Trouble! She wasn't any trouble, not at all. Mai brought her hand to her chest, eyebrow raised-- a silent question. Her? Trouble? Never! That innocence couldn't be feigned for long. She couldn't even lie to herself about it; she'd turned too many people into ducks in recent history. She also tended to encourage Rascal Rosier's marvelous adventures and misadventures. Animated mannequins once took over Diagon Alley. Rascal may have animated them, but Mai had fed the fire. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that perhaps she was a little bit of trouble.

"I get the feeling that you are far more trouble than I am." She replied, making zero effort to hide the amusement from her face. If she had learned anything about the Eleors, it was that they attracted trouble. They thrived in chaos, leaping from one disaster into the next with a completely human resilience that she admired.

Nothing made someone look at you more than the feeling of being stared at. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but it left her feeling like there was something he wanted to say. Whatever it was, he decided it wasn't the time and leaned over to reach for the sauce. He skewered the gyoza like some sort of heathen who had never interacted with a dumpling in his life. Okay, it wasn't exactly treasonous to use a fork, but it was more fun to pretend that it was.

"You're the worst kind of cr-- wait, wh--aaat?!" She let out a short but uncontrolled laugh, covering her face with her free hand. If Mai had known she'd be laughing so much today, perhaps she would've rethought yesterday's ab workout. Ah, well being a seer didn't mean you could predict the convenient things.

Her eyes caught his; Adon's shy smile was the sort of that made her want to know more about him. It filled her with unexpected warmth.

Suddenly, it clicked. Had Maikito taken a bite right then, she would have choked. Oh. Oh.

Even though her heart felt like it was trying to make an escape, her returning smile was slow, soft, and unrestrained.

"I never said I wasn't. Everyone says I am."  No one would deny that Adon Eleor was trouble.  He'd fought his way through school--almost 20 fights in his last four years.  Which is why he'd failed a character test to become an Auror shortly after graduation. He'd sobered up enough in the army, yes. But it was still there.  It usually wasn't trouble, though.  He was mayhem. Or, in the incident of the pillar of fire,[1] hell on earth. "But there is no need to make you feel inferior, Maiko."

He smiled at her emphatic response to his thyroid conversational decoy.  Good.  "Well, it's not like --" but then Mai was looking at him in a way that told him that she'd definitely caught on.  Shit. Shiiiiit.  There was no backing out at this point.  "--it's just any thyroid problem, I don't think." he pressed on.

This was a mistake--probably a mistake--but at this point, everything felt a little bit like it would be.  Besides. This was a fun mistake.

...Hopefully...

Well, whatever.  Shifting slightly, Adon hooked his heel on the bottom rung of her stool, dragging it towards him.  The stools met with a soft bump.  One problem fixed...

He leaned in until his hands rested on either side of her, fingers curling around the edges of the stool seat.  "Hey," he whispered, looking down at her with a smirk, inching his face closer and closer to hers until, finally, he felt their lips meet.

Well, there was problem two.

1.	Till We Have Built Jerusalem

When he pulled her stool close, she took in a sharp breath-- a combination of surprise and delight. For a moment, Mai had been certain that he'd wuss out again. Because she had been certain, clearly he had to prove her wrong. That seemed like something he would do.

One hand rested on his chest, the other just below his jaw. She pressed her mouth to his, softly but firmly. Like a strong spirit, it made her drunk. Dizzy, warm all over-- a mess of nerve endings, streaked with fire. It felt natural. Cheeks flushed, Maiko pulled away, biting her bottom lip as if it would contain her giddiness.

"Damn," Mai began before realizing she had nothing more to add. She'd had first kisses where it was a mashing of mouths, she'd had first kisses with awkward forehead bumps and clashing teeth. This was not one of those. Mai's gaze ran across his face, instinctively trying to get a read on his thoughts-- but there was more to it. She just wanted to look at him a bit longer. Adon was just as striking up close. Who gave him that right?!

Shit, all she wanted to do was kiss him again--and so she did.

The panic hadn't set in yet. She'd process it later-- the thought was intimidating. It always was, when it was someone important.

Ugh, she was doing that lip biting thing that women knew worked for them. He moved forward, not about to let her get away that easily when:

"Damn."

Adon's eyes widened and get gave a bark of laughter, ducking his head a little so that his cheek rested briefly upon her forehead.  She pulled back--not exactly abruptly, but Adon had not been expecting it.  Brows knit, he searched her face searching his.  What was she thinking? What was--

Her lips connected with his again and the question didn't really matter anymore. Smiling into the kiss, his fingers wove through her hair, the other arm looping around her waist as he attempted to pull himself closer.  Damn it, stools. He would not be deterred.  Pressing against her, he deepened the kiss.  This certainly wasn't how he'd been planning to spend his Saturday--but it was a welcome detour.  Heart beating faster, he sighed against her lips.  His feet shifted on the rung of her stool and--suddenly he felt himself shift, then teeter precariously. 

