"Oh, man... That was brutal..." Sho Inugami sighed in relief as the damp heat of the tub's water soaked into his aching muscles. "Yeah... This is JUST what the doctor ordered." The Genin medical ninja murmured to himself, a wry smile at the thought of being called 'Doctor.' That title was reserved for Jonin-level medic-nin and non-ninja that went through the equally complex mundane medical program. Genin, like himself and Aniki, would be on par with students in a normal medical school while Chuunin were the equivalent of those in residency.
"At least now I understand why Tousan said I shouldn't use any sealing jutsu that he showed me in that book unless absolutely necessary…" He sighed again as he began to massage his tense shoulder muscles as he sank lower into the deep tub that was about the size of a small swimming pool: it could easily allow five or six people to bathe comfortably without anyone intruding on other people's personal space.
Changing his posture, Inugami began to float on his back on the surface of the 98 degree water, performing a leisurely backstroke using only his arms to make sure that the muscles didn't knot up again. The cooperative technique hadn't been physically demanding, but the exhaustion from the Soldier Pills was so similar to what happened from exercising too hard that he wasn't going to risk a dead stop. "When we get back home, I definitely have got to work more on building up my chakra stamina levels... I've more or less mastered the art of properly molding my energies into chakra, now I need to work harder on increasing my raw supply of energy..."
> Actually, you'd be surprised to find out just how much raw energy we could tap into... You're just not using it. < The dry voice that he'd first heard nearly a week ago on the night of his 15th birthday whispered in his mind.
"Oh, you again..." The medic grumbled. True to its words that first night, the voice had not been a constant companion – it had been blissfully silent for the last five days. "What now?"
> Well, if you wouldn't think stupid things loudly enough to annoy me, I would have let you be... You unconsciously tapped into some that wellspring of energy while you were putting those seals on that arrogant Lord Daimyo. If you hadn't, you probably would have needed another three or four soldier pills to complete the ritual. But you at least impressed him enough that he won't make the mistake of underestimating us again. <
"I don't know what you mean by wellspring of energy, but I certainly did impress Lord Mizuzaki." A throbbing ache swept over his body like one of the waves his weak swimming was generating. Inugami began to cough as he lost his balance to remain floating on his back, rotating to a mostly standing position. The water was a good meter deep on the edges, but here in the middle, the medic-nin could barely touch the bottom and keep his nose above water at the same time.
"Still, having to take five soldier pills, burning approximately 69% of what little body fat I have, AND making Hata-san worry probably classifies this little fiasco as a pyrrhic victory. Now she's going to be hovering around us all the time... I'm just glad Fukamichu-san had compatible chakra or I'd have been completely at Hata-san's mercy."
> Yeah, lucky us... < The voice muttered glumly. > That would have made this pain worth it... <
Sho arched an eyebrow at his mental passenger. "Really..? You're going there?"
> Are you seriously telling me that the thought of us having Motoko-chan nursing us back to health, alone, catering to our every need with nothing on her hypnotically green-eyed, red-haired mind but US is that distasteful to you? < The voice snorted in retort. > And in that maid outfit no less..? Excuse me for being less than enthusiastic about losing out on THAT particular fantasy coming true. <
"Oh, sure..." Sho answered the voice sarcastically. "That would have been just PEACHY! Haven't you heard of the Nightingale effect? Caring for us for the kind of time it would have taken would have only made her even more fixated on me. If that happened, it would probably make it impossible for me to dissuade her and make her find someone better for her."
> Just who the hell do you think you're trying to fool, Baka? < The voice countered. > I'm part of YOU, you moron! If I don't want her going off and finding someone else, then deep down YOU don't want that to happen either. Not to mention the fact that if you DID want her to move on, you'd be doing more than just giving her the cold shoulder treatment. <
"But..."
> And besides, who would you consider to be "better" for her, anyways? < The voice interrupted his futile act of rebuttal and ripping away Inugami's mental illusion of doing the right thing. > Hmm, who? Not Whiskers - Naruto has Hinata practically clinging to him already, though he's as clueless as you were until a few weeks ago. Shikamaru would find it "too troublesome" to attempt to have something remotely resembling a relationship with a real girl like Motoko-chan. < The voice paused for a beat, but Sho couldn't answer. > Come on, I'm still waiting... Who? Chouji? Aniki? WHO WOULD BE BETTER THAN US?! <
"All right, that's enough! I get your damned point already." The medic growled to shut the voice up before it continued with a listing of every single man in the village of Konoha after his immediate friends. "I still have to try. I won't leave Hata-san holding an emotional bag of worms when that demon gets out and I have to be eliminated for the sake of the village."
