Creep

By the time they returned to the room, the moon had already climbed to the middle of the sky.

Kexi pushed open the door, casually took off his coat and tossed it onto the table, then flopped onto the bed with his limbs sprawled out and let out a satisfied sigh.

Aemeath stood at the door without coming in.

Her gaze fell on the bed-or, more precisely, on Kexi, who had already taken up most of it. Her brows knitted slightly.

"What about me?" She pointed at herself.

Without even opening his eyes, Kexi shifted toward the inner side of the bed, leaving a space about one person wide beside him. Then he patted the empty spot.

"Come on over."

Aemeath's eyes widened abruptly.

"You want me to sleep with you?"

"What else?" Kexi finally opened his eyes and turned to look at her, his expression frank.

"Hmph. Dream on." Aemeath leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed and her chin raised at a haughty angle, letting out a perfectly textbook tsundere huff through her nose.

She would rather stand all night, or sleep leaning against a pillar in the hallway, than share a bed with the man who had killed her whole family, peed in her lake, and stared at her with that inexplicable look in his eyes.

"Then you can choose to sleep on the floor." Kexi pointed to the cold stone floor beside the bed, his expression still bearing that harmless smile.

Aemeath followed his pointing finger with her gaze.

The stone slabs were bare, with no mat or blanket. Moonlight cast an icy white sheen over them, and just looking at them was enough to make a chill shoot from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.

The corner of her mouth twitched.

"Hmph."

"Fine, I'll sleep there."

She strode over with her head held high, picked a clean spot, and lay down on it.

A moment later, she clutched her arms, shivered, and bit her lower lip.

Cold.

Her transformed body was far more sensitive to temperature than her beast form. The night wind slipped through the gaps in the window frame and blew against her exposed arms, raising a fine layer of goosebumps.

Kexi turned his head, his gaze falling on her trembling shoulders.

He watched her for a while, then slowly shook his head.

"Making yourself suffer for no reason."

He rolled over, sat up, and jumped off the bed, stepping barefoot onto the icy stone floor as he walked over.

He bent down, slipped one hand beneath her knees and supported her back with the other, then scooped her up.

It was all one smooth motion.

"Hey, hey, hey-what are you doing? Put me down!"

Aemeath struggled fiercely in his arms, kicking her legs and pushing against his chest with both hands. Her nails left several marks on the front of his clothes.

But her strength was nothing compared to his. His arms didn't budge, and he even adjusted his hold as she squirmed to keep her from slipping out.

He put her down on the inner side of the bed.

Then, before she could roll over and escape, he lifted the quilt and climbed in after her, pulling it over them and wrapping them both up tightly from head to toe.

The quilt wasn't very thick, but with the two of them pressed together and their body heat passing between them, the temperature beneath it rose noticeably.

Only two heads stuck out from under the quilt.

One was Kexi's, resting on a pillow, his eyes half-closed and a deeply satisfied smile on his lips.

The other was Aemeath's, her golden eyes wide and her whole face as red as a cooked shrimp. The heat beneath the quilt made her head spin.

"Let go, I didn't agree to this!"

She began struggling anew.

But there was even less room this time. The quilt restricted her movements, leaving her unable to kick or roll over, so she could only twist her body in an attempt to break free of his embrace.

Then Kexi did something that made her entire body freeze.

He turned onto his side, slipped his arms around her waist, tightened them, and pulled her into his embrace.

Her back pressed against his chest, the back of her head rested against his chin, and he held her snugly in his arms like a body pillow.

The warmth of a man's body surrounded her from every direction, engulfing her senses of smell and touch at once.

"Don't move." His voice came from above her head, languid with sleepiness.

"Let go, I didn't agree to this!" Her voice was muffled by both the quilt and Kexi's arms, robbing it of much of its force.

She gripped his arms and tried to pry them apart, but they might as well have been cast from iron; they didn't budge.

"I don't care. I can't stand watching you suffer." Kexi kept his eyes closed and rested his chin on her head. His tone was calm and certain, as though stating a fact that could not be disputed.

He knew she was cold, and he knew she would rather shiver than move an inch closer to him of her own accord.

So he stopped asking and took action.

She could grow stronger in the future, kill him, or do anything else she wanted.

But before she grew stronger, he couldn't stand watching her suffer.

It was that simple.

"You!!"

Aemeath's fingers froze on Kexi's arm, her nails digging into his sleeve, and she stopped trying to pry his arms apart.

Her lips moved as though she wanted to say something harsh, but the word "you" lingered on her tongue before finally turning into a muffled sound forced out through her nose.

"Hmph!"

She stopped moving.

It wasn't that she didn't want to move; for some reason, her body just wouldn't listen to her.

The warmth against her back spread up her spine, slowly melting the stiffness from her curled-up body.

Kexi felt the tense body in his arms gradually soften, and the curve of his smile rose a little higher.

He entered creep mode.

"Hehe."

"Aemeath's scent, Aemeath's warmth, the real, living Aemeath, hehe."

He buried his nose in the top of her hair and took a top-tier hit, deep into his lungs.

The fragrance of her hair mingled with the faint scent of her body-it was hard to tell whether it was her natural scent or something else-and drifted into his nose, setting off a dopamine firework in his cerebral cortex.

"Aemeath is my wife now, hehe."

Who was in favor?

Who was against?

Those in favor would get three golds in a ten-pull.

Those against could go do their own tuning.

Aemeath's voice came from beneath the quilt, cold and tinged with tightly suppressed annoyance and confusion.

"Hey. You've got a stick poking me. Put it away."

Kexi's silly grin froze on his face.

Ahem.

That was something he really couldn't put away for the time being.

After all, the person in his arms was alive, warm, breathing, and his favorite character, Aemeath.

"Oh, oh, sorry. I can't put it away. Get used to it." His tone was sincere and frank-so frank it made people want to hit him.

Aemeath: ???

A glamorous transition.