Sweet Devil [BL]

Chapter 40. What if There's a Bear Outside?

After Gabriel woke up, it took his clouded mind a moment to clear up. He lazily rubbed his eyes with a somewhat foolish expression on his face, seemingly about to fall back to sleep. Another moment passed before memories of the previous day popped into his mind, reminding him that he was out camping with Masha's family.

Massaging his stiff neck, Gabriel glanced around the tent. Masha's sleeping bag was empty, but the teenager hadn't gone far as he could hear her chatting with her parents. They were trying to keep their voice down, but it was without much success. Masha had a loud voice, just like her little brother, and being quiet wasn't in her dictionary.

But although Masha was quite noisy, that wasn't what had disturbed his sleep. No, it was the blasting heat. As the sun rose higher, its rays beat down on the tent more fiercely, increasing the temperature inside the tent until it became too warm to be comfortable. It had become something akin to a greenhouse.

"Gosh, I'm drenched in sweat," Gabriel mumbled, getting ready to go out of his sleeping bag. However, the moment he moved, something rustled beside him, and he found out that Misha was clinging to him, adding another source of warmth.

'No wonder I woke up,' the teenager silently chuckled as he lifted the sleeping bag to peek at the child. 'But this little one seems to be sleeping just well.'

Misha was gripping his clothes and snuggling against him. When Gabriel moved to sit up straight, the boy's face, which he had buried in the small of his back, fell beside his thigh with a thud. But Misha didn't wake up—his eyelids didn't even twitch. Instead, he snored and drooled, even smirking in his sleep.

The sight made Gabriel raise an eyebrow, and only after a while did he react. Gently, he slid a pillow under the child's head before whispering in a soft yet mocking voice, "Seriously, kid. Do you hate me or not? You'll need to make a choice one of these days."

His only response was a grunt, and Misha disregarded the pillow with what seemed to be a snort, pushing his forehead against the teenager's leg instead. Next, he instinctively rubbed his nose against his thigh and then very naturally continued to snore while grinning, appearing quite satisfied.

Gabriel was at a loss for words to describe how he felt. He didn't know whether to be annoyed or amused.

After staring at that peaceful face for a while longer, Gabriel carefully freed himself from Misha's grip. There was no way he'd wait for the brat to wake up; he could not imagine how Misha would react if he were to know that he had clung to him in his sleep. Gabriel didn't know why, but he had the strange feeling it'd put his life in danger. Deciding to trust his instincts this time, he quickly left the tent like a thief.

Half an hour later, Misha finally emerged from the tent, clumsily hopping to the picnic table while yawning. He absently sat beside his sister, his eyelids still heavy.

It had been a long time since he had slept so well. Misha couldn't help but smile foolishly, thinking it was due to his sister's presence. There was nothing more reassuring than having her by his side, and thus the nightmares didn't come to haunt his dreams. Or, at the very least, that was his reasoning.

Because Misha had hurt his ankle yesterday, they had no other choice but to change their plan for today. They couldn't go hiking, so they decided to play board games and card games instead. Luckily, Gulnas had brought many different kinds of games. So once they were bored, they could change to another game and keep things funny and entertaining.

Every time they played a new round, Misha put all of his attention and concentration on killing Gabriel off first, even if it meant losing the game. In other words, he resorted to kamikaze strategies, not minding if he died as long as Gabriel perished with him.