> Gods, that stupid shit again? < The voice snorted. > How many times am I going to have to tell you that you're worried over nothing before you get it through our thick skull? <
"When you can show me some proof!" Inugami countered. "Prove it and I'll have Hata-san in my arms before the end of the day."
The voice remained silent.
"That's what I thought." The Genin spoke petulantly. "You're nothing BUT talk."
Inugami hyper-articulated his neck to either side, causing the vertebrae in his neck to pop painfully from the release of tension. "Damn..." He muttered in pain as he took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface of the tub's hot water, hoping to meditate and clear his mind of the dry voice's painful truths in a world of peaceful warmth.
* * *
Motoko Hata entered the security closet in pensive silence... After the break-up of the meeting with the other members of their group, she'd tried knocking on the door of Keitaro Urashima's suite, hoping to wish Sho-kun a good night and a fast recovery, but her efforts had been met with silence from the other side. As she looked over at Sho-kun's empty futon in their secret room, the kunoichi's heart felt suddenly heavy with disappointment that she'd missed her opportunity to talk with him.
'I guess he must have been too tired to take the bath that he said he'd be taking in his room and probably fell asleep still in that elegant outfit of his.' She thought to herself, worriedly biting at her lower lip. There was something in what she'd just thought that felt WRONG somehow, but she just couldn't put her finger on why…
She walked over to the wooden cabinet that was built into the hidden room's wall. The closet had been filled with the contents from her equipment scroll since, unlike Inugami's character, Naru Narusegawa was not afforded a private room.
She opened the Cherrywood doors to reveal two additional copies of the same maid's outfit she was currently wearing, so she could swap them out for cleaning as necessary. On one end of the rack was the elegant emerald and gold dress and golden shoes that were for use when she assumed the role of Mitsune Konno at the dance in two weeks. Her emerald green and sun yellow kimono robe, lovingly hand-stitched by her grandmother, was hung on the opposite end of the rack. On the floor of the closet was a bag holding a silk nightgown that she'd seen in a shop during the trip through the River Country that had practically been a steal for the price the merchant wanted for it.
She glanced at herself in the mirror built into the inside of the cabinet door. "I still can't believe that girl in the mirror is really me..." Hata whispered to herself as she reached up to remove the lace hairpiece and apron that indicated her status as a servant. Unbuttoning the first two buttons of her dress to expose the emerald green silk of her 3-section bra and a small triangle of skin beneath the front connecting band the kunoichi paused, looking at her reflection once again.
Looking around to make sure she truly was alone in the room she mussed up her loose hair so that it fell both down her back and her front. "Oh, Sho-kun..." She called sexily; taking the first two fingers of her right hand and pressing them nail side down on her left collar bone and running them down the curvature of her breast, through her cleavage and over the bra's underwire. "How do I look?" She asked her reflection winsomely, batting her eyes. "Maybe you'd like to see a bit more..?"
Finally, the kunoichi's face burst into a bright red blush as she averted her eyes from her own reflection. 'Oh my God! I can't believe I just did that!' She gasped mentally at how wanton she had just pretended to be. She shook her head. 'What was I THINKING?! I sounded like something in one of those dirty stories out of those magazines I found in Rai's room a few weeks ago...' Hata sighed as she finished undoing the remaining three buttons of her dress, pulling her left shoulder out in order to free her left arm. As she did so, her left side flared with a dull, stinging pain.
"Owwie... Stupid books..." The red-haired young woman moaned as she had a recollection of the avalanche that had half-buried her in the carriage earlier in the week. She'd hidden just how badly the bruise hurt from Sho and Kimiko so they hadn't been distracted during the rest of the carriage ride.
Stripping off the dress in a single smooth motion, Motoko looked at the mirror image of herself again; gasping in surprise. She had a purplish/gray bruise the size of an Amanatsu fruit with a sickly yellow-gray ring surrounding it. The bruise was located just atop her floating ribs on the left side of her torso.
