Long-Awaited Desire (1)

“Hm? My eyes hurt.”

Rurin suddenly woke up and blinked. Because her eyes hurt, she instinctively rubbed them.

“Ugh, it hurts more.”

Rubbing sore eyes only makes them hurt more, as the truth goes.

So, she grimaced and quickly removed her hand from her eyes. Unfortunately, rubbing them had made it worse.

“Why?”

She tilted her head twice in confusion, but her eyes still hurt.

“Hm, well, pain is pain.”

She acknowledged it coolly and looked at the clock.

“Let me see…huh? The clock’s gone crazy.”

The grandfather clock pointed to 4 PM. Rurin looked shocked, then suddenly clapped her hands.

“Ah! Did I sleep too much and it made my eyes hurt?”

She admitted she had slept too much and blinked her sore eyes. They say the more you sleep, the more tired you get.

“Yawn!”

Perhaps because of that, Rurin yawned loudly. Without El, her big yawn made her eyes water slightly.

“Oh? My eyes don’t hurt anymore.”

Rurin, feeling better, smiled and jumped out of bed. The tears helped clear the dust from her eyes.

“The human body is so fascinating.”

She said that and looked at the clock again. It was still 4 PM. She hadn’t seen it wrong.

“But did he leave again?”

Rurin furrowed her brow and mumbled. If she hadn’t woken her up by 4 PM, it meant El had gone to town for some errand.

Even though she knew El was nearby, it wasn’t pleasant to leave alone while the other was sleeping.

“You’re bad! Leaving me behind and going off on your own!”

Rurin kicked the floor in frustration and, still half-asleep, staggered out of the bedroom.

“No. The more this happens, the more I need to sleep. I’ll make sure you never leave alone again! I’ll wake you up and then we’ll leave!”

Of course, even if she said that, she knew El wouldn’t wake up in the morning.

She muttered to herself, making up ridiculous justifications, and when she was about to jump back into bed in defiance, she suddenly stopped with a dazed expression.

“Huh? What? Why are you here?”

Rurin looked extremely surprised as she lifted the blanket slightly.

“Is it really you?”

It was indeed El lying under the blanket.

The question mark at the end of her words was because it was so unusual for El to be sleeping at this time.

Rurin rubbed her eyes again.

She had thought El must have gone out somewhere since she hadn’t woken up yet, but now he was sleeping? Rurin looked at El.

It really was El.

She rubbed her eyes again and looked again. El had not disappeared. This was not an illusion.

This time, Rurin pinched her own cheek. As she stretched her cheek, pain surged; it was only expected since she had pinched herself.

“It’s not a dream! Ah!”

Rurin shouted out loud, then quickly covered her mouth with her hands. She glanced at El, relieved that he hadn’t woken up and was still sleeping.

“Heheh.”

Having confirmed that, Rurin smiled quietly.

In fact, for Rurin, it was rare to see El sleeping.

Usually, Rurin would be the one sleeping, and it was entirely normal for El to be awake.

The opposite situation was extremely rare.

There had been times when Rurin, half-asleep in the early morning, unknowingly got up, sneaked into El’s room, and curled up beside him.

Since it had been a half-conscious act, Rurin hardly remembered it.

Rurin didn’t know why El was sleeping at this hour.

However, Rurin focused only on the fact that El was asleep. She didn’t care about the reason, she just started to concentrate on the sleeping El.

Rurin quietly crawled forward on all fours until she was right in front of El. Then, she paused and brought her ear close.

The soft sound of El’s breathing reached her ears.

It was a very regular breath.

Realizing that El was truly asleep, Rurin made a strange expression.

The blanket was thrown aside by Rurin earlier. She then crawled over to El, who was lying on his side, and positioned herself right in front of him.

She turned her body sideways to face El and looked at his face.

“Ah!”

Their eyes met, and the distance was so small.

This was almost a first for Rurin: staring blankly at El while he was asleep.

Rurin’s heart began to race. She was just looking at him, yet her heart was pounding. And that wasn’t all.

Her eyes sparkled, and her face flushed.

Normally, El looked cool—that was Rurin’s impression. But now, he seemed unusually cute. Yeah, with him asleep, his charisma faded, and he was just so adorably cute.

So, Rurin lay still, unaware of the passing time, and kept her eyes fixed on El’s face.

How cute El looked when he scratched his cheek while still asleep!

Rurin thought about that and eventually jumped up.

“Yawn, why is it so hot all of a sudden!”

She whispered and cast a spell, blowing air toward her face.

Her hair was tossed about by the strong wind, and Rurin took a moment to cool her face. After her heated face cooled down, she lay back down in the same position, staring at El again.

Then, Rurin felt a surge of desire.

Dragons are a greedy race. Greedy for jewels, and greedy for what’s theirs.

It was a tremendous species.

And right now, her desire was to touch El’s cheek.

She had tried kissing El once before, disguised as a kiss on the lips, but there had been no real progress after that.

That was because embarrassment controlled her whole body, but today was different. Seeing El defenseless like this, Rurin’s confidence began to rise.

Rurin raised her hand while still lying down.

She extended her index finger and began approaching El’s face slowly.

Her finger trembled slightly.

Rurin gently placed her trembling finger on El’s cheek, then pressed down gently.

“Wow!”

Rurin let out a gasp without thinking. She grabbed her head in frustration, biting her lip to stop herself from making any more noise.

“Mm.”

