Massage (2)
For a moment, I wondered if I might be dreaming.
"…Yeah. Like that. Lie flat on your stomach… pillow up by your head. Mm-hm, you can bury your face in it. Get comfortable."
Curtains drawn, lights off, the room dim and quiet.
Cecilia settled into a comfortable prone position and pressed her face into the pillow. Watching her clutch it tightly with both hands, I felt a slow, creeping tension rise from somewhere deep in my body.
"Legs stretched out. Arms relaxed… yeah. That's perfect."
"…Okay."
Once she was settled, the sight of Cecilia lying completely defenseless on the bed filled my vision.
Bare arms and legs on full display. A glimpse of the pale nape of her neck. And that soft figure, lightly pressed into the mattress…
I shook my head, trying not to notice any of it more than I had to.
Massaging a woman.
I'd never done it for anyone but my mom.
"…Eunhyuk?"
Her voice, muffled against the pillow, brushed softly against my ear. A glance flicked my way. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and her ears had shyly drawn back.
"…Aren't you going to start?"
"No, I am. Yeah…"
I took a deep breath.
This was a perfectly wholesome massage. Nothing more.
There was no reason to be this tense.
"…I'm getting on."
"Okay…"
We exchanged the words in low voices as I set a hand on the bed.
There was no actual rule that said you had to straddle someone to give a massage. The only reason I was climbing up was because this studio apartment was tiny. Working from the side would have taken more space than we had.
"Hup…"
I carefully set a foot on the edge of the mattress. The bed was small enough that the space felt precarious. I planted myself as close to the edge as I could, and even then the tips of my toes lightly brushed her waist.
"…That tickles."
"Sorry. Just a second… ah."
All I had left to do was sit lightly near her hips and I'd be ready.
Or so I thought — until an unexpected problem presented itself.
"The tail…"
There was a tail near the base of her spine.
More precisely, the tail starting from the base of her coccyx had pushed her pants up just enough to peek out. And through the gap of those lifted pants, a sliver of bare skin was faintly visible…
"…Cecilia. Could you tuck your tail up against your back for me?"
I quietly made the request, tamping down the dark impulse that had surged up.
The moment the words left my mouth, her tail gave a startled twitch. She nodded, and in time with the motion her tail slowly settled itself along her back.
"…Please take care of me."
"Yeah…"
There was no backing out now.
Feeling the awkwardness of the atmosphere, I shifted into place. I knelt lightly astride her, settling just below her hips, over her thighs, careful not to let my body rest against hers as I reached out.
First, the shoulders.
"Mm…"
I lightly ran my hands over them, mapping the contours. Softness pressed up through the thin fabric of her top. Every time my hands moved she flinched and trembled faintly, and the sensation of touching a living, breathing person settled in with startling clarity.
When I glanced up, the flushed nape of her neck came into view. That soft, half-exposed curve of skin was, all by itself, something that stirred instinct.
"…I'm starting."
I said it quietly and began to apply pressure.
Each firm press sent a little jolt through Cecilia's body. But as I kept kneading and working the muscle, the startled reactions gradually faded, and the tension drained out of her.
The heated little breaths that slipped free with every press left a faint haze in my head.
She's accepting my hands.
The thought of it sent some nameless sensation welling up from deep inside me.
"Next, the back…"
Thanks to the little bit of work I'd done earlier, her shoulders weren't too knotted. The back was next.
I shifted my hands.
"I'm going to press."
"Okay… hah, nngh, mm…"
With each firm press, even more languid breaths spilled out and filled the room. Her ears twitched now and then. The tip of her tail trembled. Soft, sultry little sounds escaped from her small mouth.
We were just in our own home, and yet something about the whole scene felt so far from ordinary that I could barely keep my head straight.
"Haaang…. …Nnngh!"
"Did that hurt?"
"N-no… do it more…"
When she glanced back at me, her eyes were wet and shining. Her breathing was short, and a sheen of sweat had gathered on her forehead.
"…Got it. You might hurt your neck, so put your head back down comfortably."
"Okay…"
Watching her bury her face in the pillow again, I continued the massage.
Her back was far more knotted than I'd expected before we started. Soft and firm at once, and hard in places. You could feel the long accumulation of fatigue in it.
I had no choice but to put more strength into it, kneading firmly and thoroughly.
"Nnngh…! Ah, i-it's fine…"
Needless to say, her breathing only grew more sultry in response.
"Mm, haah…"
"…Nngh."
As I worked with real force, heat began to rise in my own body as well. It was getting a little warm.
"…That's enough for the back."
"Okay…. Thank you."
I let out a long breath and stretched my own back. A satisfying crack ran through it, and a pleasant lightness spread out. I worked my arms and hands a little too, then shifted my position slightly lower.
"Next is the waist."
I set my hands on Cecilia's waist.
"…It's so slim."
I'd meant to think it to myself, but the words slipped right out of my mouth.
