The shower was a lesson in self-control and hilarity. Tasuku deemed that they had to take turns washing each other in order to… get to know each other better. Teru learned quickly that that meant Tasuku on his knees with his face an inch from her skin as he 'got to know' every freckle and mark that had heretofore been blocked from his gaze. And he wasn't amorous, exactly. He'd just recite every new find as though committing it to memory and then move on, ignoring her embarrassed squeaks and squirming.

He had to pry her out of the shower corner twice when he got a little too adventurous with the loofa, but made her scream with terrified laughter and threats of baldness when he switched all the water to cold when she wouldn't stop closing her eyes.

The cold water was very much for him, though.

He wanted her to laugh and see the fun side of intimacy and that everything they did didn't have to end in sex… or an orgasm. He wanted her to get used to being naked with him. And he'd thought he was spent; that he could play for a while with a naked, wet Teru in the shower without pinning her against the tile like a marauding conqueror.

Well, he was wrong.

He hadn't kissed her while they were in here. Kissing her always drove him crazy anyway, so Teru + naked + wet + kissing was a bad combination if he didn't want to deflower her against the shower wall.

But she was so goddamn adorable and unwittingly sexy. Turned out her blush showed up everywhere. She grabbed onto his shoulders whenever he found some new ticklish or erogenous spot and drove him insane with that small touch. When he was on his knees he was the perfect height to devour her. Her perfect, tiny, amazing, perfect breasts were right there. Her kissable mouth was one chin-tip away. And everything. Everything was within easy reach of his hands.

But not yet. Not here, was his mantra as he smoothed the sponge over her perfect, perfect, perfect body. See. He could be a civilized for her. He had self-control if it was for her. Right?

Teru peeked one eye open (she couldn't help but squeeze her eyes shut at some point, despite the threat of cold water) and peered down at the top of Tasuku's head when he went still, the loofah falling away from her calf. She ran a trembling hand over his sodden blonde hair and gave a small tug. "Is… is it my turn?"

He ran a fingertip over the top of her foot, tracing slowly out over each toe. He smiled to himself at her giggles, even as he gritted his teeth over the feel of her hands in his hair. "Hmm?"

She wanted to dance away from the ticklish touch but he had her backed against the shower wall, so she pulled a little harder on his hair in retaliation. With her hands playing with the strands she missed the way his entire body went taut before consciously relaxing once more. "I'm all clean now so it's my turn to wash you, right?"

He wrapped a hand around her ankle and closed his eyes, fireworks going off behind his lids at the thought of her small hands running over his body. "Not yet," he answered raspily. Maybe distraction would work. "I haven't washed your hobbit feet, yet."

An outraged gasp met his pronouncement and she stamped said foot. "I do not have hobbit feet!"

"I don't know," he shrugged, careful to concentrate on her dainty, non-hobbit-like feet in case the sight of her wet body tossed all of his good intentions and patience out the door. "I didn't even know girls could have hair on their toes. Owww." Turns out getting slapped on the shoulder hurt a lot more when your skin was wet.

"You are so mean!" She shoved at his shoulders and tried to dart past him only to find herself wrapped in his arms, his height on his knees perfect for burying his face against her neck. "Kurosaki!" she squeaked, reverting at his sudden move and the feel of him pressed against her bare front. She went perfectly still as his mouth opened against her shoulder, his hot breath making her shiver and wrap her arms around his shoulders.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, pressing his lips against the delicate slope. "I needed a quick distraction and your pretty little hobbit feet seemed to do the job." He accepted the quavering 'go bald' and rubbed small circles against her back in silent apology. "Anyway," he continued simply, "you can't have your turn."

Her stuttering protest died away as he traced her collarbone with his tongue.

"So it turns out," he ran his hands down her back, then ever so slowly over her lower curves, making her jump under his hands. He tipped his head back and smiled ruefully at her cherry red face. "that I don't have as much control as I thought. So next time, okay?"

Well, crap. She had really, really been looking forward to her turn. She couldn't stop the pout, but she understood him, could feel the tension in the arms wrapped around her. So she sighed, long and loud so that he had no doubt as to her opinion, and pushed the wet hair off his face before framing it in her hands. She gave him a quick kiss then pushed at his shoulders with a sniff. "Fine." She tried not to stare as he stood up, but quickly gave that up and instead crossed her arms so she wouldn't touch. "Me and my hobbit feet are going to get us a snack and get dressed. Have a nice shower."

His smile was slow and wicked as she walked backward out of the shower and just stood there watching him with her hands tucked under her armpits. He loved it when she forgot she was naked. He loved the look in her eyes even more. "The towels are behind you, Princess."

Her eyes jerked up to his and she wanted to either hide under the futon or push him back into the shower. She settled for grabbing a towel and bolting from the steam-filled room.

