4th Day of Christmas
Theme: Holidays mean baking, but whipped cream does not go on top of everything.

Only years of rigorous training saved him. He hit the floor, sword halfway out of its sheath before he'd even managed to assess the situation. All he knew was that something had been flying towards him.

"Sorry, Kuro-puu!"

"You missed, Fai!"

Kurogane stood slowly, surveying the room for the source of his attack.

A tray of small chocolate cakes - if Fai came anywhere near him with those, he would not be held accountable for his actions - sat in the middle of the counter. About half were decorated with whipped cream. The rest of the whipped cream was all over the counter, ceiling, walls and both Fai and Mokona.

An empty carton of eggnog stood next to an equally empty bottle of brandy. They - along with Sakura - had been getting into the holiday spirit when he'd left, and he should have known better than to leave them to their own devices when alcohol was involved.

But questions were not worth it. He simply snapped, "You're cleaning this," and headed for the stairs.

Mokona bounced ahead of him, singing brightly at the top of its lungs. The whipped cream was almost invisible against its white fur.

Right before they reached it, Sakura dove around the corner of the stairs, yelling what seemed to be a war cry, and slapped a handful of whipped cream onto his face.

Apparently his rigorous training was only good enough to save him once.

Sakura jerked back, both hands rising to cover her mouth. She was as thoroughly coated as Fai and Mokona were. "Kurogane-san! I didn't... I'm so sorry!" She babbled. "I was aiming for Mokona!"

"Arara, don't worry, Sakura-chan." Fai came around the counter with a couple of towels in his remarkably clean hands. He handed the towels to them and nudged them gently upstairs.

"But the kitchen..." Sakura protested.

"I'll take care of it."

"But Kurogane-san..."

"I'll take care of that too."

Once they'd disappeared, Kurogane turned a glower in Fai's direction. He decided to ask the question he'd passed over earlier. "Why?"

"Did you see she was smiling?" The rag Fai had picked up was spreading the whipped cream around, but not doing a very good job of picking it up. "It's good to smile."

"Yes." A vapid grin met his statement and Kurogane narrowed his eyes. "Really smile." The smile faltered only for a moment, but Kurogane saw it. He opened his mouth to drive the wedge further, hoping to crack Fai's shell completely.

"You've got some whipped cream on your face."

The change of subject was blatantly obvious, and Kurogane would have ignored it and continued in the same vein as before, except the Fai grabbed the front of his armor, yanked him down and licked his cheek.

Distraction, no doubt, given how dangerously close to forbidden territory Kurogane'd managed to push the conversation, but the surprised blush spreading rapidly across Fai's cheeks suggested that he hadn't quite considered the ramifications before acting.

"There's more on the other side."

The rag hit him in the face, and he pulled it away just in time to see Fai scarlet with embarrassment.

Ah, now there was a real emotion.