She wrapped her left hand high above his right shoulder. She wrapped her right arm low, sliding it directly below his left underarm. She pressed her entire body flush against his chest.
Zenjiro froze in place. He felt her intense body warmth instantly.
Liora lazily rested her chin directly on his left shoulder. She let out a long, shaky sigh. The sweet smell of her floral shampoo mixed heavily with the sharp scent of the bitter beer on her breath.
"Onii-chan," Liora whispered against his neck. "I got a terrible nightmare about my biological father. That is why I woke up. I was so scared. Then I looked at your bed. You were not there. I thought I was entirely alone. I thought I was still dreaming."
Zenjiro heard her talking clearly. The sound of her voice vibrated directly against his collarbone. But his mind was completely gone. He was entirely stuck in the recent past.
He raised both of his hands in the empty air behind her back. He stared blindly at his own palms in the dark. They were trembling violently.
I did it, Zenjiro thought. I touched it.
The memory hit him hard. A flashback played directly behind his eyes.
He remembered the exact moment. He remembered kneeling on the hard wooden floor. His shaking hands were dropping.
The dark distance completely vanished. He stopped his hands exactly one millimeter away from the target. He hovered right over the soft, spherical flesh.
He felt the intense, burning heat radiating off her bare skin. The warmth washed directly over his trembling fingertips. A sudden, massive jolt of electricity flared against his skin even though he was not physically touching her yet. The gap was still about one millimeter. He hovered right on the edge of the absolute limit.
A sudden image flashed directly behind his tightly closed eyes. He saw Clara standing in the bright morning kitchen eleven years ago. He remembered the salty smell of the fried salmon she cooked for him on her very morning in this house.
He felt the phantom pressure of her long fingers gently smoothing down his messy hair before school. She had promised to do her absolute best to take care of him. She kept that heavy promise every single day. She had just given him her complete, blind trust on the brown sofa hours ago. She was his mother.
His logical brain finally screamed at him to stop at that exact moment. He was prepared to hit the brakes. He fully decided not to continue. His moral compass was about to take over.
But then, the voice cut through the dark room.
"Onii-chan!"
The sudden, sharp sound startled him completely. Pure, blind panic spiked violently in his chest. His muscles jerked. His hands didn't pull back. The violent flinch pushed his hands directly forward.
His trembling palms crashed right into her exposed skin. His fingers completely grabbed the soft, warm flesh. The impact was heavy and undeniable. He held her bare breasts in his two bare hands for a fraction of a second before terror forced him to yank her shirt down.
Liora kept talking. She squeezed his waist much tighter.
"I don't remember that much about him," Liora mumbled heavily into his shoulder. "I was really small. But when the time came and he actually left us, I was really sad. The house was always so loud. Mom was always crying. I just hid in my room under the blankets. I didn't want him to go. I used to wait by the heavy front door for him to come back."
She took a slow, shuddering breath. Her chest pressed harder against his gray shirt.
"But he never came back," Liora continued. Her voice cracked. "He just erased us. I thought I was completely over it. I really did. But the nightmare felt so incredibly real. He was standing in the middle of our living room. He was yelling at Mom again. He broke a plate on the floor. He pointed at me and told me I was completely useless. I woke up shaking so hard my teeth hurt. I just wanted to hold your hand, Onii-chan. You always make the bad things go away. You always fix everything for me."
She sniffled quietly. She buried her face deeper into the crook of his neck.
"I hate him," Liora whispered. "I hate him for making Mom cry. I hate him for leaving us. But the dream made me feel like a little kid again. I felt so small and weak. When I saw your empty bed, I panicked. I thought everyone was going to leave me again."
Zenjiro could not focus on a single word she was saying.
His brain was permanently trapped in that specific fraction of a second. He imagined how incredibly warm the flesh was. He remembered exactly how smooth and heavy it felt against his bare palms. The tactile sensation burned deep into his nerve endings. It was a brand new feeling. It completely erased the hollow pain of Asuka's harsh rejection.
He slowly closed his trembling fingers into tight fists behind Liora's back. Then he opened them wide. He closed them again. He opened them again. He recreated the exact physical texture and sensation of the forbidden flesh he had just grabbed.
That single, heavy touch completely shattered him. His strict, cold logic collapsed in a fraction of a second. His mind twisted into a dark, chaotic mess. Moral walls he learned for the past four years were gone.
He was now completely obsessed with the phantom feeling lingering on his skin. He couldn't stop the repetitive motion of his hands.
Liora shifted her weight. She pulled her chin off his shoulder. She looked up at his face in the dark kitchen.
"Onii-chan," Liora said. Her voice dropped to a quiet, demanding whisper. "Are you listening to me?"
Zenjiro startled. He blinked hard. The dark kitchen rushed back into his vision. He stopped opening and closing his hands.
"Yes," Zenjiro lied smoothly. "I am."
He lowered his right hand. He placed his open palm flat against the top of her head. He slowly brushed her messy blonde hair down her back.
He stroked her hair with the exact same hand that had forcefully grabbed her mother's bare breast a few minutes ago.
Liora fell completely silent. She closed her eyes and leaned heavily into his gentle touch. She let out a soft, tired breath. The anxious tension finally drained out of her tight shoulders.
"I am tired," Liora said softly. "My feet hurt so much from walking all over the vast campus looking for you this afternoon. You made me worry so much today."
She tilted her head. Her bright blue eyes locked onto his dark pupils in the dim orange light.
"It is entirely your fault, Onii-chan," she whispered. "You have to take responsibility."