CW: Explicit language, slight sexual content, mentions of murder/hanging.
Rin slips into Jun’s expansive bed and curls himself beside the slumbering lord. Cold sweat glistens on his brow and shivers wrack his form in short bursts. His breath is unstable as he tries to stifle them behind a fist, but they are still loud enough to disturb the fragile quiet of the night.
“…Rinnie?” Jun stirs and raises his head groggily, barely managing to open his eyes. “Is…that you…?”
“No, I’m the godsdamned Mother,” comes the shaky response, voice unnaturally meek. “Who else would I be, stupid?”
There’s a sleepy chuckle before two large arms snake around his form and tug him close. Rin intakes sharply, spine arching beneath those hot hands. His own push arms fold against Jun’s chest, the slow and steady heartbeat vibrating under his palms.
“Why are you shaking?” Jun props himself up on an elbow and peers down at him, the haze of sleep lingering in his eyes. “Are you cold?”
“Mn.” Rin instinctively snuggles into Jun, savouring his body heat. “I had a bad dream,” he mumbles, pressing his uninjured cheek between his splayed hands. That steady pulse quickens. He hears it well. “I’m gonna stay with you tonight. Don’t make me leave.”
“…I won’t.” Jun tightens his embrace and rubs comforting circles on the raven’s back. He can feel the hard ridges of Rin’s scar with every lap of his palm, bringing him back to those idle summer days in the guest house. “What did you dream about?”
Rin closes his eye, focusing on the little lord’s heartbeat. “It’s not…clear,” he begins in a near whisper. “Ever since the…the fire…I’ve been having the strangest dreams every night. I see people I don’t know. Sometimes, they seem to be from a completely different world. I see the Last Cycle. I see all the Cycles before that. And there are…dreams when I see myself. I relive my memories or I’m doing things I’ve never done before. But tonight…I dreamt of you.” His breath hitches and he buries his face into Jun’s chest, as if he were trying to hide from himself.
Jun frowns, brows knitting in concern. He palms the back Rin’s head, gently teasing those fluffy locks between his fingers. “What happened in the dream?” A slight shiver runs down his spine when he feels hot breaths dampening his shirt, condensation beading the heated flesh beneath.
Rin falls silent for a time. When he finally speaks, his voice is so detached that it sounds like another’s. “I killed you.”
He opens his eye and glances up at Jun. Amusement glitters in those goldens.
“What? What’s so damn funny?” Rin growls, suddenly irritated.
“My apologies, Rinnie.” Jun clears his throat and wipes the smile off his face. “I understand that this dream was distressing for you. However…I simply cannot imagine you killing anyone.”
Pale lips pull back in a tight grimace. Something dark flickers in Rin’s gaze. “Why not?”
“You, who took a blow from a sword for a stranger. How could one as selfless as you be a killer?” Jun gently runs his fingers through the raven’s hair. “You value others’ lives far above your own. While I do wish you would be more mindful of your health, I greatly admire this heroic side of you.”
“…I’m not a hero, Jun.”
“You are the hero I aspire to be, Rinnie.” Austerity hushes the lord’s voice. Turns his gaze penetrating. “While I speak of saving people, you do so instinctively. I have never met a better man than you. This I can say with surety.”
Rin’s heart plummets. His skin prickles with an anger he can’t fully understand. Unable to bear those intense goldens, he rips himself away from the lord’s embrace and throws his legs over the edge of the bed. Bare feet slap the cold ground.
“Then you’re an idiot,” he grits out. “Worse than an idiot.”
“Why do you say such a thing?” Jun frowns, gazing at the raven’s tense back. “I speak nothing but the truth.”
The Rat huffs and leaps to his feet, pacing the length of the room. Every kind word, every reassurance is like a poisoned arrow. As Jun defends his ostensible goodness, the lord unwittingly creates a chasm between them. Rin can’t help but feel as if Jun is doing this out of spite. A malicious precursor to abandonment or betrayal. Or worse.
“It’s not the truth,” Rin snaps, tossing a glare at the bewildered man. “It couldn’t be further from the truth. You say such pretty things, little lord, but that’s just it. Pretty words with no substance.”
“You should know by now, Rinnie, that I do not speak vapidly,” Jun’s rumbles, a flash of hurt and anger in his face.
