Heartache

Ji Chi's weary expression brimmed with greed and endless possessiveness.

Huo Jin's Adam's apple bobbed. Ji Chi curled his fingers, following its movement up and down.

"You..."

"Let's have sex, Huo Jin."

Huo Jin lowered his eyes. "Remember what you just said."

After fastening Ji Chi's seat belt, he settled into the driver's seat and let out a long breath where Ji Chi couldn't see.

His fist clenched.

Huo Jin glanced sideways at Ji Chi, opened the music player, and put on a soothing song.

Ji Chi looked over, studying the music display inside the car, and protested groggily, "Alphas should listen to rock."

Huo Jin: "..."

If someone said Ji Chi had been marked after he died someday...

He would probably leap out of his coffin to insist he was an Alpha.

Huo Jin furrowed his brows. Rock music wasn't exactly suitable with Ji Chi this out of it.

Fine. He would indulge him.

Huo Jin put on an energetic rock song. The atmosphere in the car instantly grew electric.

But Ji Chi didn't perk up. It felt like he was dying while a crowd danced in front of him.

He reached out to choose something on the display himself. After searching for a while, he found a song he liked.

Listening to it, Huo Jin pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. It was the theme song from a French film. He was certain Ji Chi only liked the melody and had no idea what the words meant.

Ji Chi hugged the coat, burying his nose in its collar.

Its faint scent fell far, far short of Huo Jin himself.

Before long, Ji Chi grew visibly restless.

Reading the look Ji Chi gave him, Huo Jin quietly sped up.

His home was about half an hour away.

Huo Jin wasn't particularly demanding about where he lived. He was used to living alone; quiet and comfortable was enough.

His current house was simply one assigned to him by the CE Experimental Institute. He didn't spend much time there. If he counted carefully, he spent more nights sleeping in the laboratory.

Because Huo Jin preferred quiet, his house was far from the city center and simply decorated throughout.

There was almost nothing beyond the necessities, making the house feel especially empty. It had little warmth of a home, cold and devoid of life.

Huo Jin covered the half-hour journey in a little over ten minutes.

He parked at the entrance, walked around to the passenger side, and opened the door.

Ji Chi was still hugging his coat.

"Chichi..."

"Can I carry you out?"

Ji Chi had already crushed countless wrinkles into the coat. At those words, his eyes immediately lit up.

With the coat wrapped around him, he eagerly looped his arms around Huo Jin's neck.

Huo Jin lifted him into his arms.

He carried Ji Chi inside. The lights came on, illuminating a space so empty he could see straight through it.

Compared with the warmth of Ji Chi's home, Huo Jin's was as plain as a show home. Everything was simple and meticulously orderly.

Ji Chi buried his head against Huo Jin's chest, wanting only to get closer to him, closer still.

So when Huo Jin tried to set him on the sofa again, he failed.

Ji Chi clung to him like a sloth.

Having learned his lesson earlier, Ji Chi refused to get off Huo Jin no matter what.

"I'll get you some water."

Ji Chi shook his head.

"You don't want water?" Normally, Ji Chi should have been badly dehydrated by now.

Ji Chi nodded and said wearily, "I do."

Huo Jin pointed at the sofa. "Then sit here while I get it for you, all right?"

Ji Chi shook his head and held him tighter.

Huo Jin had expected an Alpha in heat to be clingy, but not this clingy.

Sensing that Huo Jin intended to leave him behind again, Ji Chi gripped his clothes tightly.

He refused to let go.

In the end, Huo Jin gave in. Holding Ji Chi against his front, face-to-face with a hand supporting his bottom, he went to get him some warm water.

Ji Chi's feet dangled.

Having gotten his way, his expression relaxed, and he swayed gently.

His head rubbed against Huo Jin's neck.

The kitchen in Huo Jin's home had barely been used.

The open kitchen counters were tiled in gray and white, with an enormous produce-preparation area in the middle. Supporting Ji Chi's bottom, Huo Jin set him on the island.

"Stay here while I get the water. You can watch me from here."

Ji Chi still wouldn't agree.

They had been so close just now, yet even that distance had made him uncomfortable all over.

He didn't want it.

Ji Chi caught Huo Jin's hand and crossed his ankles around him. Sitting on the counter, he looked at Huo Jin resentfully.

"No..."

Huo Jin sighed and held out his hands to Ji Chi.

Ji Chi immediately hugged him again, nuzzling him over and over, like a kitten stretching out its soft little paws.

With difficulty, Huo Jin got the water while holding Ji Chi, then walked to the sofa. This time, his voice carried a hint of sternness. "Get down. I'll sit beside you."

After a few seconds of silence, Ji Chi let go.

Huo Jin handed him the glass and sat down beside him.

Ji Chi took it, drank, and casually passed it back to Huo Jin like an emperor.

Amused by how naturally he took it for granted, Huo Jin smiled and reached up to wipe the water from the corner of Ji Chi's mouth.

