Author's Note: Yeah…definitely one-shots now. Haha. Sorry for the long wait. I was kind of uninspired and busy at the same time. DX

So I come bearing the gift of a chapter almost entirely in the nude~!

Disclaimer: Stealing D. Gray-man is a no-no. That's why we have disclaimers!

"Inspire Me"
Chapter 7: Bath Time Encounter

After a long day of training, Kanda sighed in relief, heading towards the baths at what he was sure was some sort of ungodly hour, guessing this due to the lack of people in the hallways of the Order. The sweaty samurai groaned as he stretched out his right arm over his head, trying to work out some of the soreness from his joints after using that arm for innumerable amounts of swings he took at his practice dummy, also known as Lavi.

Kanda casually strode into the bath, pulling his shirt off hurriedly and stuffing it into a small unused cubby. Taking his tie out, he routinely brushed his long hair, working out a knot that had accumulated during the day. But he stopped brushing as he heard the shuffle of clothes. He looked to his right to see a half-naked Allen covering himself, looking a little more than terrified.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Kanda howled, throwing the nearest object at the younger boy, which happened to be a towel. Allen's body tensed up, and Kanda guessed that his outburst offended Allen more than it surprised him. Kanda's face scrunched up and he looked back at his cubby, embarrassed and a bit pissed that Allen was able to sneak up on him.

"I'm sorry, Kanda. I didn't know you were coming in here. I thought you were ignoring me or something, so I didn't say anything," Allen let out a nervous chuckle and chose to also stare awkwardly at his own cubby, holding tight to the towel covering his lower body. Dejectedly, he turned his head to the right, self-conscious about his innocence arm being totally exposed right next to Kanda.

The swordsman took this time to change and wrap a towel around himself before chancing a look back at Allen. And that chance look at the younger boy was Kanda's undoing. He looked at Allen's face first, and the way his powerful left hand was delicately smoothing out some of his snow white hair, tucking it behind his small ear. He saw the tinge of pink on Allen's cheeks that contrasted to his alabaster skin. Kanda let his eyes travel downwards, his own cheeks heating up. He saw Allen's skinny torso, and how his muscles were small, but suited his body perfectly. Kanda noted how Allen's hips were also small, like a girl's, but his hip bones were prominent. His discipline taking a vacation, Kanda wondered if only Allen's hair was white.

Allen turned to look at the swordsman, uncomfortable how Kanda was blatantly staring at him. He found that Kanda didn't register that he was caught, since the other kept staring. Allen could have sworn he was drooling a little bit, but tried to convince himself that it was sweat. After, a while, Allen noticed Kanda's shoulders twitch and slacken, his hand barely holding onto his towel. The white haired boy blushed, and looked away a bit, wishing that his towel wouldn't fall for Kanda's sake, but would fall for his.

Allen wished this one more time before turning to completely face Kanda, and squeaked in surprise, quickly jumping away and retreating to the waters. This snapped Kanda out of his stupor. Seeing Allen running away, he shrugged and looked at his cubby once more before following the younger to the water, but as he took his first step, he tripped on something. Looking down, he saw his white towel, and looking slightly above that, he saw that he was no longer wearing HIS towel on his body, he freaked, quickly grabbing it and rewrapping himself in it.

"MOYASHI!" He yelled, marching over to the water to find, half of Allen's head poking out of the water.

"What did you see?" Kanda demanded, and Allen withdrew from the water a bit, giggling and trying to cover a slight blush with one small hand.

Extremely perturbed, Kanda sunk himself into the water. Allen looked extremely embarrassed as well, oddly comforting Kanda.

"Sorry, Kanda…" Allen muttered and smiled as the swordsman looked up at him.

"S'fine." Kanda rubbed his shoulder, pouring some of the warm water over it.

Allen raised his eyebrows, "Do you want me to wash your back?"

Kanda was flabbergasted, he couldn't recall the last time someone washed his back. He nodded slowly, drifting more towards the other while also turning around to allow access to the body part in question. Allen smiled wide as he ran the bar of soap across the Japanese's back. Placing the bar of soap down, he placed his hands gingerly on Kanda, going straight for his right shoulder, slightly massaging it. Kanda's shoulders slackened, relaxing into the younger boy's touch. He craned his neck a bit to see Allen at work, who was concentrating all his attention into his shoulder.

Kanda smirked gratefully at the treatment, suppressing the urge to groan, "How'd you know?"

Allen giggled, "You'd actually have the right to call me an idiot if I didn't know."

"Heh. Well, now it's your turn isn't it?" Kanda grinned evilly, turning around to grab Allen hands and spinning the white haired boy around so that his back was to Kanda's front. He immediately attacked Allen's lower back, earning an instant and clear moan. He continued his ministrations all the way up to his neck before settling his hands on Allen's left shoulder, massaging the part where the black innocence met pale skin.

