Rules of Engagement

Technically speaking I shared a dorm with Twilight Sparkle, the one of this world that is.

Other than Rainbow Dash, Twi’ was probably my best friend; back in high school we would spend hours talking about theoretical physics and metaphysics, and the ramifications of magic as an energy source, and lots of other things and I loved her to death. In point of fact, my asking her out was how I’d discovered she was ace, so I was one of the first to support her when she decided to bring it up, and we’d only gotten closer, emotionally speaking, after that.

It only made sense that, since we were pursuing the same major, we do our best to room together once we got into university. Twilight wasn’t the most social creature and she liked knowing that her roomie would be respectful of her boundaries. In return, I got to share living space with one of my favorite people, so I was happy enough to agree.

With that said, Twi’ rarely actually used the room we shared.

Her parent's house is less than a fifteen-minute drive from the campus and, frankly, the beds at CCU are not very comfortable. We used the place to hang out but, other than that, I mostly had the place to myself which worked out well for me now since I was currently bringing a stripper home after we’d finished having sex in the middle of computer lab one.

I staggered into the room, tired and dead on my feet as I hung my coat on the rack by the door joined moments later by Aria’s own denim jacket and hat, before tossing my keys into the bowl on the counter. Then I stumbled into the living room, slumped onto the cushy reclining chair in front of the t.v., and briefly considered dying.

From somewhere in the kitchen I heard Aria moving around. I’m not sure how much time passed but I know I dozed off somewhere in between falling over and then being nudged back to life by Aria’s hand.

“Hey, Shimmer, wake up,” Aria’s voice was stiff and annoyed, as usual, but I could hear something else just underneath the vitriol.

Worry.

I opened my eyes and looked over to see Aria kneeling next to me with a bowl of steaming soup in her hands.

“Eat,” Aria said quietly. “You look like death.”

I groaned.

I didn’t want to eat.

Or rather, I did but I just did not have the energy for it. I wanted to sleep, even if I knew I’d wake up miserable and starving in the morning.

“I’ll eat tomorrow,” I mumbled, waving a hand. “Thanks for getting me home, though.”

Aria scowled, made a clicking noise with her tongue, then stood up, kicked off her shoes, and settled herself into my lap.

“Mouth, open,” Aria ordered in an even-toned voice that, nevertheless, did not invite argument.

Fortunately, my mouth was already open in surprise. Before I had time to question the situation Aria had stuffed a spoonful of warm soup into my mouth.

“Eat,” Aria ordered again.

I stared down my nose at the handle of the spoon sticking out from between my lips, then back up at Aria, then nodded, chewed a little, and swallowed.

And that’s how it went: with Aria, curled up in my lap and her long, bare, beautiful legs tangled around mine, leaning against my shoulder as she fed me spoon after spoon of savory vegetable soup. Her waterfall of gorgeous two-tone hair fell in soft waves over my shoulders and her head was nestled in the crook of my neck as I rested my cheek warmly against her head.

The position was a little awkward but it was possibly the most comfortable I’d been in days.

Once the bowl was empty Aria set it aside on the squat wooden coffee table that sat a couple of feet away. I did feel a lot better with something in my stomach, I had to admit, but it just left me feeling that much sleepier.

Aria stood up, stretching a little to work out the kinks that her awkward sitting position had created, and glanced down at me.

“Which room is yours?” Aria asked, her tone still stiff and business-like, and completely at odds with how tenderly she was caring for me.

I pointed silently to the one at the far end of the short hall with my divided sun mark taped to it, and Aria grunted.

“Right, shoulda known.”

“I’ll sleep here though,” I said, stretching and yawning. “I’ve got blankets,” I gestured to the pile of comforters and downy covers on the couch beside us, “and this chair is more comfortable than my bed, honestly.”

