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[dollmaxing]

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Hiiii! You've reached Ichinose Kuon, head of AI research and development. Leave a message and I'll get back to you!

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[dollmaxing]

Of all of the possible reactions or overreactions, this would have never been what Kuon would expect from Takuto getting a marking touched. She removed her finger and held onto Takuto's shoulders, keeping him steady and watching what was still showing of the mark.

It moved. The eye - it had opened. That was... a sign of Azathoth, directly.

"It spread. I think this is a mark from Azathoth, Takuto," she said gently, giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I'll take a photo to show you, just catch your breath."

Takuto had sounded... well. She'd only heard a few men make that sort of noise. ...She'll keep that to herself for a few minutes.

[takutomaruki]

"What?"

The hand on his shoulder was something he didn't even realize he needed until now- shaking in disbelief as he felt her presence crowding him from behind.

"Why would I have...?" He screwed his eyes shut with his other hand flew to his back- something like horror showing on his bare face as he patted his neck.

Okay. Calm down.

"I don't really feel anything???" Panic threatened to break through as he tried to remain still under her squeeze.

Right. She will get her phone out.

Azathoth had remained quiet, the veins around the eye only subtly glowing.

He unbuttoned his shirt a little more, holding up the front with his left to conceal his chest- straightening up a little bit to let her get a better view while his shirt only sunk further to his elbows.

"Okay, here. Get a good angle, please."

[dollmaxing]

"You'll be okay, Takuto," Kuon reassured. After all, if this was Azathoth, then this was a part of him. She'd never heard of traits of a Persona manifesting, but... Azathoth certainly was more powerful. And special.

Without touching the mark again, Kuon kept her hand steady on his shoulder as she got out her not-bugged phone, getting the camera in focus before taking a picture of the subtly glowing mark.

Once checking that it came out properly in the image, she passed the phone over Takuto's shoulder to him so he could put on his glasses and see the picture himself.

[takutomaruki]

The touch felt cold- especially since his skin was bare. Just how much skin contact they were going to have in a span of a night was only a question that still didn't seem to have an answer, given that this marking on his neck was much much important to keep an eye on.

He picks up his glasses from the side and wipes them with the bunched-up shirt before placing them on his nose. "Thank you," he says as he accepts her phone and takes a glance at the picture taken.

Then double-takes as he blinks in shock, head dipping down physically with actual genuine shock on his face.

"Wha- for how long did I have this...?" He looks down at his own chest, his clavicle and runs his fingers through what he should find to be a myriad of veins interconnecting with this one point behind his neck. "I don't-" He stops to find some light flickering of dark lines on the upper half of his arm.

"I...it should have started to hurt by now, right? If it was looking like that?"The azathoth's eye shuts close when Takuto's hand flies to that exact spot and well- he doesn't feel anything strange.

"Can you...touch that again?"

Great decision there.

[dollmaxing]

"Of course. Relax your shoulders, take a deep breath," Kuon advised, figuring she had an idea what the feeling might be like for him - at least, if she touches it.

Gently, she ran the pad of her thumb along the lines, following them to the eye again, circling the pattern slowly and watching the involuntary little responses, feeling his pulse heighten, goosebumps prickling along his skin...

[takutomaruki]

Okay. Relax your shoulders. Take a deep breath.

That's what he does, heaving a deep breath in the process as he sets her phone down for her to take.

"..!"

He shudders as his body feels like it has grown taut from a massage that seems to be running all over his body somehow. Like whatever aspect of that eye Kuon touches, the place responds almost pleasantly.

Panting lightly, he conceals the sounds by covering his mouth with the back of his hand. The one that he had made earlier was...so much worse-! "Is- hh how does it feel to you?" Just a bump? Something live shimmering inside him? "Of course Azathoth doesn't tell me about this, I...oh, it feels so..." Overwhelming has to be the right word. Wih his insides becoming mush like that.

[dollmaxing]

"Not like much... it really does look like a deliberate tattoo," she said, though now she was curious... if it didn't edge into the territory of too painful, maybe this could be something quite nice for Takuto. Not something that he can do for himself, either, it seems.

"It sounds like it feels intense, hmm? Does it feel good? Maybe it's Azathoth granting you a little bliss, too," she speculated with a bit of light humor.

Kuon applied just a little bit of pressure. Nothing but a gentle little push, lest it prove painful - just a little more pressure than the feather-light touches from before, more akin to a caress.

slight nsfw undertones from here tbh

[takutomaruki]

Maybe it's Azathoth granting you a little bliss, too.

He bites down on his hand to conceal the noises threatening to break through his throat. "Good? I, I don't-"

His cheeks are red. The veins keep pulsing over his skin, as if working in tandem with his heavy breathing as he tries to pinpoint where exactly could he have got this mark from...that is if it weren't already there from the very start. Would the others who have fought him before know something about it? Would it have mattered if-

Standing at the top of a building, the world at your fingertips with Akira looking at him in horror-

The glowing veins beneath his skin pulsed again—rhythmic, reactive, as if attuned not just to her presence, but to her attention. The gentle pressure she applied to the strange mark sent a ripple through his body, like a massage that resonated through his entire nervous system. Every nerve-ending felt kissed by a spark of something warm and dizzying.

