DMHS 28

Kian blinked rapidly and stuttered.

“W-why, why are you doing that?”

Lucien looked at Kian with a smile.

“I did nothing.”

Kian felt foolish for being startled.

‘I cannot just let myself be dragged along.’

He had a secret weapon.

‘If nothing else works, I knock him out and keep him unconscious until morning.’

Thinking of subduing him by force made his heart settle. In the end, people had to live the way they always had.

“Shall we sleep now?”

Kian glanced at the candles laid out on the floor.

Lucien also turned his gaze, and the magically lit candles went out by themselves. The room filled with pitch darkness.

“Did you put out the candles, Lord Lucien?”

“Yes.”

Kian realized something new about Lucien.

“You can use magic without using mana.”

“It is more convenient that way.”

Kian was speechless at his matter of fact tone. Convenience or not, magic could not be used without mana. The movement of mana was the material that created magic.

What could one say to a dragon who claimed to light a fire without wood? While he searched for words, a cold hand touched his palm.

“When my body touches yours, it feels good.”

“Human warmth is always a good thing.”

“It feels better when we kiss.”

“Earlier you did not want to kiss.”

Lucien gazed at him quietly.

“…Because you dislike me.”

The low voice carried a wound that could not be erased. Kian frowned and answered.

“I said I would attend today’s ceremony.”

“But you also wanted to pretend our wedding never happened.”

Lucien was right. Kian closed his mouth.

“I do not know why your heart changed. But mine has not. I still like you. I still need you. Even if you lie to escape the situation, I will still be glad.”

At that moment, Kian recalled Lucien smiling brightly while eating the fruit skewer.

“You do not need to like me. I just do not want you to leave me. That is all I want.”

Kian sighed instead of giving an answer.

“…Haa.”

“Now you will not even give me an empty word.”

It was not that he would not. It was that he could not.

‘He is too difficult an opponent for me.’

Kian was not a softhearted man. Anyone who had lived countless years, watching life and death endlessly, would become like steel.

And yet Lucien touched the one soft part left inside him. If only he would cry, begging for affection, and blame Kian for refusing…But Lucien’s calm, earnest words were unbearable.

In the end, Kian turned his gaze aside and revealed a fragment of his heart.

“At the very least, I do not dislike you, Lord Lucien.”

“Thank you.”

Lucien’s grip tightened on Kian’s hand.

“Can I keep holding hands like this?”

“Yes.”

“And kissing the back of your hand?”

After a brief hesitation, Kian answered.

“That is fine.”

As if he was waiting, his lips touched the back of his hand. Unlike the cold hand, his lips burned hot.

Lucien lifted his large eyes to look up at Kian. Long eyelashes turned upward, casting deep shadows.

“Kissing other places?”

Before Kian could answer answer, the lips slid in a soft curve downward from the back of his hand.

Lucien lightly bit his fingertips.

“……”

Kian gave no reply.

Lucien held back his laughter at the deliberate silence.

“Good… I feel so good I might lose my mind.”

Lucien pushed Kian down onto the bed and climbed over him. Soft lips brushed across his cheek and nose. Then they pressed against his lips. Something hot and wet parted Kian’s lips and slipped inside. Kian lowered his eyes and focused on the sensations.

The rustling sound of the sheets. The sweet scent from him. The large hand on his cheek. The tongue pushing into his mouth. Maybe because it had been so long since he had touched someone, his lips only tasted sweet.

‘Strange.’

The rejection and awkwardness he expected were nowhere. Instead, he felt a light euphoria spreading through his body.

“Haa…”

Breathless from kissing so much, Lucien pressed his face against Kian’s neck and breathed in. Then with his fingertips he touched Kian’s earlobe and slowly licked down his nape.

His hand inched lower until it gripped the hem of Kian’s robe. Just then, Kian quickly laid his hand over Lucien’s.

“A kiss is all I can allow. Nothing more.”

“Not more?”

Lucien’s voice was filled with dissatisfaction. Kian tensed one hand, watching for the timing to hit the back of his head. The moment he used force, Kian would knock him out without hesitation. But Lucien asked a dull question.

“Why not?”

“I told you already. I do not like you, Lord Lucien. I want to do such things only with someone I truly like.”

