by Tristan Vick
Flickering periodically, the orange flames of the small candles filled the bath house with a soothing warmth. After a long day of scavenging, Kevin and Kana had managed to wrangle up enough prayer candles from a nearby shrine down the street to get enough light to fill the bathhouse. Kevin also managed to get a small fire going for the evening. Building the fire in a steel mop bucket, Kevin placed clothes hangers over the opening of the bucket, letting them crisscross over the mouth, making a makeshift grill, so they could put a kettle on and make some tea.
It had been two days since they’d settled into the bathhouse, making it their base of operations
As Kana bent over their makeshift stovetop, Kevin couldn’t help but catch himself glancing into the open V-neck of her green t-shirt to get a peek of her round cleavage. She wasn’t wearing a bra, so he got a little bit more than just a peek, but he suddenly felt guilty for gawking like a lust-filled scoundrel and turned his head away.
It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate her, but over the past couple of days he’d gotten the sense that she harbored strong feelings for him. Feelings he wasn’t quite ready to reciprocate. Not with the death of Saeko being nonstop on his mind.
Of course, Kevin didn’t want to send Kana the wrong sorts of messages either. After all, he was only nineteen. She was thirty-something. He wasn’t looking for anything serious, and he assumed she might be. After all, she’d already come onto him a couple of times and he didn’t know how to respond. So he just let her flirt awkwardly with him and then didn’t reciprocate.
Still, he was in his prime, and whether it was his hormones or some baser desire, he slowly was drawn back toward Kana’s pleasant face and her perfectly rounded breasts. And although he’d forced himself to look away, no sooner had he done so, and complimented himself on his act of chivalry no less, than had he caught himself peering back down her shirt again.
When Kana looked up, she smiled at him, forcing him to realize he’d been staring far too long for it to be comfortable, and he quickly looked away, embarrassed by his lack of self-control.
“You idiot!” he chastised, in a quiet whisper. There was no way she didn’t catch him ogling her as though she were a piece of hard candy he just had to have a taste of.
But glancing back at her, she was still smiling at him. Unbothered by his constant watching of her.
Steam filled the room, and Kevin coughed from the sudden increase in humidity that the boiling tea kettle added to the already moist air. The water of the bathhouse was thermally heated, just as Kana had said it would be, and came straight from the Koishikawa underground spring. Which was perfect for October, since the nights were getting colder and, before they knew it, winter would be upon them. At least here they’d stay warm and be comfortable.
Yawning, Kevin slid off his sword and tossed his leather satchel onto a nearby wooden bench. Stripping off his shirt, he rocked his neck across his shoulders and let out a sigh along with some unwanted tension.
“Did everything go okay today?” Kana asked, as she attended to their laundry in one of the baths they had converted into their washroom area.
“As good as can be expected,” Kevin said, handing her his shirt. She graciously took it from him and he felt her eyes linger on his naked torso longer than was typical—even for her. “There’s just not much left out there. Everything’s been looted. It’s even getting hard to find toilet paper these days.”
“How long do you think it has been since—”
“Since Z-Day?” Kevin interrupted, finishing Kana’s sentence for her.
“Yeah.”
“I’m not entirely sure,” he answered. “I’d say about three weeks. Maybe four.” The one thing Kevin was sure of was that without electricity, without the news, without an efficient way of telling the time, the days and weeks were beginning to blur together.
“Do you think that there are other survivors?” Kana asked.
Kevin’s demeanor quickly grew solemn. “It’s strange that we haven’t run into any. But there have to be. Tokyo is too big for there not to be others who made it past Z-Day.”
“Maybe it all happened too fast?” Kana pondered aloud. “Maybe the city ate everyone alive. Maybe we’re the last two people alive in all of Japan?”
“I hope that’s not true. But if it is, I can’t think of a better partner to spend the end of days with.” Kevin winked at Kana and smiled. She smiled in return and went back to doing the laundry. Taking his shirt, she tossed it into a soapy pool and began to scrub the blood stains out of it.
