By Zephyria 
Trying to catch me by stepping on his own hair and falling? How does he even come up with these ideas?
It was an absurd and cute action, but his expression and the strength of his grip were not. I thought he was being considerate earlier, but did he give up again? Or is he just unable to control himself because he’s angry?
It was a bearable pain, but I deliberately exaggerated and bent forward.
“It hurts!”
I thought he would be surprised and loosen his grip or let go altogether, but instead, his grip tightened even more. Now it really hurt, and I couldn’t help but frown.
“Don’t move.”
Aska growled lowly, as if warning me, and grabbed my ankle with his other hand. He’s not going to break it, is he? I was momentarily terrified, but thankfully, he didn’t.
“What’s this?”
No, can I even call it fortunate?
Thin, long strands of opaque light appeared on both ankles. I could see them, but I couldn’t grab them or shake them off. Then, the strands between my ankles shortened in an instant, and my feet stuck together. No matter how hard I tried to separate them, they wouldn’t budge.
In this state, I couldn’t even stand properly, let alone walk. I stared at Aska with a dumbfounded expression. I wanted an explanation, but I was speechless at the satisfied look on his face.
Without explanation, Aska stood up, embraced me, and moved his wings. The past, when I put shackles on Aska’s ankles, flashed through my mind like a panorama.
As I was held by Aska, watching the ground getting farther and farther away, I reached out my hands. I grabbed Aska’s cheeks with both hands, stretched them out, and asked.
“What are you doing?”
“You keep running away, so I can’t help it.”
“So you put this kind of thing on my ankles? Like a criminal? And I told you I didn’t run away.”
Aska shook his head, as if shaking off water droplets from his face, and avoided my hands.
When will he come to his senses? He drank blood, so he should be back to normal soon. He’s not going to stay like this, is he? Suddenly, I felt a chill down my spine and shivered.
“Are you cold?”
“……”
I stared at Aska silently. Is he sane? Is he pretending to be crazy even though he’s sane? There was no reason for him to do that, but in some ways, he was similar to his usual self, so I was suspicious.
“Where are we going?”
“To a place where you can’t run away.”
Where is that?
I didn’t really run away, so I felt wronged. But it didn’t seem like anything I said would get through to him now. I decided to just let Aska do what he wanted for now.
I leaned my face on Aska’s shoulder, looked at the ruins below, and said.
“Aska.”
“What.”
“Do you like me?”
“I like you the most in the world.”
“Hmm.”
The moment I heard that, I unconsciously relaxed my facial muscles and my lips curled upward. Apart from feeling good about this answer, I was convinced that he wasn’t in his right mind.
“How did you feel when you kissed me?”
It seemed like he would answer honestly no matter what I asked now, so I asked with ulterior motives.
“It was good.”
“Do you like just touching lips, or do you like opening your mouth and putting your tongue in?”
“I like both.”
He was so embarrassed when our tongues touched earlier, but he doesn’t seem to mind saying this.
For some reason, a playful mood crept up, and I squinted my eyes like a pervert and asked again.
“Do you want to try something even more intense?”
Then, Aska’s gaze, which had been fixed forward, reached me. The eyes that glanced at me were so sharp that they were unfamiliar. The answer didn’t come easily. After staring at me for a long time, Aska said concisely.
“I want to.”
For being a late answer, it was a firm and resolute voice. I thought that I should take this opportunity to investigate Aska’s tastes since I wouldn’t be able to hear them otherwise.
“How do you want to treat me?”
“How?”
“You must have thought about what you want to do when you look at me, what kind of things you want to do to me. What is it?”
Again, Aska hesitated. He didn’t seem to be thinking about what he wanted to do, but rather, he seemed to be having a hard time answering. After moving his lips several times, Aska confessed his taste.
“I want to chew you up and swallow you whole, from head to toe, and put you inside me.”
“……”
I couldn’t help but be flustered by the shy words. I thought I could accept whatever he said, whatever his tastes were, but this was impossible.
I moved my lips several times, just like Aska had done, and muttered.
“That’s not what I meant when I asked about your sexual preferences……”
“That’s why I want to keep you from being seen by anyone. I don’t want you to go anywhere. I want to have you all to myself.”
He had a hard time saying it, but once the dam burst, it didn’t stop. But I understood Aska’s feelings to some extent.
The point of those words wasn’t that he wanted to tear my flesh and eat it, but that he wanted to confine me. I interpreted it as I wanted and was satisfied on my own.