"I-is it…?"
Flustered, Cecilia stammered a reply. Her ears and tail gave a little jump, then went slack again.
"Thank you…?"
"Y-yeah."
It was awkward and a little embarrassing all at once. I collected myself and carefully applied pressure through the hands I'd set on her.
"…Starting."
"Mm…"
For a human being, the waist is an extremely important area. The spine, of course, but the muscles matter just as much. Fatigue builds there easily, and knots form just as readily. And once it's tired and knotted, stiff movement is only natural.
Even calling it simply "the waist" is an oversimplification — in reality it breaks down into several distinct regions. And the most representative of those, the place where fatigue piles up the easiest, would be right about…
"Hyaaang?!"
"?!"
The moan that burst out the instant I pressed down made me flinch hard. Cecilia's head snapped up into view. Her ears and tail were trembling violently.
"Th-there! Wait…! Hyaang…. Your hands, just a second…! Eunhyuk…!"
In a shaking, breathless voice she twisted to look back at me. Her lower lip was quivering. Her eyes were brimming with moisture, shining clear and pleading. Both cheeks were flushed as deep as they could go, and the embarrassment written across her face only made her look more alluring.
"Wait…. Stop with the waist…!"
Mortified, she buried her face deep in the pillow and panted. Between my two hands, her silver-white tail twitched and trembled.
And only then did I realize my hands were still pressing into her waist.
"S-sorry!"
"Hwaaah…"
The moment I pulled my hands away, she went limp and melted into the bed. Her ragged breathing filled the air — hah, hah…
She was trembling hard, short of breath, flushed with heat…
…And she was utterly, unmistakably sensual.
"…Are you okay?"
At my question she still kept her face in the pillow, but glanced sideways at me. Her eyes looked ready to spill over. Her whole body was still shaking.
Outwardly she looked the same as before — and yet something different stirred in the depths of that gaze.
"Haah—…. Hnn…"
As if she had something she wanted to say, she looked up at me with tear-bright eyes and lifted her chin. Her small mouth opened and closed, opened and closed.
I don't know how long that went on before she finally spoke.
"…Do it."
"Huh?"
It was a tiny voice. Both hands still clenched tight around the pillow, she opened her mouth again.
"More… do more…"
It was a request I had not expected in the slightest.
"Haaang! Nngh, aah…! Hic, nngh…!♥"
I was no longer sure whether what I was doing was the right thing.
I kept the dark impulses surging up in check and moved my hands with a head gone hazy from stray thoughts.
"Heaah, hnn?! Ahn…!"
The room was full of nothing but those sounds. There was no other way to put it. Curtains drawn, lights already off, the dim room filled without pause with an atmosphere that was anything but pure.
My head was spinning.
Even so, my hands never stopped.
"Hic…!"
Every time I pressed firmly into that slender waist, her small body jolted up off the bed.
"Hwaaah…. Hic?! Th-there…!"
When I pushed upward with my fingers from below, she convulsed as if she couldn't take any more, then went completely limp. Even sprawled out like that, the occasional little twitches that ran through her were devastatingly sensual.
"Haah…. Haah…♥"
Her profile, melted into something sticky-sweet, came into view. Her eyes were unfocused, and from her carelessly parted lips a thin thread of saliva trailed down.
She was nothing like the girl from just a few hours ago. It was hard to believe this was the same person — she was that thoroughly undone.
"Hyaang…"
Could a person really end up like this from a massage alone?
Granted, her waist did seem especially sensitive, and it had been badly knotted, so working it out would naturally feel good. But this was, no matter how you looked at it…
"More…♥"
"…"
"Haat, nngh, aah…! Hic!?♥"
…No matter how you looked at it, this was not a normal state.
The possibility that my technique was somehow uniquely special was, of course, zero.
"Hnn…♥ Hah……"
Then what exactly was going on with Cecilia right now?
Some beastkin-specific reaction? Something triggered by touching the waist?
But that would be far too fatal a racial trait. Going completely defenseless just from having her waist worked on a little — what kind of…
No. Wait.
It was the kind of knowledge you mostly saw in comics, but if we were talking famous beastkin-specific symptoms, there was one other that came to mind.
"…Cecilia?"
"…Uuh……"
As I turned that over in my head, I suddenly noticed that something about her condition had changed.
The ragged breathing quieted rapidly. The strength drained from her body, and she went completely slack.
"Cecilia?"
"…"
I called her name again, but there was no answer. I leaned down carefully and checked her face.
"She fell asle—?!"
"Sss…"
Cecilia lay there with her eyes closed, sound asleep. Her face was still flushed, and she was covered in sweat.
"Well, this is something…"
I had no idea what had just happened. Had I briefly been under some kind of spell?
Either way, I couldn't keep massaging someone who was asleep. In a daze, I gently brushed the hair that had stuck to her forehead back into place.