Honesty

“I…” Fox licked his lips, a bit out of breath, and opened his lips. But Nala Loba looked down without caring about him and brought her hands to his belt, sliding her fingers between it and his pelvis. Fox's eyes went round. Nala Loba's hair fell down as she hung her head. Her hands unbuckled his belt, freeing his waist bit by bit, sliding it out of his pants.

Saying nothing more, Fox watched her take his belt off and roll before throwing it over her shoulder to the couch. She tilted her head to her left, wearing her natural resting expression before kneeling before him, looking up at him as she did.

Fox felt his mind rumble a bit, and further as she unbuttoned his pants before lowering the zipper. He didn’t have any undergarments because the uniform was enough for that, but while it ‘hid’ things better than a bathing suit, it wasn’t much better than actual undergarments.

Nala Loba didn’t pay attention to it. She lowered his pants, making him feel the freshness of the temperature, colder these days, before lifting his feet. Fox obeyed, letting her take his pants off before she stood up and turned to the couch again to fold it.

Nala Loba placed his folded pants on the armrest and his belt atop it. Then, she turned to him again, looking at his face, which was looking down. When she turned around, Fox looked at her face, guiltless.

Nala Loba wordlessly went down again, this time only crouching as she took his shoes off, taking his socks with them afterwards, and stood up again. This time, she didn’t turn around and instead faced him. Nala Loba made him hold his shoes as she bundled his socks before untying his shoes properly. Then, she stepped closer to him after leaving them beside the couch.

Fox’s breath elevated out of nowhere. His eyes followed her next target, his gloves, which she used both hands to take off him, slowly, and one after another.

She first pinched the tip of his fingers and pulled the fabric, leaving a small gap past his nails. Then, she carefully massaged his hands, even the left one, which had many metal bone-like composition instead of organic. Although the metal became part of him, just not purely organic.

She grabbed the hem of the gloves and slowly pulled. Nala Loba’s thumbs and middle fingers pinched the gloves to pull, using her middle and ring fingers to push his skin out bit by bit. Like this, her head low at all times, Fox watched her forehead and golden blonde hair as she freed his hands from their confinements.

Her eyes never ceased observing his hands. The left one was veiny a bit strangely. But his right hand was veiny in a rather grotesque way, and when she pushed his palm and spread her fingers on his backhand, they became more obvious and gruesome.

After seeing these in both his hands, much more ‘sterile’ in his left hand, unlike the ‘menacing’ sight in his right hand, she looked up at him. Fox looked down at her eyes before she began massaging them again but cut off after a while.

“Bath…” Nala Loba kept her lips open as if wanting to say something but stopped. Then, she looked at the sofa, “Couch. Oil. Rest.”

With that, she left his suit on the sofa and brought his gloves away. Fox looked at his clothes and saw their neat order and had to nod in praise. But then, seeing her leave with his gloves caused his face to fall.

Sighing, Fox walked to the room to grab change clothes to get out of the uniform, but then he heard the bathroom running with water. Blinking a few times on the spot, he walked there, already feeling what it was for.

Nala Loba crouched before the large bathtub inside the bathroom, one of many… She had pajamas on, an ordinary shirt and shorts without anything else. What short hair she had was tied to a bun behind her head, leaving some locks at her sides. She turned her head a bit, murmuring as she moved her hand in the water. “It’s hot already. Get in and keep your hands under. Clean yourself or not, but stay there 115 minutes before coming out.”

Fox lowered his head, slightly frowned, and nodded. She stood up and left, her body swaying a bit as if dizzy, making her locks of hair dangle from one side to the other before leaving the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Fox blinked at the door before staring at the bathtub. He looked at the side out of reflex, where 3 large, thick, cotton towels made in Merula and Iztos from Dawn supercontinent laid before a mirror. The best of the best.

Fox took his uniform off and entered the bathtub, feeling the hot water fresh and cold at first before the blatant high temperature was recognized by his body. It was a quick reaction from his body, more than any ordinary person would have, but that was normal.

When he relaxed, lowering his waist and lower back inside it, it felt amazing and as if impurities were cleansed inside his body. But when he dropped in the bathtub until his neck, he started coughing and coughing. It was only a minute later he stopped coughing.