'I had no idea I was hit that hard!' She thought to herself as she gingerly pressed her fingers around the bruise's edge; there hadn't been any full-sized mirrors during the trip, so this was her first time being able to see the bruise. As she did so, there was a flare of pain, but it wasn't severe enough to be from damage to her rib. 'Skin deep... It'll probably be tender for another week or two... Maybe I can get Sho-kun to heal it once he's feeling a bit better. That would show him that I believe in him and value him... Wouldn't it?'
'That's cheating.' Part of her mind, her good side - as she considered it - whispered chidingly at her in her own voice as she envisioned a miniature angel perching on her shoulder and talking to her. 'What you want is a fresh look into his soul and you know it. You're hoping that as soon as he opens that conduit we'll see him from the inside just like we did the last time. Just like you and I both wish he'd actually been here watching our little show rather than it being our reflection in the mirror.'
Motoko blushed. "You're wrong! I'm not like that!"
'You're right; we aren't. But you think we need to be to get him right... where... we... want... him.' As the counter-her, an imaginary succubus, appeared on the opposite shoulder and whispered back with a mental wink.
A flash of one of the naughtier images in Raiden's magazines that she'd felt an irresistible urge to flip through when she'd found it - mainly out of curiosity. The image that came to mind, however, wasn't the original couple. It was of her dressed in teasingly intimate lingerie while straddling Sho-kun's belly, using her powerfully muscular legs to pin his arms against his body, leaning forward and pulling him up by his shoulders to give him the choice of kissing her lips or her breasts. Her face was aglow with a look of pleasure that suggested that she didn't particularly care where he started.
"Ohh my GAWD!" She exclaimed as the flush of her embarrassment spread from her face to all points south of her neck and her heart rate tripled in lurid excitement. "I knew I should have told Mom or destroyed that book of Rai's the instant I saw it! Okay, you're right, that is what I was hoping for! Happy?"
'But of course, sister.' The good and naughty personalities answered in stereo. 'We're here to keep you honest to yourself after all."
"Great... I'm such a good little girl that my conscience and my fantasies can chew me out or tease me, making me go all to pieces..."
Motoko sighed as she opened a drawer and removed her luxurious green silk undies, depositing them in the open drawer, replacing them with a thick, warm, fluffy towel that she wrapped around her midsection. She crammed the upper corner into the tight space between the inner wrap of the towel and her supple skin. The triangle of fabric found its resting place just behind the light reddish-brown birthmark located halfway from the upper half of the outer curve of her left breast and her armpit. The birthmark looked like a child's attempt to draw a circle. The mark was something else that she shared with her twin brother - although his was on the right side of his chest instead of the left as hers was.
The flame-haired kunoichi walked over to the door leading to the bath. 'I've SOOOO been looking forward to this.'
Hata slid open the door. As she did so, a thick bank of warm fog spilled out of the opened doorway, evaporating instantly as it met the cooler air of the main part of the panic room.
The kunoichi frowned to herself as she stepped into the bathroom. 'That's odd... I was sure that the water was at room temperature earlier...'
An image of Hoshi Fugato flickered to mind from earlier in the day as she recalled him saying the phrase, "Only private bath in the castle..."
'Oh… Oh, no..!' Motoko suddenly realized, her eyes widening in shock. She waved her hands to thin the steam in the bathroom and looked around.
On the wall to the left of the door, a towel hung from the wall hooks right beside a pair of powder blue pajama bottoms: Inugami-sized pajama bottoms.
'How could I have been so stupid?!' She chastised herself. 'Princess Reiyuriko's own suite doesn't have a private bathtub! Why on earth would Keitaro Urashima's have one?! When he said he was going to take a bath in his room, he meant THIS room!'
She kept staring at the clothes on the wall. 'I don't see a shirt... Does that mean..? Does Sho-kun sleep topless?' She suddenly wondered.
An image of her and Sho-kun in the security closet at night suddenly came to mind. Her heart began to beat faster as she tried picturing him lying atop his futon bed, hands woven together and propping his head up from underneath, causing his biceps to bulge slightly. She frowned as she tried to envision what his bare, muscular chest might look like. 'He'd probably look so dashing...' She thought to herself, feeling a fresh blush start to form. 'And then me in my...'
Reality came crashing down on Motoko Hata. 'OH... MY... GOD! I'm standing in the bathhouse in nothing but a towel! I've got to hide; I'd just DIE if he sees me like this!'
She ran over to the door to the bathroom. Her hands were on the verge of sliding the door aside when she suddenly panicked. 'No, wait! What if he's in there at the moment? How would explain myself? Could I explain myself?'
