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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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[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!"

[takutomaruki]

Oh...

The fluster evaporated for a bit as Takuto felt himself drawn to the logic of it. That said, he was very pleasantly reminded of his position while watching Kuon like this, so in her element. So comfortable on his knee that he could almost imagine a feline tail flickering behind her, watching his movements curiously.

"I see," he hesitates as his gaze flickers down at himself. Squeezing his leg into that space, his obvious blush still lingering there. "Well, I know getting intimate like that is...haha, a good workout. I remember being curious enough to look up its health benefits because I never really felt it until Rumi brought it up." She had always been the one to initiate in the start before he ended up reciprocating her energy.

He doesn't know how he is still keeping a straight conversation here. Even when he spoke to other strangers in clubs after he and Rumi went seperate ways, most of the time there was this unspoken rule of attraction that should have given him relief, but he only felt...strange about it.

He hadn't moved on from thinking about Rumi, had he?

"...was a bit of a late bloomer." he explains as he rubs the back of his neck- the eye shimmering and yet he didn't feel a thing.

"But are you sure you want to do it, with me? With no feelings attached?

[dollmaxing]

"Not no feelings - you're my friend. My favorite person, these days. I think you're charming, and attractive. Deeply thoughtful and kind in ways that aren't superficial or two-faced. Willful, complex, fascinating."

She reached out to him and gently booped his nose.

"My hero. And adding intimacy won't change that equation."

[takutomaruki]

How do you say those things so easily?

When this entire place says otherwise?

The boop on his nose makes him focus down on the gesture, not particularly expecting it but pleasantly happy from it anyway.

He reached out for the hand, not allowing it to retreat as his fingers cradled her wrist.

A pause. Or two.

"Kuon...if we are doing this, I need to let you know I don't want this with us hurting each other because believe me, many of my patients go through something similar and walk away heartbroken." His heart will always belong to Rumi. Her memory. Her love.

And Kuon didn't deserve to become the victim of his shallow emotions. Whatever those were.

"I don't know if I will be able to satisfy you." He admits with his heart pulsing with Azathoth's rhythm.

[dollmaxing]

"We won't know if you can or can't until we try," Kuon replied smoothly, sliding her wrist down slightly so she could wrap her fingers around his. So insecure, so worried...

"I know your love belongs to your former fiance, in that ring you wear around your neck. I'm not looking to be anything like that for you."

But she's gone, Kuon thinks. And until she returns, he needs a companion - he's far, far too lonesome now. Almost lost. Until she gave him hope.

"I don't want romantic love from you. All I want is your support and camaraderie."

[takutomaruki]

He feels bare again. Hair still slightly damp, face recently washed, with no glasses to hide away how obvious the circles under his eyes were.

"...!"

He lets go of her hand, deliberately to hold on to that ring. To think he completely forgot about it while talking to Kuon...guilt surfaces on his face for a moment before he finds himself sadly smiling at her.

As if he were holding up Rumi's dead corpse in his hands, and Kuon was the only one to witness him burying her before her eyes.

And yet. She wanted his support.

His words are caught in his throat. Suddenly, there's so much to notice. So much to realise. About himself and Kuon.

[dollmaxing]

With the same tenderness and care as the attempt to comfort him on the bench, somewhat unpracticed but at least well-intentioned, Kuon sat up, scooted closer and gently brushed the damp locks of hair out of Takuto's face. Gently cupping his cheeks. But not going in for anything, not yet - let him cling to his ring, his heart needed it.

"What do you say? Do you have any rules? I'll follow them without question."

[takutomaruki]

He straightened up when she came closer, instinctively pulling away before pausing in his tracks as he felt her hands cupping his cheeks.

For a moment, he closed his eyes, feeling his insides disintegrate.

Then, when he opened them again, he unhooks his fingers off the ring to cradle her hands in his own. "Rules...?" He blinks away the confusion in his eyes.

"I-"

A rule. What could be the rule that would be specific to him and his happiness of being taken care of in such a hospitable way? What kind of rule could he assign to himself that wouldn't be defined by the world?

