Kyoko woke up to the sound of honkings and chirping of birds. He fluttered his eyes open and then closed back again, groaning and turning to the other side. While doing so, a sheer pain in his lower back jolted him up from his sleep. 

"Ouch!"
He grumbled but was once startled again when a pair of arms wrapped around his slender body, pulling him closer. 

"What's the matter darling?" 
Arnold asked, staring at him with a concerned gaze. 

It was when all of it came crashing down to Kyoko, the last night and his image of moaning and writhing as he begged for more. His cheeks turned red and a momentarily embarrassment flashed his face before he hid himself under the blanket. 

Seeing his mate's adorable antics, Arnold pulled him even closer and urged him to come out. 

"Where did the little beast from yesterday go?"
He teased. 

"You were the one who acted like a beast, not me!"
Kyoko popped out from his hiding, with red tinted cheeks: a result of blushing too hard. 

Arnold bursted into a fits of laughter, almost close to tears, seeing his mate who was just erotic yesterday could also be cute amused Arnold. "why are you so lovable?" 
He unknowingly lets out, as if the red shade wasn't dark enough, Kyoko turned cheeks darkened more. And before Arnold could say anything further, he shoved a pillow in his face and got up from the bed. 

Ignoring the pain, he took his clothes out and got his towel. 

"You too get up, we have to meet Seto today." 
He then hurried inside the bathroom, without glancing back, too scared to blow his cover. 

"Seriously, what am I going to do with you?"
Arnold mumbled as he watched the figure of Kyoko getting out of his vision. 

                          ♧♧♧♧ 

"Oh! I had been wondering why would the great alpha be so kind to me, it was because you found out about our relation?" 
Seto rolled his eyes, after he had known the reason for Arnold's sudden change in attitude. 

"What are you saying? I was always kind to you brother-in-law." 

"Look at this cheeky bastard." 

"Darling, I am being bullied and you are busy with your phone?" 
It was unfair no matter how Arnold tried to view his mate goofing around on his phone while he was getting teased. 

"H-huh? Did something happen?" Kyoko hastily put his phone down, directing his attention towards the two, who seemed to be getting along quite well. 

"Is something troubling you?" 
Arnold, who was playing around just now, was suddenly serious. 

"It's nothing. Why would you think that, right Seto?"
Kyoko gave him rather suggestive looks, asking him to play along. 

"...ahh...right right, ignore him, he has always been on the stupid side. So what were you going to discuss with me today?" 

Seeing how adamantly Seto tried to change the topic, a suspicion was planted inside Arnold but pretended to play along any way. 

"I won't twist my words and say this, we are planning to move out from Sethia." 

"That's great. It had to be done sooner or later, so when is the moving date and which city?" 

"Seto, I think you don't get this. We are moving out." Said Kyoko. 

"I heard it loud and clear. So when are you moving?" 

"We are moving out Seto, 'we' are."
This time Kyoko pressed the word we a bit more. 

"I said I ge- oh wait. You mean me too?!" 

"Yes." 

"I am not going." 

"You will." 

"Why are you hesitating to leave this dump city?" Arnold suddenly demanded, interrupting whatever the prior two had going on. 

"Dump city? Sethia? Wow, so we go from being cursed to dump now?"
Kyoko asked, baffled.
There was some truth held on Arnold's words when he said dump city and Kyoko realises it too but hearing someone say that about your home city, certainly releases a sour feeling inside you. 

"Cursed? You are talking about that myth?" 

There was a myth passed down in Sethia, about how the moon goddess blessed mankind with her first appearance on earth by residing a part of her in Sethia hundreds of years ago. And the most blessed ones among them were the alphas, who were physically as well as mentally superior to the other two secondary genders: beta and omega. 

Drunk on that superiority, they exploited those who were lower than them and after about 70 years, a curse was inflicted by the moon goddess, a plague that only affected the knot* of alphas. More than half of the alphas were affected by it and the most of them were those who were residing in Sethia, since then a legend had been going on that any alpha who steps in Sethia, the moon goddess befalls a great misfortune towards them. Since then, no alphas had resided in Sethia. And it eventually gained a nickname 'the cursed city'. 

