"And a lead pipe! A-and a school uniform with a red shirt," says one of his classmates, an alpha called Hōji.

"We got nailed from behind!" says the other, Karato.

Tōkan peers at both of them with a thoughtful expression, looking up at them from the bench he's sitting on on the school rooftop. He opens his mouth—

—but before he can say anything his friend Subaru says, "It was probably Yamada Inori, from Yoshikiri High."

"You know him?"

"I know of him," he says, shaking his head. "Rumours. They say he shows up alone, with the mask and lead pipe, and beats people up. He's like a wild dog."

Tōkan looks at the other two again. "For no reason?"

Karato shudders under the weight of Tōkan's gaze and says, "No reason!" in a near-squeak.

"Maybe he's got it out for alpha schools," muses Subaru. "We seem to be his main target. But he's not in a gang or anything. Maybe he's a beta or omega that hates alphas."

"No fucking way!"

"Betas are one thing but there's no way he's an omega. An omega wouldn't treat an alpha like that."

"Omegas just—"

Tōkan gives her a look.

...she turns away. "They're not that physically strong," is what she mumbles.

"Well, find him for me. I think I wanna have a chat."

Tōkan is a popular kid in a popular school, so it's easy to get word out and find someone who knows someone who knows Inori and can get a message to him. By the end of the schoolday they've got a meeting scheduled, if you can call it that, at the nearby storeroom.

So there the four of them wait, in awkward silence, which of course is exactly as Tōkan wants. He has a suspicion about those two and he's usually right about his suspicions. He bets this Inori dude is going to confirm it.

After a while of waiting they start to get a bit fidgety, though.

"Hey, uh, do we have to be here too?" asks Hōji.

"Yep," Tōkan replies, and that's that.

But they aren't kept waiting for very long. He shows up, as promised: alone, a mask covering the lower half of his face, one end of the pipe held in his right hand, the other end resting on his shoulder.

"Yamada Inori, hmm?"

Yeah, he's definitely an omega.

"What's it to you? You wanna fight?" He flicks his wrist so the pipe's other end makes an arc all the way to the ground, clanging loudly.

Tōkan raises both eyebrows. "You don't recognise them." A statement, not a question.

"Who?" And for what seems to be the first time he looks at the other three.

That's when they're hit with it, all four of them at the same time: a wave of pheromones strong enough to straightforwardly pierce through all of their tolerants wafts over, carried by the wind.

Tōkan seems unaffected by it, but the other three all stagger back almost in unison.

"Wh—these pheromones—what—" stammers Subaru.

"Not taking suppressants, Yamada, I see. Some might call this flirting."

Shit these are really strong though.

"What? He is an omega?" coughs Karato.

"Want a reward for your observational skills?" With another easy turn of his wrist he swings the pipe to land on his other hand. "And what the fuck are you talking about? You want flirting? How about a pipe to the forehead?"

"Last night," Tōkan says while the other three are still pinching their noses and holding their hands in front of their mouths. He's not doing that himself, he has an image to maintain, but he's starting to wobble a little. "You ran into these two." He hikes a thumb to point at them. "What'd they do?"

"H-hey!" protests Hōji. "Whose side are you on!"

"To be decided."

Lightbulb. "Ah, I remember the shitheads. They were attacking a girl."

"Attacking, huh?"

"They tried to rape a middle schooler in her first heat."

Tōkan whirls on his feet to face them now. Also, having his back to the wind helps a lot with the pheromones, shit they're strong. "Really? So Yamada had no reason to beat the two of you up, huh?" he asks, still projecting an image of being completely unaffected by the situation.

 "W-we couldn't help it!" says Karato, lowering his hand to place it between himself and Tōkan. Which proves to be a mistake, seeing the way he staggers when affected by the pheromones, eyes full of barely-contained lust.

Yeah. Given how much Tōkan himself wants to turn around and rail Inori right now, he hates that he's starting to understand what Karato is talking about.

Doesn't justify it, though. "Hey Yamada, you wanna beat these two up some more with me?"

"What the fuck are you doing, Kokonoe?" asks Subaru.

"A middle schooler, Subaru. I should fuck them up here and call the police on them." Nothing justifies that. Nothing.

"Hey assholes," says an Inori suddenly standing far too close to the four of them. "Shut the fuck up and fight me," he finishes, swinging his lead pipe in Tōkan's direction.

Tōkan leaps out of the way in the nick of time and takes a defensive stance. "What the hell, man, I'm on your side here!" And now Yamada is way too close, like, wow, what the fuck, dude, you're walking bait.

Yeah, he is. Hōji and Karato are still sporting the physical reminders of what trying to fight Yamada would result in but clearly that's the only thing stopping them. Well, and maybe being afraid of Tōkan, too. And maybe the law. Anyway point is they're barely holding together while they press themselves against a wall to steer clear of the fight and stay away from Yamada.

"You shitty alphas all talk too much," he replies, with another swing.

Which Tōkan dodges again. "Dude, chill the fuck out." Yamada needs to stop moving, he's spraying pheromones into the air like crazy and Tōkan is having trouble concentrating. "I don't want to fight you."

"Too bad, dickhead, I'm here to bash your skull in."

And he might succeed, too. Tōkan thinks even if he weren't in the middle of being affected by Yamada's heat he'd have trouble fighting this guy.

He still dodges. "I didn't do anything!"

"Today." Swing. "Still an alpha." Swing swing. "If you run into a middle schooler you'll be just like them."

Karato at least has the decency of looking embarrassed.

Yamada's right, though. Not about Tōkan specifically, of course, but even Subaru is having trouble here and he's not even into omegas.

Dodge dodge dodge this whole "talking" clearly isn't working and if things keep going the way they are either Tōkan is going to get seriously hurt or the others are going to gang up on Yamada and do something awful to him. He dodges once more, down into a crouching position this time, and from there he lunges at Yamada's midsection and then heaves him up over his shoulder.

