Me: Lavi, will you do the honors?

Lavi: Okay, Crowsnight doesn't own DGM or the characters, just the plot.

Me: Thanks, and here's the next chapter!

Situation

Chapter 38: Splish, Splash, No Kanda, Not in the Bath

"What do you want to do first?" I ask excitedly, wanting to go get wet. Straight in front of us was a dry area between the walk-in wave pool to the right and play area for the little kids to the left. Closer to us on the left was the Surf Rider, a ride that you basically get to go surfing only on a contraption, and on the other side of it was the Magnolia Grove, a steamy hot tub with coves where you can be alone with your family, or in my case, my boyfriend. Across the water park were two staircases, the larger splitting when it got high enough, the shorter one going to the tube slides and the taller to the group slides. To the right of where the tube slides end, there was an enclosed area, inside keeping a gigantic foam snake that kids were pushing each other off of and water basketball.

Kanda looks around and grumbles, "The hot tub."

"Other than that!" I say, tugging him towards the wave pool that hadn't started yet in hopes of getting a double tube. "What else do you want to do?"

He chuckles at my obvious attempt to make him choose the wave pool and says, "You choose."

"Okay, this way!" I tell him, leading him towards the water. We leave our jackets and shoes on one of the lounge chairs, and I slowly walk into the water, the cold liquid barely lapping at my ankles. There were probably twenty people towards the deep end, but I could tell from the lifeguards' at ease composure that it was normally a lot more. Good, it's not as crowded.

I glanced at the tubes lying on the bank, trying to decide if I wanted to float with Kanda or not, but eventually continued walking into the water. There was a huge rock in about a foot that had little jets coming out of the sides and a support beam sticking out from the top, and I stepped in front of one of the water streams, letting the cold water wet my white shirt. Looking back, I notice Kanda was still only in the first few inches of the water, glaring at it like it was going to open up into an abyss and swallow him up. Was Kanda scared of water? Now that I think about it, I'd never seen him swim, but why would he bring me here if he didn't want to?

Leaving the rock, I go back towards the bank, latching onto my boyfriend's arm and asking, "Kanda, can you swim?"

He doesn't reply, but looks away, hiding a slight dusting of pink across his cheeks, and I press, "Tell me. I won't laugh if you can't."

"I can, I just don't like to that much, but I knew that you would like it so…" he trailed off, still not looking at me.

"Kanda," I say, "do you want to go somewhere where the water isn't so deep? We can go to the hot tub for a while."

"No, I want to do what you want to," he protests, but I'm already pulling him towards the Magnolia Grove, wanting to make sure Kanda enjoys the water park as much as I do.

When we get to the hot tub and through the little gate, I notice that there was an opening that you can go through to go outside, and considering that all the coves were taken inside, I decided to try it. Maybe thirty degrees won't feel bad in a hot tub. My foot slides into the steaming water, much hotter than my showers normally are, and resist the urge to jerk my foot back and run to the wave pool.

Easing into the water, I slowly got used to the temperature and found it soothing, and I think Kanda did, too since his face relaxed incredibly. We continued into the water until it lapped at our waists, and I led the bluenette beside me outside, pushing through the shredded film and looking around.

The outdoor part of the hot tub was a desert, if you can say that about a pool of water, but you get what I mean. No one was out there.

Maybe it was the fact that as exorcists, Kanda and I both have had to endure much worse conditions, like the Leaf of Revival mission. There were probably seven different coves, and I made my way into the first, where I sat on the underwater bench, waiting for my boyfriend to join me. It didn't take long for him to wrap an arm around my waist and pull me closer to him, and I did so willingly, resting my head on his strong shoulder and letting my own arms circle around him. I mutter, "Are you going to tell me why you don't like swimming?"

"I was hoping to avoid it actually," he grumbles. "But I think I can make an exception in your case."

Nuzzling into him, I patiently wait for him to begin. He sighs, "Okay, so my…my brain came from an exorcist that hated water and couldn't swim. Literally, his Innocence would malfunction when he got wet. So after I was born, I was terrified of water until I synchronized with Mugen, and then as part of training, I was forced to learn to swim. Since then, I went on a mission several years ago with Lenalee and the akuma loved water, so of course it stayed in the nearby lake. Long story short, the akuma nearly drowned me and if Lenalee didn't have such a strong kick, I'd be dead."

