The manuscript was not going well. Yori sleepily deleted the last paragraph he had worked on for the past couple of hours and decided to call it a night... or day; it seemed the sun had decided to rise while he was typing. Shutting down his laptop, he stripped the clothes that had adorned him and crawled into bed. His body felt heavy and ready to slumber, but it seemed his mind was not so willing as it tried to determine just why his writing had hit a wall. It wasn't as if he hadn't experienced writers block before. His third book, a work of fiction that was not based on his past, but a chance overheard conversation of which he had listened to for barely a few minutes, during one of the excursions outside Uncle had forced him to take so he wouldn't remain a complete shut-in as an adult. Despite the sudden inspiration, he had had to work hard to form a completed story that Uncle and his editor of the time were happy with. It was a time where his mind would go suddenly blank, where he would delete pages of work and at one point where he had locked himself in his room and refused to come out. It was also the first of his works to sell well, leading to new sales of his older books. He came to feel that the writers block he experienced were when the story itself was telling him he had gone wrong somewhere. But this block somehow felt different. There were no actually corrections he felt he could make to ensure the story flowed, no paths that he felt would fix what was already there. He simply didn't want to write this story at all any more. The original idea was to form a simple story based on a mixed gender family and the trials and tribulations they experienced. He hadn't planned any real plot twists or extraordinary events occuring. But Tatsuya Himura felt that the overall story line was bland. He also didn't feel, for whatever reason, that the Wife/Mother of the story should be an Alpha when her husband was a Beta. Yori had tried altering the combinations of gender and adding events to shake up the small family's lives but each concluded in a stumbling halt, where he became unable to force his fingertips to touch anymore keys. I want to give up, he thought, wearily just as his work phone began to ring. It was Tatsuya. With a groan, he reached for the phone, before turning it off. He didn't want to speak to that man right now. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact he was Uncle's grandson and the fact that he'd promised Sierra to give him a chance, he would likely avoid speaking to him forever. Their last meeting had become a battle of wills, with Tatsuya insisting he be allowed to know Ryu-Sensei's reasons for his unexplained absence and more personal details in case it happened again and Yori denying that he be required to share anything extra with the man. "I'm your editor," Tatsuya insisted, "you worried me when you cut off all contact like that. What if something had happened?" "There's nothing in my contract to say that I must provide details of my private life to my editor," Yori had replied. "I suppose ordinarily, this might be the case," Tatsuya agreed, "however you are one of our bestselling authors and even though I am your editor, I only know your pen name and one mobile phone number!" That same number was registered to the company rather than to Yori himself so would not help to uncover his true identity. Yori had scratched at his unkempt hair, uncaringly, while inwardly calculating how long it would be until Siera completed her maternity leave. Wasn't the baby due soon as well? He'd not heard anything... The stilted conversation had eventually turned to the manuscript, but even that discussion had ended unsatisfactorily. After finally falling into a deep sleep and waking up as the afternoon had began, Yori found the man had left an angry text message on his phone. Yori decided to ignore it and go for a walk to clear his head. ***** Denied," the old man did not even bother to read the proposal Tatsuya had placed in front of him. "I don't understand why," Tatsuya argued, as he pushed the papers more firmly beneath his grandfather's nose. "This would be extremely beneficial to both Ryu-Sensei and to the company. Imagine how much publicity a book signing would bring! Sure we would need to tidy Sensei up a little..." "No," Kenta Himura refused him once more. Tatsuya ground his teeth together in frustration. Why was the company so intent on keeping Ryu-Sensei hidden? It made no sense businesswise. "Would you care to explain why?" "Ryu-Sensei does not like public appearances," the elder Himura replied. "Famous authors such as Sensei should expect to be in the public eye," Tatsuya said, reasonably. "Should say the paparazzi find out his true identity before the company went public, who knows what might happen! Such unrestrained news reporting could be catastrophic to Sensei's reputation! At least if he allowed a