Mai was always biting her lips; Kazuya Shibuya had noted that in his mind long ago.
She was such a lip torturer. In whatever task she's given, Mai would occasionally nibble her lips, even suck them as though they were cherries, and she was extracting their juices. Kazuya had gotten used to her habit and thought he didn't have to care about her lip abuse; her lips and the treatment of them were her business after all.
But today, Kazuya had enough. Her reddish bow-shaped lips were shooting his guts arrows of...something. They were tempting him...
Tempting him to save them from her teeth's onslaught.
This time, Mai was, as usual, worrying her lips with her pearly white teeth, and she was doing it in plain view as he sat reading The Japan Times in the lounge. A leg over the other, Mai sat hunched over her desk's surface while doing her school homework.
Kazuya was flipping a page of the Times when he saw her in the act. For some inexplicable reason, Mai's figure was illuminated by the golden afternoon light so that she appeared on a spotlight in his vision. Her lips, amidst her creamy skin, seemed to beg to him to...to...
To what? He frowned. What was he going to do with them?
Kazuya examined Mai's jutting lower lip. She was biting her upper lip now, and he wondered how it tasted to her. Autocannibalism was not unheard of. There were people who eat their nails or boogers, but Kazuya was not interested in the tastes of those.
No, he was only interested on how delicious Mai's lips were that she always bit them. Were they sweet? Soft and...and...tangy? Spicy like...like cinnamon? Were they...a little warm? Or were they...hot...because of her breath...because of her simply being...alive.
For some unknown reason, Kazuya felt his skin burn, and it was not because of the sunlight streaming from the windows behind him. The airconditioning was in a blast, so the feverish sensations that swept his entire body could not be accounted to the current room temperature.
His gaze went back to Mai's lips, and it was as though he could feel her hot breath on his skin, like a steaming tea fanning his lips.
Kazuya shuddered. He must stop thinking like this. He was hovering around dangerous waters with his musings...
It was those luscious lips' fault, and Mai's biting was not assuaging the roar of his muscles to do something, anything, to save those lips.
It was ridiculous. He was ridiculous. But he wanted to get rid of his nagging mind, so he stood up and clutched the newspaper with a fisted hand. He approached Mai in cool, calculated steps. The silence of his footsteps was in contrast to the loud thudding of his heart. Along the way, the newspaper fell on the floor, but he didn't notice.
What was happening? His mind could not flash the cards of available reasons. There was no stopping his voice from calling her name.
"Mai."
She looked up and her lips parted. He was clearly lost then, unable to think. All focus seemed to have narrowed down to her eating and eaten organ.
When he spoke the next few words, his voice was strained.
"Stand up."
She blinked and cocked her head. "Naru, wha—?"
"Just—" He breathed deeply. "Just stand up."
"O...Okay..." She stood, and then she bit her lip again.
He glared at her. "Stop that."
She gasped and her lashes fluttered. "Sto-stop what? Really, Naru, what's wrong with—?"
"Enough."
He walked around her desk and halted beside her. She still bit her lip, and he'd thought it was not possible for them to get redder anymore. He was obviously wrong...
Or were her lips bleeding?
"That won't do," he muttered.
And before Mai could step back, he neared her and gently descended his lips on hers.
They were indeed sweet. And tangy. And soft. And...And...
Hot.
But they were the kind of hot that he could tolerate. He reached and combed her maroon-brown hair and held her closer.
He'd never kissed anyone before, but he knew of the mechanics. He knew of the necessity of molding one's lips with the other. He knew of the need to move them to widen the exploration. He knew that like the earth tilted on its axis, he needed to tilt his head. It was how the earth got different seasons, and by tilting his head during the kiss, he surmised it was the way to get different tastes, each one as new as the others.
And the results were excellent. Mai's lips were indeed tasty. There was not one word to describe the flavor of them. They were everything. She was everything.
Now he understood why she always bit them.
He was going to pull away soon, but then he found out another taste.
She found out another taste.
Her lips had parted halfway through, but she had not moved them.
Until now.
She answered his kiss with her own, and she mimicked his explorations. She moved her lips and tilted her head. She breathed as he breathed, but she did not pull away. She stepped closer. She combed his hair and caressed his nape and cheeks. She put her hands on his nape and prompted him closer to the edge of sanity's cliff.
He must have groaned. He forgot to pull away as many tasteful possibilities emerged with their moving, locked lips. They were like thirsty drunkards willing to suck each other's lips dry.
He thought he heard her gasp and moan, and the little sounds he could hear only fueled him to search her lips deeper. He thought of touching his tongue with hers...but what if they choke?
No, he'd do that later. Much later...
When they pulled away, both of them were breathing with effort. Their hairs stuck out and were disheveled from the run-throughs of each other's hands. Mai's lips were redder, plumper...
Softer. Wetter...
Kazuya gulped and stepped back. What had he done? He'd kissed her, and now...
Now he wanted to kiss her again.
Dazed, Mai was looking at him as though she was seeing two heads on his shoulders. She didn't bite her lips, but she licked them. And Kazuya thought the latter action was more wicked than biting...
She was beautiful. Always. But this moment, she was devastating.
Dangerous.
His sense seemed to have failed. His mind short-circuited.
Mai, on the other hand, shook her head, and then her eyes bulged. Her dazed look was replaced with red-cheeked, narrow-eyed embarrassment.
Then anger.
But beautiful no less.
He finally registered alert signals. He took a step back.
"Mai, I—"
"What was that for?" she demanded, but she sounded hoarse.
"I—" He broke off. He was going to apologize, but he couldn't.
He wasn't sorry.
He cleared his throat, and not looking at her face, he replied, "You were biting them."
He glanced at her and saw her blink away her anger and embarrassment.
"What?" she croaked.
He realized then that she was not angry because of his unanticipated kiss. She was angry because she was embarrassed. And she was embarrassed because...
She was not sorry she kissed him back...
Or so he hoped.
He harrumphed and met her eyes without faltering.
"I do not regret it, Mai," he assured and saw her cheeks turn a deeper shade of red.
Never, he thought.
"I...I..." She opened and closed her mouth.
And then she bit her lip.
Goodness gracious. Bloody hell. Damnation. Oh the Lord...
He swore countlessly in his mind.
He could not take it. He couldn't kiss her again.
He might not be able to stop.
So he turned away and strode back—half-ran—to his office, to safety.
But he thought of Mai's lips all day, how beautiful Mai always looked with them, how tasty they were, and how Mai did not only have a pleasant personality.
Not only a great companion or tea-brewer.
She was so much more.
He should have kissed her earlier.
XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
A/N: Damn right, Naru. You should have. XD
I wasn't expecting to write a short piece like this since school is so stressful and time-consuming, but this got stuck in my head. Hope you enjoyed it! So sorry for the late updates to my other works. T_T