“Pipi?”
Formo, who had been keeping his eyes tightly shut, slowly lifted his eyelids at Serdin’s voice. Serdin had sat up halfway and was looking at Formo. Formo felt embarrassed by Serdin’s gaze, which seemed pleased for some reason, and fidgeted with his beak.
“Pipi, are you flustered again?”
At the teasing words, Formo’s pupils shook left and right. As if adding insult to injury, this wretched jaguar seemed to have figured out even under what circumstances he transformed into a long-tailed tit. Just like a perceptive jaguar. Formo trembled his tail feathers, then slyly turned his back on him.
“Alright, Pipi. I’ll stop teasing you.”
Serdin said this in a voice tinged with laughter and stroked Formo’s round head. Formo’s small head was adorable no matter when he looked at it. It was amazing how this such a small long-tailed tit would grow quite large when he transformed into human form. Even that was an absurdly small size compared to predator beastmen, but Formo belonged to the group with quite large size changes even among the avian beastmen Serdin had met.
It made him wonder if the size change between animal form and beastman form was large because he was born with the abilities of a guardian. Serdin stroked Formo’s head to his heart’s content as he silently stared straight ahead, then asked.
“But Pipi. How long have you been awake?”
“……”
He could feel Formo’s body flinch through his palm. At the overly sensitive reaction, Serdin looked at Formo with puzzled eyes, but he kept his small beak tightly shut as if he had no intention of answering.
“Pipi, are you not going to answer this time either?”
“……Chirp!”
[……You don’t need to know!]
At Serdin’s urging, Formo threw a tantrum in a small voice. Even such a reaction would be felt as delightful to Serdin, but there was no way Formo would know that fact. Formo pouted with his beak, then let out a deep sigh. It was because he thought he shouldn’t have taken that nap. If he had just held back from the nap a little, he wouldn’t have woken up even when Serdin came in.
‘……No.’
If that had happened, he wouldn’t have known that Serdin had called him by his name or that he had kissed his forehead. Since Formo was more dissatisfied with the fact that he had almost missed knowing those facts than with being in an embarrassing situation, he shook his head to retract his earlier thought.
“Are you planning to sleep in that state today?”
Formo, who had been lost in his own thoughts, turned his body at Serdin’s question and looked up at him. His golden eyes were taking on a mysterious light as they received the moonlight. At first glance, he even seemed to hold the moon within them. Formo stared blankly at Serdin’s face, which looked even paler due to receiving the moonlight, then roughly waved one wing and answered.
“Chirp.”
[It’s a secret.]
Even at the unkind answer, Serdin’s lips curved upward.
“Pipi, you wouldn’t happen to be thinking of sleeping on my forehead like last time, would you? I’m willing to accept it even if Pipi builds a nest on my forehead.”
“……”
Formo stared at Serdin, who had started spouting nonsense again, with bewildered and dumbfounded eyes. He seemed to be talking about what happened at the Detached Palace. Of course, though it was a short time, it was true that Serdin’s forehead had served as quite a cozy bed and nest. The temperature was just warm enough and it felt strangely secure, to the point where he couldn’t help but sleep soundly.
But sleeping on Serdin’s forehead in his right mind was an entirely different matter. Above all, hadn’t he been caught drooling several times while in his long-tailed tit state by Serdin? If he slept on Serdin’s forehead again this time and drooled… it would be no different from handing him teasing material for life with his own hands.
Formo shook his head with a resolute face. Rather than making such a choice and regretting it, it would be better to transform into human form. Of course, because of what Serdin had done earlier, he felt a bit uncomfortable with him in his human form, but it would be better than continuing to hear Serdin’s near-nonsensical requests.
Formo’s eyelids smoothly closed. Formo, who narrowed his brow and concentrated, succeeded in transforming into human form without difficulty. Of course, he had forgotten again that transforming into human form meant his body would be without a single thread on it, so he did scramble to pull the blanket over himself.
Formo glared at Serdin, who was holding back laughter while looking at him, with fierce eyes. And to think he had decided to transform into human form because of whom. Formo, who let out a deep sigh, put on underwear and a nightgown inside the blanket and poked his face out.
“You liked sleeping on my forehead, Pipi.”
“……It was only once by mistake. I never liked it.”
“Really? That’s too bad.”
“Wh-what’s too bad! And……”
Formo’s face, which had been continuing his words, turned bright red. Serdin’s voice calling him Formo came to mind again. He couldn’t organize his thoughts at all about what he should ask, so his lips couldn’t quite part. After staring at Serdin for a moment with a bright red face, Formo lowered his gaze and asked in a small voice as if murmuring.
