Date Written: August 17, 2007

A/N: Had the urge to write chapter two before posting chapter one. Which I suppose is good. What would be great is if I end up writing the entire thing before posting the first part. Might actually finish a story. Gotta work on that.

WARNINGS! Kurogane being a horny bastard and a bath scene and a new pervert comes into the story. Not much, really. Just your typical Flo fic.

Hope you enjoy!

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Three days had passed with their new roommate. Chi was a nice girl. Polite, always willing to help out, she could speak both Celesian and Japanese, and was able to keep Fay occupied in a non-destructive manner. Yet, somehow things had gotten worse since she joined them. At least in Kurogane's opinion.

How so? Well, for starters, she was able to keep Fay occupied. Instead of Kurogane. Now, the man would never admit to being jealous, but that didn't mean he wouldn't admit it to himself. He was damn jealous and it pissed him off. Sure, Fay would always jump on him when he saw him and shower him with affection and kisses and Kurogane would eventually have to peel him off in order to function properly, but it had ceased to happen in public because Chi had said that, "Maybe Kuro-san is embarrassed by that, Fay." Which was a definite yes. But that didn't give her permission to stop it! Fay should have figured it out on his own and Kurogane knew he was living in denial and sounded like a woman with that part. He simply didn't care.

Second: Since Tomoyo had helped recreate her, Chi was made to be bilingual in Japanese and Celesian in order to help Fay with his lessons. Kurogane couldn't remember the last time he had had to correct Fay with his verb forms and his accent was dwindling. He was aware that he would probably have a small trace of an accent for the rest of his life, but it wouldn't be as noticeable unless you talked to him for a long period of time what with little linguistic expert, Professor Chi, helping the guy out. Which brings up the second thing Kurogane would never publicly admit, which is that he had a major kink for Fay's accent. Something about those "r"'s. Also, he kind of missed the face Fay would make when concentrating on more difficult sentences during conversations. Not to mention the fact that whenever he needed to ask something, he would turn to Chi even when Kurogane was standing right there. And we're not going to get into how much it pissed Kurogane off when the two blondes spoke together in their native tongues around him, nor the fact that the girl seemed completely incapable of using the concept of pronouns despite her supposed expertise on these languages.

Third issue: She was polite and always willing to help. It made Kurogane look bad. Fay continuously praised Chi with how good a little helper she was (even when she wasn't) and that he was so happy she was around to do so since Kurogane didn't. That was a lie, by the way. Kurogane would do whatever crap Fay insisted needed to be done (rearranging all three pieces of furniture, for one), just not all the damn time. He wasn't Fay's servant, so he wasn't going to act like it. And Fay should know that. Therefore, he shouldn't go ordering him around and making sure to praise Chi in front of him. And then it was impossible for Kurogane to properly be angry with her because she was so damn polite. Whenever he glared at her (making sure Fay was far from seeing distance) she would always look at him with those big eyes and go, "Did Chi displease Kuro-san?" followed by numerous guilt trip actions (definitely a Fay creation and yes, they were still having issues with it but that's for another time). Sadly, Kurogane had attained a little emotion called "compassion" and couldn't stay angry at the girl when she was doing his supposed chores and nearly crying like that.

Fourth and biggest issue: She's sharing their room. At the least, and I mean very least, she wasn't sharing their bed, but with her sleeping in their room, many problems arose. Particularly, Kurogane's chances of getting some. How much had he gotten? Well, in the amount of time he met Fay to the time they got to Kurogane's world, minus Fay's bitchy "Kurogane" stage, and to where they are today, he had accumulated approximately zero scores. That's right, folks, no heat between the sheets for those two. Not even that time in Yasha's army did they explore. Shocking, yet not. And due to Fay's time being taken up by lessons, those chances of claiming what is his had been slim. Add little Chi into everything and the chances are nonexistent. It's like Fay and her are attached to the hip. Had Kurogane not put his foot down at her joining them in bed, he wouldn't even be getting a midnight make out.

