a/n: I'VE WANTED TO WRITE THIS FOR FOREVER and now it's here and it's soooo lame because i haven't written the best otp in so long :o
Every day, without fail, Mashiro would kiss him all over his face. It was embarrassing, but if Kensei was being honest, he liked it. A lot. But he pretended he didn't, because then she might stop just to taunt him more in that purely confusing way of hers.
It was the daily routine; wake up, try to flop her out of the bed, then ignore her and go get ready to head into the office. By the time he'd gotten his hair slicked up and went back into the bedroom, she was ready to go to her workplace. He would silently lament that he took longer to get ready than her.
He would deliberately walk a bit slowly (just enough so that it wasn't noticeable that he was walking slowly for her to catch up with him- there was an art to leading her on without knowing) while he went to the door, giving her enough time to finish her morning exercises, realize he was leaving, and run to crash into him.
"Wait! Wait!" Mashiro said, every morning. "You forgot something!"
He mumbled fake complaints as she grabbed his face in both her hands, squishing his cheeks, and pulled him down towards her. She still had to stand on her tiptoes. Her kisses were as light and ticklish as feathers, and would take a good minute before she was done putting kisses on his nose, forehead, cheeks, and she would linger for only a second longer on his lips before letting him go.
"Unnecessary, as usual," he would sigh.
Her cheeks would puff out and irritation spread on her face. "Fine! No more kisses at all, ever again! That's a promise."
But, again and again, she broke that promise every morning when she kissed his face into submission once more.
This time was no different.
"Wait, wait!" Mashiro smashed his face in her hands. Her lips looked particularly mesmerizing- it irritated him. "Today's kisses are special!"
They didn't feel much more special. They felt normal. But she seemed pleased with herself, and he was- only a bit!- happy because of it.
"Thanks," Kensei grumbled.
If his eyes weren't tricking him, something like guilt flashed through her eyes for just a second, but then they were starry again. She stood on her toes and fiddled with the neck of his robes, almost shy.
"Hey, hey, that's the first time you've thanked me for the kisses!" she told him. "Thank me more often, okay?"
He blushed, mumbled "maybe," and left the house before she could give him a tackling hug and mushy gushy series of "I love you!s"
He became suspicious after an hour in the office.
Hisagi wouldn't quite look at him directly in the face, and his lips seemed to quiver whenever they were together. The few girls in the squad placed their fingers to their lips and clustered together to giggle. The men would look at him, speed-walk past, and then he would hear their bellowing laughter a second later.
At midday, Kensei started to ask Hisagi what was wrong, and if it really was him, but the lieutenant stood up and mumbled something about needing to check the printing room, then rushed away. It didn't exactly instill confidence in him, and he grew more anxious by the second, and stayed in his office.
A few hours later, after the laughter was near to driving him completely mad, Hisagi stood up and reached into his desk. His lips were wobbling more furiously than ever, and when he spoke, there was a warble to his voice.
"Captain, sir." He coughed in a pitiful attempt to hide his mirth. "I apologize for not telling you for the past few hours, but I thought the amusement would boost worker morale."
Kensei's heart jumped. "What's that supposed to mean? Why has everyone been staring at me all damn day?"
Hisagi was holding a mirror as he walked forward. "I thought you would see in only a few minutes, but then I remembered that you, sir, are not a man for mirrors, so of course you wouldn't have observed it."
"Hisagi…" he warned.
Hesitating for a brief second, and then swallowing his courage, Hisagi flipped the mirror around to face Kensei, then choked on an uncharacteristic giggle and looked away.
When Kensei paled, it only served to make the lipstick stains on his face more prominent. They were a dark pink, each one perfectly shaped, and, most importantly, all over his face.
Mashiro.
So that was why her lips had looked so tempting and perfect that morning.
That had been guilt in her eyes when he'd thanked her for the first time.
Damn, he hated her guts.
Hisagi was still snickering. "Captain, if I may say… that's a very becoming shade of pink on you."