Hellooo, dear viewers, it's time for bad, bad...hot springs? [open]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Anyone from the Convoy
Content: That's right, it's time for a hot springs episode!
Setting: The steamy springs in this scintillating city of sin
Time: After the Convoy lands
Warnings: Invasion of personal space. Awkwardness. A lot of naked. FANSERVICE GALORE.

Comments

[flight_15]

He hadn't been to Licere in years. After the massive head trip that was Antrim, Ichigo was grateful for this chance to unwind, and headed straight for the public hot springs. He wasted no time in stripping down and washing off, then tied a towel around his waist and slowly made his way over to the outdoor pool.

(Bathing suits? You weren't supposed to wear bathing suits to a hotspring -- at least, that was how Ichigo had been brought up.)

Draping his towel over the rocky edge of the spring, Ichigo shut his eyes and leaned against the side and let the heat seep into his muscles and bones. Man...he'd forgotten how good this kind of thing felt. There wasn't even anyone else here, for the moment -- apparently, he'd picked a less popular time. It didn't make much of a difference to him, but he had to admit, the quiet was nice. Ichigo felt himself relaxing, really relaxing, for the first time in too long.

[flailingbento]

Watanuki, for his part, had never been to Licere. The only "hot springs" where he'd grown up were the heated public baths in Bellcius, and his family hadn't really frequented them. He'd heard of them, sure enough, but hadn't really been sure what to expect. Thus far, he'd been enjoying himself immensely, though - he wasn't used to a place where he was the one waited on, where his only prerogative was to relax

[flight_15]

The small splash Watanuki's foot had made had caught Ichigo's attention. He opened his eyes, wondering in a vague and disinterested manner who it was.

Then his eyes went wide.

He knew exactly who that was.

Ichigo felt a hot flush rise in his face and his voice stick in his throat as he started, half-standing up in surprise from the rock ledge he'd been sitting on, then realized that standing wouldn't help in this situation. The water had been up to his shoulders before; now it was closer to his waist.

(Maybe, just maybe, if that thing on Long Night hadn't happened and they hadn't had that conversation about it, Ichigo could have pretended he didn't care that Watanuki was standing over there in just a towel, but now...?)

"I--uh--"

It didn't really occur to him that he had just as much right to be in this hot spring as Watanuki did. It felt kind of like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have, and that scar on Watanuki's chest hasn't faded much, and he was really skinny too, was it normal for cooks to be that thin

[flailingbento]

When Ichigo started to stand, it was only the danger of losing his towel that prevented Watanuki flinging his arms over his eyes. As it was, he got a hell of a view of Ichigo from the waist up, and thank goodness the movement of the springwater made everything below the surface hazy, because he really didn't want to see what was-- oh god it looked like he was staring, didn't it, like he was staring at Ichigo and his shoulders and his chest-- and they were broad and well-defined and absolutely nothing like his, because the world wasn't fair and-- NO. He had to stop this. Right now. Someone had to say something before this got too out-of-hand.

"I. UH." Yes. Ichigo's face. His face. Somehow looking away would make this worse, but he could pin his eyes to Ichigo's face and somehow it would be less awkward, even though he knew he couldn't possibly blame his rising flush on the heat of the water and he was still standing there in nothing but a towel.

He had no reason to be flustered by this. It was just Ichigo. Ichigo was nothing to be

[flight_15]

--it wasn't like he hadn't liked Watanuki before, he'd been noticing the other with uncomfortable frequency ever since the ghost swarm but had been doing his damnedest to ignore it and mostly he'd been thinking about how Watanuki had felt anyway and now that he was confronted with what he LOOKED like--

Face.

Yep. He had his eyes fixed very, very firmly on Watanuki's face. Ichigo, who had stood up out of some kind of bizarre half-formed urge to run away, slowly sank downwards, though he didn't sit down completely. One hand gripped the rocky edge of the pool as he moved into a kind of crouch -- deeper in the water, but still tense like he was ready to make a break for it or something.

Come on, this was stupid, he reminded himself. He'd even talked with Watanuki in the shower before, a year and a half ago after that stupid banshee thing. But it hadn't been nearly this weird. Ichigo swallowed hard. "Hey," he managed. "Uh

[flailingbento]

Watanuki found himself cursing the existence of peripheral vision. Even staring at Ichigo's face, the rest of him was still there, with the faint scars visible even from here and the general defined body of someone who spent his time fighting.

It should have been obvious, but Watanuki hadn't thought about this before, not when it was so recently that he'd let himself think about Ichigo as anything other than a nuisance he cared a little too much about. And all their conversations since then, even the damned Thing On The Deck, had been about sorting out their feelings toward each other-- dammit, biceps had never come into it before!

"I'm-- bathing," he blurted before the awkward silence could continue any further. "Or-- or I was, but-- don't let me bother you, I mean if you're here I can go, I don't have to be here--" He was trying to find some way out of this short of turning tail and running back to the ship, but coherent planning wasn't going so well at the moment.

[flight_15]

What was that, Watanuki? Was that a way out of this awkward situation you'd just hinted at? Because about 90% of Ichigo latched onto that like a lifeline.

(the other ten percent thought that staying here and looking at Watanuki would have been fine, but that part was being resolutely ignored.)

"No, that's okay," he said quickly, moving to stand up again, one hand groping off to the side for the towel he'd come in with, it had to be here somewhere-- "I can go, I've been here for ages already--" Okay, so it had been maybe five minutes, ten tops, but Watanuki didn't have to know that.

[flailingbento]

Oh god no he was standing up again, why the hell was he doing that-- Watanuki realized that if he did not get out of there right that second, it would quite possibly be the most terrible thing in the world.

"No!" he said hastily, flapping one hand in Ichigo's direction and clinging to his towel with the other (oh god was it slipping? he needed to get out of here). "No, that's fine! I-- I forgot something. I just remembered. It's very important and I need to go back to the ship and get it right now, so too bad, looks like I'll have to come back here tomorrow or something! It's very disappointing! So, uh, I'll just go get that and you stay here. Good bye."

Fifteen seconds later, he was back in the changing area, trying to do up his buttons with hands shaking so badly it took him three times longer than usual. The sooner he was out of here, the better.

Maybe when he couldn't see the spring anymore, the image of the person in it would get the hell out of his mind.

[flight_15]

And all Ichigo could do was stare after him and try to wrap his mind around what had just happened. Stunned and red-faced, he slowly sank back into the water.

Oh god.

That had just --

-- he had just --

-- Watanuki --

-- towel --

-- WHY --

...and he'd probably come off like an idiot. Staring like that, what the hell had he been thinking?! He hadn't been thinking. At all. He'd been completely unable to think about anything besides that place where Watanuki's stomach turned to hips and the shape of his back and god dammit he was doing it again. This had to stop. Right now.

Ichigo wouldn't be able to look Watanuki in the eye for a week. This was going to make training really, really awkward.

...he needed to start that up again.

He'd look for a good place to do it when he got back to the ship.