Author: Bar-Ohki

Title: Bath, Bed, and Beyond

Summary: Sometimes being stuck with the most unlikely person only makes you closer…

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except the driver, so please for the love of football don't sue me!

Rating: T for swearing.

Notes: People were talking about drawing bath scenes, so I decide to write one. And uh, this is what came out. I don't know how I feel about it other than it was eight pages of mental dump.

Mamori hadn't known he was there, if she had she wouldn't be in this predicament. Her parents had left her in charge of the house for the week since they were out on a small get away in Singapore. She wanted to go over to a friend's house for the weekend but someone had to watch her parent's home. She had asked Sena, since he lived nearby, to just stay over and make sure no one did anything to the house.

Sena had been helpful and agreed. The young boy had taken the keys from her and went on with his regular day until he left them on accident in the clubhouse. Normally leaving keys in the clubhouse wasn't an issue since Hiruma had a policy of returning them to their owner via slave. It was his only consolation to having a lot of forgetful idiots on his team, he made sure they got home in one piece to rest and wash up.

Since Sena hadn't forgotten his keys, Hiruma had mistakenly assumed that Mamori had forgotten her keys since the misplaced keys were hers. He only reason Hiruma would make such a mistake was that his information tree hadn't quiet caught the news that Mamori wasn't going to be at her home this weekend.

Because it was Mamori whom was to be given the keys that had previously never been misplaced, Hiruma decided to go in person to deliver the keys and give her shit about it. How could he not pass up the opportunity to humiliate her? She was so fucking amusing to look at with that angry flush on her face.

When he arrived at the Anezaki residence there was perplexingly no one around. Since he had the keys Hiruma decided to let himself in. His justification was to figure out why in the hell there wasn't a fucking manager about for him to gull. Inside he found notes addressed to Mamori concerning flight itineraries and hotel numbers in Singapore. So her parents were out in Singapore, oh and what's this? A note saying 'call Sarah back about the sleepover'?

Fuck, no manager. She probably left the keys with shrimp or something, which is why they got left behind in the first place. With a sigh Hiruma looked at the keys in his had, then looked around the house for a moment, thinking. Maybe he could still get her goat by the end of this after all….

Hiruma had decided to copy the Anezaki's front door key before returning the keys to Sena and telling him that the 'fucking manager will probably kill you for this'. He got an amusing 'eep' out of Sena and went about his day observing the newly-bugged Anezaki household. Sena came by around noon to water the plants and air out the house. He stayed about an hour, maybe two, then left the house alone.

Originally the plan had been to be inside Mamori's kitchen when she came back; at least that's what Hiruma would explain. But on the day of her return it happened to have been pissing rain and Hiruma got splattered on by several cars within five lousy yards of her fucking front gate. Since he was now soaked to the bone and muddy and wet, Hiruma decided he'd just take a bath to warm up and wash off. Mamori wasn't due for another few hours after all.

The Anezaki's had a wonderful bath. It was a full western-sized tub he could actually sprawl in. Hiruma had never actually had a chance to do that in a bathtub, so he was going to enjoy himself while he could.

Then one soaked Mamori came home early and made a bee line for the big bathtub. She was for the most part underdressed, having not cared about the fact she had thrown her clothes all over the floor on the way in. She'd get those later, but right now she wanted a bath.

After throwing open the door to the bath, only clad in her soaked, wet, underwear that left nothing to imagination, Mamori found herself in this predicament. Startled green eyes were staring at her from inside the bathtub. And by her, we of course mean all of her. Her entire exposed body.

Hiruma had heard some noises downstairs and thought it might have been Sena running back in to pick up the video game console he'd left there earlier. Then the footsteps went upstairs. Oh that's right, the shrimp had left a window open.

Then the bathroom door swung open and there was Mamori, four hours early, and basically naked. You could see the nipples through the bra.

"Get the fuck out!" Hiruma bellowed, flushing red and tossing a bar of soap at her. He did not want to see her naked, well actually he did, but he didn't want to admit he did and he definitely didn't want her to see him naked. Mamori only gasped and retreated, slamming the door shut between them. It was then she realized that Hiruma was in her house, in her tub, and naked.

"What are you doing in my house!?" Mamori shrieked through the door.

"Not getting a fucking chill waiting for someone to pick up the fucking keys!" Hiruma snapped. He decided to use a half-truth since she could tell when he was lying. And he didn't want her to accuse him of lying right now.

Mamori shivered, her body was already chilled. She couldn't hold back the sneeze which only earned her a hissed 'fuck' from the other side of the door.

"Get in here." Hiruma demanded.

"H-hiruma-kun?" Mamori gasped, confused.

"Get the fuck in here! You're not getting sick on my watch! Now get in here and fucking warm up!" Hiruma shouted at her, his annoyance and frustration clear as day.

Timidly, Mamori creaked open the door to the bathroom to see that Hiruma had turned his head away from the door and pulled his legs up to give her some room. The tips of his ears were redder than usual and because of that Mamori realized he was blushing. So she was not the only one feeling awkward right now….

