Gettin' Fishy With It

Tatsumi's cautious thumb traced the areola around Akame's tender nipple, watching for any sign of discomfort on her part while his upper and lower brains warred for the right to his next command. By chance, his gaze dropped down to the empty basket at her feet, the one he was supposed to be filling with tuna. It's probably supposed to teach me some kind of lesson about patience, or diligence he reflected, citing the long hours of menial labor he'd done in keeping with his swordsmanship training, and what it'd allegedly taught him about the merits of hard work. Getting as many fish as she did is something that would take me years, even with the help of--

The lightbulb above his head shined so harsh and bright it ran the danger of blinding poor Akame, and Tatsumi unwittingly pressed down on her teat hard enough to elicit a soft groan out of the back of the assassin's throat. Tatsumi wasn't listening. Surging to his feet with a sudden grin--and almost smacking Akame in the face with his half-chub, which was rapidly softening as it lost the day--he stepped once more up to the bank of the lake, bare feet slapping excitedly against the rocks. I already know it works on people, He thought to himself as he came to a stop, staring out at the lake's unbroken surface before netting his fingers, flipping them around, and flexing them out in front of him. So why not fish?

"Akame, hand me the basket!" He barked, hand outstretched behind him, and found it landing on his head. Nevertheless dropping the basket down in front of him, he then propped his foot on the rim. Ieyasu commanded the Arms last, right? What would he have said to make them follow his orders? "Alright you Goka Tuna punks, listen up!" Tatsumi thrust his pointer finger toward the bottom of the basket. "From now on, it's normal that when I snap my fingers, you'll jump into this basket, until it is full!" He then flipped his arm over and rose his hand to the sky, bracing himself with a final, triumphant smirk. "So get ready, because it's dinner time!" The sound of the snap echoed against the nearby cliff walls like a thunderclap, and for a moment he imagined that the entire lake began to stir.

But it was, in fact, his imagination. More moments passed without so much as the idle splashing of water. A dragonfly landed on his upraised hand, and began cleaning itself.

"I have never had any luck asking animals to let me eat them," Akame offered from the back, "but do not let that stop you from trying."

At that point, Tatsumi had to admit the experiment was a wash. Stepping off the bucket with a disappointed frown, he wagged his wrist to rid himself of the dragonfly before rubbing the back of his head, embarrassed. "I wasn't asking them," he defended lamely, "I was trying to see if--" The rest of his sentence was cut off by a deafening splash, and his head whipped around just in time to catch what appeared to be dozens of Goka Tuna leaping out from the lake in nothing less than single-file order, the first of which soared straight through the air and plopped down into his waiting basket.

Despite this being exactly what he'd wanted to happen, Tatsumi found himself staring flabbergasted at the sheer coordination of what were, if indeed rare, just fish. "G-guess they needed a moment to... coordinate..." He said numbly. As the basket reached the halfway mark, Tatsumi aggressively shook his head and planted his hands on his hips, grinning firmly. "How's about that! One basket full of fish," he pointed up at his earrings, _"and I _went and mastered my Imperial Arms! You know what they call that in my village? Two birds with one stone!" He said, flashing the appropriate numbers at Akame using the fingers on his left hand.

Akame silently got to her feet, coming to stand next to him as she watched the constant tuna intake with a nod. "I see. Very impressive." She said, not looking terribly impressed one way or the other.

Tatsumi's expression faltered somewhat. Between the way his earrings were affecting her, and the way she wasn't super expressive in the first place, he couldn't tell if she actually meant the compliment in her capacity as a world-class assassin, or if she was just being polite. At that moment, his hindbrain came roaring back with a vengeance, striking his cheeks with a show of red as he thought of a way to be sure. He turned his attention away from her still-very-naked form back to the bucket, which was by now almost three quarters full, as he put the right words together. "Well, if that's true, I heard it was normal for you to give me a kiss when you think I've done a good job!" No sooner did his exclamation point hit the open air than his hand clamped over his mouth, his conscience attempting to run damage control over the impending impropriety.

Tatsumi swiftly turned his head to see Akame give him a crimson-eyed blink, followed by nodding without a visible change in expression. "Of course, how could I forget." She then began to advance on him, still very naked. "Please hold still for your reward."

As the reality of his actions quite literally descended on him, Tatsumi found himself not quite sure if he wanted to make that kind of commitment to a woman he'd just met. "U-um, yeah, look," he said, the words muffled by his fingers as his eyes cast off to the side, "I was just kidding, you don't have to do it if you don't want--"

Akame rested her hands on his shoulders as her eyes demanded his attention. "I do." She said simply. She then pulled down his hand, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips to his.

He imagined it was like getting plugged into a live socket, a surge of foreign energies that made him aware of every tingle on his skin. Tatsumi's body--among other things--went stiff, at first, his hands frozen with fingers splayed out by his sides. But as Akame's tongue probed, unsure, against the entrance to his mouth, he found himself relaxing into the embrace, meeting her tongue with his own. His eyelids sagged as their tongues gently waged battle for domination, then closed as she won, somehow more experienced than him in even this field of combat. His smirk at that thought crumbled the last of his defenses, and he leaned in, resting his hands on her ribcage as he pulled her in close. He could feel her fingers netting around the back of his neck as she pulled him in as well, her tender nips almost flush with the definition of his still-bare abs. They stayed like that for a breathless, endless moment, getting by on passion instead of air, his hands sliding lower and lower down her lithe frame, until--

--until the bucket filled up, and the final fish bounced off the top to smack him in the face.

Tatsumi raised a hand to nurse his lightly-bruised cheek at the memory, frowning into the boiling broth they were preparing for the tuna. Scientists would agree, it was physically impossible to get back in the mood after getting slapped in the face by a fish. So after gathering their things, they'd packed up their catch and made their way back to the base.

He sighed, and admitted to himself that it was probably for the best; Akame's consent was actually pretty dubious while he was in this state, and he hadn't yet figured out how to turn the normality effect off. While it was probably true that she wouldn't mind a romantic rendezvous right about now, he could only imagine what Sayo and Ieyasu would say.

High five, dude!

Well, maybe more Sayo than Ieyasu, but still.

"Are you finished?" Akame asked from across the room, and Tatsumi broke from his reverie as he moved to finish chopping vegetables.

"Not yet, but almost. How about you?"

"Progress is moving swiftly."

Tatsumi snuck a glance behind him, and was rewarded with an eyeful of bare ass, framed by an apron string on her lower back and a low hanging ponytail that just grazed the cleft of her crack. Tatsumi's face reddened even as he turned back to the cutting board with a goofy grin, using the knife to slide the freshly-cut vegetables to the side even as he resolved that he should also _probably f_igure out a way to undo his effect on people.

"Do a good job, and you will get a reward." She reminded him with a hint of playfulness.

But that could wait until after a few more kisses. Right?