Silently, I let the information I just received sink in. So that was it. His brain didn't like water and now, he had almost drowned and now despised water. I say, "No one is going to drown you at a family resort, Kanda."

"I know that, but still…."

"Still nothing, Yu Kanda isn't intimidated by anyone or anything, and yet you are sitting here talking about your fear of water. I feel for you, truly I do, but I've nearly drowned three times from akuma, beach waves, and falling asleep in the bath tub. You are stronger than water," I tell him, now glaring at him from on my knees on the hot tub floor in front of him, my hands firmly planted on his knees. Guilt was gnawing at me since I knew that I was being harsh, but if there's one thing I've learned about Kanda, it's that he hates pity. He has to have a reason to do something, and if I'm right, he most likely will assume I'm calling him weak, even though I'm not. I understand that everyone has a fear, but he'll thank me when he isn't being nagged by Lavi about this. Maybe this isn't the way to go about it, but I think it will work.

He glares at me, and I know for certain that the only part of my little speech was he heard was the fact that I sounded like I called him frail. Obviously ticked, he growls, "I never said I was scared of water, I just don't like it very much."

"Try that on Lavi. We'll see how far that gets you in his mind," I fire back. "Just so you know, I don't think you're weak. It's just that I know what fear can do to you, and I don't want you not to enjoy anything here because of it."

Pushing up onto my feet, I place both hands on either side of Kanda's hips and press our lips together. Originally, I meant it to be short, but that plan failed when I ended up straddling my boyfriend's lap and his arms around me while his tongue explores my mouth. During this, I hear at least three girls giggling, but I don't really care as Kanda trails his mouth along my jaw, causing my arms that were holding me up against his chest to give out, and as soon as that happens, I'm against the bench and Kanda is hovering over me. He smirks, "I think I'd take on the Millennium Earl if this was the reward."

I blush furiously though I think it could pass as a flush from the water, "Sure, you do that, but first…."

"I know, first I'll brave the wave pool," he says, playfully tugging at the waistband of my white swimsuit. At this, I immediately shiver despite the heat of the water, but I hoped it could pass as a result of the chilling air, though it was unlikely as blood flowed to my face. It wouldn't help in concealing the blush, but I still turn away from my boyfriend's gaze, mumbling, "And you call me horny?"

"Yes, I do. The guy isn't generally referred to as horny considering he's a guy," he smirks against my ear as he speaks.

"Hey!" I practically shout. "I'm a guy, too, regardless of being uke or…other things!"

He nods, putting his index and middle finger under my chin and pulling my gaze to his hungry one, "I realize this, but then again, you can act really girly at times."

Instead of replying, I glare at him while pouting, trying to get him to take back the words, but unfortunately, Kanda hasn't ever been effected by my pouting considering that in the end, I have to bribe or threaten him. Waiting for him to sit beside me again, I bargain, "I'll let you stay in the hot tub for five more minutes if you answer a question."

"Okay, what is it?" the samurai asks, sitting beside me, and I absently trace his tattoo with my pointer finger. After a moment, I continue, "Why don't you ever let me call you by your given name? I don't care about honorifics and such, but I wouldn't mind using them, I just don't get it."

Kanda rests his head on the bumpy, smooth stone that outlines the Magnolia Grove, letting out a sigh, and he answers, "I guess I never really thought about it, you wanting to call me Yu, I mean. But if you want to, you can. It wouldn't bother me."

"But I know that in Japan that you're supposed to use an honorific. Which should I use?"

"None, not using an honorific shows intimacy, so really, you don't need to use one," he explains, his eyes staring up at the darkening sky, almost like dark clouds. Continuing to run my finger on the Second Exorcist tattoo, I nod, "Would you prefer me call you Yu or Kanda?"

Silence filled the air other than the jets in the center of the hot tub, and I waited for him to answer, laying my legs across his lap and snuggling up to him, never stopping the motion on his chest. After a minute of serene quietness, he replies, "Kanda. It's nothing to do with not wanting you to call me by my first name; it's just that I don't like it in general."

"Then you should have said that," I say into his neck. "I want to call you what you want me to, not the other way around."

