AN: Happy Valentine's Day! Like all my works, this is cross-posted from AO3/Archive of our Own.
Smack
Eunie was standing and chatting in the City camp with Ethel, Mio, Sena, Taion and Lanz.
Then without warning, a pair of arms wrapped around her midsection, trapping her arms; startled by the attack, she turned her face to the side, where a pair of warm lips descended on hers.
If it weren't for her mouth being occupied, she would've yelped; the offender was Ashera, staring with the blazing red eyes of a sparking beast; those lidded, predatory eyes burned deep into Eunie's chest, and that mouth growled hungrily into hers…
Spark it all, this felt good—letting herself melt in Ashera's embrace, Eunie's eyes fluttered closed for a second… but then her heart jumped a little when she remembered their snuffin' friends were right in front of them!
Her eyes sprang open again, and glanced to the side, at the gawking of her friends: Mio's eyes popping open while she covered those of the 1st-termer Ethel; Lanz, Taion and Sena not knowing where to look; all of them handing out 'ums' and 'ers' and awkward chuckles—except Lanz, who kept going on like 'ew' and 'get a room!'
The burning in her chest spread over to her cheeks instead. The snuff was the muppet thinking, doing this in front of everybody?! Normally she wouldn't mind a little PDA, but not this hot 'n' heavy in front of their friends! Ashera's hands were rubbing on her stomach, one wandering up, the other down, both getting dangerously close to places they shouldn't go in public—at least not without some crates to hide behind…
Eunie grumbled in protest at the unbreakable snogging, sounds coming out muffled as Ashera refused to let her free—even when she wriggled with all her strength, and her wings flailed and slapped Ashera on the side of the head. Even with her hands not clasped together, Ashera's mighty, toned arms were too strong for her.
"Mmnnn-mmm," Ashera moaned into Eunie's face, turning it into the absolute sloppiest and noisiest smooching of their entire relationship; no sparkin' way was she enjoyin' it that much! She was trying to be an embarrassing bloody sap on purpose!
Finally, Eunie broke her face free of the kiss… only to be pulled into another wave of 'em right off the bat.
"H-hey, the spark d'ya think you're doing, you maniac?! Lemme go!" At least now her mouth was free, most of the time.
"Mmmn, never," Ashera purred between pecks on her face, and deep sniffs of her hair. "Doesn't my little bird deserve some kissies?" Eunie almost gagged at hearing her say 'kissies'. "And don't I deserve to be the one who delivers them?"
"Clock damn it, 'shera! Time and sparkin' place!"
She pecked at Eunie over and over with loud, messy 'mwahs', like she was trying to mark every inch of her face; from cheeks to forehead. "Aww, but I seem to recall—mwah—you singing a different tune about—mwah—our little walk to the showers just the other day…"
"Th-that was different, you mph— bloody…"
A string of curses from Keves and the City alike poured out of Eunie's mouth, and now Sena was having to help Mio cover Ethel's ears too.
Ashera ignored Eunie's complaints in favor of swooping down to claim her neck, suckling on the sensitive, soft flesh the way she'd only done behind closed doors, or in little alleyways… Then she added her tongue to flick at the skin hidden between her lips, making Eunie quiver and whimper. Oh no, she had to end this before she forgot where they were and actually started to…
"Oi! If you don't cut it the snuff out you're gettin' a whack round the ears!"
Ashera chuckled into Eunie's neck. "Oh, but now I have to keep going!"
"F-fine, then I won't slap you unless you stop!"
That got Ashera to hand in a sigh of resignation. Honestly, the things that motivated this woman… Fun, but unbelievable sometimes.
After one more long, messy kiss on the neck, she released her lips with a pop, and opened up her arms.
Eunie pulled away—getting a bloody cheeky pinch on her arse while she did—and brushed herself off. Her ears and face felt redder than ever before, as she turned to face Ashera, who was proudly wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve.
"I hate you so much," Eunie grumbled, definitely not pouting. Not that she actually did hate her girlfriend—no matter how much of a crazy little mischief-maker she was—but flickering clocks she drove Eunie up the wall sometimes.
