“…….”
“I suppose not. You never even saw Espers as human — so all that rambling of mine was pointless. You just wanted to play at being some kind of older brother figure. Even animals grow on you, after all.”
Chalice said nothing to that — only bit down on his lip. Rodeo watched him for a moment, then turned his gaze back to the window and spoke.
“No comment, then?”
“…Yes.”
“As you wish.”
“…….”
“…….”
Silence settled over the car for a long while, and it wasn’t until they were pulling into the underground parking garage that Chalice finally managed to speak. The glance he cast at Rodeo was uncharacteristically hesitant.
“I didn’t expect an explanation, and yet… you used to be so relentless. And now you really do say nothing at all.”
“…Maybe it’s a side effect of the Time Warp.”
“…….”
“Or maybe I’m also a person who can get hurt. Whether you deny it or not.”
After Rodeo finished speaking, the conversation cut off entirely. Chalice said nothing either — only the occasional sidelong glance. Even as Chalice parked and killed the engine, Rodeo remained just as still and silent.
But the moment Chalice unclipped his seatbelt, Rodeo surged upright in his seat, planting a knee on the cushion, and leaned toward him — and Chalice, who had been reaching for the door handle with one hand, froze completely.
Rodeo had braced his arm against the driver’s side window, cutting off any escape. With no choice but to endure the silence and hold his gaze, Chalice found himself face to face with an expression twisted in anguish, teeth clenched tight.
“Even if it’s not how you feel — at times like this, just tell me you were interested in me. Every single time this topic comes up, you never say a single word to deny it. Even now, after ten more years.”
Rodeo’s voice trembled with anger pressed down and held in place — and just as much, the eyes looking up at him had begun to waver too. Chalice’s lips parted and closed again, and again, as if uncertain of something.
“What you think when you look at us. When I caught on to that — I bet you didn’t even think it was a problem. Ah, what a relief. I don’t have to keep up the act in front of this little brat anymore. That must have felt good.”
“…….”
“But you’re forty-three, for fuck’s sake. You’re still exactly the same? You said something about an explanation so I gave you time… and you say absolutely nothing. What the hell.”
“…Rodeo.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Chalice went to part his lips again and stopped dead. Beyond Rodeo’s shoulder, the car window could be seen trembling with vibration.
“You told me once — don’t let that name define you.”
“…….”
“Young me believed that. That the me who believed it back then is still here.”
Rodeo reached out and drew Chalice’s hand to him, pressing it against the space just below his collarbone. Despite the tight grip, his hand was shaking in small, fine tremors.
“Right — stupid Espers. Getting played by Guides who toy with their feelings. That’s how it goes, isn’t it?”
“…….”
“But that’s better.”
“…….”
“You don’t get it, do you? That’s better. When someone like you sees Espers as nothing more than vermin — at least… those shallow bastards who can share a body with you, who can… hah… who can see you as a person, at least — they’re better than… someone like you. A hypocrite.”
Rodeo didn’t look away from Chalice’s eyes for a single moment. His voice, low and murmuring as he stared him down, grew more and more unsteady. His breath was coming short and fast, and the shallow exhales in quick succession could be felt grazing Chalice’s cheek.
“Being treated like… a stud horse is still… still… better than being treated like some… pet dog you raised… when you were young. It’s… better…”
“Stop. You right now—”
“Have you ever… imagined pressing your lips to mine? Not just… grabbing anywhere with your hands, not contact Guiding — have you ever thought about… how far you could… go… hah… have you… even… thought about it…”
His breathing had turned ragged, the words tumbling out in fragments — and Chalice only stared, wide-eyed, with no answer.
“Right, you couldn’t have imagined it. Who would… who would press their body against a dog’s, mix tongues with it… you. You’d rather… ugh… you’d rather just… trigger a Rampage and… be done with it.”
“I understand, so — Rodeo—!”
“And yet I… that kind of person, I…”
The moment Rodeo let out a hollow laugh and began to pull himself back, his gaze caught the interior light flickering unsteadily. His expression was alert and rational — but his body told a different story, trembling finely, rigid all over, swaying without strength as if about to topple sideways into the passenger seat. A ringing began to reach him from far away, and a sensation that was familiar yet never grew familiar was starting from his fingertips.
In that moment, Chalice threw himself forward.
“…!”
He wrapped his shoulder around the body that would clearly slam into something in this state, pulling it away from the seat, the dashboard, the window — and folded it into his own. His large frame hit the passenger seat in an instant with Rodeo in his arms, and Chalice, barely propped up against the reclined seatback in a half-lying position, held the limp body firmly and pulled it upright.
