Tōkan watches them run but only relaxes when they're out of sight. After that, he walks up to Inori. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you? Damn you Inori, I thought—what happened to your fighting spirit?"

...no.

He passes out, slumping right into Tōkan's arms.

"—wh—Inori? Are you okay? Inori?!"

Tōkan's place is closer than Inori's, and his father won't be home tonight anyway so whatever. He pulls Inori's mask down to make sure he's going to be breathing properly, then...

...well, first, gently places Inori on the couch so that he has his hands free to stab himself with a tolerant, but after that he goes to the kitchen to grab some water for him. "Why were you even in that park," Tōkan grumbles out loud. "It's nowhere near your house or school..."

"...was headed to your school," he mumbles without opening his eyes.

"—you're awake. Here," and he offers Inori a glass of water, but it's just like offering it to a wall for all the reaction it gets. "...why were you coming to Kokonoe High today?" He hadn't even been there, he and Subaru skipped class today and just fucked around most of the day.

"I don't... understand why... you kissed me..." He opens his eyes, notices the glass of water, then carefully takes it. "It was confusing and pissing me off. I wanted to hit you until you explained."

He shivers, then, and nearly drops the water, so he decides to drink the whole glass all at once and put it down before he does that.

"—hey, Inori. It's okay. They're gone. You're safe."

Inori pulls his feet onto the sofa and hugs his legs then shoots Tōkan a glare. "It's all your fault."

"...what?"

Also holy shit it was a great idea to open the windows and turn the ceiling fan on, even now the pheromones are already making him sweat. He is not sitting next to Inori, he'll lock himself in the bathroom if he needs to.

"It's your..." Shiver. "Fucking fault."

"...I'm sorry. I—you can stay here until your heat is over. I'll, you can use my bedroom, I'll just lock myself in the guest bedroom and not come out."

"—will you shut the fuck up?! That's not what I'm saying!"

"—sorry. What... are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I was doing fine and then your stupid face popped up in my head and I lost all my goddamn strength!" He's shrieking by now. "This doesn't happen! I've always been able to fight! But now you fucked me up like that! Because I liked it, you asshole! So I'm going to have to find a way to fix that. And since it's your goddamn fault then you are going to help."

"...you mean..."

"And, and why did you kiss me anyway, if you hated it, if you didn't want to fuck me and it was just, just hormones? That's what you said wasn't it! So now I can't get you out of my goddamn head and I'd be a horrible person to ask you to fuck me unconscious even though that's what I want, so you are going to help me figure this shit out. Dickhead."

...

Tōkan gets up from the kitchen stool and walks over to the sofa then sits next to Inori.

(Oh fuck he'd forgotten how nice those pheromones were, they're turning his brain into mush...)

"...what?"

"I have feelings for you. That's why I kissed you. Because I wanted to. Because I got a stupid crush and now whenever I see you I get butterflies in my stomach and I get all happy and mushy. Also horny."

He looks away and the flush on his face is no longer solely because of the heat. "When I'm in heat I, there's this disgusting little voice in my head. Telling me how much I want an alpha's cock inside me, how much I want to be filled up. It's always been there. I hate it." Then he looks at Tōkan again. "And now it just says your name. Your stupid rich-boy name. You did this to me, so fix it. Just," and now his voice devolves into a pathetic whine, "just kiss me again."

Holy shit how can one person be this attractive, he's pushing so many of Tōkan's buttons right now, it's unreal.

"I... don't want to be the kind of person who loses control." He places a finger under Inori's chin to lift his face up so he can look Inori in the eyes. His beautiful, striking purple eyes. "But I want you. I want you so much. I wanted to fuck you a week ago, and I want to fuck you now, so if you want that too..."

He bares his teeth. "Did I fucking stutter?"

He did not, and that's why Tōkan is kissing him now.

It's kind of funny. When he's around just the pheromones he can feel the animal inside of him, the growling beast that just wants to take and take and take and keep taking. To have it all.

But when he's kissing Inori it all goes away. Yes he wants, he wants so much, but the beast understands it's won, so he can take his time savouring his prize. Slowly, this time, he's not too far gone now. They're still going to take hours, of course, but he won't be spending all of those locked inside Inori, he'll be able to have some variety.