Tiny drabble requested by anonymous. I gave 'em fluff. Never say I didn't do anything for you all. Set later after DC theoretically... ends.
"A tattoo," Soul said incredulously. She only stared back at him, so he lifted a finger, lightning-quick, and stabbed at her freshly inked wrist.
"Ouch! Soul!" She danced backwards, glaring.
"A tattoo. Really? Let me see it again," he ordered, displeased. What on earth was she thinking, letting Tsubaki mark up her gorgeous silk-and-cream skin? She put her wrist forward slowly, pouting a little. Obviously she'd been expecting him to gush over it or something equally stupid.
He nabbed her fingers in his and turned her hand over in his, eyeing the design stamped below her palm, on the tissue-thin skin over her lacey blue-green veins. "I get the horse," he said at last, referring to the rich crimson silhouette that was clearly meant to be Aka, prancing and proud, "But what the hell's the thing behind it? A book?"
"Of course it's a book, can't you tell?" she snapped, flushing. It was indeed a book, simplified to a bare outline that framed the scarlet horse nicely. Tsubaki had done a good job, of course, but still- Maka's skin was practically a religion for him. He really couldn't decide how he felt about the whole thing.
She glowered at him as he stood staring.
He raised an eyebrow. "You would get a damn book on yourself," he said grudgingly, releasing her hand. "Predictable."
She didn't say anything, oddly, she just looked at her toes and turned a sort of dull pink, blinking rapidly. He squinted at her.
"What?" she said at last, far too placidly. When she saw the narrow look he was giving her, she said hastily, in an obvious attempt to play normal, "Are you going to be rude or are you going to compliment me, because it's there for good, you know!"
He persevered. "What aren't you telling me?"
"I- uh- well-" The pink dusting her cheeks deepened.
"Come on, Maka, spit it out," he commanded, intrigued. Judging by her blush, this was going to be very interesting.
She frowned stormily, but finally, fixing her gaze somewhere in the area of his chest, she admitted, "It's a book because I like books but it's also a book because of all that time you spent reading to me, before I got my memory back."
He goggle at her. His heart took flight and did several loop-de-loops around his head before swooping dizzyingly off into the sunset. "Really?"
"Yes, really," she said grumpily.
He slung an arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to one delightfully flushed cheek, more than a little giddy, though he tried his best to maintain at least a modicum of his typical dignity. "That's neat," was all he said, but then he and Maka spent at least ten minutes grinning like fools at each other until they had to go start the show.