Celestia Ludenberg had a curiously bad habit of ranking everyone she met.
Her ranking system was simple. Rank A was considered the highest while Rank F was considered the absolute lowest, everything in between was followed as one would expect.
Of course, nobody had ever been able to make Rank A. That was a title one had to work hard for and, as it seemed to her, nobody seemed that motivated by her ranking system to do so. This resulted in most of the class getting the average Rank D.
With the exception of one particular classmate, that is.
Super High School Level Detective, Kyouko Kirigiri. Now that was one unfortunate character.
Celestia didn't hate Kirigiri, but she disliked many things about her. She never showed this dislike, but she felt it in every conversation she had with the girl. She was so distant, so aloof, Celes could never get a good reading on her and that bothered her endlessly.
Yes, now she was Rank F material in Celestia's eyes. While she wasn't considered absolutely Rank F (thank heavens Celestia considered herself so lenient), she was barely on the edge of Rank D. One fatal slip of her often blunt and uncharming character, and she was done. But it wasn't the gambler's fault for giving her such a low rank; it wasn't her fault that Kirigiri was so undeniably, so unbelievably-
"Boring." Celes emphasized as she shuffled the deck of cards and placed them in the middle table between her and Kirigiri. After much trial and error, Celestia was finally able to persuade Kirigiri into a game of late-night poker in her room. "That's what you are, you see. Boring. Plain. Dull. The list goes on and on. And that is why you have no better place than Rank F, you see." She let out a small laugh, her fingers brushing excitedly against her lips in amusement. "Perhaps if you do well in this game, I might spare you and allow you to ascend to mid-Rank D."
Kirigiri did not reply to the insult. She blinked slowly, cynically and gave a small smirk, looking up from the deck of cards at Celestia. It was vexing, really. Celestia could never read her and she hated that about Kirigiri. She never reacted. She never got angry or bothered or hurt and Celes despised it so very, very much. All she ever wanted from Kirigiri was a reaction, but she never gets one and it kills her everytime. Kirigiri was not meant to be the one who was hard to read, that was Celestia's job, that was Celestia's defining characteristic and Kirigiri had no right to take it from her.
"Cut the deck, detective." The gambler smiled, proud of her witty remark, proud of her ability to gibe at people with so much grace. Kirigiri grabbed the top half of the deck and placed it beside the remaining half, then placed the remainder on top of the first.
"Ante is one dollar." She continued as they both placed a poker chip in the pot.
"Deal, high roller." Kirigiri countered. Celestia seethed; snatching the deck, she dealt out five cards to each of them before placing the deck in the middle of the table again. Kirigiri looked at her cards and tapped the table with her middle and index finger.
"Check." Her voice is flat.
Celes smiles. "Of course you would check. Playing safe, aren't we Kirigiri-san? Just like you to do so," She slides five more chips in the pot. "I bet five."
Kirigiri called the bet and placed five of her chips in the pot as well. She then looked at her hand and discarded two of her cards. Celestia smiled and dealt her two new ones.
"I may not look like it," The lavender-haired girl began in her usual indifferent tone, "but I actually enjoy poker quite a bit.
"Is that so?" Celestia peered up from her cards with a look of a bit too much interest before discarding four of her five cards. Kirigiri dealt her four new ones, her expression neutral and unchanging.
"Surprising, isn't it? You must have good intuition, five card draw is my favorite style." She replied, tapping the table again. "Check."
"I bet five more." Celes slides her chips in.
"Even after discarding four cards? I would like to be surprised, I really would." The detective droned.
"I wish you would be, it would be nice to see a change of expression from you." The gambler retorted, keeping her composure.
Kirigiri calls Celestia's bet again and they reveal their cards.
"Two pairs, sevens and threes. Impressive for the first hand." Celestia giggled laying her cards on the table. "Three of a kind, fours. It just surpasses that title, I'm afraid." She slid the winnings to her pile.
"I'll reiterate what I have said before," Kirigiri began to slowly shuffle the deck, "I would like to be surprised."
"Your jacket." Celes piped from counting her chips.
"I'm sorry?" Kirigiri shuffles again. Looking at Celes, a quizzical expression spreads across her eyes.
"Remove it." A smile draws over the high roller's face, her eyes narrowed warmly, playfully. They were daring Kirigiri; Celes had just raised her bet and she wanted Kirigiri to call.
"And why exactly should I do that?" She asked, placing the deck neatly in the center of the table.
"You said that you would like to be surprised," She titters again, cutting the deck swiftly, instinctively. "Strip poker. Surprise surprise."
"You do realize that the context of the statement I had previously made was completely different than what you took it for." Kirigiri slid a chip in the pot. Celes followed suit, grinning eagerly.
