This warning immediately roused Levi from his lethargic state, “Why be careful? Wouldn’t such a reality be a good thing? For a married couple to be happily in love, isn't that how it should be?”
Noah fell silent for a moment, then his pink mouth opened to reveal what lay hidden in the depths of his heart, “That's only if it's mutual. If it's one-sided, it would just be sad.”
Levi deeply stared into the little one’s two shiny orbs, “That’s only if it forever remains one-sided.” Then the bottomless abyss within the pool of blue was replaced with a shimmer of mischief, “But why would it be… ah! Don’t tell me you intend to seduce me and then dump me?!” Levi’s face warped into exaggerated shock and grief, “Ah, ah, you can’t play with hearts like this! You must take responsibility for me!”
Noah’s melancholy was instantly broken, and his glorious bright red blush made its triumphant return. “Who–who–who is playing with hearts?! What ‘seduce and dump’?! And what ‘take responsibility’?!?” Noah spat in what was an extremely accurate portrayal of a kitten puffing up its fur and baring its little white canines in outrage, “You’re the one playing with fire! If you fall for me, then it’s your own darn fault!”
The very professional kitten tamer Astar Levi by now knew exactly what to do in this situation. Thus with no hesitation, he immediately threw his remaining integrity away and jumped to admit his wrongs. “You are right, baby,” Levi softened his husky voice to coo, “It's all my fault for being unable to resist your charms.” ❤
With such a swift and sincere admission of guilt, everything Noah had intended to say got stuck in his throat. And thus, helplessness joined the mix of flustered emotions present on his face.
‘Sigh~ What do I do with you?’ Noah covered his eyes with his hand. Ai, this fiancé of his was a living proof that everything in this world had its bane! Even a worldborn…
This playful man could rile him up in a heartbeat, yet he simply couldn’t stay mad at him! QAQ
Even when he was being bad, he was… was… also… good… very good… mhmm… (/≧ω\)
Blackie, ‘…even when he is bad, he is good? щ(゚Д゚щ)Oh dear… so it goes again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Your brain. Offline. (¬◡¬) ‘
Noah turned his head away to hide his burning face from those piercing blue eyes. “How would you even have me take responsibility?” He grumbled underneath his breath, “Aren't I already marrying you? How else do you want me to take responsibility?”
A glimmer of amusement flickered within Levi’s eyes. This scoundrel’s mouth might be sweet, but he completely lacked any repentance!
“How to take responsibility?” Levi’s deep chuckle reverberated through Noah’s entire body. “Simple,” he grabbed Noah’s chin and turned the little one’s head around to face him, bringing them so close together their noses were touching, “If I fall for you, then you should fall right back at me.”
Noah’s blood pressure, which had barely settled back down, rushed upwards once again. This rogue!! Playing and teasing – always playing with him and teasing him!!! (ノ꒪Д꒪)ノ︵ ┻━┻
Huffing and puffing kitty Noah pushed the scoundrel wolf away and provocatively raised his eyebrows, “Oh? Is that right? And what if I fall for YOU? How would YOU take responsibility, huh?” Kitty Noah huffed and then sarcastically quoted Levi’s own words as an answer, “Fall right back at me?”
Levi had to bite his own lower lip to prevent a chuckle from escaping him. He gazed into the little one’s angrily squinted eyes with subtle meaning, “Can’t I?”
That look filled with meaning made Noah’s rabbit heart skip a beat, and he fumbled his response, “You–you…! Whether you can or cannot, how would I know?”
Levi had so many words buried in his heart that he wished to say, yet in the end, he just smiled silently in response, his thoughts unreadable. He stared into his baby’s evasive eyes for a moment, then unable to resist, he bent his head to drop a juicy kiss on his darling’s soft, delectably pink cheek. “Mn, whether I can or cannot, only I myself know.”
Noah’s spluttering brain halted once again, and he sat there in a wide-eyed daze with his hand covering his burning cheek. Was–was–was he being flirted with?? He…he was not misinterpreting that… was he? Ah, so confused! QAQ Was Levi teasing him again, or did Levi actually like him a bit in that kind of way? This blasted play-pretend was making him so confused!!!
Noah scuttled out of Levi’s lap like a little rabbit running out of its burrow that suddenly caught on fire. Ah, bear with it! Just three more days! – Noah encouraged himself. After the wedding, when this play-pretend was over… he… would… he would see how Levi acted then… and if… if he was still confused… then… then he’d ask Levi about it directly…
If… if Levi had no such inclinations towards him, then he’d draw a clear line with the other! (•̀‸•́)و
And if Levi… if Levi had a bit of interest in him… ah… then… then… maybe… maybe they could try it? (/≧ω\)
What–what Levi said about…about a married couple being in love… it–it would indeed be an ideal thing if–if a married couple could have a loving marriage… (⁄ ⁄> ﹏ <⁄ ⁄)
The sound of approaching footsteps brought Noah out of his daze, and he turned to face his father with a ‘moved to tears’ expression of a drowning man seeing driftwood.