Another shiver reminded her that getting in the bath right now was a necessary, so she finished stripping and stepped into the bath and curled up into a little ball. She was blushing a great deal too and looking out into the bathroom proper as opposed to staring at the back wall like Hiruma was. He had hung up his wet, muddy clothes properly, she noted, letting them drip on the little clothes line her parents left in the bathroom for occasions like this. So he was capable of being neat….

Normally Hiruma would have demanded why she had been back early, but since he was here under the pretense of returning keys, that wasn't a question he could ask. The back wall was fucking boring so he snuck a glance at her. She was staring at his clothes thoughtfully, probably observing that he can be neat if he wanted to bother with it (which wasn't most of the time). He was observing that she was really pretty and he did want to know if she thought he looked good-! Fuck. Now is not the time for this.

"…Thank you." Mamori smiled a bit. "For not making a mess."

"Isn't my fucking house." Hiruma muttered back. For the record, the clubroom was his, at least in his mind and in most everyone else's.

"...Do-do you have anything to wear that's dry?" Mamori asked, startled by the sudden realization.

"No." Hiruma answered, sounding equally surprised. Shit, he should have thought of that before getting in the bath.

"You can borrow one of my dad's yukatas," Mamori offered, "I bet one of them will be okay on you…."

"Tch." Hiruma hated yukatas. Mostly because his old man always wore them. But Mamori was sensible, a yukata would probably fit him better than anything else her dad owned considering her father was a good head shorter than him.

"…It's really raining out there." Mamori observed as the noise of the rain increased.

Hiruma only grunted. This was awkward and her small talk was annoying. He was warm now, he could get out and dry himself off and get away from this and how pretty she was. He stood up.

"Hiruma-!" Mamori gasped as he stood up suddenly and found herself staring at his crotch. "Black…." Yeah she wasn't expecting black pubic hair.

"I bleach my fucking hair." Hiruma reminded her as he finished getting out of the tub and grabbing a towel. He wasn't locker shy and it was only fair for her to have a look at him since he'd seen her, well at least that was his new justification to her if she asked. He wanted to know if she thought he looked good, her blush said everything he wanted to know about that.

"Right." Mamori muttered, embarrassed. She couldn't stop staring at his naked body. It was beautiful and she hadn't known it at all. Hiruma threw a towel around his waist.

"Checking me out?" Hiruma asked with a smirk, only to earn an indignant squeak and an ever redder blush.

Cackling in bemusement, Hiruma exited the room and went to go find something to wear. He noticed a few things wrong when he exited the bathroom, first was that it was really fucking cold. Second was that it was as humid as the bathroom had been.

"The fucking window-!" Hiruma realized and ran into Mamori's very wet room to shut it. Fuck! There was no way she was going to be able to sleep in here with the mess the wind and rain caused. That's also when Hiruma realized the heater hadn't been turned on, of course it hadn't, no one had been home.

Not knowing exactly where the thermostat was, Hiruma decided to get dressed first to keep from completely freezing his ass off. In Mamori's father's closet he found a particularly dingy looking gray yukata that reminded him of gun metal. Okay, that would work. He put it on and was going to go about looking for a thermostat when he heard the screech.

The screech of tires locking and a car skidding. The sounds of screaming and metal crumpling. A loud bang and the sound of wires snapping, the sizzle of electricy, and-!

Darkness.

Some idiot had just wreaked his car into a power pole and knocked out the power. Fuck.

"H-Hiruma!!" Mamori yelled from the bathroom. "W-what's going on?"

"Fucking car accident! Some fucker hit the power pole!" Hiruma snapped back. Shit, this was not good.

There was a lot of splashing; Mamori had gotten out of the bath.

"We have to go make sure they are okay!" Mamori announced as she stepped into the black hallway.

"You need fucking clothes." Hiruma pointed out, knowing she was only in towel even if he couldn't see her. Mamori squeaked again and went about trying to find her bedroom, only to crash into Hiruma. Her towel slipped and she could feel her bare breasts against his chest. Hiruma was blushing and very thankful she couldn't see it.

"Uh-!" Mamori was sure she was glowing red she was so embarrassed.

"Your fucking bedroom window got left open," Hiruma told her as he barely managed to keep his voice steady, "you're going to want to borrow your fucking mom's clothes."

"Oh, right." Mamori nodded. He was wearing clothes there was no way he could know her breasts were naked right now right? She backed away and found her way into her parent's room. Instead of finding clothes first, she got the flashlight out of the nightstand and then went and got clothes. Once dressed in one of her mothers light green kimonos, she came out into the hallway to see Hiruma had put on that ridiculous yukata her father had been given as a gag gift at work. It looked stunningly good on him and fit him very well. She could also see that he was annoyed, probably about the situation he was in.

"There's another flashlight downstairs." Mamori remarked since she knew he would want one. "I'll lead you."

