#Cougambit shenanigans

[scribe-cas]

“What?” Hands raised, his arms scrunched up, as though the thought of it was too utterly absurd for him to touch, although he looked delightedly close to laughing.

“It’s a shower.” Gambit drawled, his hand coming up to pinch his brow as he looked at the curtain, a foggy white, before his eyes met his roommate’s again, and his lips couldn’t help but curl. “You can’t drown in a shower, that’s- no. What?”

“Hush.” Couteau said, and his hands reached out to gently place the other man’s hands back at his sides, a playful glare on his face as he walked by, throwing his towel onto the marble counter of the bathroom. “You heard me, I said if.”

He hadn’t yet bothered to hang it up, walking over to pull the curtain of the shower shut, before he turned-

“No no. No.” Gambit said, strutting into the bathroom, both of his hands now flat on the counter in emphasis. Both trapping the redheaded man’s towel. “Cho, look at me.” He said, and his lips curled in mischief when he saw the fond roll of his roommate’s blue eyes in the mirror in front of him. He turned his head, tilting his chin up so he could look at the man eye-to-eye.

“There’s no if.” He said with a pointed tone. “There are literally no instances in which there should ever be an if. You can’t drown in a shower.”

“You underestimate me.” The taller man drawled, a single red brow raised in unserious contemplation, but when he looked to his towel, Gambit simply squashed his hands down on it once more, as if making a point to say it wasn’t going anywhere, and Couteau watched his roommate’s head tip down to look him in the eyes again. “Although if you’d like to test that theory, there’d be no better night than tonight-“

“But you can’t!!!” He said, squinting up at the other man, and he huffed in playful exasperation after cutting him off mid-sentence. And when his roommate looked back towards him with an expression that very clearly said, ‘you’d be surprised’, Gambit crossed his arms, leaning back from the counter.

“Fine then, tough guy,” He said, and as he did so, Couteau reached down to yank his towel out from between Gambit’s elbow and the marble, turning away and hanging it on a hook as Gambit spoke. “How would you drown in a shower.”

“Easy,” Couteau replied. No thought to it at all. “I pass out, because I’m exhausted, and I inhale water.”

“But you can’t.” Gambit gestured to the shower, a square of tiled floor with a rim around the edge. “Worst case scenario, you’d fall asleep, your head would hit the floor, and unless you’re standing outside of the water, you’d just have a real unpleasant nap. Poor baby might get a concussion.” He pushed out his lower lip in a pout, but couldn’t help but smile.

“And if I crack my skull?” Couteau shot back with a smirk.

“You’d crack the tile before you cracked your skull.”

Couteau paused for a moment, taking his hand out of the shower from where he’d turned the water on, shaking a loose droplet from his hand.

“… Touché.” He chuckled finally. “But it would still hurt.”

Gambit reached forward, giving a reassuring, playful squeeze to his arm.

“Well. We can’t have that, so I guess I’ll just have to get in with you. Make sure you stay awake.” He giggled, gently leaning on his roommate’s shoulder, watching the water trickle down the inside of the shower curtain.

“You wish. Go to bed.” Couteau huffed a laugh, giving Gambit a gentle shove with his shoulder just enough to get him off, unbuttoning his shirt as he did so. “I’m covered in day-old corpse stench. I’ll meet you there.”

“Aw, Cho! Gross! Nasty ass-” Gambit continued to mutter, but Couteau knew it was all in good fun. He’d washed up before he got here, after all. ‘Don’t stink up the house’ was one of the first lessons he’d learned.

He just had to get into a proper shower.

Gambit waddled out of the bathroom, exasperation and delight slipping from his lips in a long, drawn out sigh, his back touching the wall as he leaned against the support, letting his head fall back.

This guy was going to be the death of him. And the thought of that was filled with nothing but utmost fondness.

But despite the shower running-

A glance over his shoulder, and he looked.

Couteau’s back was facing him, still and unmoving. You could hardly see the man breathe.

But that slope of the back, that quiet slouch-

“..Hey.” Gambit murmured, and Couteau’s gaze snapped toward him, trying to make up for lost time.

How long had he been staring at that blank shower wall?

A minute?

Two?

“.. I can come in, if you want.”

“.. And, what,” Couteau scoffed softly, raising a brow as he tilted his head. “Help me wash my hair?”

“Exactly.” Gambit smiled, smug playfulness in his voice, until he saw the genuine surprise that flickered under the surface of his roommate’s blue eyes.

.. his expression softened to a fond smile.

“C’mon, Cho.” He said simply. “Let’s get you clean.”

"You look like hell."

"Thanks. I'm going to bed."

"You should shower first."

"Okay, but if I pass out and drown, that's on you."