Splash

by scribblemoose

"Tatsu-bon!"

Tatsuya closed his eyes and counted to ten. He was aiming for a hundred, but he only got to ten before Shigeki yelled again.

He sighed, and crossed to the door, laid his palm flat against the polished wood and took a deep breath.

"What is it now?"

"I lost my duck, Tatsu-bon!"

"Don't call me…" Tatsuya muttered under his breath, but he knew it was no use. To protest would just be to encourage him. And encouragement wasn't something Shigeki needed. "What d'you mean, you've lost your duck?"

There was a pause, some splashing.

"It means I can't find the duck," came Shige's voice, a little perplexed. "What else could it mean?"

Exasperated, Tatsuya shoved the door open and went inside. He'd intended to avert his eyes from the bathtub and the complex riddle that was Shige, but something caught his attention and he found himself staring.

"What the-"

Shige grinned at him. "What, Tatsu-bon?"

"What on earth have you done to your hair?"

Shige patted his mass of sunshine-gold hair. "I've tied it up. Didn't want it to get wet."

"What's with the pink… thing in it?"

Shige shrugged his shoulders. "All I could find. Why? You want one? You'd look good with a ponytail."

Tatsuya scowled, somehow restraining himself from dignifying that with an answer.

"So," said Shige. "Wanna help me find the duck?"

His cheeks were flushed from the heat of the bath; there was a trickle of water sliding down his neck. A single curl of hair escaping from the ridiculous pink hair tie and tickling his ear.

"Don't," Tatsuya breathed.

Shige cocked his head on one side, raised an eyebrow.

"You… no, I, no…"

He turned to leave, but quick as ever Shige caught his wrist, tugged him back. Tatsuya let out a squeak, twisting around, just barely managed to grip the edge of the bath to steady himself, stop himself falling in, and suddenly his face was bare inches from Shige's and his arm was trembling, threatening to fold under him and he murmured "no," just once more before Shige kissed him.

He could have pulled away, could have hit him, could have gathered the shreds of his dignity and simply left. But he didn't. Shige's lips were soft and his tongue was wet, inquisitive, snaking inside Tatsuya's mouth, exploring. He was still pulling on Tatsuya's wrist, draping his arm over a warm, wet shoulder. Tatsuya's hand reached irresistibly for Shige's hair. Fumbling for a moment to release it from that ridiculous tie.

"Mmmm." Shige nuzzled Tatsuya's nose as he pulled back, gasping.

"This is so wrong," Tatsuya mumbled, even as he wound silken strands of gold around his fingers and fell to his knees by the tub. Moved in for another kiss. All resistance shattered.

Shige wrapped both arms around him, gentle fingers touching his face, and unbeknown to Tatsuya a little yellow plastic duck bobbed back to the surface of the water, swam in circles in the little eddies of bathwater and floated down to tickle Shige's feet, forgotten.