This is Ysabet's fault for starting a cherry stem tieing contest.
I won.
^_^

• • •

Shades of Grey: Popping the Cherry
by Icka! M. Chif

• • •

"Ooo." Hakuba looked up from his lunch to see a grinning Kuroba leaning over him. The sun filtered from the tree branches above them, giving the magician-thief a speckled halo, which was somehow oddly symbolic. "Cherries."

"Yes. Would you-" before he could blink, Kuroba was sitting cross-legged in front of him, bento in lap and a cherry in his mouth "-care for a cherry?"

Kuroba spat something into his hand, extending it to show the cherry stem loosely tied into a knot. "Love one." Kuroba beamed.

One of Hakuba's eyebrows rose in faint annoyance. Trust Kuroba to be agile with his mouth.

... of course, he did know that from personal experience too....

Well, no. He had kissed the Kid. He had yet to kiss Kuroba. Even though technically they were the same person, they did act differently...

He was getting off track.

Hakuba chose a cherry out of the small container containing the tiny red fruits and popped it into his mouth. Separating the sweet fruit from the stem, he chewed that and swallowed it first, pit and all, before twisting the stem around in his mouth and tying it in a knot. He opened his mouth, plucking it off the tip of his tongue, holding it up for Kuroba's inspection. It may have taken him a little bit longer than Kuroba to tie, but it was a tighter knot.

One of Kuroba's eyebrows and half of his mouth lifted up in what could only be constituted as a challenging smirk.

Hakuba's eyebrows came down as he answered it with a smirk of his own. Bring it on.

Kuroba smiled wolfishly back, his violet eyes sparkling as he perused the selection. Nimble fingers plucked a fruit from the box and placed it on Kuroba's lips before it was sucked into the depths of Kuroba's mouth.

So not fair.

Hakuba waited patiently as Kuroba's face turned into a mask of concentration, his mouth twitching as the stem was contorted into shape. Finally he spat the cherry stem back out and held it up for Hakuba to see.

He'd tied the cherry stem into a double knot.

Bastard.

Hakuba pointedly ignored Kuroba's triumphant smirk as he retrieved TWO cherries and put them in his mouth, working on the stems.

Kuroba's smug grin faded slightly as he looked up behind Hakuba. "Yo, Aoko! What's up with Koizumi?"

Hakuba looked up to see Aoko with a hand on Koizumi's arm, a worried expression on the blue-eyed girl's face. Koizumi had a hand clasped over her nose and rather glazed expression on her face.

"I don't know!" Aoko said worriedly. "We were walking over to join you when she suddenly got this nosebleed!"

Koizumi was waving her free hand as if to say she was all right. It wasn't convincing as Aoko helped the larger girl sit down.

Hakuba pulled the stems from his mouth and absent-mindedly held them for Kuroba to see. The stems were tied together in a square knot. Kuroba gave him a sullen look. "Anything we can do to help?" Hakuba offered.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." Koizumi said, accepting the handkerchief that Aoko pressed upon her. There was a strange inflection to her voice and Hakuba noted with some concern that her eyes appeared to be slightly dilated. "Just... continue with what you were doing. Please."

Both he and Kuroba exchanged puzzled looks for a moment before Kuroba shrugged and grabbed another cherry.

-fin-

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