I fished around for the game controller that served as a remote for the tv and console attached to it, turned it on, opened up webflix, and cycled through it as Aria watched with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry, I gotta have something going or I can’t fall asleep,” I explained, answering her silent question. “I like old stuff for that,” I continued as I selected an old black-and-white, “something about the lo-fi quality of the sound makes me wanna doze off.”

“I know what you mean,” Aria said quietly, before nodding to the tv as the opening credits started, the volume low. “Bishop’s Wife? This is one of my favorites.”

I felt my cheeks warm.

“Mine too,” I said softly.

Then Aria turned on her heel and walked towards my room. I furrowed my brow as I watched her slip past the door nonchalantly and a moment later heard her fishing around in my dresser. I was about to voice a protest because, after all, we might not have much left to show each other but that’s still my stuff damn it, when she came back out with a pair of my pajamas bundled up in her arms.

“I’m fine,” I said with a small laugh, “this won’t be the first time I’ve fallen asleep in my jeans.”

She shushed me softly before kneeling in front of me and setting the clothes off to the side. I blinked in surprise as Aria began slowly and carefully disrobing me.

There was almost ritual care to her hands as she took off my boots, then slid my jeans and socks off. She did the same with my panties, which made me blush, but she never made a move on me. There was nothing sexual about what she was doing.

It was almost… loving.

She slid my pajama pants on, one leg at a time, then stood up and did the same for my shirts, unclasping my bra along with them, and then slipped the soft, cotton pajama shirt over my head.

Have you ever had a beautiful woman undress and then dress you?

I hadn’t either, until then.

There’s something indescribable about it. Something almost primal that stirred in my belly as she moved with her tender, precise, and borderline worshipful motions. I still felt sleepy, sure, but I also felt… not awake, but alive. I felt refreshed and ready to have the best sleep of my life.

Then Aria straightened, crossed her arms over herself to hook her fingers around her top, and pulled it off. Her skirt and panties went next in a neat pile with all of my clothes. Then she gathered up some blankets, shook them out straight, settled into my lap, and draped them over us.

Her arms curled around me protectively, and she nestled her head against my shoulder.

Well, I sure wasn’t going to kick her out after all that and she damn well knew it. So instead I reached down, grabbed the lever on the chair, and pulled it to recline back, and wrapped myself around Aria Blaze.

The sounds of voices from the distant past spilled over us, and music from that same age chimed like off-tune bells.

I buried my nose in Aria’s hair and just… breathed.

I don’t think I’ve ever, in my entire life, felt so relaxed.

So at peace.

The only thing marring that peace was the words that were stuck in the back of my throat.

Written’s Quill, I wanted to say them so badly. It hurt like a bitch, keeping them locked in my chest. It felt like they were fit to start burrowing out of my rib cage of their own accord.

I wanted to say them. Especially now, looking down at Aria like this; with her eyes closed and her long, full lashes laid gracefully over her high cheekbones and the flawless skin of her soft cheeks.

Unbidden, I felt tears start to fall. They were hot and painful, like some part of me had turned on the waterworks just to have some kind of expression of what was lodged in my chest, caking around my heart like wet concrete. I was seized by this insane urge to shake Aria awake and just kiss her over and over.

To say those words over and over.

Oh… this was bad. This was very bad.

Swallowing hard, I moved slowly and gently, wiping my cheeks on the blanket we were sharing, then took a deep breath before leaning in and resting my lips on hers.

I couldn’t say them but my mouth moved around the words anyway, giving them shape if not sound.

If I said those words then Aria would hear them, it would scare her off because it’s too soon and too fast and… and she would leave.

So I held tightly onto those words, clutching them against my heart as I kissed her, featherlight, one more time, tasting the faint flavor of her Cupid’s bow lips. I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of that.

And then I laid back, holding onto Aria like she was a lifeline in the ocean, and closed my eyes.

I woke up to the warm and what was rapidly becoming familiar sensation of Aria’s lips pressing against my neck, kissing softly and making my heart flutter.

