AN: Okay! I didn't know if this would work, but I went for it anyway! Both of these guys seem to have too much pride to outright admit their feelings, but I could see them trying something like this. Anyway, on with the show!

Doug had been so relaxed that he didn't notice someone else enter the bath. He had been quietly humming to himself in his attempt to relieve his stress. Dylas didn't notice Doug because of all the steam. He moved into the water and began to relax himself.

Eventually though, Lin Fa forgot all about the request and noticed how high the temperature of the bath was. Being the ever diligent person she was, she fixed the problem so the bath went back to its usual temperature. She felt unusually pleased with herself for being so on top of things, but couldn't understand why the temperature was up so high in the first place. Reasoning that this was somehow Xiao Pai fault, she continued on like nothing happened.

Inside the bath, the temperature was dropping and the steam was clearing. Both parties inside were starting to notice, and when Doug opened his eyes, there was Dylas. What were the odds? The sight startled him, and he jolted up, creating just enough noise to catch the horse's attention. Once he realised who was here in the bath with him, he seemed to have a similar reaction. This was probably the most awkward situation they could find themselves in.

So for a while they sat there, eyes locked as neither of them wanted to look away. Eventually Doug cleared his throat and tried to act natural. "Oh it's you. Slacking off from work I see."

Dylas scoffed in retort. "You're slacking off!" He flinched back when he realised he was engaging in chatter with his arch nemesis. He had no idea how to act in a situation like this.

By now Doug had thrown his cautions to the wind and started acting like nothing happened. "Granny'll do fine without me. What'll the customers do without their food?" He adopted a sly grin. "Who's going to take the dishes from that chef? Meg?" He was clearly condescending, but he was having fun while he was doing it.

"Shut up! That's none of your business!" After saying that, he covered his mouth and turned away. Why was he chatting with Doug in the bath of all places?

Noticing the horse's frustration, Doug decided to amp up the levels of teasing. This opportunity was too good to pass up. "Did you come here to see me?"

"What?! Why would I ever want to see you?! Especially after-" He stopped there, the last thing he wanted to do was to bring up the incident at the clinic.

Doug caught on anyway, and rolled his eyes. He'd like to forget about that too, but he had to get Dylas to drop it first. "Are you still going on about that?" Doug said with the same playful grin. "Has it really affected you that much?"

That one comment made Dylas stop in his tracks. It was so accurate. This was something that shouldn't have had any effect on him, and yet he'd been thinking about it nonstop. He refused to answer, but his body language was telling Doug everything he needed to know.

"Hey man, relax okay?" Doug himself wanted to end this. It would be best for both of them if they could just go back to the way things were. "Just forget it. It doesn't change anything." Or so it would seem. Dylas was indicating that the incident had changed him, at least in how he viewed his nemesis. Doug sighed, almost annoyed that he had to be the one to bring things back to normal. "Why are you getting so worked up about it anyway?"

Dylas covered his mouth with his hand. That was a very good question. Why was he getting so worked up? Because of that stupid dwarf doing weird things to him! Really? Maybe- He should be well over a stupid stunt by now.

Doug seemed to catch on to something, and fell silent. He was feeling a little awkward himself now, but since he'd already come this far. "You know, I always thought you were cool." Doug said with an uneasy grin. Normally he wouldn't have said anything like that out of the blue, but for some reason this tense atmosphere made him want to say that.

Of course, Dylas tensed up like he just walked in on Porco naked. Of all the things to say! His ears stood straight up and he refused to look at Doug, which greatly confused the dwarf.

"What? You don't like compliments now?" There was a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"No- it's just-" Why was he even responding to this? "You said the same thing- at the clinic."

"Oh." Doug said, going quiet. "Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now."

"WHAT?"

"Well, yeah." Doug didn't even know if he was messing with Dylas or if he was being serious, but he was feeling kind of weird as he said this.

There was silence, Dylas didn't know how to respond to this new development. He could just as easily said something, perhaps tell the dwarf off, and reject this completely. But he didn't. No, instead he sat there contemplating this new information. The more he thought about it, the more it strangely made sense. "So uh, does this mean-" He really didn't want to finish that sentence, so he didn't.

Doug had to resist the urge to say 'just kidding' and see the reaction. Instead, he really wanted to see where this would go. He could always bail in the end, claim he was just messing with the horse, and then hopefully things would go back to normal. "I guess so." He said.

What to do now? This certainly wasn't what he expected when he came in here. Now what did he want to do? His first instinct was to reject Doug, tell him off or something for being stupid. Then again, there was something telling him to just go with it, but he put that out of his mind. Then he brought it back up and rationalised that Doug was playing him. If that was the case, Dylas wasn't going fall into his trap, backing down with his tail between his legs. He'd beat Doug at his own game! "I uh-" It was harder to say than he thought, even if he was trying to one up Doug. "I guess- that's not so bad." He wanted to see Doug flinch back and admit defeat, at least that's what he told himself.

To both of their surprise, Doug offered a grin, causing Dylas to blush. Doug thought that it was funny. "So is that a yes?" He wanted to be sure about the horse's convictions before he continued.

"Uh-" This seemed like a joke being taken too far, but he wouldn't be outdone. At least, that was his justification for what he was about to say. "okay." That was the best he could do.

Doug's jaw dropped. This certainly wasn't something he expected, but for some reason he was happy. Weird. Might as well run with it. "Great! What do you say we go on a date tomorrow?"

That was certainly something Dylas never expected to hear, at least from Doug. He was starting to regret taking this as a joke. Or maybe this was some kind of test. Perhaps Doug was taking a page out of Leon's book and taking jokes way too far. Oh well, he wasn't about to take back what he said. "I- guess so." He covered his mouth with his hand again. What did he just agree to?

"Great! I'll meet you by the restaurant at 9 tomorrow, okay?" Just how long was he going to carry out this charade?

"Sounds good." Dylas said in a hushed voice.

"Okay then!" There was silence then. Where could they possibly go from here? Neither of them wanted to say anything after that, so they sat in silence refusing to look at each other for a solid four minutes. Suddenly Xiao Pai burst through the door and said, "it seems your time is up, yes?"

"Woah! Don't just come barging in here! This is the men's bath!" Doug said, startled from the sudden intrusion. Dylas didn't seem to care either way.

"It seems I work here, yes? Someone has to tell you when time is up."

That was a good a reason as any to get up and leave, and so the two did so without a word. They both left, taking off in opposite directions, and said nothing about what happened there to anyone.

AN: It all escalates from here! Time to get into the meat of the story, and the romance! I'll try to have the next chapter up tomorrow too, if I get time between work and school!