#tomutou

Too soon, the doors slide open admitting a very large redheaded man, followed by an equally tall, thinner male. Touya is simply dressed in a plain navy blue kimono with black hakama pants. His fire engine red hair slicked back and a black face mask concealing his scowl; he knows he won’t be able to hide baring his teeth in annoyance. It took everything for the Todoroki Heir not to reek of burnt sugar as he follows his father into the room. At the very least, Touya could admit that his future bride is at least attractive; he mutters this quietly to himself, though his father catches his commentary, a pissy frown contorting his elder’s face. 

Sadly, Touya’s annoyance with the situation is not missed as Tomura can pick up the faint burnt, negative scent wafting through the room. Tomura keeps his eyes down, reminding himself to behave as his father speaks up:

“Thank you, Todoroki, for inviting us here today. I’m sure we have a lot of boring business to discuss. Why don’t we let these two get acquainted on their own?” 

Tomura freezes at the suggestion, terrified as he subtly fiddles with the thin blade hidden in his sash. He’s sure it’s to establish trust between them, but if things go wrong Tomura is not going to hesitate to defend himself… and if that means he has to murder the other, then so be it. 

"I'm pleased you were able to make it here safely." Enji intones politely as he moves to sit across from the man. "I agree, the sooner they start forming some sort of bond the better things will go." He nods, looking to his son as Tomura waits for direction from his own father. Soon the rabbit hybrid rises, turning to the alpha still standing at the door and bowing respectfully before stepping around him into the hall to wait. It isn’t his home, after all, it wouldn’t be polite to roam aimlessly, so he stands there and waits for his soon-to-be groom with his head down. His scent is a mixture of burning ash and a pine forest as he fought to keep calm.

Touya doesn’t move at first, barely reacting as the door is slid close behind him with the rabbit’s exit. He’s almost tempted to demand that he be allowed to stay and take part in their decisions over his future, but before he can even open his mouth, Enji narrows his eyes at him. 

“Touya,” Enji growls.

Just his name has the alpha raising his hackles slightly and snarling, but he bites his tongue. “Yes, sir,” He grumbles before following the omega’s earlier actions. It takes everything for him not to stomp out into the hall like a child throwing a tantrum. He takes a steady breath once he closes the door behind him and looks over to the dolled-up omega who’s waiting outside in the hall. He glances over him, watching as he looks over him for a brief moment before looking away when they make eye contact. 

‘Oh, his eyes.’ Tomura raises his eyes as Touya joins him in the hall. All he can really see is his eyes, and that is enough to make his cheeks burn, if only for a moment before he turns his gaze to the ground again. He’d been caught staring. 

"Follow me," Touya huffs, folding his arms into his sleeves as he makes his way down the engawa, only glancing back to see if they had listened. He walks them around the home to the engawa that leads to the gardens; already open to invite in the cooling air. He doesn't step into the gardens himself but settles to sit down on the landing.

Tomura is definitely not happy to be ordered around, but he has no real choice and thus follows a few steps behind. As they make their way through the engawa, Tomura takes the time to look him over. He's pretty scrawny looking... he doubted if he even was an Alpha. He lifts his nose a little to scent the air to double-check. ‘Smells like one though…’ He thinks. Overall, the omega is at least comforted, even if just a little, by the fact that Touya seems just as angry over the arrangement as he is. The bunny gets quickly distracted, not noticing that Touya has taken a seat on the edge of the landing as he stepped down and into the flowering gardens. He stops a moment to take in how peaceful and beautiful the grounds are. It’s comforting just to look at, his ashy scent fading from the pine– the contentedness even drawing out a faint, positive floral scent. Outside of the restrictions of the meeting itself, Tomura’s ears perk up again, alert, as he regards the alpha. Now calm enough, Tomura turns his attention back to Touya.

It’s difficult to tell exactly what Touya is hybrid-wise. His ears suggest wolf, but his tail gives away his fox heritage. Tomura doesn’t approach him, but he doesn’t know what to say either. How is he supposed to start a conversation with this man? He’s his future husband. His future mate. The man he is likely supposed to conceive children with… and Tomura feels nothing for those possibilities. Sure Touya’s attractive, but he has no emotional connection or attraction to him… even now. 

