Suri gets her frustration out. Taiga opens up. Something big happens for the pack. Iida makes a vow.

"Get up!"

Suri was pacing back and forth, panting as she watched through rage filled eyes at her opponent. She'd spat blood once but that had been the only hit that had landed on her. Now she watched the girl on the ground slowly pull herself upright, shaking as she tried to even sit up. Her once flawless skin was now covered in blood, claw marks, and a handful of bruises to boot because she'd been on the receiving end of an absolute beat down. When she was too slow to get up, the anger inside Suri boiled up once more.

"I said get up!"

"Vashra!"

Suri had reached for her, going for the girl's hair to drag her up to her feet. Now she was touching a wall made of golden translucent energy, a magic barrier keeping the girl behind it just out of reach. So Suri did the next best thing; she punched the barrier as hard as she could and watched it shatter from the force. Then she let out a growl and grabbed the girl by the hair, dragging her upwards.

"Kuroyashi! What is the meaning of this?" Iida yelled out as he entered the clearing and saw what was going on. He was frantic because why else. "Taiga! What is happening?!"

"Did she tell you?" Suri turned, storming towards Iida after tossing Taiga to the side by her hair. Normally he would have said something or scoffed at the indecency of Suri striding completely nude towards him, normally he would have looked away or blushed. But this wasn't normal, his eyes were darting back and forth between a very angry Suri, a very beaten up Taiga, and a very worried Aiko holding him back from going any further. And since Iida didn't answer, Suri needed to ask a second time which pissed her off even more. "Did. She. Tell. You?"

"Tell me what?!" Iida yelled, full on panic setting in. "Taiga, what is all of this?"

Iida frantically looked around the clearing, going from watching Suri still coming for him, to everyone around him. Mina and Tooru were crying, buried into Izuku's chest while he watched on with a look of terror. He didn't like the situation anymore than Iida did. Behind him was Ryuko who was wrapped around him, she was apparently sobbing as well. Saito, Koto, and Hanegawa were consoling Chibi who was in the middle of a breakdown, scared out of her mind and distraught all at the same time. Aiko, Mai, and Pazuzu were with Iida, keeping him back, although Aiko's touch on him was shaky and had barely any strength to it. No one wanted to be here. No one wanted this at all.

No one except Suri.

"Iida, I swear to the gods, if you're lying-"

"Don't you touch him! Vashra; Third Form!"

Suri reached out again except now there was a wall in front of her. A dome of golden magic that was about as tall as she was and that now held Taiga and Tenya inside of it with him sitting on the ground blinking in confusion and the weretiger looking at her in anger. She was panting and the wall flickered every so often as her magic and energy wavered. Apparently she'd used up some of her reserves to come to Iida at a blinding speed and put the two of them out of Suri's reach. It was her last ditch effort.

"I didn't tell him! I didn't tell anyone!" Taiga screamed before she curled over and began coughing. The magic vanished and it left Suri with nothing between her and the two of them. "I am ashamed of my father. Why would I boast of such a thing?"

"Suri, I need to know what's going on. Why are you doing this? And why aren't any of you doing anything to stop this?" Tenya screamed, frustrated at everyone around them. "Nishijima?"

Aiko flinched when she heard her name and then saw Suri turn back to her with a scowl. The leopard girl wanting to keep her mouth shut but she couldn't, so she did the next best thing and looked away from everyone so she didn't have to see their reactions.

"Suri called a clan meeting. When we got here, she immediately challenged Taiga and then… Well this happened."

"We don't know what's going on either," Pazuzu spoke next, his eyes narrowing at Suri making it known that he wasn't okay with this either. "But we know it has something to do with both of their dads."

"Alpha? What does he have to do with this?" Tenya asked in confusion. "And Taiga, I thought, your father…"

"No, he isn't dead," Taiga confessed, spitting blood to the side of her. With no more magic or lycanthropic energy to spare, she slumped back onto her knees, staring up at Suri with a mix of regret and defiance. "After what he did, I wished it to be so."

"Yes, I recall that you said most of your family was killed in an accident. A plane if I recall," Tenya added as his body seemed to move on its own to come closer to the weretiger and come to kneel behind her.

