“Seianes, it hurts. Let go of this.”
They barely arrived at the Greenhouse Garden while caught in Seianes’s hand.
Only then did the grip holding his wrist loosen, and Abrisius carefully rubbed his wrist while looking at Seianes.
“Hurting me… What the hell are you doing right now?”
“What am I doing…? What the hell are *you* doing?”
The one who got furiously angry first was none other than Seianes. Looking at Abrisius with a face that couldn’t understand him, he ran his hand through his disheveled hair.
“I told you not to go! Do you want Cairens to find out your identity?”
“But… I was just curious about what you were doing with Cairens… And how that guy has been living…”
“Are you that curious about that guy?”
His eyes reddened with indignation. After choosing his words for a moment, Seianes grabbed both of Abrisius’s cheeks with one hand and pulled him toward himself.
“Enough to risk the danger of him finding out you’re a child of the underworld?”
“Ugh…”
Seianes asked while applying strong force. Abrisius’s eyes, unable to resist his strength, quietly looked up at Seianes. His tightly closed mouth and brilliantly shining eyes.
A face that couldn’t be seen as Seianes’s usual appearance.
“No, that’s not… I just…”
“Ha…”
Watching Abrisius struggle in pain, Seianes, who finally came to his senses, released his hand.
“I’m sorry. I got angry without realizing…”
This shouldn’t happen. He was ashamed of himself for acting this way toward a child he had never even laid a hand on until now. Hesitating and apologizing, Seianes gently caressed Abrisius’s cheek, which had red marks from being held in his hand.
“I did do wrong, but is it something to get that angry about? No matter how much Cairens shows off his skills, Amina’s power is suppressing it, so there’s no way he could easily discern my identity…”
“There shouldn’t be even the slightest possibility of such a thing happening. You know that. Your origin must absolutely be kept secret. And… Haah.”
He had no more energy left to be angry. Stopping his words, Seianes looked at Abrisius, who was watching him with innocent eyes.
Yes, this is why he was angry.
Even though he had threatened him that his identity might be exposed, Abrisius’s action of going to see that child…
It kept overlapping with the image from long ago when he tried to sacrifice himself for Cairens without thinking of Seianes at all.
“I’m afraid you’ll sacrifice yourself for Cairens like before. I’m afraid you’ll risk your life because of that child. When I see that guy, that situation, your appearance from back then keeps coming to mind.”
Why, why did Abrisius—why did my child have to risk his life? A situation he couldn’t understand and didn’t want to understand.
The image of him not caring about himself at all, worrying only about Cairens. Look, even now, despite the possibility of separating from Seianes, Abrisius went to Cairens.
That appearance kept overlapping with the past when he didn’t care about him at all and tried to sacrifice himself only for Cairens.
Shaking off the memories from that time that surged up, Seianes swallowed hard.
“I’m afraid you’ll do something again because of Cairens.”
“I told you everything back then. Because my existence was causing you trouble. I did it because I was afraid you’d be more unhappy if Cairens died. And today was just a mistake. I was just curious, so without realizing…”
“My unhappiness is…”
Seianes cut off Abrisius’s words as he was about to say more. His eyes shone clearly, directed at Abrisius.
“A world without you, Abrisius. The situation without you, and you disappearing. That is my greatest unhappiness.”
“Huh?”
His eyes slightly wet with tears forming. Seianes was crying.
When he recalled the memory of losing Abrisius back then, the pain and heaviness of that time came back to life.
“I can’t do without you. My Abrisius.”
Seianes pulled Abrisius into his embrace. As if trying to feel again the fact that he was by his side, he pulled the child’s head even more strongly into his chest.
“Look, you’re choosing that child again like back then. I told you there was a possibility of separating from me, but you went to that guy. You’re choosing that child again instead of me.”
“…Seianes.”
Abrisius, held in Seianes’s embrace, looked at him with a dazed face.
“No, you know that. I like Seianes the most. There’s no way I would choose anyone other than Seianes!”
Was it his imagination that his tears, his sadness, were worrying yet strangely exciting? He felt like he couldn’t control the corners of his mouth that were subtly rising.
Struggling to hold back the laughter that was about to burst out, Abrisius gently wiped away the tears pooling in Seianes’s eyes.
Dewdrop-like teardrops rolled down from Abrisius’s fingertips.
‘Could he be anxious right now?’
Seianes’s dislike of him being with Cairens must be because of his anxiety that he might lose him again. But it was clear that the source of that anxiety was his love toward him.
And perhaps, that love might not just be blind love for a child, but also romantic love. While wiping Seianes’s tears, Abrisius felt a faint sense of anticipation.
According to Cairens, Seianes had been strict with him.
Above all, Seianes, who was always gentle to him and cold to Cairens. Thinking of the original story, imagining a relationship he couldn’t even conceive of made his heart stir uncontrollably. The thought that since Cairens, whom he had viewed rationally, wasn’t there, he himself had taken that place.
‘At least I have a chance, right? No, maybe the chance has already come.’
Seeing that possibility made him feel so good his heart ached.
“Look at me, I’m here. I will never leave you. I was too foolish earlier. I’m sorry.”
He gently pulled Seianes’s face down.
When his gaze, a span taller than himself, reached him, Abrisius smiled warmly.
The warm warmth felt in his embrace and the touch wiping his tears. Above all, the incomparably pure smile unchanged from childhood.
Feeling the affection deeply permeated in each of Abrisius’s actions, Seianes finally relaxed and pulled Abrisius in closer.
“That’s right, you’re right. Abrisius. You won’t leave me behind, right? Just as I won’t leave you behind. So don’t do that again. I’m so anxious.”
“Okay.”
Patting with both hands, Abrisius calmed Seianes.
Perhaps now was the opportunity?
An impulsive thought that flashed by. Watching Seianes, who was sad that he might approach Cairens or choose and leave with him, he fell into brief thought.
Abrisius didn’t want to hold back anymore. Perhaps now was the opportunity. The opportunity to confess these feelings toward Seianes.
“Seianes, you know.”
So he decided to boldly approach.
Abrisius’s touch moved toward Seianes’s cheek. When the lukewarm sensation touched his cheek, Seianes’s gaze fixed on Abrisius.
Abrisius didn’t miss that brief moment. Quickly, and slowly.
“Ah.”
Abrisius’s lips gently met Seianes’s lips.
