Moon Theory (ABO)Ch61 - dense, like his head

“Just ‘oh’?!” Hyun unknowingly slaps a hand on his injured shoulder – Noah flinches from the sudden pain – and then leans forward to threaten. “Noah, don’t think I don’t know what you did to my car.”

“…Your car?” Noah angles himself away. “Get your hand off—I’m in pain.” qpxeAu

“From what?” Hyun frowns and squeezes his shoulder, intent on finding out the source of pain. Noah groans from a particularly hard press on his deltoid, brows scrunching up. The young man mutters a low apology before proceeding to strip Noah of his shirt, unbuttoning the top and hastily pulling it to the side. He examines the neat bandages wrapped around the shoulder and his lips thin.

“What happened to you? You look roughly ten times skinnier than when I’ve last seen you. You’ve always been lanky, but now I can take you down with a pinky and a half. Also, Allaire’s told me you brought back an alpha lover and… Noah, why does he look so scary?”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Noah, unable to see the colonel’s face from his position, isn’t keen on answering. “He always looks like that. He isn’t my lover.”

“…Noah,” Hyun says as he loosens his grip on Noah’s shirt, “why is he glaring at me?” dNzYne

Hyun, for unknown reasons, is anxiously flitting his dark eyes back and forth from Noah to the man behind him. Noah is at a loss when Colonel Yang, still holding – hugging – him from the back, moves a muscular arm to block the entirety of his exposed chest.

“I am not glaring,” comes the smooth voice behind his ears. It has an edge of hidden danger, but Colonel Yang immediately masks it with a cough. “Don’t let random men take off your clothes, little kitten. Are you into exhibitionism? That wouldn’t be a problem per se, but please tell your Rong-ge beforehand so I can wa—so I can protect you from dangerous voyeurs.”

Noah ignores him entirely, but the same doesn’t go for Hyun who isn’t yet immune to the colonel’s fatal shamelessness. Hyun gives a concerned frown. “…Noah, why are you always somehow involved, one way or another, with frightening alpha men?”

“I’m not frightening,” Yang Rong refutes as he very smoothly rebuttons Noah’s shirt. “It is a colonel’s duty to protect civilians from potential harm. Perhaps my overpowering handsomeness leaves a bitter aftertaste to jealous onlookers—my magnificence can be written off as frightening.”

“…” Hyun looks to Noah for affirmation. Upon seeing no response (really, Noah had gotten used to such arrogance), the black-haired young man only nods once and resolutely changes the topic. “…Alright. Anyway, Noah, my car – I heard you crashed it?”

Noah shakes his head. “I’ve only accidentally crashed Allaire’s car.”

“Allaire’s car is my car!” Hyun throws his hands up in agitation. “Damnit, Noah! How am I going to find a sportscar in this planet anymore? It was just about the last manufactured model three decades ago! If you can replace it with another that can run past three-fifty an hour with a quad-turbo engine, I just might forgive you. Provide me also with gasoline and I won’t revoke our friendship anymore.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“Mn,” Noah nods in affirmation, “the samples are in my backpack.”

“—They’re in my backpack,” Yang Rong responds as he reaches underneath the chair to grab the bag. He unzips it and rummages through the contents. The backpack is crammed so fully with firearms and empty magazines that Yang Rong has to place them on the table before rummaging through more miscellaneous.

Hyun stares at the rifle and pistol warily, his dark-brown eyes lingering extra long at the worn-out grips, the scratched handles, dirtied triggers. The weapons have seen years of use and though the exteriors are rugged, the chambers themselves are well-maintained and expertly crafted. Sleek and dangerous, indicative of its owner. 3hH9Aa

Yang Rong pulls out countless small bottles, some of them containing unknown liquids and others containing white pills. He holds up an almost emptied one, shakes it a little and frowns. “Little kitten, this bottle was full last night.”

Observant. Noah hadn’t even known that the colonel paid such attention to his intake. “Mn. I’ve said that most suppressants are not effective.”

“You’ve taken so much they mask the scent of your blood,” Yang Rong tells him, his frown deepening. “I may not be very knowledgeable on the omega physique, but I certainly can tell when they’re starting to affect your constitution.”

“I am well aware, but I haven’t a better alternative, do I?” Noah looks to him darkly. “Recently, I’ve had to take many more because of you.” GQkAzt

“Hmm?” Yang Rong leans against one arm, strokes his chin with very smooth, calculated movements and flashes him a grin. “Then you should simply spend your heats with me. I am very willing to oblige.”

“—Colonel Yang,” comes a singsong voice – Allaire’s, of course, by the lighthearted quality of it.

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The woman walks inside the small canteen, her appearance immaculate and crisp. She holds a handkerchief in one hand and a polished gun in the other. The area is suddenly engulfed in a pungent, alcoholic smell – some sort of stringent cleaning agent.

The woman sits down next to Hyun and straps the pistol onto her belt. “I do not know the extent of you two’s relationship. However, I must warn of certain challenges. In the topic of reproduction – if Noah is impregnated, there is a high chance of abnormality. Your hybrid mixes may not fuse well. Cold-blooded reptiles and warm-blooded polar—” uBrDKi

“Stop,” Noah says coldly. He flashes a dangerous glare at her – rare, for him to be hostile towards Allaire of all people. “There will be no escalation to that extent.”

