James opened the bath house door, which was warm to the touch and fogged with an inviting soft gray color. It had been so long since he had taken the day off! James was glad Jesse and Meowth were elsewhere because now he could truly relax. He ambled peacefully along the narrow hall leading to two doors.
One door had a man's figure scrawled across its fogged glass face, and its opposite had a feminine figure etched upon it. James looked up at the wall, and noticed little cubbies in which to place your clothing. There were twenty-five cubbies, five going up vertically and five cubbies across. Cubby A-1 was already taken. Black armor and heavy leather boots were jumbled in the cubby, plus silver shoulder armor. An extremely long blade covered by an immense black sheath was protruding from the cubby as well. James found this quite odd. Why would anyone bring weapons to a public bath house? Oh well. James shrugged his shoulders as he pulled his overshirt off, and then his black cotton shirt from underneath it. Soon all his clothing was removed, and he gripped a soft towel from his pack.
Wrapping it around his lower torso, he proceeded to open the heavy glass door leading to the men's side of the public bath. The metal handle was warm and the door, although having a considerable amount of weight to it, it pulled open quite easily.
Steam poured out like water into the hall where James stood, and, squinting into the steam, James made out a tall figure with silver hair sitting by the large sauna. Peering harder, James saw that the man wore no towel around his waist, but his long, shimmery silver hair covered much but not all of his backside. James jerked himself back out into the hallway next to the open door, blushing crazily. A huge, silly grin was pasted on his crimson face as he thought about how handsome and totally CUTE! the man sitting carelessly by the sauna was. Ooooh how I'd love it if he'd..just..Ahhh..James daydreamed, one of his hands clumsily holding his chin up, his eyes sparkling with ecstasy.
Out of nowhere, the silver-haired man's face stuck from the door's entrance, just inches from James's hideously reddened cheeks. James's eyes widened with utter disbelief, and he unclenched his hand from the towel at his waist. Gravity set in, and the towel dropped in a heap at James's feet. The silver haired man was indifferent, for he was staring at James's face. Then his gaze fell, and an awkward look came over his face. His eyes were wide in great surprise, and a tiny haze of a blush came over his face, where two long, thick wisps of hair fell. Immediately it disappeared and the sinister, dark look that James found incredibly sexy returned.
"Oh! I'm sorry, you caught me somewhat..off guard." James forced his gaze from the other man and hurriedly picked up his towel. The long-haired man stepped past James toward the cubbyholes on the opposite wall.
"You are forgiven." The man's back was turned, and the long silver strands of hair fell in lovely vertical waves over his backside, and James couldn't help but notice that he was right-the man didn't have a towel after all.
The man reached into cubby A-1 and brought out a scrubrush, one with a long yellow plastic handle with a yellow ostrich-like creature on the oval part of it.
"Oooh!" James said, eyeing the scrub brush, and hurrying over to where the man stood. "Is it a Pokemon? I've never seen anything like that before!"
The silver-haired man had no expression. "It's a chocobo. I do not even understand why I have this silly brush. A token of gratitude from that damn Aeris for sparing her life yet again. One day I shall spare her no more and she'll be done for. One day.. I will return to the Lifestream and conquer this world and the rest. No opposition will remain after my black reign of terror that I shall inflict.." The man's seafoam green eyes lit up with an evil flame.
James gazed up at the man with interest. "So you're a baddie too?"
The man flinched and made a face. "A 'baddie'? What kind of term is that?"
"Hee hee, you know, a bad guy! I am too you know!" James giggled, almost dropping his towel again. Sweatdrops lined the back of the man's silver hair. James dropped his silly act immediately.
"So what is it that you do that is so evil?" The man glared.
"Uhhh, I'm trying to catch a really rare, um Pikachu, you know, cause they are really rare and important!" The man raised an eyebrow. Moments passed.
"Okay."
James felt humiliated. "If you'll excuse me.." the silver haired man edged past James in the hall and returned to the warm room with the sauna. James, taking a deep sigh and thinking he'd try another conversation with the man, followed him inside the steamy room.
When James entered the hot bath house, he took note that his new acquaintance had relocated himself on the edge of the sauna, which with its hot blue turquoise waters invited James to come closer. He walked to the center of the sauna room, where the huge bath was. The sauna was a large heated tub where at least twenty people could relax in its steaming waters. The man had his back to James on the other side of the tub, where he sat on its wooden edge. His long silver hair still dipped into the hot water, however, and James squirmed with delight at this spectacle.
James dipped his toe in the tub, and laid his towel on the edge, and with a deep sigh, lowered himself in. The water was so hot and heavenly, rejuvenating his weary body from all those times he had failed to capture that damn Pikachu. Ahhhh...he closed his eyes and thought of the man who was sitting just a few feet away on the edge of the steamy bath..oh how he wished the man would come in and talk to him some more...He flickered open his eyes, and his wish was a reality.