Alarmed, Adon pulled back, hand bracing them both against the counter.  "Moloch!" he gasped.

Well, that was one way to kill a moment.

Face flushed not only from embarrassment, he managed a sheepish, "'m sorry..."  Did they... move to the couch? Resume like nothing happened? ... Eat the dumplings?

Momentum lost, Adon's stomach began to churn.  "Uh..."

Maiko should have known from a combination of experience and common sense that making out on stools was a recipe for disaster.

It ended as quickly as it started-- with her knocking her knees against his stool as he caught his balance. Instinctively, Mai winced and inhaled sharply through her teeth-- it startled more than it actually hurt. Convinced now that stools were harbingers of disaster and moment-killing, she hopped down, landing with ease on the balls of her feet. Wide-eyed and red-faced, she stood there, heart pounding as her mind tried to process what the fuck was going on.

Mai briefly covered her face with her hands and let out a small, unrestrained burst of laughter; it relieved at least some of the tension that she felt.  "Non. No. No apologies." Especially when it wasn't clear what he was apologizing for. With a confident casualness that she didn't necessarily feel, Mai took a step forward and wrapped her arms around Adon's waist, pulling him into a hug that felt significantly more natural than, you know, trying to make out on two separate seats.

"So..." She tilted her chin up to examine his face. Mai resisted the urge to shmoosh his cheeks and tell him how adorable he looked when sitting in discomfort. It probably would have come off as condescending more than anything else. Instead, she prolonged the awkwardness.

 "That... Happened." No shit, Sherlock.

Mai literally jumped ship. Well, stool.  Adon frowned, fretting.  That did not bode--

Oh, well nevermind.  Any question about where she stood on the matter seemed quelled by her persistent efforts to stop his apologizing.  "Non. No. No apologies."  Well, okay then.  He was going to apologize for almost knocking her off balance, but--

"Fine, then," Adon sassed back, shaking his head as he rose, breaking free of their embrace.  As he turned, he caught her hand in his--the other hand reaching for the bowl of gyoza.  "I'm not sorry," he called over his shoulder as he headed for the front room, Mai in tow.  He nudged the wheeled coffee table towards the sofa before laying the bowl down onto it with an unceremonious thud. There was a pause before, inhaling deeply, he dropped down heavily onto the leather sofa.

With a grunt for dramatic effect, he tugged his arm to bring her tumbling down abruptly with him.  There was momentary resettling and adjusting to be done. "Mmf," he said finally, his arm now resting on the back of the sofa. He shimmied his hips slightly, shifting to sit closer to her.  He kissed the top of her forehead, arm dropping down to her shoulder.  "Looks like that happened, too."

"But," he sighed, "you know what is not happening that needs to happen?"  He waggled his eyebrows, looking over at the cooled gyoza. 

"Good, because I told you not to be." Mai tried to return the sass tenfold, but realized just how pathetic and not-even-remotely-clever it sounded. She was an adult; that meant that  was morally obligated to have better comebacks. There was no time for shame in this meticulously neat and far-too-stylish living room. Adon Eleor had champagne taste on a champagne budget. If his living room didn't make that clear, his kitchen did.

With a noise that was somewhere between protest and surprise, Maiko struggled to catch her balance before falling onto the couch after Adon. She shifted until she found a comfortable position, throwing her legs over his lap. Mai had severely underestimated Adon's ability to recover from an awkward situation-- one thing was for certain, when she came over to make food and hang out, she did not expect cuddles to be involved. At all. The main recipients of her cuddles were Akiva, Gabriel, and the dogs.

"You know what is not happening that needs to happen?"

Mai gave him a look that was equal parts wary and suspicious. The sentence alone was innocent enough, but the eyebrow waggling was just confusing. What did it mean?! It was distinctly devious. She hazarded a guess: "....Eating gyoza?" As opposed to trying to eat each other's faces.
 
The smallest hint of panic planted its' seed. What were they doing? No. No. She needed to think about that later. Maiko pushed it to the side, hoping it wouldn't creep to the other. There was no sense in worrying about whatever this was until she knew what it was; that thought was oddly comforting.

"Mhmm," he agreed, enjoying the feeling of her close for a moment. "Gee-yoooooooh-sa."  He shifted to look at her, head cocked. Maybe there was more lip-pursing involved in the pronunciation. He tried again.  "Gee-yiiiiuuuuuu-zuh? Gyuuuuu-sa... How do you say it, exactly?"

