#viennrose

She let her knit brows go slack and unwound her jaw with a swallow that made one of the veins in her forehead flex. Her teeth ground together but not for long; she turned around with a stomp and threw up her hands. Always with the riddles and flowers Lili was whenever she opened her mouth or stared into space. And whenever she stared at Asuka she didn't stare but studied. What a fucking weirdo, for a girl so prim and proper and easy on the eyes.

It was enough to make Asuka bunch up fistfuls of her own hair, the way she was doing now. Her hands started to go numb, so she let go. Her blood raced so hard it could evaporate into the steam that ought to come out of her ears. What happened to the decency of just saying what you felt outright? Well she was gonna give that to her right now and real good. She turned around and stuck out her finger again out of habit, out of principle.

"Discipline, ya wanna talk discipline with me. I'll show ya some damn discipline, when I spin ya around and ram my hard foot up yer ass! If ya wanna beg me ta' be 'partners' so bad, tha' least ya can do is give me some courtesy over here. Yer killin' me. Ya always wanna jerk me like this when I'm already stiff."

Bridal Carry OR Carry Asuka | @viennrose

"Uuwhoa what tha' fu-!"

She blinked and the world whipped sideways banging her head against Lili's chest; the impact set her vision swimming. Instinct flailed her arms upward clenching around Lili's neck, her posture shriveling and her eyes squeezing not looking as they molded together. If her heart could somersault into a sprint on a hundred meter dash that was what it did; one of her eyes snapped open. Peeking down the ground became suggestion, a strip of color folding its textures in. Heels turned Lili into a tree trunk. She couldn't be satisfied having a natural edge over Asuka; she had to be the first thing seen, the thing observed, and the last thing towering in people's thoughts after she was gone.

She didn't know what this was about; frankly she didn't want to fucking know. Why waste time yelling at a wall? You had to break it first. This was a challenge, another level to their game. Now was the time to answer! Gritting her teeth she groaned hard squirming and dropping her grip to push free off Lili's shoulders. She hit the ground ass first grateful each passing nanosecond it was on the cheeks not the spine before bouncing and rolling right back on her feet.

A smirk split her lips. In an instant she rushed in arms flowing to sweep her up feather-light easy; the air curled behind her then dissolved still. Lili wasn't so heavy at all. Her knees buckled taking a step and she let gravity take her pitching them forward then one more step, slamming her foot to pavement. Their faces hovered so close she could see her breaths flutter Lili's eyelashes as their lungs filled together silent of tongue, thoughts stiller than a pond at rest. Her lips quivered she didn't know why. She licked them to steady herself, remembering to smile. But why remember? A storm billowed through her; the breeze rose. She cradled her closer, voice low so low yet with nothing and everything to hide behind a chuckle.

"This is how ya do it, idiot."

@viennrose | Blood Starters

She shook the wet off her hands and sighed squinting down her nose. Lili's dress hung drapped over her arms, and her arms were crossed under her chest making the outline of her breasts stick through her white undershirt. Irritation kept her voice from skipping a rock. It froze her face stern too, constipated with every unspoken want a braver idiot would just say. She stepped closer in a bound and snatched the raggedy toothbrush Dad had set aside for this kind of grime off the shelf above their washing machine.

"'Cuz yer washin' it wrong. Ya gotta soak it right away with cold water, then lemme show ya,"

She grabbed the baking soda and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the same shelf and set them aside. Then she grabbed the dress and dunked it into the cold well of the machine, where her own clothes had sunk to the bottom. Some heartbeats passed before she pulled it up again. A splash of perioxide and sprinkle of powder made the splotches fizz into rippling bubbles and in seconds the dress was writhing foam. The hiss of it cleared her mind, stole her tongue every time. The muscle keeping her rod straight finally bent. The fight was over. Then she brushed and brushed and brushed turning red back to velvet and linen and lace. The metallic tang of it filled her throat as full as Lili's tongue. She swallowed.

"Like that. This stuff melts it away. How tha' hell did nobody ever show ya? Ya got people wipin' yer ass since ya were born, how useless are ya ta' not learn a thing or two?"

@viennrose | Bonds Starters

"Did yer parents rehearse their aim before droppin' ya on tha' head? I ain't kiddin', tell me, moron!"

lili couldn’t explain it. she didn’t want to. she just needed to believe there was a reason she’d fallen in love with her. / WELCOME TO THE SALTY SPLATOON HOW TOUGH ARE YOU

@viennrose

She got one breath in before the whole middle of her was crushed and all she heard best was her blood pumping through her ears. Then she felt her squeeze and it stopped racing, and what she had left was the mewling out of Lili's mouth; her voice stopping and starting before it trailed dead in the water. What was it this time? Her head hung stuck against the crook of Asuka's neck, her hands trembling fighting to pull as much of her in as she could. This wasn't Lili. No. Just a dog left out in the rain.

