I sat there in the quiet, the weight of the last conversation still lingering in my mind like a stubborn echo. A part of wanted to keep digging—just one more question, one more thread to pull on, just to see what unravels. There were still things I didn’t know. Still hints I could chase.
And maybe, in the past, I would have. My curiosity had teeth, and it had bitten more than once. The temptation to push just a little further was always there, whispering in the back of my skull.
But... no.
I let out a long, slow breath, as if exhaling that compulsion. I’d done enough for now. I’d gone far enough. If I kept pressing, I’d only feed that restless hunger—the one that didn’t know when to stop, the one that made forget why I was even searching in the first place.
No. It was better to just wake up.
Yes. That’s what I’ll do. Wake up.
I let my mind turn toward the thought of the waking world, tugging on its threads like drawing up the blinds in a dark room. The dreamscape around dimd at the edges, its colors bleeding into pale light. Shapes began to lose definition, lting into vague silhouettes.
I thought about my bed. The familiar weight of a blanket over . The faint coolness of the air on my skin. And—
—warmth.
A specific warmth, not from the blanket, but from sothing pressed against my side. A slow, steady rhythm of breathing.
And then, like ink bleeding into water, the image of her ca into focus.
Selia.
Curled against , her arms looped loosely over my torso, her leg draped almost carelessly over mine. Her head rested against my shoulder, hair spilling down in soft strands that tickled my cheek when I breathed. I caught the faintest trace of her scent—sothing delicate, floral, but warr than any flower could be.
I smiled without aning to.
My heart stuttered, then picked up speed, and with that quickening ca the familiar shiver in the dream’s foundations. Cracks spread across the scenery, jagged lines splitting the false sky, the floor, the horizon. Pieces of it fell away like shattered glass, swallowed by the growing light.
I didn’t resist. I let the dream break apart and scatter.
When my eyes opened, it was morning.
The first thing I saw was Selia’s face, close enough that I could see the tiny flecks of gold in her irises. She was still tucked against , but now her eyes were open—and widening in surprise.
Her expression shifted in a heartbeat: from peaceful to startled, from startled to tense, and then, like soone flipping a switch, she smoothed it over into the most painfully transparent mask of indifference I’d ever seen.
"I wasn’t... doing anything," she said, her voice pitched just a little too high to be convincing.
I raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh."
Her gaze flicked away from , and her lips pressed into a thin line. "I was just... making sure you didn’t roll out of bed. Very dangerous. Happens all the ti."
"Oh, absolutely," I said, nodding solemnly. "You’re practically a public safety officer at this point."
The corner of her mouth twitched, but she didn’t smile. Not exactly.
Instead, a faint blush crept into her cheeks. "Shut up."
We held each other’s gaze for a beat too long, and the tension that had been there—small, fragile—lted into sothing quieter, softer.
I let my head fall back against the pillow. "You’re not fooling anyone, you know."
"Neither are you," she shot back, though her tone was lighter now, the words softened by amusent.
I don’t know what compelled , but instead of sitting up or rolling away, I shifted sideways until my head ca to rest on her lap. She blinked, startled, but didn’t move. After a mont’s hesitation, her hand lifted, hovered above —then settled gently in my hair.
Her fingertips brushed against my scalp, slow and careful, like she wasn’t sure she was allowed to be doing this. The touch made my breath slow. My whole body seed to decide, without my permission, that it could stop holding tension for the mont.
We stayed like that in silence for a while.
Not awkward silence. Not the heavy, choking kind. Just... stillness. Warmth. The quiet sound of her breathing and the faint rustle of her hair when she moved.
But I had sothing to say, and if I didn’t say it now, I’d lose my nerve.
"...I have a quest," I murmured.
Her fingers paused mid-motion, then continued. "Oh?"
"Yeah. The smallest one of the three."
I felt her gaze drop to , curious. "...What is it?"
I swallowed, feeling my throat tighten. "To take you on a date."
Her hand stilled again, and when I tilted my head up to look at her, she was frowning slightly—not in disapproval, just... confusion.
"A... what?"
I almost laughed at how genuinely puzzled she looked. "A date," I repeated.
"I have no idea what that is."
I couldn’t help it. I laughed, the sound rumbling through where my head rested on her lap. "Okay. Think of it like... an outing. Just the two of us. We go sowhere together, spend ti doing sothing fun, maybe have a nice al. The point is to enjoy each other’s company. And... get to know each other better."
Her brows knit together slightly as she processed this. "So... it’s like... a mission, but with no real objective? Just... wasting ti together?"
"Not wasting," I said, grinning. "Investing."
Her gaze softened, but as I watched her, sothing shifted in her face. Just slightly. I caught it—the tiniest flicker of disappointnt, like she’d been expecting sothing... grander.
She masked it quickly, smoothing her expression back into polite interest, but I’d seen it.
My chest tightened.
"...The truth is," I said slowly, "I have two more quests. Bigger ones."
That got her attention. Her eyes sharpened, curiosity lighting in them.
"But I don’t want to do them just because they’re written down sowhere as things I’m ’supposed’ to do," I continued. "That’s not... how I want this to go."
Selia tilted her head, her fingers still resting lightly in my hair.
"Instead..." I let the pause stretch just long enough for her to lean in slightly, then smiled. "...I want to use them as guiding points. Markers my bolder self set for . Things to work toward—not for the sake of ticking boxes, but for the sake of what they an."
Her lips curved faintly at the edges.
"So," I said, looking up at her from where I still rested, "I’ll start with this date. And along the way, I’ll use the other two as... milestones. Things we’ll grow toward naturally. No forcing it."
I paused, eting her gaze. "Deal?"
She studied in silence for a mont, as if weighing the sincerity of my words. Then, finally, she let out a small breath.
"...Deal."
She didn’t smile—not fully—but the faint warmth in her eyes was enough.
And just like that, the morning felt different. Not like the end of a dream, but the start of sothing else entirely.
Still...
The deal we made was for the future. And right now, we were still in the present.
And while the conversation clearly ca to an end...
Selia’s desire to keep cuddled quite obviously did not.
"Aren’t you going to leave anything aside for our date?" I asked, allowing myself to relax a little, now that the heavy topic was over.
But the very mont I did so, Selia pulled herself up a bit—just enough to bring her chest above my head, turning it from a cushion to a screen that covered her face away from my eyes.
Heck, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to claim she directly rested her bust down against the top of my head. Then, as she rose just a little bit higher, the back of my head slid down her stomach before resting right back at its rightful spot—upon her lap, rather her stomach.
Given how I still waited for an answer, I’ve kept my eyes open just long enough to catch the wonderful jiggle of her two peaks. Yet, contrary to how I did it quite a few tis before, this ti I didn’t bother to look away.
’I’ve already seen them wrapped in just a thin piece of cloth, but...’
I gulped my saliva down.
It didn’t matter if I saw a woman’s breast before or not. Right now, even while still draped in the silk of her clothes, Selia’s chest beca worlds more attractive than anything I still harbored in my mory.
And in all honesty?
Even if I were to directly compare the two sets, never would my eye waver when locking in on Selia’s prideful peaks!
Just like my eyes didn’t wander now, when she so eagerly, practically showed them in my face.
"Date is one thing," Selia said, her voice growing even more coquettish than before. "But what happens now... is a now thing."
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