Megumin had gone completely limp, face-down on the sofa, tears leaking silently from the corners of her eyes — a wordless indictment of Jhin's depraved conduct.
His hands worked ceaselessly at the most sensitive part of her feet, wringing the last dregs of strength from her body with every pass of his fingers. She couldn't even manage something as simple as pulling her feet away; she could only lie there and let him do as he pleased.
The rough pads of his fingers slid across the soft, tender arch of her foot. The ticklish sensation burrowed upward through her skin and lodged itself somewhere deep in her chest. A muffled sound escaped from Megumin's nose.
I knew it. This perverted creep has had his eye on my feet for ages.
Before she could dwell on that thought any further, a sharp, piercing ache lanced through the sole of her foot, pulling her whole body taut like a bowstring. Her head and legs shot up off the sofa in a full-body spasm. "AH!! Jhin, are you trying to KILL me?!"
"Just lie still. Most people don't even get the privilege of a massage from me."
As he spoke, the thumb pressed against her arch bore down with a little extra force.
"It HURTS! It HURTS! Can't you— can't you go a little easier?!"
"A massage has to work through the muscle to mean anything. Otherwise what's the point of relaxing? Come on — bandage off, socks off, it'll be easier to work with."
"You... you...!"
Jhin reached for a small towel and draped it over the rather fetchingly shaped rear of Megumin's skirt, covering the hem that might otherwise have ridden up at an unfortunate angle. Then he slipped his fingers beneath the black thigh-highs wrapped around her legs. The contrast hit him all at once — the warmth of her skin against the cool silk of the stockings — and his composure gave a dangerous lurch.
He pinched the stocking and drew it slowly downward — from thigh, past knee, down the calf, over the ankle — until it came off entirely, revealing the pale, soft foot hidden underneath. Her dainty little toes were flushed at the tips with a faint rosy tinge, plain evidence of just how much effort she'd put into that shoulder massage earlier.
The sudden coolness against her exposed foot made Megumin snatch the nearest pillow and bury her face in it, hiding a blush so fierce it looked like it might draw blood.
He— he actually took my sock off!!
Oh no. I think my foot got a little sweaty earlier... he's not going to notice, is he?
There shouldn't be any smell... but if he— if he so much as DARES say anything about it smelling, I swear I will drag him down with me and blow us both sky-high with Explosion magic!
Megumin's grip on the pillow was white-knuckled, on the verge of tearing the fabric apart. The room had gone very quiet — nothing but the faint, steady sound of Kokkoro's brushstrokes on the banner, which only made the silence feel stranger.
What is Jhin doing? Why has he gone so quiet?
He— he's not sniffing my s-sock, is he?!
The thought made her whole body shudder. She was just about to lift her head and let him have it — then she stopped herself, and forced herself to calm down, because really, that was a ridiculous assumption.
He's not that kind of person. And besides, Kokkoro is right there. He would never do something that depraved.
She'd wrongly accused him of things like this plenty of times before and ended up suffering for it. Now, more than ever, she couldn't afford to jump to conclusions — if she wrongly accused him again, there was no telling what terrifying form of revenge he might dream up.
Megumin decided to stay quiet and observe. If he made even the smallest suspicious move, she'd cry out for help immediately. If he didn't — she'd let him go on with the massage.
She had to admit that her shoulder, where Jhin had worked on it earlier, felt genuinely wonderful right now — like soaking in a hot bath, warm and weightless and distant.
Jhin, for his part, had squeezed his eyes shut the moment he'd pulled off her stocking, and was now chanting a furious internal mantra — I am not a foot person, I am not a foot person — in a desperate attempt to douse the heat that had flared up the instant he'd laid eyes on her bare feet.
And yet the more he repeated it, the more vivid the image became. He gave up and opened his eyes. In the pale blue of his irises, something burned slow and steady, like alcohol catching flame — and the part of him that had been fighting it quietly surrendered.
He took hold of her soft, pale feet and kneaded them for a moment, then resumed working his way up from the ankle.
Fine. So I'm a foot person. I'll count this as payment. Pecorine's massage can wait for another time — if I tried to do both in one day, something might actually go wrong.
This was also where the meditative practice that mages incorporated into their daily training proved its worth. For a perfectly healthy young man sharing a roof with several very attractive girls, it was nothing short of a lifesaver — capable of quieting all the small, inconvenient thoughts that might otherwise have left him standing at attention at the slightest provocation.
Unfortunately, this was absolutely not the moment to be sitting down and meditating. Which meant he had to get through the massage the hard way.
It didn't take much longer before the leg massage was done. Jhin was drenched in sweat by the end — mostly the kind you sweat from holding yourself together. He gave Megumin's unexpectedly soft thigh a light pat. "Done. I'm going to shower. You stay and rest for a bit."
"Mm~" Megumin turned her head lazily, intending to thank him — and the moment her eyes met his, something in that calm, quietly burning gaze hit her like a current straight through the chest.
They stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, in perfect unspoken unison, they both looked away. Neither said a word. One went to shower; the other stayed flat on the sofa like a very obedient piece of furniture.
Jhin stepped into the bathroom, stripped, and immediately dumped a ladle of cold water over his head. That half-lidded, drowsy look Megumin had given him just now — that barely-there smile curling at the corner of her mouth — had landed harder than he'd expected.
So the girl who shouts about Explosion magic all day, thinks about Explosion magic all day, and has Explosion magic tattooed onto her very soul — she can make a face like that too, huh.
He let out a wry laugh and kept pouring cold water until the fire went out and his head was clear.
Megumin, some feeling returning to her limbs by now, no longer quite as boneless as before, immediately flopped onto her back on the sofa and began rolling from side to side like a very agitated caterpillar.
What's going on. What's going on. What's going on.
Why does one look from Jhin leave me feeling so strange — is that idiot researching some new ancient spell and using me as his test subject again?
She pressed the back of her hand to her cheeks. Still burning. Megumin puffed out her face in irritation.
I should have just kept my face buried in the cushion instead of turning around to thank him. Now look at me, all weird and flustered for no reason.
Too restless and too warm to bother pulling her thigh-highs back on or re-wrapping her bandages, she padded barefoot into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water — and nearly walked straight into Jhin coming out of the bathroom. She shot him a withering glare, then headed for the bathroom herself, but she'd barely stepped through the door before her foot slid out from under her on the wet floor.
Fortunately, Jhin's reflexes were fast enough. He caught her before she could crack the back of her skull open on the tiles.
Wherever he'd grabbed her, the strength left that spot instantly and radiated outward in all directions. Megumin yanked herself free as quickly as she could, terrified of actually going limp and collapsing against him.
Jhin couldn't quite make sense of what she was doing. He said "watch your step," pulled the bathroom door shut behind her, and walked away.
For the next several days, Megumin went conspicuously out of her way to avoid any physical contact with him. She even stopped casting Explosion magic — which was so wildly out of character that the rest of the group grew genuinely alarmed and started asking if something had happened between the two of them.
Jhin could hardly say that he'd given her a foot massage and developed certain stirrings in the process, so he told the others that she'd simply been like this ever since he finished massaging her, and he had no idea why.
Megumin, for her part, was certainly not going to admit that a single touch from Jhin was enough to reduce her to a puddle — so she deflected by saying she was keeping him under observation.
And there things stood.
____
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🔥 New history: Path of Elation in Warhammer 40K
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