BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!
The pounding on the door kept going without mercy, one blow after another, hammering directly against Yushiro's heart.
Sitting on the bed, his whole body was rigid as a board.
'It wasn't a dream…'
'IT WASN'T A DREAM!!'
'Marcus is really back!'
'It's only been two days, GODDAMMIT! Why so soon?! WHY?!'
Taking a deep breath, he flung the sheets aside with a swipe of his hand and crossed the hallway with firm steps.
This time he did turn on the lights, and the warm brightness of the room gave him back some of his courage.
'And why do I have to be afraid?'
'This is MY home and Tamayo-sama's! That bastard is nothing more than a meddling intruder!'
'Sooner or later he's gonna die. He. Is. Going. TO DIE!'
'Out of the Demon Slayers, hardly any of them get a decent ending. How long am I going to have to put up with him? Ten years? Twenty?'
'A few decades at most?'
"Tsk."
'It doesn't matter how many years go by. In the end, the one who's still gonna be breathing is ME!'
Thinking all of that, his steps sped up just a bit more.
He yanked the door open.
"Thanks!"
A face leaned in through the doorway, smiling, identical to the one in his dream.
Marcus was standing outside, with a miniature Nezuko held in one arm. Behind him, two women followed with their heads lowered... no, two demons.
"Yushiro, long time no see… Did you miss me?"
Yushiro furrowed his brow with all his might.
He wanted to fire back with a "What I want is for you to drop dead", but the words got stuck in his throat.
Then, he fixed his gaze on the two demons trailing behind.
'On top of everything, he's brought me two more?!'
'This son of a bitch... what does he think he's turned mine and Tamayo-sama's love nest into? A goddamn shelter for demons?'
"You—"
He was just about to let loose his first comeback when he saw Marcus rubbing his belly.
"I'm hungry. Got anything left to eat? Whip me up whatever."
!
Yushiro choked.
'HAS THIS BASTARD REALLY TAKEN ME FOR HIS PERSONAL SERVANT?!'
'... Even if I were one, I'm Tamayo-sama's servant, not YOURS, asshole!'
He took a deep breath, ready to tell him to go fuck himself, when…
"You've come back…"
A voice came drifting from the hallway behind him, and he froze in place.
Marcus looked up.
Tamayo was standing at the far end of the hallway.
She was wearing a loose purple robe, with her hair down and falling over her shoulders. The fabric concealed the mature curves of her figure, but those sweet eyes looked particularly captivating under the dim light of the hallway.
Seductive…
Mature…
Warm…
"It must have been exhausting..."
A phrase so simple, so sweet, and yet it struck him directly in the soul.
Marcus looked at her. Looked at the tenderness in her eyes. Looked at the faint smile that was peeking at the corner of her lips. Looked at her standing there, waiting for him in silence... as if she'd been waiting for hours for him to come back.
Something deeply soft stirred inside him.
'So this is... what they call belonging somewhere.'
Without uttering a single word, he carefully set Nezuko down on the floor and took a step forward...
And another...
He walked until he was right in front of Tamayo. And, without thinking it over twice, he pulled her toward him, holding her tightly against his chest.
Her body, soft, plump, and delicate, molded perfectly between his arms, and the scent of her hair filled his nose.
Closing his eyes, Marcus rested his chin on the warm crown of her head.
'This is what it feels like to come back home…'
Meanwhile, Tamayo's face flushed red all at once.
She wanted to push him away involuntarily, but when she lifted her hand she realized she didn't have a single ounce of strength left.
That same hand ended up falling onto Marcus's chest, gripping his clothes, more as if she wanted him pressed even closer than as if she were trying to push him away.
"I'm home..."
Marcus's voice sounded right next to her ear, with a hint of amusement.
"Did you miss me?"
Tamayo didn't answer.
That familiar scent enveloped her completely once again...
She buried her face in his chest, with the tips of her ears burning a deep red.
A long, long time passed...
So long, that Yushiro was on the verge of cracking his teeth from clenching his jaw so hard.
