Draco let out a weary sigh as he walked into the familiar kit, the many grocery bags rustling in his hands.

  Carefully, he pced them on the tertop, mentally running through the list of ingredients he needed for Vasiliki’s requested meal.

  To his dismay, many of the ems were not present in the bags he had brought.

  "Guess I'll have to wait for the rest," Drauttered, shrugging off his cloak and taking a seat at the kit table.

  The sound of footsteps soon drew his attention, and Draco looked up to see Bahamut entering the room, a worried expressioched across her delicate features.

  Immediately, Draco's senses heightened, attuo the subtle shifts in the goddess's demeanour.

  "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice tinged with .

  Bahamut's tail swayed nervously, her ethereal wings fluttering slightly.

  "Does it look like something is wrong?" she replied, her eyes shifting away from Draco's gaze.

  Draarrowed his eyes, his keen observation skills pig up on the subtle tells.

  "Did something happen after I left?" he probed, recalling how he had hurriedly departed, leaving Bahamut, Eleni, Cir, and Dimitra behind oreet to avoid Eleni’s probing questions.

  Bahamut's shoulders slumped, and she let out a heavy sigh.

  "I...I may have done something iive," she fessed, her voice filled with a touch of guilt.

  Draco felt a twinge of dread i of his stomabsp;

  ‘Please don't let it be reted to st night,’ he silently pleaded, brag himself for the revetions to e.

  "What is it about?" he asked, his tone ced with reluce.

  Bahamut could sense Draco's hesitation, but she felt that he o know.

  "I...uh, got a bit carried away and revealed what happened yesterday night and this m to the girls," she admitted, her face flushing with embarrassment.

  "Iail?" Draco pressed, his curiosity piqued despite his reservations.

  "No, just the st part," Bahamut hastily crified, her cheeks burning with a deeper shade of crimson.

  Draco let out a resigned sigh.

  "So just the kissing and fession part, huh?" he muttered, the memory sending a wave of heat to his own face.

  Bahamut's wings fpped nervously, aail swayed with increased vigour.

  "You didn't o say that out loud," she chided, her voice tinged with embarrassment.

  "Ah, sorry. I voiy thoughts sometimes," Draco replied, an apologetic smile.

  Bahamut took a deep breath, steadying herself.

  "Anyway, after I revealed it, I walked a distand observed the girls. Eleni and Dimitra were surprised as expected, but Cir..." She paused, her expression being more troubled.

  "She seemed even more lost." she said.

  Draco listened ily, his brow furrowing in thought.

  "At the time, I was hoping to spark some jealousy, f her to sooner front you instead of avoiding you like she has been doing since yesterday," Bahamut tinued, her gaze downcast.

  "But...she ended up more fused." Draco could sehe frustration in Bahamut's voibsp;

  "I am quite o this love thing, so I fear my aight have been iive and unnecessary," she admitted, her wings folding in tightly.

  "Thinking more clearly, I should have taken it a bit slower with her instead to speed things up, but I guess I didn’t want to hide such a thing from her. It felt like cheating" She paused, a hint of uainty in her eyes.

  "Does this make me seem childish or foolish?" she asked,

  Draco could see the turmoil in Bahamut's expression, and he reached out, grasping her shoulders firmly.

  "Calm down," he soothed, pulling her into a f embrace.

  Bahamut's body tensed for a moment, but she soon rexed, leaning into Draco's warmth.

  "But..." she tried to protest, but Draco cut her off.

  "I somewhat uand what you were trying to achieve," Draco said, his voice low and reassuring.

  "You wao present yourself as petition to Cir, hoping it would force her to front her own feelings and her retionship with me." Bahamut nodded, her expression a mixture of relief and uainty.

  "Sadly, Cir didn't react as I expected, and it seems her situation has only worsened," she murmured, her wings drooping slightly.

  Draco sidered her words, his brow furrowed in thought.

  "Love is a plex and delicate matter," he said, his tohoughtful.