Afterward, he didn't forget to brush Ji Chi's soft lips lightly, as if by accident.

So soft.

An Alpha in heat couldn't sense how concentrated his own pheromones were. Right now, Huo Jin was the one suffering most.

The Alpha he had marked was releasing type II pheromones wildly in front of him. It was no different from begging for sex-more blatant and wanton, even.

Huo Jin was being driven mad.

He lowered his eyes to examine the clothes Ji Chi had tugged into disarray. His flushed collarbones showed through, bearing several obvious scratches that he must have inflicted on himself in his agitation.

Huo Jin's heart clenched. He took a jar of ointment from beneath the coffee table in front of the sofa, scooped some onto his fingertip, and crouched before Ji Chi. Gently, he applied it to Ji Chi's collarbones with careful, circular strokes.

At the cool touch against his collarbone, Ji Chi involuntarily flinched.

"Mmm..." A soft, suggestive sound slipped from his throat.

Huo Jin's hand paused. "Young master."

"Who taught you to make sounds like that?" He sounded as though he were in bed, not having ointment applied.

Ji Chi's eyes were hazy. He moaned again, deliberately this time. His body was unbearably wanton, and he seized the chance to make it even more obscene. "Ah..."

Huo Jin pressed his lips together. "No moaning."

He applied the ointment a little faster.

Throughout it, Ji Chi kept his eyes fixed on Huo Jin.

Even this distance was too far for him.

He wanted skin against skin, their bodies rubbing together. He wanted sweat and biting. He wanted to taste Huo Jin's pheromones with his tongue, wherever they came from.

As soon as Huo Jin finished applying the ointment, Ji Chi flung himself into his arms again.

Huo Jin nudged him gently. "Let me see your hand."

Ji Chi whined like a kitten, reluctant.

Why was he being so annoying?

Why wouldn't he kiss him? Why hadn't they done it yet?

"I want to swallow your spit." Ji Chi made kissing sound utterly filthy.

Huo Jin was stunned into silence for a long moment.

Ji Chi in heat was far too unlike anyone else.

"Huo Jin, kiss me."

"Not right now," Huo Jin answered.

With his conscious mind dependent on Huo Jin, Ji Chi couldn't accept even the suggestion that he meant to push him away. His expression turned utterly miserable.

Huo Jin took Ji Chi's left hand and gently turned it, revealing the three obvious needle marks on his wrist. A deep, lingering ache ignited in his heart.

This was proof that Ji Chi had wanted to get away from him.

Pain twisted through Huo Jin's chest. He mocked himself and despised himself even more.

Huo Jin, you really were rotten to the core.

Huo Jin raised his eyes and gazed deeply at Ji Chi.

He didn't even know how Ji Chi would feel once he came to his senses. He hardly dared imagine it, yet he had to face it. The beginning of their relationship was forever steeped in contradiction.

Huo Jin gently stroked the needle marks, still dark red.

"Does it hurt?" Huo Jin looked composed, but threads of anguish lingered in his eyes, a mountain pressing down on his body.

Ji Chi reached up and smoothed Huo Jin's faintly furrowed brows. "No."

Huo Jin dipped a cotton swab in alcohol and cleaned the marks. "Good."

Huo Jin took off Ji Chi's shoes and changed his socks, warming a clean pair before putting them on him.

Ji Chi was drenched in sweat, his clothes sticky against his skin. The young master loved cleanliness more than anything. When lucid, he would never have allowed himself to be so unpresentable.

Huo Jin stroked his face. Only when his depravity and tenderness intertwined did he become his complete self.

He was vile, and his thoughts were hardly clean. Looking at his Alpha, he was no different from those men who thought with their lower halves. He wanted to f#ck the person he loved, tear him apart and crush him.

He held Ji Chi's pale foot in his broad hand. Even his feet were beautiful to Huo Jin.

After letting him rest for a while until he grew calmer, Huo Jin carried him to the bathroom. At the sight of the showerhead, Ji Chi thought of the penetration positions in porn.

This was the perfect place to do something filthy.

Ji Chi stood pressed against Huo Jin, his back too weak to hold himself upright, leaning half his weight on him.

"Want to kiss?" Leaning against Huo Jin's chest, Ji Chi tilted his head up. Though he was looking up at him, he was as proud as the blazing sun.

Huo Jin's Adam's apple bobbed, his mouth and throat dry. "No kissing."

He said, "I'm giving you a bath."

"Once my clothes are off, will you really be able to keep from kissing me?" Ji Chi's bright eyes were beautiful with an intoxicated haze.

Huo Jin's pheromones were seducing him. He couldn't restrain himself and had no intention of trying. "You want it so much. Why won't you?"

The bathroom was brighter than the living room. Even the tiniest, most imperceptible evasions and efforts at restraint had nowhere to hide. Huo Jin lowered his eyes, his thick, long black lashes reluctant to close.