"I lied."

"What?"

"There was no accident," Taiga confessed, refusing to look anyone in the eyes, "Yes, that is what was reported on the news, and a lie I've recounted many times but that was a story conceived by the board of directors of my company. Because a plane crash might have been a less horrific sight than what truly happened."

"Taiga, what are you saying," Iida pleaded, his voice going shaky as he pleaded with the weretiger, his girlfriend, to say anything that would make all of this make sense.

"We need to know the truth, dammit," Suri snarled in anger, her fists clenching tighter.

"You want the truth?" Taiga scoffed under her breath, with a humorless chuckle. "So be it."

Taiga spit another wad of blood to the side and pulled herself upwards, her body hunching over from pain and the exhaustion it was costing her just to try and stand. Suri had taken everything out of her, she'd wake up with plenty of scars in the morning. If her queen let her live anyway. She didn't think Suri would go that far, but the small voice in the back of her head prepared her for that fate. She just hoped that Suri, and especially Tenya, would understand why she would lie about her family's darkest secret.

"My father was - is - a villain. You might have heard of him go by King Saber, the monstrous tiger-like villain responsible for a number of murders and countless acts of destruction across southern Japan." Her eyes flicked to Izuku who immediately recognized the name and recalled the acts, she also saw that Tenya did, in fact, recognize the name. "His other crimes included lovely things such as insider trading that helped disrupt several national economies, insurrection, and… trafficking. Human and non-human."

Taiga's words became more and more bitter until she went nearly silent at the end of her sentence. She looked away from everyone at that, took another deep breath and looked up to face Suri with as much dignation as she could muster. It wasn't much.

"When the Hamamatsu Ambush, my family, realized that he was King Saber after all those years of hiding his villainous side, they confronted him. Pleaded for him to turn himself over to the authorities and the pro heroes. And when he was threatened by being ousted from the clan and his company… he snapped. His own mother was the first victim of his wrath."

There was a long silence with Taiga hanging her head at the memory of what happened next. It was a memory she'd always refused to remember and refused to recall.

"Vashra's Third Form was born that night. Funny enough, in the same manner I used on you just now," Taiga let out another humorless scoff as her eyes looked from Suri back down to Iida who was standing up to come behind her. The revelation also made Suri flinch and her anger began seeping away. "I was only able to protect myself, my aunt, and the head of our coven that night. Everyone else, my mother, my grandparents, our entire clan and coven, were killed by his hand without any sense of mercy. It took every single person in our clan to try and stop him and he still came at us. He was laughing, even after being ripped apart himself. I don't take pleasure in knowing that it was the look on my face that made him stop. I don't take pleasure in knowing what he did, what he's done, and what he continues to do. I don't take pleasure in any of this, Suri, that's why. That's why I refused to say anything. Because without being an heir, without being a witch, without this clan and our coven, and most certainly, without you, Tenya, my love, I-I… I am nothing."

"You knew," Suri choked, balling her fists and hanging her head in despair and regret. "You knew what I had gone through. That, out of everyone, you could have talked to me because I can relate. I kind of know what you've been going through. So why? Why didn't you say anything, Taiga? Why let me do this to you?"

"Because you needed to let your anger out. I certainly know what keeping that inside will do to you if you just let it fester within you," Taiga shrugged with a weak smile.

"You could have also come to me," Iida stated sadly, looking away from Taiga as she turned back to him. "You also know what I've gone through with Tensei. Were you…"

"Did you not trust us?" Suri asked, taking one for the team of her and Iida.

"I do," Taiga confirmed and then rubbed her shoulder nervously. "Just… how could you trust me knowing that my father works for All For One?"

"You idiot," Suri growled and then lunged forward, wrapping her arms around the weretiger and squeezing her. It was a hard, heartfelt hug that saw the taller girl buckle from the weight of it all and began sobbing into Suri's shoulder. "You're going to have scars just because you thought you deserved my anger? And here I thought I was the only one with a martyr complex."

