Foreword: This story begins just as Velvet suspects Eleanor a spy and will be keeping a watch on her at ALL times. All attempts are made at keeping everyone in character, and not to diverge to far from cannon. Just as Tales is, you can expect moments of fun, but there is still a serious plot to be had.

In the ship's bathroom Eleanor is running the water and setting things up to take a bath... very... slowly... to the point she's just standing there in front of Velvet staring back her closed armed. "Come on, off with it already." she demands. Eleanor quickly nods "Right."; then starts to slowly take of her jacket... sleeve by sleeve... button by button... taking well over a minute. Velvet taps her foot in agitation "Are you going to bathe or not!?" "Well the thing is..." she points her toes inward "It's just with you staring at me and all..." she raises her eyebrows "Fully clothed."

"Huh." Velvet gets hit with some self-awareness on how this scene would look for someone just walking in. Her a Demon standing there fully dressed, demanding a young Exorcist strip in front of her.

"Fine." Velvet says "If it'll make this go faster; I have nothing to hide." she begins undressing. Eleanor's eye's subtly pop as she watches. Velvet looks back at her with an impatient "Well?" though admittedly slightly nervous herself. Eleanor pokes her fingers together "Well this is kind of intimidating in another way." Velvet's face flashes with anger, "Okay, okay! I'm undressing!" Eleanor jumps.

Eleanor begins washing herself outside the tub occasionally looking over at Velvet who's mostly just standing around uncomfortably with nothing to really do and of course feeling odd with nothing on. Eleanor clears her throat and tepidly asks "Uhm, are you cold?" Velvet raises an eyebrow "What are you talking about?" Eleanor blushes "It's just that your uhm..."

Velvet glances down at herself before her eye's immediately snap back up. "Forget it!" she says angrily "I'm getting in with you." "Ah, really!?" Eleanor says. Velvet says "I'm already naked aren't I? Might as well."

So the two get in the bath across from each other. As they look at one another, Eleanor breaks the silence, "Sooo..." to which Velvet says "What do you want to talk to me about the weather?" "Hmp, of course not!" Eleanor raises a finger "It's obviously steamy." Velvet just shakes her head with a hand over her face.

There's a knock at the door. "Is everything okay in there?" Eizen's voice calls. Velvet sharply returns, "Everything is fine!". "Just being sure." he says, "We'll be heading into rougher waters, brace yourself." his footsteps trail off into the distance. "I'll hurry up and get dressed to see how Laphicet is doing." Eleanor says. Velvet gets slightly agitated "I'm right behind you. Don't forget that."

Meanwhile Rokurou asks Eizen "So how goes it in there?" "I didn't eaves drop." he says "But from what little I heard, "Steamy" apparently." "Oh Ho!" Rokurou says "It seems there might be another hidden side to our Exorcist friend." Laphicet says "Is this really something we should- Ah!" he suddenly flinches as Magilou grabs him from behind. "What's this? Sounds like someone is having an interesting conversation without me." "Hardly." Eizen says "Let's stop wasting time and everyone get back to where they need to be."

With that they part leaving Magilou behind. "Hmm..." She thinks to herself "There's no way a great witch such as myself can leave something so curious unanswered."