DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kaze no Stigma... Is it really necessary for me to say that? XD Oh, whatever.

"Honestly, you would think with how much money you have, you'd be able to afford other clothes!"

"I happen to like these clothes," Kazuma grumbled before yawning.

Ayano huffed. "Are you still sleepy at this hour?" she demanded.

"Normally, no. But I happened to get dragged out the door by some banshee screeching on my cell phone, so I figured I should wake up if I didn't want to get haunted."

A vein throbbed at her temple. "Banshee? I'll show you a banshee, you-"

Kazuma tuned her out as he fished in his pocket for a cigarette. Nothing. He checked the other pocket, then the pockets of his jacket. Nothing.

Ah hell...

Kazuma contented himself with looking off toward the lake of the Kannagi estate and regretting not being in bed right now getting precious hours of sleep in. But alas, Ayano had roused him at an ungodly hour (nine o' clock was absolutely no time to be waking up... ever) via screaming at him through his cell phone and demanding to know why he wasn't at the estate yet. It hadn't been his fault he'd forgotten there was a mission today; lack of sleep made him much more forgetful. The details of the mission had nearly made him facefault; honestly, Jugo would probably have been subtler about his goals if he had paraded Ayano in front of him with a wedding dress (and the image alone would have totally made everything worth it).

He suppressed a sigh. Enjutsushi had never been any good with subtleties.

Currently, he and Ayano were waiting outside the mansion for Ren, who had overslept and was hurriedly getting ready. And, Kazuma thought, would likely be wearing his usual clothes. But while Kazuma was all in favor of men enjoying their favorite outfits, he still somewhat wished Ren would reconsider that pink jacket of his...

Ah well, he thought resignedly, it couldn't be helped. Out of sheer boredom, he glanced over at Ayano, who had fallen silent after realizing she was ranting to the conversational equivalent of a brick wall. He blinked as his eyes fell to her lips. They were kind of shiny at the moment. Well, hell, they weren't doing anything, so he thought he might as well ask.

"Ne, Ayano, did you wet your lips or something?"

She looked up at him questioningly. "Hm? Oh." She shrugged dismissively. "I just daubed on some gloss, that's all."

Kazuma cocked his head to the side while looking at her. "Huh... That's kinda like you're trying to be sexy or something."

Her face exploded into fire truck red as she stammered unintelligibly. "Th-Th-That has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm doing!" she shouted. "I-It's j-j-just to protect my lips, that's all! B-Because my lips were drying out! It's only natural!"

"Oh?" Kazuma leaned a little closer to get a better look, though a smirk tugged at his lips. "Is that really the case?"

"Yeah! B-Because that is totally not the case! And- H-H-Hey, wh-why's your face so close? Wh-What do you think you're- mpf?"

Ren blinked up at his older brother, noting something different about him today... "Um... nii-sama?"

Kazuma turned his gaze down toward him, emitting a small questioning noise.

"Well... your lips are kinda shiny today, aren't they? Did you just wet your lips?" the younger brother asked curiously.

"Ah." Kazuma grinned broadly. "It's just gloss. My lips were drying out, y'see."

"Ooh... I see." Ren blinked again though, wondering when his brother had started caring about such things.

"It's got a pretty nice flavor too," Kazuma continued, his mouth shaped into a rakish grin.

Ayano, who had remained silent since Ren had come out of the mansion, only continued to look down, blushing furiously.

Fin

Short, yeah, but oh well. It was more or less on a whim. XD This was inspired by a Haruhi doujin I read once, so I can't claim credit for having thought of the idea. Nevertheless, I thought it made a nice fit for these two, so I had to go for it. XD If you've made it this far, please lemme know what you think! Thanks for reading!