Themed Writing Competition #23: Of Mornings After
May 7, 2016 12:39:28 GMT
neonquincy1217 and Addy01 like this
Post by boogum on May 7, 2016 12:39:28 GMT
Read on FFN here.
Summary: “Grabby hands?” Her cheeks darkened. “Please, you were the one putting your hands all over me!”
Rating: T
Genre: Humour/Romance
Pairing: Aoko/Kaito
Word count: 1718
Sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains. Aoko groaned. Her head was pounding. She patted around blindly in search of the blanket so she could pull it up over her face and escape the offending brightness. Something soft yet hard made contact with her fingers. She stilled. That thing did not feel like blanket. It was too warm, too defined, too—
Aoko opened her eyes. All the breath got caught in her throat. That was a boy’s back she was touching. A boy’s bare back. She pulled her fingers away from his skin as if burnt, her brain still struggling to process the situation (her thoughts had got jammed somewhere between “boy” and “bed”). The blanket was tangled around his waist (thank the gods, because she did not want to know if he was just as naked down there as he was on top), but a glance upward only revealed a mess of brown hair. Far, far too familiar brown hair.
Oh no. No, no, no. This was so not happening.
The boy made a soft sound and rolled towards her, burying his face into the pillow. His arm somehow snuck around her waist. The shock of skin on skin informed her panic-dazed mind that she wasn’t wearing anything. Their legs touched, and she could feel the warmth of his body pressing against her side. Aoko let out an odd squeak. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and her breath came short and fast, almost hyperventilating. There was a boy in her bed. She was naked, and there was a boy in her bed, and—
But wait, this wasn’t even her bed. It wasn’t her room. Because it was—it was—
Aoko stared at her sleeping companion. Between the veil of his messy brown hair, she could make out features that she could have traced blind. The mouth that always curved into an impish grin, the nose that scrunched in that haughty (not cute!) way of his when he was annoyed, and the eyes that would have been a vivid blue had they not been closed. Yes, she knew this boy’s features well. Just as she was able to recognise that this was his bed, found in his bedroom.
A panicked little sound got caught in Aoko’s throat. The haziness that had made her brain too sluggish to put the pieces together was finally wearing off. Her head was pounding, her mouth was dry and tasted funny, and she was naked in bed with Kuroba Kaito, her neighbour and childhood friend. So, Aoko did what any self-respecting girl would when waking up to find herself in such a situation: she screamed. Loudly.
“Get off!” Aoko shrieked, shoving at the boy who had dared to snuggle against her.
Kaito groaned, then let out a yelp when he almost toppled off the bed. He caught himself and swung into a sitting position, blinking at her in confusion. His hair was sticking up everywhere. She got an eyeful of, well, everything. Her cheeks burned a brilliant shade of red, and she quickly clutched the blanket to her chest, ducking her head to avert her gaze. There was far too much naked male going on in front of her right now.
“A-Aoko, what—” Kaito made a grab for the sheet.
He still sounded a bit slurred and half-asleep, but she knew it was only a matter of time before he realised what must have happened, just like she had. A soft curse escaped his lips. She chanced a glance at him from under her lashes and saw the colour drain from his cheeks. His eyes were wide and fixed on the blanket she was holding to her breasts. Yep, there it was: the epiphany of doom.
“We didn’t?” he asked in a hesitant voice.
“I don’t know,” she wailed, wishing that the bed would swallow her whole. “I can’t remember!”
Her memories from last night were fragmented and hazy at best. There had been alcohol. There had been celebrating. Everyone else had left. Kaito had annoyed her, and she’d tussled with him on the floor, and then—
Stomach flutters. Heart pounding. His face too close. His body warm and pressing against her. A kiss…
Aoko blushed and bit her lip. “You kissed me.”
She said it accusingly. Kaito’s cheeks bloomed with pink.
“You kissed me back!” he retorted.
“Well, you took it further!”
“I did not! It was your grabby hands that pulled off my shirt first!”
“Grabby hands?” Her cheeks darkened. “Please, you were the one putting your hands all over me!”
“You weren’t exactly complaining!”
Aoko opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to think of a comeback. Okay, maybe there had been some mutual groping (or a lot), but it was Kaito’s fault they had ended up naked in his bed. She was sure of it.
Kaito cursed again and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. Let’s just—let’s just calm down. If we just think about this clearly, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure out if we—if we—” he swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
The words he was too embarrassed to speak lingered between them, silent and as big and awkward as an elephant wearing a ballerina costume. Aoko groaned and hid her face against the blanket.
“Why can’t you remember?” she cried.
