“Why Do You Like Me?”

Autumnal cleared his throat right as Ennea was about to take another bite.

“Ah.” He eyed the galette now paused just an inch from her open mouth. “Aieet.”

“Pfft, it’s fine. What’s up?”

Autumnal’s ears flattened ever so slightly. His own mouth pursed shut and he played with his empty plate. Cold feet.

“C’mon, you’ve gotta let me know.” Ennea gained a lopsided smile as she waggled her galette, still holding it in the air. “Or else I’m never gonna get to finish my food! Are you trying to destroy me in this race even worse than you already have?” He’d finished his own meal ages ago. “So vicious….”

“Ah!” Autumnal waved his paws, then gestured for Ennea to keep going. Then he measured his paws out, before bumping them close together. It’s not a big thing.

“All the more reason to just say it, then!” Ennea had to keep in a giggle from the look she got. “Yeah, yeah. ‘Say’ is kinda relative here. But seriously, out with it.”

“Ur’a sudduxykr ri ogelaw….”

But with a sharp inhale, Autumnal forced himself to gesture. He pointed to Ennea, and after a moment of hesitation, made a thumbs-up, then pointed to himself. All with a questioning look.

“‘Do you like me?'” Ennea’s tail went completely giddy at the idea that he was asking that. For some reason, her heart started to beat a bit quicker, too.

Autumnal desperately put up a digit. Hold on!

He repeated the gesture again, but this time gave a big, overdramatic cocking of his head at the end.

“Oh, I see! You wanna know why I like you?”

“Ah… twa,” he confirmed while awkwardly looking to another table.

Sheesh! What I wanna know is why people keep asking me that! We’ve got a lot of mysteries on our paws, but that isn’t one of them!

“Alright then, I’ll tell you. On one condition!”

Autumnal’s ears flicked to Ennea, and his eyes shortly followed. Both lost their certainty when they met the massive, smug smile on her face.

“Beseech me.”

“Ah…?”

Ennea just laid back on her seat, taking a lazy, regal pose with crossed forepaws. “You heard me. Beseech me.”

“Ah!”

Autumnal got ahold of himself, fixing his tails and clearing his throat before hopping down in front of Ennea.

There was almost a gust as he moved, legs snapping together and tails fanning out so he could take the proper pose. He gave a deep, reverent bow with enough flourish to send his hair swaying. And with a voice suddenly dripping with refinement and grace, he spoke. “Niar gibielvkw Klst Ennea, U laj rglr tiy felxw nw qurg rgw ewlaib rglr tiy xiyks wcwe kujw nw.”

Ennea let the air sit for a moment, as one should for such gravitas. Then she couldn’t hold it anymore, and exploded into laughter that nearly sent her off the seat.

“Oh my gosh, you could actually give the Royal Guard a run for their money!” Ennea wiped a tear from her eye. “But that’s why!”

“Ah…?” Now that he’d finished the act, Autumnal just gave Ennea a confused look.

“How many people would actually play along with that? No ‘Ennea you’re not even a real noble,’ or ‘that sounds dumb,’ or ‘sheesh, how vain are you?’ You just do it, and you do it perfectly!”

“Qwkk… twlg.” Autumnal moved a paw forward, then brought the other to join its path. Then he gave a thumbs up. Going along is fun.

“Exactly! You get it! Life’s so much better when you don’t get stuck in all the dreariness of the real world. Dumb stuff like this is always worth it.”

“Hm.” With a gentle smile, Autumnal touched his chest, shook his head, and tapped it. Then he tapped it again and made a thumbs down. I don’t think it’s dumb.

“Really?” Somehow, that was utterly fascinating. “Then I’ll take that as full permission to do even dumber stuff with you in the future!”

“Mm, mm!” Autumnal snapped back to attention, and ever the diligent knight, gave the noble girl a salute. He’d make the dragon proud.

“Oh, so we’re back to the act now, are we?” Now her smile wasn’t just lopsided, it was devious. “You’re right, we totally forgot a part….”

With every extra bit of drama she could squeeze in, Ennea stuck out her right paw towards Autumnal, letting it hang with the back angled toward his face.

Autumnal blinked at the offering, a single ear tilting before he looked back up at Ennea.

“C’mon, you’ve gotta have seen this before! It’s how nobles greet each other!”

“Ah…?”

Ennea stuck out her tongue and sang. “Kiss it.”

A shiver rippled through Autumnal’s fur as his eyes went wide. He sputtered, a paw going to the safety of his hair. “A-ah?! U susb’r ewlkumw bivkwa qwew… ubri rglr.”

“Autumnal,” Ennea cooed. “My galette’s getting cold~!”

Autumnal gulped. Somehow, Ennea had pulled him back into the race.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he brought his head towards Ennea’s hanging paw, close enough that she could feel the shaky breaths from his lips. A wayward lock of his hair even tickled her arm. Each millimeter closer slowed his speed even more, the apprehension taking over.

Ennea decided to help him the rest of the way, flicking her paw forward and giving his mouth a little boop, complete with an added “mwah.”

Poor Autumnal practically exploded, collapsing backwards into a bashful, fluffed out mess. He stroked his hair desperately, and Ennea could feel the heat emanating from his certainly blushing face.

“Rg-rgwew… sib’r alt U bwcwe si lbtrgubf die tiy….” he stammered.

“There we go! See, you can be refined when you wanna be! In fact…” Ennea leaned over, and using her fork, tapped each of Autumnal’s shoulders. “There! Now you’re officially a knight of the nobility! Or at least as ‘official’ as I can make.” So really, they were still pretending.

“Rgl—…Rglbj tiy.” And proving her point, Autumnal picked himself back up off the ground to stand at attention. What a good knight!

“That’s another reason, by the way,” Ennea admitted. “You’re really fun to tease~.”

“Ah….” Autumnal broke his stance and looked away, failing to hide a tiny smile forming at the edges of his mouth. As weird as it was, it was still a compliment. “Oh.” He looked back and pretended to eat something.

“Oh, don’t worry about it! We’ve got all the time in the world!”

Autumnal worriedly raised an eyebrow and gestured around the tavern.

“Oh yeah, we did do all that in public,” Ennea laughed. “Well, it should—”

The tavern was empty, apart from a single server glaring between them and the clock. The world outside the window was pitch black.

“H-how long have we been screwing around?!” Ennea gobbled up the rest of her now cool galette before tossing some coin on the table. “We seriously were killing so much time we ticked off the staff?!”

With a muffled chuckle, Autumnal nodded.

“Sorry about that!” Ennea called to the server as she used her tail to pull Autumnal to the door. “Hope you enjoyed our acting, though!”

The pair raced off into the night. As much as she should’ve, Ennea couldn’t feel too bad about forcing the tavern to close so late. It was for a good cause, after all! There was nothing so much fun as screwing around with your best friend.

As she passed under a streetlight, Ennea looked to her side. Autumnal was right there, of course. But even if it was expected, it still made her smile.

She wondered what kind of stupid stuff they’d get to do tomorrow….

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