My Scumbag System Chapter 679: High Maintenance

She turned to face him.

Water ran down his chest in rivulets that she wanted to trace with her tongue. But she needed to say this first. Needed him to really hear her.

"When I was a little girl, I imagined what my life would be like. I’d be powerful. Famous. A top-ranked Hunter with sponsorships and magazine covers and everything the world could offer. I’d marry someone equally powerful. Someone my father approved of. Someone who fit the perfect image I’d constructed."

"And then you got me."

"And then I got you."

She pressed her palm against his chest. Over his heart.

"You ruined everything. Every plan. Every expectation. Every assumption I made about who I was and what I wanted. You tore it all down and built something different in its place."

"Something better?"

"Something real."

His hand covered hers.

"I’m still a monster."

"You’re my monster."

"I might not survive what’s coming."

"Then I’ll die with you."

"That’s not—"

"Negotiable." She stood on her toes and kissed him. Soft. Sweet. Nothing like the desperate hunger from before. "You don’t get to sacrifice yourself and expect me to live without you. That’s not how this works."

"Natalia—"

"That’s not how this works."

He stared at her for a long moment.

Water streaming over both of them. Steam curling around their bodies. The whole world narrowed down to this single point of connection between two people who shouldn’t work but somehow did.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay. We live together or we die together. No martyrdom. No noble sacrifices. Whatever happens, we face it side by side."

She smiled.

"Was that so hard?"

"Yes. My entire previous life was built on the assumption that I’d die alone in a gutter somewhere."

"Well your new life is built on me. And I’m extremely high maintenance."

"I’ve noticed."

"Good."

She kissed him again.

Deeper this time.

And when his hands wandered south, she didn’t stop him. When he lifted her against the shower wall, she wrapped her legs around his waist. When he slid inside her for the fifth time in less than twelve hours, she gasped and moaned and told him exactly how good it felt.

"Fuck. I love you."

"Show me."

He showed her.

Against the wall.

On the bathroom floor.

Bent over the sink with the mirror fogging from their combined heat.

By the time they actually got clean, the water had run cold and Natalia could barely walk. But she was smiling. Laughing. Happier than she’d ever been despite everything they faced.

They dressed slowly.

Her in one of his shirts and a pair of shorts. Him in sweatpants and nothing else. Both of them moving with the careful deliberation of people who’d thoroughly exhausted their bodies.

"Breakfast for real this time?" she asked.

"Starving."

"Your mother’s cooking?"

"Unless you want to attempt it."

"I’d burn water."

"Then yes. My mother’s cooking."

They descended the stairs together.

The house was quiet. Luka and Natalia’s mother weren’t due back until tomorrow. Satori’s mother was probably still in the kitchen, doing whatever it was that mothers did when their children were clearly having sex upstairs.

Natalia’s face heated again.

But she squared her shoulders and walked forward anyway.

She’d face worse than an awkward conversation with her future mother-in-law before this was over. Cosmic entities. Government conspiracies. Alternate timeline versions of people she loved.

An embarrassing breakfast was nothing.

Kimiko Nakano stood at the stove, flipping pancakes with the ease of long practice. She glanced up when they entered. Her eyes crinkled at the corners.

"You’re just in time. Sit."

Natalia sat.

So did Satori.

Neither of them mentioned the sounds that had definitely carried through the walls. Neither of them acknowledged the knowing look in Kimiko’s eyes. Neither of them addressed the elephant in the room that was clearly visible to everyone present.

"Orange juice?" Kimiko asked.

"Please," Natalia said.

"Coffee?"

"That too."

"Growing boy needs his protein." Kimiko set a plate in front of Satori piled high with eggs and bacon and what looked like half a loaf of bread transformed into French toast. "Eat."

Satori ate.

Natalia watched him demolish the food with an appetite that bordered on inhuman. Another side effect of the integration. His metabolism had accelerated alongside everything else. He probably burned more calories in a day now than she did in a week.

"You should eat too," Kimiko said gently. "Keep your strength up."

Something in her tone made Natalia look up.

Kimiko was smiling.

A soft smile. A knowing smile. The smile of a woman who understood exactly what was happening under her roof and had decided to approve of it anyway.

"For what’s coming," Kimiko continued. "Whatever that might be."

Natalia’s hand drifted to her stomach without conscious thought.

Kimiko’s smile widened.

"Your mother would be proud," she said quietly. "The real one. The one who actually raised you."

"My mother?"

"She always wanted grandchildren. Complained about it constantly when I visited. Said Luka was taking too long to marry you off to someone suitable."

"She said that?"

"In those exact words. ’Suitable.’ Like you were a prized horse being sold to the highest bidder."

"That sounds like her."

"It does." Kimiko set a plate in front of Natalia. Pancakes with fresh berries and whipped cream. "But I don’t think she’d mind who you ended up with. Not really. Underneath all that social climbing and status obsession, she loves you. Truly."

Natalia’s eyes stung.

"I know."

"Do you?"

"I do now."

She picked up her fork and started eating. The pancakes were perfect. Light and fluffy with just enough sweetness. Everything Kimiko made was perfect, actually. The woman was a culinary genius trapped in the body of a Zero who’d never manifested an Aspect.

Or so everyone thought.

Natalia knew the truth now. About Kimiko’s past. About the experiment. About the cosmic entity that had selected her as a candidate before moving on to her son.

The woman standing at the stove had rejected godhood to remain human.

That was the kind of mother Satori had.

That was the kind of grandmother their child would have.

Natalia finished her breakfast in comfortable silence.

Then she helped clean up while Satori checked his phone and responded to the dozen messages that had accumulated overnight. Reyna. Skylar. Emi. Akari. Cel. All of them wanting to know where he was and if he was okay.

His harem.

Their harem.

Because at some point in the past several months, Natalia had stopped being jealous and started being... possessive in a different way. These women belonged to Satori. And Satori belonged to her. Which meant, by extension, they all belonged to each other.

Complicated?

Definitely.

But what part of their lives wasn’t?

"I need to go to the Academy tomorrow," Satori said.

Natalia looked up from the dishes.

"Why?"

"Testing. The integration changed things. I need to understand how much."

"And you think the Academy is the best place for that?"

"I think the Academy has equipment and facilities that we can’t access anywhere else. Plus, I need to see the others. Make sure they’re okay after everything that happened."

"You mean make sure your harem is still loyal."

He didn’t deny it.

"Something like that."

"Fine. I’m coming with you."

"I figured."

"And I’m not letting you out of my sight."

"Wouldn’t dream of it."

Kimiko watched the exchange with amusement.

"You two are perfect for each other," she said.