#also hi for.maggio

[self-shipyard]

"Dear Prudence" - A Self-Ship Fic

SYNOPSIS: A fic that ended up being way longer than I anticipated, Lumaca and Gh.iaccio continue to get ready for the day. Though things take a lovey-dovey turn when she accidentally leaves a kiss mark on his face and he decides to return the favor.

Word Count: 1633

CW: Mild Swearing, Suggestive Themes

The tip of the lipstick swiped heavily against Lumaca’s bottom lip, applying a generous black coat to it. She rubbed her lips together, giving the top half an even coat as well.

After a once-over in the mirror, she smiled contently at her handiwork.

A gentle knock called her attention to the door.

“Hey, Lumaca?” Ghiaccio’s voice called out to her from the other side. “Can I come in?”

She smiled.

“You can come in,” she replied.

The door opened and he walked in, giving her a small kiss on her forehead as he passed through the doorframe.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting,” he continued, looking directly into her eyes. “I'm here to find my cologne.”

“Oh, don’t worry!” She tapped her cheek. “I just finished putting my lipstick on.”

Ghiaccio looked down at her lips, noting the color and suddenly thinking about how he wanted those lips against his in the worst way. Though, instead of acting on it as he rationalized that it would ruin her makeup job, he tried to distract himself by carefully caressing her cheek.

“It looks good,” he said. “You know, you really make that color work.”

She blushed and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear as though she were a schoolgirl.

“Thank you," she bubbled. "I’m glad you like it so much...!”

Before she could act upon the love he made her feel, Lumaca reached over and grabbed the blue bottle of water-scented spray. “You were looking for this, right?”

“Ah, yeah.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the blush that had surfaced on his face the moment he was reminded of why he was there. “Thank you, love.”

He took the bottle from her hand and positioned his finger over the spray top. Just as he was about to spray, he looked at her and lowered his hand.

“Actually, I should do this somewhere else, shouldn’t I?”

“I don’t mind it!" she insisted. "I mean, it’s not like you overdo it.”

He couldn’t help but grin a little at her unintentional setup for some sarcasm.

“Unlike Prosciutto and Formaggio?”

She laughed at his remark.

“Yeah! Exactly unlike Prosciutto and Formaggio.” Lumaca rested her chin in her hand. “It makes me wonder how they don’t get caught during missions.”

That comment made him snort.

“Prosciutto knows he can do shit like that and get away with it.” He began to lightly spray himself with the cologne. “Formaggio, on the other hand… I wonder if it’s just to distract targets. If I had a stand like Little Feet, I would do the same thing.”

“I mean, at least he can make do with what he has, right?”

“Hmm... You make a good point.” He put the spray down. “At any rate, do I smell alright?”

Taking that as a cue, she lifted her face to Ghiaccio’s hair and inhaled through her nose. The sensation of her breath grazing his skin made his skin tingle a little.

“Mmm,” she sighed contently. “That smells like the man I love!”

He smiled at her remark as he watched her lower herself back down.

Her line of sight was directly on his jawline, and the sight of it made her eyes widen and her hands hover over her mouth. A small giggle could be heard through her hands. As cute as it was to him, it also made him a little confused.

“What?”

Ghiaccio looked into the mirror to see what she noticed, and he saw it immediately; a neat, black lipstick stain had been placed gently against his jawline.

His fingers ghosted over the spot, feeling himself fall deeper in love with her the longer he stared at it.

“Sorry about that,” Lumaca giggled. “I wasn’t paying attention. Hang on, I can fix it!”

He looked down at his girlfriend, who had just then crouched to the under-the-sink cabinet. With how she reacted it suddenly dawned on him that she didn’t know what it felt like to have those love marks.

That feeling had to be shared, he decided.

While she was still looking for what he could only presume were makeup wipes, he grabbed her tube of black lipstick and quickly applied it to his lips. He had just put it back down when she had finally closed the cabinet door and stood back up with the pack of makeup wipes in hand.

He gave her a second to process his quick makeover.

To say she wasn’t pleasantly surprised and just a little bit flustered would’ve been a flat-out lie.

