While Ian was alone with Vermouth, the air in the living room had sunk heavily. Choi Jaeheon sat rigidly on the sofa with his arms crossed, glaring at the master bedroom door with fierce eyes. It was as if he would rush in immediately if anything happened inside.
It was Ian, who happened to be coming out of Vermouth’s room, who discovered Choi Jaeheon like that.
“Hyung, you should rest too.”
Ian pretended to be nonchalant as he worried about Choi Jaeheon.
“I can’t sleep. More than that, Ian, don’t close the door tight.”
Choi Jaeheon spat out bluntly.
“We don’t know what might happen to the patient’s condition, so don’t make it a sealed room. So I can rush in right away if something happens.”
Hyung, are you really worried about the patient? It seems like you’re worried about something else entirely. Even knowing that, Ian slowly nodded.
“Okay. The patient needs to rest, so just keep it quiet.”
Saying that, Ian headed to the bathroom. Vermouth’s condition had improved somewhat, and since he was continuously pouring divine power within reach, Ian thought it would be fine for a moment. Thanks to that, other living creatures outside the house were also receiving that benefit.
Choi Jaeheon’s gaze pierced hotly into Ian’s back. With that razor-sharp momentum, the moment Ian entered the room where Vermouth was and locked the door, it seemed like he would immediately tear off the door and barge in.
‘So that means I have to give up on locking the door.’
Do the treatment that anyone watching would obviously misunderstand with that bastard without even locking the door? That required a lot of mental preparation.
First, he turned on the faucet at the sink and washed his face. When the cold water touched his face, his mind cleared. Right, let’s save Vermouth first. After saving him, whether he interrogated or beat him up, that was right for now.
Still, thinking Choi Jaeheon might not sleep, he came out several times using the bathroom as an excuse, but his eyes were wide awake. What exactly is an S-rank Awakener? How are they built that they can stay up all night so fine even when they must be tired?
It was troublesome in many ways. But there was no way to forcibly put Choi Jaeheon to sleep either. In the end, Ian made a somewhat risky choice.
Ian, who entered the room where Vermouth was, naturally closed the door. But he didn’t touch the lock. Therefore, if someone turned the handle from outside, it was in a defenseless state where it would open anytime.
That fact made Ian’s heart beat like crazy. With just one closed door between them, his hyung, an S-rank Awakener, was awake. There was no worse situation than this.
The room was quiet. The medical equipment set up in advance during the day was running with a low humming noise, which was at least a comfort.
Vermouth opened his eyes as if noticing Ian’s presence.
“If it hurts, just sleep.”
“How can I just sleep when you’re beside me? It’s not an opportunity that comes all the time.”
This bastard. Looking at him like this, I even suspect he got his arm torn off on purpose. But even a crazy bastard wouldn’t lose his arm like that.
‘Probably not, right?’
Even his current state was like that. He was speaking in a calm voice, but cold sweat ran down his temples. Seeing the poison remaining in his body writhe as if alive, it must hurt terribly.
He wished Vermouth would at least scream that it hurt. But Vermouth didn’t even twitch an eyebrow. It was a creepily calm demeanor. It had been like this when he was in Lancia too. He was the same as usual even when seriously injured. But that didn’t mean he was fine.
Right now, Vermouth was barely holding on with Ian’s help.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
Ian couldn’t help but ask. Convulsions rippled through the severed arm part because of the poison, yet his expression didn’t change at all, which was amazing.
“It hurts.”
Vermouth answered dryly. It was an indifferent tone, as if saying ‘The weather is a bit hot today.’
“It’s a pain like flesh rotting and bones melting. But isn’t it in front of Ian-nim? I can’t scream so unsightly. As your knight, I must maintain dignity.”
“You crazy bastard. If it hurts, show that it hurts. And why are you my knight? You’re the goddess’s knight.”
“So, won’t you treat me?”
Vermouth turned his head to look at Ian. His violet eyes shone bewitchingly in the darkness.
He knew. That Ian couldn’t resolve this terrible abyss poison just by holding hands. And he was already calculating what would happen now that the door was closed in a place where only the two of them were.
