Kiss
Part 1 - Part 2
Pairing: Aethericshipping / AlitoEna (it's there, but it's not a thing. Makes sense in context I hope.) Characters: Alito, Ena, Vector, Eliphas. (Yuma, Kotori, Astral) Rating: K+ (Vector drops a bomb) Wordcount: 3228 Takes place after canon
Yuma woke up to the sound of Kotori and Astral's worried talks. He tried to ask "How long have I been sleeping?", but all he could do was letting out a long, aching moan.
"Yuma!" said Kotori with trembling voice. "You seem to be alright." stated Astral while examining for head to toes. “You were unconscious for a long time. Almost one day.” The boy tried to get up and sit, only to be stopped by his friends. He still needed to lay down and rest. "Is everyone here?" he groaned. "Yeah, they're all safe." replied the blue alien, indicating the others with a quick motion of his head. “There's been a bit of commotion, though.”
“Vector?” The human could hear his and Alito's voice. They seemed wide awake and way too energetic. “No. Ena and Eliphas.” Yuma squinted his eyes. Those two, creating commotion? “I think it's my fault.” started Kotori. “Your...?” “Yeah. You know how I'm always hitting you?” the girl blushed slightly. “A-and while we're talking about that, Yuma, I'm really sorry about it...” she apologized. “I have never really thought about it and-” “Long story short” said a familiar and rude-sounding voice “Ena slapped Eliphas because she was angry at us for being 'too reckless'.” Vector hand-quoted those last words. “That's understandable!” stated Alito, crouching near Yuma. He noticed that both of them were in their human forms. “But then, they started arguing about whether slapping someone is a sign of affection or not, and things started to get heated. “Since Ena has only witnessed Kotori hitting you, Yuma” continued the green-eyed boy “she mistook it for a token of affection. But Eliphas got pretty offended by that, and started insulting Chaos and humans. You know how he is.”
Kotori had buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. “That's dumb, right?” Vector ignored her. “And after all, who wouldn't want to punch Eliphas in the face?” “I don't know, man.” replied Alito. “You can say a lot with a single punch.” “Yeah, like 'I hate your guts'. Not everyone goes around cross-punching their friends like you do.” “Well, yeah, what I'm saying here is that those two are both fairly right.” “Didn't you tell them they were wrong?!” “No, I said that they should have apologized to-”
“Can you two take this discussion somewhere else?” sighed Yuma. He really wasn't in the mood to hear such a confusing explanation. The only thing he understood was that Eliphas and Ena had a fight, and neither of them admitted their guilt, or was planning to.
“Yuma and the others need to rest.” agreed Kotori. Her cheeks were still a little red. “If you feel like discussing this so loudly, please don't do it here."
"Whatever." puffed Vector. "I'm going for a walk." Alito got up and followed Vector, after saying bye to the others. "And I'll go look for Ena!" "Huh?" The red-head's eyes followed the other Barian. "Why's that?" "I just want to talk to her. Wanna come with me?" Vector assumed a disgusted look. "Of course not! I don't want to have anything to do with those guys. I'm going outside. See you all later."
Alito shrugged, and went in the opposite direction. He had to walk up and down the stairs a couple of times and look in a half dozen rooms before finding Ena. She was standing in front of one of those huge windows those towers had, staring at the distance with a pensive look.
"Such an ugly frown doesn't suit you." he said from the door in order to announce himself. The woman lightly turned her head, and immediately went back to what she was doing without saying a word. The Barian approached her nonetheless. "Nice view." “I may have made a mistake” she spoke slowly, answering a question Alito never asked, almost like if she had read his thoughts. “but that didn't give him the right to speak like that.” “Of course” agreed Alito, sitting on the edge of the window. “But people say all kind of stupid things when they are angry.” “But I explained him!” protested Ena. “He could have at least tried to understand!” “Why do I get the feeling that, if Eliphas ever tried to do that in his whole life, we would all be in a better situation?” chuckled the young man. Ena's lips curled a little. “Y'know, Kotori apologized to Yuma, when he woke up.” said then Alito. “About hitting him that often.” “She did?” Ena tilted her head. “Yes. And I think she realized she should have done that after seeing you and Eliphas fighting.” the boy adjusted his hair as he kept on speaking. “No matter how close you are, or why you are doing that. Getting hit is not pleasant.” “I've seen you and Yuma punch each other more than once.” insisted the woman. “W-we agreed on that.” replied Alito. “Together. We do that to play. I'd get upset if he did that seriously.”