Kevin sat down on the bench in front of the kettle of boiling water, unfastened his boots, and peeled them off. It felt good to get off his feet and relax. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he could relax like this. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a tin can and slammed it down on the bench next to him. “But I did get this can of green beans.”
After an overly long pause, Kana broke the silence. “I’m grateful, you know.”
“Grateful? For what?”
Kana put down her busy work then came over to where Kevin sat and took a seat next to him on the bench. Placing her hand on his leg, she answered, “For you saving me that day. I know I haven’t mentioned it before, but I do appreciate your saving my fat ass. Not just anyone would go out of their way to save some random girl who got herself neck deep in it like a stupid cow.”
“I appreciate that,” Kevin replied, and he leaned over and gave Kana a peck on the cheek. Then grabbing her chin, he pulled her eyes to his. “And, for the record, you’re not a stupid cow.”
Feeling overwhelmed by his flattering statement, Kana gave him a quick kiss on the lips, then got up to finish attending the chores.
Although they’d only met a couple days ago, they had an instant rapport. It almost seemed as though they had known each other forever. And although Kana’s heart lusted after Kevin, she knew he needed a bit more time to mourn the loss of the girl he said he’d lost. But waiting for him to get over her was driving her nuts. As selfish as she realized that made her sound, she couldn’t help it. She wanted to try and make him happy. And every second she spent with him she couldn’t stop thinking about their lives together.
Instead of obsessing over her silly fantasy, like a love-infatuated junior high school girl, Kana decided to change the subject back to something more mundane. “So, green beans, eh?”
“Yeah,” Kevin said, letting out a disappointed sigh.
“Well, that’s better than nothing, I suppose. But, to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of green beans.”
“Me neither,” Kevin chuckled.
“I drew up a bath for us, over there,” Kana informed him, pointing at the freshly made, steaming hot bath in the back corner of the room. “You can go first, if you’d like. Also, you’d better take off your pants now so I can wash it with the rest of our clothes.”
“That’s so like you,” Kevin said as he began unfastening his shirt buttons.
Kana raised an eyebrow and shot him a confused look. “What do you mean?”
Slipping off his jeans he bundled them up and handed them to her. “Always trying to get me out of my pants.”
Kana laughed. “Well, it’s the only way I can see you naked,” she teased in return. Then she thrust out her open hand and cleared her throat.
“What?” Kevin asked, not quite catching her meaning.
“Your boxers, too.”
Kevin suddenly blushed. He was going to make up an excuse not to have to strip all the way in front of her, but she cleared her throat again and insisted.
“Fine!” Kevin said begrudgingly, and he quickly pulled down his shorts, kicked them off, and then handed them over to her. Covering himself up with both hands best he could before she could steal a glance at his private bits, he added, “I can’t wait to get into the tub and soak my aching muscles.”
Kana smiled and said, “Me either. I just want to let my hair down and soak my body till I come out looking like a raisin. Also, my damn ankle is
acting up again.”
“That sucks,” Kevin said. He knew how bad her ankle could get. “If your ankle is acting up, maybe you should go in first. While it’s still piping hot.”
“Or,” Kana said, batting her eyes at him. “We could just get in at the same time? I mean, we’re both adults. There’s nothing wrong taking a bath together at an onsen. That’s what they’re for, after all.”
“I don’t know,” Kevin said hesitantly. “I mean, that wouldn’t weird you out?”
“What? Seeing your pecker?” she said glancing down at his hands which covered his groin. Without taking her eyes off him, she smiled coyly and added, “I’ve already seen it.”
“What? You were spying on me this whole time?” Kevin gasped. He played up the shock value and then added, “You really are a pervert, Kana Fujiwara!”
Kana laughed, and brushed a clump of hair behind her ear. “Maybe a little bit,” she replied with a demure smile.
“Alright,” Kevin said, turning toward the bath. “I’m game if you are.”
