"Up. Come on." He pokes Tōkan's thigh with his foot. "I need you to be up here so I can kick your fucking ass."

    "Inori-kun! 😨" says Harutsugu, horrified.

"...that's terrible incentives."

"Fuck off with your posh rich boy words." Then he pushes Tōkan hard enough with his foot to make him lose balance and have to catch himself. "And fuck off with your martyr bullshit, too. You're just trying to make me break up with you."

"...?"

"Fuck. Off. I'm not breaking up with you, if you want to get rid of me do it yourself you coward. But if you do it for my own good I will break your legs."

"But—"

"Shut up. And come help Kuroji make dinner."

He doesn't wait for a response, and pushes past his parents to go to the kitchen. Kuroji looks between Harutsugu and Tōkan, shoots Tōkan one last apologetic look, and follows after Inori.

    "...he loves you," Harutsugu says quietly, gently. "He loves you very much. And... he's right. It's not your fault. 😕 Maybe it got bigger because of it being Kokonoe High, but... people like this will always exist."

Tōkan gets back to his knees but doesn't bow again, and just looks at Harutsugu. "I guess, but—but he could go to jail—"

    "A minimal amount of investigation will reveal the truth 😤," Harutsugu says, firmly. "My son has been making a name for himself, hasn't he? 'The Shikiri demon' 😌," he says, looking fondly exasperated.

"—you know about that?"

"😁 Of course I know about that. And I know that a lot of people outside the little bubble of rich alphas do think he's doing a good thing. Protecting all those kids from, from—" Shudder. "As his parents we are constantly worried that he'll bite more than he can chew, someday, but... but I can't say we're not proud. He's our little demon. 😊"

That's so surreal Tōkan starts laughing. "I love him more than I can say," he admits.

    "I know." He gets back to his feet and offers Tōkan a hand. "Come on, let's help the loves of our lives take care of us." Tōkan accepts Harutsugu's hand and gets to his feet. "It will work out fine. It's a headache, but... that's life. We deal with these things, one at a time."

Inori still looks like he's fuming when they get to the kitchen, and Harutsugu walks up to his husband to hug him.

Yeah, good idea. He walks up behind Inori and hugs him, too. "I love you. I'm—yeah I guess you're right, I... kinda was..."

"No shit I'm right. Asshole. Get out of my way."

He pulls back from the hug to give him space.

Then Inori cleans his hands on a hand towel before turning around and putting his hands on Tōkan's cheeks and kissing him. "Go grab the nori."

!!!!!!!!!

Harutsugu laughs and walks around the counter to grab some stuff from the freezer in the pantry, while Kuroji is cutting up some vegetables with a smile on his face.

...their life looks like heaven. Tōkan cannot believe how lucky he's been to find Inori and to have a real shot at a life this good.

Inori snaps his fingers in front of Tōkan's eyes. "Stop standing there like an idiot and go grab the nori!"

"—yes, sir!"

Many steps of cooking aren't sensitive to the number of people helping so this doesn't go mostly instantaneously but it still goes much faster than it otherwise would.

While Kuroji is setting the table up Tōkan's phone rings. He frowns at the unknown number and picks it up.

"Yes?"

"Hello. This is Ōta Makino. Am I speaking to Kokonoe Tōkan?"

Ōta Makino... why is this name familiar...

Oh.

Oh.

Inori notices Tōkan's facial expression and tilts his head inquisitively.