The silver haired man was also in the sauna, and with a deep breath, the man submerged in the tub. James felt shivers despite the intense heat of the sauna, and he awaited for the cute man to resurface. Moments passed as the steam rose from the azure waters. Nothing happened.
James scanned the waters for any sign from below. There was none. There was no one else in the men's bath house either, but laughter from the women's bath house could be heard apart from the soft hiss of the steam. James began to panic. What was going to happen? He didn't know CPR and he definitely didn't know how to save a drowning person! They just never got around to doing that in Pokemon Tech!
Sweat poured over his brow and he prayed that something would happen to get him out of this terrifying situation. Warmth wrapped around his body, and something fiercely gripped his waist and soon muscular arms were around his chest, pulling him down.
"EEEEEEEEE!!!!" James cried, tears exploding from his face like waterfalls. The person plotting against him dropped James with sweatdrops dotting his face, eyes wide. James turned around to face him and was instantly better. "Ohh! It's you!"
The silver haired man eyed him cautiously. "I was trying to make you join me with the Lifestream," The man jokingly said, smiling, his arm behind his head as if he had made an embarrassing mistake and had been found out.
"Ooo I'd join you doing whatever!" James blurted out, then clapping a hand over his mouth. The man watched him with intense green eyes, his silver hair parts disguising his eyes, almost shyly. A hint of a smile came over his lips, and since James was in close proximity, he leaned his face very near to James's.
James was very still, wide-eyed and appearing somewhat afraid. The man took James's arm from out of the hot water and gripped it with one of his hands, then brushed his mouth over James's puckered mouth. James blushed like mad, but closed his eyes as the cute silver-haired man made out with him. The fiery kiss ended before it seemed to have begun, at least for James. James smiled, his eyes half closed, appearing like he wanted more. The silver haired man smirked evilly, then turned away.
James was suddenly brave, and reached for one long, silver strand of hair from the man. He picked it from floating in wisps in the water and rubbed it between his thin fingers, letting the silver shine gleam from the light above. The man gave him a wary sideways glance. James was afraid and almost dropped the piece of hair.
"So, my pretty puppet," the man whispered. "What's your name?"
"I'm James," James said, looking at his reflection in the water shyly. When James looked up, the man was facing him again at a very close range. "Guess who I am," the man urged, his lips forming a perfect line. James put his hands on the man's shoulders, then bravely, wrapped his small arms around him. "You are the best." James sighed contentedly.
"I am Sephiroth, a master puppeteer; the ruler of this darkness.." The man held James's face inches from his, whispering each word as if the dark secret to some unknown past magic.
"My pretty one, how thy face shimmers with life.." Sephiroth steadily eyed James with a calm expression. James let Sephiroth kiss him repeatedly, and before long, James returned the moist loving kisses. The air began rising with extra steam.
A red haired woman sat angrily outside the bath house, holding a catlike creature with a leash studded with a red "R". Her hair swirled about her in mythic proportions and plainly defied the laws of physics.
"Dammit, where is that James!" She complained to the cat creature lounging beside her on the bath house bench beside the parking lot. "We've been waiting over an hour. I told James he could have the day off, but it's after 7 and we need to make plans for tomorrow to catch that Pikachu!"
"Meowth agrees wholeheartedly!" The cat creature nodded, as it brought out a white rag from an unknown source to polish its charm perched on its forehead. After waiting about fifteen more minutes, the woman, named Jessie, jumped up and stamped her black leather boot.
"I'm tired of this! Let's leave now Meowth! Evidently our partner has found better things to do!"
Just at that moment, James, wearing only a disheveled bath towel and a drunken and happy look on his red face, came ambling out of the bath house. Jessie stared, then rubbed her eyes and did not look at James again.
"JAMES! What on earth took you so long?!!" She yelled at the sky, not daring to look at James in his half naked state again.
"Ooooo Jessie I had the most splendid time! I met someone!" James sighed dreamily, thinking of hard spanks and those yummy kisses.
"Who cares!" Jessie grabbed James by the arm and dragged him toward their Meowth balloon, conspiciously placed on a parking spot just like regular vehicles. She pushed James over the edge of the balloon into the basket, and she and Meowth jumped in.
James sat on the floor of the balloon's basket crosslegged, sighing happily. Team Rocket took off, and soon the trio were in the air once again. James reached into his pack for not clothing, but a tiny piece of paper. He held it up to the sun's dying red light in the west. "When in need of my attention beat the drum I gave you, and I will come for you, my puppet.." the dark inked words flowed across the tiny strip of paper.
"Ahhh..." James reached deeper into his pack, pulling out a small black drum with intricate stitching on one side. He hugged it to his bare chest and for once, thought of what he'd do tomorrow, and it was obvious that no Pikachu would be a part of it.
THE END
