A/N: YAY! Finally! I am sorry it took me so long to work on this prompt but it has a reason. One, I will explain after the end. ;)

prompt: "hot spring ff" [and some fluffy descriptions I won't list :P] - Inspirated (on ff.net)

The Stray Shikigami Accident Or Making a Wrong Seem Right

Why had he to go through this? He should have just went home. Should have said, he had something to do, instead of coming along. This wasn't, how he would have imagined things to turn out, when he accompanied Mayura to visit Rokuro.

Why had he done it anyway? He had more important things to do. Actually not right now, he had planned for a free afternoon, on which he could tend to his plants. His newest bonsai needed to be cut to grow more branches. But then she had stood in front of the door of the Ikaruga main house, asking him to tag along. And Shimon just couldn't force himself to say "No".

It was all thanks to this infatuation he had with her.

And now? Now he found himself in the streaming, hot water off a hot spring with Rokuro next to him.

Which wouldn't be a problem at all, if he didn't know Mayura was on the other side of the hot spring. Naked and all.

Only a wooden wall separated them.

One simple wall.

Just wood.

It was making him so damn nervous.

And all the while he tried to cover this uneasiness he felt.

Granted, it wasn't as bad as the time on the isle, when he had to guard her taking a bath in a hot spring with nothing being between them. But that time had left some marks on him. Some awkward and embarrassing feeling every time he thought about it because he couldn't forget the accident that occurred on that day.

So now even that wall, opposite of him, was making him nervous, making him wonder, how sturdy its structure was, how much weight it could hold and what it would take to tear it down.

It wasn't like he was a pervert.

Far from it. Shimon didn't want the wall to go down. Not in any way. He would be glad, if it would be made out of stone. Nor did he think about her body in lecherous ways. But the very idea that not much divided them, was making him breaking out in cold sweat, as his body was cooked in the streaming water of the hot spring.

And if he was honest, he feared about some accident to happen. It wasn't like he had been fortunate so far. Her breasts had been pressed against him way too many times by now. And each time it had been worse than the time before.

First time had been just pressing – with him loosing his balance in the air for a while, second time wiggling against him, as she had used him as a cushion to her fall and the third time...

He swallowed hard at the thought, while embarrassment rose within him like water into a sinking ship.

Just thinking about the time they had been on the isle, when Mayura jumped at the sudden appearance of a stray shikigami right into his arms bare to the skin made him blush furiously. He had tried so hard to forget the feeling of her naked breasts pressed against him, but it had been burned into his memory. A big fat stamp of awkwardness.

Fortunately Shimon had been able back then not to look at her once. Desperately trying to stay a gentleman, he had suffered through her following wrath, threatening to pummel him to mousse with a bolder, without blinking an eye at her.

Had it been a trick of fate, that had been throwing him into these inappropriate situations with her?

It was almost, as if someone or something pushed them together – literally.

It would be so much easier, if she was just some girl. Just a girl he was faintly acquainted with or that meant nothing to him. But truth was, even if he'd like to, he couldn't deny the pull towards her. He hadn't understood these feelings at first. He couldn't grasp everything about them either.

Yet, he felt a tremble in his heart, when he looked at her, a tickling on his skin, when they touched and the need for air in his lungs, when she smiled at him.

He got it bad.

And it had gotten worse day by day.

At first it was just some stirring of interest, he couldn't explain and wasn't sure. He worried about her so much it left him wondering about this. Then it was a warmth spreading through him and his heart clenching, when he looked at her in moments she looked so – so pretty?

Before he knew what was happening to him, these feelings had multiplied themselves.

He really got it bad.

And so he surely wasn't obstinate about the chance to repeat something like the last time.

"Oi, Shimon, is the water too hot for you? Your face looks like it's burning," Rokuro asked next to him, bringing Shimon back to the here and now. A situation, in which he was sitting in the hot water of a public bath with Rokuro next to him, a towel resting on his brown, unruly hair and a worried expression being carved into his face.

"I'm fine," Shimon shot back with some rage in his voice. It was Rokuro's fault after all that had brought him into this uncomfortable predicament. If he hadn't suggested that all three of them could go to a hot spring because it was to cold outside, he wouldn't be here.

Of course he would have declined, if Mayura hadn't looked so – so cute – in excitement about the proposal. It made him swallow hard thinking about the happy glint in her eyes and the bright smile topped with a small blush, yet again. Instead he had said nothing and both of them, Mayua and Rokuro, had taken it as a sign of approval and dragged him along. If just Tsuchimikado Arimori would have been there then he could have gone with the other two, giving Shimon the opportunity to escape this situation and go home to tend to his plants. But he had been running some errands.

"Are you sure? Maybe you should rest for a while." Rokuro leaned over to him and watched him with his red eyes squinted half way closed.

"I am fine." Shimon muttered and frowned at Rokuro.

In response that one started sulking and looked away, mumbling he uttered, "Sorry for worrying about you."

The feeling of guilt that rushed over him, made Shimon forget about his anger about the situation. Actually he didn't want to blame Rokuro for this. Anger was easier than embarrassment but it was uncalled-for. He had no idea, what he had dragged Shimon into. The only ones who had an idea about his feelings for Mayura were his siblings. And he had paid deeply for them not to say a word to anybody else. Which reminded him, that he still needed to shoot a photo of Rokuro in secret for Chiiko. His little sister was too good in bribing. It made him wonder, where she had learned this.

