Episode 76

||T/W: The chapter may contain triggering topics, proceed at your own risk.||

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"A week!???!"

"Yes, a week"

"You're asking for too much!"

"I'm running out of time here Aoi"

Aoi relaxed back into the chair and took a deep breath. She rubbed her temples.

"Mari, it's not just a bunch of friends gathering for a wedding, it's supposed to be a huge public event to announce the merging of Strauss estate and Kirihara group, even if I'm somehow magically able to make arrangements, think about the guests we're supposed to invite, do you think they'd come on such short notice? People have schedules Mari" Aoi said.

"I can't hand over Ian Strauss to that man" Mari spoke with out even flinching.

"Remember, Lian isn't in that guy's hand anymore, he can't use Ian anymore" Aoi said realizing Mari's concerns.

"I won't hand him over" Mari repeated herself.

Aoi gave out a huge sigh "okay how about, a month, I'll arrange everything"

Aoi tried to bargain but Mari gave her the same look.

"Okay three weeks? Come on I atleast need that much" Aoi lowered the bar, though Mari stood there with her dull yet non budging expression.

"Alright, fine , two weeks, I swear Mari I can't pull it off in lesser than that, please?"

For a moment there Mari didn't react, but Aoi didn't go further backwards than this.

"Two weeks" Mari reiterated and Aoi finally gained her pallor.

"Yes, two weeks, I'll do my best" Aoi was thankful that Mari had atleast agreed.

"Hmm" Mari finally sat down infront of Aoi, she'd been standing the whole time to put pressure.

"Why are you so insistent on not sending Ian back?" Aoi asked

"Won't it be fine with Lian in our hands? There's nothing he can use to control Ian anymore"

Aoi opened a packet of chips and offered it to Mari.

"Besides, he can't make Ian Strauss take other clients, as long as you are with him anyways"

"He must not go back to that man" Mari said taking one, Aoi couldn't understand why she was so insistent about it but she decided that Mari must have a good reason for it so she decided to not ask anymore.

"Hehhh, Who came up with this annoying deal" Aoi said in a rather annoyed face.

"It was you" Mari said

"Me?" Aoi tilted her head whilst pointing a finger at herself.

"You came up with the idea of a business marriage, I suggested kidnapping Ian Strauss in the first place, remember?" Mari tried to make her recollect.

"Oh yeah" Aoi remembered "that was a dumb idea"

"What now, I can't keep him for too long" Mari reminded Aoi.

"For now, I can really go as down as two weeks, try to delay it as much as possible,on the off chance, ask Ian to cooperate with Mr. Strauss without struggling to ensure his own safety" Aoi knew it wasn't right but it was as much as she could handle without messing up.

"I will try" Mari said getting ready to leave.

"Mari?" Aoi made her stop and look at her "Is everything with you okay?"

"Why, are you concerned now?" Mari asked.

"Yeah maybe, forget it, I'm probably just getting **pheromone sensitivity because of Natsu" Aoi shook her hand.

(**A/N an alpha trait in this setting of omegaverse where alphas whose omega mates are expecting get sensitive because of the pheromones released by their omegas, heightening their emotional sensitivity in order to enable them to take care of their omega mates better)

"Yeah, you've changed, you talk alot now, I have a headache" Mari said getting a bit on Aoi's nerve.

"Hey at least it's a good change, you talk like a robot, you should put more feelings into words" Aoi said.

"No thanks, I'm fine like this" Mari replied.

"Such an unattractive woman" Aoi sighed "Alright, go back, nail your boyfriend"

"He's not my boyfriend, I don't nail him" Mari replied.

"Wait, you don't nail so he does the nailing? When did you switch teams?"  Aoi spoke somewhat jokingly.

"Want me to show you whose the bigger top out of us?" Mari folded her arms sassily.

"Now I'm curious" Aoi said and Mari rolled her eyes.

Though Aoi got up from her seat and came over to Mari's side with a mischievous smirk.

The height difference made it feel like Aoi was almost hovering Mari.

Neither of them blinked, moved or flinched as they closed in.

It had become a steamy competition of ego.

Aoi even reduced the distance, stepping into Mari's personal space, leaning down close to her face, with their lips barely an inch or two away from one another, yet the other girl looked as unaffected as Aoi herself.

"What the hell!" A third voice distracted them, Alex was at the door of Aoi's cabin.

"It's not what you think" Aoi moved back sighing.

She'd hoped to make Mari flustered and somewhat embarrass her but it didn't work, it seemed like a draw.

