What a fine mess

"What a day." I sigh to myself as I push open the door to leave the command center. If there was one thing this posting had as a perk, it was the fact that the brass mostly left this place alone, they wanted monthly updates on the mental health of the residents, but other than that, so long as nothing burned down, they let everything else slide it seemed.

Leaning off to the side till I hear a pop in my back and I let out a content sigh while I keep walking away from the command center and take in the Sakura Empire architecture that this base had been built around, still if there was one thing I wish it had, it was one of those hot springs that are all the rage on the home islands for the Empire. My ear twitched at the sound of bells behind me, turning around just as I hear one of the local girls say, "Onēsan, sono o furo saikōdeshita! Atode mata itte mo īdesu ka?"

Finishing my turn, I saw who it was, and I felt myself smile a little at seeing the pair, their cat ears on top of their heads, the younger of the two with her tail bouncing back and forth happily, the bells making their jingling sound as she does so. Both of them were wrapped in fine black robes when the elder of the two spotted me she bowed as she spoke to me in English, "Good evening, Milord, are you finished your day already?"

Bowing to both of them as I say, "Yes, I am, how are you doing Fuso and Yamashiro?"

"We just had the most amazing dip!" Yamashiro tells me as she stands upright again.

"Dip? I ask with a head tilt.

"Yes, Milord, the fifth carrier division converted some part of the dorms to be an open-air bath, it was a very relaxing experience." Fuso tells me as she stands up with a pause to add, "Sadly, due to the location, I doubt you will be able to experience it."

Sighing to myself, I nod in agreement, that was the problem with the kansen dorm, technically, I wasn't allowed there without a direct invite and giving a full day's notice. But damn, now I kind of wanted to check it out. Bowing again to the sisters I say to them, "Well, I need to get going, I hope you have a good evening."

"Of course, Milord." They both say and bow in return and we go on our separate ways.

During my walk back to my quarters, I started to hatch a plan to try and check out this open-air bath, but I'd have to wait till nightfall and after lights out.

XXXX

Much later that night, I was outside the dorms, walking around the fenced-off area, half way around I saw my opportunity, a tall tree. As I started to climb the tree, I felt a bit of fear and excitement, fear because well, if the wrong kansen spotted me, I doubt I'd see the sunrise. But the excitement I felt was because I wanted to see what this bath looked likes, and maybe take a dip while the girls sleep.

Once I was in a good position, I shimmied around the side of the tree trunk to look over the fence, it was glorious. I could see hard wooden planking that went to a rock wall that went around the large pool. The back wall had been knocked over to give a great view of the open ocean behind the base. I wanted to get into that pool, it looked so inviting with the subtle steam rising off of it. Looking back at the fence, I saw that I'd need to go higher to clear the rows of spikes that were on the top. Turning my attention up, I spotted a branch that went past the spikes.

Getting onto the branch and starting to scoot along it, I had just gotten halfway across, when I heard one of the girls on the planks. I held my breath and prayed that it wasn't Kako or Takao I could hear walking on the planks. Looking down, my heart in my throat pounding away, I could tell it wasn't Kako based solely on the gait, so that was good. As she stepped more into the light I felt myself relax, it wasn't Takao either.

I watch as she moves closer to the rocks, and undoes her towel, letting it fall to her feet, my mouth dropped open, I mean I knew on some level that they had… everything, but it never really clicked till this moment. And now I was in a very precarious position, even more so, because now I was peeping! Turning on the branch to start inching away, I hear a cracking sound.

My heart stops just as the branch drops a little, sending me falling. With a great splash I hit the water, as I surface I flail around with my hands, touching something soft and warm, a cold sensation runs down my spine as I hear a cry of surprise, "Aaaah! Why would you touch those!? They're off-limits! I may be a carrier, but I still have my dignity, you know?"

Pulling my hands back and wiping the water from my face, I see that I'm face to face with Shoukaku, who was covering her chest and crotch, she was bright red and I could see she was trying not to smile. I put my hands up and I say to her, "Sorry! I couldn't see, I'm sorry Shoukaku, I'll go... how am I going to get out of here? I'm not supposed to be in the dorms"

Shoukaku moves her hands to her hips and seems to take on a playful look as she tells me, "Shikikan, aren't you being a bit naughty, breaking curfew?"

