When Bodies Speak (2)
The moment their eyes met.
Alec's face flushed scarlet, yet his gaze locked with Yona's for only an instant before it slid down once more, slow and betraying.
Yona simply watched him.
She knew perfectly well where his eyes were wandering.
It wasn't that she was ashamed of her body being seen. It was the social convention—the unshakable notion that it simply must not be shown. Her body was a woman's, after all, and a woman was not to bare herself carelessly. And for someone built like Yona, a certified beauty by any standard, that rule supposedly applied all the more.
So Yona didn't shriek, didn't scramble to cover herself with flailing arms. There were only Rubina, Alec, and herself in this room—and Rubina was fast asleep, which meant it was effectively just the two of them. And frankly, so what if Alec saw a little skin? That was how she figured it.
"...What?"
After a silence that stretched on far too long, it was Yona who finally broke it. He'd come to her room at this hour, so he had to have some business. She just wanted him to spit it out and leave already.
"...Honestly? I'm calling this self-defense."
Alec said that, then turned away. Just as she wondered if he was actually leaving, a metallic clack rang out. The door—the room's only entrance—was now bolted shut. No way in from outside anymore. Which, by the same token, meant no way out either.
"What are you talking— oh."
Self-defense? What did that even—
Yona started to ask, then shut her mouth as she watched Alec close the distance between them. The considerable gap that had separated them vanished in a few quick strides. The moment she realized he was standing right in front of her, her words died as his thick, calloused hands clamped down on both her shoulders.
"I'm not made of stone either, you know."
She almost asked what he was going on about. What on earth did he mean? Holding back what, exactly?
But the words never made it out of her mouth. The world seemed to spin, and suddenly she was staring up at the silk canopy of the bed. The soft give of the blankets pressed against her back.
Only then did Yona register that she'd been laid down on the bed.
"You— what do you think you're doing."
"I've held back a long time, Yona."
And only then did she understand. Only then did the meaning of his words finally land.
"Hey. You know I used to be a man."
"And? Are you one now?"
Yona's mouth snapped shut.
Yona sprawled across the bed, and Alec above her, their bodies close, looking down at her. In his eyes churned something unmistakable—desire, raw and unrestrained.
Yes. That look.
Yona knew it intimately. A look she'd felt everywhere she went. Sleazy, revolting, dark, sticky—clinging and crawling. The pitch-black isolation brewed from every appetite lumped together under the banner of lust, a poison distilled from want itself.
That look was on Alec's face now. And it was aimed at her—here, now, as she was.
Her heart began to pound—slowly at first, no, not slowly at all. Heat crept up her face, degree by degree. She fought desperately to steady her quickening breath, careful that Alec wouldn't notice.
Should she shove him off? Curse him out, tell him to get lost?
But that would wound him. This bald bastard was more fragile than he looked.
Then should she just accept it?
But that felt wrong too, somehow.
The deliberation was long; the decision was quick. Alec was worth it.
"...Fine. Do it. I'll give it to you—like a man would."
At those words of permission, an unconcealable ecstasy bloomed across Alec's face.
Three years—or two and a half, to be exact, but close enough to three. Wasn't that how long he'd been piling up this love? And now, at last, the moment had come to bring it to fruition.
Alec's gaze slid downward, drinking in Yona's chest head-on. He'd kneaded them once before, but he had never seen them like this. There was no word for it other than overwhelming. Even lying down, their weight and mass held their shape without the slightest sag, like an upturned rice bowl—perfectly rounded, defiant of gravity.
And at their crest, trembling— no. Not quite. Between the pale pink rims of her areolae, her nipples had all but hidden themselves away, burrowing so thoroughly he could barely make them out.
Alec took a deep breath, wrestling down the breath that kept trying to turn ragged. Calm. He had to stay calm. A desire he'd nursed for years stood on the very edge of coming true. Slowly, his hand reached toward Yona's chest.
Just before his fingers made contact—
"One condition."
His hand froze midair. His eyes snapped to her face.
Flat on her back, Yona was looking down at him with her gaze alone. Alec, who had been staring down at her chest, lifted his head to look up at her—and now it was Yona looking down at him.
"...The moment this ends, you and I are over. Back to before we were ever comrades. Like none of it ever happened."
Words carved from ice. That frost-laden sentence quenched Alec's ardor in an instant. And Alec, as it turned out, was not cold-blooded enough to see it through to the end even knowing the price.
Alec sat at the foot of the bed, scratching his cheek with an embarrassed look on his face. Yona, having changed back into her clothes and undergarments ages ago, sat on the vanity chair right beside the bed, drying the damp lengths of her long hair as they swayed.
"So it was mutually agreed, then. Nothing I can do about it, I suppose."
After listening to Alec's story in silence for a good while, Yona asked her question with a leather cord held between her teeth. He'd been in the middle of explaining the terms he'd worked out with Kayak and James. Yona had heard the whole thing out without a word, then tried to tie her hair back with the cord—only to drop it on the floor.