“Why did you call my name while I was sleeping……”
At that question, Serdin’s face, which had been maintaining composure with a smile until now, stiffened slightly. Formo was looking down so he didn’t witness that scene, but he could sense that Serdin was flustered from the fact that the usually relaxed Serdin couldn’t easily produce an answer and remained silent.
Formo hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Why did you put your lips on my forehead……”
He couldn’t forget the feeling of the moment when Serdin’s lips had descended on his forehead. Serdin acted mischievously, but when you opened up what was inside, he was a beastman with surprisingly delicate touches. Though he always grumbled that he couldn’t understand what thoughts he lived with and that he was a strange jaguar, Formo didn’t think he did meaningless actions.
So, he wanted to know the reason why he had kissed his forehead and secretly whispered his name, the meaning contained in that action. What emotion or heart was in it, whether he should do the same thing to him. He wanted to ask such things. Because Formo knew nothing, there were so many things he wanted to ask about and find out.
“Pipi, were you awake from then?”
“Yeah……”
Formo answered in a small voice and nodded his head. It was a rarely calm appearance. When Serdin, who seemed about to open his mouth, fell silent again, he raised his head with a puzzled expression. Serdin was covering half his face with his large hand, making an indecipherable expression. To be precise, he was covering the area around his mouth, but because his hand was so large, the area around his cheeks was also covered.
“Wh-why are you like that?”
Formo, flustered by the seemingly quite complicated look in his eyes, asked stammeringly. Serdin, who had been acting brazenly all the time, was showing a completely different appearance from usual after hearing his words, so he couldn’t help but naturally become tense. For a moment, he even thought whether he had done something wrong.
“Because I’m embarrassed.”
It was words that instantly organized the mind that had been noisy with various thoughts crossing over. Formo stared at Serdin with wide eyes. He had never imagined that Serdin would say such words in this situation. At most, he thought he would tease him by saying ‘So you’re saying you were pretending to sleep?’
As his dark blue-tinged eyes widened, Serdin removed the hand that had been covering the area around his mouth. His cheeks were very faint but were definitely colored red. Serdin reached out his hand to Formo, who was lying down with only his upper body raised. At that touch, Formo’s round eyes flinched, then squeezed shut.
“Pipi, open your eyes. Hm?”
Serdin gently grasped Formo’s round back of the head and called Formo in a very soft voice. Strangely, at the sweet voice and tone, his heart pounded and beat quickly. It was clearly a situation and atmosphere he was experiencing for the first time in his life, yet could his heart have realized something?
Formo slowly opened his tightly shut eyes. As his eyelashes fluttered and lifted, Serdin’s face, which had approached right to his nose, filled his eyes tightly. The moment he recognized the existence called Serdin, his fingertips and toes suddenly tingled and his ears felt stuffy. And at the same time, Bléar’s words came to mind.
‘Just naturally? My heart beat abnormally fast and Kaien felt different from usual…… Ah, my fingertips and toes also felt tingly. Also, whenever I saw Kaien, my face would get hot and my ears would feel stuffy.’
‘But things like this come at truly unexpected moments, so there’s no need to concentrate and listen like you’re studying.’
But just because the feelings Bléar had talked about came to him, did that mean he loved Serdin? Formo didn’t know. Just as he said, it was true that strange emotions and sensations had come at a truly unexpected moment, but whether that was proof that he loved Serdin……
“Formo.”
At the low call heard right in front of him, Formo momentarily forgot even to breathe and stared blankly at Serdin. He was inside his golden eyes. Formo Puer, who was making an expression similar to Bléar, who had a face like he was dreaming while thinking of Kaien.
And Serdin in front of him also had the same face as he who was reflected in his eyes. His breath caught. His heart pounded wildly as if it would jump out of his body. This was a familiar sensation to Formo. However, it was a sensation he hadn’t felt even once again since his first flight.
Formo couldn’t believe that the feeling he had been forgetting had come back. It wasn’t even his first flight, so why…… The sensation of an unfamiliar emotion soaking his entire body was overwhelming.
Even though he knew the reason was in Serdin, he wanted to deny it. He wanted to run away from this moment that was so overwhelmingly unfamiliar.
“I, I……”
Formo was so flustered that his body trembled and he tried to pull his head back, but Serdin didn’t let him. He put strength into the hand that had been gently grasping the back of his head.
“Where are you trying to go, Formo.”
Serdin, who had managed to stop Formo from trying to distance himself from him, asked quietly and kissed Formo’s forehead like before.
