The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL] Chapter 470: Would You Still Love Me?

By the ti Lane finished possessing the slugs and got back ho, it was already evening. Damien was back from work, and was making dinner, the scent of freshly cooked food filling the apartnt... It hit Lane in the nose as soon as he stepped in. It was, without a doubt, a delicious sll. But...

"Ugh." Lane pressed his hand against his mouth to stop his gagging reflex. He still felt a bit dizzy, his stomach queasy from all the possessions, so much so, that even thinking about eating made him nauseous.

It was a natural reaction. Switching between his real body and another human body multiple tis consecutively negatively affected his balance, as his mind didn’t have ti to properly adjust to the differences between the two bodies. If even that had such a negative effect on Lane, it was only to be expected that switching between multiple slugs and his human form would be even worse... Lane even had to call a taxi to get back ho, since driving in his current state would be too reckless, even for him.

He kicked off his shoes, and stumbled toward the living room, planning to fall face-first on the couch...

"Lane? Is everything... Are you alright?"

Lane lifted his head to see Damien staring at him with worry in his eyes. He must have heard Lane co in and popped out of the kitchen to greet him, but seeing the state that Lane was in, he completely forgot about everything...

Ah, damn. Lane sighed quietly, his shoulders dropping.

He didn’t want Damien to see him in such a pathetic state.

Regardless, what was done was done. Rather than feel disappointed about it, right now he should think about how to resolve the situation. He opened his mouth to reassure Damien and dismiss his concerns...

But instead, what ca out of his mouth was, "Would you still love if I were a slug?"

Damien stared at Lane for a good mont, his face blank. "What?"

What indeed. What a silly question that was...

...But why wasn’t Damien answering? Lane wasn’t an expert when it ca to romantic relationships, since he had never cared to date anyone before Damien, but... A normal response would have been ’Yes, of course, I would love you no matter what,’ right? Right?

Biting his lip, Lane threw a furtive glance at Damien...

anwhile, Damien was still struggling to process the question. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t know how to respond, or that he couldn’t - ridiculous as the question was, Damien knew what answer he wanted to give, but...

It was the first ti that either of them had used the word ’love’.

Of course, Damien himself had already long thought about Lane that way. Otherwise, how could he have heard about all of Lane’s cris, and not report him? He had obviously done it because he didn’t want Lane to suffer, not even a tiniest little bit. Whatever the future brought, and whatever consequences Lane might have to eventually face, he was willing to share his fate. What was it, if not love?

However, he had never said it out loud. Mainly because he didn’t want to scare Lane away... As well as pressure him to say it back. Not that Lane could ever be pressured into doing sothing he truly didn’t feel like doing, but... If Damien were to say ’I love you’, there was a chance that he could just say it back without really aning it.

And Damien wanted Lane to an it. Although he wanted to hear Lane say it, seriously or not, he also wanted to be sure that that was how the man felt about him.

So, he had been holding back.

Thinking about it, though... Wasn’t that the perfect opportunity? He could just say it by answering the question, and that wouldn’t warrant any response from Lane... Moreover, Lane had asked ’would you STILL love ’, which ant that he already knew anyway, right?

With that in mind, Damien answered with a short, but serious, "Yes."

"...Eh?" Lane, who was about to dismiss the topic, paused, blinking rapidly.

Seeing his confusion, Damien cleared his throat, and repeated, "I would still love you if you were a bug."

His cheeks were bright red from embarrassnt, but sohow, he managed to get the words out right.

Lane blinked a few more tis, his brain struggling to process it. It was supposed to be a joke (probably), so why was Damien being so serious?

Still...

"What about a slug?" Lane asked again, noticing Damien’s mistake.

"As well."

"A-ah... Is that so..." Lane pressed his lips, his eyes wandering around.

Was it nice to hear? Yes, of course. Surprisingly so. But it made him feel all mushy inside, and Lane didn’t know how to handle that... And the atmosphere was so awkward!

Eventually, though, he was able to co up with a response. "You wouldn’t even know that it was if I were a slug," he chuckled. "You would probably just squash or throw out..."

"I would know," Damien defended himself. "I would always recognize your wavelengths."

Ah, right. With Damien’s wavelength sensitivity, he probably would have recognized Lane no matter what.

The room fell into awkward silence once again. Lane chewed on his lips, fiddling with his hands, trying to co up with sothing, anything, that could help him get rid of this odd tension in his chest...

When all of a sudden, Damien’s eyes paused on Lane’s hands.

"...What happened to your finger?"

"What? Ah..." Lane glanced at his finger. Although it had been a good few hours since he had been bitten by the spiders, he had been repeatedly scratching it to feed his DNA to the slugs. As a result, while bleeding had stopped, the finger still looked very raw, clearly injured...

"Uh, well..." Lane gulped, quickly calculating in his mind. Which was better, the truth or so excuse?

In the end, he settled on forr (for the most part)...

"Um... Damien? Rember how you made promise that I would no longer possess anyone?"

"...Yes?" Hearing Lane’s question, Damien instantly grew more alert.

Only to be completely dumbfounded a mont later, when Lane asked, "Does it apply to monsters as well?"