Title: nude
Rating: G
Fandom: Shining Blade
Relationship: Rick Elwood/Sheena Rage
Wordcount: 1263
Short summary: Rage insists that Rick join him in the public bath naked. Rick doesn’t get why it matters so much until they finally talk.
Rick is used to people asking him to do things and being grabbed by the hand or the arm. He’s used to Rage being one of these people, in his excitement, dragging Rick around, normally as one of Rage’s battle party members out of town to patrol and fight monsters. Rick isn’t used to this.
“What are you trying to do?” he asks Rage, voice laced with irritation. He does not care if he is making a scene outside the public bath. He does not understand why he needs to bathe with Rage. Rage is not injured. Rick does not smell; he takes regular baths, alone. He prefers to take them alone.
Rage seems to shake that off, his big grin unwavering. “Come on! There’s nothing to worry about.” The grip on Rick’s arm tightens. “Even with your armor on I can see that you are physically smaller than me, yet you are plenty strong. I would never underestimate you.”
Rick bristles. Just because Rage has a bigger chest doesn’t mean that Rick has…envy. “That’s not the problem.”
Rage relaxes his grip. He looks at Rick with a frown. “Then what is?”
Rick bites his lip, turns his face away slightly. He feels his cheeks flush a little. “I just don’t want to…”
“But I won’t judge how you look. Promise.”
Rick sighs. “It’s not that…” He trails off, not knowing if he wants to explain it. Especially out here, where others could overhear.
“I can even look the other way.”
But Rage won’t drop this. Rick sighs once more. Rage won’t change his mind, it seems, even if he is making one concession after another. Maybe it’s better to get this over with…
“Fine.”
Rage’s smile returns and Rick feels his heart skip a beat. See, this is why he didn’t want to be naked together in the bath. When Rage is so close to him, it does things to Rick’s steadiness. It doesn’t help that Rage is just…so bright and hard to ignore.
As promised, Rage does not look at Rick while they strip out of their clothes, even if Rick himself sneaks some peaks. Rage’s form-fitting clothes didn’t leave that much to the imagination up top, but that region, is, well… It’s…significant. Rick makes sure Rage is already in the bath and looking away before he steps into the water, sinking down. Ah, well, it does feel nice…wait, huh?
“What are you doing?” Rick nearly shrieks as, yes, there is pressure against his back. A bare back against his own bare back. Rage’s back against his back.
“I want to be honest with you,” Rage says simply. Because they are sitting back-to-back, Rick can’t see what expression Rage is making. He can only hear how Rage is quieter than normal, with less punch behind his words. It’s concerning.
“You aren’t?” Rick’s heart beats faster as he asks, nervously.
“Well, it’s more like you…you aren’t open with others.” Rage chuckles. “So I thought, you know, naked bath time is when those open man to man conversations happen, right?”
So this is some kind of ritual? Rick is caught between relief and…disappointment? “That’s why you have to…your back…?”
“Oh!” Rage’s voice is loud again. “You don’t want me to sit so close? I’m sorry, I should have realized—”
“Just stay.”
Rick speaks for the first time today with Rage with certainty and Rage immediately stops moving away. His back returns to touching Rick’s. Rick bites his lip.
“Are you uncomfortable?” Rage asks quietly.
Rick rolls his eyes but then realizes that Rage can’t see or feel that. “I’m getting used to it,” he says quietly. “I didn’t have childhood male friends, or brothers.”
Rage chuckles. “Well you don’t do this with friends or brothers per se.” He lets out a deep exhale, which feels strange as Rick can both hear it and feel it. “It’s just with people you want to be close with.”
“You want to be close with…” Rick mindlessly repeats the words until he realizes what Rage means. Suddenly he can’t breathe.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Rage says with a small laugh. “I like you a lot.”
He wants to be close with…me. Those words repeat in Rick’s mind until he has analyzed every way to say them. With emotion, with no emotion. With hope, with anxiousness. With certainty, with uncertainty…
“How do you feel, Rick?”
“I…” Overwhelmed? Probably. Happy? Maybe. Nervous? Definitely. I don’t know how to say this right though...
“It’s alright. You don’t have to respond.” Rage sighs deeply. “I just wanted you to know how serious I am about this.”
Rick frowns at that self-deprecating tone. He feels a little guilty too, being the cause of that. “Sorry. I should take you more seriously.”
“Nah, I get it.” Rage laughs. “I’m kind of…a lot sometimes, right? Just like my name.”
Rage…another word for anger. Another word for passion. Another word for…
“Even now, my heart is beating quite fast.”
Emotions. “Me too.” Rick has always had emotions; he’s always cared, he’s always felt things. But expressing them, to another, in the right way… “That’s why it’s difficult.”
“Oh.” Rage laughs once more. Rick is realizing more than ever how it’s a habit, of nerves, of awkwardness. “I’m relieved, honestly. I know you hated me. I know you apologized and accepted me. But I still felt like I could never be someone that could be important to you like you are to me. But I feel like finally we are on the same page.” He pauses to catch his breath, only to start up again, his voice a little more rushed. “Oh wait, I’m making conclusions about you too quickly again, aren’t I? I should stop being so—”
“It’s fine, Rage.” Rick cuts in. He doesn’t want Rage to change per se. The more Rage explained himself, the more Rick realized this. That he is happy that Rage cares about him and thinks about him. That he is nervous because he is slow to open his heart, because he can’t just get over the feeling of losing everyone he held dear even if he got them back. Even if Rage helped bring them back.
He likes Rage the way Rage is right now.
“I think we might…be on the same page,” he says slowly, making sure to enunciate his words even as his heart is beating fast and his body is trembling a little. Surely Rage can feel this, but at this moment Rick doesn’t care. Wait, Rage isn’t feeling this because he’s gone and… “Wait, what are you doing?”
This sudden hug, arms around his upper body, chest touching chest, face pressed against…
“Oh! Sorry, I was so happy, I forgot.”
“We’re naked.”
“Whoops!” Rage laughs as he pulls away. “You look great, of course.”
Rick’s whole body flushes. He’s embarrassed. This is why he didn’t want to…
“Oh shit, me and my big mouth.” Rage scrambles to his feet. “I’ll just…get out and put clothes back on. You can take your time.”
“Wa…” But before Rick can even say “wait”, Rage is out of sight. Rage was probably expecting to get yelled at. Rick was…expecting to yell at Rage.
But maybe being naked in the bath together leads to more honesty like Rage said earlier. Because Rick realizes he was going to ask Rage to stay. He’s already missing the warmth that Rage brings. Stripped of pretenses, of the barrier he puts up normally, he truly sees himself. Nude, physically and mentally.
He’ll just…invite Rage to join him in the bath, next time.