A much more intense sensation below the waistband of my pajama pants was making my heart do a creative series of other things. At that point I recalled vaguely that, when Aria had been dressing me last night, she had pointedly not brought out a fresh pair of panties.

Aria had worked one hand up and around the back of my head, massaging my neck and tangling her fingers with my hair while the other hand was in my pants, two fingers working slowly in and out of my now-drenched cunt.

I let out a shuddering gasp and tightened my grip around her, and I felt Aria’s lips curve into a smile against my neck.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” Aria said in a husky voice before singing out, “good mo~rni~ng.”

Oh Quill, she has such a beautiful voice.

“A-are you always gonna wake me up like this?” I gasped out as she curled her fingers, brushing a particularly sensitive spot that pulled a small cry of pleasure out of me.

“So long as I wake up first,” Aria replied, a laugh hiding behind her lips as she continued to nuzzle my neck. “Think of it as an incentive to be an early riser.”

“F-fuck!” I twisted in the chair as I came over her fingers.

I have to admit, I do not mind waking up like this. After going nearly a year without the kind of feminine touch I wanted, getting some the moment I wake up is absolutely not something I’ll complain about.

Aria gave me a satisfied hum as she pumped her fingers a few more times before pulling them free.

Except she didn’t pull them out of my pants. Instead, she slid her fingers further down and I felt her reach somewhere else.

“Just relax,” Aria whispered seductively.

“A-Aria wai-!”

One finger slid in, which she was absolutely gentle about, and my back instantly arched as I let out a… ugh… there’s no other word for the sound I made.

I moaned like a porn star.

Silence descended on the room like a ten-ton cotton swab as Aria lifted her head slowly away from my neck, her eyes comically wide, and stared at my increasingly reddening face.

I pointedly did not look at Aria. I stared directly forward and tried to pretend I didn’t see her face splitting into a terrible grin.

“What,” Aria breathed the word out gleefully, “was that?!”

She still hadn’t moved her finger.

I swallowed hard and looked to the side away from her but, even in my periphery, I saw her grin turn sadistic.

Aria wiggled her finger slightly, and I let out another involuntary moan, then another finger joined the first and I shuddered violently, pleasure rippling through my limbs.

This was not how I wanted Aria to discover I had a thing for ass play.

“Look,” I said in a breathless voice, “w-when a girl is on an eight-month dry spell with a h-high libido,” I shivered as Aria teased me again, “s-sometimes that girl’s gotta get a little… creative to get the relief she n-needs, okay?”

“Do you,” Aria began, leaning forward and pressing her lips back to my neck, “have any idea,” her teeth scraped over the bare skin there, and I gasped, “how hot it makes me,” she arched her fingers and I let out a mewling cry as I clutched at her, “thinking of you, curled up under your covers, and going to fucking town on your own ass?”

A~nd I’m officially in Tartarus.

“A-Aria,” I squirmed in place as my voice took on a faintly pleading tone.

Not gonna lie, this was a little humiliating which, annoyingly, kind of made it better. Something that I strongly suspect Aria picked up on because she didn’t relent. Instead, she leaned up and fixed a canine on my ear and let out a purr of satisfaction.

“It’s okay,” Aria whispered, and I shivered at how tender she sounded. “Just relax… let me make you feel as good as…”

Her voice trailed off for a moment, and I felt my heart skip a beat. I could almost hear what she had been about to say.

Then…

“...as good as you make me feel,” Aria finished.

I must make her feel incredible because Aria’s touch was as incongruously gentle as her voice this morning. She worked her fingers slowly inside me as her thumb came up to play with my little button and my brain felt like it was melting out of my ears as Aria expertly drew out moans, pleas, and tiny, squeaking cries from me which I will deny to the grave. She played me the way a virtuoso plays an instrument, and worse… she took her time.

I’m not entirely certain how long we were curled up there on the chair, but I’m pretty sure I ruined those pajama pants by the time I came.