One that could drive Kuon's proposition off the water.

"You would tell me if something goes wrong, right? If I did anything which made you...want to pull away."

[dollmaxing]

"Done. And you do the same for me - fair is fair," she agreed, nodding. His hands were warm... a little clammy from the scramble, the shock from just a minute or so ago, but that didn't bother her.

"Ah, how about this one: we each ask if we want to try something new. That's a useful one."

[takutomaruki]

He is...nervous. So nervous, actually. The more he thinks about what could happen in a few moments, the more anxiety threatens to bubble up. it is not something he would have ever predicted in a different setting.

But it feels right somehow. To talk about this with her.

"Experimenting...if it makes you happy, I will follow through, or bring it up- depending on the circumstance," he nods slowly. Just a friend. She's just a friend. "It's not so different from our usual work, honestly."

His gaze flickers back to her. "Anything else?"

[dollmaxing]

"Hmmm... oh! Azathoth is allowed to come out to play. But no drawing blood, he has to be gentle," she giggled, amused at the thought.

[takutomaruki]

Oh.

Oh.

Takuto spasms almost, eyes widened in actual surprise.
"Huh...didn't know my persona became your type. You don't find him strange?"

[dollmaxing]

"He's you. Powerful, but gentle and kind."

That speaks for itself, in her opinion!

[takutomaruki]

Not rotten.

No. Now that he has full control over Azathoth this time, it's exactly what it needs to be. Gentle and kind for a world that wouldn't spare a glance at you.

And Kuon sees it. She sees the progress.

Somewhere even Azathoth, dormant behind the veil of his soul, curled around protectively.

Not rotten.

Not monstrous.

Not ruined.

She said it so plainly, like it was fact. Like he was fact.

His hands tightened gently around hers as if grounding himself. Kuon's presence, light and persistent, existed as if she could tether even something as far-gone as him back to the real.

And from the back of his mind—no, not the back—from above, below, within—Azathoth stirred with something that felt suspiciously like approval.

"The priestess speaks with stars on her tongue," the voice echoed through him in a dreamlike pulse, its tone layered and harmonic, like light folding through water. "She sings not of worship, but of acceptance. The court of the blind dreamer kneels to his dearest Eve."

Takuto's head dipped slightly. A laugh—quiet and stunned—left him, not at her, but in disbelief that anyone had ever spoken of him that way, much less his Persona. The faintest glow shuddered somewhere beneath the skin of his collarbone again, a light that briefly made him look less human and more divine.

"You're..." He swallowed down the knot in his throat. "You're honestly unbelievable."

He meant it.

The air between them had gone strange again. Tenuous. Not tense, not sharp—but suspended. Like the inside of a cocoon, soft and folded in starlight. Even seated across from her, Kuon felt close—far too close—and he wasn’t sure if it was physical or psychic or... something Azathoth was amplifying between their linked minds.

The bed was still a mess, his shirt half-buttoned, glasses hanging off at the foot. Her fingers warm against his wrist.

He glanced away before he said the next part, voice a bit lower, like he had to push it through shame:

"...I can't have you kiss me, for example."

The words hung there.

Just a sadness. A small apology curled behind his lashes.

"I never liked it when the others did " he added after a pause, quieter this time, folding a piece of himself away. "After her- it always felt like I was giving something up. Or being told to lie with my mouth."

He rubbed his thumb over the edge of her knuckles. Not as a way to ask her to leave. Quite the opposite. He still wanted to stay. Still wanted her here. Still wanted this.

"I hope that’s alright."

[dollmaxing]

"I can guess why," she hummed. It was a more intimate gesture, wasn't it? More romantically inclined. Though... how far does that go?

Settling in even more closely, Kuon slid her hands away from his face to drape them over his shoulders, leaning into him more, close as they were on the bench before.

"Is that kisses anywhere, or just on the lips? Could I, say... kiss along your neck, or the inside of your wrist?"