Allen turns and pokes Kanda in the stomach playfully, and swims hurriedly away from the swordsman. Kanda rolls his eyes before pursuing his "attacker", returning the poke. Allen laughs a bit before punching Kanda lightly in the arm, and then trying to retreat underwater for cover. Smirking, Kanda kicks slightly, hitting Allen on the first try. He bends over to lift Allen from the water, the younger sputtering a bit, and throws him lightly away to the other side of the pool.

After a few seconds, Allen's head reemerges from the pool only to find Kanda right in front of him. Surprised, Allen tried to jump away, but that was short-lived, seeing as his legs got caught in Kanda's, sending Allen backwards against the rim of the pool, and Kanda forwards into Allen.

They stood frozen in their positions, Allen's back against the rim and Kanda's face inches away from Allen's, supporting himself with his arms on either side of Allen's body. They both blushed and Allen laughed nervously. He wanted nothing more than for the man to kiss him—but would that have been too awkward?

Yes, it would have, since Kanda backed away to the other side, visibly embarrassed. He started to wash his own hair with the soap bar, back towards Allen. The younger watched this delicate process in which Kanda ran his fingers through his hair, careful not to snag his fingers on a lock of hair and create a knot. He rinsed his hair and repeated the process over again, this time roughly washing his roots and ends, probably to ensure they stayed healthy so he could keep his long hair.

Allen shifted his gaze to his left, finding the yellow rubber duckie that seemed to always inhabit the baths. He smiled as he picked it up, turning it in his hands so he could inspect all parts of it beak to tail. Amused, he squeezed it, and it let out a loud "quack". Allen laughed delightedly when Kanda jumped a bit, turning towards Allen. Kanda stared at Allen, who continued to squeeze the duck happily. He coughed a bit, causing Allen to turn his attention back towards Kanda.

Allen laughed at Kanda's confused face, happy to know he was more confused at Allen's happiness at playing with the duck, than annoyance at the sounds he was making. Allen pushed to duck towards Kanda and it bounced off the swordsman, lazily floating back towards Allen. Pleased, Allen did it again, and seeing as Kanda had no reaction, he did it once more.

He giggled, pushing it harder and harder each time it came back to him. Kanda, stunned at Allen's childishness and still nervous from their close encounter before, stood frozen in the water, watching the duck as it hit into him and as it went back to Allen's gracious hands. However, as it came back for when seemed like the 20th time, Kanda freaked, catching it with both of his hands, grabbing and tugging at it with such a force that he almost destroyed the poor duckie.

"Kanda!" Allen scolded, swimming over quickly to try to pry the dying duck from the Japanese's hands, "Don't kill it!"

As Allen's hands found their way over Kanda's, he loosened up, allowing the duck to be taken from him, "Che."

He continued to glare at the duck, a tad bit jealous that it was getting more attention than he was, "So…"

"Hmm?"

"Ah…you know…" Kanda started, scratching the back of his head, "it's almost Christmas."

"Oh…yeah…" Allen set down the duck in the water, and smiled dejectedly, half facing Kanda, and half not. He cast his head down, wringing his fingers together. Kanda raised an eyebrow at the boy, a little worried over his reaction.

At a loss of what to do, Kanda splashed the younger boy. Allen twisted around, shocked, to meet the shocked face of Kanda, "Uhm….I don't know why I did that?" Kanda admitted.

Allen laughed hard at him, one hand clutching his sides, and one hand trying to hold the laughter in. Kanda was a bit distraught at Allen laughing at him, but he smiled smugly, letting a dry laugh escape his lips, and splashes him again, declaring war.

Allen tackled him as best as he could, jumping up to be taller than him, and latching on to his shoulders, trying to wrestle him into the water. Kanda wrapped his arms around Allen, trying to swing him off. Failing, he dragged Allen downwards, successfully getting a face full of water from Allen's kicking legs. Allen laughed, but was splashed blindly by Kanda. Kanda kept his hold around Allen as he wiped the water from his eyes and watched as Allen did the same. Kanda pushed some of the wet white bangs from the younger exorcist's eyes, cupping Allen's cheek as the younger smiled brightly and held Kanda's hand in his own.

"This wasn't so bad, right, Kanda?" Allen figured as he lent his head more into the samurai's hand.

Kanda let out a small laugh, placing his other hand on the other's cheek, capturing the young face in his strong arms, and gave him a small but assertive peck on the lips.

Lavi smiled as his favorite exorcist pair left the baths. It was kind of getting steamy in there. He wiped the fogginess that accumulated on the screen of his camera and quickly went through all the bath time photos he took. One was of the beginning, Kanda literally drooling over Allen, barely hanging onto the towel on his waist. Lavi got an especially good picture of Allen washing Kanda's back, Kanda wearing a blissful face with a slight blush. The last few were of Kanda splashing Allen and Allen tackling Kanda and them wrestling with each others. Lavi laughed mischievously, and ran out of the baths to wait in the Library for Lenalee, who was assigned to take pictures of them leaving the baths together and whatever they happened to do together afterwards.

Author's Note: Haven't you ever had creepy friends like this? Lmfao. I have. Hope you enjoyed. I think I was having so much fun writing this that I decided to make it more playful than "oh-my-god-they're-naked".