Chapter 54: A Real Big Teddy

Not too long after, the door opened and Daemus sauntered inside.

He glanced around the tiny dorm, his silver eyes landing on the neatly folded gray sheets across the room. "Was that your roommate? Did she come back?"

Blair let out a sigh. She rubbed her fingers beneath her tired eyes and shook her head. "No."

Daemus looked down at her, taking in her messy bun and the dark circles bruising her pale skin. "You look like shit."

Blair reached for a steaming cup of coffee resting on her desk. She took a slow sip, leveling him with a deadpan stare over the rim of the mug. "Oh, thank you, Daemus."

"Didn’t get any sleep?" he asked.

"Not really," Blair mumbled, taking another gulp of the bitter caffeine. She lowered the mug. "Why are you here?"

Daemus shrugged. He walked right past her and stretched his massive frame out across her lumpy mattress, making himself completely at home.

"I’m hiding from my teammates," Daemus said, crossing his arms behind his head and staring up at the cracked ceiling. "They’re still really pissed at me. And I don’t do well under awkward conditions."

Blair didn’t mean to sound rude, but... "Don’t you have other friends?"

Daemus shifted his gaze to her, raising an eyebrow. "Where is your hospitality?"

Blair couldn’t hold back a yawn. "Sorry," she apologized, rubbing the back of her neck. "I’m just tired is all."

"I like it when you’re tired," Daemus noted casually. "You speak more freely. You’re more honest that way." He paused, a teasing smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. "Unfortunately, it does rob you of some of your beauty."

Blair felt a sudden rush of heat flood her cheeks. She quickly turned away to hide her blush, busying herself with picking up the pillow and duvet.

Daemus watched her. "You should get some rest."

"I can’t," Blair said, stifling another yawn as she tossed the pillow into the closet. "I have homework."

"Do it tomorrow."

Blair sighed, her shoulders slumping. "I’ll likely need more than a day."

Daemus raised a brow. "If a genius like you thinks it is that hard, then it must be near impossible." He scooched over on the small twin mattress, pressing his back against the wall to leave as much empty space on the sheets as he possibly could. He patted the mattress. "A tired brain cannot do anything anyway."

Ignoring the invitation, Blair walked over to her desk. She picked up the folded paper Professor Feron had given her. Just looking at the scrambled handwriting was giving her a throbbing headache. It looked like spilled alphabet soup.

"All I need is coffee," Blair insisted stubbornly, keeping her eyes glued to the page. She silently hoped that if she stared at the letters long enough, they might magically start falling into place. "I’ve done all-nighters before and turned out fine."

"Just take thirty minutes," Daemus tried to convince her.

"No."

"Fifteen."

"No."

"Ten."

"No."

"Five."

"No."

"Four minutes and ninety-nine seconds."

"Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds," Blair corrected without even looking up from the puzzle.

She was so hyper-focused on the letters that she didn’t hear the mattress creak. She didn’t notice Daemus get up until a pair of muscular arms wrapped around her waist.

Blair let out a squeal of surprise as she was suddenly hoisted right off her feet.

"W-What are you doing?!" Blair stuttered, her face reddening instantly as her legs kicked at the air.

Daemus didn’t answer. He carried her to the bed and dropped her onto the mattress. Blair bounced against the springs, nearly rolling right off the opposite edge, but Daemus wasted no time climbing in after her. Despite the incredibly small space, he ignored her frantic, sputtering arguments, lying down beside her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

He pulled her flush against his chest, their bodies pressing tightly together.

Blair’s heart started beating so hard and fast she thought it might actually crack her ribs. Her face was on the verge of exploding.

"You feel very tense," Daemus murmured, his voice a low rumble against her back. "You need to relax. I won’t bite." He paused for a second. "Unless you want me to."

Blair could feel his warm breath tickling the sensitive skin of her neck, causing every single hair on her arms to stand straight up.

"Is this really necessary?" Blair asked shyly, her fingers gripping the edge of the mattress.

"Yes," Daemus answered smoothly. "Shut up and rest... please."

"It’s hard to sleep like this," Blair argued quietly into the pillow.

"Just imagine I’m a big, beautiful stuffed animal," Daemus suggested. "I can shift if you want me to."

"No!" Blair said quickly. She was already feeling terrified enough with a beastman curled around her; a giant wolf would be way too much.

"Then just close your eyes, and think about anything else but me being here with you," Daemus told her.

Blair let out a long, trembling sigh of defeat. She gave up fighting, letting her head sink into the pillow, and fluttered her eyes closed.

Within seconds, the exhaustion took her, and she fell fast asleep.

Daemus blinked in the quiet room. "Woah," he muttered softly. "That was fast."

He shifted slightly on the bed to get more comfortable. He stared blankly at the peeling wallpaper on the opposite wall, his jaw tightening slightly as he forced himself to stay perfectly still.

With Blair pressed so tightly against him, his traitorous mind instantly supplied the memory of what she looked like without clothes on.

Daemus squeezed his eyes shut, scolding himself. Do not think about it, he ordered his brain, trying desperately to focus on the ceiling instead. But the damage was done. He could feel his arousal beginning to rise.

Desperate, Daemus slammed the brakes on his imagination. He forced his mind to conjure the most unappealing image he possessed: the time he had accidentally walked in on his elderly grandmother in the shower.

A shudder wracked his frame. It worked like a charm. The rising tension instantly vanished, leaving him completely flaccid.

For the next few minutes, his brain played a game of ping-pong. He would feel Blair’s soft curves against him, his body would start to react, and then he would summon his grandmother to shut it down.

Blair. Grandma. Blair. Grandma.

Then, Blair let out a soft sigh and shifted in her sleep, inadvertently pressing her backside firmly against his crotch.

"Fuck," Daemus swore quietly.

He frantically tried to summon the image of his grandmother again, but the tactic had lost all its effectiveness. If anything, he realized with horror that he had just thought about his grandmother way too much in a highly inappropriate context.

Blair shifted again and rolled over, slipping precariously close to the edge of the mattress. Daemus tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her back against his chest so she wouldn’t fall off.

With her safely settled in his hold, Daemus looked down. He really looked at her.

Her features were relaxed, the dark circles under her eyes softened by sleep. Her chest rose and fell in a steady, peaceful rhythm. As he watched her, a strange, unfamiliar little flip echoed right in the center of his chest.

Focusing on her sleeping face, the tension in his lower region finally began to calm down. Daemus let out a long, quiet exhale. He rested his head against the pillow and eventually fell fast asleep to the rhythmic, soothing sound of her breathing.