Set post-GX with established Ryo/Fubuki.

"Fubuki, is this really necessary?" Ryo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Absolutely," Fubuki said as he marched into the bathroom with his arms full of towels. "How can you have never taken a bubble bath in your life?"

"That was always more Shou's thing." Ryo rolled his eyes as Fubuki dumped half a bottle of bubble bath into the rising water. He regretted ever having mentioned that fact to Fubuki and had been regretting it for the past half hour.

Fubuki shook his head. "I can't believe you! You've never, ever taken a bubble bath? Not even when you were a little kid?"

"Why would I? Showers are easier and faster. There's no point to a bath; it's just sitting around."

"But it's so relaxing!" Fubuki closed his eyes and smiled in pure bliss. "Don't you just love the warm water on your skin? And you feel so clean afterwards." He might have added that it also helped you get to sleep, but he knew it wouldn't help his case. Ryo tended to gravitate away from anything he thought would act as a sedative.

"I'm sure I could feel just as good after a shower," Ryo insisted, and Fubuki thought crossly that he also seemed to gravitate away from anything fun as well.

Still, he smiled and wagged a finger. "Trust me Ryo, once you get used to the feel of a bubble bath, you won't want to get out. Even Asuka likes them, and she's almost as boring as you are."

"Fubuki, you're not going to change my mind. I don't like bubble baths. Or any baths, for that matter."

"How do you know that if you've never taken one?"

"I have taken baths and I don't like them. They're long and tedious, and make washing your hair more difficult."

Fubuki stirred the bubbles. "Well after this bath, you'll change your mind."

"That's not going to happen because I'm not taking a bath." Ryo spoke in that tone he used to seal contracts in the Pro Leagues, the one that said, I have spoken and there is nothing more to say on the matter.

Well, Fubuki could play that game too. "Oh yes you are."

Ryo started for the door. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are." Fubuki switched off the water. The tub was now filled almost to the top with a mountain of bubbles. He set towels on top of a nearby chair and before Ryo could make a move, he quickly locked the door and stood in front of it. "Ha." He grinned and folded his arms, daring Ryo to fight him for the door and knowing he wouldn't. Obviously a valedictorian with a heart condition was no match for a bodybuilding surfer who lifted on the weekends.

Ryo only looked bored. "If you want me to take a bubble bath, you'll have to physically take my clothes off and force me into the tub."

Fubuki smirked. "I think that can be arranged."

"Fubuki, it's not going to happen." Ryo's voice deepened a tad and was almost at a yell, a sure sign that he was losing patience. "Now move!"

Instead of answering, Fubuki slowly began to peel his clothes off and fling them to the ground at Ryo's feet. When he had stripped down to nothing but his birthday suit, he locked eyes with Ryo. "Your turn," he ordered.

Ryo tried to push Fubuki aside, but of course he didn't have the strength. "What part of 'I'm not going to take a bubble bath' do you not understand?"

"Pleeeeaase?" Fubuki begged, switching tactics. If serious and determined wasn't going to work, he may as well try puppy eyes.

"That's not going to work this time." Ryo waited for Fubuki to cup his hands together-he always did that whenever he was begging-and quickly lunged for the doorknob. He had almost gotten it open when he felt a hand grab the back of his shirt and yank him backward so that he fell on his back. Taking advantage of the situation, Fubuki pounced him and pinned Ryo's arms to the ground with his feet. He sat on his chest and cocked his head proudly.

It didn't help that Fubuki was still naked. Or that his junk was now right in front of Ryo's face.

"Get off."

"I will if you promise to take a bubble bath with me."

Ryo groaned. "Why the hell is this so important to you?" he spat.

"Because I want you to try it!" Fubuki said, trying not to whine. He knew Ryo hated whining more than anything else in the world, but for heaven's sake, did the man have to be so stubborn about trying new things? "Everyone loves bubble baths; they're so much fun."

"I'm not taking a bubble bath. Get that through your thick head."

Fubuki huffed. "Fine. I guess I'll just have to add a little bit of persuasion." He grinned and tickled Ryo under the armpits. Ryo squirmed and struggled desperately to break free, but Fubuki's legs kept his arms pinned down. He bit his lip to try to hold back his laughter, but it soon became impossible. He quickly began compiling a mental list of all the ways he could kill Fubuki but finally had to beg him to stop.

Fubuki smiled and shifted so he was lying on top of Ryo. He placed a gentle kiss on his lips. "Take a bubble bath with me."

Ryo gave a long, dramatic sigh- far more dramatic than was strictly necessary, Fubuki thought- and shook his head. "All right, all right. You win."

