Kiss | Bash

A muffled string of curses reverberates against the engine room’s door as I step up to it, and a soft chuckle escapes me as it slides open and I catch sight of what’s in front of me.

Amidst a dozen or so scattered boxes is a mech, relatively big and quite vicious looking -- that is, if not for the silly note stuck on its face, with a funny smiley doodled on it.  And right next to it is the man I’d come looking for, Bash.

I’ve seen so many things out of him since I’ve joined the crew that it hardly surprises me to see the mechanic hanging upside down next to the bot, face scrunched up in concentration and grease smudged across his cheeks, as if he’d tried to rub it off and only made it look worse.

With quiet footsteps, I make my way over, putting down on the nearby bench the tray of cookies and milk I’d brought with me.

It’s odd how Bash still hasn’t noticed my presence, I think as I step up behind him, hands clasped behind my back. Sure, he doesn’t have Damon’s sharp senses, but the door here isn’t exactly silent, and the cookies smell quite nice if I do say so myself. He must be extremely focused on whatever he’s tinkering with on that bot…

Too bad, it’s my turn to get his attention.

A smile curls my lips as I lean in, lips inches away from his ear. “Hey there, spider-pig.”

“Holy mother of--!” Bash yelps and I break out in laughter, watching as his feet lose their hold on the bars above and he scrambles as he falls smack on his butt, eyes wide as he looks up at me in surprise.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I smile softly at him as I offer him a hand up. “Did I scare you?”

“Yeah, I think I’m dead,” he shakes his head with a twitch on his lips as he takes my hand and pulls himself up, yet he keeps hold of it when he does, leaning in and narrowing his uneven eyes at me. “Is this heaven?”

“I’d say it’s closer to hell given the current situation we’re in.”

“Well, if all the devils look like you, I wouldn’t mind being tortured for eternity,” his lips melt into a smirk, eyes burning in a way that makes it impossible to say if he means it or if he’s just pulling my leg.

My heart skips a beat and my throat dries up, the intensity of the stare too much for me. It’s always hard to tell if Bash is being serious or not, or if he’s just being funny while being serious, and I’d rather err on the side of caution on this subject.

I guess no matter how hard I try to deny it, I’m too far down the rabbit hole on my feelings for him to pull a smooth recovery if he turns out to be joking.

“Shut up,” I roll my eyes, shoving his chest as I scoff lightly, turning back to the bench where I put the tray before.

I can’t see the look on his face when he sighs and replies, but I can hear the smile on his words, the same smile that makes my head spin whenever it’s aimed at me.

“Such a shame, but eh, that’s fine, I don’t mind staying alive as long as there’s at least one of you around.”

“You were pretty in the zone back there,” I ignore his comment, for my own sanity. “What are you working on?”

His mood perks right up at my question, and he’s almost bouncing as he takes a sit on the other side of the tray.

“My masterpiece,” he says in a voice full of awe. “There is absolutely no way Aya can beat me once I finish this baby up. See, it has motion sensors that are triggered by electrostatic current, and I may or may not have used our tractor beam’s blueprints to add a--”

He interrupts himself, scrunching up his eyebrows and sniffing the air. Almost reminds me of a puppy.

“What’s this heavenly smell down here?” he asks before his eyes fall on the tray of cookies between us. “What? Are these my super special splendid sugar cookies?”

“Yes, that’s the triple-S sugar cookies recipe you taught me the other week,” I can’t help but laugh at the ridiculously long name he gave the cookies, even if it’s actually pretty damn adorable in the end. “I decided to give them another try today, and I think they came out okay.”

I look down at them and see the weird shapes and uneven surface and frown.

“Taste-wise, I mean. They might not look great but I tasted them, and the taste is good!”

“With a smell like that, I’d find it hard to believe otherwise,” he beams at me, making my breath catch on my throat. “And it’s all for me? Even the milk?”

“I figured you’d be hungry by now, you’ve been down here for a while,” I shrug, trying to look indifferent and failing spectacularly if the heat on my cheeks is any pointer.

Bash doesn’t reply, settling instead to pick up a cookie and sinking his teeth in it. Anticipation builds up in the pit of my stomach as I watch him chew and appraise my progress. It hasn’t been easy learning how to cook, and Bash is quite the brutal critic of the food I serve, but this time -- this time I know I nailed it.

“This has got to be the best damn cookie I’ve ever had,” he finally says, after swallowing the cookie.

… What?

“What?” I can’t believe my ears and dumbly ask him to repeat it.

His smile grows, with a hint of mischief on his eyes that I can barely process now as he leans closer to me.

“I said, this is the best damn cookie I’ve ever eaten. And it’s all mine,” he cocks his head to the side, narrowing his eyes slightly as if in deep thought. “You know, what? You deserve a special reward.”

“A reward? But I wasn’t--”

Giving no attention to my protest, Bash closes the gap between us, and presses his lips on my cheek, in a kiss too hot to be chaste, and too chaste to make my insides twirl the way they just did.

I’m sure my heart stopped for a good five seconds, hammering back to life when he pulls back and whispers in my ear. “They just weren’t as good as this kiss.”

My cheeks and neck are positively burning at this point, and I blank out for a moment before reacting instinctively and grabbing another cookie…

And stuffing it in his mouth. You know, like the idiot I become whenever I’m around him.

“Just-- just eat the damn cookies!”

Bash’s rumbling laughter is like music to my ears, and despite my utter embarrassment, soon enough I find myself laughing with him, who has actual tears in his eyes by now as he shakes his head at me, munching on yet another cookie.

My heart has barely slowed down to a normal pace again when Bash manages to make it pick up again, even as he speaks with his mouth full of cookies.

“Oh, I’m so glad to have you around.”

This time, I stuff my own mouth full of cookies.