(And that is close enough that even Tōkan's composure starts to actually crack. But composure or no he will still not do anything as disgusting as—as those two—)

"Tōkan?!"

"What the fuck are you doing, you prick! Put me down!" Inori yells, thrashing in Tōkan's grip. The lunge caused him to drop his pipe, and it's a lot harder to get out of this position without it.

"I am getting you the fuck away from here before anything we'll both regret happens!" Wow that sounded a lot less sexually charged in his head. Anyway, he starts sprinting away while the other three watch in frozen shock.

"Put me down! I'll fucking kill you!"

"Now's not the time to flirt!"

But between the physical exertion of running and carrying Inori he's starting to actually get really seriously affected by the pheromones and he really really does not want to get in rut right this minute! He never has and he'd been hoping he never would!

What the fuck is up with this dumbass alpha, Inori is going to break his spine.

Eventually they get to an alleyway between two houses and Tōkan drops Inori to the ground before backing up to the opposite wall from him.

And he's got a boner.

"Okay now that we're away from them: why the fuck are you not using suppressants?"

Inori looks up at him wearing a filthy glare. "I manage just fine on my own."

With his classmates not around to see him Tōkan slides down onto the floor, back still to the wall, and pulls his knees in close then buries his face in them to start hyperventilating, finally falling apart. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit..."

...Inori is getting whiplash. What the hell is up with this guy? One second he's saying weird shit to his alpha cronies and then he's carrying Inori like a sack of potatoes and now this.

Inori is confused. Inori has a way to deal with confusion. That way is a lead pipe. But he doesn't have a lead pipe right now.

"Okay, okay, I am not okay, fuck."

"Why are you making noises?" He gets to his feet. "Get up and fight me you coward!"

Tōkan's head snaps up to look at the omega. "Are you seriously—I just spent a while carrying you while you're like—I do not want to fight you right now!" His hand twitches, though, and he balls it into a first and holds it between his legs.

"No, you want to fuck me, just like every other shitty alpha."

He can feel a growl forming in the back of his throat so he clamps it shut so hard he starts getting spots in his vision.

"Yeah, I wanna rail you until tomorrow, so can you stay the fuck away and not make it worse?"

...he really wants his lead pipe back.

"What does that even mean."

"I," and now he's starting to have trouble actually concentrating. "Why do you not take suppressants?"

"—I'm not talking about that! I'm doing my level best here not to get into rut and you keep saying you want to fight me and I kinda want you to beat me up ARGH forget I said that just stay away!" He reaches into a pocket for a little cloth bag and tosses it over to the omega.

His reflexes are great and he can easily catch the bag, even though he's getting even more bewildered. "The fuck's this?"

He looks at the bag with unconcealed disgust, keeping it at arm's length. "I just said I don't need them."

"I can take care of myself. And if I can't then I deserve it."

Okay that's a really hot scenario actually what if Tōkan just overpowered the omega, he's so small, and then he could shut UP dick no one asked you.

"Is that what you'd tell the middle schooler?"

That—stops him.

"And, and, fine, maybe you can manage it on your own, but in the meantime you're just making every alpha around you have to be constantly fighting themselves for every scrap of sanity."

Aaaand he's angry again.

"I don't give a shit about dickhead alphas having trouble, you all deserve it."

...

He's not getting through to this guy, is he.

Fine, let's speak his language. Fighting spirit.

Tōkan pushes himself up to his feet, trying to control the wobble in his balance. Hiding his massive erection is a hopeless endeavour and it's making him real uncomfortable to be around an omega like that. "Look. You wanna fight? Fine, I'll fight you—"

"Finally—"

"Another day. Unless you want an unfair fight with me unable to defend myself because I'm using every nerve in my body to try to control myself," or an unfair fight in which he's not even trying to hold himself back and is going all in to stick his cock into every orifice on this guy, "you're gonna have to wait 'til your heat's done. I can't compete with you while I'm like this."

"Fine. But once I'm not in heat I'm going to fucking kill you."

"Looking forward to it. Now leave."

Inori flips him the bird then stalks away. He needs to find a new lead pipe anyway.

Once Inori is safely away Tōkan turns around to rest his forehead on the wall and try to get a hold of himself. That was way too close, way too many times. He's usually very good at self-control, especially compared to other alphas, and even he was having trouble there.

Also his cock's throbbing and he's knotting, this is the first time he's ever knotted without being inside someone or having someone inside him or at the very least simulating it well enough. That omega's a menace to society.

...cute though. And there's still a part of him that's mesmerised by the image of shutting the mouthy boy up with his dick, getting him to go from fighty and angry to moaning his name and incoherent noises coming out of his mouth.

Tōkan swore to himself he was never going to have sex with an omega but he never said anything about fantasising, and he's clearly not getting better right now. If this is what a rut feels like, it's not as bad as he'd expected; at least he was not completely overridden by instinct like some people say. But it does mean he's either going to need to wait several hours to calm down—which is medically dangerous—or he needs to take care of his business right now.

He chooses the latter. At the level of horny he is even the simple stimulation of pulling his dick out of his pants is strong enough to make him sweat and groan, and it's all downhill from there. He lets himself go, picturing that boy's face and a very flowery image of what his body must be like in his mind, thinking about how much he'd beg, how much Inori would cry for his cock, ask to be railed again and again, how hard it would be for Tōkan to even get in when he's already knotted, he bets that would hurt a lot and Inori would love every second of it, every minute of being stretched wide and open and vulnerable and used...

There's an actual puddle of cum on the ground and streams of it sliding down the wall when Tōkan's knot finally starts to subside after coming five times in a row. He uses a thumb to clean up the last dribbles of it coming out of his shaft and licks it clean (Inori would make such sexy noises with Tōkan's mouth around his cock, Tōkan's tongue exploring his pussy, Tōkan's lips all over him...) before zipping back up and coming back to the world. He needs to find his way home.

