"Yes! Yes! You did it! Great job, Asta! Good boy, good boy." The blurry-faced person with soft cheering voice encouraged Asta while gave some gentle pats on his head. Felt warm and nice.
"Mother…"
The pair of watery crimson eyes opened slowly just to find a good-looking topless man laying beside. It was obviously nobody other than his master. He learned that he was in his master's bedroom. His slim but strong hand was patting his head gently.
"You're up, Asta. Good boy. I'm sorry for making you suffered."
A single tear escaped from the scarlet eyes Asta owned. It ran down melting on his pillow, leaving a small circle-shaped mark.
"N-No, master. Why are you apologizing? I'm only your slave, you're supposed to be free to do anything to me."
"That's not true!" Yuno's loud denial voice made Asta jumped of impulse. He wanted to explain but eventually stopped himself.
"W-Well now, just have your breakfast. It's already prepared downstairs, you can grab it yourself. You must be hungry, right? I'm gonna leave for work." Yuno rose up while collecting his clothes to wear them back again. Asta smiled gazing at him. His tail curled on Yuno's waist like preventing him to leave.
"Have a good day, master. Please come back safely."
"Sure."
Yuno's palm cupped Asta's cute bed face and a quick kiss planted on his forehead before he was sent off.
…
A sound of an open door knocked Asta's awareness to turn his face back at the door behind him. He relieved at the sight of a familiar uniform and immediately glomped at him.
"Master! Welcome home!"
"Ah—I'm home. Sorry, I'm usually all by myself in my bedroom, I forgot that I have you here now."
"It doesn't matter at all! I'm glad you're back safely. I can smell pretty well, I find no threat on your body."
"Anyway, already have enough meals?"
"Yup! It was all delicious! Unbeliavable! I never found something like that back in my demon kingdom. My chef was so far worse, then. He should learn about cooking here. He missed some spices that can be used there to make his cook way better!"
The master couldn't help but smile at how funny Asta actually was. He was like a young boy despite his title as a King. He was really talkative, honest, and able to be such a really good friend to chat with. He almost forgot that he was a real demon. His enthusiast way of chattering while swinging his tail made him look way cuter.
"That's great, then. Good boy. Good boy, Asta."
Yuno patted on Asta's head while listening his babble. After a weird of silent moment, he found that Asta was shaking, holding some tears that gathered on his eyes.
"M-Master, can I ask you to not stop patting on my head, please?"
"F-Fine."
Yuno stroked his pet's head while carefully watching him let down his tears. He did it for some moment hoping that Asta would spill out his reason, but all he got was only a frustrating silence. When he couldn't keep it anymore, his hands reached out embracing Asta in frustation.
"Tell me! Why, Asta?!"
"Mother…"
"Huh?"
"My mother, Mya Staria. It's my beloved mother's habit, master. She used to do that to me everytime I'm being a good boy. But she was already dead. I miss her so much. You did it to me just automatically remind me of her."
Yuno could feel Asta cried harder that his shoulder got wet. What a poor demon boy. He felt guilty for awakening his bad memories, so he tried to make up his mistake.
"What a poor boy, Asta. Cry all you want, okay? Just have enough to make you satisfied. Good boy, good boy."
That time, Yuno learned that Asta might be more human than he thought.
…