Work Text:
Lunchtimes spent on the rooftop of Tracen Academy, away from the sea of activity with its constant ebb and flow surging down below, weren't something Sirius Symboli found herself experiencing often. Rather, lunchtime for Sirius was often synonymous with face time between her and her precious juniors, and while she thoroughly enjoyed making them squeal, even she needed a break sometimes. Typically, that found her as far from Tracen as she could manage in the span of an all-too-short thirty minute break, but as the wind blew through her hair, carrying a note of sweet floral scent, even she had to admit being up here could be nice.
"Hey, Sirius, what are you always doing to girls to make them act so cute and blushy?"
Her aesthetic musings ground to a screeching halt. That was perhaps the last question she ever would have expected to hear when she stumbled across Tokai Teio sitting quietly on the roof, seemingly absorbed in her own thoughts. Sirius hadn't known the kid could do anything quietly when she'd elected to ignore her and settle down with her food, a generous distance between them. Clearly, that had been her first mistake. Her second one was looking up from the plate carefully balanced on her legs, entirely unprepared to see Teio, brows furrowed in some imitation of seriousness, staring her down. In fact, it nearly made her choke on her school-cafeteria carrot steak.
"What?" she coughed out around the piece of meat lodged in her throat. Cute and blushy? She couldn't possibly— There was no way— Teio? But Sirius couln't think of anything else she could be asking about. "You mean teasing them?"
Peevish eyes shot her a look that made it obvious the brat thought Sirius was the one spouting outlandish thing. "No," she said slowly, like she was still searching for what it was she wanted to say, but her expression quickly soured; her tail swished in irritation and her hands balled into fists. "That's what you do to me when I tell you to stop treating me like I'm a little kid!"
A smile tugged at her lips, but Sirius bit it back as she twisted away from Teio's antics—no reason to give her anything else to cry over—and set her plate down beside her. Using a hand to push herself off of the ground, she got up, still facing away from what she was sure was a watery glare. Sirius allowed Teio to stew as she adjusted her uniform. It was important to make sure everything fell in just the right places, after all. Once she was done with that, she ran a hand through her forelock and chuckled to herself.
"Don't laugh at me! Just tell me how you do it."
It was hard to keep a roguishly charming smirk on her face without breaking at the sheer ridiculousness of what she was about to do, but Sirius was nothing if not a professional. Riling up the brat was always fun, sure, but she'd never pictured herself actually flirting with Teio—even as a joke. Her lunch break, while not the total lapse in chaos she'd been looking for, was turning out to be a rather interesting one.
Giving herself another moment to fix her expression had the added bonus of wearing on Teio's patience enough to get her to shift from annoyed to antsy. Her ears flicked towards imagined noise and she kept shifting her weight, unable to stay still. If it had been one of her own girls, Sirius would have found the behavior cute; it was almost a shame to be wasting her talents on Rudolf's annoying devotee. Almost. She snapped and the kid was locked in on her in an instant.
"There are different forms of teasing, Teio," she purred, deep and smooth. Teio stopped pouting and stared, gaze dipping lower to follow the easy sway of Sirius's hips just like she knew it would. She didn't stop her advance. Even as her target stepped back, she moved forward until their bodies were nearly touching. Sirius let her larger frame do the work for her, crowding further into Teio's personal space and leaning down so far that their noses could brush. She breathed out, and watched dopey eyelashes flutter beneath her, nearly dancing. It seemed to take a moment for the sudden burst of warm air to register, but once it did, Teio jerked her head back up, and their eyes met. Sirius saw the moment she realized just how close together they were. It was adorable. Her back hit the wall at the same time Sirius's hand did.
A blush exploded across her cheeks. Her chest rose too quickly and her exhale came out raggedly shallow. Sirius brought her free hand up to cup Teio's cheek. Her lips offered no resistance to Sirius's thumb when she dragged it down across them. Just as she was about to execute the final move, the one with a nearly 100% fatality rate—and she didn't spare herself any time to wonder why she was pulling out all of the stops for Teio—the brat looked away. A frown bullied its way across her features as she broke out of Sirius’s caress. She crossed her arms. The only evidence Teio had been affected at all was the sweet blush still warming her face.
