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John ate a spoonful of his last bite, humming as he places the fork and the knife on the dirty plate. "Shaun! You can take it away!" he calls, then finally drinks his water.
Shaun quickly approaches the table, frowns when he saw there's still some left-over on his master's plate.
"John-sama, I already told you carrots are good for you. Why are you not eating it again?" he scolds, putting away the other dirty utensils onto the food trolley.
John shakes his head, pouting. "But John doesn't like carrots!" Shaun let out a sigh as he grabs a nearby chair and places it next to John's before sitting on it.
John watches as his living doll takes the plate with his hand and uses the fork to pick up the carrot. "You have to eat this. I don't want you to waste food." John leans back by surprise when the fork got shoves onto his face.
Shaun is forcing him to eat it.
"John already told you he doesn't want to eat carrots!"
Despite his yelling and tantrums, Shaun's eyes show no sign of giving up. He shoves his fork more till it touches John's lips, patiently waiting for his master to open up. John groans. He knows he won't be able to convince Shaun now.
"A-Alright, alright! John will eat it..." John sighs in defeat eventually open his mouth to let Shaun feeds him.
'He is so stubborn. But, it's because he cares for John, right?' he thought, munching in disgust, but Shaun pays no concern of it. He keeps feeding his master the vegetable until it's gone, then offers a glass of water to John, who quickly drank it to wash the unpleasant taste in his mouth. Satisfied, Shaun proceeds to put away the remaining plates onto the trolley before wiping the table clean.
John scowls in annoyance as he wipes his mouth with the napkin. All that carrots and it still taste as bad as he remembers.
"John doesn't want to eat it again..." he pleads with a weak voice, hoping that Shaun will show some mercy and spare him for the next time.
Shaun stops as he glances back at him before sighing heavily. "I'm only doing this because I'm concern for you. You know that, right?"
John sweats, feeling guilty now. Did Shaun use that disappointed tone on him in purpose?
"I-I mean... Yeah, of course, John knows that..."
Then, his living doll let out a smirk.
"Then, you wouldn't mind eating it again, right?"
John stares at his plate blankly.
"John-sama? Are you okay?" his living doll calls out, approaching his table as an anxious look plaster all over his face.
Just when he looks up at Shaun, he realizes he was emitting soots right now.
"Is something wrong with the food? Do you want me to get another one?" Shaun offers, already taking away the plate had not John stop him first.
"No! No, the food is fine." Not want to bother Shaun anymore, John quickly grabs his fork and spoon to eat the meal.
Shaun observes him eating for a bit before concluding that everything is okay and went back to prepare other food for his master.
On the other hand, John is thinking hard of a way that will allow him to dispose of the orange vegetable without getting Shaun angry.
He takes a look around him. There's a trash bin nearby, but John doubts can just walk straight to the thing and dump it. If he throws it under the table, Shaun probably will notice it right away.
'Is there really no way to get rid of these damn carrots? And why is it so many today!?'
John scowls in frustration, guessing it means that he has to eat it yet again today. Why is Shaun really strict about this anyway?
If the carrot is really that good, Shaun should eat it himself instead! He's the human here, after all!
Shaun, who noticed his master has been staring at him, tilt his head in confusion. "Is something the matter, John-sama?"
'That's it!!'
John then claps his hands together. "Shaun~ Would you like to take a seat beside John?" he beams, patting the chair beside him.
His living doll was taken back by the sudden cheerfulness, but he obeys his master and takes a seat anyway. Shaun couldn't actually see it, but he can feel that John is grinning right now.
He watches as John raised a spoonful of his meal and placed it in front of Shaun's mouth. He jumps and leans back unconsciously, blinking in confusion.
"E-Excuse me?"
John giggles. "You see, John doesn't feel like eating that much today. So it would be great if Shaun could help John a bit!" he begs, spoon still waiting outside of Shaun's mouth.
"B-But, we're not allowed--"
"Oh, come on!! Don't tell John you still want to follow the rules!"
Shaun froze in his place, lowers his head.
That's right.
All that time he spent bounding and dedicating himself to the house, thinking it was the right thing to do, thinking that he was happy serving as a mere doll who has no free will, thinking that it was his one and only purpose for existing.
He just had finally opened his eyes and regained his senses as a human being once more, and he can't bear to lose it ever again.
So, of course not. Shaun doesn't want to follow the shadow house rules anymore.
But still, he is not used to being treated like this.
He looks at the spoonful of seasoned fried rice with meat and then back at John, still waiting for him to open up. Shaun let out a sigh of defeat.
"Alright, if you insisted..." Finally giving up and opens his mouth.
John then happily feeds his living doll, watching his face lit up in delight as he moves back. "Is it tasty?" he asks, which got a nod of approval from Shaun, who looks amazed by the incredible taste he never had before.
"It's really delicious," he mutters after finished eating it.
"Ah, that's right. You guys only get to eat bread, right?" John takes another spoonful and eats it for himself.
"Well, there's other food, but yeah, that's basically it."
John hums as he scoops the rice again, sneakily hiding the carrots inside, then feeds them to Shaun.
"Well then, Shaun should eat with John every day from now on then!" he suggests aloud, laughing inside as he watched Shaun eats the carrots for John without him recognizing. Shaun's eyes went wide by his master's remarks, quickly swallow his food before speaking.
"W-What? No, that won't be necessary. I'm fine with it so--"
"Shaun. Are you going to talk back to your master like that?"
Shaun flinches in surprise at John's cold tone, then lowers his head.
"I-I apologize."