"Why are you both hoeing around without me!!!"

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"Akio san?"

"Come in"

Kei came in and politely sat on the edge of the bed, though somewhat far from Akio.

"I put..the girls to..sleep" He said.

"Why are you far away?" Akio said raising a brow.

"Uh-" Kei looked back at Akio from the corner of his eyes, an intense glare made him gulp.

"What, am I that annoying to look at?!" Akio said raising his voice a bit.

This was what Natsuro had warned him about. Kei was finally starting to realize.

Even Alex had warned him of the intense mood swings Akio went through last time, especially the anger outbursts.

Kei wasn't with him last time but now he was finally able to witness what Natsuro and Alex had to go through at that time.

"Im- coming-" Kei somewhat crawled on the bed on all fours, all the way to Akio who lifted his hand and Kei defensively closed his eyes tightly only to feel a hand on his head, ruffling his hair.

"What the heck are you being so scared of, have I ever harmed you?" Akio said gently, though the frown on his forehead hadn't disappeared.

Kei relaxed a bit and rested his head in Akio's lap, who gently played with his hair.

"I-am..a bit-scared...since you...look so angry..." Kei conveyed his feelings.

"Ah, I don't mean to" Akio rubbed his temples, trying to relax his facial expressions "sorry" Akio whispered.

"Are..you..really okay..with this baby..? Are...you happy..?" Kei asked.

"Honestly, it's too much, I feel like all I've been doing in life is making babies" Akio sighed "And I feel unfair, it'd be far more easier if I was an alpha and you were an omega instead"

"Eh..?" Kei couldn't comprehend what Akio was rambling about.

"I mean I keep doing you but no only when I'm done there's babies and babies and babies, what am I a baby popping machine, *bleep* this *bleep* you should just stop doing it in total" Akio got mad again though Kei had long lost the track of his thoughts.

"I'm sorry-" Kei apologized nonetheless, he did know Akio didn't actually mean it all, it's just the sickness and mood swings that were getting to his head and making him angrier than usual.

Though Kei's shy and docile behavior always made him somewhat calm.

"Hey, take off your clothes" Akio pulled at Kei's shoulders with a little frown still being on his forehead.

"Eh..why..No I mean I can...but why...so..." Kei sat up suddenly sitting shyly.

"I don't know, I feel hot just by watching you in all these extra ass clothes, just take it all off, it's annoying me" Akio said.

"Eh...but if you're...feeling hot...you should..take off....yours, why mine..."  Kei couldn't help but giggle a bit at how unreasonable Akio was being.

"Just take it off" Akio pulled at Kei's shirt who lifted his arms and let him take it off. Kei always wore two and full sleeved at that, so Akio took the second one off too.

For a moment there Kei got a bit conscious, he placed his arms around his chest as soon as his shirt was taken off, somewhat covering it.

"What are you even hiding there?!" That act got to Akio's head as well.

"It's..just...Akio...san...you're...looking..." Kei said with rosy burning up cheeks.

"I've seen it all before" Akio's voice calmed a little again, Kei's expression was indeed enticing "You do know what you're doing right now is called seduction right?"

"Eh am I?" Kei didn't think of it like that, though maybe him getting conscious was seductive for Akio.

"Do you know, what I like most in your whole body?" Akio said.

"Akio...san...you're...being...perverted...now" Kei did feel a bit amused of seeing this new side of the ever so silent angry man Akio.

He'd never seen Akio act this perverted, to begin with Akio was a man of few words and limited expressions.

"Do you though?" Akio asked leaning close as Kei laid back, avoid his eyes, looking at the side as Akio hovered onto him and slid his lips against Kei's cheek.

"Akio san- we...already...did... this...morning...it's not even...noon...calm down..." Kei was still covering his chest with his arms.

"It's your neck and chest" Akio answered himself and removed Kei's arms with a sudden jerk by grabbing his wrists and pinning them above his head.

Though his eyes widened a bit.

"Wow, they're really swollen, who did that?" Akio asked and Kei finally snapped.

"What do you ...mean!! You ...did that!!...Akio san..you beast!" Kei broke free and grabbed the nearest pillow throwing it in Akio's face.

"Ah, did I" Akio's response annoyed Kei even more.

He grabbed the pillow and through smacked Akio with it, until Akio had to reach in and grab his wrists and pin him back down.

Kei struggled a little but calmed down as Akio kissed him.