"Then you should be thankful for at least that," Tomoyo said.

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" Kurogane spat.

"Then why did you just spill your guts to me when all I asked was, 'How are you?'"

"Because I knew that you'd probably harass me until I told you what's pissing me off." Kurogane was glad he had come up with that excuse when he realized what he was doing halfway through his rant.

"But you're always pissed off about something," Souma added, when he hadn't asked for her opinion, either. Apparently, Kurogane's life was everybody's business. It didn't help for his privacy, though, when he was yelling all of his troubles in the hallway. It was a good thing that Fay or Chi weren't anywhere close by.

Holy crap, Kurogane thought. She's only been here three days and I'm already caring if her feelings get hurt… it's because of Fay… yeah, if she gets upset then Fay will get upset and then I'll have an even bigger pain in the ass than what I started with and I won't get any kisses.

"-so you should get going," Tomoyo was saying when Kurogane came back to reality.

"Huh?" he said.

Souma gasped before sticking her big, fat nose back into his business. "Stop being so disrespectful and listen when Princess is speaking to you!"

"I said that Fay-san came by and that he was looking for you," Tomoyo explained. "He wanted you to join him in the baths."

"Oh, right," Kurogane said all cool with the "I don't care" attitude. Of course, his inner self and lower parts were cheering as if they were starving men given a bountiful feast. Not terribly different situations if you think about it.

"Now, Kurogane, remember the rules about no sex in the baths?"

"Since when does that rule need to be spoken?"

"Since I realized how sexually frustrated you are."

"I am not!"

"See, there it is! Honestly, Souma doesn't have this little problem, so why do you?" Souma turned bright red and glared at Kurogane to keep his mouth shut. It was incredibly tempting not to, but he had taken Tomoyo's statement to be rhetorical anyway. "Anyway, you'd better get going before Fay changes his mind or I give you something to do. Have fun and be a gentleman with Fay!"

"Don't treat me like some kid… and what do you mean 'be a gentleman?!'"

Tomoyo chose to ignore him as she proceeded done the hall, Souma right at her heels like a puppy. Kurogane, meanwhile, made sure to stand for a while to appear to seethe until leaving for the baths. Didn't want to look so eager. Not that he was going to force anything on Fay. It was actually the mage who Kurogane was worried about initiating something. Yes, Kurogane was horny as hell, but he didn't want their first time being in public where people bathed. On the long list of things he'd never admit out loud, he wanted it to be in their own bed, at night. Special. He hated how he wanted it like that. It was so old fashioned and romantic and crap. Again, though, he'd never admit it out loud… except, maybe to Fay. And Tomoyo might somehow get it out of him. But that was it!

After what felt like hours of walking when in reality it was barely two minutes since he was actually speed walking without knowing it (libido was beginning to take charge), Kurogane came to one of the doors to find a piece of paper stuck to it. Ripping it off, he read:

Do not come in unless you are a sexy ninja named Kuro-rin, or tan, chuu, puu, wanko, pipi, wan-

It went on and ended with a little drawing of a cat and a heart. He quickly tore the list of names off of the paper to throw away and stuck the rest back on the door as a warning to others before going in himself.

Again, wanting to appear not to care, he took his time changing. Or he was. After taking off his shirt, Kurogane began to hear some singing coming from the bathing area. Now, Fay did, in fact, sing. Not necessarily well, but he still sang. And in his weird language. Kurogane had yet to decide whether or not he liked it. Not that it really mattered with Fay, mind you.

What differed from his normal singing in this case, though, was the fact that there were two voices singing. One male and being Fay's, and the other being female and Chi's. Kurogane literally heard his sanity nerve snapping in his head at that realization and charged into the bath. There he saw Fay scrubbing Chi's back and her doing the same, both happily singing with idiotic smiles plastered on their faces. Never mind that Fay was dripping wet and wearing only a towel, it was ruined by the fact that Chi was with him and in the same state. And that singing!

