Friends Sleep Together
“Friends… are supposed to sleep together, right?”
Leoness's words left me utterly speechless, like I'd swallowed a spoonful of honey.
I turned my flushed face away, but her fingers fidgeted endlessly, waiting for my answer.
That desperate look was so strangely earnest that I couldn't bring myself to tease her with something mean like, You're still just a kid, Princess.
But still, this was a bit much, wasn't it?
Wait, hold on. Calm down.
I rubbed my dry face and screamed internally.
Sure, my outward appearance was that of the perfect woman, Elise de Bellaph, to anyone who saw me.
But what about my core? A strapping twenty-something guy from South Korea who'd finished his mandatory military service.
No matter how many days had passed since possessing this body, my identity still clung closer to that side.
We'd held hands, done mouth-to-mouth, I'd even carried her on my back.
But hugging like this, fully conscious? That was a whole different story.
This… feels a little guilty.
Sleeping while embracing a flower-like young girl? My heart pounded wildly.
I couldn't tell if it was excitement, guilt, or just plain embarrassment.
As I hesitated, Leoness's expression grew more and more pitiful.
“D-Dost thou… dislike it…?”
“No, it's not that I dislike it… it's just… even for friends…”
“Uuu…”
Leoness curled up with a small whimper.
The early spring chill blowing through the hole in the wall made her slender shoulders tremble like aspen leaves.
She glanced up at me with wet eyes, then squeezed out an even more pitiable voice.
“When I was little… the nursemaid would always hold me like this…”
Her voice cracked, soaked in tears.
“When it was scary and cold… being in her arms made it warm… and I could fall asleep right away…”
“But… the nursemaid is gone now. Because of this princess… she died.”
“…”
“Now… no one holds this princess. Uuu… It's cold… so cold and dark…”
She squeezed her eyes shut and curled into an even smaller ball.
Haa…
I let out a deep internal sigh.
This was foul play.
How could I refuse in a situation like this?
Fine. This was an emergency.
This wasn't some hotel suite—it was a freezer-like prison with a hole in the wall.
If I nitpicked and she ended up with hypothermia or spiraled into depression, that would be the real problem.
Besides, outwardly we were both girls. What did it matter? Survive first.
I rationalized it to myself and roughly gathered the straw on the floor to make a spot.
The corner where the wind was least likely to reach.
“Come here.”
I sat down first, and Leoness peeked up with her wet eyes.
“I-Is it… truly alright…?”
“Quit yapping and get over here.”
“Uuu… Very well.”
Leoness cautiously scooted her butt right up next to mine.
Tension radiated from her shoulder where it touched mine.
We lay flat on our backs, staring at the ceiling.
Whiiiiiish
The fierce night wind howled back through the hole in the wall.
Damn, it was colder than I thought.
My body instinctively huddled.
This defeated the purpose of sleeping together.
“Hey, Leoness.”
“Why dost thou call?”
“Doesn't it get cold lying there so far apart?”
“This princess is fine… Ah, no, indeed, it is a bit chilly.”
“See? Better to snuggle closer, right?”
“S-Snuggle… how much closer…”
I yanked the hemming-and-hawing Leoness straight into my arms.
“Kyaa!”
With her little scream, our bodies pressed together without a gap.
Due to our height difference, her face buried into my chest, and my restrained arm naturally wrapped around her back and waist.
Whoa.
Once I actually held her, she was softer and squishier than expected.
“Stay still. I'm freezing my ass off.”
“Heehee… Alright…”
She let out some inexplicable giggle, squirmed for a moment, then burrowed deeper into my embrace.
Human warmth was incredible, no doubt.
She fit perfectly in my arms.
It felt like hugging a person-sized hot pack.
“So warm.”
I muttered softly, and Leoness twitched in my arms.
“Indeed… so warm…”
Her voice was tiny, almost a whisper.
Leoness, face still buried in my chest, tentatively reached out and wrapped her arms around my waist too.
Her hands clutched tightly at my clothes.
A faint, sweet scent from her silver hair tickled my nose.
In the darkness, only our breathing filled the air.
An awkward yet strangely comfortable silence.
I slowly patted her back.
Felt like I should.
In a steady rhythm, like singing a lullaby.
I could feel her tension melting away under my touch.
“Thou.”
After a long stillness, Leoness spoke.
“Art thou asleep?”
“Nah. Wide awake.”
She tilted her head up to look at me.
Even in the dark, her red eyes sparkled like jewels.
“Sleep evades me.”
