Note: For a Tumblr request.

Request: Cinder Fall/Neopolitan (Spicecream), "nice [&] fluffy"

Under No Illusions

Summary: Neo interrupts Cinder trying to get some work done, but Cinder doesn't mind…

Cinder glanced up sharply as the door opened, then shut—she had given strict orders that she was not to be disturbed—but it was only Neo. The petite illusionist, unlike just about everybody else Cinder employed, was free to come and go as she pleased…not least because nobody except Cinder could actually stop her. Cinder herself wasn't sure which, if either, of them would win if they truly fought, but the issue had never arisen. While admittedly…distracting…Neo would not be termed a 'disturbance'. Or at all unwelcome.

Cinder returned her attention at once to the Scroll she was working on, apparently paying Neo no more thought until a pair of small, cool hands settled on her shoulders, beginning to massage away the aches and accumulated tension of the day. As ever, Cinder felt her eyelids drooping and back slumping after only a few minutes' work.

"You really must tell me how you do that," she purred, leaning back to look up at the tricolor girl behind her.

Neo just gave a pixie grin, dextrous little fingers digging into every aching knot of Cinder's shoulders, brushing her long, dark hair aside, fingertips slipping occasionally just below the neck of Cinder's usual off-the-shoulder dress.

The third time this happened, Cinder gave her a slap on the wrist—gentle, truly—but Neo only smirked and levered Cinder forward so as to reach her back. Cinder allowed herself to be pushed, leaning her elbows on the desk as Neo knuckled down her spine. She let out a soft noise of appreciation as a vertebra popped, a pleasurable tingle running up her spine at the sudden absence of that tension.

Cinder abruptly spun the chair around to face Neo, leaving the other suddenly off-balance. Cinder caught her slender waist as she fell, and Neo climbed instantly onto Cinder's lap. Cinder stroked Neo's cheek, and saw as usual mischief warring with genuine affection in Neo's mismatched eyes.

"How did it come to this, Miss Neopolitan?" Cinder murmured.

Neo shrugged expressively, wrapping her arms around Cinder in turn, lacing slim fingers at the back of Cinder's neck. She was so small that even seated on Cinder's lap, their faces were on a level.

Cinder drew a nail down Neo's bare neck, hard enough to leave a raised mark, and Neo shivered. "So you came in here to distract me from my work?" Cinder asked, playfully feigning anger. "After I gave specific orders that I was not to be interrupted?"

Neo grinned, knowing how it really was. She removed her hands from Cinder's neck to hold them up between them, wrists together as though bound.

"Mmm…" Cinder hummed, tapping her finger against the pulse point at Neo's throat. "Punish you? Whyever would I want to do that?"

Neo blinked, still grinning. Her eyes switched colors—the brown becoming pink, pink becoming white—and she tilted her head playfully.

"I'm sure you couldn't have had any unseemly intentions," Cinder added, a little huskily. "You only wanted to help me relax, isn't that right?"

Neo leaned forward to nuzzle at Cinder's neck, pressing light kisses down toward her shoulder, until suddenly—though not unexpectedly—her tiny teeth suddenly scraped against the older woman's collarbone. She glanced up, eyes laughing, and Cinder knew from the reflection that her own eyes were glowing.

"On second thought," she whispered silkily, hands moving to the narrow bands of skin left bare on either hip by Neo's corset, "Perhaps you do need to be punished…"

A/N: If it isn't clear, I personally ascribe to the theory that Neo is mute. But even if that's not your vial of Dust, you still have to admit that she clearly doesn't say much in canon, so an alternate read is that she just prefers to communicate nonverbally. I hope this was fluffy enough to fulfill the request!

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