Mika noticed the gazes of Charlotte’s teammates lingering on him, on them. Wide-eyed, embarrassed, but undeniably fascinated.
He sighed, turning his face toward Charlotte, who was still clinging to him, rubbing her cheek against his chest, her legs wrapped firmly around his waist like a stubborn child refusing to let go.
"Co on, Charlotte." He said, his tone a mix of exasperation and amusent. "It’s about ti you let go of . I ca here to stop your lab from exploding, not to stand around as your personal tree for you to hang off."
But Charlotte only tightened her grip, shaking her head furiously.
"No, Mika, no. Just a little longer. You don’t understand, I was so scared just a mont ago. I thought everything was going to end. I need you...just for a bit. To get through this trauma."
Her words sounded trembling and vulnerable, but her sparkling eyes and playful smile betrayed her.
She didn’t look traumatized at all. She looked like soone taking advantage of a situation.
"And Mika could tell, he always could. He shook his head, smiling faintly in resignation. "You’re leaving with no choice, aren’t you?"
Charlotte blinked at him innocently. "Choice? What do you—?"
Before she could finish, Mika shifted his grip, one arm tightening around her back while the other slid boldly under her skirt.
Gasps rippled through the room and her friends froze as Mika hoisted the fabric high enough to reveal the lush curve of her ass, barely contained by a pair of black panties that hugged her perfectly.
"Wh–Mika!" Charlotte squealed, her face going scarlet.
But Mika’s palm was already full of her. He squeezed, fingers sinking into soft, pliant flesh, the plush give of her ass cheeks spilling between them.
He turned his head toward her stunned classmates, his smirk devilish.
"What you’re building here is extraordinary." He said evenly, kneading her rear as Charlotte whimpered in his arms. "One day, this Dream Drifter of yours will change the world. But even with all your brilliance, even with all your runes and engines and theories..." His fingers dug deeper, earning a helpless cry from Charlotte. "You’ll never replicate this plump ass."
A nervous titter broke from one of the girls before she bit it back, while Mika squeezed harder, jiggling Charlotte’s ass as he spoke with an almost academic cadence.
"The softness. The roundness. The way the flesh gives beneath your hand and pushes back just enough. This is God’s own creation. No researcher will ever make sothing like this. It’s a gift that can’t be manufactured."
Charlotte squird, face buried in his shoulder, her hands weakly pushing at his chest. "S-Stop it, let go, Mika! My friends can’t...they can’t see like this!"
But her classmates didn’t look away. They couldn’t. Their cheeks burned, their fingers fidgeted, but their eyes stayed locked on the sight.
And in response, Mika slid his hand boldly inside her panties and more gasps ca out. The room’s air grew heavy, suffocating with tension.
He exposed more of her naked ass, the swell of pale skin revealed as he kneaded and jiggled, his voice smooth and unhurried.
"Really? You think they shouldn’t see this?" He looked up at the other girls, a crooked smile tugging at his lips. "Judging by their faces, it looks like they are quite inspired, almost as if they want to see more. Maybe even feel it for themselves."
"Mika!" Charlotte’s shrill cry was full of humiliation. Her whole body trembled. "No more, please! Don’t look at like this!"
At last, she tore free of his grip, landing unsteadily on her feet and tugging her skirt back down in a fluster.
She whirled on her friends, glaring daggers at them. They instantly averted their gazes, pretending to study the walls or their shoes, though their ears glowed.
Then Charlotte turned back to Mika, cheeks puffed in a pout.
"You’ve really beco so naughty lately, Mika. Before, you wouldn’t even hold my hand because you were too shy. Now you do sothing so shaless right in front of my friends? You’ve changed...A lot."
"Well, let tell you, if you keep throwing accusations like that, Charlotte..." His eyes glead with amusent. "...I might just strip those panties right off and show your friends the rest of you."
Her pout lted instantly into panic.
"N-No! Don’t you dare!" She cried, her voice trembling as her hands shot down to protect her hemline.
Mika chuckled at the pitiful look on her face, savoring her fluster. But then his eyes traced her, lab coat buttoned all the way up, glasses perched neatly on her nose, her hair tied back from hours of frantic work.
She looked nothing like the succubus-like girl she usually embodied. Right now, she looked like a serious scholar.
And that was the truth of Charlotte.
To a stranger, she seed like a model, an actress, soone who wielded her beauty like a weapon.
But beneath that glamour, she was a researcher, one of the top students in the academy.
