When Kyouya approached Dino's room a few nights later, he was glad that the blond was still awake; it saved him having to wake the other up.

"Cavallone." Watching as hazel eyes looked away from the TV and to him instead, Kyouya moved closer to the bed. "I want tea, but there are no teabags left."

"Sorry, Kyouya. I'll get you some more tomorrow."

Kyouya nodded, about to turn around and leave, only to stop as the blond grabbed his sleeve. "Cavallone?"

"Will you stay the night with me?" Dino offered a smile that wasn't tainted by heartbreak, one that was as bright as before all this had happened; what was the teacher thinking in order to forget his sorrow? "I could really do with someone to hug, and I know how much you hate the guest room."

Kyouya nodded, hardly noticing the fact that he didn't even hesitate to do so; he just knew that spending the night with Dino didn't bother him in the least, even if he wasn't entirely sure of why that was.

When Dino finally pulled the younger into his arms and held him close, he couldn't help but feel most of his stress ebb away; Kyouya was so soothing, and he never wanted to let the teenager go.

It was then Dino thought about something; how would his student react if he were to tell Kyouya he was in love with him? Would the other get angry, or would he accept it?

Only one way to find out.

"Hey, Kyouya, can I tell you something?"

Kyouya nodded, letting his eyes slip closed. "…"

Scratching the back of his head, Dino almost changed the subject, but then he allowed it all to spill out; if it were out in the open, he would have no choice but to talk to Kyouya about it, and he knew the other deserved to know; Kyouya deserved everything, in his eyes.

"…I really love you and want you to be my boyfriend." Speaking quickly, Dino awaited the inevitable beating; Kyouya was going to hate him…

"…" Lifting his head to look up at the other, Kyouya was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Relationships with students aren't allowed."

"So is kissing them, but we still do that."

"…" Letting a smirk cross his face, Kyouya nodded; even he couldn't argue with that. "This is true, herbivore. I have never been in a relationship before; I do not know what to do or expect. I am curious about relationships, but I'm not sure if I would be a very good boyfriend."

"Just be yourself, Kyouya; that's how I fell in love with you in the first place." Patting raven locks, Dino smiled in contentment. "I love you, Kyouya; I've been thinking about it all night. If you're uncertain about relationships, but still curious about them, you can find out everything with me if you want; I understand your boundaries and I would never push them. I love you, Kyouya. I love you, but I want you to be happy, so the decision is entirely up to you."

Kyouya wasn't sure how to respond to such declarations, but he did know that if he were to take the other up on his offer, he would finally come to understand his feelings; he just hoped he would like what he discovered.

"If I accept, don't even think of trying to force yourself on me or I'll bite you to death, herbivore." Rolling over onto his side, Kyouya tugged the blankets higher. "There won't be any sexual contact until I say otherwise."

"I know, Kyouya; I would never ask that of you until I knew you were comfortable with me."

"…Then I accept." Allowing himself to relax, Kyouya tried to ignore the other pulling him against his body. "But what I say goes, Cavallone."

Chuckling to himself, Dino nodded. Placing a kiss on the teenager's cheek, he smiled. "I understand, Kyouya. I love you."

"…"

Knowing not to expect such a response so soon, Dino didn't mind; there was always the future. "Goodnight, Kyouya. Sweet dreams."

"…"

~~XX~~

The next morning, Dino awoke to an empty bed. He knew Kyouya had fallen asleep with him, so he suspected the other had gone for breakfast. He couldn't be upset; he knew the skylark wouldn't be completely comfortable with him at first, and he had to be patient and let him get used to everything before they could truly begin dating.

Getting out of bed, Dino left the bedroom and made his way into the kitchen. As suspected, he found Kyouya seated at the dining table, a few pieces of toast in front of him. The blond smiled as he made his way behind the other, hugging his student tightly. "Good morning, Kyouya. Did you sleep well?"

