Between Loyalty and Lust

The locker room was buzzing with anticipation.

Hatake Rin, was talkingto his team mates, listening to the excited chatter around him. His teammates were hyped, more than usual, and it wasn’t just because of practice. The real buzz was about a party. But not just any party.

Takuri Komori, the enigmatic third-year senior who founded the Shirakiba Wolves basketball team, was finally back in Japan.

Takuri had been a legend even before his injury. An Enigma by secondary gender and a genius on the court, he had built the foundation of Shirakiba with his bare hands and iron will. But during their first year, a catastrophic knee injury had taken him out of the game and off to the States for long-term rehabilitation.

Now, after nearly two years, he had returned.

And in typical Takuri fashion, he was throwing a party that screamed over-the-top, one held at his family’s estate, a mansion sprawling with unused space. He'd invited not just his old team, but rival schools and basketball elites from all over the region. According to Aio, it was “gonna be wild, drinks, chicks, hot dudes, rival captains, it’s like a sports anime exploded.”

The locker room roared with laughter.

But not everyone was excited.

Taiga sat alone on a bench in the far corner, eyes shut. His thoughts were somewhere else.

He hadn’t spoken to Maya in almost two days...It wasn’t Maya’s fault, and it wasn’t really his either. Taiga knew he was being petty. He always wore his emotions too plainly on his face, and Maya, ever perceptive, would have known something was wrong the second he opened his mouth.

So he stayed silent.

Taiga had always faked his masculine personality. It was a defense mechanism, one that earned him the respect he thought he needed in a world that didn't welcome softness in people like him. His scent-blocking was flawless. Everyone thought he was an Enigma. The aggression. The stoicism. The authority. It was all a mask.

In truth, he didn’t even like Enigmas.

He found them loud, aggressive for no reason, territorial, just like dogs. And now, he was tangled up with one.

Maybe it was time to end the lie. Maybe he should tell Maya his secondary gender, confess everything and drop the act. Stop pretending. Let the real Taiga breathe, just once.

****

Maya stood in front of a towering estate, fingers twitching.

He knew how he got here..But now that he stood at Dante’s gate, his courage faltered.

As he was led inside by a sharply dressed servant, the vast halls and the silence made him even more nervous. The mansion hadn’t changed much, it had been a while since he came here.

“I’ll let the young master know you’re expecting him,” the waiter said politely, bowing slightly before disappearing into another wing.

“Young master?.” God, that title still made Maya laugh . Dante had always lived like royalty. Even when they were just awkward teens in middle school, chauffeured cars, chef-prepared meals, the works. Maya’s family wasn’t poor, but next to Dante, he might as well have been dirt broke.

He didn’t know how long he stood there before Dante finally appeared.

“Maya?” Dante blinked in genuine surprise. “Is there a problem?”

He walked into the room, wearing sweats and bare chested, tonned muscular body and tanned skin on display. His hair was slightly tousled, like he’d just woken from a nap, and his expression teetered between happy and alarmed.

“How long has it been? 4 months? And you’re just... here. In my living room,” he said, voice laced with disbelief.

There it was, that cocky tone, the infuriating smirk that always made Maya want to either kiss or slap him.

“You know what? Never mind. This was a mistake.”

He didn’t get far before Dante caught his wrist and yanked him back gently.

“Hey, take it easy. I’m just messing with you” Dante said, brushing a stray hair from Maya’s face. “Okay love, I'm all ears.”

Suddenly, the mansion became deathly quiet.

“What? Didn’t plan what you were going to say?” Dante teased. “are you serious?....you came here wit-”

He was cut off by Maya’s lips on his.

It was brief, Dante didn’t even have time to react before Maya pulled back. “I came here to talk,”.

----

The words he’d rehearsed a hundred times trembled on his lips.

“I want both of you,” he whispered. “You and Taiga.”

Dante blinked, but said nothing.

“I don’t know how to bring this up to him without making him think it’s something it’s not,” Maya continued. “I don’t want him to believe we were sneaking behind his back. That I was unfaithful before even proposing the idea. But I can’t wrap my head around any other way to live without the both of you in my life.”

He took a breath.

“I’m in love with you, Dante. And I’m in love with him too. And I can’t—” he laughed bitterly, “—I can’t think straight when I imagine losing either of you. It’s not even about being with both of you physically. I don’t care if I’m never in the middle of it. I just love you. Both of you. So much. i just want to be in your lives, but not as friends, something.....but i don't care if I'm involved....does that make sense?”

Dante’s gaze softened, the hard lines of his face faltering.

“Do you know why I agreed to brake up with you?” Maya asked, stepping forward. Danta just stood there, listening “It wasn’t because I stopped loving you. It was because I knew.... I knew we couldn't be together, You're not just an Enigma, You're an en elite prime, i could never match you… I'd never be suitable to satiate your Enigma.”

He turned his face away, blinking rapidly.

“But Taiga… he can.” Maya looked back at Dante with a strange mix of hope and desperation. “He’s strong. He can bind all three of us.”

Silence.

“We are both Enigmas, Maya, what are you saying?,” Dante said finally“Enigmas can't be together. We’re not compatible, you know that.” he adds feigning innocence, Maya knee something and he was about to spill.

Maya shifted his weight, nervous. “I know. I know that, but…” He glanced up,“I’m actually kind of suspecting he’s a- .”

“LUNA” they both said at the same time.

Dante's mouth opened in disbelief. He was right.

Maya stared. “Wait...how do you know?”

“I’ve been suspecting for a while,” Dante admitted, stepping closer.“Like i said he's scentless, Nobody else can do that except Luna's.”

Maya was shocked, he thought he was the only one who noticed, he thought Dante had been coming for him, but He'd been coming for Taiga all this time. And instead if Jealousy, he felt relief and joy.

“I want both of you,” Maya whispered then, unable to keep it inside any longer. “You and Taiga.”

The usually unreadable Enigma looked unsure.

“I don’t know how to bring this up to him,” Maya went on., “But I’m in love with both of you. And I can’t think, can’t breathe, without the both of you.”

Dante moved slowly to the couch and sat.

“We aren't sure he's actually a Luna” Dante says. “What if we’re wrong? What if he’s just a ... Scentless Enigma? .” He drawls out.

“we have to find out” Maya admitted, sitting down beside him, “But I feel it. Every instinct in me responds to him the way it shouldn’t if he were an Alpha Type. He makes my whole system quiet. And you.... you do the opposite. I feel electric when you're near.”

Dante exhaled through his nose, staring at the floor.

“I’ve liked him too, you know,” he said, almost too softly. “Taiga. I noticed him the moment you intoduced us. But I kept my distance because... you chose him. And I didn’t want to become the villain in your life again.”

Maya’s eyes filled with tears.

“ maybe we could all be each other’s.” he whispers, fingers reaching out to touch tanned skin.

Dante looked at him, Determination in his eyes.

“Alright, Let’s get him on board. Together.”