It wasn't her job to guess why, guessing without proof was a fool's game anyway. Between the pair of them Asuka was better off of course, though not by much, counting her luck. If luck was the metric maybe neither drew winning straws in the end. Her hands gripped her twice first time sliding off her silk sleeves to hold her, but Lili wasn't slipping away, all a mess like this. This was the only way she wouldn't. It couldn't be a trick.

"I'll ask anyway. What ya want from me?"

@viennrose

Just looking at her Lili gave every impression she'd been born ripping human instinct out of herself, by hand, jumping straight into laced dresses and real leather boots with heels, her skin sprayed with perfume boiled out of the hundreds of thousands it sold for in cash. Asuka couldn't imagine her as much else except a fool even if her imagination was lacking to begin with. But standing this close took nothing more than her eyes to picture her trembling, to echo the quiver in her voice through and around her skull. Their eyes never quite met except through and over her, ready for whatever got stupid or impatient enough to jump from the shadows. This wasn't Lili but a girl. A girl with no mother.

Hell, Lili's mama probably didn't even have a womb. Maybe she'd bought Lili from somewhere and hadn't let Lili in on the fact she'd been misplaced. Or maybe she did know, and Lili had been reminded once again. Asuka's brow furrowed and she squeezed Lili's arm steady. The silence tasted bitter; her muscle was tight beneath her grip. This had to be the latter. Asuka spat over her shoulder.

It wasn't about her. She could knock anyone on their ass if it came to. Sighing Asuka whipped off her cap and mussed her hair before stuffing it back on. What else was she to do with her?

"Fine. Y'get my charity, just this once."

@viennrose

Her head was sweating bullets on her feet, but because it was summer and the full sun blasted over the front yard. Her chest heaved, panting lightly, because it was hot and punching and kicking and rolling in the dirt turned to asking for heat stroke real quickly. It had nothing to do with Lili, also on her feet and mirroring everything eating Asuka but worse; licking the wounds of her newest loss behind a glare. Asuka blinked the sweat out her eyes. There was no denying the pits of ache pockmarked up and down her body where the muscles ran thickest, and some even where they ran thin. Lili was eating something different, hitting harder weights, on something to graduate from flea bites to rock throwing.

Asuka slicked back her hair and wiped her hand on her shorts. She cocked an eyebrow at her, a gust of breath making her start of a smirk crooked and faint but not impossible to see before it died. Then she started walking away for the safety of her house; where Dad was too broke for an A/C but he did have fans. She'd dump ice over her head anyway. Then Lili's fingers wiggled onto her palm, held her, wanted something more. Their new little habit she'd let her do once and had yet to turn away. Asuka, stiff, wouldn't look at her with her eyes. Her voice would handle that.

"Listen. We got barley tea in tha' fridge, if ya want. Inside."

@viennrose

The thump of her textbook closing went through her chest and she turned half leaning in her desk chair. She cocked her head and lists of business regulations, and negotiation protocol sloshed right out. Lili had perfected tipping over wheelbarrows at a single glance. Asuka had dared to let her once. Then the next time, and the time after, and the time after that. It wouldn't quit. She'd sign herself away until she cracked it. The wry sternness overcoming her eyes was all that was left of an ancient exasperation. They were somehow too young and too old for this. She pursed her lips. Her face took the veneer of toughness.

"Yer not gettin' outta doin' tha' dishes if that's what this is. An' if it ain't then yer payin', pickin' a fancy place that wants an appointment for tha' door."

She scoffed and crossed her arms, scuffing her slippers against the floor. She ought to do that, show up somewhere too good to take everyone in her short-shorts and a tank top and tell them what for. Contempt and foolishness that's what it was, but that was not the hand Lili offered with. She knew that, she did. If she had to stare at a book big as her head on how best the law would allow her to swindle a second more, Asuka was gonna give up what it meant to be sane. She stood up gliding to her like a magnet and their bodies were two pieces coming together. She joined their hands at the seams. Then she spoke in the softness only her father knew some version of,

"Oh c'mere."

She pulled her in and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her, cradling her face as she breathed. This was 'Thank You'. She smoothed her thumbs across her cheeks. Her smile hurt. That was all the 'Yes' Lili was gonna get.