“Oh, really? Because it seems like that’s all you do,” Rin sneers, anxiously raking his hands through his hair. There’s a wild look in his eye, as if he were being cornered. “You’re a coward. You said so yourself, didn’t you? You have no backbone. No courage. You run at the first sign of conflict because you can’t handle confrontation of any kind. All that comes out of your pretty lips are appeasements. You say this and that to make everyone happy but none of it is real, is it, pet?”
Jun sits upright, apprehension leaking through his bewilderment. “Rinnie…is something the matter?”
“Don’t you fucking start with that,” Rin barks a mirthless laugh, whirring to meet those gaping goldens. “It makes me crazy when you do that. Stop turning this back onto me. Just admit that I’m right. Admit that you’re too much of a coward to say what you really think.”
“And what is it that I really think?”
“He’s disgusting,” the raven snarls, stalking over to grab Jun by the front of his robes. He yanks and twists the fabric, forcing the lord to arch his back. “He’s just a Rat. Rotten from the inside out. He’s a burden. A project. He’s just meat to fuck. A cheap trinket to play with then discard. He’s just a tool. He’s nothing.”
Jun stares up at the seething youth with shadows in his eyes. Darkly contemplative. “What happened, Rinnie?”
Rin falters. Wavers. His breath hitches in his throat. Numbness spreads from the manic discord of his emotions, entrapping him like amber.
“Rinnie?”
No.
“You can tell me anything–“
No. You’ll leave me. I can’t–
“–anything at all–“
–tell you, if I do–
“–you know this.”
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.
–and you look at me like the others do–
“Elcclf…”
–I might just lose it.
“Please. Just talk to me–“
“P xliifv obeg qfbqif.”
Ktf ibgv rajgfr ja tlw.
“Mlnf, lo sbe lcmievf atf ecybgc yjys. P kjamtfv atfw fja atflg reqqfg yfobgf P rqijrtfv bli atgbeut jc bqfc klcvbk. Ktfc P ila j wjamt jcv rfa olgf ab atf tberf. Pa kjr gfjiis fjrs. Kbb fjrs. Po P mbeiv vb la ab olnf qfbqif, P mbeiv vb la ab sbe.”
The colour drains from Jun’s cheeks.
Rin tightens his grip on the man’s robes, yanking him close as if afraid he would escape. His breath shudders along with his words. “I knew what I was doing. I knew that I should have stopped. I could have stopped. But for whatever reason, I chose to keep going. I chose to kill them, Jun. And no matter how much I try to come up with a reason…I just can’t. What reason could there be?”
“Rinnie…” Jun’s voice cracks and wavers. “If this is a jest, it is done in very poor taste.”
A mirthless smile is all Jun needs to confirm his fears. Goldens darken, near pitch in the gloom.
“Sorry to dash your dreams, little lord,” Rin huffs in wry amusement. “It was nice. Pretending to be the person you thought I was. At least for a time. I was almost convinced at one point. Like…maybe Dasom had been wrong all along.”
“…Wrong about what?”
“She knew that I was rotten. And that I could never be anything else.”
Jun’s breath hitches. His chest is gripped by an ache that travels up his throat. It overwhelms his shock and anger, his rationale faltering with every pulse of that terrible pain. “No, Rinnie. Your mother is…she was wrong. You…you were under Madame Kahin’s control. You must not have been fully cognisant, else you never would have hurt anyone. This…is not you.”
“But there’s always a choice.” Rin releases the lord and pushes his face into his hands. He feels dampness under one palm and the silken patch under the other. There’s that hollow pang again, reminding him of his missing half. “Even if I couldn’t see it at the time. There was another choice.”
Isn’t that what Luna and Bucky said? To take responsibility for his actions. To suffer the consequences as punishment. Isn’t that why, for two long weeks, he’d been enduring in silence?
There’s the immense, crushing force that threatens to dismantle him, destroying any spark of enjoyment he might be able to garner even for a second. And every smile comes with a heavy price, one that he cannot afford. He’s on the verge of death, all because he knew he made this decision. This is his rightful burden to bear.
“No.”
The little lord’s voice is like thunder in the heavy silence, rumbling through the tempest of their collective angst. As if he were a drowning man, suddenly given a sliver of air, Rin shudders and raises his gaze. Goldens blaze through the darkness, striking and bold.
“I do not believe for one second that this was a choice you could make. Not only were you under Kahin’s influence, you were also intoxicated, coerced, and threatened. If you had not set that fire, another Rose would have.” He slips his hands around those thin shoulders and pulls Rin into his arms. The embrace is tight and secure, as if he were trying to keep the broken pieces of this man together. “Your mother is wrong. You must know this, surely.”