Tasuku waited until the door clicked behind her and then reached for the temperature controls. He took a deep breath and looked down at his unruly and once again enthusiastic sex. "Last cold shower, buddy. I promise." And turned the knob.

"What? No snacks?"

Teru wondered at herself that she could be both relieved and disappointed that he didn't attack her upon coming out of the bathroom. Then she blushed even as she snickered, conscious of how she must look, her towel-clad figure sticking half in and half out of the closet. "Those were for me and my hairy feet, remember?"

"I like your hairy feet," he said simply. "Plus I've got waaaay more hair there than you, therefore I win." She could hear him raiding the mini fridge as she continued to rummage. "So what are you looking for, loser?"

"My suitcase." She lifted up the comforters that had been folded away and scowled. "It was in the bathroom when we left this morning, but now I can't find it."

"Mmm hmm," was his helpful answer.

She sat back on her heels as his own towel-clad figure came back in, chewing on an onigiri that had been stocked in the fridge. Wait, were his lips blue? She watched as he wordlessly knelt in front of one of the two oxbow chests and knocked on the face.

When she just looked confused and slightly alarmed at his abuse of the furniture he rolled his eyes at the penniless and inexperienced traveler and pulled out one of the drawers. "They put our stuff away while we were gone, see?"

Teru just sat there with an alarmed and embarrassed look on her face as he opened another drawer looking for some shorts. "They… they go through our stuff?"

"Mm hm," he said around another mouthful. "To put it away, they do. It's standard practice after a certain level of hotels." He clued in to her tone and raised an eyebrow at her as he sloooowly opened another drawer. "Why? What was in your luggage?"

"Nothing!" was her too quick answer, which was quickly followed by a sigh of relief as the drawer revealed Tasuku's pants and some shirts. But the sigh caught in her throat as he pulled a box of condoms from between the two piles. She felt her mouth go dry even as she heard herself say, "You don't need those."

He stared at her for a moment then winced at the smack her hands made when they slapped over mouth. "Okay, either that means we're not going to have sex, or it means something else." He watched her hands slide up to cover her eyes. "I'm going to bet on 'something else', just so I don't go insane. Which is it?"

Oh God, let it be something else.

"Um, um," she dropped her hands and took a deep breath. She could do this! She was a grown-up! If he could be so nonchalant, so could she! "Um, I'm on birth control." She straightened her shoulders when he just continued to stare at her. "I've been on it for about seven months. Riko said something like, 'if we leave it up to Tasuku I'll be an aunt in under a year'... or something like that." She lost her nerve as he continued to stare, box in hand, so she covered her eyes once more with her hands. "So anyway you don't need…"

"We don't need."

Teru peeked through her fingers and saw Tasuku deliberately place the box back in the drawer. "Huh?"

"You said 'you', but condoms are a 'we' kind of thing," he clarified with a nonchalance he 100% didn't feel. He took a very deliberate bite and finished off the onigiri, mainly so he didn't tackle her and give her a tatami burn she'd never forget. Women had absolutely no clue what 'no condom' meant to a guy. He'd never not used a condom and to be with Teru skin to skin… "Anyway," he said a little too loudly as he pulled open another drawer and kept his eyes off of his dream woman. "Let's just hope they put our stuff away in a semblance of ord…"

Teru watched as he froze in the act of pulling out a pair of his boxer briefs. "What's the matter?"

He didn't answer, but instead put down his drawers and put his hands together in prayer.

"What are you doing?" She started to crawl over to him, but stopped when her towel threatened to go south. "Is their folding that bad?"

"Shh," he whispered. "I'm thanking the god of underwear."

"Huh?"

He opened his eyes and reached into the drawer. He came out with a silky, lace-trimmed baby blue negligee hanging from one hand and the miniscule matching panties in the other. "Thank you, god of underwear, for your gifts to all mankind," he intoned with an appreciative sigh. "but more specifically, to me."

Maybe, she thought through the buzzing in her ears, she could hide under the comforters in the closet until it was time to leave. "There is no such thing as a god of underwear."

"Please," he snorted. "In Shintoism with millions of boys and men praying specifically about it, you think there's not a god to women's underwear?" He reverently folded the pieces and placed them back in the drawer, then pulled out another filmy piece of confection, this one in pink. He dangled it from his fingertips where the light turned it translucent. "I'll find a shrine on the way home so we can leave an offering."

He grinned over at Teru, who was trying to drown herself in a glass of water. "So these were in the bag that made you stutter and blush at your birthday party, huh? I thought, hoped," he corrected himself, "that it was something like this when you refused to show everybody what was inside."

She nodded and blushed as he rubbed the sheer fabric between his fingertips. "Uh, do you mind if I grab something to wear real quick."

