After Transmigrating, I Raised Cubs in the Insectoid Clan - Chapter 13

The evening meal was prepared by Xiao Su.

“Dinner is served!” Xiao Su announced cheerfully in its synthesized voice, while a smiling face symbol popped up on its display. It carefully carried the tomato and beef brisket soup along with various other dishes to the table.

When Suter had repaired Xiao Su at noon, he had also upgraded its network module. Now, this household robot could not only browse the interstellar network fluently but had also learned to use its mechanical arms to express emotions.

“Try this!” Xiao Su placed pieces of beef brisket into Samuel’s and Suter’s bowls respectively. Light dots of anticipation flashed on its display. “I made it according to the highest-rated recipe on the Star-net.”

Samuel picked up a piece of brisket. The meat was perfectly tender. He patted Xiao Su’s head casing. In response, Xiao Su raised its mechanical arms high and spun around in a proud circle.

Suter ate silently without offering any opinion, though he finished one less bowl of rice than he had at lunch.

After dinner, Xiao Su unusually did not go to charge immediately. It paced around Samuel’s feet, its metal shell reflecting a warm orange glow under the floor lamp.

Samuel was currently in the guest bedroom spreading sheets for Suter. Now that Suter had grown up, Samuel felt that as members of the opposite sex, they could no longer sleep together. Just as he was wondering how to explain this to Suter, he felt a light tap on his calf.

“Samuel,” a shy emoticon appeared on Xiao Su’s display. “I have an idea.”

Samuel hung the last shirt in the closet, closed the door, and looked down at the round-headed robot that only reached his waist. Xiao Su’s camera flickered as it used its mechanical arm to draw a wavy shape in front of its chest, which was a “hesitation” gesture it had recently learned.

“I want,” Xiao Su’s electronic voice suddenly became very soft, “to make a strawberry cake!” It quickly added, “Just a small piece! I have watched the tutorials, and the steps are all stored in my memory!”

Samuel could not help but laugh. He did not understand what kind of magic this strawberry cake possessed to enchant everyone in the house so thoroughly. While he really wanted to satisfy Xiao Su’s whimsical idea, if the little robot actually “ate” it, a mechanical malfunction would surely follow. He still was not sure exactly how Xiao Su had broken down the previous night. If a similar situation occurred again, it would have to be sent back to the factory for repairs.

“Xiao Su,” Samuel knelt down and leveled his gaze with the robot’s camera. “You know you cannot actually eat our food, right?”

The smile on the display turned into a dejected flat line, and Xiao Su’s mechanical arms slumped.

“But the strawberry cake looks so soft,” its voice synthesizer even simulated the crackle of a sob. “It looks just like a cloud.”

“Alright then,” Samuel sighed. He stood up and walked toward the study. Xiao Su’s camera followed him, a question mark appearing on its display. Samuel took a sketchbook and colored pencils from a drawer, the nib scratching softly against the paper. He drew a cartoon strawberry cake on the white paper and colored it using the markers he had bought for the young Suter yesterday.

Suter poked his head out of the bathroom, minty toothpaste foam still clinging to the corner of his mouth. He saw Samuel focused on coloring something, while Xiao Su’s mechanical arms were trembling slightly with excitement.

“Finished.” Samuel held up the drawing: a fluffy strawberry cream cake adorned with realistic strawberry slices. He carefully taped the drawing onto Xiao Su’s smooth metal chest.

Xiao Su’s camera focused and unfocused as the display suddenly erupted in a rainbow-colored halo.

“Wow!” Its speaker volume suddenly cranked to the maximum, making the leaves of the plant on the windowsill quiver. Its mechanical fingers lightly touched the paper and then quickly retracted, as if it were afraid to wrinkle the gift.

“Samuel, you are amazing!” Xiao Su’s electronic voice held an unprecedented cheerfulness, and countless little hearts danced on its display. It spun in a circle, its metal casters carving happy arcs on the wooden floor.

Suter stood by the bathroom door watching silently, his turquoise eyes darkening. He stared at Xiao Su, his fingers unconsciously tightening around his toothbrush. Seeing him, Xiao Su proactively walked over, strutting grandly while wearing the cute cartoon strawberry cake drawing.

A look of hurt surfaced in Suter’s eyes as he stared at Samuel, who was still holding the drawing pen. Samuel looked up and met that aggrieved gaze. He gave a helpless laugh and shook the marker at Suter. “Come here. I will draw one for you too.”

Xiao Su suddenly stopped spinning. A thinking expression appeared on its display as it looked toward Suter.

The steam in the bathroom had not yet dissipated. Suter stood before Samuel, and droplets of water fell from the tips of his hair, sliding down his neck and into his collar. Samuel could smell the faint scent of body wash drifting off him, mixing with the lingering warm humidity to weave an invisible net between them.

“Where should I draw it?” Samuel asked.

Samuel’s breath brushed against the sensitive skin of Suter’s neck. The youth’s ear twitched. The sensation felt like being stepped on by a kitten’s paw, carrying a heart-fluttering itch.

“On the back of the neck,” Suter’s voice was somewhat tight. He raised a hand to brush his damp silver hair to one side, covering the side with the insect markings. This movement caused his loose pajama collar to slip, revealing more glistening skin.