He kept his eyes on her, waiting for an answer, as he reached forward, picked up a dumpling from the bowl with his fingers.  If she’d been scandalized at him using a fork, well… He was well within striking range, and he knew she'd already been willing to use her tiny little fists on him. Somehow that did not seem so threatening.  In fact, it would be fun to see just how many straws this camel's back could take.

Adon’s eyebrows waggled again.  Leaning forward, he bumped into her side.  “And," he began primly. "What else were you thinking I was going to say??”

 He shot her a wicked grin, dropping a dumpling into his mouth.  Hand covering his mouth (he wasn’t a total cretin with manners, after all, he mumbled through the food, “C’mon, what were you thinking?”  A pause, another cocky grin. “Hmmm?”

"Gyooh-zah." Mai said, laughing through her pronunciation so it was all muddled up anyway. He was absolutely incorrigible. "Stress the first syllable-- Gyooh-zah." Part of her thought it was sweet that he was trying to pronounce it correctly, but the other, more dominant part of her was certain that he was being a little shit. And she was totally enabling it, too.

And with all the leaning forward and moving around, he kept messing up her ultimate comfortable position-- legs on his lap. It was how she sat when she watched cooking shows with Kiv-- Okay, in reality, she took up the entire couch and only her feet were on Kiv's lap, often sharing it with a baby.

"I was going to assume it had something to do with the food, but then you did this--" She imitated his eyebrow waggle, "Now I don't know what to think. Are you suggesting we make out? Do you think we need more gelato? Fuck if I know. I'm a seer, not a mindreader!" She playfully elbowed his side before leaning forward to get a gyoza for herself.

Alas, there was no way to do it without completely disrupting her perfect comfy position again. Besides magic, but her wand was probably in the kitchen, or something. "Short. Arms. Tiny. Limbs." She said to herself more than to Adon before catching the edge of the coffee table and pulling it it closer. Success. The look Mai gave Adon was a triumphant one.

"Oh," Adon said with a nod. "I see. Gyooooo-zah," he repeated, lips exaggerating the syllables.  He watched her struggle to reach the coffee table.  God, this was the most adorable thing. It was like watching a kitten bat at a fish in a fishbowl.  He almost wanted to help but... nope. Too cute. He chuckled. "So... as in 'help yourself to some gyooooooooooo-zah, Tiny Arms.' Like that?"  She retrieved a dumpling from the bowl, dropping back with an air of undeniable satisfaction.  He smirked.

"But let's go back a minute."  He wasn't going to let one thing drop.  They were his eyebrows she'd been talking about.  The things that framed the windows to his soul.  They were under scrutiny, and he could not let that slide.

Adon tilted his head, running his tongue along his teeth as he smiled.  "I want to understand.  Are you calling my eyebrows... erotic?" Eyebrow waggle.  "They are so..." Adon leaned to the side to get closer to Mai, their noses nearly touching now, "...distracting that you don't know what to think anymore?" Eyebrow waggle.  Shifting his hips slightly, one hand on her calf, the other wrapped around her waist, nudging her even closer.  He continued in a near whisper, making sure she was listening to every. single. word. "That you just... can't...help it?!" Eyes flashed triumphantly as he began to tickle her ribcage.

Despite the fact that he was picking fun at her, she was absolutely pleased that he had nailed the pronunciation. Although she wasn't fluent in Japanese by any means, she had grown up around the language spoken sporadically. English speakers had the most horrible mispronunciations of non-English words-- particularly if they had no experience with other languages, period. "Exactly like that!" Mai said with far more pride than someone dubbed Tiny Arms should have.

His eyebrows were more alive than that one elf-king-guy from the Lord of the Rings movies. Elroy or something. And Elroy's eyebrows moved a lot. They practically had a life of their own!

Maiko let out a strangled laugh. Erotic was certainly never a word she ever would have attributed to anybody's eyebrows, no matter how well-groomed and expressive they were.

"They're..." She tried to find a positive word that wouldn't come off as creepy, "Sentient." No, that definitely wasn't it. "Or maybe handso--" Her sentence was cut short, however, when Adon so cruelly reminded her of just how ticklish she was--especially when she didn't see it coming.  Mai let out a noise that was some sort of crude mixture of a squeal, a yelp, and a laugh. Reflexively, she kicked her assailant in the armpit.

And the torture ended before she could get her revenge.

Cheeks flushed and recovering from laughter, she awkwardly patted his pec. "Are you okay?" Mai could feel laughter trying to bubble up to the surface-- any little thing could set it off, "Besides your evil streak."