"Now was that so hard?" Fubuki teased, standing up. Ryo didn't answer. He sullenly stood up, threw off his clothes, and lowered himself into the tub so he was sitting under a sea of bubbles. Fubuki joined him and for some reason Ryo looked away and hunched his shoulders. This certainly wasn't the first time they'd seen each other naked, but it sure felt like it.

Fubuki smiled, grabbed a handful of bubbles, and plopped it onto Ryo's head. Ryo glared at him, but Fubuki only ruffled his hair. "Come on, Ryo. Have some fun! That's what bubble baths are all about." He wasted no time in gathering up more bubbles and rubbing them into his own hair and lathering his arms.

"Look Ryo, I have a beard!" he said, grinning as he slapped bubbles onto his chin.

"No you don't," Ryo said curtly. "You have bubbles all over your face."

Fubuki pouted and threw a fistful of bubbles at Ryo. "You're no fun."

Ryo threw a fistful back. "And you're annoying."

Fubuki hurled another round of bubbles at Ryo's face. "You're boring."

"You're a pest."

"You're a stick in the mud. And you're about to be a stick in a massive pile of bubbles!" Fubuki cried, pushing Ryo underwater.

Which, of course, meant war.

For the next hour, bubbles were hurled in all directions, water was splashed everywhere, and bars of soap and bottles of shampoo were thrown and dumped helter-skelter. Needless to say, it was the cleanest fight they'd ever had, and when it was all said and done with, their bathroom was a disaster.

"If you had just left me alone," Ryo panted, looking more like his old Hell Kaiser self than Fubuki was comfortable with.

He looked down. "I just wanted to take a bubble bath with you. Is that so wrong?"

Ryo sighed and rolled his eyes. "Well you didn't have to push me. Now our bathroom is a wreck," he muttered.

Fubuki opened his mouth to retort when they heard a knock at the door. They froze. Both were still naked and covered with bubbles. Who the hell would just walk into their house all the way to their private bathroom?

"Who's there?" Ryo asked guardedly while glancing around for a weapon, though he doubted a criminal would be so polite as to knock before breaking and entering.

"This is the police. I've received call from several residents in this area about a lot of screaming coming from this house. No one answered when I knocked on the door. Now do you mind coming out here and telling me why there was so much screaming?"

Ryo gestured to Fubuki. This was his fault after all, and if anyone was a master at getting out of sticky situations involving authority, it was him.

"Um…there is a perfectly good explanation for that," Fubuki stammered, motioning frantically for Ryo to get dressed and cursing his bad luck for getting a male cop. Here he was naked and in the perfect position to charm himself out of trouble and the cop was male. Fubuki's charm rarely worked on males. And to make a bad situation worse, the place was such a wreck neither was sure where their clothes had gone.

"Well, I would love to hear it. But I need you to come out here. How many people are in that bathroom anyway?"

"Just us," Fubuki said as he tossed the damp towels to the side. Ryo got on his hands and knees and crawled all over, but their clothes were nowhere to be found.

"Us who?"

"Uh, just me and, uh, my boyfriend."

"Open the door now!" The shout was accompanied by a bang. Ryo and Fubuki jumped up and did one last visual sweep of the room, but still their clothes were nowhere in sight.

"We're coming, honest! We were in the bathtub when you knocked. We weren't doing anything wrong, I swear," Fubuki insisted. Ryo was beginning to lose hope, and then a thought occurred to him.

The bathtub was still full of bubbles.

Humiliating? Yes, it would be. But they couldn't very well walk out naked. Not to mention he was fairly used to being humiliated because of something that was Fubuki's fault. Why should today be any different?

"I'm gonna count to three and if you two aren't-" The officer stopped short upon seeing the door open. Two shirtless men greeted him nervously, looking down at him because they were both annoyingly tall.

But it wasn't their size or even their lack of clothing that was most disturbing. The officer stepped back. Was that…a ring of bubbles? Right on their…oh dear Lord it looked like it was falling off….

"We were, uh, taking a bubble bath and it…well, I guess it got out of hand-" The officer silenced the brown-haired man and heaved a sigh.

"Look, I don't wanna know. Just…keep the noise down. Okay?"

"Yes sir," they both said. Neither breathed until they heard the front door slam behind the officer. Ryo turned to Fubuki, and there was something the other couldn't read in his eyes.

"Only you," he said. "Would force me into a bubble bath and somehow manage to turn it into a full-blown war. Only you would have the ability to somehow cause a problem so humiliating it would require us to make use of soap in place of clothing. And only you would somehow manage to attract the police to our house and probably give them the impression that we need psychological help."

Fubuki gave him his most irresistible grin. "Maybe this will encourage you to take your bath like a good little boy?"

And just like that, another war began.