"Damnit Inori!" yells his omega dad. "You're in very bad heat! You can't just walk around all alone at night like this! And I told you already to get rid of that pipe."

"Pipe's new."

"Just stay home if you hate the medicine so much 😭," pleads his alpha dad. "Today's was really bad, I told you this morning—"

Inori ignores that and ruffles his kid sister's hair on his way upstairs. "I'm gonna crash. Don't need food."

"Yamada Inori are you even listening—"

No he's not, especially not as he shuts his door behind him and locks it...

...then falls to the floor, panting. "Fuck," he breathes to himself, and starts undoing his belt. "Every time, every fucking time—"

Inori notices something in his pocket while doing that and stares at it in confusion when he grabs it for a few seconds before remembering that's the bag that alpha gave him.

...

He lifts it up to his face and takes a deep, shuddering breath. He didn't think it was possible for him to get any harder but apparently he was wrong. He doesn't even finish undoing his pants before he's got two fingers in his pussy and is rubbing against that spot right under the bottom of his dick inside his vagina. His mask is still on and he's running purely on instinct now, the alpha's scent all over that little cloth bag, trying to pretend his fingers are much bigger and thicker, trying to pretend they're his cock—

It's picturing his face that tips Inori over the edge and makes him come and come and come and that's disgusting and confusing and he's still hard.

He hates being in heat so much.

"You really didn't fuck him?"

"Fuck you, Subaru, I've told you a million times already, I don't fuck omegas."

"It's one thing to say that, it's another to get hit in the face by those pheromones and run off with him..."

Tōkan peers at his friend from the corner of his eyes. "...are you jealous, Subaru?" And the light flush on Subaru's face is enough to confirm it. "You've never been jealous before. Just 'cause he's an omega?"

"Yes because he's an omega," Subaru grumbles in an annoyed tone. "You can fuck other alphas and betas all you want, but they don't have mind-control drugs pouring out of every pore."

"Well clearly I can resist his mind-control drugs just fine." Kind of. He didn't share the details. And he immediately got the strongest tolerants the pharmacy had available just in case. He never thought pheromones could get that bad.

"Fine, you didn't fuck him, but you're a liar if you say you didn't like it. That shit's addictive—" But he cuts himself off before saying anything else. "What did you even do with him if you didn't fuck? You were gone a long time."

"...I lectured him about using suppressants," Tōkan replies, pinching his nose.

"And you jerked off to him later, didn't you?"

"What?"

"Don't lie to me. I jerked off to him later, I wanted to shove a gag in his mouth and fuck him until he passed out. And I'm gay."

"And you don't see me being jealous do you?"

"You're constitutionally incapable of that. I'm just... conditionally incapable of that."

"...Subaru." He looks directly at his friend's face. "I'm not going to return your feelings. I'm sorry, but it's true. I've told you this before. You say you're fine with just fucking, well, alright, but if you're hoping after we've gone at it enough times I'll come around..."

Subaru looks away and folds his arms. "I know that. I know you're not. Doesn't mean I'm going to like it when you inevitably leave."

"I'm not going to be tied down. That is just not going to happen."

"Until a nice-smelling omega comes along..."

Tōkan flicks his forehead. "Stop being gloomy. Come on let me drag you to the bathroom stall and suck you off until you're feeling alright again."

His friend flushes. "You always know just the right words don't you."

When it gets so bad he can't just deal with it with FIGHTING SPIRIT he does weight training, tries to get his mind off things by focusing on some other strong physical sensation. And sometimes even that doesn't cut it and that's when he has to fuck himself to get it to subside.

But he's never needed to spend days doing it.

He bets it's that shitty alpha's little bag, there, with his scent all over it, that's affecting Inori all the time. And he keeps sniffing it like some horny creep and it's a goddamn cycle.

This is getting ridiculous. It's all that alpha's fault. And what was he even talking about anyway, the only alpha Inori's ever met that wasn't a rapist asshole is Harutsugu, and this guy sounds just like him. Inori hates him.

Inori is going to have to kill him.

So that's why a few days later Inori is waiting for him in front of Kokonoe High.

...okay, there was a part of him that had been hoping to run into Yamada again, even while the rest of him didn't really expect him. Certainly not just outside his school gates.

"Heat's over, huh?"

"You keep saying things like that, I'm going to start thinking you really are flirting with me."

"Stop saying that shit and come get killed, shitty alpha."

...wait, what's that he just saw for a moment in Yamada's eyes—

—ohhhhhhhhh no. Oh no no no he does not like that.

"Fine," he says, betraying none of his thoughts. "Let's go somewhere without innocent bystanders."

"This is an alpha school, no one's innocent."

But he follows anyway, since it seems like he will in fact get to kick this alpha's ass after all.

Tōkan stops when they eventually reach an empty football field then turns around and says, "Kokonoe, by the way. Kokonoe Tōkan."

"Don't care." He turns around and stretches, holding his lead pipe in one hand. "Now get ready to get crushed."

Tōkan doesn't adopt a fighting stance, though, and just raises an eyebrow. "Really? You need the pipe to beat me up, one on one? Guess you're not so tough after all."

"The fuck you say?" He tosses the pipe away and cracks his knuckles. "I can take you with a hand tied behind my back."

If Yamada was not an omega Tōkan would know exactly what to say to that, but it's crossing a line, here. He assumes a stance.

Tōkan grabs it and looks at it. "Didn't use it, huh?"

...but then there's the pheromones, and he immediately stretches his arm out to hold the cloth bag as far away from him as possible. "What the hell? Did you rub yourself all over this or something? Your pheromones are everywhere!"

"Fuck you," he says with a swing directly at Tōkan's face.

He dodges, still a little bit on the back foot, and dodges and dodges and dodges until he slips on a soda can and falls onto his back. He immediately rolls out of the way of a kick and leaps up to a crouching position.

