Omega Manual chapter 34

The Tongue is Hot

Shelley’s reaction was somewhat slow; he twirled the small stick in his hand, the golden traces of the roasted marshmallows reflecting the firelight. The marshmallows were perfectly cooked, with a sweet fragrance hitting his senses.

He carefully took a bite, the soft white sugar body forming a crescent moon shape as he bit into it. Beneath the crispy shell was a sweet but not greasy filling, slightly deformed by the roasting, with a bit flowing down along the stick.

“How is it?” Irey asked as he took a bite of his own skewer from the fire, the scorching hot outer skin making him pant several times before he could finally swallow it down.

“Very delicious,” Shelley said as he bit off the other half of the marshmallow from the stick. “I’ve never had this before.”

Irey was stunned for a moment, looking at him incredulously, “You’ve never had roasted marshmallows?” Shelley shook his head.

“I can’t imagine what your childhood was like,” Irey leaned back against the tent pole.

“My childhood was boring,” Shelley said, “After I could talk, I had to learn foreign languages and had lessons with tutors every day. My meals were all according to the nutritionist’s prescribed formulas, no outside food allowed, no snacks. Besides that, I had to study finance and company management in advance, and my entertainment time couldn’t exceed thirty minutes a day.”

Irey looked at him incredulously, unable to imagine, “Was that even a life?”

“All the kids in the Manta family grew up like that. Once you get used to it, it doesn’t seem so bad,” Shelley said, taking another bite of marshmallow.

Irey looked at him silently for a while. His eyelashes looked particularly long in the flickering shadow of the flames, his lips stained with bits of marshmallow, his eyes still lacking any vitality, staring at the flames like someone staring into a moonless night sky.

“When I was very young, my dad used to take me camping,” Irey said, poking the fire with a stick after finishing the marshmallow, making the fire burn more fully, “We would set up a tent by the river, make a campfire, and since we didn’t have much food at home, we would only bring marshmallows, lots and lots of marshmallows, enough to roast from day till night. One day, I got tired of eating them, so he took me fishing, bird hunting, and egg collecting, but he was so bad at it, we ended up with only one mudfish and two bird eggs, which I caught myself. He crawled around for half a day, couldn’t even climb over a tree branch, and got pecked by a bird in the end.”

Shelley couldn’t help but smile.

“At that time, I thought, although he wasn’t very responsible, he could barely be considered a decent father,” Irey said, “But I didn’t expect that the next year, he would run away after accumulating a bunch of debts from gambling, leaving my mom, who had just given birth, behind, and her leg was broken by the debt collectors.”

Shelley looked at Irey in shock. He had thought Irey’s mother’s disability was congenital or caused by illness. He couldn’t imagine it would be because of such a cruel reason.

Every time he thought he understood Irey enough, he would be further shocked by the cruel stories he recounted.

Their living environments were so different that the gap couldn’t be bridged by imagination.

If it hadn’t been for the meteor shower five years ago that almost wiped out all of humanity, and if he hadn’t suddenly decided to embark on a long journey, perhaps his life would never have intersected with Irey Halton’s.

But at this moment, on the deserted Gobi Desert hundreds of kilometers away from anywhere, in the overly quiet night, only their images could be projected into each other’s eyes.

“But I didn’t start to dislike roasted marshmallows because of that,” Irey threw some leaves into the fire, watching the flames reignite, then took out a new bag of marshmallows from his backpack, tore it open, and skewered them onto small branches, “I think roasted marshmallows are innocent, and so are pleasant memories. This world has been rotten from the beginning to the end; it didn’t start five years ago. If you’re disappointed in the world now, it’s just because before this, you were blinded by false filters and couldn’t see its true face.”

The marshmallows made a sizzling sound in the flames, and the sweet aroma spread in the air.

“It’s not easy to find happiness in such a world,” Irey said, handing the skewered marshmallows to Shelley, his brown eyes reflecting the firelight like unexploited ore, “If you let the stench of decay soil it, it would be a pity.”

Shelley took the roasted marshmallows, took a deep breath, “Irey Halton. From now on, no reading minds without permission.” 

Irey laughed.

Shelley lowered his head, stuffed all the roasted marshmallows into his mouth in three or five bites, and threw the stick into the fire.

The soft, warm marshmallows stuck to his teeth, the sweet taste lingering in his mouth, lingering for a long time without dispersing.

Eating such things from day to night, if it wasn’t memorable, there would be something wrong.

After nightfall, Irey extinguished the campfire to prevent accidents from sparks falling on the tent.

