[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke-Chapter 246: Can’t I Kiss My Lover?"

Xion’s heart, which had just fluttered in giddy relief after his confession, sank when Darius didn’t react.

The Archduke didn’t speak. Heck, he didn’t even blink. He just stood there as if he were frozen.

Soon after, as if electrocuted, Darius shot to his feet in one swift motion. His boots scraped the polished marble of the gazebo as he stumbled backward.

One hand clutched his cheek, right where Xion had kissed him. Then, with not a shred of grace, the Archduke of the Northern Empire fell down. He knelt right on the white marble floor.

"Ah!" Xion flinched, hurriedly rising halfway from his seat. "Are you okay—"

"Don’t come near me," Darius said through gritted teeth. His voice sounded low and undoubtedly restrained.

Xion subconsciously obeyed, sitting right back on his chair.

The Archduke remained motionless, his spine rigid. Both of his hands were covering his face like a sinner ashamed to face the gods.

He didn’t look at Xion. Not even once. Just curled in on himself like the world had shifted beneath him and he was trying desperately not to fall into some unseen abyss.

And Xion thought the worst of it.

He hates it. He hates it.

The shame and guilt of violating someone’s boundaries hit him like a slap. He should’ve known already!

Darius wasn’t fond of physical touch, and everyone knew that. But he’d gotten used to the way Darius touched him, carried him, held him in sleep, even traced his hair and... and... I thought a kiss wouldn’t matter.

But apparently, it did. Oh, and it did too much.

Xion gripped the sides of the circular table. His pulse rang in his ears. I ruined everything.

When he saw how Darius didn’t even allow him a glimpse of his face, his heart dropped to the pit of his stomach.

He had done something terrible, didn’t he?

And indeed, he had done something really horrific. He had actually managed to crack Darius’ brain with just a simple kiss.

If the archduke’s enemies knew about it, they would be in utter disbelief. After all, does that not mean that their years of training were utterly humiliatingly useless?

Darius, on the other hand, sat there in absolute silence. The kiss replayed in his mind like a broken record. The warmth of Xion’s lips against his cheek hadn’t faded. It lingered, etched into his skin like a searing brand.

Those words...

"I like y-you. Your Grace, I like you very much." And then that kiss.

It was sweet — sweet enough to mess the mind of a man who’d faced entire armies without blinking.

"...Xion," Darius whispered, finally lowering his hands. His face was slightly red from the ears down to his neck. He looked dazed. Too dazed.

"Say it again."

Xion hesitated, puzzled by those sudden words. "...What?"

"Say it again," Darius repeated, voice tinged with roughness. "Tell me you like me."

Xion’s long lashes trembled. If he asked... didn’t that mean he didn’t hate it?

The intensity of those green eyes staring at him, made Xion squirm in his seat. More than that, he was glad, happy that he did not seem to have crossed any line.

"Say it."

The heat spread across Xion’s cheeks again, but he nodded. "I... I like you."

Darius exhaled slowly as if those words were something he needed to breathe into his lungs or they might vanish into the thin air.

"...Like a friend?"

Xion swallowed. His voice caught in his throat, but he pushed through it. This was not the time to take a step back.

So, shaking his head, his long eyelashes casting soft shadows across his cheeks, he murmured, "Like a l-lover..."

That one word detonated something in Darius’s chest. A rush of raw emotion surged through him wildly.

He clenched his fists on his lap, trying to restrain the storm threatening to consume him whole.

But his eyes... oh, those venomous green jewels gave away everything.

And Xion saw it.

The intensity in Darius’s gaze made him inch back slightly on the chair. However, there was nowhere to go in this enclosed paradise. Nowhere to hide.

Then as if overwhelmed by his shyness, Xion snapped.

"...W-What?" he glared, and yet his blush only blazed even more. "Can’t I kiss my lover?"

He huffed like a kitten trying to puff up, fierce in intent, but far too adorable to be taken seriously.

The fiery embarrassment only made him look more edible.

With a loud thud, Darius collapsed backward on the marble. Laying on the cold floor, he stared at the delicately carved ceiling.

"Lover... Me and Xion are lovers..." he mumbled to himself in a daze. "Lovers..."

With his worries disappearing along with the elegance of the archduke, now sprawled on the floor like a mop, Xion felt his lips twitching.

"You’re ridiculous," he whispered, watching the dignified Archduke act like a schoolboy with a first crush.

His words got Darius’ attention. The archduke stretched his hand toward him like a drowning man.

"Come here."

Xion stood cautiously and reached for the extended hand. He was halfway through pulling him up when Darius’s fingers tightened.

"Eh—?!"

With one firm yank, Darius pulled Xion down, right onto his chest.

The air whooshed out of Xion’s lungs as he landed on top of the broad, muscular body of the man who’d just dragged him down like he weighed nothing.

"You—!" the silly healer gasped.

Darius’s arms closed around Xion’s slender waist. "My lover," he said with a wide, absolutely idiotic grin on his face.

Xion, though still stunned, couldn’t help but laugh at Darius’ exaggerated reactions. They were so comically funny.

"You’re so... immature!" he giggled, drumming at Darius’s pointy nose with a light tap. "Look at you, lying on the floor. Where’s the dignified Archduke now?"

"Under his precious," Darius said making Xion red as a tomato, and then abruptly smirked. In the next second, the world tilted again.

With a smooth twist of his body, Darius reversed their positions, and now Xion lay beneath him, sprawled on the cold marble, eyes wide as the ceiling blurred above him.

"Can this Archduke," Darius leaned in close, his gaze solely transfixed on the beautiful face in front of him, "have permission to kiss his lover?"

Xion swallowed. "...Hm." That was all the sound he could make from his dry throat.

His gaze flicked between Darius’s lips and eyes before he slowed his breathing.

Darius was close, so very close that Xion was able to feel that warm breath making his face tingle.

The archduke finally moved, and his lips descended slowly, giving Xion every chance to move, to pull away, to stop him.

Xion didn’t.

Instead, he closed his eyes. And let his newly appointed boyfriend kiss him.