A/N: Thank you for everyone who has reviewed thus far! I absolutely love reading each and every one!
For this prompt, I tried one of Dictionary[.com]'s Words of the Day...
What a mistake.
And I know I'm not even using it correctly in a literal sense, but interpretation is half the fun, right?
Sweet Tooth
Chapter 52: Pyrophoric
Byakuran could honestly say that no other woman had ever spiked his interest quite as quickly and strongly as Aynai had.
And he could tell, no matter how much she tried to hide it, that it was very much the same on her end.
He knew it had been a bit naive to imagine that they would never get close, but he hadn't anticipated how far they would go. Even as he watched Aynai go through some of his paperwork, he found he wasn't bothered by the invasion of his privacy. Aynai would never betray any of his secrets, he was certain.
As if she could sense his thoughts, her head turned toward him, a slow smile crossing her face.
"Something wrong, Byakuran?" The pen in her right hand tapped lightly against his white desk. It was a sign of her interest, rather than her aggravation at having been interrupted.
Byakuran felt the fissure in the air; their chemistry was nearly pyrophoric. He could feel the exact moment - generally around the time their eyes met - when the sparks would ignite. The attraction had always been there, certainly, but since their... interlude, the feeling had become more frequent.
He was never the type of person to get so engrossed in a relationship with a woman. He preferred to be aloof, whimsical. He was never one to settle down, yet Aynai almost empowered him. He knew he could conquer the world; he'd done it countless times before, but Aynai made him feel like he could conquer the universe.
"Byakuran?" Her smile had disappeared to show confusion, the tapping of her pen melted into silence.
He laughed lightly and motioned her over. "Come here."
"If I don't do this paperwork, it'll never get done," Aynai laughed. "You avoid paperwork like students avoid homework."
"With good reason," Byakuran hummed. "Homework was the boring part of school."
"I thought school was the boring part of school?" Aynai shot back, expression filled with mirth.
"Well, naturally, but I'd hate to feel like snob. Now, come here." He grinned softly at her when she stood up to walk over. She made a point to bring the paperwork with her, however. "That's not going to deter me."
"We'll just have to see," she responded good-naturally. When she sat down next to him, he felt the same fissure go through the air. Yes, he could hardly deny his attraction to her at this point, especially since she had blossomed out of her shell. Though he was a dominant person, a part of him was pleased to see her reacting to him like an equal now, instead of a boss.
She was much more open; much more receptive.
His lips grazed her earlobe as his eyes scanned the papers in her hand. It was nothing special, just normal procedural things. Good. He didn't want Aynai to see anything dealing with the Tri-Ni-Set or the Vongola. She was much easier to handle when she wasn't aware of the mafia's true nature.
"Anything interesting?" he asked rhetorically. He already knew the answer.
"Yes, actually," Aynai answered. He blinked slowly, assuming he misheard. "It might interest you to know that fraternizing between employees, or any interpersonal relationships in the workplace are forbidden and heavily frowned upon."
She smirked up at him, rolling the papers up and tapping him on the chin. He reached for them and threw them to the side of the sofa, ignoring Aynai's response of 'I'm going to have to clean that up, you know?'
"It's a good thing I'm the boss, then," Byakuran responded easily.
"That makes it even more forbidden."
All she received in response was a hum, along with a touch of lips to hers.
Pyrophoric adj., [Chemisty]: capable of igniting spontaneously in the air.
