"Seeeee-tsuuuuuuu-naaaaaaa!"
Setsuna sighed as her vision suddenly was robbed from her, obscured by Moroha's hands over her eyes. The two of them were at Towa's house in the modern era, visiting her as they had done every week since defeating Kirinmaru. Occasionally, they would arrive too early in the day and find Towa at school, and her home empty. For those times, they had been entrusted with a key, and were welcome to wait around inside until Towa returned.
It was during one such day that Moroha helped herself to some of Towa's modern snacks, and was engrossed in one of those so-called 'anime shows' that were a form on entertainment in this time. Moroha had become obsessed with anime, particularly a genre called 'yuri', but Setsuna had no such interest in the artform. As far as she could tell, it was just stupid girls getting into unrealistic situations and wearing embarrassing clothes. She couldn't see what Moroha was so fascinated about.
Setsuna herself preferred the books that Souta and Moe had in their room. Modern Japanese novels, as well as novels from distant lands. On this particular day, she had busied herself with one of Moe's books about a young woman having to choose between two demonic lovers – a 'vampire' and a 'werewolf'. The novel was written in another language, which Setsuna had been learning in her spare time, and while she was now versed enough to read on her own, she still required a dictionary for some of the bigger words, and more importantly, concentration. Concentration that, right now, was being broken.
"What is it?" she asked dryly. There was no point in scolding the girl; when Moroha got playful, the only solution was to just play along until she was satisfied. Sometimes she wondered if Moroha wasn't really a cat demon.
Moroha laughed, releasing Setsuna's eyes and crawling around to face her directly. "Hey, I just saw something good on the telly! Wanna try?"
"What?" Setsuna asked, marking her page and closing the book. Moroha held up a red box to her face. She recognised it as one of the snacks Towa really liked. "Pocky?"
"Put this in your mouth!" Moroha held one of the pocky sticks to Setsuna, grinning. Setsuna took the stick and chomped it, and Moroha startled her by yelling, "Don't eat it!"
Setsuna finished the snack and cocked an eyebrow. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do with it?"
"Not right now! Look, just put it in your mouth hold it, like a cigarette!"
Setsuna groaned, but complied with the strange request. She took another stick and put half of it in her mouth, the other half sticking out. She wanted to ask what to do next, but she realised she couldn't speak like that.
Moroha chuckled, and then leaned forwards, putting her mouth around the other half of the stick and bringing her lips dangerously close to Setsuna's. Setsuna blushed, her eyes shooting open. She heard a snap, and watched as Moroha pulled away, munching the half of the stick she had broken off.
"Eh-heh! Did I surprise ya?! Bet you thought I was gonna kiss you, didn't ya?" Despite her teasing tone and mocking grin, Moroha was blushing.
Setsuna ate her half of the pocky stick, and then muttered, "How foolish." Setsuna, too, was blushing.
"I saw it on my show just now and had ta try it! Here, you try it next!" Moroha pulled out another stick and put it in her mouth, closing her eyes as she waited. She felt a tug and held her breath, but although she heard a snap, it didn't feel like the pocky had been split.
Opening her eyes, she found that Setsuna had only bit off the tail-end of the pocky stick, leaving most of it still hanging out of Moroha's mouth. "Is that all?" Setsuna asked, staring coldly into Moroha's eyes. "Can I get back to reading now?"
"Hey, that's not right!" Moroha yelled, slamming a hand onto the floor. "You're supposed ta do it deeper than that, so we each get half!"
"I don't really see the point."
"Ehhh? Are you scared or something? Is that why you're giving up?" Moroha sighed and shrugged. "I guess in that case, I win, then. Kinda feels underwhelming, though, beating you by so much. Maybe I'll try with Towa next. She might prove more of a challenge."
Setsuna felt herself growing annoyed. Moroha, for some reason, had a habit of turning these silly little games into competitions… and Setsuna, for some reason, had a habit of taking them seriously, not wanting to admit defeat to her cousin.
"Fine, I just need to bite off more, right?" Setsuna grabbed a stick and held it out. Moroha smiled, and then opened her mouth, closing it as Setsuna slid the stick in. Then, Setsuna simply stared at Moroha for a few seconds, until Moroha eventually opened her eyes to see what was going on. That was when she moved.
Moroha felt a pair of hands on her head and froze. "Eh?"
Setsuna, holding Moroha's head in place, leaned forwards and took the pocky into her mouth, her lips meeting Moroha's. She held the position far longer than was necessary, before finally biting down on the stick and pulling away. After she swallowed, she unconsciously licked her lips. She knew she was blushing, but it seemed that Moroha was blushing far more, which made her grin. "Was that good enough?"
Setsuna's voice snapped Moroha to attention. She stammered a little, her eyes darting away as she tried to find her voice. "Y-Yeah, that was g-good. I guess you won, ah-hah… hah…" Moroha climbed to her feet. "I'm uh, gonna get back to my anime now."
"And I'm gonna continue reading," Setsuna said, grabbing her book as Moroha hurriedly walked out of the room. As she opened back up to the page she was at, Setsuna wondered if perhaps she was too hasty in her judgement of anime. Maybe it would be worth checking out some of those shows, after all.