Chapter 81 – I love you

Levi felt like he would be able to reach heaven in a single step. His idea of boiling this cute little frog in warm water had been the right approach. He was nearly fully cooked.

The twists and turns of life were truly unpredictable! Within a single day, he had fallen from heaven to hell and then soared back into the sky once again.

It was all so very good, almost perfect even. It was just that his heart still hurt for this sensible baby of his that worried for others before himself. How could his heart ever be at ease when his darling didn’t know how to treasure himself properly? When he didn’t know that he was the most precious thing in the world that had to be carefully guarded?

When his baby treated him so tenderly, even though his heart felt as if it had been dipped in honey, his chest still felt stuffy. If he was the target of his baby’s care, the bitterness would be overpowered by sweetness, but if the target was someone else...

If his baby cared for others like this too...

Levi tightened his hold on Noah.

He couldn’t stand it!! Couldn’t stand the thought of him acting like this with anyone else!

He, Astar Levi, might be unworthy of this precious little one, but everyone else was even less worthy!!

There was not a single person in the world – not one – who was worthy of his darling’s selfless dedication!

Noah, who had suddenly been grabbed by the waist, blankly tilted his head, and his attempts to find a new thing to praise Levi on became strenuous. Noticing the little one’s struggle, the great emperor Astar Levi graced him with a pardon. “I’m not asking you what you think of Enforcer powers, but their personality.”

Noah: QAQ!!! ‘You let me talk to myself so long, watched me struggling to compliment you for so long, and only now you tell me I’ve misunderstood your question?!? Brother-in-law, are you messing with me?!?’

(ノ꒪Д꒪)ノ︵ ┻━┻

Looking at his baby, who had puffed up his fur in indignance, Levi’s mouth quirked up. And he, very naturally, attempted to stroke the other’s fur back down. Literally. He started to stroke his waist and lower back soothingly. He had been paying attention to every one of his darling’s reactions, so by now, he could tell exactly how to stroke to placate his ruffled kitten.

Sure enough, his kitten unconsciously laid back down docilely, blinking up at him with his blank limpid eyes. Understanding his baby’s unspoken question, Levi elaborated, “Enforcers are known for being overly stubborn and inflexible. Known for… being unable to see eye to eye with people... unable to be reasoned with...”

After all this talking in circles, Noah finally understood what this silly-cute brother-in-law was worrying about. He thought that the personality trait that made one into an Enforcer was a negative trait and was worried that people would dislike him for it.

Pfft, really cute! Noah’s eyes curved; he was tempted to tease Levi about it but knew now wasn’t the time. This was clearly one of the thorns in his brother-in-law's heart that needed to be cleanly pulled out. And the right way to do it was definitely not to make light of it or dismiss Levi’s concerns as unfounded.

Noah stopped to ponder, stroking his chin in thought. “You say Enforcers are very inflexible… but how can such a flexible power come from an inflexible mindset?”

Levi’s naughty paws halted in their movements.

“Flexibility and rigidity,” Noah continued, “Perhaps the two traits aren’t as exclusive of each other as you think.” Noah stared into Levi’s wide blue eyes, “I think they are like two sides of a coin. They need each other to be complete.”

Noah’s long black eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings, “Yes, a person should keep an open mind and try to understand everything and everyone. But it is exactly this understanding that can build the firmest, the most solid pillars that will never be shaken. And in turn, these unshakable pillars will act as the anchor to flex around, the guiding light providing direction in the endless sea of possibilities so that one will not lose their way.”

Levi’s pupils dilated, and he forgot to breathe.

Noah’s two shining orbs, more radiant than the sun, watched the frozen Levi and his pink lips uplifted in a most dazzling of smiles, “From the very start, flexibility and rigidity were meant to work together as one. To support each other as one.”

Noah poked Levi’s cheek, but the other was completely unresponsive. Confirming that Levi’s operating system had crashed, Noah chuckled under his breath and decided to visit that toilet, lest he got made fun of later due to his toilet excuse.

Levi sat rooted to the spot, clutching the bedsheets, his breathing labored.

His eyes burned with overwhelming intensity as they followed Noah’s retreating back.

It was he, Levi, who had been wrong from the start.

Levi had thought himself to be a destructive wild creature and his darling to be a soft and squishy ball of cotton.

Yet it turned out that when faced with his darling, he was just a paper tiger. Outwardly strong, but inwardly squishy.

And his baby, who outwardly appeared fragile, had insides made out of the purest essence of light that cannot even be touched by dirt, let alone damaged.

He, Levi, was a fool through and through, looking for cracks in something indestructible.

His baby was so pure, his pair of eyes able to find beauty everywhere, thus Levi had assumed him to have never experienced or seen anything dark and ugly.

He had thought that his baby was so pure and radiant because he had not been sullied yet.

But he had never truly understood his nature.

The purest things in this world aren’t those which had never touched the dirt before.

The purest things in this world are those which cannot be sullied no matter how much dirt you pour on them.

One has not been sullied yet; the other cannot be sullied.

Like genuine goods and a mere imitation, they couldn’t even be compared.

He, Astar Levi, was not a wild wolf that would one day destroy the little sheep that meant everything to him.

Because his precious baby had never been a little sheep.

In the end, the two of them were just Levi and Noah.

One rigid, the other flexible.

Opposing on the surface, but if one looked deeper to the truth hidden beneath…

They were two halves meant to be put together.

Two incomplete wholes that perfectly completed each other.

He felt it deep within his soul. Knew it more surely than anything he ever knew.

His baby was absolutely perfect - perfect for Levi.

As if he had been made just for him.

An existence that he couldn’t help but adore with every fiber of his being.

An existence that was so beautiful Levi couldn’t help but worship the very ground he walked on and the air he breathed.

This infatuation, this adoration, was overwhelming, impossible to be contained within.

If he didn’t let it out, these overpowering emotions roiling within him would destroy him from inside out.

And so, facing nothing but empty air, Levi rasped out three short yet incomparably heavy words of promise, which his mouth had never uttered before.

“I love you.”

Author Note:

When my faithful beta reader (my husband) read up to this point, his reaction was very vivid:

“You are scum!!! Leading me on like this with your title…!!”

(ノ꒪Д꒪)ノ︵ ┻━┻

He didn’t even have such an outburst with one of those lewd sounding titles, but surprisingly this one was really too much for his little manly heart to take. What about you, guys? Feeling just as outraged? 😏

Don’t worry, Levi will have his first smut very soon. Honest!