"I'm gonna kill," swing swing swing, "every shitty alpha," swing, "but especially you."

Dodge dodge dodge. "Especially me? The fuck did I even do?"

"Not my friends," he says, parrying a blow and returning it with one of his own, finally. "And were you just not listening? I don't look down on omegas and I don't think anything of the sort about you. My mom's an omega."

"Urghhhhhh." He's doubled over and trying not to heave, but most importantly he extremely does not need an omega crushing on him. Does not need that at all.

(And when he gets home, goddamnit, he's the one being a creep and getting off to someone's scent in a cloth bag. In his defence Inori's pheromones smell incredibly hot. Perhaps not so much in his defence, he keeps thinking about fucking the omega.)

(Maybe Subaru was onto something when he said this is addictive.)

Inori is waiting for him at the school gates the next morning. "We weren't finished."

"—you're the one who ran away," he replies on automatic because fuck he had actually hoped Yamada would just give up after that.

"You kept saying weird shit. Stop doing that and come die like an alpha."

"I have class. And so do you."

"You're asking me to skip class so that you can kill me."

"Yep."

"Fuck off." And through the gates but he's got a suspicion he's just not brushing Yamada off that easily.

"So did you beat him up?" asks Subaru between classes.

"No, he ran away."

"Did he? Thought I saw someone with his hair by the gate this morning."

"He wanted a rematch."

Snort. "After he ran away?"

"Dude's crazy."

"So don't go sticking your dick in it."

"I am not going to fuck an omega."

But there he is the next day. After class this time, though.

"Stop stalking me! Go home!"

"You were bitching about school so I waited until after it."

"Just go away, dude, I don't want anything to do with you."

"No! I'll keep coming here every day until you admit defeat! I will defeat all alphas!"

"...that it? Fine. I lose."

"—at least look me in the eye when you say it!" he growls, stepping up to Tōkan and grabbing him by the scruff of his T-shirt. "Or are you scared of me?"

He bats Yamada's hand away and takes a step back because pheromones or no Tōkan's mind has started to wander a bit too much whenever he's around this dude. The "addiction" theory is getting more and more likely. "I'm not scared of you."

"Then why won't you fight me!!" He doesn't get any closer but he's the birth of the phrase "if looks could kill". "All because of all that bullshit you said, your face keeps popping up in my head even though my heat is over! So I have to kill you!"

N n n n n nooooooo nope nuh uh not this shit he extremely very very much does not want to have this omega trailing after him trying to figure out that he has a crush, nope, no sir, get him the fuck outta here.

"Well, I don't want to see your face anymore," and part of that's a lie because he keeps fantasising about this shitty omega because of some Pavlovian conditioning bullshit or whatever. He will need to take an ice-cold shower after this. And destroy that cloth bag for good measure. And not jerk off for like a week. Or maybe jerk off five times a day for a week until he's got all of that horny dealt with, he's not sure. "So just fuck off and get out of my life already."

Inori opens his mouth for a retort—

—but before he can do that someone calls his name: "Hey, Yamada! Fancy meeting you here!"

He looks over Tōkan's shoulder at the source of the voice.

There's three people approaching from that direction, glaring at him. "How 'bout we finish what we started the other day?"

"...do I know you?"

Tōkan's turned around by then and is frowning at the three. "Jochi," he tells the leader of the little gang. "What are you doing here?"

"Your little boyfriend here needs to learn a lesson, Kokonoe."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Oh, I remember you guys." He tightens his grip on his lead pipe. "You were going after that boy last month. You want another round? Bring it."

"I'm going to kill you," says another person who showed up behind Inori and Tōkan, with a friend. And then there's another four coming from over there, too.

Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of Yamada's decision to beat up every alpha (and a number of betas) and then show up every day at the gates of an all-alpha school. "Seriously, guys? Eight of you? Against one little omega? Has your pride sunk that low?" But there is, actually, no way they can fight eight people at once.

"I'm not little. And I can take you all on. Bring it," he repeats.

"Guess we'll have to beat both of you up," says another one of them, "since you insist on protecting him, Kokonoe."

"Allow me to propose an alternative." Then he tackles Inori again and dashes off into the distance while carrying him over his shoulder.

...again??

"Put me down!!!" he shrieks. "You stupid alphas are all the same, just doing whatever you want, you don't give a shit about anyone but yourselves—"

"Will you shut up, we cannot fight eight people at once!"

"Maybe you can't, but I can so put me the fuck down and let me at them!"

This deserves no response, especially not at the cost of the breath he needs to outrun the eight of them while carrying Yamada, even as small as he is. It's a good thing Tōkan is very in shape, and an early bloomer to boot so he's had a longer while of simmering in his alpha hormones than most other alpha kids their age.

After they're out of sight he makes his way to the school's athletics storeroom and shuts the door before finally dropping Yamada back on the floor and slinking away from him.

"Goddamnit, Yamada."

"—what! You're the one who dragged me here, I should be complaining."

"You're delusional."

"Well get out of the way then, if you don't want to fight there's no point in being around you, I wanna find those guys and beat them up."

"Delusional," he repeats. "And no, you are not leaving right now, the teachers are all over the place and I don't want my father to hear shit about this."

"...your father?"

"...did you not hear what I said? I'm Kokonoe Tōkan. This is Kokonoe High. My father is the school owner and headmaster."

"I'm not paying attention to shit like that. And what's it to me anyway? I don't care what your father or whoever else hears."

"Well I don't care what you don't care about, we'll leave when I can't hear people outside anymore and go out the back—" But instead of that what he immediately hears is the voice of some other students approaching the storeroom. "Shit. Hide!"

And it's not like he's waiting for Yamada to comply before he's behind some stacks of boxes pulling the omega with him.

Inori at the very least has the grace to stay quiet while they sit next to each other and wait for the kids to leave.

