Chapter 53 53: Sharing the Same Bed and Pillow

Emilia's gaze flickered guiltily to the side — then, as if something had just occurred to her, her expression shifted.

A mischievous glint lit up her face. The corner of her mouth curled into a playful little arc.

She hugged her pillow and drew out her words on purpose, leaning forward until she was close — very close — to Subaru's face, her voice carrying just a hint of complaint and teasing.

"Because when we said goodbye this afternoon, all Subaru said was 'see you tonight' — without telling me what time, or where we were supposed to meet."

"So —"

She straightened up, and a bright, just slightly smug smile bloomed across her face.

"I had no choice but to come in person and ask what time Subaru meant by our 'appointment,' did I?"

Subaru's eyes landed on the full, taut swell at Emilia's chest, and he swallowed hard.

He drove his gaze down to the floor with everything he had, and squeezed out an answer through a voice gone dry as sand:

"H-How about we postpone tonight's appointment to tomorrow?"

"Emilia-tan, you must be tired too, it'd probably be better to rest earl—"

"Mo~, Subaru!"

Emilia put on a sincerely unhappy little expression, her dissatisfaction plain to see — even the hands hugging her pillow tightened.

"You're changing the subject again."

"Every time I'm being serious, Subaru just brushes me off with some silly deflection!"

She puffed out her cheeks ever so slightly.

"Like just now — when I asked if you liked what I was wearing, you never gave me a proper answer!"

"Uh, but I was just about to—"

The protest that had been about to tumble out of Natsuki Subaru's mouth lodged in his throat.

Because Emilia had already set down the pillow. She reached out with both hands and — with a gentle but entirely non-negotiable firmness — cupped Natsuki Subaru's blazing-hot cheeks in her palms.

"Look at me when you talk, Subaru."

She applied a little pressure, trying to tilt his bowed head back up to face her.

Caught completely off guard.

Natsuki Subaru followed that gentle force and lifted his head —

— and his entire field of vision was instantly swallowed by a warm, yielding expanse of violet.

Because Emilia had been leaning slightly forward, drawing closer and closer to Natsuki Subaru.

And the angle at which Natsuki Subaru had been forced to tilt his head back happened to be just a little too low…

So the moment Natsuki Subaru raised his face, it plunged directly — perfectly — into Emilia's open, barely-covered chest, draped in nothing but a single layer of translucent gauze.

"Mgh — ?!"

Natsuki Subaru's startled cry was smothered in warmth and softness.

His brain overloaded in zero-point-one seconds flat, and every drop of blood in his body seemed to surge straight to the top of his skull.

That full, yielding curve — carrying the warmth of living skin and a faint, elusive fragrance — pressed against his nose and lips without reservation.

The delicate texture of skin beneath the gauze came through the thin fabric with startling clarity.

Natsuki Subaru could even feel the taut, springy give of what lay beneath that gauze, and the subtle, gentle rise and fall of her breathing.

Natsuki Subaru had gone rigid as a stone. Even his breath had halted, held with painstaking care.

And yet Emilia remained completely, utterly unaware.

She still had his face cupped in her hands, her voice carrying a small but unmistakable indignation.

"Subaru is always like this! We made plans this afternoon to meet tonight, but you never told me when, so I spent ages waiting! And now you won't answer my questions properly!"

She gave Subaru's head a little shake, as if trying to rattle some sense into him.

"So as compensation, Subaru has to sleep with me tonight."

As she said it, Emilia's eyes slid steadily toward the floor, and her face went scarlet. She even freed one hand to fan her own cheeks — apparently she was unbearably warm at the moment.

"Hah? How did the topic jump all the way to sleeping together?"

That bombshell of a demand finally wrenched a thread of rational thought loose from the suffocating, impossibly soft sensation engulfing Natsuki Subaru.

His voice shot up and cracked with the force of his shock.

Natsuki Subaru felt as though his very soul were about to float clean out through the top of his head.

"Mm! It's decided!"

Emilia's tone was absolute — the kind of cheerful, utterly unanswerable willfulness that brooked no argument.

She finally released her hold on his face, and instead grabbed his scorching wrist, dragging him toward the bed without a word of preamble.

Natsuki Subaru, still reeling from the shock and the lingering dizziness, stumbled along on unsteady feet, like he was walking on clouds.

He was tugged, dazed and staggering, all the way to the edge of the bed.

"Go on and lie down, Subaru."

Emilia's voice had returned to its usual gentleness — as if the pouty girl who'd just been demanding compensation had never existed.

She patted the bed naturally, then climbed up herself first, moving with a lightness that reminded him of a cat.

Natsuki Subaru's head was still a complete muddle. His body crawled onto the bed on autopilot and went rigid, lying flat on his back on the far side, hands folded carefully on his stomach.

The bed wasn't particularly wide. The moment both of them lay down, the distance between them closed instantly to where they could feel each other's warmth.

Natsuki Subaru's nerves snapped taut all over again — but what Emilia did next stopped him cold.

She picked up the rectangular pillow she'd been clutching the whole time.

Very deliberately, very carefully, she stood it upright and placed it lengthwise between their two bodies — a soft, plush dividing line separating them.

Having accomplished this, she seemed quite satisfied. She turned onto her side, facing Subaru's direction.

"There. That's better."

She murmured, with a quiet sigh of a task completed.

Then, before Natsuki Subaru had any chance to react —

She reached out both fair, slender arms and looped them around his neck with effortless ease.

As naturally as if she were hugging her favorite pillow.

She adjusted her position, tucking her face in close to Subaru's shoulder.

She gave a contented little nuzzle, let out a soft sigh of satisfaction — and then her breathing evened out into a long, steady rhythm.

— She had fallen, completely and utterly without guard, into a deep, sound sleep.

Natsuki Subaru: "..."

He lay beside Emilia, not daring to move a single muscle.

His nose was wrapped in the scent drifting from Emilia — a mingling of faint florals and something else entirely, something indescribable, wholly and uniquely hers.

Wisps and tendrils of it, finding every crack, filling every space.

He could feel the soft, silken texture of her bare arms against his neck with vivid clarity.

Along with that unconcealed, body-warm touch.

Every time Emilia's warm breath skimmed across the side of his neck, it was like a feather drawing slowly across his nerves.

In his mind, a whole fireworks show of wild, tangled, pulse-quickening thoughts exploded one after another in rapid succession.

T-There was absolutely no way anyone could sleep like this!!!

He felt like a potato being roasted alive over an open fire — burning all over, heart pounding like a drum, his whole nervous system so wound up he could probably sprint ten laps around the outermost wall of the manor.

The seconds ticked by, each one stretching out to an unbearable length.

He tried desperately to distract himself.

But every attempt crumbled before that closeness — the warmth, the softness, the soft breath so near.

And yet, the body is always honest.

Today he had lived through Rem's confession, the reunion and contract with Betty, the misunderstanding with Ram, the shock of discovering the secret in that story.

Puck's scheming (?) that had delivered Emilia's devastating visual assault upon him, and now this sweet, torturous business of sharing a bed…

A vast, bone-deep exhaustion rose like a tide, and it finally, slowly, began to submerge those over-stimulated nerves.

The tension drained from his body by degrees. His frantic heartbeat gradually calmed. The chaos of his thoughts blurred and drifted, piece by piece, into fog…

Wrapped in the steady, peaceful rhythm of Emilia's breathing, Natsuki Subaru's eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

And at last.

His consciousness slipped down into the dark, and he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

____

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