‘Is the bed uncomfortable?’
Then, with another thought that belatedly occurred to him, Diego carefully placed his hand on his forehead.
The moment he touched it, he felt body heat hot enough to startle him. The cheek he touched next was equally warm. When he hurriedly went outside, he saw Emily approaching with a tea set.
“Where’s Roman?”
“He’s sleeping. …He seems to have a fever.”
“Oh, really?”
Emily didn’t know what to do upon learning this belatedly. She’d been surprised by the sudden visit, and since he had his usual smiling face, she hadn’t thought at all that he might be unwell.
“Do we have fever reducers at home?”
“Yeah. We probably do. I’ll look for them right now.”
Diego gathered a small basin of water and a towel and returned to the room. Roman was still curled up with his eyes closed. When he wrung out the towel soaked in water and placed it on his forehead, a faint groan leaked out between his dry lips.
“Here it is, Hyung.”
Emily, who had entered the room, held out a small pill and a cup of water. Diego soon called Roman’s name in a low voice.
“Roman.”
“……”
But Roman remained silent. Thinking it would be useless to call him again, Diego sat lightly on the edge of the bed where Roman was sleeping.
Even when he lifted his upper body in an embrace, Roman didn’t move. Diego, who had put the pill in his own mouth, pressed Roman’s jaw to make him open his lips. He pushed the pill through the gap and passed water the same way. When he blew breath in, Roman’s Adam’s apple moved even unconsciously.
After feeding him water two more times, he laid him back down on the bed. As he placed the wet towel back on his forehead, he heard Emily’s voice whispering softly from behind.
“Come to think of it, Roman’s leg looked a bit uncomfortable too.”
Diego quickly turned around and asked back.
“His leg?”
“Yeah. When I saw him going to your room, it looked like he was putting a lot of weight on one leg. Did he sprain his ankle?”
“……”
Diego’s gaze turned toward the lower part of the bed. He quickly turned back and spoke to Emily in a gentle voice.
“I’ll check on it in a bit. You must be tired, so go rest.”
“Is there anything I can help with?”
“It’s fine. I’ll call you if I need anything.”
“Okay. Then you get plenty of rest too, Hyung.”
The door closed quietly. Roman was still fast asleep. After looking at his face for a moment, Diego carefully pulled back the blanket and examined Roman’s legs. There didn’t seem to be any swelling in particular, but he noticed a rather long scar above the right heel.
‘When did he get injured?’
It clearly didn’t look recent. With a scar this size, he thought it must have been quite a serious injury at the time.
Diego’s fingers touched the scar. When he carefully caressed it as if tracing the skin, Roman’s body flinched.
“…Roman?”
He called his name softly, but Roman’s eyes didn’t open. It seemed his body had reacted unconsciously.
Diego slowly massaged Roman’s leg. If his leg hurt because of the injury that left this scar, the massage probably wouldn’t help much, but he wanted him to sleep even a little more comfortably.
A while later, Diego took his hands off Roman’s leg and covered him with the blanket again. After lightly kissing his dry fingertips, he blew out the candle.
Pitch-black darkness arrived, but Diego gazed at Roman’s sleeping face for a while. Hoping that his fever would go down quickly so he could be even a little more comfortable.
***
The moment Roman opened his eyes, what he saw was Diego’s sleeping face.
For an instant, he wondered if he was dreaming, but soon the memory of last night, when he’d come to Diego’s house through the pouring rain, came back to him.
So that’s why he’d felt a strange weight even in his sleep… Diego’s left arm was wrapped around his waist. He was about to pull it down, but quickly changed his mind and left it as it was. He had the feeling that if he moved, the guy would wake up.
Thanks to that, Roman, who had nothing to do, quietly gazed at the face before his eyes. Thick eyebrows, a nose bridge that protruded prominently even from the front, lips closed properly in a straight line. After only seeing him always moving energetically, looking at him sleeping so obediently like this gave him a strange feeling.