'Well, whatever we're going to do, we need to get some clothes on before he comes back from wherever he is!' Her good conscience shouted in her mind.
'Right, clothes!' The kunoichi thought back dully as she ran back to the door she'd come in from. She came to an abrupt halt before she could cross the threshold to the central room of the security closet. 'But what if he just stepped out for a breath of fresh air while he waited for the water to heat up? I mean I don't see the clothes he was wearing earlier… What if he were to come back into the room while I was changing from towel to my nightgown? If I'd die if he sees me like THIS, I don't know how I'd handle it if he saw me like THAT!'
'Well figure something out, sister! You're probably running out of time.'
Hata bit her lower lip in nervous uncertainty. "Darn it! If only I could sense Sho-kun's chakra pulse! Then I could make a decisive decision!" She muttered to herself. "Where IS he?"
As if responding to her request, from behind her there was a virtual explosion of water as Sho Inugami broke free from his aquatic entombment. The loud splash and sloshing of the water was accompanied by a deep gasp for air. Hearing the sound, the kunoichi's combat training kicked in, causing her to spin about to face the tub as she shifted her balance into a defensive posture. The young woman's eyes widened and her lips began to quiver as the image of what she saw penetrated the confused fog in her mind.
Sho Inugami stood in the tub, waist deep in water now so warm that wisps of heat vapor rose from its surface. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on your view on things – between the water distorting the image of what lay beneath the surface and her angle, everything below his belly button was hidden.
THAT was an absolute blessing; seeing anything more would have probably caused the young woman to freak out and pass dead away. As it was, a deep blush of both embarrassment and want colored her fair skin.
Sho-kun's shoulder-length white hair - save for the narrow line of black cutting down the left half of his face - was plastered against his lithe, but muscular frame. His bangs covered his eyes while runnels of water flowed down to the tub's surface. The glistening drops of water on his tight, well-defined muscles created a prismatic reaction that made him seem wreathed in a halo of rainbow light.
The medic stretched towards the ceiling, clearly unaware of the awestruck kunoichi's presence, giving her a complete view of his left side. As he did so, there was a faintly audible series of pops and cracks as his muscles released the final joules of built-up tension. "Ah... That's much, much better!" The medic-nin said to himself aloud as he swept his bangs aside.
Across the room, Motoko Hata was absolutely captivated by the good looks of the young man that was her heart's desire. 'Good God, he's hot!' She thought to herself. 'Why on earth did the water have to come up so high and hide the best parts?'
'What are you thinking, girl?' Her conscience demanded of her in prudish shock.
The succubus chortled. 'What any red-blooded woman should be thinking!'
The kunoichi's hands shot up to cover her mouth in embarrassment at herself. 'Oh, my God! Did I REALLY just think that? I'm starting to become almost as big a pervert as Raiden is! What the hell's coming over me?'
Moving her hands was perhaps the worst possible mistake the young woman could have made, for two reasons: neither of which her love-addled brain were aware of.
The first reason that it was a mistake was that when she'd dropped into her defensive posture, the motion had caused the anchor point of her towel to pop out from where she'd tucked it in to form her impromptu dress. When that had happened, the only thing that kept her body covered had been her arms against the side of her body. Raising her hands to cover her mouth had released that friction from the fluffy towel. Once released, the pull of gravity caused her loosely wrapped towel to fall open in its rapid descent to the floor. The fire-haired young woman, however, was so mortified over the filthy direction her mind had wandered off in that she didn't even feel her only cover for her modesty abandoning her.
If suddenly finding herself naked - and not realizing it - wouldn't have been bad enough when she finally discovered it, then the sudden sharp rise of her hands – her second mistake – and the falling of her towel had occurred just on the outer edge of Inugami's peripheral vision was. Millennia of evolution had hard-wired the brain into causing humans to instinctively turn in the direction of movement to evaluate potential threats.
The speed of his turn to face Motoko Hata squarely caused him to kick a virtual tidal wave of water giving the kunoichi a tantalizingly naughty glimpse of his lower abs that she'd been wanting, but still prevented her from seeing the whole picture. Sho's chest every bit as exceptional as she'd been imagining. There was one thing that Hata hadn't expected to see - a wispy mat of thin black chest hairs sprouting from the middle of his breastbone and stretching halfway towards his tight masculine nipples.
