fandomtownies | The Onsen; Sunday Afternoon [11/10].

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The Onsen; Sunday Afternoon [11/10].

The funny thing about all this was that Shunsui, by now, had quite possibly had his most productive days in recent memory, simply by doing the same thing he always did (lazing about and drinking sake), but just relocating and adding water. He'd already gotten in some quality soaking time with Octavia-chan before her soaking days were temporarily put on hold (which was, after all, the whole purpose of this entire onsen streak in the first place), there was a nice little spark of inspiration for teaching again (even if only for the school trips), he'd met a wonderful, charming, and of course beautiful young lady (although was something a bit familiar about her, wasn't there?), and he'd even found an excellent use for some of the empty boxes from the store (anything to pamper a lovely lady, even when that lady was a cat ♥).

And all he had to do was take a little stroll and having a nice, long soak in the onsen.

He was so proud of himself that he figured he might as well treat himself, a nice little reward for all that hard work and productivity.

By taking a little stroll and having a nice, long soak in the onsen.

There was almost poetry there, in the beautiful, cyclical nature of life, neh ♥?

[[ I am nothing if not wholly dedicated to stupid ideas. Open onsen is open, with a little work related SP from me ]]

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Octavia's tattoo appointment was almost upon her. In fact, it was tomorrow, so the choice to come out to the onsen today was an obvious one. Last chance for at least the followiung several weeks.

And maybe that was at least part why she was already there by the time Shunsui showed up. Underwater up to her neck, as usual, with her head tilted back and her eyes closed. Definitely not napping, but, still. Allowing herself to relax.

[ooc: DEAL WITH IT.]

It was certainly a pleasant surprise (albeit it not an entirely surprising surprise) to find that Octavia-chan was already there in the water when Shunsui arrived. After all, one did not exactly have to get up very early in the morning to beat Shunsui to something, and he knew for a fact that Octavia-chan did, actually, get up very early in the morning.

And he thought, very breafly, of stealing a page from her book and slipping into the water as soundlessly and quietly as possible, which he knew he could do, with ease, and quite possibly even succeed, but that, he felt, was not nearly as fun or interesting, and he did love an entrance.

An entrance that would have been significantly improved by the addition of a shamisen, but that was something he'd work out later.

"Ahhhh, do my eyes deceive me ♥?" he asked, chuckling, as he swept in from the changing room, dropping the haori he'd draped over his bare shoulders with the hopes for a moment such as this, where there might be an audience to appreciate the drama of it all, "or perhaps I am just still dreaming, but there appears as though quite possibly the loveliest little dove I have ever seen has made to the onsen before me ♥? If it is a dream," and here he slipped into the water, holding up his jug and his small stack of cups, and had no hesitation in cutting across the pool to find a place to settle beside Octavia, "I hope I don't wake up before the good parts ♥."

[[*GASP*]]

Someone needed to introduce Octavia to the current-day usage of the word extra, because her vocabulary sorely needed it, just for him.

Her eyes opened as soon as she heard his voice. Yes, that meant she caught the dramatic haori-dropping and yes, it also meant her gaze followed him all the way into the pool and, apparently, all the way next to her.

"Konnichiwa, Shunsui," she said, with a note of wryness to her tone because there was just no way to actually match that kind of a greeting.

As if extra could even come close to touching Shunsui's level of flair. He was extra before extra even had an e.

"Konnichiwa, Octavia-chan ♥," he replied, not in the bright sing-song he sometimes adopted, but, instead, the low, smooth rumble that perfectly matched the tilt of his grin. His shoulders settled against the wall, his further arm reaching back to set down all but two cups, which he perfectly balanced in that hand while he poured with the other. First things first, after all.

"Have you been here long ♥?" he added, sake now poured, cups being offered out to her to serve as the question of whether she'd like some itself, while reaching behind them to set down the jug. Where his arm would then settle, because, well, it was already there...

"A while," Octavia replied as she accepted a cup, the tips of her fingers brushing lightly against his hand as she picked it up. "It's the last day. I guess I'm making the most of it."

"The last day?" Shunsui asked, the tilt in his smile going to his head, while the smile itself turned into nothing but warmth at that ever so slightly brush of her fingers. "So soon ♥? Well..." He ducked his head in a nod, lifting his sake cup in a toast before going in for a sip, "it's a good thing I decided to show up today, then ♥."

Octavia's shrug was predictably slight. "It was supposed to be later in the week," she said, "but someone else cancelled. So mine was bumped up."

And she'd figured she'd waited long enough for this as it was. Either several months or a couple of years, depending on how you looked at it.

She lifted her own cup, just a bit. "But we still have today."

"But we still have today ♥," Shunsui agreed, "and what a beautiful day it is ♥!"

He took another small sip before setting the cup aside for now, stretching out his arms and draping them behind him on the wall as he sunk into the water slightly, settling easily, gracefully, into his usual comfortable sprawl of repose. A little sigh of contentment, savoring it with his eyes closed for a moment as he asked, "How was your patrol, Octavia-chan? Any good sunrises ♥?"

