“Good. That’s all I need.”

Cyrus nodded and planted a kiss on Cecil’s round forehead. He looked pleased.

“Now get up. You need to attend class.”

“Oh…”

While Cecil changed clothes with Cyrus’s help, he wondered about his brother’s physical condition. His brother had been in such a state of heat that he could barely stand properly, and Cecil was curious if he had recovered.

“Are you feeling better?”

“My body? Ah.”

Cyrus tilted his head sideways, seemingly wondering what Cecil meant, then let out a small “ah” of realization.

“Yes, I’m fine. The fever’s gone completely.”

“I see…”

“You be careful too. If you feel anything strange with your body, tell me right away.”

The way he earnestly implored showed his concern. It seemed that the heat was some kind of side effect that even Cyrus hadn’t been aware of. Thinking about it, it made sense. They weren’t just mixed-blood between humans, but between human and snake. As hybrids born from interspecies breeding, nothing strange that happened to them would be truly surprising.

Moreover, since heat was a natural phenomenon, Cyrus, who had developed stronger snake traits, could naturally experience it. Cecil sighed softly, thinking that he too would need to be careful of the heat that might come unexpectedly.

“Why are you sighing?”

“Huh?”

“Do you regret it?”

Cecil had been worrying about what to do if he suddenly went into heat like Cyrus, when his brother turned him around. He seemed to have heard the sigh.

“Tell me. Are you sighing because you regret it? Did you think about it and decide you can’t be with me after all?”

“Cyrus.”

“What? You enjoyed it too. You and I…”

“Cyrus!”

Cecil called out loudly as Cyrus’s words accelerated, his chest heaving and his expression distorting. Only then did Cyrus stare at Cecil almost glaring, his chest rising and falling rapidly. The corners of his eyes were already bloodshot and flushed, appearing on the verge of tears.

Cecil was bewildered by Cyrus’s somewhat abnormal state, but he approached his brother and caressed his cheek.

“That’s not why. I was just worried about what I’d do if I went into heat like you did.”

“…”

“I don’t regret it. I also…”

“…”

“You…”

Cyrus placed his hand over Cecil’s. A small, wheezing breath could be heard. Should I say it? Cecil lowered his eyes. The faces of their family members appeared one by one. And Cyrus’s face too.

The scale maintained a perfect balance, and which side would weigh more was Cecil’s choice. After a moment’s time, the scale tipped to one side.

“Like you.”

“…”

“I like you too, Cyrus.”

The awareness that they were blood brothers had clearly existed since that day. He could fully anticipate how shocked their family would be if they found out, and he could have dismissed it as a one-night mistake caused by the heat.

But when he recalled Cyrus burrowing into his embrace that night, confessing his love countless times, when he remembered the times they kissed while avoiding the servants’ eyes, when he thought back to when they were very young, swimming and rolling around together in the water, Cecil just wanted to cry.

It seemed to be because of love. Things he hadn’t understood then were now becoming clear. No matter how many times he tried to compose himself and convince himself it was wrong, that love couldn’t be hidden.

“…Don’t cry. Why do you keep crying.”

Cecil smiled faintly as he wiped his brother’s damp cheeks. Brother, I love you. I love you. I love you… The moist voice endlessly murmuring through tears… The large body burrowed into Cecil’s narrow chest. Cecil felt somehow surreal.

But the scale had tipped, and he had made his choice. He didn’t know what to do going forward, but one thing was clear. He loved his own brother. All that time he had spent trying to deny it was piling up, burying him.

A time approached when he couldn’t be sure whether he would die consumed by that burial or stand up on that ground. In that unstable flow of time, Cecil held Cyrus’s hand.

*

Once the fire was lit, the emotions they had patiently ignored burst forth like a broken dam, manifesting in acts of exploring each other’s bodies. The mature bodies they hadn’t known in childhood were unfamiliar and mysterious, and the more they explored, the more their thirst grew.

“Mmm… Don’t do that there…”

Cyrus, who had his lips on Cecil’s chest sucking on his n*pple, only glanced up with his eyes. His tongue still circled the ar*ola. The man staring intently at Cecil smiled with his eyes, forming a curve.

“Why?”

“I said don’t…”

“Does it feel too good?”

“Cyrus!”

When Cecil blushed and threw a pillow, Cyrus caught it casually in his arms and licked his lips. The way he hugged the pillow with both arms had an incongruously innocent aspect.

Recently, Cecil had been learning new things about his brother. Unlike his usually calm and proper demeanor, in bed his language turned quite rough and his actions became aggressive—where he had picked up such habits remained a mystery.

Cecil found it astounding and bewildering that they had eaten the same food and grown up in the same house, yet only Cyrus had turned out this way. On the other hand, thinking that these were habits he wouldn’t have known about if he hadn’t become involved with Cyrus this way, his face reddened without him realizing it.

