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Yuudai did not have any customers to be responsible for that day. Actually, he was not even attending that morning, much to his relief; he enjoyed his job, and enjoyed serving customers, but once in a while he wanted a break. Thanks to Junko's most recent escapade, she had been forced to take his shift for the day, and he had contented himself in the kitchen. Nothing he prepared would be served to customers, of course, but he and Shizuka had plans to go picnic on a hill, and he looked forward to it.

Placing his knuckles against a few stalks of celery, he began chopping his way down, humming a little bit as he did. When the door opened to the kitchen, he paid it very little mind, as people were often in and out without any particular attention being paid to him.

"Yuu?"

Glancing over, his blue brows arched, mostly because it was his youngest sister standing in the doorway. Her hands were wringing, and there was a faint flush on her cheeks, as though she were uncomfortable. As Shizuka rarely did anything to displease him, he wondered briefly what had happened.

"Yes?" Setting his knife aside, he wiped his hands on his apron. "What's the matter?"

"Um." Dancing from foot to foot, she played with the ends of her sleeves. "There's someone in the bath. Calling for you. Uh, the men's bath."

"Calling for me?" Head tilting slightly, he asked slowly, "In the men's bath? Who?"

"I don't know." Shizuka looked mildly horrified, and dropped her hands. "I didn't go look."

Because it was said softly, and as though he'd lost his mind for even suggesting it, Yuudai laughed. "Would you finish up here, then? I'll be back in a moment. Just chop the rest of the vegetables, please."

"Okay!" Brightly, she skipped over, wrapping her arms around him for a brief hug before taking his former position at the counter.

Yuudai passed a hand over her hair affectionately, his mind already drifting elsewhere. The last customer he'd personally attended had been checked out yesterday, so there should be no issues. Unless one of his friends was in the bath? But he was certain they were all perfectly capable of navigating the area themselves. Even if his friends were rarely actual guests of the ryokan, they had all taken a bath a time or two in the facilities, and had learned quickly enough the order of business.

Brows knit, he passed another of his sisters in the hall, pausing briefly when she snickered at him. What?

Thankful that the walk to the bath was a relatively short one, as the ryokan was modestly sized compared to most, he stepped in, peering around curiously. It was largely empty, and for a moment, he wondered if whoever was looking for him had left, when --

"YUUDAI, COME HERE ALREADY!"

Lips drawing back into an odd combination of a grimace and a snarl, he straightened, head snapping toward the sound of the voice. Ah, it was Bataar; that explained why everyone was so amused. Masami had heard, extensively, exactly how painful and time-consuming the task of getting the Mongol to bathe was, and though she was much gentler than the majority of his sisters, she was also a little bit evil at the core of it.

"Bataar!" His voice was sharp, and his hands panted firmly on his hips when he stepped into the other's line of vision. "Please keep your voice down. This is a respectable establishment, and we do not want to disturb the custom--why are you naked?"

Abruptly cutting himself off, he asked in disbelief, "Are you willingly taking a bath? Did someone hit you on the head?"

Bataar grimaced as Yuudai came into sight with his scathing reprimands. "I can't help it! I'm a naturally loud person!" he declared in his defense, placing his hands on his hips and regarding the other Lunarian as he always did when his clothes were shed: with complete immodesty.

"Obviously, I am naked because I am going to take a bath. Also, I wanted you to see my superior physique, so that you would feel inadequate without me here to keep you company." he explained, his tone matter-of-fact. Since he'd started visting Yuu, mainly for food, he supposed he'd gotten what one might consider to be a friendship out of the other Noble. It was natural enough to hang around the ryokan now, and he wasn't too surprised that he'd ended up here even in the middle of a drunken stupor. He supposed he did owe Yuudai an explanation for his presence, however.

He frowned, weighing his words before speaking, feeling as if it unmanned him to admit his speculations about the night before. "It feels like someone hit me on the head. But, the truth is, I'm here with my girlfriend and I think he raped me last nigh--! Oh, hello, Jianyu!" The Mongol grinned apprehensively in the direction of the man he was dating, afraid he'd been overheard.

He paid no mind to the fact that the legionnaire seemed to know Yuudai, and replied to him readily enough. "I can't get into the bath now, Jianyu!" He acted as if he were offended by the idea. "Yuudai hasn't scrubbed me off, yet."

Duh.

He had no idea what he'd just started.

"I do not--" The indignity of the situation had his face scarlet, now, and having both of the other men ranged in front of him, one entirely nude, did nothing for his composure. Had he not been standing in the baths, fully aware that there were customers attempting to relax and enjoy themselves in the inn, he might have actually given in to the urge to say the scathing things that were on the tip of his tongue. As it were, whether he was working or not, there was no denying this was his family's place of business, and he had to remain some kind of decorum.