Until, finally, Tamayo spoke.
"Y-Yes... I missed you..."
The moment she finished saying it, she closed her watery eyes and buried her face even deeper against Marcus's chest.
Yushiro remained nailed to the doorway, with the moonlight slipping in from behind him and stretching out his shadow...
A completely desolate scene.
His eyes were red, and he was biting down hard on the sleeve of his own clothes to keep himself from exploding.
'This bastard... This goddamn bastard…!'
'Not even in my dreams have I ever dared to touch Tamayo-sama in such a disrespectful manner.'
'H-how... how dare this son of a bitch?!'
Two months ago, without a doubt, he would have screamed at the top of his lungs: "You motherfucker!! LET GO OF TAMAYO-SAMA RIGHT NOW!!", and he would have launched himself at him without thinking about the consequences.
But now...
Today, two months later...
It wasn't even necessary anymore for Marcus to look at him with those golden eyes.
Just from seeing his back, it was hard for him to muster up even a minimum of courage to stand up to him.
'Could it be that I... am too much of a coward?'
'Or could it be...?'
While he was racking his brains thinking about it, a small hand gently tugged at his sleeve.
Yushiro looked down.
Nezuko, without him even noticing, had made her way over to his feet.
Her tiny little body was looking up, with one hand pulling at his sleeve, and the other holding up high the small bag that had previously contained the little bear-shaped cookies... now completely empty.
With her lips pursed in an adorable pout, she was looking at him with pleading eyes that would break anyone's heart.
"Mmm..."
Just thinking about the consequences of making Nezuko angry…
Yushiro let out a sigh of absolute defeat. He looked down at the little one with resignation. And then he shot a death glare at Marcus, who was still latched onto Tamayo like a tick.
Turning on his heel, he marched off toward the kitchen and tied around his body, with rage, his apron printed with pink hearts.
An apron that was EXCLUSIVELY for serving Tamayo.
'The big one's screwing me over!!'
'The little one's screwing me over too!!'
'The big bastard and the little bitch! THEY'RE ALL A BUNCH OF MOTHERFUCKERS!!'
Outside.
Ivy and Pearl were still standing there, a bit self-conscious.
They didn't quite understand the current situation.
But from what they had seen so far, that man called Yushiro, although he had a fierce appearance, once he put on the apron, he didn't seem so terrifying anymore.
The other lady... was very beautiful, and had a gentle appearance.
She probably wasn't a cruel person….
The two of them looked at each other and, just barely, sighed in relief.
They went inside the house, closed the door, and stood in silence near the entrance, waiting.
In the kitchen, the sound of someone kneading dough soon began to be heard.
Very deliberately.
Very loudly.
Pum, pum, pum...
As if he were trying to drive a hole through the cutting board.
And Tamayo, until then intoxicated by the heady scent that Marcus gave off, was slowly starting to realize that something... something wasn't quite right.
'Wait... wait, is that…?'
'That thing right there... against my abdomen... is it what I think it is?!'
The color rose all the way up to her ears, and in her watery eyes, pure panic was reflected.
Bracing her hands against Marcus's chest, she tried to escape the embrace that was making her entire body burn.
But this time, no matter how much strength she put into it, she couldn't get him to budge a single inch.
Marcus's cheeks were also a little red.
'Damn it, Marcus, are you serious?! One hug and you're already like this?!'
'When did my self-control drop so low? After the whole Mount Natagumo thing, I turned into a goddamn fifteen-year-old kid…'
A simple hug, and he was already hard as a rock.
"Tamayo, hold still... don't move. I'm serious."
"Y-You're… shameless..."
Tamayo's voice carried a shy undertone that even she didn't realize was there.
"I know... yeah, I know, I'm sorry…"
Marcus's voice came out hoarse, right against her ear.
"It's just that you're too beautiful... and having you this close, I can't control myself..."
That warm breath grazed her earlobe, and Tamayo's knees buckled all at once.
'No, no, no, wait, I can't keep standing like this!'
"S-shut up... and let me go... fast..."
