For Sale

Chapter 1 – Struggles, Sales.

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He sat on the timber floor, his back against the cold plaster wall and arms resting on his bent legs. The young man gazed blankly to the ceiling, room dark, only illuminated by the hall light shining through the crack of the door as he listened to the hushed argument in living room.

"What do you expect me to do? Call up my boss and have him un-fire me?" A woman huffed, clearly irritated.

"I'm not blaming you! But obviously I'm worried about how we're going to meet our financial needs. We were barely making ends meet as it was! I'm making just enough to cover rent as it is and the benefit's we get from Misaki only covers enough for us to eat for 5 days, we can't even afford to save for bills." A male sighed, exasperated. Tired.

A sigh, "I know, I know. I'm already looking for a new job and Misaki graduates in a week, he's already looking for jobs. Once we're all working, we'll be ok."

"But for how long? We have a baby on the way. All the things we need for a baby cost money and then it's another mouth to feed and it's back to struggling. I don't want that for you, for our baby. Or for Misaki. Not to mention once you have the baby, you can't work." The man stressed, it seemed like a never-ending struggle.

The young adult sat quietly as he listened, still dressed in his school uniform. His brother Takahiro and his sister-in-law continued to banter as Misaki tunned them out. It was a common occurrence these days, the heated discussions a regular evening routine since Minami lost her position at the bank.

It was hard to keep a job these days. The economy was failing, business receded and with it, jobs. No one was hiring, but the bills kept coming. Now with another family member on the way, things were tighter than ever.

Misaki tried his best, he did have a few part-time jobs over the months, but the companies had either closed or laid off staff.

It didn't help that he was an Omega either. The 'lesser' of the secondary genders. A male Omega at that. Society, while not openly, did not hold them in the highest regard, especially in Japan where people held very traditional views. Luckily, his two other family members were Beta's, the 'in-between' secondary gender. Unaffected by scents, heats or ruts, made getting a job that much easier.

Things were tough to say the least.

Slowly Misaki rose from the ground and silently closed the door, muffling the remaining conversation and slipped under the covers of his bed. He only had a week until he officially graduated, he needed to decide what to do in order to best support his family who had taken him in after the death of his parents. He had to repay them.

Being an Omega granted him a few more… disreputable choices as well.

He sighed heavily, putting it out of his mind for now, knowing he had little time left to make a decision. Turing over he brought the blanket up to his chin and closed his eyes. He had some serious thinking to do…

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It was the end of Misaki's second last day at high school. He placed his bag down gently on the floor by the door of his bedroom and walked towards his desk. Every step felt heavy. He sat down and just stared at his laptop sitting closed on the table in front of him.

He had thought very hard and long about what he was about to do.

Even so, the student decided rethink it. It wasn't something he couldn't take back.

"Ok," He sighed out loud, his chest tight and tingly, nervous energy bubbled through him. He slowly opened the laptop.

He thought long and hard, but there was no other way that would efficiently support his family immediately and he knew they needed an immediate solution. Misaki's benefits would stop within the next fortnight as he is no longer a student and isn't entering tertiary study. They could barely afford to put food on the table, he couldn't afford university. Not right now.

Trying to find a job fresh out of high school with no life experience and no degree was going to be slim to none, it was a fact. Especially nothing with a decent stable income.

He was left with his Omega choices as he called them.

Obviously, there was prostitution. But that was never an option. He couldn't bring home that kind of dirty money and shame to his family. He could only imagine his brothers face if he told him.

But there was a legal option he had, that was somewhat more acceptable to society.

Loading up his internet browser, he clicked on the search bar and typed in 'Match-Mate'.

A despicable site really. It promoted itself as a match making site, 'find your perfect mate'. In reality, it was the sale and purchase of mates, usually of the Omega gender. People buying themselves a life partner. It screamed all kinds of wrong. But it was a legal and immediate option and solution. Taking this route also eliminated himself from the financial equation, he would no longer cost his brother food or housing.

Regardless, he knew it would hurt him. "I'm sorry Nii-chan." Misaki whispered to the empty room. "But it's my turn to take care of you."

He clicked register and began to fill in his details, name, date of birth, education, etcetera. He selected a photo from his most recent school photos, he was in tradition Japanese clothing. Misaki wanted to avoid putting one of school uniform up, it made him look younger and would probably attract the wrong kind of people.

The site required two pictures. The next he picked from the last outing he and his family went on, a trip to the park. He was in casual clothes and was holding a big sunflower, smiling brightly. He cropped out his brother and uploaded it.

He struggled on the 'About Me' section.

"I hate writing about myself." He groaned, leaning back on his chair. Hands twiddling with a pencil. "Well I suppose honesty is best, I'd want someone to be interested in me for me." 'Well as much as they can be with an online profile'. He thought wryly.

After an hour or so, writing and re-writing his biography, he was finally happy enough to proceed to the next question.

'Reason for registering:'

'Somehow, I doubt anyone puts their real reasons.' He chuckled humourlessly. He decided to sick with his honesty route.

"Time's have been hard for my family for a long time, yet they still did not hesitate to take me in and raise me. I know realistically that someone of my age and education level, getting a decent stable job is slim at best and will take time. But due to an on coming addition to our little house, it's making me look at all my options. I will do anything to support my family." It was difficult to word, not wanting to give too many details but just enough to make any readers understand without sounding like this whole thing was so forced.

As much as it might be.

