Ryland was getting ready to leave for school. “I'll see you later, baby” he said, adjusting his tie and leaning down to press a kiss to your lips like he did every day.

The moment his lips touched yours, the thick, slick product transferred to his lips. The warm scent of vanilla filled his senses, making him pull back slightly.

“Is this a new lip balm?” he asked, his eyes dropping from your eyes to your mouth. You hummed in response, “Yeah, I bought it recently”

While he was used to kissing you with lip balm on, you had never used a flavoured one before.

“M’kay” he muttered. He dipped back down to kiss you properly, his grip on your face tightening as he tasted the vanilla. His tongue swiped across your bottom lip. Usually, your morning parting kisses were quick because he had to rush out on his bike to reach school on time. Today, however, he lingered. He kept moving his lips against yours, lost in the feel of your mouth as the vanilla mixed with the lingering taste of coffee on his tongue.

For the rest of the day, he couldn't stop kissing you. He kept finding excuses to steal a quick peck, or better yet, pull you into a proper kiss. You were literally just existing, and the man was all over you, constantly leaning in with a quick, “Lemme just...” before pulling you into a smooch. You had to reapply the lip balm dozens of times because half of what you applied ended up on his lips, or directly into his system because he kept licking it off.

A few days later, he kissed you expecting that familiar vanilla flavour he had grown to love. Instead, a sweet, fruity scent hit him just before his lips landed on yours. He made a muffled noise against your mouth before pulling back, his tongue darting out to taste his own lips.

“It’s different” he whispered.

“What?” you asked.

“The flavour” he replied, “It’s not vanilla”

“It’s peach” you informed him.

His gaze dropped to your lips, noticing the sheer, light nude tint.

“‘S nice” he murmured. He leaned in to kiss you again, his tongue brushing the corner of your mouth. A tiny amount of the balm transferred to his tongue before it entered your mouth and he deepened the kiss. When he finally pulled back, you raised your hand to his face, your fingers gently wiping away the excess product smeared below his lips.

“If this keeps up, I'm going to run out of this balm way too soon” you teased.

“You have more than one, so it's fine” he said softly with a small smile.

The next few days went exactly the same way, with Ryland kissing you insistently as if he had absolutely no control over himself.

Then came the day you chose a new flavour - cherry, which left a sheer, slight red tint on your lips. Ryland noticed the difference immediately. The day went on as usual, except Ryland kept cutting you off in the middle of your sentences just to kiss you. Sometimes, his tongue would brush your lips before his actual mouth even touched yours, making you gasp into the kiss.

You were looking at your phone, “Hey, Ry, about dinner, I was thinking-”

He suddenly stepped into your space, and captured your lips in a deep, needy kiss, devouring your mouth like he was trying to taste every drop of it. When he finally pulled back just enough to breathe, he murmured against your lips, “Sorry for interrupting you, babe”

You blinked, breathless, a little flush spreading across your cheeks, “It’s fine, but as I was saying-”

He leaned right back down, cutting you off again. His hands found your waist to pull you against him. Yeah, he’s not sorry in the slightest.

Another day brought another flavour - caramel. It amused him because he wasn't eating any toffee, yet he kept getting the sugary taste of it directly from your mouth. This flavour made him nip at your bottom lip a lot as if he were eating actual toffee.

One morning, you were getting ready for the day and reached out to grab whichever tube your fingers landed on first. Ryland, who was tucking his shirt into his jeans, suddenly stopped you.

“Baby, can you...” he trailed off. His eyes were trained on the peach lip balm in your hand, “Can you use the cherry one today?”

You paused, processing his words, before a slow smile spread across your face, “Oh, do you like the cherry one, Ry?” you teased.

A light blush spread across his cheeks, and he finally forced himself to look into your eyes, "Uh, n-no, nothing like that. It just...” He stumbled over his words, trying to find an excuse, “It just tastes the best out of all of them” he managed to say.

You laughed softly, switching the peach tube for the cherry one, “You know, you could just use it on yourself, right?”

He stepped closer to you the second you finished applying it, wrapping his arms around you, “Won't taste as good as it does from you” he murmured, before leaning down to kiss you.

—

A blurb in which Grace and Rocky fall into the innate masculine desire of digging a gigantic hole in the sand while you and Adrian watch.

“Is digging large hole in ground part of human mating ritual?” Adrian asks as you both sit on the artificial beach watching Grace and Rocky hard at work on said giant hole in the sand. You think about that question for a bit before answering “I don’t know.”.

Adrian turns towards you, “So what is the purpose of Grace informing (name) on progress of hole if it is not some sort of display of worth?” they ask. “Your guess is as good as mine.” you shrug, “It’s just an innate desire that all human men have in them for some reason.” you remark as you watch said man and his rock companion continue with their meaningless task.

“Is digging a hole a mating thing on Erid?” you ask.

“Creating gifts and simulated nest making to show that eridian can provide for mate, yes. Creating large hole in ground, no.” Adrian answers as they turn back to look at Rocky coming up from the hole and using his two front legs to dig and his back leg to push the sand out of the way at the new spot. “Do not know why Rocky is doing this and also updating Adrian on progress.” they claim.

As if on cue, Grace looks up to both of you a little ways away and calls out “We’re making it wider!” with a big smile on his face. “Cool!” you call back in approval and watch them go back to their labor.

“Men are such fascinating creatures. You can spend years with them and never know what’s going on inside their brains and why they do half the things they do.” you remark, focusing on the way his muscles move and flex as he does his work. You stare for a while, admiring the show for a while only to hear Adrian letting out a long rumbling hum. A sound that you have learned is the hum of an Eridian basically checking someone out.

“Grace and Rocky look good digging hole.” their translator relays.

I spent almost an entire work shift drawing this tooth-rotting fluff