Disclaimer: I don't own Mai HiME.
Heat Persuasion
It was hot. Hot, hot, hot, hot. In fact, it was so hot that Natsuki had had a total of four panic sessions wherein she thought she was melting due to the amount of sweat her pores were pumping out.
...
Heat does things to people.
"Damn air conditioner with its damn...thing that broke," she grumbled, her voice distorted by the fan positioned directly in front of her face. Dark strands, held captive in a high ponytail, still managed to flutter around to annoying degrees.
Her eye twitched. She needed a popsicle.
"Shizuru!" Natsuki called, throwing her head back in an attempt to see the older woman. Said woman was sprawled out over the couch, supposedly trying to sleep the heat away. Yet, with her clumped bangs and scrunched features, that didn't seem to be working. "What d'you want—cherry or grape?"
A sliver of burgundy appeared, followed by an oddly cheery, "Cherry, please."
"I don't think I've ever seen you eat a popsicle that wasn't cherry-flavored," Natsuki mumbled and stumbled to her feat. A rush of blood found the need to listen to gravity and promptly left her head, which didn't help her already jumbled feet. She teetered a little before magically righting herself by extending her arms. Once steady, she blinked rapidly. Yup, the blinking definitely helped.
"I know what I like." At those words, Shizuru donned a suggestive smile, which did nothing but befuddle poor Natsuki.
Now scowling, Natsuki ambled her way off into the kitchen, a hand held to her head in a futile attempt to get the blood back. She mercilessly flung open the freezer door. A big grin broke across her face as the frigid air made pleasant contact with her heated skin. Relishing the little shivers that thrilled her body, she took her sweet, sweet time rummaging around for the popsicles.
As her body (sadly) acclimated, a devious idea sent her lips into a devious little smile. She slowly withdrew from the godsend of an appliance and silently closed the door. Tapping into her hidden ninja skills, Natsuki tiptoed back into the main room where Shizuru currently resided. Once she reached the back of the couch, she paused in preparation. She would have to move just fast enough to get through the thick mane of chestnut to the sensitive flesh of Shizuru's neck before she flinched out of the attack. So, poised and ready, Natsuki launched her assault.
Though rather muted, Shizuru squeaked. Squeaked. If that wasn't a victory–
"Oh, could you do that again?" the recently attacked woman moaned. Moaned. Failure.
"Wh-what?" Natsuki sputtered, thrown off by her not-victory.
"It felt good. Do it again?" Apparently deciding a pleading tone would not be enough, Shizuru shifted her body so she could woo Natsuki with her best "please" face.
"Wh–no! You already sucked all the cold from my fingers." And with that, Natsuki extracted said fingers, cradling them to her chest.
"Then could you make them cold again?" The fearsome glare was countered with a pout. "Please?"
Neither moved, too busy either glaring or pouting. However, about five minutes into the standoff, Natsuki caved. Why? Well, there's this thing called "whipped," and Natsuki was it.
With a grumble, she stomped off to the kitchen and threw open the fridge. She stared at the contents for a bit, mentally sending the woman in the other room bad vibes. Eventually a little smirk quirked Natsuki's lips. She withdrew a deliciously cold can, closed the fridge, and calmly walked out.
"Here," Natsuki said, leveling her voice to a monotone to suppress any mischievous tone that might give her away, and pressed the freezing object to the side of Shizuru's face.
"Ah," Shizuru gasped suggestively. A blush tinted Natsuki's cheeks at the sound, a slew of unbidden images flashing through her mind.
"I need a cold shower," Natsuki mumbled to what she hoped to be only herself.
"Ara?"
She hoped in vain.
"N-nothing!" the younger woman verbally fumbled while physically fumbling the can right into Shizuru's lap. "Uh...enjoy that. I'm going to go now."
When she was barely five steps away something cylindrical, cold, and hard collided with her back. She spun around, her face stuck somewhere between angry and incredulous. "What the hell, Shizuru?"
And the deviant was pouting. Again.
"I have it under good suspicion that Natsuki was about to take a cold shower." A beat. "Without extending an invitation to me."
If Natsuki had half a mind, she would've made a break for the bathroom and locked herself in instead of trying to reason with the childish woman. But her brain seemed to have melted right out of her skull.
"Oi, I see nothing wrong with wanting to shower alone. Especially since whenever you join me I never...get to...uh, enjoy the...the water." Coughing into her fist, Natsuki shifted her gaze to the abused can on the floor.
Bad move.
Shizuru, using Natsuki's red-tinted distraction to her advantage, had slunk herself off to the bathroom. It was only after a few solid seconds of no teasing remarks that the dark-haired woman realized she was very much alone.
Goddammit.
Natsuki took off down the hall, fully intent on kicking Shizuru's pretty ass out of the bathroom so she could have her cold shower in peace. "Shizuru, you better not be–"
Whap!
Heart threatening to jump up her throat and out her mouth, Natsuki leaped back, out of the path of a deadly, shooting...towel? Shizuru stood in front of her, settled in a defensive stance, beige towel twirled and ready for another strike. Slack jawed, she wasn't sure if she should run or laugh at Shizuru's burst of immaturity. However, one look at that glint in burgundy eyes told her everything.
Run.
And she did.