Rin’s mind is blank. A clean tundra of nothingness that refuses the lord’s assent. “N-No, I…I don’t know,” he stammers quietly, heart shivering. This is dangerous. He feels Izayoma’s maw stretch wide, threatening to swallow him whole.
He pulls in a sharp breath, trying to calm his frantic pulse. “…Do you know what my first memory is? It’s Bo, looking down at me after she saved me.” He brings his hands to the lord’s chest. The lord is so steady. “My mother strangled me when I was five years old but Bo stopped her. She brought me back. If my own mother tried to kill me, there must be something wrong with me. There’s something really wrong and I don’t know how to fix it.”
Words fail the little lord. Every part of him refuses to believe such an atrocious event could occur – death at the hands of your own mother? But then, he realises that he lives a world apart from his friend. Perhaps it’s more of a common occurrence, at least in the Slums. Even so, the thought is gut churning.
Swept along by a strong surge of emotion, Jun presses his lips upon Rin’s forehead. “I see you, Rinnie. Whatever she saw in you that day, I do not see a single trace of. You have made mistakes, you have been used and coerced, you have been forced to commit a reprehensible crime. But none of that is you. None of that makes you. Your feelings right now, that guilt, that pain? That is you.” Jun draws back to smile warmly at the wan figure in his arms. That hellebore is wide and misty. A glimmer of hope. Underlying desperation. “You are my hero.”
“…But I…I lit the match, Jun.” His voice is so small. Fragile.
“Kahin lit the match. You were simply the vehicle for her will.” And his voice is so strong and confident.
Rin stares at Jun, lips trembling. He ducks his head and tries to stifle his emotions, letting the static chill enshroud all. “That’s the last time,” he whispers, impassively. Cold resolve sharpens his words like grindstone to a blade. “I won’t ever let anyone control me again. If anyone tries, either one of us will die first. This I vow on the gods.”
“No-one has to die.” Jun rests his large hand upon that fluffy raven crown. Rin peers up at the lord through his bangs. “Least of all you. Rats escape from anything, is that not what you said? Furthermore, if you are ever in need of assistance, I will be here to offer it. Always. Remember this, Rinnie.”
Twin roses bloom in the raven’s pallid cheeks, bringing colour back to his visage. He scowls and whacks Jun’s hand away, though his efforts are rather half-hearted. “Like you’re of any use,” he scoffs, before shoving his face into Jun’s chest. He stays like that for a time, just breathing in the man’s sweetly spiced scent. The darkness is welcome and soft. Like the darkness of a balmy summer’s night. It’s comfortable.
When he finally emerges from his cocoon, Rin parts from the lord with a soft kiss on the lips, shy and sweet. He lays back down and tugs the sheets up to his chest.
Jun smiles, lips tingling from the kiss, and he follows suit. He lays close to Rin, leaving very little space between their bodies. “Whatever hardships you must endure, I hope that you know you can come to me. I would never think any less of you.”
The Rat gazes back at the lord. He silently slips his hand into Jun’s, interlocking their fingers in a lover’s clasp. “You’re not gonna make me turn myself in?”
“…No.”
“How unlike you.”
“I want to protect you, not send you to the gallows.” Jun frowns, dropping his gaze to their connected hands. A calloused thumb swipes gently over the back of Rin’s palm. “If that means…making some allowances…then I will do what I must.”
“So you were corrupted all along,” Rin says, smiling wryly. “Fifth Lord Hwan Jun. Who knew you had such a sordid secret.”
“Should I not have any secrets?” Jun asks, huffing amusedly. “I daresay, the way you see me is too different from how I see myself.”
“How do you see yourself?”
“Hm. Not nearly as pure as you think I am.”
“I know that firsthand, little lord.” There’s a slight curl of his lips as he brings his hands to Jun’s chest, sliding his palms over the firm flesh. “Those faces you showed me today…I want to see them again.”
Jun chokes on air and bolts upright. His entire face burns with a brilliant heat. “It is rather late and-and I think we should try to rest. Ah…perhaps I will take the floor. Give you space to spread out. Especially since you are injured and your wounds are-are yet to be fully recovered–” He swings his legs over the edge of the bed, preparing to stand — when a small hand grasps the back of his robes.
He sits there in silence, waiting for Rin to speak. To move. To do anything. But nothing ever comes.
Eventually, Jun breaks the silence himself, his face creased in consternation. “I am…rather confused about us.”
“…What’s there to be confused about?” The grip loosens.
