First Warmth in His Dark Cold World I

For the whole time, Seraphine just silently sat beside Eric.

She notices how he keeps scooting closer to her. He's probably drawn to her warmth since he feels so cold. Then again, he is wearing nothing but some ripped piece of clothing. The cloth she gave him did help warm him up for a bit, but it's not enough.

Eric also looks extremely enervated. Seraphine can see his heavy-lidded eyes drooping slowly.

"You're probably very tired. I'll watch. You can sleep for a moment if you want," she offered with the softest of voice.

"N-No… I-I'm fine… C-Can't sleep… anyway…" he answered a little sheepishly.

"You can't? Why?"

"N-Nightmares…"

"Oh, I see."

Now, Seraphine feels worse.

Eric can't possibly be at this state if he is living a well-off life where he feels secured enough to have a good night's sleep. This may have just started since his kidnapping, but she somehow senses that this has been going on for a long time now.

Unsure of what else to say, she just decided to think of something that could ease his burdens even just for a little.

"May I touch you, Eric?" Seraphine asked, smiling even though he could not see her.

"H-Huh?" Eric blurted out, taken aback.

Little does she know that even though he can't see, all of his other senses are very, very sharp.

That's why he can tell when she lifts up her hand and reaches out for him. He flinches slightly out of reflex – not really used to physical contacts. They were meant to beat him up most of the time. Yet what she did next got him realizing that not every human touch he received would hurt him.

In fact, this one is tremendously soothing.

It just happened that Seraphine began caressing his head ever so tenderly.

Eric can finally feel her warmth more. It sends a wave of heat that pools in his chest – a powerful yet gentle force that makes his insides do a somersault. The gesture itself is so comforting that it gets him melting in a puddle of goo. It makes him want to shiver and let out a shaky breath, especially with how relieving the sensation is.

It's his first time getting touched like this.

And he can't help but feel like it has awakened something within him.

"I-Is it that good?" Seraphine started again, caught off guard when he willingly leaned in.

Instead of answering, Eric responded by drawing closer to her and nudging her hand with his head, making her pull away for a second. But as she does so, she doesn't expect that he will catch it with both of his small, trembling hands. She is taken aback even more the moment he places her palm under his cheek and rubs against it lightly.

From then on, he only continues holding her hand and burying his face in it, enjoying her warm touch thoroughly.

"O-Oh…" she breathed out in a bit of awe, finding him as cute as a kitten.

"You were really feeling cold, huh?"

Now, it only starts with caressing and patting.

Yet as minutes pass by, Eric seems to have gotten carried away. Seraphine is not sure how he begins taking the lead all of the sudden. He certainly knows what he wants when he first realizes it.

"U-Umm… Eric?" she called out after seeing that he started dozing off for real.

He now has his arms around her hips, nuzzling in her lap as if begging to rest on its top. Having her close calms him so much for some reason. They barely even knew each other, but he was already starting to engrave her presence in his mind.

With their proximity, he can already smell her scent. It somehow reminds him of a resplendent sunflower field. That impression goes well with how warm she is. Her angelic voice is also as lovely as a ray of sunshine. If a beacon of light is something that can be heard instead of behold, this will be it.

With all that said, the image of her that he ends up picturing in his mind turns out to be very bright.

"I bet you look so cute too," Eric then suddenly mused out loud, not stuttering for the first time.