When they do Tōkan gets up again and says, "Right then, change of plans, let's leave before anyone else gets in..." But he stops talking as he gets to the door and tries to open it and notices that the outside is chained. "Oh goddamnit."

"What."

"They locked the door."

"—this is your fault! Fix it!"

He's already got his phone in his hands and is texting people. "I'm working on it! In the worst case security's gonna make the rounds, though, right? But maybe I could get my friends to come... Where is the key even kept?"

Inori doesn't say anything to that.

Tōkan... notices, and looks up from his phone at him.

He's hugging himself and has started shuddering.

Wha—

oh

"You said your heat just ended!" And he's not in front of other alphas so he can just press his back against the door and cover his mouth and nose, because fuck this dude's pheromones are strong.

"It did."

"...so what the fuck's this then?"

"...my heats are irregular. Once it's over it comes and goes for a few hours at a time over a few days. And it can come back very soon. Or not. I've gone four months between heats before."

Oh no. Ohhhh no no no no no. The room is locked this place's air is gonna be entirely replaced by this guy's pheromones. "You have got to be kidding me," but Tōkan's pretty sure he isn't.

He's oblivious. "It's not a problem."

He bangs his fist against the door. "The fuck you mean 'it's not a problem'? It's nothing but a problem!"

"I won't lose to my heat."

"You selfish prick." But he did buy stronger tolerants just for this kind of situation, so he's soon rummaging in his school bag for them—here. He doesn't waste any time before sitting down and stabbing his leg with the applicator. Then he grabs a box of pills and throws them to Yamada. "Take these."

He catches it and stares at it. "I don't need them."

"I do!!!!"

"Don't care."

He slides down to a seat on the ground, too, back to the opposite wall.

Fucking selfish asshole Tōkan is going to kill him after this or he might instead fuck him NO at least he has condoms and morning after pills if he needs them clever and good advance planning but still no he looks so cute and vulnerable ARE YOU NOT LISTENING

Fuck.

After a half hour of silence Tōkan is finding himself in a very similar position to the one from when he first met Yamada: hugging his knees, tense as a spring, and trying to keep still. He's knotting and he's pretty sure his pants are soaked through with precum.

And that bastard is just sitting there playing on his phone.

"Why are you so fucking stubborn," he finally says, breaking the silence. "Just take the goddamn suppressants! I don't want to keep being tempted to—" But he will not finish this sentence, nosireeeee.

He looks up and blinks at Tōkan a few times. "I don't care if you attack me."

"—what?" That's an opportunity SHUT UP but he just said he's fine with it SHUT UP it would be really hot SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP—

"I'll just break your arms if I need to," he finishes as if he didn't hear.

"—that's worse!!!!"

Okay. Mind over matter. Mind over matter. He doesn't need to be around this guy, he doesn't need to get off to this guy, he doesn't need to fuck this guy. If he ever needs a fuck he has Subaru on call, plus a dozen other alphas at school and alphas and betas all over everywhere else, he doesn't need this particular guy, he doesn't need to think about—about—

—about the time Yamada jerked off to his scent, what his face must have looked like, his fingers knuckle deep in his pussy, conflicted and hating himself about it but unable to control himself—

—about how pretty he'd look with Tōkan all the way up inside him, knot and all—

—about the noises he'd make, how he'd moan and cry and gasp and plead and curse—

—about how delicious his body must look, his strong wiry build honed by so long practising fighting alphas, strong enough to overpower alphas, even three-on-one apparently, he must look so hot, his ass is probably so tight—

—about ripping that mask off his face and kissing him, finding out what he looks like under it, seeing his mouth parted for Tōkan, his lips trembling with pleasure—

—but he's startled out of his reverie by a loud growling noise coming from Inori. "...what was that."

"...I'm hungry."

"Holy shit that was your stomach?" But he's already reaching into his bag on instinct and grabbing a box of protein bars to toss it over to Yamada. "Eat this."

Inori looks almost startled by that, then looks down at the box and grudgingly starts eating its contents. But he turns around first so he's not facing Tōkan while he does it.

"Why do you even hate suppressants this much?" he asks. Maybe keeping his mind occupied by conversation will help him forget about everything else.

"Because I can deal with my heat with fighting spirit," he replies slowly as if talking to a child. "I've told you this."

"...is fighting spirit how you're gonna deal with this? If I lose control for one second because you can't deign to do the bare minimum I just get to have my arms broken? How's that fair?"

He snorts. "An alpha talking about fair. As if I care."

"Goddamnit Yamada I'm trying to protect you—!"

Fine, if Yamada is fine with getting raped then he's fine with being forced to take suppressants, right? Right. Tōkan gets to his wobbly feet and grabs an unused tolerant applier because this is ridiculous and he will not rape him and if he needs to violate Yamada's bodily autonomy otherwise to avoid that then fuck it he'll do it. He takes the steps to cross the distance between them, suppressant in hand, then grabs Yamada by the shoulder to turn him around—

...oh. He—he's so pretty—and his face is flushed like that, and he's breathing so heavily and even that is enough to get Tōkan going (not that he needs much more incentive, his trousers are actually straining against his belt and zipper and his cock might actually win that fight). "Y-you—you—"

He doesn't say anything. And doesn't resist, either. He's just there, sitting cross-legged, breathing heavily, as if he's waiting...

He's—surely he's—aware—why isn't he fighting—fight, damn you, stop Tōkan from doing this, please—

"Why are you making that face?" he says in a raspy rumble, which is not what he'd been planning to do. Nor is getting down on his knees and holding Yamada's chin in his fingers, lifting it up—he wasn't expecting Yamada to look prettier without the mask, most people don't— "You want it, don't you? As much as I do." No what stop this he did not plan to say this what the fuck is possessing him—

And still Inori doesn't say anything and just looks at him, trembling, lips parted and shining in the fluorescent light—

Fight him, damnit! Stop him! Don't—don't just look at him like that—push him away, don't let him get closer, don't let his face get there, don't let their lips touch—please—

Then he punches Kokonoe in the stomach and sends him away doubled over.