"Today's was nice," Octavia replied, after a stretch of silence. Her voice had gotten a little softer and a little quieter, again. "Out on the beach."

Yes, she'd actually made an effort to notice, this time.

"See ♥?" said Shunsui, who tilted his head slightly to better offer her a faint, pleased, thoughtful sort of smile. "Already a good day, right from the beginning ♥. Good thing you were on your patrol, too, so we'd know about it ♥."

Edited 2019-11-10 20:21 (UTC)

"It's still only the afternoon, Shunsui," Octavia pointed out, though mostly for sort.of reversal of what she usually said. The expression on her face matched her tone: a little soft, and open. "A lot of the day left to go. You can't really judge a day by its sunrise."

"Perhaps not." One of Shunsui's shoulders lifted slightly in the suggestion of a shrug, his tone light and easy and low, smile resting steadily on bemused. "I'm sure people have judged on much less before ♥. Why? Do you suspect it might take a turn for the worse, Octavia-chan? Is this your way of telling me you're about to leave when I've only just arrived? That would rather ruin the day..."

Something amused crept into Octavia's expression. "I'm not going anywhere when you just got here." Granted, she hadn't planned to leave soon even if he hadn't, but still. "I'm just saying."

Because she was either a realist or a pessimist depending on the day, and so she had to say these things sometimes.

Good thing he had enough optimism and idealism (and perhaps even delusion) for the both of them, then.

"Duly noted ♥," Shunsui assured her, with a smile that was almost a laugh. "But as long as you're here with me, Octavia-chan, the day would have to try pretty hard to make it anything less than perfect ♥."

Octavia thought about another round of pointing out how easily pleased he was, but thought better of it, and simply said, "Good."

And she thought about leaving it at that, but... She shifted a little bit, and tilted her head back where she could rest it comfortably against his arm.

And they weren't even under a cover of darkness on a ride at a fair!

Nor were they covered in cats! Or clothes, for that matter, but Shunsui would be exactly the very last person to complain about that ever.

If he shifted, it was only just slightly, making minor corrections in his own position to better accommodate hers. And even though he had nothing so nice as his arms to buffet it, only air, his head tilted back a little and he closed his eyes to soak it all in with just a soft, low hum of satisfaction.

"See?" he added, a long moment later, just as quiet and low and rumbly. "Perfect ♥."

Octavia was also much more particular about the touching itself than she was about whether many clothes were involved. It was fine.

"Sure," she sighed, sounding amused.

But also kind of content, if you knew how to listen.

Shunsui might have said something there; he definitely thought of a few things he could say, light and playful, or perhaps a bit more bold and boisterous, but, feeling incredibly content himself, even he knew that there was nothing he could possibly say that could come close to being as good as just sitting there and enjoying this, listening, feeling, the water, the air, her breathing...all of it.

And Octavia wasn't in a rush to talk more, either. She sighed again, softer and quieter and without even the ghost of a word involved. Then she closed her eyes. Let herself just settle into the moment.

She wouldn't call it perfect simply because she didn't really use that word, ever. But it was... good.

It was very good.

Very good was also a very good way to describe it, but it was also so good that it would start to be a little bit bad, as Shunsui was feeling so relaxed and so content, and there was steady breathing and warm water and warm bodies...

He could barely blame the sake; he'd barely had a few sips at that point, hardly enough to make a difference, but he still started to feel that all too familiar undertow of sleep starting to pull at his consciousness...

With a faint grin for imagining just how Octavia might respond to that, he considered just letting it take him. Giving in to the one sweet mistress almost as strong as his love for the company of beautiful women.

...almost.

Shunsui shifted the arm that Octavia was resting on, just slightly, hopefully not enough to disturb her, but enough for him to bend it down, to dip his fingers into the water. And there they danced a little on the surface, drawing circles growing increasingly larger until they just so happened to brush against her arm.

And then those fingers weren't lightly dancing on the water anymore.

No, they weren't!

There was a second, at first, where Octavia seemed to stiffen up just a little bit. But then she relaxed right back into it, exhaling quietly.

Was it weird how, even though his fingers were touching her arm, she seemed to also feel it as a tingling in the back of her neck? Maybe that was just where the shiver that ran up her spine made its home.

To his credit, Shunsui...or, at least, his fingers...seemed to be listening. When she stiffened underneath them, only if just a little bit, they stopped, drawing away, but by a bare margin. And when she relaxed, they returned, just as soft, long, slow strokes replacing the lazy little circles.

Well.

That'd certainly taken care of his sleepiness, at least.

Octavia hadn't had any sleepiness to begin with, but yes, it would probably have evaporated with how keenly aware of just one part of her arm she was right now.

There was another shiver, this one a little more obvious. Would've been difficult for it not to be, all things considered.

After a long, long, long moment--practically an eternity, really--Shunsui spoke, his voice low and quiet and sticking slightly at the beginning as if all that quiet had been enough for it to forget just how to form sounds right away.

"Octavia-chan?"

Octavia's voice didn't fare much better. But even a whispery rasp could still carry a one-syllable word.

"Yes?"

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