Jun hangs his head with a sigh. He stares at his bare feet as he rubs them into the wooden floorboards. “What we do…the kissing and…and the other things. That is…for those in a committed relationship. Usually saved for marriage. But we are…we are simply friends.”
Rin twists his face in dismay. He releases his grip and punches Jun in the spine instead. “Is that a marriage proposal or a rejection?”
Jun straightens his back, intaking sharply. He rubs furtively at his sore spine, but he doesn’t dare turn around. Who knows what kind of expression Rin is making right now? “…I am unsure,” he admits in a low mutter. “However…I am sure that I care for you. Deeply. And that…” He licks his dry lips, nervously. “And that I enjoy spending time with you. Immensely.”
“Deeply. Immensely. What the fuck am I meant to do with that?” Rin grumbles, his own cheeks blazing red. “I don’t do marriage or relationships. I rarely even stay for breakfast. So…whatever this is, don’t read too much into it.” He rolls over, turning his back on the lord. This conversation, this man, is utterly unbearable. “It’s just a bit of fun. Or do you not know what that is either? Fun?”
“Ah. Yes. I may have heard of such a concept.” It’s difficult to tell whether the lord is being serious or not. He has a bitter taste in his mouth as if he’d swallowed ash. “…I will refrain from making baseless assumptions. My apologies, Rinnie.”
“Whatever.” But the Rat’s response is weak.
“May I ask…why do you not have intentions of marriage? This is a common dream for people, is it not?”
“Is it your dream?
“I…believe so, yes.”
“Well, it ain’t mine. I don’t like being tied down is all. Why limit yourself to just one person when you can have anyone you want?” Rin pauses. He furtively touches his right cheek, feeling the scar tissue beneath his fingers. His heart sours. “I don’t need a good face to get good cock. Yours is nice and all, pet, but I don’t see ‘the rest of my forever’ with it.”
“…I understand,” Jun says quietly, though he’s not certain if he does. “I will respect your wishes.”
“Fine. That’s…just fine.” Rin purses his lips and throws the sheet over his head, suddenly wishing he were anywhere but here. And yet, he can’t bring himself to leave. Not while the the brackish seas of his visions waits for him in the gloom.
Jun, his only comfort.
From that point on, not another word is uttered between the two. Even after Solaris has long risen above the horizon.
***
On the third night, Rin awakes under the thunderous clouds of Aran peak, shivering in nothing but his thin sleep robes. When he sways, he realises he’s standing and he quickly loses his balance. His rump hits a thick blanket of grass.
Around him is a plethora of bioluminescent flora growing lush in the arable soil. Thickets of blossom trees conceal this surreal oasis of prismatic botany.
Beyond are the waters of the lake, disturbed by the lively spring air.
From behind, a pair of strong hands slip around his upper arms and easily hoist him to his feet. Startled, Rin whips his head around to see the little lord standing beside, a worried crease in his brow.
“…Jun?” His tongue feels too thick for his mouth. Swallowing, he tries again. “Where am I? How did…how did I get here?”
The lord puffs a relieved breath. He gives the youth a strained smile. “You were sleepwalking,” he says, pushing a palm into his wrinkled brow. “You walked quite far and I couldn’t wake you, no matter how hard I tried.” By the faint bruising on Jun’s left cheek, Rin can guess what had transpired.
Rin rubs at his aching eye before glancing about, perplexion growing by the minute. “An island…?”
“Yes. I was not aware of this island’s existence as it is hidden rather well by the trees. It is connected by that trombolo there, see?” Jun points to a thin strip of land linking the island to the main shore. “Though from a distance this all appears to be part of the bank. It is a wonder that you found such a location. Are you certain you have never been here before?”
“I’m certain.” Rin finds himself drawn to one of the glowing blooms, a rather large flower the size of his head. The petals are pointed and unfurled, incandescent blue. He crouches down and pinches one of the petals, rubbing his fingers over the fragrant velveteen surface. “How is it glowing like this?”
Jun crouches down beside, gazing at the flower with a faint smile. “Ah. Bioluminescence. A chemical reaction occurs within the organism, in this instance, the flower, which causes it to produce its own light. For such a reaction to occur, there must be a specific chemical present called luciferin, which was discovered in the Last Cycle. In fact, many scientists believe that bioluminescent flowers were not naturally occurring. These may have been products of initial genetic engineering–”
“Little lord.” Rin stares at Jun with the corners of his mouth curled.
