The discomfort had turned to brutal pain in my chest. I rubbed at it and wrote that down, too.
“Good morning,” I said roughly. I couldn’t avert my eyes even though I wanted to.
She…swallowedhis dick with every movement.
She let out a surprised gasp,jumpingoff Slater and hitting the wall with her back. Her naked breasts bounced as she hit, and I gulped.
Magic popped and pulsed off me erratically.
“Drecken! How long have you been there?” She hurried out of bed and threw on her suit. Zuko chuckled and zipped it up for her.
“Just before Slater put you on his…appendage.” I glowered at the demon, but he just smiled back. “I need you.”
Zuko laughed into the pillow. “Join the club.”
“No kidding.” Slater pouted, gesturing to his erection that was glistening with a wetness that filled the room with an aromatic scent of midnight orchid.
“This early?” she asked, throwing her hair up into a messy bun.
“I progressed a tincture I’ve been working on,” I explained, trying to remember how to breathe and push the thoughts of Rune naked and moving on top of another man.
A man, I corrected my thought.
I was not flustered.
“Oh? Okay, let’s go, then.” She nodded.
“Fantastic.” I crossed the room, caught Rune by the wrist, and pulled her against me as I stepped us through the air.
The room folded.
My classroom awaited us. My desk held a neon green vial catching its own light.
“I have been…confused,” I admitted to her. “Around you I register something akin to butterflies and recentlyenvy.” I shuddered. “Those feelings are not within my usual range of tolerable inputs. But the butterflies, those are good. I would like to bottle them.”
“Um,” she murmured gently. “Drecken.”
“I just need you to take a sip. It’s a micro-dose. It should induce benign thoracic flutter without nausea.” I handed her the vial, and she took it.
She brought it to her swollen lips and sipped.
Her face twisted in disgust, and she handed it back to me. “Okay.Ew. Gross.” She pressed a hand to her sternum and winced. “That…hurts.Ow. That has to be what humans call heartburn.”
I stood still.
I still have it wrong.
“Noted,” I said in a flat voice. “Butterfly 893 fails to map the feeling. It maps the ache.”
“That wasn’t an ache. It was a burn,” she corrected me, and her expression softened. She stepped into my space slowly. “Drecken,” she said, softer. “Do you…like me?”
My breath stalled.
A hundred thoughts battered my mind.
“I’ve never liked anyone,” I admitted. I wasn’t ashamed of it; it was simply true.
“There’s a first for everything,” she told me, tilting her head. “Do you want to test something with me?”