"Unintentionally, it seems, I mean the regs say that I can't be in the kansen dorms after dark, nor can I be in them with an invitation, and only then once I've given twenty-four hours of notice that I will be here." I state while looking off to the side.

Shoukaku smirks at me, leaning in a little as she takes on a teasing tone, "Oh, I see... I don't know which idiot decided those rules, but you'd have to be a bit of a coward to follow them. Are you a coward?"

Puffing out my chest, hands going to my hips I say to her, "Clearly I'm not, I climbed a tree just outside the dorms to check out this newly built open-air bath, and maybe try to sneak in a dip while you girls were sleeping, but well, I didn't expect to see you... you're naked..."

"I think you mean you didn't expect to get caught." She says to me before her eyes go wide and she spins around to grab her towel and cover herself up and continues, "Y-you've seen me completely in the nude... how embarrassing..."

Looking up and away, I clear my throat as I say, "Of course, I didn't expect to be caught, what kind of fool expects to get caught?"

Shoukaku laughs lightly as she scolds me, "The kind of fool that gets caught, of course. Don't you know it's rude to invade a girl's privacy like that? It's one thing to have a peek when you happen to encounter one of us, but sneaking around just to get a peek? That's much more uncouth."

Running a hand down my face I sigh, "I wasn't trying to get a peek! I wanted to check out this open-air bath while you girls were asleep, I said that. Hang on it's after lights out, why are you out here?"

She crosses her arms under her bust as she says to me, "Why else do you think I'm here? I was going for a bath, which is why I'm naked."

Raising an eyebrow at her I ask, "So we're both breaking rules tonight then?"

She blinks her blue eyes at me a couple of times while making a dismissive gesture, "Hmph. I wouldn't call it 'breaking' the rules, more... bending the rules." She pauses to smile at me as she adds, "You could even call it exploiting a loophole."

Folding my wet arms across my chest I ask, "Oh, and which loophole is that? It's lights out past twenty-three hundred hours. And last I checked I started to climb that tree at twenty-three-thirty."

Her lips compress and she starts to say, "Hmmph! H-how dare you count so precisely...You are correct, of course". She says to me with a faint smile on her face that I'm pretty sure she's trying to hide "I did break the rules, didn't I?"

Looking around I ask, "So, should we call it even on this one? Neither of us can report the other without telling on ourselves."

With a huff, she says, "Fine, fair is fair. I'll let you go... after one more thing." She pauses just long enough to lean in and whisper in my ear, her warm breath kind of nice in the cool air, "If I ever catch you watching me naked again, you will not be so lucky. Are we at an understanding?"

With a nod, I lean in and whisper back, "If I'm going to get caught, better by you than Takao."

That seems to take her by surprise; she whips around looking as she asks, "Eh? Takao, why her?"

With a shrug and a wink I tease, "Because I think you're prettier." I then start to climb out of the bath, pausing to look around as I muse; "Now how am I going to get out of here? I can't go through the dorms, especially at this time of night."

I feel Shoukaku take my hand as she says, "Come on, I know another way in and out of here."

Looking at my hand in hers, I notice it's warm and soft, seeing how far I can push this, I lace our fingers together and ask in a hushed tone, "Where are you taking me?"

"To a secret spot, should you ever want to break into the dorms at night again." She winks at me over her shoulder.

Once we were at the side fence, she pushed a couple of the boards aside and gestured to it, tilting my head to the side I ask, "So you want me to come back in the dead of night?"

To my surprise, Shoukaku leans in and kisses my cheek before pushing me out through the gap and whispers, "Maybe there is a rule or two I wouldn't mind breaking."

Before I can even say a thing, once I landed on my butt, Shoukaku winked and closed up the boards once they were closed I called out, "What did that even mean?" When no answer came, I got up, dusted myself off, and went home for the rest of the night.

XXXX

XXXX

I'm startled awake as I hear papers hit my desk, followed quickly by my secretary stating, "Shikikan, you can sleep later. I've gotten these documents done, they just need your signature."

Blinking the sleep away from my eyes I see my secretary standing in front of me, a sour expression on her face as she pushes up her pink-rimmed glasses. Grabbing the first document I say to her, "Sorry, Kako, I had a long night."

