CHAPTER 523: WORRY AND TENSION

Coco dragged her feet down the staircase, her eyes scanning the empty first floor, but her ears caught muffled voices coming from the kitchen.

"Come on, Coco!" Lala whined and kept pulling Coco’s hair. "Stop dragging your feet and walk faster, please! Konoha and Dick are probably eating my share of food!"

Coco stifled a laugh at the name Lala used to call the goleter. "Hey now, you shouldn’t call Richard that way."

"Why? He was acting like a dick towards me when Zaque, Alhai, and Quizen left the house!" Lala exclaimed and let go of Coco’s hair, puffing her cheeks out. "He knows that I can’t open the jar of cookie myself so he kept the jar hidden somewhere!"

Coco’s eyebrows raised to her hairline, not expecting the goleter to be petty.

"And? Did he give the jar back to you after?" Coco asked, her foot falling flat against the floorboard of the first floor and swivel her body to go to the kitchen.

"That’s the problem!" Lala whined further and plopped herself on top of Coco’s head. "He didn’t even give it back to me!"

Coco reached out for the knob of the kitchen door and swung it open as she let out a giggle at Lala’s misery. "Then, would you like me to talk to him to stop bullying you?"

As soon as she said that, a voice rung out.

"Bully? No one’s bullying that pipsqueak." The gruff voice of the stone monster reached Coco’s ears, making her turn her attention to Richard.

Coco’s lips tugged into a smirk. "I didn’t say anything about her getting bullied by you though.. So why are you being defensive, Richard? I was merely suggesting a solution to Lala’s problem."

The stone monster scoffed and shot a glare at Lala’s way. "That ugly thing left a mess on the hall so I hid the thing she’s crying about."

Coco closes the kitchen door and raised an eyebrow at Richard’s statement before walking over to him, then coming into a half right before the monster who was busy stirring something.

"Mess?" She echoed, encouraging him to elaborate. "And what’s that? That smells delicious."

"I told him to make us some juice." Heiren spoke up and grabbed Coco’s attention, making her turn her head to the mediator who had just placed several plates on the table.

Coco’s eyes swept across the room, her eyes taking in the sight of her husbands looking exhausted with Kairo nowhere in sight.

"That’s great and all, but where’s Kairo?" Coco quickly shifted the topic and walked away from Richard to get closer to Heiren, her hand finding purchase on his waist.

The physical touch made Heiren freeze, but he didn’t comment on it and instead, answered Coco’s question. "He didn’t want to come out because he saw Lala.. He said that he would rather starve himself rather than see her."

Coco’s face morphed into a frown, her eyebrows creasing together as her hand subconsciously squeezed his hip.

What the heck? Don’t tell me that he’ll really starve himself just because he saw Lala? Coco thought, her lips forming a straight at the image of Kairo crossing his arms and stubbornly locking himself inside his room.

Heiren’s breath hitched and felt his face getting warmer the longer Coco kept her hand on his hip, but again, he didn’t push her away.

Oh, no.. He was bold enough to lean closer to Coco to the point it looked like Coco’s arm wrapped around his waist and had him flush against her, but of course, Coco wasn’t aware of this because her mind was occupied at the thought of Kairo already dying out of hunger.

"Heiren." Zaque called out, his voice laced with dangerous edge that made Coco and Heiren snap their attention to him.

However, when Zaque took notice of Coco about to look at him— he quickly plastered a big and friendly smile on his face, wiping off the dark expression that was previously settling on his handsome features.

"What’s wrong?" Coco asked, blinking owlishly.

"Oh, it’s nothing." Zaque waved her off and stood up from his seat. "Why don’t you pick up Kairo from his room? It feels rather strange to not have him join us for a meal."

Coco brightened up at that, her hand slipping off from Heiren’s waist.

Alhai and Quizen quickly sensed what Zaque wanted to do so the silver haired mediator turned to the goleter. "Richard, accompany your master on fetching Kairo."

Coco shook her head and smiled. "No need, I can do it myself—"

Fortunately, the stone monster wasn’t as dense as his master and could sense the tension between the four mediators so he quickly dropped what he was doing.

"As you wish." Richard stated bluntly, taking Coco by surprise.

"Ayo, why are you being obedient?" Coco blurted out, her eyes wide as she turned to the goleter. "I kinda expected you to be cussing Alhai out.. I was ready to punch you, you know?"

The goleter merely grimaced and grabbed Coco by the wrist. "Do it later, but it is best to fetch the human with strange mana."

Coco stumbled on her footing slightly when Richard started dragging her to the door and couldn’t help, but utter curses under her breath. "Fuck, wait, holy— can’t you slow down?!"

The goleter ignored her and glanced at the mediators. "Please don’t create any mess. We’ll be back shortly."

Heiren swallowed the lump forming in his throat and rushed to run after the pair, but Quizen was faster than him and blocked his way with a dazzling smile on his face.

"Don’t worry about us." Zaque called to Coco and Richard.

"Make sure to take your time, hm?" Alhai backed the first husband with a smirk tugging on the corner of his lips.

The goleter scoffed and continued to drag Coco down the hall. "You have scary mates, human."

"Scary?" Coco asked, barely managing to catch herself before she could trip on her own feet. "And slow the fuck down!"