Ah... Please Pat My Belly

Kyle spoke up as we sat together over dinner.

"I think I'll need to step out for a bit."

"I have to stop by the Administration Bureau about the Korea support situation."

An A-class dungeon had spawned in Korea that morning, and Kyle hadn't forgotten his promise. He'd already dispatched hunters from his guild. It seemed he needed to file a report with the Administration Bureau about the whole affair.

"You're going through all this trouble because of me..."

Even if a deal had been struck between us, watching him go out of his way on my account left a sour feeling in my chest. And our deal hadn't even been fair — he was the one giving far more than he took. Compared to Kyle sending his own hunters into another country, all I was doing was living in the same room as him.

"Thank you, Kyle."

I wrapped my hand around his and squeezed.

"We'll be running dungeons together a lot from now on, so you'd better be ready."

He said it with a light laugh — his own way of looking out for me, so I wouldn't sit there feeling guilty. I felt the consideration in it and answered.

"Anytime."

After Kyle left, I lay alone on his bed. The mattress was cool and plush — an environment that left nothing to be desired — and yet, without the person I had spent every day beside, I felt somehow at loose ends.

"Maybe I'll check the news."

I hadn't looked at a single headline since I'd started living with Kyle. I was curious, besides, whether the dungeon that had spawned in Korea that morning had been handled cleanly. I unlocked my phone and searched. An article surfaced immediately.

I tapped through. The piece confirmed that Ares's hunters had cleared the dungeon safely alongside Taegeuk.

Thank goodness.

Relieved, I scrolled down to the comments. People's safety had been secured through the deal I'd made with Kyle. I expected at least a few of them to be grateful.

What?

But the comments held nothing of what I'd hoped for. Only slander.

They were disappointed I existed? But everyone had been happy about it...

After everything I did for Korea, they're saying I never did anything?

...

I had no choice but to turn off my phone. No matter how far I scrolled, there was not a single comment offering thanks. Nothing but doubts about my ability, mockery, and people insisting that my sacrifice had been only natural. I had forgotten. Forgotten how people saw me. Forgotten the way my own party members had handled me like a tool.

"Hhck..."

I couldn't stop the tears. I had given everything I had, and no one had seen it.

"Hhk... hhhck."

I wasn't supposed to cry. I was supposed to endure, to hold myself together — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but I felt as if I had been left alone in the world. The only person who would stay beside me was...

Ah.

A familiar voice rang through my mind.

Your ability is special, Sera.

I'm always grateful. Thanks to you, we finished easy.

You're the bravest hunter I've ever known.

There was someone. Someone who saw my efforts. A man who said thank you for what I could do. A partner who treated me with respect.

Kyle Andre. The moment I thought of him, the ache in my chest eased a little. He had become someone I could no longer do without. The strongest hunter in the world — and the man who needed me.

I wanted to see him. I wanted him to hold me. I wanted those soothing pats that always settled something deep inside me.

"Hurry back... Kyle."

I murmured it lying alone in his bed. His mattress was cool and vast — the kind of bed I used to love — but tonight it felt like a prison, endlessly cold and lonely.

"I miss you..."

The chill of empty space at my back. The heartbeat I couldn't hear. That hollowness kept me from sleep.

The night after Kyle had been gone a full day, he finished his business and came back to his room looking for Sera. She wasn't in the bed. The sound of falling water from the bathroom told him she was in the shower.

She must have seen it.

Kyle knew how closely Sera followed news from Korea. He had ordered his staff to leave comments on the articles she would find — comments saying it was a good thing she had gone to America, that Korea had no use for her. From Kyle's point of view, those were simply true. He was glad she had come to the States, and as for the fools who couldn't see her worth, they genuinely didn't need her.

Other people, however, had not left it there. Once the floodgates opened, the slander and the mockery poured through — comment after comment dismissing everything she had ever done. Kyle knew it would wound her. He did not particularly care. He would be the one to hold her in proportion to how deeply she had been hurt. He would whisper into her ear, with complete sincerity, the recognition and the gratitude and the praise that no one else had ever given her. And in doing so, he would become her everything.