  "Sometimes, the best iions lead to unintended sequences."

  Bahamut's tail swished bad forth, her eyes filled with a hint of vulnerability.

  "I just want to help," she whispered, her voice ced with a touch of desperation.

  "I care about Cir, and I don't wao keep hurting." she said.

  Draodded, uanding the goddess's sincere desire to help.

  "I know. Your as, while well-iioned, may have added to Cir's fusion. But that doesn't make you childish or foolish. It just means you're still learning, just like the rest of us." he said, his haly caressing her cheek.

  "We'll figure this out together, but we o approach it with care and patience." he said.

  Bahamut's eyes widened slightly at the tender gesture, and she leaned into Draco's touch, a small smile tugging at the ers of her lips.

  "Okay," she murmured.

  ‘To think that all this stemmed from the thought that her love fession to me would be unfair to Cir and sidered cheating if she didn't tell her about it. That is probably the other half, besides wanting to help Cir, that she tried to vey,’ Draco reasoned.

  Right now, the petite dragon goddess in his arms seemed rather small and endearing.

  ‘You truly are an enigma, huh. Sometimes, you are so mature, aher times you do quite a few silly things. It makes me wonder where the mental liween the gods and mortals lies," Draused, gazing down at Bahamut's form, led against his chest.

  They remained in the same position for a while before Draco spoke up.

  "Have you calmed down now?" he asked, his voice soft ale as he looked into her face, buried in the folds of his shirt.

  "Hmm," Bahamut replied, her body fully rexed in his embrace, the tension from earlier having dissipated.

  Draco let out anh, this oinged with a hint nation.

  "At the root, all this isn't your fault. It's because I've been unclear about retionships," he admitted, his expression thoughtful.

  It was high time that he presehe familia with a set of rules regarding intimate retionships.

  These rules would apply to everyone fairly, without exception.

  He also o make his stance clear to Cir and Bahamut, for the sake of the future.

  " you let go of me now?" Bahamut requested shyly, her voice barely above a whisper.

  She could feel something hard pressing against her belly.

  "Oh, sorry about that," Draco apologized, quickly releasing his hold on her.

  He realized with a start that it was his own body's rea to their close proximity.

  "It's fine," Bahamut murmured, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

  Clearing his throat, Draco quickly ged the subjebsp;

  "By the way, where are Vasileios, Michalis, and Nikoos?" he asked.

  "They went to repair the damaged dungeon equipment as you instructed," Bahamut replied.

  "Huh, that was supposed to be scheduled for tomorrow. Did I make a mistake ie I left this m?" Draco furrowed his brow, puzzled.

  "Hmm, you mean this note?" Bahamut asked, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from a nearby kit drawer and handing it to Draco.

  Draco quickly sed the note, reizing his own handwriting.

  He had indeed made a mistake in the instrus, failing to specify the exact order and timing of the tasks.

  Additionally using vague terms like "sometime iernoon" and "maybe before the evening." was obviously going to be fusing when mixed in.

  "e to think of it, Michalis kept mumbling about something you said in the m about 12 noon. I think that's around the time the boys left to repair the dungeon equipment," Bahamut added.

  "Ugh, it's my mistake," Drauttered, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

  'No matter, the day is still salvageable. It's still early,' he thought, determio set things right.

  "By the way, have you levelled everyone up?" he asked Bahamut, curious.

  "No, they all insisted on waiting until you returned," Bahamut replied.

  "What?!" Draco excimed, surprised.

  He had expected the familia members to hound Bahamut to level them up after the built up excitement from their impressive feats the previous day.

  'Another blunder,' Draco thought, a frown creasing his brow.

  'I really o choose a vice-captain soohought.

  ‘Speaking of a vice-captain, I haven't doted each of their feats in writi, and then there's the reward for the petition too. Ugh, so much work.' he mused.

  Just then, the sound of footsteps interrupted his thoughts, and both Drad Bahamut turo the source. It was...