Title: Sink or Swim
Pairing: Ban/Ginji/Kazuki - though this really focuses on Ban/Kazuki more than anything.
Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, I'd SO have this happening in-series. D:
Notes: Scenario sorta based off of an RP with my Ami-chan where Ban, Ginji and Kazuki (more like a... love-angle than a triangle, as Ginji and Kazuki are both sleeping with Ban but not each other), and Ginji won them a trip to America from a candybar wrapper... and I happened to mention that my Kazuki-muse doesn't know how to swim and a conversation of how Ban would teach him came up. Uh, she mentioned the 'he'd just toss him into the deep end :D" was mentioned. ...I made up the rest being the pervert I am. XP Anyone else get the pun at the end? Don't brick me, please. XD
WARNINGS: SMUT! Sort of. Gets awfully racy in parts, so uh, be warned now.

It was Ginji's damned luck that'd gotten them there, enjoying, for once, a vacation not cloaked with the responsibility of a job that needed to be completed before they returned home. Who knew that underneath a candy bar he'd begged and whined for at the grocery store would contain four free, all-expenses-paid passes to a resort for an entire week? Ban thought for once that Ginji's sweet-tooth had indeed come in handy.

Only three of the passes had been put to use; The GetBackers, of course, and their third wheel. Kazuki could have invited along someone of his choice, but Juubei wouldn't have liked going on a plane where he couldn't bring his tobari, and besides... Kazuki simply could not take along Juubei if Toshiki had to stay behind, and the same vice-versa.

...And, well, some time alone with Ginji and Ban was quite welcome, in his eyes. Ginji seemed more intent on running around the entire resort and seeing everything he could every waking minute, while Ban and himself toured the place at a more leisurely pace. With Ginji several steps ahead of them everywhere they went, Kazuki discovered he was getting a decent chunk of alone time with Ban... That was certainly new and, frankly, rather pleasant.

It didn't take them long to discover the indoor, heated pool just down the hallway from their room. It was never crowded. In fact, every night past nine or ten, it was always empty. No screaming, splashing children, and no wrinkly old bodies swimming laps back and forth for hours on end.

Needless to say, Ginji waited until nightfall one evening before dragging his two friends into the large poolroom, shedding his shirt and diving right in. Kazuki retreated to a beach chair on the opposite end of the pool, settled down with a book, and listened to the sounds of the GetBackers splashing around, laughing, Ban's snarking and Ginji's spluttering every time Ban shoved him underwater. They sounded just like children, Kazuki mused.

All that swimming soon caught up with Ginji who, after the 'th time being dunked under, surfaced and rubbed at his eyes with a plaintive, "Ban-chan, I'm hungry."

"You've got to be kidding me... We just ate a few hours ago!"

"I'm hungry again," Ginji sighed wistfully.

Ban gave him a look and then a dismissive wave of the hand. "Fine, fine. Go call room service; we'll be up in a bit."

Excitedly, Ginji went clambering out of the pool, nearly forgetting his towel as he sloshed off to head back to their room. Ban took his time pulling himself from the water, and Kazuki took a moment to look over the top of his book and admire the view. Ban, wet and naked save for his swim-shorts (which were appreciatively low on his narrow hips), toned shoulders flexing and muscles taut as he hauled himself up onto the edge of the pool rather than use the ladder nearby. Kazuki quirked a smile. What vacation could be complete without eye-candy?

Ban straightened up, pushing a hand back through his wet hair and glancing over. He caught Kazuki's gaze and smirked a bit. "Too good to go swimming with us, Threadspool?"

"You know how long my hair takes to dry," Kazuki replied mildly. "I'd rather not have to deal with a wet head when trying to sleep tonight." He lowered his head, returning his gaze to his book to finish up the current chapter before they had to return to the room. A moment later, Ban's shadow flooded the pages and Kazuki frowned, turning his head slightly to peer back and up at the other brunette standing behind his chair and, consequently, in his light.

"...You're blocking the light, you do realize." Pause. "And dripping all over me." He shivered as Ban leaned over him, cold, damp hands grasping the thread-user's bare shoulders. Ban grinned against his ear.

"C'mon, swim a few laps with me before we head back."

Kazuki grimaced. "I don't want to."

"Because of your hair? Seriously. Just braid it like you always do." He slid back around to one side of the chair, plucked the book out of Kazuki's hands and tossed it aside to one of the other vacant chairs nearby. Kazuki gave him a reproachful look, folding his arms.

"I'm not going swimming."

"Yes, you are." Leering, Ban reached out and snagged hold of Kazuki's hand, yanking him up from the chair and to his feet. Kazuki had no choice but to either be drug, or stand up appropriately. Seeing as concrete wasn't nice to be drug across, he vouched for the latter.

"Midou-kun- I'm not-"

"You are," he glee'd, drawing the Threadspool easily towards the edge of the deep end of the pool. Kazuki started to squirm and writhe in his grasp the closer they got.

"I can't-!"

"Yeeees, you can."

