(requested by anonymous)
When Mostima arrived at Penguin Logistics’ Rhodes Island HQ, she’d expected to find Exusiai, or maybe Texas, or at least Sora or Croissant, but instead she found Bison waiting for her, sitting at the bar with a glass bottle of cola. “Mostima! Welcome back,” he cheerfully greeted.
“Hey, Bison. Where’d everyone else run off to?” She set her bag next to the door. “They leave you here by yourself?”
“The Doctor sent them out, Emperor included. She didn’t want me to go with them, though; I think she noticed they weren’t the best influence on me.”
Mostima shook her head, her usual smile still on her face. “They aren’t so bad, especially when you know how to ignore them. How’ve they been treating you?”
“About as well as I’d expected.” Bison hopped off his stool, his thumb over the soda bottle to keep it from flying everywhere. “Staying more than fifteen minutes this time?”
“Actually, I’m taking a couple days off. I heard a rumor that I need to investigate before I head back out.”
He’d walked over to the office’s couch and booted up the game console and TV. “Sounds interesting. What’s the rumor?”
“It’s one I expected to hear about sooner or later, but I’m surprised it came up so quickly.” Mostima’s smile curled a little more than usual. “Did you tell the other girls you have a crush on me?”
“...How did you find out?” Unlike what she’d expected, Bison was perfectly calm.
She eyed him curiously. “I have my methods. You’re taking the fact that I knew pretty well.”
“I thought it was obvious enough while you were saving my life,” he shrugged. “If it took the rumor mill for you to find out, it doesn’t change much.”
“That’s fair...What’s your favorite thing about me?”
Bison sighed, setting down the controller to turn and look at her. “Do I start with how badass it is that you can stop time, how calm you are in a crisis, or how hot the halo/horn combination is?”
“Whichever you like.” Mostima sat down on the couch next to him. “Or you can tell me why you told them in the first place.”
“Exu asked what I thought of you, so I told her. She didn’t seem too happy about that.”
The fallen angel nodded. “Sounds about right. I don’t think she’ll ever live that down.”
“You two seemed like you knew each other well enough.” He unpaused his game, feeling the awkwardness was sufficiently dissipated. “Now that you’ve heard it from me, what are you going to do for the next couple of days?”
“Heh. Bison, do you really think just telling me that is all I wanted to hear?”
Bison glanced at her, confused and perturbed. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“It wasn’t about finding out if you liked me or not.” Mostima bit her lip. “It was about seeing if I felt anything about you.”
“Oh. Anything on that front?”
Her smile flatlined. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“A little.” Bison smirked. “Being around PL is teaching me how to mess with people better. You’re trying to ask me for something without saying, but until you say the words-”
“Would you seriously just kiss me already.”
He managed to pause his game again before freezing stone solid. “Right. That...That would be the next step, I guess.”
“Now you’re back to making sense.” Mostima shook her head. “Honestly, what are they teaching people these days?”
“Not to make assumptions about women’s intentions.”
She shrugged. “If you can’t figure it out yourself, you can always just ask.”
“...No wonder Exu fell for you so hard.” Bison scooted closer. “I guess we’re doing this?”
“That we are. Have you had your first kiss yet?”
He blushed. “Yeah. Not my proudest moment, but it happened.”
“Aww.” Even as part of a joke, she couldn’t manage to frown longer than a second. “I was hoping I’d be your first.”
“You’ll be the first I wanted.” When Mostima didn’t immediately make a move, Bison took the initiative.
An hour later, the rest of Penguin Logistics returned to HQ to find Mostima’s head resting in Bison’s lap; once Croissant and Sora had restrained Exusiai, the Emperor walked over to their newest member for a fist-flipper bump. “I knew you had guts, kid, but something like this? You’d better keep your door locked tonight, or Exu’ll fill you so full of holes, I could put a slice of you on a fish sandwich.”
“He’ll be fine,” Mostima muttered. “I’ll be in his room tonight, anyway.”
“...What did you do to her, Bison?” Texas spoke up after a moment of silence.
He shrugged. “I was honest.”
“He’s a good kid,” the angel continued, sitting up to set her head on his shoulder, “and an even better kisser.”
“This is whack,” the Emperor replied.
Texas glanced back towards the room where they were holding the other angel. “We shouldn’t tell her.”
“We’ll get around to it when we feel like.” Bison stood up, picking up Mostima as he did. “I’m heading to bed early tonight. Goodnight, guys.”
“Goodnight...Texas?”
She sighed. “I know, Boss. I’ll call the Doctor.”
“And make it fast.” A few shots echoed in the nearby detainment room. “If she shoots through that door, she might hit the TV.”