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The heavy metal door of the rooftop yielded with a hollow groan, granting them access to a rare sanctuary above the chaotic hum of Shinan High.
Up here, the afternoon breeze swept away the suffocating scent of chalk dust and teenage anxiety, replacing it with the crisp, clean air of the sprawling city, and beautiful mother nature.
Ah-Rin moved with practiced grace, spreading out a small picnic blanket, a bright blue colored one, over the sun-warmed concrete, before unpacking the lunch she had prepared.
Cassius followed close behind. He discarded his blazer, tossing it over the railing, and lowered himself onto the blanket.
Without a word of preamble, he stretched out and rested his head comfortably on her lap, angling his face toward her and "them".
Cassius stared at her boobs, panning under them with a look of approval.
"#blessed." He muttered, huffing a chuckle.
She smiled, not quite hearing him, but her expression still grew softer than the one she wore in the classroom, and immediately began weaving her slender fingers through his dark hair.
The sensation drew a low, appreciative hum from the back of his throat.
"Tired~?" she murmured, picking up a rolled omelet with her chopsticks and holding it near his mouth.
"Always. But... never tired of the view," he replied, accepting the bite. "This one is much better than a window, anyway."
He started chewing once the omelet hit his tongue, genuinely loving the flavor. "Mmmm~, I'm so glad you could cook. This is top tier food right here, levels above the cafeteria foods~!"
The words effects were instant.
A light blush dusted her cheeks, her eyes flickering with a adorable, shyness.
Though, she rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. "Smooth. You must practice these lines when I'm not around, huh~?"
"Why would I do that?" He said through chews, "I'd much rather practice with you in my presence, than you not being in it,"
"Plus, they just naturally roll of my tongue."
Ah-Rin listened, feeling her heart flutter slightly. "Nope. I don't think so. I think you secretly practice in a mirror, getting all embarrassed and blushing up a small cloud. Just thinking about it is so cute~!"
"C'monnnn~, admit it. You so do that without my knowledge." She leaned forward, a teasing smirk at her lips. Her free hand gently poking his chewing cheek.
"I bet you look adorable doing it. So lemme seee. Pleaseeee~!"
Cassius just simply grinned at her, those blue eyes of his dancing with amusement.
He gulped the omelet down, the lingering taste stuck to his taste buds.
"Are you sure? I don't want you fainting from a overloaded blush~"
"Ohh, please. Gimme your best, Cass~!"
Annnd~! Booom!
That was it. The point of no return.
Ah-Rin had basically just handed an arsonist a flamethrower and asked him if he knew how to light a match.
Cassius's lips moved slowly into a grin, exposing teeth and a lethal amount of confidence.
He shifted, burying the back of his head a little deeper into the soft cradle of her thighs, staring directly up into her eyes.
"My best," he repeated. He let the words roll around in his mouth like fine wine in a cup. "You want the heavy artillery, I see..."
The chopsticks in Ah-Rin's hand gave a tiny, imperceptible tremble. A microscopic tremor of impending doom.
"Just... just say it. You know I can take it," she bluffed, crossing her arms over her chest, which only served to make her look like she was trying to physically shield her vital organs. "I bet it's just some words you saw in a drama anyway."
"Ah-Rin," Cassius started, his voice suddenly dropping into a gravelly, unfairly smooth register.
"If I told you that your eyes looked like a pair of nebulas trapped in amber, it would be an insult to the cosmos."
"You have the bone structure of a Renaissance painting and the brain of a ruthless, highly efficient mob boss, which is objectively terrifying and the most wildly attractive thing I have ever witnessed in my eighteen years of life."
(A/n: Peak poetic rizz, lol)
Her mouth opened. Nothing coming out. Not even breath.
"I also love the purity of your soul," he continued, not giving her a millisecond to recover. "The kindness. The caring. The gentle warmth permanently stuck to your eyes. I love how your brain overthinks everything until it burns out,"
"Chessy one incoming." He warned. "But, if I had a deck of cards, spead them and looked, I'll ask you for a selfie. You know why?"
Ah-Rin shook her red face. "N-no. Why...?"
"Simple. The queen, aka you, would be missing~, making the deck irrelevant."
Pooff~!
Cassius felt her legs shaking, basically seeing smoke puff out of the top of her head.
"I love how you manage to be the prettiest thing in this miserable, smog-choked city, right down to the ridiculous way your toes curl when you're nervous."
"I-what? My toes aren't..." she stammered, frantically trying to flatten her feet inside her shoes. Her cheeks were no longer flushed; they were radioactive.
"But you know what really gets me?" Cassius asked, lifting a hand to casually trace the frantic, beating pulse at her throat. "What genuinely baffles me about you?"
"S-stop touching me," she squeaked, swatting his hand away with the force of a damp tissue.