Brilliant. Ambitious. Capable of leading her own team, managing her own lab, and creating the device that almost took them all out: the Dream Drifter.
The Dream Drifter also wasn’t so vanity project.
It was her attempt to simulate one aspect her own blessing, the rare power she possessed: to slip into the dreams of others and drift between them. The machine aid to replicate that ability, to let anyone enter and traverse dreams.
While one might wonder why such a machine was needed, the answer was heartbreakingly simple: it was for the lost and the helpless.
There were countless situations where people were in danger but couldn’t reach out for help.
A person might be a victim of dostic abuse, their abuser cutting off all contact.
Soone might be kidnapped and unable to get a ssage out.
Or a person could be lost in the wilderness, desperate for a rescue.
This was where the Dream Drifter ca into its own. People in these life-threatening situations often had deeply traumatic dreams and nightmares.
Charlotte’s blessing allowed her to not only enter dreams but to detect the ones with a high level of stress. While most of these were just people having a bad day, a significant number of them were in actual danger.
By using the Dream Drifter, authorities could find and communicate with a person in distress through their dreamscape. It was, in essence, a psychic phone call. They could find out their location, their situation, and what they needed.
Furthermore, if a family mber went missing, they could co to the authorities and, using the machine, would be able to find their loved one’s dream. They could then talk to them, ask about their situation, and potentially locate them.
It was a revolutionary invention, a tool that could save countless lives.
And it all started with Charlotte.
This project also wasn’t just a random idea she’d co up with one day. It stemd from a deeply traumatic event she had experienced as a child.
She had entered one such nightmare when she was young, and what she witnessed changed her forever. It was an event so horrifying, so deeply unsettling, that it shifted her entire perspective on life.
And to heal and move on from that trauma, she decided to create this machine. Thinking about it, Mika couldn’t help but smile as he looked at her.
Charlotte, confused by his expression, pulled away slightly.
"Why are you smiling like that, Mika?" She asked, her voice a little nervous. She glanced down at her lab coat. "Is it the lab coat? Does it look bad on ? Does it make look like a nerd? I can take it off if you don’t like it."
He shook his head, his smile widening.
"It’s not that." He said softly. "I’m just...so incredibly proud of you. Proud of what you’re doing."
Her eyes went wide, a genuine look of surprise and emotion on her face, as he continued,
"Any other person who went through sothing that traumatic as a kid would have tried to forget it, to push it away and ignore it completely. But you..." His voice softened. "...you faced it."
"You took your trauma and turned it into sothing that could save lives. You’re not just healing yourself, Charlotte. You’re helping the world. And for that, I can’t help but be proud of you."
Her breath caught, eyes widening as if she’d been struck. The brightness in her gaze shifted, softened, glowing with sothing raw and tender.
"Thank you...Mika. You don’t know how much it ans to hear you say that."
She hesitated, biting her lip, and then whispered,
"But the truth is...the one who was really traumatized wasn’t . I was just a bystander...And it was actually you the one who saved , that truly suffered through it all."
But Mika quickly shook his head, stepping closer, voice firm but gentle.
"Don’t belittle yourself like that. Don’t act as though you didn’t carry scars of your own. Pain isn’t asured by comparison. You suffered too. And you don’t need to erase that."
He brushed the topic aside, his tone shifting, practical again.
"Anyway. If you want, I can help you. I saw a few adjustnts I could make to the Dream Drifter—stabilizers, bypasses. Small changes that would make it safer, more efficient."
Charlotte gave a wry little smile, her eyes shining with sothing like fondness.
"I know you could. In fact, I know that if you wanted to, you could probably finish this whole machine in a couple of days. Sothing that’s supposed to take years...you’d do it without breaking a sweat."
"But I can’t let you." She shook her head. "This project isn’t just about helping others. It’s about helping myself. If I let you swoop in and solve everything, then what would I really learn? How would I ever overco the past?"
"...This is my trial, Mika. My way forward. I have to do it myself."
For a mont, he just looked at her. Then, with a rare softness, Mika lifted his hand and gently patted her head. Charlotte froze, surprised, then lted into a small smile, her cheeks pink as she leaned into the touch.
Her teammates, who had been watching from across the room, exchanged wide-eyed looks. They normally never see Charlotte like this before. To them, she was always the radiant, exuberant friend, always cheerful, confident, teasing.
But here, in front of Mika, she was vulnerable, open, tender. It was a side of her they hadn’t thought existed.
And in that mont, all of them silently realized the sa thing: Mika was the only one who could bring that hidden, fragile side of her into the light...
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