"Akio..san...my hands..let go..." Kei mumbled but Akio didn't, he kept his hands pinned up in a single grip. His other hand wandered on the other's swollen nubs.

Kei flinched a bit as he squeezed it between his fingers.

"Akio...san...just...do anywhere...but there..."

Though Kei's words went over Akio's head and he started flicking it around his index finger whilst taking the other in his mouth, sucking it.

Kei held his voice by tightly shutting his lips, though he felt a mixture of stinging pain and pleasure. It was somewhat between the desire of not wanting Akio to stop and at the same time a sting that made him want to stop it.

Akio put his fingers into Kei's mouth by somewhat forcefully invading it, playing with his tongue and lips between his fingers. He licked at the other male's cheek to earlobe, biting it, then moving onto the inner arms pinned next to Kei's ear, moving back to his collar bones and neck making him a panting mess.

Akio pulled out the wet fingers from Kei's mouth and crept them down his back, putting his hand inside the latter's lower clothing from the back and pulled it off, tossing it away whilst groping the flesh firmly and turning Kei over pushing his face into the bed and holding an arm behind his back.

Kei's face was an absolute mess whilst he looked back at Akio from the corner of his eyes.

He watched Akio grab things from the drawer and sat up a little moving a bit away on all fours but got grabbed by the waist as two fingers invaded him for preparation and he found himself face down and rear up on the bed.

"Akio san..." Kei whined a bit "I'm scared... I can't see...your face..." Kei conveyed to him.

Akio didn't say anything but turned the latter over.

After preparing the other for quite some while Akio sat back.

"Come..." Akio called to Kei whilst opening his front, he was still fully clothed unlike Kei, Kei held onto Akio's shoulders getting on top of him, he positioned himself and started to go down on Akio.

"It's okay, you're doing well" Akio kissed at the other guy's chin.

Kei slowly started to move by himself.

"Once we get married, I want to do this everyday" Akio said to Kei's surprise "Though one day, I hope you can let me do it from the back"

"It's..just...when I can't...see...your face...it's scary..." Kei stopped moving and answered apologetically.

"Yeah, I know, sorry, I don't know, why am I even saying this..."Akio apologized.

"It's...okay...you should...be more...honest with me..." Kei replied.

"Why'd you stop?" Akio said after a pause "jeez you have zero energy, here I go!"

"Akio san...you beast!!!!"

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"What are you doing?"

"I'm studying"

"I can see that"

Mari said placing her keys onto the table watching Ian sitting with his books spread all over the bed.

"My exams are upcoming, I told you I want to get into a good alpha university" Ian told her.

Mari came over and made a glance at the stuff he was practicing

"There's an error.." She said and Ian moved over a bit.

"Where?" He asked.

"The equation, you copied the wrong sign while solving it,  the answer should be....36x"  She told him.

"Oh yeah?" Ian erased the whole question and solved it over "Wait..it really is 36x, how'd you solve it orally!" Ian asked in amazement.

"Are you actually some sort of maths genius?!"

Mari avoided the question.

"Did your brother bring the books for you or did you go to college yourself?" Mari asked.

"Ah, my brother's husband did...for some reason, my brother is avoiding me...he did take care of me but he's not actually communicating with me...it's so awkward between us..is that normal?" Ian asked.

Mari didn't reply, she didn't have any answer for that, her own brother was-

"Ian Strauss" Mari said.

"Just call me Ian, when you say the complete thing, it just makes me feel like I'm in trouble of something" Ian whined.

"Next time, talk to your brother" That was the only advice Mari could offer, it even surprised Ian, he didn't expect that coming from Mari especially.

"Well okay..." Ian just agreed, looking at her a bit doubtfully, something was up with her, why'd she say something like that- he found himself dwelling onto it.

Mari just went over to her closet and started stripping down.

"What are you doing?" Ian asked and Mari turned, though he covered his eyes.

"Changing clothes" She said and wore a new casual shirt and shorts.

"You're so.." Ian sighed peaking through his fingers.

"It's just changing clothes, don't over react" She said and casually came up and sat on the bed checking her phone.

"Do you have a social media account?" Ian peaked over.

"Yeah, to remain updated" Mari replied scrolling through her IG.

"Hey show me..what's your Id" Ian peaked over her shoulder like little kids who peak upon the phones of other people.

"Wow, is that Himari Aoi, so many likes and comments"  He mumbled "She's quite active too, didn't think she'd have time for this, just how many things is she doing at the same time? She's damn unbelievable"

"Did you eat anything?" Mari asked after a silent pause, as if she suddenly remembered about it.