Cocking his head, Fox proceeded to unwind, throwing his head backwards on the edge of the bathtub, breathing ever so at ease. Almost 2 hours later, he stepped out and cleaned himself without emotions passing his countenance. Then, he wrapped the only one dry around his waist and came out. Outside, he saw a change and a sleeping beauty. Or a resting one.

The couch had a set of comfy, thin but long pieces of clothes and slippers. His suit was nowhere to be seen, while he left his uniform in the bathroom. Additionally, Nala Loba laid asleep in one of the large sofas, her head resting on the seat cushion.

Fox grabbed the set of new clothes and went back to the bathroom. After dressing up, he looked at his uniform, deeply debating something. A minute later, he came out with a properly folded uniform in his hands, wearing a white and light blue pajamas.

He left the uniform on the same couch before walking to Nala Loba and waited for her to sit up. After a minute, Fox tilted his head all the way to the left, looking down at Nala Loba, on his right. She wasn’t resting, she was asleep.

Fox looked down at her face before staring at her body. It was difficult to believe, but she wore a lace dress with a small floral embroidery around its hem. It was ‘air force’ blue color, and perfectly so, it contrasted her every feature perfectly.

Fox crouched beside her, looking at her face up close. Similar to the gala, but even closer, and without pain in his body. His breathing seemed to have disappeared, but hers didn’t. She laid on her back with her head turned to the left, facing Fox’s direction.

Fox stood back up and grabbed her shoulder, shaking it a bit, waking her up straightforwardly. Nala Loba lucidly opened her eyes, staring into his for a fraction of a second before sitting up. She didn’t remain seated for a moment, standing up and pointing at the couch, “There, I kept it warm. Now lay on it.”

“…” Fox looked at her, speechless, before a smirk threatened to form at his lips. He avoided it at all costs, narrowing his eyes a bit instead. Nala Loba looked up at him when he didn’t move, ‘glaring’ at him with her eyes trembling to further widen.

Fox looked at the sofa before kneeling over it. Nala Loba moved behind him, grabbing an extra cushion from the couch where she saw his folded uniform, making her stop for a moment. Before he could lie on the sofa, she placed the cushion leaning against the armrest.

“Recline your head, and choose, face up or down first?”

Fox stopped midway lying on his back. He blinked at her, who stood up after placing the cushion, and proceeded to lie down with his head on it. Nala Loba nodded before grabbing a bottle below the sofa. Fox’s lower lip pressed upwards, ‘Just how much does she like to hide things below furniture?’

Nala Loba grabbed a bottle of oil, placing its contents on her palms before rubbing her hands, but mostly her fingers. Strangely, the oil seemed to dry up, sucked into her skin. But Fox was still too curious to bother about it. He reached downwards, trying to see if he could grab something, when Nala Loba widened her eyes in a glare and stopped him. If it wasn’t his left arm, he might’ve gotten a bleeding wrist with 5 attempts at proving he was depressed.

Fox and Nala Loba looked at each other. Silent, slowly calming down, but both having conflicting desires. Now, more than ever, Fox wanted to forage and ransack her hideout. Nala Loba wanted to stop him, at all costs, no questions asked.

“Nooo!” In the end, Nala Loba accidentally used the greatest weapon she could have ever imagined, shutting her eyes and dragging her refusal as she yelled it like a mosquito. Fox’s eyes widened, causing his arm to tremble in weakness. He was devastated. Nala Loba’s eyes snapped open, recognizing an opportunity when she saw one, and dragged his filthy, evil arm back to his stomach.

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Then, Nala Loba placed the bottle under the sofa, even moving it below a bit before looking back up, as if accommodating it. Then, she slapped her hands. Fox looked at her just like one would to the warrior who betrayed him and left him to die in the battlefield without finishing him off.

But then, as she clapped, he saw her dry hands get wet, like her skin were sponges. Then, Nala Loba knelt beside the sofa, near his head, and her back straight. Fox’s nostrils flared a bit, “It still smells of you.”

“You smell more,” Nala Loba said, starting by massaging his left elbow. She’d start with the left side first, as it was the least worrisome-looking, while the right side was much more concerning, and she’d have to extend her ministrations. “So, you’ll override my smell eventually… my scent.”

Fox watched her correct herself and just felt she was a cute gem, a hidden one, but one nonetheless. As she finished massaging his elbow, she blinked strongly a few times before turning to him, “Can you take it off? The pajamas are obstructing me.”