Jun blinks and blushes. He raises his hand to rub at his nape. “Ah, my apologies. I am rather excited to see such wonderful specimens here. The only bioluminescent flora I have seen are in the gardens of the imperial palace. They are exceedingly rare, you see.”
“Wanna take one?” With a rather callous air, Rin rips the blue flower from the soil, snapping its thick stalk with a flick of his hand. When he presents it to Jun, however, the light has already dimmed.
“Oh, Rinnie…” Jun frowns as he takes the flower into his hands, watching the lucent bloom wither and dull. “The light cannot be sustained for long if you pick them. Perhaps, we should leave them as they are.”
The raven wrinkles his nose and huffs, rising to his feet. “It’s just a stupid flower anyway.” He starts wandering the perimeter of the island. It’s quite long, winding parallel to the shore like a great snake. “Do you reckon someone planted them here then? If they only grow in the palace…”
Jun sighs and carefully sets down the flower before following the unruly youth. “That is a possibility, yes. Many ministers do visit this lake, so I would not be surprised if one had smuggled flora from the palace to start their own personal garden. Though, that would be considered a rather grievous case of theft.”
“Theft? For a flower or two?” Rin pauses to raise a brow at the lord, incredulity writ across his face. “What would happen if the person’s caught?”
“Theft from the imperial palace is instant dismissal and the removal of a hand.”
“And if it was me that stole and not some Minister?”
“…Execution, most likely.” Jun presses his lips into a tight line, goldens cooling as they meet that iresome gaze. “I never said that it was a fair system.”
Rin snorts and continues sauntering along, picking bioluminescent flowers along the way. Purely out of spite. Jun follows the trail of fading blooms, increasingly dismayed.
They find it hidden at the foot of a tree with weeping white blossoms like snowfall. A bruised limestone boulder sits snug in a floral nest, prismatic light giving it an astral hue. Upon the flat surface, there is carved a crescent in the shape of a waning moon.
When Rin sets his gaze upon this stone, soul-wrenching grief crashes into him, knocking the air out of his lungs. He kneels before it, expression collapsing, feeling as though his very heart were being ripped in twain. Trembling fingers brush over the limestone, dip into the weatherworn divots of the carvings.
“It appears to be a memorial,” Jun says, voice hushed as he kneels down.
“…It’s a grave,” Rin murmurs, feeling his eye prickle and burn.
“Who do you suppose it is for?”
“I don’t know.” The raven bows his head. His voice is thick and shakes along with his form. “But…I think it was someone important.”
The lord glances at him, eyes flinching wide when he realises Rin’s upset. “Rinnie? Whatever is the matter?”
“I…feel strange.” When Rin meets those goldens, his eye wobbles with tears.
Jun can only watch on helplessly, too bewildered to even act, as Rin breaks down into great, shuddering sobs. The latter hunches over the limestone, both hands pressed flat upon the carvings, fingers turning white. Beneath his palms, an unnatural light radiates, the hoary sheen recognisable at once as Luna’s.
Fine strands of light thread their way from flesh to lucent blooms in argent rivulets. The blooms tremble upon connection. Petals slowly expand. Heads rise and flourish. They snake across the stone, twisting, writhing, and clustering until a luscious incandescent bed adorns the stone. Only the carvings can be seen as the elegant centrepiece, carefully framed.
As the Luna light fades, so does the grief, leaving Rin exhausted and strangely empty. Head bowed, he turns to the speechless lord and bumps his forehead into the latter’s chest. His breath, unsteady.
After a long silence, Jun finally speaks. “Rinnie…how did you do that?”
The raven jerks his shoulders in a shrug.
Jun gazes down at that fluffy sable crown, heart rattling about in the hollow of his chest. “…Is it Luna?”
Another jerk of the shoulders. A pause. Then a short nod.
The lord pushes a soft breath. He entwines the smaller form within his arms. As expected, the tension drains from the raven as he unconsciously relaxes.
“The night you trespassed onto the estate. Lee told me that you were not quite yourself. And that you had displayed rather advanced swordplay. Was this also Luna?”
Rin huffs and raises his head, lips pursed. “I could be skilled with a sword,” he says hoarsely, pinching the front of Jun’s sleep robes. “Why does it have to be Luna, huh?”
“Have you trained with a sword?”
