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Cecilia rarely said “I love you.”
Raora wonders about why. She found it simple really, more like a tease if anything. It would’ve been fun if Cecilia’s ears reddened as the panther says it. Would’ve been fun if the automaton freezes, only to flush. Would’ve been fun if Cecilia groaned with an obvious blush on her cheeks.
But alas, Cecilia wasn’t alive in that sense, wasn’t organic to have such systems. Raora smiles as she remembers.
There was no need for that.
“Ceci!” She calls out to her, spotting her bickering with Gigi in the kitchen. The automaton immediately faces her, sentence still slipping through her lips.
“Yeah, Raora? Need anything?”
“Wow, just gonna end the conversation there?”
“Shut up, Gigi.” Raora laughs, shaking her head, finally answering the automaton’s question.
“Nothing, nothing. Just gonna get coffee.” Cecilia fakes a gag, and Gigi started walking away.
“I’m not third wheeling today guys! I’ll go now.”
“Gigi, there’s that mission I told you to go attend to.” Elizabeth shouts from the living room and the chaser complies with an exaggerated salute. Not that the knight saw her do all that.
Raora’s ear twitches.
“Third-wheeling.. As if we do anything.” Cecilia mumbles under her breath.
“Do you want us to do something, Cecilia?” Raora smiles, hidden behind her mug of coffee. The automaton pauses, teacup hanging just a bit before her lips. A brief glance tells the panther that she was heard, and the loud sip that followed told her that she was, as it was, promptly ignored. The panther’s smile widens as she takes another sip of her coffee.
Cecilia didn’t complain about the smell, once.
And smoke, not from the tea, not from the coffee, but from Cecilia’s ears had Raora giggling into her mug.
“Raora?” She only kept giggling. She can’t stop.
“Raora.” Cecilia calls for her anyway. “Raora?”
“Raora?!” The panther laughs, full-bellied cackle as she only turns away, making her way to her room.
“C’mon Cecilia.” The automaton doesn’t say anything more and simply follows along.
-
-
With abandoned cups on Raora’s dresser, they laid in the comforts of the panther’s bed, surrounded by several plushies and pillows. Cecilia sat leaning on the headboard while Raora laid down, leaning her forehead on Cecilia’s hip.
She chirps, almost inaudible, if not for the raspy laugh she let out after. Cecilia’s hands, hesitant, careful, rubs her fingertips behind Raora’s ear so gently, so soft.
“Cecilia.” Raora says her name so slowly, every syllable doused with honeyed love. Cecilia doesn’t know how to respond.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.” And only then did Raora realize that she rarely said it too. Loud in actions that she never realized she hasn’t said it again until now. Cecilia pauses, gears coming to a stop before continuing, and Raora assumes that’s her equivalent of a heart skipping a beat.
She grins.
Now smoke leaves through Cecilia’s ears, puff after puff. Cecilia’s face remained neutral, but Raora knew. Eyes now blue, bright and electric, god eyes studying cerulean, past beyond what could actually be seen.
She could see gears turning faster, cooling fluid flowing through tubes around her body. Could see Cecilia’s eyes study her face as if she doesn’t believe her. And maybe she doesn’t.
The automaton sighs, and Raora blinks her power away, hearing the defeat in her breath. “Ceci?” She whispers, louder than it should have been. Raora swallows the fear down, feeling herself get nervous by the second when she shouldn’t be.
She knows Ceci can’t.
“Love you, too.”
Raora’s ears perk up, her eyes widen, and Cecilia is closing hers, mouth pursed uncomfortably, like what she just said crawled out of her insides and left a mark just to be told. Except that can’t exactly happen, can it?
Raora thought she was hearing things. Maybe she heard it wrong. Maybe it was Cecilia’s accent, non-descript, barely present, understandable, clear accent. Maybe Cecilia was messing with her and just mumbled something that sounds so similar.
But Cecilia wasn’t moving, wasn’t looking, and especially not listening.
“You love me.” Raora said in surprise, pleasant, giddy. Cecilia groans, but doesn’t deny it. “You love me and my morning coffee.”
“Okay, no.” Raora cackles, loud and cheerful, barely containing her happiness as she sits up to hug the automaton. Soft silicon against skin, nevertheless, Raora leans close. “I don’t love your morning coffee. In fact, I despise it. It’s absolutely-”
But Raora wasn’t hearing any of it.
“But you’re not denying that you love me.” Cecilia shuts her mouth. She wasn’t.
“Tea is still better.”
But nothing was letting Raora down from her high, smile wide, leaning in to kiss her cheek.
“Mwah!” Raora exaggerated, just in case Cecilia was uncomfortable, just in case whatever this was needed to be a joke for the both of them. But as she leaned away, Cecilia blinked.
“Did you just kiss me?”
“Is that not okay?”
“No no, it’s okay just.. On my lips? You taste like coffee, by the way. Disgusting.” Sometimes, Cecilia’s bluntness was the end of her. She looks down and she sees a bit of her chapstick shine on the automaton’s lower lip, and she reddens, fully flushes as she hides into Cecilia’s neck with a chirpy yelp. She didn’t even hear the next sentence she uttered, failing to show offense to the attack on her favorite beverage.
“I wasn’t ready!”
“Oh you think I was?” Cecilia still teased her. Maybe because it was easier. Maybe because it came more naturally than saying it out loud.
“Nooo…” Raora muffles into Cecilia’s joint, making the automaton flinch a little. She sighs, relaxing, her heart full of something she would love to name, something she would love to burst and say out loud, but for Cecilia’s sake, she doesn’t.
Instead, she finds Cecilia’s hand, and she wonders if it would’ve been clammy. If it would’ve been shaky with nervousness.
She finds it, and it was the kind of warmth she could only get from Cecilia, the kind of gentle care as if her hand was something that the automaton could easily break. As if she herself was so fragile, that anything more would shatter her.
Or whatever this currently was.
“Are we lazing around for the rest of the day, Raora?”
“You like that, right?”
“Honestly, yeah.” Raora laughs.
“Then we could just stay here.”
“Okay.” Raora wonders if the weight on the top of her head was a kiss. “If that’s what you want.”