The Depth of Green

Chapter 1

Hello! I'm back, after a month or so of inactivity because Life, but I come bearing gifts! Otayuri-shaped gifts! This story was published on AO3 on Monday... and I kind of forgot that Wattpad existed... so it's been lifted from the aforementioned website and posted on here, before I could forget, again! Because of the copying and pasting, some things might be a bit wonky, but fingers crossed that they're not!

This is a fic I've been thinking about for a long time (and when I say that, I mean a long time), and Otayuri week has given me the kick to the head I've needed to finally write it!

(This is for Otayuri Week, Day Two: Fantasy/AU.)

I hope you guys enjoy! ♥

Otabek did not want to be here; he was very much morally opposed to being here; he really didn't want to be here. That did nothing to change that he was, in fact, here, in a large, picturesque, Japanese garden, watching Koi fish swim. Or, more accurately, standing just outside of the wrought-iron fence of a small, picturesque Japanese garden, craning his neck to see Koi fish swim in a little, winding pond a good twenty feet away. The whole setting reminded him a lot of Mulan, actually, though that had been set in China, but his purpose, or, his assumed purpose made up for that difference enough that he didn't especially care to dissuade himself of the notion.

Otabek grimaced as he gazed out upon the gardens he couldn't enter. They looked so beautiful; he'd love to be able to stroll through them, admiring the foliage and the architecture of the statues dotting the gardens, watching the Koi fish shimmer and dart beneath the surface of the pond. He loved gardens; he thought they were the perfect places to sit and think, ponder philosophy, and just enjoy each, individual moment. These gardens would be so well-suited for that task, he couldn't help but think; but then they wouldn't be what they were, Otabek reminded himself, though he would much prefer them that way.

Otabek deeply abhorred the matchmaking system; the whole thing was so archaic to be ludicrous and it made him feel as though he was living hundreds of years ago instead of in the twenty-first century. It was true, the class system in which he lived was one of the most frequent wanderings of his mind; no matter how hard he tried, from how many different perspectives he looked at it, he couldn't see why a person who had the physical anatomy to bear children, versus one built to fertilize them, should be considered different classes of human. How was it okay to have absolute possession of a completely cognizant, capable, mentally equal being? It was beyond him.

And yet, there he was, waiting outside of a matchmaking house, glancing frequently enough at his watch that he appeared to have a very time-sensitive tick, and actively participating in the very system he despised. He had to play the part, though, because the next two months, his entire life, if he were being totally honest, would be infinitely more difficult if he did not.

In Japan, and other backward, illogical countries clinging to outdated hierarchies, some of the most important institutions of all were matchmaking houses. Upon their presentation, whenever that may be, omegas from all over the country were shipped away to their closest matchmaking house, exiled from their community, loved ones, and entire lives until an alpha saw it fit to, maybe, if the omega was exceedingly lucky, return them to it.

The houses themselves had been around for ages; publicly owned (anarchy had been a thing for a while; it hadn't gone well), privately owned, owned by the state, however they came into existence and were maintained, matchmaking houses existed to provide a safe haven for omegas and to give them shelter, solace, and kinship in their search for a mate-- helping them to find one through frequent showings attended by any and all alphas with padded enough wallets. Of course, as all similar systems did, these houses fell far short of their esteemed ideals: abuse, neglect, and all manner of horrors were staples in house life, and dysfunction ran rampant among all who had the grave, grave misfortune of presenting as the secondary gender that would banish them to one. Otabek loathed the houses; them, and everything they stood for.