A Fair Price
"If you're going to do it… just hurry up…"
It wasn't her usual bold, brash voice. It was soft and timid, thick with moisture, pleading in shy embarrassment. The sound was so utterly unlike the Ren he knew that Huey — who had been standing with his hands clasped behind his back, pretending to stare out the window so she wouldn't notice the cold sweat flooding his palms — stole a glance at her. She lay on the bed, her face hidden behind her wings.
"…Gulp."
He swallowed as quietly as he could, wound tight with the fear that she might hear even that.
He had already figured out that her claim about the eggs not coming out was a lie. Of course he had. Whenever Ren lied or tried to hide something, those antenna-like tufts of hair of hers drooped flat.
I thought she was just messing around, so I pushed back hard…
He had brought up the whole business of a fair price, sure — but honestly, he had expected her to give up at that and walk away. While Huey was still quietly stewing over his own empty bravado, a sound cut through his thoughts.
"Hngh… ah—"
A moan that seemed to mix pain and pleasure, strained and yet feverishly stirred, drove straight into the ear of a Huey still scrambling for any way out of this situation.
"…Ren?"
His gaze snapped toward her on pure instinct — and what he saw stopped even him cold. This was a man who had traveled with her for months, who had seen her in every state imaginable.
"Huey… Huey…"
Her white skin, which had always stayed flawless even on the roughest roads of travel, was flushed red in patches. That delicate, fragile quality her rough temperament usually kept buried was laid bare without any filter. And those eyes of hers — the ones that always shone bright as rubies, that always laid her every feeling bare — were hazy and unfocused now, gazing up at him with such pitiful need that they stole the breath right out of his chest.
"Hnn…"
The sweet scent rising off her body, the hot, ragged breath spilling from her lips — they began to claim his sense of smell and hearing both.
"…I'm going to lose my mind."
Even Luciella, who never lacked for confidence in her own looks, had always said that Ren would be a beauty if she just kept her mouth shut. Huey understood that assessment all over again as he clung to the last fraying thread of his reason and stepped closer.
"Ren. You're really not going to regret this?"
He asked one last time.
And then—
A small nod. Her head tipped faintly up and down in silent answer.
Huey quietly set his hand on her waist.
"—Eep!?"
Ren jolted as if she had been struck by lightning, a sharp cry tearing out of her.
"Excuse me."
"Ah— nngh…!"
First things first — the eggs in her belly. Huey carefully took hold of her lower clothes. Ren's wings twitched, instinct telling her to stop him —
"What?"
"N-nothing."
She shook her head at his question, then covered her face completely with both wings and lifted her hips so he could undress her more easily.
A soft rustle. The bottoms that always clung so snugly to her hips with that peculiar stretch of theirs came down, underwear with them — and a long, sticky trail of something wet stretched down from between her thighs, from under the clothes that had been covering her.
As if she had been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.
"No matter how many times I see them, your legs are still something else."
The sweet scent bloomed thick and sudden. Huey swallowed hard, hesitated for a beat, then deliberately changed the subject as if forcing himself to ignore the sight. His hand passed over her fever-hot thighs and brushed lightly across the metal-like material of her legs as he carefully finished stripping her clothes away, mindful of those sharp claws.
"Sh-shut up…"
Something about Huey felt different from usual. Ren found herself remembering what Cheonyu had said not long ago.
It seems something must have shifted in his heart.
Until recently, Huey had blushed just from glancing at her body. Now he was taking his time looking her over — and not stopping there, running his hands over her without the slightest hesitation.
A soft thud. He tossed her discarded underwear and bottoms aside, climbed onto the bed, and drew her into his arms.
"So… this 'fair price' of yours… hnn. What exactly are you planning to do…?"
Her voice trembled as she asked.
"Why? Getting scared now that we're actually doing it?"
Huey smiled, needling her.
"If you want to back out even now, I'll clear out and give you the room. Just say the word."
"H-hmph…! G-go ahead and try whatever you want…!"
The antennae on her head quivered with indignation at the blatant provocation. Huey answered without words — he lifted his left hand and set it on the bandages that had, at some point, been wrapped around her chest.
"Then today, I'll be satisfied with your chest."
"Eep…"
His fingers searched along the bandages for the knot. Ren turned her face away, flushed as red as a ripe tomato.
"Looks like you've had quite a few interesting days lately."
He had already heard the rumors about Ren while helping with the king's official business — enough times that he had pressed a hand to his forehead more than once. Figuring out why she had bandaged her chest had been easy.
A soft rustle. Leaving her clothes in place, he deftly unwound only the bandages and drew them free.
"All right. Starting now?"
A nod.
Just like that day in the desert, Huey spread his legs, pulled Ren into his arms, and whispered against her ear.
And then—
"Hyaah—!?"
