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"Okay Corin, on the count of three..."
"A-alright!"
"Three, two, one...!"
Corin sputtered like an engine coming to life, but in the end she could only whimper a rather unintelligible series of noises. She sighed, looking increasingly frustrated with herself, and her grip on Ellen's hand softened. Ellen pinched the bridge of her nose, slouching further into Corin's bed. Clearly, counting it down for her hadn't been the solution either.
And this was supposed to be an easy game...
"I'm sorry miss Ellen! I-it's just so embarassing to say!" Corin bowed her head repeatedly with such energy that she almost faceplanted herself into the mattress each time. "I know it should be normal for couples, but—"
"No, no, it's alright, we can just try again when you're ready," Ellen tried to reassure her, but Corin only shook her head, pressing her thumbs into Ellen's palm as she held her hand.
"We have to play by the rules!" Corin insisted. "Since I didn't manage to say it, that means you get another mochi!"
Corin nervously but quickly reached into the box of storebought strawberry mochi's that Ellen had brought along for the day, and fished out a fourth out of a box of ten. She brought the coral-pink ball, squeezed between her index and thumb, to Ellen's mouth. The shark thiren could only curse under her breath.
'Fucking stupid me,' She mentally facepalmed herself, 'Should've considered that Corin might have had trouble saying something so lovey-dovey, otherwise I wouldn't have added the 'I get to eat a mochi if you fail' penalty. At this rate, I'm gonna end up eating the whole box...'
The box that she had bought for Corin to eat, no less.
"Open wide, m-miss Ellen!"
"I told you to drop the 'miss'," she reminded her before reluctantly accepting the treat past her lips. It certainly tasted good, which came as a relief, since it had meant that going the extra mile to get freshly-made mochi from a dedicated bakery was all worth the trouble (and the extra cost). If it weren't for the fact that these were supposed to be for somebody else, Ellen would have no doubt been treating herself to the entire box by now.
"Mmm," Ellen hummed to herself as she swallowed the last piece of it. "Okay, fifth attempt, you can do this. Just think—three words, and the box is all yours. Simple enough?"
She watched a gulp go down the other girl's throat. She didn't know if it it was her fear, or her confidence, that Corin was swallowing down, but Corin looked wary all the same. The shark thiren knew she shouldn't have been thinking this, but gosh was Corin just so cute when she was feeling troubled. Which, whether good or not, tended to be a lot of the time, which allowed Ellen to be inundated with an endless supply of Corin's unhappy-adorableness almost every day. Even with her already high rate of sugar consumption, she was sure that one of these days, Corin's sweetness would be enough to tip her over the edge and give her actual diabetes.
"I'll try..!"
To Ellen's excitement (hidden under a guise of relative nonchalance, of course), after a few moments of Corin revving up her metaphorical wheels, she managed to get a coherent syllable out.
"I, umm... I love...!"
And yet she failed again. Her shoulders slumped in defeat, and the similarly defeated look on her face made Ellen wonder if Corin was more disappointed by her inability to say three simple words, or if it was because she'd forfeited even more of her precious favorite snack.
"Look, it's okay if you can't really get it out." Ellen coiled her tail around Corin's waist, pulling her in a bit, and she put a gentle hand onto hers. "I trust you. You don't need to say it out loud to—"
"But I want to."
Ellen found herself taken aback by her sudden courage. "Really? I mean, we could just call off the game now if it's too much for—"
Her renewed determination faltered for a bit, but soon a hesitant smile found a way onto her face. "I-I want to say it! I want to tell you how much I... how much I care about you, miss Ellen. E-even if it's really hard, even if I can't look you in the eye properly, even if I can only hope of doing it when we're alone in my room with no one around... I want to give it try!"
Ellen's facial expression didn't show quite show it, for better or for worse, but her heart began to melt in that moment. An upset Corin may have been cute, but seeing Corin attempt to hype herself up like that, was simply on another level. Was it even possible to fall even deeper in love with someone you were already head over heels for?
Well, apparently so.
"I-If you insist..." Ellen softened. "And if it, um, if it makes it any easier, we can say it together. How about that?"
Corin nodded. "Okay!"
Ellen looked away for a moment, pushing herself up off of the bed she had been lazing about on. She shoved some pillows aside, as well as the mochi, and then met Corin's doe-like eyes with a warm smile (or as warm as Ellen could make it look, anyway).
For the longest moment, they simply looked at each other, cherry red slowly creeping onto their faces the longer the anticipation hung in the air between them. Eventually, Ellen snapped out of it.
"I-I'll count it down now."
She breathed deep.
"Five, four, three, two—"
She froze. Corin had leaned into her neck, sending a chill down her spine in the most pleasant way possible with her slow and gentle breaths. She felt two hands wrap themselves around and pull her very close.
"Ellen, I..."
Corin looked up at her with eyes that shone like precious jewels.
"I love you. I love you more than I could ever tell you. When I’m with you, it’s like the world is a little bit brighter. You always know what to say, even when I’m a mess. And you… you make me feel like it’s okay to be myself."
Her eyes fixed themselves onto her lap, too shy to see Ellen’s reaction, but she nevertheless continued. “I love your smile, your hair, and the way you take care of me, even when I don’t deserve it. I love how strong you are, not just on our commissions, but as a person, and how even though you're so strong, you're always kind to me, too."
Their eyes met again.
"I love all of it. I love all of you, Ellen. I love you more than anything else in the whole world."
The words hung in the air for a little while. Then Ellen cleared her throat, a little awkwardly, but with nothing to say after.
Corin's brave spell wore off, and the sentences rolled out of her mouth all at once, trampling over each other before she even managed to finish just one.
"H-how was that miss Ellen? Was it- I mean, I hope that was- I really hope that wasn't too cheesy or too much or anything like-!"
"I've lost."
"L-lost?"
Ellen looked away, her cheeks red, her ears pink. The confident, unshakable Ellen was blushing—and quite furiously at that—and she knew it from the way her face started to heat up like the room's air conditioning had suddenly broken.
"You said it, and I didn't. So you win. And, I... um..."
"Pardon?"
Without warning, she wordlessly planted a peck onto Corin's cheek, before turning to reach for the box of mochi before the girl could even process what had happened.
"Okay, new game." Ellen looked at her, her face flushed and her mouth twitching in a way that said she was trying to hide an awkward, euphoric smile. "You get a mochi every time I kiss you. On the lips. There's no punishment if you say no."
"O-on the lips?!" It was Corin's turn to overheat now.
Ellen huffed impatiently. "So do you want to play or not?"
A smile slowly broke out onto Corin's face. "Y-yes! I'd love to!"
Ellen pushed Corin down onto the bed, and proceeded to give her plenty of mochi as a reward. And when they ran out, they kept playing regardless.