There were certain perks to being reborn in a world of fictional characters—one of them being eternal youth and another one the absence of all life-threatening diseases that surely plagued humanity up until this moment.

...Nevertheless, having to spend at least half an hour each day sitting on a damn toilet was not one of them. According to my so-called 'liaison to this universe', Penacony's entire plumbing system had to be torn down and remade from scratch in order for it to actually work. And, according to what I'd heard yesterday, the same thing was planned for the IPC's headquarters—whose head was now none other than Aventurine.

In other words, utter humiliation.

All of a sudden, a soft knock echoed in the big, lavish bathroom where I'd closed myself for the past five minutes.

"Just so you know, I'm counting from ten."

A chill ran down my spine the moment I heard that sweet, charming voice I was so addicted to hearing.

My voice rose in a shrill yelp. "N-No, wait—!"

"...Eight... Seven..."

"N-No, no! Please, Aventurine, I'm not ready yet!"

"...Five... Four..."

What the heck? Is he anxious to get me out of here before his colleagues arrive? I thought that they wouldn't be here for another ten minutes or so.

"...Two... One."

I saw the door handle twisting, and in the next moment, that sound of soft jazz which I myself had selected poured in from the living room.

...Holy fuck. He really opened the door.

Eyes wide open, I found myself gawking at the perfect, stunning man whose presence always managed to humble me.

Leaving the door open behind him with a smirk on his face, Aventurine casually walked over to me before kneeling in front of my bent legs. He crossed his arms on top of my naked thighs and looked at my flushed face with a daring look in his eyes.

"Please, don't stop on my account. I want to hear everything."

"A-Aventurine...!"

His grin somehow got even wider. "Yeah?"

"...Why did you come in?"

"Well, you literally said 'five minutes'. I was getting impatient..."

"You know that's not—"

"I can't hear you," he cut me off, and judging from where his beautiful eyes were pointing, he wasn't referring to my voice.

I gave a nervous laugh. "You know what? I think I'm actually done here!"

His lids slid lower in his eyes. "Oh? Well, let me wipe you then."

"What!?"

Aventurine chuckled at my surprise but otherwise ignored my attempts to keep him away. Before I could do anything about it, he'd reached for the toilet paper next to me, cut off a sizeable portion of it, and folded it in his palm. Then he stood up and looked down at my embarrassed, curled-up form.

"Raise your ass up a bit," he said, still smirking at me.

Frozen still for a second, I just kept staring back at him in disbelief.

Isn't he disgusted by this? I... I can't see a hint of disgust on his face.

"What are you afraid of?" he asked then, his tone getting a bit softer seeing that I was too stunned to speak. "That I'll scrunch up my nose and pretend that this human part of you doesn't exist? Dreamball, I am not human. But even if I was, what makes you think that even the tiniest thing about you would make me turn away? I told you before, didn't I? The male peacock doesn't expect an ounce of beauty from the female."

Despite myself, I found myself laughing at his mention of peacocks again.

"What if I was born male?"

The blond grinned and rolled his eyes at me. "The same would apply. Now raise your ass for me."

Face still hot in embarrassment, I ended up freezing again. Although this time, Aventurine didn't have the patience to wait for my approval. He just walked over to my side—and forcefully pushed my face down. For a moment, I thought I'd be rolling down to the floor, but the man just held me there, raising my pelvis just as much as he wanted.

I felt the toilet paper pressing down between my butt cheeks, only to be dragged up and then off me.

"That's my good slave~" Aventurine purred from right above me.

My eyes briefly caught the dirty piece of paper being tossed into the trash bin next to me, before the man repeated the same process. I felt my sensitive areas tingle a bit after being repeatedly rubbed by something that I was not controlling myself, and it was at that exact moment that I heard that sweet, airy laugh again.

"Why so calm all of a sudden, Dreamball? Are you perhaps enjoying yourself?"

Instinctively, I opened my mouth to answer him only to end up biting my tongue at the last moment.

What the hell? After all this whining that I did, was I honestly about to answer this with a 'yes'?