Levi’s response to the dreaded return of his annoying father-in-law wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic. He tsked and very reluctantly dropped the arms that were reaching for his baby back down. Then he eyed Cordia daddy’s bright smile with narrowed eyes.
Say… this father-in-law… seemed to be in a suspiciously good mood? (≖_≖) His grin was making all of Levi’s hair stand on its ends. Yet, no matter how Levi observed him, there were no clues about where this bad feeling was coming from.
He couldn’t have come up again with some stupid idea to prevent him from sleeping in the same bed as his son tonight? (≖ ‸ ≖) Hmph! Even if he had, it wouldn’t work! His baby already promised to soothe him tonight. Thus, he’d be sleeping next to his baby tonight, or he wouldn’t be sleeping at all (but doing something else with his precious… ಠ‿ಠ)!
***
Levi was both surprisingly picky and surprisingly accommodating when it came to rings. Picky because he kept going over each choice multiple times, even putting the light screen over his baby’s hand to try to better visualize how the ring would look on his darling’s ring finger. And accommodating because as soon as Noah expressed which ones were his personal favorites, Levi immediately crossed the remainder off the choice list.
Noah was torn between feeling touched and feeling amused. This fiancé of his… why was he constantly using Noah’s hand to gauge whether the ring looked good? Why not use his own hand? It’s not like Noah would be the only one wearing them!
But, ah, this soon-to-be-husband of his was cute in his silliness. (/≧ω\)
***
After settling the matter of rings, the two grooms made changes to their honeymoon plans.
A lot of changes.
Maery had scheduled plenty of “girly” things for herself, such as spas and beauty salons. And to make matters even more awkward, all of those scheduled things were for one person! Even if the two of them didn’t mind doing all those totally unmanly things, they still couldn’t do them together like proper newlyweds!
Since neither Noah nor Levi were the ones who scheduled all that, they had to ask Maery to deal with… uh… canceling it? Maery, “No way! (︶^︶)ノI got two weeks off work for this! And now I don’t even need to bring that scourge along on my vacation! (ノ*^o^)ノ* Yatta!” In other words… “Dear brother, I don’t care where you go for your honeymoon, as for me, dead or alive, I am going to that spa!” (✧ᴗ✧)و Noah, “…” ( •᷄⌓•᷅ ) ‘…does that mean you intend to go with us – but not with us – on our honeymoon?’ Blackie shook his head, “Host, you are not asking the right questions here!”(︶^︶)ノ Blackie turned his virtual eyes towards Maery, “Do tell, o( ̄▽ ̄)d what plans have you made that would ensure your corpse gets smuggled into the spa? Come on, don’t keep us in suspense!” Noah, “…” (◞‸ლ) Feeling helpless due to both his sister AND his pesky system, Noah turned to his fiancé for help. Only to see the other crossing over prett
Noah looked at the loner wolf’s drooping ears and tail and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Something urgent popped up?” He guessed. Otherwise, why would Levi suddenly change his mind after coming out of a call with Astar daddy? The ‘ate a loss’ Astar Levi nodded his head weakly, “Mn. Extremely pressing. Has to be handled ASAP. I’m afraid I won’t be getting much rest tonight.” Then, seeing his baby’s concerned little face, he added, “Don’t worry. It’s only this one time. I’ll manage without soothing tonight, and you can soothe me to sleep tomorrow.” Blackie, ‘…Only this one time? ಠಿ_ಠ So you are saying that you intend to sleep WITHOUT my host only this ONE time?? ಠ_ಠ ‘…Host, how are you not picking up on this?!’ щ(゚Д゚щ) Seeing Levi’s determination despite the dejection, Noah didn’t wish to delay Levi from his urgent matter any longer. Though his heart ached for the other, what Levi needed right now were not empty words
And that’s how Astar Levi resisted the great temptation of sleeping with his baby tonight and resolved himself to stay up studying instead. With unwavering determination sparkling within his blue eyes, he gritted his teeth valiantly and declined his baby’s offer of soothing. Seeing his son turning back and heading for his own room, Cordia daddy’s face proudly blossomed into a victorious smirk. A smirk that would have turned upside down faster than the speed of light if only he knew that this win was actually a Pyrrhic victory. _(´ཀ`∠)_ ‘These pig teammates!!! (ꐦ °Д°) All of them…! All of them are working for the other team!!!’ (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ ┻━┻ ‘They are his parents, ah! Of course they are working for the other team!’ Blackie shook his virtual head in pity, ‘Tsk, tsk. No wonder the city lord of Astarea has his entire city in his pocket while you get schemed against by your own councilors! The difference in IQ is so big, ah!’
