96 Could Not Bear

Zero was a light sleeper (naturally). Thus, when Lily was deep in sleep and caught in what appeared to be a nightmare, his eyes opened.

He looked down at Lily's face, which was scrunched up a bit in a frown and she was whimpering slightly.

He sighed, glad that he was here when she was having this unpleasant dream. Glad that she had asked him to be here.

Just thinking about what he had seen Lily go through made his blood boil.

She had been such a fighter, too.

Despite not knowing how to fight, she did what she could in the situation. She never gave in.

Zero gently stroked her back, holding her to him while whispering some words he hoped would be comforting.

He guessed it was so, since she stopped whimpering and snuggled against him even more. The blanket that he had placed upon her had moved but he couldn't lean over to adjust it back since she was still sleeping on his arm. He didn't want to wake her, even though she was in the midst of a bad dream.

This was because he believed it would be better to have her settle the nightmare while still being in the nightmare. If she was to wake up, it would bring her out of it right now but there was a possibility that she would have the nightmare again the next day.

Her subconscious caused her to have the nightmare, thus, fighting the demons within the dream would, hopefully, have her subconscious be at peace as well.

Thus, all Zero could do was try and warm up her cold arms by stroking them, and letting his body heat warm her up.

When she kicked the blanket away and placed it over his legs, he slowly moved so that he could place his legs over her exposed legs.

Being a human blanket and heater meant he had to make himself cover her as much as possible so the positioning may not be truly comfortable for him.

He didn't mind though.

Until she started snuggling deeper to him.

Without the flimsy piece of material called the blanket constricting her, Lily's movements became much more … 'clingy', for the want of a better word. She buried her face deep in the hollow of his neck, she wrapped her arms around him, and her legs that were trapped underneath his legs were rubbing itself on him.

Zero gritted his teeth at first when that knee hit his family jewels, but he didn't move back or away. He just endured the pain.

Now, though, the pain was gone but she was doing other things instead …

Zero looked down at Lily.

He may not have been harbouring any thoughts whatsoever earlier, but he was still human. When *that* particular part of a guy's body is constantly being teased, it was only natural that it would wake up.

This was the second time little Zero had been awoken.

And in the span of 12 hours, too.

Before this, little Zero had been in a coma.

It didn't bother Zero because he never felt attracted to anyone before. Seeing Akira changing girlfriends like he changed clothes didn't bother him in the slightest as he never felt that way with anyone.

He just didn't care enough to be bothered.

Now, however, with Lily … she managed to wake little Zero up a couple of times already.

Was he becoming a pervert?

He was a bit worried about that.

He cherished Lily, and the last thing he wanted was to just see her in that way.

What Zero didn't know that his lack of showing emotion, or feeling them, had another effect to it. As he was the type that he would not act emotionally, he was also the type that would react quite strongly for those that he did care about.

This was also reflected in those he would feel sexually attracted to.

In other words, Zero was a demisexual.

No, that did not mean that he's a demigod of sex.

It was a person who is between an asexual (one who feels no or very little sexual attraction towards anyone) and an allosexual (one who has sexual attraction to people easily).

A demisexual is one who feels sexually attracted only to someone once they've made a strong emotional connection. Since he was not the type to have a strong emotional connection to people (other than those he regarded as family, that is), Zero had never experienced sexual attraction before.

So he was really feeling out of his comfort zone right now.

He was beginning to feel guilty as well.

He was here to help her, not get all heated up because of her.

Zero took several deep breaths and willed himself to calm down. He could not get out from the soft, sweet-smelling woman in his arms as it would wake her.

Thus, Zero was fated to have a very long, and disturbing night.

✿ Author only posts on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l. ✿

Lily woke up from one of the best sleep of her life.

When her eyes fluttered open, she was greeted with the most wonderful sight ever.

Her boyfriend's deathly handsome face right in front of her, asleep.

She couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips as she gazed at that porcelain smooth skin, his light shade of eyebrows, and some locks of his platinum blond hair that she liked to call silver falling over his closed eyes.

She wondered if his hair was naturally so, as this was a rare hair colour. Zero didn't seem the type to dye his hair, so she ran her fingers on his head, to try and see the roots of his hair.

Her movements and touch woke Zero up and he looked at her in a daze as she was busy admiring his hair.

He had always hated his hair because it was the cause of a lot of teasing (aka bullying) when he was younger. Coupled with his angelic face, the boys were insanely jealous would beat him up whenever they could, calling him a freak, weirdo, reject, and so forth.

It caused him to retreat into himself until his 'brothers' came to the orphanage. They somehow formed a bond with each other - and him - and protected him.

Though he did not become a warm, bubbly person after that, he did not retreat further into himself. He just didn't seem to care anymore about anyone else.

Only his brothers in the orphanage were the only ones worthy of his attention and care while everyone else was like passing clouds.

Until Sir, Lianne, and Lily, of course.

Right now, though, he had another problem he had to take care of before Lily realised it.

His morning wood.

Although he knew it was a natural - and healthy - part for the male to have morning wood, it was not something he would rather have at the moment when the woman he was attracted to was awake and in front of him.

He had shifted slightly to avoid his bottom half touching her and right now, all that was on his mind was to escape.

But his body refused to move.

It was as if the person in front of him, who was being all so fascinated with his hair, had locked him down.

He just couldn't bear to go.

Zero wondered if this was going to be faced with this sort of dilemma now. To always give in to whatever Lily wanted, or, to be totally enraptured by her that he couldn't do what he should.

<At this point, all the readers of the novel are shouting, "YES, ZERO. DUH.">