"Speaking of that, there was a disturbance in our dorms last night, all we could find was a crack in a tree branch that went over the back wall, would you mind tasking some manjuu to inspect the branch and make sure it will not fall into the back?" She asks with a stern expression.

Nodding and reaching for a coffee cup, I feel some relief that I'm without suspicion, at least for the moment, as I say "After I get a couple of these done, I'll call down to maintenance and get a team tasked."

"Good." She turns briskly on her heels and leaves my office, letting me slide back against my chair and groan, "I'm getting too old for late nights like that."

I was just about done with the papers, when I got a buzz from Kako, "Shikikan, we have a late appointment, this is the last task for your day."

Fuck, I just wanna go to bed.

Taking a moment to take in and let out a breath, I buzz back, "Let's have her then."

A moment later, my office door opened, and Shoukaku stepped through the door, bowed, and again, I found her breathtaking, and my mind replayed seeing her naked last night, as the door shuts behind her she says to me, "Shikikan, about last night,"

I put up a hand and tell her, "Don't worry, I haven't told a soul about what happened."

To my surprise I saw relief in her blue eyes, followed quickly by her turning a bit pink before she covered her mouth with one of her hands, hidden in the sleeves of the large white jacket of hers and she says to me, "That's good." she slowly lowers her hand and crosses the room to ask me in a lowered voice, "Because you saw me in the bath."

Rubbing the back of my neck and trying to avoid looking her in the eyes I say, "Yeah, and again, sorry about crashing in on you, and accidentally touching you without your permission, but that's not what I want to talk to you about right now."

She leans back a little bit and looks at me sideways for a moment as she asks, "Wha…What is it that you want to talk to me about?"

Getting out from behind my desk, I move to stand in front of her as I say, "What happened just before you shoved me out between the loose boards in the fence, you remember what you did, right?"

Her cheeks went a brighter red and she mumbled, "Y… yes I remember." she pauses and looks away, and adds, "What about it?"

My left eye twitches, this is a different side to Shoukaku.

Placing my arms behind me to brace myself against the desk as I say, "You kind of sent mix signals with it, and I just wanted to make sure everything is good."

She blinks a couple of times and tilts her head to the side as she asks me, "What kind of mixed signals?"

Sighing to myself, I hang my head and tell her, "You warned me about doing that again, then kissed my cheek before you shoved me through the gap. You also hinted that if I wanted to sneak into the dorms again, I should come that way."

Her mouth dropped open, then closed again while her face turned a similar color to the red flower she kept in her hair. After a few moments she started to make rather unclear noises, her face going redder and redder. Tilting my head to the side I asked, "Shoukaku, are you okay? You look like you want to say or do something."

That seemed to snap her out of whatever was going on as she said, "Sorry, Shikikan, I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment."

Nodding and twisting to reach for my coffee, I say to her, "It's alright, Shoukaku, we all get overwhelmed sometimes."

I see her relax and she smiles at me with a nod before saying, "Thank you for the understanding, Shikikan, is there anything else you'd like to talk about? I'd like to avoid talking about what happened in the bath last night, if possible."

Bobbing my head up and down I nod as I say, "Fair enough," I pause to look at my office door, then I lean in to whisper in her ear, "Are you up for some rule-breaking tonight?"

There is a moment of silence before she whispers back, but I can hear the excitement in her voice, "What kind?"

With a smirk I continue to whisper in her ear, "You suggested after-curfew shenanigans next time, so what did you have in mind for tonight?"

Out of the corner of my eyes, I see her turn bright pink again and she continues to whisper, "I remember, and I'm up for just about anything, do you have any ideas?"

"Alright dealer's choice then." I whisper and pause to kiss her cheek then I add, "Now we're even, and I'll come find you later." When I lean back, I can see her eyes are wide, and her cheeks are bright pink. Putting down my coffee cup, I step around her and start to leave my office.

From behind me, just as I reach the door, I hear Shoukaku mumble, "I… I'll be waiting."

Looking over my shoulder I wink at her and nod before twisting open my door and leaving my office for the day, to grab a quick nap before I see what I can come up with for tonight.

XXXX

XXXX

A/N: Looks like we've got some partners in crime, trying to see who can get the better of the other.