Kana couldn’t help but look at his perfectly formed butt as he got into the back. And the fact that he let her excited her all the more.
“Let me just finish things up here,” she said, dumping his clothes into the soapy water. “You go ahead and get in, and I’ll be with you shortly.”
Kevin sank down into the bath and floated to the corner. Once comfortable he turned to ask Kana something, but to his astonishment, Kana had already begun to change out of her clothes.
Pulling her shirt off over her head, Kana threw it into the wash and then reached behind her back and unfastened her bra. She peeled that off too and let her breasts free.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry,” Kevin said, quickly averting his gaze to give her some privacy. “Go ahead, I won’t look. You have my word.”
As she let her bra slip to the ground, she quickly covered her breasts with her arms, and answered, “I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t want you to see me.”
Kevin bit his hand and closed his eyes, as though he couldn’t believe the fact that he was getting a free strip tease. Then went back to watching.
Putting her thumbs under the waistband of her underwear, Kana slowly slid the yellow embroidered lace panties over the hump of her ass and then jiggled her thighs to get them to slide the rest of the way off. Her panties landed on the floor and she daintily stepped out of the discarded garments. With one hand covering her nipples and the other covering her groin area, Kana went over to the same pool as Kevin. Standing at the poolside, she checked to see if he was still interested—which she was glad to find he was. “Care if I join you?”
“Go right ahead?” Kevin said nervously. Apart from Saeko, he hadn’t been with a woman. Not a real woman. At least, not someone almost twice his age. Not knowing what to do, Kevin fidgeted and flitted his eyes about.
“It’s okay,” Kana insisted. “You can look if you want to. Bathing together is part of my culture. I won’t be offended if you see something.”
Determined to man-up, and stop acting like a timid little boy, Kevin watched her wade into the pool.
Relishing his eyes on her, Kana lean back against the rock retaining wall to relax, her plump breasts floating in the water like a couple of buoys. That’s when he finally noticed her dark brown eyes staring back at him with a matched intensity.
Her eyes locked his again, and although he knew he shouldn’t feel like this, he couldn’t help but find her more than a little attractive. She had nice large breasts, maroon-colored nipples, and a pleasant hourglass shaped figure. She wasn’t at all as fat as she made herself out to be. In fact, by American standards she was downright thin. She was probably only around a hundred thirty or a hundred forty pounds, but her petite five-foot-four-inch frame made her appear a bit thicker than she actually was.
“Come here,” Kana urged, motioning for him to come over to her side of the bath. “Let me help scrub your back.”
“Scrub my back?” Kevin repeated hesitantly. “Is that really all you want to do?”
“Maybe,” Kana teased, lingering on the word long enough to hint at the fact that maybe meant much more than she was letting on.
There was no denying it, Kana was horribly attracted to Kevin too. He was her blue-eyed angel who had swooped down and rescued her that day. And she wanted to thank him—preferably with her thighs wrapped around his gorgeous face.
30
Hot and Bothered
Midtown Tokyo, Spa LaQua Bathhouse
Admittedly, a good fuck wouldn’t cure all her problems, Kana realized. But it certainly would go a long way to help take her mind off things—especially her throbbing ankle, which was acting up again. The only thing she needed to do now was convince Kevin that he needed to fuck her just as badly as she needed him to fuck her.
Seeing as Kevin was busy hemming and hawing as he tried to make up his mind whether to venture closer to her, she suddenly said, “Never mind. Just forget I said anything. I was being stupid.”
Kevin ran his fingers through his hair and shook out some water. A nervous habit he couldn’t seem to shake. “You’re not stupid,” he insisted. “You need to stop saying that.”
“You’re just saying that,” she said, over-emphasizing her false sense of disappointment. Like a crafty spider, Kana sewed a delicate web of emotional blackmail to snare him in. The first step was to get Kevin to feel bad for hurting her feelings. Then she’d trick him into making it up to her. That’s when she’d pounce, and he’d be helpless to fend her off any longer. “You’re just saying that because you’re trying to be nice.”