Yes! "Th-thank you," he says between coughs, sitting on his ass and holding his arms around his midsection. What the hell was he doing, why couldn't he stop himself—

"You're fucking welcome," he says, but he's trembling, too, and his voice is not at all steady.

"G-give me your arm. Or leg. I—" He dropped the tolerant at some point, but it's in reach and he can just grab it. "I'll inject you—"

"Hell no. Stay the fuck away from me."

"Yamada—! I just—I almost—"

"You almost nothing, I stopped you, didn't I."

"I can't stop myself, clearly, you may deal with it with fighting spirit but I don't—" He uncaps the applier but his hands are shaking too hard, he's not sure he'd even be able to apply it this way, it's too much, too fucking much...

"...then just do it. If you wanna do it." He pulls his knees in and hugs them. "I've been told that... that's what I'm for. Omegas are just there for alphas to fuck... you use your instincts as an excuse..." Shiver. "To just do what you want to do... so..."

...something happened to him. Tōkan is not sure what, the immediate idea is that some alphas took advantage of him already but that doesn't—quite—fit— "Don't lump me in with them," he says instead, dropping the applier once more. Even though he almost did it, he deserves to be lumped with them, he almost, it was, if it had been up to just him— "Stop doing that. I don't—I don't want to take advantage of you—that's why I want you to take the suppressants—do you have any idea—?"

Inori stays silent, then, and just watches Tōkan.

"I don't want that," he repeats. "Don't want to—to rape you—anyone. I can't—I know I can't complain, the whole world is set up around me, alphas are politicians and CEOs and TV personalities and singers, I'm even worse, my father is the headmaster at school, all the teachers treat me like I'm, I'm something special when I'm not, I'm just—me—except I'm not, I'm not me like this, my whole body wants to hijack me, wants me to just, just follow my instincts and evolution and I won't, I won't, I can't—" He's repeating it all mostly to convince himself, to prevent himself from doing it. Center. He needs to remember who he is, and who he is is not a rapist. "And, and sex is, it's nice, it's so nice, it's so good, it feels great, it's not, you shouldn't, you shouldn't use it to hurt people, shouldn't make them feel bad, if they're feeling bad then you're doing it wrong and I'm not, I don't want to do it wrong, I don't want to—to hurt you—" He's got the tolerant again and is trying to make his hands hold still so he can, can...

There, he thinks he's steady enough. "Your arm. Give me your arm. Please."

"...me too."

"Wh—" Oh what the fuck, his pheromones just got stronger? No that's not, that's not possible, that shouldn't be possible, Tōkan was already on the verge of losing, he can't take more of this. "W-w-what are you t-t-talking ab-bout?" he says between violent body-shaking shudders.

"Me too. I feel that way too. And I... I want... just... just do it..."

What the fuck is he saying, he shouldn't be saying things like that, and Tōkan's body shouldn't be acting of its own accord like that either, he shouldn't be close to Yamada again. "Stop me," he says even as he gets closer and his face approaches Yamada's. "Please. Punch me, hit me, break my arms, stop me—"

He doesn't. He lets it happen. He—he kisses back—

I want to ravage him I want to kiss him I want to bite him I want to fuck him I want to rail him I want to rip his clothes off I want him I want him I want him—

Tōkan's shirt is off, somehow, and his hands are fumbling with Yamada's belt, with his trousers, he's feeling too hot all over, trousers and underwear are now gone and oh Yamada is hard too, and he's so wet, so ready for him already, he must've been leaking for so long, too, his underwear is soaked and he's still dripping more, and his face, he wants it, Tōkan knows he wants it, and if he just stops—for a moment—stops holding himself back, he could, he could have it—god his ass is just as round and muscled as Tōkan imagined, those legs, and he's just panting and waiting, his legs are wide open just for him—

And now he finds some sense in himself and says, "No, no, get away, stop this," but he doesn't move at all, he doesn't find it in him to push Kokonoe away, and when that monster—he's never watched porn before, he's never seen an alpha's cock like that, he knew it was big but it's so much bigger than he'd thought, there's no way that's going to fit inside him, and he's already knotted and why is Inori getting even wetter at that, and his pussy is doing the opposite of clenching because he wants it, wants it so much, he wants to be split open by this alpha, wants all of that inside him, please, "Please—" and now it's not an objection it's a request, a demand, he needs more, "Please fuck me, put that in me, fill me up, I need—I need—"

He doesn't, not yet. That would hurt Inori a lot, if he just went in, he can start with his fingers, can make him feel good...

And he can kiss Inori, which is suddenly as much of a need as fucking him, as strong a desire, stronger, even. His eyes aren't even open anymore, Tōkan's just kissing him and pumping into him with his fingers and rubbing his dick against Inori's leg and stomach, he needs more.

"Please—no, don't—stop—don't stop, please, I need you—get away from me you stupid alpha—please—fill me, fill me with your seed—don't put that in me—no, do—" The litany of protests and pleading goes on, and he's not sure even as wet and ready as he is it'll enough for the knot—which Tōkan seems to agree with at some point, except he agrees with the wrong thing, because he's positioning himself to enter Inori anyway, and that's all Inori's ever wanted and needed in his life, and when he feels Tōkan entering him he wraps both arms around Tōkan's neck and moans loudly. "Please—stop—you won't fit in—it hurts—don't do this—" But all of his complaints and objections are undone by his pulling Tōkan even closer in, kissing Tōkan, biting Tōkan, pressing himself down onto Tōkan, and he wants it, wants it so much, he needs it—

"I'm sorry," Tōkan whispers just before he starts getting the knot in, and the way Inori's biting his neck hard enough to draw blood he knows it must hurt like hell, but even the verbal protests have stopped now, Inori's just whimpering and moaning and crying—

—and now he's inside.