I jerked and cried out as an incredibly intense orgasm rolled through me, not like lightning, but like a slow, drowning wave.

Sagging against both the chair and Aria, for several moments I just… breathed. My entire body felt warm and fuzzy, and the afterglow had left me completely spent. A part of me just wanted to lay there forever, with Aria holding onto me, and drift off into a long nap.

“Aria?”

I spoke only after several long moments of basking in the sunny feeling that had taken up somewhere near my navel.

“Mm?” Aria glanced up at me, and my gooey brain lost whatever it was I was saying when I met her eyes. “What?”

Written’s Quill, her eyes were just so startlingly bright; sharp as a blade and, between the dim, early daylight and the drawn curtains, they gleamed in the low light of the morning like the eyes of a cat.

“You gonna stare all day, Shimmer, or should I get you a picture?” Aria said dryly, and I blushed.

A picture…

I smiled and pulled myself free of Aria’s arms for a moment, earning a grunt of dissatisfaction from her, to grab at my pants at the base of the chair.

Retrieving my phone from my jeans pocket, I laid back and let Aria curl back around me, which she did contentedly, then I pulled the blankets over us again and began fiddling with my phone.

“The hell're you doing, Shimmer?” Aria grumbled, resting her head on my shoulder.

“This!” I said cheerily, before raising the phone above us and clicking a picture. “New wallpaper!”

Aria rolled her eyes and yawned as she curled back up against me.

“Dork,” Aria muttered before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

I held up the picture and examined it, and couldn’t help another blush covering my face. In the picture I had such a goofy, happy smile and, although I hadn’t seen it, Aria’s expression had morphed from resigned to a faint, curving, smirk, probably just before I took the picture.

She had smiled for me.

Grudgingly, maybe, but Aria Blaze had actually smiled for me.

“So next time you go for, uh,” I coughed and reddened a little, “y’know, there, maybe give a girl some warning? I’d like to have a chance to be… clean.”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Please, Shimmer, you’re compulsively clean,” she said, then glanced around the messy living room and shrugged, “well, your body is anyway.”

“You make me sound like a germaphobe,” I said, feeling a little defensive. “Besides, how would you know?”

Sitting up, Aria stretched, locking her fingers together over her head, which did a myriad of interesting things to her body.

“I’ve spent a lot of time down there lately,” Aria replied, smacking her lips as she rolled her neck, “that’s how.”

“I’m not compulsive,” I said, pulling the covers around me a little.

Aria snorted. “Fine, maybe not compulsive, but you’re a control freak,” she said as she slowly peeled herself off of me and freed her legs. “It’s why you get off when I take control.”

I blushed furiously. “H-Hey that’s not-”

“Give it a rest, Shimmer,” Aria said with a smirk. “I may be a shitty liar but I can read your kind like a book, at least when it comes to sex.”

I screwed up my face in annoyance. “My kind? How about you throw in a ‘you people’ while you’re at it!”

Aria matched my scowl. “Hey! Maybe you forgot, pony-girl, but I’m literally a different species,” she jabbed a thumb to her bare chest as she spoke with her other hand on her cocked hip. “Even on this side of the mirror, my biology is fundamentally different. I’m an immortal pathovore, not an oversized chimp.”

“Right, and I’m just your meal ticket, how could I forget?” I said scathingly. “So did you get enough for breakfast, then? My immortal mistress?”

Aria frowned, her whole face turning down in a scowl that was somehow softer than normal.

“I told you it’s not like that,” Aria said a little stiffly. “And… I’m fine, I’m not hungry.”

I chuckled as I sat up, surreptitiously correcting my pants as I did.

“Seriously?” I asked, smirking as I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you three were always hungry. Isn’t that why you guys opened a strip club- sorry, lounge?”

Instead of answering, Aria just stared down before shrugging.

“Normally we are,” she said after a moment. “Hungry, I mean. We’re apex predators, Shimmer, hunger keeps us moving.”