Fox said nothing, even though he recognized the liquid’s properties to work well and even easily penetrate fabric. A perfect item that can either be used to perform ‘friendly’ massages or turn any clothes transparent. Regardless, he half-sat up and took it off, revealing himself to her.

Nala Loba’s face didn’t change as she nodded and pinched his pajamas shirt, placing it at his feet. Then, she resumed her actions, placing her hands all over his arm with her fingers spread. From his arm and shoulder to his forearm, wrist, and hands. His fingers were held gently by one hand while the other held and massaged his wrist or his backhand and palm.

She was thorough.

When she finished with his left arm, with Fox constantly fighting to keep his eyes open, her constant slapping hands helping him keep up to extract more oil, Nala Loba nudged her chin up at him. “Turn around.”

Fox blinked before doing so, letting his left arm smear the oil on the backrest as he turned around without making a sound from the left to the right. He didn’t see her reaction, but it didn’t matter, it felt good.

“Mmf…” Fox frowned, his face against the cushion as she began with his right elbow. He immediately felt pain in his hand, sparking like an epicenter before the pain spread everywhere around his arm and even to his chest. It was like a lightning bolt transmitting the pain.

A few minutes later, Nala Loba drove her hands up, repeating the same she did to his left arm, only longer, and with her fingertips pressing stronger here or there, tracing lines and wiggling on his skin. Fox felt pain as well, though it diminished a bit.

A bit later, Fox felt his forearm worked next. When it was his hand and fingers’ turn, he moaned a little. It also hurt, but almost nothing compared to all the other places. Nala Loba spend an hour with his hand before finishing the massage. By then, Fox was… sleeping.

… Some time later, when Fox’s melted brain realized he was sleeping, he woke up like his person was offended. He jolted up, lifting his face and collarbone from the cushion before looking to his right.

“…” Fox’s polycoria eyes shrank their contents. Nala Loba slept, kneeling beside the couch with her head slammed-resting just below where his face was. A thought entered his head, ‘Why didn’t I wake up more delicately?’

He peeked over the seats and saw her folded legs supporting her body as her fattened cheek nearly covered her right eye. It was perfect.

After gazing for a delirious while, Fox looked at his right hand and noticed her dry hands holding his, forming a passive hand holding even with the awkward pose. Fox smoothly moved his hand out of her grasp before standing up.

He walked behind her and lifted her into a princess position, grabbing her armpits. He looked down at her before walking to the bedroom without trying to be soft. She was already awake.

Fox returned to the couch after leaving her on the bed and rested. A few hours later, he was woken up by Nala Loba, who threw his suit at him, clean and smelling good. He didn’t recall having ordered or bringing a nice, natural laundry detergent. After he put it on, it reminded him of when he first laid on the couch.

But there was no way this was her scent, right? There was no way she just held onto his clothes after he went back to the couch to rest. She didn’t just hug his suit the rest of the time and delivered it to him after resting, right?

When at the doorstep, preparing to leave and meet the reporters who wanted to take photos of them after a lascivious night together, they stopped to check on each other. Or rather, tomboy-outfit Nala Loba checked Fox’s image with scrutinizing, focused and narrowed eyes.

After her eyes went all over him from his shoulders to his shoes, Nala Loba looked up at him and slightly nodded, buttoning up to her shirt’s collar for no reason, making Fox curiously frown. She went, “Lydaor and then Lydnstel in a day, are you ready?”

“Yes,” plainly replied. Nala Loba blinked before asking, touching his collar for the umpteenth time, “Are you not going to visit your foster family?”

“Don’t think so,” Fox flatly replied, looking down at her with only his eyes moving downwards. Nala Loba exclaimed, tilting her head up a bit, slightly lifting her chin. “Mn.”

“Hey.” She grabbed his attention. Fox looked at her questioningly. Nala Loba hooked her index finger and motioned to her collar, “Make me crash against you.”

“… Alright,” Fox was a little cautious, but he still did.

Fwiiieup- plck! Thud- rustle~! When he pulled her collar, breaking it with his right hand, it showed him how easy Nala Loba was there just to be grabbed and pulled and… The sensation made his eyes widen, feeling the ecstasy of the power he could have over her… just that simply.

Fox wasn’t alone, Nala Loba’s eyes also widened to the sensation. Her gray, light blue contents… change? For a split second, Fox could swear he saw her pupils dilate, and she could feel herself feeling differently. But it ended so early with their chests striking each other.