That was why he had set the plan in motion. So that she, shaken and insecure, would crave only him.

"Kyle... you're back?"

The plan had taken hold. Sera called his name in a voice that seemed to shrink into itself. Kyle pushed the calculation aside and looked at her.

Damp hair still heavy with water. Her nightgown plastered to her body from the moisture, and — she must not have put a bra on after washing — her nipples faintly visible, pushing against the thin fabric. Faced with how unguarded she looked, Kyle forgot to answer.

"..."

"Kyle, why aren't you saying anything..."

She didn't seem to have the presence of mind to notice her own state. She watched his face and pressed him for a reply, her voice unsteady, her expression raw with something close to desperation. He could read her condition at a glance.

Exactly as he had wanted. She had seen the comments tearing her down and dismissing her, and she had come looking for him. From here on, she would crave his recognition. His attention.

"Something happen?"

He asked it lightly, as if he knew nothing at all.

"No... it's nothing. Let's just go to sleep."

Sera rubbed her left forearm with her right hand and turned her face away from him, hiding whatever was written there. Head down, she started toward the bed.

"Don't lie down. Come here."

He stopped her and patted the space between his thighs — a signal to sit.

"..."

Sera froze where she stood. He wanted her to come into his arms on her own. Until now she had only ever accepted Kyle's embraces. She had never gone to him first. These were the arms she had been aching for since yesterday, and still she hesitated at the thought of walking into them herself.

"I'll hold you tight."

His voice reached her. The secure pressure of being wrapped up. The warm weight of his body. The heartbeat that always ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quieted something in her chest. The memory of those things moved her before she could think, and she crossed the space between them as if spellbound.

She sank down between his legs. Kyle closed his arms around her and whispered against her ear.

"Good girl, Sera."

"Hahh..."

A thin sound slipped out of her. The sensation she had been starving for since yesterday poured through her, and her whole body felt as if it were melting.

"I missed you, Sera."

Something in her filled to the brim — the satisfaction of being needed. She felt a rush of gratitude toward the man who needed her, and she answered.

"I... missed you too, Kyle. But—"

Something was still missing. She was comfortable, and yet a hollow spot remained.

"Why aren't you doing it?"

She asked because he wasn't patting her lower belly.

"Doing what?"

"Th-that. You know. The thing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you always do."

"The thing I always do? You'll have to say it if you want me to know."

Kyle knew exactly what she wanted. He kept pretending he didn't.

"...My belly..."

She named it as if the words themselves embarrassed her.

"You want me to pat your belly?"

"Y-yes."

He put the thing she wanted into words, then asked. She agreed at once.

"Then you have to ask for it, Sera. Ask me to pat your belly."

He told her what he wanted. If she wanted something, she would ask for it herself.

"Please do it... hurry."

"Do what? You have to tell me exactly what you want. Then I'll grant it."

"Nnh... my belly... please pat it."

He had the answer he wanted. He still wasn't satisfied.

"Lift your clothes and show me your belly. Then I'll pat it."

"What?"

Startled by the demand, Sera turned her head and looked up at him.

"I said lift your clothes so I can see your belly."

He repeated himself for the girl who didn't seem to have understood.

"..."

Sera stared at him with something like resentment. She had already swallowed her shame to ask, and now he was making a further demand and still withholding what she'd asked for.

"Whyyy... I asked you already... I said please..."

She pushed back at him like a child throwing a little tantrum, instinctively putting on a coquettish act, trying to move a man's heart.

"It'll feel even better on bare skin. Our Sera's a good girl, isn't she?"

Even her feminine wiles left him unmoved. He coaxed her with the same unshaken calm.

"If you do as I say, I think I'll be really happy, Sera."

That he would be happy if she listened. The words shifted something in her. This was the person who treated her as if she were precious. The person she could no longer do without. She wanted to see him glad.

Holding onto that wish, she drew her nightgown up with her right hand. Her pale lower belly was bared — slender, without a spare ounce on it, a small, adorable navel sitting neat in the center. Sera opened her mouth.