In the steam, Ji Chi's lips were full and rosy. His slender neck made even his throat look delicate. Under the overhead light, every eyelash could be counted clearly. Ji Chi's gland kept throbbing before him.

Of course he wanted to.

Huo Jin knew all too well that everything happening now was like a dream, an illusion he couldn't hold on to.

"I don't want to kiss you. Let's get you washed."

Ji Chi was deeply disappointed.

His Enigma seemed to have gone impotent.

"Why?"

"Am I not good-looking? Or do you like them slutty? What kind do you like?" Ji Chi tilted his head as he asked Huo Jin.

Huo Jin filled the bath without answering him.

You're beautiful.

I like your kind.

Only your kind.

Huo Jin reached up to undo Ji Chi's clothes, his movements gentle for fear of hurting him. As the fabric slowly opened, Ji Chi's pink-tinged skin emerged, clean and flawless. Every inch was smooth, yet possessed the sensual strength unique to an Alpha.

Suddenly.

Ji Chi's knee brushed Huo Jin's leg. Without warning, he raised his lowered head, leaned close, and kissed the corner of Huo Jin's mouth.

The heat of it reached deep into his soul.

Huo Jin's hands froze. Only the heady scent of plum wine remained on his lips.

The one pretending had no self-control.

Huo Jin had even less.

Ji Chi stroked Huo Jin's waist. "You're so hard."

In an instant, Huo Jin seized the back of Ji Chi's neck, veins bulging on the back of his hand. In the cramped space, the movement knocked against the shower control, and water poured down over them both. Huo Jin left it running. "You want me to kiss you?"

No one knew which of them needed to come to his senses more.

"Yes," Ji Chi said.

"Mmph..."

Huo Jin lowered his head and kissed Ji Chi hard. His restless retaliation held not a trace of tenderness. Their tongues tangled, aching until they went numb. Ji Chi parted his lips slightly, reveling in the kiss and answering with reckless, domineering abandon.

His mind filled with the bar where he had first met Huo Jin, their three days tangled together, Huo Jin's filthy words urging him to c#m, the tenderness and devotion with which he released soothing pheromones, his earnest gentleness when he stopped Ji Chi and agreed to help him, and his desolate, lonely figure after being slapped. Leaves fell, and the wind seemed ready to blow his shadow away.

Ji Chi felt a little sad.

Gradually, the kiss grew gentle.

They were both completely soaked. Huo Jin helped him.

It felt so good he could have died from lack of oxygen.

After washing him clean again, Huo Jin fetched a set of pajamas, patiently dried him off, and helped Ji Chi into them.

Everyone behaved differently during heat. Ji Chi was the type who neither knew how nor could be bothered to put on clothes or pants. He would not even lift his arms or legs, so Huo Jin had to take him by the ankles and get him dressed as though tending to a child.

There was one more thing.

He did not much care to walk.

Huo Jin put his socks and shoes back on, then stood and took a couple of steps outside, waiting for Ji Chi to follow.

When he reached the doorway, he realized His Highness was still sitting on the heated bathroom bench, simply staring at him. "Are you going to abandon me?"

Ji Chi glared viciously at Huo Jin. "I'll slap you, and I'll burn down your home."

Huo Jin: "..."

He went back and crouched in front of Ji Chi, and only then did the young master's expression become marginally more agreeable. Ji Chi quite naturally wrapped his arms around the back of Huo Jin's neck. "Carry me out."

Huo Jin chuckled, supporting Ji Chi's bottom as he lifted him and carried him out.

"Huo Jin," Ji Chi called groggily.

"I'm here."

"You're a little pitiful." Ji Chi's words came so suddenly that Huo Jin could not quite figure out what had prompted them.

A little pitiful.

Perhaps. But far more than a little.

"How am I pitiful?"

"My heart hurts a little," Ji Chi said.

Huo Jin froze for a second. Ji Chi said nothing more.

He settled Ji Chi onto the sofa again.

Ji Chi curled up against Huo Jin's chest.

Whenever Huo Jin moved, he moved too.

If Huo Jin shifted left, he shifted left. If Huo Jin shifted right, he shifted right.

He refused to leave even the slightest gap between them.

With his arms around Huo Jin's waist, Ji Chi drifted off into a peaceful sleep before he knew it.

When he opened his eyes again, Huo Jin was on the phone. Only a single sleep lamp was on in the living room, leaving everything dim.

Just as Ji Chi looked up, Huo Jin ended the call.

He stirred in Huo Jin's arms.

Since Ji Chi had fallen asleep, Huo Jin had reined in his pheromones a little.

Now that Ji Chi was awake, he grew unbearably restless.

The longer his heat lasted, the stronger his need for his partner became.

As soon as Ji Chi opened his eyes, he pushed himself up slightly, then rolled over to straddle Huo Jin's lap.

Straddling Huo Jin, he rested his hands limply on Huo Jin's shoulders and said in a weary voice, "Kiss me... and do other things too... right now."