Their clothes brushed each other, but not because of their bodies crashing onto one another with Nala Loba directing the pulling force to slam Fox’s chest with her small breasts and the rest of her torso. He was still taller than her, of course, so she couldn’t meet all his body volume.

Regardless, the deed was achieved, and when their torsos touched, she grabbed his wrist like a desperate fella in a concert and ground against him in circular motions. Fox felt awkward… to say the least. But she continued until her expression changed, smirking a bit.

“That will do,” she said before stopping violating Fox, the ‘mass murderer’. Fox looked down at her, tilting his head ever more exaggeratedly with his eyes glaring wider and wider. She exclaimed lightly, not caring a bit, “Hmph. You wanted an image of being with a lover, no?”

Fox prepared himself, but he was still helpless to her fake yet cute smile as she hugged his arm and rubbed her cheek on him, then stared ahead before bringing him to the elevator. His brain rebooted a couple hundred times before he blinked into a sober state. Then, with the elevator halfway down, and Nala Loba posing for the hidden camera, he asked her under his breath.

“You did know that whoever came to me to be my bodyguard at this time would remain until the end because of the naval cooperation, exercise— whatever, and wouldn’t have a relief until it ended, right?”

“Yes, I did.” Nala Loba replied curtly. Fox blinked at the anti-momentum response. He tried again, “And you still came? Because I… really thought you just wouldn’t have come had it been a choice.”

“I see.” Nala Loba flatly replied. Fox looked at her, superficially hugging him, before letting it be. He adopted a cold yet attentive lover’s role, rubbing his chin on her head every now and then. Because of his acting, he didn’t notice each time she closed her eyes when he did that.

“Here I thought only certain people fake relationships or use their bodies between missions for relief,” Fox whispered, still a few floors left before the ground. Nala Loba waited until the doors opened to plainly say, “I thought the cover of a committed relationship with a woman was easy for you.”

Then, with Fox’s eyebrows jumped, she brought him forth and out of the elevator. She opted for a smile that quickly left when getting ‘shocked’ by the dozens of reporters in the lobby. Flashes about to flood into them, Fox and Nala Loba walked to the exit, clinging to each other, unexpectedly caught being tender to each other.

… Back in Proteros, just as Luis was drinking hot chocolate in the early morning, he checked his WID, where a piece of news made him widen his eyes. He turned his screen on while lowering his mug and searched for it, tapping on the desk before expanding an image to cover the entire screen.

Fox walked forth with Nala Loba clung to him. His left hand in his pocket as he looked ahead, tall and unapproachable, with a cold and indifferent beauty smiling as she hugged his arm and seemed addicted to it, unable to let go of.

Luis’s lips were already smiling when he saw the look both of them had. Having interacted with them, especially Fox. He knew they were acting for the cameras. However, after hearing about their situation from Butler nonetheless, how could he not grow excited? What if it did work? What if was truly a success?

In the image, Fox’s always neat suit was disarranged, even if just a bit. There was an obvious change to his aura, and his image seemed more free, unrestrained but not as usual, or from the same things. One could even argue he and Nala Loba seemed a bit connected.

On the other hand, with the smile of a young woman in love, Nala Loba’s collar was broken, looking like she wore it after something happened to sleep. The way she wore it, prideful and to honor Fox, made all fathers who had at least a daughter exhale and shake their heads in terror.

Luis smiled a lot more, looking like a man that won a lottery, or hooked the biggest fish. Maybe it did look more like the latter. After laughing uproariously, he watched another uploaded image of just a second or a few from the first, where Nala Loba’s ‘usual’ face for the public appeared, still clinging hard to him, though.

Later on, she was protected by Fox, instead of the other way as his bodyguard, when ‘breaking through’ the walls of reporters. Fox wore a steel-iron expression before getting into the car to head to the airport.

To top it off, Fox and Nala were ‘ambushed’ so easily by reporters again, at the airport, serious and back to their usual personalities. This time with Nala Loba wearing another shirt. Yet, this one had 3 missing buttons. Luis looked at this with a smug face after laughing for a while, and when he did, he couldn’t help spitting chocolate on the desk. Then, he laughed and slapped his chest in relief, feeling so contented and free.

He really did seem like he won the lottery now.

…

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Let It Rain's note: So, as I was finishing this chapter, a cute little thing entered my ears. Nelly Furtado — Honesty. I felt it perfect.