A few more feet, "Midou-kun-," and Ban was just about to toss him in - "I can't swim!"

Pause.

"Say what?"

Kazuki whined irritably, trying to twist free. "I don't know how to swim, you idiot. Let me go!"

Ban eyed him, scrutinizing. "You don't know how to swim. Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Huh." Straightening up, Ban released his wrist. "Why didn't you just say so?"

"Because knowing you, you'd never let me live it down," Kazuki huffed, rubbing his abused wrist.

"Eh, Ginji didn't know how to swim when I met him, either." Grin. "I could teach you."

"...No."

"What? I'm a good teacher! Ginji takes to water like a dog now!"

"No."

"C'mon, at least let me show you the basics."

"...I'm going back up to the room."

"Tch', have it your way."

"I-- what're you doing? Let me go!"

The sound of Kazuki's yelp echoed throughout the pool room, followed by the resounding splash! as Ban chucked him right into the water of the deep end, grinning. "Sink or swim, Itomaki!"

Kazuki managed to resurface after a moment, sputtering and trying to grab for the end of the diving board just out of reach with frantic, panicked noises. Ban raised a brow. "Wow, you really can't swim, can you? Relax before you drown yourself." After another minute or so of splashing and no improvement, Ban rolled his eyes, sighed, and dove in after him.

Thirty seconds later, Ban found himself treading water with Kazuki clinging about his neck like... well, a drowning man. His hair was everywhere, long tendrils snaking through the water where it wasn't plastered to their skin. Kazuki let out a pathetic snuffle, trying to blink some of the water from his eyes. Ban muttered something about Kazuki looking like a drowned rat. The thread-user gave him a dark look through his wet hair, and Ban started snickering because the gesture just came off as pitiful rather than intimidating.

"Now, I'm going to teach you to tread water."

"No, you're not. You're going to get me out of this damned pool and back to the room so I can dry off."

"What's that? You want me to leave you here to learn how to swim on your own?"

Kazuki scowled.

"S'what I thought. Now, give me your hands and I'm going to help you swim."

"No."

"For the love of God, Threadspool, stop acting like a baby!"

Resignedly, Kazuki withdrew his arms from around Ban's neck and permitted the other man to take his hands.

He did, however, keep his knees resting against Ban's thighs to keep himself above water and harder for Ban to keep himself from going under. The latter drew back and Kazuki nearly ducked right under the water, kicking purely out of reflex. His movements were choppy and frantic, but it did the job well enough that he could keep his head above the surface. Ban swam backwards, drawing Kazuki with him.

"Good, see? Not so hard, is it." He grinned, his own movements taking them just beneath the diving board Kazuki had been reaching for earlier. This time, when Kazuki released him and tried to grab for it, Ban allowed it.

Fingers curled tightly over his head and on the diving board, Kazuki frowned at his companion balefully. "Can I get out-" Pause, blink, as Ban was reaching out a hand and gently pushing some of the hair back from his face so he could see a little better. Kazuki's expression softened just a little. "..."

"...Wanna know something, Threadspool?" Ban drifted a little closer, lips ghosting against Kazuki's damp cheek and jaw. Kazuki made a small, inquiring noise. "You look rather nice and tousled when you're all wet like this," he purred, tongue flicking out to catch a droplet of water trickling down the Threadspool's throat. Kazuki shivered.

"What're you doing-?"

"Rewarding you for good behavior," Ban smirked against his neck, and then dipped a bit lower in the water with his hands gripping the longhaired man's hips. Kazuki began to protest in surprise and found himself sucking in a breath as Ban's tongue rolled over one nipple and then the other. He drew one of the sensitive nubs past his lips, not seeming to mind that the treated water coating Kazuki's skin didn't particularly add pleasant flavor in this case. But the taste of his skin beneath it all was chill and soft and familiar, and that he liked just fine.

Kazuki squirmed a little, upsetting the still water around them and Ban tightened his grip on his hips to hold him in place while his lips, teeth and tongue teased, tugged and sucked at the reddening area of flesh. He lifted his eyes when he felt, rather than heard, the slight vibration thrumming through the thread-user's chest and catching in his throat as he bit his lip to hold back the moan trying to escape. Smirking, he slipped long fingers down beneath the waistband of Kazuki's swimming shorts, caressing over his hip.

Previously, Kazuki's thick lashes had started to lower, but his eyes snapped wide open again and he stared down at Ban with a mixture of fascination and horror on his feminine face. "What are...? You can't be serious-"

"What, don't think it's a good idea, goody two-shoes?" Ban murmured, voice muffled slightly by the fact that his mouth was currently too occupied to bother speaking properly.

Kazuki hissed out softly- "No, stop that--" and a whimper escaped his parted lips, one of those familiar hands ghosting inward, over his stomach and down between his legs, where Ban's fingers sought out his arousal and brushed against it all too briefly. Reflexively, Kazuki's hips jerked a little, and the shuddery breath he let out afterwards contained the barest hints of a pleading whine. Ban grinned.

"Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. Then again, you've always been good at saying 'no' even when you don't mean it." His fingers repeated their earlier trek across his thighs, length and stomach, lingering no more than before.

"Do you get off on the thrill that someone could walk in on us at any second?" he panted.

"No," Ban's grin widened into a half-lidded smirk. "But I think you do."

"Bastard," Kazuki hissed, silenced only by Ban leaning up and catching his mouth against his own. He physically protested at first, trying to rear his head back and even biting at Ban's lower lip, which only got a soft growl in response. Soon there was nothing to do but submit, permit Ban's tongue into his mouth and allow his own to be coaxed into play, in a familiar dance and search for dominance -- of which Kazuki was severely lacking at that moment, it seemed.

And soon, it also seemed, he'd be lacking his shorts as well. Ban's fingers hooked the waistband of them and started drawing them down, met with little resistance, though Kazuki did make a wary noise that was lost somewhere in the heat of their kiss. The wet fabric was drawn down his hips, shapely legs and, with a little maneuvering, off his ankles. He shivered, flushed and tried not to imagine the looks on anyone's face that might happen to walk in on them.

And suddenly, the warmth and taste of Ban vanished from his senses and his eyes fluttered open. He was alone in that little section of the pool, blushing down to his toes, panting, aroused and ruffled-looking... and Ban was waving as he swam towards the shallow end of the water.

Ban stopped once his feet could touch the bottom and the water reached about to his waist. Kazuki scowled at him, confused and embarrassed, and turned to try and haul himself out of the pool via the diving board his hands were still clutching at.

"Ahh, I wouldn't do that if I were you, Threadspool," Ban clucked, and Kazuki turned again to see what he was talking about.

Grinning gleefully, Ban held up Kazuki's swim shorts where he could see, and the thread-user's irritated expression melted into a horrified, gaping astonishment.

"Midou-kun-! Give those back!"

"You want 'em? Swim over here and get them," he taunted. His fingers hooked into the elastic band on the shorts and he held them out at arm's length, whistling. "Some wide hips you got there, Threadspool! These look like they'd even fit Monkey-tamer!" he hooted.

Seething, Kazuki started again to pull himself up. He could swallow his pride and stalk across the poolroom naked if that's what it took! It was no better or worse than someone walking in and seeing him naked in the water, after all.

"Doooon't do it," Ban chimed in a singsong voice. The longhaired man's head turned slowly to glare at him.

"Why not?"

"Because if you do," he hiked a thumb towards the door, "I'm going back to the room with your shorts and the towels, and without you. You can walk there in your birthday suit."

Face paling, Kazuki simpered pathetically. "You wouldn't..."

"Oh, I would," he purred. "Now come on, come give daddy some sugar and we can finish what we started."

"I'm going to give you a black eye when I get over there," Kazuki snapped back, and reluctantly he released his hold on the diving board.

Ban watched him flounder at first, struggling to keep himself afloat, and started calling out instructions. "That's right - kick your legs, keep some sort of rhythm - there y'go, no - wait, Threadspool, you're doggy paddling in circles..." Sigh.

Eventually he got the concept of paddling around down, and slowly but surely started to make his way in Ban's direction. The younger man waited patiently, not teasing nor taunting, just watching with that insufferable smirk on his face.

The second Kazuki's feet touched bottom, he started splashing his way closer.

"See? I knew you could do it!" Ban started to offer the swim shorts when Kazuki tackled him down into the water, and he let out a rather undignified yelp as they went down. For the next few minutes, Kazuki made certain to hold Ban's head beneath the water while the other brunette flailed about with Kazuki's shorts still clutched in one hand.

When he finally allowed Ban up, he made a snatch for the shorts, only to find Ban wasn't relinquishing his hold. He turned, giving his companion a baleful glare that was met with an equally irritated one - one that shifted into something amused a few seconds later.

"I taught you how to swim."

"You taught me how to look like an idiot! Give me my shor-mmph-!" He was startled to silence, Ban yanking the shorts which in turn pulled Kazuki to him, catching his mouth against his own with a routine reminiscent of earlier beneath the diving board. Kazuki growled and groaned and tried to pry Ban's iron-like grip off his shorts one finger at a time (and failing miserably), all the while kissing back fervently. When Ban finally let go to put his hands on Kazuki instead, the thread-user didn't seem to have too much interest in getting dressed again just yet.

-----

"Ah! You two are back, I was starting to wonder. Food's still warm!" Ginji chirped as his partner and friend sloshed their way into the resort room, towel draped around each of their necks. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeeeep. I taught Threadspool how to swim," Ban preened, casting a sidelong look over in Kazuki's direction.

Cheeks darkening, Kazuki muttered something about a shower and limped his way into the bathroom. Worried, Ginji watched him go and then looked to Ban. "Is Kazu-chan okay? Why was he limping?"

Ban tossed Kazuki's earlier reading material onto the bedside table, shrugged, and started to towel off while giving Ginji a pleased little smirk.

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe he pulled something from swimming so hard."

(owari.)