“Why can’t you?” he snapped.
She hit his arm in a petty vent of frustration, though not hard. “Don’t try to put this back on me!”
“Then don’t put it on me!”
There was a long moment where they just glared at each other, and then Aoko sniffed. Kaito half-reached towards her in dismay.
“Oh, geez, don’t start crying. I was just—”
“I’m not crying!”
She narrowed her watery eyes at him, daring him to say otherwise. Kaito didn’t dare.
“Look, neither of us can remember much,” he said, not quite meeting her gaze. “We might not have, you know—” he made an awkward gesture with his hands, then let out a breath. “Maybe we just … fell asleep.”
“Naked?”
He blushed. “Well, uh, there is that.”
Aoko groaned again. If only there had been no alcohol. She should have learnt her lesson from seeing her father behave like a fool when he got drunk, but no. She just had to get caught up in the celebrations, and Kaito just had to annoy her, and they just had to end up on the floor. Making out. Heavily.
Her heart thumped a little faster. More memories were beginning to fall into place. Hands frantically tugging at cloth. Breathy gasps and toe-curling kisses. The stumbling, unable-to-get-enough-of-each-other trek to the bedroom.
Aoko snuck another glance at Kaito from under her lashes. She felt a bit odd, almost hyperaware, as if there was an electric charge in the air that connected her to the boy sitting opposite her. The blanket covering her suddenly seemed too thin. Stupid thoughts kept popping into her brain, like the fact that his body was indeed as lithe and sinewy as it looked (her hands still remembered), or that there was a spot near his ear that elicited all sorts of interesting responses if stimulated in the right way.
Something stirred within her. She shifted uncomfortably, biting down on her lower lip. Kaito seemed just as on edge. He stared at her with darkened eyes; only a thin circle of blue remained around his pupils. Neither of them could remember what exactly had happened in his bedroom, but it was clear that they remembered enough.
Enough to know that it wasn’t the alcohol that had kept them kissing after the initial moment of contact. Enough to know that their current frustration and embarrassment didn’t erase the lingering traces of desire that rippled through their veins.
Blood pounded in Aoko’s ears. “Kaito.”
Her voice sounded strange even to her. A little too husky. A little too … something. Kaito responded to the tone as she knew he would. He leaned forward, hesitating just a moment before he brushed his lips against hers. There were no fireworks, no explosions of magic as fictional heroines professed should happen when kissing the boy one (secretly) liked. His mouth was soft and caressing, teasing her into wanting more.
So much more.
Yes, that was a better description. His kisses were addictive. Perhaps that was why she and Kaito had lost control last night. Perhaps that was why she had wanted to experience it again—that sweet, drug-like feeling that made her shift a little closer; that made her thread her fingers through his hair and open her mouth to him, deepening the kiss until she felt weak-limbed and like her thoughts were slipping away into blissful incoherency.
Her back hit the mattress. Aoko made a soft sound pulled back from the kiss, breathing hard. Kaito leaned over her, his hair tousled more than ever. He was also trying to catch his breath.
“Um,” she said.
Oh yeah, real intelligent. Just say “um”.
“Sorry,” Kaito said, doing better with actually formulating words. “I got a bit carried away.”
“No.”
The word was out before she could stop it. Heat spread across her cheeks.
“I mean,” she continued, “I like you.”
Panic made her eyes widen. Oh, gods. That was too honest! Abort, abort!
“It!” she hastily tried to correct. “I liked it!”
Kaito just laughed. “Baka,” he said teasingly. “I like you too.”
She flushed and bit her lip, embarrassed and pleased in one. Kaito’s cheeky smile faltered a little, and he shifted to put more space between them.
“Maybe we should postpone this conversation,” he told her. “At least until we’re dressed in more than a sheet and a blanket.”
She blinked. “Huh?”
He poked her lightly in the cheek. “Blame it on the fact you’re too cute. I’m struggling to keep my self-control together as it is.”
Her blush darkened. Oh.
“Of course,” he said with an impish smile, “if you were interested in recreating our missing memory of last night, I wouldn’t complain.”
Aoko’s eyes narrowed. The next second a pillow hit him in the head and she was on her feet, blanket wrapped tightly around her body. Kaito sighed and flopped back against the bed.
“Figured as much,” he muttered.
I might have toed the T rating a little with this one. Hopefully, it's okay.
I actually was planning to write a very different idea (action/humour featuring Conan, Sonoko and a disguised Kid), but my weekend has ended up being crazy busy and I knew I was never going to get the time to write that particular story. Might do something with that later.
