By Zephyria A low-pitched voice lurked behind his head. At the same time, a cool sensation ran down his spine. Leonardo’s shoulders twitched greatly as if his hair was standing on end.
Holding the cloth of the tent tightly and slowly turning his head, Hugo, who he didn’t know when he had come, was looking down at him with a slightly tired face.
Leonardo blinked his surprised eyes, his mouth gaping.
‘What… I didn’t feel any presence at all?’
He was being careless, but it was unbelievable that he hadn’t noticed him until he came this close.
No, more than that, since when had he been awake?
“Oh, when did you wake up?”
“…Answer my question. Where are you going?”
Leonardo Blaine swallowed nervously, worried that he might have been caught staring at his face. Besides, even to his eyes, which didn’t usually get intimidated, Agrizendro, who seemed very displeased after waking up, felt a little… scary for some reason.
Leonardo Blaine, searching for a suitable explanation, held up the crumpled pack of cigarettes he was clutching and showed it to him.
“Just… going for a smoke.”
Hugo, who had been looking down at the crumpled pack of cigarettes for a moment, slowly gazed at the golden eyes that were looking up at him anxiously, as if trying to gauge his reaction.
He stood there silently for a long time, then slowly blinked once and said.
“I’ll come with you.”
* * *
Hugo and Leonardo Blaine climbed onto a rocky cliff located a little higher than the cave where the base camp was located.
Leonardo Blaine sat precariously on the edge of a protruding rock, holding a cigarette between his fingers and putting the filter in his mouth. Soon after lighting the end, he glanced sideways and asked.
“Why are you following me when you don’t even smoke?”
Hugo stood some distance away from Leonardo Blaine, but close enough to be heard, with his hands in his combat pants pockets. He had been staring at the peak across the way, but at Leonardo Blaine’s question, he slowly turned his eyes towards him.
“To watch you.”
At the colder-than-usual voice, Leonardo Blaine, who had been glancing sideways, grumbled to himself.
“You could have just assigned someone else like before.”
After saying that, he changed his position, raised one knee, and rested his arm holding the cigarette on it. Hugo looked at him like that, then turned his head back to the front. He didn’t particularly respond.
Leonardo Blaine, who had been meeting his gaze, also thought he had just been ignored and looked ahead. He felt a little sorry because it seemed like he had woken him up.
The peninsula’s sky is usually foggy and gloomy throughout the year, but apart from a large cloud hanging over the mountainside across the way, the peninsula’s night sky was quite clear today. Leonardo Blaine looked at the stars shining in the sky and exhaled a long stream of smoke.
The wind was blowing from where Hugo was to where Leonardo Blaine was, so the smoke didn’t fly towards Hugo, but because the distance wasn’t that far, Hugo could smell the cigarette.
There was a sense of familiarity in the flickering cigarette smoke. It was the same smell as the cigarettes Andreas smoked, and he seemed to vaguely remember Leonardo Blaine mentioning that he smoked the same thing in the interrogation room.
Hugo shifted his gaze back to Leonardo Blaine, scanning his hair and profile, which were shining in the moonlight.
In a somewhat familiar composition, the day he first took him to the Council suddenly came to mind.
The image of him smoking on the terrace of the annex. When he overlapped it with that afterimage, Leonardo Blaine’s sharp jawline seemed even sharper than before.
‘Did he lose some weight?’
Soon, Hugo lowered his eyes slightly and focused on the black short-sleeved T-shirt he was wearing. It was something people commonly wore, but seeing him wearing it even though he was no longer a soldier, it seemed like he hadn’t broken his old habits yet.
Leonardo Blaine’s body was more solidly balanced than the average man, but he was relatively slender. However, even considering that, the black T-shirt draped over his body seemed quite loose, as if it wasn’t originally his size.
And because of that, Hugo couldn’t help but be drawn to the white, long neck exposed above the slightly stretched neckline. On that white neck, a black choker clearly crossed below the slightly protruding Adam’s apple.
He had only seen it partially covered before, but this was the first time he was seeing it so clearly. But coincidentally, it didn’t look out of place.
The black choker contrasted with his skin tone, creating a somewhat decadent atmosphere, and it surprisingly suited his appearance as he smoked a cigarette in the moonlight. If someone didn’t know better, they would really think it was just a kind of accessory.
Suddenly, Hugo recalled Flynn’s words that Leonardo Blaine had brought up the topic first. He had been hesitating for some time whether to ask about it, so after a moment of silence, Hugo cautiously called his name.
“Leonardo Blaine.”
At the low voice, Leonardo Blaine, who had been holding the cigarette in his mouth, took it off his lips and turned his eyes to him.
As the clear golden eyes turned towards him, Hugo opened his mouth slowly, with a feeling of being quite cautious.
“I have something I want to ask you, may I?”
For a moment, Leonardo Blaine looked a little taken aback. But soon he chuckled and asked back.
“What’s a question that asks if I can ask a question?”
“Because I don’t think you’ll be very happy about it.”
At Hugo’s words, Leonardo Blaine rolled his eyes upwards, trying to guess what the question might be. Then he inhaled the smoke once and exhaled it briefly.
“I’ll listen.”
Thinking that his answer was positive for his standards, Hugo stared at him and calmly opened his mouth.
“That thing on your neck, did the military make you wear it?”
As soon as the question was finished, a hot and humid wind blew between the two.
“……”
Until just a moment ago, Leonardo Blaine’s face was full of quite diverse expressions, but as soon as he heard Hugo’s question, his expression froze. Then, after a while, even the remaining composure slowly disappeared.
He maintained that rigid appearance, meeting Hugo’s gaze for a while, then slightly curled up the corners of his lips and finally opened his mouth.
“A question I wouldn’t be happy about… You know me well.”
Feeling the discomfort in his expression and words, Hugo thought he wouldn’t get a proper answer. Hugo, who had slightly lowered his eyes, looked at him again and said.
“It seems like it was a rude question. You don’t have to answer.”
Leonardo Blaine stared at him silently, then turned his head back to the front. Hugo also turned his head at the unfamiliar profile of him holding the filter and deeply inhaling the smoke.
As the atmosphere cooled down a bit, Hugo looked down at the cliff below. He waited for the cigarette in Leonardo Blaine’s fingers to get shorter.
A quiet silence flowed, and only the faint smell of cigarettes made him aware that Leonardo Blaine was still next to him. Hugo thought that his question had been premature. Following that thought, it changed to whether he would ever be able to get an answer, even later on.
And then, a very unexpected story flowed from Leonardo Blaine’s tightly closed lips.
“A bastard who can’t even be touched for fear of being bitten, must have wanted to put a leash on me because I’m his.”
At the completely unexpected words, Hugo reflexively raised his head and turned his eyes to him. Leonardo Blaine wasn’t looking at him, but his answer was certainly a response to the question from earlier.
Hugo narrowed his eyes and looked at his profile, trying to understand the meaning of his words.
His words seemed to mean that the military had put that on him to prevent him from completely letting him go. After recognizing that, Hugo’s expression didn’t change, but he unknowingly clenched his fist.
At that moment, Leonardo Blaine, who had been looking straight ahead, shifted his gaze to Hugo. Thin, white smoke scattered thinly between his moving lips.
“You’re the first person to ask me if you could ask first.”
“……”
“So, I’ll tell you a secret.”
Hugo narrowed his brow slightly and focused on his words.
Seeing his face like that, Leonardo Blaine smiled slightly and said.
“The military can’t put something like this on me.”