My Scumbag System - Chapter 305

Chapter 305: Family Reunion (Worst Possible Timing Edition)
“I’ll get you some water.” Her voice was hoarse. She stood abruptly, turning her back to me as she busied herself with a pitcher on the side table. Her hands were shaking. “You need to hydrate. The doctors said you were severely dehydrated. You’ve been unconscious for two days, did you know that? Two entire days. I haven’t left this room. Luka brought me food. I couldn’t…”

She kept talking. Filling the silence with meaningless words while she poured water into a plastic cup.

I watched her shoulders tremble.

A shadow fell across my bed.

Natalia.

She stood beside the bed like she’d materialized from thin air. Purple hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, bags under her eyes to match her mother’s, wearing sweatpants and an oversized hoodie that I was pretty sure belonged to me. She looked exhausted. Wired. Like she’d been running on pure caffeine and spite for forty-eight hours straight.

Her purple eyes met mine.

They dilated.

I saw the exact moment her brain processed that I was awake, that I was looking at her, that I was alive and conscious and real. Something cracked behind those amethyst irises. The facade of the ice princess, of the proper stepsister, of the girl who maintained appropriate boundaries in public spaces, it all shattered into a million pieces.

She didn’t ask permission.

She didn’t hesitate.

She climbed onto the bed.

“Natalia, what—”

She straddled my legs, careful to avoid my injured torso but not particularly careful about anything else. Her knees pressed into the mattress on either side of my thighs. Her hands grabbed my face with a desperation that made Kimiko’s earlier embrace look gentle.

Then she kissed me.

This wasn’t a relief kiss. This wasn’t a “welcome back” kiss.

This was a “you almost died and I own your soul and if you ever do that again I will murder you myself” kiss.

Her lips crashed against mine with bruising force. Her tongue invaded my mouth before I could even process what was happening, sliding against mine with a hunger that bordered on violent. She made a sound, somewhere between a whimper and a growl, that vibrated against my lips.

The [Nectar of the Gods] kicked in.

I felt it activate like a switch being flipped. The moment my saliva touched her tongue, her entire body shuddered. Her fingers tightened in my hair, nails scraping against my scalp, pulling me closer even though there was no closer to get. She pressed herself against me with complete disregard for my injuries or the fact that we were in a hospital room or the fact that my mother was standing three feet away.

The kiss deepened.

I responded. Of course I responded. I’m injured, not dead.

My good hand found the small of her back, slipping under the hem of her (my) hoodie to press against bare skin. She was warm. Soft. She arched into my touch like a cat and made another one of those sounds that went straight to parts of my anatomy that definitely weren’t injured.

Her hips shifted.

The heart monitor started picking up speed.

Beep… beep… beep-beep-beep-beep…

Natalia broke the kiss just long enough to gasp for air before diving back in. Saliva connected our lips in a thin strand that glistened under the fluorescent lights. Her eyes were glazed, pupils blown wide, that familiar flush spreading across her cheeks and down her neck.

“Don’t ever…” She kissed me again. “Do that…” Another kiss. “Again…”

Her tongue found mine.

The heart monitor sounded like a techno beat at this point.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep—

I opened my eyes.

Just a sliver. Just enough to see past the curtain of purple hair obscuring my vision.

Over Natalia’s shoulder.

Standing in the doorway.

Holding a tray with four cups of coffee.

Was Luka Kuzmina.

My stepfather. B-Rank Hunter. Living fortress. Beloved patriarch of the Kuzmina-Nakano household.

He was frozen.

Completely, utterly, statue-level frozen. Like someone had hit the pause button on reality and forgotten to tell him. His warm brown eyes, usually crinkled with good humor and bad dad jokes, were wide open and unblinking. His mouth hung slightly ajar. The coffee cups on his tray were trembling, not from his hands shaking but from the sheer force of his brain trying and failing to process what he was seeing.

His daughter.

Straddling his stepson.

Making out like they were trying to discover new forms of tonsil hockey.

In a hospital bed.

With his wife standing right there pouring water like nothing was wrong.

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP—

I pushed Natalia back gently. Firmly. Panic lending strength to my injured limbs.

She made a noise of protest, her swollen lips forming a pout, a thin strand of saliva still connecting us in a way that was absolutely not helping the situation. “What?” She sounded annoyed. Drunk on the kiss. Completely oblivious to the imminent paternal apocalypse. “I was busy.”

“Nat.”

“I’m not done.”

“Natalia.”

“You owe me at least another—”

“Your dad is right there.”

Her head snapped around.

She saw Luka.

Luka saw her see him.

Nobody moved.

The coffee continued to tremble.

I cleared my throat. The sound came out as a croak, my voice rusty from two days of disuse.

“Hey…” I managed a weak wave with my good hand. “Dad.”

Luka’s mouth opened.

Closed.

Opened again.

One of the coffee cups tipped over on the tray. Hot liquid spilled across the cardboard holder and started dripping onto the pristine hospital floor. He didn’t notice.

Kimiko turned around with a glass of water. She took in the scene with a single glance. Natalia straddling her son. Luka frozen in the doorway. The rapidly escalating heart monitor. The puddle of coffee forming at her husband’s feet.

She set the water glass down with a soft clink.

“Oh good,” she said mildly. “You’re all here. Satori needs his rest.”

Nobody responded.

The heart monitor continued its frantic symphony.

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP—

Somewhere in the corner of my vision, the minimized System notification pulsed with what I could only describe as smug satisfaction.

Apollo was definitely watching this.