"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 what the fuuuuuuck.

Inori seems oblivious to Tōkan's plight and just starts putting his clothes back on. Then he grabs his pipe, puts 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 again and walking off with his pipe resting on his shoulder.

    "Hey, did you guys hear?" asks Hōji the next day. "Looks like two guys fucked each other's brains out yesterday in the athletics storeroom. And it was guys, too, 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 guys, 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, I saw your text yesterday but it was a lot later than 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."

And 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? 🙂"

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

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."

    "Kokonoe High?" he asks, but it's not really a question. "That's my alma mater. You're my underclassman. 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? 🙂🙂🙂" And there just really is 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. But 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, Harutsugu," he says as his husband clutches the back of his head and whines. "Quit trying to intimidate Tōkan."

Inori's little sister, Suzume, hops into 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 makes Tōkan think 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.

    "We've told him to stay in his room during his heat, at least, but he's... the kind who will escape from the second story 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 minors 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, are you good with grammar? I'm not good at all and neither is Inori."

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

    "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."