“…No.” Rin wrinkles his nose in irritation. “Even if it was Luna, I don’t remember anything.” He glances to the grave and the manipulated flora encasing the limestone. “When the house was burning down…” His voice is a near whisper, breath shivering between his lips. “When it was burning down, I used Luna’s magic to protect myself. I couldn’t have made it as far as I did without it.” He kneads his fist into Jun’s chest, feeling the hard muscle beneath his knuckles and the heat simmering beneath the man’s skin. “Ever since I broke out of Kahin’s influence, I’ve been able to use Luna’s magic. But…I don’t think I’m fully conscious enough to control it, not yet anyway. It’s like, I’m letting parts of Luna leak into me.”
Jun gazes at the carved symbols, brows furrowing in thought. “Rinnie, is he…is he truly the Luna god, do you think?”
“I’m starting to think he is.” Hesitation marks his voice. “What I don’t understand is why he would come to me.”
“If gods are real – which I am not quite certain of even now – I think it would be apropos for them to take interest in you.” Jun drops his gaze to the troubled raven, warmth spreading through his features. “I should thank Luna for protecting you. He has done so since you were a child, correct?”
“Mn. I think…ever since we moved to the Slums. Luna showed up whenever I was in danger. If it weren’t for him…I’d be long dead by now.”
“Then this is something to be grateful for,” Jun breathes, feeling a little more at ease. “This grave must have some significance to Luna, judging by how strongly he had reacted. Could you ask him?”
Rin grimaces and shakes his head, idly tugging and pinching Jun’s robes. “He comes and goes. I have to wait for him to speak to me first.”
“I wonder what White Lotus Lake means to Luna. And that symbol…” Jun pushes a sigh through his nose. “When he speaks with you next, it may be worthwhile making some enquiries. It would be good to have a full understanding of what or who Luna is exactly. I feel as though this grave is a significant clue.”
“I’ll ask,” Rin affirms, ringing his arms around the lord’s nape. His damp cheek shines in the soft glow of the blooms. Blues, pinks, and purples shroud his pallid complexion. “Maybe it was Luna who brought us here. Do you think he might have been a human?”
“From my research of local folklore about the gods, they were legendary humans who had ascended to their godhood. Only one, the Heavenly Emperor, has no clear origin.” He absently wipes the raven’s cheek dry with gentle sweeps of his fingers. “Thus, if Luna is a god, then he would have been human before his ascension.”
“For a god, he’s kinda weak,” Rin scoffs, burning red under those calloused fingers. He smiles nonetheless, tentative and small. “He’s latched onto a Slummer and only shows up whenever he feels like. What’s the point of all that power if he doesn’t use it?”
“What kind of god would you be, I wonder?” Jun hums, amusedly.
“One that would change things.”
“Can you not change things now, as a human?”
“If even a lord like you has trouble changing things, what hope do I have?” Rin says, dryly. He rolls his eye at the lord’s crestfallen expression and gives him a furtive peck on the jaw. “Come on. I don’t wanna talk about this anymore. Why don’t we have a bit of fun before we head back?” A tentative smile trembles on his lips. His gaze full of need, of many kinds. This is his plea for a remedy, one that the lord hesitates to provide.
“I don’t think…it is quite a good idea, Rinnie. If we are simply friends…”
“Simply friends, sure. So what? That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.” Rin slides his hand down the lord’s toned abdomen, palm pressing hotly between his legs. Jun stiffens, both in spine and below. “I love how reactive you are,” the raven hums, pressing harder. “Come on, little lord. Make me feel better?”
Jun swallows, mind suddenly blank. “If…if it would make you feel better…th-then…I suppose I shall engage in…’fun’.”
“Perfect.” Rin smashes his mouth against the lord’s and he forces him down to the ground.
The sudden movement sends a tawny nightjar into the air, wings flapping anxiously as it’s swallowed by the pitch.
I love their relationship so much but it’s so full of hurt 🥲
V_V gets the bandaids out Thank you for reading clozed ;u; <3333
This feels warm and same at the same time u.u hides under a pile of blankets
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
Sad not same* wtf autocorrect T_T
LOLL patpat thank you for reading dondon TTuTT <3333
Actually, I have to say that I feel like Jun is giving in too easily here. Jun seemed more like the “all or nothing” type to me… He should resolutely say no, until Rin is ready to admit he doesn’t just want “fun” and doesn’t want anyone else. Which may take a long time, since Rin’s seems as much of a coward as Jun, at least to me. Two sides of the same coin, I guess, which is interesting.
Ahhh Jun’s just so weak to Rin sometimes….;u; and you’re right! They definitely are two sides of the same coin! So well put ^_^ Thank you for reading Amy~ <333