Chapter Eight

Ichiro woke sprawled out upon his mattress and within a messy tangle. But unfortunately, he thought with an inward sigh, he was not tangled up with a woman. On the same note, yet a happier one, he was not interwoven with a man either.  Just his bed sheets, indicating that he had had yet another restless night. He was also suffering from a familiar affliction that had resumed its morning routine in the past couple of days, but was one that he was aware would not be easily resolved by hand; damn, he was beginning to miss those days where a few pumps using his right appendage would cause a somewhat premature response, but happy smiles all around.

A little reluctantly, he reached beneath his bed for one of those precious magazines from that point of his life, where things were simpler and he was just an ordinary teenaged boy with teenaged needs. The corners of it were bent and a little worn, indicating just how much it had been flicked through and a watermark marred a page or two from when he was careless and the liquid from his cup missed his mouth wetting him and the magazine. He'd been much more careful not to stain it with other ambiguous substances.

And now he echoed those days, where his eyes scanned each model in her full glory, with full curves and perfectly groomed features, but unlike then, his thing no longer saluted them. In fact, it peacefully deflated and became dormant. Ichiro tossed the magazine aside in frustration, lamenting once more; "Why me?"

He'd always been straight, always only eyed women from those first days when he had noticed that they were different. He favoured those who were soft and fragrant, with sparkling eyes and pretty lips. He'd assumed that he'd grow up to marry an understanding one in the future and if their luck was great, they'd even have a small child. He never considered that his gender would be an obstacle, so what if he could carry a man's child, he still had the ability to impregnate... even if chances were really small. But they weren't any poorer than an average Beta's chances!

But...

A tall ebony specimen muscled his way into the forefront of his mind once more. That chest was not in the least bit soft and those eyes didn't so much sparkle as smoulder. Sure he was fragrant enough, the deep tones of the forest seemed to exude from his skin and wrap around Ichiro's senses whenever he was nearby, but he wasn't what Ichiro wanted! His lower body felt otherwise and peaked in attention, undoing the only good those magazines could do for him now. He smacked his pillow a few times in frustration before heading for the shower.

Through the thin wall that divided them, the brothers upon the other side glanced at each other as they listened to Ichiro's muffled curses before he stomped out of the room towards the shower.  The noisy extractor fan began to hum loudly inside the small room before the hot water tank groaned as the water began to drain from it into the pipes and finally out of the shower head.

"Do you think that Ichiro is upset about something?" Saburo asked his older brother.

"Who knows," the other replied apathetically.

"But don't you think he's been like this since he stopped going out on dates?" Saburo questioned insistently.  "My girlfriends say that a man can get awfully frustrated when he's 'no longer getting any'."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jiro asked with a slight frown.  He could deduce in what context the phrase 'no longer getting any' meant, however, he had never 'had any' to begin with and so he felt that the statement was nonsensical.

"I have no idea!" Saburo replied cheerfully.  "I thought you might know, seeing as you go to a private all boys school!"

"Isn't that like implying that because the school caters only to males that we are completely isolated from the opposite sex and therefore suffering mentally and physically from deprivation of romantic entanglements?" Jiro shook his head slightly.  He often wondered what sort of thoughts played within his younger brother's head... actually he'd thought that about Ichiro as well...  "A fair few of the student body have girlfriends you know.  Not to mention that there are likely a percentage of them in a relationship with the same sex. But I cannot say that they discuss the details of those relationships with me."

"Huh, I never thought about it like that!" Saburo grinned, before hopping out of bed in the tiger onesie those same girlfriends of his had pooled together to purchase him for his last birthday.  "I'm going to start breakfast!"

*****

On Saturdays, Ichiro had two classes; one for children of four years to eight and the second for children aged nine to twelve. A lot of these children happened to be siblings, thus on Saturdays, Ichiro could expect a fair few mums to gather about the small kitchenette for gossip and beverages. As these two classes were his most popular, the number of children he taught was also the highest, this coupled with gathering adults meant he usually nagged and whined until his brothers agreed to help him.

Unusually, both brothers actually volunteered this morning (or rather Saburo volunteered, but had pressured Jiro into volunteering as well.). Ichiro naturally found this suspicious, however he remained quiet on the subject for fear his brothers would reverse their decision and try and get out of helping him.

Still it was true that they (Saburo) had alternative motives as they (Saburo) really wanted to know just what was going on with their big brother (it should be noted that while Jiro was a bit curious, he wasn't bothered enough that he wanted to investigate it. However, Saburo had promised to bake triple chocolate chip cookies... his one weakness). As it happened, they (Saburo) didn't need to wonder too long.

Ichiro froze upon the small path that lead to the old hall's front entrance, his stomach instantly fluttering and his eyes pinned upon the man who had been haunting him, even though it was just in the depths of his mind. Said man looked pissed. His usually molten eyes looked as if they were carved from cold, hard smoky quartz, his lush lips drawn in a thin line and his strong arms were crossed about his taut chest. He leaned lightly against the outer wall, yet there was an underlying impatience about his stance and absolutely no sign of relaxation. The gem in Ichiro's throat bobbed up and down as he swallowed to moisten his drying throat while he inwardly cursed the quick reaction occurring in his lower regions.