Taiga and Suri shared a small laugh at that as they pulled away from each other. Suri's brows furrowed as she looked over the taller, older girl in front of her as she was swept into Iida's arms. The look only deepened as she watched him begin to trace fingers over the gashes Suri had left in her skin and body and saw the anger flicker in his eyes.

She needed to make this up to both of them.

"Everyone gather around me please. I… want to try something."

There was a long silence and even more hesitation. That was something that Suri's guilty conscience wanted to correct immediately and she realized that there were things about herself she needed to improve on. It was like her dad said, she needed to go back to the basics. The basics of being a good friend, a good mate, and moreover a good leader. This had been a piss poor way for her to act as queen and she knew it. And knowing you've made a mistake, acknowledging it, was the first step in rectifying it.

"Taiga, I am so sorry," Suri said softly, reaching out to take the weretiger girl's hands and gingerly lift them into hers. She watched as she tentatively accepted the gesture and intertwined her fingers with Suri's. "I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me for what I did. The way I treated you. This? You didn't deserve this. And, I know your past is your own but, I hope that I can become a better friend, someone you can trust with something like this."

"Suri…"

"Please accept my apology and let me become a better person, someone you can truly trust. I'm sorry," Suri apologized. lowering herself and bowing enough that her forehead rested against the grass in front of Taiga's knees. "If you can't accept and wish to leave, I will understand."

"You idiot," Taiga sighed softly as she reached up to begin to pull Suri back upright. "You don't need to debase yourself for my sake. Ah! Not one more word to feed your complex," she smirked, pressing a finger against Suri's lips when she tried to say something.

Her soft smile faded as she turned to look over her shoulder, giving her attention to Iida. There was a pleading in his eyes, one that she needed to answer for, so she turned herself completely to face him and took his hands in her own. She felt the need to wrap herself into him, to kiss him, to just push all of her insecurities out of the way. But she didn't, instead, she took a deep breath and gave him a kind, gentle smile while her eyes traced over every inch of him.

"Tenya, I think I need to apologize to you as well. Suri is right that I could have trusted her, and should have but you… I know I should have been forthcoming with this. You know that I've had my eye on you since the Sports Festival, your attitude, and personality was awkward to most everyone but I found it kind of endearing." She let out a soft laugh as she remembered back to the event and how the other girls in her classes seemed to be turned off by him. To them he was an overzealous weirdo, to her, he was fascinating. "You were attractive, a fine prospect coming from a well respected family, but I was disarmed by your heart. That righteous fury and sense of noble duty and justice was like nothing I'd experienced before and I instantly became infatuated with you. But… I believe that is where my fault lies."

"I am flattered, I assure you but, I don't know that I understand," Iida smiled awkwardly and asked for further clarification.

"You're righteous fury is one of the things that I admire most about you but I suspect that that's why I never said anything further about my past. I was… worried that if you found out that my father is King Saber - a despicable villain if we were to put it mildly - that you may have-"

"Suspected you too would have villainous intent, yes?" Iida answered for her, making Taiga look up at him with yearning eyes to see his own soft and regretful expression staring back at her. All she could do was nod, tears beginning to pool at the corner of her eyes. "I will admit, learning your father is a rather notorious villain is unsettling. But I'd be hypocritical if I've sympathized and forgiven Suri for actions in her past and wouldn't give you the same courtesy knowing you haven't gone to the lengths she has."

"Thank you, Iida," Suri smiled softly. "I know that my past was a huge moral hurdle for you."

"Even still, Kuroyashi," Iida smiled at first but then steeled his gaze. "I do worry about your rage and tendencies such as this."

Suri could only nod at him as he jerked his head towards Taiga, once again tracing all of the cuts, claw marks, and damage she'd caused. She wanted to prove to him that, despite her struggles and demons, she could be better. That she didn't have to be so prone to fits of anger and rage which she had chalked up to just being the case that the Outsiders were working. Maybe it was more than that. Maybe it was fear. Fear of what was going on in her world that she had been in the dark about; like the death of close to two hundred vampires, some of which were a thousand years old, was not primetime news worthy. Fear that she and hers wouldn't be strong enough to take care of whatever was coming and so she resorted to this, making her no better than clan kings and queens of a bygone era.

