the suit, safe and secure and very well protected by a group of highly trained superheroes. It annoyed him to no end that the team still thought of him like this—like he was a weak little thing that needed to be protected. But he stayed where he was—right at the back, flanked by Rhodey and Nat. All because right before they stepped out, Nat had warned him about Steve's prickly state.
"He made a promise to his old, dead girlfriend that he'll keep your stinky ass safe," she had said, while looking over a very dangerous set of paralyzing cuffs. "Don't do anything stupid and make him choose between that promise and his best friend from days of yore."
Tony had stomped furiously and nodded. Because what else was he supposed to do, faced with not one but two shadows of god parents?
At least Nat had apologized about the stinky ass comment. "You actually have a very nice tush."
It was chaos. Plain and simple. And so, so brutal.
At the sight of Avengers finally arriving amidst the mayhem, the tiny group of SHIELD agents left to fend off Barnes relaxed and rushed to gather the wounded, leaving the fight to them.
"You're telling me one guy did this," Rhodey hissed, tucking Tony behind his armor like the protective mama-bear he was.
"This one guy is the fucking winter soldier," Barton said, his arrowed lodged and pointed right at Barnes. Though he looked at their dear Captain with a lot of concern.
Steve was the first one to come to his sense, to shrug off the horror and take lead. Tony felt bad for him. Enough to listen to his order of ", if anything goes wrong get Tony out of here," and not immediately pummel him to the ground.
"Cap," Tony warned.
"I know, Tony." For only a second, Captain America met his eyes and Tony saw him as this scrawny, sick Beta trying to be heard over the loud snarls of war and suffering. The serum had given him an advantage. But not erased his memories of his best friend—the one Alpha who had stood by his side for as long as he could.
“Just be careful, grandpa."
Steve grinned and gave him a jaunty salute. But Tony's mind was turning. The gears shifting.
Whatever happened today, whatever promises were to be broken—Steve Rogers would not be the one to kill his end of the line.
Tony braced himself and wiggled his fingers. He felt the heat of the shot right as the good Captain called out for the unhinged Alpha.
Barnes turned, his eyes wild and frantic. His gaze landed on Steve, then carried over to the team. He saw Barton, the arrow aimed right at him. He saw Nat with the cuffs, Thor with the hammer and War Machine’s guns aiming for his head.
Then…
He found Iron Man.
Tony didn't know why he did what he did that day. All he remembered was his body reacting to it—to this sudden breathlessness.
He stepped out from behind Rhodey, shrugged past Nat and ignored Barton's quiet hiss.
Tony felt the rush of air as the faceplate lifted and revealed his sweat slicked, flushed face to the world.
"Alpha," he called out and watched as Barnes let out a soft chuckle. His manic grin shifting into something rich and soft. His eyes wide and soulful as he peered at the armor’s approach.
"Kneel."
"Omega," he heard the whisper being carried over by the wind. Barnes went down—ever so graceful. His one hand was safely tucked behind his back as he licked his lips. "I submit."
Tony’s mouth watered at the sight.
James Buchanan Barnes was baring his throat for him.
For his mark.
Well...
Fuck.