At that moment, El shifted his body and turned over to the other side.

Rurin, thinking it was because her finger touched El, glared at her hand. Then she bit her finger hard as punishment.

“You stupid finger.”

But it was just a change of position.

Rurin calmly got up and turned over to the other side. Yeah, she just needed to lie on the other side.

She silently exclaimed that in her mind and settled into position, lying like a pair of chopsticks while staring at El’s face.

‘Wow, so cute.’

Rurin mentally shouted.

Awake El is so fine. Rurin thought that was obvious.

But El sleeping was so new to Rurin. She had so much sleep herself that she rarely saw El like this, and she was excited by how new it felt.

“Huh?”

But then El furrowed his brow and, with a slight sound, turned halfway and buried his face in the bed.

His head had already fallen off the pillow.

Since his face was buried in the bed, it was impossible to see his face.

Rurin fell into despair. She had a strong urge to observe more, but since El was in this position, Rurin tried to turn his body somehow by nudging El’s arm.

She had touched El’s cheek earlier and rolled over. Now, she hoped El would turn over again.

Poke. Poke.

Carefully prodding his arm, El fortunately turned over again. However, the problem was that he didn’t turn back to his original position, but instead, he completely rotated toward Rurin.

Rurin was startled and retreated while lying down.

She was afraid that if their bodies touched, El would wake up.

Thud!

But there was no space to escape. Rurin’s back hit the wall.

Rurin curled her body, but it was futile.

It was a situation where she had no choice but to touch El’s body. Since it was a rare opportunity, Rurin tried to resist and curl up even further, but her efforts were in vain, and she ended up landing right on El’s chest.

Rurin was now completely pressed up against El, with the wall between them.

“Mmm.”

It was common for Rurin to sleep with her head resting on El’s chest. She had done so unknowingly many times in her sleep. However, looking at El’s sleeping face was something entirely different.

So, right now, what Rurin wanted to do was gaze at El’s cute sleeping face.

She buried her face in El’s chest, then struggled to lift her face and look for El’s.

Then she gave up. It seemed impossible to return to the previous position, so she decided to do something bold before El woke up.

It was nice to look at him, but doing something bold seemed even better!

Her heart started racing again. It was pounding uncontrollably. It had been racing earlier, but now it was even faster, something like tachycardia for a human.

Her heart was pounding wildly, she was short of breath, and she even felt dizzy. It was like tachycardia, but of course, it wasn’t a disease.

Rurin moved El’s arm away, got up, and climbed on top of her.

Then, she lunged forward.

This was the moment when it was okay to approach. Rurin from another world would have done the same. She had heard that when someone is this cute, it’s okay to get close.

Plus, El was asleep.

Rurin moved closer and leaned down toward El’s lips. Soon, her lips gently brushed against El’s.

The soft sensation spread through Rurin’s nerves.

“Huh?”

When El regained his consciousness, he found himself holding Rurin, pushing her against the wall.

What kind of situation is this?

His mind scrambled to process the situation. He had clearly closed the restaurant for the day.

He wasn’t planning to open the restaurant for a while because he had some important matters to handle.

After organizing ingredients in the morning and informing the regulars about the closure, it was afternoon by the time El went downstairs to wake Rurin up.

Then, as El casually looked at Rurin sleeping, and considering that there would be no evening business, he felt strangely relaxed, and remembered that he had momentarily laid beside Rurin while trying to wake her.

That’s right.

Did he fall asleep like that?

The soothing sound of Rurin’s breathing made El feel good, and his eyelids seemed to close without him noticing.

It had been a long time since he had taken a nap.

But at that moment.

Rurin got up and climbed on top of El, moving her body toward his face.

El was startled by the sudden move. Half-asleep, his eyes weren’t fully open, but Rurin, too, lowered her head toward El’s face, closed her eyes tightly, and lunged forward to kiss him on the lips.

El hesitated for about five seconds, wondering what to do, but ultimately decided to let it happen.

After all, Rurin needed to kiss him sometimes too. Why should he be the only one initiating?

Except for that kiss earlier.

That wasn’t really a kiss.

Anyway, when Rurin’s lips approached, they brushed gently against El’s hair, making a soft “smack” before pulling away.

Smack-!

The sound of the kiss echoed brightly in the air. Rurin had finally kissed him properly.

Before El could react, Rurin screamed and ran out of the bedroom.

Seriously.

When El tried to initiate things, she became all tangled up, but when Rurin did it first, she ran off, as embarrassed as ever. El couldn’t understand it.

At least he got up. The kiss was the kiss, but after waking up, El was still dazed.

El went to wash his face with cold water and, when he returned, he found Rurin sitting quietly in the middle of the bed.

“You!”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you napping? Aren’t you opening the restaurant?”

Rurin glanced at El as if she was trying to read his reaction, probably wondering if El realized the kiss from earlier.

El sat beside Rurin on the bed without making it obvious.

Then, he threw a sharp comment.

“Well, someone kissed me, so I can’t open it.”

“W-wait, what are you saying? I didn’t kiss you! You must’ve been dreaming!”

She hurriedly covered herself with the blanket and crawled inside. Only her feet and ankles were sticking out of the blanket.

“Forget that. There’s something else important we need to talk about.”

When El emphasized the word “important”, Rurin slowly got up, still with the blanket over her head.

“Come here.”

El pulled Rurin in front of him, then hugged her from behind and tilted her chin slightly to speak into her ear.

“What is it?”