Fear that said she needed to be a monster.

"Which is why I want to apologize to everyone tonight. This… This isn't okay and you deserve so much better from me," Suri bowed her head, continuing to apologize especially to Taiga and Iida. "I'm going to work on handling my rage and fear better so it doesn't come to doing something like I did to Taiga tonight. I'm not perfect and I don't think I ever will be and I understand if you don't wanna be by my side."

"I'm not going anywhere," Izuku answered immediately, not letting the clearing fill with a second of silence. His voice was determined, void of any fear or hesitation and full of sincerity.

"Neither am I," Mina answered next.

"You're not getting rid of me, that's for damn sure," Pazuzu added, his voice cocky and humorous like he was back to normal. That was a good sign.

"Or me," Aiko answered after him, followed by a humph from Mai saying she agreed.

"You're not losing any of us tonight, Suri," Tooru confirmed to which everyone made a noise that agreed with her and everyone before her. Everyone except for one person.

"Chibi?" Ryuko asked softly, apparently seeing some hesitation and remaining signs of worry and despair clearly strewn across her face.

"Promise me."

"Chibi?" Taiga asked this time, turning to her friend and seeing the same look of fear on her friend's face that Ryuko had seen.

"Promise me that you will never do this again," Chibi sniffled and collected herself. Her words went from her cute timid tone to something more serious and dark. "If you hurt any of us like this again, I will cast Word of Intulo on you."

Ah. The rune spell that immolates the intended target and a surrounding ten meter circle in pure fire and brimstone. The one that was basically getting hit by a mini nuclear bomb from hell itself and would kill a wereanimal a thousand times over.

"Chibi, that's-"

"Deal," Suri nodded with a smile, cutting off Taiga, Ryuko, and Saito who had all screeched at the mention of Chibi's most powerful and dangerous spell. It made them look from Chibi to Suri in horror, to which Suri just smiled wider and shrugged. "I will do my best to promise you that."

"Then… I'm not going anywhere either," she huffed.

"Now," Suri looked over her shoulder at everyone, her eyes tracing her mates and pack behind her and studied everyone's faces. She took in a deep breath and then turned back toward Taiga and Iida. "Can I borrow everyone's energy? I'm going to try and call flesh."

"You're what?" all of the wereanimals exclaimed in unison.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand," Iida asked curiously as he read everyone's shocked or flabbergasted expression. "What do you intend to do, Kuroyashi?"

"She's going to heal me. Completely," Taiga said with a soft realization, one that made the tears that had been threatening to fall make their way down her cheeks. "That's… you don't have to."

"If that bitch Akeno can do it, I have to try," Suri chuckled and then leveled her gaze at Taiga. "I want to prove that I mean what I say; that I'm going to be better. For all of you. I want to be the leader, and queen, and girlfriend all of you deserve."

Before anyone could refute or say anything else, Taiga smiled and her power flowed from her, hitting the clearing with a warm wave of electric energy and the scent of a bamboo jungle. Her eyes rolling to black and gold while her ears and fangs lengthened and patches around her hips and shoulders darkened to present stripes against her skin. With the tiger girl giving her approval a rolling wave of energy began rippling around the group as the scent of wolf and alpine forest mixed with leopard and tropic jungle and fox and autumn foothills. It felt odd to Suri knowing that her clan only had two leopards in Aiko and Kaneki but she swore she could feel a third but the feeling was gone as quick as it came. Pushing that discretion even further was the added magical energy that began swirling and intertwining with the lycanthropic power in the group surrounding Suri. The added magic of Ryuko, Saito, Chibi, and Taiga made the power become a whirlwind around them, threatening to plow all of them away before Suri and Atiena opened up their power. When Atiena came to the forefront, shifting Suri's human form to her own, that power shrunk, wrapping itself around her hands in a whirling torrent of power and energy that she wore like a pair of gloves. It was almost the same as she'd seen with Akeno and De'Jon, except instead of a dark storm, it was a fire of green, gold, blue, and pink iridescent energy that shimmered and sparkled around her. It wasn't cold and lifeless with the power of death, it was bright and alive with the power of life and love.

It felt… right.

