BECOMING MID(NIGHT)-Chapter 56: Phase 43 - I Love You Too

The alert didn’t fade; it hummed at the base of my skull, a low-frequency vibration that turned the silence of the room into something thick and pressurized.

The air-conditioning hummed, a cold contrast to the shimmering wall of heat still radiating from our tangled limbs. My skin felt tight, drying with the salt and silver of our encounter, the leather of the sofa sticking to my back with every shallow breath.

Kyouya lay across me, her weight a grounding mass, her pulse still a frantic, disorganized throb against my collarbone.

The high-tension wire had snapped, and we were currently floating in the wreckage.

"Mayo-san," she murmured.

Her voice was stripped of its lethal edge, reduced to a soft, tactile resonance that vibrated directly into my chest.

I didn’t answer immediately.

I was watching the way the dim light from the artificial scenery outside caught the damp curve of her shoulder. I felt the involuntary tremors still jumping through my thighs, my muscles refusing to exit the fight-or-flight state.

"I love you," she said.

The words hit like a system error.

It was too quiet, too simple for the "Velvet" persona she usually wore like armor.

It felt like a data packet I wasn’t authorized to decrypt yet.

Is she hacking me, or am I hacking her?

"I can’t hear that," I countered, my voice sounding like gravel being dragged over silk.

"Say it again. Louder."

She shifted, her skin peeling away from mine with a soft, wet sound—the acoustic layering of the aftermath. She looked up, her pupils still slightly blown out, the abyss of black retracting to reveal the jagged, beautiful brown of her eyes.

"No. You did."

"I was... distracted," I muttered.

My hand moved on instinct, my fingers tracing the red crescents her nails had left in my shoulder. The micro-physics of the marks felt like a permanent save state on my skin.

"Really?" A flicker of the old Kyouya returned to her gaze—the predatory smirk playing at the corners of her lips.

"What about if I whisper it to you instead?"

I let out a long, shaky breath, the air in my lungs finally losing its syrupy weight.

"...Sure."

She leaned in, her lips grazing the shell of my ear, her breath a hot, humid draft.

"You are such an asshole, my dear."

"Hey!"

I didn’t even think twice.

No, not even once.

I landed a playful punch against the sofa cushion, the impact catching her side.

Guhukkk.

The sound was a blunt, muffled thud that broke the heavy atmosphere instantly.

"Okay, my bad. Sorry," she chuckled, though the huffed laugh sounded more like a victory than an apology.

She slumped back against me, her blonde hair a messy, dark landscape across my chest.

"Idiot," I whispered, the insult carrying that distorted affection we both used as a secondary language.

I tightened my grip on her waist, feeling the architecture of her ribs beneath my palms.

"I love you too."

"Oh, really?" She tilted her head, watching me with a jagged curiosity.

"How much?"

I hesitated.

After all, I tried to quantify a feeling that didn’t have any numerical value.

I lifted my hand, pinching my thumb and forefinger together until there was barely a millimeter of space between them.

"Maybe as much as this, I guess?"

"What a liar," she scoffed, though her smile was growing more genuine, more human.

"Said the expert at lying," I shot back.

"Imagine saying that while also pretending to be a pick-me."

The silence that followed was different—lighter. I actually paused, my brow furrowing as the memory of her own digital deception surfaced.

"You really still remember that..."

"Never underestimate my memory,"

I said, my voice dropping back into a raspy tone.

"I’ve known every version of you. Especially the ones you tried to delete."

"Yes, yes, I won’t..." I trailed off.

Her fingers tracing the veined heavy mass of my arm, her touch a light, electrical conduction.

"Dear miss blowjob specialist detective,"

I added, the teasing edge returning to my voice like a serrated blade.

The reaction was instantaneous.

His mask didn’t just crack, but vanished.

"Okay, that went too far."

She sat up, her eyes narrowing as the competitive dominance flared back to life.

"Take that back."

"Nuh-uh. Never,"

I grinned, feeling a surge of adrenaline that had nothing to do with fear.

"Yuh-uh."

"Right. Now."

I didn’t give her an inch.

I just stuck my tongue out, a childish, defiant gesture that felt absurd in the wake of the "Libido Overload" we had just shared together.

"Okay, that’s it. Enough with this humiliation," she growled.

In one fluid, desperate motion, she lunged.

It wasn’t a kiss—it was a tackle.

She jumped out to meet me, her mouth muffling my protest as she shoved her tongue past my lips, seeking to dominate the space I had just claimed.

She gripped my body with a frantic, uncoordinated strength, her limbs locking around me like a wrestling move, pinning my shoulders back into the leather. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Stop!" I managed to choke out against her mouth, my lungs burning.

"No, until you take that back," she whispered into the collision of our lips, her weight pressing me down, her heart jackhammering against my ribs.

"Okay, give—give—give—ahhhhh!"

I finally barked, the laughter bubbling up despite the pressure before she reduced it.

"Alright, I give up. Now, stop."

She pulled back just enough to look down at me, her chest heaving, sweat gleaming like silver on her forehead.

She stayed there, pinning me to the altar of the sofa, a flicker of triumph softening the sharp edges of her gaze.

"Good boy," she whispered, the masculine resonance returning to her voice.

"Or should I say good girl?"

My eyes searching for the lie.

Or who the fuck asked.

"Not funny."

"It was."

"What a bad sense of humor you got,"

I sighed, though I didn’t move.

She just let her weight settle into me, the said feedback loop finally stabilizing into a steady, rhythmic hum.

"Nope. Mine is amazing, as always," she said.

I rolled my eyes, letting the argument slide as the 3-hour timer flickered in the periphery of my vision. The data was waiting.

The link was about to initiate.

But for now, the only thing being calibrated was the messy, physical reality of the person lying on top of me.

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