She gives a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry, Noah, but it is a hypothesis that should be considered. Reproductivity can be lethal to you and… is that also not a reason you refuse to be trapped in the Nexus?”

“I simply cannot stand the thought of being a breeding device,” he replies, his tone laced in frost. “If I had less of a conscience, I would burn the entire facility down. You have seen the way they treat omegas, Allaire, and if I were to be contained there, I—”

His lips quiver in repressed anger. Noah’s eyes are almost feral, his pupils constricting to match his emotions. He is aware, however, that he is lashing out and so he takes a shaky inhale to calm. KE9MsZ

He ends simply, with a sigh, “It wouldn’t end well.”

The atmosphere is hooded in tension, until a very socially inept man decides to open his mouth.

“—It’s alright,” Yang Rong cuts in matter-of-factly. “I don’t want children. Recreational sex is more up my alley regardless.”

A moment of silence before Hyun palms his face in stupefy and Allaire lets out a loud, very amused laugh. vMyABj

“Colonel Yang, I really wonder about your thought process,” she says, her grin widening. “What in the world are you thinking to be so obtuse in such a situation?”

“I was thinking that…” Yang Rong is deep in thought. “There may be suitable contraceptives. Perhaps Shi Luo is capable of weighing the effectiveness. Then I may finally see the two-faced doctor in a new light. But Noah, I am certainly not suggesting anything—anything beyond your consent, of course, though I am more than willing to accommodate to your every need and—”

“I’ll be honest, Yang Rong,” Allaire says teasingly, cutting off his brainless monologue. “I do like Shi Luo more. Plus, the doctor is very visibly interested in our little Noah, except the cutie is simply too dense to notice. He might make a move soon and I am all the more willing to marry Noah off to a rich, handsome, intelligent doctor.”

Her speech is very obviously a joke. Unfortunately, Yang Rong absorbs it too seriously with his one braincell. Tz71Es

Yang Rong immediately turns to Noah, locks eye contact and says without a single stutter, “I seriously propose that I am better in every facet. From looks to muscle mass to brain—fuck, forget the last one, but little kitten, I am even more… intellectual in bed. In lieu of a bigger brain, I have a bigger shaft.”

Yang Rong has zero ounce of shame when he leans forward, narrows his eyes and continues, wholly serious, “How about you date me? A trial version, perhaps?”

The fluorescent light shines onto his emerald green irises, making the colonel stand out more. The close-up angle does well to accentuate his striking features – high-tipped nose, prominent jaw, long dark lashes. The epitome of handsome, admittedly, even though the man’s clothes cannot be considered sharp and neat.

He somehow looks put-together even with ungroomed hair (half of his bangs simply swept upward), monochrome shirt and pants (white and black respectively) and dangling dog tag (rugged like his personality). LtihB

So, Colonel Yang is good-looking. Unfortunately, he has zero knowledge of how to communicate. The spieled confession is certainly not within the most heartwarming, and Noah seriously wonders how his own emotions have spiraled into overdrive. A poor act that puts every other confession on a pedestal – yet, Noah’s ears burn at its intensity.

He doesn’t make a sound even as Yang Rong cups his cheeks and smushes his face, insistent on delivering yet another point.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Little kitten,” he says. “I am a good catch. I pack more protein than the sushi you eat. My abdominals are more reinforced than fossils and my pectoralis major is perfect for you to lay on. If we trace a little lower down my prominent pelvic line, my nether region is as densely packed as—”

Noah slaps a hand over his mouth, effectively and finally cutting him off. Colonel Yang looks at him expectantly, emerald green meeting his own hazed heterochromia. While the man could not be more transparent, Noah himself is thrown into absolute quagmire. 7t5TIo

It is the lighting, perhaps, that has Yang Rong glowing with such radiance that Noah just might forget the firearms placed on the table, the dog tag hanging from his collar, the tens of scars on his broad body, the hardened calluses of his hands.

“—I got it,” Noah says firmly, the red of his ears spreading to his cheeks. “I understand so shut up.”

He feels intense discomfort at being stared at not just by Yang Rong, but by the spectators Allaire and Hyun, sitting just a few feet away. The young woman has an unfading grin on her face and her partner has his face covered in utter humility – humiliated for Noah, secondhand. A part of Noah would really want to send Yang Rong to outer space for doing this in front of a crowd (because two is two too many).

Unfortunately, it isn’t like Yang Rong understands what he had done wrong, merely tilting his head to prompt for a reaction. Noah doesn’t give him any. TlwAGJ

Instead, he abruptly reaches for a bottle of a clear, unlabeled vial on the table, slides it toward Hyun, and says, with a voice as deadpan as he can make it, “Sample name XA-027, tranquilizers for mammal-like anomalies. I have tried it on myself and can somewhat attest its effects, though my own narrative is unreliable.”

Hyun peeks an eye out of the fingers covering his face. The topic change is so abrupt that he takes a long time to reply, weakly, “…I see. I will assemble some prototypes with it and test the efficiency for night hunts.”