Worst still, even though these last few messy clauses were separated from the rest of the agreement in all ways, they were still considered to be a part of the agreement. And as such, once the contract was signed, everything on it would be valid indefinitely and could only be changed if both parties agreed to the change. Noah blinked his long eyelashes at the document and couldn’t help but complain, “The lawyer who worked on these last few clauses did a sloppy job …” And that wasn’t just Noah’s layman opinion. Education in this not-so-utopian world was rather streamlined. High schools were highly specialized, and university lectures and course materials were all available online, so everyone could study at their own pace. Those ready to spend more time and effort in their studies could finish their higher education years earlier. Which was exactly what Levi, Aris, and Maery had all done. In other words – yo, don't let Aris’ young age of 18 fool you! Aris, and
In the afternoon, both pairs of rings arrived. However, before Levi could even touch the marriage rings to check whether his instructions have been fulfilled properly, they were unceremoniously snatched by Maery for safekeeping as the best man–ahem, woman. With eyebrows twitching in annoyance due to this third wheel which kept popping up all over the place, Levi gripped the engagement rings in his hand tightly, lest the other snatched them away too. Tsk. No matter. He’d be putting that wedding ring on his darling’s finger tomorrow. As for today… Levi had wanted to propose to his baby, but on second thought, he found the idea stupid. After all, his darling had already agreed to marry him. Since Levi had already gotten the answer he had wanted, why would he ask this tricky question again and shoulder this unnecessary risk of the positive answer changing into a negative? Hence, he’d just skip the first half of the proposal and fast-forward to putting the
Hearing Levi’s bitter struggle, Noah realized that he had asked a stupid question. Like a boiled lobster, he turned pink from head to toe, only a single step short from letting out steam. His neck shrunk into himself, and his round eyes darted left and right, looking everywhere other than at Levi. Noah hesitated for a long moment before he managed to gather the courage to voice his doubts, “You… are you actually gay?” “I don’t know,” Levi replied very honestly. He hadn't been particularly attracted to any of the two genders until meeting his baby. So right now, he couldn’t really be sure whether his gender preference leaned towards men or if he just liked this one person that just happened to be a man. True, thinking of his baby’s little PP made Levi’s blood boil, but he also thought that if his baby didn’t have a little bird down there but a bird's nest, he would still be just as lovely. But what-ifs were, in the end, just speculation. Since this one
Seeing his baby acting like a pure and shy maiden, Levi’s mouth twitched in an attempt to suppress a smile, ‘If you feel so shy now, baby, what will you do after dinner, hmm? Didn’t you promise to soothe me tonight?’ After all, he had a clear goal to cuddle his baby to sleep today, and this time, there was nothing that could stop him from achieving it! He was fully prepared for today’s final round of battle with his father-in-law! And this time, he was not going back in defeat! 30 minutes later, the fully prepared Astar Levi ground his teeth as he hauled his suitcase away from the Cordia manor. What happened? Father-in-law directly kicked him out!!! And with a valid reason too! The groom couldn’t see the bride–ahem, the other groom before the wedding!!! As per the initial plans, the groom and bride should spend tomorrow morning preparing for the wedding separately, welcoming their side of the family in their own respective manors. When the de
The AI was strangely quiet the last couple of days, with none of his usual spicy comebacks. “Blackie? You alright?” Noah asked while glancing at the current time on his communicator. “I’m great,” Blackie’s response came soon after. “No, I’m MORE than great! o( ̄▽ ̄)d The deep admiration and awe I feel for your work have made me at a loss for words. (︶‿︶) Ah, you only got here last week, and you're already getting married! This efficiency! Other hosts should learn from you!” ╰(*°▽°*)╯ Noah, “………” Typical Blackie. Miss him when he is quiet, but as soon as he speaks up, you can’t wait to press the mute button. (눈_눈) “Blackie…” Noah’s right eyebrow twitched several times, and he silently ground his teeth, “Save it. All your praises are insults in disguise.” Blackie, who was, for once, genuinely praising his host for his excellent mission progress, “…” ಠ_ಠ ‘Alright, suit yourself. ╮(╯∀╰)╭ Don’t regret it later.’