Your Protector

Chapter 21

For lunch, Budo had a special idea in mind. After the boys finished eating their lunch on the rooftop, Budo requested Taro to follow him. Taro complied without question, but he did begin to ask where Budo was taking him when the martial artist wasn't telling him, even after they got outside.

Eventually, when Taro was beginning to become frustrated over Budo's discreteness, they entered the male bathhouse. Taro now began to worry over what Budo was planning. He took him to a secluded area where no one would hear them and wouldn't go to at lunch, so Taro could only believe that Budo's plan was to–

"Put on your swimsuit," Budo announced. He opened his locker and pulled out his swim trunks with a scheming smirk on his face. "We're going swimming."

Before Taro had the chance to protest, Budo quickly moved to the changing closets, leaving his boyfriend's mouth ajar. After lifting his hands up in the air in defeat, Taro grabbed his own swim trunks from his locker and changed into them.

Once the boys were in their swimsuits, and they had their towels around their necks, they left the bathhouse and went to the pool.

"Budo, is this allowed?" Taro asked timidly as they walked up the steps leading to the pool.

Budo waved his worry off with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry, love, I'm good friends with the club leader. She won't mind us taking a quick dip in the pool."

"'Love'?" Taro questioned, thrown off by the pet name. He didn't expect Budo to already be on that stage of the relationship, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't like the pet name, even if it was an extreme one.

Taro and Budo placed their towels on a bench. The smaller boy was still unsure about this; he was not looking to get in trouble with the school or his parents. He kept his eyes on the stairs, waiting to see anyone come up and spot him and Budo swimming alone... together.

Budo glanced at Taro to see the worry in his eyes. The martial artist rolled his own slightly. "Stop worrying, love, no one's going to assume anything if they see two friends swimming together. Now, watch me dive."

Taro bit his lip, but he finally turned his head away from the stairs to see his boyfriend do a rather mediocre dive. Still, Taro had the courtesy to applaud him for trying when he swam up to the surface.

"Come on in. The water's cool," Budo insisted, swimming a little way back to give Taro the space to jump in. Although, he kinda enjoyed watching Taro standing there half naked for his eyes alone.

Taro sighed and shook his head in defeat. Budo was right, he needed to relax for once. This month has been stressful and worrying, now was the time to take it easy—for his mental health.

Taro walked to the edge of the pool, and even less gracefully than Budo, dived in.

When he reached the surface, he was surprise attacked by his boyfriend wrapping his strong arms around him and peppering his wet face with kisses. Taro giggled at the action but managed to push himself out of Budo's embrace, splashing him in the face. Budo spit out the water that got in his mouth then gave Taro a splash of his own.

The two boys laughed and splashed each other, forgetting all their worries for a moment. However, Taro stopped slashing and swam a little way from his boyfriend. "Alright, alright, we need to shut up. Someone might hear us," he chuckled.

Budo frowned slightly as his boyfriend swam to the side of the pool and got out to sit with his legs still hanging in the water. Budo swam up to him and stopped between his legs, looking up at him with a pathetic look. "Will you ever let loose?"

Taro gave him a trying smile. "Mmmmaybe after we graduate, and I'll have moved out."

Budo smiled; he liked the sound of that. He snaked his arms around Taro's hips, his hands on the small of his back. "And we have moved in... together?"