Chapter Thirty

An Omega's heat varied from person to person, but usually the majority would go into heat every eight to ten weeks for a three to four day period.  Symptoms varied less; but they might feel pain when not sexually satisfied or suffer some memory loss during the peak of each wave of intense sexual desire.  Some might even find their heats broken more swiftly, if able to have a partner satisfy their needs.  However, they would all produce enticing pheromones which stimulated an Alpha's senses and drew them like bears to honey.

Ichiro woke feeling more groggy than he ever had following his heat periods over the last five years and a lot more exhausted.  His whole body felt as if he'd been thrown into an underground martial arts den and forced to fight fifty rounds consecutively, or at least that what he likened it to in his imagination.  Blurry-eyed, he glanced up over the duvet tossed over his body, which felt sticky and uncomfortable in too many ways, vaguely noting that it appeared to be Saburo's patchwork duvet and not his own. The mists still covering his brain slowly began to clear as he stared at it for a moment, before he noticed the dryness of his tongue and throat.  He stretched out an arm, the appendage trembling as it reached for the water bottle conveniently on his bedside cabinet.  His alarm clock fell to the ground with his phone as he grasped for it, but he ignored them, making swift work of the cap and draining the bottle of its contents.

Summoned by the noise, two familiar faces appeared in the doorway, one smiling as brightly as always, the other without expression.  Ichiro blinked as he looked at them for a moment before asking in a very raspy voice; "What happened?"

Even the nonchalant Jiro could not help but frown in regards to his question.  "You went into heat on Friday afternoon, do you not remember?"

Ichiro tried to focus through the fog and vaguely recalled feeling a bit dizzy and flushed after lunch on the Friday and the sudden increase of appetite, two signs that he usually experienced just before going into heat.  He'd had to beg for the rest of the afternoon off, to which his boss responded by deducting from his already poor wages.  The man was not happy to learn that he would not be able to make it back in until at least Tuesday, though Ichiro had thought that that was pushing it.  He only usually came out of heat three days following, but he usually required an extra day to recover and feel somewhat normal again.

"How long has it been?" Ichiro asked.  After he'd made his way up the numerous flights of stairs, as he'd caught sight of the landlord entering the elevator on his way back (fortunately, he'd not been noticed or that bastard most definitely would have taken advantage), he couldn't recall much afterwards.  But... hadn't it been almost five days too soon for his predicted heat?

"You've been out of it for six days!" Saburo offered helpfully.

Ichiro froze for a long moment, before tossing the duvet aside and falling out of the bed, his whole being like a newborn calf, trembling upon its spindly legs.  His brothers rushed to help him, wrinkling their noses at the strong body odour their older brother produced.  Honestly, it had been a long week for both of them.

Ordinarily, for both Jiro and Ichiro, they experienced strong bouts of lust but also periods of lucidity, where they could recharge on food, shower and use the necessities, before tumbling back into a new wave of need.  However, this time Ichiro's heat had been on another level.  He'd writhed almost constantly within his sheets, rutting against the mattress, moaning and sobbing, unable to reach satiation.   His pheromones had filled the entire apartment with their strong, alluring scent.  The youths had sealed the gaps around the front door as best they could and had only opened the windows to freshen the air in the dead of night when they felt that most people would be sleeping.  They could not afford nor defend against a determined Alpha if he came banging at their door and they had not been able to contact Zandre either, even though they were aware that he was abroad and may not be able to help. As for school... well one lone week's sick leave without doctor's note was unlikely to be questioned.

"Where are you going?" Jiro asked.

"To work..." Ichiro was so in trouble with his boss, he couldn't afford so much time off!  He didn't get paid a penny for sick leave or holidays in that shitty job, but it wasn't as if he could find anything better either!

"Your boss phoned yesterday at 11:00 am," Jiro informed him.  "He said you were fired."

Ichiro felt himself collapse and had to lean on his brothers as they helped him into the bathroom, where Jiro helped him wash up, while Saburo went to heat a small bowl of plain porridge.  Ichiro felt pitiful as the two youths he'd sworn to care for looked after him as carefully as they might care for a sick patient.  He hated the feeling of weakness that seemed to steal away his ability to move his body the way he wanted.  Saburo had to spoon feed him in the end, making him feel even more humiliated and pitiful.

"You've not been able to eat much," Saburo told him as he slowly fed his brother in small doses.  "Only once you were too tired to move anymore could we get you to drink water or anything else, so for the past few days, you've lived on smoothies and soups."

"No wonder I feel so useless," Ichiro attempted to joke, though they all knew there was no real humour in his words.  He carefully chewed the flavourless porridge before swallowing.  "So I'm back to job hunting for the near future," he mused.  "What about the dojo?"

"I took the time to direct the two classes for the children on Saturday," Jiro mentioned.  He did not bother with the older teenagers late Friday evening, it would have been like a sheepdog attempting to herd Pitt bulls, not really happening.  "We set up a notice afterwards, saying you were indisposed and wouldn't be back for a week at least."

"This happened at the worst time," Ichiro sighed, shaking his head to refuse the next spoonful as his stomach had begun to rebel.  Saburo took the bowl away to wash up and decided to boil the kettle for some sweetened warm water for Ichiro to drink in a while.   "The electricity bill, I haven't had a chance to pay it and then the rent is due as well."