With her hands against his chest, she started squirming with small movements.
And that only made everything worse.
"Damn it, Tamayo…!"
Even Marcus's voice changed in tone.
"Didn't I just tell you not to move?"
Tamayo also instantly noticed that the thing down there was still growing, and she went completely rigid.
"Stay like this... stay like this just a little longer."
Marcus's voice came out weak, almost like a plea.
"It'll go away soon... but if you pull away now, like this, I swear I don't know what I'll do."
"Y-You..."
Tamayo closed her eyes, not daring to move a single muscle.
With her face pressed against his chest, she could feel Marcus's heart pounding: fast, hard, and totally out of control.
'How embarrassing... How embarrassing, oh please…!'
'B-But…'
'... but why does it feel so good…?'
"W-Well... hurry up, then..."
"... I'm trying."
And so they stayed. Holding each other.
Holding each other for a good long while.
The scent emanating from Marcus's body was wrapping itself around Tamayo, layer after layer, without giving her a moment's break.
It was a warm scent, seductive, deeply masculine, loaded with a feeling of safety that flooded her like a slow tide and was drowning her with no way out.
And Tamayo's fragrance, in turn, was creeping nonstop into Marcus's nose.
It wasn't the youthful scent of Kanao. Nor was it the cloying, sugary sweetness of Mitsuri. It was something different. Something more mature…. like a fine wine.
And, far from calming down, the temperature of both bodies did nothing but climb even higher.
Tiny drops of sweat began to bead on Tamayo's skin, dampening the loose strands of hair that fell against her temples.
She opened her eyes. Closed them. Opened them again. And in that glassy gaze, heavy with desire, her breath wound itself around Marcus like threads of damp silk coiling around him.
"T-This... this c-can't... can't go on like this…"
"And what do you want us to do?... how about you sing me a song to calm me down?"
"... You're insufferable~!"
Marcus spoke into her ear, no longer hiding anything, "I'm not letting you go either way~ so it's up to you…"
After a brief silence, Tamayo raised her beautiful face and, in a whisper that was barely audible, murmured:
"... then... take me upstairs…"
!!!!
The string that was still barely holding Marcus's self-control together stretched to the very edge of snapping.
He looked down at her.
'Fuck…'
Her face was so red it looked like it was about to start bleeding through her cheeks, and her eyelashes were trembling without pause.
Without uttering another single word, he lifted her up in his arms princess-style and went sprinting toward the stairs.
Yushiro, who had not stopped keeping his ear on what was happening, felt a chill run through his entire body all at once.
SLICE!
He cut his finger with the knife.
Blood splattered onto the cutting board and mixed in with the dough he was preparing. But he didn't give a single damn about the pain or the bleeding.
'TAMAYO-SAMA!!!'
Gripping the kitchen knife, he shot out of the kitchen.
He cut through the sitting room like an arrow, burst into the hallway, looked up at the staircase—
And he froze on the spot.
Tamayo, covering her mouth with one hand, was coming down the stairs at top speed.
She brushed past Yushiro without even seeing him, ran to the laboratory door, opened it, slipped inside, and shut it behind her with a sharp slam.
All in less than three seconds.
"Phew...!"
Yushiro let out a colossal sigh of relief all at once.
Leaning against the wall, still with the knife in one hand and blood dripping from the other, his entire body slumped down.
'Thank god…'
Upstairs.
Marcus was still standing at the very top of the staircase, staring at the spot where that silhouette had just vanished.
Slowly raising his hand, he touched his lips with the tips of his fingers.
They came away stained with a faint trail of blood.
A bitter smile drew itself across his mouth.
'... Are you serious? Am I really that scary to you?'
'She even used her Blood Demon Art to get away from me... as if I were gonna eat you alive…'
He ran his tongue along his fingertips, savoring that trace of blood. And the corner of his lips slowly curved, little by little, into a wicked smile.
'You taste delicious, Tamayo.'
__________
Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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And if PS aren't your thing but you still want more chapters...
P-a-t-r-e-o-n → Athome790