Atiena took those torrents of lifeforce in her hands, placed them onto Taiga, and then pushed forward flooding her with metaphysical energy. Her back bowed as she let out a silent scream and her eyes filled with white light as she cried silently into the night sky while the power flowed through her. Taiga's body shook, parts of her skin warping back and forth between human and tiger, like it couldn't decide what shape or form it needed to be. Atiena growled as her hands began to ache, trying to handle the power combined by her small clan and not force Taiga to shift completely. It took all of her concentration to make it so that the girl in front of her stayed just on this side of human and trying to picture the weretiger witch as she'd been before; tall, chiseled with plentiful lean muscle, picturesque elegance and nobility, and flawless pale golden skin. In that instant thought, the scars and injuries Suri had given Taiga were gone.

She was perfect once again.

But Atiena still had the energy coursing through her and she needed to pull it away, shelve it, so that she didn't go too far and cause damage she possibly could do. The problem with that came when she pulled the torrent back from Taiga and it began to go wild, the storm going from just her hands like a pair of gloves up her arms. She began to panic, not knowing what to do with the energy or where it should go. Fear was beginning to take hold as the energy that had once been warm was now beginning to burn and she could faintly hear everyone around her begin to scream her name in panic. Apparently she was screaming in pain and it was scaring everyone. It was something she hadn't even realized was happening and now a full blown panic attack was starting to set in. So Atiena did the only thing she could think of; she screamed, threw her hands skyward and the concussive pop of energy exploded around them.

Everyone's ears were ringing and they were blinded by the flash of light which took some time to correct. Atiena was breathing rapidly, her eyes wide with fear and panic, scared that she'd hurt everyone around her. Again. She expected to feel pain and the droning thrum of it but instead, the droning thrum was steady and warm. Not the burn of pain but something else; power.

"What. Was. That?" Mina asked, breaking the anticipation in the silence. There was another pause before everyone heard her breath hitch in her throat. "Sur- Atiena, you're…"

Atiena's eyes blinked rapidly at that, clearing out the disarray as fast as she could. Her vision was still a little blurry as she finally found Mina standing not too far from her, a little more vibrant than usual. When she saw Izuku there was a flash behind him, like Atiena could see a group of people behind him but when she blinked again, they were gone. All nine of them. The next thought she had was to make sure she'd succeeded in what she had set out to do in the first place and turned to find Taiga. She found her carefully inspecting her body with the help of Iida who's eyes were wide with amazement as she traced her skin over and over where she'd had deep claw marks before. They were gone without even a small trace of scarring. To make sure she wasn't seeing things she brought her hands up and rubbed at her eyes, getting the last bits of fuzzy and blurry vision out of them and she froze as she pulled back.

The cuff marks, the one's she'd gotten after the training camp from the silver infused handcuffs Momo had made at Iida's direction, were all but gone. They were faint, almost nonexistent if you weren't looking for them. Instead of the raised rings of scar tissue around her wrists, it was simply two thin bands of lighter skin that looked like they were tan lines. She hurried and looked down at her stomach, expecting to see the raised 'X' shape across her belly where Gemini had spilled her intestines. Again, other than a lighter patch of skin color, the raised scarring was gone. Next she felt her neck, where she had been choked and had Gemini's claws embedded in her and found the same result; no more raised scar tissue. Her excitement hit a critical level when she started making sense of what was happening. The signs and scars that she'd gotten from the hands of the crazed werehyena were gone! The constant reminders of that night were gone! She was…

Atiena's and Suri's excitement died when she felt upwards, gripping at her ears, expecting a normal shape. Instead, she found them still tapered, with a pointed bell. She stared at the ground solemnly, remembering that, sure the scars were gone, but the reminder that she'd traded in a piece of her humanity and soul that night was still there. She quickly shook her head, pushing out the intrusive thoughts and began inspecting the rest of her pack and coven, making sure everyone was okay.

