This warning immediately roused Levi from his lethargic state, “Why be careful? Wouldn’t such a reality be a good thing? For a married couple to be happily in love, isn't that how it should be?”

Noah fell silent for a moment, then his pink mouth opened to reveal what lay hidden in the depths of his heart, “That's only if it's mutual. If it's one-sided, it would just be sad.”

Levi deeply stared into the little one’s two shiny orbs, “That’s only if it forever remains one-sided.” Then the bottomless abyss within the pool of blue was replaced with a shimmer of mischief, “But why would it be… ah! Don’t tell me you intend to seduce me and then dump me?!” Levi’s face warped into exaggerated shock and grief, “Ah, ah, you can’t play with hearts like this! You must take responsibility for me!”

Noah’s melancholy was instantly broken, and his glorious bright red blush made its triumphant return. “Who–who–who is playing with hearts?! What ‘seduce and dump’?! And what ‘take responsibility’?!?” Noah spat in what was an extremely accurate portrayal of a kitten puffing up its fur and baring its little white canines in outrage, “You’re the one playing with fire! If you fall for me, then it’s your own darn fault!”

The very professional kitten tamer Astar Levi by now knew exactly what to do in this situation. Thus with no hesitation, he immediately threw his remaining integrity away and jumped to admit his wrongs. “You are right, baby,” Levi softened his husky voice to coo, “It's all my fault for being unable to resist your charms.” ❤

With such a swift and sincere admission of guilt, everything Noah had intended to say got stuck in his throat. And thus, helplessness joined the mix of flustered emotions present on his face.

‘Sigh~ What do I do with you?’ Noah covered his eyes with his hand. Ai, this fiancé of his was a living proof that everything in this world had its bane! Even a worldborn…

This playful man could rile him up in a heartbeat, yet he simply couldn’t stay mad at him! QAQ

Even when he was being bad, he was… was… also… good… very good… mhmm… (／≧ω＼)

Blackie, ‘…even when he is bad, he is good? щ（ﾟДﾟщ）Oh dear… so it goes again. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Your brain. Offline. (￢◡￢) ‘

Noah turned his head away to hide his burning face from those piercing blue eyes. “How would you even have me take responsibility?” He grumbled underneath his breath, “Aren't I already marrying you? How else do you want me to take responsibility?”

A glimmer of amusement flickered within Levi’s eyes. This scoundrel’s mouth might be sweet, but he completely lacked any repentance!

“How to take responsibility?” Levi’s deep chuckle reverberated through Noah’s entire body. “Simple,” he grabbed Noah’s chin and turned the little one’s head around to face him, bringing them so close together their noses were touching, “If I fall for you, then you should fall right back at me.”

Noah’s blood pressure, which had barely settled back down, rushed upwards once again. This rogue!! Playing and teasing – always playing with him and teasing him!!! (ノ꒪Д꒪)ノ︵ ┻━┻

Huffing and puffing kitty Noah pushed the scoundrel wolf away and provocatively raised his eyebrows, “Oh? Is that right? And what if I fall for YOU? How would YOU take responsibility, huh?” Kitty Noah huffed and then sarcastically quoted Levi’s own words as an answer, “Fall right back at me?”

Levi had to bite his own lower lip to prevent a chuckle from escaping him. He gazed into the little one’s angrily squinted eyes with subtle meaning, “Can’t I?”

That look filled with meaning made Noah’s rabbit heart skip a beat, and he fumbled his response, “You–you…! Whether you can or cannot, how would I know?”

Levi had so many words buried in his heart that he wished to say, yet in the end, he just smiled silently in response, his thoughts unreadable. He stared into his baby’s evasive eyes for a moment, then unable to resist, he bent his head to drop a juicy kiss on his darling’s soft, delectably pink cheek. “Mn, whether I can or cannot, only I myself know.”

Noah’s spluttering brain halted once again, and he sat there in a wide-eyed daze with his hand covering his burning cheek. Was–was–was he being flirted with?? He…he was not misinterpreting that… was he? Ah, so confused! QAQ Was Levi teasing him again, or did Levi actually like him a bit in that kind of way? This blasted play-pretend was making him so confused!!!

Noah scuttled out of Levi’s lap like a little rabbit running out of its burrow that suddenly caught on fire. Ah, bear with it! Just three more days! – Noah encouraged himself. After the wedding, when this play-pretend was over… he… would… he would see how Levi acted then… and if… if he was still confused… then… then he’d ask Levi about it directly…

If… if Levi had no such inclinations towards him, then he’d draw a clear line with the other! (•̀‸•́)و

And if Levi… if Levi had a bit of interest in him… ah… then… then… maybe… maybe they could try it? (／≧ω＼)

What–what Levi said about…about a married couple being in love… it–it would indeed be an ideal thing if–if a married couple could have a loving marriage… (⁄ ⁄> ﹏

The sound of approaching footsteps brought Noah out of his daze, and he turned to face his father with a ‘moved to tears’ expression of a drowning man seeing driftwood.

Levi’s response to the dreaded return of his annoying father-in-law wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic. He tsked and very reluctantly dropped the arms that were reaching for his baby back down. Then he eyed Cordia daddy’s bright smile with narrowed eyes.

Say… this father-in-law… seemed to be in a suspiciously good mood? (≖_≖) His grin was making all of Levi’s hair stand on its ends. Yet, no matter how Levi observed him, there were no clues about where this bad feeling was coming from.

He couldn’t have come up again with some stupid idea to prevent him from sleeping in the same bed as his son tonight? (≖ ‸ ≖) Hmph! Even if he had, it wouldn’t work! His baby already promised to soothe him tonight. Thus, he’d be sleeping next to his baby tonight, or he wouldn’t be sleeping at all (but doing something else with his precious… ಠ‿ಠ)!

***

Levi was both surprisingly picky and surprisingly accommodating when it came to rings. Picky because he kept going over each choice multiple times, even putting the light screen over his baby’s hand to try to better visualize how the ring would look on his darling’s ring finger. And accommodating because as soon as Noah expressed which ones were his personal favorites, Levi immediately crossed the remainder off the choice list.

Noah was torn between feeling touched and feeling amused. This fiancé of his… why was he constantly using Noah’s hand to gauge whether the ring looked good? Why not use his own hand? It’s not like Noah would be the only one wearing them!

But, ah, this soon-to-be-husband of his was cute in his silliness. (／≧ω＼)

***

After settling the matter of rings, the two grooms made changes to their honeymoon plans.

A lot of changes.

Maery had scheduled plenty of “girly” things for herself, such as spas and beauty salons. And to make matters even more awkward, all of those scheduled things were for one person! Even if the two of them didn’t mind doing all those totally unmanly things, they still couldn’t do them together like proper newlyweds!