In any case, let me know if this submission needs adjusting for the rating. I only wrote it so there could be a vote, but I'm half-asleep and my PG filter tends to go to rubbish when I try to edit like this.
Summary: “Grabby hands?” Her cheeks darkened. “Please, you were the one putting your hands all over me!”
Rating: T
Genre: Humour/Romance
Pairing: Aoko/Kaito
Word count: 1718
Of Mornings After
Sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains. Aoko groaned. Her head was pounding. She patted around blindly in search of the blanket so she could pull it up over her face and escape the offending brightness. Something soft yet hard made contact with her fingers. She stilled. That thing did not feel like blanket. It was too warm, too defined, too—
Aoko opened her eyes. All the breath got caught in her throat. That was a boy’s back she was touching. A boy’s bare back. She pulled her fingers away from his skin as if burnt, her brain still struggling to process the situation (her thoughts had got jammed somewhere between “boy” and “bed”). The blanket was tangled around his waist (thank the gods, because she did not want to know if he was just as naked down there as he was on top), but a glance upward only revealed a mess of brown hair. Far, far too familiar brown hair.
Oh no. No, no, no. This was so not happening.
The boy made a soft sound and rolled towards her, burying his face into the pillow. His arm somehow snuck around her waist. The shock of skin on skin informed her panic-dazed mind that she wasn’t wearing anything. Their legs touched, and she could feel the warmth of his body pressing against her side. Aoko let out an odd squeak. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and her breath came short and fast, almost hyperventilating. There was a boy in her bed. She was naked, and there was a boy in her bed, and—
But wait, this wasn’t even her bed. It wasn’t her room. Because it was—it was—
Aoko stared at her sleeping companion. Between the veil of his messy brown hair, she could make out features that she could have traced blind. The mouth that always curved into an impish grin, the nose that scrunched in that haughty (not cute!) way of his when he was annoyed, and the eyes that would have been a vivid blue had they not been closed. Yes, she knew this boy’s features well. Just as she was able to recognise that this was his bed, found in his bedroom.
A panicked little sound got caught in Aoko’s throat. The haziness that had made her brain too sluggish to put the pieces together was finally wearing off. Her head was pounding, her mouth was dry and tasted funny, and she was naked in bed with Kuroba Kaito, her neighbour and childhood friend. So, Aoko did what any self-respecting girl would when waking up to find herself in such a situation: she screamed. Loudly.
“Get off!” Aoko shrieked, shoving at the boy who had dared to snuggle against her.
Kaito groaned, then let out a yelp when he almost toppled off the bed. He caught himself and swung into a sitting position, blinking at her in confusion. His hair was sticking up everywhere. She got an eyeful of, well, everything. Her cheeks burned a brilliant shade of red, and she quickly clutched the blanket to her chest, ducking her head to avert her gaze. There was far too much naked male going on in front of her right now.
“A-Aoko, what—” Kaito made a grab for the sheet.
He still sounded a bit slurred and half-asleep, but she knew it was only a matter of time before he realised what must have happened, just like she had. A soft curse escaped his lips. She chanced a glance at him from under her lashes and saw the colour drain from his cheeks. His eyes were wide and fixed on the blanket she was holding to her breasts. Yep, there it was: the epiphany of doom.
“We didn’t?” he asked in a hesitant voice.
“I don’t know,” she wailed, wishing that the bed would swallow her whole. “I can’t remember!”
Her memories from last night were fragmented and hazy at best. There had been alcohol. There had been celebrating. Everyone else had left. Kaito had annoyed her, and she’d tussled with him on the floor, and then—
Stomach flutters. Heart pounding. His face too close. His body warm and pressing against her. A kiss…
Aoko blushed and bit her lip. “You kissed me.”
She said it accusingly. Kaito’s cheeks bloomed with pink.
“You kissed me back!” he retorted.
“Well, you took it further!”
“I did not! It was your grabby hands that pulled off my shirt first!”
“Grabby hands?” Her cheeks darkened. “Please, you were the one putting your hands all over me!”
“You weren’t exactly complaining!”
Aoko opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to think of a comeback. Okay, maybe there had been some mutual groping (or a lot), but it was Kaito’s fault they had ended up naked in his bed. She was sure of it.
Kaito cursed again and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. Let’s just—let’s just calm down. If we just think about this clearly, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure out if we—if we—” he swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
The words he was too embarrassed to speak lingered between them, silent and as big and awkward as an elephant wearing a ballerina costume. Aoko groaned and hid her face against the blanket.
“Why can’t you remember?” she cried.
“Why can’t you?” he snapped.
She hit his arm in a petty vent of frustration, though not hard. “Don’t try to put this back on me!”