Kyouya nodded, tense in the man's arms; he was far from used to being touched, and being hugged for seemingly no reason made him nervous. Relieved when he was finally released, Kyouya went back to his toast. "You said you'll get more teabags today."

"Of course I will. I'll get them for you once I wake up a bit more." Kissing his boyfriend, Dino felt peace wash through him; he had been so stressed the past couple of weeks, and finally telling Kyouya how he felt and finding someone he could love and trust had really eased a lot of the burden off his shoulders; he had one less thing to worry about, and something to make him feel happy instead. "We can always go out to the teahouse again, too."

"I like the teahouse." Happy with the offer, Kyouya agreed. "I don't want the blond herbivore to come with us, though; I want it to just be us."

"I'm sorry, Kyouya, but Bel has to come with us; I can't leave him alone, and everyone else is too busy to look after him."

Kyouya opened his mouth to argue, but he stopped when he heard a knock at the door. Watching as Dino went to answer it, he turned back to his toast; hopefully it would be someone here to take Bel back with them so he could keep Dino to himself again.

To his surprise, however, Dino returned after a minute with Fon behind him. Kyouya hadn't expected to see his uncle again so soon, and part of him was disappointed; the man would probably want him to go back home – that was the last thing Kyouya wanted; he wanted to remain here with Dino.

"How are you, Kyouya?" Fon was as kind as ever, taking a seat across from his nephew. "Have you had fun while I've been away?"

Nodding, Kyouya left it at that; he didn't want to tell his uncle about his new relationship, knowing other adults would look down on it; he knew what people were like, and he knew it was hard for two men to be accepted, much less a male adult being with a male teenager - it would only lead to trouble if too many people got word. "We were going to go to the teahouse."

"I'm glad you've been okay. I'll wait here for you to gather your belongings together." Expecting for his nephew to not hesitate in getting his things ready to leave, Fon was instead surprised when the younger simply sat where he was, a flicker of emotion crossing onyx orbs. "Kyouya?"

"I don't want to come home just yet." Looking between Dino and Fon, Kyouya made his wishes known. "I want to stay here a little longer; Cavallone promised to get me more tea."

Fon chuckled, just glad that Kyouya was being a little more sociable than when he had left; he had truly been concerned for his nephew, knowing how much he liked being on his own, but it seemed that he had made the right choice by asking Dino to take care of him for a while; whatever barriers the skylark had put up around himself seemed to have dropped for now, if only around the teacher. "Then I suppose it won't hurt for you to stay here, as long as Dino-san will not mind."

"I don't mind at all; he's welcome here for as long as he wants." Having made himself a coffee, Dino moved to sit with the other two.

"Take the stupid blond herbivore with you, Fon; he ruins everything." Unwilling to drop his attempts at dumping Belphegor off on the first person who would take him, Kyouya stared into his uncle's eyes. "He will take Cavallone's attention at the teahouse again."

Fon didn't quite understand what his nephew was talking about, so he listened carefully when Dino replied; he knew what Kyouya was like, and he had to be on the ball and discipline the younger if he needed to.

"Kyouya, I'm not going to play favourites with you two." Dino was gentle as he explained things, his patience unwavering when it came to his students. "Bel has every right to come with us, and you can't expect your uncle to take him just because you tell him to."

"I hate him getting your attention. I want it." Unwilling to back down from making his point, Kyouya stood his ground.

With a sigh, the blond shook his head. "It doesn't work like that, Kyouya; I'm not the kind of person who abandons my friends for any reason. You can both have my attention; I try and split it up evenly between you two."

Kyouya knew when he was fighting a losing battle, but he was too stubborn to give it up; he wanted to win, to make Dino focus on him solely, and he would do whatever it took to get that attention. He had never been one to act so childish and immature before, but he had never really found someone he wanted to focus on him and him alone before; he had Tetsuya, but the other wasn't like Dino; Dino was the one and only person in his life he couldn't stand giving attention to anyone else.