I narrowed my eyes at her tone. She sounded unsettled, uncertain, and even a little strained.

“So what changed?”

“I woke up and I wasn’t hungry,” Aria said in a clipped tone. “That’s all, now if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go take a shower.”

I watched her make her way to the bathroom, her movements fluid and beautiful, even now. She had a dancers grace no matter what, it seemed, and I guessed it made sense.

Muscle memory and all that.

But why had she seemed so unsettled by not being hungry? Wasn’t that good?

Whatever, I’d ask her later. Instead, I followed my instinct and got up. Tossing the covers aside, I went to my room and snatched up some fresh clothes as I heard the shower sputter to life. I judged that I still had a good two or three minutes, the water pressure in the campus dorm sucked ass.

I peeled myself out of my pajamas and tossed them into the laundry pile, the lower half of which was soaked through in a few places thanks to Aria’s little wake-up call, then I bundled up my fresh clothes and walked down the hall and into the bathroom.

Aria glared over her shoulder at me as I entered, she was standing by the stall waiting for the water to get warm enough.

“Oi, occupado,” Ari said gruffly. “I thought I locked that.”

I smirked again. “You probably did but the lock is busted, always has been.”

She made that annoyed clicking sound with her tongue again.

“And besides,” I continued as I sat my clothes down on the counter, “there’s never enough hot water for two decent showers, so I’m joining you.”

“Bullshit you a-”

I didn’t let her finish. I looped my arms around her slender, lovely waist and pulled her into a kiss.

Aria met my kiss with one of her own, curving one slim leg around mine as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. There wasn’t even a hint of irritation or frustration, just passion.

On a whim, I opened one eye and glanced to the side at the closed door.

The knob was still turned up.

She hadn’t locked it at all.

I grinned into her kiss and pulled her closer. I wanted to drown in that scent of hers. It was everything she wasn’t and yet somehow fit her so well that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to smell lavender or mint again without thinking of Aria.

As we parted, Aria ran her tongue over my lips, then gently turned my head to kiss my cheek and down to my neck.

“Get into the shower, Red,” Aria whispered softly. “I’m right behind you.”

I shivered at the little pet name before turning away, and I shot a smile over my bare shoulder at her as I slipped past the curtain. I hissed in delight at the searing temperature Aria had set it at; it was just how I liked it which meant she either knew some very specific and obscure preferences of mine, or we were even more alike than I thought.

True to her word, Aria stepped inside a moment later and grabbed one of the body sponges I had hanging from the rack on the wall, putting a generous gob of body wash onto it and working into a thick lather.

“Stay still,” Aria said, and the tone of her voice reminded me of last night.

When she had fed me and dressed me.

Suddenly I realized what she was doing and I swear I felt my heart do a backflip as, from behind me, Aria began slowly and carefully washing my back. Her hands were moving up and down with comfortable strokes, evenly covering me in the floral-scented suds. I sighed in relief as Aria pressed herself against me, washing my arms, then bringing her hands around my front and soaping me up there. I was a special kind of relaxed before she’d even gotten halfway done, and by the time she finished my upper body I wanted to go back to sleep.

I didn’t, obviously. Instead, I turned my head to look back at her and offer to do my legs and lower half myself.

Aria didn’t give me the opportunity.

When I looked back, Aria was kneeling behind me, and was already starting to washing my legs. She did each one in turn, cleaning every inch of me.

And I mean every inch.

Enough that a few more moans slipped through my lips.

Surprisingly, Aria didn’t take advantage of them. She just kept washing me until I was the cleanest I’d felt in months.

I let out another soft sigh as Aria moved to my hair. Her fingers felt divine as she shampooed my long, red and gold locks, weaving them through the strands with infinite care, massaging my scalp, and overall leaving me feeling like I’d just had a day at the spa rather than having showered in the admittedly meager facilities of my dorm.

As I rinsed myself off I heard Aria began to apply another coat of lather to the sponge behind me, presumably intent on cleaning herself up now that she was done with me.