Inori screams. He just actually screams, it's not a moan, it's not anything else, it's a scream. And it's Tōkan's name, Tōkan's given name, he's screaming this stupid horrible shitty sexy amazing beautiful alpha's name again and again. His body's both made of gelatin and of some kind of spring that will never let go, he's melting and he's pulling Tōkan against him so hard he's afraid he's going to break Tōkan's bones. He can taste Tōkan's blood in his mouth from where he broke skin, and even that tastes delicious, so good, so fucking good, "Please, Tōkan, please, more, I need you, I need it, please—"

Tōkan buries his face in Inori's neck, Inori's chest, Inori's shoulder, and there's not a whole lot of pounding he can do while knotted all the way inside but what little of it there is he's doing, he's pushing Inori against the floor, Inori's legs still spread open for him, welcoming him, wanting him— "Inori—fuck Inori—you feel so good—mine—you're mine, you're—I'm going to—"

Inori comes a second before Tōkan does, and it's more than he's ever come before, he's beyond sounds now, he's beyond coherent thought, he knows exactly what Tōkan was talking about when he talked about instincts and being taken over because all he wants is Tōkan, Tōkan inside him, Tōkan touching him, kissing him, licking him, saying his name, god whenever Tōkan says his name he wants to cry—

He needs more.

So they go at it again and again and again and again over the several hours it takes for the sex to subside Inori's heat and Tōkan's rut, at which point Inori immediately falls asleep.

Just in time for Tōkan to have a protracted panic attack.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck what did he do he didn't even have the presence of mind to get a condom on he completely lost control he had sex with an omega fuck fuck fuck fuck he fucked up he fucked up so bad he's just as bad as his father he's just as bad as Hōji and Karato he swore at least he has morning after pills (but it would be just like Inori to not want to take them, the madman) fuck shit fuck he raped an omega he's a rapist he should turn himself in he should talk to the police fuck if Inori wants to bash his skull in it'll be just deserts he won't even move out of the way he fucked uuuuuuuup

Once a-fucking-gain, fuck.

"...hey," Inori says a half hour later, not turning around to look at Tōkan (and at least this way Tōkan confirms that he didn't bite the nape of Inori's neck, thank god), "get me some water."

Inori sits up as Tōkan is getting his water and Tōkan doesn't make eye contact as he hands Inori the bottle. "I'm sorry."

"...why are you apologising?"

...he can only stare, at that.

Inori looks at him and frowns. "Well, don't. I'm not apologising either. I'm not sorry."

"—you're—! I was the one who raped you!"

He scoffs. "Fuck off. If I didn't want it to happen I'd just have killed you."

Tōkan thinks this is some self-serving pride-preserving bullshit but he won't argue, he's seen that there's no point in that already. "Then at least take a morning after pill," he says, reaching into his bag for a box of same.

"I'm not stupid," he says, standing up and taking a swig of the water bottle. "I have my own." Which he has to rummage through his clothes to find.

But also this "standing up" business 1. displays Inori in all his naked glory and 2. makes it clear just how much Tōkan came. There's cum dripping down Inori's legs, not that he seems to mind it, the dumbass. And Tōkan finds himself horny again, this time in an entirely mundane "staring at a hot boy with cum dripping down his legs" way. "And get a pregnancy test," he adds, looking away again. "The pill might not be enough."

"I'm not stupid," he repeats. He finds his pills and takes two with the water.

"—and I should give you my number. If, ah, if anything happens anyway—I'm very willing to take responsibility—"

"Shut up," Inori says without much heat. He walks over to the door and pulls on it a little, then frowns. "Was it only a padlock and chain keeping this shut the whole time?"

"...the fuck you mean, 'only'?"

"Could've said that sooner," he sighs and then he—

—pulls the door open hard enough to shatter the chain and padlock.

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck oh god if this guy wants to kill him he is so fucking dead what the fuck NOT THE TIME TO GET TURNED ON the door is open wide and they're both naked so anyone could look in and see STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS what the fuuuuuuck.

Inori seems oblivious to Tōkan's plight and just starts putting his clothes back on. Then he grabs his pipe, pulls his mask on, and says, "Later."

"What do you mean later!!!" says Tōkan, scrambling to his feet and putting his own clothes on as fast as he can. "At least let me walk you home—"

"Fuck you," he says, flipping Tōkan the bird and walking off with his pipe resting on his shoulder.

"Hey, did you guys hear?" she asks the next day. "Looks like two people fucked each other's brains out yesterday in the athletics storeroom. The whole place reeked of cum, the soccer players said, and the door's lock was busted."

"Damn, that's ballsy," says Karato.

Tōkan had been giving those two the cold shoulder lately but after yesterday... he hates that he feels a little bit of sympathy for them. Even though they're horrible. "Yeah, Kurokei told me earlier," he says, tapping away at his phone. He's not about to let people know he was one of the sources of that cum, obviously; bad enough that it happened at all, he doesn't need people knowing about it. Also he's got other stuff on his mind, like the fact that Inori stalked off without getting his number so what if something happens how will he okay who is Tōkan kidding if anything happens Inori will just show up at the gates again. "I get the appeal, though. Semi-public like that, anyone who walked by and saw the broken chain would be curious, always the risk of getting caught..."

"Was it you?" Hōji asks.

"Obviously not," says Tōkan, rolling his eyes. "If it had been me I'd have been bragging to everyone."

"...not false," she agrees. "Oh, hey, sorry about yesterday, I saw your text but it was like two hours after you sent it, what'd you need?"

"Oh, nothing, I'd just forgotten some stuff at school and wondered if any of you guys would still be around to grab it for me. Just came back and did it myself though."

It takes a week, but Inori does eventually show up at the gates again, after school, leaning on his pipe. "Hey."

