Awashima came and left as quickly as she could, dropping the suppressants bottle in his hand and giving him a strange look. He knew what she was thinking, that he's sleeping with Saruhiko- because everyone knew the boy rarely left his dorm. Reisi thanked her kindly and she was off again, and he was thankful that she doesn't look at what the paper said until she was well down the hallway. He saw her stop in her tracks, and then kept going at a faster pace. He knew she won't tell anyone, it's a delicate and sensitive topic as it was, and there's a reason why she's his second in command.

Reisi brought Saruhiko a glass of water and the two bright red pills, and the boy lunged at them like a mad man. He swallowed them dry, then thought better of it and poured the water down after them. It's a sad thing to watch, to see someone dependent on pills to keep themselves from being assaulted, but it was what had to be done in their society. It would take no more than ten minutes for them to start working and end the poor boy's misery, and Reisi left and shut the door to give him his privacy.

He paced the dining room and adjoining kitchen, his hand over his mouth as he thought deeply. The facts kept being thrown at him, not only was Saruhiko previously mated to a man that had raped him, but now he was also schizophrenic. Reisi knew their were various levels and degrees of schizophrenia, and didn't know whether it was something like paranoid or something else. There were so many types, so many possibilities and severity, and for some reason knowing the boy was sick and suffering juts made him love him even more. How it was possible to fall in love with someone again just from a few facts he didn't know, only that it had happened and it was killing him.

Because there was a very good chance that Saruhiko did not and would not feel the same towards him.

He didn't expect him to, if he was honest with himself, because the boy had been too violated, too hurt, to possibly allow someone else into his heart. Even if he did, it wouldn't be the day after his old Alpha died, that would be preposterous. Still, he felt heartbreak at the thought of losing the raven to his own inner demons. Schizophrenia? Did the boy see shadows and things that weren't there? Did he talk to walls or think he was being constantly followed by someone? If he was mentally unstable perhaps it was unwise that he come in close quarters with the boy until Awashima came back with his medication.

This was, of course, thrown out the window the moment Saruhiko came padding out of his room. The boy was skittish and shy, fiddling with his hands and now properly dressed in the outfit from the night before, right down the wrist bands and jacket. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair a bit mussed, his cheeks were stained crimson and her avoided eye contact.

Yes, positively adorable.

He pulls out the boy's breakfast that he's reheated in the microwave, and place it on the table and beckon him to sit down as he seats himself. Saruhiko takes a seat on the furthest possible point on the circular table, across from him and leans over to pull the plate over to him. He doesn't say anything, just eats quietly while looking everywhere and anywhere other than him, so Reisi starts talking for him.

"Awashima's gone to get your other medication", he said, purposely avoiding using another other term. Saruhiko doesn't meet his gaze, but his jumpy eyes freeze somewhere off in the distance past Reisi's shoulder and something flashes through the boy's eyes that is something not unlike sadness. He nodded sadly and then the emotion left, and resumed eating and looking down at his plate like it was most interesting thing in with world. Reisi tries not to wonder what that was all about, if maybe Saruhiko was seeing something that wasn't there behind him.

When Saruhiko's finished eating the boy took it upon himself to pop the plate in the dishwasher, and then returned to the table to stare at his hands in his lap. Reisi wanted to ask questions, so many questions, but he was not a man known for his impatience, and kept himself silent. It paid off when Saruhiko started talking after a few solid minutes of total silence.

"I'd understand if you'd fire me for my mental disorder."

Reisi quickly schooled himself into a frown and folded his hands in front of his face as he leaned forward. "I see no reason to do such a thing, as you seem perfectly capable. My knowledge of your condition does not mean I should fire you." Saruhiko visibly slumped in relief, and Reisi allowed himself a sad smile-until the next words came out of Saruhiko's mouth.

"They don't even work, those pills." His voice cracked and his head was lowered, and Reisi was afraid the boy might start crying again. When Saruhiko lifted his head to look at him, though, he was just smiling sadly. "Schizophrenia doesn't have a cure- no matter how much medication they throw at you it doesn't help you at all."

Reisi nodded, vaguely remembering hearing such things from a passing conversation from one of his other subordinates. "What does the medicine do, if not help you?" he asked, leaning back in his chair. Saruhiko didn't answer right away, instead he ran his fingers over an unseen line in the table. He smiled sadly at the line his fingers followed, "The pills screw with my energy, and my personality is lost in a monochrome sky."

The words are poetically tragic, and Reisi is too shocked to think what he meant by his word choice. It would make sense then, why the boy seemed so lethargic and unwilling to do things all the time- Reisi had attributed it to the boy just being lazy, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

"What do you mean your personality is lost in a monochrome sky?" he asked. Saruhiko frowned, flattening his hand on the table and running it along the imaginary line again, a diagonal motion. He didn't respond for a moment, until he stilled his hand and said quietly, "You've been trying to court me for the past week, correct?"Reisi felt a chill run down his spine, and he wasn't sure it was a good sign. He nodded, and Saruhiko sighed, shaking his head so his hair fell behind his ear.

"Why?"

Reisi blinked at the question, lowering his hands into his lap, "Why what?" Saruhiko pouted in a way that made the older man's heart swoon, "Why are you trying to court me?" Saruhiko went back to looking forlorn, so Reisi started quickly, "Well I think you're brilliant; remarkably intelligent. I find you more interesting than anyone else, I find myself wanting to know more about you-and what I've learned in the last twenty-four hours has not deterred my affection for you in the slightest, it has had the opposite affect, actually."

Saruhiko was silent for a moment, in which he resumed his tracing of the invisible crack in the table. The doorbell rang and it was Awashima, who simply deposited the pill bottle in Reisi's hands and left in a hurry, making sure not to look into the apartment at all. Maybe he had done Saruhiko a disservice for letting Awashima know of his condition, perhaps she thought ill of him now, like he was diseased or contagious. Perhaps she felt pity.

The bottle was nothing special, Reisi decided as he rolled it in the palm of his hand. He set the bottle down on the table and watches Saruhiko stare at it blankly. "You don't have to take it if it doesn't help you." Reisi whispered, and Saruhiko laughs a humorless laugh.

"If I don't take it, you won't like my real personality. No one likes the real me."

"Shouldn't that be up to me to decide?"

Saruhiko stared at him hard, and then slumped in his chair. "If I stop taking it altogether it will make me sick, I have to ween off it or face the consequences, but only my doctor could prescribe that and there's no way he'd take me off the medication he think helps so much." Reisi nodded, "I'm the Blue King, in case you've forgotten, and the Kings are higher on the totem pool than the prime minister, convincing a doctor to lower pill dosage is child's play."

Saruhiko gives a small smile, a smile flash of teeth, an honest thing that sends Reisi's heart aflutter.

"It's a deal then, but if you don't like the new me I'm going back on the pills."

"It's a deal then."

Tada~