"Why are you being so difficult for him, Kyouya?" Trying to understand his nephew's behaviour, Fon frowned. "Dino-san can't possibly treat you as the centre of his world; he has many other people he needs to focus on, too."

Getting up from his seat, Kyouya left the room in silence; he knew he needed to learn how to convey his needs to Dino properly, because he was struggling as it was, and he wasn't getting across to the blond.

Never before had Kyouya needed to express himself to others, but Dino was different; he needed to be clear with what he required or else their relationship wasn't going to work. The first step to learning how to do this was to take some time out and calm himself down before he got agitated and made things worse.

~~XX~~

After spending some time at the teahouse, Dino took his two charges into town. Kyouya, who wasn't used to coming into town with anyone, was on edge. He stood by the car as he watched his boyfriend set up the wheelchair for Belphegor, the cast on the younger blond's leg leaving him unable to walk. He was unsympathetic towards the way the boy whimpered and cried out in pain as he was pulled from the car and sat in the wheelchair, Dino's touch still too painful for him to handle properly.

Kyouya was glad when they started moving again, not sure of where they were going; Dino had brought them out to the mall, but the skylark hadn't ever come here before, finding it too crowded for his liking.

"Why are we here?" Questioning his teacher, Kyouya stuck close to Dino's side; he felt extremely uncomfortable here, and it was clear Belphegor felt the same way; the boy was trembling, his good hand over his ear.

"I need to grab more turtle food for Enzo." Reaching down to put his hand on top of Belphegor's head, Dino sighed; he knew he shouldn't be bringing the boy into such loud environments, but he didn't have a choice; there were no other pet shops around, and he couldn't leave the younger in the car alone. "We won't be long at all."

Kyouya nodded, not in the mood to argue. He didn't say a word until he had followed the teacher into the pet shop, standing by one of the bird cages as he watched them fly around; as expected, he could feel himself relaxing a little at the familiarity, comforted by memories of his own pets.

Looking over towards the counter, Kyouya watched as Dino spoke to both the cashier and a man holding a pet carrier. He was suspicious as to who the other was, knowing he wasn't a worker; what was he there for?

"Who is this?" Feeling protective of Dino, Kyouya stepped in between the group, casting the man a suspicious look.

"It's alright, Kyouya; he just has some minks he's trying to sell." Smiling down at the teenager, Dino gestured towards Belphegor. "He can't sell them to the pet shop, so he's trying to find them good homes himself. Bel wants one."

"You are going to buy him a pet?" Watching as the man stepped past him to come closer to Belphegor, Kyouya narrowed his eyes as the boy was shown the contents of the pet carrier. "He's not yours; you're not obligated to buy him anything – that's the long-haired herbivore's job."

"You're right; Bel isn't mine, but he's still someone I care about." Leaning down to look at the pets himself, Dino hoped they would all find homes; he would hate for them to have to go somewhere bad if they were unable to be homed. "He's wanted a mink for a long time now."

"The long-haired herbivore will get mad at you for giving him pets without asking permission first."

"I know he will, but he'll learn to live with it." Pointing to the white mink at the front of the cage, Dino turned his attention to Belphegor. "What about this one, Bel? He looks a bit more sociable than the others; you might have an easier time taming him."

Belphegor smiled brightly as he nodded, excited that he was finally getting a pet; he had never had one before, and now he would finally have an animal to play with when everyone else was too busy to spend time with him.

"He's only a baby, so you have to take good care of him, okay?" The man opened the cage door of the carrier, reaching in and pulling the mink out. He handed the animal over to the boy, watching as Belphegor hugged it tightly with his one good arm. "You have to spend lots of time with him and train him so that he doesn't bite you, or else you'll lose a couple of fingers."

Belphegor nodded in understanding, joyful at finally finding a living creature that didn't hurt him when it touched him; the silky fur gave him a different sensation to that of other peoples' flesh, and he found he liked it.

Kyouya was silent, listening as Dino thanked the man and handed him cash. He turned around to watch as the blond started gathering up supplies for the mink, having known that his boyfriend was kind-hearted, but not to this extent; who went around buying pets for other peoples' kids and even getting food and other accessories for them, too?