Slowly, greedily, his hand slipped between the fabric of her clothes and found her belly bare. Ren arched in his arms as if something had driven straight through her entire body —
"Ah-ah. Stay still."
"W-wait— hyaaang!?"
Not a chance. His left arm locked tight just beneath her chest, holding her fast while his hand kept kneading her lower belly without pause.
A firm press. He felt the squirming shape of an egg inside her, and without hesitation put force into his fingers, pushing one of them toward the exit.
A wet, fleshy sound.
"Ka— hhk!"
In the quiet room, the sound of flesh parting from within her belly rose together with a cry that was half pain, half something else entirely.
A grinding, sticky resistance…
So her claim that the eggs wouldn't come out easily hadn't been a complete lie. One of them was caught near the entrance of her womb, teetering on the edge of coming free, locked in a tug-of-war. Huey hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should push harder — then looked at Ren, who was gasping for breath and bracing herself on her own wings as if trying to hold on to her senses, and grinned with pure mischief.
Grind. Squish.
He deliberately pressed and eased off, over and over, keeping the egg just at the brink of slipping free from the mouth of her womb — a constant, relentless stimulation.
"Hyaang… hyaah…♡"
Ren was panting too hard to even notice what he was doing.
"Ah— nngh…!"
Before long she folded forward at the waist, both wings clamping tight around the arm he had wrapped across her. Afraid the egg might break, Huey eased the pressure of his hand —
And then she made a soundless scream, curling in on herself as if the air had been punched from her lungs. From between her legs —
A hot jet of water burst free, soaking the clothes still covering her and the bedding beneath.
"Hah… hah…"
She came again and again in rapid succession, then lay gasping for breath. Huey looked down at her and forced down the dark hunger that was seeping up from somewhere deep inside him.
"You all right?"
Blood had been pooling low in his body for a long while already; he made no effort to hide how hard he had grown inside his clothes. Under the pretense of supporting her, he lifted his hips just enough to press against her back as he asked.
"Ah… nngh…"
Still dazed in the aftershocks, Ren felt the heat against her spine. Instead of answering, she went limp and quietly lifted her head to meet his eyes.
"Hoo…"
She held his gaze for a moment, then turned away again, exhaling as she tried to settle her body.
"All right. I'll keep going."
Watching her, Huey decided that what he had done a moment ago might have been a little much, and resolved to rein himself in — at least somewhat. He freed the left arm that had been holding her and carefully took hold of the soft swell that had been swaying gently right in front of him.
"Eep…"
The instant his hand closed on her breast, Ren flinched hard. But she made no move to stop him.
"Oh…"
A soft give under his palm. The sensation was so pliant he almost forgot he was supposed to be pressing on her belly. Unlike her stomach or thighs — soft, yes, but threaded through with firm muscle — this was something else entirely. Soft enough that he almost wondered whether it could really be made of the same flesh as his own.
In his whole life, the only chest he could remember touching was his mother's, back in a childhood he barely recalled.
He was still savoring the weight of it, the way it seemed to melt and yield around his hand —
"Hyaang…♡"
A sweet moan, nothing like the ones she had made when he was pushing the egg free. Even the one doing the touching jumped, startled, and looked over —
"Hhk…!"
— to find Ren, red all the way to her ears, frantically clamping a wing over her own mouth.
Then the sensation at his fingertips pulled his eyes back down.
"Oh…"
Half of it was still hidden under her clothes, so he couldn't see clearly — but he knew. He was touching the tip of her breast. At some point his fingers had found her areola and been teasing it without him quite realizing. And from the small hollow under his fingertip, something was squirming, faintly pushing back against him.
Huey went blank for a second at the feeling. Then, without even understanding why he did it —
He quietly pinched the shy pink nipple that had just begun to peek out.
"Hyaaang—!"
Since becoming a woman, Ren had laid eggs. She had even experienced what passed for a woman's self-pleasure. But this — having her chest touched, having a nipple that usually stayed buried and hidden out of sight stimulated like this — this was a first.
"Ah— hnn!"
White stars burst behind her eyes. She realized, far too late, how stupid she had been to let her guard down, thinking it was just a lump of flesh on her chest being groped.
But by the time she understood that, it was already far too late.
The night was still long. And not a single one of the eggs left in her belly had come free.
"Huey… Huey…?"
She called his name in a rush and turned her head — only to find him looking at her with a dangerous expression, as if some switch had just been flipped.
"Wait— just wait a second…!"
She tried to push herself up, hoping to make him pause even for a moment —
"Kyaah!"
— but far from letting go, he only pulled her tighter against him. Caught between panic and something that felt uncomfortably like anticipation, Ren forced a shaky laugh.
"Ah… ahaha…"
It looked like tonight was going to run a little long.