San’s spirit form wasn’t a puppy at all. It was his eyes that gave him that youthful, almost puppy-like appearance. They were round at the inner corners, with slightly drooping outer corners that gave him an innocent, obedient look. The striking contrast of his irises made the effect even more captivating.
He was the kind of man who could leave a stunning first impression.
"What are you doing?" Bunny pushed against his chest. "The soothing session is over. Now get out."
San immediately caught her wrist. His hair fell across his forehead, while the deep hollows of his eyes were tinged with a faint, fiery hue.
He had a rugged, wild sort of handsomeness.
"What about the rest?"
"The rest? What rest?"
San’s eyes lit up, gleaming with unmistakable excitement.
"Physical relief."
Bunny’s expression turned sour.
"Don’t push your luck."
San’s right hand slid down along her trouser leg before gently lifting the bend of her knee.
"You did it for Orion. I want it too."
Bunny instantly slapped his hand away and raised her palm toward his face.
"Do you want me to smack you?"
San still wasn’t willing to give up.
"Why does he get it while I don’t?"
"Because his situation was different."
"You’re lying."
What was so special about that idiot anyway?
Sure, his chest muscles were a little bigger, but even his face wasn’t as good-looking as San’s.
Most sentinels weren’t particularly fond of pretty, delicate-looking men.
Then San suddenly seemed to think of something. He grabbed the zipper of his training uniform and pulled it all the way down to his stomach.
His broad, well-defined chest was immediately exposed.
Before Bunny could react, he took her hand and pressed it against his chest and abdominal muscles.
The solid texture beneath her palm was impossible to fake. These weren’t muscles built for show. Every hard line had been forged through years of relentless training and countless battles.
"Well? What do you think?"
Bunny genuinely wondered if there was something missing from this redhead’s brain.
She pulled her hand back and looked at him coldly.
"I’m not interested in you like that. If you don’t move right now, I’ll call your captain and have him come drag you away."
San tilted his head, apparently unable to understand.
"But everyone says women like this."
Bunny stared at him, stunned.
"What exactly has been uploaded in your brain? Get off me!"
San lowered his eyes toward the woman’s fluffy head.
She was glaring furiously up at him, her slightly chubby cheeks puffed up with anger, somehow making her look even cuter.
She couldn’t push him away no matter how hard she tried, yet she stubbornly kept bracing both palms against him.
She reminded him of an angry cat.
Pick it up by the scruff, and it would immediately start yowling while frantically clawing at you with its tiny paws. But with such an overwhelming difference in strength, all it could do was stay pinned in place, pretending to be fierce as it threatened to bite.
So cute.
"Please. Just do it with me..." He nudged her with his fiery red mop of hair, shamelessly trying to coax her. "Please, I really need this..."
The mental soothing alone had already given him a sense of relaxation and pleasure unlike anything he’d experienced before.
His mind was constantly tormented by radiation and mental contamination. Yet in Bunny’s presence, that relentless pressure finally eased, if only slightly.
A Guide’s pheromones held an innate attraction for sentinels.
After experiencing Bunny’s scent firsthand, San finally understood just how laughably ineffective all those suppressants he’d taken in the past had been.
They couldn’t even compare to one-thousandth of what she could do.
He wanted more. He wanted to become closer to her, to have a deeper connection with her.
Bunny struggled to shove his ridiculous "dog head" away before giving him a hard smack.
"Do it, do it, do it! Is that seriously the only thing on your mind?"
How could a grown man have nothing but this kind of nonsense occupying his brain?
Every sentinel in this place was more annoying than the last. Had staying here for too long somehow damaged all their brain cells?
San answered with complete seriousness.
"I’ve never done it before. And now I want to... do it with you."
He was genuinely curious about what it felt like. After all, even someone as clueless as Orion had become completely captivated by it.
Bunny couldn’t help laughing.
"Don’t tell me you’ve gone more than twenty years without ever taking care of that yourself."
Even teenage boys figured out how to deal with their urges.
"That trick isn’t going to work on me. Get lost."
San lifted his youthful face. A row of mechanical-style earrings along the rim of his ear caught the light with a cold metallic gleam.
"It’s different."
Bunny couldn’t quite explain it, but there was something almost absurdly guileless about him.
Suddenly, San tightened his waist and pushed himself firmly between her knees.
He lowered his head, his warm breath brushing across her lashes.
"If we can’t do that, then surely I can at least kiss you, right?"
Her full, glossy lips had the soft color of pink grapefruit and looked almost impossibly kissable. He’d been eyeing them for quite some time.
"No."
"Nothing is allowed... This isn’t allowed either..."
San sighed and murmured under his breath, "They said if I behaved and became a good boy, I’d be allowed to be loved..."
Bunny asked what he was talking about, but San immediately fell silent.
He released her and looked at her hesitantly.
"Can you hug me?"
Bunny was about to refuse, but then she noticed the numerous fresh wounds and old scars crisscrossing his body, and she hesitated.
She had never encountered an alien creature herself, but she had seen enough from the dissected specimens to understand just how vicious they were.
Razor-sharp feeding organs, frightening intelligence, grotesque bodies, and highly corrosive acidic fluids.
Their secretions could burn through materials with hardness approaching that of diamond in an instant.
Worse, some of them preferred to devour humans alive, forcing their victims to watch helplessly as their organs and bones were chewed apart piece by piece.
Others would bite through a person’s legs, leaving only the upper body alive, then toss the victim to their newly hatched offspring as living prey. The young creatures would slowly consume them from the intestines outward.
There was nothing humane about them.
No matter how powerful a sentinel was, they were still human.
And humans could die.
Whenever one sentinel fell, Central Terra would simply send another replacement to fill the vacancy.
Perhaps that was the fate of every sentinel: born to kill, and destined to be killed.
Bunny said nothing; she simply opened her arms and gave him a brief hug.
There was no romantic intimacy in it, nor the distant politeness of strangers. It was simply an embrace born of compassion and comfort.
San buried his face against the hollow of her neck, quietly breathing in her scent.
It was the first time anyone had ever embraced him so gently, without the slightest trace of defensiveness.
He and his teammates had fought side by side through countless battles, risking their lives for one another again and again.
Yet despite everything, each of them remained an isolated island. And one island could never truly embrace another.
Hidden from Bunny’s view, the corners of his lips slowly curled upward.
Such an innocent little Guide. She’s so easy to fool.
All it took was pretending to be a little pitiful, and she’d fallen for it.
"Thank you, Miss Bunny."
A Guide’s boundaries had to be pushed one step at a time. There was no point rushing.
Today, it was a hug.
Next time, perhaps a kiss.
And after that...