"It's the fact," Cassius said, ignoring her completely and lowering his voice to a conspiratorial, devastatingly casual hum, "that you are sitting here, blushing so hard I could fry an egg on your forehead, over a few words. When literally four nights ago, you were entirely naked in my bed, screaming my name while my face was buried in-between your legs mu—"
"CASSIUS!!"
Ah-Rin shrieked, a sound so high-pitched it probably made several pigeons on the neighboring roof deaf.
She violently slapped both hands over his mouth, her eyes wide, blown-out pools of terror and shyness.
"Mmph mffph!" Cassius mumbled cheerfully against her palms.
"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!" she hissed, looking around the empty rooftop as if a SWAT team, yeah the SWAT team, was about to drop from the clouds to arrest them for indecency. "Are you insane?! Someone could hear you! Did you forgot were at school, you dummy~!"
He reached up, wrapping his hand around her slender wrists, easily peeling her makeshift gag away from his mouth.
"I'm just saying," he smirked, utterly unrepentant. "It makes no logistical sense. I have tasted every inch of you. You rode me so hard the headboard made a hole in my wall. We have swapped more bodily fluids than a blood bank. And yet, I tell you your eyes are pretty, and you act like a Victorian maiden who just saw an ankle,"
"Makes no sense."
Ah-Rin looked like she wanted to simultaneously throw herself off the railing and spontaneously combust.
'YOU DON'T NEED TO REMIND ME!! AWWW! THAT'S SO EMBARRASSING!' She thought, the overwhelming effects, now breaching her walls, made her regret practically a physical entity sitting on the blanket next to them.
She had dug her own grave, hopped in, and handed Cassius the shovel.
"I hate you," she breathed, her entire face a violent shade of scarlet. "I hate you so much it hurts."
"You adore me."
"I know! But I'm also going to strangle you!"
"Little toooo kinky for me, love. But it won't stop me from talking about how good you look when you're completely—mffph~!"
She didn't have a weapon.
She didn't have hands strong enough to choke him out.
There was only one tactical option left to plug the leak.
Which she used to interrupt him before he went off again.
Ah-Rin practically dove downward, slamming her lips over his in a desperate, frantic bid for silence.
It wasn't a romantic kiss. It was a collision. Her teeth clacked against his(ouch), her hands gripping the collar of his shirt as she effectively tried to smother his vocal cords with her mouth.
Cassius let out a muffled sound of surprise, which instantly melted into a dark, vibrating hum of approval.
But he wasn't done playing.
He kissed her back, his hands sliding up to cup her throat, but he didn't close his mouth.
"Mmm... weak," he mumbled directly against her lips, his breath hot and entirely too distracting.
Ah-Rin pulled back an inch, glaring down at him, her chest heaving. "What did you just say~?"
"I said, weak," Cassius whispered, his smirk ghosting against her mouth. He tilted his head up slightly to chase her lips. "If you're gonna shut me up, Rin, put some actual back into it. Come on. You were way more aggressive when you—"
"Urgh~!"
She growled, an actual, frustrated little animal noise, and crushed her mouth back against his.
This time, it wasn't just to silence him. It was a challenge accepted. She parted his lips aggressively, her tongue sweeping in with a clumsy, heated desperation that completely shattered the quiet afternoon air.
She shifted her weight, pinning his shoulders to the blanket, pouring all of her embarrassment, anger, and stupid, overwhelming affection into shutting his cocky mouth.
Cassius's hands immediately slid from her jaw, down her spine, settling firmly on her hips. He squeezed, pulling her tighter against him as he surrendered to the assault.
His eyes slipped shut.
Cheak~mate...
He didn't care about the banter. He didn't care about the blush, even if it was highly entertaining. All the cheesy, poetic lines, the embarrassment, the inappropriate drops, it was all just a violent scheme to get exactly what he wanted.
From the very start, when she overconfidently spoke about him and a mirror, he chose violence. (Not literally, of course.)
Her lips. On him. Right now.
That was his true goal.
"Mmm..." Cassius murmured mid-kiss, fully intending to keep poking the bear. "Better. But I still think you can go harder."
Ah-Rin pinched his side hard enough to bruise, not breaking the kiss, practically crawling on top of him.
Yeah. He definitely wasn't tired of the view. (^o^)/
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She lasted exactly two minutes before the biological necessity for oxygen completely ruined her assault.
Ah-Rin tore her mouth away, chest heaving even harder, her previously immaculate lip gloss completely obliterated and, currently, smeared across the corner of Cassius's mouth.
Which he playfully licked.
She stayed hovering over him, her hands still white-knuckling the collar of his school shirt, glaring down at him with dark eyes that were equal parts furious and thoroughly kissed.
Cassius did not intend to move. He just lied there beneath her, completely relaxed, wearing a thoroughly infuriating, self-satisfied smirk.
"I hate you," she panted, her voice lacking any actual venom.
"I know you don't," he murmured, casually reaching up to wipe a smudge of pink gloss from his own chin. "And as much as blue balling myself fucks me off, WE still gotta eat."
