Ryota stayed with Yori that night, they spent the time simply holding each other with the Alpha's touches being simple and soothing, until Yori drifted off to sleep to the calming, steadiness of his voice. In the morning, they had a quiet meal together and Yori obediently took his suppressant with a glass of water before reassuring his lover that he would be find home alone. Only, on some instinctive note, Ryota decided to check in on Yori that evening. He heard the locks on the door unlatch hurriedly and was pounced upon and clung to, his lover shaking within his arms. It took a while to calm Yori down, who just apologised and eventually admitted that he had spent the day huddled in his room, flinching to every unexpected sound and to not even be able to cross the threshold of his living room. The two men decided to contact Kenta Himura for some assistance. Though Ryota would rather be with Yori to help him in the aftermath of his ordeal, he knew his resolve would be sorely tested, if not impossible to keep should Yori enter his expected heat. They had already advised Uncle Himura of what had happened, robbing the old man of speech for several minutes, before he told Yori not to worry, that he did not condone what his grandson had done at all. In fact, the old man's list of curse words and imaginative descriptions impressed Ryota, who made a note of a few in his mind. Himura was not as susceptible as a virile Alpha was to Yori's pheromones, would not react at all so long as Yori maintained taking the suppressants, that and his home was large. So Yori spent his most vulnerable time tucked away in his old bedroom from his late teen years. Yet during the moments that he was not suffering a rising convulsion of his heat he could be found texting his lover constantly, needing the man's reassurance, even if it was just by phone. Over the next month, Valentine's Day and the wedding fair took much of Ryota's time at work, while Yori continued to hide himself at Himura's, tapping away at his laptop. Ryota spent as much time with him as possible, when not working, coaxing him from his laptop so they could eat together, watch television together or just cuddle up together. Yori was content with this, but it should be noted that he had not yet left Himura's mansion, even though his heat had long since past. So Yori was ousted from the mansion completely by Ryota and Himura and taken to attend a therapy session, where he eventually came to terms with the fact that he was still hiding away from what had occurred to him rather than face it. It did not help that Tatsuya was out on bail and Uncle Himura had heard that his lawyers planned to plead guilty due to momentary insanity. The prosecuting lawyer had already warned them that although they might not get the justice Yori deserved, he would endeavour to push for a jail term. Himura had fired Tatsuya from his company, bringing the wrath of his daughter to his household. However she was quickly quietened as Himura threatened to not only disinherit her, but remove her whole family from the family records. He even revealed that due to the quiet adoption some thirteen years ago, that Tatsuya had threatened to rape his own uncle! Such a scandal could drag the whole family down, so the woman who had schemed endlessly for so many years was finally brought to heel. Nothing came of Tatsuya's threat to prosecute Ryota for assault. Yori suspected that his Uncle had a hand in this as well. Yori's injuries healed over the weeks until his skin resumed it's pale jade like appearance that Ryota often praised him for and the starlike twinkles began to reignite in his eyes. It had been almost seven weeks since the assault and Yori was taking his first steps back into his old home, pots of paint in hand. Ryota had suggested that perhaps a way of altering his perception of the room in which the attack had occurred would be to redecorate it, new paint, new furnishings, a new beginning. They had fought a little over the colour; Ryota had suggested something warm and vibrant, whereas Yori was leaning to something more neutral, yet wasn't much different than its original. In the end, Ryota convinced him to have a feature wall with a rustic orange shade, with his more neutral warm hessian colour upon the other three. They covered the old furniture with dust rags, planning to donate them to a charity store as they were still in good condition and got to work on the walls, priming them for the fresh paint. Yori usually hired a decorator for this sort of thing. But although his arms began to ache within an hour of them starting and he was inwardly complaining about how unfit he was, when he glanced over at Ryota putting a serious amount of effort into making sure everything was perfect, his heart skipped a beat and he was filled with a heady warmth. A smile came unbidden to his lips as he surreptitiously watched Ryota begin to roller the first length of colour onto the wall. He stared contentedly for quite sometime, the paintbrush dangling from his fingertips as he did so, before Ryota came to realise that his lover was not putting much effort in. "You know," Ryota drawled as he stretched to paint the top of the wall, "this would go faster with the two of us." "Probably," Yori replied, but made no effort to move to the paint the walls. Ryota paused. "Are you alright?" A note of worry in his voice. He had made Yori return to this room, had it been too soon after all? "I'm alright," Yori smiled and finally dipped the brush into the colour before carefully applying it along the top of the skirting board. Ryota watched him for a moment, then resumed his own task. "I love you." The roller brush stopped midstroke, but remained firmly touching the wall. "What?" Ryota's voice cracked slightly as he questioned what he had heard, unable to will himself into believing. "I love you," Yori repeated as if it were a perfectly natural thing to say while in the middle of redecorating. Ryota carefully placed the roller into the tray before wrapping his arms about Yori and leaning into his narrow back. "Say it again," the Alpha demanded. "I love you." "I love you too, I love you so much," Ryota said and reached around to show him with a kiss. ***** They did not finish the decorating that day, other things occupied their minds and bodies. It was the first time that they came together since the incident and another part of Yori's soul stilled and felt healed. Ryota had once more poured his very essence into their lovemaking, bringing Yori to heights of bliss unknown and Ryota soared with him. Ryota let his lover sleep in the next morning, knowing that he would most likely be sore and ache from their passionate night. And while Yori rested peacefully, he completely covered two walls with paint. By the end of the day, the walls were completely refreshed and both men retired to Ryota's apartment and ordered pizza before washing up and staying there the night. Yori did not return home the next day.. nor the day after that. In fact another six weeks passed before he entered his house and that was to show his brother, Hideaki and wife Eiko around the place. Eiko was glowing beautifully even as her stomach was swelling. She had just had her second scan, which revealed a healthy child nestling within her, but they chose not to find out its sex. The couple had found themselves with a different dilemma, one of where to live. Their two bedroom flat above the florist, while okay for raising a baby for a short while, was not big enough in the long run and they hoped to find somewhere new to live. But rents within the city were high, a three bedroom house with a garden, which was what they hoped for, was just out of fingertips reach. And so Yori felt as if he had the solution. "You can live in my house," he had suggested. "What do you mean?" Hideaki had asked, confused by his little brother's suggestion, did Yori wish them to move in with him. "Well, I am hardly ever there now," Yori had explained. "I've been staying with Ryota most of the time." His pale skin had turned a little flush while admitting to this. "So the whole place is just gathering dust. You would help me out a lot!" The house that had once been his home no longer felt like one, even with the change of decoration and placement of new furnishings. Home to him now meant Ryota. He could have just put the house up on the market, see a return in his investment, yet seeing as this situation had arisen... Hideaki fought with him a little in the beginning, but couldn't deny that the house would be pretty much perfect, even if it was a little far from the florist. They had already hired new staff to ease Eiko's burden as she would not be able to look after both shop and baby, even with his help when he was not working. So the two men worked out a rental payment (although Yori would quite happily just hand over the keys) and the matter was soon settled. Ryota gave Yori his own key to his apartment that night. Four weeks later, the two men officially bonded during a long week of lust and pleasure all heightened by love. The book that Yori had written inspired by Aisha and Keko brought both joy and criticism, with some saying that the girls had a beautiful love, while others claiming it was selfish and indulgent. So what that the girls had still had children through artificial insemination and though their children grew up experiencing prejudice and difficulties in the end they were grateful to their 'mothers'? There were even those who claimed that Ryu Kanuga had this time pushed controversy too far. Yori ignored all of what the public thought, good and bad, too immersed in writing his latest book.