Shadow and Maria arrive back in her room after they both had received a lecture from Gerald about being in the vents. They were told to engage in safer activities from now on to stay out of trouble. But by this point, Maria is starting to feel tired. Before she goes off to bed, she wants to have a bath and be all clean for when she rests. She turns to Shadow and takes a hold of his hand,"Would you like to get a bath, Shadow?"

Shadow nods his head to Maria once,"All right."

Maria leads Shadow across her room to the back where there is another sliding door. This door takes them to the private bathroom that Maria has. Each room in the sleeping quarters has their own bathroom. The room is sizable with plenty of room to move around in. There is a large tub against the wall in a corner (it was designed for corners so it has a shape similar to a triangle). There is also a shower stall here but Maria hardly uses it as she can`t stand long enough for it anymore. The closet is a double door closet which stores all the towels and shampoo and other bathroom items. Maria goes to the closet and pulls out some towels. The shampoo and soap are already by the tub so she doesn`t need to grab those. She sets the towels on a ledge by the tub and closes the drain to the tub. Then she turns on the faucet to start filling the tub.

As the tub fills with water, Maria steps back a little from the tub as Shadow watches her silently. Maria turns to Shadow with a smile,"Let`s get ready for the bath, Shadow."

"All right."

Putting their backs to one another, Maria and Shadow begin to disrobe themselves for the bath. Though Shadow is rather nervous about it. He has had showers in the past after his training sessions. But he hadn`t cleansed himself in the presence of another and yet his angel is about to...

Shadow can`t help but look over his shoulder at Maria. Her back is still to him and she has removed most of her clothing by this point. Getting the last bits of her clothes off, Maria sets the pile of her clothes on the floor near the tub. Then she looks over her shoulder to Shadow with a sweet smile, in which causes him to instantly start blushing,"Ready, Shadow?"

Shadow quickly turns back around to finish removing his last bits of clothing,"A-almost, Maria..."

Maria begins to walk over to the tub. At this point, the tub has filled up enough. Maria turns off the faucet and the water comes to a stop which makes the bathroom much more quiet. As now his inhibitor rings are the last piece of clothing on him, Shadow takes a hold of the one that`s on his right wrist and pulls on it. But the ring doesn`t slide off his hand as expected. He pulls at the ring again but it`s no good. Shadow removes his hand from the ring and the ring slips back into it`s normal place. Looking down at the ring, Shadow remembers that he wasn`t shown how to take them off. In fact, he was told he shouldn`t take them off, ever. He admits defeat to his rings and turns to face the bath tub.

Maria is climbing into the tub. She sets both hands down on the rim of the tub. Slowly and carefully, she brings one leg over the tub rim and sets her foot down into the tub. She first makes sure that her foot is securely set on the bottom of the tub. With the confidence of the foot being stable, Maria brings her other foot into the tub. Her hands take a hold of both sides of the tub and she lowers herself down so that she is sitting in the tub. She looks up to Shadow,"Come on, Shadow, the water feels great."

Shadow hesitates a little. His angel is requesting him to participate with her, but does he really have the right to? Before he knows it, Maria has her hands gently clasping onto Shadow`s right hand. Still with a sweet smile on her face, she innocently looks up to Shadow, still trying to encourage him to bathe with her,"Please, Shadow?"

With those two words, Shadow feels a piece of himself melt. How could he say no to Maria? He gives in to her wishes and climbs into the tub. He sits down in the tub and once seated, he turns his head to the side and downwards towards the water. This does not go unnoticed by Maria,"Shadow..."

She approaches Shadow and lifts her hand up. Her hand goes to Shadow`s cheek and she gently directs his head to facing her,"What`s wrong, Shadow?"

He could tell her. They weren`t supposed to be bathing together, you were supposed to do this by yourself. They have already made some people upset by their hugging one another. Surely being caught in this act would seal the deal of them having to be separated. Yet at the same time, his feelings for Maria is making him excited and nervous at the same time. It`s a little overwhelming for him to see her nude. Should he even have been granted such a privilege? Does he deserve this? He won`t tell her. It might upset her and could even cause her to cry. He doesn`t want to do that to her. Shadow shakes his head to give Maria the impression that nothing is wrong. This brings him the desired effect; Maria smiles, happy to see that nothing is the matter.

