“Oscar.”

Without even unloading the supplies from his horse, Zachary headed straight for Oscar’s room. Unlike usual, the door was open. However…

“…Oscar?”

Oscar was nowhere to be seen beyond the wide-open door.

For a moment, Zachary froze as if time had stopped. As if he couldn’t believe it, he stared into the room for a long time before springing into action and immediately beginning to search the room. With just a few movements, he was able to thoroughly search Oscar’s small room. As a result, the room quickly became a mess, but…

“…”

Zachary stood pale in the middle of the room. No matter how thoroughly he searched, he couldn’t find anything in the room.

‘Did he leave? Why?’

His eyes, which had recently been calm, began to burn a fierce blue as if a spark had been lit.

Come to think of it, Oscar had been acting strange lately. He hadn’t shown his face, claiming he had a cold, and whenever their eyes met, he would hurriedly avert his gaze.

‘He said he wouldn’t leave, but did he actually want to go?’

Zachary roughly removed his hood and ran his fingers through his hair aggressively. His expression grew darker and darker.

‘And I had no idea.’

Zachary stormed out of the room. The table was full of food and medicine he had prepared for the supposedly sick Oscar. He hadn’t wholly believed Oscar’s claims of illness. Though the two had been living a stable life recently, human hearts were not visible to the eye.

He had been foolishly complacent, not realizing that Oscar’s small head was filled with thoughts of leaving. Unlike before when he had tried to send Oscar away, now he couldn’t even imagine a life without Oscar.

He would keep Oscar by his side no matter what.

‘By any means necessary, I will…’

Rustle. Zachary, whose face resembled that of a demon as he was about to exit the door, stopped abruptly. Though it was a very faint sound, his ears, sensitive to any movement, heard it clearly.

In this land devoid of life, there was only one person who could make such a sound. However, the source of the sound was from a rather unexpected place.

‘My room?’

Zachary’s expression changed strangely. But as if he had never intended to leave the cabin, he headed towards his own room.

Creeak, the old wooden door opened with an ear-grating scream. The scene was no different from what he had seen when he left early in the morning. The old, simple furniture, bearing the full weight of time, remained unchanged.

But there was no hesitation in Zachary’s steps. He went straight to his wardrobe. That was the direction the sound had come from.

The moment he flung open the wardrobe door.

“What on earth…”

Zachary’s eyes widened in apparent shock.

He was surprised by the sweet, heady scent that flowed out as soon as he opened the door, but what shocked him even more was Oscar inside the wardrobe. Oscar, whom he had assumed would have left the cabin, was inside the wardrobe. But what was even more disconcerting was…

“Za-Zachary.”

From inside the wardrobe, buried in a pile of Zachary’s clothes, Oscar looked up at him with a bright red face, tears rolling down his cheeks. His usually fine golden hair was disheveled. Oscar’s amber eyes were half-filled with light filtering through the wardrobe’s cracks. Oscar stared at Zachary, panting, his face flushed and eyes full of heat.

“I don’t know… why I’m like this…”

Oscar reached out to Zachary. Zachary’s clothes that had been tangled around Oscar’s body slid down. Oscar immediately wrapped his slender arms around Zachary’s neck and whimpered.

“No matter how much I try on my own, it doesn’t work… because you’re not there… I…”

Oscar mumbled as if making excuses, seemingly at a loss for what to do with himself. Zachary, who had unconsciously wrapped his arms around Oscar’s back and lifted him, froze again. As soon as their bodies touched, Oscar pressed his lower half tightly against Zachary.

But if that was all, Zachary wouldn’t have been this flustered. The energy he felt from the body pressed against him was clearly one of excitement. Oscar’s neck, which was letting out small moans as he rubbed his center against Zachary’s thigh, was completely flushed red.

“…We shouldn’t do this.”

Oscar’s scent mixed with the smell of his own clothes. As if they had mixed bodies the night before, the mind-muddling fragrance made Zachary feel dizzy. Feeling like he might lose his reason at any moment, he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

He forcibly lowered his hands that wanted to hold Oscar tighter. He detached Oscar from his body and sat him on top of the wardrobe.

