TWLPOD 44

“No. Ah, sto—op, mmmph.”

His attempt to push away the weight that restrained his body was thwarted simply by his hands being pressed down, and his request to stop the unidentifiable pleasure was even silenced as his lips were covered, swallowing the sound.

A hot, soft, and moisture-laden tongue licked his tongue. It slickly and wantonly rummaged over and under his tongue and scraped the roof of his mouth, sending shivers down his spine.

Even in the midst of it, every time his body jolted with the endless thrusts from his lower half, the tongue went deeper, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish up from down, and he had to give up on thinking about what was what anymore.

“Tell me you like it. In words, not moans.”

The voice whispering in his ear was so gentle, unlike the movements that would not stop, that he responded without even being able to distinguish whether the pleasure that was brimming over, about to spill, was good or agonizing.

“…Ah. I like it.”

“You like it?”

“Yeah. I li, ke it…”

A faint laugh flowed in at the mechanical reply.

“I like it, too.”

The answer came back as if to confirm it.

A soft kiss that touched his cheek and pulled away was brief, and the penis that had been moving slowly, as if sweeping his insides, deepened in an instant.

His convulsing body moved regardless of his will. He could clearly hear words being whispered sweetly, but he did not have the ability to process what was being said. No matter how hard he tried to hold onto his sanity, the pleasure that was given to him, compared to the reason that just incinerated away, ran straight up his spine to his brain.

“I think it’ll be dangerous if I don’t let go soon.”

Over and over, over and over, over and over, he was stabbed in the same place, and each time, the heat that had pooled in his lower body moved up to his head and exploded like fireworks. His heart was beating too fast, his whole body was hot, and his movements were restricted, but all of it was pleasure.

“Though it doesn’t matter if I can come inside.”

Instead of the body that had been holding him pulling away, knuckles pushed their way between his fingers. As their cold, hard fingers intertwined, strength naturally entered his tingling fingertips.

“Can I come inside?”

“…”

“You’re cute.”

Something soft touched the back of his hand and pulled away. But before he could properly feel the texture of those lips or their cool temperature, the pistoning quickened. The very sound scraping his ears changed, and the transformation happening inside his body was indescribable. The creaking sound turned into a clattering, and at the same time the penis that was thrusting in painfully stabbed a place it never had before, the pleasure that had surpassed its limit reached its climax.

“Uht, euah. Ah…!”

With a moan that sounded like a scream, the heat that had pooled in his lower body gushed out.

“Keuk!”

The thing that had been lightly rubbing against his convulsing inner walls a few more times pulled out and met his own ejaculating penis. Semen, whose it was impossible to tell, slickly and sloppily coated his hypersensitive penis and soaked his stomach.

“Haa. Haa… Haa.”

The white that had filled his head and vision slowly subsided, and his consciousness gradually melted away.

At the same time, the last face of his that Kay saw was one he had never seen before.

It was the first moment the love he could not help but superimpose every time he looked at him until now was not visible.

Aran, quietly looking down at the sleeping body, fumbled with the bracelet that was the only thing on the white naked form. He had bitten and left marks on every corner of his body, but the fact that he could not touch the flesh under this bracelet belatedly became a source of dissatisfaction, and he gnawed on it with his teeth.

“…”

Aran, who left another mark on Kay who did not wake up at all even when he bit down with a bit of force, spread out a clean blanket and wrapped his body in it, and after lightly covering him with the covers as well, he got up. After washing away the stickiness of their lovemaking, he straightened his clothes and stepped out of the tent, where he saw the wounded soldiers who were now throwing a drinking party.

Passing the murmurs and the gazes that were fixed on him, he approached Iris in front of a certain tent.

“You look like you’re well enough to live.”

“That I am. It’s Jude who’s sick in bed, actually.”

Iris seemed to gesture with her chin toward the tent behind her, then asked a subtle question.

“And your side?”

“As for me, as you can see… It’s not me you’re curious about, is it?”

“I’m allowed to be curious. We’re going to be living together from now on.”

“That tone, is it on purpose?”

“Now you’re picking on my tone. What else would I call living together?”

“Because it’s obvious you’re trying to provoke me.”

“The fact that you’re taking the bait even though you know that just shows how possessive you are.”

Aran, who heard an unexpected word amidst her sarcastic remarks, muttered.

“Possessive?”

At Aran, who was lost in thought, Iris felt a shiver.

“What are you talking about now? After putting a bracelet on him and everything.”

“The bracelet was just a spare, anyway.”

“Then you would’ve given it to me if I’d asked?”

“Why would I give it to you?”

The Repard family, who were practically absolute rulers within Lympus, had passed down the same bracelet decoration since the first generation, and the leopard pattern, a combination of the materials used to make the decoration and the artisan’s skill, was impossible to even imitate crudely.

The Repard family’s bracelet decoration, recognizable at a single glance. The fact that one of the items, of which only a single pair is given to blood relatives for them and their partners, was on Kay’s arm meant…

“That’s what being possessive is.”

As if finally coming to his senses at the naming from another, Aran was lost in thought for a moment, then showed his characteristic smile.

“The nuance is a bit off.”

“Nuance?”

“Possessiveness makes him sound like an object. He’s a person.”

“Right. Slaves are people, too.”

“Are you saying I treat that guy like a slave?”

That’s unpleasant.