"Not yet" Ian replied, she put her phone on bed and just got off, leaving the room.

Ian casually picked her phone and copied her id onto the search bar of his own phone and started scrolling through her id.

He cracked up just looking at the thumbnails. She'd posted alot of pictures with extra weird closeups, some had her forehead and eyes, in other closeups you could only see her nose and the rest were all blurry and shaken up photos of different things.

"I can't imagine anyone being this bad at taking photos" Ian couldn't help but chuckle.

He opened the comments naively only to be shocked.

The comments were full of malicious death threats, cyber threatening both directed at her and her parents.

It was only natural considering both her parents were criminals and all and she herself had a lot of haters too but it still was quite shocking.

"I wonder if she reads comments..." Ian murmured scrolling through various caption less, blurry pictures and reading comments. It was as if they followed her around just to comment nasty things on her photos.

She came in and Ian abruptly put his phone onto a side as if hiding it. Thought she came back with some food and water.

Ian just watched her put things in front of him. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"What?" She asked, not understanding his behavior.

"You'll make a good wife" Ian said somewhat jokingly.

"Study, kid" She said brushing off his cringe comment.

Ian got back to studying whilst eating side by side.

Mari came over and sat back at where she was and picked her phone.

A notification awaited her, she opened it and a little expression came upon her stone face as she looked at it.

*Ian080 commented upon your post*

"You have the prettiest forehead I have ever seen"

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"A wedding?"

"Mhm"

Dumb idea honestly.

"You're thinking it's a dumb idea aren't you?"

What the! She read my mind again, I'm used to it at this point though.

"How do I read this?" The little one asked, well since I was already home with him these days, I'd decided it'd be a waste not to teach him.

He'd told me he was home tutored in the first place anyway and for some reason, the kid's gotten pretty attached to me.

"It's called dilemma" I pronounced it for him "it means a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable"

I explained it to him.

Anyways, this whole business marriage thing was a dumb idea anyways but if it kept the kid from getting treated like a rag doll, even if for a few days...

I guess it's not entirely bad.

"Two weeks isn't going to be easy, I can help you send out invitations and stuffs but setting up huge banquet..you'll need to hire someone.." I told her whilst playing with the hair of the kid in my lap.

"Good idea, I'll ask Mr. Zhuang to hire a wedding planner, that'll be better" She said.

She looks quite tired at least to me, look at her face...ah the dark circles.

I unconsciously protruded my hand towards her face and she comfortably took it, kissing my hand and rubbing it against her cheek.

"Aoi..." I felt like I wanted to say something to her but the right words wouldn't come out.

"Hmm?" She asked getting all chummy and putting arms around my arm, resting her head onto my shoulder.

"How do I say this?" Lian asked again and I got distracted from her scooping up to me.

"It's endearment, it's a word or phrase expressing love or affection" I explained it to him.

"Then what brother Alex says to me are endearments?" He asked innocently and I nodded.

"Somewhat, but you see, there's different types of love, what you and him have is called familial love" I answered.

"Then what do you and sister Aoi have?" His question made me stop for a second, I looked at Aoi, she looked at me as well as if in anticipation of my response.

"Uh...it's..." I hesitated, feeling my face heat up, I bent it a little away from her gaze "It's called...romantic love"

There was a satisfaction on her face after hearing this.

"But how could you love someone that hurts you?" He asked and I stared blankly at his face.

How philosophical for a kid!

"Last night, I heard you were in pain, she hurt you didn't she?"

OH MY FUKIN SH-T HE FUKIN HEARD US! I WANNA DIE!!!!!

I was ready to dig a hole in the earth and let mother nature have the best of this ass.

"I wasn't hurting him, I was loving him, sometimes people get loud when they are happy" She replied with a straight face.

DON'T JUST TELL HIM PROUDLY YOU CRAZY WOMAN!!!!!

Ahhhh I can't believe a kid heard in on us!!! This is more embarrassing than my whole life, which is by the way, quite a huge comparison.

"Eh really, but Brother Ian doesn't look happy, he looks lifeless after-" The boy stopped half way.

"After?" Aoi asked.

What I heard next.....

I couldn't help but get up and rush to the bathroom.

Even Aoi had turned pale.

I don't know whether it was the whole pregnancy thing or simply the fact that I was shaken up to the core.

I just had to puke it all out....

"After?"

"After he gets loved by Dad"