Taking note of my silence, Aventurine let out another laugh—a slightly darker one this time. "Mmm, now look at that~. My hand keeps sliding a little too easily on you. Say, what is your cute little head imagining right n—"

All of a sudden, the loud, obnoxious sound of his ringtone interrupted him mid-sentence. The blond let it ring, waiting for it to go to voicemail, and just like that, this... strangely intimate moment of ours was over.

"Mm. Seems like our guests will be here soon," said the man, finally done... wiping me. "And there you go~" he added. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

Neck still craned down and face heated up from the strange mix of emotions this man had awakened in me, I watched him leave my side and make his way to the basin to wash his hands.

I felt the urge to thank him for what he'd just done, but somehow I was lost for words. I could barely utter a syllable—let alone face him—so I only ended up raising myself up shakily and flushing the toilet in total silence. My sweating hands had just lifted and zipped my trousers back up when I felt those penetrating eyes on me again.

"For how long will you be keeping your head down like this?" Aventurine asked me, sounding a bit annoyed now, judging by his tone. "You know I love seeing you embarrassed, but if you keep this up for too long, I might get offended."

As soon as I'd heard those words, my head immediately snapped up to him. "N-No! You didn't do anyth—"

"Didn't do anything wrong...?" he interrupted, reaching out to take my hand in his and intertwine his fingers with mine. Thankfully, his eyes had relaxed ever so slightly. "Well, I should hope so. Because if there is one thing that I hate, it's insubordinate slaves."

He really likes calling me that, huh.

Trying to ignore the heat on my cheeks, my eyes studied those purple and blue rings of his a little more carefully. My brows knitted together. Aventurine's expression was relaxed, his faint smile almost teasing, but his eyes... His eyes were a bit guarded. I rarely saw that kind of look when he was addressing me.

Is this... insecurity?

I blinked a few times at him, genuinely confused. "You... You didn't do anything wrong," I repeated. "You know that, right? If anyone should be feeling bad here, it's me."

The blond tilted his head slightly, as though he was waiting for me to explain.

"Aventurine... Y-You're perfect!" I said. "Literally, perfect. You're hot, smart, and you care about me in ways that I could never dare to imagine." I sighed, taking my eyes off his so that I could concentrate on what I wanted to say. "Do you even know why I felt the need to use the bathroom at this particular time of this particular day...? The day when you'd allow me to see some of your closest partners? Well, it's because I am terrified. Terrified that they'll point out the obvious to you—that you deserve so much more than me—and that their words might finally get to your head!

"...So no. I didn't hate this. I loved what you did just now. It made me feel just a tiny bit safer, knowing that the worst parts of me wouldn't make you turn away but that you'd actually roll with them and... a-and even find a way to make them sexy!"

By the time I was finished with my little rant, I was trembling all over. Crossing my arms a bit too tightly against my chest, I realized that I'd once again lost the strength to face him. After all, my insecurities were buried too deep and I'd been forced to bring them all to the surface.

Then, suddenly, that soft, slender hand that was still holding on to me pulled me forward, making me collide against his hard chest. My eyes immediately focused on his half-unbuttoned satin shirt and the immaculate skin underneath; but before I could gawk for too long, I felt the fingers of his other hand under my chin.

Aventurine raised my head so that I could look into his beautiful, mesmerizing eyes before saying, "Okay, Dreamball, listen to me. Because I am going to kindly explain this once, and once only."

His hand slid behind my neck and gripped me tightly.

"Nothing and no one has made me feel truly safe in my life," he said, "and no one ever will. Except for you. You seem to have trouble realizing this, but that... fire... inside of you drives me crazy. You're too shy. Too scared. Too comforting. Too needy. Too loving. And the target of all this love, all this obsession... is me. So instinctively, I know that you'll be by my side no matter how twisted I turn out to be. And since you fell in love with that version of me that you saw all those years ago, I know that you'll love seeing me at my strongest too—even when no one else will."

His wonderful words left me speechless. I wrapped both of my arms around him and squeezed tightly, resting my head on the curve of his neck.

Aventurine... You are too precious. No matter what you say to me to make me feel better, I'll never stop believing this: You are far more important than I could ever dream to be.