Chapter 38: The old, soft life
Stefan’s POV
The System appeared with a notification barely a minute later, quiet and entirely too satisfied with itself, like it had been sitting there waiting for the perfect dramatic pause to interrupt.
[HIDDEN MISSION COMPLETE: Protect Jonquil.]
[REWARD: +100 EXP, +5 MA]
[JONQUIL — STATS UPDATED:]
[Loyalty: +10%]
[Trust: +10%]
[Recruitment Progress: +10%]
[Recruitment Progress: 52%]
I kept my face carved into something neutral, something that said *just a humble alien standing here, nothing to see*, while inside my chest something loud and triumphant was doing victory laps.
"Not bad. Not bad at all, for a lie I had basically invented mid-sentence with a general’s blade hovering somewhere behind my imagination."
The General of Flowers finally waved a hand toward the tent flap without bothering to look at me again, like I’d already stopped being interesting the second the immediate threat of my death passed.
"Take him out of my presence. Zinnia. Stay." She ordered
I didn’t argue. A smart man doesn’t argue his way back into a room he just barely talked his way out of.
So I let Lily guided me through the flap and back into the cooling evening air, the sky outside gone that deep bruised purple that still made my skin prickle every time I saw it, alien in a way I don’t think I’d ever fully get used to.
I stood there a while, and crossed my arms on my chest as I listened to the low murmur of voices drifting out from behind the tent - Zinnia’s calm cadence, Belladonna’s sharper interjections, all of it in that clipped growling language I still couldn’t crack no matter how many days I spent surrounded by it.
My whole future was getting decided in a language I couldn’t even eavesdrop on properly. Felt about right for how this week had been.
Speaking about week...
"What day of the week is today?" I mumbled under my breath and the realization that these women probably didn’t know what calendar was, made me grit my teeth.
"No, they’d have something they use... Definitely."
Eventually Zinnia emerged, cutting through my thoughts, her expression was as unreadable as a locked door.
"You will go with us to the town tomorrow morning," she said, no preamble, no softness. "You will stay low and cause no disturbance."
"Understood," I said, and meant it, actually meant it, without a single thread of sarcasm tangled into the word for once in my life.
"Be ready before dawn," she added, already turning, Lily falling into step at her shoulder like the two of them moved on some shared internal clock I’d never fully sync with.
I watched them go, the two of them disappearing between the tents, and that was when Jonquil stepped up in front of me, blocking my path with that same stiff, formal posture she wore like armor.
"You lied in the presence of Belladonna." She began, flat, direct as a blade.
So that confirmed it. Belladonna. The General finally had a name that wasn’t just a title, and my brain locked it into place instantly, the way it locked away every scrap of information that might one day prove useful.
"Had to cover for you somehow," I said, shrugging like my own head hadn’t just been sitting on a very literal chopping block for the better part of that entire conversation.
"I am grateful," Jonquil said, and something underneath the flat delivery landed heavier than the two words should’ve carried on their own. Her eyes held mine a beat longer than usual.
"Wasn’t a big deal," I said, waving it off with a hand.
Except a small, selfish, deeply Stefan thought crept in right behind the words, uninvited.
Back on Earth, a moment exactly like this one - a woman standing in front of me, genuinely grateful, feeling like she owed me something real - would’ve been prime real estate.
I’d built an entire decade of my life milking exactly this kind of opening for everything it was worth, watching women fall over themselves trying to repay a debt I’d usually engineered in the first place.
Jonquil cut clean through the thought before I could fully marinate in it.
"Do you need anything of me," she asked.
I opened my mouth, ready to say no, some leftover scrap of decency actually trying to surface for once.
Then an idea hit, sudden and specific, and my mouth moved faster than whatever conscience I still had left could catch up to.
I hadn’t slept next to anybody since I landed on this godforsaken planet. Not once. Three days, four, I’d lost count - and every single night I’d fallen asleep alone on a pile of fur, cold at the edges no matter how warm the tent got. Back on Earth there was always somebody curled against me by the time the sun came up, someone soft and warm to wake up tangled around, the exact kind of comfort a man needed after spending his whole day ruining lives professionally.
"Would you carry me through the night," I asked, a mischievous smirk tugging at my lips.
Jonquil’s brow furrowed, the question clearly not landing the way I meant it. I watched her picture it - literally, physically throwing me over one shoulder the way she had already done twice before, marching me somewhere against my will like a sack of grain that occasionally back-talked.
She nodded anyway, already shifting her stance like she meant to scoop me straight up off the ground that instant.
"Wait, wait - " I caught her arm, laughing despite myself, the sound surprising me a little.
"Not like that. This is a different kind of training. Cuddling. You hold each other, stay close. All night, through till morning. I can roll over and sleep on your breasts..."
I searched for the right words, something simple enough to translate across whatever gap sat between her world and mine.
"It Is a training that makes a man sleep better. It lets us think clearer too and helps the body reset." I added.
She considered that for a long, quiet moment, her head tilted slightly, working through the concept with the same careful precision she brought to everything.
"And this is called... cuddling," she said finally, testing the word out loud like she was trying it on for size.
"Yeah, trust me. You’re gonna love it." I said and let my smirk spread across my face. "
~~~~~~~~~
We ended up back in her tent not long after. The candle was burning down low, throwing soft gold light across the fur bed in the corner.
Both of us had stripped down completely - my own idea, obviously, since apparently in my infinite and shameless wisdom I had decided nakedness made the whole "exercise" more effective. Scientifically speaking, purely for optimal results.
And of course Jonquil hadn’t argue. It seemed her trust in me was bigger than what the system was calculating.
Not that I was complaining. Not one single bit.
I settled myself against her side, pulling my own private fantasy into reality without a shred of guilt, sinking my head down onto the soft, heavy weight of her breasts like they’d been custom-built for exactly this purpose.
The skin was warm against my cheek. The faint, clean scent of her skin, something earthy underneath, like fresh grass after rain. Her heartbeat was, slow and steady, thudding right there beneath my ear.
Jonquil went stiff for a second, clearly unsure what to do with her own arms in a position that had nothing to do with combat or duty or discipline.
Then, slowly, almost experimentally, she reached over and dragged a thick animal-skin blanket up over the both of us, tucking the edge around my shoulder with a careful, deliberate precision that felt almost tender coming from a woman who normally handled everything - including me - like cargo.
I let out a long, satisfied breath, feeling my whole body finally start to unwind after the longest day I’d had since landing on this planet. Zinnia’s fists actually did a number on me.
I was going to apply the numbing salve on my body later but now that I was resting on something soft and succulent, I would manage.
My body would reset...
"This is the best way to relax after a long day." I smirked as my head found its place fully against her chest, sinking into softness, and my eyes slid shut almost on their own.
Sleep came fast. Deep. Easier than it had any right to be on a planet full of women who wanted to either kill me or climb me depending on the hour.
Somewhere in that warm, quiet dark, my mind drifted straight back to Earth - to my penthouse sheets, the feeling of the soft silk against my skin, the quiet lazy mornings with sunlight cutting gold across a bed that never once smelled like animal fur.
My old, soft, easy life, unspooling behind my closed eyes like a movie I used to star in.
I missed it.