“Then don’t put it on me!”
There was a long moment where they just glared at each other, and then Aoko sniffed. Kaito half-reached towards her in dismay.
“Oh, geez, don’t start crying. I was just—”
“I’m not crying!”
She narrowed her watery eyes at him, daring him to say otherwise. Kaito didn’t dare.
“Look, neither of us can remember much,” he said, not quite meeting her gaze. “We might not have, you know—” he made an awkward gesture with his hands, then let out a breath. “Maybe we just … fell asleep.”
“Naked?”
He blushed. “Well, uh, there is that.”
Aoko groaned again. If only there had been no alcohol. She should have learnt her lesson from seeing her father behave like a fool when he got drunk, but no. She just had to get caught up in the celebrations, and Kaito just had to annoy her, and they just had to end up on the floor. Making out. Heavily.
Her heart thumped a little faster. More memories were beginning to fall into place. Hands frantically tugging at cloth. Breathy gasps and toe-curling kisses. The stumbling, unable-to-get-enough-of-each-other trek to the bedroom.
Aoko snuck another glance at Kaito from under her lashes. She felt a bit odd, almost hyperaware, as if there was an electric charge in the air that connected her to the boy sitting opposite her. The blanket covering her suddenly seemed too thin. Stupid thoughts kept popping into her brain, like the fact that his body was indeed as lithe and sinewy as it looked (her hands still remembered), or that there was a spot near his ear that elicited all sorts of interesting responses if stimulated in the right way.
Something stirred within her. She shifted uncomfortably, biting down on her lower lip. Kaito seemed just as on edge. He stared at her with darkened eyes; only a thin circle of blue remained around his pupils. Neither of them could remember what exactly had happened in his bedroom, but it was clear that they remembered enough.
Enough to know that it wasn’t the alcohol that had kept them kissing after the initial moment of contact. Enough to know that their current frustration and embarrassment didn’t erase the lingering traces of desire that rippled through their veins.
Blood pounded in Aoko’s ears. “Kaito.”
Her voice sounded strange even to her. A little too husky. A little too … something. Kaito responded to the tone as she knew he would. He leaned forward, hesitating just a moment before he brushed his lips against hers. There were no fireworks, no explosions of magic as fictional heroines professed should happen when kissing the boy one (secretly) liked. His mouth was soft and caressing, teasing her into wanting more.
So much more.
Yes, that was a better description. His kisses were addictive. Perhaps that was why she and Kaito had lost control last night. Perhaps that was why she had wanted to experience it again—that sweet, drug-like feeling that made her shift a little closer; that made her thread her fingers through his hair and open her mouth to him, deepening the kiss until she felt weak-limbed and like her thoughts were slipping away into blissful incoherency.
Her back hit the mattress. Aoko made a soft sound pulled back from the kiss, breathing hard. Kaito leaned over her, his hair tousled more than ever. He was also trying to catch his breath.
“Um,” she said.
Oh yeah, real intelligent. Just say “um”.
“Sorry,” Kaito said, doing better with actually formulating words. “I got a bit carried away.”
“No.”
The word was out before she could stop it. Heat spread across her cheeks.
“I mean,” she continued, “I like you.”
Panic made her eyes widen. Oh, gods. That was too honest! Abort, abort!
“It!” she hastily tried to correct. “I liked it!”
Kaito just laughed. “Baka,” he said teasingly. “I like you too.”
She flushed and bit her lip, embarrassed and pleased in one. Kaito’s cheeky smile faltered a little, and he shifted to put more space between them.
“Maybe we should postpone this conversation,” he told her. “At least until we’re dressed in more than a sheet and a blanket.”
She blinked. “Huh?”
He poked her lightly in the cheek. “Blame it on the fact you’re too cute. I’m struggling to keep my self-control together as it is.”
Her blush darkened. Oh.
“Of course,” he said with an impish smile, “if you were interested in recreating our missing memory of last night, I wouldn’t complain.”
Aoko’s eyes narrowed. The next second a pillow hit him in the head and she was on her feet, blanket wrapped tightly around her body. Kaito sighed and flopped back against the bed.
“Figured as much,” he muttered.
I might have toed the T rating a little with this one. Hopefully, it's okay.
I actually was planning to write a very different idea (action/humour featuring Conan, Sonoko and a disguised Kid), but my weekend has ended up being crazy busy and I knew I was never going to get the time to write that particular story. Might do something with that later.
In any case, let me know if this submission needs adjusting for the rating. I only wrote it so there could be a vote, but I'm half-asleep and my PG filter tends to go to rubbish when I try to edit like this.