That was the thing about Ava. Jade had realized it from the time he'd joined the cirque and had met her; she was one of the good ones, the truly gentle, pure, and innocent humans who were so hard to come by. There was no falsehood or irony in it, either... it was simply who she was, and she did it all without ever becoming boring or tiresome. If anything, her mischievous streak was wider than some of the fae he'd known in his time, and that was truly saying something. She was a bit of an anomaly, if he could be honest.
He certainly couldn't imagine engaging in a mud fight with any other human girl he'd ever met, even if she was trying to apologize for it now. "Stop, you're fine," he assured her. "I'm tougher than I look."
The shake of her head sent more mud flying against his face, and he lifted his arm to defend himself, laughing as he let the pillar drop back to the earth with a soggy splat. He couldn't see her, not really anyway, but he did still a bit when she lowered her face towards his, the arm he'd used as a shield shifting so that it rested against the place where her shoulder curved into her neck. His gaze was unfocused but still trained somewhere upon her face, a soft uncertainty tilting the corners of his breathless smile. Her offer, her nearness, it all seemed like an invitation, and he wasn't one to pass up on opportunity.
So when she rumpled his hair (now little more than a tangle of dirt-soaked spikes) and went to straighten, she'd find herself drawn back down against him, the hand on her shoulder sliding to cradle the side of her face as he lifted himself to meet her, his mouth finding hers with surprising accuracy. It was brief and chaste and tasted of dirt and something uniquely Ava, and when he drew back from the kiss he smiled at her and wagged his brows a bit before drawling, "I'm not sure if you knew, but we Fae end all of our mud fights with big muddy kisses of death. So... kinda had to take you up on it."