Without thinking, I turned in the shower and grabbed the sponge out of her hands.

Aria snapped her head up to glare to at me. “Shimmer, what the hell?”

“Don’t,” I said in a voice that I barely recognized as my own. “Please… let… let me.”

Blinking at me in surprise, Aria glanced down at the ball of suds in my hand, then back up to my eyes. I didn’t wait, instead, I closed the small distance between us and began doing for her what she had done for me.

I have never, in my life, done anything like this before for or to anyone.

It was… strange; but as I washed Aria's body, running the suds over her skin with as much care as I could manage, it left me with a feeling of almost religious satisfaction. It was as if, with each sweep of my hand, I was making something indescribably beautiful become that much more lovely. I touched every inch of Aria’s body and it felt, for lack of a better word, devotional.

Every pass of my hands was a prayer. Every inch of flesh I cleansed was an offering, and I moved with slow, methodical care, leaving a small trail of kisses wherever I cleaned.

It just felt… right.

I had to wonder: was this what Aria felt when she was handling me? And if it was… why? Why would she do this for me?

As we both stepped out of the shower and dried ourselves off, I kept stealing glances at Aria. She looked far more relaxed than she had when she’d gone in, and I swear she was even blushing.

“Aria?” I called softly, and she glanced over to me with one eyebrow crooked upward in question. “I… I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta know,” I said quietly as I slowly rung my hair dry with my towel. “What… what are we? What is this? This thing we’re doing? Because it’s not just fucking, not anymore.”

Aria glowered at me for several moments as she dried herself off, but I could see her thinking. Like I said, she doesn’t have much of a poker face.

Finally, as Aria set the damp towel aside, she let out a quiet, frustrated sigh.

“I don’t know, Shimmer,” Aria replied. “Why? Do you want it to end?”

“No!” I answered a lot faster than I probably should have, but I meant it. “I just don’t know how to treat you, or what to say, or… ugh, sometimes I feel like a drunk booty call, like last night in the lab, and other times, like now, I feel like we’ve been married for years, and it’s giving me emotional whiplash here.”

“What do you want from me, Shimmer?” Aria growled, fixing her burning amethyst gaze on me. “I might not have my magic anymore but I’m still a Siren, a predator, it’s in my nature!” Huffing, she crossed her arms over herself and for a moment looked strangely vulnerable. “So, look, I don't know what you expected but if you want something normal you’re not going to get that from me.”

“Aria…” I stepped closer, and I felt as much as saw her close up.

Her arms and shoulders tensed, and her expression narrowed into that fetchingly beautiful scowl.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close, and nestled my nose into her damp, two-tone locks. Even after using my shampoo she still smelled like lavender and mint.

“You’re so beautiful, Aria,” the words tumbled out of my lips, apropos of nothing.

Aria scoffed.

“I know that,” Aria hissed, her voice becoming heated, and she shrugged my arms off of her. “I’ve had my beauty quoted back to me in verse by bards and poets, kings and queens…” Aria pulled away from me with contempt in her features that made me wilt back. “I’ve had warlords torch cities in my name, emperors have laid crowns before me and kissed my feet for the pleasure of setting them on my brow!” I backed up as Aria ranted, her eyes burning, and bumped into the cold tile wall. “Artists have mutilated themselves just to get my attention! Composers have worked whole orchestras into a frenzy with odes to my beauty, ecstatic to earn so much as a contemptuous sneer from me-!”

I was shaking, and tears were forming at the edges of my eyes as I watched something primal in Aria laid bare for a moment. It was just a glimpse, but in that split-second I saw all the years she had lived, and felt so… so small.

“-and out of all that, do you know what PISSES ME OFF THE MOST?!” Aria finished, practically screaming the last words, panting and wide-eyed as she stared me down.

I just silently shook my head, and she sagged in place like something fundamental had gone out of her. Aria raised both of her hands and pressed them hard over her face, letting out a shaking, rattling breath.