He sighed and leaned his back onto the stones surrounding the basin. Trying to lift the mood, he murmured, "I'm sorry. I feel better now."

Talking to Rokuro eased off some of his anxiety. Perhaps he shouldn't give it too much of a thought. With the wall between them, it was not like the incident from last time would repeat itself. Even if stray shikigami loved to take baths and were known for their sudden appearances in hot springs, it would be fine, if it happened on one side of the bath.

Besides Mayura wasn't alone there. Shizuru was with her and would probably help getting rid of any intruder or other unforeseeable circumstance easily. They had met her on the way to the hot spring and Mayura had instantly asked her, if she wanted to accompany them. Since they both were in the same class at the Seiyouin training institute, they had grown closer, something Shimon hadn't been blind to. It seemed like Mayura was easy at making friends. He himself did not know much about this one of Narumi-san's daughters, yet he noticed the blush forming on the dark skinned girl's face, when Rokuro insisted on her coming along. 'Another one,' he had thought with some sort of revolting dismay. Not because of Ioroi Shizuru but because of Mayura being one of the girls, that looked at Rokuro like that, his sister included. It almost made him feel like a fifth wheel. Nevertheless he had choked down the tiny prick of jealousy and let himself be dragged here.

Anyway, Shizuru being with Mayura was another method preventing something awkward to happen. Plus there was the wall between them.

After all a wooden wall separated them.

One large wall.

Solid wood.

These thought helped him to calm down.

It helped him relax and finally savor the feeling of the hot bath, pouring warmth into his body and loosening up his muscles. Beads of transpiration formed on his forehead and temples, running over his face, down his chin. With slow breaths he lay in the water feeling rested and centered. He even thought about thanking Rokuro for his idea. It actually wasn't so bad, to let yourself rest once in a while.

And so Shimon stopped thinking about accidents with Mayura and closed his eyes.

He appreciated the silence, that was only disturbed by the calm music of water pouring to the sides whenever Rokuro beside him moved.

All of a sudden he heard a loud splash and a even louder scream. Alarmed he immediately rose to his feet. Hadn't it been Mayura screaming? Was it again a stray shikigami?

A few seconds later, a dark voice of a girl barked, "You perverted shikigami. Go to the men, for a change!"

It was Shizuru, if he wasn't mistaken.

Then something crashed into the wooden wall in front of him.

In slow motion Shimon watched something fluffy and round breaking through the slats of the wall. Pieces of wood were flung around.

The fluffy thing flew over the water, splitting its surface into two heaving waves and crashed into the wall behind Rokuro and Shimon.

Shimon did not pay it any attention because his gaze was glued to the wooden wall, which now had a big whole in it

A whole through which he saw her. Mayura.

She looked into the other direction surprised and worried, with a towel wrapped around her.

A towel that threatened to fall.

And it did.

One second he blinked, while the towel slowly slid down her body.

The next he stopped breathing.

Utterly thunderstruck he stared at her. His eyes tried to behold the beauty they looked at, rushing over the figure. The angelic face, a long neck, creamy colored shoulders, perfectly round shaped breasts above a flat stomach, framed by round hips ending in long, flawless legs.

Words weren't enough to capture the beauty of her being.

In all his life never had he been moved by something like he was now.

Greedy his eyes took in the smooth lines and round shapes of her body.

An image of seconds was saved for an eternity inside his heart and mind.

It was only, when he noticed Rokuro's yelp, that he broke the stare and was brought back to reality.

He gasped, shocked at what he had just done.

Then he saw her turn around.

Ashamed and embarrassed he sunk to his feet and took cover in the water. He didn't want for her to notice, that he had stared. From under the surface he could hear the contorted sound of another one of her yells.

He waited until the commotion died down.

He waited for, what felt like a few minutes.

He waited until his lungs burned and the muscles of his mouth fighting his will to be opened.

When he rose to the surface again, he was alone, with an angry owner glaring at him.

Only later did he learn from Rokuro, that Shizuru had kicked a stray shikigami into the wall and went home with Mayura after Rokuro had accidentally seen them both. Shimon opted to kill him but figured he was as much scum as Rokuro for having looked at Mayura.

And for weeks he had argued with himself, if he should tell her about this or not. And when he finally had built up the courage to tell her, he was surprised at her reaction.

She turned away her burning, red head and mumbled, "We're even."

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A/N: I promised an explanation, right?^^

Okay, here you go: I HATE HOT SPRING FFs. XD They are often very bad written and always have the same plot. Either it is girl/boy sees girl/boy naked or both OR it is some badly written M-rated stuff. And I did not like to write the same thing. Which in the end I did because the setting limits the possible actions (Tbh I thought about this for weeks. Maybe it was because of my dislike that no inspiration struck). Anyway, you might understand the conflict I had writing something I disliked. The humor made it up for it though like Mayura "threatening to pummel" Shimon or Sayo bribing Shimon. XD

One note in the margin: Bath-loving stray shikigamis entering public baths is a trivia fact published in Vol. 7.They seem to do it fairly often and use as much shampoo as they want. lol. (Maybe they ship Shimayu, too. Who knows?^^)

Well, I hope, it is not that bad. To me it feels like it is sooooo bad. But I am biased! XD XD

And I hope it doesn't change your feelings about this fic, if - by chance - you liked it. I just have read to many of the same fics that it created a scar. :P

@potatoishkawaii This was the story I meant.^^