Perhaps as a reaction to his strict Knights’ Order life, Roman didn’t particularly like being bound by rules. Human relationships were the same. Being bound to a specific partner and pouring out sustained affection was quite a bothersome thing. But he couldn’t ignore even the instinct to want Benic blood, so during each Bloody Cycle, he would go to Lovers’ Lane to look for one-night partners. If there was someone with good compatibility among them, he would make a proposal for a partnership lasting several months.
Then Roman met Diego. Among the applicants who flocked like clouds, Diego was definitely eye-catching. While the guild members who evaluated together showed interest in his experience and specialties, Roman oddly fixed his gaze on Diego’s face.
So in a way, it was natural that he made a partnership proposal. Even as he spoke, he actually didn’t have high expectations. Though there was the advantage of being a dominant Neo, he was the same gender as the guy and there was quite an age gap too. So with a ‘nothing to lose’ mindset, he casually brought it up, but for whatever reason the guy accepted, creating another private connection.
The physical compatibility with Diego was very good. His dependable build, his large hot hands, his masculine parts that boasted an exceptional presence. When he entered, filling him completely from behind, it felt so good his spine tingled, and perhaps because the sex was satisfying, even drinking the blood of an ordinary trait didn’t make him feel lacking at all.
The period Roman initially thought of was at most six months. No matter how good the physical compatibility, if you continuously drank the same partner’s blood, there was a risk of imprinting on each other. In fact, among Benics of similar rank, there had been guys who tried to forcibly imprint, and annoyed by that, he deliberately only chose ordinary or recessive partners to make partnership proposals to.
But somehow, he’d already been mixing bodies with Diego for over half a year. Normally, it would be right to start looking for a different partner around this time, but for some reason, Roman kept putting it off.
No, to be honest, he’d never had such thoughts. Because his relationship with Diego was so satisfying. If possible, he wanted this current state to continue just a little longer.
“Mm…”
His eyelids trembled slightly, then his dark brown eyes were revealed. Soon Diego bolted upright. Thanks to that, Roman, finally freed from the restraint that wasn’t a restraint, smiled faintly and greeted him first.
“Good morning.”
“…Good morning. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.”
Roman also sat up belatedly. Come to think of it, the terrible headache that had felt like his head would split was completely gone. A large hand touched Roman’s forehead. After confirming there was no fever, he met his gaze with a relieved expression.
“Did you have some business?”
Realizing he was asking the reason for the sudden visit, Roman answered in a calm tone.
“I came out of the tavern and it suddenly started pouring rain. I went to the plaza but there wasn’t a single hired carriage, so… your house was closer, so I just came here.”
“You did well. If I’d known you were coming, I would have come home a bit earlier.”
Then an unexpected question came from Diego’s mouth.
“Is your ankle okay?”
“My ankle?”
“Yes. Emily told me that yesterday your leg looked a bit uncomfortable.”
The image of Emily opening the door with a surprised expression at the sudden visit came to mind. His head had hurt too much so he didn’t remember well, but it seemed she’d at least seen his back as he went to Diego’s room.
“I got injured a long time ago, so it aches sometimes. It’s fine now.”
But Diego had an expression that couldn’t quite erase his worry. He glanced at Roman’s ankle once, then met his gaze again and carefully broached the subject.
“May I ask how you got injured?”
A faint smile appeared on Roman’s lips.
“Are you curious?”
“…Yes.”
“I’m not telling you.”
“……!”
Actually, there was nothing he couldn’t tell him. If he said he’d been part of the Imperial Knights’ Order in his youth, he’d definitely be surprised, so just saying he got injured during work would be enough to convince him. But the moment he saw Diego’s expression, his mind changed. Seeing him being careful in case it would be rude while also looking curious, mischievousness welled up for no reason.
“Did the escort work go well?”
“Yes. I finished it safely.”
“Good job.”
The scene inside the banquet hall was clearly drawn in Roman’s mind. Since the guy had quite an atmosphere when he kept his mouth shut and stood still quietly, he could easily guess that he probably received quite a few gazes.
