"I mean! You're a virgin, too!"
".........what?"
After dozens of seconds, Craig's eyebrows raised. Shun stood up without thinking when he responded, "Well, now that you mention it..." with an embarrassed tone. With a rustle, the blankets fell onto the bed. It didn't matter what he was saying, even if he was giving Shun a suspicious look.
"Comrade!"(1)
1. The text said "friend/mate", but I felt like comrade fit better in this context...
Shun grabbed Craig by his arms, pulling him up to spin around in a circle. If he had done this on hard ground, his feet would have made a soft noise. However, it was a soft carpet. Their feet didn't make any noise at all, and Shun almost fell over after a bit.
"Oh, I'm a bit dizzy..."
Even though Shun was now leading a healthy life, his semicircular canal still wasn't that strong. He had gotten a bit carried away and now felt sick. He crouched while holding onto Craig's hand. Craig, who had been left wide eyed, laughed with shaking shoulders.
"Is that what you're curious about?"
After returning Shun to the bed, his face had neither his usual frown or a look of self-deprecation. His eyebrows had smoothed out into a soft expression, and he laughed properly.
"No, that..."
While Shun was trying to maintain a frown, a beautiful smile like that was bad for his heart. He couldn't keep looking directly at it, so he looked down.
When he looked down, he saw their joined hands. His heart thumped, and suddenly became very aware of the nerves in his hand.
Craig's hand was bigger than Shun's and often held a sword. It was kind of hot. This hand touched his cheek and lifted his chin with long fingertips, exposing his miserable appearance to his beautiful irises.
Shun, and that expression he had called him earnestly comes back to mind. It was the first time that he'd been looked at with such lustful eyes, and they had been full of nothing but Shun. His cheeks flushed. No, not only his cheeks, but also his ears, neck, and even his fingertips. How stupid of himself to hold onto Craig and become conscious of it.
"What is it?"
Craig seemed to be looking at Shun, whose thoughts were interrupted by his words, but he could neither answer or meet his gaze.
"Ah..."
He must have noticed what Shun was thinking about. A little bit later, Craig let Shun's hand go.
"It's really alright now. I won't harm you again."
What caught Shun's eyes was the expression he hated on Craig's face with a hand on his head. It was certainly sudden, and Craig was technically in the position to be blamed. But Shun hadn't hated it. It wasn't "harm" to him.
Strict quarantine. It wasn't a word that was usually used. Craig had placed himself in it so he wouldn't hurt anyone and struggled with that unbearable fever, even though it wasn't his fault.
"I'll be back soon, and you can sleep here."
He stood up and turned his back on Shun. It felt like he was hiding his expression from Shun.
"Wait!"
Shun grabbed him by the hem of his clothes to hold him back. Amber eyes looked at him in deep surprise. Craig hadn't expected Shun to try to continue speaking with him, much less stop him. Shun's chest felt full.
"If you don't mind me, I'll go out with you!"
"...what?"
"I mean, you know, when you're in heat."
Shun continued despite Craig's obvious surprise. He understood that what he was saying was certifiably insane, but he was desperate.
"As a man, I understand how hard it can be, and I would like to do something to help you. We're also both new to this, and even if something happens, it's not like I could get pregnant."
What's the worst that could happen? Even as he thought this, he wanted to stop his mouth but couldn't.
"Do you know what you're saying?"
Shun was a little frightened by Craig's low voice and his unreadable eyes. Shun's own face had to be bright red. He was embarrassed, but he also couldn't leave Craig all alone in a cell like that.
"There is pain in the first time for a virgin, and even if I don't know whether you're a virgin or not, since I'm also a virgin, I won't know whether you're good or bad. I also don't care if you are or not, and I don't mind that you're a virgin. It's a good thing for us to both be virgins!"
"Hey... quit saying virgin!"
Shun covered his mouth with one hand as Craig made a good point. Additionally, he had said all he wanted to and looked up at Craig.
Craig put a hand on his forehead and let out a deep sigh. Then, as if exhausted, he lay back onto the bed next to Shun.
"I've never cared if I'm a virgin or not, but I'm starting to feel miserable."
Craig muttered despairingly, "I'm not good at this..."
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
It was nothing but a trifle to have experience with his circumstances. Reflecting on his thoughts, Craig burst into laughter.
"Don't worry about it. It's new to me because I'm far from bothered by such ordinary things. I feel out of tune when I talk to you."
Biting back his laughter, Craig, who had been on the run since he was a teenager, had lost his depressed look from earlier and looked like he had lost his grip.
"No, but I'm sorry. The fact that I have no experience at my age is a complex that gave me a sense of camaraderie."
"It's okay."
Craig sat up with a little laugh. The distance between them seemed to have shrunk, and their shoulders touched a little.
"And you don't have to feel inferior. It doesn't make you better if you've done it with a woman you liked or not."
Shun hadn't expected him to say something like that. If Shun had said something like that, he felt like it would just come off as something a loser would say. However, from someone like Craig, it felt like the truth of the world. The power of a handsome man was amazing.