“Oh...” Ena lowered her face. Guilt was quickly growing inside her. “Then... You're right, I have to tell Eliphas I was wrong.” she sounded a little annoyed by her own confession. “I wonder if he'll listen, though.” Silence fell as the two got absorbed by their thoughts.
“Maybe” boomed Alito, startling Ena “I have an idea! You can apologize, and prove him human are not garbage as he thinks!” “... I'm not sure he thinks humans are-” “You just have to kiss him!”
Ena stared at Alito as if he had just went completely crazy. “I have to...?” “Kiss him.” he repeated. “And what does that mean?” The Astralian looked genuinely confused by his words. “Basically, you have to press your lips against his. A true kiss is something that can only mean 'I love you'!” he spelled out. “Such an action does...?” Alito looked at her. She was baffled. “... Do you understand how it's done?” She shook her head in response. “I could show you.” he suggested. “But only if that's OK with you. A kiss is something you share with someone truly close to you, you know.” “It's alright.” agreed Ena. “You got me curious. I don't think I've ever seen anyone... 'kissing'.”
Alito, still sitting, stretched his arms and posed his hands on her cheeks, gently pulling her closer, and barely pressing his lips over hers for a quick instant. She didn't move, and analyzed every little gesture. She noticed he had closed his eyes. “And that's how it's done!” he smirked. “Well, that wasn't a real kiss, though.” “I have to take his face like that?” wondered Ena, imitating Alito’s actions mid-air. “Why wasn't that a real kiss?” “Ah, you see, you're supposed to put your tongue into it.” “M-my tongue?!” stammered Ena. “Put it where?!” “Well, into Eliphas' mouth.” explained the other. “And he should do that, too.” “Put his tongue in my mouth.” The boy nodded. “That sounds... gross. Do people truly do that? Or are you pulling my leg?” “No need to get this freaked out, Ena!” he tried to calm her down. “Yes, they do that! And they like it so much it became the universal symbol of love!” Ena was having an hard time believing any word out of Alito’s mouth. “Well, show me.” “What?” “Give me a real kiss, or I'll have to think you're a liar.”
The Barian sighed and jumped down the window, in order to reach her better. “Ok then!” he said. “Remember to close your eyes. It's bad manners looking. And oh, this is my first kiss.” he confessed. “So I apologize in advance in case it sucks.” “Wait a second! You're giving me lessons but you never kissed anyone?!” “Well, yeah.” he laughed. “I'm still trying to get used to this 'love' thing. But I watch a lot of TV shows!”
Ena's mouth was wide open in shock, and she didn't even know what a “TV show” was. “Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm only trying to help you!” It was true. Alito had no interest whatsoever in Ena. They barely knew each other, after all! But it was obvious that she she wanted to reconcile with that stuck-up guy, and maybe even prove him that human beings can be amazing too. And who knows, maybe, with a nice kiss, Eliphas would have finally mellowed down a bit.
“Enough talk. Let's get done with this, so you can go to your boyfriend.” “My...?” “Close your eyes and just... get carried away, or something among these lines.” Ena obeyed and got closer to Alito, unsure on what she had to do. At first, she found Alito's tongue disgusting, so she decided to find a way to stop him from moving it: sucking it. The boy let out a surprised moan before moving away. “Hey, nice moves! You're already a professional kisser!” He wasn't embarrassed at all, and his words seemed sincere. “Really...? To tell you the truth, that freaked me out, and I wanted to get you to cut it out.” “Was it that bad?!” mumbled Alito. “Well, no, I mean I... I actually liked to... do that to your tongue.” she added, crossing her arms nervously.