"So that's why you came calling while I was bathing."
Taking the cord Alec hastily retrieved for her, Yona swept her bangs back in one broad motion, gathered the sides, then the back, and bound the whole mass up tight with the leather tie.
"Yeah, so I figured you were either asleep or in the bath. This time, if you didn't answer again, I was going to assume you were sleeping and just talk tomorrow."
"Whatever. Lucky you, baldy. You got quite the show."
"A show of what?"
At that, Yona swiveled the vanity chair around to face him dead-on. The instant Alec drew a sharp breath and tensed, she flashed a sly, mischievous grin.
"Thanks to me, you got a nice long look all to yourself, you dog. Admit it."
"W-well, that's true, but..."
"Why didn't you go all the way?"
Yona had genuinely wondered. Would she even have been able to fight back if he'd pounced right then? Thinking it over—no, she wouldn't have. Alec's raw strength dwarfed hers by a margin that no amount of struggling could bridge. That was exactly why she'd resigned herself. The body would be back to normal before long anyway; if she could just stomach the disgust of handing a man her body, the nausea, it would all pass soon enough.
Still, she didn't feel like giving in that easily. So she'd drawn the line as coldly as she could: if you go all the way, our partnership ends here. Even if he had pushed through anyway—well, what could she have done? She couldn't reach the Wizard Community alone, and like it or not, she'd have to keep traveling with Alec regardless. The threat was, in truth, an empty bluff.
But Alec had stopped. A relief, if a relief—yet strange enough that she couldn't help being curious.
"We've got years behind us, you and I. I wasn't about to throw all that away over... something like that. Besides... there'll be other chances, someday."
"'Something like that'? What the hell is wrong with you, baldy."
Yona smacked him upside the head again, hard enough to make an audible thump. Honestly, her heart was still racing, still refusing to settle. When he'd shoved her down onto the bed, when he'd loomed over her—that inescapable—
It had things in common with Nerie's violence, and yet it was unmistakably something else. Some strange, unnameable feeling. Because of it, Yona could still hear the drumbeat of her own heart ringing clear in her ears. A sound Alec could absolutely, under any circumstances, never hear.
"...You remember how you blew it last time with the Breast Kneading Voucher too, right? You're dumber than you look, honestly."
Partly to change the subject, Yona reached out and patted his shining bald head, tap tap. The warmth of his body radiated straight through her palm. She was used to it by now—so used to it that Alec didn't so much as react.
"By the way. Do you really shave your head on purpose?"
It was what he'd told that gate guard—the cursed bastard. She figured there was no way it was true, but she couldn't help asking.
"You told that Nerie-or-Nebi-or-whatever-his-name-was guy that you shave it yourself. Was that real?"
"It's real."
"Huh. Seriously?"
"I just told you it is. Every time it grows out even a little, I shave it myself. Not a single bald man in my family—not my father, not my grandfather. You think I'd go bald?"
"Hmm..."
Well, if he said so. She'd choose to believe him.
"I simply cannot tell you how delighted I am that you've made such a positive decision. To have a Saintess who has reached the very pinnacle of priesthood here with us, and now Miss Yona herself joining to coordinate the battlefield—what reassurance! What peace of mind."
That afternoon, in response to Yona's offer to serve as escort, Ceres expressed her joy with exaggerated flourishes. Yona struggled to keep the corners of her mouth from twitching upward at the performance. If Alec hadn't been jabbing her in the ribs, she probably would have broken into a wide, clueless grin right then and there.
"Th-then, about that..."
"Yes, by all means."
"Um, that girl over there. Rubina. I'd like to bring her along with us to the Infula Holy See, if possible."
It was a condition that might well cost them some of their gold. Yona could haggle away her own pay all she liked, but shaving anyone else's compensation was another matter entirely—one that deserved a second thought.
"Oh, do bring her. By all means. I happen to adore children—very, very much. It promises to be a delightful journey. I'm so pleased!"
Ceres's ready agreement left the party pleased but thrown off balance. Their group was gaining another mouth to feed, and she'd settled the matter in the space of a breath.
"We've crossed paths before, though I believe this is our first proper introduction. Looking forward to working with you. I'm Ludvik—holder of the Hero's title, such as it is."
"...I'm Vigrind."
Ludvik bowed with his usual easy warmth and a refreshingly open smile. Beside him, Vigrind's lips were pressed into a pout, her displeasure written plainly across her face. Yona returned his greeting with a perfunctory nod, all while wondering how she might manage to give that pouty backside one good, solid kick.
"...Likewise. I'm Yona."
"Alec."
"Kayak."
"James, at your service."
And that very afternoon, the landward gate of the Grand Duchy of Carpatia swung open, and a lavishly adorned carriage, its escort in tow, rolled out beyond the city walls.