The white smoke from the dying embers drifted in the air, carried away by the wind to a distant place. Irey zipped up the tent, then turned to tidy up his sleeping bag, making a rustling sound.

The tent separated them from the cold wind and the night, wrapping them in the same small world.

It was too close, so close that it made one’s heart beat faster. All senses suddenly magnified at the moment the tent was closed: Irey’s breathing, the sound of his fingertips rubbing against the fabric, the sound of clearing his throat, all seemed to resonate directly in his brain beyond the eardrums, making his scalp tingle.

Clearly, they had slept together in the same tent many times before, but something seemed different now.

Irey finally finished arranging his sleeping bag, and in the darkness, he began rummaging through his backpack again. Shelley couldn’t stand it anymore, turned over to face him, and in the faint light of the flashlight, Irey’s shadow was cast on the tent.

“What are you looking for?” Shelley asked.

Irey stopped, sat back on his sleeping bag, and idly played with a lighter in his hand, opening and closing the lid, “Nothing, out of cigarettes.”

“Why didn’t you buy them before we left?” Shelley asked.

Irey gave him a look that said, “What do you think?” “I got up at half past four in the morning, left the city at five, and by the time the convenience store opened, we were sixty kilometers away.”

Shelley choked a bit, “Why didn’t you tell me? It makes me seem like some kind of devil boss who won’t even let you buy cigarettes.”

“Oh, come on,” Irey chuckled, pressing down the lighter and extinguishing it again, “You didn’t even know what expression you had at the time, looking like you wanted to sprout wings and fly away in the next second. I didn’t have the heart to say I wanted to buy cigarettes at that time.”

Shelley frowned, his lips pursed into a thin line again. Suddenly, Irey leaned closer to him, pressing his thumb and index finger between his eyebrows and stretching them outwards.

“Don’t always furrow your brow, boss, smile a little,” Irey said.

Shelley lifted his head along with Irey’s force, his eyes reflecting a faint light like moonlight, staring straight at Irey. “Can smiling make this world better?”

“No,” Irey said, “but it can make you look better.”

Warm air flowed between them, the sound of breathing clear. Shelley could smell the quiet tea scent emanating from Irey, even overpowering the smell of the burnt firewood.

He closed his eyes along with the atmosphere, and Irey kissed him.

Perhaps because the surroundings were too quiet, with nothing around, like a vacuum in the universe, so every touch felt particularly clear.

Soft lips, agile tongue, intertwined pheromones. All intimacy melted together without any hindrance, ambiguous, sweet, indistinguishable between you and me.

Irey Halton was like the cheapest whiskey in the downtown area, strong and superficial, yet easily addictive.

While kissing him, Irey’s other hand climbed up his shoulder, then upward.

His hand was different from Shelley’s accustomed to luxury, with distinct knuckles and rough calluses.

The hand first lightly lingered on Shelley’s trembling Adam’s apple, then circled back and touched the slightly protruding gland on his nape.

That was the most vulnerable and sensitive part of an Omega’s body, and Shelley could feel the ridges of Irey’s fingertips rubbing against every inch of his skin, making his scalp tingle.

Then he applied a bit of pressure and pressed on the gland.

“Mmm!” Shelley couldn’t help but let out a muffled groan from his lips.

Then he heard Irey’s throat emit a clearly mocking short laugh, “Checking if the marked injury has healed properly.”

Only a fool would believe such blatant lies.

Then Irey released his hand, his eyes still carrying a hint of greed and reluctance, but he still distanced himself from Shelley. “Alright, it’s time to sleep. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get up again tomorrow morning when it’s time to leave.”

Shelley didn’t respond. He licked his lips and his blue eyes continued to stare straight at Irey. “Is your heat period not completely over yet?”

His body temperature was high, and his tongue was hot.

Irey shrugged indifferently, “You’re in a hurry to hit the road, what can I say. But technically, it shouldn’t have much impact.”

With that, Irey stood up, took two steps back, and crawled into his sleeping bag. “Stop thinking about it, sleep.”

Shelley didn’t say anything, and Irey reached out from the sleeping bag to turn off the phone standing aside. The tent immediately plunged into darkness, everything disappearing into the blackness, and the faint moonlight struggled to penetrate the sealed waterproof fabric.

After some time, maybe a minute, or perhaps much longer, Shelley suddenly spoke in the darkness.

“Halton.”

“Hmm?” Even Irey was surprised at how quickly he responded.

“My sleeping bag seems to be broken,” the cold voice paused, “the zipper won’t close, it keeps leaking air.”

Irey felt his throat burning again with thirst, which he had just managed to regain after the previous conversation.

“Can I come over to yours?” Shelley asked.