"Do you feel better Momo?"
Hikaru's voice, gentle and sweet as it always was with that delicious hint of soft velvet like warm chocolate coffee, drifted from above. Her soulmates could sense her strange mood and they were extra sweet that day, or maybe it was because it was New Year's Day, and they didn't want to start an argument with her angsty ass—
He leaned down to press a kiss to her head, then stood and blushed when a family passed, burying his face into his scarf. Her cheeks bloomed as her cold heart curdled and whimpered, biting deep into its own flesh, indignant and outraged by her own insidious thoughts.
Hikaru hated showing public affection, he was afraid that it would demoralize the few that were lonely and single. But sometimes he just couldn't contain his affection, too thankful for her existence to care about others. The action warmed her prickly heart and she found herself relaxing into his warmth.
"Much better," she said with a shrug as she took his hand, relaxing into the magical tingle of souls that matched perfectly. "It's just my period, I'll be fine." She emphasised on the word as if it could solve all the mysteries of the world, as if it would explain everything that she didn't know. She didn't want them worried for her and she was sure, very sure, that the strange sickness would pass.
It had to.
"If you don't get better, I'm taking you to the doctor." Hikaru's brows furrowed, his lips pressed into a thin heavy line, beautiful almond eyes wrinkling at the edges with worry. He wasn't like her younger soulmates, where the word 'period' seemed to end all questions. He was the type to dig for answers so that he could understand what she needed. He was the type to question. And that had her freezing up, muscles tensing in preparation for something she didn't know. "My dad's best friend is a gynaecologist too; you could visit her to check your feminine health. Or we could go to a clinic and get your whole body checked too."
Checked...Did she want to be checked? Her gut answered, a fistful of gooseflesh and chills. No. No doctor visits.
He pulled her closer, rubbing his hands over her lower belly, his attempt to lessen her pain. But it made something in her heart twist and turn, something that wallowed and then spiked in her chest, sharp and breath stealing. She made a face, shuffling her feet on the white stones that lined the ground, an action that pulled his hand to her waist and away from the zone that made her uncomfortable.
"But I hate Pap smears...They're cold...And they hurt." Excuses.
His lips quirked, cupid bows stretched and she could see it in his eyes that he was melting for her inside. The soft hazel turned into a darker shade of deep brown as his pupils dilated and warmed. He understood her fears as physical worries of pain and discomfort. And not—
"We'll prepare you." Sieon bounced up to her with a naughty, lecherous grin on his face. The incubus, handsome and god-like in a turtle neck that dug into thick muscles and framed the long curls from a mullet that cupped his features. "So that it doesn't hurt."
His voice dipped into a husky groan that had her shivering despite her bad mood, and her lanky handsome soulmate knew that because his smile only grew wider with glee. He buried his face against her neck drawing bubbling kisses over her skin that made her laugh and giggle until she was breathless and dizzy. They knew how to twist her moods into joy, take her mind off bad thoughts with physical affections of love, and they knew where to attack when she needed them to.
"She's not supposed to have intercourse if she's going to do a Pap smear," Casper said, smacking his lips as he sipped on something from a paper cup, rich and elegant in dark clothes that made foxy eyes drip like liquid sex. From the looks of it, it seemed to be rice wine, hot and good straight from the vat in the makeshift stores that lined the vicinity. "They don't want to mistake rough sex for a problem with her cervix."
He motioned to her to take a sip, an indirect kiss that she shouldn't be thinking of considering how they swapped spit almost every day, but still did because it made her heart flutter. She stepped forward to let the sweet astringent taste coat her tongue.
Somehow, the nausea spiked and she pulled away making a face. Her soulmates laughed, taking it as her dislike for alcohol rather than a bad reaction in her belly. MinJae handed her a chocolate coated banana quickly and the fruit washed the taste away with a sweetness that calmed her churning stomach.
Fuck.
"Guys, I'm fine. I'll go only if I have to go." She cleared her throat—her attempt to change the subject. "What did you get?"
It was a good topic to talk about considering the festivity of the situation. There were bags hanging off her soulmates' arms filled with lucky charms blessed by the monks in the temples, big ones. She snorted at the handmade clay fish sticking out of MinJae's bag and her soulmate pouted, scrunching up his nose as he showed it to her with an adorable stomp of feet.
"It's for extremely good luck!" he exclaimed stabbing a finger at the Japanese characters painted over its sides. He opened his bag showing her the talismans of metal and cloth. "And we got things for health protection, money, warding evil, safe travels, family, good love, business success..."
"Too many things," Oliver sighed, adjusting the brown coat on his body. Autumn brown and deep hazel like the colour of his eyes. "The golden frog was an over kill. You don't even understand what it means, MinJae."
"But it's cute! Don't insult my frog! He's a beautiful, golden frog that did fucking nothing to you!"
"I think it's for traffic safety and diseases, or something..." Hikaru squinted at the signboard in the distant where hordes of locals swamped, bumping against one another as they tried desperately to cut to the front of the line. A literal fight for good luck.
"So, I was right," JieMi hummed, raising a brow as he cocked a hip to one side. He'd gone for an all-black fit with a leather jacket that rippled with silver. And while he did look like a grim ripper from hell, he was one sexy grim ripper. "The Chinese characters in the Kanji does have the same meaning."