'That's right...' The kunoichi suddenly remembered. 'Sho-kun's a year older than I am; he turned 15 a few days ago, but I still have a few months before my 14th birthday. I can hardly believe my eyes!'
The medic-nin's eyes widened in shock as his twin-colored gaze was given an uncensored view of Motoko Hata's pale, slightly pinkish skin and her perfectly proportioned body… The young woman could have easily been one of the anatomy models in his medical texts. Her body was flawless, save for a slight discoloration on the upper outer quadrant of her left breast that looked to be a birthmark of some kind, though he couldn't see it too clearly from his position three meters away and half a meter lower in the water.
> But this is far more interesting than the pictures in the books are... Isn't it? < The dry voice whispered lustily. > I wonder if we could convince her to come over and wash our back. Or maybe let us wash hers. Man, oh, man, I'd just love to get her to join us. Hey, why don't you ask...? <
'SHUT UP!' Sho Inugami shouted mentally at his hitchhiker. 'God, I'm beginning to think you're actually WORSE than Haruno is!' He then mentally pointed at Motoko's abdomen where a slightly larger-than-a-fist-sized harm scale 1 bruise located on her epidermis atop of her left external oblique muscle. 'She WAS hurt by those books the other day; just like I thought she was.' He started to take a step in the kunoichi's direction. 'I should...'
> I wouldn't do that, buddy. < The voice interrupted his thought.
'She's hurt!' The medic-nin protested to the voice. 'Give me one reason why I shouldn't go heal her right now?'
> I'll give you two: one, we're practically out of chakra - we were barely able to use the Flying Thunder God jutsu to get up here earlier after pulling off all that Urashima garb. We don't have enough energy now to sense the tag in our room downstairs to get out of this mess, let alone activate the Mystical Palm technique to heal that bruise. <
The medic mulled that over. 'I could still push it if I needed to.'
> But you won't because of my other reason. Look down in the water. <
Sho Inugami tore his eyes from a blushing, but still stunned, Motoko Hata to look into the water. From his angle, the water acted as a magnifying glass for him rather than a mirror as it had for the kunoichi. The unflappable medic felt his cheeks color as he realized that he was in the middle of experiencing the typical male reaction to being in close proximity to a good-looking nude female. 'Oh...'
> Yeah. I have a feeling that you don't want to let her see us like this... Not to mention that she probably wouldn't let you anywhere near her with our junk locked on and ready to fire. < The voice paused. > On the other hand, given how she feels about us, maybe she WOULD... <
Sho felt his entire face burn. "Enough! I'm not a crude pervert!" He shouted to himself, once again, allowing his internal debate to come out openly out of irritation. He then deliberately turned away from Motoko and sat down in the tub, closing his eyes and trying to erase his indelible memory.
"Ano..." Motoko Hata started softly in embarrassment-filled confusion, though her mind still hadn't realized what had happened to her towel. "Sho-kun, I'm really, really sorry I accidentally barged in on you, but what are you talking about?"
> Oh, this is PRICELESS, buddy! < The voice gave a stereotypical dirty old man chortle of perverted amusement. > She doesn't even have a clue what she's showing off! Would you turn back around already and stop wasting your time trying to wipe our memory of her perfection? < The voice demanded. > I want another glimpse of heaven and the angel who's got the hots for us! <
The medic snarled wordlessly at the voice, jabbing himself with two rigid fingers just above his still excited manhood. He grunted slightly in pain and then pushed it to the back of his mind where his passenger resided.
> Oww... Son of bitch; why the hell would do that to us? < The voice groaned in agony.
"Then shut your perverted ass up or I swear to GOD, I will hurt us for real." The Genin growled at the annoying voice.
"Are you okay, Sho-kun?" Motoko asked as she heard him talk, but couldn't understand the context of the words. "You're really starting to worry me." The kunoichi made a hesitant step forward.
"I'm fine, Hata-san." The medic answered politely, biting his tongue to keep his mind off her body.
"Would you please look at me and talk to me, then? Please, Sho-kun..."
> Look at her, look at her! < The voice demanded in agreement.
Inugami shook his head, repeating the blow to his lower core region and shutting the voice up for good this time. "I'm pretty sure you don't want that... I mean, you do or you wouldn't have asked me to, but ah..." The medic-nin stalled out, feeling a sudden appreciation for how Miho-sensei had kept interfering in his fun with 'Hito and Kimiko. 'God I wish she were here to bail us out of this mess at the moment...'