“Ahh—hh, Kuon—” he gasped out, hips twitching slightly where he sat, unable to stop the subtle roll of his shoulders, the breathless tremor in his chest.

Was this… Azathoth’s doing? A blessing, or a curse dressed in silk and fire?

He didn’t know.

He didn’t care.

It felt good. Too good.

Just as the pressure shifted again, drawing out a choked moan from him, his eyes shot open—and clarity hit.

"A-Ahh—!"

His entire body flinched, startled by the intensity of the pleasure. Like someone flipped a switch inside his skull. His brain stuttered. And then—he practically launched himself backward.

In one graceless, almost cartoonish movement, Takuto scrambled back onto the bed, arms and legs uncoordinated as he flopped onto the mattress. His back hit the headboard with a soft thud, and he immediately reached for his half-unbuttoned shirt, clumsily tugging the fabric together to cover himself with a bundle of cotton and panic.

2/2

[takutomaruki]

His glasses were skewed somewhere near the foot of the bed.

His face was beet red.

"I-I’m—I wasn’t—it just—!" he stammered, pressing the bundled shirt against his chest like it was armor. "That wasn’t supposed to—h-happen like that!"

His wide golden eyes flicked up to Kuon, barely able to meet hers. Still catching his breath. Still aching with the ghost of that sensation trailing down his spine.

"...You didn’t—see too much, right?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper, hope clinging desperately to denial.

He looked like he might short-circuit if she even smiled at him the wrong way.

[dollmaxing]

Azathoth's presence, through those golden eyes... Kuon smiled and sat on the bed, turning towards Takuto and placing a hand on his knee. He looked like a cornered animal, and her mind was clicking into place the way it always did when she found a machine she wanted to take apart and figure out the mechanisms of. To fiddle and experiment with.

She was absolutely giving him the 'wrong' smile, one that made it obvious how dreadfully curious she was.

"So... do you remember that conversation we had before? After you made breakfast for us," she cooed, drumming her fingers on his knee. "I still think it would be fun."

[takutomaruki]

His skin jumped when he felt her hand on his knee. He crossed one leg under the other, biting down on his knuckles as he was made very, very aware of how close she is.

The wrong smile was up there, and suddenly Maruki thought he was the very sushi hanging between the two ends of the chopsticks they were having earlier.

"Haha- do I? I mean, we talked about a lot of different things!" he chuckles nervously as her fingers come closer and his brain isNOTFUNCTIONING- get your shit together, Takuto!

He tilted his head awkwardly before finding himself covering his face like a blushing adolescent who's sharing the bed with someone else for the first time. "Ohmygod, I-I am sosorry-" he says so quickly that it shouldn't be remotely possible to blush out of his hands, but he's doing it.

[dollmaxing]

He's so pathetic, and never in Kuon's life has pathetic been so endearing. She can't help herself from laughing at him, scooting closer, resting both of her hands on top of his knee and resting her cheek on top. All so she could gaze at him, corner him... was this what a cat felt like when it had a mouse stuck in a corner?

Well. She'll be much more gentle.

"Do you want to have sex with me, Takuto? No reason we can't have fun and still be friends."

[takutomaruki]

Takuto peaks in between his fingers, and yep- she's there alright. Watching him from his knee and it is enticing to see her like this. So laser-focused on him, and really, if it weren't for everything else that had played out, he would even be able to counter her words with his own.

Azathoth set him up, damn it.

What is happening right now? How did his night go from drinking with her, smoking alongside her, to this?

"Do you want to have sex with me, Takuto?"

He dreaded that question as much as he dreaded their proximity right now. Especially with how unusually his brain was wired right now when Kuon touched that way. Lowering his hands a little, he still stuck to covering his mouth as his blush remained.

"Kuon, I am sorry, I really don't-" he stops as he parses the rest of what she said. "Wait?Still be friends?" How can that make sense? He only ever enjoyed his time with Rumi long after they had moved on from being friends to dating. Officially.

"So you don't like me...romantically?"

[dollmaxing]

"Nope! Perfectly planktonic," she teased fondly, snickering at his disbelief. "I'm not interested in romance at all."

Rather, she... can't experience it. Most likely. If... her last attempts were any indication. Trying to pursue something she couldn't do would only end in breaking Takuto's heart and exhausting Kuon even more - definitely not appealing in the slightest.

But maintaining their current friendly closeness? Their collaboration on proving themselves to their worlds? Having each other's backs?

There was no reason to lose that, and sex wouldn't change that dynamic, as far as she was concerned.

"And your affections still lie with another anyway. But that doesn't mean we can't just have sex casually - I've done so a few times and it's great stress relief. Great way to drop cortisol and boost endorphins and oxytocin, after all!"