CHAPTER 470: WOULD YOU STILL LOVE ME?

By the time Lane finished possessing the slugs and got back home, it was already evening. Damien was back from work, and was making dinner, the scent of freshly cooked food filling the apartment... It hit Lane in the nose as soon as he stepped in. It was, without a doubt, a delicious smell. But...

"Ugh." Lane pressed his hand against his mouth to stop his gagging reflex. He still felt a bit dizzy, his stomach queasy from all the possessions, so much so, that even thinking about eating made him nauseous.

It was a natural reaction. Switching between his real body and another human body multiple times consecutively negatively affected his balance, as his mind didn’t have time to properly adjust to the differences between the two bodies. If even that had such a negative effect on Lane, it was only to be expected that switching between multiple slugs and his human form would be even worse... Lane even had to call a taxi to get back home, since driving in his current state would be too reckless, even for him.

He kicked off his shoes, and stumbled toward the living room, planning to fall face-first on the couch...

"Lane? Is everything... Are you alright?"

Lane lifted his head to see Damien staring at him with worry in his eyes. He must have heard Lane come in and popped out of the kitchen to greet him, but seeing the state that Lane was in, he completely forgot about everything...

Ah, damn. Lane sighed quietly, his shoulders dropping.

He didn’t want Damien to see him in such a pathetic state.

Regardless, what was done was done. Rather than feel disappointed about it, right now he should think about how to resolve the situation. He opened his mouth to reassure Damien and dismiss his concerns...

But instead, what came out of his mouth was, "Would you still love me if I were a slug?"

Damien stared at Lane for a good moment, his face blank. "What?"

What indeed. What a silly question that was...

...But why wasn’t Damien answering? Lane wasn’t an expert when it came to romantic relationships, since he had never cared to date anyone before Damien, but... A normal response would have been ’Yes, of course, I would love you no matter what,’ right? Right?

Biting his lip, Lane threw a furtive glance at Damien...

Meanwhile, Damien was still struggling to process the question. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t know how to respond, or that he couldn’t - ridiculous as the question was, Damien knew what answer he wanted to give, but...

It was the first time that either of them had used the word ’love’.

Of course, Damien himself had already long thought about Lane that way. Otherwise, how could he have heard about all of Lane’s crimes, and not report him? He had obviously done it because he didn’t want Lane to suffer, not even a tiniest little bit. Whatever the future brought, and whatever consequences Lane might have to eventually face, he was willing to share his fate. What was it, if not love?

However, he had never said it out loud. Mainly because he didn’t want to scare Lane away... As well as pressure him to say it back. Not that Lane could ever be pressured into doing something he truly didn’t feel like doing, but... If Damien were to say ’I love you’, there was a chance that he could just say it back without really meaning it.

And Damien wanted Lane to mean it. Although he wanted to hear Lane say it, seriously or not, he also wanted to be sure that that was how the man felt about him.

So, he had been holding back.

Thinking about it, though... Wasn’t that the perfect opportunity? He could just say it by answering the question, and that wouldn’t warrant any response from Lane... Moreover, Lane had asked ’would you STILL love me’, which meant that he already knew anyway, right?

With that in mind, Damien answered with a short, but serious, "Yes."

"...Eh?" Lane, who was about to dismiss the topic, paused, blinking rapidly.

Seeing his confusion, Damien cleared his throat, and repeated, "I would still love you if you were a bug."

His cheeks were bright red from embarrassment, but somehow, he managed to get the words out right.

Lane blinked a few more times, his brain struggling to process it. It was supposed to be a joke (probably), so why was Damien being so serious?

Still...

"What about a slug?" Lane asked again, noticing Damien’s mistake.

"As well."

"A-ah... Is that so..." Lane pressed his lips, his eyes wandering around.

Was it nice to hear? Yes, of course. Surprisingly so. But it made him feel all mushy inside, and Lane didn’t know how to handle that... And the atmosphere was so awkward!

Eventually, though, he was able to come up with a response. "You wouldn’t even know that it was me if I were a slug," he chuckled. "You would probably just squash me or throw me out..."

"I would know," Damien defended himself. "I would always recognize your wavelengths."

Ah, right. With Damien’s wavelength sensitivity, he probably would have recognized Lane no matter what.

The room fell into awkward silence once again. Lane chewed on his lips, fiddling with his hands, trying to come up with something, anything, that could help him get rid of this odd tension in his chest...

When all of a sudden, Damien’s eyes paused on Lane’s hands.

"...What happened to your finger?"

"What? Ah..." Lane glanced at his finger. Although it had been a good few hours since he had been bitten by the spiders, he had been repeatedly scratching it to feed his DNA to the slugs. As a result, while bleeding had stopped, the finger still looked very raw, clearly injured...

"Uh, well..." Lane gulped, quickly calculating in his mind. Which was better, the truth or some excuse?

In the end, he settled on former (for the most part)...

"Um... Damien? Remember how you made me promise that I would no longer possess anyone?"

"...Yes?" Hearing Lane’s question, Damien instantly grew more alert.

Only to be completely dumbfounded a moment later, when Lane asked, "Does it apply to monsters as well?"