{Knot: kind of like a bulb type thing in an Alpha's penis that swells when they are aroused and keeps them locked inside their Omega during sex to increase chances of getting the Omega pregnant.}

"But that's just a myth! We are not cursed." Seto pressed, contrasting what he really believed. 

"Seto, you know far better than me, you don't mean that. Let's live together, we have better chances at the capital!" 

"Speak in the language, I can understand." 
Arnold interrupted their little to and fro argument. 

They both stared at each other, Seto nodded at Kyoko.

"The reason why we never had enough money, despite owning a bar, was due to the fact that Seto's mate and my blood brother too had been a victim of this curse. 

At the age of 20, when he was crossing road, a drunk driving caused him to be in an accident but soon after his recovery, he suffered from 'Gatho*', the disease mentioned in the legend. And since the medicine is too expensive, he had been hospitalized since then, getting only symptomatic treatment."
Kyoko said the room was engulfed in silence. 

[Gatho basically translates to knot in Nepali.]

"So are you saying that none of the omegas or betas have ever been in an accident? Or outside Sethia none of the alphas had any health issues?" 
His question made the other two a bit taken aback. 

Seto lightly sighed, Arnold was right but they too had their own beliefs. Maybe they used the pretense to hide and run away from things but again that was the only thing they could do, to hold onto whatever was left of them. 

"Okay, you might be right but I don't want to give up on this place where he can return to." Seto too didn't back down. 

Arnold sighed. "I don't know how deep a relationship you have but since you guys are fated mates, wouldn't his home be wherever you are?" 

Seto opened his mouth but Arnold beat him to it.
"If you agree to come to the Capital with us, I will arrange for him to get immediate treatment with the best medical care." 

Arnold was known as a businessman for a reason, he knew exactly what the other party wanted and how to play situations to his favor. And the deal he presented right now was too attractive for Seto, who had given himself to the thought of never being able to see his mate awake again. Because even if they stepped into the capital, how would they be able to get  him treated with a small amount of savings they had. Even getting an appointment would cost them their fortune. 

"But the cost.... he trailed 

"You don't have to pay me, just think of it as my compensation for causing you trouble that day at your bar." 

"No, I will pay you back." Seto clenched his fist, barely being able to contain himself with the news of his mate getting the treatment. 

"We. We will pay you back." 
Kyoko added, Seto looked at Kyoko. 

"Why are you staring at me? We are in this  together, aren't we?" 
He beamed at Seto. 

                              ♧♧♧♧ 

After having their talk with Seto, both Arnold and Kyoko took their leave towards Kyoko's apartment, it has been a few days since Kyoko had talked his way in to make Arnold stay with him.

"Are you still upset with me calling Sethia a dump city?" Arnold asked in a coaxing tone. 

"Who wouldn't be when somebody calls the place they were born a dump city?" 
Kyoko muttered, his lips still pouting. 

Arnold knew it was just his childish tantrum because these last few days, Kyoko had been spoiled a lot by Arnold. 

"But since you are helping us, I forgive you."
Kyoko chuckled. 

Both of them were so indulged in their own world that a silhouette who was following them for a while went easily unnoticed by them. 

"You will never know- 

A metallic glint flashed in Arnold's eyes, reflected under the flickering street lights, and a man with his face covered in a black mask dashed towards Kyoko with a knife. 

"Darling! Move." 
Within another second Arnold pushed Kyoko out of the sidewalk only to get stabbed in his arm. The man after finally being dawned upon what had just happened, threw the knife in the pavement and ran away in panic. 

"Arnold, are you okay?" 
Kyoko rushed towards his side, worry and anxiousness written all over his face. 

"I am okay, don't worry." 

But none of the words went through him as his mind was blogged by the sharp ringing inside, and all he could see was red in his palms as more blood gushed out from the wound, as his mate got colder under his touch.