Erina, again, thinks her cousin and her aide are absolutely shameless.


Erina was distracted by one thing, and one person, this entire family lunch.

It wasn't even her parents arguing distracting her this time, or Asahi. Neither was it the loud, booming laughter of his grandfather. It wasn't even her aunt's broken Japanese and her uncle trying to gently correct his wife's pronunciation. It was Alice, and a small reddish mark she'd seen on Alice's neck.

It was so obvious, with how pale-white Alice was, but no one dared point it out, or even give it a glance. Erina wondered if she were seeing things, if she was the only one imagining such a bizarre… mark. Erina recognized it, from the romance mangas she read that accidentally diverged into… less appropriate content.

Alice called for her aide, asking for some tea, and Ryo readily appeared at her side to pour her some. As she turned her head to Kurokiba with a smile, Erina noticed another red spot, on her collarbone. Erina gasped to herself. Was Alice this damn shameless?! Not even bothering to cover up the marks of her inappropriate behavior with… with God knows who?!

Erina shook her head. Alice was a Nakiri-she probably wasn't that loose enough to have dalliances with some random men here and there. Perhaps they were simply bug bites, or she had some sort of rash or allergic reaction.

"Are you alright, miss Erina?" Erina suddenly heard Hisako's gentle whisper in her ear. Her own aide had come up to her, with a look of concern.

Erina shook her head once more, as if trying to push away the thoughts of Alice and whatever shameless behavior she'd been up to from her mind. "I'm fine, Hisako," she said, trying to put her focus back into their meal.

I'm fine, except Alice has goddamn hickeys and I'm the only one noticing it!


When lunch was over, Erina decided to woman up and confront Alice about this. She simply couldn't let this shameless behavior stand, and had to rebuke Alice-for her own cousin's sake.

"Alice!"

Alice was in her room, reading a research paper. "Oh, Erina," she greeted her cousin cooly. "May I help you?"

Erina narrowed her eyes at her. The red mark was still there. Erina took a deep breath, deciding to just get it over and done with.

"A-Alice! I can't believe you dared show up to family lunch with… with those marks of lasciviousness!"

Alice stared at her as if she was a difficult math problem. "Erina, what?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Alice! That… That thing!"

"The what thing?"

Erina couldn't believe Alice was making her say it. "T-T-That h-hickey!"

Alice looked absolutely befuddled, turning to a small mirror on her desk. She looked at her neck, as if only just recognizing the red spot over there. "For gods' sake, Alice!" Erina said, "Your parents probably don't care, but could you at least have some respect for grandfather?! H-How did you even get that thing?!"

"Oh, I can explain! This is Ryo's fault."

Erina was stunned. Alice really just came out and said it, and even named her own aide as the culprit to this indecency! "Ryo!" Alice called out, and in a minute, Ryo entered the room through the balcony. Erina kept forgetting that these two actually had connected rooms. No wonder they'd be able to sneak into each other's bed at night and then-!

"What is it, miss?" Ryo asked, looking curious as to why Erina was there with Alice.

"See, you caused me some trouble here," Alice told him. "What was it that you did last night?"

Oh, god! Erina couldn't believe she was hearing this. She did not need to know what these two did together at night! "My god, Alice-!"

"Oh. I forgot to tell you there was shellfish in the soup we had for dinner."

Shellfish?

"Damn right, you did!" Alice said, with a pout. "You triggered my allergy!" She pointed to the spot on her neck-and a couple more down to her collarbone.

"You're allergic to shellfish?" Erina blinked in disbelief. She'd never heard of this before.

"Conch, specifically," Alice said. "I get these nasty rashes all over my torso. See?" Alice grabbed the hem of her blouse, and pulled it up for Erina.

Erina immediately covered her face and closed her eyes, appalled by the thought of Alice just recklessly lifting her shirt up in front of her-and in front of her aide! "I-I get it, Alice! You don't need to show me!"

Alice smoothed her blouse down over her figure. She had a mischievous little smile on her face now. "What was it you thought it was, Erina? ...A 'mark of lasciviousness'? A hickey?"

Erina wasn't so sure, but she thought Kurokiba stirred, as if struggling not to laugh out loud that moment. That made things doubly embarrassing for Erina, her entire face turning red. "Forget anything I said!"

"Erina must think I'm such a shameless woman," Alice went on, looking absolutely puzzled. "How in the world would I get a hickey, now? Do you have any idea, Ryo-kun?"

Ryo just shrugged. "No clue, miss Alice."

"Erina must be reading too much ecchi manga. Maybe she's the shameless one, jumping to such conclusions."

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Erina shrieked, her face completely red like a tomato. "We're going to forget this conversation ever happened! Goodbye!"

Erina scrambled out of Alice's room, as if running for her life.


"So you're allergic to conch?" Ryo said, as soon as they figured Erina was way away from the room. "I guess I have to strike that out of your diet, now."

"Seafood allergy is very common," Alice said, turning back to her research paper. She then pouted, and stomped a foot over Ryo's own foot.

"Ow," Ryo said, unconvincingly. Alice was sure she barely even hurt him. "What was that for, miss?"

"You know what that's for! I told you not to bite!"

Ryo grinned an amused grin. "Couldn't help it, hon."


Every once in a while, Alice would turn up again with said allergies, and Erina would wonder why her aide would somehow keep forgetting to keep her away from conch.


a/n: Congrats to me for having 40 chapters in this madness! It's like my tradition now to put something vaguely suggestive every 10 chapters, lol. Poor Erina. Sorry for always being my victim.

Please review if you're still here! Because honestly I sometimes question my life choices and why I'm almost 50 chapters deep in this hole... Have I gone too far? Has it gotten too long? Should I end it soon? Idk if I should cut this fic after 50, or just keep going until the day I run out of steam.