"I'm sorry, Sho-kun; you're not making any sense at all."
Sho looked up at the ceiling, rolling his eyes. "I... You... I'm..." He sputtered trying to figure out a diplomatic way of saying what needed to be said, but failing utterly. He finally sighed, hanging his head. "Aw, damn it, Hata-san... Would you just look down at yourself already?" He asked before sticking fingers in both of his ears.
Even with the extra measure to protect his hearing, the kunoichi's scream of horrified disbelief and indescribable embarrassment was every bit as loud as he expected it would be.
> It's a good thing this panic room is soundproofed. < The dry voice said wryly as they could feel the thud-thud-thud of Motoko Hata bolting from the room. > I have a feeling it's going to need that quality for a while... <
* * *
In the Imperial Family's private Sento bath, Kimiko Itou, who'd had the same idea Motoko had, was luxuriating in the medium pool-sized gold and marble tub. She perked up as she thought she heard a scream. It was distorted, as if coming through an air vent, and sounded rather familiar.
"Momo? Is that you?" The brown-haired woman asked the empty room. Silence answered her. A quick glance around the room confirmed that the orange haired kunoichi wasn't with her.
"Huh... Must have been my imagination…" The ersatz princess said as she returned to enjoying the invigorating warmth of the water.
* * *
"OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!" Motoko Hata screamed repeatedly in mortification as she dashed out of the Sento area of her and Sho's cozy little suite. She was so shocked that she hadn't even stopped to reach down for her towel. As she reached her futon, she yanked the downy blue comforter off of the bedding and wrapped it around her like a shroud, shaking in embarrassment.
"I can't believe this is really happening to me!" She cried, curling up in the corner of the room, her face turning a crimson red as a river of tears gushed from her watering emerald green eyes. "Just kill me now so I can fade away!"
'But you got your wish... We got to see him in the buff!' Her naughtier side giggled. 'God, what I would have given to have him hold us in his arms while we played with those cute little hairs on his manly chest...'
'But him getting to see M-M-ME n-n-naked wasn't anywhere in the wish!' She countered.
'True...' Her naughty side agreed with a hint of a leer. 'But it'll just have to do for now.'
After a brief eternity of emotional agony, Sho emerged from the bathroom, wearing the powder blue pants that she'd seen by his towel on the wall. His chest - what little of it was visible around the damp towel draped over his shoulders - still sparkled from some stray droplets of water he'd missed. The medic had taken the minimum amount of time to dry his lower body in order to keep his pants from becoming form-fitting.
'If she realized that THAT had happened because of what I saw, she'd never live it down.' He thought grimly to himself as he knelt, Seiza-style - butt on his heels, behind the blue blob that had enveloped the swordswoman .
"Hey..." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder through her protective "armor." "I'm... I'm sorry, Hata-san."
The crying kunoichi shivered at the medic's touch. Half of her wanted to let the blanket/shroud fall so she feel his strong hand against her skin while the other half wished that she were clad in a meter-thick layer of Okito-sensei's diamond armor. She sniffled, refusing to look at him. "What do you have to be sorry for, Sho-kun? I walked in on you!"
"Well, yeah..." He agreed freely. "But you did so only because I didn't think to put a note on the door! I mean, I knew we'd be sharing a room that's going to be affording us very little privacy as it is, and - like an idiot - I didn't even think to take some minor precautions! So how can I blame you when I'M the one at fault?"
"But you were exhausted from your effort to heal the Lord Daimyo, Sho-kun!" Motoko protested. "You even said that you'd be taking a bath; I should have realized that meant you'd be in there. It was all my fault!"
"I'm not letting you take all the blame, Hata-san." Sho argued back stubbornly. "Let's just say we're both at fault and call it at that; we share the blame evenly, okay?"
'He really is sweet...' Motoko thought to herself as she nodded in agreement, wiping the tears on her blanket. 'Why doesn't anyone else in the village see that?'
"Okay." Inugami answered. "Now, can I do anything for you?"
"Do?" The young woman asked dully, feeling a flush warm her cheeks as her naughtier side threw up a few ideas.
"Well, I assume you don't plan on staying wrapped up in nothing but that blanket all night… I could get you something from the closet you left open, if you'd like..."