“Phew!” Alito was relieved by those words. “I need to be ready for my real first kiss, right?” “Is your first kiss meant to be important...?” Ena suddenly felt like he had wasted a precious moment. The dark-skinned boy let out a strange sound (“Mneh!”) before answering. “I guess every time you kiss your other half has to be. And after all, you just kissed such a good looking guy! You should be proud of yourself!” Ena giggled and nodded. “I should get going.” she added. “One last try, and I'm off to look for Eliphas!”
*
“Heeey, if it isn't that Eliphas loser!” Eliphas snorted as he heard Vector approaching.
“Why are you here?” he blurted out. “You'd wish I came here for you, huh?” Vector teased. “But no, no. I was taking a short walk to stretch out a bit, and who do I see? No one worth of my time, I assure you that.” “Allow me to repeat myself, then. Why are you here?” “Well, you know, someone woke me up from my beauty-sleep, and now I need to relieve my stress.” the Barian stated. “You and your little friend had a fight, huh?” “That is none of your business.” thundered Eliphas. Vector kept on speaking, relentless. “Talking in such a rude way to your beloved Ena... Way to go, Eliphas!” “Beloved...?” “Oh, don't try to deny that!” he punches his arm. The only result he had, though, was confusing Eliphas about both his words and that odd gesture. What was with these people and hitting him?!
Vector rolled his eyes. “It means that you care a lot about her and stuff, ok? The point is, you are both huge nerds. Getting all fired up about such a stupid thing-” “I care about her as much as I care about the other inhabitants of this world.” the other snapped. “I don't understand what you are trying to say.” “You still think you haven't fully accepted Chaos yet, do you?” Vector put his hands on his hips. “And yet Ena makes butterflies fly in your stomach and all that disgusting romantic stuff.” One of Eliphas' hands reached for his stomach. “She makes what to me?”
He was unsure about what these butterflies were or how they managed to get into his guts, but somehow he could understand the Barian's words. Not that he wanted to... Sometimes, when with Ena, he felt... different. He never gave to importance to that. He just assumed it was because he trusted her advices and suggestions, and found her to be a reasonable person. But now Vector was suggesting that those feelings came from somewhere else.
Eliphas' eyes widened in surprise. Him? Tainted by Chaos? “I am the Will of the Astral World.” “Hey, and I'm Vector. Nice to meet you!” He lowered the hand he had offered to Eliphas once the Astralian made it clear that he didn't understand the joke. “What I'm trying to say here is that Ena's slap hurt you so much because you have a crush on her.” Eliphas remembered that word. 'Crush'... he had heard Yuma saying that, once. He sill wondered what that meant, but Vector was quicker than him. “Listen,you like her. Not as you like your world or you precious Rank-Up or your deck. You like her as a lover. You should make out. You know, smooches and hugs and cuddles and all that cutesy shit girls like.” “... Are you just saying words, or do these sentences have a real meaning?”
Vector used his hands to hide his face and muffle a scream. “You are so dense. I- no, wait. Why am I even here talking to you? I don't have to do that.” “Yes, you don't have to.” Eliphas agreed.
“And this is where I take my leave!” Vector stretched and started heading back. “You will realize one day, anyway. I hope she doesn't like you back! Who would blame her, after that tantrum...” said his fading voice.
He just wanted to mess up with me. Eliphas said to himself, suddenly strangely worried about that whole story. None of the things he said made any sense. And of course she likes me. We've been in confidential terms for a while now. That must mean something, right?
He suddenly heard another voice calling him, interrupting his train of thoughts.
“Eliphas?” “Oh, what now?” he hissed. Ena stopped on her tracks, intimidated by such a furious answer. The man coughed to break the awkward silence that had fallen between them. “What is it?” “I- We need to talk.” she started, slowly but with determination, as if she was trying to tame a wild animal. Eliphas raised an eyebrow. “About what?” “About the discussion we had.” she said, walking closer to him. “I wanted to say I'm sorry.”