'Plus... theirs always Monday. My bed. Her bed. Public sex is a must, yes, so I will achieve it.' He added internally.
With a final, highly dramatic groan that sounded like a dying car engine, she finally rolled off him.
They fell back into an easy rhythm after that. The explosive embarrassment of his barrage faded, replaced by the profound, unshakable comfort that only came from two years of navigating each other's neuroses.
The awkward hesitation of new romance had been stripped away many months ago.
Now, it was just stolen rice, quiet banter, and the occasional mock-glare whenever Cassius chewed too loudly on purpose, just to watch a beautiful vein throb in her forehead.
Rage baiting your girl is number two entertainment.
He shifted, resting his head back on her lap, watching the afternoon wind playfully rip through the loose strands of her dark hair.
He traced the sharp, elegant line of her jaw with his eyes. It still baffled him, honestly. How seamlessly she had woven herself into the deeply dysfunctional fabric of his resurrected life.
She began threading her fingers through his hair again, the repetitive, soothing motion grounding him.
Anchored by her warmth, his mind inevitably drifted. It always did when things got too quiet. A nasty habit leftover from a past he had inherited but hadn't quite scrubbed clean.
In his past, Sean's past, peace wasn't a concept. It was an error.
The orphanage, affectionately dubbed "Dead Mansion" by the miserable bastards who survived it, didn't just train kids. It manufactured bullets.
They hammered a brutal corporate doctrine into their child soldiers known as the,
"Three Absolutes."
1: The parents words are absolute.
2: Zero force without parental word.
3: Parents are protected at all cost.
They were ironclad laws designed to strip a human down to their factory settings and leave nothing but a weapon behind.
Cassius had shattered those rules the exact millisecond he woke up in this body. He had zero use for a dead master's dogma. It wasn't his style, and frankly, terrible for mental health.
Instead, he had forged his own code to navigate this chaotic new reality. He called them his,
"Five Absolutes."
It sounded a bit dramatic, sure, but a guy needed boundaries. And yes, he couldn't be bothered to come up with an original name.
『Rule one was basic logic: Family. His blood, or the kin he chose, were sacred.
Their well-being was paramount, sitting leagues above his own pulse. If the situation demanded he lay his life down for them, the answer was yes.
No hesitation.
Just a bullet taken and a body dropped.』
『Rule two: Protection. vow to shield the ones he claimed from the absolute rot of the underworld he practically lived in. Anyone he chooses, or wishes to protect, is all up to him.
But talk was cheap.
This one required a physical anchor. A drop of their blood in his cup, a quiet, grim little ritual that tied his life force to his promise. It was very old-school, a bit morbid, but it kept him honest. [ It last forever aswell... but there is a way to break it. 1: Obvious one is if they die. 2: is a secret~ Tehe ]』
『Rule three centered on the woman(s) currently scratching his scalp: Lovers. The women who shared his heart were his ultimate sanctuary. Their peace was to be fiercely guarded, their happiness supplied without a second thought.
But, and this was a massive 'but', he wasn't a doormat. He didn't say "yes" to everything. He was the king, they were his queens. And sometimes, the king's word had to override the queen's, usually to keep them from doing something monumentally stupid.
He wasn't too keen on being a robot, one who just gets pegged up the ass all day everyday, by the ones he claims as his.』
『Rule four: Separation. This one was strictly enforced. Absolutely no extreme violence inside the places he calls home. He was not dragging the blood, the guts, and the screaming into his living room. If a problem arose, he took it outside. On the road. In an alley. Keep the mess off the carpets.
Away from his "homes".』
And then there was the fifth absolute.
A promise of total, catastrophic devastation.
『It was a very simple vow: show absolutely zero mercy to anyone foolish, arrogant, or suicidal enough to threaten the first four rules.
Zero. Mercy.
Man, woman. Boy, girl. Elder, priest. It did not matter. If you touched his family, you needed to have your coffin colored, decorated, and ready for drop-off. Simple cause and effect.』
Looking up into Ah-Rin's smiling face as she offered him another piece of rolled omelet, Cassius felt the dark edge of his thoughts recede.
She was the living, breathing embodiment of rule three. The absolute calm at the very center of his violently spinning storm.
RIIIIIIING~!!
The shrill, soul-piercing screech of the warning bell violently shattered the quiet atmosphere.
Cassius visibly winced. "I'm so going to rip that speaker out of that fuckin' wall."
"No, you aren't," Ah-Rin sighed, brushing her thumb across his cheekbone one last, lingering time before gently nudging his shoulder. "Duty calls, tough guy. Up you go~."
With an annoyed groan, he looked to his left, staring at one of her thighs. "May I see soon, my most favorite pillows~"
Ah-Rin: (^_^;)
"Cass... d-don't do that. That's weird..."
They packed up the Tupperware in tandem, an organized, silent routine. Their hands brushed together over the bright blue blanket, lingering for a second before Cassius kissed her knuckles.
Gaining a gentle smile from Ah-Rin.
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END.