Though his lips were still smiling, his eyes had turned cold. But Iris, now in her fourth year of living under the same roof, was not one to be frightened by that.

“Putting a bracelet on someone that tracks their location and monitors their vitals, which they can’t even take off by their own will, and then wielding them as you please, that’s what a slave is.”

In the same vein, Iris was someone who believed that the current issue of using Willamere’s ability users was also problematic.

“But I give him what he wants in return.”

“Violating his natural rights on that condition is what a slave is.”

“Then go tell him that. I’m curious to see what kind of answer I’ll get, too.”

“Can I ask right now?”

Where Iris pointed her finger, Kay, who had come out of the tent, was standing. He was wearing a white short-sleeved t-shirt used for underwear and common-wear pants. It was a common attire among soldiers, but perhaps because of his height or his lean body, the fluttering clothes had a strangely suggestive feel.

Even more so because every time the night wind blew, the nape of his neck, which was revealed as it fluttered by his ear, had marks of their lovemaking for all to see.

“He’s popular, you know.”

“Why are you stating the obvious?”

“Not you, I mean Kay.”

He was satisfied for a moment at the red marks visible even from a distance. A few soldiers, who were raising their victory cups, were seen approaching Kay, who had come out of the tent and was looking around.

“He’s popular? No way.”

Judging by their hesitant demeanor, the soldiers were clearly intimidated by Kay, but their curiosity seemed stronger, and they were leaning down and saying something to Kay. Soon after, the soldiers’ fingertips pointed in the direction where Aran and Iris were.

Aran, whose eyes met his, gave a light wave, and Kay began to walk over with a face that was not fully awake.

“He’s cute, isn’t he? It’s just that he’s hard to approach.”

For a moment, he thought his own thoughts had slipped out of his mouth.

He fully agreed that he was cute, but it was somehow unpleasant. Without being able to find a clear reason, he asked Kay, who had approached, as he usually did.

“You’re awake already?”

“Ah…”

He had an expression of someone hesitating, with something he wanted to say. And once again, he glanced around. Aran unconsciously reached out and grabbed Kay’s chin.

“Looking for something?”

His gaze, which had been looking at a distant place, was once again fixed on Aran.

“I’m thirsty.”

Along with the short answer came a gesture to move his hand away, but Aran extended the hand that had been pushed away directly to Iris.

“Here’s some water.”

On Iris’s palm was a roundly curled drop of water.

“It’s okay to drink.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

When he drank up to the last mouthful, the water droplet disappeared completely. Iris asked Kay, who was still staring down at his empty hand even after finishing the water.

“Want more?”

“No, it’s not that… I was just thinking it would be a good ability to have in Willamere.”

He had heard that it was not as if there were no espers who could control water in Willamere, but at least Kay had never seen one. Even if there were, an esper who could use their ability to this extent would be even rarer, and he knew well that one esper alone could not solve Willamere’s desertification or water shortage, but it was inevitable that a glimmer of hope would arise.

“Um… this might be off-topic, but.”

Iris, who was scratching the back of her neck at the unexpected compliment, said.

“I’ve been there before. Willamere.”

“Really? When?”

“When I was about this big. I think I was a little under 10. My family is a family of scholars with quite a name, though not as much as this guy’s.”

Iris tried to poke Aran’s cheek, but Aran created a barrier with his palm to block it.

“We were trying to research if there was a way to solve Willamere’s water shortage.”

Kay’s eyes widened.

“To be more precise, my ability is to create the water I want using the moisture in my body, but the ratio of the moisture in my body to the water I create isn’t 1:1.”

An ability to create a larger amount of water outside the body if there is a small amount of moisture within it. Round water droplets formed at the tips of her fingernails and flew through the air.

“I thought that if we used this ability well, we could actually solve the water shortage problem however much we wanted. Unfortunately, a war broke out in the middle of the research.”

Hearing that the research in question had been halted, Kay hid the hope he had briefly shown.

“But once this war is over, maybe we can continue it? The research.”

“…”

“Even if not, I’ll at least make sure you don’t have to worry about water. How about it?”

“Why?”

“Well… it’s good if you get motivated. Wars are long and hard.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s all.”

Iris added with a ‘You’re really suspicious, aren’t you’ expression.

“I don’t mind if you’re suspicious, but unlike a certain someone, I don’t really like conditional deals.”

The corners of the certain someone’s eyes narrowed, but she paid him no mind.

“So this is just a promise. To mark the end of this war. I should get going. I think Jude’s awake.”

She placed the cup she was holding in Kay’s hand and raised her hand to a soldier who was signaling from a distant tent. Kay, smelling the faint scent of alcohol, chewed over the weight of the promise that had passed by as lightly as the wind.

“How is it?”

Aran asked, swapping the cup Kay was holding with his own.

“Do you feel like living a little more now?”

The soldiers’ laughter overlapped with the end of Aran’s question.

Watching the soldiers who were shouting and laughing even with casts all over their bodies, Kay swirled the cup. Watching him put the rim of the cup to his lips without an answer, Aran brought up a story he had been debating whether to tell or not.

“You have a child now, you know.”

Kay spat out the alcohol like a spray bottle.

Aran wiped away the wine that had spread around his mouth and was dripping, drip, drip, from the tip of his chin with the back of his hand and licked it. Aran, who was intently watching the eyes that were wandering, unable to sort through all sorts of thoughts, laughed out loud, but Kay still could not move a muscle.