Looking back down at the boy, Kyouya was sure he had never seen the other look so happy before; Belphegor was generally always into mischief or agitated by the other people around him; it was a rather nice change to see him in a good mood for once.

"Why would Cavallone buy you a pet?" Truly having no bad intentions behind his words, Kyouya didn't expect for the other to take them badly; he was simply trying to wrap his head around why his boyfriend could treat everyone around him so well.

"…" His smile dropping, Belphegor looked to his lap. He hugged his new pet tighter, his happiness ruined; he didn't understand that Kyouya had meant no harm in the question, instead reading the sentence as a teasing one.

Unsure of how to explain things to the older teenager, Kyouya left Belphegor alone, instead wandering over to where Dino was. "Would you buy anyone a pet?"

"Not exactly anyone, Kyouya." Passing a small dog bed over to his student, Dino smiled. "I wouldn't buy a pet for someone I didn't know; I wouldn't know if they would look after it or not. If I know them, and I know they'll take care of the animal, I might, depending on the circumstances. Bel's lonely; he always has been lonely, but Squalo never got him a pet because Bel's never had one before and he didn't want him to be unable to look after it, or have it attack him if he messed up."

"So you brought him a pet because he's lonely?" Slowly understanding the other's reasoning, Kyouya could accept this; it made him appreciate the other and come to acknowledge that he couldn't have chosen a better boyfriend.

Knowing Dino would look after him as well as he would Belphegor was soothing to Kyouya, and it was enough for him to decide he wanted to lower all his walls around the blond and give him everything he had; he knew the teacher had been doing that for him ever since day one, and he truly deserved to have that trust returned.

Somehow, Kyouya had found himself in a relationship he was unexpectedly happy with after just a few hours, when not even a day ago he had been questioning if he would ever be able to have a boyfriend.

It was weird how life seemed to work like that.

~~XX~~

When Tsuna and his two friends came back around after school finished, Kyouya made sure to distance himself as far as possible from the crowd while he read his novel. He tried to ignore the conversation floating around the room, uninterested in it until he heard Tsuna squeak.

"You and Hibari-san?!" The brunet looked so horrified, Kyouya felt his interest peak.

"What are you herbivores talking about?" Closing his book with more tenderness than he would ever show another person, Kyouya locked eyes with the younger male.

"N-nothing bad about you, Hibari-san!" Waving his arms in front of him, Tsuna backed up closer to Dino, knowing that the blond would step in if the Prefect became violent. "Promise! D-dino-san just told us he's dating again!"

"Do you have a problem with our choice of partners?" Getting to his feet, Kyouya was ready to bite the other to death, but he stopped when he felt something rub against his foot. Looking down, he found Belphegor's mink looking back up at him. Reaching out to grab the animal by the scruff of its neck, he picked it up, holding it front of his face to get a better look at it.

"No…!" Frightened by the idea of Kyouya hurting his new pet, Belphegor started writhing where he lay, wanting to get up and hurt the skylark back; he didn't want anyone hurting it as it was his. He calmed down when the younger male brought the mink back over to him, holding it close; he had only just gotten it, and he didn't want to lose it.

"You should take better care of your pets, herbivore." Going back to his seat, Kyouya grabbed his book again, glaring at the younger trio. "If you have a problem with Cavallone and I, I suggest you get over it before I bite you to death."

Flinching, Tsuna nodded; he didn't have a problem with them being together – in fact, he was happy that Dino had found someone during such a hard time – but Kyouya got defensive easily, and was too quick to resort to violence.

Hopefully Dino would be able to tame the skylark, but Tsuna wasn't sure that was even possible; Kyouya wasn't the type to change due to others' influences; he did what he wanted, when and where he wanted, and didn't care much, if at all, for others.

It was lucky Dino was so patient, or he might find his new relationship a tad more difficult than he had anticipated.