“Weren't you tired earlier?”
“My body is weary… but when I close my eyes, the faces of the dead keep appearing. The nursemaid, the knight captain…”
Her voice trembled again.
Yeah. Betrayal, jailbreak, battle, re-imprisonment.
Too chaotic a day for sleep to come easy.
“Wanna do something? Word chain again? Chess? Go?”
“Nay. Those bore me now.”
Leoness shot it down flat.
“Then what?”
“Tell me a story.”
“A story?”
“Aye. Tales of old, or from where thou once lived. I am curious about thy other stories.”
She burrowed back into my arms and mumbled.
“Hearing thy voice… it calms me.”
I pondered for a moment.
Stories from where I lived? Couldn't exactly spill the beans on South Korea as-is.
I'm actually from another dimension… Yeah, that'd get me labeled a lunatic on the spot.
Elise's memories were too dopamine-fueled for bedtime.
“My stories are boring.”
“It matters not. Any tale from thee would do.”
“Hmm… How about you tell me yours instead?”
“My tale?”
“Yeah. Stories from where you lived. I'm curious about the place you miss so much.”
Leoness fell silent at my question.
Her gaze drifted into space, then back to me.
“…’Twill be dull.”
“Won't be. I wanna hear it.”
Leoness let out a small pfft of laughter.
“Homeland tales… They’d make me too sad right now.”
She shook her head.
“Instead, I shall share an old tale the nursemaid oft told me before bed.”
“An old tale?”
“Aye. A fairy tale from our kingdom.”
Leoness closed her eyes softly, rummaging through memories.
“Long, long ago, in the frozen lands of the north, there lived a giant.”
Her low voice echoed softly in the prison.
“The giant was covered head to toe in eternal snow.
He was so vast he walked atop the clouds, so cold that every land he trod froze solid.
Thus, the giant was always alone. Anyone he approached would freeze.
Weary of loneliness, he gazed at the night sky each night and wept.
One day, the smallest, twinkling star in the sky took pity on the giant and descended.
The star perched on his shoulder, twinkling as it spoke to him.”
“Stars can talk?”
“’Tis a fairy tale. Hush and listen.”
Leoness lightly thumped my chest.
“The giant was overjoyed. His first friend ever.
He loved the star so much he longed to stroke it with his hand.
But the star warned him. ‘Thy hand is too cold; if thou touchest me, I shall shatter.’”
Her voice grew a touch somber.
“Yet the giant’s love was too great; he could not resist and reached out to cradle the star.
In that instant, the star shattered to pieces in his icy grasp.
All that remained in the giant’s hand were the cold, dead fragments of the star.”
“Tragic.”
“Aye. The giant wept bitterly, blaming his folly.
Then, his tears fell upon the star’s shards, and a miracle occurred.
The broken pieces mingled with his tears and fell to the earth, blooming into white flowers amid the snow.”
Leoness fiddled with my clothes.
“Those flowers never froze even in the cold snow, and at night, they glowed softly like stars.
The giant lay in that flower field and finally slept without loneliness, they say.
That is the tale of Astría’s national flower, the ‘Snow Blossom.’”
Silence followed the story’s end.
A tale of a giant who longed to touch out of love, only to wound—but that wound became flowers, offering solace anew.
“Sad story. Kinda romantic too.”
I tossed out casually, and Leoness chuckled softly.
“Dost thou feel so too? As a child, this princess wept buckets for the giant.
But the nursemaid said: Though the star broke, the giant could be with it forever.
Love is staying by one’s side, even if the form changes.”
She lifted her head, staring straight at me.
Her red eyes gleamed in the dark.
“I didn’t grasp it then… but now, I think I do.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Who knows. A secret.”
Leoness burrowed back into my arms and mumbled.
“So warm. I feel like I understand why the giant slept in the flower field.”
Her breathing grew steady.
“Thank thee… for listening.”
“No big deal.”
We sank into deep silence, leaning on each other’s warmth.
Moonlight slanting through the hole in the wall bathed us softly.
I thought Leoness had fallen asleep, but no.
She’d turned around and was fiddling with my restraints and hand.
Then her touch paused on one finger.
“…”
She lifted my hand into the moonlight.
The blackened finger.
Discolored from mana erosion—she stared at it intently.
“Thou.”
“Yeah?”
“This finger… art thou truly alright?”
“I told you, yeah. Just put some spit on it and—”
“Then,”
Leoness cut me off urgently.
“May this princess… try wetting it with saliva?”