"Lauletaas me nuoret tytöt
Että muutkin kuulee!
Ettei meitä tään kylän pojat
Vallan mykiks luule!"

That was about all Kurogane heard before leaving the bath to go brood outside in peace. And he would do so without a shirt, thank you very much! He was way too pissed to remember to dress. Fay and he had yet to spend alone time in the bath and when he was finally given the chance, it was ripped away from his grasp and he was now being taunted by it. If he found out that Tomoyo knew about Chi joining them, he swore that he would definitely not attend her next fashion show. That would teach her!

"Kurogane-san?" somebody dared to say as he stormed down the hall.

Kurogane stopped, snapped his head to the lowly worm who had spoken and growled, "What?"

The worm jumped at this and stammered, "I-I was just wondering why, um, you didn't have a… shirt on?"

Kurogane raised an eyebrow at this guy. He actually remembered him from the training grounds. Heidi, was it? "Who are you again?"

"Hideki, sir! Hideki Motosuwa!"

Hideki. That sounded familiar. For some reason, the thought of porn was connected to that name. Kurogane hoped that it was that the guy read it and not other reasons. Of course, with the thought of porn in his head, thoughts of Fay and porn combined entered Kurogane's head and thus ended up causing him more frustration. Which he was going to let out in the form of verbal violence on this guy.

"What the hell are you doing standing around here?!" he shouted. By the guy's reaction, Kurogane was betting he wet his pants. "You're new, right? You should be training! It's only evening!"

"I'm sorry, sir!" Hideki said, arms covering his head as a sad attempt at protection. "Oh god, he's gonna kill me! I'm seriously going to die before I've gotten out of the lowest ranks here!" Kurogane's anger slightly dissipated at the sudden confusion. Who the hell was this guy talking to? "There are so many things I haven't done! I want to fight on the battle field to make my parents proud! I want to rescue cute girls from evil lords! I want to get laid!"

Kurogane looked around and saw that, yes, it was only the two of them. His anger had now gone to annoyance now that he was dealing with a complete loony (different from crazy, which Kurogane could handle, no problem). "Oi," he said. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Hideki looked up from under one of his arms and said, "Oh, um… d-did I just say that out loud?" Kurogane nodded with a "duh" expression. Hideki covered his face back up, then began to announce his thoughts to the world again.

Kurogane was about to leave in order to find his secret sake stash, when he thought of something the guy was saying about girls. He wanted to get laid. Now that was something they had in common (minus the girl part). And Kurogane actually had access to a very well endowed girl which he was sure men were drooling over due to her constant wardrobe malfunctions. And this guy was a pervert. Things were beginning to come together in Kurogane's mind.

"You're coming with me," he said as he grabbed Hideki's collar and dragged him off like a leopard would do to an impala.

"Where are we going?" Hideki asked. You could only notice a small bit of fear in his voice.

"To the baths."

Kurogane felt him tense after that. "B-But I'm not like that! I like girls!"

"No shit."

"It's true! I like boobs! Big ones! N-Not that I wouldn't find you attractive, sir! You're very handsome! In fact, I would totally want you if I was like that, but, um, I'm not so I don't think that this is very appropriate and-!"

"Shut the hell up and get in there!"

Kurogane sent the guy flying through the changing room and straight into the bath, not giving a single thought to how Fay and Chi were currently dressed. However, when the thought did pass, he realized that he honestly didn't give a rat's ass so long as the guy knew his place when it came to Fay.

Kurogane slowly followed after to see that Hideki was having a massive nose bleed. He doubted it was from impact with the ground. Looking over at the other two, Fay had on a completely scandalized expression as he clutched Chi to his chest to cover up her body. At least he had some modesty for others, if not for himself. Chi, meanwhile, was looking at Hideki as if he were the oddest thing she had ever laid eyes on. A strange thought when you remembered her background.

"Kuro-tan!" Fay suddenly exclaimed. "Why did you throw that man in here?! This is the girl's bath!"

