Michiru pressed her dry lips together.
The heat in her cheeks still hadn't faded.
Everything she'd just seen and heard was far too overwhelming for a girl from a relatively ordinary modern world.
Her heart pounded like it had a little motor inside it.
Blood kept rushing to her head, leaving her dizzy and at a loss.
It felt like the air was saturated with an ambiguous, dangerous pheromone that made her restless.
She felt she had to get out—right now—away from this place where the mood was growing more delicate and more disorienting by the second.
If she stayed, she felt like she'd suffocate.
Her heart thudded like she'd been caught doing something wrong.
She rose as lightly as she could, carefully skirted around the sleeping Couronne and Kanna, and slipped out on tiptoe like a startled fawn.
Through the wide living room, out into the open courtyard.
Cool, refreshing night wind swept across her face, lifting the hair on her forehead, though it couldn't blow away the stubborn heat and blush burning in her cheeks.
She looked up at Disboard's unusually clear night sky and its two bright moons.
Moonlight poured down like water, gently bathing her flushed face and eyes that flickered with confusion.
"This is way too much…"
Michiru murmured under her breath.
Her mind, out of her control, kept replaying everything from moments ago:
Rei Ao's easy, natural closeness with the other girls.
The way he looked at her—deep, as if he could see through everything, tinged with a kind of playfulness and anticipation.
That openness and directness, that almost overbearing tenderness, completely exceeded anything she'd known or imagined.
"H-how can he be so natural about it, like it's the most normal thing in the world…"
And yet, the more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen.
Murphy's Law chose this exact moment to show its mischievous side.
A warm, dry, unusually strong hand came to rest lightly on her bare, slightly cool shoulder.
"Yah!"
Michiru jerked violently, turning like a startled cat.
She met Rei Ao's eyes at once—eyes glinting with a deep, playful light under the twin moons.
When had he come out here?
He'd made no sound at all.
"Michiru."
Rei Ao's voice held a lazy note and the faint, contented smile of someone who'd just been enjoying some leisure.
To Michiru, though, it sounded full of danger.
"Why'd you suddenly sneak out here alone? Was the atmosphere inside making you uncomfortable?"
"Uh… I-I just felt…"
Michiru's nerves were in tatters.
Her gaze skittered, unable to meet his eyes.
Her voice was barely more than a mosquito's buzz, almost dissolving into the night breeze.
"It was a bit… too… much for me. I thought I'd get some air and calm down…"
Rei Ao chuckled softly at that.
The sound was low and magnetic, and it made her heart skip.
He didn't give her any more time to spin excuses or hide.
His arm tightened, and with a gentle yet irresistibly firm strength, he drew her slightly stiff body into his arms as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
"Ah!"
Michiru managed only a short, breathy cry.
Before she could mount any real resistance, a shadow fell over her.
His strikingly handsome face filled her vision—
and then a kiss, impossible to refuse, found her.
"!!!"
Her initial resistance was like a pebble tossed into a vast lake:
it barely raised a ripple before dissolving against that deep, overwhelming pull.
The kiss began with a testing sort of assertiveness, then melted into a dizzying tenderness, a strange, intoxicating magic that seemed to drain the strength from her limbs and hush every last thought.
Her arms went slack of their own accord.
At some point the hands that had been pushing at his chest had fisted into his shirt instead.
…
A moment later, the kiss ended.
Michiru was completely limp in Rei Ao's warm, solid embrace.
Her gaze was hazy, unfocused.
Her long lashes trembled like butterfly wings, as if misted with a dewy sheen.
Her cheeks were as red and hot as ripe apples.
She felt boneless, kept from sliding to the ground only by the strength of his arms.
Rei Ao looked down at the girl who had all but melted in his hold, a small, satisfied smile playing on his lips.
His voice dropped lower, rich with temptation—like a devil's whisper at her ear:
"If it feels like a lot, that's okay."
"Let me teach you myself—slowly—how to get used to everything here, to get used to me. We've got all the time in the world…"
"Mmph—!"
With a shy, breathless little sound—more like an unintentional invitation—Michiru was scooped up around the waist, light as a feather.
Rei Ao turned and walked back toward a warmer room inside the residence with steady strides.
Michiru buried her burning face deep against his chest, breathing in his scent—fresh, and dangerous.
Her mind went blank, leaving only one last, clear yet vague thought, like an alarm that never quite went off, flickering by just before she gave in completely:
'I'm done for. This time… I really might not get away. This bad guy's going to devour me whole…'
Moonlight spilled gently over their receding figures, adding a sultry hue to a Disboard night that was never going to be quiet.
~~~
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