“You know you shouldn’t be close to me. If your condition worsens because of this, I…”

But Zachary couldn’t finish his sentence. Oscar immediately grabbed Zachary’s collar and yanked him towards himself. Surprising Zachary, Oscar squeezed his eyes shut and rashly pressed his lips against Zachary’s, crashing their bodies together. Zachary’s wide blue eyes fully captured Oscar’s image.

At first, it was a light kiss, like a child might give. Oscar, who had been pressing his lips against Zachary’s dry ones, then began to bite Zachary’s lips. Perhaps because he bit harder than expected, it even caused a small tear and wound. Oscar persistently licked that part, like an animal licking a wound. He soon pushed his tongue between Zachary’s lips, as if trying to part them.

“…”

The sensation of the hot tongue rubbing against his lips, the moist sounds, and the sight of Oscar clinging close to his mouth. Zachary silently observed all of this.

His blue eyes, which had been filled with confusion, now shone a deep blue as if Oscar’s heat had transferred to him. However, he was doing his best to resist the impulse, his hands clenched into fists.

He shouldn’t respond here. Hadn’t he already seen the results of failing to suppress his impulses? But…

“Won’t you… open your mouth?”

How could he resist?

“I’m really okay. We’ve been fine all this time. Besides, even though we’re this close now, I’m perfectly fine. Please. Okay?”

“…”

“I feel like I’ll die if I can’t touch you. Zachary… please do something…”

Faced with his lover’s desperate pleas, Zachary firmly grasped Oscar’s chin.

He felt the last shred of reason in his mind evaporating at Oscar’s encouragement.

“You…”

With a deeply lowered voice, fierce eyes that now fully revealed the desire he had been suppressing all this time stared at Oscar.

“You’d better open wide.”

It was a kiss that descended upon Oscar like an attack. There was no room for even the sound of panting to escape between their lips. Zachary lifted Oscar in one swift motion and kissed him endlessly.

Like someone who had been thirsty for a long time, they clung to each other. Every breath they exhaled was sweet. Their outstretched hands grasped each other as if they would never let go. Zachary’s cool hand slipped between the folds of Oscar’s clothes. Zachary let out a small moan. The sensation of flesh clinging to his hand as if it had been waiting was utterly blissful.

“Ah, yes.”

Zachary didn’t close his eyes. It had been months since they last touched. While Oscar had been taking the diluted elixir, Zachary had tried not to get too close, worried that his presence might harm Oscar.

But now, Zachary finally had his beloved Oscar by his side, something he had only dreamed of. How had he not gotten heated up in this situation before? As he thoroughly explored the inside of Oscar’s mouth, Zachary repeatedly stroked Oscar’s thin back.

‘Just this far…’

Though he knew in his head that he should stop here, he didn’t want to let go of this warmth he had touched after so long. If he were to devour Oscar, would it quell this boiling inside him?

What should he do, how…

“Take…”

Oscar spoke to Zachary, taking advantage of a moment when their lips parted.

“Take it off.”

While rubbing the front of Zachary’s pants that looked ready to burst at any moment, Oscar revealed his own excitement without restraint.

“Take everything off right now…”

His half-lidded eyes now looked resolute, as if he had reached his limit. It wasn’t just Oscar who had reached his limit. At Oscar’s words, Zachary’s face contorted fiercely, as if the last restraint had been released.

“…”

The two stared at each other silently. Then, it was Zachary who moved first. He began to remove his thickly layered clothes one by one. He already knew that more contact didn’t necessarily mean his holy power would spread more, and less contact didn’t mean it would spread less.

But there was a reason he had insisted on wearing such thick clothes.

‘No more…’

He feared that if he touched Oscar even a little, he wouldn’t be able to control his emotions. It was hard to fathom how he had managed to just watch over Oscar for so long. His patience had been growing shorter by the day, which was why his clothing had become thicker.