He looked her in the eye as he carefully put the piece back. "Is there any place else you want to go today?"

His serious tone made her hand clench on the towel that was still around wrapped around her. She took in his own towel-draped figure and sighed. God, he was beautiful. "No," she said softly.

He turned to face her and sat agura-style, legs crossed and hands on his knees while the towel over his lap shifted to just maintain his modesty. "Any bath you wanted to try out or walk in the woods you wanted to take?"

Teru mimicked his traditional stance and settled seiza-style on her knees. She folded her hands together on her lap and took a deep breath. "No."

He tapped a finger on his knee as they stared at each other. "I have two questions for you, Teru," he said after several seconds.

She nodded at his sensei-like tone and braced herself.

"First," he bent down one finger. "May I pick something for you to wear?"

She colored at the thought of wearing one of those candy-colored scraps, but she'd do it for him. She nodded.

"And second," Tasuku suddenly yawned and stretched his arms out wide.

Teru felt her mouth go dry as every muscle was suddenly, gloriously outlined in stark relief.

"Second," he began again. "Do you want to take a nap?"

She was still staring at his chest so it took a moment for his words to process. "Huh? What?"

"A nap," he said innocently. He grabbed the shorts he'd pulled out before and stood up to put them on, purposefully not looking at Teru as his towel dropped and he stepped into them. He snapped the band and reached in the drawer once again. "After the walking this morning and the baths," he slid his eyes slyly to hers where she sat blushing and perplexed. "And the orgasms," And look at that. She could get even pinker. "I'm a little tired. How about you?"

She opened her mouth to answer but sputtered as her sleep shorts hit her in the face followed by a tank top and... She slowly reached on top of her head and pulled off a pair of the new, frilly panties that had come with one of the negligees.

Tasuku shrugged in answer to the question in her eyes. "My first thought was to take a nap naked, but let's face it," he walked over to where she was still kneeling on the floor and tipped her chin up for a slow kiss, "that would most likely result in me taking you when we're both half asleep. Same thing if you wear nothing but the sexy-time stuff." He closed his hand over hers, the one that held the negligible excuse for underwear, and gave it a squeeze. "This way we can get some rest but I'll still know what's waiting for me under those shorts."

Teru couldn't quite catch her breath as he let her go and walked back to the mini fridge. She thanked him as he set a plated onigiri by her side. She was tired, but his words and the pictures he put in her head made her extremely… itchy. "Do you really want to take a nap?" She asked shyly.

Tasuku ignored her question as he grabbed a comforter and some pillows of the closet and laid down on the futons with his arms behind his head. He pretended to flip through the channels of the TV they'd forgotten to turn off and watched as she performed the feminine magic of getting-dressed-while-in-a-towel-and-managing-not-to-show-anything. He wanted to remind her of their very recent and very naked shower experience, but he wanted her calm and besides, that was a good way to get smacked in the face by a towel.

"Come on," he patted the spot beside him as she tossed the towel away. "Come and cuddle with Daisy-san."

She smiled at him as she sat down and slid under the covers beside him. "Are we watching another movie, Daisy-san?"

He heard the catch in her voice and knew she was thinking of the movie they'd 'watched' less than an hour before. "Nope. I need a nap." And so do you. He picked up the remote and pressed a button. Teru gasped as the window shutters closed, darkening the room as they had no lamps turned on. He hit another button and the TV went to mute with closed captions. He reached a long arm back and grabbed the shoji screen that separated the two rooms and slid it shut, creating a cocoon of flickering light and cozy solitude. "This okay?"

"Mmmm." He smiled at her happy sigh. Of course he knew her knockout formula. There was still one thing, though. "C'mere, Teru."

She blinked heavy eyes at him and smiled as he pulled her close. And he kept pulling until she was draped over him; her head on his chest, arm around his waist, and one slim leg curled around his. She snuggled against his shirtless chest, further lulled by the steady beat under her cheek. She pressed a kiss against his skin and smiled as his arm held her close to his side. He yawned long and loud and she naturally followed suit. "Okay, a nap was a good idea."

His 'I know' made her snicker, which petered once more into a yawn. "What do you want to do when we get up?" She asked innocently in her hazy state.

"Dinner should be here by then," he murmured as he rubbed her back, feeling her relax under his hand. "And then I thought I'd make love to you since we'll be all rested up, so prepare yourself." He kissed the top of her head. "Before or after dinner, your choice."

"M'kay," was her sleepy response against his skin. "Before is fine, thank you."

He closed his eyes and took very deliberate breaths as she went boneless against him, falling asleep from one instant to the next as she was wont to do. "Sleep tight, Princess," he whispered as he turned off the TV and pulled the covers up and over her shoulders. "You're going to need it."

Next... sexy time.