Kurogane huffed before saying, "Because I'm not about to… wait, you put us in the girl's bath?!"

"Yes. Chi can't be in the boy's bath! Who knows what perverts lurk in the shadows there!"

Kurogane wondered where Fay learned "lurk in the shadows." Then he wondered what the hell he was talking about. That was another thing to add onto the lists of Fay's screwed logic.

"Fay, who is that?" Chi asked. It was amazing she could actually speak with how tightly Fay was holding her.

"A pervert," he answered.

"I'm not, I swear!" Hideki suddenly said, quickly wiping the blood from his nose as best he could.

"Then what are you doing?" Fay had a dangerous look in his eyes. Not surprising since he referred to Chi sometimes as being a daughter from a previous marriage. What marriage, Kurogane was sure he didn't want to know.

"You already said," Kurogane interrupted. "I threw him in here."

Fay was now glaring at him, making Kurogane curse himself. His chances of scoring anytime soon were slowing fading away as the sand in the hour glass fell. "Why?" Fay near hissed.

"Because… I think that our new 'daughter' needs some friends… so I thought that, uh… this guy would be perfect… what do you think?"

"I think Kuro-puu has very bad timing. Right, Chi?"

"Who is that, Fay?" Chi repeated, now pointing directly at Hideki.

Fay appeared to be slightly confused by her actions but shrugged. "I don't know. You! Pervert!" Hideki jumped as Fay turned his attention back to him. "What is your name?"

"Hideki Motosuwa. It's an honor to meet such a great man as yourself, Fay-san!" He added to that last part a bow. It was no shock he knew who Fay was. Tomoyo sent out a news letter to all of Nihon with a five page description of the man upon their arrival. Nothing about his past. Simply his likes, dislikes, talents, relationships (Kurogane had that one added since the thing sounded like a dating ad and Tomoyo was absolutely set on printing it anyway), and, of course, fashion tastes. He scored quite high as opposed to Kurogane. Tomoyo told him that even though black is always in, that doesn't mean one should wear it everyday.

But back to the current story.

That comment seemed to have made everything slightly better because they had somehow ended up in the water together. Fay leaning into Kurogane, who had his arm wrapped around his shoulders, Chi sitting next to Fay as calm as could be since she had practically lived in the water at Celes, and Hideki sitting next to Chi with good distance between them. His face was redder than an apple and he appeared to be trying with all of his strength to not look at Chi's loose towel.

Kurogane snorted at this. If the guy couldn't handle being naked in a bath with some girl, he sure as hell wasn't prepared to be a ninja. He was in over his head.

"So… Hideki-kun, was it?" Fay said.

"Yes?" Hideki hesitantly said.

"What is in your future?"

Silence.

"He means what are your goals in life," Kurogane explained. Yes, he could still understand Fay's odd word choices in his sentences and that was something Chi couldn't do. So take that!

"Oh! Well, I don't really know. I was hoping to apprentice somewhere in order to learn a good trade or something. But my talents weren't too impressive so I thought that if I had some fighting skills in my past, it might boost my chances."

"I see," Fay hummed as he took a sip of sake… Kurogane didn't remember him buying or receiving any lately. Curious. "You don't act like you have lived here for a long time."

"I actually have lived all my life on my parent's farm. It wasn't near a terribly large village, either. I must seem really awkward, huh?"

"Yes."

Hideki sunk deeper into the water after that. Kurogane swigged back some of the sake, not really caring about this interrogation. He had obviously already set the part for Hideki, but Chi was taking a while. Sure she had shown some interest in him, but it was probably because he was a new face. The girl was like the kid when it came to learning. She soaked everything in. However, he was doubting the possibility of their spending time together after this. He'd have to fix that.

Putting down the sake, Kurogane turned to Hideki and said, "You single?"

Fay and Hideki both paled at that comment while Chi asked, "What do you mean, 'single,' Kuro-san?"

"I mean does he have a girlfriend."