"No, I don't think this would work on her."
Sirius knew her eyebrows had likely just disappeared into her hairline, her expression no longer schooled. "Who?" As far as she was aware, there was only one student in all of Tracen that she couldn't bend to her whims, and there was no way in hell Teio wanted to charm Kawakami Princess into blushing.
But the kid didn't respond. She was too busy gnawing on her lip as her tail wagged anxiously behind her. It tried its best to, at any rate—still pinned between her and the wall, it barely swung enough to reach her outer shins. She looked pathetic. That must have been what made Sirius take pity on her, gently grasping her chin and tilting Teio's head back around to look at her. The movement only made her frown deepen, and she stamped her feet, throwing her hands around like she was trying to physically release her built-up emotions.
"But she's so cute when she's blushy," Teio whined to her pleadingly before melting into her hold. "I wanna be able to do it, too!"
Sirius's hand, the one still pushed up against the wall, dropped. Instead of returning to hang at her side, it changed course, going to awkwardly pat the sulking brat's head. It must have been moving of its own accord, that was the only explanation. Sirius would never willingly comfort Teio like that. Not that it did much good, either way, as the kid let out another pitiful whine. Her arms wrapped around Sirius's sides, and she pulled her into a proper hug.
The Three Goddesses help her, Teio was absolutely smitten. And Sirius just had to go and prove her mettle in making girls blush—she just had to get herself involved—and now she was left with the task of figuring out who the fuck Teio was crushing on, all so that she could woo them first and prove her wrong. Sirius's tactics worked, Teio herself had just shown that, and she wouldn't accept anyone discounting her methods. It was in no way, shape, or form because she was the least bit interested in who had managed to capture to capture the gremlin's heart. It couldn't possibly be Kawakami Princess, could it?
No, think about this rationally.
Was it Rudolf? Sirius internally shook her head. She had been subject to more than enough of Teio's dreamy speeches about how cool the student council president was to know the kid didn't find Rudolf cute. This was a different kind of crush.
Sirius took a mental step back. What were the facts? She was looking for someone Teio considered cute, and someone who, at least as far as the brat was concerned, was hard to make blush. She couldn't think of a single uma who fit the criteria. Then again, that wasn't surprising, considering she'd never cared to familiarize herself with Teio's opinions before.
The arms around her waist disengaged, slowly unwrapping themselves from around her. As soon as she was free enough, Sirius backed up, putting distance between them. Teio had the audacity to look sad at the loss and she rubbed the last of her tears from her eyes. "Are you ready to tell me who it is?"
She shook her head vehemently. It was as if a switch had flipped, and an entirely different emotion overtook Teio. She fixed Sirius with a glare. "No way! You just want to know so you can try and make her all blushy first 'cause she looks so cute when it happens."
So she was half-right, what did it matter? It wasn't like Sirius would ever tell her that. Instead, she scoffed. "I don't care about whatever little uma you have a crush—"
"A crush!?" Teio shrieked, and something clicked in Sirius's head. Teio didn't know. The brat so obviously liked someone, and yet she was oblivious to her own feelings. "A crush? I don't have a crush," she repeated, attempting to sound more certain. It was comical how bad she was at this. No wonder she had come seeking out the advice of an expert. Too bad Sirius had no intention of helping her; was it her fault toying with Teio was simply that much more entertaining? She seemed to take Sirius's silence as an invitation to keep blabbering, "Everyone's cute when they're blushy and," she emphasized her point with flapping hands before continuing, "I just want to be able to make her blush because she never gets like that!"
"Yeah, right," Sirius said with a smirk.
Teio glowered at her. "I do not have a crush on A—"
The bell rang to signal the end of lunch, cutting her off. Teio's eyes went wide as she realized she'd almost given her secret away. She threw the door to the roof open and took off sprinting down the steps, leaping across four at a time. A voice at the bottom yelled at her to be careful, the sound drifting up to Sirius's ears before the door banged closed. Sirius rolled her eyes the display. She bent down to pick up her discarded half-eaten carrot steak before making her own way towards the exit.
"A Mystery A, huh? I can work with that."