"Who the fuck are you! We'll kick your ass!"

Tōkan casually reaches down for the pipe and starts twirling it in his hand with some ease. "You wanna go?"

Twirl twirl he hits the corner of the metal pipe holding the swings in place with a very loud clang.

"Then let's fucking go."

...

That one. I want that one.

"N-no, we just—"

    "He seemed sick and—"

But both of them decide at the same time that finishing their sentences is not the best idea and they take off faster than you can say "alpha".

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?"