Hiruma's face made it clear he didn't like the notion of being led anywhere and that right now he was following her begrudgingly. Mamori lead them into her kitchen and fetched him the other flashlight. Taking it, Hiruma turned it on and checked it right away. Now that he had confirmation it was working, he turned it off and watched the fucking manager get the first aid kit.

"Hiruma-kun?" Mamori was perplexed by the fact he wasn't using the flashlight.

"Saving battery power." Hiruma answered the question. "…You shouldn't go check that fucking car."

"What do you mean?" Mamori frowned.

"It hit a fucking power pole and its pissing rain. Do you want to get electrocuted?" Hiruma asked her harshly. He glared at her and silenced her next protest. "The first fucking rule of first aid is to keep there from being more victims!"

Mamori hung her head and held back tears. She felt hopeless and his words stung.

"Tch, we can have a fucking look and call 119." Hiruma muttered gruffly. Mamori managed a smile and they opened up the front door to examine the damage. The power lines had landed on a tree, which grounded them, and the driver of the car was moving around and appeared to be swearing about something.

"Sir!" Mamori called to the man, making him jerk towards her in surprise. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" The driver called back.

"There's a power line on your engine block!" Hiruma called out to the driver as he made an attempt to leave the car. "Stay in your car!"

Wisely the driver listened.

"We'll call 119 right now." Mamori assured the man as she watched Hiruma dial out of the corner of her eye. He gave the dispatcher the entire description and story of what happened and they said they would take care of it.

After passing the message onto the man and throwing him a bottle of water, Mamori and Hiruma returned inside. Quietly the two entered the kitchen and Mamori turned on the gas stove and began to make some dinner. Rice and some vegetable stir-fry, it was a simple but healthy and warm.

"I'm stuck here." Hiruma commented suddenly into the room. He had realized it a few minutes ago. There was no way he could get past the fallen power pole and even if he could he'd have to go back home in the down pour in a borrowed yukata. Not his idea of a great time.

"…Yes, yes you are." Mamori had to think for a moment before she agreed. This evening had gone from awkward to normal in the weirdest way. It was almost as if Hiruma was supposed to be here, like as if he lived here. She finished cooking in silence and set two steaming plates on the table.

Mamori sat across from Hiruma and watched as he took the chopsticks from her hand and began to eat. If he wasn't complaining it was because he liked it, which was something she had learned about him and food. Now that she knew he was enjoying himself she began to eat her share.

Since the two were sharing a compassionate silence, Mamori took this time to reflect. They looked like a couple, a married couple that were too used to each other and each other's quirks. They didn't have to speak to enjoy the other's presence and when Hiruma wordlessly set his rice bowl down, Mamori picked it up and filled back up for him.

This observation of their relationship and their current situation did not go unnoticed by Hiruma either. He knew that he and the fucking manager were closer than Hiruma was with any other woman. He knew she understood him, something that took Kurita and Musashi several years to gain themselves, but she managed in only a matter of months. If right now he had to pick someone to keep at his side the rest of his life, it would be her.

But Hiruma also knew he was only 17 and had no business to be making such decisions. Waiting, that was something Hiruma was all too familiar with already, but he would be waiting for some time before he actually did make that choice about her. He would wait to see if they could win this thing together. He would wait to see if he could struggle his way up to the professional level and when he finally crashed and burned he would wait to see if she would stay by his side.

If Mamori managed that, Hiruma would make her his. She understood this and right now, chose to stay at his side. That made him happy that she wasn't deterred by his methods of selection.

"…I guess we're going to have to share my parent's bed then…." Mamori muttered, she'd been spending the later part of her musings trying to figure out the sleeping situation.

"What?" Hiruma blinked in surprise. He didn't know how the hell she came to that conclusion.

"My room is wet right? And the couch is too small for either of us and besides, there's no power, we'll be warmer." Mamori went on.

Hiruma frowned and nodded after a moment. That made sense now but he's still uneasy that he's living a married like life with her years before he was ready to. Or at least years before he would allow himself to try at it.

"No one knows you're here right now," Mamori pointed out gently, "its okay to stop pretending."

She knew he liked her.

Fuck.

Hiruma didn't know what to say so he just looked at Mamori and in the faint light in the room he saw that the feeling was mutual. She wanted to stop pretending too.

"Just tonight." Hiruma made it clear this wasn't going to be a reoccurring thing.

"Just tonight." Mamori agreed.

A little later Hiruma found himself lying in bed, with Mamori cuddled in at his side. They hadn't had sex or anything, hell they hadn't even kissed yet. Mamori had snuggled in next to him and fell asleep almost instantly. Right now Hiruma was trying to come to terms with the fact she had fallen asleep right next to him without any hesitation or discomfort.

In the end he could not fight off sleep. Her steady breathing only made his mind want to make his match hers. He should have been more upset by the notion of cuddling to sleep with Mamori, but in the end he was not.

Because he knew, one day, when all the waiting was over this is where he wanted to be.

And he knew that she wanted the same.

_=_=_=_=_

Tell me what you think.