little more exposure, we could safely guide him and protect him and ease the public's curiousity all at once." Kenta Himura looked at his grandson and inwardly congratulated the young man's little speech. If only it were that easy, he thought. Sure plan to expose the man, there might be some good outcomes; his books might have a temporary boost in sales before hand, the public would talk about him more, magazines and tv companies might set up appointments to talk with him and then his true secret might come out. He eyed Tatsuya wondering how he would react to such a secret, but decided he had not observed him enough as yet. And besides..., he thought as he peered at the message on his phone... "Have you asked Ryu-Sensei what he thinks of your proposal," Kenta asked him. "Not as yet," Tatsuya lied. "I hoped as the CEO of this company that you might be able to help me persuade him that it would be fruitful for him." My editor has told me that I need to do a book-signing and that you have approved it, Uncle, the text had mentioned. I advised him I would not do it. I am thinking I should join Sierra on the remainder of her maternity leave. I believe she has nine or ten months to go? "Tatsuya," Kenta spoke in a tone that brook no arguement. He may be getting on in years, but the man's aura had by no means weakened with advancing age. "I will not be approving your proposal. I suggest that you drop the idea for Ryu-Sensei and accept that Sensei has his reasons for remaining outside of the public eye, ones I am aware and approve of. If you cannot do this, I will gladly assign him to another temporary editor." He emphasised the word temporary to remind this angry child of his place. His grandson did not look please, but offered him a curt nod of reluctant acceptance and left the elder Himura's office. Ah what will happen to my sweet Yori if I need to retire or leave this world too soon. I should find him a husband who can protect him... ***** Yori shuddered as if some ghost had walked over his future grave, putting pause to his steps as he walked up the numerous stairs to the outside world. He glanced about him, but no one was glancing his way now that the rush of not quite fresh air, stained as it was with pollutants and cigarette smoke swept away his alluring scent. As a few trains on the underground network had been cancelled, the trains had been particularly crowded. At first, he had been able to avoid the contact to bodies as he had located a vacant seat and slipped into it before the others forced to stand close to each other were able to do the same. However, when an elderly woman, whose back was slightly bent due to a lifetime of strain climbed onto the train, he had willingly given his seat to her. He had allowed himself to fall in amongst a crowd of betas, they did not sniff the air for his scent so he felt safe enough amongst them, until half of them had left at the next station and an Alpha gentleman in a suit and holding in one hand his briefcase and the other his phone got on the train, talking away to whoever was on the other end. He had only bid them goodbye once he began to lose the signal as the train moved into the tunnels. As he ended the call, he had lost his footing and fell into the omega, who had to splay out his hands and catch him. "Sorry," The man had mumbled, before catching a deep breath of a delicious aroma at the base of Yori's neck. It had the man moving subconsciously, pressing himself closer into the slightly shorter man, so he could take a deeper breath. "Stop," Yori had asked and pushed him away, enough that the alpha came to his senses. But as a man used to being in control of his own actions, he turned the blame onto the omega without a second thought. "Tch," he muttered, angrily, "this is why omega's should not be allowed out in public." That had earned the businessman a whack with a walking stick as the elderly woman, who Yori had given his seat to proved that she was spry enough still to give any who upset her a beating! "Don't blame your faults on others!" She had reprimanded him, before giving Yori an encouraging smile. He had thanked her, but decided to get off at the next station anyway. Not every person in this carriage shared her thoughts. As it happened, he was only a few stops from where he wanted to go anyway, so he walked the rest of the journey, amusing himself as the author in his mind began to offer narrative and descriptions about the buildings nearby and the people on the streets. And finally he stopped outside the large hotel, where he had an appointment with the manager. Author's note; it took a stupidly long time to write this chapter! Several months in fact, maybe close to a year! I hope the next one doesn't take as long. Ah if this sentence doesn't make sense, it is because I have this story saved at home and was part way through the chapter and experienced writers block! Hence the whinge!