Title: Best of You
Drabble #6: The Trouble With Sundaes
Theme: whip cream (in a not so perverted way, geez people)
Pairing: Yuffie/Riku
Words: 456
A/N: ...and the plot thickens! And that's the problem. There wasn't supposed to be a plot. -headdesk- Oh well. Onward!
It was times like these Riku came to hate his parents.
Don't misunderstand, Riku had loved his parents (no matter how dysfunctional they could be; who left a thirteen year old boy home alone for months on end while on "business trips"?). But growing up in his family embedded a cleanliness gene within him, which resulted in teasing from the older island boys (Riku still couldn't understand why showering once a day was considered "metrosexual." He was a human being for Christ's sake. Good hygeine wasn't a sin).
He'd been raised in a house of white furniture, carpets, and walls. Being messy meant a sound beating from his mother. After accidentally spilling a cup of grape juice on his mother's three thousand dollar imported rug at five years old, Riku learned that cleanliness was not just a way of life, but a way of survival (he had the marks to prove it--literally).
To this very day, nearly thirteen years after that incident, he still carried a bit of that mindset with him.
He could hear Yuffie talking, but he wasn't quite listening. His eyes and thoughts were focused on Yuffie's face. Or rather the glob of whip cream on her chin, just to the left of her lips.
Riku was vaguely reminded of Sora as he watched Yuffie cram a spoonful of her ice cream sundae into her mouth. He tried to interrupt, to alert her of the mess on her chin, but damn, when Yuffie got started on something, it was impossible to stop her.
"I mean, who does he think he is?" Yuffie ranted, brandishing her spoon around so that flecks of chocolate syrup and sprinkles flew off. "Smiling all of a sudden, calling me 'Yuf'...Aerith doesn't even call me 'Yuf'! What is all that about?"
"Yeah, uh, Yuffie, you have a bit of--"
"Does he think I won'tnotice his completely different attitude?" she went on heatedly. "You can't just go from, 'Gawd, Yuffie, you're such a brat!' to 'Happy Birthday Yuffie, you can have my sundae since I know you love sundaes'. You just...can't."
"Yuffie--"
"Are all men this manipulative? Are there some mandatory Male Manipulation classes that you all take in secret?" Yuffie slammed down her spoon in the midst of her tirade. "I refuse to be manipulated--"
He couldn't sit still anymore. Before he even knew what was happening, Riku's right hand acted of its own accord. He reached out, cupped her chin, and wiped away the offending dash of whip cream, making sure to get all of it off.
Yuffie stared wordlessly at him. Riku then realized how dangerously close his thumb was to her lips, and how easy it would be to touch them...all he had to do was--
"R-riku?" Yuffie finally spoke.
Quickly, Riku retracted his hand. "You, uh, had a bit of whip cream. I, uh, tried to tell you, but you were..." he trailed off and decided to return to his banana split. "I don't suppose you'll be believe me if I told you if I had a fetish for cleanliness?"
She stared back at him, her eyes so wide she gave the impression of being a deer caught in headlights. Her mouth opened and shut a few times as if she couldn't find the words to express her thoughts. Finally, Yuffie stood up abruptly. "I have to go," she said stiffly. "See you later." With that, she turned and hurried away, leaving behind a confused Riku and the bill.
A/N: Someone please remind me next time when I start a drabble collection to not give it a plot...I'm gonna have to turn this into a story now, gahhh...