"Okay, Moyashi," he says, glancing down at me with a smirk as I death glare him. I growl, "I'm not a bean sprout! Why can't you call me Allen in your accent?!"

He chuckles, "Why would I do that when I can make you mad? You're so cute when you're aggravated."

"I-I-I…oh, you are evil!" I squeak, trying to hide my blush behind his shoulder.

"Am I now? When was this decision made? It had to have been sometime after this afternoon," he smirks that stupid, arrogant, heart-racing, hot, sexy, mouth-watering….

I smack my head and tell myself, "Shut up!"

My boyfriend raises an eyebrow at me, "So what were you thinking about my little strawberry?"

Whimpering, I duck under his arm, trying so hard to conceal my very evident blush, "Evil. Did I ever mention how hot you look when you smirk?"

Whoops! No, no, no, that wasn't supposed to come out! I whine, "I never said that!"

"Oh, no, you can't take it back now," he says, moving so he could see my blood red face. Shaking my head, I protest, "Yes, I can! You evil, mean, sadistic boyfriend!"

"Sure, but what about the other adjectives? If I remember correctly, you've called me hot, sex god, smexy, should I continue?"

"No! For the record, some you forced out of me!" I object, referring to the second one though I did say it of my own freewill once….

He chuckles, "Yeah, right."

"Dexy," I mutter, trying to slip an insult in somehow, even if I was still calling him sexy. Nodding, Kanda replies, "You can say that all you want, but I know how to get under your skin."

As if to prove his point, he presses our lips together harshly, running his hand down my body, making me gasp in pleasure, and his tongue darts into my mouth. I don't know which is worse: the fact that Kanda can do this to me by touching all the right places or that he knows which places are sensitive even though I didn't. Should I be taking lessons?

A few minutes later, I'm holding Kanda's hand as I lead him into the wave pool. He was seemingly unaffected to anyone who didn't know him, but I could tell by the way his hand was tensed up and his eyes were narrowed that he was on edge. The waves had already been on and off, and I figured we'd stay until they came on again since the five foot water would rise to six. Even if I wanted Kanda to get over his fear, I wasn't going to force him into something like that. That would be awful. In some ways, that would be like Kanda forcing me to walk around the water park without a shirt, and that would scare me and cause me to probably cry for the next two years.

We stuck close to the wall since I think it calmed Kanda down to be able to climb out if he needed to, though I really didn't understand why that would happen. At this point, the water was lapping at my waist and it caused me to shiver a little because of the transition of water temperature. Glancing over at me, Kanda asked, "Are you alright?"

"Really, you're asking me if I'm okay?" I say, rolling my eyes. "Give me a sec."

With that, I release his hand and let my legs collapse, dunking myself momentarily under the cold water before straightening. Wiping the water out of my eyes, I shake my head, probably spraying my boyfriend in the process, and I say, "Okay, I'm good."

"Baka Moyashi," he grumbled as I moved my white hair out of my face, and I laugh, "This is how you get used to the water."

Kanda just shook his head and uttered playful insults under his breath, though it feels weird to smile when he calls me an idiot and something in Japanese. Oh well, I can always get revenge later.

Eventually, the bluenette and I were in the heart of the wave pool, even though we were still by the fake rock wall. The water lapping at my clothed collarbone, I stood on my tiptoes, but I think Kanda was flat foot and as deep as I was. Personally, he looked like he was fine, but the difference was when I reached for his hand again, he took a hold of it in a death grip, my eyes nearly popping out of my head like one of the cats in a cartoon when someone yanks its tail.

My hand now loosing circulation, I say, "You can relax, Kanda. Nothing's going to happen."

The closest thing to a reply I got was a glare, but I could see the underlying fear, though his grip loosened slightly, very, very slightly.

oO_Oo_oO_Oo

The rest of the time didn't go much better, and I forced Kanda to come back to the condo. As soon as we were through the door, he made an excuse about chlorine hating his hair and practically darted into the bathroom, a click telling me he locked the door behind him.

Author Note: Guys, I'm so sorry about the late update. For some reason, my brain went into "think about the chapters after this instead of focusing on the one you should be thinking about" mode, and I know I'm not the only one that has that happen. Anyway, next chapter should be out soon, and please, Please, PLEASE R/R!