He hovered over the submit button, was he really going to do this? Sell himself to a stranger? He closed his eyes, tears stinging at the back of his eyelids as he clicked. He knew what he was doing. Misaki was doing this for the good of his family. They would understand.

The website showed a notification stating it was complete and an email was being sent to his inbox. He closed the laptop. He didn't want to think about this anymore.

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For the rest of the night he enjoyed the company of his family, snuggling up to his brother and sister-in-law during movie night, the affection not unusual of the young Omega towards his little pack. He wanted to just be with them. He didn't know how long he had before he would be ripped away from them, so he savoured everything he could.

His heart squeezed a little more every time he thought that this might be their last hug, their last movie night, he'd never see his little niece or nephew. It became a little overwhelming as the night went on.

"Is something wrong, Misaki?" His raven-haired brother asked for the thousandth time since he came home. The boy again shook his head, face buried in his brother's shoulder.

"No." He replied simply, unaware of the worried looks exchanged over his head. "Can I stay in your room tonight? I'll sleep on the futon on the floor." He raised his eyes to meet Takahiro's and turned to look at his sister.

"Misaki-"

"Please."

Seeing how insistent he was, they relented. Now this was unusual. The last time he had asked to sleep in his big brother's room was when their parents died twelve years ago, for him to do this something was really wrong. "Sure." He smiled. Minami came up beside them and hugged them both. Everyone had a bad feeling, but they knew better than to push the younger into admitting anything, he would clam up and distance himself. Something no one needed right now.

So, they went about grabbing the futon out of the storage closet and setting it up in their room. Once ready for bed they all settled down into their respective sleeping arrangements and drifted off.

Except Misaki, who would lay awake for many hours just trying to memorise the scents flooding the room. He did this back when his parents died, laying in the corner of their room trying to memorise the fading scents until they were nothing but a distant memory. It terrified him that he'd have to go through that again.

It was rare that the 'purchased' ever saw their family again. The Alpha's on the site usually disgustingly dominant, knot heads that couldn't see past their own wants and greed. Doing this practically signed his life away.

Misaki couldn't help but fall into a fitful sleep surrounded by the scents of the ones he loved.

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The next morning no one spoke about Misaki's urge to sleep in the older twos room, or the fact that he's near frantic clinging continued on during breakfast. The student usually hated his Omega urges. Rarely scenting his family, even if the Beta's weren't affected, the natural mothering and nurturing trait not particularly evident until Minami was pregnant – Misaki's sudden and subconscious pampering was what alerted them in the first place.

After breakfast, Misaki headed into his room and got ready for his final day at school. After he finished, he decided to sit down at his computer and check the site to see if there were any offers. Though he doubted there would be much interest so soon.

Boy was he wrong.

He had over 800 offers since his profile launched 12 hours ago. He sat in state of shock, numbly scrolling though the offers and messages, not really reading them.

Majority of offers were around the average amount of what he expected. Some were insultingly low. But two stuck out from the rest.

His eyes widened near comically as he read the amounts.

Ijuuin Kyō – ¥1,500,000 ($150,000)

"Ijuuin Kyō?!" He blurted, his favourite author? "Is this a joke? No way." The chestnut-haired teen was in outright disbelief, and the offer! He was actually a little bit excited at the thought of accepting that offer but his smile faltered.

'What's he doing on a site like this?' He knew that most people on here would only… buy him to treat him like a house pet. At worst a sex toy.

Ijuuin seemed like a nice person from his meet and greets and from his interviews… but hypothetically, if Ijuuin turned out to be like one of the celebrities that did abuse their Omega's then he would have no way out. No one would believe him. He would have to publicly endure the abuse and hold himself together. He didn't think he could take someone he respected so well turning out like every other Alpha he feared.

But it could be his only chance at a mate that wouldn't abuse him as well.

It was a difficult to tell.

The next offer was even larger.

Usami Akihiko – ¥5,250,000 ($525,000)

"What the fuck?" Was the first thing out of his mouth. Firstly, the offer! Since when was he ever considered to be worth that much? Secondly, the name rang a bell. He decided to google their name, figuring someone with that much money to waste was probably super rich and more than likely in the tabloids.

He expected a rich billionaire with family drama splayed out for the media to see maybe but not at all what he got.

"THE FUCKING YAKUZA?"

There was so much on the family, mostly trivial things, like fashion or about what seemed to be their legal jobs. But each site also discussed the 'unconfirmed' ties with Yakuza.

More like no one was going to be caught on record to confirm anything.

But there were lots of deaths reported that could be linked to the Usami Group, most recently being a four car pile up that was 'unconfirmed' to be carrying a to-be-mate of the son of the current suspected leader. A speculated war between groups.

The to-be-mate did not survive.

Well, that choice was out.

He rejected those two offers deciding that it was too risky to accept Ijuuin's and the Yakuza with a guaranteed trip to the River of Styx. After all, it wasn't a dating service, he couldn't ask to get to know them before making a decision.

The site asked for a reason.

Misaki simply replied to Ijuuin that there may have been a mistake in the offer. There wasn't a reason for such an offer from the author. He couldn't explain the real reason anyway.

To the Usami, he only sent a full stop to fill the text box to allow him to send the rejection, what was he going to say, 'You're Yakuza, so no?' Yeah right. Best not say anything.

He sighed deciding to look through the others after school.

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Next Chapter – Bidding Wars, Accept.

To be uploaded 2nd of April.

Constructive criticism and ideas welcome.