Rina stared at Hisaki’s face, which was smiling in a way that made her skin crawl, with only one thought in her mind.
There was no way she was sleeping with this weirdo.
Her feet moved before her brain did…
She took a step back, then two, her nightgown hem swaying with the motion, her bare thighs flashing briefly in the warm yellow glow of the night light.
“I-I’m not sleeping with you!”
Rina’s voice came out a bit frantic when she said this, completely lacking her usual cocky brat composure.
Hisaki stood by the bed. When she heard Rina’s words, she didn’t chase after her, didn’t reach out to grab her, didn’t even change her posture.
She just calmly let out one sentence.
“Then give me back the key card.”
Rina’s steps halted.
“And tomorrow I won’t take Shiro out to play either.”
Rina remained frozen with one leg halfway out the door, her whole body like someone had hit the pause button.
That black key card…
She hadn’t even gotten to enjoy it yet.
Damn it.
She cursed Hisaki from head to toe in her mind.
Kidnapper, pervert, weirdo small fry, robbing a burning house, kicking someone while they’re down, taking advantage of someone in distress…
But she pulled her foot back.
“I’ll endure it!”
Rina squeezed those two words out from between her teeth, then spun around sharply.
She charged…
Strode forward fiercely, her silver-white hair whipping in an arc behind her.
Right now…
There was one thing.
Claim the spot first.
She charged… forward.
Her whole body slammed onto Hisaki’s absurdly huge bed like a cannonball, the mattress letting out a muffled protest.
She grabbed… the only blanket on the bed, wrapping herself up in it from the inside, rolling once, twice, three times, until she became a solid white cocoon.
The movements were so… practiced…
Hisaki stood by the bed, looking down at the wriggling blanket cocoon on the bed.
Hisaki smiled.
“Want me to turn off the night light?”
Her voice was light and airy, like she was asking a perfectly normal question.
“Is Shiro afraid of the dark?”
A muffled voice came from inside the blanket.
“I’m not afraid of the dark! I’m afraid of you!”
Hisaki looked at the little white lump inside the blanket…
Adorable.
So adorable she wanted to lift up a corner of the blanket, slip her fingers inside, and poke that puffy round face.
Hisaki slowly walked to the other side of the bed.
Rina felt the mattress behind her sink slightly, felt the kidnapper’s weight settle on the other side of the bed, felt that person’s presence drawing closer inch by inch…
Then, a voice leaned close to her ear, so very close, warm breath brushing against her ear, which was exposed outside the blanket.
“Shiro, give me some blanket.”
“No!”
Rina wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, her voice coming out muffled and huffy from inside.
“I’m not sharing a blanket with a weirdo!”
Hisaki looked at that fiercely guarded blanket cocoon and was silent for two seconds.
Then she slowly sat up and got off the bed.
Rina heard the kidnapper get up, heard footsteps heading toward the door, heard them disappear in the direction of the corridor.
She froze for a moment.
She just gave up that easily?
That can’t be right…
Then she heard footsteps returning.
Hisaki reappeared at the bedroom door, holding a blanket in her arms…
It was the blanket Rina had slept with for seven days in the second bedroom.
Hisaki spread the blanket out on the bed…
Then she lay down.
She covered herself with that pale pink blanket, rested her head on the pillow, turned on her side, and faced Rina’s white blanket cocoon.
Rina felt the kidnapper lie down again, this time separated by the thickness of a blanket, not touching her directly.
She let out a small sigh of relief, but still didn’t loosen the blanket wrapped around her…
The defensive line couldn’t be abandoned.
Then she heard a sound.
Hisaki buried her face into that pale pink blanket, deeply, slowly, and took a breath.
“It smells nice.”
Rina’s body stiffened.
“Really good.”
Rina had no idea what the kidnapper was talking about…
Was it her scent, or the blanket’s scent?
But she didn’t want to ask, and she didn’t want to confirm.
She just wrapped the blanket even tighter around herself.
Then, a pair of arms reached over.
Through the thickness of the blanket, Hisaki’s arms encircled that white blanket cocoon, pulling both person and blanket into her embrace.
Rina’s body instinctively tensed up for a second.
But only for a moment.
This hug was too familiar to her.
When she sat on Hisaki’s lap eating, Hisaki’s arms circled her like this.
When she was curled up in the mansion being held while playing on her phone, Hisaki’s arms wrapped around her like this.
Even when she dozed off on the living room sofa, Hisaki would quietly scoop her up, cushion and all, into her arms.
Rina’s muscles relaxed automatically before her brain could react.
She didn’t struggle, didn’t curse, didn’t even let out a “tch.”
Her body had already defined this hug as “normal contact.”
Hisaki didn’t make any further moves either.
No groping, no shifting, no trying to slip her hand inside the blanket.
Just like she said…
Just sleeping.
Rina endured inside the stuffy blanket for a long while, until she finally couldn’t take it anymore.
She wriggled out of the blanket.
Her silver-white hair was a static mess, her cheeks flushed from the heat, fine beads of sweat clinging to her temples.
She took deep breaths of the cool air, and her head hit something hard but slightly soft with a “thunk.”
Hisaki’s chin.
“Hiss…” Rina clutched the top of her head and looked up, glaring at Hisaki.
Hisaki was looking down at her…
“Shiro finally decided to come out.”
Rina let out a “hmph” and turned her face away, but didn’t crawl back into the blanket.
“Behave yourself. We’re only cuddling, no touching allowed!”
After saying that, she buried her head into the pillow, exposing the back of her neck, which was flushed pink from the heat.
Hisaki looked at that stretch of neck and swallowed.
But she didn’t move.
Rina closed her eyes.
Being held like this wasn’t actually that bad.
To be precise, it was unexpectedly reassuring.
This feeling of being completely protected, Rina had never experienced it before.
It was strange.
He was the one imprisoning her, the one she wanted to escape from, but when she was held like this, she actually felt… safe.
Rina’s breathing gradually steadied…
She fell asleep.
Hisaki didn’t sleep.
She looked down at the little white one in her arms, finally quiet.
Hisaki’s gaze stopped on Rina’s neck.
Endure a little longer.
She said to herself.
Tomorrow I’ll know.
Tomorrow I’ll take Shiro out and see if Shiro tries to run.
If she’s good, if she doesn’t have any thoughts of running, then I’ll keep enduring…
But if Shiro tries to run…
Hisaki’s lips gently brushed against Rina’s hair, whispering in the darkness with a voice only she could hear.
“Then I’ll eat you.”
Then she closed her eyes and buried her face into Shiro’s silver-white strands, taking a deep breath.
The fresh scent of shampoo mixed with Shiro’s own smell rushed in from her nose, filling all her senses.
Her arms tightened half a measure more, pressing the person in her embrace closer to her chest.
Warm.
Soft.
Full.
Hers.
“Good night, my Shiro.”
Hisaki closed her eyes.
Wrapped in the scent that belonged to Shiro, she too finally sank into sleep.