“What pisses me off the most,” Aria said, in a quiet voice that was slightly muffled by her hands, “is that when I hear you say I’m beautiful, Red? It feels like I'm hearing it for the first time in my life.”

I stared at her, dumbfounded at the blatant and bald-faced admission. Aria’s eyes were wide and staring at nothing at particular through the slits between her fingers as breath came to her in slow, measured heaves.

Swallowing hard, I pushed back my fear and anxiety, and stepped closer to her. I wrapped her in my arms again and this time she just leaned against me, wordless and spent.

I’m not sure how long we stood there in the slowly cooling air of the bathroom, both of us naked and silent as we held onto one another. I didn’t want to let go, because I had this stupid, childish terror that if I did she’d just… vanish, like so much mist or fog.

I wonder if she had the same fear. If that’s why she was holding on to me just as tightly.

Out in the living room I heard a ringtone chime to life and it broke whatever spell was over us. Aria sighed in annoyance and peeled reluctantly out of my arms.

“That’ll be Adagio,” Aria said, her voice colored with irritation. “Probably checking to make sure I’m not dead in a ditch somewhere and to kindly remind me,” she said the last three words with a venomous saccharine, “that I have a performance later tonight.”

“Okay,” I said quietly, as Aria nudged the door open and went back out into the living room to answer the phone.

I started getting dressed, pulling on fresh panties and jeans and a black t-shirt with a set of horror movie monster teeth emblazoned on the front.

By the time I got out into the living room with Aria she was in the middle of what I assumed was a heated conversation with Adagio.

I say assumed because they were conversing rapidly in what sounded like Stalliongradi. Aria hadn’t dressed yet; she was pacing, making angry gestures as she spoke, until eventually I slipped up behind her and set a hand on the small of her back, making her jerk in surprise and stare at me.

I offered her a small, calming smile, sliding my fingers around to her hip and trailing my fingers up her side, and to my surprise I felt her relax under my touch as she leaned into me.

“Fine, fuck you too,” Aria spat into the phone, switching to a language I could understand, “and tell Sonata I’ll be back in an hour.” Adagio’s must have replied because Aria nodded a few times. “Yeah… yeah… I know… I love you, too, bye.”

Aria turned back to me, staring up at me with an enigmatic expression on her face.

“Will you come tonight?” Aria asked finally, her voice had no hint of what answer she expected.

I frowned and shook my head. “I have mid-terms in a few hours, and then another one tomorrow and… let’s be honest, if I go I won’t come back home, will I?”

Aria gave me a small smirk. “Probably not.”

“Raincheck?” I said hopefully, and Aria rolled her eyes.

“Sure thing, Shimmer,” Aria replied, a touch of sarcasm curling her lips upwards. “Stand me up again though, and we’ll have words.”

“Mmm… will we though?” I asked playfully, leaning down and nuzzling my nose against hers for a moment before getting another taste of that perfect Cupid’s bow.

Aria let out a hum that was equal parts frustration and enjoyment.

Eventually, though, we parted and she got dressed, throwing on the outfit she’d had on yesterday before making her way to the door.

A crazy urge descended on me like a mach two whiffle bat, and before my better judgment could get in the way I made the snap decision to act on it.

I got to the door at the same time Aria did and put my hand over hers just as it touched the doorknob. She glanced up to me, her eyebrow doing that thing where she asks me a question with it.

Rather than answer, I leaned forward and gave her a single, soft kiss on the lips.

“Have a good day at work,” I said in a quiet voice as I pulled away.

Aria blinked up at me in shocked astonishment. Whatever she had been expecting it had not been that. She was genuinely lost for words as she stared at me in silence.

Then, as if some decision had been made and had clicked into place in the back of her head, Aria’s usual stoically annoyed expression came back, she nodded, and then left.

But she reached out to give my hand a quick squeeze before she did, and I rode that high for the rest of the day.