“…Damn it.”
A short curse fell from his lips as he assessed Rodeo’s condition. Rodeo’s face — half-conscious, leaning against Chalice’s arm and chest — moved only where his hands guided it, without any will of its own.
“…….”
Chalice’s gaze wavered. He knew perfectly well what needed to be done. But which path to take — unlike himself, he hesitated and could not decide at once.
Contactless Guiding was what they had agreed to — but a voice that nagged at him kept ringing through his mind. The words that had been wrenched out just moments ago in a trembling, near-crying voice — the accusations, the misunderstandings — kept catching in his ears, pressing on his chest.
The hand gripping Rodeo’s clothing tightened and flinched again. There was no way this would make him happy, and the thought brushed through his mind that a self-serving act like this wouldn’t clear up any misunderstanding.
But…
The stillness lasted only a moment — with a brief, quiet resolve, Chalice’s head dropped down in an instant, and between one blink and the next, the two men’s faces were touching.
“Mm…”
Rodeo, for his part, was squeezing his eyes shut against the sensation of the world tilting, trying to steady himself. But a wave of pleasure crashed into him all at once, striking through his mind — and his eyes flew open as though struck by lightning. In the next moment, a tingling sensation washed over his face like cold water, and as his eyes opened on their own — an impossible sight lay before him.
Chalice’s lips were pressed against Rodeo’s, bearing down on them with quiet, firm pressure.
“Hah—”
With a sharp, ragged intake of breath, Rodeo grabbed Chalice by the collar and lurched upward — then swayed again. Chalice’s arm held him steady as his center of gravity pitched forward.
In the span of that moment, the dynamic shifted entirely. Rodeo’s mouth opened wide as if to devour Chalice whole, and between their parted lips, someone’s canines caught the light. Swept along by Rodeo’s unsteady, flailing movements, Chalice was dragged and swayed this way and that — and found he couldn’t hold back the tide crashing into him.
“Mm — ugh…”
Barely keeping up with the overwhelming demand for contact beyond lips alone, his mouth fell open in a mirrored response — and into it rushed a hot tongue, pressing in as though to stop his breath. Chalice tried to pull back, turning his head to escape the pressure.
“…Hm, wait—”
Before he could even mourn the parting of lips, Rodeo found the nape of Chalice’s neck — bared as he threw his head back — and took it into his mouth in place of his lips, filling it completely.
“Ugh—!”
He tried to pull Rodeo’s head away, fingers scrabbling at the hair pressing against his neck as though trying to draw blood — but his busy hands had already gone still, as if frozen. In the next moment, a low, dragging sound filled the empty space of the car, and Chalice looked at Rodeo with a face flooded with shock. He was tearing Chalice’s shirt open with one hand. The force Chalice had thought was Rodeo’s arm — was his Esper ability.
Before there was even time to be flustered by the chest bared in a heavy, rolling spill of exposure, the passenger seat tilted back in an instant. Without lifting a finger, Rodeo had laid Chalice flat — and he brought his face close to the body now fully on display, regarding it with curious eyes, before beginning without hesitation to taste the skin before him.
He busied his mouth dragging across every inch of the nape and neck, licking and sucking — while one hand worked a breast with relentless, kneading insistence, and then his fingers found the nipple, already swollen and full, and began to slowly, repeatedly pull it between them.
“Ugh… stop — stop it.”
Chalice’s voice carried both shock and a dampness that had crept in without permission. He had, naturally, never once imagined a situation like this with him. Rodeo looked up, lifting his head as if he’d just heard the most nonsensical request imaginable, his eyes gone thoroughly dark and heavy. The eyes staring at Chalice, the nose still grazing his skin — they looked like someone else’s face entirely.
“…Should have done this sooner.”
“What do you mean by that—”
“I didn’t expect… even I didn’t think…”
He didn’t finish the sentence — only exhaled a heated breath and buried his face against the other breast. As if meaning to leave a mark, he drew a mouthful of flesh in and sucked, then dragged a wet tongue across it in slow, tickling strokes. Chalice twisted under the stinging ache and the strangely itching sensation — but his body, held fixed by the ability, could only manage a faint twitch.
“Ugh… mm…”
The faint struggling that refused to stop even as his body was rendered immobile kept producing small tremors — but the low voice gradually shifted into short, catching breaths, and the intervals between them grew longer. As though Rodeo’s hot exhales had passed into him, Chalice too lay with one breast given over, pushing out short, choked breaths again and again — and before long, those sounds had turned into something else entirely.
“Ah…”
“Ugh… no… no, stop…”
“Mmh… hah…”
