A/N: Prompt: "Fuu and Ferio and "Shit, are you bleeding?!""
They had only talked about it in passing, and only with Fuu reacting and then apologizing. In all honesty, she hadn't even been aware of her issue with touch she and Ferio became more serious. He would casually touch her and she'd pull away instinctively, and then would apologize profusely once she realized what had happened.
He would cool off of it, she'd forget about it, and then he would only touch her when she was aware of it.
And then there was the kitchen incident.
Fuu was in a kitchen at the palace, making her and Ferio some dinner after a surprisingly long delegation meeting.
Ferio had hung back a bit longer, to discuss something with Clef, Geo, and Chang Ang, so she went on a head to start making them something.
She was cutting up some of the native fruits that she had become fairly familiar with and was toying with the idea of doing a kind of Cephiran fruit salad, and mumbling to herself about the issues brought up in the meeting.
"I mean, of course I understand where Tarta and Tatra are coming from, and the tensions of colonization can't be helping them or Aska's dispositions, but if the issue is culture shock, surely there's…wait…how is this supposed to be cut?"
It was because of all of this that she didn't hear Ferio enter. He paused for a moment at the door, watching her. She was so concentrated on her task, but at the same time she was also juggling so many things all at once and he was constantly amazed at how gracefully she managed it all.
He smiled at her back and crossed the kitchen to stand behind her. He had planned to touch her back, and when she turned around, he would surprise her with a kiss.
Well, we all know what they say about the best plans of mice and men.
He had only just touched her back when her entire frame stiffened. Before he could get a word out she spun around and lashed out with the knife.
"Woah!" He exclaimed.
As he would joke later, he was very lucky that he was used to things attacking him, so he managed to dodge out of the way before any real damage was done.
"Wha—?! Ferio?" she yelled, looking from him to the knife in her hand until she finally dropped the knife, letting it clatter to the floor.
"Sorry, I was just trying to surprise you." He said, smiling.
"Well you certainly did!" She yelled back.
"Fuu, I'm sorry, can you stop yelling?"
"I'm not really sure!" she yelled again, gripping the counter behind her to try to keep herself steady.
"Fuu, I promise, I'm fi—,"
"Shit, are you bleeding?!" she interrupted, looking at some of the red that had began to seep through his shirt.
"Huh?" he looked down to try and judge for himself, pulling the shirt further from his skin, only to have his hands pushed away as Fuu began to examine him.
"Oh Gods, you are." She said breathlessly, "Okay, I can fix this."
"Nah, Fuu, don't worry about it," He tried to ease her. So much for stealing a moment away with his girlfriend.
"No, honestly it won't take anything." She insisted, beginning to move her hands like she does to do her magic.
He shook his head again, "Fuu, really, it's not anything, it's not even that deep."
"Ferio, don't argue with me on this." She said getting steely.
"Fuu—,"
"Ferio you will not have a scar that I caused!" She yelled over him, glaring at him now.
Stunned at her voice, Ferio stopped his protests and let her heal him. His wound healed, they stood in awkward silence, neither of them really looking at each other until Fuu grabbed the knife with shaking hands and tossed it into the sink.
"I'm sorry." She said quietly, not yet looking at him.
"For what?" Ferio asked.
"For…for slashing at you, for making you bleed, for yelling…I don't know what's wrong with me." She said, rubbing her eyes under her glasses.
Ferio shook his head and stood beside her, gently (yet very obviously so he would surprise her again) touching her shoulder, "No, Fuu, nothing's wrong with you. I was the one that surprised you. Look, I just won't randomly touch you anymore, not until you're okay with it."
She shook her head, "I don't want that, I want you to touch me. It's nice. It's comforting. I don't want you to stop."
Ferio chuckled, "I think for the sake of my wardrobe, we'll have to figure at least something out."
She smiled at him but didn't say anything back. They stood in contemplative silence for a moment.
"What if…" he said carefully, still lost in his head, "What if instead you randomly touched me? And then, slowly, I can start to return them, and eventually it won't matter who touched who when, we'll just be all over each other."
She laughed, "Right. Because that is the dream."
He grinned and nuzzled her, "Well, it's mine, at the very least,"
She turned her head and kissed him, "I think I can do that."
His grin widened as she grabbed a cube of fruit and popped into her mouth. She grabbed another one, and he opened his to let her feed him one as well.
She kissed his cheek and began to leave the kitchen.
Just as she was about to turn down the hallway, she paused, and turned back to him, "Not for nothing," she grinned, "but that's my dream too."
She hurried down the hallway before she could see the wide, ridiculous grin spread across his face.