Chapter 64: You Look Cute When You Sleep
"...What the hell happened?! Nyquella screamed internally, her face burning. What did I do?! Did I... did I actually do this?! No, no way! It couldn’t have been me! I would have remembered! It has to be something else entirely... maybe those aren’t hickeys on his body!"
"Dang it..." she whimpered, burying her face in her hands as her skin flushed bright red.
"I’ll just check," she whispered nervously.
She lifted up her shirt, inspecting her torso for any stray marks from the previous night to see if they had actually done anything—but her skin was completely bare.
Still skeptical, she completely undressed, carefully checking her entire body from top to bottom. Once again, she came up completely empty.
she turned her head to look at a sleeping Yuki realizing what she had to do.
"Nmmm... Nyquella, you’re just checking. Nothing else! Don’t do anything weird, please..." she scolded herself under her breath.
Hufff... huuu... Just checking.
She slowly climbed onto the bed, hovering over Yuki and softly tilting him onto his back. She moved as slowly as humanly possible, terrified of waking him up.
Nyquella gripped the hem of Yuki’s shirt and gently pulled it up, exposing his chest.
"Oh... umm... fuck."
Nyquella stared down at Yuki’s chest as the true gravity of the situation hit her. His entire upper body, from his chest all the way down his abdomen, was covered in a heavy cluster of bite marks and dark hickeys.
"What the hell did I do?! Did we...?! No, we didn’t! I would have something on my body to prove we had sex! ...Did he just let me go completely wild on him?!"
Realizing that panicking wasn’t going to change reality, Nyquella decided to adopt a simple strategy: she was going to pretend nothing had happened. If she couldn’t remember it, then as far as she was concerned, it never occurred!
Nyquella tried to make a quiet escape, but fate had other plans.
Just as she was about to hop off the bed, Yuki’s soft tail shot out and wrapped snugly around her waist, effortlessly yanked her back onto the mattress. She tried to pry herself free, but the tail held her fast, refusing to budge no matter how hard she pulled.
"Is he still asleep?!"
Desperate, she crawled her way back over his lap, gripped his shoulders tightly, and began shaking him violently.
"Yukiiiii! Wake up!"
After Nyquella spent over thirteen solid minutes trying to wake him, Yuki finally got up released his grip on her, dragged himself out of bed and got ready for the day.
After washing up, he shuffled into the kitchen and began preparing breakfast. However, Nyquella didn’t leave his side for a single second.
"Nyquella, I told you I’m fine," Yuki murmured, his voice drowsy. "You can go sit down and watch TV until breakfast is ready."
"...Yuki, it’s 8:23 AM. You’ve been staring at the pan trying to cook breakfast for the last hour, and we’ve had this exact same conversation three times already. Is there something wrong with you?"
"I feel super slow and sleepy... ever since last night," Yuki yawned, his emerald eyes barely open. "You said something about a ’Rune of Null’ or something... I can’t really remember much."
"...Oh."
"What?... Why do you look so worried?" Yuki asked, blinking blankly at her.
Without a word, Nyquella turned off the stove, grabbed Yuki by the hand, and pulled him into the living room. She sat down on the couch and guided him to lay face-down with his head resting on her lap.
"What are we doing?"
"I’m checking your body for magical runes," she explained, her voice trembling slightly. "Also... I don’t remember what happened last night after we got back to the apartment. What did we do?"
"Don’t remember much either," Yuki mumbled, already drifting back toward sleep. "You said something about my core being ’pure and prime’... and that my body was a ’perfect conduit for rune constructs’..."
"Oh... So how many did I draw on you? And how did that lead to your entire upper body being covered in hickeys and bite marks?!" she asked frantically.
"You said... biting made the skin tender... and made it easier for you to write and channel the runes..."
"And you never questioned it?! You... you just let me do that?!"
"Yeah."
"Yuki, please never let me write runes on your body again!" Nyquella squeaked, burying her face in her hands. "It’s extremely dangerous, and I am so, so sorry for putting you in that situation!"
"Hmm..." he hummed softly, completely unbothered as he drifted off.
"It’s going to take a while to carefully siphon all of them off your skin, so... you can use my thighs as a pillow for now. Make yourself comfortable."
"...Yuki?"
She leaned down and poked his cheek. Poke, poke.
"Huh... he’s already out cold. ...Cute."
Nyquella cleared her throat, flushed slightly, and began the delicate process of channeling mana to dissolve the massive cluster of runes she had stamped onto his body.
Time passed peacefully in the quiet apartment. Yuki slept comfortably on her lap, while Nyquella gently stroked his long, silky hair, watching his calm breathing.
"Yuki... you’re like a very soft cat—"
"That he is!"
"HUH?!"
Nyquella snapped her head up, her heart jumping into her throat as she saw the Administrator casually floating through the living room.
"Don’t mind me! Keep doing what you’re doing," the Administrator said cheerfully, floating over while munching on a bag of BBQ chips. "I’m just here to inspect the local stability of the realm."
"Oh... okay..."
"Say, Nyquella," the Administrator asked, tilting her head. "What are you to Yuki, exactly?"
"Eeh?! ...Excuse me?!"
"Are you his second lover?" she asked bluntly, stuffing another handful of chips into her mouth.
"No... I’m not," Nyquella admitted, a subtle twinge of disappointment lacing her voice.
"Why?"
"...What do you mean ’why’?"
"Why as in... why don’t you just ask him out? You like him, don’t you? And from what I can see, he certainly doesn’t treat you like just a friend."
"We just met each other recently," Nyquella argued softly, her cheeks warming up. "It would be... a little weird to move that fast."
"The amount of time you’ve known each other doesn’t mean a thing," the Administrator dismissed with a wave of her hand. "I only knew my former husband for six days before we became lovers."
"Six days?!" Nyquella gasped, taken aback. "That’s an incredibly short amount of time!"
"A lot of people said that back then," the Administrator chuckled softly, though her bright demeanor suddenly dimmed. "But we were happily married for over two hundred and thirty-three years."
"Were...? Did... did he leave you?"
"...In a sense," the Administrator said quietly, staring down at her bag of chips. "...He passed away."
"Oh... I’m so sorry to hear that."
"Nah, it’s fine. These things happen when your lifespan is vastly longer than theirs," she shook her head, offering a gentle, faint smile. "Anyway! How long until he wakes up?"
Nyquella looked down at Yuki sleeping peacefully on her lap, a soft, genuine smile creeping onto her cheeks.
"A few minutes."
"Cool, cool.... Now, I don’t mean to sound like an ass, but you two really need to get to ’vacationing’ properly. My literal life depends on it."
"...Don’t you mean his life depends on it?"
"Yes, that too!" she giggled, her divine body beginning to fade. "Welp, I’ll see you two soon! Bye-bye!"
With a soft pop of light, the Administrator vanished, leaving the apartment quiet once more.