| [Mar. 5th, 2018|04:24 am] |
As much as they were trying not to pressure him, it was a little much to be the filling in a regretful kiss sandwich. Raidou focused on ice-melt thoughts until he could extract himself. He didn’t go far: just to the center of the bath, where the water dipped a little deeper, lapping past his shoulders. Genma and Kurenai were both still within reach, wrapped in shadows and blood-warm water, and if circumstances were different, Raidou wouldn’t have held back.
But they weren’t. So.
Maybe he was the only one who cared. Maybe he was being too rigid. Maybe, in the grand scheme, life was short and it didn’t matter which lines he tangled — but that was temptation talking. He knew, deep in his own bedrock, that there was right and wrong here.
No matter how much he wanted to slide his hand between Kurenai’s thighs, or wind his fingers through Genma’s hair to anchor his head for a kiss, he was not going to be the colossal screw up who destroyed a shipping line, lost a subordinate, and fucked his own team in the space of three months.
So, that was that. And as soon as his blood-flow redirected north, he’d find an intelligent way to articulate it so they’d both understand that Genma’s later was Raidou’s never.
Or, a quiet little thought interjected, at least until the end of the year.
He was assembling words to that effect, when a sudden pale flicker behind Kurenai caught his eye. It resolved into something like a furry cannonball, launching out of the darkness and splashing down between her and Genma. They both jerked back, hands going for weapons neither one of them currently possessed.
A short, dark snout broke the surface, followed by eyes like glinting black marbles, and ridiculous floppy ears.
Pakkun sneezed explosively. “Wow, it smells like hormones in here. What were you doing?”
Genma unfroze first, gliding back to the ledge. He sat on Kurenai’s other side this time, settling down cross-legged with one arm draped casually over his lap. “Having a bath. What are you doing?”
“Getting tanuki stink off.” Pakkun stretched out in the water, all four paws paddling until his back breached and his curly tail popped up. After a moment’s effort, he stopped and floated in a spiral caused by his own eddies, until he bumped against Raidou’s shoulder. “Just having a bath, huh? All three of you. At night. Under moonlight.”
Raidou addressed Kurenai. “How upset do you think Hatake would be if we drowned him?” |
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