Natsuki scrambled back down the hall, eyes frantically searching for something she could defend herself with. Once she burst into the main room, she dove for the couch and swiped one of the throw pillows. The hair on the back of her neck prickled in warning. She spun around, pillow poised to protect against...no one.
"Oh for–"
A weight slammed into her, causing her to face plant with a rather ladylike "oof" as all the air rushed out of her lungs. Dazed and confused, she didn't even begin processing who or what decided tackling her was a splendid idea until she heard (and felt) an infuriatingly familiar giggle.
"Ug. Get. Off," Natsuki forced the words out, their position and the weight on top of her hindering her speaking ability.
"Muu, but Natsuki is so comfy." Shizuru nuzzled into the back of her captive's neck.
"That's fine and all, but body heat is not a way to cool off," Natsuki grunted, trying to ignore the other kind of heat that shot out from her neck and pooled in her abdomen.
"But we could do something that would suffice as a distraction."
While Natsuki had little doubt of what the implication was, the gentle and teasing nip her sensitive skin received dashed away the rest of it. She let out a wavering yell in protest, frantically worming her way out from under the older woman. Once she was a safe distance away, Natsuki questioned in a disbelieving voice, "Do you ever think about anything else?"
"Mmm, sometimes." One of the straps on Shizuru's tank top, along with the bra strap on the same side, had somehow managed to slide off a particular shoulder. It also didn't help that Shizuru was trying to pose herself as seductively as possible.
Natsuki gulped, her eyes desperately flicking around the apartment as if a miracle of a distraction would present itself. Of course, nothing did, and Natsuki was left to her own devices. "I...uh...need to go...outside to do...something. Bye."
A glance at balcony proved fruitless, as it still held some semblance of privacy. She wanted something horrendously public. If Shizuru had enough modesty and cared enough—not much, but at least some—for the embarrassment-prone woman's dignity, she would not jump her bones in a public place. Struck with an idea, Natsuki ran with it. Literally.
And thus began her adventure into hell—er, outside.
Perhaps her escape plan was not the wisest idea. It was really, really hot outside. And, in her pure genius, she had raced down three flights of stairs, which certainly didn't help with, well, anything.
So, there she was, standing in direct sunlight, sweating profusely and panting like a dog. Perhaps if Natsuki weren't too busy giving herself inward, sarcastic congratulations, she would have noticed the presence slide up beside her.
"I believe an idiom to describe this weather is 'It's so hot, you could fry an egg on the pavement.' ...Or something to that effect," the presence (aka Shizuru) pondered aloud, thoughtfully tapping a finger against the side of her face.
Natsuki did, in fact, jump out of her skin at the "sudden" appearance of her girlfriend. Yet, there was no physical evidence, as she had, in her years of training, managed to contain the reaction to something purely mental. She braved a look over to see that the same pair of straps were still not in their proper position, and Natsuki had half a mind to yank them back up for her. But she quickly decided that it was best to avoid all physical contact with the other woman. She had enough heat problems as it were.
"Do you want to try it?" Shizuru asked with a slight glance in Natsuki's direction.
Before Natsuki could even form her mouth into the beginning of a response, the honey-haired woman pulled an egg out of what seemed to be the fourth dimension. Baffled and having no intention of asking precisely where Shizuru had been storing the egg, Natsuki just stared.
Shizuru, about to ask Natsuki if she wished to to the honors, stopped when she remembered a certain Iron Chef-esque cooking re-exam. Not to mention the younger woman's plague-like avoidance of anything to do with eggs on the rare occasion she helped with cooking. Feeling merciful (and fearing what would happen if Natsuki's face got any redder), Shizuru passed this teasing opportunity and promptly cracked the egg open.
And so the couple stared.
And stared.
And stared.
Until Natsuki swore she could smell her tank top burning and began fearing she was cooking faster than the egg. "It's not cooking."
"Perhaps it is not hot enough."
It was in that moment that Natsuki decided that she hated eggs.
"C'mon, lets go back inside." Natsuki flopped her arm in her version of a "come along" gesture and started to head back inside.
"But...what of the egg?"
The retreating woman stopped and turned around wearing a blank look which Shizuru easily identified as one of Natsuki's "thinking faces."
Shizuru was, indeed, right. The cogs were turning fiercely in Natsuki's head. She had to figure out a way to lure Shizuru back inside, as the mischievous woman would no doubt try to prolong their time outside as long as she could. Why? Because that's what a Shizuru does—she tortures a Natsuki.
So Natsuki said the only thing she could.
"Fuck it."
Shizuru quirked an eyebrow.
"Fuck the egg. And fuck this heat. I'm going back inside to take a cold shower." With that, Natsuki abruptly turned about face and went back in, leaving a blinking Shizuru and a half-cooked egg on the sidewalk. Not two seconds later the younger woman's head popped back out. "Shizuru, you may join me." A pause. "In the shower."
And she was gone.
Frowning, Shizuru glanced down at the egg. Her social responsibility was telling her to not leave possibly harmful substances unattended. But shower. With a very naked girlfriend. A cold shower.
A beat.
And she was gone.
-.-
A/N: So, uh, yeah. 'Tis summer, and the wise ones here that control the A/C tend to forget that hot air goes up. And I inhabit the second floor. Go me.
Also, this is the second time I've started a fic with, uh, decreeing the heat Natsuki was feeling. So creative, I am. :P
Much thanks to Naolin for beta-ing. :D :D