{[JOONGDOK/ORV]} Perpetual Madness

Part 2 , Chapter 1

It's been a month.

The world feels as though it's slowed down, the constellations quieter than they've ever been. It's almost as though they're holding their breaths, watching with cautious eyes; and I have an inkling as to why.

Many events have unfolded since the previous "Madness" scenario, most being of the sub-type, but there is one major change that I've noticed during that period. Yoo Joonghyuk has been acting... different, ever since he kissed me that day. It wasn't a drastic change at first, growing a little quieter and clingier, preparing bigger meals for breakfast and sleeping about an hour less. Nothing horrible enough to affect anyone other than himself and a portion of my personal space. Now, however- about a week after the change was noticed- something else has become apparent.

His fighting style feels... more animalistic, for lack of a better word.

Each slash of his sword makes the air shake, as though it's trying to tear through the very soul of his enemies, with each hit becoming deeper than the last and I'm starting to worry for the strain in his muscles. The corpses were buzzing with an unknown energy, and no matter how much I wracked my brain for answers as we skinned and harvested whatever we could, burning the rest, none came.

There had been no such instance in the novel, not a single word that I could find- the closest thing being from the rounds where he had slain the very constellations themselves.

It was unsettling, the way he'd become almost reckless with his own life, and at this rate I was beginning to worry that if I turned to look the other way for so much as a second, I'd look back and find the fool already halfway through his next regression. It eventually reached the point that I felt the need to resort to mind reading, as low of a blow as it was, and the first words I heard sounded so deep and furious I almost mistook the aura encasing his fists as anger. As the words sank in a moment later, however, the fleeting moment of fear was replaced as I felt a layer of red tear through my skin.

"Fuck. I'm horny."

. . .

A similar thought was there at dinner, too, and sometime in the morning of the following day.

It was a constant string of curses that I found flowing through his mind, the mood never-ending and bristling like a field littered with landmines. I'd come dangerously close to tipping the whole thing out of proportion just an hour ago, when I made the apparent mistake of walking out without my coat.

According to his thoughts, the absence had revealed a spot where my shirt was "just tight enough to accentuate the top of my hip", in a way that drove him oddly mad, and I was barely able to suppress my embarrassment and find an excuse to put the damn thing on a few minutes later. He's thinking like a pervert.

The whole ordeal did have one brightside, however, once Lee Hyunsung mistook Yoo Joonghyuk's mood for stress. "We should have a day to rest!" the man had suggested, his eyes brimming with that puppy-like energy of his as a million thoughts crowded his mind, "there are some hotsprings we could stop by, aren't there??"

Despite Yoo Joonghyuk's mental grumbling against the idea, once the kids had perked up at the thought I was quick to agree, much to everyone's surprise.

"Kim Dokja, agreeing to take a break?"

Apparently the idea was so foreign that even Yoo Joonghyuk's opinion took a notable shift, despite his face remaining the same as ever.

There were a few muscles which had gotten a little tight since my outing-as-a-coward scenario last month, (as I like to call it,) and I wasn't exactly keen on worsening any of them in battle. I may be fine with sacrificing a few of my lives, but comfort did not count as one of such.

"Of course," were my only words, and before we knew it, a plan had been formed; we would visit the springs in about an hour.

. . . .

Once we arrived, I became painfully aware of one glaringly obvious mistake that I'd overlooked. Hot springs, as I was now remembering, required one to remove a great number of clothing, and a naked Dokja apparently equalled to an even hornier Joonghyuk.

Of course.

He's been sitting by the wall dividing the springs for a while now, mostly hidden amongst the steam like a predator hiding in the shrubs, his fiercely golden eyes wracking along my body like a meal he was ready to eat, if not an ingredient he was deciding on a recipe for.

I shivered at the thought, hiding the action by stopping to let my skin split open, silky feathers sliding into the air like a curtain for me to hide behind.

Ebony surrounded my vision as I fluffed my wings, allowing the ends to dip into the water as I brushed through the smaller, more delicate ones by my elbows; leaning into them like a float as I sank back, letting the warmth of the water envelop the aching bones they'd poured from. Each transformation has hurt less than the last, and by keeping my wings clean and orderly whenever I have the chance to, I've started finding it much easier to bring them out.

I smile, weakly rolling my head back to let the ends of my hair grow damp just in time to feel a familiar figure approach. His hard, muscular chest pressed into my back, and a pair of fingers carefully pull my wings apart as he peers through. I look up, the steam kissing the delicate ivory of the horns now twisting through my skull, "may I help you, Joonghyuk-ah?"

He doesn't say anything for a moment, eyes raking through the steam as he pulls me a little closer, "what are you doing?"

"Enjoying the warmth, is all."

He gives me a look, and if it weren't for his thoughts I might have mistook it for frustration-

"With your wings out? "

I smile, shifting them to gently caress his cheek like an excuse, "they're soft. Therapeutic, even- why wouldn't I?"

'I wanna touch them. ' "Do what you want, Kim Dokja."

He had said it as though I needed his permission to, and it made me laugh-

"Why, of course. I was planning to anyways, my little sunfish," and for once, the comment didn't seem to make him mad.