Gild the Lily
No matter how many times she wiped his face, there was always a spot of soot there. She thought perhaps it was doing it on purpose. To spite her.
Dark mutterings had been thrown its way, but he seemed nonplussed.
"What are you complain' abou' now, Mary?" Bert gave a lopsided grin.
"Can't you keep your face clean for one second?"
He barked out a laugh. "Wha' can I say? It likes me."
"Hm."
Mary turned, attempting to preoccupy herself with a chore less frustrating. She had barely started before she felt arms wrapping around her waist. His breath tickled her ear.
"Don' be like this."
She raised an eyebrow, peevish. "Like what, Mr Alfred? Would you care to be more specific?"
"Surely I'm handsome either way."
He received an exasperated sigh in response. Only because he was correct in that assumption. Those sky-blue eyes and bright grin. She had never looked once upon that face and not found it handsome. If only his attention wasn't diverted to her when he arrived home after work. Perhaps then, he would wash his face first.
"Well…" he said slowly, when there was no reply. "I suppose we'll have t' see how ya feel abou' it now."
Here, in their home, she was not so practically perfect and she cried out in alarm. With a swipe of his face against hers, a streak of black marked her fair skin. Plenty of words were used to describe how she felt and he laughed his way through all of them.
I'm a little brain-dead at the moment, hence the slow uploads. Some are already done but I'm not entirely happy with them. I'm sure once I'm back at it, you'll get loads all at once so bear with me.