Maria reaches over to the side of the tub and picks up the shampoo bottle. It`s strawberry scented, one of her favourites. She prefers the fruit smell shampoos over those perfumey ones. She lathers her hair up with the shampoo and not long after that, she is lathering his hair! Shadow can`t stop his blushing as Maria is right in front of him, with both hands working on lathering his hair with the strawberry shampoo. As she does so, Maria remarks with a smile,"Wow, Shadow. Your hair is different. It feels kind of stiff, almost like hedgehog quills."

She removes her hands and finds that Shadow`s hair is still mostly up as it is when his hair is dry. But it has lowered a little from being wet. Maria finds this amusing and gives a little chuckle. Is it really amusing to see him wet? Shadow finds no offense to this; she`s happy.

The two of them continue their bath ritual, washing off their bodies and washing the shampoo out of their hair. When that`s done, Shadow leans back against the side of the tub and closes his eyes to relax. He won`t get to for very long. Maria is feeling a little playful so she starts splashing Shadow with the water in the tub. After a few splashes, he decides to splash her back a couple of times. The water gets on the floor from their splashing around in the tub, but it`s good fun.

After a good bit of the splashing, the two of them stop and things sink back into relaxing mode. Shadow and Maria both lean against the side of the tub where they are sort of facing each other but at an angle due to the triangular shape of the tub. Soon the feeling of being tired is coming back to Maria. She will have to get out of the tub or risk falling asleep in it.

Maria leans over and gets the tub to start draining the water. Taking the cue, Shadow climbs out of the tub and grabs one of the towels to start drying himself off. In the meantime, Maria is working on getting herself out of tub. She sets one foot down on the floor and swings her other leg over the edge of the tub. She begins to stand on her own two feet on the foot but quickly slips and begins to fall.

Shadow quickly reacts to this. To keep Maria from falling onto the hard floor and getting hurt, he comes forward and catches Maria as she falls, pulling her into himself. Holding onto Shadow, Maria`s heart is pounding fast from the fear of almost falling. With her head against his chest, Maria can feel that Shadow`s own heart rate has increased as well. Then a soft sigh comes from Shadow like he is relieved that he was able to catch her before she hit the floor. She could have been easily hurt on the hard floor and unable to get up.

Shadow reaches a hand down and grabs a towel and places it over Maria`s shoulders. Then he rises up to stand, taking Maria with him to get her to stand as well. With one arm around her back, Shadow reaches his other arm down, getting his hand on the back of her thighs. He lifts up and has Maria in his arms bridal style. She had slipped because of the water on the floor from them splashing around earlier so she would just slip again. Shadow turns and carries Maria back to her bedroom. As he does so, Maria looks shyly up to his face and can`t help but have faint blushing to her face.

He heads straight for Maria`s bed, still carrying her nude self in his arms. Shadow sets Maria down on the bed so that she is sitting on it. It isn`t until both are sure that Maria is set safely on the bed before they start to remove their arms from each other. Looking up at Shadow with her innocent look and looking straight to his red eyes, Maria quietly speaks,"Thank you, Shadow..."

Looking right back to her blue eyes, Shadow is quiet with his reply,"You`re welcome, Maria..."

The two of them move a little closer and put their foreheads together, closing their eyes for a moment. Maria is the first to open her eyes, making direct eye contact with Shadow again,"Will you rest with me?"

Shadow opens his eyes, making the same direct eye contact with Maria,"I will."

Maria moves back on the bed to allow room for Shadow to climb in. This would be the first time that she has actually asked him to rest with her, rather than him just coming in and helping himself to her bed. Shadow climbs into the bed and positions himself so that he would be on his side, facing Maria. Maria works on the blankets and pulls them up over herself and Shadow. She pulls the blankets over herself well enough but her shoulders are left exposed. Then she snuggles into the pillow and sighs softly.

The light switch is right by the bed so Shadow simply reaches out and flips it to turn the lights off. The room instantly goes black. Shadow settles himself down into the bed, under the blankets Maria pulled over him. He looks at Maria a moment, who is a mere few inches from him. Noticing that she didn`t cover up all the way, Shadow pulls her part of the blanket up higher so her shoulders would be covered. Maria opens her eyes when she feels the extra warmth and Shadow is the first thing she sees. A smile draws on her face when she realizes what he did. Before Shadow knows it, Maria scoots up closer to Shadow, now snuggling against him. He can`t keep his heart calm from this. Having Maria so close to him in this kind of situation...It feels wonderful, euphoric. He works his arms around her and hug Maria into himself. Lowering his head a little and closing his eyes, Shadow lets a sigh escape him.

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