“No. I mean it. You are smart. And beautiful,” Kevin added, floating over to her side to let her know he cared.
Kana looked over at him and wiped the fake tear from her eye. “You think I’m beautiful?”
“You know it,” Kevin said, finally admitting what he’d been thinking for the past couple of days.
Although he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, Kevin felt that something was extremely attractive about Kana. Something that made her vulnerable. Something that made him want to care for her. But his heart was still a broken mess. He couldn’t shake that lingering feeling that it was somehow wrong to suddenly be so easily tempted to fall for another woman. It had been less than 48 hours since he’d lost the love of his life, but the more he tried not to think about Kana the more he couldn’t help but keep thinking about her.
“Do you really think I’m beautiful or are you just saying that?” Kana asked, her eyes on the brink of flooding over with fake tears and ready to pull back the flood-gate the moment he said the wrong thing.
He smiled at her. “Of course I mean it. If we weren’t so many years apart, I’d be all over you.”
“So, you think I’m too old for you? Is that it?” Kana covered her breasts in a self-conscious move, to show she was offended by his statement that she was too old for him.
Kevin gulped down hard and his eyes grew two sizes larger as he instantly realized his mistake. “No, what I meant was—”
“I know what you meant,” Kana said, fending off sobs. “You think I’m some kind of old hag, only good for washing your clothes and cooking your meals, but not attractive enough to want to be with.” Kana pressed her face into the palms of her hands and began sobbing. Slyly, she peaked between her fingers to see if he took the bait.
Kevin kicked himself for being so insensitive. “I’m sorry.”
Sniffling, Kana wiped under her nose with the back of her hand and then asked, “What was her name?” Her sobbing had subsided, for now.
“What?” Kevin asked, caught off-guard by the randomness of her question. In the short few days they’d been stuck together she hadn’t once asked him about Saeko. Now, out of the blue, she was curious? Kana’s question hit a little too close to home for comfort, and he didn’t know exactly how to answer her.
Inching up next to her, Kevin leaned up against the edge of the pool and took a deep breath. “Her name wa
s Saeko.”
“I sorry to pry,” Kana interjected, sensing his unwillingness to answer, “but sometimes it helps to talk about it.”
“Yeah,” Kevin nodded, agreeing with her.
“I mean, you obviously still have deeply felt feelings for her. So, if you’re ready to tell me about her, I’d like to listen.”
“Her full name was Saeko Sakaguchi,” Kevin answered. “She was a kendo champion.” As he said the words, talking about her in the past-tense like that, he realized all his emotions were right there—on the surface—on the verge of spilling over. His eyes filled up with tears that threatened to boil over the cusps of his eyelids, and he dropped back down into the water and buried his face in his palms.
Kana reached over and wrapped her arms around Kevin, pulled him into her, and placed his head on her chest. In in her most soothing voice, she said, “She must have been quite special.”
Kana forced herself to smile warmly, but the truth was she couldn’t care less about some dead girl. Still, she wanted Kevin more than she had wanted anything else in a long while, and was bound and determined to have him. If he felt that she genuinely cared for him then she knew she’d have him eating out of the palm of her hand. And, hopefully within the next few minutes, just plain old eating her out.
“She was everything to me,” Kevin shared, wiping a tear from his eye with the back of his hand.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Kana said, pressing his head even more firmly to hear breasts. “I really didn’t mean to dredge up these painful memories. I just thought it might help to talk about it.”
The truth was, however, she wasn’t sorry. She knew exactly what she was doing. The more emotional she could make him, the more turbulent the emotional rollercoaster, the more soothing her touch would be to him.
“At any rate, let’s not dwell on the past. What matters is that we’re alive now. That’s what we should be celebrating. Don’t you think?”
Breaking loose of Kana’s embrace, Kevin sat up and sighed. “I guess you’re right. I’m sorry for being so negative recently.”