“Since when have you been thinking like that?”
“Since I was young.”
“Since you were young, you wanted to have me all to yourself?”
There was no answer, but the movement of his tail became more intense than before. I put my chin on Aska’s shoulder and watched it for a while. The tail appeared and disappeared every time his wings moved.
Then, I reached out and inadvertently touched the root of his wings. I rubbed the space between the wing bone and the beginning of the wing, using the entire surface of my index finger as if digging in.
The moment I thought it was softer than I expected and felt good, I heard a high-pitched moan in my ear.
“Ah……!”
In an instant, the tail and the flapping of wings stopped at the same time. I was startled by the sweet sound and widened my eyes. The distance between Aska and me was getting farther and farther away.
“……”
I belatedly realized that Aska had dropped me. While falling rapidly, I saw Aska’s black, long tail zigzagging like lightning.
Aska put his hand behind him and scratched the root of the wing that I had touched a little while ago. Then, belatedly discovering that I was falling, he hurriedly came down to catch me.
As soon as I was caught in the air, Aska twisted both of my arms behind my back and fixed them in the same way he had done with my ankles.
“Stay still.”
Even though he was frowning, his complexion was redder than before. I wanted to tease him more, but it was a bit difficult to have all my limbs restricted, so I exaggerated.
“My shoulders hurt because my arms are twisted behind my back. I won’t touch you, so release my arms.”
As I whined, pretending to be pitiful, Aska hugged me more gently. The slightly uncomfortable posture became as comfortable as lying in bed.
“No, release my arms.”
“……”
“Aska.”
“……”
He was definitely listening to me. Aska didn’t answer and didn’t even look at me. I kept protesting by bumping my chest and shoulders against him, but Aska didn’t open his mouth until the end.
Who did he take after to be so stubborn? You can touch me a little, why are you being so picky?
After flying for a long time, we arrived at the same cave in the middle of the cliff where we had landed briefly before. It was more like a slightly recessed space in the cliff than a cave.
It was definitely a place where I couldn’t avoid even if I wanted to. It was so high that I would die if I fell below, so I couldn’t run away. It was funny that he could think this far even though he wasn’t in his right mind.
Aska put me down on the floor, holding me like a precious doll. It was too uncomfortable to lie straight because my arms and legs were tied up, so I leaned sideways and looked at Aska.
I tried to twist my wrists to loosen them somehow, but it was impossible. In the first place, it wasn’t a rope but something made of magic, so it wouldn’t be released unless I cut off my wrists.
Aska stood still and looked down at me, wriggling with my limbs bound. He was so tall and his folded wings were so huge that his shadow was wide and long enough to cover me completely.
Aska’s face, standing with his back to the narrow entrance, was covered in darkness, but even in the midst of that, only his red eyes were clear.
I gave up moving, relaxed my whole body, and sighed.
“Are you satisfied now?”
Aska’s brow furrowed slightly at my question. He had a dissatisfied look on his face, which was just absurd. I’ve gone along with him this far, and it’s still not enough?
This wasn’t the time for us to be playing house like this. We still didn’t know where this place was, and we had to go back quickly, but we couldn’t just keep doing this forever.
Besides, we needed to have a deeper conversation about Aska’s condition and my condition. But Aska, who wasn’t in his right mind, wouldn’t know that.
Suddenly, Aska turned around and swung his arm roughly without any preparation. With a loud noise, the entrance collapsed, and darkness fell in all directions. With a single gesture, the space was completely sealed without a single ray of light entering.
I frowned and held my breath at the rising dust, but Aska, who had approached silently, hugged me again. Then, he leaned against the wall and sat down, carefully spreading his wings.
Aska, who covered himself and me with his wings like a cocoon, tightened his arms around me.
“What are you doing?”
It was too dark to see his expression. Even if I opened my eyes, it was no different from closing them. I should be able to see my surroundings a little if my eyes got used to the darkness, but that didn’t work now.
It was complete darkness.
“I’ll get you a lot of your favorite fruits tomorrow.”
“What?”
“I’ll plant a lot of trees around here too. If I find a place with water, I’ll take you there to swim. If I see pretty pebbles, I’ll pick them all up and give them to you.”
The voice that whispered desperately was so small and faint.
“So let’s live here together, just the two of us.”
So it was too precarious, as if it would disappear at any moment.