"I am well aware," Celes folded her hands, matching Kirigiri's eyes with her own crimson ones. "Shall we introduce this new rule? I will follow it as well if it makes you more comfortable." Celestia's eyes narrowed, she was testing Kirigiri. She was expecting her to get up and leave, proving her low rank, proving that she was truly boring and dull like Celes figured she was.
Instead, Kirigiri calmly shucked off her jacket, letting it hang over the back her chair. She gave barely a smirk before dealing the cards again to Celes and herself. Celestia could now see how well Kirigiri's blouse fit against her form, she could see how perfectly developed the detective was and all it did was make her boil with more irritation.
I'll one up her, Celestia thinks to herself, I'll lose a few hands and catch her off gaurd.
Kirigiri bets and Celes raises. They discard. Celes folds. Kirigiri is still not surprised and Celestia wants to tear the detective's head off.
"Well?" Celestia asked.
"Well what?" Kirigiri replied. Celestia feels her pulse rise at the girl's remark. She straightens up and lets out a breath before folding her hands and smiling again.
"I lost this round. What will it be, detective?"
"Oh right, the new rule." Kirigiri's eyes do a quick dance over Celestia's fame before moving down to her hands. "Your ring."
Celestia feels her pulse slow in disappointment. Her ring? What a boring, mundane choice. She should have expected that from a boring, mundane person like Kirigiri.
"My ring." Celes clipped, she couldn't hide the discontent in her voice no matter how hard she tried. She slid the sharp claw-like ring off of her finger and set it on the table.
Celestia shuffled the cards and they played again.
An hour had passed and by then, Kirigiri had lost her boots, the ribbon in her hair, and her tie. Celestia, (who had much more clothing and accessories on to begin with) had lost her wind breaker, her high heels, her bonnet, and her tie. Celes couldn't admit that she threw all the rounds she lost, not because she didn't want to, but because she figured Kirigiri already knew that.
"Celes-san," Kirigiri began as she dealt the cards again, "What is it about me exactly that you find so boring?"
Celestia rested her chin in the palm of her hand.
"Look at you, Kirigiri-san," She finally speaks in a tone that plays defeat. "You have so many gifts to your merit. You have a gorgeous body, beautiful hair, a calm and pleasing face, your aura breathes mystery and it makes you so enticing to everyone else, including myself admittedly," Celes let out a sigh. "But you do nothing with these things. You have all the tools to become prodigious like myself, but you do nothing," Celestia looked down at her hands before meeting the lavender-haired girl's gaze once again. "We could do great things, you and I. You're not like everyone else here; so shallow they all are," Celestia reached out and placed her hand over Kirigiri's. "There's more to you, detective."
Kirigiri's expression is indecipherable. She pauses to glance at Celestia's hand on her own before she speaks again.
"You say," Kirigiri looked at the gambler, the self-proclaimed Queen of Liars, and she let out a small laugh, " I am all of these great things yet, my very presence makes you writhe with contempt. All because I do nothing with these 'gifts to my merit' as you say." She grabs Celestia's hand in her own and runs her thumb over her pale wrist. She can feel Celes tense at the light touch, she can feel how soft and delicate her skin is, even through the thick leather of her gloves. "What if I told you, high roller," A new uneven tone highlights Kirigiri's voice as she stands up and leans across the table, her face inches away from the gambler's own, "that not everything you think," She leaned closer and Celes made no movement, her face unreadable, "is as it seems."
"Then I would have to say," Celes lowered her eyelids both in amusement and in something else she doesn't quite understand but, she feels it and its obscurity destroys her, "that I would like to be surprised."
And with those words still hanging in the air, the detective kisses her roughly, running her fingers frantically, desperately through the gambler's hair. Celes lets out a gasp as she feels the vagueness overtake her body in a sense of pleasure. She feels the heat rise inside her and her hands find Kirigiri's hair, Kirigiri's neck, and she wants Kirigiri so, so very, very much. She shudders as she feels the lavender girl's tongue invade her mouth, she feels it run against the smooth ridges of her teeth, she finds Kirigiri's lip and bites it, causing Kirigiri to kiss her with even more force and she lets her because she loves every bit of it, she'll admit that at the very least. Kirigiri's hands slide down behind Celestia's neck, she feels the cool, indifferent ambiguity of the gloves around her and she wants more and more, she wants an eternity of nothing but Kirigiri and her eyes and her skin and her lips and her soft scent of blueberries and lilac.
Then Kirigiri suddenly stops and pulls back, sitting in her seat once again and dealing the cards as if nothing happened. Celestia took only a second to recollect herself before she reeled in shock, her anger rising as quickly as steam.