"That was weird…"

Everyone froze. They were all expecting someone to come out of the shadows and announce themselves; that they'd been watching the whole ordeal but nothing came. No one new arrived in the clearing. Instead everyone watched a terrified Mai clasping her mouth painfully tight as tears began to pool in the corners of her eyes. The voice had been female, sort of monotone similar to Yanagi and Kodai's from class B but with a pitch that was similar to Tooru's. It hadn't been a voice anyone recognized and now, watching Mai's reaction…

"Mai, is that you?" Atiena asked softly, calmly as she got to her feet and walked slowly towards the smaller werewolf girl.

"Y-Yes.. Holy fuck," Mai answered cafefully at first, using her hands to sign in unison. The first sound of her voice again made that go out the window as she began shaking, clasping her mouth again and cursing loudly into her cusped hands. That scared her even more.

"Hold on," Ryuko quickly climbed to her feet and ran to the werewolf, wrapping her in her arms. It took a moment for her to calm down but when she did, she was listening to Ryuko calmly talking her down and soothing her. Then finally, the head witch asked something of Mai that caught everyone off guard. "Mai, open your mouth. Just trust me."

Mai furrowed her brows in confusion but did as she was asked. Ryuko's phone came out and she flipped on the flashlight before she pointed it into the other girl's mouth. Ryuko's breath hitched as she inspected Mai and began shaking her head as she took a step back.

"I've been trying to heal that corrosion for months. I've gone through every healing spell and potion I can think of and know how to make. I've used my water familiar on you. What the actual fuck," Ryuko paced back and forth, running her hands nervously through her hair.

"Babe," Pazuzu asked carefully, being the brave one of the group trying to figure out what Ryuko was stressing out about and what she was rambling about.

"Has your… tongue always been pointed like that?" Izuku asked. He'd apparently come to Ryuko and Mai's side as the light was being shown inside the werewolf girl's mouth.

When everyone's confused expression went from Izuku back to Mai, the girl shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't able to trust her voice, not yet, so she did the only thing she could think of and stuck her tongue out for everyone to see. And yes, it was now tapered instead of the blunt, flat shape it had been before. Mai's tongue had stopped developing early, it hadn't been rounded like a normal tongue and instead it had been what she referred to as a spatula, it was something that she hated about herself. Added to that was corrosion in the back of her throat and on her vocal chords which had made it incredibly painful for her to talk in even the softest of whispers. But now.

"Did I… Did I do this?" Atiena asked as she came to Mai who quickly and happily took the beast woman's hands in hers and began bouncing excitedly. Though the tears said Mai was about to have an emotional breakdown, albeit a happy one.

"You did it! You called flesh!" Tooru screeched with excitement as she barrelled into Atiena and Mai, pulling them into a tight hug. The excited bouncing continued as she herself continued rambling, a much more excited and intense version of Izuku's muttering storms.

While everyone began crowding around Mai, Taiga and Iida hung back. The weretiger smiled as she watched on, happy to share the evening with a new discovery that was much happier than her previous one. Remembering the earlier portion of the night made her sigh with dread, but luckily she had a sturdy wall of warmth behind her. She turned to that warmth and found Tenya's eyes watching the scene in front of them with amazement and it was yet another thing to add to his list of things he didn't know wereanimals could do. It had been a long growing list. His focus shifted then, because how could it not when you had your tall, beautiful, strong, and stark naked girlfriend now facing you and laying herself against you. His hands wrapped around her and he held her firmly in a way that was a far cry from the first time they'd hugged or held each other. Especially like this. Her head rested on his shoulder into the crook of his neck and she more than happily breathed in his scent, which helped to further relax and calm her. To her, his scent was a hot cup of herbal tea with hints of ginger and lemon. Like a summer morning.

"I truly am sorry, you had to witness everything earlier. And that I never told you of my lineage," Taiga said softly into her love's neck.

"I don't deny that it's something I wish you would have disclosed with me but," Tenya sighed and held Taiga tighter. "I don't blame you for your hesitations either. I am sorry as well."

"I guess I need to have another talk with mother," Taiga sighed. "At least she should be informed of my lineage and determine if she still wishes to have me."

"My mother, you mean?" Tenya pulled back, quirking his eyebrow in confusion. "I don't understand, unless there's the matter of having another partner? I know that might be customary and is more than a likely reality. I'm still not sure how to rationalize it for myself I'm afraid so I do apologize for any future hesitations I might have."