Touya doesn’t even realize he’s being examined, nor the morose thoughts going through his companion's mind. As soon as he seated himself, the alpha closed his eyes and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his anger. The only indication that the canine is even aware of Tomura’s presence is the fact that his pointed ears flick and follow any sound he makes. Tomura not attempting to get too cozy with him so soon was a comfort, even if it’s a small one. Given another moment of silence between them, Touya is calm enough for his scent to mellow back down to deep rich chocolate. 

Once relaxed enough, Touya opens his eyes again to take in the sight of the rabbit taking in the gardens. What should he even say? He knows his name, that he's an omega, and of course, that they are to marry. Touya hates this; usually, he’s able to chat up anyone over nothing, but being forced into a situation like this leaves him floundering- which only serves to annoy him further. The burnt sugar scent begins to creep back in as he struggles with what to say. ‘What do you fucking say in this situation?’ He mentally grumbles.

"What's... How are you doing this morning?" Touya asks, then mentally scolds himself: ‘God that was lame. How is he... uuugh. You’re such an idiot, Touya.’ 

Tomura raised a brow when the Alpha stumbled over the question. It was pretty lame but it was… something. “Can I be honest?” He asks, folding his arms into his sleeves and keeping his stance. He only waits until Touya waves a hand to give him the go-ahead. “I’m not for all this traditional shit,” Tomura says, not caring if it’s unbecoming of an omega to curse. “I don’t want to be here in the enemy’s house. And I don’t…” He scoffs. “I don’t know you… All I know is that your family has been killing mine so it’s not the greatest first impression.”

As Tomura rants, Touya does his best not to chuckle out loud, thankful for his mask hiding his grin. His shoulders give away his amusement as he relaxes a significant amount, nodding to what Tomura says. 

Tomura notices him, though, which makes him wonder if the alpha finds his plight funny in some way. He was about to snap at the other man, but was interrupted:

"To be fair, I'm pretty sure your family has been killing mine just as well. So we're on even ground there." Touya muses aloud, his mirth evident. "And I don't care for this either. It's too stuffy and not my scene. Not to mention I wasn't planning on bonding at all if I could ever help it. So I'm not at all pleased that I've been forced into this at my Father's will." He rambles a bit, he doesn't know him either so he doesn't bother repeating the rabbit's sentiment back at him. Though with just this reaction, Touya is intrigued, to say the least. It gives him hope that at the very least, their bonding would be interesting. 

 “Hmm.” Tomura hummed in thought. ‘He was right.’ They were both fighting each other and murdering each other’s families. “I don’t want to be bonded yet either. It’s too much fucking work and I’d have to rely on… someone else to care for me. I hate that shit.” he reiterated, scowling. ‘God I need a smoke.’ 

Eventually, Tomura finds the courage to sit down on the step with him, at a distance, staring back out at the garden. He raises a hand to scratch at his neck. “I’d rather kill a thousand of your family than do this. But it makes my father happy so…I have to.” He blinked slowly, still scratching at his neck. ‘I’m so stressed out… I hate this.’ He lamented. 

Touya tilts his head, ears twitching slightly as he happily allows Tomura to continue to talk freely and express how he feels openly. Touya slowly nods, understanding him a lot more than he expected. "It's fair to say neither of us wants to be doing this, but we have no real choice against our fathers..." He plainly states, shrugging a little. "I don't want to take care of no lame omega either, so if you're capable, take care of your own damn self then. Less bullshit I'd have to worry about."

“So no…the question isn’t…how am I doing. The question should be…what…am I doing.” Tomura’s ears couldn’t fall any lower. 

Touya glanced back over, watching Tomura shut down a little as he scratched at his neck. "...What do you want to do?” He says, “They're going to strong-arm us into this regardless, and I don't know what they're going to expect from us, nor how soon after the ceremony will be. We don't have to like each other, and if you're not going to depend on me then what do I care."

“Yeah. I can take care of myself. Tch,” Tomura acknowledges as he keeps scratching until he’s asked what he wants to do. He stops for a moment and looks toward the gardens in thought, briefly distracted as he wonders if he smelled like the garden itself, before figuring out an answer for the alpha:

“Knowing my father. He would want us to be bonded as soon as possible. The ceremony should be enough to satisfy their desires… until we… figure something out.” Tomura says. ‘Maybe we could run away? No that’s stupid. They can pretend to be bonded? No…’ he thinks.