"I managed to put the landlord off," Jiro informed him, "but we only have until this weekend.  He was strangely unreasonable, declaring that the payment could not be any later than this and dropped no hints about having sex with you this time."

All three youths shuddered in response to that unpleasant concept.

"As for the electricity bill," Jiro eyes became a little evasive.  "It's been paid."

"How?" Ichiro demanded, then frowned.  "You didn't use those hidden savings of yours did you?  I wanted you to save them towards university!"

"You knew?" For the second time that morning, Jiro's face held a little expression, this time of surprise.

"Of course I knew!"  Ichiro pulled a face hinting he was hurt that Jiro felt it was necessary to keep a secret about how he was moonlighting, helping others with their studies and homework, creating notebooks on key points in subjects based on historic examinations and exchanging all his hard work for cash.  "How many times have you hinted that you can share the burden of our expenses?  And I know all about Saburo selling cookies and baked snacks at school as well in order to get some pocket money!"

"I wasn't hiding it from you," Saburo denied, "I just didn't want you eating all the merchandise!"  He giggled as Ichiro rolled his eyes at him; he didn't even like sweets that much, just that straight out of the oven, the aroma was too tempting.

"I didn't use that money," Jiro finally admitted, he couldn't anyway, he'd invested some of it in shares, testing the waters of this tricky field, while another portion was in a bank account with a reasonable interest and fixed period of investment.  "I telephoned Uncle Keith."

"What?"

"Uncle Keith lent us the money," Jiro replied.  "Actually, he stated that we didn't need to pay it back, but I knew that you wouldn't agree to not doing so."

"I don't even agree to borrowing it in the first place," Ichiro whined, dropping his head to the table.  Ugh, he still felt so weak!  "You know what his conditions are for lending us money these days.  I don't want to deal with it!"

"We didn't know what else to do," Saburo said, honestly, drying his hands on a tea towel before coming back to the sofa and sitting beside his brothers.  "Your heat was so bad and Zandre was unreachable.  The Doctor said to keep you hydrated, but he wasn't really that helpful otherwise, couldn't even prescribe some sedatives or liquid suppressants."

"It is not as if we had the money to pay for subscriptions anyway," Jiro mentioned.  It was not right to do so, but as Jiro still got suppressants free, being a student, the two older brothers relied on these.  They hadn't helped with Ichiro's situation at all, however.

"What's done is done," Ichiro sighed with resignation, before his mind focused on a key point in Saburo's words.  "You tried to contact Zandre?"  The Alpha was away, he wouldn't have been able to help the heat... but did he worry for him?  Did he miss him?

The boys looked at each other and Ichiro automatically felt a falling sensation in the pit of his stomach.  "We can't get through to him," Saburo admitted.  "I've tried on your phone and on mine..."

"Why do you have his number?" Ichiro glanced at him suspiciously.

Saburo coughed before saying; "not the point right now!  He'd just not answering the phone nor is he replying to any of the messages I've left him."

"Maybe his battery died?" Ichiro suggested weakly.

The boys decided not to sabotage Ichiro's feeble hope.  Instead, Jiro decided to advise him of the other matter. "There is something else that we need to tell you.  On Saturday, your relationship with Zandre was announced in the newspapers with a clear photo of you and your full name, age and a few other details in print.  I had actually planned on teaching the class of little kids that you take during the week, but the Hall had a few reporters waiting outside of it."  On seeing that, he had walked past as if the Hall had no relation to him whatsoever.  One reporter had been speaking to a person who lived in the neighbourhood, but either they had not recognised him or decided to remain silent when it came to his identity.  Either way, nothing substantial had come of the reporters interviewing people on that street.

"I saw a guy with a camera hanging around near the parking lot yesterday afternoon," Saburo added.  "I guess they aren't too sure which apartment block we live in or which floor."  The name in the paper had been Ichiro's birth name and their father's family name, but now they all went by their mother's maiden name, so the trail for the reporters had probably hit a bumpy road.  It probably would not take long for them to unravel some truths however.

"There's more," Saburo then mentioned with a sigh.  "There have been some rumours circulating the internet.  As you can imagine, there are a few individuals who see Zandre as their idol, but there are more that support his ex probably because she's an actress and on television and in magazines a fair bit.  They felt like you are to blame between the 'perfect match' that was their idols.  They've said some really horrible things."

"It's not unexpected," Ichiro admitted.  He recalled the article in which the Kobayashi's were candid about the prejudice they faced thanks in part to Elizabeth Kobayashi's gender and part in Torin Kobayashi's high profile status as a film emperor and heartthrob.  "It should die down after a while."

"I'm not certain of that."  Jiro moved to his desk and unlocked his computer screen.  Saburo helped Ichiro shuffled around in order to see it clearly.  The social network he brought up was easy to use and available to everyone, people followed their families and friends upon it, keeping updated to every status update.  Naturally, this one had official pages for celebrities, but also fan pages.  And although it was not the number one trending discussion in the network, it was definitely quite a prominent subject on both Zandre and Elani Van Zyl's fan pages;

Did Zandre Kotze dump Elani Van Zyl for a Male Omega Escort?

Author's note; this is proving to be a lot longer than the previous books!