Oh shit. "Did something happen? Did you take the test? And why are you coming here, last time eight guys tried to ambush you..." But this dude shattered a thick iron chain on the strength of one arm alone, Tōkan is starting to think that he was right and he could have taken all of them on and won. That's terrifying (and horribly attractive).

He ignores all of that. "Come with me." And turns around and starts walking with no explanation.

Aaaaah?

Okay?

"So," says Harutsugu, with a smile that can cut through steel, "You're Tōkan? 🙂"

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck why is Inori introducing him to his parents did he tell them Tōkan raped him is he going to be arrested he should be arrested aaaaaahhhhh

"Yes, sir."

(Inori, meanwhile, is just eating chips, seated at the Yamada dinner table, seemingly entirely unbothered.)

"Kokonoe High?" he asks, but it's not really a question. "That's my alma mater. You're my kōhai, then. And your family name...? 🙂🙂🙂"

Behave perfectly. "The headmaster is my father," he agrees.

"Ahh, I see 😌," and even though the smile hasn't changed at all it is now conveying something along the lines of "so you're a rich spoiled playboy, huh?". He nods to himself a couple of times then asks, "And are you serious about Inori?"

What the fuck?!

Did—did Inori say—what the fuck. And the asshole's just—just eating chips and completely ignoring the conversation. WHY.

"You're serious about dating him?" he continues asking, in the same mild tone, completely oblivious to Tōkan's internal struggle. "You love him? 🙂🙂🙂"

There's something about a bespectacled alpha wearing a sweater vest looking at you like a panther eyeing its prey that is more terrifying than anything Tōkan has ever felt in his life.

"Right," he says, because what else is he going to do? He does his best to suppress the shiver that runs down his spine, though, and keeps his head up and his face serious.

Thankfully, Kuroji shows up behind Harutsugu, apron-clad, and saves Tōkan by smacking the back of Harutsugu's head. Looks like he didn't do it very lightly, either.

"Cut it out, Haru," he says as his husband clutches the back of his head and whines. "Quit trying to intimidate Tōkan."

Inori's little sister, Suzume, hops onto the chair to the other side of Tōkan as Kuroji serves their dinner. "You look very handsome," she tells Tōkan earnestly.

"Thank you," he says, smiling genuinely at her. She has nothing to do with the fact that Inori's alpha dad is scarier than getting in a fistfight with a bear and Inori's omega dad is even scarier than that.

"We didn't ask you to come here to scare you," says Kuroji (although the way Harutsugu is looking at him might lead one to believe that this is not a unanimous opinion in this house). "It's... just that recently, Inori, um... see... how do I put this..." And apparently he chooses to put this in a way that he does not want his daughter to hear because he walks behind her chair and covers her ears with both hands. "A week ago Inori came home looking..."

Oh, god, Inori just straight-up walked back home looking like that, didn't he. Messed up hair and hickeys and Tōkan's scent—

Oh fuck.

"So Harutsugu started freaking out," ("Hey!"), "about how he was going to protect Inori and no one would ever hurt him again..." (And Inori himself offers his dad a cold glare in between bites of the dinner he's already scarfing down.) "But Inori said that he was not hurt," even though Tōkan knows for a fact the hickeys and bruises were completely unhidden, "and that it was mutual."

(...Tōkan thinks Inori tried to communicate something that is not what his dads think he was trying to communicate and he has no idea how to navigate that.)

"He hates suppressants," Kuroji continues after a moment. "No matter what you say. He got side effects the first time he took them, and after that he just refused to ever take any again."

—wait what. What. What?!?!?!?! That was the whole reason?????

He slowly turns to stare at Inori, who... is still eating. What is wrong with that boy.

Nom.

...

?

"We've told him to stay in his room during his heat, at least, but he's... the kind of kid who will escape through the second story window so it's not like we really can keep him here against his will even if we wanted to."

Yeah, Tōkan can believe that. This boy's a demon.

"...so we've always wondered," he continues, "and expected, really, that someday he'd... get into something he couldn't get out of... but we told him that if he ever had a partner we would love to meet them."

"But you should definitely not be having sex before marriage! 😌" Harutsugu immediately interrupts to say.

"You're one to talk," Kuroji says in annoyance. Then he sighs and turns to look at Tōkan again. "...and maybe he's right and it might not be great parenting, but... we're really glad that someone actually likes our piece of work of a son. We hope that everything will work out for you two."

"You talk too much," Inori complains. "Stop saying that cheesy stuff."

"I think Inori needs seconds," Tōkan says mildly.

And Inori shoots him a suspicious look, but doesn't gainsay him.

After dinner, Suzume walks up to Tōkan and grins up at him and says, "Tōkan-chan, are you good with grammar? I'm not good at all and onii-chan isn't either."

"Oh, yeah, Japanese is my best class, actually."

(Suzume calls him onii-chan, that's so fucking cute, Tōkan thinks he might die of it.)

"Oh! Can you help me with my homework? There are lots of rules I don't remember..."

"Sure."

"Okay! I'll bring my practice book."

While she's gone, Tōkan looks over his shoulder at Inori's dads, doing the dishes together, then smiles to himself and looks back at Inori with a pensive expression.

"...what."

"Your dads are... they look like they work well together. Like they love each other. ...and you take after them."

"...and what's that supposed to mean?"

"Relax, Inori-kun. It's good. I'm kind of jealous."

"...why?"

He shakes his head. "My mum was an omega. She died when I was very little. And my father... never really got married to her, because to him alphas and omegas should be kept separate. Way he says it, being with her was a mistake, a lapse of judgment. And after she died he found an alpha lady and she didn't want kids of her own so my being there suited her just fine. Not that it mattered, neither of them are really very present in my life. I'm alone in my apartment ninety percent of the time—"

"Tō-kan-channnn!" Suzume singsongs, running back with books in her hands. "I got my homework here!"

He turns around to look at her and smiles again. "Show me?"