“Oh!” she smiled, her cheeks going red. “Baby, that looks good on y-!”

Before she could finish her sentence, Ghiaccio leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek. Her eyes flickered to the mirror, and she could see the big kiss mark he left there. The sight of it made her cheeks go even redder.

“There,” he said with a smirk. “Now you have one too.”

Lumaca looked back up at her boyfriend and a mischievous grin surfaced against her lips.

“Okay,” she giggled. “Mine was an accident. But I guess since you like it so much-!”

She quickly planted a kiss against his chin, leaving another mark.

“You can have another one!”

His eyes flickered between the new kiss mark via the mirror and her smiling face, and before he could even stop himself, he grinned and grabbed her by the waist.

“So that’s the game you want to play, huh?”

Lumaca made a very short attempt to escape his grasp, but before she could even think of succeeding, he lifted her up in his arms and carried her out of the bathroom, making her wrap her arms around his shoulders instead. All the while, his lips planted kisses all over her face and she squealed in delight.

“Ahh! Gh-Ghiaccio!” She laughed. “I’ll get you for this!”

As soon as they reached their destination, which ended up being the bed, she took the opportunity to press kisses wherever she could. Luckily his coat wasn’t on just yet, so she had plenty of places she could go, like his shoulders and his neck.

Those kisses didn’t hinder him at all. In fact, it encouraged him to kiss her wherever he could, too.

“Come over here…!”

…

The sound of Formaggio’s footsteps echoed down the corridor. With one hand, he ran his fingers against his buzzcut and he looked down at the small piece of paper in his other hand. After looking at the numbers, he confirmed that he was heading in the right direction.

“Man, I hope they’re in today,” he muttered to himself. “I really need something to do.”

At last, he stopped in front of one door. Judging by the number on the face of it, he figured that this was the right place.

He inhaled softly and rapped his knuckles against the door.

“Oi!” he called out to them. “Are you guys there?”

About fifteen seconds passed and Formaggio was just thinking about leaving before he heard the sound of the door’s handle click open. Lumaca’s shorter stature was just barely visible through the crack in the door she had made.

“Hey Formaggio,” her voice quietly came from the doorway.

”Ah, hey Lumaca.” He put his hands in his pockets. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything. Listen, I came by to ask if you two wanted to go down to a café or something. Just to hang out.”

“Uhm,” she hesitated. “W-We might. But… you might need to give us a moment.”

It was just then that he noticed how she seemed to be shrouded in darkness. Of course, this made him feel suspicious.

“Is everything alright?” he asked and, without really thinking about it, pushed the door open despite her attempt at keeping it at just a crack. “Why’s it so dark in he-?”

Formaggio turned into a deer in headlights when she became more visible from the hallway light.

Lumaca’s face was as red as a rose under the layer of black lipstick marks coating her face. In fact, it seemed as though there wasn’t an inch of skin that didn’t have a kiss mark; her shoulders, her neck, her arms. Looking down her body, it might’ve just been his imagination or it might’ve been just the way the bottom of her shirt rode up some in the front, but he swore that he even saw some kiss marks against the lower part of her stomach.

He looked straight over her head and noticed Ghiaccio grimacing at him through the doorway of the bedroom. In the dim light of the outside corridor streaking in, Formaggio saw that his teammate was also covered in kiss marks.

How awkward.

He tried to mask the pinched and embarrassed look that came over his face by rubbing at the back of his neck and taking a step back.

“I uh,” he stammered. “Actually, I think Risotto’s calling. So, maybe another time?"

“Y-Yeah,” she murmured. “Good idea. See you later.”

She closed the door as he turned to walk away.

Just as he was about to leave the premises, he heard through the thin walls the sound of a pair of footsteps approaching the door, followed by a pair of quiet laughs. Then came the sound of the same footsteps receding, albeit slower and heavier as though they were now carrying something, and the sound of a door closing.

The thought alone of what just happened in there made him shake his head and chuckle.

“Damn,” he grinned to himself as he walked away with his hands in his pockets. “Call me a cryptozoologist.”

Before he made his descent down the stairs, he looked at the door to their apartment one last time.

“Because I just saw something I never thought I’d see.”