Red-faced, insulted, white-knuckled decorum, but decorum nonetheless. How dare they come into his inn, disrupt the peace, have a hissy fit at one another in front of him, and then expect him to be a gracious host! The last thing in the world he wanted was to stand there and bear witness to a domestic squabble, and between Jianyu and Bataar, no less.

Taking a shaking breath, he brought one hand up, pinched the bridge of his nose. Jianyu might have recognized the gesture, might not have; he could feel a headache brewing, and the sharp pain sometimes released the tension. It seemed to be doing nothing for him at just that moment.

Stiffly, formally, he ground out, "I hope you are enjoying your stay at our inn. We are honored to have you as guests." The words were there, but there was such venom behind them, intensified by the sudden fear that one of the other guests would happen upon the scene that was rapidly playing out. He would never forgive himself if he embarrassed his family, even if the only thing he wanted to do was interrogate the both of them until he knew every particular of this situation.

He bit his lip, then worked his jaw a moment, extending his hand to Bataar. Expression stony, he said, "Please turn around, and I will scrub your back. Jianyu, the facilities to your right will provide you with washing water, as well as a cupboard for your clothing."

A thousand questions whirled in his head, questions that were not his place to ask or even fair for him to speculate on, but he held them back.

For now.

Bataar stared at Yuudai uncomprehendingly, trying to figure out just what was wrong with the man who usually seemed to act as if he were reasonably friendly. There was a tension about his speech and movement that irked the Mongol, although he couldn't quite place his finger directly on the issue at hand. Still, he was beginning to become painfully aware of the hostility boiling between Jianyu and Yuudai, even if that awareness was not anything concious on his part. He could feel a wrongness about the situation at hand. Something was wrong. He just didn't know what.

"I'll only enjoy it if you feed me." he responded to Yuudai warmly, grinning and knowing that it was probably long past time for breakfast. He glanced over to Jianyu, tilting his head to the side a small degree as he regarded him. "Are you angry because I called you a girl?" he inquired, a trace of a frown gracing his features. That had to be it! They were both uncomfortable because he'd called Jianyu a girl, and they were in the men's bathing area! Oho! "Don't worry," Bataar made sure to tell Yuudai. "He is a guy. Just a girly one."

Bat was just lifting his hand to wave goodbye to Jianyu when the other man decided to kiss him. He blinked for a moment, before grinning dumbly. "Okay, bye."

He gave the sponge to Yuudai and promptly turned around, unaware of the tattoo at the base of his back. "You know, you're acting very weird." he pointed out, glancing back to the shorter man. "Are you feeling okay?"

Little did he know that Yuudai was about to feel a hell of a lot worse.

Ignoring the question about breakfast, as he had not quite decided whether or not he would forgive Bataar long enough to feed him -- and Jianyu was even more of a question -- Yuudai stubbornly focused on his task. Things would have been just fine had he not unthinkingly poked the tender, abused flesh of Bataar's lower back, and perhaps later, he would feel bad about that.

At the moment, he was having a hard time feeling anything except wild, unrestrained jealousy.

Bataar was not his best friend. Bataar was not even his good friend, all things considered. When they met, it almost always involved food, which was not an abnormality for him, but it certainly didn't set the Mongol apart from any of the handful of other hungry people that he fed. There was really no reason for him to be so angry, or have a tight little ball of hurt coiling in his stomach.

Frankly put, he had no reason at all to be upset. And yet he was, because Bataar had certainly had ample time to discuss someone he obviously cared about enough to brand himself with their name. They had shared a few meals, had brief conversations over them. Would it have been so hard to mention a boyfriend -- or even girlfriend, as he continuously referred to his partner as? No.

Tossing the sponge into the bucket of water, looking a little like he had a vendetta against the unfortunate object, he crossed his arms tightly. Despite bemoaning his height and frame whenever he was compared with a bigger individual, when Yuudai felt upset, he tucked in on himself, tried to become as small as possible. He was certainly upset, and even if he wasn't certain exactly why, that didn't matter.

"A tattoo." Taking a step back, blue brows slanting harshly down, he said precisely, "Of your boyfriend's name. Bataar, why didn't you tell me you were seeing someone?"

The wounded look was out of place, completely undeserved. He was wholly ignoring Jianyu now, feeling more and more like he'd been personally slighted, even though nothing of the sort had occurred. "You... you come to my inn often enough, you eat with me! Do you simply not trust me? Or like me?"

He fisted his hands against his ribs, tucking his chin down against his chest. This was certainly not how he had wanted to spend his free morning, not in the least.