"Oh... Yeah..." She whispered back. She looked across the room at the bag with the new nightgown. She'd planned on putting that on after her bath, but now she just wanted to go to sleep to escape her feelings. The thought about asking him to hand her the bag, but recalling just how sheer and slightly revealing it was killed that plan. 'I can't let him see me in that at the moment; it would give the wrong impression...' She thought for a minute.
"Um, yeah... In the closet is a robe. Would you hand it to me?"
"Sure; I can see it..." The medic's hand left her shoulder as he rose, walking past her. She pulled the blanket more tightly across her chest to ensure nothing below her neck was visible. A few moments later, the kimono was lowered into view. "Here you go. I'll just step into the other room so you can change."
'I have to show that I have faith in him!' She thought to herself. 'It's now or never!'
She grabbed his wrist before accepting the robe. "No, wait, Sho-kun..." Motoko ordered.
He frowned in confusion, his arm tensing under her fingers. "What is it, Hata-san?"
"It's just you… I…" She took a calming breath and then looked up into his twin gaze. "Look... We're going to be in these confined quarters for the next few weeks and we aren't always going to be in a position to afford each other the luxury of privacy, Sho-kun. Just close your eyes: I'll trust you not to look at me and you'll have to trust me the same way whenever you need to change." The young woman said quickly before she could lose her nerve, looking down and away afterwards out of reflexive nervousness. "We might as well start trusting each other right now."
Inugami fell silent for a few moments, his heart beating a bit faster as she could feel his pulse speed up. "Are you really sure that's what you want? I don't want you feel pressured by our... Accident."
Motoko took a breath and turned back, her glistening green eyes looking up to his gray and green ones. "I know you can't forget what you've seen or experienced, Sho-kun; Kimiko told me when you were checking your family's storage space that Rai broke the door to." He nodded reluctantly in agreement. "In other words, my body has very few secrets from you anymore... I'm saying I KNOW that you're too good a man to try and take advantage of this situation in order to discover those remaining secrets without my permission… So I suppose what I'm really asking you is this… 'How much do you trust me, Sho-kun?'"
'I trust you with my very soul, Hata-san. At least with the part that isn't that demon...' The medic thought to himself. 'If only I dared to let you know that.'
Inugami nodded at the kunoichi. "All right, Hata-san... If that's what you want, that's what we'll do." He closed his eyes, determined to tell her his feelings through his non-verbal gestures. His eyelids scrunched up so tightly that it actually sent waves of pain into the nerves around his sinuses.
Motoko Hata waited for a heartbeat before shucking her blanket and rising to her feet, resisting the urge to wave her hand in front of his face as a test. She blinked as she suddenly realized that she wasn't looking Sho-kun in the eye, but rather looking at his eyebrows.
'I never realized that I was taller than he was...' She thought to herself as she quickly slipped on the kimono, tying it into place without so much as taking her eyes off of Sho's face. His face didn't so much as twitch at the movement, conclusive proof that he'd kept his word – exactly as she'd known he would. 'I guess he always seemed larger than life that I never noticed…'
For one brief instant, she thought about throwing herself into his arms and kissing the man of her dreams, but stopped herself. 'He's trusting in me as much as I'm trust him, so I won't take advantage of him. But if he asks or offers, I'm not going to let me hold myself back…'
She looked down at herself, verifying the green and yellow kimono-style robe was completely covering her. "All right, Sho-kun. You can open your eyes now."
The medic's dueling eye colors appeared from behind his eyelids. There was a look of genuine concern in his eyes over her mental condition because of this emotionally charged situation. "Okay?" The kunoichi nodded. The medic side-stepped the swordswoman as he walked to his bedding and pulling the blanket off. "Good night, then, Hata-san."
"Umm... Just one other thing, Sho-kun..?" She said, gathering up her blanket. "The others..."
Inugami paused and shook his head. "I'm not the kind who peeps and tells, Hata-san. I wouldn't be a very good medic if I were." He turned to look at her. "They don't hear about anything that happens in here until YOU tell them. Deal?"
"Deal." She answered, setting her blanket back down on the bedding and dimming the lights to the minimum that would allow either of them to safely navigate the rat's nest of wires and cables to the bathroom in the middle of the night. "Good night, Sho-kun..."
Sho climbed under the covers of his futon. 'What a crazy day... If this day is only a taste of things to come during the rest of this mission, things are going to get really interesting, really quickly.' He thought to himself with a sigh, falling asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.