But that soon ceased to be so. His gaze was so close that Shun could feel his breath. The lightened air made him feel nervous again.
"...and is it really all right?"
A low, heated voice shook my body. Craig's thin, blonde hair brushed up against Shun's bangs. Knowing that he was trying to look at him from above, Shun couldn't look up.
"I told you it was!"
"Really, strange guy..."
"Whatever," he replied futilely, and Craig's arms wound around him and pulled Shun into a hug.
"Ah, hey."
Suddenly, he turned red. No, he thought he'd been red for a while now, but his cheeks were feeling even hotter. He tried to complain, but he was muffled by Craig's chest and the hands around him.
"I owe you a favor."
Craig rubbed his forehead gently against Shun's hair. Shun was unable to say anything.
To be honest, Shun was feeling hesitant about his outrageous proposal. However, Craig's shoulders that he was very close to trembled a little, and his uncertainty cleared away.
It was okay until the heroine appeared. He can be the substitute for her. If only he could alleviate this man's suffering a little.
Shun didn't know how long they were like that. Soon, Craig loosened his arms, and he looked up at him, their eyes meeting.
"Well then, I'm going to go back and get back to sleep now."
Shun turned away and was grabbed by the arm as soon as he hastily stood up.
"You can't go home this late, can you? What are you going to do?"
Craig frowned anxiously. It felt like it had been a long time since Shun had seen that face. Now that he was thinking about it, didn't Craig tell him to sleep in this room earlier?
Shun laughed, saying, "It's all right."
"I was told I could use Gin's bed, and that's where I'll be."
Shun was forced back into the bed with arms wrapped around his waist from behind him, and there was a voice that sounded like he might be disqualified from "acting heroine" soon.
"... sleep here."
Craig said with a very displeased face against his back.
"But-"
"You don't have to go all the way back."
It was true that it would be troublesome to go back now, and since so many things had already happened that evening, he wanted to sleep right then. However, Shun was going to sleep in Craig's room.
"Craig is going to sleep here with me, right?"
"What?"
His response was bigger than expected. It seemed that Craig had intended to return to the dungeon.
"It's cold there, isn't it?"
Shun hated imagining Craig, sitting on his front legs in such a cold, dark, and lonely place while waiting for time to pass.
"Besides, you don't... have the urge to do it with whoever anymore, right?"
Shun couldn't make himself say it clearly, and his eyes swam. Craig responded without losing his sour expression.
"No matter who it is, I don't."
"Then let's sleep in a warm blanket."
Craig finally laid back down next to him with an energetic thump. If he doesn't consciously pretend to be innocent, he would be returned to the cold.
"You... do you know why I told you not to approach only you?"
He asked, half-threateningly, to Shun's dismay.
"Because I don't have the strength or magic comparable to the other members, so I wouldn't be able to fight back if attacked?"
Shun certainly couldn't fight back. He kept this supplementary information to himself.
Shun had had absolute confidence in his answers, but it seemed that it was wrong. Craig pushed up his bangs with a low groan.
"You haven't done anything. I don't think you have to beat yourself up over it like that."
The embarrassing suggestion Shun had made earlier was because he couldn't bear to think of Craig in there. Returning to the prison because of Shun was too much for him to take.
Craig's eyes widened at Shun's words. However, he quickly averted his gaze and turned his head away.
If he didn't like Shun being next to him, then so be it.
"Then I'm going to sleep in Gin's bed."
"That's no good."
Craig still seemed to be mulling things over, but as soon as he said this, he grabbed Shun's arms and held him back. What kind of danger was there in Gin's bed?
"... Damn, I see."
Realizing that he wasn't going to budge, Craig gave up and grabbed another blanket that was by the fire. The fire was extinguished; the magic lamp turned off; and the room was enveloped in darkness.
"Go to sleep."
"Uh-huh."
Shun laid back down with his blanket, and Craig laid next to him. He had his back turned to Shun though.
Even though he had been the one to suggest it, he was really sleeping in the same bed as someone that he just made an amazing promise to. It was ridiculously awkward when he thought about it like that.
Shun tried not to worry about it and closed his eyes. He was awake for a while with tension and excitement, but he still felt tired. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Shun turned over and bumped up against Craig while looking for a good position. He breathed in surprise, and in the next moment, he felt fluffy fur against his cheek. Shun opened his eyes and found a big wolf next to him. For some reason, he seemed to have a sour expression.
"Why did you become a wolf?"
"There's a lot of reasons!"
When Shun asked him while half-asleep, he was scolded with a growl. You can talk in your wolf form?
Shun gave up on hearing the answer and closed his eyes again. Craig had mentioned that he had more control over several things when he became a wolf, but Shun wondered what he was holding back this time.
Come to think of it, Shun felt like he had forgotten something. However, he couldn't recall it and fell asleep.
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TL Note: I hope ya'll like clowns, cause this chapter was full of them. Sorry about the big delay, since I usually have these out... nearly 17 hours earlier than this lol