"That only makes me more excited for the future."

"Good. You should be."

He smiles to himself and leans back and against the window, grabbing his phone again to idly browse Twitter.

Everything will be fine. This will be remembered as a scary but ultimately pointless situation that lasted a week, if that.

Then he sees a post and freezes for two seconds before saying, "That asshole."

"—huh? Is everything alright Tōkan-kun?"

"No, it's not," he says, scrolling slowly down the webpage he's reading. "It's actually worse than I'd thought. This whole thing is my father's fault."

"...it is? How do you know?"

He runs his hand through his hair and says, "I guess I could be wrong, just... Today he was at the inauguration of a new hotel owned by the Kokonoe group, and he had my cousin Kokonoe Dai be the one to cut the tape. Which is basically telling the world that Dai is his heir, or at least heavily hinting that way. I'd never seen Dai with him before, he's a year older than me and from a less important branch of the family..."

"That's... a lot of politicking within a family," Kuroji says, frowning.

"You tell me." Sigh. "So this is a message to me, in a way, he's saying that if I don't shape up he'll disown me, look here he even already found a replacement and I should stop feeling safe in my position."

"This is really hostile. ...but what does it have to do with Inori-kun?"

"It's hard to explain. It's... a lot of different pieces coming together into a more coherent picture if it's him. Last Friday, that whole thing came out of nowhere in a way that doesn't make sense without... uh, enemy action. And then this today, especially after Ōta-san mentioned all of the costs and barriers that are being somehow overcome, the Hirune family doesn't have that much money, but my father does. It all makes sense as a whole if I imagine that my father is trying to remove Inori-kun from the picture and either remove me with him, if I won't leave him, because then my reputation will be tarnished by association, or force me to cut ties and become a proper heir.

"I know it sounds like kind of guessing but I... I'm usually right about these things."

"Everything I hear about this man makes me like him less and less."

"Try being raised by him." He covers his eyes and looks away. "So it's really, actually my fault that this is happening to Inori. It literally just would not be happening if it weren't for me."

Kuroji pulls over and stops the car, then turns to face Tōkan fully. "Tōkan-kun."

Well that's not terrifying at all. He squeezes the emerging tears out of his eyes and turns around to look at Kuroji.

And what Kuroji does is take off his seatbelt and hug Tōkan.

!

?

"Haru and I have been thinking... do you want to move in with us?"

What the fuck.

"What?"

"I know it's farther from your school and it's certainly not as nice as your apartment, but... Having the constant shadow of that man over you can't be good for you, can't be healthy. I know Inori-kun would be thrilled, in his own way."

"—but—"

"Tōkan-kun," Kuroji interrupts firmly. Then he softens a bit, "I understand where you're coming from. You're... probably right, that if Inori-kun hadn't found you this wouldn't be happening. But I've never seen him happier in my life, and you're family now. We stand up for our family. You know his history, you know a bit of my history, we're not the types to just cower and bend when bullies like Kokonoe Tochima start swinging their power around, and you're just as much a victim of his as we are. And he, if what you say is true, is trying to no longer be your family, himself, so... We would welcome you with open arms into our home." He pulls away, and he's sporting a watery smile, too. "You're like a son to us, too, now, and it breaks our hearts to see how much you suffer. We'll get through this, together, no matter what that man tries. Okay?

"You don't need to answer right now. Just think about it, okay? The offer will be there forever."

He has to look away again and to breathe deeply a few times to get his voice steady. "Okay. I'll think about it."