"You want to stay?" Liam murmured down at her, his red eyes flashing with dark, unbothered amusement. "Help Elizabeth keep Rogue from giving our gold to another girl scammer. Do a good job, and I’ll let you lick the spoon in our camp tent tonight."

Midnight’s eyes went wide, her glossy lips parting as her entire cold-blooded assassin persona dissolved into pure, submissive mush. "Yes... Master Chef," she whispered, her tail curling tightly around his forearm.

"LIAM!" Elizabeth and Berry screamed in unison, their faces so red they looked like they were about to suffer a stroke from pure jealousy.

"The path to Aero City is long, and we need to go home and pack first," Liam deadpanned, completely unbothered as he carried both the table and the assassin towards the house.

The starting-zone house wasn’t much to look at, and it was just one room, without a bathroom, so not much to pack. Liam stood in his small, cramped bedroom, staring down at an open wooden crate with his usual flat, unblinking expression. He didn’t have much to pack, just his spare leather aprons, a few heavy-duty cleaver whetstones, and random loot he may have stolen off people’s bodies.

Midnight had already been deployed to the kitchen below, tasked with securing the heavier pots and pans. Liam could hear her occasionally making soft, rhythmic thumping sounds against the floorboards, treating the copper cookware with the exact same silent, aggressive efficiency she used to dismantle enemy scouts.

Inside the bedroom, the space felt dangerously small.

"You’re... you’re packing the gear wrong," Elizabeth muttered. She was standing entirely too close to him, her pink cat ears twitching frantically as she pretended to inspect the wooden crate.

She had taken off her heavy iron gauntlets, leaving her small, soft hands bare. Elizabeth had changed out of her armour while they packed, swapping it for a soft floral dress she’d pulled from her inventory, something light for the road. She’d also dabbed on a little of the vanilla musk oil she’d bought randomly, just a small amount at the wrists, and a touch of jasmine at the collar. It wasn’t a big deal.

The bedroom was very small.

Liam shifted his weight, his bare shoulder brushing against hers. The scent hit him instantly. It wasn’t just vanilla; it was her. It was the warm, clean scent of her skin mixed with the sweet oil, amplified by the rising heat in the tiny, unventilated room.

Liam’s red eyes narrowed. His usual affectless, internal checklist, salt, leather straps, and travel permits suddenly locked up. A strange, heavy rumble resonated deep in his chest, a low, primal sound that made Elizabeth’s breath catch sharply in her throat.

"Liam?" she whispered, her pink eyes widening as she looked up.

Before she could take a step back, the front door banged open. Heavy, graceless footsteps, Rogue and Fridge, from the sound of it came stomping down the hallway toward the bedroom.

Instinct took over. Liam didn’t feel like dealing with Rogue right now. He grabbed Elizabeth by the waist with one massive, calloused hand, opened the heavy oak wardrobe behind him with the other, and pulled her backward into the dark, cramped closet, slamming the slatted wood doors shut just as Rogue burst into the kitchen.

The wardrobe was tiny. It was built for spare tunics, not a six-foot-two, heavily muscled white wolf-man and a voluptuous cat-girl.

Elizabeth was pressed entirely flat against his chest. Her hands were trapped against his bare chest, her fingers instinctively digging into his skin for balance. The sweet, heavy aroma of the vanilla oil was utterly suffocating in the dark, confined space.

Because Liam was shirtless, the sheer heat radiating from his chest was overwhelming, trapping her in a personal furnace.

"Liam... they’re going to hear," Elizabeth breathed, her voice a trembling, ragged whisper. Her cat tail was trapped between their legs, curling tightly around his thigh in pure, panicked stimulation.

Liam’s inner thoughts, usually a perfectly organised recipe book of logical calculations, were completely short-circuited. I have no idea what I’m doing, his rational mind tried to argue. This is inefficient. We have a caravan to catch. We need to verify the housing permits.

Then, the wolf took the wheel.

His red eyes literally dilated in the darkness, shifting into full apex-predator mode. The raw, 10,000x aura he usually kept tightly suppressed flared to life in the cramped space, making the air feel thick and heavy. He didn’t think, and he didn’t calculate. He just leaned down, his massive hand cupping the back of her head, his fingers tangling roughly in her pink hair, and slammed his mouth down onto hers.

Elizabeth let out a muffled, helpless gasp into his mouth, her entire body going rigid before completely melting into him. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The make-out session was pure, unadulterated passion.

It wasn’t a gentle, exploratory kiss; it was a collision, a conflagration. Liam’s tongue didn’t ask for entrance; it demanded, parting her lips with a force that stole her breath.

Elizabeth’s body arched against him, the back of her head pressing into the wardrobe wall as she let out a helpless "haah" into his mouth. Her hands, pinned between them, fluttered against his torso like trapped birds before she managed to slide them up, her palms gliding over the sweat-slicked landscape of his chest. Her fingers found the rigid lines of his shoulders, nails digging in deep enough to leave half-moon indentations in his flesh. She moaned again, the sound muffled by his relentless kiss, her tongue clashing with his in a dance that was anything but choreographed.

As he dominated her mouth, Elizabeth’s hand found its way past the waistband of his pants and wrapped around the length of him. She began to stroke him wholeheartedly, and he groaned into her mouth as she swiped her thumb over the sensitive tip of his cock. Her breath hitched and stuttered in time with her movements as she worked him over.

Elizabeth’s breath was nothing but ragged, broken whimpers against his lips.

[TOOL TIP]:

Status: Wardrobe Occupancy: 200% Capacity

The "Floral Dress" Modifier: By swapping out her heavy plate armour for a soft, floral travelling dress, Elizabeth’s [Physical Defence] dropped by 80 points, but her [Intoxication Aura] increased by 400%. The combination of vanilla musk and jasmine at the collarbone is classified by the system as a structural hazard for canine entities.

Hand Placement Proficiency: Elizabeth has achieved a Critical Success on her hidden dexterity check. Bypassing the waistband of his trousers while pinned against a slatted oak wall indicates that her [Close-Quarters Combat] training translates directly into high-tier, wholehearted handiwork.

The "Spoon Licking" Contract: [Midnight] has officially logged her grievance with the kitchen management. The system notes that while she successfully secured the copper cookware, her failure to secure immediate wardrobe-sharing rights has resulted in a temporary [Cute Disappointment] debuff.