Ashera crossed her arms and tilted her head, snickering as she stared at Eunie. "Aw, must you spoil my fun like this?"
Ohhh the way she kept chuckling away while she looked at Eunie… Didn't like the look on that little maniac's face one bit; what was her game?…
"Too right I 'must', you twit! Mum told us Monica said we couldn't pull stunts like that!"
"Well," Ashera stroked her chin devilishly, "technically she only ordered us not to do such things in the City…"
"Exactly, and where are we?"
Ethel piped up, "Am I allowed to look now?"
The entire day went really snuffing weird after Ashera went off to train with Gray, Ethel and Cammuravi; everywhere she went, people kept looking at her funny; Travis in the War Room; Michiba when Eunie tried to order some grub; the other guests in the canteen; Miyabi even went ahead and gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth.
She saw Sena fidgeting, and whispering to Lanz, "… D'you think we should…"
He chuckled. "No way, this is priceless!"
"Oi, what's priceless?!" Were they keeping secrets from Eunie? Did this have something to do with all the weird lingering glances from them and everyone else?
Lanz laughed. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Yeah, she kinda would, actually. "Can always come over and wring it outta you!" she said—used a calm voice, but brandished her fist menacingly.
"Don't worry, we were just talkin' about what happened earlier." He grinned. "Y'know, with Ashera and her 'kissies'."
She made a long, grouchy 'hrmmm' noise that was half disbelief, 85% being miffed about him bringing that up again. Even if she didn't believe him, she'd let it slide—for now.
Eunie stumbled into her adoptive parent's house, still grumbling and muttering even after the hours that had passed. Ashera was still out training with Gray, and she'd catch up a while later.
Watching cautiously, she saw her Mum Rozana was sitting at the dinner table with a manual on some kind of automaton. She picked at a half-eaten strawberry jam tart, crumbled on her plate.
Rozana's eyes tilted up to Eunie, narrowed for a second, then went back to normal. "Eunie? What happened?"
She answered with a groan. "Sparkin' Ashera happened. Queen's wings she's such a pain in the arse…"
Raising a suspiciously cheeky-looking eyebrow, Rozana grew a little smile. "What did she do?"
Eunie folded her arms and threw her head back, groaning even more. "Bloody ambushed me right in front of everyone, so she did!" 'Everyone' was probably exaggerating a little bit—only like, five people saw it, but five was five too many!
"Oh, really? Get a bit too 'feisty' did she?"
Eunie's eyes went wide. "How could you tell?"
Seriously, how could she? Did she hear about it from someone?
Rozana smirked. "Oh, it's practically written on your face."
"Riiiight…" Not a very reassuring answer… "Whatevs, I'm gonna go wash up."
"That would be a good idea," she replied, and winked. A sinking feeling set in Eunie's stomach, but she dismissed it; it'd been a long day, so obviously that's what she meant about it being a good idea to wash up. She was all sweaty and icky, and after Ashera's little stunt, she'd been left 'a little' damp below deck too…
She headed over to the bathroom, flicked on the lights… And froze when she saw the mirror.
Nonononono! Was I walkin' around like this all day?!… That shifty little sparking…
Lip-shaped smudges. Everywhere. All over her mouth, neck, cheeks, and face in general, in bright red.
Eunie raged at the mirror, wiping her face and checking her hands in the hopes that the mirror might have been lying to her. It wasn't. "Since when does that snuffin' maniac even wear lipstick?! AGHH! SPARK!"
And Ashera had the nerve to whine earlier about Eunie 'spoiling her fun'—her fun wasn't 'spoiled' at all! It was a plotter's face. A sneaky little plotter who'd plotted and won! She even went and put on some lippy to pull off this devious, evil prank!
Flipping on the tap and furiously rinsing her face, Eunie thought about just how many people saw the 'evidence'; about how nobody—not even Taion or Miyabi—said a snuffing word… Well, Eunie'd made a deal for Ashera stopping, hadn't she? Tonight, she was getting the paddle, and it was giving Ashera's arse a good…