Taiga pulled back from Tenya, not enough to leave his arms but enough to stare him dead in the eyes. He was serious. Quite sincerely deadly serious. Had he not known?

"My love, we weren't taking another partner to mother. We tigers are one of the few species that are monogamous," Taiga explained, hoping she didn't assume her boyfriend didn't know some very important facts about weretigers. "You understand we mate for life, yes?"

Tenya froze and Taiga watched as all of the gears in his head began turning, his mind shifting gears as much as his Quirk allowed him to. And apparently, their conversation had drawn the attention of everyone else, all of which definitely had caught on to Taiga use of the word mother. For her part Taiga gave Tenya a kind expression that was the kind you give a child when they do something really cute that just so happens to be a really dumb thing to do.

"You… when we, that first night, you," Tenya began asking, his panic beginning to increase as he started putting all of the puzzle pieces together.

"Oh my sweet speedster, you thought that I had relations with another before you," the weretiger chuckled, humor filling her eyes.

"I-I didn't! I - ahem - I didn't want to assume or seem judgemental of you," Tenya choked, his volume overly loud at first from being caught off guard. His tone did correct to his normal one, if not a little quieter as he began to blush profusely at the debacle. "I know Suri mentioned almost all lycanthropes were polyamorous so I had reserved myself to that possibility. During our initial courtship and that first night together it never came up that that wouldn't be a possibility so I must have wrongly assumed so."

"Oh you adorable little thing," Taiga laughed, shaking her head as she wrapped herself back into his arms once again. The fluttering in her chest and the warmth she felt with him felt so perfect and right. Even with his quirks she knew she had chosen correctly by picking Tenya for herself. Now that just left one thing. "Come, my love, shall we stay in your room tonight? It will make the phone call to mother much easier, though I don't suppose her and father are still awake."

"Taiga, of course we can go to my room but I do have one question. Two actually," he quickly asked as she took his hand and began leading him back to the dorms. He'd realized she was still nude, but his mind didn't think to dissuade her indecency at that moment. He needed more pertinent information. "First, what phone call are we making? And secondly, I believe you're mistaken in your reference to my mother, I don't mean to be rude but…"

"Oh, that's simple, my love," Taiga replied happily. "She needs to be informed of the press that may be coming her and father's way. They should know their daughter's history so that they may act accordingly."

"D-Daughter?! Are you saying they're adopting you? B-But we can't continue our relationship if that happens! That-"

"Tenya, my love," Taiga snorted and began laughing hysterically. It made her pause their walk back to the dorms as she turned around and faced him with an adoring twinkle in her eye. "You do realize what I said right? Don't tell me they haven't informed you of our future together."

"I-I… umm... No, they did not…"

"Oh Tenya," Taiga sighed with a giggle. "I call mother and father that because it will be the truth sooner than later. I am your betrothed after all."

"..."

"…"

"Y-You're… my…"

"Mhmm."

"M-My… We're…"

"Yes. We are."

"So that means…"

"Mhmm."

Tenya took a deep breath and collected his thoughts, letting everything truly set in. He needed to know something first; a confirmation.

"You're absolutely sure?"

"Of course."

"So you're going to be m-my… my wife. And I…"

"My husband," Taiga happily confirmed, her voice rising into a sweet sing-song kind of tone. It all but confirmed how she truly felt for him and how she saw her life going forward. "Yes."

Tenya paused then, stopping in his tracks and making Taiga come to a jerk of a stop with him. Her happy expression began to slip quickly into despair, like she'd made a mistake of assuming that he was the one. There was so much second guessing crossing her face that he cleared his throat, grabbing her attention fully. He then calmly pushed up his glasses, adjusting them into place as he gave Taiga careful consideration.

"If this is true then I must know one thing."

"Y-Yes?"

"Spring or fall?"

"W-What?"

"The ceremony. Personally I think you would look wonderful during cherry blossom season, but fall colors would bring out your eyes and hair. I'm sure of it, given you looked absolutely stunning during the school festival."

"Oh Tenya~"