“What were you thinking that made your face turn red?”

“…It’s not red.”

“It is red.”

“No, it’s not.”

As they engaged in childish banter, Cyrus burst into laughter, threw the pillow aside, came over and collapsed onto the bed. Cecil let out a small scream as he fell backward, suddenly pinned under the large body, followed by a low laugh.

“What were you thinking about?”

Cyrus turned his head and asked while fiddling with his brother’s cheek. The redness had already faded, but the heat remained.

“…Just thinking about you.”

“Why would your face turn red thinking about me?”

“Because you keep saying strange things…”

“Me?”

Cyrus raised his eyes to the ceiling with an expression that seemed to ask, did I really? After pondering for a moment, he lowered his gaze again and kissed Cecil’s lips with an audible smack.

“What can I do when you’re so pretty?”

“…”

“Why are you turning red again?”

“I told you not to say things like that…”

He wasn’t used to such words. Though Cyrus had always been somewhat blunt, he had always been kind and attentive to Cecil. Nevertheless, the difference between Cyrus as a brother and Cyrus as a lover was so great that Cecil felt like his mind would be completely drained just trying to adapt.

“I held back a lot because of you, brother.”

“…”

“Now I don’t have to hold back anymore, right?”

With a rustling sound, Cyrus climbed on top of Cecil on the bed. His downward gaze, filled with some kind of heat, fell directly on Cecil. His reddish lips fell one by one on Cecil’s earlobe, cheek, and sorrowful eyes.

“I wanted to tell you how pretty you are… but I couldn’t.”

“Mmh…”

“Just looking at you, you’re so pretty…”

Murmuring like that, Cyrus bit Cecil’s lower lip. Their touching lips were hot. It was strange. Their body temperatures couldn’t possibly be this high, but Cecil felt dazed. He felt like he was burning with heat from his toes to the top of his head.

Cecil stretched out his arms and embraced the long neck. Heat rose from below where their bodies overlapped, and his legs spread apart on their own. The snake’s distinctive damp, musty scent rose.

The scent of an excited snake in heat filled every corner of the room. Cecil’s body, which had somehow come to recognize his brother as a male snake, became damp with sweat. The slippery sweat felt like a snake’s bodily fluid. Straight fingers wandered around his collarbone area and slowly moved downward.

“Stop it…”

“Just once. Let’s do it just once.”

Cecil was dumbfounded by the pleading words that sounded like those of a childish kid. Even when they were very young, he had never seen Cyrus beg for anything like this.

As Cecil looked down in disbelief, Cyrus, with his arms tightly wrapped around Cecil’s waist and his chin resting on his chest, didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. Rather, his upward gaze appeared so innocent that Cecil felt an inexplicable sense of injustice.

For someone who was supposed to be an exemplary student who only read books to be begging for “just once” of such an act was outrageously indecent.

“You don’t seem like yourself…”

As Cecil muttered to himself, Cyrus exhaled with a “poof” and lay face down with his cheek against Cecil’s chest.

“If I’m not your brother, then who is? Don’t say such nonsense.”

“It’s because you keep doing strange things. You seem like a stranger.”

“Not a stranger, but like a man you don’t know, right?”

Cyrus added, “Isn’t that so?” as he raised his waist and lifted Cecil like a child, sitting him on his lap. Cecil struggled to escape from the position that seemed like comforting a child, but the force gripping his body only grew stronger. Finally, the grip loosened only after Cecil hit Cyrus’s shoulder repeatedly, complaining that it hurt.

“I want to get down.”

“No. You’re a baby, brother. Don’t you know babies need to be held like this?”

Cecil opened his mouth in bewilderment at the hands that embraced him even more tightly while saying whatever came to mind, unleashed. Then he finally realized. While he still strongly identified himself as a brother in front of Cyrus, Cyrus identified himself as Cecil’s brother but also as a man. That’s why he kept making frivolous jokes, playing pranks, and making Cecil uncomfortable.

Realizing this fact made Cecil feel both absurd and sorry for Cyrus. His words about wanting to do this all along didn’t seem to be a lie. Thinking about how Cyrus must have been seething inside while Cecil pretended not to know gave him complicated and subtle feelings.

“Brother. Brother.”

“Huh?”

“You’re thinking strange thoughts again.”

“No, I’m not thinking anything like—”

“It shows all over your face, brother.”

“…”

“How many years have I lived watching only you and you think I don’t know? I can see everything. What you’re thinking.”

A sinister gaze intimately traced Cecil’s face. Starting by meeting his eyes and gradually moving downward, the gaze settled somewhere at the tip of Cecil’s chin.

“But it’s okay. Because you’re kind and tender-hearted… I understand it’s still hard for you to accept.”

“…”

“But that’s as far as it goes. What I can tolerate. We can’t go back now.”