116 Single Dogs Fed Dog Food (1/2)

By the time Nocturne woke up, Nine was still sleeping soundly on the couch next to him. Nocturne's mouth curled into a smile without him realizing it himself. He treasured each time he got to see Nine deep asleep. It stoked a small part of him without realizing it and being the only one to ever see this side of Nine made him feel even better.

However, sleep still clung to his eyelids, so it could be forgiven when Nocturne leaned forward and nuzzled his husband. After all, people did things when they were delirious, right? Anyway, Nocturne had wife rights, so there.

Nine stirred slightly, tugging Nocturne more securely to her. She cracked open an eye, yawning.

”Mm.”

Nocturne closed his eyes as he prepared to go back to sleep.

”Nox, there's a messenger from Ashtria Empire here asking for us to help them. Do you want to?”

Almost immediately, the last vestiges of sleep fled from him. Surprised, he looked at Nine, before calming down. ”Frankly, I never really had much of an attachment to my country in the first place, so now that everyone's already gone, there's even less of an attachment. However, when I did return there, I planted a few spies, so there's that.”

Nine studied Nocturne's face and felt reassured when there were no signs of distress from him. She hummed, weighing her options. ”Then, let's just report it to my father and let him decide. I have enough to take care of with the situation like this, let alone expend any extra effort for the Empire that let you be spirited away by a spoilt Vampire Princess.”

Nocturne nodded.

”Are your spies still alive?”

”Yes,” Nocturne said. ”I receive reports from them every week or so. They're all in pretty high positions, so their strength is decent enough.”

”Fine, then. Jasper's dropping by later. Do you want to meet him as well?”

Nocturne scowled at the mention of Jasper, whom he was pretty sure was completely smitten with Nine. No matter how Nine tried to placate him, he knew the signs when he saw it! He couldn't even get rid of him, too.

”I'll be there,” he said, huffing.

Nine smiled, getting up from the couch. She pulled Nocturne to his feet, heading out from the workshop.

”So, tell me about the things you were working on.”

Nocturne brightened up, his previous jealousy all but forgotten in the face of his tinkering. ”I was thinking of working on something that would convert the darkness elements in the air to something more neutral. Not exactly light elements, but rather, healing? Something like what you used back in the Hopcaper tribe, using ward stones.”

Nine thought about it, playing it out in her head. Slowly, she nodded. ”That seems plausible. Are you going to link the ward stones so they work together?”

Nocturne shook his head, becoming more animated at the idea. He loved being able to bounce ideas off Nine, just like she did with him. It made what he did seem so much more fun and the ideas they exchanged were always beneficial. Truly, he was lucky that his significant other was someone who worked the same way he did.

”Rather thank linking them all together and causing it to possibly fail because one goes faulty or removed, I would rather work it in such a way that allows it to function independently, but if there are similar ward stones within a certain radius, it will be amplified and spread out. Does that make sense?”

Nine's eyes brightened. In this world, such a concept didn't yet exist, but that didn't mean she wasn't thinking about it. Because the situation back at the Hopcaper tribe was just too urgent, she had to default and go with the tried and tested method, but that didn't mean she felt satisfied even though the situation was temporarily prevented.

”How would you go about doing that?” Nine asked, beyond curious about what he had come up with already.

Nocturne whipped out a set of notes from his interspatial bracelet, showing them to Nine. ”Here, see. If we change this rune here that makes the ward stones work together and instead change it to a spatial rune, it would possibly allow the effects to work in a certain radius around the stone instead…”

…

X

When Jasper arrived at the meeting spot, he couldn't even get a word in edgewise. Nocturne and Nine were discussing something that felt way out of his knowledge circle in hushed but animated and excited tones, causing him to feel slightly left out.

They hadn't even noticed that he was already here!