Tomura finally returns his gaze to Touya as he idly resumes scratching his neck; still understandably stressed and worried over their situation. ‘Blue eyes…red hair…that’s a weird combination… A mask to hide his face…’ He notices the tattoos and starts to wonder what other tattoos Touya might have. Curiosity makes him want to see them, but just barely. “We are gonna have to pretend…at least.” 

Touya really wants to snap at him to stop scratching so much, annoyed that he’s likely going to hurt himself if he keeps it up, but he bites his tongue and sighs through his mask. "Sadly, knowing my father just the same, he'll be persistently pushy about getting things done promptly. He will not want to wait around for us to finish the deal properly," he grumbles, pulling his hands from his sleeves to accentuate the word "properly" with air quotes, exposing more richly colored ink in doing so, though not enough to reveal the full artwork. 

Tomura doesn’t know how to feel about Touya’s father being so unreasonably impatient. Knowing how that man works, he’s more traditional and would expect them to bond and mate all in the same day and night. It makes his skin crawl just thinking about it. He’s still… a virgin.

Touya watches as he resurfaces from his thoughts, turning to look at him properly and take in his appearance. He nods at the other’s offer. "We can do that. Shouldn't be too difficult. And then again a challenge could be enjoyable for the both of us," he muses out loud, lifting one shoulder in a lazy shrug, "Though I wouldn't be opposed to a romp in the sheets.., I'm not exactly excited about the fact that I have to claim you." His tone is harsh; he doesn't mean to sound like Tomura isn't desirable, but it’s difficult to tell. 

The rabbit takes in Touya’s words until he hears that Touya isn’t excited to claim him. His cheeks flush brightly; not with embarrassment, but with anger. “What’s that supposed to mean!?” His voice becomes cold and even. Tomura isn’t the type to raise his voice and yell, after all. He tilts his head, “I know I’m hideous but there’s no need to rub it in,” He scowls. He already had self-esteem issues due to his scars and marks, but to hear him say that… hurt a bit.

Touya’s ears tuck back slightly as Tomura snaps at him, but he slowly raises an eyebrow as Tomura continues. "Hey now, short stack, Don't go putting words in my mouth. I never said you were hideous. And whoever put such an idea in that pretty little head of yours needs their throat ripped out," he states calmly, shaking his head, "I said what I said, simply put. I never intended on having a mate and wasn't intending on ever properly claiming someone– not to say I haven't marked someone as a form of manipulation to get information. My disinterest has nothing to do with your looks or attitude." Touya’s ears flick back in annoyance, clearly peeved.

Tomura’s tiny tail swishes back and forth in irritation. How dare this attractive wolf-fox say something like that? Short stack? He can’t wait to end his life later. His hand curls into a fist. Does he think he can just get away with calling him short and pretty in such a standoffish way? He turns his head away sharply, his ears perked back just the same. 

“Whatever.” He scoots further away from Touya and looks at his hands as he tucks into himself, feeling even smaller than he was. Tomura doesn’t believe that he’s pretty. Or cute. Or whatever. He feels a wave of discontent, the negative ashy scent only growing more potent around them.

Touya releases a long, suffering sigh as Tomura huffs and puffs and stinks up the whole place. He reaches up and rubs his face before running a hand over his slicked-back hair. "Can you at least try to chill out? You're going to make the whole estate smell like a newly put-out forest fire," he snaps.

Things are going downhill at this point. Touya isn’t trying to get on the other’s nerves, but Tomura seems so damn sensitive to things that aren’t even meant to be an insult. Or, well, Touya hasn’t meant any of what he said to be offensive. And though he’d been amused with Tomura’s attitude, his nerves are frayed, so he has a bit of an attitude himself. He isn’t sure how this is going to work out if the rabbit gets set off just from him stating his mind. How the hell are they supposed to fake it ‘til they make it for the sake of their families if they’re just going to get on each other's nerves so easily.

Tomura bristles slightly and feels his nose burn as tears threaten to form behind his eyes. ‘Great! Now he’s insulting my scent! Just wonderful, perfect even!’ He bitterly thought, wondering how the hell he’s supposed to get along with such an asshole. That’s not how you speak about a future bride. The longer he sits here the more he wants to just leave… so he decides to do so. He nearly jumps to his feet and climbs up onto the engawa.