Ian bit his lip.
There was no time. The poison kept gnawing at Vermouth. There was no leisure to wait for hyung to fall asleep. He had to perform treatment for him now.
In this room where the door could open at any time.
Deceiving hyung, he had to kiss a man in a closed room. A sense of immorality filled him to the top of his head, but there was no other way.
“Don’t make a sound.”
Ian approached the bedside and whispered low.
“Hyung is right outside the door. If even the slightest sound leaks out, we’re both finished.”
“We? That’s a word with a nice ring to it.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
Ian climbed onto the bed and placed his trembling hand beside Vermouth’s face. The mattress sank slightly and made a creaking sound. The small sound that he normally wouldn’t notice felt as loud as thunder now, and Ian held his breath.
“Are you alright?”
Vermouth smiled with his eyes crinkling, trapped in Ian’s embrace. That smile held a strange anticipation. His solid body and hot body temperature felt from below transmitted through the thin fabric. The movement of muscles felt beneath the clothes was vivid.
Ian grabbed Vermouth’s chin.
‘This is a treatment act.’
After self-hypnotizing himself again, when he looked at Vermouth, he obediently parted his lips. A red tongue was glimpsed between them. Ian unconsciously glanced toward the door. But the doorknob hadn’t moved yet.
The strange fear and tension rather sharpened his senses keenly.
Touch.
Their lips met.
As quietly as possible, carefully. He awkwardly rubbed the inside with his tongue and pushed in divine power. The ‘stigmata’ near his heart, which normally barely shone, began to glow hotly. Bothered by it, he rubbed that area with his hand.
Ian started it, but what followed proceeded as usual. Vermouth wrapped his remaining hand around Ian’s back and explored his intimate inner flesh.
“……!”
As the self-proclaimed treatment act continued stickily, wet sounds came from where they touched. At the same time, Vermouth’s body reacted. The pain washed away, and his body began to recover through the powerful divine power. Vermouth’s face flushed with the sense of fullness as fundamental power filled him.
Sweet, too sweet. He wanted to go further than kissing. He blocked Ian’s lips as Ian was about to let out a moan from the intensified act. The hand that had been wrapping around his back moved down to grab his waist and pull him closer.
Ian urgently pressed Vermouth’s chest with his hand.
“Slowly.”
Vermouth smiled at the request uttered with heated breath. He licked Ian’s wet lips and pushed his tongue in again. Hot mucous membranes intertwined, and saliva mixed. He soon forgot about resenting Regnasia, wondering why this was a treatment act.
He ran out of breath from the persistently clinging kiss. Only after mercilessly hitting Vermouth could he barely escape. Ian wiped his mouth with his sleeve while checking Vermouth’s condition. He’d definitely gotten much better. But he hadn’t fully recovered.
‘Still, the treatment is working.’
The effect was certain. But once wasn’t enough. To completely root it out, he needed to inject deeper, more.
Ian took a deep breath and dug in more desperately. He ensnared Vermouth’s tongue and shared every breath without leaving anything out. Trying not to make sounds, his breathing became rougher and the contact stickier. The sound of tongues mixing inside their mouths echoed in his ears.
Vermouth’s eyes narrowed.
The pain had long disappeared. What remained was satisfaction, and thirst. Ian’s lips, Ian’s saliva, Ian’s breath. The fact that all of this was being given for him, solely to save him, drove him mad.
His intact right hand smoothly rose and burrowed into Ian’s t-shirt.
“Hngh…!”
Ian flinched in surprise and tried to pull away, but Vermouth had no intention of letting go. He sprang up from where he lay and pushed Ian beneath him. And while pressing down on him with his body, he continued the kiss.
Because of that, Ian’s face turned bright red.
This was not treatment. It was a starving beast’s meal.
Vermouth took advantage of Ian’s weakness of not being able to make sounds and ravaged him as he pleased. He swept every corner of Ian’s mouth and sucked down to the root of his tongue. Hot palms climbed up Ian’s spine, groping his bare skin.
Thud.
Just then, there was a sound of something falling in the living room.