“But kissing was allowed.”

“A kiss can also be shared as a sign of affection.”

“A kiss like that in the bedroom is a sign of affection?”

Lucien scoffed. Kian thought the same, but he could not agree.

“Anyway, that is what I think. The rest is for you to judge, Lord Lucien.”

“Judge, what judge…”

Lucien let out a dry laugh, as though he had heard something absurd, and bit Kian’s cheek.

“You mean I should make you fall for me.”

‘That was not what I meant.’

While Kian stayed unconvinced, Lucien nodded to himself as he had reached a conclusion.

“I will take time and be patient. For now, being satisfied with kisses is enough, right?”

It felt like they did not understand each other, and yet they did. What Kian had said was indeed that nothing beyond kissing was allowed.

‘So did that work out well?’

While Kian turned it over in his head, Lucien pulled his robe closed and tightened it for him.

“I will not touch you anywhere else.”

“Thank… you?”

Even though things had gone as he wanted, Kian felt uneasy. Maybe because Lucien was smiling so much that his dimples showed.

“But I will kiss you as much as I want.”

“……”

“You said kisses are allowed.”

In that instant, dozens of old fables came to Kian’s mind. Stories of foolish animals caught in their own tricks. It was no longer someone else’s story.

“You know what? When I look at you, my heart shakes like it will stop…”

With a faint smile, Lucien kissed him again. Wet lips rubbed against his, and soft skin met soft skin as their body heat rose. When Lucien’s tongue that entered brushed against his palate, his waist trembled. But more unbearable than the touch was the whisper that followed.

“I have never seen anyone as beautiful as you.”

“The reason I cannot look at you straight is because I feel shy.”

“I like you so much… it feels like my chest will explode…”

In the end, Kian shoved a pillow against Lucien’s mouth.

“From now on, no talking. Just kiss.”

So they kissed until the dim light of dawn crept in. It was a truly long first night.

***

The next day, Kian turned Walter away when he brought breakfast to the bedroom.

He also made clear that from now on he would eat in the dining room and needed no one’s help with bathing.

In the bathroom, he stared at his lips, swollen from the night.

‘Better lips than my ass. That is a fair trade.’

Even if it was cowardly self-justification, it could not be helped. Besides, the kisses with Lucien had been…

‘Pleasant.’

Unlike the early part when he was swept along by the mood, later Kian actively responded to his kisses.

The problem was that while lost in kissing, he had gotten a reaction below. Looking at his lower body standing up in the morning, Kian scratched his head.

‘At this rate, just doing it might not be so bad.’

He could not be fully blamed for changing his mind overnight. Even the strongest reason failed before physical pleasure. Lucien’s kisses had been that good.

‘No.’

Kian corrected himself.

‘I do not know the dragon’s method of contraception. I cannot give my body recklessly.’

It did not mean he would not at all, only not yet.

‘Where did he go?’

After showering, Kian looked around the room. Though Lucien had been the more passionate one at night, by morning he was gone from the bed.

Considering his clingy nature, Kian thought he would have held him all night.

He felt relieved that Lucien had left so quietly, but at the same time, a little disappointed.

‘Disappointed? Did I already grow attached?’

Kian laughed at himself and went down to the dining room.

Walter greeted him politely and pulled out a chair.

“Please sit here.”

Kian sat where Walter had set for him. Looking up, he saw Lucien seated at the far end of the twelve-seat banquet table.

Bathed in sunlight pouring through the open window, Lucien moved his fork and knife…He had returned to the form of a boy.

“Eh?”

Ignoring Kian’s stunned sound, Lucien kept his eyes on his plate and spoke.

“Did you sleep well last night?”

“For sleeping late, I slept well. But did you sleep well, Lord Lucien?”

“As you see, I did not.”

He did look a bit sullen.

“How did this happen?”

“I do not know. When I woke this morning, I was like this again.”

He pressed his knife hard while cutting the fish. The clatter of tableware was loud.

Raised in the palace, he surely knew manners, so this must be his way of showing displeasure at being small again.

“Do not look at me.”

By then both his ears were red.

“I will find a way to change back. Until then, act like you do not notice.”