Standing behind him, Samuel was out of Suter’s sight. Suter could only stare blankly at a strand of his own hair. Suddenly, the skin on the side of his neck was touched by cool fingers. Suter easily guessed it was the pads of Samuel’s fingers, which carried slight calluses. As they pressed against his exposed neck, the pen, dipped in tacky pigment, slowly slid down. The foreign sensation made Suter shiver uncontrollably.

The neck was the most sensitive area aside from the wing glands. If a female insect showed the side of his neck with insect markings to a male, it represented absolute submission. They were handing the power to hurt them over to the male, whether voluntarily or by force.

“Do not move,” Samuel whispered. As Suter swayed slightly, Samuel instinctively steadied him by the shoulder. “Is it uncomfortable?”

Suter stared fixedly at the floor and shook his head. Water droplets fell from his hair, blooming into dark circles on the floor. At the edge of his vision, he could see the hem of Samuel’s clothes swaying slightly with the movement of the drawing.

The sensation on his neck was infinitely magnified. A mix of excitement and a slight itch traveled up his spine to his brain, forcing him to bite his lower lip. He thought chaotically: Does Samuel do this for other females too? That female he met today, would Samuel speak to her so softly and gently? Would he touch her so tenderly and carefully with his palm?

They must have stood very close for Samuel to be tainted with that female’s scent, which was sickly sweet like flowers. Suter wondered if that was a scent Samuel liked. He thought again of the business card he had found in Samuel’s pocket. A flash of jealousy and resentment flickered in his eyes, both toward Samuel and toward the female he had never met.

He knew he should not be jealous, or at least not openly, but jealousy grew wildly in the dark corners of his mind.

The skin under Samuel’s palm was startlingly hot. He could feel the youth’s accelerating pulse through his fingertips, forming a strange resonance with his own gradually fluttering heartbeat. For some reason, Samuel felt a bit restless. He forced himself to focus and pulled his attention back.

However, his gaze slipped uncontrollably downward. Under the pajamas that were a bit short due to Suter’s height, a section of a lean waist was exposed. Water droplets slid slowly down the indentation of the spine, finally vanishing into the waistband of the pajama pants.

He abruptly pulled his gaze back, his Adam’s apple bobbing. The pen accidentally left an extra red mark on the collarbone.

“Sorry,” Samuel said. He tried to wipe away the red mark with his thumb. When his thumb brushed against the protruding collarbone, Suter suddenly grabbed his wrist. The youth’s palm was burning with the heat of the bath, and the area where the insect markings met was slightly swollen.

Both of them froze at the same time. Samuel could clearly see the unshed water on Suter’s eyelashes, trembling with every breath. The youth’s emerald pupils dilated slightly, completely reflecting Samuel’s own face.

“Sorry,” Samuel was the first to look away, his voice slightly hoarse. He gently pulled his hand back. The residual sensation on his fingertips felt like a burn.

He remained silent for a moment before picking up the pen, adding a few more strokes absentmindedly. “There, it is done.”

Suter gave a quiet response but did not move. Samuel hurriedly tried to move past him to tidy up the palette. As he passed, Suter’s silver hair happened to brush against Samuel’s wrist, carrying a damp weight and the fragrance of shampoo. Smelling that scent, Samuel thought it was clearly the same as his own, yet somehow it felt different.

He quickly tidied the items on the table. There were not many to begin with, but his flustered movements made the mess worse. Suter quietly watched Samuel’s well-defined fingers move. After a long while, he unconsciously touched the dried pigment on his neck with his fingertips. There was now a small strawberry cake pattern there. He pressed his whole palm over it, pausing for a moment as if he could keep the warmth that the man had left on his skin.

Suter’s mood improved slightly, and he swung his legs.

“Come here for a moment. Let us dry your hair.”

After Samuel finished tidying, he went to get the hairdryer and beckoned Suter over. His fingers ran through Suter’s damp silver hair, the warm air from the dryer forming a heated barrier between them. Strands of hair tangled and dispersed around his fingers like a stream under moonlight.

Suter’s shoulder line had grown broad. The lines of back muscle visible beneath the bathrobe signaled that this body had already shed its adolescence. This served as another reminder to Samuel that he should keep his distance from Suter. Yet, at this time yesterday, he could still hold him completely in his arms.

This thought made Samuel’s movements pause. The noise of the dryer masked his momentarily disordered breathing, but the image reflected in the mirror could not be ignored. On Suter’s slightly tilted neck, the outline of his Adam’s apple had become distinct, sliding up and down with each swallow. His eyes were watching Samuel through the mirror without blinking.

“Is the temperature, okay?” Samuel asked. Suter nodded.

After a while, the hair was dry. Samuel switched to the cool setting, blowing it against the hair. Once everything was finished, Samuel turned off the dryer. The sudden silence in the room made the sound of their breathing clearly audible.

Suter turned his head to look at him as if he had something to say, the collar of his pajamas hanging slightly open. Samuel’s gaze quickly shifted away. He cleared his throat, his voice deeper than usual. “The bedroom is ready. Your clothes have been moved there. It is right across from my room. If anything happens at night, call me or Xiao Su. Either is fine.”

Only after saying it did he realize his tone still sounded like he was instructing a small child. Samuel smiled bitterly to himself because the person in front of him was already nearly as tall as he was. “Alright, it is late. Go get some rest.”

Suter, however, did not move. He slowly opened his palm. A soaked, crumpled business card lay in his hand, the ink already blurred. Samuel found it strangely familiar.

“I just found a business card on the bathroom floor. It seems to be yours, but it is already wet,” Suter said. “I am sorry. Is this very important?”

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