"You didn't call," came the accusation along with the heady, dominant scent that seemed to stroke over Ichiro's nerve endings and demand subservience.

"Was I s-supposed to?" Ichiro failed to sound cool, his vocal chords betraying him.

"Ichiro," coming from Zee's lips, it almost sounded as if it were in warning, but there was a note of longing in it as well, causing a small amount of guilt to swell in Ichiro's stomach. He immediately tried to smother it before offhandedly saying;

"You have fingers," he snapped in retort, "you could have been the one to call."

Zee stood tall at that, one eyebrow raised as he stepped forward to close the gap between them. The pressure surrounding Ichiro grew and he began to unconsciously tremble. Need and lust were warring with his stubborn beliefs and clarity of mind. He watched eyes glued upon the simple movement of this man's fingers reaching inside of his jeans pocket to remove his mobile phone on which he brought up a sequence of numbers. "This is the phone number that you gave me," Zee drawled. "Unfortunately, it's not correct is it?"

Ichiro couldn't deny that he'd given Zandre the wrong number, so he didn't try to, but he found that he was also no longer able to look him in the eye either. He rubbed his stomach as if it could ease the continuing rising guilt. Why was he feeling guilty? This man knew that he didn't want to pursue a relationship with him, that he was straight, not gay and no fictitious connection was going to change that! He didn't believe in fated pairings...

"Ugh, Ichiro," Saburo's voice behind him drew him back to reality and he glanced over his shoulder to see that the youth was wrinkling his nose in discomfort, while Jiro was almost violently dry heaving beside him. Snapping to attention, he went to support his brothers.

"What's wrong?" He asked, worriedly, wrapping his arms about Jiro. A wave of scent smacked into him, causing him to shiver and his thing to throb, he was almost unable to escape from the lust clouding his mind to concentrate on his brother. In contrast, Jiro slipped from his arms, collapsing onto the pavement, breathing heavily.

"What's going on?" Saburo whined, his head ached and his nose itched. "Ichiro, why do you smell as if you are in heat?" The cloud of need surrounding Ichiro dispersed for a moment and he glanced up at Zee with a frown.

"Back off!" Ichiro snapped at him, the pressure of the Alpha's pheromones were too much for his little brothers; Saburo was likely only standing as he was still too young and had never experienced his own heat. Jiro was a fully fledged Omega, however and was as sensitive as himself when it came to Alpha pheromones, just as Alpha's were sensitive to their own. Not that neither gender had much control of their pheromones, just this hormonal thing between himself and Zandre was clearly too overwhelming for Jiro to cope with and he didn't know how to stop it. "Please, my brothers can't deal with you right now."

The scent seemed to recede on its own along with the pressure. Ichiro was still fully aware of the man shadowing him, even if he had stepped back a pace, but Jiro and Saburo's reactions reduced visibly. "What happened?" Saburo asked as he and Ichiro helped Jiro to his feet. "And who is he?"

Zee glanced down at the youth who was seven points similar to his Omega, but was still round of face, flush with the innocence of childhood. The other boy was upon the cusp of manhood and didn't resemble the other two at all at first glance, though as he considered it further, there was some likeness around the eyes. He recalled now that he'd seen a picture of them once before. It was just that, seeing Ichiro so affectionate towards them, he'd felt jealous and angered; the Omega was his, but he refused to accept it, refused to even consider it, denying what was between them. Yet he could still turn around and hug the dark-haired boy so lovingly?! He'd felt this much worse than the flirting between Ichiro and Olivia.

Of course now he knew what he'd suspected when he'd originally seen that picture upon Ichiro's phone, these three were related. Not only that, it turned out that they were all Omega's. His expression became a little softer as he answered the youngest boy's question; "I'm Zandre... Zee.  I'm Ichiro's fated pair."

"That's yet to be proven!" Ichiro interceded, quickly. However, Saburo ignored him, a bright, sunny smile enlivening his face, all forgiven and forgotten.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Saburo and this is Jiro," he grinned, cheerfully, while inwardly laughing to himself. His brother, the ladies man, had found himself partnered with a large, burly Alpha man. No wonder he was so moody lately! Still, what an Alpha! If he could find a man in the future even a tenth as hunky, he'd be a happy Omega!

Jiro glanced at his older brother's distorted expression, before briefly examining the man who claimed to be Ichiro's mate. He was like Ichiro in the fact that he did not believe in the myth about fated pairs, however, he couldn't deny the fact that these two men were reacting hormonally to each other. He found it a bit fascinating and couldn't help but wonder if this man was the reason that Ichiro no longer went on those dates with those women. Still, even then, it wasn't really his business. "Just remember to use protection," he advised his brother, sagely, earning himself a slap.

Author's note; sorry this took so long to update.  LTLAC came to a crucial point recently and distracted me from pretty much everything else.  This will likely happen again in the future!  There is also a fair few things I want to add into this story, but can't decide on the order of things, which also causes a bit of a roadblock!