Work Text:
"How long…"
"Hm?" The girl sitting next to Yuki tilts her head questioningly.
"How long are you gonna keep doing that?" Yuki rolls her eyes in an effort to hide her embarrassment. "Staring… At my lips, I mean."
The two girls are seated at their usual spot—On the bench near the arena. Yuki had taken out her Military Notebook and was tinkering with it, the way she usually did, when she felt the same gaze that had been following her for a few days directed at her again.
"Whaaaat?" Ruka pouts. "What's wrong with me stealing a few glances? Besides…"
"Besides…?" Yuki asks cautiously. She’s unable to conceal the slightly expectant look in her eyes.
Ruka's expression changes into a sweet, innocent smile.
"How can anyone turn their eyes away when a tasty meal is set out for them?"
"Do you see me as nothing but another type of meat?!"
It’s the same as always. She feels like an idiot for getting her hopes up.
"But I've been wondering…"
"Huh? Wait, wh-what're you—" Yuki lets out a tiny yelp as Ruka moves closer and peers into her face.
"Don't your lips look different?"
Yuki turns her eyes away, cheeks reddening.
"Well, yeah… They were starting to dry up so I got a lip balm..."
"So you're surprisingly conscious about your appearance, huh."
Yuki freezes for a moment. After regaining her composure, she furrows her brows and pushes Ruka away.
"What's so surprising about that?”
"I mean, aren't you a hacker?" Ruka goes on.
"I have a feeling that your image of a hacker is a little too old-fashioned and stereotypical,” Yuki sighs and turns her attention back to her Notebook in an attempt to distract herself and forget Ruka's comment. She knows that Ruka didn't mean to offend her, but she wishes that Ruka would learn to be more careful with her words.
"And Yukki, it isn't like anyone here is gonna treat you differently because of how you look."
"I don't want to hear that from the one who was ogling at my lips!"
"Ah, you got me there. Nice hacking!"
"That wasn't even close to hacking."
It’s the same old routine. Nothing has really changed even after they started dating. But Yukki knows that she’d be lying if she said that she didn't find a certain kind of comfort in that predictable unpredictability.
But only a few minutes pass after Yuki resumes her work, and Ruka’s voice can be heard again.
"Yukki, gimme your lip balm."
"What? Why?" Yuki narrows her eyes suspiciously.
"I want to see if you'll fall in love with me even more after I wear it."
"We're not living in some cringe romance novel for that kind of thing to work,” she says as a light pink hue dusts her cheeks.
"But… It did work once, right?" Ruka inches closer as Yuki's expression relaxes again. "I mean, I fell even harder for you?"
Yuki involuntarily gulps as she realizes that Ruka's face is almost touching her own.
"Fine, fine! I'll give it to you, so—"
A familiar, soft, slightly wet sensation on her lips. Her heart nearly stops beating and her reflexes cease functioning. It barely lasts a moment but she feels an electric flash run through her body as Ruka finishes up with a light, quick lick on her lips.
"Thanks~!"
A million objections run through Yuki's mind—About how they’re in public, how people have definitely seen them, how she would have happily handed over her entire tube of lip balm if Ruka wanted it—But…
"Y-Yeah…"
It's all she’s able to mutter out as she tries to process what happened. It’s just another day of being with Ruka—Another unpredictable day of surprises she could have never prepared herself for, but is strangely comforting. Days she's never gonna get used to, but days she doesn't want to give up on.