"Oh… is Chi not his girl friend?"

"No!" Fay shouted, officially weirding Kurogane out.

"So Chi not his friend?"

"You don't know him, Chi! You don't know what he might do!"

"Chi is not a girl?"

"I won't do anything!" Hideki said in a vain attempt at defending himself. You can't when Fay is involved, though. Poor fool.

"Can you prove it?!"

"Well, I don't know how but I can assure you that I would never do anything to hurt her and-!"

"So you say that you do want to be huggy with Chi?"

"Huggy?! No! I would never dare to be huggy with-!"

"Everybody shut the hell up!" Kurogane yelled. Hideki immediately did as told, Chi voiced her confusion with a, "Chi?", and Fay glared at him. Ignoring all of this, Kurogane grabbed Fay by the wrist and dragged him into the changing area after telling Chi to stay there.

"Kuro-chi!" Fay said. "What if he does something bad to her?!"

"I told you to shut up," Kurogane said once they were out of hearing range. "Now I'm going to ask you a question and I only want the answer. No walking around it, okay?" Fay sighed in annoyance, probably at Kurogane treating him like a child, but nodded anyway. "Good. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I don't understand, Kuro-chan."

"Don't give me that crap! And you said you would answer it!"

"I know, but I really don't understand what you mean. The therapist said that there are many things wrong with me, but with a little… knee grease, I think, everything will be a-okay!"

Kurogane pinched the bridge of his nose as he mentally counted to ten. Afterward, he tried again. "Okay then, let me be more specific. Why were you acting so jealous back there?"

"There is a difference between being jealous and being protective, Kuro-pipi."

"What did I say about answering me?"

By now, Fay had stopped looking at him, but thankfully, it was not out of anger or resentment. It looked like Fay was actually a little bit embarrassed. Kurogane would have considered this a victory had it not been a situation where he really needed to watch his step with what he said for Fay's sake.

Finally, Fay said, "She's all I have left from there."

With that one statement, everything clicked in Kurogane's head. Despite the bad memories, Fay still had good ones from Celes. It was only natural he would have some bought of home sickness every so often. However, going back there was officially impossible and it wasn't like there would have been much if they could. Chi was literally the only thing he had left from there.

"Do you not want her to leave you?" he asked. Fay nodded. There was some shame in his eyes with that. Kurogane wanted it to be because he felt bad for needing someone other than him, but he couldn't be sure. "Idiot."

He pulled Fay into his chest as Fay wrapped his arms around Kurogane's waist out of habit. "Don't feel bad," Kurogane said, his voice slightly muffled as he buried his nose in Fay's hair. "I understand that it must be hard to be in such a different environment and you want some reminder of your home. But the girl needs to make friends outside of just you and me."

"I know," Fay mumbled. "But she's been here for three days. It's too soon!"

"The sooner the better, I say. She might get too attached to us and not want to meet new people."

Before Fay could say anything else, the two heard a yelp and a splash from the bath. Hurrying in out of parental instinct that certainly did not exist within Kurogane for the girl, Kurogane and Fay were not expecting to find Hideki struggling to stay above water. Nor to find Chi with her arms wrapped around his neck and on top of him.

Yup, Kurogane thought. Definitely a Fay creation.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

1.) Bonus points for whoever can actually name the song Fay and Chi were singing. Here's a hint: It's from Arthur (the tv show).

A/N: Wow, this was a lot longer than I expected. And the ending to this was different than what I was planning, but it worked out better.

Yes, again that is the actual date in which this was written (today being January 27?). Something just was bugging me with this and I couldn't put my finger on it (I think it was Hideki) and was finally, "screw it!" Anyway, I have a lot of unfinished works in my folder and I don't know when I'll get a chance to do so seeing how I've been bit with the drawing bug and bloodytwistedangel and me are doing a collab fic. Oh, the fun! XD

You know what to do!

Please leave a review!

As always, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is welcomed with a Tomoyo kimono!