John went quiet for a bit before laughing, hitting Shaun's back.
"John is just joking! You know John is not like that," he assures, patting the spot he just hit. Shaun then let out a relieved sigh unconsciously. John finds it amusing that Shaun is still concern about his words and the rules despite looking so determined before.
John then raises his hand and puts it on Shaun's head, gently patting him.
"You're a human, Shaun. You deserve better than you think. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
Shaun is stunned for a while before letting out a warm smile.
"Yes, of course. Thank you, John-sama."
John smiles back at him as he offers Shaun another spoonful, of course with the carrots hidden inside it.
"Say ahh~"
Their little routine goes on every day after that.
It all started when John tried to get away from eating carrots, but now he genuinely enjoyed having his meal with Shaun together.
Particularly the part where he gets to feed him.
"J-John-sama... Isn't this a bit too much?"
John looks up from his plate, tilting his head. "What do you mean? Did you not like it?"
Shaun nervously shakes his head. "No, it's not that."
The meal had no drastic changes from what it usually is, still for a one-person portion but with some extra things like bread and fruits.
But the thing that troubles him is that John has been letting him eat the entire time, not even touching the food for himself.
"John-sama, you should eat it too. I already ate something this morning, so I'm quite full already. But you..."
John blinks in realization. He himself isn't even aware that he hasn't eaten anything yet from his plate. He must've got caught up by watching how Shaun's face cutely lights up whenever he takes a bite.
"John suppose so."
Then he hands the spoon to his living doll, who frowns in confusion.
"I'm sorry?"
"John wants Shaun to feed him."
Shaun looks at him dumbfounded before a blush spreads across his face.
"W-Why? You can eat it by yourself, right?" John then places the spoon back and then folds his hand in front of his chest.
"But John already fed Shaun! It's only fair if Shaun does the same, right?" he claims, pouting childishly.
Shaun was about to argue back but stop himself before taking a deep breath. It's just a little request from John, after all. He shouldn't overreact with it.
"A-Alright. If that's what you want." Shaun finally took the plate and raised a spoonful of the meal to his master, who beams as he happily eats it. If John had a tail, Shaun is sure it would wag, judging by the humming he's making right now.
After the plate has emptied, John's eyes is casted on one particular thing on his table.
"John wants some orange!"
As his master's wish, Shaun then grabs an orange from the fruit basket and starts to peel it. Eventually, the sweet scent filled the room.
"Here you go." He gave the piece of orange to John, but the latter is not handing out his hand.
"Don't tell me you want me to feed you again..." he mutters, pulling a face. John stares at him quietly before pouting again.
His living doll sighs, "Alright, open up then."
John snickers playfully, then open his mouth. Shaun hand the orange to him then John lean in to eat it. It really is as sweet as its smell.
"It tastes just like the one Emilico gave to John back in debut," he mumbles, licking the corner of his mouth.
"I suppose they came from the same tree then," Shaun answers lightly, handing him over another orange.
John didn't realize it before, but there's a trail of droplets from Shaun's fingers down to his palm. It must be from the orange when he peels it.
Suddenly an idea sprung from John's head.
He leans it to eat the orange but purposely closes his mouth around Shaun's fingers, noting how the boy flinches at the unexpected gesture.
"W-What are you doing?" he blushes but showing no intention to retract his fingers.
John takes it as his cue to tease him more. He continues by licking Shaun's fingers, sucking them lightly before going down to his palm, following the droplet's trace. He saw the way Shaun twitch with a hand flew up to cover his mouth.
Oh, his ears are red too.
John finally ends the teasing by placing one quick kiss on Shaun's palm, wiping his mouth with his napkin. John takes a good look at how flushed Shaun's face is right now, eyes looking both confused and shocked as he stares at John dumbfoundedly.
John smirks quietly. What a good face.
"What was that...?" Shaun mumbles, voice almost cracks. John let out a chuckle as he grabs the spoon and starts eating by himself.
"Nothing. John just wanted to tease you." he sneers, giggles when Shaun's face went even red.
Shaun let out a big scoff, trying to steady his rapid heartbeat.
When John finishes his meal, he quickly springs up and starts cleaning the table, hopes it can distract him from the sudden feeling on his chest.
After done with the table, Shaun pushed the trolley to the outside of their room so that the veiled dolls can get it later. He finally closes the door, lets out a sigh of relief when he's sure his heart is already calming down.
"Hey, Shaun."
Shaun tensed up a bit but composed himself quickly and approaches his master, hands behind his back.
"Yes, what is it, John-sama?"
"Come a bit closer."
Shaun lifts his eyebrows, but he follows nonetheless. He walked closer and bent down, watching John gets closer as if to whisper him something.
But instead, he can feel a pair of lips on his cheek.
"John never realized it before, but he had a lot of fun spending time with you." John then brings both of his hands to cups Shaun's cheeks, grinning.
"Thank you for always taking care of John, Shaun."
Shaun's face flushed instantly.
His once steady heartbeat picks up its rhythm once again to the sudden enclosed distance, voice lost in his throat. As soon as John's warm hands leave his face, Shaun almost stumbles back in shock but managed to regain himself again.
He lets out a light cough. Mind went blank.
"Y-Yes, of course. W-Well, if you excuse me,"
John chuckles as he watched Shaun quickly bows and turns around to leave his room.
But then he suddenly stops on his track.
"...Shaun?"
Shaun then glances back and grins sheepishly.
"Since you said I've been taking care of you, you will eat the carrots by yourself next time, right John-sama?"
"You knew about that?!"