"I don't need it. I've always dealt with my heat using my fighting spirit." Then he looks over his shoulder and flushes a bit. "And your help now, I guess."

"Well, I'm sorry if I've ruined you for other alphas, now."

This goes completely over Inori's head. "Other alphas? I'm not going to fuck other alphas. I already have you."

Inori is saying cute romantic things casually agaaaaaaainnnnnnnnn Tōkan's heart is going to meeeeeeeelt.

"Well, if you ever did want to fuck another alpha or even date them or whatever, you can."

Inori turns around to fully face him. "I can? The fuck you think you are to tell me what I can or can't do? I'm gonna fuck whoever I want and you've got nothing to do with that."

He grabs his lead pipe and starts stalking away, fuming.

"—that's not what I meant! Inori-kun!" He finishes zipping up and jogs after him. "I just meant I wouldn't feel jealous or, or anything. And I'll support you in whatever makes you happy."

"It's your problem if you get jealous, not mine."

Tōkan sighs and decides to drop it. No reason to argue the principle of it when in practice it will just actually not be an issue.

"Where are you going?"

"Home. Don't care if you come or not."

Yamada Inori is a terrible liar and furthermore Tōkan is head over heels for him.

"...I'll just get rid of my shirt," he decides, then takes it off and bins it.

Inori is a bad liar, and he is also bad at pretending he doesn't like the view.

And Tōkan does not care to pretend he didn't notice.

"You know you have free access to all of this whenever you want."

He turns away and looks straight ahead. "Yes."

He loves loves loves looooooooves Inori.

    When they get to Inori's house Kuroji comes to greet them at the door and gets immediately worried when he sees the state they're in. "Inori-kun? Tōkan-kun? What happened?"

"Heat. Got ambushed by eight. Kicked their asses. Fucked Tōkan."

What was even the POINT of getting rid of his shirt if Inori was going to just SAY THAT ANYWAY.

"—I think he might have a concussion," Tōkan adds rather than interact with that last sentence.

   Kuroji also pretends he did not hear that last sentence and immediately goes to check Inori's head wound. "I'll get you ice, you should take a bath and wash all of that, and I have some skin creams—"

"Stop fussing, Kuroji."

        "😊 Is that my beloved son I heeeeeewhat happened? 😱" calls Harutsugu, coming from the kitchen wearing a baking apron.

    "Inori got in heat in public and they were attacked by eight people." He also does not mention that last sentence to Harutsugu because he knows exactly what Harutsugu would do about it.

        "😰 Oh Inori-kun, why don't you just take the suppressants—"

"I'm going to go take a bath," Inori declares before stalking upstairs.

Wellllllll this is awkward.

        "Are you hurt, Tōkan-kun?" asks Harutsugu. "Do you need anything for the pain?"

"I'm fine, I've had worse." WHY IS HE SHIRTLESS IN FRONT OF INORI'S DADS THIS IS NOT GREAT. "Um, do you have a shirt I could borrow? I'll give it back, it's just that mine got a little bit ruined..." He does not need to say how or what, let them draw their conclusions.

        "You can borrow one of mine, Inori-kun's and Kuroji's would definitely not fit you. 😔"

    "Do you not want to join Inori in the bath, Tōkan?" suggests Kuroji.

        "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, KUROJI! They cannot be together like th-th-that! 😱" wails Harutsugu.

    "He has a much better shot at actually getting Inori-kun to look after his wounds than either of us do, Haru," Kuroji snaps.

        "But but but but but—"

    "Stop bothering Tōkan, Harutsugu!" Sigh. He bows to Tōkan. "Feel free to make yourself at home. Harutsugu will go fetch a fresh set of clothes for you to borrow, and we're baking cookies if the two of you would like to have tea with us."

"Oookay! I'll, uh, yeah." He goes upstairs before Harutsugu can decide to have more opinions about Tōkan.

Inori opens the door once Tōkan knocks, confused for a moment before he recognises him. "Oh. It's you." And that's that, back to the bath.

It's a pretty spacious bathtub.

Tōkan joins him shortly and sits right beside him in the tub.

"...why are you here? There's a lot of space."

"I like being close to you."

"It's hard to get cleaned up with you this close."

"I also want to check up on you and make sure you're not too badly hurt."

"Stop fussing, you're as bad as Kuroji."