"No- Wh- What? What the hell!" She slammed her fists against the table as she rose up, sending a few poker chips flying, pointing her finger furiously at the lavender-haired girl in a fit of rage. "You- you fucking freak! You can't just-"
"The game isn't finished." The detective replied in her once again calm, stoic voice. It was as if everything that had just happened, didn't. As if it was all part of Celestia's colorful imagination.
"You are so fucking weird." Celes spat at her again, her anger still at a simmer.
"Check." Kirigiri tapped the table.
"You goddamn bitch." Celestia muttered, tapping her fingers on the table as well.
Kirigiri discards one card and Celestia discards three. Kirigiri bets and Celestia calls. They reveal their cards.
"Two pair." Celestia said through gritted teeth.
"Full house." Kirigiri stated, displaying a hand of two aces and three fives.
"Good job, Kirigiri-san!" Celestia said way too enthusiastically to be sincere. "What will it be this time? There aren't anymore choices that won't be, somewhat revealing." Her fingertips graze across her lips, she feels the lipstick smears around the corners of her mouth and she lets out another small giggle.
"Your earrings."
My earrings. My… The lolita's mouth falls slack.
Kirigiri doesn't flinch when Celestia Ludenberg flips the entire table over.
"Being a Super High School Level Gambler, I didn't expect you to be such a violently sore loser." The lavender girl crossed her legs and flipped a lock of violet hair behind her shoulder.
"I didn't lose! In fact, I never said the game was over." Celestia declared as she sat up and crossed quickly toward Kirigiri, straddling her knee, her fingers hooking behind the lavender girl's neck. Kirigiri could feel Celestia, she could feel Celestia and her desire and her warmth and she could feel her own desire as the gambler ran her teeth slowly along her jawline. "Here's the new rule." The lolita breathed as her teeth gently grazed the detective's ear. "I like to call it the Theory Rule-" Her voice hitched violently as she felt Kirigiri grind her knee against her, against there. Her breath shuddered as she continued. "Let's say I win the next round; a straight." She can feel her hips slowly grinding against Kirigiri, she can feel Kirigiri's hands in the small of her back. Celes can control the expression on her face, but she cannot control the light pink flush that has spread over it. "In theory, I would tell you to remove your skirt."
"In theory, I would happily oblige." Kirigiri smirks as Celestia's fingers hook under the waistband of her short black skirt slipping it eagerly down to her ankles. Before Kirigiri could reply again, the gambler drove her knee in between the detective's legs, causing a small whimper of pleasure to escape her lips.
"Let's say you win the next round; four of a kind." Celes started again. "What would you-" Kirigiri answers the unfinished question with the unzipping of Celestia's dress. It slips off of her shoulders and she steps out of it only to reposition herself against Kirigiri once more, feeling her knee grind slowly against her, teasing her. What was this to her? What was this to Kirigiri? All Celestia could think about was the burning in her loins, the burning that rose up into her stomach and out each shaky gasp.
"Final round, I win; royal flush." Celes exhaled between each raspy pant she made, "Your shirt." Kirigiri does not hesitate to unzip her blouse. She draws Celes to her, feeling the high roller's cold skin against her own. Celestia attacks Kirigiri's lips with her own in an uncontrollable hunger, a vigor that leaped out from the pit of her chest. Her hands find the lavender girl's hair again and she grips it longingly and she bites against Kirigiri's neck and all she can think about is the heat inside of her and Kirigiri is the rain and the next thing she knows, Kirigiri has pinned her to the bed. Next thing she knows, her undergarments are gone, as well as Kirigiri's. Next thing she feels is Kirigiri's fingers inside of her and how beautifully her frame fits against her own.
Celestia fingers claw into Kirigiri's back and she feels Kirigiri grate against her knee, fast and rapidly. Her hot breath is heavy against Celestia's neck and she kisses her again and again and again until she finally bites against her collarbone to suppress her moan as she comes. She curls her fingers and Celestia follows her off of the edge, the detective's name spilling from her lips like a waterfall.
The lavender-haired girl collapses at Celestia's side, taking in silent and ragged breaths before finally breaking the silence.
"Do you still find me boring at this point, high roller?" Even out of breath, her voice is still calm.
"It seems your evidence has proved me wrong, detective." Celes let out a laugh before turning to her.
"Where am I ranked now?" The detective smirked.
"I'm not sure just yet." The high roller smiled back at her. "Perhaps you can present some more evidence tomorrow to persuade my decision."
"I'll make a note of that." Kirigiri mumbled as she began to drift off to sleep.
Celes smiled her usual dainty smile and considered herself right about one thing.
We could do great things, you and I.