Eliphas sighed. “I'm glad about that. But Ena, I want you to understand that acting like humans-” Ena shut his mouth by grabbing him and pulling him closer to kiss him. She had to get on her toes to reach his mouth. “I want you to understand.” she took advantage of the fact that Eliphas didn't know how to react. “That was a kiss. A kiss can only mean 'love'. Alito told me” she went back on her feet, still holding his face. “and he's a Barian, so he doesn't count as human. He's an outsider, and he knows that simple gestures can still mean a world. I mistook hitting people for a token of affection. I'm sorry. This was to make up for that. Are you ok?” she asked, seeing that Eliphas was just staring at her. “Was it the tongue? I knew you wouldn't like the first time. It happened to me too. It's kind of slimy and-” “No.” he whispered. “It... felt like that time you gave me chocolate. At Yuma's house.” “Warm inside?” Eliphas didn't answer to that. Are these... 'butterflies' in my stomach right now? He looked away. “Y-you didn't feel it?” Maybe it's like Vector said... but is it even possible? Ena raised a hand to her chin. “I didn't pay much attention to that. You want to try that again?” “W-what?” The woman was just smiling at him, wiggling around with her arms behind her back. Eliphas could feel his cheeks boiling. That never happened to him, not even once. That was something about being so close to Ena that made him feel almost sick. And yet, he agreed to that without a second thought.
This time, he was the one to lean towards Ena. He let her take the lead, since he still had no idea of what they were doing. The fuzzy feeling in his guts was back, and Vector's words were ringing in his head. Did he... love Ena? He considered her to be close to him, that was true. But were those feelings he was having in that moment... correct? It was painful and unbearable, but, for some reason, he didn't want to get better. In fact, he was getting pleasantly used to that.
After what seemed an eternity, Ena moved away, leaving Eliphas a little disappointed. “I think I got that, too, this time.” she was serious and pensive. “I think that's what Alito's meant!” she rejoiced. “He said that every kiss with someone really close to you is meant to feel special, and, well the kisses he gave me were good, but not as much as this one.” Eliphas stared down at her, astonished. She kissed Alito, too? For some reason, that filled him with rage. “I think you truly are my other half, Eliphas!” concluded Ena with a smile. “Your... 'other half'?” The Will of the Astral World unsure of what to say or do. The only thing he knew was that he couldn't get enough of Ena's lips and the way they tasted, but he couldn't possibly dare to ask for more. He tried to get those thoughts out of his mind by changing subject.
“Ena, I'm sorry about the things I told you.” he tried to look and sound as serious as he always was. “I might have... exaggerated. Slightly. You had slapped me in the face.” “Yeah.” replied Ena, amused by his bashfulness. “Do you want another kiss?”
Eliphas found himself not raising any objection. His lips met Ena's once again, way too quickly, as he embraced Ena's waist, and she put her hands around his neck.
“Alito? What are you doing here?” Vector ran into the other Barian on the stairs as he was going back inside. The green-eye boy's head was resting on his hands, as he looked over something while leaning on the railing. Vector turned to see what was so interesting to witness, and spotted what looked like Ena and Eliphas happily snogging. “Dear Vector, I am a genius.” announced Alito while straightening up. “You? Don't make me laugh!” replied the red-head. “Are you telling me that you are behind this?” “Well, I may have taught Ena how to kiss... And told her that she should have tried that, if she wanted to, well, kiss and make up with him.”
“ 'Make up', you say!” Vector was about bursting into a loud laughter. “It looks like a nice make out session, to me!” “Well, yeah, it seems like they're taking a liking to it, don't they?” smirked Alito.
“HEY, ELIPHAS!” shouted Vector, startling the couple. Ena saw Alito and waved at him with a satisfied smile on her face. “You should give it a break, buddy!” the former Barian emperor continued as the other waved back at Ena. “Don't consume her like that! From here it looks like you're trying to eat her face!” “Yeah!” backed him up Alito. “Ena, you should give him some lessons about it! You learned from the best, after all!”
The two of them started giggling like two schoolgirls as they ran back to the others. Eliphas was yelling at them, but they didn't care about a word he said. Everyone was going to know everything within 3 minutes.
